We've survived Amsterdam. Moms, I figured you guy were concerned about our lack of blogging in this sinful city, but the only place with free wi fi in our hostel is the lobby, which is in a different building, so it was more lethargy and our general busyness than anything else.
This is really an amazing city though. It reminds us all of a giant Bardstown Road in Louisville. There are all sorts of little shops, very little chain stores, and all kinds of ethnic restaurants to eat all throughout the city. The canals are beautiful and loaded with little boats. Andrew and I decided that we want to retire and buy a houseboat and keep it on an Amsterdam canal.
We found a few markets the other day, which were neat. Andrew had raw herring for lunch while Ray had a whole chicken...not using any utensils. It was quite a sight.
We were going to go to the Anne Frank house yesterday, but the line was pretty long so we were going to come back, but ended up not going. I'm slightly disappointed about not getting to go, but it's nothing heartbreaking. At this point in the trip we are all pretty laid back and don't have any real plans for the cities other than wandering around and hanging out.
The Red Light district is tamer than one would expect. Our first night we walked right through it and didn't realize it. (In our defense, it was cold and raining!) Yesterday we walked through during the day and it looked no different than the other areas of town. During prime time when we walked through, it was more amusing than anything else. All the girls are in windows that have red lights. It kind of reminded me of a zoo...just walking through and seeing all the animals. It was really interesting (and slightly uncomfortable) when we would witness a "transaction" where the guy walks in and the girl shuts her curtains. There are prostitutes of all sorts...some of them looked really young and some of them looked really old.
Amsterdam has actually been one of the cities that I've felt the safest in. There are cops everywhere in the red light district and around the major coffee shops. It was interesting to watch people rolling and smoking their joints while the cops were just riding by on their horses. There seem to be fewer homeless people on the streets than the other bigger cities that we've been to. It's just a really clean and neat city.
We're hopping on a train to Brussels here in a bit. We will definitely keep the blogging up this next week. We'll be home in a few days...that's crazy to believe.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Back to Rome
I've come to the conclusion that Rome is nuts, as in crazy, and not in a good way. This really hit me after a while of seeing so many crazy structures and the stuff in, on, and around them. There's just no end to it. No one in their right mind would dream this stuff up, much less actually build it, much less so many times over. The Romans here were nuts, The Catholics here are nuts, and the Italians here, not wanting to be overshadowed by their own city have gone nuts. That's really the only explanation I can think of for a place like Rome.
Since I arrived late, I went to bed early knowing the next day would be a long one. I decided it would be my "church day". In the morning, I threw on the best clothes in my backpack and headed out to my 9:30 tour of St. Peters Necropolis, which had to be scheduled months in advance. The necropolis is what used to be an open air area with elaborate structures dedicated to housing the remains of Roman families. Now it rests about 20-30 feet under St. Peters Basilica, some almost perfectly preserved. In addition to the Roman stuff was the tomb of St. Peter and what are believed to be his remains near by. The whole thing kind of seemed like a Roman town inside a cave. After that, I wandered through the papal grotto, which houses the tombs of many of the popes throughout history. After that, I took in some more of St. Peter's. This place is so big the Statue of Liberty from water level to torch flame could fit inside the dome, which was designed and build by Michelangelo.
