Europe top ten

So I decided to write a post about all the little fun, weird, and different things about Europe.  Here are my top ten interesting things about Europe:

10- Toilets:  The toilets in Europe are just...different.  Most of the time you have to push a button to flush.  Sometimes there are two buttons, one small for, well, small flushes, and one big for, well, you know.  Some toilets had levers, but not like ours in America.  It is very hard to find toilets, sometimes, as proprietors of shops and restaurants only want to let paying customers use theirs.  The seats are also all very small.  Enough said.

You can't see the buttons to push on the top of the tank.

The grey thing on the back wall is the push button.

9- Showers:  Most hotels where we stayed did not use any kind of shower curtain or fully enclosed shower.  The one in Amsterdam did have a shower curtain, but there was no way to keep the water from going all over the floor because there was no separation between the shower and the rest of the bathroom!  Most places had a little half wall made of glass that could be swung out to clean the tub.  As you can imagine, if not sealed properly, water all over the floor again.  One shower in France was impossible to figure out how to work.  I just had to take a standing bath, splashing the water on myself from the faucet.

Our shower in Amsterdam.  There is no difference between the shower floor and bathroom floor.

Our shower in Reims.  Notice the floor is the same in the shower as the rest.  And yes, water was everywhere.  Also notice the toilet buttons, one big and one little.

8-  Breakfast:  Breakfast is a different experience.  Half of the hotels included it, half you had to pay something ridiculous like 12 Euros or more.  There was usually a basket of many types of breads, sliced cheese, sliced meats, muesli or flakes for cereal, scrambled eggs that looked like they had been pushed through a sieve, sweet rolls, and soft boiled eggs.  There was always coffee and most people looked at me like I was crazy when I didn't want any.  At the hotel in Reims, France, there was this contraption to boil your eggs, but I couldn't get it to boil enough.

Beans, for breakfast?  Seriously, Scott!

7- Transportation:  Trains, trains, trains.  We rode a lot of trains.  Some had easy, straight routes.  Others, we had to run to transfer to another train.  The trains in the Netherlands were by far the nicest.  They were newer and cleaner.  They also had a lot of double decker trains, so we always went up top for the view.  They also offered free wireless internet.  The Eurostar train to London through the channel tunnel was cool, but crowded.  A few times on trains, Scott and I couldn't sit together because they were so full. 
In England, driving on the left side of the road is crazy.  I was so confused when using traffic circles and turning, I was glad Scott drove.

Watch the signs to make sure you're on the right platform!

I'm on a train.  The top of a double decker.

6-  Traffic circles:  Oh...my...gosh...so many traffic circles, especially in France.  Scott would whip through them so quickly, I was carsick most of the time.  You would go through one traffic circle, go 10 feet, and hit another one, and another, and another like that.  It was traffic circle overkill.

Not a traffic circle, but we went through them too fast for me to get a picture!

5-  Health and safety:  You gotta hand it to those British folks, they are very concerned about our safety and health.  We constantly heard reminders about how this wasn't safe or that wasn't complaint with health and safety rules during our many tours of historic buildings.  Even the elevators were politely reminding us to be safe and mind the doors.  Oh, and they told us, "going up" or "going down."  As if we didn't already know, lol, silly elevators.

4-  Paying for stuff:  First of all, if you plan on going to Europe anytime soon, make sure you have at least one card with the chip thingy in it and find out your pin number.  Apparently that is how most of Europe is paying for stuff now, not swiping cards.  Also, they are very good about not taking your card to swipe it.  They have you do it, or if you are at dinner someplace, they bring this handheld device where they swipe it at your table.  It prints out the receipt, you sign a copy, and voila, you're done!  Tipping is not expected in Europe because they pay their waiters a living wage.

3-  Windmills:  Amsterdam and Belgium were full of them.  France and England had some, too.  It's a great idea, clean energy.  Plus, they were always put up on farmland or grazing meadows to make good use of the space.  Sometimes, there were as many as 30 as far as you could see stretching over the fields and hills.  I wish it would catch on more here in the US. 

An old school windmill.  Not too many left these days, sadly.

New school windmills, cool!

