Nuremberg and Out

We finally get to sleep in a bit this morning, we don’t have to wake up until 08h00! It ireally is crazy how little sleep I get on this “vacation”.

 

Anyway, at 09h00, She and I meet up with happy-giant-one, neighbor-giant-one and purple-giant-one to go and explore the castle. On the way there we stop in a cafe and grab some breakfast to go.

 

This time we do make it into the castle. The inside is gorgeous. There are vines growing along some of the buildings and their leaves are a beautiful red. It is a perfect contrast to the green of the lawns. Sadly, we are not able to go into any of the buildings because you have to pay, and we don’t want to. The view is good anyway though. 

 

Since that didn’t take as much time as we thought it would, we walk around to all of the churches. We can’t really get into any of them because it is right in the middle of church. For two of them we are able to get into the entrance way, so we do get at least a small view of what they look like from the inside. I can’t imagine actually going to a service in a church as old as these are. 

 

At 11h00 we meet up with the others in our group and head to the station. The ride back is mostly uneventful. We are actually able to get seats on the ICE into Frankfurt, which is very nice, because our train from Frankfurt to Offenberg is one of the most crowded I have ever seen. Normally without a reservation on ICEs you have to sit in the space between cars, but this train is so full that even the isles and hallways are so full that it is near impossible just to walk. We manage somehow though. From Offenberg back the trains are all regional, so we find plenty of space. In Offenberg we run into the frisbee-giant-ones again, so we ride the rest of the way back with them.

 

It was a good weekend all in all. There were definitely some moments that I will never forget this weekend.

Still livin’ the dog’s life,

Woofy Buff

Beer + Dirndls + Pretzels + millions of people = Oktoberfest

Once again it is an early morning. We wake up at 05h30 to be up in time for the 07h00 train into Munich. The city is surprisingly awake at this hour. The train station is the busiest place around. Everyone is dressed up in their traditional garb and already downing bottles of beer. Most people that we meets as we are getting on the train are walking around with crates full of beer.

It is only an hour train ride into Munich from Nuremberg, so we should get in around 08h00… however, our train never leaves. There is no announcement going on as to why we aren’t leaving, but 07h00 comes and goes and we are still sitting in the train station. Luckily, the train is fun enough that it doesn’t even matter that we’re late. Everyone has already started partying, and everyone wants to party with everyone else. While we wait happy-giant-one and neighbor-giant-one braid my hair into two french pig-tails.

Eventually we leave, around 09h00. Which none of us are too happy about, since Oktoberfest opens at 09h00, and we wanted to be some of the first people into the tents. Luckily there are plenty of people to talk to on the train. At one point, She, smooth-giant-one and I get up to go to the bathroom. As you can probably imagine, the line for the bathroom is incredibly long. But standing in line was the best part of the whole train ride. All the Germans are standing around singing and drinking, just having a great time. At one point an Asian man walking into line, and, as considerate as they are, they starting singing Kong Fu Fighting for him.

We arrive in Munich a little after 10h00, and follow the crowds of people towards Oktoberfest. Once there we head straight towards the tents, since we know it is going to take forever to get in… and boy are we right. The first tent that we head to is HB, since it is the biggest. We end up standing in line, for almost 2.5 hours just to get in. Standing there was awful! When I say line, I really just mean mob of people waiting to get in. Not to mention that it is still raining, and there is a group of obnoxious Italians whose only goal is to make people miserable by hitting umbrellas and pushing people around. Needless to say, had we not gotten in when we did She and I would have left.

Luckily we didn’t though because once inside it is like a whole other world! Firstly, it’s not cold, or wet, and secondly, the people are just so much happier on the inside (of course). Right as we get in we run into the third group of student-giant ones, the frisbee-giant-ones. They had gotten in right at the beginning, so they had a table. We got pretty lucky because they are just about to leave, so we are able to take their table!

We stay in the tent for 4 hours. It is amazing! Everyone is happy and want to meet other people. We meet so many different groups of people from all over the world, all wanting to share a beer. As the main floor is enjoying their beer and food, there are a bunch of people walking around selling food, snacks, hats, trinkets, sugar, just about anything you can image. There is also a band that plays music (most of the songs reminded my of the Budweiser song) so there is a lot of singing and dancing going on. We learn a lot of German songs and chants, though I can’t be sure we are saying the words correctly.

My favorite people that we met we two Swiss guys, dancing-giant-one and hat-giant-one. We spent the most time talking to them. Dancing-giant-one really likes to dance, and not normal dances either. Crazy ones. Hat-giant-one is one of the nicest people I have ever met. All he wants to do is talk to different people, and he can talk about anything.

