We arrived in at Gatwick Airport in London after a very long flight from Phoenix. By the time we landed I had been up for about 24 hours straight. Our tour guide was nowhere to be found. We were a very sorry group, standing around the terminal without any place to go. Our tour guide did eventually show up (it turns out that the original person who was supposed to be our guide quit or disappeared or something), but we were still short one tour bus. After waiting a couple of hours our bus showed up and we were on our way. I love being someplace I've never been to for the first time because even driving is cool. We were really excited and just took in all the sights that the drive had to offer.
We got to our hotel, The Paragon Hotel (remember that name), a little early and we weren't allowed to check in. We ended up stowing our bags in a room, and left on a walking tour of London. Did I mention London was hot? "Ungodly hot," to quote the English kid we met in the hallway and asked what he thought about the weather. So we were walking around in the heat and I was getting very hungry. We were in Trafalgar Square and followed our noses to some guy grilling sausages and onions. Erin mentioned to the guy that we smelt the onions all the way across the square, and the guy replied, "That's why I make them." The sausage was so good, but he didn't sell any drinks at his stand so we walked around some more in the 90% humidity dying of thirst. We ended up splitting a warm Coke, but it didn't help. Long story short, we lived.
After we got to our hotel we had a few minutes before we had to leave for dinner. (The tour fee included dinners, so we already paid for all of our dinners.) I went up to the room and laid down on the bed and felt it sink unnaturally. I thought to myself, "Oh great, the bed is broken." I didn't really care that the bed was broken, but Erin thought it was a good idea to get it replaced, so before we left I told the front desk about the bed. The entire tour group left the hotel and walked to the nearest tube station and took the subway to our restaurant. When we exited the tube station, it was immediately recognizable as a "not so great" neighborhood. We walked around for blocks passing an Indian place that smelled great, and even a Kentucky Fried Chicken that smelled pretty good. (You can tell I was really hungry.) I wanted to stop at the Indian place, but since I didn't know where we were and didn't know what sort of food to expect on the tour (I did already pay for it after all), I just followed along hoping that our destination would be tasty one. It wasn't. Dinner started with a weak salad that had about 5 pieces of lettuce and a tomato and it didn't get any better after that. The main entree was a boiled chicken leg and some rice with a dab of very thin tomato sauce. Since a large part of the reason I went to Europe was to eat well, I was severely disappointed. To make matters worse, during the tube ride back to the hotel our tube car stopped in a tunnel for about five minutes while they did God knows what. It doesn't sound so bad until you remember that it was still 90% humidity, there were several English people (and our Czech tour guide Hanna) who weren't wearing deodorant and quite ripe by this time, and the tube car didn't have any circulation while it was sitting. It was a bit much to deal with. (Erin actually backed away from Hanna.)
When we got to the hotel all I wanted to do was sleep. I had been up for over 36 hours, was hot, sticky, had a bad dinner, and I just wanted to sleep and forget it all. When we got to our room, our door wouldn't open so we went to the front desk to get the problem with our keys fixed. They checked the computer and said the manager would be out to speak with us. All innocent enough until the manager came out and accused us of breaking the bed and wanted to charge us for it. We were shocked. We didn't break the bed, but the manager insisted we did. He said he's never had a problem with the "type" of people who were in the room the night before, so we must have broken the bed. (Apparently Americans have a reputation for breaking beds.) He was lucky that I was far too tired to think violent thoughts, but Erin was awake enough to tell him what he did and didn't know. After she was through with him I got a bed to sleep on (which ended up missing a caster and that bed had to be replaced too) and we didn't hear another word about the bed.
I will forever remember that manager at The Paragon Hotel in London for giving a shitty start to my trip. Bastard.
The five hours of sleep I got wasn't much, but it was enough to make me feel a lot better about the day before. We went down to the dining room to get some breakfast (which was also covered by the tour). That's when the people on our tour learned that in Europe the milk is hot and meant to put in coffee and cereal is meant to be put in yogurt. There wasn't much to breakfast, but I did have the best hot cocoa I've ever had so it wasn't too bad. We ending up having breakfast with a Canadian couple (from Vancouver or Toronto) who had actually been to Mesa, AZ before. Small world.
The second day we were taken to see the changing of the horse guard and Saint Paul's Cathedral and pretty much left on our own after that. It worked out pretty well. We walked down the street and found Ming Court, a Chinese restaurant, to eat lunch at. We didn't order anything complicated, but I was impressed by a couple of the dishes. I guess fried seaweed is a popular Chinese dish in the UK, but I'd never had it before. Delicious. We also had a pork dish with tomatoes in a slightly sweet sauce that tasted a lot better than it sounds. Erin enjoyed a spicy chicken dish with vegetables.
After lunch we checked our map and we were on our way. We walked our way to the Tower of London (smoked a cigar next to the Thames while we were there too), Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and other popular tourist spots. It was getting late in the day and we were getting hungry so we caught a cab and asked the cabbie for a good place to eat. He recommended a place where he eats at on a regular occasion. It sounded good so we got dropped off there and had a meal. It was simple food that didn't cost too much, but it wasn't something I would go to London for. That's when I learned not to eat like the locals if I can afford better than typical local fare.
We went back to the hotel and drank a little in the hotel lounge. The bartender was nice enough to let us know that in the UK you go to the bar to order. That might explain why we didn't see a waitress to take our order when we dropped into a pub to eat the day before. (I sort of felt that it was our tour guide's responsibility to share those little cultural differences with us and I was starting to feel like she wasn't doing a good job.)
