August 15 - St. Petersburg, Russia (day 1)
We arrived early and quietly into St. Petersburg, with a couple of boats that met up with us in the middle of the night to guide us through the Russian waterway toward our berth. Lance and I were up very early, since our tour began at 7 AM. We were able to watch the sun rise over the harbor. Our berth was about 6 miles from St. Petersburg.
We signed up for the Grand Tour of St. Petersburg, the most expensive tour, which is 2 full days and covers the must-see sights. The first day promised to be warm. In fact, they announced before we disembarked that the high temperature was expected to be 87 degrees and we had about 93% humidity. These two days would be the hottest of the cruise.
As we disembarked, a small band was there to greet us, playing songs for American dollars. We went through customs, which isn't a big deal, really. You have to have a photocopy of your passport, which you hand to the Russian authorities, who then stamp your passport and give you a red card, a cruise passenger visa, which you must return when you come back to the ship later on in the day (there's a fine if you lose this card). We made it out to the line of busses and met up with our tour guide, Elena, who proved to be an absolutely wonderful guide, as well as very tolerant, given the ignorance and rude remarks made by several people in our group over the course of the two days.
The first thing we did when we arrived in St. Petersburg was board a rickety open-topped sightseeing boat, which took us through the canals. Even though it was barely 8 AM, the crew served us champagne, which was very good. It felt decadent. We enjoyed all the sights along the canals, including some of the major ones (Hermitage, St. Peter & Paul Fortress, etc.). What I remember the most though was a little boy who waved at us from a bridge, and then proceeded to run to every bridge that we passed under so that he could wave at us. He ran a alongside our boat for a good mile or two. After our tour, he waited by our disembarkation point, and collected tips. Apparently, several young boys do this during their summer vacations...they make quite a bit of money this way. We didn't give him any money though.
That seemed to be a recurring theme in St. Petersburg. Everywhere, everyone wanted your money, and they didn't care if it was rubles, euros or dollars. We had pushy vendors thrusting their wares in our faces. We saw more bands performing at tourist attractions for tips (we heard a lot of the Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful). Now I know what out of work musicians do in St. Petersburg.
But I digress... After our canal cruise, we went to the Hermitage. It is absolutely impossible to see this entire museum if you are only a visitor in St. Petersburg. It is so massive, that it takes 9 years to see everything if you only stare at each item for 30 seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you've ever been to the Louvre...well, the Hermitage more than gives it a run for its money. It is THE MOST INCREDIBLE museum I have ever seen. This museum is located in the Winter Palace of Catherine the Great, who dearly loved the arts. She started the Hermitage as her own personal art collection, and it expanded from there. We spent about 90 minutes in there, but there was a cast of thousands inside (all the other tour groups were there too), so it was difficult to get through. It's not air conditioned either, so it got really uncomfortable inside, but aside from that, I was suffering from sensory overload. The Hermitage is truly the epitome of visual intoxication.
You can take a virtual tour of the Hermitage, but it's not quite the same as going there.
We needed a break after that, and fortunately, it was time for lunch. We were taken to this restaurant called Bellini's, which sounds Italian, but isn't. We didn't eat in the restaurant itself...rather, we were put in this huge banquet room that seated hundreds. All the people on the Princess tour were eating there (there were several busses of people on the same tour). We had 3 glasses: one water, one wine, and one tiny one with vodka. I tried a tiny sip of the vodka and I swear, that stuff would peel paint off your walls (in fact, I'm not quite sure it wasn't turpentine...Lance compared it to rubbing alcohol). Needless to say, I passed. The wine was good though, and Lance shared his with me since he doesn't drink it (and wine is uber-expensive on the ship, so I will not pass up free wine when it is offered). On our starter plate, we had smoked salmon, a salad (cucumber, tomatoes, and peppers), and they passed out platters of chopped pickles and pickled cabbage. I ate some of that, and it was really good. They had bread and butter at the tables too. After we cleared our first course, they gave us 2 tiny blinis (pancakes), one topped with sour cream, the other topped with red caviar. I had never had caviar before, so I braved it...and it wasn't bad. It wasn't exactly good either, but I ate it. Most everyone at our table scraped it off. Then we had the soup course, which was just potato soup. The meal was not exactly exotic or anything...we had a simple chicken dish with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. Dessert was a scoop of vanilla ice cream with berry sauce, really refreshing on such a hot day. A Russian musical group performed for us while we ate. They were pretty good, and of course, they tried to sell their CD after we finished eating.
We didn't get back to sightseeing immediately after lunch. The bus stopped at Red October, a souvenir shop (and I'm sure Princess is getting kickbacks from this place, because all the busses stop here for shopping). They had all the typical Russian souvenirs you would expect: nesting dolls, fake Soviet military paraphernalia, Faberge egg knock-offs, etc. Lance and I found a nice handpainted egg to hang on the Christmas tree and then we got back on the bus. They had everything there from the very cheap to the top quality, so I suppose it was a decent souvenir shop.
After that detour, we were on our way again. Next stop: St. Peter & Paul's Cathedral, which is the centerpiece of the fortress. This is the burial place of the czars, and we saw the graves of Peter the Great and his family, among others.
This was our last stop of the day, which was probably just as well, considering most of us were hot and cranky (at least the bus was air conditioned). We were taken back to the ship, where we had to stay, being sans visa. There were evening excursions, such as private Hermitage tours and a night at the ballet, but we never signed up for those. Princess had a special treat for us anyway - the dancers and singers from the famous Troika restaurant came on the ship to perform for us. That wasn't until 8:15 though, so we had time to kill. Lance and I went swimming for a bit, and then we had dinner and went to the ice cream parlor, where I stupidly ordered a concoction called "Death by Chocolate," which was aptly named. Lance ordered one too, and survived. I spent a good deal of the evening clutching my stomach and moaning. I love chocolate as much as the next person, but a brownie, chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, and chocolate chips were just too much (and the whipped cream didn't help either). I slept for about an hour before the Troika show, and was feeling much better by then.
Anyway...about Troika - it's a cabaret-type show, but it featured some traditional music and dancing. They gave two performances, and we caught the earlier one. They announced afterwards that the performers were going up to the buffet to have dinner. No kidding...not long afterwards, I was in the hallway on our floor waiting to catch an elevator, and all the dancers came stampeding out when the elevator doors opened, nearly crashing into me in their mad dash for Horizon Court (it turns out that they had different performers for the 10:15 show, so the 8:15 dancers didn't have to worry about eating and then performing right afterwards).
That was the end of the night for me. Lance was down in the casino that evening...I think there was a blackjack tournament. I stayed in our room and watched some TV and read.
August 16 - day 2
Our objective first thing in the morning was the magnificent Peterhof Palace, which is famous for its Grand Cascade, an absolutely stunning fountain that gets its water from the Gulf of Finland. We had about a half hour drive to get there, so most of us dozed off in that time, but I would hate to miss any photo opportunities, so I fought off the urge to nap.
There was a mini marketplace set up in the parking lot of Peterhof, with food stands and merchants selling their wares. All around the entrance, there were musicians playing and men shoving pashminas, nesting dolls, and faux Faberge eggs in our faces. We were told that many of them are pickpockets or work in cahoots with them (not just at Peterhof, but at any major tourist attraction), so to watch our valuables.
Once inside, we had to slip special booties over our shoes to protect the floor, and we proceeded with our tour through the palace. Other than the Grand Cascade, it lacked the wow factor that the Hermitage had…at least for me, it did.
Our group walked around a little outside too (that was the best part anyway). We actually found a quiet spot in the gardens that was not crawling with tourists. The gardens gave all the tour groups an opportunity to spread out, which was good, because the crowds were ridiculous. Princess needs to stop timing these groups to all arrive in the same place at the same time (and that goes for the other cruise lines that were there too).
Once we left Peterhof, we made our way into the center of St. Petersburg to visit the incredible St. Isaac's Cathedral. We had passed it the day before and saw its golden dome all over town. Finally, we were going to see inside.
It is the largest church in St. Petersburg, and it takes your breath away. You can't possibly know where to look when you're inside (luckily, you don't have to worry about tripping over pews as you're looking up at the ornate ceilings...Russian Orthodox churches do not have places to sit, as standing or kneeling only is allowed). This church is so beautiful that the French architect who designed it, a Catholic, requested to be buried here. He was denied that request, because of his religion.
After we left St. Isaac's, it was lunch time, so we were herded into a palace that has been converted to a restaurant. Again, all the tour groups were convening there for lunch, but instead of us all being seated in one big room, we were placed in several different rooms. And since it was a palace, the rooms were beautifully decorated. (The place was called Last Palace, in case anyone is interested.)
Lunch, once again, was nothing terribly exotic. I skipped the vodka completely this time...they didn't have it already on the table, but they came around to pour it. I had wine and water. Our plates had smoked salmon (again), some weird croquette made of shredded carrots and potatoes, and a piece of toast with red caviar on it (I scraped it off this time). We had cream of spinach soup, followed by some kind of fish with white sauce, green beans, and fried potatoes. They served what they said was strawberry tart for dessert, but it was definitely cherry...they just got their fruits mixed up. After two lunches here, I am still confused as to whether these meals are authentically Russian. Obviously the vodka and caviar are. ;)
After lunch, we walked off part of our meal by pounding the pavement a few blocks to the most exotic and colorful church in St. Petersburg - the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. It is so named because it was built on the site where Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 (someone finally succeeded in killing him after several other attempts had been made on his life). The church was consecrated 100 years ago, and had banners announcing its centennial celebration. Inside, there is a shrine built over the exact spot where the czar died. Like St. Isaac's, the Church on Spilled Blood is not really a church so much as it's a museum.
We ended our Grand Tour of St. Petersburg with a visit to Yusupov Palace (I should mention that there are over 600 palaces in the city before I explain why we went to this one). Yusupov Palace is famous because this is where Rasputin was murdered in 1916, a monumental event in Russian history. It was a beautiful palace, but by then, I was really kind of tired of touring palaces. It had a small theatre though, which was lovely (and performances are still given there), and a wonderful music hall, where we were serenaded by a quartet. I took a short video of the performance (one minute), although I think the sound quality is a bit off, and it doesn't help that two women sitting behind me were talking and laughing through the performance (GAH! I got so sick of all the rude people on this tour).
After our tour of Yusupov, our time with Elena was at an end. She saw us to passport control at the dock, and then we boarded the Star Princess, getting ready to head toward Helsinki. As we pulled out of our berth, the band that had greeted us on our first morning was there to see us off. They played Anchors Aweigh, which made us laugh, and they waved goodbye (and I suppose they also expected money to come showering down at them from the decks of the ship).
As we left St. Petersburg, we were told that we would be passing by a formerly top-secret Russian naval base - Kronstadt - which is now open to the public. In fact, the people at Kronstadt have been trying to get Princess Cruises to dock there so that they can get more tourism, but it's too far from St. Petersburg (it took 90 minutes to get there from the time we left our port). While Lance and I waited to see Kronstadt, we just stretched out on some lounge chairs and enjoyed the cool breezes coming off the Baltic...we didn't have books to read or anything. It was nice to just sit and do nothing. We eventually arrived at Kronstadt and the cruise director was on the bridge, pointing out specific things on the base and giving us a little historical background on it. It was actually very interesting, as I hope my photographs will show (and to think, 20 years ago, I would've gotten shot for taking photos of it!).
And that ended our time in Russia...off to Finland!
Okay, now it's time for pictures. I have to say that I'm not entirely pleased with this set. I was always trying to photograph over peoples' heads, while walking (sometimes, we had to keep moving), or in bad light (either too much or not enough), so some of these photos suffer from camera shake or are crooked. Also, there are a lot of them that don't have labels...I just can't remember what every building is (and I looked up several as I was labeling). There were SO MANY palaces and things to see, it's just impossible to know them all unless you live there. I labeled the important stuff, anyway. Also, in many photos, it appears that I have the place all to myself. That was hardly the case, but I'm pretty good at photographing places to make them look empty. But you will see the crowds in some of them.
There are around 150 photos in this set. Most of them are not retouched, but I had to retouch the Troika pictures because they were pretty dark.
~~ Click here for pictures ~~
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Baltic Cruise, part 2: Gdansk and Tallinn
Monday, August 13 - Gdynia/Gdansk, Poland
Our day in Poland began early, so Lance and I were up before dawn to get ready for our shore excursion. We docked in Gdynia, which makes up part of the Tri-City area (Gdynia, the resort town of Sopot, and Gdansk).
We had chosen the Gdansk On Your Own tour, where the bus drives us through Gdynia and Sopot (not sorry we missed these, as neither town seemed to have anything that captured our interest) and through some of Gdansk until we reach the Old Town. There, we are dropped off and allowed 4 hours to explore on our own. This was ideal for us, because normally I really hate guided tours...I'm more of an independent traveler.
As we were driving toward Gdansk, our guide, Witek (a fresh-faced 19 year old who didn't even have his tour guide license yet), told us a little bit about the town's history and its most recent past with Communism. I thought Gdansk was pretty depressing. There was a lot of graffiti and run-down buildings and ugly Communist-era apartment complexes. The Old Town, however, is splendid...colorful and amazing and wondrous. It was rebuilt after almost complete destruction in World War II (Gdansk, in fact, is the site where the first shots of WWII were fired, at a place called Westerplatte). There are plenty of places around Gdansk that still haven't been cleaned up since the war, so we saw a few bombed-out shells of buildings here and there.
Once we were dropped off just outside the Old Town, Lance and I walked down what is called "The Royal Road" (AKA Long Street or Dlugi Targ in Polish), the route the kings and emissaries traveled when they came into Gdansk. It's a breathtakingly beautiful street, full of colorful buildings with very detailed paintings on their facades. It's flanked on both ends by gates: the Golden Gate and the Green Gate, which is now a gallery. There were two primary spots of interest in this street: the Old Town Hall and the Neptune Fountain.
The other main attraction in the town center is St. Mary's Church, which is the largest brick church in the world, and can hold 25,000 worshippers, although when we went inside, it didn't look that big. One of the most noteworthy treasures is the large crucifix that hangs near the altar. The sculptor who created it, as legend goes, nailed his son to a cross so that he could replicate the agony of Jesus' face (I heard this, I think, from our cruise director, but I can't find a source to corroborate it). There is also a medieval astronomical clock, and supposedly, the clockmaker's eyes were gouged out after he created it, so that he could never make one better than that. (I'm so glad I didn't live in medieval Poland.)
I liked walking along the river, where the ships came into Gdansk. The most noticeable sight here is Zuraw, a giant wooden crane from the 15th century, which was once used to hoist cargo onto ships. It now serves a purpose as part of Gdansk's Maritime Museum.
Lance and I didn't really do much in Gdansk. We just enjoyed ambling down the streets and I peeked into amber shops as we went. There is a big market for amber in the Baltic region, and for Gdansk in particular, and amber shops lined each street in the Old Town. Mariacka Street, which ends at St. Mary's Church, is the best place in town for amber shopping, and also considered to be the most scenic street in Gdansk (I liked the Royal Road better). It also has the oldest house in Gdansk, a tiny dwelling that is now a bed and breakfast.
Had we prepared better, we probably would've taken one of the boat tours to Westerplatte, but by the time we thought of it, we didn't have the time.
There seemed to be markets going on everywhere in Gdansk, and the town was swarming with people, particularly along the riverfront. We noticed many of them had their Princess Cruises stickers on (we took ours off, since we didn't want to be obvious as tourists). We were still obviously identified as Americans though, because some shady looking guy approached Lance on the street and offered to exchange his money. We already had zloty though, so we ignored him and moved on (and even if we didn't have zloty, we surely wouldn't be stupid enough to exchange money with a stranger on the street).
We didn't eat many meals off the ship during our cruise, but we had one here. I insisted that we had to eat pierogi, and I knew just where to go. The best pierogi restaurant in town is Pierogarnia u Dzika, so we went there around the time it opened, and ran into several other Star Princess passengers who were also grabbing a bite (apparently, word got around about this restaurant). Lance and I ordered one plate to share - Russian-style pierogi - which are filled with cottage cheese and herbs. The service was good and very fast (faster than you can get McDonald's here in Europe) and the pierogi was delicious.
We still had a little time after our light meal, so we browsed the souvenir shops until we found a place that sold Christmas ornaments. We bought a handpainted glass one with Zuraw on it, and then went to our meeting point for the bus. On the way back to the ship, Witek had the bus driver take us past the longest apartment building in the world - a Communist-era building that spans over 1 kilometer long. He said that people hate to live there, because the apartments are tiny and thousands upon thousands of people live in that one building. It also looked delapidated and falling into disrepair.
