Travel Tales: Puerto Rico 2008, Part Three

Sunday morning came with a trip to Old San Juan. We left relatively early and began our tour of the city. Frances was a helpful tour guide, though of course I don’t remember anything! However, we saw a lot of old buildings and statues, and it’s always a lot of fun to look at architecture, whether you remember it’s significance or not. It was also really nice to see the water even more than we had at the hotel – it really put the island into perspective. We even got to see a cruise ship coming into the port!

Me by the fountain.
Me by the water.

We were headed for lunch so we continued our walk, stopping briefly at the pigeon park where kids go to feed the birds. Both Kristi and I commented on the size of the pigeons.

The Pigeon Park.

For lunch, we ate at the restaurant that claims to be the birthplace of the pina collada, so naturally we had to try them. We also had the opportunity to eat authentic Puero Rican cuisine, which of course, I really enjoyed. After a HUGE meal that left us all too full to want to walk, we continued on our journey and made our way to the fort.

The fort was a really interesting place, full of little nooks and crannies for people to hide in.

Once we had exhausted ourselves in Old San Juan, we headed back to the hotel to relax on the beach for the remainder of the afternoon. That night, we decided to be adventurous and go out for dinner, so we asked the concierge what was within walking distance. Using a local Denny’s as our landmark, we managed to find a cute (and cheap!) little diner-type place that also happened to sell gelato. We had a nice dinner and then headed back to the hotel to relax and sleep off the exhaustion of the day!

Travel Tales: Puerto Rico 2008, Part One

We arrived in Puerto Rico on Friday, July 25, 2008, and proceeded directly to Frances’ house to have dinner with her parents. Her mom made us some VERY good authentic Puerto Rican food. It was the perfect way to start our trip off! We also got to meet her sister, as well as her nephew Brian (who I have met before when he was in New York with her parents).

From there it was on to the hotel. We checked in quickly and went to check out our room. It has a really nice view of the ocean from the balcony, and even out there Kristi and I were shocked by how humid it was in Puerto Rico – the temperature wasn’t too bad, but the humidity made it feel worse. Our hotel, the Courtyard Marriot Isla Verde (or something along those lines) was right on the beach, complete with a pool with swim up bar and four different restaurants, as well as a casino. It was the perfect place to stay!

The view from the hotel balcony.

We checked out the beach, going in the water – which we both agreed was SO much nicer than New York. You could actually SWIM in the ocean there without feeling like you were getting coated in some sort of sludge!

The beach at the hotel.

After settling in and showering, Frances met up with us again and we headed to a casino in another hotel to play the slots a bit. I only lost about $10 total, which was good – should’ve quite while I was ahead though, because I could’ve turned my $25 into about $45 had I stopped playing!

Done with the casino, we headed out to dinner at Lupi’s, a Mexican restaurant. Frances’ friend joined us for the trip. We had some drinks and some food, and then headed back to the hotel for some well-needed rest.

At Lupi’s.

Travel Tales: Germany 2004, Part Five

Our last travel tales installment for Germany… now I have to figure out the rest of the trips! I suppose France 2005 could be next…

We’re planning a nice dinner tonight so we actually went to Wal-Mart again. That was after we went to the town of Maulbronn, which was one of my favorite towns so far, I think.

Maulbronn kind of centers around a monastery, and it really reminded me of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. It’s an old cloister from the 1100′s. In fact, the whole village had a Harry Potter feel to it. Being near the shops felt like being in Hogsmeade Village. In fact, there was even a witchcraft shop, but we didn’t really know what to do with any of the stuff in there. There were herbs, but no directions and all the books were in German so it wasn’t as if we could read them without a translator.

The hall at the monastery – it looked like Hogwarts!
Lindsay sitting outside the town.
A view of all the little “Hogsmeade Village”-like houses.

Apparantly my journaling stopped there. We stayed in the town for a while, toured the monastery and then looked in all the little shops. After that we had a nice lunch and then headed to the Wal-Mart to pick up the dinner items. I was making brownies and lemon-garlic chicken. Our “innkeepers” were coming for dinner as were a whole slew of others that mom had met before but not me and Lindsay.

We headed back to the house to cook – Lindsay and I proceeded to eat our way through a jar of Nutella at some point. It’s kind of silly how we always buy Nutella in Europe even though we can get it here just as easily.

