A Quick UpToDate

     As we have been having so much fun in our travels it has been difficult to maintain an even semi updated blog.  How people find time to update every day leads Mia and I to conclude they are spending much of their time tracking down available internet connections instead of laying on the beach....We on the other hand have been tracking down beaches in-lou of the mysteriously rare internet connection.   To everyone at home we apologize for not keeping you more up to date.  I will quickly update you all now with a breakdown of where we have been over the last 6,000 kilometers. ( Yes we have put over 6,320 KM on the van since pickup ;)
        After Berlin we drove overnight to Amsterdam where part of our party threw in the towel and went home.  We sadly watched as Allison flew out the day after Mia, Brian and I arrived in Amsterdam but soon forgot about it after tasting a delicious space cake from one of the notorious cafe's.  The next day we explored the city and remained astounded at the speed and tenacity of the bikes and scooters passing by on the sidewalks ( yes, sidewalks), the whole city moves on two wheels.  Later we toured the Van Gogh museum and walked throughout the Red Light district.  At this point Brian began to get worried about his funds and decided to remain in Amsterdam, renting out a hostel bed for the next week and eating street kebabs before busing it to Paris for his return flight, (needless to say that lasted only a few days whereas he also swapped tickets and flew home from Amsterdam, what is it about that city?).
     So now it was just Mia and me and the "beast",  First stop was Brussels, Belgium where we walked around the city and cathedral square looking at expensive chocolate and watching the police install roadblocks for what we guess was an upcoming NATO conference.  That evening we tracked down the infamous Delirium Bar, home of 2004 different beers and over forty of them on tap.  The bar had three floors, the basement was all bottles and decorated with old time beer cask lids, here was the majority of the bars beer collection.  The middle floor was all the fresh beers on tap and there were booths made from brewers kettles,  and the top floor was hosting a rotating special theme (currently the best beers in the world...aka Made in USA Microbreweries).  We tried the Delirium Tremens, served in a one liter "Boot" and the Delirium Nocturnum ale in a half liter goblet.
    Next stop was Caen in the Normandy region of northwest France,  That night after exploring their impressive (free) castle we had our first french meal.  Mia splurged with a slow roasted pork leg and potatoes and I had a lightly seasoned and pan seared white fish.  We both concluded the slow roasted pork leg with gravy was one of the best dishes we had tried the whole trip.  For the next few days we explored the beaches of D-Day, starting with the Canadian beach and museum on the most northern section and working our way south along the coast to Utah and Omaha beaches where the US troops had an extremely difficult and bloody battle to take the cliffs and battalions the Nazi's defended.
     The evening of our second day we stopped at Mount St. Michel Cathedral/Castle/Village and explored the city at night when all the stone was lit up by halogen lamps and spotlights....an amazing and impressive sight at night.  The next day we toured the cathedral and walked around the village, had amazing espresso (coffee took a turn for the better the second you cross the border into France).  We continued our journey south and stoped in La Rochelle, a French port town that was important in the days of colonization of north america as well as the French slave trade.  Museums were free and I learned more about the native americans of North America than I would learn in a   comparable museum at home.  The weather was sunny and warm and the shorts and summer dresses finally came unpacked,  We had lunch on the water in front of the harbor where a flotilla of sailboats were departing for a solo sailboat race around the world.  Fresh Oysters on the half shell, a salad Nicoise, and lightly seared calamari...boy the French know how to cook!
    After a relaxing night in La Rochelle we headed south towards Bordeaux but ran around the city for lack of information on camping locations and a general fear of large cities when you have a large vehicle.  Ended up in the coastal town of Arcachon, France where we met a group of French tourism students and their friends excited to practice their English and teach us a little bit of French (later Mia found out that they are required to log a certain number of hours speaking English to foreigners for graduation)  They were all our age and we headed to a late night discotheque for some Friday night dancing.  The next day we hiked around on the largest dune in Europe, standing four-hundred feet tall and constantly shifting towards the thin pine forest inland.  when our legs could no longer stand the sandblasting from the high winds we retreated to the camper and spend the next hours cleaning sand from every crack and crevice in our clothes, phone, camera, ears, eyes, and a few days later cargo pockets, and other places we didn't know existed.
    Now we called a friend of mine from Seattle, a neighbor from France who taught me how to cook and punched his address into our trusty GPS and got on the road.  In order to avoid the hefty French road tolls we took all back roads to get to the town of Pau, nestled in the hills below the Pyrenees Mountains.  After so much fast paced traveling it was nice to sleep in a bed in a house and take it easy, we spend the next three days eating amazing food, walking around, looking at Michelle's location for the restaurant he is going to open within the next month, and doing laundry.  Mia and I cooked Michelle and Dominique a amazing meal of cod with onion and garlic, and risotto with fresh local goat cheese, and fresh brussel sprouts.  Dominique recommended a great hike outside of Pau with a local winery en-route that we could tour.  The hike was fantastic although not easy to get to or find because the road up narrows into a cliff-side cow path requiring both mirrors of the camper van to be folded in and my asshole to pucker as we narrowly make the hairpin turns.  The hike took us high into the Pyrenees with 1200 meters of elevation gain and finishing on the Spanish border.
