TravelStream™ news feed for member albertabrandts on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/albertabrandts en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:24:13 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251631126/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251631126/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251631126/tpod.html Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:24:13 -0400 European Expedition

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St. Paul, Alberta, Canada

Now our trip is done.

After all that planning and saving and anticipating, and after the trip itself, here we are flying back to Canada.

I am typing this at 35,000 feet, aboard an Air Canada 767 on the way home. We flew out of Heathrow about an hour ago. It was all quite simple.
We took the Tube right from victoria Station to Terminal 3 at Heathrow. One subway switch and about 90 minutes of Tube and there we were. I can't rave enough about the London Underground. It is noisy and crowded and not entirely clean, but it sure has to be the best way of moving people from one place to another on this planet. We could have never travelled around the city that way by any other method, except maybe by helicopter.

I was endlessly impressed by London. It is a big busy exciting city. We could have spent our entire trip there and never been bored. Though we spent our 3 days in London at a dead run, we missed much of the British Museum, any number of churches and art galleries, and we did not walk around enough. The place has no end of excitement. That said, the most impressive thing about this town was the people. Strangers stopped to help us find our way if we looked even a little lost. We recieved expert Tube advice more than once. Clerks in shops and pretty much everyone we met were cheerful and helpful and interested in what we were up to. I don't think we met a crabby or surly person in London. It was by far the friendliest place we visited.

But now the whole thing is done. After these last 3 months of seeing everything there is to see, I have some time to think about the whole thing.

Did it all work? Was our trip a success, whatever that means?

Before we left, we had hoped that it would be fun. We hoped that it would be educational, that we would learn things about the world and maybe ourselves. It was a big deal. It was going to cost about the same as a brand new minivan. We wanted to see how other people in other countries lived. We wanted to do some horizon expansion for us and for our kids. We hoped that we would not kill each other.

We had a blast for three months. I really don't know if we can expect such an expedition again, but if we had a chance I would. The places we went. The things we saw. I have no idea where to begin. Amsterdam, with its canals and bicycles. We might even be from there. Paris. What a fantastic lively, but yet very proper city. The countryside and rivers and caves of France. The south of Spain. What a paradise. Morocco. Next time we'll spend some serious time there, unguided. We could do the same in the Alps, or in Germany. I could go on and on, and I just might.

But to really answer that question, was it all worth it, was it a success, maybe we need to ask a deeper question. Why did we go anyway? Why do we travel? Why not just stay home? Why does anyone travel? Its not a stupid question. We met many people who were doing more or less the same thing we were, leaving the comforts of home and spending vast gobs of money to go see somewhere else. We met people on weekend trips from 100 kilometres away, and we met at least one old guy who had dedicated his life to world travel. So why do people do it?

Is it just to satisfy some sense of curiousity? Maybe enquiring minds just need to know - what is around the corner anyway.

Maybe it is out of boredom. It certainly is a luxury, to be engaged in after you have a roof over your head and a minivan (or whatever) on the driveway.

Maybe it is out of competition, just keeping up with the Joneses (or the Janzens, as the case may be). After all, travelling, like owning a fine automobile or living in a nice part of town, has an element of snob value to it.

Maybe there is some sort of higher purpose - to enrich ones self by apprciating great works of art. People travel in order to see great paintings, to hear music, or to watch splashy stage musicals. After all art galleries, fine buildings and museums are usually the first destinations of tourists. I'm not sure that we were so high-minded. Our attendance at so many amusement parks would suggest otherwise.

Maybe travelling has something to do with building relationships with one's travelling companions. Years ago I read the poet Patrick Friesen's essay about travel. He said that he could think of nothing more wonderful and sensual than travelling with a woman. He spoke of the intimacy of being alone and somewhere strange with one's beloved. It was he said the ultimate forbidden fruit when he was a teenager. I don't think that he had our kind of trip in mind. Travelling with three kids in a tiny motorhome probably does not lend itself to the kind of romantic interactions he had in mind! That said, there was something about all five of us having each others' undivided attention for three months. Sometimes this was negative, but mostly it was utterly positive. Susan and I have never had to live in such close quarters with each other or with our children, ever. Russell, Nick and Jessie each had to learn to accomodate the others as never before. There was no escape! I hope that the relationships strengthened on this trip reach out into the future. If there is one success of this little jaunt around Europe, that would be it.

