Wednesday morning we got to the train station around 12 and sat around soaking up the sun. We saw the buses parked by the station and waited around in that general area. Around 1:45 we headed over to the buses because they said to meet there at 2. One very British lady showed up and that was it and we were like hmm this isn't right. So Trey ran over to where other buses were meeting and found the group of them. We went over there and they basically told us the drivers needed more rest and we weren't going anywhere until around 5. So Scott, Trey and I found a nice spot in the grass at the park that we were by and waited for about an hour and a half, I got fried, it was great.
At 4:30 we started loading the bus. There were 3 buses for everyone going. Thankfully, they put the families with children in one bus and everyone else into another. A lot of older couples on holiday and a group of students from the unni at Leeds there in Milan for design week. We got on the road about 4:45. We ended up stopping in Switzerland for a break before we went through a 17 mile long tunnel. Everything is so expensive in Switzerland. Don't go there. While we were in one of the many tunnels we had to go through, the other bus pulled over so we pulled over as well. We almost got hit by 3 different 18 wheelers. Scariest thing ever. We still don't know why the other bus pulled over. I was asleep for most of the time. I do remember hearing that instead of going across the French border we went into Germany for like a minute then back into France. Trey and I joked that we did our whole trip backwards, me excluding Amsterdam. The next thing I remember we had pulled into Calais, France about 8:30 the next morning. The ferry ride took about an hour and a half. We got to Dover, UK and then took the coach into London. We arrived into London around 12:30. We actually had a news anchor for BBC with us, most the people on the bus got interviewed (we decided not to talk because we weren't British haha). The whole trip from Milan to London only costed 60 euro, which was about 3 to 4 times cheaper than how many of my flatmates got home.
Once in London, we said bye to Scott (he wanted to get home ASAP so he paid 130 pounds for a train). Trey and I opted for a 15 pound bus ride from London to Dundee at midnight that night. So Trey and I spent the day exploring London. We found a Krispy Kreme and ate a whole dozen. We then went to Picadilly Circus, Westminster (which was closed AGAIN, we missed it by 15 minutes), London Eye (28 dollars to ride in a giant ferris wheel) and then the globe theater and abbey road. All in all the second trip to London was a success. I hope to do Westminster before I leave though... While we were on the bus ride back from Abbey Road, we stopped at a bus stop, and then we didn't move for like 30 minutes. Trey and I figured we should start walking to the metro and when we got out we saw that the street was blocked off and then the metro was closed. We went through a shopping mall and as soon as we walked in the alarm went off and they kicked everyone out. Come to find out a bomb had gone off in the Foot Locker on that square... At this point, I was like okay so we're never going to get back home. We asked a cop which metro was working and walked to the metro on the central line. We got to Victoria and got off and got Subway for dinner before getting on the bus.
The bus ride was a blur mainly because we slept the whole time. I woke up in Glasgow and I knew we were in Scotland because the sun had disappeared. We got to Dundee about 10:30 that Friday morning. It was such a long trip, but it was nice to finally be home. I stayed with Trey in Dundee until Saturday, so we could do laundry together and I could take a break from being in a bus for over 30 hours.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Verona: home of Romeo and Juliet
We arrived in Verona Sunday afternoon. We had to take a taxi to the B&B because we had no idea where it was at. We waited for about 4 hours (with a lunch break of pizza) in between for someone to finally let us in. We actually snuck in once and got yelled at by the neighbor because we apparently weren't allowed to do that. We went to the payphone and called them once we got the number and finally the cleaning lady came and let us in. She had just started working so she knew nothing about the place. We had a really nice room and thankfully free internet. Trey and Scott went on an expedition for food and drinks while I stayed in the room and figured out options of getting home if our flight got cancelled. When they came back we decided to check to make sure we could get the B&B for an extra night. So we had to go back out to the pay phone and ask. We also called the British Embassy (Brembassy from now on) to see what they could help us do. That night we decided to go to McDonald's for dinner and go to the store one more time for more drinks.
