Weeks in the World – Europe – explained
I post my blogs after my travel, but still in reverse order, so this post is to summarize what you will read below. If you want to read from the beginning, scroll to the bottom.
This blog records and celebrates a whirlwind trip I took around Europe with my brother. I took my first trip to Europe in 1998 in the third year of my undergraduate degree. I went with my friend Tara on a 10-countries, 16-days Contiki tour. Since then I had been back to Europe a handful of times. But this records the trip with my brother Bob (1.5 years younger than me), who had just finished his undergraduate degree and was similarly interested in taking his first tour of Europe. So my goal was to somewhat recreate my first whirlwind, and share important highlights: London, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Berlin and Prague (my first time there) were on the list. Here’s what happened:
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Bye bye Europe
On our last day in London Bob took a tour of Parliament, while I went to the Tate Modern. Too soon it was time to rush back to Heathrow where we caught our 3:30 flight back to Montreal.
Mom and Dad were waiting for us at the airport and by that time we were looking forward to getting back to the comforts of home. Goodbye London! Goodbye Europe!
Monday, July 30, 2007
London time
Today I went to museums while Bob went to check out St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and other sights around London. I went to the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, the last of which I’d never been to so that was really interesting since the V&A as they call it features applied arts and crafts like metal work and stained glass alongside paintings by the likes of Turner and Constable.
We met at the end of the day for a final fish and chips dinner (I love mushy peas!) and to go to bed.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Touring the Palace
This morning we went to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace which is a huge production with many tourists. The band surprised me by playing not only serious tunes but Putting on the Ritz and other jazz tunes. Afterwards we bought lunch at Marks and Spencer which has a lot of takeout sandwiches which we ate in St. James Park. We then went on a neat tour of Buckinham Palace as it turned out that the State rooms had only been opened the day before so that was neat.
In the evening we went to hang out in Picadilly circus for some people watching and a nice cappuccino for me and espresso for Bob.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Landing back in London
Today we took a flight to London, found our place to stay at the next few days which was a residence at the University of London, a little out of the way but only 20 pounds a night each and good full English breakfast.
The first day back we went walking around downtown near the Thames and to Covent gardens to hang out.
Friday, July 27, 2007
To Berlin!
Today we got on the train from Prague to go to Berlin, where we stowed our stuff in a locker for a look around.
We went to the Reichstag first, then down to the Berliner Dom along Under den Leiden, then finally to Checkpoint Charlie where East and West Berlin met.
Best of all, we had dinner at ‘Snackpoint Charlie’, a slight commercialization of the area. That night we took the train to Berlin where we stayed at a nice Holiday Inn at the Schoenfield airport to catch our plane the next day.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
First time in Prague
Our day in Prague! We started at the Prague castle, then toured the Little Quarter, St. Nicholas Church, and the famous and beautiful Charles Bridge with its lovely statues.
In the afternoon we went walking around the Old and New city Squares as well as the Jewish Quarter. Later we went to see the Charles bridge lit up at night.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Wien to Praha
After a somewhat bumpy night on the sleeping car, we woke up in Vienna, hopped off the train and stored our stuff in a locker to look around downtown at spots like the Stephensdom, Rathaus, and Parliament. Took the tram route around the central ring which gave us a good tour of the city. Had Weinerschnitzel and sausage for lunch, then got back on the gtrain to Prague.
In Prague we found our hostel, got some kroner and then some goulash as well!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Venice and overnight to Vienna
Our second day in Venice we went to St. Mark’s square where Bob fed the pigeons while I took pictures (a pigeon made the mistake trying to land on me and I screamed..poor pigeon). Then in the afternoon Bob went to the Accademia and I went to the Venice Biennale, a huge art festival with artists from all over the world.
Later in the day we had one last nice dinner (except that I ordered ‘assorted fried fish’ which turned out to be whole shrimp legs and all, and fish with their heads) we got on the overnight train to Vienna.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Wandering Venice
Left Florence for Venice today on an early 8:37am train. Once we arrived we looked around for a hotel and decided it was a good omen (and the right price) to stay in Hotel Canada which turned out to be an old converted church.
We went shopping on the Rialto bridge, bought some nice Venetian glass, and had a nice multi course dinner with assorted meats as an appetizer, pasta, veggies, and Cuttlefish in the Milanese style for me and Veal for Bob. With a nice glass of wine of course.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Day in Florence..and in line
So even the guidebook warns us to expect long lines at the Uffizi gallery but 2.5 hours drove us nuts! We even took unhappy pix in the line but finally got in and saw famous art like Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Later we ran over to the Accademia to see Michaelangelo’s David who is now behind glass because some crazy person tried to hammer off his toes a few years ago.
Again we went walking in the squares which were filled with people and street performers playing flutes, violins…Florence is like a constant party it is so pretty!
