I think the easiest way to do this is just break it down by each day of our trip...so here goes...
I traveled with my good friend from Denver, Mike Baumgarten. For those of you who don't know Mike, we graduated from Green Mountain together and he is now a junior at Colorado State. We have remained really good friends even though we have been in different states (and countries) for the last three years, and when I am in Colorado I spend a lot of time at his house. Mike arrived in Barcelona on December 18, on December 19 I took my Economics final (which didn't go so well), and then on the 20th we flew to Brussels to start our trek.
December 20
We got into Brussels in the early afternoon, and checked into our hotel, which was right in the heart of downtown--a perfect location to get to all of the pre-Christmas festivities in town. We grabbed a Belgian chocolate waffle, then walked around downtown for a while. The central plaza was all decked out for Christmas, so we saw that during the day time then came back later at night and happened to catch a big light show they were putting on, where all the buildings were illuminated in blues and greens and there were percussionists on top of the cathedral playing music. After that, we grabbed some Turquish kebabs for dinner then stopped at the delirium Taphouse to sample some local beers before heading back to the hotel for the night.
December 21
On Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast at a pastry shop across the street from our hotel, then went to the train station to start our day trip to Brugge and Ghent (two towns to the north of Brussels). We got to Brugge first and walked around for a while, past two very large and impressive cathedrals. There was a huge Christmas market in the center of town (a trend you will notice throughout the course of the trip). The Christmas markets that we saw in various cities were all a little different, but the common trends included lots of hot wine, sausages, chocolates, and Christmas decorations...as well as lots of people. We had tomato soup for lunch at a place near the market, then walked back towards the train station to head to Ghent.
In Ghent we spent a while searching for a well-known beerhouse that my tour book recomended but failed to give accurate directions to, and then walked through Ghent's Christmas market and all the shops along the way back to the train station. Back in Brussels, we rested for a bit at the hotel then went out to grab some dinner.
December 22
Monday morning was our last bit of time in Brussels before getting on the train to Aachen, Germany. We walked around, past another church and tried to find a park, but on the way stumbled upon the peeing-man statue that is apparently famous in Brussels (all of the tourist trinkets and t-shirts have pictures of the statue of a young boy peeing). I don't know what the real significance of the statue is, but it was dressed in Santa Clause clothes and kinda fun to see.
Our next stop was Aachen, Germany, where Mike has some extended family. We were picked up from the train station by Hans (who is Mike's granfather's cousin) and one of his daughters, Katrin. Katrin had just finished a semester studying in Valencia, and here Spanish happened to be a little stronger than her English, so she and I conversed mostly in Spanish. We got back to their house and met Hans' wife, Gabi, and their other daughter, Sabine. When we got there they had two pairs of leather/sheepskin slippers waiting for us, and seemed very excited to have us there, so we felt welcome right from the start. They had made a dinner for us of various sausage meats and cheeses for us, then we headed down to see the Aachen Christmas market. This one is particularly well-known for being a very typical German market. Hans bought us hot wine, and some potato fritters to try (they are kindof like hash-brown cakes that you dip in applesauce...very delicious). Back home that evening we stayed up late into the night getting to know Hans and his family, and talking politics for a long time. Hans has spent a lot of time living and traveling all over the world, so he had plenty of stories of places in Africa and South America, as well as all over Europe.
December 23
On Tuesday Hans and Katrin took us to Cologne (Koln in German) to show us around. The first stop was at the Koln Dom (cathedral) in the center of town. It is the talles cathedral in all of Germany (partially reconstructed after the war) and was so high that the tips of the spiers were actually in the clouds. Then we walked through (you guessed it) another Christmas market, as well as through the main shopping district of Cologne, then had italian pasta for lunch at a place called Peroni. After lunch we went into the Ludwig Modern Art Museum, which had a lot of interesting exhibits from the 1970's American counter-culture to Picasso to Salvador Dali. After the museum, Hans took us to a bar/restaurant called Fruh, which he said is the most well-known place in Cologne, and the best place to hold business meetings. He bought us some of the Fruh beer to try, since it is fairly well-known as well, but isn't available anywhere other than at the restaurant. We got back to Aachen in time to have dinner with the rest of the family, then Katrin and Sabine and some of their friends took us out to a club and to see the Aachen nightlife, which was impressively active considering it is such a small town (probably because Aachen is home to the largest techical university in Europe).
