I’m in Newark.
The flight across was great and we saw fireworks from the air before we landed. Sweet!
Time to start the real world…
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Speakers’ Corner
British Museum (and a time warp)
British Library
Platform 9 and three-quarters
Longest escalator in London
Had a $20 lunch at the museum, and ate some authentic baked bean breakfast smorgasboard with pasta for dinner (yeah, we can cook!)
Today was the last full day in Europe. Tomorrow we have a hit list - Tower of London, Tate Modern, and hopefully Emirates stadium. With all the beefed-up security, we’ll be heading to the airport around 4 for our 8:30 flight. It’ll be a long day to stave off the jet lag.
Today we had prime seats for the changing of the guard, ready to watch the replacements march in from Wellington Barracks BUT it was raining and they called it off. We got to see the column of guards march into the Barracks open area, though. Whee. We then headed over to the Imperial War Museum. We went in, paid the fee of nothing, and 6 hours later, I was in a daze being kicked out of the museum. It was fascinating. You could easily spend a day in there. Somewhere in this time, I lost Ben. I determined he was somewhere in London, and made straight for football stadiums and Lilywhites, a purveyor of England football gear. I saw Stamford Bridge and Craven Cottage, and was thoroughly in awe. Tomorrow we’ll hit the British Museum and maybe the Library, along with who knows what else. The British Museum might prove to be another time warp…
I logged on to my bank’s website to check finances, and laughed at a big list of debit transactions over the last month. Watch the money go down! I’ll have plenty to finish off the trip. Donations accepted, however.
London’s weather has been pathetic. My expectations have been far surpassed.
So… our last day in Berlin was interesting, to say the least. We hit the airport via train and bus early, with the idea of finding a seat on a earlier fight to Heathrow. This was soon proven to be futile, as the helpful worker informed us we could get on a flight 4 hours sooner for the small sum of €700. I am stumped as to why anyone would cough up that kind of change for 4 extra hours in London.
So, the last day in Berlin was spent cruising on trains that arbitrarily changed directions, “Weren’t we going the opposite way when we pulled in to this station?”, eating cheap and oh so delicious Turkish Doners, and other exciting things. We played the hurry-up-and wait game at the airport and were finally in the air for our flight with our €75 tickets. The BA flight was great, fine service throughout. We landed, waited in an enormous line for customs, got tube tickets, and were on our way. 3 or 4 encounters with drunk Brits on the way to the hostel were surprisingly enjoyable, and we finally made it to the place. A interesting nght ended with free breakfast. Score!
Today we went on the free walking tour, seeing all of the sights, then we checked out Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham, Picadilly, the OXO tower, and made spaghetti at the hostel. Tomorrow we’ll hit changing of the guard, and who knows what else.
Pictures probably won’t get a facelift until I get back home…
Today we headed out to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, a long train ride (on Berlin local S-bahn) and a walk away. The camp was all I expected it to be, except a lot worse and more hard-hitting. The atrocities of the camp strike you pretty forcefully when you’re walking around where they all happened. This camp was the home of the main camp inspection force, in charge of managing all of the Nazi camps. It also served as the ‘model’ for other future camps. The museums and exhibits were very well done, arguably the best we’ve seen. We spent about 4 hours in the camp.
On the way home, we stopped at the Olympic stadium, which also served as a World Cup venue last year (and hosted the final).
We made a nighttime visit to the partially WWII-destroyed church next to the zoo, with some dark clouds and blue memorial stained glass creating quite the impressive scene.
Tomorrow we’re going to hit the airport relatively early and try to get bumped up to an earlier flight to Jolly ‘Ol. No matter what happens, we’ll be in London tomorrow…sometime.
Lazy morning. Headed out to Potsdam to check out the palaces and castles and parks and such. “This is what, 19th century?” That seems young to me, oddly enough. Anyway, the sights were cool, despite the predicted rain coming in bursts through the afternoon. Not as massive as Versailles, but still a neat experience. We didn’t pay to go in any of the palaces, either, as that would have put us to sleep.
After Potsdam, we headed into Berlin and caught two museums, the Egyptian and Pergamon (I think) for free with the Thursday afternoon deal. Hooray for free.
