Eurotrip: Brussles back to London

Day 13 - A Sad, Sad Day (Last Day on Continental Europe... This Trip Anyway)

We woke up at 9:45 in the scary hotel room and got ourselves ready. We got downstairs and the owner guy told us we were too late for breakfast, which had ended at 10. It was 10:05. Sarah and I looked at each other, all sad, for about 2 seconds which apparently made him feel guilty enough to offer us breakfast anyway! ("Ok, ok, since it's you, I'll give you breakfast." Score!) Since it was illegal, he put us in a little dining room away from the stairs (so no other late people would be jealous) then gave us a huge amount of bread, some ham and a pot of tea. After we were done (being the crafty resourceful girl I am) I took a hunk of bread, stuffed the leftover ham into it - voila! instant lunch!
After we heaved our huge backpacks on ourselves, we popped over to Midi train station on a tram then threw those bags into a locker. The first locker we tried gave us problems for about 10 minutes; then we decided to try a new one and it worked right away (of course!). Our Eurostar didn't leave until that evening, so I proposed that we check out the big green park on the map.
The park ended up not being as big as I thought, but we spent a while there sitting by a nice fountain and I ate my ham sandwich. Then, I got pooped on by a bird. Sarah thought it was hilarious but I did NOT. Thank goodness I bought those enormous sunglasses in Rome- most of the poo landed on my shades and a little bit got on my jeans (but none in my hair, whew!). So after that funness, we took a stroll around the park which was very nice. On one entire side of the park there was this public art- it was digital photos from all over the world blown up into giant posters. We spent a while looking at those and reading the captions. We also saw a big map of the world on the ground (like in a box... strange) and Sarah got in and pointed to all the places we had been and measured how far we were from home.

Eventually we headed back over to the old center and got some food. Sarah and I had a big huge argument over her Ketchup flavored chips (Sarah insisted I try them; I didn't want to- I thought that sounded gross...) but then we got over it. Then we decided to find an internet place (which took forever) then we headed back to the train station (via free Metro/ tram action).
We were an hour early, good thing too because our tickets would not print out of the kiosk! In the end we got them printed out, got through all the security / passport checkpoints then waited for about 5 minutes and got right onto the Eurostar!

The train ride was smooth (had a few crying babies) and we arrived back in London a few hours earlier than I expected (poor calculations on my part). We walked from Waterloo station to Victoria, in part to kill some time and also so Sarah could get a new English shot glass, since her original one broke. The walk to Victoria was a long one. We took a few rests (very necessary, considering the bags we were carrying) and got there without dying.

We spent a few kind of boring hours in the train station, mostly trying to get food (on my part) and people watching. A funny incident was when I finally decided to get some Chinese food at a little cart near where we were sitting- and pay for it in change. Turned out that I was about 25p short so the people in line behind me were kind enough to sponsor me. I think I irritated the lady at the cart because I couldn't really count the money... it took me so long!! It ended up being pretty good AND I got rid of my extra change!

We planned the leg back to London so I would be early for my bus up to Edinburgh and Sarah would have plenty of time to make it to the airport and catch her flight. At around 10:30, I headed over to the Victoria Coach station and Sarah took the Gatwick express to the airport (her flight was at 6AM or so).

Next.... the bumpy bus ride up to Scotland and my 3 day Haggis tour!

A Few More Photos...

I had intended to get all my posts done before school started back up, but alas! I did not. I hope to finish my last 4 posts soon (I might combine the last three into a giant photo extravaganza, because I'm not sure I wrote down everything we did each day). Anyway, here are some more pictures to hold you over until I get around to the very last of my blog.

This was in Munich, when Corey and I were just walking around the parks by the river.

I call this one Three White Hats.


In the Vatican Museum

Eurotrip: Netherlands to Belguim

Day 12 - Watch out Brussels, HERE WE COME

I know I didn't feel like getting up as early as we did, but we had to move on to bigger and better things (or "Brussels"). We decided that it was a very smart idea to ride our bikes to the train station with our gear, killing 2 birds with one stone: getting to the train station and returning the bikes. (And it worked, by the way, we just had to go nice and slow.)