December 24
On Christmas Eve Day we had a noon brunch of salmon, sausage meats, cheeses and a typical potato-with-cheese-sauce dish. Then, Hans took me and Mike on a driving tour through the countryside around Aachen. Aachen is the western-most city in Germany, and is within a few minutes drive of both the Netherlands and Belgium. We stopped at a golf course that Hans is a partial owner and one of 12 origional founders of (it made me miss playing golf a lot). The previous president of the course was apparently a Bartel, so I wonder if we are somehow distantly related. After the golf course we went into the Netherlands to a WWII memorial, where there are thousands of US soldiers burried and a large monument to the battles fought close-by (the memorial couldn't be in Germany, because soldiers are not allowed to be burried in enemy territory). On the way home, we drove through the small town of Maastrich, Netherlands.
For Christmas Eve we went to the evening mass at the local cathedral. It was a very impressive cathedral, and was filled to capacity with standing room only. Hans and his family usually celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve more so than Christmas Day, so after the service we came back to the house to have a nice dinner of steak and potatoes with mushroom sauce. Gabi's mother, Oma, joined us for dinner and we had a great time talking about our own Christmas traditions and such. We sang some carols, with me and Mike trying to follow along in English to the songs that we recognized the tunes of. Then we headed upstairs to sit by the Christmas tree and open presents. They were very nice to Mike and me, and actually got us a few presents to open. I got a scarf from the local university, a bunch of chocolate, and since Mike and I had never been to an opera before, they got us tickets to see Aida at the local opera house. Even though Mike and I couldn't be with our own families, it was great to have a family-type setting for Christmas rather than just have the two of us in some hotel somewhere else.
December 25
On Christmas Day we had breakfast at 10 then welnt along with the family on a morning walk through the countryside around Aachen in the Black Forest area. We came back and had a Christmas feast of duck, red sauerkraut, and potato balls with gravy--yet another great meal. During the afternoon we rested up a bit, then went over to Oma's house for coffee cake and tea. From there, we went downtown to the local opera house. Opera is a very big thing in Germany, and almost every city has a large and very active opera house. We saw Aida, which is an opera written (and performed) in Italian, and it was then translated above the stage into German. Since neither of those languages are in my repertoir, I had a tough time understanding exactly what was going on (I would have been completely lost if Hans hadn't explained the plot to us beforehand) but the music and acting was still very enjoyable.
December 26
On Friday we left Aachen and headed to Berlin. After breakfast with the family we got on the ICE (high-speed Inter City Express train) and it took 5 1/2 hours to get to Berlin. Once in Berlin, we checked into our hotel and went to a typical German restaurant for dinner, then walked through one of Berlin's Christmas markets.
December 27
On Saturday we had currywurst (bratwurst cooked in curry) and hot cider at the Christmas market for breakfast, then headed out for a long day of walking through Berlin. We started in East Berlin, at the Platz der Republik and Reichstag (parliament building). From there we walked past the Pariser Platz and Platz der 18 Marz, then Checkpoint Charlie (main passage for diplomats between the East and West during the Cold War). Then we walked through the Holocause Memorial which is a large plaza filled with huge granite blocks. After that we walked down one of the main drags past a number of churches and beautiful buildings (which I can't remember the names of). We also stumbled upon the Bugatti, Bentley and Ferarri showrooms. The most expensive car there was the new Bugatti, which had a pricetag of 1.2 Million Euro. I tried to buy it, but they didn't take credit cards. It was a very impressive car though. From there we walked to the Berliner Dom (main cathedral) which was very impressive in the light of the setting sun, and then through a Christmas market, and then past the Nikolaikirche (another church) before heading back to the hotel. For dinner we went to the House of 100 Beers, and had a typical German meal which included lots of meat, potatoes and sauerkraut.
December 28
On Sunday we got a little bit of a late start, and planned to find something that involved a little less walking than our tour of Berlin from the day before. We headed to the museum district, right by the Schloss Charlottenburg (palace). We went into the Berggruen Museum, which had large collections of Picasso, Paul Klee, Matisse and Giacometti. After the museum, we walked around the palace gardens for a while, then went to the Museum fur Fotografie, which was primarily a museum about the life and work of Helmut Newton, who was a photographer for a number of magazines like Vogue and Elle. Then we had dinner at Burger King (a shame, I know) before heading to bed.
December 29
On Monday morning we woke up to find that the Broncos had lost their final game, taking them out of the playoffs. But there wasn't much time to worry about that, since we were leaving Berlin and heading to Prague. The train to Prague took 5 hours. We checked into our hotel, the got the tram to downtown Prague for the evening. We walked around for a while, past the central plaza (where there was another Christmas market), and had a typical Czech dinner of roast duck leg and red sauerkraut and dumplings.
