Saturday we woke up again in London's Palmer's Lodge, just as we had six weeks earlier - only this time as a bit more seasoned travelers. The energy we possessed back then had faded some but we were determined to make the best of our final full day in Europe. This began with a trip to the Museum of Natural History in the morning. The museum was spectacular. It was of the old British architecture type that you could imagine Indiana Jones working for. The museum (which was free) had extraordinary exhibits ranging from earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters, to a giant collection of prehistoric dinosaur fossils and a life size t-rex robot - very cool!
After spending close to four hours in the museum, on our exit we ran into a street fair of artists, dancers, and musicians for a festival going on in the area. It looked like a lot of fun but we could not stay long because the afternoon was soon waning and clouds threatened showers overhead. We needed to make it to our other big attraction of the day, London's West End Live.
West End Live was an all day (actually all weekend) event in London's broadway-esque district. In Leicester Square, a large stage was setup and all the biggest musical shows and acts of the city performed a sampling of their shows for free, with the actual cast and music. Some of the featured shows included Wicked, Chicago, The Lion King, Sound of Music, High School Musical, and many others. Since we visited the museum in the morning, we were unable to see some of the top shows but in the afternoon we saw High School Musical, Stomp, and Mamma Mia. Also to our amusement we saw the performance of the London Gay Men's Choir. Yes, its exactly as you would expect. They even sung 'I Feel Pretty.' It was very amusing. Between shows we used a flyer we had received that advertised good food for a great cost at a restaurant on the square. We both ate two full meals there and enjoyed our neighboring table as a 30 or so year old British guy ate and drank with his friends for his birthday that largely resembled a bachelor's party.
After eating, we stopped by a tent setup by Ripley's Believe it or Not and watched a freaky contortionist pop his shoulder in and out of his body to escape from a strait jacket. We also went to a gift shop and since we had not bought any memorabilia the entire trip we bought a few little souvenirs to commemorate the trip.
It was now close to dusk but Nick still insisted to go back to downtown Westminster to get some good pictures of a few classic London sights we had missed our first go-round. This included getting good pictures of us with Big Ben, seeing Downing Street, and Scotland Yard (although we never found the last one). Just when we thought our day was complete, Laura decided she had to see Notting Hill (ala Julia Roberts). However, due to engineering works on the metro over the weekend, we were unable to make it there or to Wimbledon. Instead, we headed back to Palmer's Lodge after a fulfilling final day.
Sunday morning we woke early to catch the tube to Heathrow. Having learned our lessons from Laura's bag fiasco on the flight over, we secured all the straps on our bags with tape and knots so that there was absolutely NO way they could possibly be lost, delayed, or destroyed in the same fashion Laura's had previously. Before boarding the flight, we ate in a TGIFriday's for breakfast and used up our remaining pounds. The flight itself was great. We had been looking forward to the movies on the return flight for quite a while. Using Virgin Atlantic's latest personal media services, we eached watch 4 great movies before touching down in Chicago. As our passports were inspected by the US state official and we pased the gates to exit the terminal, Laura's parents were there to greet us and drive us back where we would have dinner at Outback in Fort Wayne with Nick's parents. We were finally back - we had made it!
We hope everyone enjoyed reading this blog. Maybe it recaptured some of your old memories of your own European vacations or inspired you to drop everything, get a backpack and do it yourself. Personally, we hope it's a good record of our trip and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Thank you all for reading.
Bye!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
We are finally caught up!! Amsterdam, Brussels, and our return to London
On Monday, we elected to take the 12:30 pm train from Berlin to Amsterdam. This meant that we could sleep in a bit and recover from the late movie the night before. After breakfast at the hostel, we picked up some food at the grocery stores nearby to have for the train and then used the hostel's internet access to e-mail our parents and update them that we were still alive and well. Nick also used this opportunity to check the US Open scores, and was excited to see that Tiger Woods would be playing Rocco Mediate in a playoff -good to keep up on the important world affairs once in a while : )
We checked out of the hostel around 11 and took the S-Bahn back to the Hauptbanhoff train station. We were there early enough that we decided to wait in line at the ticket counters to try and buy a seat reservation for the long trip – almost 6 hours. Even though our Eurail pass is all that is needed to board the train, we had learned our lesson from the ride to Berlin when a man with a reserved seat kicked us out of the seats we were occupying and we ended up taking seats on the floor. No more of that we decided. For a relatively cheap price we were able to buy our reservations and ensure that no one would be coming for our seats.
The train ride was long and, well, boring. We are becoming quite used to long rides, however. We're no longer on a trip it seems, but this is now our adopted nomadic lifestyle. When we arrived in Amsterdam we took one of the trams out to the area where our B&B would be. Unfortunately, when we got there, there was no one to let us in! Since we also had the address of one of the accommodation agents, we walked to his place and he was luckily available to help us. He contacted the owner, and said we would be let in an hour later. We almost had no place to stay. Everything worked out, though, and after getting dinner at a local supermarket we were let in.
The B&B was a very interesting place. It is a little apartment in a residential area. Joop (pronounced Yoop) owns and runs the place, and also lives there. Although the room smelled a bit smoky, it was nice enough and we soon went to sleep after an energy-draining day on the train. The next morning we woke up and headed out to the dining room to eat our breakfast served by Joop himself, in his bathrobe. After breakfast we set off on what was sure to be an interesting day of sightseeing in Amsterdam.
We started off the morning by taking the tram back to the Central Station. Amsterdam's station is probably the oldest we have seen, and the building was a sight in itself. We then walked down the main street through the center of the town and took in all of the sights which included several unique buildings, canals, boats, churches, and of course, a few explicit shops.
After a brief walking tour of the city we went to the botanical gardens, Hortus Botanicus. With origins dating back to the 16th century, this historical garden contained over 4000 species of plants including a random endangered fern that is apparently so important it required a special fence so you couldn't get too close. The garden also included 5 different greenhouses, a butterfly house, and a wetland area. They even had a North American redwood tree- which at only 35 years old didn't quite compare it its Californian counterparts. We spent a few hours wandering through the garden, which really turned into a quest for the best computer background photos.
Next it was time for lunch and we headed to the nearest Ah grocery store, which was our newest favorite for their delicious and reasonably priced complete salad bowls. After our picnic lunch we walked through the local market and then started towards the Anne Frank House. The Anne Frank House is actually the secret annex that Anne and her family hid in for two years during WWII. It was during this time that Anne wrote her now famous diary. We were able to tour all of the rooms of the secret annex, and you could even see the bookshelf that was built to hide the entrance. Unfortunately, many of the original items (including Anne's diary) were currently being restored and were replaced by facsimiles. We have a feeling that these signs have been up for years.
Just outside of the Anne Frank House was a new exhibit entitled 'Freedom 2 Choose'. It was basically an interactive video that highlighted different government decisions and then you voted on a remote whether you agreed with the decision or not. They all dealt with things like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to privacy, etc. It was really interesting to see how the US was portrayed as compared to Europe. The video really highlighted Amsterdam's extreme liberal tendencies.
After the museum we decided to take in a bit more of liberal Amsterdam and walked back to the train station via the Red Light District. Not one to disappoint, the area lived up to our lurid expectations complete with window prostitutes, sex shows, sex, shops, and more than one coffee shop that was nothing like Starbucks. Once we returned to our part of town, we picked out dinner from the grocery and relaxed in our room for the evening. We finally had a TV again and were delighted to find several channels at least partially in English.
The next morning we ate another good breakfast courtesy of Joop (in Asian styled silk pajamas this time) and then headed back to the train station. After a quick and painless 3 hour ride we arrived in Brussels, Belgium. After a short metro ride we arrived at our hotel which is surprisingly close to all of the major sights in Brussels. As an added bonus, we scored a bathroom in our room but only paid the price of a shared one. We picked up our signature rotisserie chicken dinner from a local grocery, and then spent the remainder of our evening catching up on the blog and watching TV.
We woke up fairly early Thursday morning for a full day of sightseeing in Brussels. First, we stopped downstairs for our complementary breakfast. Nick was thrilled to see the return of real chocolate croissants. After filling up on a variety of pastries, bread, and fruit we left the hotel and starting walking towards the main sights.
Our first stop was just down the street at the church of St. Catherine. It was a really pretty old church, but we were unable to go inside. Next we walked towards the Grand Place home to La Maison du Roi (the King's House), the Town Hall, and a few other impressive buildings. Apparently, Victor Hugo once called Grand Place “the most beautiful square in the world.” We agreed, and decided it definitely was one of the most impressive we have seen.
Unfortunately, the weather was not so magnificent so we took shelter from the rain in the Belgian Brewer's Museum. Although the museum was not very extensive, we did manage to learn more about beer than we ever really needed to know, and the admission price included a Belgian brewed beer- so not a bad deal at all. We did determine that we prefer German beer over the Belgian variety.
After polishing off our before noon beers, we decided to top of our nutritious start to the day by visiting the nearest frites stand. French fries are a big deal here, and you can purchase a large paper cone of freshly cooked fries for a mere 2 euro. While devouring our fries we planned out the rest of our day and decided that our next visit should be to see Mannekin Pis- a statue of a naked peeing boy that has become the much loved symbol of Brussels. Locals take much pride in designing outfits for the little guy to wear- all with an appropriately placed hole of course. We were surprised at how small the statue actually is, definitely shorter than 2 feet. We decided that he was similar to our bear friend Knut- lots of hype- not that much to see.
Once we finished snapping a few photos (zoomed in of course, so he looks bigger than he actually is), we decided that no trip to Belgium would be complete without sampling some chocolate. Apparently Brussels is home to over 2000 chocolate related shops, so finding the right one could prove to be quite the challenge. We found a small shop that was higher quality than the convenience store type shops, but not quite up to the standards of Godiva and went inside. After a small sample we were hooked, and proceeded to buy a 3 box pack that included truffles, Belgian shells, and pralines. Our intention is to bring back at least one box for our parents to sample, but we'll see how the next few days go : )
In order to fully round out the Belgium experience we had to make our next stop a waffle stand. There are two different types of waffles here- the first is a Brussels waffle which is very light and fluffy, fairly similar to those in the US. The second type is De Lieges waffles- they are denser and sweeter and have a delicious crunchy caramelized sugar crust- they are also the kind most commonly served on the street. We ordered our De Lieges waffle with whipped cream and caramel sauce, and it was incredible. While devouring our waffle we realized that all of our activities of the day had been food related. No wonder it had been such an enjoyable day.
Being overfilled with sugar and starches we needed to walk off our snacks, so we headed a bit across town and up to the Belgian Royal Palace. We were able to walk outside the gate along its perimeter, and it looked as big and cool as many of the other palaces we had seen. Unfortunately, it is only used for official state business and there were no tour opportunities. Nevertheless, as we walked down the street, it was apparent that something was going on as the was barricaded from motorists and a number of police officers were on duty looking more alert than usual for patrolling the streets. As we walked further down the road, at one end of the palace we saw about 50 police motorcycles and other important looking cars, then saw a helicopter flying overhead, and finally saw an explosion of flash photography as people walked through through one of gates at the end of the palace grounds. We weren't sure what was going on, but wondered if the circus was all for us? We later saw on the news at the hotel that all the leaders of the European Union were meeting in Brussels that day for an important gathering. And we saw them (from a distance, unknowingly)!
Across from the palace grounds was the Brussels Park. We walked through it, but it was not large and we soon emerged on the other side where we saw the European Parliament and the headquarters of the European Union. It was getting rainy by this point and was fairly cold, so we walked back down to the Grand Place area and strolled through the shops under the arcades of a large shopping center filled with chocolate shops and upscale stores.
It was now late afternoon and we were a little wet and tired from the day so we returned to the hotel for some rest. After the weather had cleared, we went out to find dinner- hopefully something that contained a bit more than sugar or starch. We walked through a different grocery store than the night before, but we couldn't find just what we were looking for. As we stepped outside the grocery we found just the thing- 'The Sultans of Kebab'. We have mentioned kebab places before, and we still can't believe they haven't made their way to college campuses across the US. This place was unique because they specifically served a chicken kebab in addition to the still mystery meat doner kebab. We ordered two reasonably priced kebabs in celebration of our last night in 'real' Europe before we headed back to London. We topped off the kebabs with a grapefruit and a yogurt drink (and a huge baguette that Nick insisted on buying and hauling around for 24 hours).
We woke up early this morning (Friday) to pack up our stuff and head to the train station for our second trip on the Eurostar. The Eurostar company thinks they are the greatest thing since sliced bread- they have their own check-in, their own security, their own waiting area, their special tracks, etc. But really, it's just another train and they were 35 minutes late. The ride was rather uneventful and short at only two hours. We checked out the on-board restaurant and spent our leftover 5 euro on a microwaved cheese and tomato sandwich.
Once we arrived in London we bought day passes for our favorite metro (the tube) and headed back to Palmers Lodge- the same place where we started our journey 6 weeks ago. We couldn't check into our room until 2pm, so we dropped off our bags and then took the metro back into town. Our first stop was Hyde Park to take a much needed nap under the trees. After we rested up we continued our walk through the park in the direction of Kensington Palace. Along the way we visited a fountain designed as a memorial to Princess Diana and a gaudy King Albert monument. We walked around the perimeter of Kensington Palace, took a few pictures, and then took the tube back to our hostel so we could check in to our room.
After eating a quick dinner and moving our stuff into our room (oddly enough, the exact same one we had before) we hopped back on the tube this time in the direction of St. Paul's Cathedral. There is an evensong service at 5pm every evening. Aside from being a way to experience a service in a famous cathedral, it is also an excellent way to save 8.5 pounds a piece by getting in for free. The service was very nice (and brief) and included several songs by their traditional choir. We decided that tonight's visit was a fitting conclusion to our 'Great Cathedrals of Europe' tour.
Tonight we are relaxing in our hostel and catching up on the blog. Tomorrow morning we are going to check out an event called West End Live in the center of London. It's a weekend long festival that includes performances from several of the big musicals that are currently in London. Hopefully it will be a nice finish to our visit here (and it's free!!). We will try and post one more time before our flight back to the US on Sunday. Cheers!
We checked out of the hostel around 11 and took the S-Bahn back to the Hauptbanhoff train station. We were there early enough that we decided to wait in line at the ticket counters to try and buy a seat reservation for the long trip – almost 6 hours. Even though our Eurail pass is all that is needed to board the train, we had learned our lesson from the ride to Berlin when a man with a reserved seat kicked us out of the seats we were occupying and we ended up taking seats on the floor. No more of that we decided. For a relatively cheap price we were able to buy our reservations and ensure that no one would be coming for our seats.
The train ride was long and, well, boring. We are becoming quite used to long rides, however. We're no longer on a trip it seems, but this is now our adopted nomadic lifestyle. When we arrived in Amsterdam we took one of the trams out to the area where our B&B would be. Unfortunately, when we got there, there was no one to let us in! Since we also had the address of one of the accommodation agents, we walked to his place and he was luckily available to help us. He contacted the owner, and said we would be let in an hour later. We almost had no place to stay. Everything worked out, though, and after getting dinner at a local supermarket we were let in.
The B&B was a very interesting place. It is a little apartment in a residential area. Joop (pronounced Yoop) owns and runs the place, and also lives there. Although the room smelled a bit smoky, it was nice enough and we soon went to sleep after an energy-draining day on the train. The next morning we woke up and headed out to the dining room to eat our breakfast served by Joop himself, in his bathrobe. After breakfast we set off on what was sure to be an interesting day of sightseeing in Amsterdam.
We started off the morning by taking the tram back to the Central Station. Amsterdam's station is probably the oldest we have seen, and the building was a sight in itself. We then walked down the main street through the center of the town and took in all of the sights which included several unique buildings, canals, boats, churches, and of course, a few explicit shops.
After a brief walking tour of the city we went to the botanical gardens, Hortus Botanicus. With origins dating back to the 16th century, this historical garden contained over 4000 species of plants including a random endangered fern that is apparently so important it required a special fence so you couldn't get too close. The garden also included 5 different greenhouses, a butterfly house, and a wetland area. They even had a North American redwood tree- which at only 35 years old didn't quite compare it its Californian counterparts. We spent a few hours wandering through the garden, which really turned into a quest for the best computer background photos.
Next it was time for lunch and we headed to the nearest Ah grocery store, which was our newest favorite for their delicious and reasonably priced complete salad bowls. After our picnic lunch we walked through the local market and then started towards the Anne Frank House. The Anne Frank House is actually the secret annex that Anne and her family hid in for two years during WWII. It was during this time that Anne wrote her now famous diary. We were able to tour all of the rooms of the secret annex, and you could even see the bookshelf that was built to hide the entrance. Unfortunately, many of the original items (including Anne's diary) were currently being restored and were replaced by facsimiles. We have a feeling that these signs have been up for years.
Just outside of the Anne Frank House was a new exhibit entitled 'Freedom 2 Choose'. It was basically an interactive video that highlighted different government decisions and then you voted on a remote whether you agreed with the decision or not. They all dealt with things like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to privacy, etc. It was really interesting to see how the US was portrayed as compared to Europe. The video really highlighted Amsterdam's extreme liberal tendencies.
After the museum we decided to take in a bit more of liberal Amsterdam and walked back to the train station via the Red Light District. Not one to disappoint, the area lived up to our lurid expectations complete with window prostitutes, sex shows, sex, shops, and more than one coffee shop that was nothing like Starbucks. Once we returned to our part of town, we picked out dinner from the grocery and relaxed in our room for the evening. We finally had a TV again and were delighted to find several channels at least partially in English.
The next morning we ate another good breakfast courtesy of Joop (in Asian styled silk pajamas this time) and then headed back to the train station. After a quick and painless 3 hour ride we arrived in Brussels, Belgium. After a short metro ride we arrived at our hotel which is surprisingly close to all of the major sights in Brussels. As an added bonus, we scored a bathroom in our room but only paid the price of a shared one. We picked up our signature rotisserie chicken dinner from a local grocery, and then spent the remainder of our evening catching up on the blog and watching TV.
We woke up fairly early Thursday morning for a full day of sightseeing in Brussels. First, we stopped downstairs for our complementary breakfast. Nick was thrilled to see the return of real chocolate croissants. After filling up on a variety of pastries, bread, and fruit we left the hotel and starting walking towards the main sights.
Our first stop was just down the street at the church of St. Catherine. It was a really pretty old church, but we were unable to go inside. Next we walked towards the Grand Place home to La Maison du Roi (the King's House), the Town Hall, and a few other impressive buildings. Apparently, Victor Hugo once called Grand Place “the most beautiful square in the world.” We agreed, and decided it definitely was one of the most impressive we have seen.