We had an smooth ride into Brussels and since it was the least researched of our cities, we didn't know which hostel to go to nor which of the 3 stations in the city to get off at. We decided to check out the hostels that were close to the Midi station, which is where our Eurostar train back to London left from. Then we spent what felt like an hour looking at my guidebook and asking the info people for maps and recommendations for which hostel to stay at. They were utterly unhelpful and had a hotel search but not a hostel search service. In the end, we popped back on a train and rode back one stop (5 min) to the Central station, then walked to a hostel from there.

Our gamble didn't pay off. The hostel (when someone finally let us in) was totally booked and they told us that all the other hostels in the city were booked up too! They gave us info for two low-end hotels so we picked one and headed on over. It was a sketchy walk into a sketchy part of the city... a few people asked us if we need help and/or directions but we eventually found the street we were looking for. Then we found the number we were looking for-- and it was a blank stretch of wall on a derelict building with smashed, glass-less upper windows. I was horrified so we kept walking and at the end of the street, we found a hotel-- which happened to be the one we were looking for! We checked in, pretty much out of desperation and also, our bags were extremely heavy and we were pooped.

So our host led us over to an elevator (which had no walls on 2 of the sides and a door that let us in and out) and then up another flight of stairs to our room. It was so crappy. We didn't take pictures (I think we were too horrified to even entertain the idea) so just imagine this: it had a big bed and a twin, a slanted ceiling (like we were the top floor underneath the roof) with a window that had a view of more roofs, and my favorite part had to have been the bathroom. The toilet was in one room, and the rest in another (acceptable, I've seen this other places). The toilet room's door didn't have a knob on the inside, so either the person not using the toilet had to shut it for you, or it just didn't close all the way! The BEST part of the other room was the fact that there wasn't even a door at all. And then there was the fact that the shower was tiny and had a hump (like a seat) in half of it. It made showering difficult, and Sarah and I each almost died from slipping about 3 times each. There was also a wardrobe near the entrance to the shower room, so we propped that door open and it covered about half the door.

After briefly checking out the room, we dropped our stuff, paid the guy, then booked it out of there. We decided to see the famous peeing statue/ fountain which actually wasn't that far away. We got there and I was surprised to see a crowd gathered!

In case you forgot or didn't know, Brussels is in Belgium and in Belgium they make chocolate. LOTS of it. It seemed like every other shop was a chocolate one! So after taking pictures of the crazy statue/fountain, we headed over to the old main square, hitting every chocolate shop we passed and sampling some goods at each!

For the record, the Belgian maps have very effective advertising-- because based solely on the picture on the map, we decided to visit the "Atomic Sculpture." We found the problem with this attraction was that though the ad pointed to where the Atomic thing was supposed to be, it was actually off the map completely. Which meant that we had a huge walk. After maybe an hour of walking through busy streets, sketchy minority neighborhoods (where there was a fight complete with police and paramedics) and then discovering we were only half way there, we decided to go ahead and take the Metro. It was a good decision because we were there in no time!

The Atomic thing is basically huge, silver, pointless and supposed to represent an atom. It was built in the '60s. I think you are allowed to climb up into it and look around but we got there after it was closed and it also cost something outrageous like €16. We took some pictures then walked back to the Metro stop where a nice man helped us find our way back.

Once back at the old main square area, we got some fries with ketchup and mayo (surprisingly tasty!) and a little later, a BELGIAN WAFFLE! It was pretty tasty too. After that we headed back to the slightly scary hotel, where we took exciting showers, repacked everything then got to bed.

