After the great train ride into Berlin we were instantly blown away by the city at night. Even the train station was amazing. It was immediately apparent how different this part of our trip was going to be from our other German leg of the trip in Munich.
There was a very helpful gentleman in our train compartment along the way. He gave us some tips about Berlin and Germany in general. He was also kind enough to show us the way via PT to our hotel. However, we were beat from our travel and ready to just hop a cab to the hotel (after finding a place in the station to change in our Czech Crowns for Euros). The cab was really nice too. In fact, it was a Mercedes, and the only time I've been in cab as nice was in Japan when we got a ride in an Infiniti M45!
We definitely liked our in Berlin, and it was fairly comparable to the feel of the hotel we liked so much in Prague. We were up on the 5th floor and had a really nice view out of our window. At first I was under the impression that there wouldn't be free internet (based on the hotel guide in our room), but then talked to the receptionist and found out that it is free. There actually wasn't wifi, but they give out cables to plug your laptop in with. Yeah! :)
We weren't expecting Fregly and Christina until tomorrow since they were scheduled to be in Prague an extra day. However, after a handful of minutes in our room, someone was knocking on our door... guess who! Yup! They decided to bail a day early and eat the cancellation fee from their hotel. In fact, they even ended up on an earlier train into Berlin than us!
After the surprise greeting, we all went across the street to a Thai/Indian/Somalian/(and probably a few other things) fusion restaurant and got some dinner and wine. This place hit the spot and even though the night was getting quite chilly, we were all very warm sitting outside near the heat lamps... even Kirstyn!!! The outdoor area with heating lamps theme seemed to be quite popular in Berlin and I wish Chicago would take a queue from them! And keeping with other themes of the trip, the wine at our late dinner got us off to a slow start the next morning :)
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
I can't belive the last leg of the trip is hear!
Feeling pretty good myself after a good night's sleep, but Kirstyn thinks she's coming down with something. Hopefully it will pass and not affect the tail end of the trip for her.
We made it down to breakfast with plenty of time and are enjoying being able to take our time and relax. The only thing on the agenda before the train is to head out to see the dancing building by one of Kirstyn's favorite architects.
We got paced and cleaned up before proceeding to check out. Like most places they were nice enough to hold our bags for us while we meandered a bit before leaving the city. The "Fred and Ginger" building (as it's also known because it looks like two people dancing, ie Fred Astaire and Ginger Roberts) was pretty cool. We didn't stay long, but did get some good pictures.
One our way back to the hotel to get our bags, we stopped in a pub and got lunch. We found a good place relatively near our hotel and had some Czech potato soup in a bread bowl. Yum! The service was also very good and was a nice way to close out Prague with found memories.
We had a bit farther to go this time to the train station because the train to Berlin doesn't depart from the same station that we arrived in (which is the main station in Prague). It was a little cool out but we decided to walk it still, even though we had our heavy bags bags with us. We arrived with plenty of time, but couldn't see anything about trains to Berlin! We quickly realized that although we were in a different station than the main Prague station, we still were in the wrong one. Oops. At this point we needed to hop a cab to get us to the right place, and luckily found one in time. He quoted us a price up front which put us a little at ease, but the path there was quite a mess of zig-zagging streets! With out a set fair I would have been convinced that we were getting taken advantage of. He was good and we there with about 10 minutes to spare (and we definitely wouldn't have made via foot or PT at that point either).
The train ride to Berlin from Prague was beautiful and the most scenic route of the trip. At the time of writing this we've only got an about an hour and 1/2 left and we'll be there!
We made it down to breakfast with plenty of time and are enjoying being able to take our time and relax. The only thing on the agenda before the train is to head out to see the dancing building by one of Kirstyn's favorite architects.
We got paced and cleaned up before proceeding to check out. Like most places they were nice enough to hold our bags for us while we meandered a bit before leaving the city. The "Fred and Ginger" building (as it's also known because it looks like two people dancing, ie Fred Astaire and Ginger Roberts) was pretty cool. We didn't stay long, but did get some good pictures.
One our way back to the hotel to get our bags, we stopped in a pub and got lunch. We found a good place relatively near our hotel and had some Czech potato soup in a bread bowl. Yum! The service was also very good and was a nice way to close out Prague with found memories.
We had a bit farther to go this time to the train station because the train to Berlin doesn't depart from the same station that we arrived in (which is the main station in Prague). It was a little cool out but we decided to walk it still, even though we had our heavy bags bags with us. We arrived with plenty of time, but couldn't see anything about trains to Berlin! We quickly realized that although we were in a different station than the main Prague station, we still were in the wrong one. Oops. At this point we needed to hop a cab to get us to the right place, and luckily found one in time. He quoted us a price up front which put us a little at ease, but the path there was quite a mess of zig-zagging streets! With out a set fair I would have been convinced that we were getting taken advantage of. He was good and we there with about 10 minutes to spare (and we definitely wouldn't have made via foot or PT at that point either).
The train ride to Berlin from Prague was beautiful and the most scenic route of the trip. At the time of writing this we've only got an about an hour and 1/2 left and we'll be there!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Ambition Backfires
After the previous day, we were ready to get out of the city a bit. The only question left was either to go to Kutna Hora or Karlstejn. While Kutna Hora sounded like a nice little town with some cool attractions (a silver mine and the "bone church," which is a church whose interior is decorated with human bones) we decided to go to Karlsetjn which is a small town that has a "real" medieval castle. Apparently this is the one that the king actually stayed in. We also decided to avoid the standard group tour and our extra day from our rail passes to get out there. That way we could save some money and not be on someone else's schedule.
Getting to the train station was easy, and geting on our train was easy as well. It was even easy getting from the train to the little town and up to the castle gate (the key here was remembering the Czech word for castle. It's Hrad). The only issue here was the gate was closed!!!! This sucked. We should have figured something was amiss because the entire path up (and a steep long path up too!) was fairly empty of people and most shops were closed. After being rejected by the gate, we found a local inhabitant of the town, and she told us that the casle was closed today. I guess that would have been one reason to have gone with the group tour. because they probably would have know that :) Oh well. I actually have no regrets on the day trip. It was fun geting out of the city a bit and seeing some rural parts of the Czech Republic. All in all pretty refreshing.
On our way back into town we figured we take a nap once we got to the hotel. Instead of catching up on sleep, I convinced Kirstyn to get a beer in the lunge and to try a hooka with me. Both were very good and set us up for our much deserved nap. However, I put on the Hangover on and neither of us got a wink of sleep. It was still relaxing enough to get us to muster up enough energy to meet up with Fregly and Christina for our last night out in Prague.
