Yes, that is a long time living out of a pretty small suitcase and backpack! Things kind of came together where my son and daughter in law were looking to move out of their apartment. But it felt that I couldn’t ask them to move everything to be here in the house for less than a year. Plus, they will take good care of my dog and they will enjoy the yard, no stairs to climb and a place to relax outside.
First Stop: Amsterdam
I am in Amsterdam from April 1 – 9th. April 1st was a travel day. Went in to the city on the 2nd and 3rd – to the Anne Frank House and Rijksmuseum. I am staying outside of Amsterdam in a town called Nieuw-Vennep (new Vennep) at an AirB&B. I like my room and the hosts are very nice and attentive if you need their help. The bus ride into Amsterdam is about 50 min each way. I took a day off from sightseeing on the 4th and then headed out to Keukenhof Gardens on Friday the 5th. I will try and post some photos. Still trying to figure out how to enter things on the blog without it taking hours! 🙂
Some Pretty Homes
Beautiful Library in the RijksmuseumDoor to Anne Frank’s House
Tall, Narrow Homes with Lots of Steep Stairs
Blew my budget buying tulip bulbs. Spring of 2025 will be colorful.
And the cutest windmill!
Busy, sunny day in Amsterdam – Leidseplein SquareMy home for 8 days…on the second floor.
Heading to Bruge, Belgium on Tuesday the 9th. Not easy to get there from here…would have involved 4 bus/train changes but the host of the airb&b found the Flixbus. From here I take the bus to the airport, find the Flixbus and then a 5 hour bus ride but I don’t need to move my luggage! Wahoo. I can do the 5 hr ride. See you guys in a couple of days.
Bruge, Belgium
I am a little behind in my postings. I decided to take the bus from Nueue Vennep because the train would have meant 2-3 transfers and, well, you know, my suitcase is kind of heavy. So I opted for a long ride on the bus so that I didn’t have to move stuff.
Bruge is such a pretty town…very walkable and picturesque. My AirB&B here was very nice with a big shower and plenty of hot water! It is amazing what becomes most important. It was easy to walk in to the middle of town.
Being Belgium, there are lots of canals. I don’t know what the boots represent.
The city seemed very busy for mid-April but cruise ships doc nearby and it was Easter break for many countries.
I could lie and say I didn’t go in this shop but I did! Purchased 6 very yummy bonbons.
Chocolate Factory – went in here too. Since Bruge is known for chocolate and lace, you kind of have to visit these stores.
These two photos go together. I thought it was interesting that there were places where women could dedicate their lives to God without being nuns.
Some beautiful homes along the canal.
Tomorrow my posting of Flanders Field in Ypres (e-pres) Belgium. This is the burial site for casualties of WW1.
Ypres and Flanders Field
From Bruge I joined a small van tour that took us to Ypres. Everyone on the van was very friendly – a couple from near Nothingham, England and three people from Australia. Our tour guide was wonderful – a historian who had lived in the area all his life. Residents are still finding remnants of the war over a hundred years later.
I am sorry about the changes in font, etc. Maybe before my trip is done I will have mastered how to post things.
One of the English people on the tour said that the English tradition is to make I happened across several headstones from Scottish clans. My adopted father is descended from the Gordon Clan.This is a monument to the Canadian troops. The dirt and stone were brought in from Canada for the creation of this monument.These trenches were unearthed and slightly reinforced so that you can see what the soldiers had to deal with. All underground in the rest of this field were barracks and other rooms for the care of the soldiers.Just a shot of some of the buildings in Ypres.
Normandy D-Day June 6, 1944
The visit to Normandy was amazing and very moving. Just some facts before the photos: there are 9,387 graves, 45 pairs of brothers and one father and son (Franklin Roosevelt’s son and grandson) and 151 Stars of David amid the crosses. Our guide said that many of the Jewish soldiers were afraid to state their religion in case they were captured by the Germans. The headstones are perfectly symmetrical rows overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in a westerly direction – facing back to America. Most of the photos do not need a caption from me.
