I'm a little behind on posting, it's been a busy few days and accessing an internet cafe hasn't been as easy as i'd anticipated. Here's an overview of our time in Nice France, which I wrote out while I was on the train on the way to Paris.
Nice was, well, nice. :P We arrived in Nice around 10:15 am, then we stood in line at the train station to book our train to Paris. It was a good thing we did too, because the night train we'd hoped to take to PAris had a full quota of Eurail passes (they only reserve so many spaces for Eurail) and the early train to Paris the following morning only had spots in 2nd class left. So we booked those nad set out in serach of a hostel. WE'd gotten some names of hostels from the trousit information place, so with map in hand, off we went.
The first place we found was nice, it had a courtyard with palm trees, a little cafe and glassed in eating area, a kitchen where we could prepare food AND a 3 person room available with ensuite shower and sink!!! So we took it.
Unfortunately we couldn't check in till 3 pm, so we went exploring. We discovered that right down the road was a full on grocery store (Monoprix)!!! It was like a fancy Fortinos with pharmacy and LCBO and clothing store included. So we picked up some meat and cheese and croissants for lunch and went in search fo the beach. WE cound it along with a nice park where we had lunch (the croissants were the freshest, best I'd ever had, I am FOREVER tainted! ha) WE strolled along the boardwalk and looked into some of the shops lining it. I had a chocolate from a little chocolate boutique, we looked at some clothing stores, then we returned to our hostel to check in.
Once we were into our room, we secured our valuables in one of the lockers and put on our suits. THe beach was not too packed, but it was different because it wasn't sand. It was all smooth stones ranging from the size of a penny to a CD. We laid out our towels and basked in the sun (since it was after 3 pm, sunburn was unlikely - but we still used suntan lotion). The temperature was a glorious 32 degrees, but with the wind off the ocean it felt a lot cooler. We even went in for a swim, which was pretty cold, but we couldn't come all this way and NOT swim! It was great.
After the beach we picked up some penne noodles, sauce and Emmanthal cheese and a bottle of red wine, which we made up for dinner. It was as good as any dinner out (especially since we were sitting at a table in a glassed in porch) but MUCH cheaper.
I had a GREAT sleep that night, we even slept in till 9 am. Then we ate the breakfast provided by the hostel. It was composed of cereal, orange juice, hot drinks and fresh bread with butter and jam. Very good!
The rest of the day was spent shopping, eating and lounging on the beach. While we were at the beach we got swamped by a HUGE wave while lying in the sun. No one was too worse for wear, Denise's camera was ok, we didn't lose our shoes (although they did float away a bit). It was hilarious. Wish we'd had a video of it.
We went to bed in good time again, woke up tired but refreshed from our 'vacation from our vacation' and hopped on the 7 am train to Paris.
As I'd said before, when we reserved our seats for this train, the woman at the ticket counter said there were no first class spots left. So we had to reserve 2nd class seats, which is a bummer because we paid for first class tickets. She said when we got on the train to ask the conductor and if there were spots we could move to first class.
Well our tickets ended up being a saving grace. One of the men in our compartment in 2nd class had the worst BO and it was making us all nauseous. We had to wait until all the pick ups had been done to see if any first class spots were left, but thankfully there were and about halfway through our trip we were able to move up to first class. The rest of the ride was spacy, comfortable and BO free!!! :)
September 26, 2007
September 22, 2007
Bella Roma
Rome is such a fascinating city. It's a combination of ancient and new - you can walk along a street and all of a sudden you'll see ancient roman pillars or a wall - and a church or some other building will be buyilt into it. It's so intereting. Rome was fun, but I really think you need a week or two to do it justice.
We stayed in a hostel that was a little off the beaten path, it was away from the old city and therefore the hustle and bustle of all the tourists. It was nice to be able to escape that in the evening and go to a place we could hab g out and relax. There was even cooking facitliites and a fridge, so we went down the street to the grocer's and deli and got supplies for sandwiches for lunch and dinner as well as bananas and yogourt for breakfast. Rome was expensive so it was good to find some ways to save a little $$. OUr food was very yu7mmy and I still partook in daily getlato! I wish we had it on every street corner in Canada. :P
We used A LOT of public transit to get around in Rome , and let me tell you,m some of the subway trains were pretty sketchy. Not becuase they were less safe (there were 3 of us and we looked out for each other) but moreso because ssome of them looked like they were on their last legs and some of them drove like it too. There were a few occasions where we had a little bit of worry that we might break down before our stat6ion, but everything turned out OK.