Our thought was to grab something in Old Town and maybe hit up a jazz club after. Kirstyn had a couple dinner recommendations from the Prague Top Ten book that Nick and Gabrielle were nice enough to leave with us (and has been very useful overall.. thanks guys!). We had a bit of trouble tracking those places down on the small winding streets and just ended up trying a random Italian place along the way. It had outdoor seating and looked reasonably priced. Normally the outdoor seating at night would have turned us off because it was getting quite chilly, but the outdoor area had heaters and blankets at each of the chairs. This made for a pleasant dinner, but the service was awful. We wanted to get a bottle of wine after dinner to hang out a bit, but by the time the waiter finally came back we decided to just call it a night and even skip the jazz club too.
Once back at our hotel, Kirstyn and I opted to have a final glass of wine in the lounge before heading off to bed.
Getting to the train station was easy, and geting on our train was easy as well. It was even easy getting from the train to the little town and up to the castle gate (the key here was remembering the Czech word for castle. It's Hrad). The only issue here was the gate was closed!!!! This sucked. We should have figured something was amiss because the entire path up (and a steep long path up too!) was fairly empty of people and most shops were closed. After being rejected by the gate, we found a local inhabitant of the town, and she told us that the casle was closed today. I guess that would have been one reason to have gone with the group tour. because they probably would have know that :) Oh well. I actually have no regrets on the day trip. It was fun geting out of the city a bit and seeing some rural parts of the Czech Republic. All in all pretty refreshing.
On our way back into town we figured we take a nap once we got to the hotel. Instead of catching up on sleep, I convinced Kirstyn to get a beer in the lunge and to try a hooka with me. Both were very good and set us up for our much deserved nap. However, I put on the Hangover on and neither of us got a wink of sleep. It was still relaxing enough to get us to muster up enough energy to meet up with Fregly and Christina for our last night out in Prague.
Our thought was to grab something in Old Town and maybe hit up a jazz club after. Kirstyn had a couple dinner recommendations from the Prague Top Ten book that Nick and Gabrielle were nice enough to leave with us (and has been very useful overall.. thanks guys!). We had a bit of trouble tracking those places down on the small winding streets and just ended up trying a random Italian place along the way. It had outdoor seating and looked reasonably priced. Normally the outdoor seating at night would have turned us off because it was getting quite chilly, but the outdoor area had heaters and blankets at each of the chairs. This made for a pleasant dinner, but the service was awful. We wanted to get a bottle of wine after dinner to hang out a bit, but by the time the waiter finally came back we decided to just call it a night and even skip the jazz club too.
Once back at our hotel, Kirstyn and I opted to have a final glass of wine in the lounge before heading off to bed.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Today was a rough one
So this started off on a bad note from the get go.. due entirely to the fun from the previous night though. We had the bright idea of trying to get up early, but reality set in and that just wasn't going to happen. So our original plans of a day trip out of Prague went out the window. This actually seemed fine because we could use the day to see the main castle across the river, we which also high on our list. We walked up through Old Town to the Charles Bridge, but the crowds seemed pretty crazy and we just weren't in the mood to deal with it. So diverted a bit south tot he next bridge which was exponentially less crowded. This gave us a very nice walk through some parks on a island just across the river and then a quick walk back up to Charles Bridge, now on the other side. The crowds were also much more spread out at this point and was very enjoyable. Part of the problem with the crowds was due to the construction on the bridge... most of the bridge's capacity was halved. Across the wider parts of the bridge, there are street merchants and performers, which at the time did seem nice. Kirstyn and I saw some prints of the bridge we really liked, but decided to hold off to see what else was available on our way to the castle. The answer is a lot! We thought the things we were seeing were originals, but the same prints and trinkets keep appearing all over Prague. There were a couple original item, but there were definitely priced to match.
It really seemed like this side of the river really preys on tourists, and I think that swayed our veiw of Prague for the rest of the trip too. There's just a little too much of the tourist trap stuff going on. We continued on (continually seeing the same souvenirs) and almost made it up to the castle. It was finally time for lunch. We were both hungry and getting exhausted, so lunch was well over-due. The view from our table was fantastic and the food was decent (actually, it probably tasted better than it should have since we were so hungry!) However, we were not ready for the exorbitant bill. I'll just say, I think it was one of the highest bills of the trip yet and it was just Kirstyn and I.... and no booze. They really took it too a couple tourists at this joint. Needless to say we didn't tip and moved on to the castle. I was determined to not let that experience linger on.
We ran into a couple road blocks on our way to the castle because the Pope (yes, the Pope) was in town. The visit was just about finishing up and we could have waiting for the roadblock up the stairs from our crappy lunch to clear up, but we diverted back down the stairs and around to head up a different route. Once at the entrance to the castle gates (marked by two large stone statues of warriors), we waited a bit to see what the commotion was about. We couldn't really see much, except a bunch of black cars making their way out through the highly guarded streets. We enterd the castle gate and proceeded to get our audio tour devices, which up to this point of our vacation have been extremely useful. Just like lunch, we got taken advantage of again. Becuase of the time of the day and the events with the Pope, we could only do the short tour, which gave us 2 hours to walk through everything that was still open. There is no way you can do all that in two hours. We cut the cathedral audio tour in about half and couldn't go into the old Royal Palac at all. We even moved at fairly good pace, but got the audio tour devices back in just enough time. Oh well. The things we saw were still nice and there were a couple places we couldn't have gotten into with the audio tour, so maybe... (maybe?), it was worth it.
After we freed ourselves of our tourist shackles, we relaxed a bit by walking through some of the castle gardens. Like most of Prague and the castle, great views and very pretty. I have to say, walking through Prague, you really get a sense of walking back in time. The city was really bombed during WWII, so there is a lot of very old streets and buildings to admire.
It was now time to start the long journey back to the hotel. Once back, we were both pretty exhausted after the day of feeling manipulated and the epic amount of walking we did. We were looking forward to a low key night at the hotel restraunt/bar/lounge. Dinner was decent, but priced appropriately which made it taste even better. We then continued onto the lounge section where I got a nice Cuban cigar (Coheba of course!) and single malt (Talisker 10). The cigar and scotch didn't interest Kirstyn as much, but she enjoy some nice white Czech wine.
It really seemed like this side of the river really preys on tourists, and I think that swayed our veiw of Prague for the rest of the trip too. There's just a little too much of the tourist trap stuff going on. We continued on (continually seeing the same souvenirs) and almost made it up to the castle. It was finally time for lunch. We were both hungry and getting exhausted, so lunch was well over-due. The view from our table was fantastic and the food was decent (actually, it probably tasted better than it should have since we were so hungry!) However, we were not ready for the exorbitant bill. I'll just say, I think it was one of the highest bills of the trip yet and it was just Kirstyn and I.... and no booze. They really took it too a couple tourists at this joint. Needless to say we didn't tip and moved on to the castle. I was determined to not let that experience linger on.
