By the time we got to Italy, I was pretty tired of being a tourist, but I'll be the first to admit that Italy was probably my favorite country to be a tourist in. The landmarks are very close together, and for some reason I liked them better than the ones we'd seen in other countries. (That said, this was also the one country where no one in our family understood or spoke the language. We still managed to get through it, and we didn't even have any trouble with pickpockets.)
We spent our first day in Italy at the Vatican. The museum was awesome, and the tour was fantastic, but it was a two-hour tour, so everyone was pretty tired by the time we got to the end. However, the Sistine Chapel was absolutely amazing - I could have spent all day in there. (The Raphael rooms were awesome too.) We ended up wandering through St. Peter's Basilica, where we found an open gate and ended up in one layer of the catacombs. Actually seeing the tomb of St. Peter was pretty awesome and not something I was counting on seeing. (I'm not Catholic, I'm Protestant, and even though I'm not super-religious as it is, Peter figures prominently in many variations of Christianity, so seeing his tomb was very cool.) I sent a postcard to my boyfriend from the Vatican and had an interesting discussion with my parents about how you'd get your passport stamped there (the answer: you wouldn't). The Vatican ended up taking the whole day, but it was very fun and I got some fantastic pictures.
The second day in Italy was all things in Rome. We started at the Colosseum, which was AWESOME - ancient stuff is definitely some of my favorite stuff. After a couple detours that didn't get us anywhere, we made it to the Pantheon. After we toured the Pantheon (and let me tell you, it was amazing), we stopped for lunch. Then we went to Trevi Fountain (yes, we did the standard coin-throwing - Eric almost took out a seagull) and the Spanish Steps. After stopping once again for ice cream (gelato!), we decided to call it a day. The next morning we flew to JFK and then to SFO.
We walked about a hundred miles in two weeks, and we averaged between fifteen and twenty flights of stairs per day. It was a crazy trip, but I'm so glad I got to go. (Waking up the next morning and going to a college event wasn't my favorite thing to do, but that turned out pretty okay too.) Now I'm on to other things, and I have to admit I'm excited to see what the future holds!
Love you all,
Megan
Monday, July 22, 2013
Germany Part Two
Hey, everybody!
We've been back in the USA for a week now, but for some reason I just didn't get around to updating this thing. Well, now's the time.
Our last full day in Germany wasn't nearly as exciting as the others had been - not for me, anyway. First stop was the Deutsches Museum, a technology/innovation museum in Munich. I like museums, but this one just wasn't up my alley. Sure, the music rooms were AWESOME and I could have spent a day in the glassblowing room, but other than the fine arts stuff, I just wasn't interested in very much. However, I enjoyed playing in the room that had all sorts of geometrical brain teasers in it - that kind of stuff has always interested me. After the museum, we went to Olympic Park in Munich. Again, nice, but not super exciting since you can't really go in anything (and the zipline was 70 euros). However, we did see two adult swans and three cygnets, so we got our "awwww!" of the day there.
Our last stop was BMW Welt (World), which was right next to Olympic Park. There are a couple simulators, but basically there's just a lot of BMWs sitting around - a lot like a showroom. I got bored pretty quickly, so I just sat down and stayed out of the way while the rest of my family had fun.
The next day we went to Salzburg, Austria, which completely made up for the day before. :)
Salzburg is beautiful. There's this GIGANTIC castle on a hill in the middle of the city (we didn't actually visit it) and there are a million sites they used when filming The Sound of Music. We saw Mozart's birthplace and one of his residences, and we found what I still claim is the best ice cream in the world. Before we got into the city, we stopped at Hellbrunn, a castle just outside of Salzburg, and took a tour. Hellbrunn is known for its famous trick fountains - the guy who owned the castle had an awesome sense of humor and some pretty great engineers. The tour is very fun, but you're pretty much guaranteed to get wet. (Of course, when it's eighty-five degrees outside - about twenty-nine Centigrade - that feels pretty good.) I highly recommend taking the tour if you ever find yourself there, but bring something to protect your cameras. (By the way, all of these castles in Germany and Austria are called Schloss Hellbrunn or Schloss Neuschwanstein - schloss is the German word for castle.)