Me (lookin a little crazy), waffle, peeing boy

Eurotrip: Amsterdam Mayhem

Day 11 - You Pronounce it "Aahm-staah-daahm" (when you sing it in Dutch, anyway)

Partly to make up for spending half a day on the train the day before, Sarah and I got up early (7:30!) and rented bikes! Clearly I had a great time last time I got to ride around a city on a bike (Munich, anyone?) so I was very excited to get back on a bike in a new city, especially one that was bike-friendly. The friendly bike renter guy gave us a map and showed us where nice places to ride were, then Sarah and I jumped on our sweet red bikes and headed out. Sarah wanted to see the Red Light district (me, not so much) so we decided to go there first thing while it was still daylight and not as sketchy.

So our first stop of the day was the inner, inner circle of the rings of canals. We stopped at a bridge and managed to find a spot to lock up our rides (which took about 8 minutes- we had a wheel lock and chain with a key for security) then- we walked into Chinatown. The next street over was the actual Red Light district and it looked innocent enough. We came across a movie being filmed, so we stopped for a look, along with a small crowd. It involved a few girls in a few windows and a guy on a tractor. I have no idea what the movie was about, but they rehearsed the tractor man pulling up to this shop and the guy getting off about 12 times... and by then I was bored.

So, down the street we continued, passing by tulip bulb stands, marijuana stores and every type of x-rated shop you can think of. Since it was still early, there weren't too many women in the windows... but there were a few. The experience of this one street was distressing and I was very glad to get back to my bike and ride away from there.

Since I had the map, I was the leader all day. However, we just rode around, taking pictures of statues whenever we saw them and mostly just petaled around in no particular direction and no destination in mind. Sarah had heard of the Heineken Experience and wanted to go there, but it wasn't on my maps and we didn't know where it was. I told her (since I didn't really want to go, thinking it would be like Anheuser-Busch 5 minutes away from my house) that we would go-- if we found it (again, thinking it was totally unlikely in the huge city). For some reason, I only had one spare battery in my backpack and of course, my camera's battery light when on. So, a little before lunch time, we decided to stop by at the hostel so I could get fresh batteries. We petaled over a bridge and suddenly right in front of us was-- you guessed it-- the Heineken brewery!

And what luck- I am glad we made our little bargain and found the brewery when we did, because it was awesome! It was nothing like the brewery by my house (which I've been to millions of times) including the price (free at home- and €11 for an Experience). We made sure to get our 11 euros worth out of it, so we took a few hours and did the self-guided tour right, reading every label and watching practically every video available. We got a few tokens for beer and a free gift (a bottle opener, how apt!) and my favorite part was the video email we sent of the both of us lip-syncing in front of a green screen to some traditional Dutch tune! It was hilarious, and unfortunately, I only got to see it once before it got deleted, otherwise I would put it right here!

We passed the rest of the day wandering around looking for things: a place to eat, an ice cream place that we had a coupon for, and eventually the "I amsterdam" sign. Here's what it is:

We rode thru a few parks and just enjoyed the scenery for a while then decided to head back to the hostel for the night. We stopped at a shop and had a cup of tea to warm us up and there, Sarah bought some legal "plant matter" for about €2.50. After dropping our bikes at the hostel and adding a few layers for warmth, we found a nearby and tiny park and Sarah lit up! We hung out for a few hours (me eating candy the whole time) then headed to bed.

Check out the funky statue in our park!

Fave Photo

Isle of Skye

(May)

According to my tourguide, Scotland rarely has weather like this and the mountians in the background are usually not visible! I just like all the blue in this one.

Eurotrip: On to Amsterdam

Day 10 - Amsterdam is Chock Full of Bikes

We spent half the day on the train, which I know Sarah didn't like esp since we had to stop someplace for what seemed like a million hours (I think it was only 10 minutes, but anyway...). It was still drizzly in Germany when we woke up which made me feel a little less guilty about not having seen ANY of Heidelberg except the woods! So not much happened on the train... except this girl sat down near us for most of the ride and for some reason, she really bugged us. So, Sarah and I talked about how much she was annoying us until she stopped one of the train people and asked them a question-- in English! We were horrified, to say the least but thankfully, we soon arrived in Amsterdam.

