Europe Travel Log
April 27 through May 14, 2000
Europe
Day 1
We
arrived in Rome at 8:30am
managed
the money exchange and purchased our first train ticket to Termini.
We booked a room conveniently at the airport.
Our next task, finding out how to get to our hotel.
Information at the station was very helpful.
Bus 40 would take us within 1 block from the Hotel Bolivar.
The room was small but did have its own bath.
Sites..
Piazza Venezia, The Forum, The Colosseum, Fountain di Trevi. The Spanish Steps.
Food...
lunch at a little outdoor pizza place. Dinner
at outdoor cafe near the Spanish steps.
Notes...
The forum and the ruins were incredible.
All of this inside the city and heavy traffic.
Drivers were like mad men. Not
many apparent rules being followed. Great
start...
Hotel...
Hotel Bolivar, 250,000 L- 4 people.
Europe
Day 2
Day
2...
Rome-morning.
Breakfast at hotel. Back to
Termini to drop off backpacks and go to the Vatican.
Bus 40 again takes within 1 block. The
line at 10:00am was horrible to get into the Vatican museums.
We decided to skip the Sistine and tour around the grounds.
Validated
our first europass and successfully boarded train to Pisa.
Pisa
was much larger than we expected. Next
there was some debate which bus actually took us to the tower. Bus A. The tower
was very impressive, leaned a lot further than we thought. Took the long bus back to the station.
To
Montarosa... Arrived late and did
not have a room. Three inquiries
later, we found an apartment with dinner and breakfast for $50 pp.
Dinner was three course. They
ran out of pork roast after we had ordered and only had seafood and one meat
dish left, rabbit. Kristin actually
loved it. The rest had sea bass.
The apartment was very nice, overlooking the older part of the town.
Sites...
Vatican, Saint Angelo Castle Piazza san Pietro, the Tiber, Leaning tower
of Pisa.
Europe
Day 3
Breakfast
was good. Caught train to Vernazza.
Within 5min we had a 4th floor room overlooking town square and marina.
Hiked a very steep and lengthy trail to Corniglia.
Had lunch and trained to Rio Maggiore.
Hiked back north to Mantarola.
Boated back to Vernazza. Ate
pizza as the sun fell. Used cell
phone to call friends.
Notes...
Heard Greece music coming from small cafe.
Gelato is wonderful here. Ended
evening with a stroll by the marina. Great
day....
Europe
Day 4
Day
4... Got up early to catch the
train to Genova. Another possible
mistake, the train made just about all the stops one make (next time look for a
more express train if time permits). Now
boarding an express train to Milan... Did
not have time to stop in Milan for lunch. Caught
the next express train to Venice. First
class seats were limited. First
time we have noticed the need for reservations.
Got to Venice in about 3 hours. Booked
reservations for night train to Munich, 127,000L.
Next chore, to find a hotel. We
walked to a general area where we new there were a few AAA listed hotels.
We picked a small little hotel with 12 rooms.
The lady was very nice. Double
room for 110,000 L. She recommended
a nice restaurant. We walked
through the walkways and over the canals. Very
beautiful and confusing. Dinner was
nice, steak was brought pretty rare.. Had to send it back.
Pizzas are very thin but good.
hotel...
Alberto Alex. 110,000 L
Europe
Day 5
Day
5... First time we had to shower down the hall.
We
have all day in Venice, need to store luggage to hike for the day.
We
found and toured the Grand Canal. Saw
the Piaza san Marco, basilica della santa maria salute.
The water bus was one of the most enjoyable events of the day.
Bus 1 tours the Grande Canal. Lunch
was outside at a pizzeria. In the
afternoon we had several hours to kill before our night train to Munich.
We opted to use our earlier water bus tickets to take the bus back down
the grand canal, illegally of course. Nobody
cared until we stayed on the bus to cross over to Lido.
We were asked for our tickets and we gave them.
We were told that these tickets were in violation.
