Summer Superlatives

Best City:
C- Innsbruck
J- Innsbruck

Best Food:
C- Sacher Torte from Spar Gourment in Vienna
J- Pizza in Rome with UD and AC

Worst Food:
C- Pizza (actually Paprika) flavored Cheetos
J- None

Best Hotel:
C- Unie Pension, Prague
J- Hostel St Nicholaus, Innsbruck

Most fun activity:
C- Hiking in the Alps
J- Hiking on the glacier

Most dissapointing activity:
C- House of Musik, Vienna
J- Same

Greatest annoyance:
C- People not speaking English
J- Rude Germanic people

Biggest thing we miss about home (Tala does not count):
C- Salad
J- Public restrooms and cheap coke (tie)

#1 thing to change for next time:
C- Longer in smaller towns, shorter in big cities
J- Fewer places, more time in each (particulary small towns)

Biggest waste of money:
C- Train tickets we didnt use because I got sick
J- Vaportetto tickets in Venice (expensive and they never check!)

Moment when I wanted to go home the most:
C- Sick the the couchette on way to Prague (when it was about 100 degrees, cramped, and dirty)
J- Lost in rain trying to find hostel in Prague and Carrie was sick and miserable from the above train trip

Moment when I wanted to move to Europe:
C- On top of mountain in Austria
J- Whole time in Innsbruck

Biggest surprise (good):
C- None (I have been here before)
J- How nice Venice was

Biggest surprise (bad):
C- How much the Euro has made everything so expensive
J- Lack of vegetarian food other than pizza, which I hope to never eat again

Best thing Europe has that America doesnt:
C- Interest and involvement in rest of world (without a big stick)
J- Seamless public transit (maybe this is just LA)

Place we would visit if we had another week:
C- Switzerland
J- Tunisia or Morocco or Turkey

Berlin

Last night we arrived very late in Berlin and Carrie brilliantly navigated our way to our hotel, the beautiful Westin Grand in the heart of historic East Berlin.

This morning we slept in and began our cursory tour of the major sights. In a whirlwind morning we saw the Reichstag, Brandenbug Gate, Holocaust Memorial, Tiergarten, Checkpoint Charlie and Checkpoint Charlie Museum, and of course the remnants of the Berlin Wall. Whew!

We grabbed lunch and promptly returned to our hotel and collapsed. We think three weeks was about right as we are really tired out!!!

We will probably spend a couple more hours exploring Berlin, but most of the remainder of this vacation will be spent at our hotel pool and spa. Much needed rest before retunring to work on Monday.

More Funny Pictures UPDATED

Darn, we found the perfect camping spot, but it was not allowed.

10 CZK for whoever can figure out what this sign means!

Please take note: guns are not allowed in banks in Prague. Oops, neither are photos...

Delicious American Style Big Texas pepperoni pizza (Europeans believe pepperoni comes from Texas).

Medieval Carrie

Cesky Krumlov

We arrived in Cesky Krumlov last night after a delayed train ride from Prague - for some reason, we stopped in the middle of nowhere for about 45 minutes!

When we woke up this morning, it was raining cats and dogs. Regardless, we ventured out into the cold wet village. Our first stop was the castle. We took a tour and saw old rooms just the way that they were in the dark ages. They said that in the winter, even with the fire fully blazing, the castle never got over 60 degrees. Brrrr!

For lunch, we happened upon a vegetarian restaurant and tried out some traditional Czech dishes made veggie style. The food was weird, but Jim liked his fried cheese.

After lunch, we explored the wax works museum and then later, the museum of torture instruments. It finally stopped raining, though was still grey and dismal but we walked around and explored the village some while the weather cooperated. And then we had some yummy desserts at a great little restaurant near our pension.

Tonight we will be attending a baroque concert up at the castle. Everything here is dirt cheap so we don't feel one bit guilty about going to so many attractions and eating fancy foods.

Tomorrow morning we make the LONG journey to Berlin.