Berlin is a sweet city - totally reinventing itself since the wall fell in 89. There are lots of brand new buildings all over town, and other places in construction all the time. A pretty unique situation that makes Berlin one of a kind.
Lee out.
So… Vienna day 2. I can’t remember what happened. I’ve been doing this for so long that its all running together. Ack! Oh yeah that’s right - in the morning we hit the Hapsburg treasury: medieval treasures innumerable. Robes with silver and gold threads, coronation crowns loaded with gold and gems, and Narwhal tusks. Slick. In the afternoon we headed out to a hill overlooking the city and had a pretty good view of Vienna’s sprawl. We headed back to town and caught dinner just down the street at a killer Austrian restaurant (with hosteller pricing!). I had a plate of various meat, veggies, fries, and some cabbage. When we left, that plate was clean.
We woke up at 4:30 or something ridiculous the next day to catch a train across town. It was one of the trains where you’re in a compartment with 5 other people. We had it to ourselves for a few hours to sleep, then met a cool Dutch couple and talked with them for the rest of the train to Berlin. Berlin brought a new transportation system to learn. The train stopped at Hauptbahnhof, the massive central station for Berlin: very clean and very organized (I could tell from the start that I would like Berlin). It was raining on and off; we spent the afternoon hanging around the hostel and had dinner at a cheap pizza place down the road. The cook was playing FIFA Manager!
Today we hit our third ‘New Europe’ tour, a free biking tour around Berlin. It was nice - saw all the sites and got to bike around. I like doing a guided tour first to help get my bearings in a city. It gave us some ideas about what we want to see later. We had a break at a beer garden in the Tiergarden. After the tour, we ate lunch at the hostel and headed back out. We checked out the grocery store in the biggest department store in Europe, and headed for Checkpoint Charlie. After getting slightly disoriented, we saw the Topography of Terror exhibit on the site of the former SS and Gestapo buildings. We found Checkpoint Charlie and saw that museum. Finally, we made it to the Reichstag just in time to make it to the top of the dome. The architecture there is amazing: a glass dome with ascending ramps to the top. A cone of mirrors dips down into the glass roof above the parliament chamber, as a symbol of the people being able to watch over their government. From the top, it was an excellent night view of Berlin, too. All for free. That’s how we roll.
Let’s see - woke up late, decided breakfast wasn’t worth it. Toured the inner ‘ring’ of Vienna on the tram and then explored more on foot - saw the Opera , Hapsburg Palace, St. Stephen’s cathedral (huge, gothic), and others.
We saw a trifecta of museumage this morning: Ephesian ruins, medieval musical instruments, and another one with armor and weapons. Nice! Lunch back at the hostel, and then off to an interesting music museum with cool interactive stuff and the obligatory bits about Mozart, Beethoven, and the lot.
We went out to an island on the river to check out a big music festival. It was cool, but being at an event with music you’ve never heard nor can understand makes things difficult. We checked that box, though.
Tomorrow brings promise of the royal treasure, some football stadiums (woo), and who knows what else.
Yesterday
Wow. Awesome.
Goernergrat train, Grunsee lake, and back to Brig.
Today
Brig-Bern
Bern-Zurich
Took a cool walking tour of Zurich recommended by dude on the train
Zurich-Vienna (10 hour train!)
Now I’m in Vienna. Tomorrow we’ll go see some old churches, probably some museums, and other old things. Why did I leave the Swiss Alps?
Get to pictures using the link to the left.
<—-
I am in the Swiss Alps. It is ridiculous here. We hiked across from the Matterhorn, above the treeline today. It was ridiculous. Check the pictures.
Today we woke up and grabbed some free breakfast at the hotel. It was pretty nice, but not the best we’ve had; they had eggs in Amsterdam. But you can never beat free. We headed into Venice after waiting for the bus down the road. Once in the old city, we caught a boat bus around to by St. Mark’s Square. It didn’t go through the grand canal, but we got to see the cruise ships docked and the back side of Venice with more old buildings. Those ‘vaporetti’ drivers are pretty good to get right in there on the docks for each station.
