Fun In Gothenburg

We arrived in Gothenburg September 15. Accommodations in Sweden are expensive so we opted to stay in a hostel. This meant it was back to bunk beds, and yes this was the entire room. Think of a prison cell designed by Ikea.

Even though the quarters were tight we stayed in the hostel the entire evening because I was booking the last of the accommodations for our trip.

September 16 we went on a canal cruise. The water level was so high that for part of the tour we had to sit on the floor, otherwise we would hit our heads on the bridges. Kind of looks like the hostel, doesn't it?

The tour was very informative and a good way to see the city. Here is a picture of the 'fish church'. It was built to be a fish market, but the only experience the architect had was with building churches.

A pretty picture from the cruise.

Since we went to the amusement park in Copenhagen we thought that one amusement park was enough. We were wrong. When we were looking at things to do in Gothenburg we discovered that the amusement park had 3 rollercoasters, one of which was wooden, so we had to go.

Here is the wooden rollercoaster, 'Balder', the best rollercoaster I have ever been on.

The park from above.

This rollercoaster was really cool because it shot you out of the gate (0 to 75 km/h in 2 seconds) and the momentum carries you through the whole ride.

This is the other half of the park where the 3rd rollercoaster is, as well as a ride that shoots you up really fast, one that shoots you down really fast, and a giant 'big kid swing'.

The amusement park was AMAZING! It was the best park we have been to and it was especially good because there were no line-ups the entire time we were there. Plus neither of us felt sick from the rides!

September 17 we went to 'Universeum', which was similar to our science center. We had so much fun, but once again it seemed that we didn't quite fit in. For some reason there were a bunch of kids!!

Here is Andrew and his 'new friends' making bubbles.

I WAS making bubbles, but some stupid kid (the one across from Andrew in the green) kept popping my bubbles so I left. Where are the parents of these savages?

Then we found puzzles!

Puzzles done... except the one I'm working on. I'm sure it was the hardest puzzle.

Finally done!

Then Andrew found the neatest thing. It was a room with a bunch of lasers running from wall to wall.  The objective was for you to go from one side of the room to the other without touching them (like in the movie Entrapment). Here I am going across the room.

Andrew's turn. He 'danced' through it. Unfortunately the video didn't turn out. Here he is about to jump over a few lasers.

We had so much fun in Gothenburg. Hopefully we will have as much fun in Stockholm.

Stilts In Arhus

We made it to Arhus, Denmark on September 9. We walked around the city and then made it to the open-air museum. The museum had 75 half-timbered houses brought to Arhus from all over Denmark.

Just as we were about to leave we found stilts! We couldn't resist so we tried them out. 

Surprisingly I did kind of get the hang of it, but it took a while. Andrew and I had a race and Andrew's strategy paid off. He took huge steps and then would fall and keep going, instead of my strategy, which was taking small steps, and not falling off as often. Here is a look at Andrew goofing off.

September 10 we took it easy. We are both sick with colds and it was really rainy so our outing consisted of going to sit by the bay and walking by the canals. Even though it was grey, the scenery was still beautiful.

... especially sick bicky (I don't know how to spell that made up word... any ideas Dad?) Andrew.

Here is a picture of the city of Arhus.

Afterwards we went to get groceries. We thought we would treat ourselves and get some aged cheese, we even looked up what 'aged' was in Danish; we thought we were so smart. When we got back home and were ready to feast, I opened the cheese and the air became polluted by the most awful smell. It smelled like sweaty feet, worse than blue cheese! The smell was so bad we couldn't eat it, actually I wouldn't even try it.

Now we are going to Copenhagen for a few days and we will not be experimenting with cheese!

Poop, Hotels & Language Difficulties

I forgot to mention that in Rome, while we were sitting in St. Peter's Square, Andrew was pooped on by a bird... must be a sign from God, a bad sign. It was his first time being pooped on (Jenna this will probably make you feel better because I know you have been pooped on multiple times... and thought it was normal). I have yet to be pooped on, but I think my time will come considering how much I am bugging Andrew about it.

We have had some good luck with booking hotels and hostels and some really really bad luck. I thought that I would share pictures of our places in Bergamo and here in Madrid, where we have had really good luck.

