Hello all, it is our last night in Paris, it has been a fun couple of days! Once again, our train was delayed from Bern to Paris, so we had to take a different one, and we were upgraded to 1st class! sweet! we saw the end of the tour yesterday, we stood in line for a good four hours, but got to see them cone around 7 times, so that was cool...we saw the louve today, are headed to the notre dame right now, and will go up in the eifle tower tonight!
just wanted you all to know we are safe...we have an 8 hour bus ride tomorrow to get back to London, then back home on the 31st!
miss you!
love sarah, katie and phyll
Monday, July 28, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Switzerland = Beautiful!
This is probably my second favorite country so far, with Italy still in first I think :) We spent two nights in Bern, which for being the capitol city, it's pretty laid back and there's not as much to do at night, we found out...and the concert we wanted to go to ended up being 20 SF...which is like 20 dollars, and that's a little too expensive...so we sat outside of the church and tried to listen instead :) Our full day in Bern we woke up and had a huge breakfast (it was all free!), then had to sit for a bit and let our food digest :), but then we used the free bike rental from the hostel, and biked around the city. We walked around the market, selling fruit, veggies, meat, and of course, cheese :) They have to many types of cheese here, but we've been sticking to Swiss because we know we like it, and it's the cheapest :) We went to the bear pits, where they have two grizzly bears, bern means bear, and is the city's mascot. Then we biked to the Parliament building to get a free tour, and it was closed. Too bad. So we biked to the city's free swimming pool which is right on the edge of the river that runs through the city, and laid for awhile in the sun (we had forgotten to bring our suits with us, whoops), and watched the rafters come down the river...I put my feet in for a little bit, and it is freezing...straight from the mountains. We made our way up to the city Rose garden, which was very pretty, then back to the hotel to make some spaghetti for dinner. When we found out the concert cost money, we walked to the grovery store, and got a small strawberry cake to split instead :) We all had a relaxing night of reading in our room before heading to bed.
The train ride yesterday from Bern to Grindelwald was so pretty...that's when we started getting into the mountains. And once we went through Interlocken, we started seeing Paragliders all over the place...I'd love to do that, but don't want to take all day tomorrow doing it, that would cut into my hiking time :) We had a small moment of panic on the train from Interlocken to Grindelwald, because the train actually splits and one half goes to Grindelwald, and the other half goes to Lauderbrünnen, and we were on the wrong half leaving Interlocken! So at the next stop, we had to jump off really fast and run to the other part of the train...very exciting :) We got into Grindelwald, which is the picture perfect mountain village, the mountains rise up all around it, everywhere you turn there's beautiful scenery, the view is unbelievable....although, I wonder how many buildings would be left if you removed all the hotels...because I swear, that's the whole town. We're staying at the Downtown lodge, which feels like a day camp, and our room has bunk beds, Katie says it feels like we're at summer camp :) But free breakfast, close to the train station, and free entrance to the public pool! And it has a kitchen, so that saves us a bunch of money. We relaxed in the sun yesterday afternoon while waiting for our room to get cleaned (we all got burnt, whoops), then walked to the grocery store and picked up some lasagna and salad for dinner (ice cream for desert :), ate dinner, played some cards, and then went into town at 8 for the street festival, that we conveniently came on the right day for! They close off the main street to cars every Wednesday night during the monthes of June and July, and there are food vendors all over the place, and bands, and traditional music and dance. So we walked around for awhile...there was a band from Florida...Mom said that it was funny that we came all the way to Switzerland to hear an American band :) But then we got to sit for awhile and listen to a family accordian band (loved it!), and then a group of people yodeling (my favorite), and then a band came out, followed by a small band accompanied by a group of dancers all in traditional clothing...that was fun, we had front row seats for it :) It was fun to watch all of the little kids dance around in front of everyone, not even noticing that they're the center of attention...oh, to be a kid again...I felt like dancing :)
This morning we got up and hiked to the Upper Gridelwald Glacier, which was up up up...then once we got to the base, we found out that we had to pay 6SF to climb the last like, 200 meters...well, we didn't bring any money, and we weren't going to pay that much anyway, so we reversed, and hiked the valley on the opposite side, and ended up hiking higher up than we would have been had we gone up the glacier...and it was FREE! :) Very pretty view of the valley. On the way, we saw a giant slug, cows with bells, a dead mole, a HUGE spider (that crawled on Katie's arm, then mom's leg, which she then smooshed...eew), the biggest anthill ever just TEEMING with thousands of them, and even small strawberries we could eat, like the ones we find when we're mountain biking in Wisconson. So all in all, a fun morning :)
We got back, ate the rest of the ice cream we got last night (we deserved it, that was a lot of uphill hiking :), and now we're on our way to the pool to relax a bit and swim. We're in the Jungfrau region, and the mountain near us is the highest point in Europe! And it was on this mountain range that the first ever cable car was built (that one is now retired, since it was built in 1908 :). You can take a train up to the highest point...for 134SF...yeah, I think I'll save that money and say that I saw the highest point in Europe...from the valley below :)
Well, I'm off to the pool! Hope everyone is having a good week! We are going to try to be at the final stage of the tour in Paris on the 27th, so look for us along the route if you're watching the race :)
Smile!
