Exploring Europe from Kaiserslautern Blog

Finding Vincent's Cafe Terrace..

Before I moved to Europe, I never visited a major art museum.  My experience with art paintings lie solely with my wonderful art teacher in high school, Ms. Hyde, who spent more time teaching us to explore our own drawing abilities and preferred mediums rather than studying a bunch of old dead artists and their work.

Four years ago, I worked with a friend who loved Van Gogh.  She had his prints tacked to her cubicle as a calendar.  His prints were cool enough until the first time I saw them in person.  Cool enough does not cut it.  This guy rocked. 

As I've traveled Europe with my husband and friends, we always hit the major art museums. Paris, London, Madrid, Venice, Milan, Rome, Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, to name a few, have educated us on the fine art masters through history. 

We discovered as we traveled that each of us enjoy a different artist from a different period.  I love the French Impressionists and Van Gogh.  My husband enjoys the Italian Renaissance, and another friend always leans towards the Dutch Masters.  Our different interests help give us goals when we visit these major museums.  It makes touring these halls much more fun even if you are not a major art fan.

As I've been exposed to more Van Gogh paintings, one print in particular captured my heart, and I made it a personal goal to locate it. The "Cafe Terrace at Night" is one of his more popular prints, but it is hidden in a little museum in Otterlo, Netherlands.  The Kroeller-Mueller Museum is said on Wikipedia to hold the second largest collection of Van Goghs.  The Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum holds the most.

Otterlo is a four-hour drive from Kaiserslautern, and my husband has earned major brownie points for making the drive with me to see this painting.  The town is small and sits on the edge of a forest called the Park de Hoge Veluwe.  The museum sits within this park.  My point for this entire blog entry is we enjoyed a nice, relaxing weekend.  It was worth the drive.  We visited the museum in the afternoon.  In the early evening, we grabbed the free, white, Dutch-style bicycles and rode through the forest for an hour or so before dinner.  The bikes were so quiet, we rode upon a small deer standing along the path.

We stayed in a quaint, bed and breakfast called the De Boer'n Kinkel in Hoenderloo.  The rates were great.  The room was great, and we could walk to both the museum and the forest.  Parking was free.

The Cafe Terrace at Night did not disappoint either.  It was fantastic as were the other vast collection of Van Gogh's displayed here.  If I were ever to be an artist, I would want to paint like him.

Egypt & The Nile

Wow.  It's really the only word I can use to describe it.  I spent eight days travelling from Cairo to Luxor along The Nile to Aswan and back to Cairo.  It was my first trip to Egypt, and it wasn't a normal sightseeing adventure.  I went on one of RTT's flight tours, not as a guest, but as a secondary tour escort.

I've been a tour guide for RTT for the past year, but my blog doesn't reflect the trips I lead.  My blog only covers my personal travels.  I had to share this trip.  It may not be a European destination from Ktown, but it was much easier and cheaper flying from here than the U.S.  Plus, it was fantastic, and I can't help but recommend it to others.

The itenerary for this trip varies for each group that goes.  It depends upon shipping schedules and other technical issues in Cairo.  Basically, people who take this tour spend a few days in Cairo and a few days cruising from Luxor to Aswan along The Nile, or vice versa.

The ship makes several stops in towns like Edfu and Aswan.  At most stops, amazing temples covered in hieroglyphs await visitors.  We toured The Temples of Karnak, Luxor, Philae and Abu Simbel.  These temples are amazing, and I personally preferred them to the pyramids in Cairo.  Preserved so beautifully along the desert, these temples made the ruins of Rome and Athens look like rubble to me.

At the Valley of the Kings, the place where King Tut's tomb is located, I felt like I stepped into the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie.  The Valley was built after the pyramids, because those big tombs basically had a "come rob me" sign on them.  The tombs built into the hillside of The Valley was supposed to hide the royal artifacts buried inside from tomb raiders.  It didn't work.

Going to Abu Simbel was an optional tour at an extra cost.  It was a three hour drive into the Sahara Desert to these two temples.  The Temple of Ramsees II sits here, and his statues are so huge you feel like a tiny ant standing below looking up.  I enjoyed this side detour.