Prague

We arrived in Prague EXHAUSTED yesterday morning after a dreadful overnight train ride from Munich. It was hot and stuffy in our compartment and we were stuck on the top bunks. Czech trains are definitely not as nice as Austrian trains, which was the last overnight we took. You could tell it was a former communist train.

We finally arrived in Prague to find a torrential downpour going on. We wandered around for awhile and finally found our pension - certainly with no help from the Czech people we asked, as one lady tried to direct us to the bus stop when we were in fact about 10 yards away from the door. Our pension was hard to find because it is on the 5th floor of a business school (we think it is used as a dorm during the school year) and is poorly marked. But it was worth the effort, since they let us check in very early (around 9:30) and it was warm, cozy, clean, and spacious. Carrie needed a nice rest after the trip - her sore throat has turned into a cough.

After a few hours of BBC and reading English books we managed to find in Munich, we decided to venture out to the Museum of Communism. It was hard to find, however, so we also ended up getting a tour of downtown Prague. We saw Wenceslas Square, site of the 1968 and 1989 anti-Commie demonstrations. Since it was still a monsoon outside, we decided to buy umbrellas for 500 crowns (about 20 dollars). Well worth the money.

We finally made it to the museum of communism. The museum is situated above McDonalds - by the time we found it, we had been to five different McDonalds in our quest. The museum was crowded, but interesting, and fortunately everything was in English. Jim enjoyed learning about the communist sports movement, and Carrie enjoyed learning about the schools. The highlight was a video of the 1968 and 1989 demonstrations showing where we had just been walking around. In the video Wenceslas Square was abandoned and decrepit, but today it is full of department stores, restaurants, etc.

After the museum, with Carries excellent navigational skills, we found our way to the site of the best vegetarian restaurant in Prague, which offers vegetarian delights based on traditional Czech cuisine. Unfortunately, we discovered it has been closed for two years! Thanks a lot Lonely Planet.

We got food at a grocery store as usual (more cheese and bread) and went back to the hotel where Jim put Carrie to bed. Jim then went to the train station to buy our tickets to Cesky Krumlov while Carrie read. After that, Jim went out to enjoy the Czech nightlife.

The Prague Symphony were playing a concert for tourists in historic Smetena Hall (named for the 2nd most famous Czech composer). The program was very un-Czech: Mozarts "Don Giovanni Overture", Schuberts "Unfinished Symphony", and Beethovens "Emperor Piano Concerto". However, Don Giovanni was premeried in Prague, so there was at least some connection. The concert was very good but there were some glaring mistakes.

After a good night of rest, we awoke and had a pension breakfast, and headed out to explore Prague Castle. The rain had fortunately ended and everything was wet and fresh. The castle was neat. We walked around the gardens and the perimeter of the main palace. We walked up the original castle stairs to the top of a hill, and visited some sort of mirror maze and a replica of the Eiffel Tower (I think that is the 3rd one we have seen on our trip - good thing we opted not to go to Paris). Then we took the funicular railway back down the hill. We stopped for some chinese for lunch - 2 bowls of noodles for about 3 bucks. We then went back to our Pension, grabbed our bags, and headed for the train station, where we are now.

We are about to grab our train to Cesky Krumlov, about 3 hours away. More from there.

Jim and Carrie

PS - Illness Update - Carrie got some cold and sinus medicine and other than being congested and having a cough is feeling a bit better today. Lets hope the country air of Cesky Krumlov will help.

Sick!

Carrie got sick with a sore throat so we decided to take a zero day yesterday (in hiking a zero day is a day with no miles). We hung around the hotel, watched way more track and field than we would ever want to again, and read a British tabloid - the only English reading material to be found. Jim also found time to go for a swim, a dip in the hot tub, a bit of time in the sauna.

Today was much the same. Jim went out for groceries, and now we are on our way out to catch our train to Munich (4 hours) connecting to Prague (overnight). What a long trip!

Carrie reports that her throat is feeling a bit better but now it is turning into a chest cold. She is determined to go out and have fun in Prague on our arrival. She is trying to eat lots of fruit with vitamin C and rest whenever possible.

