On May 11, Michael and I flew to Amsterdam. We arrived there late on Friday night, so we stayed at an airport
hotel. This was perfect, because we were able to meet up with Megan, Jonathan and Scott
when they arrived at the Amsterdam airport on Saturday morning.
We didn't waste any time after riding the train to downtown Amsterdam and
checking into our hostel. We got right to the sightseeing. We each bought an
Iamsterdam city pass and used it to see modern art at the Stedelijk Museum, and take
a canal tour of the city. I have to admit that modern art does nothing for me,
except sometimes make me laugh out loud or cock my head and make a funny face.
Maybe I just don't understand it, but the museum was free with the pass, so why
not?
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| How does this make you feel? |
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| Are you inspired by these neon numbers, one to twenty-five? |
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| My personal favorite - yep, that's trashcans and lava lamps on shelves |
I enjoyed the canal tour very much, but some of the group was starting to
feel the effects of jet lag and basically passed out for the second
half of the tour. After the boat ride, Scott and I walked around the Red Light District (no pictures allowed - they will throw your camera into the canal if you attempt one) while the rest of the group took a late afternoon nap. We ate out that night at an Argentinian Steakhouse, oddly
enough there were a lot of these in the city, so we had quite the selection. We
enjoyed dinner, then went out to have some drinks before heading back to the hostel. Everyone wanted to be well rested to start up early the next day.
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| Glass walls and ceiling on the canal tour, to keep the light rain away |
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| Megan and Jonathan looking perky at the beginning of the canal tour |
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| Cool houseboat in Amsterdam - there were all different kinds on the canals |
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| Megan and Jonathan fading during the second half of the canal tour |
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| Megan and I enjoyed Margaritas at the Argentinian restaurant |
First thing Sunday we went to the Van Gogh Museum. We successfully avoided
long lines and walked right in. Entrance to the museum was free with
the city pass, but I splurged on the extra fives euros to get a multimedia tour
(similar to an audio tour, but with pictures and short video clips on a
handheld device). It was money well spent, as I learned a lot more than I would have just reading the plaques on the wall. I really enjoyed this museum, because I've had Van Gogh
posters in my room for years and it was neat to see his other works and learn
about his life and his journey. I even found some new favorites in the museum.
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| Me, looking dorky with the multimedia tour, with select Van Gogh almond blossom paintings in the background |
After lunch, we all took a trip out of the city to visit the small town of Zaanse Schans to see some windmills. This was something Michael really wanted to do,
and I'm glad we did because it was neat and cute. We also learned how windmills work and how to make
chocolate from scratch. I thought that was pretty awesome.
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| Our first view of windmills while walking toward the town |
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| Michael, making hot chocolate from scratch |
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| Walking to the windmills |
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| Windmill on the inside, huge wheels smashing peanuts to make peanut oil |
When we returned to the city, we ate dinner at The Pancake Bakery (yum!) and then walked through the Anne Frank House. It was less crowded on a Sunday evening and we were able to take our time walking through the building. It was sad, but fascinating all the same. Surprisingly, I have never read the book, so now it's on my list.
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| Siblings, feeling awkward smiling in front of this place |
Monday was our last day in Amsterdam, so we headed over to the newly renovated Rijksmuseum. It was a massive museum and probably would have taken a full day to look through everything, but we only had a couple of hours, so we split up and went to the areas we considered interesting. I thought it was really neat to see the Venetian influence in the art after going to the National Gallery in Venice the week before. There were even similar paintings showing scenes from the same event. Of course, the museum had more than Dutch history. There were paintings and objects from all over the world.
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| Rijksmuseum |
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| A whole room of ship models in all sizes, very neat |
Throughout the trip, we also just wandered around, stopped to have drinks or coffee (it was chilly) and took touristy pics with the Iamsterdam art piece.
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| Sibling love |
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| Siblings again, with the Rijksmuseum in the background |
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| My amazing boyfriend :) |
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| We ordered lots of cappuccinos due to the weather |
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| Sissy and me |
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| Siblings |
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| Megan and Jonathan |
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| Scott and me |
On Monday night, we said farewell to Amsterdam as we boarded a flight for Prague. We were all very excited to see this city, as we had all heard such great things about it. We only had about a day and a half in Prague and we wanted to make the most of it. So, on Tuesday we joined up with a free walking tour of the city. We tipped the tour guide of course, but it was completely worth it. Our guide was a woman who grew up in the Czech Republic and has lived in Prague for many years. It was interesting to hear her stories about when she was younger and growing up under communist rule. She remembers standing in line for hours just to buy a rationed kilo of bananas, because the fruit was so rare and precious. The tour was beautiful and we got to see a lot of the city this way.