2-  Food:  It was fun to taste all of the different foods of the different regions.  But it was also fun to walk into a store and see the different candies, chocolates, and chips, similar to us but also very different.  And let me tell you, orange Fanta in Europe is sooooo much better than in America.  They use real juice and carbonate it, not like the regular old syrupy stuff they use here.  People drink a lot of beer and wine over there.  It wasn't unusual to see people drinking wine at lunch.  We even saw some men getting beers at breakfast in Stratford upon Avon!

Oliebollen in Sneek, The Netherlands

A Belgian Waffle in Belgium, of course!

Salad and kasespatzle in the Alsace Region of France.

Fish and chips in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1-  Fashion:  Scarves, everyone wore them, even men and little kids.  And I'm not talking the practical warm woolen scarves for winter.  Also, skinny jeans.  Everyone, even old people, were wearing them.  My jeans were too long, so I had to roll them up because they were dragging on the ground and getting wet.  I'm sure I stuck out like a sore thumb.  Some women wore leggings or skirts.  A lot of women wore boots. 

Me sporting my stylish and warm scarf.

There you have it.  There were so many other cool things about Europe but I can't think of every thing right now.  One thing I did come away with is the awesome sense of how old and ancient everything is.  We here in America go into an old 1800s house and think, wow, that's old.  Look at that old bed, look at that old picture.  But in Europe, you walk into an old castle and you can't even fathom the generations of people that lived there, gazed upon it's walls, and even visited the places as tourist sights in the 1800s when our old buildings were being built.  I think that's why I love going there so much!

Spiral staircases, everywhere we went, seriously.  I think the Europeans like going in circles.

Stratford upon Avon and Huncote, England- November 5

This morning we got up, packed and got ready, and headed out to find some breakfast.  Then we set out to look at all of the Shakespeare sights.  The first place we went was his birthplace.  The museum was set up nicely, with a few rooms in the museum to go through and watch short videos telling about his life and decorations and artifacts to look at.  Then we went into the house.  There were guides there to tell us about the rooms and life in the house back in Shakespeare's times.  We saw the room where his dad made gloves (he was a glove maker, and eventually the mayor of the town).  In this room, the guide was dressed as a bard and after telling us all about the gloves and items in the room, regaled us with a sonnet, number 116, all about love.  Awww!  We also saw the bedrooms and where he was probably born.  It was neat to walk in this very old house.  It was also kindof cool to think about this house as well as the style of architecture of the town and how it looked like this when my ancestors left to come to America.

Shakespeare's birthplace

What a bed looked like in the Tudor period.  The children all slept in the parents' room until they were old enough to not catch the house on fire.

Don't bump your head, Scott!  People were apparently a lot shorter back then.  I walked through without having to duck.

Next, we visited a couple of houses that belonged to his granddaughter and daughter.  They were interesting, but nothing too amazing. One of the houses did have a beautiful garden, though.

Beautiful trellis work out in the garden.

A beautiful English garden, even in early November!

The front room of Shakespeare's daughter's house.  She married a doctor so they were pretty well off. 

Then we walked to the church where he and a lot of his family are buried.  He is buried inside the church behind the alter.  Apparently he was important in the church.

Shakespeare's grave

A monument to Shakespeare in the church.

After that, we went back to our hotel, checked out, had some lunch, then drove to one last sight.  This was the farm where Shakespeare's wife grew up.  Again, with guides to tell stories about life on a farm back then and how the house had been built.  It has a thatched roof, and we learned that one of the origins of the expression "raining cats and dogs" came from the fact that cats and dogs would run around on the roofs to keep the vermin out.  When it rained, the thatch was slick and the animals came falling off.  Ha!

Shakespeare's wife's family home.  Notice the thatched roof.

The main living space of the home.

After that, we headed out of town toward Huncote, where the Honeycutts supposedly came from.  Sadly, when we got there, we almost drove through it without stopping because there wasn't really anywhere to stop.  There were no buildings old enough for us to visit that were in the day of my ancestor.  All records were kept in a neighboring city which was where all county records were kept.  So, all I got was a picture of a sign that said Huncote.  I think I'm going to have to plan a trip to Great Britain again just to do family research. :)

Huncote.  Don't blink or you'll miss it.

