Slightly stressful trip home but we made it! :)
So we got up and checked out of the hotel, went to the train station, bought subway tickets and headed for the airport. Our flight was at 9:40am and we left the hotel around 8am thinking we had plenty of time. That was not the case! We left the train station at 8:15am and it took until 9am to get to the airport. Now the Munich airport is HUGE so we ran around trying to figure out where to go and finally found out where we needed to check in. We tried self check in and it wasn’t working so we went to the counter and she couldn’t find our names in the computer! (You’ve got to be kidding me! I have a confirmation number and everything!) Turns out the computer system had our names backwards and that’s why it wasn’t coming up. So she printed our boarding passes and sent us through security.
I made it through without a problem but for some reason they wanted to search Joe’s bag, I think too many electronics with his camera and e-book reader. So at this point the plane is boarding and it’s 9:10am we are now RUNNING to our gate in hopes of not missing the plane! We just barely made it to the bus (ok we had 5 minutes to spare) but that was cutting it just a little to close for me! The bus took us to our little plane with 10 total people on it and we were off to Denmark. It was a quick easy flight and again thank God for my feed bag and snacks. We landed in Billund, checked the transportation area to see what the best way to get back to Kolding, had some food and got the bus, then the train and were finally back. :)
We really had a wonderful time on this trip and it was so great to visit so many different places. As I’ve said before Warsaw and Munich were my favorite cities though I also enjoyed being in Krakow and Prague. I hope to be able to visit these places again someday and see more of the area. What a great European vacation and so many wonderful memories to go along with it!
Next stop, Barcelona, Rome, Naples and Pompei! I finally narrowed down the hotel choices so those trips are just about planned. I can’t wait to see more new places and enjoy the beaches in Barcelona! Joe and I are pretty sad to not be visiting our VA Beach family this year but won’t complain about swimming in the Mediterranean sea!
Hope you all enjoyed reading about our adventures. I’d love to hear how many of you are keeping up with this crazy blog of mine! More adventures to come!!!
Love from Amanda and Joe
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Day 9: Munich Germany; German Museum
As it was the last day of our travels we decided not to rush around in the morning but just relax and head out when we felt like it, instead of scheduling every single second of the day.
First stop of the day, food! (I swear I don’t intend to write so much about food but when you travel like this you can’t help but talk about the delicious food you get!) So we went over to the market and got some sausages for lunch! SO SO SO GOOD! I wouldn’t want to eat like this all the time but they were really delicious! Joe got sauerkraut on both of them (well the lady put it on both) so I had a little and gave the rest to Joe. They were delicious and it was fun to stand at a nice table and have some lunch outside.
After having some lunch we headed over to the Deutches Museum. Joe had been excited to go here because it’s apparently a big technology museum and that was very appealing to his engineering mind. So we found the museum, got tickets and started our tour. Let me tell you, this museum is HUGE! If I were to compare it to something in the states I would say it’s like the Smithsonian. There was so much to see and we didn’t make it through all of it but here’s some highlights. We started in the area with engines and plans. Joe was like a kid in a candy store checking everything out and explaining to me how things worked. I think my favorite was seeing the huge jet engines on planes and having Joe explain to me how everything works in this HUGE engine and makes it so we can fly places. He also explained to me how the ash could have caused big problems for engines back in April. It was really cool. They had all kinds of old engines so you got to see the progression and changes in engines over time. They also had a whole section on rockets, astronauts and satellites which was really cool! We saw the progression of microscopes and how they create holograms, as well as how they make tunnels, model railways (which reminded me of running trains with my grandpa when I was a little girl), technical toys, mining, and my favorite musical instruments. The whole museum was so cool! It was so much fun to learn about how these things work and see some of the older versions of planes, boats, blimps, kites and submarines! They actually had an old German U-boat in the museum which was so cool! We could have spent way more time there but the museum was closing so we headed out. (Ok so maybe Joe wasn’t the old one who was like a kid in a candy store at this museum.)
On the way back towards the same restaurant we ate at the night before we stopped at a McDonald’s so Joe could get some coffee. This was by far the classiest McDonald’s I’d ever been in! They had a whole little cafe area with treats and leather seats and stools then the actually McDonald’s and more comfy seats. I want to know why are McDonald’s don’t look like this! I wouldn’t mind eating there if it was so nice like that!
Again we had dinner at the same restaurant and I tried to get the pork chop but they were out. I had some roast pork instead which was just as good and Joe had the same platter. Again we ate in the beer garden and I think this is when we realized that during our entire trip we got to eat outside every night. (Ok the second night in Czech we ate inside but just inside of the big doors that were open so we still count it as being outside!) How nice is that. I love being able to eat outside and enjoy the beautiful weather and people watching.
At this point things in Germany got very exciting. While we were eating Germany was in the middle of their quarterfinals match with Argentina. Last we had seen was Germany winning and while we were eating we heard lots of shouting and assumed they got more goals. We were right and just before we finished eating the game ended with a score of 4:0! The whole city was celebrating, honking car horns, waving around German flags and having an impromptu swim in the fountains! It was so fun to see everyone so excited and see them celebrating. We took lots of pictures and later I even got some video of an impromptu parade that started. Joe and I have now decided to hope for Germany to win the cup! :)
So while all this craziness was happening we walked around some shops and went into the huge department store Ludwig Veck. I thought it would be really cool to get a traditional German outfit until I realized they cost 700 euros! I can’t justify that kind of money, so I was a little disappointed but managed to get over it. After the shops we walked over to The Residence and the Hofgarten which was really beautiful. We headed over to the Hofbrauhaus one last time, enjoyed more dessert and music and then headed back to the hotel.
