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Archive for August, 2009

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Culture Shock

Friday, August 21st, 2009

It’s time for an update on our travel plans. Our original plan for the year of travel would have had us finishing up in October. However, we feel like we needed more time in Europe, and that we just aren’t ready to face the dismal job market. We have decided to extend our trip by 3 months, so we needed to re-think our itinerary, including an “east coast swing” to visit some family and friends and re-stock our bags.

Our first stop back in the US after 9 months was Miami, and then Boca Raton to visit my aunt. We were a little surprised at how easy things are to do here. We had sort of forgotten how many huge grocery stores, drugstores, malls, and every other type of shop that there are here (and then they repeat every few blocks). Ahhhh. So convenient. And in English too. And open on Sundays! We feel spoiled by it all.

The weather was good and the water at the beach was perfectly warm. We noticed the little differences that reminded us we were in the US though. People slap on the sunscreen here, as well as hats, sunglasses, and umbrellas, much more than in Europe. Then there are the swimsuits… women over 30 all in one-piece suits, and the guys in baggy shorts. No speedos to be found.

After Florida, we headed north to Atlanta to see some of Eric’s family. We also had a nice visit at the Georgia aquarium (the world’s largest) and walked to the top Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is a little reminiscent of Uluru in Australia, but this being America, it has a tram to the top, a souvenir stand, and a huge carving in the side.

By this time our jet lag is gone and we are catching up on all the US news and sports that we’ve missed. It’s good to be back, even if just for a few weeks.

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Posted in Travel, US | 1 Comment »

Book It

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

After Norway, we are heading back to the US for a few weeks to visit some friends and family on the East Coast, as well as re-charge a little before the next phase of our trip.  Our flight took us through London, so we decided to stay a few days.  Since we’ve already seen a lot of the big tourist sights here, we went looking for something a little different.

We read about a place called Stanford’s, the worlds largest map and travel bookstore, and made a beeline for it.  Kid-in-a-candy-store doesn’t begin to describe me.  I’ve never seen so many maps, guidebooks, and travel literature in one place, arranged by continent and then country.  The entire bottom floor is dedicated to just maps and historical books about England.  It’s wonderful and we left with a bag full of Mark Twain and Paul Theroux that will probably put our luggage over the weight limit for the flight home.   Can’t wait to start reading! 

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Posted in Gear, Travel | No Comments »

Fjord with a J

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

We spent the last week, and our last in the Schengen region, in Norway, splitting our time between Oslo, Sandefjord (not “fiord” as in NZ), and Trondheim.  Eric’s mom met us there and we stayed with his relatives who took very good care of us and introduced us to Norwegian food, including my new favorite, rommegrot.  It’s a porridge made from sour cream with butter and cinnamon, and if you get the chance, try it.

On the way out of the country, we went through passport control and had a few dicey minutes while the official searched through our passports to see when and where we enter the EU.  After a few questions about what we’ve doing for  the last 3 months, he stamped them and let us through.  Whew. 

Here’s a picture of one of the sculptures in Vigeland Park in Oslo.  We also saw a few more by the same artist in the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.

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Auf Wiedersehen

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

We are in Norway now, but I’ll get to that in the next blog. For now, I thought I would just recap our our journey from Trier to Luxembourg to Belgium to get here. First off, we learned that the difference between the Luxembourg flag and the Dutch flag is just a few shades of blue.

Along the way we stopped at the brand new Herge museum which just opened in June. He is the Belgian artist who created Tintin and Snowy, and the museum is wonderful. It has very entertaining explanations about his influences, how the stories evolved over time and how they were effected by larger world events. And the artwork is just fun to see.

Finally we pulled in to Brussels to find that our hotel was across the street from what must be the world’s best, but also most inefficient pomme frites stand. People were waiting in line for over 45 minutes to get a paper cone filled with french fries. I didn’t have the patience and gave up after 15 minutes. I’ll have to wait for another trip to find out what made them so special.

Our last day in Belgium was also our last day with our car. With a heavy heart we gave it back and returned to the world of public buses and carrying our luggage. I miss it more than I thought I would, especially the GPS which could find any address in Europe regardless of how remote or tiny the street, or how many wrong turns we took on the way. I can’t imagine how we could have traveled without it.

On that note, I’ll end this post with the strangest road sign we saw during our time in the Peugeot. Apparently speeding tanks must be a real problem in Germany because there were quite a few of these along the roads near the Rhine.

　

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Posted in Germany, Travel | No Comments »

A Fine Rhine Wine Day

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

We’ve spent the last week splitting our time in Germany between the Black Forest, the Rhine Valley, and now the Mosel Wine Road.  I haven’t posted a blog in a few days because I really just don’t know what to write about right now.  It has been very pleasant here – the food is good, it’s easy to get around, my understanding of German is coming back (although my speaking is still pretty rough), the weather keeps changing between hot sunshine and cool cloudy days, but no rain, and the sights have been interesting.  I’m sure everyone reading our blog is getting tired of hearing about this type of stuff, so I’ve been trying to come up with something else to write about.   I didn’t find any other inspiration today, even after a local Riesling, so you’ll have to endure one more post about castles and rivers and churches.  There are plenty of all of them here and we’ve been visiting our share. Here’s the view of Burg Eltz (scaffolding included – just like every famous site we’ve seen this summer) and a promise for something new in the next blog.

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Posted in Germany, Travel | 3 Comments »