We ran into a couple road blocks on our way to the castle because the Pope (yes, the Pope) was in town. The visit was just about finishing up and we could have waiting for the roadblock up the stairs from our crappy lunch to clear up, but we diverted back down the stairs and around to head up a different route. Once at the entrance to the castle gates (marked by two large stone statues of warriors), we waited a bit to see what the commotion was about. We couldn't really see much, except a bunch of black cars making their way out through the highly guarded streets. We enterd the castle gate and proceeded to get our audio tour devices, which up to this point of our vacation have been extremely useful. Just like lunch, we got taken advantage of again. Becuase of the time of the day and the events with the Pope, we could only do the short tour, which gave us 2 hours to walk through everything that was still open. There is no way you can do all that in two hours. We cut the cathedral audio tour in about half and couldn't go into the old Royal Palac at all. We even moved at fairly good pace, but got the audio tour devices back in just enough time. Oh well. The things we saw were still nice and there were a couple places we couldn't have gotten into with the audio tour, so maybe... (maybe?), it was worth it.
After we freed ourselves of our tourist shackles, we relaxed a bit by walking through some of the castle gardens. Like most of Prague and the castle, great views and very pretty. I have to say, walking through Prague, you really get a sense of walking back in time. The city was really bombed during WWII, so there is a lot of very old streets and buildings to admire.
It was now time to start the long journey back to the hotel. Once back, we were both pretty exhausted after the day of feeling manipulated and the epic amount of walking we did. We were looking forward to a low key night at the hotel restraunt/bar/lounge. Dinner was decent, but priced appropriately which made it taste even better. We then continued onto the lounge section where I got a nice Cuban cigar (Coheba of course!) and single malt (Talisker 10). The cigar and scotch didn't interest Kirstyn as much, but she enjoy some nice white Czech wine.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
First full Prague Day
I actually wrote the next several posts on the train from Prague to Berlin, but just getting a chance to update now...
We've been doing a lot of running around lately, so we decided to sleep in a bit today and relax. At least we were able to make it in time for breakfast at the hotel (which ends at 11am). Because we were running a bit late and had plans to meet up with Fregly and Christina for lunch, we decided to eat a light breakfast. Well, all that and also because we also couldn't remember if breakfast was included for us with the stay at the hotel. It turned out that is was, but the light meal was still nice.
After breakfast we tried to formalize our plans (meeting location, time, etc) and as soon as we got on the phone, my minutes on the prepaid sim from Germany expired! We really needed to push back the meeting time slight, but weren't able to get that out in time. So now we're running late and can't get a hold of them to tell them... I know what you're thinking.... Why didn't we just use the hotel phone to call them back? Well, we tried that and couldn't get the hotel phone to properly call Fregly's phone/pre-paid sim (although we were able to call Gabrielle with no problems. So we were thinkign we were handling the whole international calling stuff correctly). We also tried calling their hotel to get in touch, but the line was busy. So we decided to venture out and hope they were still waiting or that we could find another prepaid sim store along the way.
We didn't have any issues finding the arranged meet up spot, but there was no Fregly or Christina. I certainly couldn't blame them.. we were about a 1/2 hour late. We checked around the intersection to see if they were at a cafe waiting, but no luck there either. So we backtracked to a sign we noticed for a Vodaphone store. I figured time to get a new sim and give em a call. However, on our way backtracking to the store sign, someone grabbed my map out of my back pocket. Guess who? Fregly! There were running late too! So we headed out to the phone store together and found the kid at the store to be quite helpful. We were soon on our way and I had another new European phone number that is supposed to roam. Hopefully this will get us through Prague and our last leg in Berlin without any more sim purchases.
We continued on to check out Fregly and Christina's hotel and to also ask their conceirge about a boat tour we were interested in. She was very helpfull and got us all squared away which left us time for a quick lunch before getting on the bus to the river and dock.
The boat tour was fairly quick (about an hour of boat time on the water), but the views of the city were really nice from the water. We also had a complementary strudel and coffee on the boat too (both decent). After that porton was done, we walked back with our guide to Old Town Square. Along the way, she showed us some of the old Jewish sinaguges and communitities and was fairly informative. Overall though, she didn't really seem that into giving us the tour and wasn't very responsive to our questions. The sights still made it well worth it though, especially the Ferrari we saw parked along the way! :)
We made it back into the square just in time for the hourly display from the astronomical clock. I have to say, it was pretty cool considering how old it is. It's fairly on par with what you'd see from the Glockenspeil in Munch. There are some figurins that move around appearing to walk in front of their windows. On the outside of the clock, there are other frigurines that move around and look like the're ringing the bell (my favorite of these was the skeleton figure). From there we hung out in the square and quenched our thirst a bit before going into a couple art musuems for Mugan and Dali. Definitely a different experience than the Van Gogh in Amsterdam, but was worth quick store and a handful of crowns.
It was starting to get a little later and time to make our way to a beer hall called U Flecku (based on a friend's recommendation from work). This was great! We had sooo much fun here. They have great food, great dark Czech beer (there own brew called Fleck), and a great shot (at least it seemed great at the time!). Very fun and so far probably 2nd only to the tent experience in the Hippodrom at Oktoberfest. If your beer ever falls within an inch of being empty, they immeadiately come by and bring you a new one. Fantastic! They just keep track of everything for you via tic marks on a peice of paper, which you reconcile at the end of the night.
Our next stop was back to the American bar near our hotel (we thought it would be cool to catch some of the Bears game while out here). The walk should have been easy since U Flecku is realivitely near us, but for some reason we went around in a few circles :) Fregly grabbed a cab for us and it turned back into the short trip it should have been. Unforatunately, the game wasn't on! It wasn't being broadcast on the satalite package the owner had. Oh well. We grabbed a couple more drinks here and Kirstyn and I called it a night. From what I hear Fregly and Christina closed the bar down :)
We've been doing a lot of running around lately, so we decided to sleep in a bit today and relax. At least we were able to make it in time for breakfast at the hotel (which ends at 11am). Because we were running a bit late and had plans to meet up with Fregly and Christina for lunch, we decided to eat a light breakfast. Well, all that and also because we also couldn't remember if breakfast was included for us with the stay at the hotel. It turned out that is was, but the light meal was still nice.
After breakfast we tried to formalize our plans (meeting location, time, etc) and as soon as we got on the phone, my minutes on the prepaid sim from Germany expired! We really needed to push back the meeting time slight, but weren't able to get that out in time. So now we're running late and can't get a hold of them to tell them... I know what you're thinking.... Why didn't we just use the hotel phone to call them back? Well, we tried that and couldn't get the hotel phone to properly call Fregly's phone/pre-paid sim (although we were able to call Gabrielle with no problems. So we were thinkign we were handling the whole international calling stuff correctly). We also tried calling their hotel to get in touch, but the line was busy. So we decided to venture out and hope they were still waiting or that we could find another prepaid sim store along the way.
We didn't have any issues finding the arranged meet up spot, but there was no Fregly or Christina. I certainly couldn't blame them.. we were about a 1/2 hour late. We checked around the intersection to see if they were at a cafe waiting, but no luck there either. So we backtracked to a sign we noticed for a Vodaphone store. I figured time to get a new sim and give em a call. However, on our way backtracking to the store sign, someone grabbed my map out of my back pocket. Guess who? Fregly! There were running late too! So we headed out to the phone store together and found the kid at the store to be quite helpful. We were soon on our way and I had another new European phone number that is supposed to roam. Hopefully this will get us through Prague and our last leg in Berlin without any more sim purchases.