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| Old Town Square, Prague |
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| Megan, Michael and me, in Old Town Square |
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| Astronomical Clock in the square |
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| Inside a lovely church |
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| Outside a church |
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| You are allowed to write or draw anything on this wall! |
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| The whole group! Charles Bridge in the background |
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| View looking over the city |
After the tour, we ate dinner at a restaurant referred to us by our tour guide. They had traditional Czech food: very hearty, filling and delicious! We had five different types of animals between all of our plates, including lamb, duck, deer, rabbit and pig. It was absolutely amazing. I felt like I was in a Game of Thrones novel, eating the dinner before battle with my big beer mug, potatoes and meat.
We saw most of the highlights on the tour, so on our second day we only had to visit the Charles Bridge. The timing worked perfectly, as we boarded a train to Berlin on Wednesday afternoon. The train was great, because it had private compartments and we were able to snag one for the five of us.
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| Siblings on the Charles Bridge, with the Prague Castle in the background |
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| Megan and Jonathan, ready to take the train from Prague to Berlin |
We arrived in Berlin just before the sun started to set. We were glad to arrive at our hostel before dark, since we didn't know the area at all. We stayed in a very unique and edgy part of town in East Berlin. There was graffiti and interesting people all over the place, but somehow it didn't seem sketchy. It just fit. We enjoyed some German food (schnitzel) and brews that night, and got home around midnight to rest for the next day of sightseeing.
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| Dinner at a hole-in-the-wall schnitzel place |
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| German beer and soda |
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Our main mode of transportation on Thursday was biking. We joined up with a Fat Tire tour group and rode around on bikes for about four hours to see all the major sites (mostly reconstructions) from World War II and the Cold War. The Berlin Wall was so interesting to me. Berlin seems like such a modern and up to date city, yet this barbaric wall and what it stood for has only been taken down in my lifetime. Our tour guide was young and fun and really made the day great. He also helped us visualize what it would have been like 25-75 years ago there in Berlin.
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| Another awkward "smile in front of a sad place" photo |
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| Very neat and interactive, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe |
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| Cruisin' on bikes |
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| Stopped at a red light |
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| The whole group in front of the Reichstag |
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| Brandenburg Gate |
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| Sibling action shot |
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| This was a private church for a Prussian royal family - wow |
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| Modern art all around the city |
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| The East Side Gallery was really cool - a painted section of the Berlin Wall that was moved to this area as a sort of outdoor museum for the public. I think this kind of modern art is very neat. |
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| Scott's first Turkish restaurant, Hasir Restaurant - It was delicious! |
Our last day in Berlin was Friday and we had a late flight to Geneva, so we re-visited the Victory Tower, which sits in the middle of the most amazingly green and lush city park I have ever been to. We walked up the spiral staircase to the top to check out the view, then walked around the bottom of the tower to check out the bullet holes and other pockmarks around the base of the tower. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the park, having lunch and trying new beers. It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful week with wonderful people!
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| Victory Tower |
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| View from the top of the Victory Tower |
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| My new favorite beer |
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| When I realized all my pictures were gone :-( |
I don't think I mentioned this yet, but it is a miracle that I have this many pictures to share with you. On our last day in Berlin, I tried looking through my photos from the week and found that I was missing every photo from the night before and all the way back to Interlaken, Switzerland! Since you have been following my travels, you may recall that I was in Interlaken during my second week. This means that I was missing every photo from Zermatt, Venice, Amsterdam, Prague and almost all of Berlin. I was trying not to completely freak out or cry, and everyone assured me they took pictures and would share. But, everyone knew I took the most pictures and I had a lot of the group photos, so this was a big bummer.
So, how do I have pictures for you? I searched the problem online and found a website that would scan and recover photos from my SD card - www.cardrecovery.com. I have to give them a pat on the back, because they saved my sanity. I didn't get 100% of the photos restored, but close. I am so grateful to have most of my pictures back!
I know this was a really long post - my apologies. I am going to Spain and Portugal starting tomorrow morning, so I don't think I will have time to write about week 5 just yet. I hope this post can keep you satisfied until then. Thanks for reading! -Abby
Stay tuned: Surprise excitement for some special people, and a new country - Greece!
