First off... I'm sad that no one has commented on the last post yet. :( Let me hide my tears.
Ok. I know I already talked about Paris, but let me reiterate the awesomeness of our trip to France.
Blah blah, pulled into Strasbourg, took the TGV the next day to Paris, came back, got a reasonably solid nights sleep. The next morning we took a train to Luxembourg and spent the day there. but the day isn't done yet!!! then we hopped on a City Night Line train towards Hamburg. Hamburg is a LONG train ride from Luxembourg. We spent a couple HOURS in Hamburg looking at miniature model trains. Miniature Wunderland or something like that. Then we hopped on a train and headed south to Bacharach. Awesome German town.
The next day was a castle trip to Berg Eltz. Very awesome castle. Very awesome English-speaking tour. Always a good thing.
Tomorrow holds some Rhine River cruising and another castle.
30 May 2009
28 May 2009
Leaving France
Yeah yeah, I know... I'm slacking off.
But first, a HUGE thanks to everyone who's been keeping up with this blog and/or leaving me comments. I love you guys!
Lets see here... Zurich was pretty... nice looking? We pretty much pulled in to the city late at night and took a stroll down the river/lake the next morning before the train pulled out. The lake was gorgeous, and clean looking (American lakes could take notes on this and follow). Besides the abundance of EuroPride Zürich 09 flags, theres nothing to report here.
Lucerne had the same pretty lake theme going on. And it was a HOT HOT HOT day, so everyone was out tannning/swimming. Ewww old men in Speedos. BLECH!!! We walked around in the old town, looking at shops and old buildings. They have some war monument that is a lion, and that was pretty cool. I watched a very twitchy baby bird harass its mother for food. Besides that, it was a quiet town.
I wasn't so impressed with Bern. Although we had a nice hike by the lake, we arrived at the bear pits to find that all the bears had died of old age and they were building a new bear area. The new bears were still housed in the zoo. So no bears for us. We took a walk up the old town streets and found Einstein's apartment (but I didn't want to pay 9 swiss franks to go inside).
After that, it was on to FRANCE!!! haha. Nothing too exciting happened the first night there, but yesterday we took the TGV (which is a really fast train which tops out at 250 km/hr or something like that) to Paris. It was a cloudy, gloomy day, and it was threatening to rain the entire time. Because it was pouring cats, dogs, and... sheep... we didn't go up into the Eiffel Tower. We stopped for lunch in an English-style pub (i wanted fish and chips). Then we visited the Arc de Triomphe. It was pretty awesome looking. We weren't too impressed with the Louvre. It was rather stuffy inside. But thats ok. It was still kind of nifty before I got tired. We took another TGV back to Strasbourg where we have been staying.
But now we're leaving for Luxembourg and Hamburg. Yippee!!
Nearing the end of our trip here. :(
But first, a HUGE thanks to everyone who's been keeping up with this blog and/or leaving me comments. I love you guys!
Lets see here... Zurich was pretty... nice looking? We pretty much pulled in to the city late at night and took a stroll down the river/lake the next morning before the train pulled out. The lake was gorgeous, and clean looking (American lakes could take notes on this and follow). Besides the abundance of EuroPride Zürich 09 flags, theres nothing to report here.
Lucerne had the same pretty lake theme going on. And it was a HOT HOT HOT day, so everyone was out tannning/swimming. Ewww old men in Speedos. BLECH!!! We walked around in the old town, looking at shops and old buildings. They have some war monument that is a lion, and that was pretty cool. I watched a very twitchy baby bird harass its mother for food. Besides that, it was a quiet town.
I wasn't so impressed with Bern. Although we had a nice hike by the lake, we arrived at the bear pits to find that all the bears had died of old age and they were building a new bear area. The new bears were still housed in the zoo. So no bears for us. We took a walk up the old town streets and found Einstein's apartment (but I didn't want to pay 9 swiss franks to go inside).
