Europe Journals

I typed up my journals from Europe if anyone's ever interested in reading them when they are bored:

7-18-06

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I boarded a plan to Detroit, which was quick, smooth, and ultimately uneventful.

 

From Detroit I boarded a plane to London-Gatwick.  This ride was a lot less confortable.  That was stuffy, long, tiring, and loud.  There was an obnoxious 5-year-old three seats away.

 

7-19-06

 

We arrived at London-Gatwick at about 10:30.  A Globus Host drove us from the airport to the Novotel where we would spend the next two nights.  And as our driver put it, “Good thing we aren’t driving during peak hours, the roads can get pretty testy.”  Ha, ha…

 

We got to the hotel just in time to visit Windsor Castle; the royal family’s preferred home.  It was very beautiful – very ornate.  We couldn’t take any pictures, though…

 

That evening we took the “Taste of London” tour.  It included our dinner, which ended with a traditional English cup of coffee.

 

After the meal we took a cruise down the River Thames and the saw the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Big Ben (we didn’t exactly “see” it, we just saw where it was in the tower), the Houses of Parliament, and the Millennium Bridge (Wibbly-Wobbly as it as known tothe Londoners).

 

7-20-06

 

We slept well, and had breakfast.  The meats tasted funny.  They do all the cooking so differently in Europe.

 

Then we left straight after for another view of most the building we saw yesterday on by road including the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.  New buildings we saw were Westminster Abbey, Prime Minister’s Downing Street, and Buckingham Palace.  Oh, and J.K. Rowling’s home (she was vacationing in Scotland so we didn’t get to see her).

 

The highlight of the morning was St. Paul’s Cathedral.  One of the world’s largest cathedrals, third I think.  We visited the American Chapel, the Whispering Gallery, and the Crypt.

 

Another major event of the morning was the Changing of the Guard.  That was really cool to watch – we got some good photos!

 

After that he returned to the hotel to have lunch.  I couldn’t leave London without visiting the British Museum, so we left our group for that part of the afternoon and went on our own excursion to it.  We saw the Rosetta Stone up close, which was definitely the best (and busiest) part of the building.

 

We got a cab back to the hotel and after a refreshing meal we went to bed.

 

7-21-06

 

We got a very early start this morning.  We met our tour director for the trip and didn’t waste anytime getting to the Eurostar Station where we got on the train to take us through the Chunnel.  It was a fast ride through there and the Belgian countryside.

 

We shortly arrived in Brussels.  We couldn’t stay long.  We had to meet up with our bus that we’d go through the rest of the trip with – and our little, Italian driver Pino.

 

We zoomed down the highway and stopped only to eat.  After lunch we quickly arrived in Amersterdam.

 

We were greeted by our witty, local tour guide (we have one for the whole trip, Maria, but then meet local ones whenever we arrive at the city) Suzana.  We took a canal cruise and saw the highlights of the city including the NEMO building.  It’s an office, a museum, and on the roof is an artificial beach, because there aren’t any natural beaches in Netherlands.

 

We got back to the hotel, freshened up for dinner, ate, and then fell quickly asleep.

 

7-22-06

 

This morning, my parents fell asleep after their wake-up call.  We called them just in time to make it to breakfast and the morning tour of a diamond store and the Rembrandt Museum.  We enjoyed lunch at a French Deli.  After that we watched a group of rioters claiming George W. Bush was a terrorist committing genocide against the Palestinian countries.  He might be an idiot, but he’s no terrorist.

 

After lunch and the mob viewing we returned to the hotel before going on an excursion to Volendam.

 

Our first stop was at an old-time cheese dairy.  They told us the steps to making cheese and all the variables you have to consider before making it.

 

In the same building we saw a cog cobbler, where we learned all the stages in clog making.

 

We moved on to an old mill (300 years old!).  The miller taught us the uses of the mill, and all the different things he does to maintain it.

