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Paris, France

July 15-20:

Our first stop in France was Paris! Up to this point in the trip, we haven’t had any difficulty navigating public transportation. We were proud of this track record… Until we arrived in Paris. I watched a tutorial on YouTube before arriving and felt pretty confident I could handle it. We bought a book of 10 tickets at the train station just like the YouTube tutorial suggested. Unfortunately, the video was just about traveling inside Paris city center. The two places we ended up staying were outside of Paris, which required completely different types of tickets. There are also multiple transportation zones within Paris and different tickets are needed to travel across them. We spent a long time standing in front of the ticket machine trying to figure out which ticket would be best for where we would like to go. Finding the right bus to our first AirBnB was also tricky. We found a bus driver on break and asked for his assistance. He didn’t speak any English and we both tried to communicate with hand motions and Google Translate. He was so patient with us! He repeated everything and even wrote on his hand with his pen the bus number we needed, pointed in the direction of the bus, and off we went running to catch it.

Before coming to France, we heard many stereotypes. For example, we heard that no one speaks English and all French people hate Americans and are rude. It was true that we found more non English speakers in France (yet still found many that did speak English), but the other stereotype was not true. Everyone was so kind and patient with us! We tried our best to learn some of the language to better communicate, but usually ended up relying mostly on our Google translating app. The app even has a conversation feature where you can both be speaking and it will translate French to English and English to French.

Disneyland Paris (from outside the gates!)

Our first day in Paris we got off of a train to transfer to another one. We walked up the stairs and to our surprise – we were at the entrance to Disneyland Paris! Through more hand motions and Google Translate, we realized that this was the entrance to Disney Village which was totally free! Think of the Disney Springs shopping/restaurant area in Florida, but much, much smaller. With our giant backpacks still on, we hopped in line and went through the security check! We walked into almost every store and enjoyed some classic Disney magic without even paying for a park ticket.

Palace of Versailles

Our first AirBnB in the Paris area was right outside of the Palace of Versailles. We decided to tackle the 2,014 acre palace on our first full day. It was a cool day, which helped since the palace does not have central air conditioning. We bought tickets to see the palace and gardens. We were pleasantly surprised to find that neither were as crowded as we were expecting!

The palace was a clear picture of the worship of man. Well, one man in particular – Louis XIV. Around the palace and gardens you will find statues and paintings of Louis XIV depicted as the sun king. Everything was elaborate and gaudy. Even in the king’s chapel, we learned that the “peasants” would be down at the bottom worshiping him as he worshiped God up above in his private balcony.

The palace started off as a hunting lodge/retreat that Louis XIII owned. After he died, his son, Louis XIV, transformed it from 1661-1710 into the elaborate complex it is today. He reigned as king for 69 years. Later, Louis XVI became king in 1774 where he married Marie-Antoinette in the royal chapel. They both had their own private apartment chambers. Louis XVI was the last king of France before the monarchy fell during the French Revolution.

Studying our Rick Steves book on France inside the palace

Gardens of Versailles

Notre-Dame

Unfortunately because of the 2019 fire at the Notre Dame cathedral, the building was still being repaired and was unable to be entered. We were, however able to enjoy checking out the exterior from the square in front of the church!

English Bookstores

Graham and I love bookstores! We wanted to buy a copy of the France Rick Steves book (as we were using our host’s copy while in Paris) and decided to seek out some English Bookstores. We found several right near Notre-Dame.

Our favorite find was the Shakespeare and Company Bookstore. This bookstore first opened in 1951 by George Whitman, a fellow American. It is located in an old monastery with two floors filled with books. They had a piano on the second floor where anyone could sit down and play. The sound of the beautiful piano being played by a complete stranger echoed through each room. The cherry on top for Graham was the friendly bookstore cat.

Shakespeare and Company Bookstore – notes you could leave for future guests

The community piano!

Luxembourg Gardens

We have realized that as Americans, we naturally rush everywhere and in everything. We walk quickly, eat fast, and struggle to slow down. One thing we have enjoyed learning about the European culture (and hope to bring back home with us) is that meals are meant to be enjoyed and should not be done quickly. This is especially true in France. For the most part, a meal here can last more than 2 hours. The check is not naturally brought to you at restaurants – you have to ask for it whenever you are done talking and enjoying your meal.

With this same theme of slowing down, we decided to take a moment to slow down and relax in the beautiful Luxembourg Garden. One of my friends told me about this garden and it definitely did not disappoint. Families and people of all ages sat all around the 60 acre garden in the heart of Paris and enjoyed the moment. We sat down with our Rick Steves book and read up on the surrounding areas.

The French Senate owns the garden and the Luxembourg Palace is where they meet. We also learned that French’s secret service is headquartered beneath the garden. Not so secret I guess!

Luxembourg Garden – with the Luxembourg Palace in the background

Paris Bed and Breakfast

The first two nights in Paris we stayed near Versailles in an AirBnB with a beautiful garden. Then, we moved to the southern side of the city to an incredible bed and breakfast for the next three days! We have learned on this trip that we don’t enjoy staying inside big cities. In fact, in general, we have found that we really like small to mid-sized cities such as Gouda, Netherlands or Akureyri, Iceland. This house was located just outside of Paris in a small suburb that felt more like a small/midsized city. To get into the Paris city center we just simply walked 8 minutes to the train station and then took the RER (regional) train into Paris.

Our two hosts, Frédéric and Jean-Luc, were so hospitable. After meeting them for the first time, it felt like we were reconnecting with old family friends. Every morning they would make us gourmet breakfast – English cream, homemade jam from their fruit trees in the backyard, breakfast crepes and so much more. They also sat with us and helped map out each of our days to see all of the highlights in Paris. Our room was on the third floor. It had a private sitting room, bedroom, and bathroom. It was perfect! We hope to one day return and stay here again! If you happen to be in Paris and are looking for a spot to stay just outside of the city – check out Villa De La Terrasse.

Just one example of the amazing breakfast spreads that our hosts made for us.

