Day 13

Happy Father's Day!!! We love and miss you daddies Dennis and Paul!!! 

People don't sleep here. It's insane. Even our host says they don't sleep. Luckily, though, the window blocked out most of the noise. Guess who did sleep? Yaaaay! I got sleep! 

I even kicked Brad out of the room to go talk to the host so I could stay in bed. Muahahahaha! Ehem.  

We set out for the Columbus Tower. From the top, you have the best view. 

The Columbus Tower.  

Pretty building.  

They had a wine and cheese tasting option.  

We then walked to the Picasso Museum. 

On our way to the museum. The water glows. 

We had enough time to wander. We ended up following a parading band to a cafe. This is the view from the cafe. There's graffiti everywhere here.  

He painted this when he was 13. 13!  

He was 14 or 15 when he painted this.  

You can see his progression away from rules.  

He painted this while in Paris.  

There were signs that said no photos. Naturally, I took photos until I got yelled at. This is when I got yelled at. No more photos.  

It's not hot here (It's about 80), but it is very humid. We meandered back to the airbnb to rest and recharge.  

We saw this, The Catedral de Barcelona, on our way.  

I stayed in and Brad went down to a local bar that had a ton of beers on tap. He was in heaven.  

When he got back, we left for dinner and a flamenco show. The show was wonderful!!! The food? So-so.  

On our way to the show, we walked by a school with student murals on the wall.

This is a lovely drawing of a bus, isn't it? It's so detailed; it even has an exhaust.  

All the dancers were great! 

I think she had the most emotion behind her dancing.  

Change of outfit.  

Three sisters.  

After the show, we walked back. It was a long walk, but it was good to move after sitting for so long. When we got back, it was close to 10:30.  

Time to shower and get ready for toorrow. 

Day 12

So the ear plugs didn't work, which sucked big butt because we were up at 6:30 for our train to Tafalla. 

Ewe.  

Once we were in Tafalla, we had to figure out where to store our luggage and how to get to Olite. The window ticket personnel recommended we go to the municipal police department.  

So we did. The officer we spoke to was super sweet and even pulled up google translate to communicate with us.  

First time we had to cross the actual train tracks.  

Google translate.  

The bus ride to Olite was comical at best. I guess here you can't stand and you're supposed to wear seat belts. Total change from the past few days. Anyhow, the bus driver got his panties in a twist.  

From one of the towers in the castle.  

Brad. Sitting at a very old window seat.  

Those are people down there. We're looking through the murder hole. I thought it adorable how Brad would go "pshew pshew" at each one.  

Queen's garden.  

Fun fact: the building you see on the left with the vines...yeah, that dates back to the first century.  

A pano of that same building. I touched it. Tehe.  

After the castle, we walked around (as you can tell) the city of Olite.  

Look Matt and Sandra! We found your church! 😄 

I have no idea what this is, but I saw it and I wanted it so I took a picture. Nuff said.  

We wanted to get back to Tafalla early so we could make sure we made our train, so we headed to the bus station and waited. And waited. And waited.  

Turns out, that stop is closed down. Hmph. To the next stop! And a forty minute wait. Oye.   

This is the tree I relaxed under for shade. Hello, tree.  

Back in Tafalla, we went to old town. Quaint little area.  

Cute little walkways.  

Stores with meat. Lots of meat.  

After sitting down and enjoying the day for a bit, we headed to the train station for our four-ish hour trip.  

Once in Barcelona, we met our host, Patrice. He is very nice and informative. We will have a sit down with him tomorrow to go over the things to do in Barcelona. It was late (11:00), but we were hungry, so we set out for dinner. We went to a mostly pizza place as per our host's recommendation. The food was good. The service was horrible. For this entire trip, we haven't had such a rude waiter. He, at one point, out-right ignored us. Jerk. 

Lol.  

Then we went home and now we're in bed...blogging. Good night.  

Day 11 - Rainy San Sebastián

It's funny how quickly the weather changes here. From 80 to 60 and back to 80 in 48 hours. Regretfully, we won't be here to see tomorrow's 80. Today was a bit chili. I'm certainly glad we got to put our feet in the water yesterday.  I learned today that 19 degrees Celsius can be cold or warm. 