I guess this photo needs a caption – these are the other folks that were part of the tour. All of them very nice and from the US.Monument to the Normandy operation. D-Day took place on June 6th. It was low tide which meant that the soldiers had a long amount of beach to cover to get to safety and were easy for the Germans to pick off. Low tide also meant a full moon which was needed for the paratroopers who were to land at 12:00 am. 23,400 Paratroopers began landing.There were 5 landing areas and this shows the British, Canadian and US landing beaches.There are many German bunkers and trenches that have been preserved. This bunker was very large. Several rooms and some prison cells for captured soldiers. This is a monument that President Reagan had installed at Omaha Beach on the 40th anniversary of D-Day in memory of the Rangers who took the cliffs and began to take out the Germans.
After Paris and Normandy, I headed to Aachen, Germany (ah-ken). A nice little town but it didn’t seem to have a lot to see. Walked around a bit but it was very cold and rainy and windy. I liked my room though at the Bensons which was just a few blocks from the train station. Very nice folks at the hotel. I did a lot of reaching. 🙂
Frankfurt, Rothenburg & Heidelberg
My first night in Frankfurt I went to a very popular Irish restaurant, had fish and chips, in a German city! Quite a blend of nationalities.
Rothenberg
Such a very cute city. First city in the Tauber valley – 970. The city went through many changes and ups and downs. The city is walled and the half timbered homes remain. Any changes or remodeling of homes must be done in this style.Door and home dated 1521!!There was a wedding taking place in the city hall and the couple came out to walk along the line of their friends and back again. It was very cold – 43 degrees. But the wedding party was dressed festively. The rest of us had coats, scarves, gloves and hats.
Heidelberg Castle
My photo doesn’t quite capture it but the section of the castle first created is on the left…very plain. The section straight ahead was the last section created which is far more ornate.In my prior photo it shows the first and last sections of the castle to be built. This was the second section. There must have been a lot of potential invaders because there were 7 sections of gates to come through. No one was getting in!!Sundial. It is off by one hour due to daylight savings time!Great display inside the castle of old pharmacy containers and potions.Castle up on the hill overlooking the city.In the city. Heidelberg has a very famous, prestigious university. This is the old part of the city.
Back in Frankfurt today (Sunday). It is raining mixed with snow!! Tomorrow I head to Prague four 4 days via train. After Prague I will head up to Berlin for 6 days and will finish out April. May will find me in Warsaw, Budapest, Tuscany and Rome. Then on to Sicily, Athens, Paros, Naxos and maybe Romania. After that I have to leave the EU and will go to England, Scotland and Ireland.
It has been a few days since my last posting. From Frankfurt I took the train to Prague.
Prague, Czech Republic
The train ride from Frankfurt to Prague with a change in Dresden, Germany was very comfortable and pretty fast. I was sorry to have to make a change in Dresden (the suitcase thing) but I must say that Dresden had a beautiful train station!!
Pretty countryside. The yellow patches are canola. There are a lot of these fields in Belgium, France and Germany. I think this is the first flower on the season.The Charles River Bridge. Rather iconic to Prague. The direction I am going is taking me into the Castle Side of Prague…the more touristy part. Had a great tour with the company called One Prague Tours.An overall view of the cityA little further along on our tour we stopped for some breakfast beer! Apparently the Czech Republic has the highest beer consumption per capita. So I guess a person has to start drinking kind of early in the day. This is the tour group I was with. Fun and nice folks. Most from the US and couple who are i the military in Germany. Then it was up to the Castle. It is a huge complex and my photos don’t do it justice. According to the guide it is bigger than Versailles. The French don’t agree with this. Versailles is prettier. Another part of the Castle complex – the Cathedral. Some of the fun narrow streets.According to the guide a fun place to sit outside for a beer in the summer.Originally a very old, kind of run down area but now the places are very expensive if you didn’t inherit them.Then we went in to the “Old Town” District. Less touristy. This is the 600 year old Orloj Astronomical Clock. This is in the big town square which I didn’t get any pictures of. Ugh. Seems like my picture didn’t get the name of this restaurant. But you go down these stairs to a huge basement with lots of candles that have been dripping down for years and there are a lot of tables. I almost always forget to take pictures of food but I did here.
