Monday, February 9, 2009
Summer Vacation is a Go!!
Last year we said we were going to go to Italy for the summer. We never did. This year we said were were going to go to Europe for the summer.
Well, we’ve now booked the flights, so we’re a go!!
We’ve got friends who moved to London a year and a half ago, so we’re flying into London to spend a few days visiting with them. Then, our plan is to take the Chunnel and visit the continent. Our plans right now call for stops in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin, spending 3 or 4 days in each. Its a fair bit of ground to cover, but we feel that with the different cultures each of these locales has to offer, its worth it traveling around so much.
Over the course of this trip, I’ll be posting to this blog with pictures and commentary on our trip. Friends and family can vacation along with us !! (without crowding in hotel rooms with us!!)
So stay tuned!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Flights
Getting the main dates of travel settled on took some work.
Deciding whether to travel one-way into London, then take a one way out of one of other cities on our itinerary – logically Berlin since that was the last city on our stop. Or take a charter in and out of London, with either a train or a plane back to London from Europe. Then which airport to travel in and out of in London to make the best of our connections. Then trying to find the cheapest and best-timed flights online from all the different online booking services. Quite a lot of work overall.
So in the end, we’re flying to London and back on Air Canada. Then I booked a flight from Berlin to London on British Airways. I checked out some of the discounters (eg: EasyJet and RyanAir), but once you took into account the travel from one airport in London (Stanstead or Gatwick) to Heathrow (where our return flight to Toronto leaves from), plus the baggage costs on the discounters, plus their generally crappy flight times, and I decided to pay the extra 100 euros for the BA flight, Berlin to Heathrow.
Next up, finding rail tickets and hotel rooms!!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Finding Lodging
Why is it so difficult to find somewhere to stay?
For the past week, I’ve been spending part of every evening surfing the web, looking at various sites where one can book lodging in different cities in Europe. There are hotels, B&B’s, apartments. There is certainly no shortage of available space – quite the opposite it seems. But that is what is making it so hard!
I think I’ve settled on renting a furnished apartment for those cities we’ll be staying in for 3 or 4 days (the minimum it seems for most of the apartment rentals). Having an apartment, rather than a hotel, gives a bit of extra room, and is easier to find the number of beds we need. It also means availability of a washer/dryer, as most of the apartments seem to come with one. Wireless internet too.
But how do you pick from the ones presented? The different sites have varying levels of info available. Most of them have pictures of the apartments. But is it the case of “looks better than it actually is”?? And are the descriptions accurate? And how come there is so much variance in prices between units that seem similar? Do you always get what you pay for??
I suppose at some point I’ve just got to pick one. There’s no way of really knowing until you get there. Hopefully, none of them are really bad. If our experience of picking an apartment over the internet for our trip to London a few years back is any indication, we should do ok. So I just need to get on with it.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Places to Stay – DONE!
Over the last week or so, I have managed to secure lodging for all of our stops on our tour of Europe. Using various online websites, I have found something for everywhere.
The first booking was for Berlin. Using a website where individuals can list their own places for rent, I found a reasonably priced condo in Berlin. The reviews that go with it were quite glowing, so I’m hoping it’s a good choice. It’s a little outside of the downtown, but that should be ok. The metro in Berlin seems quite pervasive.
Next up was Amsterdam. There’s a site that list various Amsterdam locales for rent, including houseboats. I considered what looked like a pretty nice houseboat, but I wasn’t convinced that Lisa could handle living on a boat for three nights. So I found an apartment that should be very comfortable for us all.
Finding something in Paris was a bit of a problem. There is a site(turns out its based on Spain!) that has lots of listings, but once I booked one, I had problems getting all the information they required. I was a little leery of providing personal information, including my passport number. But once I had filled in and submitted the form, I got an email which indicated that it required my passport number to complete the reservation. I remember that when we last travelled in Europe, most of the hotels required us to leave our passports with them during our stay. I have no idea why, but I guess this is some European norm. So, ok, I’ll give them my passport number. But trying to email them my number proved problematic, so I ended up calling them, giving them my number, and all was well.
So that leaves Brussels, Bruges, and a hotel near Heathrow for the night we fly back from Berlin before we head home.
For Brussels and London, I used hotwire.com. From this site, you choose a city and they give you price for an unnamed hotel in a general area. You only get to know the hotel once you have confirmed the booking (and there are no refunds!!). In Brussels, got a room at the Sheraton for $76US/night, and at Heathrow got a room for $67US for the one night we needed. Those are pretty good prices. The hotel in Brussels was a Sheraton, and the one in London was Crowne Plaza. So we should be ok.
Final stop was Bruges. A UK holiday flat rental site was my source, and I managed to find a nice house, right in the middle of town, which was available for the nights we were looking for. For most of the rentals in Bruges, they were looking for full week rentals. For this house, they they just happened to have the night we wanted between other bookings. A couple of emails back and forth to the owner, and Bruges is booked too.
So there, I’m done with the bookings for where we’re going to stay. Yeay!!!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Nothing New
It’s been a few weeks since my last post. That’s because I haven’t really done anything new on the trip plan since booking all our accommodations.
Last week, which was March Break for Lisa and the kids, we had a trip to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. Great weather, great resort, great pools, nice beach. Relaxing time was had by all. A couple pictures above, or link to more photos here.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Mapping It
I started putting the places we are visiting into Google maps. At first, I just put the location of our apartments/hotels. But now I’m adding some of the sights we are planning on seeing. It’s actually kind of cool because the new streetview feature of Google maps includes Paris, London and Amsterdam. So I can actually see some of the sites and our accomodations right through my web browser. Maybe we could have saved some dollars and just travelled online?? You can check out my map (which I keep adding to) here.
Monday, April 27, 2009
GPS vs Fold-out Map
So the other day I found a GPS unit for $50 (refurbished at FactoryDirect). As we don’t tend to do a lot of road travels outside of the general Toronto area, I have never thought that one of these units would be particularly worthwhile to own. (We did use one when we went on our cross country road-trip a few years ago, but that was a Microsoft Streets & Trips GPS which plugged into our laptop. But that’s another story). Especially when they go for around $200 and upwards. But for $50, my electronic geekiness got the better of me. Besides, I thought, perhaps we could use this when we were in Europe for navigating Paris and Brussels and Amsteram streets while walking.
It’s a Mio C220 unit, and it came with Canadian and US maps included (though I discovered the US maps are major roads only). A bit of googling around and I found some maps of Western Europe that I could download onto it. Done.
After playing around with it while walking the streets around home, I’m not convinced it would be better than a nice folding map in our hands. While it does a nice job of pinpointing you with the GSP signals, the screen size is fairly small, and doesn’t work all that well in bright light. I’ll have to do some more testing.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Finding a Train
So now the cities are set, and we’ve got accommodation in each of them. For the last few weeks I’ve been exploring our options of travelling between them. Our plan is to take the train between each of our destinations – with the possible exception of the Amsterdam to Berlin leg. We’ve already booked out London to Paris Chunnel train, so its only the ones in Europe I need to worry about.
What I’ve learned so far: 1) Train schedules between some of the cities are not yet available; 2) There are a lot of different websites you can go to for schedules and fares; 3) none of those websites seem to have the same information; 4) at least they are all available in English; and 5) from the information I have been able to get, there are an awful lot of options available.
Then there is the question of getting a Railpass vs booking individual train tickets for each leg.
Why is this so hard?!?!?