After the necropolis and grotto I headed over to the Pantheon which is nearly perfectly preserved and the building which countless famous buildings are based on. Next was the Campo de Fiori, a very nice area in the southern part of the city. Then St. Mary Trastevere, a very old well preserved church. Then I walked across a bridge which was over 2000 years old and still functioning well. Close to that was St. Nicholas, a small church built into Roman ruins. Down the street were two almost completely intact Roman temples, you can't really call them ruins if they were never ruined. Up the hill from that was the church with the famous Roman sewer cover which you always see pictures of people sticking their hands into. Up the Aventine hill from there was the church of St. Sabina, one of the best preserved Constintenean basilicas, over 1600 years old with huge carved decoration wooden doors which were over 1500 years old. Down the hill from there was St. Clement, a really nice church. The really notable thing about it was the well preserved roman temple that was excavated under the church and the what was probably the house of St. Clement, the fourth pope. From there I went to St. John Lateran, this is actually the mother church of the Catholic church (not St. Peter's) with the papal throne. This church was just ridiculous, that's really all there is to say. From there I walked over to Santa Croce(Rome) which was surprisingly small for a major church in Rome. However, in the treasury they had what were believed to be three fragments of the true cross, two thorns from the crown of thorns, fragments from the rock used or flogging, and the inscription from the top of the cross, and more which I can't even remember. Of course they were all housed in reliquaries that were made with the best of the best of artistic techniques at the time they were made. All told I think I had visited about nine or ten churches plus several Roman temples by the end of the day.
The next day I was able to relax a bit, In the morning I went back to St. Peters to go through the treasury, despite being looted quite a few times throughout history (the last being Napoleon) it was still nuts. After that I headed over to the main Capitaline Museum. (located on Capitaline Hill, which our word "capital" comes from) This museum housed what seemed like nearly all of the Roman statues I've ever seen in a history book, many of them really nice and in perfect condition.
The next day my train for Frankfurt left at around 4:30 so I managed to roam around the city just a little more and visit St. Lawrence which is around 1700 years old and the inside of St. Mary Major, along with the treasury.
It was a long train ride up to Frankfurt to meet back up with Andrew and Stevie, but luckily at that point I was exhausted, so I slept on and off and punched out my previous blog entry on the way.
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121088&l=001a5&id=38301811
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121089&l=19716&id=38301811
(I also added a few more to fill out the last Rome Album)
Since I arrived late, I went to bed early knowing the next day would be a long one. I decided it would be my "church day". In the morning, I threw on the best clothes in my backpack and headed out to my 9:30 tour of St. Peters Necropolis, which had to be scheduled months in advance. The necropolis is what used to be an open air area with elaborate structures dedicated to housing the remains of Roman families. Now it rests about 20-30 feet under St. Peters Basilica, some almost perfectly preserved. In addition to the Roman stuff was the tomb of St. Peter and what are believed to be his remains near by. The whole thing kind of seemed like a Roman town inside a cave. After that, I wandered through the papal grotto, which houses the tombs of many of the popes throughout history. After that, I took in some more of St. Peter's. This place is so big the Statue of Liberty from water level to torch flame could fit inside the dome, which was designed and build by Michelangelo.
After the necropolis and grotto I headed over to the Pantheon which is nearly perfectly preserved and the building which countless famous buildings are based on. Next was the Campo de Fiori, a very nice area in the southern part of the city. Then St. Mary Trastevere, a very old well preserved church. Then I walked across a bridge which was over 2000 years old and still functioning well. Close to that was St. Nicholas, a small church built into Roman ruins. Down the street were two almost completely intact Roman temples, you can't really call them ruins if they were never ruined. Up the hill from that was the church with the famous Roman sewer cover which you always see pictures of people sticking their hands into. Up the Aventine hill from there was the church of St. Sabina, one of the best preserved Constintenean basilicas, over 1600 years old with huge carved decoration wooden doors which were over 1500 years old. Down the hill from there was St. Clement, a really nice church. The really notable thing about it was the well preserved roman temple that was excavated under the church and the what was probably the house of St. Clement, the fourth pope. From there I went to St. John Lateran, this is actually the mother church of the Catholic church (not St. Peter's) with the papal throne. This church was just ridiculous, that's really all there is to say. From there I walked over to Santa Croce(Rome) which was surprisingly small for a major church in Rome. However, in the treasury they had what were believed to be three fragments of the true cross, two thorns from the crown of thorns, fragments from the rock used or flogging, and the inscription from the top of the cross, and more which I can't even remember. Of course they were all housed in reliquaries that were made with the best of the best of artistic techniques at the time they were made. All told I think I had visited about nine or ten churches plus several Roman temples by the end of the day.