Wish I knew the name of all the food but I don’t remember. But it was delicious. The white items in the foreground are dumpling. There is a yummy piece of vanilla cake on the left, a sausage with a mustard sauce and horseradish.Kind of a scary guy who is part of a fairy tale here. Of course, if you think of our fairy tales they are actually king of scary and I am surprised kids don’t have nightmares.There wasn’t a huge Jewish population in Prague. But the folks were treated just as badly. I didn’t get a good picture of their one main building…just these two of their graveyard. Because of how many there were to bury and no room, there are many people on top of each other. Sorry.
Final story out of Prague. I have been very lucky with no pickpockets or any scary moments. But I had my first scammer at the trail station in Prague. I was standing and looking at the rail board to see what platform my trail to Berlin was at. I don’t think I look old (or too old) and the kind you can take advantage of but this guy comes up to me and asks if I am going on the train to Berlin. I said yes. He said he would guide me there. I asked him three times while we are walking quickly to the platform if he was a train station employee and he said yes. We go past the escalator and elevator which I want because of the suitcase and we keep going to the stairs. He carries my suitcase up and takes me to the train and even on the train to my seat. THEN, he asks me for 100 euros for all of his fine work! Geez. I said ‘what the hell’ or something like that 🙂 and said are you kidding. He then says 50 euros and I laughed and gave him 20 euros which was the smallest amount of money i had. He stomps off and flips me the bird. I looked out the train window and there was a cute older Spanish couple and apparently he had done the same thing to them. I actually felt like the 20 euros wasn’t bad for how hard it is to get up the steps on the trains in Germany…steep and 4-5 of them. I can handle 3 but not 5.
Berlin
East Berlin
I always thought that East Berlin was the worst side…dark and gloomy. But East Berlin had all the great buildings – libraries, palaces, universities, Einstein and other great scientists worked here. I think that the lack of freedom once the Wall went up and the scarcity of food and items eventually wore on the folks with less money. And we ultimately bombed the heck out of East Berlin but they have rebuilt it back to its former granduer.
Beautiful Jewish Temple. The prior one was small and apparently many thought this was kind of over the top,Part of the Museum Center. Another one. There were a couple of others being renovated.Along the way there are places that have not covered up bullet holes from the war.This is the Cathedral at the Lustgarten Square which is a public park on what they call Museum Square.Another part of the square. Apparently Hitler loved this building. The biggest attraction is the granite bowl (you can kind of see it on the right). It was considered as being a wonder of the Beidermeier era and a main attraction in the 19th Century. It was supposed to be INSIDE but it was too big to fit in their so it had to be left outside. The Berlin slang is the “Berlin Soup Bowl.”I should be fired for my horrible photos sometimes. This is part of a very significant boulevard and is called Unter den Linden (under the linden trees). It runs from the Spree River to the Brandenburg Gate. There are two broad carriage ways on each side of the grassed pedestrian mall. The Linden trees are in bloom right now and look very pretty.These guys are so cute. They are called Ampelmanchen and are the stop and go crosswalk signs. They were created in 1961 in East Berlin but when reunification happened, they were used all over Berlin. They are very popular and you can buy mugs and hats, etc. Kind of like Portland love affair with their airport carpet???!!! Who can explain they things.Brandenburg Gate is an 18th century neoclassical monument. It is the only remaining town gate in Berlin. It serves as a symbol of both the division and reunification of Berin. There was a barbed wire barrier that represented the earliest version of the Berlin Wall, 1961. During the war it was heavily damaged but in 1957-58 it was restored. From 1961 to 1987 the Brandenberg Gate symbolized divided Germany. The gate was reopened on December 22, 1989 when German Chancellor Helmut Kohl walked through it to meet the East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow. These two photos are of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Not sure my pictures do it justice but if you look