Well, Amsterdam was awesome! My first thought when I got there was that it was like Venice with the canals, but better!
Our hostel was actually in the middle of the red light district, but that wasn't a problem at all. It was a nice area, right on the canal.
The night we got there we checked in, ate dinner, then headed to a New Europe tour (not free) of the red light district. It was really interesting learning about everything. The tour guide was really cool.
After that, Pat needed to get back to rest, so Jen, Dave, and myself went out!
The next morning was the New Europe free walking tour. Yayyyy. Again, we had a good tour guide, so the 4 of us were happy.
We saw lotsa cool things.
- the national monument
- the old church
- the new church
(Such original names in this city...)
- anne frank's house (from the outside)
- floating flower market
- the most narrow house (just over a meter wide! How does that work??)
-all the leaning buildings
After we went to lunch with the tour group, but the place had HORRIBLE service. I mean, this waiter was so bad.. We we're there for over 2 hours!
I was upset because that lunch time was valuable time in the city, and because of that and slow moving in stores after it, we sidnt get to go back to the Anne Frank house to go inside. Not a big deal, but it would have been nice to do.
After that, we just went shopping. We headed back to the hostel and got our bags, then took a train to the airport.
I gotta say, I'm really going to miss the ease of access to public transportation. It's been nice travelling this way!
Next stop, iceland.
Well, iceland stinks becausw of the time of our layover. We got in here 12am iceland time, 2 am body clock/mainland europe time/8pm jersey time. We were so tired and so bummed when we realized there was no way to get to the city. Everyone we spoke to said that NOTHING will be open (great nightlife, as pat said, must mean that everyone is still alive when it's night time). I mean, it is a wednesday night, but still!
There was no way to get to the city (other than a cab) because there were no more flights til the morning. The airport was SO empty. So, we stayed in the airport. Allll night. All the stores closed after 20 minutes of us being here. We found cushioned benches to relax on.
We made a video to pass the time, but we can't post it online yet. And by we, I mean we all talked about it, jen, pat and I worked on the scenery, pat and I filmed it, and pat put it all together. We kept losing people to sleep lol. Its a good video though... You'll see.
Oh it was weird: the sun set as we got here. It rose at 3am. But, it never got dark!!! It was raining the whole time... Woulda been cooler if it was clear skys.
So, later today I will be home! That's not your cue to never check this again though. I will be uploading pictures to Flickr (happy July! More picture alottment!) And probably doing some sort of sum up of the trip!
I can't believe it's over :-(
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Brussels!!
Well, we got to Brussels yesterday after two 3-hour train rides (I'm telling you... this plane ride home is gonna be so easy after all this traveling!). We checked in, then hit the town!
We don't have much time here, so we went out exploring. We had the ever-so-nutritious dinner of French Fries, followed by Waffles. Yup, we're definitely in Belgium!
We explored the city for a while, making sure we saw some cool things. We went to the Atomium, which is designed like a big atom for the 1958 World Fair. In it are exhibitions about science and immigration. it seems really cool. It's a shame it was 10pm when we were there and it was closed.
This morning, the plan wasfor Pat and I to go back to the Atomium or for the boys and girls to split up: Boys to a comic strip museum thing and girls to the chocolate museum. Buuuut, the plans changed when Pat got sick overnight :-( He's really not feeling well at all. Dave lost interest in going to the comic book museum and Jen and I looked up the chocolate museum online and it looks SO boring. Instead, everyone is asleep. Including me. zzZZZzzz. Well, not really, obviously.
Later today we're getting on a train to Amsterdam, our last city in Europe! Let's hope Jen continues to get better, Pat starts getting better, and Dave and I stay healthy!!!!
Don't forget to check out the pics I posted. I was able to fit one more onto flickr, but that's my monthly limit. Grr.
We don't have much time here, so we went out exploring. We had the ever-so-nutritious dinner of French Fries, followed by Waffles. Yup, we're definitely in Belgium!
We explored the city for a while, making sure we saw some cool things. We went to the Atomium, which is designed like a big atom for the 1958 World Fair. In it are exhibitions about science and immigration. it seems really cool. It's a shame it was 10pm when we were there and it was closed.