We continued on to check out Fregly and Christina's hotel and to also ask their conceirge about a boat tour we were interested in. She was very helpfull and got us all squared away which left us time for a quick lunch before getting on the bus to the river and dock.
The boat tour was fairly quick (about an hour of boat time on the water), but the views of the city were really nice from the water. We also had a complementary strudel and coffee on the boat too (both decent). After that porton was done, we walked back with our guide to Old Town Square. Along the way, she showed us some of the old Jewish sinaguges and communitities and was fairly informative. Overall though, she didn't really seem that into giving us the tour and wasn't very responsive to our questions. The sights still made it well worth it though, especially the Ferrari we saw parked along the way! :)
We made it back into the square just in time for the hourly display from the astronomical clock. I have to say, it was pretty cool considering how old it is. It's fairly on par with what you'd see from the Glockenspeil in Munch. There are some figurins that move around appearing to walk in front of their windows. On the outside of the clock, there are other frigurines that move around and look like the're ringing the bell (my favorite of these was the skeleton figure). From there we hung out in the square and quenched our thirst a bit before going into a couple art musuems for Mugan and Dali. Definitely a different experience than the Van Gogh in Amsterdam, but was worth quick store and a handful of crowns.
It was starting to get a little later and time to make our way to a beer hall called U Flecku (based on a friend's recommendation from work). This was great! We had sooo much fun here. They have great food, great dark Czech beer (there own brew called Fleck), and a great shot (at least it seemed great at the time!). Very fun and so far probably 2nd only to the tent experience in the Hippodrom at Oktoberfest. If your beer ever falls within an inch of being empty, they immeadiately come by and bring you a new one. Fantastic! They just keep track of everything for you via tic marks on a peice of paper, which you reconcile at the end of the night.
Our next stop was back to the American bar near our hotel (we thought it would be cool to catch some of the Bears game while out here). The walk should have been easy since U Flecku is realivitely near us, but for some reason we went around in a few circles :) Fregly grabbed a cab for us and it turned back into the short trip it should have been. Unforatunately, the game wasn't on! It wasn't being broadcast on the satalite package the owner had. Oh well. We grabbed a couple more drinks here and Kirstyn and I called it a night. From what I hear Fregly and Christina closed the bar down :)
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Arrived in Prague
To keep with the theme of the trip, I'm running a bit late with posting again. Even the last post I finally put up last night was actually written on the train ride here... All I had to was copy/paste the entry online. Oops. I guess that shows we're having a good time and keeping busy. I'm going with that instead of laziness :)
We got into Prague at a decent time and immediately got some czks out of the ATM. The conversion rate here is about 1 USD = 16 Czech koruny (although that's what it was for the past couple days, at the actual time of the writing it seems to be about 1 to 17). From there we walked to our hotel, which took a little longer than expected. We had a couple wrong turns, but finally honed in on the right path. The hotel we are at in Prague is very hip/swank. We both like it a lot. The concierge walked us up to our room and showed us around. After the long walk and long day of travel, the extra effort by the staff was very refreshing. Fregly and Christina also seemed to have some difficulty finding their hotel, but seemed to get to theuirs about the same time as us. Nick and Gabrielle ended staying very close to our hotel and it was pretty easy to meet up with everyone.
Nick and Gabrielle seemed to be really enjoying their day head start and filled us in a much as they could before calling it a night and getting ready for their flight in the morning. They found a pub right across the street from us that is own by a guy from Chicago! And they show US sports too! They have college football on while we were there and are holding out hope for the Bears game too! We found one more similar theme from the other cities here too... the beer here is much better than when it is imported to the States! I think Pilsner Urquell back home is pretty bad (much like Heineken, it tastes skunky to me), but here its quite good.
We didn't stay out too late and everyone was ready too pass out. We had one complication though while trying to sleep... there was very loud techno music coming from a nearby disco, and that made it a bit hard to get a steady nights' sleep. But eventually we were able to fall asleep and start the next day.
We got into Prague at a decent time and immediately got some czks out of the ATM. The conversion rate here is about 1 USD = 16 Czech koruny (although that's what it was for the past couple days, at the actual time of the writing it seems to be about 1 to 17). From there we walked to our hotel, which took a little longer than expected. We had a couple wrong turns, but finally honed in on the right path. The hotel we are at in Prague is very hip/swank. We both like it a lot. The concierge walked us up to our room and showed us around. After the long walk and long day of travel, the extra effort by the staff was very refreshing. Fregly and Christina also seemed to have some difficulty finding their hotel, but seemed to get to theuirs about the same time as us. Nick and Gabrielle ended staying very close to our hotel and it was pretty easy to meet up with everyone.
Nick and Gabrielle seemed to be really enjoying their day head start and filled us in a much as they could before calling it a night and getting ready for their flight in the morning. They found a pub right across the street from us that is own by a guy from Chicago! And they show US sports too! They have college football on while we were there and are holding out hope for the Bears game too! We found one more similar theme from the other cities here too... the beer here is much better than when it is imported to the States! I think Pilsner Urquell back home is pretty bad (much like Heineken, it tastes skunky to me), but here its quite good.
We didn't stay out too late and everyone was ready too pass out. We had one complication though while trying to sleep... there was very loud techno music coming from a nearby disco, and that made it a bit hard to get a steady nights' sleep. But eventually we were able to fall asleep and start the next day.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Trogging, or should i say, Blainning?
We just barely made our connection from Schwandorf to Praha. From what I've heard, Europe's train system is supposed to be really good (specifically meaning punctual). But now we missed one connecton from Amsterdam to Munich and almost missed our most recent connection too. And both because of the inbound train we were on. At least we did actually make this connection though. Our guess is they delayed our outbound connecting train, but that's ok by me. How's knows when the next train from Schwandorf to Prague would be! We were really trying to make it into Prague at a decent hour too so we can meet up with Nick and Gabrielle before they head back to the states in the morning.
Yesterday was a great day and very much different than our days so far. We took a bus tour out to the Bavarian country-side to visit some of King Ludwig the 2nd's castles, aka "Crazy" King Ludwig. We started off at the only one of his castles he actually completed and was his primary residence. Very impressvie, but much smaller than his other castles (note.. smaller. Not small :) ). This tour was a little rushed, but we did get to see all of the interior and walk a little bit of the grounds.
On the way to the next castle we stopped in a little Bavarian town that specializes in wood craftsmanship and had a lot of "Christmasy" type things (sorry, I need to look up the name!). So needless to say, Kirstyn was loving it there! She's already talking about our next trip back and having a few days to relax in a mountain town like this one.