We got back on the Star Princess early in the afternoon. There was a pretty long line for boarding this time, and the lady behind us in line was whining very loudly about how she couldn't find any pierogi places in Gdansk. Lance and I were trying to stifle our laughter. HELLO! DO SOME RESEARCH! There is something called google.com, and if you type in "Gdansk, Poland," all these wonderful websites come up that tell you what to do and where to eat, etc. And even if you don't have internet, it's mentioned in the guidebooks (it's a HUGE pet peeve of mine when people don't read up about places before they visit, and then have the audacity to complain that they don't know what to see or where to eat...if you're investing that kind of money in a trip, you should know what you're getting, right?).
Anyway, once we got back to our room, Lance decided to go to a free gaming lesson in the casino. So while he was learning to play craps, I headed to the Portofino dining room for their afternoon tea. It was really quite posh. The waiters came by with trays of little finger sandwiches, pastries and cookies, and they had musicians playing some classic tunes like "Moon River." I would've stayed longer, but because I was there alone, they seated me away from everyone else, right next to the waiters' station, and I felt like a leper. But I had some delicious little bites to tide me over to dinner.
I don't really remember how we spent that evening, although I suspect Lance was at the casino (he spent a few evenings there playing Blackjack)...I know there was one night where I just wandered around the ship, listening to the music in the various public rooms. That could've been the night we left Poland. I know for sure that I attended the cruise director's lecture on Tallinn. Lance wasn't with me for that, but they show these lectures on the Princess channel later on in the evening, so he caught it then.
August 14 - Tallinn, Estonia
We weren't scheduled to arrive in Tallinn until after lunch, and we had to set the clock forward one hour, so we slept in to make up for that lost hour. There was an arts & crafts project scheduled in the Wheelhouse Bar at 10 AM, so I went to that. We made little gift boxes out of construction paper, without using any tape or glue. It was dead easy, and I made a little blue box. I was so proud. :)
We went on deck to watch the approach into Tallinn. The Old Town sits up on a hill (part of it, anyway) and we got a gorgeous view of it as we slipped into our berth. We docked next to a Royal Caribbean ship, and it was funny, because the people on our ship started making observations about that ship (one kid remarked about the giant slide in the kid's pool on the Royal Caribbean ship...the Star Princess had a tiny slide in a tiny kid's pool). People on the Royal Caribbean were waving at us and we were waving back.
Lance and I scheduled the EZ Tallinn tour, and we had hoped to have some extra time to explore the city on our own. But we found that impossible to do, since there wasn't a lot of time left after our tour, which took longer than it should have. Our guide was Marko and the driver was named Georg, and they took us through all of Tallinn. It's a very nice town. Tallinn, in fact, was a revelation. I expected it to be very much like Poland, with a bunch of depressing and ugly Communist buildings and a lot of graffiti. But in fact, it's very clean and thriving and modern. We saw very few areas that looked run-down. Tallinn looked very prosperous compared to Gdansk. I have to say that this was one of my favorite places during the cruise, but we picked a horrible tour. We very briefly went into the Old Town (which was, in my opinion, the best part). Tallinn's Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's one of the few European old towns that was untouched by the ravages of war, so it's remarkably well-preserved.
The tour took us past such sights St. Brigit's Convent, which is now in ruins. I didn't get a photo of it, because we were on the wrong side of the bus. We went past the Russalka Monument, which is a memorial to Russian sailors that died off the coast of Tallinn in the 19th century. We stopped at the Estonia Song Festival grounds, which is an important place for the Estonian people, because this was the site where 300,000 Estonians gathered to sing their national anthem, which was banned by the Soviets. It was their act of defiance toward the end of the Communist era. I took photos and bought a couple of souvenirs there. We also stopped near Kadriorg Palace - built by Peter the Great for his wife - but never actually got within sight of the palace. We had a brief photo stop to see part of the gardens, which are the most famous part of the palace.
We drove by the site for Olympic boating events from the 1980 Moscow Olympics...these events were held in Tallinn. The Olympic Village is now a hotel. No pictures of this, because it was a typical ugly gray concrete Soviet building.
Our last stop was the Upper Town, an area of the Old Town known as Toompea, where the Estonian Parliament is located. Across from the pink palace (Toompea Castle, the seat of government) sits Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church that is reviled by most of Tallinn's citizens. They wanted to tear it down, but it's good for tourism, so it remains. We visited this cathedral, although our tour guide refused to step foot inside (comparing notes with those on other tours, their guides also refused to go in).
We went in one other church, the Lutheran St. Mary's Church (also known as the Dome Church or Toomkirik), which was founded by the Danes in the 13th century. It is the oldest church in Estonia, and pictures weren't allowed inside.
And that was basically all we got to see in the Old Town. I was bitterly disappointed, because the pictures I saw in the cruise director's slideshow looked so tempting...the cobblestone streets were just begging to be explored.
Immediately after we got back to our stateroom, we grabbed our dirty laundry and high-tailed it down to the laundromat. We got a notice that the Star Princess would be shutting off the water supplies to the self-service and main laundry facilities, in order to conserve water while in St. Petersburg. So we figured that everyone would be trying to do their laundry that evening. Our timing could not be better. We found an available washer and dryer (note to potential cruise passengers: go to your local laundromat and pick up a tiny box of detergent to pack in your suitcase...bring your own dryer sheets, this stuff is expensive on the ship...and I thought ahead and brought our own)...and no sooner were we in business than half a dozen other people came in with their laundry (there are only 4 washers and dryers per self-service laundry, and there is one on almost every deck except the one we stayed on). HAHA. Lance and I congratulated ourselves on our impeccable timing...we're good like that. Although, don't do what Lance did...he thought he could get change down in the casino (the change machine in our particular laundry room was out of quarters), but he got slot machine tokens instead, so we had to go spend those later. HAHAHA.
We left Tallinn at 6, bound for St. Petersburg. Shortly after we left port, the captain came on the loudspeaker and announced that a lifeboat had been dispatched to pick up a passenger who missed the ship. They were very adamant about us being back onboard half an hour before departure, and made it clear that they weren't going to be held up for late-comers or stragglers. I guess it's good that I'm not the captain of the ship, because I would've left her there. But many of us watched as the lifeboat went back to shore and then returned, and applause started once the boat was lifted back up onto the ship. I'm sure the woman was mortified, and will never be late for anything ever again.
That night, Lance and I went to the Vista Lounge to see the comedic stylings of British funnyman Duggie Brown. He was really hilarious, and we very much enjoyed his show.
After that, it was off to bed, as we had to set the clock forward another hour, and be up before dawn to begin our 2 day Grand Tour of St. Petersburg.
Here's the next photo installment...some of the photos were taken through bus windows or without flash (most museums and churches prohibited flash photography), so the photos may have glare or be a little blurry. I haven't retouched any of these, as I have so many photos and not enough time, so some of the church photos are a bit dark.
~~ Click for photos ~~
Our day in Poland began early, so Lance and I were up before dawn to get ready for our shore excursion. We docked in Gdynia, which makes up part of the Tri-City area (Gdynia, the resort town of Sopot, and Gdansk).
We had chosen the Gdansk On Your Own tour, where the bus drives us through Gdynia and Sopot (not sorry we missed these, as neither town seemed to have anything that captured our interest) and through some of Gdansk until we reach the Old Town. There, we are dropped off and allowed 4 hours to explore on our own. This was ideal for us, because normally I really hate guided tours...I'm more of an independent traveler.
As we were driving toward Gdansk, our guide, Witek (a fresh-faced 19 year old who didn't even have his tour guide license yet), told us a little bit about the town's history and its most recent past with Communism. I thought Gdansk was pretty depressing. There was a lot of graffiti and run-down buildings and ugly Communist-era apartment complexes. The Old Town, however, is splendid...colorful and amazing and wondrous. It was rebuilt after almost complete destruction in World War II (Gdansk, in fact, is the site where the first shots of WWII were fired, at a place called Westerplatte). There are plenty of places around Gdansk that still haven't been cleaned up since the war, so we saw a few bombed-out shells of buildings here and there.
Once we were dropped off just outside the Old Town, Lance and I walked down what is called "The Royal Road" (AKA Long Street or Dlugi Targ in Polish), the route the kings and emissaries traveled when they came into Gdansk. It's a breathtakingly beautiful street, full of colorful buildings with very detailed paintings on their facades. It's flanked on both ends by gates: the Golden Gate and the Green Gate, which is now a gallery. There were two primary spots of interest in this street: the Old Town Hall and the Neptune Fountain.
The other main attraction in the town center is St. Mary's Church, which is the largest brick church in the world, and can hold 25,000 worshippers, although when we went inside, it didn't look that big. One of the most noteworthy treasures is the large crucifix that hangs near the altar. The sculptor who created it, as legend goes, nailed his son to a cross so that he could replicate the agony of Jesus' face (I heard this, I think, from our cruise director, but I can't find a source to corroborate it). There is also a medieval astronomical clock, and supposedly, the clockmaker's eyes were gouged out after he created it, so that he could never make one better than that. (I'm so glad I didn't live in medieval Poland.)
I liked walking along the river, where the ships came into Gdansk. The most noticeable sight here is Zuraw, a giant wooden crane from the 15th century, which was once used to hoist cargo onto ships. It now serves a purpose as part of Gdansk's Maritime Museum.
Lance and I didn't really do much in Gdansk. We just enjoyed ambling down the streets and I peeked into amber shops as we went. There is a big market for amber in the Baltic region, and for Gdansk in particular, and amber shops lined each street in the Old Town. Mariacka Street, which ends at St. Mary's Church, is the best place in town for amber shopping, and also considered to be the most scenic street in Gdansk (I liked the Royal Road better). It also has the oldest house in Gdansk, a tiny dwelling that is now a bed and breakfast.
Had we prepared better, we probably would've taken one of the boat tours to Westerplatte, but by the time we thought of it, we didn't have the time.
There seemed to be markets going on everywhere in Gdansk, and the town was swarming with people, particularly along the riverfront. We noticed many of them had their Princess Cruises stickers on (we took ours off, since we didn't want to be obvious as tourists). We were still obviously identified as Americans though, because some shady looking guy approached Lance on the street and offered to exchange his money. We already had zloty though, so we ignored him and moved on (and even if we didn't have zloty, we surely wouldn't be stupid enough to exchange money with a stranger on the street).
We didn't eat many meals off the ship during our cruise, but we had one here. I insisted that we had to eat pierogi, and I knew just where to go. The best pierogi restaurant in town is Pierogarnia u Dzika, so we went there around the time it opened, and ran into several other Star Princess passengers who were also grabbing a bite (apparently, word got around about this restaurant). Lance and I ordered one plate to share - Russian-style pierogi - which are filled with cottage cheese and herbs. The service was good and very fast (faster than you can get McDonald's here in Europe) and the pierogi was delicious.
We still had a little time after our light meal, so we browsed the souvenir shops until we found a place that sold Christmas ornaments. We bought a handpainted glass one with Zuraw on it, and then went to our meeting point for the bus. On the way back to the ship, Witek had the bus driver take us past the longest apartment building in the world - a Communist-era building that spans over 1 kilometer long. He said that people hate to live there, because the apartments are tiny and thousands upon thousands of people live in that one building. It also looked delapidated and falling into disrepair.
We got back on the Star Princess early in the afternoon. There was a pretty long line for boarding this time, and the lady behind us in line was whining very loudly about how she couldn't find any pierogi places in Gdansk. Lance and I were trying to stifle our laughter. HELLO! DO SOME RESEARCH! There is something called google.com, and if you type in "Gdansk, Poland," all these wonderful websites come up that tell you what to do and where to eat, etc. And even if you don't have internet, it's mentioned in the guidebooks (it's a HUGE pet peeve of mine when people don't read up about places before they visit, and then have the audacity to complain that they don't know what to see or where to eat...if you're investing that kind of money in a trip, you should know what you're getting, right?).
Anyway, once we got back to our room, Lance decided to go to a free gaming lesson in the casino. So while he was learning to play craps, I headed to the Portofino dining room for their afternoon tea. It was really quite posh. The waiters came by with trays of little finger sandwiches, pastries and cookies, and they had musicians playing some classic tunes like "Moon River." I would've stayed longer, but because I was there alone, they seated me away from everyone else, right next to the waiters' station, and I felt like a leper. But I had some delicious little bites to tide me over to dinner.
I don't really remember how we spent that evening, although I suspect Lance was at the casino (he spent a few evenings there playing Blackjack)...I know there was one night where I just wandered around the ship, listening to the music in the various public rooms. That could've been the night we left Poland. I know for sure that I attended the cruise director's lecture on Tallinn. Lance wasn't with me for that, but they show these lectures on the Princess channel later on in the evening, so he caught it then.
August 14 - Tallinn, Estonia
We weren't scheduled to arrive in Tallinn until after lunch, and we had to set the clock forward one hour, so we slept in to make up for that lost hour. There was an arts & crafts project scheduled in the Wheelhouse Bar at 10 AM, so I went to that. We made little gift boxes out of construction paper, without using any tape or glue. It was dead easy, and I made a little blue box. I was so proud. :)
We went on deck to watch the approach into Tallinn. The Old Town sits up on a hill (part of it, anyway) and we got a gorgeous view of it as we slipped into our berth. We docked next to a Royal Caribbean ship, and it was funny, because the people on our ship started making observations about that ship (one kid remarked about the giant slide in the kid's pool on the Royal Caribbean ship...the Star Princess had a tiny slide in a tiny kid's pool). People on the Royal Caribbean were waving at us and we were waving back.
Lance and I scheduled the EZ Tallinn tour, and we had hoped to have some extra time to explore the city on our own. But we found that impossible to do, since there wasn't a lot of time left after our tour, which took longer than it should have. Our guide was Marko and the driver was named Georg, and they took us through all of Tallinn. It's a very nice town. Tallinn, in fact, was a revelation. I expected it to be very much like Poland, with a bunch of depressing and ugly Communist buildings and a lot of graffiti. But in fact, it's very clean and thriving and modern. We saw very few areas that looked run-down. Tallinn looked very prosperous compared to Gdansk. I have to say that this was one of my favorite places during the cruise, but we picked a horrible tour. We very briefly went into the Old Town (which was, in my opinion, the best part). Tallinn's Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's one of the few European old towns that was untouched by the ravages of war, so it's remarkably well-preserved.
The tour took us past such sights St. Brigit's Convent, which is now in ruins. I didn't get a photo of it, because we were on the wrong side of the bus. We went past the Russalka Monument, which is a memorial to Russian sailors that died off the coast of Tallinn in the 19th century. We stopped at the Estonia Song Festival grounds, which is an important place for the Estonian people, because this was the site where 300,000 Estonians gathered to sing their national anthem, which was banned by the Soviets. It was their act of defiance toward the end of the Communist era. I took photos and bought a couple of souvenirs there. We also stopped near Kadriorg Palace - built by Peter the Great for his wife - but never actually got within sight of the palace. We had a brief photo stop to see part of the gardens, which are the most famous part of the palace.
We drove by the site for Olympic boating events from the 1980 Moscow Olympics...these events were held in Tallinn. The Olympic Village is now a hotel. No pictures of this, because it was a typical ugly gray concrete Soviet building.
Our last stop was the Upper Town, an area of the Old Town known as Toompea, where the Estonian Parliament is located. Across from the pink palace (Toompea Castle, the seat of government) sits Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church that is reviled by most of Tallinn's citizens. They wanted to tear it down, but it's good for tourism, so it remains. We visited this cathedral, although our tour guide refused to step foot inside (comparing notes with those on other tours, their guides also refused to go in).
We went in one other church, the Lutheran St. Mary's Church (also known as the Dome Church or Toomkirik), which was founded by the Danes in the 13th century. It is the oldest church in Estonia, and pictures weren't allowed inside.
And that was basically all we got to see in the Old Town. I was bitterly disappointed, because the pictures I saw in the cruise director's slideshow looked so tempting...the cobblestone streets were just begging to be explored.
Immediately after we got back to our stateroom, we grabbed our dirty laundry and high-tailed it down to the laundromat. We got a notice that the Star Princess would be shutting off the water supplies to the self-service and main laundry facilities, in order to conserve water while in St. Petersburg. So we figured that everyone would be trying to do their laundry that evening. Our timing could not be better. We found an available washer and dryer (note to potential cruise passengers: go to your local laundromat and pick up a tiny box of detergent to pack in your suitcase...bring your own dryer sheets, this stuff is expensive on the ship...and I thought ahead and brought our own)...and no sooner were we in business than half a dozen other people came in with their laundry (there are only 4 washers and dryers per self-service laundry, and there is one on almost every deck except the one we stayed on). HAHA. Lance and I congratulated ourselves on our impeccable timing...we're good like that. Although, don't do what Lance did...he thought he could get change down in the casino (the change machine in our particular laundry room was out of quarters), but he got slot machine tokens instead, so we had to go spend those later. HAHAHA.
