Where are we?

So, on our way to Spain, we've stopped in Tours, Poitiers, Limoges and now Toulouse. In Tours, we stayed the night. In Poitiers, we were intrigued yet didn't make it much farther than the train station. 600m up with 20lb packs, I don't think so. Had a nice stay and walk around Limoges- which was sadly and largely closed due to previously mentioned and loathed national holiday. So now we're in sweet, gritty, real Toulouse. More manageable than Paris, more urban than Tours and more relevant than Poitiers. So far, we're enjoying Toulouse for tonight and Saturday night. After discovering that camping was pretty far out of town, we hunkered down in a relatively nice place just a stones' throw from le gare (train station). At 6:45am on Sunday, we'll be catching a train to Barcelona and then connecting to somewhere else in Spain- so the proximity will be greatly appreciated! For now, I'm just uploading the latest photos and seein' if the ol' paternals are signed onto Skype. The never-ending game of cat and mouse with wifi and 6hrs time difference... One day! For now, we are happily full of mussels and frites, kir and cassis so  bon soiree and please do one thing for me- enjoy your water pressure and soft toilet paper!! I'll live vicariously. ;)

Like Pamplona...

The avalanche of the unexpected continues. After the decision to chuck Brugge and head to Bayeux, we didn't know where we should go next. Even though we could have made the Hotel de Bayeux our second home, it was 60E a night and time to find a new destination. But where?? Further into uncharted French territory? Or bite the long-train bullet and head to Spain?? With two hours to checkout and free wifi, we feverishly researched possibilities. Okay, we'll head to Paris and catch the night train to Barcelona, followed by a train to Valencia. We'd be enjoying the gorgeous Spain weather by noon. HA! If only things had gone as planned.
Upon arriving in the incredibly packed Paris station, we headed toward information to book a bed on the next night train. "Not possible," she says. Not tonight. Not tomorrow night. Not Friday night, Saturday night...shall I go on? Turns out, lucky for us, it's a holiday and EVERY HUMAN in ALL of France has their butt in a train seat. Anywhere we asked, Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian- every train was booked. Well, we decided, this information person was not giving us the information we wanted. So we headed out in the direction of another large train station and another info station. We found one, slightly reminiscent of British customs detention (gulp), but were helped find a way out of Paris. Said train had no reservations, so it was first come-first seated on the train. We waited and waited like lemmings for the platform to be announced as a crowd grew behind us. Within seconds of the platform number popping up, the entire massive hoard that had gathered moved like a wave, some running and some pulling Heismans in order to get a seat. It was ..like Pamplona... As I write, we are on a train not to anywhere near Spain but to Tours, France. It's in the general direction of Spain from Paris and most importantly- NOT PARIS. If we've learned one thing about ourselves as travellers, it's that we prefer smaller cities. Sorry Paris...maybe later when we're down with schedules and dropping some mad money...and it's July.

Update: Writing now from a wonderful hotel, Hotel Ronsard, in Tours. The city is full of youth, traditional architecture, and we couldn't have felt safer as we navigated her 11pm streets. Thank you Tours!

Cloud 9

Card returned, cash in tow and wonderful hotel to rest our heads already secured for tonight. Thinking of skipping Paris and it's 1 degree low for Thursday. How about Spain instead?? Like retired New Jersians heading to Florida- we're off to Spain on Thursday! In the meantime, D-Day beaches and the Bayeux Tapestry. Very excited to see both! They were on our list of too-far to go but now we're HERE and the sun is shining. Thanking our lucky stars!

So far in Bayeux...

So, still Monday but now we are in Bayeux, France- famous for THE tapestry of tapestries and the beaches that hold the memories of so many who fought for and liberated Europe in WWII. When we arrived, the wind was fierce and the streets were deserted. We found an atm, which ate Chris's card. The first hostel we went to was full. Since it was kind of shady anyway, we weren't too upset and found a wonderful hotel instead - Hotel le Bayeux! We love it already. This is our first room to ourselves, with walls! electricity! free water! free towels! free linens! It's heaven. Tomorrow we'll tackle the bank- hope they speak a bit of English and hope we can get the card returned. We'll play it by ear! Lots of back up plastics and every finger crossed.
Tomorrow we'll visit the tapestry and some beaches. Most likely, we'll stay here another night tomorrow and visit Mont St Michel on Wednesday.. but you never know how the wind might blow..

Best laid plans o' Gent...

Little did we know when we arrived in Gent that nothing would be as expected. First, the tram system was only running a loop with one stop at the heart of town- a heart in the process of being torn up and reconstructed. Luckily, we had already 86'ed the out-of-town camping idea and decided to stay indoors at De Draeke youth hostel not too far from the center of the city. Armed with a map from the wonderfully helpful tourist info station, Chris navigated to the hostel. After dropping off our things, we explored Saint Bavo's Cathedral, built over four centuries. Appropriately, we then made our way to the closest drinking establishment. 

With the help of a Use-it map, we discovered the hole-in-the-wall-along-the-water Dreupelkot and enjoyed traditional, pear and lemon jenever with a friendly local. Traditional jenever is not wholly unlike a nice sipping whiskey or tequila, and was strong enough to embolden up to chat with a local couple. Toward the end of our pleasant conversation, our friendly local moved us to consider changing our travel plans to include a trip out to Normandy. "As Americans, you must go," he beseeched us. "You MuST." He would be surprised to find out that we would be on a train to Normandy within 24 hours! But I am getting ahead...

