Europe Trip-Brussells, Amsterdam, Heidelberg, Lucerne

Dec 18- Brussels  The day started really early as we had to have our suitcases out the door by 5:45. We got up, got dressed and met for breakfast at 6:30, eating fast as we were leaving at 6:50. We got deposited at the Pancras station for the Eurostar train (crosses the English Channel) to Brussels. The train ended up being late because there was a mechanical issue and we ended up on a replacement train. The ride was quick and comfortable and we got to Brussels around 1pm. After getting off the Eurostar we waited for the porters to bring our bags (which is super convenient) then headed for a quick tour around town. We drove down the upper town with churches museums and the monarchy's residence. The buildings were old style, although renovated. Lots of stone and masonry everywhere. We don't really have photos from the trip it was foggy and the bus was moving, makes it to hard to photograph well. A couple of notable tidbits we found interesting: all signs are in both Flemish and French. Brussels is the headquarters of the European Union.    

We walked through the town square built in 1847, which is called the Grand Place. There were several buildings like Town Hall, the Brussels City Museum, as well as the Belgian Brewers Museum that surrounded the square. Not only were the buildings very old, they were a mix of gothic and baroque architecture. The buildings are guilded in 18K gold! It even had a chirstmas market set up in it and had a 30 foot tall christmas tree set up inside the square as well. Then we got lunch at a local restaurant. To be honest, it wasn't very good. The steak was bland and the fries were normal. The waffle we got for dessert was about like a crappy hotel breakfast one. I (Karen) was not impressed.   There is a notable statue there urinating called Mannekin Pis. This is a small bronze statue of a 1 1/2 tall baby peeing into a fountain. Why was he urinating you may ask? One story says he drank too much and had to pee so did in a water fountain, the other is he had to per on a bomb to disarm it, which I thought was quite funny. Here was also a famous monument to a local hero that, according to lore, if you touch it brings luck. We walked back from our hotel to see the square at night. Because we started going back at four, and sunset is at 3:30, we were able to see the square lit up. The guild halls were beautifully illuminated and there was even a light show every 20 minutes. We walked around for a few more hours and even managed to find a few new coats at a store in a side market. They were selling everything from BB guns to rubix cubes. There were lots of shops selling Belgian chocolate as well as Belgian waffles as well. We did end up getting a nutella Belgian waffle and it was delicious! Dinner was at 7, and it was ok. We hit the sack early as we wanted to get up to work out and that means an early night in.          

Us in the Grand Place in front of the Town Hall

       

TL: Manneken Pis TR: sign for the Eurostar train BL: rubbing a local statue for good luck BR: nutella belgian waffle

       

TL: Really good belgian chocolate TR: local market  BL: a store with over 250 types of beer BR: Grand Place          

Dec 19- Amsterdam

We left Brussels early after a workout and petty good hotel breakfast. On the way out of Brussels, we saw the royal mansions and an old concentration camp (which is sad). The motor coach we are riding in is incredibly comfortable. It's a Mercedes and the foot room is excessive. There is an emergency toilet but they stop at least every two hours so it's more for peace of mind.

On the way to the Netherlands/Amsterdam we learned how lucky we were. It rains a LOT in the Netherlands and we ended up with a sunny blue day! We learned a good amount about the country as well. It was called Netherland from the word nadir which means low point. So it was called the "nadir lands" and eventually called the netherlands. A good part of the country is below the waterline, the only international airport is a good 10 feet below the waterline. They are also called the Dutch, as well as Holland. Apparently North Holland and South Holland are provinces in Netherlands. Amsterdam was quaint and clean and is a city of close to 1.5 million people. There are tons of bridges and canals (the river even has swans). Lots of bars (duh) and cafes everywhere. The buildings are actually leaning because the soil is sandy and they are shifting. The guide told us how liberal it is. Soft drugs, alcohol, red light districts all exist. There even is a clinic where you can commit suicide (after being seen by several doctors and a couple months). Apparently you have to pay ahead of time! Very liberal. Biking is the way to get around in Amsterdam, and bikes are everywhere!

Our first excursion was a canal sightseeing trip. We saw the famous leaning townhouses, called dancing, buildings. They lean because the city is built on reclaimed land and every house is built on pilings that is in the water instead of being built on rock. Several swans and dozens of bridges, boats, houseboats, artworks. We saw lots of old mansions that are now banks and consulates. Oh, and those houseboats, if they are legal they even have electricity and gas! We also saw some interesting architecture. for example, gable hooks. They are on these old narrow buildings because the stairs are so narrow things like furniture are moved in through the windows! We also saw small fences (basically curb stones), put down in the 60's to prevent cars driving into the water… they don't work, an average of 1 per week hits the water. There even was a tiny house only 1 meter wide and 3 stories high. Our guide said he happiest couple in Amsterdam lives there because he lives upstairs and she lives downstairs lol! They built houses like this because houses were taxed on their width, so the  narrower you could built your house, the less tax you would pay.  The harbor itself was much larger than I expected and apparently is the largest harbor in Europe. This makes sense to me, back in the past the money was in the trade and harbors. The central station is also large, over 100,000 people use it every day. The bike garage parking next to is was a shock! We had never seen a parking garage for bikes!