We left London and headed for Paris. We took a tour bus through the english countryside and stopped in Canterbury. It was kind of a cool place. The day we were there, they had a market set up in the center of town. We went through the cathedral and afterwards we were looking for something to eat. We walked around and saw several restaurants, but nothing that looked really appealing; they all served English food. We were about to admit defeat and settle for something with fries or peas when we passed a stall where a lady was making fresh pakoras (an Indian dish with battered vegetables that are deep fried). They smelled really delicious so we bought a bag of different kinds of pakoras and some spicy mango chutney to go with them. We also hit a store (much like a Walgreens) and got a couple of Cokes and a chocolate bar.
The bag had some spinach, potato, and zucchini pakoras plus other types I either didn't recognize or can't remember. Good stuff and the mango chutney was very nicely spicy. That was the best snack I had in England.
After we left Canterbury we went to Dover and caught the ferry to Calais, France. It was a pretty uneventful journey. We ate lunch on the ferry and weren't impressed. The fish and chips were ok, but the french version of ketchup is pretty horrible. We wandered around the duty free shop and noticed two sets of prices, one in English Pounds and one that appeared to be in French Francs. I say appear because the prices had commas in them, so I wasn't sure they were prices. It wasn't until later that I found out from one of our fellow tourists that the French use commas instead of periods to separate their dollars from cents. (Something else I think our tour guide should have told us.)
It was a long bus ride from Calais to Paris. Along the way we hit a rest stop and learned that a toilet in France could just mean a hole in the ground. (Ok, it's not that different from a pit toilet, but at least with a pit toilet you have a place to sit.) We also learned that France is expensive. A can of Coke cost me 10 Francs and an ice cream bar cost 14 Francs. At the time the exchange rate was about 1 USD = 6 FRF.
Somewhere between Calais and Paris Erin had had enough of hearing loud children, feeling them kick the back of the seat, and all of the kids' chaperones were sitting in the front conversing with each other and completely oblivious to the mayhem in the back of the bus, so Erin turned around and gave the kids the wrath of God. There was so much fire and brimstone those kids were afraid to speak until we made it to Paris. (After that delivery, I think even the adults were afraid to speak; Erin was sure to hand the chaperones their asses for their incompetence.)
We arrived in Paris and the bus driver got lost and couldn't find our restaurant. I'm not complaining because it meant we got to drive around the city and see neighborhoods that we probably wouldn't normally see. (You should have heard the kids snicker when we passed through a red light district.) The driver finally found the street he was looking for and parked. We piled out of the bus and proceeded to head for our restaurant. It was a cafeteria. I was so unhappy with my meal that after dinner I vowed that I wouldn't eat the crappy tour dinners again. I didn't come to France to eat cafeteria food!
After dinner we started on our way to the hotel, but our bus driver couldn't find it. Our tour guide tried to get directions from a cab driver, but they wouldn't give them to her so she paid the cab driver to lead our bus to the hotel.
By the way, Paris really is a beautiful city. (London looks good too, but in a completely different way.)
Breakfast in our hotel was very simple, but extremely tasty. We had croissants and baguettes with butter and orange juice. Yum! I wish I could eat bread that good here. (There is a bakery here that makes really great croissants, but that's something for my food page.)
We got to see some of the left bank, toured Notre-Dame (yet another amazing cathedral), and had some time to spend on the Champs-Elysees. We were ready for lunch and looking for something that wasn't too expensive when we happened upon a little sandwich shop off of the Champs-Elysees. We had the best ham and cheese sandwiches! Erin also had petite cup of coffee, which ended up being the size of a sample cup. I guess when they say small, they mean it.
After a lot of walking on the Champs-Elysees, we starting exploring some of the surrounding area. We found a chocolatier called La Maison Du Chocolat on one of the back streets. When we walked in one of the ladies there immediately started speaking to me in French. I tried to tell her I don't speak French, but I was doing it in English so she didn't understand me, but she got the idea. I picked up a formidable box of chocolate and went to the register to pay. While I didn't really understand any French at the time I did understand numbers, so I was a little surprised by how much the box of chocolate cost. I ended up paying quite a bit for that box. At first I felt a little cheated, that is until I sat down and actually tried some of the chocolates. They were unbelievable! The box was filled with mostly dark chocolates truffles (I think there were only three pieces of milk chocolate in the whole box) that had a rich chocolate taste, but were very smooth and sweeter than American dark chocolate. The fillings were varied (from fruit to liquor), but all very flavorful, incredibly smooth, and all complimented the excellent chocolate. Basically they were the best filled chocolates I've ever had, which is saying a lot since I don't even like dark chocolate.
After our Champs-Elysees excursion we went to the Louvre. I'm not really a museum person, but it was incredible. You could spend a couple of days going through their collection. What impressed me most were the rooms the artwork was actually displayed in. Since the Louvre used to be a royal palace, the ceilings in most of the rooms were painted, gilded, and/or contained ornate moldings. There were times when the ceiling was more interesting than what was in the room.
The tour bus took us to our next destination, dinner. Erin and I wanted to see what dinner would be like, and if it didn't look good, we'd find our own. It turns out dinner was at a French restaurant and we stay just long enough to see an appetizer of a deviled egg come out and we made a quick exit. We noticed a Korean restaurant next to the French one we just left and decided to give it a try. Neither one of us had had Korean before, but we were game. Our waitress (who was probably also the owner) spoke French, Korean, and some English so we didn't have a hard a time. We sat at a table facing the street so we could see if our group was leaving. The table had a grill in the center which we didn't know the purpose of, but would quickly figure out. We ordered one of their set menus for two. Dinner started with a salad with shrimp and crab covered in a creamy dressing, followed by some tempura shrimp with dipping sauce. Yum! The entree was sliced duck, beef, and fresh mushrooms which we cooked on the little grill in the center of our table. (I've been in love with Korean food ever since.) I was about to order some apricot sorbet for dessert, but we noticed our group leaving, so we paid our bill and left with the group.