Unfortunately we didn't have time to view the castle in which Ludwig grew up, but his dream castle nearby was more than enough. Touring this castle was quite amazing and Ludwig seemed to have an eye for breathtaking views. It is high up in the mountains and surrounded by peaks, valleys, and a large lake. It seems every corner you turn either outside or in, reveals a new view that seems to trump the last. The castle was not finished in Ludwig's lifetime and is actually still being worked on. We were able to see all the rooms that Ludwig was able to finish and then some of the other unfinished floors as well. There was also a marvelous view from "Mary's Bridge" outside of the castle. The bridge was about a 15 minute walk down from the castle entrance and is above a huge valley that gave us all some serious vertigo.
The bus ride back to downtown Munich seemed to take a while, but I'm sure that was partially due to how tired we all were! We got back in enough time to head out for one more night, although both Kirstyn and I figured we'd be in for a early night. That actually held true for once too! We tried going out the the HB house to get a flavor of another beer hall, but it was quite packed (and a little to busy for our moods). We thought of going back to our favorite, Augistiner, but that was bit of a hike away. But then we remembered that there is a smaller Augistiner across from HB! Perfect! We were able to get a seat right away, and some beer and food. The menu is actually fairly different from the main Agustiner beer hall, and actually didn't seem quite as good either (but of course still very good :)). We split a plate of German sausages and an order of roasted veal with a gravy/mushroom/cream sauce and a potato dumpling. That was enough for us here and we felt ready to head home for the night.
However, the night had different plans for us! On the way back we walked by the Hacker-Pschorr beer hall, and the outdoor area was pretty open and inviting. I asked Kirstyn if she wanted one more, and she replied that she'd drink one if it was put in front of her :) So we went in. The ended up being very nice and relaxing and we each put down a coupe .5L glasses. I also ran into random group of people from the Netherlands that talked my ear off for a while. This happened on my way to the bathroom, so i figured Kirstyn was wondering what happened to me too!
We had a bit of a scare in the morning... we thought someone stole some of our credit cards! In Amsterdam we had a nice security box in the room, but in Munich we had an ok locking cabinet. So when Kirstyn was packing up for the trip to Prague she couldn't find our "hidden" cards. We frantically looked for a while and checked our bank/credit card statements online (at least it didn't seem anyone did any damage yet). We took a break looking for a bit and as I got closer to being done packing, I finally ran accross the stash of cards in my shachle bag.. whew!!! They either fell in my bag or at some point I may have actually moved them there. Either way, they're safe and sound and we were able to leave Munich and the festivale with a good taste in our mouths.
Speaking of good tasts in our mouths, we went to the festival for a couple final hours before heading to the train. What a difference a couple days makes! We couldn't believe how crowded the festival was even at 9:30 in the morning. We figured we'd be able to get a table inside a tent, or at least out in one of there outdoor patio sections... but no go. The halls were packed by the mob of patrons that swarmed each of the halls as soon as their doors opened at 10:00am. We actually got a seat breifly in a patio section outside the HB hall, but left fairly quickly because we were running out of time and wanted a last taste of beer and chicken. We wandered back out to the fest grounds and did just that. It seemed pretty appropriate too, because we started and stopped Oktober fest at the same merry-go-round bar :)
Oh, and no I don't have internet on the train, I'm writing locally and will upload/publish the post once I'm connected again... which obviously happened :)
Yesterday was a great day and very much different than our days so far. We took a bus tour out to the Bavarian country-side to visit some of King Ludwig the 2nd's castles, aka "Crazy" King Ludwig. We started off at the only one of his castles he actually completed and was his primary residence. Very impressvie, but much smaller than his other castles (note.. smaller. Not small :) ). This tour was a little rushed, but we did get to see all of the interior and walk a little bit of the grounds.
On the way to the next castle we stopped in a little Bavarian town that specializes in wood craftsmanship and had a lot of "Christmasy" type things (sorry, I need to look up the name!). So needless to say, Kirstyn was loving it there! She's already talking about our next trip back and having a few days to relax in a mountain town like this one.
Unfortunately we didn't have time to view the castle in which Ludwig grew up, but his dream castle nearby was more than enough. Touring this castle was quite amazing and Ludwig seemed to have an eye for breathtaking views. It is high up in the mountains and surrounded by peaks, valleys, and a large lake. It seems every corner you turn either outside or in, reveals a new view that seems to trump the last. The castle was not finished in Ludwig's lifetime and is actually still being worked on. We were able to see all the rooms that Ludwig was able to finish and then some of the other unfinished floors as well. There was also a marvelous view from "Mary's Bridge" outside of the castle. The bridge was about a 15 minute walk down from the castle entrance and is above a huge valley that gave us all some serious vertigo.
The bus ride back to downtown Munich seemed to take a while, but I'm sure that was partially due to how tired we all were! We got back in enough time to head out for one more night, although both Kirstyn and I figured we'd be in for a early night. That actually held true for once too! We tried going out the the HB house to get a flavor of another beer hall, but it was quite packed (and a little to busy for our moods). We thought of going back to our favorite, Augistiner, but that was bit of a hike away. But then we remembered that there is a smaller Augistiner across from HB! Perfect! We were able to get a seat right away, and some beer and food. The menu is actually fairly different from the main Agustiner beer hall, and actually didn't seem quite as good either (but of course still very good :)). We split a plate of German sausages and an order of roasted veal with a gravy/mushroom/cream sauce and a potato dumpling. That was enough for us here and we felt ready to head home for the night.
However, the night had different plans for us! On the way back we walked by the Hacker-Pschorr beer hall, and the outdoor area was pretty open and inviting. I asked Kirstyn if she wanted one more, and she replied that she'd drink one if it was put in front of her :) So we went in. The ended up being very nice and relaxing and we each put down a coupe .5L glasses. I also ran into random group of people from the Netherlands that talked my ear off for a while. This happened on my way to the bathroom, so i figured Kirstyn was wondering what happened to me too!
We had a bit of a scare in the morning... we thought someone stole some of our credit cards! In Amsterdam we had a nice security box in the room, but in Munich we had an ok locking cabinet. So when Kirstyn was packing up for the trip to Prague she couldn't find our "hidden" cards. We frantically looked for a while and checked our bank/credit card statements online (at least it didn't seem anyone did any damage yet). We took a break looking for a bit and as I got closer to being done packing, I finally ran accross the stash of cards in my shachle bag.. whew!!! They either fell in my bag or at some point I may have actually moved them there. Either way, they're safe and sound and we were able to leave Munich and the festivale with a good taste in our mouths.
Speaking of good tasts in our mouths, we went to the festival for a couple final hours before heading to the train. What a difference a couple days makes! We couldn't believe how crowded the festival was even at 9:30 in the morning. We figured we'd be able to get a table inside a tent, or at least out in one of there outdoor patio sections... but no go. The halls were packed by the mob of patrons that swarmed each of the halls as soon as their doors opened at 10:00am. We actually got a seat breifly in a patio section outside the HB hall, but left fairly quickly because we were running out of time and wanted a last taste of beer and chicken. We wandered back out to the fest grounds and did just that. It seemed pretty appropriate too, because we started and stopped Oktober fest at the same merry-go-round bar :)
Oh, and no I don't have internet on the train, I'm writing locally and will upload/publish the post once I'm connected again... which obviously happened :)
Breif catchup
I've been slacking a bit on the posts, so here's a brief recap from several days ago when we went to the museums.