We left Tallinn at 6, bound for St. Petersburg. Shortly after we left port, the captain came on the loudspeaker and announced that a lifeboat had been dispatched to pick up a passenger who missed the ship. They were very adamant about us being back onboard half an hour before departure, and made it clear that they weren't going to be held up for late-comers or stragglers. I guess it's good that I'm not the captain of the ship, because I would've left her there. But many of us watched as the lifeboat went back to shore and then returned, and applause started once the boat was lifted back up onto the ship. I'm sure the woman was mortified, and will never be late for anything ever again.
That night, Lance and I went to the Vista Lounge to see the comedic stylings of British funnyman Duggie Brown. He was really hilarious, and we very much enjoyed his show.
After that, it was off to bed, as we had to set the clock forward another hour, and be up before dawn to begin our 2 day Grand Tour of St. Petersburg.
Here's the next photo installment...some of the photos were taken through bus windows or without flash (most museums and churches prohibited flash photography), so the photos may have glare or be a little blurry. I haven't retouched any of these, as I have so many photos and not enough time, so some of the church photos are a bit dark.
~~ Click for photos ~~
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Baltic Cruise, part 1: Copenhagen, Oslo, and at sea
August 10 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Lance and I got a very early start even though the Star Princess wasn't due to set sail until 9 PM. Our flight to Copenhagen from Dusseldorf was at 6:30 AM, and we took the train from Geilenkirchen, so we left at 3:16 AM on the train. This resulted in us not really going to bed that night at all. I took a long nap from about 7:30-11:30 PM or so...Lance slept for an hour around dinner time. So groggily, we got ourselves through, and Lance rewarded himself with a nice nap on the flight, which was less than an hour.
We got into Copenhagen airport around 8 AM (the flight left a bit late out of Dusseldorf) and very quickly got our luggage. There was a counter with the Princess Cruises logo, which was presumably where we were to meet up with the agent who was to assist us with the transfer to the ship. But nobody was to be found (although the Holland America agent was there at their respective counter), so we walked all over baggage claim until we found a person in a Princess Cruises uniform, who led us to another person outside customs, who led us to another person, etc. etc. Through this process, we dropped off our luggage and found our transfer bus.
Once the bus was full (this took awhile), we set out into Copenhagen toward the area where Star Princess was berthed. I was getting excited at the brief glimpse I got of the city. We got there so early...surely we would have time to do some sightseeing prior to setting off.
I thought wrong. The Star Princess berth was a million miles from anywhere, and once we got off the bus, we were herded into a holding tent, where they gave us some tea or coffee and made us take a number and sit. Lance and I were lucky...we were in the 3rd group for boarding, so once they actually started checking people in (which was between 11 and noon...we had been in the tent for at least two hours), we were one of the earliest groups. We were issued our cruise cards, and then we were allowed to board.
Our room was on deck 14 (Lido), which is (no bias here) the best deck on the ship. It's basically the main deck, with two pools, 4 jacuzzis, several bars, a pizzeria, an ice cream parlor, a hamburger/hotdog grill and...the best part...THE 24 HOUR BUFFET! We settled into our cabin, which didn't take long, because our luggage had yet to arrive. We grabbed some pizza for lunch, took a quick walk around the ship (we determined that everything else important was on deck 7 - Promenade, and deck 6, which is where the casino was located), and then took a nap. Our steward woke us up when our luggage arrived a few hours later.
So basically, we hung out on the ship all day, which was cool. Lance bought the $3.95/day "all you can drink" Coca-Cola offer because he drinks so much soda and the prices on the ship for it are ridiculous...and he got his little souvenir Coca-Cola cup for refills, so he was good to go. We had the boring Muster Drill, which is a requirement on every cruise, but also very important. We ate at the buffet in the evening (we somehow got scheduled for late seating in the formal dining room, and Lance hates all the pretentiousness of the main dining areas anyway) and spent some time in our cabin unpacking and hanging up clothes. We watched part of a movie in our room (we have no television at home currently, so having TV is quite decadent for us). We set sail at 9, so we made sure to be on deck for that. With very little fanfare, we were off, heading toward Oslo.
August 11 - Oslo, Norway
We slept in the next morning and woke up to a damp and chilly day. The hamburger joint had an omelet station set up for breakfast, so we ate there and had a leisurely morning. We weren't scheduled to arrive in Oslo until after lunch, but we were quietly slipping through the fjords for hours, which were just beautiful. We watched most of it from the Promenade Deck, and I had my camera with me.
When we arrived in Oslo, we pulled up right in the center of town, next to Akershus Castle, which is the only building in Oslo (I think) that still exists from medieval times. The city hall, which is quite unattractive, was only about 5 minutes away. We had a brief tour scheduled called EZ Oslo, which was just a 2 hour bus tour around the city, so we were excited to be so close to town, because we planned to do some exploring on our own. I liked this tour. Our guide was Anna and our bus driver, in typically Norwegian fashion, was named Thor.
While I didn't find Oslo to be beautiful - it's not full of old buildings - it is elegant. A Norwegian acquaintance of mine, who hails from Bergen, told me that Oslo has no soul, but I don't think I would agree with that. There is a definite spirit in the town...a certain atmosphere that I could just feel everywhere we went. That was most apparent at Holmenkollen, the huge ski jumping site where Olympic events were held in 1952. Oslo residents love and cherish this place because of their deep and abiding love for sports, and it's going to be torn down next year, so I feel fortunate that we had the chance to see it. It will be replaced by a new, more modern ski jump. The views from up there were astonishingly beautiful.
The tour stopped at Holmenkollen and one other good scenic point for pictures, but mostly we just drove around the town. The waterfront area is being totally reconstructed, so Oslo's skyline is punctuated by cranes. We passed the main shopping area, which is on Henrik Ibsen Street, an avenue that comes to an end at the Royal Palace, which Lance and I later visited on our own (not inside).
Anyway, after the drive around, we were dropped off at the ship and Lance and I began our own exploration of Oslo. At this point, a motorboat grand prix was taking place around our ship, so there were a lot of people at the harbor area. We walked into the shopping area and up to the Royal Palace and back. I was getting peckish, so we stopped in a 7-Eleven (they had tons of these all over Scandinavia...so odd, but they don't serve Slurpees) and I bought a delicious piece of toffee cake and a postcard.
We then walked around the grounds of Akershus Castle. There was a military wedding going on there, so we didn't have much access to it, but we did go into the Museum of Resistance, which documents the Norwegian Resistance Movement during WWII. Unfortunately, we got there 10 minutes before closing, so we couldn't spend a lot of time, but at least the admission was free.
Before getting back on the ship, we browsed the duty free shops right by the berth. We found an Oslo Christmas ornament (it is our tradition to buy an ornament at each place we visit together so we can reminisce as we decorate our tree), bought some chocolate bars (Norwegian milk chocolate is incredible...Lance brings some home for me whenever he goes TDY to Norway) and a Cola Light for me (because I don't drink very much soda and can get by with buying one at port).
We left Oslo early in the evening and set off toward Poland, which meant a full day at sea the following day. That night we saw a show in the Princess Theatre...it was with the Star Princess singers and dancers, and it was their homage to the movies. They had songs from classics from Singing in the Rain to Mary Poppins to Dirty Dancing and they also sang a number from Titanic without the slightest hint of irony. Overall, it was a very entertaining show. Afterwards, we went to some Big Band performance in one of the lounges and watched other people dance while we had a couple of drinks (Bellini for me, beer for Lance).
August 12 - at sea (bound for Gdynia, Poland)
The next day was a leisurely day at sea. I don't really remember us doing much, although we attended the cruise director's lecture on St. Petersburg late in the morning. Early in the afternoon, we passed under the Great Belt Bridge, which connects the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen. It used to be the longest bridge in the world. It almost looked like we wouldn't make it, but the Star Princess has passed this way many times. It caused quite a stir though...many people were out on the deck with their cameras (including me). It was a tight fit, but we made it. :)
I went to a seminar in the gym at 3:30, and since that evening was the first formal evening (we opted out), we had almost the entire Lido deck to ourselves. So we relaxed in the jacuzzi and I went to the gym too, since the gym was basically empty. That was our first day at sea...boring, but actually quite nice and peaceful.
Now, here are photos from those first 3 days...some of them were taken through rain-streaked bus windows, so excuse the raindrops in the photos. Coming up next: Gdansk and Tallinn.
~~ Pictures! ~~
Lance and I got a very early start even though the Star Princess wasn't due to set sail until 9 PM. Our flight to Copenhagen from Dusseldorf was at 6:30 AM, and we took the train from Geilenkirchen, so we left at 3:16 AM on the train. This resulted in us not really going to bed that night at all. I took a long nap from about 7:30-11:30 PM or so...Lance slept for an hour around dinner time. So groggily, we got ourselves through, and Lance rewarded himself with a nice nap on the flight, which was less than an hour.
We got into Copenhagen airport around 8 AM (the flight left a bit late out of Dusseldorf) and very quickly got our luggage. There was a counter with the Princess Cruises logo, which was presumably where we were to meet up with the agent who was to assist us with the transfer to the ship. But nobody was to be found (although the Holland America agent was there at their respective counter), so we walked all over baggage claim until we found a person in a Princess Cruises uniform, who led us to another person outside customs, who led us to another person, etc. etc. Through this process, we dropped off our luggage and found our transfer bus.
Once the bus was full (this took awhile), we set out into Copenhagen toward the area where Star Princess was berthed. I was getting excited at the brief glimpse I got of the city. We got there so early...surely we would have time to do some sightseeing prior to setting off.
I thought wrong. The Star Princess berth was a million miles from anywhere, and once we got off the bus, we were herded into a holding tent, where they gave us some tea or coffee and made us take a number and sit. Lance and I were lucky...we were in the 3rd group for boarding, so once they actually started checking people in (which was between 11 and noon...we had been in the tent for at least two hours), we were one of the earliest groups. We were issued our cruise cards, and then we were allowed to board.
Our room was on deck 14 (Lido), which is (no bias here) the best deck on the ship. It's basically the main deck, with two pools, 4 jacuzzis, several bars, a pizzeria, an ice cream parlor, a hamburger/hotdog grill and...the best part...THE 24 HOUR BUFFET! We settled into our cabin, which didn't take long, because our luggage had yet to arrive. We grabbed some pizza for lunch, took a quick walk around the ship (we determined that everything else important was on deck 7 - Promenade, and deck 6, which is where the casino was located), and then took a nap. Our steward woke us up when our luggage arrived a few hours later.
So basically, we hung out on the ship all day, which was cool. Lance bought the $3.95/day "all you can drink" Coca-Cola offer because he drinks so much soda and the prices on the ship for it are ridiculous...and he got his little souvenir Coca-Cola cup for refills, so he was good to go. We had the boring Muster Drill, which is a requirement on every cruise, but also very important. We ate at the buffet in the evening (we somehow got scheduled for late seating in the formal dining room, and Lance hates all the pretentiousness of the main dining areas anyway) and spent some time in our cabin unpacking and hanging up clothes. We watched part of a movie in our room (we have no television at home currently, so having TV is quite decadent for us). We set sail at 9, so we made sure to be on deck for that. With very little fanfare, we were off, heading toward Oslo.
August 11 - Oslo, Norway
We slept in the next morning and woke up to a damp and chilly day. The hamburger joint had an omelet station set up for breakfast, so we ate there and had a leisurely morning. We weren't scheduled to arrive in Oslo until after lunch, but we were quietly slipping through the fjords for hours, which were just beautiful. We watched most of it from the Promenade Deck, and I had my camera with me.
When we arrived in Oslo, we pulled up right in the center of town, next to Akershus Castle, which is the only building in Oslo (I think) that still exists from medieval times. The city hall, which is quite unattractive, was only about 5 minutes away. We had a brief tour scheduled called EZ Oslo, which was just a 2 hour bus tour around the city, so we were excited to be so close to town, because we planned to do some exploring on our own. I liked this tour. Our guide was Anna and our bus driver, in typically Norwegian fashion, was named Thor.
While I didn't find Oslo to be beautiful - it's not full of old buildings - it is elegant. A Norwegian acquaintance of mine, who hails from Bergen, told me that Oslo has no soul, but I don't think I would agree with that. There is a definite spirit in the town...a certain atmosphere that I could just feel everywhere we went. That was most apparent at Holmenkollen, the huge ski jumping site where Olympic events were held in 1952. Oslo residents love and cherish this place because of their deep and abiding love for sports, and it's going to be torn down next year, so I feel fortunate that we had the chance to see it. It will be replaced by a new, more modern ski jump. The views from up there were astonishingly beautiful.
The tour stopped at Holmenkollen and one other good scenic point for pictures, but mostly we just drove around the town. The waterfront area is being totally reconstructed, so Oslo's skyline is punctuated by cranes. We passed the main shopping area, which is on Henrik Ibsen Street, an avenue that comes to an end at the Royal Palace, which Lance and I later visited on our own (not inside).
Anyway, after the drive around, we were dropped off at the ship and Lance and I began our own exploration of Oslo. At this point, a motorboat grand prix was taking place around our ship, so there were a lot of people at the harbor area. We walked into the shopping area and up to the Royal Palace and back. I was getting peckish, so we stopped in a 7-Eleven (they had tons of these all over Scandinavia...so odd, but they don't serve Slurpees) and I bought a delicious piece of toffee cake and a postcard.
We then walked around the grounds of Akershus Castle. There was a military wedding going on there, so we didn't have much access to it, but we did go into the Museum of Resistance, which documents the Norwegian Resistance Movement during WWII. Unfortunately, we got there 10 minutes before closing, so we couldn't spend a lot of time, but at least the admission was free.
Before getting back on the ship, we browsed the duty free shops right by the berth. We found an Oslo Christmas ornament (it is our tradition to buy an ornament at each place we visit together so we can reminisce as we decorate our tree), bought some chocolate bars (Norwegian milk chocolate is incredible...Lance brings some home for me whenever he goes TDY to Norway) and a Cola Light for me (because I don't drink very much soda and can get by with buying one at port).
We left Oslo early in the evening and set off toward Poland, which meant a full day at sea the following day. That night we saw a show in the Princess Theatre...it was with the Star Princess singers and dancers, and it was their homage to the movies. They had songs from classics from Singing in the Rain to Mary Poppins to Dirty Dancing and they also sang a number from Titanic without the slightest hint of irony. Overall, it was a very entertaining show. Afterwards, we went to some Big Band performance in one of the lounges and watched other people dance while we had a couple of drinks (Bellini for me, beer for Lance).
August 12 - at sea (bound for Gdynia, Poland)
The next day was a leisurely day at sea. I don't really remember us doing much, although we attended the cruise director's lecture on St. Petersburg late in the morning. Early in the afternoon, we passed under the Great Belt Bridge, which connects the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen. It used to be the longest bridge in the world. It almost looked like we wouldn't make it, but the Star Princess has passed this way many times. It caused quite a stir though...many people were out on the deck with their cameras (including me). It was a tight fit, but we made it. :)
I went to a seminar in the gym at 3:30, and since that evening was the first formal evening (we opted out), we had almost the entire Lido deck to ourselves. So we relaxed in the jacuzzi and I went to the gym too, since the gym was basically empty. That was our first day at sea...boring, but actually quite nice and peaceful.
Now, here are photos from those first 3 days...some of them were taken through rain-streaked bus windows, so excuse the raindrops in the photos. Coming up next: Gdansk and Tallinn.
~~ Pictures! ~~
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Gone Cruisin'
Look forward to a rather lengthy trip report and photos coming soon. We're about to get started on our 10 day Baltic cruise on the Star Princess.
Here's our itinerary:
August 10 - Copenhagen, Denmark (depart 9:00 PM)
August 11 - Oslo, Norway (arrive 12:30 PM, depart 7:30PM)
August 12 - at sea
August 13 - Gdansk (Gdynia), Poland (arrive 7:00 AM, depart 3:00 PM)
August 14 - Tallinn, Estonia (arrive 12:00 PM, depart 6:00 PM)
August 15 - St. Petersburg, Russia (arrive 6:30 AM)
August 16 - St. Petersburg, Russia (depart 6:00 PM)
August 17 - Helsinki, Finland (arrive 7:00 AM, depart 4:00 PM)
August 18 - Stockholm, Sweden (arrive 8:00 AM, depart 3:00 PM)
August 19 - at sea
August 20 - Copenhagen, Denmark (arrive 5:00 AM)
So expect to see a post on here within a few days after our return, once I go through all the photos, which will take some time.