This morning, the plan wasfor Pat and I to go back to the Atomium or for the boys and girls to split up: Boys to a comic strip museum thing and girls to the chocolate museum. Buuuut, the plans changed when Pat got sick overnight :-( He's really not feeling well at all. Dave lost interest in going to the comic book museum and Jen and I looked up the chocolate museum online and it looks SO boring. Instead, everyone is asleep. Including me. zzZZZzzz. Well, not really, obviously.
Later today we're getting on a train to Amsterdam, our last city in Europe! Let's hope Jen continues to get better, Pat starts getting better, and Dave and I stay healthy!!!!
Don't forget to check out the pics I posted. I was able to fit one more onto flickr, but that's my monthly limit. Grr.
Pictures and video!
Hey Everyone!! Here are a bunch of pictures. I'll label where they're all from. I'm also uploading some more to Flickr, so check those out! The video of the train at the bottom is funny :-)
Brussels: The Atomium "Welcome" sign. the guy I asked to take the picture only got part of the sign lol.
Brussels: The Atomium
Brussels: pretty view of the city
Munich: Dachau Concentration Camp
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle: Mary's Bridge
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle: Pat and I on Mary's Bridge
Neuschwanstein Castle: The view from Mary's Bridge!!!
Munich: The clock tower (the glockenspeil)
Munich: A place in the main square, Marienplatz... it made me miss my Saucy Sigmas!!!
Munich: TCNJ much??
Berlin: Jen's and my beer from the beer garden!! Obviously mixed with different flavors. Mine was raspberry! mmmm!
Berlin: Check out the TV tower to the right... the sun is reflecting off of it and... voila! The Pope's Revenge!
Berlin: The War Memorial - A mother holding her soldier son who died.
Berlin: Part of the Berlin Wall
Berlin: The Holocaust Memorial
Prague: The clock tower
This is the train right after Germany won the game on Sunday. Pat got REALLY into the celebration...
Brussels: The Atomium
Brussels: pretty view of the city
Munich: Dachau Concentration Camp
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle: Mary's Bridge
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle: Pat and I on Mary's Bridge
Neuschwanstein Castle: The view from Mary's Bridge!!!
Munich: The clock tower (the glockenspeil)
Munich: A place in the main square, Marienplatz... it made me miss my Saucy Sigmas!!!
Munich: TCNJ much??
Berlin: Jen's and my beer from the beer garden!! Obviously mixed with different flavors. Mine was raspberry! mmmm!
Berlin: Check out the TV tower to the right... the sun is reflecting off of it and... voila! The Pope's Revenge!
Berlin: The War Memorial - A mother holding her soldier son who died.
Berlin: Part of the Berlin Wall
Berlin: The Holocaust Memorial
Prague: The clock tower
This is the train right after Germany won the game on Sunday. Pat got REALLY into the celebration...
Monday, June 28, 2010
Last Day of Munich
Today, Jen and Dave went to the Dachau concentration camp in the morning with some hostel friends. They did the audio guide while they were there. Pat and I didn't go with them because 1, we wanted to sleep, and 2, we wanted to go with a tour guide.
So, we headed out later on and went on the New Europe tour to Dachau. Since being there I completely agree with what people have been telling us: Everyone should see a concentration camp at least once in their lives.
It was really upsetting being there. We saw where people got their welcome to the camp speech (when they were told that they were nothing and yelled at and cursed at). We saw the showers and the whole process of getting them situated at the camp, aka stealing all their belongings, the razors used, and a uniform they were given.
We learned about different forms of torture used at that camp in particular. We saw the barracks as well, but it was a recreation of them. All the original ones were burnt to the ground by the US soldiers when the camp was liberated and emptied.
There are 4 memorials there from the 4 major religions present by the prisoners: Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox.
The gas chamber and crematorium were still standing. The prisoners stopped the US soldiers from burning it to the ground so that people could learn about what happened there, learn from what happened, and to honor the memory of those who lost their lives in that way. If you wanna know more about that part, just ask me, but I'm not going to blog about it because it was pretty upsetting and I don't want any of you to get upset by the descriptions. Feel free to talk to me about it though.
On a lighter note, later in the day Pat and I met up with Sarah!!! We went out to dinner with her and had soooo much fun! Sarah, it was so good to see you!
Oh and apparently in Germany there's a fruit that's called: Sharon!! It's supposedly really sweet too! Quite fitting.... Just kidding! :-P there really is a fruit named that though!
Germany has been so much fun, but alas, tis time to move on. Off we go!!!
