97 Days, 12 Countries, 1 Kangoo

We last left you in Prague where the architecture was beautiful, the city very popular with the tourists, and the weather unpredictable. Last Saturday we took off early in the morning to drive 4 hours through the Czech and Austrian countryside to meet our parents (Linda, Bill, and Debi) in St. Johann im Pongau. We were greeted with a snow storm soon after we got on the road, and little did we know that the colder weather was here to stay.

Our parents had flown into Munich and rented a car to meet us at the resort in St. Johann. The town of St. Johann is a typical Alpine ski resort area – huge snow capped mountains surrounding you, shops filled with ski gear, and tons of bars and restaurants to warm up with a drink or good Austrian meal.

We all made it to St. Johann and after an early meal of schnitzel and beer we left our parents to rest from their jet lag.

Sunday we all piled into the Kangoo with Chris at the wheel and set out to start exploring the area. The weather reported cold, fog and snow flurries for the week, so we bundled up and headed to an 11th century fortress known as Hohenwerfen. I think we were all amazed at how they built this enormous castle teetering on a mountain way back when. And all horrified with the tales of torture and seeing the dungeons they used for prisoners.
We all climbed up to the top of the Bell Tower at Hohenwerfen to get an amazing view of the Salzach River’s blue-green glow below.

Instead of boring you with a long description of each and every thing we did, I’ll try to highlight the rest of the week….

Salzburg was a great little town semi-obsessed with Mozart and the Sound of Music. He wrote that, right? JUST KIDDING. Anyways, we saw Mozart’s birthplace and his main residence. The main center of town is very walkable and had many shops which we drooled into the windows. We did do a little shopping – I (Taice) found brown boots that I have been wanting and we tried the famous Sachertorte (mine is a little moister I have to say….).
Above the town is the huge fortress of Hohensalzburg, which we toured and Mom was in love with the gorgeous Magelica oven they had on display there.

We had two days of driving around to the other towns in the Salzburg area – Zell am See, Halstatt, Berchtesgarden, and Bischofshen. One was more gorgeous than the next, but I think we all agreed that Halstatt was our favorite. You will see from the picture why…it’s picture perfect. Here’s a video to prove it (note the authentic sounds of Austria):

On our last day with our family, we did our own Sound of Music tour. And no, my mom didn’t sing the whole way. Shocking, I know! Note: all of these things are from the movie, not the real life of the Von Trapps. We saw the mansion that the family lived in, where Maria danced around at the beginning of the movie, the church Maria and the Baron were married in, and where the kids sang in the Mirabell Gardens. We joked that the bus tour taking you to all of these sights takes 4 hours – and why spend that long and that much money, blah, blah…..Well, our tour took 8 hours. HA! Well worth it though, it was a great day! One of our favorite things (besides whiskers on kittens and warm woolen mittens) was the Trick Fountains at Helbrunn Palace. The Prince Archbishop Marcus Sittikus had a great sense of humor and lined his property with trick fountains to entertain his guests. They were built 400 years ago with water power from the natural springs. It was very impressive and here’s a couple videos to share:

We want to thank Debi, Linda and Bill for spending the week with us. From all you can eat rib night to heating up our toes under the hand dryer it was a great week. Hope you had as much fun as we did.

And for the rest of you – come visit! Missing and loving, Taice and Chris

Enjoy the pics: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=183781316/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

P.S. 911 is a universal number. Here’s the story – I left Chris at the bar in the hotel to go down to the car in the parking garage to grab my cell phone. I didn’t have my room key with me and after entering the garage the door slammed shut behind me, locking me in. After 15 minutes of walking the entire garage and trying every exit to get out (even manually trying to lift the steel garage door) I started to panic. Would Chris come get me? Would one of the other 4 people parked in the garage come down to their cars at 11 PM? Would I be able to just wait it out even though I desperately had to pee? So yes, I called 911. I wish we could get a transcript of that call. Picture me trying to explain that it was not an emergency. I was just locked in a parking garage and my room key was at the bar and could the police call the front desk of the hotel and have someone come let me out. I think I got the point across though and minutes later the manager came down and rescued me. We then spent the next two hours drinking beers with him at the bar and laughing at me. Ohhhh, good times.

