Schloss Neuschwanstein

Schloss Neuschwanstein
Originally uploaded by danbirdeurotrip.

We were able to upload more pictures in Budapest. We have reached our limit on posting pictures for this month, but the next blog should contain a link to the new pictures we will be putting up as our account gains more space. Click to see more pics here.

So today, we had an amazing time outside of Budapest. We had amazing guides. Katia's friend, Gabi, brought her colleague, Zita, with her today and we all drove to Eger, a town about 2 hours East of Budapest. It is the site of a historic battle between the Magyars and the Turks in the 1550s. It is like the Alamo of Hungary, except the Hungarians were able to repel the Turks.

We were able to eat some yummy traditional food, like Goulash Soup, while we were there. Dan drank the famous "Bull's Blood" wine while here. The legend goes that the Magyars drank this red wine while fighting the Turks. They fought so fiercly that the Turks thought they were drinking the blood of bulls. Katie had a local white. Then we went to the best pastry shop and had traditional Hungarian deserts like chestnut puree and a chocolate cakey dish with whipped cream and chocolately liquor. Dan also drank here the famous regional desert wine Tokaji-Aszu. Very sweet. Wow.

Gabi and Zita have just been the most amazing tour guides. They tell us the history of everything, and translate for us, since out in the country, English is not spoken so much.

More later.

Vienna!

Where do we begin for Vienna? It is a large city, much larger than Prague or Munich. In fact, those two cities put together would equal Vienna (over 2 million people). We took an early train and enjoyed talking to a couple from, of all places, Portland, OR. Small world. Once in Vienna, we had to purchase a 24 hour metro pass and find our way out to the hostel. It was a short walk (up a steep hill) from one of the U-bahn stations. We didn't have a ton of energy for sightseeing, although we did go to the city center and walk around looking at buildings. We found the tourist office and decided the walking tours were too spendy, but the woman at the desk gave us some information for a self-guided tour. While there, we happened to notice a concert was taking place that night in the Hofburg (the former Hapsburg royal palace). The concert was being put on by the Vienna Horn Quartet. Katie and I were able to get student tickets for 5€ a person! Good concert, uncomfortable pews since the concert took place in the Hofburg Chapel.

The next day we went to Schoenbrunn palace, the summer "hunting lodge" of the Hapsburgs, of which we only saw 40 of the rooms, all very ornately decorated. We purchased the audio tour...basically giant cellphones and wandered through the palace, and then out into the grounds. Supposedly modelled on Versailles, it had a complex of huge lawns, several outlying palace-type things and fountains. Needless to say, we spent several hours there. Went to the city center later for more sight-seeing. So many buildings are huge, imperial and regal, you really get a feel for what Vienna was like as the capitol at the heart of a sprawling international empire. For dinner, Katie and I went out to Heiligenstadt at the fringes of the city, which some of you may know was where Beethoven went to recover/dispair when he found out he was going deaf. We ate at a locally well-known restaraunt with great potato salads, giant soft pretzels and beer, not to mention the sausage dishes.

Finally, we had one more morning to spend in Vienna before riding the train to Budapest (only 3 hours on the "slow" train). We finally went to the Stephensdom (cathedral) and the Rathaus (city hall). Great buildings and very busy with tourists! We had lunch at another place called Figlmueller's, known for its GIGANTIC schnitzel (even bigger than the one we had in Munich). Of course, we had to get it, but we split it so as not to explode. Schnitzel explosions, though rare, are quite damaging to a person's system.

So now we are in Budapest, staying in an aparment owned by our neighbors in Brooklyn, Keith and Katia. Katia arranged for us to meet her friend Gabi, who teaches English here, to meet us at the train station and drive us to the apartment. She is basically our personal tour guide. Katia's mom, who speaks almost no English, came down from her country house to help us with the gas and the kitchen eccentricites. The apartment was built during the Commuinist era (1950s) but is very comfortable and is located pretty close to the city center. Katia's mom, Eva, cooked us a meal which was very tasty and of course incorporated peppers, known here as paprikas. She is cooking us dinner again tonight before heading back to the country tomorrow. She is really a remarkable lady!! Later this week, we will be going around with Gabi who will help us speak Magyar. So, we are in good shape and will report back later.

