Day 9: Venice

We made it! An awkward night train and little sleep couldn’t keep us from enjoying Venice. We arrived in the intriguing city and started with a Grand Canal tour. There literally are no cars in the city, only every imaginable king of boat. We saw garbage boats, refrigerated boats, and even a DHL boat. Nate and I toured the Basilica San Marco and the Doge’s Palace. We also went through a couple museums. We went to the top of the bell tower for an incredible view of the city. Many gondoliers tried to sell us a ride in a gondola, but we were not interested due to the high cost. From there we wound our way through narrow pedestrian-only streets of Venice. Following a map would have been impossible, so we relied on random signs pointing to major landmarks. We stopped at the Rialto bridge…the famous grand bridge spanning the width of the canal. That evening we browsed the streets of Venice and got some local food. Yup…you guessed it…pizza! The most common pizza there is the margharita (basically cheese, sauce, and oregano) named after queen Margherita.

Taken from the top of the bell tower


In front of the Basilica San Marco


Sunset in Venice

Day 8: Lucerne

Our day in Lucerne started with a walk around the old city walls. We walked along Lake Lucerne and across the famous old wooden bridges. It was a cool and very windy day, so we didn’t linger too long by the lake. Nate and I spent some time looking in the stores and stopped in a café for some coffee and croissant. We headed to Interlaken from Lucerne and did some more window shopping and taking in the sights. We walked a long way with our backpacks still with us. When we got to the other side of town we found another train station! Imagine that. So we could have just taken the train to downtown. Oh well…at least we didn’t have to walk all the way back! We then took another train to Spiez. At that point it was dark and snowing hard so by the time we got to Spiez we just hunkered down in a café to wait for our night train to Venice. Our couchette included 4 other travelers in a small room. We boarded the train 2 hours after it started so those people were already sleeping. We fumbled around in the dark trying to get ourselves situated on our bunks and eventually got a little sleep on the way to Bologna.






Lucerne

Day 7: Fussen

We arrived in Fussen in the dark and had to walk over 45 minutes to our hostel. We found out the address we had was for a different house and there was one only about 5 minutes from the train. Fortunately the manager drove us back in his van. When we arrived he could not open the door. Apparently one of the guests had dead bolted it from the inside. So he was running around the house, yelling and throwing snowballs at the windows to get the attention of people inside. Nate and I just stood there waiting to get in, laughing at the whole situation.

The next morning we took a bus to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. The fresh layer of snow made this already fairy-tale like castle even more gorgeous. This castle was built by a young king in the 1800’s but he died shortly after it was built. (legend has his death suicidal, but recently many think it was murder). The castle is extravagantly decorated and furnished. We weren’t allowed pictures inside, so we can only show the outside. It was beautiful inside though!

Our trip from Fussen to Lucerne involved over 7 trains and six connections. However, we made it with no missed trains and arrived in Lucerne in the evening. We checked in at our hostel and went out in search of fondue (Switzerland is known for their fondue). We found a fondue house and ordered some cheese. It was very expensive, so we opted out of chocolate for dessert. The dinner was delicious though!

Hohenschwangau Castle



A snow-covered bridge


Neuschwanstein Castle

Day 6: Dachau

After a good evening in Rothenberg we headed towards Munich. We stopped just about 15 miles from Munich to visit the Dachau concentration camp. This was one of the first concentration camps built and served as a model for others. Most of the buildings had been destroyed but 2 of the barracks were reconstructed for visitors to see. The crematorium/gas chambers still stood as well as the prison. We walked through the museum and watched a documentary about Dachau. It was a very somber experience. Just as we arrived it started to snow which only added to the overall atmosphere. It made it a lot easier to imagine what the prisoners went through as they lived in those freezing conditions. Here we were dressed in our warm clothes wtih gloves/hats etc and we were still cold. Those people only had thin prison clothes, were malnourished, sick, and forced to work outside. Awful! After leaving Dachau we spent the rest of the day traveling to Fussen, stopping briefly in Munich for some lunch.


The entrance all prisoners entered through, seeing the words
"Work shall set you free"








The crematorium

Day 5: Heidelberg/Rothenberg

We left our ghost town in the morning in search of some more castles. We stopped in Heidelberg, Germany and visited the Heidelberg Castle. The walk up to the castle involved 363 steep stairs but the view up top was amazing. The day was a little cloudy and overcast so the pictures couldn’t quite capture the view. We toured the inside of the castle which included a 50,000 gallon wine vat. If the castle went under siege at least the people would have wine for a while!!! We went on to the town of Rothenberg. I was a little nervous that we would find another ghost town. This Medieval town was also highly recommended by Steves. However, when we arrived we found a moderately active town much to my relief. We walked around a portion of the city walls on the catwalk area. That night we stayed in a quaint little hotel. There was a music festival that night in all the restaurants and most were closed for food so we ended up returning to our hotel for dinner.



