Due to our somewhat limited time in Berlin, we thought that an overview tour might be our best bet to see the city. It worked out really well. We went through Terry Brewer's free tours (except you end up tipping relatively high). We saw all of the highlights and learned quite a bit about each spot. The highlights of Berlin included:
Spree River and Museum Island
Humbolt University
TV Tower
Fassenbender & Rausch Chocolatier
Bebelplatz
Check Point Charlie (kind of hokey)
Park above Hitler's bunker and offices
Memorial to the Jews
Brandenburg Gate
Hotel Adlon
All of the sites were very interesting, but some of our favorite little tidbits from the tour include:
1. There was a sign in German here telling boats not to anchor in certain areas of the river because undetonated World War 2 remants are lost throughout the city. Anchoring into one could end up blowing you up. The city doesn't seem overly concerned about this though! In fact, we heard a story about a man that found a WW2 hand grenade with the pin missing. He couldn't find any polic officers around, so he put it in his backpack, traveled the very busy metro until he found an officer and handed it over. The newspaper issued a statement the next day saying - If anyone finds WW2 remants, please leave them where they are and report them. No kidding!
I guess Berlin is really broke - iike 60 billion in debt broke. Their slogan is "broke, but sexy." It's very appropriate for Berlin which is a very artsy, counter culture city.
Former East Germany has happy worker man as the green and red pedestrian walking lights. After the wall fell, the government was going to switch them all out, but the people preferred them. It's called Ost-stalgia - or EastStalgia.
Bebelplatz was the site of big book burning that took place during Nazi Germany. One of the authors whose books were burned was Heinrich Heine, who was quote 113 years earlier saying - "wherever they burn books, eventually they'll also burn people." Quite eery foresight.
And of course Hotel Adlon...the balcony from which Wacko Jacko dangled Baby Blanket.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
I'm on a boat...
We LOVED Prague. We actually stayed on a boat there which was really funny. It brought back Coast Guard memories for Phill. The room was tiny with seperate twin beds and a tiny bathroom that gets the toilet wet when you shower! It even came with lifejackets! It actually was really great! We spent some evenings on the sundeck just relaxing and enjoying the scenery. We even watched a storm pass with residual lightnight for quite some time.
We met an older couple with a young dog named Fikos. He put his paws right into my hands. The woman smiled and apologetically said - "he's young." When we went our seperate ways, she said in her best english - "enjoy your days." I'm sure we will!
We met an older couple with a young dog named Fikos. He put his paws right into my hands. The woman smiled and apologetically said - "he's young." When we went our seperate ways, she said in her best english - "enjoy your days." I'm sure we will!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Prague
Hello quickly from Prague! We arrived here in Prague two days ago and have been loving it here! Great weather, great food, and excellent beer! I think this might have even topped Vienna on our favorites list.
We are headed north to Berlin in a few days and will do a better update then. We are safe and sound and enjoying our travels. More later...
We are headed north to Berlin in a few days and will do a better update then. We are safe and sound and enjoying our travels. More later...
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Zehr Goot!
We made is successfully to Vienna, Austria and what a great city this is! It is very clean and has many little parks and benches to rest on. We found a great park near a beautiful cathedral and had our lunch there. The city has great lounge chairs that are available to anyone free of cost, so we grabbed two and spent a good amount of time there. In fact, that's probably where we're headed as soon as we leave this internet cafe.
When we first got here, we arrived relatively late, so we got a restaurant recommendation from the hotel. The restaurant had quit serving food, so we enjoyed two great Austrian beers and ate afterwards at a street vendor which was DELICIOUS!! Haha! Filafel (sp?) and some chicken wrap. A few things were a little lost in translation. Phill asked what his options were for meat in his wrap and the vendor told him either chicken or bird. He went with chicken! Everyone is very friendly and helpful though!
Our hotel has two resident newfoundlands that hang out everyday in the courtyard in the back. They're absolutely massive and very friendly. The hotel also has an incredible breakfast buffet and a great, rickety old fashioned elevator.
