Wandering Where We’ll Be

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 a little bit about what we have been up to. Then, when we have more time — or, more importantly, internet access time — we will do an entry (or entries) on a place or something that was interesting to us or that struck us as something worth writing about.

OK, so first, we need to catch you all up on where we have been since Leipzig — in a quick and dirty way.

From Leipzig, we went to Dresden, Germany and spent a couple nights there. Then, we went to Prague and spent a week there before spending two nights in Cesky Krumlov (in the Czech Republic, as well). On our way to Hungary, we spent one quick night in Vienna. (We hope to spend a few more days in Vienna on our way back through Austria.) Our first stop in Hungary was in Sarvar, where a castle that is infamous for being the residence of Countess Erzebet Bathory — the “Blood Countess.” Then, on to beautiful Budapest for five nights before spending two nights in the more northeastern town of Eger, Hungary. And, we are now in Debrecen, Hungary for just a night before we head into Romania.

Again, we will share thoughts and stories about the above as time permits.

Tim and Dan

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. This is the most simple train we’ve been on. Even more simple than the single passenger care we rode in Wales to the coastal town of Tenby. The bench seats are barely padded, with the backrest positioned at a right-angle to the seat. Dan sits straight across from me, jotting ideas and sketchings into his notebook. Occasionally, we’ll both look up at the same time and smile at each other. There’s a small shelf no wider that about eight inches on the wall just below the window. The ride is rough, especially compared to the ultra-smooth ride of Germany’s ICE (Inter-City Express) trains. There are no classes (1st or 2nd); everyone rides together in the same class.

Despite the simplicity of the train we’re on, it’s a pleasant ride. The two rail cars roll through evergreen forests of spruce and pine, hardwoods, like oaks that still seem to be hanging onto a good deal of their leaves. And, some trees even retain some of their color! We pass through small Czech villages with all their red-tile-roofed houses huddled together. It’s a cool, but mostly sunny day — and warmer than a few, recent, cold and windy days we had in Prague last week. (We even had a few snow flurries, but it didn’t last.) We hear the train’s whistle blow nearly constantly as we cut across country roads. We stop every few minutes at various train stations — most are just small buildings seemingly plopped randomly somewhere near the train tracks. We see what we believe to be deer out in the field, as well as various wild game birds, like pheasants. And, we’ve paid the correct fare; we know exactly where we’re going and when we’ll get there. Such wasn’t necessarily the case a week and a half ago when we made what should have been the simple train trip from Berlin to Leipzig to visit our friend, Flo, who is attending University there. The series of errors that led to our being two hours late in meeting Flo at the train station in Leipzig really began a couple days earlier.

We were walking back to our hostel in eastern Berlin late one evening and saw a sign that said, “Check email for free!” Some hostels provide free internet, which usually requires signing up for a limited timeframe or waiting in line for others to get done. But, our hostel in Berlin was not one of these; they had a coin-operated computer terminal, and the cost for internet time can quickly add up. Thinking that there must be a “catch,” we stopped at the internet cafe and asked about checking our email for free. Yes, there was a bit of a catch. We could use an internet terminal for four minutes without being charged; after that, normal charges would apply. OK, we’ll check our email. The only email of interest was one from Flo, letting us know where at the train station he would meet us and providing us the phone number to contact him if we needed. OK, great! Any other emails we had received could wait, and we were done before the four minutes were up. But, since we had come from a concert, neither Dan nor I had our normal pen and paper with us. So, we weren’t able to write the phone number down; we’d get it tomorrow.

The next evening, we took a train ovr to western Berlin to go to a couple bars for drinks. We hadn’t really gone out for drinks in Berlin, yet, waiting until later in the week (Thursday) when the bars would be more “happening” than they generally are earlier in the week. We had a good time, chatting for awhile with a female singer/songwriter originally from the area, but also lived in New York and Vienna, singing for various clubs. When we were ready to head back to the hostel, we walked to the U-Bahn station and found signs saying, “Out of Service.” Hmmm…we had run into construction re-routes on the U-Bahn earlier in the day. Let’s try another platform; this was also “Out of Service.” Eventually, somebody told us that the U-Bahn was done running for the evening and that we’d have to take the bus. We hadn’t, yet, used the Berlin bus system, but the bus lines were on our map. So, we found a line that would take us back to our hostel, and the next bus would be coming in about 20 minutes. The bus arrived on schedule, but we didn’t get to bed until after 2 am.