After dinner, Lindsay and I walked around Evelyn’s little village because I needed to finish a roll of film. While she was posing by a streetlight, two boys in a pizza place started making fun of it – it’s kind of interesting to have people pointing and laughing at you in other languages!

The church on Evelyn’s corner.
Lindsay posing by the streetlamp.

We headed back to the house for dessert and just enjoyed our last night in Germany!

The group at Evelyn’s.

Travel Tales: Germany 2004, Part Four

It was up and at ‘em early to head to the city of Konstanz, nearly three hours away, and just near the border of Switzerland. The town was beautiful, as all these small towns seem to be – and it was nice to experience even though we saw it mostly from the car. At this point, it was already almost 1:30, so we were hungry and looking for something to do. We took the ferry over to the town of Meersburg (I think!) and I felt like we were in Greece or something when we were on the ferry and then docked at th epier with all the sailboats around.

The lake views were looking at the mountains. We could eve see the grayish outlines of the Alps. From Meersberg we made our way to the small island of Mainau, a privately-owned place. Apparantly, it is the warmest spot in Germany and all kinds of plants grow there that down grow anywhere else in the country. We didn’t see much of this, however, because the price was rather hefty and so we just looked out on the water and watched the sailboats.

Boats that made me think of Greece.
A view of the Bodensee.
Me on the ferry.
Lindsay on the ferry.
Lin and Mom on the ferry.

We took the ferry back to Konstanz, and then we got back into the car and made our way into Switzerland. As we got further and further in, I noticed the very subtle differences the country had – even in the architecture. Evelyn and Gunter said that many of the people spoke in a strange Swiss/German dialect.

Anyway, we went further into Switzerland, stopping in a small city to buy chocolate and have dinner. The restaurant was good. I finally had chocolate mousse!

A small view of the Rhine Falls.
Lin in front of the falls.
Me at the top of the falls.
Lindsay and me at the top of the falls.
The Rhine Falls.

After dinner we went to the Rhine Falls, the place in Switzerland where the Rhine River either ends or begins. The falls are comparable to Niagara Falls, though not as large. You wouldn’t want to go down them in a barrel or anything! Lindsay declared it the greatest date spot in the world.

Once we were done gazing at the falls, we headed to Stuttgart, which is the town where dad was born. We took pictures by the sign – it was too late and we were too tired to get out and enjoy the city.

By the Stuttgart sign.

After all this we pretty much collapsed into bed!

Travel Tales: Germany 2004, Part Three

Journal Entries in italics.

We headed to the city of Heidelberg, where we saw the castle. There were wonderful views of the entire city from there, and it was really, really beautiful. The castle itself was really cool, some of it being in ruin. They also had the SECOND largest drum of win that you can climb stairs and stand upon. I don’t know if there was actually any wine in there – I would highly doubt it. No one actually uses the barrel, to the best of my knowledge anyway.

A view of the castle from below.
The giant wine barrel.
Ruins of the castle.
Lindsay and the poseidon statue.
Me by the giant wine barrel.
The view of Heidelberg from the castle.

I really liked the views best. I love scenery. From the castle we made our way down into the city and saw the big famous church that the whole town seems to be built around. It’s huge, and it has all these little shops all around it. It’s a pedestrian area, which is nice. No noisy cars to be a distraction!

We looked at the church and then headed to the bridge. The names of all these places are in my travel book, which unfortunately I left in the car so I’ll have to get those names down tomorrow or something when I can use the book as a reference. Anyway though, the bridge offered some very nice views of the castle and of the city.

Lindsay and I with Evelyn and Gunter on the bridge.

Then we made our way to another town – the name begins with an ‘s’ but again I don’t remember. I can’t recall the German words that well. They just don’t come to my memory. Anyway, we viewed the palace briefly before heading to the town of Speyer to see the church.

When we were finished in Speyer, it was back to the other town to look at the palace and then have dinner. We were met by Linda and James, and we ate typical German food. Then we walked a little bit to get ice cream before heading back to go to bed and getting ready for tomorrow – Switzerland!

Travel Tales: Germany 2004, Part Two

(Actual journal excerpts in italics.)