       

Lots of bikes in Amsterdam, BL: leaning buildings, BR: narrowest house in Amsterdam

       

Pictures from Canal Cruise T: christmas decorations on a houseboat L: narrow house with winch at the top to bring in furniture through the windows B and R: views from the canal Middle: our river cruise ship

From there we headed to Gladsons, which is a diamond cutters. The Cullininan Diamond, which is a mere 532 carats and is in the sceptre of the Queen of Englends was cut nearby. At the diamond center we got a crash course in diamond cutting, got to see a 50,000 euro blue brilliant diamond, and were tried to sell things. There were also Rolexes and other watches that ranged in price from $150 to $78,000 dollars. After not buying anything, we walked around downtown and got a set of paninis and a smoothie from a cafe. Let me tell you what the mozzarella cheese with pesto sandwich was simple but the cheese was sooooo good. We passed Rembrandt's house and also went through an underwhelming flea market. Then, back to the comfy coach.

After that we drove about 1/2 hour both to a small traditional town on the sea. On the way there we stopped at a small town along the lakes that had 1-3 million euro homes and a rare Protestant church. Fun facts we learned on this trip included that in Europe churches that are Protestant have a rooster on the weather vane while Roman Catholics have a cross. The rooster is meant to symbolize a family feel apparently. The term "Stinking rich" also was coined here. Why? The rich were buried there and after a time during those hot summer services they began to stink… i.e. The only people who could afford to be buried there and make the smell were very rich.

Tour of the village Top Row: view of church (left) and houses along the canal Bottom Row: Red pavers are for bicyles only, weathervane of church that shows a protestent rooster.

From there we went a few minutes down the road to monakendam. Like the other small town, it was built around a church. It continued the quaint architecture and a few cobblestone streets built around the waterways, lakes and dykes. We got to learn how cheese is made and how wooden shoes are made as well. The clog maker was particularly funny. The clogs were surprisingly comfortable, and we contemplated buying some but didn't. They had us try about 10 Gouda cheeses including truffle, natural and smoked. I'm not a cheese person, but they were good. They also had us tried spiced biscuits and a type of caramel waffle (those were amazing).

       

Cheese and Clog factory. The clogmaker started to carve a clog in front of us!   BR: cheese factory  TR: karen stretching out on the bus, so much room her feet doesn't reach the footrests.

After the clog factory we got to visit another small town this one much more touristy. They still had cobblestone streets, a windmill from the 1700s and an original dyke blocking a lake (which we walked on). It was still a pretty cute town. Apprently the dutch also have a thing about odoors. I didn't realize that the front door only gets used in a dutch household. Once whenever you get married and another time when you leave horizontally after you die. At the small village we were in every single door was different as well. This is to help those rowdy drunk sailors find the right house after some shore leave. Also, whenever we would buy things, we noticed that instead of periods, they would use commas. We stopped and had a coffee at a local cafe and walked back on a dyke that now makes up a large lake and back to the bus. From there we headed to the hotel to check in and a buffet dinner for dinner with our tour group.

       

