Forgensee

Over 40 km biked in one day on alpine foothill paths round trip around Schwangau and the Forgensee. It took several hours, and left us sore, but was worth it.

First stop, Tegelbergbahn summer luge

Being pulled up the hill

Luging downhill

Stop #2, Are we going the right way? Who cares, look at the view.

Stop#3, The chain on my bike loses its gears on a hill. I walked it to the top and managed to fix it. While doing so, a potentially mentally ill German woman eager to practice her English stopped to chat with us, show us photos of her California vacation, and asked if we wanted her to take this "selfie" of us. I say she might be mentally ill because she said she was checked into a nearby rehab clinic for knee surgery (but biking alpine foothills?) , and several km later, we passed a clinic for pyschosomatichse. 

Stop#4, The view of the castles from the other side of the Forgensee,  neatly 3/4s through our trip.

Stop# 5 - I lost count..., tired legs, sore buts, hot showers and bed.

Hey, look! A castle!

From a lot of places in Fussen,  which is right on the Austrian border at the foot of the Alps, you can see Neuschwanstein off in the distance.  Maybe you would eventually get used to it, but for the days we were there it remained a pretty crazy sight.

This is the view from one of the streets in Fussen we walked every day into the center of town.

Here's a different closer view from the Marien Brucke (Mary's Bridge).  It was raining so a few raindrops are on the lense.

Mad King Ludwig II had Neuschwanstein built on old ruins starting in 1869, but he died in 1886 and the work stopped so it's actually partly unfinished.  The inside that is finished has lots of weird details like a hallway that's fashioned like a cave and the most intricate carved bed canopy you've ever seen.  The king was a super fan of the composer Richard Wagner so most of the rooms are in some related to Wagnerian operas.  The aforementioned cave hallway is one of them.  We had a very matter of fact tour guide who started speaking German by accident at several stops of the tour. Ludwig's childhood home of Hohenschwangau is right next to Neuschwanstein and in some ways I found it more interesting because people actually lived there for most of the 1800's.  It also had really cool ceilings.

I, personally, find Hohenschwangau more fun to say as well.

Say it with me: Ho-en-shvan-gau

Fussen itself was a pretty nice small town in Bavaria, but most tourists just use it as a staging ground for the castles.  There are lots of places to buy lederhosen and dirndls. 

The food here is really good, but really heavy and basically all meat so sometimes you want a salad instead, but from my experience, avoid that impulse and just eat more schnitzel.  Get the salad when you are sure it won't be weird and unsatisfying.  

Oh, the beer though, you can sit down at just about any eating establishment and mumble "wiesbier" in unconfident German and you will shortly have half a liter of deliciousness in front of you.  You don't even mention brands, they just bring you whatever they happen to serve and they're all great.  Every place seems to have a brand preference,  sort of like how you can only get Coke or Pepsi at places in the States.  If you just said "I'll have a beer" at a bar in Boston they'd probably say, "That's nice, we have about 60, which one?"

Well, I've rambled long enough for now.  More to come.

When am Rhein...

Koblenz is the starting point for the most popular Upper middle Rhein valley cruise boats, run by KD (Koln-Dusseldorfer), the oldest corporation exchanged on the German stock market. From here , we opted for a round trip to St. Goar, which would give us an opportunity to see the valley, and also some time to explore the Rheinfells 13th century castle ruin in the Loreley.

The day started out cold, nearly 40 degrees, and the mist coming up off the river created a unique ambiance.

 Our boat, the Goethe, was an over 100 year old paddle wheeler

As the day continued, however, the sun came out and burned off the eerie mist, giving us great weather for the hike to and exploration of the Rheinfells castle ruin.

Castle silliness

Castle awesomeness

We cruised back to Koblenz,  and enjoyed a bottle of Reisling from the Rhein valley.  All in all a very full ( over 12 hrs), and very pleasant day.

