Warsaw, Poland

Warsaw was an interesting place…  It was almost completely destroyed in WWII.  Most of the buildings in Old Town have been restored, but are missing that historical romantic feel to them since they are newer.  We stayed a wonderful bed and breakfast called Boutique B&B just a 20 minute walk from Old Town.  The staff there were very nice and informative, the room had a lot of character, and the breakfast was delicious. 

We only spent one full day in Warsaw, but we did see a lot of the city.  After breakfast, we wandered through Old Town.  We climbed up a church tower to get a good view of the town square.  We heard an accordion being played and trying to find the little old man playing it from the top of the tower was like a real life ‘Where’s Waldo’. 

All over Warsaw there are monuments, memorials, and plaques dedicated to those to lost their lives during WWII.  You’d see them on street corners, in the middle of parks, or on the sides of buildings.  We saw the last standing buildings that used to make the Jewish Warsaw ghetto.  They are now nothing but empty brick buildings but there are large black & white photos of some of the Ghetto residents hung on the building faces.  It was an eerie street.  We visited the Pawiak Prison museum.  The prison was established sometime during the 1800’s, but was a Gestapo prison during the Nazi occupation.  We also visited the Warsaw Rising Museum that commemorates Warsaw’s insurrection against the Nazis in 1944.  The Polish have done an amazing job of preserving the stories and artifacts in both museums. 

We ate pierogis and kielbasa sausage until we had to roll ourselves back to our B&B to get some sleep.  Next, we’re heading 300 km south to Krakow, Poland where we plan to spend four nights. 

Cheers!

View of Old Town from the church tower

'Waldo' the accordion player

Mermaid statue in old town square

Outside the rebuilt Old City walls

Jewish Ghetto Memorial

Berlin

We spent several days in Berlin.  The weather has definately gotten colder since we've been here and as a result we spent a lot more time indoors.  We wandered around several musuems.  One of the most interesting was the musuem located by 'Checkpoint Charlie.'  This was the American checkpoint when the Soviets controlled Eastern Berlin.  The musuem was filled with stories and artifacts of how people escaped East Germany.  We did bundle up one night to go view the festivile of lights where some of the major actractions are lite up with multi-colored lights.  It was cold, but fun.  Tomorrow we say goodbye to Germany and head to even colder territory, Warsaw Poland.

J along the longest intact stretch of the remaining Berlin Wall

Checkpoint Charlie with McDonald's rigth across the border... Shouldn't it be a Taco Bell?

Berlin cathedral and Fernsehturm (TV tower)

Brandenburg Gate

Along the streets during the Festivile of Lights

Happily visiting the Rieter sport chocolate store

Prague, Czech Republic

We arrived in Prague about 3 days ago and have been renting a cute little apartment in Old Town.  Give Jeff and I a couple of days and we’ll develop a little routine.  In the mornings, or actually if we’re being honest, early afternoons we’d go have coffee at a little café around the corner called the Globe.  Pretty much everyone in there speaks ‘American’ English.  We haven’t figured out why and the only person Jeff asked was the only Czech speaking person in the place who just gave us a confused look. 

During the days, we have wandered Old Town Prague.  There is so much history and area to see that we have only scratched the surface in our four days here.  We wandered across the Charles Bridge several times.  The bridge was completed in 1400 and is now lined with 30 statues honoring various saints.  We wandered around the Prague Castle.  Inside the castle walls was the St. Vitus Cathedral, which was the most amazing church we’ve been in.  The cathedral was started to be built in the 1350’s but wasn’t completed until the beginning of the 20^th century.  The stain glass was amazing.  Much to Jeff’s pleasure we wandered into several shops and did some window shopping.  There are some amazing wood carvers in the Czech Republic.  They make some amazing marionettes , and my nerdy artistic side fell in the love with the whimsy puppet characters.  Only a dollmaker would truly understand!  The Vltava River runs through the middle of town.  We brought some old rolls down today and feed the swans that live along it.  Prague is a wonderfully romantic city!