We flew to Rome the day after we visited Salzburg, and we had a six-hour layover in Berlin. That would have been pretty terrible if we hadn't thought ahead and found out what you could do with six hours in Berlin. We ended up taking a bus to Brandenberg Tor, the gate that used to separate East and West Berlin. We got some fantastic pictures from what used to be no-man's land. The last time my parents were in Germany was months before the wall fell, so to see Berlin like there was never any wall there was pretty amazing for them. We also saw the giant radio tower whose name currently escapes me, as well as a Protestant cathedral (I didn't know those even existed) and several other landmarks. We made it out to the Berlin Hard Rock - we didn't eat there, but my brother had to get another t-shirt. (He ended up getting five on this trip.) After that, we took a bus back to the airport and still had plenty of time before our flight to Rome. Somewhere in Berlin, we saw a street musician setting up a marimba - yes, you read that right, a marimba - and another duo playing violin and bass.
The awesome thing about Air Berlin is that they give you chocolate hearts at the end of every flight. However, I wouldn't recommend leaving said chocolate in your pocket... it tends to melt.
Love you all,
Megan
We've been back in the USA for a week now, but for some reason I just didn't get around to updating this thing. Well, now's the time.
Our last full day in Germany wasn't nearly as exciting as the others had been - not for me, anyway. First stop was the Deutsches Museum, a technology/innovation museum in Munich. I like museums, but this one just wasn't up my alley. Sure, the music rooms were AWESOME and I could have spent a day in the glassblowing room, but other than the fine arts stuff, I just wasn't interested in very much. However, I enjoyed playing in the room that had all sorts of geometrical brain teasers in it - that kind of stuff has always interested me. After the museum, we went to Olympic Park in Munich. Again, nice, but not super exciting since you can't really go in anything (and the zipline was 70 euros). However, we did see two adult swans and three cygnets, so we got our "awwww!" of the day there.
Our last stop was BMW Welt (World), which was right next to Olympic Park. There are a couple simulators, but basically there's just a lot of BMWs sitting around - a lot like a showroom. I got bored pretty quickly, so I just sat down and stayed out of the way while the rest of my family had fun.
The next day we went to Salzburg, Austria, which completely made up for the day before. :)
Salzburg is beautiful. There's this GIGANTIC castle on a hill in the middle of the city (we didn't actually visit it) and there are a million sites they used when filming The Sound of Music. We saw Mozart's birthplace and one of his residences, and we found what I still claim is the best ice cream in the world. Before we got into the city, we stopped at Hellbrunn, a castle just outside of Salzburg, and took a tour. Hellbrunn is known for its famous trick fountains - the guy who owned the castle had an awesome sense of humor and some pretty great engineers. The tour is very fun, but you're pretty much guaranteed to get wet. (Of course, when it's eighty-five degrees outside - about twenty-nine Centigrade - that feels pretty good.) I highly recommend taking the tour if you ever find yourself there, but bring something to protect your cameras. (By the way, all of these castles in Germany and Austria are called Schloss Hellbrunn or Schloss Neuschwanstein - schloss is the German word for castle.)
We flew to Rome the day after we visited Salzburg, and we had a six-hour layover in Berlin. That would have been pretty terrible if we hadn't thought ahead and found out what you could do with six hours in Berlin. We ended up taking a bus to Brandenberg Tor, the gate that used to separate East and West Berlin. We got some fantastic pictures from what used to be no-man's land. The last time my parents were in Germany was months before the wall fell, so to see Berlin like there was never any wall there was pretty amazing for them. We also saw the giant radio tower whose name currently escapes me, as well as a Protestant cathedral (I didn't know those even existed) and several other landmarks. We made it out to the Berlin Hard Rock - we didn't eat there, but my brother had to get another t-shirt. (He ended up getting five on this trip.) After that, we took a bus back to the airport and still had plenty of time before our flight to Rome. Somewhere in Berlin, we saw a street musician setting up a marimba - yes, you read that right, a marimba - and another duo playing violin and bass.
