Switching Between Centuries

The Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen, the Netherlands.  Quite a mouthful but quite a fun way to step back in time to the late 1800s, early 1900s.  The village was a mix of buildings and houses from the Issilmarr region (the area where we were -- if you want to know more specifically, you'll just have to google it yourself) that had been picked up and moved or rebuilt on the museum's land.

The Zuiderzee was quite similar in concept to Historic Williamsburg in that you can explore the buildings, watch museum staff (in period dress) going about their tasks, and talk to them about daily life.  Aunt Noreen, Uncle Tim and I wanted to go on the free walking tour, and amazingly enough, since we were the only English-speakers interested, we got a private tour of the place.  Our guide spent over an hour and a half telling us stories, sharing facts, and answering Uncle Tim's perpetual stream of questions.

We stopped in to see practically every type of building, store or house of the era; some of the highlights included the sail maker, the laundromat, the cheese shop, a fish smokehouse, and a widow's house where she spent the afternoon cooking soup.

For dinner that night (once we returned to the present day) we drove into the town of Hoorn which happened to be a very popular place for dinner.  After a walk through downtown, we decided on Greek for dinner, only to be told they were full up.  We encountered the same problem at three or four other places before landing in an Italian restaurant.  It was a delicious meal; I had a personal pizza that would have been at least a medium pie in the US.  However Uncle Tim took home the prize for best meal - fettuccine alfredo - because the server lit a half-round of alfredo on fire to melt the cheese before scraping it out and mixing it with the pasta.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Knowing that my aunt and uncle were good planners and having too much to plan myself for all the other cities I was visiting, I trusted that their suggestions on places to go would be interesting and enjoyable.   We hit the road early the next morning ready to explore a few small towns recommended in their Michelin guidebook before crossing the northern dike and reaching Amsterdam that night.  After only a few days I was used to traveling by car again and enjoyed the freedom it allowed us.

We first stopped in the small town of Giethoorn where we decided to rent a small, ten horse-powered boat which we used to "cruise" around the canals for an hour. I absolutely loved the houses with their thatched roofs and well-manicured lawns and gardens.  Every one was worthy of a picture since they were all so happily situated on the waterfront and well maintained.

Near the end of our hour, Uncle Tim passed the boat's control over to me (even though I had never driven that kind of boat/motor before), which wasn't a problem as long as I was going forward.  However when we saw a new thatched roof being put on, we decided a few seconds too late that we had enough time left in our hour to take a few minutes to watch some of the process.  When I had to back up and steer into what amounted to the house's alley (driveway?), I was undone by the motor's tiller, having to twist and push it in the right combination to get the boat where it needed to go.  Let's just say that I'll stick to sailboats where the wind is your motor or to motorboats with a steering wheel.

The other two towns we stopped in, Sloten and Sneek, were fun to explore, but didn't provide exciting stories to share.  I did see my first real windmill (and then a bunch more as we moved farther into the Netherlands) and a cool watergate and its drawbridge.

The last leg of our journey was across the 19 mile long Afsluitdijk (Closing Dike) that keeps the North Sea from flooding the Netherlands.  The dike is one part of the North Sea Protection Works, which is one of the wonders of the modern world.  I have to admit, while I probably didn't appreciate the engineering feat as much as I should have, I got a kick out of being that close to the North Sea!

Me and the North Sea!

My Trip's Last Country

Arriving in the Netherlands (the final country of my trip) meant psyching up for another day of biking with Uncle Tim and Aunt Noreen.  We spent the day in Hoge Veluwe National Park, biking through varying environments -- grasslands, deserts, forests, etc. -- and visiting the Kroller-Muller Museum (my apologies that both names are missing an umlaut), a great modern art museum that has the second largest collection of Van Gogh's in the world (along with a bunch of other amazing works by Mondrian, Picasso and the likes).

The sculpture garden outside of the museum was interesting; it mostly included works that made no sense to me, even after reading the little sign in the grass nearby.  However the coolest was one that you were supposed to climb up onto and be part of the sculpture.