We headed back to London where we had to go around our elbows to get to our noses to get to our hotel after dropping off the rental car.  Oh, and we got off the bus too early and had to walk over a mile in the dark to get to our hotel.  But when we arrived, we were exhausted and ready to rest.  

This trip has been so wonderful, but I am ready to go home.  I'll never forget all of the neat places and fun times we had!

Another travel day, to London and Stratford upon Avon- November 4

Today, once again, we had to get up and ready and to the train station by 8:30. This time we rode in a taxi to the train station rather than try to lug all of our luggage up the crazy hills.  Our train ride was nice and sunny and pretty uneventful.  We arrived in London a little before 1:00 and grabbed lunch at the station. Then we went on the underground out to Heathrow airport where our car rental was.  That took about 40 minutes. 

Renting the car was a little different, we actually went out in the lot and picked out the car we wanted and just got in and left. It was so weird to be on the wrong sides of the car on the wrong side of the road!  I let Scott drive because I was too nervous. He did pretty good, considering it was his first time!

We made it to Stratford upon Avon around 5:30 and checked into our hotel.  It seems pretty old, but it's as old as I am. I think they either renovated it into a hotel or built it to look like it's from Shakespeare's times.  It's cool, nonetheless. 

              Scott looking terrified...er, confident as he leaves the airport.

             Wrong side of the road, so weird!

           Our Tudor style hotel room.

After checking in, we walked out to explore and find some food.  We were walking past an old building and saw a guy dressed in Tudor style clothes. We went over to check it out and it was a ghost tour gathering. We spontaneously decided to go, since it was about to start. It was in a creepy, old old building from around the 1200s and had been renovated into a museum to visit during the day around 20 years ago. The museum was cheesy with all these creepy mannequins that were just creepy with all the lights out.  At night, they do ghost tours. Apparently it's a very haunted place and lots of people come to investigate here.  The only thing I noticed was at one point when Scott was behind me it felt like he tugged lightly on the back of my jacket but he says he didn't. I also got a terrible headache when we were in a room that is said to have very high EMFs and it didn't go away till I went to sleep. 

After the tour, we went next door to a pub for dinner, then headed back to the hotel, exhausted from the long day of traveling. Tomorrow, we see all of the Shakespeare sights!

               The Tudor museum

            Our fearless guide, who lives in a room here!

Hilly and scary Edinburgh- November 3

This morning Scott and I woke up around 8:30. We were both so exhausted I think from all of the breakneck traveling and touring. 

We had breakfast at the hotel, then set out to climb up to the top of the Royal Mile. At the top is Edinburgh Castle, built sometime before 1093 originally and added onto through the years. We were there for about 4 hours walking around the grounds, exploring the museums, and seeing historical sights.  We saw where Mary queen of Scots had her only son, King James VI.  We also saw the Crown Jewels. There was an interesting display set up like a timeline of the history of the jewels, or the Honours of Scotland, as they are called. There was the crown, sceptre, and Sword of State, as well as the famous Stone do Destiny that was only returned to Scotland in 1996 after 700 years being forcibly removed to Westminister Abby in London. There it sat on a shelf underneath the coronation chair for every King and queen. It has to go back for the next coronation.  Anyway, the Honours have an interesting history, too. They were buried from 1651-1660 after being smuggled out of the castle for protection when Oliver Cromwell wanted to destroy them. Then, in 1707, when Scotland signed the treaty to become a part of Great Britain, they were locked away in a chest for 111 years.  I wasn't allowed to take pictures.

We also saw old prisons, several military and war museums, and even a dog graveyard!

    The view walking up to the castle.

        The tiny room where the King was born.

        The part where the Honours are kept and Queen Mary's chambers

          Scott and me braving the cold.

         Dog graveyard.

         Me and a new friend.

After we had seen all we could (and were frozen through from the crisp, cold winds at the top of the mountain) it was about 2:00.  We went to a pub called Deacon Brody's.  It was originally the house of a wealthy, respected merchant by the same name, but at night he was a thief, gambler, and drunk.  He ended up getting hanged on the gallows that he designed for the city!  He was also the inspiration for Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde.  We both had grilled chicken sandwiches. 