I'm sad that we only get about 6-7 hours in each port (and probably 2 of those hours are going to be spent going through the chaos of disembarkation/embarkation). I expect this to be so much fun though. It's our first cruise, and we lucked out and got digs on the Lido deck, so we're close to the 24 hour buffet, 2 swimming pools (one is indoors) and jacuzzis, a pizzeria, and a hamburger/hotdog grill.
Hoping the weather stays nice. The forecast looks good for the first few days at least...low 70's for the high and cloudy, maybe some rain. I packed both sunscreen and a rain jacket. We should be prepared for all types of weather and situations...and it's important to pack clothes that can be dressed up or down, since there are so many events on a cruise that require being somewhat dressy (we're skipping both formal nights...packing formal wear is just too much hassle, and we'd spend all our time at the formal dinner wishing we were lounging around in our jammies anyway).
You can follow us on our cruise on the Star Princess Bridge Cam.
Here's our itinerary:
August 10 - Copenhagen, Denmark (depart 9:00 PM)
August 11 - Oslo, Norway (arrive 12:30 PM, depart 7:30PM)
August 12 - at sea
August 13 - Gdansk (Gdynia), Poland (arrive 7:00 AM, depart 3:00 PM)
August 14 - Tallinn, Estonia (arrive 12:00 PM, depart 6:00 PM)
August 15 - St. Petersburg, Russia (arrive 6:30 AM)
August 16 - St. Petersburg, Russia (depart 6:00 PM)
August 17 - Helsinki, Finland (arrive 7:00 AM, depart 4:00 PM)
August 18 - Stockholm, Sweden (arrive 8:00 AM, depart 3:00 PM)
August 19 - at sea
August 20 - Copenhagen, Denmark (arrive 5:00 AM)
So expect to see a post on here within a few days after our return, once I go through all the photos, which will take some time.
I'm sad that we only get about 6-7 hours in each port (and probably 2 of those hours are going to be spent going through the chaos of disembarkation/embarkation). I expect this to be so much fun though. It's our first cruise, and we lucked out and got digs on the Lido deck, so we're close to the 24 hour buffet, 2 swimming pools (one is indoors) and jacuzzis, a pizzeria, and a hamburger/hotdog grill.
Hoping the weather stays nice. The forecast looks good for the first few days at least...low 70's for the high and cloudy, maybe some rain. I packed both sunscreen and a rain jacket. We should be prepared for all types of weather and situations...and it's important to pack clothes that can be dressed up or down, since there are so many events on a cruise that require being somewhat dressy (we're skipping both formal nights...packing formal wear is just too much hassle, and we'd spend all our time at the formal dinner wishing we were lounging around in our jammies anyway).
You can follow us on our cruise on the Star Princess Bridge Cam.
Friday, August 3, 2007
A couple of useful travel sites
I love Trip Advisor. I loved them before they even started sending me free stuff. That's the first website I consult when I'm looking at hotels. The reviews are very helpful in allowing me to determine if the place is crawling with roaches, or if it's top notch.
(It's especially helpful when you're a travel guide writer and you can only choose 2-3 hotels to include, out of several hundred in any given city.)
Anyway, I am a registered user of Trip Advisor. And I guess it has its perks, because in the past few months, I have received a backpack (with their logo on it, so I would never actually travel with it, but it's good for library trips, for example) and yesterday, a luggage tag. The luggage tag is especially nice, because I have a nondescript red suitcase with a black leather luggage tag, and people are always trying to abscond with it (the suitcase, that is, not the luggage tag). This bright green luggage tag with the tripadvisor.com logo will make it stand out more. (Aside: I have always wanted to get one of those luggage tags that say "THIS IS NOT YOUR BAG!" to put on my suitcase.)
So anyway...YAY! Free stuff! And it's just a darn good website. So go and check it out already.
I know it's already included in my list of Useful Travel Websites on the right hand side of this blog, but people usually ignore those lists.
Also, a shout out for sidestep.com. Now, admittedly, I am a little biased, as I am currently working for this website as an independent contractor (in layman's terms, I am one member of their writing staff who is writing travel guides for use on the website). But my husband finds this website extremely useful. He can search airfares with it, and it will give him the lowest prices quoted by almost every travel booking site (expedia, travelocity, orbitz, etc.) as well as the prices quoted directly from the airlines. This saves you from having to do a price comparison on each site individually. He is now a fan of sidestep.com.
***
In other news, we are leaving for our Baltic cruise ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!! And because I evidently don't have enough to do already, I've been obsessed with checking out the webcam from our ship, the Star Princess. It's currently doing a Baltic tour, but with a slightly different itinerary than the one we're doing (and it seems to be doing it in reverse). I first checked out the webcam a little over a week ago, and saw that the ship was in Italy. Then I watched its voyage from Italy to Copenhagen, from whence it departed on Tuesday. Most of the images were of the sea only...no land (and occasionally, you can see one of the ship's decks). But yesterday, I looked on the webcam to find a beautiful image of Stockholm, Sweden! Today, it is in Helsinki, but you can't see much. I'm following it all the way through this cruise, and it will be returning into the port in Copenhagen the morning that we arrive there (we don't depart until evening). Anyway, it's making me really excited about the trip. I'm getting a little preview of what we're going to see.
(It's especially helpful when you're a travel guide writer and you can only choose 2-3 hotels to include, out of several hundred in any given city.)
Anyway, I am a registered user of Trip Advisor. And I guess it has its perks, because in the past few months, I have received a backpack (with their logo on it, so I would never actually travel with it, but it's good for library trips, for example) and yesterday, a luggage tag. The luggage tag is especially nice, because I have a nondescript red suitcase with a black leather luggage tag, and people are always trying to abscond with it (the suitcase, that is, not the luggage tag). This bright green luggage tag with the tripadvisor.com logo will make it stand out more. (Aside: I have always wanted to get one of those luggage tags that say "THIS IS NOT YOUR BAG!" to put on my suitcase.)
So anyway...YAY! Free stuff! And it's just a darn good website. So go and check it out already.
I know it's already included in my list of Useful Travel Websites on the right hand side of this blog, but people usually ignore those lists.
Also, a shout out for sidestep.com. Now, admittedly, I am a little biased, as I am currently working for this website as an independent contractor (in layman's terms, I am one member of their writing staff who is writing travel guides for use on the website). But my husband finds this website extremely useful. He can search airfares with it, and it will give him the lowest prices quoted by almost every travel booking site (expedia, travelocity, orbitz, etc.) as well as the prices quoted directly from the airlines. This saves you from having to do a price comparison on each site individually. He is now a fan of sidestep.com.
In other news, we are leaving for our Baltic cruise ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!! And because I evidently don't have enough to do already, I've been obsessed with checking out the webcam from our ship, the Star Princess. It's currently doing a Baltic tour, but with a slightly different itinerary than the one we're doing (and it seems to be doing it in reverse). I first checked out the webcam a little over a week ago, and saw that the ship was in Italy. Then I watched its voyage from Italy to Copenhagen, from whence it departed on Tuesday. Most of the images were of the sea only...no land (and occasionally, you can see one of the ship's decks). But yesterday, I looked on the webcam to find a beautiful image of Stockholm, Sweden! Today, it is in Helsinki, but you can't see much. I'm following it all the way through this cruise, and it will be returning into the port in Copenhagen the morning that we arrive there (we don't depart until evening). Anyway, it's making me really excited about the trip. I'm getting a little preview of what we're going to see.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Revisiting Valkenburg
The first time I ever visited Valkenburg was in December 2004, when I went there with Lance, my aunt, and my cousin to see the Christmas markets in the cave. Valkenburg is very festive at Christmas, but it's also a lovely town...one that I wanted to visit again. I haven't had the chance to do so.
Until today.
I have an assignment to write an article about Valkenburg's caves for Geotimes, a publication of the American Geological Institute. So I went with my friend Christine today to do the tour of the cave. I chose to visit the Fluweelengrot (Velvet Cave), which is the same cave that I visited the last time. I wanted to see it without all the booths set up that were selling tacky Christmas tchotchkes. It was like I was seeing the cave for the first time.
There are also the Municipal Caves, but we opted out of taking that tour.
I have to say, the atmosphere was entirely different. You have to take a guided tour...it would be very easy to get lost in the caves, and in fact, two teenagers did get lost in them and died. The tour guide wanted us to imagine what that was like, and he turned out all the lights. Pitch blackness swallowed us, giving us the sense of what it was like to be trapped inside the cave.
Aside from a few lights here and there, and some candles, the cave is mostly unlit. During much of the tour, we were swathed in darkness (which is why some of my pictures came out weird...I waited until after the group had moved on before pointing my camera on something I couldn't see and clicking). The tour was in Dutch, but we had the benefit of a paper that explained everything in English, and the tour guide and one of the other tourists were both very helpful in explaining things to us in English.
My favorite part was the chapel, where secret masses were held during the French occupation of Valkenburg. There are also some beautifully elaborate carvings and paintings, which were generally done by the light of a candle or a small oil lamp. Many of the images in the cave were done 100-150 years ago. At one section, you can see the names and silhouettes of the American GIs carved into the stone...they hid in the caves with the locals during the waning days of World War II.
Some of the local buildings were made from the marlstone mined from the caves. The castle is the most prominent (no photographs of that...it was covered in scaffolding), but I noticed that one of the local churches was made of that material too, as were several other buildings scattered throughout town.
The tour took about an hour, and afterwards, we had lunch (I don't really remember the name of the place, but lunch wasn't anything really special anyway...good, but standard stuff). We did a little bit of browsing in the shops. I bought some chocolates at De Babbelaer Chocolat & Sweets, and then we left.
Other than the driving to and from (always a pain for me), it was a great day. Perfect weather (although it's chilly in the cave, so bring a sweater)...couldn't have asked for better.
I'll post a link to the article once it's published.
(Disclaimer: Some of these pictures had to be seriously retouched because of how dark it was in the caves. The colors represented in the photos are not necessarily how the images appeared in person, but probably more accurately represent what the images actually look like with the benefit of full light).
Photos
Until today.
I have an assignment to write an article about Valkenburg's caves for Geotimes, a publication of the American Geological Institute. So I went with my friend Christine today to do the tour of the cave. I chose to visit the Fluweelengrot (Velvet Cave), which is the same cave that I visited the last time. I wanted to see it without all the booths set up that were selling tacky Christmas tchotchkes. It was like I was seeing the cave for the first time.
There are also the Municipal Caves, but we opted out of taking that tour.
I have to say, the atmosphere was entirely different. You have to take a guided tour...it would be very easy to get lost in the caves, and in fact, two teenagers did get lost in them and died. The tour guide wanted us to imagine what that was like, and he turned out all the lights. Pitch blackness swallowed us, giving us the sense of what it was like to be trapped inside the cave.
Aside from a few lights here and there, and some candles, the cave is mostly unlit. During much of the tour, we were swathed in darkness (which is why some of my pictures came out weird...I waited until after the group had moved on before pointing my camera on something I couldn't see and clicking). The tour was in Dutch, but we had the benefit of a paper that explained everything in English, and the tour guide and one of the other tourists were both very helpful in explaining things to us in English.
My favorite part was the chapel, where secret masses were held during the French occupation of Valkenburg. There are also some beautifully elaborate carvings and paintings, which were generally done by the light of a candle or a small oil lamp. Many of the images in the cave were done 100-150 years ago. At one section, you can see the names and silhouettes of the American GIs carved into the stone...they hid in the caves with the locals during the waning days of World War II.
Some of the local buildings were made from the marlstone mined from the caves. The castle is the most prominent (no photographs of that...it was covered in scaffolding), but I noticed that one of the local churches was made of that material too, as were several other buildings scattered throughout town.
The tour took about an hour, and afterwards, we had lunch (I don't really remember the name of the place, but lunch wasn't anything really special anyway...good, but standard stuff). We did a little bit of browsing in the shops. I bought some chocolates at De Babbelaer Chocolat & Sweets, and then we left.
Other than the driving to and from (always a pain for me), it was a great day. Perfect weather (although it's chilly in the cave, so bring a sweater)...couldn't have asked for better.
I'll post a link to the article once it's published.
(Disclaimer: Some of these pictures had to be seriously retouched because of how dark it was in the caves. The colors represented in the photos are not necessarily how the images appeared in person, but probably more accurately represent what the images actually look like with the benefit of full light).
Photos
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
My Village
Here are some pictures of where I live. This historic steam locomotive is a small tourist attraction in the area, and I live directly across the street from it. Other than the smoke getting in our house, it hasn't been a problem. The other photos are just things that caught my eye - old interesting houses or the local horses and cows (I like to go back behind my house by the pastures with carrots for the horses, and I can usually get cows to come up to me too, even though they are generally pretty shy).
Pictures were taken last summer...I was playing with black and white film and my cumbersome professional camera (I usually carry a small digital camera for practical reasons). Of course, I had to resize them to fit Blogger, so you miss a lot of the detail.
Pictures were taken last summer...I was playing with black and white film and my cumbersome professional camera (I usually carry a small digital camera for practical reasons). Of course, I had to resize them to fit Blogger, so you miss a lot of the detail.
Friday, July 20, 2007
One quick plug for International Women's Club
For GK women who haven't joined the International Women's Club yet, I would highly recommend it. It's a great way to meet other women from various nationalities, and get to sample other cultures and foods. Some of the best friends I have made here have been through IWC, and being a member of IWC gave me the chance to go to Istanbul, one of the most incredible journeys I have ever experienced.
Here's the blog, where you can take a look at all the fun and the great food you can have. The lovely Tiffany, the American representative, is in charge of that blog, and she has another one with useful information about GK and the local area.
http://iwcogk.blogspot.com/
and
http://www.livingingk.blogspot.com/
Here's a great picture of us American ladies in our 50's sock hop finery in an entry made in January. I am the one in the awesome catseye glasses who is kneeling in the front. Behold my coolness! Hehe.
Here's the blog, where you can take a look at all the fun and the great food you can have. The lovely Tiffany, the American representative, is in charge of that blog, and she has another one with useful information about GK and the local area.
http://iwcogk.blogspot.com/
and
http://www.livingingk.blogspot.com/
Here's a great picture of us American ladies in our 50's sock hop finery in an entry made in January. I am the one in the awesome catseye glasses who is kneeling in the front. Behold my coolness! Hehe.
Local Eats: The Good, The Bad, and the Downright Indigestible
I know at some point that some local area folks may stumble on this blog through word of mouth (thanks mostly to Tiffany, who linked to this blog via her Living in GK blog). Anyway...
Hi folks!
This post is prompted by the unpleasant meal my husband and I just had at Restaurant Mendoza, an Argentine steakhouse that opened recently in Gangelt. I believe it's owned by the same people who operate El Toro Napoli in Gillrath. The fact that both restaurants have identical menus would be a clue, and I do believe the old guy that was working at Mendoza this evening was the same one who waited on us at El Toro Napoli the one time we went there.
The good: the ambience was nice, for the most part (much nicer than at El Toro Napoli). It was nicely furnished and tastefully decorated. It's also HUGE...this restaurant can definitely accommodate crowds. The staff was also very nice, although the service was very slow. It took ages to get our food, which in hindsight, probably wasn't a bad thing.
The bad: the muzak made me want to stab out my eardrums with a fork. It didn't help that I was sitting right under the speaker. And it's too loud for soft conversation. I'm also not sure that Mendoza had English menus. But unless they offer, we don't usually get them...we can read German menus just fine.
The indigestible: Lance described his Spaghetti Al Forno as bland. I had gyro meat on macaroni with spinach and mushrooms, swimming in a cream sauce. The meat was full of gristle and fat and virtually inedible. The cream sauce was way too runny. I was also allowed a salad from the salad bar (they have an evening buffet), and the salad bar only had shredded lettuce, pickled cabbage, green beans, beets, corn and dressing. That's it. They served rolls with 2 kinds of spread (tzatziki and some kind of spicy pimento spread...I stuck with the tzatziki), but since Lance doesn't eat that stuff, he ate the rolls plain and said they weren't very good. Hence, the need for spread.
Of course, it's a steakhouse and we didn't eat steak. But after the meal we had, we won't be rushing out to try their steak anytime soon.
