Sarajevo has been absolutely wonderful -- by far one of my favorites. We have a twelve hour train ride to Budapest in the early am to formulate our thoughts and write our next blog...so we're working on it. Daniel has asked me to mention that each of the smaller square pictures in the blog are actually picassa albums - so if you click on them you will find quite a few pictures.
The weather has cooled, our hotel has been amazing, and the city is just wonderful. Much more information to come - we've seen bullet riddled buildings, bazaars, mosques, the site where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated and much more - but for now I am off to sleep for a few hours before we head off to Budapest! :)
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Hvar, Croatia - June 25 and 26, 2008
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| Hvar, Croatia - June 25-26, 2008 |
We are currently on a bus on our way to Sarajevo. We woke up very early this morning to shower and catch the 6:30 am ferry from Hvar to Split and then to take the bus from Split to Sarajevo. We are currently on the mountain roads between Mostar and Sarajevo. We have survived the temperature of our bus, the terrible traffic outside of Split, the twisty, turny roads around Markarska, the Bosnian-Croatian border, and the jarring views of the war torn city of Mostar.
As we have left Western Europe this past week and entered the Balkans we certainly have seen a transition in the conditions of the buildings, facilities, transportation, etc. Though I will admit we only viewed Slovenia from the lens of the train tracks – and I know how scary New Jersey can look from the train headed into New York City, I was a little surprised to see such a stark contrast in economies and living conditions between the West and Slovenia when Slovenia is a country who transitioned so well to the EU after 2004 that they were introduced to the euro in 2007 and are the only 2004 EU annexee to do so.
For lack of a better description – the Balkans have a “2nd World” feel to them. Brodarica was beautiful – a laid back Adriatic coastal town. The buildings weren't prime examples of sophisticated architecture – but neither are the buildings of Key Largo. It had a similar feel. It was a coastal town. The city in which the struggle to comfortably support the population was evident was Split. There were dozens and dozens of high rising apartments that were of a Soviet-met-Adriatic-style, the type of buildings you only see in communist or post-communist societies – the buildings are basically concrete tenements. I will admit that for a city that felt as dirty as Split did, there was little trash to be seen (nothing like the littered streets of Amsterdam). The tourist areas are very nice and well kept, but when you wander off the beaten path you get a much better idea of how the people are really living.
Wednesday morning we woke up and headed on to Hvar. We walked down our six flights of stairs (with only what was asbolutely needed for the night since we had the car...and six flights of stairs to hike up) and drove down to the ferry station to buy tickets. We safely returned the car and made our way down to the loading dock for the catamaran.
The catamaran was especially nice and only took an hour to quickly take us to the island of Hvar. Upon arrival we were bombarded by about a dozen different people all wanting to know if we needed accommodations for tonight. A lot of locals rent out their rooms and pick up travellers at the port – and some travellers rely on this to find a place to sleep for the night. After saying no about fifteen times and asking the right people the right questions I managed to find a man with our hotel shirt on who had a cart to drive our luggage arcross the harbor. The city is essentially a big “U” shape. The catamaran dropped us off at the upper tip of one side and we needed to walk to the upper tip of the other. Possible to do with luggage (we did it this morning), but much more fun to do without.
Hvar, Hvar is beautiful. It truly is right out of a postcard. The buildings line the U shaped harbor and hten stack up, as the island is mountainous. From our balcony we had a perfect view of the houses stacked up onto the hill and the city fortress on at the top. The Italian influence was undeniable as historically Venetian merchants had major trading ties with Hvar. I had been warned by a mainlander in Split that Hvar was more expensive, but as we set out for food it really wasn't any worse than Split.
Now, the ups and downs of Hvar. Ups? The city has a really fun spirit to it, very very pretty, and really felt like a vacation from our vacation. Downs? Our hotel had no air conditioning and it was 95 degrees outside with at least 90% humidity. We had a balcony but could not pick up a breeze to save us. We were on the top floor so the room was truly just baking and stifling. We went to reception to inquire about a fan and the clerk rudely told me (from behind a fan) that there weren't any available to guests.
So we set out to try to remedy our problem in some way. We checked another local hotel to see if we could save face and transfer over...but the next hotel was over 320 euros a night...far far more than our hotel or any hotel we have ever paid for has cost. We began walking to look for shops, if we could buy a fan, perhaps we could improve our situation...we stopped at the tourist info center to see where we could find a store to buy a fan – because stores are much more specialized in Europe. No Walmarts. (Not that that is a bad thing...)
The tourist office said it was actually Croatia's independence day and that all those kinds of stores were closed. Crap. We started checking the supermarkets – some of them have a beach section with touristy things in them – some even have flat screen TV's around the corner from the cereal isle. The third grocery store we found had a fan!!! They had three left and we bought one immediately for 14 dollars. (70 Kuna). Woohoo!
There was a little more than some assembly required, but Daniel managed and we decided that would have to do. If we got too hot otherwise we would take quick cold showers. We decided to get sunblocked up and head down for a dip in the Adriatic. The beaches here aren't our definition of beaches – picture Greece's coastline...jagged, rocky, sharp. Croatia's shore lines are the same way. We quickly discovered that trying to get in along the water's edge was a very bad idea. The rocks were sharp, the ledges were jagged, and after trying for a few minutes we relented and headed to the slightly more crowded pier. From the pier you could jump right in and then just pull yourself back out – so we settled for that.
We swam for quite a while – Daniel was pleasantly surprised to discover that some stretches of the beach (and don't forget by beach I mean rocks) are nudist beaches. Mainly cute topless girls and hairy, overweight old men in speedos. I think I got the short end of the deal. Because it's not sandy, the water is crystal clear and you can easily see 20 or 30 feet down, probably even deeper. When we swam in to get out, I tried to sitck my foot down to see if I could touch – big mistake. While I had looked to see if there was a rock beneath me to touch, I didn't notice that there was also a black/dark purple spiky sea urchin and I stepped right on top of it. I pulled my foot up right away and as I was trying to pull out some of the bigger spikes that were in my foot, I almost slammed my body into the pier – which I simultaneously realized was covered with a vertical wall of spiny sea urchins. I had a bit of a panic moment as I blurted out explitives and tried to swim away from the wall of spikes and nurse my foot. Daniel came to the rescue – although he took two little spikes to the toe and helped me stay afloat while I got the big spikes out and then helped me navigate to shore – because since we couldn't get up the pier we were going to have to climb out on the rocks without stepping on more urchins. The funny part of the story is actually when I was like..."Daniel, it got me, help!" (and showed him my foot) and he was like..."Beth, how on earth did you do that, here let me help you...OW!" (and then held up his foot to reveal two spikes in his toe)...
When stuck by sea urchin spines within a few minutes it starts burning and stinging – a lot like a jelly fish sting. So we weathered the burning and stinging sensations in my foot and Daniel's toe as I limped back to the hotel to tackle my foot with a pair of tweezers. I would love to say the spines just come right out but they don't. After picking for half an hour I had kinda gotten two or three out and decided to abandon the project. We had planned to spend the late afternoon walking through Hvar, but weren't really able. I took some IB profen and worked on some things and took a few hours off. We looked up info and online and decided not to side with the people who said rush to the doctor immediately, but rather the people who said - eh, leave em in, no big deal. I also read somewhere that not every mark is a spine (b/c I have ten to fifteen dark spots in my foot), but that a lot of the marks are just stains from the spines.