That night we took a relaxing walk around our hotel. It was a quiet residential neighborhood. It's amazing how I felt right at home almost everyplace we went.
After some time at the hotel we went to the Eifel Tower. That is just an amazing architectural structure. I never thought too much of it before, but for me it's beauty is not in the whole, but in the details. (All the pictures you ever see of it are from a distance, not examining it up close.) We were all told to meet at a spot under the tower at a certain time so we could all go home. Most people got to the meeting point early and it started to sprinkle and the tour guide told us we could wait in the bus. We were only short three people, but waited a while for the three missing people. (After it had sprinkled it was extremely humid on the bus, making it quite uncomfortable.) One of the missing people made it back to the bus eventually, but she was very pissed at Hanna (the tour guide). She thought she was left by the group, even though she made it back to the meeting point on time, and was panicking. She said Hanna wasn't at the meeting point and she had to look around under the tower for about 10 minutes before she finally found her. She thought the Hanna wasn't doing her job. I agree. Anyway, we did leave the other two people, after a lengthy wait, but they took a cab back to the hotel and beat us there. Erin was pissed that we waited for them when the rule was that if you weren't at the meeting point on time, you knew you were going to have to find your own way back.
On our way back to the hotel we drove around the Arc de Triomphe. That was an experience. You'd expect that drivers would stay on the outside of the circle until they got to the street they wanted and then exit in a civilized fashion, but what they really did was try to drive as straight through as quickly as they possibly could. They would drive directly to the center of the circle, then try to drive straight to the street they wanted to exit from, and they wouldn't look to see if anyone was going to hit them. We saw some car almost get squashed between our bus and a car that decided to cut through right in front of us (and them). During the day, when it wasn't so crowded, driving the Arc would be manageable, but at night I don't think I could handle it.
The morning started with breakfast and then we packed up to leave. What had been a vacant lot across the street from our hotel the day before was now full of activity; the lot was being used as a market. I briefly looked at it, but there wasn't anything there that really interested me. Before we left though I walked to a boulangerie I had seen the night before. Inside it was filled with breads, pastries, and locals buying their daily supply. I ordered an eclair in French. Apparently the girl behind the counter mistook me for someone who actually spoke the language, and said something back in French that I couldn't understand. I told her I don't speak French so she just pointed. It turns out they had two different kinds of eclairs and she wanted to know which one I wanted. I pointed to one and she wrapped it up for me to take. The wrapping looked so pretty I almost didn't want to tear it open to enjoy my pastry. Almost. It was a little too sweet for me to be eating that early in the morning, but it certainly was delicious. I was tempted to go back and get a baguet, but they finally decided to leave.
We drove through France and eventually stopped at a large rest stop in the French countryside. The bathroom was really nice and filled with all manner of people washing up. The bathroom wasn't really designed to accommodate bathers, but guys had their shirts off and were washing off as best they could with sinks full of water. The guys bathroom didn't have a door on it and could be seen by anyone who cared to look, but it didn't bother them. It didn't bother me either since all I had to do was brush my teeth.
I do have to award that rest stop the title of "Best Smelling Bathroom in Europe". They had a free dispenser full of lavender eau de cologne which filled the bathroom with its fragrance. It was quite pleasant even for someone who doesn't care for the smell of lavender, such as myself.
We also ate lunch at the rest stop. I had a roast lamb knuckle with au jus and pomme frites [french fries]. The roast meat was really quality so I decided to take a chance and order some cheese for dessert: Camembert, Brie, and something else. (I think I offended my waitress's French sensibilities by not ordering wine with my cheese because she kept asking me some question in French that I didn't understand.) The cheeses could best be described as a trio of stinky cheeses that weren't fully solid at room temperature and tasted as good as they smelt. It could just be that I'm showing my inexperience with French cheeses and my undereducated soft cheese palate, but that's how I felt about them.
We traveled on to one of the highlights of the trip, Lucerne, Switzerland. We stayed at the Hotel Bellevue, which is actually located in Brunnen, Switzerland. Brunnen is also located on Lake Lucerne, but it's about an hour from Lucerne. It was a really great hotel. The room had a large feather bed, a duvet, feather pillows, an armoire, a sink separate from the bathroom, and a window that opened up to a great view of the lake. It's the sort of hotel that really lets you know that you're in Europe. All the other hotels before that were similar to every other American hotel I've ever been to.
Since we got to the hotel late we had just enough time to put our bags away before dinner. It was the best dinner the tour provided. It started with asparagus soup and the entree was a meat patty covered in herb butter with fries and mixed vegetables. I'm not sure what sort of meat the patty was made out of, but it could have been lamb. Whatever it was, it was tasty. For dessert we had vanilla ice cream with apricot sorbet. (See, I was meant to have apricot sorbet!) Dessert was so delicious; the vanilla ice cream was so rich and creamy that I've only ever had its equal once and the apricot sorbet was the perfect light, fruity compliment to it.
After dinner we walked around the hotel a little bit. It was pouring rain, but the walk was still enjoyable.
We woke up that morning and threw the windows open to a beautiful view and crisp mountain air. It was a great way to start the morning. We were anxious to get started so the hour drive from Brunnen to Lucerne seemed to take forever.
The morning was overcast, drizzly, and a little chilly, but Lucerne was still one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. (Once again, a different kind of beauty from London or Paris.) Something about the place connected with me. [A note about the architecture. The buildings in I saw in England and France had beautiful molded facades. In Switzerland the facades were also beautiful, but they were painted on. It's one of the coolest and most unique things I've ever seen.]
