London - Into the Tower, and "Down" at the Astoria

Tuesday May 30th would be our last day at the Madison House on Gower Street in London. It was so strange getting packed up and ready for check-out because it really seemed as if we just got there. We arranged with Maggie to leave our bags there for the day, and headed out. We hit up the "Pret A Manger" cafe for some machiatos and breakfast sandwiches and enjoyed them at one of the tables set up out on the sidewalk. Our morning mission was to find the Astoria Theatre and get tickets for the "Down" concert that night. (last night's show was sold out, so they added a second) We stopped into a few ticketing agencies to see if they sold tickets, and they did not, but cheerily gave us directions to the theatre box office at Charing Cross and Tottenham Court Road. The girl behind the ticket window there wasn't blessed with the morning cheeriness we'd encountered elsewhere, but I guess it's consistent with the dark aura of the Astoria anyway. We collected two tickets and tucked them away. The doors would open at 7pm, so we had a full day in London to enjoy in the meantime, and we chose to visit the infamous Tower of London. The weather, although crisp and at times downright chilling, was cooperative, and the sky was a pretty mix of blue and white puffly clounds. After queing for tickets, we walked through the entrance gate and encountered a large group of people being talked to by a chap all dressed up in some kind of uniform, who turned out to be "Allen", and he would be giving us a free guided tour of the grounds for the rest of the afternoon. Allen was absolutely wonderful. He was a real live Beefeater, one of well under a hundred such men in the country. Hysterical, dry, devilishly charasmatic, a wealth of knowledge, with a self-admitted resemblence to Sylvester Stallone. We stayed on the grounds for the rest of the day, touring the white chapel, the white tower, the bloody tower, and of course the Crown Jewels. It was all very well done, and since Vee had recently read the book "The Other Boleyn Girl", she was absolutely captivated by everything. Nearing 5pm, we had to hustle back to the Mad House, get our backs and check in at our new hotel in the Paddington area of the city. Once above ground at the Edgemore stop on the Bakerloo line, Vee successfully navigated us to the hotel, and the friendly Indian hotelier greeted us in his yellow flip-flops, and got us settled into our cigarette smoke-infused itty bitty room with it's stained walls, carpeting, furniture and bedspread. It appeared the sheets were clean though, as well as the towel, and complimentary mini-soap. We inspected the shared toilet, and shared shower, and everything looked to be usable, so we dropped off our bags, and went to the little Boots corner market to refresh our depleted supply of shampoo, conditioner, soap and razors, and quickly returned to the hotel to drop it all off before heading down to the Astoria. Once there, around 7:15pm or so, we went into the theater and saw it would be PERFECT for seeing a concert. We found ourselves on the balcony, and made our way to a little booth type of arrangement that we comandeered for ourselves. From there we had a direct view to the entire stage, the crowd below, and no one could sit behind us, and no one could block our view in front. Before the band came out, they showed a collection of videos from their own silly road-tour archives, and videos from other bands that they obviously considered to be their influences (Queen, Black Sabbath, Lynrd Skynrd, Metallica, Cro-Mags, Slayer, etc.) and finally, with the stage filled up with smoke-machine induced cloud cover, Down came out and rocked the house for a solid two hours. This is a band that only has two CDs, and hasn't put anything new out in years. They are made up of active members from the bands Crowbar, Pantera, and Corrosion of Conformity and it was easy to hear all their influences in the music. There was endless moshing, crowd-surfing, fist banging and devil horns, and after 2 encores, they finally called it a night. Also, they were filming, so hopefully we'll end up on their DVD or music video, whatever it is that they were filming for. After the show, we bought what turned out to be an ENORMOUS portion of fish and chips, which was delicious, and devoured that on the street corner while we watched the interesting crowd of concert goers filter out of the theater. One chap, came around the corner a bit more wobbly-kneed and googly-eyed than most. As I watched him serpentine the sidewalk towards us, he began, ever so casually, spitting up onto himself and the sidewalk, continuing on his way, while continuing to vomit all over himself. I can only guess that somewhere in his every-so-slight consciousness, he must have been thinking that if he acted like nothing was happening, no one would notice. Hilarious! Somehow, we managed to finish our fish and chips. And, with a quick stop into a quickie mart for some water and goodies, we went back to the hotel and crashed.

London - Speakers Corner, and Some Down Time

Sunday, the 28th, we spent the day in Hyde Park, Speakers Corner. Vee had an exchange with a Socialist orator, and I spent a good portion of my time hoping that the bald believer in metaphysics was going to have something interesting to say. Unfortunately, because of hecklers, most of the exchanges were reduced to rubbish. Once Vee and I caught up with each other, we did find one speaker that was quite good, and he was speaking about our need to put racist, elitist behaviors and thinking aside so that we as individuals could start acting as one. He was quite good at diffusing hecklers with a powerful wit, intellect and humor, and his message, was ultimately a positive one, though some of his rantings served to undercut his posturing. Having only a coffee, and a shared muffin earlier in the morning by the lake, we walked towards Covent Garden and ended up in a Garfunkels for dinner. In Covent Garden, we got to see some silly street performances, some street musicians, and a whole lot of arts, crafts, clothes, jewelry, etc. It was a gratifying day.

Monday the 29th, would just be a work day. However, we did go out for a proper English breakfast, and that was quite exciting (for me). My meal consistend of an over easy egg, ham, sausage, hash browns, baked beans and toast, while Vee, after having been denied both a bagel and a croissant due to the bank holiday interupting bakery deliveries, enjoyed a smoked salmon and creamed cheese on toasted whole wheat sandwich. The rest of the day, I clipped interesting news articles, read all of my accumulated newspapers and my book, while Vee worked on the newest videos for the website. We did get out for a late dinner break at Wagamama's, which is a noodle bar a few blocks from here. Poor Vee mis-ordered and got stuck with a spicy curry ramen noodle and chicken dish. My dish was delicious: a rice noodle, chicken and vegetable bowl and fried veggie dumplings. On the way back, we stopped into our favorite little corner market and got some more cookies and beer for the rest of the night.

London - Shopping in the Rain

Saturday May 27th, we took some time off from more the more cultural stuff (not sure if Footloose and Blue Man Group really qualifies here...) and hit the two poles of London shopping: 1) Camden Town, 2) Harrods. It was a day of intermittant heavy rains, but luckily, many of the booths in the markets of Camden Town had some kind of overhead protection and although we got wet, it wasn't too bad. We totally enjoyed ourselves, walking the endless markets where you could buy just about anything that was, ummmmh, "fringy". There were lots of places selling vintage clothing, lots of studded leather, piercing shops, platform boots, t-shirts, antiques, international foods (the burrito we shared was awesome!), artwork, crafts, jewelry, hats, and bags. In an attempt to satisfy Vee's need for a breakfast-oriented meal, we stopped in a little cafe for coffees and cakes, which provided a nice break from the rain as well. Having bought some gifts for a few special folks, we then caught the tube to Knightsbridge and walked the world famous Harrod's department store for a few hours. The spectrum of products available for sale was wide-ranging, and the prices were absolutely ridiculously exhorbatant. In the kids toys section, there was a "toy" jeep that was a miniature Land Rover jeep listed at over 22,000 Br pounds (about $40k). The bed sets we liked started at about $5k. And, a funny looking ladies t-shirt was $150. We bought a 10oz bottle of lemonade, and it set us back about $2.50 which was cheap in comparison to everything else. We took the tube back to Leicester Square, since our Goodge Street station was closed for renovations of the Northern Line, and walked back to our hotel with a quick stop in a cafe for some early evening refreshments, and later we picked up some fish and chips, beers and sweets. The rest of the night we read, wrote, and talked. The Madison House lost electricity today, and I found the computers in their lab to not be working, nor their Internet connection so I got all that fixed for them, and now we have wireless Internet in our room too. Yay!!!

London - War, Tower Bridge and Blue Men

Friday, May 26th. Another INCREDIBLE day!! We started things off by trying out the Costa Cafe and relaxing with the paper and the usual morning yummies. It was nice to have a bit of downtime before our continued whirlwind tour would begin again. After an hour or so, we walked to Leicester Square and bought two half price tickets to tonights Blue Man Group show at 8pm. From there, we got the Northern Line tube south to Waterloo and changed to the Jubiliee line east to London Bridge where we visited the Britain At War Experience for an intense timewarp back into WWII Britain...bombing raid sirens, bomb shelters, gas masks and cigarette cards included. After we had our fill of the war experience, we walked across to Hays Galleria for a little snack and nice views of an odd sculpture, the HMS Belfast ship, and the city skyline. We then walked the riverfront to Tower Bridge and partook in the official Tower Bridge Experience which was very interesting and informative. We climbed to the top and walked the parallel footbridges and then took the lift under the towers to investigate the engine rooms. From there we hopped the London Bridge tube back to Waterloo and into the Royal Festival Hall for a free jazz show where we got to see a talented 3 piece band (piano, drums, bass) run through a number of songs before we headed out for a quick pint before the Blue Man show. Since there are pubs EVERYWHERE, there was no trouble finding one near the theater, and we had just the right amount of time to enjoy our drinks and have a really nice conversation. Then, up a few levels, and through door number 5, it was Blue Man time. This show was FANTASTIC! We had so much fun. Our faces were plastered with perma-grins. Afterwards, Vee got back inside the theater and got pics with the musicians, and one of the Blue Men! Then, a stop at a quick mart for some snacks and beers, and to the Madison House for the night.