We set the alarm to wake us up the next morning, but we didn’t (apparently) allow enough time to shower, pack and eat breakfast. Realizing that we were short on time, we inhaled our cereal, check out of the hostel, and practically ran out to the U-Bahn stop. We need to make one transfer to get to the Haupbahnhof (main train station). However, this transfer was at the same U-Bahn stations we had a problem with the other day. Not immediately seeing how to get to the next U-Bahn train and running short on time, I did see a sign saying, “Leipzig — 10:54.” Hmmm…it looks like our 10:52 train from the Haupbahnhof will be stopping here on its way out of town, and I’m not sure we’ll make it to the main station by 10:52 anyway — seems logical. We got on and, when the conductor came around for our tickets, found out that it was a “private” train not covered by our Eurail Pass — oh, great! We could pay 15 euros each (which, in retrospect, we should have done — but, we had paid good monet for our rail pass, and 30 euros is a lot of money when you’re trying to travel cheaply for six months.) or get off at the next stop. As you can tell, we got off at the next station.

While we were talking to a train station staff person — but not an official customer service respresentative — trying to determine when the next non-“private” train would take us from this tiny station in rural — formally, East — Germany to Leipzig, a train pulled up on the opposite platform. The man we were talking to pointed at the train. That’s the one he thinks we should get on. RUN!! Up the stairs, over the tracks, down the stairs — all with our large pack on our back and day pack on our front. As the first door I reach begins to close, I jump in its way and hold it for Dan, who is right behind me. We’re on!

The next couple hours are torture for me, knowing that we’ll be late in meeting Flo and not being able to contact him. (No, we’re not traveling with a mobile phone.) Plus, we don’t even have his number written down; we never did get a chance to look at our email again later. We do need to change trains at one point and have about a 15-minute layover. At the transfer station, I run and find an internet terminal in the main station, log onto our email account, and write down Flo’s phone number. Then, I run to find a pay phone. However, I don’t have my daypack, where my country code listing is (I left it with Dan at the platform.), and I need Germany’s country code to make a call via my Ekit account. I run back to the platform, but the train we need to get on is there and will be leaving shorlty — UGGHH! Flo is going to kill us. Well, he didn’t. But, he did ask the staff at the coffee shop where we were supposed to meet to watch for two American men who looked lost and — if they saw such characters — to chain us up. Meanwhile, he went to see if the “Service Point” staff could page us in English. None could do so, and this greatly frustrated Flo, knowing of Leipzig’s efforts to become a larger player in the internation tourism and conference industry.

We apologized to Flo for our tardiness and, then, took the short, tram ride back to his place — a nice (and clean!) one-bedroom apartment in a cool, old building. After picking up some groceries from a store across the street and eating some lunch, we all went for a walk in a nearby park — very nice!

Dan and I filled out our absentee ballots that my mom had sent to Flo’s. Later, Flo made an excellent spicey chicken/mushroom/pasta in tomato sauce dish — yum! Dan and I checked email and rotated the rest of our Flickr photos. Flo made smoothies, and we watched a movie — “The Whole Nine Yards.”

The next day, we took the tram to downtown and stored our packs at the train station. Then, we did a “walking tour” of downtown, with Flo as our guide. We walked through the church where the “Monday Protests” began and, also, the church where Bach had been the Director of Music. We also went up to the observation deck of Leipzig’s skyscraper to get a “bird’s eye view” of the city.

Then, we rode the tram out to a favorite restaurant of Flo’s, MÜcken SchlÖsschen, where Dan and I had, essentially, pig’s knuckle with potato dumplings and sauerkraut (I forget the German.) and, then, apple strudel with ice cream for dessert. It was all very tasty!

We were going to visit the Volkerschlachtdenkmal (Dan and I just referred to it as the “Napoleon” monument.  It actually stands for “Monument of the Battle of the Nations”, and commemorates Napoleon’s defeat at Leipzig.), but it ws raining. So, we took the tram directly to the main station and hung out at a coffee shop over some white hot chocolate.

We walked around the train station mall a bit before trying unsuccessfully to retrieve our packs from the locker. This seemed to bookend our visit to Leipzig with a final wierd train experience. We missed our planned train, but evenutally found someone to open the locker (station staff) and caught a train that left only about 10 minutes later. It was a quick, but fun visit Flo, and it was great to spend some time with a familiar face after being on the road for two months. We said goodbye to Flo and headed toward Dresden.

Tim

“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 it stands today intact with a glass dome top that we went into at night.  There were beautiful night views of the city.  A quirky side note; Hitlers sham government never used this building.  They met in an opera house during the time of the 3rd Reich (3rd empire).

A chariot drawn by 4 hourses and driven by an angel -all of it a statue- heralds the next sight we saw on the same night as the Reichstag.  It’s the Brandenberg Gate.  This edifice is on a road leading out of the city that leads to Brandenburg…thus the name.  The statue has been re-effixed to the gate after it was given back by France…since way back when, Napoleon took a liking to it and decided a better location for it…France…would be ideal for his conquering self.  Walking under the gate arches and looking up, we saw friezes of Hercules doing Herculean things in each arch.  Continuing down this street, called Unter Den Linden, we, of course, see many linden trees lining a center walkway down the middle of the street.  These trees are a big thing to the German people.  During Hitlers time, he got rid of the trees and replaced them with flag poles being graced by the Nazi swastika.  Popular uprising forced him to replant the trees where they were and lose the symbol waving poles.  A good choice since these trees are lit up with blue lights at night and really are a wonderful sight.