        Next we drove towards the French coastal town of Biarritz but when we contacted Tyler and Aaron and found out they were stuck in San Sebastian because all of the french public transportation was three days into their latest strike (last one lasted almost two weeks) and were not getting any closer to a resolution.  We met up with them in town and explored the city, the harbor, and old castle and fort used throughout history notably against Napoleon and then once conquered by Napoleon. The food is alright, Tapas were ok but nothing to write home about and the city has been slightly blown out in the hope of more tourism dollars.  There is a controversy in San Sebastien because the government is building new freeways and a new Bullet train destination in San Sebastien and consequently everything is going up in price and getting ritzy.  Obviously locals reliant on tourism are enthralled while everyone else is upset.
     After a few days in town we had enough and thought to check out the French equivalent an hour north and back across the border.  This also enabled out friends to rent a car at the Biarritz airport and avoid both the French strike and the Spanish 1800 euro destination fee for leaving a car in a country other than their own. Now they only had to drive nine hours into Paris and then find the right part of the right airport to fly home (and hope Iceland Air doesn't need the French to get in and out of the country)   At this point having our own transportation has essentially saved the rest of our trip as you cannot buy tickets in advance and the trains and buses in France are only running when they feel like it.  (also air traffic control in all domestic airports are on strike)
      Biarritz is a nice town, although expensive for tourist activities and food.  Instead the four of us walked around the old town, looked at peoples private mansions and went swimming on the local beach (cleaned of all seaweed and undesirables daily with a tractor).  After a lunch of Moules and Frites (a kilo and a half of local mussels apiece with fries) we took our friends to the airport for their car rental and then continued on to Pamplona, Spain.
     The road to Pamplona was a breathtaking (for Mia, the passenger and a royal pain in the ass for Jamie) winding rode that descended down the Pyrenees onto the Spanish side of the mountain range. The city was made famous by the running of the bulls and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. Apparently, during the festival in the summer, one should expect to pay four times as much as usually, about 200-300 euros for a room. Fortunately for us, we found free parking for two nights in a lot just below the city walls (a free elevator/tram is available to take you into the narrow streets of the city). Pamplona was a great, small city and a nice break from the hustle and bustle of San Sebastien - affordable and delicious tapas and mostly free/cheap tourist attractions like the Cathedral Saint Maria, which dates back to the 11th century. After a couple of low-key nights, we decided to make our way to Barcelona.
          On our way to Barcelona we stopped at two Rick Steve's recommended sights - the Leyre Monastery and the Castillo de Loarre. Neither of us being Spanish (the short tour was only offered in Spanish) or religious, the monastery was, to be honest, pretty boring (we are getting to the point in our travels where a church is a church). The castle, on the other hand, was pretty interesting. It dated back to the 10th century and was built by the Christians to show the Muslims who was boss (clearly a lot has changed). Obviously, being nearly 1000 years old,  none of the interior was able to be preserved, but we were able to walk around the general structure and purchased 1 euro audio guides to enrich our experience. Realizing that we are quickly running out of time, we then hit the road, finally having to call it a night a truck stop in Lerida, about one hour east of Barcelona.
        At about noon, we reached the sprawling city of Barcelona; however, we decided to camp 15 km outside of the city at a pristine but expensive ( as we discovered today at check-out) campground right on the beach. Although it was expensive, it was a great location, about 1 km walk to the train station, which for 3.20 euro/ person could get you in and out of the center of Barcelona. Most of our time in Barcelona was spent in one general area - a walking street called Las Ramblas and at a fantastic market called La Bacadillo, which is overrun with locals, cruise ship tourists, and street performers, but fun and lively regardless. However, we did do some serious city walking on our second day, first getting off the the completely wrong train stop and then checking out the beach and all of the pointless (but pretty cool) tourist shit that any city hosting the Olympics always builds. Barcelona had some okay food, a decent but by no means extraordinary seafood paella the first night and very expensive tapas, so on our second and final night, we decided to make our own prawns (we picked up 1/2 kilo at the market), sauted asparagus, and cous cous, which was phenomenal, especially the prawns.We are not sure if we are becoming better cooks or restaurant owners are becoming more lazy, but, on whole, it seems like are food has been tasting a lot better (and cooking has been saving us a hell of a lot of money).
           That pretty much brings us to today. Keeping a blog is just such an incredible amount of work, especially when you have to condense three weeks of adventure into 3 hours of writing. Fortunately, we have sunshine, free Wi-fi (well it was included in our overpriced campground package), and cold beer to help us along.