As for what we did , on Wednesday we went to the Vatican (the pope was giving a service) so we sat out in the courtyard with throngs of people to check it out. It was pretty neat to see where people came from, therew was a large group of men and women from Senegal who walked in singing and dancing. There were women from Trinidad, people from Hungary, and many other places. It was almost like a rock concert, there were definitely thousands of people there and when the pope drove in on his "pope-mobile" the crowd went wild. It was quite an experience.
WE didn't stay for the service, basically as soon as the pope had given the blessing, we headed over to the sistine chapel. All I can say is WOW! What a glorious and beautiful place. To get to the sistine chapel you actually7 have to walk through the vatican museum - rooms and rooms of paintings and tapestries so beautiful; you could spend the day examining the detail in any of them. It was glorious. Rooms and rooms of murals by artist like Rapheal that depict events in the Bible. It was so neat. The sistine chapel was all that it held up to be: overwhelmingly beautiful. You can't take pictures, but Michealangelo's scenes will be forever imprinted on my mind. The creation of man, the last supper and every story in the Bible in between seemed to have a place on the walls in the church. And marble floors, ancient and beautiful, rich in colour and worn so that you could actually feel beneath your feet the grooves between the marble. Go. All I can say is go and see this place some time in your life.
After the chapel we tried to get into St. Peter's basilica (big vatican church where they hold services) but the line was too long. So we went and wandered the streets instead. We saw the Pantheon (a former Roman temple to the god Romulus that had been converted to a church); a beautiful and huge fountain that had been sculpted by Benini in the 1500s; a beautiful old church, all made of marble where Andrea Bocelli had performed and Michelangelo's Christ stood; and all sorts of other amazing buildings and coman architecture we came across. It was truly an experience.
The second day we spent in "old Rome". We visited the Colliseum, which was huge. Amazing, interesting, huge. Then we visited the ruins and the Palantine (right next to the Colliseum, a former residence to Senators and other important people in the Roman community). What was so interesting about these sites is that they were right in the middle of town. You jumped off the subway, walked up to ground level and there they were, the colliseum, the ruins, surrounded by modern buildings. Both of these sites were very interesting and breathtaking. So neat.
After the ruins we went to find Circo Massimo, the site where chariot races supposedly took place (think Ben Hur). We wandered for quite a while, and when we finally found it, what a let down! It was just a bare field witha bit of a dirt track and a few ruins at one end. We had to laugh.
After Circo Massimo we caught a bus to the outskirts of town where we went to explore the catacombs of San (can't remember the rest of the name). These were the graves of ~half a million Christians (many martyrs and a few popes were buried there) from the time of the Roman Empire. This was another location where we couldn't take pictures, but it was very neat. All of the bones in the area we were touring had been relocated into a lower chamber of the catacombs.
On the way back to town, we accidentally took the wrong bus further out of town, so what should have taken about 20 minutes ended up taking over an hour. But it was an adventure. Our last stop was trying again to get into St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Since we hadn't planned to go, I had worn a tank top, and apparently the dress code is fairly modest. However, we thought my shirt was modest enough, but we were wrong. When we got to the "screening point" at St. Peter's, I got turned away because I didn't have something to cover my shoulders with. So while Sherri and Denise when in, I had to stand and wait for them. It was pretty surprising actually how many people they turned away. It made me sad, that a church would turn people away based on what they were wearing. Sherri had worn a tank top under her t-shirt, so once she was done she came out and gave me her t-shirt. I went to go back in and they tried to say my skirt was too short (when it was about an inch above my knee!!) and I gave them a look of exasperation, so they let me pass. :P St. Peter's was beautiful, probably one of the biggest and nicest I've seen, but I didn't feel in awe or happy - I was saddened that this building housed practices of judgement, that a person could be turned away based on what they wore.