Also we’ve been staying at a great hotel here thanks to booking at the train station, we just got off the train and into the reservation place…spacious and a good breakfast and…wait for it…air conditioning! Lovely, especially after our a/c in Rome was fairly inadequate (sometimes an apology and a fan just isn’t enough!).
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Train to Florence
Today we took a train from Rome to Florence, with a stop in Pisa on the way at Bob’s suggestion. And the verdict is…the tower is still leaning. After experimenting with my cell phone camera to send a pic to M&D and taking lots of regular pics too we got back on the train to arrive in Florence later.
In Florence we walked around the squares and took pictures at night of the Uffizi and bridges.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Museums and bus tours
Today I took on the Vatican, although I didn’t get on a tour like Bob’s I bought myself a guidebook to run around instead. Very crowded at points in the museums, but awesome to see the Sistine Chapel and to be overwhelmed by St. Peter’s Basillica. After a full day of cultural stimulation I needed some down time so went shopping for souvenirs. Again it was a really hot day out so I was glad to have spent at least part of it inside.
Bob went on his bus tour today to see the monuments of Rome and took lots of pics as usual.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Bus tours and museums
Today I went on a bus tour of Rome, I bought one of those 24 hour tickets and did the tour at least three times, getting off at various points. My tour didn’t go by the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps so I went to find those myself, as well as Piazza Navona. I think I spent a little too long in the sun as the temperature was 44C out! By the end I was ready to be inside for a while, but I did stay out late to take the evening tour which was nice because it goes by St. Paul’s Basillica lit up along with some less well lit monuments.
Bob and I took opposite days in Rome (sibling harmony improves with time apart!) so he went on what sounds like a fantastic tour of the Vatican.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Landing in Rome
This morning we flew on Ryanair from Beauvais, France to Rome. When we landed the landing seemed really fast and a little tense (well I was a little tense as I always am at landings) but the airline broke that by playing the “charge” racing music as we taxied down the runway which made the whole plane laugh and applaud. I’ve always heard about applause at the end of some flights but I’ve never experienced it so that was fun.
We found our hotel which turned out to be a couple of subway stops away from downtown and went walking around the sites and for a tour of the Colosseum. The later day sun made for some nice pictures.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Fort Baggage
Today our day started out and ended with funny travel stories, though the ending one was a little more dismaying. Since we were leaving our hotel to stay in Beauvais closer to the airport for our flight to Rome, we decided to first put our stuff in lockers at one of the Paris train stations called Gare du Nord. Well if anyone is ever concerned about the security of their stuff here is the place to feel reassured. Both us and our stuff had to go through a metal detector to get in there, then paid for an unbreakable metal locker that kept spitting out our coins that we tried to use up. We nicknamed it Fort Baggage.
After we left the fort, we went downtown again to the Musee D’Orsay, Tuileries, and I went on the big Ferris Wheel near the Tuileries. My seatmates were a little family visiting London from Toronto, they live on the Danforth (small world!)
At night we took transit to Beauvais which is really remote, and to the second surprise our hotel which had bunkbeds and what looked like a portapotty as a bathroom. And it wasn’t even on the airport side of the city! I guess you might say what can you expect when the rest of the hotels were 70E and this one was 34 but I say never again!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Putting in a shift at the Louvre
Today we spent the whole day at the Louvre.
Of course we went first to the mecca, the Mona Lisa who had an unbelievable crowd in front of her (new definition of claustraphobia) and then split up to run around and see as much of the museum as we could, still didn’t see it all after a whole day but we got a good sampling.
At night we stuck around to see the pyramid in the middle lit up but apparently it doesn’t get very lit, no sparklies like on the Eiffel Tower.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
A day along the Champs Elysees
We walked along to see the major sights on foot, including the Louvre, Eiffel Tower (unbelievable crowds), Notre Dame, Place de la Concorde, Tuileries, l’Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees. I had forgotten how spread out Paris is, this really feels like a city to contend with.
Although we have been sampling the local McDonalds a lot here just because everything is so expensive, tonight we decided to have a real dinner in our little neighbourhood near the Bastille with rib steak, frites, bernaise sauce and a nice Bordeau wine. And a classically rude French waiter to top it off.
At the end of the day we headed out again to see the monuments lit up…the Eiffel tower is sparkly at night with lights flickering on and off, while the Arc is more simply lit up.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
First class train to Paris
Today we left Amsterdam to take the train to Paris which takes about four hours so we decided to hop off in Brussels where we saw the Grand Place, the historic main square. We ventured a bit beyond the main square to take in some other churches and get a taste of the wider city, but then returned to have a nice drink and watch the tourists flood in. This square is really one of those great places where you can really be overwhelmed by the magnificence of the architecture and get a sense of how old some parts of Europe really are.
Later we got on the train again for the rest of our journey to Paris, when we bought our Eurrail pass we got the first class ticket as it was only a few dollars more and would allow us access to more kinds of tickets. So this time we got the full first class treatment including food and drink on the train which was very nice! Got into Paris in time for a walk along the Seine and to the Bastille monument.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Cycling past windmills
Okay so we only cycled past one windmill but we did cross a lot of dikes and see a lot of countryside.