A picture with our amazing hosts right before we left

Tour De France

All of our traveling has been very spontaneous, necessitated by the ever-changing COVID regulations. We usually figure out where we are staying only days in advance (sometimes that very day) and our itinerary for that city is loosely decided once we arrive in that said city.

To our surprise, we found out that Tour De France would be ending in Paris while we were visiting. Totally unplanned! All we had to do was show our vaccination card and we were allowed in to the sectioned-off area of the city where the bikers would be riding through.

We met so many people there that had traveled from the States and around the world just for this race. We felt a little out of place since neither of us knew any racers or really anything about the race – we almost literally stumbled in to the event. Graham bought a Tour De France hat to commemorate the occasion. We arrived about 2 hours early before the peloton went by and were able to see the pre-race caravan parade. The caravan was a string of decorated cars and floats that generally seemed to be used for advertisements. We saw floats advertising water, recycling, detergent, a large chicken float advertising a brand of eggs, glasses and more. It was certainly entertaining!

After about an hour and a half, the group of bikers finally made it into the city. The bikes zipped past us so fast, we barely had time to blink! Luckily, they had to circle around and pass us 7 more times before the finish line so we had a lot more opportunities to see them. It was a very cool experience!

Part of the caravan parade

One of the floats – a giant biker on top of a car

Tour De France 2021 near the Arc-De-Triumph with different countries waving their flags

The friends we made while watching the Tour De France – we helped them hold up their Ecuadorian flag while the bikes flew by!

Eiffel Tower

Of course, a Paris trip would not be complete without a visit to the iconic 1,063 foot Eiffel Tower. We first saw it in the afternoon and decided to buy tickets to go up the Eiffel Tower later that evening when the sun was going down. We only went to the second floor, which was definitely high enough! We decided to be economical and take the stairs versus the elevator. It was also a fun experience… at first. I’m not usually scared of heights, but when we were taking the stairs up (and especially coming down) my legs began to feel like jello. The first and second floor had such incredible views of the city though! We stayed at the top until it got very late. Then we raced to the bottom to catch the famous light show that happens every evening on the hour for 5 minutes. The whole tower sparkles! It was magical!

The view from the Eiffel Tower at sunset

The view from the the Eiffel Tower at night

The light show that happens every hour at night

After a long day of walking around Paris and walking up and down the Eiffel Tower (now around 11:30pm) it was time to head home. With so much frustration with public transportation, (specifically because a lot of stops had closed due to Tour De France earlier that day) we decided to catch an Uber home. It was going to cost a little more than we would have liked, but when you are tired and exhausted – you just don’t care. So we plugged in our Airbnb address and requested an Uber who arrived soon after. We had such a delightful conversation with our driver during the 25 minute drive. He gave some marriage advice and told us about his life in Paris. We were just 2 minutes away from where he was going to drop us off when we realized the embarrassing truth. We plugged in the wrong address. We put our old Airbnb address near Versailles that we had stayed at a few days before. It was now midnight and we had to explain to our driver that we weren’t actually staying here, but 15 minutes in the opposite direction. We apologized profusely and even gave him the option to drop us off and we would get another Uber driver to pick us up. He was so sweet about the whole mixup and thankfully lived close to where our actual Airbnb was and happily took us to the right location. Note to self – if one finds themselves staying in a different spot every few days – double check the address when requesting an Uber.

Sacre Coeur

Our last day in Paris we traveled to Sacré-Cœur and climbed to the very top. The views were stunning! The chapel inside was also amazing. We found a middle seat inside to sit to take in all in.

Food Around Paris

Eating at a Cafe. We got pizza and French onion soup.

Eating at a restaurant some locals recommended. It is considered “fast food”.

Stopped for lunch at this yummy Japanese restaurant. Graham got sushi, Lizzie got a poke bowl, and we shared some mochi.

Canton of Bern, Switzerland

July 12-14:

From Salzburg, Austria, we took a train across the northern edges of the Austrian Alps into east Switzerland.

View from the train as it wove through the Austrian/Swiss Alps

View of the Swiss Alps from the train window

Our AirBnB was located in a small village near Bern, Switzerland. To get there from Austria, we connected in Zurich, Switzerland. It was a 30 minute connection, which was just enough time for us to walk a few blocks of the city – and most importantly, snag some Swiss chocolate with hazelnuts for the rest of our journey!

The Neutrality of Switzerland

Switzerland is such an interesting country. For starters, it’s important to know that they take great pride in their neutrality. For hundreds of years they have remained neutral as the rest of Europe (and the world) wages war around them. They are known for having one of the best-trained militaries in the world, but their aim is to use the military if needed exclusively for defense purposes.

We learned from our host that every man (with able bodies) who is a citizen of Switzerland must sign up for the military and go to bootcamp when they are around 20 years old. Once a year that must return to a location and show they still know how to shoot a gun.

To illustrate the extreme lengths that Switzerland goes to to remain neutral, during World War 2 as the fascist Italian and German regimes expanded their territories in all directions around Switzerland, the people of Switzerland banded together to load all ports of entry into their country with explosives. Train tracks, bridges, tunnels, roadways were all loaded with explosives that could be triggered immediately if there was an invasion, effectively sealing off Switzerland from the rest of Europe. In addition to these explosives, Switzerland also dug extensive tunnels and bunkers deep within the Swiss alps in case they needed to retreat further until the war was over. To this day, it’s common for Swiss homes to have bunkers in their basements. Neutrality at all costs.

Today, Switzerland is one of the tiny few countries in Europe that is not a part of the European Union. They do not use the Euro (they use their own currency, the Swiss Franc). They deliberately choose to stay out of large pacts/unions so that they can maintain their neutrality. In fact, they only just joined the United Nations in 2002! The only other countries to have joined the United Nations after 2002 were countries that have were formed after that point. Here’s a great video we found going more in-depth on Swiss neutrality if you’re as curious as we were!