Unfortunately, the weather was not so magnificent so we took shelter from the rain in the Belgian Brewer's Museum. Although the museum was not very extensive, we did manage to learn more about beer than we ever really needed to know, and the admission price included a Belgian brewed beer- so not a bad deal at all. We did determine that we prefer German beer over the Belgian variety.
After polishing off our before noon beers, we decided to top of our nutritious start to the day by visiting the nearest frites stand. French fries are a big deal here, and you can purchase a large paper cone of freshly cooked fries for a mere 2 euro. While devouring our fries we planned out the rest of our day and decided that our next visit should be to see Mannekin Pis- a statue of a naked peeing boy that has become the much loved symbol of Brussels. Locals take much pride in designing outfits for the little guy to wear- all with an appropriately placed hole of course. We were surprised at how small the statue actually is, definitely shorter than 2 feet. We decided that he was similar to our bear friend Knut- lots of hype- not that much to see.
Once we finished snapping a few photos (zoomed in of course, so he looks bigger than he actually is), we decided that no trip to Belgium would be complete without sampling some chocolate. Apparently Brussels is home to over 2000 chocolate related shops, so finding the right one could prove to be quite the challenge. We found a small shop that was higher quality than the convenience store type shops, but not quite up to the standards of Godiva and went inside. After a small sample we were hooked, and proceeded to buy a 3 box pack that included truffles, Belgian shells, and pralines. Our intention is to bring back at least one box for our parents to sample, but we'll see how the next few days go : )
In order to fully round out the Belgium experience we had to make our next stop a waffle stand. There are two different types of waffles here- the first is a Brussels waffle which is very light and fluffy, fairly similar to those in the US. The second type is De Lieges waffles- they are denser and sweeter and have a delicious crunchy caramelized sugar crust- they are also the kind most commonly served on the street. We ordered our De Lieges waffle with whipped cream and caramel sauce, and it was incredible. While devouring our waffle we realized that all of our activities of the day had been food related. No wonder it had been such an enjoyable day.
Being overfilled with sugar and starches we needed to walk off our snacks, so we headed a bit across town and up to the Belgian Royal Palace. We were able to walk outside the gate along its perimeter, and it looked as big and cool as many of the other palaces we had seen. Unfortunately, it is only used for official state business and there were no tour opportunities. Nevertheless, as we walked down the street, it was apparent that something was going on as the was barricaded from motorists and a number of police officers were on duty looking more alert than usual for patrolling the streets. As we walked further down the road, at one end of the palace we saw about 50 police motorcycles and other important looking cars, then saw a helicopter flying overhead, and finally saw an explosion of flash photography as people walked through through one of gates at the end of the palace grounds. We weren't sure what was going on, but wondered if the circus was all for us? We later saw on the news at the hotel that all the leaders of the European Union were meeting in Brussels that day for an important gathering. And we saw them (from a distance, unknowingly)!
Across from the palace grounds was the Brussels Park. We walked through it, but it was not large and we soon emerged on the other side where we saw the European Parliament and the headquarters of the European Union. It was getting rainy by this point and was fairly cold, so we walked back down to the Grand Place area and strolled through the shops under the arcades of a large shopping center filled with chocolate shops and upscale stores.
It was now late afternoon and we were a little wet and tired from the day so we returned to the hotel for some rest. After the weather had cleared, we went out to find dinner- hopefully something that contained a bit more than sugar or starch. We walked through a different grocery store than the night before, but we couldn't find just what we were looking for. As we stepped outside the grocery we found just the thing- 'The Sultans of Kebab'. We have mentioned kebab places before, and we still can't believe they haven't made their way to college campuses across the US. This place was unique because they specifically served a chicken kebab in addition to the still mystery meat doner kebab. We ordered two reasonably priced kebabs in celebration of our last night in 'real' Europe before we headed back to London. We topped off the kebabs with a grapefruit and a yogurt drink (and a huge baguette that Nick insisted on buying and hauling around for 24 hours).
We woke up early this morning (Friday) to pack up our stuff and head to the train station for our second trip on the Eurostar. The Eurostar company thinks they are the greatest thing since sliced bread- they have their own check-in, their own security, their own waiting area, their special tracks, etc. But really, it's just another train and they were 35 minutes late. The ride was rather uneventful and short at only two hours. We checked out the on-board restaurant and spent our leftover 5 euro on a microwaved cheese and tomato sandwich.
Once we arrived in London we bought day passes for our favorite metro (the tube) and headed back to Palmers Lodge- the same place where we started our journey 6 weeks ago. We couldn't check into our room until 2pm, so we dropped off our bags and then took the metro back into town. Our first stop was Hyde Park to take a much needed nap under the trees. After we rested up we continued our walk through the park in the direction of Kensington Palace. Along the way we visited a fountain designed as a memorial to Princess Diana and a gaudy King Albert monument. We walked around the perimeter of Kensington Palace, took a few pictures, and then took the tube back to our hostel so we could check in to our room.
After eating a quick dinner and moving our stuff into our room (oddly enough, the exact same one we had before) we hopped back on the tube this time in the direction of St. Paul's Cathedral. There is an evensong service at 5pm every evening. Aside from being a way to experience a service in a famous cathedral, it is also an excellent way to save 8.5 pounds a piece by getting in for free. The service was very nice (and brief) and included several songs by their traditional choir. We decided that tonight's visit was a fitting conclusion to our 'Great Cathedrals of Europe' tour.
Tonight we are relaxing in our hostel and catching up on the blog. Tomorrow morning we are going to check out an event called West End Live in the center of London. It's a weekend long festival that includes performances from several of the big musicals that are currently in London. Hopefully it will be a nice finish to our visit here (and it's free!!). We will try and post one more time before our flight back to the US on Sunday. Cheers!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Vienna and Berlin
We have been cut off from the internet for what seems like days now... but here is our first set of catch-up posts. We finally have free wireless in our room again so we should be fully caught up before we leave here (Brussels). Enjoy!
Wednesday morning we woke up early to avoid the bathroom fiasco from the day before – the same family that hacked away on Tuesday was still there. It actually made for a relaxing morning, however, as we had a few hours to pack our belongings, clean the room, and eat breakfast before catching the train to Vienna.
The train ride was relatively uneventful. It was one of our shorter trips at only four hours, and was direct making for a peaceful journey. When we arrived in Vienna, after getting off the tram that dropped us off close to our hostel, it began to pour. We took shelter at some benches and didn't wait long until the weather cleared and we made our way to check in at the hostel. It was late afternoon by this time, so after dropping our bags off at the room, we went to the grocery store and bought bratwurst and pasta for dinner. That evening we ate our food and did much needed laundry with the hostel's facilities before going to sleep.
We woke up Thursday morning set with a full agenda of sightseeing. We paid to eat breakfast at the hostel and filled ourselves with ham and cheese sandwiches, juice, and cereal. The milk for the cereal was the room-temperature, dehydrated variety but Nick decided to go ahead and eat it anyway – our standards have lowered after 5 weeks in Europe. With full stomaches and surprisingly sunny weather outside (the forecast called for showers all day), we took the metro to Vienna's inner district and started the day.
First, Laura was interested in watching the morning exercises of the stallions at the prestigious and world-renowned Spanish Riding School of Vienna. We were able to pay a small admission and watch the horses train and exercise to music with their riders in full gear and traditional outfits. The arena was awesome. It is set in a wing of the Hofburg Palace of downtown Vienna, and is like a palace ballroom complete with marble statues, ornate engravings, huge chandeliers, and a dirt riding floor in the center. This is where the shows also take place. It was a cool experience, and we couldn't miss the opportunity to see it.
We left the riding school a little before noon and went to find the Ankeruhr, Vienna's famous clock tower. We are definitely getting a good tour of Europe's premiere clocks. This one was built in 1914 and each hour, a different figure from Marcus Aurelius to Maria Theresa (from guidebook) rotate past accompanied by a tune from their time, but at noon all the figures rotate and you get the complete show. We were sure to be there. When it finally began rotating at around 12:04, it wasn't as spectacular as we hoped, but there was still a whole crowd of tourists standing by with their camcorders and digital cameras nonetheless. They must have read the same sightseeing books.
After the clock tower, we walked down a few blocks to St. Stephan's (not quite Stephens, but close enough) cathedral and looked around there. It was another very old cathedral and as neat as any we had seen before. This time, however, inside the cathedral and outside in the square, throngs of Polish and Austrian soccer fans crowded the area. They were in town for that night's big matchup between the two countries in the 2008 Euro Cup. Vienna is one of the two host cities for the the Euro Cup this year, and it is absolutely huge. We can only compare it to what it must be like having a Super Bowl in your city, but with the extreme fanaticism of the most rabid US sports enthusiasts, meeting nationalistic pride, and mixed with some beer. Herds of Polish fans wearing their country's flag as skirts marched through the town chanting, singing their songs, and blowing airhorns. It was quite a scene! Soccer is clearly the biggest sport here, no competition.
After visiting the cathedral, we were ready for lunch and had read about a restaurant called Oh Pot, Oh Pot in our guidebook that sounded delicious. We hadn't ever used one of the eating recommendations from the book before, but since we had a metro day pass, we decided to take this one up. They served pots of vegetable, beef, and potato stew and was going to be great. After taking the metro and walking down to the address it specified, we finally arrived but the restaurant wasn't there – it was an old hotel! After a little investigating, we still could not find the restaurant, and so after using up close to an hour of our afternoon, we were forced to settle eating at the closest known food establishment available – McDonald's. We hadn't been to one in over a week and we hadn't tried to eat there, so we felt justified this time. Thank goodness for American food!
The next hour after eating, we walked around the city and took some pictures of the cool buildings, palaces, and architecture of Vienna. The city itself is very clean and walker friendly, and since the weather had turned out in our favor it was a pleasant afternoon.
Following our picture tour, we had read about a cool museum called the Haus de Musik and decided to visit. It ended up being a really unique and fun place. We spent close to four hours there. It started with an exhibit of the Vienna Philharmonic (interesting but not that interesting), but then quickly moved into its high-tech exhibits. There were countless interactive exhibits where we learned and did just about anything you can imagine with digital music and sound synthesis. We made recordings of our voice and morphed them with sounds ranging from a hive of bees to farting noises to Beethoven's symphonies. We were able to create strange noises by waving our hands in between two “magical” bars, and we were even able to conduct the Vienna philharmonic with an electronic baton. We also learned about some of Vienna's famous composers including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Overall it was different than anything we'd ever been to and lots of fun.
It was now early evening so we returned to our hostel, made dinner, and used the internet to check e-mail and prepare for Friday's long travel day to Berlin.
The next morning (Friday), we woke early an quickly packed our bags. Our four Australian roommates were up and about at the same time, so there was no time for showers this morning. We checked out of the hostel and then walked down the street toward the Westbanhoff train station and stopped at a supermarket on the way to buy some food for the trains. It would be a long day of travel – about 9 hours to Berlin.
The first train we were on was to Nurenburg, where we would then catch a connecting train to Berlin. Everything was going smoothly the first 4 of our 5 hour ride to Nurenburg, when suddenly at one of the stops and older man who had just boarded informed us that we were in his seat. Unfortunately, Austria's and Germany's rail ticket system doesn't work very well. For people with EURail Passes (such as us) or others with frequent travel passes, all trains in Germany are non-reservation trains. We simply show up at the station, board the train, and sit wherever we choose. Usually this works at first, but a dual system is at work for people without passes. When you buy individual tickets, you are assigned a car and seat number. So it frequently happens that as the train passes through the various cities and picks up more passengers, many of the new passengers have reserved seats, but we with our passes do not and cannot get the reservations, so we have to move our stuff around and find a new seat whenever someone comes aboard with a reservation where you are sitting. Sometimes you can get lucky, but this time we were not.
The man was very grumpy, and even though we pleaded for him to take a single seat that was available several rows in front of us, he wanted his seat. And only his seat would do. Grudgingly, and disappointed, we moved from the seats and searched the surrounding cars for a pair of seats we could move to. But it was Friday, and the train was crowded and of course we could not find any. When we tried to ask the train attendants for some help, they offered none. So we, with a number of other refugees who had also been displaced from their seats, spent the rest of the ride sitting on the floor between two cars outside of the bathroom. We eventually made it to Nurenburg, and found two seats on the connecting train to Berlin.
Once we arrived, the train stopped at the city's brand new train station, the Berlin Hauptbanhoff, just completed in 2006 for when they hosted the World Cup. It is an awesome station framed in arches of glass and with trains crisscrossing on several levels. The station was a sight in itself and we definitely took some pictures. We then took the S-Bahn connection to an outer part of Berlin where our hostel was located. A block away from our hostel were two supermarkets right night to each other, which was perfect as we were hungry by then. The first one we checked was serving rotisserie chicken and we bought a whole chicken at the discounted price of just 2 Euro – very good! (who says we aren't eating well??)
Saturday morning we ate breakfast included with the hostel. We then made our way to the city center and stopped at Unter Den Linden, Berlin's most famous street before the city was unified. From there we immediately came upon the Brandenburger Tor, a gate / monument that is Berlin's most recognizable sight. This is where Napoleon rode through hundreds of years ago, then was damaged and reconstructed during bombings in WWII, then became a central site of the division between East and West in the Cold War – it is even the backdrop where JFK spoke and Ronald Reagan famously told the Soviets to tear down the wall. Now the area has been totally revamped and is quite a tourist site, as well as hosts the Russian, US, and British embassies. Overall, a pretty cool site.
Not far from the Brandenburger Tor was the Reichstag, the newly rebuilt home to Germany's federal government. It is an old building, but has recently completed renovation with a very modern glass dome in the center that tourists can climb for good views of the city. We went to stand in line for a few minutes to do this, but the line was very long and moving slowly as it was a Saturday, so we decided to come back and see it if we had the time.
After seeing the Reichstag, we headed down Unter den Linden to continue seeing most of the “must-see” sights. Some of these included the campus of Berlin University, a memorial to Holocaust victims, and on the side a little market selling old books (in German, unfortunately). We then went to the Berliner Dom (Berlin's Protestant Cathedral). It was really cool and different than most of the Catholic ones we've seen thus far. The dome of the cathedral was destroyed during WWII but reconstruction just finished recently so it is open to tourists and is very nice. They had museums upstairs, and we were able to walk up to the top of the dome and walk around a railed platform outside for awesome city views. We decided that since this dome was still in the center of the city and was just as high up, it made up for missing out on the Reichstag tour. Then we visited the basement of the cathedral, which is a large crypt holding the remains of about 100 Hohenzollerns, the Kaisers and ruling family of Prussia for the last several centuries. Good little history lesson.
After the Berliner Dom, the skies were becoming overcast and rain looked imminent, plus we were starving, so using our guidebook we decided to eat at Delores, a burrito place. We hoped they would be as big and delicious as the ones from Moes or Chipotle at home – and they were! Mexican food has been few and far between over here, so we enjoyed our chicken burritos.
Following lunch, we took the metro to the Dokumentationszentrum Berliner Mauer on Bernauer Strasse. Here is one of the few remaining spots where two large concrete barriers from the Berlin Wall still stand. There was also a small museum and memorials that documented the history of the wall and its impact on the city. After this, we made our way to the Tiergarten, one of the city's parks and walked through there on our way back to a metro station that could take us back to the hostel. At the metro, there were delays due to a “technical breakdown” and after we waited for quite some time while specific information blared over the speakers in German, we decided to walk to Potsdamer Platz which seemed to be where we might have some luck. Eventually, and with a little bit of confusion, we did make it back. But for having the proclaimed best public transportation system in Europe, the Deutsche Bahn has had the most problems – maybe we are just bad luck! Once back in the hostel area, we bought the same chicken dinner we had the night before from the supermarket and enjoyed the good food and plentiful meat.
On Sunday, since we had seen most of the major sights we had wanted to in Berlin, we had to decide whether to take a daytrip to see the palaces of Potsdam or go to Berlin's world-renowned zoo. Because of the cost and since we had already seen plenty of castles, we decided to check out the zoo. Plus the zoo is home to the most famous polar bear in Germany- Knut (pronounced 'kuh-noot'). Born in 2006, Knut was the first polar bear cub to survive childhood at the Berlin Zoo in more than 30 years. However, he was abandoned by his mother and was instead raised by a zoo keeper, which resulted in a great deal of controversy as it left Knut unable to ever be kept with fellow polar bears. Nearly two years later, Knut is still quite the celebrity and has been solely responsible for greatly increasing admission to the zoo. Not to miss out, we jumped on the S-bahn and headed to the zoo to check this guy out ourselves.
The Berlin Zoo is quite large, and encompasses the entire west end of the Tiergarten we had walked through the day before. As with the Prague Zoo, there was an incredible variety of exhibits, including a separate aquarium within the zoo. The most impressive set of exhibits were all of the primates- there were at least 20 different species, all of which had their own naturalistic indoor and outdoor exhibits. The collection included the standard orangs, chimps, and gorillas, but also included a diverse group of small monkeys. A few species had 20+ individuals in family groups, so it was cool to see how individuals within the groups interact.
After visiting with the monkeys we walked through the the hoofstock exhibits, the aquarium, the cat house, and yes... even the nocturnal animals. Although it took a bit of coaxing from Laura, Nick agreed to once again venture into the nocturnal world- with a strict agreement that we would leave immediately if anything was not properly contained. Fortunately, all of the bats were contained behind glass walls so thick you couldn't even here the flutter of their wings. After the nocturnal area we continued to slowly make our way through the remainder of the zoo. Eventually we had seen nearly everyone except the famous Knut- who we discovered was not housed with the polar bears, but instead was in an enclosure adjacent to the black bears. After a bit of searching we finally found him... a small, incredibly dirty bear, curled up in the back of his exhibit sound asleep. Nick was visibly disappointed as he had been talking about seeing Knut all day. After taking a few obligatory pictures, we glanced up at the darkening sky and decided to end our zoo visit. We hurried out of the zoo and towards the train station as we saw the first few flashes of lightening. As soon as we stepped under the canopy of the train station, the sky opened up and there was a torrential downpour for the next 30 minutes or so.
True to our continual luck with the weather, we stepped out of the train station by our hostel just as the rain stopped and the sky cleared. All hyped up for yet another dinner of value rotisserie chicken we headed happily towards the grocery store, only to be snapped back to reality when we realized it was Sunday and all three grocery stores were closed. We slowly turned back and realized what we had to do... McDonald's stood there glaring at us with its large golden arches.
