Amsterdam, Brugge, and then back to London

Hello all my Family and Friends,

It's been a few days since I've had a reliable internet connection. It's now Saturday and our last post was Monday night. So, Tuesday morning I awoke still quite sleepy as I took part in the pub crawl the night before. The good news is that I had plenty of time to sleep on the bus as we made our way into the Netherlands. Our first stop on the way to Amsterdam was a farm that made both cheese and wooden clogs. We had a very informative tour of the farm where we were shown the different areas where they made the clogs and cheese. We then exited through the gift shop. While we waited for the bus to be ready to go Kathleen got reacquainted with her childhood and petted some of the nearby dairy cows. After leaving the farm we continued on our way into Amsterdam. Once in Amsterdam we checked into our hostel before taking a walking tour of the city. When the tour was done we headed back to the hostel.

The next morning we had breakfast before meeting with our group for a biking tour of the city. Kathleen and I were very excited about this as we hadn't rode bikes since trying to ride bikes to Wickham Market in September. Anyway the idea of a biking tour around Amsterdam sounded pretty cool. The tour was amazing as we rode through a couple big parks, saw the giant "I am Amsterdam" sign and also rode past Anne Frank's house. After the tour we had lunch, went to Madame Tussauds, and explored the city some more before going to our last group meal of the tour. The last dinner we had together was at a Chinese restaurant, on the docks, where we ate before climbing on a boat that took us down the canals of Amsterdam. After a great boat ride we walked around for a bit more before calling it a day.

Thursday morning we left Amsterdam fairly early as it was the last day of the tour and we had to get to London before the end of the day. It was a long day of driving but our one stop, on the way to London, was the city of Brugge, Belgium. We had about two hours to have lunch and explore the city. After lunch Kathleen bought herself a rubber duck piggybank and then we had waffles. We then walked back to the bus and continued on our way. We next drove into France to catch the ferry over to Dover. After supper on the ferry it wasn't long before the white cliffs of Dover came into view. After leaving the ferry and jumping on the bus I fell asleep and the next thing I knew we were in London. We said a final farewell to our tour group before heading to our hostel.

Yesterday we slept in a bit before breakfast. We then left the hostel to go pick up our bag that we left at the London Liverpool Street Station luggage storage area. After picking up our bag we took it back to our hostel before going to close our bank accounts. Afterwards we bought a couple of new carry on bags. We then went back to the hostel for a nap before supper. When we were done supper we spent the rest of the day watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on the TV in the hostel common room.

Today was my Birthday! It was pretty awesome! Mostly because Kathleen took me to see the musical theater production by the name of Wicked. Wicked, for those of you that don't know, is the story of the witches of Oz. It was spectacular and was one of the best birthday presents I've ever received. After the show we went out for a birthday dinner complete with a piece of birthday cake (I have the best fiancee ever!). It is now less than 48 hours until I arrive back in Canada. Tomorrow we will be taking the train to the airport hotel and then we'll catch our plane home the next morning. Can't wait to see you all!

Until then,
Rocky

The Good Times Continue!

Once again, internet has been spotty and so the blog has not been updated. But here we go... starting in Vienna!

First we took a driving tour of the City, getting a look at the city, and learning about some of it's landmarks. Vienna is a stunning city, with every street looking like it should belong on a postcard. It was described to us as being beautiful, but so beautiful you are almost afraid to break it. Following our driving tour, we headed to our hostel, where we got changed into our classy clothing, and headed back into the centre of Vienna. After a quick walking tour of Vienna, seeing areas the bus could not reach, I suddenly realized that my passport was not where I thought it was. Rocky and I headed back to our hostel, where, after much freaking out, my passport was found (in a pocked of a jacket in my suitcase) and we headed back into Vienna. We still had a little time to explore Vienna, but just as we got back downtown, it started raining! We hid out the rain by exploring some shopping stores, and when the rain finally broke, we decided to head for the park where we were meeting the group before heading to dinner and a concert. Just as we got to the park, it started raining again, even harder than before! We first took shelter under a tree, but it soon became apparent that it was raining to hard for the tree to be of much use, so we headed to a gazebo. This provided some protection from the rain, though we still got very wet. We finally had to wander out into the rain as it was time to go to dinner, and in the process we got very wet. By the time we got to the restaurant, we were very very wet. Luckily, dinner was TOTALLY amazing, so we weren't concerned about our wetness for too long. For dinner we were at the "Ribs of Vienna" where we had absolutely awesome ribs! So good. We then headed to a classical Viennese concert, where there was classical music, dance, and opera. It was surprisingly entertaining.  We all felt very classy as during intermission we went onto the terrace and had Champagne. It was decided that the only thing that could have made things more classy would have been if we weren't soaking wet.