We had a wonderful time in Germany but again it seemed to go by way to quickly. It was exciting to visit so many cities and explore new places. We got packed up and ready to fly back to Denmark the next day....vacation coming to a close.
First stop of the day, food! (I swear I don’t intend to write so much about food but when you travel like this you can’t help but talk about the delicious food you get!) So we went over to the market and got some sausages for lunch! SO SO SO GOOD! I wouldn’t want to eat like this all the time but they were really delicious! Joe got sauerkraut on both of them (well the lady put it on both) so I had a little and gave the rest to Joe. They were delicious and it was fun to stand at a nice table and have some lunch outside.
After having some lunch we headed over to the Deutches Museum. Joe had been excited to go here because it’s apparently a big technology museum and that was very appealing to his engineering mind. So we found the museum, got tickets and started our tour. Let me tell you, this museum is HUGE! If I were to compare it to something in the states I would say it’s like the Smithsonian. There was so much to see and we didn’t make it through all of it but here’s some highlights. We started in the area with engines and plans. Joe was like a kid in a candy store checking everything out and explaining to me how things worked. I think my favorite was seeing the huge jet engines on planes and having Joe explain to me how everything works in this HUGE engine and makes it so we can fly places. He also explained to me how the ash could have caused big problems for engines back in April. It was really cool. They had all kinds of old engines so you got to see the progression and changes in engines over time. They also had a whole section on rockets, astronauts and satellites which was really cool! We saw the progression of microscopes and how they create holograms, as well as how they make tunnels, model railways (which reminded me of running trains with my grandpa when I was a little girl), technical toys, mining, and my favorite musical instruments. The whole museum was so cool! It was so much fun to learn about how these things work and see some of the older versions of planes, boats, blimps, kites and submarines! They actually had an old German U-boat in the museum which was so cool! We could have spent way more time there but the museum was closing so we headed out. (Ok so maybe Joe wasn’t the old one who was like a kid in a candy store at this museum.)
On the way back towards the same restaurant we ate at the night before we stopped at a McDonald’s so Joe could get some coffee. This was by far the classiest McDonald’s I’d ever been in! They had a whole little cafe area with treats and leather seats and stools then the actually McDonald’s and more comfy seats. I want to know why are McDonald’s don’t look like this! I wouldn’t mind eating there if it was so nice like that!
Again we had dinner at the same restaurant and I tried to get the pork chop but they were out. I had some roast pork instead which was just as good and Joe had the same platter. Again we ate in the beer garden and I think this is when we realized that during our entire trip we got to eat outside every night. (Ok the second night in Czech we ate inside but just inside of the big doors that were open so we still count it as being outside!) How nice is that. I love being able to eat outside and enjoy the beautiful weather and people watching.At this point things in Germany got very exciting. While we were eating Germany was in the middle of their quarterfinals match with Argentina. Last we had seen was Germany winning and while we were eating we heard lots of shouting and assumed they got more goals. We were right and just before we finished eating the game ended with a score of 4:0! The whole city was celebrating, honking car horns, waving around German flags and having an impromptu swim in the fountains! It was so fun to see everyone so excited and see them celebrating. We took lots of pictures and later I even got some video of an impromptu parade that started. Joe and I have now decided to hope for Germany to win the cup! :)
So while all this craziness was happening we walked around some shops and went into the huge department store Ludwig Veck. I thought it would be really cool to get a traditional German outfit until I realized they cost 700 euros! I can’t justify that kind of money, so I was a little disappointed but managed to get over it. After the shops we walked over to The Residence and the Hofgarten which was really beautiful. We headed over to the Hofbrauhaus one last time, enjoyed more dessert and music and then headed back to the hotel.
We had a wonderful time in Germany but again it seemed to go by way to quickly. It was exciting to visit so many cities and explore new places. We got packed up and ready to fly back to Denmark the next day....vacation coming to a close.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Day 8: Train to Munich
Now that I gave you all a little side note which is what I wrote about while on the train for hours I can actually tell you about our time in Munich! Sadly this was our last city and we were feeling kind of bummed about that! But we made the best of it and enjoyed every second!
Our Munich hotel was perfect! It was about 5 minutes from the train station and close enough to all the other sights that we didn’t have to take the subway and could walk everywhere. We checked into the hotel and headed out to the Marienplatz area to see the 5pm glockenspiel. SO COOL! We purchased a BIG pretzel for me to snack on while walking around. This thing was huge and so delicious! :) (But seriously as you can see about the size of my head!).
So after seeing the glockenspiel we walked around a bit and then went to St. Peter’s church to climb the clock tower. It took 293 steps to get to the top but it was so worth it! From the tower you can see the whole city which was really awesome! (The view wasn’t as amazing as the swing chairs in Copenhagen but still really spectacular!) So we spent some time up there enjoying the view and the breeze (the whole trip we had beautiful weather but it was HOT! - OK not as hot as Baltimore has been but still pretty toasty!) I really loved looking at everything and seeing so much of the city. We also saw the May Pole in the market area which was cool. I think it would be really awesome to see them dance around it on May 1! I have sorta of a fascination with the whole May Day thing and really would love to learn more about it and see it in person some day!
So after we did all this we went to the restaurant Joe ate at one night with his parents a few months ago. (There’s some serious benefits to being in cities Joe had already been to like knowing what great places there are to eat at!) I had a pork chop (yup I liked pork on this trip!) and it came with this delicious potato cucumber salad. Yummy! We sat outside in the beer garden which was just perfect! I loved being able to sit outside so much during these trips! Joe got a platter with meat, dumplings, mashed potatoes and you can’t forget the sauerkraut! (He really is a meat and potatoes kind of guys some times!)
