We arrived in London after 1 train ride to Brussels and then hopped on the Eurostar, officially our last train day!
Our hostel is located in West Kensington, on an adorable townhouse lined street right near an underground station (or tube as the locals say) for easy access to all the hotspots of London!
After settling in we deceided to walk the Kensington High Street and found a great restaurant to have some dinner. We then walked back to a cinema we had seen on the way and stopped in to catch a show, The Blind Side. The movie theatre had assigned seats (which is a common practice here in Europe) and it also cost us 11 pounds each which is equivalent to about 17 Canadian dollars and the inside of the theatre was comparable to the late Three Star Cinema in Guelph. None the less it was a nice evening out to relax and pretend we were locals rather than tourists.
Our first full day of sightseeing in London we had some confusion, as we had come from Amsterdam which is one hour ahead of London and there was daylight savings, somehow we started our day thinking it was an hour later than reality. As a result we arrived an hour early for our scheduled walking tour and finally figured out what was going on by about noon. We then made our way through Picadilly Circus to Leicester Square to see about getting theatre tickets. We managed to get last minute tickets for STOMP for that evening so we deceided to walk up to Camden Town in the meantime.
We spent the afternoon at Camden Market, which was incredible. Vendors were selling everything from clothes and accesories to some of the most amazing fast food varieties. After spending a couple hours walking through the Market we headed back towards the theatre district and had dinner at our new favourite establishment - Pret! A common topic of conversation amoungst Ty and I has been our plans to open a Pret Franchise in Canada, and we are convinced it would be our ticket to the good life! We then headed to Ambassadors Theatre to see the show which was mind blowing. The performers used everything from brooms to matchboxes to zippo lighters to inner tubes to kitchen sinks and pots and pans to make music. It was amazing!
On Monday we finally had the time right and took the walking tour which showcased Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, The Parliament Buildings and many other attractions. We then deceided to see about more show tickets and we were lucky enough to get 2 of the last 3 tickets for Oliver! We spent the afternoon strolling Oxford Street and when we were heading back towards the theatre after dinner we stumbled upon the world premiere of Clash of the Titans! It was really neat to see the red carpet and the cars arrive. Unfortunately we missed the bigger stars but I did manage to see the Director of the Last Harry Potter film! haha ya I know not that cool, but the experience was neat none the less!
Oliver was amazing, the sets were elaborate and the actors were all extremely talent both as actors and vocalists, we were both so impressed! As well the theatre itself is one of the oldest one's in London!
Yesterday morning we headed straight for the Tower of London. We were able to see the crown jewels and some of the armour that was worn by knights in London in years gone by. The funny part about the crown jewels is that alongside the display cases they had people movers to ensure that (annoying) tourists would not spend too long staring at the jewels, pretty efficient system we thought! We also went and saw the torture devices in another part of the tower, which were pretty gruesome.
After touring the tower we had our authentic English fish and chips, and then strolled along the Thames river to get a better view of London bridge. At that point the weather started to turn rainy and cold so we thought it would be a perfect time to visit the world famous department store, Harrods. We walked a bit further to the underground and on the way were able to view the gorgeous St. Paul's cathedral.
We arrived at Harrods and were in awe. The store itself was 5 floors high, everything from the escalators to the washrooms were beyond elaborate. There was also a memorial on the ground floor for Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed, as Harrods is owned by the Al Fayed family. Some of the highlights of Harrods included:
Ty liked:
- the food halls, where he had his first Krispy Kreme donut
- the futuristic kitchens, which were clearance priced at £50 000, half of the original cost of £100 000
- the sporting goods floor where they had these things called Sea Bobsleds, which were basically like small, hand held underwater Ski-doos. You will have to ask us to properly describe them!
Jenna liked:
-PET KINGDOM!! Everything from collars, clothes, toys to beds (with canopy's) to a bakery full of dog treats and you could even purchase hamsters for £50!! (That is 75 CDN for a rodent?!?!?!)
-Children's (specifically girls department) where they had dress up boxes containing elaborate gowns for £800!
- Outdoor furniture, featuring sectionals and canopy beds for outside, I can only hope one day I might have something even half as cool as the designs they showcased!
After Harrods we had Dinner on Picadilly Street before taking the Underground back to the Hostel. We packed up our belongings and Ty and I watched the football match, Manchester vs. Bayern Munich (us being the only people in the bar cheering for Bayern...and they WON...Siegfried we were wondering if you might have been at the game??)
This morning we checked out and are waiting till noon to check-in to our luxury hotel which is overlooking Hyde Park (Thank-you Dad!!!!) for our last night in London!
We head home tomorrow?? Where has the time gone, we are very sad this incredible adventure is coming to an end but thank-ful that the pain can be eased by knowing we have so many wonderful people to come home to whom we have missed very much!
Our flight lands in Toronto at 11:20am EST on Thursday and we are looking forward to seeing all of you very very soon!!
xxx ooo
Jenna and Ty
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Breda and Amsterdam!
We left our hostel early Tuesday morning to hop on a train to Breda. We have had limited problems so far making our train reservations and this being one of a couple times we deceided since the trains were so frequent not to reserve in advance. Long story short, instead of taking 1 train, the trek turned into 5 trains and about 6 hours of travel, but it was definitely more than worth it!
Our gracious hostess Kristen met us at the bus stop (kids in tow, as she is currently a live-in nanny in Breda) and took us to her incredible house tucked into an adorable suburb within Breda. We had dinner with the family and spent time with the four children she cares for and thier extremely kind and welcoming parents.
The next day Kristen showed us around the gorgeous city, and we had a lovely lunch outside. It was awesome to catch up with a familair face and get a chance to see her life in the Netherlands, Thanks so much Kristen for having us, we really loved Breda!
Then it was one direct train to Amsterdam, our first evening we had our first (of way too many) traditional dutch delights....a massive cone, filled with french fries, drenched in Mayo. It was love at first bite! We walked the down the main street and then deceided since our hostel is right smack in the middle of the Red Light District we might as well take a stroll through. It was definitely unlike anything we had seen before.
The next day we took another walking tour featuring all the major sites and history accompanying each one, in the evening we did a canal tour to view the city by boat. Amsterdam has some of the most unique architecture we have encountered in our travels, including the tall town houses in various shapes, levels and colours and the unique canal houses along the waterways.
Today we visited the Anne Frank House, it was absolutely mind blowing to see the actual quarters the Frank family hid for 2 years during world war II. I couldn't fathom spending everyday with no light, having to whisper, and tip toe around while in constant fear that you may be discovered and killed. It gave us much appreciation for the lives we are able to live today and the freedom we have. After the Frank House to lighten the mood we visited one of the many Pancake Houses in the city for lunch,with every topping you can imagine from chocolate to chili, it was absolultely delicious! We then went to the world's largest floating flower market and walked back down the main street to do some shopping.
We are getting all packed up now and then heading out for our last night in Amsterdam before heading to London in the morning...our final stop!
Jenna and Ty
Our gracious hostess Kristen met us at the bus stop (kids in tow, as she is currently a live-in nanny in Breda) and took us to her incredible house tucked into an adorable suburb within Breda. We had dinner with the family and spent time with the four children she cares for and thier extremely kind and welcoming parents.
The next day Kristen showed us around the gorgeous city, and we had a lovely lunch outside. It was awesome to catch up with a familair face and get a chance to see her life in the Netherlands, Thanks so much Kristen for having us, we really loved Breda!
Then it was one direct train to Amsterdam, our first evening we had our first (of way too many) traditional dutch delights....a massive cone, filled with french fries, drenched in Mayo. It was love at first bite! We walked the down the main street and then deceided since our hostel is right smack in the middle of the Red Light District we might as well take a stroll through. It was definitely unlike anything we had seen before.
The next day we took another walking tour featuring all the major sites and history accompanying each one, in the evening we did a canal tour to view the city by boat. Amsterdam has some of the most unique architecture we have encountered in our travels, including the tall town houses in various shapes, levels and colours and the unique canal houses along the waterways.
Today we visited the Anne Frank House, it was absolutely mind blowing to see the actual quarters the Frank family hid for 2 years during world war II. I couldn't fathom spending everyday with no light, having to whisper, and tip toe around while in constant fear that you may be discovered and killed. It gave us much appreciation for the lives we are able to live today and the freedom we have. After the Frank House to lighten the mood we visited one of the many Pancake Houses in the city for lunch,with every topping you can imagine from chocolate to chili, it was absolultely delicious! We then went to the world's largest floating flower market and walked back down the main street to do some shopping.
We are getting all packed up now and then heading out for our last night in Amsterdam before heading to London in the morning...our final stop!
Jenna and Ty
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Land of Crepes, Baguettes, Museums and Bridges...Ah Paris!