London - Winnie and Witches

(Vee reporting)Thursday May 25th....today is my soulmate's birthday!!! We got up surprisingly early despite our late nights, and were already excited for the day ahead. Shortly before going to bed the night before, Cliff had already identified another play that has the highest rating given by the critics in London, and was also recommended to us by some folks here at the Madison house. With "The Crucible" in mind, and having learned that a Matinee was being played today we went in search of a cozy coffee-shop to complete our itinerary for the day. We found a small but very friendly place only a few blocks away from where we are staying. The Lavazza coffees were delicious, and so were the freshly backed pastries that we picked. During breakfast we had decided that we were going to try to get discount tickets for the play that Cliff had read about, but since it would start at 2:30pm, we would try to sneak in a visit to the "Cabinet War Rooms" and "Churchill Museum" first.
Sure enough, we got our 50% discount tickets for the play and made our way straight to the museum. The "war rooms" are the underground goverment and miliatry facilities or base from where Churchill (British Prime minister during WW2) and his staff managed the country during the time when Hitler and the Nazi party had made their goal to invade London. During 1940 and 1941 London suffered military bombing attacks on almost a daily basis, and it became crucial to guarantee the safety of the british goverment if there was any hope to resist the invasion. The incredible part of this exhibition is that it is not an exhibition. After VJ-Day, Churchill's goverment and military personnel who had been living underground for all these years, simply locked the place and left it untouched. Only 10 years ago was this underground fortress opened for the first time, and it was found exactly as it was left. Meeting rooms, gigantic maps filled with pins and notes, pencils, bedrooms, kitchens ...all as it had been left 60 years ago. It was almost surreal, even the smell seemed authentic. The "Churchill Museum" is the only area that was recently installed in one of the former meeting rooms. Unfortunately we were not able to spend all the time we wanted to in this section of the exhibition because we had a play to catch; however what we were able to see was incredibly impressive. The whole exhibit was very much computerized, with top technology used that I haven't seen in other museums (yet). Anyway, by 2:15 we HAD to leave, our play was starting in only a matter of minutes.
By now, Cliff and I have become masters at scanning a city-map in seconds and identifying the quickest route from point A to point B. We arrived to the theater right on time, and once again we were thrilled by the position of our seats and the beauty and character of the interiors of the place.
"The crucible" is the real-life dramatic story of the "justice" system in a small village outside of Boston in the 16th century that unfairly condemns and executes innocent women and men accused of witchcraft and the corruption of the church. (a.k.a., "The Salem Witch Trials") The play was so powerful and emotionally charged that more than once I had to swallow my tears. The quality of the actors, the script, the set and the story itself make this play probably the best I have seen in many years. Completely satisfied, but still heartbroken we left the theater. For this experience alone, I will not forget this day.
It was only 6pm and the day was still young and we had not yet eaten a proper meal. We walked through Chinatown and Cliff picked a cheap little Chinese buffet for only 5 pounds, and we loaded up and enjoyed. Then, we decided to relax a bit and had an enjoyable walk through Saint James Park, a beautiful green area filled with wild birds of all kinds of species. The weather turned out to be simply perfect and the sunset turned the sky into a beaituful mix of pinks and light blues. We continued our walk towards Buckingham Palace, and as good tourists, we made sure to take some pictures and video of the guards who patiently deal with shameless lookers like us. We then decided to head north towards a very expensive shopping area (Bond Street) that would eventually lead us to Oxford Avenue and then to our home. It is always fun to watch people, especially the unmistakeable sophistication of the Brits (men and women).
The day was simply beautiful and we decided to end it with a good pint of beer..Cliff's style. We ended up getting some delicious beers from the same bar where Cliff used to hang out when he was visitng London many years ago. It was just fun to be able to get our beers, go out and sit on the street wall where many other britons were enjoying their beers. We said our cheers ("cheers, prost, salud, and salute!"), drank our tasty beverages, and headed back home. To my love: Happy birthday Cliff and good night!

London - Lettn' Loose!

(Vee reporting) Wednesday, May 24th began with Cliff getting up very early to do our laundry. We have lately not been so good with our discipline of manually washing some of our light-weight clothing, and Cliff was on his last T-shirt. By 9 am I finally got up to find my clothes washed, dried and nicely folded on one of the the spare beds of our room. Yes, my hubby is truly an angel! Finally by 10 am we were showered, changed and ready to hit the streets of London. Cliff not only got our laundry done by 9 am, but he also managed to plan our whole itinerary for the day. We started heading towards the "London Museum". This was my first time visiting this Museum, however CLiff had been there before. It is an extraordinary exhibition that took us from thousands of years BC to the 20th century, managing to balance historical, cultural, social and architectural information for each period of its history. It took us 6 hours to go through the whole museum with a 30 minute coffee-break in between. Cliff and I have come to realize that these types of museums are so important for foreign visitors like us. It truly puts the city in question in a whole other perspective that allows us to appreciate its beauty reflected in its buildings, culture, people so much more. By the time we completed our tour we were obviously a bit tired, but so satisified with what we were able to learn and experience. Cliff suggested to walk by some of the imporant buildings that we had learned about. Saint Paul Cathedral for instance was the first major christian cathedral built in the old "Londinium" around the year 800 AD, after the saxo-normans had established themselves in this area, and long after it had gained its independance from the roman empire. Despite it having been almost completely destroyed two times in its life (due to two major fires) it was fortunately re-built each time, having been completed in the 18th century by Sir Christopher Wren. It is in incredible shape in comparison to most of the doms/cathedrals we have seen around Europe, and certainly amongst the most beautiful as well.
After Saint Paul's it was already 8pm, Cliff decided to surprise me one more time by taking me to my first play ever in London. Well aware of how the system works, Cliff walked me to the ticket discount-office in Leicester Square. Fortunately the line wasn't long at all, and after only a few minutes the ticket-officer was able to recommend the best prices and best seats for some of the plays of the night. After a quick chinese-noodles snack we were heading towards our theather to watch "FOOTLOOSE". What can I say....it was simply AWESOME!!! the actors were fantastic, and despite it being a musical, the songs were full of energy played by a live-band and the dancing....oh goodness the dancing was incredible. I loved it..I loved every minute of it.
The show ended around 10pm, and we were ready to go home.

Brussels to London - All Aboard the EuroStar!

Tuesday, May 23rd, we had our final breakfast in Brussels, checked out, took the train from Nord to Midi, and reserved seats for the 12:58 EuroStar to London. I finally convinced Vee to get herself a new book, and she bought "The Devil's Feather" by Minette Walters. After passing through several layers of passport checks, and security checks, we boarded the train for the 2 1/2 trip to London, passing the the "Chunnel" for 20 minutes along the way. It was a very comfortable and the time passed quickly as I chugged through the German paper "The Guardian" and Vee bit into her new book. In London, we found a very friendly guy at the Underground ticketing booth to help us with buying the right pass for the week, and with our 7 Day "Oyster" cards in hand, we took the tube from Waterloo to Goodge Street Station on the Central line. I was immediately reminded of one of the aspects of Londong that I love so much, and that is the musicians who play in the underground tunnels. Just as I remembered, the musicians were numerous, and very good! The Madison House, is only a few blocks from the Underground so we found it easily with the aid of a large map inside the entrance to the stop. We were greeted by the Professor in charge of this Summer's JMU Study Abroad program and he brought us inside and showed us his room, explaining that Maggie, the house manager would be back shortly to explain everything to us. We dumped our bags, and Maggie and her very sweet little daughter showed us around and gave us our keys. Then, we hit the road. First stop, was a pint, and fish and chips, which Vee and I both deeply savored. It was a small place that seems to have some designation as the best place in the city for Fish and Chips, and it was also recommended to us by Maggie. From there we just walked, and got acquainted with our surroundings. Having walked down Gower Street and eventually in the Liecester Square area, it was a bit strange, but immensely exciting to see the places that I had been back as a student in 1993. We passed St.Martin's in the Fields, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, Whitehall and crossed the bridge to where we bought some last minute half-price tickets to a Mozart symphony orchestra production in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Hardly believing the surreality of our circumstances, we sat down in the lobby to share some coffee, all smiles, and waited for the doors to open. The show was amazing, and we left electrified. From there we crossed back over to Embankment and then just wandered in the darkening night and rain, passing through SoHo, Covent Garden, China Town, and eventually back to the Madison House sometime after 11pm. I met some of the guys and they were very friendly, asking me to join them out for a few late night 1 pound pints, but exhausted, I declined, as I needed to get online and check 3 days worth of unread emails before going off to bed.