I will say that ultimately my foot is fine (by day 3 it didn't hurt at all) and it certainly didn't slow us down more than the few hours that we took off that afternoon. We went out that evening to watch the soccer game between Germany and Turkey and found ourselves at a tuna party. The restaurant had caught a forty kilo tuna that morning and had a special on tuna steaks so Daniel was sold. We spent our evening in a small room with our little table and a large table of ten or twelve Germans, all cheering Germany on – watching their very very exciting win of 3-2 in the last two minutes of the game. Watching the EuroCup in Europe has really been a lot of fun and it's been a great thing to do in the evenings. Daniel had some of the best tuna he's ever had in his life and I actually had my first real steak that I've ever gotten in Europe. On several occasions I have ordered things called “beef steak” but I've never actually gotten steak. I was very pleasantly surprised.
On Thursday we woke up pretty early because we were very hot and had not slept well. We ate breakfast and decided to look into some kind of boat excursion. After asking around we decided to rent a boat for the day! We went out to the store and bought a few snacks, two masks and a snorkel, went back to our room and did some serious sunblocking, and headed out for the day. The boat was due back by 7 pm. Our rental guy showed Daniel the basics, how to drive, anchor, etc, and a map of the local islands, inlets, and bays. We left his drivers license as collateral, paid the guy, and drove off.
The boat couldn't go very fast but we definitely enjoyed puttering around. We anchored off to the side of the main traffic lane and swam around for a little bit – althought getting back in the boat was very tricky (no ladder) – and actually took a fish flopping strategy. After getting in and out three or four times each by the end of the day we have found ourselves full of little sore spots and bruises, but it was a lot of fun. One of the times I actually slammed my forehead into the pole that held up our awning -- Daniel likened my expression to a bird flying into a window. The next stop was an inlet that had several really neat restaurants and a sand beach (the only in the area). Yay! No sea urchins! (Even though they are evidently a delicacy to the Italian families). We spent a few hours here and a few hours at another location snorkeling and checking out the few fish we could spot in the Adriatic. It was a really nice afternoon and the freedom to explore the different coves was really fun. We returned, de-salted in the shower, and headed downstairs to the sports bar and grill in our hotel to watch the semi-final football game between Spain and Russia. This game wasn't as exciting and once Spain was winning 3 to 0 we actually left to work on packing and organizing stuff in our room since we were leaving at 5:30 am.
Hvar? A wonderful, warm, friendly, laid-back, Adriatic port city. A city which would be even more wonderful if there weren't spiky sea urchins along every square foot of the coastline and if there were air conditioners or at the very least fans in the hotel rooms, restaurants, shops, etc. But, we really were glad we had decided to visit – the atmosphere was very unique and fun. And the view of the harbor at 5 am was very serene...and yet anticipatory of yet another vacation day as youth from the night club poured out into the streets at 5 am, loudly laughing and talking about their amazing time while fisherman prepared their boats to head out to find another tuna for another restaurant to have its own tuna party.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Safe arrival in Hvar and Safe return of the Rental Car :)
Checking in -- so the theme of our trip is when the hotel says there will be internet it's not there and when they say no internet available...they actually have internet.
We have safely reached Hvar and are enjoying it quite a bit -- it's a beautiful, beautiful port town. We had a nice one hour catamaran over and have been enjoying the afternoon here. We are off for a swim, but wanted to note that the rental car was returned safely, inspected in front of us, and cleared -- so there is no longer $20,000 pending on our credit card statement! Whew! :)
Off we go!
We have safely reached Hvar and are enjoying it quite a bit -- it's a beautiful, beautiful port town. We had a nice one hour catamaran over and have been enjoying the afternoon here. We are off for a swim, but wanted to note that the rental car was returned safely, inspected in front of us, and cleared -- so there is no longer $20,000 pending on our credit card statement! Whew! :)
Off we go!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Split, Croatia - June 24, 2008
Our Anniversary Picture
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| Split, Croatia -- June 24, 2006 |
Greetings from Split, Croatia :)
I am going to apologize in advance for any weird typing errors. Zs are very common here and take the place of the y on the keyboard -- they are actuallz switched. I still have yet to find the apostrophe...so here goes.
We have had quite an adventurous day. We slept in a little (we are really loving the sleep), enjoyed a nice breakfast, and hit the road to head to Split. It was a nice picturesque drive and we reached Split within the estimated time. Once we go to the city, however, it got more complicated...
We managed to navigate through the city and arrived in Podstrana (the seaside suburb just outside the city where our hotel is located), but then found it nearly impossible to find our hotel. We drove up and down the main road looking for Grzlaska something or the name of our hotel continually coming up drz. We turned down several eensy weensy scary looking side roads labeled with the same name as the road our villa was on only to end up doing a fifteen point turn to get out. We spoke to toothless men as well as guys who spoke no English at all and just talked verz loudlz at us in Croatian...halfway through our Odyessey my need to pee reached desperation and I resorted to seeking solace in someones garden and doing things that men do with much more ease than I. We eventually found our villa, but after a great deal of difficulty. Once we actuallz got here we fell in love with our view and our nice accommodations, but we certainlz have some interesting stories.
We spent the afternoon at Diocletians Palace, looking at really neat Roman ruins, caving and buying some beautiful suveniers, taking care of details like ferry times and bus schedules for our upcoming travel plans, and soaking in Split. It is still quite hot and the city itself seems pretty crowded -- the apartments we saw looked miserable, almost like tenaments. We have had more frustrations in Croatia, but when we succeed in completing a task we feel much more accomplished and successful... I will have to write more later -- it is later than I thought and we have a rental car to return in the morning and a ferry to a beautiful Adriatic island to catch... :)
Oh, and my rant -- Croatia hits the tourists where they can. If you ever thought Orlando tolls were bad...try a toll the equivalent of over 30 US dollars for their highway from the capital to Sibenik. Goodness. It was also over 30 US dollars to enter their National Park. Also a hard hit on the wallet.
Regardless -- we are still having a marvelous time and are very glad to be off the Euro. :)
Salzburg June 21, 2008 and Sibenik June 22-23, 2008
Written the night of June 23, 2008:
It is the eve of our departure from Sibenik, Croatia (also the eve of our second wedding anniversary) and I must admit that I am feeling extremely relaxed and content. Our big worry was whether or not we would get lost on our way from Zagreb to the Guesthouse Zlatna Ribica in Brodarica, Croatia – and we did so with ease. We are currently staying in a beautiful little Adriatic hotel with a brick walk down to the waterside, pretty Mediterranean olive, lime, and apple trees along with grape vines, and! our vehicle to freedom – our rental car!
Okay, so Saturday was a lot of fun. We woke up early, ate a wonderful breakfast at Sallerof and were picked up by a local tourist agency to go on our Sound of Music tour. We started in Mirabelle gardens in Salzburg, boarded a bus and were toured all throughout the city and the outer lying areas. We saw the front of the house used in the movie, the back of the house used in the movie, as well as the gazebo, the lane from “I have confidence” and when the kids are swinging through the trees, along with the church from the wedding, and many other things. We also traveled to the town of Mondsee and were able to sneak away from the group and take some beautiful pictures along the lake and mountains. All in all a good time. Beth bought into the cheesiness and Daniel was very well behaved and tolerated it all quite well.
