Travel day from Rome back to Munich. This was one of those times when it was a blessing to have only one medium back pack to deal with as the buses and planes were crowded. We retraced our route from the Munich airport by bus to the Freising train station where we got a train into Freihung. This saved us about 40min of travel time. We walked home from the station at about 8:30pm ... to learn that Craig would be arriving home tomorrow at noon!
No better sight than seeing him enter the gym.
April 8, 2014.
33 weeks safe. Deployment #5 over.
April 12 - May 4
Ok, now we can hit the road .... or, better put, we should hit the road and let the newlyweds have their home space!
My choice for April was Amsterdam to see the tulip fields in bloom. We got a vacation rental apt. for 2 weeks to ensure that we'd have good weather for a few days of cycling in the country. Since we we've already been to Amsterdam and done the 'must see' attractions back in September, this time around we can relax. "Be visitors instead of tourists" as Dan likes to say. Now, we are just hanging out, staying in our apt when it's raining, and walking all over Amsterdam, watching Spring bloom along the canals. And after the busy travel schedule we'd had in Spain and Italy, it feels sooooo good not to have an agenda!
Dan suggested the BENELUX countries so we are including Belgium (Brussels and Bruges) and hope to take a day trip to Luxembourg.
Amsterdam: April 12-27
Seriously, folks, we could live in this city.
It's a beautiful city. Even in the rain, everyone rides bikes.
As long as you know what space is 'yours', it's easy to navigate thru Amsterdam. Cars, bikes, people all have their own lane ... and right of way!
They have a wonderful culture of tolerance. Because so few things are against the law (and using electronic monitoring), they closing 19 prisons in the Netherlands!
The canal system is amazing.
In the early 17th century, Amsterdam came up with a city plan calling for four main, concentric half-circles of canals with their ends resting on the Bay. Interconnecting canals connect the many parts of the city via water access. And some 1500 bridges to connect the land.
Very cosmopolitan. You hear Dutch spoken everywhere, plus a lot of English. The locals speak on average 4 languages ... quite well.
The residential district along the canals.
The fact that these old building lean against one another literally keeps them standing. Because everything in Amsterdam is built on water, when the foundations of these home give way, they literally strip the home from the inside, removing all the flooring and walls, to rebuild the foundation.
Floating tulip pots in the canal near the Van Gogh museum.
From our studio apt, we were able to walk everywhere in town. Once you get used to the canal pattern, it's easy to get reoriented after walking around the same block twice!
Great Internet and TV with English channels!
A recent remodel. The bathroom had a large rain shower. Nice.
Rentals with a patio are my favorite.
Nicely stocked kitchen for cooking - including dishwasher.
From each peak, hangs a hook that's used to hoist goods to the upper floors.
Spring is coming up all over. This place will be packed at Happy Hour.
As I said before, we came to Amsterdam to see the tulips and relax. Having two weeks here gave us the flexibility to chose the days for our big outdoor events. Sunshine and blue sky happened for the first time 4 days after we arrived, and we spent it bike riding thru the tulip fields outside of town. Keukenhof. We had two more days where it was sunny and 'almost warm' that we used to rent bikes and go on a tour of the city and one of the countryside. Done.
Yes, we saw one. From a high of 10,000 windmills, 8 remain. None in active use draining the water from Dutch lands since the advent of the steam engine...
but, still, pretty cool.....
The countryside bike ride took us though the dikes and canals used to control Amsterdam's water.
... and through the woods and parks circling the city
It was a lovely way to spend a sunny day ...
During the second week of our stay in Amsterdam, we changed apts. Our first place wasn't available for our entire stay in Amsterdam, so we rented another unit, right in the heart of the city. We chose this rental because of the location, and the apt manager suggested that we stay thru the weekend for the Kings Day celebration. So we did! It's kinda like the 4th of July in the USA. Everyone is out. Everyone is wearing orange. All the canals and streets are turned into an open-air flea market. No buses, cars or trams running so the streets are for the people!
View from our apt in the Nine Streets District...in the calm of day...
View from our apt as the King's Night (Friday night) scene begins to grow.
Saturday = Kings Day.
No rules for the day.
Just be polite and put your trash in the can provided.
I love the Dutch!
If you've got a boat, you're probably out on the canals.
The water ways were packed ... but surprisingly controlled.
Food and beer vendors on every corner keep the crowds satisfied. When the garage cans filled up, the Dutch continued to stack their garbage neatly on the sidewalks next to the can (wish we had a picture of that!). There was trash on every corner and along most curbs ... yet, it was all gone by the time we walked to the train station for our ride to Brussels at 10:30am. Well done Amsterdam. You are our favorite city!
April 27 - May 2: Brussels
Brussels was a 3-hr train ride from Amsterdam. Why anyone ever leaves Amsterdam is beyond me, but we were told not to miss Brussels, so here we are! Brussels is a major urban player, and the city feels very cosmopolitan ... but as well all these old cities, Brussels has it's altstadt ... it's old town, its historic city center.
Brussels does rock some amazingly beautiful architecture.
In each of these old European cities that we have visited, we marvel at the impact of WWII. What was destroyed? How much was destroyed? How did they rebuild?
What was destroyed in WWII was replaced within 3 years.
Everyone knows about the 'boy peeing fountain' so we had to take a pic!
Very cool roof lines!
Brussels was an inexpensive city to live in after Amsterdam, and we had another nice VRBO studio apartment for 5 nights. And they made focusing on their two key products -- beer and chocolate -- very easy. It seemed that every street in the historic area was lined with shops dedicated to beer and chocolate, and more beer and chocolate, with an occasional linen shop thrown in. It was everywhere, let me tell you, we really got into chocolate!