A lot of walking around alone today. Lindsey didn't feel well and slept through most of it, so I walked the city. I looked at a lot of menus in the window, and most of them are the same.  They're all tapas places. There's another word for it here in the native tounge that basically means complex tapas, but this is the tapas we're used to in the states. Everywhere you go, the food just sits out on the counter and you pick what you want while everyone else is hovering over, talking over, and probably spitting on, the food. San Seb was not the food capital I was hoping it would be. 

This is a better menu. A place I thought Lindsey might want to eat.  

The beach was nice. Not so much today, but yesterday it was nice and sunny.  

A decent beer where we are dinner

Dinner...not tapas

Our hosts

Day 11

I got sick last night. Combine that with the lack of sleep (loud street below) and today made for a slow day. It's also important to note that it was pouring. Although, Brad claims it was sprinkling...heavily. Lol.

We blogged and planned in the room until noon. Then we went in search of food. Restaurants didn't open until one, though, so we found a bakery and had a croissant until one. Good thing too, I was getting drenched. For lunch, we walked across the street to a cafe. 

San Sebastián honors siesta and, since I was so tired, we went back to the room after lunch. Brad left me so I could sleep and he walked around the city. However, I never got to falling asleep. I think I'm using ear plugs tonight. It's insane how loud it gets here...or maybe the windows and walls are just too thin. Who knows.  

We went back out when he got back. It's a beautiful city. There are children everywhere. Kicking a ball, jumping rope, learning to ride a bike...they fill the streets. The adults are also very involved. It's fun to watch.  

A fountain on the way to The Good Shepard.  

The Good Shepard.  

We also went to the beach again.  

Pretty.  

The sun breaking through.  

We ate dinner and came back pretty early (by ten. Lol); we have an early train tomorrow for the Olite castle. Super excited!  

Day 10

We woke up slowly. So nice. Lounged around the living room. Hung clothes to dry. Nice start. I had cold pizza for breakfast. Nam nam.  

Clothes a-dryin' 

We set out for a winery.  

Beautiful scenery.  

Chateau Carmasac...awesome winery.  

We didn't have a reservation, but they saw to us anyway. The woman was lovely, the tasting free, and the wine can be shipped. Brad was happy.  

The woman then suggested we go to Saint Emillion, which we did. Loved it!!! It's this quaint little town with cobbled walk ways. So pretty!  

The first thing we found was a beautiful church.  

The courtyard.  

Steep cobbled walkway.  

We pulled off into this cute little cafe and had a couple drinks and people watched.  

I'm sorry, people, but we're moving to France. It's been decided.  

The sweetest little thing. I want.  

I miss our dogs. I swear we stalk them on the cameras we have at home and now when we see Sherlock chewing on something we say "awe!" and not "damnit!"  

Vineyards and rubble.  

After Saint Emillion, we went to lunch at another little cafe. The French take their time eating; it's like a two hour event. We almost missed our train. Again.  

The entrance to the cafe.  

I'm getting sick of trains. So many trains. We got into Spain around seven and walked to our airbnb. The hosts are two lovely young women, Francesca and Ane. 

We dropped our bags and headed to the beach.  

It was a beautiful beach.  

We ate some churros. They took some getting used to; they're not at all like the churros in the states.  

We met an awesome couple, Jake and Amy, on the train and decided to meet up with them later for pintxos (tapas).  

The basilica where we met up with them.  

By 11:30, we had gone to three places. We called it a night and headed back. Unfortunately, a lot of the people here don't go to bed until after 2am so the streets were very loud until then.  

Day 10 - Bordeaux and Sunny San Sebastián

This morning was relaxing.  Finally, a morning when we're not stressed about making it to a museum when they open. Wineries open late. We did some laundry and attempted to make a reservation for a local winery. Having failed the attempt, went anyway. We weren't able to do the whole tour, but they did pour all their wines for us, and they were quite tasty. 

Chateau Camarsac

My favorite...and only 12 Euro

Now, the drive to Saint Emillion. 

Our host, Cedrine

Now the mad dash the the train station. Lunch took a bit longer than we were hoping for. We should have known better, though, lunches in France always take forever. We made it too the train station with about 15 minutes to spare though. Then, we were off to San Sebastián.  On our way, we met Jake and Amy, from Soutern California. We met up with them in San Seb later in the evening and roamed around the old town eating Tapas and drinking. Before that, though, we had to visit the beach, because by 1:00 AM, it should be raining.  Dropped my phone on the boardwalk, so now it's even more cracked thank before. 