After being dropped back off at Mirabelle gardens we took a few more pictures (of the tunnel, the fountain, and the steps) and were off to explore the city. We spent the afternoon exploring the interiors of the churches, catching a glimpse of the exterior of Mozart’s birthplace, and hiking the city wall to get a beautiful view of the city. Now, the only problem was that Saturday was extremely warm – beautifully clear and sunny, but very warm to be out and about from 9 am to 6 pm – especially when the majority of the stores and restaurants have no air conditioning. So, I discovered the best way to get Daniel to church is to let him discover that churches are literally the coolest buildings. We spent quite a while exploring nearly all of the local churches and cathedrals. Unfortunately, we did not realize quite how much there was to do and see when you hike up the city wall and walk along the top. We ended up feeling a little pressed for time and were continually concerned about making it up to the fortress in time for the dinner and Mozart concert we had already paid for… Thus, we walked very fast, hiked very quickly, and became very very hot. We arrived at dinner drenched and overheated only to discover that the room dinner was served in was rather warm. I would love to say we had a fabulously romantic dinner and that we relaxed and gazed out the window of the fortress looking at the mountains…but we were dying, the room was stifling, so we continually took turns going to the restrooms (which were cooler – and had icy water you could run on your hands and splash your face with). The old people at the dinner probably thought we had issues. It was pretty bad. And almost all our food was warm so we kept feeling hotter and hotter…
Luckily after dinner we had fifteen extra minutes to step outside. The sun was beginning to go down, the breeze was picking up, and we cooled off considerably and were able to feel much more comfortable in time for our concert. The concert was in a small room off to the side in the fortress – very much the type of concert you would have witnessed back then. It felt like a private performance and was performed by a string quarter (my favorite). Overall we really enjoyed ourselves and Daniel (the harsher critic) was very happy. After the concert we snuck off and snapped a few more pictures of the city at night and had a few minutes of panic as we realized we might have missed the last cable car down and might be stuck up in the fortress overnight…but then ran into the concert performers and knew we would be able to make it down from the high hill. We came home quite tired, relieved to catch the second to last bus out of the city, and returned to discover that the internet was down throughout the hotel. I do not like to admit my dependence on the internet, but when you expect to be able to check your mail and the emails coming in from family and friends one last time before you lose internet for a week, it is very disheartening. I was embarrassed to feel so emotional, but I felt crushed. After being in a world where most don’t speak English – or if they do it’s enough English to take your order or tell you where the train station is, emails from home are nice.
Sunday morning came early – we got up at 5 am to pack and get ready (and hoping the internet would be working so I could email a few upcoming accommodations to iron out last minute details, check the train schedule one last time, and check the Croatian Kroner exchange rate…but no luck.). We finished packing, convinced housekeeping to let us sneak in and grab breakfast early, paid our bill and left by 7:25 so we could catch the bus to the train station. Most days the train we need left nearly every hour, but today the train to Zagreb left at 9:04 and at 13:04. A large margin of time, so missing our morning train was not an option. Fortunately we caught our train and luckily chose the correct car because every single other car the we started with was disconnected at various stations and connected to other cars. Over the duration of our 7 hour train ride we went from being the first car in the line-up to being the middle to being the last, and our train had two entirely different dining cars during different parts of our trip. We had a nice cabin of our own for at least 6 of the seven hours and were able to each sprawl out over three seats a piece and sleep for hours. We spent over 30 minutes at the Croatian border as all of our names were read by the passport officials over their headpieces to central control and they made quite a few people change cars. The ultimate destination of our train was Beograde (Belgrade, Serbia) – so I knew we definitely didn’t want to miss our stop. We reached Zagreb about 30 minutes late, immediately went to the ATM, and then hailed a taxi to quickly get us to the airport to pick up our rental car. Our taxi driver was efficient, even though we think we might have been ripped off a little, and drove us to the airport in 25 minutes time. We quickly found our rental company and started up the paperwork.
The rental company informed us that they had just gotten the new cars for the season and we would be driving a brand new car – which meant that Daniel leaned in and said “So you mean, I can’t blame anything on the guy before me?” :) He definitely illicited a laugh from our agent. We had also researched and discovered that as long as we pay for the rental on our credit card, the rental will be insured – thus we could decline additional insurance from the rental company. ...But, this meant that we had to allow a 90,000 Kuna “reservation/hold” be placed on our credit card – which for is actually 20,000 US Dollars – the supposed value of the car. Gulp. (Not actuallz a charge...just a reservation to be charged if we ran off with the car or something...but nevertheless a little nerve wracking to agree to...) So far so good -- please keep your fingers crossed for us until around 11 am tomorrow which is when we will have hopefully safely surrendered the car. Our agent was extremely helpful – he gave us an excellent map and great advice. He told us that all accidents have to have a police report for insurance companies to help and that all traffic violations are infinitely cheaper if you offer to pay them on the spot. Good stuff to know. So, we were off to Sibenik. The next two concerns? 1 – Would we get lost or would we actually be able to find out hotel… 2 – Our hotel reception was going to be closed for at least an hour by the time we were going to be able to make it down there, I had emailed them a few days ahead about this, but had not received a response….we were worried we might end up sleeping in our car…
The drive was nice and easy. Well labeled, well marked, nice new car with a nice new car smell. We had a cute, silver, VW Polo – and Daniel drove it very well. We cruised at our nice 130 kilometer speed limit and made pretty good time. We made it all the way down to the road we would find our hotel off of without any problems and really the only stress once we made it there was just figuring out while hotel was ours – looking for names and numbers, etc. Not a biggy. We didn’t even have to turn around. We pulled up to our hotel and realized it was adjoined to a restaurant. We crossed our fingers and went inside to inquire if we were in the right place. Yes, we were – and the restaurant manager had our keys and would be happy to escort us to our room We did a mental happy dance. We followed him through the parking lots, past a lime tree and the waterfront, up a flight of stairs, and into a beautiful hotel room – that had a balcony almost the size of our room with an outside fridge, sink, and range, and an air conditioner on the inside. We bid him farewell and then physically did the happy dance! We had made it! It was beautiful! Oh! And the restaurant was open until 11!! (And we really hadn’t eaten all day).
Our meal was yummy – they had a salad bar and it was wonderful to get some fresh veggies in. We walked down by the water and even in the dark could see how ridiculously clear the Adriatic is. And we returned to our room with the AC cranked up and blissfully fell asleep.
We were naughty and slept in. We stopped at a local grocery store and picked up breakfast and food to picnic at Krka, and we were off to the Croatian National Park I had chosen to visit! Krka was absolutely beautiful – it’s a park that has a big long waterfall through the middle of it, with beautiful wooded paths over many of the rapids and a swimming area at the foot of the falls. The water was quite cold – but after the increasing temperatures in Salzburg and the hike down to the falls we were ready to cool off and it felt absolutely wonderful. We spent the whole afternoon in the park, picnicking, working our way down to Skradinski Buk (the main falls), finding a place to change, and swimming. We also chose to hike back up the steep 800 meter hill of the loose, rocky, footpath and once again saw absolutely no one – which was when we realized that the shuttle from the entrance to Skradinski Buk was either free…or we were the only stubbornly cheap people willing to endure the hike straight up.
On the way home we drove to the local grocery store and picked up ingredients for dinner! I was very excited to cook a meal on the little range we had on our balcony and enjoyed making the best out of the few kitchen utensils and pans we had. It certainly made me appreciate all the wonderful things we received as wedding gifts. I made a one skillet meal of chicken, onions, mushrooms, potatoes, and wine sauce and made some mini ravioli to go with it – a wonderful meal. We stayed in and ate dinner on the balcony with a beautiful view of the water and concluded our evening with a sunset swim.
Having a rental car and the ability to cook our own food has made it almost seem like we’re back home, as we suddenly have freedoms and abilities more associated with home. It was nice to break the city-touring mode and explore the country side. Krka was an absolutely beautiful national park and we really enjoyed the nice workout we got and the nice cold mountain water swim. Tomorrow we are off to Split for a night and then onto the island of Hvar for two more nights – so we have a few more days of Adriatic delight! It’s a different pace, nice and relaxed -- more vacation like in some ways. I’m very proud of my planning because it’s been a perfect way to break up our trip and add in variety.