Around 16h00, She starts getting a bit tired of this tent, so we all decide to walk around the fair for a bit, just to see what there is. It seems like a good idea at first… until it starts raining again. And this time it really starts raining. We finish our circuit of the fair, and the head out. Everyone except for smooth-giant-one. He decides to stay and find another tent. On the way happy-giant-one wants to stop by the church and She wants to head to the sign, so we split up for a second. She, teddy-giant-one, purple-giant-one and I head to get our picture under the “Welcome to Oktoberfest sign”, and then meet up with the others at the church.

We are able to get inside, and there we come up with plans for the rest of the day. Since it is raining pretty hard we decide that there is no point in staying in Munich any longer, so we get on a train back to Nuremberg.

Once back, we head to find a place to eat. We end up walking quite a distance because no one wants to pick a place to eat. In the end we find a place that has the authentic Nuremberg sausages. The food is good, and it feels great to warm up for a bit. There She caves and has her first soda since coming to Europe. Then, we walk across the street to Bar FuBer again, so that we can get our apple strudel.

She and I finally get to our hostel around 23h30. This time She has no problem falling, and staying, asleep. It was a long day.

All in all, Oktoberfest was fun, though filled with unfortunate experiences.

Still livin’ the dog’s life,

Woofy Buff

Nuremberg – A Base Camp for Oktoberfest

This weekend we will be traveling to Oktoberfest, however since we made these decisions too late, everywhere in Munich is booked. And I do mean EVERYWHERE. In fact, we didn’t even plan on going until Wednesday of this week, so even the places in Nuremberg are booked. The first night there we get to stay with the group we are traveling with (happy-giant-one, neighbor-giant-one, purple-giant-one, smooth-giant-one, teddy-giant-one, and hungry-giant-one), but the second night we have to stay in a different hostel.

 

Anyway, enough with the background information. On to the main story.

 

This is another weekend that we have to wake up super early. Once again, She and I wake up at 04h00. Just enough time to eat and Skype Him. Then it’s off to the train station at 05h00. There are two other groups of student-giant-ones going to Oktoberfest this weekend. We meet up with one of the groups (flying-giant-one, piano-giant-one, singing-giant-one, spunky-giant-one, and ECC-giant-one), and walk to the train station with them.

 

There we hop on our first train. It’s one of the tiny ones, and at first we are the only people on the train. Spunky-giant-one and smooth-giant-one did not go to sleep last night, so they pass out on the train. Some others stay up to talk, but most join and sleep. 

 

We have to take 4 different trains on this trip, and unfortunately, two of them are ICE trains. Normally that wouldn’t be much of a problem, but because this is the last weekend of Oktoberfest, and both trains are headed towards Munich, they are crowded. Meaning, we don’t get seats. This isn’t that big of a deal on the first train since it’s only 40 minutes, but the second train is nearly 2 hours. We make the best of it though. Since we have to sit on the ground, might as well sit on the ground in first class right? Of course! 

 

Once we arrive in Nuremberg, we split up with the other group (they are waiting to find flying-giant-one, singing-giant-one, and piano-giant-one since they didn’t join us on the ground) and find our hostel. Once there, Her and my room is open, but the other groups’ isn’t. So we drop our stuff off and head out to find some food. The hostel-giant-one recommended a place to us called Bar FuBer (I don’t know how it insert the funny German B, but that’s what it is).

 

There must be some arrangement between the hostels of Nuremberg and Bar FuBer, because when we arrive, we run into the other group of student-giant-ones again. We sit at our own table though, can’t be TOO big of a group! Once we sit down everyone has a fun time of trying to translate the menu since no one speaks German. In the end, we find some English menus, which helps a bunch. She orders Schnitzel. All the food here is typical German food. The other giant-ones also all order beers, as a introduction to Oktoberfest as they call it.

 

The food here is great and the atmosphere is nice, and most importantly, IT’S WARM. I forgot to mention earlier how cold we all are. The internet told us it was going to be in the low 60s all weekend… that was a lie. We spent the whole 7 hours on the trains freezing, and even though it’s almost 15h00 by now, it’s still freezing outside! So the warmth and food of Bar FuBer is very welcome.

