Pictures are UP!

I still have tons more to add, but many of the starting off pictures and the Germany pictures are finally up. Click here to see them! I will be adding more soon, and hopefully will have time to better organize them.

I have not forgotten about the pictures!

Sorry everybody- we took nearly 400 pictures while there, and it is taking a bit longer to sort through than anticipated. However, we are working on it! Check back soon!

Pictures added

Check here for picture updates

3/31

Tour group picture in Berlin added.

We made it back!

We are back in Wichita! We will be posting pictures over the next few days...I will be sure to link to the entries that have pictures as I do it. I will also be downloading our millions of pictures to Flickr...I will post the link when I do that. (Think Monday. Maybe even Tuesday.)

Jimmy was an amazing house sitter. If anybody in the Wichita area needs a house sitter, I have your guy! E-mail me.

On our way home

We are writing this from the Frankfurt airport...we are on our way home. It will be nice to see our pets and have our own beds and toilets that include toilet seats, but we will miss being here. We had a great time! Be sure to check this blog again over the next few days, as we will be adding photos and updating a few things. See everybody later!

Florence Part II

Today we had a lovely day in Florence. We started by attempting to have breakfast at the Boboli Gardens. We packed up a great picnic of goodies Jeremy bought yesterday at a grocery store. We had meats, cheeses, rolls, fruit...all for under ten euros. Not a bad way to save money. We checked out of our hotel, stashed our luggage at the front desk, and hoofed it all the way to the palace where the garden is...just to find a big sign saying that no food could be brought in. This would not have annoyed us so much except that this picnic was reccomended in our guidebook. Our guidebook is smoking crack. (Later we shall post an entry with that title, listing the crack smoking ways of our guidebook. Although it did have some great advice and other things.) So instead we ate on a concrete slad right beside the palace, while pigeons clammored around us for crumbs. We then went to pick some ice cream, since it is our last day in Italy. We also went to the Accedemia to check out David and other art. We had reservations, but it was still stressful. We had to stand in this huge line, and when the surley guy came out to shout our time, we had to shove our way to the front of the line and pretty much demand entry. After this we had to go through security, where Cathy accidently stole some guy's glasses, thinking they were Kirk's. (Do not worry, he got them back.) It was neat seeing David, but the crowds were overwhelming, and we are here in the off season! What does it look like in the summer?

We zipped over to pick up or clean laundry, ate lunch, and are now awaiting our train. We are taking another night train to Switzerland, and then will be on a train to Frankfort tomorrow morning. We will spend the day in Frankfort, Germany on Friday and be on the plane Saturday morning. Hard to believe that it is nearly over!

The Fire of Firenze! (Florence, Italy!)

We love Florence. We have decided to cancel Milan/Lake Como to spend an extra day here. We got in fairly late last night, and we are staying at a very cute hotel. Our room is actually in an apartment building, and it is a studio with a kitchen. After we type up this entry, we will be heading off to the market to buy some food for our fridge. We are going to have a picnic breakfast tomorrow morning at Giardini Boboli. We also hope to go to the Galleria dell Accademia to see David and all the other tresaures burried within.

Today got off to an interesting start. We decided to stay in Florence, and were able to get our cute room for another night at the same Priceline rate. We had the hotel desk clerk make reservations for us to eat lunch at Ristorante Casa di Dante. We also asked for directions for a drop off laundry. We spent a few hours in Amsterdam doing it ourselves, and it occured to us that it may be worth paying somebody else to do it for us so we could enjoy ourselves since time is at a premium right now. The first place we went that the desk clerk gave us directions to turned out to be a self service laundry. Our guidebook gave us directions for one, which we tried to find. We ended up at a convent, where a very kind nun tried to explain in rapid Italian that we were in the wrong place. She kept gestering to Kirk's red jacket and Jeremy's black one (we got him one at a thrift store in Berlin) and waving her arms. The addresses in Florence are weird. There are two numbers, one red and one black, and we were at the black address. We needed the red address. We found it, dropped off our laundry, and were on our way to lunch!

