When In Rome . . .

Today was our last full day in Rome and the last day of the European vacation. What to do, what to do. We decided that we didn't want to rush around everywhere so we would just take our time and see what we could see. We started by heading up to the train station to see if our Eurail Pass would work for the train ride to the airport, or if we would need to buy a ticket. We were happy to learn that no extra ticket and no reservation fee was required. Glad to have gotten that squared away, we decided to take advantage of our Roma Pass and go to the nearby National Museum of Rome. I played tour guide again by using our guide book to see the highlights. We soon realized that the book wasn't really following what we were seeing and asked an employee if we were in the right museum. The National Museum of Rome actually consists of four separate museums and the one we wanted to see was actually just a little further down the road. So we went there and saw the highlights that were suggested in the guide book. Of course after an hour or two of museums it was time for lunch and to try another Italian pizza. The pizza was good, but not as good as that mushroom based pizza we had at the gnome restaurant in Paris. That pizza still remains the best I've ever had and, quite possibly the best meal of the vacation. After lunch we walked back down to the Colosseum area and decided to visit Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Palatine Hill are Roman Ruins where once a giant palace stood. The IPad and I were our tour guide so we could try to imagine the rooms that once stood. Connected to Palatine Hill is the Roman Forum. Now this was more like the city of Jerash in Jordan that I was commenting on the other day when we went to the Colosseum. Here we walked down an old road and saw the ruins of many temples, a basilica, and monuments. I'm glad we did come and see this part of Rome, but I still think if you really want to picture an old Roman town, go to Jerash in Jordan. Nearby is the Victor Emmanuel Monument that we had visited on our first day, but today we were hoping to ride an elevator to the very top to catch a view of the city. Unfortunately, we did not make it before they closed. Time to move on and find a place to eat our final meal in Italy. We decided to take the suggestion of our handy guide book author, Mr. Rick Steves and try a place he recommended. It took a few tries but we finally located the restaurant and enjoyed a good meal. There was one last thing we wanted to do before we left Rome and that was to get a chocolate dessert called Tartufo at Tre Scalini that was recommended by Rick Steves and a friend who had been there (thanks Tammy!). It was chocolaty yummy goodness. It was a great last taste of Italy. We ended up having great weather in Rome and a nice day. Tomorrow is the long travel day home.

The Vatican & St. Peter's Basilica

Yesterday I felt a little underwhelmed by the Colosseum. Today I was impressed with St. Peter's Basilica. We began the day with another free walking tour that began at the McDonald's by the Spanish Steps. At least this time we knew exactly where we were going. :) This tour took us by the Ara Pacis, St. Angelo's Castle, and right to St. Peter's Square. After the tour we got in the long line to go into the Vatican Museum. Of course the people trying to sell their private tours tell you that the line is 3 hours long and that if you go with them you get to skip the line. We chose to stay in the line and after 50 minutes we had begun touring the museum. The IPad came in handy today, as one of the guide books we have on the IPad had a self-guided tour of the Vatican Museum, so I played tour guide and read aloud to Tom the highlights of some of the things we were looking at. It was nice to get the information, but not be part of a big group or have to listen to an audio guide. The museum has a lot of art work, but of course the main attraction is the Sistine Chapel. It was packed with tourists, but it was still amazing to see. We waited for a few minutes so we could grab a seat along one of the sides so we could read the self-guided tour description of all the different paintings on the ceiling. It was quite impressive. Leaving the Sistine Chapel we went right to St. Peter's Basilica. I can honestly say that when I walked in I was impressed. The interior space was just huge and for some reason I did not get the impression from the exterior that it was that big. I was pleasantly surprised with the Basilica. The walking tour, museum, and Basilica gave us a long day on our feet and we were ready for dinner. After a good meal we went back to the Spanish Steps area and decided to get our portrait drawn by a local artist. I went first and was impressed with what the artist had done, and then it was my turn to watch as he drew Tom. I'm not sure the artist's drawing of Tom was as good as mine, but it was still an interesting experience. Tomorrow is our last full day of this European adventure. We have no real plans, but look forward to taking it easy.