PS- Germany won their game on Sunday. Pat and I found this out on the train ride back from Dachau, when tooons of germans were heading to the city to celebrate. They were singing, cheering, and jumping: the whole train was shaking! I'll post the video I took. It was pretty funny!
So, we headed out later on and went on the New Europe tour to Dachau. Since being there I completely agree with what people have been telling us: Everyone should see a concentration camp at least once in their lives.
It was really upsetting being there. We saw where people got their welcome to the camp speech (when they were told that they were nothing and yelled at and cursed at). We saw the showers and the whole process of getting them situated at the camp, aka stealing all their belongings, the razors used, and a uniform they were given.
We learned about different forms of torture used at that camp in particular. We saw the barracks as well, but it was a recreation of them. All the original ones were burnt to the ground by the US soldiers when the camp was liberated and emptied.
There are 4 memorials there from the 4 major religions present by the prisoners: Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox.
The gas chamber and crematorium were still standing. The prisoners stopped the US soldiers from burning it to the ground so that people could learn about what happened there, learn from what happened, and to honor the memory of those who lost their lives in that way. If you wanna know more about that part, just ask me, but I'm not going to blog about it because it was pretty upsetting and I don't want any of you to get upset by the descriptions. Feel free to talk to me about it though.
On a lighter note, later in the day Pat and I met up with Sarah!!! We went out to dinner with her and had soooo much fun! Sarah, it was so good to see you!
Oh and apparently in Germany there's a fruit that's called: Sharon!! It's supposedly really sweet too! Quite fitting.... Just kidding! :-P there really is a fruit named that though!
Germany has been so much fun, but alas, tis time to move on. Off we go!!!
PS- Germany won their game on Sunday. Pat and I found this out on the train ride back from Dachau, when tooons of germans were heading to the city to celebrate. They were singing, cheering, and jumping: the whole train was shaking! I'll post the video I took. It was pretty funny!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Munich Day 1 and 2 (tours, beers, and castles!)
We got off our overnight train and found our hostel. Ian (friend from the train) was just in the city til that night when he had a train to catch, so he tagged along with us!
The 5 of us put our bags in the luggage room and paid for the all-you-can-eat breakfast at the hostel. After some good grub we were off to our New Europe tour!!!
Now, this was my least favorite of our tours. The tour guide was just not up to par with the others we've had. But we saw some cool things, including:
-the glockenspeil
-the opera house
-the memorial to german resistance
-Frauenkirche
-new town hall
-old town hall
Its funny... Because of having to be rebuilt, the new town hall is older than the old town hall! Haha.
We also heard the legend of the devil's footprint and the origins of Oktoberfest. With that, we learned that the average resident of munich drinks 1.5 liters of beer per day. WOW.
So after the tour we went to a restraunt with the tour group. It was yummy foor for a low price with large portions. Our tour group really hit it off together! After that, we left tour guide Kevin to go back to the hofbrauhaus with most of our group. We had looots of fun all together. Ther was the 5 of us, Kathleen from Australia, and Emmett and Justine from Montreal.
The Hofbrauhaus is this awesome beer garden with a huge beer hall onside as well! We played 21, a scottish drinking game we picked up in Prague. It's so much fun whether or not you have alcohol! When Pat had to drink we'd all yell, "Hydrate!!!!"
Later on we went back to the hostel, checked in, and went for drinks/food with this same group. We really had a great time together!
The next day, pat and I were off to a New Europe tour that we paid for: Neuschwanstein Castle Tour. Now for those of you wondering, yes, this is the castle that Sleeping Beauty's castle was based off of! I can't believe I actually got to go there!
It was a 2 hour train ride there, but the countryside was pretty and every so often we'd pass a little German village :-)
When we got there we heard a lot about Ludwig II, who built this castle. He was very into fantasy worlds, which is why he built the castle, and many people felt he was insane. Others think he was just very forward thinking. To me it seemed like he was a really smart guy who had a great imagination. I liked his life story so much that I think I'm gonna read up some more on him. How he died exactly is still a mystery, too. There's lots of sketchy things that went down.
Anywho, we saw Hohenschwangau Castle, which was the weeked getaway castle that Ludwug grew up in. Swan Lake is right behind the castle and our tour guide told us the legend of the Swan King. Swans were Ludwigs favorite animal because of this!