After our jenever, we enjoyed ridiculously delicious and bottomless spare ribs at Amadeus- recommended by said friendly local and a few guidebooks. Trying to find the restaurant, we passed an American girl with her hand up to her mouth, blabbing something like "there was just a huge bucket of ribs- disGUSTING!" and we knew we were on the right path. It was a perfect meal and added part two of our trifecta of enjoyment for the evening: jenever, ribs and beer. Post-ribs, we needed some Belgian beer. We went to the Waterhouse on the Beerside for some local brews on tap. Jess discovered she enjoyed Rodenbach and a rather large Chimay. Chris preferred his Westmalle over the Gandavum. Satisfied and sleepy, we headed back to the hostel. 

In the morning, we knew we had to seek different lodging since the hostel was booked for Monday night. With our packs, we made our way to a different hostel but thought, Why not go to Normandy now? With that in mind, we headed to the top of the belfry, grabbed a great view and sought out some waffles before we made our leave. With a belly full of amazingly delicious waffles and coffee with heavy whipping cream, we were off!

Ode to Delft

Dearest Delft,
Thank you for a wonderful impression of Holland. After the youth of Utrecht and the tourists of Amsterdam, you were exactly what we were hoping to find in the Netherlands. Your birds are by far the most interesting we have seen- including what seemed to be a flock of parrots in the city camp and a Jurassic escapee on top of one of your apartment buildings. Even though your weather was cold and rainy, we had a delightful visit, including one of the best cups of coffee ever to pass our lips and a ridiculously delicious bacon and mushroom quiche.

Fondly and forever yours,
Chris and Jess

Webmaster request...

If the slideshows on the right become too much, make the page slow to load, etc- just let me know! I'll take some of the old ones down. All of them can be viewed through Picasa web by clicking on the photo or the banner at the top. (Plus videos are there too!)

thx.

Goodnight Amsterdam!

So, we've visited the NEMO science center, the Hermitage Museum, Amsterdam Tulip Museum, Allard Pierson Museum, the Van Gogh Museum and taken a boat tour of the canals. I'd say we had two days well-spent in Amsterdam and with none of the naughty bits. (We both felt like the city was oozing with tourists and that the museums were as cliche-touristy as we were willing to do). We have enjoyed the urbanity of the city, the warmth of sleeping indoors and the easy-to-find delicious treats (the FOOD, come on ;) but we're ready to get back to the beautiful countryside that the Netherlands has to offer. Ask me if I still think that tomorrow night- when it's supposed to be down in the single digits (Celsius)! If all else fails, our next campsite in Delft has the cutest bungalows on the planet so any tiny excuse to stay in one won't slip by us!

What up Holland?

One night ahead of planned, we popped over to the Netherlands. We realized that the trip from Koln (Cologne) to Amsterdam would be about four hours, and to be there by noon would require some serious AM work and logistics... So, why not go to the Netherlands early?? Chris is a genious!

We are at hostel Strowis in Ultrecht, enjoying a nice complimentary cup of coffee just 30 sweet minutes from Amsterdam, where we'll meet up with Nate and Miriam and speak a lot, (read: a lot!), of English. It was becoming a little bit of a challenge in Germany with no German under our hats. I would recommend learning the little things before jumping into a country. But the food was fabulous, the people were pleasant and direct. The Rhine was beautiful and not all that unlike the Appalachians. (Except for the multiple thousands years' history and very intriguing castles.)

So, since the last post, we've been to Oberwesel, Cochem and Cologne. Oberwesel was tiny and had a great campsite. The bathrooms were so nice I took a picture! Cochem was very neat and we hiked up the back of a castle mount in order to explore Berg Reichstag. Remodeled in the 1800's, it was more of a working home that rich people had left very cool stuff behind in. The witches tower had an interesting story: if a woman was suspected to be a witch, she was thrown off the tower. If she survived, she was clearly a witch- and was burned. Hard times for the ladies.

Cologne was big and took some patience to figure out the transit system. At the camp, we enjoyed some spargel and a pretty fancy dinner considering our budget. It was nice to have a rest from street food and kebabs!

So now we're off to Amsterdam! Don't look mom ;) (And more photos later, we have lots to share once we get set up).

Chillin' by the Rhine

And after a breeze through customs, we were in Germany! Internet connections might be sparce, so we'll upload when we can dear readers. We have just spent two nights in Mainz, Germany, which is about a ten minute train ride from Frankfurt to the west. The ride was dotted with small plots of land divided into even smaller plots in what looked like community gardens. 

In Mainz, we walked until our feet couldn't take it anymore and saw much of the very old, yet vibrant city.  A 10th century cathedral called St Martins provided our first touristy adventure. With a multitude of side rooms and alters from nearly every century, it was a treat. 

We walked all over the city, discovering things as we got lost amongst its whindy-patterned streets.  Chagall designed most of the windows in a cathedral called St. Stephens which we stumbled upon after picking up some remarkably delicious sandwiches. The church left much to be desired, but it was a neat discovery. The Gutenberg Museum was a huge treat. We saw two original Gutenberg bibles, with some letters hand-painted with red ink. They were extraordinary and unbelievably old. The museum also held a number of books from the pre-printing press era, as in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Yeah, books from the Middle Ages. Imagine that! Hand-painted letters and all. 

Another great spot was the Martinsdom- Martin's Cathedral, whose construction began in the 900s AD. They had clearly had a few years to collect some very interesting altars. Outside of the Dom was a wonderful market where we picked up some apples and enjoyed people watching. 

So far we're well within budget and enjoyed camping for our first two nights. Let's hope it keeps up!

Now we're in Oberwesel! It's tiny but great. Medieval towers, centuries of history, and of course, biergartens! Beer outside next to the Rhine makes for a pretty nice afternoon.

More soon!