Roaming Rome

Today we spent roaming Rome. We started out the day by roaming past the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and Navona Square on our way to the Colosseum. At the Colosseum we used our Roma Pass and skipped right to the front of the line and got right in. Here we rented the audio guide so we could learn more about what we were seeing. I thought the Colosseum was interesting, but I had a hard time getting overly excited by it. I know, right now most people are saying "What? Huh?". I think the reason the Colosseum and Rome in general has slightly underwhelmed me is because I was able to tour the ancient Roman city of Jerash in Jordan, which I thought was more amazing. Yes the Colosseum is bigger and maybe older than Jerash, but Jerash wasn't packed with tourists or with people trying to sell you crap every few feet. Also in Jerash the amphitheaters (although smaller than the Colosseum) are more in tact. What I mean is that you can sit on the stadium seats, walk on the stage, etc. Rome is a big city that has rebuilt itself over and over, so trying to picture the way it once was is a little hard to do with the modern city surrounding it. Anyway, I digress and that is just my opinion. After leaving the Colosseum we tried to find information on where we could find a walking tour so we could learn something about everything we had been roaming by. Unfortunately most of the people walking by on tours were part of a bigger travel group and were considered private tours. We were getting a bit frustrated when Tom asked a tour guide from one of the tours going by where we could find such a tour and we were told by the McDonald's by the Spanish Steps. So we decided to go find this McDonald's and see what we could find out. Trying to find the McDonald's was an interesting adventure in itself. We got to the general area where it should be and kept seeing signs that pointed to McDonald's a minute away but couldn't find the McDonald's. Well silly us was looking for the famous yellow arches, but when we finally found it all the signage on the building was grey. I think we must have walked right by it. When we finally made it inside we found a tiny little card with information on the three tours they provide. All the tours are free and the licensed guides work on a tip only basis. Wish we knew that when we asked the tour we saw in progress! We would have joined them. Anyway they were going to have another tour at 5:00 of the City Centre. We went on this tour and was happy with the guide and information that we received. We basically walked past everything we had already seen, but this time actually learned something about it. I think we will be taking another tour through them again. So when the tour was complete we roamed up to St. Peter's and the Vatican. Today (Saturday) we are planning on going inside. After a nice dinner at a restaurant the tour guide recommended we wondered back home. It was a long, sometimes frustrating day, but it all worked out.

Mountains! There Were Mountains!

So we may not have seen the snow capped mountains we were hoping to see in Zurich, but on the train ride from Zurich to Milan we saw lots of them. That train ride, by far, has been the most scenic ride of my life. I think it was more breathtaking then Alaska. You would have thought we have never seen a mountain before, but we were just blown away by the scenery. It was a perfectly gorgeous sunny day with bright blue skies. It just really made the grass seem greener and the clouds and snow that much whiter. Of course we took a ton of pictures, but it was hard to get some of the quality photos we wanted because of the reflection off the window. None-the-less, it was a great ride to Milan, where we had about 5 minutes to catch our connecting train that took us to Rome. We made the train and decided to eat lunch in the formal restaurant car. It was good, but expensssssssive. We arrived in Rome around 4:45 and once again visited the tourist information center to receive some assistance in finding a hotel. A couple of men that looked like they worked for the tourist information people were standing right in front of the tourist information desk and asked us if we were looking for a hotel. We said we were, but we also wanted to buy the Roma Pass (a pass that gives discounts to the sights and transportation around the city). They said the person behind the desk could help us with the pass, but were asking us what we were looking for in a hotel. We talked to the person behind the desk and she said she could not help us with hotel information, but a couple of counters down they could do that. So we bought our Roma Pass and decided to move on. The men kept asking us about our hotel needs and when we told them that we weren't interested they kept on pushing. I didn't like their vibe, so we decided to leave and see what we could find. After walking around for 10 minutes or so we found another tourist information center where they told us they could not help with hotel reservations and that the best place to go was back at the train station. So we went back and talked to the person behind the desk (and ignored the men who tried to help us), and found a nice hotel called Hotel Roma 2000. It is the most expensive place we have stayed on this trip, but not out of our comfort range. I think it will be worth the extra money. It is tucked away in a secure building with no real visible signage out front and the room is a decent size with a queen size bed, jacuzzi tub, free wi-fi, breakfast, and a nicely sized bathroom. I'm glad we went back to the train station to ask. Once we were settled in, we roamed around Rome and found some dinner. I'm disappointed to say we have had better Italian food in Paris and Prague then tonight, but there is always the next couple of days. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting a good nights sleep and a long day of sight seeing in much warmer weather tomorrow!