After surviving our final long train ride from Interlaken, we arrived in Paris on Friday around dinner time. Our hostel is very new (St Christophers Inn) and very nice. It is a bit north of many of the main sights but the metro access was pretty easy to follow. This was our first experience with a full 10 bed dorm that was at full capacity, but luckily the hostel rooms very really big so it did not seem as crowded as you would think.
Our first day we took another walking tour of the city which gave us an informative glimpse at many of the main things to see in Paris. We walked to and around such places as the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, the Siene River and its many bridges, The Grand & Petit Palais, and many more. Needless to say the tour was very worth it and lasted almost 4 hours.
After the tour finished we took a stroll down Avenue de Montaige and took a peek at all of the designer shops that lined that street. At that point we were all touristed out for the day, and decided to do some shopping, along a different street near the latin quarter, with stores that were actually in our price range.
We returned to our hostel and headed out for a late dinner with one of our roomates Alex, and his friend Kim. Since Alex had newly moved to Paris and been living out of our hostel temporairily he knew of a great authentic French restaurant nearby. The food was incredible, Jenna even tried duck for the first time which was met with great approval by her.
Since the weather was a bit overcast on Sunday morning, we thought this would be a great time to see the famous Louvre. The line to get in was not as nearly as big as we had feared, and we got into the Louvre around eleven. Since the museum is SO big, and its impossible to see everything in one day, we decided to just focus on seeing some of the highlighted pieces as outlined in our map of the museum. Some of our favourite things we saw there were the quarters of Napoleon III and the Venus de Milo statue. It was very overwhelming and after a few hours we decided to just find the Mona Lisa painting and make our escape.
After lunch we headed to Montmare to see the Moulin Rouge, the Red Light district and the Sacre Coeur. All of which were unique in their own way, with one exception being the names for many of the shops in the red light district, which lacked some creativity...
The Sacre Coeur was a very cool place as it is the highest point in Paris (church on a mountain) and gives you some extraordinary views of the central area of the city. We then took the subway back to the hostel for an hour break, before heading to the Eiffel Tower to see the sun set. We climbed the stairs to the first platform, and then to the second platform. It was at this point that Tyler made the executive decision that we would not be taking the elevator to the top, citing his fear of heights. Nonetheless, the views from the first and second platform were amazing. It was really neat to see many of the sights we had seen from the ground, now from up high in the air.
We then descended down the stairs to the ground just in time to see the tower all lit up for the night. We then grabbed some crepes and ice-cream and took a seat on a park bench in perfect view and enjoyed the spectacular site in front of us.
Which brings us to today, where we started off our day in the Latin quarter to explore many of the used book shops. We then walked back to the Notre Dame Cathedral and went inside and toured around it. We then hopped on the metro and headed back to the Eiffel Tower where we found a boulangerie and grabbed some baguettes, cheese, and wine and had a picnic lunch underneath the Eiffel Tower. The weather was incredible and the park was filled with people.
Our last stop was the Arc the Triomphe which was a really interesting monument that is the meeting point for 12 roads in the centre of Paris. Interesting fact we learned on our tour was that there is a car accident on the giant round-a-bout surrounding the Arc once every thirty minutes, and that no insurance company will insure a car while driving on this round-a-bout, you do so at your own risk. To our astonishment, we even saw a few cyclists amidst the cars.
Overall, we have very much enjoyed our time here in Paris, however we have had our fill of the metro here and its many mysterious smells.... so we are ready to bid it farewell!
Next we are off to Breda in the Netherlands to visit a good friend of Jenna's from highschool, Kristen, who is currently spending 10 months there as a live-in nanny, as we make our way towards Amsterdam.
Jenna and Ty
Our first day we took another walking tour of the city which gave us an informative glimpse at many of the main things to see in Paris. We walked to and around such places as the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, the Siene River and its many bridges, The Grand & Petit Palais, and many more. Needless to say the tour was very worth it and lasted almost 4 hours.
After the tour finished we took a stroll down Avenue de Montaige and took a peek at all of the designer shops that lined that street. At that point we were all touristed out for the day, and decided to do some shopping, along a different street near the latin quarter, with stores that were actually in our price range.
We returned to our hostel and headed out for a late dinner with one of our roomates Alex, and his friend Kim. Since Alex had newly moved to Paris and been living out of our hostel temporairily he knew of a great authentic French restaurant nearby. The food was incredible, Jenna even tried duck for the first time which was met with great approval by her.
Since the weather was a bit overcast on Sunday morning, we thought this would be a great time to see the famous Louvre. The line to get in was not as nearly as big as we had feared, and we got into the Louvre around eleven. Since the museum is SO big, and its impossible to see everything in one day, we decided to just focus on seeing some of the highlighted pieces as outlined in our map of the museum. Some of our favourite things we saw there were the quarters of Napoleon III and the Venus de Milo statue. It was very overwhelming and after a few hours we decided to just find the Mona Lisa painting and make our escape.
After lunch we headed to Montmare to see the Moulin Rouge, the Red Light district and the Sacre Coeur. All of which were unique in their own way, with one exception being the names for many of the shops in the red light district, which lacked some creativity...
The Sacre Coeur was a very cool place as it is the highest point in Paris (church on a mountain) and gives you some extraordinary views of the central area of the city. We then took the subway back to the hostel for an hour break, before heading to the Eiffel Tower to see the sun set. We climbed the stairs to the first platform, and then to the second platform. It was at this point that Tyler made the executive decision that we would not be taking the elevator to the top, citing his fear of heights. Nonetheless, the views from the first and second platform were amazing. It was really neat to see many of the sights we had seen from the ground, now from up high in the air.
We then descended down the stairs to the ground just in time to see the tower all lit up for the night. We then grabbed some crepes and ice-cream and took a seat on a park bench in perfect view and enjoyed the spectacular site in front of us.
Which brings us to today, where we started off our day in the Latin quarter to explore many of the used book shops. We then walked back to the Notre Dame Cathedral and went inside and toured around it. We then hopped on the metro and headed back to the Eiffel Tower where we found a boulangerie and grabbed some baguettes, cheese, and wine and had a picnic lunch underneath the Eiffel Tower. The weather was incredible and the park was filled with people.
Our last stop was the Arc the Triomphe which was a really interesting monument that is the meeting point for 12 roads in the centre of Paris. Interesting fact we learned on our tour was that there is a car accident on the giant round-a-bout surrounding the Arc once every thirty minutes, and that no insurance company will insure a car while driving on this round-a-bout, you do so at your own risk. To our astonishment, we even saw a few cyclists amidst the cars.
Overall, we have very much enjoyed our time here in Paris, however we have had our fill of the metro here and its many mysterious smells.... so we are ready to bid it farewell!
Next we are off to Breda in the Netherlands to visit a good friend of Jenna's from highschool, Kristen, who is currently spending 10 months there as a live-in nanny, as we make our way towards Amsterdam.
Jenna and Ty
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Interlaken, and the Interlaken Virus....not the flu!
We departed from Munich and managed to navigate our way through some pretty tight train connections en route to Interlaken, Switzerland. We THINK the name comes from the fact that the town is at the meeting point of two lakes in the Swiss Alps (see: learning languages).
We arrived in Interlaken and first of all, we did not realize that the currency there was in Swiss Francs, so that took a bit of getting used to. 1 Euro would buy us approximately 1.4 Francs. Checked into our hostel called Balmer's Herberge, which was a very unique cabin style place in town. It was pretty cool and different than anything we had stayed in to date.
After getting settled in and checked into the hostel at around 4, we did some long overdue laundry, cleaned ourselves up from a day of sitting on a train, and headed out to grab some dinner. We were lucky to find a very delicious and reasonably priced (which is highly unusual in Switzerland) Italian restaurant.
For our first full day in the Alps we decided to trek up and them and do some sledding which was highly recommended by the woman behind reception at the hostel. She showed us on a map how you catch a city bus, then a 30 minute train taking you straight into the mountains. She then explained that we could rent a slede from a sporting good store and then buy a ticket for the gondala to take you straight up the mountain. She told us that once we got to the top of the mountain is was a 45 minute hike to the worlds longest sleding run and that we could then sled all the way down to the bottom of the mountain. She made it all sound so simple and perfect, we were sold.
Everything went according to plan until we reach the top of the mountain. When we stepped out of the gondola and all we could see was WHITE! It was blinding, I immediately put on my sunglasses and still struggled to see 3 feet in front of me, I had never seen anything like this. Upon further examination of the trail map, we realized that we had been very much misinformed about the 45 minute hike, it was actually a 2 and a half hour steep hike which you would at the least require hiking poles and snow shoes to even have a hope of making it up within that time frame.