(I think it's safe to say that we don't endorse El Toro Napoli either...while the meal I had there was fine, Lance didn't get what he ordered, and I didn't care for the ambience).
***
Restaurants we do recommend:
- Carpaccio, Geilenkirchen (Italian): I'm sure you have all eaten here already, since most of you have probably stayed at the City Hotel. I won't bore you with the details.
- Il Genio, various locations (Italian): Everyone knows this place by now. I like the ones in Gillrath and Gangelt the best. There is also Paganini, a new Italian place in Rischden...I've eaten there twice and find it quite similar to Il Genio, although the muzak at this restaurant also makes me go stabbity. It was Andrea Bocelli the first time, which would've been fine at a lower volume. The last time, it was pan flute music.
- Cam Nguyen, Geilenkirchen (Chinese): My favorite lunch spot, and where my friends and I agree to get together 9 times out of 10. It's also very cheap.
- Brasserie Murphy's, Sittard (International): A place some friends and I discovered back in March when the restaurant where we wanted to eat was booked up. I'm glad we ended up here. The food was amazing and served with a very artistic presentation. I ended up having my birthday dinner here last month. The portion sizes are huge and the menu prices are extremely reasonable. Try the tilapia.
- O Portugues, Tuddern (Portuguese): Hands down, the BEST chicken I've ever had in my life. And the fried potatoes that accompanied it were heaven on a plate. This place is popular for its all you can eat shrimp (gambas) night on Tuesdays.
- Paella, Aachen (Spanish): I almost never eat anywhere else but here when I'm in Aachen. Their lunch buffet is TO DIE FOR, and it's less than 5 euros. Apparently, their tapas is very very popular, but they only serve that for supper, and I've only been at Paella during lunch.
- Cafe Madrid, Heinsberg (Spanish): My favorite place of all time. The tapas here is magnificent. I've never been to Spain, but my friends who have say that this tapas far surpasses anything they had there. The guy that owns the place (he is Spanish, by the way) gives fantastic service, and he's also a terrible flirt (it works...he feigned devastating heartbreak because I didn't want to try his coffee. So I did. And I don't even really like coffee. But the "Spanish coffee" was actually good). My first lunch here is one of my most memorable meals of all time. I was astounded by how good it was.
- Steakhouse Mujo, Geilenkirchen and Ubach-Palenberg (International): Okay...HERE is where we go when we're actually in the mood for steak. Although I've never actually had the steak here...the first time we ate here, I had the lamb. The second time, I had salmon. Both were very good.
- Side Grill, Geilenkirchen (Turkish): This is a hole-in-the-wall place (it's right next door to Cam Nguyen), but by gosh, they serve some of the finest doner kebap I've ever had. (Another good place is the doner kebap shack on the main drag in Birgden...I don't think it has a name).
- El Greco, Stahe (Greek): You've all seen this place...it's right on the B56. Their bifteki is wonderful. But you have to really love meat to eat here. I mean, you have to REALLY love meat. The last time I ate there, I got by with stuffed mushrooms from the appetizer menu and a small side salad (but the mushrooms were still stuffed with meat).
- El Comal, Brunssum (Mexican): This is probably about as close as you're going to get to the Mexican you can eat in the States. This is also likely to give you a huge stomach ache the next day. But hey, it was good. I've heard rumors of a mariachi band playing here on occasion. Ole! (By the way, I have eaten at the Mexican place in Aachen before - Sausalito's - some friends swear by this place. The one time I ate there, the food I ordered - a veggie tostada - was just weird. But it was still perfectly decent food).
Notice the lack of German restaurants on this list...we're not huge fans of German food (OH! THE! HORROR!). Besides, they're everywhere, and from my limited experience, the food at each one is about the same.
Feel free to comment with your own suggestions.
And while I'm at it...
Places to buy yummy gourmet stuff:
- Barkenhof, Saeffeln: This beautiful historic home is the residence of Olaf and Elke Barken, who live on the top floor and operate a shop on the main floor. Be prepared to drop some serious money, though. The cheeses, meats, wines, spices, coffees, teas, olive oils, vinegars, chutneys/dips/spreads, etc...are not cheap. But they are absolutely top-quality, and they are incredibly good. Olaf and Elke travel all over the world, personally selecting the products that they sell (to say that I am envious of their lifestyle is a gross understatement). Olaf will talk your ear off about all the products and he will let you taste them. My personal favorites: lemon-infused olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar, chocolate covered espresso beans, French honey. They also sell bath products and furniture. Olaf has said that he wants to sell Barkenhof and move to Majorca to run a bed and breakfast. He could very well be serious about this. Get there while you can.
- Oil & Vinegar, Aachen & Heerlen: You can buy, of course, oils and vinegars. You can also buy spices, dip mixes, and crunchy things to dip in said mixes. You can also get cute serving dishes and bowls.
- Xenos, Aachen & Sittard: Here's a secret - go to Oil & Vinegar and taste the bruschetta dip mix and the fruschetta dip mix. Then go to Xenos and buy jars of the mix for a fraction of the price! They taste almost exactly the same, and they are MUCH cheaper. They have all kinds of other foodie things too...I buy pesto and grissini (tiny crunchy breadsticks) there a lot. Xenos sells tons of other things too...it's like one of those dollar stores, so I'm sure you'll find other ways to spend your money while you're there.
Hi folks!
This post is prompted by the unpleasant meal my husband and I just had at Restaurant Mendoza, an Argentine steakhouse that opened recently in Gangelt. I believe it's owned by the same people who operate El Toro Napoli in Gillrath. The fact that both restaurants have identical menus would be a clue, and I do believe the old guy that was working at Mendoza this evening was the same one who waited on us at El Toro Napoli the one time we went there.
The good: the ambience was nice, for the most part (much nicer than at El Toro Napoli). It was nicely furnished and tastefully decorated. It's also HUGE...this restaurant can definitely accommodate crowds. The staff was also very nice, although the service was very slow. It took ages to get our food, which in hindsight, probably wasn't a bad thing.
The bad: the muzak made me want to stab out my eardrums with a fork. It didn't help that I was sitting right under the speaker. And it's too loud for soft conversation. I'm also not sure that Mendoza had English menus. But unless they offer, we don't usually get them...we can read German menus just fine.
The indigestible: Lance described his Spaghetti Al Forno as bland. I had gyro meat on macaroni with spinach and mushrooms, swimming in a cream sauce. The meat was full of gristle and fat and virtually inedible. The cream sauce was way too runny. I was also allowed a salad from the salad bar (they have an evening buffet), and the salad bar only had shredded lettuce, pickled cabbage, green beans, beets, corn and dressing. That's it. They served rolls with 2 kinds of spread (tzatziki and some kind of spicy pimento spread...I stuck with the tzatziki), but since Lance doesn't eat that stuff, he ate the rolls plain and said they weren't very good. Hence, the need for spread.
Of course, it's a steakhouse and we didn't eat steak. But after the meal we had, we won't be rushing out to try their steak anytime soon.
(I think it's safe to say that we don't endorse El Toro Napoli either...while the meal I had there was fine, Lance didn't get what he ordered, and I didn't care for the ambience).
Restaurants we do recommend:
- Carpaccio, Geilenkirchen (Italian): I'm sure you have all eaten here already, since most of you have probably stayed at the City Hotel. I won't bore you with the details.
- Il Genio, various locations (Italian): Everyone knows this place by now. I like the ones in Gillrath and Gangelt the best. There is also Paganini, a new Italian place in Rischden...I've eaten there twice and find it quite similar to Il Genio, although the muzak at this restaurant also makes me go stabbity. It was Andrea Bocelli the first time, which would've been fine at a lower volume. The last time, it was pan flute music.
- Cam Nguyen, Geilenkirchen (Chinese): My favorite lunch spot, and where my friends and I agree to get together 9 times out of 10. It's also very cheap.
- Brasserie Murphy's, Sittard (International): A place some friends and I discovered back in March when the restaurant where we wanted to eat was booked up. I'm glad we ended up here. The food was amazing and served with a very artistic presentation. I ended up having my birthday dinner here last month. The portion sizes are huge and the menu prices are extremely reasonable. Try the tilapia.
- O Portugues, Tuddern (Portuguese): Hands down, the BEST chicken I've ever had in my life. And the fried potatoes that accompanied it were heaven on a plate. This place is popular for its all you can eat shrimp (gambas) night on Tuesdays.
- Paella, Aachen (Spanish): I almost never eat anywhere else but here when I'm in Aachen. Their lunch buffet is TO DIE FOR, and it's less than 5 euros. Apparently, their tapas is very very popular, but they only serve that for supper, and I've only been at Paella during lunch.
- Cafe Madrid, Heinsberg (Spanish): My favorite place of all time. The tapas here is magnificent. I've never been to Spain, but my friends who have say that this tapas far surpasses anything they had there. The guy that owns the place (he is Spanish, by the way) gives fantastic service, and he's also a terrible flirt (it works...he feigned devastating heartbreak because I didn't want to try his coffee. So I did. And I don't even really like coffee. But the "Spanish coffee" was actually good). My first lunch here is one of my most memorable meals of all time. I was astounded by how good it was.
- Steakhouse Mujo, Geilenkirchen and Ubach-Palenberg (International): Okay...HERE is where we go when we're actually in the mood for steak. Although I've never actually had the steak here...the first time we ate here, I had the lamb. The second time, I had salmon. Both were very good.
- Side Grill, Geilenkirchen (Turkish): This is a hole-in-the-wall place (it's right next door to Cam Nguyen), but by gosh, they serve some of the finest doner kebap I've ever had. (Another good place is the doner kebap shack on the main drag in Birgden...I don't think it has a name).
- El Greco, Stahe (Greek): You've all seen this place...it's right on the B56. Their bifteki is wonderful. But you have to really love meat to eat here. I mean, you have to REALLY love meat. The last time I ate there, I got by with stuffed mushrooms from the appetizer menu and a small side salad (but the mushrooms were still stuffed with meat).
- El Comal, Brunssum (Mexican): This is probably about as close as you're going to get to the Mexican you can eat in the States. This is also likely to give you a huge stomach ache the next day. But hey, it was good. I've heard rumors of a mariachi band playing here on occasion. Ole! (By the way, I have eaten at the Mexican place in Aachen before - Sausalito's - some friends swear by this place. The one time I ate there, the food I ordered - a veggie tostada - was just weird. But it was still perfectly decent food).
Notice the lack of German restaurants on this list...we're not huge fans of German food (OH! THE! HORROR!). Besides, they're everywhere, and from my limited experience, the food at each one is about the same.
Feel free to comment with your own suggestions.
And while I'm at it...
Places to buy yummy gourmet stuff:
- Barkenhof, Saeffeln: This beautiful historic home is the residence of Olaf and Elke Barken, who live on the top floor and operate a shop on the main floor. Be prepared to drop some serious money, though. The cheeses, meats, wines, spices, coffees, teas, olive oils, vinegars, chutneys/dips/spreads, etc...are not cheap. But they are absolutely top-quality, and they are incredibly good. Olaf and Elke travel all over the world, personally selecting the products that they sell (to say that I am envious of their lifestyle is a gross understatement). Olaf will talk your ear off about all the products and he will let you taste them. My personal favorites: lemon-infused olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar, chocolate covered espresso beans, French honey. They also sell bath products and furniture. Olaf has said that he wants to sell Barkenhof and move to Majorca to run a bed and breakfast. He could very well be serious about this. Get there while you can.
- Oil & Vinegar, Aachen & Heerlen: You can buy, of course, oils and vinegars. You can also buy spices, dip mixes, and crunchy things to dip in said mixes. You can also get cute serving dishes and bowls.
- Xenos, Aachen & Sittard: Here's a secret - go to Oil & Vinegar and taste the bruschetta dip mix and the fruschetta dip mix. Then go to Xenos and buy jars of the mix for a fraction of the price! They taste almost exactly the same, and they are MUCH cheaper. They have all kinds of other foodie things too...I buy pesto and grissini (tiny crunchy breadsticks) there a lot. Xenos sells tons of other things too...it's like one of those dollar stores, so I'm sure you'll find other ways to spend your money while you're there.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Tourism in the Buckeye State
Sometimes I wonder who in the world would ever actually go to Ohio on vacation. I lived there my entire life (until I moved to Germany, obviously), and while it's home, I can't really see the appeal to any foreign or out of state tourists (yet somehow, Fodor's saw fit to publish a guidebook about it). Let's see, I lived in: Findlay, Van Buren, Bowling Green, Columbus and Oxford. Of these, Columbus and Oxford are the only two places I would recommend to visitors, although Findlay certainly has its charming areas. Columbus doesn't really have anything different from any other major city...and Oxford is the typical quaint, small college town that just happens to boast one of the best restaurants in which I've ever had the pleasure of dining.
Now that I live in Germany, going to Ohio IS vacation. I had several opportunities to be a tourist in my own state while I was home. Some of them, unfortunately, fell through.
Picnic with the Pops in Columbus
This is an annual summer event that occurs every weekend for about 2 months. It's on the lawn of Chemical Abstracts (where I was gainfully employed for 2 years, and despite that, never managed to go to a Pops event). This year, I had tickets, and by God, I was going to go. It was the Patriotic Pops too, which they always do the weekend before Independence Day. John Philip Sousa marches and fireworks whilst you eat a picnic dinner in the grass. What could be better? Well, there is one thing...the final Pops concert of the summer - the Ohio State Marching Band (AKA "The Best Damn Band in the Land"). What scarlet and gray blooded fan wouldn't get fired up hearing TBDBITL playing "Hang on Sloopy"? Go Bucks!
Alas, it was not meant to be. My poor grandmother fell and fractured her ribs, and so we had to give up our plans for the Pops to go and be with her and help out around the house.
Maybe next year.
The Columbus Zoo
This is one of the best zoos I've ever been to, but perhaps I'm biased. It IS a world-class zoo, and Jack Hanna, the director emeritus, has fame that reaches far and wide (you may have seen his many appearances on Letterman), so the zoo is well-known. It's improved a lot in the past few years. The relatively new Australian section is pretty cool (I like the nocturnal animal exhibit and the Lorikeet Garden, especially) and Asia Quest is a nice and fairly recent addition. They also bought Wyandot Lake, the water park, which was right next door, so next year, that will be incorporated into the zoo and it will be more of a theme park.
Above all else, my favorite continues to be the manatees. I've been lucky, until this year, to always catch them during their feeding times. This year, they were napping. But then again, so were most of the other animals.
Actors Theatre at Schiller Park (German Village, Columbus)
Free Shakespeare in the park. Need I say more? And it's GOOD Shakespeare.
This one didn't pan out, sadly. I had every intention of seeing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abridged], which is a play I have been dying to see for ages. But the plans were cancelled. Back up to Grandma's house to see some relatives that dropped in from Illinois. You know how it goes.
While I'm at it, I should mention that German Village itself is a great tourist attraction. If you're in Columbus for some reason, go there. It's a lovely European-style community with great restaurants, boutiques, and the best book shop in the world ever (The Book Loft - a 32 room Victorian house that is stuffed from floor to ceiling with books). The community hosts the city's annual Oktoberfest, which is a good time, if you like to Polka, anyway.
Lake Erie
This is probably the biggest tourist draw to Ohio. There is Cedar Point amusement park, although I haven't been there since I was 19. (I no longer go to amusement parks after getting whiplash on a roller coaster and spending an entire summer in the chiropractor's office...this happened at King's Island down by Cincinnati, not at Cedar Point). There is Johnson's Island, which is a Civil War prison/cemetery (Confederate soldiers, obviously). There is Marblehead Lighthouse, camping, water recreation, etc. etc. Cheese Haven - a huge store devoted to cheese (didn't stop by there this time, although that was always a must-stop before when I was in the area). Close to that, there is a giant farmer's market, where we stopped to get fresh peaches and strawberries. It's the only one in the area, so you really can't miss it.
Our main reason for going - Kelleys Island and wine tastings. There are a few islands up there at Lake Erie that belong to Ohio (nearby Pelee Island is actually part of Canada). There is South Bass Island (AKA Put-in-Bay), which has enough bars to allow people to get wasted and screw around on golf carts all day. The thing to see there is Perry's Monument, which gives you a view of Canada on a clear day (well, the aforementioned Pelee Island, anyway). We opted for Kelleys Island, which has the world's largest glacial grooves, although I've seen them before and don't find them all that impressive. But it's an island filled with adorable cottages and huge, elegant bed and breakfasts, Kelleys Island Wine Company, restaurants, boutiques, the mandatory fudge and ice cream shops, mini golf, and the Butterfly Garden, which we also visited.