I’m off to sleep – I’m finally getting lots of it – which is the other glorious thing that comes with summer. It is crazy to think I have almost a full month left over here… We reached the halfway mark of our trip today, so it really feels like we have another whole vacation left. And with my ramblings – I bid you farewell…
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| Salzburg! June 21, 2008 |
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| Sibenik, Croatia and Krka National Park - June 22 and 23, 2008 |
It is the eve of our departure from Sibenik, Croatia (also the eve of our second wedding anniversary) and I must admit that I am feeling extremely relaxed and content. Our big worry was whether or not we would get lost on our way from Zagreb to the Guesthouse Zlatna Ribica in Brodarica, Croatia – and we did so with ease. We are currently staying in a beautiful little Adriatic hotel with a brick walk down to the waterside, pretty Mediterranean olive, lime, and apple trees along with grape vines, and! our vehicle to freedom – our rental car!
Okay, so Saturday was a lot of fun. We woke up early, ate a wonderful breakfast at Sallerof and were picked up by a local tourist agency to go on our Sound of Music tour. We started in Mirabelle gardens in Salzburg, boarded a bus and were toured all throughout the city and the outer lying areas. We saw the front of the house used in the movie, the back of the house used in the movie, as well as the gazebo, the lane from “I have confidence” and when the kids are swinging through the trees, along with the church from the wedding, and many other things. We also traveled to the town of Mondsee and were able to sneak away from the group and take some beautiful pictures along the lake and mountains. All in all a good time. Beth bought into the cheesiness and Daniel was very well behaved and tolerated it all quite well.
After being dropped back off at Mirabelle gardens we took a few more pictures (of the tunnel, the fountain, and the steps) and were off to explore the city. We spent the afternoon exploring the interiors of the churches, catching a glimpse of the exterior of Mozart’s birthplace, and hiking the city wall to get a beautiful view of the city. Now, the only problem was that Saturday was extremely warm – beautifully clear and sunny, but very warm to be out and about from 9 am to 6 pm – especially when the majority of the stores and restaurants have no air conditioning. So, I discovered the best way to get Daniel to church is to let him discover that churches are literally the coolest buildings. We spent quite a while exploring nearly all of the local churches and cathedrals. Unfortunately, we did not realize quite how much there was to do and see when you hike up the city wall and walk along the top. We ended up feeling a little pressed for time and were continually concerned about making it up to the fortress in time for the dinner and Mozart concert we had already paid for… Thus, we walked very fast, hiked very quickly, and became very very hot. We arrived at dinner drenched and overheated only to discover that the room dinner was served in was rather warm. I would love to say we had a fabulously romantic dinner and that we relaxed and gazed out the window of the fortress looking at the mountains…but we were dying, the room was stifling, so we continually took turns going to the restrooms (which were cooler – and had icy water you could run on your hands and splash your face with). The old people at the dinner probably thought we had issues. It was pretty bad. And almost all our food was warm so we kept feeling hotter and hotter…
Luckily after dinner we had fifteen extra minutes to step outside. The sun was beginning to go down, the breeze was picking up, and we cooled off considerably and were able to feel much more comfortable in time for our concert. The concert was in a small room off to the side in the fortress – very much the type of concert you would have witnessed back then. It felt like a private performance and was performed by a string quarter (my favorite). Overall we really enjoyed ourselves and Daniel (the harsher critic) was very happy. After the concert we snuck off and snapped a few more pictures of the city at night and had a few minutes of panic as we realized we might have missed the last cable car down and might be stuck up in the fortress overnight…but then ran into the concert performers and knew we would be able to make it down from the high hill. We came home quite tired, relieved to catch the second to last bus out of the city, and returned to discover that the internet was down throughout the hotel. I do not like to admit my dependence on the internet, but when you expect to be able to check your mail and the emails coming in from family and friends one last time before you lose internet for a week, it is very disheartening. I was embarrassed to feel so emotional, but I felt crushed. After being in a world where most don’t speak English – or if they do it’s enough English to take your order or tell you where the train station is, emails from home are nice.
Sunday morning came early – we got up at 5 am to pack and get ready (and hoping the internet would be working so I could email a few upcoming accommodations to iron out last minute details, check the train schedule one last time, and check the Croatian Kroner exchange rate…but no luck.). We finished packing, convinced housekeeping to let us sneak in and grab breakfast early, paid our bill and left by 7:25 so we could catch the bus to the train station. Most days the train we need left nearly every hour, but today the train to Zagreb left at 9:04 and at 13:04. A large margin of time, so missing our morning train was not an option. Fortunately we caught our train and luckily chose the correct car because every single other car the we started with was disconnected at various stations and connected to other cars. Over the duration of our 7 hour train ride we went from being the first car in the line-up to being the middle to being the last, and our train had two entirely different dining cars during different parts of our trip. We had a nice cabin of our own for at least 6 of the seven hours and were able to each sprawl out over three seats a piece and sleep for hours. We spent over 30 minutes at the Croatian border as all of our names were read by the passport officials over their headpieces to central control and they made quite a few people change cars. The ultimate destination of our train was Beograde (Belgrade, Serbia) – so I knew we definitely didn’t want to miss our stop. We reached Zagreb about 30 minutes late, immediately went to the ATM, and then hailed a taxi to quickly get us to the airport to pick up our rental car. Our taxi driver was efficient, even though we think we might have been ripped off a little, and drove us to the airport in 25 minutes time. We quickly found our rental company and started up the paperwork.
The rental company informed us that they had just gotten the new cars for the season and we would be driving a brand new car – which meant that Daniel leaned in and said “So you mean, I can’t blame anything on the guy before me?” :) He definitely illicited a laugh from our agent. We had also researched and discovered that as long as we pay for the rental on our credit card, the rental will be insured – thus we could decline additional insurance from the rental company. ...But, this meant that we had to allow a 90,000 Kuna “reservation/hold” be placed on our credit card – which for is actually 20,000 US Dollars – the supposed value of the car. Gulp. (Not actuallz a charge...just a reservation to be charged if we ran off with the car or something...but nevertheless a little nerve wracking to agree to...) So far so good -- please keep your fingers crossed for us until around 11 am tomorrow which is when we will have hopefully safely surrendered the car. Our agent was extremely helpful – he gave us an excellent map and great advice. He told us that all accidents have to have a police report for insurance companies to help and that all traffic violations are infinitely cheaper if you offer to pay them on the spot. Good stuff to know. So, we were off to Sibenik. The next two concerns? 1 – Would we get lost or would we actually be able to find out hotel… 2 – Our hotel reception was going to be closed for at least an hour by the time we were going to be able to make it down there, I had emailed them a few days ahead about this, but had not received a response….we were worried we might end up sleeping in our car…
The drive was nice and easy. Well labeled, well marked, nice new car with a nice new car smell. We had a cute, silver, VW Polo – and Daniel drove it very well. We cruised at our nice 130 kilometer speed limit and made pretty good time. We made it all the way down to the road we would find our hotel off of without any problems and really the only stress once we made it there was just figuring out while hotel was ours – looking for names and numbers, etc. Not a biggy. We didn’t even have to turn around. We pulled up to our hotel and realized it was adjoined to a restaurant. We crossed our fingers and went inside to inquire if we were in the right place. Yes, we were – and the restaurant manager had our keys and would be happy to escort us to our room We did a mental happy dance. We followed him through the parking lots, past a lime tree and the waterfront, up a flight of stairs, and into a beautiful hotel room – that had a balcony almost the size of our room with an outside fridge, sink, and range, and an air conditioner on the inside. We bid him farewell and then physically did the happy dance! We had made it! It was beautiful! Oh! And the restaurant was open until 11!! (And we really hadn’t eaten all day).
Our meal was yummy – they had a salad bar and it was wonderful to get some fresh veggies in. We walked down by the water and even in the dark could see how ridiculously clear the Adriatic is. And we returned to our room with the AC cranked up and blissfully fell asleep.