Public transportation in Munich, much like most places outside of the states, is top notch. I think if we had better PT in the states, more people would use it. It was very easy (and cheap) to use to get around and this is how we got out to the BMW museum to start our day. We actually ended up walking around "BMW World" which is a beautiful building. I'll have to post some pictures to show it off, because I don't think i can describe it.
We arrived at the perfect time. Just as we walked in there was a bmx stunt performance happening in the building. The rider would go around the main floor, then up and down stair cases, and across the second floor gangway. All the while popping up on his front and real wheel.. this was really impressive while going down the stairs! At the end, he actually went too far and fell off his bike. Luckily, this was while on the 1st floor and not while going down the stairs. He was fine and did a few more laps after that so he could finish on a high note. I walked by the spot of the fall afterward and say a chip in the floor, so this was definitely not staged to be part of the act.
Since this was a general BMW experience, they also provide a plant tour and an actual BMW museum. We didn't feel the need to do the full museum experience, but thought the plant tour would have been interesting. The English speaking plant tours were full until much later in the day, so we had to pass so we could make the science/tech museum. So back to the subway!
We desperately tired to find someplace to find some brats and beer for lunch, but had a difficult time on the way to the museum. After one last attempt around another block we found and jack-of-all-trade lunch sport which was really good. Gabrielle was able to get gluten free salad. Kirstyn was able to get a light soup, and Nick and i were able to get curry wurst and wiener schnitzel... and of course beer :)
The museum is immense and we were running out of time to see it all. So our stay there was pretty speedy, but we did get a chance to power through the whole thing. There was a good variety of things to see and the aviation section was particularly interesting. They had one of the first jet planes used near the end of WWII on display as well as an early model by the Wright Brothers.
We saw some very interesting thing on the map (like a bio/nano tech section) that we were trying to find. It was a bit difficult because none of the signs in the building pointed to the section and all we knew was that we had to find the basement. We eventually found the basement, but it was full of nautical models, which was still really cool. We then realized that the museum is going to be under renovation and a bunch of new exhibits will being going up in November... including the ones we were looking for! At least we solved the mystery of way we couldn't find them!
We finished up the day/night back at our favorite beer garden/hall, the Augustiner, which was once again great. We found out that the beer we had there was being served out of wooden barrels! We think that's one of the reasons it tasted so good. After the barrel ran dry for the day, we were able to keep drinking inside the beer hall and drink from their normal taps. We could definitely taste a difference, but obviously it was still good.
Public transportation in Munich, much like most places outside of the states, is top notch. I think if we had better PT in the states, more people would use it. It was very easy (and cheap) to use to get around and this is how we got out to the BMW museum to start our day. We actually ended up walking around "BMW World" which is a beautiful building. I'll have to post some pictures to show it off, because I don't think i can describe it.
We arrived at the perfect time. Just as we walked in there was a bmx stunt performance happening in the building. The rider would go around the main floor, then up and down stair cases, and across the second floor gangway. All the while popping up on his front and real wheel.. this was really impressive while going down the stairs! At the end, he actually went too far and fell off his bike. Luckily, this was while on the 1st floor and not while going down the stairs. He was fine and did a few more laps after that so he could finish on a high note. I walked by the spot of the fall afterward and say a chip in the floor, so this was definitely not staged to be part of the act.
Since this was a general BMW experience, they also provide a plant tour and an actual BMW museum. We didn't feel the need to do the full museum experience, but thought the plant tour would have been interesting. The English speaking plant tours were full until much later in the day, so we had to pass so we could make the science/tech museum. So back to the subway!
We desperately tired to find someplace to find some brats and beer for lunch, but had a difficult time on the way to the museum. After one last attempt around another block we found and jack-of-all-trade lunch sport which was really good. Gabrielle was able to get gluten free salad. Kirstyn was able to get a light soup, and Nick and i were able to get curry wurst and wiener schnitzel... and of course beer :)
The museum is immense and we were running out of time to see it all. So our stay there was pretty speedy, but we did get a chance to power through the whole thing. There was a good variety of things to see and the aviation section was particularly interesting. They had one of the first jet planes used near the end of WWII on display as well as an early model by the Wright Brothers.
We saw some very interesting thing on the map (like a bio/nano tech section) that we were trying to find. It was a bit difficult because none of the signs in the building pointed to the section and all we knew was that we had to find the basement. We eventually found the basement, but it was full of nautical models, which was still really cool. We then realized that the museum is going to be under renovation and a bunch of new exhibits will being going up in November... including the ones we were looking for! At least we solved the mystery of way we couldn't find them!
We finished up the day/night back at our favorite beer garden/hall, the Augustiner, which was once again great. We found out that the beer we had there was being served out of wooden barrels! We think that's one of the reasons it tasted so good. After the barrel ran dry for the day, we were able to keep drinking inside the beer hall and drink from their normal taps. We could definitely taste a difference, but obviously it was still good.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Still full!
After yesterday's feast of beer, sausage, beer, chicken, beer, shintzle, and more beer I think I'm still quite full! Breakfast this morning is most likely going to be OJ and coffee :)
Yesterday was a lot of fun though. That start of the day at the market was good and thanks to Gabrielle and Nick, we found a homemade chocolate shop that was quite amazing. Kirstyn and I sampled tiramisu, coffee, eggnog, cognac, rum, champagne and macadamia nut truffles. Yum!
After the walk around the market, we made our way to the festival (which is only a few minute walk from our hotel). We started right away with a beer on a merry-go-round bar near one of the entrances. One of the great things here is that you are always drinking out of a glass. Any sort of festival I've been to in the states gives you plastic, which is definitely not as nice to drink out of. I didn't see any issues with glasses being dropped and every glass you drink from you get a token worth 3 Euro when you return the glass (which prevents theft).
The festival grounds are pretty big and the carnival-type rides are everywhere! They have some standard attractions, but there are many, many more than I've ever seen.. and bigger too! Kirstyn and Gabrielle went on the swing ride while Nick and I tried out some local Paulinar. I did finally try a ride a little later called "Play Ball!" It's hard to describe this one, but basically you and 3 friends are spinning in a car which is spinning on a big platform... All while the platform tilts on one side up in the air. I'll try to get a link which actually has a picture....
Next we were able to meet up with Fregly and Christina for the big highlight which was the Hippodrom tent. This was truly an amazing experience. The beer tents are gargantuan and filled with hundreds of people having a great time drinking, eating, and singing along with the live polka band.
I'll have to fill more in about the tent later as we are about to get breakfast and then head off the the BWM and technology museum.