The next day we decided to tour Verona, just to see the place. We saw Juliet's house, Romeo's house, a collessium type thing. We had lunch at a place called like hipopotomaus or something, and they royally screwed up Trey's order. We also got gelato.. which was more like a coldstone.. I had nutella and oreos in vanilla. There was SO MUCH nutella, I couldn't even eat it.
That night was the night we had the bed and breakfast to ourselves. The owner wasn't around and neither was the wee cleaning lady. We decided to drink out on the balcony, which we snuck into the kitchen through by moving the rope that was blocking us out of the kitchen and climbing in and out of the bathroom window. We talked a lot of home, just so Scott would know all about American football and how amazing it is. After that we realized that we were alone. So we decided to move the keys around to the different doors (because they left the key to every room in the door?) play hide and seek and play with their masks. It was great fun.
Back to the Brembassy....because Trey and I were with Scott (a British citizen) the Brembassy decided to help us get back. They had planned a coach to leave Wednesday at 3 from Milan. It would go from Milan to London. So we had booked a hotel in Milan (which ended up being an hour or so outside of the city) so we didn't go there and ended up paying 60 euro each to stay in a hotel closer to the station. I'm sad that I didn't get to see as much of Milan as I had hoped...
The next day we decided to tour Verona, just to see the place. We saw Juliet's house, Romeo's house, a collessium type thing. We had lunch at a place called like hipopotomaus or something, and they royally screwed up Trey's order. We also got gelato.. which was more like a coldstone.. I had nutella and oreos in vanilla. There was SO MUCH nutella, I couldn't even eat it.
That night was the night we had the bed and breakfast to ourselves. The owner wasn't around and neither was the wee cleaning lady. We decided to drink out on the balcony, which we snuck into the kitchen through by moving the rope that was blocking us out of the kitchen and climbing in and out of the bathroom window. We talked a lot of home, just so Scott would know all about American football and how amazing it is. After that we realized that we were alone. So we decided to move the keys around to the different doors (because they left the key to every room in the door?) play hide and seek and play with their masks. It was great fun.
Back to the Brembassy....because Trey and I were with Scott (a British citizen) the Brembassy decided to help us get back. They had planned a coach to leave Wednesday at 3 from Milan. It would go from Milan to London. So we had booked a hotel in Milan (which ended up being an hour or so outside of the city) so we didn't go there and ended up paying 60 euro each to stay in a hotel closer to the station. I'm sad that I didn't get to see as much of Milan as I had hoped...
Naples and Pompeii
We left at like 6 am on Friday and got to Naples around 8 or 9. I was not impressed with Naples, the people there were much more nasty there than in Rome. Which is saying a lot. We figured out how to get to Pompeii, bought our ticket for that then went to buy our ticket to get back to Rome then to Venice. When we got to Pompeii a guy sold a tour guide book that had information about every little stone and piece of ash that was there. We decided on the two hour tour that took us way more than 2 hours, mainly because we got lost like 10 times. We did see Ash people, and lots and lots of ruins. It was actually really cool especially because all the stuff I had learned about it from elementary school. And also because a volcano was currently spewing in Iceland. We got to see basically everything we wanted to see in Pompeii and headed back to Naples where we tried some famous Napolean pizza... which wasn't that great at all. Of course we had to go to a place right next to the train station to make sure we didn't miss our train.
We got to Venice, bought a 48 hour ferry ticket and went to our hotel. We unpacked and stuff and had a roommate who was stuck because of the volcano from getting to Spain. We were going to buy alcohol and stuff to drown our sorrows because of our concern about getting home... but we never found a store and we had to go to the train station to figure out how we were going to get home. We waited for about 3 hours to figure out what we were going to do. Basically at this point we didn't know whether our flight was for sure cancelled so we just had to book our tickets to Verona just in case.
Saturday we decided to head to Murano, to see the glass blowing. It was actually super cool. The guy made several vases and a horse. Afterwards they gave us a discount, so Trey bought a gamecock, I bought a penguin and Scott bought a horse. We had crap lunch there, basically because it was super cheap. I don't really remember what we did that night, probably because it was an overall gross and rainy day. So I'm sure we just sat in the room and talked about how doomed we were at this point about getting home.
