York

My friend Talitha came to visit and the two of use went on a little side trip to York. I like York because it seems looks like what you think an English town should look like. It was a walled city with old ruins, a huge cathedral, wondering cobbled streets, and tiny allies filled with shops.

As with the rest of Europe, York Minster was under construction. They had to take it down to repair the damage from restoration the church did from WWII (if that makes sense). Anyways it was still really nice inside. It was light and airy as apposed to most cathedrials that are covered in 100s of decades of candle grime.

This one is short and sweet, just like the town.

My Easter Vacation

So I got a new charger so now I can tell you the fully pictured story of my Easter adventure.
Brianna and I started our trip in Frankfurt Am Main.

This city is a large business center, making the whole city feel like the financial district. Since it was our first city, we contented ourselves with eating Frankfurters in the historic square.

The second day we were there was Palm Sunday, so we decided to attend a catholic service; in hind sight this was a mistake. The hardest part was probably the fact that the entire service was in German. The service was sung, and when it started, we marveled at how wonderful at the voices of the priests. It was like a normal song, there would be a verse and the the chorus. However, the novelty wore off after the fourth chorus and, I promise that I am not exaggerating, we remained standing for an hour! After an hour and a half, we decided to leave. After the service we went to Goethe's House. He was a writer of a book that became something of a cult favorite among young men, especially those who committed suicide. Apparently Napoleon took this book into every battle with him, just in case I guess.

We then went to Rothenburg, a cute little walled town that looked like it belonged in Disneyland. This town is most famous for it's Christmas market, but seeing as we were there in March there were only the established shops. Even thought we only had the established stores, I have never seen so many Christmas ornaments in my life! I wish I could have taken a picture, but they militantly patrolled the store, yelling at all sightings of a camera. This was one of those towns that was wonderful to just wonder around in.

We climbed to the top of the city council tower. It's funny because at the bottom there are all of these notices that you need to not be afraid of confined spaces or heights, and they were not kidding. The best way to describe the stairs was as close to walking straight up, but in a square.

In this picture I am only 3 steps below, the second step was at my knees. But the scaling of the tower was worth it, it was such a nice view of the whole walled city. After climbing down, we enjoyed these really random dessert cookie-ish things called "Snowballs". It was interesting because the main day we were there was Saint Patrick's Day, and yet you could tell who was an American and who wasn't based on what color they were wearing (we were the only ones wearing green).

After Rothenburg we headed to Munich.

Munich I thought was the perfect combination of a big city and a small town, while it was physically large the people were friendly and there were lots of winding streets. The bitting breeze was a bit hard to deal with, so to compromise we ate some hot candied almonds as we wondered through the shops.

The second day, we made a side trip to Dauchu, one of the concentration camps from Nazi Germany. This was a really interesting and sobering experience. This was mainly a labor camp, so it was not as appalling as what I was expecting, but none the less it was surreal to actually walk through it.

After that depressing trip we went to Nyphenburg Palace, the residences of the king of Bavaria. It had impressive paintings, but admittedly, after Versailles, things seem to pale in comparison. It was here where the snow started, but at this point we still thought it was a fun thing.

After wondering the grounds we headed to Hofbrauhaus, one of the indoor beer gardens. Here Brianna drank a huge mug while I contented myself with a pint of soda. It was fun to sit at these big tables with people who you have never met, sitting listening to the Polka band and sip your drink.

Munich behind us, we headed down to Fussen, a tiny town that rests against the Alps. This town is know for its two castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. We went to Hohenschwangau, this was the the summer home of the same king that owned Nyphenburg. We had a wonderful tour guide that walked us through this house that was full of amazing painted walls and ornate presents that the kings had received over the ages. We then went across to Neuschwanstein; we deceided to spare the hourses from having to haul us up that huge hill and deceided to walk it.

This castle looked like it should have been a fairy tale; part of this is due to the fact that it was designed by an artiest rather than an architect. Again, everything inside was wonderfully painted and the wood and marble were worked with such detail. Sadly, he ran out of money (and he might have died) before it was fully finished.

We then caught the train to Salzburg; this might have been my favorite city, but least favorite hostel (I will spare you the details). It was so wonderful to wonder around the city and to come upon scenes out of the Sound of Music.

We also toured the house and birthplace of Mozart. It was interesting to listen to just how much he hated Salzburg and it's residents and yet here we were in a city that now loves him. This aside, like I said we were really excited about the Sound of Music and managed to find at least a few of the movie sites.

Steps that the kids hopped up and down on while singing "Do Re Mi"

This was a real find, we were literally climbing up random stairs when we found the Abby. It's still an Abby so we couldn't go inside

We also went to the top of the of the local mountain, to the fortress. Thankfully the sky obliged to part and reveal the surrounding mountains, it was beautiful!

Just as Rothenburg was know for its Christmas Ornaments, Salzburg apparently is know if its Easter eggs. Seeing as it was Easter, we thought it was only appropriate for us to purchase these delicate ornaments. This, however, meant that from then on we were carrying painted, hallow chicken eggs. They traveled safely all the way back to Leeds and then to Italy where my parents kindly took charge of them and delivered them home in one piece. Hooray!

We were there on Easter and at seemingly random points throughout the night before dozens of church bells would start ringing. The next morning we tried vain to go to a sunrise Easter Sunday service, but since the cute little old nun didn't know English and we didn't know German, when we turned up, no one was there; actually I don't think anyone in the whole city of Salzburg was awake apart from the two of us.
Tired, we caught the train to Lucerne, Switzerland. This city was the a small town on a lake. We also found the famed Dying Lion statue. This is a monument, carved directly out of the solid rock hillside, that was carved to honor the Swiss Guards who died at the battle of Le Tuileries; they died in an effort to protect the royal family from the mobs that were invading the palace during the French Revolution. Mark Twain said it was, "the saddest, most moving piece of rock in the world" and we had to agree.