Yesterday was a lot of fun though. That start of the day at the market was good and thanks to Gabrielle and Nick, we found a homemade chocolate shop that was quite amazing. Kirstyn and I sampled tiramisu, coffee, eggnog, cognac, rum, champagne and macadamia nut truffles. Yum!
After the walk around the market, we made our way to the festival (which is only a few minute walk from our hotel). We started right away with a beer on a merry-go-round bar near one of the entrances. One of the great things here is that you are always drinking out of a glass. Any sort of festival I've been to in the states gives you plastic, which is definitely not as nice to drink out of. I didn't see any issues with glasses being dropped and every glass you drink from you get a token worth 3 Euro when you return the glass (which prevents theft).
The festival grounds are pretty big and the carnival-type rides are everywhere! They have some standard attractions, but there are many, many more than I've ever seen.. and bigger too! Kirstyn and Gabrielle went on the swing ride while Nick and I tried out some local Paulinar. I did finally try a ride a little later called "Play Ball!" It's hard to describe this one, but basically you and 3 friends are spinning in a car which is spinning on a big platform... All while the platform tilts on one side up in the air. I'll try to get a link which actually has a picture....
Next we were able to meet up with Fregly and Christina for the big highlight which was the Hippodrom tent. This was truly an amazing experience. The beer tents are gargantuan and filled with hundreds of people having a great time drinking, eating, and singing along with the live polka band.
I'll have to fill more in about the tent later as we are about to get breakfast and then head off the the BWM and technology museum.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Das Boooooot!
So for anyone that's seen Beerfest and knows what I'm talking about, they don't actually drink from the boots here :) Still, just got back to the hotel from a day at Oktoberfest and 3 hours in the Hippodrom tent. Sooooooo, much fun though. Ok, time to digress a bit...
Yesterday, was a day spent on the train. We got up early and made it to the train way too early. There aren't a lot of places to hang out and wait in the train station in Amsterdam, but we made the best of it. Once we got on the train and our nice reserved 1st class seats, we were both able to relax and sleep for a bit. Unfortunately, the train was delayed and our connection through Manheim was late. Luckily the people at the station we very helpful and we got set up for a direct train from Manheim to Munich and actually got in before our initial connection!
Once we got in we planned on heading out to the Augustiner beer hall with Nick and Gabrille. On our way to meet up with them we saw a phone store. At some point between between Amsterdam and Munich our prepaid phone card stopped working. Apparently our sim from Amsterdam doesn't roam throughout Europe. Once we got a new card, everything was working again. We'll probably need to get one in Prague too, but at least ours from now will be good to go for Berlin for the last leg of the trip. The Augustiner was pretty amazing. Their outdoor beer hall was huge and the food was fantastic. We all had a liter of beer (pretty standard around here) and split an order of german sausage (about the size of breakfast links), pork knuckle, a quarter chicken' and some fries. All delicous! But on the way back to the hotel I had to stop and get a curry-wurst in the train station... which paid for itself with the 5 euro I found on the ground right before I had to pay!
Breakfast was decent in the morning. It seemed pretty authentic as far as German breakfasts go. We didn't have much time to spend here as we were planning on heading out to the market and wandering around a bit before hitting the festival today. That was very nice and ended up getting to the festival right in time for lunch and a beer :)
Yesterday, was a day spent on the train. We got up early and made it to the train way too early. There aren't a lot of places to hang out and wait in the train station in Amsterdam, but we made the best of it. Once we got on the train and our nice reserved 1st class seats, we were both able to relax and sleep for a bit. Unfortunately, the train was delayed and our connection through Manheim was late. Luckily the people at the station we very helpful and we got set up for a direct train from Manheim to Munich and actually got in before our initial connection!
Once we got in we planned on heading out to the Augustiner beer hall with Nick and Gabrille. On our way to meet up with them we saw a phone store. At some point between between Amsterdam and Munich our prepaid phone card stopped working. Apparently our sim from Amsterdam doesn't roam throughout Europe. Once we got a new card, everything was working again. We'll probably need to get one in Prague too, but at least ours from now will be good to go for Berlin for the last leg of the trip. The Augustiner was pretty amazing. Their outdoor beer hall was huge and the food was fantastic. We all had a liter of beer (pretty standard around here) and split an order of german sausage (about the size of breakfast links), pork knuckle, a quarter chicken' and some fries. All delicous! But on the way back to the hotel I had to stop and get a curry-wurst in the train station... which paid for itself with the 5 euro I found on the ground right before I had to pay!
Breakfast was decent in the morning. It seemed pretty authentic as far as German breakfasts go. We didn't have much time to spend here as we were planning on heading out to the market and wandering around a bit before hitting the festival today. That was very nice and ended up getting to the festival right in time for lunch and a beer :)
Monday, September 21, 2009
Las Night In Amsterdam
Today was a good way to finish up Amsterdam and I think we had the perfect amount of time here. The day started off with another good Dutch breakfast... We need to try making Dutch pancakes when we get home. From there we we to the Ann Frank house, which was quite moving. Seeing the small quarters those families had to live in was unreal.
After we thought of trying out the tram again to get to the Rembrandt house, but since it was so nice out (again!) we decided to walk it. His house was quite a different experience than the Van Gogh museum, and fun in its own way (although I'd put the Van Gogh museum up as one of my favorite things here, if not my number one).
The last major attraction we saw was "Our Lord In the Attic." A much smaller sight than most of the other things we say, but very unique. For a while in Amsterdam, Catholicism was banned, which caused some patrons to build a hidden church in someone's house. It was quite a sight to see and will be very interesting to compare that so some of the old cathedrals we're going to see in Germany and Prague. Oh, and oddly enough, the church is located in the Red Light District too!
After we thought of trying out the tram again to get to the Rembrandt house, but since it was so nice out (again!) we decided to walk it. His house was quite a different experience than the Van Gogh museum, and fun in its own way (although I'd put the Van Gogh museum up as one of my favorite things here, if not my number one).
The last major attraction we saw was "Our Lord In the Attic." A much smaller sight than most of the other things we say, but very unique. For a while in Amsterdam, Catholicism was banned, which caused some patrons to build a hidden church in someone's house. It was quite a sight to see and will be very interesting to compare that so some of the old cathedrals we're going to see in Germany and Prague. Oh, and oddly enough, the church is located in the Red Light District too!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Coffee and a view
Our hotel room is a definitely on the small size. The hotel itself is beautiful and the rooms are nice, but a bit cramped with our 2 big suitcases and us. One of the very nice things is we ended up with a canal view from our window. So I sitting here in the morning drinking my coffee and looking out the window from our room, with the window open too. It's a little brisk this morning (only a high in the mid-60s), but the sun and clear sky are out in full force. It should make for a great last day of exploration throughout the city.