One of the first observations we made about this city is "look at all the BIKES!" There had to be about about a thousand of them at this little parking garage place right outside of the train station (not even exaggerating!!). It was INSANE!! Amsterdam is also arranged around a bunch of canals that are in a ring pattern, which I guess is a little helpful because you can pretty much figure out where you are and where to go if you know which canal you are at.

We passed on the €1 map at the info desk and used my printed out directions to get to the hostel, which took such a long time! Once we arrived (it was a Christen hostel which didn't allow drinking, smoking, alcohol, drugs or being drunk or under the influence of anything) we dropped our stuff and decided to head straight to the Anne Frank museum.

It was pretty much across the canal at the end of the street. Very sobering place, but good to see after reading her diary. There were little videos or things to look at in each room, and no furniture. There was one room at the very end that focused on the impact of Anne's diary and it had a display of the book in about 60 different languages as well as three screens showing different version of her diary in movies and on stage. I noted in my daily journal that I didn't really focus on the actual rooms I went thru, I think because there was so much other stuff to look at besides the small, empty rooms.

After the museum, we headed out to find some grub. We walked down a few streets and across some canals looking for cheap food and finally decided on an Italian place. After finishing our delicious dindin, we decided to just walk and let Amsterdam show us something exciting. Amsterdam is filled with graffiti (which I thought was pretty cool!) and we passed a tiny picture of a gnome... then another... and then another! I call this the Gnome Series:










We found the single open grocery store and got some cookies and water. I also had to get deodorant having just run out- which I thought was annoying because I only had about 5 days left in Europe! So I got some crazy liquid stuff that rolls on... very interesting stuff.... Also in the grocery store, the lady in front of us asked Sarah about the candy she was buying. Then once outside, the same lady came up to us as and asked if we were American. We had a long chat (with her doing most of the talking!) and found out that she was from Chili and that she was a feminist. Eventually, we parted ways and then it began sprinkling.

Sarah and I walked quickly, but no use! The rain came anyway so we stopped a few times under awnings to try to stay dry as well as get our bearings. We ended up stopping right by the Anne Frank house with an old Irish couple who were also waiting for the rain to let up. They were very friendly and nice and we talked for a little while until the rain calmed down. Once back in our room (which we were sharing with 18 other girls) we hung up our wet stuff all over the place which was hard because it was so cramped!

Fun Picture Link

Here is a link for my album on Facebook which has a series of pictures of me "pondering" various locations in Europe! You don't need to sign in to see it:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2064541&id=11001360&l=4ae0e76665

Eurotrip: Salzburg to Heidelberg

Day 9 - Welcome to Heidelberg

Although Austria was lovely, Sarah and I had to move on in order to hit all of our Eurail countries. So after packing up and checking out of the hostel, we enquired at the train station of the next departure to Heidelberg, Germany! We decided against Berlin because it was way too far away and both agreed being on a train for 24 hours or something was not a whole lot of fun. So, Heidelberg and Frankfurt were our choices for mid-way-thru-Germany cities that we had actually heard of, and Heidelberg won. The next train was noontime, so we had breakfast and for our few spare hours, basked in the sun in the Mirabellgarten.

This, I learned from our Sound of Music crash course, was ripe full of movie locations. So after my breakfast had digested, I left Sarah to get a sunburn (she wanted it!) and found not only the little greens covered tunnel where the kids frolic thru, but also the statue that all the kids tap on the head. I especially wanted to find this statue, since in one of our 60 photo albums, there's a picture of Dad posing with it/ like it. This one:

like father, like daughter?

I collected Sarah and we paused and did a photo shoot at the frolic-thru-the-garden area. It was hilarious. Thankfully, the greens were grown in, so not too many people watched us do this:

After we took our pictures, it was about time to get to the train, so we grabbed our stuff and got right onto our waiting train. About an hour into our ride, a group of about 8 old ladies got on and shamelessly kicked us out of our seats! We were outraged. They, however, had reserved the seats, so we grudgingly moved. We had to switch trains one stop from Heidelberg, and the ride was only like 10 minutes, but I enjoyed it because I finally got to ride on the top level of a double decker!! There weren't any overhead racks, so Sarah and I took up 2 seats each- one for us and one for our enormous backpacks.

