HandS Travel

Hey, so we are slowly working on getting our Easter blogs up, and then we will tackle our trip to Ireland.  But just wanted to remind you not to forget about our map that shows everywhere we have been, as well as linking to the blog posts for a given location.  Check out the map link to the left, or click here!

We haven’t traveled since April since I had exams in June and was frantically studying for them during the latter part of April and all of May. I did have a trip to NE for a friend’s wedding on June 5 but it was a quick trip. So, now we are headed to Amsterdam for the 4th of July. We decided it was best not to celebrate independence from the country we declared independence from in that country. We’re excited to tour the Red Light District, a floating flower market, a few art museums, and much more. Back to studying for a little while…

Day 1
So we arrived in Amsterdam on Wednesday with our flight on-time from Birmingham, UK. We had a smooth, quick flight of only about 50 minutes. Henry suggested we take a taxi, but with me being the public transportation/renewable energy girl, I suggested we take the train since I heard it was fast and cheap. So we bought tickets from the ticket counter at the airport to get to the Central Station in the city. The clerk told us to go to platform 3 and that the next train left in 1 min. So, we sprinted, hopped on the train and 5 min later, a ticket collector on the train informed us we were going the wrong direction and on top of that, we were sitting in 1st instead of 2nd class. No wonder the train was so nice! So, we hopped off on the next stop, got on another train, off to change trains again, and finally got on the right one. Nonetheless, we arrived at our hotel with no more troubles.

We were in awe at how many bikes there are in Amsterdam. We saw canal boats just for bikes, a parking ramp just for bikes, and bikes parked anywhere you can imagine. No one wears a helmet and there are designated lanes for them on the roads. But, you can also easily run into many of them on the sidewalks since they only sometimes have to stop for traffic lights. A local told us that they have the right-of-way. We also read that each family in the Netherlands owns 4 bikes.

We decided to do what we always do and walk around a majority of the city first. Amsterdam has “grown” in the last 2 centuries since there used to be a wall where the sea met the land/city which was about 1 mile inland from where the city now is. Much of it used to be sea but it was built up with wood & soil, with canals running through. There are canals running around the city center in concentric circles, with others running perpendicular to these circles. Thanks to a friend, we had a good map and guide book in hand, helping us locate sights and not get lost.

We first walked to the street called Damrak and hit up our first museum, the Sex Museum. This is what Amsterdam is known for, its related Red Light District which we would visit later that night and its legal prostitution. So, what better way to start our trip but than by getting a history of this occupation from Roman times and different parts of the world – India, Africa, and Asia. Next, we walked by Dam Square (pronounced Dahm) but I always say Dam. Here, there is a monument for peace, built after WWII after the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. It had a depiction of Christ on the cross on one side of it. Also at this plaza area is the Royal Palace but we couldn’t see it because 3 sides of it were under renovation. As we walked further, the neighborhood became quieter than the main street we were just on. We saw some interesting-looking people and animals. Random cats running around, a white dog with a red tail, a moped with grass growing on it, and some dreadlocks. We also walked pass “coffee shops” which don’t actually serve coffee but instead, marijuana. We avoided these places.

The next stop was Spui Square where we saw a male marching band playing in front of a bar. Then, we saw two women come out of a small passageway and decided that must be the entrance of the Begijnhof we were looking for. This is a cute enclosed grassy area with rowhouses surrounding it with English and Catholic Churches inside. Women live here but aren’t exactly nuns but have dedicated their lives to God and have lived here since 1346. They are called Beguines. The last one died in 1971 but they still provide subsidized housing for about 100 women.

Our last stop was the Flower Market which is actually floating on yet another canal. You can buy tulip and other bulbs, seeds, flower pots, tourist items, dried flowers, etc. There were not one but about 20 of these little stores. By this time we were getting hungry and heard of the delicious and cheap french fries sold at little storefronts. We headed to the one by our hotel and got 2 smalls which were still too much for me to eat. The Dutch eat them with mayo although Henry got cheese sauce as well. Delicious! We then rested our feet before probably our most interesting night out ever.

Red Light District – please note that this blog post is not rated R but probably PG-13
So we had pictures in our minds of what we thought the Red Light District might be like, but I think we both were a little surprised by certain things. The area is fairly large, not just a few streets but they are scattered throughout many alleyways, larger streets, and along canals. Henry was surprised when I pointed out that for each “room” there actually is a red light and a red curtain. Tourists and tour groups and groups of guys, with a few police, were walking around between 9-10:30 pm when we were there. Girls in underwear and bras or 2-piece swimming suits are standing in each window. We saw a few guys negotiating prices with the women and saw one come out of a room in a basement, still dressing himself. We got pretty grossed out seeing the girls and women (some of them were much older) and imaging their lives. Apparently most of them are self-employed and rent rooms on their own time. They also have a union and have received grants from the Netherlands government for various things. The government bought a few of the “storefronts” and is converting them into art exhibits and has tried to keep this trade in the Red Light District since prostitution is probably present in other areas of Amsterdam as well.