The next day I was able to relax a bit, In the morning I went back to St. Peters to go through the treasury, despite being looted quite a few times throughout history (the last being Napoleon) it was still nuts. After that I headed over to the main Capitaline Museum. (located on Capitaline Hill, which our word "capital" comes from) This museum housed what seemed like nearly all of the Roman statues I've ever seen in a history book, many of them really nice and in perfect condition.
The next day my train for Frankfurt left at around 4:30 so I managed to roam around the city just a little more and visit St. Lawrence which is around 1700 years old and the inside of St. Mary Major, along with the treasury.
It was a long train ride up to Frankfurt to meet back up with Andrew and Stevie, but luckily at that point I was exhausted, so I slept on and off and punched out my previous blog entry on the way.
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121088&l=001a5&id=38301811
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121089&l=19716&id=38301811
(I also added a few more to fill out the last Rome Album)
Monday, July 21, 2008
Picture Time
Hey everybody. We are hanging around our hostel waiting for our train to Amsterdam so I thought I'd take advantage of the free internet and upload some pictures for you all. I can't believe it's already been 4 weeks and we only have a week left. It'll be here before we know it.
We went to Rudesheim yesterday and it was beautiful. It's Germany's wine capital, so we took a break from the beer and had some wine with our lunches. It was a very enjoyable day in a small town.
Last night we just wandered around Frankfurt and saw more of the city. Nothing too spectacular. We are done with the hostel part of our trip because in Amsterdam we have a 3 bed apartment and in Brussels we will have a hotel room. The hostels have been nice, but being able to sprawl out an not have to lock up our stuff all the time is nice as well.
Hope you all enjoy the pictures. As always, keep the comments coming, we love hearing from everyone!
Andrew in front of the BMW Museum...we found our new cars at the Welt. :)
This is one of the barrels of oil that's costing $145+ each.
We found this funny. They're so nice to foreigners. :)
This is what most of our dinners in Germany consisted of.
Andrew and me in front of the Lowenbrau Keller...the dinner where the previous picture was taken.
More big beers at the Englischer Gardens. (This was prior to the naked frisbee. Haha)
The Bavarian Alps as we were arriving in Fussen.
Cute boyfriend admiring the scenery.
Neuschwanstein Castle amongst the rain and clouds.
Andrew and me at the bus station with the castle in the background.
Beautiful sky and buildings in Heidleburg.
Our heavenly treat....mmmm.
Mimicking the sign above us. :)
The Heidelburg Castle fromm the belltower of a church.
All of Heidelburg from the belltower.
Andrew and Ray trying their best to imitate nutcrackers at the Christmas Shop in Rudesheim..
Then I had to have a turn.
Rudesheim...Germany's wine country.
Happy campers on top of the city!
Looking over the city.
Ray using his ninja skills to pick some tasty blackberries!
I used the color accent to capture the beauty of the sky and really liked how it turned out.
I tried it to capture the trees too and liked the green accent as well.
Frankfurt from 200 meters high.
One of the big skyscrapers as we were walking downtown.
We went to Rudesheim yesterday and it was beautiful. It's Germany's wine capital, so we took a break from the beer and had some wine with our lunches. It was a very enjoyable day in a small town.
Last night we just wandered around Frankfurt and saw more of the city. Nothing too spectacular. We are done with the hostel part of our trip because in Amsterdam we have a 3 bed apartment and in Brussels we will have a hotel room. The hostels have been nice, but being able to sprawl out an not have to lock up our stuff all the time is nice as well.
Hope you all enjoy the pictures. As always, keep the comments coming, we love hearing from everyone!
Andrew in front of the BMW Museum...we found our new cars at the Welt. :)
This is one of the barrels of oil that's costing $145+ each.
We found this funny. They're so nice to foreigners. :)
This is what most of our dinners in Germany consisted of.
Andrew and me in front of the Lowenbrau Keller...the dinner where the previous picture was taken.
More big beers at the Englischer Gardens. (This was prior to the naked frisbee. Haha)
The Bavarian Alps as we were arriving in Fussen.
Cute boyfriend admiring the scenery.
Neuschwanstein Castle amongst the rain and clouds.
Andrew and me at the bus station with the castle in the background.
Beautiful sky and buildings in Heidleburg.
Our heavenly treat....mmmm.
Mimicking the sign above us. :)
The Heidelburg Castle fromm the belltower of a church.
All of Heidelburg from the belltower.
Andrew and Ray trying their best to imitate nutcrackers at the Christmas Shop in Rudesheim..
Then I had to have a turn.
Rudesheim...Germany's wine country.
Happy campers on top of the city!
Looking over the city.
Ray using his ninja skills to pick some tasty blackberries!
I used the color accent to capture the beauty of the sky and really liked how it turned out.
I tried it to capture the trees too and liked the green accent as well.
Frankfurt from 200 meters high.
One of the big skyscrapers as we were walking downtown.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Naples
So despite everything I've heard about Naples, I found it to be really enjoyable. Although, things in general were pretty dirty. Everything moves at an extremely fast pace, yet it's really laid back. Also, it seems like there are pretty much no traffic laws that anyone pays attention to. In order to cross the street you need to just start walking at a steady pace and face straight ahead, it's too scary if you look at the traffic and you'll be tempted to stop or run. The cars don't stop or slow down for you, they just alter course a bit. That's why you walk at a steady pace. If you don't, the drivers can't predict where you'll be. Traffic in Rome is similar, but not as extreme. Also, the people are really friendly. Not many tourists go to Naples, so the few who do are a novelty to them. Very few people knew much English, so the little Italian I was able to learn before the trip was extremely handy. It wasn't perfect, but stringing together some key words and phrases along with hand gestures got me along surprisingly well.
My first day I arrived from Florence and checked in pretty early. I ran into two really nice Canadians (all of the Canadians I've met have been super nice) who were finishing lunch, they offered my some of their huge bag of olives they bought for 1eu. I've never really liked olives until I ate one of these. They had a sweet taste with the consistency of a small peach. Through the rest of my time in Naples most of my food came from small fruit and bread stands which were everywhere. I ended up eating two or three bags of these olives (probably around one pound each) by myself, I just carried them around and snacked on them everywhere I went.
After lunch I decided to go try to visit Herculanium, which was supposedly about 1km from where I was staying. I headed out on foot and found plenty of signs with arrows, but couldn't locate it. I gave up and started following signs for some sort of Vesuvius archeological museum. After a while, those signs disappeared too. (Italians seem to have issues labeling things, most things just aren't labeled, like store hours, streets, prices, etc., I think they just make them up as they go) Before I go any further, let me just say that I was feeling kind of stupid and really eager to do something from being on the train so long that day. Eventually I came to a sign for the museum pointing the way I had just came from. Frustrated, I decided to just climb Vesuvius, so I started heading up hill. A little over three hours later, I came to the area where the busses drop people off, about 20-30 minutes from the crater rim. I walked up to the gate to find out that it was closed. It closed at 5:00, I got there around 6:00. Disappointed, I took in the views for a while and started the long walk back. Luckily, some nice Norwegians with a rental car stopped and offered me a ride down, which I gladly accepted. Needless to say, I slept well that night.