Some of our tour took an optional excursion to Mount Pilatus so they departed, leaving the rest of us to explore and meet them later in the day. We walked around some residential and retail areas. Lucerne is just beautiful. We stopped at a coffee shop and had some hot chocolate and coffee. While we were there a Swiss guy was trying to speak to Erin in broken English. (I can't complain since his English was better than my German.) He mistook her for some tour guide he met, but it was a kind of cool. I paid for our food and drinks, and that's when I noticed that some wait people in Europe carry a large money pouch with them and take care of the bill right at your table. The waitress was so cute. She made change, counted the change back to me in English, and had a very proud smile on her face. I'd have been just as proud if I could have congratulated her in German.
After coffee Erin wanted to find a raincoat because she was chilly and I made a bad umbrella holder. I either poked her in the head with the side of the umbrella or didn't hold the umbrella over her to keep her from getting wet. (She didn't hold the umbrella because she'd have to lift her arm too high to keep me from getting wet.) We went to several department stores and all the jackets were expensive and Erin didn't find anything she liked. Eventually we stopped at a discount store, that's a lot like a Pick-n-Save here, and found a plain sweatshirt for less than $10. Very reasonable considering clothes in Europe seemed to be overly expensive.
We were walking through a very large retail area when I smelt something interesting wafting through the air. I tracked the smell down to an Indian import shop. I spoke to the lady in the shop about what incense she was burning and she said it was Nag Champa. Duh! Her English was very good so we asked her about it. She told us that she was self taught and spoke several languages. Impressive. (I wish I had an aptitude for languages.) The only thing I found in the shop that interested me was a bronze statue that was being used to display some jewelery. Erin thought I should ask about the price, but I didn't think it was for sale. Luckily I followed her advice and found out that it did have a price, just not a price tag. I didn't buy it because it cost enough for me to think about, and I didn't know where I was going to put it. We walked around Lucerne some more, and I guess I bothered Erin with so many questions about whether she thought it was worth it or not, that she just told me to buy it and that it would look good on my dining room table. I went back and bought it and then I had to carry it around in my backpack for the rest of the day. It's hard to walk around with 40 pounds pressing against the small of your back, but it was worth it. To this day it's the best looking Indian bronze statue I've ever seen and I like the statue even more because of the story. [I did some research and now know that it's a Hindu statue of Krishna. That doesn't have any significance to me, but it's good to know.]
In between the time I first saw the statue and when I actually purchased it, we were getting hungry so we looked for someplace to eat. It was a little difficult finding someplace appetizing since all the menus were in German and we didn't speak (or read) a lick of it. We came across a restaurant called Stadtkeller. The menu looked pretty good so we proceeded in. When we entered we saw a show going on and I thought to myself, "Oh no, this is a tourist trap," and wanted to leave immediately. The show was good and the restaurant had the best looking menu we'd seen around so we stayed, which was a good thing because Stadtkeller was amazing! The show was highly entertaining, featuring all sorts of Swiss singing and folk music. It also had its humorous moments, such as when two guys dressed in a cow suit went around licking people in the audience and when the MC called people up from the audience to yodel. (I learned, to my shock, that Japanese people can yodel their asses off.) Enough about the show though, the food was some of the best I've ever had in my life! I ordered the kotelett (pork cutlet) with rosemary potatoes and creamed spinach while Erin had the bratwurst (cooked in beer and apples) with onions, rosti (hash browns with melted swiss cheese), and some pickled vegetables. For two meals that sound amazingly simple, they were unbelievably delicious.
After lunch, and buying a statue, we met back up with the group and took a walking tour of the city. We saw St. Franz Xaver, a most original looking cathedral. It was done in the Baroque Rococo style, so it was very light in color, and very inspiring to look at. We also saw the Kapellbrucke, a medieval wooden foot bridge that stretched across part of the lake that had painted panels all along the walkway, and the Lions Gate, a tribute to one of the defining moments in Swiss history. All very good stuff.
The group that went to Mount Pilatus told us about what we had missed. Most of them described it as one of the best experiences they've ever had. They talked about the view at the top of the mountain, and their descent from the mountain; which started in a large gondola, but switched to smaller transport, until they were on a two person ski lift. The way they described sitting on the ski lift and hearing the Swiss cows with their large bells ringing below, the view, and the peacefulness of it all was very impressive. I'll definitely have to take the Mount Pilatus tour if I'm ever in Lucerne again.
After our walking tour we had time away from the group again to explore. We were to meet the rest of the group at the Schwanplatz, a bar. While we were waiting Erin had a champagne and I had a dunkel weiss beer. Excellent. They also had a fondue with onions and bacon that I really wanted to try, but we were about to have dinner so I decided not to.
Dinner was an optional excursion that we had payed for that was advertised as "A Swiss folklore evening." It turns out that it was dinner at Stadtkeller! The show was just as good as the one we saw at lunch, but the food wasn't. It's just another example of the bad tour food. They took us to a restaurant that served really good food and went cheap and got us food that really didn't taste good.
After a disappointing dinner and an hour long bus drive back to the hotel, it was easy to make use of the feather bed and get a very comfortable nights sleep.
Basically we took a very long drive from Lucerne to Innsbruck, Austria. Along the way we stopped in Liechtenstein, a small principality east of Switzerland which isn't Switzerland but uses their currency and is pretty hard to tell from Switzerland, for lunch. I would have been happier if we didn't. We got out of the bus and started looking for some place to eat. There wasn't much in Liechtenstein. We saw one restaurant that was open, but it didn't look very good so we kept looking. We didn't find another restaurant, but we did find the post office. I bought a postcard and mailed it from the post office, but as I later found out it was never received.