A map of the European Union – completely surrounding the landlocked island of neutral Switzerland

Direct-democracy

The Swiss love their form of government, which they refer to as a “Direct democracy”. The Swiss Constitution was modeled almost directly after the American Constitution and has many of the same principles. One of the main differences between Swiss/American government is that there is no real president of Switzerland. Instead, there is something known as “The Federal Council”, where 7 elected members have equal power and must rule by committee. The “President” of the federal committee just represents the country internationally, but in reality has no significant power. All laws are proposed by a senate/congress, but are all voted on directly by the people. From small village laws to giant national proposals. Direct democracy = the people have a direct say in all matters while also avoiding the cyclical left/right political swings seen in countries like the US, Britain, Germany, etc. It’s a very interesting form of government, and seems to work well for the population size of Switzerland!

Switzerland is also one of the wealthiest countries in the world, perhaps behind only Luxembourg in GDP per-capita. As such, it is extremely expensive! Even for fast food, it’s hard to leave without paying $35-40+ for two people. We thought we could hack the system by shopping at grocery stores instead of going out, but even those are expensive! Teachers make on average $80K+/year in salary, and tech jobs often start at $140K+/year.

Bollodingen

Switzerland is divided into “Cantons” in the same way the US is divided into states – albeit on a much smaller scale. After our connection through Zurich, we found ourselves in the Canton of Bern, in a tiny little town called Bollodingen. Bollodingen is roughly 25 minutes from the capital city of Bern. Only 150 people live here!

We deliberately chose to stay in this tiny town to have a day of rest where we did absolutely nothing! No sightseeing, no train catching, no new and novel. Just rest. We spent the day catching up on reading, journaling, and reflecting in an AirBnB run by a British family who owned a furniture restoration shop on the ground floor. It was perfect.

Lizzie on the balcony of the Bollodingen bed and breakfast

The British family who owned the shop and bed and breakfast were so much fun to get to know! The owners Elaine and David have 3 daughters under the age of 12, and we were able to spend some time with them seeing the Minecraft worlds they’ve built, learning what products they help their mom restore for her shop, and what life is like in Switzerland. The girls really wanted to try some American snacks, particularly a twinky and a pop tart. I had to level-set their expectations a bit on the twinky, but regardless, we’re planning on sending them a snack package when we return to the States. Check out their shop here – they do great work!

Next to their bed and breakfast were some relaxing walking trails that gave us the ability to walk, think, and reflect.

Make sure your sound is up to hear the cowbells!

Bern

From the simple pleasures of Bollodingen, we took a quick 25 minute train to the bustling capital of Switzerland, the city of Bern.

Old Town is a district in Bern that looks like it jumped directly out of a history book. It looks the same as it did in Medieval times, just with a few modern modifications (courtesy of Ronald McDonald). It was so cool walking on the rough cobblestones down the street and imagining what life was like in Medieval times.

Old Town – largely the same as it has been since Medieval times

It was in this exact area of Old Town, Bern that Einstein not only lived, but where he developed the theory of relativity. You can tour his old house for a little fee – Lizzie and I opted to just ogle from the outside for free. It was incredible to imagine him strolling these streets, or postulating the theory of relativity as the warm sun streamed into the very same windows Lizzie and I were looking into.

For hundreds of years, one of the great prides of folks who live in Bern are the bears that live in the city. Yes, real bears! The symbol of Bern reflects this pride, and everywhere you go you see the bear-emblem on flags waving from businesses and homes. Since the 1500s, bears have been kept in special pits around the downtown areas of the city. Originally they were first brought to Bern as spoils from military conquests. Today, the “bear pits” are essentially mini zoos on the outskirts of the city, but they still host brown bears that you can see on any given day.

Looking down into the bear pits near Old Town

A very happy brown bear smiling for pictures

Farewell Switzerland!

Walking on the streets of Bern we were stopped by this musician who serenaded us with his musical abilities (including some throat singing).

Bern is a beautiful city that we thoroughly enjoyed visiting. We discovered Switzerland at large to be one of our favorite countries that we have been able to visit so far. We particularly enjoyed the quiet countryside near Bern and can’t wait to one day return.

Salzburg, Austria

July 9-11:

My parents came to Europe on their honeymoon and traveled to many places. Salzburg was one place they came and spoke so highly of. With our plans constantly changing, we decided to add it to our list and make the short train ride from the Czech Republic.

Storefront with traditional Austrian clothes

There were 3 large town squares- Mozartplatz, Redidenzplatz, and Domplatz. Each had a statue or fountain at the middle and restaurants around the sides.

A beautiful Christmas store with thousands of hand painted eggs!

The Hills are Alive

The Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg in 1964. I grew up watching this movie and singing the songs on repeat. While walking around the city and seeing the Swiss Alps in the distance, “the hills are alive, with the sound of music” played over in my head (and sometimes randomly out loud before Graham reminded me that people were around). We got to go to a couple spots where scenes were filmed. It was wild being there!

Mozart’s Home

We purchased the Salzburg card, which I highly recommend! It was a small fee and included so many popular attractions. We saved big time by getting the card and went to a lot of spots we wouldn’t have otherwise visited. Our first stop with the card was Mozart’s home. In the first room of the house tour sat the families piano that Mozart once played. Graham and I spent about 25 minutes in just the first room standing by the piano amazed at what we were looking at. Mozart played on THAT piano!

We learned that the piano was made with wooden keys for the natural notes and the sharps/flat keys were made of ivory. Some pianos were made this way to save money since there were more natural keys on a piano and wood was a cheap material compared to ivory.

The museum also housed his father’s violin, letters written by Mozart to his father, and original sheet music by Mozart! We also learned that his older sister (Maria Anna) was just as musically talented as Mozart, but because she was a woman she was unable to publish work or perform as a career.

Mozart’s family piano. Photo taken from Google. We were unable to take pictures inside the museum.

Fortress Hohensalzburg

With our Salzburg card in hand, we headed up the funicular to the large fortress looking over the city. The first building in the fortress was built in 1250 and had many additions added until the 1800s. In case Salzburg was ever attacked, the townspeople would all head to the fortress for safety. The fortress was massive and had several great museums inside with many interactive activities. Graham and I felt like kids again touching all the materials of old armor, trying to lift different sized cannon balls, clicking all the buttons to light up part of a 4D model of the fortress, and designing our own soldier for battle. The fortress also gave a great view of the city!

