Well Hello again Amsterdam

Tuesday May 31, 2011

Today was our last full day in Europe.  We awoke in Brugge and ate breakfast at the B&B, I think we may have been the only guests left, and then we spent a little more time walking around the city before we headed to the train to make our way to Amsterdam.

Let's start with where we went once we checked out of the B&B. We walked around and went searching for a few geocaches. The first one that we were trying to locate was a multiple clue cache. We found all of the places that the clues asked us to and we were within about 5 feet of the cache but we couldn't find it and we were not putting our hands in strange holes. It was frustrating to give up on it when we had spent the better part of an hour getting to the final clue but I guess that's something you have to learn to deal with if you are going to look for caches. The second one was much more basic and we were within about 10 feet of it and searching when another guy with a gps came over, we worked together and found it stuck to some metal box and signed the slip and now Jamie can cross The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Belgium off her list of countries where she's found caches!

After finding the caches we decided that we needed some more chocolate. Jamie wanted to get a few pieces to take to give to the flight attendants on her flight home and, well, I don't really need an excuse to buy more chocolate!  We went to two places, one was a branch of a place I'd been in Brussels and so I was able to get more of the chocolates that I new I really liked.  The other place was recommended by Rick Steves and it was a very cute family run shop.

We also knew that we needed to make one last stop for ice cream! This time splurging and getting three scoops on a waffle cone. The ice cream in Europe just can't be beat, I've just never tasted anything from the U.S. that tastes quite as amazing!

We were also on the hunt for one last postcard to send to our good friend who lives in Montana. We finally found one and some stamps so we just needed to drop it in the mail at the train station. With our bags loaded down we made our way to the station. We took a train to Antwerp and then transferred onto a train to Amsterdam. The trip took us about 3 1/2 hours and thankfully took us straight to the airport.

Once we got back to Amsterdam I was able to put my postcards into the mail, I had tried to mail them when we were first in Amsterdam before heading to Denmark but couldn't find a mailbox so I held onto them until we got back to Amsterdam.  After mailing my postcards and grabbing some food in the airport we caught the shuttle to our hotel. It was disappointing that the hotel didn't have free wifi but I think at that point we were both ready to be home.

The following morning we packed up one last time and caught the shuttle to the airport.  The lines at the baggage check were absolutely ridiculous and if it hadn't been for the bottle of wine in my backpack I could have skipped the line and headed through security to do a little last minute shopping and spent the 40 Euro that I had leftover. Unfortunately, Jamie's line was even longer and I didn't feel comfortable just leaving her. She was trying to fly standby on a pass but somehow she didn't get listed for the flight. I finally had to go and rush through security and catch my flight while Jamie had to head back to the hotel to spend another night in Amsterdam hoping to get on a flight to the States in the morning.

It's good to be home but I really miss traveling.  I like wearing something other than what's in my backpack but I really do love seeing new things. Hopefully I'll get to take a group of students to Europe one of these summers and do even more sight seeing.  Next on my list of places I most want to visit is Greece and the Mediterranean, I think a nice 3 week cruise would be the perfect way to see the area. Time to start saving!

Suzie :-)

Biking around Brugge

Monday, May 31, 2011

Since most museums and tourist sights in Brugge are closed on Mondays we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous sunshine and go for a bike ride. Our Rick Steves guidebook gave us a discount on our bike rental and even gave a recommended day trip to the nearby village of Damme.

First we ate breakfast and the headed to the bike rental place. Of course we got lost getting there as I confused St. Niklous with Niklous street. Oops! We got bikes with a basket on the front so that we could stop and get a picnic lunch on the way out of town.

Let me just say that biking and trying to navigate is very difficult. We made a few wrong turns, one market was closed but we finally found the store and bought supplies for a picnic lunch and headed in the right direction. Once out of the city center there is a bike path that follows a canal straight to Damme so we couldn't really get lost anymore. We went at a leisurely pace stopping to take some pictures of us with our bikes. Our first glimpse of Damme was actually of a working windmill that is open everyday except Monday, what luck.

We rode through the cobblestone streets and down a little bike path to a bench along a cute little canal.  Across the canal we could see some cattle laying in the grass enjoying the windy afternoon. We stopped there to enjoy our lunch of cheese and bread. Unfortunately we didn't read the bread package very carefully and ended up with yummy raisin bread. Now, raisin bread is good but it doesn't go very well with cheese and chicken so we ate them separately and sipped our wine out of plastic cups.  It was a very nice little picnic even if it was a bit windy.

After finishing our lunch we made our way to the old church in town and went in to take a look. Part of the church has been destroyed but the other part is quite lovely. There was this creepy statue with 3 faces in the garden behind the church and we must have taken 30 pictures of ourselves trying to imitate the statue, it was quite hilarious if not irreverent.

After visiting the church we headed back into Brugge. The ride back seemed to go much quicker, most likely because we didn't get lost. Around the old moat of the city there are four old windmills so we rode along the moat to take a look at them and of course take some pictures. We then attempted to go to several recommended eating establishments which were closed. We finally found one that was not closed and we sat and talked and listened to the locals arguing with English tourists for about 3 hours before we headed back to the B&B.

It was a great day and bikes are definitely the way to get around Brugge. I really do love this city!

Suzie :-)

Keukenhof Tulips

Today we went out to Keukenhof to see what was left of the tulips. Our hope was that we would be able to catch them as they blanket the fields. Unfortunately, we missed the peak time to see them by a few weeks.  On a positive note Keukenhof isn't just a tulip farm, it's a big botanic garden with tulips, lillies, daffodils and hyacinth. It was beautiful and kept us busy for close to 5 hours.