On our way back to the one open restaurant we saw, I smelled something delicious wafting through the air. There was a lady with an ice cream cart and she was making fresh waffle cones! I couldn't resist. I got a cone and it was delicious (and the waffle cone was still warm). That was my only good memory of Liechtenstein.
Now for the incident. We walked into the open restaurant and it looked like the Swiss version of Denny's. I wasn't impressed but I didn't seem to have a choice. We sat down and got our menus. I was trying my best to decipher the menu (I was even looking through our mini travel book with German food terms), but I couldn't find anything that really sounded appetizing. At least I found something that I hoped wasn't liver. I wanted to find out a little more about how it was prepared so I asked our waitress about it. She really didn't know English and seemed to get flustered and left. A guy came out (I assumed he was a manager) and started talking to me in English. I thought I'd find out if the lamb was roasted or at least not lamb liver, but he started to lecture me about eating in foreign countries and that I should just try the food and not ask so many questions. He said something like, if the food is good, then it's good, and if it isn't, well, just don't eat it again. This went on for five minutes and I never did find out what the hell it was that I was thinking about ordering. After he was done ranting I just ordered whatever the hell it was since I was still hungry; ranting isn't good for shit, least of all food. The dish I ordered ended up being some sort of lamb meat loaf that was only good enough to keep me from starving. I guess I know why the guy kept going on about just eating the food and not caring about whether it was good or not. Bastard. Liechtenstein wannabe Swiss Denny's manager educating stupid Americans how to eat in foreign countries, should mind his own damn business and just let me ask my question bastard. He ties with the night manager at The Paragon for the "Most Annoying Bastard in Europe" award.
To make matters worse, when we got back to the bus we heard from everyone that they all had a great lunch. There was a restaurant on the other side of the bus, that we didn't see, and they just raved about the food. I was so jealous.
We go to the Austrian border and they wanted to see our passports. Instead of coming on the bus and eyeing each of the passports, they collected all of them and inspected them in their guard shack. When we went from England to France the French not only wanted to see my passport, but my permanent resident card. (I have no idea why since it's none of their business as long as I have the proper visa, but I'm not going to argue with them either.) Anyway, I put my permanent resident card in between the pages of my passport just in case they wanted to see it. I was sure to tell the person who picked up my passport about it, because if they lost my card I would have a really hard time getting back into the US. So we get our passports back and I'm flipping through mine and I don't see my permanent resident card. At that moment I started panicking. I asked the person who handed me my passport where my permanent resident card was, and they said they didn't know. (What the f*@k!? I told them to watch it and make sure it didn't fall out.) I was lucky that Erin grabbed my passport, flipped my passport over, and started shaking it. My card fell out. I was so relieved. There's nothing like the possibility of not being able to return to your home to stress you out.
We arrived in Innsbruck in the afternoon so we had some time to check in and walk around. Our hotel was very cool. It looked medieval with a wide staircase and room doors that seemed large enough to admit a horse.
We walked around and enjoyed the town a little bit. I noticed the buildings also had painted facades like the ones we saw in Switzerland, but there was more use of color. Cool stuff. It was close to dinner time so we went back to the hotel. Dinner was at the hotel and remembering how good the hotel meal was in Lucerne, I was hopeful. Dinner even started well with a very tasty soup with two pieces of polenta floating on top. The entree was some sort of chicken and rice dish that sent Erin screaming, "I can't eat this." I wasn't feeling too picky so I ate some of it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. Erin took a trip to McDonald's to get some food that wasn't chicken.
We wandered around aimlessly after dinner was taken care of, but we ran into some other people from our tour who were wondering around purposely so we decided to tag along with them. I was heartbroken to discover that there was a small stall (in the direction we didn't explore) right by our hotel that sold homemade sausages. They smelt so good that I was mad at myself for eating the chicken/rice fuel for dinner.
We learned that travelers cheques are the biggest pain the ass. (Thanks to reading Rick Steves' site I already knew that, but this is just to get the point across.) One of the people with a purpose was trying to cash one of their travelers cheques and all the banks were closed and the money changer at the train station was closed too. Sucks to be in a new foreign country and not have any money.
After the person with the travelers cheques was done trying to figure out a way of getting money we headed to a bar. This has to disturb you. We were walking down one of the streets looking for a bar when we heard "The Macarana" blasting out of one of the bars. Needless to say, we didn't stop at that one. We stopped at another one, ordered some drinks, and they brought out a wooden stand with some pretzels on it. I thought they were complimentary, like chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant, but we later learned that the pretzels weren't free. That was a shame since the pretzels were all hard and not worth eating, much less paying for, but live and learn.
We woke up to a great breakfast. Easily bigger than any we had seen before, it was full of breads, cold cuts, juices, cereal, yogurt, and cheeses. That morning I ate very well.
We drove to Salzburg and had some free time to explore the town and eat lunch. While we were looking for a restaurant to have lunch at, we stopped to read the menu outside of some small place and the owner came out and talked us into his restaurant. He showed us to a table and told us about the special. (Erin remembers him saying that it was "risotto with fresh mushrooms from the forest." I think she just made up the "from the forest" part.) I couldn't make my mind up about what I wanted, but while the owner was bringing food out for another table, he showed us what they had ordered. The risotto looked so good I had to order it. Erin ordered the bratwurst with salad. The risotto was so rich, plentiful, and delicious it could have easily fed two very hungry people. It was a shame that I couldn't take the rest of it with me. Hidden under Erin's green salad was the most delicious German potato salad I've ever had. It was very simple; fresh potatoes boiled and sliced with herbs and a little vinegar and oil.