Mirabell Garden

Right inside the center city is a beautiful public garden-Marabell Garden. Several scenes from the Sound of Music were filmed in this garden! The garden was filled with beautiful fountains and flowers. As we were walking through, one garden area looked SO familiar. I quickly realized that I had seen a photo of my mother in this garden when my parents were here 35 years earlier on their honeymoon. The garden was not as full as it was then, but it was so neat to make that connection. We had to try and recreate the photo!

Scene from the Sound of Music at Mirabell Garden

Untersberg-Massif

Untersberg is a massif (mountain range) on the German-Austrian border. Some choose to take a long strenuous hike up to the top, but we decided to take full advantage of our Salzberg card and take the very fast cable car. We spent about an hour and a half at the top until the cable car took its last trip to the bottom at 5:30. The views were stunning! It was probably the most beautiful mountain range we have ever seen!

The cable car from the bottom of the mountain.

Untersberg – border of Germany and Austria (that’s the Austrian flag spray painted on the rocks)

Our Airbnb Stay

We stayed just outside of the town in a wonderful Airbnb. On our last night there, our host invited us to share a glass of wine on her back porch and we spoke for hours before it was time for bed. We love getting to know the locals at each of our stops!

Sitting in the garden at our Salzburg Airbnb home

Apple strudel for dessert (and coffee ice cream)! Salzburg is famous for their apple strudel

Using our Salzburg card- We took the Mönchsberg elevator to a panoramic terrace of the city.

Also using our Salzburg card- we took the Salzach boat cruise up the river.

Yummy dinner! Graham got schnitzel and Lizzie got a salad with chicken and pumpkin seed oil dressing. This salad was amazing! Definitely one of the best salads I’ve had!

Prague, Czech Republic

July 7-9:

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we will be able to go to the UK due to the new delta variant. With this new reality, we have been able to add new countries that we originally didn’t think we had time for. We added Germany to our list and then figured since we were already on the east side of Europe, we should head down into the Czech Republic to visit Prague.

The John Lennon Wall. Messages of love and struggle are written all over this wall with John Lennon’s face at the center. It started off as a place to write messages against the regime in 1960s and grew from there.

Statue of Kafka. Made up of 42 rotating panels that rotates randomly every hour. The artist was David Čurny. He only made two rotating head statues. The other one is actually in Charlotte, NC and depicts his face instead of Kafkas.

Took this funicular up to the top of a park where we got a great view of the city!

Old Town Square

One thing that we have come to appreciate as we have traveled to many European cities are their town squares! Why do we not have these in the States?! You can usually find some beautiful churches, buildings, statues, fountains and clocks in these squares. Most have restaurants and cafés around the perimeter with outdoor seating to enjoy the liveliness of the square. This is usually the first thing we head to when we go to a new city. Prague’s Old Town square did not disappoint.

Eggs Benedict for breakfast at a small cafe near the square.

As we arrived, we heard loud persistent honking from the streets near the square. Our first thought (as Americans) is that someone was very mad at another driver. The seemingly furious drivers happened to stop in the square. We stood aside ready to watch an intense encounter between these drivers. It turned out not to be angry drivers, but a wedding party! It seems to be a tradition to have the whole wedding party follow the couple to the church and honk the entire way there, weaving through the city. We have witnessed this cultural tradition a couple times since and always makes us grin. Maybe we should bring this tradition to the States?

Astronomical Clock

Inside the town square is the famous astronomical clock attached to the town hall! This clock is the oldest astronomical clock that has been operating since 1410! The clock shows the position of the sun and moon in the sky. Every hour there is a show where the twelve apostles walk past the windows of the clock while a skeleton rings the bell.

Prague Castle

Overlooking the city on top of a large hill is the Prague Castle built in the 9th century. It is actually a “castle complex” with streets and multiple buildings. We walked up what seemed like several thousand steps to huge walls and a gate to enter the complex. It felt like we entered a new town. It was huge! There were shops, the active presidential residence, guard houses, halls, towers, and churches. We came to the center of the complex to find an absolutely breathtaking cathedral – Saint Vitus Cathedral. After the many steps, we just sat down and enjoyed the magnificent view. We also have become total nerds when looking at historic architecture. We sit and talk about the intricacies that go into designing and building such amazing works of art. We are continually amazed by how old these buildings are. If only walls could talk – the history they have lived and the stories they could tell.

Trdelník

Trdelník is a fried rolled dough pastry covered in cinnamon sugar and usually filled with ice cream, chocolate, fruit, or a combination of all three. We had walked past many bakeries making the yummy Trdelník, but decided to wait until our last day to grab this tasty treat. We ended up having the sweet treat for breakfast before our train ride to Austria. This brought back happy memories of staying at my grandmas house. She would always let us eat ice cream for breakfast (don’t tell my parents). Personally, I think it’s a great way to start the day! Graham felt like it was a bit odd, but didn’t complain when he had finally the yummy pastry in his hands. Graham got jam and ice cream in his and I got strawberries and ice cream in mine. They were delicious!! The ice cream especially was SO good!

From train to bus

Friday afternoon we boarded our train to Austria. It was going to be a 5 1/2 hour train ride, but it changed into a more eventful traveling day. Due to bad weather earlier in the day on the tracks, all of the passengers had to exit the train after an hour and load onto several buses. We crammed into one bus and then transferred to another. It was nice to see the country roads, but my stomach didn’t exactly appreciate the winding roads with little air flow while wearing a mask and backpacks on our laps.

After such a long bus ride, we have come to appreciate the actual train system even more!

Berlin, Germany

July 3-6:

From Heidelberg, Germany, we headed north to Berlin on a five hour train ride.