Our room in San Sebastián  

The beach

Day 9

"Time to say goodbye."

This was our last day in Paris. Sniff sniff. On the schedule for today was The Louvre and the catacombs. We took our stuff to the train station to store it in lockers and headed to the catacombs. The line for the catacombs was so long, we had to decide between The Louvre or the catacombs. 

We headed to The Louvre. No wait with our passes. Sweet. Had to go through security though. This place is HUGE!  

Underneath.  

Augustus, adopted son of Julius Caesar. 

Brad actually told me to make sure I got the backside.  

Statue of Venus

One of many sphinxes  

The Winged Victory.  

Mona Lisa. Getting to the front to take a picture was akin to trying to get to the edge of the stage during the headliner's performance at a concert.  

Brad.  

We saw a small percentage of The Louvre; it's too big to walk through the whole thing and not hate life afterward.  

After The Louvre, we hopped on a train headed to Bordeaux.  

Bordeaux has been my absolute favorite. I'm only sorry we planned just a day here. I loved all of France in general, actually. The French are not what we heard them to be; they're really nice. I'm going to miss France.  

Brad was in pure heaven. I guess there was this wine expo in Bordeaux which made renting a car very expensive. It was only a few more euros to get the convertible. Why not, right? Brad = heaven.  

We had the entire downstairs at this airbnb. It was nice! Our own kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms, and a living room. I want to go back. 😜 

After meeting Cendrine, our host, we set out for dinner and found this little charm. Best place ever. Both of us fell in love with it.  

When we got back, we started some laundry. The cycle took three hours. Wow. No dryer so in the morning we hung up clothes. 

I forgot two things.  

These were our hosts, Bruno and Sandra, in Paris. Bye!  

And number 2...we saw a prostitute run after a man. I'm still trying to decide if I find this funny or sad.  

Meh.  

Day 9 - Paris and Bordeaux

This day moved a bit quick. We made our way to the Montparnesse train station first thing in the morning and dropped our luggage off at a locker. We then got on another metro to the Catacombs. The line was far too long and we had to make a choice: Catacombs or Lourve. To the Lourve!!!  By now, I think we've gotten pretty good with the Paris metro system.  

Under the pyramid

The crowd at the Venus

The crowd at the Mona Lisa

The Regent Diamond

At the pyramid

From the Lourve we headed back to Montparnesse train station. Grabbed another Onion soup, which seems to be the one thing we can understand on any French menu. Then, picked up our luggage and boarded the train to Bordeaux. 

One last meal in Paris. Probably my least favorite Onion Soup

Someone on the train decided they couldn't live without a cigarette for 3.5 hours, so they lit up for just a few seconds and put it out. Lindsey, went on a hunt, but couldn't find them.  

When we arrived in Bordeaux, we headed to the car rental center, where we were surprised to find out that Vin Expo Bordeaux was taking place this week, which increased car rental prices...basically as high as they'll go. So...if you have to pay 230 Euro for a 24 hour rental, you mine as well pay 245 Euro for a convertible.  

Our convertible in Bordeaux

 Our convertible in Bordeaux

We drove straight to our Airbnb and took the tour. We had the entire bottom floor of a house.  

Our patio

Dinner time. Our host, oddly enough, did not have a good recommendation for dinner in the area, besides an Italian place that was closed.  So, we relied on google Maps, and it didn't let us down.  The best part, "Ça plane pour moi" was played on the radio as we ate. Kinda cool. 

Lindsey's giant pizza

Best duck I've ever had

Day 8 - Paris

Today started off a bit slow. We had intended on waking up at 8:00, getting a quick breakfast, buying a Museum Pass, and getting into line at the Lourve by 9:00. Instead, we slept in until 9:15, a bucket of water was dumped right in front of me, we had a leisurely breakfast, bought the Paris Mudeum Pass, walked through Notre Dame, then with in a two-hour line to go to the top of the Notre Dame towers. 

I am way behind in blogging, so I'm going to skip around a bit. For the details, see Lindsey's posts.  

Went into the Notre Dame "Crypt". this is where we saw ancient Perisian walls and stuff. 

Then, we had a great Onion soup and went to the D'Orsay (pretty sure that's not how it's spelled) museum whee we saw old art and stuff. 

