Rotterdam and Berlin

It's Kyle again, doing work on the blog.  When we last left you, we had spent a couple nights in Amsterdam.  We spent a total of 5 nights there, and while we had fun, we've decided that 3 nights in a new country is the magic number for us, at least on this trip.  So that's our plan from here on out, 3 nights in each new place we visit.  Then we should have a good idea of the places that we would like to go to again, and hopefully when our time is over in Sheffield we can afford another trip, in which we'll just go to a few cities and live a little higher on the hog than this time.  Then we can spoil ourselves with such luxuries as doing laundry and not sharing a room with 8 other people.
We spent most of our time in Amsterdam just wandering the streets and taking in the sights.  We covered some more ground on our "hey look, I'm a tourist!" rental bicycles and got more accustomed to the aggressive riding style of the locals.  We did notice that while the local cyclists will just ride out into an intersection on a red light to avoid stopping, they are kind of weenies when it comes to anything resembling a hill.  We were getting used to being passed most of the time in the bike lanes, but were often caught behind people struggling up a slight grade on a canal crossing.  All of our cycling in Portland on single speed bikes (we live at the base of a decent sized hill, so we're always going uphill to get somewhere via bicycle) paid off, I guess.  We were hit with some bad weather, so Jillian decided to go to the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum (sp?) and I, being the cheap bastard that I am, didn't want to pay the entry fees so spent my time wandering the streets.  The original plan was to see a movie, but due to my inability to decipher a Dutch cinema website, I got there too late and just walked the streets instead.  It would have been good fun, but it started raining, then got progressively worse until I gave up and headed back to the hostel to dry out.  Packing lightly by only bringing one pair of pants is not advantageous in this situation, so I hung out in the hostel pantsless for a while until Jillian returned from her Museum adventures.  We then saw a movie (seems lame to do while traveling in Europe, but it was quite nice.  Plus you can get beer at the concession stand, which was cool) and took a trip to the Torture Museum.  It sounded quite promising, but didn't quite deliver considering the steep (for us) admission price.  It did make me glad to not be around during the Spanish Inquisition, though, those religious fanatics don't mess around!  The next day, we splurged on a cheese tasting session at a local cheese shop, which was definitely worth it.  We had some cheese that was aged for 2 and-a-half years, and while it's a little bit older than most of the dairy products I consume, it was delicious.  I'm pretty sure the only souvenir we got from Amsterdam was cheese.  We saw another movie that night (the rain had returned), then packed up in the morning and headed to Rotterdam.
Right as we arrived in Amsterdam, I realized that I actually know someone who lives in The Netherlands.  A couple years back, I was attending a bachelor party for a friend (strictly a black tie affair, of course) and met his cousin Tuan, who lived in Rotterdam.  Rotterdam is about 45min away from Amsterdam via train, and is a much more modern and less crammed city, due to most of it being destroyed during WW2 and rebuilt afterwards.  It is now home to a major shipping port, formerly the biggest in the world until China one-upped them.  So after leaving Amsterdam, we took a train to Rotterdam and met up with Tuan.  He graciously had cleared his schedule so he could take us around the city and show us around, and we shamelessly accepted his offer.  We had a great time, and toured the city for several hours.  I had some Turkish food for the first time, which was delicious, and the restaurant had a gluten-free menu available, so Jillian was able to find a meal.  I think we will be planning another trip to Rotterdam in the not-too-distant future, we really enjoyed it.  After our day in Rotterdam, we boarded a night bus headed for Berlin.
We had a pretty smooth trip to Berlin, the only hiccup was some sort of Dutch/German roadblock that diverted a bunch of people (including our bus) off the freeway and into a fuel station to search their cars.  I never figured out what they were looking for, but luckily they didn't find it necessary to search our bus (good thing as I was smuggling a lot of contraband, as usual)  and we were on our way.  Upon arrival in Berlin, we found it a fairly straightforward procedure to get tickets for the local train (impressive, as everything was in German and people seem a bit less able/willing to speak English than in the Netherlands) and get to our Hostel.  We were quite early, so we dropped our bags and headed out in search of breakfast.  This will be a challenging place for us to find Gluten-free food, as everything is quite glutenous (and delicious for me), but we will figure it out as always.  Jillian enjoyed a bockwurst for breakfast, and I had a couple of giant pastries.  We then got some sleep (sleeping on a bus is somehow not all that restful) and are now enjoying happy hour in the in-hostel bar (it's so cheap!) and getting our internet on.  So that brings you all up to speed on our travels, more to come once we hit the town.  Now for the part everyone skips to, pictures!