After that, it was on to FRANCE!!! haha. Nothing too exciting happened the first night there, but yesterday we took the TGV (which is a really fast train which tops out at 250 km/hr or something like that) to Paris. It was a cloudy, gloomy day, and it was threatening to rain the entire time. Because it was pouring cats, dogs, and... sheep... we didn't go up into the Eiffel Tower. We stopped for lunch in an English-style pub (i wanted fish and chips). Then we visited the Arc de Triomphe. It was pretty awesome looking. We weren't too impressed with the Louvre. It was rather stuffy inside. But thats ok. It was still kind of nifty before I got tired. We took another TGV back to Strasbourg where we have been staying.
But now we're leaving for Luxembourg and Hamburg. Yippee!!
Nearing the end of our trip here. :(
23 May 2009
A quick blog this time
This is to compensate for yesterday's novel. haha
Today we visited the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, outside of Munich. It was really sobering. Really sobering is an understatement actually. I'm not really sure what to say beyond that. I didn't take any photos because it just didn't feel right.
Now for some updated plans for the next couple days. Tomorrow is our Castle Day in southern Germany before we head to Switzerland (Zürich and Lucerne). Beyond that our plans have changed. The weather is looking stormy in the Alps, so we're ditching that plan of action, and instead heading to Strasbourg (in France) and then to Paris for a day. Then back to Strasbourg, up to Luxembourg, then on to Hamburg (to look a bunch of model trains, a really large set up actually), then back to the Rhine to finish out our trip. It should be a lot of fun (even though its a LOT of train travel).
I'm thinking that's all for now. Its going to be an early morning tomorrow as we're catching an 0551 train to Fussen.
Until next time!! (hopefully wifi in Zürich or Lucerne?)
Today we visited the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, outside of Munich. It was really sobering. Really sobering is an understatement actually. I'm not really sure what to say beyond that. I didn't take any photos because it just didn't feel right.
Now for some updated plans for the next couple days. Tomorrow is our Castle Day in southern Germany before we head to Switzerland (Zürich and Lucerne). Beyond that our plans have changed. The weather is looking stormy in the Alps, so we're ditching that plan of action, and instead heading to Strasbourg (in France) and then to Paris for a day. Then back to Strasbourg, up to Luxembourg, then on to Hamburg (to look a bunch of model trains, a really large set up actually), then back to the Rhine to finish out our trip. It should be a lot of fun (even though its a LOT of train travel).
I'm thinking that's all for now. Its going to be an early morning tomorrow as we're catching an 0551 train to Fussen.
Until next time!! (hopefully wifi in Zürich or Lucerne?)
22 May 2009
Greetings from Munich
Hey everyone!
After a couple days of wifi-less existence (a truly horrid thing I assure you), we have arrived in Munich.
Let me bring you up to date with what's happened as of late.
First off a few observations:
-beer is indeed cheaper than water and soda in Germany/Czech Republic/Austria
-i see a lot of graffiti all over the place. i guess its no worse than DC, but still.
-lots of Europeans smoke. Its like walking through an endless cloud of smoke.
Now for the fun stuff.
After leaving Prague we headed out of the Czech Republic into Austria and to the town of Hallstatt. Which is basically a little tourist town on a lake. The mountain that it sits on literally rises out of the lake. The rise is so sudden that the train station is ACROSS the lake. You take a ferry to get to the town. Apparently this is common in the area, this whole mountains rising out of the lakes. I kind of like it. I also like that schoolkids take the train to and from school, and on field trips. I kind of wish that kind of transportation was readily available in the US. Actually, I wish that the train system in the US just wasn't full of FAIL due to delays and cancellations. MOVING ON...haha
It pretty much poured the day we got into Hallstatt. It was kind of a shame actually. Its a beautiful town (with really yummy fresh caught trout). We stayed at a quaint little B&B (they're called Gasthaus(es) there. Not sure what the plural of Gasthaus is.)
The next day was a tour of the Hallstatt salt mines. It was really cute actually. The poor guide had to give the tour in German (and then add the English translation for us, because my German is not so good). We got to dress up in "saltminer's clothes" (more for the fun of it, but they had a practical use) for the tour. The mines were about 8 degrees Celcius. That should be around 45 F? Rough guess. Its 11pm. I don't want to hurt my brain with conversions. The "miners clothes" added an extra layer of warmth. They also provided cushioning for the slides down to lower levels of the mines.