Meininger Hostel with the Berlin TV tower in the background

We got to Berlin late and went straight to our hostel to set our bags down before heading out for some dinner. Since our hostel experience in Heidelberg was so great, we figured we would give it another shot!

The hostel we chose was a large chain and seems to be more popular for the private rooms (essentially a hotel). We decided to save a little money and go for the dorm style room again.

The room was about 9’ x 9’ and had 3 bunk beds. There was no central AC or a fan. Berlin, we later learned can be known for their hot and humid summers. There was a little window that could be opened, but did not let in a lot of cool air. There were two girls already set up in the room we were sharing. Their things were sprawled about everywhere. We were planning on staying there for all 3 nights, but we barely made it the first!

The girls came back around 3:30am. Our room at this point was close to 80 degrees. Graham woke up around 4:30am drenched in sweat. He went down to the lobby to get some cool air. He was able to get a portable fan from the front desk. He came upstairs to turn it on and the fan was broken. He immediately booked us an airbnb to stay in the next couple nights.

After a short nap in our new AirBnB to catch up on all the missed sleep from the previous night, we set out exploring!

Brandenburg Gate

Our first stop was the famous Brandenburg Gate! It was built between 1788 and 1791 on the orders of the Prussian king Fredrick Wilson II during the Batavian Revolution. The statue on the top is known as the goddess of victory, “Quadriga”.

At the end of World War 2, much of Berlin was destroyed but the gate survived. It suffered some damage and both East and West Berlin worked together to restore the gate right before the Berlin Wall was placed.

Many famous speeches have been given in front of the gate including John F. Kennedy’s speech (1963) of “I am a Berliner” and Ronald Reagan’s speech (1987) where he famously said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Brandenburg Gate right after liberation of World War 2, somehow it survived!

Ronald Reagan’s Speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Holocaust Memorial

We walked through the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe also known as the Holocaust Memorial. It consists of 2,711 concrete slabs all different heights. The pavement is also uneven to give the visitors a sense of confusion and uneasiness. It was very powerful walking through the memorial thinking of the many lives that were tragically lost.

Hitler’s Bunker

Right near the memorial was Hitler’s Berlin air raid bunker where he married his wife and then 40 hours later where they both took their lives, marking the very end of the war. The bunker was later filled in and only a small plaque stands above ground in the middle of a parking lot. It seems fitting to have the place where he spent the last minutes of his life be nothing but a little known parking lot covered in weeds.

Checkpoint Charlie

After the Berlin Wall was put up, Checkpoint Charlie was established in 1961. This was one of only a couple checkpoints between the east and west sides of Berlin. The United States, Britain, and France all had soldiers stationed at this checkpoint since it was the only checkpoint that East Berlin allowed military personnel, allied diplomats, and foreign tourists to pass into the Berlin Soviet sector. The west purposefully did not make their checkpoint very elaborate or permanent to show they did not view this division of Berlin to be permanent.

A tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie during the Cold War. No shots were fired!

Tiergarten

As we were heading to the Brandenburg Gate we walked right by a large park close to the center of Berlin. We’ve both learned on this trip to be very spontaneous and take random streets because who knows what you might find! So we took a turn and walked through the park. The park seemed unending. Like a Central Park type of park, right in the middle of Berlin. People were having picnics, running, walking their dog, or like us – just taking a stroll to see what there is to be seen. We eventually stumbled upon this beautiful garden inside the park!

You could smell the lavender and roses as you walked through the garden, the humid Berlin air cooling off after a hot summer day.

Day of rest

Originally, we were planning on only staying for three nights. Monday was going to be our day to go to museums. We later found out that museums are all closed on Monday. So, this called for staying an extra day and just taking a day of rest on Monday. Graham went to the grocery store that morning and got us some sandwich meat and cheeses to enjoy for the next two days.We enjoyed catching up on sleep, reading, doing laundry and reflecting. We didn’t realize before that we would need mornings (or full days) to rest. It’s been almost a month now since we began our Europe journey and each day is filled with LOTS of walking, carrying our big backpacks, and discovering lots of new things. Our brains and bodies were glad to have a day of staying in to rest.

Ethiopian Cousine

For dinner we decided to try something new (for Lizzie at least) and found a family-owned Ethiopian restaurant. We ate with our hands and enjoyed so many new flavors/spices! We thankfully did our research before and did not ask for silverware. We weren’t totally sure what each thing was, but we tried it all and each found our favorite dishes.

Museum Day!

Our final day in Berlin was dedicated to museums! We went to the Deutsches Technikmuseum (Technology Museum) and the Neues Museum.

Our favorite parts of the technology museum was seeing all the old sailboats/ learning about the technology behind the maritime industry, seeing a lot of old military aircraft, learning about the advancement of computers, and seeing lots of old trains! If you know Graham, you know that he has had a fascination with trains since he was little. So this was definitely a highlight!

Deutsches Technikmuseum – the difference between first and second class on an old train!

The Neues Museum was certainly one of the nicest museums we have ever been to! This museum has a large collection of Egyptian art, prehistoric objects, and holds the famous bust of Nefertiti. It was so amazing to see the hieroglyphs on old papyrus, mummy cases, canopic jars, and lots of old artifacts that were preserved.

Apparently, Egypt has some beef with Germany over this collection being kept in Berlin rather than Cairo. It‘s not hard to see why – the collection is magnificent!

The Golden Hat – folks would wear this to signify status a long time ago. It was made of real gold!

Currywurst and Frites

We were told that when you are in Berlin, you have to try the currywurst. They don’t look too appetizing, but they were actually really good! Spiced sausage with a ketchup sauce on top with some fries and mayonnaise sauce, sprinkled with curry.

The Fun of E-scooters

Since traveling, we have discovered the joy of riding e-scooters! It’s a great way to see more of the city and they have great bike lanes! Though it becomes a very bumpy ride when going over cobblestones.