We got to Venice, bought a 48 hour ferry ticket and went to our hotel. We unpacked and stuff and had a roommate who was stuck because of the volcano from getting to Spain. We were going to buy alcohol and stuff to drown our sorrows because of our concern about getting home... but we never found a store and we had to go to the train station to figure out how we were going to get home. We waited for about 3 hours to figure out what we were going to do. Basically at this point we didn't know whether our flight was for sure cancelled so we just had to book our tickets to Verona just in case.
Saturday we decided to head to Murano, to see the glass blowing. It was actually super cool. The guy made several vases and a horse. Afterwards they gave us a discount, so Trey bought a gamecock, I bought a penguin and Scott bought a horse. We had crap lunch there, basically because it was super cheap. I don't really remember what we did that night, probably because it was an overall gross and rainy day. So I'm sure we just sat in the room and talked about how doomed we were at this point about getting home.
Roma, Roma, Roma
We arrived in Rome and found our hostel... I'm not going to lie, it was pretty sketch. The 3 of us were unfortunately seperated and Trey and I were in a room with another couple and our showers were out next to the living room. Scott ended up downstairs. It was strange. But we wanted to do laundry that night because our clothes were stinking, but we walked to the laundromat and it had just closed and Scott was hungry so he went and got food. That was my first experience with inappropriate Italian men. The next morning, Trey and I got up early to take our laundry to the mat and get it washed. It was done at 10:30 and the 3 of us decided to go look at Rome. We walked to the Republique which was next to our hostel, it was interesting then we got the metro towards the trevi fountain and we did the typical touristy "toss the coin in." We decided to walk towards to collesium and as we did we ran into more ruins and a monument. The monument was for the tomb of the unknown soldier. We then found more Roman ruins and bought a pass to go there and the collesium. We walked through the ruins and then to the collesium. Which was quite impressive. We had a lot of fun making fun of the tour guides and just making up random crap about what happened in the collesium, like the pope had slaughtered men and the cross was where Jesus was hung, just dumb stuff. We had decided that morning that we wanted to do a pub crawl, so during lunch we decided to do one that night. We went to find the place to buy the tickets and got like 15 minutes of free internet while we were there. We walked back to the hostel after that to rest up for the pub crawl. I wasn't feeling too good because Trey got both Scott and I sick. The pub crawl was tons of fun. We met at the Spanish Steps and then went to a Scottish pub first where we got a shot, 3 jagerbombs and as much beer as we wanted and free pizza. As well as a free shirt. Trey and I played in a game where the girl had to take a cold can of beer and run it up inside the pant leg of the guy, around the crotch and back down the other side. I totally finished with that like 30 seconds before any other couple, but Trey didn't think he could chug the beer yet, so someone else had caught up to us by that point and we lost :-(. The next few bars after that, the drinks were ridiculously expensive. Everyone on the tour were Americans and every single one of them (but us) got so drunk, it was actually embarassing. We got a bus to the last bar and by that point I had no idea where we were in Rome, but I knew we were safe. We went to a club at the end of the night where they gave us directions on how to get home. The club was fun, we just sat around and talked. Met a guy from Boston College, heard my southern accent and basically proposed to me right then and there. He was really fun to talk to and had a lot of cool stories especially because he was living in Rome for the semester. The club kinda sucked so we headed home early, by a bus, which we didn't pay for...When we were heading home, Trey decided that he had to pee really bad. So he gave me all these wild looks like he was literally about to explode. I'm pretty certain his bladder is the size of a pea. So thankfully the next stop was ours, and we got off and he peed in a bush.
