Europe Trip Day 8

Today we slept in and had a lazy morning so we could get a later start to make sure we missed any traffic going into Amsterdam.  We didn’t have a whole lot on the itinerary today.  I really wanted to see the Van Gogh Museum but it is under renovation and only a part of the exhibit was moved to another building so people could still come see some of his paintings.  I didn’t feel like paying 17 Euro to see only a portion of the museum and my favorite painting of his isn’t even here.  Instead we chose to see the Rijksmuseum instead. 

We first ran into this huge sing.  The “I am Amsterdam” sign was a popular picture-taking place.

At the Rijksmuseum we saw a ton of Rembrandt paintings that were incredible, along with other Dutch paintings, artifacts and historical objects. 

One of our favorite artwork pieces was the “Grandfather Clock” by Maarten Baas. 

This clock depicts the artist inside the clock and every minute he erases the minute hand and redraws the minute hand to the next minute.  He continually does this through the course of the day and it looks as if he is actually inside the clock doing this.  It was pretty awesome to just stand there and watch what he would do.  Sometimes he would eat or drink or look out at us. 

As I was looking through our pictures of the day I found a lot of pictures Mark took of me reading the plaques.  Good thing I wasn’t doing anything embarrassing in them. 

We could take pictures of anything in the museum as long as we didn’t use flash.  Here’s Mark in front of The Night Watch by Rembrandt which is his most famous and the museum’s most prized painting. 

Here’s the painting, sans Mark.  It’s a huge painting.

After the museum we were starving so we searched for a place for lunch.  Unfortunately, the best we could come up with was Burger King.  We decided to go cheap for lunch and then have a nice dinner.  After lunch we walked around a good portion of Amsterdam.  The canals were beautiful, but the city…not so much.  Don’t get me wrong.  The architecture was nice and a lot of the old buildings were amazing but the city itself was filthy.  There was trash everywhere and it was not a nice atmosphere.

I did love all the canals everywhere. 

We did a lot of shopping while we walked around and ran into a carnival in the middle of the old part of town.  I couldn’t believe the rides they had.  Their swings went higher than the buildings.  I’m not usually afraid of heights but there was no way anyone could have paid me to go on that ride. 

We tried to visit Anne Frank’s house but the line went out the door and around the block.  We didn’t realize how busy it would be.  I guess we really should have taken the website’s suggestion and bought tickets online. 

Here’s the house from the outside.  I was disappointed to see that the building looks so modern now.  Maybe it always looked like this but I doubt it.

We found some old men playing chess in one of the squares.  It looked like an intense game.

After a long day of walking we were done and headed back to the car with our many bags of stuff we bought in Amsterdam.  One thing I will not miss when we leave is the astronomical price you have to pay to park places.  We spent 38 Euro just to park for half a day.  Lame!

We headed back to the hotel to start packing a few things then headed back out for dinner.  Our original choice was Japanese but the restaurant had a weird reservation thing where you had to sign up for the first or second shift just to eat there.  Of course, they were booked.  So we found a little hole in the wall place around the corner.  So much for a nice sit down meal.

Those of you who have seen The Avengers movie can appreciate this place.  We finally found out what Shoarma is.  It was actually pretty good, too.  It was a type of meat with yummy seasonings and they serve it with fries (which the Dutch serve with any meal, I’ve found out) and a side salad.

We were able to talk to the girls after dinner and their cousins were over babysitting them so we had a ton of fun on Google chat. 

We have loved being here in Europe and feel very fortunate to be able to come for this long while knowing our kids have been well taken care of by our parents.  It has been a great vacation and I love that Mark and I can spend this long together, every minute of every day, and not get sick of each other.  Tomorrow we head home to our girls, who we miss.  The next time we log in to our blog we will be back on home soil.  Good bye, Europe.  It has been amazing.

Europe Trip Day 7

This day should just be labeled The Travel Day.  Find a map and find Prague.  Then find Amsterdam.  That’s all we did today.  We drove from Prague to Amsterdam. 

I took one picture all day and it was of the restaurant we ate at for dinner. 

I had a stake with grilled veggies and yummy fries while Mark had a huge burger that was about 8 inches tall.  Talk about an American meal.  But it was right next to our hotel and we didn’t want to get back into the car to find anything else. 

