Monday, June 18th (Reims and Epernay Champagne, France)

We missed driving the roads so much so we decided to head to the Champagne region today which was about an hour from our villa. And if you are going to do Champagne, what better way to do it then go all out with Moet & Chandon. At least that was Jobby’s motto. The regular champagne tour (the cellars/caves) included a basic tasting along w/ the price of the tour. Since Jobby knew he would be drinking most of my tasting, he decided to go all out and get the premiere vintage tasting for himself! Dom Perignon or bust! We enjoyed a great tour of the cellars/caves which are located 30 meters directly below the headquarters in Epernay. There are over 28 kilometers of caves holding millions of bottles of champagne. What a site! The caves were amazing and the story behind the champagne was even more intriguing. Putting some math together we realized there is over $15 billion dollars worth of champagne in the cellars. We debated whether we should hide out in the Dom Perignon section overnight and steal a few for a celebration when OB1 arrives.

After the tour was over, we set up for our Premiere tasting in the gardens (everyone else tasted in a boring room J ). They showed us pictures of famous people who had done tastings in the same gardens – most notably Princess Diana. So there we are, in our basic street clothes tasting $150 bottles of champagne (well, Jim was drinking and Carla was barely sipping). The vintages were truly amazing and we had our first tastes of Rose champagne. The vintages were from 2000 and Jobby truly fell in love with them.

With a few glasses of champagne in Jim, we headed to Reims (pronounced Rance – these Frenchies – don’t get it) to view another Notre Dame Cathedral. This one was spectacular in its own way. First, it was nice to be in the small town and not have hoards of tourists touring the cathedral at the same time as you. It was very peaceful. Built between 1211-1311 on the traditional coronation site of the kings of France, this cathedral was probably the favorite of our trip and one of the greatest monuments of Gothic art and architecture we had seen yet. The cathedral is famous for the smiling angel on the façade.

Ahh, another relaxing, fun filled day in Paris. We had to rest up tonight to prepare for the arrival of Matt & Allison Proulx the following morning – now the adventures would REALLY begin (Matt & Allison have never been out of the US before – unless you count Canada!).

Sunday, June 17th (Paris, France)

First real breakfast at home – eggs and sausage! We were excited to not have to go anywhere for breakfast and not just eat bread and fruit. It is great having our own little villa in the French countryside.

We woke up early and took the train into Paris to catch the early mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral. This was interesting because it was in French and there were hoards of people circling the mass taking pictures of it along w/ the cathedral itself. It felt like we were part of a production. The organs were some of the loudest things we have ever heard but it was a great experience.

From there, we headed to Saint Chappelle, another beautiful church built by Louis IX in the 1240's to house relics from the Holy Land (supposedly the Crown of Thorns and part of the True Cross). It was a tiny gothic chapel compared to Notre Dame and was inspiring visual with the stained glass windows which essentially surround the entire upper floor and tell many of the stories from the Old Testament. Too bad we waited around for almost an hour for an English paper guide but it seems the English steal the guides!

Our afternoon changed directions as we decided to explore the modern art museum, The Centre Pompidou. This was drastically different from anything we had been to see on our trip thus far. The building itself was very modern and the 6 floors allowed us to get a great view of the city of Paris. We saw some great paintings from Picasso, Matisse, and Chagall but we also saw some crazy (maybe interesting) works of art.

We continued our visit of art museums by hitting up the Parisian Pablo Picasso Museum. This was our 2^nd Picasso museum of the trip (along w/ the Picasso’s we saw at Pompidou). We honestly feel like we know Picasso in and out now J Between this Museum, the Pompidou and the one in Spain, I think we saw every single one of Picasso’s works.

We ran through the rain to catch our train back to the village of Bailly-Romainvilliers and enjoyed a chill night at home feasting on some homemade chicken, veggies and couscous. Who would have ever thought that a frozen meal like that would taste so good after over 3 weeks of traveling!

Saturday, June 16th (Drive to Paris, France)

We decided to start this blog with a picture of a Total Service Station which populate the French highways to help share two facts and a story about driving here. In our boredom, we calculated that gas in Europe costs us $0.25 / mile versus about $0.10 in the US. This makes us feel like we are throwing a quarter out the window every mile we drive (a frightening thought). Second, there are more tolls in France than anywhere (with the possible exception of Italy). We paid over….

Finally, the story. So Carla and I decided to play a little Bonnie and Clyde today and not pay for fuel after filling up at the Total Service Station between Dijon and Paris. I thought Carla had paid and she thought I had paid and neither of us realized it until Carla asked if they had taken our Visa card (which we’ve had a few probs with) 16 km up the road. We briefly considered continuing on to Paris anyway with the hope that we could get our car out of the country before the French Police had a clue (in legitimate protest of the ridiculous tolls and high gas prices of course) but our ethics got the better of us and we turned back. As we passed the station going south (there are no exits on French freeways) we already saw Police cars in front. I pulled in and began with “Pardon, je suis desole, je pense que elle paye pour le gasoline” which translated means, “I’m sorry, its all my wife’s fault” The cops just laughed and pointed us inside to pay, it seems they had bigger fish to fry. They had just apprehended a suspect who stood in handcuffs outside the station while they were searching his car. As a result, I believe we went from being outlaws to good civil servants by helping draw law enforcement to this den of thieves. We apologized again inside, paid (with Visa) and were on our way (48 miles, $12 in gas and $12 in tolls later). (Jim usually pays for gas so who’s fault is this J )

But we must go back to the beginning of today…

Because our hotel in Lyon was oh so charming, we motivated to wake up pretty early and get on the road towards Paris. Carla couldn’t wait to settle down into a comfortable place for a WEEK after 3 weeks on the road. We wanted to grab a yummy French breakfast before we took off but TomTom guided us right to the highway. Though we had both heard great things about Lyon, we decided we would stop along the way and grab some lunch on the way to Paris.

We stopped in Dijon for lunch. We were lucky enough to hit the Saturday market when we arrived. What a site to see – everyone in town was out. They even served Carla’s favorite meal at the local butcher shop – PIGEON! We enjoyed a traditional French lunch of cheese, ham, beef bourguignon, and red wine before heading off to Paris (and the gas station story above).

On our way to Paris! YEAH!