December 30
Tuesday morning we took the tram to the Hradcany neighborhood, where the Prague Castle and a number of other sights are located. We walked past the St. Nicholas Churche, and then into the Prague Castle. It was huge, with a number of buildings and museums inside, as well as a very large and impressive cathedral. After the castle, we walked through town across the Charles Bridge, past the Old Town Hall and the Tyn Churche. We found a Cuban-Irish Pub for lunch called O-Che's (get it?) and then went back to the hotel for a bit. That evening Mike and I entered into a poker tournament at the casino that was close to the hotel. It was a Texas Hold-em tournament, much like what we used to play a lot with friends in high school, but neither of us had ever entered a real tournament and we were eager to see how we would fare. Mike got knocked out fairly early, and I made it to the top 10, and was even the chip-leader at my table for a while, but I lost all of it when I went all in on pocket 8's (and hit an 8's full of 9's full house) and lost to a J-9 (that hit 9's full of J's). So, I missed out on the 50,000 Czech Crown grand prize, but it was still a lot of fun.
December 31
On Wednesday we had breakfast at the hotel then headed back out to explore Prague. We started again at the Prague Castle, but this time walked a different direction past a number of buildings. The Lorentanske Namesti, the Cernin, and the Strahovsky Klaster (monastery). We had lunch at an Italian restaurant, then walked downtown. I bought some new shoes at a store in the center of town, then we went to the main street and saw the preparations for the New Year's Eve celebration. We went back to the hotel for a little while, then headed out to see the New Year's fireworks. Instead of going all the way into the center of town with the crowds, we bundled up and went to a place along the river. We ended up climbing up a hill and had a spectacular view of the river and three or four different fireworks shows--one downtown, one at the Charles Bridge, one at the Prague Castle, and a few other smaller ones. It was a great way to welcome in 2009!
January 1
We spent most of New Year's Day traveling between Prague and Munich. Even though geographically they aren't all that far apart, it took about 8 hours on three different trains to get to Munich. When we arrived in Munich, we checked into our hotel and then went out to grab some dinner, then came back and went to sleep. Not an overly exciting day.
January 2
On Friday morning we stopped at an internet cafe on our way out in the morning, and then started walking around Munich. It was bitter cold (it had been cold all trip, but this was the coldest) so we weren't as inspired to walk around as we had been in other towns. But, we walked past the Lenbachgalerie (art museum), the Odenplatz, the Munich Opera House, the Konigsplatz (with a bunch of roman-looking buildings), and the stopped at a beer garden in the Englischer Garten. This was a place that my host-mom had recommended, but I think they must have been there when it wasn't so cold. They did have ski gondolas in the garden that you could sit in, so we did that to try and stay warm. After that, we kept walking around downtown, past the Hofbrauhaus (of Oktoberfest fame) and the Viktualienmarkt food market close to Marienplatz, then through the walking mall at Kaufingerstrasse. For dinner we grabbed some Turquish kebab, then went back to the hotel.
January 3
On Saturday we walked around some more in Munich. We decided to walk from our hotel to the Nymphenburg Palace and Park, which didn't look very far on the map but ended up being a really long walk. On the way we stopped at the Lowenbrauhaus (also of Oktoberfest fame) for lunch. I had a pork leg with dumplings and sauerkraut--another delicious typical German meal. As we got close to the Nymphenburg palace, we saw the small waterway that leads to the palace and it was full of kids playing ice hockey and adults were curling on the ice. It looked like the thing to do to bring the whole family down with a picnic and enjoy the (relatively) warm Saturday afternoon. And, it made me miss playing hockey a lot. At the Nymphenburg Palace we walked around the huge garden area for a bit, then headed back towards the hotel to pack and get ready to end our trip.
January 4
On Sunday we flew back to Barcelona from Munich. We had a layover in Cologne, and the second flight got delayed 2 hours, so we didnt make it back to Barcelona until around 10pm. We grabbed a bite to eat and then Mike went to his hotel and I went home to sleep.
So, there you have it--15 really fun days of traveling around Europe. I liked all the cities that we visited, but here's what I think: Brussels was fun but there is not a lot there that I didn't see that I would want to go back to. Aachen was fun as well, but unless I went back to visit Hans and his family it also wouldn't have a whole lot more draw for me. I loved Berlin, but it is a huge city, and feels like it; I would go back someday. Prague and Munich were both my favorite, and I would go back to either as soon as I got the opportunity. I could also see myself living in either one of them too.
Here are the photos from Brussels, Brugge and Ghent:
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| Brussels, Brugge, Ghent (Dec. 20-22) |
Here are the photos from Aachen and Berlin:
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| Aachen and Berlin (Dec. 23-29) |
Here are the photos from Prague and Munich:
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| Prague and Munich (Dec. 29 - Jan. 4) |
2 comments:
Jordan you can give me that key chain in a couple of days. I'm still going to see you right?
I can't wait for my keychain. See you in August, unless you come visit in der Schweiz.
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