I'm sailing away

Ok, so there are no sails involved but I am on the sea.  We are on a ferry going from Holyhead, Wales to Dublin, Ireland.  Last night we stayed at a hotel that supposedly had WiFi in the rooms but none of our devices could even detect it much less connect.  We were able to connect in the little dinning area they had, so I did my next-day-planning out there and then went back to the room and didn't post.

Yesterday we basically saw Stonehenge and the Magna Carta at the Salisbury Cathedral and rode the train up to Liverpool.  Today we went on the walking tour of Liverpool then walked over to see the Liverpool Cathedral which is one of the largest in Europe.  Then more train time going to Holyhead where we ate dinner and boarded the ship at 8:30pm.  We arrive in Dublin at 11:45pm.

Crowds and crowds and more crowds

This morning we took the train out to Windsor Castle - we were absolutely packed shoulder to shoulder, standing room only on the way there.  Then the line to get in was huge but fortunately I had bought a London Pass and not only was the Castle free but we got to skip most of the line (we still had to go through the security part).  We toured the castle and watched the changing of the guards (which was crowded) then had a nice non-crowded ride back to London.  Then we took the subway (which was packed) to the British Museum (which is free and therefore also crowded).

Then we waited for one of the hop-on/hop-off buses but it never came so we decided to walk to Trafalgar Square (big mistake).  I knew it was Gay Pride Day and I had just assumed parades would be in the morning and things would have settled down by mid-afternoon.  But instead we ended up walking right into the middle of a huge crowd around Trafalgar Square and were essentially trapped there because we needed to continue going south and it just happened that the parade was coming and the sidewalks were all blocked by barricades.  We end up in an absolute crush of people - half of us trying to walk south and the other half trying to go north.  On top of that in that area there are no side roads, so we couldn't do anything else but push on through.  The parade caught up with us and passed us and eventually we came to the end of the barricades.

At this point we gave up on getting the hop-on/hop-off bus because it was probably stuck somewhere also.  So we took the subway out to see the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial then took the subway back home.  The subway was crowded in both directions so I think it's fair to say that I've had my fill of people for today!

Having a Lovely Time in London

It always happens, the start of a trip I have all these clever titles and post regularly and keep up with posting the pics and putting captions on them...then as the trip goes on, I slowly start to slip on keeping up with all that!  I did get all the picts up to leaving Portugal posted but we took a lot of pictures of London yesterday and I havn't even looked at them yet and we have another busy day today.

We decided to do the same thing in London that we did in Paris - take the Hop-on/Hop-off bus tour instead of the walking tour.  There is just so much to see and so little time.  Along with general riding the bus around and seeing all kinds of sights, we also took the river tour that came with it and visited Tower Bridge (went up the towers and walked across the upper walkway), toured the Tower of London and saw the Crown jewels, went up in Wellington Arch, and down to Churchills War Rooms.

Wow! I can understand everything I read and hear again!

So nice to be back in a country that speaks English!  We actually had a very lazy day today.  I woke at 6:30 but had a migraine (my first on this trip) and I was so sour from walking up and down hills in Lisbon yesterday that I just didn't feel up to going to Sintra as planned.  So I went back to sleep and we all got up around 10:30, took our time getting our things together and then headed to the airport for our 3pm flight.  We flew into Stansted instead of Heathrow and it took us 2 hours to get from there to where we are staying.  We are staying at our last airbnb place and its rooms above a Bar/Brazilian Restaurant.  There are half a dozen rooms plus 2 bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen.  We ate dinner downstairs and I the national dish of Brazil (black beans & pork in a stew with rice, flour, greens and orange slices) - it was really good.

From the beginning I've said, I wish we had another day in London because there is so much to see and we only have the next two days, then we leave for Liverpool via Stonehenge.  Less then a week left - in some ways it flew by but in others ways, I'm really looking forward to going home.