Van Gogh's famous 'Cafe
Terrace at Night'

After about ten minutes of wandering through the sculpture garden, Aunt Noreen and I had lost Uncle Tim, who moved at a much slower pace.  With some extra time, I introduced Aunt Noreen to my favorite museum game: which would you put in your house?  A fabulous way to not only see the art, but to really gauge your reaction to the pieces by deciding which you would want to keep or could best tolerate, depending on the room's collection.  We had a great time making (and debating) our choices.

We stopped into the other museum in the park, a small science museum focused on ecology and geology, but only for a short visit.  The rest of the day was spent on our bikes, upon which we covered roughly 20 miles, all of which were accident-free!

Free white bikes to borrow while in the park!

Happy travelers!

Traveling by Car? Bike?

I never thought it would have been possible that riding in a car would feel odd.  However, after eight weeks of planes, trains, buses, metros, boats, and cable cars (not to mention feet), a car felt out of place.  Uncle Tim rented a car which gave us freedom to wind our way from Berlin to Amsterdam over the next few days.

I’ll preempt the questions by saying no, I didn’t personally get to drive on the Autobahn (I wasn’t on the rental agreement), and no, we didn’t drive as fast as I would have hoped given the lack of a speed limit (but it was entertaining to see others flying by).  I also enjoyed all of the wind turbines scattered throughout fields along the highway – Germans are so far ahead of us in generating (and conserving) energy!

We drove across Germany stopping for a short time in Goslar, mainly to take in the charm of an old, traditional German town, eat some lunch, and laugh at the “fat people” statue.  Our end goal was Munster, the biking capital of Germany.

We spent the entire next day biking around Munster – one of Aunt Noreen and Uncle Tim’s loves, but not mine.  However I was game for an adventure, and so we ventured out of the city to a very pretty schloss (essentially a manor house) surrounded by a moat and weeping willows.



It was while riding through the city’s downtown, however, that I had my first disagreement with my bike.  I was happily riding along, taking pictures and dodging pedestrians when I managed to clip a the corner of a bench with my pedal, sending me flying off the side of my bike and onto the road.  Luckily, it was almost as amusing then as it is now, mainly because the damage was minimal – minor cuts on my hand, arm, and knee – and we were able to continue on our way after I dug out a few bandaids.  The second disagreement came when I slid out while breaking on a gravel trail, but I was quicker to react and jumped off rather than wipe out with my bike.

The photo that led to the wipe-out

Despite my misadventures, I enjoyed Munster and managed to survive the day without coming to despise bicycles (which was fortunate, given the plans for the next few days)!

Double Museum Day

Marking where the
Berlin Wall once stood

It is simple to spend an entire day indoors, walking at a ridiculously slow pace, reading plaques and looking at artifacts.  Our second day in Berlin was spent like this, wandering first through the German History Museum and then through the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.

The history museum had an amazingly large collection; knowing that I would never get through the whole museum in the three or four hours we allotted, I went backwards in time.  I only made it through the 20th century and still had to skip and skim parts of the exhibit!  It was very interesting to see how the German museum explained and portrayed the events and artifacts from World War II, since I had only ever been exposed to history books and museums from the United States' perspective.  In my opinion, it was a very honest look at their history and an acceptance of the past.

Checkpoint Charlie was a completely different type of museum.  Where the history museum (and pretty much every other museum I've ever been to) was well structured, laid out in logical order, easy to read (as long as it was in English), and well maintained, the Checkpoint Charlie museum was pretty much the opposite.  A private museum, it was disorganized, cluttered, redundant in some places, and thrown together in a few old apartments near the actual border crossing.  However it was also one of the coolest museums I've ever been to.

I should mention that the museum focuses on the successful escapes of people across the Berlin Wall from East Germany.  The posters read like stories, only made more effective with the photos and apparatus that surrounded them.  Seeing two suitcases with the sides cut out and a mannequin folded into the available space to make it across the boarder on a train... looking at two surfboards on top of a car with the middles cut out, a mannequin lying inside... getting to search a car for the hidden passenger, only to find the mannequin under the seat's fabric instead of foam filling... it was amazing to realize that these people were trying to escape a wall that was only torn down in 1989.

The actual checkpoint was just outside the museum.  There were "guards" there (for photo opportunities) standing in front of the guard hut and nearby was the large sign warning people about crossing the boarder and leaving the American or sector.