The main site that seems to come up when one searches on train travel in Europe is www.raileurope.ca. This site purports to be the site for Canadian’s to go to for making all their European rail travel arrangements. It’s pretty good, but I’ve found that all of the schedules are not available from their site. For example, when looking for the Amsterdam to Berlin leg, the only option which shows up on the raileurope site is an overnight train. But going to the Netherlands rail website, typing in the same dates, shows a number of different options – albeit all of them requiring at least one train change over the total journey. And even for the same overnight train, the two sites give entirely different prices. So where does one turn???
I guess all I can do is keep searching and I’ll eventually find the best source. Either that or I’ll run out of time and just go with whatever!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Finding a Train – Update
We’re close enough now that a number of the schedules are posted, and online booking can occur. So last night, I booked the trips between Paris and Brussels (on Thalys train), between Bruges and Amsterdam (on SNCB train), and between Amsterdam and Berlin (on German ICE). Yeah!! Now we have some firm travel itineraries. The only train left to book is the Brussels to Bruge leg. The SNCB site doesn’t allow booking of in-country train trips more than 31 days before the date of travel. So that one can wait (it might even wait till we’re there – there are trains leaving every hour to Bruges so it shouldn’t be a problem getting one).
Oh, and the total cost of the these trains is less than $1000, so its about half as expensive compared to a railpass, which looked to be about just under $2000 for the travel we needed. Gave up some flexibility in travel times, but since we’re already committed on dates anyway (since our lodging is all confirmed), its not really giving up much.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Three Weeks and Counting!
Only three more weeks till we hit the trail! I’m getting more excited about the trip, but I also think of all the work I’ve got to get done before then. The kids still seem indifferent – hope that they start to get excited too.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Packing
So we’re down to 10 days! Time to start thinking about what I’m going to be packing (Lisa, of course, started to think about that long ago. But not me). I started a list in Google docs which we could each add to and edit for each of us. Don’t really expect the kids to do too much adding and editing to their list – suppose we’ll be doing that.
But I came across a neat site with packing suggestions – www.onebag.com. I recently purchased a decent High Sierra rolling duffel (with built in shoulder staps for those times I want to put it on as backpack). It will fit a fair bit of stuff, but I still want to travel light. The Onebag website has some good suggestions for packing list, and some ideas for keeping things tidy and wrinkle-free. Let’s see how much of it I can follow. (Also checkout this link for a guy who doesn’t use a suitcase at all – everything fits in his jacket.)
Anyone got any good ideas about how to keep a dinner jacket from getting all wrinkled?? (For our anniversary dinner in Paris)
Monday, June 22, 2009
Father’s Day Present
Yesterday was Father’s Day. Lisa and the kids had been asking me for while what I would like for Fathers Day. I’ve got all the computer bits and pieces I need (for now at least!) so that wasn’t a good option. I don’t need a new tie. And underwear just isn’t a fun fathers day gift (at least they didn’t think so – I would have been perfectly happy). So, since we were getting close to the trip, and since my birthday was coming up too, I thought something for the whole family would be good – a new camera!
I’ve been hemming and hawing for a while contemplating the possibility of getting a digital SLR. I’m not really much of a photographer, but I wouldn’t mind getting some better photos than I typically get with our little digital Canon (which is still a great camera, just not as versatile as an SLR). So we picked out a new Canon Rebel Xsi. Future shop had a good deal for the camera plus two lenses. Throw in a camera bag, memory card, and extra battery (thanks Mom & Dad!) and we’re good to go! Now I just have to figure out how to use it properly. I’ve never really understood all that f-stop mumbo-jumbo.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Day 0 – Sun 28th
Today’s the day we leave for Europe. The flight’s at 8:40pm, so we had all day – all weekend really – to get ready. It’s kind of nice not having a flight at 7am in the morning. Not having to do everything the night before. Not having to get up early. Not having to then wait for the taxi to the airport. Instead, I called the limo in the morning and we had all day to get things ready.
Martin wanted to go over to a friends house for most of the day. That was fine, as long as he got everything packed beforehand. This year, both Martin and Claire were responsible for getting their own suitcases packed. We gave the the list, but they did the packing. They both did a great job. So, note-to_self, they can do this on their own from now on.
Though the flight wasn’t until 8:40pm (actually, we checked online and found that it was almost an hour delayed – till 9:35pm), we had the limo pick us up at 5:30 for the trip to the airport. It’s become somewhat of a tradition for us to have a meal at the airport. If we’re at Terminal 1, its always the same place – the Expedia Cafe. Whenever we fly somewhere, or if we’re dropping my mum off for an evening flight back to Victoria, we go there. The first time we went we found it to be a reasonably priced airport cafe, with not bad food (it’s no Scaramouche, but they made a really decent nacho plate that Claire and I liked to share – which they don’t offer anymore unfortunately). So now its tradition.
The flight ended up being even later than advertised. It arrived at about 8:40pm (a Boeing 777 fresh off a flight from Beijing) then they had to get it ready for the journey to London. Flight was quite full – though they kept asking for standby passengers to come to the check-in desk, so I suppose it wasn’t completely booked. We ended up pushing back from the gate at just after 10pm, so an hour and a half late.
Flight was generally uneventful. We all got as much sleep as one can packed together in “Hospitality” class and landed in London at just after 10am local time. Which brings us to Day 1…
(Some non-exciting pics from Day 0 can be found by clicking on link below)
Monday, June 29, 2009
Day 1 – Jun 29
So we arrived at Heathrow just after 10am. The luggage was delayed getting onto the luggage chute (apparently there were not enough baggage handlers at Heathrow) so we had to wait for a while. As I was waiting by the conveyer, I looked across the belt and saw someone who looked very familiar. I called out to her, and sure enough, it was someone I knew. A colleague from my work days 10 years ago at Enbridge had arrived on the same flight with her daughter. Haven’t seen her in 10 years, and now we meet again at Heathrow airport. Sometimes this world can seem so small.
The friends we are staying with in London had given us instructions on how to get to their place – take the Heathrow Connect service (which goes from Heathrow into London city centre, with a few stops in between) to Ealing-Broadway stop. That’s where Laura would pick us up. It was quite easy to find the train (getting around seems very well marked in London) and we were on our way.
Not getting a lot of sleep on the plane, once we arrived at Jim & Laura’s place, it was time to crash. Lisa and I both got about 2 hours of shuteye, and when we woke up Martin & Claire were still sleeping, so we let them sleep a little while longer.
Laura got home from school with the kids around 6pm (after swimming lessons) and Jim arrived home from work about 7pm. We had a nice BBQ dinner in the backyard, given the weather was so nice (nice and hot here in London – knock on wood!). Sitting in their backyard, I really felt like this could very easily be Victoria. The plants looked familiar, the weather was very Victoria-summer like (warm but not humid). I can see why so many Brits ended up settling in Victoria. Must have felt like home.
After dinner, we had a walk down to the local village centre, and spent a bit of time at the park. At 9pm, it was time to head home. L&J’s kids needed to get to bed (school’s still on for a few more weeks for them!) and we were pretty bagged too. So it was an early night for all of us.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Day 2 – Jun 30th
Had a great night’s sleep. J&L’s house has a bedroom that is in their third floor loft, with two nice skylights. Lets in a nice breeze. And the bed was very comfortable. Woke to the gentle sounds of roof tiles smashing across the street (there is some work going on at their neighbour’s house – roof has been removed and the guys were heaving the terracotta tiles to the ground).