 

After leaving the bar, the plan is to let the other student-giant-ones into their room, then walk around town a bit more before heading to bed early. However, on the way back from the bar we find a Dirndl shop! She is extremely excited about this because She had all but given up on the thought of being able to buy one for herself. Luckily the other student-giant-ones are nice and understanding, and are willing to wait for her to try on a bunch. In the end She finds a blue polka-dotted one that is just perfect. 

 

With that distraction out of the way, and Her as happy as a kid on Christmas, we make it back to the hostel. There hungry-giant-one decides he is too tired to keep walking around town, so he stays back while the rest of us try and find the castle. We take our time getting there, wandering through different areas of town. Nuremberg is actually a very nice town. It’s not too small, but it is by no means big. There are also tons of tents set up with fresh food all over! It’s like a fresh market and food truck park mixture, but through all of the streets.

 

At the castle we are able to get a great view of the city, right at the sun is setting. Unfortunately, we show up right at 18h00, and that is when they shut the doors to the castle, so we aren’t able to get inside. We decide that we will return Sunday morning before our train to get inside, so all is not lost.

 

On our way back from that castle we wander some more. We run into a gathering on one of the bridges with lots of Italian themed food and music. There we also run into the other group of student-giant-ones again, but only for a brief moment. Then we keep walking to find some coffee and apple strudel. 

 

The store we finally find doesn’t have any more strudel left, but we are able to get some warm drinks and yummy pastries. It’s the perfect end to our long day.

 

Bellies full and bodies warm with coffee, we head back to the hostel for the night. She and I are showered and in bed by 21h00. We get a short 30 minute nap before the other people in our room return. They don’t mean to wake us up, but they do. I go straight back to sleep, but turns out those 30 minutes were all She needed, because She stays up really late talking to them. 

 

Another great city visit,

I’m getting excited for tomorrow,

Still livin’g the dog’s life,

Woofy Buff

The Best Face of France Yet – Strasbourg

First, I would like to start with an apology to all those waiting on my posts for the past couple of weeks. I know I have been a very lazy dog. Things finally started picking up with Her school work, so life got a bit hectic. Not to mention planning for the weekends became impossible. That’s what happened this weekend. Plans fell apart Thursday night. Since there wasn’t much time to make new plans, we decided to just stay in Metz this weekend and take day trips.

So Saturday morning we wake up and plan to head to Strasbourg. It was a suggestion made late last night by our neighbor. Since we didn’t know what to do, we took the suggestion.

We arrive at the train station at 10h00, thinking that the train will be departing at 10h31, but unfortunately it is delayed by 40 minutes! We don’t know what to do, so we go on a walk through town to waste time. At 11h20 the train finally leaves.

It is a little over an hour and a half train ride to Strasbourg, so we arrive around 13h00. The first place we decide to visit is the river and the Petit France neighborhood. There is one river that flows through Strasbourg, but it splits into four different sections, and right where it splits is a covered bridge. You can walk through the bridge or climb up and walk across the top. We do both. From the top there is a spectacular view of the city. It is by far the most charming city I have been to yet.

Once we take all of our pictures, we walk along one of the river sections. The buildings are all old and the roads are narrow and windy. We meander back and forth through the area just taking it all in. At one point we try to cross a bridge, but the river boat tours are going through so the bridge turns out of the way.

Eventually our feet lead us to the cathedral. It has one giant spire and lots of shorter ones. It’s not the biggest I’ve seen, but it is just as breath taking. Inside the stained glass is as beautiful as ever, and the paintings as well. There is also a strange clock in the corner that tells the time, the days, and something about the zodiac signs. She tries to listen in on a tour that was going on, but it is in German.

Outside we sit in the square for a bit. There are fountains and blocks to sit on. Also in the square are a couple other museums, all of which have regal facades. Perfect for picture taking.

The next place we wander to is the more commercial part of the city. There we run into a giant open air market going on. By this time it is close to 17h00, so most of the booths are closing, but we browse the selections anyway.

On our way back to the train station we take our time wandering through the Petit France area again. We take the paths down by the river this time, instead of up on the streets. Many couples are sitting along the banks. It is a very romantic area. The cafes are starting to fill up with the pre-dinner crowd. Everywhere you look you can see students painting different parts of the city. It really is charming.

Our train leaves at 18h00. It was a short trip, and it went so much faster since only She and I went, but it was one of my favorite trips yet.

Still livin’ the dog’s life,

Woofy Buff

Week 5

And this weekend, we rested.

South France in Two Days – Day Two

When we wake up this morning, everyone is feeling pretty sick. We thought we’d get out by 09h00, but we don’t even wake up until 09h00.