There was a playground with a giant slide and so we decided to act like kids for a bit.  There was a large pond with swans that was like a dream with a little blue house surrounded by tulips!

I really wanted to bring some bulbs home to plant for next year but they were expensive and you had to ship them home.  I still want tulips in my garden so I'll have to see what I can find in the fall.

Suzie :-)

Mussels in Brussels and a little peeing boy

Saturday, May 28, 2011

We awoke in Cologne this morning, ate some breakfast at the hotel (grabbing some snacks for later) and headed to the train station. We caught an 11:43 am train from Cologne to Brussels, it was time to say goodbye to Germany and head to our final country, Belgium. We arrived at the Brussels south station and took the metro up to our hostel where we dropped our bags and headed out again. Since we only had one day in Brussels we wanted to make it good. Our first stop was the Royal Museums of art which contains both "ancient" and modern art. Let me just say that Brussels is difficult to navigate! With all of the street signa in two languages it is difficult to figure out where you are and what direction you need to head.  Well, after a few wrong turns we were finally headed in the right direction. Unfortunately when we got there we found that the modern museum was closed and we could only go into the ancient portion yet we had to pay the same price. So, we decided that it wasn't quite worth it. We back tracked going through the sculpture garden and found a street market going on so we browsed the stalls as we worked our way towards the old town.

It was about this time that we figured out that a jazz festival was going on this weekend. The jazz festival made things a bit more difficult because there was a huge stage set up in the Grand Place which made it very difficult to get a picture of the square. Our first stop in the square was the city museum where we went up to the fourth floor to check out little Manekin Pis's costumes.

Mannekin Pis is a little statue of a boy peeing. There are lots of stories about why Brussels has a statue of a boy peeing but no one knows for sure where he came from. What I do know is that he is quite popular and people all over the world send him clothes to wear. He has over seven hundred outfits that date back to about the 1600's. His clothes are pretty cute and so is he, he is really quite a tiny statue and you could easily miss him if you didn't know better. We went to see him and take pictures later in the evening along with about 100 Asian tourists :)

After looking at his costumes we were ready to tackle some hardcore chocolate shopping! The Godiva shop in the Grand Place was closed so we went to Neuhaus, Leonidas, Galler, and two other chocolate shops. I bought a lot of chocolate!

We were getting hungry for some real food so we sat at one of the restaurants in the square. Jamie ordered mussels and frites while I got a little pizza. Oh, and we both got a beer sampler with tiny cups of 5 Belgian beers. The fries were okay and the mussels were not as bad as I thought they would be. The cheese on my pizza was really good, but again, it was just okay. Of the beer that we tasted only one was something that I would order again. It was a cherry lambic. In Belgium they used to preserve fruit by putting it in beer and then in the winter they would have fruit and flavored beer.

After eating a little we walked over to find the little peeing boy and take some pictures with him and then we really just wandered around taking in the sights. We were getting hungry again and found a creperie with both savory and sweet crepes. We had w chicken, pesto and cheese and then a lemon and sugar crepe. They were both delicious but I think I liked the savory one more.

While we were eating outside there was a guy begging. He was going from table to table and was very persistent. The first time he only stopped at our table for a few seconds but then he came around again and proceeded to speak to us in french and when we didn't respond he started yelling and getting beligerant and finally the waiter came out and got him to leave. I felt bad for the guy but Belgium has pretty sweet social service programs and so I'm pretty sure that he just wanted money for drugs or alcohol. Very sad.

So, after that little incident we decided that we should go and walk by the royal palace and at least see it since we were there. Thankfully we were near a subway stop and so we just took the train a few stops and walked through the park to the palace. It's very nice but not as large or grand as I expected.

From the palace we went to check out a hole in the wall place we had heard good things about. It was literally a whole in the wall and then through the courtyard to a little pub that was nice and relaxed. There we tried the lambic without fruit and then with peach. On it's own it is very sour and tart but bot in a bad way if you like things that are sour!

It was getting late so we headed back to the hostel and checked in. We had a private room with our own bathroom which was very nice. Not a bad place to stay unless someone starts hacking up a lung in the hall at 1 am. Otherwise it was nice.

Suzie :-)

Introduction to Brugge

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Woohoo, we made it to Brugge! Brugge was at the top of my must visit list when we first started talking about European travel. I'm not quite sure what drew me to the city, it may have been a travel or food show, but I'm so glad that we made it here.

We left Brussels at 9:30 and got to Brugge around 10:30. Right off the bat I was in awe as we walked along the old moat to get to our b&b which happened to face a canal and our room happened to overlook that canal. We dropped our bags off at the hotel and got the keys and then headed out to explore the town. We started with some breakfast in the big Market square. We had quiche and coffee, a little pricey but you pay for the central location and the sounds of the bells right there. After breakfast we decided to try the Rick Steves self-guided walking tour and perhaps a museum. We started in the market square where the big bell tower is and then headed to Burg square where the city hall sits and where the Basilica of the Holy Blood is.

The Basilica is said to posess the actual blood of Jesus Christ. The story is that a crusader brought the blood back in 1150. They display the blood daily and for a donation you can touch the container. We came back to see it but did not touch it.

The Burg square is also home to the "carwash" a modern statue that is supposed to be a play on water and lace but just looks ridiculously out of place. Another newer building in the square is the Plaza Hotel. The cool thing about this new building is that it was built on top of some old ruins and you can walk right down into the basement and see the artifacts that they dug up along with the original walls. Very cool.