Today was a fabulous day, despite the less-than-fabulous weather we experienced. It all began with a trip to Wal-Mart. It was basically the same as Wal-Marts in the states, but with German products (and American) and signs. Better produce too, but I imagine Europe to have better produce in general.

From Wal-Mart we headed to the Black Forest region, where we stopped at a beautiful lake and sampled black forest cake (really good with cherries and whipped cream). This is also where the rain began, and so we didn’t stay very long. However, the views were absolutely beautiful and we got to see where both France and Germany are separated by the Rhine River, and a lot of large hills, though not Alp-like mountain or anything.

We also saw what the Black Forest is famous for – Cuckoo Clocks! They were selling them in the little shop where we bought the cake. They also had wonderful looking breads but we did not sample them. We did watch a guy take them out of the oven though. We decided to leave and head into Baden-Baden.

The city of Baden-Baden would probably be really nice – except for the fact that we couldn’t get out of the car due to the horrid rain…. But it’s a very pretty city – very ritzy – and I would have liked to have had more pictures of it. At this point, I was a little antsy from being in the car the whole time – I was itching to walk.

We got to walk when we got to France, to the city of Strasbourg. It was certainly no Paris but it was nice just the same. I love the French architecture! And Gunter pointed out some very old houses and buildings. It was really cool.

After a brief snack stop (pain au chocolat!), we went to an old church – of course I can’t remember the name but it was HUGE. The inside was nice. They had an astronomy clock and it was actually undergoing some renovation but it was pretty all the same. We lit candles for Grammy Russell and Great Grandma.

Once we saw the church, we wandered around Strasbourg for quite some time, walking by the river and just enjoying the sites despite the rain.

From Strasbourg, mom wanted to go to Soufflenheim, an old pottery town. We bought a serving platter. It was a really cute little place. Again, I had some pictures of it, but mostly from the car.

Then it was dinnertime and so we headed to another small town just on the border of France and Germany. We had a really great dinner that included Flammkuchen, a creamy pizza-like concoction that was really good.

Well, this post would have had more pictures except blogger seems to be having an internal error. I’ll have to add them on later!

Travel Tales: Germany 2004, Part One

Well, since things have been so dead around here and I have time to sit and just type something up, I thought I would continue the tradition of Travel Tales – both to further the tradition and to get everyone excited for the Puerto Rico version that will be coming your way in August.

THIS version, however, tells the story of the trip Lindsay, mom and I took to visit family friends Evelyn and Gunter in Germany during the summer of 2004. It was the first time all three of us had left the country together, and the first time any of us had been to Germany. Now is also as good a time as any to put a disclaimer on my horrible spelling of the German names for things!

Day one brought us to Frankfurt, Germany, which is about two hours away from Evelyn and Gunter’s town (I don’t remember the name of it, but it is just near Karlsruhe). After being on a plane for eight hours and then driving, it was quite a relief to reach the house of Evelyn’s sister, Linda, where she lives with her husband and two daughters, Annalaina (I have never actually found out if that’s how you spell her name but I spelled it exactly as it was pronounced for me) and Marie. They fed us a nice lunch, and then we watched the girls – and Gunter – play Mario Kart on the GameCube which, in German, is pretty funny!

Gunter wasn’t quite sure how the game was played, but he was a good sport and tried it out anyway!

The group playing the GameCube.

Also while we were visiting, mom got scratched by the rabbit in the backyard, also named Wendy.

From there, it was off to Evelyn’s house to get mom settled in. Lindsay and I stayed a few blocks away with a neighbor who had a large spare room. We headed off to meet her and drop off all our things after a quick tour of Evelyn’s house. After a light dinner, we all headed to bed to get ready for our first day of sightseeing!

In the morning, Lindsay and I met mom, Evelyn and Gunter, and here I will let my journal from the trip take over (all journal entries in italics):

Today was a wonderful day. I had breakfast at Evelyn’s, followed by a lovely picnic next to a lake (name unknown)…. We met Evelyn’s mother and her sister’s family was there as well – they are all really, really nice, so it’s been fun to do various things with them.

Evelyn’s niece, Marie, up a tree.
The whole group next to the lake.
Annalaina and Marie.