Love Sarah, Katie, and Phyllis
The train ride yesterday from Bern to Grindelwald was so pretty...that's when we started getting into the mountains. And once we went through Interlocken, we started seeing Paragliders all over the place...I'd love to do that, but don't want to take all day tomorrow doing it, that would cut into my hiking time :) We had a small moment of panic on the train from Interlocken to Grindelwald, because the train actually splits and one half goes to Grindelwald, and the other half goes to Lauderbrünnen, and we were on the wrong half leaving Interlocken! So at the next stop, we had to jump off really fast and run to the other part of the train...very exciting :) We got into Grindelwald, which is the picture perfect mountain village, the mountains rise up all around it, everywhere you turn there's beautiful scenery, the view is unbelievable....although, I wonder how many buildings would be left if you removed all the hotels...because I swear, that's the whole town. We're staying at the Downtown lodge, which feels like a day camp, and our room has bunk beds, Katie says it feels like we're at summer camp :) But free breakfast, close to the train station, and free entrance to the public pool! And it has a kitchen, so that saves us a bunch of money. We relaxed in the sun yesterday afternoon while waiting for our room to get cleaned (we all got burnt, whoops), then walked to the grocery store and picked up some lasagna and salad for dinner (ice cream for desert :), ate dinner, played some cards, and then went into town at 8 for the street festival, that we conveniently came on the right day for! They close off the main street to cars every Wednesday night during the monthes of June and July, and there are food vendors all over the place, and bands, and traditional music and dance. So we walked around for awhile...there was a band from Florida...Mom said that it was funny that we came all the way to Switzerland to hear an American band :) But then we got to sit for awhile and listen to a family accordian band (loved it!), and then a group of people yodeling (my favorite), and then a band came out, followed by a small band accompanied by a group of dancers all in traditional clothing...that was fun, we had front row seats for it :) It was fun to watch all of the little kids dance around in front of everyone, not even noticing that they're the center of attention...oh, to be a kid again...I felt like dancing :)
This morning we got up and hiked to the Upper Gridelwald Glacier, which was up up up...then once we got to the base, we found out that we had to pay 6SF to climb the last like, 200 meters...well, we didn't bring any money, and we weren't going to pay that much anyway, so we reversed, and hiked the valley on the opposite side, and ended up hiking higher up than we would have been had we gone up the glacier...and it was FREE! :) Very pretty view of the valley. On the way, we saw a giant slug, cows with bells, a dead mole, a HUGE spider (that crawled on Katie's arm, then mom's leg, which she then smooshed...eew), the biggest anthill ever just TEEMING with thousands of them, and even small strawberries we could eat, like the ones we find when we're mountain biking in Wisconson. So all in all, a fun morning :)
We got back, ate the rest of the ice cream we got last night (we deserved it, that was a lot of uphill hiking :), and now we're on our way to the pool to relax a bit and swim. We're in the Jungfrau region, and the mountain near us is the highest point in Europe! And it was on this mountain range that the first ever cable car was built (that one is now retired, since it was built in 1908 :). You can take a train up to the highest point...for 134SF...yeah, I think I'll save that money and say that I saw the highest point in Europe...from the valley below :)
Well, I'm off to the pool! Hope everyone is having a good week! We are going to try to be at the final stage of the tour in Paris on the 27th, so look for us along the route if you're watching the race :)
Smile!
Love Sarah, Katie, and Phyllis
Monday, July 21, 2008
Edinburgh....yeah, I spelled it wrong the other time :)
Continued from below....
Our second day in Edinburgh, we took a train to Inverness, which was a little over three hours northwest. It was a very pretty train ride through the countryside, but I think all of us were still catching up from our travels and we all took naps :) When we got there we went and asked some questions at the visitor center, walked around a bit, then ate lunch...lunch took FOREVER! I think in Europe they assume that everyone that comes to a sit down restaurant isn´t in a hurry and wants more time to sit, but we´re from the US, we´re not like that! :) So by the time we got done with our meal, we missed the bus we wanted to take to get to Loch Ness to see Nessie (she´s real ;), and the next one left at 3 but then we had to catch a bus back at 4:20 or something like that, and we would have had a grand total of 15 minutes there...then we found out bus tickets were expensive for how long we were going to be there, and a taxi was out of the question...so we didn´t get to go to Loch Ness :( Lesson learned: look ahead at times if we really want to do something so we don´t miss it! (you´d think katie and I would have learned that after two monthes... :) But we got to come home early on the train, and we had one of the best nights of our trip, just sitting back at the flat eating dinner, drinking wine and eating chocolate, and talking until midnight (when we had to let Mom and Sue get to sleep...it was way past their bedtime! :)
The next two days we used our Edinburgh pass to see the city...Katie and I hadn´t done that anywhere yet, so it was pretty cool to actually go in some museums and take some cool tours. the first day we saw a cool art exhibit of Vanity Fair photos which was really cool, and we went on a literary pub crawl of the city with two guides who talked about the great writers from Edinburgh and we walked to different pubs. But they didn't provide us with a free drink at the start, and they were kind of hard to understand, so it wasn´t as good as we thought it would be. The next day we went on three tours...yikes! We must have walked 15 miles that day at least! They were pretty interesting. We took one called Secrets of the Royal Mile which was our favorite. The Royal Mile is the mile that leads between the Edinburgh castle and the palace at the bottom of the hill and is filled with shops and restauants...it was the main street back in the day. But she told us all kinds of neat things about the place that we never would have learned. She showed us a spot outside of St. Giles cathedral where there were stones in the pavement that made the shape of a heart, which is where one of the main buildings of the city (the heart of the city) used to be. Only, that spot is the exact part of the building where the hold was where they would keep people the night before they were hanged down the street, and people used to spit on the building at the prisoners held inside...and to this day, people still spit on the heart on the street! It was cool to learn that, because the day before, a guy spit on it when we walked by and we were standing there, and I remember thinking, well that was rude...but it´s tradition! :) Katie made us go on this Edinburgh Dungeons ride which was the most unscary, ridiculously fake and cheesy fun house walk through thing, and the four of us laughed our way through it...it was just ridiculous, she owes us big time for that :)