Detours and More Friendly Faces

Frauenkirche in Dresden

In case there is anyone who hasn’t given up on my blog, here’s the next installment, shortly to be followed (by the end of this weekend) by stories of the last week of my trip. 

Sara and I parted ways (after a 4:00am wake-up) as she headed to Prague’s airport and I jumped on a train to Dresden.  With only a few hours before the next train headed to Berlin, I explored the city and the history museum.  The city was completely destroyed during World War II by firebombing; some of the main landmarks were rebuilt to their original glory, including the main Frauenkirche (a Lutheran Church), but in this case, not until the end of the 20th century.  In the history museum, the photos and artifacts that were preserved from World War II were shocking to see, especially those of the city as rubble.

Welcome to Berlin!

Upon arrival in Berlin, I met up with some friendly faces - my Uncle Tim and Aunt Noreen and a few friends of theirs I had met on last year's Grand Canyon rafting adventure.  My aunt, uncle and I spent the remainder of the day walking down Unter den Linden (the main boulevard through the city), taking in the main sights, most notably the Brandenburg Gate.

After a fabulous dinner, we headed to the Reichstag Building (house of parliament), where we stood in the line to go up to the glass dome. 

The Brandenburg Gate

The benefit of traveling with older people manifested itself faster than I had anticipated when an employee who was checking the line spotted us and informed us that we could skip the line and go in the side entrance since my aunt and uncle were elderly.

The audio guide told us what we were seeing (although it was a bit harder to spot things as it was nighttime) as well as informing us about the sustainable design elements of the dome itself.  I was fascinated by both but took more pictures of the sunshade and the column of mirrors to direct sunlight than the light-up buildings outside!

The Reichstag building by day.

The sunshade and mirrors inside the Reichstag's dome.

It was a wonderful start to the last bit of my trip – traveling with family, eating delicious dinners at restaurants, and sleeping in hotel rooms.  Definitely a change, but it was an enjoyable one.

Relaxing Days in Prague

The next two days were less touristy as we spent the first morning with Pavlina (our host) and her two children (Dave had gone to work) before heading into the city for the afternoon.  Our short day in the city center was focused on seeing the Jewish Quarter and its five synagogues and the old cemetery.  Each synagogue was unique, however the first and last stood out from the others most significantly.  The first was a memorial to the Czechs who were taken to gas chambers by the Nazis.  Every wall was covered with hand-written names of the people who lost their lives, although only a few were originals, since the Communists had erased almost everything during their control.  It was a very moving memorial.

Prague - with the Castle in the background

Some of the others were set up as museums, displaying artifacts and explaining Jewish customs.  I learned more in those few hours than I had ever retained in the past 25 years.  Sara and I were surprised to read about the custom that if a woman's husband died, his brother was obligated to marry her, unless she took off a special shoe for him, at which point they were not forced to marry.  Who knew?!

Our last day in Prague was spent with Dave, who showed us around a bit more, taking us to a beer garden, on a walk along the city wall, to a few of his favorite bars, and a few other locations.

Spending Koruna, or as I Liked to Say, Kroner in Prague

Arriving in Prague meant a new currency - the koruna - and a new language - Czech.  While dividing every price by twenty wasn't very fun, it wasn't as hard as trying to figure out what anything meant in Czech.  My first, and most entertaining mistake with the language?  Calling their currency kroners!  How I came up with that one, I have no idea, but it stuck and that's what I called it the rest of the trip.

Sara and I spent one of our three days at Prague Castle.  Well, we spent a good chunk of that day getting lost on trolleys that changed routes without warning, very limited signage, none of which was in English, and a map that was only in Czech. Up to this point on the trip I enjoyed or at least pleasantly tolerated the adventure of getting lost, but given the lack of signs or English, Prague had me frustrated.  However working together we finally made it to the castle, which really is a walled fortress with many buildings within its boundaries.

The most noteworthy part of the castle was actually in the Cathedral of St. Vitus which featured, among other more expected features such as colorful stained glass windows and beautiful woodwork, the tomb (sarcophagus) of St. John of Nepomuk. The tomb is made of approximately two thousand pounds of silver!  Definitely stunning and no doubt a massive tribute, but I'd call it over the top.