 

Our final stop was central Volendam.  The all ways led to roads of old houses.  They also had drawbridges over the canals so that boats could go under them.  The canals are tiny, though, so maybe they could save the money and jump.

 

We moved back up to the main street to have dinner, which ended spectacularly with TRUE Dutch Apple Pie.

 

7-23-06

 

Early wake up this morning.  We left Amersterdam and drove to the Netherlands-Germany border where we took our morning rest stop (with high-tech, self-cleaning toilet seats).

 

From there we drove to Cologne where we scaled to the top of the world’s tallest Gothic Cathedral.  Then we jumped off the top.  It didn’t hurt that bad, because we just jumped from the top stair down to the next one.  But we did jump off the top after all – ha, ha…

 

From there we drove to a small city where we boarded a boat to cruise down the Rhine.  On the trip we passed a lot of majestic looking castles on the cliff sides.  Thirteen I think.

 

We departed the boat and made a short drive to Heidelberg, where we saw the famous Red-Walled Castle.  They also had a bridge there nicknamed “The Monkey Bridge”, because at the end of World War II, when Germany surrendered.  The Americans flying back to England decided it would be fun to blow up Heidelberg’s bridge out of spite.

 

Our next stop was the hotel in Rhineland, which we were very grateful for after a long day of traveling.  We had dinner there, and went to bed.

 

7-24-06

 

We set our early from Rhineland and drove through the peaceful Black Forest countryside.  The forest is so thick, and the trees so tall, that the forest floor is literally black.

 

We stopped at a modest store surrounded by the pines that the Black Forest is famous for.  We looked at the cookoo clocks and grandfather clocks.  The store also had a quaint bar that served Black Forest Cherry Cake.  We had German “kaffee” to wash it down too.

 

We emerged from theforest in the bright daylight and saw the Rhine Falls.  They’re very small for being Europe’s largest waterfall, but it was beautiful all the same.

 

Next stop, the German-Swiss border.  Switzerland isn’t the E.U. and it doesn’t look like they’ll be joining anytime soon, so we had to get some franks and pull out our passports.  We quickly passed through that.

 

After that we visited Mount Pilatus.  It was beautiful!  We wandered up to vantage points and through winding tunnels in the mountain where we encountered a mountain goat.  He refused to move from his shady refuge.  We got a ton of pictures with him.  He didn’t seem frightened by the flash.

 

Eventually he did move.  He stood up, hurried over to the cliff side, and calmly jumped off.  No joke.  The cliff was nearly a ninety degree slant but it wasn’t bothered at all, and even started to graze!

 

We had come up by cable car.  That was terrific.  You could see through the bottom.  Then we came down on the world’s oldest cog-wheeled train, which was at a forty-eight degree incline!

 

After our mountain excursion we went to the hotel in Lucerne and enjoyed a wonderful dinner.

 

Then, after dinner, we went off on our own to go for a swim in Lake Lucerne.  The mountain water should’ve been a lot colder than it was I thought.  We had to avoid the swans that swam in it though.  They can be pretty aggressive.

 

7-25-06

 

This morning we slept in a bit (6:45) and proceeded to breakfast.

 

Our first stop was the Lion Monument.  It represented the two Swiss mercenary regiments hired to protect Louis XVI and the rest of the royal family.  Only one survived the revolution.

 

Then we had some free time to stroll around and do some shopping in Lucerne.  We saw the Jesuit Church, Chapel Bridge, and the ROLEX Center of Switzerland.

 

We boarded the bus and drove to Vaduz, Liechtenstein.  There we saw the royal palaces, ate lunch, and enjoyed the modern art.

 

Then we headed for Innsbrook, Austria.  We went through the Crystal Center, shopped a little, and visited their cathedral and townhall.  We also saw Emperor Maximillion’s Golden Roof.

 

We had dinner and went to the Tyrolean Evening excursion, which was great!  They had a traditional show with dancing and local instruments.

 

I cut it in half, because I'm limited to 25,000 characters and it wouldn't all fit!

 
Tags: Life, Travel, Scholarship, Family