We made some really good pasta and watched some tv (so nice to have tv in english!) The next day we slept in, and went to the Edinbugh castle, which was more of a bunch of different buildings inside of a wall enclosure...but we got to see the honors (sword, sceptor and crown) of scotland, and get rained on :) The next day we took the train along the east coast and stopped in a town that had a hike along the coast, which was just gorgeous...we hiked a couple miles out and then went back into town for some food...Mom and I tried what are called Smokies (Dad, you would have loved them) which is haddock smoked over oak chips, and it was just delicious. Sue had some great fish and chips and katie was craving soup :) We headed back on the train and went back to the flat...made dinner (it was a long train ride, the fish was just a snack :) then talked and packed up a bit since we had to leave the next day :(
The next morning we packed up, and just as we´re getting ready to make the long treck back to the train station, Edinburgh decides to give us a nice farewell and rains on us all the way there. Nice wet tennis shoes :) Oh well...got into London, left Sue :(, and Katie, Mom and I got on a train headed for Dover...we were supposed to get in there around 8pm, where we would stay the night and catch the ferry the next morning for France. Well, we were on the train for a half hour, and then we hear that there was a fatality (!!!) at the next stop and we all have to get off. So we wait an hour for a bus, bus comes, we cant fit on that one, wait some more, get on the next one, ride for another hour, it takes us to another train station, wait a half hour, catch a train to Faversham, wait for a bus, then take an hour bus ride to Dover, getting in at 10:30pm...great...so we were not happy...get to our hotel (sneak Mom in because we´re only going to be there for 6 hours and we would have had to buy another room for one more person, I don´t think so), go to bed, get up the next morning at 5:30am and walk to the ferry, there´s not a ferry at7 like the book says, so we wait and get on one at 8...get to Calle, get on a train to Lille...in Lille, find out all the train to Paris are booked for the rest of the afternoon, and there´s no way we will get to Switzerland...so we walk and look for a hostel, but it doesn´t open til 4...so we go get some lunch then go to an internet cafe (all the while lugging all our stuff around, mind you :), book some stuff, go back to the train station, decide to get to Paris to stay that night and get on a train for Bern, Switzerland that left this morning at 7:55am...so we got into Paris last night, got to our hostel around 11, went and got some pizza for a very late dinner, went to bed, up at 6:30am, got on our train, uneventful ride (very pretty scenery though), got into Bern, found our hotel (very quaint and we have very comfy beds and free internet, bike rental, and breakfast!), walked around the city a bit, and it´s now almost 9pm and I think we´ll go make dinner (we had a late lunch :)....so we have had a couple days of hard travel and not much sleep, but once we got into Switzerland and started seeing hills mountains, it was worth it!
We´ll be here for tonight and tomorrow night, then we're headed for Grindelwald which is right in the mountains, so we will get to do some GREAT hiking! (which I know Katie, especially, is very excited about ;) Not much time left :( After Grindelwald, we´re back to Paris for three nights, then in London for two, then we all fly home! Like I said before, whirlwind, but we have been able to see so much!
Even though it´s free, there is a guy that has been looking in here every couple minutes waiting for a computer, so I better go and make dinner since Katie made lunch...lots of love to everyone back home! Can't wait to see everyone!!! Hope everything is swell back there! We miss you already Susie and wish you were here!!
Love,
Sarah, Katie, and Phyll :)
Our second day in Edinburgh, we took a train to Inverness, which was a little over three hours northwest. It was a very pretty train ride through the countryside, but I think all of us were still catching up from our travels and we all took naps :) When we got there we went and asked some questions at the visitor center, walked around a bit, then ate lunch...lunch took FOREVER! I think in Europe they assume that everyone that comes to a sit down restaurant isn´t in a hurry and wants more time to sit, but we´re from the US, we´re not like that! :) So by the time we got done with our meal, we missed the bus we wanted to take to get to Loch Ness to see Nessie (she´s real ;), and the next one left at 3 but then we had to catch a bus back at 4:20 or something like that, and we would have had a grand total of 15 minutes there...then we found out bus tickets were expensive for how long we were going to be there, and a taxi was out of the question...so we didn´t get to go to Loch Ness :( Lesson learned: look ahead at times if we really want to do something so we don´t miss it! (you´d think katie and I would have learned that after two monthes... :) But we got to come home early on the train, and we had one of the best nights of our trip, just sitting back at the flat eating dinner, drinking wine and eating chocolate, and talking until midnight (when we had to let Mom and Sue get to sleep...it was way past their bedtime! :)
The next two days we used our Edinburgh pass to see the city...Katie and I hadn´t done that anywhere yet, so it was pretty cool to actually go in some museums and take some cool tours. the first day we saw a cool art exhibit of Vanity Fair photos which was really cool, and we went on a literary pub crawl of the city with two guides who talked about the great writers from Edinburgh and we walked to different pubs. But they didn't provide us with a free drink at the start, and they were kind of hard to understand, so it wasn´t as good as we thought it would be. The next day we went on three tours...yikes! We must have walked 15 miles that day at least! They were pretty interesting. We took one called Secrets of the Royal Mile which was our favorite. The Royal Mile is the mile that leads between the Edinburgh castle and the palace at the bottom of the hill and is filled with shops and restauants...it was the main street back in the day. But she told us all kinds of neat things about the place that we never would have learned. She showed us a spot outside of St. Giles cathedral where there were stones in the pavement that made the shape of a heart, which is where one of the main buildings of the city (the heart of the city) used to be. Only, that spot is the exact part of the building where the hold was where they would keep people the night before they were hanged down the street, and people used to spit on the building at the prisoners held inside...and to this day, people still spit on the heart on the street! It was cool to learn that, because the day before, a guy spit on it when we walked by and we were standing there, and I remember thinking, well that was rude...but it´s tradition! :) Katie made us go on this Edinburgh Dungeons ride which was the most unscary, ridiculously fake and cheesy fun house walk through thing, and the four of us laughed our way through it...it was just ridiculous, she owes us big time for that :)