The Burg Square also had one of the best statue men I've ever seen, he was so good that when he moved it gave Jamie a bit of a scare!

From the Burg we walked across a canal to the fish market where on Sunday they have some souvenier vendors out. There were a few artists selling original work and it was beautiful and would have made a great gift if I'd had money and room to bring them back.

From here we walked to an area called the canal postcard view for good reason, it was the most beautiful little spot rivelling Amsterdams canals. Of course we took pictures. Then we saw the Groeninge Museum which we had wanted to go to but it is undergoing renovations so we decided to skip it and continue our walk to the Church of Our Lady where they have the sculpture "Madonna and Child" by Michaelangelo. It is very rare to see his work outside of Italy. It was really the most beautiful sculpture I've seen, there was a certain refinement in the work. The church was really quite beautiful. From here we paused our walk and got some money from an atm and went back to the fish market so that Jamie could buy a painting. We came back to where we left off to finish our walking tour. We made sure to buy our brewery tour tickets and then we had a street waffle and soda. The place place where we got our waffle was amazing. It was a woman and her son and they also sold ice cream. The little boy was maybe 8 or 9 and he was manning the mixer making up some waffle dough, it was more cookie dough coonsistency than batter. While we waited for our waffles to cook we watched him weigh out portions of dough, it was a great scene to see.

After the waffles we had an hour to kill before the tour so we headed to the Minnewater and the place wherr the Benedictine nuns live. The Minnewater is lake like and there are lots of swans and ducks. This is also where the horses pulling the carriages come for a drink and snack. The Begijnhof is where religious women live, not quite nuns but similar. We got to the little chapel and they were singing vespers and it was beautiful. I wish we could have sat and listened all afternoon.

Instead though we had to get to our tour of de Halve Maan Brewery for our tour. The tour was given by a very dry humoured woman who clearly loved beer and new quite a bit about it. During the tour they took us to the old brewery and through all of the stages that beer goes through before anyone can drink it. The tour was educational and fairly entertaining but the best part may have been the view from the rooftop. You could see the entire town from up there, it was great. Of course after the tour we had to sample the beer and it was pretty good. I have to say that over here beer is so much more than a means for getting drunk. The beer here has depth and flavor that I've never tasted anywhere else. It is so vastly superior to any beer I've tasted in the US.

After our drinks we walked back up past the market square and made our way to a highly recommended place. Unfortunately, being Sunday evening it was closed. After much careful consideration and consulting maps and guidebooks we found an Irish Pub that was open and serving food. It felt a bit wrong to be at an Irish Pub in Belgium but the food was good (bangers and mash) and they had the Ireland v. Scotland football game on. We stayed for the entire game and really got into it. Great choice.

It was definitely time to go back to the b&b at that point and get some rest for our big bike ride in the morning.

Suzie :-)

Dom, da Dom Dom Dom!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Today was all about the Dom or cathedral in Köln. We awoke and ate breakfast at our hotel. The hotel breakfast was very tasty and there was a lot to choose from. I even snagged a packet of nutella and some babybel cheese to snack on later.

We got to the Dom at 11:45 and a prayer service was scheduled for 12 pm. They generally clear out all of the tourists for services, we decided to stay for the service. The service was in German but they did provide a flier with the English translation. There was a mens choir that sang a few songs and it was really quite a lovely service. After the service we walked around the cathedral taking pictures of the beautiful windows and the 140 foot high ceiling that makes you feel so incredibly small. The Dom truly is amazing and a great reason to stop in Cologne.

After wandering around the cathedral we completely switched gears and walked towards the Rhein and more importantly, the chocolate museum. The chocolate museum is run by the Lindt chocolate company. The museum begins with a history of where chocolate comes from and how it came to Europe. It was pretty interesting and there is a lot more to chocolate than what comes out of the factory. The museum also has a greenhouse rainforest that shows you what a cocoa trer looks like.

The best part of the museum was seeing the chocolate getting made in the factory. While I'd seen it on Unwrapped it was still mesmerizing to watch the machine make the chocolates. In this room there is a gigantic chocolate fountain and a woman dips wafer cookies in the chocolate and gives them to you! It was very yummy, it makes me even more excited for Belgian chocolate!

The museum ends with a look at chocolate advertising and old vending machines. There was even an area dedicated to the cult of candy, very cool.

After leaving the museum we were ready for some food so we grabbed a pretzel and kept walking to find a place with supposedly amazing desserts. We found it and ordered Ghoulash with noodles and coffee. After the real food we ate the mpst delicious chocolate cake. The layers were so thin and it was cake and mouse with a ganache topping over marzipan. Incredible!

We walked back to a plaza that we had walked past before to find it all set up for a wine festival. We wanted to try some local wine to compare it to the wine from the Mosel valley region. We settled on a stand from.a winery along the Rhein and I had a dry reisling. We had to search a bit for a place to sit and once we did sit down it began to sprinkle and then it turned into a serious downpour. We were lucky to find some seats under an umbrella but the rain took away some of the ambience so we stayed until the rain ended and then headed back towards the hotel. We wanted to get some more pictures of the Dom but there was a concert obstructing the view. We thought about going out again but decided rest was more important. Cologne was cool but I never really got a feel for the city, I felt this way about Copenhagen as well. Tomorrow we leave for Brussels and so far the consensus from people we talk to is "why would you stay overnight in Brussels?"