Well, we were there and we weren't turning back as we had about 50 euros each in sunk cost, so onward we went. We made it about 30 steps before Jenna fell to the ground and surrendered. In her defense, the snow was up to our knees and we could not see further than 5 feet in front of us. We also came across some serious hikers who had proper gear and they took one look at our rented sleds and said point blank, "you aren't making it to the top today".
It took me about 3 or 4 minutes to coax her back onto her feet and we went back to to the gondala to inquire about how else we could get down this mountain. Eventually we figured out that there were sled runs from our current location and we could still make our way down the mountain.
We still spent a good three hours making our way down the mountain, stopping half way to have lunch outside. What started out as a tourist excursion gone wrong, turned into one of our best days yet. We had an incredible time, at one point the runs took us right through the trees and the views were absolutely breathtaking. Sledding in the alps is definitely dangerous at times and Ty had a few close calls around some sharp turns! We have some amazing pictures to show for it all.
The next day we woke up and walked over an hour and half round trip to one of the neighbouring lakes. On our way back we stopped into the Hooters in Interlaken (yes we said hooters...) as this was the only place in town having a St. Patty's Day celebration. So we ordered some green beers and some lunch. Unfortunately this is when Jenna began to fall ill. From here the next 48 hours were pretty hellish. Jenna was extremely sick the reminder of this day and Ty fell ill the next morning. The silver lining was that the hostel was incredibly kind to us and moved us into their guesthouse, which are private rooms, with more comfortable bedding, tv's and most importantly our own bathroom. They upgraded us at no extra charge for the remainder of our stay. We didn't get to see as much of Interlaken as we would have liked, but at least we weren't suffering in dorm rooms, with communal washrooms....
We left Interlaken on Friday morning, Ty still feeling a little weak, but I had more or less recovered fully and arrived in current location Paris! Which we will blog about shortly but in the meantime we have crepes to eat and many many sights to see!
Jenna and Ty
We arrived in Interlaken and first of all, we did not realize that the currency there was in Swiss Francs, so that took a bit of getting used to. 1 Euro would buy us approximately 1.4 Francs. Checked into our hostel called Balmer's Herberge, which was a very unique cabin style place in town. It was pretty cool and different than anything we had stayed in to date.
After getting settled in and checked into the hostel at around 4, we did some long overdue laundry, cleaned ourselves up from a day of sitting on a train, and headed out to grab some dinner. We were lucky to find a very delicious and reasonably priced (which is highly unusual in Switzerland) Italian restaurant.
For our first full day in the Alps we decided to trek up and them and do some sledding which was highly recommended by the woman behind reception at the hostel. She showed us on a map how you catch a city bus, then a 30 minute train taking you straight into the mountains. She then explained that we could rent a slede from a sporting good store and then buy a ticket for the gondala to take you straight up the mountain. She told us that once we got to the top of the mountain is was a 45 minute hike to the worlds longest sleding run and that we could then sled all the way down to the bottom of the mountain. She made it all sound so simple and perfect, we were sold.
Everything went according to plan until we reach the top of the mountain. When we stepped out of the gondola and all we could see was WHITE! It was blinding, I immediately put on my sunglasses and still struggled to see 3 feet in front of me, I had never seen anything like this. Upon further examination of the trail map, we realized that we had been very much misinformed about the 45 minute hike, it was actually a 2 and a half hour steep hike which you would at the least require hiking poles and snow shoes to even have a hope of making it up within that time frame.
Well, we were there and we weren't turning back as we had about 50 euros each in sunk cost, so onward we went. We made it about 30 steps before Jenna fell to the ground and surrendered. In her defense, the snow was up to our knees and we could not see further than 5 feet in front of us. We also came across some serious hikers who had proper gear and they took one look at our rented sleds and said point blank, "you aren't making it to the top today".
It took me about 3 or 4 minutes to coax her back onto her feet and we went back to to the gondala to inquire about how else we could get down this mountain. Eventually we figured out that there were sled runs from our current location and we could still make our way down the mountain.
We still spent a good three hours making our way down the mountain, stopping half way to have lunch outside. What started out as a tourist excursion gone wrong, turned into one of our best days yet. We had an incredible time, at one point the runs took us right through the trees and the views were absolutely breathtaking. Sledding in the alps is definitely dangerous at times and Ty had a few close calls around some sharp turns! We have some amazing pictures to show for it all.
The next day we woke up and walked over an hour and half round trip to one of the neighbouring lakes. On our way back we stopped into the Hooters in Interlaken (yes we said hooters...) as this was the only place in town having a St. Patty's Day celebration. So we ordered some green beers and some lunch. Unfortunately this is when Jenna began to fall ill. From here the next 48 hours were pretty hellish. Jenna was extremely sick the reminder of this day and Ty fell ill the next morning. The silver lining was that the hostel was incredibly kind to us and moved us into their guesthouse, which are private rooms, with more comfortable bedding, tv's and most importantly our own bathroom. They upgraded us at no extra charge for the remainder of our stay. We didn't get to see as much of Interlaken as we would have liked, but at least we weren't suffering in dorm rooms, with communal washrooms....
We left Interlaken on Friday morning, Ty still feeling a little weak, but I had more or less recovered fully and arrived in current location Paris! Which we will blog about shortly but in the meantime we have crepes to eat and many many sights to see!
Jenna and Ty
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Our Home Away From Home...Munich!
We were greeted at the airport by our gracious host and official Munich tour guide, my mom's cousin Siegfried! We hoped onto the S-Bahn and after 35 minutes we arrived in Vierkirchen! We were shown to our wodnerful living quaters for the next four days and we immediately felt at home! At 6:30 we sat down to family dinner with the whole family and enjoyed homemade weiner schitzel! We enjoyed each others company for a few hours, Ty and I tried a variety of german beers! We slept wonderfully in Sandra's apartment, a big step up from our hostel life!
The next day Ty and I took the S-Bahn into Munich to explore the city! We did a walking tour first thing in the morning and it was great. It showed as us all the major sites and allowed us to get our barrings in the city! We then went to The Hofbräuhaus to enjoy some german beer! The place was pretty busy for 2pm in the afternoon, Ty enjoyed a 1L of Hofbrau Orginal and I had 0.5L and Ty even managed to finish his before me! We then climbed the stairs of St.Peter's Cathedral to take in the panoramic view of Munich. We have both fallen very much in love with this city and agreed that if we could see our selves living anywhere in Europe this far it would definately be Munich.
We headed back to Vierkirchen for 7pm as we had dinner reservations for a greek resturant in town with the family. The meal was amazing and the company even better, I also discovered my new favourite drink, radler, which is beer mixed with lemonade! Delcious! After dinner Martin and Maria (Siegfried's son and his girlfriend) took us to another place in town to have some drinks, we met some of thier friends and we had a really nice time!
Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to Dachau to have breakfast with Annette and her finace Andreas and his son Julius. It was delicious, Ty and I can't express enough how wonderful it was eating fresh food and homecooked meals! We then headed to Concentration Camp which was very sad, but a reminder of how blessed we are and we all agreed we could not comprehend the pain it's prisionors must have felt.
We then walked through the city of Dachau and saw it's castle and had a cup of coffee in a local coffee shop! After coffee we drove out to Kleinschwabhausen, where my grandfather and his brothers spent some time as young men and Langenpettenbach to see my mom's cousin and aunt and we finished our day by visiting Hilde and see her home.
Saturday night Martin, Maria, Ty and I went to see FC Bayern Munich!! It was amazing, the stadium was like nothing I have ever seen before in my life- 66,000 fans cheering! What an atmosphere, this was definately a highlight of the trip!
Sunday morning we had breakfast and then travelled to Fussen, to see Neuschwastien Castle! Since my pictures will do this castle no justice, I bought a poster to show everyone just how incredible it was! The drive home, we took a scenic route and drove through the apls, it was so beautful. We came home to have one last meal as a family and I began to feel sad at the thought of saying goodbye to everyone. We had homemade goulash, and then we chatted, I got to see lots of old photos and hear old stories and try some more varieties of german beer. It was priceless for me to learn so much about where I come from and I feel so lucky to have such an amazing family!
We cannot thank all of you enough for your genorousity, you went out of your way to see that we had the most amazing time!! We hope we get the chance to come back to Munich sooner than later, or perhaps get a chance to show you the same kindness if you were to come see us in Canada!
xoxo Jenna and Ty
The next day Ty and I took the S-Bahn into Munich to explore the city! We did a walking tour first thing in the morning and it was great. It showed as us all the major sites and allowed us to get our barrings in the city! We then went to The Hofbräuhaus to enjoy some german beer! The place was pretty busy for 2pm in the afternoon, Ty enjoyed a 1L of Hofbrau Orginal and I had 0.5L and Ty even managed to finish his before me! We then climbed the stairs of St.Peter's Cathedral to take in the panoramic view of Munich. We have both fallen very much in love with this city and agreed that if we could see our selves living anywhere in Europe this far it would definately be Munich.