Breakfast is bread and butter, the skimpiest breakfast we’ve seen yet, but there is free coffee and tea, and that’s really all that matters. As we are sitting and eating, the rain is coming down outside. It’s not looking good. By the time we are done eating though it has stopped, so we pick up our things and walk as quickly as we can to the train station.

She didn’t bring her rain jacket this weekend because the internet told her that there would be a 0% chance of rain all weekend… and She believed it. Luckily happy-giant-one didn’t bother to check the weather, so she has her umbrella on hand when the rain starts again. And boy does it start again. It is only a 10 minute walk to the train station from where we are, but it’s so hard to walk because the streets are ankle deep with water. The sidewalks are slick too, so walking with shoes is near impossible, happy-giant-one gives up and just takes her shoes off. The staircases aren’t even functional anymore; they’re just waterfalls.

When we get to the train station, there isn’t anywhere to sit at all, and the floor is soaked. We check when the next train to Nice is, but unfortunately the next one is a TGV, meaning we need a reservation. Everyone agrees though, it is better to pay for a reservation than wait in this train station for another two hours (when the next regional train runs).

We still have 40 minutes to wait in Toulon before our train shows up, so we head over to a random platform where there are covered benches. We pass the time by sharing stories and making plans for Nice. When it is time to check where the train will arrive, She goes to check for us, only to come back and tell us it will come to the platform we are on. Lucky! This is Her and my first time on a TGV train, so of course we have to take a picture! Once again, we pass the time by playing cards. We are quiet, but I think the people around us are still annoyed by the sound of the shuffling.

We arrive in Nice right around lunch time, so after getting off the train, we head straight towards food. On our way to food, we walk down towards the beach (since that is where we want to end up). She finds an upscale kebab restaurant one street in from the shore, so while we are eating we can see the ocean. It is a gorgeous view.

After our tummies are full, we head towards a park on top of a hill. It is right near the beach, so we walk along the beach to get there (well, the street along the beach). In order to get to the top, you have to take an elevator (FREE!) up, well, you COULD walk, but no one wanted any more walking after yesterday. There is a line, and once we get into the tiny elevator they pack and pack and pack us in! There is no way anyone who is claustrophobic could ride.

The view from the top is spectacular. You can see the whole town and there is an endless view of the ocean. We continue walking around the park to see what else there is and run into a stand that sells crepes (among other things), so of course we have to stop. Everyone but Her (and I) get something. Then we walk some more and find a waterfall. I think this was a castle in the past… but I’m not sure. Up here though it is very easy to tell that the rain is coming. When we arrived we thought we had out run it, the sky was blue and clear, but coming up from the hills are huge dark clouds, so we head down before it is too late.

The part of the beach that we walk to (the closest part), is rock. This is my first time on a rock beach. I though it would be more uncomfortable, but it’s really not. All the rocks are smooth and distribute your weight well. There are other parts of the beach that are standard sand, so I don’t know what it really is. It’s probably all just man made.

While here everyone takes their turn walking into the water and getting their pictures taken. In the pictures it’s hard to tell, but there is a dip before reaching the water, and it is VERY hard to walk down because the rocks move. This leads to some hilarious moments. Once all the pictures are taken we lay down and enjoy the sun while it lasts.

After about 20 minutes though, the rain is clearly coming. The sky behind us is almost black. There are still two hours before our train leaves, but we don’t want to get caught in the rain, so we start heading back.

To get there we decide to head through the old town. It’s not very big, but it’s quaint. Had there not been an impending doom of rain, I would have loved to stay here a bit longer. Right as we get out of the old town the rain hits. It’s not as bad as the rain in Toulon, but the drops are huge. We find the closest bus stop (which is actually a tram stop), and hide under there for a bit.

But a bit turns into a while turns into too long. Bored and wet we decide to take the tram back to the train station in hopes that we can find food there. We get off on the stop that’s called “Gare” (train station in french), think that it would be close to the train station. But of course, right as we get off the tram the rain starts coming down harder than ever. So we find shelter under a nearby bridge with many others. We stand there thinking we can wait out the rain… but of course, once again we are too helpful. A half an hour passes and the rain only gets worse.

Eventually we just decide to run it. I mean, the stop is called “Gare”, the train station can’t be that far away right? Wrong. Well, I guess it’s not THAT far away, but when you are trying to run through a torrential down pour it is. She tries to run, but the ground is so slippery that it’s hard. No one has their umbrellas this time (they are in the locker with all of our stuff). Happy-giant-one just gives up and takes off her shoes again and walks slowly, not caring anymore how wet she is.