Brussels - What a 'Dam Day

Monday the 22nd, we day-tripped to Amsterdam, a 3 hour trip by train each way. From the train station we walked the main road towards the "Dam", where there was a church we looked into, but didn't feel like paying the admission fee to look around the exhibits, and instead, we popped into a cafe to plan the rest of our walking tour for the day. We ended up inside of a history of Amsterdam museum that was very well done and extremely informative. We could have spent the rest of the day there, but that was not our intention. From there, we walked the red light district, and toured a museum of marijuana. Although the red light district was not as scary as we both expected, both of us were slack-jawed at what we saw. There really are prostitutes behind large glass doors propositioning passers-by for business. There really are all kinds of live sex shows and sex toy stores. And they really do sell marijuana in the cafes. It was amazing, and we felt so awkward in the face of this strange reality. The city was easy to walk, and we covered alot of it very quickly. Unfortunately, the weather was really nasty, windy, and rainy, so it was difficult to persist late enough to catch the very latest train out, and we instead opted for the 7:23pm train back to Brussels.

Brussels - Day Trip to Brugges

Sunday May 21, we day-tripped to Brugges, on the recommedation of the lady at the front desk of our hotel in Dusseldorf. Later, Vee realized, and reminded me that another person told me about Brugges, and I think it was Wilson, a nice guy I played squash with back in February. Anyway, it was a short train ride, maybe 45 minutes. We found the town to be very "cute" with canals, and very nicely preserved streets and buildings; VERY touristy, too. We bought a little walking tour booklet and used that as our guide around town. Along the way, we stopped in a cafe for some coffees, and at a few other places, one for chocolate and another for chips. In the evening, we went back to Brussels, caught a quick nap, and then walked into the Grand Place to catch the last of the jazz shows on the main stage. We stood there in the blowing rain for about a half hour while the band did sound-checks. It was obvious these guys were good on their instruments. But, to our disappointment, again, the "music" was just so unpleasant to listen too, that we could only last midway through the 2nd song. It didn't help that we were getting soaked, and were cold and wind-blown. So we walked over to our faithful cafe where we ate twice the day before...it is just too tastey, and the prices are too reasonable. Actually, the manager, and the two waiters that served us before all recognized us and gave us a hearty welcome. Upon learning we were from America, our waiter proclaimed his love for America, and that he had a friend that lives in Chicago. This time Vee got the chicken crepe and I got veggie lasagna, and, it was all delicious!

Brussels - With a Gull Wing McLaren

Saturday the 20th of May, the wind and rains would be a wicked presance alot of the day. We got up at 7am for the included breakfast, and then went back to bed as we had resigned ourselves to a late start, hoping to avoid the worst of the nastiness outside. In between rain clouds, we made our way to the main cathedral and walked around the insides. We were particularly impressed with the huge wood carved alter, and the staind glass windows. When we left, we circled outside, and then the approaching dark clouds suddenly opened up and dropped a torrent of rain that forced us to run back inside the cathedral. We waited out the worst of the rain inside, and it wasn't very long before we ventured back outside to continue our walk. Vee was leading our tour through the city using a map that our hotel provided us, and it was the "comic strip" tour where we'd see all kinds of comic strip scenes painted on the sides of buildings throughout the city. It was a great way to get us into parts of the city that we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise, and only one part was a tad sketchy. We stopped in a cafe for a late lunch and coffees, where I had a chicken and vegetable stuffed spinach crepe with salad, and Vee had an apple tart. We stopped into Newhaus, which is a famous chocolate shop established in 1857 where we picked up a few chocolates. Another stop inside the the Galeries St Hubert was a museum exhibiting a small history of Brussels with all kinds of video, pictures, posters, and objects. The terra cotta relief sculpture was absolutely amazing. We continued our walk, stopping into places whenever we felt like it, one being the Mercedes store where we gawked at a $460k Eur McLaren with gull-wings and Vee got to sit in a $100k Eur Mercedes convertible. We also ended up seeing the infamous Manneken Pis fountain, and were surprised that it was so small. As it was getting late, and we needed to warm up and rest our feet, we wound up back in the same cafe for another snack where I had a little chicken panini and Vee had a coffee ice cream shake. We went to the Marriot for the first of the 3 more jazz shows we would see, and there we watched a little trio perform a few songs before we headed across the street to a pub where another band was warming up. We waited about a half hour there, but they never played, and it turned out we were in the wrong place. We went next door, to the correct location, and managed to catch a few songs by an experimental jazz band called Spacelab. The girl singing was pretty bad, and their songs were just too dissonant for our taste, so we left during the third song and headed out to the Grand Place to see who was playing on the main stage there. Earlier in the day, we watched a blues band play a few songs there, and this time, the band performing was more of a techno-funk-jazz fusion. It wasn't interesting enough for us to want to brave the wind and cold, and we were pretty exhausted from all the walking, so we headed back to the hotel, and by the time we finally got there, it was 10:40pm. A long, eventful, fulfilling, musical day in Brussels!

Brussels - And All That Jazz

Friday, May 19th, we got up for the included breakfast, which was surprisingly quite nice, got cleaned up, packed and checked out before 11. It was a short walk to the bahnhoff and since the Deutsche Post was right across the street, we used the opportunity to mail postcards. Again, the guy behind the window was super friendly, and even stamped all 35 of our postcards for us. We could hardly believe it. He was very interested in our travels, noting from our postcards that we had even been to Munich, which we assumed must have been his home. With that taken care of, we caught a train to Koln, where we had about 45 minutes to kill before our connecting train would arrive, and so we ventured out to our favorite bakery, the "Merzenich", and loaded up on guilt-laden tastinesses for the 2 1/2 hour trip to Brussels. Surviving a brutal wind, and some intermittant drizzle, we made our way back from the bakery, past the infamous Dom, through crowds of screaming kids obviously on school trips, to the train station and with little delay, boarded the ICE train to Brussels, after quickly verifying with another friendly DB agent that with our Eurail pass, we were not required to reserve a seat first. Oh, and how can we ever forget the DB agent behind the desk next to ours, who had a hairdo like King Louis the ?-teenth. With almost zero discretion, the guy standing behind me in the que creeped around a pillar, only partially concealing himself to snap a picture of the particularly interesting DB agent and his wild hair. We found the train platform and it is was a seemingly very quick ride into Brussels. We gambled and got off the train at the "midi" station, but it turned out, we needed to get off at Nord. So, we got back on the train, and headed back to the station that was much closer to our hotel. Eventually, we got situated, and pushed through the fierce winds to the Hampshire Hotel. We checked in, dropped off our bags, and walked back into the city center. I didn't know what to expect, but once there, I found the city center to be beautiful! The Grand Place was beautiful, and the surrounding streets were an entertaining mix of smoke shops, beer shops, restaurants, souvenir stores, etc. I was wondering if we could see some jazz, since it was Friday night and all, and it turns out that it was the Jazz Marathon weekend in Brussels, and all over the city, there was live, free, jazz. We watched a jazz band in the Grand Place, and they were great. We stuck around for the second band, and though they were musically talented, there songs were awful, and we left midway through the 3rd song. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a brewery bar, and shared a wit bier, and a palette of the 3 biers they brewed there: wit, amber, and a blond. The wit and the amber were watery and tasteless, but the blond was okay. Then we walked back to the hotel and pretty much called it a night.

Dusseldorf - The Last Supper

Thursday, May 18th, was a full day of rest. And we needed it. Our aching bodies have been telling us for a few weeks now that it was time to do nothing but lay in bed. So, that is what we did. We finished our books, played on the Web, wrote postcards, caught up on the news, and slept; skipping our included breakfast, declining room cleaning, and totally forgetting lunch. By around 6pm or so, we were both hungry and thirsty, so we got cleaned up and headed out for what would be our "last supper" in Germany. We walked to the old part of the city, hoping to discover some streets that we had not yet seen. To my surprise anyway, it seemed as if we had already seen it all the night before. We found a reasonable looking fish restaurant and had a delicious super-fresh seafood meal, espressos and tiramisu. After dinner, we strolled a few more streets in the old town and eventually found our way back to the hotel for the night.