We had lunch almost as soon as we got off the ferry. We ate at a place called The Captain's Corner (it has a different name every time my parents go up there). While you would think that seafood would be the obvious thing to order, it's a bit of a risk, I think, considering how polluted the lake is (I do believe their fish is Lake Erie fish). I stuck to land animals, namely chicken...a chicken BLT wrap with homemade potato chips and coleslaw. It was okay. Seriously...just okay. I wouldn't enthusiastically recommend this place, but it had a fun atmosphere and the food was standard. They had an abnormal amount of Greek items on the menu, for a restaurant that wasn't specifically Greek (I highly suspect the owners are of Greek descent).
We went to two wineries: Kelleys Island Wine Company, which I already mentioned, and Firelands Winery, which is located on the mainland in Sandusky.
Of the two, Firelands Winery is by far the best. The lady who helped us with our tasting was super nice. When I told her that I live in Germany and was anxious to try their Riesling, she insisted that I sample the Gewurztraminer, even though it wasn't on the tasting menu. She wanted me to give her my honest opinion about how their German-style wines stacked up to the real thing.
Thumbs up, enthusiastically.
She also let me taste the Moscato d'Asti, again, not on the menu. I LOVE Moscato. This one was beautiful. My parents tried it too and looked at me like I was insane. It's a sweet, sparkling wine...more like sparkling grape juice than wine. But I love it. I can't help it.
If you're ever in the area, give those people some love. Their wines are amazing, and they have a fabulous gift shop. Tastings are only $1 (for the entire tasting, not just one sample).
There are other wineries in the area too, and it seems a new one is opening every year. We plan to go again sometime and try out some of these other places.
I really like the Lake Erie area. Parts of it are very cheesy (the Pre-Historic Forest and Mystery Hill, with the incredibly fake looking dinosaurs and mammoths, comes to mind) and some parts of it are rather run-down, but the islands are pretty, and some of the mainland areas are beautiful, especially around Sandusky, Marblehead and Port Clinton.
The drive from Columbus up to the lake was quite nice too. We went through a lot of charming, small rural towns. One thing I noticed was that the town could consist of five houses and a church, and there would still be a dairy bar. We stopped at the Daily Scoop in Bucyrus on the way home for some soft-serve cones.
Sometimes I have to take myself away from what is familiar and stay away from it for awhile in order to see it with fresh eyes. That was definitely how I saw this trip to Ohio. I suppose I could see the appeal, but I guess I just prefer places that are a bit more exotic.
Now that I live in Germany, going to Ohio IS vacation. I had several opportunities to be a tourist in my own state while I was home. Some of them, unfortunately, fell through.
Picnic with the Pops in Columbus
This is an annual summer event that occurs every weekend for about 2 months. It's on the lawn of Chemical Abstracts (where I was gainfully employed for 2 years, and despite that, never managed to go to a Pops event). This year, I had tickets, and by God, I was going to go. It was the Patriotic Pops too, which they always do the weekend before Independence Day. John Philip Sousa marches and fireworks whilst you eat a picnic dinner in the grass. What could be better? Well, there is one thing...the final Pops concert of the summer - the Ohio State Marching Band (AKA "The Best Damn Band in the Land"). What scarlet and gray blooded fan wouldn't get fired up hearing TBDBITL playing "Hang on Sloopy"? Go Bucks!
Alas, it was not meant to be. My poor grandmother fell and fractured her ribs, and so we had to give up our plans for the Pops to go and be with her and help out around the house.
Maybe next year.
The Columbus Zoo
This is one of the best zoos I've ever been to, but perhaps I'm biased. It IS a world-class zoo, and Jack Hanna, the director emeritus, has fame that reaches far and wide (you may have seen his many appearances on Letterman), so the zoo is well-known. It's improved a lot in the past few years. The relatively new Australian section is pretty cool (I like the nocturnal animal exhibit and the Lorikeet Garden, especially) and Asia Quest is a nice and fairly recent addition. They also bought Wyandot Lake, the water park, which was right next door, so next year, that will be incorporated into the zoo and it will be more of a theme park.
Above all else, my favorite continues to be the manatees. I've been lucky, until this year, to always catch them during their feeding times. This year, they were napping. But then again, so were most of the other animals.
Actors Theatre at Schiller Park (German Village, Columbus)
Free Shakespeare in the park. Need I say more? And it's GOOD Shakespeare.
This one didn't pan out, sadly. I had every intention of seeing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abridged], which is a play I have been dying to see for ages. But the plans were cancelled. Back up to Grandma's house to see some relatives that dropped in from Illinois. You know how it goes.
While I'm at it, I should mention that German Village itself is a great tourist attraction. If you're in Columbus for some reason, go there. It's a lovely European-style community with great restaurants, boutiques, and the best book shop in the world ever (The Book Loft - a 32 room Victorian house that is stuffed from floor to ceiling with books). The community hosts the city's annual Oktoberfest, which is a good time, if you like to Polka, anyway.
Lake Erie
This is probably the biggest tourist draw to Ohio. There is Cedar Point amusement park, although I haven't been there since I was 19. (I no longer go to amusement parks after getting whiplash on a roller coaster and spending an entire summer in the chiropractor's office...this happened at King's Island down by Cincinnati, not at Cedar Point). There is Johnson's Island, which is a Civil War prison/cemetery (Confederate soldiers, obviously). There is Marblehead Lighthouse, camping, water recreation, etc. etc. Cheese Haven - a huge store devoted to cheese (didn't stop by there this time, although that was always a must-stop before when I was in the area). Close to that, there is a giant farmer's market, where we stopped to get fresh peaches and strawberries. It's the only one in the area, so you really can't miss it.
Our main reason for going - Kelleys Island and wine tastings. There are a few islands up there at Lake Erie that belong to Ohio (nearby Pelee Island is actually part of Canada). There is South Bass Island (AKA Put-in-Bay), which has enough bars to allow people to get wasted and screw around on golf carts all day. The thing to see there is Perry's Monument, which gives you a view of Canada on a clear day (well, the aforementioned Pelee Island, anyway). We opted for Kelleys Island, which has the world's largest glacial grooves, although I've seen them before and don't find them all that impressive. But it's an island filled with adorable cottages and huge, elegant bed and breakfasts, Kelleys Island Wine Company, restaurants, boutiques, the mandatory fudge and ice cream shops, mini golf, and the Butterfly Garden, which we also visited.
We had lunch almost as soon as we got off the ferry. We ate at a place called The Captain's Corner (it has a different name every time my parents go up there). While you would think that seafood would be the obvious thing to order, it's a bit of a risk, I think, considering how polluted the lake is (I do believe their fish is Lake Erie fish). I stuck to land animals, namely chicken...a chicken BLT wrap with homemade potato chips and coleslaw. It was okay. Seriously...just okay. I wouldn't enthusiastically recommend this place, but it had a fun atmosphere and the food was standard. They had an abnormal amount of Greek items on the menu, for a restaurant that wasn't specifically Greek (I highly suspect the owners are of Greek descent).
We went to two wineries: Kelleys Island Wine Company, which I already mentioned, and Firelands Winery, which is located on the mainland in Sandusky.
Of the two, Firelands Winery is by far the best. The lady who helped us with our tasting was super nice. When I told her that I live in Germany and was anxious to try their Riesling, she insisted that I sample the Gewurztraminer, even though it wasn't on the tasting menu. She wanted me to give her my honest opinion about how their German-style wines stacked up to the real thing.
Thumbs up, enthusiastically.
She also let me taste the Moscato d'Asti, again, not on the menu. I LOVE Moscato. This one was beautiful. My parents tried it too and looked at me like I was insane. It's a sweet, sparkling wine...more like sparkling grape juice than wine. But I love it. I can't help it.
If you're ever in the area, give those people some love. Their wines are amazing, and they have a fabulous gift shop. Tastings are only $1 (for the entire tasting, not just one sample).
There are other wineries in the area too, and it seems a new one is opening every year. We plan to go again sometime and try out some of these other places.
I really like the Lake Erie area. Parts of it are very cheesy (the Pre-Historic Forest and Mystery Hill, with the incredibly fake looking dinosaurs and mammoths, comes to mind) and some parts of it are rather run-down, but the islands are pretty, and some of the mainland areas are beautiful, especially around Sandusky, Marblehead and Port Clinton.
The drive from Columbus up to the lake was quite nice too. We went through a lot of charming, small rural towns. One thing I noticed was that the town could consist of five houses and a church, and there would still be a dairy bar. We stopped at the Daily Scoop in Bucyrus on the way home for some soft-serve cones.
Sometimes I have to take myself away from what is familiar and stay away from it for awhile in order to see it with fresh eyes. That was definitely how I saw this trip to Ohio. I suppose I could see the appeal, but I guess I just prefer places that are a bit more exotic.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Travel Books I'm Loving Now
I'm amazed that people have actually told me that they read books based on what I've been reading. They seem to trust my instincts, seeing as how I have a BA in Literature and pursued it at the graduate level for a couple of years. But I'm also a total geek. I have a "Reading is Sexy" t-shirt and I take pride in reading obscure stuff that nobody else reads. But I'm a book reviewer for Curled Up With a Good Book too, so I guess I can safely claim some authority on the subject (hey, I'm in it for the free books!).
Right now, my main passion is travel memoirs. I can't get enough of them. Some are painful to read (Rebecca West's 1200 page Black Lamb and Grey Falcon springs immediately to mind), but most fill me with sheer joy and inspire me to be a better travel writer and to get myself published in more prominent publications.
Among them:
- anything by Frances Mayes
First, I saw the movie - Under the Tuscan Sun. It is NOTHING like the book. Frances Mayes does not look like Diane Lane. She is also very happily married, not the divorcee that is portrayed in the movie. It is a good movie in its own right, but not a substitute for the book. Read the book. Seriously. It is AMAZING. I defy you to read it and not want to book the first thing smoking to Tuscany. Same with Bella Tuscany. And then there's her beautiful coffee table book, Bringing Tuscany Home, which is filled with gorgeous photos of her home in Cortona, Bramasole, as well as other delightful pictures and recipes of all the glorious food she makes and eats. Right now, I am within 100 pages from finishing A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller. It is vintage Mayes...she writes with the kind of passion that I only feel and can never adequately express. She doesn't just visit a place...it inhabits her soul. I love that she writes about places I've been (I'm drawn to books that are especially about places I've been). Her descriptions of Bath and Istanbul brought back such wonderful images of my own travels to those places.
- anything by Alice Steinbach
I love this woman just as much as I love Frances Mayes. Her writing is extremely evocative. Her two travel memoirs - Without Reservations: The Travels of an Indepedent Woman and Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman - fill me with awe. She is fearless, traveling alone all over the world the way that she does. I travel by myself often enough, but there are some places where I just wouldn't dare to attempt it.
Anyway, my aunt currently has custody of two of my Frances Mayes books and both of my Alice Steinbach books and she loves them and feels as inspired by them as I do.
I also love A Woman's Europe, which is a collection of travel essays by various authors (including Frances Mayes).
Notice that all these books are written by women?
Not to leave out the men...I love Peter Mayle's books about Provence. They're classics.
Another book that gave me a...bookgasm...(sorry, but I just had to use that word)...this proves how geeky I truly am:
A Reader's Guide to Writer's Britain
Yes, it combines 3 of my favorite things: literature, writers, and Britain. If you ever want to take a literary tour of the UK, this is the book to consult. My edition is slightly outdated, but it seems to cover nearly everything, from the most famous of British authors to the most obscure ones. It pains me that I only discovered this book after my last trip to England. I could plan whole vacations around this book. And I would. Unfortunately, we are running out of time, and England is not in the plans for the rest of our time here.
I had this brilliant idea for an article that was sadly already used by salon.com (curses!), but that I can still work with. It's basically a list of books that are about places, for those who love to read about a place while they're there. For example, Hemingway's A Moveable Feast was written mostly about Paris. Could you imagine anything better to bring along with you to read while you're in Paris? Well sure, other books about Paris. But you know what I mean. While in Bath, you have to read Jane Austen. You HAVE TO. She is from Bath and a few of her novels are set in Bath. It would be sacriligious not to. The Historian - well, that covers several locales: Istanbul, Amsterdam, Venice, Budapest, etc. etc. It is because of that book that I've been longing to go to Budapest for ages now, but I've already been to several other places mentioned in the book.
Right now, my main passion is travel memoirs. I can't get enough of them. Some are painful to read (Rebecca West's 1200 page Black Lamb and Grey Falcon springs immediately to mind), but most fill me with sheer joy and inspire me to be a better travel writer and to get myself published in more prominent publications.
Among them:
- anything by Frances Mayes
First, I saw the movie - Under the Tuscan Sun. It is NOTHING like the book. Frances Mayes does not look like Diane Lane. She is also very happily married, not the divorcee that is portrayed in the movie. It is a good movie in its own right, but not a substitute for the book. Read the book. Seriously. It is AMAZING. I defy you to read it and not want to book the first thing smoking to Tuscany. Same with Bella Tuscany. And then there's her beautiful coffee table book, Bringing Tuscany Home, which is filled with gorgeous photos of her home in Cortona, Bramasole, as well as other delightful pictures and recipes of all the glorious food she makes and eats. Right now, I am within 100 pages from finishing A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller. It is vintage Mayes...she writes with the kind of passion that I only feel and can never adequately express. She doesn't just visit a place...it inhabits her soul. I love that she writes about places I've been (I'm drawn to books that are especially about places I've been). Her descriptions of Bath and Istanbul brought back such wonderful images of my own travels to those places.
- anything by Alice Steinbach
I love this woman just as much as I love Frances Mayes. Her writing is extremely evocative. Her two travel memoirs - Without Reservations: The Travels of an Indepedent Woman and Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman - fill me with awe. She is fearless, traveling alone all over the world the way that she does. I travel by myself often enough, but there are some places where I just wouldn't dare to attempt it.
Anyway, my aunt currently has custody of two of my Frances Mayes books and both of my Alice Steinbach books and she loves them and feels as inspired by them as I do.
I also love A Woman's Europe, which is a collection of travel essays by various authors (including Frances Mayes).
Notice that all these books are written by women?
Not to leave out the men...I love Peter Mayle's books about Provence. They're classics.
Another book that gave me a...bookgasm...(sorry, but I just had to use that word)...this proves how geeky I truly am:
A Reader's Guide to Writer's Britain
Yes, it combines 3 of my favorite things: literature, writers, and Britain. If you ever want to take a literary tour of the UK, this is the book to consult. My edition is slightly outdated, but it seems to cover nearly everything, from the most famous of British authors to the most obscure ones. It pains me that I only discovered this book after my last trip to England. I could plan whole vacations around this book. And I would. Unfortunately, we are running out of time, and England is not in the plans for the rest of our time here.
I had this brilliant idea for an article that was sadly already used by salon.com (curses!), but that I can still work with. It's basically a list of books that are about places, for those who love to read about a place while they're there. For example, Hemingway's A Moveable Feast was written mostly about Paris. Could you imagine anything better to bring along with you to read while you're in Paris? Well sure, other books about Paris. But you know what I mean. While in Bath, you have to read Jane Austen. You HAVE TO. She is from Bath and a few of her novels are set in Bath. It would be sacriligious not to. The Historian - well, that covers several locales: Istanbul, Amsterdam, Venice, Budapest, etc. etc. It is because of that book that I've been longing to go to Budapest for ages now, but I've already been to several other places mentioned in the book.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Musings on Travel Agents
Most people that I hang out with now are unaware that I was certified as a travel agent about 13 years ago. I was about a year out of high school at the time, and I took a couple of terms at the local community college, but wasn't finding it to be quite my thing (I really took to university studies later on, however). I dreamed of a life of travel...it seems like a romantic and glamorous life, living out of a suitcase (hoo boy! Did I have a lot to learn!). The only way I could think of to attain that lifestyle was by getting certified as a travel agent.
What I failed to realize, however, is that I would suck at it. Travel and tourism school was loads of fun. I spent the summer taking classes. I had an internship at a local travel agency. It seemed I would really enjoy it. That was until I actually got a job as a travel agent. I had to commute about an hour each way to work (I lived in Columbus, Ohio, yet commuted to Springfield, Ohio, of all places...it's not like there weren't travel agencies in Columbus). I got paid $5.25 per hour. Because I was entry level, they gave me only the easiest bookings to do. Anything in a foreign country had to be given to another agent...even air bookings to Canada. Basically, they never gave me much of a chance to learn and grow, and I got frustrated and made the decision to go back to college.