As my knees have been bothering me, I've really become aware of how little access there is for people with disabilities.  In Museums, on subways, even at the airports, there are stairs everywhere.  Some times there are escalators or elevators or maybe a ramp but many, many times there aren't.  And then we are staying in these old buildings and so many of them have the worst stairs - very steep and often very narrow.  My feet aren't that large but only about half my foot fits on the step!  And the tripping hazards are everywhere.  They just don't seem to have the heavy emphasis on safety that we do.

Well, like I said, busy couple of days ahead, best get to sleep now.

Getting some ZZZZZs on the Choo Choooooo

Yesterday we took a quick trip down to Seville then came back via Madrid to get on the night train to Lisbon.  I paid the extra so we could have a 4 bed room to ourselves rather then sleep sitting up all night.

Then today we had a busy day in Lisbon and tomorrow we are going to Sintra then back to Lisbon to catch the plane to London.  It's almost 10pm here and I still have some planning for tomorrow plus about 500 picts from the last two days that I need to go through so I'll make this a short post.

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition

Colin wanted to go on the Spanish Inquisition Tour with Sandeman tours (the group we always do the walking tour with) but it isn't until 7pm and we are always so exhausted by then.  We had a nice day in Madrid - first we went on the walking tour and then we did some more walking around looking at architecture.  Duncan went back to the apartment at that time and Colin and I continued on. They have a really large park here with a small lake and all kinds of different trees plus various monuments and buildings.  Then we went to the Prado Museum before heading home.  I would say that Madrid is an OK town - but nothing special about it.  We didn't even go into the Palace - for one, it was based on Versailles and for another we've seen so many Palaces with similar styles by this time (and let's face it, it's hard to beat Versailles).  There are no really old structures here nor any iconic structures.  Barcelona on the other hand has such a mix of old and new, parts of the old city walls and remains from the Romans, the iconic Sagrada Familia and (most importantly to Duncan) the Barcelona Football (soccer) team.

It's funny, my parents mentioned that there are a lot of pickpockets in Spain, because I forgot to mention a little run in I had.  We had just arrived in Spain (Barcelona) stepped off the train and as we got onto the Subway, this woman was crowding me.  If you've been on subways you know that at times you are packed shoulder to shoulder but this train wasn't very full.  So it just bothered me that she was invading my personal space and I just automatically moved my purse so that it was more in front of me rather then the side.  Apparently I did that at the moment she was going to try and get something because she said "oh, excuse me" and then hurried off down the train.  It was only on reflection that I realized 1) I had indicated for her to get on first but she waited for me 2) it was a hot day and she was carrying a puffy coat 3) her arm was under that coat in an odd way and 4)  I had seen her hand coming out towards my purse right before she apologized.  I was wearing my purse such that the side pocket which just has a flat was facing out and I keep the camera in there - she probably thought it was a phone.  At any rate, she didn't get anything and we haven't had any issues since (that we know of anyway).

Tomorrow we spend the day in Seville and then come back through Madrid to take a night train (not the bus from Seville as my map indicates) to Lisbon.  So unless the trains have WiFi, there won't be a post tomorrow.

These truths we hold to be self evident..

Some general observations:

American TV, Movies and Music dominate Europe.  Whenever there is music playing in a public place, it is always English-language even though a lot of the people don't speak English.  There are ads for American movies in all the subways (Spy, Jurassic World).  The train station in Madrid had each set of huge windows covered in ads for American (and a few British) tv shows - Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black, etc.

Except for Spain and Turkey, in the homes and the public restroom, they've had dual-flush toilets.

Every place we've stayed has had a hand held shower head not an attached shower head.  But the really odd thing is that the hot and cold water pipes come out of the wall and join with a handled knob that sticks several inched out from the wall.  And they are extremely sensitive - i.e. the different between too hot and too cold is about a fourth of an inch.  On top of this, they have their hot water set REALLY hot.  AND for many of these, the shower is very small (2 1/2 feet square) AND the handle is mounted between elbow and shoulder height.  So your in this tiny shower and you lift your arm to wash your hair and it bumps this very sensitive handle..well you get the picture.

No one uses measuring cups (even the homes that are actuallly lived in, not just rented out, didn't have measuring cups).