We hiked the mountain to Mary's Bridge (Marienbrucke Bridge). This is the only thing in germany with the name Mary that is not named after the Virgin Mary... It was named for Ludwig's mother. He built this bridge to connect the two mountains near the top. It's been reinforced with steel so that it's save to go on, but it was still impressive that the wood from the 1800's is still there!
The view from the bridge was amazing. Mountains on one side, waterfall below us, and the castle followed by the valley on the other side. It was so pretty! And a really rewarding view for climbing the mountain lol.
We walked down another path for a minute and we were at my castle! I mean sleeping beauty's castle. Oh oops.... Ludwig's castle. It's so impressive on the outside!
We had a different tour guide for inside the castle (they don't let anyone but their own tour guides in). He was kind of a creepy guy! He was like half robot, half ghost. Strange.
We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside (I still snuck a few). This place was INCREDIBLE!!! No wonder it took 4 carpenters 4 years to do the bedroom alone! No wonder Ludwig got himself into so much debt (the equivalent of 15,000 euros)! There was no detail left uncovered. He even had a secret doorway in his room. And a hallway that was a replica of a cave because of one of his favorite shows!
The castle has a very modern kitchen for it's time, running water, central heating (a system of stoves), one of the very first telephones (connected only to the post office), and a flushing toilet!! Its a shame that the guy only got to live there for 172 days before he died (...or was murdered..). I mean, I would live here in the servants quarters if I could!
Back to reality, we went back to munich. Well, that's not REALLY reality, now is it? Lol. We went out (the 4 of us and 2 girls from the hostel that jen and dave had met) to the hofbrauhaus to watch the game!!! USA versus Ghana. Jen and I bought flags to wear (everyone here shows team pride!!) And we were off! When I walked in I was carrying my flag in my hand and everyone yelled at me til I wore it!! It was the perfect place to watch the game. Everyone was so into it and we had so much fun! That is, until the US lost. Oh well. We'll get em in 4 years!
Oh on the way back to the hostel we stopped and saw this really funny guy playing guitar on the street. He stopped to speak to the crowd a bunch of times. He was so good that I stayed there about 10 minutes!
That was about all for that day! More munich to report about in the next post!
The 5 of us put our bags in the luggage room and paid for the all-you-can-eat breakfast at the hostel. After some good grub we were off to our New Europe tour!!!
Now, this was my least favorite of our tours. The tour guide was just not up to par with the others we've had. But we saw some cool things, including:
-the glockenspeil
-the opera house
-the memorial to german resistance
-Frauenkirche
-new town hall
-old town hall
Its funny... Because of having to be rebuilt, the new town hall is older than the old town hall! Haha.
We also heard the legend of the devil's footprint and the origins of Oktoberfest. With that, we learned that the average resident of munich drinks 1.5 liters of beer per day. WOW.
So after the tour we went to a restraunt with the tour group. It was yummy foor for a low price with large portions. Our tour group really hit it off together! After that, we left tour guide Kevin to go back to the hofbrauhaus with most of our group. We had looots of fun all together. Ther was the 5 of us, Kathleen from Australia, and Emmett and Justine from Montreal.
The Hofbrauhaus is this awesome beer garden with a huge beer hall onside as well! We played 21, a scottish drinking game we picked up in Prague. It's so much fun whether or not you have alcohol! When Pat had to drink we'd all yell, "Hydrate!!!!"
Later on we went back to the hostel, checked in, and went for drinks/food with this same group. We really had a great time together!
The next day, pat and I were off to a New Europe tour that we paid for: Neuschwanstein Castle Tour. Now for those of you wondering, yes, this is the castle that Sleeping Beauty's castle was based off of! I can't believe I actually got to go there!
It was a 2 hour train ride there, but the countryside was pretty and every so often we'd pass a little German village :-)
When we got there we heard a lot about Ludwig II, who built this castle. He was very into fantasy worlds, which is why he built the castle, and many people felt he was insane. Others think he was just very forward thinking. To me it seemed like he was a really smart guy who had a great imagination. I liked his life story so much that I think I'm gonna read up some more on him. How he died exactly is still a mystery, too. There's lots of sketchy things that went down.
Anywho, we saw Hohenschwangau Castle, which was the weeked getaway castle that Ludwug grew up in. Swan Lake is right behind the castle and our tour guide told us the legend of the Swan King. Swans were Ludwigs favorite animal because of this!