Mother museum closed, and we walked up the Obelisk, then to a quant Italian restaurant, before heading to the Arc de Triumph.  

From the Arc, we headed to The Eiffle Tower to watch it sparkle. Apparently, it only does that at 23:00, and each hour after throughout the night. While waiting, we were harassed many time to buy some crap. I ended up talking a guy down from 35 to 10 Euro for a bottle of crappy wine. It did the job.  Then we took the train back to our apartment, after seeing an inpromptu balllroom dance party. 

The belfry  

Gargoyle with Eiffle Tower and Seine

Onion Soup for Lunch

The Crypt under Notre Dame

A Picaso at d'Odsay

The Obelisk

The Arc

On our way to see the tower sparkle

Our room. That couch folds out

Day 8

I hate stairs. We walked up, down, and across so many stairs today; I'm not sure how I'm still awake. It's probably the crepe we had an hour ago. Lol.  

Our day started slowly. We got out by 10 and headed to breakfast. Pancakes and orange juice from a cute cafe called Lockwood (I almost spelled this Lickwood...tired) was our yummy food. The cafe was actually recommended by Sandra, our host while in Paris.   

Then we headed to the Norte Dame Cathedral. It was magnificent.

The front.  

The inside.  

Pretty statues. Lots of pretty statues.  

One of the doorways.  

Around the outside.  

We then decided to do the tower. The wait was about an hour and a half.  

Waiting.  

The wait was worth it. It was beautiful. Only downfall was that they put up wire mesh to keep people from falling/jumping.  Am I the only one who doesn't see a problem with that? Darwin, baby. And hey...now someone gets to have a job: clean up. 

Gargoyle.  

I will spew molten fire at you!  

The bells of Notre Dame!

Then we went down into the archeological crypts below. They house remains from medieval times. 

Really cool digs. 😜 

After that, we headed down to the Musèe d'Orsay. It's actually in an old train station. Turns out, most of the museums are housed in buildings that were built for a different purpose. 

Monet.  

Renoir.  

One guess.  

Can you guess this one? Hint: we saw his museum in Amsterdam a few days a-Gogh. 😇 

After the Orsay, we walked over to the Luxor Obelisk, an Egyptian artifact.  

This baby is over 3000 years old. I really wanted to touch it. 

And then we continued our long ass walk (because the 1000+ stairs weren't enough) to the Arc de Triomphe.  

The Arc.  

Oh hey look! More stairs.  

The view from the top.  

Brad was super excited about his new toy. You could scroll through photos of architecture that were displayed on the screen and they were also projected onto a miniature of the Arc. Cool.  

From the Arc, we went back to the Eiffel Tower. This time, however, we took a page from some of the locals and walked next to the Seine. It was gorgeous. Seriously. People should open up some boat bars; they'd make bank. We found a spot on the Trocadero and sat to watch the Eiffel twinkle. 

Brad haggled the price of a very cheap bottle of wine down from 35€ to 10€. The salesman would not go away until we bought. Very annoying. In this photo, I told Brad I wanted to take a picture of him drinking his prize. I kept taking photos though, so he had to keep drinking. 😈 This is the last photo; as you can tell, he's barely keeping it together.  

The twinkle of the tower happens for the first four minutes of the hour after darkness falls.  

I had to use the bathroom so I walked across the street and used the bathroom at the first place we ate in Paris. I also bought a crepe to share with Brad.  

This is on the walk to the potty. Pretty tower.  

A long, good day in Paris.  

Day 7 - Paris

It's 12:30 AM.  Time for bed. We didn't sit down for dinner until 10:30 because we wanted to use all the daylite. There was still partial light when we sat down for dinner.  

La Grille Montorueil, where we ate dinner is the awning on the right. This picture was taken at 10:30 PM. 

The street where we ate dinner, at dusk

This meal was easily the best one in Paris, maybe even of the whole trip, although I've had some pretty amazing lunches. This roast duck was great.  

We did an hour boat tour prior to dinner and had a great time. It's a good way to see some major sites in Paris.  Met some local Californians as well. 

Notre Dame from the boat

Prior to the boat tour, we had gone back to our hosts apartment...up and down the 4 flights of stairs...to get a sweater, because what should have been a beautifully clear day, had been overcast. You can't tell from the picture above, because the sky's cleared before we left the apartment. No matter, it was still pretty chilly.