Once we arrived in Cairo, our time was packed visiting the Great Pyramids in Giza, the ancient site of Memphis, El Kahlili Market, Coptic Cairo and its hanging church as well as many other sites.  I never realized how close the pyramids sit to downtown Cairo.  From one vantage point, you can see the cityline behind these majestic structures.

There isn't much to see in Memphis, the first capital of Egypt, but I got a kick out of it since my first pyramid visit ever was of glass construction sitting along the great Mississippi River to see a Disney on Ice show.

There isn't enough space in this blog to really describe how wonderful it was to tour this country.  But here are some important items to know before you go:

1. Be prepared for spontaneity and lack of clear itenerary each day.  The Egyptian culture is different from ours.  Your Egyptian tour guides that spend the week with you do not operate under the rules of Western fast-paced, structured work ethic.  If you let them, they help you experience the local flavor of life by taking each day/hour by the day. 

2. Watch your food and water intake.  It's easy to not get sick if you stay away from the local water and uncooked vegetables, fruits, tea, coffee or anything.  Even be wary of local bottled water -- although it doesn't have the "bug" that makes tourists ill, it may contain magnesium that can still cause stomach issues.  Bottled water is labeled, and I tried to stick to Dasani when I could purchase it.

3. Bring $1 bills, candy and pens.  The dollar bills can be used for tipping, bathrooms, etc.  I would recommend bringing at least $50.  The candy and pens can be used as negotiating tools when haggling at markets or they can be given to kids.  Or, they can be given to kids trying to haggle you as a bribe to get them to leave you alone.  Haggling is big in Egypt for every purchase. 

I loved visiting Egypt, and look forward to the day when I can return as a tourist.  As a tour escort, I learned lots about the social culture, a little about the business culture and absolutely adored the guests in my group.

Historic Istanbul

Except for Biblical references and recent European Union admission news articles, I knew little of this city before I booked the trip and fiercely started reading history books before my departure date.  What I did know was that I really wanted to see old Constantinople, step my toe into the Asian world and feel the experience of walking in a city where Christianity isn't the dominant religion. 

To my surprise, even though I previously read this in numerous travel books, Istanbul looks mostly European and probably outdoes New York City in its multicultural presence.

My husband and I booked the four-day trip with Baritli Travel, and it was well worth the money even though it was priced in Euros.  Istanbul has plenty to see, but we covered most of it in the few days we had.

We toured the Hagia Sofia, which stands on the spot of the first Christian church in Constantinople.  We walked through the Blue Mosque and one other mosque.  I highly recommend women bring a scarf to cover their heads as a sign of respect, even though plenty of female tourists were not using head cover. 

We explored the Topkapi Palace and the Dolmabahce Palace -- the palaces of the Sultans.  Very fascinating.  In Topkapi Palace, we visited the Harem, while learning more about what a Harem actually represents.  My favorite part of the tour was walking through the Imperial Treasury in the Palace.  The jewels in this place make the Crown Jewels in London look like trinkets.  In one spot, a crystal box held loose cut emeralds - big ones.  I've never seen anything like it.

The Dolmabahce Palace tour came the next day, and this royal residence resembles the amazing palaces of Europe. 

We also spent time shopping in two bazaars -- The Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar.  Now, our guide took us the first day to the Grand Bazaar and instructed us to hold off on buying items until the Spice Bazaar, so we could get cheaper deals.  I disagree.  The Spice Bazaar does not offer the grand collection of the other.  I missed out on some wonderful souvenir opportunities.  It was fun exploring both places even if you don't love shopping.

Our tour company was fun.  We stayed in a fantastic hotel with a wonderful European breakfast.  The tour offers special excursions at an extra price.  Our guide didn't make it clear the first evening that the Turkish Evening Dinner option was optional.  Most guests on the tour were disappointed.  It was pricey, and the food was not great.  The lunch stops for the tour were much better.

Seeing Istanbul was amazing.  It's built up like Athens.  Houses, churches, mosques, and buildings cover every inch of land.  The public buses are crammed, and the driving is insane.  The people come from all over the world, speak many languages and obviously live varied styles of life.  Istanbul is truly the first melting pot. 

