Koln (aka Cologne) - Germany

We had our first trip on the choo-choo today and it was awesome! The rail pass that we bought only comes in first class which is really cool, but 2nd class is pretty sweet too. The seats are grouped in fours with a little table in between. 1st class has more room, and has little compartments that are like small staterooms. The train goes really fast, I think we were going over 80 mph when we were traveling next to a highway and overtaking the traffic. They have bullet trains that go even faster. The train is great because it brings us right into the heart of the biggest cities without having to drive in. We had a lot of fun hiking through Amsterdam with our packs on to get to Central Station. We planned to change trains in Cologne and head for Koblenz which would take us along the Rhein river, but we decided to spend the night here so that we could see a bit of Cologne. There is an amazing cathedral here, right at the train station that we just finished touring. The area around the train station is pretty Americanized, Mcdonalds and Starbucks etc.. We are staying at a Best Western.

Our new friend Thomas! A great guy that hosted us in Amsterdam for a few days! Really enjoyed our time together and we are looking forward to returning before we finish with Europe.

Hiking through Amsterdam to catch a train to Germany. Back pack on the back and a day pack on the front! We gotta get lighter!!

On the train to Germany. Pretty sweet way to travel!

This is inside the cathedral here in Cologne. I don't remember the name of it and it wouldn't matter if I did! I wouldn't be able to spell it anyway. I think it was something like Kolgrenstwitanshe.

Outside the cathedral, it's far to big to get in a picture.

So Long Amsterdam!!

We have finished our few days in Amsterdam and are heading to the train station this morning with no idea where we are going! I think we will try to take a train that follows the Rhine river through Germany. It is supposed to be very beautiful with many castles on mountainsides and small villages along the way.
We have made a major change in our strategy as we have decided to do Europe first and head South for warmer weather. We had intended on going to the UK and Ireland first, but the weather has been rainy and cold and it makes outdoor activity rather miserable. We were going to hop a bullet train and head to Nice France, on the Mediteranian, but could not get seats. Instead we are going to train hop our way South and see what ever we can along the way. We are generally headed for Southern Italy and then on to Greece. Going where the climate suits our clothes!!

Amsterdam has been amazing and a bit overwhelming! We are both amazed by how huge it is. These tiny alleyways and narrow streets all lined with narrow tilted buildings on each side go on for ever. After one night in a hotel, we found our way to our friends - friends house and met Thomas. He has been very welcoming since before leaving the states and we have been looking forward to meeting him. The apartment is pretty sweet and is within walking distance of everything.
We set out to get tram passes and then headed for the Van Gogh museum. The weather was pretty lousy and we stood in line (in the Q as they say over here) under our umbrellas for quite awhile. The museum was nice. Apparently it has just reopened after being closed for a couple of years for renovations. We also went by Anne Franks house, but the line was so long and people have told us that it in't really much to see.

In the Q for the Van Gogh museum. It was raining and cold for the first two days. Yesterday was pretty nice though and today looks promising.

Teeny loves the whisteria and vines that grow on many of the buildings here.

My man Van Gogh!!

Yeah, I guess I would hang this on the fridge if my kid brought it home from school!

Endless sea of bicycles, everywhere.

We really enjoyed this Park. It is pretty huge and took most of the afternoon to walk from end to end. We found a bakery and got some amazing pastry.

The park had a lot of landscaped areas like this little maze of hedges.

We went for a canal cruise last night. It was narrated in about five different languages.

One of many (over 2,000 according to the cruise guide) boat houses. People live in these year round.

Another boat house. Saw quite a few that looked like this one.

Amsterdam (so far)

We have been in Amsterdam for only a few hours. We left the boat at 8am and took a taxi to town. We are staying our first night right next to the red light district. Funny, 9 am on a Monday and there are "Lady's" of the night in many of the red light windows. One of them opened her door and taunted us to come in!

Some stats from the cruise, 5,085.4 miles traveled!

Bicycles are everywhere in Amsterdam. They even have three story parking garages for bicycles.

The whole place lookslike they must have been high when they built it! The buildings are all askew and off kilter. They lean left and right, forward and backward. It really seems like you are walking around Disneyland.

One of the million narrow roads and alleys. We got totally lost immediately!

Love the boat at the front door!

Canals are everywhere, we hope to take a boat tour of the canals once it stops raining.

Gives new meaning to the phrase "window shopping".

The view outside our hotel room window

Dover - England

We did not take an excursion here either. There is a castle right in Dover that we visited and will probably go back to. We did not have as much time as we would have liked. The highlight of the place was the secret wartime tunnels. They used them in WWII. We toured one of them that was used as a hospital. The guide said that during the war, the Nazis were launching shells from the other side of the English channel onto the city of Dover. He said that you would see a flash of light across the channel and 72 seconds later a shell would land. Over 2200 shells hit the city of Dover.