We found a cheap internet cafe ($1 per hour...so good!) in a mall near Katia's place which might even allow us to post pictures, so stay tuned!

Munich and Prague

So....we love Prague!! Our hostel here has free internet access and we have taken advantage of it to post some more pictures from earlier in the trip and do some planning via the internet for the next few weeks. But let me back up to Munich. We took the overnight train from Paris which was pretty cool. We were in a 4-person compartment with small beds, not reclining seats. There were only 3 of us in our little chamber: Katie, me, and another young professional who was from Germany, lived in Paris and had spend 3-4 years in the US and spoke all 3 languages flawlessly. But as much as we would have liked to talk to her, we slept. We got to Munich around 9am and spent the next 2 hours figuring out how to get to our hostel, getting there, getting food, etc.

We went back to the train station where we got a very large cheese pretzel for Katie...so good..and a bratwurst for Dan...also very good. Then we were off on a 2 hour train trip to Fuessen (actually spelled with a u-umlaut, the one with two dots) from which, after viewing a very cool Jesuit church, we visited the castle of Neuschwanstein, the brainchild of "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the inspiration for the Disneyland castle. It was very touristy and everything was overpriced, but the castle is truly incredible (and unfinished! they stopped work after Ludwig's mysterious death in 1886). Hopefully, we can get some pictures up soon.

Back to Munich and the best darn dinner we had had to date on the trip...well, not counting Ragan's and Katie's homecookin' on the boat. I had a GIANT schnitzle and Katie had a very tasty salad. Of course accompanied by good Augsutiner beer. The next day, we took a free and very informative/entertaining walking tour of the city, which was great since we didn't have too much time. Highlights include: stopping by the city beer garden in Viktualienmarkt, drinking Augustiner (again) and talking to a gentleman in German (Katie was hopelessly lost at this point...sorry Katie!); seeing the St. Anne church (whose frescos are in black and white since it was rebuilt after being destroyed in WWII and they didn't have color photographs of the church!); seeing the Asam church built by the Asam brothers who tried to outdo each other in Roccoco splendor; throwing back a beer at the Hofbrauhaus and listening to traditional German drinking songs; drinking some great Muller-Thurgau white wine at a Weinstube in the Royal Residenz while eating sausages and breaded mushrooms; seeing the Frauenkirche, Munich's main church (the new pope's old church); drinking even more beer later in the evening in the middle of the Englischer Garten (Munich's analog to Central Park) at the Chinese Tower and taliking to more people in a patois of English and German; sleeping.

Next morning at 6am, we jumped on a train to Prague, which took a good 6 hours. Ugh. BUT...Prague is great. Everyone, EVERYONE, speaks English, German or both and sometimes also French and Spanish. We were worried reading the signs that we would be hopelessly lost. Czech is a Slavic language with almost no cognates to any Latin or Germanic language. We have had great food. The world's arguably best beer (even the Germans in Munich said this) costs about a dollar and change for a half liter. WOW! They had a very tasty red wine also, called Frankovka. Dan tried the national apertif, a herb-flavord liqour called Becherovka. Very, very tasty. We had traditional Czech dishes here: pork, smoked pork, roasted pork, dumplings (bread and potato), stuffed chicken, wursts, potato pancakes, etc. A good meal costs about 15 bucks, throw in some of the drinks I just mentioned and you get a smorgasbord for about 20 bucks. Holy cow! Talk about value. I am all about value.

We also went on a walking tour here, which was maybe even more necessary than in Munich since, again, we don't speak Slavic languages. We covered the castle compound up on the hill with the St. Vitus cathedral to the Charles Bridge (from the 1300s) with it's spectacular statues to the city squares with the amazing churches to the Wenceslaus place where Soviet tanks sat for about 25 years until the Velvet Revolution of 1989. It is crazy to be in this bustling, vibrant place, whereas 15 years ago, as Americans, we probably could have never visited this amazing city since it was behind the Iron Curtain. Our tour guide was 22 and studying law. She had some stories to tell about growing up under Soviet hegemony.