The major difference I noticed from Europe was at sunset.  In Europe, the rings of church bells fill the air around 6 p.m.  In Istanbul, the echo of the Islamic call to prayer announces sunset.

Hiking in Lucerne, Switzerland

We took advantage of the three-day Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend in January, and drove to the Swiss Alps for a little adventure and relaxation.  Michael lacks the balance necessary for us to fully embrace winter sports, so we've ignored the majestic Alps during most of our European travels.  We discovered this weekend that we can still enjoy a little hiking in the Alps even during the winter.

We planned to spend the weekend in Zurich, but found only exorbitant hotel prices that would take the fun out of any vacation.  Instead, we drove to Lucerne and stayed at a fabulous hotel right outside the city center.  The Balm Meggen receives a three-star rating on Venere.com, but I would rank it much higher.  A delightful breakfast was included in the price for a room that outsizes any European hotel where we've stayed so far.

From the Balm Meggen, we drove 10 minutes to the base of Mt. Pilatus for a little hiking.  Cable cars run up the mountainside for those wanting great views without the work.  A trail wanders beneath the cars.  We hiked halfway up the mountainside climbing about 3,000 feet.  The last half of our climb, we used some cheap, little cramp-on clips for our feet to help the sliding on the snow and ice.  At our destination, we broke for lunch at a little restaurant with fantastic views of the mountains around us and the lakes below us. 

Lucerne has a quaint old city center that is good for a walking tour.  We grabbed Rick Steve's Switzerland book from the library, and he helped us explore the historical spots one evening after a fabulous dinner at Spycher's Fondue House.

We headed home the next morning, but decided to swing through Zurich first.  Switzerland is such a clean and beautiful place.  Even though it was a Sunday with no shops open, Zurich was the same.  We did a walking tour through the city visiting historical spots and unique architectural buildings.  Leave it to me to run across the observatory tower in the middle of town. 

In Zurich, I highly recommend finding the Fraumuenster Church.  Its notoriety lies in its Marc Chagall stain-glassed windows.  I love Marc Chagall's windows.  I've seen them before in Metz and Reims, France.  I think he is my favorite stain-glass window painter ever.  Visiting his display in the Fraumuenster Church was well worth the drive to Zurich all by itself.

The drive from Ktown is only 3-3 1/2 hours.  Right before the border, we stopped at a gas station that sold the Swiss highway sticker you need in your car.  This is important, because the Swiss have a guard right on the border checking for the stickers.  It only cost around 20 Euro.

Chocolate Heaven -- Brussels & Bruges

An easy trip to consider for the next three-day weekend is a drive to Brussels and Bruges, Belgium.  Almost three hours from Kaiserslautern, Brussels' huge metropolitan atmosphere will be felt as you drive into the city, but its historic, Gothic and medieval roots will be enjoyed as soon as you step onto the old center's cobblestone streets.

Brussels exhibits a split-personality among people whom shared their experiences with me.  Some people love it.  Others hate it.  This trip, I enjoyed our overnight visit to the city, but I don't think you need more than one-and-a-half days to enjoy.  We reserved a room in the Alma Grand Place Hotel.  The location sits only one block from the city's famous square.

The Grand Place Square is the primary tour spot.  The massive rectangle walking place is surrounded by towering Gothic buildings that make great photo opportunities.  Fantastic shopping jets from every street exiting this center.  Gourmet boutiques display scrumptious chocolate fountains.  Some shops will let you sample. 

The Museum of Ancient and Modern Art is interesting if you like paintings.  A walk through the old city can lead to fascinating finds like the Mannequin Pis (the famous statue of the little boy peeing).  A sister fountain of a little girl peeing is located in a residential area.  The challenge is to find it.

Bruges is only 45 minutes from Brussels, and very beautiful.  I consider it the world's capitol of chocolate shops and lace.  It's a great place to buy gifts.  This small city is perfect for walking with lots of sights to see.  Climb the Bell Tower and listen at 11 a.m. for the bell tolls.  Walk to the Church of Our Lady.  The canal behind the church is a great photo opportunity. 

