Oktoberfest

For our last day in Bavaria we stopped off in Munich. We toured the Alte Pinakothek(great art gallery) and walked through the Marianplatz. Anticipating the whole time the most well-known festival in Germany. That's right, folks: we made it to Oktoberfest!

Let me attempt to paint you a picture.

Imagine Canada's Wonderland, in the summer, with all the rides and games. It is hot and sweaty and packed with people. Now, put in giant-pretzel stands, gingerbread cookies and for each one of those there are 2 schnitzel and wurst stands. Now imagine huge event tents, each the siye of a footbal field packed with long tables. Each table is shoulder to shoulder with people, each with their own GIGANTIC beer (bigger than a BP schnooer). Put the whole scene in Germany, complete with traditional German dress and singing, and there zou have it: Oktoberfest!

It was a crazy experience. When we got to the park at 230pm there were absolutely no seats left! I guess the Germans get up early!




SIDENOTE to whoever is pretending to be Karly in the comments: please stop. (Thanks)

Going off the Deep End in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

We arrived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (referred to as GAP from this point on) knowing two things about it.

(1) that we were 1.5 hours from Munich, and
(2) that we were at the foot of Germany's highest mountain, Zugspitz (2,962m)

We thought GAP would be a good place to stay to see Munich, and a little nature. We soon learned, however, that GAP had so much more to offer than just a bed with a view. We postponed Munich a day and explored the region. Because we were overnight guests we got a visitor card and therefore had access to a slew of free things (we like free things). They include: municipal transportation, the local wave pool, walking tours and musical performances. Since the walking tours were in German and the music season was over, we decided to go swimming!

The pool was neat. It was full all the way to the top, to the point it looked to be overflowing, and the only lights were blue atmospheric lights at the bottom of the pool. Let me tell you, Jess, there would be NOTHING to blow your whistle at in this pool, as there appeared to be NO pool rules! Running on the deck: fine. Drowning your friends: A-OK! Riding on shoulders: also acceptable! Kids in the hottub: Whats the problem with that?! You would have had a coronary! When the waves came on, the very reluctant lifeguards dragged themselves from smoking in the office to watch us. In another pool, a diving pool, there were 6 diving boards and platforms, just like at Brock. Jonathan Braveheart went off the highest platform! He's my hero. (Jonathan: It was practically as high as Zugspitz itself!) The hottub was a separate big pool all on its own with a fountain in the middle. It was a lot of fun, but I could have done without all the speedos!

Our full day in GAP was one of the most incredible scenic-wise, thus far. We hiked out to the Partnach Gorge, which is a steep cut through the mountains over 2,000m long with walls taller than 250m! We walked along close to the bottom of the gorge in galleries cut out of the rock! The water rushed over rocks and around sharp corners below us, and sun filtered down through the trees high above, barely lighting the path. It was one of the most breathtaking things that I have ever seen. (And keep in mind, I have been to Dingle! lol)

For the afternoon we hopped on a bus to Eibsee (German pronounciation: still unknown), a wee town further up the mountain. From there, we hiked all the way around the lake with Zugspitz towering of us and his other mountainous friends. It was so amazing that I almost didn't believe that it was real. Don't worry, I pinched myself: it turned out I wasn't dreaming after all.

Rothenburg: Get Medieval-ed

Rothenburg was, by far, the most touristy town that we have visited. But, being the cutest little Medieval town in all of Germany made up for that. The town is actually walled in by a tall stone wall, and the only entrances are through huge draw-bridge like gates. You could almost hear the clicking of horses hooves on the cobblestone. Except there was no cobblestone in the Middle Ages and the clicking is actually of tourist's camera's.

The Night Watchman gave us a tour of medieval Rothenburg, and we learned all sorts of interesting facts about medieval life in Rothenburg on the eerie evening walk. One of the most interesting stories is that of how the best preserved medieval town in Germany has remained preserved all this time. Legend has it after the town had been taken over by the enemy, the General of the opposing army said that he would spare the town if one of the town councillors would chug a 3.25L barrel of wine. The mayor himself stepped up to the challenge and Hurray! Rothenburg was save! Two windows on either side of the clock in the main square commenmorates the mayor every hour, on the hour, when they spring open, and out pops a moving wax-like mayor, drinking the wine. The thing is, this is tale is not true. Rothenburg started out very rich in the middle ages, which is why it is so beautiful in the first place. It was the pee break half way between several major trade routes. However, it was ransacked, pillaged and seized continuously during the Thirty Years War. After the war neither the town nor its occupants could afford to modernize, leaving Rothenburg to sleep for over 250 years. One of Germany's most touristed towns was preserved by poverty. You can see why the other story was created. Nonetheless, Rothenburg is a city rich in history, architecture, and one of the best stops along the Romantic Road.