The next day it was off to Pompeii which was really cool. Pompeii was absolutely huge, it probably took 20-30 minutes just to hike from one end to the other. Despite the people hustling you to take their tour, I got an audio guide so I could move at my own pace and still know what everything was. There were about 70 items on the audio guide, I think I got through about 40 in five hours. It was really hot, with little shade, so after that I just went around to all the main places and listened to the commentary on those. I was also out of olives and bread and getting kind of bored since it seemed like 95% of Pompeii and 70% of audio guide items were houses. So that made up pretty much all of my single full day in Naples. Although that night I did manage to stop by a pizza place with a wood fired oven and pick up a couple really good authentic pizzas.
The next day my train for Rome left at 6:30PM, so I decided to give Vesuvius another shot. This time I shelled out the 9eu and took the bus up to the area where I was turned around earlier. It was about a 50 minute bus ride if that tells you anything about the hike. I quickly made it up the rest of the way and was then faced with one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. The inside of this thing was enormous, and you could see all of the layers of rock all the way down. It's what I would imagine staring out at the grand canyon would be like, except this was an active volcano. If you looked closely, you could see heat and gas venting into the crater in a few spots. After about an hour I had to drag myself down to catch the next bus so I wouldn't miss the train. A few hours later it was off to Rome.
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120476&l=6e447&id=38301811
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121087&l=d9a7d&id=38301811
By the way, thanks so much for all the compliments on the pictures, however it´s really the sites that make them so nice, I just push the button.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Castles, Asians, and more Gay Pride festivals
Andrew summed up Munich pretty well with his last post. I love Bavaria.
Fussen was a quaint little mountain town. It did have a McDonald's, but it was on the outskirts of town and not in the city center. They didn't even have a Starbucks! The train ride in was beautiful. It was clear and we had a great view of the mountains. When we got settled into our hostel, we decided to eat dinner and we ended up sitting at a table with a Swedish man, a Finnish woman, and two Taiwanese people our age that were studying in Italy. We had some great conversation regarding beer, golf, soccer, etc. It was funny because the Swedish guy's favorite beer is Sam Adams, which i also Andrew's favorite. Very ironic. Walking back to the hostel, we noticed the Taiwanese people walking the same direction and found out that they were not only staying in our hostel, but they were our roommates. What a small world, eh? We could see the castle from our room, which was really neat.
After a beautiful Wednesday, we woke up Thursday to POURING down rain. And of course this was the day that we chose to go to Neuschwanstein Castle. I haven't complained about the rain this whole time, but I was kind of sad that it was raining on Thursday. ..I wanted to get pretty pictures of the castle! We trudged on to the castle and took the tour of the finished part of it. It was kind of disappointing, but only because there wasn't that much that got finished before the King who built it died. I managed to get a few decent pictures...as it was beautiful from the outside, but the rain did dampen my spirits...figuratively an literally.
Since it was cold and wet, Andrew and I used the remainder of the day to nap, which was well needed.
Yesterday we came to Frankfurt. Since we're only using it as a hub for day trips, we really hadn't planned much to do here so we just wandered around the city last night. We saw all sorts of neat buildings and had some wonderful gelato. We heard music and decided to check it out and...low and behold....it was yet another gay pride festival. That makes 2 festivals in 2 cities, which I think that makes us unofficial roadies. We found great humor in the situation.
Today we caught a train to Heidelburg. It was a really cute city, although it was much bigger than I'd imagined it to be. We went and walked around the old city and saw the castle (we didn't tour it, we just took pictures of it). There's also an old church in the center with a bell tower, so we climbed it and saw the town from the top. We also stopped in a bakery and got an "Original Heidelburg (Some German Word)" and it was the most wonderful thing I've ever tasted. It was a creamy icing type thing, with a cake like thing surrounding it, dipped in chocolate. It was heaven.
Our hostel had a spaghetti dinner, so we came back from Heidelburg a little early to take advantage of that (it's hard to pass up free food!) and they have free wi fi so now here we are. It's pouring down rain (yet again...that's all it seems to do in Germany!) so it's doubtful we'll romp around the city anymore tonight.
On a side note, I've had to buy an additional suitcase since all my crap seems to be reproducing. Luckily, I can use it as a carry on so all of our souvenirs will go in it.
