Jessica Writes

Since we didnt get to blog every day during the trip, I am going to try to do a more thorough recap/review on the places we went, where we stayed and maybe even the places we ate. That way, if anyone of you ever wants to go to the places we went, you will know what we reccommend and what we don’t.

It would be a massive post to do this all at once, so I am going to start chronologically with where we went first.

Amsterdam

How we got there

We flew Continental out of Nashville, with a short layover in Newark. The airline had messed up our tickets and listed me as “Jessica Thomas” I guess it was some variation of my first name and Chris’ legal name, I dont know. By the time we realized it, it was the night before the trip and we had to call and get new tickets printed. When we checked in, they had us sitting in seats that weren’t side-by-side for the flight to Newark. I don’t like flying and I didnt want to sit with a stranger. Fortunately, we were able to get our tickets switched with no issues.

When we changed planes, we flew 1st Class on the rest of the trip. It was really nice, and neither of us had flown first class before. Chris’ electric seat adjustor didn’t work but he was able to move it manually. That was the only problem. The food and the flight were great overall. We even arrived one hour earlier, although I would not have minded getting spoiled a little longer.

Transportation

We took the tram about everywhere in the city. Amsterdam has a very good tram system. We flew in and out of Schipol Airport, a very nice and clean airport, and there is a train station there that also takes you into the city easily. Amsterdam was a great base for our trip, very convenient as a jumping off point. Its about at $25 cab ride to get to the city from the airport.

Accommodations

We have never stayed in a hotel here, just at Maarten’s and Veronica’s and I don’t think they are going to turn into for-profit B&B very soon. But, if they did, you would get to be spoiled by Maarten’s morning coffee making and maybe even his special ham and cheese (and sweet chili pepper?) eggs. Mmmmm!

They area of town they live in is just a short walk from a train station (15 minute walk) and two tram stops (5 minutes or less). There were stores and restaurants within easy walking distance. The center of the city is about 10 minutes away by tram. Everything was very convenient and its just a lovely little part of town. Its a great, quiet area near Merwede Square, where Anne Frank spent her younger, carefree years before going into hiding with her family.

Entertainment

We went to the Police concert in the Amsterdam Arena, which is one of the first stadiums ever built to have a retractable roof with a grass surface. Its a pretty cool venue but Chris hated it for one reason — you had to pay to use the toilet.

Drinking

There are plenty of good pubs in town, and it would be easy to just walk into any one of them and enjoy yourself immensely. On this most recent trip, we went to a few different pubs, including two Irish pubs. I am going to get the names from Veronica and Maarten, but really, you can’t go wrong with any of the pubs in town.

We did go to a trendy bar called Chocolate Bar. It was packed, that is about all I remember about it.

http://www.chocolate-bar.nl/

Eating

In Amsterdam, you can get about any kind of food you want. We even saw a Domino’s advertisement and plenty of McDonald’s, so even if you are home sick for American fare, you are going to find it easily.

Here are a few of the good places we ate:

Castell

We have eaten here twice, on both our trip this year and on last year’s trip. Its referred to as a Bar-b-que restaurant but its really a steak place. Its nothing like a typical American BBQ joint.

It has a nice cavern-like feeling, with dark room and large U-shaped booths that line the walls with a fireplace in the center. You eat your meal on a heavy tray, its different but its quite a good dining experience. The steak and the baked potatos are delicious. Chris really enjoyed the ribs.

http://www.castellamsterdam.nl/english.html

Caffe Oslo

We thought it was quite odd to be dining at a restaurant named for Norwegian city, yet the menu featured Italian. It was actually very good. Veronica and I both enjoyed the pumpkin soup and the men loved their beef carpaccio. The entrees were very good too, I had some sort of fish and Veronica had a very good risotto. Cool interior, too!

http://www.diningcity.com/amsterdam/restaurantcaffeoslo020/ipix_eng.jsp

I love Italian food. Apparently, all of Europe does too. I think we ate more Italian on our trip than we ever have at home — and not just in Italy! Chris, who is a huge fan of beef carpaccio, literally ate it at every meal where he found it on the menu - which was nearly everywhere we went. Well, he didn’t eat the beef carpaccio was frozen that was presented to him in Austria. That was different.

In Amsterdam, we went to an Italian cafe for lunch and and Norwegian-named restaurant that served only Italian dishes.

In Dublin, the only restaurant that was open on the first night we went out to dinner (it was late but not that late) was Italian.