Our rental bikes.

Mmmm, cheese.  The ages of the cheese ranged from a few weeks to 2.5 years, and it was all delicious.

Today was a good day.  That is a 1L can of beer, we saw a bottle of Rogue Mocha Porter in the shop where we bought it.

funny signpost in a park in Amsterdam

3 passenger bicycle.  These were a common sight.

the place where we rented our bikes. 

never trust a garden gnome piloting a bicycle.  Cargo bikes similar to this are pretty common.

cool building, now a hostel.

Us in the middle of the cubist hostel

Cool fountain in the middle of a Rotterdam roundabout.  When the World Cup was going on, a bunch of people jumped in the fountain when The Netherlands made it into the finals.

Controversial statue in Rotterdam.  Interesting note:  the controversy is not over the statue itself, but the price that the city paid for it. 

Us sitting under the Santa Claus statue

The view from the train station.  You are supposed to be able to move the lights around from a control panel, but it wasn't working when we were there.

The newest bridge in Rotterdam, with some idiots standing in front of it.

Tuan and me in front of said bridge.

The Germans have some pretty tough gasoline!

   
 

Brussels and Amsterdam! 13-9-10

Hello, this is Kyle filling in for blog-writing duties.  It's been a while since we've updated the blog, mainly due to a lack of reliable internet connections since we left Sheffield.  We are currently in Amsterdam, and our hostel (which advertised free Wi-Fi) has no internet, so we're sitting in a cafe (no, not a coffee shop!) and getting our internet fix.

  Last we left you, we were in London.  Since then we traveled to Brussels and stayed there for 2 nights.  I can sum up my impression of Belgium in 3 words:  waffles, fries, and beer.  There is obviously much more to the country, but we were not there long, and because of the language barrier (they speak both French and Flemish, though many people spoke English), we didn't travel too far from the city center where we were staying.  It was obviously quite tourism-driven, so there were lots of places to get fries, mussels, waffles, chocolate, and beer.  All of which was quite good (though I take Jillian's word for it on the mussels, they're not really my thing).  We spent most of our time wandering the streets, which seem to have been laid out during an especially drunken city planning meeting as they made no discernible sense to us Americans, eating fries and waffles (only me for the waffles, we didn't find any gluten-free alternatives), and drinking beer (again, just me).  We did splurge one day on a nice lunch; I had a giant filet mignon with frites (fries), and Jillian had a humongous bucket of garlic mussels and frites.  I had a Duvel beer, which was very nice.
  After our gluttony in Brussels, we boarded a bus headed for Amsterdam.  It was a Eurolines bus, and the urine-scented stairway leading towards the ticket counter was a fitting omen for the journey to come.  We boarded and left pretty much on schedule, then stopped in Antwerp for the bus to let off some people.  However, the driver and his co-driver did not speak any English, and some Chinese passengers (who could speak English but not Flemish) didn't recognise the stop being called and stayed on the bus.  We ended up making an unscheduled stop in Rotterdam to let them off so they could catch a bus back to Rotterdam.  At least I think that's what happened, as all of this took place in a language I don't even come close to understanding.  Once back on the motorway, we soon hit some American-style traffic, bumper to bumper and barely moving.  Thanks to some generous usage of the shoulder and exit lanes by our bus drivers, we covered some ground and finally started moving again, only arriving 2 hours later than scheduled.
  Upon arrival in Amsterdam, we got our bearings and headed out towards our hostel, a 2+ mile journey by foot.  We used this opportunity to burn off a bit of the metric ton of fries we had consumed in days previous, and enjoyed the walk.  The first thing I was struck by was the sheer number of bicycles in this city.  The highest elevation in the city is a hair over 1 meter, and most of the city is below sea level.  So it is very flat, and therefore very conducive to bicycle travel.  Hence, there are more bicycles than residents in the city.  It seems like if you lose the key to your lock, or you get a flat tire, or maybe you're just tired of your bike's paint scheme, you abandon it to the post it's chained to and get another one.  There are hundreds of bikes lining the sidewalks, and many obviously haven't moved in quite a while.  There are bicycle lanes everywhere, and the bikes clearly rule the streets here.  It's pretty cool.  After settling into our hostel, we hit the town.  It was a Saturday night, and the city center was packed.  We spent the night roaming the streets and taking in the sights, stopping only for alcoholic refreshment.  The next day, we took advantage of a free walking tour of the city.  For 3 hours we toured the streets and picked up some interesting tidbits about the city's history.  We then decided to rent some bicycles, and soon found out that trying to navigate the streets via bicycle is a whole different animal than walking.  I promptly got us lost, then spent some time trying to find where we were on a map so we could get back.  We eventually succeeded, then rewarded ourselves with a nap before hitting the town once again.  We decided to go check out the Red Light District, so spent some time roaming the streets and "window shopping".  It's an interesting place, but not one I see us frequenting for the rest of our time here.  I have been very impressed by the fact that almost everyone here can speak English, including the junkies who can yell at you in perfect English for not giving them any money.  Today has been a relatively quiet day, including such activities as doing laundry and going to the post office.  We still have a few more days here, so who knows what's in store next!  Stay tuned for another exciting episode!