What To Do In Zurich?

I can't lie. We came to Zurich without really knowing anything about the city or what things we should do here. I think we were just both hoping to see a picturesque view of some mountains. When we got up the first thing I did was peer put the windows and saw another dark, dreary, wet looking day. That sure didn't motivate us to want to walk around the city. We tossed around the idea of just packing it up and moving on, but after thinking about it, we decided to head to the tourist information center to find out what would be good to do on a crappy weather day. As we left our hotel I grabbed a free tourist guide book of the city and looked at it while we were walking. I happened to turn to the page that discussed side trips to do in the Autumn. Half of the page was dedicated to locations that have Thermal Baths & Waterparks. Now this peaked our interest. The tourist information center really helped us plan our day. We decided to take a 4 hour bus tour of Zurich that included a ride in a cable car to the top of one of their mini-mountains and a ferry ride across the lake. The tour gave us a pretty good overview of the area and a little bit about Switzerland. One thing that I learned was that Zurich is not the capitol city. I think both Tom and I thought it was, but it is actually the city of Bern. After the tour we used our Eurail Pass and hopped on the train to go to the nearby city of Baden to go to the Thermal Baths. The train leaves every half hour and we got there just in time to catch the train there without having to wait. We found the ThermalBaden (name of the place we were going) with no problems. For a small fee we were able to enjoy the indoor/outdoor pools that contained the hot spring water with the highest concentration of minerals in Switzerland. It was super relaxing and just what we needed to rejuvenate our muscles before the final leg of our journey. The pools had several different jets around the edge at different height levels to work all your different muscles. Every couple minutes a bell would ring and a light would flash which meant it was time to move to the next jet. Very neat! Leaving Baden we once again caught the train at the exact right time. This side trip was definitely meant to be. Once back in Zurich we headed to the Old Town to find a place to get some authentic Swiss food. The guy at the tourist information center told us about a nice restaurant that he recommended, so we went there. We walked in and it smelled really gross (like stinky feet), but was most likely the smell of melted Swiss cheese. The restaurant after all was a fondue restaurant. We didn't have reservations and they couldn't get us in so we left, actually happy to do so. It smelled so bad! We then decided to go to the Bierhalle Wolfe. This was more our style. There I had a traditional rosti dish (hash browns with ham, bacon, and melted Swiss cheese) and of course beer! Very yummy and to make it even more fun an Oom-pah band was playing. Kind of felt like we were at Germanfest. I loved it. So for not really knowing what to do or expect out of Zurich, I think it turned out ok. Oh and by the way, we did not see any snow capped mountains. Apparently you can see the Alps on a very clear day. That's it for Zurich. Last stop . . . Rome!

Travel Day To Zurich

Today we travelled to Zurich and most of the day has been spent on the train. The train leaving Prague was scheduled to leave at 9:04a.m., so we got to the train station at 8:30 to give us plenty of time to find the platform and not be rushed. The first thing you do when riding the rails is check the big board of scheduled trains to locate which platform yours will be. At 8:30 no platform was listed next to our train. At 8:45 no platform was listed next to our train. At 8:50 and 8:55 and at 9:00 still no platform number. We were really starting to get nervous because trains typically leave right on time and wait for no one. Well at about 9:02 the platform was listed and the mass of people that were standing and waiting for this magic number to appear showed us the way to the train. We just got on the train and then walked through several cars to get to our car. We didn't want to risk finding the right car when we were still on the platform if it meant the train might start moving. The ride to Zurich included a 1 1/2 hour stop in Munich, so after being on the train for 6 hours we got a break in Munich. Here we ate at a traditional rail station restaurant called Burger King, and had enough time to stop in a Eurail Information center to ask a couple questions. We were hoping to get ahead of the game and make reservations for a train from Zurich to Rome, but were told we really should wait until we get to Switzerland to do so. I was given however, a Eurail Pass Timetable book that show the schedules for all participating cities and trains. Gosh that sure would have been helpful if I had that say, 2 weeks ago! I think it was supposed to come with our pass, but it didn't and this was the first time we had actually seen a Eurail Information center. Oh well, next time we'll be so much more informed. As I'm writing this we are sitting on the train from Munich to Zurich with a couple more hours to go before we get there. I'll finish the entry and post after we're settled in for the night. The train finally got into Zurich at 9:35p.m. (it had been delayed due to some work on the track). The nice thing about coming in a little later was that we didn't have to wait very long to make our reservations for our train to Rome. I am really glad however that I did take the time to reserve a room. After getting directions to our hotel and about a 15 minute walk we were here. It was drizzling once again, so we are praying that we get the perfect weather for tomorrow as it is the only day we will have to explore the city.