We also passed by a daycare where some of the children go during the day or night, a church right in the middle of the District, people of all different ethnicities, and many bars nearby, outside which you could smell heavy marijuana smoke seeping out. We wondered where the blue lights were that we read about in the travel book (which meant transvestites) and when we were leaving, we saw a narrow street with about 3 windows of them. By this time, our feet were hurting from so much walking and as Henry said, my disgusted face described it all so we headed back to the hotel.

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Day 2 – Flower Market and Cheese
So the Netherlands are known for their flowers and cheese. On my run, I (Sheila) went to one of the main cheese stores near the flower market in a cute row house with red shutters. The employees spoke good English and let me try up to 8 different kinds. I ended up buying a round block, about 3 inches high by 4 inches in diameter. It’s called Baby Gouda and apparently tastes very different from Gouda in the US, sort of similar to a light cheddar with a creamy taste. I also bought some things for wedding gifts at the market and continued my run along a busy shopping street, trying not to get lost among all the canals and trying not to get hit by bikes, vehicles, mopeds, and trams. Unfortunately, as I was coming up upon Vondel Park, I witnessed an accident. This 3-way intersection had all forms of transportation you can imagine going through them but no real pedestrian walkways. I saw a girl on a bike who had gotten hit by the front of a van. All traffic stopped and two ambulances came to the scene right away. She seemed unconscious.

Since there were many people stuck in the intersection, I finally got through and continued along my run, through the park and then to the Museum Quarter where the Rijiksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum are located, both art and history museums. There was also a small reflecting pool like the one in DC and the US Embassy was also nearby. Later that night we ate at a small cafe. It was pretty warm inside with no air conditioning but the food was good. We had some cheese fondue, pasta, and bread. We finally headed “home” at 11 pm when it was still not 100% dark yet, with the sun setting only within the past hour.

Day 3 – Friday
I did some reading for my dissertation and then went out for another run, this time along the same canal and then to the Waterlooplein area to the flea market. I didn’t buy anything but there were purses, hippie clothes, Amsterdam tourist items, Holland soccer shirts, hats, and much more. I ended up getting a little sunburn on my shoulders since I had “laid out” on a park bench watching tourist boats navigate the canals. The funniest part was seeing a 60 ft. boat come through one canal, turn around with only a few inches to go from hitting two walls, and push a couple and a kid in a paddle boat back about 20 ft. because the paddle boaters couldn’t move out of the way fast enough!

In the evening, we watched the Netherlands play Brazil in the quarter-final World Cup soccer game. They won and the whole town went crazy. Since the game was at 4 pm and they had started drinking earlier, everyone was loud, clapping, honking horns, dancing in the streets, playing loud music, etc. Over ½ of all people in the city were wearing orange Holland (another name for the Netherlands) gear and I even saw one guy with Elmo dressed in orange on the front of his bicycle. Since it was so crazy, we decided to go to the Van Gogh Museum which was about a 2 mile walk away from our hotel. It is one of the 2 most popular art museums in Amsterdam so we wanted to go at night when it would be less busy. We first walked through Vondelpark, similar to Central Park but more crowded. There were people with small, portable grills, bbqing hot dogs and sausages everywhere.

The Van Gogh Museum was really nice and not too overwhelming. He grew up in the Netherlands and worked in France and elsewhere in Europe. When he was younger, he was fired while working for a store selling art. He had no training as an artist but began to draw and now his works are some of the best in the world. Neither Henry or I are big into art but we liked his paintings. Most were of the outdoors, specifically wheat fields, quaint houses in small towns, fields, farmers, haystacks, sheep, and also some still shots of beautiful vases and flowers. There were also some works by other artists who based their art off his. Van Gogh admitted himself to a mental institution, then released himself, but later, committed suicide thinking he was a failure. Some of his paintings reflected his pain, like one of his last which pictured a wheat field with black crows flying above.

As we came to the third floor of the museum and looked over the green grassy area between museums, we couldn’t believe our eyes! A woman was commenting to an employee about all the trash lying around. He said that lots of fans were watching the soccer game there earlier on the portable big screen. It was the most trash we have ever seen! There were orange signs, orange balloon hats, cigarette buts, beer cans, chip bags, just about anything you can imagine, lying on the ground, spread over an area larger than a football field. Henry took pictures of three men walking around using leaf blowers to put the trash into lines so a tractor with a suction auger & a wagon attached. They were making progress but still had a long way to go. Henry then wanted to check out the twenty or so colorful public urinals nearby. They looked new but smelled pretty bad. Our last stop here was checking out the “I am Amsterdam” letters, like the o’s in Omaha. They were placed by a reflecting pool in front of the other art museum, the Rijiksmuseum which we didn’t visit.

As we walked back to our hotel, we were amazed at how crazy the people were on the streets. They were dancing and shouting to each other in Dutch. We even saw a drunk guy on a moped, with a beer in one hand. He almost ran over us. People were not only partying in the streets, but also on the canal boats. We decided to sit, rest our legs, and people-watch near a canal bend that went towards the Red Light District. We saw people standing on the front, back, and on top of house boats. We saw one guy moon another boat full of older women. One Asian guy tried to get my attention with a strange-looking hot pepper thing. Another guy asked us if we wanted to hop on. We thought about it but it was just too crazy! People were making out, practically flashing other boats, stealing beer from other boats, cutting in front of each other, and more. It was pretty comical. Apparently the speed limit is 4 mph on the canals and each boat must have lights on all sides.