We headed back to Vierkirchen for 7pm as we had dinner reservations for a greek resturant in town with the family. The meal was amazing and the company even better, I also discovered my new favourite drink, radler, which is beer mixed with lemonade! Delcious! After dinner Martin and Maria (Siegfried's son and his girlfriend) took us to another place in town to have some drinks, we met some of thier friends and we had a really nice time!
Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to Dachau to have breakfast with Annette and her finace Andreas and his son Julius. It was delicious, Ty and I can't express enough how wonderful it was eating fresh food and homecooked meals! We then headed to Concentration Camp which was very sad, but a reminder of how blessed we are and we all agreed we could not comprehend the pain it's prisionors must have felt.
We then walked through the city of Dachau and saw it's castle and had a cup of coffee in a local coffee shop! After coffee we drove out to Kleinschwabhausen, where my grandfather and his brothers spent some time as young men and Langenpettenbach to see my mom's cousin and aunt and we finished our day by visiting Hilde and see her home.
Saturday night Martin, Maria, Ty and I went to see FC Bayern Munich!! It was amazing, the stadium was like nothing I have ever seen before in my life- 66,000 fans cheering! What an atmosphere, this was definately a highlight of the trip!
Sunday morning we had breakfast and then travelled to Fussen, to see Neuschwastien Castle! Since my pictures will do this castle no justice, I bought a poster to show everyone just how incredible it was! The drive home, we took a scenic route and drove through the apls, it was so beautful. We came home to have one last meal as a family and I began to feel sad at the thought of saying goodbye to everyone. We had homemade goulash, and then we chatted, I got to see lots of old photos and hear old stories and try some more varieties of german beer. It was priceless for me to learn so much about where I come from and I feel so lucky to have such an amazing family!
We cannot thank all of you enough for your genorousity, you went out of your way to see that we had the most amazing time!! We hope we get the chance to come back to Munich sooner than later, or perhaps get a chance to show you the same kindness if you were to come see us in Canada!
xoxo Jenna and Ty
Naxos, Athens and Vienna!
Phew! its been a while since we've been on here, internet has been limited or pricey so I will do my best to summarize what we've been up to!
Naxos, Greece
Our hotel was beyond what we could have imagined, it was five stars and truly incredible. We had a balcony, with a view of the ocean and the hotel itself sat high on a hill so the view was amazing. It was a nice relaxing getaway for three nights, we enjoyed the luxury of the hotel and wondering through the town taking in some wonderful meals and lunches in the harbour looking out on the ocean. We also spent on afternoon at the local beach, read our books and enjoyed some Heiniken. Our hotel included breakfast buffets comprised mostly of homemade greek desserts, me and ty both ate more than we care to admit but it was too delcious to pass up!
Athens, Greece
We spent another two nights in Athens at a different hostel. It has an amazing rooftop patio that had a stunning view of the Acroplois at night. Happy hour was from 9-10 and offered large pints for 1.5 euros! We spent our time going through the local market, we met some more wonderful people and shared our last greek meal with a local traveller, having of course...moussaka!
Vienna, Austria
Our flight ran on time, and we arrived at our hostel around 1pm. The hostel was really nice, clean and had a young crowd. It also had it's own bar and they gave us free drink coupons upon arrival!
Our first say in Vienna we spent taking in the sights, we walked through the old city, saw the anchor clock strike noon (not as exciting as we had anticipated), saw St. Stephans Cathedral, the Opera House, The Imperial Palace and the Spanish Riding School and ended at Nachsmarket. This was probably the most incredible market we have seen thus far.
We then got on the subway and headed up the hockey arena to get our tickets for a Vienna Capitals game, a european professional hockey team. The game was amazing, the fans were incredible! The arena was packed, as it was the first of a playoff series, and me and ty were fortunate to be sitting right beside a die hard fan, who spoke english and was able to give us some background information on the team, and explain what exactly the fans were cheering.
The next day we walked down to Schonbrunn Palace and toured through the palace. We then walked back to the hostel to freshen up for dinner with my relatives here in Austria!
We met Sabine (my mom's cousin) at a bustop near the restuarant where we were having dinner, and at first neither of us recognized each other and had a good laugh when we realized we'd been standing beside each other for a couple minutes. It had been twenty years since we have seen each other!
We then walked to the restaurant to meet the rest of the family, my grandmother's sisters and thier husbands and children and grandchildren! We had a great dinner and chatted about life in Canada, life in Austria and our course our common ground, our family. It was so nice to reconnect with family here and it was very comforting as we have been away from home for a while now. Definately the best part of our visit to Vienna and it was sad to say goodbye!
The next morning we headed to Munich, where we met my grandfather's side of the family. Stay Tuned!
Naxos, Greece
Our hotel was beyond what we could have imagined, it was five stars and truly incredible. We had a balcony, with a view of the ocean and the hotel itself sat high on a hill so the view was amazing. It was a nice relaxing getaway for three nights, we enjoyed the luxury of the hotel and wondering through the town taking in some wonderful meals and lunches in the harbour looking out on the ocean. We also spent on afternoon at the local beach, read our books and enjoyed some Heiniken. Our hotel included breakfast buffets comprised mostly of homemade greek desserts, me and ty both ate more than we care to admit but it was too delcious to pass up!
Athens, Greece
We spent another two nights in Athens at a different hostel. It has an amazing rooftop patio that had a stunning view of the Acroplois at night. Happy hour was from 9-10 and offered large pints for 1.5 euros! We spent our time going through the local market, we met some more wonderful people and shared our last greek meal with a local traveller, having of course...moussaka!
Vienna, Austria
Our flight ran on time, and we arrived at our hostel around 1pm. The hostel was really nice, clean and had a young crowd. It also had it's own bar and they gave us free drink coupons upon arrival!
Our first say in Vienna we spent taking in the sights, we walked through the old city, saw the anchor clock strike noon (not as exciting as we had anticipated), saw St. Stephans Cathedral, the Opera House, The Imperial Palace and the Spanish Riding School and ended at Nachsmarket. This was probably the most incredible market we have seen thus far.
We then got on the subway and headed up the hockey arena to get our tickets for a Vienna Capitals game, a european professional hockey team. The game was amazing, the fans were incredible! The arena was packed, as it was the first of a playoff series, and me and ty were fortunate to be sitting right beside a die hard fan, who spoke english and was able to give us some background information on the team, and explain what exactly the fans were cheering.
The next day we walked down to Schonbrunn Palace and toured through the palace. We then walked back to the hostel to freshen up for dinner with my relatives here in Austria!
We met Sabine (my mom's cousin) at a bustop near the restuarant where we were having dinner, and at first neither of us recognized each other and had a good laugh when we realized we'd been standing beside each other for a couple minutes. It had been twenty years since we have seen each other!
We then walked to the restaurant to meet the rest of the family, my grandmother's sisters and thier husbands and children and grandchildren! We had a great dinner and chatted about life in Canada, life in Austria and our course our common ground, our family. It was so nice to reconnect with family here and it was very comforting as we have been away from home for a while now. Definately the best part of our visit to Vienna and it was sad to say goodbye!
The next morning we headed to Munich, where we met my grandfather's side of the family. Stay Tuned!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Beautiful Island of Santorini
We have had an incredible four nights here in Santorini, probably one of the most beautiful places we've had the priviledge of visiting in our lifetimes thus far. Its impossible to put into words and our pictures won't even come close to showing how incredible and unique this island is, but we'll do our best to recap what we've been up to while we've been here.
Our first day we took the bus up the northern most point of the island known as Oia. We walked all the way down to the tiny harbour at the bottom of the clif and took lots of great pictures. It was particulary exciting for me as we also got to see the house and area (including the harbour) where they filmed The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, and when I watched the movie for the first time, I thought how insanely beautiful the setting was, so it was pretty sureal to be there in the flesh and see it with my own eyes.
We have been loving the food, eating 2euro Gyros pretty much everyday for lunch and trying a different greek restaurant every night. Our second day we rented an ATV which was so much fun! We toured through the more southern parts of the island and stopped in at the famous red and black beaches.
Yesterday we committed to making the trek down the cliff in the town where our hotel is and climbing down these stairs took a good 30 minutes and we found a nice spot at the end of the harbour to relax and take in some sun for a couple hours (we both got pretty good sun burns!) It was a good 45 minutes to hike back up the 600 or 700 odd stairs and we both were sweating buckets!
The canadian couple we met in Athens also arrived at our hotel yesterday at about 4, So we headed into town together with wine, beer and olives to watch the sunset. We then went out for dinner to a colourful place called Mama's House, where mama herself served us and it was very entertaining and equally delicious! The four of us then went back to the hotel and brought a bottle of Ouzo with us and hung out on our balcony.