This is our hotel in Bergamo. When we got there we realized that it was a 4 star hotel. Andrew and I looked like misfits with our backpacks on and looking disgusting because of the long walk to the hotel. Oh well, they still let us check in.

Here in Madrid we have a kitchenette in our hotel. We are really excited to be able to actually cook food. Hostels usually have kitchens but we have been avoiding them because they are usually pretty gross.

This is the rest of the room in Madrid.

We were so excited about our kitchen that we raced to the grocery store and bought pizzas. We thought that we would fry them in frying pans, which is what we do when we don't have an oven and surprisingly, they usually turn out pretty good

This time we had a problem though. When we got home from our shopping trip and Andrew unwrapped the pizzas, we found out that the dough was raw and that they needed to be cooked in an oven... which we don't have (only a stove and a microwave). On the package it said 'concinada...' meaning we need to cook the pizza. Instead of giving up we decided to cook the pizzas in the microwave and then fry them. This is how they turned out.

They were actually pretty tasty. I guess my theory worked: add enough cheese to anything and it will taste good.

Now that we have eaten we are on our way out to see Madrid.

PS- It was the Alexander triplets birthday yesterday. Happy birthday boys, we miss you.

Venice

August 7 we went walking around Venice. We avoided the really crowded spots and found some nice quiet places, which is hard to do in the middle of the summer in Venice.

August 8 we decided that instead of spending/wasting money on a gondola ride (we heard them asking 80 euros for a 50 minute ride) we would buy ferry transportation for the day. So we got to see the city from the canals. From our pictures it looks like we could have been on a gondola.

We went to the island of Lido because we heard that it had a nice beach. We walked along the shore for an hour or so before heading back to the ferry terminal and continuing with our water tour of Venice.

More of Venice.

That night we decided that we were really going to splurge and we went out for dinner (ok, take-away). We haven't been out for a meal in a while. We found a spot along the Grand Canal and ate pizza.

Once it got dark we got on another ferry for a tour of Venice at night.

We got off the ferry at Piazza San Marco and walked around the square listening to several different bands play.

We decided to walk back to the hotel from the Piazza. We found that in Venice following a map can be really challenging, and instead, heading in the general direction of the place we wanted to go worked better (sometimes). So, on our way back to our hotel instead of looking at the map to figure out how to get home we just started walking. After taking turn after turn and crossing bridge after bridge Andrew and I realized that neither of us were paying attention and instead we had been following a Spanish family. We both thought that we were headed in the right direction to get back to our hotel, so we continued to follow the Spanish family. Following this family was challenging at times: sometimes they would start walking really slowly and they would force us to pass them at which point Andrew would have to stop and take some pictures so that they would pass us. The really awkward moment came when the family made a wrong turn and had to turn around (practically into us). Since we didn't know what we were doing or where we were we thought it would be best to continue to follow them, so we turned around too. I'm so glad that they didn't catch on that we were following them, because that would have been really awkward. We made it back to our hotel... ok the family led us back to our hotel and we missed them the next night trying to find our way back home.

August 8 we took it easy. We were slightly sun burnt from the day before and it was really hot out again. We spent the day wandering around the city.

Our time in Venice was excellent. Now we are in Verona and it is a beautiful city, which made leaving Venice a little easier.

Hot Hot Heat

So we got into Berlin July 9 and we were looking forward to a week (5 days) in a hotel with AC. When we got here and checked in, our room was beautiful, looking onto a canal, but it was hot. Not regular hot, but closer to sauna hot. We started unpacking and fiddling with the AC gauge and found out that the AC didn't work. So we went to the lobby and told them. They offered to bring up a fan instead and we told them that we wanted to switch rooms (we had been looking forward to AC for too long, after sweating ourselves to sleep every night in London). So we switched rooms. When we got to our new room we turned on the AC and waited for it to kick in... it never did. So I went down to the front desk, again to tell them the AC wasn't working. They told us that we just had to wait for the AC to 'warm up' and that if it didn't start to work by morning we could switch rooms again. So it wasn't ideal but it seemed there was nothing else that could be done. So we left to go and get groceries. We figured out earlier in the trip that we shouldn't buy bread in bulk but we didn't see a problem buying beer in bulk, especially when we have a fridge. So we picked up 20 beers (.5L each) for 9 euros, how could we resist? (Right Stac?)

