Sintra and Beyond

Our morning and breakfast in Portugal began very interestingly when we met 2 guys from the Jersey shore in our hostel during breakfast. Immediately upon meeting them they began comparing their lives to the tv show Jersey Shore, saying it was not as intense as the show, but still pretty similar. They even claimed to have a friend who works at the tanning salon where "the situation" tans everyday. When they found out we were from the midwest, and that none of us really never even watched the jersey shore they were amazed. They asked if we grew up on farms, and what the midwest was like because the furthest west they have ever been and ever plan to go is West Virginia. While I am sure even though we do not live on farms, say y'all all the time, and listen to country music, you could tell no matter what we said to these guys that was how they pictured us. I found that entertaining because everything I would picture from a couple a guys from the jersey shore came true about they. They were part DJ, part hair-stylist, and part mechanic. They loved to hit up the clubs, pump their fists all night long, and pick up the ladies. They even told us the because of the vitamin D, tanning is good for you. It was a complete culture clash. Hopefully someday they make it past West Virginia to see that the midwest is not completely how they pictured it.

For our last day in Portugal we took a very nice day tour to some of the beautiful palaces in the country side of Portugal. Our leader Miguel lead us along the beach and on some very windy roads to this amazing part of Portugal. The view from the palaces and summer homes of some of Portugal's royal family were amazing. You could see the coast for miles, and also see all of Lisbon. At the second palace we went too we all felt like we were in a movie or a fairy tale. While walking through the gardens you can sneak through secret caves, climb tall towers, and hop across streams and creeks. Inside the caves was completely pitch black at points, which surprisingly did not lead to any sibling vs. sibling scare contests. On our day trip we also stopped in the small town of Sintra for a nice lunch. I tried the grilled squid and it was one of the most amazing dishes I have ever eaten, try it when you go to Portugal! The van tour was a great way to end our trip considering none of us had to navigate, or even think about where we were going. After 2 straight weeks of constant touring, it was nice to let someone else guide us and actually drive us to the locations we wanted to see.

When we arrived back at the hostel we only had about 2 hours before the home cooked meal we signed up for that morning. The Lisbon Lounge hostel, probably the cleanest and nicest hostel we stayed in on the trip, offers home cooked meals every night for 8 euro. This dinner was another one of our crazy experiences of the trip, not because of the food but because of who we were eating with. Our dinner was completely dominated by 10 German girls who must have all been traveling together. First they reserved seats at the table in the kitchen, so we were crammed into a small corner section of the table. When we began to sit down they gave us the evil eye, and made sure that no one else tried to sit in the seats they were reserving. When they all sat down though things became even more uncomfortable and awkward because they loudly speaking in German to each other the whole time, and not even acknowledging our existence at the table, it was like we ruined their nice table, and now they weren't going to talk to us. But when the food came, we found out what they must have been talking about because these girls were HUNGRY. Now I have eaten with tables full of high school boy swimmers, but that did not compare at all the how hungry these German girls were. They completely devoured all the food that was set on the table in seconds. The initial bread, gone right away, some of them eating as many as 4 pieces instantly. The hot tomato soup was slurped up quicker than I have ever seen soup eaten. In our corner of the table we were left to eat the scraps that the German girls didn't finish. The four of us just sat in complete awe as they consumed whatever was put in front of them. Aside from them the dinner was very good, and I think even the cook noticed what was going on because luckily he always seemed to have a secret stash of some of the food waiting for us after they had finished.

We finished our meal, and then enjoyed a free concert in the lounge of our hostel, again giving the hostel one of the highest ratings possible compared to everywhere else we stayed. After sitting at the concert and watching the Jersey guys from earlier struggle in the non raging club atmosphere, we were ready for bed considering we had to wake up early for a flight back to the states.

Was that walking tour really free?

We have arrived in Portugal after a long night train from Madrid. We slept as much as possible, but again had a unique encounter with some people on the train. This time though is was due to a complete lack of higene. Our train car had a very thick and potent smell unlike any other I have experienced in my life, and I know some stinky people. Nevertheless we made it to Portugal, and found our hostel without any hiccups. We again could not check in so we just locked up our bags and headed out for some breakfast and coffee in Lisbon.