Anyway, we just booked tickets to Vienna. It will be another early morning and another long train ride, but it was a great excursion to a former Eastern Bloc country that has so much to offer both culturally and and gastronomically! We definitely want to visit again! The only "survival Czech" we have retained is "pivo" which of course, means beer.

Czech out the blog in a few days for our next report!! (Give yourself time to stop groaning over that...I just had to put it in)

Attention! All who read the blog may now post comments!

Thanks to Ragan's know-how, all our faithful readers may now post messages to the blog. If you read something offensive, let us know! If you read something funny, let us know! If you read something funny and offensive....let us know! You can also comment on your favorite pictures when you follow the links to the picture viewing areas! Such as this link here.
We'd love to hear from you either in this forum or via email! We are actually feeling a bit homesick...although we are having the time of our lives...so we would love to hear from the folks back home!

Further info on France and Germany

Bird covered most of the finer points of our trip in the blog below this one, but just in case you are hankering for more information, here are some more details about our trip to Chenonceaux (the city) and Chenonceau (the chateau).

Chenonceau was built as a royal palace and has extensive gardens designed by Diane of Poitiers and Catherine de Medici. Really quite remarkable, especially seen by air, which was briefly covered in a blog by Ragan. Let me just say how cool it was to have Ragan and his mobile phone with us. The camera phone allowed him to take pictures, edit a short blurb, and send the info to this website...all without aid of a computer or internet cafe. We will miss this technology as we are now on our own again, seemingly back in some sort of technological stone age. We have our pictures on CD but cannot actually use the CD at most internet cafes.

The ballon trip, while expensive, was quite remarkable and hopefully Gayle and Ragan will post some pictures of it soon. France from the air was picturesque and the balloon trip will be etched in our memories forever. It was very hot that day and none of us expected the balloon to be hot, but the flames to keep the balloon aloft kept the temperature up.

We went to Tours for a day before travelling back to Paris and saw all its sights, its medieval chateau (not as impressive after Chenonceau), it´s magnificent Cathedral (one of the best naturally lit ones we have been in so far--the windows really worked in this Cathedral), and the various grand buildings.

Katie and I bid adieu to Ragan and Gayle in Paris, although we did get some more sightseeing in, Sacre Couer on Montmartre and walking down to Les Invalides after stopping in to see the interior of the Madeleine church.

We took an overnight train to Munich (8 hours) and as Katie has said, have been enjoying copious amounts of beer since. It is really cheap and GOOD here. I have enjoyed exercising my rusty German, and we have also enjoyed many a sausage. I accidentally insulted a waiter by asking if he wanted us to pay him, but the way I asked was the same grammatical way one would proposition a prostitute!! Whoops! Oh well, live and learn. He was amused and graciously corrected me.

Well, tomorrow is Prague and more beer and sights. Stay tuned. And we love hearing from you in emails even if we can´t respond to everyone.

Bis dann! Tschuss.

Au revoir France!

I have commandeered the controls from Dan and will be guiding you through our last days in France. Let me just say, we love France! The weather was great, the people were amazingly friendly and the wine was oh-so-cheap! The last few days were spent in Chenonceaux (at an amazing chateau) and in Tours. It was very hot and I think we all perspired more than necessary and perhaps were a bit on edge as a result. Thinking back, France was quite an adventure and, in true Bird fashion, I will recount the lessons in list form:
1. We all learned what Dan called "survival French" which is as follows:
a. thank you
b. do you speak English?
c. how long has this been dead?
d. where are the toilets?!
e. goodbye
note: it took four of us to say one thing in French, but we got free alcohol for our efforts!
2. The ducks in France are huge. HUGE.
3. Church bells ring all the time. We developed a theory that they rang more frequently when we were around, to notify the locals that the foreigners were about. "close the shops, do not allow them into our sanctuary!" It was not uncommon for a church bell to ring at 23 past the hour. Or 12 past. They were watching us.
4. The town of Parce has the best pasteries in the world. I would share, but I ate them all.
5. The French literally survive on bread, cheese and wine.
6. Screens and air conditioning are unheard of in France. We are years ahead of them in this regard.
7. Showers do not have curtains.
8. A bidet is a thing. A very strange thing.
9. The French allow their dogs to poop everywhere. And they do not clean it up. Because of this, I was forced (FORCED) to develop a system of warning for all those who walked behind me. It was a signal for everyone to beware. It is a dance. The Poop Dance. When the Poop Dance is observed, all those who see it must imitate the dance until the danger has passed. This is really best demonstrated in person. I will do perfomances for a small fee upon return to the US.


