Day 22: The Trip Home

We did it…3 weeks around Europe! Nate and I were very pleased with the itinerary we put together in less than a month. We saw tons of stuff, experienced many cultures, and didn’t miss a train once even though we rode on over 50 trains. This trip was something we have always wanted to do but it seemed hard to accomplish with limited vacation days. It was amazing to see God working throughout the last 3 months. Everything fit together perfectly; we couldn’t have planned any of this better ourselves!

We left Amsterdam Tuesday afternoon on a direct flight to Seattle. Our flight was about 10 hours, but we had plenty of movies and games to keep us entertained so it actually wasn’t too bad. However, we were ready to get home and it felt great to sleep in our own bed that night!

Our trip is over!

Day 21: Amsterdam

We had a busy day planned for the last full day of our trip. We had heard about this giant flower auction outside of Amsterdam. Andrea gave us directions to it so we found the correct bus and rode about an hour to Aalsmeer, the location of the second largest building in the world. Every day millions of flowers are sent here, auctioned off, and shipped to customers around the world. We toured the plant and watched the auctions taking place and the orderly chaos in this huge warehouse.

After Aalsmeer, we headed back to Amsterdam and took a 15-minute train ride to Zaanse Schans, another neighboring town. From downtown we had to take a passenger only ferry to get to Zaanse Schans. This area was once home to over 600 windmills, but only about 6 remain now. I was excited to see, as I put it, “windmills in the wild” (We had seen plenty in town, but not along the countryside). We were able to tour a working sawmill. The harder the wind blew, the faster the blades cut the wood. It was interesting! We also went through a cheese farm and wooden shoe museum. Once returning to Amsterdam we had enough time to walk around the streets and do some shopping. We had to pack our bags and find a way get our souvenirs home safely. We still only had our 2 backpacks and small day pack, but we managed to get everything in.

Just a tiny fraction of this huge warehouse


One of the six auction rooms

Day 20: Delft/Den Haag/Amsterdam

We left Antwerp in the morning and headed to Amsterdam, our circle almost complete. On the way we stopped in Delft and looked in some stores and browsed through the real Delft pottery. From there we met up with my college friend, Andrea in The Hague. She is studying for her master’s there and was able to meet us at the train station. We ate lunch together and had a great time catching up. From The Hague we finally made it to Amsterdam…our trip almost complete! Our hostel required a ride on the tram, but we found it easily. We decided to try the Anne Frank house the night. The line was a little long, but we decided to wait anyway. The house is now empty with no furniture, but each room had information explaining what used to be there. It was an interesting yet sobering walk through the house. Anne’s actual diary was in a glass display for the visitors to see. Later that night after walking around town a bit we had a type of Asian stir-fry…it was pretty good and a nice change.

Oliebollen: A family favorite treat!


Our green hostel room


Downtown Delft

Day 19: Antwerp

Although we had originally planned on going to Bruges, Nate and I decided to take the more practical and efficient route to Antwerp, Belgium. We had booked a hostel there so we left Brussels in the morning. Antwerp is a charming small town with lots of character. We enjoyed exploring the town square with, most naturally, a huge church. Antwerp also had some delicious chocolate shops. We also enjoyed many snacks of frites, or fries. They serve them in paper cones and you can choose from countless sauces with ketchup being the minority. Nate was in heaven with all the dipping sauces. However, due to differences in dipping preferences we just had to get separate orders. :) We crossed the river via a long underground tunnel and spent some time in a park. After returning we stumbled across a street performer. He was juggling fire on a giant unicycle. It was amusing because he did his speech in several languages. Every time he switched, you’d hear a rumble of laughter from the French…then the Dutch…then the English. It was rather amusing.


Frites!