After this we headed over to the famous Hofbrauhaus to enjoy the German tradition. We ordered some delicious apple strudel which I ended up having both nights we visited this restaurant. They had a band playing polka music and we sat with some other travelers and had good conversations with them. It was so fun to sit and enjoy the music and atmosphere!
We headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before another busy day and sadly the last day of travels!
Our Munich hotel was perfect! It was about 5 minutes from the train station and close enough to all the other sights that we didn’t have to take the subway and could walk everywhere. We checked into the hotel and headed out to the Marienplatz area to see the 5pm glockenspiel. SO COOL! We purchased a BIG pretzel for me to snack on while walking around. This thing was huge and so delicious! :) (But seriously as you can see about the size of my head!).
So after seeing the glockenspiel we walked around a bit and then went to St. Peter’s church to climb the clock tower. It took 293 steps to get to the top but it was so worth it! From the tower you can see the whole city which was really awesome! (The view wasn’t as amazing as the swing chairs in Copenhagen but still really spectacular!) So we spent some time up there enjoying the view and the breeze (the whole trip we had beautiful weather but it was HOT! - OK not as hot as Baltimore has been but still pretty toasty!) I really loved looking at everything and seeing so much of the city. We also saw the May Pole in the market area which was cool. I think it would be really awesome to see them dance around it on May 1! I have sorta of a fascination with the whole May Day thing and really would love to learn more about it and see it in person some day!
So after we did all this we went to the restaurant Joe ate at one night with his parents a few months ago. (There’s some serious benefits to being in cities Joe had already been to like knowing what great places there are to eat at!) I had a pork chop (yup I liked pork on this trip!) and it came with this delicious potato cucumber salad. Yummy! We sat outside in the beer garden which was just perfect! I loved being able to sit outside so much during these trips! Joe got a platter with meat, dumplings, mashed potatoes and you can’t forget the sauerkraut! (He really is a meat and potatoes kind of guys some times!)After this we headed over to the famous Hofbrauhaus to enjoy the German tradition. We ordered some delicious apple strudel which I ended up having both nights we visited this restaurant. They had a band playing polka music and we sat with some other travelers and had good conversations with them. It was so fun to sit and enjoy the music and atmosphere!
We headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before another busy day and sadly the last day of travels!
Side Note: How to Travel in Europe
So with a 6 hour train ride I had a lot of time to reflect on our travels and write some stuff about my thoughts on traveling in Europe so I came to two different conclusions on the train.
Number 1: Young American travels can be pretty rude (sad to say!) So this train had no seat reservations so we just picked a car and settled in. There were 2 other people and 2 empty seats. A young guy came in wanting to sit there but had a HUGE suitcase. The other lady had put a backpack up on the luggage rack and he wanted to put his bag there. (No way it would have fit because our little rolling ones just fit on there) so he demanded to know who’s bag it was and if they could move it so he could “throw his bag up there.” Now I have no problem with people using phrases like that but I felt like it was inappropriate in this situation. When you’re communicating with people who are not native English speakers I don’t think these kind of terms/phrases should be used and I also think that one should be extremely polite to those from the country you’re visiting (I sound old!). So needless to say he didn’t end up sitting there because the lady got kind of mad and he gave up (Not that I knew what she was saying but after he left she had some words to say to her husband and by the tone in her voice I don’t think it was good!). In some ways I felt bad for the kid but I also think he could have handled the situation differently (the wisdom that comes with aging hahahah!)
Number 2: Backpacking. Great way to see Europe but DOESN’T appeal to me AT ALL!!!! So 1/2 way through our trip we lost all our fellow passengers and had the car all to ourselves! Oh it was so nice and quiet and wonderful then 2 backpackers came and decided our car would be the perfect place to put themselves and all their stuff for the remainder of the trip. Now Joe had earlier told me when he went to the snack car that there were 2 cars that were not furnished and didn’t have AC. He said there were tons of people and dogs in those cars. He also told me one guy was sleeping on the floor and he (Joe) hardly had room to walk around him. Guess what!? That was the guy who came into our car. Now, I do think backpacking is a great way for people to explore Europe and get to see so many different places but there’s some traits of backpacking that make it pretty unpleasant like the fact that one doesn’t shower everyday and they and their things start to stink. It was pretty awful for a while and I was wondering how I was going to make it for 3 more hours but eventually it didn’t smell so much anymore. Now as I listened to these kids talk about where they had been and where they were going it sounded like they were having a lot of fun but the idea of sleeping in parks or huge hostels with lots of people and carrying around a supper heavy backpack just doesn’t appeal to me. Joe said when you travel Europe you usually have time OR money. When you’re a college student you have time so backpacking is the way to go. When you’re in Europe on work assignment you have money so you don’t see as much but it’s a much more comfortable experience! My conclusion about backpacking is if it floats your boat go for it, but at this point in my life it doesn’t appeal to me AT ALL! :) I much prefer the way we’ve been traveling Europe!