After our __th meal of McD's (who's counting anyway), we went back to our hostel to pick up our computer and took the train back to the Sony Center where the guidebook had promised us free wi-fi. Although the Sony Center's wi-fi was not all that it could be (as in it didn't work at all), what it did provide was a really nice movie theater complete with original version American movies. After briefly considering our financial situation, we decided to splurge and take in the experience of a German movie theater- complete with popcorn that Nick has been craving for weeks now. The theater was one of if not the most impressive either of us has been to. The seats were huge and plush and the screen was enormous. We watched the latest M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Happening. The movie itself was pretty good, but the best part was watching something entirely in English. After the movie we headed back to our hostel and went straight to bed to rest up before our 6 hour train ride to Amsterdam.
Wednesday morning we woke up early to avoid the bathroom fiasco from the day before – the same family that hacked away on Tuesday was still there. It actually made for a relaxing morning, however, as we had a few hours to pack our belongings, clean the room, and eat breakfast before catching the train to Vienna.
The train ride was relatively uneventful. It was one of our shorter trips at only four hours, and was direct making for a peaceful journey. When we arrived in Vienna, after getting off the tram that dropped us off close to our hostel, it began to pour. We took shelter at some benches and didn't wait long until the weather cleared and we made our way to check in at the hostel. It was late afternoon by this time, so after dropping our bags off at the room, we went to the grocery store and bought bratwurst and pasta for dinner. That evening we ate our food and did much needed laundry with the hostel's facilities before going to sleep.
We woke up Thursday morning set with a full agenda of sightseeing. We paid to eat breakfast at the hostel and filled ourselves with ham and cheese sandwiches, juice, and cereal. The milk for the cereal was the room-temperature, dehydrated variety but Nick decided to go ahead and eat it anyway – our standards have lowered after 5 weeks in Europe. With full stomaches and surprisingly sunny weather outside (the forecast called for showers all day), we took the metro to Vienna's inner district and started the day.
First, Laura was interested in watching the morning exercises of the stallions at the prestigious and world-renowned Spanish Riding School of Vienna. We were able to pay a small admission and watch the horses train and exercise to music with their riders in full gear and traditional outfits. The arena was awesome. It is set in a wing of the Hofburg Palace of downtown Vienna, and is like a palace ballroom complete with marble statues, ornate engravings, huge chandeliers, and a dirt riding floor in the center. This is where the shows also take place. It was a cool experience, and we couldn't miss the opportunity to see it.
We left the riding school a little before noon and went to find the Ankeruhr, Vienna's famous clock tower. We are definitely getting a good tour of Europe's premiere clocks. This one was built in 1914 and each hour, a different figure from Marcus Aurelius to Maria Theresa (from guidebook) rotate past accompanied by a tune from their time, but at noon all the figures rotate and you get the complete show. We were sure to be there. When it finally began rotating at around 12:04, it wasn't as spectacular as we hoped, but there was still a whole crowd of tourists standing by with their camcorders and digital cameras nonetheless. They must have read the same sightseeing books.
After the clock tower, we walked down a few blocks to St. Stephan's (not quite Stephens, but close enough) cathedral and looked around there. It was another very old cathedral and as neat as any we had seen before. This time, however, inside the cathedral and outside in the square, throngs of Polish and Austrian soccer fans crowded the area. They were in town for that night's big matchup between the two countries in the 2008 Euro Cup. Vienna is one of the two host cities for the the Euro Cup this year, and it is absolutely huge. We can only compare it to what it must be like having a Super Bowl in your city, but with the extreme fanaticism of the most rabid US sports enthusiasts, meeting nationalistic pride, and mixed with some beer. Herds of Polish fans wearing their country's flag as skirts marched through the town chanting, singing their songs, and blowing airhorns. It was quite a scene! Soccer is clearly the biggest sport here, no competition.
After visiting the cathedral, we were ready for lunch and had read about a restaurant called Oh Pot, Oh Pot in our guidebook that sounded delicious. We hadn't ever used one of the eating recommendations from the book before, but since we had a metro day pass, we decided to take this one up. They served pots of vegetable, beef, and potato stew and was going to be great. After taking the metro and walking down to the address it specified, we finally arrived but the restaurant wasn't there – it was an old hotel! After a little investigating, we still could not find the restaurant, and so after using up close to an hour of our afternoon, we were forced to settle eating at the closest known food establishment available – McDonald's. We hadn't been to one in over a week and we hadn't tried to eat there, so we felt justified this time. Thank goodness for American food!
The next hour after eating, we walked around the city and took some pictures of the cool buildings, palaces, and architecture of Vienna. The city itself is very clean and walker friendly, and since the weather had turned out in our favor it was a pleasant afternoon.
Following our picture tour, we had read about a cool museum called the Haus de Musik and decided to visit. It ended up being a really unique and fun place. We spent close to four hours there. It started with an exhibit of the Vienna Philharmonic (interesting but not that interesting), but then quickly moved into its high-tech exhibits. There were countless interactive exhibits where we learned and did just about anything you can imagine with digital music and sound synthesis. We made recordings of our voice and morphed them with sounds ranging from a hive of bees to farting noises to Beethoven's symphonies. We were able to create strange noises by waving our hands in between two “magical” bars, and we were even able to conduct the Vienna philharmonic with an electronic baton. We also learned about some of Vienna's famous composers including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Overall it was different than anything we'd ever been to and lots of fun.
It was now early evening so we returned to our hostel, made dinner, and used the internet to check e-mail and prepare for Friday's long travel day to Berlin.
The next morning (Friday), we woke early an quickly packed our bags. Our four Australian roommates were up and about at the same time, so there was no time for showers this morning. We checked out of the hostel and then walked down the street toward the Westbanhoff train station and stopped at a supermarket on the way to buy some food for the trains. It would be a long day of travel – about 9 hours to Berlin.
The first train we were on was to Nurenburg, where we would then catch a connecting train to Berlin. Everything was going smoothly the first 4 of our 5 hour ride to Nurenburg, when suddenly at one of the stops and older man who had just boarded informed us that we were in his seat. Unfortunately, Austria's and Germany's rail ticket system doesn't work very well. For people with EURail Passes (such as us) or others with frequent travel passes, all trains in Germany are non-reservation trains. We simply show up at the station, board the train, and sit wherever we choose. Usually this works at first, but a dual system is at work for people without passes. When you buy individual tickets, you are assigned a car and seat number. So it frequently happens that as the train passes through the various cities and picks up more passengers, many of the new passengers have reserved seats, but we with our passes do not and cannot get the reservations, so we have to move our stuff around and find a new seat whenever someone comes aboard with a reservation where you are sitting. Sometimes you can get lucky, but this time we were not.
The man was very grumpy, and even though we pleaded for him to take a single seat that was available several rows in front of us, he wanted his seat. And only his seat would do. Grudgingly, and disappointed, we moved from the seats and searched the surrounding cars for a pair of seats we could move to. But it was Friday, and the train was crowded and of course we could not find any. When we tried to ask the train attendants for some help, they offered none. So we, with a number of other refugees who had also been displaced from their seats, spent the rest of the ride sitting on the floor between two cars outside of the bathroom. We eventually made it to Nurenburg, and found two seats on the connecting train to Berlin.
Once we arrived, the train stopped at the city's brand new train station, the Berlin Hauptbanhoff, just completed in 2006 for when they hosted the World Cup. It is an awesome station framed in arches of glass and with trains crisscrossing on several levels. The station was a sight in itself and we definitely took some pictures. We then took the S-Bahn connection to an outer part of Berlin where our hostel was located. A block away from our hostel were two supermarkets right night to each other, which was perfect as we were hungry by then. The first one we checked was serving rotisserie chicken and we bought a whole chicken at the discounted price of just 2 Euro – very good! (who says we aren't eating well??)
Saturday morning we ate breakfast included with the hostel. We then made our way to the city center and stopped at Unter Den Linden, Berlin's most famous street before the city was unified. From there we immediately came upon the Brandenburger Tor, a gate / monument that is Berlin's most recognizable sight. This is where Napoleon rode through hundreds of years ago, then was damaged and reconstructed during bombings in WWII, then became a central site of the division between East and West in the Cold War – it is even the backdrop where JFK spoke and Ronald Reagan famously told the Soviets to tear down the wall. Now the area has been totally revamped and is quite a tourist site, as well as hosts the Russian, US, and British embassies. Overall, a pretty cool site.
Not far from the Brandenburger Tor was the Reichstag, the newly rebuilt home to Germany's federal government. It is an old building, but has recently completed renovation with a very modern glass dome in the center that tourists can climb for good views of the city. We went to stand in line for a few minutes to do this, but the line was very long and moving slowly as it was a Saturday, so we decided to come back and see it if we had the time.
After seeing the Reichstag, we headed down Unter den Linden to continue seeing most of the “must-see” sights. Some of these included the campus of Berlin University, a memorial to Holocaust victims, and on the side a little market selling old books (in German, unfortunately). We then went to the Berliner Dom (Berlin's Protestant Cathedral). It was really cool and different than most of the Catholic ones we've seen thus far. The dome of the cathedral was destroyed during WWII but reconstruction just finished recently so it is open to tourists and is very nice. They had museums upstairs, and we were able to walk up to the top of the dome and walk around a railed platform outside for awesome city views. We decided that since this dome was still in the center of the city and was just as high up, it made up for missing out on the Reichstag tour. Then we visited the basement of the cathedral, which is a large crypt holding the remains of about 100 Hohenzollerns, the Kaisers and ruling family of Prussia for the last several centuries. Good little history lesson.
After the Berliner Dom, the skies were becoming overcast and rain looked imminent, plus we were starving, so using our guidebook we decided to eat at Delores, a burrito place. We hoped they would be as big and delicious as the ones from Moes or Chipotle at home – and they were! Mexican food has been few and far between over here, so we enjoyed our chicken burritos.
Following lunch, we took the metro to the Dokumentationszentrum Berliner Mauer on Bernauer Strasse. Here is one of the few remaining spots where two large concrete barriers from the Berlin Wall still stand. There was also a small museum and memorials that documented the history of the wall and its impact on the city. After this, we made our way to the Tiergarten, one of the city's parks and walked through there on our way back to a metro station that could take us back to the hostel. At the metro, there were delays due to a “technical breakdown” and after we waited for quite some time while specific information blared over the speakers in German, we decided to walk to Potsdamer Platz which seemed to be where we might have some luck. Eventually, and with a little bit of confusion, we did make it back. But for having the proclaimed best public transportation system in Europe, the Deutsche Bahn has had the most problems – maybe we are just bad luck! Once back in the hostel area, we bought the same chicken dinner we had the night before from the supermarket and enjoyed the good food and plentiful meat.
On Sunday, since we had seen most of the major sights we had wanted to in Berlin, we had to decide whether to take a daytrip to see the palaces of Potsdam or go to Berlin's world-renowned zoo. Because of the cost and since we had already seen plenty of castles, we decided to check out the zoo. Plus the zoo is home to the most famous polar bear in Germany- Knut (pronounced 'kuh-noot'). Born in 2006, Knut was the first polar bear cub to survive childhood at the Berlin Zoo in more than 30 years. However, he was abandoned by his mother and was instead raised by a zoo keeper, which resulted in a great deal of controversy as it left Knut unable to ever be kept with fellow polar bears. Nearly two years later, Knut is still quite the celebrity and has been solely responsible for greatly increasing admission to the zoo. Not to miss out, we jumped on the S-bahn and headed to the zoo to check this guy out ourselves.
The Berlin Zoo is quite large, and encompasses the entire west end of the Tiergarten we had walked through the day before. As with the Prague Zoo, there was an incredible variety of exhibits, including a separate aquarium within the zoo. The most impressive set of exhibits were all of the primates- there were at least 20 different species, all of which had their own naturalistic indoor and outdoor exhibits. The collection included the standard orangs, chimps, and gorillas, but also included a diverse group of small monkeys. A few species had 20+ individuals in family groups, so it was cool to see how individuals within the groups interact.
After visiting with the monkeys we walked through the the hoofstock exhibits, the aquarium, the cat house, and yes... even the nocturnal animals. Although it took a bit of coaxing from Laura, Nick agreed to once again venture into the nocturnal world- with a strict agreement that we would leave immediately if anything was not properly contained. Fortunately, all of the bats were contained behind glass walls so thick you couldn't even here the flutter of their wings. After the nocturnal area we continued to slowly make our way through the remainder of the zoo. Eventually we had seen nearly everyone except the famous Knut- who we discovered was not housed with the polar bears, but instead was in an enclosure adjacent to the black bears. After a bit of searching we finally found him... a small, incredibly dirty bear, curled up in the back of his exhibit sound asleep. Nick was visibly disappointed as he had been talking about seeing Knut all day. After taking a few obligatory pictures, we glanced up at the darkening sky and decided to end our zoo visit. We hurried out of the zoo and towards the train station as we saw the first few flashes of lightening. As soon as we stepped under the canopy of the train station, the sky opened up and there was a torrential downpour for the next 30 minutes or so.
True to our continual luck with the weather, we stepped out of the train station by our hostel just as the rain stopped and the sky cleared. All hyped up for yet another dinner of value rotisserie chicken we headed happily towards the grocery store, only to be snapped back to reality when we realized it was Sunday and all three grocery stores were closed. We slowly turned back and realized what we had to do... McDonald's stood there glaring at us with its large golden arches.
After our __th meal of McD's (who's counting anyway), we went back to our hostel to pick up our computer and took the train back to the Sony Center where the guidebook had promised us free wi-fi. Although the Sony Center's wi-fi was not all that it could be (as in it didn't work at all), what it did provide was a really nice movie theater complete with original version American movies. After briefly considering our financial situation, we decided to splurge and take in the experience of a German movie theater- complete with popcorn that Nick has been craving for weeks now. The theater was one of if not the most impressive either of us has been to. The seats were huge and plush and the screen was enormous. We watched the latest M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Happening. The movie itself was pretty good, but the best part was watching something entirely in English. After the movie we headed back to our hostel and went straight to bed to rest up before our 6 hour train ride to Amsterdam.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Prague
Sunday morning, we woke up after the second night in Munich and gave each other props for having survived The Tent (even though it didn't quite live up to its hype as a huge German party, we were thankful for the relative quiet we were afforded as early season travelers). We quickly packed our belongings and headed out to catch the train to Prague.
The train from Munich to Prague is supposed to be direct, albeit a long journey of about 6 hours. The first 4 hours of the trip were very nice as we had our own cabin for most of this time and used the opportunity to rest and read. Nick finished the second book of the trip, Plea of Insanity, while Laura continued reading the new book we exchanged for at the Tent, called Count to Ten.
Our peaceful ride was interrupted soon, however, as the train official (who spoke no English) did his best to inform us that our train had to be cleared soon and we would have to ride another connecting train the remainder of the trip. With no choice, and no clear reason why, we got off our train at some random small train stop in seemingly the middle of nowhere in the Czech Republic, and waited a half hour for the next train to Prague to come in. Eventually we made it to Prague and checked into our place, but still clueless as to why our direct train had to be cleared. Another girl we had met at The Tent had taken a train two days before direct from Prague to Munich and apparently had an almost identical situation.
Once in Prague, we ate dinner at KFC, but were still left hungry after only snacking on bread items on the train the entire day, so we found a grocery store and bought microwave pizza to supplement the Colonel's meal.
Monday morning we finally awoke to a beautiful sunny day in the high-70s and ventured out for a day of sightseeing in Prague (our stay in Germany had been mostly rainy and cold, so it was a welcomed change). We started from a good location by Wenceslas Square in Nove Mesto (new town), where Prague-1 Hostel is located, on the east side of the Vtlava River that runs North-South through the city. We began touring the streets with the aim of hitting the major sights listed in our guidebook, but the walking itself was incredibly enjoyable as well. We had heard Prague was a nice city, but it truly is everything good we'd heard about it and more – it has quickly jumped the list to probably our favorite city we've seen thus far. The city is very clean, has lots of character and the personality of a city that has developed for over a thousand years as the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia. It has a very different feel for it than the other cities we've been to. It is definitely more Eastern European, and although some elements of American culture have found its way here, including McDonalds (which we haven't been to in quite some time- finally), it really has its own identity. Strange art and statues are common at every corner, the Czech language is COMPLETELY foreign to us, amber and garnet jewelry stores, and marionette shops line the cobblestone streets. Every street we turned onto was awesome – clean and unique. We would certainly recommend Prague to be on the short-list of places to go for any prospective European vacationers out there.
After stopping by a tourist information office and buying a map, we walked through Old Town Square and saw the famous astronomical clock, the spires of Tyn Church, and the bronze statue of Jan Hus. We then crossed the Charles Bridge to the western half of the city. The bridge is a very touristy spot in itself, and we were able to watch some local musicians and artists show-off their talents. We walked up to the top of the large hill that this part of Prague is situated on, and at the very top was a very nice park with flower gardens that were in full bloom. We both competed with our cameras here to see who could get the best close up shot of the bees pollinating the flowers. Ultimately, Laura's extra-zoom camera was too much for Nick's compact camera to overcome, and he grudgingly admitted defeat. Also at the park here, aside from offering great views of the city, is a smaller Eiffel Tower-like monument that can be seen from a distance atop the hill and tourists can walk to the top of. Since we had already seen the real Eiffel Tower, we just took a few pictures of this funny replica.
After a good lunch of Chinese chicken and beef takeaway, just like the Chinese food in the US, we went to explore the area of the Prague Castle. According to our guidebook, it is one of the biggest castles in the world and has been the seat of the Czech government for over 1000 years – very cool! We were able to walk around the castle and its courtyards, but didn't go on the tour inside as we'd already seen a fair amount of palaces and castles already. Still, we were able to visit St. Vitus's Cathedral inside the castle walls, which was completed in 1929 after over 600 years of construction! Inside, St. Vitus was one of our favorite cathedrals we've seen (not bad considering its competition).
The remainder of the late afternoon was spent strolling a little more through the city and along the river. On the way back to our hostel, we saw the Dancing House, a very interesting building (sometimes despised by locals), designed by American architect Frank Gehry.
Tonight we are updating the blog, washing some clothes (in the sink, of course) and planning tomorrow's agenda, which will include a visit to Prague's zoo and an evening show at Krizik Fountain.
Tuesday morning, we woke up to the sounds of our hostel neighbors hacking up loogies (sp?) in the one and only bathroom. Seriously, this guy was the loudest either of us have ever heard. After what seemed like forever, the guy left the bathroom and another member of his family dashed in. After waiting forever... again... the second hacker of the family exited the bathroom. Followed by another... eventually, we were both able to dash into the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day. We have never seen a family spend so much time in the bathroom all while making disgusting noises and creating a lake in the middle of the floor with their splashed water. The events of the morning triggered the planning of total bathroom domination for the evening and following day.