Dusseldorf - Shady Location

Wednesday, the 17th of May, we checked out of the Continental, where to our surprise, our rate was discounted an additional 5 Eur because we didn't have breakfast, and then walked over to the post office where we packaged up some of our things to ship home. The lady there was amazingly helpful and all smiles. Could this really be happening...in a post office?!?! This really has been our experience everywhere in Germany. We cannot say enough, how fantastic this country has been to us, and how friendly almost everyone we've encountered has been. With our goodies on the way through the Deutsche Post, we checked our Eurail schedule for the next train to Dusseldorf, and found we had about 45 minutes to spare, which was plenty of time for us to enjoy a very tasty gigantic chocolate croissant, a perfectly toasted fresh whole grain bagel with cream cheese and lox, and two delicious double cappucinos in enormous thick glass tumblers. Full, we made our way next door to the train station and waited for the train to arrive. Again, the train was late. This is a very surprising phenomenon, as we were expecting german trains to always be on time, when in fact, just the opposite has been true. The trains in Italy were much more on time then here in Germany. Of course, in Switzerland, they were quite prompt. Apparently, the tardiness of trains in Germany is one of the many difficulties that have arisen as a result of the East/West integration. Anyway, once on board, I blogged, read my book, and Vee continued to devour her book too. After our arrival in Dusseldorf, we bought a map, and made our way to the hotel, which was right next to and right across the street from a myriad of sex shops. Yay. Needless to say, we were feeling a hair apprehensive about the nature of our accomodations. To our relief, the hotel turned out to be fine, and the lady at the front desk was quite pleasant and very helpful, giving us another map, and outlining for us all the important places for us to visit in Dusseldorf. We unloaded our stuff and went out for the rest of the day to discover what Dusseldorf was all about. We explored the old part of the city ("altstadt"), and the "Koe" (for "Koenig Strasse", or King Street) which is a wide, tree lined avenue line with very high end retail and restaurants and offstreet malls, and known to be one of the most expensive streets in all Europe. We went inside one of the malls, which we typically abhor, but I was curious to see it as the architecture and layout looked real interesting. And it was, but to me, it was really just another mall, with high end retail in which I have no interest. We found a little chinese-thai noodle house restaurant and had a late lunch slash early dinner that we both thoroughly enjoyed. The beer in Dussldorf is "Alt", while in Koln, the beer is "Kolsch", and there are always pilseners and weizenbieren. I learned from Vee's friend Sandra, that when ordering a weizen, you must specify whether you want a helles, a crystal or a dunkel; all very good and helpful information. So I had two Frankenheimer alts with my meal. I have only had a few alts in my life, since the very first beer I ever brewed myself was an alt, and it was attrocious. But this one wasn't bad. I enjoyed it, but as much as all the other types I've grown accustomed to ordering here. After our meal, we continued our walk along the Rhein, and walked to a new part of the city that had all kinds of really fun modern architecture, of which we took a slew of pictures. It was fun to watch a group of people rowing a skiff along the river, and walking up for close up views of the funky buildings lining the water. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for a super-yummy ice cream cone, and then took an indirect route through a wonderful little park with a pond and playful ducks and ducklings, and finally ended up at a little grocery just before closing time where we got a few goodies for the rest of the night and the next day. For the rest of the night, we took advantage of the very rare free wireless internet to catch up with some things, and continued to read our books. But, the highlight of our very late evening was watching "The Bourne Supremecy" DVD that we bought at a huge electronics store in Koln...the first movie we've watched since "Volver" in Barcelona, and the ONLY one in English since early February. WOW!!! What a treat!

Koblenz - And the Rhein River Boat Ride

Tuesday, the 16th, we checked out of the Presidential Hotel in Bonn, walked to the train station one last time, and quickly got a train to Koblenz. As soon as we were off the train, we found the lockers right there in the main hallway, and we locked up our packs. The lady at the information kiosk told us about the tourist information center across the street where we could learn more about the boat rides up the Rhein. The lady in the tourist information center provided us with maps, and showed us exactly where we needed to go in order to catch one of the boats, and a good idea of the itinerary and various travelling options. We had about an hour before the next boat was leaving, so on the way to the port, we stopped in a cafe for a bite to eat and drink. At the boat ticket office, we learned that we could ride for free because of our Eurail pass, so that was an unexpected very pleasant surprise. We were giddy with thoughts of the day that lied ahead and anxiously waited for the boat to arrive as it was running a few minutes late. The large river boat finally appeared, and the crew situated a wobbly bridge for us to cross over and board, which we did, quickly and carefully. Up to the sundeck, and it was not more than 10 minutes or so before we began to see how amazing this riverboat journey was going to be. Before, while we waited for the boat to arrive, I read alound a few pages of information about the history and significance of the Rhein, it's boats and it's wineries, but now, on board, we were experiencing it for ourselves, and we were elated. I continued reading more about the Rhein during our trip, and followed a map of the many castles we saw along the way. It was amazing to think that we just "happened" to even consider doing this trip simply because of a tiny blurb I read in our Lonely Planet guide the previous morning, and thought maybe it ought to be something we consider. Wow!! People come from all over the world JUST to travel the Rhein Valley, and here we were, doing it "on a whim", as a day trip. Soon, we were approached by a super sweet and friendly couple from the States, who were curious about our travelling to Greece. I think that the gentleman, Michael, misunderstood the map I was looking at, and I explained that earlier in our trip, we had wanted to go to Greece, but that we ended up not going, and then that launched into a whole conversation that we so thoroughly enjoyed and wanted to continued, but we had to make time to enjoy all the castles that we were seeing along the river banks. She was originally from Texas, and he was originally from Ireland, and now they lived in Virginia and travelled the world as financial consultants and writers. Later, they would come over to talk with us some more, and Michael actually planned out our entire trip to Ireland for us. AWESOME!!! We finished talking, and another man, Jim, from the States began a conversation with us, and he was fascinating too, and so friendly. Turns out, he is was a Lietenant Colonel in the Navy (VERY military, and was actually wearing a U.S. Navy jacket), and finished his career with the NSA, owns a condo in Cape Code where lives part of the year, a condo in St.Pete where he lives part of the year, and travels Europe for a few weeks/months the rest of the time. We talked for a long time, and talked a few more times during the remainder of the trip. The castles and vineyards and craggly slate and forested mountains of the river valley were gorgeous, and the weather turned out to be fantastic too, despite the forecasts. Vee read quite a bit of her book while keeping a close eye on the beautiful surroundings and snapping lots of pics. I used up the last of my video tape, and continued reading more about the Rhein River Valley until we decided to disembark at a little river town called Rudesheim, rather than Mainz, the town we had originally planned to visit at the conclusion of the trip. We stopped in a little cafe and had a bite to eat, and wandered the touristy little streets, crammed full of very authentic looking biergartens, weingartens, and cafes. It was getting late, and we needed to get back to Koblenz, where our bags were, where we had a hotel room reserved for the night, but most importantly, where we were meeting up with Vee's closest childhood friend Sandra for a night out on the town. The train station in Rudesheim was rough due to renovations, but we finally figured out where we needed to be to catch the train to Koblenz. Once on board, the heavens opened up and it poured, but by the time we arrived, it was as if the rain had completely bypassed Koblenz. We got our bags, after wasting a two-Euro coin in the locker, in addition to the required 1.5 Eur. We pulled out the laptop, and checked the address of our hotel, and found it to be right across the street, yeehaa! We checked in, dropped off our bags, called Sandra, and began the walk across town to meet up with her. Vee was very excited, and very anxious, and I was curious. Vee has talked about Sandra, and her family, so frequently, and I knew how important they all were to her, and how significant they were in her life as a little girl in Germany, and now I'd finally be able to meet her. They saw each other from across the busy intersection, and recognized each other immediately. Sandra showed us her, and her boyfriend's ("Gido"?) awesome flat overlooking Munz Platz, and then took us through most of the old town center and over to German Corner, and back to a nice cafe where we had some drinks. Sandra and Vee had a blast, reminiscing, and getting caught up on some of the things that have happened in their lives since they last saw each other the last time Vee was in Germany in the late 90's. I loved seeing the two of them laugh and giggle and talk. Sandra was super friendly and sweet, and her English was quite good, so I was able to talk with her some too. We had to move to another bar, because the one we were at had to close the outdoor seating area where we were seated. Once inside the other place, a spanish tapas bar, the girls had margaritas and I had more beer. I had a contact lense attack, and had to leave the table to get myself together, and shortly after my return, it was time to leave again, as it was 1am and time for the bar to close. It was pouring rain outside and Sandra walked us to the taxi station nearby where we exchanged hugs and goodbyes. We both had a great time with Sandra, and I am sure that Vee feels a great sense of relief, peace and warmth with having this unique opportunity to spend some time with someone who had meant so much to her, and had so much of an impact on her. Once back at the hotel, we read a little bit, since we both are so totally wrapped up in our latest books, but quickly crashed with exhaustion.