Well, there you have it. We survived France. Germany is treating us well with cheap beer and giant cheese pretzels. We were able to take a free walking tour of Munich today, which proved very entertaining and informative. Yesterday we were sucked into the tourist trap of Schloss Neuschwanstein, the castle Disney used as inspiration for the Disneyland castle. It was 2 hours by train out of Munich. Very beautiful. Many steep hills and extra costs. Dan says "totally worth it" Bird says "I´m hot"

Next adventure: Prague. We leave tomorrow morning at 6:44am. Until we meet again, wish us luck.

Dinner in Tours

Dinner in Tours
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

Gayle and Ragan's last European dinner. We are in Tours by the Hotel de Ville. We will miss our traveling friends but are happy to have had them here!

Ahoy mateys!!

Ahoy mateys!!
Originally uploaded by danbirdeurotrip.

Here are the four of us in Sable sur Sarthe. This picture was taken by Patrick, one of our new friends as explained in another blog. To see more pictures of the boat trip click here.

The Boat trip is over.

So, we are in Tours after spending a wonderful 2 days in Chenonceaux. We found a photo store and have our first photo CD and a full memory stick for the digital camera which we can now empty for the next round of photos. We can take about 350 high quality pictures on our memory stick!

The boat trip was a total blast. We left from a quaint little village called Chenille-Change on the Mayenne river. The boat was easy to pilot after a few misadventures and served us well the whole way. We travelled about 90 miles on 4 rivers, the Mayenne, the Oudon, the Maine and the Sarthe.

Every day there were picturesque villages to explore and in between, beautiful natural scenery. We will soon post a sampling of the pictures online. Chances are, you have already seen them in the more recent post. We saw a lot of wildlife, including huge ducks. We saw churches built in the 1000s, 1100s, 1200s, etc. Not quite as glamorous as the larger cathedrals in the big cities, but very impressive in their own way (old rather than large). We ate the tastiest pastries ever from the little shops where we bought our baguettes, and sampled the local cheeses and wine. We also happened to run into the taxi driver who took us to Chenille-Change
in the town of Lion d'Angers who was able to recommend to us a very good restaraunt with very reasonable prices. Ragan had medallions of duck, Dan had veal marsala and Katie and Gayle both had gourmet pizzas. Very tasty.

One of the highlights of the boat trip, among so many, was riding our bikes out to the chateau of Plessis-Bourre. It is surrounded by a very pretty moat, which is also very deep, up to 10 feet or more in some places. We were able to take a tour in English because no French tourists showed up (the guide told us if even one French person showed up he would run the tour in French). The guide was very entertaining and the chateau had many fancy rooms, tapestries, and paintings. It also had a very extensive collection of hand held fans. A random but interesting display. The bike ride back was very pleasant. We had great weather the whole way, it only rained one day out of the 7 we were on the water. The locals told us this was unseasonably nice. We'll take it.

Probably the neatest encounter the whole way was meeting two gentlemen named Patrick, pronounced Patrique, and Claude. They had just retired from working for the French train company and were taking a trip together before meeting up with their wives. They were moored next to us in a town called Sable sur Sarthe and invited us over to their boat for a glass of wine. They gave us the local red and white wines, of which they were very proud, and also the hard apple cider from the region which was very tasty, with smoky accents. Also, there was a liquor produced by distilling the cider, which they insisted we sample before going back to our boat. We saw them several other times on the trip and they kept asking us to drink cider with them. How could we refuse?! They also knew one of the lock keepers, named Gigi (with her dog Kiki), and warned her we were coming. Katie called out "ALLO GIGI!" as instructed by Patrick when we got to the lock. She chatted with us and told us Patrick said that he didn't like America but he liked us. We felt we were being good ambassadors for our country. She then proceded to give us yet another bottle of cider and the local white wine which was of course, very tasty. Overall, we felt pampered by the locals and Ragan figured out a way to say "you spoil us" in French, which we used on several occasions.