Tomorrow we will head into Amsterdam to walk around and do our last day of site seeing and shopping.  Then Sunday we are off to fly home to our kids.  I miss them.  Mark does too.  I forget that he was here a week before I was so he hasn’t seen the kids in 14 days.  Until tomorrow…

Europe Trip Day 6

I feel totally spoiled when we stay at Marriott hotels with Mark’s Gold status.  We get free breakfasts and the Executive Lounge here is awesome.   Free drinks and snacks all day long.  We’ve definitely been taking advantage of the drinks so we don’t have to spend $3 on a bottle of water.  I have a greater appreciation for restaurants in the U.S. who give you water for free.  No such thing here. 

We woke early to take advantage of the full day we have here in Prague.  I just love this city.  After meeting the DeWitts in the lobby we headed out to walk across the river on the Charles Bridge which had multiple statues of Saints along the sides.  Here’s one of them with the castle in the background.  I’m pretty sure we burned our retinas in this picture, the sun was so bright.

We did notice that one statue was missing so I had to takes its place.  The spot just looked so bare.

Here we are at the entrance to the castle.  Prague Castle is the largest castle in the world.  Must be pretty important since they  have armed guards at the gates.  Or it’s just for show.

I told Mark he kept doing the same pose in all the pictures.  This is what I got in response.

The castle grounds were huge so we just walked around taking in the sights.  We stopped to go inside the St. Vitus Cathedral along with hundreds of other people.  Here’s the backside of the Cathedral.

We had hoped the haze would have burned off by the time we reached the top of the hill surrounding the castle but no such luck.  So this was the best view we could get.

On the way back across Charles Bridge Myrna and I had fun looking at all the venders.  I did find an awesome bracelet that I just had to have.  It’s kind of nice buying things here.  I have no idea how much I’m really spending when it says 300 Czech Crowns for the price.  Ignorance is bliss, right?  I’ve quit asking  Mark how much it converts to in USD since it might deter me from buying something.  I’m starting to get better at converting Euros in my head so I have a harder time spending money when we are in Germany. 

Here’s the busy Charles Bridge with all the venders.

We saw the oldest functioning astronomical clock, Orloj.  We just happened to pass by right at noon and we were able to here the bells and see the moving statues come alive for a brief show. 

Around noon our legs were getting tired so we stopped by a local grocery store and bought stuff for yummy salami, mozzarella and basil sandwiches.  It made me miss Rome since that was our lunch of choice every day there.  We propped our feet up for a few hours after eating and just relaxed in our hotel room so we could wait for the girls to wake up and chat with us.  Just before dinner time we headed back out to the city to climb up to the top of Prague Tower. 

The Tower was high up enough that it even gave me some dizziness.  I was proud of Mark, though.  He climbed up there with me and even went out on the outer walkway.  Here’s proof…

The walkway was maybe three feet across and there were lots of people up there jostling to get by.  The walkway went all the way around and I was able to get some good pictures since the haze burned off.  Here is my favorite square.  Always good snacks and things to see here. 

Here’s the Prague Castle we went to earlier. 

And look at all those little ants down there.  Those buildings are super tall.  Just goes to show how high up we really were.

Just before descending we were able to witness the trumpeter play on the hour his little ditty.  Then it was back down the many steps to the bottom.  We sat on a bench to rest our legs and started getting silly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finally found the Italian restaurant we were looking for for dinner where we ate gnocchi and calzone and then headed to my favorite dessert place for my last trdelnik pastry.  This time I remembered to get pictures of this yummy goodness.

Oh, Prague how we will miss you.  We will miss this beautiful city and the wonderful souvenir shopping.  Well, at least I will miss the shopping.  Tomorrow is our long drive back to Amsterdam.  Tonight we have to figure out how to fit all our stuff into our three suitcases.  That should be fun.  Toodles!

Europe Trip Day 5

Here is our hotel we stayed in last night in Salzburg.  The Hotel Mozart was a great place to stay and we would stay there again. 

Today was yet another day of traveling.  Unfortunately Groovy Nuvi took us through windy roads and many small villages on our way to Prague from Salzburg.  So windy, in fact that Mark was getting some serious car sickness in the back seat.  We stopped after about an hour and a half and switched so Mark could drive and I could be in the front seat as well so I wouldn’t get car sick.  Our travels today took us through Austria, Germany, Austria again and then finally the Czech Republic.

We left Salzburg around 8:30 am and arrived in Prague at 3 pm, so today is light on the pictures and commentary.  We did find a yummy truck stop/gas station near the border of Austria and Germany for a good brunch.  Mark had ham and eggs with some crusty bread and I had a delicious ham and cheese Panini.

We checked in at our Marriott and were pleasantly surprised to find we had been upgraded to an executive suite.  Sweet!  It’s the perfect place to be given an upgrade since we have a two-night stay here and we will be close by the hotel to come back and take breaks in our awesome room.