Koln - Day Trip; Huge Dom

Monday, the 15th, would be a nice day trip to Koln (Cologne). We got going late and once there, happened upon an absolutely ridiculously delicious bakery called Merzenich, where we were sucked into two delicious cappucinos, 2 tasty breads (one olive, the other beer), 1 almond and chocolate pretzel-shaped pastry, and 1 chocolate filled croissant. Later in the afternoon, at the end of our day, we would stop in again, for another round of those two breads. The main focus of our afternoon was the amazing Dom. We walked the insides, taking lots of video and pictures, and climbed the 500+ steps up the tower for expansive views of the city. We got close-ups of the huge bells in the bell tower, and the beautiful stain glassed windows. The city's pedestrian only streets are lined with high-end shops and it is quite obvious that this city is quite image-conscious. We saw lots of people wearing all kinds of interesting looking outfits, and haircuts. There was a band of young rockers doing a sound check, and we stopped to watch them for a while, but they didn't get around to actually playing in time for us to see them perform. We had a beer by the Rhein River, and talked and talked, enjoying the moment. The train rides allowed us to get some reading done, and once back in the hotel, we struggled for a few hours trying to arrange accomodations for the next week. Vee finally got ahold of Heinz and Hildegard and left a message for Sandra. They are unable to get together with us, but we might try to arrange something for after our trip to Britain/Ireland/Scotland. Tomorrow, the only day of decent weather in the next weeks forecast, will hopefully be a riverboat trip down the Rhein from Koblenz to Mainz, and then we'll be staying overnight in Koblenz tomorrow night, then 2 nights in Dusseldorf, then 4 nights in Brussels before heading into London for a week.

Frankfurt - Great Day Trip

Sunday, Mother's Day, the 14th of May. We attempted to take the bus to the train station, but the Sunday schedule wasn't compatible with ours, so we walked. The train ride along the Rhein to Frankfurt was beautiful, and made us realize that we may want to extend our stay in Germany a bit longer to take advantage of the beautiful mountains, small towns and wineries along this fantastic river. We'll see. The day would be mostly warm enough, with some spotty rain and alot of big fluffy clouds. Actually, at times, the sun would be so strong, that it would make it quite difficult for Vee's sensitive eyes since her sunglasses broke yesterday. Once in Frankfurt, we got a small map, and walked into the center using a little plan I had formulated from our Lonely Planet book earlier in the morning. I found Frankfurt to be captivating, and quite beautiful, with fantastically modern high-rise office buildings right along side historic cathedrals, parks, fountains, and buildings. We went into a few of the cathedrals, and took a nice long walk down the river, across the bridges, into another very typical German pedestrian-only part of the city, and back to the beautiful square and eventually back to the train station. Along the way, we had a nice lunch at Maredo's, the same place we had lunch in Berlin, and it was delicous, as before. The train we had picked for our ride back to Bonn was late, and when we tried to board, we realized it was standing room only, so we decided to forumlate our own custom itinerary home instead, and got off. We ended up taking a super-nice train to Koln, and then another really nice one from there to Bonn. Eurail pass rules! With a full day of walking beautiful Frankfurt, and another walk back to the hotel, we had worked up our appetites again, and finished the day off with a few small pizzas at a local italian restaurant. Then, finally back to the hotel, to do some late night laundry in the bathroom sink, and catch up with CNN news.

Aachen - Life is Good Here; and on to Bonn

Thursday, May the 11th, would be a very emotional day. We started out with Vee feeling as if she was coming down with a nasty cold, and I was paying the price of last night's double-schnitzel. So, it was not until later in the morning that we got going. Finally all cleaned up, we started our walk towards the city center and popped in for two coffees and some pastries, which we took with us to the really nice green park near the domo. We sat on the fresh cut grass and enjoyed the sun, the morning buzz of activity around us, and of course our coffees and pastries. Satisfied and very happy, and feeling better from our various morning ailments, we continued on our way towards the part of the city that was the setting for Vee's childhood as a little girl. With gasps, and tears, shiny eyes and dropped sentences, Vee re-discovered the apartment where she grew up. It was surrounded by 3 high-rise student dormitory buildings, and was almost exactly as she had remembered it all. She showed me the front door to her family's apartment, her bedroom window, the hill where they used to sled in the winter, her favorite tree, her best friend Sandra's apartment, and her first boyfriend Dennis' family's apartment, the walkway where she learned to ride her bike, and where she learned to rollerskate. It was a beautiful and extremely special time for me, and especially for her as the rush of memories bombarded her one after the other. We discovered the house where the family lived before moving back to Bolivia and Vee spoke with an older tenant in the apartment building next to it to see if her friends the Muhlers still lived there and found out that they did not. But, she did verify that we were in fact looking at the right house, as it had changed alot over the years, since a number of floors had been built on top of it as separate rented apartments. We walked through the park where she and her brothers played, and it looked exactly as it did when they were little, giant sandbox and all. We walked to her kindergarten, and with the friendly teachers' permissions, even got to walk inside and see the classrooms. We found her elementary school, and again, got inside, and even got to talk with a few of the teachers there, and verified that the Don Quixote painting was still on the wall of the stairway leading upstairs. Outiside, at the entrance, we stood in the exact spot in the street where she was run over by a motorcyclist on her first day of first grade...this time, she looked both ways. From there we found the little park and pond where Juber adopted "Columbo" for Vee as a birthday present; Columbo was a goldfish with a deathwish that survived multiple suicide attempts and kept Vee good company before his re-adoption by Sandra, Vee's best friend, and his eventual final successful suicide attempt. Columbo is a legend for me, and I get a good chuckle everytime Vee reminisces about that darned fish. We walked to a really nice area packed with bars and restaurants where Vee's Mom would come for lunches with friends, and we walked through an interesting old tower with an arched and turretted gateway through which Vee would walk with her Mom sometimes. We quickly popped into an Internet cafe there to check emails, and then into a pizza shop across the street to get some bottled water and then walked back to the hotel for a short breather before heading out again for the rest of the late afternoon and evening. After a quick nap, we found a grocery store where Vee picked up a few apples, and after dropping them off in our room, we walked back into the city center. The plan was to get a take-away pizza and eat it on our little towell/blanket in the park. Instead, by the time we decided on a place to eat, and finding the prices to be so amazingly reasonable, we ate at a wonderful little table amongst seemingly hundreds of others out by the domo and fountain of Charlemagne. We had a delcious thin crust pizza topped with prosciutto, fresh parmesan pieces and whole green leafy thingys for which I need to learn the name and make sure we find them back at home in the U.S. Then we shared a super-tasty salmon, cheese, olive oil and pesto baguette. After dinner, we walked some of the streets that we had not yet covered, and made our way back towards the main park, got two take-away coffees and sat down with our little blanket to enjoy them and a little chocolate-hazlenut pastry we picked up earlier. It was a perfect day, and a perfect night. We were relishing our beautiful surroundings, and the memories past and still in the making. With darkness finally beginning to set in around 9 or so, we went back to the hotel, window-shopping the real estate listings along the way, and a really cool looking grill-at-the-table restaurant that we hope to enjoy at some point. Once in our room, we hooked up a speedy Internet connection (we're on a roll!!!) and made Skype calls home to Bolivia, home to West Chester with no luck, and then to the Reeves!!! It was so good to hear everyone's voices. Then, we slept hard.

Friday, the 12th of May. I am blogging this in our new room in Bonn, on the morning of the 13th. I just finished blogging everything for yesterday, clicked the wrong button, didn't read the pop-up message clcked another wrong button and lost the entire thing. So I'll summarize: checked out, did laundry, secured bags in locker at train station, bought needed supplies at pharmacy, walked to city center, no market or fried fish, no rathaus, Domo, sandwich on towell/blanket and snooze in park, bought new books, salmon and shrimp appetizer and drinks at outdoor restaurant, latin jazz band sound-check, train ride to Koln and Bonn, long walk to hotel, packed restaurants outside, late night falafel. It was a beautiful, fun, full and productive day in Aachen and we really really want to come back.

Saturday morning the 13th, we took the bus to the train station and from there began our exploration of the city center. After some coffee and pastries, we continued our walk through the many streets loaded with shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, and packed with people buzzing around. It would be a gray, and rainy day, and this wouldn't help our initial perceptions about the city. It just didn't quite have the charm and character and cleanliness we were anticipating. Another very sad observation was that there seemed to be alot of mentally-ill, homeless, alcoholics, disabled and beggars here; many more than we've seen almost anywhere else. I think it is partly because we are still coming off our Aachen-high, which we loved so much. We strolled down the banks of the Rhein, and then wandered back into the city center. For much of the rest of the day, we continued to explore the many pedestrian-only streets in downtown. Hoping to learn about a symphony orchestra show, we went by the Beethoven theater, but there were no conciertos scheduled for the time that we were going to be here. We walked back to the operahouse where the Bonn Bienale was anchored for the week, and attended an extremely interesting afternoon discussion about the westernization of India. We never could have imagined coming to Bonn, to learn about India. Actually, this bienale is going to be running all week long, and the itinerary is loaded with films, operas, plays, discussions, concerts, etc., and we hope to take more advantage of it during our time here. The discussion today was fantastic, and really opened our eyes to India, a place neither of us had really thought a whole lot about before. The two main speakers included an Indian princess who talked about the influece of westernization on Indian music, literature, painting, dance, etc., and the second speaker was a very intelligent historian who talked more about the history of India and the affect that western modernization ideologies have had there. We were so happy to have been there, and it was totally by chance that we even chose to check it out. Afterwards, we bought tickets to the opera later on in the night, called "Satyagraha", by Phillip Glass. There was quite alot of time before the show, so we walked more, shared an ice cream, went inside a cathedral, read our books by the river, played with a fearless black pigeon, had coffees and a pretzel inside the opera house, and finally went to the show. Ashamedly, we left at the first intermission. Vee got more out of it, and appreciated it more than I did, but neither of us really enjoyed it. Luckily, they gave us a student discount, so our tickets were not that expensive, and we didn't feel too terribly guilty about leaving before it was over. We walked back to the hotel, and called it a night.