We'll try to update again before we head to Amsterdam. Hopefully we'll be able to take advantage of unlimited internet and get some more pictures on here.
Hope everyone reading this is doing well!
Fussen was a quaint little mountain town. It did have a McDonald's, but it was on the outskirts of town and not in the city center. They didn't even have a Starbucks! The train ride in was beautiful. It was clear and we had a great view of the mountains. When we got settled into our hostel, we decided to eat dinner and we ended up sitting at a table with a Swedish man, a Finnish woman, and two Taiwanese people our age that were studying in Italy. We had some great conversation regarding beer, golf, soccer, etc. It was funny because the Swedish guy's favorite beer is Sam Adams, which i also Andrew's favorite. Very ironic. Walking back to the hostel, we noticed the Taiwanese people walking the same direction and found out that they were not only staying in our hostel, but they were our roommates. What a small world, eh? We could see the castle from our room, which was really neat.
After a beautiful Wednesday, we woke up Thursday to POURING down rain. And of course this was the day that we chose to go to Neuschwanstein Castle. I haven't complained about the rain this whole time, but I was kind of sad that it was raining on Thursday. ..I wanted to get pretty pictures of the castle! We trudged on to the castle and took the tour of the finished part of it. It was kind of disappointing, but only because there wasn't that much that got finished before the King who built it died. I managed to get a few decent pictures...as it was beautiful from the outside, but the rain did dampen my spirits...figuratively an literally.
Since it was cold and wet, Andrew and I used the remainder of the day to nap, which was well needed.
Yesterday we came to Frankfurt. Since we're only using it as a hub for day trips, we really hadn't planned much to do here so we just wandered around the city last night. We saw all sorts of neat buildings and had some wonderful gelato. We heard music and decided to check it out and...low and behold....it was yet another gay pride festival. That makes 2 festivals in 2 cities, which I think that makes us unofficial roadies. We found great humor in the situation.
Today we caught a train to Heidelburg. It was a really cute city, although it was much bigger than I'd imagined it to be. We went and walked around the old city and saw the castle (we didn't tour it, we just took pictures of it). There's also an old church in the center with a bell tower, so we climbed it and saw the town from the top. We also stopped in a bakery and got an "Original Heidelburg (Some German Word)" and it was the most wonderful thing I've ever tasted. It was a creamy icing type thing, with a cake like thing surrounding it, dipped in chocolate. It was heaven.
Our hostel had a spaghetti dinner, so we came back from Heidelburg a little early to take advantage of that (it's hard to pass up free food!) and they have free wi fi so now here we are. It's pouring down rain (yet again...that's all it seems to do in Germany!) so it's doubtful we'll romp around the city anymore tonight.
On a side note, I've had to buy an additional suitcase since all my crap seems to be reproducing. Luckily, I can use it as a carry on so all of our souvenirs will go in it.
We'll try to update again before we head to Amsterdam. Hopefully we'll be able to take advantage of unlimited internet and get some more pictures on here.
Hope everyone reading this is doing well!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Howdy from Texas!
Hey everyone, this is Andrew and I'm kidding about the Texas thing. We're in Fussen, Germany at an internet cafe waiting on our ride back to Munich to head to lovely Frankfurt. Frankfurt will be out homebase while we travel to smaller cities in close proximity and what not. Anyways, back to our travels.
It looks like Stevie left off at the night before our big romp through the Duetches Museum. As far as museums go, it was insane. As stevie said we spen over two hours looking at boats, from canoes to huge war ships. That really didn't prepare us for the madness that was to ensue. We then spent a good hour looking at planes, trains, and automobiles. Chemistry experiments followed where we got to mix up some neat ingrediaents to make something new, somehow I found myself in the fermentation exhibit.....weird. I could go on and on about the magnitude of the museum but you can look it up and get a good idea for yourself.