After that, it was on to Salzburg. Three things Salzburg is known for: Mozart, the Sound of Music, and Red Bull. We avoided the first and the last, but couldn't miss the Sound of Music tour. It was cheezy, yes, but it was a mini-van tour, and it let us see a lot of Salzburg and the surrounding area without a lot of walking.
But wait! I forget myself. before the SOM tour, we took a trip to Burchesgarten/Obersalzburg/Eagles Nest. Whew, hard to spell names. and even before that.... I saw a Ferrari Testarossa. it was in BEAUTIFUL condition. I have some photos.
Ok, back to Obersalzburg. Long story short, Obersalzburg was a Nazi fortress during WWII. 6 of the leaders, including Hitler had homes up on the mountain (which is what Obersalzburg is). It was Hitlers second command post or something like that. The buildings were connected by 6 KILOMETERS of underground tunnels and bunkers. its was absolutely crazy. We got to go inside one of the bunkers (one of the only sections open to the public). then we went up to the Eagles Nest, which was a teahouse on the top of a mountain. To get to it, you take a very narrow, very steep road in it. It goes up the face of the mountain, and has only ONE turn. its a 180 degree hairpin turn. Scary drive indeed. At the top of the mountain, there was still lots of snow. I lobbed a couple snowballs off the edge of the mountain. I couldn't even see/hear them hit anything.
The trip to Burchesgarten made Germany the fourth country vistited (the list including England, Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany). And we'd just finished our first of three weeks here.
The last day in Salzburg was spent on the cheezy Sound of Music tour. Which took a break at a luge place. So I went luge-ing. it was...exciting. Following that, we headed towards the old town to see some of the sights, and ended up watching an old car race for a while. The cars were old Jaguars, Corvettes, Porches, Mercades-Benz, and Ferrari, among others. It was awesome to watch their owners parade them around, and really open them up on the streets (some of them went FAST). Then it was off to the Augusteiner monastery for a couple liters of brew. Thats right. I said LITERS. They served their beer in liter mugs (or half liters, but we opted for a liter each). A liter is a crazy amount of alcohol to be consumed. Once that was finished, we headed to our place of stay for the night (another gasthaus) and did some laundry.
(WHEW!! Getting caught up here)
The following morning we were off to MUNICH (see told you I was almost caught up). The morning was spent in the Deutches Museum (which is kind of like the Smithsonian). It was... about as exciting as trying to see all of the Smithsonians at once. Too much to see, not enough energy on our part. haha. So we bailed and ran through the rain to a Beerhall. This place also served its brew in liter mugs, so we had some of that which we ate some weird potato dish and a mushroom dish along with some pretzels. MMMM pretzels. but man, the liter took a long time to drink.
and thats where we are now. back in the hotel that we're staying in. Its in the main part of town (i'm pretty sure there are some casinos and strip clubs near by, kind of creepy actually).
Tomorrow we're going to visit the concentration camp memorial that is outside of Munich. I forget which one it is off the top of my head (and more importantly how to spell it), so I'll provide the name tomorrow night.
After that, it'll be off to Fussen for some castles and into Switzerland for the (nearly) home stretch. There's still a lot to go, but hopefully not a lot of big cities left.
(and hopefully more Wifi so i don't have to dump long entries on you guys at once.)
Until next time!
After a couple days of wifi-less existence (a truly horrid thing I assure you), we have arrived in Munich.
Let me bring you up to date with what's happened as of late.
First off a few observations:
-beer is indeed cheaper than water and soda in Germany/Czech Republic/Austria
-i see a lot of graffiti all over the place. i guess its no worse than DC, but still.
-lots of Europeans smoke. Its like walking through an endless cloud of smoke.
Now for the fun stuff.