The next morning, Scott never woke up. So Trey and I decided to leave him after 1) we had lost him the day before in the metro because he decided to go down the escalator and 2) he didn't wake up in time for us to go do anything on our last day
So Trey and I headed towards Vatican City. We decided to stop at this little square that had some cool buildings and Trey and I found a pretty park. It was probably my most favorite place in Rome. Scott finally met up with us and we headed to Vatican City. We got to Vatican and ran into one of the guys from the pub crawl and we talked to him for a while. Vatican City was quite impressive. We waited in line to see St. Paul's basilica, I'm disappointed we didn't climb to the top, but it was pretty nonetheless. We then went to try to find the sistine chapel. Three hours, 3 people working in Vatican, 8 euro, and miles of museum later, we reached the Sistine Chapel. Of course Trey got illegal pictures (my camera had died otherwise I would have as well). It was crowded and I was tired, but it was still impressive. After that we decided to get some gelato and chill in the sun. I got fried. It was great. We walked to the castle, then over a bridge and then back to the hostel. I'm pretty certain every meal we had was pasta/pizza or gelato. We had to sleep that night because the next morning we were getting up to head to Naples and Pompeii
The next morning, Scott never woke up. So Trey and I decided to leave him after 1) we had lost him the day before in the metro because he decided to go down the escalator and 2) he didn't wake up in time for us to go do anything on our last day
So Trey and I headed towards Vatican City. We decided to stop at this little square that had some cool buildings and Trey and I found a pretty park. It was probably my most favorite place in Rome. Scott finally met up with us and we headed to Vatican City. We got to Vatican and ran into one of the guys from the pub crawl and we talked to him for a while. Vatican City was quite impressive. We waited in line to see St. Paul's basilica, I'm disappointed we didn't climb to the top, but it was pretty nonetheless. We then went to try to find the sistine chapel. Three hours, 3 people working in Vatican, 8 euro, and miles of museum later, we reached the Sistine Chapel. Of course Trey got illegal pictures (my camera had died otherwise I would have as well). It was crowded and I was tired, but it was still impressive. After that we decided to get some gelato and chill in the sun. I got fried. It was great. We walked to the castle, then over a bridge and then back to the hostel. I'm pretty certain every meal we had was pasta/pizza or gelato. We had to sleep that night because the next morning we were getting up to head to Naples and Pompeii
Venice, Florence and Pisa
We got to Venice on Sunday morning/afternoon and went to find our hotel. You either had to walk or take a water ferry or a boat taxi (so cool). Liz was in Venice when we got there, so we texted her to try and meet up. After we had got ourselves situated in the room (which had free wifi and wasn't supposed too) we went to find the beach that Liz was hanging out on. Once we got to Lido, we got a gelato and tried to find Liz. We found her after walking along the beach for like 15 minutes right at the entrance, haha. We walked back to the ferry and took it to San Marcos Square. That night we made dinner (pasta and wine and salad) in Liz's hostel. We went back to our hotel so Liz could get internet and then went to bed. Venice was absolutely beautiful. We walked around on Monday and saw a farmers market and stuff like that. I am so in love with Venice. We didn't get to see Murano, famous for glass blowing, because we only bought 12 hour ticket instead of 24, stupid us. So we left for Florence instead.
We arrived in Florence, bought a map and went on to our hostel... which we found the street, we just couldn't find the house number. We weren't looking close enough because there was no sign, just a little name on the wall next to do the door. It was a cute little hotel/hostel. We walked around Florence that night, and saw a lot of naked statues, and many things like that. We went to a student pub like forever away from our hotel. It had a pretty sweet drink deal, 1 litre of any cocktail for 10 euros. So Trey and I split a Malibu and coke and it was good. We also got dinner there, it wasn't too good though. The bar was surprisingly not busy, I'm hoping it was because people were on break?? We went back towards the hotel, hoping that there would be another bar nearby.. .false... just a club that wasn't even a club it was more of a hotshot bar, but we got in (the bouncer just asked if we had an ID that said we were 18). The drinks were SO expensive, 14 euro for just a vodka redbull. And there was WAY too much vodka, Scott didn't even finish it. Trey and a Jim Beam and coke, disgusting.. mainly because they don't measure out how much alcohol they put in. After, we just went back to the hotel.