Rick Steves really is the man. He recommended checking bags across the street from St. Mark’s Basilica and using the bag check ticket to skip the line. This line was long. Tons of miserable tourists standing in the sun. I checked my small little daypack and was thumbing the claim ticket as I looked for where to ‘cut’ in. Evidently one of the gatekeepers was lecturing someone on how to do what we had just done and said something like, “…when you do that, you get one of these,” and he gestures to my card and lets us in, easy as that. Total wait time - 10 seconds. Sweet! The basilica was amazing, up there (maybe even surpassing) with St. Peter’s at the Vatican.
We then went to get tickets for the Doge’s palace, another Rick Steves suggestion. He recommended getting tickets at some other museum and then skipping the ticket-buying line at the palace. Our scheme to pose like Brit students and get the student deal failed so we paid full price BUT we skipped another long line and strolled right into the place…again. The palace was another display of Venetian power - full of ornate rooms for the Doge and the governing bodies. More impressive art by dead people whose names I don’t remember. We also got to go across the Bridge of Sighs and see the prisons. Although we paid more here than we did at the Louvre, it was impressive and worth the money.
Honestly what is up with all these places offering student discounts that specify EU students only? That’s a bunch of malarchy. I paid $22 for a US Student ID that hasn’t even paid itself off yet. Everybody recommended getting one, but I have not been impressed. Grr.
After the Doge, we grabbed lunch and went off on a couple of quests. First, we found the Church of the Friari, a Franciscan church filled with - you guessed it - artwork. More importantly, there was a work of Donatello inside. After seeing his wooden statue of St. John the Baptist, we completed the Ninja Turtle tour of Europe. Here’s the recap:
Paris - Louvre - Leonardo - Mona Lisa (and 4 others)
Rome - Vatican Museum - Raphael - School of Athens
Rome - Vatican Museum - Michaelangelo - Sistine Chapel
Venice - Church of the Friari - Statue of St. John the Baptist
w00t.
We took a 50 cent gondola ride. Check it.
Then we went to go find the house that was robbed in the intro of the modern Italian Job movie (We were sure of the area, just couldn’t find/recognize the damn thing) and the building that was demolished in Casino Royale (same story).
After that, we wandered around some more, and had dinner. Dinner consisted of 4 courses, all of which happened to be gelato. After scouting various gelato shops yesterday, we stopped at the ones with the best prices. We each had 16 scoops of awesomeness, with a nice hike to get ready for the next course between each.
Tomorrow its off to the Swiss Alps. We’re saying Ciao to the joke of an Italian rail system and going back to a real one.
Pics up again. I rearranged things by date, and it cooperated for the most part, so check the bottom of the album.
Sorry, this was edited in Notepad….
Also, new pics are up.
And now the ridiculously quick recap of Lee’s life over the past few days.
Day 2 in Rome - Up way too early for the Vatican - saw the museum and the Sistine chapel.
Have I already told you this? Raphael’s School of Athens and all that neat stuff. Only one
Ninja Turtle left - Donatello. There’s something of his in Venice, we’ll see if we get to
it. Afternoon in Ostia was way cool, saw Roman everyday life. It’s completely excavated like
Pompeii, but is a train ride away from Rome. Weather was cooperative as well. Saw the forum,
markets, houses, shipwrights, baths, civic center, and even a fire station. Neat! Gelato,
Trevi Fountain, and Spanish steps with the Roman MSU crew, and we’re off to Cinque Terre the
next morning.
Somewhere between Rome and Cinque Terre, we begin to think about nixing our return to Rome
and just spend another night in Cinque Terre. After we arrive, we realize this is a great
idea. Cinque Terre is unbelievably cool.