An hour or so later than planned, we headed out and hopped on the metro in the direction of Zoo Praha. The zoo is located just outside of the city and was only a short metro and train ride away. According to Forbes magazine, the Prague Zoo is 7th best worldwide- and after our visit we decided this ranking is well deserved (although Laura questioned Forbes' authority in ranking zoological institutions...). Actually, we both decided this was one of if not the best zoo we have ever seen. Considering Laura has visited 4 of the nations top zoos in the last year, this is quite the complement.
We started our zoo visit in the Indonesian Jungle exhibit, a really nice indoor rain forest complete with several monkey and ape species, fish, turtles, and a well done nocturnal house. The nocturnal house displayed several nocturnal mammal species, including the most famous nocturnal mammals of all- bats. Now, we noticed several differences between European zoos and American zoos during our visit. The first we discovered was animal containment methods. While we were checking out some interesting nocturnal primates we both thought we saw something flash by behind us. The exhibit was set up with artificial sounds and lights, so we assumed it was just part of the ambiance. However, a few minutes later it was clear that something was in fact flying through the hallway. Yep... you guessed it... bats. To be clear- it wasn't one or two small bats flying several feet above our heads- it was several large fruit bats flying at or below eye level. They were not particularly skilled either, as Laura watched two bats have a mid-air collision right next to her. This is the point where Nick truly freaked out, ducked down, and pushed Laura through the remainder of the exhibit as quickly as possible.
Once were back in the sunlight, we regained our composure and we set off to explore the rest of the zoo. The zoo was quite large and we spent close to 7 hours walking around before we saw everything. The zoo collection included all of the basics (tigers, elephants, monkeys, etc.), but it also included a huge bird collection, several reptiles, many small mammals, and a huge array of hoofstock. Our favorite highlights of the zoo include:
-A giraffe house where you could stand at ground level with the giraffes. They were just inches away on the other side of the glass and it was really cool to see how enormous they really are. There were also a few baby giraffes which were adorable of course.
-An open exhibit that you could walk into where ring-tailed and ruffed lemurs could go wherever they please. We watched a lemur crawl all over a lady's stroller.
-Several mountain goat / ibex exhibits that were basically a rock face on the side of a huge hill- very realistic and true to their natural habitat. It was neat to see how they navigate steep and rocky terrain. There was even a baby that couldn't have been more than a week old climbing all over the rocks.
-Several walk-in aviaries that contained a huge variety of bird species and types (Nick found these less intimidating than the bats because he could see them coming). Most zoos have one or two exhibits of this type, the Prague Zoo had at least 5.
Overall, we had a great time at the zoo and enjoyed the break from hiking through cities.
For an evening activity, we decided to see the Krizik Fontana fountain. Each night, this fountain, located in an outdoor theater in the Prague Exhibition grounds (fair grounds), is the centerpiece of several musical shows ranging from Vivaldi to Michael Jackson. We decided to go to the 9 o'clock show, the earliest it was dark out, and the music then was from Romeo and Juliet. The fountain and lights are coordinated to the music from a recorded orchestra that plays over the theater's sound system. It was pretty cool – definitely a unique show. After the show, we headed back to the center of the city to take some night-time pictures of downtown Prague. The city is very picturesque so we hoped to snap a few shots that might someday be good background wallpapers on the computer or even hang on a wall.
That's all for now. See you in Vienna - Auf Wiedersehen!
The train from Munich to Prague is supposed to be direct, albeit a long journey of about 6 hours. The first 4 hours of the trip were very nice as we had our own cabin for most of this time and used the opportunity to rest and read. Nick finished the second book of the trip, Plea of Insanity, while Laura continued reading the new book we exchanged for at the Tent, called Count to Ten.
Our peaceful ride was interrupted soon, however, as the train official (who spoke no English) did his best to inform us that our train had to be cleared soon and we would have to ride another connecting train the remainder of the trip. With no choice, and no clear reason why, we got off our train at some random small train stop in seemingly the middle of nowhere in the Czech Republic, and waited a half hour for the next train to Prague to come in. Eventually we made it to Prague and checked into our place, but still clueless as to why our direct train had to be cleared. Another girl we had met at The Tent had taken a train two days before direct from Prague to Munich and apparently had an almost identical situation.
Once in Prague, we ate dinner at KFC, but were still left hungry after only snacking on bread items on the train the entire day, so we found a grocery store and bought microwave pizza to supplement the Colonel's meal.
Monday morning we finally awoke to a beautiful sunny day in the high-70s and ventured out for a day of sightseeing in Prague (our stay in Germany had been mostly rainy and cold, so it was a welcomed change). We started from a good location by Wenceslas Square in Nove Mesto (new town), where Prague-1 Hostel is located, on the east side of the Vtlava River that runs North-South through the city. We began touring the streets with the aim of hitting the major sights listed in our guidebook, but the walking itself was incredibly enjoyable as well. We had heard Prague was a nice city, but it truly is everything good we'd heard about it and more – it has quickly jumped the list to probably our favorite city we've seen thus far. The city is very clean, has lots of character and the personality of a city that has developed for over a thousand years as the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia. It has a very different feel for it than the other cities we've been to. It is definitely more Eastern European, and although some elements of American culture have found its way here, including McDonalds (which we haven't been to in quite some time- finally), it really has its own identity. Strange art and statues are common at every corner, the Czech language is COMPLETELY foreign to us, amber and garnet jewelry stores, and marionette shops line the cobblestone streets. Every street we turned onto was awesome – clean and unique. We would certainly recommend Prague to be on the short-list of places to go for any prospective European vacationers out there.
After stopping by a tourist information office and buying a map, we walked through Old Town Square and saw the famous astronomical clock, the spires of Tyn Church, and the bronze statue of Jan Hus. We then crossed the Charles Bridge to the western half of the city. The bridge is a very touristy spot in itself, and we were able to watch some local musicians and artists show-off their talents. We walked up to the top of the large hill that this part of Prague is situated on, and at the very top was a very nice park with flower gardens that were in full bloom. We both competed with our cameras here to see who could get the best close up shot of the bees pollinating the flowers. Ultimately, Laura's extra-zoom camera was too much for Nick's compact camera to overcome, and he grudgingly admitted defeat. Also at the park here, aside from offering great views of the city, is a smaller Eiffel Tower-like monument that can be seen from a distance atop the hill and tourists can walk to the top of. Since we had already seen the real Eiffel Tower, we just took a few pictures of this funny replica.
After a good lunch of Chinese chicken and beef takeaway, just like the Chinese food in the US, we went to explore the area of the Prague Castle. According to our guidebook, it is one of the biggest castles in the world and has been the seat of the Czech government for over 1000 years – very cool! We were able to walk around the castle and its courtyards, but didn't go on the tour inside as we'd already seen a fair amount of palaces and castles already. Still, we were able to visit St. Vitus's Cathedral inside the castle walls, which was completed in 1929 after over 600 years of construction! Inside, St. Vitus was one of our favorite cathedrals we've seen (not bad considering its competition).
The remainder of the late afternoon was spent strolling a little more through the city and along the river. On the way back to our hostel, we saw the Dancing House, a very interesting building (sometimes despised by locals), designed by American architect Frank Gehry.
Tonight we are updating the blog, washing some clothes (in the sink, of course) and planning tomorrow's agenda, which will include a visit to Prague's zoo and an evening show at Krizik Fountain.
Tuesday morning, we woke up to the sounds of our hostel neighbors hacking up loogies (sp?) in the one and only bathroom. Seriously, this guy was the loudest either of us have ever heard. After what seemed like forever, the guy left the bathroom and another member of his family dashed in. After waiting forever... again... the second hacker of the family exited the bathroom. Followed by another... eventually, we were both able to dash into the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day. We have never seen a family spend so much time in the bathroom all while making disgusting noises and creating a lake in the middle of the floor with their splashed water. The events of the morning triggered the planning of total bathroom domination for the evening and following day.
An hour or so later than planned, we headed out and hopped on the metro in the direction of Zoo Praha. The zoo is located just outside of the city and was only a short metro and train ride away. According to Forbes magazine, the Prague Zoo is 7th best worldwide- and after our visit we decided this ranking is well deserved (although Laura questioned Forbes' authority in ranking zoological institutions...). Actually, we both decided this was one of if not the best zoo we have ever seen. Considering Laura has visited 4 of the nations top zoos in the last year, this is quite the complement.
We started our zoo visit in the Indonesian Jungle exhibit, a really nice indoor rain forest complete with several monkey and ape species, fish, turtles, and a well done nocturnal house. The nocturnal house displayed several nocturnal mammal species, including the most famous nocturnal mammals of all- bats. Now, we noticed several differences between European zoos and American zoos during our visit. The first we discovered was animal containment methods. While we were checking out some interesting nocturnal primates we both thought we saw something flash by behind us. The exhibit was set up with artificial sounds and lights, so we assumed it was just part of the ambiance. However, a few minutes later it was clear that something was in fact flying through the hallway. Yep... you guessed it... bats. To be clear- it wasn't one or two small bats flying several feet above our heads- it was several large fruit bats flying at or below eye level. They were not particularly skilled either, as Laura watched two bats have a mid-air collision right next to her. This is the point where Nick truly freaked out, ducked down, and pushed Laura through the remainder of the exhibit as quickly as possible.
Once were back in the sunlight, we regained our composure and we set off to explore the rest of the zoo. The zoo was quite large and we spent close to 7 hours walking around before we saw everything. The zoo collection included all of the basics (tigers, elephants, monkeys, etc.), but it also included a huge bird collection, several reptiles, many small mammals, and a huge array of hoofstock. Our favorite highlights of the zoo include:
-A giraffe house where you could stand at ground level with the giraffes. They were just inches away on the other side of the glass and it was really cool to see how enormous they really are. There were also a few baby giraffes which were adorable of course.
-An open exhibit that you could walk into where ring-tailed and ruffed lemurs could go wherever they please. We watched a lemur crawl all over a lady's stroller.
-Several mountain goat / ibex exhibits that were basically a rock face on the side of a huge hill- very realistic and true to their natural habitat. It was neat to see how they navigate steep and rocky terrain. There was even a baby that couldn't have been more than a week old climbing all over the rocks.
-Several walk-in aviaries that contained a huge variety of bird species and types (Nick found these less intimidating than the bats because he could see them coming). Most zoos have one or two exhibits of this type, the Prague Zoo had at least 5.
Overall, we had a great time at the zoo and enjoyed the break from hiking through cities.
For an evening activity, we decided to see the Krizik Fontana fountain. Each night, this fountain, located in an outdoor theater in the Prague Exhibition grounds (fair grounds), is the centerpiece of several musical shows ranging from Vivaldi to Michael Jackson. We decided to go to the 9 o'clock show, the earliest it was dark out, and the music then was from Romeo and Juliet. The fountain and lights are coordinated to the music from a recorded orchestra that plays over the theater's sound system. It was pretty cool – definitely a unique show. After the show, we headed back to the center of the city to take some night-time pictures of downtown Prague. The city is very picturesque so we hoped to snap a few shots that might someday be good background wallpapers on the computer or even hang on a wall.
That's all for now. See you in Vienna - Auf Wiedersehen!
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Munich
After a nice night in the tent under 5 wool blankets each, we woke up to another cloudy and rainy day in Munich. It rained and stormed all night, and this morning did not look too promising either. Luckily, by the time we had showered and gotten around for the day the rain stopped and it almost cleared up a bit.
Ready for another day of sightseeing, we took the tram back into the city center and headed to the local REWE (grocery) to get what we like to think is a traditional breakfast of pretzel baguette and yogurt. We took our picnic breakfast over to Marienplatz and ate by a fountain while we waited to watch the 11:00 show by the Glockenspiel (clock tower). Not sure if it was worth the hype, but we have video!
After getting our mass tourist crowd fix for the morning, we decided to walk to the Englischer Garten. On the way to the park we happened upon a large town market that contained all sorts of fruit, meats, cheeses, crafts, flowers, and more. We used up some loose change by purchasing two authentic soft pretzels. Many of the food stands smelled delicious, but it isn't obvious what exactly smells good... so we decided to not be adventurous.
The garden itself was quite large and was composed of open grassy areas, woods, a river, and of course... a beer garden. We wandered through the trails and took in the sights for a few hours. One of the highlights was a group of several surfers who 'catch the waves' where the river flows from under the city into the park. There is basically a continuous wave that the surfers can hop onto. Don't worry- we have video of this too. The park was home to a diverse population of waterfowl as well. We were able to watch a few groups of ducklings and even a family of swans. The ducks were obviously accustomed to being fed by humans, and two ducklings walked right up to our feet. Very cute!
After getting in a good afternoon walk we decided it was time for the full Munich experience so we checked the map and set off for the Hofbrahaus- the city's most famous beer hall. The Hofbrahaus lived up to its reputation. We walked into a huge hall filled with long wooden tables occupied by loud, drunk, singing and chanting Germans- excellent. We found an open spot at a table, sat down, and ordered our huge beers. A few minutes later we were joined by a couple about our age and the girl's mom. They were from Seattle, and the guy had spent the year studying in Munich. They were good company and we enjoyed talking to them while we ate our Bavarian meal of bratwurst, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes. The atmosphere was also great- there was a live polka band playing, girls in traditional dresses selling pretzels, and more than a few old guys in lederhosen (sp?). After polishing off our beers, we said goodbye to our new friends and headed back to the grocery to pick up dinner and breakfast supplies before returning to The Tent.
Ready for another day of sightseeing, we took the tram back into the city center and headed to the local REWE (grocery) to get what we like to think is a traditional breakfast of pretzel baguette and yogurt. We took our picnic breakfast over to Marienplatz and ate by a fountain while we waited to watch the 11:00 show by the Glockenspiel (clock tower). Not sure if it was worth the hype, but we have video!
After getting our mass tourist crowd fix for the morning, we decided to walk to the Englischer Garten. On the way to the park we happened upon a large town market that contained all sorts of fruit, meats, cheeses, crafts, flowers, and more. We used up some loose change by purchasing two authentic soft pretzels. Many of the food stands smelled delicious, but it isn't obvious what exactly smells good... so we decided to not be adventurous.
The garden itself was quite large and was composed of open grassy areas, woods, a river, and of course... a beer garden. We wandered through the trails and took in the sights for a few hours. One of the highlights was a group of several surfers who 'catch the waves' where the river flows from under the city into the park. There is basically a continuous wave that the surfers can hop onto. Don't worry- we have video of this too. The park was home to a diverse population of waterfowl as well. We were able to watch a few groups of ducklings and even a family of swans. The ducks were obviously accustomed to being fed by humans, and two ducklings walked right up to our feet. Very cute!
After getting in a good afternoon walk we decided it was time for the full Munich experience so we checked the map and set off for the Hofbrahaus- the city's most famous beer hall. The Hofbrahaus lived up to its reputation. We walked into a huge hall filled with long wooden tables occupied by loud, drunk, singing and chanting Germans- excellent. We found an open spot at a table, sat down, and ordered our huge beers. A few minutes later we were joined by a couple about our age and the girl's mom. They were from Seattle, and the guy had spent the year studying in Munich. They were good company and we enjoyed talking to them while we ate our Bavarian meal of bratwurst, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes. The atmosphere was also great- there was a live polka band playing, girls in traditional dresses selling pretzels, and more than a few old guys in lederhosen (sp?). After polishing off our beers, we said goodbye to our new friends and headed back to the grocery to pick up dinner and breakfast supplies before returning to The Tent.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Bern, Fussen, and Munich
After finishing our last blog update, we set off towards the house of Albert Einstein (well... his house for two years at least). His house was located just down the street from our hostel, sandwiched in between several upscale shops. This is where Al lived between 1903 and 1905 when he was working at the patent office in Bern (Nick enjoyed this fact). It is said that he developed his Special Theory of Relativity while living at this house, including the famous equation E=mc2. The house itself wasn't anything spectacular, but the displays were very informative and there was also a video about Einstein's life- that we had to watch nearly three times until it cycled through to the English version.
Once we concluded our tour of Bern, we returned to our hostel and caught up on internet time, reading, and relaxing. We made another delicious dinner of our favorite spaghetti and chicken cordon bleu, then went to bed early to rest up for our long day of traveling to Fussen, Germany.
Our day of train travel started off with a short ride from Bern to Zurich. After a short wait in Zurich, we boarded our next train to Munich. As soon as we stepped on board we recognized two girls from the University of Minnesota that we had talked to in our hostel the night before. This was one of our more interesting train rides. According to our Eurail train schedule book, reservations weren't required on this train so all we needed was our rail pass to get on board. However, anyone who had to buy a ticket for the train had an assigned seat. This resulted in a few rounds of musical chairs whenever the train stopped and new ticket-holding passengers got on board, looking offended that you were sitting in their seat. Luckily we only had to shift around a bit within a group of four seats and ended up sitting next to a nice older German woman who smiled at us a lot. Our unfortunate friends from MN were stuck next to a group of teenage boys who sat and drank and ran up and down the aisle yelling the entire time. We chatted with them a bit when we got off the train, and apparently they had a very unpleasant trip.
After eating lunch in the train station, and discovering that food prices are MUCH lower in Germany (yay!!), we got on our last train of the day to Fussen. Once we arrived, we decided to walk to our hostel and disregard the directions about how to take the bus there. Our bags are incredibly cumbersome on a bus, and really, how far could it be? The relatively short walking directions turned into quite the hike across town! Before too terribly long we found our hostel and checked in to what appeared to be a guy's house with a few rooms to rent on the second floor. The owner greeted us at the door and took us up to our room. It was really spacious and nice, and the large windows offered a great view of the mountains. Or what would have been a great view if it wasn't so cloudy and rainy. Before he left, the owner asked us what time we wanted breakfast delivered and what we wanted to drink. Free room service? AMAZING
Once we settled in and unpacked a bit, we walked back to a large grocery store that we had passed on the way to our hostel. We were really surprised to see how low the food prices are in Germany- some items cost only half as much as we have been paying. We went all out in shopping for dinner and left the store with a huge bag of food for less than 10 euro. We had a relaxing dinner in our room and spent the evening watching MTV and CNN in English and an episode of the Simpsons dubbed in German.
Yesterday morning we got up and waited anxiously to see what kind of breakfast was going to be delivered. Our guess was a few pieces of toast paired with the hot chocolate we had ordered the night before. We were more than surprised when the owner himself arrived with a tray full of warm rolls, juice, lunch meat, a hardboiled egg, hot chocolate, nutella, and a bowl filled with a large assortment of jams, cheeses, and honey. After munching down on our delicious breakfast, we stopped by the grocery store to put together a packed lunch then headed into the center of Fussen.