We arrived just outside of Paris to the Marriott place Carla’s parents just stayed a week ago at. It is BEAUTIFUL and so nice to have a little 2 bedroom place with a kitchen, washer/dryer etc. It is great and a wonderful start to the last week of our trip!

Friday, June 15th (Marseilles, Arles, Avignon & Lyon, France)

We woke up this morning planning to hit the beach in Nice one last time but much to our surprise it was pouring rain and lightning! Since the hotel was going to make us change rooms for extending our reservation, we decided to take off from Nice and break up the long drive we had to Paris the following day.

We took off expecting to head to Monaco and check out Monte Carlo but there was so much flooding in the streets we decided it was best to get to higher ground and get out of the South of France before we sailed away. Good call on our point because once we were an hour outside of Nice, the weather was beautiful and sunny.

The first stop on our drive to Lyon was Marseilles. The ‘mean streets of Marseilles’ as Jobby called them because apparently this is where Zidane is from (the French football player who headbutted that Italian guy in the world cup last year). Much to our surprise, this city seemed very beautiful. It is all based around the oldest port in France. The water was blue and beautiful and the port was full of sailboats of all sizes. We ‘snuck’ into the upscale Sofitel hotel on the hill of the fort and got a great overview of the city.

From there we headed to Arles, the home of Van Gogh. Arles is a quaint little city on the Rhone and we stopped to scope out a few of the scenes from which Van Gogh drew his inspiration (and cut off his ear). After a stop at a Roman era coliseum (still used for bull fighting today) we went down to the river to find the scene from “Starry Night Over the Rhone” and then into town for “Café at Nuit.” The city and surrounding country were quite beautiful although we didn’t see quite as many flower-bursts as Van Gough painted.

The last stop on our way to Lyon was Avignon for dinner. This was a unique and old city and we grabbed dinner in the shadow of St. Pierre’s Church hidden away in the cobblestone maze of old town (it seems every city in Europe has a cobblestone old town meant for walking only but which the Euros do not mind driving on, at frighteningly high speeds, particularly for pedestrians). We had some interesting salads and crepes for dinner (Carla’s crepe had salad, tomato sauce, one slice of ham and an egg on top). Luckily, we topped off our interesting dinner with a fantastic sweet crepe – hot bananas with hot chocolate sauce and whipped cream on top.

We saw our most beautiful sunset yet driving from Avignon to Lyon. We also encountered our biggest thunderstorm yet (which probably made for the amazing sunset).

We arrived in our sketchy, sketchy, SKETCHY hotel in Lyon just before midnight. Much to our surprise we didn’t even have a shower curtain or a light in the bathroom and Carla kept hearing what she thought were rats gnawing at the walls. At this point we were so tired we couldn’t bear to wait for the hotel staff to come fix it so we just showered with no lights or a shower curtain and hit the hay.

Thursday, June 14th (South of France – Cannes and Antibes)

We explored the South of France today by car. We first drove to Cannes. It was pretty Hollywood because there were posters all across town of famous American (and international) actors and actresses. You could tell the town revolved around the film festival. So many people were touring the city and it was PACKED with lots of rich people (or those pretending to be – not us in our Volvo wagon) shopping to try and keep up with the Jones of Hollywood. There were some great views of the harbor (and yachts similar to those you see Beyonce and Jay-Z on) from the top of the Cannes hill (I guess similar to the Hollywood Hills).

From there we hit up Antibes, a more chill town between Cannes and Nice. This town was really cute with lots of tiny streets (the Volvo – still yet to be named – barely fit). We hit the beach which was actually white and sandy compared to the beach in Nice. The pigeons were still there but we enjoyed a day at the beach like the locals. We hiked up for a great view of the harbor and enjoyed a wonderful Italian dinner in the old part of town (hey at least we are using our knowledge of the French language – we just wanted some comfort food). This is a town we could see ourselves hanging out in more along the Riveria.

Wednesday, June 13th (Nice, France)

We woke up pretty early and after our Italian breakfast at the sketchy hotel, we decided to forgo a dip in the pool and hit the road because the amount of Italian men in thongs at the pool motivated us to hit up Nice.

Nice was only 45 minutes down the road so we arrived with the whole day to play. We hit up the rock beach right in front of our hotel. Nice isn’t quiet what Carla expected but more what Jim expected. Don’t get us wrong, it’s not that its not ‘nice’ but it’s a big city on the water. The beaches had some pigeons on it which scared Carla a lot J We hit the beach for a few hours (it is rocky not sandy) and Jobby took his first dip in the Mediterranean Sea. The water was a great temp so we enjoyed that a lot.

We cruised the ‘strip’ for an hour or two (the Promenade des Anglais) and Jobby took his first run (the run he said he would do every day of the trip J). There was a lot to check out in the old city so we hit that up at night.

We had our first taste of the Mediterranean flair on the Provence cuisine for dinner. Most of it was good minus the salad nicoise which we thought would be the best part. The lettuce was tres funky but the rest of the meal was delicious (but pricey).

Tuesday, June 12th (San Remo, Italy)

We left Geneva relatively early on Tuesday (it was still dark and drizzly) and drove to SanRemo, Italy. This was one of the most beautiful (but crazy drives) we have had yet. We went through the longest tunnel ever (over 8 miles) - we thought we were going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning! We also saw a glacier (Jim's 1st one) and some beautiful scenes of the alps and waterfalls. This is the land of tunnels and bad drivers. The Italians are clearly the worst drivers in all of Europe and Carla’s challenges driving to our hotel in downtown will ensure that Carla will drive the highways from now on and I will handle all city driving (I never knew that Carla could curse in Italian, but she was rather effective). We checked into our sketchiest hotel so far (which isn’t saying much since we had been staying at Radisson/ Westin/ Marriott/ Sheraton chains for a while now. After checking in and being handed a key and lead keychain that weighed over 5 lbs we went for a walk along the waterfront and through downtown (me with a discernible pimp-lean). The Italian Riviera was more of a giant fishing village than a beachy paradise though. One street off of the water however was an avenue packed with tourists and locals shopping away and a few nice restaurants to boot. We hit the marina where we stalked a restaurant who’s menu we liked (it didn’t open until 7pm and we walked by it three times between 5-7. At 6, we decided to grab a drink at a restaurant nearby (I had a port wine aperitif which drew confused stares from the waitress and Carla since that’s usually a digestif for after-dinner. Eh who knew?)