It’s 5 towns perched on mountainsides that run into the sea. They’re very small towns, full
of pastel-colored buildings all built up on each other. The towns (and whole region) is
encompassed by a National Park that protects everything and allows for hiking between all of
the towns, and above the towns into the hills. There are beaches at each town, allowing you
to waste the day away as you please. Ben and I did just that. We headed to a pretty rocky
beach near the town just one town away from Riomaggiore where we were staying. The water
was deep and swimmable, but the approach was pretty sketchy, especially due to the choppy
surf. Needless to say, I found a way to injure myself pretty nicely and cut my leg up after
I slipped on the approach. I swam for a while until I realized I was shark bait, so I got
out. My knee was bleeding like a fountain and I got pretty irritated with my ruining of my
Cinque Terre experience. However, there was hope. We walked back to town and went dinner
shopping at the 4 pizzerias to choose from. We got a giant pizza and some pesto-foccacia
bread for way cheap. After dinner, we wandered around town and got some great views. I was
constantly wondering how people could live normal lives in such a fantastic place.
Day 2 consisted of the cross-Cinque Terre hike. We made it to Vernazza (3 towns away) in
about 2 hours, and soon found a new and improved swimming area. Before swimming, we went up
to a cafe recommended by Heather, something with Pirates in the name run by a really nice
man. (Heather-his crazy brother wasn’t there yet!) The Peach slush was quite delicious
after getting off the trail. We then headed off to swim. Being very careful not to injure
myself further, I made it out to deep water unscathed. We found a rock to climb and jump
off of in the middle of the cove. All went well until I was introduced to a very rude sea
urchin. He was not happy with my foot being on him, and responded accordingly. I pulled
spines out of my foot and thought I was clear. I thought wrong. We kept swimming for a
while, then hit the rocks to dry off and get sunburned. Finally, it was time to leave, so
Ben gave me all of his gear and ran off on the trail. I, being lazy, took the train.
Ironically, due to crowds and a late train, Ben beat me back to Riomaggiore.
Riomaggiore was described by my friend Rick Steves as the most workaday village and less
touristy. After comparing four of the five villages, I think that despite its ‘large’ size,
it was the best village. It sure seemed like it was the least polluted with tourism, even
though none of them really suffered from effects like we’ve seen at all the major cities.
All in all, this place was awesome.
Giacomo charged us way less than he should have for that second night that we hadn’t
reserved and the room was nice, too. His outfit just had a bunch of rooms scattered around
town; ours had a skeleton key lock!
Today we headed out of Cinque Terre sadly, through Bologna where we made Bologna sandwiches,
and on to Venice. More fun figuring out local buses, and then we made it into the old city.
(Our hotel is on the mainland, in Mestre) We saw St. Mark’s Square and all the bridges.
Rick Steves gave us a guided tour (through his book) while we road a canal bus-boat. We
found dinner via a grocery store, wandered through a residential neighborhood, and got lost
many times. The town is so small (or we walk too fast) that you can’t stay lost for very
long. I’m content with our Venice visit, but we have a whole second day! We’ll get into
the Basilica and check out some movie filming sites (Italian Job, Casino Royale). Ben wants
to find an English bookstore, and I’ll be hunting down some cheap gelato (dinner, anyone?)
That wasn’t quick at all.
On Wednesday, we caught an afternoon train to Geneva with the intention of checking out the Swiss city. We had about four hours there, so we just started randomly walking down to the river/lake, which was pretty spectacular. I had read in a guidebook somewhere that all of the international orginizations were clustered around one hill in Geneva, and boy did we find them. We saw the United Nations, UNICEF, and a bunch of other stuff. There were cool cars everywhere as evidence of the successful people working at said offices. After attempting and failing to get into the UN, we saw a Ferrari 355 and a Bentley at the same intersection. I like Switzerland.
We headed back to the station, ate dinner at Burger King (we’re cheap) and gathered food for snacking and breakfast. The night train cabin is a 6-person, 2 benches facing each other kind of deal. The seats were flat beds, with 2 fold-out beds on top to make sleeping space for 6 people. We were in a cabin with an Italian studying in Geneva and a young American couple. The Italian got into bed up top pretty quickly, but we got to talking with the couple. The guy was raised in Brussels and had seen most of Europe, not to mention the world. Here’s some snippets of our conversation “once I was at our cottage in the Alps…,” or “my Mom goes to Africa for 3 or 4 weeks at a time…” or “We flew from Brussels back to the States for the summer, and we’d buy everything I needed for all year in Brussels.” His name was Rich, ironically. Nonetheless, it was a good conversation and went for so long that the Italian finally told us to shut up and we went to bed.
