European Journal July 9, 2010

Our alarm worked (because I didn't try to use the snooze button!), and we were ready for breakfast at 7am. It was in the same restaurant at the Anker Hotel. The buffet was not what we'd had at our last two hotels. There was yogurt, cold cereal, cold cuts, cheese, bread, and rolls. We boarded our bus at 8am, and drove about 45 minutes to the town of Boppard. The drive was mountainous and had beautiful scenery.

We got on a small touring ship in Boppard to take a 2 hour cruise on the Rhein River.

It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we had a nice breeze. The ship had two floors, and there was seating on the top that allowed a great view. Bryan and I sat on top, enjoying the sun and breeze.

We saw several castle ruins and remnants of Roman fortresses. The small villages on either bank were very quaint and pretty, with lots of flowers and attention to detail. Germany was really much more beautiful than we had imagined it would be.

We saw Loreley's Rock... there's an old legend about a woman who sat on the very tall rock ledge and sang to seduce the sailors as they sailed down the Rhein.

We re-boarded our bus and drove until 1pm, when we stopped at a "Restplatz" (rest plaza) to have lunch. It was a very traditional German, self-service restaurant. The toilets were pay toilets, .50 euro, but you could get that money discounted (all of it!) if you made a purchase.

We got some Scniltz-something. It was egg noodles with a pork and mushroom sauce. It was very tasty. We had chocolate pudding for dessert.

We then re-boarded at 1:45pm and embarked on the long drive to Austria. The drive was lengthened by several car accidents and LOTS of traffic, as a result. I watched, in horror, as one of our group member's feet swelled to twice their original size. We had more delays, more traffic, and were even stopped by the German Police! It took them a very long time to go over the bus and driver's records. We could see the Tyrolean Alps, so the drive was at least made more interesting by the beautiful views.

We didn't arrive in Innsbruck, Austria, until 10pm! We had our dinner at the Hotel, Rumer Hof. It was a good dinner, with soup, salad, a boneless piece of schnitzel (pork), rice, and vegetables. Bryan and I had a Fohrenberger beer, as well. We had "Joghurt" with fruit for dessert.

The Hotel Rumer Hof was very pretty and modern. Moreso, when you compared it to our hotel in Andernach! There were elevators, and you could buy internet use for .17 euro per minute. We tried to use the internet, but it was remarkably slow, and we gave up after a short time. The weather was again, unusually hot for the area. There was no air conditioning, and it was 82 degrees in our room! We had a nice balcony with a view of the Tyrolean Alps, but no screens, and it was shared with the entire second floor, so we slept with the doors closed. Regardless, I think we ended up sleeping well after such a long day.Bryan had just discovered our "shared" balcony :)

This picture of the outside of our hotel was taken the next morning... it was too dark when we got in to take a picture!

European Journal July 8, 2010

Chiara had arranged for a 6:45am wake-up call, and it was a good thing! we had set our alarm for 6:15am, but my idea of hitting the snooze button didn't work too well... the alarm never went off again! We got ready quickly, had our luggage out at 7:15am, and had breakfast. It was another buffet, and again, very good. Bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, breads, yogurt, and fruit. And again, strong coffee!

We boarded our bus at 8:15am, and drove to Amsterdam's center to meet our local guide, Bridgette.

We took an hour cruise in a boat along the many canals while Bridgette pointed out landmarks and gave us a history lesson on Amsterdam. There were A LOT of orange decorations rooting for the Holland soccer team, as they were in the World Cup finals. We learned a lot about Amsterdam from Bridgette's humorous, fun commentary.

There are an EXTRAORDINARY number of bicycles in Amsterdam. EVERYONE rides a bike! We even saw men and women in suits and dresses riding bicycles! There are bike lanes throughout the city. We also didn't know that Amsterdam is an amazing series of canals, with a set limit of 2,400 house boats that can live in the canals. The canals are freshwater, and kept very clean by almost nightly cleanings. Bridgette said the canals are 3 meters deep... "1 meter of mud, 1 meter of bikes, and 2 meters of water." Apparently, they drag many many bikes out of the canals!

We took a short ride in the bus, with Bridgette as our guide, to the Coster Diamond Center. Here we saw some diamonds being polished, as well as some cut/polished diamonds that were for sale.

We re-boarded to complete the rest of our city tour with Bridgette, and ended at Amsterdam's City Station. We had some free time for lunch. Bryan and I stopped at a little place called Blom.

We had Amstel beer and sandwiches. We sat next to a really nice older lady and her daughter. The older woman had lived in Detroit, Michigan, 40 years ago for about 8 years. She was very helpful and friendly, and asked it we had visited the red light district! We told her no, but that we had sure heard a lot about it! Bryan noticed that the coffee shops had a minimum age of 18 to enter (because of the drugs they sell there).