So I spent over $1000 for what seemed to be a completely worthless certificate. My next job was as Assistant Manager of one of the local branches at Budget Rent a Car. The Asst. Manager position came out of my certification...otherwise, that would've been entry level too. The pay was also better and the commute from my house was less than 10 minutes. Eventually, I went part-time (and as a result, lost my Asst. Manager position and went to work at the main airport location) and went to college full-time.
So let's review what a travel agent certificate did for me - pretty much nothing. I worked as a travel agent for about 3 months, and I was hired on as Asst. Manager at a rental car company, only to be demoted later on (but at least with the same pay).
It's funny though, because I chose that career about 12 years too soon. Now that I live in Europe and I have actually traveled (I had no travel experience, nor had I ever even flown, when I became a travel agent), and I'm also a working travel writer, I have gained a lot of experience and knowledge on the subject of travel. When people come to visit us, I am in charge of making their travel arrangements. If we go anywhere for more than a day, I book the hotel. I make reservations for shows...I do most of the itinerary planning. This is where my previous travel agent experience can actually be put to good use. Whenever my husband and I travel, I take care of all the arrangements (the one exception to this is our upcoming Baltic cruise, which he planned and organized). On the base, I am now considered a travel expert. People come to me a lot with questions: which guidebooks are the best, where should I go, where should I stay, where should I eat, etc.?
Now...in 2007, I would be an absolutely AMAZING travel agent. How could I ever have foreseen this when I was stupid and 19?
The only thing I am missing at the moment is current certification on one of the travel reservations systems. My certificate that I earned back in 1994 is totally worthless now.
Just for kicks, I looked up my old travel school. Although I could not find it at the location where I attended courses, I found it online (although whether it's the same company or a different one by the same name, I don't know). They offer different certifications:
- travel agent certification
- airline agent certification
- rental car agent certification
- hotel agent certification
- cruise line certification
Travel agent, airline, and rental car certification all require learning the same computer system (Sabre...one of the main reservations programs for travel agents), but the airline and rental car certifications cost about half as much. Also, as someone who has worked at a rental car company, I can tell you that unless things have changed since I worked at Budget, you do not need a certificate to work there. I worked at a hotel too (not for long - the day a guest died in one of our rooms and I had to go and confirm that he was dead - that was the day I decided to quit)...no certificate needed to work there either. So have things really changed so that these jobs have become more specialized, or is this company trying to rip people off?
I just find it kind of sad, yet also interesting, that I would probably really enjoy working as a travel agent now...knowing what I know. The knowledge and experience that I've gained makes all the difference. Yet, life seems to be taking me down a different path, literature being my other great life passion. I'm planning to get a Masters in Library and Information Science. Being a travel agent, at this point in my life, would've been a great fall-back career. Too bad my certification is so outdated.
What I failed to realize, however, is that I would suck at it. Travel and tourism school was loads of fun. I spent the summer taking classes. I had an internship at a local travel agency. It seemed I would really enjoy it. That was until I actually got a job as a travel agent. I had to commute about an hour each way to work (I lived in Columbus, Ohio, yet commuted to Springfield, Ohio, of all places...it's not like there weren't travel agencies in Columbus). I got paid $5.25 per hour. Because I was entry level, they gave me only the easiest bookings to do. Anything in a foreign country had to be given to another agent...even air bookings to Canada. Basically, they never gave me much of a chance to learn and grow, and I got frustrated and made the decision to go back to college.
So I spent over $1000 for what seemed to be a completely worthless certificate. My next job was as Assistant Manager of one of the local branches at Budget Rent a Car. The Asst. Manager position came out of my certification...otherwise, that would've been entry level too. The pay was also better and the commute from my house was less than 10 minutes. Eventually, I went part-time (and as a result, lost my Asst. Manager position and went to work at the main airport location) and went to college full-time.
So let's review what a travel agent certificate did for me - pretty much nothing. I worked as a travel agent for about 3 months, and I was hired on as Asst. Manager at a rental car company, only to be demoted later on (but at least with the same pay).
It's funny though, because I chose that career about 12 years too soon. Now that I live in Europe and I have actually traveled (I had no travel experience, nor had I ever even flown, when I became a travel agent), and I'm also a working travel writer, I have gained a lot of experience and knowledge on the subject of travel. When people come to visit us, I am in charge of making their travel arrangements. If we go anywhere for more than a day, I book the hotel. I make reservations for shows...I do most of the itinerary planning. This is where my previous travel agent experience can actually be put to good use. Whenever my husband and I travel, I take care of all the arrangements (the one exception to this is our upcoming Baltic cruise, which he planned and organized). On the base, I am now considered a travel expert. People come to me a lot with questions: which guidebooks are the best, where should I go, where should I stay, where should I eat, etc.?
Now...in 2007, I would be an absolutely AMAZING travel agent. How could I ever have foreseen this when I was stupid and 19?
The only thing I am missing at the moment is current certification on one of the travel reservations systems. My certificate that I earned back in 1994 is totally worthless now.
Just for kicks, I looked up my old travel school. Although I could not find it at the location where I attended courses, I found it online (although whether it's the same company or a different one by the same name, I don't know). They offer different certifications:
- travel agent certification
- airline agent certification
- rental car agent certification
- hotel agent certification
- cruise line certification
Travel agent, airline, and rental car certification all require learning the same computer system (Sabre...one of the main reservations programs for travel agents), but the airline and rental car certifications cost about half as much. Also, as someone who has worked at a rental car company, I can tell you that unless things have changed since I worked at Budget, you do not need a certificate to work there. I worked at a hotel too (not for long - the day a guest died in one of our rooms and I had to go and confirm that he was dead - that was the day I decided to quit)...no certificate needed to work there either. So have things really changed so that these jobs have become more specialized, or is this company trying to rip people off?
I just find it kind of sad, yet also interesting, that I would probably really enjoy working as a travel agent now...knowing what I know. The knowledge and experience that I've gained makes all the difference. Yet, life seems to be taking me down a different path, literature being my other great life passion. I'm planning to get a Masters in Library and Information Science. Being a travel agent, at this point in my life, would've been a great fall-back career. Too bad my certification is so outdated.
Friday, June 15, 2007
A note about the content of this blog
I haven't had this blog for very long. I registered for it at the end of May 2007. I had another blog at Live Journal where I've been posting travel reports since I moved to Germany. But I keep a regular blog there too and I am logged in permanently there, so it was kind of a pain to keep logging in and out of both journals.
Hence, the need for a new travel blog.
Unfortunately, while I can archive all my entries from Live Journal, I cannot archive the comments I've received over these past few years. Some were from regular readers. Some were from people just passing through who found a momentary interest in something I had to say. It was those comments that kept me writing, because those comments informed me that people wanted to read about my experiences - either because they had been to those places and wanted to reminisce, or because they had never been to those places and wished to go, although I think most comments were from those who are living vicariously through me, since we cannot all be world travelers.
Anyway, all the entries below this point are archived from Live Journal. All the stuff above this post is new.
I hope you enjoy the world according to Karyn.
Hence, the need for a new travel blog.
Unfortunately, while I can archive all my entries from Live Journal, I cannot archive the comments I've received over these past few years. Some were from regular readers. Some were from people just passing through who found a momentary interest in something I had to say. It was those comments that kept me writing, because those comments informed me that people wanted to read about my experiences - either because they had been to those places and wanted to reminisce, or because they had never been to those places and wished to go, although I think most comments were from those who are living vicariously through me, since we cannot all be world travelers.
Anyway, all the entries below this point are archived from Live Journal. All the stuff above this post is new.
I hope you enjoy the world according to Karyn.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Karyn's Picks and Pans: Delft
My next assignment is to do a travel guide of Delft (so I've been told), so I know I'm going to get sick of writing about it. Unfortunately, brevity is not my forte (even if it is the soul of wit).
Delft's Market Square - Town Hall
* Delft Porcelain - Before you buy, you should know that most of it is now made in China. There are only 3 places in Delft that actually produce the pottery from start to finish…most stores sell pottery that was shipped over from China and hand painted in Delft. It is priced accordingly. Whatever you do, DO NOT buy your Delft at the 2 major factories in town. They overcharge, because that's where the tour busses drop off the passengers, and the tour companies have a special partnership with them. Go to any of the other stores in town (particularly on the market square), and look around. We bought the variety of Delft that was only hand painted there. The store was in the market square, and it was called "Genuine Delft Blue" or something like that. It was next to the "Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles" (Royal Delft), which is the store based from one of the local factories. Anyway, the lady at this store was super super nice, and the stuff was reasonably priced. She is friends with some of the painters of the products she sells, and she has a good variety.
If you're buying gifts, make sure to get something that is particularly useful, like candlesticks or a cheese plane (for those who like paper thin slices of cheese).
* Vermeer - Aside from porcelain, Delft is primarily known for Johannes Vermeer, the painter of the very famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring," which was recently further immortalized in novel and film (she's all over the Delft pottery too…I bought a trinket box with her painted on the lid in Delft blue). To see his real paintings, you need to go somewhere other than Delft (our girl with the pearl is in nearby Den Haag), but they do have the brand spanking new Vermeer Center, which is an interactive museum that tells you more about his work and his life. It's so spanking new that they're not even done building it yet…we got in for half price because the construction workers were still assembling things. It was noisy and smelly. But it looks like it's going to be a very cool place when it's done...it's not your average art museum. The Vermeer Center is located in the building that once housed the Painters' Guild, of which Vermeer was a member.
http://www.vermeerdelft.nl/
You can also see his grave at the Oude Kerk (Old Church). It's very unremarkable though, for as much fame as Vermeer has brought to this small city. It's just a square with his name engraved on it, but the church has it specially marked so you can find it. It's a neat old church anyway, and certainly worth exploring.
http://www.oudekerk-delft.nl/
The equally creatively named New Church is located in the market square, and I'm sure that's also worth looking at, but we didn't go in…we just enjoyed the sound of its carillon music as we roamed the town.
Nieuwe Kerk
* Leonidas Lunch-Tearoom - If Leonidas sounds familiar, it's because it's the name of a world-famous Belgian chocolate manufacturer. And thusly, this has the chocolate shop next door, and is run by the same company. You can eat anywhere your heart desires here. If you want to eat out on the sidewalk, you may do that. You can eat inside too (which we did, because it was pretty chilly that day). Or you can eat out back in their beautiful little garden, which I kind of wish we had done. Ask for an English menu…they aren't widely accessible. They had a lot of tasty looking items. I got the "Luxe Mushroom Soup," which was "luxe" because it also came with a giant baguette sandwich that was slathered in baked mushrooms and herbed cream cheese (as if the mushroom soup alone didn't satisfy my mushroom cravings...not that I particularly crave mushrooms or anything). I had way more food than I was capable of eating (more than any mere mortal is capable of eating, really). But it was delicious. And cheap too…under 7 euros. Sue and I ordered the unlimited tea for two, but only managed to get through one teapot before we called it quits. I wish I had ordered what Sue did. She got the brie French roll, and everything came disassembled on her plate so she had to put it together. It was bread, brie, raw ham, some herbs, and herbed cream cheese. It all looked very very good, and she really enjoyed it. Lori just got the cheese French roll, but she really liked it. Lindsey got the tomato soup and the tuna mousse on toast. I really liked the atmosphere of this place…and judging by a Google search, it seems to be a fairly popular choice in Delft. It's close to the market square too…just off of it.
* Super Markt - That's the name of this place...pretty simple. It's on the market square, and we stopped there to grab drinks for the road. The reason why I'm writing about it is because the guy running the place was really nice. I pointed out to Lindsey and Lori that they might want to pick up a tin of stroopwafels to take home, since I know their sister really likes them (I brought home a package once for Thanksgiving 2005…it was instantly inhaled…I think Lisa had 2 of them). They said that they didn't remember what stroopwafels tasted like. Well, the guy working there just happened to have an open package of them sitting on the counter, so he gave one to each of us. Really very kind of him to do so. And because of that, I want to give his store a little plug. If you need a drink, an ice cream bar, or some candy…get it there. Heck, mention stroopwafels while you're there and see if he'll offer you one.
Delft's Market Square - Town Hall
* Delft Porcelain - Before you buy, you should know that most of it is now made in China. There are only 3 places in Delft that actually produce the pottery from start to finish…most stores sell pottery that was shipped over from China and hand painted in Delft. It is priced accordingly. Whatever you do, DO NOT buy your Delft at the 2 major factories in town. They overcharge, because that's where the tour busses drop off the passengers, and the tour companies have a special partnership with them. Go to any of the other stores in town (particularly on the market square), and look around. We bought the variety of Delft that was only hand painted there. The store was in the market square, and it was called "Genuine Delft Blue" or something like that. It was next to the "Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles" (Royal Delft), which is the store based from one of the local factories. Anyway, the lady at this store was super super nice, and the stuff was reasonably priced. She is friends with some of the painters of the products she sells, and she has a good variety.
If you're buying gifts, make sure to get something that is particularly useful, like candlesticks or a cheese plane (for those who like paper thin slices of cheese).
* Vermeer - Aside from porcelain, Delft is primarily known for Johannes Vermeer, the painter of the very famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring," which was recently further immortalized in novel and film (she's all over the Delft pottery too…I bought a trinket box with her painted on the lid in Delft blue). To see his real paintings, you need to go somewhere other than Delft (our girl with the pearl is in nearby Den Haag), but they do have the brand spanking new Vermeer Center, which is an interactive museum that tells you more about his work and his life. It's so spanking new that they're not even done building it yet…we got in for half price because the construction workers were still assembling things. It was noisy and smelly. But it looks like it's going to be a very cool place when it's done...it's not your average art museum. The Vermeer Center is located in the building that once housed the Painters' Guild, of which Vermeer was a member.
http://www.vermeerdelft.nl/
You can also see his grave at the Oude Kerk (Old Church). It's very unremarkable though, for as much fame as Vermeer has brought to this small city. It's just a square with his name engraved on it, but the church has it specially marked so you can find it. It's a neat old church anyway, and certainly worth exploring.
http://www.oudekerk-delft.nl/
The equally creatively named New Church is located in the market square, and I'm sure that's also worth looking at, but we didn't go in…we just enjoyed the sound of its carillon music as we roamed the town.
Nieuwe Kerk* Leonidas Lunch-Tearoom - If Leonidas sounds familiar, it's because it's the name of a world-famous Belgian chocolate manufacturer. And thusly, this has the chocolate shop next door, and is run by the same company. You can eat anywhere your heart desires here. If you want to eat out on the sidewalk, you may do that. You can eat inside too (which we did, because it was pretty chilly that day). Or you can eat out back in their beautiful little garden, which I kind of wish we had done. Ask for an English menu…they aren't widely accessible. They had a lot of tasty looking items. I got the "Luxe Mushroom Soup," which was "luxe" because it also came with a giant baguette sandwich that was slathered in baked mushrooms and herbed cream cheese (as if the mushroom soup alone didn't satisfy my mushroom cravings...not that I particularly crave mushrooms or anything). I had way more food than I was capable of eating (more than any mere mortal is capable of eating, really). But it was delicious. And cheap too…under 7 euros. Sue and I ordered the unlimited tea for two, but only managed to get through one teapot before we called it quits. I wish I had ordered what Sue did. She got the brie French roll, and everything came disassembled on her plate so she had to put it together. It was bread, brie, raw ham, some herbs, and herbed cream cheese. It all looked very very good, and she really enjoyed it. Lori just got the cheese French roll, but she really liked it. Lindsey got the tomato soup and the tuna mousse on toast. I really liked the atmosphere of this place…and judging by a Google search, it seems to be a fairly popular choice in Delft. It's close to the market square too…just off of it.
* Super Markt - That's the name of this place...pretty simple. It's on the market square, and we stopped there to grab drinks for the road. The reason why I'm writing about it is because the guy running the place was really nice. I pointed out to Lindsey and Lori that they might want to pick up a tin of stroopwafels to take home, since I know their sister really likes them (I brought home a package once for Thanksgiving 2005…it was instantly inhaled…I think Lisa had 2 of them). They said that they didn't remember what stroopwafels tasted like. Well, the guy working there just happened to have an open package of them sitting on the counter, so he gave one to each of us. Really very kind of him to do so. And because of that, I want to give his store a little plug. If you need a drink, an ice cream bar, or some candy…get it there. Heck, mention stroopwafels while you're there and see if he'll offer you one.
