A Fan-Tastic Trip Around Europe!

FAN-TASTIC!

I know that anything I write to describe our European adventure won't do it justice, but I will start by saying that it was fantastic! The trip took us by plane, train, and bus to a total of eleven cities: London, Paris, Riems, Heidelberg, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Brno, Prague, Dresden, and Berlin. While we only spent one or two days in each city, we made the most of our time. Each city had its own atmosphere and I wish that we had a longer time to explore everything that each city had to offer. Oh well, I guess that is an adventure for another time! 

To avoid too many tedious details I will pick a few photos from each city with some fun facts and stories. Ready, set, go!

Our Route

London: The City of Fish and Chips, the Queen's Guard, and Jet Lag

Double Decker Bus

My initial flight to London was indefinitely delayed causing me to spend 6 extra hours in the Pittsburgh airport and rebook a flight through Boston. But, after a rough start, I finally arrived! Because I had to drop some luggage off at the Petrie Museum, I was guided around the city by a man named David who was shadowing our tour director (who was also named David).

Changing of the Guard at Windsor Castle

Despite the pouring rain, he gave me a wonderful personal tour of London before meeting up with the rest of the tour group. While in London, we saw all of the major tourist attractions: Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Covent  Garden, Westminster Abby, Windsor Castle and many more. 

We also had a chance to ride the London Eye and get some great views of the city (although I felt bad for the poor English couple that got stuck in the car with our entire tour group- not quite the romantic date that they had in mind). 

The first night that we were there the group decided to take a gruesome "Jack the Ripper" tour where we enjoyed a very dodgy guide in a trench coat. 

Of course we had a dinners of both Bangers & Mash and Fish & Chips!





Paris: The City of the Eiffel Tower, Gargantuan Museums, and the Best Carbs You Will Ever Taste

The Louvre

The Eiffel Tower from Montmartre

Upon arriving in Paris, we ordered an early lunch before heading across the street to the Louvre, where we were given three free hours. While I know that the Louvre is the largest museum in the world, I was not prepared for its gargantuan size! (I could have camped out there for weeks and still not seen everything.) So, we made a game plan and were able to see some of the Louvre's best known pieces: Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo. We also took a close look at the section of Dutch painters in order to see two Vermeer paintings on display (two out of only thirty four in existence!). As we were leaving I found my first fan in the giftshop, a print of the "Lady and the Unicorn" tapestry! Dinner that night was awesome..some sort of flat pizza called "flam," from the Alsace region of France. Afterward, we got a view of the Eiffel Tower and went up to its first platform via an incline. We also took a boat ride on the Seine River and watched the city's lights reflect in the water. When the boat ride was finished, we discovered that the Eiffel Tower had been lit up for the night and watched it sparkle.

Our next day in Paris was spent touring Versailles, visiting Notre Dame Cathedral, and walking around on top of Montmartre, which gave us a beautiful view of the city and access to some fantastic gelato and crepes. Riding the metro back to our hotel was quite eventful as the group was followed by a very persistent accordion player who knew how to hustle tourists for money.

The fifth day, on our way to Heidelberg, we stopped for lunch in Riems, a city in the Champagne region of France. The city was so much more relaxed and charming than Paris and we found a bakery that smelled like heaven!! I bought the most delicious baguettes I have ever tasted (triple chocolate and white chocolate) 

Heavenly Baguettes

Heidelberg: The City with the Most Charm (and a Monkey!)

Heidelberg

As we crossed into Germany on our tour bus the landscape out the window became significantly more wooded and we arrived at a quaint hotel on the outskirts of Heidelberg. The setting was so comfortable and the air was crisp with the smell of pine and budding flowers.

In exploring the city the next day we visited Heidelberg Schloss (castle), the Old Town, and the Studenkarzer. Not only was it exciting to walk around the ruins of Heidelberg Schloss, but inside the castle is the world's largest wine barrel, which used to hold up to 58,000 gallons of wine at one time!

Bridge Monkey

When in the Old Town we stopped at the entrance to Heidelberg bridge, guarded by a brass monkey, and walked across before given free time. In our free time, we went to see the graffiti of the Studenkrazer, or student prison, where university students would be imprisoned for anywhere from 5 days to 3 months for offenses such as dueling! Lunch was found a tasty bar called Grey Stones where we shared our first schnitzel experience.