We got out at our destination, and it was sprinkling. We shrugged it off and wolfed down some pizza in the station for dinner (since we weren't very smart and hadn't packed lunch. oops) Since we hadn't picked Heidelberg until the day or 2 before, we had no hostel picks from online. My big guidebook, however, had a few so we picked one close to the castle and headed to the info booth. We asked for a map and the lady was like, "sure! it's 2 euros." Sarah and I were like "WHAT?" and decided amongst ourselves that she was being outrageous- all of our other maps had been free! There was a big map right there on the counter, so we checked it out real quick then whipped out our rain gear and headed out.

I was pretty confident in my sense of direction/ map reading skillz, so I picked the likely direction towards the castle and we busted out. In the rain. With our huge backpacks. I was using my guide book's map, but it didn't have the train station on it, so we were basically guessing which way to go. We walked. And then, bad news: we hit the river, which meant we were going in NOT the right direction. So we turned right, crossed the street and walked in some neighborhood. The road we were on kind of ended in the direction we were going, but there was a parallel road. We were standing on that corner when a very nice man (pushing a stroller) asked us if we needed directions. I guess we looked a little confused! We showed him the dinky map in the guide book and he pointed which direction to go as well what to do to get to the hostel (it involved either walking or taking the public transportation).

We felt a lot better to have someone orient us and found the plaza the guy pointed us towards. We did a little dance when we got there, but after trying to figure out which bus we were supposed to take, we kind of stopped being so happy. The guy had told us it would be about 30 minutes to walk to the hostel from the plaza, and since it was raining and our pants and socks were getting soaked, we thought taking the bus would be a good investment and a good idea. The problem was how confusing the bus map thing was. There were about 10 lines, 3 different types of buses/ tram things and everything was going in opposite directions. We wanted to go towards the castle, so we narrowed it down to 3 lines that seemed like they were going near our hostel.

We eventually just sat in a little shelter thing and debated if we should sneak onto a bus (we picked #39) and attempt to find the hostel or just get a hotel and save Heidelberg for the next time. We spent probably 30 minutes just resting and debating. Eventually, we decided- yes, hotel tonight, let's go. Then bus #39 pulled up- the one that only came every hour. We looked at each other, then Sarah was like, "Let's get on! Why not?!" so we scrambled on with about 10 other people and a dude with a bike.

It turns out that bus #39 was not the right bus at all- so we had a nice hour long tour of the woods around Heidelberg! At one point, we were the only people left on the bus, and the bus driver just stopped! We were scared (maybe just a little) but Sarah asked him what the deal was and he told her the route was a giant loop- and this was the midway. We jumped off #39 back at the main plaza and decided no more buses, get a hotel!

So that's what we did. We picked up dinner on the way (it included chips, cherry coke and candy) and went to the hotel practically on top of the train station. Sarah's Mom offered to pay for it, so I would like to thank her again right now for sponsoring us: THANK YOU!!

Photo EXTRAVAGANZA! part 2

Some more super pictures from my travels - London...

Westminster Abbey (Feb)

***

The following are of the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace (this was during a break in the weather... after I took these, it got cloudy again and started pouring!)

Eurotrip: Salzburg & the Sound of Music

Day 8 - The Hills are Alive...!

The Sound of Music-- a pretty classic movie I would say-- did you know that Austrians don't really even know what it is? Yeah, apparently "sound of music" doesn't translate into German or something, so they have another version of the story. But without all the catchy tunes, unfortunately for them! However, thankfully for me and my fellow English speakers, we have the great movie AND a tour that goes with it! For about 30 euros, we did the touristy thing and hopped on a brightly painted bus and saw a bunch of locations they used for the movie (and of course learned about Maria's story on the way).