Kristin argued...we all tried to play dumb American, but that did not
work. In the end we had to pay
about a $50 fine. We made our way
back to the station, had dinner and got on our first night train. The couchette was small but comfortable.
Notes...
To visit the inside of any churches you must where pants.
The water bus is a must. The
pizza is very thin. Crowds are
every even in the off-season.
Europe
Day 6
Munich...
We arrived early and needed to wait for the tourist information office to
open. They found hotel room for the
4 of us. Hotel Europaischer 200 dm.
We
visited the Marian Platz and viewed the glockenspiel.
Did Mikes bike tour. Wonderful.
Lunch at beer garden. Did
some shopping and dinner at the Hofbrauhaus.
Hotel had Internet.
Europe
Day 7
Breakfast
was very nice. Bus system on
strike. Had to walk downtown to
pick the car. C 220.
Got out of town just fine and made way to the castles with just one or
two wrong turns. Ran into a man
from England who now delivers beer to the villages,
gave good directions. The
castles were great. Steep hike up
to N. And the bridge but worth it. Drove
through Fusun and Reutte. Steep
hike to the Ernberg ruins. Incredible
view. Information here is great.
Found great hotel for 66dm. Hotel
Urisee. Lake, biking, scuba, hiking.
Notes...
Higly recommend hotel and Reutte. Perfect
views. Dog named Beluga.
New Foundland. Huge. Dinner at
hotel was very good. Went into
Reutte to get ice cream. Spaghetti ice.
Lunch
at Cafe Kainz very good.
Europe
Day 8
Shopped
in town. Left Reutte.
Drove to Fusun then up the romantic road.
Drive was nice until Lansberg and Augsberg.
Like going through big city. Road
closed to Rothenburg. Took Autobahn
straight to R. Outskirts were not nice, but the old town is great.
Cobble stone streets inside a walled city. Covered bridge, courtyard, walked wall, walked on top of
wall. Lots of shop.
Dinner
at hotel, very good.
Hotel.
Gotisches haus 130 dm w/ breakfast.
Europe
Day 9
Breakfast
was good. Checked out and shopped
in Rothenburg. Good place to pick
up gifts. Knives, clocks... Left
about 11:00.
Drove
to Bingen(about 3 hours), had lunch at small cafe on the Rhine.
Drove to Bacharach(20 min). Visited
youth hostel in castle overlooking Rhine. Great
view. Found hotel, 140 dm for
double.
Drove
to Manubach to visit friends. House
built in 1759. Drank family wine..
24 years old. Thomas and Hildegard.
House is older than America.
Dinner
at hotel, had good local spatlasse. Nice
hotel.
Europe
Day 10
Bacharach...
Nice
breakfast, real orange juice.
Took
10:00 boat to St. Goar. Lots of
castles. Boat ride 15 dm pp, 15.40
dm pp. We headed down stream, it
took about 3 min. St Goar was
boring, typical tourist. Took 12:22
train back to Bacharach, 4.80 dm pp.
Shopped,
found wine place with taste testing. Bought
4 bottles. 18 dm.
Left
at 2:00. Drove to Baden Baden (got
there about 4:00) and decided not to stay but to tour through the Black Forrest
and find place to stay. Ended up in
Alpirsbach. Cute little beer town.
The hills of the Black Forrest were very pretty.
Dinner was good, at Gastof Waldhorn.
Local beer was excellent. Alpirsbacher!!
Europe
Day 11
Got
early start and headed for Switzerland. At
border we had to buy car pass for 60 dm.
Found
our way to Stechelberg where we took our tram up to Gimmelwald.
Tiny cute community. Walter
hotel was old and rickety but had a lot of character.
Room was 66 chf f d with breakfast.
We walked up to Murren for dinner. Incredible
view along the mountain side. Half
way up we hitched a ride with the local courier.
Dinner
was good, but first tasting of rucllette was not good. The hike back down to G.
Took 30 min but very peaceful.
Gimmelwald
is at 4485 ft.