After lunch we strolled around the town a little bit and found a public garden. That's one of the things I loved about Europe, the public gardens. They're always so beautiful, structured, and well maintained. It would be nice to have something like that in Phoenix to go to.
Erin had to pick up some souvenir type stuff for some people so she got something that Salzburg is known for; Mozart chocolate. I didn't try any so I don't know if it was good. (I still had a very large box of fine French chocolates that I was eating through.)
We loaded back into the bus and drove to Vienna. Vienna was a little dumpier than I thought it would be, but I would learn to love the place. On the tour the next day we learned that much of Vienna was destroyed during the war. It looks like they didn't have a lot of money to rebuild. Other places, like London, seemed to have recovered much better.
The street our hotel was on had a street car line in front of it, and the tracks were right in the middle of traffic. When the driver stopped the bus to unload the luggage he couldn't find anywhere to park so he parked the bus in the street. Sure enough, a street car pulled up and was blocked by our bus. The street car driver got out and started yelling at our bus driver. The funny thing was the bus driver yelled right back at him. That was the second time I saw two people really yell at each about traffic. (The first time was in London when two guys actually got out of their cars in the middle of traffic to yell at each other, and then after about a minute of yelling they both got in their cars and drove away.) Needless to say the bus driver moved the bus. Eventually.
We had some excuse for eating the tour food, so dinner wasn't anything good. After dinner we walked around our brand new neighborhood. Once again it was a quiet little residential community without too much to see, but it was still fun walking around though. How else would we have found out about the "Feng Shui Drug Store"?
We woke up to a new day in Vienna, and that's where I confirmed that German type folk really like their breakfast. It was the most substantial breakfast I'd had all trip (which was amazing considering the small portions of crappy food they served us the night before). There were all sorts of breads, cheeses, cold cuts, juices, and other miscellaneous items to eat.
After breakfast we got into the bus and met a local guide for a tour of Vienna. We stopped at Schoenbrunn Palace just outside of Vienna which she told us had hundreds of rooms, and only one bathroom. The palace was impressive, but I liked the gardens behind the palace even better.
We got back in the bus and while we were driving around Vienna our local guide pointed out all sorts of neat places in Vienna including the Naschmarkt ("Nibbler's Market" she said in English). We finally came to a stop at the Hundertwasser House. [Here are some cool pictures of the place]. It was very odd. We were told we had to try the bathroom in some bar because the bathroom was also designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser in the same style as the apartment building. After using the bathroom I knew I couldn't live in the Hundertwasser House. The bathroom had a lumpy floor and it was very chaotic. I wouldn't enjoy living in an apartment like that.
After we looked at the Hundertwasser House we were free to roam on our own. Naturally me and Erin started by finding something to snack on. There was a small shop across from the Hundertwasser House that sold all sorts of sausages that looked really good. I tested my luck with something called a "currywurst". It was pretty tasty, but I can't say the sauce on it tasted very much like curry.
We walked all over Vienna exploring everything we could think of. Eventually we made our way to the "Nibbler's Market" where we had a lunch of bratwurst, salad, fries, and Coke in a bottle. It was pretty good, but it wasn't nearly as good as Stadtkeller.
We chose not to meet everyone at the meeting point (and we were sure to tell someone so they didn't think we lost ourselves, but at this point they were getting used to not seeing us anyway) since it allowed us more time to look around. After we couldn't manage walking around anymore, we hopped on a street car and headed to a main station to catch the street car that went in front of our hotel. Having that street car line in front of the hotel was damn convenient.
After we got back to our hotel we were going to go back downtown to listen to some Strauss since it was his death centenary and they were having a free show in front of city hall or something that night, but we never made it. I felt the slightest bit of sprinkle and that was enough to keep me from doing downtown since I didn't feel like dealing with rain. Instead we walked down the street a bit and ate at a Chinese restaurant named Wang's. The food was not as good as the Chinese we had in England, but after dinner they served us a small glass of plum wine, which was a new experience for both of us and made dinner a memorable experience.
[Additional Vienna photos if you're interested.]
We left Vienna (with me wishing I could have stayed a couple more days) and headed to Munich with a stop off at the Melk Monastery. The monastery was in the Baroque Rococo so it looked less than typical. We toured the monastery and the two coolest buildings on the tour were the library and chapel. The library had a painted ceiling which gave the appearance of column tops which weren't there. It must have taken a great amount of skill to get the perspective correct. (Of course I've since noticed the painted ceilings in Las Vegas casino malls, but since they're just clouds, it's not nearly as difficult.) The chapel was amazing. It really was Baroque. There were lots of things covered in gold leaf and it was all too much and too beautiful to absorb at once.
Afterwards we ate just outside the monastery. I had a pizza and an Eidelweiss beer. I didn't really care for either.
After Melk it was a long, boring drive to Munich.
Once again we ate the tour dinner, but it wasn't too bad.
After dinner we walked around our neighborhood. Nothing was open so we were just getting aquatinted with the place; looking for subway stations, restaurants, and shops we wanted to stop at the next day.
Do I even need to mention how good breakfast was? Best breakfast all trip.
After breakfast we met our local guide who took us on a walking tour of downtown Munich. It turns out that there was some sort of gay pride celebration downtown, and while we were walking a truck passed us with a truck bed full of leather clad men and speakers blearing techno music. There was something surreal about watching the Glockenspiel while throngs of gay men were drinking and gyrating to electronic music.
When our walking tour was finished we were given free time to do whatever. We walked around downtown and the university. We stopped at a tobacco shop and I looked at cigar cutters. There was a really nice scissor cutter that I asked the price of, but it was a Davidoff and far more than I could afford. The salesman picked up on this and being a good salesman directed me to another scissor cutter that was similar, but cheaper without making me feel bad about it. I bought it, and it became the first real cigar cutter I ever owned.