Antwerp from across the river

Day 18: Brussels

After an hour on the high speed train from Paris we arrived in Brussels, Belgium. Nate and I really enjoyed Brussels. It is much smaller than Paris and the atmosphere more relaxed and pleasant. We found our hostel easily after taking the Metro from the central train station. We went back downtown to look for some dinner. We settled on a traditional doner kebob restaurant. This fast-food type restaurant cooks meat on a large rotating skewer. The chef slices pieces off the meat and serves it on pita bread or in a wrap. We found food to be much cheaper in Belgium than in rest of Europe. That evening we enjoyed walking around the shops and sampling lots of delicious Belgian chocolate. We definitely enjoyed taking in the culture of the city and took a break from museums and traditional sightseeing.

Day 17: Paris

Nate and I were extremely excited to find the next day in Paris sunny and clear...definitely not what was forecasted! We had a big day planned: the Louvre museum, the Eiffel tower, the arc de triomphe, the Champ de Elysee, and the Orsay museum. We got to all of these places and more during this beautiful day. At the Louvre we saw the original Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and much more. The Orsay was also very interesting and showed the progression of French art. The Orsay held paintings of Van Gogh, Monet, Courbet, and many more. We walked along the Champ de Elysse, a famous street (and expensive!) that runs through the downtown area. It ends at the arc de triomphe, a arc that Napoleon built to honor war victims. We actually climbed the arc. It is situated at the middle of the city so all the roads converge around it like the spokes of a wheel. We ended at the Eiffel tower. We did wait a while to get a ride to the top, but it was worth the wait. The structure itself is actually not the most aesthetically pleasing...just a bunch of metal. But the view at the top was pretty neat. We stayed until dark to get some good night shots. We were surprised by a light show that we did not even know about. Thousands of flash-like lights went off all around the tower making for an impressive display!


Having some fun in the park


Outside the Louvre


Venus de Milo


Beginning the walk down the Champ de Elysee


The arc de triomphe




Taken from the tower

Day 16: Paris

After a long, loud, and hot train ride from Rome, we arrived in rainy and overcast Paris. We really had not planned this part of our trip in too much detail, so when we arrived in the train station we really had no idea where to go. The Metro was a little ways away from the station, but we found it and managed to get to our hotel. This hotel was not the best of our accommodations (actually the worst). The bathroom wasn't even on the same floor...we had to go down to the first level.

Unfortunately, our first day in Paris was tainted with credit card problems. For some reason both of our cards stopped working. Since the time difference is 9 hours to the States, we couldn't connect with anyone until their customer service opened. So that afternoon was quite stressful. We eventually got one working but not our ATM. One problem was that in Paris they have a Smartchip, so most vendors didn't even know how to use the American style credit card.

We did walk around Notre Dame and tour the inside. We didn't find the hunchback for some reason, but we did look! We decided to hold off on the Eiffel tower in hopes of a clearer day and once again that decision paid off in the end!


My bunk on the train


Notre Dame


A statue outside of Notre Dame




The front of Notre Dame

Day 15: Rome

For our last day in Rome we had a lot planned. We really wanted to explore the catacombs but these were a ways out of the city. However, we managed to find the right bus and rode about 45 minutes to the catacombs of St. Sabastian. We were given a tour through endless mazes of tunnels underground. The early Christians used these Roman burial grounds as meeting places during the persecutions. This particular catacomb had over 10 miles of underground tunnels. The length of all the catacombs combined is just huge. The catacombs are along the Appian way which is an ancient road built to connect cities in the Roman empire. Peter and Paul probably walked these ancient roads.

Once we returned to the city we tried the Vatican once again. This time, the line to get in St. Peter's Basilica was non-existent! We walked right in and straight up to Michealangelo's famous Pieta (Mary and the crucified Jesus). The church is just enormous. Even after being in lots of churches the previous weeks, this one still had the "wow" effect. It is the biggest church in the world. After the Vatican we walked around the Forum area once more and did a little shopping. We had to catch our night train to Paris, so we bought some groceries for dinnerto take on the train with us . This time our night train was more pleasant. We met our fellow roommates...a non-English speaking Japanese girl, a Georgian (as in Russia) biochemist, and a couple from the UK just finishing a 5 month bike tour through Australia, New Zealand, parts of Asia, and Europe. A very interesting mix! The train ended up being about 14 hours long, but we got an adequate amount of sleep and ended up in Paris!