After lunch in the museum it was time to hit up another beer garden, the Augustiner something or another. There was an old man sitting across from us who wa son his 3rd beer, we could tell by the notches on his coaster made by the waiter. The old man got up to use the restroom and the waiter dropped off another beer. Well apparently the old man wasn't aware of ordering or the waiters are used to just bringing him one after another, because the look on his face when he saw the new beer was a look of confusion and exhaustion. He then proceded to shrug his shoulders and sit down for another drink.
WE went to Munich Residence which was the political center to the first dukes, then the electors (from 1623) and finally the kings of Bavaria (1806-1918).......I had the brochure in my pocket. It was insane ton's of stuff a good king want's, including a bedroom devoted only to looking like a very nice bedroom, and was not to be used.
Englischer Gardens was fantastic, especially playing nude frisbee with the locals, pictures soon. The have a huge beer garden and Bavarian food pavillions in the middle of the park, and it took a long time to get to the middle, very very big park. Just kidding about the nude frisbee by the way, but we did make it a point to get a little closer to laugh at the well tanned old people. After all that we just shopped a little in the Marienplatz, ate some more, probably more beer and so forth.
Munich has easly been both of our favorite cities so far, (and it wasn't just the beer Mom). It was beautiful, extremely laid back and loaded with cultre. I'll let Stevie update you on Fussen and the like becasue our train should be here soon. Love you guys, keep the comments coming.
It looks like Stevie left off at the night before our big romp through the Duetches Museum. As far as museums go, it was insane. As stevie said we spen over two hours looking at boats, from canoes to huge war ships. That really didn't prepare us for the madness that was to ensue. We then spent a good hour looking at planes, trains, and automobiles. Chemistry experiments followed where we got to mix up some neat ingrediaents to make something new, somehow I found myself in the fermentation exhibit.....weird. I could go on and on about the magnitude of the museum but you can look it up and get a good idea for yourself.
After lunch in the museum it was time to hit up another beer garden, the Augustiner something or another. There was an old man sitting across from us who wa son his 3rd beer, we could tell by the notches on his coaster made by the waiter. The old man got up to use the restroom and the waiter dropped off another beer. Well apparently the old man wasn't aware of ordering or the waiters are used to just bringing him one after another, because the look on his face when he saw the new beer was a look of confusion and exhaustion. He then proceded to shrug his shoulders and sit down for another drink.
WE went to Munich Residence which was the political center to the first dukes, then the electors (from 1623) and finally the kings of Bavaria (1806-1918).......I had the brochure in my pocket. It was insane ton's of stuff a good king want's, including a bedroom devoted only to looking like a very nice bedroom, and was not to be used.
Englischer Gardens was fantastic, especially playing nude frisbee with the locals, pictures soon. The have a huge beer garden and Bavarian food pavillions in the middle of the park, and it took a long time to get to the middle, very very big park. Just kidding about the nude frisbee by the way, but we did make it a point to get a little closer to laugh at the well tanned old people. After all that we just shopped a little in the Marienplatz, ate some more, probably more beer and so forth.
Munich has easly been both of our favorite cities so far, (and it wasn't just the beer Mom). It was beautiful, extremely laid back and loaded with cultre. I'll let Stevie update you on Fussen and the like becasue our train should be here soon. Love you guys, keep the comments coming.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Quick update on Florence.
Florence was great. It was touristry, but in a good way. After I arrived I went to check out the Duomo (Cathedral). I thought after Rome, I would be prepared for this, but it was really stunning. Along with the baptistry and bell tower, it was easily the most beautiful church facade I've ever seen. Although it needed a good washing and the inside was kind of sparse (comparitivly). The Dome was really cool, probably one of the greatist engineering achievements in of the renaissance. Best of all, I got to climb up to the top of the dome. It had great views, but it was mostly just cool to climb around something inside something like that. While on the subject of churches I went to Santa Croce, which is pretty much the Westminster abbey of the Renaissance. People with tombs inside include, Michelangelo, Donatello, Galileo, Machiavelli, Dante, Rossini, Marconi and Fermi.