Helskinki to Aachen - Finn-ished and ready for more of Germany

Monday, in the morning, the 8th, we were to meet at our pre-determined spot on the 7th floor next to the entrance to the casino. I had gotten up around 8am, and spent a half hour wandering around by myself. Some guy, who I swear must have been a cast-away, with maybe 5 teeth in his head, asked me for a cigarette, and then somehow found me again later on, and offered to share is brown-paper-bag-wrapped bottle of something that smelled like root beer schnapps. I respectfully declined. Of course, he couldn't understand a word, and I couldn't understand a word of his either, but body language works universally. Once Vee and I found each other, we went to the little cafe on board, and had some breakfast, and then got our bags and headed out to explore Helsinki. It was a brisk, but clear morning, and the cool clean air was invigorating. The Eurohostel was a short walk from the boat terminal, and once there and checked in, we were really excited about our minimalist, yet well-equipped accomodations. We asked about extending our stay a night, but they were fully booked. We dropped off our bags and headed out to explore the city. We walked to the pretty brick cathedral, the stark white cathedral, and all over downtown, including a hotel tower for a particularly good view. We found a cafe to rest our feet and legs, and have a bit to eat and some coffees, then kept walking, and found a small market where we got some goodies for later on. For the first time in a while, we were able to secure a good Internet connection with our laptop computer, and so for the rest of the night, I took care of bills, some emails, etc.

Tuesday, Vee spent the day working on new videos, and I hit the town alone. My first stop was an automobile museum on the other side of the city, but once I got there, they still hadn't opened for the day, even though it was well after their posted opening time. I peeked in the windows, and it was probably a good thing that it was closed, as it looked pretty silly, mostly just little model cars and other car toys. From there, I walked towards the contemporary art museum, and along the way, stopped in for a pizza and salad buffet lunch. The contemporary art museum was excellent, and actually quite disturbing. I spent the rest of the afternoon there, and then met up with Vee around 3:30 back in our room. Rather than taking a boat ride over to Suomenlinna, as we had planned, we decided to stay in so that Vee could finish up the videos. I continued reading my book, "Fatherland" by Robert Harris. We stayed up late, and it turned out to be a very productive day for Vee. We felt that we had seen alot of Helsinki the day before, so we didn't feel too guilty about staying in. And, we didn't find the city to be all that interesting anyway, and so we thought it would be better to take advantage of the cheap, fast Internet connection and get as much done as possible.

Wednesday, I got up around 6am, and uploaded Vee's videos, photos, and blogs to the website while Vee caught up on some sleep, got ready and packed her bag. I finished uploading around 11:30, cleaned up, packed, and we checked out at precisely 12 noon. As soon as we got to the train station, we found and boarded the #615 bus to the airport, and were at our terminal within about 20 minutes. We checked in and got through security, minus another wine bottle opener. We had a bite to eat in the terminal at Robert's Cafe, and after an unnecessarilly long standing wait at the gate for our German Wings flight to Koln, finally boarded, and were thankful to have been able to find seats next to each other as it looked to be a full plane. With our complimentary newspapers to keep us busy, and the laptop, the flight blew by and in not time, we were back on the ground in Germany. The airport was quite impressive with a sleek, industrial look to it. We tried the buy S-Bahn tickets with another one of those darned complicated ticket kiosks but gave up, and decided to rely on the hope that our Eurail pass will keep us from being fined on board. It was a short ride to the Koln central train station where we then changed to a train heading into Aachen. It was a full train, but eventually a few seats opened up so we could sit. I asked Vee how she felt about being in Aachen, her childhood home, and she was obviously feeling overwhelmed, not quite able to express what she was feeling. Once off the train, a lady in the bookstore gave us a free map, and offered to help us find accomodations. We already had a hotel room reserved, but it was very nice of her to offer, and the free map was a super-nice bonus. The hotel was just a few blocks away, so we checked in, dropped off our bags and headed out to explore Aachen. By this time, it was 8pm or so, and time for dinner. The location of our hotel is fantastic, and it was a short walk to the center, where we found lots of places to choose from. Vee recognized a special water fountain, and the domo, and some other special places too. I loved being there with her to share this very special moment. Aachen is beautiful!! So charming! We found a place with good prices and a decent menu and outdoor seating. Vee had a delicious garden salad and grilled chicken breasts. I had a schnitzel in a green-peppercorn brown sauce with fries and a garden salad. And, a weisbier, a pilsner, an alt, and some other kind of weisse that I can't remember. All absolutely delicious. My dinner was so good, that I ordered another one. And finished it, every last bite. I haven't done that in years. It was that good!! After it got a bit chilly, and we were both finished, we found a little ice cream shop to share a cone, and walked back to the hotel for the night. We are both so happy to be here, in Aachen, and wish so much that we could share this with our families. It is so beautiful here, and so meaningful. So VERY livable. We are both very much looking forward to tomorrow.

Stockholm to Helsinki - On board a luxury liner

Sunday the 7th, we got up early, showered, packed, and cleaned up the apartment. Roland arrived at precisely 9:30. He was a super-nice guy, I gave him the keys, and he very kindly offered to drive us into the city. It was a short cruise in his spiffy Saab, and we made some nice small talk along the way. We thanked him for the ride when he dropped us off, and then we went inside the station and locked our main packs inside a big locker and headed out to explore the city. I wanted to finish walking the main thoroughfare where all the shops were, and just take it until it ended, and that's what we did. It was still pretty early for a Sunday morning, so almost everything was closed. All we really needed was a coffee. We walked to the end, and then turned around, and came back on a parallel street for most of the way before coming back onto the main drag again where we found a cafe that was open. We had some delicious coffees and pastries and sat out for a while, enjoying the warm sun and listening to the myriad conversations around us. Once we felt rejuvenated, we walked over to a little square where a trolley line runs regularly over to the island of Djurgarden. We climbed aboard, bought our tickets, and waited just a few minutes before pulling away. We were very happy to have taken the trolley, as the ride was long enough where it would have been quite tiring to do it on foot, in addition to all the walking we planned to do once we got there. We took the trolley to the end, and then walked all the way to the opposite side of the island and then meandered back just in time to catch it again for a return trip. We had some difficulty finding our way around the island on our return but eventually made it. We walked quickly back to the train station, got our bags out of the locker, and took the metro up to the Silja Line terminal. We were soooo excited!! We wanted to be there by the 3:30pm boarding time, and we actually had a few minutes to spare. We relaxed in the waiting area for a little bit, and then boarded, and WOW were we surprised. It was nothing like what we had expected. We honestly thought that we'd be lucky to have wooden planks to sleep on for the overnight voyage to Helsinki, but it turned out, this was a luxury liner! Never having done a luxury cruise before, this turned out to be quite an experience. Since our tickets were covered by our Eurail pass, we splurged on a buffet dinner on board, and it was awesome! Having a few free hours before our dinner seating, we walked all over the ship, discovering a casino, a pub, a dance club, a night club, a media center, whirlpools, a water slide, hair dresser, all kinds of shopping, etc. Elvis, and Dolly Parton were even on board! We were alotted an 8pm seating, and were allowed to eat for up to 2 hours. We were there for the entire allotted time. They gave us each our own bottle of wine. We could have had all the beer, sodas, juices, coffees, etc. that we wanted, in addition to more wine, if we wanted. We ate breads, cheeses, crackers, salads, shrimp, all different kinds of salmon, fishes, chicken, beef, pasta, nachos, vegetables, desserts, ice cream, etc. It was unbelievable, and I was determined to eat more than my fair share. After stuffing oursleves silly, and enjoying a spectacular sunset during dinner, we walked around the ship some more, and ended up in the night club for a while to recuperate. Then, we tried out the pub, where we we had a nightcap before finally turning in around 1am. Vee had a bunk in a cabin of 2 other women, and I slid into my bunk in a cabin with 3 other men. We could have arranged for our own cabin together, but then our ride aboard the ship wouldn't have been free. Though somewhat awkward, it worked out just fine and we both slept pretty well.

Copenhagen and Stockholm - Yay!!!