After doing a little laundry and a great video chat with the kids we were off to explore Prague in the evening hours.  We are becoming experts at finding delicious food from street-side venders.  I was hesitant at first when we ate at our first one near Neuschwanstein Castle but now I feel comfortable with them and they are much cheaper. 

My most favorite find of the day:

These were so delicious that I’ve already warned Mark that I will eat one whenever I see a vender.  Tomorrow I will get a better picture of the pastry.  It is a pastry wrapped around a huge iron stick and then seasoned with sugar, vanilla, toffee and almond.  Yeah.  Sounds good, right?  I wish I would have bought the entire stick since one serving is only about 5 inches long. 

If you can pronounce the name of this delicious treat let me know.

Mark and I also shared a delicious chocolate crepe.  They were oh so wonderfully good…and huge.

We walked through a good portion of the old part of the city.  I love that there are musicians on every street corner and people walk where they need to go and cool shops on every street.  Europe is awesome.  Here is a night shot of the church that we will explore more tomorrow.

So far Mark’s description of Prague has lived up to the hype.  It’s nice that he remembers his way around.  Tomorrow will be a long day of walking but I will reward myself with yummy pastries.  Good night!

Europe Trip Day 4

Last night was, thankfully, our last night in Munich.  We were given a room at the Marriott right across from the elevators and heard the mechanical whirring noise all night.  Pretty lame how we are Gold Members and we get the worst room.  At least our breakfasts there were free.

We left Munich at 9 am and decided against stopping for lunch in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy since it would be at least 7 hours of travel time verses the 2 hours if we went directly to Salzburg, Austria.  And it was snowing there anyway and would have made the roads worse. 

We are so glad we came directly to Salzburg.  We saw so much that we would not have had time for if we had gone through Italy. 

I took lots of pictures while Mark drove.  Not a bad picture while zooming by at about 80 mph.  I love how green it is here.  Now that we are near the mountains it almost feels like home.  Just greener.

We arrived in Salzburg at lunch time.  After checking in at the Hotel Mozart we finally found an authentic Austrian/German restaurant.  Funny how everywhere we go we can easily find Italian restaurants.  Today we really wanted something local.  We found a place called Spieglbrau which was delicious. 

We started with a goulash which was really good.  Mark had genuine sauerkraut which he says was delicious.  I say it was ok.  My mom would have loved it, though!  It was called a saddle of pork and boy did it have a ton of pork!  And I had some pork dish with yummy green beans and potato cakes (just picture a McDonald’s hashbrown).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After getting totally stuffed full of good food we headed out on foot to explore the city.  Our first stop was Mozart’s birth place but on the way we found Mirabell Garden.  It was beautiful and you can see Hohensalzburg Castle on the hill behind us. 

And yes, it was freezing again. Gloves and hats are a must on this trip. I’m still trying to convince Mark I need to buy a warmer jacket on this trip but he hasn’t given in yet. I’m trying to milk all the shopping I can from this vacation but I guess I should be happy I got a coo coo clock.

We had to include a picture of the cool unicorn statue we found.  And Mark made me sit side saddle for the picture. 

One cool thing we have found is that on bridges around Europe people put locks on the fencing.  Most of them have lover’s names engraved on them and then hang them on the fence.  I wish we would have known about this because Mary’s Bridge at Neuschwanstein Castle had them as well. 

Here’s the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  This is the only picture we have since no photography was allowed inside. 

The museum inside their home on the 3rd floor was very interesting. We learned a lot about Mozart, his family and his musical proficiency. Picture Piper playing the piano and violin right now. That is when Mozart began mastering instruments. He was writing his own music at age 7. At age 10 he was doing performances.

After that we headed to Mozart’s second home.  Again, no photography was allowed and by this time we had limited time to walk through this museum/home .  Myrna and I did see some boots we really, really wanted.  Mark thought 120 euros was too much.  Whatever.

After the boys pulled us away from the shoes we stopped in for a quick look inside the Salzburg Cathedral where Mozart was baptized.  The original church burned down and this one was built in it’s place.  The inside was huge and it had an Italian style.

Our next stop was Hohensalzburg Castle.

We took the Festungsbahn tram up the mountain to visit the castle which overlooks the whole city.  Here is the view of the tram ride, halfway up.  Much better than walking.

The views from the castle were spectacular.  Here are just a few of the pictures we took.

We found this cool statue at the end of the day.

It’s called Il Commandatore.  It was made in memory of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.  It is the empty coat known as the “Cloak of Conscience”.  It looks kind of spooky.  We finished up the day with some pastries and retired to the hotel.  Next stop, Prague.