Following the picnic, we headed to a lovely castle way up on a hill. The name I can’t remember but Evelyn said she would write it down for me. The castle was nestled in the rocks, and when it was actually in use it was highly security conscious. There were all of these strange entrances carved into the rocks, and looking posts on other mountains that the men could crawl to – sometimes taking two days to get from place to place… The region we were in today is called the Deutsche Weinstrass, the German wine country. We did indeed see the vineyards, but only from the car.

(Note: There are no pictures of the castle as my camera decided to act up and be annoying at this point in the trip!)

Once we completed our time at the castle we headed to Evelyn’s mother’s house – and also the site of Evelyn’s hometown (thought she lived in a different house than her mother’s current one). The small town was called… well, unfortunately I can’t remember the exact name, but it started with an “o.” We took a nice walk around there, and even met some cousins of Evelyn’s.

The walk through the farm town was really beautiful. They had pretty views of other small towns in the distance, all with those classic thatched roofs, all pointy and in hues of red and brown. It was all surrounded by rolling hills and fields of yellow hay and green grass. Charming would be the only word to describe it. It’s really nice just walking around the looking at various things.

I could hardly believe that it was nearly six o’clock when we headed out of there! We went back to Evelyn’s, crossing over the Rhine – I love big river expanses, though I could have done without the factory buildings in the distance. They’re ugly everywhere, but especially when surrounded by pretty scenery.

When Gunter returned (he had been working), we went into Karlsruhe, the large town near their house. We saw the castle, where the Dukes of Baden lived. It was a really nice site, especially all lit up in the dark. The tower of the castle is at the “base” of the city – all the streets “stem” from it, like a fan. It’s very interesting. I wonder what an aerial view would look like.

The castle, lit up at night – my crappy flash does not do it justice!

We simply walked about the town, seeing it. We saw the town center, with a large pyramid tomb containing Wilhelm von Baden-Durlach, according to my guide book, though Gunter it just as informative as a tour guide as we make our way through these new places.

In the next installment: Our day in the Black Forest and heading into France!

Travel Tales: Paris 2003, Part Seven

Saturday in Paris took us on a morning trip to Versailles, which was both interesting and really beautiful. Unforunately it was one of those situations where I remember the place but not the details our tour guide gave us. Well… actually I do remember the one about why the beds were all so short. Apparently, back in the Marie Antionette times, they were superstitious about people lying down to sleep and so they made the beds sort of like recliners. People would sit in a sitting position with their legs in front of them. This is, incidentally, an inaccurate detail in the Marie Antoinette movie!

Anyway, the inside of the palace was really impressive, but I really liked the grounds. They were much bigger than we were able to walk as it was REALLY hot that day, but we did get a special treat in that they turned the fountains on. If I remember correctly, the original plumbing is still used (at least in the fountain structures) and so they do not put them on except for fifteen minutes on Saturday mornings! We were lucky enough to be there to see it, which was very worth it.

Walking outside, I mostly took more pictures of the statues and things, which I really liked.

Some sights from Versailles:

I couldn’t help but feeling while we were on the grounds that we should be dressed in old Regency outfits or something!

Once back in Paris, we didn’t have a lot of time left in the day so we started to get ready for dinner. I really wanted to see the Eiffel Tower in the dark, all lit up, so we decided to go have dinner and wait for it to get dark (which took QUITE a while!). We also had not been all the way to the top of the tower yet, so that was part of our plan as well – taking the elevator this time.

When we got up there, the first thing I noticed was how everything on the ground kind of looked like garbage scattered around – but you can’t beat the view!

We did get to see the tower when it was semi-dark, but we were both a little wary of going back to the hotel so late. Even so, it was nice to see.

Sunday was our last day in Paris, and we really didn’t have time for much before heading to the airport. We went to the Tuileries and just watched people for a little while, finishing off a roll of film and enjoying our last few hours.

I really think the above picture was literally the last one I took!

We headed to the airport and headed home. The flight was uneventful, unless you consider watching Spy Kids 2 an event!

Travel Tales: Paris 2003, Part Six

Thought I’d polish off the Paris Travel Tale so that I could put the photo album away. When we last left off, Lindsay and I had visited with Evelyn and Gunter, who came in from Germany.