After dinner we walked back and after a quick call from CIGNA where I confirmed that I still had a job on my return, we went to bed, only to be awakened around 1am by the front desk who asked me to move my car in the garage. This didn’t make sense to me since we parked in the rear corner in nobody’s way, but he spoke terrible English and I was worried someone had hit us so I went downstairs. Turns out some people were parked in by an unknown guest and they were calling all of the rooms one by one to figure out who’s car was downstairs. Needless to say there were a pile of unhappy people downstairs when I got there, but our car was fine so I went back upstairs and left the Italians to argue amongst themselves (very loudly).

Monday, June 11th (Geneva, Switzerland)

We enjoyed our free breakfast once again and caught up on blogging cuz it was pouring rain outside! After that we drove into downtown Geneva as it had just started to let up raining. We went straight to the harbor where they have this Jet d’Eau (a giant water fountain in the middle of the harbor). I walked out under it and got soaked as Carla tried to take pictures, but then it started to pour again. We went to the Red Cross Museum and passed a giant Tamil Tiger protest (forgive my poor memory, but I thought the Tamil Tigers were a terrorist organization in Sri Lanka so I was confused why they were protesting but there were a lot of them). This as also odd because it is basically on the other side of the world, but I guess because of all the international organizations located here in Geneva, this happens quite often. At the Red Cross Museum we learned about the history of the organization in a very art nouveau way (I can’t even describe the displays really, except to say they were just weird). After that we went to old town and tried to stop at Saint Pierre Cathedral but it was closed because it was Monday. After a brief drive past all the headquarters of international organizations located in Geneva (there are tons here including Europe’s United Nations) we called it a day, disappointed that we did not get to enjoy Geneva in the sun.

Sunday, June 10th (Fussen, Germany and then Switzerland)

We woke up early (5:43!) this morning to beat the tour buses to Konigsschlosser, the King’s Castles in Southern Germany, about 2 hours outside Munich. The Konigschloss includes two castles Schloss Hohenschwangau, built by the Bavarian King Maximillian and Neuschwanstein Castle built by his son “Mad” King Ludwig. Max’s castle is a big yellow eyesore built on a small hill just above the small town of Fussen (actually, it is really pretty nice and I wouldn’t mind having one of my own, but it pales in comparison to his son’s pad and its iodine yellow color doesn’t help. Max’s son “Mad” King Ludwig lived in a fantasy world most of his life, building castles inspired by Richard Wagner’s operas. Neuschwanstein (aka “the Neusch”) was in turn the inspiration for Disneyworld’s Cinderella’s castle. Hopefully we’ll be able to post a pic or two of it, because it is really incredible and difficult to describe. The Neusch looks down on Max’s castle, has a giant waterfall for a backyard, and looks out over… well everything. Too bad for Ludwig, he only got to live in it for 180 days. He was declared insane, stripped of his kingship and found dead floating in a lake outside Munich shortly after. The Bavarian government converted the castle to an attraction and had tourists visiting six weeks later.

After visiting the castle we did a little hike to a suspension bridge and lookout point in the mountains above the castle (Carla was a bit scared of heights crossing the bridge but toughed it out and we got some great photos as a result). On the way out of town we stopped to see another waterfall and grab some pizza (we were both getting a little sick of various “wursts” and “schnitzels”) and the smell of Italian food just sucked us in as we walked by. Very tasty except for a couple of flies who kept interrupting us.

From there we drove to Zurich, Switzerland and said goodbye to the Autobahn (I didn’t get to give it the 150 mph sendoff I hoped though since we drove mostly backroads from the castles to the Swiss border.

I think Switzerland has longer and larger tunnels than it has mountains. It feels like half our trip has been underground. We had a little trouble finding our hotel in Zurich since it is only 2 months old and not on any maps or GPS. During our search, the weather turned ugly all of a sudden and we started to get HAILED on! Concerned about our new paintjob we followed the Swiss lead and parked in one of the tunnels until it let up. When it let up, we decided to cancel our Zurich reservation and just keep driving to Geneva where we could speak French and spend two nights instead of just a stop-over.

Saturday, June 9th (Austria)

HAPPY 30^th BIRTHDAY SWIRLEY!!!! We are thinking of you and celebrating for you (and with you) here in Munich. Long live the German roots!

Jim woke up early today (even after his HofbrauHaus activities) to go to the Deutsches Museum where he met Seamus (the LA guy). The Deutsches is the most visited museum in Germany and is dedicated to Science and Technology (essentially like our Air and Space Museum in DC only a lot bigger). We spent a couple hours walking around and only got through Ocean Navigation, Aerospace and Astronautical (they had full ships and planes cut-away in the museum). I also did a quick run through Chemistry and Biology but most of the exhibits were only in German so I couldn’t read much.

Carla picked us up and we drove down to Salzburg where we tried to get on the Sound of Music tour. Sadly, they were sold out completely, but they took pity on Carla when it looked like she was going to cry and gave us a map with directions to hit all the good sights. We started at Hellbrunn Castle where the highlight was a walk through the “Trick Fountains” exhibit which was basically and 18^th century waterpark. Pretty sweet, except for the bratty little American kids who kept crying when they got sprayed with water. I really hope they were mentally scarred from a previous near drowning because there is no excuse to run away screaming from a couple sprinklers when you are 8 years old (note to self, must spray future children with garden hose on regular basis to ensure this does not happen to me)

After a quick picture at the gazebo where Carla refused to sing “I am 16, going on 17…” for me we were off to the Salzburg Cathedral and Hohensalzburg Fortress. The fortress is the largest of its kind anywhere and ensured that Salzburg was not attacked for over 1000 years. We got some great pics of the city from here. We were going to go for a great Austrian dinner but Jobby was once again tempted by the Austria sausage so we got some sausage and schnitzel and settled in for a picnic on the river for dinner. Of course we had some gelato for dessert while we toured the rest of Salzburg. It’s a beautiful city.