It seems kind of strange to come back from such a long trip and then start asking why we did it in the first place. I just know I'd do it again. If I'm going to wax philosophical about this trip, now would be a good time. We'll be landing in Edmonton in a few hours.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251532716/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251532716/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251532716/tpod.html Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:59:44 -0400 European Expedition

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London, England, United Kingdom

Today was our last day in London and our last day in Europe.

Consequently we packed it as full as we could.

After a hearty breakfast at our fine hotel, (90 pounds a night - pretty much the cheapest hotel in London. 1.97 Canadian dollars to the pound. Yikes.) we set out for some serious double decker sightseeing.

The weather was quite nice, by London standards. There was only a little rain, but mostly it was sunny.

We sat on the open top deck of the double decker bus, and recieved live narration of the sights of London. The tour guide was amusing and well-informed. His commentary was informative and witty. The tour covered much of downtown London, including Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, the Canadian Embassy, Buckingham Palace, and lots of other famous sights which I won't list here.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the tour, as it gave a great overview of the city - maybe one we should have had on the first day, rather than the last.

After lunch and the purchase of yet more theatre tickets, and a spot of souvenier shopping, we got back on the tour bus to finish our tour.

We took a tour of an attraction known as the Dungeon of London. It is a kind of walk through a warehouse, showing the various unpleasant aspects of medieval London. Apparently it was built by someone who found the gory Torture Room of Madam Tausaud's Wax Museum too tame. Thus, this museum pulled out all of the stops in showing and describing blood and guts in great detail. Gory aspects of the Plague, various tortures, Jack the Ripper, imprisonment and capital punishment were all described in loving detail, with live actors and a few scary rides. A young man standing beside Jessie and I fainted. Right there beside us, he just passed out and fell on the floor. Now that's a terrifying tour.

Nick and Russ were enthusiastic about the tour from the start. Jessie was afraid that it would be scary, but then she warmed to the whole thing, and had fun with the semi-fake gore of it all. Even though it was a tourist trap, and an expensive one at that, the kids had fun.

From there we dashed to our boat ride, which had been included with our boat ride ticket. Though it was raining a bit, we had a very pleasant boat ride from the Tower of London to Big Ben. This tour guide as well gave an amusing patter the whole time.

Now it was supper time, and we were running a little late for our show. After a supper on the run - a Pasty, which is a pastry filled with meat and some veggies - we dashed to the Underground to get to the theatre. There were 2 quick Tube rides, and we emerged right in front of the venue.

We saw We Will Rock You, a musical featuring the music of Queen. The story line was pretty straightforward - something about the music of Queen being redisovered in the distant future, and the world being saved by it - but it was pretty much a showcase for large music and dance numbers around some great tunes.

It was loud, bombastic, over the top and fabulous. Of the four musicals we attended, I think this was my favorite. The music was wonderful. The stage and props were as huge and elaborate as we have seen. The dancing, singing and choreography were all creative and spectacular. They finished with Bohemian Rhapsody. The show was a blast that left us literally screaming for more.

That makes four spectacular London stage shows in 3 days. All great, all expensive.

That's it. After years of planning and saving and anticipating, its all done but for the Tube ride to Heathrow and the flight home. This evening we'll sleep in our own beds. It all seems kind of hard to believe.

It has been a great trip. When others used the term 'once in a lifetime' before we left, I was a little annoyed. This is but one trip, out of many we will take. But who knows. Maybe this has been a once in a lifetime expedition. The kids will never be this age again. We'll never approach this part of the world from the same point of view of again.

Sure it is time to go home. Three months is a long time to be gone, and we do have lives back in Alberta. The kids have been ready to go home for a week or two, but now I am ready too.

All the same, it is a little sad to be going. There is still much to see and so much to do.

So that's it.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251443260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251443260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251443260/tpod.html Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:08:44 -0400 European Expedition

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London, England, United Kingdom

After a good night's sleep, we were up and ready for another day of London.

This time we started with the British Museum.

We did not see nearly all of the Museum - that would take at least a week - and I don't have enough time to describe the things that we did see.