Pictures coming soon...




 

Hitlers Eagles Nest

·         Sat Sept 25

o   Visited Kehlstein – the Eagle’s Nest. Our first rainy day, but still had beautiful views of the German Alps at about 6,000 feet, almost at the snow line. Would be nice to make a return trip in the summer and hike around the area. Could not tour the inside of the Eagle’s Nest, as the majority of it has been leased out as a restaurant, but still a worthwhile trip. Decided to skip the tour of the salt mine in Salzburg, as we are all on extremely tight budgets, and headed straight for Vienna. Made it to Vienna after dark and although it was pouring down rain, decided to try our hand at the public transportation and make a trip to the Bermuda Triangle, the major bar/club area of Vienna.  In Austria (and most of Europe) bartenders are allowed to drink on the job and we ended up getting our last two rounds of drinks and our hookah completely free.  I think our server was more sloshed than us.  Learned a little too late that the public transportation shuts down at 2 in the morning while the clubs don't empty out until 3.  We all piled into a two day old Mercedes and were home in less than 5 Min.  (Mind you that it was a good Fifteen to twenty min train ride into town)

Neuschwanstein and Hitlers Eagles Nest

Neuschwanstein - Ludwigs personal castle

·       

  FrFri Sept 24

o   Left Munich. Later start than intended because Alli was umm sleeping elsewhere ;),  but at least she came home unscathed. Drove about 2 hours southeast to Neuschwanstein. Surroundings were beautiful and castle was pretty impressive on the outside. Inside was only partially finished and what was finished was unbelievably (and almost disgustingly) ornate.  Several rumors surround Ludwig – not only was he thought to have liked men, it is also speculated that he was killed for his wasteful use of Bavaria’s dollars, as one can clearly see on the tour of the castle. A good overall experience, but it would be nice if we could find an older castle to tour.

King Ludwigs Childhood Castle

o   Drove towards the Eagle’s Nest. Stopped for dinner, as recommended by Fancy Pants, in some tiny, full of character German country town. Decided to free camp (aka park on the side of a residential road) in Berchtesgaden, a popular ski destination for the locals and the town just outside of the Eagle’s Nest.

OCTOBERFEST

BEER TENT MUNICH

·         Thurs Sept 23

o   Oktoberfest! Fun but expensive. Drank a lot of liters of beer and rode a couple of rides. Probably my first rollercoaster ride in ten years and certainly the first one that I have ridden inebriated. Jamie and I headed back to the camper early and ate some yummy German food (roasted duck and dumplings and roast beef and horseradish mashed potatoes) street side before going to bed at about EIGHT.

Germany Castle (back)country

Secret castle in the country

·         Wed Sept 22

Public Punishment

o   We have no idea where we are but . . . woke up early and hiked up to a pretty sweet castle from 1056. Nothing much to it – I think that they are in the process of renovation, but had beautiful views of the fairytale-esque German countryside. A day that started off fantastically slowly went downhill from here – driving the camper van on little city streets took some getting used to. After a little cosmetic booboo with the camper van, we decided to return to the rental place and try to either trade in for a smaller van or get our money back. Of course that did not work out and only resulted in wasted time, so we just had to learn to love the RV and the people we have become.  Once we got over our self-images, we headed over to Rothenberg, the most famous stop along the Romantic Road. Got there a little late, but still had time to munch on a Schneeball, quickly tour the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum, and walk a good portion of the ramparts that surround the city. As the rest of the group had decided to make a beeline for beer-drinking in Munich after Heidelberg, our time was limited in Rothenberg and we quickly hit the road to Oktoberfest. Oh I must note that in our RV fiasco, we were able to snag a GPS, now appropriated named Fancy Pants, which has been an ultimate lifesaver; even the locals cannot live without them.

Schneeball

Germany!!! Heidelberg

·         Tues Sept 21

We explored the sites of Heidelberg. First, went to the older side of the valley where there were remains from both the 9th century (St. Michael Basilica) and the 11^th century (Stefanskloster and Thingstatte) as well as a very nice amphitheater that Hitler ordered to be built. Unfortunately, in efforts to erase that period of their history the town has now let the grass take over. We then visited the castle and pharmacy museum on the other side of the valley. A steep hike and 5 euro rewarded us with beautiful views of the city. After exploring Heidelberg, unbeknownst to us at the time, we began our adventure to pick up our camper van, more or less an RV, in Stuggart.  To keep the story short and our nerves from flaring up again, let’s just say that what should have been an effortless two-hour trip turned into about a six-hour trip, including a 70 euro cab ride. Never will we return to Stuggart. Fortunately, the day ended with our best German meal to date, snichtzel and spatzel in a tiny nameless town that spoke no English . . . we almost accidentally ordered non-alcoholic beer with dinner.