Our ride back to Munich was easy and less entertaining (considering our LA actor friends entertained us with CDs from this thing called Eurovision the whole way to Salzburg). It’s basically American Idol Europe with songs that sound like a cross between David Hassellhoff and Kraftwerks. Hightlights included “Vampires are Alive” a romantic song about present day blood suckers and “Party Song” which just repeated “We like to Party” and “I’m crazy, like a baby” over and over.

Friday, June 8th (Munich)

We decided to kick-off Munich with a Mike’s Bike tour; a tour designed more for single backpackers from Amsterdam than 30 year old expecting parents. That said, we had a blast. The tour gave us a pretty good overview of the highlights of the city and left a little time for sightseeing at each stop. The highlights included the Theatinekirche, one of the most beautiful churches we’ve seen here. Sparkling white interior throughout with endless decorative touches. We stopped to say a few prayers, in particular for my mom’s friend Sue, our friend Lindsay and Dan Woehrle.

To conclude the tour we visited the Englischer Garten (a big park, like Central in NYC) where we a took a chilly swim in the rapids running through the park then relaxed in a nearby wading pool (yes we were not prepared for this so we adlibbed with what we had on). This was a blast since you jumped in and let the river take you downstream. We stopped for lunch at the 2^nd largest biergarten in the world at the Chinese Pagoda where we ate a two foot wide pretzel and a I sucked down a liter of beer (it’s kind of odd to count my beer consumption in liters, seems like a lot, but they go down surprisingly smooth). One the way out of the park, we stopped by a section of river where the rapids were so wild that people were actually surfing them. This would have been hard to believe had I not seen it for myself, but these guys were really tearing it up!

After the tour we got to see the famous Glockenspiel (clock tower) in Marienplatz which is like a giant coo-koo clock on steroids. At 5pm every day wooden knights joust, a Pinocchio band plays instruments and life-size mannequins dance in an effort to ward away the evil spirits that brought the plague to the town over 25 times. It seems to be working, at least for the last few years.

We finished off the night with a stop at the HofbruaHaus, famous as the center of Oktoberfest debauchery. We stopped by early before the table dancing got going but we did get to see more than a few old German’s in their lederhosen (leather pants topped off with a feathered cap). We actually ended up sitting with a couple from LA who were really nice and also were headed to Salzburg the next day. They were both actors (he’s been in some CSI episodes) and we offered to give them a ride so they wouldn’t have to take the train the next day.

Thursday, June 7th (Prague to Munich)

We got up today with grand ambitions to make it to Kutna Hora and tour the St. Barbara Cathedral and Ossuary (bone-church). These were two of my favorites when MOB and I visited Pete in Prague years ago. We got directions from our concierge who was genuinely helpful most of our time in Prague, but after 3 hours looking for highway 56 we found ourselves back where we started. We are really missing TomTom now (which did not provide maps for the Czech Republic).

We’re off to Munich after a lunch-time stop at Karlstein Castle outside of Prague. This was the summer home of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV which was rebuilt as a very effective tourist trap. We had to hike up the mountain/hill that the castle was built on taking breaks along the way. At one stop, we were entertained by a woman who parked her car in the middle of a steep uphill one-way road to block her boyfriend/husband who was driving a horse drawn carriage with a young blond at his side (we think she was the cause of the disturbance). This must have been a regular occurrence because many of the townspeople stopped to watch. When a polize officer finally got up from his beirgarten lunch and walked over to them, he merely asked the woman to move her car aside so he could drive past. As soon as she moved her car the man whipped his horses past her and she was left chasing them down the street, pulling on the horse’s reins trying to try to stop the cart. Ah Czechs, they’re the best!

The castle was pretty cool, but we were forced to take a guided tour which was rather cheesy. Just as we were about to begin it started to rain on us (in the middle of a sunny day). We even got thunder and lightening. Very gothic! The tour was a bit of a bust since most of the good stuff had been plundered by various raiders years ago and it turns out most of the castle had been rebuilt less than 100 years ago. After that we walked back down and were back on the road to Munich.

LOL!!!! LOL!!! This is so funny; I’m having a hard time writing it. Carla just got pulled over by the polize on the German Autobahn (seemingly impossible given that there are absolutely no speed limits on the Autobahn!). As you can guess we are ok since I wouldn’t be laughing (or writing) if they had impounded our car and sent us to the German Guantanamo for interrogation. Carla took over driving after our lunchtime stop at Karlstein Castle and set us on cruise control to Munich at about 130 (that’s km/hr not miles which is only about 80 mph). She noticed a tan Audi A8 was on our butt and would repeatedly pull along side us, check us out, pass us, pull ahead, and then slow down. She thought it was just two sketchy German guys trying to peep at her hormone enhanced frauleine bosom…just annoying. Just as she mentioned something to me, the other car pulled ahead of us and its taillights started flashing blue and a red LED sign popped up across the rear dashboard with the word “POLIZE!” (very James bond since the sign literally popped up out of the rear dash). We pulled over and said guten tach in our best accents (hers much better than mine). They took our passports, called them in on CB radio and apparently approved us, letting us go with a simple “auf wiedersehen”. We’re guessing that they were randomly checking us out because of our bright red European Delivery license plates (figuring we might have stolen the car in Prague from some sucker tourists). Little did they know that we were in fact sucker touristas ourselves! (later we found out they pulled over other Americans and searched their cars – I guess we should consider ourselves lucky since we weren’t searched). I think it is Carla’s maiden name that got us off J

We followed our polize stop up with dinner in a small German town called Wackersdorf, yes, Wackersdorf. After some dirty looks from the locals as we took pictures of their town welcome sign, we sat down to enjoy tasty meals (Wiener Schnitzel & Steak) in a quaint German Beirgarten called Rathausstuben. There the waitresses wore traditional “dirndl” dresses and along with the chef taught us how to say “very good” in German (“sere good”).

We made it to Munchen (Munich) with no more trouble from the fuzz and arrived at our Sheraton Four Points hotel which was quite the fall-off from the Westin Grand Berlin or Marriott Prague. As I am writing, we are sitting in a room with no air conditioning (a la our Italian family vacation years ago when century-long temperature records were broken) and our sliding glass door open to cool us down (reminding Carla of her parent’s stay in Paris when their hotel room was broken into). I’m off to bed, right after I close the window…

Wednesday, June 6th (Prague)

This morning we discovered the grocery store right next to our hotel. Savior – cheap food around Prague! We were able to get fruit, yogurt, bread, lots of water, crackers and cereal bars for all under $4! From there, we headed to the central square in the Old Town to take the walking tour of Prague Castle.