After leaving Prague we headed out of the Czech Republic into Austria and to the town of Hallstatt. Which is basically a little tourist town on a lake. The mountain that it sits on literally rises out of the lake. The rise is so sudden that the train station is ACROSS the lake. You take a ferry to get to the town. Apparently this is common in the area, this whole mountains rising out of the lakes. I kind of like it. I also like that schoolkids take the train to and from school, and on field trips. I kind of wish that kind of transportation was readily available in the US. Actually, I wish that the train system in the US just wasn't full of FAIL due to delays and cancellations. MOVING ON...haha
It pretty much poured the day we got into Hallstatt. It was kind of a shame actually. Its a beautiful town (with really yummy fresh caught trout). We stayed at a quaint little B&B (they're called Gasthaus(es) there. Not sure what the plural of Gasthaus is.)
The next day was a tour of the Hallstatt salt mines. It was really cute actually. The poor guide had to give the tour in German (and then add the English translation for us, because my German is not so good). We got to dress up in "saltminer's clothes" (more for the fun of it, but they had a practical use) for the tour. The mines were about 8 degrees Celcius. That should be around 45 F? Rough guess. Its 11pm. I don't want to hurt my brain with conversions. The "miners clothes" added an extra layer of warmth. They also provided cushioning for the slides down to lower levels of the mines.
After that, it was on to Salzburg. Three things Salzburg is known for: Mozart, the Sound of Music, and Red Bull. We avoided the first and the last, but couldn't miss the Sound of Music tour. It was cheezy, yes, but it was a mini-van tour, and it let us see a lot of Salzburg and the surrounding area without a lot of walking.
But wait! I forget myself. before the SOM tour, we took a trip to Burchesgarten/Obersalzburg/Eagles Nest. Whew, hard to spell names. and even before that.... I saw a Ferrari Testarossa. it was in BEAUTIFUL condition. I have some photos.
Ok, back to Obersalzburg. Long story short, Obersalzburg was a Nazi fortress during WWII. 6 of the leaders, including Hitler had homes up on the mountain (which is what Obersalzburg is). It was Hitlers second command post or something like that. The buildings were connected by 6 KILOMETERS of underground tunnels and bunkers. its was absolutely crazy. We got to go inside one of the bunkers (one of the only sections open to the public). then we went up to the Eagles Nest, which was a teahouse on the top of a mountain. To get to it, you take a very narrow, very steep road in it. It goes up the face of the mountain, and has only ONE turn. its a 180 degree hairpin turn. Scary drive indeed. At the top of the mountain, there was still lots of snow. I lobbed a couple snowballs off the edge of the mountain. I couldn't even see/hear them hit anything.
The trip to Burchesgarten made Germany the fourth country vistited (the list including England, Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany). And we'd just finished our first of three weeks here.
The last day in Salzburg was spent on the cheezy Sound of Music tour. Which took a break at a luge place. So I went luge-ing. it was...exciting. Following that, we headed towards the old town to see some of the sights, and ended up watching an old car race for a while. The cars were old Jaguars, Corvettes, Porches, Mercades-Benz, and Ferrari, among others. It was awesome to watch their owners parade them around, and really open them up on the streets (some of them went FAST). Then it was off to the Augusteiner monastery for a couple liters of brew. Thats right. I said LITERS. They served their beer in liter mugs (or half liters, but we opted for a liter each). A liter is a crazy amount of alcohol to be consumed. Once that was finished, we headed to our place of stay for the night (another gasthaus) and did some laundry.
(WHEW!! Getting caught up here)
The following morning we were off to MUNICH (see told you I was almost caught up). The morning was spent in the Deutches Museum (which is kind of like the Smithsonian). It was... about as exciting as trying to see all of the Smithsonians at once. Too much to see, not enough energy on our part. haha. So we bailed and ran through the rain to a Beerhall. This place also served its brew in liter mugs, so we had some of that which we ate some weird potato dish and a mushroom dish along with some pretzels. MMMM pretzels. but man, the liter took a long time to drink.
and thats where we are now. back in the hotel that we're staying in. Its in the main part of town (i'm pretty sure there are some casinos and strip clubs near by, kind of creepy actually).
Tomorrow we're going to visit the concentration camp memorial that is outside of Munich. I forget which one it is off the top of my head (and more importantly how to spell it), so I'll provide the name tomorrow night.