Number 1: Young American travels can be pretty rude (sad to say!) So this train had no seat reservations so we just picked a car and settled in. There were 2 other people and 2 empty seats. A young guy came in wanting to sit there but had a HUGE suitcase. The other lady had put a backpack up on the luggage rack and he wanted to put his bag there. (No way it would have fit because our little rolling ones just fit on there) so he demanded to know who’s bag it was and if they could move it so he could “throw his bag up there.” Now I have no problem with people using phrases like that but I felt like it was inappropriate in this situation. When you’re communicating with people who are not native English speakers I don’t think these kind of terms/phrases should be used and I also think that one should be extremely polite to those from the country you’re visiting (I sound old!). So needless to say he didn’t end up sitting there because the lady got kind of mad and he gave up (Not that I knew what she was saying but after he left she had some words to say to her husband and by the tone in her voice I don’t think it was good!). In some ways I felt bad for the kid but I also think he could have handled the situation differently (the wisdom that comes with aging hahahah!)
Number 2: Backpacking. Great way to see Europe but DOESN’T appeal to me AT ALL!!!! So 1/2 way through our trip we lost all our fellow passengers and had the car all to ourselves! Oh it was so nice and quiet and wonderful then 2 backpackers came and decided our car would be the perfect place to put themselves and all their stuff for the remainder of the trip. Now Joe had earlier told me when he went to the snack car that there were 2 cars that were not furnished and didn’t have AC. He said there were tons of people and dogs in those cars. He also told me one guy was sleeping on the floor and he (Joe) hardly had room to walk around him. Guess what!? That was the guy who came into our car. Now, I do think backpacking is a great way for people to explore Europe and get to see so many different places but there’s some traits of backpacking that make it pretty unpleasant like the fact that one doesn’t shower everyday and they and their things start to stink. It was pretty awful for a while and I was wondering how I was going to make it for 3 more hours but eventually it didn’t smell so much anymore. Now as I listened to these kids talk about where they had been and where they were going it sounded like they were having a lot of fun but the idea of sleeping in parks or huge hostels with lots of people and carrying around a supper heavy backpack just doesn’t appeal to me. Joe said when you travel Europe you usually have time OR money. When you’re a college student you have time so backpacking is the way to go. When you’re in Europe on work assignment you have money so you don’t see as much but it’s a much more comfortable experience! My conclusion about backpacking is if it floats your boat go for it, but at this point in my life it doesn’t appeal to me AT ALL! :) I much prefer the way we’ve been traveling Europe!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Day 7: Prague, CZ; Prague Castle
For our one full day in Prague we decided to not jam as much stuff in as possible and just pick one activity to do. We had a choice between Prague Castle and the Mozart museum. We picked the castle because I had read it was one of the best things to do while visiting Prague. That would be correct! We spent the entire afternoon at the castle and enjoyed every minute of it!
We arrive around lunch time and got our tickets. We picked the longer tour in hopes of getting as much as possible out of the experience. I was feeling hungry so as we were walking along we discovered a little garden cafe and had some lunch. It was a perfect little lunch outside, after feeling refreshed and ready to explore we headed over to the Old Royal Palace.
The palace was absolutely beautiful! Back in the day most of the palace was destroyed by fire (Big surprise here, do we see a theme with these castles? Apparently they couldn’t engineer the fireplaces well enough!) but over time it was rebuilt and made to be just as beautiful as the original palace. During the big fire the Land Rolls were almost all destroyed which caused some big problems for Prague for a while. After the palace was rebuilt they devised a new plan to keep the records safe and hopefully avoid this problem in the future (It involved not keeping everything in the same place and only using the books they needed at the time.) We also learned about how bricks were made and how molds were used to create different parts of the castle. There was SO much information in this part that we eventually just looked at the things that were interesting to us, we could have spend hours reading everything! The view from the big hall balconies was stunning to say the least! We took a few pictures out there with the city in the background. :)
Our next stop was “The Story of Prague Castle” in this part of the palace we learned even more about the history of the castle and all kinds of interesting facts. We saw some of the original walls to the palace and learned that the oldest known artifacts found on the palace ground date back to 3000 BC! I love to think about the people who lived there so long ago! It’s really amazing to me! We also saw some old graves that had been found on the grounds. Two of them were for people who must not have been high in status, or even criminals. They were buried just in the hole in the ground and their hands were tied together and then tied to large rocks. We learned that they did this to prevent the people from coming back among the living. The third grave we saw was for someone much more important as he was buried with his sword and other possessions. They had a lot of clothing from the graves too which was really interesting but also hard to believe that at one point someone was buried in them! It’s so interesting to me to see how people lived so long ago and it makes me think about what people will find in a few thousand years from our time and what they’ll think about us. We got to see some cannon balls that had been used against the castle at one point which was pretty cool as well as some china and glassware. It was so interesting to see everything and learn more about the castles history.
At this point we had been touring the castle for almost 3 hours and only had 3 more till everything closed. We still had several places we could visit but we went to St. Vitus Cathedral next to make sure we got in to see that. Let me tell you, there is something about these old Cathedrals in Europe! They’re absolutely AMAZING! I just can’t get over the details and design and all the time that went into building them. They had some beautiful stain glass windows as well and the tomb of someone who must have been a really important guy but I’m not sure and I can’t find anything on the internet so we’ll leave it at an important guy! :) The cathedral was just amazing though! :)
After the cathedral we went to a smaller church called St. George’s Basilica. It was also very beautiful and had some wonderful details as well. In the convent we saw some art work and then went to the Rosenberg Palace. This palace was also very beautiful and important for nobel women. They had a lot of furniture and clothing from the time period the palace was used which was cool to see. When we got to the big hall I imagined all the parties that were held there and the women all dressed up and dancing.
Our final stop was the Powder Tower where we learned all about the Czech Army and how it changed over time. We got to see all the different uniforms and see how the area over came communist rule. It was very interesting!