Lunch was one of the better parts of this trip. Casa di Dante has been open since the 1400's and was a favorite of various artists during the Rennesance. The food was incredible, and we were stuffed at the end. We did the whole traditional Italian thing, which was eating an appitizer, a first course, and a second course. We also had to try the wine! Our appetizer was pears with brie and dandelion leaves. Even Kirk, who is not a fan of brie, enjoyed it, especialy with the dandlion leaves. For our first course, Kirk had a ravioli with this sauce that really looked like nacho cheese, but tasted like heaven. Cathy had a soup with bacon and vegetables, which everybody liked. Jeremy's risotto with gorgonzalla cheese was the hit. Everybody kept sneaking bites off his plate. Our second course was just as good. Kirk had chicken marsala, and Cathy and Jeremy both had a souflee with a cheese sauce. We followed with coffee, and we tried a 1/4 liter of both the red and white wines. Mmmmm...

After we were stuffed to the gills, we went to the Duomo. It was really big, really pretty, and best of all, Free! We also paid a small fee to go look at the ruins of an earlier church, where we got to see the tomb of one of the ex customers of where we ate lunch.

After the Duomo, Jeremy went up the tower and took pictures for all of us. We then went shopping at the markets for gifts and postcards and such. Cathy popped into Gucci to check out the bags-a bargain at about 1300 euros each- but did not find anything she liked. They looked too cheap to her! Most of her bags cost at least 5000 each, you know.

We are off to find food for our breakfast tomorrow, then possibly to Pisa to get a picture of the tower at night. Speaking of pictures, one day we will upload lots of pictures from this trip! We are sad that it has not been as easy to do that as we had hoped.

Tomorrow evening we are starting the journey back to Frankfort so we can come home. We hope to update again, but if we do not, we will see everybody when we get back.

Pompei

We are very tired. We spent the night at a nice hotel in Naples, but the heat was on very high (and we had no control over it) and the best were very hard. The pillows were the best we have encountered though, and we finally had a hotel that included breakfast! The breakfast was worth the hard beds. There was meat, and two kinds of cheese, several breads, yogurt, juices, fruit, cereal, and maybe or two other things we forgot. We ate as much as we could hold, then we were on the train for Pompei.

Pompei was very intersting, and much, MUCH bigger than any of us expected it to be. We got a lot of nice pictures of the ruins that we will post when we get back. (Check back for pictures a few days after we get back!) It was really amazing how much survived for so long. We were a bit disapointed that we only got to see one body. Apparently, most of that stuff is at a seperate museum in Naples, and we do not have time to visit it, plus we already paid 11 Euros each to get into the ruins. We had lunch at a cute little pizza place. Actually, we were kind of hustled into the pizza place by a person on the sidewalk. The people are much more insistant here, and we were hungry anyway. We are glad we went in. We each ordered a different kind. Kirk had the best one, with garlic and sauce and no cheese. Cathy had the second best one, which four kinds of cheese and no sauce. Jeremy had an okay one, with some type of mystery meat. We all shared our pizzas with each other, then went off to pick up a gelatto (ice cream- Melanie, there was one named after you!) and coffee. Cathy got tea, and it was a real production. They brought out a whole pot, and little shortbread cookies, and sugar and milk in a little pitcher.

We also met another American at the tourist office. Shout out to Vic! He was from New York and now works in England. We met at the tourist office and walked up to the ruins together. It was nice to meet somebody else who is a native English speaker. Everywhere else pretty much everybody spoke English, but we have had more trouble finding English speakers the further south we go. It has not really been a problem, but sometimes it can be frustrating. (Like the weird guy who followed us around at the train station, wanting to give us information. How do you yell No! We are not interested! Go away! in Italian? Anybody?)

We are off to Florence in a couple of hours, and then to Milan and the Lake Como area. We will hopefully have time to write from there!

Rome in a Day

After we finally got a hotel (in the boondocks, requiring a subway, a bus ride, AND a hike up a very steep hill) we got settled and rushed off to the Vatican after we ate at a panani shop. (YUM!). It was really cool. The sun was starting to set and the light was very pretty, plus a mass was going on so the chanting of the monks added a majestic feel to the whole experience. We also think we may have seen the pope at the mass, yet to be determined, but Cathy is pretty sure that no other person wears the funky pointed hat. We got a really terrible picture of the hat (which we had to shove through crowds to get) just in case. The museum in the basicilla was free on Sunday, so we got to see some really interesting relics and other things. We also induldged in some gallato, and let me tell you, the Italians know ice cream! After we type up this blog, we think we are going to go get some more.

Getting through Rome is a claustrophobic experience. They stuff people into the bus and subway, and there are crowds everywhere. So far we have managed to not get seperated or miss our stops, which is amazing. Both Cathy and Jeremy have managed to get their bags tangled up in the turnstill, which was awesome. As for the crowds, you cannot be polite here, you have to shove your way through if you are going to get anywhere.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Colosseum, even though we knew it would be closed. We were glad we did. It was all lit up and it looked really pretty at night. We got a ton of really great pictures, which we will hopefully be able to upload soon.

We had hoped to see the Sistine Chapel today, but the line was several blocks long so we decided to move on. We are off to tour the Colosseum, and do as many other things as possible before the train leaves for Naples at 6 PM. We already have a hotel reservation, at a place that will not involve a bus or subway ride for once (we hope!). We will be in Naples and Pompei for tomorrow.

Saturday Night Fever! (Stayin' alive! Stayin' alive!)

We made it to Rome, and once again thanks to Priceline (no, they are not paying us to pimp them...yet- Priceline, contact us!) we will be staying at an awesome hotel rather than the roach infested stench pit we first walked into out of the train station. It took us a bit longer to find an internet cafe here. There was not one in the train station, which was weird because even Brussels had one! On the other hand, it is amazingly cheap, so it was worth the walk.

The night train was awesome! We booked a sleeper that we were supposed to share with three other people, but nobody else came so we had it to ourselves. It was very comfortable and it was nice to be productive while we slept. We also got breakfast included, for the first time since we have been in Europe.

We just got here, so we have not done anything yet. We plan to cram in a lot today, and then off to Naples and Pompei tomorrow or the next day. We will see how much we can manage to do today. First step, check into the hotel, then off to the colleseum

Wandering Through Zurich

Today was a lot of fun! We walked around Zurich, and it is really pretty here. We have some great pictures to upload once we get to a place where we can do that. It is very, VERY expensive here, especially compared to the other places we have been on this trip. Our hotel had breakfast...for a mere 22 francs a person! (That is about 25 dollars a person.) We declined. As we went through Zurich seeking food, we found that the price was actually pretty common. We ended up eating one hamburger each and drinking water we had brought with us. We did not have enough money for a drink as well, even one to share. We walked all day today. Even the tram was insanly priced- it cost 3.90 per kilometer here! We ate lunch at a "cheap" place, where we each had a very small (but DELICIOUS) foccia sandwich and two teas and one hot coffee for the low, low price of 33 francs. The waiter also kept calling Kirk and Jeremy "darling" , but he never called Cathy that.

We did splurge on a visit to the zoo. It was worth the 66 francs (about 70 dollars) we spent. It was a long, uphill walk, but we did have a nice side diversion because of it. We asked a person if we were going in the right direction, and he told us how to get there and also mentioned that James Joyce was buried at a nearby cemetary. He is the only non-Swiss person buried there. We stopped by and had a nice walk looking for the grave (on our way out we saw the map) and then went to the zoo. The person who we asked directions for asked how we knew he spoke English, and found it funny that we had no idea and were just taking the chance that he did. We got quite a few nice pictures and it was a very pretty, although long, walk.

We had supper at a very cute bar and pizza place, where we ordered two small pizzas and one coke to share. (They do not do free refills in most places in Europe.) It was good, but again, expensive. We were still starving so we stopped at a grocery store to buy snacks, and also at a brat stand to get a brat to share, along with some fruit. Now we are waiting at the train station for our night train. We booked sleepers and will wake up tomorrow in Rome. After all that uphill walking, we will sleep well. We will catch you there!

Zurich Plans

We made it to Zurich, and even though it was late and we had no idea how to get to our hotel, we were not afraid to walk. We asked directions along the waz, and it was fine. We remarked several times on how safe we felt compared to Brussels.

We were going to meet with a friend of Jeremy's, but there was some miscommunication about the dates and that is not going to happen. We will be doing a tour of Zurich today, and then we will be on the night train to Rome this evening. We already have reservations, and we booked a sleeping car. Tomorrow we wake up in Rome.

Getting the Hell out of Brussels

We woke up optimistic, and got on the 6:50 train to Brussels. We were told in Amsterdam that there were no reservations to Paris avaliable, but trains ran out of Brussels every half hour. You cannot reserve for another location from another station, so we decided to head to Brussels and surely we would be able to get on one of those trains. The train ride was pleasent and we were all in good moods.

