Holiday

Hello All!

No photos for today as awe are on free internet at the hostel so can't upload.

So what have we been up to............


Saturday 23rd: Travel to Paris.

Took most of the day to get there. No problems finding the hotel but we were tired and had a bit of culture shock. Had Indian for dinner as the area where our hotel was only had only two types of shop 1) African hair salons with so many people hanging around them and 2) Indian Restaurants?

Our hotel was great. It was super cheap but was super clean and not
very noisy at all.


Sunday:

We took a 3.5 hour walking tour of Paris. Our guide worked for
tips only. Her name was Mary and she was an American dramearly ona student
studying in Paris.

It was a really lovely sunny day and we even got sunburnt! Paris is amazing. You will all see the photos.

That night we also did the Mary's other free tour in the evening of Montmatre and Sacre Cour!

So after 5 hours of tours and walking across Paris a few times we were shattered.


Monday:

We climbed the bell tower of Notre Dame and went to the Louvre. There is simply too much in the Louvre to take in! We loved the building itself more than the collections within. If you ever go there remember to stop and look up occasionaly.

In the evening we climbed the Eiffel Tower ( no lifts for us!) and watched it light up while we were on it. We got to the bottom just in time for the sparkly light effect and got a good photo.

Tuesday:

We chilled at our hotel and had pain au chocolat and fresearly onh fruit for breakfast. We then put our bags in storage at the train station and went for a wander around what turned out to be the Wedding Attire and cheap jewellery district. early on

Catching the Thalys ( fast train)was easy except for the bomb scare which delayed us 30 minutes and saw us shuffled back and forth the along the platform by confused staff.

Had a brief (20 minutes or so) stop in Brussels where we easily bought a ticket for Bruges. Took a normal train with all the commuters out to Bruges (took about an hour) and walked to the Hostel.

Great hostel in Bruges with nice beds, good breakfast and free Internet (Lybeer Hostel).
early onearly on
We arrived for Beer Pong night. Beer Pong involves throwing ping pong balls along a table into plastic cups with beer in. the other team drinks the beer if you get the ball in there cup. Very American but given that there was a big group of them Yanks at the hostel it worked well. We ended up out a pub just with one American ( Mark, from DC) after we split off from Mark's
friends and a group of University girls (giggle giggle scream). Had the most amazing beers all night including Rochefort Trappist ( wow!).

We may catch up with Mark when we are in DC.

For some bizarre reason we had very sore heads the next morning. Went to the laundromat and did our washing. Had a very nice local help us when the change machine was broken and had a nice chat to him. They are all so helpful here and are very relaxed. Quite a contrast to Paris where they are so brisk.
early on
Bruges has about 100,000 people in the greater area and only about 30,000 in the town itself. They have about 3 million visitors a year though, so the place is bussling.

They had a market on with fruit, vege and meat. We bought lots of fruit ( as we did in Paris too) and marvelled at how different Ireland is despite being so connected with Europe. The price and quality of food so far has been fantastic compared to Ireland.

We made yummy Belgium sausages in pasta with broccoli. The sausages were cured and kind of half way between salami and a normal pork sausage. The lady at the butchery cart in the market handled big strings of them like rope.

Just loved Bruges ( also spelt Brugge or any variant you please, the locals don't care) and if you go there you have to have a Garre in De Garre in the Garre!

To explain, Garre is a beer which is only served in a bar called De Garre in an alleyway called the Garre.



Friday- The Netherlands

We decided to bypass Amsterdam initially and headed to a city called Utrecht in the Netherlands. Nice little (by dutch standards - 200 to 300 thousand) city with canals and even a "coffeshop" to smoke a joint in (full of the best selection of losers you will ever see through a window).

We stayed in a lovely B&B called the Hello B&B. Run by a nice guy called Joost who lived in London long enough to pick up a London accent. It was in a quiet street about 5 minutes from town. Fresh bread and eggs with their own little woolly hats on for breakfast.

Friday night we sat in a small cafe (bar) which was where the crowd our age hung out. It even played Fat Freddy´s Drop ( Kiwi band) on the stereo.

We then found an Italian restaurant run by Greek people for some cheap eats (something we had missed in Ireland).

On Saturday we caught the train to Amsterdam and did another free walking tour there ( same company as Paris).

What a strange strange place Amsterdam is. Very glad we went and did the walking tour but also very glad we hadn't set our hearts on staying there for long. Nice for a visit but when we had seen true relaxation in Bruges the kinds of relaxation offered in Amsterdam didn't compare.

Sunday - Germany

Caught a train to Cologne (or Köln as it is here) and stayed in an OK (but not great) hostel.

We went to Musuem Ludwig on the afternoon we got there. It was very cool. Modern art including Warhol, Polke, and Picasso ( I loved the Picasso's!).

Aimee was of course very happy running amok in modern art. You should have seen her face when she found the room full of giant flower stems!

We meet up with a guy called Josh from Perth (or a small town thereabouts) who is a Physio who had worked in Canada for 6 months to finance a trip early onacross South America and now Europe.


Monday-

It rained but that didn't stop Josh and Us meandering around Cologne. We didn't achieve a great deal but sorted out transport ( a ride-share for Josh leaving at 5am and a rail pass for Us) and made a big pasta meal for dinner with lots of vege in it.

That night Josh adopted a Japanese guy from his dorm and we went to a neighbourhood beer haus. We were told with typical German dry wit when we asked what types of beer they had that there was only One! This was almost true as it was actually brewery that made only one type.

Shogo from Japan had just finished his masters in mechanical engineering and was about to start a job at a small place that made motorbikes (Yamaha!). He had no idea what the job was about but that is the Japanese way.

So we drank beer out of little thin 200ml glasses which were replaced unless you put your coaster on top of your last one. Not a late night but a nice time.

Tuesday- Wurzburg

While we intially planned to go to Berlin early on, due to a Tourism Conference ( ah the irony), it is fairly booked out this week. We also bought a twin rail pass for Germany which covers Salzburg too so have a bit of freedom in what we can do. Point to point fairs are pricey in germany unless you buy a yearly ( I think?) discount card like the locals do. So when we found the twin rail passes which for 4 days cost about as much as 1.25 trips between major cities it made sense.

We are currently in Wurzburg in Bavaria. It is on the start of the "Romantic Road" through Franconia (the region). A nice place with vineyards right next to the city centre and Residence (palace type house) and a Fortress.

Yesterday we walked around the Residence gardens and the city centre and then chilled at the hostel with great cheap beer (Dunkel Weiss! Dark Wheat beer).

Currently Aimee is asleep but we will slowly head out to explore the Fortress and do some wine tasting. Hooray.

Hugs to all

Emmett