Intinerary update - we are only staying in Prague one night before moving on to Cesky Krumlov (a small town about 2 hours outside Prague in the Czech Republic), then on to Berlin for two nights. We are not looking forward to going back to work, but Carrie is missing Tala more and more! Jim misses her less and is enjoying not having to walk her every night before bed.

Bolzano

Today was a busy day. We slept in, then took the bus from our hotel to old-town Bolzano. We had chocolate croissants for breakfast, then headed off on a walking tour through the town and along the river. Our destination was an aerial tramway up to a smaller town about 2000 ft above Bolzano. The tram ride was fun with great views of the city and mountains.

Once on top, we attempted to go on a hike, but the trail was poorly marked or nonexistent and we got lost in a farmers field - which Carrie reports is not a good place to be lost, as she learned while hiking in England. So we headed back to the village to return to Bolzano, but were sidetracked by a small Italian restaurant overlooking the Dolmites. We had a leisurely lunch of caprese salad and pasta (which was probably filling enough to also be our dinner). After lunch we caught the tram back down to Bolzano.

Another hike beside the river took us to Runklestein Castle (a name worse than Stekelberg!). Runklestein was built in the 13th century and has amazingly well preserved frescoes depicted medieval life, including lance fights, bear hunting, giants, and dwarves. We looked around the castle for an hour or so, then had a LONG hike back to the city center.

A train ride brought us back to our hotel, sunburned and tired. Now we are ready for a swim, a chocolate bar, and some BBC news in bed. Tomorrow we plan to hike or rent bikes.

Funny Europe Pictures

In Europe, you have to pay to use the toilet.

Notice the cows in back of Carrie. They ascribe to the dog style of greeting.

Carrie ordered a small Austrian beer for lunch.

A staple at every German airport.

The Hotel Bristol was so happy to see backpackers!


Carrie is such an angel.

In America, we make toast out of bread. In Europe, they believe Americans make toast out of processed cheese.

Bauer did what?!?!

Glacier Hiking

If you hate mountains, rivers, waterfalls, meadows, and glaciers, then Innsbruck is not the town for you. Otherwise, it is great!

Today we woke up early and caught a bus to a small town about an hour outside Innsbruck (forget the name-something long and German). The town is at the bottom of a tall mountain (10,000 ft) with a big glacier on top of it, where you can ski all year round. Well, that is a bit of a lie since they said it was too warm to ski right now, but most of the year! We bought gondola (not the Venice type) tickets and rode all the way to the top, an ascent of about 8000 ft! The views on the way up were absolutely amazing as we ascended from subalpine forest all the way past the treeline up to snow. We trouped around in the snow for awhile and had lunch in another one of those mountaintop huts before getting cold and heading back down. Then we had a little hike to a waterfall at the foot of the mountain before heading back to Innsbruck, where we just caught our train to Bolzano, Italy - where we are now. I will not describe the glacier in any more detail since my words will not do it justice - see the pictures!

Top of Glacier

Bottom of Mountain

Here in Bolzano we are staying at a fine Four Points Sheraton hotel courtesy of Deloitte. We hope to ride bikes, hike the Dolmites (the local mountain range), and see a castle before heading off for Prague. Now we are off for a swim in our hotels indoor heated pool.

Innsbruck

We made it to Innsbruck last night and took a walk around Old Town after checking into our pension (a pension is like a cross between a hostel and a hotel). Innsbruck is really beautiful, surrounded on all sides by mountains rising up thousands of feet and with a really big swift river flowing through it.

We met a couple of other Americans at our hostel last night who recommended a free hiking guided tour run by the Innsbruck Alpine Academy. We got up bright and early and met our guide at 9 am. We were then shuttled about an hour outside Innsbruck up to a really great mountainy area (we will put pictures later - no USB port on this computer). We thought this was going to be a short, easy hike, but we were wrong!!! First of all, our guide made us take off our sneakers and he lent us some hiking boots. Then, we began climbing... and climbing... over 2000 feet up to the top of this freezing cold mountain, almost to a glacier! We were surprising to find a little restaurant-hotel up there (only accesible by foot), but they are very common in Austria. We warmed up inside and had lunch (and Carrie had 2 hot chocolates), then began our descent, during which we saw lots more mountains and some Austrian wildlife (cows). The hike took the entire day, about 10 to 4 and roughly 8 miles.

