Italy

Rome, Venice, Orvieto, Rimini, San Marino, Ostia Antica: 5/18-5/31/08

In my return trip to Europe I focused my full attention on Italy.

The photo is of myself in Piazza San Marco in Venezia. (Saint Mark's Square in Venice). Behind me is the original St. Mark's Basilica from the 9th century and to the right is the Doge's Palace. Both of which we toured.

This piazza has always been seen as the centre of Venice. It is also the lowest point in Venice so during storm surges or heavy rain, this piazza is the first to get flooded.

photos and journal

Netherlands

Amsterdam & Schiermonnikoog Island: 8/18-8/22/07

I had no problems flying into Amsterdam and meeting up with my friend, Josje at the Schipol Airport. The afternoon of my arrival we left Amsterdam and headed north to Pieterburen which was the starting point of our Wadlopen hike the following morning.

My second day in the Netherlands consisted of hiking across the Wadden Sea to Schiermonnikoog Island, which we walked through to catch the ferry back to the mainland. Oh yes, and there was the goat farm tour...

Arriving back in Amsterdam I spent a couple days biking around. It was great fun. I went to the Rijksmuseum, Rembranthuis Museum, Anne Frank Huis to name the top few.

I'm starting to get the how to's of biking around Amsterdam...stay in your bike lane, the red/yellow/green stop lights for bikes are optional..kind of like pedestrian stop lights. I don't know if police would see it that way, though. photos and journal.

United Kingdom

Bath, Lacock, London: 8/23-8/26/07

The Mad Max tour met at The Glass House at 8:30AM. The Glass House is a 10 minute walk from our hostel. The van took us the hour or so to Stonehenge! It was pretty cool walking around the large stones. Everyone had a hand held audio tour. Around Stonehenge are barrows, large mounds which are graves. You can see them in the distance and as we drove to Stonehenge. The 300 barrows around Bath are from the bronze age.

After the hour at Stonehenge we were driven to Lacock where we had about a 30 minute walk around. Lacock is an old village where "old" movies are filmed because the houses look hundreds of years old. They just remove the cars and add sand to the streets and voila, you're transported back in time. After I walked around, enjoying myself, snapping photo after photo I arrived back at the van and look over into the beer garden of The Red Lion and there's Glenn sitting there on a picnic table in the shade sipping a beer! Me, I opted for an ice cream bar. Only 90 pence!

Back at Bath we walked around a little bit more, watched a juggling unicycle street performer in front of the Roman Baths, drank the Roman spring mineral water from the Pump Room (which has windows which look into the old baths below), went to Sally Luna's which is a bakery from the 1680's. The basement is a tiny museum which shows about 5 different stone layers from the different centuries of buildings...that was pretty neat seeing that the original street level of roman times is actually now in the basement of current day Bath.

As a finale before we left for the day we took a 30 minute boat cruise down the Avon River. We heard bits of history as we floated down the river. Learned about the boat houses, the bridges we passed under, etc. It's nice seeing a city from the vantage point of the water.

Before we knew it we were saying goodbye to Bath. We hopped on the 7:30pm train to London where we then hopped on the 10:00pm train back to the home base of Amsterdam.

Netherlands

Amsterdam: 8/27/07

Got back to Amsterdam this morning from the overnight bus from London, and train from Bath. We are back at our friend, Josje's home. It's quite nice having a home base like this.

I thought about doing a day trip down to Belgium, but when I looked through my guidebook I saw that most of the churchs and museums were closed on Mondays. So, I ended up biking around other parts of Amsterdam trying to find an outdoor market that I read about in my guidebook. The weather was a little chilly and quite windy, especially when biking against the wind. I never did find the market. Just when I kind of had my spirits up on my ability to navigate the curved streets of Amsterdam they were dashed. Oh well, it was my final chance to see the city.

The rest of the day was spent sorting through my things, going through photos and copying them on cd's, repacking, discussing our plans for tomorrow in Germany, and eating a weird combination of foods for dinner.

Glenn had gone to the store and picked up an odd assortment of caviar, herring in dill sauce, eel, etc all to plop onto slices of baguette bread. I tried some of his fishy purchases and gave him half of my deli purchases. Some sort of baked spinach concoction and a few meatballs, stroopwafel cookies and a few chocolates thrown in for good measure.

Germany

Eurotrip 8/28: Amsterdam to Koln Germany..yeah, right

Glenn and I said goodbye to our friend, Josje, finished packing up then were off to the train station.

We hopped on the train then had to switch trains in Ultrecht for the train to Koln. We had an hour layover so I walked around town. Glenn had already been-there-done-that so I went solo. Ultrecht sure keeps their city clean. Cobbledstone square, cobbled stone streets, numerous people with brooms sweeping up. Ultrecht seems like another city like Bath, with flowers hanging outside windows. Nice little streets, many stores. "Best frites in Netherlands" stand (fries). At the canal reminiscent of Amsterdam I turned around and headed back to the train station to catch the train.

We hopped on the train to Koln. I quizzed Glenn on some Czech. We started eating some cheese when the conductor comes up. He told us that we were supposed to have gotten off on the previous stop. Our itinerary sheet that we got with the ticket said nothing about getting off in Arnheim, but he's the "expert". We get off at the next stop and backtrack back to Arnheim. Meanwhile we have to wait 30-60 minutes for each train. At Arnheim we get on the train at the platform the conductor told us to.

After about an hour and a half on the slow train, that kept stopping at little towns, Glenn asked someone if the train takes you to Koln. "No", was the reply. No!! Annoyed, we get off at the next stop. We end up having to go the 1.5 hours back to Arnheim then wait another hour for the correct train. Then the train was 30 minutes late. Long story short we wasted the whole day in the train station and on trains.