Briefly, here is the deal. The brits had this big empire for quite a long time. They used much of their power to steal stuff and lug the stuff back to England. They really liked historical artifacts. That is why we were looking at rooms full of original Egyptian statuary, Babylonian reliefs, Greek marble carvings (lots of those) and Roman artifacts of all kinds.

They just went to all of these places, took the best things they could find, and put them in the British Museum. There were even a couple of totem poles from BC, taken from the local aboriginals and now standing indoors in the British Museum.

At first I was a little outraged by all of this thievery. Why would the very best art from Iran, Iraq, or Italy not be in those countries? Then after a while it all seemed very logical and convenient. As pointed out in posted explanations, this saves one the trouble of having to go to Athens to see the best bits of the Parthenon, or some grungy museum in Baghdad to seen the earliest artifacts of civilization. The whole history of the world is right there, protected from the weather, nicely lit, and at eye level. It was an argument that started to grow on me after a while.

From the British Museum got on the Tube and made for the London Eye. After suprisingly little waiting we got on the giant Ferris wheel (137 metres they said) and had a look at London from above. The weather was perfect and we could see forever. Despite its great hieght, the ride was stable and not scary at all, even for someone as nervous about tall places as me. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the London Eye, pointing out various landmarks from way up high.

Then back into the Tube (which is just a wonderfully fast and convenient way to get around) and onward to Westminster Abbey. They were closed to tourists, but open for a short (free) service, so we became instant worshipers. The church is an interesting mixture of sacred and secular. Sure, it is a church, but it is also the official state church of England. Thus, there are kings and queens buried here, as well as lots of other prominent people. I had a look at the markers for David Livingstone and Sir Isaac Newton for instance.

During the prayer and Bible reading service, we prayed for the Queen and members of the Royal Family by name, as well as for the members of the Royal Order of the Bath, whatever that is. There was not much separation of church and state here.

After a little shopping - Russell wanted a T-shirt - we made our way to our next show, Wicked.

Wicked is the backstory of The Wizard of Oz. It centers on the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West, who turn out to be old friends.

It was another lively performance which we and the kids thoroughly enjoyed.

Tomorrow is our last day in London, and we plan to make the most of it.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251443152/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251443152/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251443152/tpod.html Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:07:08 -0400 European Expedition

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London, England, United Kingdom

Today was our first day in London.

Having abandoned Igor to his German fate, we are now in a London hotel. We chose the Baker's Hotel mainly for its combination of location (convenient - just a couple of minutes from Victoria Station) and price (cheap by London standards). For only a little more than a decent room in Edmonton, we got a tiny basement room, quite worn, not entirely clean, with a bathroom down the hall. Its on about the same level as the Commie on Whyte Ave in Edmonton, but without the blues bar in the basement. Its a lot better than the Hotel Parus in Berdjansk. The manager is friendly.

After breakfast, we got started with a walk along the Thames to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

It wasn't quite raining, and it was hard to believe that we were in London!

Near Big Ben, we chatted with some friendly construction workers, who explained, with surprising enthusiasm and pride, how to lay granite street paving blocks. In fact, Londoners have been extremely friendly. On at least 2 occasions, we were standing on a steet corner looking at a map, when total strangers came over and asked if they could help.

We worked our way up to Picadilly Circus and Nelson's Column.

The whole city seemed lively and full of excitement. Vehicle traffic, including lots of double-decker buses and black cabs clogged the streets, and pedestrians clogged the sidewalks.

Jessie started talking about how she planned to move to London and buy baby-blue motor scooter. During the course of the day she related quite an elaborate plan about how she would pursuade one of her friends to come with her, and get a job and a flat here. She's quite a planner.

We walked around Soho - sort of a grungy non-touristy area - a bit. Russell insisted that we needed to eat fish and chips in London, it being local food and all. This we did. It turns out that fish and chips are no healthier here than in Canada. They are just as greasy and battered and deep fried as the Canadian version. We polished off all of our huge servings, and felt a little queasy.

This being London we of course had to take in some theatre. This we commenced with a vengence.

Les Miserables was first. We took in the matinee. It was a fantastic, moving production. Back in Winnipeg, I got tickets almost a year ahead of time to see this musical. Here we got tickets a couple of hours beforehand.