Our last stop was again the Red Light District. We wanted to see the difference from a Wed. night to a Fri. night. Henry commented there a much better caliber of women out and many more out as well. We saw a young boy, maybe 17 years old, get coaxed into a room with a woman with a bunch of older people watching, maybe his aunts and uncles?!? We weren’t really sure. We also saw an older guy in business clothes walking with a younger Asian woman up to a room but we weren’t sure what they were negotiating. After the next World Cup game ended, we got out of the area. There were just too many people around and the crowd was a little sketchier than night. On our way out past the church, we saw an older guy walk into a girl’s room. It looked like he had been there before and knew where to go.

Day 4 – Saturday
On Saturday, we slept in and started out by visiting a Catholic Church which was turned into a museu, called Amstelkring. It is located on the 3rd and 4th floors of three row houses near the Red Light District. It served as a secret place of worship between the 1700s and 1900s when Catholicism was banned from being practiced in the Netherlands. It was being renovated so we couldn’t see the altar in its original form, but could imagine what it used to look like. It was a small church but had a small sacristy, holy water font, etc. On the first 2 floors were quarters where the family lived who built the church and after it became a museum, living quarters for the museum caretaker. Since 1800′s, Catholics have worshipped at St. Nicholas Church and they are now allowed to openly practice their faith. We visited this church which wasn’t far away. It was beautiful inside with black pillars, detailed paintings of the stations of the cross, and large baptismal font. Since mass was starting when we walked in, we stayed for it even though we couldn’t understand what they were saying. The order was the same though so we could understand what was going on. The kneelers were wooden and didn’t fold up but didn’t hurt my knees too bad.

Our next stop was the Neuimarket, the New Market, which was mainly a farmers market. We came back later after our diamond tour at Gasson Diamonds and got the cheese called Brie and a baguette. During the Diamond tour, we saw a technician polishing a diamond, sat a foot away from diamonds ranging in price from 200 to 98,000 Euros! Henry already knew about the sizes, cuts, and quality measures when he bought my ring, but I learned about the differences and admired my gorgeous ring once again. Next, we walked to the Prostitution Information Center. We read that you can ask questions and obtain booklets about prostitution in Amsterdam. We were too afraid to ask questions but learned that each “service” costs about 35-50 Euros, that any woman can refuse service, that bouncers and security officers are always a button-push away, and they can earn from 500-2000 Euros each day. Some are forced into prostitution while others choose the profession for quick and large incomes. Taxing prostitution as income tax is required by law but hard to enforce. We bought a few postcards and carried along to the library. It was built in 2007 and was the nicest one we’ve ever seen. It was on an inlet of ground near the ferry terminal and Central Train Station. We took escalators up to the 7th floor to the terrace for a beautiful view of the city. Henry got some great pictures of computer stations on comfy chairs, round bookshelves and DVD holders, the architecture, “fresh look”, and more comfy red chairs on the 1st floor/kid’s section. They even had toys for kids and a climbing area. I got up and picked up a book quickly just to see if they had any in English or other languages. After a minute, I found a book with title with some English in it – “For Boys Only.” I opened it up and found pictures of an 11 year old boy “talking” about sex and terms that truly shouldn’t have been in the kids section. Again, we couldn’t believe it but I guess they believe in a free and in-depth education on all levels for all people. No wonder we think of Europe as liberal.

Our last destination on the trip was the Anne Frank House, a museum of the house where her family and other Jews went into hiding during WWII when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. They lived in the upstairs of their jam business, HISTORY HERE ******** for 2-3 years during the war, hoping to wait it out. Anne and her sister and parents weren’t allowed to go outside or make any noise since the workers downstairs didn’t know there were people living upstairs. Another family would sneak food to them and they couldn’t flush the toilet all day. Anne wrote about their days in hiding and rewrote most of her diary in essay/book form when she heard on the radio that the Netherlands eventually wanted to publish stories of the Jews. Unfortunately, someone (still unknown) leaked their hiding place behind a bookcase in a living room and they were sent to ****** NAME HERE Bergen concentration camp. Anne lived until only 2 days before the camp was liberated by US troops when she died from an illness. Her sister and mother also died. Her father, Otto, returned to Amsterdam where his friend returned Anne’s diary to Otto. Her diary had fallen on the floor when SS troops took them for deportation from their house in Amsterdam. Otto pushed for it to be published and was two years later. Now available in 60 different languages, the book is used in school history classes and is an important reminder why the world should combat discrimination. The museum was well-organized, had all exhibits in English and Dutch, and had several quotes from her diary on the walls.