We came into Rome around 9 and immediately hit the asphalt. We had to meet Heather (MSU friend) across town in an hour! We got bus passes and just made it, without maps, just Rick Steves’ description of the bridge. Heather gave us some tips, a map, and was on her way. For the rest of the day, we saw the highlights of Rome: Pantheon, forum, Colosseum, and everything else in between. Lunch, recommended by Rick Steves, was awesome. I was thumbing the book and the owner saw me and got really excited, sat us at a table and sent free appetizers our way. The rest of the meal followed suit. We had fresh fruit and some dessert bread, all for free! We got a picture with the owner - good times. The evening was spent at Heather and company’s place;: homcooked meal and then drinks at the bar (that knows them like family) down the street.
Today we woke up at 5:30 am, beat the crowd at the Vatican museum, and were one of the first-non tour group people in the museum. Saw more amazing artifacts and some art that I actually remembered the name of (and recognized!): The School of Athens by Rafael and Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. After that, we grabbed a really cheap picnic at the supermarket and decided to head out to Ostia, Rome’s port city that is now fully excavated. Very cool, no crowds, great choice. I’m really tired. We just made it onto the free pasta dinner night here at the hostel, and we might grab some gelato with our fellow Montanans later. Cinque Terre tomorrow.
No picture uploads, this computer is really handcuffed.
Today we woke up early, had breakfast, and hit the buses to get out to Luminy, a local college. It didn’t take us that long to figure out Marseille’s public transport system, and we were soon there after a bus transfer. Les Calanques, a protected natural area along the coast featuring some very impressive rock formations jutting out of the ground, is accessible from a trail from the bus stop at Luminy. We hit the trail, navigating ourselves toward the coast (and toward some amazing views). We started heading down to the water, and eventually found a path off the main trail that led directly to the Mediterranean. After passing up a few swimming holes, we found one that didn’t have too many sharp rocks. I checked the ‘Swimming in the Mediterranean’ box on my life’s to-do list. It was a really awesome experience. We saw some local swimmers taking part in the fun, although they didn’t see the logic in wearing clothes, which was interesting. One snorkeler was running down the path that we were picking our way down. Not only running, but naked running. Crazy French.
After we got back into town, we checked out an old fortress that was disappointingly closed, and then had some pizza from a place across the street. Tomorrow’s train to Geneva and Rome leaves at 1 pm, but we might see if we could get on an earlier train to have a few more hours in Geneva.
Cheers!
I added more pictures! Check out the ones from Les Calanques.
Spain to France involved no train strikes, so we arrived on time. Spent a while lost trying to find the hostel, but it was worth the wait - this place is way cool! Very new renovation, with dedicated owners. Hiked up the big hill to see the Notre Dame de Garde which was awesome. Interior was mesmerizing. Outside was quite cool too, giant Jesus statue perched on top with 360 degree views of Marseille. There were bullet scars all over the walls from fighting in 1944. On the way back, stopped at Monoprix, a French Walmart and spent some money on supplies. Made an awesome dinner with some ham, lettuce, feta, and tomato sandwiches. Had a cool conversation with two girls from Ohio finishing up 3 months studying in Avignon. Tomorrow brings hiking in the Calanques. Sweet!
Lazy day. Went to the beach and sat around, soaking up sun. Had some traditional tapas for dinner - octopus and squid! Ice cream for dessert made it quite the meal.
Marseille tomorrow, train at 845, so I’ll be headed to bed soon.
Spent the morning tracking down tickets: finding the office (which was an apartment) and making some phone calls. Come to find out that the courier got them to the hostel this morning. Also hit up the Barcelona megastore: spent way too much money on football gear and managed to rip my toe open on an escalator, too. Always wear closed-toe shoes whilst shopping. All along this time I was emailing JJ (ME classmate) to work out a meeting before the game, since we were all headed there. Meanwhile, Ben and I managed to go see Casa Mila (the other melty ice cream Gaudi building) and a bullring. In close succession, I got to the hostel and picked up the tickets, and headed on the Metro and met JJ and his backpacking friend Aaron on Las Ramblas. We proceeded to drink some beer. We drank at one place and had some sandwiches, then headed closer to our bus pickup and had some more. There, we met a British couple that was catching the same bus. We had a beer with them and he had us rolling on the ground with all of his zany stories. It seems like Brits just seem to be funnier because of their accent, or something. He was a huge Portsmouth football fan, so it was really fun listening to him. We headed off to the game in quite the football mood, disappointing that the rest of the bus didn´t share our enthusiasm.