Brianna wanted to go up into the Alps, so we caught a gondola to the top of Pilatus, the highest mountain in the area.

When we first got to the top, it was really bright with a light breeze; I don't think I've ever squinted so much in my life. After about 10mins, it got really windy and as the clouds started rolling in, as is obvious from the picture; with the combination of the sun's reflection and the swirling icy snow, it felt like we were being stabbed in the eyes.
The next day we went to Freiburg; this was an utter disappointment. We were aiming to be in the Black Forest, you know cake and cuckoo clocks, well neither of those things nor a forest for that matter could be found.
Skipping that, I'll tell you about Belgium. This city was like Frankfurt, as it is the capital, but with one HUGE improvement, CHOCOLATE!!! It was so much fun to just wander up and down the streets going into each of the several dozen chocolate shops, buying one candy from each. While wondering, we found the Manneken Pis, a little bronze statue of a little boy peeing.

After that we were done with the city, but it was only about 4pm. Deciding that we didn't want to just sit in the room, and after looking for ideas in the travel book, we discovered that Waterloo was only a 30minute bus ride away, so, we hoped on the bus and headed out. I think that it would be prudent to mention that it gets dark around 6-6:30 and that it had been raining on and off all day. When we got on the bus and asked for tickets, the bus driver flat out told us that we were crazy. Well, we managed to find it, and even it was now pouring, dark, and locked, had a little walk around the outside.

We never did figure out how to go around to see the front of the lion, but hey, we get an A+ for effort even if we get an F- for planning and timing.
On the way back we were cold and Brianna insisted that I had to try an Belgium waffle, and why would I resist the eating a Belgium waffle in Belgium.

The next day we went to Amsterdam. In the three days and two nights we successfully avoided all areas of the Red Light distract. Instead we went to the Van Gogh and Rijks Museum. It was in these two museums that I truly appreciated the work that goes into most museums in the United States and England, at home the building is laid out in a way where there were not bottle necks, the things on display are easily viable from a distance, and the building in it of itself is beautiful. All the things that we went to in Amsterdam were the exact opposite, it was slightly disappointing. We also went to Ann Frank's house. The best part of this house was the bookcase that hid the stairs that led up to where they were hiding.

The highlight of Amsterdam was the trip to the flower gardens in Lissen. We went when it had only been open for a week, so not all of the flowers were out, but even still it was beautiful. There are no words to describe how nice it was to wonder around these huge grounds and see all the flowers. Then, inside the greenhouse we were able to see all the varieties. It was impossible to pick favorites, they were all so unusual and beautiful. Sadly, I don't have very many pictures yet because of my camera dying, thankfully I think Brianna took enough for the both of us and then about 100 to spare.

The next day we were heading back to Frankfurt, but we were in no hurry. Instead of doing nothing in Frankfurt we stopped and had lunch in Delft. Delft is known for the Girl with the Pearl Earing and its pottery, which looks like traditional china, but it feels a lot lighter. We met this really nice man that was actually panting the pottery in his shop and from him I bought two little bud vases. At first we thought his were too expensive, but then when we went to the tourist shops, we couldn't bring ourselves to buy the imitation stuff. Oh, I guess the Netherlands is known for its cheese, so it was really fun to ride through Gouda on the train and then see shops like this, even if they did smell a bit weird.

The only way that we could get from the Netherlands to Frankfurt was on the high speed train. For the first half of riding it, I wanted my money back because we weren't going any faster than the other trains that we had taken. Then once we left Kolon, we really started picking up speed, reaching 300km/hr (it sounds so much faster in km). I was really glad that it was dark outside, with the little that we could see, which was hardly anything, I was feeling sick.

After that there was nothing really exciting, minus the getting up SUPER early to make sure that I made my flight.

I think this is sufficiantly long, and now I must get back to the more boring writting that I am to be graded on. I have gone to York since then and I am planning on going to Wales and Chester on the 26 and then to Whitby on the 27, so there is more to come.
Until I have more time, see you!

My Trip- Part 1

Hello!
I have returned from my two week travel through Europe. My friend Brianna, from Biola, and I met in Frankfurt, Germany and set off for an interesting journey.

(click to enlarge)

Due to my carelessness I have lost my camera charger and therefore cannot get the pictures off my camera, this is why there will be two parts to this post. In this one I will just give you an overview, details and more stories will come with pictures.
We arrived on March 15th and spent two nights in Frankfurt. We then traveled to Rothenburg, a cute medieval town where we got Christmas ornaments. We then went to Munich for two nights, including a side trip to Dachau. From Munich we went to Fussen, were we hiked up the Alps to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, two castles. We then went to Salzburg for two nights, here we bathed in the glow of Mozart and the Sound of Music.
On Easter we traveled to Luzern and spent two nights there. We then traveled to Freiburg, which was an utter disappointment. After a 5:50am train, we traveled to Brussels and rewarded ourselves with chocolate and waffles. From there we went to Amsterdam, where we skillfully avoided the Red Light Distract and instead wondered through tulip fields and went to Anne Frank's house. It was then back to Frankfurt, but we did take a lunch stop in Delft causing us to arrive in Frankfurt at 11pm-ish. Then up at 5:30am on the 30th to get back to the airport and home.
I do like traveling, but going for two weeks with two pairs of pants and 6 shirts, causes you to smell a bit, um, odd. At the moment I am back in Leeds, wearing clean clothes and showered, trying to work on the three papers that I have to finish.
I can't wait to see my family in 5 days! Anyways, I'll post the long version of my journey when I have the visual aids.

See you!