Apparently, Cathy's guardian angel had been right to hustle them off the train before they went there at night with no reservations or any idea of how to get anywhere.

We were a little concerned when we passed the Brussels Red Light district on the train. We were even more concerned when the train stopped about five seconds later. We got off the train and for the first time since we have been in Europe, we were nervous at a train station.


This feeling of nervousness was not helped by the guy we saw getting mugged as we turned the corner in the station. We bolted towards the ticket counter. I think we just glaced at each other and all knew that the mini tour was cancelled and that we were going to Paris NOW.

Except that we were not. The reservation counter said that one must make Paris reservations weeks in advance, and they only had one seat avaliable hours from then. After a four second conference, we decided to let Paris go for now, and that we were going on the next train that we could get out of Brussels. We hoped to get to a place that we had planned on going, but it was so freaky at that station I do not really think we cared were it was, as long as it was not there.

Luckily, there was a train to Zurich about a hour and a half from then. We decided to have lunch at the nearest restaraunt that had an inside eating area, and that we would slowly linger over lunch so we did not have to go to the platform until absolutly necessary. It was interesting people watching. The women carried their purses like their life depended on them, and most people walked pretty briskly. We also admired the Watch for Pickpocket signs that plastered the station.

Cathy got a table and watched the luggage while the guys got food. A strange man approached her and kept talking to her in some foreign language. She was less than polite to him, but he was scaring her.

Lunch went pretty well, and we got to the platform without being harassed. We were relieved to be on the train at last. Brussels was not for us.

Forget Paris

Okay, so the last time we wrote we were on our way to Brussels for lunch, then on to Paris. We decided that we had to do laundry, and of course we had to at least pass through the Red Light District, which meant that there was no way we would make it to Brussels for lunch. No problem, we thought. We would be there in time for dinner, and then on to Paris. Things did not go quite as planned.

Our first problem was the fact we missed the train to Brussels that we were planning on going on. We were at the station in plenty of time. We were at the platform. We watched a train pull up, and sat there while it loaded up people, sat for awhile, then pulled away. A few moments later, we realized that-oh crap- that was OUR train. (imagine exclamation marks- we cannot seem to find them on the keyboard.) Luckily there was one more train in about an hour, so we decided to take it. About this time we also found out that to go to Paris on any train required reservations. Well, crap. We ran upstairs to make reservations on the Paris bound train, but the line was so long we did not even get close to speaking to somebody. We decided to get on the Brussels train and make reservations in Brussels for the last train to Paris, or if that did not work, we would stay in Brussels and do a mini tour of it before heading off to Paris. We got on the Brussels bound train, and before we even got to the next stop, we realized that we would not make it there in time to make the Paris train. It was getting late, we still had a few hours to go, and we did not have hotel reservations. Something (guardian angel, said Cathy) gave us a bad feeling about this plan, and we got off at the next Amsterdam stop and went back to the hotel. We would get on the morning Brussels train, do the mini tour, then off to Paris...or so we thought.

Part Two of Am(STAR)dam!

The Anne Frank House was much bigger than the last time Cathy went! The acutal house part where the people hid was small, but they have added a lot of stuff and a whole other mesuem on the other side. We also paid close attention to the chestnut tree outside, as Robb (who helped us use the pay phone) told us that the tree is diseased and they will be cutting it down soon- it was the tree Anne mentioned in her diary. Going at night was also nice. It was not as crowded, and it added a whole new sense of what it must have been like to actually hide there.

The public transportation here is awesome! We have not had any problems getting anywhere, and the two day tram/bus pass we bought was not terribly expensive either! The worst part are the crazy bike people/scooter drivers/cars . Each one of us has nearly been run down at least once. You really have to pay attention here.

We also ate at the best steakhouse restaraunt yesterday! We were going to try to eat at a budget place mentioend in Cathy's Europe on 85 Dollars a Day book, but true to Cathy and Kirk's luck, the place was Closed Forever. We we pretty hungry so we decided to stop at the next place that looked good, which turned out to be La Brasa Houtskoolgrill. It has apparently been recognized as the best steakhouse in Amsterdam, and they earned that title! Jeremy and Cathy had steaks, and Kirk had salmon with this really incredible sauce. The side dishes were served family style, and the potatoes were particulary good. It was the most expensive meal we've eaten so far out here, but it was worth it. Our waiter was funny too- Jeremy ordered a coffee with his meal, and he just kind of looked at him and then said "Eh, why not?" Hee.