The Heidelberg Castle








The huge wine vat!

The walls around Rothenberg

Day 4: Bacharach

Our first real day of traveling started once we left Maddy’s house. She dropped us off at the train station around 5:30 in the morning so we could get a good start to the day. We had 5 connections and took 4 different trains to get to our final destination…Bacharach, Germany. This town along the Rhine River was highly recommended by travel writer Rick Steves. However, we soon found out that this is an amazing town…but only in the summer. The winter is not quite so impressive. When we got off the train only 2 other people got off with us and quickly disappeared in this ghost town. We wandered the streets for over 20 minutes without seeing anyone else. It was rather eerie. Our accommodations for the night were the saving point…a castle! It involved a steep half hour hike to the top of the hill but offered an amazing view of the town and the river. Fortunately we found a few people at the castle and managed to check in and find our room. We did go back to the train and rode 10 minutes to visit another town with actual residents and some activity. However, our evening in this Medieval castle was pleasant and pretty interesting.


The empty streets of Bacharach




Our accommodations for the night!

Day 3: Goes

Today Maddy took Nate and I around the Zealand area. She showed us the towns surrounding Goes. We ended at Vlissigen which is right along the water. The town is right along the dikes. Apparently in WWII the dikes were bombed, flooding the entire town and killing many people. We walked around several of the towns and took in the sights. We also went to a huge greenhouse/garden store. The variety of flowers and plants there was incredible. Holland definitely is advanced when it comes to flowers and greenhouses. After returning to Goes we walked around the actual town. She showed us the church my dad was baptized in and the other Reformed/Catholic church in Goes (basically every town in Europe has incredible churches!) We then returned to Maddy’s home in time for the 5:00 milking. She wanted us to see the milking parlor and barn and such. We got there in time to meet her brother and nephew. As we were walking around her brother said a cow was in labor. So we headed to the barn just in time to see the birth of a calf! It was the first for both Nate and I…pretty incredible! They said they planned it just for us. J Their milking parlor was impressive and technologically advanced.

The house my dad lived in


Downtown Goes

Day 2: Amsterdam

Nate and I took a train from the Schipol airport to the central train station in Amsterdam. We got our Eurail train passes validated and from there they worked great! We started by going to the Anne Frank house, but after a long walk we were told we couldn’t go in with our backpacks. So, we walked back to the central station and took a canal tour instead. The tour took us through the many canals throughout Amsterdam. We then got back on the train and started heading to Goes, the hometown of my dad’s first cousin. On the way we stopped in Dordtrecht (we had to pay respects on behalf of our alma mater!) We finally arrived in Goes around 3:30 and Maddy picked us up at the train station. She first brought us to her house to drop off our bags and have teatime. After resting a bit we walked around the surrounding area. She showed us the farm my grandpa grew up on and the house my dad lived in before his family moved to the States. That was really neat to see. After dinner with Maddy we basically went to bed around 7:30…we were pretty beat since we were going on 36 hours without sleep.

On the canal tour

A bike parking lot...so many bikes!!!

Day 1: The flight

Our trip started on Tuesday morning when we left Mt. Vernon around 5:30 am. Nate and I caught a ride with Nate’s dad to the airport since he had a flight to the East Coast in the morning. We didn’t leave until 12:30, but we hung out in the Alaska Airlines Lounge until our flight left. We did have one potential disaster...Nate's camera was inadvertently left behind at home. Fortunately we were only 15 minutes down the road when I realized it so my dad met us halfway and brought it to us. Not sure how that happened, but at least we got our travel kinks out right away! :) The flight was long but uneventful. Each seat had its own TV so we watched several movies and played some games. We arrived in Amsterdam around 7:30 on Wednesday morning, consequently missing an entire night of sleep

Ready for adventure!!!

We're Back!!!

We made it! Nate and I arrived home from our incredible journey yesterday afternoon after a long but uneventful flight from Amsterdam. We thank God for safety in the many miles we traveled yet also pray for those families affected by the plane crash in Amsterdam this morning. It is something that definitely hit close to home since we were just there at the Schipol airport.

This morning I took Nate to the airport to catch his flight to a blueberry meeting in Mississippi. He will be gone until Sunday and then possibly head to Florida for some interviews. In the meantime, I plan to work for my dad and get this blog updated!!! It was too difficult to post while we were gone since we had inconsistent Internet access. So I plan on gradually updating the blog with the events of each day. So bear with me and I will eventually have our adventures posted!