Overall Rome was a good experience. We got back to our hostel, grabbed a panini at the paniniria down the street and then headed to catch a night train to Nice France. Beaches here we come!!! :)
We stayed in a hostel that was a little off the beaten path, it was away from the old city and therefore the hustle and bustle of all the tourists. It was nice to be able to escape that in the evening and go to a place we could hab g out and relax. There was even cooking facitliites and a fridge, so we went down the street to the grocer's and deli and got supplies for sandwiches for lunch and dinner as well as bananas and yogourt for breakfast. Rome was expensive so it was good to find some ways to save a little $$. OUr food was very yu7mmy and I still partook in daily getlato! I wish we had it on every street corner in Canada. :P
We used A LOT of public transit to get around in Rome , and let me tell you,m some of the subway trains were pretty sketchy. Not becuase they were less safe (there were 3 of us and we looked out for each other) but moreso because ssome of them looked like they were on their last legs and some of them drove like it too. There were a few occasions where we had a little bit of worry that we might break down before our stat6ion, but everything turned out OK.
As for what we did , on Wednesday we went to the Vatican (the pope was giving a service) so we sat out in the courtyard with throngs of people to check it out. It was pretty neat to see where people came from, therew was a large group of men and women from Senegal who walked in singing and dancing. There were women from Trinidad, people from Hungary, and many other places. It was almost like a rock concert, there were definitely thousands of people there and when the pope drove in on his "pope-mobile" the crowd went wild. It was quite an experience.
WE didn't stay for the service, basically as soon as the pope had given the blessing, we headed over to the sistine chapel. All I can say is WOW! What a glorious and beautiful place. To get to the sistine chapel you actually7 have to walk through the vatican museum - rooms and rooms of paintings and tapestries so beautiful; you could spend the day examining the detail in any of them. It was glorious. Rooms and rooms of murals by artist like Rapheal that depict events in the Bible. It was so neat. The sistine chapel was all that it held up to be: overwhelmingly beautiful. You can't take pictures, but Michealangelo's scenes will be forever imprinted on my mind. The creation of man, the last supper and every story in the Bible in between seemed to have a place on the walls in the church. And marble floors, ancient and beautiful, rich in colour and worn so that you could actually feel beneath your feet the grooves between the marble. Go. All I can say is go and see this place some time in your life.
After the chapel we tried to get into St. Peter's basilica (big vatican church where they hold services) but the line was too long. So we went and wandered the streets instead. We saw the Pantheon (a former Roman temple to the god Romulus that had been converted to a church); a beautiful and huge fountain that had been sculpted by Benini in the 1500s; a beautiful old church, all made of marble where Andrea Bocelli had performed and Michelangelo's Christ stood; and all sorts of other amazing buildings and coman architecture we came across. It was truly an experience.
The second day we spent in "old Rome". We visited the Colliseum, which was huge. Amazing, interesting, huge. Then we visited the ruins and the Palantine (right next to the Colliseum, a former residence to Senators and other important people in the Roman community). What was so interesting about these sites is that they were right in the middle of town. You jumped off the subway, walked up to ground level and there they were, the colliseum, the ruins, surrounded by modern buildings. Both of these sites were very interesting and breathtaking. So neat.
After the ruins we went to find Circo Massimo, the site where chariot races supposedly took place (think Ben Hur). We wandered for quite a while, and when we finally found it, what a let down! It was just a bare field witha bit of a dirt track and a few ruins at one end. We had to laugh.
After Circo Massimo we caught a bus to the outskirts of town where we went to explore the catacombs of San (can't remember the rest of the name). These were the graves of ~half a million Christians (many martyrs and a few popes were buried there) from the time of the Roman Empire. This was another location where we couldn't take pictures, but it was very neat. All of the bones in the area we were touring had been relocated into a lower chamber of the catacombs.