We made some really good pasta and watched some tv (so nice to have tv in english!) The next day we slept in, and went to the Edinbugh castle, which was more of a bunch of different buildings inside of a wall enclosure...but we got to see the honors (sword, sceptor and crown) of scotland, and get rained on :) The next day we took the train along the east coast and stopped in a town that had a hike along the coast, which was just gorgeous...we hiked a couple miles out and then went back into town for some food...Mom and I tried what are called Smokies (Dad, you would have loved them) which is haddock smoked over oak chips, and it was just delicious. Sue had some great fish and chips and katie was craving soup :) We headed back on the train and went back to the flat...made dinner (it was a long train ride, the fish was just a snack :) then talked and packed up a bit since we had to leave the next day :(
The next morning we packed up, and just as we´re getting ready to make the long treck back to the train station, Edinburgh decides to give us a nice farewell and rains on us all the way there. Nice wet tennis shoes :) Oh well...got into London, left Sue :(, and Katie, Mom and I got on a train headed for Dover...we were supposed to get in there around 8pm, where we would stay the night and catch the ferry the next morning for France. Well, we were on the train for a half hour, and then we hear that there was a fatality (!!!) at the next stop and we all have to get off. So we wait an hour for a bus, bus comes, we cant fit on that one, wait some more, get on the next one, ride for another hour, it takes us to another train station, wait a half hour, catch a train to Faversham, wait for a bus, then take an hour bus ride to Dover, getting in at 10:30pm...great...so we were not happy...get to our hotel (sneak Mom in because we´re only going to be there for 6 hours and we would have had to buy another room for one more person, I don´t think so), go to bed, get up the next morning at 5:30am and walk to the ferry, there´s not a ferry at7 like the book says, so we wait and get on one at 8...get to Calle, get on a train to Lille...in Lille, find out all the train to Paris are booked for the rest of the afternoon, and there´s no way we will get to Switzerland...so we walk and look for a hostel, but it doesn´t open til 4...so we go get some lunch then go to an internet cafe (all the while lugging all our stuff around, mind you :), book some stuff, go back to the train station, decide to get to Paris to stay that night and get on a train for Bern, Switzerland that left this morning at 7:55am...so we got into Paris last night, got to our hostel around 11, went and got some pizza for a very late dinner, went to bed, up at 6:30am, got on our train, uneventful ride (very pretty scenery though), got into Bern, found our hotel (very quaint and we have very comfy beds and free internet, bike rental, and breakfast!), walked around the city a bit, and it´s now almost 9pm and I think we´ll go make dinner (we had a late lunch :)....so we have had a couple days of hard travel and not much sleep, but once we got into Switzerland and started seeing hills mountains, it was worth it!
We´ll be here for tonight and tomorrow night, then we're headed for Grindelwald which is right in the mountains, so we will get to do some GREAT hiking! (which I know Katie, especially, is very excited about ;) Not much time left :( After Grindelwald, we´re back to Paris for three nights, then in London for two, then we all fly home! Like I said before, whirlwind, but we have been able to see so much!
Even though it´s free, there is a guy that has been looking in here every couple minutes waiting for a computer, so I better go and make dinner since Katie made lunch...lots of love to everyone back home! Can't wait to see everyone!!! Hope everything is swell back there! We miss you already Susie and wish you were here!!
Love,
Sarah, Katie, and Phyll :)
A whirlwind of adventures!
Hello all! Sorry it took so long to update, a lot has happened! Where did I leave off....from a couple of blogs ago....
After our night in Madrid, we jumped on a train from Madrid to Pamplona and got in right after the last bus left the city for the campground we needed to go to...so we caught a taxi around 9:45, and we were hoping the reception was still open...it was, we got there and the party was just starting! The whole place was crazy, everyone gets there early for the San Fermin festival, and there were a ton of tour groups there, so no need to worry, reception was definitely open! The place didn`t get quiet until close to 4 in the morning every morning, so we didn`t sleep much while we were in Pamplona...We spent the next day walking around the city, missed the last bus back that night and had to walk with all of our groceries in the dark back to the campground (for 45 minutes) while it was starting to lightning, and got back just in the nick of time, we sat down and started eating our (late) dinner, and 5 minutes later it started thundering and raining...luckily we were in abuilding near our tent, but everyone dancing to the live band got rained on, and they kept losing power to the campground and the music kept getting cutoff, it waspretty funny to watch :) The next morning we packed up really fast and spent the day at the crazy San Fermin festival! My gosh, Pamplona knows how to party. We checked our luggage for the whole day, then went around the city seeing traditional folk dancing, eating, watched the BEST fireworks display of our lives!, then wandered around meeting people for the rest of the night and going in and out of places that were warm, it was FREEZING there compared to everywhere else we had been in Spain...probably because it was closer to the mountains...we went back and slept for 3 hours at the luggage storage place (what an adventure, we were homeless for a night :), then went to the first running of the bulls of the festival the next morning! AWESOME! It was one of the coolest parts of the trip, we bought tickets to be in the ring to see everyone and the bulls run in, and Katie got some really good pictures and video (that will hopefully get put up on here in the future). No one got seriously injured at the one we saw either, and we didn`t think about running, rest assured :)