We took the subway back to the neighborhood of our hotel and started looking for something to eat. It wasn't long before we decided on "The Al Pachino"; an Italian restaurant we basically just stopped at because of the name. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the food was really good.
Eventually we made it back to our hotel, but I wanted to see one of the few thing Munich if famous for; beer houses. Specifically, I wanted to go to the Seehaus (Paulaner's beer house) because I knew the beer would be good and it was in a nice, relaxing location (the English Garden). We decided to walk there since it wasn't too far from our hotel. Our route to the Seehaus took us through some paths through the English Garden, and it was amazing because even though it was still light out, when we entered the forest it got completely dark. You could see how this type of forest spawned tales like "Hansel and Gretel".
We finally made it to the Seehaus, but I didn't feel up for a beer so we sat on a giant tree stump next to the lake, smoked a couple of cigars, and listened to the ducks as they tried to land in the lake at sunset. (Erin was quite amused by the fact that when a group of ducks would circle around the lake for a place to land the other ducks already on the lake would quack really loudly so they knew where to come in, sort of like a quacking homing beacon.)
We got our breakfast and left Munich. I wasn't unhappy about having spent so little time in Munich, but I did regret not seeing the olympic stadium before we left. It was one of the more interesting pieces of architecture that I've seen. From my view on the bus all I could see were tree tops, giant steel poles peeking above the tree tops at all sorts of odd angles (but never at 90 degrees), and a net of glass propped up by the steel poles. It wasn't like anything I'd ever seen before or since.
It was a long, boring ride to Heidelberg, but we made a stop at Rothenburg for lunch. Rothenburg was a walled medieval city that's pretty much stayed that way. Me and Erin once again struck out on our own looking for something to eat. We saw a Mexican restaurant named "El Sombrero" on our way into town so we thought we'd check it out. (This was actually the only Mexican restaurant I recalled seeing during the entire trip. Hopefully Europeans will some day learn the joys of good Mexican food.)
We looked at the menu and it looked pretty authentic. I was both surprised and not surprised at the same time. I figured the only Mexican restaurant I saw in Europe might be more like a "Taco Bell", but at the same time most of the ethnic food we had was really good. Erin and I wondered if the owner was from Mexico.
Well the food was good and I had the best beer I've ever had (too bad I forgot the name of the brand, not that it's available in the US anyway). After our meal the owner came out and asked us what we thought. It turns out that he was from Mexico and he came to Germany to go to school. His food was good, but he was having a problem getting people into his restaurant since German people aren't accustomed to Mexican food. He even had problems once they actually went to the restaurant. He said he took tostadas off the menu because people wouldn't assemble all the ingredients onto the tostada shell, and they'd try to eat the tostada shell with a knife and fork.
After lunch we started to explore Rothenburg, but that beer I had at lunch had me buzzing pretty hard. I ordered a small beer, but it was much larger than 12 ounces. Anyway, the buzz and the heat weren't doing good things to me so we had to rest in the shade for a little while. After I started feeling better we explored the city walls.
Eventually we got back on the bus and finished our trip to Heidelberg.
Our hotel was outside of Heidelberg, so in the morning we had to pile into the bus and meet a local guide. We went downtown, visited the castle, and took a boat trip down the Nekar river. After all that we bought lunch at a small middle eastern grocery store. We had gyros, baklava, and Coke right next to the Nekar river. It was absolutely delicious. I couldn't tell what kind of meat was used in the gyros so I went back to the grocery store and asked the guy and he said it was chicken. I thought it was pork. I definitely didn't think it was chicken.
Anyway, after lunch me and Erin went down the pedestrian walk in downtown (which is really long) to look for a cd from a German group that I had trouble finding in Munich. We had a hard time finding a music store, but we saw an English bookstore, so I bought a book to read on the plane trip back. I also stopped at a tobacco shop and bought a Cuban cigar tubo (a Partagas if you must know). It was getting close to the time we were supposed to turn around and meet everyone at the bus so we could get back to the hotel and I still hadn't found a music store. We were by a department store, and I had a good feeling about it so we went in. It turns out they did have a music section, and I was able to find the cd I was looking for.
With mission accomplished, we headed back to the meeting point. Along the way I realized I was really thirsty. We found a juice bar and I ordered something with kiwi in it. To my surprise the guy threw the entire kiwi into the blender with everything else and whipped it all up. It was just what I needed and tasty even though I had never eaten kiwi with the skin on before.
When we got to the bus we found out that the tour dinner was at Wienerwald, and everyone thought it was great. I was a little disappointed to hear that there was tour food that was actually good and I had missed it, but it was worth it to spend the extra time walking around Heidelberg. We got back to the hotel and I was anxious to try the Cuban cigar. We opened up the window in our room and commenced to smoking. It was the first badly rolled cigar I had ever had. It canoed (burned quickly on only one side of the cigar) and I tried to stop it, but there wasn't any fighting rolling defects and I threw the cigar in the toilet. Our room door was open and I tried to flush the cigar down the toilet and yelled to Erin, "It won't go down!" while some people were walking by. I'm not sure what they might have thought, but Erin was really embarrassed. I just thought it was funny as hell.
Since we missed dinner and we were basically in the middle of nowhere, we decided to eat dinner at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel. The food was ok (German speaking countries just didn't seem to have good Chinese food), but the service was really good. The waiter would watch our table from a distance, but he wouldn't interrupt us. If we looked like we wanted something, he would be there in a second, but he wouldn't do anything intrusive. I wish service was more like that in the US. I hate waiters that ask you how shit is all the time when they really don't care about the answer, much less wait for you to actually answer.