The singing was great, and the acting better. However, with a running time of about 3 hours, we were running up against our next show. We do keep up a tight schedule!

After a bit of a bite on the run, and a walk down Regent Street, including a detour into the largest and most fantastic toy store I have ever seen, we got to our next show. Sister Act is based on the movie, and quite a new production.

It was big, bombastic, loud, fun, and very well done. The kids enjoyed it more than the sombre and thoughtful Les Miz. Aside from the energy and enthusiasm of the singing, I was particularly impressed by the sets. Things were flying through the air, rising out of the stage, swivelling this way and that. Sometimes I forgot that we were looking at actual objects,and not some sort of special effects.

The kids had a lot of fun with the rousing story of singing nuns, quoting choice lines on the way back to the Tube.

It was getting quite late by the time we got back to the Bakers House Hotel,and we all fell into bed
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251275417/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251275417/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251275417/tpod.html Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:32:02 -0400 European Expedition

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Geldern, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

I am writing this from inside the Eurostar train, inside the Channel Tunnel.

We have been travelling for most of the day. We got on the train early this afternoon in Geldern.

The journey seemed a little cursed right from the start.

Our first train was 10 minutes late arriving in Cologne. I was a little surprised, as I had been under the impression that the Deutsche Bahn always ran on time. We were still able to make our connection to the high-speed ICE train.

It was impressive enough, blitzing the Belgian countryside at 300 kph.

That kind of speed on a train was disconcerting. The ride was utterly smooth and quiet. The noise, vibration and engine howl that one associates with high speeds in cars were utterly absent. We were just sitting there, talking quietly while the countryside zipped by at 300 kilometres per hour. And what does that look like? It was almost like flying. Everything within maybe 50 metres of the train was just a green blur. Farm houses a kilometre away just zipped by. It was an awesome and exhillarating way to travel.

Unfortunately our speed was not great enough. We fell farther and farther behind schedule, until we arrived in Brussels 40 minutes late. We missed our connection to the Eurostar train that was to take us under the English Channel. Then, we got a bit of a run-around as to how to get on the the next train. This run-around in turn caused us to miss that train as well. Eventually we did get on the Eurostar 2 hours late.

The Eurostar likewise crossed the country at an effortless 300 kph from Brussels to the English Channel.

Then again, we were delayed.

About an hour into the trip, the train slowed and eventually came to a halt. There were were, parked in a dark tunnel under the ocean floor. It was a little disconcerting. Eventually the conductor came on the speaker system and said that our journey was delayed because of an incident on the train ahead of us. That would be the train that we had just missed. She came on the PA a few more times, saying that there was an "incident" on the train ahead of us. We'll have to investigate that tomorrow. Was it a mechanical problem? A drunk and unruly Spaniard? British electronics? A bearing supplied by Fiat? I have no idea.

After about half an hour of much-reduced speed and stopping, the train got back under way. After half an hour of moving, we still to be going slowly. Right after we started moving, it seemed to me that we switched to another track, making a slight S-curve movement, but I doubt that such a thing would be possible within the tunnel. Is there not just one track in each direction?

In any event, we do hope to make it to London eventually. At this rate it may take a while.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251275337/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251275337/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251275337/tpod.html Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:30:00 -0400 European Expedition

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Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Today was our last day with our motorhome Igor.

It was a beautiful sunny day.

We spent the morning at our campground, Haus Bergen on the banks of the Rhine. It is at kilometre 681 of the Rhine, as indicated on the riverside sign posts.

We all had mixed feelings about leaving the old beast behind. The kids in particular waxed all nostalgic about the old barge, wondering if we could take the motorhome back to Canada. We had spent a great summer with the Fiat, but maybe it was long enough.

It was early afternoon by the time we got under way. The raod to Geldern led directly past the grand old Cathedral that we had visited the day before.

After a bit of wrangling with the Navi - Steve the GPS seemed a bit confused - we were out of town. We steered clear of the Autobahn, preferring to putter through German towns at a civilized rate of speed on our last day with the motorhome.

We had a lunch of bread and cheese sitting on the curb in a Lidl parking lot. Maybe we really are still hicks from Alberta.