On the way back to town, we accidentally took the wrong bus further out of town, so what should have taken about 20 minutes ended up taking over an hour. But it was an adventure. Our last stop was trying again to get into St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Since we hadn't planned to go, I had worn a tank top, and apparently the dress code is fairly modest. However, we thought my shirt was modest enough, but we were wrong. When we got to the "screening point" at St. Peter's, I got turned away because I didn't have something to cover my shoulders with. So while Sherri and Denise when in, I had to stand and wait for them. It was pretty surprising actually how many people they turned away. It made me sad, that a church would turn people away based on what they were wearing. Sherri had worn a tank top under her t-shirt, so once she was done she came out and gave me her t-shirt. I went to go back in and they tried to say my skirt was too short (when it was about an inch above my knee!!) and I gave them a look of exasperation, so they let me pass. :P St. Peter's was beautiful, probably one of the biggest and nicest I've seen, but I didn't feel in awe or happy - I was saddened that this building housed practices of judgement, that a person could be turned away based on what they wore.
Overall Rome was a good experience. We got back to our hostel, grabbed a panini at the paniniria down the street and then headed to catch a night train to Nice France. Beaches here we come!!! :)
September 18, 2007
Update
Life has been pretty hectic the past couple days. We spent two days in Vienna, one very hectic and crazy, we seemed to pack most of the activity into one day and then our second day we took it a little easier....then we caught a night train to Florence (first ever night train!). We arrived in Florence just after 6 am this morning and spent the day there. Then we caught the train to ROMA!!! So as I write this I am sitting in front of a computer in the lobby of our hostel in Rome.
Some of the experiences we've had include:
- being in a compartment on our night train to Florence with a man from Chile who only spoke Spanish, and I ended up being the interpreter
- we stayed in a dorm-style room for our two days in Vienna (as opposed to a private room), and it was fine, so we tried it again for Rome....I'll let you know how it works out
- Italy is expensive (especially anything to do with the trains or touristy stuff)
- people in Germany and Austria seem to be pretty nice (whereas our impression so far is people in Italy aren't so much....)
- Michealangelo's David is worth standing in line to see
- There are A LOT of churches in Europe
- we seem to be taking less pictures as we go along
- travelling is fun, but very exhausting (I think I'll need a week to recover when I get home!)
I'm having fun though. Please pray for continued good health and good weather.
Some of the experiences we've had include:
- being in a compartment on our night train to Florence with a man from Chile who only spoke Spanish, and I ended up being the interpreter
- we stayed in a dorm-style room for our two days in Vienna (as opposed to a private room), and it was fine, so we tried it again for Rome....I'll let you know how it works out
- Italy is expensive (especially anything to do with the trains or touristy stuff)
- people in Germany and Austria seem to be pretty nice (whereas our impression so far is people in Italy aren't so much....)
- Michealangelo's David is worth standing in line to see
- There are A LOT of churches in Europe
- we seem to be taking less pictures as we go along
- travelling is fun, but very exhausting (I think I'll need a week to recover when I get home!)
I'm having fun though. Please pray for continued good health and good weather.
September 15, 2007
Munich and Salzburg
In the past 48 hours I have been in 4 European cities. Yesterday we did a blitz of Munich, we were planning to stay in Munich for two days but then decided it would be fun to see Salzburg as well so we changed our plans.
Munich was an amazing city, the architecture was so interesting, I think it might be Roman? All the buildings were 4 or 5 stories high and no highrises. They were all stucco in different pastel-type colours, very square and boxy but at the same time beautifully ornate with designs around the windows, on the walls. A very neat city. We hit up a bunch of churches, to be honest, I can't remember the names of them right now, but they were beautiful. Really cool....man do the catholics ever invest a lot of $$ in the decor of churches. We also explored the English gardens, which is a HUGE park that has a beer haus, a really neat river, lots of green space, and something really cool - a place to surf!!! Right near the entrance of the river to the park there are these crazy waves that I think are made from the speed of the river coming through the bridge that goes over it. Anyway, there were at least half a dozen wet suit clad men taking turns surfing the waves. It was really neat to watch.
Munich was fun, we spent most of the day walking around, taking in the beautiful architecture, there was a neat archway that entered into the old city, cool statues etc. We even went to the HB beer house, one of the oldest in Germany, and believe it or not, I drank a beer. It wasn`t even that bad. However, our waiter was not good, and he even took his own tip from our change and didn't let us decide what we'd tip him. Weird eh? Anyway....we stayed the night in Munich and got up bright and early to catch the train to Salzburg.