Karyn's Picks and Pans: Brussels
Grand Place - Hotel de Ville (Town Hall)
* Hotel Sabina - I booked the cheapest place I could find that didn't get absolutely heinous reviews. This was adequate, and quite by accident, it was also very close to the autobahn where we came in, so it wasn't a very long drive in town, which was good for my sanity (I didn't drive, but the traffic still freaked me out, and I had to help navigate - HAHA! - which is no easy feat in Brussels). The hotel was a bit shabby and dingy, but at least it was cheerful and sanitary (I hope). We had a quad room, which was up on the top floor (8 flights of steps), and they had an elevator, but it was a bit dubious, so we took the stairs each time. We had a private bath…shower and sink in one closet, toilet in another. There were 4 twin beds, two of them pushed up together so that it was king size. Otherwise, the room was quite cramped. This place, like our hostel in Berlin, was popular with backpackers. The service was friendly. Breakfast is included in the price, and it's your standard European breakfast buffet which I've described more than once before. I think we paid roughly $30 each for one night here. Not bad. It was located fairly close to the Grand Place…less than 20 minutes by foot. One night here was fine, but I don't think I would like it for an extended stay. It was near a hospital and we constantly heard sirens throughout the night, so noise was an issue. Parking is also an issue, but we just got lucky. There was a parking space on the street on the block where our hotel was located, so we just parked there. Because our rental car had Netherlands plates, we didn't get ticketed, because they can't make us pay it. So our parking was free.
http://www.hotelsabina.be/
* Greedy Lunch - This place was right down the street from our hotel (by where we parked, actually), and we found ourselves here because we got to the hotel half an hour before our room was ready, and we had time to kill, and well…it was noon. There was a line out the door, but if you go inside and seat yourself, it's a full service restaurant. They had a huge variety of sandwiches, soups, salads, and even pastas…most everything was customized to your specifications. Sue and Lindsey shared a Salad Niçoise, which they declared to be very good, even though it didn't come with dressing. I had their sandwich version of the Salad Niçoise, so it was basically a tuna sandwich with olive oil, and there was the added element of green beans, which was most interesting (I did not get potatoes, egg, or any of the other components of this salad on my sandwich, and for that, I guess I can be thankful…although egg would have been good).. Lori had a roast beef sandwich with shaved parmesan. My sandwich was edible, but I would not order that particular sandwich again. I would, however, eat here again (if I ever had reason to), because everything else looked really really tasty, and it's obviously a very popular place to eat. It's on Rue du Nord, but I can think of no reason that tourists might venture here, unless they are already staying at Hotel Sabina.
* Devina Finest Belgian Chocolates - This is the place where I got my chocolates on my first trip to Brussels, and this is where I came back. The service is impeccable. The ladies working behind the counter were generous with the free samples. They were also extremely charming and funny, and they let us know what chocolates they personally didn't like, something that I find remarkable in customer service (you would expect them to say that all their chocolates are good, right?). We spent quite a bit of time here, and they were very patient and helpful as we made our selections. It is certainly true that good customer service results in good sales. Even though we purchased a couple of pieces at Neuhaus earlier in the day (I was really interested in trying their violet flavored truffle…in a word - blech!), we bought most of our chocolate here. Although I'm sure all the chocolate shops in Brussels are excellent, this is my personal favorite. (Located on the Rue Marché aux Herbes…right behind the Grand Place).
http://www.devina.be/
* La Maison du Miel - I made it a point to come back here, after having dropped some euros here on my first trip to Brussels. As you might expect, "The House of Honey" sells honey (in various flavors), but they also offer bath products, candies, and even honey flavored liquers. This time, I splurged on a jar of their chocolate honey, and a container of their excellent hand cream. (Located on the Rue Marchè aux Herbes)
http://www.lamaisondumiel.be
* Rue des Bouchers - This narrow, cobbled alleyway will entice you with its fairy lights and quaint sidewalk cafes. Don't be fooled. This street is not for the faint of heart. This is an alley containing ONLY restaurants, and while it might seem a good bet for finding dinner, be aware that you will be harassed by the waiters as you walk down the street. "Madame, you must eat here! Four courses only 12 euros!" Ad nauseum. The restaurants are all basically the same and they all basically offer the same menus for the same price (the first few restaurants after you enter Rue des Bouchers were charging 18 euros…go further back for the lower prices). After being accosted by nearly a dozen waiters, my aunt finally told one, "We'll eat here for 10 euros each." He agreed, but only if we were seated inside.
Rue des Bouchers
This restaurant was Le Petit Bedon. As the name suggests, the menu was primarily French. We were first given an aperitif - a small glass of white wine mixed with blackcurrant. I enjoyed it very much. Next came a starter (and a basket of bread and butter), and we had a small range of choices. I got the smoked salmon, which came with diced raw onion and dill. I remember there being salads and soups as well, and Lori had shrimp in garlic butter for her starter. For the main course, I got lamb chops, which came with fries. They weren't great lamb chops…they were very fatty and there was actually very little meat. The fries were good though. Lori had a pepper steak, Lindsey had grilled chicken breast, and Sue had the grilled salmon. They all enjoyed their meals more than I did. There were also mussels on the menu, which are a Belgian specialty (just not this time of year…it's mostly a winter delicacy). Dessert was included too, and this was a crème caramel…and not very good, really. All of us ate only a couple bites and then pushed it away, but then again, I've never been a huge fan of flan. But still, we paid 10 euros for our meal, and our waiter was great. His name was (swear to God) Fatty, and he was Tunisian. He was so interested in talking to us, because his wife is getting ready to move to America. He was really funny too. A Black-Eyed Peas song came on while we were eating (Shut Up), and he sang very loudly along with it as he served customers. We were cracking up.
Anyway, if you're looking for an exquisite meal, avoid Rue des Bouchers. But if you want a French meal for a reasonable price that gives you some variety, this is a fine place to go. Don't be afraid to haggle - 12 euros is a great price for a 4 course meal, but 10 euros is even better. If you end up at Le Petit Bedon, say hi to Fatty for me.
* La Cure Gourmande - This place is EVIL. EVIIIIIIIIIL. It's bad enough that there are hundreds of chocolate shops in Brussels, but now you have this place. They sell gifts on the second floor, but before you can get there, you have to walk through a first floor of caramels, macaroons, and something they call "chocolate olives." I bought 6 caramels here…SIX…and they cost me over 9 euros (in USD, that's more than $11). They were large caramels, but still…wow. I got 2 each chocolate, vanilla, and a salt flavor. Anyway, I have tasted all 3 flavors by now, and they weren't worth the price. Good yes. Nine euros worth of good? Absolutement non! I should've spent the nine euros on more chocolate. It's a fun store to look around in though, and I was particularly drawn to the smell of the coconut macaroons (which they don't actually call macaroons there, but that is more or less what they are). It's right off the Grand Place, so it's hard to miss.
http://www.la-cure-gourmande.com
Is it any wonder I gained 3 pounds on this trip?
By the way, at this moment, I am eating a Granny Smith apple drizzled with that chocolate honey I bought in Brussels. Ah. Mon. Dieu. God bless those little chocoholic bees. ;)
Karyn's Picks and Pans: Cologne and Vianden
We spent a few hours in Düsseldorf on the way home from Berlin, but there is nothing particularly noteworthy about it. We ate at a fine doner kebap joint in the Altstadt that was basically like any other, and we had a rather pricey spaghetti ice at an Italian Eis Café on the Rhine Promenade…that spaghetti ice, while tasty, was certainly not the best I've had. As far as museums go, we visited the K20, which is a museum of 20th century art. I've been there before. Contemporary art is so not my thing…the Pre-Raphaelites are about as recent as I like. But they had a Picasso exhibit going on, and I do enjoy some of his works, so I paid the 10 euros admission charge to go in again (highway robbery, I tell you!). Sue and Lindsey seemed to like this art museum in particular…Lindsey was particularly excited about all the Paul Klee works.
Okay, so moving on to Cologne…
* Café Scholl Am Dom - Whilst Lance and I waited for Sue, Lindsey, and Lori to climb the 509 steps to the top of the cathedral tower (I was NOT doing that again with my bad knees!), we sought out a place to do lunch. This fit the bill. It's near the cathedral, although you can't see the cathedral from there (we could, however, hear loud and clear when the church bells rang). They have a nice variety of things on their menu to suit all tastes. And they have great looking cakes, although we didn't eat any of them. Lance and Sue had omelets, and found them more than satisfactory. Lori and Lindsey had "toast Da Vinci" (Da Vinci is a theme in the café, which is odd since the café is not Italian, nor were we in Italy), which is a salami, tomato, and toasted cheese sandwich. I had the ham rolls with potato salad, and what the menu failed to mention, which was a delightful surprise, is that the ham is rolled around tender stalks of white asparagus laced with some kind of cream. Delicious. We were serenaded by a canary in a cage right behind our table. This place is also not too touristy…there was a mix of locals and tourists. If you get the Cologne Welcome Card, there is a coupon for this place…for a free espresso, I think, if you order a meal.
We did stop at another place similar to Café Scholl for cake later in the day…I wish I could remember the name of it, or what street it was on. They also sold chocolates and homemade jams. I know it's in the vicinity of Groß St. Martin. Lance and I ordered the same thing…it was some kind of chocolate cake with a white chocolate coating and some marzipan layers. It was pretty good. I know that doesn't help you. Sorry.
Vianden, Luxembourg
Damn, now why can't I remember the name of the café where we ate lunch? A little voice keeps saying over and over "Café des Arts" (does that make me sound Schizophrenic?), but I tried to look it up and only see one in Luxembourg City. So that can't be right. I think I'm getting mixed up because we ate at so many different places and because I've been writing so many travel guides…everything is swirled up in my brain. I really should've written all this stuff down in my notebook that I always carry, but Sue was recording everything, so I suppose I can just ask her. I'm afraid I was a terrible journalist on this trip. I had too many other things to think about (being housekeeper, personal chef, tour guide, translator, chauffeur, etc.).
Anyway, if you're ever in Vianden, it's right off the end of the street that runs along the river. There are a few cafes there, but this one caught our attention because it served crepes (it was the first one we encountered that did so). And crepes were exactly what we hungered for, we just didn't know it until that moment. The service was laidback, to say the least. Don't expect quickness. But it was not unreasonable. My only real complaint is that they gave everyone else a little bowl of peanuts to munch on while they waited for their food, and our table didn't get one. But the huge crepes were more than filling, so the little peanut starter wasn't necessary anyway. I highly recommend what I had, which was a bacon and egg crepe (lard appears prominently on the menu with this choice, and there is something to that, actually…this was super fatty bacon). The crepe was stuffed with bacon and served with a fried egg on top. Lori ordered the same thing and picked out a lot of the bacon. Lindsey ordered a dessert crepe, which looked like a work of art. Lance got a cheese crepe. Sue got the vegetarian, which she said was spicy. I had a nice Moselle Riesling with mine. Lance drank Leffe Blonde, a Belgian beer. I think Sue and Lori got the Diekirch. You should know some French if you come here. We had an English speaking waitress who took our order, but the lady that served us our food and brought us the bill only spoke French (and perhaps a smidge of German, because I seemed to communicate with her better when I switched from French to German). We managed. I had 5 years of French in high school and college and Sue knew it well enough from all the time she spent in France.
Also, have ice cream at the café next to the chairlift. It's nothing fancy, but they have soft serve, which is a nice treat. We got a kick out of their soft serve machine. You choose a small container filled with ice cream…whatever flavor pleases your fancy. They insert the container into the machine and swirl the ice cream into the cone. I've never seen anything like it. The kids will love it. Either that, or we're just easily impressed.
A note about the chairlift: it does NOT take you directly to the castle. It's a fun ride, but then you must hike down the hill a bit to the castle, which is already on a craggy cliff overlooking the town. This hike was steep, and really hurt my knees. And if you get the return trip, of course you must hike back up.
View of Vianden from the chairlift
We did pay for a round trip, but opted instead to hike down from the castle through the street that leads into the center of town. This was a better option, because we got to see more of the town that way. And if any place in Europe oozes charm, it's Vianden.
walking through town
This place is like a fairy tale (if you could overlook the insane amounts of motorcyclists everywhere). So do the chairlift, but just do it one way (and be sure to smile at the top…they take your picture!).
Okay, so moving on to Cologne…
* Café Scholl Am Dom - Whilst Lance and I waited for Sue, Lindsey, and Lori to climb the 509 steps to the top of the cathedral tower (I was NOT doing that again with my bad knees!), we sought out a place to do lunch. This fit the bill. It's near the cathedral, although you can't see the cathedral from there (we could, however, hear loud and clear when the church bells rang). They have a nice variety of things on their menu to suit all tastes. And they have great looking cakes, although we didn't eat any of them. Lance and Sue had omelets, and found them more than satisfactory. Lori and Lindsey had "toast Da Vinci" (Da Vinci is a theme in the café, which is odd since the café is not Italian, nor were we in Italy), which is a salami, tomato, and toasted cheese sandwich. I had the ham rolls with potato salad, and what the menu failed to mention, which was a delightful surprise, is that the ham is rolled around tender stalks of white asparagus laced with some kind of cream. Delicious. We were serenaded by a canary in a cage right behind our table. This place is also not too touristy…there was a mix of locals and tourists. If you get the Cologne Welcome Card, there is a coupon for this place…for a free espresso, I think, if you order a meal.
We did stop at another place similar to Café Scholl for cake later in the day…I wish I could remember the name of it, or what street it was on. They also sold chocolates and homemade jams. I know it's in the vicinity of Groß St. Martin. Lance and I ordered the same thing…it was some kind of chocolate cake with a white chocolate coating and some marzipan layers. It was pretty good. I know that doesn't help you. Sorry.
Vianden, Luxembourg
Damn, now why can't I remember the name of the café where we ate lunch? A little voice keeps saying over and over "Café des Arts" (does that make me sound Schizophrenic?), but I tried to look it up and only see one in Luxembourg City. So that can't be right. I think I'm getting mixed up because we ate at so many different places and because I've been writing so many travel guides…everything is swirled up in my brain. I really should've written all this stuff down in my notebook that I always carry, but Sue was recording everything, so I suppose I can just ask her. I'm afraid I was a terrible journalist on this trip. I had too many other things to think about (being housekeeper, personal chef, tour guide, translator, chauffeur, etc.).
Anyway, if you're ever in Vianden, it's right off the end of the street that runs along the river. There are a few cafes there, but this one caught our attention because it served crepes (it was the first one we encountered that did so). And crepes were exactly what we hungered for, we just didn't know it until that moment. The service was laidback, to say the least. Don't expect quickness. But it was not unreasonable. My only real complaint is that they gave everyone else a little bowl of peanuts to munch on while they waited for their food, and our table didn't get one. But the huge crepes were more than filling, so the little peanut starter wasn't necessary anyway. I highly recommend what I had, which was a bacon and egg crepe (lard appears prominently on the menu with this choice, and there is something to that, actually…this was super fatty bacon). The crepe was stuffed with bacon and served with a fried egg on top. Lori ordered the same thing and picked out a lot of the bacon. Lindsey ordered a dessert crepe, which looked like a work of art. Lance got a cheese crepe. Sue got the vegetarian, which she said was spicy. I had a nice Moselle Riesling with mine. Lance drank Leffe Blonde, a Belgian beer. I think Sue and Lori got the Diekirch. You should know some French if you come here. We had an English speaking waitress who took our order, but the lady that served us our food and brought us the bill only spoke French (and perhaps a smidge of German, because I seemed to communicate with her better when I switched from French to German). We managed. I had 5 years of French in high school and college and Sue knew it well enough from all the time she spent in France.
Also, have ice cream at the café next to the chairlift. It's nothing fancy, but they have soft serve, which is a nice treat. We got a kick out of their soft serve machine. You choose a small container filled with ice cream…whatever flavor pleases your fancy. They insert the container into the machine and swirl the ice cream into the cone. I've never seen anything like it. The kids will love it. Either that, or we're just easily impressed.
A note about the chairlift: it does NOT take you directly to the castle. It's a fun ride, but then you must hike down the hill a bit to the castle, which is already on a craggy cliff overlooking the town. This hike was steep, and really hurt my knees. And if you get the return trip, of course you must hike back up.
View of Vianden from the chairlift
We did pay for a round trip, but opted instead to hike down from the castle through the street that leads into the center of town. This was a better option, because we got to see more of the town that way. And if any place in Europe oozes charm, it's Vianden.
walking through town
This place is like a fairy tale (if you could overlook the insane amounts of motorcyclists everywhere). So do the chairlift, but just do it one way (and be sure to smile at the top…they take your picture!).
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