15 December 2009
Amsterdam
14 December 2009
MADRID
04 December 2009
Brussels, Brugge, Heidelberg, and best of all...JEFF!
Jeff came to visit and we had a wonderful time! He managed to peg 4 countries and 7 cities in just 10 days! After arriving, I met him at the airport and we were off on our way to Belgium! After a very fun train ride (people were staring at us because we were laughing so loud...we were laughing so hard because a man on the train had the biggest cell phone we have EVER seen!), we arrived in Brussels! We had both forgotten that Belgium is outrageously famous for their waffles, and were conveniently reminded as we walked through the train station. We just had to get on! So we got the most gooey, warm, not all the way done waffle coated in Nutella...yum!! After asking the girl working at the waffle stand for directions (Jeff's French was quite helpful here), we made our way to the hotel. We checked into our hotel which was conveniently located close to the train station and in the heart of Brussels.
We headed out to wander around Brussels and while many people had warned Jeff that there was little to do in this city, there were TONS of people out shopping, chocolate galore, music on every corner...it was quite charming! We wandered around and into some chocolate shops and found our way to some dinner. We were intent upon getting mussels in Brussels because they are quite famous for their mussels (not just their waffles!) The mussels were delicious and came with another Belgian specialty...French Fries! Which were actually invented in Belgium not France. We explored Brussels for a few hours more, Jeff was quite intent on finding the gay district which is advertised by a large mural of two guys walking down the street together. Well this "district" was only about a block long with not much happening at the time but we did manage to snag a few pics of Jeff with the mural before heading back to bed in preparation for our bike tour the next day!
The next morning we head out for our bike tour. It was just Jeffrey and I and one other girl on the tour with a guide, who we do not remember the name of, we have been referring to him as Fritz though, so we will go with that for the purposes of the storytelling. First of all, it was fun just to be on a bike through the city, though not so fun when we were biking through highly pedestrian areas! Fritz had a very awkward way of stopping us and asking us if we had questions. And then quizzing us throughout which made us all feel bad that we knew little to nothing about Belgium before the bike tour. It was like being on Family Feud...he says to us "Why is Belgium famous?" and we blurted out all the stereotypical answers : "Fries! Mussels! Beer! Waffles! Chocolate! Lace! The peeing boy statue! Cartoons!" Anywho, the bike tour was really fun except for when Fritz was being offensive or quizzing us...and we ate the "best french fries" in the world from some stand. But since we had eaten fries the night before, we were a bit fried out. We ate them none the less and they were quite delicious, but I still think McD's on a good day has them beat ;)
So after seeing the sights of Brussels via bike we decided to hop a train to Brugge, which is considered the "Venice of the North". Many people had told us how beautiful it is and only an hour or so away from Brussels. After a torrential downpour during the train ride, we emerge from the station in Brugge to stumble upon a beautiful double rainbow in the sky! Then we are off on our way to see the town before nightfall. Brugge was like a very cold version of Venice. The canals were very pretty and the town was lit up for Christmas. Most of the shops were still open even though it was Sunday (everything is closed in Germany on Sundays...) and we checked out stores with mainly the same things that the stores in Brussels had: chocolate, lace, and other souvenirs. We ate at a pretty fancy restaurant on one of the canals. We both ate some sort of boar stew...it looked like poop but tasted okay, but was nothing compared to the amazing dessert platter that followed it containing the most delicious chocolate mousse in the world...
We also tried some interesting beers in Belgium. Jeff had a cherry beer which was absolutely phenomenal. The peach beer was also quite good. I, however, decided to try the blueberry beer...this was absolutely revolting! After dinner and the beers, we headed back to the train station to go back to Brussels for the night. I left in the morning to come back to Darmstadt for class and Jeffrey went to Amsterdam for the day and night.
On Tuesday, Jeff came back to Darmstadt and we spent the afternoon at the Christmas market before he crashed hardcore from all the traveling. We awoke on Wednesday and he conned me into skipping my class and going to Heidelberg with him. So off to Heidelberg we went! We walked through the Old Town and the Christmas market, and spent way too much money buying cookies, but they were the most delicious little star shaped cookies ever! We continued up to the castle, and we got the audio guide this time (I had been to Heidelberg before but I did not do the audio so everything was new for me). The weather was uncharacteristically sunny and nice for our castle tour and we had a great time. The audio guide was complete with historical facts and accompanying sound effects which were quite amusing.