We went to the Academia Galleria where the real David was, waited for about 20 minutes and finally got in. It was pretty huge, there were also a lot of other interesting art works there. After, we went back to look at the Duomo (just a building with a dome) and walked up to Michaelangelo plaza to take a look over Florence, absolutely beautiful. We found the best gelato in Florence. The shop reminded me of some kinda tourist attraction with flashing lights and all, but there were over 60 choices of gelato. SO STINKING GOOD. Afterwards, we decided to head for Pisa. Once we got to Pisa, we had to purchase our reservations to Roma. Then we hoped on the bus (which was only 1 euro and good for 60 minutes) and headed for the Leaning Tower. Thankfully, the people on the bus were nice enough to tell us which stop was the tower. I was actually in awe that I was seeing something that is such a popular landmark. We took our typical pictures and went to see about climbing it... that was a negative, not for 15 euro! So we drank wine and talked on the lawn right next to it. :-) We left for Rome around 6.
We arrived in Florence, bought a map and went on to our hostel... which we found the street, we just couldn't find the house number. We weren't looking close enough because there was no sign, just a little name on the wall next to do the door. It was a cute little hotel/hostel. We walked around Florence that night, and saw a lot of naked statues, and many things like that. We went to a student pub like forever away from our hotel. It had a pretty sweet drink deal, 1 litre of any cocktail for 10 euros. So Trey and I split a Malibu and coke and it was good. We also got dinner there, it wasn't too good though. The bar was surprisingly not busy, I'm hoping it was because people were on break?? We went back towards the hotel, hoping that there would be another bar nearby.. .false... just a club that wasn't even a club it was more of a hotshot bar, but we got in (the bouncer just asked if we had an ID that said we were 18). The drinks were SO expensive, 14 euro for just a vodka redbull. And there was WAY too much vodka, Scott didn't even finish it. Trey and a Jim Beam and coke, disgusting.. mainly because they don't measure out how much alcohol they put in. After, we just went back to the hotel.
We went to the Academia Galleria where the real David was, waited for about 20 minutes and finally got in. It was pretty huge, there were also a lot of other interesting art works there. After, we went back to look at the Duomo (just a building with a dome) and walked up to Michaelangelo plaza to take a look over Florence, absolutely beautiful. We found the best gelato in Florence. The shop reminded me of some kinda tourist attraction with flashing lights and all, but there were over 60 choices of gelato. SO STINKING GOOD. Afterwards, we decided to head for Pisa. Once we got to Pisa, we had to purchase our reservations to Roma. Then we hoped on the bus (which was only 1 euro and good for 60 minutes) and headed for the Leaning Tower. Thankfully, the people on the bus were nice enough to tell us which stop was the tower. I was actually in awe that I was seeing something that is such a popular landmark. We took our typical pictures and went to see about climbing it... that was a negative, not for 15 euro! So we drank wine and talked on the lawn right next to it. :-) We left for Rome around 6.
Paris and the adventure to Italy
The trip was long to Paris, but we finally made it. We stayed in the Crowne Plaza. The first night we went to the Sacred Heart up on Montmatre (sp) hill and I finally got to see Trey and Scott. Afterwards we took a drive around Paris at night. Absolutely beautiful. We got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 11, very neat. The next day we had breakfast and went to climb the tower. I officially think that I a afraid of heights. I wasn't as impressed with the skyline of Paris, not many tall buildings, plus it was foggy. After, we went to Versailles Palace. WOW. Someone had way too much money. But it was beautiful nonetheless. It was cool to see where Marie Antoinette lived all that jazz. The Hall of Mirrors was cool as well. That afternoon/night we had to ourselves. We went to the Louvre (for free bc I'm a student) and saw all the things in there I wanted to see. the mona lisa was surprisingly tinier than I thought. We had to keep asking people to find Aphrodite. One lady basically didn't speak English and was like schoobadibly tick tick tick and we were like WHAT IN THE WORLD?!! We found her and then left. That night we mostly packed and Trey and Scott came over for a while and we planned Italy. France was currently experiencing a railstrike so we didn't really know what to do because the train station didn't know when any trains would be running to Italy.