Some bar had a stage set up in the middle of the street playing live music.

cannibalistic fry statue

Mannequin Pis statue, famous in Brussels for some reason.

The Grand Place in the city center. 

me eating a chocolate-covered waffle.  I'm pretty sure they put meth in these so you come back for more.

London

Hello Everyone!

I'm in our hostel in London and have exactly 6 minutes left on my internet card to send a very quick update.  We got to London on Tuesday evening and we've been having a really great time!  Here are the highlights:

-Hostel is right in the center of town near a lot of cool things.
-We had a great meal in a pub on Tuesday night, followed by wandering all over town and capturing great views of the Thames River, the London Eye, Westminster Abby, and more.
-We spent HOURS in the British Museum on Wednesday; easily one of my favorite museums ever.  Such great stuff! 
-We saw the show "39 Steps" on Wednesday night after wandering around Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, which was great.
-We're wandering to the London Bridge this morning before our afternoon train to Brussels.

We're having a super great time, and we'll put some pictures up when we can get the laptop online; the wifi here at the hostel apparently wasn't playing nice with the laptop and couldn't connect.  Hope you are all well!

Lots of love from London from Jillian & Kyle!

Monday September 6th-Travel Plans!

Hello Family, Friends, and any strangers peeping in on our blog!

So, our Travel Adventures are taking shape.  In fact, we're leaving tomorrow!  I had mentioned before that we were starting to make plans and sometimes (all the time) when I start planning, I just can't stop.  Kyle is very patient and supports my manic planning, but it I think it will all be worth it.  In fact, last time I got us well-planned for an event we ended up married, and that's been going well so far!

OK, let's get serious.  Here are our potential destinations:
-London
-Brussels (you talked us into it, Rachel!)
-Amsterdam
-Berlin
-Prague
-Munich
-Salzburg
-Venice
-Rome

I say that the destinations are potential because we've only booked transport and lodging through Amsterdam.  There are a few factors contributing to our hesitation to plan further.  For example, it hadn't occured to me when I laid out this schedule that Oktoberfest will be happening this month in Munich.  In fact, it starts the week before we had planned to be there.  Naturally, we were totally stoked (cross your fingers for gluten-free beer!), and, just as naturally, there is not a damn place to stay.  Kyle is trying to get us booked into a campsite that shuttles drunk people, I mean guests, to and from Oktoberfest, so we're just waiting to hear back from them.  Until we know when we have accomodations for Oktoberfest, we're not scheduling any more cities since we'll likely have to be pretty flexible with our plans.  Bottom line: we'll sleep in some ditches if we must, but we're going to Oktoberfest! 

The other complicating factor regarding planning is actually a nice one: we want to be flexible!  We have the gift of time, as well as the gift of the internet, so we want to be free to deviate from our potential schedule if we find there's a city we want to spend more time in, or perhaps a city that we can't wait to leave.  Those of you who know how comforted I am by plans and by knowing what is happening next (no, not a control freak; an admirer of control) may be surprised by this seemingly unstructured schedule.  But, I'm challenging myself to go with the flow and to have true adventures with Kyle! 

You will notice that there are many places not on our list of destinations.  For example, we're not planning to go to France this time around.  Nor have we included Sweden (need to say hi Monika!) or Finland (gluten-free capitol of the world!), or anywhere in Eastern Europe.  That is because we do hope to do more traveling once we are done preparing my grandparent's house to sell.  We're aiming for April to do some other big trips, but of course our bank account will help to confirm if that's feasible!

You may be wondering why we're taking off so fast since we've barely been in England for two weeks.  The reason is so I can be back in town to start my job here in Sheffield on October 4th.  Yay, an income!  We wanted to get in as much as we could while the weather was favorable and we had a lot of free time, so we're going for it!

And don't worry, you'll hear plenty of babble from me via this wonky blog (and maybe even from Kyle if the spirit moves him!) and my Facebook account.  We hope you are all very well; lots of love from Sheffield.

P.S.  Sorry, no pictures to share.  You must be crushed. 

Thursday September 2--THE HOUSE!

Greetings to you all! 

We've had a few questions about the house here in Sheffield, so I thought I'd tell you about it and show you some pictures.  My grandparents bought this house in 1973, and we think the house was built in the '50s or '60s.  The bottom floor has one bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, large office/study, two large kitchen pantries, Grandpa's workshop, and the laundry room.  The large study, one of the pantries, the workshop, and the laundry room are actually part of an extension that my grandparents built onto the house; he was so clever.  Upstairs there is one bathroom (it's all purple!), two guest bedrooms, Grandma's boudoir, and the master bedroom, which holds another bathroom in it. 

Outside, there is a large backyard, which holds a large lawn, lots of different kinds of plants, raspberry and blackberry bushes, in addition to two apple trees.  The front yard also contains lawn, large trees and bushes, many rose bushes, and some other flowering plants.  The gardens were important to my grandparents and they spent hours and hours maintaining this part of their home.  Finally, there is a two-car garage. 

When my grandparents were alive, they spent most of their time in the gardens, in the living room, in the kitchen (primarily Grandma in the kitchen, unless they were doing dishes together), and in the study.  I like to picture my grandparents in the study: they corresponded with many people via letter, which was done by hand at one of the office desks until Grandma got a word processor.  In the late '90s, they got a fax machine, which they would use to stay in touch with us in the states.  Finally, they purchased a computer and arranged for internet access in order to correspond with us by e-mail.  Indeed, the study holds many memories and artifacts from decades of different forms of communication. 

Since we've been here, we've tried to do as much on the house as we can, seeing as our primary job in Sheffield is to clear out the items we don't need, identify what can be donated, and then organize the rest for my mom and aunt to review when they visit in October.  As you can tell, it's a large house, so there's a lot to go through!  We have definitely found some interesting items, including documents and correspondences dating back to the late 1800s, coins from all over the world, which also date back as far as the late 1800s, and some very cool pictures of family throughout many generations.  It's been wild to go through a lot of these things as it's a valuable time to learn more about my family and our history. 

Anyways, enough babble, here are some pictures!

A view of the house from the front.

The infamous purple bathroom!

My haul from the bushes in the back; definitely the last of the season though.  : (

Some more of the flamboyant carpet in the house, which you all seemed so fond of!

One of my favorite series of pictures in the house on the window sill in the dining room.  Wedding pictures from four generations: my great-grandparents, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, my parents, and Kyle and me. 

Just have to show this one of my great-grandparents; I love it!

And, must show Grandpa and Grandma at their wedding in 1942.  It was wartime, so no elaborate outfits; just simple and tasteful--like Grandma and Grandpa!

View of the street from the driveway looking right.

View of the street from the driveway looking left.

Mom in 1973.  Another of my absolute favorites among the pictures in the house.

Some vintage sardines that were hiding in the kitchen pantry.

Another of my favorite series of pictures in the house: Grandma's Parisian paintings in the boudior, bookended by pictures of John and I as tinies. 

#1: Moulin Rouge

#2 Notre Dame

#3 Eiffel Tower

More later--love to all from Sheffield!