After lunch, we went on a quest to find Henderson tartans and a little info on the Scottish ancestors in my family.  After talking with various shopkeepers and a librarian, we discovered that another branch on my paternal grandmother's side, the MacBrides, were actually a clan in the family of MacDonald and they were from an island called Arran on the west coast, to the east of Kintyre.  I now have a little more info and ideas of where to search on that branch when we get home.  

We also saw the statue of Greyfriar's Bobby, a famous stray terrier that hung around the area and was fed by locals. There was a Disney movie made about him.

                   Greyfriar's Bobby

After that, we went back to the hotel to rest a bit and give our feet a break.  We went to dinner at "The World's End" pub.  Scott had fish and chips and I had Mac n'cheese with bacon. The cheese was from Kintyre! 

We then went to wait in the freezing cold for about an hour for our ghost tour.  It was actually one of the better ones I'd been on.  The guide told stories above ground in different places for half an hour, then took us below ground to the underground vaults.  It was pretty creepy, especially because the place was only lit with candles!  She told several stories of people on the tours being affected by the spirits.  By the end, I was really ready to leave, lol!  We were allowed to take pictures, but I was too scared to, lol!

Tomorrow, we get up super early to ride the train back to London and get our car for the next leg.

Welcome to Rainy Scotland!- November 2

This morning we had to get up early to catch the 8:30 train to Edinburgh.  It was nice to just sit and ride.  It took 4 1/2 hours to get here and it was rainy the whole way.  

When we got here, we had to walk up and down steep hills .7 miles but it seemed like more with all of our luggage in tow and in the rain.  We dropped off our luggage at the hotel because our room wasn't ready yet and we went to get lunch.  We found a neat little pub on the Royal Mile. (The Royal Mile is the main street running through the middle of the old city, stretching a mile from the Royal Palace to the old castle.) I had berry cider and fish and chips.  Scott had "real bear" from a cask and steak and ale with potatoes.  

         Fish and chips and a salad

        The local cider, yum!

       Looking uphill at the Royal Mile.

After lunch, we took a little side trip into the Edinburgh museum.  It was a neat little museum with lots of artifacts of the glass and silver that was made here.  

After the museum, we went to our hotel and put our things in our room.  This by far is the nicest hotel we have stayed in yet.  The room actually has floor space to walk around, wooden blinds, and one whole bed instead of two twin beds stuck together.  (I can't tell you how many times Scott has fallen into the crack!)

After resting a little, we went down hill to the Holyrood Palace.  This is the palace where Mary, queen of Scotts, lived.  It's also where her husband had a friend of hers murdered because he was jealous.  The current queen still uses the palace as her home when she comes to Scotland once a year.  We saw the old king's receiving rooms, beds, furniture, paintings, and beautiful architecture.  The Queen Mary chambers and artifact collection were also super cool.  I couldn't take pictures inside, so there are none to show.  But I did get the souvenir book!

              The Holyrood Palace

After the tour, we went back to the hotel to hang out till dinner.  Then we ate at another pub.  This time, I had a pear cider and a burger.  Scott had another cask ale and chicken with haggist. Then we went on a tour of one of the underground areas, "The Real Mary King's Cross."  Back in the 1700s,  the city was full of 12 story high buildings that were built all close together.  In the mid 1700s, they decided to demolish the top wooden parts of the buildings and build on top of them.  They covered the streets and built new buildings, evicting the people that lived in the homes.  Now you can go in certain areas and see the old homes.  It was a neat tour, but definitely creepy.  It's hard to tell that they were homes except in a few areas.  The end of the tour we could definitely tell it was a street and could see up and down the hill and how tall the buildings had to have been.  I couldn't take pictures in there either, sorry!

One thing about this city, if you live here you have to be in excellent shape.  Everything, and I mean everything, is on a hill.  Its crazy!  Here is hoping tomorrow isn't rainy and we will survive climbing all the way to the top of the Royal Mile to the castle.

Leaving France- November 1

This morning we got up, got packed up and checked out. We were going to look for a bakery to get breakfast on the way out of town. We weren't so lucky. We ended up finding an Aldi (a low end grocery store) and picked up some raisin rolls and Gouda cheese.  It was a very rainy day, a good at for having to drive, since a pretty day would be wasted. We also didn't realize it was a national holiday, All Saints Day. Practically every store, shop, and gas station were closed.   We made our way north for one more sight before leaving my favorite country.  