Koblenz

To be read in the same way Alice Cooper explains Milwaukee in Wayne's World:

"So, do you come to Koblenz often?"
"I'm a regular visitor here, but Koblenz has certainly had its share of visitors.  Troops commanded by Julius Caesar were here in 55 BC.  It's located at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers"
"In fact doesn't it take its name from the Latin for confluence?"
"Yes, Pete, it does.  As we know, in geography a confluence is the meeting of two or more bodies of water."
"I was not aware of that."

The aforementioned confluence is behind us in the photo above.  Right in front of us is the Deutches Eck, which has a giant statue of William I on horseback and is a monument to German unity.  Continuing with the Wayne's World theme, here are some extreme close-ups:

Whoaa-oaaa-oaaa-oaaa-oaaa!

A Thank You

So, we've left the Netherlands and will be in Germany for the next month or so,  but before the German adventure really gets underway, it's important for us to send a heartfelt thanks to Sandy, Norman, and Nicole for hosting us in Rotterdam for so long.  Your hospitality went above and beyond what anyone could hope for and we really appreciate it.

To or not to plan, that is the question

Since returning from Amsterdam we've been lying low here in Rotterdam,  planning our next moves. Rick Steves has been our over the shoulder guide and trip participant thus far, but I can't remember ever inviting him. We've easily spent the better part of 2 days, mapping out the next 20 or so, the highlights will hopefully include:

1. Koblenz, and a Rhine cruise to see the valley and castles
2. Fussen, to see the black forest, Ludwig castles, and maybe luge
3. Regensburg, as a base from which to day trip to Oktoberfest in Munich, and the Schneider brewery in Kelheim
4. Berlin, for 2 and a half weeks of relaxing in an awesome German city and scouting the next leg of our journey

In our initial paling for the trip, we concentrated on our exit logistics (apt, insurance,  jobs, family, money, etc...) and did a modest amount of trip reasearch. Basic high level of mapping of potential places to go, customs to understand, access to food, money, lodging, etc, but not nitty gritty specicifics. More than 20 days into our trip, we're still trying to find the balance of planning and not planning, because when you don't plan, some times you're free to bump into summertime snow tubing and rock and roll themed Dutch block parties with delightful child bartenders.

It was over 70 degrees

There goes Jim in the red lane

Speeds of up to 50kph

There's a sort of lift, bust basically you have to haul the tube up the hill yourself

Bartenders in training

No Pictures

You may have noticed that most of our pictures from Amsterdam are birds in the park.  Well, for one, as Christiana mentioned we already saw lots of canals etc. in our other travels around Holland.  Also, there are lots of things you can't take pictures of in Amsterdam.  Things we did where pictures were forbidden:

Visited the Van Gogh Museum - Recommended, I like Van Gogh's style of painting especially after all the Renaissance art we saw from the 1400 and 1500's which is cool, but starts to feel a little repetitive.  Also, as I mentioned earlier about Dutch pronunciation, you can pronounce his name Van Hhokhh and people will think you are going to cough up some mucus instead of talk about impressionist paintings, so that's fun.

Toured the Anne Frank House - A really remarkable place that shows you exactly where Anne and the 7 others hid during World War II.  They still have the original bookcase that hid the secret apartment.

Solicited Prostitutes - Totally just kidding.  You can't take any pictures of them no matter what your intentions.  We did walk by a whole bunch, though.

I amsterdam

So we may have done the Netherlands a little backwards. Having started with Rotterdam, Delft, and Den Haag, we saw the charm of the  canals, bicycles, and gables early on. Thus once in Amsterdam, it felt like much of the same, but overcrowded and on steroids. Nonetheless we made excellent use of our time in the city, and the unseasonably warm, excellent weather.

 A study of Dutch waterfowl in Vondel park:

Quick  Internet research  tells me this may be a Coot

This may be  a Eurasia blackbird

This is definitely a grey heron

Cribbage in the park

The requisite gable photo. Notes of interest picked up from the canal tour: The hooks at the top are for a pulley system to help store goods during high water or flooding, the buildings are actually built leaning toward the canal to better facilitate the aforementioned hoisting, straight edged gables symbolized warehouses.