The awesome thing about Air Berlin is that they give you chocolate hearts at the end of every flight. However, I wouldn't recommend leaving said chocolate in your pocket... it tends to melt.
Love you all,
Megan
Monday, July 8, 2013
Germany Part One: We're Really, Really Tired
Gutentag!
The morning we left Paris, we checked out of the hotel at 6AM. Our train left at 7 something, and by lunchtime we were safely in Karlsruhe, Germany to visit some family friends. We all had lunch together, then we drove to Heidelberg to see the castle ruins there. The tour was awesome - our guide was great and the stories were really intriguing. We shopped a little, then went to a biergarten for dinner before turning in for the night.
The next morning, we took a train (at a reasonable hour) to Munich. That day was reserved for laundry, though we did see the glockenspiel and eat at the Hard Rock. The rest of the day was mostly a wash.
Yesterday we checked out Schloss Neuschwanstein. It's a castle in Germany from the 1800's that was the inspiration for one of Disney's castles. It was a very long day, but we enjoyed it.
Love you all,
Megan
Saturday, July 6, 2013
France: Three Days, 20+ Miles
Bonjour!
Sorry I haven't gotten to post in awhile - wifi's been spotty and/or expensive, so I've had to update when I can. I'm ditching day numbers in the title because it's too confusing for me to keep track while I'm busy doing all this tourist-y stuff. France was a blast, although I think I liked London better when it comes to the actual city.
On the first day, we got up early to take the EuroStar (high-speed rail) to Paris from London via the Chunnel. It was actually really fun. When we got to Paris, we had an interesting voyage from Gare du Nord to our hotel - apparently, very few ticket machines in Paris actually take paper money. Once we got there, grumbling the whole time about how there were no elevators in the Metro stations, we put our stuff down and immediately set out again to find lunch. We ended up at a nice little bistro down the street, and I got to practice my French for the first time in about a year.
At this point, I'm going to dispel a rumor about Parisians. Contrary to popular belief, they don't all frown upon Americans speaking French (or trying to) - in fact, all but two of the people I spoke French with seemed happy that I was making the effort. It was really encouraging when they'd speak back to me, and I'm happy I took those three years of French class in school.
Anyway. After lunch, we went to meet a family friend who was spending time in France, and the five of us went to Notre Dame. It was beautiful, and we appreciated the free admission after having to pay to get into Westminster Abbey. Once we got through there, we proceeded to walk ALL THE WAY down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. (That walk is several miles, by the way. If you're going to make the trip, be prepared or take the subway.) We went to a little restaurant on Ile Saint-Louis for dinner, which was probably the best food I've had in a long time. After that, we called it a night.
The next day my dad and I went to the top of the Tour Eiffel while my mom and brother went to the Army Museum. If you want to hit the Eiffel Tower on a visit to Paris, go on a cloudy day - the lines are exponentially shorter (from two or more hours to ten or fifteen minutes) and you can still see Paris spread out below you from the top. It rained a little while we were up there, but it was awesome. We joined the rest of our family at the Army Museum for about half an hour, then spent the afternoon at the Louvre. We split up since I really wanted to see the Egyptian stuff (surprise surprise) and the rest of the family didn't. I did see the Mona Lisa, which was pretty cool. I love the Louvre and I definitely want to come back sometime when I have more than three hours to spend there!
Our last day in Paris was spent at Versailles. I had really been looking forward to this part, but I wasn't as happy with it as I'd thought I would be. The house was nice, but there was too much gold on everything for my taste (not that it really matters). Everything was really spread out, which I know is part of the point of having a palace, but we couldn't go see the Trianons and Marie Antoinette's estate without buying more tickets. The gardens are pretty, but you really have to look for the statuary hidden within. It's hard to walk through them, too, since they're so doggone big. Don't get me wrong, everything was really beautiful and there were certain parts I really enjoyed, but overall I was a little bummed.