Of course, since it is raining so hard outside there are once again no seats at the train station, so we find a bench on a random platform again. While we wait for the train I take a nap, She does some homework, and the others chat. Twenty minutes before our train is supposed to leave we walk across the street (it’s only drizzling now) to grab some food for the train.

At 07h04 we get on our train and find our seats. This time we didn’t pay for a cochette, but for reclining seats. They are comfortable themselves, but there are many more people than the 6 in a cochette room, so there is lots of noise. The lights also don’t turn off until near midnight. It’s not an awful experience, but it is not a good one either.

We arrive in Metz at 08h35, Her first class is at 08h30, so we run to the bus to get Her to class without being too late.

It’s going to be a long night after no sleep,

but I’m still livin’ the dog’s life,

Woofy Buff

South France in Two Days – Day One

This weekend is going to be one of our more relaxing ones yet… or so I hope. Things never really seem to go as planned over here.

Our weekend starts out Friday night as we wait on our train to arrive. Happy-giant-one had a class trip this morning, so that is why we are leaving later than usual. This weekend we are also traveling with teddy-giant-one and hungry-giant-one. Our train this weekend is a special train, it has beds in it! Each of the student-giant-ones get their own beds in a room of six. At the firs stop there is no one else in our room, so happy-giant-one, hungry-giant-one, and She start playing go fish.

The next stop is an hour later in Paris, where a very cute old giant-one joins are car. He doesn’t speak much English, but from what he can tell us, he works in Metz 8 days of the month, and lives in Avignon for the rest of the time.

At 06h15 we arrive in Avignon (though we were supposed to arrive at 05hr15) and make our way to the car rental place. Unfortunately it doesn’t open until 08h00, so we grab some snacks from the train station and wait.

At 08h00 we walk over to Hertz, where we think we are getting our car from. Sadly, it turns out that happy-giant-one didn’t make a reservation, so we can’t get a car 😦 . Luckily, all the student-giant-ones have eurail passes, so we can still travel between cities, it just won’t be whenever we want. So we walk back to the heart of town and start wandering.

Avignon is a very nice city. It is exactly what you would expect a European city to look like. It is clean and there are cool relics of the past all over the place, mixing in perfectly with the new technologies. The first place we end up finding is the Pope’s palace. At some point in history he was kicked out of the Vatican and moved to Avignon. The place is probably the biggest thing in the city (which is not very big itself). In front there is a little man playing a music house! He is fun to listen to, but everyone is wondering where his monkey is!

The palace is not open for free because there is an art gallery inside, so instead of going in, we go up and around. There is a park on top of the hill next to the palace, with a nice view of the city and the river. From the top we are also able to see the bridge of Avignon! This makes happy-giant-one very happy because that is the whole reason she wanted to come to Avignon. Apparently there is a song about the bridge and it was the first French song she learned.

So we head to the bridge. Since it is a big tourist spot, a lot of people visit and there is a museum set up around it. We all get audio tours as we walk along the bridge. I can’t remember all of what was said, but originally the bridge was more than 5 times as long as it is now. The river was wider and constantly was flooding. From the bridge looking back towards the city, it is clear that the walls that surrounded the city in the past, are still standing now.

After we get our fill (and happy-giant-one dances while singing the song on the bridge), we make our way back to the train station. The next train to Marseilles leaves in 30 minutes, so to kill some time we go grab some lunch. Earlier in the day we saw a crepe stand, so we head there. She gets a tomato sauce and chicken crepe. Then we head to the park to sit and eat.

On the train to Marseilles, the student-giant-ones kill time by playing hearts. It takes us about an hour, and we arrive in Marseilles around 14h00.

Marseilles is a MUCH bigger city than Avignon. The first place we set out to find is the port. At the port we run into a protest of… something. Not really sure. There were signs about fascism, racism, homophobia, and much more I didn’t understand.  After they move out of our way, we head off to find something called pastis. It is a type of alcohol that is famous in the region and apparently there is a good shop for it in the area. No one really knows what it is, but it was recommended to us, so we go. In the shop we are able to get a free sample. Turns out it is some awful licorice drink, where you buy a bottle and have to mix it with water before you drink it (1 part pastis, 5 parts water). But hey, at least we got to taste it!

Then we make our way into the old part of the city. Compared to everything else we have seen, it wasn’t that exciting. We are all also pretty tired by this point, and we’re not sure we even made it all the way we think we did, so maybe there was a prettier part we didn’t see.