In Geldern we were enthusiastically greeted by Susan's German relatives. Jakob and Frida and Viktor and Lilli and the whole crew have been wonderfully warm, cheerful and endlessly helpful and generous to us throughout our journey. They showed no exception here, showering us with hospitality and warmth. Susan and I have been awed by their love and caring.

In the evening I fired up Igor one last time and Viktor and I took the motorhome back to the dealer, Willi Petkau. Willi likewise has been a wonderful guy to deal with. If you ever need to rent a motor home in Germany, may I recommend Willi Petkau of Petkau Wohnmobiles. Google him. He's on the Net.

Viktor and I had a 2 hour drive back to Geldern. In Viktor's 5-series BMW we proceeded about twice as fast as we had travelled in the previous 3 months. Viktor and I had a very pleasant talk, with his little boy Joel in humming happily to himself in the back seat. We covered the minefield topics of politics and religion, but without acrimony or argument. It was a good time.

Tomorrow we will get on the train and go to London.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251275181/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251275181/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251275181/tpod.html Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:27:42 -0400 European Expedition

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Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Today we visited Cologne.

I was here five years ago, the first and only European city that I visited at that time. I was curious whether my impressions would be any different, in light of all that we had seen in the last three months.

We took the bus and train downtown. The connections were very simple, though the trip was kind of slow, it being Sunday.

When we came out of the train station, the dark and forboding Cologne Cathedral loomed over us. The thing is so huge that it is scary. It fills your whole field of vision. The twin towers of the Gothic church are over 500 feet high. Bach in Winnipeg, I used to measure all tall things in terms of the tallest skyscraper in town, the 30-storey Richardson Building. The cologne Cathedral - which was started in 1268 - is a lot taller than the Richardson Building. There is no way to get far enough away from it to get a good picture. My first impression was still of the overwhelming stone bulk of the thing.

We went inside through a side door. Mass was about to start and tourists were barred, so we immediatly became worshipers, over Russell's objections. He was not so sure that Mass in German was his idea of a good time.

As it turned out, the MaSS Was wonderful. It all sounded so grand and mysterious, much more so than if the Mass had been conducted in English. The massive pipe organ (suspended from the ceiling, above our heads) (really) sounded great. There was incense and of course the Host. Mass was a great time to enjoy the echoing holy ambience of the church, in a way that you cannot do if there are just a lot of tourists wandering around. I had a chance to study the stained glass carefully. Admittedly, I did this while reading from Rick Steves, not the Book more regularly read in church. The stained glass ranged in age from 13th century to 19th century. Though it may not be so wonderfully old, I have to admit that I prefer the brighter and more lifelike depictions in the newer glass.

The interior vastness of the Cathedral was very nearly matched by its size inside. The thing is cavernous. While it looks black and aged from the outside, the interior is comparatively clean and bright looking. The interior vastness of these buildings was supposed to make mere humans feels small and insignificant. In this, the Cologne Cathedral succeeds. I felt like an ant skittering around on the floor of this huge building, with its 150 foot cieling. This is on purpose. It is supposed to put us humans in our place - feeling tiny in God's house. To me, the magnitude of this human achievment had exactly the opposite effect. I have renewed respect for those people from so long ago who achieved so much with so little. This church does not show man's insignificance before God. It shouts out a massive human accomplishment, built by men for men.

The interior furnishings were more streamlined and classy than some of the overly ornate Italian and Spanish cathedrals. It was restrained - but the stuff that was there was wonderful. Carved crucifixes from the 10th century. Paintings of the Virgin Mary from only a couple of hundred years after that. A grave of a generous donor from the 1300's. The actual skulls of the Three Wise Men (complete with crowns) are apparently kept in the giant gold box behind the altar. The bones were apparently bought by the local count in the 12th century, and the Cathedral built around them. Though we saw the fancy gold and jewel encrusted box, we were not allowed to see the bones.

What a fabulous church. If you were going to see three Gothic cathedrals in Europe (and who doesn't?) I would say check out Chartres, St. Peter's at the Vatican, and the Cologne Cathedral.