After that, it'll be off to Fussen for some castles and into Switzerland for the (nearly) home stretch. There's still a lot to go, but hopefully not a lot of big cities left.
(and hopefully more Wifi so i don't have to dump long entries on you guys at once.)
Until next time!
17 May 2009
The last day in Prague
Day three was pretty much spent in the Little Town and the Castle Quarter. The majority of the morning was spent wandering the Prague Castle Grounds and the Cathedral that was inside the castle.
The only problem with the Castle Quarter is that it is ALL uphill from the hostel, and the cobblestones are uncomfortable on the feet. :(
But it was worth it. The views from the Castle were amazing, and so was the architecture. We tried to see the Changing of the Castle Guard, but a HUGE crowd had gathered, and I am just too short to see over the heads of people.
Lunch was a sandwich and another glass bottle of Pepsi (I wish I'd saved the labels, they were cool), and it was time to check out some of the souvenir stores. They have a lot of glassware and amber stuff, but those are too fragile to take for the rest of the trip. :(
Dinner was in a nice dungeon, haha. They had good food, and I pulled the Czech labels off my Coke bottle to bring home. After that, it was off towards home.
We discovered that Batman drives a smart car, and found a couple Mercades-Benz cars, and an Aston Martin.
Overall a good last day in Prague.
The only problem with the Castle Quarter is that it is ALL uphill from the hostel, and the cobblestones are uncomfortable on the feet. :(
But it was worth it. The views from the Castle were amazing, and so was the architecture. We tried to see the Changing of the Castle Guard, but a HUGE crowd had gathered, and I am just too short to see over the heads of people.
Lunch was a sandwich and another glass bottle of Pepsi (I wish I'd saved the labels, they were cool), and it was time to check out some of the souvenir stores. They have a lot of glassware and amber stuff, but those are too fragile to take for the rest of the trip. :(
Dinner was in a nice dungeon, haha. They had good food, and I pulled the Czech labels off my Coke bottle to bring home. After that, it was off towards home.
We discovered that Batman drives a smart car, and found a couple Mercades-Benz cars, and an Aston Martin.
Overall a good last day in Prague.
16 May 2009
Day 2
Greetings again!
Day 2 was relatively uneventful. The day started off pretty nicely with a wonderful (free) breakfast of cereal and orange juice. We even managed to get a good nights sleep (which can probably be difficult in a hostel).
Next it was off to the Museum of Communism. It was pretty fascinating stuff to say the least. The exhibits themselves were a little dry for my tastes (kind of boring actually) but it was good stuff.
Then it was time to find lunch. One of Dad's guidebooks directed us towards a pizza place near an Absinth Store. The sheer amount of liquor and beer stores were astonishing. Almost as astonishing as some of the glassware sold in other stores. Th pizza was decent, I though, and I had Pepsi in a bottle. A glass bottle. It was kind of weird, actually (the look, not the taste) especially since it had a Czech label.
Its also kind of hard to get around the language barrier. Czech resembles Russian more that it resembles German, so I'm unfamiliar with it.
There was a carnival in one of the parks, so we hung out there for a little while, taking the opportunity to rest our eyes.
We toured more of the town and examined some buildings before heading to a beer hall to sample the local dark beer. While we were there, an accordion player was serenading the patio. It was really cool.
After that we headed up to the Old Town Square to watch the clock chime the hour. The clock did some pretty cool things while it chimed (some figures whirled around inside, taking turns peering out the windows). We never managed to figure out how to read the bottom clock. I couldn't tell if it said the hour, or the day and the month. It definitely indicated astrological signs though.
Then it was time for dinner. This time it was a patio cafe in the Old Town Square's center. The food was so so, but we watched several people dressed in fake-bloodstained clothes with white stage make up on walk by. I'm not quite sure why they were dressed that way, probably for a show or something.
Now its back to the hostel for updating the Flickr site, posting some pictures and resting up for tomorrow.
Tomorrow's agenda: Visit Prague Castle and tour the New Town.
Day 2 was relatively uneventful. The day started off pretty nicely with a wonderful (free) breakfast of cereal and orange juice. We even managed to get a good nights sleep (which can probably be difficult in a hostel).