Now we are tired and hungry but we had to stop by the laundromat to clean our stinky laundry.

Innsbruck was so much fun that we decided to stay another night! Tomorrow we are hoping (weather permitting) to ride a cable car up to the top of a glacier and do some hiking up there. After that we are leaving for Bolzano.

Carrie and Jim

Vienna - Final Thoughts

Best of Vienna-
1. Our hotel
2. Renting bikes and riding through the woods
3. Baked goods (including Sacher Torte)
4. Refreshingly cool weather - sometimes too much so

Worst of Vienna-
1. The rude natives
2. 60 degrees in summer!
3. Food other than baked goods (pickled ducks liver, stewed calf brain, etc.)

Off to Innsbruck!

Budapest

We woke up early yesterday morning (6 am) so that we could catch the early train to Budapest. The train ride was rich with lovley scenery and after three hours were were deep behind the (former) iron curtain at Budapest Keleti train station. After deciphering the bizarre metro system, we grabbed a bus to the central tourist area.

We got off near a big old church called St. Stephens. It was really pretty with a big square out in front. Then we walked over to the Chain Bridge that crosses the Danube, where the city was putting on some sort of breakdance-baton twirling-traditional Hungarian dance show. The bridge was closed to cars and was really packed with Austrian and German toursits. We made our way across the bridge to the foot of the tram up to Castle Hill, but the line was so long we decided to find some lunch first and see if the line would die down.

We walked really far down a street trying to find something acceptable to eat, but as most of the menus were in Hungarian we had a lot of trouble. Finally we came upon a Spar (Austrian grocery store chain) where we got some great smoked Gouda and baked goods. After that, we walked up Castle Hill to the remains of medieval Budapest. We walked around up there for awhile, admiring the great views of the city, which is surprisingly beautiful for a former Communist city, and exploring the old cobblestone streets.

After that, we walked back down and made our way to Andrussy Blvd., the main street of Pest (Buda and Pest are the two parts of Budapest on opposite sides of the Danube). It made me think of a really dirty Paris - a lot of the buildings were black with pollution, but the street had really nice trees and cafes. A few blocks down Andrussy Blvd., we came to our destination: the House of Terror, a museum documenting Nazi and Soviet war crimes against Hungary housed in the former headquarters of the Nazi and Soviet secret police. It was really interesting and beautifully laid out, but most of the stuff was in Hungarian so some of the effect was lost on us.

After that we caught the metro back to the train station for our evening departure back to Vienna. On the train back we shared a compartment with a 21 year old Slovakian student at the U of Vienna. He told us all about living in Europe and we told him a lot about America. We tried to persuade him to do his graduate work in the USA but he did not seem convinced.

We got back to Vienna late, and went right to bed. Today we woke up and went to Spar for breakfast and now are using the wonderfully free internet at the hotel. Today we are going to rent bikes and see Vienna some more, go to a Viennese amusement park, and see a free Bach concert at some festival near our hotel. Tomorrow we leave to Innsbruck.

Jim and Carrie

PICTURES!

We now have the capability to post pictures so go back and look at all our previous posts to see our adventures!

Sociological Observations Continued

Weird European Food:

• Pizza flavored Cheetos
• Ketchup flavored Cheetos
• Peanut flavored Cheetos
• Pizza with corn, tomato, and zuchinni
• Pizza with peas and carrots
• Pizza with bacon and fried eggs overeasy
• Paprika flavored EVERYTHING!