After our quick breakfast we went back to the hostel for the free tour they offer on Tuesdays and Fridays. We expected a quick city tour that would maybe take 2 hours, but this was no ordinary tour. Our tour guide, a local and the manager of our hostel, lead our group of 27 around the city for around 7 hours. We did everything our guide book suggests to do in Lisbon and more. He gave us a history of the city, took us to 2 of his favorite churches, took us to 2 places at the top of the city for some phenomenal pictures, and through the Alfama. He took us to a local restaurant for a 2 hour three course meal in the city that cost only 13.50, one of the best deals of the trip so far. We finished off the long tour with a wine tasting and a nice walk back to our hostel. Luke wanted to talk the group into promising to reunite a year from now since we had such a special time together. If you ever stay at the Lisbon lounge, I recommend the free walking tour, but know that it is around 7 hours.

We would like to rest a little tonight before a day trip tomorrow to see one of the palaces in Portugal. The trip is really winding down and it is almost time to come home.

¡Vamos España! (horns and vuvuelas honking)

The Mad hostal, our second hostal in Madrid was better than the night
before, but still towards the bottom of our hostal list. We dropped
our bags off and headed out for second day tour in Madrid. Our first
stop was a market we read about in one of our informative travel
books. We wandered the outdoor market and enjoyed the atmosphere in
Madrid making a few purchases which would be useful later in the the day, a red t shirt.

After some shopping we began the museum leg of Spain with the museum
of Reina Sofia, which houses Guernica by Picasso, and art from many
famous cubist and surrealist painters like Dali, Miro, Gris, and again
Picasso. We all throughly enjoyed the exibits, and I especially enjoyed
the museum because I could finally see lots of the artwork I saw in
textbooks and online throughout my career of Spanish classes. For me,
Guernica, Picasso´s painting and reflection on the Spanish civil war,
was extremely impressive. The Painting is huge and takes up an entire
room. I felt like I completed a pilgrimage that every Spanish teacher
should complete when I saw it in person. I simply stared at it for a good 10 minutes.

When we finished at the Reina Sofia, we grabbed a quick lunch, and
then headed to the Prado for the second major art stop in Madrid. The
Prado is another huge museum like the Louvre, housing more classic
paintings by Goya, Velazquez, El Greco, and Rembrandt. We made a stop
at all the masterpieces we could remember from our history classes
like, Las Meninas, Saturno devouring his child, The Naked Maga, El
Grecos self-portrait, and more. This left us overwhelmed with art, and
exhausted from the crowds. We walked back to our hostal for a mid day
siesta to rest up for what the rest of the night had in store, the
world cup final between Spain and Holland.

I want to first say that ever since the day began the atmosphere in
Madrid was exciting and contagious. From the our first walk from one
hostal to the next we saw almost everyone wearing Red, lots of people
wearing the Spanish flag, and people in complete preparation for the
nights game. We decided to walk to find a bar to watch the game a
little over an hour before game time. After looking around we found a
relativley small cafe/bar to watch the game at and took a sit. Within
half an our the place was packed and all of Madrid was ready to enjoy the
game. We watched the entire game in the small bar full of locals and it became very
intense towards the end. Spain dominated possesion during the game but
it seemed like Holland still got better scoring chances. The game went
into overtime which created even more tension, but in the second
overtime period Iniesta scored a great goal with only a few minutes
remaining, and Spain went on to a victory. The party in the streets of
Madrid began after the game and this was an amazing party to be a part
of. The streets were filled with people, blowing vuvuzuelas, honking
the car horns, reving the engines of their cars and motorcycles,
police playing their sirens, and most of all people rejoicing singing and celebrating
the Spainish victory. We walked the streets and joined in the
celebrations. Everyone joined in, we saw entire families including
young children roaming the streets after midnight rejoicing in the
Spainish victory. There were people dancing in fountains, crowding the
streets, and we even saw guys taking the muffler off their 4-wheeler
so they could rev the engine louder. Even the day after as I write
this blog entry, we see people who are obiviously still celebrating at
3:00 pm the next day. Spain is the world cup champion, and the whole
country feels the joy of victory.

The newspaper the morning after the victory is filled with stories of
the game and team unifying Spain, which is currently in turmoil with a
struggling economy, and the Catalonya region(Barcelona) protesting for autonomy
and even independance. Experiencing the game and the country during
the victory is something none of us will ever forget.

On our final day here we chose to take a day of rest in the Retiro
Gardens in Madrid, sitting in the shade and walking through the
gardens. Some highlights include the large lake in the middle with row
boats and huge carp and turtles swimming at the surface looking for food, the
only statue of Satan in the world, the statue of the fallen angel, an
impressive rose garden, and the glass palace. The park is another
surreal place for us to rest, and for me to compose the last 2
entries of the blog. Tonight we will take a night train to Lisbon, the
final stop on our race around the world, and a chance at a million
dollars. Let's hope we end with a nice hostal experience.