We walked through the Royal Gardens on our way back to the tram stop and took some pictures. The gardens were of course very beautiful and blooming nicely. The tram took us right to the restaurant we wanted to go to and so we sat down and had a way better traditional czech dinner! :) I had pork tenderloin with cream spinach and HUGE gnocchi! (I thought of you Lauren while eating them since we both love to buy gnocchi at Weggies!) Joe got a platter with different meats and dumplings and cabbage. We had a delicious chocolate cake for dessert and enjoyed people watching.
We walked back over the Charles bridge and took some more pictures and then walked through Old Town Square. The area is just beautiful and I think of all the Eastern European cities Prague wins when it comes to beauty. I loved looking at all the buildings and seeing so many amazing designs and details on those buildings. I really loved being in Eastern Europe and hope that this isn’t the only time I get to visit this area of the world! (Though it is kind of a pain to always be buying water since you can’t drink the tap water here.) All in all this was a great experience and I wish we had a little more time in Prague because one day just didn’t seem like enough. I really did enjoy the feel of the city though, a great place to visit!
Back to the hotel we went to repack things (again) and get ready for another long train ride the next day! On to Munich we go!!!
We arrive around lunch time and got our tickets. We picked the longer tour in hopes of getting as much as possible out of the experience. I was feeling hungry so as we were walking along we discovered a little garden cafe and had some lunch. It was a perfect little lunch outside, after feeling refreshed and ready to explore we headed over to the Old Royal Palace.
The palace was absolutely beautiful! Back in the day most of the palace was destroyed by fire (Big surprise here, do we see a theme with these castles? Apparently they couldn’t engineer the fireplaces well enough!) but over time it was rebuilt and made to be just as beautiful as the original palace. During the big fire the Land Rolls were almost all destroyed which caused some big problems for Prague for a while. After the palace was rebuilt they devised a new plan to keep the records safe and hopefully avoid this problem in the future (It involved not keeping everything in the same place and only using the books they needed at the time.) We also learned about how bricks were made and how molds were used to create different parts of the castle. There was SO much information in this part that we eventually just looked at the things that were interesting to us, we could have spend hours reading everything! The view from the big hall balconies was stunning to say the least! We took a few pictures out there with the city in the background. :)
Our next stop was “The Story of Prague Castle” in this part of the palace we learned even more about the history of the castle and all kinds of interesting facts. We saw some of the original walls to the palace and learned that the oldest known artifacts found on the palace ground date back to 3000 BC! I love to think about the people who lived there so long ago! It’s really amazing to me! We also saw some old graves that had been found on the grounds. Two of them were for people who must not have been high in status, or even criminals. They were buried just in the hole in the ground and their hands were tied together and then tied to large rocks. We learned that they did this to prevent the people from coming back among the living. The third grave we saw was for someone much more important as he was buried with his sword and other possessions. They had a lot of clothing from the graves too which was really interesting but also hard to believe that at one point someone was buried in them! It’s so interesting to me to see how people lived so long ago and it makes me think about what people will find in a few thousand years from our time and what they’ll think about us. We got to see some cannon balls that had been used against the castle at one point which was pretty cool as well as some china and glassware. It was so interesting to see everything and learn more about the castles history.At this point we had been touring the castle for almost 3 hours and only had 3 more till everything closed. We still had several places we could visit but we went to St. Vitus Cathedral next to make sure we got in to see that. Let me tell you, there is something about these old Cathedrals in Europe! They’re absolutely AMAZING! I just can’t get over the details and design and all the time that went into building them. They had some beautiful stain glass windows as well and the tomb of someone who must have been a really important guy but I’m not sure and I can’t find anything on the internet so we’ll leave it at an important guy! :) The cathedral was just amazing though! :)
After the cathedral we went to a smaller church called St. George’s Basilica. It was also very beautiful and had some wonderful details as well. In the convent we saw some art work and then went to the Rosenberg Palace. This palace was also very beautiful and important for nobel women. They had a lot of furniture and clothing from the time period the palace was used which was cool to see. When we got to the big hall I imagined all the parties that were held there and the women all dressed up and dancing.Our final stop was the Powder Tower where we learned all about the Czech Army and how it changed over time. We got to see all the different uniforms and see how the area over came communist rule. It was very interesting!
We walked through the Royal Gardens on our way back to the tram stop and took some pictures. The gardens were of course very beautiful and blooming nicely. The tram took us right to the restaurant we wanted to go to and so we sat down and had a way better traditional czech dinner! :) I had pork tenderloin with cream spinach and HUGE gnocchi! (I thought of you Lauren while eating them since we both love to buy gnocchi at Weggies!) Joe got a platter with different meats and dumplings and cabbage. We had a delicious chocolate cake for dessert and enjoyed people watching.
We walked back over the Charles bridge and took some more pictures and then walked through Old Town Square. The area is just beautiful and I think of all the Eastern European cities Prague wins when it comes to beauty. I loved looking at all the buildings and seeing so many amazing designs and details on those buildings. I really loved being in Eastern Europe and hope that this isn’t the only time I get to visit this area of the world! (Though it is kind of a pain to always be buying water since you can’t drink the tap water here.) All in all this was a great experience and I wish we had a little more time in Prague because one day just didn’t seem like enough. I really did enjoy the feel of the city though, a great place to visit!
Back to the hotel we went to repack things (again) and get ready for another long train ride the next day! On to Munich we go!!!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Day 6: Train ride to Prague
Welcome to day 6 of our Holiday 1 trip and one entry that might not be that long (we’ll see about that!) considering that 8 hours of the day was spent on a train, so lets begin.