Greetings from Prague!

We are wrapping up our 3 days in Prague and are heading to Austria tomorrow morning to meet my mother and Mr. and Mrs. O. It will definitely be good to see some familiar faces, so we are really looking forward to it.

The Czech Republic was our first foray outside of the EU, which meant the first border crossing and a new currency. Let me start with the border crossing. We crossed over from Germany on a very small road and the border guard asked us to pull off the road while he stamped out passports. After we waited for about 5 minutes, a different border guard approached my window and asked me to turn off the engine. He then asked us where we were coming from. Stating the obvious, we answered in unison "Germany". This confused him a bit. 'Where before that?" "Netherlands". We then detailed our trip in reverse all the way back to Boston before he asked why we did not have a stamp in our passport from when we entered the EU. We can thank the lazy French customs agent in Degaulle airport for that. The border guard dissapeared again for a few minutes, returned, and wordlessly handed our passports back. The two guards followed our car with their gazes for as long as I could see them in the rear-view. Perhaps that was an omen...

After driving a few hours on a tiny country road to Prague, we were entered the suburbs at a speed that was my best guess of the speed limit (slower than the guy in front of me who was DEFINITELY speeding) when I noticed a parked police car in the rear-view. And when the lights came on and the car pulled out, I mentioned to Taice that we were getting pulled over. Hoping that he was after someone else, I slowed so he could pass. No such luck.

The police officer came to the window and told me that I had a 'grusse problem'. I assumed this meant I was in big trouble but I could only shake my head like the clueless tourist I am. He took my passport, my international permit and my Mass license and motioned for me to come back to his car and walked away. Knowing how American cops react if you exit your vehicle during a traffic stop, I remained in the car. He returned and asked me to get out again. Certain I was not going to be arrested for it, I got out of the car and walked back to the cop car, where the officers partner was sitting int he passenger seat with a tablet PC. In extremely broken english, they showed me the evidence. On the computer there was a picture of the Kangoo, clocked at 65 km/h. The unposted speed limit was 50km/h. I was then informed that this indiscretion would cost me 1000 kroners. I asked if I could mail it to them. They said no, i would need to pay them right then. Hmmm, am I being extorted because of the red license plate on the car? Either way, I have no Kroners on me. It took me another few minutes to explain that and after they conversed with each other, they told me that I could follow them to the nearest ATM. OK....

The closest ATM was in the parking lot of a large suburban store, picture Home Depot. When Taice tried to get out of the car to get the cash out, she realized that her pants were still unbuttoned from an illegal pee stop on the side of the road a few kilometers before we were apprehended by the cops. So picture her discreetly trying to zip up while two Czech police officers watched her from their rearview. Once the cash was in hand, I walked it over to the police car and received a reciept from the police and we were on our way. I wish Taice had photographed this encounter, but when I asked, she said she thought they were going to beat me with their clubs. Oh, and 1000 kroners is approximately 50 bucks.

Once we got to Prague, things were much easier. The city is lovely and we lucked out with our hotel- great location. Prague is smaller than we expected so we have been able to walk across most of the city in 3 days. I will let the pictures and Taice's captions tell the story:

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159737835/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Here is the scene on Prague's King Charles bridge, one of the oldest and most impressive stone bridges in Europe:

We also found time to hit a beer hall:

I can explain that look of disgust that Taice gave by saying we ordered a plate of Beercheese and Onions. This is basically the smelliest snack you can imagine. It actually smells worse than the bag of dirty laundry we have been carrying with us.

Hope the Sox have a big weekend! We had a chance to watch last night's game online - can Beckett pitch every night? We like their chances at home if Schilling can pretend it's 2004 and Dice-K pretends it's the World Baseball Classic.

Till next time...

Chris & Taice

I have been taking some short videos with our camera and finally got around to uploading them to YouTube.

Enjoy!