A necessary tapas tour

We left Barcelona for Madrid on a high speed train. The train ride was
a little over 3 hours and very uneventful. Upon our arrival we took
the metro to our first hostel here, an experience all of its own. The
first part of the story was trying to locate the hostel, there is no
outdoor sign or really any sign at all for the place. When another
friendly traveler saw us obiviously struggling to find the place he
guided us in the right direction, but when we entered what we thought
was the right building we immediately thought this was too nice to be
our hostel. We buzzed at the door to make sure we were in the correct
location and the man told us the hostal was on the first floor
(buildings start at 0 in Europe). When we got up to the actual hostal
the guy asked us to pay including asking Luke to give him is pin. Luke refused and typed it in himself. Then he began explaining the rules in a
cramped hallway. "There are 2 bathrooms, no showers after midnight.
Public telephone, no calls after midnight. Coffee machince around the
corner, 24 hours. Here are the keys, pointy key room key. Key with
white door to the floor. Up and to the left, up and to the left.
Downstairs key with gap. Turn to the right. Ok. Here is your room.
This bed, this bed, this bed, and this bed. And 2 English boys. Ok. "
We were left with our chins on the ground in awe of the situation. The
so-called "English boys" looked at us and laughed saying "we're
scotish by the way, that guy has insisted on calling us English all
week." They then proceeded to tell us how everyone is in amazment of
the hostal when you first get there and that it looks much better
online. Luke described it as an orphange but worse. This was
definitely the worst place we have stayed on the trip. The room was
jammed with seven beds, with about 4 inches between the beds. To get
to the beds in the corner you would have to climb over people. While
sleeping if you rolled at all you could roll on top of the person next
to you which happened to Luke rolling onto a stranger. The two bathrooms were like a regular house bathroom with a
tub/ shower combo, not ideal for a hostel housing around 40 people.
Our room had a balcony right next to the street, which made sleeping
very tough with cars cruising down the street in the middle of the
night, and what seemed like an all night party takig place. We only
had to stay there one night though and we survived.

Aside from the shady accomendations we had a good first day in Madrid.
We walked around the city stopping at the plaza del sol and the plaza
mayor. Both were hopping with tourists and españoles, and made Madrid
seem like a large metropolis. Between both of the plazas we stopped at
the famous chocolateria San gines for some chocolate con churros.
These were amazingly delicious and enjoyable to consume. We ordered a
large plate of churros for four which was accompanied by four coffee
cups of warm liquid chocolate dipping sauce. As we devoured the
churros con chocolate we decided to walk to the national palace. Since
we did not want to return to our hostal until completely necessary, we
began a tapas tour through Madrid after walking around the palace, stopping at multiple resturants and
ordering a few tapas and drinks at each while making our way back to
the hostal. We tried the speciality at each place including the
Spanish tortilla, some ham specialities including ham with melon and a
ham and bacon omlette combo, and one of our favorites from the trip,
patatas bravas which are potato chunks with a spicy tomato sauce on
them. At our final tapas place very close to the hostal we even
ordered a pitcher of sangria, which was described to us as the Spanish
equivilant to jungle juice meant to really get the party started. This
helped us to get as much sleep as possible in the "orphanage but
worse" accomendations. After a minimal amount of rest, we checked out
in the early morning excited to find our next hostal with hope for
something better.

Gaudi Gaudi Gaudi

Today is our last full day in Barcelona. I know that everyone is really enjoying their time here, but the time has come to move on. They are installing an air conditioner in our room tomorrow, so it makes sense that we are leaving for Madrid and 100 degree heat.

We finished our sight seeing this morning and afternoon by visiting the other famous Gaudi buildings. We went inside the museum at the apartment building he designed and built, and it was well worth the 10€ we had to spend. The coolest part was walking around on the rooftop terrace. The Gaudi buildings cannot really be described fully without visiting in person. In the museum they show how Gaudi was inspired by nature and used structures from nature in his designs.

After checking out the couple Gaudi buildings we hadn't seen we took the metro the the Catherdral in Barcelona, another impressive European church. The whole gothic section of Barcelona is impressive. Including the Roman fortress walls right smack in the middle of town.

The lion sleeping below me was active again last night, but we think he has checked out which will hopefully result in us getting some more sleep tonight. He talked to us last night because someone had put stuff into the wrong locker in our room. We informed him that this was not us. He then showed us the fan he uses at night and made sure we knew that we cannot use it, it's his fan.

We are planning on going out for tapas one more time on Barcelona tonight, and our train leaves for Madrid at 10 am.

Barcelona!