We got up and enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel. The last breakfast we would actually sit down and eat together we later realized. I was glad to have a bigger breakfast since I knew we’d be on the train for such a long time. So we got on the tram car (exciting stuff to ride one of these, I’d never been on one before) and headed to the train station. We got there, found the train and were off. Because we booked our tickets in Warsaw our train was as if we had left from Warsaw so we had to change trains in Katowice Poland. Not to bad, the train was a few minutes late but we found our seats and were ready to go. We got spoiled on the train to Krakow because this was an older train, no air conditioning and not nearly as comfortable. Thankfully we had a nice cross breeze from the two windows (I think I was in the best seat to take advantage of this) and so the ride wasn’t too bad. We finally made it to Prague at 6pm and headed to the hotel.
This time I picked a little walk up hotel and so were went up to the 5th floor, dropped our stuff off and freshened up a bit then headed to the Old Town square. (I love how every city we visited so far had an old town square!) Now poor Amanda was starving at this point because they didn’t have anything easy on the train to eat and my snacks only did so much so we ended up eating at a tourist trap restaurant right next to the Astronomical clock which was way over priced and not that great. The clock itself was pretty neat though and on the hour there the little people danced around a bit so that was fun. The astronomical part of the clock was built in 1410 and the calendar part in 1490. The clock suffered some damage during the Prague uprising in WWII but has been restored. It was pretty cool to see!
I felt better after eating so we went on to explore. We walked across the Charles Bridge which is the famous bridge in Prague which King Charles IV had built to connect the new part to the old. The view from the bridge is amazing and you can see all of Prague castle and St. Vitus Cathedral, the oldest Gothic Cathedral in Central Europe. We even got to hear some cello music while walking on the bridge. We walked across the bridge in search of the restaurant Joe ate at when he was visiting Prague in March. We found it and decided we’d have dinner there the next night. We got some ice cream and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. In general it was a good start to our rather short time in Prague but I was looking forward to the adventures of the next day!
We got up and enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel. The last breakfast we would actually sit down and eat together we later realized. I was glad to have a bigger breakfast since I knew we’d be on the train for such a long time. So we got on the tram car (exciting stuff to ride one of these, I’d never been on one before) and headed to the train station. We got there, found the train and were off. Because we booked our tickets in Warsaw our train was as if we had left from Warsaw so we had to change trains in Katowice Poland. Not to bad, the train was a few minutes late but we found our seats and were ready to go. We got spoiled on the train to Krakow because this was an older train, no air conditioning and not nearly as comfortable. Thankfully we had a nice cross breeze from the two windows (I think I was in the best seat to take advantage of this) and so the ride wasn’t too bad. We finally made it to Prague at 6pm and headed to the hotel.
This time I picked a little walk up hotel and so were went up to the 5th floor, dropped our stuff off and freshened up a bit then headed to the Old Town square. (I love how every city we visited so far had an old town square!) Now poor Amanda was starving at this point because they didn’t have anything easy on the train to eat and my snacks only did so much so we ended up eating at a tourist trap restaurant right next to the Astronomical clock which was way over priced and not that great. The clock itself was pretty neat though and on the hour there the little people danced around a bit so that was fun. The astronomical part of the clock was built in 1410 and the calendar part in 1490. The clock suffered some damage during the Prague uprising in WWII but has been restored. It was pretty cool to see!
I felt better after eating so we went on to explore. We walked across the Charles Bridge which is the famous bridge in Prague which King Charles IV had built to connect the new part to the old. The view from the bridge is amazing and you can see all of Prague castle and St. Vitus Cathedral, the oldest Gothic Cathedral in Central Europe. We even got to hear some cello music while walking on the bridge. We walked across the bridge in search of the restaurant Joe ate at when he was visiting Prague in March. We found it and decided we’d have dinner there the next night. We got some ice cream and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. In general it was a good start to our rather short time in Prague but I was looking forward to the adventures of the next day!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Day 5: Krakow Poland; Auschwitz
Today we visited the most evil place on earth in my opinion! This has been one part of the trip that I wasn’t really looking forward to but recognized how important it was for me to visit this place and learn about what happened here. In some ways looking back on the experience it doesn’t even seem real but I know it is and I walked the same paths that so many millions of Jews and other people walked not knowing what was in store for them.
Walking the path to the gas chambers in Birkenau
On the way to the camp we met some fellow Americans on the bus. There was an older couple traveling from Iowa as well as two college seniors who grew up in Maryland. They got excited when they heard I went to University of Maryland. So we grouped up with them for most of the day which was nice and made the experience a little easier. At the end of the day we met up with another guy so we had a nice little group of Americans going on for the day. :)
The tour of the camp took about 3 hours and unfortunately our tour guide wasn’t that great. She repeated a lot of the same information and I felt like we could have been told a lot more about the camp and the people who were in charge. It’s amazing how you can feel how truly evil this place was and it just makes me sick to think about the horrible crimes that were committed there. The tour started at the famous sign, “Arbeit Marcht Frei“ (Work Brings Freedom) which was in face a complete lie. The camp was originally designed to hold political prisoners of Poland but in 1942 the mission of the camp changed and it became one of the worst death camps to exist during the war.