The morning did not go so smoothly. The catacombs were closed today, even though they're normally open on Mondays. Also, the top of the Eiffle Towel was closed and they only had 1 corner working to get you up to the 2nd story. We decided to do those things another day. Sadly, we never got to do either. We did, however, make it inside the Pantheon and the crypt.   

The Pantheon Paris

Lunch. Not the best meal ever. Not the best Bloody Mary ever. Lesson learned: don't eat in very touristy areas.  

A photo shoot at the Eiffle Tower.  

Dinner

4 flights of stairs to out apartment after an exhausting day

Day 7

It's been a week. Wow. 

Things I have learned: 

1. Europeans are skinnier than Americans because they love stairs. To get to a bathroom, you will always have stairs.  

2. Cyclists are dangerous.  

3. Water is not scarce.  

4. Teenagers are still jerks.  

5. The French are not that bad.  

6. I don't need to own as much shit as I do.  

7. Cars will not stop for pedestrians.  

I'm sure I've learned more. Too tired to wrack the brain.  

Today:  

Brad slept in until almost 10. I woke up around 7 with a tummy ache. Needless to say, I was really jealous of my punk of a husband. Sleep? We broke up.  

Once we mapped out our doings for the day, we set out for the Eiffle Tower. On the way, I bought a hat. Yay me.  

I am not going to admit how many shots we took to get the right picture. Let's just say that I'm pretty sure other tourists were shaking their heads in disgust.  

We then got lunch. Brad ordered a Bloody Mary, but I guess it was a DIY drink.  

He didn't like the way it turned out.  

I got in line for the one bathroom which had thirty children on a field trip. So many children! It took forever! While I waited, Brad went to check out about tickets to go up. Turns out the top was closed and three of the four elevators weren't running.  

Okay, let's check out the Catacombs. They were supposed to be open, but the entrance had a note saying closed. Joy.  

Okay...let's check out the Pantheon.  

It's open! Yay!  

The front.  

The main statue.  

There are crypts below. We found Voltaire.  

It's touching how many times the name Braille has been touched.  

Cool and creepy.  

Anyone need a spot?  

After the Pantheon, it wasn't clearing up like we thought it would, so we headed back to get sweater. Then it was out again with plans to do a cruise on the Seine, dinner, and the elevator up the Eiffel Tower. 

Brad was really bummed he had to stop and get a beer so I could pee. 😜 

On our way down to the boats we passed this. There were locks everywhere. Why??? 

On the Seine.  

Got a picture of this big guy again. Oh hey look...the sun came out. It was already 9:30 at this point.  

The building is from the 7th century. Holy cow!  

We saw some other cool things that we're hoping to go to in person. 

We didn't get back from the cruise until 10:00 ish. It was too late for the Eiffel Tower so we set out looking for food.  

We found a place to eat around 10:30 ish. Around 11:00, this place became packed. People stay up late. 

Brad really liked his duck. A lot.  

This is our staircase to get to our airbnb host's apartment. I am boycotting all stairs when we get back to the states.  

Night! 

Day 6

I've already done this post. After 40 minutes of blogging, the app crashed and I lost everything. Growl. I'm going to give you a shorter version. Enjoy.  

P.S. Uploading photos takes anywhere from two minutes to two days. I really hope people are actually reading these. Lol. Expect a quiz. 😜 

Today, we decided, was the day for Anne Frank and Van Gogh. We got out later than we wanted and didn't really get to the Anne Frank Museum early. 

This is when we first got into line. It took two hours. If you look at Brad's photo of the line, it's from when we turned left up ahead. Long line.  

While waiting in line, there was the Homomonument, a monument dedicated to the gay rights movement, to take pictures of. It has three large triangle, one at each point to make a larger triangle.  If you look at the above photo, the marble to the left is the start of a point. 

Anothee point. Hi ducky. 

The third. This was the first monument to honor those killed by the Nazis. 

When you're waiting in line for Anne Frank, make sure you bring lots of €0,5 coins. There is a bathroom. And there is a bathroom nazi. Explanation: you can get around paying for the bathroom if you go in after someone else. People caught on to this. After some time, a man came up pretending to need to use the restroom and asked the woman in the front of the line how to pay. She explained the trick. He then showed his true colors and stood there, hands on hips, making sure everyone took out money. Evil man.  

Waiting.  

Finally! 