Our last day in Paris ended with a long night train to Barcelona. When I booked the train in Amsterdam, the guy told me it was luxury, and a hotel on wheels. That is not how I would describe the 12 hour train ride we took. The tiny room we had on board was nice because it was private and had 4 beds, but by no means was it luxury. The accomondations were nice enough to sleep and most of us did during the train ride.

We left at 8:30 pm and arrived at 8:30 am. Upon our arrival we booked our trains for the rest of the trip, and this is when we encountered some bad news, and canceled our night in Granada. We would have only been in Granada for less than 20 hours, while spending more than 10 hours on the train there. After making the decision to cancel our night in Granada, and book another in Lisbon, we took the metro to our new hostel which is where we will be for 3 nights in Barcelona. The yellow nest in Barcelona is a very nice hostel, but after the first night we realized that there are some issues, not with the hostel, but with another resident. There is an old guy sleeping in our room, I mean really old for a hostel, probably in his mid 60s. We believe he just stays at the hostel to talk to people, because he told us he has lived in Barcelona for 3 years. The worst part about him was the snoring. I had the luxury of sleeping right above him, and after he came to bed at around 4 am, he started to snore. Initially I thought there might be a lion sleeping on the bunk below me. Seriously he snores like a lion, unlike any snoring I have heard before. We all have to survive him for 2 more nights, so I will keep everyone updated on any more stories.

Other than the crazy old man in our hostel Barcelona is an amazing city. The metro is extremely efficient, clean, and most importantly air-conditioned. Definitely less crowded than Paris also. Our hostel is on the same metro line as the Sagrada Famalia, so we decided to visit the amazing unfinished church first. The church impressed everyone in our group, even in its unfinished state. I can only wonder how long it will take to be completed, and if it will look as Gaudi wanted. Becky´s friend from camp, Laura, a local here in Barcelona, met us at the church, and then gave us a great tour of the city. I asked to go see the Parc Guell, Gaudi´s park, so we hopped on the metro and Laura guided us there. I did not realize that the park is at the top of a hill/mountain in Barcelona. The climb would not have been bad if it was not 95 degrees outside. We took a couple breaks, and even with the extreme heat, the park was amazing. The view of Barcelona from the park is breathtaking. The park was also a great place for Laura to point out different parts of the city like the Olympic stadium and port, the Sagrada Famalia again, and more of Barcelona.

After making the climb up to the park we stopped for our first meal in Barcelona, some tapas guided by Laura. We are all in agreement that eating tapas style is a great idea because you get to sample everything, and we are going out for tapas as much as possible while in Spain. Laura then led us to Las Ramblas, close to the main square in Barcelona, a pedestrian only street lined with stores and vendors.
We had a great day with Laura and her friend Fabian showing us around Barcelona. It was really nice to not use a map at all, and just have someone who actually knows where they are going.

When we returned to the hostel we decided to go out for tapas again, except this time we just stayed near the hostel because we wanted to watch the Spain-Germany soccer game. The game was very entertaining to watch, and the city went crazy when Spain won. Fireworks, vuvuzuelas, horms honking and people yelling were just a couple of things going on after the game. Even with all this going on, it was not hard to fall asleep since we had been going all day long, but it was hard to sleep in the early morning with the lion underneath my bed.

Today we rode the train to a beach just a little outside of Barcelona recommended by Laura. On another blazing hot day being at the beach was perfect. The water was cool, and we had a relaxing day. Some highlights from the beach were the paddleboats with waterslides attached, and the swim apparal (or lack there of) of many Europeans. Luke and I would have fit in much more if we had brought our speedos from our 8 and under years.

Tomorrow we are back to touring the city with a couple more Gaudi buildings to see, and the Cathedral of Barcelona.

Thanks for reading! The comments are greatly appreciated. (feel free to give us road blocks or detours)

What's a crepe...one of those really thin pancakes, yea those are good!

I wrote this post yesterday in the park by the eifle tower:

Today is now our 4th and final day in Paris and we have accomplished a lot in our time here.

We arrived at around 3:00 p.m. on the 3rd. After find our hostel, st. Christophers, we got right back onto the metro and began touring the city. We started with the Arc de Triomphe. The arc stands right in the middle of the craizest part of road I have ever seen. The roundabout around the arc is as many as 5 lanes wide, but there are no lanes and the drivers are crazy. Luckily we spotted the nice underground tunnel to get to the arc, which is impressive to see in person. From the are we walked through a park and along the tour de France route (the tour is not here while we are, but the seats for the spectators are setup.) to the obelesque (sp?) which, we learned today, is where the guillotine was during the French Revolution. This is also where the finish to the tour de France is. Here we first spotted the Eifle Tower and made our way there. The tower is huge and very cool looking, but the wide open parks around it were my favorite part of the area. After quite a bit of walking we took the metro back to our hostel and called it a night.