A short night sleep

Our final night in Germany was cut short when we were abruptly awakened by a very loud fire alarm at 4:30am. It took a minute to figure out what was going on, but we quickly gathered our shoes and headed downstairs to go outside. We were joined in the stairwells by some young teenagers looking very guilty and cursing in German. The entire building was evacuated and we all stood outside for about an hour in the rain. It only took minutes for the police and fire trucks to show up. The young kids went right to the cops to confess that they were smoking in their room. We finally got back in our room and slept for a few more hours before we had to checkout.

The mother land of Aldi!

Before heading out of Germany, Lizzie had to experience the glorious Aldi in its mother land. It was very similar to the Aldi’s we have in the states, but way fancier! They had a bread slicer, fresh pastries, lots of fresh produce and an amazing Aldi Finds aisle! We grabbed some snacks for our next long train ride – 2 German pretzels, 2 apple pastries, blueberries, carrots, and paprika Pringles (we‘ve discovered a love for paprika chips during this trip).

Mind the Gap

Quick anecdote from Graham, starting off with a life principle: Mind the gap. No really. PLEASE mind the gap.

Lizzie and I boarded a busy train from Berlin to Prague, and found some seats that could have worked but wouldn’t have been the most comfortable. So I decided to sleuth a few cars forward to see if there were any better seats available. To do this, I had to step out of one car onto the platform in order to get back into the next because of how busy it was. As I stepped out of the first car, my phone starts slipping out of my hand.

Perhaps it was the greasy paprika chips that Lizzie mentioned earlier in the post, or maybe I was simply nervous about running out of paprika chips and my hands were sweating as a result. In any case, my phone didn‘t want to stay in my hand – it in fact wanted to fall out of my hand and land directly on top of the train track. Yes, on top. Of the train track. Where the wheels go. Perfectly balanced.

There were some janitors sanitizing the train door handles nearby, and I ran up to them, pointed back at my phone on the tracks underneath the train and asked embarrassedly, “What do I do!?” We all had a friendly bonding moment of panic together, me panicking in English, and the two janitors panicking in German. The train was just about to leave the platform, and it would have rolled right over my phone – crushing it. Our train tickets, Airbnb reservation, plane tickets, payment methods – everything is on our phones these days.

The janitors pointed me over to a train company official who was standing on the platform – I ran up to him and hastily told him what had happened. By now, the shame of my mistake was palpable. I asked him if I could hop down under the train to grab the phone, and hop up before the train left. And in a thick German accent and a slight joking smile, he said, “Not unless you want to go to jail.”

I came back to see that the janitors threw their cleaning gloves at my phone, which caused it to teeter off the top of the track and fall to the side, saving it from being crushed by the train.

Graham’s phone next to the cleaning gloves that saved its life

We waited for a few trains to go by until one stopped at the platform long enough for the train officials to reach beneath and grab my phone.

I was so embarrassed. And so grateful for the two gentlemen who helped teeter the phone off the main part of the track. We ended up gratefully giving them some money to say thank you, and they didn’t even want to accept that at first, saying that they were just glad to help. It’s always so nice to know that there are folks like that in this world.

The moral of the story? Don’t eat paprika chips. Or if that’s too difficult (which we totally understand), maybe just “mind the gap”.

Heidelberg, Germany

July 1-3:

One peculiarity of our trip this summer is that it’s occurring right as COVID restrictions are lifting for European countries. As such, we are having to monitor European news networks and government websites on a daily basis to learn if a particular country is changing their entry restrictions for vaccinated American tourists. One development that has occurred over the past month has been the rise of the Delta COVID-19 variant in the United Kingdom, likely hampering our ability to visit the UK. While early research shows that the vaccine that Lizzie and I both have is effective against the Delta variant, most European countries aren’t letting folks for who transited the UK into their countries. Additionally, the UK themselves are mandating a 10-day quarantine for all arrivals, regardless of their vaccination status.

With this development, we now have the time to visit countries that weren’t originally on our list. This includes Germany!

From Luxembourg City, we were able to use our Eurail pass to catch a train to Heidelberg, Germany. Heidelberg is a beautiful little city on a river with a magnificent castle that overlooks the old town.

Heidelberg Palace, an extremely old castle, looms in the background of the entire city.

Philosopher’s Walk

One of the best things to do in Heidelberg is walk the Philosopher’s Walk. It’s a beautiful little street on the other side of the river with magnificent views of the city.

Quite a few authors found inspiration in Heidelberg, including Mark Twain. He finished writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Heidelberg, and was inspired by this exact walk!

Lotte Hostel

We had our first hostel experience in Heidelberg, at the Lotte Hostel. It was an absolutely amazing experience – and such a great price! We initially weren’t sure what the dormitory life would be like, and were a bit nervous going in. We shared our dorm room with 2 women our age from Germany – which we initially thought would be very strange. What were they like? Would they snore? Would they beat us up in the middle of the night and take our lunch money?

We met the girls in the common area of the hostel as they were cooking their dinner. They ended up speaking perfect English, and were so polite! We loved just standing there in the kitchen getting to know them and their stories. They ended up cooking extra food for us, and we sat together at the hostel dining room table for an hour and a half around a meal. It was one of the highlights of our trip.

In the kitchen, the hostel had coffee, tea, milk, cereal, and dishes to use if you wanted to cook your own meal. The common area had several tables, comfy chairs, and free books. You could also do laundry in their washing machine downstairs. The location was also perfect – it was right in the heart of the city, quite literally at the base of the stairs leading to Heidelberg Palace.

Heidelberg Palace

The crown on top of the city is the Heidelberg Palace. With much of the structure having been built in the 1500s, it was an incredible experience to walk through its ruins.

This part – built in the 1700s was still in great condition

A massive wine barrel in the palace cellar

The view of the city from one of the palace towers

Food

We were so excited to try authentic German snacks and food for the first time. If you know anything about Lizzie, you know that one of her favorite snacks of all time is a German pretzel. Now that she was in the homeland, we had to stop and grab one!

One of our favorite restaurants in Heidelberg, and potentially our favorite restaurant thus far in Europe, was Weinstube Schnitzelbank. It was authentic German food in an old wine cellar that opened after the war in the 1950s!