As far as museums, first I did the Uffizi (worst customer service of any museum so far, especially ticketing/entrance) which holds all sorts of renaissance masterworks from Florence, namely Boticelli's "Primavera" and "Birth of Venus". Then it was on to the Academia which holds the original "David" by Michelangelo, plus lots of other stuff for such a small museum. That night I climbed a hill that overlooked Florence which had the Piazza Michelangelo with some great views and a really neat looking church on top.
On day three I took a day trip to Pisa, no explanation needed for the most part. Although the baptistry had amazing acoustics. Every 30 minutes someone would come in and give a demonstration by singing three notes, a few seconds later you could hear really loud overtones coming down from the top of the dome, it was really cool.
That was pretty much it for Florence (I'm trying to do a quick update). Oh, souveneer hunting was fun. I knew I got a good deal from bargaining when the merchants looked upset after the transaction was over, not just before.
In responce to moms questions,
Yeah, I definately felt sorry for all the Christians that were murdered there. Although, by the time I arrived in Rome I had seen so much christian art graphically depecting the deaths of saints in all of the museums and churches I think I was kind of desensitized to it.
As far as personalities, there's really a whole range. Some really nice and helpful, some really shady, some who have no buisness being around other people, and everything in between. Pretty much just like the US.
Food I don't really have a lot to report on, I've been trying to get food from groceries as much as possible to save money. I had some good shepards pie in Dublin, a lamb and mint pasty in London, and really good breakfasts at the hotel in Paris. Bern was really expensive, but I did find a good pretzel place. In Florence (the birth place of gelato) I supposedly had some at the best gelato place there. It was really good and fresh, but I still think the place in Rome tastes better.
Cheers! (as they say in Dublin and London)
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119964&l=d4c37&id=38301811
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120197&l=6ac94&id=38301811
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120472&l=1484b&id=38301811
As far as museums, first I did the Uffizi (worst customer service of any museum so far, especially ticketing/entrance) which holds all sorts of renaissance masterworks from Florence, namely Boticelli's "Primavera" and "Birth of Venus". Then it was on to the Academia which holds the original "David" by Michelangelo, plus lots of other stuff for such a small museum. That night I climbed a hill that overlooked Florence which had the Piazza Michelangelo with some great views and a really neat looking church on top.
On day three I took a day trip to Pisa, no explanation needed for the most part. Although the baptistry had amazing acoustics. Every 30 minutes someone would come in and give a demonstration by singing three notes, a few seconds later you could hear really loud overtones coming down from the top of the dome, it was really cool.
That was pretty much it for Florence (I'm trying to do a quick update). Oh, souveneer hunting was fun. I knew I got a good deal from bargaining when the merchants looked upset after the transaction was over, not just before.
In responce to moms questions,
Yeah, I definately felt sorry for all the Christians that were murdered there. Although, by the time I arrived in Rome I had seen so much christian art graphically depecting the deaths of saints in all of the museums and churches I think I was kind of desensitized to it.
As far as personalities, there's really a whole range. Some really nice and helpful, some really shady, some who have no buisness being around other people, and everything in between. Pretty much just like the US.
Food I don't really have a lot to report on, I've been trying to get food from groceries as much as possible to save money. I had some good shepards pie in Dublin, a lamb and mint pasty in London, and really good breakfasts at the hotel in Paris. Bern was really expensive, but I did find a good pretzel place. In Florence (the birth place of gelato) I supposedly had some at the best gelato place there. It was really good and fresh, but I still think the place in Rome tastes better.
Cheers! (as they say in Dublin and London)
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119964&l=d4c37&id=38301811
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120197&l=6ac94&id=38301811
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120472&l=1484b&id=38301811
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