We spent the rest of the day on the train t Nantes, France to see the tour. We stayed at the same campground both nights, but didn`t plan on that, so we had to pack up all of our stuff and drag it around with us to the time trial in Cholet...that was fun, you get to see a lot more riders and the atmosphere is really neat...we watched the start for a couple hours, cheered on the American teams, then went and sat in a grassy area near the finish for the rest of the afternoon an watched the finishers...the caravan that comes before the riders go is like one big parade and it`s all the team sponsors and they all throw out free stuff and we all fight over it, grown adults (well, I`m not in that category yet... :) fighting over keychains and bags of pretzels...it`s a funny sight :) The next day we saw the longest plain stage of the tour and we were two kms from the end in the Ville de Chaterouex, and we got there super early and stationed ourselves on a turn so we could see them coming and then continuing along towards the finish...luckily a hotel kept our bags behind the desk (so nice!) and we stood and talked with a couple from Austrailia...so at least we had people to talk to for the 3 hours we waited for the caravan to come...that was fun, and Vittel (a water company) has a `team`of riders that go around and entertain the crowd, and one left Katie his card with a picture on it and gave her akiss on the cheek :) But after waiting for so long, we almost missed getting the camera out when the riders finally came by! But it was 30 secondsof madness as everyone yelled and screamed for everyone, and then they were gone :) We found out that night how exciting a finish it was, and the pack passed the 3 sprinters right after where we were standing...we saw the exact corner where we were on tv that night but didn`t see us :)
Stayed in Paris that night, then went to Brugge, Belgium in preparation to catch a ferry the next night in Zeebrugge...but I called the company, and the ferry was full, and there wasn`t another one until Monday! It was Thursday, and we needed to be in Edinburgh on Saturday! Ah, the joy of traveling and having to replan :) So we figured out a bus to take us from Gent to London overnight, and then from London to Edinburgh all day Saturday...We spent all day Fridaz in Gent, and jumped on the bus at 11:45 that night...we met a really cool guy named Jonathan from Austrailia taking the same bus ride, and he made a not fun situation pretty darn fun :) We had to get off the bus an go through customs at 2am before getting on the ferry, then played yahtzee on the ferry :) Said goodbye to Jonathan in London, waited for 4 hours in the bus station, spent 10 (absolutely dreadful) hours on the bus to Edinburgh, got there and called the lady who would let us into our flat, found out that Mom and Sue missed their flight and were stuck in London for the night (WHAT?!), walked 20 minutes to the flat (wheeling a satchel full of wine that we had bought in Paris for the week ahead, it was heavy), got there, and had one of the best nights in a long time...we got to shower, eat food we cooked, did laundry, and watched tv in English! Went to bed, and Mom and Sue woke us up with the buzzer at 8:45 the next morning :) It was SO GOOD to see them...we talked, had a late breakfast, then hiked the large hill that we could see from the window of our flat that overlooks all of Edinburgh. We had a traditional Sunday dinner that night (delicious but expensive!), then headed back, talked and went to bed...we were all pretty worn out just getting to Scotland (quote from Katie while we were on our treacherous 10 hour bus ride: `Mom and Sue owe us big time...they picked the hardest place in Europe for us to get to and told us to meet them there.` But it was completely worth it :)
More to come on Edinburgh....we just got into Bern, Switzerland, had lunch, gave Katie a nap, now we`re going to go explore since it`s actually sunny out here! It was cloudy and rainy in Scotland the whole time it felt like....so I`ll get on later tonight or tomorrow and let you know about Scotland :)
Congrats on getting your permit Jake! Can you take me for a ride when I get back?! :) Good job on directing Zach, hope the last performances went well! Dad and Jordan, you would love to bike here, it`s gorgeous. Kels, I`m glad you got your email working again, even though I haven`t been on to email you :)
LOVE YOU!!!! Only 10 days until we`re back home, we`re making the most of our last days of this crazy adventure! And we`re introducing Mom to all the joys of international traveling... ;) More soon!
love sarah and katie
After our night in Madrid, we jumped on a train from Madrid to Pamplona and got in right after the last bus left the city for the campground we needed to go to...so we caught a taxi around 9:45, and we were hoping the reception was still open...it was, we got there and the party was just starting! The whole place was crazy, everyone gets there early for the San Fermin festival, and there were a ton of tour groups there, so no need to worry, reception was definitely open! The place didn`t get quiet until close to 4 in the morning every morning, so we didn`t sleep much while we were in Pamplona...We spent the next day walking around the city, missed the last bus back that night and had to walk with all of our groceries in the dark back to the campground (for 45 minutes) while it was starting to lightning, and got back just in the nick of time, we sat down and started eating our (late) dinner, and 5 minutes later it started thundering and raining...luckily we were in abuilding near our tent, but everyone dancing to the live band got rained on, and they kept losing power to the campground and the music kept getting cutoff, it waspretty funny to watch :) The next morning we packed up really fast and spent the day at the crazy San Fermin festival! My gosh, Pamplona knows how to party. We checked our luggage for the whole day, then went around the city seeing traditional folk dancing, eating, watched the BEST fireworks display of our lives!, then wandered around meeting people for the rest of the night and going in and out of places that were warm, it was FREEZING there compared to everywhere else we had been in Spain...probably because it was closer to the mountains...we went back and slept for 3 hours at the luggage storage place (what an adventure, we were homeless for a night :), then went to the first running of the bulls of the festival the next morning! AWESOME! It was one of the coolest parts of the trip, we bought tickets to be in the ring to see everyone and the bulls run in, and Katie got some really good pictures and video (that will hopefully get put up on here in the future). No one got seriously injured at the one we saw either, and we didn`t think about running, rest assured :)
We spent the rest of the day on the train t Nantes, France to see the tour. We stayed at the same campground both nights, but didn`t plan on that, so we had to pack up all of our stuff and drag it around with us to the time trial in Cholet...that was fun, you get to see a lot more riders and the atmosphere is really neat...we watched the start for a couple hours, cheered on the American teams, then went and sat in a grassy area near the finish for the rest of the afternoon an watched the finishers...the caravan that comes before the riders go is like one big parade and it`s all the team sponsors and they all throw out free stuff and we all fight over it, grown adults (well, I`m not in that category yet... :) fighting over keychains and bags of pretzels...it`s a funny sight :) The next day we saw the longest plain stage of the tour and we were two kms from the end in the Ville de Chaterouex, and we got there super early and stationed ourselves on a turn so we could see them coming and then continuing along towards the finish...luckily a hotel kept our bags behind the desk (so nice!) and we stood and talked with a couple from Austrailia...so at least we had people to talk to for the 3 hours we waited for the caravan to come...that was fun, and Vittel (a water company) has a `team`of riders that go around and entertain the crowd, and one left Katie his card with a picture on it and gave her akiss on the cheek :) But after waiting for so long, we almost missed getting the camera out when the riders finally came by! But it was 30 secondsof madness as everyone yelled and screamed for everyone, and then they were gone :) We found out that night how exciting a finish it was, and the pack passed the 3 sprinters right after where we were standing...we saw the exact corner where we were on tv that night but didn`t see us :)
Stayed in Paris that night, then went to Brugge, Belgium in preparation to catch a ferry the next night in Zeebrugge...but I called the company, and the ferry was full, and there wasn`t another one until Monday! It was Thursday, and we needed to be in Edinburgh on Saturday! Ah, the joy of traveling and having to replan :) So we figured out a bus to take us from Gent to London overnight, and then from London to Edinburgh all day Saturday...We spent all day Fridaz in Gent, and jumped on the bus at 11:45 that night...we met a really cool guy named Jonathan from Austrailia taking the same bus ride, and he made a not fun situation pretty darn fun :) We had to get off the bus an go through customs at 2am before getting on the ferry, then played yahtzee on the ferry :) Said goodbye to Jonathan in London, waited for 4 hours in the bus station, spent 10 (absolutely dreadful) hours on the bus to Edinburgh, got there and called the lady who would let us into our flat, found out that Mom and Sue missed their flight and were stuck in London for the night (WHAT?!), walked 20 minutes to the flat (wheeling a satchel full of wine that we had bought in Paris for the week ahead, it was heavy), got there, and had one of the best nights in a long time...we got to shower, eat food we cooked, did laundry, and watched tv in English! Went to bed, and Mom and Sue woke us up with the buzzer at 8:45 the next morning :) It was SO GOOD to see them...we talked, had a late breakfast, then hiked the large hill that we could see from the window of our flat that overlooks all of Edinburgh. We had a traditional Sunday dinner that night (delicious but expensive!), then headed back, talked and went to bed...we were all pretty worn out just getting to Scotland (quote from Katie while we were on our treacherous 10 hour bus ride: `Mom and Sue owe us big time...they picked the hardest place in Europe for us to get to and told us to meet them there.` But it was completely worth it :)
More to come on Edinburgh....we just got into Bern, Switzerland, had lunch, gave Katie a nap, now we`re going to go explore since it`s actually sunny out here! It was cloudy and rainy in Scotland the whole time it felt like....so I`ll get on later tonight or tomorrow and let you know about Scotland :)
Congrats on getting your permit Jake! Can you take me for a ride when I get back?! :) Good job on directing Zach, hope the last performances went well! Dad and Jordan, you would love to bike here, it`s gorgeous. Kels, I`m glad you got your email working again, even though I haven`t been on to email you :)
LOVE YOU!!!! Only 10 days until we`re back home, we`re making the most of our last days of this crazy adventure! And we`re introducing Mom to all the joys of international traveling... ;) More soon!
love sarah and katie
Friday, July 11, 2008
On our way back to the UK!
Well, the day has finally come that our mom and Aunt Susie leave the US! Katie and I are very ready for a place to call home for a week, where we have mom and Sue, a nice clean bed to sleep in, and a place to cook food! That's one thing about traveling: you definitely don't eat the healthiest all the time, but we get really hungry and eat what we have to even if it means bread and apples all day :)
We will be in Edinburough tomorrow night, and hopefully we'll be able to find some free internet to update you all on our adventures of the past week (which believe me, they've been pretty crazy :)
love from Belgium!
sarah and katie
We will be in Edinburough tomorrow night, and hopefully we'll be able to find some free internet to update you all on our adventures of the past week (which believe me, they've been pretty crazy :)
love from Belgium!
sarah and katie
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Spain is hot
Hello everyone! Sorry we haven´t updated in so long! Italy was EXPENSIVE for internet, so we were only on once and spent our 30 minutes booking a hostel for barcelona. I´m never going to take free internet for granted again! Sorry to people that worried about us (especially mom :) we´re safe, don´t worry, be happy!
Recap: we got on our ferry in Patra and spent the night on the ferry to Bari. Arrived in Bari and took a train and a bus to get to Naples. We met two guys from Florida, and one of them is really into all of the same music Katie is into, so they spent the whole ride listening to each other´s ipods and telling each other all of the bands they need to look up...it was like she had found her music soul mate :) We got into Naples and Katie and I walked to the pizzeria Da Michele, which is the one that the woman describes in the book Eat, Pray, Love! Luckily it was a close walk from the train station and it was totally worth it...perfect traditional italian pizza...so so good. We spent that night in the city of Pompei at a campground, basically right across the street from the ruins. We toured the ruins the next morning, which was really neat, but more expensive than we had thought it would be, and we needed more time, because we had to leave to catch our train to Rome. We got into Rome later than expected and hurried around frantically after getting out of the train station trying to find the bus we were supposed to take to get to Camping Fabulous (Carolyn you should have told us where the busstop was, we were freaking out!), we found one of the buses, but it said it stopped at 8:30pm, and it was already 8:45! We finally found the other one, and got into the campground, put up our tent (once again really expensive for just a patch of rough ground that´s not even level), ate some pizza and watched the rest of the Italy game (which they lost, sadly, but it was fun to watch a bunch of crazy Italians yelling at the tv :), and went to bed.