Lizzie’s: Kässpätzle, almost like a macaroni and cheese

Initial thoughts on Germany

We already regret not having Germany on our original list of must-sees during this particular trip. It is an incredible country! One of the things we have both remarked on is how similar the culture between Germany and the US feels – more so than any other country we have visited so far. Perhaps the similarity in feel comes from the sheer size of Germany. At over 80 million people, it’s the biggest country in Europe with the largest economy. Or perhaps it comes from the fact that our American culture is intertwined with Germany’s being that so many of our original settlers came from Germany, bringing their amazing culture with them. Whatever the case may be, we have loved experiencing this culture so far through Heidelberg and have decided to go deeper into Germany as a result. Off to Berlin, next!

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

June 29-July 1

With our Eurail pass, we were able to easily catch a train from Brussels, Belgium to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg!

Luik-Guillemins train station in Belgium

Luxembourg is a small country. One of the smallest in Europe, in fact. It sits just east of France, south of Belgium, and west of Germany. It’s completely landlocked, and has a fascinating history of being conquered by neighboring empires over the years.

These days, Luxembourg is ever-so-slightly smaller than the US state of Rhode Island, and its population is approximately 650,000 people. Yes, 650,000 people for the entire country!

Public transportation was recently made to be completely free across the small country – not just for Luxembourg residents, but also for anybody visiting the country. You can catch a train, tram, or bus without paying a dime! The country did this to encourage folks to stop using cars to be more eco-friendly as all public transport runs on electricity.

As you traverse Luxembourg, you will quickly realize that there are a huge number of languages commonly spoken in its streets, shops, and at its monuments. Luxembourgish, French, German and English are used interchangeably across the country. We practiced a couple times trying to order in French to help get us ready for our France visit, but often the cashier would respond in English seeing that we clearly have no idea what we’re saying!

Luxembourg City

Luxembourg City is an old fort city. It’s been called the most strategic fort in Europe, and has long been the prize of nearby conquering nations. Each time the city was conquered (after hard-fought battles through moats and city walls), the fort was further strengthened and expanded. Over time, the fort/city came to look something like this:

Sitting on top of a mountain, there are deep valleys carved out by rivers marking some natural boundaries of the fort to its south and east. To its west, unique multi-layered walls were built to keep out invaders.

As someone who is fascinated by maps, Graham was absolutely in his element seeing all of the old maps and how the fort changed through the years.

Today, Luxembourg City is now a city built on top of (and within) the old fort. Despite these modernizations, Luxembourg City retains nearly all of its former might. We were shocked at how much of the old fort still stands today, in remarkably well-kept condition.

Old 1500s-1700s city walls like this are everywhere

Part of the old fort (converted into a museum)

Free Transportation

As previously mentioned, one of the things we were most surprised at was the free transportation across the country. This took many forms – including high-speed panoramic-view elevators to take you from the valleys to the main parts of the city, and a funicular that brought you from a train station up to the business district of the city. We saw people using both means of transportation as a part of their daily commute!

High-speed panoramic elevator

Funicular from one of the main train stations to the business district

Site-seeing in the city

It’s no secret that Luxembourg is small in relation to some of its giant neighbors. That being said, its people have strove to attract business and diversify its economy. Today, Luxembourg is a financial powerhouse in Europe – and some of the biggest international companies including Amazon have their European headquarters in Luxembourg City. The country also prides itself that it has one of the highest GDPs per-capita of any European nation.

We really enjoyed walking through the city and seeing the incredible dichotomy of old and new, brutal fortress and gleaming city, influences from surrounding cultures and great pride in the unique country the people of Luxembourg have created with its own unique culture. It’s a fascinating city.

In front of the philharmonic concert hall

Old buildings on top of the fortress walls

Looking into the valley from the heights of the old city walls

The old palace where the royal family continues to live to this day

We really enjoyed our time in Luxembourg. For such a small country, it packs a mighty punch for visitors. If you’re interested in history and/or forts, this is the country for you. We loved exploring the old city streets and fortifications and hope to one day come back. But for now, we’re off to Germany!

Brussels, Belgium

June 28-29:

We traveled to the capital of Belgium – Brussels! We arrived around 8:00pm to our Airbnb, which was centrally located inside the bustling city. Brussels had a different feel about it than other cities we’ve visited – everything was alive and very metropolitan. It almost felt like New York City.

Our first night in Bruges we found ourselves unable to get any dinner because it was so late, (11:00) and everything closes early in Bruges. Thankfully, we had saved one soup packet from our Iceland campervan travels and cooked it in the shared kitchen of our Airbnb.

Brussels is the complete opposite. Things are open late into the night (the pub in our apartment complex closed at 4AM and reopened at 6AM!). We grabbed some Indian cuisine for dinner that night. The best garlic naan we’ve ever had! So good!

The first night we arrived we listened as we were trying to go to sleep to excited Belgium football (soccer) fans as they cheered their team into victory. It was incredible to hear the deep rumble of cheers whenever they got a goal. (We were live streaming the game from our phones in bed haha) After Belgium won, the streets erupted in coordinated singing and fireworks.

Grand Place

The Grand Place is a large city square surrounded by beautiful historical buildings dating back to the 14th century. At night the square is lit up. People during the day and at night sit on the ground and enjoy hanging out with friends or family. We loved this spot the most in Brussels!

Mont des Arts

Mont des Arts is a beautiful landscape garden on a hill with a great view of the city.

Triumphal Arch

We walked 2.5km to a beautiful city park with a grand Triumphal Arch at the end. After doing so much walking, we decided to cave and rent some Lime scooters to ride back into the central district of the city.

Manneken Pis

Graham’s grandparents have a miniature version of this statue in their downstairs bathroom that we always thought was funny. We had to go visit the real thing! It is a 17th century fountain and the boy is sometimes dressed up during different festivals. We must have caught him at a bad time though because he was missing all of his clothes.