Thursday, was a very full day of Copenhagen exploration. Vee put together a walk based on one provided in our book, and as a result, we had a fantastic time discovering the city. Plazas, cafes, canals, towers, fountains, sculptures, wonderful architecture, and LOTS of bikes and baby strollers! We shared coffees and pastries in the morning, a take-away focaccia and loaf of bred in the afternoon, and an order of fish & chips for dinner and a few sinful snacks at a little shop in the train station before the end of the night. We agreed that Copenhagen is one of our most favorite cities thus far, up there with Madrid and Prague. It seems as if the people here have a very good quality of life. Many men were out walking there newborns in strollers, or in bicycle carriages. And swarms of women with the newborns were everywhere. The Danes are doing there part in their attempt to keep up the population in Europe. Alot of people were out running, and a huge number of people ride bikes for their main means of transport; so many in fact, that they actually create relatively heavy lanes of traffic on the streets and therefore obey all traffic lanes, lights and signs. For tomorrow, we need to get up early, and catch the earliest train to Stockholm Sweden. We made arrangements for this B&B through a guy, Roland, who I spoke with on the phone, and who runs a website that recommends B&B's in Stockholm. We got to the website from a terminal in the coolest Internet Cafe I've ever seen called BoomTown, and I even got to demo the new XBox 360 there!

Friday, we got up early, checked out by 7:30, and made the short walk to the train station. We eventually found the right que for our reservations and learned that there was not a single seat available on any trains headed to Stockholm from Copenhagen for the entire day. We got a table at a cafe in the station to discuss alternative plans and were considering Oslo, Helsinki or heading back South to Western Germany. At the last minute, we found another city (Goteborg) in Sweden that had a direct high-speed line to Stockholm, and so we looked into that option, and it worked! Though a bit stressed, and with absolute chaos at the train station, with our first scheduled train having apparently disappeared out of thin air, we eventually made it out of Copenhagen on an even later train. Because of our original trains disappearing act, we missed our connection to Goteborg. Luckily, there was another connection in about an hour, and we were also able to book our final leg to Stockholm. The ride to Goteborg was cramped and took forever. The ride to Stockholm was much better, since the seats were more spacious and we didn't have to sit face to face with strangers. At 6:30pm, we arrived in Stockholm, actually a bit early. We were to meet with Kenneth, from the B&B agency, in the middle of the atrium in the train station. We stood there for about 15 minutes, and I finally called him on his cell phone, and learned that he was standing right above us on the second floor but just never realized it was us right there below him. Anyway, we hooked up, he gave us the keys, and excellent directions and instructions, I got more money out of the ATM and paid up. I didn't have enough money left for the metro, so he gave us 2 kroners, and we were on our way. The apartment actually belonged to his business partners mother, but she was to be out of town for the weekend. We weren't sure what to expect, but Kenneth seemed like a good guy, as did his business partner on the phone. The metro ride to the apartment only took about 10 minutes as it was just outside the city center. A woman asked us if she could help us with directions when we got off the metro, and she confirmed for us where we supposed to go. We were very very happily surprised and found the apartment to be excellent! And it's all ours, until Sunday! We have all the comforts of our own home. We dropped off our bags, and tried taking the metro back into the city for a night on the town, but I had no cash, and we couldn't by the tickets. The ticketing agent told us where to find an ATM, and so we started walking in the general direction he pointed us, and I asked another lady if she could confirm where the ATM might be. Turns out she had worked in DC for two years at the Sweden embassy, and loved her time in the U.S. We ended up talking for about 10 minutes or so. We found the ATM, but by this time, we had changed our minds about the night, and decided to find a supermarket, and just have a quiet dinner at the apartment, and take advantage of the kitchen and terrace. We asked two guys for help getting to the supermarket, and they got us straightened out. We loaded up with goodies, and lugged everything back to the apartment and had a beautiful evening. After dinner on the terrace, we watched Braveheart on TV, and called it a night. We are looking forward to a long day in Stockholm tomorrow!

Saturday the 6th, we slept in until about 9:30. I cooked egg sandwiches while Vee showered and we had a hearty "American" breakfast. Vee cut my hair, I showered, and then we headed out for the city. It was time for us to make some decisions. We needed to find an Internet connection and figure out where we were going next, and make accomodation reservations accordingly. Outside the metro station we found Peter's Cafe, where we had capuccinos, and got onto an Internet terminal. We researched hotel prices in Oslo, Norway, but they were ridiculous. In Helsinki, Finland, we found a sharp looking hostel that was dirt-cheap. Also, we found a discount airline, German Wings, with cheap flights from Helsinki to Cologne, Germany which was exactly where we wanted to go. The clincher though, would be whether or not we could get a reservation on the Ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki, and to get that straight, we had to take the metro to the port, and find the ticket booth and see if anything was available. With some help from the guy in the Information Kiosk at the metro station, we took the metro to the stop where the port was, and with very clear signage, found the ticketing office. To our amazement, we learned that not only was there availability, but it would be free for us, since we had the Eurail pass! We were ECSTATIC!!! With our Ferry reservations taken care of, and a few high-fives, we metroed back to the Central Station, and eventually made our way back to Peter's Cafe, got back online, and reserved a room for 2 nights at the EuroHostel in Helsinki. Score! We decided against buying our airline tickets just in case we wanted to extend our stay once we got there. From there, with our newly purchased Stockholm map in hand, we headed out for a full day of exploring the City. We found it to be crazy! Apparently, the winter was very harsh and very long, and yesterday and today were the first nice days of the year so everyone in Stockholm was outside. The city is beautiful, but dirtier than we expected. It is also much more diverse than what I was expecting. Denmark, and Munich were much less so. It is also a very big city, so the map we had was deceiving in that everything in reality was much further than what it appeared on the map. Our favorite area thus far has been the old part of the city called Gamla Stan. We also walked through Norr Malm, the new part of the city, as well as Sodermalm and Ostermalm. Inside one of the churches, there was a boys choir practicing, and we got some video of that. In Gamla Stan, we were lured into an ice cream store because of the fresh waffle cones they were making right there in the front of the store. After finishing our ice cream, we walked into an art gallery and had a real nice conversation with the proprietor. He was an Argentinian who married a Swedish girl, moved to Stockholm, and opened the gallery with an MBA-friend of his. From there, we talked with Roland on the cell phone to make arrangements to drop off the key to our apartment, and then headed home. On the way, we made a stop at the grocery store for some dinner munchies. We had another wonderful, romantic dinner out on the terrace and watched the sun go down before coming inside to finish off the night. Tomorrow morning, Roland is coming over at 9:30 to collect the key, and we'll spend the rest of the day in the City before heading out for the Ferry to Helsinki at 5pm.

Hamburg - Oops

Tuesday, we checked out, grabbed a few pastries at a grocery store, metroed to the train station, shared coffees, and then got on the train for Copenhagen, through Hamburg. Well, over and hour or so later, and expecting to have already arrived at Hamburg, Vee asked some girls sitting near us if they were heading to Hamburg, and they explained that the train was not going to Hamburg. Apparently, at the last minute, and when we were already on board, they changed the platform for our train. So instead of Copenhagen through Hamburg, we were heading for a small town in the most northeastern part of Germany, totally in the opposite direction of Hamburg. We took the train all the way to the end, and then get right back on another one headed in the opposite direction, to finally arrive at Hamburg. We wrote off going to Copenhagen since we would not be able to connect and get there before midnight. Luckily, I was able to reach my sister via the cell phone, and with her and Dad's help, I got ahold of the hotel in Copenhagen, and got approval to reschedule our reservations for the next two nights, instead of tonight and the next. Finally, we arrived in Hamburg. We got a map, and headed out in search of a hotel. The direction we chose first was the heart of the Red Light district...ooooops!!! We found an Internet Cafe and tried to make arrangements there via the Internet, but didn't feel comfortable entering credit card info online there. We called a hotel, but they were full. We walked to the area of the city on the other side of the train station in hopes of finding something there. Thanks to the Lonely Planet book, we found out about another area of the city that is supposed to be popular and with a number of recommended places for lodging. We took the metro there, and had some difficulty getting acquainted. A gentleman carrying a newly purchased 6-pack of Becks beer asked us if we needed some help. He pointed us in the right direction and we ended up at the Schenzensteirn guest-house where they had one double room available. This is the first place that required cash payment up front, and an additional $10 deposit for the room key. The room was equally, distinct. We unloaded our things, locked everything as we always do, and headed out to explore the area. I can't go into much detail here, but I guess it would be fair to say that this area of Hamburg could be described as a bit "bohemian". We chose a corner pub/restaurant for dinner, and had a magnificently delcious, simple, inexpensive meal. Afterwards, we walked around some more. It was quite a memorable trip. Then back to the hotel for the night.

Wednesday, the 3rd of May, would be another full day of travel. We checked out, metroed back to the train station, encountered some more interesting characters and walked around the central part of the city. The weather was warm, the sky was blue, and the sun was shining bright. We got some coffees and pastries, and took some pics of the city. Then we went to the train station, got our reservations, waited in the lounge, and then got onto the CORRECT train to Copenhagen. The coolest part of the trip was when we realized that the train had actually been driven right onto a ferry boat, and that we were actually floating across the water, to Denmark. I got out of the train and explored the ship some, and took some video. After a few more hours, we arrived in Copenhagen. The hotel was real close to the train station, and upon check-in, they provided us with a map, we dumped our bags, and headed out to find something for dinner. The guy at the front desk recommended a pub just a few blocks away, and we had a tastey dinner, but it was WAY expensive. I could hardly believe how much it cost to eat in Copenhagen. Stuffed, we came back to our room, and went to bed.