Okay...so many museums have a strict no photo policy. As you will see from the Van Gogh museum, I sometimes don't understand what that means. Here, however, the solemnity was enough to stop me. I don't think I saw anyone taking photos, actually. The museum was definitely worth the wait.  

Afterward: food. Need food.   

During our search for food, we found a parade.  

Fooood! I had a yummy falafel. Brad has meat.  

We headed back to Sofiane, who helped us print our tickets for Van Gogh.  

Buying those tickets online = best decision ever. No real line. Yay!  

Less solemn at Van Gogh. 

In all of his self portraits, he paints his eyes a different color. Cool.  

The best one, even from an angle. I love how alive and bright this seems, but if you look closely, you realize most of the flowers are dead or dying.  

By the way, do the audio guide. It's worth it.  

After Van Gogh, we went to the Jordaan district, as per the recommendation of Sofiane. It was here we ate dinner. FYI: when ordering tomato soup, expect runny spaghetti with meatballs.  

Found a nice bar after dinner.  

No matter where you go in Europe, the bathrooms will always be different. In one establishment they were even different from each other. There is no one type of toilet. Weird.  

On our walk back.  

Brad has family here. Tehe.  

We then hoped on a fast train to Paris, which we clocked at going about 180 mph.  

We sat with another couple. They were not the nicest. The man was especially rude. As soon as he sat down he slouched to where his knee was basically between my legs and promptly fell asleep. At one point, he even tried to push me out of the way. Growl. What was more annoying, however, was when I caught her complaining about Brad who was sitting up. Stupid people.  

We pulled in to Paris close to midnight. Met our hosts, Sandra and Bruno. They are sweet and made Brad and I feel welcome. 

We're looking forward to the next couple of days with them. 

Day 6 - Amsterdam And Journey to Paris

I really liked the format I used last night, so we'll continue that here. I'll also include photos from both days here. 

1. Amsterdam is more expensive than Germany.  

2. Watch out for the bike lanes. Bikes will run you over, whether or not you have the right of way. So...I think I could take a bike if they tried, but, motorcycles are allowed in the bike lane too, and I don't think I can take one of them.  

3. Lining up before the Anne Frank Museum opens, doesn't help much if you only get there 5 minutes before. You'll still wait for 2 hours before you enter. 

4. Buying tickets for the Van Gogh museum online saves you money AND puts you in a faster line than those buying at the door.

5. Plan to get everywhere early. You never know when a Turkish parade will slow down your tram. But, defiantly eat their food while you're in the area.

6. Buy your Metro ticket in Paris at the maned desk, as you'll pay more for a direct ticket to your destination for some reason.  

Lindsey sleeping on our way to Amsterdam

Art in the Museum District

Best Smoked Salmon sandwich ever

Tesla Roadster. My next car? 

Line at the Anne Frank House

Day 5

The train didn't stop until after 10 so we had time to sleep in. Woke around 8. After getting off the train we walked around the labyrinth of a station. Luggage checked we set out for the Anne Frank museum. Long line. Nope. Van Gogh? No. Way too long of a line. We'll get to them tomorrow. By the way, going to one of the largest tourist destinations on a Saturday=not smart. 

We walked into a church. It was pretty.  

Pretty architecture.  

After that, we went in search of beer and food. I had yummy tomato soup. 

Brad and his beer.  

Then we walked through some shops.  

Brad. Love him.  

And then more beer. We found it at Broueij 't IJ (brewery) 

Quaint little place, eh?  

View at the bar. Lindsey was tired here.  

After the brewery, we went to the sex museum. Fun stuff. Photos from this point on can be scandalous. 

The entrance.  

Pretty innocent statue once you've seen everything on the inside. It's like it's a trap.  

I took this photo right before an awesome exchange: a woman was posing for a picture by pretending to lick one of them. She then saw me and instantly covered her face. Hilarious. 

Brad and a scary behemoth.  

There are a ton of pictures that I'm going to not post. Sorry. Ask me when we get back and I'll show you genitalia galore.  

Next we went in search of...yes, beer. Lol

We found this really cute little spot by the river. Only con: it was freezing.  

Our view. 

He enjoys a good beer. Or two.  

Sadly, we had to leave our little spot to meet up with our airbnb host. We headed toward the restaurant where Sofiane wanted to meet, but we missed our stop. Not a problem normally except Brad really had to pee. We stepped into a café (bar) and, even though they didn't sell food, she still let us use the restroom.  