Taice at the Hofbrahaus with Cate after a few liters of beer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBXreFP-k0g

The concert in Amsterdam on the park to benefit Burma that we stumbled onto:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUnTL3OyjcA

The Grand Place in Brussels, the beautiful square with the Guild houses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFOregcZQ4s

Driving into Dresden this evening we noticed that our car odometer almost reads "4,000 kilometers". It feels like we've seen nothing at all, but at the same time like we've been gone forever. I think the "we don't have a home" feeling is starting to sink in, and as freeing as that feels, it's nice to know we do have someplace to eventually return to and call home.

The first time I felt this homesick feeling was the day we arrived in Berlin. It may have been that we had hit the "two weeks away from friends mark", it may have been that we hadn't had much luck with our hotel/pension picks in the past few days, or it could have been that I had been hand washing my underwear for over a week... Anyways, I was missing home. And just then we had the most American day ever. Berlin was FILLED with Dunkin' Donuts, ads for the Blue Man Group and bars that showed American Sports. Since it was Sunday Night Football we found one of those bars and spent the evening - into the weeeee hours of the morning - with American transplants watching the Patriots KICK the Cowboys butts. It wasn't quite the same as sitting on the couch at Spring Hill, but it did the trick. Okay, enough of home, we're sooo glad we're not there

So, the price of oil is at an all-time high and the American dollar is at an all-time low... what can you really buy with 10 bucks in your pocket? Well, we put that to the test tonight in a small grocery store on the outskirts of Dresden. For about 8 Euros (around 10 US dollars) we bought the following: two loaves of fresh bread, one container of cole slaw, two packages of various meats, 10 slices of cheese, one container of this stuff called "Quark" (which we're not really sure what it is, but it's damn good on sandwiches), two bottles of decent red wine, two apples, and a bag of mixed nuts. We're hoping the really reasonable prices will continue as we head into Prague.

Chris did an excellent job of captioning the photos, so I'll let them tell their own story.

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159723112/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Missing and loving you all!!!!!

- Taice and Chris

We are going to take a departure from the standard narrative format to touch on a few things that we keep forgetting to mention.

• In a complete 180 from Bavaria, the Luxembourgers drink some very foo-foo cocktails. Taice and I sat in 'Club City Skyline' at the bar in Luxembourg City on a saturday night and the most popular drink ordered was Sprite, grenadine and a splash of beer on top. This was followed clolsely by something with peach juice and something green but that wasn't midori. I felt like a real man with my glass full of just beer.

  
  

• We are doing our best to grasp the nuances of Rugby, since it is getting in the way of watching American football. An older Belgian man sat with us while we watched Scotland vs Argentina last sunday night. He was nice enough to help us figure out such rugby terms as 'handling in the ruck', 'pulling the jumper in the air' and 'illegal scrummaging'. We look forward to catching some of the semifinals this weekend and learning a bit more.

  
  

• Most underwhelming tourist attraction so far (and by far): the Manakin Pis statue in Brussels. Ok - I knew it was just a statue of a boy peeing. What I didn't know was that it is 18" tall and tucked in a corner in a small alley. Picture Caleb peeing. I think I need to hear the story of why it is famous again. All I know is that it is extremely popular in Asia, judging from the crowd gatered round.

  
  

• Tip for american bar owners - serve cheese and salami platters as snacks! Most of the bars over here have great snack menus. You can get about 3 lbs of cheese served up with tasty mustard dips for 4 bucks. It's wonderful. Note to self: charge friends 4 dollars when they come over for cheese and wine nights.

  
  

• Why is everyone in Belgium obsessed with Bolognese? Every single bar and restaurant has Bolognese on their menu. We have yet to try it (holding out for Bologna) but it's been tempting us every night.

Other random thoughts:
Next time pack more than 6 pairs of underwear.
Install a sink in our bedroom - it seems to be all the rage.
Salami IS a breakfast food!

Here's a link to the pictures and GO SOX!!!!!

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159699201/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

We were less than impressed with our hotel choice in Stuttgart, and driving around the city was a nightmare. But the fabulous Mercedes Benz museum more than made up for our initial dissapointments. Chris had a list of many car museums he wanted to visit while on our trip, and this is the first one we've actually made it to (we skipped one in Strasbourg and couldn't get into the BMW museum in Munich). You will see from the pictures the greater exterior architecture and all the amazing cars inside, of course!