We were naughty and slept in. We stopped at a local grocery store and picked up breakfast and food to picnic at Krka, and we were off to the Croatian National Park I had chosen to visit! Krka was absolutely beautiful – it’s a park that has a big long waterfall through the middle of it, with beautiful wooded paths over many of the rapids and a swimming area at the foot of the falls. The water was quite cold – but after the increasing temperatures in Salzburg and the hike down to the falls we were ready to cool off and it felt absolutely wonderful. We spent the whole afternoon in the park, picnicking, working our way down to Skradinski Buk (the main falls), finding a place to change, and swimming. We also chose to hike back up the steep 800 meter hill of the loose, rocky, footpath and once again saw absolutely no one – which was when we realized that the shuttle from the entrance to Skradinski Buk was either free…or we were the only stubbornly cheap people willing to endure the hike straight up.
On the way home we drove to the local grocery store and picked up ingredients for dinner! I was very excited to cook a meal on the little range we had on our balcony and enjoyed making the best out of the few kitchen utensils and pans we had. It certainly made me appreciate all the wonderful things we received as wedding gifts. I made a one skillet meal of chicken, onions, mushrooms, potatoes, and wine sauce and made some mini ravioli to go with it – a wonderful meal. We stayed in and ate dinner on the balcony with a beautiful view of the water and concluded our evening with a sunset swim.
Having a rental car and the ability to cook our own food has made it almost seem like we’re back home, as we suddenly have freedoms and abilities more associated with home. It was nice to break the city-touring mode and explore the country side. Krka was an absolutely beautiful national park and we really enjoyed the nice workout we got and the nice cold mountain water swim. Tomorrow we are off to Split for a night and then onto the island of Hvar for two more nights – so we have a few more days of Adriatic delight! It’s a different pace, nice and relaxed -- more vacation like in some ways. I’m very proud of my planning because it’s been a perfect way to break up our trip and add in variety.
I’m off to sleep – I’m finally getting lots of it – which is the other glorious thing that comes with summer. It is crazy to think I have almost a full month left over here… We reached the halfway mark of our trip today, so it really feels like we have another whole vacation left. And with my ramblings – I bid you farewell…
Friday, June 20, 2008
Grodig, Austria -- June 20, 2008
Okay! I am making this one quick! :) We are currently in Grodig, Austria -- a suburb just outside of Salzburg. We are staying in a positively delightful little lodge called Sallerof and have far more comfortable digs than we ever could have afforded in Salzburg. Tomorrow we are going on the Sound of Music tour, spending our afternoon wandering the streets of Salzburg, and are then off to a Mozart dinner and concert in the Hohensalzburg fortress! :) Very very very excited!
Once we actually made it out to Grodig today we decided to spend our afternoon exploring this little town -- very quaint and pretty. Our major expedition of the afternoon was a really neat cable car ride up the side of the nearest peak -- which had a fabulous panorama view of the nearby mountains and villages!
That's all for now -- we've tried to update as much as we could tonight. We're going incommunicado as we head into Croatia. Til then --
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| Grodig, Austria (Suburb of Salzburg) June 20, 2008 |
Once we actually made it out to Grodig today we decided to spend our afternoon exploring this little town -- very quaint and pretty. Our major expedition of the afternoon was a really neat cable car ride up the side of the nearest peak -- which had a fabulous panorama view of the nearby mountains and villages!
That's all for now -- we've tried to update as much as we could tonight. We're going incommunicado as we head into Croatia. Til then --
Munich and the Neuschwanstein Castle! June 18-19, 2008
Written on the morning of June 20, 2008:
Ah, so as I sit on a train to Salzburg listening to my Sound of Music soundtrack (and getting very very excited!), we are surrounded by jubilant German football fans who are celebrating their win in the Euro Cup quarter finals last night. We have absolutely loved Munich – here's why --
We arrived by train, a little late, as we had slept in a bit in the castle. We took the S-Bahn three stops to Isartoplatz and dragged our luggage a few blocks over the larger German block sidewalks and arrived at Pension Beck. Our hotel was pretty nice, great location and great price. We got settled in and set off to find dinner. I had read that there was a great restaurant in the middle of the English Garden so we decided to head North. The English Garden is the biggest city-owned park in Europe and is absolutely beautiful. Lots and lots to do from laying out nude to playing frisbee, to riding the equastrian trails, etc. After walking for a few minutes we heard the sound of rushing water and went to check it out. We discovered that not only was there a fast paced river running through the park, but that as it entered the park through a bridge the water was tumultuous enough that you could go surfing! There were about five or six guys in wetsuits taking turns leaping off the edge of the river bank, surfing the water until they wiped out and swam for shore while the next guy leapt out into the river. Awesome!
We found the restraunt we were looking for and enjoyed a traditional Munchen meal, and set out to explore the rest of the city. We quickly found one of the city squares – Marianplatz, took lots of pictures, found marzipan icecream for Beth (!!!), and made our way to the HaufBraus House – which did not disappoint. The beer hall was full of rowdy, good-spirited tourists along with a fun, more traditional German quartet.
The next morning we set out for Neuschwanstein Castle (yes, the Disney Castle). It was a longer train ride out than we had anticipated but proved to be well worth it. We got to look at more German countryside as we neared the Bavarian Alps. Upon arrival in Fussen we had to take a fifteen minute bus ride that was so full of people it was standing room only. We bought tickets for the English tour of the castle and opted to hike up the mountain to reach the castle (no horse drawn buggy for us, it's not as romantic as it may sound). As we reached the top we realized how beautiful the view was going to be when we reached the top. Our best pictures came from the windows of the upper floors of the castle. There were beautiful views of clear mountain lakes, snowy mountains, summer waterfalls, just Beautiful.
On the way down the mountain I think I had my favorite meal so far – minced pork (basically like a pork meat loaf) smothered in mushrooms and creamy sauce with “egg noodles” - although their version of egg noodles is very different from ours. We caught a bus to the train and headed back feeling very accomplished.
We got back into Munich around 7:30 and had a light snack and then headed to the HaufBraus house again for once last taste of Munich – only to discover that there was a German football game on and that the HaufBraus House was defnitely the place to be to watch this event! The cheers were deafening as the German team scored two points in the first half – the whole place (which is full of over a thousand people,) went crazy. We managed to inch our way to a table that had a good view of a TV and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and the excitemment.
Munich is one of the cities that has its own category – like St. Petersburg and Vienna. Each are cities that we could never begin to explore all of the museums and sights within one visit. We struggled with whether or not to spend Thursday exploring the city or making a day trip to the castle – although ultimately I'm glad we chose to go out into the countryside, but Munich is certainly a city to which we will have to return! Overall the city had a very laid-back, but cheerful feel to it and you certainly could sense the grandeur, pride and strength of the city from the majestic buildings that lined each street. Munich was a very classy yet welcoming city...
And now, as the Germans launch into another rousing song, I am going to drown them out with my Sound of Music soundtrack and keep my eye on the mountains that are growing bigger and bigger as we approach Salzburg! :)
Ah, so as I sit on a train to Salzburg listening to my Sound of Music soundtrack (and getting very very excited!), we are surrounded by jubilant German football fans who are celebrating their win in the Euro Cup quarter finals last night. We have absolutely loved Munich – here's why --
 |
| Munich and Castle Neuschwans |
We arrived by train, a little late, as we had slept in a bit in the castle. We took the S-Bahn three stops to Isartoplatz and dragged our luggage a few blocks over the larger German block sidewalks and arrived at Pension Beck. Our hotel was pretty nice, great location and great price. We got settled in and set off to find dinner. I had read that there was a great restaurant in the middle of the English Garden so we decided to head North. The English Garden is the biggest city-owned park in Europe and is absolutely beautiful. Lots and lots to do from laying out nude to playing frisbee, to riding the equastrian trails, etc. After walking for a few minutes we heard the sound of rushing water and went to check it out. We discovered that not only was there a fast paced river running through the park, but that as it entered the park through a bridge the water was tumultuous enough that you could go surfing! There were about five or six guys in wetsuits taking turns leaping off the edge of the river bank, surfing the water until they wiped out and swam for shore while the next guy leapt out into the river. Awesome!
