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seldearEurope is at once both fascinating and disappointing.
Its history is layered, generation upon generation, life upon legend, like layers of snow falling until the region can barely hold its weight. On the other hand, the winter-bound European landscape is distinctly wintry and grey, with the cold stone castles towering over the valley villages, and themselves towered over by the sheared peaks of the mountains.
So, really, there are elements of both excitement and disappointment to my trip here. And that's not even counting the rather nasty cold I have, which I have been assured is not bacterial, but for which I am presently dosing myself with copious quantities of lemon-honey hot water.
The tour started out from London after a wake-up call on a 5am Sunday so we were on the road by 6am. London is a city with more than enough history of its own (and which our guide regaled us with on the way out of the city - it was mostly invaders, fire, and plague), to head for Dover and the ferry to Calais. From Calais we drove up through France and Belgium to reach Amsterdam.
The white cliffs of Dover (I don't know who poeticised them, but they really are quite white. I found myself wondering if they're chalk. And, if so, are there witches?
Amsterdam is a city of living history. So said our guide, and so I believe.
The buildings are still the same. The bridges bear the markings of past rulers - I can't help wondering if Ankh-Morpork's 'Hippo Bridge' was influenced by the crowns of Maximilian the First on the points of the brdige in Amsterdam. The cobbled 'side' roads (mostly no-traffic zones) have a ditch in the centre - once upon a time, people would throw their refuse into the street and let the rain wash it away into the drains.
The city teems with inhabitants at all hours: lights and shops and cars and bicycles and people everywhere - even at 10pm on a Sunday night. I didn't get to see the red-light district since Stef and I went out for dinner, leaving the tour group behind, but I understand that business was booming.
Daniel and Heimy had a nice little meet-up while Stef and I chatted and had dinner. It was exquisite cooking!
A building on the way out of Amsterdam.
Just a warning: I took quite a few random shots of the countryside of things that will seem silly to the Brits, Americans, and Europeans reading this. Of course trees lose their leaves in autumn! Of course it gets snowy in winter! Of course there are castles around every corner in the mountains!
I think the Australians and New Zealanders might get it, though. :)
A miniature windmill outside one of our break stops.
A miniature windmill outside one of our break stops...and Daniel!
One of the older women on the tour (Australian, 63, travelling with husband, 70) took a shine to Daniel. Thought he was adorable and kept asking if I had him. Dang. I was going to get a photo of her with Daniel. And I promised to show her some of Daniel's other trips around the world. Her husband was teh awesome. Wry and spry with a naughty sense of humour that kept his comments from being of the 'dirty old man' kind and inclined him more by way of being a 'gallant old duffer'. If that makes any sense.
Our hotel in Amsterdam (the Best Western Eden Hotel on Rembrandt Square) was lovely and modern. Really lovely and modern. I cannot stress the lovely and modern enough - particularly in light of the other hotels at which we stayed. Still, however wonderful the hotel, the wake-up call was most definitely not very lovely. We were awake at 6am and on the road by 6:45am, on our way to Heidelburg, Germany via the city of Koln. (Cologne)
Koln (it should have an umlaut over the 'o' but I don't know how to do that...oh, wait. Köln. Woohoo!) Anyway, Köln was a one hour stop for lunch, shopping, and cathedrals. Whatever you wanted. One of the single women and I climbed 500+ steps in Köln's marvellously-built gothic cathedral to get a look at the city from up high. In twenty minutes. My calves were still hurting four days later.
Daniel and I in the bell tower.
Up the inside of one of the spires.
View of Köln and the river.
It's a long way to thetop bottom if you wanna rock and roll!
More down the river. (The Rhein?)
Up the outside of the spire.
Daniel in one of the niches in the spiralling staircase up. It just went up and up and up and up and up and... Let me tell you, it's not advised to go climbing unless you're reasonably fit. I was okay, but a little breathless at the top.
The inside of the cathedral.