We couldn't believe our boat trip was over after a week, but we have a zillion pictures to prove we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Next up was Chenonceau chateau which we will post in the next blog.

In a field outside Chenonceau

In a field outside Chenonceau
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

Bonjour! Here we are just before lift-off on our great adventure in the air. The experience was incredibly fun and altogether surreal.

Expensive Internet in Le Mans

Due to the expense of internet here, I can only report that the boat trip went better than we could have ever hoped. The weather was unseasonably nice according to the locals (only 1 day of rain) and we befriended some local French people who supplied us with very tasty local wines and ciders. We will write in more detail from Tours, where the internet will hopefully be less expensive.

We are sad the boat trip is over, but we look forward to recounting it for you over the next few blogs.

Fete du Musique en La Suze-sur-Sarthe

Fete du Musique en La Suze-sur-Sarthe
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

We've arrived at the end of our boat journey in the city of La Suze-sur-Sarthe. When we docked and set out to explore we found that there was a fete du musique with all styles of music. We found a seat and listened to the sound check (which included 'The Police' through a French filter), and an amusing adult choir.

Partridges on our roof

Partridges on our roof
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

Gayle and Dan plot our course towards Nice. We ended up in Malicorne-sur-Sarthe instead.

Medieval magic (Dan's idea)

Medieval magic (Dan's idea)
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

Looking at the spire of the church in Parce. Here we stopped and walked around the most well preserved old town on the Sarthe. The highlight of the town is a tower built in 1047 (and a spectacular apple confection that Katie ate).

Chateau du Plessis-Bourre

Chateau du Plessis-Bourre
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

This morning we visited this beautiful chateau near Cheffes. Luckily the other visitors did not speak French, so our guide gave his in English. At least it sorta sounded like English.

What happened when we got separated...

A note to anyone with a Europass - Reservations are needed for the high-speed trains from Paris. Particularly the one going to Tours, which Gayle and I rode alone. Dan and Katie were forced to watch us wave them goodbye from platform. In Tours we had a short time before our next train (not high-speed, and not as nice) whisked us off to the little town of Saumur. Upon arrival, we thought about what to do next, trying to find a useful map of the city (perhaps one with a scale of distance) and figuring out where our hotel could be. Just as we were about depart for what seemed like a short walk to our residence, a train pulled. I wonderered aloud, "wouldn't it be great if Dan and Katie were on that train?" Lo and behold, there they were, and our gang was reunited. The trip to the hotel was not as easy as it seemed, having to trudge to the city center, asking the tourist information center where it was, and hurrying to catch the bus that only took us to the base of the hill of where the hotel stood. We heaved our luggage up the hill, checked in, dropped our bags, and headed off to the Mushroom Museum. Yup, we paid money to see mushrooms. It was just as exciting as it sounds. No, seriously.

Barge Beginnings...

So we tried to leave Paris with Ragan and Gayle. This did not work out as well as we had so carefully planned. I watched with tears in mine eyes as Ragan and Gayle ran to catch the train to Saumur without us, as the ticket agent had neglected to let us know we needed reservations! This ended well when we reunited in Saumur.

Saumur is apparently the supplier of 75 percent of the world's button mushrooms so we went to the mushroom museum, which we were led to believe had a great cafe. Picture this: cold, capacious caves full of dirt. With an occasional mushroom popping out. Bird cried at the beginning of the day and was now close to tears from boredom and incredulty at having paid 7 euros to be cold and bored and hungry with no cafe to speak of. Ragan and Bird left the Partridges in the dust and entertained each other with songs of mushrooms resonating through the caves. Also found one redeeming quality: phallus impudique-a lovely phallic mushroom that was the source of much juvenile laughter. hee hee.

Now we are barging! Having great weather and a lot of fun figuring out how to make the thing go and what all the levers and buttons and such work. Stopping in little villages and attempting to explore the chateaux by bike. Drinking a lot of wine, which is cheap here! Went to church service in French, didn't understand anything...the priest tried to communicate with us and wouldn't let us interrupt to say we didn't understand until he'd given us his life story, at which point he realized we were American and basically left us alone.