After Mass and gawking around the interior, we went for lunch down by the Rhine. I enjoyed the river traffic, and the rail traffic over the busiest rail bridge in Europe. That's right - 30 trains an hour, all the time. The kids teased me about my fascination with traffic watching. They suggested that I will become an old guy with a clip board and check list, trainspotting, aircraft spotting, and probably boat spotting. Sounds reasonable to me. We saw all manner of barge traffic and quite a few passenger boats on the Rhine. I was surprised at the number of bulk coal carriers, but there was lots of container traffic as well. The busy train bridge did not disappoint, with lots of local electric trains, as well as high speed German ICE units.

From there, we walked along the river to the Chocolate Museum. The Chocolate Museum is a modern high tech museum that features earnest dissertations on the history and biology of the Cocoa bean with the practical uses of chocolate. We learned a lot. I did not know that the cocoa bean can only be grown in very specific locations found only near the equator.

Another thing that I did not know was that in Europe chocolate was used only for hot drinks until late in the 19th century. Then, some guy named Lindt figured out a way to make chocolate bars. Who knew.

The museum included an actual working chocolate factory, in miniature. With the help of an industrial robot and several earnest workers, the little production line started with raw cocoa and ended with neatly wrapped chocolates, that we could then sample. The kids enjoyed this very much, though they thought that the free samples could have been more plentiful. There were non-free samples thoughtfully provided in the extensive gift shop.

After an ice cream (fair payment for the cathedral visit of the morning) we headed back to the Cathedral. We had not climbed the tower, and needed to do that forthwith. And so we climbed the spiral staircase to the top. We have climed a lot lot of towers on our trip. There was the Eiffel Tower, though that was mostly by elevator. There were towers in Brugges, Chartres, Madrid, Florence, Sienna, and a few others. This was the tallest of all of them all - 97 meters, 509 steps. It was more or less one spiral staircase all the way to the top, with only one place to rest.

I am not usually nervous about these things, but the cathedral tower made me pretty queasy. At one point, we climbed up a set of metal stairs up to the cieling of a room that must have been 10 storeys high. I started wondering about how stone piled up this high manages to stay vertical. Was 13th century engineering all that trustworthy?

In any event we got to the top and the view was fantastic. It seemed that we could see all of Cologne. We were looking down vertically on the vast soaring church we had admired from below. And still the stone spires shot up from us, yet higher in to the sky. How high was this thing anyway?

It was awe inspiring and left me searching for superlatives. Language fails.

Soon enough it was time to climb back down the spiral stairs. I had wanted to see the 26-tonne bell mounted in one of the towers. but it was closed by that time. Maybe next time.

We were getting a little tired. After a bit of souvenier shopping, we got back on the train back to the camper.

This is our last night in this camper. Tomorrow we drop it off in Geldern before taking the train to London.







]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251274942/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251274942/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1251274942/tpod.html Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:24:35 -0400 European Expedition

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Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Today we drove from Bacharach toward Luxembourg.

We started off from Bacharach, and set off toward our first destination, the castle of Burg Elz.

We away from the Rhine, and crossed some hills (testing the motorhome's hill climbing and cooling ability), arriving at the Mosel River. From there we lumbered back up the hill, and arrived at Burg Elz.

Burg Elz is a fortified castle which was - and still is - owned by three wealthy families. It has been in the same family since the 13th century. The castle has never been taken by attackers, though it did once survive a 5-year siege.

Burg Elz is unique in that it is all original, including the interior furnishings. Other castles were occasionally conquered, demolished, looted, and rebuilt. Burg Elz has simply stood there, with its original furnishing, and with its original families, for over 700 years.

While the owners of other castles depended on great walls and commanding views for defence, the Elz families had different strategies: great diplomacy, strategic marriages, lack of scruples, and good luck. For example, during the Napoleanic wars, in the early 19th century, most of the castles along the Rhine were blown up. The greatest castles in the Rhine and Mosel valleys were destroyed, blown to bits by the all-conquering general. Little, poorly defended Burg Elz stood tall, utterly undisturbed. And why was that? It happened that the commander of Napoleons's army in the area was none other than the current of Baron of Elz. Those guys were not principled.

They were also good friends of the all-powerful Habsburgs, which was convenient. They must also have had the advantage of undiscerning offspring, allowing them to marry all manner of ugly, fat, stupid and otherwise deficient royal children from noble families. Much of their diplomacy depended on strategic marriages.