For lunch, consider stopping caddy-corner from the Church of Our Lady at the Gruuthuse Hof.  They have very good tea if you like the warm drink.

Don't forget to feed the swans.  In the Spring, you get a chance to enjoy all of the baby ducks following their parents along the canals.

Speyer's Extended Christmas Market

If you didn't get a chance to visit one of Germany's Christmas markets this year, Speyer is extending its market through January 7, 2008.  This market is smaller, but still sells all the great traditional trinkets, sausages, and gluwein.

The Christmas market sits along the walkplatz between the Dom and the Alt Portal.  When driving into town, follow the signs to the Dom for parking, and then just walk towards the massive cathedral.

Speyer is a great place to spend a day exploring, and the Christmas market is just an added bonus.  The Dom dates back to 1030 A.D., and this huge Romanesque church dominates the architecture of the rest of the city.

The Alt Portal is an old town gate on the opposite end of the walkplatz.  In between, the town Rathaus and other churches can be seen.  A technik museum where old planes, trains, automobiles and a German submarine can be explored, is located within walking distance to the Dom.  A sea life aquarium is also located in the city center.

Speyer can be reached by driving towards Mannheim from Kaiserslautern, and then turning south onto the A61.  The signs to Speyer Centrum can be easily followed.

Nuernberg Christkindlmarkt

If you do a search on-line for the Nuernberg Christmas market, the first line in most articles states that it is one of the most famous of Germany's holiday markets, so I guess I feel a little silly restating the obvious.  I mostly wanted to go see the place that is painted or etched on most of those pretty Christmas lebkuchen metal tins that you can purchase everywhere during the holidays.

Nuernberg, or Nuremberg as most Americans call it, is about a three hour drive from Kaiserslautern.  Having just returned from a long trip to the States, my husband and I decided to drive to it on Christmas Eve, so we could enjoy one of the bigger markets before they all closed for the year.

The Nuernberg Christkindlmarkt closes early on Christmas Eve, but this was a good time to visit.  Fewer people crowded the aisles of stalls, and we were able to enjoy it without getting bright red gluwein spilled across our coats. 

Now, the market may be closed for the year, but I still wanted to include it on my blog for those scouting out places to visit next year.  It was a fun market with more than 100 stalls.  The Christmas Angel roamed the crowds, and children lined up to get their picture made with her.  All of the traditional ornaments, candies, floras and nutcrackers could be bought here.  The gluwein was made from the Heidelbeere. 

The city also looked like an interesting place to spend a day touring.  An old town wall, a castle and watchtowers encircle the old medieval part of the city.  Unfortunately, everything was closed on Christmas Eve, so we could only peek our heads into a few of the churches.

s'Budche along the Glan

If you live around the Glan-Muenchweiler area, there is a little restaurant/bar that sits alongside the train station called s'Budche.  As one of the village's only two restaurants, people flood this small place both day and night. 

Like most small local restaurants, s'Budche is family owned and the food is always fresh.  They serve a blend of German and Italian dishes along with pizzas.  It's a typical everything-goes place.  The salads are large and ingredients taste as though they were purchased that day rather than coming from a bag or a freezer.

The pizza is yummy, and one is perfect for one person.  If you like penne arrabiata (the spicy Italian dish), s'Budche serves a vegetable penne dish with spices resembling the arrabiata.

You can grab takeout at s'Budche, so if the place is too crowded, you can carry it home or take a walk along the biking trail to the nearest park bench.

If you are not familiar with the Glan-Muenchweiler area, but feel like exploring, head north on the A62 from the A6 in Ramstein.  It's two exits up.  The third exit is for Kusel.  Then follow the signs to Glan-Muenchweiler and the train station.  If you like biking, you may want to explore the Glan-Blies-Weg, the long biking trail that winds along the village going south.

Santorini's Sunsets

This tiny Greek island is famous for its sunsets as well as its legends.  Considered by many to be one of the possible locations for the lost city of Atlantis, Santorini is worth the extra effort required to reach it from the mainland.