Day 5 – Never again airport extravaganza
Wow, so when we arrived at the Amsterdam Schipol Airport we had a relatively smooth walk from the gate to the ticket counter and our train. But, on the way out, we didn’t expect what was coming. Nothing horrible happened but we now understand why someone trying to get to the US to commit an act of terrorism on an airplane would fly through Amsterdam. We first got to the airport, walked through a giant queue line longer than those at London’s Heathrow Airport we imagine, checked in at a kiosk, left our bag off, and went through customs with our passport and boarding passes. But, then we were free to roam the airport, go to the shopping area, get food, go to the bathroom, go to the gates, everything, WITHOUT, I REPEAT WITHOUT!, going through security of any kind! We couldn’t believe it! We found our gate and saw that passengers didn’t go through security until they get to their gate. At Heathrow we have to go through security twice, sometimes three times, once when you first check in and two or three times near and at the gate. But here, you could do almost anything until the very seating area at the gate. The problem, though, is that the gate areas don’t open until about an hour before the flight so you are stuck going through narrow, long, and busy lines (not one but two!) to even get a McChicken at McDonalds. Then, we finally went through security at the gate, waiting in a giant line with crazy Spanish teenagers all around. Then, there were about ½ the number of seats for people at the gate and you are stuck there and can’t leave to go to the restroom or anything. Then, after two more passport checks and going through yet another holding area but not security, you get to board the plane.
We just couldn’t believe that you didn’t go through an initial security check to get into the airport. Yes, it’s true that you can’t bring any liquids on the plane since you go through security at the gate, but still, this seemed strange to us and something we hadn’t seen at any other airport and we seem to think we’ve flown a lot. We decided we wouldn’t be going back through that airport ever again and that the queuing system may have been worse than what we experienced at Heathrow in December. Oh Europe… Oh, and, as Henry just reminded me…to make matters better, I was chosen to get felt up by the TSA-equivalent employee after walking through the metal detector. She literally massaged my boobs. Awesome. Oh Europe…

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It was the PERFECT day for half a Connemarathon. We got up early to eat some more carbs and headed to the bus pick-up site at the cathedral. Henry came along with a spectator bus ticket, hoping to get on a bus with me but since it was only 8 am and our race didn’t start until noon, he had a lot of waiting to do. His ticket was only good from the towns of Oughterard or Clifden to the race finish at Maam Cross and we were in Galway but our race buses were thankfully going through Oughterard. Thankfully, the organizers let him get on the same bus as me so we headed out along the narrow, windy road to Oughterard where Henry would have to kill an hour and a half’s time until he got on the spectator bus to Maam Cross. I continued on another 40 minutes or so to the half marathon race start. The whole ride there was beautiful, with tall “hills” with sheep grazing on them, a small stream running along the road, stone fencing, and a large lake at the race start. There was virtually nothing in the town but beautiful views, a couple houses, porta-potties, a few trucks to transport our plastic bags to the race finish, and lots of people.

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Since we arrived at about 10 am at the race start in a little town called Leenane and then had to wait 2 hours, I made a friend. She is another graduate student studying immunology and global health in Ireland. She is originally from Atlanta. We hung out until the beginning of the race and once it started, it was about 70 degrees and sunny! I wasn’t too sure where to stand at the start line because the road was narrow and there were so many people you couldn’t really move around (total of 3000 participants in the whole race). I decided to stand by what I thought was a racing group with matching blue t-shirts on. Later on, Henry informed me that they were a military group. That made sense because I ended up running with them most of the way.

When they shot the gun, I soon found out that I should have started up farther as I had to cut through slow person after slow person. I was running on the side of the road just trying to get around people. And, we were going up a hill but not as long and never-ending as another waiting for me! After getting out of the mob and into a comfortable running pace, I checked my Ipod to see how fast I was going. I was running about 8:15 minute miles when I usually run 8:30. I thought I should slow down as my side started to hurt but kept running through it. Running through windy roads and up and down small hills, I became relaxed and thought, “Wow! This isn’t too bad!”

We came to the first water station at 3/13 miles and I was still doing okay. A few emergency vehicles and bikes passed us from time to time. I then came to a straight-away and a guy came up beside me and asked me where I was from and I said the US, Nebraska. But, before I could answer I had to say “what?” at least 4 times because his Irish accent was more than hard to understand, plus we were both short of breath. He said, “Oh, I thought your shirt looked like it was from Ireland!” Nope, it’s a NE State Track t-shirt, dude. I asked him if he had run a ½ marathon before and he said no. I indicated that I ran one before with my sister. Then he started to tell me how this dry, desolate, hilly area in western Ireland used to be the main source of potatoes for the island but around 1850 a disease took over the crop which resulted in mass starvation and 20-25% of the population left and emigrated. By this time, I just wanted to run and he was slowing me down so I tried to say nicely “see ya later!” and continued on.

Unlike most races, this run had virtually no spectators along the whole race, only a few at the start and another few at the town of Maam West. We also weren’t allowed to listen to our Ipods for safety reasons although we saw a few with them on. Around this town, I saw one of the military members stop along the side of the road a minute later, puking! Her fellow soldiers kept telling her to keep up but finally left her and friend. Before the next water station, I decided I would take on of my energy gels to give me boost. I was still averaging about 8:20 miles and thought to just keep trucking. I kept hearing people talking about the horrible hill close to the end, almost 2 miles long. I hadn’t trained on many hills so this would be a challenge.