Yesterday was quite full as well. We started off trying to figure out the tram system to get out to the Van Gogh museum. We hoped on a number 2 tram and couldn't figure out how to pay! So we got off the very next stop and found a convenience store where we would by a tram voucher for the group. This time we boarded a number 5 tram and found a worker mid tram who took our voucher from within her booth. We thought we'd only be on for one stop, but she told us the next one was best for the museum. She then proceeded to direct us over the PA system telling us to "Press the button" so the driver knows we need to stop and then congratulating us once we did... and still over the PA system. It was actually pretty funny :)
We had a really good breakfast which I had dutch pancakes with ham and a nice beer :) the museum was just around the corner and the wait in line wasn't too bad at all. I've heard from many people that we needed to be prepared to wait in line for over and hour for the museum, but it only too us maybe about 10 mins. Not bad at all. The museum itself was pretty amazing, and the audio tour worked really well for us. One thing in particular i never realized is that Van Gogh has such Japanese influence in many of his works.
Next on our list was a short walk away to Heineken Experience. I'm not the biggest Heineken fan, but this tour was very well done (that and the beer tastes much better over here). For the most part its self-guided, with the occasional worker sprinkled in to do a little talking of let you try the wart or beer. From one of our guide books it sounded like they used to let you drink as much as you wanted on the tour, but now-a-days they limited you to 3 beers. Which was probably a good thing since we never really ate lunch and all of us were starting to get hungry for dinner. The tour was interesting because they don't actually brew the beer in the one-time brewery any more. The facility is fully converted to just be a museum for tours. At the end of the tour when you get to try the brew, you do so from a pretty cool bar area. They have tables that have LCD tops which rotate display different map locations from around the world. In addition, when you put your beer down, you get a virtual coaster under you glass! And yes, the coaster follows around you beer if you move it around the table.
Next up for us was to grab some dinner and head back to the hotel for a brief stint of r&r before heading out to a "candle-light" canal cruise. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner, and the consensus was that it was the worst meal any of us have had. Over priced and pretty gross... we were all so hungry though, that we ate ever last bite! The Thai place for the previous night, was much, much better.. and cheaper too!
Yesterday was quite full as well. We started off trying to figure out the tram system to get out to the Van Gogh museum. We hoped on a number 2 tram and couldn't figure out how to pay! So we got off the very next stop and found a convenience store where we would by a tram voucher for the group. This time we boarded a number 5 tram and found a worker mid tram who took our voucher from within her booth. We thought we'd only be on for one stop, but she told us the next one was best for the museum. She then proceeded to direct us over the PA system telling us to "Press the button" so the driver knows we need to stop and then congratulating us once we did... and still over the PA system. It was actually pretty funny :)
We had a really good breakfast which I had dutch pancakes with ham and a nice beer :) the museum was just around the corner and the wait in line wasn't too bad at all. I've heard from many people that we needed to be prepared to wait in line for over and hour for the museum, but it only too us maybe about 10 mins. Not bad at all. The museum itself was pretty amazing, and the audio tour worked really well for us. One thing in particular i never realized is that Van Gogh has such Japanese influence in many of his works.
Next on our list was a short walk away to Heineken Experience. I'm not the biggest Heineken fan, but this tour was very well done (that and the beer tastes much better over here). For the most part its self-guided, with the occasional worker sprinkled in to do a little talking of let you try the wart or beer. From one of our guide books it sounded like they used to let you drink as much as you wanted on the tour, but now-a-days they limited you to 3 beers. Which was probably a good thing since we never really ate lunch and all of us were starting to get hungry for dinner. The tour was interesting because they don't actually brew the beer in the one-time brewery any more. The facility is fully converted to just be a museum for tours. At the end of the tour when you get to try the brew, you do so from a pretty cool bar area. They have tables that have LCD tops which rotate display different map locations from around the world. In addition, when you put your beer down, you get a virtual coaster under you glass! And yes, the coaster follows around you beer if you move it around the table.
Next up for us was to grab some dinner and head back to the hotel for a brief stint of r&r before heading out to a "candle-light" canal cruise. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner, and the consensus was that it was the worst meal any of us have had. Over priced and pretty gross... we were all so hungry though, that we ate ever last bite! The Thai place for the previous night, was much, much better.. and cheaper too!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
First day in Amsterdam
We're wrapping up the first day of our vacation and Kirstyn and i are both exhausted! She was able to fall asleep for a few hours on the plane ride here, but i wasn't able too. Partially because I think I was a little too excited,and partially because I was busy watching movies and playing games.
Once we landed everything went pretty smoothly getting to our hotel. Also, much to my surprise, we didn't have to fill out any paperwork entering the country. Even when I've been to Mexico recently, I've had to fill out several forms. One issue we did have was trying to purchase a train ticket from the airport to Amsterdam's Central station. We both picked up Capital One credit cards for the trip so save on international processing fees, but when we tried to us them it asked us for a PIN as if we were using a debit card. I purposely did not set up a PIN because is did not want to stat taking out cash advance with a credit card. Luckily, we were able to use my debit card and the Capital One card has been good at every other location since.
We got into the hotel a bit early and they were able to accommodate us by holding our bags until the room was ready. From there we ventured out to find the Vodaphone store to pick up a prepaid SIM card so we could make cheap calls while traveling. This allowed us to meet up with Nick and Gabrielle and start our site seeing. Dam Square was a good meeting point and spent a most of the day wandering the city with the occasional stop for beer/coffee/food. We tried to get into the Heineken experience, but we slighly late for the last tour and will have to try again tomorrow.
Once we landed everything went pretty smoothly getting to our hotel. Also, much to my surprise, we didn't have to fill out any paperwork entering the country. Even when I've been to Mexico recently, I've had to fill out several forms. One issue we did have was trying to purchase a train ticket from the airport to Amsterdam's Central station. We both picked up Capital One credit cards for the trip so save on international processing fees, but when we tried to us them it asked us for a PIN as if we were using a debit card. I purposely did not set up a PIN because is did not want to stat taking out cash advance with a credit card. Luckily, we were able to use my debit card and the Capital One card has been good at every other location since.
We got into the hotel a bit early and they were able to accommodate us by holding our bags until the room was ready. From there we ventured out to find the Vodaphone store to pick up a prepaid SIM card so we could make cheap calls while traveling. This allowed us to meet up with Nick and Gabrielle and start our site seeing. Dam Square was a good meeting point and spent a most of the day wandering the city with the occasional stop for beer/coffee/food. We tried to get into the Heineken experience, but we slighly late for the last tour and will have to try again tomorrow.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Almost ready
Well, its the night before Kirstyn and leave for Europe and I'm kinda packed. At least my laundry is done and most importantly, my electronics for the flight and train rides are set... so, my psp, ipod, world cell phone, and one of the new toy I'm bringing with me is my parent's Dell mini. My hope over the trip is to post pictures from the day and hopefully update this blog too! So, in order to get practice on the condensed mini's keyboard, I'm writing this post with it instead of my full sized keyboard (which, as you can imagine, would make this go a lot faster!). I have to say though, even in the 10ish minutes I've been typing, I'm already getting much, much better. So there is hope for me actually following through with this blog thing... at least while we're away :)
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