Europe
Day 12
Breakfast
with Walter is plain and simple, bread with butter and jelly.
Coffee juice or chochlate. We
took the 8:30 tram up to Shilthorn. We
had an incredible day of weather, barely a cloud in the sky.
At 10,000 ft the view is incredible.
Saw James Bond snippets.
Lunch
was in Wilderswil. We decided to
stay another night in this area. Hotel
Oberland in Lauterbrunnen for 120 chf for double with breakfast.
Took
hour hike to Trummelbach falls. Well
worth it. Waterfalls inside
mountain caves. Pumps 20,000 l of
water per second.
dinner
at hotel, pretty good.
notes...
Yellow
fields, showers of sugar. Cow
bells. Light and dark tress, houses
in hill sides hillside.
Europe
Day 13
Drove
car to Bern to return, directions again not good.
Had
to take the tram back to the station, bought bus ticket at the stop, cost 1.5
chf.
Where
to go?? Paris, Nice, Colmar?
Nice
would have been 10 hours...
Paris,
to many more nights left....
Colmar
it is!!
On
the train we meet Tom and Heather from Penn.
They had reservations at Hotel Rapp.
We called and booked a room for 395 ff double with no breakfast.
Room was small but had indoor pool that was nice.
Colmar
is another story book town. You can
tell that is what Rick Steves likes. Dinner
at a small pizza cafe.
Ended
night with a cool swim.
Europe
Day 14
Found
a chocolate shop and had pastries for breakfast.
Walked
around open market.
Took
11:15 train to Paris. One change in
Nancy. Train was pretty full.
Made
several calls to Paris hotels. Found
one for 600 ff with no breakfast.
Managing
the subway is pretty easy... once you know you are and where you want to go.
The
Hotel Saintoge is a dump.
6:00...
Found small cafe just missing a small rain shower near eifel tower.
Paid about $ 30 for two small hamburgers and fries.
The
Eiffel tower is really cool and beautiful at night.
Paris
looks like New York in the day. At
night it is really pretty.
Subway
works well and is cheap. About $ 1
per trip.
On
the way back to the dump we found the Holiday Inn at Republique Square... 4 star
but we needed it after the last 14 nights.
1300 ff for 2 doubles.
Europe
Day 15
Checking
out was slightly problematic, tried to charge for breakfast that we did not
have. She just about would not take cc and tried to cheat us.
The
Holiday Inn is great, first hotel with air conditioning. Extremely helpful. Tried
to book us tours.
We
went out on our own... bought boat tours for 35 ff pp.
Tour cruised up and down the Seine. Then we walked up the Champs Elysees
to the Arc de Triumphe. Nice shops
and cafe. Then we walked back down
the Champs Elysees to Notre Dame. Very
gothic. Then back to the hotel.
Lots of walking. Dinner at The Indiana, a tex mex place, very good.
Europe
Day 16
2nd
day in Paris....
Breakfast
was McDonalds pancakes. We took the
metro to Basilique du Sacre Couer, Sacred heart.
The view overlooks Paris. Next
to the cathedral is an area called Place du Tertre, this is an artist community
where Picasso painted. Hundreds of
artists peddled there work. After
dinner Kristin and I headed back to the Eiffel Tower for one last look before we
head out tomorrow. We laid down on
the grass looking up at the lit tower.
The
train ride to the tower is about 30 min.
Europe
Day 17
Breakfast
at McDonalds...
Managed
the train ride to Charles De Gaul. We
did not purchase the correct ticket. The
full fare got us there but would not let us use that ticket to get out to the
terminal. The ticket guy let us go
through because we did not have any money.
The proper ticket cost 49 ff.
Check
in went fine. There are not any
food or magazine stands at or near the gates like we have. Eat before you get there.
Fight
051 Paris to Detroit. Ran out of
choices for food. We had to eat so
slop called vegetarian lasagna. The
flight attendants all seemed to have attitudes not pleasant to many passengers,
especially one large one named Lori.
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