Today was an unplanned day (one of the few on this trip!), so after Laura had taken her kids off to school, we decided on our plan of action. When we were in London a few years ago (I think it’s four years ago now) we’d been to a lot of the museums and done a lot of the main touristy places. So for today, we landed on the British Museum, and the Imperial War Museum.
A twenty minute tube ride took us to Tottenham Court Road, nearby the British Museum. Entering the museum I was surprised by two things: 1) The crowds (it was still somewhat early but there were already a lot of people at the museum. And I thought this recession was going to make the crowds non-existant!!); and 2) the museum was free! I think a lot of the big museums are free here. Which is great for being able to not worry about having to try to get your money’s-worth out of the visit by seeing every last thing on display.
So we spent about an hour or so touring the main Parthenon exhibit (bits and pieces “borrowed” from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin back in the late 1800’s), the Egyptian exhibit, and then quickly through the Romans in England exhibit. The crowds were quite thick.
After the British Museum, we hopped on the tube again for the short trek to the Imperial War Museum. This museum, which is housed in a former Sanitarium, documents various wars – generally from the British experience perspective. We’d actually gone there because a friend of ours who had visited J&L’s a few weeks earlier had recommended it. They had a two floor exhibit documenting the Holocaust, which Claire was very interested in seeing (she’s big into the WWII and the holocaust for some reason. Must be all those historical fiction books). The exhibit was very well done – very moving. And I’ve never before seen Claire stop to read so many exhibit information plaques. We also went on the “London Blitz experience” tour. It consisted of a bunch of tourists first sitting in room that was mocked up to be a bomb shelter and listening to a recording describing – as if it was really happening – the experience. We then were “released” to see the street level devastation that the bombing we had just survived had wreaked on the city. Overall, it was kind of corny. Brought me back to our Cheddar Man experience from a few year’s back! But overall the museum was decent. And just like the British Museum – free!
After the museum, we spent some time wander along the Thames. Just being tourists and seeing the sights along the causeway. It was quite hot and sunny, so I think we got nicely roasted.
And getting back to the crowd thing. So far (I know, its only been one day!) it seems pretty tourist busy here in London. No signs of recession biting into tourism. Lots of Americans it seems. And the walk along the Thames seemed to me to have a much more touristy feel to it – shops and eateries clearly catering to the tourist crowds.
After walking along the Thames, we headed back north to the tube station, wandering about a bit as we did. Then it was back to J&L’s for a nice dinner again, and time for me to get the blog posted.
Yesterday I posted a slideshow of a few pics. Today, here’s some more.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Day 3 – Jul 1 – Canada Day!
Happy Canada Day!! Canada Day actually arrived for us 5 hours five hours before everyone in Toronto and 8 hours before the Victoria Canada Day!
And we did have our Canada Day celebrations here in London. This afternoon, we headed over to Trafalgar Square (close to where Canada House is here in London) to see if anything was going on. Well, Canada had taken over then entire square. There was the stage with some small name Canadian acts (none that I actually recognized). There was the Sleemans tent where they were handing out cans of Sleeman Original Draught. That was right next to the Tim Hortons tent. Bison burgers and donuts were also to be found. And to top it off, a ball hockey tournament (it was Oxford vs Cambridge when we were there). Lots of Canadian’s to be seen and heard all over the square. And the whole crowd did a rousing rendition of O Canada prior to one of the hockey games.
Our day started out not quite so fun. Today was the first day (and we’re only three days in!) of some attitude from one of the kids – Martin. Perhaps it was not enough sleep, but he was not a happy camper to start the day.
Our first stop was the London Transport museum, which is right next door to Covent Gardens. It has a great history of transportation in London – from the first Hansom cabs, through the original steam underground, right through to the modern double deckers, commuter trains, and tube. Lots of old and modern equipment to see. I could have spent a few hours in looking around, but we had other items on our agenda.
After an outdoor lunch in Covent Gardens, we hoofed it over the the new Globe Theatre. Lisa had purchased tickets to see As You Like It at the Globe. Its a fantastic reproduction of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, right on the bank of the Thames. We had seats on the second level (we didn’t have to mingle with all the groundlings standing down on the floor starting up at the stage), which were really just benches with no seats or back support. I rented a couple of seating pads for Lisa and Martin, but Claire and I toughed out the wooden benches au natural. The play was quite good, and enjoyed by all.
After the play was when we headed over to the Canada Day festivities, followed by dinner at a nice American pizza and burger joint ( the kids were crabby enough so we didn’t want to push it too much). Then back to J&L’s for our final night in London.
The weather has been fantastic – maybe even too hot during the day. But cools off nicely at night. We’ve had a great time in London, and J&L have been great in putting us up (and putting up with us!). Tomorrow, we’re off on the next leg of our adventure.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Day 4 – Eurostar & Eiffel Tower
Today was travel day to Paris.
We said our goodbyes to our London hosts last night as they were up early for work and school and we wouldn’t be seeing them. In the morning we packed up all our stuff, and headed to the tube. Destination – St. Pancras Station and the Eurostar to Paris.
We arrived at the Eurostar terminal about an hour before our scheduled departure. After getting ourselves checked in (which was a bit of a mystery as the check-in “machines” didn’t take our pre-printed tickets. But we got that sorted out and we were in. First, security (X-ray of the bags and us through the metal detectors) then the French border police. Got our French stamps in our passport. After all that it was only about 40 minutes until our train, and 20 minutes until we were to begin boarding. Just enough time to grab some drinks and mid-day snacks.
The train was pretty much the same as any Via train inside. Comfortable seats, and quite full. We left the station bang-on at 12:29, as promised. The trip out of London and through the English countryside was pretty uneventful. I went to the bar car to get a Stella (which Jim informs me is considered a “wife-beater” beer in England as its marketed on a low price basis) and a bag of crisps. It was while I was there that we entered the Chunnel.
Passage through the Chunnel – which was even less eventful than travelling through the English countryside – only took about 20 minutes. Then we popped out the other end of the tunnel, and into the French countryside. Doesn’t really look a lot different than the English countryside.
Arrived at Paris Gare du Nord, again, bang-on time. Gotta love those European trains. The gentleman we had rented our apartment from suggested that we take the metro from the train station to the apartment. But the distance was only about a kilometer, and our bags have wheels, and we thought we’d rather not try to wrestle with the Paris metro schedule just yet. So we hoofed it.
The neighbourhood we walked through, and the one the apartment is located in, has some interesting shops. Lots of hair extension shops and beauty parlours. And lots and lots of people out on the street. Perhaps this is because it is quite hot here in Paris right now, and people would rather be out on the street than in their sweltering apartments. The kids got a little freaked by the neighbourhood, but I think it is mostly that it is different than what they know. I’ll bet by the time we’re ready to leave Paris, they’ll be completely comfortable.
When we arrived at the apartment, Bruno (the owner) was waiting to greet us. He took 5 minutes to show us around (it really only takes about one minute to show around the apartment – its quite small, but fine for the four of us for the time we are here) and then left us the keys. Lisa and I went out the the grocery store just a few doors down to pick up some breakfast supplies (the kids were sure we would be murdered on that trip) and then we just chilled for an hour or so.