Saturday morning my parents were leaving to go back home. It was so nice having them here and to finally see them. So of course I cried when they after. Trey, Scott and I headed to the train station to wait to leave for Italy. We were there from 7 to 3:30. It was a long day of watching people (getting pooped on by pigeons) and catching up. We basically ran for the train once it got there because we didn't know if it would be difficult to get on. It wasn't, we got a seat and then we were off. The next thing we know the train was stopping at the border of France and Italy. There we had to get off to catch a bus into Tolino (or something)... We had NO IDEA what was going on... mainly because no one spoke english and we didnt speak italian. We got on a bus and had a 2.5 hour drive through the alps of Italy and France. We would go through tunnels and everytime we came out it would just get darker. It was an experience to say the least. We got to Tolido or whatever it was called and had to figure out how to get to milan. Luckily the train came right when we got down there and we got to Milan around 11 and found a really nice and fairly cheap hotel to stay in for the night. Equiped with breakfast and tub and a mini bar. The next morning we got on a train to Venice.
Saturday morning my parents were leaving to go back home. It was so nice having them here and to finally see them. So of course I cried when they after. Trey, Scott and I headed to the train station to wait to leave for Italy. We were there from 7 to 3:30. It was a long day of watching people (getting pooped on by pigeons) and catching up. We basically ran for the train once it got there because we didn't know if it would be difficult to get on. It wasn't, we got a seat and then we were off. The next thing we know the train was stopping at the border of France and Italy. There we had to get off to catch a bus into Tolino (or something)... We had NO IDEA what was going on... mainly because no one spoke english and we didnt speak italian. We got on a bus and had a 2.5 hour drive through the alps of Italy and France. We would go through tunnels and everytime we came out it would just get darker. It was an experience to say the least. We got to Tolido or whatever it was called and had to figure out how to get to milan. Luckily the train came right when we got down there and we got to Milan around 11 and found a really nice and fairly cheap hotel to stay in for the night. Equiped with breakfast and tub and a mini bar. The next morning we got on a train to Venice.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Guten Tag
I think the last time I left off we were in London or just about to leave London.
Sunday…
We met our tour guide Paul Felix and headed to St. Pancras station to get onto the Eurostar. It was a super fast trip. I fell asleep during the time we were under the channel, and when I woke up I was watching French farmland pass by the window. We ended up in Brussels, got on our motorcoach and started our long journey to Amsterdam.
We arrived in Amsterdam and went on a cruise through the canals, it was raining but it was beautiful regardless. We then went to check into the Carlton. My parents and I wanted to do the excursion of a Dutch dinner and a walk through Amsterdam. The dinner was interesting. We got to chose a starter and Mom, Dad and I tried all three… a fish platter (yuck), a ham platter (yuck) and pea soup (yum). Main dish mom had hodgepodge which was carrots and mashed potatoes with a meatball, I had chicken with potatoes and dad had steak. For dessert we had ice cream with fruit salad, ice cream with pancakes and ice cream with chocolate (orgasmic). We then had coffee… which was bitter so I literally put half the bottle of sugar in it and then it was perfect.
After dinner we went on our tour of Amsterdam. We saw a lot of interesting things and learned a lot of history. We also went through the red light district. Women were seriously standing in windows with nothing but lingerie on posing… I felt so awkward, especially being with my parents. People also tried selling dad some marijuana. Marijuana was being smoked everywhere and it was disgusting.
Monday morning we were up and heading for Germany. In Germany we went to Cologne or Koln and saw the Dom Cathedral which was ridiculously beautiful. We walked around and had some pastries and then walked around Cologne some more, we didn’t really have much time there. After, we tried heading to the Rhine river to do a cruise, but traffic was awful because of a bike race… Thankfully we got to the river cruise right when it was about to leave. The Rhine River was BEAUTIFUL. So many castles and quaint little villages. After the cruise, we headed on to Heidelberg. We were staying at the Leonardo hotel… where we had dinner. Dinner was salmon (gross) not our choice with rice… So after, dad and I walked the streets to find more food. We only found a café open seeing as they celebrate Easter both on the Friday before and the Monday after so it was empty. Dad and I got a German beer and some pommes with mayo and ketchup.