As I turned a corner running slightly downhill, I see part of THE hill to my left around mile 9/13, a never-ending hill. Problem was that I couldn’t see the end of it. I took a little of my second energy gel, thinking I would need it. I was also sweating pretty good by this time, rolling up my t-shirt sleeves. As the incline started to kick my butt, another guy catches up to me and I must have been coughing or something because he asked me if I was okay and I said yes but that this hill was going to suck. We ran up it together for awhile and then he left me in the dust.

I knew that I would have to stop and walk at some point but kept trying to run farther until I couldn’t anymore. I noticed an ambulance about 200 meters in front of me and decided to run as far as I could toward it and then walk next to it, thinking that if I collapse, I won’t have far to crawl! I stopped and walked for about 50 meters when two girls asked me if I was okay and needed water. I sort of laughed and said no. They then told me that the top of the hill was there, as they pointed, and that it was all downhill from there. Yipee! The good news propelled my body into a run once again, feeling much better as I reached the top and coasted down.

By this time, I knew I would finish in less than two hours and could see another huge lake to my left and the small town where we would finish. What I would not be able to see is the actual finish line. My Ipod told me I had about .5 miles left, so I tried to speed it up but soon found out at 13.3 miles that I still had another 200 meters or so and was dying. About 100 meters away, I heard Henry calling out my name! I ran a few steps to my right trying to give him a high five but he told me to keep running as there were people behind me. I immediately got a boost and tried to keep coasting until the end. I finally hit the finish line, seeing 1:54.44 as I passed, and right away wanted to know where the water was, asking everyone! They kept saying, up there, up there. Henry found me and we found water and those were the only two things I wanted!

He gave me a hug and told me about his bus ride and how he had walked the two miles to the top of THE hill while waiting for the race to finish. He also saw the male marathon winner who set a race record passing over the hill many minutes before. He had taken pictures of the scenery, other runners, and even got a few of me. We grabbed my medal, t-shirt, some food and water and hopped on the next bus back to Galway. I felt a little sick but overall, was really pleased with my time and just relaxing with Henry! I also looked forward to the Guinness beer I would have that evening and the amazing Irish music we would hear at the bar. What a fabulous trip!

In April, Henry and I traveled from London’s Luton Airport directly to Galway, Ireland for the great occasion of running my second half marathon. Since the marathon is held in Connemara National Park near Galway, it is called the Connemarathon. Thanks to Henry’s superb Irish accent that he picked up, we now say Con-e-mair-e-chon at least 3 times each day, with different variations. He is much better at it than I am.

So on Friday, after hopping several trains to get to the airport in London and Henry surviving a stressed bladder from having a few too many Stella beers on the way, we arrived early to check in for our flight. We first walked around the whole airport (about 15 check-in counters long) trying to find where to check-in. But, apparently since it was such a small airline, we had to wait another 1/2 hour to get a desk to check-in at. Later, standing as #1 and #2 in line, we started talking with the gentleman behind us. He looked like a runner and we asked him if he was going to Galway for the marathon. He said yes, but surprisingly not just for 26 miles, but for the ultra-marathon which is 39 miles! Yes, 39 miles! Insane…He also told us a story that he had been trying to get into the lottery for the New York City marathon and had entered himself, his girlfriend, and her father for 2 years now and they have both gotten in but he hasn’t! Some of these people are crazy and way too motivated. Once we arrived in Galway, the airport was even smaller; it looked like a big warehouse but the people were very friendly and smiled more so we felt at home. We waited for quite awhile for a taxi but nonetheless got a good night’s sleep.

The plan for Sat. was to explore the town of Galway (or city to be exact since it is the 5th-largest and fastest-growing in Ireland). We did just that and a little more. We first walked through town center and towards the Spanish Arch and the bay since it is on the western coast of Ireland. The Spanish Arch was built around 1519 during the mayoralty of Wylliam Martin and also during the time of Christopher Columbus, who is known to have visited Galway, possibly stopping off on a voyage to Iceland or the Faroe Islands. We were amazed at the quaint, small winding streets running through the town center. There were pubs with people drinking already at 11 am, jewelers which sold the Claddaugh Ring which is native to Galway, cafes, and a market going on that we later came back to. After walking closer to the bay, we stopped at an extremely fast-flowing stretch of river flowing through Galway to the Atlantic Ocean. I had read about this ahead of time or would have been scared out of my wits at how fast the water was moving! The River Corrib is a small, 4-mile stretch of water from Lake Corrib and is one of the fastest-flowing in Europe. We then walked along the harbour a little to check out expensive fishing boats and 2 large ships, one of which we assumed was an exploration ship and the other an oil tanker. We then walked back up the river to the Galway Cathedral where I would return the next morning to hop a bus to the half Connemarathon start! This cathedral was probably the newest one we’ve ever been in since it was built in 1965 but it was surprisingly beautiful inside. You’ll have to check out Henry’s pictures. (see tomorrows post, Half a Connemarathon!

Next, we trekked back to the city center even though, again, it felt more like a friendly town to us. It was bustling with people on that Sat. We both decided we needed to check out the market, where we saw amazing iron sculptures, sand pictures, bought a gift for a friend’s wedding this summer, and ate delicious crepes! Then we visited St. Nicholas’ Church but not for long because there was a baptism going on when we walked in. The church was finished in 1320 during Medieval Times! The baptismal font is also very old – over 400 years in fact!