After dinner, Sofiane came to follow us back. It was a bit of a surprise because both Brad and I expected Sofiane to be female. He was not. He was, however, a super sweetheart. He was very detailed in helping us around the city. He also bought me some bread from the store and he gave us a honeymoon present (a tin with tea waffles). Super sweet. 

Sofiane got in around 5:30 this morning. If he looks tired, that's because he was. He actually refused to look at the photo, too ashamed at how he might look. 😜 

After visiting with Sofiane, we headed to the red light district. It wasn't as scandalous as it's made out to seem. Did we smell weed? Yes, but that's no different than when we go to a concert. Half dressed women? Yep...just as though we were at the beach.  

The only thing that was new for us was the show. We went to Casa Rosso, which is a live sex show. There was nothing erotic about it, though. There was some comedy, some weird stuff (like watching a woman smoke a cigar from her nether region), and there were some acrobatics.  

The red light district from the bridge. The bright neon-pink to the left is where Casa Rosso is. 

It is, sadly, illegal to take pictures of any of the perfomers. This is, of course, for their protection and so no photos for you! 😜 

Saw this on our walk back home.  

We got back late and we have an early morning. Ahh! Need sleep. Nite!  

Day 5 - Amsterdam

Slept like a rock last night on the train.  Will sleep like a rock again tonight. In fact, must sleep very soon. So, this entry will be short. Just the points I really care to and can remember. 

1. Complicated, large train station with 1 set of luggage lockers. Plus side, they take cards. 

2. A metro pass doesn't get you access to busses, only tram and subway. 

3. We saw the really long line at the Anne Frank House AND the really long line at the Van Gogh Museum. 

4. It was very cold and raining...and me in shorts.  

5. Had the greatest Smoked Salmon Sandwich ever.  

6. Drank some great beer at a local brewery. 

7. Walked through the Sex Museum.  

8. Drank and snacked next to a canal.  

9. Had to pee more than I ever have before...ever. And missed our tram stop. 

10. Had some pretty good sushi and an old favorite, Asahi Japanese Beer. 

11. Met our Airbnb host, Sofiane, and our other housemates. Great group of guys.  

12. Went to a show in the Red Light District and walked around for a bit.  

Day 4 - photos that failed to upload

Olympia Alm

Day 4 - Munich

In continuation of my last post...yes, we basically slept well. Don't think it's a great idea to do two night trains back to back though. Oops...let's see how that goes tonight. Arrival in Munich was about 7:05 this morning and departure tonight was about 23:00. So, we had almost 16 hours to kill. We started off finding a locker to put our stuff in. Then, we needed water. Did you know that regular bottled water isn't that easy to find?  Mostly, it's a bunch of sparkling and mineral water. We also found a bag to put a bunch of stuff in. Now, time for breakfast and recharging. And by recharging, I mean literally recharging batteries. We blew through our iPhone batteries and two external batteries since we left Kolding. We kinda assumed the night train last night would have power, so we didn't care about killing our batteries on the previous train and in Hamburg...we were wrong.  After charging what we needed and grabbing a quick bite at the local Coffee Fellows, we took public transit to Olympia Park. By the way, it doesn't seem as though they ever check tickets, whether its by tram, U train, S train, or bus. Once in the park, we found a great little spot to grab a beer and some orange juice, Olympia Alm.

Next up, a trip up to the observation deck of the Olympiaturm to take in all of Munich at once.  

I grabbed a 1/2m Bratwurst and Lindsey grabbed some pasta and we had lunch down at the bottom. From there on to BMW Welt (World) where we took a bit of a Break and saw their latest vehicles.  

BMW Welt from the Olympiaturm

My future car? 

From there, we had a bit of trouble with public transit, but eventually got to Scloss Nymphenburg, an old seat of the royalty of Bavaria and did a quick tour. Beautiful ceiling paintings.

 Scloss Nymphenburg

Roasted pork and 3 hefs was my dinner at Hofbräuhaus. A great time. Then, we took a pedicab back to Coffee Fellows to recharge and wait for our train. Recharging was not necessary though, as this train actually had outlets in the passenger compartments.  

Lindsey's pretzel at Hofbräuhaus

the band at Hofbräuhaus

The front dining room ceiling at Hofbräuhaus

Day 4

Oh my goodness. Today was...full. We woke at 6:18 to our train conductor's way too cheery voice. 

