Athens

After the ferry arrived in Patra, we found we had three hours to wait before the next train to Athens. Patra was a very busy spot with not much to look at. We walked up a hill and set of stairs to an old fort. It was closed, but they let us in for a quick look around. Which was all we really needed because there was not a lot there, but it did have a good view of the port.

And a few orange trees.

What we thought was a train to Athens, turned out to be a two car ancient train to a bus to a new rail line. We had no idea what was going on, but we made it to our hostel. Our hostel is very close to the Acropolis, which they light up at night.

The next morning we went to the main attraction, the Acropolis. A very old set of ruins of temples on top of a rocky hill.

It was spectacular except for the scaffolding everywhere. They are doing major restoration work so most of the sight was covered with scaffolding.

 

Nevertheless, the view of Athens was amazing (urban sprawl at its best) and it was cool to walk around such an old and significant place.


At the base of Acropolis are two theatres, one of which is still used today.

We spent the rest of the day wondering around the city. It is pretty warm here (summer temperatures for us) so walking around is great.

Today, we visited four other ruin sights. The Temple of Olympian Zeus was the best.

 

 

It was another warm day so we spent the rest of the day wandering around and stocking up on food for our trip to the island of Santorini. The ferry leaves at 7:30 tomorrow but we have a bit of a trip to get to the port and no one can really tell us if there is construction on the subway line (we think there is). So it is going to be an early morning.

In the Adriatic Sea

We are currently on a ferry in the Adriatic Sea, under an hour away from Greece.

After leaving Munich, we took a train to Venice. It was one of the better train rides we have had trough the mountains, the scenery was great. Ramey lost track of the number of castles we saw, but it was a bunch. When we arrived in Venice we found a nice little hotel just across the Grand Canal from the train station.

It was really neat wandering around the city.  With tinny narrow paths between buildings, very few street signs and canals everywhere it was a bit of a challenge to navigate. Luckily, we did not have too many problems. The next day we took a ferry ride down the Grand Canal to San Marco square.

The square was packed. There was more people there than anywhere else we have been. Combine all of the people with the narrow streets and it was very slow to get around.

After visiting the sights around the square we wandered through Venice back to our hotel, it took most of the afternoon, with stops for pizza and gelato. For dinner, we found a neat little restaurant with great pasta and good cheap wine.

The next day we took a early train to the port of Ancona, with just enough time to catch the ferry.

We only have about 30 minutes till we arrive in Patra and then a train ride to get to Athens this evening.

Munich

Munich was great! We planned on staying three nights and we were there for five. It is the longest stop of the trip so far. The first day we spent walking around the city with two other Canadians.

There were actually quite a few Canadians staying at the hostel we were at. In the hostel bar, we out numbered any other country. Around the city we saw old churches and buildings (well some old buildings and some rebuilt to look like old buildings). There is a fantastic market with just about anything you could want. We strolled through one of the parks and saw a standing wave on a canal where people surf.

Tuesday was a day trip into the Alps. We took a train to Garmish, about an hour and a half away, and then a cog train and cable car to the top of Germany's highest peak, Zugspitze (2962 m). The cable car ride was very cool. The view at the top was amazing.

 

 

 

You could see 400 peaks in 4 countries. At the top was a small complex of buildings and observation decks. Then another cable car down on to the glacier where people were skiing.

We spent the rest of our time in Munich wandering around the city, in the beer halls (a different one each night; we meet the head chef at the Augustiner Braustuben) and eating as much Bavarian food as we could.

It was a great city for us to relax for a few days and just enjoy where we were.

We are headed to Venice and then on to Greece.

Maastricht to Wien

Maastricht was great. There was so much neat architecture. The Romans and the Spanish have both been through the area, leaving walls, forts and huge churches. The owner of the small hotel we stayed at called Maastricht a big town where the Dutch come to get away from the Netherlands without leaving the country.