After that disappointment, we head to the cathedral that we can see on top of the hill. Along the way we have to stop so that happy-giant-one can have a smoothie (she is starting to feel very sick). The sugar rush is enough to get us up the hill. Which is so worth it. The view is amazing! From here it is very clear just how big the city is. We spend a while just sitting there, partly because of the view, and partly because we are just so tired.

Once we have our fill, we head back down to the port. Originally we were planning on trying to eat in Marseilles, but no one wants to sit around any longer, so we hop on the subway back to the train station. We have perfect timing, because there is a train leaving just as we arrive!

It is an hour train ride to Toulon (where are hostel is) and each one of us passes out! This day was a lot longer than what we were expecting.

Once we get into Toulon, we head straight for the hostel. Everyone just wants to put their bags down and grab some food! The hostel is a cute little hostel. The ground floor is where the kitchen and the check-in is. There is also a clothes rack with some clothes on it and a sign reading “vintage clothes sale”. She thinks it is a hippy hostel. Everything is either hand made, or recycled. The rooms are up on the second floor, so lots of stairs to walk up, yay! But once we drop everything off and clean up, we are more than ready for food.

She asks the people at the desk where the closest food is, and there is one right down the road. It is a pretty nice place, with decent prices, but the best part is that there is a live band! They play for the first 10 minutes we are sitting down, then they take their dinner break, and start back up after a half an hour. It feels good just to sit and relax. This is a great way to end our long day.

With full stomachs and sore feet, we head back to the hostel and pass out for the night.

Still livin’ the dog’s life

Woofy Buff

Rested and Back to Amsterdam

We all wake up this morning at slightly different times, but still feeling rested and relieved all the same. It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do for you! And even though we slept in a 16 bed room, not a single giant-one snored.

We go upstairs to grab breakfast at 08h30. This hostel is a very small one, so there is only one big table for everyone to eat at in the morning. It makes it feel like a family breakfast. She likes it. After breakfast we check out and get ready to get on the 09h30 shuttle back into Amsterdam.

This time we ask to be dropped off at the uptown location since it is closer to where we want to go. The very first thing we do is head of to find the “I Amsterdam” sign. Once there of course we have to take all sorts of pictures with it! Unfortunately there were many other giant-ones with the same idea, so most of the pictures aren’t very good. But that’s ok! Now we can say we’ve been!

Behind the sign is the Rijksmuseum. There is a really cool fountain that is in the shape of a square inside of a circle. What’s neat about it is that the water goes up and down, so you can get inside of the fountain without getting wet (not that that matters to me)! It is a dog’s dream! Chuckle-giant-one joins in to and jumps straight through the water!

After all of the pictures are taken we head off towards the Anne Frank house. It is sunny outside now, so we decide to take the long way, back down one of the canals. It is so much nicer today! The walk is gorgeous and it doesn’t feel nearly as long as the one yesterday did!

Unfortunately, when we get there we see that the line is extremely long. It wraps around the block! So instead, we decide to go and find somewhere for chuckle-giant-one to grab something to eat (She still has some picnic food leftover). We find a very nice square right on the corner of two canals intersecting, so we stop to eat there.

Then we head off to something called Java island. There are supposed to be four cool bridges on it, and since it doesn’t require money or waiting, it’s the perfect spot ti go. On the way, we have to walk past the train station, and the bike garage. Amsterdam is a bike friendly city. In fact, almost everyone rides bikes. So this bike garage was HUGE. There were thousands of bikes!

When we finally reach Java island, we realize it is not exactly what we expected. Not at all. The whole island is only two streets wide, and since there was nothing on it on the map, we thought it’d be a park. Nope, turns out it’s a residential area. I don’t think they are used to seeing tourists here either, because everyone stops and stares at us as we walk by. Or maybe it’s just because green dogs are rare in the Netherlands. Either way, we see the cool bridges (which are cool, albeit small), and find a bench to sit on where She and I can eat our lunch.

On the way back, we see a very creepy boat with mannequins everywhere on it. There were babies and toddlers and adults… very weird.

Anyway, our train leaves at 14h34 and is an ICE train. We know that they don’t require reservations, but what we didn’t realize is that they can fill up the train past the number of seats there are. In other words, we were stuck sitting in the hallway between cars for an hour and a half. And we aren’t the only ones either. The hallways were so full it was hard to move through them. Luckily, on our next train, we manage to get a seat. Some people there have to sit in the isles too. But all of that was ok, because on our last train, we are the only three on it! We are able to sprawl out as much as we want.