We had planned on visiting the Eiffel Tower on our first night, since it was one of the few things open at night. It was around dinner time when we set out, and figured we would find somewhere to eat near the Tower, and then visit the Tower itself. So we tackled the Paris metro, which wasn’t really that difficult (though much easier without luggage trailing in one hand). We stayed on the one line from the station near our apartment which took us to a stop nearby the Eiffel tower.
In search of dinner before heading to the tower, we discovered that most of the restaurants were not yet open. It was about 6pm, and I think some people had warned us that restaurants generally don’t open for dinner before 7pm. So we headed straight to the Tower, figuring we see that first and then have dinner after.
The line-ups to the tower were surprising short. Non-existent even. Martin decided he was going to walk up, rather than take the lift. None of the rest of us were quite that keen, so I bought him his ticket, and then Lisa, Claire and I headed over the the lifts to buy our tickets. By the time we arrived at the second level (where you have to change lifts to go right to the top), Martin had already made it there. And without any huffing and puffing. And with full jeans on a sweltering hot day. Power to him.
We wandered around the second level, took some pictures, and then thought we would head up to the top. Martin declined (the elevators looked too old to him), but the rest of us thought we’d head up. But the line for the second lift was quite long. We all voted and decided that we really wouldn’t see the city any better from the top as we could from the second level, so we didn’t think the wait was worth it. And besides, we’d been up the CN tower, and that’s higher anyway!! We headed back down (I walked with Martin – walking down is ok with me!) and out for dinner.
We found a place nearby the tower that had a menu that all of us could find something on. Food wasn’t great, and service was even less so. But it satisfied. We then headed back to the apartment, for some more chill time, and to do some laundry!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Day 5 – Versailles & L’Arc de Triomphe
Whew! A ton of walking today. Today’s Paris locations were Versaille and L’Arc de Triomphe. I took at ton of pictures today, but I won’t bore you with all of them. I’ll put some of them here as a slideshow (which you can click on if you want to see the pics individually)
We rose early this morning – if you can call 8am early. We wanted to get to Versailles early to try and beat some of the crowd. As usual, getting the teenager going that early was a chore. We hit the Metro by 9:30am, with a transfer to the RER to get us to Versaille by about 10:30am. And it was already quite crowded (so much for the recession impacting tourism).
Versailles was quite amazing to see. Huge, and guilded to the hilt. We first had a tour round the building and its various chambers. It was only a small subset of the total building, but still was a long tour. After the building, it was a tour of the gardens. Included out in the gardens of Versailles is the residence of Marie Antionette, called Petit Trianon, quite a distance from the main villa. We probably walked a good 10km, including to and from the RER.
After Versailles, we headed back to the apartment for a bit of downtime. All that walking wore us out early. Did I mention it was hot in Paris? Today was actually supposed to have some rain and thundershowers, but it was pretty sunny and hot all day.
After we had rested some (and I had spent a half hour exploring the neighbourhood around our apt) we headed out again on the metro, with our destination being L’Arc de Triomphe. We got off on one of the stops along the Champs Elysees and made out way through the crowds towards the monument (after a stop, that is, to have dome dinner in an Italian restaurant). We decided not to climb to the top of the Arc, but satisfied ourselves with a walk around a few times. It is quite an amazing site to look down each of the avenues which lead straight to the Arc. Quintessential Paris.
From L’Arc, we headed down towards the Seine for a walk along the banks. By now our feet were getting pretty tired, so it was time to head for home.
A lot of walking and picture taking today. Now, hopefully a very welcome rest (though somehow I have my doubts. As I write this blog at 11:30pm, someone else in the apt complex overlooking the central square seems to be having a great party, with lots of music streaming out the open windows. Wonder why we weren’t invited!)
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Day 6 – Louvre, Egouts, Notre Dame & Montmartre
Another scorcher here in Paris. Over 30 degrees and mostly sunny again. Its nice to have it sunny, but it could be a little cooler for all the walking around we are doing. At least it cools down at night so that sleeping isn’t too bad. (BTW – the party that was going on last night actually tamed-down after about 12:30pm, so we got enough sleep).
Today we tried to beat the crowds to the Louvre. Failed. Crowded. However, we had already purchased our tickets, so we didn’t have to stand in the ticket line. The crowds were largest around the famous artwork of course – the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and others. But I guess overall it wasn’t too bad. We spent about 1.5 hours wandering around – hitting the highlights – including visiting an exhibit on the history of the site of the Louvre. Claire seemed to like that the best – she’s not really big on looking at paintings.
We had lunch in the museum cafeteria. One thing I’ve been surprised about is the lack of patrons at the cafeterias in the museums here. Back home, come lunch time, the cafeterias in all the museums get packed – long lines and nary a table to be found. But not here. And its not like the food should be keeping them away. In fact, the cafeteria food is quite good at the ones we’ve been to – fresh salads, fresh sandwiches, usually a hot meal servery. Had a very nice chicken pot pie with mashed vegetables on the side in the cafeteria in the Imperial War museum in London.
After lunch, it was into the bowels of Paris. One the sites I had chosen to visit – les Egouts de Paris (Paris Sewers). It was a self guided tour through some of the sewer system, with a history of the sewer development and the tools used to maintain and clean them on display. I thought it was quite fascinating. Lisa and the kids thought it was quite stinky (it was in fact quite odiferous).
After the sewers, we thought we’d clean the smell away with a visit to Notre Dame. Again, large crowds. But visiting the main cathedral is free, so the line moved quite quickly and inside it wasn’t overly crowded. Very beautiful, and huge, cathedral. I remarked to Claire that unlike our last visit to England (when we must have visited about 1 million churches and cathedrals) we never visited any while in London this time. This is our first cathedral visit this trip!
From Notre Dame we walked back to our apartment (about 1/2 hour walk) and took a well deserved rest.
After resting, we once again jumped on the metro, this time for a trip out to Montmartre. Its actually only 6 stops (with one change) away from our apartment. We waited a long time for one of the stops (to get to the stop we were planning to take the funicular up to Sacre Coeur) but something had delayed the train, so we got off one stop early and started walking the hill. Before arriving at the church, we stopped at a bistro on one of the side streets to have a meal.
A note about meals so far. Generally, we have been impressed with how the kids have dealt with the “different” foods presented to them. Granted, we haven’t had an awful lot of meals out yet, but we’ve had enough, and the kids have been able to order something without too much fuss. I’m knocking on wood right now.
Apres dinner, we visited Sacre Coeur, then we sauntered through the narrow and winding streets of Montmartre back down the hill. The weather and light were perfect for it. At the bottom of the hill, what sight greeted us? Well, that tried and true Paris landmark, the Moulin Rouge. It’s actually not nearly as authentic when you see it live, sandwiched (no pun intended) between the modern burger joint and some non-descript stores. But we saw it (and photographed it with the hordes of other tourists) nonetheless. Then it was back to the apt for the end of another day.
Only one full day left in Paris.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Day 7 – Latin Quarter, Pantheon & Pompidou
Our last day in Paris got off to a rather lazy start. Lisa and I both slept in until about 8:00am. Claire was up a little later, but Martin slept until about 10am. Since we didn’t have to be anywhere early today to beat the crowds, we didn’t need to wake him up earlier. If he would get to sleep at a reasonable time (rather than staying awake playing on his iTouch until 2am, he might find it a bit easier to get up!).