Dover Castle - just a small part of it, it is absolutely huge!

Thinking of you Holly! This one really is a mini mini!

Teeny the Queen siting on her throne!

A view from the castle walls

Another part of Dover Castle

The cliffs at Dover. Pic doesn't do justice, they are so tall and bright white!

We did a water color activity on the ship. This is my post card to all of you!

Teeny abstract masterpiece!

Le Havre - France

We didn't do an excursion here. There were many people that went for a 2.5 hour drive each way to visit Paris. We will be visiting Paris on our own later, so we didn't bother. We just walked off of the boat and walked all around LeHavre. We visited a couple of really old churches and a small museum. They were having some sort of festival in the center square of the town which was pretty cool. It seemed to be a Dutch / Scottish celebration, wooden shoes, and bag pipes.

A fresh baggette! We ate the whole thing on a bench in the town square.

??? Coca Cola ?? wi!

One of the cool churches we visited

Marching band that seemed to kick off the celebration.

Food vendors were all around

Odd dancing on the stage. The dance appeared to tell a story and started out rather gothic with a couple of women all in black with black veils. They shrunk down onto the stage and then suddenly women came out in colorful costumes and danced a happy dance.

Sign that sounds like Yoda it does.

LeHavre from the ship. We visited the Church in the picture. The entire column is hollow on the inside and covered with stained glass.

Another ship in the distance. We went for several days without seeing any other ships.

Lisbon - Portugal

Here we took an excursion. A 1.5 hour bus ride into the country side to see a Medevil village called Obidos. It was like fairy tale land. It is a walled village with a cool castle. The guide was great too and talked about Portugal all the way there and back.

This lady stood as still as a statue until you put coins in her basket, then she opened a small chime box and moved around, then she went back to standing still.

We have seen incredible old churches every where we have gone. This one is in the walled village of Obidos.

Obidos, about 1.5 hour drive from Lisbon Portugal

Walking the wall of the castle. This would never fly in the states, one wrong step and your over the side, no safety rails or anything.

Amsterdam At Last!! - Netherlands

We have finally made it to Amsterdam!!
The cruise was spectacular! We ate like pigs every day and went to the shows every night.
Our plan to smuggle booze onboard worked perfectly! Listerine bottles full of liquor! At almost 8 bucks / drink, we saved a lot of money!
Teeny and I were both selected from the crowd during one of the shows and became instant celebrities. It was a comedian / magician show and he pulled us out of the 2nd row and on to the stage. Teeny was a huge hit and was recognized several times around the ship afterward. One lady asked if we were part of the show or if we had worked with the magician beforehand because Teeny was "fantastic"!! The magician gave her a couple of big knife / sword things and instructed her to use them to control the cheering of the crowd. She did a great job and had the crowd cheering like mad. Later he used the sword thingy's to chop off my fingers!! The guy was a great magician and was funny as hell!!

The ship made stops at Funchal Madeira (Portugal), Lisbon (Portugal), LeHavre (France), and Dover (England) before reaching Amsterdam this morning. The seas weren't too bad, the highest we hit were 10' waves. We actually liked being rocked to sleep every night. One morning we saw a whale and on another day we saw dolphins.
So far Amsterdam is more than we expected. We had heard about the red light district, but I had no idea how big it is. I thought it was maybe one or two blocks on one street. Man, it's everywhere. A few times we would think that we had walked out of it and then there would be more women in windows and more coffee shops selling weed. The coffee shops sell weed, the cafe's sell coffee.
The weather here is kinda sucky right now. Raining and cold. Unfortunately it is supposed to stay this way for the rest of the week. We will be hooking up with our friend's friend Thomas tomorrow. We plan to stay with him for a couple of days and then head off for the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland). We have a rail pass to use there and then we will come back to mainland Europe and use our other rail pass. Our rail pass for UK is good for 2 weeks over 1 month, and our Eurail pass is good for every day for 3 months.

Here are some pics...

A channel on the TV showed the ships position. For a long time it was just a red dot on a blue screen

This was our first sighting of land on the morning of the 8th day. From a distance it looked like snow on the mountains. All of the buildings are white with red clay tile roofs.

This was amazing. These guys take you down the steep streets on a tabaggon. Except they call it a Ta-BA-gen and they say it real fast. They guide the sled around by dragging their feet. I thought it might be a little exciting, turned out to be a real adrenaline rush. You feel like they are going to wipe out almost all the ay down. There is traffic and everything. You come barreling around a curve and there suddenly a car coming right at you. I really thought we were going to crash a couple of times, but we made it down safe and sound.