Le Pêcheur- Belgium restaurant

For dinner, we headed to Le Pêcheur for some Belgian food. The menu was only in French. We both ordered from the page that stated “entree”, with more reasonable prices for dinner than the following pages of the menu. Graham ordered some mussels and Lizzie ordered a plate of croquettes au fromage (cheese croquettes). The plates came out and we then realized we must have ordered off of the appetizer or small plates page. Lizzie had two small cheese croquettes (looked like 2 freezer cheese sticks) and Graham had a very small plate of miniature muscles. We both ate very small bites to make it last. Thankfully, the restaurant gave out free bread, which we gratefully ate two baskets of.

France football

After our small dinner, we headed across the way to a sports bar for a drink and to watch the exciting football game between France and Switzerland. It was a highlight of our time in Brussels. We sat around very enthusiastic fans singing fight songs in French. It was a great experience!

Laeken Cemetery

The next morning we went to Laeken Cemetery to see one of the twenty original sculptures by French artist Auguste Rodin – The Thinker. The cemetery was filled with beautiful unique graves and tombs. It was very humbling walking around. Many of the tombs had old pictures of the deceased that you could still see. Some were so old that you could barely read the lettering on it. Walking through reminded us of how quickly life goes by, how grateful we are for our friends and family currently around us, and how appreciative we are to be on a journey like this – knowing that this life is but a single breath.

Bruges, Belgium

June 25-27:

We made it to Belgium! It was just a short train ride away from Gouda to make it to the Belgian border. We connected through Brussels and out to the city of Bruges on the western side of Belgium.

Belgium is one of the newest countries in Europe. Around the same time as the French Revolution, the Belgian Revolution in 1831 resulted in the southern half of The Netherlands to secede into its own, independent country. The Kingdom of The Netherlands finally recognized its sovereignty in 1839.

Today, the country of Belgium is a fascinating mix of cultures, heritages, and languages. There are 3 national languages: Dutch, French, and German. The people of the capital city of Brussels are pushing to make English an official language as well. As such, most folks (including all school children by the age of 14) typically become at the very least conversational in 4 languages.

The regions of Belgium see different languages used predominantly as well. For example, in the southern regions of Belgium, French dominates public discourse. In the northern half of the country, including where we stayed in Bruges, a Flemish variation of Dutch dominates. We noticed that signs here often showed Dutch, then French, then German, then English. As such, the historic plaques are necessarily huge!

Bruges, Belgium is one of the most historically preserved cities in the country. At one point in the 13th/14th centuries, it was the wealthiest city in Europe! Echoes of that era remain today.

When we first arrived in Bruges. This canal was close to our Airbnb.

Carriage tours through the main parts of the city

Food in Bruges

It was in Bruges that we got our first taste of Belgian food! Because of its history, Belgian food tends to take many forms and come from many different countries. It’s easy to find cuisines from just about any country in Belgium! That being said, Belgian chocolate and Belgian waffles seemed to be some of the most popular snacks.

The waffles were so sweet, you didn’t need to put syrup on them! They already had large granules of sugar baked in, but we noticed most folks would sometimes spread butter on them and/or add brown sugar to the top of them.

“Deadly delicious” – the most popular type of chocolate at one of our stops

Inside “Deadly delicious” – something like cream cheese, raspberry, almond, and caramel!

“Cacao nibs” – a brick of chocolate with little bits of Cacao added

Belfry of Bruges

One of our favorite stops in Bruges was the Belfry of Bruges. Located in one of the main squares of the city, the belfry was originally the seat of the Bruges government. It got struck by lightning and partially burned down at one point, and they decided to move their official offices into a smaller building. But the belfry has been maintained and open to the public for some time now. It’s famous for its music-box sounding chimes that ring out over the city at all hours of the day.

View of Bruges from the top of the belfry

After a climb to the top of the belfry, we saw that it was indeed a giant music box that controlled all of the little bells! It’s the largest of its kind in the world.

The “music box” controlling the chimes in the belfry

Going up one level from the “music box”, we got to see the actual bells and chimes that it controlled. It was incredible seeing how it was all made, but quite loud when you’re standing underneath the bells!

Final thoughts

Bruges is an absolutely charming city. We loved feeling like we were stepping back in time to see the older sides of Europe through the well-kept historic buildings. We can’t wait to one day come back!

Gouda, Holland

June 24:

After Amsterdam, we took a train southbound to Gouda (later we learned it is pronounced “howda”). Gouda is the self-proclaimed capital of cheese!! The main street had big rounds of Gouda cheese (plastic of course) hanging across the street.

Gouda cheese strung across the city streets

It is an absolutely charming little town. They had a beautiful town square with a town hall built in medieval times that looked like a castle! We loved just aimlessly walking around the little town.

Medieval town hall on the left, hot air balloon in the distance in the center!

A better look at the medieval town hall!

Gouda town square

Our Airbnb was in a old historic printing house. The owner was so delightful and we had such a fun time talking with her. She welcomed us into her home and even showed us around their beautiful garden in the back yard. The loft area was perfect for what we needed! We were able to do laundry while there, which was much needed as we continue the backpacking trek.

The front of our AirBnB – an old print shop!

The little courtyard in our AirBnB host’s home.

Of course while there, we had to try some Gouda cheese! Our favorite was a truffle Gouda cheese made from goats milk.

Slicing up some cheese to take on the train with us!

The food was so excellent in Gouda as well. Being that we were quite a ways away from the more touristy spots of Holland (like Amsterdam), everything was so cheap. One of our favorite dinner spots was a little deli right down an alleyway from our AirBnB. The owner was from Bosnia, and grew up right across the channel from Italy – and he grew up around authentic Italian cooking! We had a great time talking to him (one of the nicest guys we have met this entire trip), and his food was such a good price and SO delicious. Later at our AirBnB, we learned that our host (a former high school teacher) taught all of the deli owner’s kids in high school and agreed that he and his family were some of the nicest folks she has met. If you’re ever in Gouda, check out this deli: Adriatika delicacies

We wish we would have stayed longer, but our next Airbnb was already booked in Bruges, Belgium. Gouda is a city that we know for sure we will want to come back to in the future!