Munich: "Viva La Deutschland"

Munich began on a solemn note as we went to see the museum at Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp to open in Germany. While being at the camp was a difficult experience, it was interesting to see a German interpretation of the events that occurred at the concentration camp. The museum's approach was to follow the "Prisoner's Path" in respect of those who had been brutalized in the camp throughout WWII.

The Hofbrauhaus

After a heavy morning we were taken to an open air market for lunch. Afterward, we began to learn the game of "Find the Free Bathroom." Unlike London and Paris, for the remainder of our trip, the use of most public bathrooms required at least 50 euro. (Although it was possible to find the free bathrooms if you looked really hard!
In the market our guide, David, showed us the rathaus glockenspiel constructed on the side of town hall. The mechanized people on the clock moved around and at the end (as David imitated for us) a little owl came out and went "tweet, tweet!"

The evening was spent at the original Hofbrauhaus, a Bavarian brewery where many of the patrons in attendance still wore the traditional lederhosen. I enjoyed 1/3 of a Radler, a drink that is half beer, half sprite (which the Germans call "lemonade"), with Erin and Jen. The glass steins at the Hofbrauhaus were as big as my head! While there we also enjoyed the band of accordion, trumpets, and tubas which played traditional drinking and dancing songs. After watching a grandmother and her granddaughter dance, Erin and I decided to join in the dancing and it was not long before we were dancing with a local German! When leaving the Hofbrauhaus, Jeremy, one of the two male members of the group who had had a little too much to drink, shouted "Viva La Deutschland!" (I think he needs to brush up on his German...)





 Salzburg: The City of The Sound of Music, Mozart, and No Kangaroos

Foothills of the Alps

We traveled to Vienna via Salzburg where we saw Mirabell Park and St. Peter's Cemetery, two locations where the Sound of Music was filmed. Walking around we also went to see a few Catholic cathedrals. As we visited them we saw a various celebrations for the Feast of the Assumption. One of the mass celebrations involved a full organ, choir, and orchestra in the choir loft playing traditional mass parts. This was incredible! We also walked past Mozart's birthplace, a tall yellow house in the center of town. Lunch that day was a gigantic and delicious pretzel covered in cheese. While many shops were closed for the Feast of the Assumption, there were some tents and souvenir shops still open in the city's market.  Everywhere we went there were two tourist traps: 1) Mozart Chocolate- a tasty ball of chocolate filled with nougat and marzipan and sold in a violin shaped box. 2) Kangaroo Road Signs- there were amazing road signs with the silhouette of a Kangaroo that said "No Kangaroos in Austria"
Upon our departure from Salzburg, our fantastic bus driver Jan decided to make a diversion to the town of Mondsee so that the group could see the Church of Mondsee, the church where Maria and Captain von Trap married. While in Mondsee we also took pictures of the very foggy foothills of the Alps before heading off to Vienna.


  
Vienna: The City of Music and Unexpected Surprises Involving the Police

Opera Toilets

We arrived in Vienna in the evening and departed the bus for a walking tour of the city. Our first stop: the "Opera Toilets," a public restroom near the Vienna Opera House that plays classical music and is decorated like a theater (No, it was not free). The visit soon turned into the "Phantom of the Opera Toilet" when Jeremy, discovered an unconscious man lying in the bathroom...soon after a bunch of Viennese authorities and an ambulance arrived on the scene and ushered everyone out of the "Opera Toilets.

Our exciting introduction to Vienna aside, we arrived at the best hotel of our trip! It was a blaring yellow and green building that looked...well, less than inviting. But our room was awesome! I had three rooms, a small kitchenette, and a loft bedroom with a sunroof. When we weren't in our fantastic hotel, we were taking guided tours around Vienna, seeing St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Hapsburg Palaces, and an architectural wonder built by Hundertwasser. In our free time we weaseled our way into two museums, the Hapsburg Treasury Museum and the Museum of Ancient Musical Instruments, for free. In the Treasury Museum we saw the royal jewels, church relics (like a piece of the crucifix), and a unicorn's horn (which was actually a NARWHAL horn). In the Museum of Ancient Musical Instruments we saw some great instruments and original manuscripts written by Beethoven, Strauss, and Brahms.   

Grrr...