We finished off our day by people watching in Eyre Square and having a dinner at the Marriott hotel. I tried to ‘carb load’ for my race the next morning by eating a lot of pasta and bread.

Our final stop on our trip was in Ghent, Belgium.  We had heard about Brussells not being all its cracked up to be, and that Brugges is cool, but very busy, so we chose neither, settling on Ghent.  Boy were we happy with our choice when we got to our hotel and swore we were driving through a fairy tale…

This town is one of the most beautiful cities we have ever been to, rivaling Prague from last year.  Ghent is a medieval town that used to be primararily a manufacturer of textiles.  We were not sure what language was spoke, but the nice man at our hotel said Flemish/Flanders (Ghent being in the Flanders area).  After a quick check in we decided to take a walk around…We stepped out of our hotel and we were greeted by a georgeous scene of fantastic buildings reflecting on a perfectly still canal.  This being Easter weekend, there was barely anyone there, it was amazing!  We decided to take a walk-about and see on the pretty sites.  We were just flabbergasted the entire time.  Although there was quite a bit of construction going on in the off season, it was still, just amazing!!!

The most notable landmarks in the town were the three medieval towers overlooking the town. The largest of which was Saint Bavo Cathedral, consecrated in 942.  I’d say it was large and very brick if I had to describe it.  On the inside were some unique decorations, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb & 22 altars & friezes near the altar.  The next tower was the Belfry of Ghent, a tower that has been used primarily as a bell tower for time keeping, but also as a fortified watchtower.  It has stood here since 1380.  The next day we would make our way to the top (all stairs) to see the inner workings of the clock and see some sky high views.  The last tower belongs to Saint Nicholas’ Church. This church was started in the early 1200′s and was quite nice, as most churches are, not much of note.  That was our main walking tour for the first night.  We returned back to the hotel and people watched along the river front for a while.

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The next day we went for a boat ride on the Leie river, figuring that would be the best way to see some of the many sites in the canal town.  It was a fun ride with a good tour guide, we saw a few places we wanted to walk back to for a better look.  We went past the Castle of the Counts, Foklore Museum, old Post Office, St. Michael’s Church and Bridge, tour guide could be in 4 languages but ours was given in 3 (German, English, Flemish), new bridge built in 2000 with 4 statues.

All in all it was a fun day, some further walking put us past one of the cutest little toy stores we’ve ever seen, some great people watching (our favorite was a little boy all dressed up like a preppy boy and a number on his tie (42)).  For food we ate at an Irish Pub and of course ate many Belgium Waffles…The waffles were like heaven!!!!  They had granualted sugar in the batter and it made for a great texture and taste.  We can hardly wait to eat them again.

After leaving Kuekenhof in the afternoon we had to make our way to yet another country, Belgium.  Our destination was Ghent.  Not too much happened on the drive, but here are a few of the hi-lites and of course some pictures.

• Decided to take the scenic route out one of the Netherlands peninsulas.
• Saw many windfarms and countryside.
• Huge contrast with industry behind windfarms (see some of our pics)
• Giant Easter bunnies (Given this was Easter Sunday) and chickens!!!
• Fantastic engineering with tons of bridges and canals, we were amazed at the newness of the Architecture, e.g. bridges and everything.
• Henry jumping out of the running and moving car to take pictures of the narrow road and pretty trees
• Giant tunnel, 6600m.
• Cargill plant
• Saw carrot fields

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Our next destination was the Keukenhof Gardens near Amsterdam in The Netherlands.  I once again got to experience the fantastic German autobahn.  There was one stretch that was completely empty so we decided to try to max out my car’s speed.  We got up to 245 Km/hour or 152 MPH, it was awesome!!!  That’s the fastest Sheila’s ever been.  Anyways, we got out of Germany faster than the GPS thought we would, but anyways, we got to the Netherlands and were amazed at how flat and green it was compared to Germany.  There was once again loads of farmland and many different crops, many that even Ms. Farmer Girl Sheila didn’t recognize.  We made our way across the entire country in short time and drove on the outskirts of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, neither of which we actually went into, Amsterdam we would be returning to for a proper trip in just a couple months.

We arrived at Kuekenhof around 11ish and already there were many people there.  Keukenhof is Dutch for “kitchen garden” and is also known as the Garden of Europe.  Keukenhof is a complex of gardens and greenhouses, and when I say giant I mean GIANT, approximately 80 acres.  The Holland region of Europe (the Netherland coast) is known for growing tulips, and Keukenhof is no exception, there are an estimated 7 MILLION planted flower bulbs each year (including many tulips).  It was originally opened in 1949 for growers to exhibit their different flower hybrids, and it has now been the largest flower garden for over 50 years.  It is open each year from late March to mid May for the public to visit.  We were there a little bit early to see the full bloom, but there were still many beautiful flowers, words can not describe, so be sure to check out the pictures below.  We walked over much of the park and were just amazed at both the size and upkeep of the gardens.  There were also quite a few indoor exhibits, including a ton of different tulip hybrids in one greenhouse, to another with tons of different types of orchids.

