Heidelberg

Our first stop in our three city tour of Germany was Heidelberg. On the way to Heidelberg we had a stop over at the Frankfurt train station, where we had our first yummy taste of Germany’s bretzel (a.k.a salty soft pretzel). Bretzels shops are everywhere in Germany and are so delicious…it’s going to be the death of me (Joh) because I love soft pretzels and a bit addicted to them. Anyways, Heidelberg is a small but beautiful city nestled in the South of Germany.

We were fortunate that Kate’s sister, Carla, was incredibly gracious and willing to host us for 4 days. Carla and her family were very fun and wonderful to us during our visit. On our first day, Carla showed us around the center city of Heidelberg and treated us to a yummy German dinner, which consisted of an oinion style keish, onion/cheese flatbread and neu weine (new wine…which is a seasonal wine only served in the Fall). Everything was delicious. The neu weine is Joyce’s new favorite wine…it’s super sweet and dangerous because it tastes like sweet grape juice. We tried to purchase a bottle but we sadly found out that we cannot transport it overseas because the bottle has to be slightly open. Near the house was a beautiful wooded area, where Joyce and I were able to walk and see the nice fall scenery.

While in Heidelberg, we had the opportunity to walk up Philosopher’s way in the evening and see the lit up Castle, Old Bridge and city sky line…it was beautiful. We also got to check out a local pub and drink our first German beer. During the day, we toured the outside areas of the Heidelberg Castle, which was quite large. It truly is a beautiful countryside landscape of Germany. Thank you Carla, Marlin and the Watling kids (Noah, Sophia, & Lauyren) for being a part of our wonderful trip/memories and wonderful hosts!

The Netherlands

Our friends, Richard, Henk and Wouter, showed us around the rest of Netherlands (outside of Amsterdam). They were very gracious hosts and tour guides. Holland is a very flat country built upon water, where about half of its land and about two-thirds of its people live below sea level. They have reclaimed much land and have prevented flooding through an ingenious and elaborate system of dams, dikes and windmills. It’s amazing how they have developed the land and created such a thriving community.

The first place we visited was a quaint fishing town called Volendam. It is a delightful fishing town, where it is known for its raw herring sandwich with sweet pickles and onions on top (our sandwich was minus the onions). Joh enjoyed the sandwich, whereas, I (Joyce) found it to be too raw for my taste. Supposedly, it is what one should eat to cure a hangover. I'll take Joh’s word for it because it helped her hangover from the all night (maybe I should say an early morning) pub crawl in Amsterdam that we went to the night before.

Our second stop was Kinderdijk, a town with about 20 windmills. Kinderdijk hosts many of the oldest windmills that were created around the 1700's to prevent flooding by bridging the water level differences as well as pumping water into reservoirs. We rented bikes and rode around this area, which was tons of fun. I (Joyce) had some difficulty getting onto the bike (not due to my ankle), because the bikes are made for the Dutch, who tend be tall (at least much taller than my height of 5ft and 4in). It is a very scenic town filled with charming windmills.

Our third stop was the Neeltje Dams. It is the place, where the delta works was created, in response to the North Sea Flood of 1953, where 25,000 people were killed from a high tide in the middle of the night. It is a complex system of about 13 dams, where they have sluice gate doors that allow marine sea life to flourish behind the dams as well as control the water level to prevent flooding.
Our last stop was another delightful town called Veere. We had some Dutch food, pancakes, and good tasty Dutch Heinken beer (not the American import bitter tasting kind). Thank you to our awesome tour guides: Richard, Henk and Wouter! You guys are always welcome to visit us in the States.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Holland’s capital, is a historic center with a network of canals, bridges and venerable town houses. Many people think of Amsterdam as a place to smoke hash legally and licensed prostitution (red light district). However, it is much more than that. It is a city with a long history of tolerance and understanding of different lifestyles, religions and ethnicities.. The people in Amsterdam live by 3 main rules. Rule 1: Be discreet; Rule 2: Be goodfor business and Rule 3: Don't hurt anyone. They do not like it if you break any of these 3 rules. For example, the people in Amsterdam were the only ones to lead an all city boycott against the Nazi regime when they saw the cruel treatment of Jews in the area.

The main highlights of Amsterdam were Anne Frank's house and the Van Goh Museum. Anne Frank's house was unbelievable and truly a surreal experience. It brought the book, The Diary of Anne Frank, to life and made her experience in hiding more tangible for the visitor. Thus, it touches you on a very deep level. The Van Goh museum was interesting and provided information about his start and life in painting. He was a tormented artist that was on the cutting edge of mixing and developing various bright colors, which he applied on his canvass. As an artist, he is inspiring because he painted for the love and passion of art, which he desired to share with others. The paintings were amazing and inspiring. We also walked around Amsterdam’s well known and beautiful Vogel Park. This is where Joh kicked the butt of an Aussie fellow that we befriended in a friendly sprint match up.