After a few hours drooling over cars you only dream of driving, we left Germany for Luxembourg. We had nothing but positive reviews from friends and family regarding the city of Luxembourg. We arrived on a busy Saturday afternoon and as we stopped for a red light, on a hill, we noticed a huge bus trying to navigate the corner. The guy in front of us kicked it into reverse and slammed into our car. Yikes. Our first European accident. We both pulled over and assessed the damage - only our license plate appeared to be dented. No big deal. When we finally found a parking garage, Chris tried to pop the hood to check for any internal damage. Well, we thought things were really bad since we couldn't get the hood open. After a few frustrating minutes of panic, Chris realized that our car's hood opens from the windshield out. HA. Relief.

Luxembourg was a very beautiful city and we enjoyed a nice sit-down dinner of Italian food - couldn't get into many restaurants since it was a Saturday night.

The next day (Sunday) we drove on to Ghent. Our plan was to camp outside of Ghent for three nights and explore some surrounding cities and towns - Brugges, Brussels, and Antwerp. We found the campsite, set up the tent, and headed into the center of Ghent. It was a GORGEOUS Sunday afternoon so the streets were busy with locals and tourists. We loved strolling around the side streets, eating waffles, and trying a few Belgian beers. YUM! Chris wanted to find a sports bar that would have the Sox or Patriots game on, so we hit up an Irish pub. After chatting with the bartender for a few minutes he told us his name was Chris and he was from Boston. Small world! But no Sox game due to the Rugby World Cup, which was pretty entertaining to watch.

Sunday night was dreadful. Awful. So cold. I am still thinking about how much it sucked. I hate camping. We got back to the campsite around 11PM and with only one TINY blanket to share I put on three layers of clothes and attempted at sleeping. 8 restless hours later, Chris and I got up to freezing cold camp showers and soaking wet bathroom floors. Trying to move on....

That morning we headed to Brugges, which is only 25 minutes from Ghent. Brugges was more of the same - enchanted village with lovely side streets and plenty of canals to wander around. We took a canal cruise and after talking to a shop keeper, we decided to head to the Northern coast for the rest of the afternoon. Apparently the coast of Ostend is where Marvin Gaye wrote Sexual Healing. So we went there to relax from our torturous night. As we watched the waves we chatted about the camping issue. Do we go back for two more nights? Do we pull an all-nighter and stay out clubbing in Ghent and pick our tent up in the morning? Do we just leave the tent there and get another room in town? The camping experience made us realize that a good night's sleep is THE most important thing when traveling, so we went back to the Information center in Ghent and had them book us a bed in a hotel with a shower and breakfast for the night. YAY!

This morning we checked out of our hotel and then checked out of our campsite. Much more rested and ready to tackle the rest of Belgium. We're sitting in an internet cafe in Brussels right now looking for a place to stay since we ditched the camping idea....stay tuned.

Check out the pics:

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159682607/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

And keep the comments and emails coming! We love it.

A special shoutout also needs to go out to Manny and Papi - please let us ride your shoulders to another World Series. And thanks to Donte Stallworth for finally catching a TD - I'm sure that hurt Pete more than he'll admit.

Till Next Time!

Chris & Taice

We left Munich on Wednesday morning and headed off to Dachua to visit the concentration camp there and pay our respects to those who suffered. The weather was sunny and high 70s, but that could not brighten the somberness we felt at Dachua. It's hard to put into words what horrific pictures we saw and what an eerie feeling we had standing in the midst of concentration camp barricks. I (Taice) was too upset to finish the museum part of the exhibit and so, with tears streaming down my face, we left Dachua.

