Prague & Nuremberg

Prague lived up to its hype. It is a beautiful city. The majority of the buildings are really well maintained, which is very different from Poland.

Our first day of sightseeing in Prague was dedicated to visiting the Old Town and New Town, which are really just two different sections of downtown. First we saw Old Town Square, which included a stop at the astronomical clock (somewhat similar to our experience with the changing of the guards in Monaco: "Was that it?"). The square is enormous and gorgeous. Here is a picture of one corner.

Next we walked to Letna Park for a view of the river and bridges.

At the park we found my favourite type of swing (a two person wooden swing, like the one by Oak Bay Marina in Victoria). We went for a swing, until Andrew got sick (3 or 4 minutes), and then left the park to see New Town. Poor Andrew didn't quite recover from the swinging until well into the evening.

New Town Square was really cool too. Although it was more recently built, the buildings look very similar to the buildings in Old Town.

We returned to Old Town Square at night.

We also walked along the famous Charles Bridge for a view of Prague Castle.

July 20 we started out the day walking to the famous 'Dancing House' (which a Canadian architect apparently worked on').

Here is a picture of us crossing a bridge.

We hiked up Petrin Park (it's a very large hill). Poor Andrew had to put up with me, as I complained that I didn't know about our 'hike' beforehand, and had therefore worn the wrong footwear (flipflops).

After descending Petrin Park/hill, we 'hiked' up to Prague Castle.

We walked around the grounds and found a great view of the City.

July 21 we left Prague to go back to Germany. Once we got into Nuremberg, we did what we always do on the first day: check into our hotel and then find the nearest grocery store to find some food.

July 22 we left the hotel to see the city. Nuremberg is a very interesting city because it has a bunch of pedestrian walkways and a few squares where there are markets set up every day of the week.

We walked around Kaiserburg Imperial Castle.

We spent most of the day wandering around the pedestrian streets and found a little pedestrian island in the middle of city center with a bunch of small artsy shops.

July 23 we went to visit the Documentation Center (a museum dedicated to educating people about the rise and fall of the Nazi party), the Nazi rally grounds (which were in Nuremberg and are huge: the term "megalomaniacal proportions" was used to describe it), and the Nuremberg trials. We went for a walk around part of the rally grounds (many of which were never completed or were demolished after the war). Here is a picture of a field where parts of large rallies were held. It is now used for open-air concerts.

Then we went to the Museum, held within a building designed by Hitler to house another part of the rallies.

Once again, we learned a lot. We spent several hours in the museum (until it closed at 6pm). We were going to tour around the old rally grounds some more after the museum closed, but it was raining really hard.

The heat wave seems to be over as the weather forecast is called for a week of rain and for once we are actually looking forward to rainy days.

We are now in Munich for 5 days of exploring.

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).

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.

Brussels, London, Wimbledon and The Wimbledance

It has been a while since the last blog and we have been up to quite a bit. 

June 27 Andrew and I spent a night in Brussels. We didn't really do that much, just walked around the main square and of course watched some World Cup Soccer.

June 28 we caught the Eurostar (train through the Chunnel) from Brussels to London. Once we arrived we checked into our hostel, got some groceries, cooked dinner (it has been a long time since we had hot food!) and went for a stroll in Kensington Gardens.

June 29 we decided that we were really going to be tourists and see all the sights that we could possibly see because we anticipated spending most of the week watching tennis matches at Wimbledon Park. So we first went to Trafalgar Square,

then we went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards (much better than in Monaco), 

had lunch at St. James' Park, 

went to Westminster Abbey, 

saw Big Ben, 

the Tower of London, 

Tower Bridge,

took a river boat to the London Eye, went back to the hostel for dinner and then back out to go to Hyde Park to read and play some crib. 

June 30 we had to get up early to make it to Wimbledon to stand in line for ground tickets. Just as we got our tickets and got on the grounds we turned to our left and I spotted Federer warming up for his match. Andrew and I were so excited to see him!

After our encounter with the Greatest player of all time, we went and setup our blanket on the Hill to watch the matches on the big screen. Andrew went wandering before the matches started and he ran into Nadal who was on his way to warm up for his match. 

So we had a great day at Wimbledon (even though Roger lost... he was injured). These guys below really helped make our day. They were 4 of them (one is missing from the picture, obviously). They were getting smashed watching the tennis matches, cheering for Andy Murray. They were all dressed in white tennis gear (which is mandatory for the players at Wimbledon). They were constantly standing up and doing this weird dance thing, which was really funny. They would point their hands out to either side above their head, and then pump them up and down. After the last match of the day we saw them and were about to walk right by them when Andrew said "Heyyyyy" and started to do their dance. This really got the guys excited and they wanted a picture of them and Andrew doing the dance. They called the dance the "Wimbledance", and were quite certain that it was "going to catch on next year". Hopefully we will see them again Sunday for the finals.

Yesterday (July 1, Canada Day), we went to the British Museum. Andrew really enjoyed looking at all the really old stuff, while I preferred to scout out benches and to admire from afar. The museum was really neat, I can't believe how much stuff the British stole (even though in the description of what the object is it usually said something about how the Brits "paid" for the article or saved it from being demolished, etc.). Then we spent the afternoon at the Camden Market. We were on the hunt for a few pieces of clothing... but left empty handed even though they had a thousand stores there!

Then last night we went to see Billy Elliot (I couldn't convince Andrew to see Grease or Dirty Dancing, both of which are playing in London). It was a really good musical and we really enjoyed ourselves.