The main reason for traveling to Fussen was to see the famous castle Neuschwanstein, built high up on a mountain. The castle is located about three miles outside of Fussen. Our big decision of the day was what mode of transportation we should use to get there. After debating about whether or not to get on the bus packed full of tourists, we decided to make a quick visit to the tourism office to investigate our other options. Just outside of the train station we passed a bike shop with a 'bikes for rent' sign. We checked inside for a price and found out that we could rent a bike for the entire day for only 8 euro each. At this price we couldn't pass up the opportunity so we rented two bikes, picked up a map from the tourist office, and set off on the bike trail towards the castle.
There ended up being very nice bike trails all through Fussen and up to the castle ticket area a few kilometers from the train station. We had to lock up the bikes for the half-hour hike up to the castle from there because it would have been too steep to ride, but it was a nice walk up. When we reached the castle, it is how they describe it – kind of like being in a fairy tale. The foggy haze of the day made it look like the castle was sitting high in the clouds. It overlooked the valleys, lakes, and a waterfall below, but unfortunately the fog made it hard to see many of the mountains in the background. We also walked to Marianbrucke (sp?), a great bridge crossing the gorge of the waterfall that provided more picturesque views of Neuschwanstein.
After we were finished with our sightseeing in the castle area, we ate a packed lunch of Brez'n (soft pretzels) and ham, then took our bikes out on a ride around one of the nearby lakes. We then spent a couple hours riding along the river and several of the bike trails through the area. It was a lot of fun, and ended up being a great way to see some good views of the foothills of the Alps.
This morning we woke up and looked out our window, hoping to finally see what was surely a fantastic view outside of our window... unfortunately we had rain and clouds again. We were definitely dreading the long walk back to the train station with our heavy bags in the pouring rain. Promptly at 8:30 am the owner arrived with our breakfast and notified us that as soon as we were finished eating and packing up he would drive us to the train station- free of charge of course. He even ran us to a nearby bank so we could get the cash to pay for our room. He didn't ask for our room payment until he dropped us off and even charged us 10 euro under what we thought we would be paying him. What a deal.
After a 2 hour train ride (1 hour of which with several loud drunk Germans that had a keg... on the train) we arrived back in Munich. We figured out that the place we are staying was a ways out of town, so we decided to keep our bags in a locker in the train station and do some sightseeing. We ended up walking to the Deutsche Museum which is like the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum plus the Museum of Science and Industry. The museum was huge, interesting, and best of all- did not contain a single piece of art. We only had three hours before the museum closed, which was definitely not enough time. Since the entrance fee was very reasonable we are thinking about going back tomorrow if we can fit it in. We were able to see several exhibits including how ships developed, a huge aeronautical section, many old musical instruments, chemistry (our favorite- ha), and much much more.
Once the museum closed we headed back towards a Pizza Hut that had signs for an all you can eat pizza buffet. Sadly, the buffet was only on Monday nights but they still had a reasonably priced meal for two which ended up being as much as we could eat anyway. Stuffed full of true American pizza, we walked back to the train station, picked up our bags, and took the tram to 'The Tent'.
The Tent is just that... two huge white tents located in a backpacker's campground. One tent is filled with 100 bunk beds and the other is a wooden floor with mats and wool blankets. We splurged for the 10 euro a night beds. We weren't sure what to expect, but we think we are really going to enjoy staying here. It has quite the reputation for its atmosphere during Oktoberfest, but tonight is actually the first night that it is open for the season so there are only a handful of people staying here. Most of the party crowd here right now consists only of the staff- who appear to be celebrating their first night back together. Everyone has been incredibly nice here an the atmosphere is very relaxed. We are relaxing ourselves as we are enjoying a genuine German beer while updating our blog.
Tomorrow is going to be a full day of sightseeing in Munich. Sometime in the afternoon we are going to check out the Hofbrahaus beer hall in order to have the full Munich experience. We should be able to update again soon. Auf Wiedersehen!
Once we concluded our tour of Bern, we returned to our hostel and caught up on internet time, reading, and relaxing. We made another delicious dinner of our favorite spaghetti and chicken cordon bleu, then went to bed early to rest up for our long day of traveling to Fussen, Germany.
Our day of train travel started off with a short ride from Bern to Zurich. After a short wait in Zurich, we boarded our next train to Munich. As soon as we stepped on board we recognized two girls from the University of Minnesota that we had talked to in our hostel the night before. This was one of our more interesting train rides. According to our Eurail train schedule book, reservations weren't required on this train so all we needed was our rail pass to get on board. However, anyone who had to buy a ticket for the train had an assigned seat. This resulted in a few rounds of musical chairs whenever the train stopped and new ticket-holding passengers got on board, looking offended that you were sitting in their seat. Luckily we only had to shift around a bit within a group of four seats and ended up sitting next to a nice older German woman who smiled at us a lot. Our unfortunate friends from MN were stuck next to a group of teenage boys who sat and drank and ran up and down the aisle yelling the entire time. We chatted with them a bit when we got off the train, and apparently they had a very unpleasant trip.
After eating lunch in the train station, and discovering that food prices are MUCH lower in Germany (yay!!), we got on our last train of the day to Fussen. Once we arrived, we decided to walk to our hostel and disregard the directions about how to take the bus there. Our bags are incredibly cumbersome on a bus, and really, how far could it be? The relatively short walking directions turned into quite the hike across town! Before too terribly long we found our hostel and checked in to what appeared to be a guy's house with a few rooms to rent on the second floor. The owner greeted us at the door and took us up to our room. It was really spacious and nice, and the large windows offered a great view of the mountains. Or what would have been a great view if it wasn't so cloudy and rainy. Before he left, the owner asked us what time we wanted breakfast delivered and what we wanted to drink. Free room service? AMAZING
Once we settled in and unpacked a bit, we walked back to a large grocery store that we had passed on the way to our hostel. We were really surprised to see how low the food prices are in Germany- some items cost only half as much as we have been paying. We went all out in shopping for dinner and left the store with a huge bag of food for less than 10 euro. We had a relaxing dinner in our room and spent the evening watching MTV and CNN in English and an episode of the Simpsons dubbed in German.
Yesterday morning we got up and waited anxiously to see what kind of breakfast was going to be delivered. Our guess was a few pieces of toast paired with the hot chocolate we had ordered the night before. We were more than surprised when the owner himself arrived with a tray full of warm rolls, juice, lunch meat, a hardboiled egg, hot chocolate, nutella, and a bowl filled with a large assortment of jams, cheeses, and honey. After munching down on our delicious breakfast, we stopped by the grocery store to put together a packed lunch then headed into the center of Fussen.
The main reason for traveling to Fussen was to see the famous castle Neuschwanstein, built high up on a mountain. The castle is located about three miles outside of Fussen. Our big decision of the day was what mode of transportation we should use to get there. After debating about whether or not to get on the bus packed full of tourists, we decided to make a quick visit to the tourism office to investigate our other options. Just outside of the train station we passed a bike shop with a 'bikes for rent' sign. We checked inside for a price and found out that we could rent a bike for the entire day for only 8 euro each. At this price we couldn't pass up the opportunity so we rented two bikes, picked up a map from the tourist office, and set off on the bike trail towards the castle.
There ended up being very nice bike trails all through Fussen and up to the castle ticket area a few kilometers from the train station. We had to lock up the bikes for the half-hour hike up to the castle from there because it would have been too steep to ride, but it was a nice walk up. When we reached the castle, it is how they describe it – kind of like being in a fairy tale. The foggy haze of the day made it look like the castle was sitting high in the clouds. It overlooked the valleys, lakes, and a waterfall below, but unfortunately the fog made it hard to see many of the mountains in the background. We also walked to Marianbrucke (sp?), a great bridge crossing the gorge of the waterfall that provided more picturesque views of Neuschwanstein.
After we were finished with our sightseeing in the castle area, we ate a packed lunch of Brez'n (soft pretzels) and ham, then took our bikes out on a ride around one of the nearby lakes. We then spent a couple hours riding along the river and several of the bike trails through the area. It was a lot of fun, and ended up being a great way to see some good views of the foothills of the Alps.
This morning we woke up and looked out our window, hoping to finally see what was surely a fantastic view outside of our window... unfortunately we had rain and clouds again. We were definitely dreading the long walk back to the train station with our heavy bags in the pouring rain. Promptly at 8:30 am the owner arrived with our breakfast and notified us that as soon as we were finished eating and packing up he would drive us to the train station- free of charge of course. He even ran us to a nearby bank so we could get the cash to pay for our room. He didn't ask for our room payment until he dropped us off and even charged us 10 euro under what we thought we would be paying him. What a deal.
After a 2 hour train ride (1 hour of which with several loud drunk Germans that had a keg... on the train) we arrived back in Munich. We figured out that the place we are staying was a ways out of town, so we decided to keep our bags in a locker in the train station and do some sightseeing. We ended up walking to the Deutsche Museum which is like the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum plus the Museum of Science and Industry. The museum was huge, interesting, and best of all- did not contain a single piece of art. We only had three hours before the museum closed, which was definitely not enough time. Since the entrance fee was very reasonable we are thinking about going back tomorrow if we can fit it in. We were able to see several exhibits including how ships developed, a huge aeronautical section, many old musical instruments, chemistry (our favorite- ha), and much much more.
Once the museum closed we headed back towards a Pizza Hut that had signs for an all you can eat pizza buffet. Sadly, the buffet was only on Monday nights but they still had a reasonably priced meal for two which ended up being as much as we could eat anyway. Stuffed full of true American pizza, we walked back to the train station, picked up our bags, and took the tram to 'The Tent'.
The Tent is just that... two huge white tents located in a backpacker's campground. One tent is filled with 100 bunk beds and the other is a wooden floor with mats and wool blankets. We splurged for the 10 euro a night beds. We weren't sure what to expect, but we think we are really going to enjoy staying here. It has quite the reputation for its atmosphere during Oktoberfest, but tonight is actually the first night that it is open for the season so there are only a handful of people staying here. Most of the party crowd here right now consists only of the staff- who appear to be celebrating their first night back together. Everyone has been incredibly nice here an the atmosphere is very relaxed. We are relaxing ourselves as we are enjoying a genuine German beer while updating our blog.
Tomorrow is going to be a full day of sightseeing in Munich. Sometime in the afternoon we are going to check out the Hofbrahaus beer hall in order to have the full Munich experience. We should be able to update again soon. Auf Wiedersehen!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Here it is... Finally: Florence to Bern
Waking up Tuesday morning brought with it the unfortunate realization that our stay in the Cinque Terre had expired. Although sad to leave this coastal beauty, we were excited to begin the rest of our Italian tour, starting in Florence (aka Firenze in Italian). We took a short regional train out of Riomaggiore to La Spezia (8 min ride), then waited for our connecting train to Pisa for about an hour. In the interim, we conveniently found a McDonald's at the train station and each had a small breakfast cheeseburger to fill ourselves with some meat that had been lacking the last few days.
On the train from La Spezia to Pisa, we had a small incident with the on board ticket-checker man. Being unfamiliar users of Italy's state train system, and because our tickets we had purchased were not for a specific train time or seat reservation, we boarded one of the fast intercity trains. However, when the ticket was examined, it was apparently only good for the slower regional trains. The ticket apparently noted this, but being in Italian it was of no good use for us. He gave us a small lecture on boarding proper trains and the possibility of being hit with fines, but obviously looking like confused American tourists, we were let off easy.
When we got to Florence (after being sure to board one of the slower, dirtier regional trains from Pisa to Florence), we checked in at Andy Florence Bed and Breakfast. This ended up being our favorite accommodation to date. The owner was very friendly, they had fast free unlimited internet, great cooking facilities, few rooms and relative amount of privacy, a great breakfast included, good location, and a great price. We were very tired when we arrived and this place could not have come at a better time. We had hoped the Cinque Terre was going to be a relaxing place to energize our bodies after two weeks of travel wear, but two days of hiking in the beaming sun had erased any such plans. We thus took a nice afternoon siesta (turns out the siesta is both a Spanish and Italian phenomenon!). Later that day we took a brief walk through the city, but craving some food we found a supermarket and brought back pasta, bread, and chicken cordon bleu to fix for dinner.
On Wednesday, after a nice breakfast, we started the big sightseeing day through Florence. We started at the Duomo, one of the oldest cathedral's we've seen on the trip, from the 13th century. It has the third longest nave in the world behind Rome's St. Peter's and London's St. Paul's (all of which we are going to see!). After viewing the Duomo, we began wandering around the city on foot. The historical district of Florence is actually surprisingly small. It does not take long at all to hike from one end of the city map to the other. There is no metro there either. Along the way we encountered two ladies who recognized our Purdue shirts, one of whom was a fellow alum (can't believe we're saying that!). We saw some other cool Renaissance sites we can't even begin to name, and also walked across the Ponte Vecchio, Florence's famous old bridge stretching the Arno River full of jewelry stores and ridiculously expensive Florentine art. We also walked through the courtyard of the Palazza Vecchio and took in the sights of countless Renaissance sculptures and architecture.
By mid-afternoon we felt we had actually seen most of what we wanted to see in Florence. It was also very hot and we were still worn out, while allergies had begun to hit Nick pretty hard. Florence has a lot more to offer in museums to the art lover, but since the extent of our art knowledge does not reach beyond a mild appreciation of the Mona Lisa, we decided to return to the B&B and rest some more. We caught up on reading Nick's novel, The Tenth Justice, internet time, and made some more food for dinner. In truth, we were glad for the opportunity to rest and get our legs back as the coming journey to Rome was sure to be activity-filled. We did, however, make one last journey out through Florence as Nick was finally able to get a haircut by an old man at an Italian barbershop. Despite very clear (English) instructions to cut to 1 cm on the bottom and 2 cm on top, something must have been lost in translation as the bottom was buzzed very much shorter and the top was left very much longer. Laura could hardly contain her laughter. It was certainly not a masterpiece but at least he's in Europe where no one will see it! (It's really not too bad, haha)
Thursday morning we woke early to another good breakfast, refreshed, and ready to travel to Rome. After an uneventful train ride, we checked into Papa Germano's in Rome around noon. Soon after dropping our bags off, we hit the streets with plans to see the Ancient City district that afternoon - but not before lunch, of course. We walked down several of the city's side streets along the way perusing the street menus of the local restaurants looking for decent food at a decent price. Finally, at one stop, a women handed us a menu from the restaurant's steps and persuaded us to eat there. She asked us to take a seat inside, but we had already bought Cokes for lunch that we were carrying in our bags and we wanted to use though so we asked for an order to go, and pointed outside (she spoke no English). She then insisted that we sit outside at one of their sidewalk tables, and we obliged. We split a pizza and ordered tap water so we could use our Cokes later, but when the bill came (in Italian), there was a mysterious 3 Euro additional charge. We did not know what this was, so we called over the bus boy to question. He spoke some English, and answered that it was a seating charge. Not accustomed to this charge, we inquired why we hadn't been informed of this additional fee by any of the waitstaff or on the menu and wanted to make sure we weren't being taken advantage of as young tourists. After some back and forth bantering and what one might call a small international incident, victory was ours and the fee was dropped. We still left a tip for our waitress, however, who was very nice through the whole ordeal. Nevertheless, we weren't off to the greatest start in Rome.
To make matters worse, immediately after leaving the restaurant, the overcast skies made way for a heavy rainstorm. Protected by our small travel umbrellas and semi-waterproof coats we could only make so much headway before finding shelter in a large bookstore. Here, we perused their imported English fiction section and bought another book, “Plea of Insanity,” to fill for the soon to be finished novel Nick had brought from the US. We almost decided to head back to the hostel because forecasts called for thunderstorms all afternoon, but luck was with us and not long after entering the bookstore, the skies had cleared and the rest of the day was very nice.
From the bookstore, we headed to take in views of the ancient city from Italy's tomb of the unknown soldier. We then walked to the Colosseum and bought a combined ticket for the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman forum. The Colosseum was pretty cool and reminded us that we needed to watch Gladiator again! From there, we went through Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, a huge area of ancient ruins from the old political and economic center of the Roman empire. The remains were definitely cool. After a solid 8 hours of touring, we headed back to the hostel, bought some food at the supermarket, and went out for dinner. When we returned, we met our two roommates who had arrived while we were out, a friendly couple our age who had just graduated from Vanderbilt.
Friday morning we woke up early, ate breakfast at the hostel, then used the metro to traverse the town to visit the Vatican. All the guidebooks recommend arriving as early as possible to avoid the enormous lines that can form. Our first stop was the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Fortunately, the lines moved quickly and we waited just 20 minutes. Once in, we followed the advice from all the books and rushed past probably a good hour of art galleries to get to the Sistine Chapel before hordes of people made their way to the esteemed church. The chapel was as awesome and ornate as we could have imagined, as every square inch of the ceilings and wall was adorned with paintings from Michaelangelo, Raphael, and other great teenage mutant ninja turtles (aka Renaissance artists).
After viewing the chapel, we proceeded to make our way backwards to view what we had skipped, but our attempts were dismantled by the Museum security who said no traffic can go backwards through the museums – probably an attempt to stop tourists who all read the same advice in the books. Fortunately, there were still plenty of exhibits and more than enough art in the museums and library to satisfy our needs following the Sistine Chapel. We even got to see the evolution of the Pope-mobile from carriage to high-tech bulletproof motor vehicle. No real Pope sightings, however.
Following our walkthrough of the Vatican Museums, we walked halfway around the country (since the Vatican is a sovereign state) and within 5 minutes arrived at Saint Peter's Square. The square was quite a sight with its rows of pillars framing a giant circular plaza that accentuated the grandeur of St. Peter's Cathedral set in the back of the square. It was still in the morning hours so the large crowds were just beginning to form. After a short wait in line to pass through security, we toured the basilica of St. Peter's. Needless to say, it was awesome inside. It was by far the biggest and most ornate of all the cathedrals we've seen thus far (which is more than we probably thought we'd see in a lifetime). We looked into staying around for a mass inside, but the next one didn't start for about 5 hours and decided the walk-through would suffice.
After visiting the cathedral, using our large Rome maps that surely identified us as tourists, we charted a route by foot that would take us all the way across the city and allow us to see a few more of the sites the city had to offer. We picked up lunch of focccacia bread, yogurt, and salami at a store along the way, then visited the Fontana Di Trevi, a gigantic fountain and plaza with some pretty cool motion-captured sculptures of old Roman gods and horses. We also made our way to the Pantheon, and visited the inside of this 2000 year-old temple. After making it back to the hostel, we rested a short while and then found a good sit-down dinner of lasagna, chicken, and salad.