Tuesday… we headed to the Black Forest, which was amazing. There we stopped at a cute shop that had cookoo clocks, dolls, nutcrackers and anything else German that you can imagine. We got a bunch of stuff, but we won’t get it until we get home. We walked around the town for a while before leaving for Switzerland. Since Switzerland isn’t a part of the EU we had to cross security at the border. Once in Switzerland, we stopped at the Rhine Falls, not quite Niagra Falls, but still impressive. We got into Lucerne around 4:30. Our hotel is on a hill and our bus driver backed up the hill to get to it, it was very impressive. Mom, dad and I walked around the Lake and saw Mt. Pilatus and the alps surrounding Lucerne.
Tonight, we did a traditional Swiss Folklore dinner party. We had cheese fondue, veal with hashbrowns, and ice cream. It was yummy. We also had traditional music, complete with alphorns, yodeling, and many other things. I got to go on stage and dance, mom and dad had to yodel (and chug beer). It was one hilarious and fun evening.
Tomorrow our plan is to have a tour of Lucerne, climb Mt. Pilatus (by a cable car) and then have the afternoon to do whatever. Thursday we leave bright and early for Paris!
Sunday…
We met our tour guide Paul Felix and headed to St. Pancras station to get onto the Eurostar. It was a super fast trip. I fell asleep during the time we were under the channel, and when I woke up I was watching French farmland pass by the window. We ended up in Brussels, got on our motorcoach and started our long journey to Amsterdam.
We arrived in Amsterdam and went on a cruise through the canals, it was raining but it was beautiful regardless. We then went to check into the Carlton. My parents and I wanted to do the excursion of a Dutch dinner and a walk through Amsterdam. The dinner was interesting. We got to chose a starter and Mom, Dad and I tried all three… a fish platter (yuck), a ham platter (yuck) and pea soup (yum). Main dish mom had hodgepodge which was carrots and mashed potatoes with a meatball, I had chicken with potatoes and dad had steak. For dessert we had ice cream with fruit salad, ice cream with pancakes and ice cream with chocolate (orgasmic). We then had coffee… which was bitter so I literally put half the bottle of sugar in it and then it was perfect.
After dinner we went on our tour of Amsterdam. We saw a lot of interesting things and learned a lot of history. We also went through the red light district. Women were seriously standing in windows with nothing but lingerie on posing… I felt so awkward, especially being with my parents. People also tried selling dad some marijuana. Marijuana was being smoked everywhere and it was disgusting.
Monday morning we were up and heading for Germany. In Germany we went to Cologne or Koln and saw the Dom Cathedral which was ridiculously beautiful. We walked around and had some pastries and then walked around Cologne some more, we didn’t really have much time there. After, we tried heading to the Rhine river to do a cruise, but traffic was awful because of a bike race… Thankfully we got to the river cruise right when it was about to leave. The Rhine River was BEAUTIFUL. So many castles and quaint little villages. After the cruise, we headed on to Heidelberg. We were staying at the Leonardo hotel… where we had dinner. Dinner was salmon (gross) not our choice with rice… So after, dad and I walked the streets to find more food. We only found a café open seeing as they celebrate Easter both on the Friday before and the Monday after so it was empty. Dad and I got a German beer and some pommes with mayo and ketchup.
Tuesday… we headed to the Black Forest, which was amazing. There we stopped at a cute shop that had cookoo clocks, dolls, nutcrackers and anything else German that you can imagine. We got a bunch of stuff, but we won’t get it until we get home. We walked around the town for a while before leaving for Switzerland. Since Switzerland isn’t a part of the EU we had to cross security at the border. Once in Switzerland, we stopped at the Rhine Falls, not quite Niagra Falls, but still impressive. We got into Lucerne around 4:30. Our hotel is on a hill and our bus driver backed up the hill to get to it, it was very impressive. Mom, dad and I walked around the Lake and saw Mt. Pilatus and the alps surrounding Lucerne.
Tonight, we did a traditional Swiss Folklore dinner party. We had cheese fondue, veal with hashbrowns, and ice cream. It was yummy. We also had traditional music, complete with alphorns, yodeling, and many other things. I got to go on stage and dance, mom and dad had to yodel (and chug beer). It was one hilarious and fun evening.
Tomorrow our plan is to have a tour of Lucerne, climb Mt. Pilatus (by a cable car) and then have the afternoon to do whatever. Thursday we leave bright and early for Paris!
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