Suzie :-)

A couple of Burgs!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

This morning we ate breakfast at the winery where we were staying, cheese, bread, eggs and coffee. Following.breakfast we went down to the wine celler to taste the wine they were bottling and see the bottling process. The wine was excellent and it was fun to chat with the guys bottling the wine and see the process in action. After packing up the car we walked into town to do a little wine tasting and walk up to the castle. The walk was intense, it was so steep and it didn't help that it began to rain on us! The view from the top was totally worth it though, great pictures will be coming soon!

On our way up to the castle, or burg in German, we stopped in at a wine celler where we tasted a few white wines. They were all pretty amazing. After our hike we stopped for lunch, cordon bleau with pommes and a glass of riesling. Then we went back to the wine celler where I bought a nice riesling and we tasted some rosé wines. I'm not a huge fan of the rosé. We headed back to the cat stopping to buy a bottle of wine from the vineyard where we stayed.

Once in the car it was time to navigate our way to Burg Eltz. This was tricky as there were many misleading signs and no proper street name signs. We won though, finding the parking lot with no u-turns needed! From the lot it was a 10 minute walk down to the castle. This is the castle that I posted about back before we left for the trip and while it looks like the picture half of it is covered in scaffolding as they do some repairs to the roof. It's still an impressive sight though. The inside was also quite impressive. The Eltz family has owned the castle for about 600 years and they still stay in it and have their pictures on the walls. The castle was never destroyed in battle so it truly is old and not a recostruction of something old. I really enjoyed the tour of the castle and just wish we could have taken pictures inside. I'll have to see if I can link to any on their website.

After viewing the castle we went down into the treasury to look at the suits of armor and jewels. Very fun. Then we walked down to the little stream running below the castle. So picturesque!

We opted to pay the 1.50 euro for a van to take us up to the parking lot. Then began our most difficult drive, the burg to Köln! Using our our atlas and our bad google directions we made our way onto the highway and got into the city where we sat for awhile in some nasty rush hour traffic. We managed to make only one wrong turn beforw finding our hotel and parking on the street. We checked in and took our bags upstaira and then walked over to the train station to figure out where exactly we needed to drop the car off. It wasn't too confusing so we went and put gas in the car (I will now stop complaining about US gas prices) and then managed to get the car parked and the keys returned.

We set out from the train station to find some dinner. Now, when you exit the train station a very impressive sight awaits you, the Dom! This Catholic Cathedral is a gothic monstrosity! The thing is huge and thankfully they took all of the art and windows out in preparation for wwii so everything is original and wasn't destroyed in the war.  We only saw it from the outside tpday bit plan to go in tomorrow.

We walked along and found a place to eat. We ordered sausage and potatoes. We looked around and noticed that the beer came in tiny delicate glasses, .2 liters of beer. In Munich the beer came in full liter jugs and asking for less than a half liter was laughed at! I guess we aren't in Bavaria anymore!

On the way back to the hotel we had to stop for ice cream, lime and strawberry! It's interesting because in the States I don't care for fruity ice cream but here it is just so much better. They use actual fruit and not just fruit flavoring. Delicious!

Suzie :-)

Rhotenberg to the Mosel River Vallley

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

This morning we got up and enjoyed a nice breakfast of a hard boiled egg, bread, cheese and coffee. We went back to the room to get ready and pack when someone knocked on the door and said that check out was in 15 minutes. What kind of place has check out at 9:45 am? So, we rushed around thankful that at least we didn't have to catch a train. We took our stuff to the car and finished getting ready there.

After all of that we went back into the city and up onto the wall and walked a ways around the city on top of the wall. We did a little more last minute gift buying and then made our way out of the city.

Our next stop: Cochem, a town along the Mosel River known for its white wine. The drive to Cochem was our longest drive yet but it wasn't too bad, mostly autobahn until the last 30 km. Along the way we stopped for linch and caffeine. The rest stops are interesting, you don't have to get off the autobahn, it's set up like a rest stop but with a restaurant, gas station and sometimes even a hotel. While on the autpbahn Jamie got our little VW Golf up to 199 but even with the pedal to the floor that's as fast as the car would go. Most of the time we cruised along at about 150 kmh which is plenty fast.

We arrived in Cochem at 3pm and parked at the winery where we would be staying. We tried to check in but no luck, the place seemed to be desserted. We decided to walk around town and come back a little later to check in. The town is situated on the hills rising up from the banks of the Mosel River. This means that all of the houses and even vineyards are built into the mountainside. It makes for a beautiful sight. Perched up on the highest hill is the Cochem castle which is now a museum. It was really warm out so we got an ice cream cone and wandered down towards the river front. There were a lot of people biking along the river. By the way they were dressed and the load on their bikes I would guess that they were riding all along the valley making a vacation out it. As we walked we made note of the places we would want to come back to the next day.

We made our way back to the hotel where we found the proprietor and found out why no one was around. It is time to bottle the wine and since it's such a small vineyard they do it the old fashioned way, one bottle at a time with a little 3 man crew, filling, corking and storing. We were shown to our room and decided to drive down to Beilstein for dinner.

The original plan had been to stay in Beilstein but they were booked by the time we contacted them. The town of Beilstein makes Cochem look like a booming metropolis, it is so small! We began with a walk up to the castle ruins. Unfortunately this cost money and was only open until 6pm, we were too late. We settled on a little path that gave us a great view of the river valley and the town across the river. I love this place! Unfortunately my immune system does not.  All of the Zyrtec in the world could not stop my sneezing, it was a bit ridiculous and my eyes felt like there was sand in them and I wanted to claw my eyea out!