We were finally at the point we had to do laundry. We were going to do it at the hotel, assuming that Prague would be the cheapest but when we discovered that just one shirt was $5, we decided to venture out and do it at a local laundry mat. The laundry mat was PACKED with Miami University students (Go KB and Erin) who were studying abroad across Europe for the summer. Funny that they were taking business classes in their hotels while they toured cities and local companies. It was raining out so we didn’t mind hanging out, but then the second of three dryers stopped working and we started to get frustrated. Carla headed back to the hotel to nap while I tried to negotiate a discount with the washerwoman (unsuccessfully). We had a nice dinner at Grand Café Orient where I tricked the waiter with my smooth Czech up until I had to ask for the bill.

Tuesday, June 5th (Prague)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US! We celebrated our 3^rd Wedding Anniversary in the Romantic city of Prague. We decided to walk from our hotel, across Charles Bridge and up to the Hradcany (Prague Castle). When we got to the top however, we found out that the place was shut down because President Bush was there. We tried to find a place to eat lunch nearby so we could watch him leave, but we couldn’t find anything that Carla found tasty so we walked back down to town (the joys of pregnancy). We took Rick Steve’s advice on another restaurant called Kolkova but it turned out to be part of a chain and had the exact same menu as Celnice where we ate the night before. I made the mistake of having the exact same meal (it was a bit of a letdown) while Carla tried something new.

After that we strolled the Jewish quarter and the numerous synagogues and the Jewish Cemetery. This was the only place in town where the Jews could be buried and as a result they were buried 10 deep in places. Gravestones were stacked right on top of each other.

We went back to the hotel and hit the pool for a little exercise and the hot tub (Carla could only put her legs in). We went out to eat at Restaurant Zofin, a “Prague Institution” right on the water by Charles Bridge for a happy anniversary dinner, but even though they were open for dinner until 11pm they refused to seat us at 9:15pm (I think the waiter wanted to go home because a second waiter almost seated us). Instead they recommended the restaurant next door which was also tasty although not the “institution”. On top of it all, our waiter tried to scam us and double the bill but we caught on and he acted like he just made a math mistake. Overall it was a nice 3^rd anniversary dinner on the river. Of course we followed it up w/ some tasty, cheap gelato and called it a night.

Monday, June 4th (Berlin, Potsdam & Prague)

This morning Carla woke up sick with a head cold. Jobby did the nice husbandy thing and went out and got her lots of juice, tea, throat lozenges and a breakfast smoothie. Carla stayed in bed until 1pm while Jobby went out and explored.

On Carla’s recommendation I went to visit the checkpoint Charlie Museum which was a history of escape attempts from East Germany. We kind of forget that it was only in 1989 that the wall fell and people were able to freely travel between East and West Germany. The museum was pretty cool, very James Bond stuff with lots of tunnel digging, homemade aircraft building and even a few modified cars which raced across the border.

I then walked up to the Pergamon Museum on Museum Island where they have a lot of exhibits taken from Turkey (still a sore spot with the Turks). But it turns out most European museums are closed on Mondays so I went back to check on Carla and we decided to hit the road to Prague. We stopped in Potsdam outside Berlin and drove through Park Sanssouci (a royal palace and park commonly visited by Berliners). The museums were closed there too (so I didn’t get to see Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas), but we were able to grab lunch at Café College in a cute little cobblestone downtown.

We arrived in Prague and checked into our hotel in the heart of the tourist district. We were quite hungry so we just walked around the corner to Restaurant Celnice where I dug into a giant plate of pork chunks, dumplings and cabbage (one of my favorite meals from my last trip and much tastier than it sounds) while Carla stuck with the Chicken, Mash and Grilled Veggies (which amounted to a small pile of string sliced carrots). After that we went back, threw on the news and found out the President Bush had just arrived in Prague to sell the missile defense system to the Czech government and would be up at Prague Castle the next day.

Sunday, June 3rd (Berlin)

We woke up early to catch the Original Berlin walking tour (which started 3 kilometers away from our hotel). We hustled there only to find out they were picking up a second group right near our hotel (just our luck). Our tour guide Julie was a Fullbright scholar from Wellesley studying German (immigrant) Integration Policy was very knowledgeable. She took us through Museum Island (home of the Pergamon Museum which houses ancient buildings moved stone by stone from Turkey), Brandenburg Gate (the one Napoleon and the Nazis famously marched under) the Murdered Jews of the Second World War memorial (the designer almost walked off the project when they tried to rename it the Holocost Memorial), and Hitler’s Bunker among other sites. We were going to tour the Reichstag (German parliament building) but were told it was a two hour wait and Carla felt a sniffle coming on so we decided to head home for a nap.

Carla felt a little better after sleeping so we decided to venture out once again. On our way to the Reichstag however we saw that the National Opera House, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, was putting on a Mozart Opera, LA CLEMENZA DI TITO. This was the Opera house that had been rebuilt 3 times. It was destroyed at the beginning of WWII but since Hitler liked Operas so much, he had it rebuilt in 1943. It was again destroyed and rebuilt after the end of the war. We decided to check it out. We were lucky because we got student discounts (12 Euros v. the 42 Euros listed) and a nice Canadian backpacker spotted us the Euros since we didn’t have enough and the place wasn’t accepting our credit card. We jetted to the cash machine just in time for the show to start. We sat w/ the Canadian up on the 2^nd balcony. We didn’t know what we were in for. The orchestra was fantastic but we didn’t recognize any of the songs as being Mozart. They had the translation to the Italian opera in German but we couldn’t understand that either so we were pretty lost the first half. This was the premiere and I think the scenery still had to be worked out. At one point they raised the back curtain and we could see the stage behind it with all the other props, ladders, etc. It was pretty entertaining to see their lack of focus on the stage. The singing was great though.

