Netherlands and Belgium

Spent the last week in the so-called low countries and had a good time, despite lousy weather. I started in The Hague where I stayed with some family friends which saved Money. The Hague is quite nice with a neat old town and some grand old buildings, such as the residence of the Dutch Royal family and the Dutch parliament. The downside is that it it a bit too uch of a government city and there are too many ugly modern buildings that spoil things a little. I spent aster sunday in Amsterdam with some friends from the f1db.com forum. It was snowing so we spent much of the day in pubs and cafes (not coffeshops). It was a vry enjoyable meeting. I spent sunday night back in the Hague before stying two nights in Amsterdam. It is a very interesting city and one learns a few important differences. The most importat is the difference between a cafe and a coffeshop. A Cafe is a regular cfe with coffee and the likes while in a coffeshop the main product sold is NOT coffee. I also saw the famous red light district. It is an intriguing site, no matter what your position on the issue is. Also got to see the poignant Anne Frank House as well as walk the streets of the beautiful city. nother interesting thing of Amsterdam is that most resturants employ cats to deal with the mice prolem, but I doubt those who work in the coffeshops are the most effective mose catchers..... After Amsterdam I went to Belgium, a very divided country. I was staying in the flemish part, in Antwerp and it is not a good idea to speak french there. My main day I spent in Ieper (Ypres) in the southwest of the country wheremost of the WWI cemetaries are locted. I managed to see the Brooding Soldir Cnadian monument that commemorates all those young Canadian Men who were killed by the first Gas attacks in April 1915. I also saw the place where John McRae wrote the famous poem, "In Flanders Fields", surrounded by a cemetary, in Flanders fields. It was very poignant and worth the 3 km walk from the Ieper city centre.My only visit to theh Wallon(French speaking) part of Blgium was when I went to Charleroi Airport (which Ryanair callls Brussels)and Flemish was not to be heard..... I am in Glasgow at the moment and guess what, it is raining!!!!! What a surprise.

Copenhagen and Cologne

I spent last weekend in the beautiful city of Copenhagen, Denmark before moving back to Germany, to the wonderful rhine valley. Copenhagen is a very interesting city. It is very beautiful , right on the coast, and there are many beautiful buildings. The people are also very friendly and there are many beautiful gardens in the city. The only drawback is that things are very expensive. Denmark in general seems to love two danish Icons, Hans Christian Andersen, whose work is represented by numerous statues in the city, and Lego, that Danish toy that has fascinated the childen of the world for decades. I unfortunately did not get to legoland in Denmark as it is three hours away and costs a lot of money, but there are reminders of its origin throughout the city. Copenhagen also has two beautiful palaces and a very nice citadel and gardens, the citaldel still being used as a military base to this day. The old town of Copenhagen has some very nice scandinavian architecture. After Denmark it was back to germany and the woderful city of Cologne. The people of the rhine valley are very friendly and I met some very nice people during my four days there. Cologne itself has a very quaint old town, near the rhine and an absolutely stunning gothic cathedral. Cologne is also known for its chocolate, there is a factory right on the rhine that one can visit and of course, the male fragrance that has become known simply as "Cologne" in North America. Cologne also has some very good beer, called Kolsh, which is consumed in small, 200 ml glasses. The ritual is that the glass is continually refilled without asking until the customer puts their coaster on top of the glass. I also got a chance to visit the smaller city of Bonn, just up the river. Bonn is a very nice city with a beautiful centre and nice square but unfortunately with too many modern governmental buildings. This after all was the seat of government of West Germany from 1949-1990 and continued as such in unified Germany until 1996. I am now in the Netherlands, near the Hague, and will tell of my time here in the next post.

Central and Eastern Germany

Hi all

Have been touring Germany over the last week or so. I visited Heidelberg, Frankfurt, and Berlin to be precise. I will start with Heidelberg, a sleepy city of around 140,000 that has a beautiful old town and very picturesque hills. I walked up the hill to the castle and managed to get a good view of the city. There is also a very beautiful bridge over the river that lets you see down the river valley, very nice. After Heidelberg I took the short journey to Frankfurt am Main, the financial centre of Europe. Unfortunately this financial centre aspect of the city has resulted in the place being rather dull and with few things to do for tourists, especially in March. I ended up simply going to a soccer game to fill an afternoon, which was most enjoyable. After Frankfurt I went over to Berlin, the old Capital. Berlin is a very unique city and there is definetly a difference between east and west. East Berlin has many remenants of the cold war, with shabby buildings, cheaper food, and most of the nightlife while West Berlin is wealthier and much more of a residential part of the city. There are still parts of the Berlin wall remaining and there is definetly a sense of need to preserve the remaining bits of it to remind the world about what it was like for so many years. Berlin is slowly getting back on its feet with restoration projects in the former east Berlin part, where most of the historic buildings are located. The most important and touristy street, Unter den Linden, has a lot of construction projects going on to return it to its prewar glory. The problem lies in that the city of Berlin is bankrupt and the federal government is not too amused about financing such projects, which means that most restoration projects are now being funded by the private sector, so who knows how long the stream of money will continue to come. Berlin is unique in that it is one of the few remaining places in Europe to still bear the scars of WWII, due to the lack of reconstruction of certain areas by the former GDR (east germany) and because some restoration projects intentionally left some of the smoke damage to serve as a reminder of how bad things were, over 80% of the city was damaged during the war. I am now in Copenhagen and will report on Denmark in a few days!!

Prague and Munich

Sorry for a lack of posting folks, internet time is not easy to come by. Have spent the last six days in the wonderful cities of Prague, Czech Republi and Munich, Germany. Two very different cities. Prague is a city of contrasts. There is the touristy centre which is very beautiful with Wenceslaus square (not really a square) and then the Old Town Square, where Jan Hus was Burned to death in 1415 for Heresy, and the famous Charles Bridge. Then you cross the river and get to the Beautiful Prague castle and can walk a little farther up the hill to the observation tower that looks like a scaled down version of the Eiffel tower. If you go back across the river and leave the touristy areas with their kitchy souvenir shops and expensive restaurants and Pubs, you get to the New town, which is not really new. The New Town is filled with really nice buildings built in the second half of the nineteenth century. What sets it apart from say Vienna or Budapest, is that there is no uniform architectual style. You walk down the streets and every building is different. Then you can walk up past the national museum to the park up there and look out over the town before going for a nice cold beer (Czech Beer is some of the best) in a pub rarely frequented by tourists, which will save you a lot of money. (a beer in such a pub will cost you around $1.25 to $1.50 for half a liter). Going to pub in Prague can be difficult because they tend to be filled with loud, drunken, English people. Munich is different, quite German, quite orderly, but much more laid back than Vienna. Munich is a very nice city with many things to do, and lots of beer to drink if you like beer. The place is filled with Beer Halls and Beer Gardens (it is a bit too cold for a beer garden at the moment) and the occasional older gentleman in traditional bavarian Lederhosen. I went to the famous Hopfbrauhaus, which is a famous beer hall in the city centre. In Bavaria they sell Beer in 1 litre glasses called Maß and there is a very specific way to hold (they are heavy). There is also an oom-pah Band that when they play a specific song everyone stands up and says "prost" or "cheers". I also went to the deutsches museum, the largest technology museum in Germany and got a free three hour walking tour of the city. Munich is great, you should come!

Vienna (Wien)

Vienna is very different from the other cities I have visited and quite unique in Europe. One of the main reasons for this is that it is the most organized and disciplined city I have visited and the whole place has a very 19th century feel to it. The people respect the rules and respect one another. I would not call the Viennese overtly friendly, but they are very respectful and very polite. The city is very beautiful with the grand old palaces and buildings of the Habsburg era mostly still intact, with the exception of the ones redesigned by the WWII school of architecture but even those have been rebuilt. One of the most magnificent of these palaces is the Schonbrunn Palace, a grand building built a little way outside the city centre. It was built in the middle of the 18th century and served as the summer residence of the Habsburg emperors until the end of the monarchy in 1918. Emperor Franz Josef (reigned 1848-1916) was born there and he died there. There is also the Hofburg Palace in the centre, the Habsburgs winter residence, and the State Opera. The Opera is one of the most prestigious opera houses in Europe and I managed to get to a performance due to the fact that standing room tickets are only 2 euros, or about $3.50. St. Stephens church is a popular attraction, as is the little town of Grinzing on the edge of Vienna where tourists often go for the famous wine pubs. One a side note, I was in the right place at the right time in my hostel and managed to get on German TV. They were doing a travel show and were talking about the well known hostel I was at and they needed people to pretend to be backpackers and I volunteered. If you are in Germany on April 13th watch WDR at 8:15 pm!!! I am now in Prague and will tell you more about the city later on!