Another small village town and picture of a traditional windmill

Dec 20- Heidelberg, Germany  We headed out of Amsterdam at 7:30 and headed to Heidelberg Germany. We found our driver has a strict rule set to follow. Every morning he had to scan his drivers license and the bus clocks how long he drives and how long and often he stops. Therefore we have to drive only so far and have certain stops. The bus also has a speed limit of 100km/hr (about 60mph) vs the other cars which do not have any speed limit on the autobahn. Around 10am we got to the western part of Germany, or as they call it Deutschland. Then back to the coach for more traveling.  On the bus, our guide taught us some important words (spelling may be off), gueten morrgan/ good morning, daken/ thank you and of course beer/beer to make it easy lol. We learned that they are very strict with titles as well, like calling someone professor John Doe vs just John Doe. Like Spanish, they also have masculine, feminine and neutral words that have to be adhered to. Like everywhere else we'd been so far, there is a Roman influence on the country and names. After the collapse of the Roman Empire was the Middle Ages followed by the renaissance (especially helped by the printing press). He stressed the different types of architecture we would see: Roman (oldest, round), gothic (higher and vertical with the often flying buttresses), renaissance (horizontal lines), baroque (ornate), rococo (super ornate), neoclassical (rebuilt), and modern style. The guide then went through some of the history. He pointed out how before WWI in 1914-1918 changed the statues quo. Before 1914 the monarchs were related and kept from warring with each other. After WWI the gloves were off. After WWII there was a Great Recession along with terrible inflation. That left a lot of angry, starving people and opened up a power vacuum for Hitler. He promised roads, work and a better life. He wrote the mien Kamp and that populism wave pulled him into the WWII story we hear. He reminded us of the Berlin Wall that separated the poor German controlled east Germany from the allies controlled west Germany. The wall was build to try to keep East Germans from fleeing to the prosperous west Germany. Around 11:30 we crossed the Rhine river to bon, which had been the capital for 40 years in the past. Here we started go see hills (aka former volcanoes), hops and grape growing. Amsterdam had been super flat with lots of water/canals). We stopped for lunch then continued on and got into our small town of oberwesel, which lies on the Rhine river, at around 2pm. The countryside reminded us both of Pennsylvanian mix of evergreen and deciduous trees, large hills and creeks. The houses were not familiar though. Each town also has an old, usually impressive and beautiful old church in the middle as well. Most were half timber houses (although some are found in PA we called them Dutch style but apparently it's very German) or very old stonework. We even saw our first castles! In fact we saw dozens of separate castle (11th-14th century). The third castle I thought was particularly notable was literally in the middle of the Rhine river and was a place tolls were collected from merchant ships. We ended up having a bit of a hiccup as our river cruise wasn't were it was supposed to be. Over an hour later and a lot of angry sounding guide phone calls, we boarded a large boat and headed down the Rhine river. The river went past many castles, homes and the train line. It cemented the "looks like PA" idea with the exceptions of the Med evil castles, grape fields and train lines. The boat ride was pleasant and filled with more cute gowns and castles.

All these are images of the catles and towns we went thtough.  Note the half timber houses on the upper right.  Also in the middle left is the castle built into the middle of the river.

  After that we went into hiedelberg and the Christmas markets. Due to the fiasco about the  delayed boat we only had about 45 minutes. We had some DELICIOUS mulled wine and walked around the tasty smelling stands and cute shops with handmade goods. The market was in the shadow of the hiedeberg castle, the most impressive castle so far, as well as the old church, found in most towns that we have been going through. It was bitter cold so the warm coach was a welcome site. Then, it was an ok dinner at the hotel (it was included or we would have eaten at the market) and a nice sleep.  

More castles and pictures of the area.  The middle shows out cruise ship.  The bottom left shows the heidleburg catle lit up at night.  The middle bottom and bottom right show the mulled win sellers and Karen enjoying some wine with the castle in the background

Dec 21- Black Forest, Germany and Lucerne, Switzerland We left Heidelberg at 7:30 am and started our drive to Switzerland. We wondered why there are two names for Germany, Deutschland and the better known Germany. Apparently it is because there was a patron saint, St Germaine, who was quite famous. People used to introduce themselves instead of where they were from, but who their patron saint was, so that is why Germaine became Germany. Another funny tidbit was the fact the German word for hospital, its Krankenhaus, because most people are cranky when they go to the hospital. We traveled for about 2 hours and then came to a shop in the Black Forest. They called it the black forest becase it is mostly fur and pine and so dense it is dark when you walk through it. We learned that whenever we saw women with big red balls on their heads, this was to symbolize cherries and was an indicator of good luck. The store we had stopped at had a large cuckoo clock the size of a billboards outside that actually played! The store was jammed full of cuckoo clocks of all shapes and sizes. They ranged in price from $10 to $5,000. Apparently you need to wind the clocks, and the more expensive the clock, the less you have to wind them. Upstairs is a little cafe, where we had a Black Forest cake! It was pretty good, but not as good as some of the cake we have had at home. It was basically a light choclate cake, stuffed with cherries and topped with a merangue. Now the cherries were the best part by far. If you could just take the cherries, warm them up, and put them on ice cream it would be out of the world good..... but in the cake it was OK. After about 20 minutes we took some more pictures and got back on the bus. As we passed through the small towns, we noticed that there weren't any broken down or dirty houses, every house had a nice clean front lawn and no visible dirt. I doubt the German people will stand for a broken down car on the front lawn. Many houses were also very, very large farm homes. They were built as familyn homes and multiple generations live there. Unfortunately, photography was hard as it was very foggy that day and we were driving. We made our way to Switzerland without incident. When we stopped to pay the toll at the German border, we had to pay per person on the coach multiplied by the miles we had driven. They do this instead of installing toll booths. Switzerland has been independent since 1245 and is one of the richest countries in Europe. They speak 4 languages, French, Swiss German, a dialect of Latin, and Italian. They are also one of the richest countries in Europe because of two reasons, they haven't had a major war in the past several hundred years, and because of their banking policies. Other than the recent years and the threat of terrorism, Swiss banks have always been a safe haven for people around the world. It could be yours for the low, low price of $100,000! Also everything is decided by referendum, i.e. People voting directly. It took close to 15 years for a new highway to get placed around Zurich because no one wanted the highway in their backyard. Also they are a bit paranoid about their military here and the goal is to have a well armed militia on the roads within hours. To that effect, farmers are given range rovers and soldiers often bring their guns and ammunition home with them on leave. We stopped before lunch at a local waterfall on the rhine river, and took some pictures. It of course, had a castle overlooking it and made for some very nice pictures.