We hopped on the metro and headed to the left bank, for a bit of a walk along the Seine. Being a Sunday, the crowds on the metro, and about town, seemed a bit lighter than they have been over the last few days. We had great weather again – perhaps a bit cooler than the previous days, but still lots of sun. We first had a walk along one of the avenues known for shopping. Thank goodness (for me!) that most places were closed, since it was a Sunday. We then headed over to the riverbank to walk back along and enjoy the scenery and street vendors. I remembered here to take a picture of the bicycle rental stations that they have all over Paris. I know that Toronto is trying to start the same thing, but given our climate vs the climate of Paris, I’m not convinced it will work the same.
We had lunch at a nice cafe along the Seine. We passed on the pizza/pasta place (since we’ve already done our Italian in Paris) and went for the nice french cafe. Claire and I both had a Croque Monsiour – ham and cheese on toasted bread. Excellent!
After our lunch, we continued our foot tour of Paris. We walked southwards, with our destination being the Pantheon. The Pantheon is where a number of the famous French patriots are buried in crypts. I was expecting to see a bunch of bones and skulls, but no such luck. Just very tidy and regal resting places for some of the heroes of the Republic.
Since I was so gung-ho on bones and skulls, we thought we would travel a little further of field and visit the Crypts of Paris. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, the joint had closed. Guess I’ll have to make do with seeing the sewers yesterday.
Our last stop on the Sunday afternoon was the Pompidou Centre. This is a modern art gallery that is currently hosting a Kandinsky exhibit. When we arrived, there were long lines (again!!), but this time, it was because the gallery was free today. Unfortunately, the free exhibits did not include the Kandinsky galleries. It was getting late in the day of much walking, so we decided we would make do of the free galleries. Lots of nice modern art, including Picasso’s, Miro’s, and Calder’s. We made fairly short work of the various galleries however as all of feet were getting pretty tired. Overall, I figured we’ve done a fair number of walking km’s around Paris, and lots of metro km’s. It was back to the apartment, a quick freshening up, then down the street for dinner.
I’ve enjoyed our time in Paris. The city is incredibly vibrant – people out in cafes and on the streets (and they can’t all be tourists!), chaotic traffic (including scooters and bicycles) and so much history, so many things to do. I’d love to come back in the fall to see what the city has to offer at that time of year too! Maybe for our 25th anniversary.
Tomorrow, back to the Gare du Nord, for our train to Brussels.
Here’s today’s pictures, in slideshow form.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Day 8 – Hello Brussels
Our train to Brussels was scheduled at 12:25pm. So we had a leisurely morning again at the apartment. Lisa and I both got up earlier, and began the process of packing up our stuff again. It’s always amazing to me how spread about everything can get, even in 5 days. Breakfast consisted of cleaning out stuff from the refrigerator and fruit bowl – finishing the yogurt (Lisa), drinking the rest of the orange juice (me), downing the kiwi fruits (Claire) and polishing off the Coke (Martin). Actually, Martin and Claire both had their obligatory Nutella sandwiches.
I went out for one last round of the neighbourhood. I stopped in at the post office to get a stamp for a letter Claire wanted to send home, but the line was long, and I couldn’t figure out what the right postage should be to be able to use the machines. So I didn’t get one. Then we were on our way to the Gare du Nord.
We arrived with plenty of time to spare, just over an hour before the train was scheduled to leave. The station was incredibly busy – gee what a surprise. But we found a spot to wait, watched the crowds, and grabbed some baguettes to take with us on the train. I snapped a few pictures of our Thalys train.
The trip was quite short – just over one hour. We had our seats around a table, so it was quite comfortable for all of us. Lisa and the kids listened to their Ipods, and I took in the scenery. I noted how the French and Belgian countryside could be the countryside of Ontario – fields of green, farms, cows, etc. The only noticeable difference (from a speeding train, anyway) was that in the small villages, there was more often than not a prominent steepled church.
Once we arrived at Brussels Gare du Midi, we had planned on walking to our hotel. It was just over a kilometer or so (on the map) and, like Paris, we thought we’d hold off on mastering the metro/trams for a day (actually, since we’re only in Brussels for two days, we likely won’t need to take the metro/trams at all. The city is fairly compact, at least for the areas we are interested in seeing). Right out of the station, we got a bit lost. I couldn’t find any of the streets we were on in our map. So we doubled back toward the station to see if we could get some assistance (I asked someone for help but they either didn’t understand me, or had no idea what I was looking for). Well, a big map right outside the station confirmed that we had headed on more or less the right track afterall. So we headed out again. This time, we got our bearings.
The walk to the hotel took a little longer than I we thought – must be more than a kilometer (our hotel is on the north end of the old city, and the Gare du Midi is on the south side) but we made it. Staying at a Sheraton does seem a bit weird, after having spent 5 days in a real Parisian apartment. It feels too much like North America, rather than Europe. But we’ll have make do of it.
We took a short breather before heading back out to visit the old city. We had a good two hour walkabout, once again, hitting the city highlights – Grand Place, Galeries Royals St. Hubert, and of course, the Manneken Pis. Also, the obligatory Gauffres (Belgian waffles). My thoughts of Brussels so far? Not nearly as nice as Paris (the buildings don’t have that same old city look about them, and there are way more modern building in amongst all the older ones), and way more touristy (not number of tourists, but in the number of tacky tourist stores geared to said tourists). And it is nowhere near as busy and chaotic.
We had dinner in one of the restaurants near the Grand Place. Nothing great really, but we were entertained by some very good street musicians on violin and bass. After that, we wandered back to the hotel and had an early night.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Day 9 – Comics, Surrealist, and Chocolate
Today’s entry is going to be rather short. That’s because we covered our planned itinerary in about 4 hours, including lunch.
The Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinee is the Brussels Comic Strip museum. It is dedicated to the history of Belgium comic strips, and their artists. Of course, everyone knows of Tintin, and of the Smurfs, but there are a lot of other Belgian graphic story artists. Lisa was particularly interested in going to this museum as she remembers reading all the comic strips when she lived in Belgium. The museum is located in beautiful old building that used to be a textile warehouse. Almost all of the exhibits are described only in French and Flemish, so I didn’t really get as much out of it as Lisa did. I’m also not much of a comic book fan (never was. I used to read Mad magazine somewhat regularly as a kid, but that’s just about it).
A note on museums in Europe (not including London). Almost all of the ones we’ve been in so far have very little English descriptions of the exhibit items. I suppose I shouldn’t really be surprised. When I think of the ROM or AGO, I suppose someone who doesn’t speak English isn’t going to get as much out of those museums either. Oh well.
After the comic book museum, we went for another form of art. We visited the Musee Magritte. It houses works of art and other items from the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte. The exhibit spanned 3 floors of one of the Musee Royaux des Beaux-Arts buildings. Overall, I wasn’t that thrilled with this exhibit. Some of his more famous works were not on display.
After all that artwork, we changed pace a bit and headed to the Musee du Cacao et du Chocolat. Well, if those first two museums were somewhat on the disappointing side, this one takes the cake (chocolate cake, that is). It’s a very small museum that looks to have been crammed into one of the available houses just off the main Grand Place. The exhibits are rather low budget (typed descriptions on pieces of laminated paper – in English at least!) and some of them not particularly relevant (china ware that may or may not have been used to serve chocolate). Can we say tourist trap? The best part was watching the chocolatier create chocolates, although his dialogue was in French.