The next morning we headed towards Prague, first however, stopping at Mauthausen, a concentration camp during WWII. It was the last concentration camp liberated, and over half of the 100,000 deaths that occurred here happened in the last 4 months before liberation. It was a very somber place. We then headed into Prague.  We got to Prague just before dinner, and then most of our group headed into the center for a walking tour with our tour leader, and to explore the local nightlife. I wasn't feeling the best (at this point nearly everyone on our tour is sick-- I believe the exact number is that there are 6 of 40 who are feeling fine as of leaving Prague), so I stayed in and got to sleep early!

The next day was a free day to Explore Prague. Rocky and I slept in, before heading into the centre. We were meeting some friends for lunch, and as we had slept in, we mostly did some shopping in the morning. After lunch we headed to the Charles bridge, a very old pedestrian bridge that is one of Prague's landmarks. We then headed up the hill to the castle and cathedral. While there we saw 4 different wedding parties having their photographs taken! We also saw the clock tower, where every hour the statues move around, and during the day a trumpeter trumpets. We then had dinner and headed back to the hostel.

The next day was Berlin! We stopped for lunch in Dresden, where we had "Curry-wurst," which were sausages with curry sauce on them. We explored the city, before heading into Berlin. Once in Berlin, we had a driving tour of the city, including a stop a the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, which has since been painted with murals by over 100 different artists. We then headed back to the hostel for dinner and a quiet evening.

Today we spent the day in Berlin! We started the morning out with a walking tour of the different areas associated with Hitler and the 3rd Reich. We learned a lot of history, and also saw many of the places that we had only heard about in History class and Social Studies. The most interesting (for me) was the Bunker where Hitler died at the end of the war, which is now a parking lot. After the walking tour, we explored the area around Checkpoint Charlie, went to a fabulous chocolate shop, ate lunch, and did some shopping, before once again heading back to the hostel.

Which leads us up to about now, Rocky has gone with many in our group on a Pub Crawl, while I have decided to get some much needed sleep, as our bus leaves the parking lot at 7:30 tomorrow morning! There are going to be a lot of sleepy people.

Later days!

Kathleen.

Bosnia, Serbia, and Hungary

Hello Blog Readers!

Monday morning we woke up to a beautiful Bosnian day. Upon leaving the hotel our first stop was the Srebrenica Cemetery. The cemetery had over 8000 graves from the Bosnian War of 1995. The cause of the 8000 dead was the genocide of the Bosnian Muslims by the Serbians. We had a very knowledgeable tour guide as he had experienced the war first hand and had lost his father and brother in the genocide. It was said to be the biggest massacre in Europe since WWII. After a thorough tour of the memorial and the other nearby sights we jumped back on the bus and continued on our way. Down the road a ways we crossed the Bosnian border and entered into Serbia. Once entering into Belgrade we checked into our hostel and took a bus tour of the city before having a delicious supper. After supper is where our day got interesting. When we caught our cab back to the hostel our small group caught two cabs with two of the biggest, thug looking, Serbs I’d seen since entering the country that day. Our tour guide told us earlier that day that a cab ride home would cost about 7 euros. Well as it turned out the two cab drivers were in cahoots and talking to each other over their cell phones. They ended up driving the price up and would not let us out of the cabs until at least 18 euros was paid. After being scammed and fairly upset we entered our hostel and called it a day.