We got to Koln, Germany at night. Right as you exit the train station the enormous Koln Dom Cathedral is right there on your left. We'd check that out in the morning. The hostel was right down the street thankfully. It was quite nice...

Koblenz, Bacharach, Arbach, Rothenburg: 8/29 - 8/31/07

After our breakfast buffet at the hotel in the fancy banquet room with water goblets and white table clothes we walked across the street to the train station.

We got our tickets in the machine for Rothenburg and realized the train was currently sitting there. Ack. We sprinted down the steps then back up to get to the platform only to have the train pull away. Bummer!! Checked the schedule hanging up and the next train wasn't for an hour.

There were some girls on the platform across the tracks laughing. We joked that this is all they have to do in this town. Sit at the train station and watch trains go by.

Rothenburg was only about a 15 minute train ride away. It was wonderful to finally arrive. Rothenburg should be a definate must see for travellers. There is much to see in this magical town. It is all in the old city, cradled behind the old medieval town walls.

After our fill of Rothenburg, their museums, Schneeball bakery, and Kebaps we were off to Cheb, Czech Republic! It's just fun to say Cheb, although it's pronounced keb. When we got to Cheb it was late and raining. Glenn suggested that we utilize the taxi that was sitting right in front of us and catch a lift to the hostel, which we did. Actually when we pulled up to the hostel featured in our book the sign on the door, to our dismay, said no vacancy so the driver took us to a hotel that was 900kc. Not bad.

It was so nice being in that hotel room, dry and comfy, sipping, what happened to be French, wine that I bought back in Rothenburg. While standing back at the train station Glenn had suggested that we sleep there at the grimy station and catch the 5AM train to Plzen. I'm sure glad we didn't do that.

Czech Republic

Cheb, Karlstejn, Pilzen, Prague: 9/1 - 9/5/07

We've been in Praha for a few days now. It's an exciting town.

There is much to see. It's quite vast, but so far I've walked to everything. I've been to the Loreta, and Prague Castle to name a few things.

Glenn started his Czech classes on Monday so we've been meeting up in the afternoon. I don't mind being solo. There is something so freeing and adventurous to be walking around a wonderfully historic place such as Praha by yourself. I can't help but smile. I still have to try my hand at train travel solo though. I'll let you know how that experience goes!

I believe I'll be taking the night train tomorrow to Slovak Republic. I've been in correspondence with a couple distant relatives who currently live there. We're going to probably be meeting up.

I joined Glenn after about a week into my trip. I have been keeping a daily journal so it is just a matter of transcribing it all. And, of course I am anxious to share the many photos with you. You can see the bulk of the photos on Glenns website

Slovak Republic

Zilina, Terchova, Cicmany, Fackov, Bratislava: 9/6 - 9/11/07

I arrived in Bratislava at 3:00 PM, and caught a tram to the Patio Hostel...Ha! I fooled you into thinking it was as easy as that.

I got off where I thought I should, but had a hard time finding the hostel. I must have circled the large block a couple times. And to top that off the rain started to pour in a big way. Disgusted, cranky, hungry and uncomfortable with my, close to 40 lb backpack strapped to myself I started towards the "Information Center"..following the arrow...to perhaps get a better map so I could locate my hostel. With the weight of my backpack weighing down on my hips and sore shoulders I cross the 4 lane street to where the Information Center was pointed out to be located. I walk in the doors only to find a produce market and shops. "What is this, some sort of a sick joke", I disgustedly say to myself as I stomped out of there...but not before making a mental note of the wine bar. I eventually ended up locating the hostel which I found, pretty much, by ducking into a passageway.

I was suprised to see that it is quite a enormous city. The handful or so photos I looked at of Bratislava before I left for Europe didn't prepare me for the deluge of pedestrians, cars, buildings, buses, and trams. I suppose, being the capital of Slovakia, it should be large. I followed the Hrad (castle) signs and hung out at the castle and castle grounds for about an hour. I didn't get to tour it as it was closed, but the views of the Danube and city were very nice.

I eventually found a pub for some dinner and beer then walked around the historic streets some more. I ended up by the castle and bridge again, which were lit up so I took some nice night photos.

It has been kind of rainy and a bit on the cool side over in Western Slovakia too. I had thought I might have left the rain back in Central Slovakia when the train was pulling into Bratislava and I saw blue sky, but I seemed to have overlooked the dark sky in the opposite part of the sky..moving in quickly. Oh well. Tomorrow is warm temps and Italy!

ITALY

Rome: 9/12 to 9/16/07

Italy was the last country in my wonderful adventure. I flew direct to Rome out of the small airport in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava.

My hostel that I had reserved online a few days before was about a 15 minute walk north of Termini train station..the station you take from the airport located 30 minutes away. I checked into my nice co-ed 2 bunkbed dorm room, said hello to a bunkmate then was off to explore Rome!

It was such an immediate joy being in Rome. I went from cool temps and rainy weather to sun and warmth. Not to mention the Roman history all around you. You can't miss the gigantic monuments or large obelisks, wonderful piazzas, fountains by Bernini, crumbling remains of 2,000 year old Roman buildings...

Throughout the days I toured the Palatine Hill, Colliseum, Pantheon, St. Peters Basilica, Vatican museums, and archeological museum (with a special underground tour of the remains of old Roman rooms and parts of the original cobblestone street!) to name a few. It was fantastic. I had such a great time wandering the streets and staring wide eyed at whatever Roman ruins or monument I found around the next turn. I also took time at night to sit in front of the illuminated Trevi Fountain or Colliseum, just enjoying being in Rome..and sitting in front of these amazing creations with them almost to myself as most of the tourists were already in bed. Knowing that I was only in Rome a few days, I found it hard to tear myself away.