After breakfast, we watched the movie (the hostel played it everyday on the wide screen tv) and I enjoyed it- it was a lot better than I remembered! We had plenty of time to get over to the plaza where the tour left from and conveniently, there was even a lady right there selling a variety of pretzels for lunch! We ate our pizza pretzels outside then decided we should get on the bus at some point and try for a good seat. Then, we were on our way!

The first stop was the lake where scenes at the back of the house were filmed, including when Maria and Capt. Von Trapp dance, where Maria and the kids all fall into the lake and where the kids all hung off the trees, picking fruit (or something like that). We didn't spend that much time there, just long enough to take some crazy pictures then it was back on the bus!

Salzburg was set up kind of interestingly from the other side of the castle- it was pretty much flatness and fields. (I guess the city was pretty flat too, but there were no buildings or trees on the side we were on). Anyway, we drove by the "front" of the house location (where Maria sings "I have confidence" and where the family tries to sneak out with the car at the end) which was pretty much in the middle of a field and not really near the lake either. We also saw the Abbey, which is on top of the big hill with the castle- interesting fact- none of the movie was filmed inside the Abbey only the scenes at the gate were the actual building!

Next stop was the gazebo- "I am 16 going on 17"- yep, where Liesl and Rolfe danced a little and sang a bit. However... it was locked shut because a few years ago, an 86 year old lady was pretending to be Liesl, slipped off the bench (or just missed it) and ended up with a broken hip!

We left Salzburg at this point and took a nice drive into the mountains and ended up at my *gold star location* of probably all of Europe: a summer toboggan run! At first I decided I didn't want to pay for it. I sat for about 5 minutes, then eventually changed my mind (1- I am in Europe. 2- I have done winter tobogganing, but not summer. 3- it's not even €4 4- it looks like a ton of fun) and Sarah and I were all in. She gave her camera to our tour guide, and I kept mine then we hooked up the toboggan, took a seat and got pulled to the top!

The view:


We decided that to do this thing right, we had to go full speed the entire way down. I volunteered to be the driver, so I got to be in the front. I tried to be as slow as I could so there would be lots of space between us and the lady in front of us (who was telling her kids that she would be slow, so she would be behind them). We clambered on... and then we were off! Little less than halfway down, we had to screech to a halt because Slow Lady and her 3 kids were stopped for some unknown reason (I guessed that someone fell off, so everyone stopped so they wouldn't run him over). Fortunately, no one was right behind us, so after they all started to go again I had some time to let them get a good head start. Then, as some grandparents came around the corner behind us, I let'er rip and didn't brake until we were in danger of crashing into the end of the course!


I think people could hear us down at the bottom of the mountain- we were yelling and hooting the whole way down and just having a good time! It was so much fun- I would recommend this tour, even a trip to the city of Salzburg to take this tour so you can toboggan. Seriously! After that amazing-ness, we piled back on the bus, took a quick stop at a really beautiful spot that overlooked a town called St. Gilgen and a lake, Lake Wolfgang, then drove to the pretty town of Modsee.


Modsee was another film location, this time used for the wedding scene of Maria and the Captain. (Obviously, it wasn't filmed in the Abbey, since no filming was allowed there.) The cathedral was nice. It was yellow (unusual!) but it fit in with the other buildings around the town, which were brightly painted. We had about 45 minutes to wander around, so I took some pictures and Sarah got apple strudel then it was back on the bus and back to Salzburg!

Once we were back in town, we wandered around for a LONG time looking for the beergarden our tour guide recommended. We got some help and finally found the place. I was very excited to finally have some real, traditional Bavarian food! We ate outside next to a live band. It was really great! After dinner, Sarah and I took a stroll along the river and enjoyed the nice weather. This was pretty much a great day. The tour was super (it was enhanced by the fact we had seen it immediately before taking the tour AND they played the soundtrack during the drive), the weather was amazing, and the scenery was gorgeous. (It actually reminded me a lot of NH- except the Alps made it much more dramatic than home.)