The next day we left Serbia and crossed the border into Hungary. Our bus tour guide was excited about this as she is Hungarian and had lived in the capital of Budapest for five years while going to university. Most of the day was spent driving, so by the time we got into Budapest it was around suppertime. Before supper we had a driving tour of Budapest and visited the castle district and the citadel. At the castle district we visited, surprise, the castle. The castle was very beautiful and supplied many of the pictures for the day. When we left the castle we went to the citadel, home of the second best view in the world (the first being the giant statue of Jesus in Brazil). It definitely was an amazing view as you saw a view of the river splitting, what used to be, the individual cities of Buda and Pest. After the driving tour of the city we checked into our hostel and then went for supper where I had a schnitzel bigger than my head. When we were done supper they sang Happy Birthday to Laura (one of our travelling companions) and we had a dessert. We then proceeded to one of the local bars our tour guide knew of before going back to the hostel.

Yesterday was a free day in Budapest, which gave us a lot of time to explore the city. Our first stop of the day was “The Market” where we visited all three floors. The main floor was vegetables and meats, the second floor were souvenirs, and in the basement were the fish products where they had very big fish in very small tanks. After spending a while in the market we walked to the House of Terror. The House of Terror is a museum about the Communist Soviet Union, the Fascist German Nazis, and the part that Hungary played in the Second World War. The place used to have offices for Hungarian government officials on the main floors while the basement was used as a prison and execution chamber for war criminals, where we actually got to enter the cells where the prisoners were kept before being hanged. It was an interesting place to see and was a real eye opener when you came face to face with portraits of figures such as Stalin and Hitler. We then walked past a tank before exiting the museum and going for lunch. When we were done eating we went to Hero Square where there are statues of the great clan chiefs and kings of Hungary. Behind Hero Square is a park with a huge hot spring in a beautiful building with many different sized pools at different temperatures. We had quite a wonderful swim before heading back to the hostel to meet up with our group for supper. After another great meal we walked back to the hostel, did our laundry, and then went to bed.

 

This morning we got up, packed our things, had breakfast, and then hopped on the bus. I am currently writing this blog on the bus while it makes its way out of Hungary and onto Vienna in Austria. Tonight we will be going for ribs for supper before going to a Vienna Classical Concert. Today marks the halfway point of our two week tour. It’s been a great first week in which we’ve got to know quite a few people in our tour group, most specifically two Australian sisters named Laura and Rebecca, and an American named Nicholas. Only one week left on the tour. I can’t wait to see how it goes.

Till next time,

Rocky

Croatia and Bosnia

Due to limited internet access in Dubrovnik, we haven't been able to blog as often as we had in Greece.  But onwards...

So we arrived in Dubrovnik late Thursday night, after spending a day shopping in Athens. The most exciting part of this day were my new sandals which I had purchased the night before, which were custom made for my feet, and felt like walking on clouds after two days in my former new sandals which left 5 blisters and a bruise. So magical. Anyways, we arrived in Dubrovnik at around 8:30, and made it to our hotel by about 9:30. We were amazed by how beautiful it was. The old town is a beautifully walled city, at the bottom of the mountains, right on the sea. We were arriving just as the sun was setting over the city, and, just wow. Our hotel was a ways out of the old city, but right by the beach! Perfection!

On Friday we first took the bus into the Old Town, and took a look around before walking the city walls-- walking the 2km around the city, which had beautiful views, but with temperatures soaring into the high 30's was very very hot. Since we were so hot, we decided after lunch to head back to our hotel, and spend the rest of the day on the beach. We spent a lot of time swimming, in very deep, clear, and warm water. It was wonderful swimming.