The majority of the camp tour takes place in the barracks. Many of the prisoners here suffered in those barracks. The most difficult barrack for me was the one that held the evidence of war crimes. Within this barrack were many rooms full of different personal belongings of those murdered at the camp. The first room was full of hair. We were told that this room held 3 tons of hair and Joe said that on his tour he was told that that amount of hair was equal to about 120,000 women and girls. I can’t even wrap my mind around that number! This wasn’t even all the hair that was found when the camp was liberated, 7 tons of hair were found and many other tons were sent to factories to produce clothing for the soldiers and other textiles. I just don’t know how you could wear something made out of someones hair! This room wasn’t the worst for me, but the room full of shoes. I took some time to really look at the different types of shoes and noticed that many of these shoes were very fancy and it made me realize that this was not something that only affected one part of the Jewish race but that affected the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich. I just kept thinking to myself that someone wore those shoes, a PERSON owned those shoes and came to camp with them. The room with the dishes was also difficult. You could tell that many people had brought their most prized possessions with them, and why wouldn’t they have when they were told they would be settling a new place. I thought about the women who used to cook and serve with those dishes and it brought tears to my eyes. There was a room full of luggage and you could see where people were coming from and how old they were. Some people came came from so far away and may have been on a train for 10 days before getting to camp. There was no food or water on the train, nor any sanitation so may people died before even getting there, I just can’t imagine the suffering these people must have gone through. There were many other rooms with evidence including hair brushes, tooth brushes, baby shoes and clothing, glasses and artificial limbs. It was so amazing to me to think about the people who these things belong to and my heart just hurt for them and the suffering they endured.
I thought a lot about the people who ran this camp and wondered how on earth they could do these horrible things to another person. I realize that the prisoners were completely stripped of their identity which I’m sure made it easier, but when all was said and done and the camp was liberated how did these people live with themselves? Or did they? I certainly don’t think I would have been able too. 1.3 million people were killed in this camp and the design of the death was 20 minutes in a gas chamber, how do you live with that kind of blood on your hands?
The next part of the camp was saw was the death wall and block 11. The death wall is not the original wall to the camp, which was destroyed by the Nazi’s, but was rebuilt to show what it would have looked like. The people who were sent to block 11, which was known as the death block, would soon be killed. Many people were tortured there and in the basement we saw the starvation cells and standing cells which they would put 4 people in and there was no room to move or sit, only enough to stand all night after working all day. The minimum punishment for this cell was 3 nights. Many people died in these cells.
We also were taken into one of the smaller gas chambers that was not destroyed by the Nazis. I felt chills in this room thinking about the people who were slowly dying in here from the gas used to kill them. I can’t even imagine the panic they must have felt as they slowly suffocated to death. Most of this trip my mind was on the women of the camp and how difficult it must have been for them and so I thought about how hard it would have been to be a mother sent to the gas chambers with her children and trying to stay calm for their children. I admire these women for their strength and courage and feel heartbroken for their suffering. I wondered if people knew what they were heading for when going to the chambers. They were told they would get a shower and be disinfected, but I can’t help but think that some of them knew their fate and I wonder what must have gone through their minds in those final moments.
After a short break we took a bus to the Birkenau camp about 3 km away from Auschwitz. This is where the majority of the killings took place. Four large gas chambers were located here and most of them destroyed by the Nazis. You can still walk around the ruins of the chambers and see the stairs people walked down and where the crematorium were. There’s a large field next to the chamber where many of the ashes would have been spread from the burning. I could almost feel the presence of the people who had been killed in these chambers and just felt sick to think that so many had been murdered in this spot. In one given killing 1,500 people could be sent to the chambers. The people who dropped the gas into the chambers were actually prisoners themselves, after several months the Nazi’s would kill these prisoners because they did not want any witnesses to their crimes. I just couldn’t get over the horrible things that took place at this camp and wondered how for so long no one really knew what was going on. How did Hitler managed to keep this so under wraps for so long? I spent a lot of time reflecting on the trip on the bus ride back to the city (which took 2 hours even though the camp is only 37 miles from Krakow, they just don’t have highways there and we stopped a lot to pick other people up, though I had a hard time really complaining about my not wanting to be on a bus or being hungry considering the place I had just been) and I thought about the man who ran the camp that was hung outside of the gas chamber and how it just didn’t seem fitting for him to die that way after all the horrible things he did. I thought about the doctor who performed such awful medical experiments on women and children and how he somehow managed to get away and was never punished for his crimes (the thought of which made me sick!) It was a valuable experience to be there at Auschwitz and understand more about the people who were imprisoned at this camp and about the suffering they endured I don’t know how anyone can think this didn’t happen and for those who do think that way, I say you must just be in denial because it did happen. Millions of people were killed and suffered at this place and there’s no denying that when you’ve seen the belonging and felt the pure evil that comes from that camp.
On a lighter note, we got back to the city and found our way over to the Old Town square and market area. This was one of the places I was really looking forward to and so I was excited to see the area. I found some shops and purchased a few things including an egg ornament and then we got a snack and some ice cream and walked around. There’s a big cathedral in the square, St. Mary’s, and every hour a bugle is played. The bugle has been played for many years and announces the beginning and end of the day. We could actually see the guy playing at the top of the tower which was really cool. It was a great way to end the day and helped lighten the mood after being in such a dark place for most of the day. We went back to the hotel, got packed and ready for our next trip to Prague!
Walking the path to the gas chambers in Birkenau
The tour of the camp took about 3 hours and unfortunately our tour guide wasn’t that great. She repeated a lot of the same information and I felt like we could have been told a lot more about the camp and the people who were in charge. It’s amazing how you can feel how truly evil this place was and it just makes me sick to think about the horrible crimes that were committed there. The tour started at the famous sign, “Arbeit Marcht Frei“ (Work Brings Freedom) which was in face a complete lie. The camp was originally designed to hold political prisoners of Poland but in 1942 the mission of the camp changed and it became one of the worst death camps to exist during the war.