We saw Rome in a day :) It was hot, I was sick of riding the bus back and forth and it was such a big city, that all I wanted to do was get to Tuscany. So we saw all we could: Vatican city (very neat, but it´s hard to take in so much amazing art at once, and there were so many people in the Sistene Chapel that it took away from the experience being there), the Colluseum, walked a whole lot. We were pretty tired by the time we got back (and mad that the pool was already closed, not so fabulous, Camping Fabulous), so we went to bed. The next morning we packed up and were on our way to Florance. We stayed in a campground in the hillsides that was a half hour bus ride out of the city, and so beautiful. The Tuscan countryside has been my favorite part of the trip so far...I want to come back and live there when I´m old :) Let me know if you want to join me :) Anywho, the campground was really nice, we were in the hostel part of it so we had beds this time. They had a pool, but we had to wear these ugly swim caps that they make you buy, so we shared one. We´re in the pool, and we recognize these two girls from our hostel in Perissa, Santorini, that are from MN and we talked to them like, a half hour before bed. Small world! We show up at almost the same time at a campground in Florance! And we met a couple of other girls that day too, so we had some fun for two nights with a lot of people to hang out with. The next day I went for a walk while Katie and everyone else tanned by the pool :) We went to a wine store and tasted some wine, and had fun talking with everyone.
The next day we saw Florance, which was very pretty. The duomo, the large cathedral, is so pretty and perfect from the outside that it doesn´t even look real. It´s all pink and tan and green marble with statues all over the place. Then we were on a train to Cinque Terre! The campground we stayed at there was only 20 minutes by train out of the first city. The first day there we went to the different beaches, Katie braved cliff jumping with a couple guys we met from California, it was pretty high, good for her, I was nervous and stayed in the water :). We had some more good pizza and gelato (we didn´t go a day in Italy without eating pizza and gelato, it was amazing :), and played some cards with some girls back at the campground. We did the whole 12km hike through the 12 towns the next day. Very hot, but VERY pretty. It takes you right along the side of the cliffs between the towns and you get the prettiest scenery in all of Italy. We were tired after that though :)
From Cinque Terre we headed to Marsailles as a stopover town to get into Spain. That day we were either on a train or in a train station from 8am to 9pm...not so fun. We caught the last 20 minutes of the Eurocup final when we finally got to our hostel, which Spain won, so we were mad we weren´t already in Barcelona because we heard it was mayhem with all of the celebrating! We saw Marsailles the next morning before heading to Barcelona, and it was a very cute city, we took a bus to the Notre Dame cathedral on the top of the hill which overlooked everything, katie had a guy come talk to her in French and give her his number, we had a good laugh over that. We got into Barcelona late that night, so we pretty much ate, and went to bed. The next day we moved to a cheaper hostel that is run by an older spanish couple and it was the homiest place we´ve been...it felt like being at grandma´s house :) We walked around the next day, read, and that night we went and saw a flamenco performance! It was only half an hour long, but only 4 euro, and that´s all we could afford! But it was very cool. The next day we walked around some more, read, went to the beach, and then went up to the castle in town where they show a nightly movie, and it was an Iranian movie with Spanish subtitles...so we were trying real hard to understand what was going on. But there was a live band beforehand playing jazz and swing (Jordan, you would have loved it!), and the atmosphere was pretty fun. We were pooped by the time we got back though.
We left Barcelona this morning, waited in the train station until 3:30 to get on our train to madrid. They don´t have any regional cheap trains between major cities in Spain like they do everywhere else, and the reservations are really expensive. We were hoping to get to the south of Spain, but now I´m almost glad we didn´t have time for it because it would have cleared us out for money just to take the train down there! We have free internet at the hostel here, so that´s why you´re all getting a book right now :)
We´re going to tour around the city tomorrow morning, and then jump on a bus to Pamplona to a campground outside of town where we´ll be until the night of the 6th. Then we´re going to go see Running of the Bulls on the morning of the 7th, then make our way up to Nantes, France, to see the Tour de France the next three days! So it will be quite a busy next week. Then we need to be in Zeebrugge, Belgium on the 11th to take a ferry to Scotland to meet up with Mom and Auntie Susie! (I thought we were done with ferries, and was glad, but this is way cheaper than having to fly there, so I guess I´ll have to deal with it one last time... :)
That was the past 10 days in a nutshell :) I loved Italy, and all of the good food we ate. And it honestly was so pretty to take the train through. Katie still loved being in Greece, but I would have traded that for more time in Italy, hands down. Our clothes finally got washed tonight too, so that´s one of the highlights of the day :) I won´t take clean clothes for granted anymore either :) Well, we have to go figure out our bus time for tomorrow...hope everyone is having a GREAT summer so far! Live it up! Time has flown by here, I´m sure it´s the same for everyone back home too. Send some good vibes to our brother Jake, who will be taking his dirvers permit test soon...last one to have to teach how to drive Mom and Dad :) Katie and I will help with the teaching when we get home :)
Big hug from Spain! We miss you!
Love Sarah and Katie
Recap: we got on our ferry in Patra and spent the night on the ferry to Bari. Arrived in Bari and took a train and a bus to get to Naples. We met two guys from Florida, and one of them is really into all of the same music Katie is into, so they spent the whole ride listening to each other´s ipods and telling each other all of the bands they need to look up...it was like she had found her music soul mate :) We got into Naples and Katie and I walked to the pizzeria Da Michele, which is the one that the woman describes in the book Eat, Pray, Love! Luckily it was a close walk from the train station and it was totally worth it...perfect traditional italian pizza...so so good. We spent that night in the city of Pompei at a campground, basically right across the street from the ruins. We toured the ruins the next morning, which was really neat, but more expensive than we had thought it would be, and we needed more time, because we had to leave to catch our train to Rome. We got into Rome later than expected and hurried around frantically after getting out of the train station trying to find the bus we were supposed to take to get to Camping Fabulous (Carolyn you should have told us where the busstop was, we were freaking out!), we found one of the buses, but it said it stopped at 8:30pm, and it was already 8:45! We finally found the other one, and got into the campground, put up our tent (once again really expensive for just a patch of rough ground that´s not even level), ate some pizza and watched the rest of the Italy game (which they lost, sadly, but it was fun to watch a bunch of crazy Italians yelling at the tv :), and went to bed.