That night we met with our tour group for the next two weeks of our trip. We got all checked in (apparently all the paperwork our tour guide had said Rocky was a girl, so there were a few bumps in the road trying to find him a room, but got sorted) then we had a welcome dinner were we met our tour mates. We then headed into the Old Town for a tour of the city, were we learned about the history of Dubrovnik, including that the main street had once been a canal separating two feuding communities, but after a Romeo and Juliet story of a boy and a girl from each side falling in love, the two communities set aside their differences, and filled in the canal, joining their two communities. We also learned about Dubrovnik's history in the Yugoslav wars, such as that it was under siege for an entire year, with no food or people being able to get in or out.
 

Saturday was a free day in Dubrovnik, and Rocky and I went on a kayaking tour. We kayaked 7.5 km, around Lokrum island and the city walls. This included paddling past a nude beach, and a stop in a cave with a beach, were we went snorkelling! Which was sooo cool! We then headed back to the hotel, thinking we would spend the afternoon swimming, only to accidentally fall asleep for 4 hours. When we woke up we did take a swim, eat some supper, then re-pack our suitcases.

This morning we headed out of Dubrovnik and into Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our first stop was in Mostar, where we saw a bridge that had been built several hundred years ago, but was bombed during the Yugoslav wars, and rebuilt again afterwards. We also saw locals jumping off the bridge, a very impressive feat as the bridge is very very high. We then ate lunch, and continued our journey into Sarajevo, where after settling into our hotel we headed into the old town here, learning about the history of the town, particularly about the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, and the Yugoslav wars. There is a large Turkish influence here as they occupied the area for hundreds of years, giving the town a very different feel from others we have visited. We ate dinner in a very old building, and the food was just amazing!

Tomorrow we head into Serbia. If we can get interent access, we'll be sure to update the blog as often as we can!

Later days,

Kathleen.

Meteora Monasteries and Thermopylae

Hello Everyone!

Today was the second day of our Greek Odyssey tour and our fifth day in Greece. This morning we woke up in our hotel room and went down for breakfast before hopping on the bus to travel to our first destination of the day. We didn't have to go too far to reach the Meteora Monasteries as they were just up the cliffs from the town we were staying in. On our way up to the monastery we were visting we had a picture stop where you could see a few of the monasteries sitting on top of the cliffs. The reason for the monasteries being on top of these cliffs was when they were first built they were made as isolated and inaccessible as possible at the time so that the monks could escape from the Turkish occupation. The only way to access the monasteries at the time were by ropes and nets to hoist people and goods up. When we reached the monastery we were visiting we were greeted by the tour guide who would be showing us around and telling us about the monastery. Once inside the main public area of the monastery our small group of six had quite the surprise by seeing one of the doors to the private quarters open and being greeted by one of the few monks that occupied the monastery. He then made his exit just as quickly as he'd appeared back through the door before a much larger group of tourists showed up. We then followed our tour guide through the rest of the public areas of the monastery as she told us about the paintings on each wall and also the significance of each room. When we were done exploring the monastery we made our way back down the steps and got on the bus to go visit one of the two covenants of Meteora. When we stopped for a photo stop on the way to the covenant we were told that their are five monasteries for monks and two covenants for nuns on the cliffs of Meteora. Before the 1960's all of them were monasteries until two of them became covenants because their were no more monks at two of the monasteries. When we reached the covenant we learned that unlike the monasteries, which had hired employees taking care of the buildings and grounds because their are too few monks to take care of the monasteries themselves, the nun's covenants are completely self run by the nuns. After having a thorough tour of the covenant we said thank you and goodbye to our guide and continued on our way.


THIS IS SPARTA!!!!!!! Sorry, I couldn't help it. Our next stop down the road was Thermopylae. Located there was a statue and monument of Leonidas, King of the Spartans. The Battle of Thermopylae was where King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans battled against the invasion of King Xerxes and the Persian Empire. One of the main reasons for the choice of this spot for the battle was because of the narrow pass located there known as the "Hot Gates." This pass at the time only allowed eight men shoulder to shoulder armed with shields to pass through at a time meaning that the Persians numbers which numbered over a million meant nothing. The Spartans lined up shoulder to shoulder, shield to shield blockading the opening creating a bottle neck effect for the Persian army. The battle lasted for three days and the Spartans slaughtered the Persians for the first two.  In the end, on the third day, a traitorous Greek named Ephialtes showed the Persian army a mountain path around the Hot Gates that flanked the pass resulting in defeat for the Spartans. To this day because of his traitorous ways the word "Ephialtes" became the Greek word for "nightmare." It was inspiring to stand on the ground where this famous battle happened and where Greece first really showed that they wouldn't be pushed around.