Updated Itinerary

We have made some changes to our itinerary as follows-

Depart Vienna August 9 for Innsbruck
One night in Innsbruck, depart August 10 for Bolzano, Italy
Two nights in Bolzano, depart Bolzano August 12 for Alps location TBA
Depart TBA on August 14 for Prague
Prague (with day trip to Cesky Krumlov) until August 18
Berlin from August 18 to 20
Fly home August 21 from Frankfurt

We will be staying at a Sheraton in Bolzano. If you would like to call, the number is (39)(0471) 1950000.

Off to Budapest now!

More from Vienna

We finally got our hotel room and it is everything we dreamed of. It has an entrance hall, a sitting room, ad bedroom, a WC, and a bathroom! We also got a free fruit platter and bottle of water. Fluffy bathrobes and a walk in closet! After hot showers and some much needed rest, we were off to explore Vienna. We took a walk around the museum-palace-park area with lots of big and pretty old buildings. Then we ended up in some sort of pedestrian mall with all sorts of street performers and shops. We had a delicious Viennese dinner of chop suey and fried rice. Now we are preparing our accomodation for Innsbruck (Aug 9th) and getting ready for our day trip to Budapest tomorrow.

They allow smoking in the internet cafes here, so we have to go before we get lung cancer!

Arrival in Vienna

We arrived in Vienna on our overnight train a couple hours ago, and made our way to our hotel on the underground. The train ride was pretty good considering that we shared a tiny little compartment with 3 Korean high school students and their teacher (thank God for the teacher or we may have been up all night).

Cochette service has improved since Carrie last went to Europe and we were happy to recieve a free yummy Austrian breakfast on the train (a roll and some butter). We also got clean sheets and one pillow to share. The worst part of the train was the bathrooms which were so yucky and stinky! They did not empty onto the tracks, but it seemed that men were empying themselves onto the floors!

Anyway, we finally got to Vienna after about 12 hours. The metro service here is excellent, and our hotel seems REALLY fancy although we have not seen our room since we got here so early.

Upon arrival at the hotel, they informed us that we would have to wait for a room at "our rate" to be ready. Carrie was annoyed and said that they could just go ahead and upgrade us to a room that was already ready. We then discovered that they had already upgraded us up to a luxury suite and that is what we are waiting for. We decided the wait would be worth it!

(For those who do not know the story - Jim got a lot of hotel points and Gold preferred guest status when he travelled a lot with Deloitte, so we are getting a $400 or so room for $60!)

Now we are off to find some Austrian munchies and visit a music museum before coming back and checking in.

Leaving Venice

We are about to leave Venice for Vienna on our overnight train, but we decided to first stop in for a quick post before we go. Today we slept in at our nice hotel near St. Marks Square and then got a free water taxi (very expensive) ride to Murano, an island off of Venice. The water taxi was free because it is run by the glass blower company and they try to pressure you into buying expensive glass after you watch a demonstration of glass blowing (kind of like a time share thing). The glass blowing was really cool. The master glass blower guy blew a bubble with it as thin as plastic cellophane. He also made a dolphin and a vase.



We ate lunch on Murano and then took the Vaparetto (sp) to the island of Burano, which is an old fishing village. We looked around for a while and then made our way over to the (almost) deserted island of Torcello (deserted because of Malaria a long time ago). Although these island adventures were fun, it took us almost 2 hours to get back to the main area of Venice, YIKES!

Then we had a quick dinner of pizza, and are about go feed the birds and pick up our stuff before heading off to the train.

Bests of Venice:
1. Feeding the pigeons in St Marks - we spent 2 euros last night on popcorn and had birds flying all over us. Today Carrie got a box of corn at the store for 50 cents and we are going to go use that now.
2. Getting lost in the old streets and canals - saw lots of nice scenery, old houses, canals, and a Gypsy band, and also stumbled upon free internet and 1.50 euro pizza slices.
3. Thats all!

Worsts of Venice:
1. Long vaporetto rides
2. Crowds
3. Crowds
4. Crowds
5. Expensive
6. Not enough public toilets
7. Crowds

Thats all - more from Vienna (dont forget to call us at our hotel if desired - the number is in a previous post. Good luck figuring out how to call that weird number!).