We are now getting ready to head to Naxos, our ferry leaves in about 45 minutes! We loved Santorini very much and hope that we will be lucky enough to return sometime in the future.
xo Jenna and Ty
Our first day we took the bus up the northern most point of the island known as Oia. We walked all the way down to the tiny harbour at the bottom of the clif and took lots of great pictures. It was particulary exciting for me as we also got to see the house and area (including the harbour) where they filmed The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, and when I watched the movie for the first time, I thought how insanely beautiful the setting was, so it was pretty sureal to be there in the flesh and see it with my own eyes.
We have been loving the food, eating 2euro Gyros pretty much everyday for lunch and trying a different greek restaurant every night. Our second day we rented an ATV which was so much fun! We toured through the more southern parts of the island and stopped in at the famous red and black beaches.
Yesterday we committed to making the trek down the cliff in the town where our hotel is and climbing down these stairs took a good 30 minutes and we found a nice spot at the end of the harbour to relax and take in some sun for a couple hours (we both got pretty good sun burns!) It was a good 45 minutes to hike back up the 600 or 700 odd stairs and we both were sweating buckets!
The canadian couple we met in Athens also arrived at our hotel yesterday at about 4, So we headed into town together with wine, beer and olives to watch the sunset. We then went out for dinner to a colourful place called Mama's House, where mama herself served us and it was very entertaining and equally delicious! The four of us then went back to the hotel and brought a bottle of Ouzo with us and hung out on our balcony.
We are now getting ready to head to Naxos, our ferry leaves in about 45 minutes! We loved Santorini very much and hope that we will be lucky enough to return sometime in the future.
xo Jenna and Ty
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Rome & Athens
It's been a while since we have had access to internet, so we've got a lot of ground to cover as we have been very busy in the meantime!
We are currently on the beautiful greek island of Santorini but before we get to that we'll summarize all that we saw as we ate our way through Rome, Italy.
After almost missing our third train leg of the day, we arrived in Rome around 7pm and our hostel/hotel was just a short walk from the Termini or Termy as I (Jenna) refered to it the entire time we were in Rome untill Ty finally deceided the joke was over and he corrected me. Our hostel was much more like a hotel, the room was huge, we had our own tv and sink and the bathroom was just down the hall. We also ventured out for food and our first taste of gelato, it was love at first bite and the addiction was instant. Ty got banana and nutellla and I got two different kinds of nutella...amazing!!
All of our days in Rome were jam packed with tons of walking and sightseeing, along with lots and lots of delicious food!
Day 1: We started off at the spanish steps, we then walked down to the trevi fountain and threw our coins in. We then walked to the Pantheon, and were amazed, as it is still standing at over 2,000 years old. We then stopped for our first italian pizza, Ty tried anchovies and deceided he does not like them and we had to pay a sitting fee. We then got more gelato and when I sat down to eat mine, the woman very sternly told me that sitting is a service, it was from here on we knew sitting in italy costs money. We then treked to the Colosseum. It was amazing, we walked all around and took it all in. We then tried to visit the Roman Forum but it was too late, it had closed. We then walked all the way back to our hotel and after some relaxing went out for a later dinner. We had our first pasta in italy and were both thoroughly satisfied along with some more gelato for dessert.
Day 2: We woke up and headed straight to the Roman Forum to pick up where we left off the day before. There was SO much to see and take in it was overwhelming and unbelievable. We spent a good couple hours just roaming through and then went to our first italian pizzeria. Basically these are just pizza counters and they sell the pizza slices based on their weight. We agreed that it was some of the best pizza we had ever had and so cheap. Since the weather was so nice in we could just eat outside while sitting right near the ruins. We then walked all the way to the Vatican City (and we may have gotten more gelato along the way... tiramisu, creme caramel and even just plain vanilla...so good.)
We walked into the main square of the Vatican staring directly at St Peter's Basilica, we cannot even begin to put into waords how incredible the Vatican City is and even our pictures won't do it justice. After going through security to enter we browsed through the entire Basilica including the basement which housed the tombs of past popes. We then deceided to work off all the gelato we'd been eating and climb to the top of the capsula for 5euros. The climb started out innocently enough, just a lot of winding stairs. We reached what I thought was the top and it allowed us to walk along the interior of church, giving us a bird's eye view of the basilica. We them noticed a tiny very narrow stairway with an arrow and deceided to keep going. After about 5 different narrow, winding, sometimes so thin you had to walk sideways and even one spiral staircase so steep and narrow there was a rope to aid you as you climbed. Ty thought it reminded him of the scene in willy wonka and the chocolate factory when the room keeps getting smaller as they walk. Once we reaced the top we then could go outisde and take in the most incredible view of Rome. We were essentially at the very top of Basilica it was breathtaking.
We walked in the direction of our hostel, grabbed some more pizza for dinner and stumbled upon a movie theatre on our way home. Lucky for us they were playing the Wolfman in english. After the movie we walked back to our hostel and went to bed, as we were extremely tired from our long day of walking.
Day 3: Although we had seen the St Peter's Basilica, we had not yet seen the Vatican Museum. We decided to walk to the Museum in the morning. The museum was HUGE, almost overwhelming to a fault. But the highlight expectedly was the Sistine Chapel at the end, containing some amazing frescoes by Michelangelo. The rest of the day we strolled around Rome, walked into some stores, and of course ate some more pizza and gelato.
The next morning we got up bright and early to catch a train to the airport to catch our 10:00 flight to Greece.
The Start of Greece
After checking into our hostel we decided to immediately meet with a travel agent to plan our trip to the islands of Greece. After meeting some not-so-friendly travel agents we stumbled upon Marios, and elder Greek gentleman who was more than willing to help us out. We spent an hour and a half with him and booked all of our ferries and hotels. Our itinerary for the islands includes Santorini for 4 nights, and Naxos for 3 nights. We then went and did laundry and decided to head to the pub for happy hour.
Just Jennas luck.....it was karaoke night. By 10 o clock, everyone was feeling good, the bar was packed, and lots of people wanted to sing. Early on, two American guys decided to dedicate a song to Team USA hockey. We of course were not thrilled, so Jenna decided to sing one of her personal favorites, "That Dont Impress Me Much" by Shania Twain, conviently a Canadian artist. She dedicated the song to Team USA Hockey and everyone in the bar got a kick out of it as there were many fellow Canadians. Soon after the bartender asked Jenna to join him in singing "Man! I feel like a Woman!" apparently he was a big Shania fan too. We also met a couple from Edmonton who we chatted with majority of the night, Scott and Christine. Jen and Christine formed a mnusical duo and signed themselves up for various songs with the stage name Jenstine. Hits included Sweet Caroline and The Sign by Ace of Base. Needless to say a great time was had by all. We stayed till close and headed back to our hostel.
The next morning wehad breakfast at the hostel and then headed out to do some sightseeing. We went to the temple of Zeus first and then the Acropolis. It was incredible, we spent a good 2 and a half hours treking to the top and taking it all in. We then met Scott and Christine and explored a local market together, we also grabbed some beers and coffee and sat in view of the acropolis. We then went back to the hostel to freshen up and headed back to the pub for happy hour. After some drinks the four of us headed for dinner around 9pm. Christine found us a great Greek resturant and we sat outside. We had greek salads and house wine to start, the boys ordered mousaka (greek shepards pie) and the girls chicken souvlaki and then ice-cream for dessert. After dinner we headed back to our hostel as we had to get up at 5:30am to catch our ferry the next morning.
Which brings us to our current location of Santorini, we had an amazing first day, but we are all out of internet time for now, so stay tuned and we'll write about our island adventures shortly!
We are currently on the beautiful greek island of Santorini but before we get to that we'll summarize all that we saw as we ate our way through Rome, Italy.
After almost missing our third train leg of the day, we arrived in Rome around 7pm and our hostel/hotel was just a short walk from the Termini or Termy as I (Jenna) refered to it the entire time we were in Rome untill Ty finally deceided the joke was over and he corrected me. Our hostel was much more like a hotel, the room was huge, we had our own tv and sink and the bathroom was just down the hall. We also ventured out for food and our first taste of gelato, it was love at first bite and the addiction was instant. Ty got banana and nutellla and I got two different kinds of nutella...amazing!!
All of our days in Rome were jam packed with tons of walking and sightseeing, along with lots and lots of delicious food!