In the evenings, we go by our local pub, U Novaka, and order beers and goulash.  We’d then stroll the block and half home and crawl into our little bed. 

Tomorrow, we take a train back to Berlin for a couple of days.  Prague has been our favorite city so far and we are eager to someday return and finish exploring!

Cheers!     

J standing in front of the Dancing Building

The astronomical clock in Old Town square.  It has a pretty cool show at the top of every hour

Prague Castle at night

Strolling across Charles Bridge with the guide book out like a nerdy tourist!

View from just outside Prague Castle

Few of the windows in St Vitus Cathedral

Waiting for coffee in the Globe cafe

One of the many puppet shops

Feeding the swans along the Vltava river with Prague Castle in the background

Goulash at our neighborhood pub U Novaka

St Vitus Cathedral at sunset

Old Town Square

Dresden

We made it to eastern Germany; Dresden to be specific.  Jeff has recovered from his love affair with the minivan.  His new love is all the iPhone apps.  He doesn’t know how he traveled without the iPhone before.  Love is so fickle!

It definitely has a little different feel then western Germany.   Dresden was under communist rule until the fall of the iron curtain in 1989.  It feels like a city rich in history, building for the future (literally there are a lot construction projects going on here), but overall its just charming.  It’s a great place to people watch.  For those of you who read Slaughter House 5 by Kurt Vonnegut in high school, this is the city where his story is set.  On February 13, 1945 the Allies started to drop 1500 tons of explosives on this city to ensure the Germans didn’t have a place left to hide.  With that many bombs dropped, its amazing that any of the old city survived.  But Dresden has a beautiful old skyline.  

Jeff and I have been staying a cute little hostel for the past three nights and have wandered the city by day.  We’ve slept in and relaxed.  Today we leave on a train to Prague in the Czech Republic where we plan to spend four nights.

And so it goes….

Consulting the Lonely Planet guide book from a steeple.  The mosque looking building
was actually a tobacco factory in the 1950's.

Enjoying the views in the Zwinger (opera house) courtyard.

View of the rotundra in the Frauenkirche.  This building was bombed out on Feb 13, 1945.  It
wasn't rebuilt until the reunification.

The nymph's bath, or as Jeff calls it the sprites' shower. Just one of the many fountains
found around Dresden

Little market in the middle of the altmarkt. We enjoyed a few cold
ones from their portable beer garden.

Good-bye van!!

This might have been one of the sadest days in Jeff's life.  He found her and lost her so quickly!!

At first I was skeptical about the van, and to be honost I felt I was cheating a bit on the old Aerostar "The green weenie".  After we loaded 4 humans and luggage into her I could hear her calling to me to take her out, a sweet sweet siren in grey.  I fired up the engine and the TDI sputtered and purred to life, oh, she was eager to please.  I gently stroked her stick, playfully at first then more aggresivly as we became more comfortable with each other.  We entered our play-zone , the autobahn, which became our arena of love.  I was shy at first always wondering if I was hurting her, but I quickly releized that this minx wanted to play dirty.  After an hour or so of foreplay I decided to go all the way, thats when I gave it to her good.   130...140...150...160...170...180 kilometers per hour (thats over 110 mph).  I could feel her shutter beneath me, thats when I knew she had peaked.  She was exhaused from the ride and my heart was racing as well.  I decided to back up off her for a while to let her recover for the next round.  This love affair lasted for 7 days, I had to hide it from my wife, constanty making excuses to go out..."do we need some bread?" or "I wonder what that town is like?".  Its amazing we were never caught. So on 10/11/2010 at 6:55pm I had to say goodby.  Now im not one for teary eyed partings but I'll be honost with you...I got a little choked up.  We made an agreement to meet in Munich in 7 years to the day, but as I walked away a glanced over my shoulder to see if she was looking back in noticed she was already talking to a new man...that slut!  That just goes to show you.  Next time i'm renting a sports car!!