We hiked the mountain to Mary's Bridge (Marienbrucke Bridge). This is the only thing in germany with the name Mary that is not named after the Virgin Mary... It was named for Ludwig's mother. He built this bridge to connect the two mountains near the top. It's been reinforced with steel so that it's save to go on, but it was still impressive that the wood from the 1800's is still there!
The view from the bridge was amazing. Mountains on one side, waterfall below us, and the castle followed by the valley on the other side. It was so pretty! And a really rewarding view for climbing the mountain lol.
We walked down another path for a minute and we were at my castle! I mean sleeping beauty's castle. Oh oops.... Ludwig's castle. It's so impressive on the outside!
We had a different tour guide for inside the castle (they don't let anyone but their own tour guides in). He was kind of a creepy guy! He was like half robot, half ghost. Strange.
We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside (I still snuck a few). This place was INCREDIBLE!!! No wonder it took 4 carpenters 4 years to do the bedroom alone! No wonder Ludwig got himself into so much debt (the equivalent of 15,000 euros)! There was no detail left uncovered. He even had a secret doorway in his room. And a hallway that was a replica of a cave because of one of his favorite shows!
The castle has a very modern kitchen for it's time, running water, central heating (a system of stoves), one of the very first telephones (connected only to the post office), and a flushing toilet!! Its a shame that the guy only got to live there for 172 days before he died (...or was murdered..). I mean, I would live here in the servants quarters if I could!
Back to reality, we went back to munich. Well, that's not REALLY reality, now is it? Lol. We went out (the 4 of us and 2 girls from the hostel that jen and dave had met) to the hofbrauhaus to watch the game!!! USA versus Ghana. Jen and I bought flags to wear (everyone here shows team pride!!) And we were off! When I walked in I was carrying my flag in my hand and everyone yelled at me til I wore it!! It was the perfect place to watch the game. Everyone was so into it and we had so much fun! That is, until the US lost. Oh well. We'll get em in 4 years!
Oh on the way back to the hostel we stopped and saw this really funny guy playing guitar on the street. He stopped to speak to the crowd a bunch of times. He was so good that I stayed there about 10 minutes!
That was about all for that day! More munich to report about in the next post!
Berlin
Germany is great so far! Berlin was our first stop. We had a lot of fun there. America won a futbol game, germany won as well (the streets were CRAZY!), and italy lost! All good things! Haha. We had delicious meals and even more delicious strudel, too!!
We went on our favorite type of tour: the New Europe free walking tour! Our tour guide, Stephanie, was really awesome. She's an author from New Zealand living in Berlin because her book partially takes place there!
We saw lots of things on the Berlin tour, my favorites including:
- the holocaust memorial
- part of the berlin wall
- the area around checkpoint charlie
- museum island
- the old tv tower*
- the hotel that michael jackson was in when he dangled his baby off the balcony
*this went up by the communists right after they went around taking down every crucifix they could find. When the sun hits the tower though, it reflects off as a cross!!! It became known as the Pope's Revenge!
Berlin was really cool and I wish we had some more time to spend there. The stories we heard about the history of the city were amazing. It's so weird to think that the city was so different just 20 years ago. Berlin as it is now is younger than I am!
That night we took an overnight train to Munich. This was the worst of our overnighters. We had chairs... Not even couchettes. The chairs reclined at least, but it wasn't comfortable. We got very little sleep that night. The only plus about that train is that we met Ian from Michigan!
More to come about Munich later!
We went on our favorite type of tour: the New Europe free walking tour! Our tour guide, Stephanie, was really awesome. She's an author from New Zealand living in Berlin because her book partially takes place there!
We saw lots of things on the Berlin tour, my favorites including:
- the holocaust memorial
- part of the berlin wall
- the area around checkpoint charlie
- museum island
- the old tv tower*
- the hotel that michael jackson was in when he dangled his baby off the balcony
*this went up by the communists right after they went around taking down every crucifix they could find. When the sun hits the tower though, it reflects off as a cross!!! It became known as the Pope's Revenge!
Berlin was really cool and I wish we had some more time to spend there. The stories we heard about the history of the city were amazing. It's so weird to think that the city was so different just 20 years ago. Berlin as it is now is younger than I am!
That night we took an overnight train to Munich. This was the worst of our overnighters. We had chairs... Not even couchettes. The chairs reclined at least, but it wasn't comfortable. We got very little sleep that night. The only plus about that train is that we met Ian from Michigan!
More to come about Munich later!
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