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Maps

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

To those of you who had been keeping up with us using the map function:

I’m not sure exactly what happened. It seems as though Google Maps updated their Europe maps to provide all kinds of nice detail that they didn’t have before. But, in the process, they wiped out all of the routing information that we had been adding. ;( I posted a question to bootsnall.com (the provider of our website), but have not received much of an answer, yet. I’ll keep trying to update the map and keep you all updated, as well.

Tim

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Into Romania

Friday, November 24th, 2006

We were expecting to be on the train at this time today on our way to Cluj Napoca, Romania. However, Lesson Number ??: Don’t trust the posted timetables in the train station. The timetable said 10:05, but we found out this morning that the next train to Cluj would leave at 16:22. So, we’ve been killing time today in Sighetu Marmatiei — reading, writing, drinking tea/pop, visiting the market, having lunch and walking around town a bit more.

We entered Romania on Sunday and stayed two nights in Baia Mare. Monday we took a bus to Surdesti, where we saw two towering, wooden churches. The church in Surdesti is 72 meters high and is considered the tallest wooden structure in Europe — if not the world. The wooden church in Plopis, just 2 km down the road, isn’t as tall but just as impressive. The bus schedule back to Baia Mare didn’t work with our schedule, so we ended up walking back into town. It was a nice day, so we didn’t mind the walk. We walked quite a while with an old man and his horse and wagon. He would catch up to us on the downhills when his horse would break into a trot, and we would catch up to him on the uphills when he would walk alongside his horse, letting him stop for occasional breaks. Despite greeting him with “Buna Ziua,” he recognized that we were not from the area, and said something about “..Europa.” Judging by the way he said it, we think he might have told us that we were a long ways from Europe. Indeed. We were a long ways from the “Europe” we had been visiting.

On Tuesday we took the train to Sighetu Marmatiei, in the northern Romaian, Maramures region. We were planning on staying two nights here, and taking a day trip to Sapanta (not being able to type the special characters on this keyboard, say SA PIN TSA) on Wednesday. We never made it Sapanta, but we spent two wonderful days in the more remote and less touristy village of Breb. At Breb we walked the muddy streets, were introduced by a very friendly and knowledgable woman named Lise — who speaks English, French and Romanian — to many smiling villagers, watched two of the women washing rugs and blankets in the stream running through town, tasted the strong, plum brandy called Horinca and saw how they made it, rode in a small, packed truck with 12 other villagers to the market in nearby Ocna Sugatag, walked back to Breb through hayfields dotted with “old-time” haystacks and stayed at a wonderful pension called Pensiunea Lucia.

We rode a minibus back to Sighet this morning, and — hopefully — we’ll be leaving shortly via train to Cluj Napoca.

More later,

Tim

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Cool Discoveries

Thursday, November 23rd, 2006
I thought I'd share some cool places we discovered as we walked around various cities and places.  These also might be just a unique experiences we weren't expecting.  These are going to be out of order as I think of ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Flashback to Anne Franks House

Saturday, November 18th, 2006
When we went to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, I was "struck" by a few things. The first was: The house looks different in my mind than the real one. This isn't a great surprise but the ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Debrecen, Hungary

Saturday, November 18th, 2006
Hi All, Dan and I have decided to try a different approach to our blog. Here is the plan: We would like to try to update our blog more often with shorter entries just letting you know where we are and ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Wrong Train

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006
As I write this, I am sitting on the train carrying us away from the small town of Cesky Krumlov (in the Czech Republic). We're sitting in the second of two rail cars -- a very short train. ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Berlin: Up Close

Sunday, November 5th, 2006

"Dem Deutschen Volke" is the inscription we see on the Reichstag.  It means "to the German People".  The Reichstag is the German parliament building.  All the buildings around it were bombed flat during WW2 and it sustained heavy damage but ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Biking in Amsterdam

Saturday, November 4th, 2006
"The guidebook says we can get on a ferry right behind the main train station," I said with an "irrational exuberance" that Alan Greenspan would be alarmed by. We just got into Amsterdam the previous day and barely knew our ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Hello and Photos

Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
We are currently in Prague, Czech Republic.  We have stories to share about Cologne, Amsterdam, Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden.  However, in the meantime, we have uploaded lots of our photos.  Actually, they've been out there for a bit, now; but, now ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Castles! Castles! Castles!

Sunday, October 29th, 2006
So...We made it to Baden Baden, Germany. Now...where is our accommodations? After about an hour after getting off the bus "near" our temporary abode, Sunshine Apartments, we finally found it; even some locals we asked didn't know where ... [Continue reading this entry]

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