On our second day here we conquered even more. We started out taking the metro the the Louvre. The museum is enourmous, and we chose to go on the first Sunday of the month which draws a very large crowd becuase it is free. We hopped into the line where they told us it would be 2 hours until we got in. We were ready to wait in the huge line for that long, but it actually only took 40 minutes to get in. The museum was definitely packed, but we pushed through the crowds to see what we wanted: the Mona lisa, the last supper, Venus de Milo, Cupid, and much more. The museum was completely overwhelming, not only becuase of the crowds, but becuase of the shear size of the place. Our tour guide told us today that if you stretched it out with all the floors it would be 8 miles long. After fighting the crowds at the Louvre, we ate some lunch at a nice little cafe. The crepe in Paris are delicious. When we finished our lunch we headed to Notre Dame on the metro. The cathedral looks beatiful on the inside and the outside. Finally after hitting most of the biggest spots in Paris we rode the metro back to the hostel and took a nap. After waking up we began the constant tour again and found a nice place to eat in the Latin Quarter. The croque Madame, and croque Monsieur were delightful. When we finished our meal we walked around the latin quarter a little more before returning to the hostel to meet up with Luke who was returning from Sweden. He arrived to and has now joined us on our adventure.

Day three began with packing up all our stuff and moving to another hostel. This hostel was a little far from the city center, and that must have been why it was the cheapest of the trip. After dropping off our bags we connected to a different RER (the express trains that run out of the downtown area) that ran to Versailles. the palace and gardens are again overwhelming like the Louvre. We walked through the gardens for a good 4-5 hours and still did not come close to covering it all. Becky probably saw the most when she snuck in with a tour group to see a gated off fountain. When we got back on the RER we thought we had time to make it back to our hotel and then to the Eifle tower for our night bike tour. After running to and through a couple metro stations we missed our fat tire bike tour and this created the first real problem of the trip. We called the tour company and they told us we could take the tour tomorrow in the morning for afternoon. This was when we were planning our day trip to Normandy, but that trip ended up being too difficult to make.

This bring me to today, the 6th of July. We woke up and took the RER back into Paris. We stopped off at the train station we leave for Barcelona from tonight, locked up our bags, and this time made it to our Fat Tire bike tour. Our group decided that we would highly reccommend this tour to anyone in Paris. Our tourguide Max was very entertaining and the tour gave us some great history of the buildings we visited this week for example where Napolean is buried, where the French revolution began, and te bridge that was constructued from the rubble oxygen Bastille.

The true traveling of the trip has begun and although there has been a few detours and speed bumps I feel we are dominating and would definitely be onthe front of the pack on the Amazing Race. It is still surreal that we are here, and that I am writing this entry while sitting in a park under the Eifle Tower. Tomorrow we will be in Spain!

(once again this was typed on the iPhone, so sorry for any errors/ typos)

Blazing in Beligum

We arrived in Belgium today and the heat has hit us! It must have been a record high today, when we checked the temp at 8 pm, it was 93. Everyone we asked said this was the hottest day in years. And although the nice little hotel we have here is in a great location, we have the only room without a window that can open.

Aside from the heat, Antwerp is a very cool city. Becky did an amazing job getting us here on the metro. The directions from our hotel's website said take the 2, 3, or 15 metro. That is it, does not give you the stop to get off at or anything. After a minor detour, and some nice Belgian locals we made it to the hostel. Becky navegated for us, and I would guess that we would be in the middle of the pack onthe amazing race.

After briefly escaping the heat in our hotel we walked around Antwerp for a couple of hours. We found and sampled some delicious Belgian chocolate, drank some Belgian beer( I will write more about the beer later), and toured the city. While enjoying a beer at a nice bar we experienced learned 2 interesting things: there is a large Dutch population in Antwerp( Holland won the game against Brazil during this time), and there is a huge underground waking tunnel in Antwerp. The tunnel is pretty old I would say, but very cool, literally. It was like a refridgerator inside the tunnel which was very nice on a hot day like today. The tunnel was 572 meters long and it goes under a river. One thing we found entertaining about the tunnel was the sign posted by all the escalators going down, which showed that you have to carry your dog while riding the escalator. We snapped some pictures, but I don't know how to put them in using the iPhone.