We re-boarded the bus at 2pm, and passed uneventfully into Germany. The two and a half hours bus ride was used by most people to catch a little nap.

We stopped for a mandatory rest stop in Germany and had some ice cream and stretched our legs. The bathrooms were .70 euro, but you could get .50 euro off of a purchase for using the restroom. We re-boarded the bus to head to Andernach. It was a little past 8pm when we arrived at hour hotel. Our group stayed at the Anker Hotel. Bryan and I were given a room at the Rheinkrone Hotel next door (apparently, there were no double beds at the Anker). The hotels were on the Rhein River, and the view was beautiful. It was hot, mid 80's, when we arrived. We had dinner at the Anker Hotel, which was kind of like a family restaurant. We had leek soup, breaded fish (Alaskan Pollack... ha ha), french fries, mixed vegetables, and ice cream.

We had time for a short walk along the river after dinner. It was very very pretty and peaceful, and the village of Andernach was very pretty.

Our friends from L.A., Tony and Jen, pointed out some playground equipment... and were kind enough to take our picture as we "played." I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard!

We also saw a traditional Biergarten (Beer garden) on our walk!

We went back to our hot room. It had to fan and no air conditioning! There were also no screens in the window. We opened our window anyway, hoping that bugs wouldn't eat us alive in our sleep. Our "double bed" that they very kindly went through the trouble of arranging, was the two twin beds pushed together. :) It's the thought that counted.

European Journal July 7, 2010

5:30am wakeup call! We had to be dressed and ready with our luggage outside of our door at 6:30am. The idea of leaving our luggage just sitting outside of our room was a little unsettling, but we did decide to go down to breakfast around 7:00am. We enjoyed the buffet and strong coffee again, and met the group in the lobby at 7:45am to wait for our coach. (We did see our luggage on the cart!) It was a very cool morning. I'm not sure of the temperature. We boarded a coach and rode to the port at the English Channel, stopping once to pick up a couple of more passengers. We boarded the "Pride of Callais" ferry, and embarked on our hour and a half ride across the channel to France. Oh, the drive to the ferry was around two hours. I cat napped, while Bryan enjoyed the scenery. The ferry was HUGE! People even take cars on them! There were several lounges, bars, a couple of places to eat, stores, and gambling. We had a "self-service" lunch (of nothing traditional) and ejoyed getting a view of the white chalk cliffs of Dover as we left England!

We got off the ferry at a little after 1:30pm England time, but it was 2:30pm now local time. We walked out to our coach to meet our tour director. I should mention that we didn't have to show our passportsto leave England and enter France.

We met our tour director, a small Italian woman who appeared to be around our age, named Chiara. She had a beautiful, thick Italian accent, and Bryan and I enjoyed hearing her talk. We labelled our luggage for the porter, and boarded our coach for a minute, to drive to some toilets before heading to Amsterdam.

These toilets will be the subject of my nightmares for YEARS to come. Walking up to the restroom, I could see women walking out, gasping for air, their faces horrified. I did not end up using these toilets (which were free, by the way). I made it in to a stall, but was overcome by nausea, and had to escape for air. I decided I could wait!

We reboarded our coach, and Chiara gave us passport forms to fill out. This information is given to our hotels. She gave a good commentary on our way out of Callais, France, in to Belgium. Again, no passports were needed since Belgium is part of the European Union. The drive through Belgium was uneventful. We saw agricultural areas, some industrial land, and stopped at a little after 6:30pm at AC Restaurant to eat. It was a self-service place, kind of like an MCL in the US. It had very nice toilets for .30 euros each. Bryan had Moules with Pommes Frites (muscles with french fries), and I had schnitzel (like a pork tenderloin) and pommes frites. The staff at the restaurant was very nice, and spoke with very good English. We had coke and diet coke with dinner. I looked for our favorite Belgian Wheat beer, Blue Moom, but they didn't have it. Another .30 euros later, we were back on the road for another hour and 30 minutes to Amsterdam. It only took us around 15 minutes to drive into the Netherlands. Chiara gave a lot of information on Belgium and a brief history of the Netherlands. She also said that in the red light district in Amsterdam, people can buy drugs in coffee shops, and prostitution is legal! She did mention that there is a limit to how much drugs you can purchase! :-0

We saw several giant windmill power stations, and Chiara said that the Netherlands is very interested in "green energy". We arrived at our hotel, "NH Schipol" near the airport in Amsterdam after 9pm. It was a nice hotel, and had a bar. We went ot the bar, where the Germany vs. Spain soccer game was on. We each had a Wieckse White beer. It was a cold beer, and was pretty good. The room was nice, and our "double bed" was two twin beds pushed together.

This picture is actually on the morning of July 8, 2010... stay tuned for more!