So that is why the castle still stood, as constructed and furnished 800 years ago.

The tour of the castle was in English, and quite well done. This was not Neuschwanstein, so we had to wait a bit and lobby a bit for our English tour. Eventually we go underway. Our tour guide was a bit of a strange fellow. He seemed extremely knowlegable, but he had his quirks. He was Dutch, and was eager to show his pride in his home and native land at every opportunity. He was also eager to show off his ability with languages, comparing the German, Dutch, Latin, French and English terms for whatever came up. It was a little humiliating for us monoglots.


The castle now stood exactly as it has been in about 1400. This included the original paintings on the walls and cielings, and much of the original furniture.

The Burg Elz castle is basically three fortified homes, owned by three noble families, protected by one common stone fortification.

This may have been the only castle in which we saw 14th and 15th century furnishings, still in place after all these years.

We also got to see the knicknacks collected by these wealthy families over hundreds of years. There were 600 year old crossbows, old crockery, lots of old guns (these guys have loved to hunt for the last 600 years or so) and snuff boxes galore. Its one thing to be a packrat for 20 or 30 years - but if you can keep it up for 5 or 600 years, you can really take it to the next level. That is why they had 500 year old crossbows, lots of pistols from the 1700's, and jewellry from the 16th century.

The most impressive thing about Burg Elz were its rooms, decorated and furnished as they had been for the last 700 years or so. This castle looked more comfortable and livable than many other old castles that we have seen. I mean these people installed toilets, 20 of them, in their rooms. They had lots of fireplaces to keep the place warm in winter. The Elz family may have been a little short of Versailles-style ceremonial rooms, but they had a place that one might actually care to live in.

After we were done with the Burg Elz tour, we got back on the road, headed toward Luxembourg. We had thought about seeing Trier, the old German city with a Roman history, but then we decided to see Luxembourg instead. Luxembourg is the largest western European country that we have not visited, so we decided to go see what it looks like. If we catch this little country, we will have visited every country in western Europe, except for Andorra and San Marino.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1250847669/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1250847669/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1250847669/tpod.html Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:42:28 -0400 European Expedition

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

This morning we took a boat trip down the Rhine, from Bacharach to Koblenz and back.

It was a beautiful sunny day, again.

Though the kids are getting pretty tired of sight-seeing, they seemed to be OK with a day on the boat. We brought lots of food, treats, books and games, so as to ensure a high morale.

These boat trips are very popular, and it soon became apparant why. The Rhine runs at the bottom of a steep-sided valley at this point. Both banks are green and lush, with vineyards climbing hight up on the hills much of the time.

Dotted along the river are long narrow villages, such as Bacharach and St. Goar. These appear to be made mostly of half-timbered buildings with abudant window flowerboxes. Many of them are now hotels. These villages are without exeption neat, well tended and photogenic.

As if all of that is not enough, there are the castles. There are dozens of ancient castles and ruins of castles up on the hillsides. Many of them date from the 1200's, when this area was experiencing a lot of turmoil. Many of these are so-called robber barron castles, operated by minor nobles who extracted tolls from merchant ships that passed by on the river.

The final form of river entertainment was the traffic. The Rhine is a very busy place. There were othe tour boats, including day trip boats like ours, and long narrow floating hotels. However, most of the river traffic consisted of cargo boats. These are quite interesting. Many of them are apparently operated by owner-operators, a bit like highway trucks in Canada. Thus, the family will usually live right on the boat. On many of these boats we saw evidence of daily life - laundry flying on the lines, play structures, slides and kiddie pools out back, and bicycles for everyone, all lined up. These home office type boats invariably had the family car or minivan (often two) battened down on the deck, ready to be deposited by crane on the dock. We often saw Dad in the wheelhouse, dressed only in swim trunks, waving at his fellow sea captains on the Rhine. It looked like an enjoyable way to make a living.