The fun part of traveling is meeting people from different countries and areas in life. We met and hung out with many people, who were not Americans, during our trip in Amsterdam. We actually hung out with many Australlians and a Candian. It’s funny because in every city that we’ve visited so far we’ve met someone from Austrailia. Australians love to travel, where they take as little as 5-6 weeks off or as much as 7-10 months from work or school to travel.

Warning: Do not travel Amsterdam by car because it is the city for cyclists. Cyclists have the right of way over pedestrians and cars. If a cyclist accidentally hits a car, it is the cars fault not the cyclist. There are specific and separate marked areas just for cyclists, where the cyclist always has the right of way. I (Joyce) almost got run over by a cyclist…they are no joke around here and they will run you over if you don’t pay attention. They also fish about 25,000 bikes out of their canals, due to drunk people throwing them into the canal as an amusing sport.

Paris

Paris is a massive city with so much to see and do that it is very exhausting. We stayed in the Montmartre District of Paris for about 4 days and it was not nearly enough time to see all of it. This is what we saw:
1) Eiffel Tower (during the day and evening)
2) Arc de Triumph – located at the end of the Champs-Elysees street and where the eternal flame resides for the unknown solider. The flame for the unknown solider commemorates the soldiers, who fought in both world wars. While we were there, we saw a military company from India, contribute flowers to the eternal flame. You can also walk in and up the Arc de Triumph of 284 stairs to the top, which is totally worth it because of the great encompassing view of Paris.
3) The Obelisk
4) Notre Dame Cathedral - We were awed by the beautiful church and gorgeous stain glassed windows.
5) The Catacombs - the famous underground resting place of about 3 million skeletal remains. You descend a narrow staircase for about 20 meters and traverse through dark winding tunnels before actually entering the catacombs itself. I (Joyce) didn't mind the skeletal remains because the science nerd in me found it to be interesting to identify as many bones as possible. Joh wasn’t a big fan of the place.
6) Louvre Museum - a colossal museum with numerous paintings and sculptures. You can spend a year in this museum and still not see everything. We were able to see the top 2 attractions - the Mona Lisa ( a small painting) and Venus de Milo.
7) Orsay Museum - a much more manageable museum, where we saw 19th century art and Europe's greatest impressionist collection. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures.
8) Sacre Coeur - a church located in the Montmartre District. It is located on top of Paris' highest hill. It is an area, where tourists and locals go to chill, see street performers and watch the sunset. You get a cool view of the Montmartre District and other districts of Paris. It gives you a beautiful night scene of Paris.
9) Moulin Rouge - located in the Montmartre District. Moulin Rouge literally means a red windmill.
10) Champs-Elysees - Paris' grand boulevard. It is a street lined with restaurants, cafes, and stores. We saw the store, Louis Vuitton, where you have to wait in line to get inside.

We met lots of Americans in Paris at our hostel and our walking tour. It was a bit surreal to be chillin' with lots of Americans in Paris. The Americans we met were from Md, L.A., St. Louis, Iowa, & Chicago. We also met a guy from London that traveled Eastern/Western Europe (and few other places) for the past 15 months on a bike…pretty sweet.

Regarding Parisians...Joyce and I agree that they definitely do not like anyone speaking English. One must try to speak French first before they will even think about speaking back to you. But, it's the culture of Paris. Parisians are very nationalistic thus very proud of their language.

Onto a more tasty subject: food. We were in croissant, crepes and wine heaven. On our last night in Paris, we had the chance to hang out at an authentic French bistro called L'express bar, where we were the only patrons that didn't speak French. Normally, the owner doesn't allow English speakers to eat there but we were fortunate enough to have met an awesome Japanese woman, who spoke French. She helped us out with ordering our food and chilled with us as well. We got to try some yummy Foie Gras (duck liver), cold meats, duck with pomme frites, which we washed down with some delicious red wine. We also had a great time hanging out with Seshat and Kokayi's friend, Anouch, who is an artist and mad cool. I (Joh) wish we had more time in Paris to explore the music scene. Au Revoir Paris...until next time.

Beaune, France

Beaune is a small town in the Burgundy region of France.  It's so small, that even French people don't have a clue about it or maybe it was our pronunciation.  Nonetheless, it is a very quaint and prosperous little wine capital.  It is known for making, tasting, selling and drinking wine.  For me (Joyce), it was a little taste of wine heaven.  On our first night, we bumped into two young, proper British guys who were driving around France on holiday.  We ate dinner and had some great Beaune wine.  I (Joyce) tried escargot for the very first time and it was DELICIOUS!  The snail is presented in the shell, where you're given a tong to hold it and a fork to get the snail out.  I recommend everyone to try it once.  FYI: the seasoning of the dish matters a lot.  Joh did taste one and thought it was okay. 