Anyway, aside from the allergies I loved it! We went to eat along the river front, I got a beef stew with spãtzle noodles and had a wonderful dry riesling with it. For dessert I had apple pie while Jamie had rhubarb and I had some dessert envy, hers was so good!

We left Beilstein and headed back to Cochem where we parked at the winery and walked into town for another glass of wine. We found a place that was open and enjoyed another wonderful white wine.

It was a good day, full of beauty and good wine!

Suzie :-)

Visiting good friends

Sunday to Monday, May 22 to 23, 2011

After our trip to Dachau we ate some dinner in Munich and then hopped on a train for a short ride up to Nürnberg to stay with our friend Nick. Nick went to Cascade with us and lived in the Portland area until September of last year when he transferred jobs to Adidas in Germany. We got the privilege of being his first visitors from the States. His apartment is right downtown within the city walls so we had a great location for sightseeing.

In Sunday we just enjoyed the ability to sit around and hang out and catch up. Monday we took our time getting up and ready and then headed out to tour the town. For lunch we had Nürnbergers which are little sausages similar to our breakfast sausage links.  We ate them with potato salad and Radler which is half beer and hald Sprite. It's a nice refreshing and inexpensive drink.

After lunch we walked towards the castle stopping for ice cream along the way :) The castle is made up of quite a few buildings and while we didn't go in it was beautiful on the outside.  We left the castle and walked by the home where artist Albrecht Durer lived. There are a few statuea of him around the town. We opted not to go in the museum since it doesn't have any of his original works, just reproductions. We did see some of his work in one of the other museums that we visited. We saw a couple of Gothic churches. I am just not a huge fan of the gothic style, it is all so dark and when I think of God I think of light.

We sat at a cafe outside and people watched and then headed back to Nick's where we did some laundry. Nick is heading to Moscow for work and needed to leave his car at a friends house so we decided to have dinner outside of the city.  We got to drive on the Autobahn for a little bit to get there. Nick wanted to give us the full experience by going 200 kmh, it was a little frightening but also awesome!

We had dinner at an Italian place run by Italians that was good, not as good as the place in Berlin but pretty darn tasty. After dinner we dropped off his car and his friend brought us back to town where we packed up our stuff and for the next day since we were scheduled to pick up the car at 9 am. It was nice to visit someplace where we knew someone and we could really just relax.

Suzie :-)

Onion Domes and Faux Finishes

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Today we spent our time walking around Munich taking in the sights and more importantly the food of the city. Munich is often symbolized by the two onion dome tours of Frauenkirche but there is much more to this modern, quaint city.

We awoke this morning pretty late and made our way over to Marienplatz to catch the chiming of the clock tower and the Glockenspiel figures that "joust" daily. I tried to get a video and once I edit it I'll upload it here, it was pretty cute. The clock tower is on the new city hall that appears to be really old. Actually that's a recurring theme in Munich as most of the city was flattened by the war but they decided to try and restore the city rather than level it and try to completely rebuild it.

From Marienplatz we went into St. Peter's Church whic was very beautiful. We then headed to the market area where there is basically a farmers market set up. It was really crowded as it was Saturday afternoon. We ate the German take on a gyro and then I got some fresh strawberries from one of the vendors, they were incredibly tasty.

From the market we headed to St. Anslem's which is a very small little church with BIG character. The church was built by two architect brothers and is basically the design studio of churches. Other church leaders could come and see this church and pick the parts they wanted to add to the construction of their own churches.  It was very busy, alright, it was downright gawdy. It was everything that is wrong with church design! The only cool aspect was the way the ceiling was painted to appear curved even though it was really flat.

Anyway, the next stop was Frauenkirche where we toured the interior and then took a ride up to the top of one of it's spires, the highest spot in the city and a great place for pictures!

After the church we headed to the Residenz. This is where the Bavarian royalty lived until the after the first world war. We took two different tours here, the first was of the treasury which is all of the fancy pretty stuff that was given to the royal family. Lot's of pretty sparkly things in here! Next up was a tour of the 90 or so rooms that make up the museum which is only about half of the Residenz. Again, much was destroyed during the war but they are still working to restore it. It was quite incredible. There was one room that stood out called the reliquery, full of religious relics. They uad what they claimed was John the Baptists skull! A lot of the "relics" were body parts or bone in really ornate cases. Sort of creepy but also cool!

In one of the many dining rooms the ceiling was painted to appear taller than it really was, at first it looks goofy but if you stand in the very middle of the room it totally works! It feels like Disney's Haunted Mansion when the room stretches out. Very cool but also a little weird.

On leaving the Residenz I realized that what I thought was a stone facade was fake, it was a flat wall faux painted to look like it had depth, I did not like this fact, it seemed so fake!

After the Residenz we walked over to the Hof Garten, a little park with lots of people lounging.  We took a break for a bit and enjoyed the sunshine before we were off again. This time we were in search of gelato and internet access since the wifi in our hostel refused to work. We found Eis and a Starbucks with 2 hours of internet for the price of a small iced coffee.

Next stop on our tour of Munich was dinner at the Haufbrohaus. The Haufbrahaus is said to be really touristy but that was fine with us, the band played traditional polka music and everyone sits at long tables with strangers who become friends pretty quick. The beer comes in huge 1 liter mugs, they were ridiculously huge! Even more ridiculous were the people at our table on their 3rd or 4th beer. I have no idea where they put it all! It was good fun eating spätzle and a pretzel singing along with the band.