In Rothenburg we also tried a traditional Rothenburger Schneeballen. A schneeballen (translated snowball) is dough cut into strips, and then woven all together in a ball shape, deep fried, then coated in sugar (or chocolate or nuts etc.). They look a lot better than they taste. When you visit Rothenburg, there is no need to sample one.

One of the best parts of Rothenburg was the train ride in through the Romantic Road. The landscape was dotted with fields of sunflowers, lush gardens, farmer's fields, hills and huge trees. I guess it had a little bit for everyone! Speaking of places that had a little something for everyone: Kathe Wohlfart Christmas Village had the same claim. Now, usually Jonathan and I skip souvenir shops, but a 'Christmas Village' sounded like something that needed to be checked out. Now, they didn't allow cameras, sadly, so I can't show you just how cool this place was. I did, however, smuggle a brochure into our luggage (don't tell Jonathan). The Village had a huge 5.5m tall decorated Christmas tree, surrounded by little German houses, all decorated with garland, lights and snow. Each little house had different kinds of Christmas goodies. Sparkling stars hung from the ceiling and a 3.5m nutcracker supervised everything. The store was atleast 3 floors, and so many toys seemed to move or glow or do something magical! It even smelt like Christmas!

This is me and Jonathan (he got dressed up a little) enjoying the city. Isn't he handsome?

Wine on the Rhine

At long last, we have finally made it to Germany; Deutchland, as it is really called. We laid our bags in a Rhine-side village named Bacharach (say it in the most backest-back of your throat).

Our B&B host, Ursula, was super. She spoke very little English and we spoke even less German. You might be surprised how effective smiles, coupled with wildly exaggerrated hand gestures are when verbal communication is not possible. Danke, Ursula!

The Rhine Valley is known for their wine. Before tourists discovered the beautiful Rhine, wine making was the area's largest income. In Niagara, the escarpment plays a major role in our world-class vintages. Here, slate in the hills is the major player. The heat from the slate sweetens the grapes, thus making for tastier and more potent wine. We were told the Rhine's premium wines come from the highest vineyards. Now we aren't on a 'premium' kind of budget, but we did enjoy a glass of Bacharach Riesling Trocken (it was from the lower part of the hills). Very tasty.

Taking advantage of the frequent ferries up and down the Rhine, we stopped off at a couple different Rhine villages and toured the Marksburg Medieval Castle. It is a unique castle. Most of the castles overlooking the Rhine were destroyed (courtesy of Napoleon) and later rebuilt in the 1900's 'in the style of' the originals. Not Marksburg, though. It was so well fortified that even Napoleon left it alone. It is one of the most genuine reproductions (inside) of a Medieval castle on the Rhine. It was interesting to see the simple setup of the rooms. Castles are nice tourist attractions, but would make for a cold and uncomfortable residence. I suppose, though, safety was more important than comfort in those days.

Does anyone know our next stop? If you guessed Rothenburg, you are absolutely, positively RIGHT!

Here we go again!

A Splash of Holland-Days

We like to think of ourselves as travellers with a 'more-less' philosophy. We want more locals and less cash registers. More or less, it says you can have twice the experience for half the price. What a great travel philosophy! Rick Steves calls it Europe through the Back Door.

Despite our 'more-less' indoctrination, we still came into the Netherlands through the front door. It was a safety net. Nevertheless, Amsterdam proved an interesting safety net.

Amsterdam, in many ways, is a liberal city. The chance to legally use drugs and sex workers lures many travellers, especially backpackers, to Amsterdam. While we skipped both the drugs and sex workers, we did indulge in the Dutch Art Amsterdam had to offer.

I have read that Dutch Art was considered to be very quiet, especially compared to the drama in Italian Art. It was quiet, but still displayed the mastery over the canvas and colours. It was a highlight, particularly for Kristen.