From Maastricht we took the train to Brussels. Brussels was okay, it did not seem like it had a lot of character. We did find a pub that had over 2000 different beer, the menu was as thick as a phone book. We took an early morning train from Brussels to Luxembourg before taking an overnight train to Berlin with a quick stopover in France. So we were in four countries in just over 12 hours. Luxembourg was good and we were glad we stopped there, but also glad we did not stay too long. It was a rainy day, so we only walked around town and then spent a few hours exploring the ruins of the original castle.

Berlin was pretty cool. We arrived Sunday morning, the day before the fall of the Berlin Wall anniversary, so things were very busy. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel and set out to wander around. There is so much to see. We walked down Unter den Linden (one of the main streets) towards the Brandenburg Gate, where things were already setup for Monday. Including Greenpeace, who were hanging a huge sign off the side of a building referring to the upcoming talks in Copenhagen (it was gone a few hours later).

Monday morning we went to check out the longest stretch (1.3km) of the original wall still left. It is called the East Side Gallery and has paintings on the wall from artists from around the world.

Then we picked up a pack full of beer and headed towards Brandenburg Gate with a couple of guys from the hostel.

Of course it started to rain. As we were kicking ourselves for deciding to leave the umbrella in Canada (yet again), we made our way to the beer tent. You could not see much over the umbrellas in the crowd anyways and all of the speeches were overdubbed in German (surprise surprise) so it worked out well. We met a group of people from Britain and we spent the rest of the night out with them.

The next day we went to Sachsenhausen, a former concentration camp located just north of Berlin. Most of the camp has been dismantled and the GDR government actually tried to make it look more like a park to suit their political agenda.

The next morning we took a train to Prague. We stayed for two nights. It was interesting. It is the first place we have been in that really felt like they were trying to suck every cent out of the tourists (and there were a lot of them here), yet some things (like beer and food) were very cheap.

It is a very nice looking city and it was the first sunny day we have had in what feels like a long time so we spent most of the time exploring the bridges, castle and squares around the old town.

We are currently in Wien (Vienna). We just spent the day at the “Summer” Palace, eating expensive famous chocolate cake (it was only okay) in a Wien coffee shop, checking out the Stephansdom (a big church) and sampling some Austrian wine.

Next stop a beer hall in Munich.

Stupid Trains!

Up until Hamburg the trains have been great. But the day we left Hamburg, every train was late, which messed up every connection. So a trip that should have been a few hours took the whole day. Today there is a train strike in Belgium. Just for today, it will be over by tomorrow. We had planed on going to Brussels, but instead we are now on our way to Maastricht. Which is about as close as you can get to Brussels without leaving The Netherlands.

We have just spent three days in Amsterdam. It was a lot of fun. Of all the cities we have been in, Amsterdam seems the most lively. There are so many cafes, cool little shops and great places to eat (The Dutch look like they really have a thing for Pancakes; there are pancake restaurants everywhere). It does not seem to matter what time of day it is there are always people out in the streets. We stayed at a cool little hotel just off a big park, in the middleish of the city. We were on the top floor and there was a neat staircase running up the middle of the building.

We spent the few days we had wandering around the city and a trip to the Van Gogh museum (all of the other large museums have major construction projects underway).

The plan from here is to go to Maastricht to Brussels to Luxembourg then to Berlin for Sunday and Monday night. The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall is on Monday.

The First Week: Scandinavia in a Nutshell

It only took a week and a few days but here goes the first update. We started in Oslo. The first night was a bit expensive (our own fault, of course, for not planning ahead), but it was nice and included a great breakfast. After wandering around Oslo for a day we took the train to the west coast of Norway, to Bergen.  First class on the train is a great way to travel.  Bergenis a very nice old city, but expensive (general trend for Scandinavia); out one night, we spent $60 for four beer. After two days in Bergen, we headed back to Oslo via a boat ride in the fjords and a very scenic train ride out of Flam. So far the fjords are one of the best things we have seen. Another night in Oslo and then we went Stockholm for three nights. It was only supposed to be two, but the trains were all full.  But it worked out well, Stockholm is great; good food, friendly Swedes and there was a neat Dali exhibit we went to on the extra day. From Stockholm we went to Copenhagen and then to Hamburg. Tomorrow morning we head to Amsterdam.