My (Eastern) European vacation 2008, part 1 of 4
I take a lot of pictures when I'm on vacation, this vacation was no exception, so I'm breaking this up into four parts. It is very much not dial-up friendly behind the cut tag.
Berlin
We flew into Berlin on Easter Sunday and had the honor of having our bags be some of the 25,000 or so that were lost when Heathrow implemented their new baggage system. We got our bags back later that night (delivered to the apartment). It actually worked out great 'cause we didn't have to lug our bags (and the things we were bringing over for T) on the bus from the airport. Also, when we found out that the bags would arrive by 10:30 at night (which they did) it gave us the extra incentive we needed to not go to be early despite having been up for more than twenty four hours at that point. So, we both woke up around 9 am the next day jetlag free.
As has become tradition we went out for Vietnamese food after filling out all our lost bag forms at the airport (very efficient, the German system). One of the many things I love about Berlin is the wide range of excellent (and inexpensive) restaurants available. That and the bread, oh the bread. I wish American had the same idea of what good bread is that the Germans do. Wonderbread would never fly over there.
I love Berlin but I've been there so many times now (four or five I think) that I don't take many pictures when I'm there (rather like how I don't take a lot of pictures when I go visit friends in the States). This time we did a lot of riding around on bicycles, which is very nice as Berlin is an incredibly bicycle friendly city, but not at all conducive to picture taking 'cause T (the one we were visiting not the one that's my boyfriend) likes to go very fast.
This a couple blocks from T & T's apartment, we walked and rode by here quite a bit on the way to the train, and to get groceries and to go to coffee shops and bakeries and out to dinner etc.
This was taken from the courtyard in front of their apartment building while T and T fixed bikes so that we had four that worked for riding around.
We rode to the Russian war memorial one gorgeous day. It has strange monoliths that look like stylized sphinxes from afar. Not from this angle, though.
While we were in Berlin we bought some Absinthe (T had gotten excited about the idea starting a couple of weeks before we left and done a bunch of research about what countries you can get it in, etc.). Through our extensive research over the course of the trip (we brought one of the bottles with us) we discovered that, contrary to popular myth, it does not make you hallucinate but does give you a nice clear and none sleepy buzz and is quite nice when mixed with sparkling mineral water.
From Berlin we took a train to Wroclaw in south eastern Poland. It was a six hour ride and quite nice to just sit there and read and watch the countryside go by. And also watch how it changed slowly as we moved further east.
Wroclaw
We got off the train and then proceeded to basically walk all the way across the city pulling out rolly suitcases behind us. This became a bit of a theme for the trip.
Rynek Glowny, the main square. The colorful buildings make me happy.
The town hall, which is in the main square. It was build and added onto over a period of many hundreds of years so it's quite eclectic looking which i like a lot.
Inside the town hall looking out.
Saint Elizabeth's Church (through an archway which I think I took about ten pictures of) just outside the north west side of the square. Sadly the tower was not open for climbing but they had a really interesting (and free) English audio tour of the inside.
There were all these little gnome sculptures all over the city. They were actually gnome sized (about a foot tall) and you'd find them lurking in odd places. There was even one near a restaurant holding a perogie on a fork. This guy was my favorite.
Ostrow Tumski is an island in in the river north of town. It's all churches and old buildings and has gas lamps along the bridge across the river. It was very cool watching the guys come along and light them at dusk. The whole place kind of feels like stepping back in time.
The second day we were there we watched a storm blow in from the west, drop huge windblown snowflakes, and then moved on leaving everything with a thin white coating for the rest of the evening. It was quite dramatic.
And this is the part where I go on about how much I LOVE my camera because it allows me to take shots like this:
Building and churches (the names of which I do not know) that we walked by quite a bit going from our hotel (which was near Ostrow Tumski) to town.
This building was just around the corner from the hotel and I found myself totally fascinated by it. It is not famous or very old or a church though so I have no idea what it is.