London at least had plenty other options and we ate other food there.

But in Paris, we had Italian twice!

In Munich, there was no food, only beer. (Just kidding, just kidding)

In Austria, Italian! We even saw a restaurant that bore the sign, “You Like Pizza!”

And yes, in Switzerland, Italian twice! We were even in a part of Switzerland, Lugano, that wanted to be Italian so bad, that was the common language and almost every restaurant was Italian. That was really weird — I guess its like Montreal is to the rest of Canada.

And then we were in Italy, where one of our meals was the WORST Italian I have ever eaten. The other meal was quite good, though.

And, the first night we were home we had the fine culinary delight that is Chef Boy Ardee ravioli for dinner. We just can’t seem to escape it!

Yesterday was such a blurred, long day of travel.

It was quite emotional leaving Veronica and Maarten’s cozy apartment in Amsterdam, a place we had come to know as our transitional home during our trip.

Veronica and Maarten were delightful hosts, taking the day off work to pick us up from the airport when we arrived on our first day - and letting us crash immediately after reaching their apartment to catch a much-needed nap.

Throughout the trip, they did countless kind deeds for us, even washing, drying and folding our laundry while they were at their family vacation home in Austria so we wouldn’t have to wear dirty clothes or pay to wash them in a laundrymat.

When we were in Munich, they got each of us little gifts — Chris a feather that is traditionally worn in the caps men don for Oktoberfest, me a stuffed dog that looked like Simone that they won at a carnival game (and it probably cost them 100 euro to win). They were into gifting stuffed animals — gave Chris a won snoring bear which I said resembled his loud snores at night and snuck away and bought me a little animal wearing lederhosen and holding a frosty beer that when you pushed his foot, sang a song that was played about every 10 minutes in our tent. It was about “prost-ing” which is the way of saying cheers in Germany. They got Carrie a really cool necklace.

And, the list goes on and on about how their kindness abounded during this special trip. I just cannot thank them enough for letting us take over their apartment and their spare room/laundry room and run off for a week and them come back for a few days — this of course continued for three weeks! That is quite a long time to upset someone’s routine.

I have to say, that tears were shed on at least my part when we left yesterday morning. Veronica is a dear friend who I love, and I feel like I have know Maarten forever. We hope we can attempt to extend the same sort of kindness towards them when they come visit us in Nashville. I am holding them to that commitment! They are simply a joy to know and be around, and a lovely couple.

So to Veronica and Maarten — Cheers, Prost, Skal! We love you guys!!!

I have a lot of ground to cover because we have been so busy, and because we have not had very easy access to internet. I also killed our adapter so we were without a charge on Chris’ computer for a few days. So here goes a summary from the last time I posted:

Munich

We went to the Oktoberfest tents on Tuesday and Wednesday. It rained and was very cold both days, but we still had a great time. It was a very interesting experience, tons of people – everyone friendly as heck. At the festival outside of the tents is a fair with crazy rides, fair food and cheesy games like “pop the balloon with a dart” and maybe win a cheap toy. Veronica and Maarten spent quite a lot winning me a stuffed dog that looked like Simone, which I named “Ocki.”

Our tent was the Hippodrum, one of the smaller tents but still very large in reality. We were only allowed inside from 4-6:30 pm and during that time we were assigned a table where we would eat and drink the house beer and listen to the lively band play upbeat, sing-a-long type songs. It was packed with people having a good time – a VERY good time. The beer came in 1 liter glass steins, and was so heavy to hold, that we all got bruises on the knuckles of our pointer fingers the next day. Four days later and mine still smarts!

We met some nice people and somehow each night, ended up with a random German wanting to join in on the fun – perhaps they wanted to hang out with Carrie who as she says, was the “fifth wheel.” At any rate we had a great time. On Wednesday night, we went to another tent afterwards although we didn’t have reservations and Maarten managed to a charm a beer maid into letting us sit at a table where some people had just left. We were able to stay there until 11 pm, when the festival ends for the night. I can see why it ended when it did, because people were enjoying themselves so much, it would get way out of hand if the party went on all night.