At intermission, we realized you could get an English summary so we prepared ourselves and at least knew what was happening in the 2^nd half of the opera. Much to our surprise it had a happy ending – a little too Disneylike for our taste. Overall, Jim was a fan, Carla, not so much.

http://www.staatsoper-berlin.org/spielplan/detailansicht.php?id_event_cluster=25087&id_event_date=72304&id_language=2&show=handlung&aktiv=oper

We hadn’t had dinner yet so when we got out of the Opera at 10:15pm, all the restaurants were closed since it was a Sunday night. We decided to treat ourselves to some good food at the restaurant at our hotel, the Westin Grand Berlin. Wow did we treat ourselves – it was $$$ but SOOO good. Carla’s burger wasn’t quiet a burger – more some really good steak in a burger form. We enjoyed the pianist playing covers of many songs we knew and enjoyed our late meal in the fancy fancy hotel.

Jim's Favorite Meal Yet - THE MEATPLATE

Katie W - you would laugh so hard at this! Happy 30th Bday Today! We will pick you up some GREAT chocolate tomorrow in Swiss land.

We will post the other days soon - the rest of Berlin and Prague where we stayed at the same place as President BUSH! We are currently in Munich - about to leave for Salzburg for the day w/ a couple of actors we met from LA. The guy has been on CSI and such but we don't watch those shows. Entertaining - we met them at the Haufrahaus last night (I can't spell). Jobby is at the German Science Museum right now w/ the guy and I am picking up them and the guys wife soon! Off to see the Sound of Music sites :)

Off to Switzerland tomorrow!

Saturday, June 2nd

We tried to wake up early and managed to do 8:15pm. We headed to our last day of free breakfast. Though, the Danish breakfast didn’t compare to the Swedish breakfast. The danishes weren’t great but we managed to fill up on our fair share of kiwis. It is crazy – they had bowls and bowls of fresh kiwis halfs. They would never have this in the US because of the cost – where do kiwis come from? Something to google.

We hit the Danish roads headed from Gedser, Denmark to catch a ferry across the Baltic Sea to Rostock, Germany. This helped us avoid 200 miles of driving through Denmark where gas is at a premium. Luckily enough our TomTom was able to guide us to this tiny Danish town. We arrive at the ferry terminal to have them tell us they don’t take credit cards and our ATM card was not working either. We freaked after they told us the closest one was kilometers and kilometers away but then they suggested they took Euros and we had just enough to cover that with the little bit of Danish Kronos we had left. The ferry took just under 2 hours and we caught up on reading about Berlin and sleeping during most of the journey.

Our first scare with the European roads came after we entered Deutschland. We were almost empty (“10 miles left, consider your range” read the on-screen warning”), approaching the first needed fill up in our new car. Too bad there were NO gas stations to come by. Great our first fill up is on some tiny road outside Rostock, Germany. TomTom came to the rescue however and found us a hidden fuel station with just a few miles left. We enjoyed a pricey fill up (70 euros!) and our first schnitzel sandwich. Welcome to the motherland Jim.

We arrived in Berlin around dinner time and checked into the fancy Westin Grand Berlin (thanks to points from Thea & Eric!). This hotel was beautiful and the Westin Heavenly Beds were to die for! We were located right downtown in Eastern Berlin by the infamous street, Unter Den Linden (street of Lime trees). We ventured to a recommended local spot Deponie3 and sat in the back by the garden which enjoyed the noise of the S-Bahn passing above us. Jobby had his first Hefevisen and the infamous German meat plate (his new favorite meal in Europe) and Carla enjoyed a water 1/10^th the size of Jobby’s beer and a plate of schnitzel, potatoes and some veggies. After that we strolled the Unter Den Linden and learned all about the EU and ended up at the Brandenburg Gate for some more Berlin history. Then it was off to bed to enjoy our best night of sleep yet!

Biking Copenhagen

Friday, June 1st

We woke up relatively early to start our journey to Denmark. We enjoyed our free breakfast (later in the trip we miss this so much because we stocked up on fruit and bread for the afternoon) and hit the road. The drive to Copenhagen was just over 2 hours. It was free of traffic and we enjoyed some beautiful Swedish countryside (and the hundreds of windmills that dominate the landscape). We crossed the Oresund Bridge that connects Sweden and Demark (one of the longest bridges in the world) and arrived in Copenhagen. Our hotel was too new to be found on TomTom, but Carla miraculously remembered what it looked like and we found it without much trouble. We checked in to the Island Hotel (it was super modern thanks to a recommendation from Carla’s friend Farhad who lives in Stockholm and is into modern) and we were on our way.

We had heard a lot about the free bikes in Copenhagen but had heard they were hard to come by and often found broken. Therefore, we sucked it up and rented bikes from the hotel which at the time we thought was a TOTAL rip off (100 Danish Krones) because we thought the USD to KR conversion was 2 to 1. We then stopped at 7 eleven for some water and gummy bears for what we thought was another rip off (40 Krs). Turns out the conversion it is around 6 to 1 so our rip offs weren’t as bad as we had thought.

We are so glad we rented bikes because this was honestly the best way to see all of Copenhagen in one day. We LOVED the city. We mapped out a route that allowed us to see most of the city in one day. We started off at the Rosenborg Castle and Treasury. This was the Renaissance castle of the “warrior king” Christian IV. Too bad a large part of the castle was closed but we got to check out all of Denmark’s crown jewels and learn a lot about the history of the country.

From there we headed to the fort with a nice detour through some parks and canals. We hopped off our bikes in the fort and walked a mile or two through a place that reminded us of the Presidio in San Francisco. We saw a traditional Danish windmill and so many dogs running off leashes freely into the canals it was quiet entertaining.

After the fort we hit the over photographed but still worth seeing symbol of Copenhagen, Den Lille Havfrue – The Little Mermaid. I thought this would be Carla’s most anticipated stop on our tour of Europe, due to her love of mermaids, but it turned out she didn’t even know it was there. The statue was dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen and based on his short story (also where Disney got the idea for the story of Ariel). Carla even posed just like the mermaid for a good photo.