We found the restraunt we were looking for and enjoyed a traditional Munchen meal, and set out to explore the rest of the city. We quickly found one of the city squares – Marianplatz, took lots of pictures, found marzipan icecream for Beth (!!!), and made our way to the HaufBraus House – which did not disappoint. The beer hall was full of rowdy, good-spirited tourists along with a fun, more traditional German quartet.
The next morning we set out for Neuschwanstein Castle (yes, the Disney Castle). It was a longer train ride out than we had anticipated but proved to be well worth it. We got to look at more German countryside as we neared the Bavarian Alps. Upon arrival in Fussen we had to take a fifteen minute bus ride that was so full of people it was standing room only. We bought tickets for the English tour of the castle and opted to hike up the mountain to reach the castle (no horse drawn buggy for us, it's not as romantic as it may sound). As we reached the top we realized how beautiful the view was going to be when we reached the top. Our best pictures came from the windows of the upper floors of the castle. There were beautiful views of clear mountain lakes, snowy mountains, summer waterfalls, just Beautiful.
On the way down the mountain I think I had my favorite meal so far – minced pork (basically like a pork meat loaf) smothered in mushrooms and creamy sauce with “egg noodles” - although their version of egg noodles is very different from ours. We caught a bus to the train and headed back feeling very accomplished.
We got back into Munich around 7:30 and had a light snack and then headed to the HaufBraus house again for once last taste of Munich – only to discover that there was a German football game on and that the HaufBraus House was defnitely the place to be to watch this event! The cheers were deafening as the German team scored two points in the first half – the whole place (which is full of over a thousand people,) went crazy. We managed to inch our way to a table that had a good view of a TV and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and the excitemment.
Munich is one of the cities that has its own category – like St. Petersburg and Vienna. Each are cities that we could never begin to explore all of the museums and sights within one visit. We struggled with whether or not to spend Thursday exploring the city or making a day trip to the castle – although ultimately I'm glad we chose to go out into the countryside, but Munich is certainly a city to which we will have to return! Overall the city had a very laid-back, but cheerful feel to it and you certainly could sense the grandeur, pride and strength of the city from the majestic buildings that lined each street. Munich was a very classy yet welcoming city...
And now, as the Germans launch into another rousing song, I am going to drown them out with my Sound of Music soundtrack and keep my eye on the mountains that are growing bigger and bigger as we approach Salzburg! :)
Castle Liebenstein!!! June 17, 2008
Written the morning of June 18, 2008:
All I can say is: I SPENT THE NIGHT IN A GERMAN CASTLE!!!! :)
Castle Liebenstien was absolutely gorgeous! The castle had a wonderful medieval feel and an absolutely breakthaking view of the Rhine and the mountains. The bed had wonderful fluffy down blankets and pillows, the food was excellent, and we sat through the entire sunset on our window seat looking out at our fabulous view just soaking it all in. Now the story of how we actually reached the castle is an interesting one...
Now, for those of you who didn't know, one of the biggest unknowns of our trip was how we were actually going to get to the castle. The internet information was terrible. We woke up Tuesday morning in Brussels, showered, packed, ate a nice breakfast at our B&B and were all ready to go. We walked three blocks...once again dragging our luggage across the uneven cobblestone (heaven help our poor suitcases) and took the metro to Brussels Midi/Zuid. (South Brussels Station – their main one). We waited in line at the international kiosk. And bought two reserved seats on the train to Koln. We took that train from noon to 2:15 and then switched and road a train from Koln to Koblenz. We arrived in Koblenz hoping we would find some answers. The papers I had printed from the internet mentioned a ferry, but nothing at the Koblenz station suggested one existed. The information desk didn't speak English. So, we went to find a taxi. Our routine when we have all the luggage is to leave one of us to guard and the other goes out to hunt (whether it's Belgian waffles, reservations to Koblenz, a taxi driver who actually knows where we're going, etc...) I approached the taxi drivers:
Me: English?
Re: Little
Me: Castle Liebenstien?
Re: Where?!
Me: (Mentally – great, we're never going to find my castle!) Kamp-Bonhofen, Castle Liebenstien?
One of the five or six taxi drivers: Ah, yes....
Me: (Mental woohoo!!!)
They gave us an estimate – a little pricey, but at that point we were pretty lost and desparate. Of course I had picked to initially talk to the taxi driver who had the tiniest car, but we somehow crammed in all of our stuff and set off for the castle! We drove through beautiful German countryside – and saw lots of pretty little villages. We drove for a good twenty minutes or so, trying to have conversation with our cab driver. While trying to figure out how long he had lived in Koblenz, we discovered he had a thirty-six year old kinder and that he had lived in Koblenz for 25 years and Dresden before that. He was pretty old, so of course I then wanted to know if he was a child in Dresden when it was fire bombed...but I started confusing him and he wasn't watching the road as much, so I gave up. Soon after he told Daniel he needed to pull into the store to ask for directions. This is the best part.
So he pulls in and basically blocks a woman in to ask her if she knows of Castle Liebenstien. Ah yes, she smiles, holds up a finger and pulls a map of all the German castles out of her car – since everyone travels around with those... But she doesn't know how exactly to get there, so she turns to ask another gentleman who is putting his groceries in his car. He doesn't know, so the woman shouts across the parking lot. Two or three people answer back – so before we know it, our taxi driver is talking across the parking lot with five or six different people from the local village trying to discern where on earth the castle is...at this point Daniel and I are sitting in the cab laughing and laughing – what else can you do? By a stroke of luck one of the women leaving the grocery store says she lives up on the same mountain and that the taxi driver can follow her! Woohoo!
So our driver follows her and we make the poor guy drive us and all our luggage up these steep tiny winding mountain roads. We initially missed the turn, but ultimately reach the castle to discover an absolutely beautiful, breathtaking view of the Rhine River gently cutting a path through the green mountains with several little villages below all nestled into their section of the mountains. And even better, after we paid the driver and found ourselves standing atop this beautiful peak beside the castle, they had our names on the books and were excited to see us! They quickly brought us upstairs to room 5 and negotiated what time we were hoping to eat dinner.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon taking lots and lots of pictures, climbing to the top of one of the castle's towers, and staring out at our awesome view. We stayed in one of the two castles of Kamp-Bonhofen, the other castle was directly across from us and supposedly belonged to the original owners brother – so they were feuding castles. For dinner we got to sit at a window that gave a perfect view of the other castle and the Rhine and truly made us realize where we were.
We had a wonderful evening and had a delicious breakfast in the morning – it was really fun to wake up and realize where we actually were. The owners were very helpful and friendly and one of them drove us down to a local train station this morning. We have spent the rest of the day on the trains and should arrive in Munich in another two hours. Overall a fabulous experience – one of those fun realized fantasies :)
Since we've stayed in a different place the past two nights we're really excited to stay in just one spot for the next two nights – which probably doesn't sound like a very long time, but two nights is much more relaxing than just one. Onward we go! :)
All I can say is: I SPENT THE NIGHT IN A GERMAN CASTLE!!!! :)
 |
| Castle Liebenstei |
Castle Liebenstien was absolutely gorgeous! The castle had a wonderful medieval feel and an absolutely breakthaking view of the Rhine and the mountains. The bed had wonderful fluffy down blankets and pillows, the food was excellent, and we sat through the entire sunset on our window seat looking out at our fabulous view just soaking it all in. Now the story of how we actually reached the castle is an interesting one...
