Monday, October 27, 2008

Oxford, the Cotswolds, Bath, Lacock and Stonehenge tour
























































Hi everyone!
It's been a busy weekend traveling around the western part of England, but I was able to see so much! The tour was poorly managed with timing, but it was enjoyable none the less. We took a bus Saturday morning from Canterbury up to Oxford. We got stuck in traffic on the M25 (the main motorway that circles London...very busy all the time) for about on hour, so our schedule for the rest of the day was sort of messed up. We had an hour walking tour of Oxford with a really great guide who happened to be our guide for the entire trip. There was a lot of interesting buildings to see at Oxford University. I never realized that so many colleges made up that huge university! So many famous people have gone to Oxford including C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and they re also buried nearby. A lot of the Harry Potter films were also filmed in various locations aroudn Oxford. I got near some of them, but didn't want to pay the money to go in to see them...yep, I'm cheap. The one place we were going to pay to go into was Christ Church were the Great Hall from the movie was filmed, but when we got there, there was a sign that said it didn't open until 2:15pm and we had to be back by 2pm. O well, it was still pretty building to take pictures. After Oxford, we drove into the Cotswolds and visited a few of the villages there. I loved the Cotswolds, everything was so quiant and beautiful. I can't believe people actually get to live in these beautiful little villages! We got about 45min or so in each village, which was not enough time, but we were able to take a lot of pictures and enjoy walking around. We stayed in Bristol for the night and after so much time on the bus we were ready to be off and relax. Beth, Amy, Laura and I shared a room and we literally ran to Sainsbury's to get food because we just needed to release some energy. In Burford, one of the Cotswold villages, we bought an apple pie in a little bakery to have later that night. We completely demolished that pie...and a lot of the ice cream we bought at Sainsbury's. It was really, really good, but not quite like an American apple pie, but we weren't complaining...pie is pie. Everyone had a rough night of sleep, but we were off again in the morning after setting our clocks back a hour in to GMT. Our first stop was Bath for another walking tour of the Royal Crecent and down to the old Roman baths. I didn't actually go into were you could see the baths, but I saw it from the ourside. There was a really pretty abbey right next to the baths and I spent most of the time on my own just walking around the city, taking in all of the beautiful views, even though it was raining. Next stop was Lacock, another village in the Cotswolds and another filming location for Harry Potter. Amy, Laura and I decided to have a little lunch in this cute tea room we found. It was so yummy and the soup we had was perfect for such a cold, rainy day. After Lacock we drove to Stonehenge, we were really getting tired of the bus by now. Stonehenge was cool to see, but I probably wouldn't go back again. It is one of those things to see once, just to say you've been there. We didn't have much time there, but I was ok with that since I really only needed about 10 minutes to see what I needed to see. We got back to Canters at about 7pm, after a nearly 3 hour bus ride. I'd be ok if don't get on a charter bus for a while now. Today I have a paper to write and get ready for Dave to come tomorrow! I can't believe he's actually going to be here, but I'm so exited. The plan now is to leave for Dublin on Wednesday night, go to Belfast on Friday, Antrim coast on Saturday and Sunday leave for Scotland. We'll see how that all plays out, especially if there is trouble in Northern Ireland...I hope not. It will probably be after we get back from Ireland and Scotland before I write again. Take care!
e

