February Europe Trip

We just arrived home from a fantastic road trip with our friends David and Hollie Harward beginning the 15th of February and ending on the 24th. We traveled through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and The Netherlands. Check out our road Map to get in idea of what our rout looked like. It was so great to spend time with some friends from back home and we saw a lot of beautiful places along the way.

Brussels, Belgium 

On the evening of February 15th Brady and I arrived in Brussels, Belgium. We spent two nights there and got to explore the city a bit.

Cinquantenaire triumphal arch

Cinquantenaire triumphal arch

Guildhalls on the Grand Place

Manneken Pis

Pizza time :)

Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam

On the morning of the 17th we rented a car at the Brussels airport and drove to the Amsterdam airport to pick up David and Hollie. We got the airport around 11:30 and drove towards Frankfurt to spend the night at the Frankfurt temple housing. 

Cologne,Germany (aka Koln)

Along the way we made a quick stop in Cologne, Germany and saw the cathedral there. Its Germany's most visited landmark and is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. The choir has the largest height to width ratio of any medieval church in Northern Europe and it has the second-tallest spire and largest façade of any church in the world.

We ate lunch here. I partook of some currywurst and Brady got a bratwurst.Good eatin'!

 All weekend long we saw so many people dressed up in crazy outfits because of Mardi Gras.  

Frankfurt Temple

We didn't spend a lot of time in Frankfurt, we mostly just slept there. The town that the temple is in is pretty cute and small just outside of Frankfurt. All we did there was go to the supermarket and bought food for dinner. 

Heidelberg, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland 

On the 18th we headed towards Zurich, Switzerland. On the way we stopped in Heidelberg, Germany and walked around the Heidelberg Castle. Then we ate lunch and had some heidelberry ice cream that was simply delicious. 

Snowball break. This was a breathtaking landscape just at sunset.

We arrived in Zurich in the evening so we spent the next morning of the 19th walking around town. 

The streets were empty because it was Sunday so it felt like we had the city all to ourselves.

Saint Gallen, Switzerland

This was a quiet little town just over the border in Switzerland. We only spent an hour or so here but we were able to catch a Mardi Gras parade and get some great pictures in the snow. 

Saint-Gallen Cathedral 

Yellow chairs in the snow. 

More pictures along the way to Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle

We spent the night in Füssen, Germany in a little hotel near the Castle. In the morning we ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant because it was free for guests. We had some trouble because there were 4 of us who shared a room and they only thought it was two people. The woman wanted us to pay 50 more Euros for the room and the extra breakfast. Luckily Brady was able to talk her into only paying 30 more Euros for the breakfast and extra showers as she put it. From then on out we were sure to make it clear there were 4 of us before thinking we got ourselves a good deal. 

Brady didn't like the other castle that was near Neuschwanstein castle.

  

Carriage ride up the hill to the castle.

After the castle we were determined to make it to The Eagles Nest (Hitlers Retreat) before it closed. We made it into town around 4:30 all excited and found out they were closed for the winter! Aww shucks. We were able to drive through town and found a cute restaurant near a lake. It was very picturesque and we had a good time even though our original plans didn't work out.

I got gnocchi and cheese that smelled (as Brady put it) "like a butt" when they served it to me.

 But it tasted good!

Munich and Dachou, Germany

We spent the night in a hostel/hotel called the Easy Palace. Very classy place with a pizza vending machine. In the morning we drove around town and saw some of the sights and then made our way to the Dachou Concentration camp. 

Dachau Concentration Camp

"Smoking Forbidden"

Jewish Memorial

Christian Memorial

Crematorium

"Showers"

Inside the "shower" room.

Disinfecting chambers

Never Again

Prague, Czech Republic 

We certainly felt welcome when we got into Prague. We found a nice, inexpensive hotel and decided since it was early in the evening we would take a drive to Old Town Prague. Bad idea. In Czech Republic you have to have a international drivers licence even if you are just driving through like we did. But we had no idea. All the roads and signs are confusing and once you get into the main part of town there are cops EVERYWHERE! Brady got pulled over twice within 10 min. Once because we went down a pedestrian only road (which other cars were driving down).They also gave him a breathalyzer (it read 0.00 of course).  The woman told Brady that the maximum fine was 2000 koruna but for him 500 koruna. This is about $25 US so it wasn't so bad. Then we decided to park just a little ways away to take some pictures. When we got back in the car we all belted up and cautiously rolled on. But then the cop waved us over again and said that he was pulling us over because our lights weren't on. We literally had been in the car for less than 30 seconds. But we got the same deal. "Maximum fine 2000 but for you 500". I couldn't believe it. At that point we just wanted to go straight back to our hotel because we were rattled. 

The next morning we left our car in the parking garage and took the tram into town. At that point I was even afraid of getting a ticket for crossing where there was no cross-walk or looking at someone the wrong way. It was a beautiful town and for revenge on the crooked cops we took a stone from one of the streets as a souvenir. Take that Prague!

Ticket #1

This picture was after ticket #1 and before ticket #2

Typical Czech Restaurant. They think they are SO funny!

Brady's 2 tickets. Those were some pricey souvenirs

We played Scrabble that night with David and Hollie. I won! I had to make some crooked deals with David. I let him play RAZ if he gave me an 30 extra points for COP and any other "Trip related" word like Euros, and Brady got extra points for playing VALIUM because he needed some after the cops shake down. Its called "Czech Style Scrabble" 

Prague Astronomical Clock. I saw a picture of this about a year ago and thought "I'll go there some day". It wasn't until I saw the clock in real life that I knew it was in Prague and I got all excited and amazed that I made my wish come true be accident.

Hollie taking pictures.

Königstein Fortress

Castle Church - Wittenberg, Germany

This is where Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses against the corrupt sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church. Luther posted the theses in Latin and intended to start an academic debate. However, they were translated into German, quickly copied using the newly-invented movable type printing press, and wound up sparking the German Reformation. 

We only got one picture that was usable because our camera died. The original door that the Theses were nailed to burned in a fire in 1760 and now they have bronze doors with the 95 Theses in-scripted on them. 

Berlin, Germany

We spend several hours here and could have taken a lot more time looking at all the monuments. It was a beautiful city.

David told us that the writing on this monument was in Russian. They had some sort of military memorial ceremony going on and everyone in line was putting flowers on the monument.

The Brandenburg Gate

 Some interesting information about the wall...

The Reichstag. The seat of the German parliament.

Parts of the Berlin wall

The remaining Berlin wall. They have a stretch of wall that they have allowed artist to paint murals on. 

Walking along the Berlin Wall

Kelly, Hollie, David and Brady with our hands on the Berlin Wall.

(very cheesy)

Fernsehturm (TV tower)

Amsterdam

Brady and I only spent about an hour driving around Amsterdam because we wanted to check out a little more of Belgium before our flight. So all of these shots were taken from our car but you can still get an essence of the city.

We dropped David and Hollie off at the Amsterdam Central Train Station and we parted ways. They were going to take the rest of the day in Amsterdam and head on to Paris then the UK and we headed back to Belgium to check out Dinant and Namur and then catch our flight back to Lyon. 

Dinant, Belgium

A beautiful city on the River Meuse in the Wallonia (French speaking) region of Belgium. Brady had a picture of this city on his desktop and had always wanted to see it in person. 

That concluded our February European Trip. We got home around 1am on the 25th. Its nice to be home... even if home is a dinky French apartment with a futon as a bed.

 Home Sweet Home

And for your viewing pleasure, we present to you our train ride home. We had gone mad by that point.

FIN