We get back to Metz-Ville around 21h00, but it feels like 01h00 to me. It has been a long weekend. I had loads of fun though, and I know She did too.

So ends another weekend of travel,

Still livin’ the dog’s life,

Woofy Buff

The Longest Day Part 2 – Amsterdam

After such a long day, we are all looking forward to some naps on the trains. We have to take three, but each is supposed to be at least an hour and a half long, so we should be able to get some good sleep.

Chuckle-giant-one passes out immediately after getting onto the first train, but She and I are still pretty awake, so we sit and watch as the sun slowly rises. It’s a good thing we do too, because a couple stops before we are supposed to get off, the train stops. For a long time. We don’t really understand what is going on, because the conductors are telling us that if we want to go to R-blah-blah, we have to get off and switch trains. But we want to go to Rotterdam, so we think we are fine, and try and stay on. Turns out EVERYONE had to get off because the train is broken. So we hop off and catch the next train.

This train is an awful little train. It’s very dirty and not at all what we are used to in trains. We sit down and try to get comfy because we have another hour to go before Rotterdam. But in ten minutes our train stops again! Once again, we are confused. We hop off the train and look at the sign on the platform and it says the dinky-train is headed to Rotterdam. Everyone else is just as confused as we are, so we just wander around like lost sheep. Finally someone explains to us that the dinky-train is only a national train and can’t continue into the Netherlands, so we have to switch to a better train. The train that we are switching to takes us straight into Amsterdam anyway.

Once we arrive in Amsterdam we head straight to our partner hostel to find out when the shuttle to our hostel leaves (Our hostel is about an hour away from Amsterdam on the beach, and only four shuttles leave a day from one of the two partner hostels in Amsterdam). It is 10h15 when we arrive at the downtown partner hostel, and the next shuttle leaves at 13h30, so we head off to find something to eat.

Before we get there though, we try and find the shuttle stop so we know where it is when we want to leave. There we run into some other student-giant-ones who had the same idea (though they want to take the latter shuttle). We decide to all go get some food together. On the way to food though we learn that they have already been to a coffee shop (aka, where you go to smoke), and are pretty out of it.

We ditch them as soon as we are done eating! Since we still have two hours to kill, She comes up the idea to walk along the canals. It’s a nice walk, though none of the pictures come out well because it is cloudy. The walk didn’t look very far on the map, but it takes us FOREVER to get to the bridge we wanted to get to. It is pretty cool, but by now She is pretty grumpy from lack of sleep. We are walking VERY slowly because the bags are heavy and everyone is tired. She also tells us to turn the wrong way (which almost never happens) while trying to get back to the shuttle stop.

Once the shuttle arrives and the giant-ones pay, we pass out! It’s about an hour drive to the hostel, and we wake up about 15 minutes before arriving. It’s a gorgeous area. Lots of windmills, small rivers, farms, and TONS of bike paths.

When we get to the hostel the giant-ones pick their beds and take showers (She finally gets the gum out of her hair!). Once they are clean and refreshed, they no longer feel tired, so we go hunting for a grocery store. There we buy some picnic food and head over to the beach. There’s not really anywhere to sit on the beach, so we grab a bench behind the grass and eat there. Then we go walk down on the beach. She and I get in the water to say we have been in the North Sea! It’s only 18h00, so it’s still a while until sunset, so we head back to the hostel to wait.

 

 

There we all fall straight asleep. Turns out we are tired! We are very lucky, because Her bloodsugar goes lo, right as the sun is setting! We never would have woken up in time otherwise! Chuckle-giant-one is still sleeping, and we don’t want to wake him, so we head off alone. The sunset is AMAZING. There are very few that I have seen that are better than this one.

Once we have gotten our fill of the scenery, we head back to the hostel. She is still pretty tired, so she goes to sleep almost immediately when we get back.

I’m a much happier dog with a bed and sleep.

Still livin’ the dog’s life,

Woofy Buff

Belgium in a Day (aka The Longest Day)

Today we wake up at 04h00, once again, another early start to a long weekend. This time around we will be traveling with chuckle-giant-one, giant-giant-one, and childgiant-giant-one.

Our train leaves from Metz-Ville at 05h57. The total trip is about 5 hours into Brussels. There are 4 different trains that we take, and hardly get any sleep on them. We do have a nice lunch of prepacked sandwiches, well everyone except chuckle-giant-one who didn’t think to bring one.

The first thing we do once we get into Brussels is to buy a locker for the day so we don’t have to carry everything around with us. Of course on the way to do this we somehow manage to get lost in the GIANT train station that is Bruxelles-Midi.