We woke up early again Saturday morning in order to eat another tasty breakfast before catching our train to Venice. After a little over 4 hours of beautiful Italian countryside (and reading and naps, of course), we arrived at the Venice Mestre train station on the mainland. Since we are actually staying on the mainland at a campground and not in the center of Venice, we had to take a bus out of the city. We looked all throughout the train station, but there were no ticket machines to be found. We soon gave up on the ticket hunt and went to wait at the bus station. There we met a few fellow travelers headed in the same direction, none of which had solved the ticket situation either. Overhearing our conversation, a local bus rider informed us that we had to purchase our bus tickets from inside a bar across the street- of course, why hadn't we thought of that...
Tickets in hand we headed back towards the bus stop, but decided along the way that we should go ahead and purchase a few more sets of train tickets while we were already at the station. We planned out our train schedule over a lunch of you can guess what, and then went to the ticket line. After a short wait we cheerfully handed over the list of the trains to a less than pleasant looking old Italian man. He no more than glanced at our list before he waved a hand at us and sent us away to information to get the exact times that we needed. Note: this is the first person that has not happily shown us a list of all the times available and allowed us to pick the one we wanted. After looking through our Eurail timetable guide (which isn't necessarily accurate) to pick out train times, and waiting in line -again- we got stuck with the same train ticket Nazi we had the first time. I'm sure he was 'thrilled' to get to 'help' us again. This time he was upset that we hadn't listed the train station we wanted, even though only one station was listed in our time table. After a few minutes of conversing we had managed to only get one ticket. Then when we went to pay for our one ticket with a credit card, he made an angry face and told us that the line was down and that we had to pay cash- which we didn't have enough of at the moment. Of course there were only 10 signs advertising that they gladly took credit cards, and none that mentioned you couldn't use them today. Go Trenitalia.
After wasting nearly two hours dealing with what has been the most frustrating train system in Europe, it was time to take the bus to Camp Fusina. A large advertisement on the bus stop booth promised a backpackers paradise, but at a mere 13 euro a night we remained skeptical. The bus dropped us off directly at the gate of what appeared to be a pretty nice campground. After checking in, we headed back towards our very own cabin. Unlike the country log cabins found in state parks across America, what we have here is more like half a FEMA trailer on wheels. Lack of character aside, the trailers are actually really nice and clean, and nearly mosquito proof. Plus, we are saving 80 euro by staying here!! The rest of the campground is also quite impressive (and spotless). This place has its own supermarket, laundromat, restaurant, bar, and pizzeria- basically all the amenities of an entire town conveniently packed into a hundred meters.
We took it pretty easy this evening, and used our time to do some catching up on our laundry. Doing laundry is really expensive here, so we are sure to cram as much into one load as possible. The result of course, is that nothing is dry after one cycle, we are too cheap to have it go again, so now our cabin is sporting a funky t-shirt decor and smells a bit like a laundromat. After laundry time, we checked out the in house restaurants and picked out two kebab pitas to go. Remember the Nebab Kebab of Tours? Our pitas were delicious, and we suspect the meat was higher quality than what we had consumed at Nebab.
Tomorrow we are going to get up bright and early for a full day of sightseeing in Venice. We have heard fairly mixed reviews from other travelers, so we are interested to see what we think of the city. There is a boat that runs directly from our campground to Venice every hour. We are going to pretend that this is our gondola ride down the canal. A couple we roomed with in Rome to a budget gondola ride for a mere 80 euro – no way!! We plan on having a more budget friendly Venetian experience while still managing to take in all of the sights. More to come!
Sunday morning we woke up prepared to venture to the old slowly sinking city of Venice. Our campsite runs a boat service that takes its residents to and from the campgrounds and the lagoons of the main city each hour for a small fee, and we caught a ride at 9 am. The boat ride across the lagoon was fun, and we imagined it was a gondola since we weren't planning to take one of the traditional Venetian boat rides today. As the city approached, we could see four or five cruise large cruise ships already docked, and the outline of the city on several of the 118 islands that comprise Venice. The weather was again good today – very sunny, although a bit hot, with temperatures running in the mid-high 80s.
Once in the city, we began wandering just to see the sites and experience being in such a unique place. We didn't have any specific site seeing agenda today, just seeing the city and its canals was the main goal. We took some good pictures, and it is just as we had imagined it in pictures we had seen before. Some people had said Venice was unclean and smelly, but we thought it was fairly nice. There was definitely an overpopulation of pigeons, however. The birds feast on the generosity of tourists and do quite well. One even swooped down and clipped Nick on the head.
After 4-5 hours of exploring the city including a visit to an old musical instrument museum, perusing the countless shops, walking through a park, viewing the Ponte di Rialto and Piazza San Marco, and getting some lunch and gelatto, we took felt we had seen all we wanted and took the boat back to the campsite in the mid-afternoon. When we got back, exhausted from the sun, the walking, and the crowds, we took a small siesta (we are really adopting to the Italian way of life!), and then went to dinner at a nice restaurant here on the campgrounds. We ate well because tomorrow is going to be a long day of train travel with probably little food available from Venice to Bern, Switzerland.
For the final time in Italy – Ciao!
Yesterday (Monday, June 2), we got another early start in order to catch the bus that would take us back to the train station. Since we had our incident with the unfriendly ticket man two days before, we had not yet purchased reservations for the train to Bern, Switzerland. There was only one high speed train that left in the morning, all of the other trains took around 2 more hours so we wanted to be sure we got on that train. Our second ticket man was much friendlier, but we still had a fairly significant language barrier with him. After repeating 'tren to zurich' about 15 times, we had our tickets and were on our way.
The train ride to Zurich was around 6 hours. This seems like a long time, but the views (especially in the second half of the trip) were spectacular so this made the ride quite enjoyable. We went right through the mountains, and we could see countless snow-topped peaks and waterfalls. After arriving in Zurich, we had to catch a second train to Bern. We hopped off the train and quickly checked out the departure board- we were glad to see that a train was leaving for Bern in just 3 minutes. We hurried through the station, saw the sign for the departure for Bern, and hopped on the only train in the area. Once aboard, we noticed that the train was particularly nice for a regional train and we didn't recognize any of the station names that were posted as destinations. But we had followed the signs and gotten on the ONLY train by the track. We didn't want to get off the train and check the board again since the train was supposed to leave in less than a minute. Well... of course we weren't on the right train- for the second time on our trip. After looking at our rail map we figured out that we were heading towards the German border- oops. Luckily, the train stopped at a station about 15 minutes outside of Zurich so we got off and then took the next train back to Zurich. Then we got on a train that was actually going to Bern (after more thoroughly
examining the departure board this time).
After a nice long trek around the Bern train station and several side streets we made our way to the Bern Backpackers youth hostel. The directions appeared pretty straightforward- except for the crucial part where you see a clock tower on your right and a McDonald's on your left and then turn down an unnamed street. Turns out there are two clock towers and two McDonald's that fit this exact description on the one road that you take from the train station... After a bit of directional help from an English speaking student, we were set on the correct path and easily found the hostel. The place we are staying is new and clean, has a large common area, and best of all-- a kitchen!! We haven't had cooking facilities for a while now and it definitely makes eating well (and super cheap) much easier. After dropping off our backpacks we set off to get supplies for a delicious meal from one of many of the grocery stores we had past. Much to our dismay, EVERY STORE in Bern shuts down at 7pm. What do these people eat after work?? After a bit of searching, we ended up eating at a Mexican restaurant with decent prices. Food is incredibly expensive here. A typical restaurant meal is around $30 and frequently is much more. We settled for splitting the $30 appetizer platter- a bargain at $15 each!
When we returned to our hostel after dinner we were pleasantly surprised to see that we still had no roommates in our 4 bed dorm. We counted down to 10pm, which according to hostel policy is the latest they will check someone in. Since we were pretty tired from our day of traveling we went to sleep early... only to be rudely awakened by our new roommates checking in at 1am!! Needless to say, we were not happy campers. And to top it off, the girl had a bad cold and coughed continuously until at least 3am. We plan on complaining at the front desk later this afternoon.
After getting less sleep than what we had planned, we got up and around (somewhat loudly) this morning and then headed off to the grocery store. For only $30 we stocked up on what would probably be $200 in a restaurant, and went back to make a real American breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast with nutella, grapes, and yogurt. Once breakfast was finished we started our tour of the city. First we checked out the famous clock tower (the one we missed last night), then walked down the street to Albert Einstein's house. We were a little shy of the necessary amount of Swiss Francs needed for admission, so we decided to get Euro (also accepted there) and return later. We then decided to walk around and see the sites of Bern. It is a really cool town. Even though it is the capital of Switzerland, it is still very laid back, and looks very German, although very clean as well. Electric cables criss-cross the streets and intersections for a sophisticated Tram (trolley) system, and a the Aare River outlines the Altstadt, or downtown historic section. The river is the cleanest water we've ever seen, we have been debating if it is really even naturally carved or if it is a diverted channel paved on the bottom. Nevertheless it is very nice, and we took a hike through the town's Old English park around the river and the perimeter of the Altstadt. We also have checked out some of the very stereotypical-Swiss shops of which there are many – chocolatiers, watch and clock shops, pastry and cheese shops, and the Wenger store (makers of the Swiss army knives). We can tell that we've entered a new phase of the trip – return of the cooler weather (yay!), away from the classical Renaissance sites and into the larger German-type areas.
After a thorough foot-tour, we're now in McDonald's using their free Wi-Fi to update the blog and check e-mail. This afternoon we'll make late lunch and check out Albert Einstein's house.
Now, if you've made it to this point and actually read everything, good for you – otherwise, scroll back up and start again! Bye!
On the train from La Spezia to Pisa, we had a small incident with the on board ticket-checker man. Being unfamiliar users of Italy's state train system, and because our tickets we had purchased were not for a specific train time or seat reservation, we boarded one of the fast intercity trains. However, when the ticket was examined, it was apparently only good for the slower regional trains. The ticket apparently noted this, but being in Italian it was of no good use for us. He gave us a small lecture on boarding proper trains and the possibility of being hit with fines, but obviously looking like confused American tourists, we were let off easy.
When we got to Florence (after being sure to board one of the slower, dirtier regional trains from Pisa to Florence), we checked in at Andy Florence Bed and Breakfast. This ended up being our favorite accommodation to date. The owner was very friendly, they had fast free unlimited internet, great cooking facilities, few rooms and relative amount of privacy, a great breakfast included, good location, and a great price. We were very tired when we arrived and this place could not have come at a better time. We had hoped the Cinque Terre was going to be a relaxing place to energize our bodies after two weeks of travel wear, but two days of hiking in the beaming sun had erased any such plans. We thus took a nice afternoon siesta (turns out the siesta is both a Spanish and Italian phenomenon!). Later that day we took a brief walk through the city, but craving some food we found a supermarket and brought back pasta, bread, and chicken cordon bleu to fix for dinner.
On Wednesday, after a nice breakfast, we started the big sightseeing day through Florence. We started at the Duomo, one of the oldest cathedral's we've seen on the trip, from the 13th century. It has the third longest nave in the world behind Rome's St. Peter's and London's St. Paul's (all of which we are going to see!). After viewing the Duomo, we began wandering around the city on foot. The historical district of Florence is actually surprisingly small. It does not take long at all to hike from one end of the city map to the other. There is no metro there either. Along the way we encountered two ladies who recognized our Purdue shirts, one of whom was a fellow alum (can't believe we're saying that!). We saw some other cool Renaissance sites we can't even begin to name, and also walked across the Ponte Vecchio, Florence's famous old bridge stretching the Arno River full of jewelry stores and ridiculously expensive Florentine art. We also walked through the courtyard of the Palazza Vecchio and took in the sights of countless Renaissance sculptures and architecture.
By mid-afternoon we felt we had actually seen most of what we wanted to see in Florence. It was also very hot and we were still worn out, while allergies had begun to hit Nick pretty hard. Florence has a lot more to offer in museums to the art lover, but since the extent of our art knowledge does not reach beyond a mild appreciation of the Mona Lisa, we decided to return to the B&B and rest some more. We caught up on reading Nick's novel, The Tenth Justice, internet time, and made some more food for dinner. In truth, we were glad for the opportunity to rest and get our legs back as the coming journey to Rome was sure to be activity-filled. We did, however, make one last journey out through Florence as Nick was finally able to get a haircut by an old man at an Italian barbershop. Despite very clear (English) instructions to cut to 1 cm on the bottom and 2 cm on top, something must have been lost in translation as the bottom was buzzed very much shorter and the top was left very much longer. Laura could hardly contain her laughter. It was certainly not a masterpiece but at least he's in Europe where no one will see it! (It's really not too bad, haha)
Thursday morning we woke early to another good breakfast, refreshed, and ready to travel to Rome. After an uneventful train ride, we checked into Papa Germano's in Rome around noon. Soon after dropping our bags off, we hit the streets with plans to see the Ancient City district that afternoon - but not before lunch, of course. We walked down several of the city's side streets along the way perusing the street menus of the local restaurants looking for decent food at a decent price. Finally, at one stop, a women handed us a menu from the restaurant's steps and persuaded us to eat there. She asked us to take a seat inside, but we had already bought Cokes for lunch that we were carrying in our bags and we wanted to use though so we asked for an order to go, and pointed outside (she spoke no English). She then insisted that we sit outside at one of their sidewalk tables, and we obliged. We split a pizza and ordered tap water so we could use our Cokes later, but when the bill came (in Italian), there was a mysterious 3 Euro additional charge. We did not know what this was, so we called over the bus boy to question. He spoke some English, and answered that it was a seating charge. Not accustomed to this charge, we inquired why we hadn't been informed of this additional fee by any of the waitstaff or on the menu and wanted to make sure we weren't being taken advantage of as young tourists. After some back and forth bantering and what one might call a small international incident, victory was ours and the fee was dropped. We still left a tip for our waitress, however, who was very nice through the whole ordeal. Nevertheless, we weren't off to the greatest start in Rome.
To make matters worse, immediately after leaving the restaurant, the overcast skies made way for a heavy rainstorm. Protected by our small travel umbrellas and semi-waterproof coats we could only make so much headway before finding shelter in a large bookstore. Here, we perused their imported English fiction section and bought another book, “Plea of Insanity,” to fill for the soon to be finished novel Nick had brought from the US. We almost decided to head back to the hostel because forecasts called for thunderstorms all afternoon, but luck was with us and not long after entering the bookstore, the skies had cleared and the rest of the day was very nice.
From the bookstore, we headed to take in views of the ancient city from Italy's tomb of the unknown soldier. We then walked to the Colosseum and bought a combined ticket for the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman forum. The Colosseum was pretty cool and reminded us that we needed to watch Gladiator again! From there, we went through Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, a huge area of ancient ruins from the old political and economic center of the Roman empire. The remains were definitely cool. After a solid 8 hours of touring, we headed back to the hostel, bought some food at the supermarket, and went out for dinner. When we returned, we met our two roommates who had arrived while we were out, a friendly couple our age who had just graduated from Vanderbilt.
Friday morning we woke up early, ate breakfast at the hostel, then used the metro to traverse the town to visit the Vatican. All the guidebooks recommend arriving as early as possible to avoid the enormous lines that can form. Our first stop was the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Fortunately, the lines moved quickly and we waited just 20 minutes. Once in, we followed the advice from all the books and rushed past probably a good hour of art galleries to get to the Sistine Chapel before hordes of people made their way to the esteemed church. The chapel was as awesome and ornate as we could have imagined, as every square inch of the ceilings and wall was adorned with paintings from Michaelangelo, Raphael, and other great teenage mutant ninja turtles (aka Renaissance artists).
After viewing the chapel, we proceeded to make our way backwards to view what we had skipped, but our attempts were dismantled by the Museum security who said no traffic can go backwards through the museums – probably an attempt to stop tourists who all read the same advice in the books. Fortunately, there were still plenty of exhibits and more than enough art in the museums and library to satisfy our needs following the Sistine Chapel. We even got to see the evolution of the Pope-mobile from carriage to high-tech bulletproof motor vehicle. No real Pope sightings, however.
Following our walkthrough of the Vatican Museums, we walked halfway around the country (since the Vatican is a sovereign state) and within 5 minutes arrived at Saint Peter's Square. The square was quite a sight with its rows of pillars framing a giant circular plaza that accentuated the grandeur of St. Peter's Cathedral set in the back of the square. It was still in the morning hours so the large crowds were just beginning to form. After a short wait in line to pass through security, we toured the basilica of St. Peter's. Needless to say, it was awesome inside. It was by far the biggest and most ornate of all the cathedrals we've seen thus far (which is more than we probably thought we'd see in a lifetime). We looked into staying around for a mass inside, but the next one didn't start for about 5 hours and decided the walk-through would suffice.
After visiting the cathedral, using our large Rome maps that surely identified us as tourists, we charted a route by foot that would take us all the way across the city and allow us to see a few more of the sites the city had to offer. We picked up lunch of focccacia bread, yogurt, and salami at a store along the way, then visited the Fontana Di Trevi, a gigantic fountain and plaza with some pretty cool motion-captured sculptures of old Roman gods and horses. We also made our way to the Pantheon, and visited the inside of this 2000 year-old temple. After making it back to the hostel, we rested a short while and then found a good sit-down dinner of lasagna, chicken, and salad.
We woke up early again Saturday morning in order to eat another tasty breakfast before catching our train to Venice. After a little over 4 hours of beautiful Italian countryside (and reading and naps, of course), we arrived at the Venice Mestre train station on the mainland. Since we are actually staying on the mainland at a campground and not in the center of Venice, we had to take a bus out of the city. We looked all throughout the train station, but there were no ticket machines to be found. We soon gave up on the ticket hunt and went to wait at the bus station. There we met a few fellow travelers headed in the same direction, none of which had solved the ticket situation either. Overhearing our conversation, a local bus rider informed us that we had to purchase our bus tickets from inside a bar across the street- of course, why hadn't we thought of that...
Tickets in hand we headed back towards the bus stop, but decided along the way that we should go ahead and purchase a few more sets of train tickets while we were already at the station. We planned out our train schedule over a lunch of you can guess what, and then went to the ticket line. After a short wait we cheerfully handed over the list of the trains to a less than pleasant looking old Italian man. He no more than glanced at our list before he waved a hand at us and sent us away to information to get the exact times that we needed. Note: this is the first person that has not happily shown us a list of all the times available and allowed us to pick the one we wanted. After looking through our Eurail timetable guide (which isn't necessarily accurate) to pick out train times, and waiting in line -again- we got stuck with the same train ticket Nazi we had the first time. I'm sure he was 'thrilled' to get to 'help' us again. This time he was upset that we hadn't listed the train station we wanted, even though only one station was listed in our time table. After a few minutes of conversing we had managed to only get one ticket. Then when we went to pay for our one ticket with a credit card, he made an angry face and told us that the line was down and that we had to pay cash- which we didn't have enough of at the moment. Of course there were only 10 signs advertising that they gladly took credit cards, and none that mentioned you couldn't use them today. Go Trenitalia.