Since we were only in Munich a short time there were a lot of places that we wanted to try so we left the Hofbrahaus and went over to an upstairs yodel bar where a guy plays according and sings. Everyone was dressed traditionally and the atmosphere was great. Unfortunately it was too crowded for us to get a seat and there was a group of men there for a bachelor party who were being overly friendly even after we told them we were married. So, we left there a little earlier than we really wanted to and headed to our last stop. Der Pschor where it was much more subdued and they served traditional apple strudel and I had the apple fritters which were absutely amazing! I want to go back just for the strudel!

We were exhausted by this time and knew that we uad a long day ahead of us in the morning so we headed back to the hostel for our last night in a dorm room.

Suzie :-)

Dachau

Sunday, May 22, 2011

This afternoon we took a day trip from Munich to the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. The experience was very sobbering. You read about concentration camps and maybe see a few pictures in your history book but it really doesn't adequately portray all of the horrendous things that humans have done to one another.

I think it's difficult to comprehend the atmosphere of Germany following the first world war that could lead to the rise of Hitler and Nazism. I think the most disturbing part of the experience was the realization that the type of atrocities that took place at Dachau still take place today. You seen signs all over saying "never again" yet racial genocide still takes place, perhaps not quite as organized as the Nazi regime but it still happens.

It makes my blood boil to think of the factories that thought nothing of using the camp victims for slave labor. Or the townspeople who saw the victims in the plantation and said nothing. I would really enjoy hearing there stories and knowing what they thought was happening.

While most of the museum was specific to Dachau and the relationship between it and the other camps there was a special exhibit at the end that focused pn 7 women who were pregnant while in a concentration camp. This exhibit brought tears to my eyes, I guess I had never really thought about that possibility. It was heartbreaking and anger inducing all at the same time. How could anyone treat another human that way?

Even more than that I started thinking about my own behavior and what I would have done if I were a German in the 1930's. Would I be strong and fight the injustice? Would I run away and hide out until the war was over? Would I be patriotic and loyal to Germany?  I'd like to say that I would fight but who really knows.  This made me think about what my responsibilities are in the world today, is the attitude of "it doesn't effect me so I'm staying out of it" really the correct attitude? Should I be more vocal when I feel that someones human rights are being violated? If nothing else, today's visit gave me a lot to think and pray about.

Suzie :-)

Two Castles and a Change of Plans

Friday, May 20, 2011

This morning we arrived in Munich a few hours late thanks to an animal on the tracks somewhere around Hamburg that led to our train needing a new engine. Unfortunately I was not able to sleep well at all. I felt like this train in particular was quite jerky and loud and for some reason my earplugs were really uncomfortable. Nonetheless we made it to Munich.

Once in Munich we checked into the hostel and stowed our bags and then headed back to the train station to talk to someone at the Euraid about future train travel. While the guy was very helpful and spoke perfect American English he had a way of making feel stupid and inept. Apparently we've been using our pass wrong and we are lucky that it didn't get torn in half. He sorted us out and gave us some advice about our future travel days. The most interesting thing that he pointed out was that we could save about $45 by going to Schwangau today to see the castles of King Ludwig rather than wait until tomorrow when we would need to buy a train ticket or use another day on our pass. I called the castle tour office and they were able to accomodate us today so we hopped on the next train to Fussen!

The train was about 2 hours followed hy a 15 minute bus ride and a short hike up to the first castle, Hohenschwangou. This is the summer castle of King Ludwigs father and he grew up here. It was beaitiful and the views were stunning. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside but if you google it you'll find lota of images.

After touring the first castle we ate our picnic lunch of bread, cheese and an apple before heading up to the main attraction, Neuschwanstein Castle.  This is the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauties castle, it really is a fairy tale castle. King Ludwig used the operas of Wagner as inspiration for all of the wall paintings in the castle.

King Ludwig seemed to be a little more interested in building the perfect castle than ruling a kingdom so he was forced to step down because he was not mentally able to he king, aka he was crazy King Ludwig! Shortky after stepping down he eithe killed himself or was murdered, no one knows exactly what happened. Because of these events Ludwig only spent about half a year living in his castle and never quite got all of the work done. To this day it is still unfinished. What is finished is incredibly oppulent and simply stunning. Every window has an amazing view as well, it really is breathtaking.

After visiting the castle we hiked up to Mary's Bridge, which is quite an engineering achievement of the 19th century. From the bridge we had a spectacular view of the castle and the valley that lies below. There is also a waterfall off the other side of the bridge. It would be great to come back and do some hikinh around the village as there are lots of trails and paths to follow.

After getting our pictures we headed down to the village to grab a bite to eat, schnitzel sandwich, and catch the bus to the train station.  We made it back to Munich without much excitement.

After getting the key to our room and taking our bags up we set out to get a bite to eat. We wanted to go to the Augustiner Beer Garden but ended up at there downtown restaraunt instead. We sat outside and people watched while we ate our pretzels and then headed back to the hostel for some much needed sleep!

Suzie :-)

The Importance of Ice Cream and German History

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Last night we decided that we could afford to sleep in today since we had a noon check out and only a few sites planned for the day. We got up around 10 and checked out of the hostel just before noon. We were pretty hungry so we headed to the Cafe at the Opera House which is famous for its desserts. The menu was a little out of our price range so we decided just to get dessert and we could buy a pretzel from a street vendor later.