Partridges explored the castle in Angers (with the largest medieval tapestry in the world) while Ragan and Bird explored the city on foot and made a necessary grocery run.

Today we head north on the river Sarthe. Hilarious results to follow.

Paris!!

Well,

Where do we begin? Paris is an amazing city. We got in midafternoon and set out to see the city on foot, without a map but with a general working knowledge of where tall monuments were (Notre Dame, etc.) We walked from our hostel down to Notre Dame and then crossed over the bridge to find food. We ended up eating mediocre pizza this time (next time, we would find excellent pizza). We continued on foot over the Pont Neuf (which is really the oldest bridge in Paris) and walked to the Louvre. It was closed, but the exterior was really ornate and impressive. We strolled through the Tuilleries (a huge public garden) to the Royal Palace. Of course, we snapped photos all along the way. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find another internet cafe with memory card reading capability, so you'll have to wait for these pictures.

We finally returned to the hostel where our suitemates had arrived: two nice guys from Minnesota. They gladly gave up their beds the following night when Gayle and Ragan arrived so that we could all be together.

Other sights in Paris we saw the next day after getting a museum pass (no lines to wait in anywhere!): we visited the Louvre for several hours and saw many of the famous paintings and statues, we walked up the Notre Dame towers (quite a view!) and then over to the Pantheon (a very massive church converted into a resting place for great men of France like Voltaire and Rousseau, and also one woman, Marie Curie). The Luxembourg palace and gardens were nearby so we saw those and hit the Delacroix museum (which had free toilets!). After this, we hopped on the metro and walked up the Arc de Triomphe (a real hike) with great views of the city and the chaos of the traffic circle below. There was a gathering of elderly gentlemen in full military regalia when we descended and it hit us that it was exactly 60 years to the day for V-E day.

Back to the hostel, with a quick stop by the Opera house and a picture of Dan and the theorist/composer Rameau to wait for Gayle. Due to a mixup, Gayle wouldn't actually arrive until the next day...oops. Oh well.

Gayle and Ragan arrived the next day. We had time to go to Versailles first though. This was an amazing compound of chateaux, gardens, and fountains (which weren't runnning unfortunately). Also disappointing was the restoration of the Hall of Mirrors which basically will cover everything up for the next 4 years. Ragan had arrived when we returned, so we went with him to the Musee d'Orsay which was quite impressive again. I am running out of superlatives to use with all the sights we have seen.

Gayle arrived later in the evening. We went out to the best falafel restaurant in the world (according to rock star Lenny Kravitz) which was in the Jewish quarter. It was very tasty...or as they say in my family...my but that was good! Then we went to see the Eiffel Tower illuminated against the black night sky. Very very cool. It was a definite "we are really in Paris" moment.

The next day we got up early and went to Saumur for one day before the barge trip.

Evening lights in Anger

Evening lights in Anger
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

This evening we moored in Anger and enjoyed a delicious meal of mushroom (museum) risotto, tomato salad with mustard dressing, and apple tart.

Set a course for adventure!

Set a course for adventure!
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

In Chenille-Change before departing upon our journey. The building in the background is an old mill.

Found: Dan and Bird

Found: Dan and Bird
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

Reunited in Saumur. The photo was taken by a british bloke we came across.

On our own in the French countryside

On our own in the French countryside
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

Ragan and Gayle in Tours on the way to Saumur after getting separated from Dan and Bird.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge
Originally uploaded by danbirdeurotrip.

Here's a picture...finally!! Now, to see the rest, just follow this link here.

Last post in the USA

Last post in the USA
Originally uploaded by Swamp Ninja.

Here's a photo of my plane while I wait to board. I hope that kid isn't sitting next to me. He looks like a whiner.

Bonn and Reims

Hello again to all who may be following along with our trip!

We have been getting updates from the homefront via email, we enjoy reading them since we really can't make phone calls from here. Today we are at an internet cafe in Reims where they charge 4€ per hour because it is a smaller city where the demand exceeds supply apparently. That's a lot. We may be able to get pictures on today though, so we are excited.