We almost had another close call with the train when I went off to put a few postcards in the mail and the girls waited for me outside the station, but I had thought we said we'd meet inside, so needless to say there was a lot of running around trying to find each other and we literally found each other a minute before the train left. We had to run....again....with our big packs. HA HA but we made it and pulled into Salzburg Austria just after 10 am.
We were all excited to be in Salzburg because of the sound of Music, but it is famous for several other things. It is a very musical city, everywhere we walked there were musicians singing, playing instruments or the dozens of church bells were playing. Actually, as soon as we walked into the centre square we came upon a group of men singing....probably 20 or so, and they were so beautiful. It looks like they were tourists because they were there with their families, but we thought maybe they were in town to give a performance, were sight seeing and decided to do an impromptu concert in the town square. In front of the statue of Mozart no less. Pretty darn cool.
We walked all over town, got to see the house where Mozart was born and grew up and the house where he did most of his composing. We also visited this amaxzing fortress that overlooks Salzburg and used to house the Archbishop who was also considered the prince of the time. We visited the Abbey where the REAL Froline Maria had taught and studied to be a nun. We also visited St. Peter's church (which is composed of several courtyards and churches). As well, we visited Salzburg Cathedral, where Mozart used to play as an organist. Man oh man....was it beautiful. So many amazing paintings and ornate statues, I honestly can't imagine what the cistine chapel must look like, because this place was amazing. We finished the day with a giant pretzel (mmmmmmmmm) and sat at a cafe, where I had an excellent mocha. Considering how much we saw, it was actually a fairly relaxing day.
I really enjoyed Salzburg, it was so beautiful....right after we came out of the cathedral all the bells in all the church towers started ringing, and they rang for about 5 minutes. It was glorious. I love Europe. :P
We caught the train early in the evening, and as I write this I am sitting in an internet cafe in Vienna. We just finished dinner from a place down the street (pizza) and picked up some food for breakfast from a grocer. Now we'll go back to our hostel and plan for the day tomorrow, relax a bit and go to bed. I hope you all are well. I miss you. Cheers!
Munich was an amazing city, the architecture was so interesting, I think it might be Roman? All the buildings were 4 or 5 stories high and no highrises. They were all stucco in different pastel-type colours, very square and boxy but at the same time beautifully ornate with designs around the windows, on the walls. A very neat city. We hit up a bunch of churches, to be honest, I can't remember the names of them right now, but they were beautiful. Really cool....man do the catholics ever invest a lot of $$ in the decor of churches. We also explored the English gardens, which is a HUGE park that has a beer haus, a really neat river, lots of green space, and something really cool - a place to surf!!! Right near the entrance of the river to the park there are these crazy waves that I think are made from the speed of the river coming through the bridge that goes over it. Anyway, there were at least half a dozen wet suit clad men taking turns surfing the waves. It was really neat to watch.
Munich was fun, we spent most of the day walking around, taking in the beautiful architecture, there was a neat archway that entered into the old city, cool statues etc. We even went to the HB beer house, one of the oldest in Germany, and believe it or not, I drank a beer. It wasn`t even that bad. However, our waiter was not good, and he even took his own tip from our change and didn't let us decide what we'd tip him. Weird eh? Anyway....we stayed the night in Munich and got up bright and early to catch the train to Salzburg.
We almost had another close call with the train when I went off to put a few postcards in the mail and the girls waited for me outside the station, but I had thought we said we'd meet inside, so needless to say there was a lot of running around trying to find each other and we literally found each other a minute before the train left. We had to run....again....with our big packs. HA HA but we made it and pulled into Salzburg Austria just after 10 am.
We were all excited to be in Salzburg because of the sound of Music, but it is famous for several other things. It is a very musical city, everywhere we walked there were musicians singing, playing instruments or the dozens of church bells were playing. Actually, as soon as we walked into the centre square we came upon a group of men singing....probably 20 or so, and they were so beautiful. It looks like they were tourists because they were there with their families, but we thought maybe they were in town to give a performance, were sight seeing and decided to do an impromptu concert in the town square. In front of the statue of Mozart no less. Pretty darn cool.