After walking through the tunnel we began my mission for Belgium, a sampling if many beers. I first tried a dark Leffe beer at a nice little cafe, and then found a great bar with over 140 Belgian beers. This place was great, and the bar tender was very helpful in selecting a beer. First she reccommended a beer for the hit weather. It was a sweet and sour beer, almost like a wine that Becky and I both enjoyed. After that beer I asked for something a bit more hoppy, and she gave me a very rare double ipa( an iipa). Probably the hoppest beer I have ever drank in my life but also an excellent selection. After those 2 strong beers we decided to begin walking again, and then settled at a cafe by our hotel. Here I am currently drinking a primus pilsner, which totally reminds me of the band.

Tomorrow we will take a long train ride to Paris. The lady at the train station told us we couldn't leave Antwerp for months if we took a direct train, so we are making 2 stops in France on our way to Paris. It will be a long train ride, but it will also give us a great view of the French country. Again please excuse the spelling and typing, I made this post on the iPhone.

Amsterdam by bike, and after some minor issues, walking

please excuse the typing I am doing this entry on the iPhone.

Met up with krista and Becky at the airport this morning, their flight got in an hour early. Got our bus to leidesplein and found Joe's apartment. We dropped off our stuff and I gave the best tour of Amsterdam that I could. First we rented bikes from mac cycle. Neither of the girls are bikers but they were real team players. We then took a leisurly ride through vondelpark and decided riding in amsterdam should be an amazing race event at some point. After riding a bit we stopped for lunch and both of the girls were overwhelmed with the dutch pancake that I ordered. After lunch we got back on the bikes and headed to the van gough museum and the I am Amsterdam sign luke took me to last time. The van gough museum was cool, but not the right thing to do when you are extremely jet-lagged from your flight last night the girls found. On our way back from the museum we were pulled over by the cops for riding on a pedestrian path, oops :). They were both real tired after the museum so we headed back to joe's where they took a nap. After their nap we checked into the hostel and returned our bikes. The girls were troopers with the bikes, but the bikes were a bit to big for them. Becky also claimed to run into a couple trucks and a baby. After returning the bikes we went to the Ann frank house. This was an amazing sight to see. Walking through the acutal hidden bookcase door into the room was amazing. I reccomend going to the house for anyone in Amsterdam. We walked through the entire house and were all very impressed. After that museum we walked the long way home and back to our hostel for the night.

I have nowbeen in the Netherlands for over a week and it's time to head to Antwerp, beligum tomorrow. It's great to have the girls here, and let the European adventure begin!!! Excuse the typing, i did this entry on the iPhone.

Potatoes + a local friend + canals = another day in Amsterdam

After finishing up the packing and cleaning in Utrecht, Luke and I headed our separate ways, him to Sweden, and me to Amsterdam. I took the train again, and had a very unique encounter with a professor from UW-Madison on the train. After he found out that I live in Wisconsin, he told me that he is a professor, but actually he drives through Wausau a lot to visit the universities potato plantations in Rhinelander. He then told explained to me that his area of expertise is potato growing, and he traveled to the Netherlands to present at a conference for potato growers. When I showed interest in his potato research, he really got going on explaining what he did, and explaining everything you could ever want to know about potatoes. I found everything very interesting, and it was a nice way to spend the 35 minute train ride learning marvelous things about my favorite food. Long story short, the purple and blue potatoes from Peru are really good for you.

When I arrived in Amsterdam, this time without Luke and with my traveling backpack, I attempted to find the Anne Frank house, and after only one wrong turn, made it there only about 10 minutes late to meet up with my old swim coaching friend Joe DeLuca. He has lived in Amsterdam for the past 2 years, and gave me a real locals only tour of the city. Walking around with him was a totally different experience from when I came here on last Saturday. (I am sure Amsterdam is much busier on a Saturday, but the difference was amazing.) Completely avoiding most real touristy parts of the city he gave me a whole new perspective of the city-much less busy, less of the obvious associations with Amsterdam, and more of the true city. An example would be what seemed like a random door off of a busy tourist street that led to a convent-like church area for Catholic women. It is amazing that just behind a door of a busy tourist street in Amsterdam there is a near silent area to escape everything.

The best part of our tour came later when Joe and his wife took me on the boat to tour the canals of the city. We crossed under the bridges from the Amstel light commercials, and just rode through the city. Taking a ride on the canals through Amsterdam is something I would suggest to anyone visiting the city, just watch out for the boat traffic. The view of the city is great, and the houseboats are stunning.

We completed the night with dinner at a Peruvian restaurant. I had a tasty spicy chicken dish. Tomorrow morning I will pick up Krista and Becky from the airport and the true trek involving staying in hostels, picnicking in a park when possible, and probably some sibling arguing, ganging up, and bonding with begins.