Heidelberg ended up being my second favorite place we visited. Unlike Lucerne though, I think I could actually live there.
Our last day in Europe didn't consist of much. We left Heidelberg for Frankfurt and went straight to the airport. My Belizean passport puzzled the two German customs officials because they probably hadn't seen one before. They were trying to determine the authenticity of the passport, but since they didn't know what to check for, it made it rather difficult. One of the customs guys even pulled a cheat sheet from inside his hat, but I don't think he found Belize on it since they both still looked puzzled. Eventually they just waived me through.
When we landed in Dallas, Texas our airplane took a bounce hard enough that almost threw a stewardess out of her seat. It was a little disconcerting. The American customs official seemed to have the same problem as his German counterparts. Since he didn't know what to test for he looked for all sorts of things. He seemed very thrilled to find things too. He showed me the different security features of the passport, and told me it was really impressive, and "a real coffee table" item. Heh, I was glad he enjoyed his job.
The first thing I ate when we arrived back in America was a bacon cheeseburger in one of the Dallas terminal sports bars. No matter how good the food is where you are, you always seem to miss eating something. (The first thing I ate after coming back from one of my New Orleans trips was Mexican food.) While I was sitting there eating my lunch, the electricity went out in our part of the terminal. I didn't really care since my food was already cooked and delivered. I don't know if there was ever a happier person eating a bacon cheeseburger in the dark.
I got home after being up only 24 hours straight. It didn't take too much to stay up until a normal bedtime. The next day I woke up and operated without any problems. I was thinking, "What's the problem with jet-lag? That was nothing." It wasn't until I wanted to sleep at 7 pm and wake up 3 in the morning during the next couple of days that I understood. If there's a way to get around jet lag I certainly don't know it.
Before you leave, get at least the equivalent of 200 American dollars in the local currency of every country you're going to be in. It's better to be prepared than to be without money because you can't find an ATM or a place to cash that travelers cheque.
ATMs are the best way to get money in foreign countries. (Of course it helps if that country has ATMs.) When you withdraw, take out at least the equivalent of 100 American dollars. Anything less and you'll probably hunt for ATMs as much as you sightsee.
Always have a little local pocket change to go to the bathroom. A lot of restrooms have a nominal fee to use them, which isn't so nominal if you don't have change. (This is true more for women than men.)
Some countries use commas(,) between their dollar and cent units instead of periods(.) so don't be surprised when you're in France and you see prices like "22,50". [I don't believe commas are used with the Euro so it might be a thing of the past now.]
Learn to say "please" and "thank you" in the local language. It doesn't require too much effort and saying "please" and pointing to what you want will get you a long way.
Tours are a good way to see a lot of things in a short amount of time. Remember that tours that show you many different locations have to spend a lot of time traveling. They can be extremely tiring, so if you're on a tour that's changing locations every other night, don't expect it to be a relaxing vacation. (You may want to plan for some relaxation time when you get home.)
I wouldn't recommend any tour that moves nightly. You'll spend more time traveling than seeing the sights.
If you don't like the idea of living with other peoples' unsupervised kids, make sure you sign up for an adult only tour.
If you're adventurous, and don't mind not knowing where you're going to sleep, skip a tour and create your own trip.
I learned I hate mineral water, and it's all I got when I asked for water. If you're particular about what you drink, learn what you can drink and stick with it. In Europe I lived on Coke. In other locations it might be water or tea for me.
Apricot juice and apricot ice cream are damn tasty! Avoid the apricot liquor from the Melk Monastery though, it tastes like lighter fluid. (What are those monks thinking?)
Europeans make the best sorbets and ice creams. Chocolate too.
Europeans seem to have a much better appreciation for good bread because it seemed like while the food wasn't always necessarily good, the bread was.
Breakfast is not a large meal. You don't find anything that has Denny's Grand Slam portions.
It seems like almost everything is served with french fries.
If you don't like the food where you are (and I hope that never happens to you), you can always eat at McDonald's. I don't consider this a good thing, but McDonald's seems to be everywhere. The one good thing about it is they all seemed to have interesting variations that were specific to the country they were in. In England they served Indian samosas. In Austria they served beer, and a sandwich called the "Big Pork." In Germany they had a sandwich called the "Italiano."
Remember that you're in another country and things aren't going to be the exactly the same as home. Enjoy the differences. If you wanted everything to be the same, why did you leave?
Bad experiences make for good stories so don't let a good story ruin your trip.
Japanese people can yodel.
Public gardens rule! I also noticed that the English and French people seem to love their private gardens. In England you would see people's gardens planted on the smallest plots of land, just to have a garden. In Paris where they have even less land they planted their gardens in window boxes and on the roofs of their buildings.
Public transit in the European cities I visited kicked butt. I could see how people can live without cars.
While I didn't see any 24 hour megamarts, Europe was very convenient. It was just a different type of convenience. You can find small grocery stores, pharmacies, and restaurants all usually within a block if you're in a city.
Europe has some cool cemeteries. In France they seemed to favor above ground tombs. In the German speaking countries you saw a lot of graveyards next to churches and the tombstones weren't stone but wrought iron. Some of the wrought iron tombstones even had pictures of the deceased in the center. I wish we could have stopped so I could have taken some pictures.
Luckily I was able to talk one of my best friends into going with me so now it was just a matter of finding a way of getting over there. As it turned out, Chandler-Gilbert Community College was sponsoring a 14 day European tour. It was a decent length of time in Europe and more importantly, it was cheap. That was meant to be my trip.
Even though it was cheap, I still had to take out a loan to help pay for it, but it was so worth it. Now here I am, the richer for my experience, and no financially poorer than I would have been if I didn't go. Don't let money be an excuse.