World's Biggest Cuckoo

My cold was almost gone the next day, whether it be the nasty water, the bath, or just the course of the virus we’ll never know.  It was the last day with the minivan and Jeff agreed to drive my mom and I to Triberg to check out the world’s biggest cuckoo-clock (the world’s biggest ball of yarn was too far away!).  We then had to rush the van back to Munich so we wouldn’t have to pay for an extra day. In Munich, we sadly said goodbye to minivan and my mom who was catching a train to Frankfurt and then a flight back to the states.  It was great fun traveling with my parents and I’m so glad that we were able to make new memories to look back on and smile.  Jeff and I are off to Dressden, which is in East Germany. 

Eating Black Forest Cake in the black forest

Sweet, sweet coffee

World's biggest cuckoo (& I'm talking about the clock)

The hand carved gears in the cuckoo

Yes, that's a four wheeler on the autobahn!

Baden-Baden

After our one night in Heidelburg, we drove on to Baden-Baden.  Baden-Baden is known for the warm springs in the area and their healing properties.  Anyone that knows Jeff and I, knows that we are suckers for warm springs so we had to check it out.  There are several fountains around town where you can drink the spring water out of.  They say it’s the elixir of youth and has healing properties.  Having just entered my 30’s and having the bad cold, I was willing to try anything.  IT’S NASTY!  The water is warm and a little salty and full of minerals.  Gross!  But I drank about 200 milliliters of that liquid, and I don’t think it stopped my aging but my cold did get better over the next day or so.

 I think what really helped the cold though, was the Roman-Irish bath that Baden-Baden is so famous for.  There are two bathhouses in Baden-Baden, the one where you wear clothes and the one where you don’t.  We chose to go to Friedrishcsbad, the naked, bath and on Sundays its co-ed.  I was a little bit nervous being completely naked around so many people, but it only took about three minutes to get used it or maybe its because you are so relaxed.  You move from room to room and through dry warm hot air and into steam baths and different pools of water and showers with pure thermal water.  The temperature changes between the rooms and pools are deliberately coordinated  to beneficial; after a sharp increase at the beginning where they cook you in the dry rooms, the temperatures gently drop until the cold water immersion bath at end.  The cold water was a bit shocking at first, but kind of made your skin tingle and actually felt good once you were out.  All the rooms either had hand painted tiles lining them or beautiful Roman statues or carvings.  In most of the pool rooms, the ceilings were domed and let in natural light.  We spent about three hours there and left feeling completely relaxed.  

In the park in Baden-Baden

Drinking the nasty water in hopes of getting rid of the colds

Drinking more elixir of youth at a different location

Dirty 30 birthday in Heidelburg

Last Saturday was my 30^th birthday.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it there for awhile…. Popsie had shared his head cold with my mom and I and it was a bad one!!  My ears wouldn’t ‘pop’ and I could hear my voice echoing in my head plus copious amount of snot!  But I made it, barely! 

We celebrated with a nice dinner in Heidelburg.  The Germans make this wonderful potato noodle called spatzle that I have fallen in love with.  You can put in with cheese, fry them up with onions, or like I had for my birthday dinner, pour gravy over them.  Yum!! 

The next day we wandered the marktplatz with its wonderful cobblestone streets.  There was a little debate among Jeff, my mom, and I about exactly how much time was too much time spent window shopping.  To Jeff any time shopping is too much time, where my mom and I could spend hours.  We have all agreed to comprise in the future (which basically means we’ll plop Jeff down at a table with internet and a beer or ice cream while the ladies shop). 

We wandered around the Heidelburg castle on top of the hill and enjoyed some beautiful views of old town.  In the castle, there was the German Pharmacy museum.  Jeff fully embraced his profession’s history and said it was epic! 

Jeff getting ready to give us tour through the Pharmacy museum

Trying to figure out how to make pills and not just count them

What does an alligator have to do with being a pharmacist?

Your jacket Mr. Smartie Pants Pharmacist

Brass monkey statue downtown Heidelburg.  The saying goes if
you touch his fiinger, you will return to Heidelburg, if you touch the
mirror he is holding, you'll be blessed with wealth, and if you touch
the mice at feet you'll be blessed with fertility.  I don't know what
it means if you stick your head in his head.