We got up at an ungodly hour yesterday to catch our train to Karlsruhe, Germany. I'll start with that in my next update.
Love you all,
Megan
Sorry I haven't gotten to post in awhile - wifi's been spotty and/or expensive, so I've had to update when I can. I'm ditching day numbers in the title because it's too confusing for me to keep track while I'm busy doing all this tourist-y stuff. France was a blast, although I think I liked London better when it comes to the actual city.
On the first day, we got up early to take the EuroStar (high-speed rail) to Paris from London via the Chunnel. It was actually really fun. When we got to Paris, we had an interesting voyage from Gare du Nord to our hotel - apparently, very few ticket machines in Paris actually take paper money. Once we got there, grumbling the whole time about how there were no elevators in the Metro stations, we put our stuff down and immediately set out again to find lunch. We ended up at a nice little bistro down the street, and I got to practice my French for the first time in about a year.
At this point, I'm going to dispel a rumor about Parisians. Contrary to popular belief, they don't all frown upon Americans speaking French (or trying to) - in fact, all but two of the people I spoke French with seemed happy that I was making the effort. It was really encouraging when they'd speak back to me, and I'm happy I took those three years of French class in school.
Anyway. After lunch, we went to meet a family friend who was spending time in France, and the five of us went to Notre Dame. It was beautiful, and we appreciated the free admission after having to pay to get into Westminster Abbey. Once we got through there, we proceeded to walk ALL THE WAY down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. (That walk is several miles, by the way. If you're going to make the trip, be prepared or take the subway.) We went to a little restaurant on Ile Saint-Louis for dinner, which was probably the best food I've had in a long time. After that, we called it a night.
The next day my dad and I went to the top of the Tour Eiffel while my mom and brother went to the Army Museum. If you want to hit the Eiffel Tower on a visit to Paris, go on a cloudy day - the lines are exponentially shorter (from two or more hours to ten or fifteen minutes) and you can still see Paris spread out below you from the top. It rained a little while we were up there, but it was awesome. We joined the rest of our family at the Army Museum for about half an hour, then spent the afternoon at the Louvre. We split up since I really wanted to see the Egyptian stuff (surprise surprise) and the rest of the family didn't. I did see the Mona Lisa, which was pretty cool. I love the Louvre and I definitely want to come back sometime when I have more than three hours to spend there!
Our last day in Paris was spent at Versailles. I had really been looking forward to this part, but I wasn't as happy with it as I'd thought I would be. The house was nice, but there was too much gold on everything for my taste (not that it really matters). Everything was really spread out, which I know is part of the point of having a palace, but we couldn't go see the Trianons and Marie Antoinette's estate without buying more tickets. The gardens are pretty, but you really have to look for the statuary hidden within. It's hard to walk through them, too, since they're so doggone big. Don't get me wrong, everything was really beautiful and there were certain parts I really enjoyed, but overall I was a little bummed.
We got up at an ungodly hour yesterday to catch our train to Karlsruhe, Germany. I'll start with that in my next update.
Love you all,
Megan
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Day 2: London: Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Phantom of the Opera
The Tower of London is actually a palace/fortress comprised of somewhere around twenty towers (the most famous being the White Tower). For hundreds of years, special armed forces elite veterans have served here. The Beefeaters, as they are called, ran the prison that was here centuries ago, and now they oversee the keeping of the grounds and the running of tours and other public events. After an awesome guided tour, we got to wander around for awhile. And wander we did - we saw the Crown Jewels, which were amazing, and the armory in the White Tower. We stayed through lunch and the early afternoon.
Then was the Westminster Abbey. It was really neat and I liked the tour, but it wasn't anything extraordinary. My favorite part of the day was the performance of Phantom of the Opera we went to that night. I've been memorizing musicals since I was five or six, and it was amazing to see this one at Her Majesty's Theatre. I absolutely loved it.
It sounds like we didn't do much, but 17,000 steps and 33 flights of stairs later, I beg to differ.
Love you all,
Megan
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