Dachau

On Thursday, Carrie headed home and Maarten, Veronica, Chris and I hopped in Maarten’s parent’s Audi station wagon and headed to the Dachau concentration camp memorial site, about 20 minutes from Munich. This was something I said I had to do when Chris and I were planning this trip. My grandfather, at the young age of 19 or 20, was a solider in WW II. While he was serving, he was part of the liberation of Dachau. On April 29, 1945 he and other soldiers came to one of the first and one of the harshest concentration camps, and were met with a sight so horrific – barely alive skeletons and dead bodies piled up like firewood, the stench of death everywhere with no relief from it – it literally scarred my grandfather for the rest of his life. There is not much left of the camp now, but we were able to tour where the people were processed, and where they slept (sleep really never came for them), crammed in like sardines. They had an exhibit that gave spotty details about what these people so undeservedly had to endure. It was horrifying, to say the least. It made me feel guilty that I had just had so much fun so close to so much suffering. I am glad I went, but it was terrible, and I feel like I did something to honor my grandfather in a small way.

Lermoos, Austria

After Dachau, we were in a hurry to get to a more peaceful place. We headed an hour to Austria, and the scenery changed very quickly. Soon we were surrounded by snow capped mountains, fluffy sheep, cows with huge horns and goats chomping lush green carpet-like grass. Lermoos is a town where Maarten’s family has a family vacation home. It’s a little ski resort town, very very small but quaint and everywhere you look, the views are breathtaking. The town sits in a wide valley surrounded by mountains, one of which is Zugsptize, Germany’s tallest.

When we got there, the fog and rain shielded these mountains for the most part, so we didn’t really realize the kind of view our hotel had until we left on Saturday. It was stunning – we were at the foot of all these beautiful mountains, and I couldn’t believe they already have snow on them.

When walking to dinner on Thursday night, I finally learned what the smell of Alpine air was like. It filled my lungs and was so fresh, so wonderful – the smell of the trees, the crisp air, it was like nothing I have ever experienced. We ate at Hotel Post, a resort that recently had been renovated. It was very posh in a cozy, ski lodge kind of way.

On Friday, we went to see two castles about 40 minutes away. The drive was so scenic, I don’t think you can round any turn without seeing something more spectacular than what you saw just a few minutes before. The water in the rivers was a pale, pale almost clear blue. It was so pretty, so clean looking, you wanted to go and dip a cup in it and have a long drink. We got to the castles – one at the bottom of the mountain was the family home of King Ludwig. It was yellow and had a storybook appeal to it, it was nice but it paled in comparison to what you would see if you looked from the castle up to the mountain and saw the castle built by the King’s eccentric young son, Ludwig II.

The castle, Neuschwenstein (I think that is how it is spelled – everything here is so long and hard to spell and pronounce) was the inspiration of Disney’s Cinderella castle at the Magic Kingdom. Ludwig’s quintessential Europen castle had all the turrets and spires you would imagine a castle having and was simply enchanting. It definitely is the stuff fairy tales are made of. Inside, every window had a view of stunning countryside, a large lake and on the other sides held even more beautiful views of a massive waterfall that crashes down a huge mountain. Ludwig even built a bridge in the mountain so he could see the waterfall closer, and he could gaze at his perfect castle the seemed to be perched in the sky

Inside, the castle was grand, and included a man made cave and modern furnishings for the mid-1800s like running water and a telephone. It was dedicated to the famous composer and a friend of Ludwig’s Wagner. Poor Ludwig never lived to see the completion of his castle – he died at age 40 in a tragic, mysterious drowning.

After we left the castle, we went home for a cozy meal. Finally on Saturday, the sun was shining and we could see the view from our hotel room. I could not believe we could open the windows and see such a beautiful sight. That was what was so nice about Lermoos, it didn’t matter where you looked, you only saw postcard worthy sights. Also in view from our room was a flock of goats, each one with a little bell around their neck that made such a lovely sound as the ran around the hills in a pack. They were really cute.

Zurich

On Saturday, we left for Zurich for one night with one goal in mind – finding Swiss watches. We had a gorgeous train ride with spectacular views of the countryside and the Alps. My grandmother would have gone crazy over the views, and would have probably been content riding the train back an forth for a few days!

When we arrived at our hotel after being on the train for 3 hours, and found out that all the shops closed around 5 pm, and it was 4:40 pm. So we literally dumped our bags in the room and sprinted down the hill, determined to get our Swiss watches. After passing dozens of stores, we finally found a department store that was open til 6 pm. We found their large selection of watches and were each able to find a nice watch that we “gifted” each other as a 2nd anniversary present.

We ended the evening with dinner cheese and meat fondue! Yummm!!!