Museum choices on museum island greeted us the next morning.  We opted for the Pergamon Museum.  It is named after their highlight display.  About half of the Pergamon, an alter from the Acropolis, resides within the building.  Imagin the front of a big Greek building with dozens of pillars and about 30-40 steps leading into a small courtyard with friezes both on the front of the building, in the building and lining the room the building is in.  Statues are on the front of the building too.  It was big.  By the way, a frieze is a long, carved 3-D picture.  Its kind of like an old version of a comic strip only of important stuff.  In this case, it depicted Hercules fighting with the gods against the monstrous giants.  Another highlight in the museum was the Gate of Ishtar.  This is a rebuilt gate from Babylon.  Imagine bricks but with porcelain tile glazing on the front of them built into a huge arched gate and big square “turrets”.  It was awesome.  It was also the “smaller” of the 2 gates of Ishtar.  They couldn’t rebuild the larger one into the museum because it was too big.  The rest of the building had other castle walls, Moslem rugs, porcelain, paintings, Koran book art, temples, burial tombs, pillars, mosaics and literally tons of other statues.

The memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe came next…morning because it had just closed when we got there.  3000 blocky pillars on wavy ground in a close, grid-like pattern.  Most were very tall.  Near the edges of the display, they were shorter.  All were different heights and not necessarily squared on the top.  It was quiet and strange walking amongst them.  As if you are walking in your own world where you are the only one.  In an underground building, part of this memorial, are several rooms explaining what happened to people “specifically” during the Holocaust.  As an example, when people were sent to Chelmo (I think I spelled that right), their ultimate fate wasn’t a big poison gas chamber or starvation or being shot in a firing squad like many of the other camps; it was burial after being poisoned by exhaust fumes in the back of an enclosed van enroute to the mass burial ditch.  Later, many of these bodies were exhumed and all remains burned so no evidence of this atrocity would remain.  But why got rid of the evidence if you think you will be the winner of the war?  These exhumations happened in 1943 and about this time and later, Hitler focused more and more on the deaths of those considered undesirable.  It made me wonder if he knew he was going to lose the war in 1943 and began to just prolong it as long as possible to “deal with” as many undesireables as he could.  Scary!  The memorial also had examples of letters and postcards thrown from trains heading to death camps or sent from the death camps secretly in some way.  These people knew what was going to happen to them.  They discussed “rumors” and fear, trying not to believe what they knew was true…the end of the ride was the end.  In the last room of the exhibit, they had 1 individual name projected onto 4 walls.   A brief history, about 3 minutes, was given about them before the next name would appear and the history of that person.  It was explained that it would take over 6 years of reading 24 hours/7 days a week to go through all the names of those known to have died in the death camps or enroute .  Many are unknown.  Nothing remains of their name, possessions or people who knew them.  They are gone.

Well, after all that heavy material, we took a walk though Teirgarten Park.  It’s in the center of the city and huge.  It’s alot like central park in New York.  Small lakes, “English” gardens, statues, a field with some trees…I had to frolic through that…and many other sights greeted us there.  Then came the Victory Tower.  Over 200 steps led us to a small circular view area around a central pillar and just below Winged Victory, a golden angel with a staff and laurel.  this lookout gave us great views of the entire city from a central location.  It wasn’t originally in this location however.  It used to stand in a plaza in front of the Reichstag but Hitler had it moved to the more scenic central road right thought the middle of Tiergarten Park.  This was intended to give his victory parades a more grand and dramatic setting.  This Victory Tower movement must have been a colossal job!  It’s huge and much of it is great blocks of granite (at least 50 feet long and about 15 feet high and who knows how wide).  The costs to do the some thing today would be enormous.

The Jewish Museum came next.  The halls, walls, ceilings and floors were all “off-kilter”.  It was disorienting.  They had more stuff on the Holocaust which was again personal – giving details of certain individuals lives which ended in “sent to Chelmo (or another camp) 1944”.  Since we had been to the memorial, this camp name and what happened to the person there wasn’t a euphemised mystery anymore.  I knew the details.  There was alot to this museum but one other thing stood out.  There were many Jewish exiles that got away from the Nazis and were living uprooted in countries all around the world.  The museums off-kilter design was meant to give us this uncomfortable, forboding, odd feeling to mirror what the Jews were feeling when they left a country that had, before the 3rd Reich, accepted them into all levels of society and life in Germany was a comforable, nurturing home and then, after the Nazis came to power, their home turned into a racist, death machine that destroyed every normal thing they had ever known and forced them to flee to unknown, sometimes completely different places to live.  Shanghai, Argentina, USA, England and many other “strange” lands were destinations that were often an arduous chore to get to.