Next it was off to the Museum of Communism. It was pretty fascinating stuff to say the least. The exhibits themselves were a little dry for my tastes (kind of boring actually) but it was good stuff.
Then it was time to find lunch. One of Dad's guidebooks directed us towards a pizza place near an Absinth Store. The sheer amount of liquor and beer stores were astonishing. Almost as astonishing as some of the glassware sold in other stores. Th pizza was decent, I though, and I had Pepsi in a bottle. A glass bottle. It was kind of weird, actually (the look, not the taste) especially since it had a Czech label.
Its also kind of hard to get around the language barrier. Czech resembles Russian more that it resembles German, so I'm unfamiliar with it.
There was a carnival in one of the parks, so we hung out there for a little while, taking the opportunity to rest our eyes.
We toured more of the town and examined some buildings before heading to a beer hall to sample the local dark beer. While we were there, an accordion player was serenading the patio. It was really cool.
After that we headed up to the Old Town Square to watch the clock chime the hour. The clock did some pretty cool things while it chimed (some figures whirled around inside, taking turns peering out the windows). We never managed to figure out how to read the bottom clock. I couldn't tell if it said the hour, or the day and the month. It definitely indicated astrological signs though.
Then it was time for dinner. This time it was a patio cafe in the Old Town Square's center. The food was so so, but we watched several people dressed in fake-bloodstained clothes with white stage make up on walk by. I'm not quite sure why they were dressed that way, probably for a show or something.
Now its back to the hostel for updating the Flickr site, posting some pictures and resting up for tomorrow.
Tomorrow's agenda: Visit Prague Castle and tour the New Town.
15 May 2009
Prague!!
Finally. A journey that began at 745 yesterday morning has culminated in bedtime in Prague.
It is currently 2055 local time (thats 855 pm) and its been a very long day. Planes are always difficult to get solid sleep on, so I have effectively been up for 36 hours. The hour nap during the layover in London hardly counts.
I found myself extraordinarily pleased with British Airways. Not only were their seats quite comfortable, but they served a very nice chicken salad sandwich for lunch.
Upon arriving in Prague, we had to catch a shuttle from the airport to the hostel where we will be staying for the next three nighs. It wasn't too much difficulty, at least i didn't think so. We were off the plane, through customs and on the shuttle within an hour. It was really nice.
Then it was off to get our bearing for the next couple days and explore the town. Besides all the smokers, it really is a nice town. I think the next couple days are going to be really nice.
Next up (tomorrow): Museum of Communism and more exploring.
It is currently 2055 local time (thats 855 pm) and its been a very long day. Planes are always difficult to get solid sleep on, so I have effectively been up for 36 hours. The hour nap during the layover in London hardly counts.
I found myself extraordinarily pleased with British Airways. Not only were their seats quite comfortable, but they served a very nice chicken salad sandwich for lunch.
Upon arriving in Prague, we had to catch a shuttle from the airport to the hostel where we will be staying for the next three nighs. It wasn't too much difficulty, at least i didn't think so. We were off the plane, through customs and on the shuttle within an hour. It was really nice.
Then it was off to get our bearing for the next couple days and explore the town. Besides all the smokers, it really is a nice town. I think the next couple days are going to be really nice.
Next up (tomorrow): Museum of Communism and more exploring.
13 May 2009
TOMORROW!!
Tomorrow will be the day. I have to wake up early and get down to Raleigh for my flight. Even though the flight isn't until the evening, its best to be early and prepared for anything that might happen.
and then its hopping on a plane, bag swung precariously over my shoulder for an adventure.
Goodbye Virginia, at least for a little while.
Goodbye to my friends, again for a little while.
Check out my flickr album. http://www.flickr.com/photos/thealpengeist
See ya'll soon! My next post should be from Prague.
03 May 2009
11 days
It is strange to think that in a little over a week I'll be in Prague. In a little over a week, I'll be free from classes, free from school, free from most worries.
In a little over a week, I'll be keeping a journal and trying to blog every day or so. I hope to publish at least a blurb every day that I get wireless access.
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