That was it. Our tour of Brussels. We had a bit of time back at our hotel room (and I also went out and got our tickets for our trip to Brugges tomorrow) before we went out for dinner (at a restaurant close to the hotel) then we went down to the Grand Place for one last time – and one last Gauffre each. Yummy!!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Day 10 – In Bruges
As I had purchased tickets yesterday for the train to Bruges (or Brugge, in Flemish), we headed to the train station in Brussels just before 11am. The tickets I had purchased allowed us to travel on any train to Bruges that day. So when we got to the station (Gare du Nord this time, just a short 10 minute walk from our hotel) the next train was leaving in about 15 minutes. No sense waiting around, so we headed to the platform.
The train ride to Bruges was another short one – slightly more than one hour. The train was a double-decker (made by good old Bombardier) and we easily found seats. They don’t seem to have any area for luggage, so our big bags occupied one chair (and we hoped that there wouldn’t be too many other passengers.
As we were approaching Bruges, there was quite a downpour. Actually, since we left Paris, the weather has become much cooler and more “iffy”. In Brussels, we had a few brief downpours, and some light showers, but nothing really too bad. I was a little concerned however that we might have to walk through some downpours from the train station in Bruges to our house. Happily, the weather co-operated, leaving us dry for the walk.
After having got a bit lost two days ago on our arrival in Brussels, Claire had commented to me “you brought your GPS didn’t you? Why don’t you use it?” Excellent question Claire. So this time, upon leaving the train station, I fired up the GPS and punched in the address of our rental house. A few short minutes later, and the GPS had us pinpointed and calculated a walking route to the house. Brilliant.
And it got us there quite directly, even routing us through some alleys I never would have taken if I had been using a map. I did get mixed up once, but that was because I think the GPS was a little slow in updating our position, and I missed a turn. Walking along the cobbled sidewalks with our wheeled luggage was also fun – it made quite a racket all the way.
As we arrived at the house, we turned a corner to see the front, but what did we see instead? A huge construction crane taking up the full width of the street, right in front of our house. A little surprising, to say the least. Seems that the building directly across is having some massive renovation work done to turn it into twenty five apartment units. Since I’m sure that any work being done doesn’t start before 7am at the earliest, and since we need to be up early tomorrow for our trip to Flanders (and on Friday for the train to Amsterdam), I’m sure it won’t be a problem living almost underneath a construction site. (I’ll let you know in tomorrows posting!)
After arriving (we were actually a bit early and the cleaning lady had not yet completed cleaning the house, so we just dropped off our bags) we went for a walk around the town to get our bearings. We went by the main square, and along some of the canals. We also went by some windmills along the outskirts of the old town. Bruges is a lovely little town – very quaint, very pretty, and much nicer than Brussels. Other than on the main shopping streets and in the main square, there don’t seem to be a lot of tourists either.
The owner of the house dropped by and we had a nice chat. He actually spent a bit of time in Ontario back just after he graduated from university – picking tobacco on Flemish farms in southern Ontario.
Afterwards we went out for a late dinner at a restaurant by the main square. Had one of the best meals of my time in Europe – a Flemish stew. It was very much like a beef and Guinness stew, only without he puff pastry on top. Then it was back to the house. Martin and Lisa are watching the “In Bruges” DVD right now (turns out the producer of that film stayed in this house while they were in town filming). If you haven’t already seen that film, you should watch it. Its good.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, our tour of Flanders Fields.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Day 11 – In Flanders Fields
Got up early today for our tour. We got up at 7am, and we had to wake the kids up at 7:30. That was a lot of fun. Actually, both of them got up with fairly minimal fuss (for teenagers). And the noise from the construction site next door was indeed minimal.
Our walk to the pickup place was kind of wet. It happened to be a bit of a downpour for most of the 15 minute walk (including a stop at the pastry shop for some early morning breakfast on the run). But by the time the tour bus arrived, the rain had pretty much stopped.
The tour company we had booked with is called Quasimodo. I have no idea why they are named after a hunchback from Paris, but that is their name. There were about 30 people on the bus in total, from Canada (8 of us), UK, Australia, and a couple from Romania. The tour they offer is called the Flanders Fields tour, and took us to a number of important sites related to the battle in and about Flanders, specifically the 4 year standoff that occured around the town of Ypres (or Iepers (pronounced ee-pers), as it is called in Flemish).
First stop on the tour was a monument to Canadian soldiers who withstood a German gas attack in 1915. There were no graves at the site, only a monument. From there, we proceeded to the largest Commonwealth cemeteries in the world. Tyne Cot is a beautiful cemetery, set amongst the cornfields in the country. It contains the fallen from all countries of the commonwealth, as well as inscriptions for the names of many of those were were never found. The cemetery is located in the same place that many of the battles were fought. Seeing pictures of the battlefields of Flanders, which really were just mud quagmires, with no vegetation whatsoever, and comparing it with what the landscape looks like today, it is very difficult to imagine it in those days.
There were a number of other stops on the tour, including other smaller cemeteries, a recently discovered British trench (surreally found amongst a bunch of large industrial buildings in an industrial park outside of Ypres), a small WWI museum, and a visit to the town of Ypres and the Medin gate, which is where many of the Commonwealth soldiers made their way to Flanders, and which currently has a large memorial to all of the missing soldiers of WWI. But the last stop on the tour had the most significance for the Canadians on the tour. This was the field hospital where John McCrae served in 1915, and the site where he wrote In Flanders Fields. We walked around the underground bunkers which served as the field hospital (actually, it wasn’t a full field hospital, but a dressing area very close to the front where the wounded were initially treated before being sent out to the more substantial field hospitals), and a smaller cemetery next door which is where those who never made it past the dressing area were buried. It was very moving, punctuated by the tour guide reading In Flanders Fields for the entire group.
After that we were back on the bus, and back on the highway to Bruges.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Day 12 – Bruges to Amsterdam
Another travel day today. Our train was scheduled to leave Bruges at 10:20am, so we made sure we were up in time to get everything packed and for our walk to the station. Our own Nervous Nelly – aka Claire – was making sure that we got to the station in plenty of time. She’s very concerned we don’t miss any of our trains, even though I’ve explained to her that there is a fairly frequent service to where we are going, and if we miss one train, we can take the next. Of course, the fact that we don’t have reserved seating is also a huge concern to her.
But she needn’t have worried. We made the station with plenty of time to spare, and it wasn’t difficult figuring out which platform our train was departing from.
The train to Amsterdam is actually two trains. We change in Antwerp. We had 20 minutes between our scheduled arrival from Bruges, and the train departing for Amsterdam. Once again, no problem. Everything is very clearly marked in the stations. It also helps that the conductor on the Bruges to Antwerp train told us that the platform for the train to Amsterdam would be on the lower level of the Antwerp station.
On arrival in Amsterdam, we began the trek to the office where we picked up the keys to our apartment. It was a fairly direct route, so I didn’t think I needed the GPS this time. All was fine until we were almost there, then I got lost. So pulled out the trusty GPS and voila – just a block away. Picked up the keys and headed to the apartment, which was only about another 10-15 minute walk.
We hadn’t had a chance to get any lunch, so Lisa and I went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks that would tide us over till dinner (and some breakfast items). Then we rested for an hour or so before heading out again.
The Van Gogh museum was open late on Friday night, so we figured we would head there, and find somewhere for dinner along the way. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any restaurants along the walk, but the museum had a cafeteria (remember what I said a few posts back about food at museums?) so we had dinner there. We spent another hour or so taking in the Van Gogh exhibit, then walked back to the apartment along the canal.