Friday, October 24, 2008

D-Day Beaches and the end of Dad's visit
























































After my 5pm class on Thursday we took the rental car down to Portsmouth, about a 2 ½ hour drive from Canterbury. Our ferry left at 11:45pm and got into Ouistreham, France at about 7:30am. It was less than a good night’s sleep…”reclining seats” don’t really live up to their name on these ferries. After we got off the ferry it was a quick drive to Caen and we attempted to find a bakery for breakfast…not a hard task in France, or any European country (except England for whatever reason). I had my first real French baguette that was heavenly. Dad got some pastries that were equally as yummy. My baguette became my lunch as well that day, but it was so good I didn’t mind one bit. There is a road that runs from Ouistreham all the way along the northern French coast. Along the way there are loads of places to stop and see the D-Day beaches or memorials to the men who fought on them. The first beach we came to was the Canadian beach, Juno (not Sword, which is actually the first one you would come to if you started in Ouistreham). We stopped at two points along the beach to take pictures, walk and look at the memorials. It was sort of surreal to think what had taken place on those beaches over sixty years ago. It was also fulfilling one of my life goals to visit the beaches. Gold was the next beach where we stopped once up on a cliff above the beach. There was theatre there that had some movie, but we decided to keep moving because Omaha beach was next. Driving to the beaches takes you through all of these cute and very beautiful French towns and countryside. I couldn’t believe how much the towns look like what is recreated in a lot of the D-Day movies. Omaha beach and the American cemetery there in Colleville was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. It was such a beautiful day for us and it made the beauty and the peacefulness of that area so much more. We went through the visitor center that has a small, but very interesting museum in the bottom. When you come out of the museum, the beach is in front of you and the cemetery is to the left. We walked a bit toward the beach then turned in toward the cemetery. The rows upon rows of crosses I had seen before, but only in pictures. You really have to go there yourself to understand the feeling that you get there. I won’t even try to explain it, but I know that it really got to me. We walked down the hill to the beach and spent some time walking and taking it all in. Dad made a comment on the way down about how chaotic it must have been all those years ago. It is hard to imagine that because of how peaceful and calm it is there now. But it got me thinking that the way it is now, the peace, serenity and beauty of that area are part of what those men were fighting for. We drove down and around to Utah beach and spend some more time walking and observing. Carentan is not far from there and we drove through, just so I could say I’d been there (for all of you Band of Brothers fans out there you’ll know what I mean). Around 5pm we headed back to Ouistreham to see Sword beach. It was the most unremarkable off all the beaches there, but the sun was setting and made it really beautiful. We decided to go back to Caen to find a place for dinner. When we did it was an Italian/French place with a waiter that really didn’t like the fact that we couldn’t speak French. Oh, well, his problem, not ours. However, it did vindicate the stereotype that the French don’t like Americans. Since we had a bit of time before we had to get on the ferry we just killed the time in the ferry terminal, because there was really nothing left to do and it was dark. Thankfully we had a cabin on the way back, so we got a decent night’s sleep this time. On Saturday I took Dad to the Canterbury cathedral and we walked around High St. We had a really nice dinner…cooked by moi…see I do know some French! :) Dad left for the airport early Sunday morning. I was sad to see him go, but we had a great time together. I’ve spent the rest of this week writing papers in preparation for when Dave comes on Tuesday! (! for Dave coming, not the papers) Tomorrow I have to be at the university by 7:45am to get on the tour bus for our two day trip to Oxford, Bath, the Cotswolds, Lacock and Stonehenge. Should be a great trip and I’m really looking forward to it. Hopefully I will get and update up sooner rather than later and get some pictures up too. Hope everyone is doing well back home. I miss you all!
Cheers!
e

I'm back!...from Germany that is..
















Well, I guess it was high time that I update y’all about what has been going on here. There is simply so much to do and so little time to do it in….and having this annoying cold for the past week hasn’t helped much either in getting motivated to post. Anyway here I am, alive, if not completely well at the moment. I’m going to break this post in two just to make it easier to follow. Dad and I got back from Germany with no problems, except my new awesome boots I got in Stuttgart set off the security thing…darn buckles. I was pretty tired from our 10 days away, but there was still more to do with Dad here. The day we got back we decided to check out Dover in the late afternoon after resting up a bit. We were thinking about going to the castle, but decided to just sort of roam around. Our roaming took us to a the White Cliffs Nature park where we had great time walking along the top of the cliffs. There are trails that go for miles along the top through some really pretty fields. The day was sort of cloudy, but that did not take away from how stunning those cliffs are. We took lots of pictures (some I’ll post) and both agreed that it was a great time getting to hike. I recommend it to anyone going to Dover who loves to be outdoors and enjoys a good (at times steep) hike. Tuesday took us up to the northern coast of Kent (my third time…do you think I might enjoy it up there? :) ). We started in Margate which is the farthest city you can get to on the northeast part of Kent. We walked along the beach, but didn’t find anything too interesting. So on to Herne Bay we went for more beach walking and of course….a Chelsea bun from Dunn’s bakery. Dad seemed to enjoy his, I of course devoured mine. Whitstable was our next and last stop on our trip to the coast. More beach walking and eating, this time at Zizzi, a great little Italian restaurant that I had wanted to eat at the last time I was there. Great pizza and Dad had some yummy looking pasta that he really liked. Since I had class on Wednesday, Dad decided he would venture up to London for the day on the train. He had a great time and the only hang up seemed to be coming back he ran into some problems with the trains being late and having to switch trains. He got back around 9:30pm to find my housemates and I having a little impromptu party in our kitchen and watching this really weird British t.v. show. Thursday we booked last minute overnight ferry tickets to France…