We got back and ate and by about 10:30 the room had not gotten colder at all, in fact the temperature seemed to be rising. So once again I marched down to reception and the receptionist came upstairs to look at the machine. When he got to the room (wearing a suit) he immediately started dripping, thank god it wasn't just us! He told us he would bring up another fan and hopefully that would help until a technician came the next day. By 12:30am they seemed to have figured out what the problem was because the AC finally kicked in! All that complaining worked!

We woke up (July 10) and were really excited to see Berlin so we went out... at one of the worst possible time of day, 11 am (as there is absolutely no shade for a couple of hours). And we thought London was hot! Berlin has been 'suffering' from a ridiculous heat wave ever since we got here (July 9 - 35 degrees, 10 - 35 degrees, 11 - 36 degrees, 12 - 37 degrees). So we left the hotel when there was no shade and walked around the city for 5 or 6 hours, walking at least 10 km. We went to go see Potsdamer Platz, but on our way we walked through Tiergarten (a big park). It is really beautiful but... we looked over in a green area, and it was crawling with naked men. They were all just hanging out (figuratively and literally), as if it wasn't strange at all, and I guess to them it isn't. Anyways, Potsdamer Platz, it is a really cool square. Sony's European headquarters are there and a Sony store... which has AC, we couldn't resist so we went inside and looked at 3D TVs.

Next we went and saw the location of Hitler's hunker, where he spent the last few weeks of his life, committed suicide and was burned. We thought that there would be a partially built bunker, but all that was there was a sign. The bunker had been destroyed. There are now Soviet style apartment complexes surrounding what used to be the bunker.

Then we went to Topographie des Terrors, which is a museum dedicated to educating people about the SS, Gastapo, Nazis and the Holocaust. It was an amazing museum and we learned a lot. Outside the museum was what remained of the SS and Gastapo headquarters and behind it is the longest portion of the Berlin wall.

Next we made it over to Checkpoint Charlie.

The we walked to the Reichstag to take a look.

Right by the Reichstag we spotted shade... and a river. So we made our way over to it and found these steps where a bunch of people were sitting dipping their feet in the canal. We couldn't resist, so we joined in.

East Berlin is still very different. Although there are a bunch of stores that we have seen everywhere else, the buildings and even the style of the roads were strange. Andrew and I found the pedestrian lights really funny.

At night we watched Germany beat Uruguay, which we were really happy about!

We learned a little bit from July 10, so on July 11 we left the hotel around 1:00pm instead. There was way more shade on the sidewalks so it wasn't nearly as bad. We decided that we would check out West Berlin. We walked around the Tiergarten. We found another river and somehow Andrew wasn't really hot, but I couldn't help dip my feet in.

We walked around the West Berlin downtown. All the buildings looked familiar (unlike East Berlin). We saw a church that was recommended to us by a local called the 'Hollow Tooth'. The church had been bombed during the war and for some reason never been repaired.

After our afternoon walk we went back to the hotel, ate and went back out to watch the World Cup finals. We went to the Tiergarten where they had setup huge screens for everyone to watch World Cup games. Although we had a really good time and the setup was great, the Netherlands lost. We were poor losers and left as soon as the game was over (we HATE Spain due to their diving, rolling around on the ground, crying, screaming, etc).

Yesterday (July 12) was supposed to be the hottest day so far (37 degrees) and because our room heats up during the date from the sun shining right in, we left to go to Potsdam and do some swimming.

It was so nice to get in the water and swim even though the water still felt warm.

When we got back we had had enough heat, so we had a 'relaxification' as Andrew called it. We watched a couple movies and had a couple beers.

Today (July 13, we are going to go back to the Reichstag to climb the glass dome, go to a Holocaust Monument, and maybe take some shelter and go to a movie (it might be our last chance for an English, non-subtitled movie for a while).

Tomorrow we are off to Wroclaw, Poland for a couple days before spending a couple of days in Krakow, Poland and then a few days in Prague (CZ).