We stopped at many small ports along the way. One source of entertainment was the embarcation procedure at these smaller stops. The captain would pull the ship up to the dock, and then use a sort of joystick console on the side of the ship to place the vessel exactly where the gangplank could be placed. He did this in a stiff current, with white water all around. Then, two crew members would leap out of the boat, and throw down the gang plank. The engines were roaring, and the boat was not moored to the dock in any way - it was just the captain, with his joystick, operating the side thrusters to keep his 200 foot vessel in exactly the right position. The crew members would rush the passengers on and off the ship in these unstable conditions, throw the gangplank back on the dock, and then leap accross the widening gap back to the ship, which was already leaving. It looked like a dance that had been practiced many times, and left no room for error.

At Koblenz, we disenbarked briefly to look at the Deutsche Eck, the confluence of the Rhine and the Mosel rivers. It displayed a giant memorial statue to Kaiser Wilhelm. It featured a giant mounted statue of Wilhelm Der Gross. I know that the statue to Emmanuel II in Rome is supposed to be the largest mounted equestrian statue on Earth, but I doubt that it has anything on this one. The Kaiser Wilhelm statue is overwhelmingly huge. In addition, it sits on a giant base that can only be described as Stalinesque. The whole thing overlooks a spit of land that has been sculpted into the shape of the prow of a giant ship, pointing out into the Rhine. When we went up on the monument, the effect is that were were standing on the bow of a giant stone ship, with the great Kaiser towering above us. Deutschland Ubber Alles indeed.

We returned back up the Rhine by the same route. It was equally wonderful on the way back.

On our return to Bacharach, we sent the kids back to the campground to go swimming. It was getting late and we wanted them to get their swim in.

Susan and I went into Bacharach to see what it was about.

It was a beautiful little town of old houses, few of which were plumb or square. They were half-timbered and wonderful looking, but it did not seem that the passage of time had allowed them to remain perfectly vertical. Towers leaned a little, and doors and floors were not quite in line. We saw one old building from the 1360's, stil used as a restaurant. It sat on the main square, looking exactly what I would have thought medieval Germany ought to look like. It even featured 14th century glass windows, from the days before window pane technology had been invented. The windows were made of dozens of small round pieces of glass, which was the best that glass blowers could do at the time.

We had a look at a church that had its beginnings before 1200, and climbed past the ruins of another church of similar vintage. Then we climbed up to the ruins of a medieval castle which has since been turned into a youth hostel. There were dozens of young people, running around, being rowdy, in this fine youth hostel constructed in the ruins of a thousand year old castle.

Susan and I headed back down, as we were later than we had told the kids. We were hot and sweaty after our walk, and we dove into the cool and refreshing Rhine for a bit of a swim. Nick and Jessie jumped in too. Russell declined, probably wisely in view of the cocktail of heavy metals, dioxins, pesticides and herbicides that were probably present. I should take a shower now.




]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1250847581/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1250847581/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/albertabrandts/2/1250847581/tpod.html Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:40:51 -0400 European Expedition

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Today we drove from Miltenberg to Bacharach.

It was a beautiful warm day, hot even.

To our surprise, it grew steadily warmer as we drove North.

The Rhine Valley, when we drove into it, was warm and green. It turns out that the Rhine Valley is wine country. The hillsides were all planted in grape vines. We marvelled at how even the steepest hillsides - sometimes more cliff than field - were being farmed.

We found a campsite in a rather crowded campground right on the bank of the Rhine. Campgrounds here in Europe have ranged from roomy to very crowded. This campground is toward the very crowded end of the spectrum.

This campground even has a sort of beach on the Rhine. This river runs through Germany's industrial heartland, so I'm not really sure that it is such a good idea to swim in it.

Camping beside the Rhine is an interesting experience, though not a quiet one. First there is the barge traffic. There is a lot of it, and the deep throbbing of the marine engines is quite loud. Then there are the trains. When a big frieght blows by on the far bank, you have to speak loundly to be heard over it. The trains go all night. Then there is the train right behind us, on our bank. When a train goes there, all conversation ceases. In addition, there are highways on both sides of the river. Big trucks howl by, maybe 10 metres away, just on the other side of the bushes. The traffic is pretty steady. So Kananaskis it is not.

On the other hand, the campground has excellent boat and train connections. The fast-train terminal is about a 10-minute walk down the road in Bacharach. The boat terminal is closer, just on the other side of the soccer field. You could be in any European capital in a few hours. You can't do that from Spray Lakes Provincial Park.

Tomorrow we plan to take the boat to Koblenz and back.
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