The next day we were off to do tastings in the wine cellars of Beaune.  We were excited to taste different authentic French wines.  Our first wine tasting of the day was at Couvent des Cordeliers, which is dubbed one of the oldest cellars in Beaune.  Our wine connoisseur, Gerard, was extremely knowledgeable and patient as he explained to us the two grapes /four wine classifications about french wines.  Burgundy grows pinot noir grapes for red wines and chardonnay grapes for white wines.  The four wine classifications listed are from lowest to highest grade of classification: Regional Appellation, Villages Appellation, Premiers Crus, and Grands Crus.  Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru 2004 was the last out of the five wines we tasted.  This red wine was one where you breathe in the intense aroma as you slowly drink and savor the smooth, robust and elegant flavors.

The second wine cellar we went to was Marche aux Vins, which was a self guided tasting of 15 different wines (white/red).  You're given a Tasse de degustation (a wine tasting cup...google a picture of it), which you fill up yourself (you're only suppose to pour one tasting per person but you can get away with more than one if you're really feeling the wine).  So you can imagine that one can get pretty "happy" after 15 tastings.  The other plus about this cellar is that half of it is held underground in an actual cellar and the remaining 6 wines are upstairs in a chapel.  It was so much fun and we met a fun older American couple from San Francisco and two Dutch guys.  We became friends with the Dutch guys and they invited us a nice bbq dinner at their camp site. It was a great day. 

Nice, France

Leaving cold (mid 5o's to low 60's) Dublin to beautiful and warm Nice has been a great change. Don't get us wrong, Ireland, esp. the west coast and the Cliffs of Moher are gorgeous, but it is nice to be in warm weather. Nice is beautiful. The color of the water is 2 different blues: light one (closer to the shore line) and darker blue the further you go out. The only con with the beaches in Nice is there is no sand. The beach in Nice is more like a stone beach, where instead of sand there are stones. We ate all you can eat mussels (where you can change the sauces) and fries with white wine, baguettes with cheese, salami with red wine and of course croissants. Wow, the croissants are AMAZING!!!! They are flaky, buttery, delicious and they melt in your mouth. Nice and the southern coast of France is a MUST for everyone. The climate, scenery, food and people are beautiful, amazing and generous. We loved it here.

Just one thing - never go running in Nice, because you never know what will happen, like spraining your ankle the 2nd day you are here. Even with my sprained ankle - I (Joyce) still loved it. The paramedics (3 of them) and the doctor were incredibly cute, which didn't hurt the situation. On a serious note, God is the ultimate rock and provider. God gave me 4 angels in the guise of complete strangers, who helped me numerous times from getting me ice, chasing down an ambulance, playing translator, and calling us a taxi. I thank God for his provision and my awesome sister, Joh. She was incredible with running all over the place and keeping my spirits up. The bonus of spraining your ankle is having your older sister wait on you hand and foot.

Cliffs of Moher / West Coast of Ireland

Cliffs of Moher / West Coast of Ireland

The west coast of Ireland is beautiful and colored in various different shades of green. So much green... green that we never knew existed. On our day tour to the west coast of Ireland, saw an abbey, some mountain, and stonehedge. The cliffs of Moher outshone all of it. The Cliffs of Moher a.k.a the Cliffs of Insanity (Princess Bride fans) are spectacular. Our words cannot do justice to it, so we will let our pictures do the talking. One thing we can say is: It is incredibly windy... the wind was literally pushing us along.

Ireland - Dublin

First Hostel Experience

Our first hostel experience was at Abagail's Hostel. The place was clean, pleasant, secure and friendly. We loved the location of our hostel because it was central to everything in Dublin. Our hostel had a kitchen so we displayed our immense culinary skills by frying pre-made chicken patties and making turkey sandwiches. While cooking our meal, we met a real cook, a Spainard, who amazingly outshone us by making calamari and chips (fries). Talking to him, we discovered that many Europeans come to Dublin to practice their English and usually stay at hostels for over a month. In some ways, it is much cheaper to stay at a hostel than to rent out an apartment. While Johanna was talking to him, she met a fellow American woman from Vienna, Va, who was traveling alone around Europe. Man, it is a small world after all!!!

DUBLIN

We are discovering that like Edinburgh, Dublin is a mix of many people from different parts of the world. Our ears heard many different languages and accents; however hardly any Irish ones. We are loving the walking tours that are given in major cities by Sandeman's Europe Tours. It's a 3 hour tour of a major city in Europe given by an energetic, funny, young and very knowledgeable guide. It is a great way to get a feel for the layout of the city. And the best part of the tour is that it is FREE, except if you wish, you can tip the guide (which we did). We had our first walking tour in Edinburgh and the Dublin tour didn't disappoint. We learned much of Ireland's history, especially the long-lasting and devastating effects of the potato famine. Of course, we met some Aussies (they are everywhere) on our tour and had a drink with them. Then, our next stop was the tour of the Guinness storehouse. It was a nice visit. The best part for me (Joyce) was the Gravity bar, which is located on the very top of the storehouse. It gives you a 360 degree view of Dublin. The best part for Johanna was drinking the cool creamy goodness of a guinness at the Gravity Bar. Our server was talented and drew a shamrock on the top of our guinness.