We hopped a cab back to the train station because we had a train to catch to the airport and were running a bit late. The cab got us there on time and we were off to the airport with Diet sodas and sandwiches in hand. Jeff loves hardboiled eggs and was pleased to see how much they are utilized in Germany. We decided the egg is way underutilized in America. The Germans put hardboiled eggs on most of their deli sandwiches which is yummy! So we arrive at Frankfurt airport quite early and without any problems...this is rare for being with Jeff I think ;) and we're off to Madrid!
***There are many more pictures, just ask me when I get back if you want to see more of Jeff's funny Heidelberg faces ;)
24 November 2009
Jeff in Germany!
19 November 2009
Koln and the Schokolade Museum
Because I am procrastinating/a bit stuck on my manatee project and have half an hour to kill before dinner plans, I will write a brief update about my recent trip to Koln (or Cologne). Jeff and I are off to Brussels this weekend and Spain next week, so there might not be an update until things settle back down, so enjoy this post about chocolate in the mean time ;)
After being depressed about not making it to Amsterdam, we decided it would lift our spirits to hop a train to Koln for the afternoon to go to a chocolate museum we had heard about. The chocolate museum was pretty much the only thing we did in Koln other than eat some rubbery chicken and walk around a bit to see the old town and the giant church right outside the train station.
The museum was working in connection with Lindt (aka the makers of the delicious truffles we all know and love). And we got to see a ton of chocolate memorabilia including posters, packaging, and old fashioned vending machines as well as recreations of old candy store counters (think WIlly Wonka style). There was also a tropical forest inside the museum where they were growing cocoa plants. It was quite hot, actually STIFLING, in this area and the air was crazy thick and hard to breathe. Luckily we were only trapped inside for a few minutes!
The most interesting part of the museum was the room where they were making Lindt candies. They were making tiny chocolate bars, truffles, and the large molded chocolates (think Santas and hearts 2 feet tall) and there was a chocolate fountain in this room with free samples of wafers dipped into it! The chocolate fountain was not your typical wedding chocolate fountain, but much thicker milkier chocolate, the same kind they were using to coat the truffles and make the mini chocolate bars! There was also a store selling all kinds of weird chocolate products including tons of Lindt truffles I had never seen before and chocolate noodles...Here's some pics for your chocolate enjoyment:
17 November 2009
Paris Day 2: Super Tourist Attractions
Day two started with a frustrating trip to the Paris East train station. We were trying to book reservations to Amsterdam and the clerk informed us it would cost 52 euro for us to go. And since reservations are usually onle 4-10 euro, we decided paying that much more was not worth one day in Amsterdam, so we agreed we would go back to Amsterdam another weekend and would instead travel back to Frankfurt the next day.
After canceling our hotel in Amsterdam and getting our reservations to Frankfurt, we set off to find the Arc de Triomphe, then went to the Eiffel Tower so that we could go up to the top. This involved a lot of waiting in various lines but was worth it for the view from the top! After the Eiffel Tower, we had lunch and went to the Notre Dame. After which we set out to find what Jenae's friend told us is the best ice cream in the world. We were told it was near the Notre Dame and had a yellow sign...alas we could not find it and headed to the Louvre.
The Louvre is free on Fridays for people under 28 from 6pm-10pm. So we went and did a whirlwind trip through the Louvre. It is far too big and confusing to have any idea where to go, but we managed to go through the Egyptian wing, found the passageway that used to be the royal residence's moat, saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the Victory of Samothrace and pondered the works of David and Delacroix when we got tired and bored in a room full of large scale French paintings. Though we were both a bit "museum'd out", the Louvre was very beautiful and I am glad to say I have went. I wish that I could have visited the Musee d'Orsay and the Rodin museum as well, but 2 days in Paris is just not enough, plus one can only look at so many museums without getting delirious.
After this we went to dinner at (of all things in Paris) a Mexican restaurant. Everything was really busy because it was a Friday night, so we went to the first place that had room for us and sounded good and reasonable priced. Reasonably priced was still pretty expensive for American standards I think as I ate some $20 fajitas but alas, upon being fed and a bit more walking around we were content to return to our hostel and leave Paris the next morning.