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Sheila woke up this morning (Easter Morning) at about 3AM crying from the pain in her throat.  It had been sore before we left the UK, but we knew if we went to the doctor in the UK they would have said, “Give it a few days…”.  So we did and by this night it had gotten very bad, bad enough where Sheila wanted to go see a doctor.  Fortunately there was a hospital not far from our hotel, so we walked to the ER and got right in, given it was Easter Sunday at 3AM.  We saw a doctor who spoke a little English, but was much better with German and French.  She prescribed Sheila some antibiotics and told us about the emergency pharmacies were in the area.  Interesting note about the pharmacy…They don’t have 24 hour pharmacies, rather there are certain area pharmacies that are designated as “emergency pharmacies” for a given time period, where if you need a prescription out of hours, you call and the person who runs the pharmacy will open just for you.  All in all it was a pretty good experience, we actually saw a doctor, which is more than the UK can say (like when I had swine flu and temperature fluctuations of 10 degrees), and the ER didn’t look like a war zone…  It was relatively cheap as well, it was only 85EUR for the ER visit, and 30EUR for the prescriptions.

 After our experience in the countryside of Germany, we spent a day exploring Cologne Germany, where we were staying for most of the trip.  We started by just wandering about a wee bit.  The area we were staying (the river frontish and Cathedral) was much prettier than the rest of the city we had seen driving in and out.  This is not surprising given most of the city was destroyed during WWII, and was later rebuilt in the “modern” style of the 50′s, read block buildings and concrete…  See the picture to the right for the devastation that took place during WWII, noting the Cathedral still standing.

One of the few buildings that did survive WWII was the Cologne Cathedral, only being hit by one bomb during WWII.  It was an amazingly tall Cathedral, it’s construction took from 1248 to 1880, at which point in time it was the tallest structure in the world, until the completion of the Washington Monument in 1884.  Its size was just amazing!  However the inside of it was a little under-whelming compared to the decorations of other Cathedrals we had been to throughout Austria and Prague.  The stain glass inside was pretty gorgeous though.  As a side note, the Cologne Cathedral is also on the World Heritage Centre list of World Heritage Sites.

After that we went over to the Römisch-Germanisches Museum (Roman Germanic Museum).  We had no idea there was so much Roman History throughout Germany.  This museum mainly focused on the history of the Roman Settlement that was on the site of Cologne in the 3rd Century.  The fact that a settlement was here was actually discovered whilst building a air-raid shelter in 1941 during WWII.  While digging they stumbled upon a 3rd century villa, unearthing a beautiful mosaic floor and countless other artefacts.  Obviously this wasn’t really studied much until after the war, opening the museum in 1974.  Another interesting note is that the museum houses the largest collection of locally produced glass from the Roman Period.

Continuing our history lesson for the day we wandered through town center to the old Gestapo Prison, also presently a museum.  It is known as NS Dokumentationszentrum – Gestapo Prison, and is amazingly hard to find on the internet, the only information we could really find was on tripadvisor.com and small website.  Moving on however, the museum was really interesting.  The building is preserved in its original state, in the basement the original Gestapo prison from WWII, and upstairs a museum about WWII.  It was neat for Sheila and I to see a German perspective of WWII, something we had never seen.  The basement part was especially sobering, there was the original writings on the walls of prisoners describing their experiences.  In some of the 6×10 foot cells, the Gestapo used to keep upwards of 30 people, absolutely disturbing.  Some of the translations of the prisoners writings describes how they would scream out to passerbys on the streets above, and no one would help.

Moving on from there we decided to see some more of the fun parts of the city.  We went down the main strip of shops, and there were TONS of people out.  There were many bakeries, of course we stopped for Apfel-Streudel (Apple), on our way to the LEGO store.  We decided we should probably eat as our next destination was the Lindt Chocolate Museum, and we didn’t want to be salivating throughout the whole thing, so why not fill up our bellies with beer .  We stopped at Fruh Kolsch, which if you remember from our first Cologne post serves the Kolsch beer.  We grabbed a quick bite, both opting for soup and some bread.  Sheila had a Goulasch soup and I opted for some sort of potato soup, both were delicious and hit the spot perfectly.  We flushed it down with some beer of course, again in small little .2L glasses.

We then mosied down by the river front to the Imhoff-Schokoladenmuseum (Chocolate Museum).  The museum is privately owned, however it partners with Lindt Chocolate to incorporate a display of a mini working chocolate production line, arguably the best part of the museum.  The museum starts with a small display of where exactly chocolate comes from, e.g. cocoa beans, to finished chocolate.  At the end of this small exhibit there is the actual factory line.  It starts with the crushing of the beans, then mixing with other ingredients to make the actual chocolate and then eventually putting it into moulds to form chocolate bars, rabbits, eggs, whatever you hearts desire.  See the photo album below for more pictures of the process.  This little production line was ten times better than the “factory” tour at Hershey in Hershey, PA.  The Hershey one didn’t even show you a real factory, except it did make the entire valley where the plant is smell like delicious sweet chocolate….mmmm…..