After miles of silence we realized the beautiful landscape ahead of us.....we were on the Romantic Road (Romantische Strasse). We drove straight to Neuschwanstein Castle, which was exactly how they describe it - right out of a fantasy. And of course, the inspiration for the Magic Kingdom. We hiked up the steep path to the outside of the castle and opted to not spend our time touring the inside. The castle was the brainchild of 'Mad' King Ludwig, and the exterior was completed shortly before his death. Most of the interior was never completed and it was opened to visitors only six weeks after he was gone. So, instead we hiked ever higher to Mary's Bridge, which is where Chris took the great shots of the castle (see pics that follow).

On to Oberammagau... I had been to this town when I was younger and had remembered it fondly. But according to the tourbooks it's WAY too touristy. We decided to go anyways. We found a great pension, owned by Anton (who loves stuffed birds and body odor), and headed out to get some dinner. The town had celebrated its own Oktoberfest earlier that day, so most of the townfolk were out drinking beer in the towncenter. We found a cute, but rather quiet, biergarten and had a wonderful meal of weinerschnitzel and kartoffelsalat. After dinner we looked for a rowdier spot and found the main town hotel, which brews its own beers. We settled in at the bar and enjoyed a few drinks to the sounds of the local accordian/guitar duo.

The next day we left early to continue up the Romantische Strasse, stopping for coffee in Augsburg, a long stroll in Dinkelsbuhl, and finally stopping for the night in Rothenburg. We give Dinkelsbuhl 5 stars for its Bavarian charm. What a great little town!!! The travel guides all say to spend the night in Rothenburg and do the Nightwatchman's Tour, which is in English (because no one else does). Well, apparantly every English speaking person traveling to Germany bought a travel guide also. The Tour was our biggest nightmare, crowd-wise. So we skipped the tour, figuring it was a great diversion to get rid of all the obnoxious Americans, and headed to a local biergarten. The place we landed was known for its potato dishes (too bad we had already had a fabulous spaetzle dinner), but we did partake in the apfel strudel and Tucher hefeweizen. YUM. Off to bed.

This morning, after a traditional fruhstuck of meats, cheeses, and breads, we headed to Nuremburg to visit the Nuremburg Rally Grounds. The museum there tries to explain how the Nazi movement came to be, and how their propoganda machine made Hitler into a diety. The grounds were daunting in their current state but it was even more daunting to think of them in their hedey, or how they would have looked had the Natzi plans for them had been allowed to be carried out.

As I write this, we are in Stuttgart - here to see the Mercedes museum. After some car loving, we're off to Luxembourg and then the next three days in Belgium.

Finally, the link to the pics: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159660317/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

All our love,

Taice (and Chris too)!

Chris' Bullets:

[*]
Anyone know of an american sports bar in Gent? I would LOVE to catch the Pats demolition of the Browns or the Sox clinching

What is the german game where 8 men sit around a table and pass out magazines? I think there is some betting involved - I spent awhile trying to figure this one out in Rothenburg last night

I have been having trouble with snoring lately - I have been routinely awoken with requests to 'face out!'.

I don't know if we have mentioned it, but our Kangoo is affixed with a red license plate, and it may be the only in Europe. we think it might mean 'We are american tourists trying to hide behind this french car'. It may be a problem for us once we cross that Italian border. Stay tuned...

I don't think anyone works around here. Nothing leads me to believe they do. Not the afternoon beer drinking, the quiet restaurants in the evening, nor the nonexistent rush hour.

Speaking of rush hour - I am thoroughly enjoying driving the german highways. The trucks stay out of your way, there is no speed limit and I haven't seen a stop sign or an accident in days. I think there is plenty we could learn from this.
[list]

I'll be brief since we walked about 10 miles today and our feet are killing us.
King Ludwig and his family have way too many residences. Our innkeeper (Carol Lenz of Pension Lenz) convinced us this morning that visiting one of the Ludwig's palaces was not enough, we HAD to see them all. So off on the S-Bahn to the bus to the tram to a walk to the U-Bahn to the S-Bahn to a really long walk and we saw most of the things Carol had recommended. Here's what we do know: if you were rich, you had a different coach (carriage, not purse) for every occasion. And it seems there were about 4,865 occasions during the Ludwig's reign. Just when you thought you had seen enough horse bridles, there was a whole other room to see (HAY, have we seen enough horse bridles or what???).