Now, I admit, I'm not much of a one for Catholic cathedrals. All those statues and icons staring blindly at you. And the crucifixes? I find them really terrifying. As a mortician I once spke to said, the crucifix (not the cross but the crucific - the cross with Jesus still hanging there) represents a Christ who has not been resurrected - he's just dead. And how is a dead Jesus supposed to help anyone? It's the empty cross that represents the hope of the believer - that Jesus not only died but was resurrected, too.
Anyway, crucifixes and statues creep me out. I appreciate that the emphasis on Mary and the saints are significant to the Catholic tradition, but the statues just make me feel crawly in the neck hair.
Europe is very Catholic.
Anyway, on to other things.
Street theatre outside the cathedral: this mummy was pretty good. Bowed very deeply when I tossed a coin in his bucket.
Front of the cathedral - bottom.
Front of the cathedral - top. The building is too big to encompass in a single shot without going back miles...
There was a cruise down the Rhein and assorted naps on the bus as well as various breaks at truckstops where you pay $0.50 for use of the public toilets (usually reimbursed with a voucher for purchasing something at the associated shop at the truckstop). The hotel in Heidelburg wasn't quite as nice as the one we'd had in Amsterdam - the bathroom was modern but the beds...not so much.
Assorted pics of the cruise down the Rhein. Some lovely landscapes...unfortunately taken by a very inept photographer. *looks embarrassed*
Daniel wants beer.
But he'll settle for wine.
Small vineyards on the banks of the Rhein. I don't know how they prevent erosion - all the vine rows ran down the slope!
White tower.
And a better shot of it, showing the village below.
It's actually one of two towers - the Fighting Brothers...or something.
Another castle. There are a lot of castles in Germany and Austria. Like, one on every hill.
Night falls and some birds head for home.
That night, we slept in Heidleberg. A bunch of people went out for a 35-40 minute walk out to a famous pub/club, but most people just stayed in.
One of the problems with the tour is that it's pretty much a fly-by look at Europe. Even the cities where we stayed for two nights instead of just one - Venezia, Luzern, and Paris - were rushed, because there was so much to do and no time in which to do it!
It definitely whets the tourist appetite, though!
Its history is layered, generation upon generation, life upon legend, like layers of snow falling until the region can barely hold its weight. On the other hand, the winter-bound European landscape is distinctly wintry and grey, with the cold stone castles towering over the valley villages, and themselves towered over by the sheared peaks of the mountains.
So, really, there are elements of both excitement and disappointment to my trip here. And that's not even counting the rather nasty cold I have, which I have been assured is not bacterial, but for which I am presently dosing myself with copious quantities of lemon-honey hot water.
The tour started out from London after a wake-up call on a 5am Sunday so we were on the road by 6am. London is a city with more than enough history of its own (and which our guide regaled us with on the way out of the city - it was mostly invaders, fire, and plague), to head for Dover and the ferry to Calais. From Calais we drove up through France and Belgium to reach Amsterdam.
The white cliffs of Dover (I don't know who poeticised them, but they really are quite white. I found myself wondering if they're chalk. And, if so, are there witches?
Amsterdam is a city of living history. So said our guide, and so I believe.
The buildings are still the same. The bridges bear the markings of past rulers - I can't help wondering if Ankh-Morpork's 'Hippo Bridge' was influenced by the crowns of Maximilian the First on the points of the brdige in Amsterdam. The cobbled 'side' roads (mostly no-traffic zones) have a ditch in the centre - once upon a time, people would throw their refuse into the street and let the rain wash it away into the drains.
The city teems with inhabitants at all hours: lights and shops and cars and bicycles and people everywhere - even at 10pm on a Sunday night. I didn't get to see the red-light district since Stef and I went out for dinner, leaving the tour group behind, but I understand that business was booming.
Daniel and Heimy had a nice little meet-up while Stef and I chatted and had dinner. It was exquisite cooking!
A building on the way out of Amsterdam.
Just a warning: I took quite a few random shots of the countryside of things that will seem silly to the Brits, Americans, and Europeans reading this. Of course trees lose their leaves in autumn! Of course it gets snowy in winter! Of course there are castles around every corner in the mountains!