This still life, for example. The closer I got the better it looked. Rembrandt's Night Watch was incredible to see, especially because it was the size of an entire wall!

Our night in the Amsterdam hostel was an 'experience'. We slept in a dorm with 18 other backpackers, most of whom chose their days wardrobe only after conducting the all-important 'smell-test'. It was there that we realized backpackers are not all created equal. Truthfully, though, it was a fun and funny experience.

We wanted to stay outside of Amsterdam and return to our more-less philosophy. So, taking full advantage of our Eurail Pass, we took a 25 minute train ride outside of the big citz to a small town.

Zandvoort is a tiny sea-side getaway for the Dutch and the Germans. With having no Dutch or German in our blood, we were lucky to even hear about Zandvoort. Our guidebook barely made mention of it; recommending it only as a half-day trip from a day trip from Amsterdam. It was a town with real Dutch people and a lot of cheese! Today I saw a 1 kg hunk of Gouda cheese for about $5 CDN. If I were flying straight home from the Netherlands, I would definitely be over my cheese exemption (Don't worry, Dad, I wouldn't bring back more than one turkey!). And the Dutch people have been so friendly. They offer to help when I am standing helpless in the deli section and actually stop on the street when we look a little lost. When I started planning this trip I really would have never imagined that I would see the ocean from Belgium and the Netherlands, but I am really glad that I have. We strolled for hours along the beach today. The waves were HUGE! There were sea kayakers, swimmers, surfers and lots of frolicking dogs. I honestly think everyone in Holland has a dog (big ones, small ones, some as big as your head!). The lady who is running our B&B is so welcoming. We are a three minute walk from the North sea, a 5 minute walk to the train station, and just down the street from Dirks Supermarket (notable because of its gouda and availability of my favourite Belgian Chocolate, Cote D'Or. TRY IT!!)

With Zandvoort as our worthy home town, we took our time going through manz of the surrounding cities. Haarlem, for its cobblestone and architecture. Leiden for its prestigious universities and gardens and Delft, with its well-known blue and white Dutch ceramics. There then came a time when we realized we had not seen enough of what every good tourist really comes to Holland for: windmills.

After chatting with a local, we were on our way to Rotterdam. It seemed weird that we were going to an uber-modern city in search of countryside and windmills, but after a little bit of navigating (I will spare you the details) we made it from Rotterdam to the land of 30 windmills, known to the rest of the world as Kinderdijke! We wandered around the windmills which lined narrow rivers and farmers fields. We were offical tourists of the Netherlands, with dozens of windmill pictures to prove it!

Our guidebook, and others we have read, suggest using big cities as 'hubs' to visit smaller localities. We think thez have it all wrong. The more-less philosophy uses less-expensive, friendlier, close-by local towns as the perfect hub to the larger, less-friendly and more expensive bigger cities. The trip has been great so far!

I would like to take this opportunity to also thank my Dutch friends, especially Lindsay and Laura. Without them I don't think that I would have appreciated Holland nearly as much I have. For example, those little sprinkles zou put on toast: well thez are everywhere, in all flavours, colours, shapes and sizes! And cheese? The good gouda kind, cut straight from the circle that Laura's mom always sent her as a treat? (The good cheese that you need to use the cool cheese cutter for...although Laura always says its a normal cheese cutter, I personally think that it is a genius Dutch invention.)

The Best of Belgium

We have heard that Belgium is often side-stepped on a casual tour of Europe. After now coming here for a second time, I realize it is a matter of Belgium lacking only major tourist attractions; it is deprived of nothing else. Filled with vintage
windmills and fields spotted with uninterested cows and divided by tall deciduous trees, its country side is nothing less than charming.

Let me tell you how I know.

Our main plan for Belgium was to take a guided tour just outside the city limits of Brugge. It was a nice idea, but Belgium did not go as planned: we were bit by the adventure bug!

"Who needs a tour guide," we mused.

Our logic was that, equipped only with a bike, enthusiasm, and an interested frame of mind, we would see more for less than if we took the safe way, a guided tour.


With our freshly-rented bikes, a vsague sense of direction and armed with bike bells, we took to the paths.

Belgium must really like their bikers because we had our own wide, paved paths, lined with towering trees right along the canal. Cows and sheep grazed on the banks. The countryside was incredible and the canals reflected the lining trees and sky. Even better, though, was the smell (and no, I don't mean cow manure!!). It smelt like fall, but sweet somehow. Leaves were floating to the ground. After riding canals and down narrow cobblestone streets, we made our first stop in a cute little historic town, Dammes.