This city has an entirely different feel than any other city we've visited yet. Without meaning to, we were really able to stay off the main tourist track for the majority of the day yesterday. It wasn't until we accidentally popped out on the shopping mecca of Vienna that we realized other tourists were even here! And of those tourists, we've heard very, very little english speaking folks.
When we first got here, we arrived relatively late, so we got a restaurant recommendation from the hotel. The restaurant had quit serving food, so we enjoyed two great Austrian beers and ate afterwards at a street vendor which was DELICIOUS!! Haha! Filafel (sp?) and some chicken wrap. A few things were a little lost in translation. Phill asked what his options were for meat in his wrap and the vendor told him either chicken or bird. He went with chicken! Everyone is very friendly and helpful though!
Our hotel has two resident newfoundlands that hang out everyday in the courtyard in the back. They're absolutely massive and very friendly. The hotel also has an incredible breakfast buffet and a great, rickety old fashioned elevator.
This city has an entirely different feel than any other city we've visited yet. Without meaning to, we were really able to stay off the main tourist track for the majority of the day yesterday. It wasn't until we accidentally popped out on the shopping mecca of Vienna that we realized other tourists were even here! And of those tourists, we've heard very, very little english speaking folks.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Trekking North
Well, we reluctantly left Mark and Adrienne's small village in Greece and headed north to Athens by bus. We're out into the wild again! We were quite spoiled with delicious, authentic food and the quiet atmosphere of the small village. And of course, you can't beat the 5-star accomodations of Mark and Adrienne's home!
We're happy to report that the bus travel went a million times smoother this time around. We had added an extra day in Athens a while back when we booked our hotel and flight. After the fact, people kept telling us that it was a dirty city and not all that great. We were really wishing that we didn't have three nights there. But, it's turned out to be a good way to see Athens. It's extremely hot here, so we have a tough time doing all of Athens in one day. The extra days allow us to see it at our leisure. So, yesterday we read books and lazed around our air-conditioned hotel until about 2pm. Then we braved the city!
We spent some time shopping in the Plaka and then made our way to the new Acropolis Museum. They museum only costs 1 euro currently as a promotional price for the first 6 months. They had a great video playing that talked all about the history of the Parthenon. It's pretty fascinating the way that it was built. There's some optical illusions engineered into the construction. During the Ottoman Empire, much of it was destroyed and Lord Elgin took four large pieces from the marble freize - the Elgin Marbles. A museum in Britian currently houses them and they have yet to return them to Greece. The new Acropolis Museum has a place saved in the museum for the marble pieces on the chance that they are returned.
We're spending the day today slowly sightseeing as well. We'll go see the Acropolis and an old stadium (blanking on the name) and some other Athens sights. I imagine we'll call it a night early and head back to our hotel for some sort of picnic dinner in our room. We've been eating at our hotel restaurant which is not very adventurous, but we aren't feeling too guilty about that after all the great food in the village!
We have a flight to Vienna tomorrow afternoon. Greece and Italy have been incredible, but we're really looking forward to heading north for some cooler weather. We've heard Vienna is in the 70s, so that will be such a nice break from the heat. We've also heard all about Viennese coffee and coffeehouses. We'll keep you posted on what we find.
We're happy to report that the bus travel went a million times smoother this time around. We had added an extra day in Athens a while back when we booked our hotel and flight. After the fact, people kept telling us that it was a dirty city and not all that great. We were really wishing that we didn't have three nights there. But, it's turned out to be a good way to see Athens. It's extremely hot here, so we have a tough time doing all of Athens in one day. The extra days allow us to see it at our leisure. So, yesterday we read books and lazed around our air-conditioned hotel until about 2pm. Then we braved the city!
We spent some time shopping in the Plaka and then made our way to the new Acropolis Museum. They museum only costs 1 euro currently as a promotional price for the first 6 months. They had a great video playing that talked all about the history of the Parthenon. It's pretty fascinating the way that it was built. There's some optical illusions engineered into the construction. During the Ottoman Empire, much of it was destroyed and Lord Elgin took four large pieces from the marble freize - the Elgin Marbles. A museum in Britian currently houses them and they have yet to return them to Greece. The new Acropolis Museum has a place saved in the museum for the marble pieces on the chance that they are returned.