Day 1: We started off at the spanish steps, we then walked down to the trevi fountain and threw our coins in. We then walked to the Pantheon, and were amazed, as it is still standing at over 2,000 years old. We then stopped for our first italian pizza, Ty tried anchovies and deceided he does not like them and we had to pay a sitting fee. We then got more gelato and when I sat down to eat mine, the woman very sternly told me that sitting is a service, it was from here on we knew sitting in italy costs money. We then treked to the Colosseum. It was amazing, we walked all around and took it all in. We then tried to visit the Roman Forum but it was too late, it had closed. We then walked all the way back to our hotel and after some relaxing went out for a later dinner. We had our first pasta in italy and were both thoroughly satisfied along with some more gelato for dessert.
Day 2: We woke up and headed straight to the Roman Forum to pick up where we left off the day before. There was SO much to see and take in it was overwhelming and unbelievable. We spent a good couple hours just roaming through and then went to our first italian pizzeria. Basically these are just pizza counters and they sell the pizza slices based on their weight. We agreed that it was some of the best pizza we had ever had and so cheap. Since the weather was so nice in we could just eat outside while sitting right near the ruins. We then walked all the way to the Vatican City (and we may have gotten more gelato along the way... tiramisu, creme caramel and even just plain vanilla...so good.)
We walked into the main square of the Vatican staring directly at St Peter's Basilica, we cannot even begin to put into waords how incredible the Vatican City is and even our pictures won't do it justice. After going through security to enter we browsed through the entire Basilica including the basement which housed the tombs of past popes. We then deceided to work off all the gelato we'd been eating and climb to the top of the capsula for 5euros. The climb started out innocently enough, just a lot of winding stairs. We reached what I thought was the top and it allowed us to walk along the interior of church, giving us a bird's eye view of the basilica. We them noticed a tiny very narrow stairway with an arrow and deceided to keep going. After about 5 different narrow, winding, sometimes so thin you had to walk sideways and even one spiral staircase so steep and narrow there was a rope to aid you as you climbed. Ty thought it reminded him of the scene in willy wonka and the chocolate factory when the room keeps getting smaller as they walk. Once we reaced the top we then could go outisde and take in the most incredible view of Rome. We were essentially at the very top of Basilica it was breathtaking.
We walked in the direction of our hostel, grabbed some more pizza for dinner and stumbled upon a movie theatre on our way home. Lucky for us they were playing the Wolfman in english. After the movie we walked back to our hostel and went to bed, as we were extremely tired from our long day of walking.
Day 3: Although we had seen the St Peter's Basilica, we had not yet seen the Vatican Museum. We decided to walk to the Museum in the morning. The museum was HUGE, almost overwhelming to a fault. But the highlight expectedly was the Sistine Chapel at the end, containing some amazing frescoes by Michelangelo. The rest of the day we strolled around Rome, walked into some stores, and of course ate some more pizza and gelato.
The next morning we got up bright and early to catch a train to the airport to catch our 10:00 flight to Greece.
The Start of Greece
After checking into our hostel we decided to immediately meet with a travel agent to plan our trip to the islands of Greece. After meeting some not-so-friendly travel agents we stumbled upon Marios, and elder Greek gentleman who was more than willing to help us out. We spent an hour and a half with him and booked all of our ferries and hotels. Our itinerary for the islands includes Santorini for 4 nights, and Naxos for 3 nights. We then went and did laundry and decided to head to the pub for happy hour.
Just Jennas luck.....it was karaoke night. By 10 o clock, everyone was feeling good, the bar was packed, and lots of people wanted to sing. Early on, two American guys decided to dedicate a song to Team USA hockey. We of course were not thrilled, so Jenna decided to sing one of her personal favorites, "That Dont Impress Me Much" by Shania Twain, conviently a Canadian artist. She dedicated the song to Team USA Hockey and everyone in the bar got a kick out of it as there were many fellow Canadians. Soon after the bartender asked Jenna to join him in singing "Man! I feel like a Woman!" apparently he was a big Shania fan too. We also met a couple from Edmonton who we chatted with majority of the night, Scott and Christine. Jen and Christine formed a mnusical duo and signed themselves up for various songs with the stage name Jenstine. Hits included Sweet Caroline and The Sign by Ace of Base. Needless to say a great time was had by all. We stayed till close and headed back to our hostel.
The next morning wehad breakfast at the hostel and then headed out to do some sightseeing. We went to the temple of Zeus first and then the Acropolis. It was incredible, we spent a good 2 and a half hours treking to the top and taking it all in. We then met Scott and Christine and explored a local market together, we also grabbed some beers and coffee and sat in view of the acropolis. We then went back to the hostel to freshen up and headed back to the pub for happy hour. After some drinks the four of us headed for dinner around 9pm. Christine found us a great Greek resturant and we sat outside. We had greek salads and house wine to start, the boys ordered mousaka (greek shepards pie) and the girls chicken souvlaki and then ice-cream for dessert. After dinner we headed back to our hostel as we had to get up at 5:30am to catch our ferry the next morning.
Which brings us to our current location of Santorini, we had an amazing first day, but we are all out of internet time for now, so stay tuned and we'll write about our island adventures shortly!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
The BEST day yet!
Today we had the most amazing weather, and an incredible day to go along with it. We woke up bright and early knowing that today was suppose to be very sunny, had our breakfast and headed into town for 10am. We decided to start the day with a long walk along the board walk, starring at the bright turquoise Mediterranean sea. Eager to check out the water Ty wondered towards the incoming tide. I turned my head for about 10 seconds only to turn back and see Ty soaked up to his knees... he got just a little too close. So we sat on the board walk with his socks and shoe soles sitting out to dry, with not a cloud in the sky. We then strolled back towards town and stopped for a bite to eat outside.
After lunch we decided to stroll through old nice once again (as we loved it so much the day before). We then made our way down to the beach where we sat and took in the sun for a good two hours. It was incredibly beautiful and full of people. After taking in the sun for two hours we wondered back into the crowded streets and found our way into a french restaurant where we ordered mussels, french onion soup and frites! The sun was then beginning to set so we started making our way to the tram station where we did a bit of grocery shopping (for our long train day tomorrow) and headed back to the hostel. We chatted in our room for a while with our room-mates, one from Scotland, one from Los Angeles and a Kiwi, needless to say this provided lots of laughs. We packed our bags for tomorrow and will spend the night hanging out in the common area, having some drinks and enjoying the company of our new friends before we must depart tomorrow. Thank-you Nice, it has been unforgettable, we hope to return some day : )
After lunch we decided to stroll through old nice once again (as we loved it so much the day before). We then made our way down to the beach where we sat and took in the sun for a good two hours. It was incredibly beautiful and full of people. After taking in the sun for two hours we wondered back into the crowded streets and found our way into a french restaurant where we ordered mussels, french onion soup and frites! The sun was then beginning to set so we started making our way to the tram station where we did a bit of grocery shopping (for our long train day tomorrow) and headed back to the hostel. We chatted in our room for a while with our room-mates, one from Scotland, one from Los Angeles and a Kiwi, needless to say this provided lots of laughs. We packed our bags for tomorrow and will spend the night hanging out in the common area, having some drinks and enjoying the company of our new friends before we must depart tomorrow. Thank-you Nice, it has been unforgettable, we hope to return some day : )
Friday, February 19, 2010
Greetings from the GORGEOUS French Riviera!
On Wednesday we left Barcelona at 8:45am and after stopping briefly in Montpelier France we arrived in Nice at 6:40pm. We took a tram to a local supermarket and a mini bus from our hostel picked up us. We arrived at the gorgeous Villa Saint Exupery and were greeted by lots of friendly Australians. This hostel is incredible, the rooms are large and clean, this is our first time in a dorm style room, but so far it has been amazing, given that it is off season, our room which has 5 sets of bunk beds in it, has at most only housed 5 of us. The hostel is a converted monastery that sits high on a mountain in Nice, the staff will tell you everything you need to know and how to get around, there is a bar in the hostel common area with 1 euro beers and every night a dinner special or pizza's made to order and breakfast is included. The common area always has music going and is full of people. Ty and I have concluded that we feel like we are at grown up summer camp, everyone is so friendly and we have managed to make friends with many other travelers, both fellow Canadians and some Americans. Thursday, our first full day in Nice we decided to venture up the coast with Candice (from Halifax) and Meredith (from Missouri) and make our way to Monaco together. We hoped o
n a bus that first took us to Eze Village, a medieval village, on a mountain, that hasn't changed in 500 hundred years!
From there we hopped back on a bus that took us up to Monaco, which was very glamorous. We walked into the lobby of the Monte Carlo Casino (this is as far as we could go without paying a large cover fee and full dress code being required). From there we walked down to the Habour and saw all of the beautiful and very expense boats and cars and the famous formula 1 racing track, topping the visit off with a glimpse of the prince's palace! A bus then took us back to Nice, where we settled into the bar of the hostel and had a great time with all of our new friends staying up in to the early hours of the morning.