After wasting nearly two hours dealing with what has been the most frustrating train system in Europe, it was time to take the bus to Camp Fusina. A large advertisement on the bus stop booth promised a backpackers paradise, but at a mere 13 euro a night we remained skeptical. The bus dropped us off directly at the gate of what appeared to be a pretty nice campground. After checking in, we headed back towards our very own cabin. Unlike the country log cabins found in state parks across America, what we have here is more like half a FEMA trailer on wheels. Lack of character aside, the trailers are actually really nice and clean, and nearly mosquito proof. Plus, we are saving 80 euro by staying here!! The rest of the campground is also quite impressive (and spotless). This place has its own supermarket, laundromat, restaurant, bar, and pizzeria- basically all the amenities of an entire town conveniently packed into a hundred meters.
We took it pretty easy this evening, and used our time to do some catching up on our laundry. Doing laundry is really expensive here, so we are sure to cram as much into one load as possible. The result of course, is that nothing is dry after one cycle, we are too cheap to have it go again, so now our cabin is sporting a funky t-shirt decor and smells a bit like a laundromat. After laundry time, we checked out the in house restaurants and picked out two kebab pitas to go. Remember the Nebab Kebab of Tours? Our pitas were delicious, and we suspect the meat was higher quality than what we had consumed at Nebab.
Tomorrow we are going to get up bright and early for a full day of sightseeing in Venice. We have heard fairly mixed reviews from other travelers, so we are interested to see what we think of the city. There is a boat that runs directly from our campground to Venice every hour. We are going to pretend that this is our gondola ride down the canal. A couple we roomed with in Rome to a budget gondola ride for a mere 80 euro – no way!! We plan on having a more budget friendly Venetian experience while still managing to take in all of the sights. More to come!
Sunday morning we woke up prepared to venture to the old slowly sinking city of Venice. Our campsite runs a boat service that takes its residents to and from the campgrounds and the lagoons of the main city each hour for a small fee, and we caught a ride at 9 am. The boat ride across the lagoon was fun, and we imagined it was a gondola since we weren't planning to take one of the traditional Venetian boat rides today. As the city approached, we could see four or five cruise large cruise ships already docked, and the outline of the city on several of the 118 islands that comprise Venice. The weather was again good today – very sunny, although a bit hot, with temperatures running in the mid-high 80s.
Once in the city, we began wandering just to see the sites and experience being in such a unique place. We didn't have any specific site seeing agenda today, just seeing the city and its canals was the main goal. We took some good pictures, and it is just as we had imagined it in pictures we had seen before. Some people had said Venice was unclean and smelly, but we thought it was fairly nice. There was definitely an overpopulation of pigeons, however. The birds feast on the generosity of tourists and do quite well. One even swooped down and clipped Nick on the head.
After 4-5 hours of exploring the city including a visit to an old musical instrument museum, perusing the countless shops, walking through a park, viewing the Ponte di Rialto and Piazza San Marco, and getting some lunch and gelatto, we took felt we had seen all we wanted and took the boat back to the campsite in the mid-afternoon. When we got back, exhausted from the sun, the walking, and the crowds, we took a small siesta (we are really adopting to the Italian way of life!), and then went to dinner at a nice restaurant here on the campgrounds. We ate well because tomorrow is going to be a long day of train travel with probably little food available from Venice to Bern, Switzerland.
For the final time in Italy – Ciao!
Yesterday (Monday, June 2), we got another early start in order to catch the bus that would take us back to the train station. Since we had our incident with the unfriendly ticket man two days before, we had not yet purchased reservations for the train to Bern, Switzerland. There was only one high speed train that left in the morning, all of the other trains took around 2 more hours so we wanted to be sure we got on that train. Our second ticket man was much friendlier, but we still had a fairly significant language barrier with him. After repeating 'tren to zurich' about 15 times, we had our tickets and were on our way.
The train ride to Zurich was around 6 hours. This seems like a long time, but the views (especially in the second half of the trip) were spectacular so this made the ride quite enjoyable. We went right through the mountains, and we could see countless snow-topped peaks and waterfalls. After arriving in Zurich, we had to catch a second train to Bern. We hopped off the train and quickly checked out the departure board- we were glad to see that a train was leaving for Bern in just 3 minutes. We hurried through the station, saw the sign for the departure for Bern, and hopped on the only train in the area. Once aboard, we noticed that the train was particularly nice for a regional train and we didn't recognize any of the station names that were posted as destinations. But we had followed the signs and gotten on the ONLY train by the track. We didn't want to get off the train and check the board again since the train was supposed to leave in less than a minute. Well... of course we weren't on the right train- for the second time on our trip. After looking at our rail map we figured out that we were heading towards the German border- oops. Luckily, the train stopped at a station about 15 minutes outside of Zurich so we got off and then took the next train back to Zurich. Then we got on a train that was actually going to Bern (after more thoroughly
examining the departure board this time).
After a nice long trek around the Bern train station and several side streets we made our way to the Bern Backpackers youth hostel. The directions appeared pretty straightforward- except for the crucial part where you see a clock tower on your right and a McDonald's on your left and then turn down an unnamed street. Turns out there are two clock towers and two McDonald's that fit this exact description on the one road that you take from the train station... After a bit of directional help from an English speaking student, we were set on the correct path and easily found the hostel. The place we are staying is new and clean, has a large common area, and best of all-- a kitchen!! We haven't had cooking facilities for a while now and it definitely makes eating well (and super cheap) much easier. After dropping off our backpacks we set off to get supplies for a delicious meal from one of many of the grocery stores we had past. Much to our dismay, EVERY STORE in Bern shuts down at 7pm. What do these people eat after work?? After a bit of searching, we ended up eating at a Mexican restaurant with decent prices. Food is incredibly expensive here. A typical restaurant meal is around $30 and frequently is much more. We settled for splitting the $30 appetizer platter- a bargain at $15 each!
When we returned to our hostel after dinner we were pleasantly surprised to see that we still had no roommates in our 4 bed dorm. We counted down to 10pm, which according to hostel policy is the latest they will check someone in. Since we were pretty tired from our day of traveling we went to sleep early... only to be rudely awakened by our new roommates checking in at 1am!! Needless to say, we were not happy campers. And to top it off, the girl had a bad cold and coughed continuously until at least 3am. We plan on complaining at the front desk later this afternoon.
After getting less sleep than what we had planned, we got up and around (somewhat loudly) this morning and then headed off to the grocery store. For only $30 we stocked up on what would probably be $200 in a restaurant, and went back to make a real American breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast with nutella, grapes, and yogurt. Once breakfast was finished we started our tour of the city. First we checked out the famous clock tower (the one we missed last night), then walked down the street to Albert Einstein's house. We were a little shy of the necessary amount of Swiss Francs needed for admission, so we decided to get Euro (also accepted there) and return later. We then decided to walk around and see the sites of Bern. It is a really cool town. Even though it is the capital of Switzerland, it is still very laid back, and looks very German, although very clean as well. Electric cables criss-cross the streets and intersections for a sophisticated Tram (trolley) system, and a the Aare River outlines the Altstadt, or downtown historic section. The river is the cleanest water we've ever seen, we have been debating if it is really even naturally carved or if it is a diverted channel paved on the bottom. Nevertheless it is very nice, and we took a hike through the town's Old English park around the river and the perimeter of the Altstadt. We also have checked out some of the very stereotypical-Swiss shops of which there are many – chocolatiers, watch and clock shops, pastry and cheese shops, and the Wenger store (makers of the Swiss army knives). We can tell that we've entered a new phase of the trip – return of the cooler weather (yay!), away from the classical Renaissance sites and into the larger German-type areas.
After a thorough foot-tour, we're now in McDonald's using their free Wi-Fi to update the blog and check e-mail. This afternoon we'll make late lunch and check out Albert Einstein's house.
Now, if you've made it to this point and actually read everything, good for you – otherwise, scroll back up and start again! Bye!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Quick Update
We are currently staying at a really nice campground on the mainland near Venice. The internet here is 3 euro for 30 minutes (yikes!) so we are going to give a very brief update. We promise a much more excited and detailed post once we are in Bern in a few days. Since our last post, we have visited Florence and Rome, and made our way by train to Venice.
In Florence, we were exhausted from our hiking in the Cinque Terre so we used the two days there to restore our energy. Luckily, the bed and breakfast we stayed at was incredible so we had a very relaxing stay. The city itself was not at the top of our list of places visited thus far. Our initial impression was that the city was dirty, smelly, and not well kept. However, there was of course a great deal of history there and many sites to see. Our two favorites were visiting the Duomo and the famous bridge (can't remember the name) filled with small jewelry shops. Uh-oh... running out of time! More to come on Florence, Rome, and Venice (including a near international incident with an angry bus boy!)!!
Ciao!
In Florence, we were exhausted from our hiking in the Cinque Terre so we used the two days there to restore our energy. Luckily, the bed and breakfast we stayed at was incredible so we had a very relaxing stay. The city itself was not at the top of our list of places visited thus far. Our initial impression was that the city was dirty, smelly, and not well kept. However, there was of course a great deal of history there and many sites to see. Our two favorites were visiting the Duomo and the famous bridge (can't remember the name) filled with small jewelry shops. Uh-oh... running out of time! More to come on Florence, Rome, and Venice (including a near international incident with an angry bus boy!)!!
Ciao!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Our Incredibly Long Catch-up Post
Barcelona to Italy
On Thursday (our second day in Barcelona), we starting out by going to a house designed by the funky architect Gaudi. Our guidebook said a tour of the house was only 5 or 6 euro for students, but the price had jumped to 16 euro so we took a few pictures of the outside and went on our way. At this time we experienced our first rain shower at an inopportune time- bummer- we had made it nearly two weeks with perfect weather! We bumped some of our outdoor plans to the afternoon and decided to go the Picasso museum instead. The directions to the museum from the metro stop were a bit tricky, but on our roundabout way to the museum we saw the Barcelona Cathedral, another town market, and several other Gothic buildings. The Barcelona Cathedral was a neat find, as it was not mentioned in our guide book. The Cathedral had a really pretty courtyard with a small flower covered fountain. The courtyard was complete with its own set of Catholic geese and a goose egg suspended at the top of the water in the fountain (hard to explain- we'll try to add a picture sometime). The second town market was not quite as large as the one we visited the day before, but it was still interesting to look around and again, you could buy just about any animal part you wanted – whole skinned rabbits and cow brains were new features today. By the time we actually made our way to get in the ticket line was incredibly long and moving very slow. We looked in the window, could see a few paintings, and called it good enough. You can tell that we are really becoming die-hard art fans on this trip.
By this time the weather was starting to clear up a bit, so we stopped by one more cathedral before heading to Park Guell. As we were on the way out of the cathedral a small Spanish woman came up to us and starting sticking carnations into our shirts for some reason- We think she was explaining to us but it's not like we could understand a word she was saying anyway. After we were decorated with flowers, she promptly notified us that it was time to pay her. Nick tried to dump all of his one and two cent coins on her, but he only succeeded in offending her greatly and she took her flowers back and walked away.
Nick was soon overcome with a sneezing fit and realized that he had left his travel pack of tissues in the hostel. Lucky for him, as soon as we walked out the door there was another little old woman selling tissues and lighters! Fate. Nick picked up his 'souvenir' pack of tissues from a very grateful old lady, and then we headed towards the metro.
Funny story (please stick with us): We decided that we should go ahead and by the pack of 10 tickets to use for our remaining time in Barcelona which costs 7.20 euro. By this time, we had also collected a large amount of change and were also out of paper money. We thought buying metro tickets would be a great opportunity to use up all of our change. We put our money together, added it up, and discovered that we were 25 cents short. This total was not including all of our 1 and 2 cent coins that the machines don't take and are consequently worthless. After adding up every single one of these coins we had exactly... 25 cents- success! We managed to use our newly refined Spanish skills with an older woman selling hot dogs in order to swap for change that we could actually use, bought our tickets, and were on our way. Yes moms, we know what you are thinking... we were in fact running around Barcelona Euroless for a few hours- but it was OK : )
Our next stop was Park Guell, a really unique park in the northern part of Barcelona designed by the big man himself- Gaudi. The buildings and general design of the park are a mixture of Candy Land, Dr. Seuss, and fine art. The park basically a system of trails that go up one huge hill. The view from the top was spectacular. We could see all of Barcelona, the surrounding mountains, and the ocean. Of course, the weather was beautiful by this time. Earlier we had planned to purchase tickets to take a cable car up one of Barcelona's mountains to admire the views it would offer, but hiking to the top of Park Guell ended up being a good substitute (and good exercise).
After making the easier hike down and Laura taking a few (hundred) pictures, we were tired and hungry but could not find any good places to pick up a filling and inexpensive late lunch, so we went for another McDonald's meal – anybody counting how many times we've been to McDonald's on this trip? Sadly, it really is the best deal we have found- and 'Big Mac' is universal! After lunch we took a siesta in order to prepare for our evening Tapas y Flamenco tour that was organized by our hostel.
We knew we were in for a late night because our tour didn't even begin until 8:30. The group we were with was a lot fun and included a brother and sister pair from Peru (now living in LA), a guy from Holland, 3 Canadian girls, a girl from London (who grew up in New Zealand), a German couple, Allejandro from LA (who happened to know the girl from Peru), and 3 Asian girls who were deathly afraid of every dog we passed on the street. Our night started with a traditional dinner of tapas and sangria. Tapas are basically little appetizer sandwiches that are commonly served with drinks at a bar. The meal was pretty good, and we were both able to try new things (although we both stayed far far away from the cow blood sandwich).
After dinner we walked over to see a flamenco show. Flamenco of course is the traditional dance in Spain. The show included one male and one female dancer- both were incredible. It is hard to describe, but we were able to take a few good videos with our camera that we will try to include somehow.
Next, it was time to experience Barcelona nightlife! Our tour included entrance into two clubs. We ended up going to five clubs altogether, although none for too long. The Peruvian girl was an excellent bilinguist in Spanish and English and she helped everyone navigate from place to place, getting group deals for entrance. The entire group was a lot of fun, although we had a pretty tame experience because the drinks were so expensive – 10 Euro each! By 2:30 am we decided to head back and get at least a little sleep before we caught our train at 8:30 the next morning.
Overall, the night was a LOT of fun and we met a lot of nice people. So many people we meet are in the same situation as us – just graduated and are treating themselves to the trip of a lifetime in Europe. It has been fun sharing our experiences and travel tips and comparing the quirks we have noticed across Europe compared to the US, such as a severe shortage of public restrooms and drinking fountains, and funny stories about overcoming language barriers.
On Friday, we woke up in time to shower and grab some breakfast to go from the hostel. We then made our way to the train station to go from Barcelona to Montpelier, France. From Montpelier, we were catching a connecting train to Marseilles. Although our train arriving in Montpelier arrived a bit late, the train to Marseilles was also an hour late and that gave us time to get a little lunch. Only one place with decent food was close to the train station – McDonald's! That's right, we had fried American goodness for the 6th (or 7th??) time on the trip. Again, we vowed to steer clear of McDonald's for as long as possible after this latest venture. We'll see how long it can last.
After finally arriving in Marseilles, we met another group of backpackers from Illinois looking for the same hostel as us. After some rough exchanges in French with an official in the train station we finally found it and checked in. Marseilles is just a midpoint stop for us on our way to Italy from Spain to breakup the trip. We did not explore the city much, but instead went to the supermarket and got lasagna to warm up at the hostel for dinner, picked up food for Saturday's long train rides and did laundry. We were exhausted from the night out and we decided to go to sleep as early as we could, but this didn't end up being until about 11.
Our first train Saturday morning departed at 6:20. We had several stops on our journey to our first destination in Italy. We went through Cannes – home of the famous film festival, Nice, Monte Carlo, Genoa, and La Spezia (Note: we have been in 4 countries in the last two days!!). It made for a long day of about 10 hours of traveling altogether. However, the great thing about the trains that make the rides worth it are the spectacular views. The tracks we took today were all built to ride along the Mediterranean coast so we saw ocean and mountains the entire way across the southern border of France and into Italy. This made the trip enjoyable, although we both dozed in and out frequently.
Eventually when we arrived in La Spezia to catch a regional train that is just 8 minutes from our destination town, Riomaggiore of the Cinque Terre, we saw that there had recently been a fire on another train at the station and so the place was a little bit chaotic. Lots of announcements were blaring over the speakers in Italian and English regarding consequent delays and changes for departures and arrivals. We were confident though that we had found the train we wanted that would take us to Riomaggiore, although it was delayed 20 minutes. When the train finally arrived it was already 4:15 and according to the conditions on our hostel reservation, in order to not lose the reservation we HAD to check in by 4:30 – we were cutting it close but had faith that we would make it. When we hopped on the train, it began going very fast, almost too fast for a regional train. Then we saw the Riomaggiore train station sign approach, but the train wasn't slowing down! We realized we must have boarded the wrong train in all the confusion. No way we were going to make it to the hostel by 4:30 now. We had no idea where the train was going, but it was going fast. We watched from the window as we passed station from station and quickly passed the Cinque Terre. There was another couple behind us who had made the same mistake. After about 20 minutes the train finally made its first stop and we hopped off. Turns out about 20 other people did the same thing as us as well. Luckily, another train arrived in just a few minutes and took us back the way we came (only much more slowly this time).
Nearly an hour later we FINALLY got off at the correct stop and went as fast as we could to find our hostel. Apparently they aren't really as strict about the 4:30 rule as implied, and we had no problem checking in and getting our room. The real challenge was actually getting TO our room. The main office of our hostel is located right on the main street in Riomaggiore, but they have a few different locations for rooms across the city. A nice Italian woman who spoke no English at all took us to our room. Over 350 stairs with our 30 lb backpacks later... we stumbled into a really nice room on the side of the mountain. The view from our building is SPECTACULAR!!!! We can see all of the town and have a great view of the ocean.
After our long day of traveling we took it pretty easy this evening. We hiked back down to the village and ate huge authentic Italian pizza- delicious!! Tomorrow we plan to explore the city we are staying in and probably hike to a few of the other villages as well. We don't have internet access here so this will probably turn into an incredibly long post. Hope you are still enjoying it! Chao!
Cinque Terre
Sunday morning we slept in until 8:30 and felt refreshed to explore what appeared to be an awesome area. Rather than climbing down the 350+ stairs to get to the village, we went down part of them and then walked the longer way down the main road. Along the way, we stopped at the office of tourism and picked up Cinque Terre passes that gave us two day access to the parks and hiking trails between the five towns.