Our hotel here is pretty nice, with the exception of the fact that the bathroom door is see through. That was kind of weird. We took a picture that we'll post later. Posting pictures has been a little more difficult than we expected, but we will be adding some at some point! We're also going to add pictures of all the bikes on the bike racks. It is unreal how many people bike here. No wonder Americans are overweight compared to the rest of the world- we don't exercise nearly as much in our everyday lives.

We missed the free tour of Amsterdam, which made us sad because the one in Berlin was so great. We will try to catch the one in Paris. They are run by the same group, and we would love to catch another one.

We're going to head off to take a walk through the Red Light District, then we'll be on the train again. We think we're going to stop in Brussels for supper, then back on the train to Paris! Thanks to Priceline, we're staying at a nice hotel again. We have had a lot of luck with Priceline- it has made it possible for us to stay at nice hotels for about ten dollars more than a hostel would have cost for the three of us. We'll update in Paris!

Am(STAR)dam!

We made it to Amsterdam, after a TEN HOUR TRAIN RIDE! There was an accident on the tracks ahead of us, so the train was rerouted. We got to Amsterdam after 2 AM, and still had to figure out how to get to our hotel from the deserted subway station. We also were not sure our reservation was still good, seeing at it was much later than check in time.

A small side note here- often people say that European people are rude to Americans, but we experienced nothing but kindness during the train ordeal. We did not know what was going on, and the train conductor seemed to be explaining things in every language except English. Once the people around us realized that we did not understand what was happening, they went out of their way to translate for us. One guy even made a special stop at our seats to let us know that they were serving free drinks in the lounge car. Once we were at the deserted station, we asked a guy waiting for the train how to use the pay phone, and he helped us figure it out and was very gracious about it (his name was Robb!), the hotel people were nice, and everybody was very helpful.

We stayed at a very nice hotel last night- one of the nicest hotels I (Cathy) have ever been at. We hit up Priceline.com to see if we could find a better hotel than a hostel for the same price, and we were able to stay at the Marriott for sixty dollars. Yay! Today we moved downtown and we are staying at the Park Plaza. (thanks, Priceline- we did not pay anything close to that listed price) It's also very nice and close to everything we want to be near.

We're off to dinner and the Anne Frank House now! (it is open until 9 PM) We will be here today and part of tomorrow, and then we're off to Paris, with a brief stop in Brussels for lunch. We hope to update again (with photos) soon.

Quick!

Scroll down! We have started adding pictures! We will write from Amsterdam!

On our way to Amsterdam!

Long story short on Prague- our hosts said it was very far away, but it was not too bad. We decided not to go anway.

We stayed at the Pegasus Hostel in Berlin. We were glad to experience the hostel way of life, but may stick to hotels after this one. Cathy was the least impressed- upon entering the room (which we shared with two other guys and one girl) she said that it looked like how she imagined an orphanage would. Later it was discovered that it actually had been an orphanage at one time! We never got to speak to our roommates. We went to bed before they showed up and we were asleep when they came back.

We went on a whirlwind walking tour of Berlin. It was very fun, informative, and best of all FREE! We did tip our awesome guide.

Here is the picture that the tour group took. We were able to get it free off the website.

I must end this now- we are on our way to Amsterdam, where we will be staying at a lovely hotel where the linins come with the room! Thanks, Priceline.com!

We are having a great time! Leave a comment! We love reading them!

Part II- Frankfurtastic and Heidelberg-a-rama!

The plane arrived on time, around 1:30 PM Germany time, and our thoughtful hosts met us right outside the baggage claim. They wisked us off for a whirlwind tour of Heidelburg.

We started at a coffee shop, where we ate the most incredible apple...thingy. It was a kind of cake, sort of. It was not overly sweet, and went well with the coffee. True to the prediction that our lack of German knowledge would not slow us down, the waiter took one look at us and promptly brought us an English menu. After we were joined by Margaret and Paul's daughter and her boyfriend, we went to Heidelberg castle.