Today we ventured into Nice and explored the Chateau, which, you guessed it, sits high on a mountain. While we climbed to the top we took in some incredible views and explored the amazing cemetery at the very top. We then strolled through the very quaint streets of old nice and stopped for some lunch. The rain was coming down so after lunch so decided to come back to our hostel, and we have been spending some time swapping travel stories with everyone we've met here. Tomorrow, is suppose to be sunny all day, so we plan to spend the day in nice and make our way down to the beach. Apparently, the water is quite warm, so we may even go for a dip in the Mediterranean sea...Sunday we train to Rome and we have also officially booked our flights to Greece from Feb 25 -March 8, where we plan to spend some time in Athens and the islands. Much love, we miss you all tons, wish you could be here with us!
-xoxox Jenna and Ty
n a bus that first took us to Eze Village, a medieval village, on a mountain, that hasn't changed in 500 hundred years!
From there we hopped back on a bus that took us up to Monaco, which was very glamorous. We walked into the lobby of the Monte Carlo Casino (this is as far as we could go without paying a large cover fee and full dress code being required). From there we walked down to the Habour and saw all of the beautiful and very expense boats and cars and the famous formula 1 racing track, topping the visit off with a glimpse of the prince's palace! A bus then took us back to Nice, where we settled into the bar of the hostel and had a great time with all of our new friends staying up in to the early hours of the morning.
Today we ventured into Nice and explored the Chateau, which, you guessed it, sits high on a mountain. While we climbed to the top we took in some incredible views and explored the amazing cemetery at the very top. We then strolled through the very quaint streets of old nice and stopped for some lunch. The rain was coming down so after lunch so decided to come back to our hostel, and we have been spending some time swapping travel stories with everyone we've met here. Tomorrow, is suppose to be sunny all day, so we plan to spend the day in nice and make our way down to the beach. Apparently, the water is quite warm, so we may even go for a dip in the Mediterranean sea...Sunday we train to Rome and we have also officially booked our flights to Greece from Feb 25 -March 8, where we plan to spend some time in Athens and the islands. Much love, we miss you all tons, wish you could be here with us!
-xoxox Jenna and Ty
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
End of Madrid and All of Barcelona
Hola...
(Yes that is probobly the only word that we know in Spanish as we are about to depart Spain for good tommorrow morning). Well, we probobly know a few more. But I am rambling...
So we left off at our visit to the Prado museum, well Im going to attempt to give a good summary of happenings between then and now.
Our final (full) day in Madrid we decided to head to the Royal Palace. Now no one of royalty lives there anymore, its just used as a place to hold big functions, etc. This was one of the first times on the trip that both of us could safely say that we were awestuck by what was inside the palace. All of the ceilings were painted amazingly, the rooms were massive, and we counted a 60+ person table in the dining room. Now, you were forbidden to take pictures, but we managed to sneak a few. If anyone is curious to see what it actually looks like right now, just google Madrid Royal Palace and do an image search. I would post a picture from google in here, but all the menu items on the computer are in Spanish...
On Sunday we travelled to Barcelona. We were able to activate our rail passes and reserve our seats the morning of our departure with relative ease. The train ride itself was somthing else. We were able to take a high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona, which reached a top speed of 302 km/h from what I saw on the display they had in each car for the trains speed. It took us around 2.5 hours to reach Barcelona. Now if Canada had some way of adopting some sort of high speed train service, it would likely go along way to alleviating traffic congestion on major highways, but I am rambling again....
Anyway, we arrived in Barcelona, and made our reservation for our next train to Nice, France on Wednesday in advance, on advice from friends who have travelled before. We found our hostel which is pretty nice. The rooms are fairly small with bunk beds, but they are set up apartment style so at least we have our own kitchen to share with 3 other rooms. The hostel also has a big screen satellite TV so we were able to watch some Olympic coverage (in Spanish......ski jumping.....tape delayed....) on Sunday night.
Our first day in Barcelona we got quite a bit of sight seeing in. We saw the famous "Sagrada Familia" church/cathedral which is about a 10 minute walk from our hostel. Again, if your interested just google it, construction on it started in 1882 and is still not projected to be completed for another 30+ years. We walked through a traditional outdoor market, which was unlike anything we had seen back home, and ventured down the famous "Las Ramblas" road towards the Mediterranean Sea. We passed numerous street vendors again, and many restaurants and bars, and of course many shops. We decided to go to the Barcelona aquarium since the weather was a bit cold and rainy. We both agreed that the aquarium was a great visit. There were fish from all parts of the world, even some sharks. The highlight was the "oceanarium" which was a tunnel right through one of the main large tanks which was home to numerous sharks and fish. We did manage to take some pretty good pictures.
We then went to the old gothic area of town and took in some of the very old areas of Barcelona. We went inside another church called Gaudi´s cathedral (again, google image search). and sat for about 10 minutes listening to a choir sing, which was a pretty cool experience.
Today, which was our final full day in Barcelona we made the trek to the Barcelona Olympic park (hey, if you cant be in Canada for the Olympics, why not go to a place that had them 18 years ago?.........) In all seriousness, it was a very cool experience. We were allowed to walk inside the main Olympic stadium and look around. They are preparing for the European track championships this summer, so it is undergoing some construction. We walked to the front of the stadium to the main plaza of the Olympic park. The plaza was amazing since it looks over the entire city. It was also a great place to take a photo of the stadium. The interesting thing about it was that in the entire front plaza, which seemed to be over an acre of area, there were only about 4 people taking photos. It was an extremelly empty place, and it was interesting to think back 18 years that this plaza had the eyes of the world on it. Still, it was a great experience to see it.
We went to the sports/Olympic museum next door to the stadium. Some hilights include torches from all the Olympic games from 1936-2008, shoes worn by Michael Jordan in the Olympics, and a replica F1 race car.
With our early train tommorrow and a long day of travelling, we are going to call it an early night tonight. Train leaves Barcelona at 8:40 and we arrive in Montpelier, France at 1:50. We then have to catch a train from Montpelier to Nice. If all goes well we should arrive around 6 at night.
Until next time
- Tyler
(Yes that is probobly the only word that we know in Spanish as we are about to depart Spain for good tommorrow morning). Well, we probobly know a few more. But I am rambling...
So we left off at our visit to the Prado museum, well Im going to attempt to give a good summary of happenings between then and now.
Our final (full) day in Madrid we decided to head to the Royal Palace. Now no one of royalty lives there anymore, its just used as a place to hold big functions, etc. This was one of the first times on the trip that both of us could safely say that we were awestuck by what was inside the palace. All of the ceilings were painted amazingly, the rooms were massive, and we counted a 60+ person table in the dining room. Now, you were forbidden to take pictures, but we managed to sneak a few. If anyone is curious to see what it actually looks like right now, just google Madrid Royal Palace and do an image search. I would post a picture from google in here, but all the menu items on the computer are in Spanish...
On Sunday we travelled to Barcelona. We were able to activate our rail passes and reserve our seats the morning of our departure with relative ease. The train ride itself was somthing else. We were able to take a high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona, which reached a top speed of 302 km/h from what I saw on the display they had in each car for the trains speed. It took us around 2.5 hours to reach Barcelona. Now if Canada had some way of adopting some sort of high speed train service, it would likely go along way to alleviating traffic congestion on major highways, but I am rambling again....
Anyway, we arrived in Barcelona, and made our reservation for our next train to Nice, France on Wednesday in advance, on advice from friends who have travelled before. We found our hostel which is pretty nice. The rooms are fairly small with bunk beds, but they are set up apartment style so at least we have our own kitchen to share with 3 other rooms. The hostel also has a big screen satellite TV so we were able to watch some Olympic coverage (in Spanish......ski jumping.....tape delayed....) on Sunday night.
Our first day in Barcelona we got quite a bit of sight seeing in. We saw the famous "Sagrada Familia" church/cathedral which is about a 10 minute walk from our hostel. Again, if your interested just google it, construction on it started in 1882 and is still not projected to be completed for another 30+ years. We walked through a traditional outdoor market, which was unlike anything we had seen back home, and ventured down the famous "Las Ramblas" road towards the Mediterranean Sea. We passed numerous street vendors again, and many restaurants and bars, and of course many shops. We decided to go to the Barcelona aquarium since the weather was a bit cold and rainy. We both agreed that the aquarium was a great visit. There were fish from all parts of the world, even some sharks. The highlight was the "oceanarium" which was a tunnel right through one of the main large tanks which was home to numerous sharks and fish. We did manage to take some pretty good pictures.
We then went to the old gothic area of town and took in some of the very old areas of Barcelona. We went inside another church called Gaudi´s cathedral (again, google image search). and sat for about 10 minutes listening to a choir sing, which was a pretty cool experience.
