Lodging

We made it to the promised land: Amsterdam. Now I know what you are thinking and you need to get your mind out of the gutter. You know what they say about Vegas and I think that applies here as well. Actually Amsterdam is one of the best cities we have been to. The architecture is beautiful. The canals are better then in Venice. It has great parks and is a great place to just spend some time relaxing or wandering around and getting lost. In fact, the red light district is only a small part of town and while you may see XXX everywhere that is because it is the symbol of the city and has nothing to do with the world's oldest profession.

I am getting ahead of myself however. After the last post we spent a few more days in Praha. Neal and I got our Nedvev jerseys. We also went to a philosophy discussion led by an OSU alum who is now an ex-pat living in Prague. It was interesting to say the least. We spent most of the night discussing a work by Freud and drinking Gambrinus. I would say it ranks up there as being one of the more random events of the trip.

Then our next stop was in Belgium. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with Arno, Jennifer and Lukas. Neal and I can't thank them enough for their hospitality and we hope that Lukas' first day of day care went well. Belgium while not the most scenic place ever turned out to be one of the most fun. We spent a day in Brussels. The high lights of which were the delicious fries (try them with andlouse sauce,) the bar we went to that had over 250 different beers, and a statue of a little boy peeing. I am not sure how Brussels got the reputation for being boring but who ever came up with that must not having been trying very hard. We also went to a free music festival in Mechelen and in Bruge we were lucky enough to be there on the day of the procession of the holy blood. This parade last for a couple hours and only happens once every four years. We had no idea what things were suppose to mean but everyone was dressed in medieval costumes from kings and queens to peasants who cleaned up after the horses.

That brings us back up to date. In only a few days we are returning stateside. We are leaving Amsterdam tomorrow and have a few days in Iceland. That will probably make this the last post from Europe but there will probably be an update on how we are adjusting to being back in the real world.

Well as nice as Switzerland was and even though we met a bunch of great people there and it was really nice we had to leave eventually. I am sure it won't be too long before we are back though. I think Neal is planning his next trip already. We headed on down the tracks to Budapest. Our first chance to get a taste of Eastern Europe. Get a taste we did. The food in Hungary was great. In case you are thinking the country is misnamed, you would be right. The Hungarians refer to themselves as the Maygars. Hun is term applied to them by other Europeans upon their arrival in the region. The likened them to the actual Huns- such as Atilla- of earlier times. The best part of about the food was that there was a lot of it and it was cheap. A better combination I have yet to find. That is about all we did in Budapest. We didn't really see any of the sights. The city is an interesting mix of gorgeous Baroque structures and crumbling communist era ruins. Must of our time was just spent walking around the city and finding good parks to read in. The best on an island in the middle of the Danube. We spent a whole day there. If I ever make it back I will have to see all the things I missed. Part of the reason we didn't see much was we were too tired during the day to do anything. The place we stayed at in Budapest was a university dorm converted in the summer into a hostel. It was a dump. I would say the worst place we have stayed at all summer. What would a trip to Europe be without staying in at least one really crappy hostel though, right? At least we did not go hungary in Hungry. (Please note the intentional misspelling meant to annoy Kim.)

The next stop and where we are currently is Prague. We haven't done much yet besides have a few beers. I think we will at least try to see some of the sights here. The city is really beautiful. It escaped WWII unscathed and has retained much of its pre-war charm. The signs of communism are less noticeable here as well. Only the train station seems to be a reminder of that era. I haven't seen in Nedvev jerseys though. I really wanted to get one so Derringer, Pullins and I could all match. Oh well its probably better I don't associate myself with them anyway.

Well actually its not a job (just in case anyone from customs and immigration is reading this). Neal is just helping out around the hostel we are staying at in Switzerland for a few days. He cleans the kitchen, does some sweeping, and helps to put stuff away. In return he gets free a bed and half priced beer. Not a bad deal at all. He is calling it his vacation from vacation. It is easy to stay too. Gimmelwald is one of the pretties places on earth. I know I raved about it in the last post but I can't emphasize enough how great it is. I can't wait to go back. In fact, I won't have to wait to long as I am returning from there from Florence on the 12th. Even though I was having a great time there and met probably the most interesting people of the trip so far, the idea of watching Neal clean and get cheap beer was that appealing. I instead took the opportunity to come back to Florence and see somethings I missed the first time, namely the David and the Uffizi. It was also raining in Gimmelwald so that kinda put a damper on the hiking.

The hiking is great, when it is not raining. In fact, it has rained so much that the cable car flooded and part of the road washed out, stranding some people on Wednesday night. Before it started raining though, Neal and I climbed up to the top of the Schilthorn with Andrew and Dylan. They were staying at the hostel for about two weeks. Andrew who is a math teacher in Ireland had been to Gimmelwald six times before and this was Dylan's (Andrew's son) second time. It was great hiking with them. Andrew knew the path and quite a bit of other information on the region. The Lauterbrunnen valley was Tolkien's inspiration for Rivendell and the Schilthorn served as the filming location for the James Bond movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. All in all it is a pretty sweet place you might say. I am sure that I will be going back some day and I know that Neal will be. If there is one place you can't miss while travelling in Europe it would be Gimmelwald. You might even run into Rick Steves. He was staying at the Mountain Hostel about a week before we got there.