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).

Chocolate, Cruise & Sweat

We spent the last few days in Cologne Germany. Andrew and I both had a cold for the first couple of days so we took it easy at the beginning of the week.

July 6, we took a spin around the city and book our next couple of weeks in Germany.

We walked along the Rhein River and went to the "Hohenzollern Brucke". It is a bridge with a bunch of locks on it. Couples come to the bridge and attach a 'love lock' to it and throw the key in the river. Romantic, i guess... if you're into that kind of thing. Some people went all out and got their names engraved on the locks, while others used permanent markers.

July 7 we were feeling better and so we took the city by storm. We climbed up the cathedral (near 500 steps) to get a better view of the city.

Then we went to the Lindt chocolate factory. WOW!! Upon entry we got a free chocolate and then we got to taste chocolate out of a huge chocolate fountain, Andrew and I managed to sample the chocolate fountain twice. It made me miss the chocolate chip muffins we were getting in Ireland from Dunnes!

Then we went to a big city park to read/nap (me/Andrew... he always seems to be napping, actually he is trying to nap on the train right now as I am writing). The park was huge and really beautiful.

Afterwards we went to find a pub to watch Germany vs. Spain. All the pubs were really busy and everyone was dressed up in Germany colours, jerseys, etc. We ended up finding a pub and spent the night cheering for Germany and enjoying German beer (a little too much)... though nothing compares to Guinness. We were sad that Germany lost, but now we have a reason to watch the game Saturday (for third place). Plus, I really want the Netherlands to win the Cup on Sunday. After the game we walked back to the hotel. We passed the cathedral and Andrew managed to snap some good pics (some were a little blurry, I suggested that this was because of too many beers, Andrew prefers to think that it is because of the slow shutter speed of the camera).

July 8 (yesterday) we took a river cruise along the Rhein from Rudesheim to Koblenz... which was free with our train passes, which made us REALLY happy!

A lot of the time Andrew and I look around and feel really out of place. We always seem to be doing things that people aged 60 or 70 + are doing. So of course we were on this river cruise with people aged 60 or 70 + and to top it off they were all southern Americans, to make it even worse... they were TEACHERS (like Brian, ewww!!!). The southern Americans are usually quite entertaining... in small doses. For example one of the ladies would yell out: 'Castle alert' when we would see a castle (which was every couple of minutes). Also they seemed to be extremely confused about which stop they were suppose to get off at and kept talking about it (in their southern accents of course, which Andrew is getting pretty good at mimicking). I'm pretty sure some of them were so worried about which stop they should be getting off at that they forgot to enjoy the view. Others were entertaining because of their wardrobe selection. I am not one to be critical of what other people are wearing, considering I am wearing sweatpants (or maybe even worse, lululemon outfits) everyday, but oh my god!!! All of these people (mostly women, although some we couldn't tell their gender) were wearing ugly visors, their pants were pulled up to their nipples and of course they were wearing monstrous fanny packs (the ones that hold multiple water bottles). This is what we were dealing with:

The castles were really beautiful and there were a ton of them!

We were on the cruise for 4 hours, and by looking at the pictures it looks like it was a nude cruise.

My excuse: I really am wearing clothes, but I was working on my tan so I had my dress pulled up and straps down.

It was very hot out yesterday (around 30 degrees), but being on the river we were enjoying the breeze. It wasn't until we docked in Koblenz that I noticed the heat. Most days it is so hot that when we get back from being out and about we are totally disgusting and need a shower. Yesterday was no exception.

In order to save a few bucks of course we opted not to take the bus from the dock to the train station. So we are walking (for about 20-25 minutes) in the crazy heat and just dripping. We looked especially bad yesterday because we put on sunscreen. I thought that once we got on the train we would cool down because the majority of the trains have AC, but of course, not the one that we caught! So on the train we continued to get more disgusting.

It is important to note that nobody else seems to be affected by the heat, or at least not as much as we are. People on the train were wearing jeans and shirts and didn't appear to be sweating at all.

Too much information? Probably! Andrew and I were reminiscing today about how I was cold in Ireland. What I would give to be cold again! I have begun to take cold showers in the evening and even then I don't cool down enough. Hopefully we will have AC in the room in Berlin, which is our next stop!