UL- Picture of a home in the black forest, UM- Cec trying on a german hat, UR- Cec posing in front of the giant cookoo clock, BL- Karen showing off the black forest cake, BM- Adolf Herr working on the clocks (they were all handcarved), BR- Our typical view of the forest (prety but foggy), Middle- The rhine falls in switzerland We then drove another hour to get to Lucerne, Switzerland. There we saw an amazing piece of sculpture. It was a lion that had been impaled by a spear but was still lying over a 2 shields, each shield had a coat of arms from Fance and from Switzerland. The sculpture was from the 1880's but had amazingly realistic facial features, you could almost feel the pain of the poor beast. This sculpture wasn't small either, it was the size of 2 billboards. It represented the sacraficies of servicemen. After that we walked down to the shopping area and saw some amazing swiss watch stores, as well as bars and some incredible looking swiss chocolate shops. We walked to the hotel via a very old bridge. It was originally built in the late 1300's but then had two pretty bad fires. The bridge was a covered wooden bridge and did resemble the bridge from Harry Potter. We got checked in to the hotel and went straight back out again to explore more of the town. By this time, because the sun had already set, the amazing lights were fully lit up across the bridges, it was an amazing sight.

UL- An old fountain lit up for christmas, UM- The covered wooden bridge, UR- A view across lake lucerne, ML- us posing in front of the bridge, MR- the lion carving, BL- A three story EXPENSIVE watch store all lit up for christmas, BM- Cec was so happy he look and was a kid in a candy store, BL- More cobblestone streets decorated for christmas

Dec 22, Lucerne We left from our hotel to Mount Pilatus. It is on the south end of the Alps and about 7000 feet high. We had to ride two gondolas to get to the top. The first gondola was a pretty standard 4 person gondola that most people have ridden before. The second gondola could easily hold 20-30 people and only had a about half a mile of track, of course, this was also the steepest part of the track as well. The mountain has a long history of having dragons, finding dragon bones and people being rescued by dragons. It was a massive height. We even went through the fog line. We walked to the 360 viewpoint and got some great photos. It was like there was a large cotton blanket on the bottom of the hills, and we suddenly burst through the dull and dreary grayness to the incredible warmth and sunshine above. It was most like being in a plane and looking down at the cloud cover when you are at altitude, it was an amazing sight and one of my (Cecil's) favorite excursions in Europe so far. From there it was pretty much a nice ride down and back to the hotel.  

Top of Mount Pilatus, to the right you can see the restaurant and tourist center, to the left, the incredible view

 

TL: gondala ride up Mount Pilatus TR: some wooden fences protecting Karen from a 300 foot fall M: us at the top B: view from the top 

    We had a short break to drop some people off at the hotel who were not doing the afternoon cheese farm and horse carriage. Cec and I ate the rest of our Belgian chocolate and a protein bar for lunch. The monastery we saw was over 1200 years old and still used by Benedict monks. The afternoon started out with a ride in the bus up into some very beautiful country. Mountain peaks shot up into the sky and we took some incredible hairpin turns up into a valley that was above the cloudline.   We got to go on a horse ride with an incredibly warm wool blanket over our laps and about 10 of our fellow tour friends on the ride with us. We saw different types of buildings and architecture in the swiss town, and even got to see paragliders swirling around up by the mountain top. The horse ride took close to half an hour and then we got to go into the barn and enjoy some local swedish food. The farmers wife had made tradtional cheese bread, as well as an apple tart and some other goodies. there were also these little metal plates set up over some tea lights on each table with some cheese in the middle. We placed the cheese on the little tray and then when it became warm and started to bubble up, we scraped it off the metal plate and onto a piece of bread and it was delicious. We also got to go through the barn and look at the cows, you can see Karen being attacked and eaten by a vicious calf below (Karen was terrified). Then it was time to get back on the bus and head back to town. We went to the grocery store and picked up dinner, then Karen and I did buy a pair of swiss made watches in Lucerne.

View from the horse and buggy ride

   

TL: Karen getting mauled by the baby cow (not really, it didn't have any teeth) TR: cheese and hot plate in barn BL: melted cheese and bread, perfect meal BR: cold day, but there was some wildberry tea (with Schnapps in it!)