No one drinks directly from a bottle (yes, I'm a barbarian because I drink directly from my water bottle).

Very few people own clothes dryers (just washing machines).

And lastly:
IKEA rules: everywhere we go and stay, has some IKEA items.  The most popular is the round, silver, utensil holder (that we also own).

Me encanta España

OK, it's probably a little too soon to say I LOVE it, but I'm definitely liking my first experience of Spain.  Barcelona is a nice city and I guess it comes down to little things: the foreign language is a little less foreign.  It is very liberal and artistic.  There seem to be a lot of people out walking their dogs (West Highland White Terriers are the most popular, followed by Yorkshire Terriers).  The cuisine is less heavy on cheese compared to say France. I  had an excellent eggplant sandwich today for lunch.

We went on the walking tour, then went into the Museum of Barcelona History which was a large excavation under the city streets of an ancient Roman village that was found when they were in the process of building a new building.  Then we took the Metro to see the Barcelona football (soccer) stadium and then on to see Sagrada Familia (the Gaudi church still being built).  We didn't go into the church since it was 15 Euros each.  Like most of the cities we've visited, I've wished we had one more day here.  I love mosaics and Gaudi did quite a few buildings and other public mosaic works here.  But tomorrow we are off to Madrid.

Today's Train of thought

We didn't really do anything today but take a train from 7am to 12:30 going from Lyon to Barcelona.  We settled into our apartment - this time it's a room in an apartment with a lady who owns it.  Then we had lunch and went grocery shopping.  The kids were too tired to do much else so we'll have to see all of Barcelona tomorrow.  Colin can't seem to sleep on the trains and Duncan goes to bed so late (last night he was still awake at 2am even though he knew I was getting him up at 6am and I'm just exhausted from all the walking -- we really needed a relaxing afternoon!  Duncan fell asleep around 5pm and told us to wake him at 10pm.

I have to say, I've really been pleased with airbnb.  We haven't had any issues with meeting up to "check in" and get the keys.  And every place is so different it's fun and interesting and makes days like today when we don't really do anything, still immerse since we are in a regular neighborhood and go to the local market and cook (or atleast see) local food.  The people have all been very nice.  The woman we are at here only speaks Spanish so it's interesting for us to communicate.  Some of the places have been apartments that are only used for airbnb, some have been lived in, and they range from newly redone to very old but all have been clean.

There have only been two so far that I had some minor issues with.  The first was my fault for not reading all the description - in Rome I knew we had 1 of 3 bedrooms in an apartment and others would be staying in those other rooms.  What I didn't realize is that there was no other rooms - like a living room or family room - just a kitchen and 1 bathroom.  So I felt rather shut into our little room AND the other people staying there all chose to take really LOOOOONNNNNNGGGG showers at 10 or 11pm...so just when you need to use the bathroom before you go to sleep...you have to wait and wait and wait.

The other place I had issues with was in Venice.  For one thing, the picture implied you could see the water from the apartment, but you couldn't.  For another, it was one of the few places that said it had AC and we really NEEDED AC there but what it had was a very weak fan in Duncan's room, an OK fan in my room if it was right next to the bed and a terrible portable AC unit which blew cool air if you were directly in front of it (where Colin slept on the sofa) but generated so much heat from the engine that it canceled out any cooling effect overall.

In like a Lyon, out like a lamb

Slow day today as we had a leisurely morning then took the train to Lyon.  Hung out at the apartment for awhile and then went into Lyon old town to look around and have dinner.  Trying to get laundry done and take care of some other details (this moving around so much takes a lot of work as far as figuring out how to get places and communicating with our hosts, etc).  Tomorrow we leave France behind and head to Spain. I caught up on posting the photos this morning but I haven't gone back to add the labels yet.

Let them eat crepes

We went to the Louvre this morning and then hopped a train to Versailles.  We spent several hours wondering around the estate and seeing the various houses/palaces/gardens.  They've expanded it quite a bit since I was here last.  The gardens are free and there were many local families taking advantage of this beautiful day - riding bikes, playing ball, having picnics, renting boats on the Grand Canal, etc.  I had been telling the kids about how good crepes were but for one reason or another they hadn't had a chance to try them.  So I got them two desert crepes (one sugar, one Nutella) while we were strolling the gardens. The place is huge and we were all exhausted by the time we finished.