After all this history, HAPPY 11TH ANNIVERSARY TO US!  We went to the Philharmonie and listened to a chamber orchestra.  We had wine during intermission and then heard more music.  It sounded great.  We had a great time!

OK, so I’ve described a lot of what we saw in Berlin but not all.  The Berlin wall went down in 1989 but it’s not completely gone yet.  The east side gallery is a section of the wall nearly a mile long that still stands.  Moreover, artists from around the world come to paint murals and graffiti all over it.  Many of these paintings are beautiful and all seem to have a point about separation or integration to make.  These murals are routinely white-washed so new murals regularly appear.  The only reason this part of the wall still remains is because of a land ownership (this is now prime property) dispute.  The rest of the wall is gone.  In its place are many new buildings and many new buildings are in process.  The east Berlin skyline has many construction cranes roosting all about.  The area is being built up so fast with buildings, restaurants, tourist traps, etc., even Rick Steves 2007 guide book is almost hopelessly out of date.  As an example, he said the “Hauptbahnhoff (the main trains station) may be done in 2007 and it will be Europes biggest trainstation.  Many services may transfer from the Zoobahnhoff to Hauptbahnhoff at that time”.  NEWSFLASH, This is old news.  It’s been built and services all transferred since officially August 2006 (I think).  East Berlin was “up and coming” as a major shopping and restaurant place in the book.  Reality: it has already taken over.  West Berlin, while still commercially viable, was somewhat of a ghost town at night compared to east Berlins light and lively neighborhood; bustling with bar hoppers and night time scene photoflashers. 

East Berlin is nothing like the picture painted in my mind during the cold war as a “black and white”, “concrete cold”, “treeless”, “lifeless”, expanse of hollow, huge, Stalin stiff buildings where people whisper as they quickly cross the street before they are caught and arrested for something.

Berlin was a blast!

Write more later,

Dan

“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 way to our hostel. The main train station was a huge construction zone with closed roads, bikeways and sidewalks, and we had just been stopped and warned by an Amsterdam cop for accidentally finding our way onto a pedestrian-only way. She firmly told us that we needed to walk our bikes in that area. But, since renting bikes this morning, I was feeling a certain freedom that naturally comes with bicycling. I was riding a bike in a city again — something I hadn’t done since leaving Minneapolis last March. And, the bike is KING of transportation modes in Amsterdam — everyone bikes! By renting bikes, we had become a resident of Amsterdam and had, effectively, reduced the size of the city.

“Let’s follow the crowd to the right of the station and see where it leads us.”
“I see a ferry.”
The line of cyclists rode right onto the ferry deck. Hmmm… I wonder if there’s a charge? Well, let’s ride on, as well, and find out.

We rode on with the crowd and minutes later, the boat took off for the other side of the River Ij (pronounced like EYE). We reached the opposite shore, and everyone rode off the ferry onto a feeder bikeway. We were on our way again. To where? We weren’t sure. But, it didn’t matter. We were biking!

After our visit to the Rhine River valley in Germany, with all its river barges and castles, we spent two nights and one full day in Cologne, Germany. What was most striking to me was the nearly total lack of buildings older than the 1950’s — at least in the city center where we spent our time. The post cards and picture books we flipped through in gift shops confirmed the obvious; the area of the city around the Cologne Cathedral was obliterated by bombings in World War II.

We toured the massive and impressive Cologne Cathedral — still undergoing renovations — and, then, the Chocolate Museum — an interesting and fun look at Theobroma — “food of the gods.” Later in the day, we met and chatted for a good while with our new hostel roommates, a fun couple from Australia on their way to Ireland to find work. Then, we went our for a couple drinks at some nearby bars and, the next morning, we got on a morning train to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is beautiful and fun, and — with its spirit of “live-and-let-live” — we spent five nights here in an effort to live a liitle less like a tourist and a little more like the Dutch do. Sure, we visited the Dutch Resistance Museum, the Rijksmuseum — with all its Rembrandts, Anne Frank House and the Amsterdam Historical Museum. But, we also attended an excellent, solo, alto saxophone recital by a student from the Conservatory of Amsterdam and went to see a singer/songwriter from Newfoundland, Canada who plays Americanna/Alternative Country/Folk-type music with a local (Dutch) backing band. This is generally one of my favorite types of music, so it was a lot of fun. And, later in the week, we attended an Evensong Service at the gorgeous St. Nicholas Church, where an excellent choir sang both acapella, free-style chants as well as hymns accompanied by a massive (and, magnificent looking and sounding) pipe organ. The entire service was beautiful!