at the top photo you will see the concrete blocks are smaller and further apart. As you walk through the monuments they get taller and closer together and the ground kind of undulates. This represents the painful growth of the roundups and killings as they intensified. Hitler was anxious to reach the “Final Solution” which is when the Jews were sent to extermination camps and gassed. I guess originally people died from firing squads but this was slow and took a toll on the soldier as it was mostly women and children, so the method changed. I read that some in Germany don’t want to have these remembrances but the majority think it is important. It isn’t a good part of their history so you have to give them credit.These two photos are of Checkpoint Charlie. I think there were two other checkpoints. This is the one between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. This was the best known official crossing point. As movement from Soviet controlled countries to the rest of Europe was increasingly curtailed, crossing to West Berlin became the primary way for East Germans to reach the west. That came to an end on August 13, 1961 when the border was closed. There is a museum that would be interesting to visit. I also need to go back to the Eastside to walk along the Berlin Wall. Big central train station. Lots of stores, food and shops, as well as trains and trams.Sometimes I have to stare at the signs for awhile before figuring out that my train is on platform 12 and where on the platform the car i am on will pull in to.
It has been a few days since my last post. I spent another couple of days on the East side of Berlin – visited the Checkpoint Charlie Museum which was very interesting. Thanks to my friend Lori who suggested I go. There were two cars that had been used to smuggle people out of the East – little VW bug was instrumental. I think that only a smallish, very flexible person could fit in the space used to smuggle them. Can’t believe that I didn’t take a photo…ugh. Also spent 3 hours in the Neues Museum and their Egyptian display and prehistory and early history. Amazing amount of images of royalty, world famous bust of Nefertiti (can’t take pictures). Just amazing collection. NOTE: I wish I knew how to have my new postings go at the top of the page so you didn’t have to scroll so much…maybe I’ll figure that out.
Warsaw, Poland
I had an airbnb set up for Warsaw. When I reached the place I was a bit put off by the condition of the building. Then when I went inside the bldg and saw all the stairs…easy enough for me to do the stairs but my suitcase – you know about my suitcase. The owner of the room had told me that there was only one flight of stairs – there were 2-1/2 flights of very steep stairs. When I finally get up the stairs I cannot figure out how to get in to the apartment. Her instructions didn’t seem clear to me. So by now I am done with this place. I spent well over an hour trying to get an authorized taxi. Felt like crying buy I did not! Got downstairs and was able to get a hotel room that was reasonable. Much happier at the hotel.
Warsaw is a very pretty, walkable city. Of course, sunny weather helps. Has been high 70s and low 80s! My first night here I took a Pierogi making class. I remember when my son was a baby (he is almost 50, geez) and we lived in San Francisco, we were in the Sunset District and there were ethnic restaurants that made pierogis. So yummy. So it was fun to learn how to make them. There were four of us – two women from Finland and a guy from the UK. Very nice people. We make the pierogis in our teacher’s apartment when was very nice with an upstairs outdoor space with a view of the city. And we did a lot of vodka tasting.
Okay figured out how to do the group thing but my pink soup photo (borst) is way too big! The borst was very good – it was cold which was great after walking around for several hours. Going to try the group photo thing again.Warsaw is a very pretty city. There was a lot of damage from WWII but clearly a commitment to rebuild. Several famous people from here – Chopin, Capernicus, Marie Curie. Marie Curie was the first woman to win a noble prize and the first person to win two and in two scientific fields!! Part of Chopin is buried in the church below. The French wouldn’t give up all of him for burial in Poland. I didn’t realize that Poland has most often been a strong friend of the US. While I have been here it was their Labour Day (May 1) and Constitution Day (May 3). (The next thing I am going to try and master is how to make some of the photos smaller when I do a group thing.)