From there we headed to the Amalienborg Palace and Square. Queen Margrethe II and her family live in the mansion there. There was a beautiful fountain and some guards trying to match the ones outside Buckingham Palace in London (they didn’t compare, but they didn’t smile much either). We next biked down to an area called Nyhavn, the old-time sailors’ quarter, and discovered Copenhagen’s rich and poor enjoying some Friday night beers and eats (the rich sat at white linen tables along the waterfront, the poor (mostly kids) got sixers from the local package store and sat on the docks nearby. The street is on a canal which is lined w/ crazy old wooden (questionably seaworthy) sailboats and bright colored houses that reminded us of the painted ladies in SF. We decided to eat (and drink) like the local young crowd instead of the ritzy older crowd. Jobby enjoyed a LARGE (that’s what they call it, a “LARGE”) which was a bacon wrapped hot-dog (the guide book said hot-dogs are considered a staple food in Denmark, and what better way to enjoy one than wrapped in delicious bacon) and some Danish beer (much cheaper than water) while Carla enjoyed the Danish version of Hawaiian pizza. We ate along the waterway and watched drunken football fans jump into the nasty oily canal and immigrant Asian families scour for beer cans to recycle for cash.

From there we hit the Stroget walk – the longest of pedestrian walk in Europe (we think) and enjoyed the scenery. We sat for a rest while we parked our bikes and watched some football fans kick the footy around. It was all Carla could do to contain Jobby from joining in and really making himself look like a stupid American that doesn’t know how to play football (ie soccer).

We ended the night at the city amusement park, Tivoli Gardens. There is so much to see in this park and it’s great that it’s right in the heart of the city. We didn’t go on any of the rides but we did enjoy a MONSTEROUS box of popcorn and did some serious people and game watching.

All and all, we saw most of Copenhagen in about 8 hours and enjoyed every second of it.

Prague - Internet is $$

We have some posts written but we can't get our computer to work and internet is $$$ so we will be posting when we get to Munich tomorrow, June 7th. Stay tuned cuz I know you are dying to read on about our adventures in the Czech Republic!

Our New Car ! Love the expat tourist plates!

Thursday May 31st

Unfortunately we didn’t sleep well. We think it was our lack of hiking 13 miles a day since yesterday we only did a few miles. We were up at 8am to enjoy our free Swedish breakfast of crepe-like pancakes, burnt bacon (our favorite) and eggs. Our Volvo chauffeur arrived promptly at 9:30am to take us to the factory for our car pick up and tour.

Let me tell you, you think you see a lot of Volvos in the US, you haven’t seen anything until you have come to Gotenburg, Sweden. I would say @ 75% of the cars on the road were Volvos. We saw a ton of our car, the V50, which we have only seen 2 of in the US so far.

The Volvo Overseas Delivery Center was very impressive. We checked in and enjoyed some yummy Swedish hot chocolate. They brought our car out into this showroom and our Volvo expert showed us all the features on our new car. We love it – the color and everything. Just one regret – we should have gotten the sport package but hey, what can you do. They let us drive the car off the lot and told us to take a spin on the test lap. We were expecting a lap the size of a racecourse but it was a lap the size of Grapevine Trail J

After taking pictures and exploring our car, we went to the Volvo cafeteria which served a traditional lunch of Swedish meatballs and potato balls with a crème sauce and kronberries. We enjoyed lunch w/ our old friends Fred and Joanne along with a new guy, Jeremy – an American government contractor working in Holland. If any of you are in the military that is the way to go. He is able to buy his Volvo and keep it Europe until he is done with work. No 6 month limit like they do in the Overseas Delivery Program.

After lunch we boarded the Volvo train for the factory tour. This was pretty entertaining to see how our car was built. They only actually make some of the models in that factory so we didn’t see our car being built but we saw the XC90, which is actually their most popular car. Surprisingly too, the US sells more Volvos then Sweden.

After our tour we were off on our own, just our new TomTom, Volvo and the open Swedish roads. We were fine with directions until we got close to the city center. We were a scene out of the Griswold European Vacation. Look kids, its Big Ben and Parliament. We probably did about 15 loops and u-turns. It didn’t help that we had to cross a river which we did a few too many times. By the time we got back to our hotel and tried to park and realized that was SO expensive, we got scared with all the traffic and just valet parked it at our hotel and decided to take a nap after our sleepless night and stressful driving experience J

We had a great walk around the city of Gotenburg before dinner. All of the shops closed at 5pm but we got some great people watching. We ate dinner at what Jim claimed would be his ‘favorite meal’ of the trip at a place translated to The Cellar. We had traditional Swedish meals – Jim venison with kronberries and potatoes and Carla beef with potatoes. Swedish beers – nothing to write home about!

Wednesday May 30th

We slept in a bit, packed and headed out to see a last few sites, grab some souvenirs and write our post-cards d’Espana. Our first stop was the Barcelona Cathedral which we had wandered across the first night unbeknownst. Sadly, the front façade was under construction and covered up by scaffolding thus not nearly as beautiful as the postcard pics. We then had to decide between the Museu d’Historia de la Ciutat (Barcelona City Museam) which presented an archeological dig tracing Barcelona’s history back to the Roman and Visigoth times or the famed Museu do la Xocolata (Chocolate Museum). To the chagrin of chocolate lovers everywhere we went for the history (Jim did, Carla was dragged along). After 1 hour of walking through historic laundry rooms and sewage tunnels of rock Jim officially lost his rights to pick Museums. In Jim’s defense, there was a very interesting video of Barcelona’s history, but Carla only liked that because she got to rest her feet. With only 1.5 hours left before the transport picked them up at the hotel, we decided to grab lunch and relax at a café. We went with a safe and quick meal of sandwich and pizza, but Carla’s relaxation period was interrupted by a gaggle of pigeons that chased her through the square for bits leftover pizza. After a quick stop for gelato on the way home, we grabbed our ride and arrived at the airport with two hours to spare.

The flights from Barcelona to Copenhagen to Gotenburg were relatively easy, minus the fact that we almost missed our flight in Copenhagen. We were chilling by the gate and didn’t hear the flight board (I think they only boarded it in Danish) until they called our names on the loud speaker. We can understand O’Brien in any language.

We saw the sunset as our plane landed at roughly 11pm local time. Gotta love those northern late summer nights. Our bags arrived in record speed in the Gotenburg airport and we were quickly on our way to the city with our Volvo chauffeur in his brand new pimped out Volvo S80 (the car had radar so you could set cruise control and it would adjust its speed to the cars around it, very James Bond). We arrived at the Radisson SAS in Gotenburg just after midnight.

