Madrid

We didn't originally plan on going to Spain, but because of the problems in Greece, we changed our minds.

August 25 we walked around the neighborhood surrounding our hotel. We saw kids skateboarding and biking, a soccer game and the royal palace.

August 26 we saw a temple that Egypt gifted to Spain, and was moved block by block.

Next, we went wandering around the city center. It was strange though, because the streets were empty. It must have been because of the heat... it was over 40 degrees. 

August 27 we went to Seville for a day trip. It was gorgeous! We started off wandering around in the city center. 

We escaped to a city garden for some much needed shade.

Then we went to see the bull ring (bull fighting arena).

August 27 we went to Madrid's biggest city parks. It was beautiful.

It was very difficult leaving our air conditioned room because it has been so hot. But, we are now off to Barcelona and looking forward to beach hopping.

All Roads Lead to Rome

We got into Rome August 16 and although it was really hot we decided to wander around. Minutes from our hotel was the Circo Massimo (where they had chariot racing) and Palatine Hill behind it (where all the rich Romans lived). We were a little in awe to say the least.

Then we made our way to a view of the Forum.

This is my favourite building. It is the 'Victorio Emanuele II Monument', I still don't know what it is but it really was beautiful. Unfortunately we didn't get to enjoy it for as long as I would have liked because 'O.D.B.' (Old Dirty Bastard) was trying to strike up a conversation with us... but ended up just talking at us in broken English. We were pretty determined to ignore him. 'O.D.B.' was a really old, dirty, stinky guy, with maybe 5 teeth left, carrying all of his belongings in a plastic bag. He was sitting beside Andrew telling him where we should visit in Rome (the Colosseum and the Vatican were a couple of suggestions...). Andrew was doing his best not to engage in conversation. After a few minutes of annoyance we decided to leave to get away from 'O.D.B.'. Before we made a run for it 'O.D.B' asked if we would send him a postcard when we got home, Andrew had to inform him that there were no postcards in Red Deer so it would be impossible (plus I doubt he had an address). As we walked away we couldn't help but turn around to watch 'O.D.B' start to work his next victims.

We went to the Trevi fountain next, where Andrew WASTED 2 cents by throwing it into the fountain. I was appalled and refused to throw any money in. I guess Andrew will be coming back to Rome by himself.

August 17 we decided to go to the Vatican. On our way there an old guy pulled his vehicle over to the side of the road to ask for directions. He had his map out and he was asking us if we spoke English. I felt bad, so I said we did, and he asked how to get to the Vatican. Andrew told him to take a left on the 4th bridge. He was so nice that he offered to give us a shirt and a jacket for helping him. Wouldn't you know it, he was in Rome from Paris (YUCK) for a fashion show. I thought it was strange that he said he was from Paris because he clearly had an Italian accent and it was really strange that he was in Rome for fashion because the clothes he was giving us were disgusting. As we went to take the clothes so that we could continue on our way, he held onto them and proceeded to tell us about how he had gambled away his gas money the night before. He clearly had no intention of 'giving' us the clothes in return for the directions until he had been paid. It is too bad that we didn't care about his imaginary 'gambling problem' or about his lack of gas money, because he remains stuck with those ugly clothes.

Here is the square outside the Vatican. Andrew informed me that this is where Ewan McGregor saved Rome by flying a helicopter with a bomb in it into the sky (Angels & Demons).

Inside the Sistine Chapel... before the security guard said 'NO PICTURES'.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica.

August 18 we decided to spend the day looking at Rome's ruins. Here is part of Palatine Hill.

The Roman Forum, with the Colosseum in the back.

The Colosseum, where Andrew informed me that Russell Crowe killed Joaquin Phoenix and turned Rome back into a republic (Gladiator). He knows a lot about Roman history!

The Pantheon.

We went back to the Colosseum at night to see it all lit up.

Today, August 19... we were lazy. We were going to go to the old Roman port, but it was a long way away. Then we were going to go to the catacombs, but it was far away too. So we decided to just walk around the city again.

The Spanish steps.

Back at the Trevi fountain.

Rome is a beautiful city, especially if you can avoid the touristy areas where there are creepers like 'O.D.B.' and other weirdos who try to give you flowers by resting them on your arm and then demanding to be paid.

Off to Milan next.

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.

Krakow & Auschwitz

We arrived in Krakow, Poland July 16. We dropped our bags off at our hostel and spent the better part of the evening trying to buy train tickets (our passes don't work on Poland). We were surprised to find that out of the 5 different line-ups we were in there was only one worker who spoke English (strange, as Krakow is supposedly the tourist capital of Poland). We tried to communicate in English and with the little German we know, but they were quite uncooperative, and simply glared at us and shook their heads. The Polish people in the lines were quite friendly and helpful, but the workers were having none of it. We spent what remained of the evening walking around the city.

Krakow has a gorgeous town square. We watched 2 dance crews in the square, who were more funny  than talented, as they danced to their modern 80's music in their new 80's clothing.

We found this really neat fountain that danced to music. Because of the heat, kids took off their clothes and were running in and around the fountain. 

 

Even a dog stopped to enjoy the fountain. It had us in stitches, reminding us of Shadow (the St. Germain's old dog) who attacked the gardening hose when we tried to use it to clean off their deck during a weekend of babysitting Jeremy... I mean Oakley. This dog was attacking the water coming out of the fountain.

July 17 we headed off to Auschwitz for the day. We took a tour through Auschwitz 1 and 2 (Birkenau). It was a very eye opening experience. It was difficult, but it was really important to both of us to pay our respects.

Auschwitz 2 (Birkenau)

In the evening we went to the mall to grab another ice cream from our favourite place before our night train. This was our first night train experience. We booked 2 beds in a couchette for 6 people. Luckily our roommates were 3 girls who were really quiet. The train was hot at first but sometime in the middle of the night the heat wave finally cracked and it started pouring and the train actually cooled down.

We arrived in Prague yesterday (July 18) at 7am. We dropped our bags off at our hotel and went walking through the city... in the rain, but at least it was cool out. We weren't sure if anything would be open early Sunday morning but we ended up finding a huge grocery store called Albert. We were able to have breakfast in a mall across the street. We spent the rest of the morning shopping to waste time before check in. Andrew and I both got a pair of shorts in case there is another heat wave!

Last night I was exhausted, as I didn't get a great sleep on the train, I went to bed at 6:30 and didn't wake up until 8am. So now that I am well rested we are off to see Prague.

Wroclaw, Poland

We got to Wroclaw, Poland yesterday (July 14) after a sweaty train ride from Berlin. Looking at the Polish country side we weren't sure if we had made a mistake coming to Poland, as the small towns and train stops looked very sketchy. However, once we got into Wroclaw (a bigger city, 100,000 people) it didn't look nearly as sketchy.

We checked into our hostel, which has amazing AC, and then went grocery shopping. We were so hungry and everything was so cheap that we decided to have a feast. We bought really cheap watermelon and a XXL pizza and ate the night away. 

Today (July 15) we saw much of Wroclaw. It is a very nice city with a gorgeous town square. It is so colourful and the buildings have such character.

In the town square there were hoses spraying out water. People could walk through the spray, and kids were playing in it, in order to deal with the heat (although it looks cloudy it was still 35 degrees).

We went strolling along the river and in between sites we ran into malls to cool off. We also skipped lunch and opted to get ice cream instead. It was so good!
 
Tomorrow we are off to Krakow.

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).