Our tickets got us into some ridiculous seats. We were sitting behind one of the goals, about 30 feet off the pitch, 15th row of the first tier after the pricey super low level. All of this in a stadium that seats nearly 100,000 people. I could pick out all of the Barça stars from where we were sitting: Messi, Deco, Valdes, Eto, Zambrotta, Pujols, Gudjohnsen. It was unbelievable. I´ll get pics up as soon as I can. We were fully immersed in the atmosphere - chants were deafening and the crowd went wild whenever Zarragosa scored against Madrid in a game hundreds of miles away. Unbelievable.
Barça!
Tickets aren´t here. 
Saw lots of Gaudi today - Sagrada Familia, that melting ice cream building (but not the other one) , and a sweet park. Also one of the Olympic parks on top of the Montjuic - stadium and gardens. Also the MNAC, a fancy art museum that we didn´t go into. There was some Toyota expo below there with vehicles driving all over these crazy ramps and such. Also on Montjuic we saw a castle retrofitted with some big guns, probably for the Spanish civil war. Barcelona has quite the fortress to defend it from the coast. The views from up there are impressive to say the least.
Tomorrow, hopefully I´ll be able to find out where my tickets (that I spent quite a pretty penny for) are, and we´ll hit the FC Barça megastore. We´ll be wearing the right colors for the game.
Today we woke up, surveyed the breakfast scene, and were less impressed than we were the morning before, so we started looking for a grocery store, which we found down the street not 50 feet. €10 worth of food guaranteed us to last well into the day. Breakfast of chocolate pain, pamplemousse (Dutch) juice, and some waffles filled us up. We hit the Paris metro one more time to Gare Lyon to catch the TGV (!) train to Narbonne. Got on without incident, and the 5 hour trip began. Typical train ride, with French countryside zipping by at a much faster rate. Too bad there wasn´t a display to show how fast we were going; it was certainly above 150 mph. We got off at Narbonne and awaited the next train, due in about 2 hours. We passed the time by searching out the importatnt lunch/dinner component of meat. After practicing my poor french on a Brit, I hiked to a marche and got some sausage and pate. Lunch was served in the fine facilities of the outside of the Narbonne train station. We saw our Barcelona-bound train get closer and closer to the top of the departure board, with no track posted, only Supprime. What does that mean? Delayed? Waiting for a track to pull into? Nope. Canceled. They up and cancelled the train, out of nowhere. So now there´s tons of people wanting to get to Barcelona stranded in Narbonne. The rumors and my English eavesdropping start building: a bus to Figueras, a train to Parpignon, no connection to Barcelona, and on and on. Where are we going to sleep? France? Spain? Under a tree or in the station? We made lots of friends really quickly - some Brits, Kiwis, and plenty of Americans and Canadians with packs like us. We got on a train to Parpignon, just north of the Spanish border. The main rumor was that French rail was on strike and refused to go into Spain - whatever. From here, the crowd grew waiting for a bus into Spain. At sight of the bus, the crowd started moving really quickly. Since we had no rush, we let the crazed crowd jostle for spots as we waited on the promised second bus, which showed up in about 10 minutes. Supposedlu, we´d be missing the Figueras-Barcelona connection on the second bus - whatever. We get on the bus, with plenty of room, making more friends from Michigan State, Vancouver, and New Zealand. We pull into Figueras, and the first bus is right in front of us! The whole mob is at a new train station. The train rolls in, and our group heads to a lonely part of the platform and claims a whole car. The ride in to Barcelona was really fun. This hostel, HelloBCN, is awesome. Brand new place catering to backpackers and has all kinds of great offerings. This will be fun.