Laundry & Communism

Today was another laundry day. We had wanted to do it when we first arrived in Prague, but the laundromats are closed on the weekends. So first thing this morning we hauled our dirty clothes to the laundromat expecting to be there for a couple of hours. We were pleasantly surprised when we found out that they actually wash, dry, and fold your clothes and they would be ready to be picked up in just 3 hours. I think it was a little bit more expensive than what we paid in Paris, but at least we didn't have to figure out the machines or have to get detergent. So now that we had some extra time, we decided to head back across the Charles Bridge and wonder around the other side of the city. We ended up going to the mini Eiffel Tower Prague has. It is a couple of times smaller than the one in Paris and only 2 years younger. We were feeling lazy today so we took the elevator to the top. The view was impressive as you could really see how much bigger the city is compared to the little area we had been exploring. When we were done with this we decided to head to Starbucks to get some hot chocolate to warm up. Unfortunately the weather went back to being crummy today; cold and damp. I think I have been in more Starbucks on this trip than I have been in my whole life and each time we go it is to either get out of the rain, warm up, use their WIFI or bathroom. I think there quite possibly may be more Starbucks here than McDonalds or Subway Restaurants. Anyway, back to our day. Now that we could feel our fingers again we picked up our laundry and decided to go on a communism walking tour. We were disappointed to find out that the company we wanted to use (the same company from yesterday's tour) did not have a guide available for the communism tour today, but they recommend another company's tour. That company's tour not only included a walking tour but also a tour of a nuclear bunker. It was twice as expensive as the other company's tour but we thought what the heck else were we going to do this afternoon? Well after all the tours we have done you would have to figure one would be a dud . . . and this one was it. I think it had more to do with the tour guide than the subject matter. The guide just talked so fast and it always seemed like he had something more important to be doing or like we were bothering him or something. I don't think anybody who went on that tour was very impressed. At the beginning of the tour we passed a Russian/Communism themed bar and he mentioned we would get a coupon at the end of the tour for a free beer at that bar. Well when the tour was over he basically said this is the end of the tour and took off. I mentioned to Tom about the free drink coupon so Tom caught up with him and asked him. He told us all we needed to do was show the bartender our receipt from the tour and that would work. I had a feeling he was feeding us a line of bull, but we decided to go check it out anyway. I think Tom and I had more fun re-tracing our steps to find the bar, than we did on the original tour. Of course Tom was sure it was one way, and I was confident it was the other. We went his way first, but it wasn't where he thought it was. We have often talked about how we thought we would do well on the Amazing Race, but after a couple of weeks on this trip, I have a new appreciation for the contestants on that show and I don't think Tom and I would do as well as we originally thought. Anyway, for those of you that watch the Amazing Race, today when we were re-tracing our steps it felt like when teams had missed a clue box, or when teams lost their passports and had to go back and find them. Lucky for us we were only looking for a bar, which we found right around the area I thought it was :) . .and no, the bartender had no idea what we were talking about when we showed him our receipt from the tour and said we get a free beer. We bought a beer anyway and enjoyed talking about how bad our tour guide had been. Of course Tom was a little pissed, but I just laughed and shrugged my shoulders because what more could you do? I knew this would just make for good story later. Oh and even funnier, when we were re-tracing our steps we ran into the crazy Belgium lady with the dog from yesterday's tour. Oh Prague, you have been so interesting to us, but we are ready to leave you. After dinner we came back to our hotel and I actually reserved a room in Zurich for tomorrow night. I don't know what's more painful . . .walking around looking for a hotel or spending 2 hours on the Internet looking for one. I think I would take walking around, but I certainly did not want to do that tomorrow night around 9:00p.m. when we get in. Tomorrow will be another all day travel day.