I didn't believe it myself, but each chocolate shop did taste different. It was all great ... but some shops got into the category of heavenly .... And after discovering that each shop was different, well, we just had to sample ... and sample ... and sample. OMG. We ate chocolate every day. Multiple times a day. It was that good. You didn't even care that you knew you weren't doing near enough walking to justify to chocolate sampling .. let alone the Belgium Waffle (which was amazing!). BTW, the Belgiums make a point of eating their chocolate fresh! We asked one chocolatier how long some truffles would last, "Oh, they should be good for about 3 weeks."
I mean honestly, how easy can they make it to sit at a sidewalk café and people-watch?
with a beer ..
Ghent:
We were in Brussels for 5 days so decided to make a side trip to Ghent. Yes, this is when we had also planned to take the train over to Luxembourg so that we could add another country to our travel list by visiting all the BENELUX countries ... however, when that idea hit reality, we decided that spending 6 hours on the train just to touch ground in another country wasn't worth it.
Ghent was only a 30-minute train ride, and just the right size to explore in one day. Perfect.
Ghent ... a city of amazing architecture.
Everywhere you look, centuries-old buildings, incredibly maintained.
Ghent ... a city with a most-awesome castle.
Go away to fight the Crusades, and come back with new building ideas! This was built between 1177-1180 and functioned as the center for the Counts of Flanders power during the early Middle Ages.
The last castle to survive centuries.
Ghent ... another town built around canals.
One of the last city gates remaining from the Middle Ages.
If in Belgium, go visit Ghent.....
Friday, May 2nd: Brussels to Bruges.
After 5 days in Brussels, we were ready to move on. We had walked the historic district and sampled beers at all the bars on Dan's list. Brussels is nice, albeit an urban feel outside the historic city center. Brussels is nice because of the beer, the chocolate shops, and it's a relatively inexpensive city. What Brussels is great for is access to other cities and they speak French as well as Dutch and English.
1.5 hours later, we were unpacking for the last time, in Bruges.
Forget Brussels and go directly to Bruges. Yes, it's a little like living on a set at Disneyland, but (pinch me here), this is real. Bruges .... very cute, very compact, very beautiful city square, lined with shops, and every one of those shops was about beer or chocolate!
And, drum roll here, we believe that Bruges has the best chocolate as well as beer!
The city square. Every town needs one of these ...
Lined with small cafes ... all selling the 500+ beers of Belgium.
.
Every beer had it's own glass. Seriously, we asked. If they sold 100 beers, they had 100 glasses. This is one of Dan's favorite so far. It was purposely poured to make foam that continued to grow for 3 minutes!
Dan carried a smaller version with him ... checking off and taking notes!
New beer, new glass.
Cheery beer for me ... (scoff scoff)
Surprise ... another Belgium city built around canals.
and chocolate!
Cutest house ever ... it's a doggie in the window ...
Sunday, May 4.
On our way to the train stain, we stopped at one of the several beer stores to take as many bottles back to Germany that Dan could carry. The bottles are sealed with a champagne style cork and wire and are 750ml. That's right thesame size as a bottle of wine. Dan thinks he may prefer Belgium beer, and we curious about what Craig may think! So far Dan's favorite has been Chimay Triple (vom Fass- or on tap), a Trapist beer made by monks and served in a tulip shaped glass.You can tell you are in Germany by green fields, houses with titled pitched roofs with solar panels, and clean yards. Everything is so "neat" in Germany as we zoom by at 180 mph on the train. After a 7.5 hr train ride (with 3 transfers), we arrived in Friehung at 8:30pm, where Michelle and Craig picked us up in a heated car! It's always so good to be home!
Next stop: June is for France! We leave for Paris on June 4th, and we'll travel to Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Craig will be joining the Liberty Jump Team, dropping by parachute over the beaches of Normandy on June 6th. On June 8th, Craig and Michelle will return from Paris to Germany, and we'll stay in Paris where we have rented a one-bedroom apt. for two weeks. To top off an incredibly exciting month, our son, James, will be joining us in Paris on June 10th.
Future plans.
We did manage to squeeze in some serious thinking about our future plans while in the Netherlands. Now that Craig's back -- and we are three-quarters through a full year in Europe -- it seems like a good time to have an exit strategy. We have no return tickets booked at the moment, so the slate is pretty damn clean.
Right now, the best prices on return tickets to MN are via London or Brussels. Thanks to the wonders of the Eurostar, we can easily get to either city from a long list of major cities. That's one decision done. No matter what we do, we'll end up in London or Brussels.
Craig will get his next assignment sometime in July. Odds are good that will involve moving back to the states ... even though there are a few options that would have them staying in Germany for another year (definitely their first choice). For us, this means we need to be prepared to leave Friehung in early August .. which means we either have to be on a plane or travelling around without a home base in Germany. So, another decision done. We can leave in August, and we'll travel around without home base in Germany instead of flying immediately back to the US. I'd like to go where they speak English so the UK, Scotland, Ireland, and lovely London are high on my list. Dan wants to go where they speak French, so the Loire Valley is high on his list. Dan's birthday is in August, so we'll be somewhere in Europe for that!
We can also leave in September ... it all depends on Craig's orders. If Michelle and Craig are still in Germany by the end of August, we could stay in Freihung and take care of Molly Dog while they travel to the US for two weddings. Then, we would continue with our original plan in September to tour around for a few weeks before returning to the US via London or Brussels. Our wedding anniversary is in September, so maybe we'll be in Europe for that as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment