Our boat pulled into Santorini around 9 in the morning. We got off and had to plan, no place to stay, only the plan to go to an internet café. There were a couple people who talked to us when we got off trying to get us to come stay at their places, but we had our minds set on checking things online and I’d previously seen a place that was really really really cheap. So we went to the café and each had the most expensive but worst Greek coffee we’ve ever had and got on the computer. An hour later we had no more of a plan and our internet we’d paid for was done. We left the café to see that the port was deserted. Apparently people come when the boat comes and leaves when the boat leaves. We wandered back to the gate and there were a couple men there we asked about a bus. They said the bus would come at 3pm when the next ferry arrived. Well if we’d have been thinking we would have taken the bus when our ferry arrived just to get us up to a town. He was nice enough though to call the place we’d decided to stay on his cell phone to come pick us up. The place we decided on was the woman who’d been there that morning and a place Ryan had thought looked good online, but the main thing was that they offered to pick us up for free at the port.
In 10 minutes they were there picking us up and in the same amount of time we were being showed to our room. The “Villa” as it was called was a nice place but you could feel the off season with how quiet everything was. Their pool was still full here so at least we didn’t have an empty pool as an eye sore. Our room accommodated four but we remained the only 2 in it the whole time we were there. We had a bathroom attached to the room, a fridge, and a balcony. It was a nice place with a partial view of the water and it was clean, so I’m not complaining.
After relaxing awhile in the room and using the wireless Internet we were thankful to have we started walking in the direction they told us was the town. We were probably about a 20 minute walk from the town of Fira the capital of the island. We walked around for a long time past many hotels that looked closed up for the winter months completely. The island really did feel deserted.
We’d been walking for awhile when we saw a moped and four-wheeler rental shop that was open. So we stopped to ask about prices. We told them we’d think about it but about 5 minutes further down the road we decided if we were going to rent on, and we wanted to, we might as well do it then because they said we could have the remainder of that day free. So we headed back and rented a moped to be our form of transportation. I’m so glad we did because we were able to see every part of the island and on our own time schedule. As soon as we signed the rental agreement we took a spin before it got dark. Then we stopped at the grocery on the road right above our Villa to get things for dinner. We have done a very good job of saving money where we can by not eating out every meal… or really hardly eating out at all. We purchased enough food to satisfy several dinners and breakfasts.
Back at the Villa we opened up our cans of food for dinner. We had fava beans in a red sauce and tuna. When I chose the tuna at the store I thought it was just a can of tuna with a serving suggestion picture on the table, but as it turned out the picture was actually what was in the can. It was some sort of sauce with tuna, green olives, mushrooms, and capers. Not bad, but very interesting and a surprise when I opened the can. And we had some bread we’d bought at the grocery the day before.
The rest of the night was just spent in the room each of us on our computers (I was posting lots of new things on my blog) and then we watched a movie before we tucked ourselves in for bed.
The next morning was more like afternoon by the time we left. I feel like we’d quickly adjusted to “island time” where everything is much more relaxed and you don’t really do much. We set off on our awesome red moped to see the island. Santorini is known for their wine and us being us we knew this meant we’d need to find some to try. Along the road we came to a winery that was under a bakery. As we parked an older woman came down to the door and ushered us in behind her. There were barrels all around us and we asked if they did wine tasting. She didn’t speak any English but she understood what we wanted enough to pour a taste of wine into a tiny little wine glass straight out of a barrel. This was a Vinsanto, a dessert wine that is the most famous in Santorini. Then she let us taste a white, also straight out of the barrel. We liked both, so we got a bottle of both. She filled them right in front of us and corked them herself. We were very excited with our purchase and off we went again on the moped.
We headed to the each side of the island where there is supposed to be the best beaches. We found the 7km long beach that has very dark almost black sand. We walked along it for a bit taking pictures and then drove on to find the red beach. We stopped at a bakery on the way to get some spanikopita and baklava to eat at the beach for lunch.
We arrived at the parking area for the red beach and had to walk on a rocky path not to far and we were able to see the red beach beneath us. The rock and the sand were very red. It was beautiful. I don’t know exactly why it is so red. The whole island was a result of a volcano and of course there is science and history to go along with all of it but I haven’t taken the time to read about it, so feel free to google away if you feel so inclined. We didn’t climb down to the beach we just sat up on the rocks we were at to enjoy our food and the view over the water.
Then back to the bike. We were off to find Lover’s Beach which was on the map next to red beach. But the roads here are not simple. And the terrain is no simple either, so to get to a beach right next to the one you are at it means you have to get back to the main road and then take one turn and then another. To get to this beach we ended up on a pretty long dirty road. When a truck drove by us on the moped the driver was laughing. But it was worth it when we got there. The beach was all by itself. There wasn’t anyone else there. The only building was a very closed up restaurant and bar. It was perfect to just walk along the sand and splash in the water washing onto shore and look back at the only two sets of footprints being out own. We even decided to get in the water since we wore our bathing suits just in case. I could have endured it longer, but Ryan had “certain areas” telling him the water was too cold. So we got out pretty fast.
After we dried off and walked back to the moped we zipped back up the dirt road and headed off to try and find white beach. The island has black, white, and red beaches… not bad for such a small island. We did not find white beach though. We ended up on the southern most tip of the island where there is a lighthouse. We got off the bike and walked out on the rocks there a bit, but then decided to head back for the night before it was too dark and because we were both dressed for summer even though it is still winter in Greece and the nights get pretty chilly.
This night was just like the night before. We had the same dinner of canned goods except we added a can of green beans in a sauce. :) We really kicked it up a notch. We watched another movie and spent yet more hours on the Internet until eventually we were again ready to get some rest for another day.
This trip I think has been the most low key we’ve ever had, at least for this amount of time. I think it is good for me to have so much down town every once in awhile, but it has been sort of hard to get used to. I keep feeling like we should be doing more or seeing more, but if I didn’t have some time to rest I might eventually combust. I’ve been feeling pretty tired lately with our travels and I think I’ve also been on a bit of a short string sometimes, so I hope when we do go home to Germany that I feel somewhat recovered from the constant go-go-go. Although, I’ll probably be back to that mentality in no time.
The next morning we had another delicious “homemade” breakfast of baby pears, plums, bread with nutella, orange juice, and green tea. I think we were doing a good job with our meals even though we didn’t have a kitchen only a fridge, sink, and an electric kettle.
When we set out for the day we wanted to find a few more wineries today. We’d found another the day before but they charged A LOT to taste their wines, so we opted away from that. Today the first spot we came to was a winery with wine museum. We paid the small entrance fee and walked through the museum with our audio guides. It was sort of interesting although not the best exhibit I’ve ever been too. The most unique thing about wines here is the way the vines are grown. Instead of standing up and having the vines wrapped around wires and string the trunk of the vine as it grows out of the ground is wrapped and woven into a basket. It is a circle on the ground and actually looks like a nest at this time of year when there are no leaves. They do this because of the strong winds so that the fruit stays protected. They make sure the grapes grow to the inside of the nest so that the wind can’t harm them. It definitely changed the appearance of the vineyard, which are also much smaller than you ever seen at home.
At the end of the exhibit we got to try three wines. We liked them but they were pretty expensive and so we didn’t buy any.
Not too far down the road we came to another winery. This one had a tasting fee so we shared a tasting of 4 wines. Our favorite was definitely their Vinsanto dessert wine which was served to us with a plate spread with thick Greek yogurt (the consistency of marscapone) with sweet grapes (grapes in some sauce). That treat was so good I could have eaten it all day. And it went so perfectly with the wine. I loved it! But we really got a deal the day before on our vinsanto straight out of the barrel because we paid half the price for a normal sized wine bottle and all these other wineries we stopped at were selling theirs in the normal for dessert wine, but smaller bottle. We left this winery empty handed as well.
We stopped at one more winery. We walked in to more of an office looking room than a tasting room, but when we asked if they did wine tasting she said to make ourselves comfortable. They obviously don’t have many people stopping by because she was opening new bottles to pour for us. I’d say that she was the most knowledgable and informative person who had poured for us so far. I really enjoyed their white wines. They only had one red and it was weak, but Santorini is not known for their red wines which she even awknowledged. And they had two Vinsantos. The way Vinsanto is made is by sun drying the grapes usually for about 2 weeks after they are harvested. And then from those they makes this delicious wine, which is usually in the barrel for at least 10 years. This winery had a lighter and darker version. The lighter one the grapes were only dried for about a week opposed to the darker for 2 weeks. The lighter was also not barreled for 10 years, but only 5 I think the vintage was 2003. The darker is in the barrel for 17 years and then in the bottle for 3 years before it is ready. The vintage we drank of that was 1989. So that was crazy to think the grapes that were grown to make this wine grown when I was 2 years old and now at 23 I was drinking it. And I think that is the oldest wine I have ever tasted. Unfortunately for us the skinny bottle of this nectar of the gods was 45 euro so we didn’t take one home with us. We did however select two of our favorite white wines we tried here and will take those back to Germany with us along with the bottle of Vinsanto we’d purchased straight from the barrel. The white wine straight from the barrel however we drank over the course of our time on the Island with our delicious canned food meals.
After that winery we decided we were done with wine tasting and we motored back to the Villa to put on some warmer clothes since the day was a bit chilly and we were planning to be out till sunset. After a little time in our room we jumped back on the moped and headed to the northern most town on the island, Oia. This is the town where Sisterhood of the traveling pants was filmed and also the town known for the best sunset vantage point on the island. When we reached the end of the road and parked we were amazed at how different this town felt from everywhere else. It was definitely more of what we had expected to find with many small “roads” that were more just alleyways for pedestrians only. All the buildings were white and many of them had fantastic views over the water. We meandered to the end of the town until we were facing the sun head on. There were other tourists there too waiting for God to paint his nightly masterpiece, but I can’t even imagine how crazy it must be during the high season with swarms of tourists about. And whe the cruise ships drop off the tiny streets must be pure chaos. I don’t think I could enjoy myself amongst too many people. It would take away from the natural splendor I think. We didn’t wait for the sun to completely pass over the horizon because the clouds were low and we figured we wouldn’t see it anyway. But we took lots of pictures as it was sinking.
We had to get the moped back that night so we headed south again toward Fira. We stopped at a tourist information place in Fira to find out what the ferry schedule was since we still had not decided when we were going back to Athens. We discovered our only option was the 15:30 ferry every afternoon. And then we decided we would head back the following day.
Since it wasn’t time yet for the moped to be dropped off we wandered down the street a bit and found a gyro place. Since we are in Greece and hadn’t yet had one of these tasty pita wrapped deliciousnesses we decided to treat ourselves to one for dinner. Ryan had the meat one, but I had the falafel. They put fries in them here. We have heard that it is cheaper to take it to go so that is what we did. It was only 5 euro for both, so I’d say that was cheap for our dinner. We drove them back to the Villa to enjoy with more of our freshly bottled wine. And then Ryan took the moped back while I stayed at the Villa to blog.
When Ryan came back he had picked up a few more groceries including some flan because he knows I love flan. So we ended our day eating flan and watching a movie.
The next morning we had to be out of our room by noon and then they would drive us to the Port about 3. We got up, got ready, and packed our bags to bring down to a room we could store them in. Then we headed to the pool for the first time. The sun was out and we were happy. I even felt warm enough to get in the chilly pool water and I dragged Ryan with me. Not long after we got out of the water though they sun went behind a cloud and I started getting really cold. So I convinced Ryan our time would be better spent walking into Fira.
The night before I had realized there was more to Fira then I initially thought. So we walked the 20 minutes or so into the town. It might not be quite as perfect a perch as Oia has on the island, but I think Fira is still a nice little town. They also have small little pedestrian streets and because Fira is the capital it seemed like more of the little shops were still open. We shared a Baklava flavored gelato and then decided to try another gyro shop for lunch. I thought my falafel pita was much better from this place, but I have decided I like döner kebabs better than gyros because whether it is the sauce or the veggies they put in them I find them more flavorful. And on the way back to the Villa we stopped at a bakery and got a couple mini sweets and a cup of rice pudding. I have decided that in Greece food is either swimming in olive oil or it is swimming in sugary honey syrup. I like the food and sweets but I think it would taste better if they toned down these liquids a bit. But who am I to judge this cooking style that I’m sure has been used for thousands of years. But it’s never too late to change… right?
Back at the Villa we shared the rice pudding and then just waited for the Villa lady to say it was time to load up the van. When she did there was a full load heading to the port. I’m sure she wasn’t thrilled to have so much business leaving at once, but on the other hand she can count her blessings to have so much business period during these winter months. It was a nice place though and the price was fair.
At the port we bought our tickets, watched the boat come in, and then walked on board when they gave us the go ahead. For the first hour or two we sat on the back deck taking lots of pictures of Santorini as we pulled away and then the sun as it started to sink. But once her majesty disappeared over the horizon we decided it was time to go inside and find out seats.
I was afraid this ride would feel like an eternity since the last ferry we took we slept the majority of the ride. We managed to fill our time though. We watched a movie, read, and I worked on blog post.
Toward the end of the voyage a girl we’d met and talked to in the van ride to the port came and found us. She and her friend were wondering if we knew where we were staying and how we planned to get there when we arrived. We told her we were staying the same place we had previously in Athens and thought we’d take the metro. She had asked on the boat and they informed her the metro would not be running after midnight. She then asked us if we wanted to share a cab and if we didn’t mind them tagging along to where we were staying. Of course we didn’t mind and actually preferred to split the cab fare if we couldn’t take the metro.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Magnificent Meteora Monasteries
On Thursday night we had stopped at a travel agency to find out what time the ferries were running to the Islands, primarily Santorini one of the southern most Island. And also the one that Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed on. We decided that we would take the ferry that left at midnight the following day so that we wouldn’t lose more time during the day traveling and it would be one night we didn’t have to pay for a place to stay. And this meant we had all of Friday to take another adventure on the mainland.
Many months ago I typed in on google search “best places to see in Europe.” There was one site that give a top ten best. One of the places was Dubrovnik, Croatia, which is why I knew about it to take Ryan there on his surprise birthday trip. And there was also a place in Greece that stood out to me and we looked into now that we are in Greece. The place is the Meteora Monasteries. 10 million years ago there was water in this area of Greece (the central region of Thessaly) and somehow it created these huge towering sandstone cliffs which for hundreds of years now have had monasteries built perched on top of some of them. The picture I first saw online was more than enough to spark my interest. And Ryan and I decided we’d like to include something out of the ordinary on our Greece adventure.
We woke up early (well early for being on vacation) to catch the 8:20 train out of Athens to Kalambaka. That is the town at the base of the cliffs. Finding information about transportation in Greece on the Internet is surprisingly and frustratingly difficult. We weren’t expecting our train ride to take 5.5 hours, but I guess in a way we got lucky that at least it left at the time we had believed it was suppose to. But we definitely got a lot of reading done and we got to see a lot of the Greek countryside. What surprised me the most was that until we got out of the train at our stop we didn’t see the cliffs. The surrounding landscape does not share the remarkable feature of these monstrosities.
As soon as we got out of the train we headed into town to find the tourist information. The woman there wasn’t the most helpful or the most outwardly friendly tourist informationist that we’ve come across. She gave us a pamphlet on the monasteries and getting answers to our other questions was like pulling teeth. But eventually we had enough information to know which monasteries were open that late in the afternoon and that we’d need to take a taxi to get to the top.
So we got a taxi on the main street and he drove us up the very scenic road to the Holy Trinity monastery. Even from the road where we were dropped off it was quite a walk up to the monastery. I can’t imagine the people who walk from the very base of the town to all six of the monasteries.
You have to pay a small entrance fee for the monastery. Inside there isn’t a ton to see, it is very small. But once you walk out the back door the view was fantastic. We took a lot of pictures that I will have to get put up because I don’t know how to describe in words what this place looks like.
I was thinking as we stood up here about how many photos have been taken. And then my mind went to artists whether they are photographers or painters or any other type. They are simply capturing God’s masterpiece in a new way. But He remains the greatest of all artists. He is the one who caused these cliffs to form and He is the one responsible for all the natural beauty we find ourselves surrounded with. I doubt many people who walk into an art museum stop to think that the pieces before their eyes are all just copies of the greatest artist of them all.
From the Holy Trinity Monastery we walked a short distance down the main road to St. Stephen’s Monastery, which is actually a nunnery. The building was larger than our first visit and there are two gift shops with trinkets for sale by the nuns. On the terrace on the back of the building was another beautiful view although you didn’t have the same vantage point of the other cliffs, so of the two I think I prefer the first.
When we decided to leave we weren’t sure how to get down off the cliff. On our brochure there was a vague map and we tried to find the path to climb down but part way along what we thought was the path we decided it was too steep and dangerous and maybe not a path at all so we climbed back up to the road. Then we tried to ask people driving by if they were headed down but no one we asked was. And we were hesitant that if we walked we’d make out train back to Athens that night. So we had to walk back to St. Stephen’s monastery where thankfully there were a couple of police officers who were nice enough to call us a taxi…. Although when we saw them back in town just shooting the breeze we wondered why they couldn’t have just taken us down to town with them. Eventually our cab came though and in not too long we were back at the train station to by our tickets.
Since we still had a little time before the train came be walked a couple blocks to the grocery to by food to eat for dinner and breakfast the next morning since we’d be on the ferry. Our dinner consisted of a can of rice stuffed grape leaves, rice pudding, orange juice, baked pumpkin seeds and a loaf of delicious kalamata olive bread we bought (with a couple extra sweet treats) at a nearby bakery. We enjoyed our dinner aboard the train as we were pulling out of the station.
Thankfully the ride back was only 5 hours, which made it 10:30pm when we arrived. We took the metro back to our hostel to get our bags we’d left there. When we arrived we had a dispute about what we owed them and eventually had to say here is the money we agreed upon with your owner via email and we need to leave to catch our ferry. The next day Ryan corresponded with the owner via email and he said he was glad we paid what we did and he had no idea why they tried to charge us more when we left. It seems like they should figure out a new system because they seemed like they had no idea what was going on when we checked in and out. But it was a roof over our heads with breakfast in the morning and it was cheap, so I guess that is what you get for cheap.
We ran to the metro and unfortunately had to wait about 10 minutes for our train. We got off at our stop and ran to where we needed to transfer to a different line to find that the line was shut down at that point and we’d have to back track and switch at two other points to get on the line we needed. I knew we didn’t have time for this as we watched the clock tic. I told Ryan that if we wanted to make it and not take the ferry the next morning we’d have to try and grab a taxi one metro stop back the way we came.
We decided to go for the taxi. Of course with our luck it had started to rain and that really slows things down in Athens. The taxi driver even said he had no idea why there was the traffic we were experiencing. He was a great driver though and when we reached the port he drove from boat to boat that was docked preparing to leave asking if that was the ferry going to Santorini. Finally at the far end of the port we found our boat. The driver sped us over to the ticket kiosk and then back to the opening of the boat. We had made it. We couldn’t believe it, but we were so grateful.
On the boat we found some less than comfortable seats and watched a movie until about 2 in the morning. Then I tried to fall asleep in the chair and Ryan moved directly onto the floor. After some time I just couldn’t fall all the way to sleep and I saw Ryan passed out on the floor and was jealous so I moved onto the floor as well. The ferry did have cabins that you could purchase a ticket for that sounded awfully good while I was chilly on the hard floor, but we’re young and we’re tough and we can survive a night on the floor to save the amount of money we did.
Many months ago I typed in on google search “best places to see in Europe.” There was one site that give a top ten best. One of the places was Dubrovnik, Croatia, which is why I knew about it to take Ryan there on his surprise birthday trip. And there was also a place in Greece that stood out to me and we looked into now that we are in Greece. The place is the Meteora Monasteries. 10 million years ago there was water in this area of Greece (the central region of Thessaly) and somehow it created these huge towering sandstone cliffs which for hundreds of years now have had monasteries built perched on top of some of them. The picture I first saw online was more than enough to spark my interest. And Ryan and I decided we’d like to include something out of the ordinary on our Greece adventure.
We woke up early (well early for being on vacation) to catch the 8:20 train out of Athens to Kalambaka. That is the town at the base of the cliffs. Finding information about transportation in Greece on the Internet is surprisingly and frustratingly difficult. We weren’t expecting our train ride to take 5.5 hours, but I guess in a way we got lucky that at least it left at the time we had believed it was suppose to. But we definitely got a lot of reading done and we got to see a lot of the Greek countryside. What surprised me the most was that until we got out of the train at our stop we didn’t see the cliffs. The surrounding landscape does not share the remarkable feature of these monstrosities.
As soon as we got out of the train we headed into town to find the tourist information. The woman there wasn’t the most helpful or the most outwardly friendly tourist informationist that we’ve come across. She gave us a pamphlet on the monasteries and getting answers to our other questions was like pulling teeth. But eventually we had enough information to know which monasteries were open that late in the afternoon and that we’d need to take a taxi to get to the top.
So we got a taxi on the main street and he drove us up the very scenic road to the Holy Trinity monastery. Even from the road where we were dropped off it was quite a walk up to the monastery. I can’t imagine the people who walk from the very base of the town to all six of the monasteries.
You have to pay a small entrance fee for the monastery. Inside there isn’t a ton to see, it is very small. But once you walk out the back door the view was fantastic. We took a lot of pictures that I will have to get put up because I don’t know how to describe in words what this place looks like.
I was thinking as we stood up here about how many photos have been taken. And then my mind went to artists whether they are photographers or painters or any other type. They are simply capturing God’s masterpiece in a new way. But He remains the greatest of all artists. He is the one who caused these cliffs to form and He is the one responsible for all the natural beauty we find ourselves surrounded with. I doubt many people who walk into an art museum stop to think that the pieces before their eyes are all just copies of the greatest artist of them all.
From the Holy Trinity Monastery we walked a short distance down the main road to St. Stephen’s Monastery, which is actually a nunnery. The building was larger than our first visit and there are two gift shops with trinkets for sale by the nuns. On the terrace on the back of the building was another beautiful view although you didn’t have the same vantage point of the other cliffs, so of the two I think I prefer the first.
When we decided to leave we weren’t sure how to get down off the cliff. On our brochure there was a vague map and we tried to find the path to climb down but part way along what we thought was the path we decided it was too steep and dangerous and maybe not a path at all so we climbed back up to the road. Then we tried to ask people driving by if they were headed down but no one we asked was. And we were hesitant that if we walked we’d make out train back to Athens that night. So we had to walk back to St. Stephen’s monastery where thankfully there were a couple of police officers who were nice enough to call us a taxi…. Although when we saw them back in town just shooting the breeze we wondered why they couldn’t have just taken us down to town with them. Eventually our cab came though and in not too long we were back at the train station to by our tickets.
Since we still had a little time before the train came be walked a couple blocks to the grocery to by food to eat for dinner and breakfast the next morning since we’d be on the ferry. Our dinner consisted of a can of rice stuffed grape leaves, rice pudding, orange juice, baked pumpkin seeds and a loaf of delicious kalamata olive bread we bought (with a couple extra sweet treats) at a nearby bakery. We enjoyed our dinner aboard the train as we were pulling out of the station.
Thankfully the ride back was only 5 hours, which made it 10:30pm when we arrived. We took the metro back to our hostel to get our bags we’d left there. When we arrived we had a dispute about what we owed them and eventually had to say here is the money we agreed upon with your owner via email and we need to leave to catch our ferry. The next day Ryan corresponded with the owner via email and he said he was glad we paid what we did and he had no idea why they tried to charge us more when we left. It seems like they should figure out a new system because they seemed like they had no idea what was going on when we checked in and out. But it was a roof over our heads with breakfast in the morning and it was cheap, so I guess that is what you get for cheap.
We ran to the metro and unfortunately had to wait about 10 minutes for our train. We got off at our stop and ran to where we needed to transfer to a different line to find that the line was shut down at that point and we’d have to back track and switch at two other points to get on the line we needed. I knew we didn’t have time for this as we watched the clock tic. I told Ryan that if we wanted to make it and not take the ferry the next morning we’d have to try and grab a taxi one metro stop back the way we came.
We decided to go for the taxi. Of course with our luck it had started to rain and that really slows things down in Athens. The taxi driver even said he had no idea why there was the traffic we were experiencing. He was a great driver though and when we reached the port he drove from boat to boat that was docked preparing to leave asking if that was the ferry going to Santorini. Finally at the far end of the port we found our boat. The driver sped us over to the ticket kiosk and then back to the opening of the boat. We had made it. We couldn’t believe it, but we were so grateful.
On the boat we found some less than comfortable seats and watched a movie until about 2 in the morning. Then I tried to fall asleep in the chair and Ryan moved directly onto the floor. After some time I just couldn’t fall all the way to sleep and I saw Ryan passed out on the floor and was jealous so I moved onto the floor as well. The ferry did have cabins that you could purchase a ticket for that sounded awfully good while I was chilly on the hard floor, but we’re young and we’re tough and we can survive a night on the floor to save the amount of money we did.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Egypt and Jordan
Pictures from even further back.
And I am realizing that the photos don't upload in the order I select them, so just try to put my words together with the photo even though it's a little mixed up.
So first off we have Egypt. These are pictures from when we hiked all through the night to watch the sunrise on Mt. Sinai. Then there is a picture of the "burning bush" or what was supposedly the bush that burned. And then a picture of me with our guide, Musa (Moses) that led us up the mountain.
Here we are at the pyramids riding out camels. And our guide made us get off at one point and take weird pictures such as jumping off the camel. And after the pyramids and the Egyptian museum we walked along the Nile and had the privileged of watching God paint a masterpiece right before our eyes of the sun setting.
Here is the ferry terminal we spent literally all day waiting in to take the ferry across the red sea to Jordan.
But when we finally made it to Jordan we were able to see Petra. And I'm sure now that you see the photos you will understand why this is such an incredible place.
And I am realizing that the photos don't upload in the order I select them, so just try to put my words together with the photo even though it's a little mixed up.
So first off we have Egypt. These are pictures from when we hiked all through the night to watch the sunrise on Mt. Sinai. Then there is a picture of the "burning bush" or what was supposedly the bush that burned. And then a picture of me with our guide, Musa (Moses) that led us up the mountain.
Here we are at the pyramids riding out camels. And our guide made us get off at one point and take weird pictures such as jumping off the camel. And after the pyramids and the Egyptian museum we walked along the Nile and had the privileged of watching God paint a masterpiece right before our eyes of the sun setting.
Here is the ferry terminal we spent literally all day waiting in to take the ferry across the red sea to Jordan.
But when we finally made it to Jordan we were able to see Petra. And I'm sure now that you see the photos you will understand why this is such an incredible place.
Fulfilling my promise
I am keeping good on my promise. These picture might be long over due, but I'm doing my best to get up a good assortment of the visual documentation of our travels. Otherwise you might start thinking I just have a great imagination and all my posts are just made up stories. :) I hope you enjoy. I'm taking advantage of the faster internet connection where we are staying here on Santorini in Greece because it seems the connection is getting worse and worse back in Germany.
Pictures of Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps in Poland
The first two pictures are the Gugenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain the city we flew into on our trip. It is just such an incredible building. The next photos are from San Sebastian. I loved the fish shop that was bustling with people and then this guy just started hacking up a HUGE fish for this woman. It was so fun to watch.
These pictures are from Seville in the south of Spain. It was so beautiful here. I loved Plaza Espana in the first two pictures. And the sunset was beautiful by the river. Oh and isn't if funny how small the beers are in Spain in the last picture. Definitely not what we are used to coming from Deutschland the land of the Mass (1L). And the picture of us is in front of the Bull Fighting Arena. And then a picture of the guys we listened to jam along the river.
Asilah, Morocco! I loved it here and would really enjoy going back sometime. It was beautiful in the old town with all white buildings that were accented by bright colored doors and windows. The beach was spectacular. And it was fun to get a feel for what life is like there outside the city walls amongst all the locals.
Pictures of Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps in Poland
The first two pictures are the Gugenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain the city we flew into on our trip. It is just such an incredible building. The next photos are from San Sebastian. I loved the fish shop that was bustling with people and then this guy just started hacking up a HUGE fish for this woman. It was so fun to watch.
These pictures are from Seville in the south of Spain. It was so beautiful here. I loved Plaza Espana in the first two pictures. And the sunset was beautiful by the river. Oh and isn't if funny how small the beers are in Spain in the last picture. Definitely not what we are used to coming from Deutschland the land of the Mass (1L). And the picture of us is in front of the Bull Fighting Arena. And then a picture of the guys we listened to jam along the river.
Asilah, Morocco! I loved it here and would really enjoy going back sometime. It was beautiful in the old town with all white buildings that were accented by bright colored doors and windows. The beach was spectacular. And it was fun to get a feel for what life is like there outside the city walls amongst all the locals.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Awestruck on the Acropolis
We woke up on Thursday morning and had breakfast at our hostel. I read that Greeks don't typically eat breakfast, but they had out for us bread, jam, honey, tea, coffee, and fruit (horrible oranges but pretty good itty bitty pears). And when we left we headed just around the corner to the Acropolis.
I'll tell you that I have wanted to see the Parthenon for many years and this is the pinnacle of the Acropolis. In 7th grade everyone was required to do a huge research project for the schools history fair. My project was on the Parthenon and as a visual aid I built a model of the temple out of cardboard.
We paid the entry fee at the gate, which includes many different ancient sites around the city. We headed up the hill and saw a theater and an odeon (I learned that this is not a "theater" because it was used for musical performances not theatrical performances), then we came to the gate to the Acropolis, and then.... dun-dunda-dawe came through the remains of the gate and there stood the Parthenon in all her glory. I instantly new this is my favorite historical site I have seen in all my travels. It was just remarkable seeing this monstrosity towering above the expanse of the city the way it does perched on the high hill. Oh I get chills thinking about it. We just sat and looked at it for a long time.
Eventually we finished looking at the last few sites on the Acropolis. One interesting thing I read in a travel book at that the flag on a lookout point up there was ordered by the Nazi's to be taken down in April of 1941 when the invaded Athens and for the Nazi flag to be flown in it's place. The man in charge of guarding the Greek flag followed the orders but with the Greek flag he took down he wrapped his body and jumped to his death because he couldn't stand the fact he had to put up another flag. Yet within a couple of weeks two teenage boys went up and took down the Nazi flag and hung the Greek flag back up. To this day those boys names are recognized in hero status among the Greek people. And then we walked around the Erecthion which is where Athena and Poseidon had their battle to see who would be the name sake of the city.
Back down the hill and out the fence of the Acropolis grounds we climbed Mars Hill, which I think is better classified as a mound. But it does have a cool significance because this is where the Apostle Paul gave a sermon to the people of Athens when he came to visit.
After all this exploring we were hungry. But at the bottom and all around the Acropolis things seemed to be priced pretty touristy. We found a grocery and made our own Greek picnic out of pita bread, kalamata olives, tomatoes (Ryan had never eaten a tomato like an apple until now), Ryan had some cheese, and we shared a can of Greek beer. And we could have had a better view as we sat starring directly up at the Parthenon on the Acropolis. It was perfect.
After lunch we went into the... well I forget the name of the area but the significance is that back in the day it would have been the city center where everything happened from judicial matters, to grocery shopping, cloth shopping, socializing, eating, anything you do in your modern day downtown. There was a very well intact temple and the Agora (they referred to it as the mall) which has been rebuilt but shows what it would have been like. There is also a church dedicated to St. Paul because of his time in Athens. And lots of other ruins of stuff I can't remember. It was cool to see until we got kicked out at 15:00 because they were closing. This is earlier than all the travel information we had and unfortunately it meant all the other sites on our ticket also closed. However we walked to them all anyway and realized whether we were inside or outside of the gates we could still see everything inside because they were small areas. We saw Haydrian's Library, the Roman Forum, Haydrian's Gate, and The Temple of Zeus. It is all really neat how everything that is so old is incorporated into the city. However here it is all sectioned off by gates whereas in Rome everything seemed to be pretty out in the open and at least didn't feel gated off even if you couldn't get in when it was closed (like the Colosseum).
After we walked by all the sites from our ticket we made another stop somewhere we just had to see. Being the track athletes we are we went to the Olympic Stadium in Athens. It is the only stadium completely out of marble in the world. During the 2004 Olympics in Athens the marathon finished here. It was cool hearing the history with the audio guide as we walked around the stadium. And then we took silly picture on the podium and also at the starting line as if we were starting a race. :) But I have NEVER seen such a narrow track. The audio guide said that the straights are 185 meters and for those of you who know tracks you can only imagine how tight those corners are.
Oh, something about Greece many of you might not know, you can't flush toilet paper because they have bad pipes and it will clog everything up. So every toilet has signs and a garbage right there. Not my favorite part of the country. So at this point of the day I need to use the facilities but felt like going in a cleaner environment than the toilets looked to be at the stadium, so Ryan and I wandered to a 4 star hotel and found a lobby bathroom. It was very nice and clean, which for some reason made me think I didn't have to follow the toilet paper protocol. Oops! No, there was no back up I just realized ofter I didn't utilize the garbage that there was the same sign there as everywhere else. Oh well if I'm the only one who forgets I think the pipes will survive. While at the hotel we thought it might be fun to check out their restaurant on the top floor with a roof terrace. Dinner would have been pretty pricey, but two double Greek coffees were in our price range and a perfect way to wind down (can you wind down with caffeine?). We had a fabulous view of the Acropolis as the sun went down and the sky glowed pink and orange.
After our coffees we decided it was worth it to us to visit the "New Acropolis Museum." the building in and of itself is worth taking a good look at. It is very new. I think it has only been open for less than 2 years. There are three floors and the top floor sits askew so that it mimics the Parthenon up on the Acropolis perfectly. That floor is a "replica" of the Parthenon in terms of size. You walk around the perimeter of the floor and they have metal columns in the actual place the Parthenon has it's columns. The whole building has walls made of windows so up on the 3rd floor it is awesome to see the Parthenon perfectly parallel to you. And on this floor they have the little bit of what remains in Greece's possession of the Parthenon ruins of statues, and the frieze and such. They have it all hanging as it would on the temple itself and have filled most of the gaps with replicas in such a way that you can tell the originals from the copies. Most of the artifacts from the Parthenon I saw at the British Museum in London when I was there a few summers ago for Juniors Abroad. Lord Elgin asked some guy (although the guy claims that not to be true) if he could sell or give or something all these things to the Brits. Well Greece wants them back and of course the Brits don't want to give them back. For years they argued that Greece didn't have a proper place to keep and display them. Well now Greece has a state of the art building and Britains new fear is if they give in to Greece the rest of the world they hold artifacts from will also want theirs back. I can attest though that the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is not clean, is not safe, and that no way should Britain give them back anything because it will be much better off in the safety and care of the UK. Have been to the British Museum I can say it was super cool to see so many things under one roof from all over the world. But at the same time I see why Greece would want this back and it would definitely add to this beautiful museum they now have. I guess time will only tell but I sort of doubt the Brits will give up their hold anytime soon. The rest of the museum was also cool. The whole building has been built over ancient ruins, so outside and inside there are glass floors in places that allow you to see what lies beneath and they are still digging to find more.
After we finished walking around the museum we wandered out to the terrace cafe just to have a peak. It turned out they had a very inexpensive menu so we decided to have dinner there. We shared Spanikopita (spinach pie) and pumpkin soup (Europe loves pumpkin soup in the fall and winter apparently, which is a-okay with me) and we each had another double Greek coffee. I have loved Greek coffee ever since the first time i had it at the Greek fest in Bellingham. Yet when we went back to the hostel after dinner I stayed awake for awhile trying to plan our next day, but then when I wanted to go to sleep no doubt I had some trouble with all that thick coffee flowing through my veins. Somehow Ryan still had no trouble falling right to sleep and whenever he falls asleep first I always have an even harder time because he starts snoring and I feel like I have to stay awake to shake him so he doesn't wake up everyone else in the place. But somehow I eventually managed because before I knew it the alarm was going off and it was time to get up.
I'll tell you that I have wanted to see the Parthenon for many years and this is the pinnacle of the Acropolis. In 7th grade everyone was required to do a huge research project for the schools history fair. My project was on the Parthenon and as a visual aid I built a model of the temple out of cardboard.
We paid the entry fee at the gate, which includes many different ancient sites around the city. We headed up the hill and saw a theater and an odeon (I learned that this is not a "theater" because it was used for musical performances not theatrical performances), then we came to the gate to the Acropolis, and then.... dun-dunda-dawe came through the remains of the gate and there stood the Parthenon in all her glory. I instantly new this is my favorite historical site I have seen in all my travels. It was just remarkable seeing this monstrosity towering above the expanse of the city the way it does perched on the high hill. Oh I get chills thinking about it. We just sat and looked at it for a long time.
Eventually we finished looking at the last few sites on the Acropolis. One interesting thing I read in a travel book at that the flag on a lookout point up there was ordered by the Nazi's to be taken down in April of 1941 when the invaded Athens and for the Nazi flag to be flown in it's place. The man in charge of guarding the Greek flag followed the orders but with the Greek flag he took down he wrapped his body and jumped to his death because he couldn't stand the fact he had to put up another flag. Yet within a couple of weeks two teenage boys went up and took down the Nazi flag and hung the Greek flag back up. To this day those boys names are recognized in hero status among the Greek people. And then we walked around the Erecthion which is where Athena and Poseidon had their battle to see who would be the name sake of the city.
Back down the hill and out the fence of the Acropolis grounds we climbed Mars Hill, which I think is better classified as a mound. But it does have a cool significance because this is where the Apostle Paul gave a sermon to the people of Athens when he came to visit.
After all this exploring we were hungry. But at the bottom and all around the Acropolis things seemed to be priced pretty touristy. We found a grocery and made our own Greek picnic out of pita bread, kalamata olives, tomatoes (Ryan had never eaten a tomato like an apple until now), Ryan had some cheese, and we shared a can of Greek beer. And we could have had a better view as we sat starring directly up at the Parthenon on the Acropolis. It was perfect.
After lunch we went into the... well I forget the name of the area but the significance is that back in the day it would have been the city center where everything happened from judicial matters, to grocery shopping, cloth shopping, socializing, eating, anything you do in your modern day downtown. There was a very well intact temple and the Agora (they referred to it as the mall) which has been rebuilt but shows what it would have been like. There is also a church dedicated to St. Paul because of his time in Athens. And lots of other ruins of stuff I can't remember. It was cool to see until we got kicked out at 15:00 because they were closing. This is earlier than all the travel information we had and unfortunately it meant all the other sites on our ticket also closed. However we walked to them all anyway and realized whether we were inside or outside of the gates we could still see everything inside because they were small areas. We saw Haydrian's Library, the Roman Forum, Haydrian's Gate, and The Temple of Zeus. It is all really neat how everything that is so old is incorporated into the city. However here it is all sectioned off by gates whereas in Rome everything seemed to be pretty out in the open and at least didn't feel gated off even if you couldn't get in when it was closed (like the Colosseum).
After we walked by all the sites from our ticket we made another stop somewhere we just had to see. Being the track athletes we are we went to the Olympic Stadium in Athens. It is the only stadium completely out of marble in the world. During the 2004 Olympics in Athens the marathon finished here. It was cool hearing the history with the audio guide as we walked around the stadium. And then we took silly picture on the podium and also at the starting line as if we were starting a race. :) But I have NEVER seen such a narrow track. The audio guide said that the straights are 185 meters and for those of you who know tracks you can only imagine how tight those corners are.
Oh, something about Greece many of you might not know, you can't flush toilet paper because they have bad pipes and it will clog everything up. So every toilet has signs and a garbage right there. Not my favorite part of the country. So at this point of the day I need to use the facilities but felt like going in a cleaner environment than the toilets looked to be at the stadium, so Ryan and I wandered to a 4 star hotel and found a lobby bathroom. It was very nice and clean, which for some reason made me think I didn't have to follow the toilet paper protocol. Oops! No, there was no back up I just realized ofter I didn't utilize the garbage that there was the same sign there as everywhere else. Oh well if I'm the only one who forgets I think the pipes will survive. While at the hotel we thought it might be fun to check out their restaurant on the top floor with a roof terrace. Dinner would have been pretty pricey, but two double Greek coffees were in our price range and a perfect way to wind down (can you wind down with caffeine?). We had a fabulous view of the Acropolis as the sun went down and the sky glowed pink and orange.
After our coffees we decided it was worth it to us to visit the "New Acropolis Museum." the building in and of itself is worth taking a good look at. It is very new. I think it has only been open for less than 2 years. There are three floors and the top floor sits askew so that it mimics the Parthenon up on the Acropolis perfectly. That floor is a "replica" of the Parthenon in terms of size. You walk around the perimeter of the floor and they have metal columns in the actual place the Parthenon has it's columns. The whole building has walls made of windows so up on the 3rd floor it is awesome to see the Parthenon perfectly parallel to you. And on this floor they have the little bit of what remains in Greece's possession of the Parthenon ruins of statues, and the frieze and such. They have it all hanging as it would on the temple itself and have filled most of the gaps with replicas in such a way that you can tell the originals from the copies. Most of the artifacts from the Parthenon I saw at the British Museum in London when I was there a few summers ago for Juniors Abroad. Lord Elgin asked some guy (although the guy claims that not to be true) if he could sell or give or something all these things to the Brits. Well Greece wants them back and of course the Brits don't want to give them back. For years they argued that Greece didn't have a proper place to keep and display them. Well now Greece has a state of the art building and Britains new fear is if they give in to Greece the rest of the world they hold artifacts from will also want theirs back. I can attest though that the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is not clean, is not safe, and that no way should Britain give them back anything because it will be much better off in the safety and care of the UK. Have been to the British Museum I can say it was super cool to see so many things under one roof from all over the world. But at the same time I see why Greece would want this back and it would definitely add to this beautiful museum they now have. I guess time will only tell but I sort of doubt the Brits will give up their hold anytime soon. The rest of the museum was also cool. The whole building has been built over ancient ruins, so outside and inside there are glass floors in places that allow you to see what lies beneath and they are still digging to find more.
After we finished walking around the museum we wandered out to the terrace cafe just to have a peak. It turned out they had a very inexpensive menu so we decided to have dinner there. We shared Spanikopita (spinach pie) and pumpkin soup (Europe loves pumpkin soup in the fall and winter apparently, which is a-okay with me) and we each had another double Greek coffee. I have loved Greek coffee ever since the first time i had it at the Greek fest in Bellingham. Yet when we went back to the hostel after dinner I stayed awake for awhile trying to plan our next day, but then when I wanted to go to sleep no doubt I had some trouble with all that thick coffee flowing through my veins. Somehow Ryan still had no trouble falling right to sleep and whenever he falls asleep first I always have an even harder time because he starts snoring and I feel like I have to stay awake to shake him so he doesn't wake up everyone else in the place. But somehow I eventually managed because before I knew it the alarm was going off and it was time to get up.
We made it to Greece
As you know if you have read my other post we missed our flight. When I was trying to figure things out this morning I saw there was a fight at 11am for a reasonable amount of money that we could get to Athens even a day before we had planned with our other itinerary. So I ran to get Ryan at breakfast and we through our things together and headed to the S-bahn to get to the airport. We unfortunately got there too late for the 11:00 flight, but found and internet café and booked a flight at 17:45. So we spent from about 10:30 till 17:45 in the Munich airport.
From flying in and out of there before I have found some favorite places. For many hours we sat at a little coffee shop that isn’t so much a shop as a permanent stand with nice seating in a byway. But it allowed me to work on some of my finances I keep track of as well as write a lot to post on my blog when I get Internet. And then about 15:00 we headed to our favorite place to eat in the airport a Thai restaurant. One thing I love about the Munich airport is that things don’t seem way over priced. It seems like the rest of Germany and I think it is reasonable.
And as soon as we finished eating we headed to our terminal to check in because there was NO WAY we were missing this flight.
We flew on Aegean Airlines and everything was very nice. We had very good service and the food was even really good.
Now we are safe and sound in our hostel. We have a view of the back of the Acropolis hill from the window of our room, but it isn’t photographing well on my camera. We talked about going to walk around a bit, but decided we are both tired and would rather get a really solid nights rest for all the exploring we will do tomorrow. But at least we made it. Hopefully we can do Portugal another time, but at least we are still going to have a vacation even if it does mean pinching pennies for a while when we get back with the added expense of purchasing a new flight to Athens. But we’re here. Thank goodness I didn’t ruin everything.
From flying in and out of there before I have found some favorite places. For many hours we sat at a little coffee shop that isn’t so much a shop as a permanent stand with nice seating in a byway. But it allowed me to work on some of my finances I keep track of as well as write a lot to post on my blog when I get Internet. And then about 15:00 we headed to our favorite place to eat in the airport a Thai restaurant. One thing I love about the Munich airport is that things don’t seem way over priced. It seems like the rest of Germany and I think it is reasonable.
And as soon as we finished eating we headed to our terminal to check in because there was NO WAY we were missing this flight.
We flew on Aegean Airlines and everything was very nice. We had very good service and the food was even really good.
Now we are safe and sound in our hostel. We have a view of the back of the Acropolis hill from the window of our room, but it isn’t photographing well on my camera. We talked about going to walk around a bit, but decided we are both tired and would rather get a really solid nights rest for all the exploring we will do tomorrow. But at least we made it. Hopefully we can do Portugal another time, but at least we are still going to have a vacation even if it does mean pinching pennies for a while when we get back with the added expense of purchasing a new flight to Athens. But we’re here. Thank goodness I didn’t ruin everything.
Ladies and Gentlemen…. Mr. Stephen Aki
Stephen is still good ol’ Stephen. He is our friend from college that Ryan met on his freshman floor and lived with for the following three years as well. He has a shnazzy new job as a salesman for selling a piece that goes on the inside of a window frame that serves the purpose of keeping the cold air out and hot air in or vice versa. You can only see this piece if you horizontally cut a window in half. The company makes something else too, but Stephen sells this one piece. At first I had no idea what he was talking about, but after spending a few days with him I have a better grasp on it now.
Anyway, since he is still technically training they flew him to Kassel, Germany because they are a German company based there. Kassel is only 5.25 hours from Garmisch, so we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see a friend in the same country as us. We got doubly lucky because with the hotel being so slow we had a random 3 day weekend on our schedule when we got back from Spain that we hasn’t bee expecting.
We left after work on Tuesday and arrived in Kassel around 8 I think. We knew Stephen would probably be at dinner with co-workers and when we knocked on his hotel room door he didn’t anwer so we wandered down the street for some dinner ourselves because we’d spotted a döner kebab shop as we drove into town. They had great döners and we left with very satisfied tummies.
Back at the hotel we thought we’d just sit and read on the couch in the lobby of the 3rd floor where Stephen was staying. Although we were hoping he’d be back soonish since we’d given him an idea when we’d get there. I find books when I clean dueout rooms sometimes and I keep the ones I am interested in. I had just read a Carol Higgins Clark book in 3 days. It wowed Ryan because I don’t think he has ever witnessed my love for reading like that especially when it comes to mysteries. The book honestly wasn’t awesome, but it was a quick read and I just love to read sometimes no matter how good the writing is. I also had a Mary Higgins Clark book that I barely started the day before we left (Mary is Carol’s mom and I’ve been a fan of Mary’s books for years). In the car we were getting antsy and I was going to read and Ryan asked if I’d read out loud. He had started this book when we went camping one time but never finished it So for several hours I read out loud as we drove. And when we sat on the 3rd floor lobby in the hotel I continued to read out loud. It was fun to share the book with Ryan in that way. One of my favorite childhood memories is that my parent’s read from a chapter book to my sister and I ever night before we went to bed. I’m sure that has a great deal to do with my love of reading.
Well I read until about 11 and then we thought maybe we’d go downstairs and see if he happened to be in the hotels restaurant. As we stood at the door trying to see the straggling guests as the wait staff cleaned things up Stephen started walking towards the door. It was good to see our smiling Hawaiian boy. ☺ He said we should have come in earlier when we said we’d been there for hours. Well Stephen how were we to know once you got back from dinner you would go have a drink with your coworkers.
Stephen was very nice to let us crash on the floor of his hotel room. It was a very nice hotel. We laid out our sleeping bags as we caught up on the most recent happenings in each other’s lives. It was great to see him.
The next morning of course Steve had to go to work and he did his best not to wake us as he got ready. When we finally did get up off our camping mats we got ready and wandered down the street to find breakfast. We ended up at a natural grocery store with a bakery/coffee shop. Ryan got a couple pastries and I had a piece of vegetable cake. It was so delicious. I don’t know how they did it. It wasn’t like quiche at all. It was just a tone of veggies packed into a square piece of cake. I’d love to try and recreate it sometime. We also shared a liter of juice we got in the grocery part.
We sat outside on a park bench to eat our breakfast that was right outside a middle eastern/ African shop. I was of course drawn in and Ryan followed. I bet he is glad he did though because he found a package of Moroccan Mint tea to purchase. And although I haven’t blogged about Morocco yet Ryan and I but probably especially Ryan fell in love with the mint tea in Morocco. Mmmmmmm
Then we walked up the street a long way, back by the hotel, and up a hill to a palace. We sat at the palace regaining our strength and cooling our bodies from that little hike. And then headed up what turned out to be a true workout to get to the very top of the hill where there was a statue of Hercules. I don’t know how many stairs we climbed but it had to have been hundreds. Right below Hercules is a massive water feature that is shut off at this time of year, but must be truly mesmerizing when it is running. Then once you reach the top you pay 2 euros to walk up more stairs to get to the viewing platform directly at the base of Mr. Hercules. It was really cloudy while we were there, but I can imagine on a brilliant day you’d have as stunning view of the city and beyond.
We wanted to get a beer to reward ourselves for all the climbing but the restaurant up there wasn’t open and looked like it was either closed for good or just undergoing some reconstruction. But since I wasn’t about to walk anymore we waited for the bus to take us back into town. And then we took a tram only a couple blocks from the hotel. And we read some more while we waited for Stephen to get back from work.
When the man of the hour arrived we hung out in the room a little longer and then drove into town to an Irish Pub he’d been to a few nights before. We each enjoyed a delicious Irish beer, well I actually had a cider, but it was still Irish and still good. And we enjoyed each others conversation and company. But after while Stephen had to get back to the hotel to meet some co-workers for dinner.
Parked back at the hotel Stephen insisted Ryan and I go to dinner just down the street where he’d previously been, a restaurant named Duck Dich. He personally escorted us to the building and up the stairs into the restaurant. And then bid adieu until later in the evening.
It was a good recommendation. Ryan had soup and salad because that is what he said sounded good to him. I think he enjoyed them pretty well. But I ordered an entrée which is what makes this restaurant unique. The bring you a plate in the shape of a half moon. On one side are several sauces. Directly in front of you is the “meat” you chose (I had salmon) and some veggies. And to the right side is some baby boiled potatoes with a dipping sauce. On the rounded edge of the plate at the back is a rectangular thick stone that is sizzling hot. They told me to sprinkle salt on it and then place my fish and veggies on it to cook. The fish in my case came raw. It was awesome. I like my fish rare so I didn’t cook it long, but it was so fun. I don’t know if there is anything like this in the United States, but there should be. Ryan commented though that he doesn’t know what the US Health Department would say.
Back at the hotel we were so tired, probably from so much walking, that we got ready for bed and by the time Stephen got back I was particularly out of it and Ryan was on his way.
The next morning we got up about the time Stephen was leaving for work. But we decided to try the buffet the hotel had in the restaurant for breakfast. It was so good. We were glad we did it. They had cereal, fresh fruit, assorted pastries, bread, jams, honey, chocolate spread, juices, tea and coffee, and many meats, cheeses, and fish. Delicious I tell you.
Then we went back to the room and finished the book. We just couldn’t help it. Although Ryan didn’t actually read it himself he got into it enough with me reading that he was excited to read every chance we got.
And then we went to check out the pool and hot tub. Both were disappointing because neither were very warm. Even the hot tub wasn’t even warm enough that I would want to take a bath in it.
So as the afternoon drew on we decided to leave the hotel and check out the downtown area. It was very new compared to what most of the city centers of Europe look like. Kassel was pretty much demolished during the war and thus things look a lot more modern.
It was a nice town though. We did some window shopping and wandered in stores that interested us. But best of all we found an Asian grocery store. Although we could go to them in Munich we just have never gotten around to it. We love sweet chili sauce and Ryan makes a simple but delicious meal one of his roommates had taught him to make that they call King Pao. All it consists of is tofu, peanuts, and sweet chili sauce sautéed and then over rice. We’ve had it twice already now that we have the sauce. And we picked up a couple other things as well.
We wandered around until it was near time for Stephen to get back from work and then headed back to the hotel. And when we returned Stephen was there. We had decided to ask him if his dinner that night was actually some type of work meeting or just people going out to a meal from work. We thought it would be nice to spend our last evening there with him. He was a little hesitant saying that it wasn’t a meeting but he wasn’t sure if we could come or not because it was people from the company taking him out to dinner. But he was nice and said he’d ask if we could come along. So when it was time for him to be picked up we went down to the lobby with him and when the man from the company came to pick him up and Stephen asked if we could come and pay for ourselves he kindly said that was fine and even drove us too.
The place we ate was pretty good. If it had been daylight I think it would have had a wonderful view. There were three people from the company there who were all very nice. And they’ve all been with the company for an extended period ,which shows I think that it is a good place to work. I enjoyed hearing about the business. Stephen impressed me with the knowledge he has already. I hope he stays happy there because I think it seems like a stand up company and a great place to work.
At the end of the meal the man who drove us, who is some type of a boss level guy, paid for our bill too. Very unexpected and also very generous no matter if it is on the company card or not.
When he dropped us off at the hotel Stephen and Ryan decided they wanted to go to the sauna. Stephen hadn’t been to the pool yet at all. I was tired but they dragged me down with them. I can’t stay in saunas very long especially when I’m not in the mood so it didn’t last long for me and Ryan and then Stephen followed me out. The boys splashed in the pool a bit while I lay on a chair falling asleep. Finally they were done and I got to go upstairs and go to sleep. ☺
The next morning we got up with Stephen to go down and have the breakfast buffet again. It was so good. I don’t think I can recall another breakfast I liked more and that included the great breakfast at the LA hotel we stay at with the track team on spring break. Michelle knows what I’m talking about. But this place has even better breakfast, for my taste anyway. But when we were through eating we did have to say farewell to Stephen. Goodbyes are never our favorite part, but since we didn’t expect to see Stephen the whole time we were over here it was still very exciting just to spend a few days with him.
We hit the road to head home around 11 I think. We stopped in Wurzburg for lunch at a Crepe Bistro. It was delicious. And I had roobius tea, which is my favorite, but his particular mixture was called Emily, so I knew I was meant to have it. I think it should be needless to say I loved it, how could I not with a name like that? ☺
From Wurzburg we drove along the Romantic Road for several hours (it was our anniversary and all). The hill sides are beautiful in Bavaria and it was nice to get off the autobahn. The Romantic Road is basically country roads that follow some medieval path I think that starts or end in Wurzburg with the other end being Neuschwanstein Castel. We didn’t drive the whole thing though. The country roads don’t let you go all that fast and after awhile we just wanted to be home not to mention is was dusk and soon we wouldn’t be able to see anything.
So that was our trip to Kassel, Germany. Somewhere I never would have gone if it wasn’t for Stephen being there, but I’m glad we did both so we could see our friend and so we could see a new part of the country that is our home for this year.
Anyway, since he is still technically training they flew him to Kassel, Germany because they are a German company based there. Kassel is only 5.25 hours from Garmisch, so we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see a friend in the same country as us. We got doubly lucky because with the hotel being so slow we had a random 3 day weekend on our schedule when we got back from Spain that we hasn’t bee expecting.
We left after work on Tuesday and arrived in Kassel around 8 I think. We knew Stephen would probably be at dinner with co-workers and when we knocked on his hotel room door he didn’t anwer so we wandered down the street for some dinner ourselves because we’d spotted a döner kebab shop as we drove into town. They had great döners and we left with very satisfied tummies.
Back at the hotel we thought we’d just sit and read on the couch in the lobby of the 3rd floor where Stephen was staying. Although we were hoping he’d be back soonish since we’d given him an idea when we’d get there. I find books when I clean dueout rooms sometimes and I keep the ones I am interested in. I had just read a Carol Higgins Clark book in 3 days. It wowed Ryan because I don’t think he has ever witnessed my love for reading like that especially when it comes to mysteries. The book honestly wasn’t awesome, but it was a quick read and I just love to read sometimes no matter how good the writing is. I also had a Mary Higgins Clark book that I barely started the day before we left (Mary is Carol’s mom and I’ve been a fan of Mary’s books for years). In the car we were getting antsy and I was going to read and Ryan asked if I’d read out loud. He had started this book when we went camping one time but never finished it So for several hours I read out loud as we drove. And when we sat on the 3rd floor lobby in the hotel I continued to read out loud. It was fun to share the book with Ryan in that way. One of my favorite childhood memories is that my parent’s read from a chapter book to my sister and I ever night before we went to bed. I’m sure that has a great deal to do with my love of reading.
Well I read until about 11 and then we thought maybe we’d go downstairs and see if he happened to be in the hotels restaurant. As we stood at the door trying to see the straggling guests as the wait staff cleaned things up Stephen started walking towards the door. It was good to see our smiling Hawaiian boy. ☺ He said we should have come in earlier when we said we’d been there for hours. Well Stephen how were we to know once you got back from dinner you would go have a drink with your coworkers.
Stephen was very nice to let us crash on the floor of his hotel room. It was a very nice hotel. We laid out our sleeping bags as we caught up on the most recent happenings in each other’s lives. It was great to see him.
The next morning of course Steve had to go to work and he did his best not to wake us as he got ready. When we finally did get up off our camping mats we got ready and wandered down the street to find breakfast. We ended up at a natural grocery store with a bakery/coffee shop. Ryan got a couple pastries and I had a piece of vegetable cake. It was so delicious. I don’t know how they did it. It wasn’t like quiche at all. It was just a tone of veggies packed into a square piece of cake. I’d love to try and recreate it sometime. We also shared a liter of juice we got in the grocery part.
We sat outside on a park bench to eat our breakfast that was right outside a middle eastern/ African shop. I was of course drawn in and Ryan followed. I bet he is glad he did though because he found a package of Moroccan Mint tea to purchase. And although I haven’t blogged about Morocco yet Ryan and I but probably especially Ryan fell in love with the mint tea in Morocco. Mmmmmmm
Then we walked up the street a long way, back by the hotel, and up a hill to a palace. We sat at the palace regaining our strength and cooling our bodies from that little hike. And then headed up what turned out to be a true workout to get to the very top of the hill where there was a statue of Hercules. I don’t know how many stairs we climbed but it had to have been hundreds. Right below Hercules is a massive water feature that is shut off at this time of year, but must be truly mesmerizing when it is running. Then once you reach the top you pay 2 euros to walk up more stairs to get to the viewing platform directly at the base of Mr. Hercules. It was really cloudy while we were there, but I can imagine on a brilliant day you’d have as stunning view of the city and beyond.
We wanted to get a beer to reward ourselves for all the climbing but the restaurant up there wasn’t open and looked like it was either closed for good or just undergoing some reconstruction. But since I wasn’t about to walk anymore we waited for the bus to take us back into town. And then we took a tram only a couple blocks from the hotel. And we read some more while we waited for Stephen to get back from work.
When the man of the hour arrived we hung out in the room a little longer and then drove into town to an Irish Pub he’d been to a few nights before. We each enjoyed a delicious Irish beer, well I actually had a cider, but it was still Irish and still good. And we enjoyed each others conversation and company. But after while Stephen had to get back to the hotel to meet some co-workers for dinner.
Parked back at the hotel Stephen insisted Ryan and I go to dinner just down the street where he’d previously been, a restaurant named Duck Dich. He personally escorted us to the building and up the stairs into the restaurant. And then bid adieu until later in the evening.
It was a good recommendation. Ryan had soup and salad because that is what he said sounded good to him. I think he enjoyed them pretty well. But I ordered an entrée which is what makes this restaurant unique. The bring you a plate in the shape of a half moon. On one side are several sauces. Directly in front of you is the “meat” you chose (I had salmon) and some veggies. And to the right side is some baby boiled potatoes with a dipping sauce. On the rounded edge of the plate at the back is a rectangular thick stone that is sizzling hot. They told me to sprinkle salt on it and then place my fish and veggies on it to cook. The fish in my case came raw. It was awesome. I like my fish rare so I didn’t cook it long, but it was so fun. I don’t know if there is anything like this in the United States, but there should be. Ryan commented though that he doesn’t know what the US Health Department would say.
Back at the hotel we were so tired, probably from so much walking, that we got ready for bed and by the time Stephen got back I was particularly out of it and Ryan was on his way.
The next morning we got up about the time Stephen was leaving for work. But we decided to try the buffet the hotel had in the restaurant for breakfast. It was so good. We were glad we did it. They had cereal, fresh fruit, assorted pastries, bread, jams, honey, chocolate spread, juices, tea and coffee, and many meats, cheeses, and fish. Delicious I tell you.
Then we went back to the room and finished the book. We just couldn’t help it. Although Ryan didn’t actually read it himself he got into it enough with me reading that he was excited to read every chance we got.
And then we went to check out the pool and hot tub. Both were disappointing because neither were very warm. Even the hot tub wasn’t even warm enough that I would want to take a bath in it.
So as the afternoon drew on we decided to leave the hotel and check out the downtown area. It was very new compared to what most of the city centers of Europe look like. Kassel was pretty much demolished during the war and thus things look a lot more modern.
It was a nice town though. We did some window shopping and wandered in stores that interested us. But best of all we found an Asian grocery store. Although we could go to them in Munich we just have never gotten around to it. We love sweet chili sauce and Ryan makes a simple but delicious meal one of his roommates had taught him to make that they call King Pao. All it consists of is tofu, peanuts, and sweet chili sauce sautéed and then over rice. We’ve had it twice already now that we have the sauce. And we picked up a couple other things as well.
We wandered around until it was near time for Stephen to get back from work and then headed back to the hotel. And when we returned Stephen was there. We had decided to ask him if his dinner that night was actually some type of work meeting or just people going out to a meal from work. We thought it would be nice to spend our last evening there with him. He was a little hesitant saying that it wasn’t a meeting but he wasn’t sure if we could come or not because it was people from the company taking him out to dinner. But he was nice and said he’d ask if we could come along. So when it was time for him to be picked up we went down to the lobby with him and when the man from the company came to pick him up and Stephen asked if we could come and pay for ourselves he kindly said that was fine and even drove us too.
The place we ate was pretty good. If it had been daylight I think it would have had a wonderful view. There were three people from the company there who were all very nice. And they’ve all been with the company for an extended period ,which shows I think that it is a good place to work. I enjoyed hearing about the business. Stephen impressed me with the knowledge he has already. I hope he stays happy there because I think it seems like a stand up company and a great place to work.
At the end of the meal the man who drove us, who is some type of a boss level guy, paid for our bill too. Very unexpected and also very generous no matter if it is on the company card or not.
When he dropped us off at the hotel Stephen and Ryan decided they wanted to go to the sauna. Stephen hadn’t been to the pool yet at all. I was tired but they dragged me down with them. I can’t stay in saunas very long especially when I’m not in the mood so it didn’t last long for me and Ryan and then Stephen followed me out. The boys splashed in the pool a bit while I lay on a chair falling asleep. Finally they were done and I got to go upstairs and go to sleep. ☺
The next morning we got up with Stephen to go down and have the breakfast buffet again. It was so good. I don’t think I can recall another breakfast I liked more and that included the great breakfast at the LA hotel we stay at with the track team on spring break. Michelle knows what I’m talking about. But this place has even better breakfast, for my taste anyway. But when we were through eating we did have to say farewell to Stephen. Goodbyes are never our favorite part, but since we didn’t expect to see Stephen the whole time we were over here it was still very exciting just to spend a few days with him.
We hit the road to head home around 11 I think. We stopped in Wurzburg for lunch at a Crepe Bistro. It was delicious. And I had roobius tea, which is my favorite, but his particular mixture was called Emily, so I knew I was meant to have it. I think it should be needless to say I loved it, how could I not with a name like that? ☺
From Wurzburg we drove along the Romantic Road for several hours (it was our anniversary and all). The hill sides are beautiful in Bavaria and it was nice to get off the autobahn. The Romantic Road is basically country roads that follow some medieval path I think that starts or end in Wurzburg with the other end being Neuschwanstein Castel. We didn’t drive the whole thing though. The country roads don’t let you go all that fast and after awhile we just wanted to be home not to mention is was dusk and soon we wouldn’t be able to see anything.
So that was our trip to Kassel, Germany. Somewhere I never would have gone if it wasn’t for Stephen being there, but I’m glad we did both so we could see our friend and so we could see a new part of the country that is our home for this year.
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