We walked all over town, got to see the house where Mozart was born and grew up and the house where he did most of his composing. We also visited this amaxzing fortress that overlooks Salzburg and used to house the Archbishop who was also considered the prince of the time. We visited the Abbey where the REAL Froline Maria had taught and studied to be a nun. We also visited St. Peter's church (which is composed of several courtyards and churches). As well, we visited Salzburg Cathedral, where Mozart used to play as an organist. Man oh man....was it beautiful. So many amazing paintings and ornate statues, I honestly can't imagine what the cistine chapel must look like, because this place was amazing. We finished the day with a giant pretzel (mmmmmmmmm) and sat at a cafe, where I had an excellent mocha. Considering how much we saw, it was actually a fairly relaxing day.
I really enjoyed Salzburg, it was so beautiful....right after we came out of the cathedral all the bells in all the church towers started ringing, and they rang for about 5 minutes. It was glorious. I love Europe. :P
We caught the train early in the evening, and as I write this I am sitting in an internet cafe in Vienna. We just finished dinner from a place down the street (pizza) and picked up some food for breakfast from a grocer. Now we'll go back to our hostel and plan for the day tomorrow, relax a bit and go to bed. I hope you all are well. I miss you. Cheers!
September 14, 2007
Heidelberg
Our first night's sleep was great. I think we were all so exhausted from all the travel we could have slept anywhere. The room wasn't too bad, small but clean, smelled a little musty, but I canät complain. It was a bed. I think our only complaint was that it was quite cold in Heidelberg at night, and our room was pretty chilly. And despite promising online that our rooms came with linens, they did not. I had a sheet, and it worked, but I was a little chilly.
We slept in Thursday morning, till about 9 or so, so by the time we got up and on our way it was after ten. We stopped at a little bakery just down the street and had yummy pastries for breakfast. Then we walked around the city to explore. Heidelberg is a fairly large town, and within it there is an 'old city' which is where we were that includes a castle, some beautiful old churches and lots of pedestrian only walking streets.
The castle was up on a hill, so we had to hike up this loooooonnnnng flight of stairs, it was numbered in some spots and I think it worked out to more than 300 steps. We spent well over 2 hours exploring the castle. It was beautiful....it was a ruin so lots of areas of the castle had actually fallen away, but it added to the character. The grounds were large, with beautiful big old trees, statues, fountains and all sorts of neat little off buildings. It also gave a great view of the city.
We also visited the churches, which were both beautiful, full of neat architecture and paintings - one of the old churches had just undergone extensive renovations so it actually had old architecture but was all re-done in plaster. It was still beautiful and the plaster just gave it a modern look (although I still prefer the marble/stone look) :P
Oh! and there was a beautiful old bridge that went across the river (I believe the Rhine) which was really neat. There were trails on both sides of the riverbank, so we were able to cross the river, stroll along the banks, enjoy the architecture around us and then cross again further up. Very cool.
Then we spent quite a bit of time wandering in the pedestrian walkway - eating gelato, we found a cute little grocer where we bought apples and bananas for snacks and breakfast, and another cool bakery that sold GREAT sandwiches for 1.39 euros - which is very good. We even picked up some pastries for the next morning because we were getting up at 6 am and catching a taxi to go to the train station to catch a train for Munich.
Overall it was a very good start and relaxing...a good way to ease us in.
More to come.
We slept in Thursday morning, till about 9 or so, so by the time we got up and on our way it was after ten. We stopped at a little bakery just down the street and had yummy pastries for breakfast. Then we walked around the city to explore. Heidelberg is a fairly large town, and within it there is an 'old city' which is where we were that includes a castle, some beautiful old churches and lots of pedestrian only walking streets.
The castle was up on a hill, so we had to hike up this loooooonnnnng flight of stairs, it was numbered in some spots and I think it worked out to more than 300 steps. We spent well over 2 hours exploring the castle. It was beautiful....it was a ruin so lots of areas of the castle had actually fallen away, but it added to the character. The grounds were large, with beautiful big old trees, statues, fountains and all sorts of neat little off buildings. It also gave a great view of the city.