We ate some amazing ice cream, we had raspberry and lavender poppyseed with fresh raspberries, sauce and whipped cream. It was incredible. We did stop and get a prrtzel before going to the German History museum.

First of all, the German history museum is huge. Second, German history is pretty much Western European history since Germany didn't become a country until the mid-1800s.  I focused on the areas covering the Protestant reformation, the life of Karl Marx and the conditions leading up to WWII. It was so interesting, a little tough to follow at times but well worth the time.

After spending 3 hours at the German hostoey museum we walked across the street to the Guggenheim. Jamie has a goal to visit all of the Guggenheims. The German Guggenheim is much smaller than the one in New York and is not as intereting looking. The exhibit was okay but we only spent about 45 minutes there.

After the Guggenheim we headed back towards the hostel. We stopped at a traditional German restaurant and ate some really good, filling and inexpensive schnitzel.

From there we headed back to the hostel to get our packs and then to the main train station where I bought an Appel Manchen, these are the East Berlin stop and walk signs at street lights, they are really cute. I got the green walk guy on a magnet.

We finally boarded the train at 9:15 and settled down to sleep.  It's our last overnight train and I'm pretty thankful for that!

Suzie :-)

Hello Berlin!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

This morning we arrived in Berlin at 6am and we promptly made our reservation for the overnight train to Munich for Thursday. This time we remembered to request the bottom bunk since we've been on the top bunk on our previous night trains and it makes it difficult to get up and use the bathroom or really do anything!

After making our reservation we headed to our hostel to put our bags up. The hostel is in a great little neighborhood and seems to be fairly quiet. It has free wifi and we have a private room which is awesome.  We mapped out our strategy for the day and headed out for breakfast.

We were both really hungry so we went to a sit down place to get something other than bread and coffee. The meal was amazing and after being in Denmark it seemed so cheap! We took our time since it was raining and we were meeting a walking tour just outside of the restaurant.

The walking tour we did was fantastic, the guide was so knowledgable and went at a good pace. Our guide, David, was very friendly and was even able to give us some great restaurant suggestions in our neighborhood. On the tour we hit Museum Island, Unter Din Linden, the book burning memorial, an amazing chocolate shop, the wall, checkpoint Charlie, the bunker where Hitler killed himself, Brandonburg gate and we could just make out the Reichstag.  The walk gave us a good sense of the things that we wanted to go back to and the things that may not be for us.

After the walk we took the subway down to Potsdamer Platz which is where the 4 sections pf Berlin came together, now it's full of new skyscrapers and a mall. From there we walked to the Gameldegalerie, the cities fine art gallery. We ate in the cafeteria before heading in.

The museum has some worls by Rembrandt, Rafael, Vemeer and many other artists, particularpy Dutch and German. It was a beautiful museum with a good free audioguide.

After the gallery we came back to the hostel and officially checked into our room. After relaxing for a bit we headed to il due forni for what we were told would be authentic Italian pizza made by punks. They didn't lie, it was amazing!  Best pizza I've ever eaten!

Finally we went to bed exhausted but ready to do it all again the next day.

Suzie :-)

Crown jewels, a famous mermaid and an amusement park!

Monday, May 16, 2011

This morning we got up early and packed our bags up and checked out of the hostel at 9:30. We then walked to the train station to stow our bags in a locker, mail some postcards and grab yogurt and a banana from the handy 7-11, oh, and I had to have my cocan-cola light!

We left the station and headed to Rosenborg Castle which was built by Christian the IV. In the basement of the castle is the treasury where they display all of the gifts given to the king.  They also keep the crown jewels here. The crown worn by Christian the IV is stunning as is the 100+ karat amethyst! I was basically drooling over the beauty of them. The way they have the cases lit up they truly sparkle and I was mesmerized.

In the main part of the castle it is preserved in a way that illustrates a few of the time periods when the royals lived here. It was really well done and very beautiful. I was surprised by how small the castle is but it makes sense in a cold climate to have small rooms, less to heat!

After touring the castle we ate cheese and bread outside in the garden before continuing our tour to see the Little Mermaid statue. On our way up there we walked through a lovely park that is surrounded by a star shaped moat/canal. We got a little turned around in the park but it was lovely and gave us a great view of the Episcopal church, St. Albans, which was really quaint!

After leaving St. Albans we finally found the little Mermaid sitting in the harbor. We got some great pics, there really isn't anything else to do there, and then headed down to the Stroget, a famous street for shopping. The Stroget was beautiful down by the harbor where there is a canal and boats docked and colorful row houses and outdoor cafes with blankets on the seats. As you walk inland the street becomes sort of a cobblestone mall with highend stores, not nearly as cool.

We continued our walk to a coffee shop by Tivoli and the train station. We saw a danish in the display case and decided to try it as we were in Denmark! It was the best danish I've ever had!

After our snack we went across the street to Tivoli which is an amusement park. Unfortunately it was raining and very expensive so we didn't go on any rides, we walked around and watched the kids and strolled through the shops and finally grabbed some dinner before going back to the train station.

We took a train to Malmo, Sweden and then a sleeper train down to Germany. At first I was confused as to why we went to Sweden first and if you look at a map you'll see why that's confusing. However they drove the train onto a ferry boat to get us across! We looked out the window and saw cars parked next to us, pretty darn cool!



Suzie :-)

First impressions of Copenhagen

Sunday, May 15, 2011

We arrived in Copenhagen just before noon and to our hostel. We dropped off our backpacks and headed right back out to the National Museum.