There was another castle that had been renovated, Pierrefonds.  This castle was originally built in the 1300s and was besieged in the 1600s. It lay in ruins until Napoleon acquired it. Then his nephew had it renovated in the mid 1800s. When we pulled up, we were amazed at how much it looked like the typical medieval castle you see in fairy tales.  We didn't get to see all of it because they are doing major repair work on it. But it was really cool nonetheless.  

       Now that's a castle!

   Cool, crazy statues.

      The great hall.

When we got out, it was raining again.  We stopped at a bakery to get sandwiches for lunch. Mine wasn't very good so I only ate half. 

We drove the rest of the afternoon to Calais.  We weren't too impressed with this city.  It was a bit run down. And we drove around for half an hour trying to find an open gas station or one that worked before dropping off the rental car at the ferry station. When we got there, because the car rental place was closed, we just left the keys and had to call a taxi to take us to the train station. That cost us about 40 euros and we didn't quite have enough so the taxi driver had to take us to the ATM.  So now we have about 40 Euros left that we can't spend. Then we got to the station 4 hours early. Normally this would be fine as there is food and shops. But of course the only food place was closed and it was a tiny station. Our train left at 9pm so we figured we'd get food on the train.  It was a long wait, but at least we had books to entertain us.

        The only sight in Calais, a lighthouse.

We had to go through customs and security, just like getting on a plane. A dog came and sniffed our luggage for security. Finally we got on the train!

The train ride through the Chunnel was pretty quick, about 20 min.  The rest of the ride through to London was uneventful.  There wasn't anything appetizing to eat so we waited.

When we arrived in London, we had to go through customs again. By this time it was about 10 pm and we hadn't eaten since noon, and I had hardly eaten then. I was tired and grouchy. We stopped by a Burger King which had a line 15 minutes long, got some food, and walked to our hotel. And of course our room was on the top floor with no elevator, lol!  Here we were trying to carry all of our bags, dinner, and drinks.  I was so glad to just be where we were supposed to a and rest for the night. It all starts again tomorrow!

Colmar to Reims, France-October 31

Today was another travel day.  We got up, got ready, and packed our things. We then had breakfast before heading off.  The breakfast buffets here included all kinds of breads, several cheeses and meats, cereals, yogurt, and even eggs.  But you have to boil your own eggs.  The egg boiler thingy wasn't hot enough and my egg didn't cook.  So disappointing. :(  But a cool experience none the less!

Anyway, we rode for 3 hours enjoying the countryside and mountainous region.  We did hit some heavy, heavy fog for at least 45 minutes of the drive.  Finally we reached Verdun.  We rode through windy windy roads to get there.  Verdun is a town next to a huge WWI battlefield.  Apparently there were several villages in the area that were decimated in the war and never recovered.  We saw several memorials and a trench that had collapsed and buried the French soldiers alive.  Apparently for several years after you could see the tops of their bayonnets still sticking out of the soil.

   A memorial to WWI soldiers.  It is supposed to look like a sword stuck in the soil up to its hilt.

      Thousands of graves of fallen soldiers.

When we were done, we hit the road again for the last hour to Reims.  We found our hotel right in the center of town.  We had to park in an underground garage 3 stories below the surface.  Our hotel is located on a very busy shopping/restaurant area.  I can still hear all of the noise and music outside of our window.  

After checking into our hotel, we walked to the Reims Cathedral.  It looks so much like the Notre Dame in Paris.  Apparently many French kings were crowned there.  There are also a couple of statues dedicated to Joan of Arc.  

After the cathedral, we walked to a champagne maker, but were too late for tours.  We came back to our hotel for a bit before going to get dinner.  On the way home, we saw an ancient Roman city gate, just hanging out at the edge of a park. Cool!  

For dinner, we had Italian!  Scott had pizza and I had pasta carbonarra.  

Tomorrow is another travel day, this time to Calais where we catch the chunnel train to London.  But not before I find some Kinder eggs to bring back home!