We saw Rome in a day :) It was hot, I was sick of riding the bus back and forth and it was such a big city, that all I wanted to do was get to Tuscany. So we saw all we could: Vatican city (very neat, but it´s hard to take in so much amazing art at once, and there were so many people in the Sistene Chapel that it took away from the experience being there), the Colluseum, walked a whole lot. We were pretty tired by the time we got back (and mad that the pool was already closed, not so fabulous, Camping Fabulous), so we went to bed. The next morning we packed up and were on our way to Florance. We stayed in a campground in the hillsides that was a half hour bus ride out of the city, and so beautiful. The Tuscan countryside has been my favorite part of the trip so far...I want to come back and live there when I´m old :) Let me know if you want to join me :) Anywho, the campground was really nice, we were in the hostel part of it so we had beds this time. They had a pool, but we had to wear these ugly swim caps that they make you buy, so we shared one. We´re in the pool, and we recognize these two girls from our hostel in Perissa, Santorini, that are from MN and we talked to them like, a half hour before bed. Small world! We show up at almost the same time at a campground in Florance! And we met a couple of other girls that day too, so we had some fun for two nights with a lot of people to hang out with. The next day I went for a walk while Katie and everyone else tanned by the pool :) We went to a wine store and tasted some wine, and had fun talking with everyone.
The next day we saw Florance, which was very pretty. The duomo, the large cathedral, is so pretty and perfect from the outside that it doesn´t even look real. It´s all pink and tan and green marble with statues all over the place. Then we were on a train to Cinque Terre! The campground we stayed at there was only 20 minutes by train out of the first city. The first day there we went to the different beaches, Katie braved cliff jumping with a couple guys we met from California, it was pretty high, good for her, I was nervous and stayed in the water :). We had some more good pizza and gelato (we didn´t go a day in Italy without eating pizza and gelato, it was amazing :), and played some cards with some girls back at the campground. We did the whole 12km hike through the 12 towns the next day. Very hot, but VERY pretty. It takes you right along the side of the cliffs between the towns and you get the prettiest scenery in all of Italy. We were tired after that though :)
From Cinque Terre we headed to Marsailles as a stopover town to get into Spain. That day we were either on a train or in a train station from 8am to 9pm...not so fun. We caught the last 20 minutes of the Eurocup final when we finally got to our hostel, which Spain won, so we were mad we weren´t already in Barcelona because we heard it was mayhem with all of the celebrating! We saw Marsailles the next morning before heading to Barcelona, and it was a very cute city, we took a bus to the Notre Dame cathedral on the top of the hill which overlooked everything, katie had a guy come talk to her in French and give her his number, we had a good laugh over that. We got into Barcelona late that night, so we pretty much ate, and went to bed. The next day we moved to a cheaper hostel that is run by an older spanish couple and it was the homiest place we´ve been...it felt like being at grandma´s house :) We walked around the next day, read, and that night we went and saw a flamenco performance! It was only half an hour long, but only 4 euro, and that´s all we could afford! But it was very cool. The next day we walked around some more, read, went to the beach, and then went up to the castle in town where they show a nightly movie, and it was an Iranian movie with Spanish subtitles...so we were trying real hard to understand what was going on. But there was a live band beforehand playing jazz and swing (Jordan, you would have loved it!), and the atmosphere was pretty fun. We were pooped by the time we got back though.
We left Barcelona this morning, waited in the train station until 3:30 to get on our train to madrid. They don´t have any regional cheap trains between major cities in Spain like they do everywhere else, and the reservations are really expensive. We were hoping to get to the south of Spain, but now I´m almost glad we didn´t have time for it because it would have cleared us out for money just to take the train down there! We have free internet at the hostel here, so that´s why you´re all getting a book right now :)
We´re going to tour around the city tomorrow morning, and then jump on a bus to Pamplona to a campground outside of town where we´ll be until the night of the 6th. Then we´re going to go see Running of the Bulls on the morning of the 7th, then make our way up to Nantes, France, to see the Tour de France the next three days! So it will be quite a busy next week. Then we need to be in Zeebrugge, Belgium on the 11th to take a ferry to Scotland to meet up with Mom and Auntie Susie! (I thought we were done with ferries, and was glad, but this is way cheaper than having to fly there, so I guess I´ll have to deal with it one last time... :)
That was the past 10 days in a nutshell :) I loved Italy, and all of the good food we ate. And it honestly was so pretty to take the train through. Katie still loved being in Greece, but I would have traded that for more time in Italy, hands down. Our clothes finally got washed tonight too, so that´s one of the highlights of the day :) I won´t take clean clothes for granted anymore either :) Well, we have to go figure out our bus time for tomorrow...hope everyone is having a GREAT summer so far! Live it up! Time has flown by here, I´m sure it´s the same for everyone back home too. Send some good vibes to our brother Jake, who will be taking his dirvers permit test soon...last one to have to teach how to drive Mom and Dad :) Katie and I will help with the teaching when we get home :)
Big hug from Spain! We miss you!
Love Sarah and Katie
Friday, June 20, 2008
Pictures below:
Are from Amsterdam...I told Katie that I just screamed tourist :) The rest are bikes there, street performers, a cute little kid playing with the pigeons :) And Katie being goofy on our night train to Copenhagen :)
More to come!
More to come!
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