Today, which was our final full day in Barcelona we made the trek to the Barcelona Olympic park (hey, if you cant be in Canada for the Olympics, why not go to a place that had them 18 years ago?.........) In all seriousness, it was a very cool experience. We were allowed to walk inside the main Olympic stadium and look around. They are preparing for the European track championships this summer, so it is undergoing some construction. We walked to the front of the stadium to the main plaza of the Olympic park. The plaza was amazing since it looks over the entire city. It was also a great place to take a photo of the stadium. The interesting thing about it was that in the entire front plaza, which seemed to be over an acre of area, there were only about 4 people taking photos. It was an extremelly empty place, and it was interesting to think back 18 years that this plaza had the eyes of the world on it. Still, it was a great experience to see it.
We went to the sports/Olympic museum next door to the stadium. Some hilights include torches from all the Olympic games from 1936-2008, shoes worn by Michael Jordan in the Olympics, and a replica F1 race car.
With our early train tommorrow and a long day of travelling, we are going to call it an early night tonight. Train leaves Barcelona at 8:40 and we arrive in Montpelier, France at 1:50. We then have to catch a train from Montpelier to Nice. If all goes well we should arrive around 6 at night.
Until next time
- Tyler
Friday, February 12, 2010
February 12th - Visit to the Prado
Today started off as a very bright and sunny day here in Madrid, with temperatures around 8 or 9 degrees which was a welcome change to the first couple days where it was somewhat overcast and cooler than we would have liked it to be. Still slightly jet-lagged and getting used to the time difference we woke up at 11:00 and decided to head out for lunch, and then go to explore the famous Prado Art Museum.
One thing that we have come to like about our hostel is the quite central location it has to everything, yesterday the Puerta del Sol and the Plaza Mayor were both within a 10 minute walk, today the Prado was approximately a 15 minute walk south from our hostel. The walk itself was quite enjoyable down a cobblestone back street which led directly to the entrance of the museum (id post a picture, but I am not sure if we are permitted here at the hostel, haha).
We arrived at the museum and it was divided into sections based on the origin of the painting (Spainish, English, Dutch, Italian, etc). Some of the paintings dated back to the 1200s. Here is a link to the always reliable (sarcasm) wikipedia for some of the famous works that are on display.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_del_Prado
After the museum we decided to scope out the train station in preparation for our departure to Barcelona on Sunday. Needless to say, thank god we decided to check it out early. Everything is in Spanish (it is Spain, of course) and somewhat confusing. Eventually we found a customer service person who spoke limited English and was able to instruct us on how to get a train, and validate our pass.
We are now back at the hostel, and about to head out to Peurta del Sol to grab some dinner and do some more exploring.
And yes, I agree with Reid on twitter, Gretzky will light the Olympic torch tonight.
- Tyler
One thing that we have come to like about our hostel is the quite central location it has to everything, yesterday the Puerta del Sol and the Plaza Mayor were both within a 10 minute walk, today the Prado was approximately a 15 minute walk south from our hostel. The walk itself was quite enjoyable down a cobblestone back street which led directly to the entrance of the museum (id post a picture, but I am not sure if we are permitted here at the hostel, haha).
We arrived at the museum and it was divided into sections based on the origin of the painting (Spainish, English, Dutch, Italian, etc). Some of the paintings dated back to the 1200s. Here is a link to the always reliable (sarcasm) wikipedia for some of the famous works that are on display.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_del_Prado
After the museum we decided to scope out the train station in preparation for our departure to Barcelona on Sunday. Needless to say, thank god we decided to check it out early. Everything is in Spanish (it is Spain, of course) and somewhat confusing. Eventually we found a customer service person who spoke limited English and was able to instruct us on how to get a train, and validate our pass.
We are now back at the hostel, and about to head out to Peurta del Sol to grab some dinner and do some more exploring.
And yes, I agree with Reid on twitter, Gretzky will light the Olympic torch tonight.
- Tyler
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Arrival in Madrid
We made it to our hostel at around 1:30 Madrid time yesterday (6 hours ahead) completely sleep deprived we succesfully navigated our way through the spanish metro, taking three different lines! We got majorly lost once we popped out on street level, as all of the street signs are in spanish and tucked away on the sides of buildings (neither frequently or in easy to spot places) but eventually we figured it out.
In desperate need of sleep we immediately dropped our packs and took a nap. Waking up at around 5pm we deceided to venture out into the city. The buildings are absolutely beautiful, although with them looking so similair it is very easy to get lost. As well, it seems as though barely anyone speaks english and all menus are in spanish, so starved and very confused we opted for Burger King. Where the pop and fries are about the size of those you would find in a North American kids meal, I opted for mine with conqeso (cheese)! We then wondered around the city for a good 2 hours before heading back to our hostel, where we fell asleep before 10pm and woke up at 12:45pm today, needless to say we were very jet lagged!
Today, we made our way to Peurto del Sol - the main square, with gorgeous fountains, more amazing architecture, tons of shops and people, about 5 minutes from our hostel. When we sat down for lunch we noticed our menu had three columns of pricing depending on where you sat. The terrace outside was the most expensive, the salon inside a little cheaper and the bar was the cheapest. Still getting used to everything being the same price as you would find in Canada, only in Euros we opted for the bar. After lunch we headed to the Plaza Mayor an inclosed courtyard and explored all the streets around it and then we made our way into what we think must be the spanish version of the Hudson Bay Company, in the bottom level there is a supermarket and we grabbed a snack, I got this little prepacked yogurt and chocolate cereal, it was insanely delicious, shoutout to Troy and Stefanie who share my love for cereal wish you could have been here to try it with me : ) We are now getting ready to head out for a later dinner, we deceided tonight we are going to have Tapas and Sangria and do as the Madridians do!
-Jenna xo
In desperate need of sleep we immediately dropped our packs and took a nap. Waking up at around 5pm we deceided to venture out into the city. The buildings are absolutely beautiful, although with them looking so similair it is very easy to get lost. As well, it seems as though barely anyone speaks english and all menus are in spanish, so starved and very confused we opted for Burger King. Where the pop and fries are about the size of those you would find in a North American kids meal, I opted for mine with conqeso (cheese)! We then wondered around the city for a good 2 hours before heading back to our hostel, where we fell asleep before 10pm and woke up at 12:45pm today, needless to say we were very jet lagged!
Today, we made our way to Peurto del Sol - the main square, with gorgeous fountains, more amazing architecture, tons of shops and people, about 5 minutes from our hostel. When we sat down for lunch we noticed our menu had three columns of pricing depending on where you sat. The terrace outside was the most expensive, the salon inside a little cheaper and the bar was the cheapest. Still getting used to everything being the same price as you would find in Canada, only in Euros we opted for the bar. After lunch we headed to the Plaza Mayor an inclosed courtyard and explored all the streets around it and then we made our way into what we think must be the spanish version of the Hudson Bay Company, in the bottom level there is a supermarket and we grabbed a snack, I got this little prepacked yogurt and chocolate cereal, it was insanely delicious, shoutout to Troy and Stefanie who share my love for cereal wish you could have been here to try it with me : ) We are now getting ready to head out for a later dinner, we deceided tonight we are going to have Tapas and Sangria and do as the Madridians do!
-Jenna xo
Monday, February 8, 2010
How to Follow Us
Hey Guys,
Just in case anyone has not received an email/facebook message from us, you can follow us on twitter (Can't believe I am actually typing that..lol) at www.twitter.com/tylerwiatr
Our twitter will be updated more frequently than this blog, hopefully between the two of us we can give an entry in the blog once a day to summarize what we are up to.
Our flight leaves Pearson Airport tommorrow at 5:30 pm, we arrive in Frankfurt early in the morning and then catch our connecting flight to Madrid which is scheduled to land around 11:00 am Madrid time.
One other thing, if anyone wants to comment on any of our entries you can, just click on comment below each post, just make sure you sign your name!
Look forward to writing about our travels.
-Ty
Just in case anyone has not received an email/facebook message from us, you can follow us on twitter (Can't believe I am actually typing that..lol) at www.twitter.com/tylerwiatr
Our twitter will be updated more frequently than this blog, hopefully between the two of us we can give an entry in the blog once a day to summarize what we are up to.
Our flight leaves Pearson Airport tommorrow at 5:30 pm, we arrive in Frankfurt early in the morning and then catch our connecting flight to Madrid which is scheduled to land around 11:00 am Madrid time.
One other thing, if anyone wants to comment on any of our entries you can, just click on comment below each post, just make sure you sign your name!
Look forward to writing about our travels.
-Ty
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Departing in less than one week!
We are leaving Canada on February 9th 2010, and will be returning after 2 months of backpacking through Europe!Our intinerary includes Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands and England!
Stay tuned for details of our expedition!
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