Best view in the city, from the roof terrace of the library.

Pilgrims in Rotterdam?

Unknown to me, the pilgrims actually set sail from Rotterdam, before heading to England and the attempting their transatlantic voyage. To memorialize this fact, this plaque is on the external wall of a church where they worshiped. Nearby is a local brewery capitalizing on the history. This plaque is like the counter point to Plymouth rock, great historical significance,  minor sized memorial.

Dude, where's my postcard?

They're on their way to you! 20 postcards have been put into mailboxes around Holland over the past 10 days. Give it about a week and you should find a delight in your mailbox. If you find after this time has passed, that you have not received one, there are 3 potential reasons:
1. The international snail mail monster (cousin of the dryer sock monster) ate it.
2. We haven't found the postcard that's right for you just yet
3. You didn't send us your most updated address

You have no ability to control the first 2, but that last one is well within your power. Send us a beloved email update from home with your mailing address in the signature, and we'll send you a post card. Because you know the only reason we're on this trip is to be immortalized on your fridge, right?

Ghent

All Ghent postcards are of this "three towers" view. Taken from just below the St. Michael's bridge.

Ghent Noses:  An odd jelly candy, sort of like a jelly bean, all natural, flavored with  cherry, raspberry and others. Only available in Ghent. No, they're not good enough for us to send them to you.

Named for the largest bell in the belfry, 11 percent by volume. The bar limits you to 3.

Many in Belgium joke about every beer having its own unique glass. Then many joke that that couldn't be possible,  and even so, would be wholly unecessary. During these jokes Jim and I hide and snicker in the corner. You know how we are about glassware.

Surprise! There's a castle around the corner from your hostel.

Alas.....

Only available in Ghent, mustard so spicy it will melt your face, but it is delicious. They jar it fresh from the barrel for you.

Dragon! So this dragon was originally owned by Bruges, who got it off a Viking ship in the way back. Bruges gave it to Ghent to stay friends. Hence the dragon benches in Bruges, and this guy here in the bell tower of Ghent. His newer replica is on the top spire.

Remember what we said about climbing towers? This is the view from the top of the belltower, looking down on St. Nicklaus church. 256 steps.

Some of which were on a tiny one way straight away. I hope you're not claustrophobic. 

Waiting for the bus that would never come....

As far as travel snafus,  this one is pretty mild, but maybe worth sharing. Jim and I booked a Megabus from Ghent back to Rotterdam to save a little money. Like in the states, Megabus does not pick up at the central terminal, so we needed to catch a  city bus to an out of the way locale. The bus never came, but we left time for our contingency plan, a tram and 45  min walk to our destination, full packs I tow. While not the most pleasant walk (industrial zone, barbed wire, major highways to cross) , we safely made it to the Megabus pickup site, Hotel Campenile,  to find 5 Megabus drivers enjoying pints at the bar,  because our bus was going to be 3 hours late. While disheartening, the hotel had a restaurant and free wifi, which we made the most of until the bus did indeed arrive, 3 hrs late.

More Bruges

More Bruges

This brewery tour

Takes you to the top of their building, with a great, if not misty, view of the city.

As Jim mentioned we did climb the tower and it's 366 steps, but before we did that, we did over 200 steps at this brewery, and of course, had multiple beers. If you're not climbing steps and drinking beer, you're not doing Europe right. 

Stunning city view from the top of the belfry. 

Bruges is a city whose original footprint was surrounded by a ringed canal. To enter the city, you could pass through one of several gates covering the cardinal directions. Jim and I rented bikes and did the ring, passing by each gate. Here's the last one. By the way, cobblestone plus pretty poor quality rental bike equals sore butt for several days.

Bolognese flavored potato chips

Dragon bench. More on why this is interesting to follow in a subsequent Ghent post.

Hostel life, drink beer, play cribbage, access wifi to plan for tomorrow

Ohh, and this is Belgium, so there was chocolate, but we ate it all.