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After getting our free sample we decided to go out and wander along the banks of the Rhine River a little bit.  The river front has some beautiful parks and façades along it.  While taking a quick break in a park we saw the most awesome thing ever!!!  It was a 12 person bike, but not just a bike, it was a bar with wheels and 12 bar stools around it with pedals.  So basically you sit around, pedal, and drink…and the bartender on this particular bike was none other than ELVIS!!!  Yes, Elvis, and this was not Las Vegas, the usual location for Elvis sightings.  We wanted to take note of what this thing was and there was the website for it on the side: http://www.bierbike.de/.  Anyways, after checking that out we decided to head home for a quick nap as Sheila was still not feeling 100% (Had a little throat sickness, something I had a few weeks before).

After a brief nap we headed out to eat, now that I think about it, many of our trip blogs are about us eating… Oh well, we both love food!!!  This evening we decided to dine at yet another place Sheila randomly found on the internet, Peters Brauhaus, another brewery that served Kolsch Beer.  This place was like many of the other Brauhaus’ we had been too, a great open atmosphere with many joyous (drunk) people about.  We had another fantastic meal (we really, really love the food in mainland Europe, not so much in the UK).  Sheila had a giant pork sausage and some cabbage, while I had potatoes and Wienerschnitzel, and of course some more beer!  We were amazed at how many decorations these places had for Easter.  See some of our pictures for some examples, but they basically had Easter trees (little trees with Easter eggs), Easter Eggs hanging from the chandelier.  We had some nice (drunk) people take our picture while we were eating.  I think they were just hungry.  We had a super nice waiter that thought we were totally British (eeekkk, we took a little offence, but accepted it), he spoke amazing English and explained that England was his second home as his parents currently lived near Oxford.  I then bought some of the Kolsch beer from the bar, mainly because I liked the little bottles they came in.  After finishing up dinner we decided to head home for an early night, or so we thought….more later.

After surviving the Nurburgring, we continued to drive through the German countryside to have dinner that evening at an old friend of Sheila’s that she hasn’t seen in about 10 years. We were lucky to be close to the Rhine so Sheila suggested we drive towards the river, by a recommendation from a friend in the UK and by looking at some beautiful pictures she remembered from a geography textbook in high school. She had also googled a few wineries but since it was Good Friday, barely anything was open. Henry was even unsuccessful at finding an ATM, or as the British would say, a cash machine or hole-in-the-wall. The one winery we tried to locate brought us to someone’s house so we ended up finding a bottle for dinner at a gas station later on. This area was amazing beautiful, with green rolling hills and cute towns. We saw many orchards and wineyards, with even a few greenhouses with vegetables growing. We couldn’t quite figure out what some of the wine-like looking plants were but later found out that they are hops, grown for the quality and essential German beer industry. Rapeseed is also grown there to make biodiesel. After awhile, Henry decided to reroute (or “recalcatate” in the British voice) the GPS to take us on a more scenic route to our destination. After about 10 minutes, we end up at the bottom of a steep hill after taking crazy sharp turns on a narrow road. It was a dead-end and we were at the Rhine River. I asked Henry where this took us and if there was supposed to be a bridge here. He said no, I think it is supposed to be a ferry crossing. “What?!?!” I exclaimed! We had already been pretty much to hell and back that day and now we were getting on a random boat to cross the river, with no money because the holes-in-the-walls were closed. We saw the small ferry approaching from the other side and Henry asked me to find out how much it would cost. Before I knew it, he was calling me to get back in the car as the ferry had already off-loaded and we were loading. It only could hold about 6-8 cars at one time. We hopped on and it only cost 4 EURO. After time to take 2 pictures, we were there! It was the most efficient travel I think we have ever had! After laughing a bit, we continued on with Henry driving fast again. We were both amazed at how many bike/rollerblading paths there were alongside roads, even small ones in the countryside.

After arriving at my friend’s house, Henry met her for the first time and we also met her boyfriend. They live in a nice apartment on the top floor in Werne, a town of about 30,000 people. We had a few appetizers first, including small, homemade pizza-like bites and something unexpected but very grateful! We were talking about how we’ve never tried weiner schnitzel (veal cutlet) but have wanted to. They simply said, well I’ll make some! He took out eggs, flour, chicken, and his schnitzel hammer and got to work. He said it is his grandmother’s recipe and boy was it tasty! He first pounded the chicken breast with the hammer a few times and dipped it in eggs and a flour mixture for the breading and then pan-fried it. We were so impressed! After appetizers, they then suggested we take a quick stroll through the town before eating dinner and it was amazing to see! The town hall and church were both about 500 years old and the town was dead, again because the Germans are pretty religious. We also saw old black and white stucco houses and a cute, pedestrian-friendly town center. After walking back to their place, we had the rest of our amazing dinner – delicious salad with the best vinegarette we’ve ever tasted and tiny, boiled quail eggs, followed by the main course of pork cutlets topped with eggplant, mozzarella cheese, and tomatoes, and finally, dessert of a orange-flavored yogurt. After some more chatting and laughs about traveling, skiing, old times, and looking up phrases or words on Wikipedia that we couldn’t think of in each other’s languages, we said goodbye, gathered up the German chocolates and beer they graciously gave us, wished them a happy Easter, and headed back to our hotel. It was such a great, relaxing experience and we both enjoyed their company and hospitality!