So where did I leave you? Paris - third day. Train leaves St. Lazare at 1830, so we have another day to burn in Paris! We saw Montmarte and the Sacre Couer, an amazing (imagine that) old cathedral with some kind of architecture that now eludes me. Quite cool, even in a ‘tourist mecca’ as I like to call it. Ate lunch in a French cafe with Italian faire that was playing Hispanic music. The required cafe stop, of course. After this, we cruised the metro for a while, catching up with a cool station I saw on the way to Parc de Princes, as well as tracking down this sweet moving walkway that was faster than most, featuring ingenious accelerating and decelerating areas. Joyride! Somewhat wasteful of Parisian time, but we were sightsee-ed out.
Our first local train experience was good, caught the train no problem and the printed tickets worked well (after the conductor tried a few times with Ben’s). And 2 hours later, we were in Caen. Oh Caen. Got in around 2030, and I immediately realized the implications of not printing out directions/map/anything about the hotel we were at. Finally we found the street randomly on a map - way the hell out of town. Oh ok, take the tram to here, then catch the #16 bus. Quick, buy the tickets! No change! Go to the Tabac and get change! Doesn’t understand Ben! Aaaaaack. Ben’s phrasebook saves the day and we get 24 hour passes for the tram and bus. Tram ride is successful to Poincare, the connection. Ohhhh wait - Bus 16 runs 10 times A DAY, during rush hours. 9 pm? We’re SOL. Looks like we’re hiking. I draw a map on a piece of paper and take a picture of the bus map with our street on it. And we’re off. After a wrong turn and asking a French man the location of the street that we happen to be walking on, we’re on track. Get into the room, and its awesome! I’m less worried now, but still anxious about our prospects of getting to Normandy the next day.
We woke up an hour late. Pack quickly, and survey breakfast possibilities - they looked good, so we spent 5 Euro and gorged ourselves on a great meal. Hit the tram (after hiking back) and got to the train station and found the Bus Verts station, the regional bus line. Asked the lady about getting to a ‘plage de guerre’ (beach of war, I know, I’m quite fluent :D) and she pointed us toward Juno beach, the Canadian landing 63 years ago. Caught the bus, and we’re on the way. The stop at the beach was perfect. There is a great memorial there and we caught an English tour. Saw bunkers (several were overturned from sand dune movement), as well as crosses and other monuments. The weather was horrid - windy and cold, very similar to what GIs may have seen when they landed. It was a very awe-inspiring experience, especially talking with a British veteran and seeing so many other Canadian vets there for the memorial service. Very impressive; I wish we had more time in the area.
Came back to Caen, burned some time and saw an 11th century castle, free museums about Normandy, and a Gothic cathedral. Very worthwile and picturesque. Met some Texans who had lost a passport and railpass (yikes) and were backtracking at the Caen ‘gare.’ Back to Paris, easy Metro ride, and we’re at the Hotel, Hotel de la Terrasse. Lets hope my crappy attempt at French will let the funny reception guy use the ‘net for free!
Au revoir
YES! New pics up here.
I hate French keyboards. The a and q are switched, along with z,q,m, and numbers are all confuzzled with goofy symbols. Caught the train in Amsterdam to Paris, figured out the Metro, scored free RER tickets (with Railpass) and used them to get out to Versailles and some très short lines. Saw Eiffel tower at night. Did laundry in room. Woke up early; we were among the first 10 people in the Louvre today! Saw rooms full of Greek, Roman, Etruscan, and Egyptian treasures - all to ourselves! Of course, we were zipping through. Saw Samothrace and Venus de Milo in empty rooms. Very cool. We hurried to the free tour of the major Paris sites; it didn’t disappoint. After, saw Arc de Triomphe and climbed the Eiffel. I went on an excursion to see the Parc de Princes, where PSG plays! Tomorrow we go to Normandy. Here’s a link for a few pictures, sorry that the internet opportunities have been less than stellar.