The courtyard in the Vatican


Pieta


St. Peter's Basilica

The Appian Way

Area above the catacombs

Day 14: Rome

Day 2 in Rome was another clear, beautiful sunny day. We planned our day with an early start from the hostel. We headed for downtown to stop at the Trevi Fountain. From there we stopped at the Pantheon. This building was originally a temple to the pagen gods, but a Roman King turned it into a Christian temple. Artist Rapheal is buried in this perfectly built Dome. We then headed to the Vatican. However, the lines to get into St. Peter's Basilica stretched around the entire courtyard of the Vatican. We decided to start with the Vatican Museum. The line wasn't too long so we wandered around this huge museum and ended in the Sistene Chapel. I thought it was going to be a lot bigger, but nontheless it was still impressive and Michealangelo's paintings amazing. We decided to leave the Basilica and try get in the next day (a wise choise we found later!). We had to go back to the hostel and gather our bags since that evening we had booked a very nice hotel onto of Rome. We used Nate's hotel points to stay here, thinking a break would be nice 2/3 through the trip.

We took a shuttle to the hotel from downtown. The other people on the shuttle probably turned up their noses at these bedraggled kids getting on. However, at check-in Nate was brought to a VIP room since he had a dimond-VIP status with Hilton. (all the consecutive stays at a hotel while working in Florida paid off!) We snickered as we walked past those people to our private check-in. The hotel was gorgeous. We had a view of the entire city of Rome. We also had access to the Imperial Lounge with unlimited food and drinks all day. (We made this our dinner and breakfast during our stay.) The hotel also had a pool/fitness center, so we enjoyed relaxing that night. So we went from rags to riches in one day...from a lowly hostel "PopIn" to the "Waldorf Astoria Rome Calvilieri"!


Trevi Fountain


Pantheon

Our view from our room overlooking Rome


Our view at night: The Vatican

Day 13: Rome

From Sienna Nate and I took an approximate 2 1/2 hour train ride to Rome. We arrived before check-in at the hostel but they allowed us to just leave our bags there. We grabbed a map and headed out to check out the city. Rome ended up being one of my favorite places. Sure we had to be on high alert for pickpocketing, but as long as you are cautious and smart with your stuff it wasn't a problem. Our first stop was the Colosseum. We had purchased the Roma pass which included unlimited public transportation and free admission to a couple museums. We used our pass to cut to the front of the line and walked around the ancient building. It was amazing to stand inside this history-filled place.

From the Colosseum we walked around the Forum, or the ancient downtown which basically consists of ruins now. We did a LOT of walking in the three days spent in Rome. But every street has tons of history and we didn't want to miss anything. That night we went to Hard Rock Cafe Rome. We waited a long time but it was worth it. The food was delicious...a type we hadn't eaten in a long time (good ole' American!?) When we returned to the hostel all of our roommates were already sleeping, so we awkwardly got ready for bed as quietly as we could to ready for another fun-filled day!

Day 12: Pisa/Sienna

Our time in Florence came to an end, and we continued on toward Pisa. We did not have a lot of time but we wanted to see the famous tower. So our visit of Pisa included running around and trying to find the right bus. Once we finally found it our 1 hour bus pass started. So we rode 15 minutes to the tower, got out, took the pictures, then got back to the bus just before our time ran out. It was cool to see the tower and yes...it is still leaning.

After leaving Pisa Nate and I headed to Sienna. This small town was highly recommended and listed as a favorite for many. When we arrived by train no town was in sight. The road went uphill in 3 different directions. We had no map, so we randomly chose one road. After walking about 10 minutes uphill we merged onto a highway headed to Rome, so we realized this was the wrong way. We turned around and trudged up the other hill. Fortunately, this lead us into the old downtown. Our hostel that night was nice and it had an incredibly view. We walked around the town square that night. It was Valentine's Day so we decided on a nice dinner. However, most places were full or by reservation only. So we settled on a Chinese restaurant (very Italian! hahaha). It was actually pretty good. The place was also packed, but we got in right before the rush.

Sienna