Beers in the Hague

Today Luke and I got up early to travel by train to the Hague. After a short 30 minute train ride we arrived and Luke began our quick tour. We walked to a central square close to all the government buildings. Next we walked to the Peace Palace and saw the world peace flame. Each country involved has a stone next to the flame and contrary to what you might think the stone from the USA is rather small compared to most.


After walking around the flame and saying a prayer for world peace, we found a tourism center where we grabbed a map, and walked to another square for lunch. The map we grabbed suggested a small little bar called De Pass that has an amazing beer selection. Immediately upon reading the description Luke and I were on our way to locate this local establishment. The second we walked in we knew we would love the place. The bar tender was friendly and asked us if we wanted any advice choosing a beer. He gave us 2 great suggestions that we enjoyed throughouly. After our first beer the soccer game began between the Netherlands and Slovakia. We watched the first half of the game with about 10 other locals in De Pass. The bar basically closed while the game was on. A couple of people walked in and had to practically beg for service since the whole staff was crowded around the small TV to watch the game. Luke and I felt pretty privileged to be watching the game with the small local group.


After the first half we decided to go for a walk and ended up in the same square where we had lunch watching the second half of the game. The atmosphere in the square was totally different as about 100 locals crowded into a little Cuban resturant called Havana to watch the game. This was much more of an intense atmosphere with vuvuzelas playing and loud cheers when something good would happen. The Netherlands looked great during the game and ended up winning 2-1.

A day in Amsterdam and a USA loss :(

Yesterday was a pretty busy day for Luke and I. We woke up, biked into downtown Utrecht and got on a train to Amsterdam. Train ride only lasts about 30 minutes and then we were in Amsterdam on an extremely busy Saturday. The streets were as packed as I have ever seen a street. Imagine leaving a stadium after a football, basketball, or soccer game and that is what the streets were like in Amsterdam. The weather was perfect and this added to the chaos I am sure. We walked through the crowds to Luke's favorite neighborhood in the city called Leidseplein, and sat in a very nice outdoor square for a beer. Immediately the atmosphere of being in Amsterdam took over with a street performer who had set up a rope to climb. This guy performed gymnastics on the rope, and was showing off his aged but ripped body, climbing the rope, flexing and balancing with his legs hanging off, then balancing with only his legs and so forth. What made the experience truly unique was the fact that he did al of this wearing on a g-string. The guy must have been at least 60, but my guess is that he was almost 70. I snapped a couple pictures, but this is a PG blog so I will not put them up.

After a beer and some Dutch treats in Leidseplein we walked to the nearest "I am amsterdam sign" which I posted a picture of and took some pictures. This is also near the Van Gough museum where I will probably go with Becky and Krista when they arrive. Then we took a tram back to the more tourist section of town and walked around a bit more. Luke then took me into the red light district without any warning, and even though we walked down only one street, I still became extremely uncomfortable with the women tapping on the windows. Luke says that just prepared me for when I give Becky and Krista their tour.

We had to cut our day short to get back for the USA vs. Ghana game. We biked to the local irish pub pictured below called Mick O'Connels, which doubles as the best sports bar in town and plays all the World Cup games. Lots of Americans showed up at the bar for the game, but almost none of the them knew anything about soccer. The guys in front of us just kept yelling the 2 names of guys they knew (Donovan, and Alitdore) even when they weren't the ones touching the ball. It was good to see a big group of people there to watch the game and support the US in the world cup. Too bad they lost the game. Now I will probably just jump on the bandwagon of a team doing well (the Netherlands or Spain maybe?) to cheer for during the tournament. I guess watching Spain win in Spain would be pretty cool.

Tomorrow we will travel to the Haag and finish up cleaning Luke's apartment.

Bikes, football (soccer) and more bikes.

climbing the tower in utrecht (pictures) watching the soccer game and vuvuzuelas. riding a bike in Utrecht.

As much as I have heard about the overwhelming amount of bikes in the Netherlands, nothing can describe it until you are here. I rode into downtown Utrecht yesterday, and today I went for a couple cruises around campus. It seems as though every street has a bike lane, and the lanes are always filled with traffic. I had to resist to urge to be a complete prototypical tourist and constantly ring the bell. (i did ring it a couple times) Flick guided me through all the bike traffic into downtown Utrecht where we took a tour of the largest tower in the Netherlands which is located right in the center of Utrecht. We had a tour guide who took us up too the top, and it was a pretty difficult climb. The view from the top was phenomenal. You could see all of Utrecht. I took pictures at the top and will put them up once Luke shows me how to put pictures on the computer.