We ate our share of simple and cheap meals in our hostel lounge (with food that we picked up at a nearby grocery store), but also searched out the little gems of restaurants or cafes to have a bite and hang out in. We found one such place after the alto sax recital — a teeny, gay-owned and operated, second-story pannekoeken restaurant with a very steep staircase and just three tables. The one worker — presumably the owner — was our host, server and cook — and eating guide, of sorts, encouraging us to try the molasses-like sauce sitting on our table and, later, bringing out another bottle, saying, “..and when that one’s gone…” We ate our pannekoekens covered with meats, vegetables and cheese (and sauce!) while looking out over a narrow and cobbled, yet bustling street of Amsterdam.

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 they’re all rotated properly and labelled.  Enjoy!

PhotosTim and Dan

Tim and Dan

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 it was or even where the street it was on was. Now, how do we check in? After about 20 minutes looking for an entry desk or anyone with a clue, Tim goes to try to phone the appartments. His phone card doesn’t get through. We ask a local who lives near there if he can help us. He uses his cellphone and calls the owner. She’s there soon (seems she was about a block away). We thanked the guy who helped us. The owner of Sunshine Appartments apologizes profusely and then shows us to our appartment for 2 nights. It was an actual furnished appartment..nice. We generally relax for the evening and do some exploring in the city as well as have apfel streudel (apple strudel) with eis (ice cream) at a local restaurant. It was tasty. The next day, we hiked to Altes Schloss, castle ruins I saw on a hill/mountain outside of town while hunting for Sunshine Appts yesterday. These ruins were fantastic! I love castles of any kind and these ruins were “upkept” as ruins for the tourists/public for FREE. We walked the tall walls, went in a big dark cellar, climbed a tower, walked through many “open ceiling” rooms, walked the old knights hall, and lots of other places in this castle. It was big. I loved every minute of it. The views were fantastic when looking out over the city and surrounding countryside.

Okay, yes, Baden Baden had a few other sights to see.

How about Paradies (paradise). Heaven? On earth?

Well, it is a garden with downhill flowing pools of water and many flowers and some paths. This was very pretty but we went on to the next destination…the graveyard. After all, a person can’t go to paradise without dying first right? This graveyard is different than any graveyard I have ever seen. There’s a grave stone, as I pretty much know them, set in the back of a square plot of land about 8ft x 8ft. Within these plots of land are flowers, shrubs, vines, trees, whatever, all landscaped in. I’ve seen grave plots of land in the USA that have nice “manacured” grass and a pot of flowers and maybe a statue or two but these grave plots put them all to shame. They are all upkept really well too. All of them are next to each other and each is very different from the other. It was all very pretty. We went and explored a church after this (ho-hum another church ;). It was Russian Orthodox and very ornate but small compared to other churches we’ve seen) as well as other parts of the city. It was all very nice…but the castle we visited whetted my appetite for more castles.

So, next, we went to St. Goar on the Phine.  Talk about castles!  Rheinfels Castle, a ruin in St. Goar, was HUGE!  I thought Altes Schloss was big.  I was wrong.  Rheinfels is a warren of casemates (covered halls for soldiers that are dark and have arrow slits looking outside for defense) tunnels (some only 3ft high or less underground- we went through some of these..glad I’m not claustrophobic), big cellars, a museum (it had a model of the original castle grounds before the French blew alot of it up and guess what, it was more than double the size of the current ruins we can explore now)  I used to think castles were linear.  1st floor, 2 floor, 3rd floor, basement, lower dungeon seemed to be the norm for castles.  Nope!  Because they are built on irregular mountains (at least these are),the “floors” are wherever the ground was or below it.  So “ground floor” might have several levels with tunnels, covered walkways, halls leading to 1st, 2nd or whatever floor and stairs whether straight and very narrow, spiral, or any shape, exist going to other parts of the castle that don’t make any sense.  Castles aren’t built all at once; they are built in sections, in different times, in different styles.  This might seem “well duh!” to you but for me, even though I’ve done “castle” maps for my games many, many times, I didn’t “get it” ’til now…lost in a castle, disoriented and confused…it was great!

Okay, on to MORE castles.  How about a day trip on a boat up the Rhine to Marksburg castle.  Did I mention we have to hike up mountains to get to these castles (not too high but hundreds of feet keeps the leg muscles up).  This castle was never ruined and is in it’s original state.  The inside furnishings are still there.  The outside garden is still intact.  It was very cool to see what old castles are supposed to be like “way back when”.

Now, I better back up.  The day before we went to Marksburg, we went to Bacharach.  This is a wine-country town on the Rhine.  It has a castle that is now a hostel and we partially got to go in it.  The town had ruins of a large chapel and a really nice-not in ruins-church.  We think the town may have been celebrating “Bachus” festival.  Bachus is the Roman or Greek (not sure which) wine god of debauchery, revelry and wine.  We saw the beginning of a race in their town square.  The square itself had a hanging big crown with vines beneath it shaped like a wreath.  It was all in all a nice little town.