The National Museum gives a really good history of Denmark, going all the way to prehistory up to the year 2000. I wish we had more time for this museum. We onlu spent about 2 hours there and then we headed to the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek museum.

Thankfully this museum is free on Sunday because I wouldn't want to pay for it. It was mainly a sculpture museum with a few paintings. The museum does have one of Rodin's "the thinker" sculptures. I guess that Rodin sculpted 2 or 3 of them and the one we saw was pretty small. There was another famous sculpture we would have liked to see but that area of the museum was closed. We only spent about an hour here before heading back to the hostel to check in.

We got there and waited behind some young Japanese women who kept trying to pay with Euros and didn't speak any Danish or very much English. I felt sort of bad for the girls but at the same time it was very frustrating because they should have known that the Danes aren't on the Euro.  Anyway, after all that waiting.we find out that we are at the wrong hostel. We were at Danhostel Downtown and we needed to be at Danhostel City a few blocks away.  Fortunately they aren't too far away and we got here and got checked in.

After checking in and making our beds we went to eat. The desk clerk recommended a mediteranean buffet that was reasonably priced. As we were both super hungry we headed over. The food was really good and the best part were the free refills on soda that came in a large cup and contained ice!

After dinner we knew we needed to do some laundry since the hostel has a washer/dryer. We gathered our stuff and headed down there. I stayed and watched the laundry while Jamie took a shower. There was another guy in there who was very friendly and we chatted about the economy, religion and politics.

All in all not a bad first day in Denmark!

Suzie :-)

First impressions of Copenhagen

Sunday, May 15, 2011

We arrived in Copenhagen just before noon and to our hostel. We dropped off our backpacks and headed right back out to the National Museum.

The National Museum gives a really good history of Denmark, going all the way to prehistory up to the year 2000. I wish we had more time for this museum. We onlu spent about 2 hours there and then we headed to the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek museum.

Thankfully this museum is free on Sunday because I wouldn't want to pay for it. It was mainly a sculpture museum with a few paintings. The museum does have one of Rodin's "the thinker" sculptures. I guess that Rodin sculpted 2 or 3 of them and the one we saw was pretty small. There was another famous sculpture we would have liked to see but that area of the museum was closed. We only spent about an hour here before heading back to the hostel to check in.

We got there and waited behind some young Japanese women who kept trying to pay with Euros and didn't speak any Danish or very much English. I felt sort of bad for the girls but at the same time it was very frustrating because they should have known that the Danes aren't on the Euro.  Anyway, after all that waiting.we find out that we are at the wrong hostel. We were at Danhostel Downtown and we needed to be at Danhostel City a few blocks away.  Fortunately they aren't too far away and we got here and got checked in.

After checking in and making our beds we went to eat. The desk clerk recommended a mediteranean buffet that was reasonably priced. As we were both super hungry we headed over. The food was really good and the best part were the free refills on soda that came in a large cup and contained ice!

After dinner we knew we needed to do some laundry since the hostel has a washer/dryer. We gathered our stuff and headed down there. I stayed and watched the laundry while Jamie took a shower. There was another guy in there who was very friendly and we chatted about the economy, religion and politics.

All in all not a bad first day in Denmark!

Suzie :-)

Take the midnight train going anywhere

Saturday to Sunday, May 14-15, 2011

Well, not exactly anywhere, ideally this midnight train gets us from Amsterdam to Copenhagen. We left the central train station in Amsterdam on an overnight train at 7:01 pm. We had made a reservation for a four person couchette when we first arrived in Amsterdam. Our "room" was already arranged into bunks so we got into our upper bunk and settled in. We were on the top bunk while another couple was on the bottom bunk. The main problem was that we couldn't sit up straight so it was easier just to lay down. Apparently I was really tired because I fell asleep right away at abou 8 pm and woke up only once to use the restroom before 8 am. The rocking of the train really lulled me to sleep. We were also fortunate that our car was really nice and quiet.

When I finally woke up this morning I ate my bread and cheese and fruit that we bought yesterday afternoon. Dutch Gouda is an awesome mild cheese, I seriously could have eaten the entire kg round that we bought.

We should be arriving in Copenhagen soon and we'll hit the ground running with a few museums and sights.

Suzie :-)

A Visit to The Anne Frank House

After returning from Keukenhof this afternoon we headed over to the secret annex where the Frank famy hid out for a little more than 2 years during WWII.  It was a really interesting "museum" if you can even call it that. You enter through a very modern museum that actually sits next to the office with a secret annex behind it.

After you enter you make your way through each of the empty rooms where quotes from Anne's diaries are written on the walls.  The apartment where the family lived wasn't tiny but I cannot imagine not being able to be apart for two entire years on top of the stress of hiding out!

Most people are familiar with the story and have read the diary but I guess I had never put much thought into how that diary became a book or what happened to Anne. I dedinitely thought it was worth the visit.

Suzie :-)

The Jordaan

After getting to Schipol airport this morning we took the train into the city center where found a city tram to take us to our hostel. We made it to the hostel around 11 am. After checking in we took off to explore Amsterdams Westside neighborhood known as the Jordaan.

We followed Rick Steves self-guided which turned into us wandering quaint little side streets sipping coffee next to the canal and then a light lunch at one of the "brown" cafes. It was a lovely walk but we were pretty exhausted so we came back to the hostel to try taking a power nap before trying to see a few more sights tonight.

Now I'm slightly more alert and ready to hit the city as soon as my travelling companion gets ready. It's only day one and already this trip is simply amazing!

Suzie :-)