Woke up, figured out there was free breakfast downstairs in the hotel part of the hostel/hotel. It was an awesome free meal, cereal, eggs, the works. Afterwards, we figured out the ferry situation behind Centraal Station and got north of the city, into Dutch countryside. We rode through various towns (all of which whose names elude me now), stopped at a supermarket to supplement our lunch of nutella sandwiches, and ate some lunch under a bridge along a canal. Afterwards, we navigated back into town to return our bikes, walked home back to the hostel (picking up some of the Netherlands greatest fries on the way back), and hurried over to the Heineken ‘Experience’ which was all about the history of Heineken (not to mention three drinks AND a bottle opener in a cool container for only 11 euro!) Now I think its dinner time, with some packing, postcard writing, and sleeping before the early train to Paris tomorrow.
I’m really tired.
‘Free’ walking tour from 11 - 2, saw all the important stuff and got the history behind it all, interwoven with jokes and, when needed, a laugh track. Our guide Donald was outstanding - he earned his pay from tips at the end. After that, we wandered around for a while, had a Heineken next to one of the canals, and then moseyed over to the bike emporium to rent bikes. We rode back to the hostel and decided to go grab some dinner at a cheap pasta place with some Canadians we met. The restaurant was on a mysterious street that I still don’t think existed. After searching in vain, we gave up and found a cheap pizza place (’XXL New York Taste’). Afterwards, Ben and I went cruising around Amsterdam: through several parks and who knows how many different neighborhoods. It is amazing how it seems that mostly all of the city stays up really late, drinking beer outside of cafes past 11 and later. Of course, it is a Friday night, and it is Amsterdam. Now, time to figure out how the hell I use this goofy phone card and to convince First Interstate to undo the hold on my card. Maybe I should have told them I was going to be using it in Europe…
Tomorrow: hopefully we’ll be able to get out and ride some Danish countryside, or something.
Bought 24 hour public transport pass for maximum tram usage; dropped bags at hostel and headed to Rijksmuseum and Van gogh museum, saw lots of paintings that are famous. Ate some lunch at a street vendor near the museums. The near-sleepless night at Gatwick took its toll, though, so we went to the hostel, checked in, and checked out of consciousness. I slept for 5 hours and thought it was the morning when I woke up. It was around 9 at night, so we grabbed some dinner at a grocery store and did a walking tour of the Jordaan and the southern area where our hostel is at. Tomorrow, we get bikes!
Here we are in Amsterdam - Ben’s mad that I’m doing this, so we’re gonna go check out some museums or something touristy like that. Hope ya’ll yanks are enjoying not seeing original Rembrandts.
Today started bright and early in Newark - 6 am shuttle to the airport and we were on the plush Virgin Atlantic Airbus A430 to Heathrow. Me having never been overseas, I was very impressed with the awesome flight - in seat entertainment, attendants always marching around handing out more free food, and the Virgin Atlantic style all was really incredible. We got into London and promptly started acting like idiot Americans, but eventually found the bus to Gatwick. After wandering around the airport for a while, we checked in our bags for tomorrow’s flight, and are now presently looking for our hotel room (or couch in the airport somewhere, for all you nitpicky types). The few short hours in England have been brilliant. The Netherlands awaits!
Dallas to Newark via Charlotte starting at 8:20 am! Woke up at 4:45 to make it to the airport with plenty of time to stand in the mass of humanity that is the airport check-in area. Slept through flights (I swear, it never fails) and am now at the plush Best Western Newark hotel, with an incredible room view of the empty conference building 20 feet away from my fourth floor window. Ben wanted to get into New York, but with an 8:20 flight tomorrow, we need to be on the 6 am shuttle back to the airport. So, no American sightseeing. The Atlantic Ocean awaits! Tomorrow, I’ll be doing this from Gatwick airport in London.
Have some link:
Europe Trip Map (google is awesome)
UEFA Champions’ League Final
AC Milan - Liverpool
Athens, Greece
ESPN2 (30 in Bozone)
12:00 Noon Tomorrow
The rest of the world’s Super Bowl.
Here it is - the very first travel blog entry. Ben and I are going to Europe - for 5 weeks. I’ll do my best to keep this thing updated. Pictures will more than likely appear after we get back, or through Google or something if we have time while we’re over there. First stop is Amsterdam, via London.
Let the countdown to May 30 begin!