Last night I watched the Dutch soccer game against Cameroon with a group of Luke's friends. While watching you can hear vuvuzelas going off in the streets, and after the Dutch scored each of their goals you can hear the entire city celebrating. I saw a couple of people who have taken the beer hat and turned it into the vuvuzela hat.

One great piece of engineering to another.

Luke took me to a bar that is his favorite here in Utrecht. It an unreal amount of beers on tap, and available in bottles. We just stopped in for one beer, but I am sure we will be back. The bar reminded me of Guu's in Stevens Point, but without the amazing jukebox. We have come up with some tenative plans for this week including a trip to Amsterdam, a trip to the Hague, and a trip to another small town in the Netherlands. Also we will for sure be watching the US game against Ghana tomorrow, and hopefully be celebrating another victory!

In Utrecht

Well after over 20 hours of travel I made it to Utrecht. The trip was long, but on every flight I was in an empty row and that made it very easy to sleep. Philly was uneventful, but Lisbon was a little crazy. The most exciting part was the guy who showed up at my gate wearing at least 10 t-shirts, and 10 pairs of pants. Upon arriving at the gate he proceeded to take off the extra t-shirts, and extra pants and fold them up to put in one of the sweatshirts he was wearing. I guess this was his alternative to packing? I snapped a picture of his folded clothes slyly with the iphone and will put it up sometime.

I arrived in Amsterdam, walked directly to the train station inside the airport, and rode the train to Utrecht. On the train I received help from 2 nice people. The first was a helpful Dutch man I had to ask to make sure I was on the correct train. He assured me that I was on the correct train to Utrecht, and let me know that it was the next stop. He looked a lot like Jack Bauer of the current season of 24 when he dressed up like a German, so I knew it was good information. The next guy I talked to on the train was British. He asked if I saw the football (soccer) game that the US played that day, and since I hadn't he gave me the update. Donavan scored a goal in the 94 minute which allowed the US to win the group.
The most surprising thing about the talk was that he told me he was impressed with the US's soccer team, and said that they totally deserved to win the group even though England was in the group. He enjoyed watching them play "such aggressive attacking football," and thinks they'll go far into the knockout stage now. Let's hope he is right.


Upon arrival in Utrecht Luke and Flick greeted me at the train station and we took the bus to Luke's apartment. Luke and Flick made a great dinner while watching the Australia vs. Serbia soccer game, and I got to meet all of Luke's roommates. After eating we went for a walk along what to me appeared to be a bike path, but Luke and Flick told me it was a borderline road that you could drive on. We saw some old war bunkers, and almost got ran over by a group of dutch bikers, but the walk was very nice. (just the right thing to do after sitting on a plane for the past day!) Today while Luke finishes a paper, I look forward to touring Utrecht with Flick and one of her friends. The adventure has begun, and is going pretty well so far.

Less than a week

Less than a week until I leave. Everything should be booked now and hopefully the reviews from hostelworld are accurate. The first week there I will help my brother move out of his international dorm/flat and mail his stuff home. During the week we will do some traveling throughout the Netherlands and watch some soccer (fútbol). The only plans for the first week are not having plans. Things that might be accomplished: a war criminal trial involving some celebrity, traveling south in the country where Luke hasn't been, a beer tour through Utrecht, day trip to Amsterdam, bike tour through Utrecht, trip to Rotterdam to see architecture, and even a music festival featuring Vampire Weekend, the Black Keys, and Pearl jam. We will see what actually gets done.

Got our passes in the Mail

We got our eurail passes in the mail this week, school finished up, and the time has come to really prepare for the journey. The itinerary changed yesterday, and with most of the hostels booked, it is pretty well cemented. We will start with a day in Amsterdam, and then train to Antwerp in Belgium for a night. After some waffles for breakfast, we will be on our way to Paris for the next three days. Our entire Paris trip was planned by Becky's friend who was there last summer. It includes day trips to Versailles, and Normandy. After Paris, we will take a night train to Barcelona and begin the Spanish part of our adventure. Three nights in Barcelona, one night in Madrid, and one night in Granada. Después de cinco días en España, es posible que vaya a hablar castellano. When we finish in Granada, we will trek back through Madrid to finish our voyage in Lisbon. We have a lot to cover in 2 weeks.

Segways in Barcelona

Barcelona is definitely on the itinerary for Spain, and I found this Segway tour of the city.

http://velvetescape.com/blog/2010/02/zooming-around-barcelona/

I think we are going to give it a try.

And it is offical, three of us, meeting a fourth in Europe this summer. The Netherlands, France, Spain, Morocco?, and Portugal. More details to come.

Still working on where we are going...

Summer 2010

So a family trip is in the works for Europe 2010...