Mission Impossible

Had a great night's sleep last night and began today with breakfast in our room. Breakfast is included with the price of the room, and since the hotel does not currently have a dining room, they bring breakfast to you. Breakfast consisted of bread, cheese, ham, yogurt, an apple, and orange juice. Not bad! So we said a little prayer last night that we would have good weather for our 6 hour tour of Prague today, and I think it turned out pretty good. No rain, pretty sunny, but just a tad bit chilly. There were 13 people in our group today and a dog. Seriously, who brings their tiny yipping dog with them in one of those duffle bag type dog carriers on a 6 hour walking tour of Prague? Well this lady from Belgium, that's who. The dog would bark and go crazy every time it would see another animal. I wonder if the dog enjoyed the tour? Our guide was a college student who did a good job dealing with our group (the crazy lady with the dog who was always running behind, and the older lady who had knee and back problems so she had some struggles walking and handling stairs), but she was a little soft-spoken and sometimes it was hard to understand her English. Lunch was in a medieval restaurant that really was only lit by candles . . . To include the bathrooms. It was pretty close to eating and peeing in the dark, but the food and beer was good (both Tom and I chose the schnitzel). The boat ride on the river that was part of the tour was ok. We didn't really go far . . . Just got a different view of the city and learned a little more history. After the tour was over, we looked in some of the shops and decided to go back to Charles Bridge to see if we could catch the sunset over the castle. When we got there I remembered that there was an Italian restaurant on the river that our guide had pointed out as being relatively inexpensive and good, with a great view of the castle, so we decided to go there for dinner. Coming out of the restaurant we heard, "Rolling. Action" and then some gun fire. Then we realized we were walking out to the filming of Mission Impossible 4. We stuck around for a couple more takes of the scene. We couldn't really see anything, but we did see an actor (maybe it was Tom Cruise, maybe it was the bad guy in the movie, or maybe it was a stunt double) running. We just saw the person's back so no real way to verify. I guess we're gonna have to see the movie. We didn't stay and watch too long because we needed to get back to the Old Town Square so we could go on the Ghost Walking tour that was included with our tour earlier in the day. The ghost tour basically consisted of walking to some of the sights and hearing some ghost stories about things that did/or didn't occur. It was ok. Nothing to scary or believable. Overall it was a pretty good day.

Travel Day To Prague

We left Berlin this morning and took a 5 hour train ride to Prague. We were able to sit in first class which allowed us to be in a private compartment with a couple of other folks. The compartments reminded me of those Harry Potter met Ron and Hermione in the first year on the Hogwart's Express. For the first half of the ride we shared the compartment with some nice folks from Canada. Tom thoroughly enjoyed talking to them about politics. Only if you could have been there too Todd! The Canadians got off at a stop in Germany, where then we were joined by a mother and her teenager. They didn't speak English, so the conversation in our compartment went down significantly. The scenery on this trip was just beautiful. It was the most scenic of the train rides thus far. It was a lot more hilly, super green, and the leaves were changing colors. Most of the scenery we had seen prior to this really just looked like you were driving through Wisconsin. When we arrived in Prague we went to the tourist information center to pick up our Prague Welcome Card that I had pre-bought and there they helped us find a hotel as well. We are staying at a very nice hotel called Old Prague Hotel for just €85/night. This by far is the biggest room with a very nice bathroom and a hair dryer! Wish I would have taken pictures of our hotels in London and Paris to show the differences. It once again is a bit rainy and cold day so besides eating a nice dinner, we're not planning on doing much else tonight. Tomorrow we're planning on taking a 6-hour all-inclusive tour of Prague that will include a lunch in a midieval restaurant dating from the 15th century and a 40 minute boat trip. We sure hope the weather cooperates. We will have two full days in Prague before we move on to Zurich. We already made our train reservations for Tuesday and that will be another all day travel day with not getting to Zurich until after 8:00p.m. Maybe I should really look for a hotel in advance this time!