We're spending the day today slowly sightseeing as well. We'll go see the Acropolis and an old stadium (blanking on the name) and some other Athens sights. I imagine we'll call it a night early and head back to our hotel for some sort of picnic dinner in our room. We've been eating at our hotel restaurant which is not very adventurous, but we aren't feeling too guilty about that after all the great food in the village!
We have a flight to Vienna tomorrow afternoon. Greece and Italy have been incredible, but we're really looking forward to heading north for some cooler weather. We've heard Vienna is in the 70s, so that will be such a nice break from the heat. We've also heard all about Viennese coffee and coffeehouses. We'll keep you posted on what we find.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The Greek Way
World languages are really fascinating. Adrienne had a party at their house the other night and the mixture of people was neat. All of them have some connection to the Greek culture, whether it be a spouse, parent, or they themselves live in Greece part or all of the year. Most of them speak Greek and English, but a couple speak only Greek. To listen to the way that all of our diverse backgrounds and languages mixed and communicated was so interesting. Some speak, some translate...and overall we all get the same enjoyment you feel at any dinner party of friends. It was great to listen to.
We walked around the village with Adrienne and looked at the stone houses and restaurants and tried to imagine what it must have been like here during the Turkish occupation. Adrienne walked us up to the mountain where the village water comes from. It comes straight from inside the mountain and diverts into all sorts of little canals that run throughout town next to the buildings. They're really cute. Adrienne challenged us to see who could keep their feet in the water the longest because it's so painfully cold. Phill won! Mark says they used to take a watermelon (kar-poo-zee in Greek) up there and put it in the water until it would eventually burst open.
Afterwards, she took us to this little cafe for a soda. We met a guy in there named Nikos. He gave Phill a sip of whatever he was drinking which we think must have been the equivalent of Greek Moonshine. Grinning, Nikos called it "medicine."
We've been eating so much great Greek food. Greek salad, souvlaki, mousakkah, dolmades, etc. Yesterday we had red mullet fish (bar-boon-yahs in Greek) that are fried whole, heads and all. I think the Greeks might eat it that way too. I cut the head off, opened the fish up, pulled out the spine and ate the meat. It's kind of a lot of work for a little bit of meat, but delicious!
We spent the day at Monemvasia yesterday which is an old city on a rock on the southern coast of Greece. It was the cutest little place with some tourists shops and old ruins of churches. Some people still live there, but houses are around 2 million euros if you can imagine - and they're tiny. We spent the afternoon swimming in the Mediterranean. As Uncle Louie put it yesterday - "It's another damn beautiful day in Greece."
We walked around the village with Adrienne and looked at the stone houses and restaurants and tried to imagine what it must have been like here during the Turkish occupation. Adrienne walked us up to the mountain where the village water comes from. It comes straight from inside the mountain and diverts into all sorts of little canals that run throughout town next to the buildings. They're really cute. Adrienne challenged us to see who could keep their feet in the water the longest because it's so painfully cold. Phill won! Mark says they used to take a watermelon (kar-poo-zee in Greek) up there and put it in the water until it would eventually burst open.
Afterwards, she took us to this little cafe for a soda. We met a guy in there named Nikos. He gave Phill a sip of whatever he was drinking which we think must have been the equivalent of Greek Moonshine. Grinning, Nikos called it "medicine."
We've been eating so much great Greek food. Greek salad, souvlaki, mousakkah, dolmades, etc. Yesterday we had red mullet fish (bar-boon-yahs in Greek) that are fried whole, heads and all. I think the Greeks might eat it that way too. I cut the head off, opened the fish up, pulled out the spine and ate the meat. It's kind of a lot of work for a little bit of meat, but delicious!
We spent the day at Monemvasia yesterday which is an old city on a rock on the southern coast of Greece. It was the cutest little place with some tourists shops and old ruins of churches. Some people still live there, but houses are around 2 million euros if you can imagine - and they're tiny. We spent the afternoon swimming in the Mediterranean. As Uncle Louie put it yesterday - "It's another damn beautiful day in Greece."