No one really planned anything for this trip, it was a last minute decision for Her and chuckle-giant-one, and I guess the giant-giants don’t plan, so we don’t really know what to do when we get into the city. There is a beer fest going on today, but that is not until much later, so we end up just wandering in that general direction.

Along the way we find some music stores that we have to stop at because childgiant-giant-one really wants to buy a guitar while over here. In doing this, we walk down a side street and end up finding a statue of a little peeing child. Apparently it is the BIG attraction of Brussels…? It’s so weird. I mean it’s just a little boy peeing. They call him the “Pissing Boy”. One of the tour guides that we overheard told us lots of funny legends about why this statue exists, but I still don’t understand the point.

Luckily, since the boy is so famous, there are lots of waffle shops near the statue. Everyone stops to try one. She gets one with whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate. From Her face I can tell it is good. There is a funny statue of the peeing boy eating a waffle right next to the shop, so of course I have to take a picture with him since he’s green too!

After the waffles have been consumed, we continue on to find some fries (the second of the three most important things in Belgium). Each one of the boys stop to try a different kind of sauce with their fries. Then it is off to find some beer (the third most important thing).

Since the only place we know that has beer is the beer fest, we make our way there. It is being set up when we arrive, and we find out that it starts at 18h00. SO we wander some more, through the square, in front of the palace, and into a church. There’s not really much to see though, so we move on.

The next place we find is a tiny square with a bunch of tents set up and street vendors selling their goods. While checking this out we hear some music approaching us, so we turn around and there is a parade! It’s not a very big one, and we can’t figure out what it’s for, but there are men in (probably) traditional attire, and other in business suits. Then, while in search for a bathroom, we find a giant Smurf statue. Basically, Brussels is full of random things.

At this time we are starting to get fed up with the city. There’s not much to see, there is trash everywhere, and it is starting to rain. So we make and executive decision to waste the rest of the time we have before the beer fest by going to Bruge. It is only an hour train ride between the two cities, so we hop onto the next train.

Once again, when we arrive in Bruge we don’t really know what to do, so we wander. Bruge is a much prettier city than Brussels. There are canals, and windmills and all of the buildings look like more of what you’d expect a European city to look like, rather than and industry town. We spend two hours there admiring the city before we hop back on a train to Brussels.

We arrive back in Brussels at 19h30, just in time for the boys to buy their tokens for the beer fest. But when we get there, they decide they don’t want to go anymore! Why did we even come to Brussels then? We should have just spent all day in Bruge. Oh well. Instead, we go find some hot food for dinner.

There is the one alleyway where there are a ton of restaurants all offering great prices. She gets a salad, a steak, some fries, and a pound cake with caramel on it. It is DELICIOUS! They also get to meet some nice Italians because there isn’t enough room for the big Italian family, so they connect the Italian family’s table to ours so that it can fit. They had just traveled to the US, so they showed us all of their pictures.

After dinner we get to the main event: beer. There is this huge bar called Delirium that takes up an entire block. It has different stores for different types of alcohol. The boys head straight for the beer store, where they have over 2000 different types of beer! She grabs herself a drink somewhere else and joins them.

We stay at Delirium until 02h00. We meet a bunch of nice people. At one point, chuckle-giant-one teaches childgiant-giant-one the french phrase for “I would like to buy you a drink because I love you.” Childgiant-giant-one finally gets the courage to use it on someone, but she replies “I’m sorry, I don’t speak French.” to which he replies: “Oh well, neither do I!”.

At 02h00, we go and hang out in the square where the beer fest had been going on earlier. There were still tons of people out and about, so the giant-giants start talking to some people. Chuckle-giant-one, She and I just sit on a bench and try not to fall asleep. Our train leaves tomorrow morning at 06h00, so there isn’t much time left to wait, but by 04h00, we are all very tired. Luckily that is also when the train station opens in the morning, so we head there.

It is much warmer there, though there are no seats, so we sit down on the floor. A homeless man comes and sits next to childgiant-giant-one and falls asleep on his shoulder! A bunch of teenagers also come up and take pictures of giant-giant-one. I don’t really understand why.

When it is time to get onto our train to Amsterdam the giant-giants decide that they are too tired (even though this was their idea), and want to head back to Metz. Chuckle-giant-one, She and I still want to see Amsterdam, so we split ways and leave, just the three of us.

I’m a tired dog,

but I’m still livin’ the dog’s life!