After paying to get into the bathroom, I was able to brush my teeth. This is the most clean I've been able to feel today. I feel disgusting.  

We then went on a mission to find a bag and water for the day. The bag that we found is cute, which is awesome since I made Brad carry it all day. After realizing that Germans really love medium (sparkling) water way more than still (plain) water, we went to a little grocery store in the station. Here we found our water for the day.  

Set for the day, we went in search of breakfast and we found it at Coffee Follows, which conveniently had wifi. They also had food for vegans. Love 'em. 

After breakfast, we headed out to Olympia Park where we did some hiking. We found a quaint little spot that serves beer and juice. 

Brad's beer. My OJ. FYI: people seem to just let their dogs run free in Germany.  

A little jaunt later, we found the Olympiaturm, which is the tallest building in München, standing at almost 200 meters high. Of course we went up. The elevator moved so quickly, my ears hurt!  

This is the building from afar. Freaking huge!  

The view from the very top. Scary. I swear my heart almost gave out.  

Then we headed over to a food court for lunch. Unfortunately I wasn't as hungry as I thought I was.  

My lunch is what you see in front of the camera. Brad had already scarfed down most of his giant brat.  

What I couldn't finish. Sad face.  

After lunch, we went to BMW Welt (world) where Brad got to sit in his dream car.  

The entrance.  

Brad in his car.  

The Nymphenburg Palace was our next stop. This place was huge! Soooo big!  

The front.  

The massive ceiling as soon as you walk inside.  

More ceiling.  

Part of this large front room.  

Not the best picture, but I'm posting it as a statement. There was a window open and I leaned out to get a picture. The guard had a panic attack..."Do not touch!" I'm a rebel.  

The back of the palace...tons of statues. Tons.  

Why, hello!  

The back of the palace.  

Natural spring water. Brad was super excited. 

Beautiful park on the palace grounds.  

After the palace, we headed over to Hofbräuhaus. On the way, we saw some sights.  

I believe this is the old town center.  

I believe this is the new town center.  

Awesome!  

Hofbräuhaus!!! HB! 

The well-know decor.  

Beer + Brad = Happy.  

He actually had a third but was being so silly that I was too distracted to take a picture.  

Part of the band.  

He was too fascinating not to take a picture of. I really want to know where he got all the bones from.  

Too tired to walk back. I swear we walked a thousand miles today. Insane. This guy was cool. He showed us some interesting sights.  

I forgot what he said this was. Oops.  

This is a memorial for Michael Jackson because he stayed at a hotel around here. Weird.  

And now we're back at Coffee Fellows waiting for another over night train which doesn't leave until 10:59. Oye.  

Day 3- Koldinghus and Hamburg

We woke up pretty early again. Matt had to head to Copenhagen for work, so we said goodbye at 6:45. Pretty lazy morning watching cartoons with the kids. Pretty cool how you can change the language on the TV. 

We then went to Koldinghus, a home and seat of old Danish royalty, and toured around. Great views of Kolding from the top of the Queen's Tower.  

The Queen's Tower, Koldinghus

Now, time for lunch. Oh wait, that sandwich place is closed. Oh, that one too?  Time to ask Sandra where we should go.  The ladies stayed at the apartment and I ran to Delicious sandwich shop in downtown. The people there were great and made perfect sandwiches. He took the responsibility off of my hands to make Lindsey and Sandra's food, so that was a plus. After lunch, we had to get packed up and head to the train station. Sorry Sandra for us being so crazy. We thought we might miss the train and I get a bit nervous about that.  Thank you Matt and Sandra for being such wonderful hosts.  Now, on to Germany. 

We arrived in Hamburg a few hours later and had a layover of about 3 hours. A perfect opportunity for dinner, beer, and a quick walk about town. Great food, beer, and prices at Vivet. Seriously...two drinks each, two entrees, and tip for 40 Euro. We walked around for a bit and saw St. Peter's church. We thought it was built In the 1100's, however, after further reading in Wikipedia, it was rebuilt a few times since then, so what we were seeing was probably built in the 1800s. 

Hamburg Town Hall

Time to board our next train, a City Night Line to Munich. It's 30 minutes late. Let's see if we can sleep through the night. Spoiler alert: we did...mostly.  

Lindsey in the top bunk.