Walking Through Berlin

Today was quite chilly and rainy, but the walking tour of the Third Reich was still a go. We began the day however, hoping to walk through the Reichstag Parliament building. Unfortunately the line extended out the building and the rain was really starting to come down. So instead we went to the nearby museum on The Kennedys - Museum Powered By Camera Work. This ended up being a perfect place to stay dry and wait to see if the weather would clear. The Kennedy museum really only took about 45 minutes to see everything. We were surprised to see a museum on the Kennedys in Berlin, but learned that President Kennedy gave a famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate on 26 June 1963 where he declared his solidarity with the city. Right after we finished with the Kennedy museum, it was time to find out about the Third Reich walking tour. It had stopped raining and we learned that the tour happened no matter what . . . So we we about to depart on our 3 hour tour, our 3 hour tour (sang to the tune of Gilligan's Island). There was 8 of us on the tour along with our tour guide, Stephanie. I think this was the perfect size for the group. Stephanie was so extremely knowledgable and did a great job. The tour really wasn't so much as seeing buildings and taking pictures, but more so as to stand where buildings once were and learn about Hitler's rise to power and the 12 years of Nazi terror. It did rain for part of the tour, but overall the weather semi-cooperated. I know I learned a lot and found it extremely interesting. We were done with the tour around 5:00 and decided to go back an exhibition called Topography of Terror which is located on the site where the Gustapo, SS, and Reich Security Main Office were once located. The building is no longer there, but an excavation was done which uncovered the foundation wall and what was supposed to be a temporary exhibit, turned into a permanent exhibit and a newly opened information center. Between the tour we took earlier in the day, the outdoor exhibit, and the indoor information center, we were on information overload. Once again though, I thought everything was well done. We left there deciding to give the Reichstag one more try, but when we got there the line was still super long, so we opted to skip it and get dinner instead. We had another authentic German meal that was very good, and now we are back at the hotel. We leave in the morning for Prague.


Tom at Checkpoint Charlie



Berlin Wall at the Topography Of Terror. The current state of the Wall is due to souvenir hunters.



Brandenburg Gate



American Embassy

Getting To Know Berlin

This Hotel 4 Youth (I'm not sure why they call it that . . . There is no age restriction), had the best breakfast that has been included yet. There was a nice assortment of breads, cheeses, meats, hard boiled eggs, vegetables, cereals, etc. What a nice way to start the day. Tom and I figured out the subway system and headed down to the area known as Alexanderplatz. Here we were hoping to catch a city circle tour, but since we were right at the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) we decided to do that first. The TV Tower is the tallest building in Berlin at 368 meters high and has an observation deck. No stairs to climb this time! An elevator took us straight up and offered a 360 degree view of Berlin. It was kind of a grey, hazy day so not the best for viewing, but still a great overview of the city. Berlin is quite different from the other cities we have visited thus far as 70% of the city was destroyed during WWII. There is so much new construction, that you almost feel like you could be in any American city. In addition, when the Wall came down it opened up a whole new areas for development. After we were done with the TV Tower we found where to catch the City Circle Hop-on-Hop-Off tour and hopped on. We weren't on the bus long when we got off to view the Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and the Reichstag Parliament building. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was an extremely interesting memorial and the information center below the memorial was extremely well done. It is just sickening to read in details and see the pictures of the atrocities committed against the Jewish people, but this memorial and museum was very tastefully done. We hopped back on the bus and continued the tour. We next hopped off the bus when I spied a restaurant at the bus stop that looked like it would have authentic German food. I wasn't to be disappointed. I had the wiener schnitzel and a glass of Berliner Kindl pilsner beer and Tom had a sausage of sorts (can't remember the exact name) with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut on the side. I would like to thank Tom for reminding me why sauerkraut is on the top of my hated foods list. I can't even stand the smell! My meal was excellent, while Tom said his was ok, but he wished he would have gotten what I had instead. So after lunch/dinner we hopped back on the bus and completed the tour. Tom was particularly interested in Checkpoint Charlie and the museum on The Berlin Wall - History and Events. The museum is open until 10:00p.m., so this was a great way to spend our evening. What another outstanding museum. We spent about 3 hours learning about the history behind the Wall, how people escaped from East Berlin to West Berlin, and the personal stories of those lives affected by the Wall. We spent a lot of time in that museum and still didn't cover everything. Tomorrow we're going to try and do a 3 1/2 hour walking tour of the Third Reich, but it might rain so we'll have to play it by ear.