We did a quick jaunt through the town and fields and then headed towards our next stop: the Netherlands! Oh yes, that's right, we biked to the Netherlands. Man, we are so European!

We stopped in Sluis, Holland for a few pictures, but since we wanted to make it to the coast, we kept trucking. And it was well worth it! I never even thought of Belgium as having a little sea-side town.

Knokke Heist, Belgium, however, has it all: white sandy beaches as far as the eye can see, a great view of the ocean and a huge bike path all the way along! We got off the bikes and got sand between our toes! The perimeter of the beach was sand dunes covered in ornamental looking grass.
We couldn't not run through it. But then I heard it, a rattle. Does Belgium have rattle snakes? We didn't hang around and find out.

We were now 18km from our home base, Brugge. I wondered if we were actually going to make it back. My bum was already numb! The scenery distracted us though, and pretty soon we were back among the canals and cobblestone of Brugge.

Of all the people and animals we met along our bike ride, the rooster was the most peculiar. I suspect they were Irish roosters. In Ireland we were told there are no strangers, just friends who have never met. Belgians, however, were not quite as welcoming. The Irish are a hard act to follow. Never=the-less, every time we needed them, they pulled up their socks. Strangers, presumable locals, are unresponsive to smiles. Tourists, many are easy to spot, are no different than Niagara FAlls tourists: unresponsive to the entire world around them. Even most of the Belgian farm stock in unresponsive. Cows don't respond to your mooing, horses to your naying and sheep to your baaing. Never do they respond, no matter your expertise in farm animal noises. And then there is the rooster. Even in the middle of an intense 'pecking the ground' session, he will show you the utmost interest if you cluck at him. Before our bike ride I was rather impartial to roosters. Now, that has all changed.

To give our bums a well-needed rest, we spent the next day wandering the city. I have officially given Brugge the title of 'Romantic City'. Even Jonathan was persuaded by its cute buildings, canals and cobblestone. In such a romantic city, I decided it would only make sense that he should kiss me every 10 minutes. So he set his watch. This lasted all of 20 minutes. Suspiciously, the watch "broke" and Jonathan couldn't fix it.

It was a mere inconvience. I just replaced him with some Belgian chocolate. We bought some hand-made Belgian Chocolate, ate a picnic lunch beside a canal, and got lost in Brugge's narrow streets.

It was neat because the cute houses and streets were not just in the tourist areas. They were everywhere. It was just real Brugge.

One of our stops was at the Basilica of the Holy Blood. We stopped because of its connection to John 19:41: "Taking Jesus'body, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped it in strips of linen." It held a relic; apparently a strip of this linen, covered in Holy Blood. I had never before seen a relic and I did not know how to approach it, or even if I should. I was sceptical about the origins of the blood. Would it be wrong to venerate the blood, the relic, if it really was not Holy Blood? I didn't know and I still don't. I did, however, choose to go up, and even touch, but not as a sceptic. I went as a Christian. My time in front of the relic was spent not wondering "is this Holy Blood?" but quietly and thankfully reaffirming my faith that "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace (Eph 1:7). I am glad I went up.

Let's move on...to FOOD! Imagine this: a real Belgian waffle, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, just barely poking out from underneath a mound of creamy ice cream, liberally drizzled in chocolate sause...for dinner! We paid no attention the surrounding awe-inspiring gothic architecture, the marching band, or the Belgian festival that we were right in the middle of. It was just me and my waffle.

On a much less important note, we finally saw the Mannekin Pis. You know, the little boy peeing fountain. Brussels is pretty obsessed with it. The locals have made hundreds of little outfits for him, all with a strategically placed holde.
They even have them on display at a museum! There is a Mannekin Pis restaurant, Mannekin Pis hotel, Mannekin Pis store, heck you can even buy your own little Mannekin Pis to bring home...in chocolate if you'd like!

Belgium has been great. We might miss its slower pace when we roll into wild and crazy Amsterdam. Of course, we'll let you know.

ps. thanks for the interest! My camera is a Kodak z650. It is a 6MP, 12X optical zoom, and it comes with lots of automatic and manual functions. I love this camera!