Right before we were supposed to meet up with the group it began to pour. Trying to stay dry, Jen, Erin, and I all huddled under my one person umbrella and shuffled two blocks to St. Stephen's...people were pointing and laughing, so I hope we provided some quality entertainment!

That evening a few members of our group went to the Kursalon concert hall to enjoy a night of Mozart and Strauss. The ensemble, which included an orchestra, piano, vocalists, and dancers, played waltzes, symphonies,and excerpts from a variety of operas. Champagne was provided during intermission and at the end of the concert the entire audience began clapping in unison so the ensemble performed two more encore pieces! 



Brno and Prague: Cities of Ridiculous Amounts of Czech Crowns, Marionettes, and Defenestrations 

Charles Bridge

On the way to Prague, the group stopped in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Our first stop: a cash machine. Unlike the other cities on our trip, the Czech Republic did not accept Euros so we each had to withdraw about 600 Czech Crowns (1 US dollar is equivalent to about 17 Czech Crowns). In Brno we walked into the catacombs of a cappucin monastery where we saw some well preserved mummified monks! We also ate our lunch in the town square where we enjoyed listening to a few high school aged bands play music from James Bond. After a few hours on our tour bus we arrived in the lovely city of Prague and took a walking tour to see the astronomical clock, the Jewish quarter, and the Charles Bridge. That night we had one of the best deserts on the trip, pound cake and chocolate icing rolled into a pinwheel pastry.

Window of Defenestration

The next day brought a trip to St. Vitus and Prague Castle, the largest castle complex in Europe and the site of the multiple Defenestrations of Prague (the act of throwing someone out of a window!). Even though photography wasn't allowed, I couldn't resist taking just one picture of the window. Our lunch was held on a boat which took us up and down the beautiful Vltava River! In our free time, we walked around the shops near the astronomical clock and I bought a cylindrical pastry, that it seemed like every child had been walking around with...it was tasty! 

Ahoy there!

  

Dresden: The City of the Minnow People...? 

Swimming in Formation

Our lunch stop before arriving at our final destination, Berlin, was Dresden. We were able to see the outside of the opera house, the Zwinger Palace, and the Albertinum, but unfortunately they were all closed on Mondays. Consequently, we spent a calm afternoon in a park behind Zwinger Palace. While Jen and Erin napped under the trees, I took pictures of ducks on the lake before I saw the "minnow people." There was some sort of sychronized swimming going on and there were all of these people with shaved heads wearing minnow hats and moving in formation with each other like they were a school of fish!

Berlin: The City of the Brandenburg Gate, Ampelmann, the East Side Gallery, and a Farewell to Europe

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

We arrived in Berlin in the evening just in time for the rain! Despite the rain, we waited out the storm to take a walking tour of the city. We walked to the Brandenburg Gate, past many of the museums on the Under von Linden, and to the TV Tower. Our tour gave us time to experience the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by Peter Eisenman. Out of all of the memorials that we saw throughout our trip this memorial was the most evocative and poignant. It was constructed out of 2,711 concrete blocks set up in a huge open air square. Visitors to the memorial are able to walk through the memorial and we all found that the space was deeper than any of us had perceived. Just the vast space that the memorial encompasses causes a tense anxiety. Every once in a while, a concrete block would be notably missing from the pattern and we felt displaced. I wouldn't call the experience enjoyable, but this is one memorial that I am glad to have seen.

Ampelmann!

The next day was spent on a bus tour of Berlin, where we learned about Ampelmann, a symbol of the integration between East and West Germany. Ampelmann, the traffic man, was a crossing light in East Germany that they East Germans refused to get rid off after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today, Ampelmann is all over the city and there are even stores dedicated to him! We ended our tour at Checkpoint Charlie and its museum. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the Pergamon Museum of Antiquities, which housed materials and structures from the ancient worlds of Rome, Greece, and the Middle East. It was such an extensive and unique collection! Our final evening was spend walking the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall, and seeing "Test the Rest" and "The Kiss" amongst many others.   

East Side Gallery

Our trip around Europe was a fantastic adventure and the experience of a lifetime! We learned so much and there is still so much yet to see. I am so blessed to be able to travel with such a wonderful group of people and have so many supportive family members and friends at home. I love you all!! If you want any more stories or pictures let me know and I will do my best to get them to you.

Next stop LONDON (again)! Updates coming soon!