After a couple breakfast croissants we went out to explore the town. Riomaggiore is really just a very small town with a single main road, Via de Columbo, that steeply makes its way up a hill. As a side note, our hostel is one of the higher buildings in the main cluster of the village, offering spectacular views of the city and the ocean. You can clearly see where we are staying in all of the postcards sold around here!
We then took some pictures of the coast from the edge of town and decided to hike to the second city along the Cinque Terre line, Manarola. The walk between these two towns did not take long, only about 20 minutes, but they have a paved boardwalk that winds itself along the mountains, overlooking spectacular views of the ocean. At this time, it was raining lightly, but it would soon clear up. Manarola was another village about the size of Riomaggiore. Most all of the shops and people here are entirely dedicated to tourism. The sides of all the mountains are terraced where the locals grow gardens of lemons, grapes for wine, olives, and other Mediterranean fruits and vegetables, but the towns themselves are all mostly for tourists. Still, they are so small, it has the feel of old Italian towns and we are not overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle of the big cities. The good thing is that most of the signs are posted in English and all the food looks safe and delicious to eat!!
We did not stay long in Manarola before hiking to the third village, Corniglia. The hike between these two cities took about an hour and a half, and although the path was no longer paved, it was very accessible and walking-friendly. The views were once again amazing. We arrived at Corniglia around 1:30 and stopped for a little rest and another slice of real Italian pizza – again it was very very good. We decided to take the next leg of the journey to the fourth village, Vernazza. It would be another hour and a half hike, but this time, several signs warned that the hike between these two cities would be much more strenuous and treacherous than the first two. Decidedly adventurous, we embarked. The trail was absolutely amazing. The views it offered of the mountain coasts, the blue water, and the waves splashing against the rocks hundreds of feet below were incredible. All along the trail, beautiful Mediterranean vegetation grew in and many flowers were in full bloom. Much of the trail here was rocky and narrow, with no guard rail – just a stumble away from toppling to one's unfortunate end in the cavernous sea below. Luckily, we ended up being just fine and made it to Vernazza, albeit a bit worn and tired for the day.
We then got some water and famous Italian gelatto (ice cream) and sat and rested by the beach. We did some more amusing people watching, observing some of the more interesting figures in Italy. So many of the guys here are not ashamed to be seen in their Speedos! After a little rest, we decided we would tackle the final trail from Vernazza to Monterosso the next day.
We returned to Riomaggiore on a regional train. The train that would stop at each of the Cinque Terre towns only came once an hour, and since it was around 5:30 then, hordes of people were ready to load the train to get back to their own villages and get dinner. Laura had to fend off an incrediby vicious old Italian women who ran up to board the train and pushed us out of the way to make sure she was the firs to get seats – even Nick's mom wouldn't go to such extremes (haha)!
Back at Riomaggiore, we went out to eat at a local restaurant in a belatedly owed birthday dinner for Laura and each had some pasta. However, the servings were relatively small, and although we each had cokes, they were small and there were no refills (common in Europe). There were also no bread, salad, or other side dishes and we were left hungry still, so after eating there we bought some bread and headed back to the room where we had some bread and cheap wine to fill us up.
Monday morning, exactly two weeks since we arrived in Europe, we slept until 9:30 and then prepared for another day in the Cinque Terre. It was a sunny day and hotter than what we've been used to, but still very nice. Great day for being by the ocean. For breakfast we ate bread we had bought the night before, but this particular loaf had the hardest outer crust you could ever imagine, and we could barely finish it because our jaws were too tired chewing. We then made our way to the train station and got to Vernazza where we would continue our hike to see the fifth town of the Cinque Terre- Monterosso.
The hike was a full two hours and was similar and as gorgeous as Sunday's hike between Corniglia and Vernazza. At some parts of the hike, we walked over ledges not more than a foot wide, with no guard rail and and a sizeable cliff on the side – scary! The best (or worst) parts was when traffic came in opposing directions and one party would squeeze tightly to the wall on one side as the other would carefully pass. It was definitely a lot of fun though, and the views and vegetation we saw made it worth it. We can also say we've hiked between all five towns! Between our time here and the walks we've been doing each days in the cities we've seen thus far, our legs are certainly going to be in shape this summer.
After the hike, we spent a little time in Monterosso, bought our train tickets we would need to get to Florene, Rome, and Venicce, and then quickly caught the next available train to Riomaggiore, and headed back for a late afternoon siesta. By 5, we were starving, and we went down to buy another huge Italian pizza from the same place we had eaten at Saturday – it was incredibly good. We brought our computer with us, but could find no wireless networks in town, and so we are now sitting on the rocks on the edge of the town watching the waves and the sunset, and typing this blog into a Word document. This will be posted as soon as we can, probably tomorrow in Florence. Until then, chao!
On Thursday (our second day in Barcelona), we starting out by going to a house designed by the funky architect Gaudi. Our guidebook said a tour of the house was only 5 or 6 euro for students, but the price had jumped to 16 euro so we took a few pictures of the outside and went on our way. At this time we experienced our first rain shower at an inopportune time- bummer- we had made it nearly two weeks with perfect weather! We bumped some of our outdoor plans to the afternoon and decided to go the Picasso museum instead. The directions to the museum from the metro stop were a bit tricky, but on our roundabout way to the museum we saw the Barcelona Cathedral, another town market, and several other Gothic buildings. The Barcelona Cathedral was a neat find, as it was not mentioned in our guide book. The Cathedral had a really pretty courtyard with a small flower covered fountain. The courtyard was complete with its own set of Catholic geese and a goose egg suspended at the top of the water in the fountain (hard to explain- we'll try to add a picture sometime). The second town market was not quite as large as the one we visited the day before, but it was still interesting to look around and again, you could buy just about any animal part you wanted – whole skinned rabbits and cow brains were new features today. By the time we actually made our way to get in the ticket line was incredibly long and moving very slow. We looked in the window, could see a few paintings, and called it good enough. You can tell that we are really becoming die-hard art fans on this trip.
By this time the weather was starting to clear up a bit, so we stopped by one more cathedral before heading to Park Guell. As we were on the way out of the cathedral a small Spanish woman came up to us and starting sticking carnations into our shirts for some reason- We think she was explaining to us but it's not like we could understand a word she was saying anyway. After we were decorated with flowers, she promptly notified us that it was time to pay her. Nick tried to dump all of his one and two cent coins on her, but he only succeeded in offending her greatly and she took her flowers back and walked away.
Nick was soon overcome with a sneezing fit and realized that he had left his travel pack of tissues in the hostel. Lucky for him, as soon as we walked out the door there was another little old woman selling tissues and lighters! Fate. Nick picked up his 'souvenir' pack of tissues from a very grateful old lady, and then we headed towards the metro.
Funny story (please stick with us): We decided that we should go ahead and by the pack of 10 tickets to use for our remaining time in Barcelona which costs 7.20 euro. By this time, we had also collected a large amount of change and were also out of paper money. We thought buying metro tickets would be a great opportunity to use up all of our change. We put our money together, added it up, and discovered that we were 25 cents short. This total was not including all of our 1 and 2 cent coins that the machines don't take and are consequently worthless. After adding up every single one of these coins we had exactly... 25 cents- success! We managed to use our newly refined Spanish skills with an older woman selling hot dogs in order to swap for change that we could actually use, bought our tickets, and were on our way. Yes moms, we know what you are thinking... we were in fact running around Barcelona Euroless for a few hours- but it was OK : )
Our next stop was Park Guell, a really unique park in the northern part of Barcelona designed by the big man himself- Gaudi. The buildings and general design of the park are a mixture of Candy Land, Dr. Seuss, and fine art. The park basically a system of trails that go up one huge hill. The view from the top was spectacular. We could see all of Barcelona, the surrounding mountains, and the ocean. Of course, the weather was beautiful by this time. Earlier we had planned to purchase tickets to take a cable car up one of Barcelona's mountains to admire the views it would offer, but hiking to the top of Park Guell ended up being a good substitute (and good exercise).
After making the easier hike down and Laura taking a few (hundred) pictures, we were tired and hungry but could not find any good places to pick up a filling and inexpensive late lunch, so we went for another McDonald's meal – anybody counting how many times we've been to McDonald's on this trip? Sadly, it really is the best deal we have found- and 'Big Mac' is universal! After lunch we took a siesta in order to prepare for our evening Tapas y Flamenco tour that was organized by our hostel.
We knew we were in for a late night because our tour didn't even begin until 8:30. The group we were with was a lot fun and included a brother and sister pair from Peru (now living in LA), a guy from Holland, 3 Canadian girls, a girl from London (who grew up in New Zealand), a German couple, Allejandro from LA (who happened to know the girl from Peru), and 3 Asian girls who were deathly afraid of every dog we passed on the street. Our night started with a traditional dinner of tapas and sangria. Tapas are basically little appetizer sandwiches that are commonly served with drinks at a bar. The meal was pretty good, and we were both able to try new things (although we both stayed far far away from the cow blood sandwich).
After dinner we walked over to see a flamenco show. Flamenco of course is the traditional dance in Spain. The show included one male and one female dancer- both were incredible. It is hard to describe, but we were able to take a few good videos with our camera that we will try to include somehow.
Next, it was time to experience Barcelona nightlife! Our tour included entrance into two clubs. We ended up going to five clubs altogether, although none for too long. The Peruvian girl was an excellent bilinguist in Spanish and English and she helped everyone navigate from place to place, getting group deals for entrance. The entire group was a lot of fun, although we had a pretty tame experience because the drinks were so expensive – 10 Euro each! By 2:30 am we decided to head back and get at least a little sleep before we caught our train at 8:30 the next morning.
Overall, the night was a LOT of fun and we met a lot of nice people. So many people we meet are in the same situation as us – just graduated and are treating themselves to the trip of a lifetime in Europe. It has been fun sharing our experiences and travel tips and comparing the quirks we have noticed across Europe compared to the US, such as a severe shortage of public restrooms and drinking fountains, and funny stories about overcoming language barriers.
On Friday, we woke up in time to shower and grab some breakfast to go from the hostel. We then made our way to the train station to go from Barcelona to Montpelier, France. From Montpelier, we were catching a connecting train to Marseilles. Although our train arriving in Montpelier arrived a bit late, the train to Marseilles was also an hour late and that gave us time to get a little lunch. Only one place with decent food was close to the train station – McDonald's! That's right, we had fried American goodness for the 6th (or 7th??) time on the trip. Again, we vowed to steer clear of McDonald's for as long as possible after this latest venture. We'll see how long it can last.
After finally arriving in Marseilles, we met another group of backpackers from Illinois looking for the same hostel as us. After some rough exchanges in French with an official in the train station we finally found it and checked in. Marseilles is just a midpoint stop for us on our way to Italy from Spain to breakup the trip. We did not explore the city much, but instead went to the supermarket and got lasagna to warm up at the hostel for dinner, picked up food for Saturday's long train rides and did laundry. We were exhausted from the night out and we decided to go to sleep as early as we could, but this didn't end up being until about 11.
Our first train Saturday morning departed at 6:20. We had several stops on our journey to our first destination in Italy. We went through Cannes – home of the famous film festival, Nice, Monte Carlo, Genoa, and La Spezia (Note: we have been in 4 countries in the last two days!!). It made for a long day of about 10 hours of traveling altogether. However, the great thing about the trains that make the rides worth it are the spectacular views. The tracks we took today were all built to ride along the Mediterranean coast so we saw ocean and mountains the entire way across the southern border of France and into Italy. This made the trip enjoyable, although we both dozed in and out frequently.
Eventually when we arrived in La Spezia to catch a regional train that is just 8 minutes from our destination town, Riomaggiore of the Cinque Terre, we saw that there had recently been a fire on another train at the station and so the place was a little bit chaotic. Lots of announcements were blaring over the speakers in Italian and English regarding consequent delays and changes for departures and arrivals. We were confident though that we had found the train we wanted that would take us to Riomaggiore, although it was delayed 20 minutes. When the train finally arrived it was already 4:15 and according to the conditions on our hostel reservation, in order to not lose the reservation we HAD to check in by 4:30 – we were cutting it close but had faith that we would make it. When we hopped on the train, it began going very fast, almost too fast for a regional train. Then we saw the Riomaggiore train station sign approach, but the train wasn't slowing down! We realized we must have boarded the wrong train in all the confusion. No way we were going to make it to the hostel by 4:30 now. We had no idea where the train was going, but it was going fast. We watched from the window as we passed station from station and quickly passed the Cinque Terre. There was another couple behind us who had made the same mistake. After about 20 minutes the train finally made its first stop and we hopped off. Turns out about 20 other people did the same thing as us as well. Luckily, another train arrived in just a few minutes and took us back the way we came (only much more slowly this time).
Nearly an hour later we FINALLY got off at the correct stop and went as fast as we could to find our hostel. Apparently they aren't really as strict about the 4:30 rule as implied, and we had no problem checking in and getting our room. The real challenge was actually getting TO our room. The main office of our hostel is located right on the main street in Riomaggiore, but they have a few different locations for rooms across the city. A nice Italian woman who spoke no English at all took us to our room. Over 350 stairs with our 30 lb backpacks later... we stumbled into a really nice room on the side of the mountain. The view from our building is SPECTACULAR!!!! We can see all of the town and have a great view of the ocean.
After our long day of traveling we took it pretty easy this evening. We hiked back down to the village and ate huge authentic Italian pizza- delicious!! Tomorrow we plan to explore the city we are staying in and probably hike to a few of the other villages as well. We don't have internet access here so this will probably turn into an incredibly long post. Hope you are still enjoying it! Chao!
Cinque Terre
Sunday morning we slept in until 8:30 and felt refreshed to explore what appeared to be an awesome area. Rather than climbing down the 350+ stairs to get to the village, we went down part of them and then walked the longer way down the main road. Along the way, we stopped at the office of tourism and picked up Cinque Terre passes that gave us two day access to the parks and hiking trails between the five towns.
After a couple breakfast croissants we went out to explore the town. Riomaggiore is really just a very small town with a single main road, Via de Columbo, that steeply makes its way up a hill. As a side note, our hostel is one of the higher buildings in the main cluster of the village, offering spectacular views of the city and the ocean. You can clearly see where we are staying in all of the postcards sold around here!
We then took some pictures of the coast from the edge of town and decided to hike to the second city along the Cinque Terre line, Manarola. The walk between these two towns did not take long, only about 20 minutes, but they have a paved boardwalk that winds itself along the mountains, overlooking spectacular views of the ocean. At this time, it was raining lightly, but it would soon clear up. Manarola was another village about the size of Riomaggiore. Most all of the shops and people here are entirely dedicated to tourism. The sides of all the mountains are terraced where the locals grow gardens of lemons, grapes for wine, olives, and other Mediterranean fruits and vegetables, but the towns themselves are all mostly for tourists. Still, they are so small, it has the feel of old Italian towns and we are not overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle of the big cities. The good thing is that most of the signs are posted in English and all the food looks safe and delicious to eat!!
We did not stay long in Manarola before hiking to the third village, Corniglia. The hike between these two cities took about an hour and a half, and although the path was no longer paved, it was very accessible and walking-friendly. The views were once again amazing. We arrived at Corniglia around 1:30 and stopped for a little rest and another slice of real Italian pizza – again it was very very good. We decided to take the next leg of the journey to the fourth village, Vernazza. It would be another hour and a half hike, but this time, several signs warned that the hike between these two cities would be much more strenuous and treacherous than the first two. Decidedly adventurous, we embarked. The trail was absolutely amazing. The views it offered of the mountain coasts, the blue water, and the waves splashing against the rocks hundreds of feet below were incredible. All along the trail, beautiful Mediterranean vegetation grew in and many flowers were in full bloom. Much of the trail here was rocky and narrow, with no guard rail – just a stumble away from toppling to one's unfortunate end in the cavernous sea below. Luckily, we ended up being just fine and made it to Vernazza, albeit a bit worn and tired for the day.
We then got some water and famous Italian gelatto (ice cream) and sat and rested by the beach. We did some more amusing people watching, observing some of the more interesting figures in Italy. So many of the guys here are not ashamed to be seen in their Speedos! After a little rest, we decided we would tackle the final trail from Vernazza to Monterosso the next day.
We returned to Riomaggiore on a regional train. The train that would stop at each of the Cinque Terre towns only came once an hour, and since it was around 5:30 then, hordes of people were ready to load the train to get back to their own villages and get dinner. Laura had to fend off an incrediby vicious old Italian women who ran up to board the train and pushed us out of the way to make sure she was the firs to get seats – even Nick's mom wouldn't go to such extremes (haha)!
Back at Riomaggiore, we went out to eat at a local restaurant in a belatedly owed birthday dinner for Laura and each had some pasta. However, the servings were relatively small, and although we each had cokes, they were small and there were no refills (common in Europe). There were also no bread, salad, or other side dishes and we were left hungry still, so after eating there we bought some bread and headed back to the room where we had some bread and cheap wine to fill us up.
Monday morning, exactly two weeks since we arrived in Europe, we slept until 9:30 and then prepared for another day in the Cinque Terre. It was a sunny day and hotter than what we've been used to, but still very nice. Great day for being by the ocean. For breakfast we ate bread we had bought the night before, but this particular loaf had the hardest outer crust you could ever imagine, and we could barely finish it because our jaws were too tired chewing. We then made our way to the train station and got to Vernazza where we would continue our hike to see the fifth town of the Cinque Terre- Monterosso.
The hike was a full two hours and was similar and as gorgeous as Sunday's hike between Corniglia and Vernazza. At some parts of the hike, we walked over ledges not more than a foot wide, with no guard rail and and a sizeable cliff on the side – scary! The best (or worst) parts was when traffic came in opposing directions and one party would squeeze tightly to the wall on one side as the other would carefully pass. It was definitely a lot of fun though, and the views and vegetation we saw made it worth it. We can also say we've hiked between all five towns! Between our time here and the walks we've been doing each days in the cities we've seen thus far, our legs are certainly going to be in shape this summer.
After the hike, we spent a little time in Monterosso, bought our train tickets we would need to get to Florene, Rome, and Venicce, and then quickly caught the next available train to Riomaggiore, and headed back for a late afternoon siesta. By 5, we were starving, and we went down to buy another huge Italian pizza from the same place we had eaten at Saturday – it was incredibly good. We brought our computer with us, but could find no wireless networks in town, and so we are now sitting on the rocks on the edge of the town watching the waves and the sunset, and typing this blog into a Word document. This will be posted as soon as we can, probably tomorrow in Florence. Until then, chao!
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