Berlin - Full Days of History and Discovery

Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Berlin were full days. Saturday it rained all day, but we persisted through it. We walked for hours in the late morning early afternoon, venturing all the way through Tiergarten park, seeing the important monuments, and then into what was once East Berlin. We got to Checkpoint Charlie's in the afternoon, and spent about 5 hours inside the museum. Room after room, the museum was loaded with pictures, paintings, text, and lots of releveant objects. As required, we checked our bags into a locker, so at least we didn't have to lug those around. We each did the audio guides, and those were quite informative. There was so much information, and we both felt interested, motivated and obligated to try and read everything, which was absolutely impossible. When we finally left, we felt much more knowledgable about the significance and history of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War, and the enormous impact tearing down the wall had on Berlin, Germany, the rest of Eastern Europe and the world as a whole. We left around 8pm or so, in the dark, feeling very fulfilled, and very tired. We went to a little quick-mart near the hotel and got some munchies and drinks and finished up the night relaxing in our hotel.

Sunday, we spent a bit of time at an internet cafe in the morning to make hotel reservations for another night in Berlin, and for two nights in Copenhagen. Then we took the metro to the big TV tower and waited in line forever for an opportunity to take the elevator up to the top. We shared an audio tour handset and walked around the large disk at the top, and had some coffees at the bar to rest our legs. It was a beautiful day so after we were through looking at the 360 degree views of the city, we did some more walking and eventually made our way back to the hotel in the evening. I had read about a pub near the hotel that served over 100 beers, so we went there hoping for a reasonable meal and a long night of beer experimentation. But, they refused to serve us anything for dinner because the cooks were swamped with a large party that had just ordered their meals. So we left, and ended up at a much livlier spot just a few blocks away. Our meals were fantastic, and the tiramisu we had for dessert was huge and delicious! We had a fantastic time, and left totally with our bellies totally stuffed. I had a skillet of pork and vegetables, and Vee had a tasty chicken dish.

Monday, the 1st of May, was Labor Day all over the world except in the U.S. After our third and final delicious breakfast at the Hotel Castille, we checked out, left our bags there, and headed over to the Story of Berlin museum, where we spent the rest of the day. This multimedia, interactive, extremely informative and entertaining museum was fantastic. It gave us a much better understanding of the long history of Berlin, and also of Germany as a whole. We did not leave until late in the afternoon, mentally exhausted, got our bags from the hotel and took the metro over to our new hotel. This hotel, although location-wise, not as good as the first one, was a much nicer, more contemporary hotel, and ALOT cheaper! In fact, it is the cheapest one we've stayed at yet. The walk from the metro to the hotel was an interesting one as there was a street fair/carnival going on and the neighborhood itself, was, well, not like the one where we stayed the previous 3 nights. Once in the super modern hotel room, with a water view, and half the price, we got comfy, then headed out to find some snacks and drinks, then back to the carnival so I could find a more satisfying bite to eat. I ate a delicious bratwurst, and then Vee and I shared coffees and people-watched. Back at the hotel, we relaxed and called it an early night.

Prague - Last full day, and one for chores and travel

(Cliff reporting) Thursday, April 27th would be another full day in Prague. Still spinning from all the fun we've already had here, we were all tingly about the prospects of experiencing any more of the same today. But we needed to take care of some business first, and set out in search of a nearby Internet cafe so we could pay bills online. First we went to the front desk to make sure everything was still okay for us to stay in our room one an extra night, and they verified that it was fine. They also told us about a nearby laundromat, and a nearby Internet cafe. We found the cafe, and were bummed to find out that they did not offer wireless access, nor the ability to hook up the notebook to their LAN, so instead we used one of the their terminals, and used the time to secure 3 nights accomodations in Berlin. We had a few capuccinos and pastries, and finally left around lunchtime. Finding an affordable room in Berlin was much more of a challenge than we expected. According to one pension-owner that I spoke with on the phone, everything she knew of was booked. We went back to our hotel, dropped off the computer, and then headed for the metro station so we could get over to the Mala Strana area of the city. We didn't have enough coins for two metro tickets, and since the ticket machines did not accept bills, and we couldn't find a ticket agent window anywhere, we risked the Czech Metro police, and boarded anyway. Luckily, no one asked anything, and we arrived unscathed. Above ground, it took us a short walk in the wrong direction for us to realize where we were and how to get to where we wanted to go. That's kinda how the majority of the afternoon went too. We alternated taking the lead in our explorations end we tended to go in the "wrong" direction as often as in the "right" one...or at least when I was the one leading. Not that it mattered at all, because it is the exploration and discovery of it all that is so gratifying and it almost always ends up with some sort of gratifying surprise. We walked up the steep path towards the palace and cathedrals, got inside, read the exhibits, admired the amazing architecture, sculptures, and paintings. It started raining and we kept walking, and exploring, loving it all. We found a few art galleries and found another artist whose work we really really liked, and despite the bargaining efforts of the gallery sales person, we decided to leave empty-handed. We continued south all the way down and across the Paleckeho Most (bridge) to the Nove Mesto area and tried to get inside the big church there, with the odd dual steeple, but it was all locked up, so we continued further south to Karlachovy sady church that was perched high upon the hill inside the walls of an old fortress and offered wonderful 360 degree views of the city. We wandered around the fortress walls, withnessing many couples enjoying romantic little nooks here and there, a group of young people practicing medieval battle routines in one spot, and a plethora of red clay tennis courts in a few other sections along the fortress walls. The day was growing long, and our legs and feet were beginning to lose resiliency so we decided to make our way towards the metro and head back to the hotel. It was around 7:30pm or so before we got back, and with a stop to the local market for some snack/dinner stuff, we finally made it to our room. The big event for the day was to be one final jazz show that night, but because we were so physically exhausted from all the walking and two late, music filled nights, we decided to stay in and relax instead.

Friday, the 28th was mostly one for chores and travel. We checked out, left our big packs at the hotel, and dragged our bags of laundry through the crowded metro to the laundramat that was recommended to us. After a bit of metro confusion, we eventually found the laundramat and dropped off all our dirty clothes that would be washed, dried, folded and ready for pick-up in about 3 hours. Next, was a visit to the post office, after learning that DHL was going to charge us $155 to mail a few things home. The post office is always a nerve racking place for me. The folks there generally do not speak English, and well, it's the post office...'nuff said. After some debate, guessing, second-guessing, more debate, and finally some much-needed help and finger-pointing, we got our packages (hopefully) on their way back home. With that done, we found "JoeCafe" nearby where we had coffees and breakfast/lunch. They offered free WiFi access, so I was able to get bills paid and a few emails sent. By 1, we picked up our laundry and metrod back to the hotel. Of course, given the warm tempuratures over the last week, I decided to wear shorts for the first time today. It would be cold and rainy today. No problem, I was just really happy to have two pairs of newly laundered jeans waiting for me in the bag of clean clothes I carried back to the hotel. Once there, we re-packed our bags with clean clothes and took the metro again, to the train station where we bought our tickets, and hung out in the hallway for the 3:34pm train to Berlin. We had a really nice conversation, exchanged Crowns for Euros (raped), ate gummy bears and people-watched. The train arrived, we boarded and dug in for the 5 1/2 hour trip with a few extra delays thrown in for one reason or another. We both kept busy, and Vee's Bolivian passport and U.S. green card kept the Czech and German immigration troopers occupied as well. They always seem to have a real keen interest in all her documents, and hardly give mine a glance. Once in Berlin, we went in search of a map, and found a plethora of them inside a nice bookstore. The checkout guy was real curious about us and asked where we were from and if we were in Berlin for the first time. He said that he had been to the U.S. before, and even to Philly on 3 occasions. As we finished paying and were about to leave, he looked at us in a comical, kinda secretive way, and with an odd gesture of his hand said something like: "Philadelphia is good. But, last time, well...you're President is an idiot. He is not very smart.". What a riot! We howled, and so did he, and we exchanged thank yous again for all his help in telling us all about Berlin, where we should go, what we should do and see, etc. Then, with our map, trying to figure out where we were, where our hotel was, and how to get there took us forever. Finally, we ventured out to the S-Bahn platforms and found the ticket purchasing process equally difficult. Totally at a loss, we found an information desk, and asked for help. They guy behind the desk was amazingly helpful, jovial, and just plain nice. Not only did he get us all straight, but did so with a totally unexpected warmth that made us feel very welcome. The S-Bahn and Metro rides were quite interesting for people-watching, and once off, we found our hotel without too much trouble. Berlin is a huge city, and feels like NYC in alot of ways. The blocks are long and deep. We checked in, after waiting for some lady at the front desk, a guest, rant about something she was unhappy about. The room is huge, and could sleep 8 people comfortably. We hadn't eaten anything really (a pretzel in the Berlin train station) since JoeCafe, so we set out for a bite, and ended having to choose between McD's or BK, then back to the hotel for bed.