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Köln






Well, Dad and I made it to Dirk's house in Siegburg on Thursday evening after a long, but beautiful drive from Stutgartt. I slept part of the way because all the time in the car makes me tired, even though I feel bad when there is so much beautiful things to see. When we got to Dirk's we met his family and then Dirk took us to downtown Siegburg at night and gave us a little tour of the town. There are a lot of really nice shops, for a town the size of Normal. There is a store here that is like North Face called Jack Wolfskin that Dad and I really like, but it's really expensive outdoor clothing. Yesterday (Friday) we went to Köln (Cologne) which is just north of Siegburg. There is a really large cathedral there called Köln Dom that was really fun to see. After seeing Canterbury's cathedral, I was able to compare this one. The Köln Dom is much bigger and older, with beautiful windows. In the main area there is this big gold box that they say holds the bones or relics of the three Magi. It was a place a lot of people came hundreds of years ago to see these relics. It was sort of cool. We walked around the city and down to the Rhine. It was funny because to me the Rhine looked like I could have been the Illinois river, except for the fact we were in Germany and if you turned around you could see a centries old cathedral. Not something you normally come across on the Illinois. We walked along the river to this really cool chocolate museum right along the river. We met up with Dirk's wife and kids and toured...or rather ate our way through the museum. One day a year the have all these different booths set up to taste different kinds of chocolate. We just happened to be there one that day. It was really good, but we were all sick of chocolate when we left! :) All of us were really tired when we left, but it had been a fun day. Today we are going to Soest were Dirk is from. Soest is also were the Kuchen Meister bakery is located! It won't be open according to Dirk, but we can at least take pictures of it! We leave to go back to England early Monday morning. Even though I love Germany and wouldn't mind staying, I'm looking forward to going back to my home away from home, Canterberries! :)
Tchüss!
e

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

München & Dachau












Today we left Salzburg in the morning and drove about 1 1/2 hours to downtown Munich. So far Munich has been my favorite city I've visited, so full of history and interesting things to see. After we got ourselves oriented to where we were after parking we walked around to Marianplatz...a famous plaza area and saw the Fraulenkirche (think that's how you spell it) which is the symbol of Munich. Walked around a large park/garden area by the opera house and were able to listen to a man playing cello in a little gazebo area in the park. It was so beautiful and really added to the experience. I had some really good pizza (yes, yes I know it's not German...but still very good) at a place called Riva. Dad got a sandwich of sorts from a vendor in this big market area. As we left the downtown area we drove along Ludwigstraße that was lined with this cool buildings and shops. Dachau concentration camp was our next stop north of Munich. Going to Dachau was something that I really wanted to do, especially with my interest in studying the Holocaust and WWII. It was my first experience visting a place like that. The reality of being there hit me when I walked through the front gate that said "Abreit Micht Frei" (work sets you free). I had seen it in pictures and read about it in books, but to actually be there and see those words and the camp itself was undescribable. We walked through the big roll call area and then through the museum set up in some of the buildings. Saw the remained of the barbed wire fence and guard towers surrounding the camp. Only two of the barracks were reconstructed that you could going into, the rest are gone except for the concrete foundations that are lined up row on row...erie. We only had about an hour before they closed and didn't get to see everything, but it was still something I was glad that I saw. Instead of going southwest of Munich for the night we headed back to Stuttgart. Tomorrow we are going to head up towards the Mosel Valley towards Köln. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I didn't bring my cord to transfer pictures to the computer, so pictures will have to wait until I get back to England. More to come from Germany asap!
Tchüss!