Hotel vs Hostel

Today was pretty uneventful. Our train left Amsterdam at 10:34 and 1 train transfer and 7 hours later we were in Berlin. Berlin by far had the newest Central Station that we have been to thus far. It seems that the station itself is a shopping mall/train station. Lucky for us, since I had not booked a hotel (per usual), there was a Tourist Information center right in the train station. There we booked a hotel called Hotel 4 Youth for €74/night. We thought the hotel might have been just a half hour walk away, but after a couple of wrong turns and 1 hour and 15 minutes we got to the hotel. This is a brand new hotel that has only been open since August. It's kind of interesting comparing this hotel with the hostel we just stayed in which is only €14/night difference. We'll see how it goes tonight. We are planning on spending two full days in Berlin before we move on to Prague on Saturday morning.



Hostel



Hotel

I don't think the pictures do the justice. Although we're glad to have stayed in the hostel and was probably nicer than our London hotel, I think this hotel in Berlin is much better.

Bier!

Today was really about beer, and Heineken Beer to be exact. Once we got going with our day we headed to the Heineken Brewery Experience. Although they no longer actually brew the beer there anymore, it was an outstanding interactive tour. I guess this is why they call it the "Experience". We enjoyed the "Experience" as well as the three beers that came along with it. I think we were there for 2 or 3 hours, so by the time we left, walked back, and found a nice little place for lunch, it was already 4:00. After our lunch/dinner, we headed back to the Red Light District and found a nice bar where we enjoyed several more Heinekens and watching the people go by. That was about the extent of our day. Nice and relaxing. Tomorrow our train for Berlin leaves around 10:30a.m., so we'll be able to sleep in a bit again tomorrow.

Location:Nieuwendijk,Amsterdam,The Netherlands

Amsterdam!

Monday we left Paris and took a train to Amsterdam. The ride took about 3 1/2 hours and was quite comfortable. Upon our arrival in Amsterdam we verified the train information we would need when we move on to Berlin, and began the search for a hotel. After checking in on about 5 different hotels and discovering they were a bit more than what we wanted to spend, we came across a sign for a hostel. We weren't originally planning on staying in a hostel, but we thought we might as well check it out. So glad we did. We were able to get a private room with a shower for 30€/person per night. The only shared area is the toilet and common room and the price includes breakfast and free wi-fi. The shower has more room than any we have experienced thus far. So overall, not bad. After we got the room, it was time to go out and see the town. This time we took a hop-on-hop off canal tour of Amsterdam and hopped off at the first stop to visit the Anne Frank house. This is the house Anne Frank and her family were hidden in during WWII. Her father Otto Frank was the only member of the family to survive the war and he was an integral part of turning the house into a museum. It was very well done and quite moving. Next we hopped back on the boat to complete the canal tour. This city is so much more smaller and manageable then Paris, and the weather quite a bit cooler too! Perfect conditions for walking around the town (yes this included The Red Light District). One of the local food favorites here are french fries with mayonnaise and there are plenty of shops along the streets that sell them. Of course we tried. Yummy! We also went to Icebar & 4D Ice Experience. This is a bar that everything is made of ice to include the glasses you drink from. I have to say it was kind of a disappointing experience. I think my expectations were too high. This morning as I'm writing this blog entry I'm eating breakfast In the common room of the hostel and listening to the news. It sounds like we left Paris just in time. The union workers are striking and the rails and metros are having very limited service. Whew . . . Glad we're not dealing with that! Ok. . . .time for me to go and explore more Amsterdam.