Now, for those of you who didn't know, one of the biggest unknowns of our trip was how we were actually going to get to the castle. The internet information was terrible. We woke up Tuesday morning in Brussels, showered, packed, ate a nice breakfast at our B&B and were all ready to go. We walked three blocks...once again dragging our luggage across the uneven cobblestone (heaven help our poor suitcases) and took the metro to Brussels Midi/Zuid. (South Brussels Station – their main one). We waited in line at the international kiosk. And bought two reserved seats on the train to Koln. We took that train from noon to 2:15 and then switched and road a train from Koln to Koblenz. We arrived in Koblenz hoping we would find some answers. The papers I had printed from the internet mentioned a ferry, but nothing at the Koblenz station suggested one existed. The information desk didn't speak English. So, we went to find a taxi. Our routine when we have all the luggage is to leave one of us to guard and the other goes out to hunt (whether it's Belgian waffles, reservations to Koblenz, a taxi driver who actually knows where we're going, etc...) I approached the taxi drivers:
Me: English?
Re: Little
Me: Castle Liebenstien?
Re: Where?!
Me: (Mentally – great, we're never going to find my castle!) Kamp-Bonhofen, Castle Liebenstien?
One of the five or six taxi drivers: Ah, yes....
Me: (Mental woohoo!!!)
They gave us an estimate – a little pricey, but at that point we were pretty lost and desparate. Of course I had picked to initially talk to the taxi driver who had the tiniest car, but we somehow crammed in all of our stuff and set off for the castle! We drove through beautiful German countryside – and saw lots of pretty little villages. We drove for a good twenty minutes or so, trying to have conversation with our cab driver. While trying to figure out how long he had lived in Koblenz, we discovered he had a thirty-six year old kinder and that he had lived in Koblenz for 25 years and Dresden before that. He was pretty old, so of course I then wanted to know if he was a child in Dresden when it was fire bombed...but I started confusing him and he wasn't watching the road as much, so I gave up. Soon after he told Daniel he needed to pull into the store to ask for directions. This is the best part.
So he pulls in and basically blocks a woman in to ask her if she knows of Castle Liebenstien. Ah yes, she smiles, holds up a finger and pulls a map of all the German castles out of her car – since everyone travels around with those... But she doesn't know how exactly to get there, so she turns to ask another gentleman who is putting his groceries in his car. He doesn't know, so the woman shouts across the parking lot. Two or three people answer back – so before we know it, our taxi driver is talking across the parking lot with five or six different people from the local village trying to discern where on earth the castle is...at this point Daniel and I are sitting in the cab laughing and laughing – what else can you do? By a stroke of luck one of the women leaving the grocery store says she lives up on the same mountain and that the taxi driver can follow her! Woohoo!
So our driver follows her and we make the poor guy drive us and all our luggage up these steep tiny winding mountain roads. We initially missed the turn, but ultimately reach the castle to discover an absolutely beautiful, breathtaking view of the Rhine River gently cutting a path through the green mountains with several little villages below all nestled into their section of the mountains. And even better, after we paid the driver and found ourselves standing atop this beautiful peak beside the castle, they had our names on the books and were excited to see us! They quickly brought us upstairs to room 5 and negotiated what time we were hoping to eat dinner.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon taking lots and lots of pictures, climbing to the top of one of the castle's towers, and staring out at our awesome view. We stayed in one of the two castles of Kamp-Bonhofen, the other castle was directly across from us and supposedly belonged to the original owners brother – so they were feuding castles. For dinner we got to sit at a window that gave a perfect view of the other castle and the Rhine and truly made us realize where we were.
We had a wonderful evening and had a delicious breakfast in the morning – it was really fun to wake up and realize where we actually were. The owners were very helpful and friendly and one of them drove us down to a local train station this morning. We have spent the rest of the day on the trains and should arrive in Munich in another two hours. Overall a fabulous experience – one of those fun realized fantasies :)
Since we've stayed in a different place the past two nights we're really excited to stay in just one spot for the next two nights – which probably doesn't sound like a very long time, but two nights is much more relaxing than just one. Onward we go! :)
Brussels! June 16, 2008
Written on the morning of June 17, 2008:
We are now on the train on the way to the castle!!! We have just pulled away from the Brussels Midi/Zuid station (South Brussels). We had quite a time trying to find out hotel yesterday. Kristi is probably already laughing. Go ahead.
We arrived in Brussels just before noon and set out to find a map of local public transportation to find our road and figure out how to get to our destination. This in and of itself was a struggle. The metro station was down and around a corner along with the bus and tram lines (and by around the corner I mean a good five or so minute walk while hauling all of Daniel's luggage). Once we found the public transportation center we had to figure out where we were actually headed. I found the street we wanted and decided bus #66 would do the trick. So we navigated to our bus area and boarded the next 66 line. The bus driver, and therefore our bus ride, was quite scary. We quickly vowed never to think traffic would stop for us once we were out on foot. There was an old lady seated near the rail I was pinned against while I tried to keep all of our rolling luggage from rolling across the bus. She went wide-eyed everytime I almost landed in her lap. Once we stepped out on the street we realized we didn't see the name of our street so we had to enter local shops to get directions. The young man I asked didn't speak English but recognized the street name and was able to point us in the right direction. Good thing gestures like pointing are pretty universal. I would have quickened our ability to reach our destination and thus stop dragging all of our bags across the uneven cobblestones had I not reversed the numbers (perhaps Daniel and the Patterson curse have caused me to become dyslexic as well). We were searching for a non-existant 23 instead of 32.
Regardless, we eventually found our destination and checked into the B&B Botanique. The gentleman was very nice and soft spoken and drew us a cute little handwritten map so we could reach the Grand Place on foot. We were told we were on the second floor only to discover that the house floors were numbered Roman style and that for each floor there were two flights of rickety, crooked stairs. So, up four flights to our little room. We were like little kids once we got upstairs and realized we could take advantage of the wifi for a few minutes – which is how you received my last post. I had difficulty uploading pictures, but will as soon as I can.
We spent the afternoon and evening wandering a good ten miles through the city. We were especially impressed by the parks that were tucked in between the busy streets. Per our host's recommendations we cut through the Botanique gardens and enjoyed a very leisurely stroll. I will also mention that it is still chilly here. I spent my whole day in Brussels wearing a long sleeve shirt and pulling on my raincoat in the shade and stripping it off in the sun. I am still baffled by their June weather and am already out of pants and long shirts to wear. Some of you may be laughing, thinking I look ridiculous amongst the locals because of my pathetic Florida blood – but most of the time they are wearing far more clothing that we are – often walking around in full denim jackets or pea coats.
After strolling through the Botanique Gardens we made our way towards the Grand Place and enjoyed a nice three course Belgian meal at a local restaurant. We had Woozoozii chicken and Flemish beef and borst vegetable soup. Very yummy. We spent the afternoon in the Grand Place looking at the fun, baroque architecture and savoring the delightful Belgian waffles that we have decided must be laced with crack...or something extremely extremely addictive. We actually went on a hunt this morning in the train station to get one last taste... mmmmm. We bought a box of Belgian chocolates – which are also divine. We walked up to St. Michael and St. Gudula's Cathedral and spent a long time inside looking at the beautiful stained glass windows and gothic architecture – and enjoyed finally having a camera that can take good pictures inside a church. They had a very distinctive art exhibit in the back of the church called Icons Transformed – mom you should look it up. It was by a collection of Russian artists who used various medias to modernize the messages of icons. The church was one of several participating sponsors of the exhibition which includes over 300 pieces of art. We wandered...and by wandered I mean hiked...to the European Parliament building and the EU headquarters. The history teacher in me really wanted to actually see the buildings. We headed down as rush hour hit and got to witness the vast number of business men and women leaving work and the five lane one-way roads filled bumper to bumper. We strolled through the parks and enjoyed the beautifully gardened parks behind the EU buildings, by the palace, and through the Botanique.