When we left Thermopylae we continued to a small seaside town where we went for a swim and then had lunch by the beach. After lunch it was about a two hour bus ride back to Athens. When we got back to Athens we said our goodbyes and headed back to our hostel. Once we checked into our hostel we went for supper and then came back to our hostel for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we have just over half a day in Athens before we catch our flight to Croatia. We had an absolutely amazing time in Greece and it was one of our best adventures yet. Next time I write I'll be in another country.

Till then,
Rocky

Delphi

Day Four!  Holy smokes, this trip has been going fast. Anyways, today we began our two day "Greek Odyssey" tour. We met our tour at 8 this morning at a hostel in Athens, a bit of a ways away from our Hotel, so we took the Greek Metro. There are only 4 people (including us) on our tour, so it has been a lovely intimate tour so far.

The day started out with a drive to Delphi, about 3 hours from Athens, with a stop for some snacks and a walk just over two hours in. Once we arrived in Delphi, we were met by a local guide who showed us first around the ruins, then around the museum there.

Delphi was once the home of the "Oracle of Delphi" and important people from all around the region would go to visit the Oracle of Delphi from about the 6th or 7th century BC, until about 400 AD. There, they would consult the Oracle, a woman, who would speak in tongues and give advice about whatever question a person had. A priest would then interpret what she was saying. This spot was said to be centre of the world, as the God Zeus went to both sides of the world, let two eagles go, and Delphi was the point where the two eagles crossed in the sky.

The spot was first discovered when local farmers noticed their goats coming down off the mountain, were particularly... energetic, jumping and dancing and such. So a temple to the God Apollo was built here, and the Oracle was here, and life sprung up around it. As it turns out, the reason why these goats, and, later, the Oracles, were so energetic, and speaking in tongues and such, was to do with the fact that the temple sat on a fault line, where a number of gasses came up from the earth, essentially making anyone who sat there high as a kite. An earthquake has since stopped the gasses from rising. 

Our bus then continued on its way toward Meteora, and today we are staying in a hotel where we can literally see the monasteries of Meteora from our balcony! Tomorrow we head there, then to Thermopylae, where the 300 Spartans fought the Persian army.

Later days!

Kathleen.

Greek Islands Cruise

Hello Everyone!

I'll just start off by saying today was an amazing day! We began our day by catching a bus to the Athens docks to catch our cruise ship for our Greek Islands Cruise. Once our ship left the docks we had an orientation to explain the days events. Once orientation was done Kathleen and I signed up for the swimming tour later in the day and then explored the ship for a while until we reached the first island.

The island of Hydra was our favorite of the day. As we had hoped for the previous day we got to go swimming! We swam and jumped off a small cliff the whole time we were at the island. The water was so clear you could see right to the bottom. After a great swim and a lot of fun we got back on the ship and had a buffet lunch. When we were finished our delicious lunch we relaxed for a bit until we reached the second island of Poros. Poros was a very short stay of about 45 minutes. Our whole time there consisted of eating ice cream and buying more sunscreen. When we left the docks of Poros we headed to the last island of the day, the island of Egina. At Egina we took a motor boat over to a smaller private island for more swimming and sitting on the beach. After a lot more swimming we got back on the motor boat and went back to Egina to catch the cruise ship back to Athens. It was beautiful to see the Greek coast line on the horizon as we arrived back in Athens.

We then left the cruise ship, got back on the bus, and arrived back in central Athens. We had supper at a little pasta place and then went back to the hostel. Tomorrow we start a two day tour to Meteora and Delphi. Can't wait!

Till next time,
Rocky