Here is the castle.

We got to see a huge wine cask. We were very impressed, and took several pictures of it.

Soooooo big!

Then we went around the corner and saw a cask easily ten times the first cask's size! That king must have required a ton of wine. As the story goes, they drank twenty liters a day...each. Of course, wine was not as strong then as it is now, but still!

That was the small one, actually. Here is the big one!

Shout out to Dr. DLeitz (aka Dustin)! We thought of you as we went through the museum of pharmacy! It was very interesting to see what has (and has not) changed about medication.

By then we were getting tired and also soaking wet from the rain, so we went back to Paul and Margaret's beautiful house. Margaret prepared us the most delicious meal. It started with soup with stuffed pasta, then spetzel with snitzel and YUMMY gravy, followed by a pork dish and a salad. Once we were so full we thought we were going to explode, Margaret brought out the pudding.

Once we were so exhusted that we could not think, they asked us what our travel plans were for the next day. We mentioned the possiblity of a side trip to Prague, which sparked shocked looks and fast discussion in German.

Tomorrow: "Oh, we've been to Prague. Well, not been to Prague been to Prague, but we know that whole Prague Thing. " (Kicking and Screaming)

Part I- The Early Complecations of Leaving Wichita

Hi everybody! We're in Berlin right now, and hope to update more regularly soon, but we'd better start at the beginning. Leaving Wichita posed more complecations than just about any other aspect of this trip so far!

It started with our key adventure, which you can read about here.

Our housesitter's father was kind enough to drive us to the airport, which saved us from hauling our crap to the bus stop and the bus fare. It was not so much the walk or the money that was worrying us about taking the bus to the airport. It was the fact that the first time Cathy tried to take the bus in Wichita, she never actually got on the bus, as it drove past her. Luckily, we did not have to find out if that would happen again becuase Jim drove us.


Upon arival at the airpot, we had a few small issues. The self checkout timed out while we were trying to shift items from one bag to another, as our bag was overweight. Three pounds overweight. This was after we spent a ton of time meticuliously entering all of our passport information. Of course, it did not time out until after all three of us had entered our information! There was also some concern because our flight was overbooked, and it was the last flight of the week to Chicago. If we got bumped, we'd be in a lot of trouble.

Finally out of security

Cathy was not singled out at security for once in her life...because Jeremy was having his bag searched. They took the shaving cream that Kirk and Jeremy planned to share. I am sure that Jeremy's picture will be on the news any moment as a Most! Wanted! Terroist! for trying to smuggle abord such a dangerous item. However, Jeremy's downfall was good news for Cathy. While the guards were engrossed in emptying Jeremy's carefully packed backpack, she was able to smuggle in her Evil Terroist Chapstick of Doom. I must remind everyone that it was not contained in the special ziplock plastic bag, which meant that it could explode at any moment. We prefer to live on the wild side.

Our rebel chapstick

Shortly after we finally were released from security, Kirk lost his wallet, if by 'lost' you mean 'was in his normal, everyday pocket.' It was terrifying 19 seconds, let me tell you!

About this time, we realized that we had forgotten to pack Jeremy's coat, which is kind of a bad thing for Europe in March. Luckily we have enough warm clothes that he'll be able to get by.

Weird pre-lined toilet in Chicago women's room

Needless to say, we were not bumped to a later plane, and we made it to Frankfort with no problems. We have finally started to add pictures! This will be a slow process and we do not have much time, so check back in a few days for more.

We made it!

Well, friends, we made it to our destination. We do not have much time and are still trying to figure out the german kezboard, so it may look weird. We just got off the train in Manheim, and will be on our waz to Berlin shortly. We alreadz have lots of stories and cannot wait to update. See you soon!

The Adventure of the Missing Key

We have not even left yet, and we've already learned something. When you give your key to the house sitter, and you put the garage door opener on the kitchen table, make sure that somebody else has keys before you lock up the house and head off to pick up some reading material at the Friends of the Library bookstore. If you forget to make sure you have keys, you may have to wake up your house sitter (who works the night shift) and drive across town to pick up the keys you just gave him.

Not that we did that or anything. *cough*

Just a test...

We're planning on attempting to keep an online travel journal so our friends and family can follow us as we go. We don't know how much internet access we're going to have, so this may be hit or miss. Check back starting March 19th or so!