While Brussels was extremely pricey, the culinary offerings were divine. We were disappointed by the lack of availability of Belgian beers – most shops only had one or two local brands – not what you expect when you hear of the immense trappist selections available in Belgium. The city is a business city – and reminded us most of New York City or Washington D.C. as we approached the EU buildings during rush hour. I had never visited a country where French was one of the main languages, so I now must agree that it really is one of the prettiest languages to listen to. The people were friendly enough, but down to business.
What will we take from Brussels? The already partially eaten box of chocolates that will by no means make it back to the states and two tummies full of six, yes six, wonderfully delicious Belgian waffles.
We are off to check off one of those things from every girl's dream list – a night in a German Castle!!! :)
PS -- photo captions --
1. Botanique Gardens
2. Grand Place in Brussels
3. EU's Parliament Building
Monday, June 16, 2008
Amsterdam! June 15, 2008
We made it! It is Sunday evening and we have been in Europe since late Friday afternoon. We've stayed busy so far...so the past few days are already blurring together a bit, but I'll try to pick out the highlights...
Thursday at 3 pm our dear friend Thomas escorted us to the airport – and subjected his new car to all our crazy luggage. Check-in, weighing of the bags, security, etc all went quite well. We flew from Orlando to Chicago, where we once again subjected ourselves to O'hare's convoluted layout as we braved the 100+ degree shuttle. Our flight across the Atlantic was a good one and we enjoyed the basket of fresh bread and complimentary wine that came with an international carrier (SAS). We did our best to sleep as musch as we could and arrived in Copenhagen somewhat rested, somewhat rumpled, somewhat comprehending that we were almost in the first city of our trip. Since we had sat on the runway in Chicago for nearly two hours the two hour window between landing in Copenhagen and flying to Amsterdam had been narrowed to a mere thirty minutes. We would have made our last flight just in the nick of time if the SAS crew had told us the correct gate. Instead we realized at 3:05 that our 3:10 flight to Amsterdam was at the next gate and that we had some running to do. Which would have been considerably easier if we weren't dragging our hefty carry-on packs while Daniel ran-shuffled in his Birkenstocks. We actually made it – barely – but arrived on the plane panting and pouring sweat – only to remember that security had made me dump my water our of my nalgene bottle as we simultaneously learned that all drinks (even water) cost several euros. But we were on the plane and were still going to arrive in Amsterdam as scheduled.
When we arrived in Amsterdam we had three expectation adjustments. One, our luggage had not followed us from Copenhagen and we spent twenty minutes filling out paperwork (it arrived by 10pm that night, no worries!). Two, it was 55 degrees Farenheit outside. So as the wind picked up as we waited for our ferry, I dove for the hoodie in my carryon bag. Three, our hotel was considerably further away from the city center than I thought. The hotel itself is on a pier that is the industrial no mans land of the city. There is a ferry that runs every 30 minutes or so and shuttles you from the pier to Central Station during a free, ten minute ferry ride. I was a little disappointed to discover that we were not two or three blocks outside of the city center, but were instead a wait-twenty-minutes-for-the-ferry-for-a-ten-minute-ride distance away from the city center. Ultimately, not too big a deal.
So, we arrived in the airport, took a train to Central Station, took a ferry to the pier, and boarded the Amstel Botel. We dropped our things off, showered, and set out to explore the city for a few hours. We ate dinner in a nice “authentic” Dutch restaurant and enjoyed pea soup, roast beef, potatoes, beets, very nice. The Dutch team was facing off in a soccer game so we witnessed the mania here that is European football. (They won by the way!) We walked the streets for a few hours, bought breakfast at a local grocery store, and headed back on the ferry. Adjustment number four, we also discovered that the sun doesn't even begin to set until after 10:15 pm. It is currently 11 pm here and it is not quite fully dark yet.
Our first true day in the city we started off with a three to four mile walk to the museum area. We visited the Van Gogh Museum and realized that Daniel and I have different opinions on what constitutes art. Daniel likes the more realistic paintings – the ones that look like they could be a photogrpah of a situation and I love the more impressionist-based paintings. I love looking up close at the globs of paint, only to steadily step back and realize that all the different colored globs and dashes amount to a picture that has dimensions and perspective and light and shadows. Needless to say, we enjoyed the museum – my favorite of the visit was the vase of irises. He used vibrant complimentary colors.
During our wanderings we witnessed a guy who can roll a firey ball up and down his arms and chest, a little park dedicated to Rembrant that included 21 life size figures from his famous “Night Watch” painting, and Vondel Park with huge “I amsterdam” letters. After the Van Gogh Museum, we didn't have enough time to visit the other museums so we decided to head up to the Anne Frank Hus (house).
I was worried that I would not be able to get into the right frame of mind to process everything as I walked through the Anne Frank Hus, but the museum does an excellent job of jogging your memory and transitioning you back into her story. I was struck by a series of photographs of Anne. I had forgotten how young she was. When I read her diary I had been her age – but now, over ten years later, looking into her face I realized how truly young she was. By the time I reached the book case I was fully absorbed in her story, flooded with memories of different vignettes from her diary that I have remembered most vividly. I spent the second half of the tour very choked up as I walked through the rooms imagining living there in fear, imagining the day when the Gestapo charged in, imagining the many afternoons she spent writing to Kitty, processing how young she had been and how she was only one of thousands... As you leave the secret annex you cross over into a neighboring house to watch clips on what happened to the eight individuals who hid together. I was very impressed with the way the museum drew each person back into the Frank's story and how they used each room and quotes from Anne's diary to tell her story.
Today we visited the Rijksmuseum – the national art museum. Unfortunately, a large part of the museum is under rennovation so they only had a small portion of the museum available for viewing. On a positive side – foreign males were admitted for free today for Father's Day – so thanks dads! :) The Rijksmuseum highlights? Work by Frans Hals and Rembrant's original Night Watch.
We are still at times in disbelief that we are actually here. After for planning for so many months, it often seems strange to be here. So far Amsterdam has been a fun city. The city itself is extremely diverse including people from all walks of life. The Dutch ties to Indonesia and trade routes to South Asia, South East Asia and Eastern Asia are prominent. Orange pride also runs rampant. There is a very playful air about the city. The people are very helpful and accustomed to tourists as almost everyone is a tourist. The layout of the city is quite diverse as well as on one street is the red light district with women of all ages posing in their window fronts, turn the corner to find a peaceful residential street that runs along a canal, make a right and discover an ally full of ten different ethnic restaurants, pubs, and coffee shops, to only open up to reveal a beautiful open square of churches and city buildings.
We are off in the morning to Brussels – excited to be journeying on, sad to leave Amsterdam, and having an excellent time thus far! :)
Photo Captions:
1. Sunset on an Amsterdam Canal our first night. *Note sunset is 11:15 pm
2. Posing along an Amsterdam Canal
3. Squeezing into one of the letters of the "I amsterdam" display in Vondel Park
4. One of Amsterdam's many canals
5. The book case that hid the Secret Annex in Anne Frank's House (sneak in around the right side)
Monday, June 9, 2008
Bon Voyage!
Well, we are all geared up and (almost!) ready to go. Our list of errands has been narrowed down from two and a half pages to less than a page. We leave tomorrow at 3! Daniel has just a few hours of work tomorrow and Beth will finish the last bit of packing and give the apartment a nice cleaning before we're off. All in all we're ready to go - bills are prepaid, train tickets are purchased, mail is on hold, credit card company won't cancel us for spending money overseas... We will do our best to keep up with our blog -- but this is a first for us, so please be patient!
We look forward to writing all of you from the other side of the pond! Wish us luck!
Happy summer to all! :)
-Beth and Daniel
We look forward to writing all of you from the other side of the pond! Wish us luck!
Happy summer to all! :)
-Beth and Daniel
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