After seeing all the 5 castles that make up the Nymphenburg Palace, we headed to the other side of the city to see the main Residenz. As you can probably tell from the pictures, they were cookoo for Rococo. It was Rococo madness. It was Rococo-nuts. I think my dreams tonight will be guilded in gold. Okay, took that joke too far.

By this time we had spent a solid 6 hours on our feet, so we made our way to the Biergarten inside the beautiful Englischer Gartens, which is the largest city park in Europe. And maybe the only city park complete with a few hundred people drinking beer.

The pics:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159646108/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Our next few days are up in the air, so we may not be checking in too much. We're off to Dachau tomorrow morning and then making our way down the Romantic Road. After that we hope to see some of Rothenberg, Stuttgart, and Trier before heading towards Belgium.

Enjoy the pics and please keep the comments/email coming!!!

XO Taice and Chris

Do you believe in signs? I'm not really sure that I do, but as we boarded our plane from London to Paris, Chris picked up the local morning paper and out fell the Travel section. The section was devoted to what they were calling a "gap year" - highlighting people, couples, and families who took a year off of work and traveled the world. It made me feel like what we were about to embark on was in fact a good decision. I was starting to believe in signs.....

We arrived in Paris at 9:30 AM and after three phone calls to our car rental company we finally were met by Mr. Kalloush (the silent Mr. Kalloush), who drove us to a parking lot to pick up our Kangoo. The car is unbelievable - airplane compartments throughout, great mileage, and the quirkiness of a European sized car. We drove from Paris to Strasbourg that first day (a 5 hour drive on the backroads) and then settled in to our deserted hotel that ended up NOT being in Strasbourg. Instead it was in a small town on the outskirts of the city and nobody spoke a word of English. We found a small bar that was serving pizza and managed to order a bottle of local Gerwetzraminer and a four cheese pizza complete with chevre and other yummy French cheeses. After pushing our jet lag to the limit we called it a night at 8 PM. We survived Day One.

The next morning we hit the road early and drove to Baden-Baden for some hiking in the Black Forest. The city was very posh for a smaller German city, but we had an enjoyable hike up to the Altes Schloss (Old Castle). After the hike we drove 3 more hours to Munich to met Kate Haynes (Chris's old coworker from Forrester). Kate was in the city training with a new company that is based here in Munich. We found Kate in Marienplatz and took off for beers and dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. One too many beers later and I fell down a flight of stairs in the Munich U-Bahn station. OUCH. At least now I know I can tuck and roll..... and come out unscathed.

Fast forward to this morning. We tackled alot today - walking around the city for a few hours, visiting the Deutsche Museum (Science and Technology), lunch in a Biergarten, and then to OKTOBERFEST. Unfortunately we didn't get to the grounds of Oktoberfest until after 5, so it was too crowded for us to get a seat inside the beer tents. We had to settle for a beer on the Carousel-Bar. Thank God it wasn't moving too fast.

So far we've been doing a pretty good job passing as non-Americans. I've been trying out my German and I think I may have fooled 1/2 the people so far

A few observations:

National Auto Pride - we are used to everyone in the US driving cars from all over the world - but from what we have seen so far, French people drive french cars, German people drive german cars and the difference is immediate as you cross the border.

Do not take a Renault Kangoo on the Autobahn and expect to pass anyone - not going to happen.

The German love of order is more apparent than I ever expected - no one even thinks about crossing the street until the the little man turns green, and that Deutsche musuem was the densest, most detailed musuem I have ever been to - picture a room explaining the process of creating car rear-view mirrors. Enormous, extensive and exhausting.

Apparently - the last week of Oktoberfest is when all the italians come to Munich - they are everywhere and observing the contrast between their passionate yelling and flirting to the german's structure and order is quite entertaining.

It is really cool to see how Munichers have held on to their traditions. All people, young and old, don their Dirndls and Liederhosen and hit the town. You would never see a few teenage boys in the US trying to be cool and wearing tight, short, leather pants at the same time.

Well - we'll let the pics tell the rest of the story:http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159639456/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Till next time!