We are staying in a lovely little house in Versailles tonight - its the nicest of all the places we have stayed.  Although I must say, I've been pretty happy with all the airbnb places we stayed.  The one in Venice had some issues and the one in Paris about took out my knees (6 stories up, no elevator) but all in all we've been pleased with them.

We'll always have Paris

Well, it's time to confess - I wimped out and instead of doing the walking tour, I bought us hop-on/hop-off bus passes.  Normally what happens is that Duncan walks very fast and so 1) he is way far in front of me and 2) I  am always hurrying to catch up and because of that my feet and legs ache all the time.  Sometimes at night I have a hard time going to sleep because they are aching so much (like those awful growing pains you had when you were a kid).  Also on a limited time the bus gave us a chance to see more things then we could have done by walking or taking the Metro.  Besides just riding around, we went to the top of the Arc d'Triumphe and visited the National Military Museum. Duncan took most of the pictures today since Paris is Kazandra's favorite city.

Just like the Neuschwanstein Castle, the Mont St Michel has been dropped from the itinerary AGAIN :^(  Due to several reasons - but mostly, like the Castle, it is hard to dedicate a whole day to going to see one thing when we have so little time.  So tomorrow, instead of going to Mont St Michel and getting in late to Versailles, then going to the Versailles Palace the next morning in a rush before we have to be on the train to Lyon, we are going to the Louvre tomorrow morning and then Versailles Palace in the afternoon and will have a little more leasurely time the next morning getting to Lyon.

The days just whip by - I can't believe it's already 10:30pm here so I better get to sleep so I'll be up to another busy day tomorrow!

This is a test, this is only a test..

I'm on a high speed train right now. Going from Brussels to Paris in 1.5 hours.  It has wifi (obviously) and earlier Duncan was video chatting with Kasandra on our way to Brussels. We are about to be served lunch, so I better close for now.

XXX

That's the symbol for Amsterdam and its on everything - posts, light poles, churches, man hole covers, etc.  We had a day today similar to yesterday - we left one city, arrived at a new city, dropped out bags at the hotel and immediatly went on a walking tour.  This time we toured Amsterdam.  We are now ensconced in our very packed hotel room.  The room is about 8ft X 15ft and has 3 twin beds, a table with 4 chairs, a small refridgerator, a clothes rack, 2 large window seats, a TV and a mantel (for a no longer functioning fireplace).  Tomorrow we have a VERY early day as our train leaves at 6:17am - I hope we can get to sleep tonight.  Atleast this place has decent curtains - most of the places haven't and last night in Hamburg, it was still light out at 11pm and light again when I woke at 4am!

Oops - forgot to mention we are Hamburg

Fries with that Hamburg(er), get it?  That was another contribution by Colin.

Do you want some fries with that?

We arrived at Noon, checked into the hotel and got to the free walking tour by 2pm.  The tour ended a little short because a really heavy thunder storm came through.  There wasn't a whole lot to see but the shipping/warehouse district is really interesting and different.  The city itself has a sad history of being distroyed over and over again - most recently in 1943 by Allied forces fire bombing it.  We have an early morning tomorrow and an even earlier one the day after that.  I'm sad to be leaving Germany behind as its a very nice country.

No worries..

Today we went to Potsdam or more specifically Sanssouci Park (Sanssouci is derived from the French "sans souci" which translates as "without concerns" or "no worries").  It is a 290 hectacre park which contains serveral palaces - specifically of Frederick the Great, the King of Prussia.  We toured the New Palace, Sanssouci Palace, the New Chambers and the Orangery Palace as well as seeing several others from the outside (Roman Baths, Roman ruins Folly, the dragon house and the Charlottenhof Palace).  We also climbed up in the windmill.  I really liked it - it is not as big as Versailles and the park is mostly natural not strictly trimmed gardens.  The main park is open to the public for free and there were lots of people just enjoying the day is such a lovely space.

Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Lots of walking today.  We took the free tour which started at the Brandenburg Gate which was a couple of kilometers away.  Then we walked with the tour for 3 hours, then walked around museum island and inside 2 museums.  My feet are killing me!  But it was a very interesting day.  We really liked the German National History Museum which covered from 100-1994.  The kids particularly liked all the weapons (medieval and modern).  We went up 203 meters to the viewing platform in the TV Tower and saw the famous head of Nefertiti at the Neues Museum.

Forgot to Czech in yesterday

We had a wonderful day going all over Prague.  It was lightly raining in the morning and overcast all day.  Everyone but us was all bundled up - I was very happy to NOT be hot!

Then is was off to Berlin today with a couple hour stop over and a quick tour of Dresden.  We are now in 14th floor Berlin apartment.

This is Duncan's accessment so far:

• Rome is the best city
• Munich has the best subway
• Italy has the best trains
• Prague has the best ice cream

For Colin, his favorite city is Prague with Munich a close second (so far)

When it rains, it pours

So for several days I've been looking at the weather reports and they kept saying it was going to rain and I WANTED it to rain because then the sun won't be out and it wouldn't be so hot.  But it never did, until this morning when we had to walk to the Subway station with our backpacks and it was pouring rain and we got soaked thru.

The train track between Munich and Prague is closed for some reason so the railroad has a bus that goes direct.  It really wasn't too bad.  It was a double decker bus and we were on the top level.  Very nice seats with trays and free WiFi.  It took most of the 5 hour trip for my clothes to all dry.  Nicest of all, it wasn't full and they must fill up from the front to the back and since I just made the reservation the night before, we were in the back, so we were able to spread out and each take up a set of seats.

We are in our Prague apartment now which is 100Xs better then the horrible Munich hotel (worst I've ever stayed in) we were in.  We are just taking it easy this afternoon as we are all out of clean clothes and everything is being washed!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..

In the morning we went to the BMW Welt (main show room) and Museum.  If you know me then you know I'm not all that interested in cars - they are all alike to me except a couple that I like.  One of those cars I love is the Mini and the museum had a special exhibit at this time about (you guessed it) the Mini.  Duncan and Colin really enjoyed all the cars.  Then we walked to see the Olympic Stadium.  Both of those items showing the Best of Germany.

In the afternoon, we went to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial (the worst of Germany).  I had been there 6 years ago and I was surprised how much they had expanded it.  It really is so hard to grasp and they do an excellent job of personallizing the stories.  And I admire the way the Germans have embraced the past and not just tried to act like it never happened.

Flipped the picture albums

so newest is on top.  I'll add captions and more pictures to Munich tomorrow.  

Getting the Munchens?

That's Colin's humorous title he suggested for todays blog entry.  I remembered liking Munich last time but couldn't really remember much about it.  But as soon as I saw it, it all came back.  Lovely town - the old/intersting part if fairly small.  We took a Sandeman New Europe Free Walking Tour like we did last time.  I highly recommend them.  They are so interesting and keep the kids engaged.  Its always good to start a city with one of their tours and then you can go back and review things in detail if you are interested in them.  They have tours in 18 cities - I think we are going to 13 of those cities: www.neweuropetours.eu.

The original plan for tomorrow was to go to Neuschwanstein Castle (you know - the castle from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the basis for the Disney Sleeping Beauty Castle) but it looked like a lot of hassle - 2 hours there, waiting in the ticket line for 20-40 mins, then waiting for your tour time 2-3 hours, then back here 2 hours.  I was also concerned because I get worn out quicker then I used to - especially with hills.  So instead we are going to the BMW headquarters/Museum then to Dachau concentration camp tomorrow.