After Cologne, we went to Bonn where we stayed in a nice budget hotel 15 minutes walking from the city center. We took a self guided walking tour using a free map/pamphlet from the tourist office. It was a very nice overview of the former capital of West Germany. We also saw Beethoven's childhood home which has been converted into an interesting museum (especially for Daniel). It was also really warm that day so we got ourselves some gelato....yummmmy. Katie had hazelnut and chocolate-cherry while I had honeymelon. So refreshing and good. In the evening, we saw a free concert of a youth orchestra and professional soloists in the cathedral. Not great, but free!

After Bonn, we traveled in the midday to Luxembourg City for a few hours of sight-seeing. The city is built on peaks, with deep valleys splitting the city into 2-3 parts. Very neat, but not worth spending an entire day there, plus it was over-run by noisy European high school students on their summer breaks. So we moved on to Reims via a very old train for the first leg of the journey. Since Reims is off the beaten path, it is not as well served by the high speed trains. Then, we waited to transfer to another train at a dilapidated train station in the middle of nowhere in a small covered enclosure (like a bus stop)in the pouring rain. The next train to Reims was actually quite a bit nicer and we got in pretty late at night. The next day, we saw the Cathedral where some 30 kings of France have been crowned since about 400 AD, when St. Remi (for whom the city is now named) baptised Clovis, king of the Gauls, as the first Christian ruler of France.

It is cheap to stay here (cheaper for a hotel here than a hostel in Paris) so we are staying here and taking it easy for a few days, touring a Champagne house or two, going to little museums and Roman ruins and eating pastries (oh man, the pastries here are soooo good!).

We move onto Paris in a few days to sightsee and then meet up with Gayle and Ragan for our barge trip. Things are exciting. We love hearing from you on our email, and we hope all is well with everyone.

In lieu of real photos...

Artist's interpretation of Bird and Dan's trip so far.

Brussles, Bruges, and Cologne

Well,

Brussels had the most amazing central square that we have yet seen. It was completely surrounded by amazingly old (1697 for most) buildings. Very elaborate ones at that. Instead of taking pictures, we took a video where Katie turned 360 degrees to capture everything. (We did take pictures too! not that you can see them yet since we just tried to connect our USB cable to this computer and it rebooted...we´ll figure it out eventually, like at the end of the trip) We also visited many chocolatiers and we ate waffles from a vendor. We both had them with bananas, chocolate and powedered sugar, and Katie had whipped cream on hers too. SO YUMMY!! and messy.

Then we drank some Trappist beers (brewed by the monks at the abbeys) and went back early to do the first international washing of our clothes. It took awhile, but there were 3 little girls who helped us pass the time by asking us soooo many questions about America. They spoke very little English, and I spoke very little French, and we some how got by and learned a little more of each others´languages. We ate a small dinner at a diner in the Pakistani distrcit of Brussles (which is where our hotel was also). The next day we went to Bruges, (or Brugge to some) where the entire city is basically unchanged from medieval times. It is something of a tourist trap now, but still very picturesque and fun. We went into several amazing churches, and actually were able to lay hands on the relic that contained Christ´s blood (according to tradition) in the Basilica of the Holy Blood. We went into several MORE chocolate shops, sampling the Lemongrass chocolate, a rasperry cream one, and a couple others. Very delightful. It is relatively cheap as well. A 15 piece box cost only 4 euros!! We are looking forward to tasting the havana cigar flavored one. At dinner, I ate the traditional Belgian meal of mussels and frites (with beer of course) and Katie had a cheese croquette followed by beef stew! Yum! It was in a very nice little square of old buildings and pleasant ambience.

We went to Cologne that night and realized our hotel was in the middle of nowhere, about 35 minutes out of the city in a rural area. Luckily, we ran into some other Americans headed the same way and somehow figured out how to walk there (another 15 minutes from the train stop, in the dark, on some lonely roads, with rabid dogs....no wait, no rabid dogs...only angry Katies). We did get a good night´s sleep though, and found this internet cafe today. Now on to see the Dom (cathedral) of Cologne and then to Bonn and Beethoven´s birth house! Stay tuned for another exciting installment.....