I think the Australians and New Zealanders might get it, though. :)
A miniature windmill outside one of our break stops.
A miniature windmill outside one of our break stops...and Daniel!
One of the older women on the tour (Australian, 63, travelling with husband, 70) took a shine to Daniel. Thought he was adorable and kept asking if I had him. Dang. I was going to get a photo of her with Daniel. And I promised to show her some of Daniel's other trips around the world. Her husband was teh awesome. Wry and spry with a naughty sense of humour that kept his comments from being of the 'dirty old man' kind and inclined him more by way of being a 'gallant old duffer'. If that makes any sense.
Our hotel in Amsterdam (the Best Western Eden Hotel on Rembrandt Square) was lovely and modern. Really lovely and modern. I cannot stress the lovely and modern enough - particularly in light of the other hotels at which we stayed. Still, however wonderful the hotel, the wake-up call was most definitely not very lovely. We were awake at 6am and on the road by 6:45am, on our way to Heidelburg, Germany via the city of Koln. (Cologne)
Koln (it should have an umlaut over the 'o' but I don't know how to do that...oh, wait. Köln. Woohoo!) Anyway, Köln was a one hour stop for lunch, shopping, and cathedrals. Whatever you wanted. One of the single women and I climbed 500+ steps in Köln's marvellously-built gothic cathedral to get a look at the city from up high. In twenty minutes. My calves were still hurting four days later.
Daniel and I in the bell tower.
Up the inside of one of the spires.
View of Köln and the river.
It's a long way to the
More down the river. (The Rhein?)
Up the outside of the spire.
Daniel in one of the niches in the spiralling staircase up. It just went up and up and up and up and up and... Let me tell you, it's not advised to go climbing unless you're reasonably fit. I was okay, but a little breathless at the top.
The inside of the cathedral.
Now, I admit, I'm not much of a one for Catholic cathedrals. All those statues and icons staring blindly at you. And the crucifixes? I find them really terrifying. As a mortician I once spke to said, the crucifix (not the cross but the crucific - the cross with Jesus still hanging there) represents a Christ who has not been resurrected - he's just dead. And how is a dead Jesus supposed to help anyone? It's the empty cross that represents the hope of the believer - that Jesus not only died but was resurrected, too.
Anyway, crucifixes and statues creep me out. I appreciate that the emphasis on Mary and the saints are significant to the Catholic tradition, but the statues just make me feel crawly in the neck hair.
Europe is very Catholic.
Anyway, on to other things.
Street theatre outside the cathedral: this mummy was pretty good. Bowed very deeply when I tossed a coin in his bucket.
Front of the cathedral - bottom.
Front of the cathedral - top. The building is too big to encompass in a single shot without going back miles...
There was a cruise down the Rhein and assorted naps on the bus as well as various breaks at truckstops where you pay $0.50 for use of the public toilets (usually reimbursed with a voucher for purchasing something at the associated shop at the truckstop). The hotel in Heidelburg wasn't quite as nice as the one we'd had in Amsterdam - the bathroom was modern but the beds...not so much.
Assorted pics of the cruise down the Rhein. Some lovely landscapes...unfortunately taken by a very inept photographer. *looks embarrassed*
Daniel wants beer.
But he'll settle for wine.
Small vineyards on the banks of the Rhein. I don't know how they prevent erosion - all the vine rows ran down the slope!
White tower.
And a better shot of it, showing the village below.
It's actually one of two towers - the Fighting Brothers...or something.
Another castle. There are a lot of castles in Germany and Austria. Like, one on every hill.
Night falls and some birds head for home.
That night, we slept in Heidleberg. A bunch of people went out for a 35-40 minute walk out to a famous pub/club, but most people just stayed in.
One of the problems with the tour is that it's pretty much a fly-by look at Europe. Even the cities where we stayed for two nights instead of just one - Venezia, Luzern, and Paris - were rushed, because there was so much to do and no time in which to do it!
It definitely whets the tourist appetite, though!
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 10:56 pm (UTC)