As there weren’t very many pictures taken today, I don’t have a slideshow to add. Just the pictures I’ve included in this post. Sorry about that. Should have some to post tomorrow!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Day 13 – Anne Frank Huis & History of Amsterdam
Today was the day Claire had been waiting for the whole trip – our trip to Anne Frank Huis. This is the house where Anne Frank and her family were hiding during the Nazi occupation of Holland, before they were discovered and shipped off to concentration camps.
Lisa had pre-purchased the tickets online before we left. They were for a specific time – 9:30am – so we had to hit the road early. We decided we could walk from our apartment, so that’s what we did. We arrived with 5 minutes or so to spare. Luckily, we had pre-purchased he tickets, because the line-up to buy tickets was already stretching around the block. And the museum hadn’t even opened yet! We actually got in ahead of all the crowds (but just behind some teen tourgroup) so for a good part of the visit we had a fair bit of time and space to ourselves to read the exhibits and take in the atmosphere (then the noisy crowds caught up with us unfortunately). I had actually read Diary of Anne Frank in the spring (after Claire insisted I read it) so it was quite fresh in my mind. It actually made the visit much more “real”, seeing the rooms that had been described in the diary. It was a very sobering experience. I think Claire enjoyed it, but would have been happier to have a bit more time with a few less crowds.
After the visit, we had a walk among the Amsterdam streets, then went for a canal cruise. It was a short cruise – just an hour – that went along some of the canals and out into the harbour area. Quite touristy, but gave a good flavour of the canals, and the dialogue that went along with it (in Dutch, German, French and English) was semi-interesting.
From there, we went to the Amsterdam Historical Museum. The museum houses a chronological history of the city, through paintings, artifacts, and various displays. It was very well presented, but perhaps a bit heavy on the paintings (more like an art gallery at times). The City of London has a city history museum, which we went to previously, which is much better (at least in my memory). One thing I did learn about Amsterdam that I did not know previously is that it is a relatively “new” city. It only began to be populated in the 14th century, and didn’t become a real city until the 16th century.
From the history museum, we did another walk through the streets. We thought we’d take a short stroll through the red-light district, just because the kids had heard of it, and we thought they should at least see a bit of it – in the relative safety of being the early afternoon. But it didn’t take much of walking past the window’s with the barely dressed prostitutes looking out at the people wandering by for the kids (and perhaps me and Lisa too – it is a bit bizarre to see the outright “selling” during broad daylight) to feel a bit uncomfortable. So we ambled back to the safety of the “regular” streets of Amsterdam and back to the apartment.
Today, we have a guest photographer for the pictures. The battery in my camera died, and I didn’t notice until we left the apartment. So today’s pics are from Lisa using her camera. Enjoy!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Day 14 – Rijksmuseum and …..
Wow! Excitement today. Other than our visit to the Rijksmuseum, which I’ll describe shortly, we had a very exciting day. We… wait for it… went to the Laundromat! Yes, the Laundromat!! Woo hooo!! (And by the way, the Laundromat is not some famous or not-so-famous Amsterdam landmark. It’s a Laundromat)
This isn’t the first time we’ve done laundry since we’ve been on the trip, but it is the first time we’ve had to do it at the Laundromat. When I was booking places to stay, I specifically looked for places that included a washer (dryer was nice, but optional). That way we could pack relatively lightly, and just wash things as we went along. Our Amsterdam apartment was supposed to have a washer, but it does not. I can see where it used to be (supply tap and drainline give it away), but no machine.
This morning in Amsterdam was very wet – alternating light and heavy rain – so we figured it was an ideal time to do some laundry. Lisa had spied a Laundromat not too far from our apartment when we were walking home yesterday. So after getting up, Lisa and I packed the family dirty laundry (literally) into a suitcase, and headed to the laundry. Will this fun never cease! (Sidenote – it was actually nice to be able to wash everything at once – these European washing machines people have in their houses are quite small, and it takes a long time to do laundry, especially as most of the machines act as both washer and dryer, making it impossible to wash one load while drying another).
After the excitement at the Laundromat, we headed out to the Rijksmuseum. The rain was still falling, but seemed to have eased up a bit.
The Rijksmuseum houses a collection of Rembrandts, and paintings done by contemporaries and Rembrandt’s students. It was quite packed, with a long line-up to get in. But once again, thanks to advanced internet purchases, we were able to skip the long line (but still had to contend with the masses inside). For a big building, the exhibit was actually quite small – only 12 rooms. And that was it! (Other than the gift shop).
After the museum, we had another wander among the streets and canals of Amsterdam. My overall impression of Amsterdam? It’s not nearly as pretty as I imagined. I don’t know if it is the weather (it’s been most overcast, with rain all today) or not, but I had imagined something much more quaint, something much more romantic. But I don’t get that feeling at all (I know, dragging 2 kids along with you tends to reduce the romance quotient, but I don’t think that really is a factor). The buildings seem “heavier” than say Paris, and the canals aren’t particularly pretty (not like I remember the canals of Venice). The sidewalks and streets, which are mostly brick or cobble, are in various states of disrepair, with lots of weeds seeming to grow in less heavily travelled places, and against buildings. I’m not disappointed, but its not what I imagined.
Oh, and I should mention the bikes. I knew coming in that Amsterdam was a bike friendly town. And as you all know, I’m a big advocate of cycling. But boy, I almost feel like they’ve gone overboard here. Maybe its because I’m a pedestrian here (and a tourist to boot!), but you’ve got to watch yourself all the time that you don’t get run over by a cyclist going this way or that. Generally, it seems that signals and lights are for pedestrians and cars only. And while there always seems to be a bike lane wherever you turn, the sidewalks often disappear into nothing or next-to-nothing. Maybe I’d feel differently if I was a local.
Photos below are again, mostly credited to guest photographer Lisa. It was too wet for most of the day for me to take out the Canon. You can probably guess which ones are mine (hint: two wheeled variety).
Monday, July 13, 2009
Day 15 – Amsterdam to Berlin
Today was a travel day. Its a 6 hour train trip from Amsterdam to Berlin. We took a taxi to the train station in Amsterdam since the Metro – which I had counted on to take us to Station Zuid, where our train departed from – had closed for this summer for that part of the line due to construction work.
We got there a fair bit early, so we waited on the platform for the 10:58 train. Then we got on. Then we sat until we arrived in Berlin. Then we got off. Then we took a taxi to our apartment. That’s it. That was our day today. No plans to look at anything in Berlin this evening. So, pretty boring blog for today.
But I’ve got some nice train pictures (I am the son of a railway man after all)!!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Day 16 – Berlin Tour of Death
Title sounds like a heavy metal band tour. But that’s what we did today.
First stop was the Judisches Museum. This is the museum which has its newest addition designed by Daniel Libeskind (same guy who gave us the ROM Crystal). The main building is a classical structure, built as a courthouse. The Libeskind addition, very much in the same style as the ROM Crystal, has wacky angles and rectangular portholes all over it.
Inside the museum are actually two museums – one dedicated to the history of the Jewish people of Europe, and the other a memorial to victims of the holocaust. The former was an interesting walk through the period around 1000 to present and the live of Jews in Germany. The latter was a sobering reminder of all those who lost their lives. There was also a special exhibit about the development of Eugenics, and the Nazi party’s adoption of the principals in their desire to create a master race.