Sunset over the river (which was also very near our hotel) our last night in Wroclaw. It was a nice send off.
Berlin
We flew into Berlin on Easter Sunday and had the honor of having our bags be some of the 25,000 or so that were lost when Heathrow implemented their new baggage system. We got our bags back later that night (delivered to the apartment). It actually worked out great 'cause we didn't have to lug our bags (and the things we were bringing over for T) on the bus from the airport. Also, when we found out that the bags would arrive by 10:30 at night (which they did) it gave us the extra incentive we needed to not go to be early despite having been up for more than twenty four hours at that point. So, we both woke up around 9 am the next day jetlag free.
As has become tradition we went out for Vietnamese food after filling out all our lost bag forms at the airport (very efficient, the German system). One of the many things I love about Berlin is the wide range of excellent (and inexpensive) restaurants available. That and the bread, oh the bread. I wish American had the same idea of what good bread is that the Germans do. Wonderbread would never fly over there.
I love Berlin but I've been there so many times now (four or five I think) that I don't take many pictures when I'm there (rather like how I don't take a lot of pictures when I go visit friends in the States). This time we did a lot of riding around on bicycles, which is very nice as Berlin is an incredibly bicycle friendly city, but not at all conducive to picture taking 'cause T (the one we were visiting not the one that's my boyfriend) likes to go very fast.
This a couple blocks from T & T's apartment, we walked and rode by here quite a bit on the way to the train, and to get groceries and to go to coffee shops and bakeries and out to dinner etc.
This was taken from the courtyard in front of their apartment building while T and T fixed bikes so that we had four that worked for riding around.
We rode to the Russian war memorial one gorgeous day. It has strange monoliths that look like stylized sphinxes from afar. Not from this angle, though.
While we were in Berlin we bought some Absinthe (T had gotten excited about the idea starting a couple of weeks before we left and done a bunch of research about what countries you can get it in, etc.). Through our extensive research over the course of the trip (we brought one of the bottles with us) we discovered that, contrary to popular myth, it does not make you hallucinate but does give you a nice clear and none sleepy buzz and is quite nice when mixed with sparkling mineral water.
From Berlin we took a train to Wroclaw in south eastern Poland. It was a six hour ride and quite nice to just sit there and read and watch the countryside go by. And also watch how it changed slowly as we moved further east.
Wroclaw
We got off the train and then proceeded to basically walk all the way across the city pulling out rolly suitcases behind us. This became a bit of a theme for the trip.
Rynek Glowny, the main square. The colorful buildings make me happy.
The town hall, which is in the main square. It was build and added onto over a period of many hundreds of years so it's quite eclectic looking which i like a lot.
Inside the town hall looking out.
Saint Elizabeth's Church (through an archway which I think I took about ten pictures of) just outside the north west side of the square. Sadly the tower was not open for climbing but they had a really interesting (and free) English audio tour of the inside.
There were all these little gnome sculptures all over the city. They were actually gnome sized (about a foot tall) and you'd find them lurking in odd places. There was even one near a restaurant holding a perogie on a fork. This guy was my favorite.
Ostrow Tumski is an island in in the river north of town. It's all churches and old buildings and has gas lamps along the bridge across the river. It was very cool watching the guys come along and light them at dusk. The whole place kind of feels like stepping back in time.
The second day we were there we watched a storm blow in from the west, drop huge windblown snowflakes, and then moved on leaving everything with a thin white coating for the rest of the evening. It was quite dramatic.
And this is the part where I go on about how much I LOVE my camera because it allows me to take shots like this:
Building and churches (the names of which I do not know) that we walked by quite a bit going from our hotel (which was near Ostrow Tumski) to town.
This building was just around the corner from the hotel and I found myself totally fascinated by it. It is not famous or very old or a church though so I have no idea what it is.
Sunset over the river (which was also very near our hotel) our last night in Wroclaw. It was a nice send off.