We also visited the churches, which were both beautiful, full of neat architecture and paintings - one of the old churches had just undergone extensive renovations so it actually had old architecture but was all re-done in plaster. It was still beautiful and the plaster just gave it a modern look (although I still prefer the marble/stone look) :P
Oh! and there was a beautiful old bridge that went across the river (I believe the Rhine) which was really neat. There were trails on both sides of the riverbank, so we were able to cross the river, stroll along the banks, enjoy the architecture around us and then cross again further up. Very cool.
Then we spent quite a bit of time wandering in the pedestrian walkway - eating gelato, we found a cute little grocer where we bought apples and bananas for snacks and breakfast, and another cool bakery that sold GREAT sandwiches for 1.39 euros - which is very good. We even picked up some pastries for the next morning because we were getting up at 6 am and catching a taxi to go to the train station to catch a train for Munich.
Overall it was a very good start and relaxing...a good way to ease us in.
More to come.
September 13, 2007
Safe and sound
Well, it's been a long while since I posted on this thing, I've been super busy this past month with finishing up placement and moving, Tim and I are in a NEW apartment. But the neatest thing going on in my life is that currently I am in EUROPE with two good friends from school. We arrived here safely on the 12th of September and will be here and touring around until the 28th when we fly back to Canada.
The trip over was loooooonnnnnng and full of adventures. We flew out of Toronto International at 6:45 pm and landed in Glasgow international airport at 6 am (their time). We actually had a huge tail wind during the flight so we had to wait an extra 25 minutes before we left Toronto and still landed 30 minutes early! (Btw, I'm using a german keyboard, so if you see any odd symbols or z's where y's should be, it's because they're in the opposite spots). Anyway, once we landed in Glasgow we had to get to the Prestwick airport, which is about 30 minutes outside of town. So we took a bus to the train station (rode on the other side of the road!) and then took a train to the airport. Since this airport only services one airline, and since our flight was so early, we ended up arriving at the airport 4 hours before our next flight! Needless to say, since it was 12 am (our time) and we had to sit in an airport for 4 hours with very little to do, it was hard to fight the sleepiness and stay amused. Somehow we managed.....and caught our flight to Dusseldorf Germany. The fun thing about this flight was that you had to pay extra to pick your seat, so the majority of us hadn't, and there was a mad rush of people when we were let through the gates to get seats. Denise was our hero in this department, boogying her butt through lots of people and getting us good seats behind the wing so we could see stuff. It was good. :P
We landed at the airport near Dusseldorf Germany at like 2:50 pm (another time zone over from Scotland) and had to book it to the train station to catch our train to Heidelberg. We took this fun taxi/van with a nice man who explained what we'd have to do once we got on the train to authorise our eurail pass, because we hadn't yet. He said all you had to do was show it to the conductor and he'd sign it etc. Well, we discovered that Germany operates on an honour system, because there was definitely no conductor on the train, so we rode for over an hour to the main train station before we got it validated. Ha ha....
From the main train station (I think it was in Dusseldorf) we had to take 3 different trains. The first transfer was fine, we made it in decent time, the second was ok as well (we even had time to grab some water). The third transfer was CRAZY! We pulled into the station and the conductor said over the loudspeaker that our train was leaving from platform 8 at 19:26 and it was 19:24 and we were on platform 5!! With our heavy, heavy packs we had to run through the station to platform 8, at which point we realised our train was on platform 9 across the tracks. We had to run like mad back down the stairs, down the hall and up another set of stairs (well, they were actuallz escalators but might have well been stairs because we were running!). Anyway, we made it, but the train was actually closing their last set of doors and we started yelling and the conductor saw us, so they re-opened them for us. But it was nuts....we almost didn't make it there.