The next day we were up early again so that we could go on a walking tour with Patrick, our tour guide, through the Marais District. He brought his little dog, Daisy, with him. Paris was still crowded from the day before, but near the Marais it seemed a little less so. We walked through the entire area, and Patrick told us many stories of the place – which I wish I could remember. My favorite part of the walk was taking pictures of all the intricate building designs and statues that grace the area, this one being one of my favorites (his stance entertains me):

As usual, Lindsay and I took many pictures of the architecture and buildings around us, just to remember it all and take it all in over and over again in the photo albums. Unfortunately, I don’t have TOO many pictures from this day, as I think we used the black and white roll, which never got scanned into the computer (a project for another day – there’s an amazing picture of two little girls by a fountain that Lindsay took, but that’s a story – and a PROJECT! – for another day…)!

So that this story of our tour isn’t so brief, here are some of my favorite shots from our walk:

We ended our tour relatively close to Notre Dame, which Lindsay and I hadn’t visited yet. Strangely enough, in my search through the photos, I didn’t find ANY from Notre Dame – they must be in the black and white roll too! In any case, we did not go up because the crowds were insane, but enjoyed looking at it before finding a small park right next to it and watching the little French children play games before continuing on our walk.

We had yet to visit the museums, so we decided it was a good time to. The only logical place to start was the Louvre…. Bad Idea! The Louvre REALLY deserves an entire day, but we were giving it about two hours and then heading to the Musee D’Orsay (which I actually prefer because I like Impressionist paintings). However, we had time to check out the Egyptian wing for Lindsay and, of course, see the Mona Lisa, just to say that we did!

Though the sign said no pictures, I did manage to get a shot of it (seriously, I don’t think they enforce this rule very well as EVERYONE was taking pictures of it). It was interesting to see but, admittedly, it’s much smaller than you might imagine.

After our brief time in the Louvre, we headed to the Orsay, which was finally open (they had been on strike for the first couple of days). We spent more time there, looking at all the pictures, Lindsay taking close up shots of details she really liked in the photos.

I don’t think I need to say that a walk through the Marais district, a trip to Notre Dame and visits to not one, but TWO, famous Paris museums, made for an EXTREMELY exhausting day, and we trekked back to the hotel and, after more bread and cheese (and Nutella) fell asleep early (as the next day would be another early wake up – for a trip to Versailles!).

Travel Tales: Paris 2003, Part Five

Might as well continue, as I am on a kick and dragged out the photo album to remind myself of the trip and everything!

Thursday morning we slept in, having been up early the last two days. We discovered is was Ascension Thursday, which meant that all of a sudden Paris was crowded with tourists, which it had not been for the first couple of days. Apparantly it was a big four day weekend in Europe so people were travelling. In any case, we waited at the hotel for a phone call from Evelyn and Gunther, who were coming to see us from Germany (they live about four hours from Paris). When they arrived, we headed out with them on a little walking tour, heading over to the Marais district and the Pompideau Center (I don’t think I spelled that right!). We had some drinks at a little cafe and then kept walking.

At some point, we ended up at the Eiffel Tower. One of the highlights of this was using Gunter’s cell phone to call mom at work and say, “Guess where we’re standing right now! Right next to the Eiffel Tower!”

We did not go up, as the aforementioned crowds were gathered in masses, and instead sought out some lunch. We ended up at a tiny little shop on a side street that happened to serve food to VERY small tables in the front (seriously, we were the only people who fit). I remember bread, oil and mozzarella cheese as the shop seemed to have more of an Italian flair than a French one.

We also headed over to a street that boasted an ornate door decorated in the French nouveau style (which I really liked at the time). It was huge, with really interesting designs all over it. After staying there for a few minutes to check it out, we just walked around a little bit more, exploring the nooks and crannies of the street. We didn’t make any major discoveries, but as our twenty-four rolls of film (yes, you read that right!) attest, Lindsay and I just really liked to take pictures of the streets of Paris – something I still like to do in any foreign country I am in (buildings and street scenes are just so interesting to me!).

That evening was likely filled with even more souvenir shopping and I’m guessing from the lack of pictures of restaurants that we bought bread and cheese again to have for dinner (and perhaps I watched French Idol again… it seemed to be on every night, along with episodes in French of The Simpsons, Newsradio, Dawson’s Creek and Friends – highly entertaining, especially Friends, which I knew all the words to so could understand and enjoy the French I couldn’t follow!).