The Old Royal Palace also surprised me as I learned that men used to joust inside of the Great Hall.  While the room was huge, I struggled to figure out how there was enough room for men on horses to charge at each other, until I learned that they would ride up the entrance stairs to start their attack!

We filled the rest of our afternoon by walking throughout the old part of the city - across Charles Bridge and into Old Town Square.  A much prettier part of the city than we had seen yet, I loved the mixture of architectural styles and decorations of the buildings.  I was enthralled by the 16th century astronomical clock, which told Bohemian time, modern time, sunrise and sunset, orbits of the sun and moon, signs of the zodiac, and the saint of the day.  So cool!

Sara and I stayed with one of her friends from high school who is living in Prague - it was wonderful to stay with Dave and his family and have some home-cooked meals!

The Hills are Alive with (the Soundtrack of) the Sound of Music

As readers of this blog, be happy that you are not able to hear our Sound of Music tour group singing along to the soundtrack in the confined space of our eight-passenger van.  However I hope you enjoy reading about my stories from Austria.

Our first day in Salzburg was spent exploring the city's never-been-penetrated fortress, where Sara and I probably spent more time taking silly pictures than taking in the building interiors and WWI artifacts.  We also stopped by Mozartplatz, the cathedral where Mozart served as organist (and got a look at its 4,000 pipe organ), and Mozart's house with a few of his pianos and letters to his sister.

We spent the next morning at Hellbrunn Castle and more importantly its Wasserspeile, which translates to trick fountains.

Water shooting out of the center of each "guest" chair!

 The story goes that the owner of the castle was a jokester and had fountains designed to get his guests wet.  The most entertaining was a stone table that had water spouts in the guest's chairs that would soak their bottoms when they had had too much to drink.  Sara and I did great job staying dry for the duration of the tour, until I got too confident that I could avoid the tour guide's efforts, and got hit on the last fountain while taking a picture!  Even a bit wet, we really enjoyed the tour.  Not having reached my Mozart limit the day before, I went to a concert that night in this very Baroque, very cool room where I heard a bunch of his works, some of which I knew well, some of which were obviously Mozart but things I didn't really recognize.

Salzburg's other claim to fame is of course the Sound of Music, and so we decided to see what kind of fun the tours offered.  Sara had seen the movie for the first time only the night before, and I was happy to have a refresher since it had been a while since I last watched it (and if I'm being really honest, since I had last sung along).  The sights were what we had seen in the movie: the backyard of the Von Trapp family's house, the gazebo, the church where Maria and the captain were married, the gardens through which Maria and the kids are running while singing "Doe, a Deer," and more.  They were all fun to see in real life.  However the real fun was totally unrelated to the movie.

About to head up to the top of the track!

We made a very good decision when we chose the mini-bus tour.  A smaller van meant we were able to go places that a tour bus wouldn't have been able to reach, which, as we found out, meant we got to go... luging!  (Yes, I do mean the verb 'to luge': to ride on a racing sled down a track (that's my version of the definition.))  It was an amazing experience, being in control of this wheeled sled, rushing down a metal track, trying to push the speed and not use the break, all the while praying not to lose control and wipe out!  That ride definitely made my day and topped the list of my favorite activities from our time in Austria.

A Science Nerd's Heaven

The Deutsches Museum is the world's largest science and technology museum.  Sara and I decided that going without a plan was easiest, since the list of areas we wanted to visit would have been ridiculous.  We spent more than five hours there, seeing tons, reading less (most of the in-depth plaques were in German), and taking fun pictures.  While it may be the largest science museum, many of it's interactive elements were not working, which was a bummer, and definitely would not have passed the mustard in the US!  Even still, we easily could have spent 5 weeks there!

Here's an abbreviated list of some of the things we saw: boats, airplanes, engines, cars, nanotechnology, bones, glass, printing, clocks, agriculture, mining, submarines, toys, the environment, musical instruments, ceramics, and energy.  I'm going to let my pictures do the talking for this one so you can see some of the fun we had exploring this museum.

A slice of an Airbus A300... very cool

A tiny German car

Vertebrae of a Whale - this was giant!

A Gutenberg Letter Press!

Foucault's pendulum - proof the earth rotates!

And the best for last...

A "foot massage" that really just shakes your body and doesn't make you feel refreshed as advertised in the poster!