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Big Fat Greek Vacation
We made it to Greece on Friday evening after about 37 hours of traveling! The majority of the travel wasn't too bad. We caught a metro out of Sorrento at 6am on Thursday, a train at 10am, another connection train around 1pm, a bus to the ferry terminal in Bari, and then an overnight ferry to Patras, Greece. The ferry was actually kind of fun! We met two Canadians from Montreal traveling to Greece that we hung out with in the ferry terminal and the entire time on the boat. We spent the evening playing games and enjoying the boat with them. I think we must have stayed up until 1am or so, which included a "Disco Tech" bar which was totally empty and hilariously lame. We asked them to play some North American music. Didn't get any really, but we did happily belt out Toto's "The Rain's Down in Africa" together. Good times! (the song's been stuck in our heads for days now!)
Sleeping accommodations were too funny. It's not a normal ferry. It had a pool, restaurant, bar, etc. I know that sounds incredible...but picture a ferry version of a pool. It's not the glam of a cruise ship. But nicer than a train nonetheless. Our ticket gave us an airline-type seat, but they hardly reclined at all, so we ended up sleeping on the deck with all the other backpackers. You should have seen it! People and their stuff sprawled out and sleeping in every little nook and cranny of this boat. One guy was spread eagle in the kid's playhouse area of the ship. So, we got into our little sleeping bag things and crashed on the floor also between chair legs. It was quite an experience.
Then our bus trips in Greece were an entirely different story. It was a complete nightmare!! I don't think the Greek people were very thrilled with us Americans. They were less than friendly - to say it politely. And then our bus broke down on the trip from Patras to Corinth. No one spoke English to let us know what was going on. All we knew was that the bus driver had several belts on the ground...no good! And then in Corinth they were downright nasty to us and would tell us that we couldn't get on the bus and that another would be there in 5 minutes...which it wasn't! At any rate, we did finally get onto a bus that was an hour and fifteen minute standing room only. We didn't care. We were just glad to be on it.
The remainder of our Greek experience, however, has been incredible! This village is the cutest, most quaint little place. We are totally in love with this place. Mark and Adrienne's house it incredible and the view is unbelievable. We had dinner last night with several of the people from the village which was the best experience. Everyone was so friendly and told us all sorts of stories from their past village experiences. These are exactly the authentic experiences that we wanted out of our Europe trip.
We wanted to post some pictures of our adventures. They're from Rome to now.
Sleeping accommodations were too funny. It's not a normal ferry. It had a pool, restaurant, bar, etc. I know that sounds incredible...but picture a ferry version of a pool. It's not the glam of a cruise ship. But nicer than a train nonetheless. Our ticket gave us an airline-type seat, but they hardly reclined at all, so we ended up sleeping on the deck with all the other backpackers. You should have seen it! People and their stuff sprawled out and sleeping in every little nook and cranny of this boat. One guy was spread eagle in the kid's playhouse area of the ship. So, we got into our little sleeping bag things and crashed on the floor also between chair legs. It was quite an experience.
Then our bus trips in Greece were an entirely different story. It was a complete nightmare!! I don't think the Greek people were very thrilled with us Americans. They were less than friendly - to say it politely. And then our bus broke down on the trip from Patras to Corinth. No one spoke English to let us know what was going on. All we knew was that the bus driver had several belts on the ground...no good! And then in Corinth they were downright nasty to us and would tell us that we couldn't get on the bus and that another would be there in 5 minutes...which it wasn't! At any rate, we did finally get onto a bus that was an hour and fifteen minute standing room only. We didn't care. We were just glad to be on it.
The remainder of our Greek experience, however, has been incredible! This village is the cutest, most quaint little place. We are totally in love with this place. Mark and Adrienne's house it incredible and the view is unbelievable. We had dinner last night with several of the people from the village which was the best experience. Everyone was so friendly and told us all sorts of stories from their past village experiences. These are exactly the authentic experiences that we wanted out of our Europe trip.
We wanted to post some pictures of our adventures. They're from Rome to now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