Salzburg, Berchtesgarden & Königsee









We drove about 4 hours from Esslingen to Salzburg on Moday afternoon, arriving in Salzburg after 6pm. It was a really long drive and both of us were really tired and sort of cranky, but we went downtown Salzburg anyway to check things out. We had dinner in the old town, very good, but we just were too tired to really enjoy anything that night. The hotel, Hotel Doktorschossle, was pretty nice and we were both glad to get some rest from a long day of driving. We woke up to rain on Tuesday morning. Had a good breakfast at the hotel, and headed to Berchtesgarden (which is actually just over the German border, not in Austria like we thought..oops! :)). Clouds and rain were covering up the mountains, we were just hoping it would clear out after a while. Went to the Nazi Documentation Centre in Obersaltzburg. I'll give you a bit of history about this area we went to (I am studying history after all...). Obersaltzburg in the early 19oos used to be a mountain retreat for the rich families in the area. In the 30s, Hitler decided that he really liked it up there and once he gained power, he had a massive complex built in the mountains that was his retreat and were a lot of propaganda was shot to make him seem like a kind, charasmatic, leader of the people, all while plotting horrible things with is deputies. Hitler's Eagel's Nest that sits high above Obersaltzburg on the mountain, was built by leaders of the Nazi party as a gift to Hitler on his 50th birthday. If anyone has see Band of Brothers (and if you haven't, go watch it now...stop reading this and watch it!) you'll remember Berchtesgarden and the Eagel's Nest from the end of the film when Germany surrenders. The museum at the centre was really neat, spent almost 2 1/2 hours walking around with the English audio guide. Dad and I decided to get some food for a picnic and head over to Königsee (King Lake). I can't even describe how beautiful it was surrounded by the Alps and then walking around the lake, seeing the small farms at the base of the mountains, all I can say is that if you haven't been there, you have to go see it for yourself.

We went back to Salzburg to check out the Old Town again, more rested, less cranky and in the sunny daytime. It is a really cool old city with lots of interesting buildings and of course, lots of memorials, museums and sites dealing with Mozart. For anyone wondering, no we did not do the über American touristy thing and go on the Sound of Music tour. Actually, besides seeing the Alps surrounding Salzburg, we didn't see any of the sites from the movie (most of them were created in a FOX studio in Hollywood anyway). I really enjoyed walking around the city and taking in all the beauty that cannot be compared to anything we have back in the states.
On to München...

Monday, October 6, 2008

Willkommen bei Deutchland!









I have decided that everyone must come to Germany. It is so incredibly beautiful, I can't even describe how wonderful it is here. I've done so much since Friday that instead of having an obnoxiously long post I'm going to break it up by what we have done so far.

Dad arrived in England on Thursday (10/2), after quite the Canterbury tale trying to find my flat and then me. We left around 4:30am Friday morning to get to Stansted airport, we were running late and took one wrong exit and were afraid we might miss the check in for our 7:20am flight to Hahn. After scrambling a bit we did get checked in and on the flight. Within an hour we were in Germany and were met at the airport by our former exchange student Jens and his wife Nicole and their little boy Jaron (said like yaron). I hadn't seen Jens in 15 years (I was about 4 when he was at ISU), so it was really fun to see him after all that time. They have been treating us like royalty while we've been here. They took us to Heidelburg on Friday and got to have our first taste of German culture. We had some typical German food at a restaurant near a famous bridge and it was wonderful. I had noodles with a pumpkin sauce that was so yummy...I'm going to have to try and make it back home. Heidelburg is in the Rhine valley and there are a lot of vineyards and beautiful fall trees. We went up to the castle, but we couldn't go inside because it was closing...still got some great pictures of some of the castle ruins. Jens drove us back to their house in Esslingen (near Stuttgart). We ate and talked for a while, I was also able to get online to Skype since my phone is so much more expensive in Germany. Slept in on Saturday morning and had a wonderful German breakfast...the bread here is soooo good! Seriously, Germany is going to take a toll on my waistline. Spent most of the afternoon in downtown Stutgartt shoping with Nicole. Found some great boots! We all went back to the house and all pitched in to make a big dinner. Jens' dad come over for dinner and to meet us (he loves Americans :)). Had a good time eating and talking together.

Sunday we decided to go to Rothenburg, instead of paying quite a lot to get the rental car a day early. Dad and I took Nicole's car about 2 hours to Rothenburg and spent the afternoon/evening exploring the city. We found the Hotel Reichs-Küchenmeister, a hotel/restaurant that we just had to see since it (sort of) bares our name. Ended up eating dinner there, ordered my first glass of wine in a restaurant..I know I'm lame, but it was sort of exciting for me. At 8pm we went on the "Night Watchman" tour around the old part of the city. The guy giving the tour was in really funny and dressed like a night watchman. It took us about 3 hours to drive back to Esslingen because of construction traffic and traffic from people leaving the Munich Oktoberfest. Monday we headed to Salzburg, Austria....