The majority of the camp tour takes place in the barracks. Many of the prisoners here suffered in those barracks. The most difficult barrack for me was the one that held the evidence of war crimes. Within this barrack were many rooms full of different personal belongings of those murdered at the camp. The first room was full of hair. We were told that this room held 3 tons of hair and Joe said that on his tour he was told that that amount of hair was equal to about 120,000 women and girls. I can’t even wrap my mind around that number! This wasn’t even all the hair that was found when the camp was liberated, 7 tons of hair were found and many other tons were sent to factories to produce clothing for the soldiers and other textiles. I just don’t know how you could wear something made out of someones hair! This room wasn’t the worst for me, but the room full of shoes. I took some time to really look at the different types of shoes and noticed that many of these shoes were very fancy and it made me realize that this was not something that only affected one part of the Jewish race but that affected the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich. I just kept thinking to myself that someone wore those shoes, a PERSON owned those shoes and came to camp with them. The room with the dishes was also difficult. You could tell that many people had brought their most prized possessions with them, and why wouldn’t they have when they were told they would be settling a new place. I thought about the women who used to cook and serve with those dishes and it brought tears to my eyes. There was a room full of luggage and you could see where people were coming from and how old they were. Some people came came from so far away and may have been on a train for 10 days before getting to camp. There was no food or water on the train, nor any sanitation so may people died before even getting there, I just can’t imagine the suffering these people must have gone through. There were many other rooms with evidence including hair brushes, tooth brushes, baby shoes and clothing, glasses and artificial limbs. It was so amazing to me to think about the people who these things belong to and my heart just hurt for them and the suffering they endured.I thought a lot about the people who ran this camp and wondered how on earth they could do these horrible things to another person. I realize that the prisoners were completely stripped of their identity which I’m sure made it easier, but when all was said and done and the camp was liberated how did these people live with themselves? Or did they? I certainly don’t think I would have been able too. 1.3 million people were killed in this camp and the design of the death was 20 minutes in a gas chamber, how do you live with that kind of blood on your hands?
The next part of the camp was saw was the death wall and block 11. The death wall is not the original wall to the camp, which was destroyed by the Nazi’s, but was rebuilt to show what it would have looked like. The people who were sent to block 11, which was known as the death block, would soon be killed. Many people were tortured there and in the basement we saw the starvation cells and standing cells which they would put 4 people in and there was no room to move or sit, only enough to stand all night after working all day. The minimum punishment for this cell was 3 nights. Many people died in these cells.
We also were taken into one of the smaller gas chambers that was not destroyed by the Nazis. I felt chills in this room thinking about the people who were slowly dying in here from the gas used to kill them. I can’t even imagine the panic they must have felt as they slowly suffocated to death. Most of this trip my mind was on the women of the camp and how difficult it must have been for them and so I thought about how hard it would have been to be a mother sent to the gas chambers with her children and trying to stay calm for their children. I admire these women for their strength and courage and feel heartbroken for their suffering. I wondered if people knew what they were heading for when going to the chambers. They were told they would get a shower and be disinfected, but I can’t help but think that some of them knew their fate and I wonder what must have gone through their minds in those final moments.
After a short break we took a bus to the Birkenau camp about 3 km away from Auschwitz. This is where the majority of the killings took place. Four large gas chambers were located here and most of them destroyed by the Nazis. You can still walk around the ruins of the chambers and see the stairs people walked down and where the crematorium were. There’s a large field next to the chamber where many of the ashes would have been spread from the burning. I could almost feel the presence of the people who had been killed in these chambers and just felt sick to think that so many had been murdered in this spot. In one given killing 1,500 people could be sent to the chambers. The people who dropped the gas into the chambers were actually prisoners themselves, after several months the Nazi’s would kill these prisoners because they did not want any witnesses to their crimes. I just couldn’t get over the horrible things that took place at this camp and wondered how for so long no one really knew what was going on. How did Hitler managed to keep this so under wraps for so long? I spent a lot of time reflecting on the trip on the bus ride back to the city (which took 2 hours even though the camp is only 37 miles from Krakow, they just don’t have highways there and we stopped a lot to pick other people up, though I had a hard time really complaining about my not wanting to be on a bus or being hungry considering the place I had just been) and I thought about the man who ran the camp that was hung outside of the gas chamber and how it just didn’t seem fitting for him to die that way after all the horrible things he did. I thought about the doctor who performed such awful medical experiments on women and children and how he somehow managed to get away and was never punished for his crimes (the thought of which made me sick!) It was a valuable experience to be there at Auschwitz and understand more about the people who were imprisoned at this camp and about the suffering they endured I don’t know how anyone can think this didn’t happen and for those who do think that way, I say you must just be in denial because it did happen. Millions of people were killed and suffered at this place and there’s no denying that when you’ve seen the belonging and felt the pure evil that comes from that camp.
On a lighter note, we got back to the city and found our way over to the Old Town square and market area. This was one of the places I was really looking forward to and so I was excited to see the area. I found some shops and purchased a few things including an egg ornament and then we got a snack and some ice cream and walked around. There’s a big cathedral in the square, St. Mary’s, and every hour a bugle is played. The bugle has been played for many years and announces the beginning and end of the day. We could actually see the guy playing at the top of the tower which was really cool. It was a great way to end the day and helped lighten the mood after being in such a dark place for most of the day. We went back to the hotel, got packed and ready for our next trip to Prague!
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