Today after a bit of shopping in the Cuyp market we rented bikes from Mac’s bike shop and took the ferry over to cycle through the countryside. The weather was pretty nice for bicycling and though we were tired by the time we got back the biking was a really nice change of pace especially in a place where bikes fit in so well.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
I amsterdam
On our first full day in Amsterdam we took ourselves on a tour, walking through the canals, markets, down through the red light district, downtown near Centraal Station. We went to the Rijksmuseum in the afternoon which was partially closed for renovation but did have some of its most famous works on display including Rembrandt’s Night Watchmen and Vermeer’s Love letter.
Later we had coffee near Museumsplein where they have a big statue now that says i.amsterdam that people climb on and pose at (we did too of course). We had dinner at this nice restaurant around the corner where we couldn’t read a thing on the menu but eventually figured out what was chicken and how to order a glass of wine. Tomorrow’s plan is to rent bicycles and go cycling on the canals.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Day two, we must be in Amsterdam
So apparently there was a movie called it’s X we must be in X city (possibly it’s Thursday we must be in Brussels but I tried googling that and couldn’t find it) made sometime quite a few years ago because people keep referencing it every time I take an unreasonably fast paced trip. However even I agree this was a bit ridiculous that we were already on an airplane for the second day in a row.
Anyway we made it to Amsterdam, flew via EasyJet for just 25E each so that was pretty sweet however as we discovered the down side to these cheap flights is that the airports are usually way the heck out and you still have to go through the usual security even though you’re not in the air for very long. The plane landed in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport so we took a fast train all the way to Centraal station.
In Amsterdam we stayed at Hotel Max at the end of a big outdoor street market on a street called Aelbert Cuyp (a Dutch painter we later found out) which we marvelled at the way the market seemed to be taken down and put up every single day. After some sketchy “advice” from a guy near the Centraal Station who suggested it would be only reasonable to let him keep the change after he helped us buy the bus tickets.
Our room at the Hotel was really cute with very modern euro decor and a good breakfast with cereal that had choclate in it (as we discovered by sampling other breakfasts we discovered chocolate on cereal is fairly common…now that is a culture!)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Landing in London, or, the longest day ever
Having taken an overnight flight to London’s Heathrow airport (Mom and Dad drove us to Montreal’s Trudeau airport), we landed feeling like it was the middle of the night, only to encounter well-rested Londoners on their way to work. Our flight was uneventful, meaning that they did actually feed us (I had been wondering if we still got food given cutbacks on shorter flights) and our plane seemed really new with a selection of movies on personal video thingys on the backs of seats.
Since we were so tired on our first day, we went right to where we were staying at a residence of the London School of Economics (which turned out to be right on the river Thames next to the Tate Modern so good location!) but instead of collapsing like we felt like doing, we went and had our first meal, full English breakfast at this place just across the Millenium Bridge. Then we went on a bus tour of London which took us around all the major monuments and museums from Westminster to Buckingham Palace to Picadilly Circus. Our tour included a river cruise so that was fun to see London from underneath the bridges.
We ended the day with dinner on Fleet Street at an English pub where Bob had Fish and Chips and I had a Ploughman’s just to be very traditional. Let me tell you it didn’t take much effort to get to sleep after being up for almost 48 hours
Monday, July 9, 2007
Three weeks in Europe, or the great adventures of the Gnome and Duomo, as told by the latter
Before there were blogs there were notebooks, and on this trip that’s all I had time to create on this whirlwind tour of Europe so this is really a transfer of information into electronic form so that it can be shared. To summarize briefly, the plan was to “see Europe” with my brother Robert (Bob to me, other nicknames include Buddy and now the Gnome based on his penchant for photographing himself in pictures of famous places which reminded me of the movie Amelie..he eventually retaliated by nicknaming me Duomo since I had an apparently annoying habit of announcing each Duomo – Italian for Dome, right? – as it came up..hey what can I say? I like that word. Duomo. Duomo. Duomo. Even spells neat.)
Anyway I tried to model our trip on another I took almost ten years ago as a Contiki tour, the nutty ten countries sixteen days tour. For Bob and I the plan was to fly in and out of London, take a charter flight to Amsterdam, take the train to Paris via Brussels, then another charter to Rome, then the train again to Florence, Venice, overnight to Vienna then Prague, Berlin and finally back again to London for the last few days. If it feels exhausting to read that is accurate, and dare I say it might have been a bit too much considering that I find myself typing this with a bit of a summer cold going on probably as a result of depletion. But all in all we had a good time and we sure saw a heck of a lot.
Now to transfer the rest of my notes from each day here. Oh I’m going to try and back date these so they appear as if written on the day since that’s when my notes were written. Starting now, as I write this as though it were July 9th, the day our flight left and the day which turned into a very long 48 hours awake.