Fantastic Scenery Today

The train ride took us through Austria on our way to Munich and some very picturesque scenery.  Green valleys with clear rivers running through them and quaint villages.  We are now at our hotel in Munich.  It was one of our longer train ride days so not much to report.  I was thrilled to see a Starbucks at the train station since prior to this my only options was small cups of very strong espresso which is not really my thing (I like Soy Lattes, Cappuccinos and Frappuccinos) and we had Subway for dinner (we have had McDonalds and Burger King on several occasions but this is the first Subway we've seen).

Another very hot and humid day

We had a nice day in Venice but it was so humid and so many tourists in such a small space. I've been posting pictures most days but, just in case you were wondering, no those are not ALL the pictures we took.  Most days we do at least 150 pics and some closer to 400.  Duncan is also saving them on his laptop and uploading ALL of them to Google so if you want to see more pics you'll have to go that route.  Colin weilds the camera most of the time with Duncan occasionally taking over.  And I find myself repeating what my parents always said to me: "You need to have one of us IN the picture, not just a picture of the place".  So we get atleast a few pictures of Duncan and I'm in one or two but Colin doesn't want to be in any.

Northwards to Florence and Venice

We had a leasurely day today.  We slept in a little then took a train to Florence where we walked around and had lunch.  Then onto another train to Venice.  We are now settled into our new place and about to head out for some dinner.

One thing is for sure, if I ever plan such an ambitious trip again, I am going to go earlier in the year.  Already it is too hot for me to walk around all day.  And there are so many annoying tourists ;^)

When in Rome...

Yesterday we were actually NOT in Rome most of the day.  We took the train to Pompeii and walked around the ruins, then back to Naples to the National Archaeological Museum.  We came back to Rome and the kids saw a few more sites (particularly the inside of the Pantheon because it had been closed the day before).

Today was a very exhausting day.  We left at 8:30am to get the Metro to the Vatican for a 9:30 entry time (no waiting in lines) to St Peter's Basilica, went directly from there to an 11:00 entry to Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.  They've added quite a bit to it since I was here 7 years ago.  It was interesting but I started to feel like I was in a giant IKEA...it just kept going and going and going...we kept following the arrows but I was beginning to think we would never get to the end!

After that we went to the Capitoline hill, saw Hadrian's column, the Roman Forum and toured the Colosseum.  We got back home around 4:30 and other then a short hop on a bus and the Metro back from the Colosseum, we were standing or walking the entire time!  It's 6:30 and I'm ready to go to sleep for the night...zzzzz

So after all that..

We went out for 5 hours walking around Rome and seeing the sites.  We saw the Castelo de Santo Ângelo, the Piazza Navona with its famous fountain by Bernini, the Trevi fountain (being worked on), the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps.  

The first two Airbnb.com places we stayed, we had the whole apartment to ourselves, but for Rome we are sharing (we have our own bedroom) which is a little odd.  But in general the places have been decent and meeting up with the owners to get the keys hasn't been an issue.  It's nice to have a kitchen and use of a washer.  And it feels more secure to leave items in the room/apartment.  

For 3 people traveling light (just 1 carry-on each), we have an abundance of electronics: a European phone, a camera, my tablet/laptop (Surface Pro 3), my iPad, Colin's iPod, a Kindle Fire and Duncan's larger laptop.  Seems like we are constantly charging something!

No more planes!

I'm so glad we are done with airports and airplanes for awhile!  It seemed like a good idea - it only takes an hour or 2 to fly between cities but in reality, you have to walk to a Metro station, take a train to the airport, get there 2 or 3 hours ahead of time, then jump through all sorts of hoops, then wait....and on the other end of the flight is another long train ride (or in this case bus then train ride) back to the city center.  The Athens airport in particular is awful - 1) You have to check in at the desk for them to check your passport and boarding pass (even though we'd already checked in online. 2) You go through the first security check where they scan your boarding pass 3) You go through 2nd security where they scan your bags 4) then you are stuck in an area with no stores or water 5) even though you are sitting comfortably in the waiting area, you have to get up and come stand in line with your bags, so they can check your passport, boarding pass and luggage size, by which time you've lost your seat 6) exit the building and get on a shuttle and drive to the plane 7) get off the shuttle and board the plane.  All in all, very exhausting!