More Wimbledon & World Cup, and Nadal's Autograph

July 2, Andrew and I hung out at "Walkabout". It was a really cool pub to watch the Nadal vs Murray tennis game and a football game. We had a great time... specifically because Brazil lost to one of our favourite teams, the Netherlands! YAY!

July 3, we went back to Hyde Park and walked to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. This is one of the best things we saw in London because it was so different. It was really cool, being a large circular pool of water (knee deep at the deepest parts) that you can walk around in. It was so nice because we have been sweating buckets in London. It has been very hot the entire week and with no AC we have been dying!

Then we went to Nottinghill (and left soon after we got there because of the crowds!), then we went back to Walkabout to see Germany win (YAY), then we took a quick walk around Leicester  (pronounced 'Lester'...) Square and Covent Market before going back to the hostel for some rest.

July 4 was a big day for us! We woke up early to get in the queue for the Wimbledon finals. It wasn't much of a wait and as we walked into the grounds we turned to our left and saw Nadal warming up. We stayed for about 30 minutes and as he came off the court he signed an autograph for us. Grandma Luft is going to be so excited because Nadal is her favourite player, she even has his picture on her fridge. Nadal went on to win Wimbledon... for the 2nd time.

Although we will miss the British, who have queuing etiquette and can make anything sound proper, we are now off to Germany (Cologne) for a few days. Hopefully Germany will keep winning in soccer so that we can celebrate with them in Berlin for the finals July 11.

Beach Bums

Since we've been in Nice we've done pretty much nothing other than work on our tans and learning how to properly apply sunscreen (Andrew slightly burned a part of his stomach and I slightly burned one of my shoulders). We haven't been bringing our camera to the beach for fear that it might get stolen while we are swimming but the beach is beautiful. The beaches are covered in what tourists books call pebbles, but they are really just fist sized (the biggest of them at least) rocks. They aren't the most comfortable to lay on, but we are too cheap to buy chairs or cushions or to pay to get onto a private beach for the use of their lounging chairs.

After our days on the beach we have been enjoying the World Cup. We quickly realized that soccer players are no UFC fighters with the amount of crying they do and dives they "perform" (which drives us CRAZY!!). Right now Andrew and I are cheering for Mexico because the game that we saw the Mexican players weren't diving and because they just recently beat France. Right now Italy is annoying us.

Yesterday (June 19) was a little on the cold side (around 20) and a bit cloudy, so after spending some time on the beach we went for a walk to Parc de la Colline du Chateau. It was a really good lookout point and we got some good pictures.

Today (June 20) we went to Monaco for a quick day trip. We read in our book that when we go to Monaco we should not miss the changing of the guards at the Palais du Prince. Andrew and I almost killed ourselves laughing when we saw it for ourselves. The procedure took maybe 20 seconds and the guy walked out of the little hut and someone came to replace him. I guess Red Deer tourism should start advertising changing of the security guards at some of the buildings downtown, because the changing of the guards in Monaco got a lot of attention.

After this we went walking through one of the harbours and looked at all the boats. I wish we could do this every Sunday. These boats were some of the biggest I have ever seen. They had at least 4 different levels, motorboats and jetskis attached and a boat crew cleaning every spot on the deck. We are also pretty sure they loaded their BMWs, Aston Martins, Rolls Royces, etc into them, because each boat had one or two of these sitting beside them on the pier.

Then we went to the famous Monte Carlo casino. We were lucky enough to get there when it opened (we were surprised they ever closed - they open at 2pm). Once we got in we had to check our bags at the door, no cameras allowed and then we got to the casino and saw a sign that to get inside it was 10 euros each. So we picked up our bags and left. Why even bother!? As Andrew said when we were leaving: "They've got it all wrong. You don't charge to take people's money." But I guess in Monaco they do. We think they could learn from Vegas: never close, and never charge admission.

Monaco was a really nice country/city. It was really clean, which nowadays impresses me and Andrew. It was built right into the mountain and there were public elevators everywhere in order to get to the streets below.

Tomorrow we are on a mission to find sandy beaches, so we are going to go to Cannes. Hopefully there will be some there. Andrew and I have vowed to try an espresso and a crepe while we are in France, so tomorrow might be the day for that too. As for now we have big plans: New Zealand and Italy are playing right now and Brazil and Ivory Coast are playing tonight. We are keeping our supper cold until we are ready to eat (Andrew has created a fridge out of duct tape and our AC unit to keep our Camembert cold for a couple of hours).