Sociological Observations

Here are some differences in Europe-

1. Men wear capri pants and pink shorts
2. Dogs are allowed in restaurants, bars, trains, boats, etc.
3. When you go to the bathroom on the train, it lands right on the track!

More later.

Venice

Well, we made it to Venice! We are sitting in a bar with free internet, so we're very happy. Since our last post this morning, we took a long train ride here to Venice, arrvied and took the vaporetto down the grand canal to our hotel near st. marks square. We checked in and then went out for pasta and fried mozzarella. After that, we went back to St Marks to feed the pigeons. We spent 2 euros on corn kernals and had pigeons all over us! Carrie even got one on her head!

***** BIG NEWS*****
We have dropped oujr guise of being Canadian after the following funny but embarrassing exchange in a train station.

- approached by a young woman-
her- are you canadian!!!???
jim- ...um... yea
her - Wow! Me too! Where are you from?
jim- Um, Vancouver...
her- Me Too!!!! That is SO cool, you are the first people from Vancouver I have met out here!!! What part are you from?
jim- ... - long pause, frantically looking around for an escape- ... just the general part , you know just in Vancouver somewhere...
her- confused- oh... okay...

Shortly afterwards, in repentence for our lie, we cut off our patches. We will no longer deny our American heritage, but will gladly bash Bush whenever possible.

Anyway, that is all the news for now. Tomorrow we probably will not be able to post as we have a long day of sightseeing in Venice and then an overnight train to Vienna!

Leaving Cinque Terre

We are here at the La Spezia train station waiting for our train to Venice (via Bologna), shortly after we said goodbye to our little town of Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre was really great, and we highly recommend it to anyone coming to Italy!

We almost made it hiking between all 5 villages, but we stopped for pizza and gelato in the 4th (and it started to rain) so we had no desire to finish up the trek. As it is, we hiked about 7 miles, walked up hundreds of stairs, and had great views the whole way.

When we got back to the B&B, it had started to thunder and lightning, so we had a siesta before starting again with our explorations. When we got up, we hiked down to the sea and sat on a rock beach for a while. Jim finally decided to take a dip in the mediterranean (sp?) which he reports was 80 degerees and delightful. To Carrie, it looked cold and had big scary waves.

Upon returning to the village, we enjoyed a dinner of take out Pesto and (of course) gelato. Now on to Venezia!

Carrie and Jim

Cinque Terre

Well, we made it to Cinque Terre. We took a beautiful 4 hour train ride from Rome through Italian countryside with ocean views and had a nice picnic lunch on board - rolls, cheese, fruit, and Italian cookies.

Our bed and breakfast is really nice and clean and very quaint. Last night when we arrived we checked in and then took a walk around our town (Riomaggiore) and watched the sunset over the ocean from high above a cliff. After a good nights sleep, breakfast was delicious (Italian roll, jelly, juice). Now we are walking the 18 km trail between the five towns. We are about halfway now, in a little town at the top of 385 steps (per Carrie, who counted).

Time to go, internet is .15 euros a minute! More from Venice tomorrow.

Ciao,
Jim and Carrie

Ciao Roma!

We're on our way to the train station to leave Rome for Cinque Terre. Here are our Roman highlights:

Staying with Uncle David & Auntie Catherine: It was great staying in an apartment rather than a hotel or hostel. We had our own bathroom, laundry service, breakfast, rides around Rome, Italian translation services, home cooking, and other pampering. We were able to recover from our jet lag with the least amount of pain. We experienced Mussolini's dream by living in the EUR.

Roman ruins: We got a triple dose of this - the Collosseum (not too crowded, good and cheap guided tour, very hot!), the Forum (kinda boring), and Ostica Antica (the ancient port of Rome with a whole antique city, very deserted and private, and interesting).

Lines at Termini station and Roman drivers: Not so much fun.

Food: Wood fired pizza, pasta, salad... Yum!!! I will hate to leave Italy for Austria...

Whoops, we're going to miss our train - more from Cinque Terre!

Love,
Jim and Carrie