Okay, to get to Bacharach and Marksburg, we travelled by boat on the Rhine.  Did I say there were more castles to see as we passed them on this boat?  Of course I didn’t, so I will list them now.  Maus castle, Katz castle, Sterrenberg castle, Liebenstein castle, Gutenfels castle, Pfalz castle, Schönburg castle, Stahleck castle (in Bacharach).  Not to mention Loreley, a big out-cropping of rock mountain that has wrecked many a ship.  Apparently, a heart-broken maiden, sperned by her lover, threw herself from the top of this cliff and then was turned into a nymph/siren.  She would sit at the top of this cliff and sing, while naked, brushing long blond hair, beautiful vision of loveliness as ships with all male crews would go by.  They would be so entranced by her; their ship would crash on the rocks and sink and many would drown.  Later, after the son of a castle owner died because of her, men were sent to capture her.  She was captured and thrown in prizon.  Somehow, she escaped.  End of legend as far as I know it and who knows if I got all the details right.  Anyway, we left St. Goar for Cologne.

BUT, I wasn’t done with my castle fix yet.  On the way,  We took a train to Berg Eltz, a castle nearby St. Goar but on the Mosel river.  It also was totally intact and, if anything, better than Marksberg castle.  We had to hike about an hour to get there and an hour back but it was worth it.

Okay, now even I am “castled out” as you probably are just by reading this.  I don’t want to see any more castles for awhile.

On to Cologne…but in another blog.

Cheers,

Dan

“You look happy,”  the fellow hosteller said to me as I walked out the front door of Mountain Hostel, where Dan and I had just selected our beds and set our packs down.  How could I not be?!  We had left behind the cities — sometimes noisy, touristy or both — for the farm village of Gimmelwald, Switzerland in the Swiss alps.  It was a clear, sunny afternoon, and the air was just cool enough to need my long-sleeve, poly-prop. pullover.  The front door of our hostel opened up to a view of the 13,642-foot, snow-capped mountain named Jungfrau, which was almost directly on the other side of the gorge-like valley from which we had just ridden nearly straight up in a gondola shuttle.  Nearby mountains, Monch and Eiger were just behind a shorter mountain in the foreground.  The only noise here was the “cling cling, clang clang” of the cowbells hanging around the necks of the cows grazing in the nearby pastures.  The normal, descriptive words like beautiful, majestic, peaceful, majestic and the like all seem cliche and undeserving of my actual experience of being in Gimmelwald on that Sunday afternoon.

We had decided fairly early in our planning that — after our month traveling and working in Britain and Ireland — we needed to make a B-line for Switzerland so that it wouldn’t be too cold or snowy to do some decent hikes in the alps.  After ferrying over to the mainland of  Europe, we would visit a couple cities in Belgium and, then, zip down to Bern, Switzerland to spend a couple nights before heading to Gimmelwald.  As it turns out, the decision was a good one, and the weather could not have been more perfect: just great hiking weather — clear and cool!

The travel day from Antwerp, Belgium to Bern was a long one (about nine hours on four different trains), but it was comfortable and we made each of the quick transfers to new trains — YEA!  We checked into our hostel and, then, went about finding something cheap to eat.  Yea, right… not in Switzerland.  We settled for fast food, and even that was expensive — 24 Swiss Franks, or about 18 US dollars for the two of us!  So, first thing on the agenda for tomorrow: go to the store to buy groceries so we can make our own meals at the hostel, which had a decent kitchen.  But, even before then, I wanted to find some cough medicine because I wasn’t feeling well — congested, with some coughing.  We went to the drug store (De Apotheek) at the train station; all the others had closed by 6 pm that evening.  The first woman who was going to help us had us wait for a second woman who could speak English– sort of.  I described what I was looking for, and she grabbed the Swiss version of Nyquil — perfect!  It took a couple days for me to shake off whatever I had caught, and I feel fine now.

Dan and I wandered around town — including down to a bridge that overlooks the Aare River and the area of town that sits at river level — under the light of a full moon.

The next day we walked around town and stopped at a few churches, including the grand Bern Cathedral.  The House of Parliament was closed on Saturday and was wrapped in scaffolding for renovations in progress.

Many of the buildings in the “downtown” area are connected, with the sidewalks running under the buildings’ street fronts, which are supported by massive stone arches.  Blocks are long, but outdoor corridors run under and through the buildings at several mid-block points.  Shops line both the covered sidewalks as well as the corridors, creating virtual shopping malls on each block.  In addition, cellar-like doors with descending stairs provide access to “basements” containing shops, cafes and bars.  And, the geraniums… they can be found in nearly every window box in the downtown area and seemed to still be in perfect bloom despite the seemingly lateness — from this Minnesotan’s perspective — of the season.