Tuesday May 29th

We started day three in Spain with breakfast at our hotel, drinking freshly squeezed OJ and stuffing various pastries and croissants into Carla’s purse for a “cheapie” lunch (hey, we’re paying for the breakfast 8-) We began with a visit to the Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar where we lit a candle by Saint Ignatius Loyola and took a moment to pray for friends and family. After that, we hit the Picasso museum, which displayed mostly his earlier works as a young man (since he left and vowed never to step foot in Spain while Franco was still the dictator). Highlights included a number of impressive portraits, The First Communion, a number of off-color sketches, and Las Meninas a cubist collection based on the Diego Velazquez oil painting of the same name. There were only a handful of paintings from Picasso’s “Blue” period and his famous Guernica painting we discovered resides in Madrid.

After Picasso, we decided to get outside. Jim enjoyed his first glass of Spanish wine (so much for the not drinking along with Carla) and we enjoyed lounging with the Spanards at an outside café. After we went to explore some of the parks of Barcelona. We started with the nearby Parc de la Ciuadelia but left shortly after when we couldn’t find a bathroom for Carla (even after she had just gone before leaving the Picasso Museum… ah the wonders of pregnancy 8-) After a quick stop, we headed up to Montjuic a giant hill and castle (along with Olympic Stadium) that formerly protected the port but is now a big park. We paid an exorbitant fee to ride the cable car to the top of the mountain for a nice view of the city and harbor (but we liked the Parc Guell’s view better) We were planning on heading to Olympic Stadium from there (it was at the foot of the hill opposite the city center) but were getting tired and decided to head back. We went back to the hotel (walked it this time) and confer with our new best friend Rick Steve (Best of Europe author) on the restaurant Hostel de Rita. We gorged ourselves on mozzarella and tomatoes, stuffed red peppers, ham stuffed chicken and a tasty fish dish. It was our best meal yet and we finished it off with the Tim Baon desert special, two slices of nougat ice-cream swimming in hot chocolate and cream sauce! Not to mention the Spanish bottle of wine Jim drank himself! Good night!

Monday May 28th

We started our day with a metro ride up to Parc Guell – Antoni Gaudi’s park atop a large hill in Barcelona. We were proud of ourselves for managing to figure out the metro. Once we exited the Metro station, we took numerous escalators up the large hill. It reminded us a lot of San Francisco with the hills, minus SF doesn’t have the outdoor escalators. What a crazy addition to Lombard Street! The park was beautiful and gave us a great view of the entire city – from Olympic Park, to the Cathedrals, to the harbor etc. This park is a result of a housing flop from Gaudi but the result is a beautiful park with all Gaudi’s mosaic creations from a giant lizard to the what is supposedly the world’s longest bench (decorated entirely in mosaic). There were some cool local artists playing music and lots of locals and tourists enjoying the warm Barcelona morning. This turned out to be one of our favorite places in Spain.

We decided to hike it back to the main part of Barcelona to enjoy Gaudi’s unconventional church, the unfinished masterpiece Sagrada Familia. We enjoyed a mini picnic (oranges and cookies/crackers free from breakfast and Jim’s discovery of what McDonald’s calls fries in Spain) outside the church and then entered with our English audio tour guides. This church (it is really more of a giant cathedral) was started in 1883 and is probably only 2/3 done. Gaudi only finished one façade (side) of it himself while a second architect just finished the next in a completely different style. The church was very impressive and it was great to see the workers in the process of building such a masterpiece. They estimate (hope) it will be finished in 2025.

We hiked it back to our hotel from the Sagrada Familia and took a nap before exploring the Rambles and the Barri Gotic again that night. This time we decided to take a recommendation from Rick Steve’s Best of Europe for dinner. What a success. We waited in line for La Crema Canela to open at 8pm and enjoyed a fantastic reasonably priced dinner. The most fantastic part was the simple yet delicious desert we discovered. Vanilla ice cream served w/ strawberries and fresh orange juice poured over it. Wow was that refreshing and good! We explored the harbor and the Christopher Columbus statue after dinner and the rest the ever exciting Rambles had to offer.

Sunday May 27th

Due to the flight and time changes we lost most of Sunday, arriving in Barcelona at 5:30pm. We were rolling high class w/ a driver waiting for us holding a sign for the head of the household “Carla O’Brien”. Shows who planned this trip J We met another older couple, Fred and Joanne, from San Francisco on our journey to the hotel who are also buying a Volvo, their second.

Hotel St. Moritz was just a block north of Placa de Catalunya and the Old City so a perfect location to explore Barcelona. This part of Spain has a strong regional identity similar to the Basque region with similar separatist aspirations but without the terrorism. Thus they consider themselves Catalans first, and Spanish citizens second (with EU members a far third). This first night we explored the Ramblas (a tree lined pedestrian street with many shops and street performers), stumbled upon the Barcelona Cathedral (which we didn’t recognize for reasons we will explain later) and finally settled our hungry stomachs in a small tapas restaurant. This restaurant will remain unnamed since it wasn’t very good and was pretty expensive for tapas. We struggled to read the menu until they realized our Spanish was horrible and supplied us with the English menu (though the English menu wasn’t very descriptive with delights such as “shrimp with garlic”). We must have timed our departure from the restaurant perfectly because as we left we felt a few drops which soon turned into a sudden downpour. We raced to the nearest gelato café however and topped the night off w/ some delicious gelato. We were exhausted and settled into our room with two single beds J

Saturday May 26th

Welcome friends, to Carla and Jim’s European Vacation blog. We’ll be crossing ten countries and almost as many languages (none of which do we have a strong grasp of). Also along for the ride is OB1 as Carla will be toughing out weeks 14-19 of her pregnancy on the road. Most of the journey will take place in our new Volvo V50 which we’ll be picking up in Sweden and dropping off in Paris upon our return. So without further ado (or adieu in French 8-) here we go…

The trip started off with a race to the airport (what else is new) caused by some technological difficulties with our GPS navigational device TomTom. The short story is that we made our flight but left US soil without a working navigational device (short of old fashioned maps, how boring). After a brief stop-over in exotic Newark, NJ we lifted off for the red-eye to Copenhagen and then on to Barcelona, narrowly missing the American infected with a new strain of Tuberculosis by a few days (and cities).