We arrived safe (and EXTREMELY tired 24 hours in transit is alot) in Heidelberg....grabbed a quick bite to eat and went straight to sleep. We found out we had to pay extra for linen though, thank goodness I brought a bed sheet....it came in handy! I stuffed clothes in my pillowcase for the night, but today bought a bright pink pillow with german writing on it. She said it was a missing heart pillow i.e. I miss you Tim!!! :)
We are heading out to Munich tomorrow morning, so hopefully I will post some stuff about Heidelberg and our adventures here somewhere from Munich tomorrow. I'm running out of time on the computer....so it will have to come later.
Sorry there are no pics, thereäs no memory card slot in this computer....
A few prayer requests - my camera, specifically the battery, has been acting up - my camera keeps thinking that the battery is dead when it's fully charged, so I have to turn it off, take out the battery and put it back in, then it's fine. Pray it stops doing this.
- health and safety for me, Sherri and Denise
- good sleep for us the entire time
I miss you all
Laura
The trip over was loooooonnnnnng and full of adventures. We flew out of Toronto International at 6:45 pm and landed in Glasgow international airport at 6 am (their time). We actually had a huge tail wind during the flight so we had to wait an extra 25 minutes before we left Toronto and still landed 30 minutes early! (Btw, I'm using a german keyboard, so if you see any odd symbols or z's where y's should be, it's because they're in the opposite spots). Anyway, once we landed in Glasgow we had to get to the Prestwick airport, which is about 30 minutes outside of town. So we took a bus to the train station (rode on the other side of the road!) and then took a train to the airport. Since this airport only services one airline, and since our flight was so early, we ended up arriving at the airport 4 hours before our next flight! Needless to say, since it was 12 am (our time) and we had to sit in an airport for 4 hours with very little to do, it was hard to fight the sleepiness and stay amused. Somehow we managed.....and caught our flight to Dusseldorf Germany. The fun thing about this flight was that you had to pay extra to pick your seat, so the majority of us hadn't, and there was a mad rush of people when we were let through the gates to get seats. Denise was our hero in this department, boogying her butt through lots of people and getting us good seats behind the wing so we could see stuff. It was good. :P
We landed at the airport near Dusseldorf Germany at like 2:50 pm (another time zone over from Scotland) and had to book it to the train station to catch our train to Heidelberg. We took this fun taxi/van with a nice man who explained what we'd have to do once we got on the train to authorise our eurail pass, because we hadn't yet. He said all you had to do was show it to the conductor and he'd sign it etc. Well, we discovered that Germany operates on an honour system, because there was definitely no conductor on the train, so we rode for over an hour to the main train station before we got it validated. Ha ha....
From the main train station (I think it was in Dusseldorf) we had to take 3 different trains. The first transfer was fine, we made it in decent time, the second was ok as well (we even had time to grab some water). The third transfer was CRAZY! We pulled into the station and the conductor said over the loudspeaker that our train was leaving from platform 8 at 19:26 and it was 19:24 and we were on platform 5!! With our heavy, heavy packs we had to run through the station to platform 8, at which point we realised our train was on platform 9 across the tracks. We had to run like mad back down the stairs, down the hall and up another set of stairs (well, they were actuallz escalators but might have well been stairs because we were running!). Anyway, we made it, but the train was actually closing their last set of doors and we started yelling and the conductor saw us, so they re-opened them for us. But it was nuts....we almost didn't make it there.
We arrived safe (and EXTREMELY tired 24 hours in transit is alot) in Heidelberg....grabbed a quick bite to eat and went straight to sleep. We found out we had to pay extra for linen though, thank goodness I brought a bed sheet....it came in handy! I stuffed clothes in my pillowcase for the night, but today bought a bright pink pillow with german writing on it. She said it was a missing heart pillow i.e. I miss you Tim!!! :)
We are heading out to Munich tomorrow morning, so hopefully I will post some stuff about Heidelberg and our adventures here somewhere from Munich tomorrow. I'm running out of time on the computer....so it will have to come later.
Sorry there are no pics, thereäs no memory card slot in this computer....
A few prayer requests - my camera, specifically the battery, has been acting up - my camera keeps thinking that the battery is dead when it's fully charged, so I have to turn it off, take out the battery and put it back in, then it's fine. Pray it stops doing this.
- health and safety for me, Sherri and Denise
- good sleep for us the entire time
I miss you all
Laura
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)