After the museum, next stop was the Topography of Terror exhibit. This is an outdoor exhibit (at least until a new museum/interpretive centre is finished construction) located on the former site of the main administration buildings of the Nazi party. The buildings are long gone – most of them were destroyed in the bombing during WWII – but the exhibit gives a history of the buildings, what they were used for (mostly the bad stuff), and the people associated with them. Lots of photos, and lots of reading. It too was very interesting. It was very busy there however, with many guided tourgroups, so seeing and reading some the exhibits was difficult. It was also very sunny at the time and quite hot.
We then had a bit of a walk up to the Postdammer Platz, and just beyond it, the memorial to murdered Jews of Europe. Yes, another happy location. So you can see why today’s blog title is Tour of Death.
After a short recharging break back at the condo, we went out for a walk and to find some dinner. Our condo is in an area of Berlin called Kreuzberg, which is south of the main downtown area. Our guidebook says its where the locals go for dinner, and based on the number of German speaking folks at the numerous restaurants Kreuzbergstrasse and Bergmannstrasse, it seems pretty accurate. We were trying to find somewhere German to eat, but in this neighbourhood, not one to be seen. So we settled on French.
After dinner we strolled back to the condo, with a sidetrip to Viktoriapark, which is a nice park right at the end of our street. It has a small hill in it, which we walked up, and you can see some pictures from the top in the slideshow below.
Oh, almost forgot. We did visit one location earlier in the day which was perhaps not quite so gloomy – Checkpoint Charlie, the reconstructed crossing point from West to East Berlin. Basically just a touristy site now. Though the hoardings on some sites around it did have a good history of the wall.
Just two more days left before we head back for home. I know the kids have pretty much reached their limit, and as much as Lisa and I are enjoying seeing new things, I think we’ll be ready to return also.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Day 17 – Berlin Zoo
I got up well before all the rest of the sleepy-heads in the family today. Was up and showered by 7:15am, while the rest of the gang slept. As I was up early, I thought I would talk a little walk, and perhaps mail the postcards we had. I found a postbox, and I also figured, while I was out, I would explore the route to the nearest U-bahn station, as we would be using the U-bahn today. It was a 10-15 minute walk to the station, and while I was there I also picked up a small group pass, which would allow us to travel as much as we wanted on the U & S-bahns, or the buses, for one day. When I got back to the condo, people were starting to stir.
Today we visited the zoo. I know, a zoo is not exactly a Berlin exclusive, but it is the Berlin Zoo, the oldest zoo in Germany, and the zoo with the most diverse animal species in the world.
It’s actually a nice zoo. Its a very park-like setting, with lots of trees and meandering walks through the various exhibits. And the trees were welcome shade – it was sunny and hot in Berlin today. Highlights of the Berlin Zoo: Knut the polar bear (I’m sure you’ve heard of this guy) and Bao Bao the panda. And the penguins were the most fun.
We spent a good 3 hours at the zoo, including lunch. Then we walked across the street to look a the Kaiser Wilhelm III church. It is basically the remains of a grand church which was mostly destroyed by bombing in WWII. It stands right in the middle of some major thoroughfares.
Then we walked a bit, and visited the Kaufhaus des Westens, or KaDeWe, Europe’s largest department store. From inside, it felt pretty much like any Hudson’s Bay store.
For dinner, we figured we’d spend a bit of time in the old East Berlin. So after an afternoon rest, we hopped on the U-bahn again and headed for Alexanderplatz. We had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant (Italian seems to be the predominant restaurant of Europe – they win the restaurant wars) and then wandered around the square a bit. I suggested we take a trip to the top of the Fernsehturm – the radio tower built by the East Germans in 1960 – but no one was game. They were all too tired (and they all slept in!!). So we just wandered around a bit, then headed back to the U-bahn for the ride back home.
Last day tomorrow.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Day 18 – The Final Day
Well, this is it. Our final day in Berlin, and the last day of the Seals Tour of Europe 2009 (well, technically we’ll still be in Europe for part of one more day, but that doesn’t really count).
We had planned on calling a taxi to take us to the Hauptbahnhof to drop off our bags for the day. However, when I tried to call, I couldn’t figure out how to call the local number. These European phone numbers are so weird. Plus my SIM card works kind of weird (you phone a number, then it hangs up, then it calls you, and you call is connected). So I couldn’t call. Instead, we knew of a taxi stand not too far from the condo so we started on our merry way. At the first intersection however, I was able to flag down a passing cab. So that worked out ok.
We stored our bags at the Hauptbahnhof for the day (we would be coming back later to pick them up for the trip to the airport) and headed back into the city for one last tour.
A short walk across the river, and we were at the Reichstag, Germany’s main parliament. We thought of heading in for a tour, however the line up was quite long, and no-one (except me) was really that interested. So be it. We had a nice walk around it and through the parks, and then headed over to Unter Den Linden.
At the head of the street is the Brandenburg Tor, or Brandenburg Gate. Lots of tourists here. There were also a ton of taxis. I guess tourists get in a taxi and tell the driver “Take me to Brandenburg Gate”. Otherwise, not sure why there should be so many taxis right there.
Unter Den Linden is a major tree-lined street with lots of shopping. In fact, most of the shopping seems to be of the tourist variety. However, since it is our last day, and we needed to finish off our souvenir shopping, that was alright. We also found a nice restaurant to have some lunch in – and it wasn’t Italian. In fact, they had German food. So I had a nice German goulash. Yum.
After lunch, we walked a bit more about town, then walked down to the waters edge. We figured to kill a bit of time, we would go on a boat cruise down the Spree. There a tons of tour boat operators, so we just hopped on the first one we came across. It was a one hour cruise along the river with commentary explaining the various buildings, bridges, and other sights from the river. Only problem was, it was in German. So didn’t really get much out of the audio tour, but it was a nice cruise, and some some sights we hadn’t seen in our walks.
After the cruise, we walked over the Tiergarten, Berlin’s central park for a bit of rest before heading back to the Hauptbahnhof to pick up our bags and head to the airport.
So that’s it! Our tour of Europe. I think we are all ready to be home again.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Day 19 – Home Sweet Home
Well, we’re home!
Had an ok night’s sleep at the Crowne Plaza, just outside of Heathrow. Got up around 8:30, and had our breakfast room service ordered for 9. The kids got up no problem – I think they were excited about getting home today.
Took a bus from the hotel to Heathrow (the London cab last night was quite cramped between the 4 of us and all our luggage, so we thought the bus might be a bit better) and checked in at the kiosk. Turns out that the seats we thought we had already reserved were no longer valid (I think they changed the plane from what we were originally scheduled to fly on), so we had to wait while they juggled everyone’s seating to see if we could get seats together or not. All turned out well, with three seats together and one across the aisle.
Flight back across the Atlantic was uneventful. We all watched movies to keep us occupied (me: The Watchmen and Push. Lisa: Adventureland, 17 Again, and Sunshine Cleaning. Claire: Hanna Montana, 17 Again, and Hanna Montana (again). Martin: Adventureland and I Love You Man). The flight back home seemed a lot shorter to me. I think that’s because it wasn’t a redeye flight.
So that’s it. We’re done. I think we all had a great time, but are happy to be home again (I know the cats are glad to have us home!). I hope everyone enjoyed he daily blog updates and the pictures I posted. Of course, we’ve got hundreds more that I didn’t post, and that will be our job over the remainder of the summer to organize them all.
Until next trip, adieu, vaarwel, auf wiedersehen, and cheerio!!