Wandering the martkplatz

View from the castle overlooking old town Heidelburg

Garmisch

What a week!!  My parents took the train from Amsterdam on Monday to meet us in Munich.  We rented a mini van that of course Jeff has fallen in love with.  It’s a stick, it’s a diesel, it’s a van and I don’t think it could get much better than that for Jeff.  So we braved the autobahn south to Garmisch, which is right on the Austrian border and settled into a cute little guesthouse, Zum Raasan, for the night.  We woke up to amazing view of the Alps out of our window and a wonderful breakfast spread of meats and cheeses and fresh croissants (between the four of us, I think we ate 10 croissants, what a bunch of piggy Americans!).

After breakfast, we jumped into the car and drove an hour east to Fussen, where the famous Schloss Neuschwanstein is.  There are actually two castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, within walking distance and we decided to take the double tour.  I have been to Neuschwanstein as a kid and remembered bits and pieces of it; like the swan sink in King Ludwig’s bedroom and the huge kitchens downstairs.  King Ludwig started construction on Neushcwanstein in 1869, worked on it for 17 years, completing only 16 of the 120 rooms, living in it for only 172 days before he was found drowned in a few feet of water.  Schloss Hohenschwangau, the little castle, was much richer in history. It was the Bavarian Royal family hunting lodge and has a much more ‘lived-in’ feeling than Neuschwanstein.  Both castles were amazing and unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, so you’ll just have to take our word for it!

We left Neuschwanstein in a downpour and were soaked through and hungry.  We stopped a what we determined was the German Walmart and picked up some bread and cheese.  There was a little cart in the parking lot that was selling roasted chickens and we sent my mom (since she speaks a little German) to order a whole chicken for dinner.  Earlier in the day, we all had a conversation that at least we could tell on menus what was pork by the word schwein, so I guess when my mom ordered a schweinhocken from the guy we shouldn’t have been surprised that when we open the bag in the van that it wasn’t a roasted chicken, but a roasted pork hock instead.  I don’t know if she’ll ever live it down!

The next day, after we stuffed our faces at the guesthouse, we went to the highest peak in Germany, the Zugspitze.  We rode the Eibsee-Seilbahn cable car to the top, which was a little scary!  We stayed on top for several hours, Jeff had to go climbing around outside the safety area, and we took the cog-train back down.  It was an amazing day with  beautiful blue sunny skies and we got some amazing pictures.  After we came back to Garmisch, we wandered around town and I found my cuckoo-clock! Its really cute with a little dog on it and a German girl who rings a little bell at the top when the cuckoo comes out.  I love it!  Jeff had the lady show him were the off button is in case the cuckoo drives him crazy!!

On Thursday, we checked out of the guesthouse and did some hiking in the Partnachklamm, a narrow 700-meter gorge.  We first walked along a path at the bottom of the gorge and at times it felt very cavernous.  We walked back along the top of the gorge and the path lead us into the German country side.  There was a beerhouse in the middle of the hike, where we stopped and had a couple of cold ones.  The Germans combined two of Jeff’s favorite things, hiking and drinking beer!

We dropped Popsie off at the train station so he could begin his journey back to Sitka.  Mom is staying with us for several more days as we travel into Heildberg and Baden-Baden.  We’ve been trying to up the blogspot more frequently but internet access continues to be a problem, so we’re doing the best we can keeping it updated!

Cheers!

J & t

Stuffing our faces full of awesome German food in Garmisch

View of Neuschwanstein from the little castle Hohenschwangau

Us on top of the Zugspitze vistor's center with the German Alps in the background

Having beers on top of the Zugspitze



Me on top of world, inside safety areas



Jeff on top of the world, outside the safety area

My cuckoo-clock that I found in Garmisch

Gasthof zum Rassen where we stayed in Garmisch, our favorite lodging so far!

J on the path along the gorge Partnachklamm

Along the Partnachklamm

Beer garden on the German countryside along the hike

Having a few cold ones!