We returned to the hostel and, while I was typing in a blog entry, Dan met our new roommates, Heine and Rachael, who are currently living and working in London, but are originally from South Africa and Australia, respectively.  They room together in London with four (I think) other women.  Heine and Rachael are not a couple, but have more of a “Will and Grace”-type relationship.  We chatted for a while at the hostel and decided to go out together that evening.  Rachael’s goal was to go to five different bars.  We only made it to three, but had a great time with them.  And, we owe them two more bars — possibly when we return to London to fly home in March.

The next day, we took two trains, a bus and the gondola to Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald.  The nearest grocery store to the hostel is a 30-minute walk uphill to the nearby tourist-town of Murren and is closed on Sunday.  So, we picked up some groceries in Interlaken.   During our three-night stay here, we supplemented these few groceries with fresh bread, yogurt, cheese and salami — all made right in town — from the farm shop just across the street from our hostel.  Now, when I say “street,” think of a strip of pavement just wide enough for one car, but more often used by a tractor, walkers or bicyclists.  We would have also had eggs from the farm shop, but one of the hens had apparently died recently and the others weren’t keeping up with demand.  So we picked up some eggs in Murren.

Gimmelwald, with its 100 residents, its single street that switches back to reach the “upper” town, and its stacks and stacks of firewood for heat in the winter, provided us the perfect setting for taking a break from our recent schedule of visiting museums, galleries, castles and churches and working on organic farms.

We spent most of Monday — our first full day — hiking to the top of Schilthorn — featured in the James Bond thriller “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” — and back.  With the Schilthornbahn (a continuation of the gondola we rode up to Gimmelwald) costing at least 60 Swiss Franks per person, we decided instead to try hiking to the 9748-foot summit, where the Piz Gloria — with its restaurant, shop and panorama terrace — sits.  Gimmelwald is at an elevation of 4593 feet, so we’d cover an increase of 5155 ft.  We made it to the top in about four and a half hours, and the last bit of the hike was through some snow and ice.  We stopped many times on our way up — both to take rest/water/snack breaks and to enjoy and photograph the continually new and awesome views at every turn.  Once we were at the top, we checked out the 360-degree views of Switzerland, rested and ate our packed lunch of salami, cheese, crackers, carrots and cookies.  It took us nearly as long to hike down as up since we used a different route (to the south) and hiked to — and under — a waterfall named Sprutz.

When we returned to the hostel, we showered, made and ate supper with a beer and, later, soaked our sore muscles in the wood-heated hot-tub outside, staying in until the moon rose above the mountains to the east. 

The following afternoon, Heine and Rachael — the folks we had met in Bern — showed up at Mountain Hostel.  After hearing that we were spending a few nights there and seeing the brochure with the hot-tub amidst the alps, they decided to spend a couple nights there, as well.  It was fun to see them again, and we  hiked with them up to the waterfalls Dan and I had seen yesterday.  Rachael was able to talk only me into joining her for a very quick — and cold — “shower” under the falls.  Then, we all hiked to Murren to have a beer and pick up a few groceries.  Once back at the hostel, Dan and I treated ourselves to a pizza made by the hostel staff and, later, used the hot-tub again.  This night, though, we didn’t stay up for the moon.

The next morning, we would take the gondola back down to the valley floor, leaving behind our temporary mountain home, Gimmelwald, where a hosteller has been quoted as saying, “If heaven isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, send me back to Gimmelwald.”

Tim 

“Okay, sit here,” she says after she had us put down our backpacks.  She points to a long table with benches to sit on.  After sitting, Raphael, owner of Den Hetzenketel Tavern and Hostel, tears open a bag of cookies that seem alot like animal crackers but are instead letters and numbers.  “Spell your whole first name,” he says.

“You have 2 minutes or we kick you out.”

Both Timothy and myself, Daniel do this easily.

“That was too easy.  Spell your last names too.”

Johnsen is easy.  Schleicher is tougher and Raphael helps us find the last “c” while the woman (I can’t remember her name) sits at the table with a cigarette in her fingers, smoke rising lazily toward the 12 foot (or higher) ceiling.

“Okay, now do your credit card #’s…just joking.”

We sat and chatted while we ate our letters and drank tea.  After a while, she showed us to our room on the third floor.  The stairs from first to second floor is a “U” shaped stairs.  No problem. Keep in mind the ceilings are high.  The stairs from second to third floor need a rope and grappnel along with carabiners, pick and spiked boots to get up it.  It was the steepest spiral staircase with 4 inch steps (at the fat end) I’ve ever seen.  In a later blog, Tim or I will write about hiking to the top of a mountain called the Shilthorn in Switzerland.  These stairs were steeper.  On the safe side, Den Hetzenketel was a folk bar and the first night we were there, they had Irish folk dancing.  That day, we explored the city we were in…Antwerp, Belgium.  Where Brugge had alot of old quaint Belgian mood, Antwerp had thriving Belgian big city economy with bits of quaint thrown in.  They have a tunnel which goes under the Schelde river.  They have a “graffiti” park where the walls, tables, benches are all looking “inner city, ganger tag art”.  Photo museums, a big Cathedral, lots of bars to hop, shopping and many streets to roam kept us busy for 2 days, ending with live folk music at Den Hetzenketels.  A very relaxing city to be in if you take your time and enjoy the back alley roads and avoid the tourist zones.

Next blog about Switzerland.

Write later,

Dan

Just a quick entry to let you all know that we are still alive, and doing well. We are currently in Cologne, Germany (just got here late this afternoon). Since we were in Bruges, Belgium, we have also visited Antwerp, Belgium; Bern and Gimmelwald, Switzerland; Baden Baden and St. Goar (Rhine River region), Germany. On Wednesday, we travel to Amsterdam.

We will both post longer entries soon with more detail on the above cities that we visited.

For now,

Tim and Dan

Last Saturday morning, Bettina (from the farm in Wales where we worked and stayed) drove me and Dan to the train station in Clunderwen (which, by the way, is pronounced clin DARE wun, with the emphasis on the second syllable).  We rode two different trains to get to London-Paddington Station, where we caught the Tube (underground train) to a second station in London (Charing Cross).  From there, we took yet another train to Dover (renouned for its “White Cliffs”, on the southeast coast of England.  We stayed overnight at the Dover YHA Hostel and took the 90-minute ferry across the English Channel to Calais, France the next morning.

 As a side note, we opted to take the ferry across the channel rather than the Eurostar (or Chunnel) due to cost.  We had rail passes in both Britain and the rest of Europe, so the trains to get us to and from the ferry were alreadz paid for, and the ferry was only 12 British Pounds (about 24 US dollars) per person, whereas the Eurostar would cost at least 75 US dollars.  Coming back to London for the flight back to the U.S. might be different since our BritRail Pass has now expired.  We will need to compare the cost of Eurostar against the cost of the ferry plus the cost of a train from Dover to London.

The ferry ride was uneventful, but as foot passengers, we were last off the boat, and we just missed the hourly bus to the train station and had to wait an hour for the next bus.  This would have worked for the train we were planning to take out of Calais had it not been for major traffic delays due to some festival that was taking place in Calais.  After moving slowly through stop-and-go traffic, the bus driver stopped the bus mid-block and seemed to tell us and the other couple on the bus — in French — that this was the end of the line and we needed to get off the bus.  But, where was the train station?  He pointed up the block to the right.  We exited the bus and walked up to the corner.  Still not seeing an obvious train station, Dan walked over to a woman and her two kids and asked “Ou est la gare?” as if he had asked the question a thousand times before.  (He had taken a community education course in French and we had just been studying our “French Survival Phrases” out of our Rick Steves guidebook while waiting for the bus.)  The woman and both kids pointed a half block down around the corner.  Ah… there is the train station!  Unfortunately, we were too late anyway, missed our train and had two hours to kill before the next one.  We had eaten our packed lunch earlier, but it was nearly suppertime, so we found a restaurant near the train station and had a bite to eat for supper.

We caught the 5:26 pm train to Lille, France and transferred to two more trains that brought us into Bruges, Belgium at about 9:30 pm.  Bruges is a beautiful, old city with many 14th and 15th century buildings, and walking into it at night — with many buildings lit up and a light mist falling — was a treat.

Monday was split between walking around town to get our bearings and taking care of some internet business (email, blog entries, money stuff, upcoming train times and hostel reservations) as well as buying some groceries for the next couple days.

Tuesday morning we walked through the courtyard of Bruges Begijnof, which was one of many around Europe that were built in medieval times to house women of the lay order called beguines, who spent their lives in piety and service (without having to take the same vows a nun would).  Bruges Begijnof is now inhabited by Benedictine nuns and is a peaceful (except for the tour groups not minding the “silent” signs) respite from the rest of the bustling, tourist city.

On Tuesday, we also walked through the Groeninge (art) Museum, which displays the works of the Flemish Primitives (pre-Renaissance period), and toured De Halve Maan Brewery, which is a working family brewery.  We climbed a lot of very steep steps (and, Dan bumped his head on one of the low doors 🙁  ) to see the workings of the former large-scale and multiple-brew operation that — after regulations were imposed in the 1970s prohibiting open, iron fermentation tanks — was reduced to brewing just one beer, Brugse Zot.  Unlike the museum-lke quality of our visit to the Guinness Storehouse, we actually saw a young man running about this brewery, pulling levers, pushing buttons and rinsing the brew kettle.  Very cool!

Afterward, we went to the nearby Church of Our Lady.  The church — beautiful in its own right — houses a “Madonna and Child” sculpture by Michelangelo.  The sculpture is said to be the only Michelangelo statue to leve Italy during his lifetime.

Later, we spent our last evening in Bruges walking through the old town taking some night photos.