Somewhere around 1600 B.C. this popular volcano island exploded leaving only half of the caldera and tiny remnants still standing.  Ocean water filled the crater, and today the unique atmosphere lying around the island performs magic on the setting sun that appears to burn the air on the horizon.

Planning transportation to Santorini feels almost like an epic adventure in itself.  An airport sits on the island, so you can fly.  If you are visiting the mainland first, it's cheaper to take a ferry.  The ferries are tricky.  They can take a while, are pricey and their schedules are not that flexible.  Ferries depart from the Pireaus port south of Athens.  This port is huge, and you will want to find a map of it before you go.  We took a ferry to Santorini, but had to fly back to Athens.  This was quite costly.

Santorini is also famous for its pricing.  This trip will cost you in the summertime.  However, if you go in May or September, you will still enjoy warm sunshine, great beaches and off-season prices.  We stayed on Perissa beach, on the east side of the island, so we needed to rent a car.  It only cost us 20 Euro a day in September.

Our hotel was also fantastic.  It was called the Irigeneia.  It is owned and operated by a family.  The son was so friendly and helpful to us.  The rooms were big, the location was very walkable to the black sand beach.  He helped us with dinner and directions almost every night.

Some of the must see sites in Santorini include the red sand beach, the ancient city of Thira that sits on a cliff on the eastern coast, the black sand beaches, the capital Thira where all the great shopping is located, and the city of Oia.  Oia has the beautiful white-bleached houses piled on top of eachother on the northern caldera.  A hiking trail leads from it to the central capital of Thira along the caldera.  I recommend this hike, because you get beautiful views.

If you stay in Perissa, I recommend the God's Garden restaurant.  The Greek food was fantastic, and we were entertained by the cute little stray kittens that roam the floors hoping guests will feed them.  If you're allergic to cats, probably going here is not a good idea.

If you plan a trip to Santorini, here a few web sites that may help you:  www.athensguide.com and the Paleologos Travel booking site for ferries.

Ancient Athens

The thing to note about Athens is that is not as hard to explore as all the tour books make it sound.  You can easily take the metro from the Airport to downtown, and then around the city. 

We recently returned from a 2 1/2 week trip to Greece.  I was surprised how much I loved it.  We spent two days exploring Athens, which was plenty of time to see the fantastic ruins sprinkled around the city.

Athens reminded me a lot of Rome in that the city itself is a little dirty and trashy, but the sites make the smoggy air worth the breathing effort.  The main ruin in Athens to visit is obviously the Acropolis.  The Acropolis was the ancient heart of the city with three temples, the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena, and another temple with the famous Caryatids.  We couldn't take enough pictures of it.  Every angle provides a new postcard view.  The Acropolis sits above the city, and can be explored in 1/2 day.  Bring something with sleeves, because the wind whips and swirls around you on top of this plateau.

Night time is a great way to explore the numerous other ruins lying around the city.  Since the Greeks eat dinner very late, an after-dinner walk can settle the stomach before bedtime, and many sites can be viewed.  We saw several old churches, Hadrian's library, etc.  Grab a book from the library like Frommer's, and use the suggested walking tours to guide you.

We took the day trip to the Temple of Poseidon, and it was well worth the effort.  We used public transportation.  Take the metro to Victoria Station.  Exit the metro, and find the orange buses for transport to the coast.  The ride is two hours one way.  The temple sits atop cliffs that overlook the Aegean.  A site well worthy of Poseidon.  Don't mess with the organized tours.  You don't need them.  This is easily doable by yourself, and you save a significant amount of money.

Other sites to visit in Athens include the Agora market and the Filoppappou Hill.  The Hill has many trails on it.  It's a great spot to get some exercise, see the observatory, the Monument Filopappus and get the best view of the Acropolis.

We stayed in the Psirri district.  The district is centrally located making exploration and dining easy.  Our accomodation was the Hotel Cecil.  It was very tiny, and sits on a busy and unpleasant-looking street.  The location made it worthwhile, and the price was very low.

Dining in the Psirri district is amazing.  The district has two blocks.  One section has more intimate dining, and the other end has the rowdier bar/restaurants.  We ate at two different restaurants here, and it was the best food ever.  I highly recommend the Oraia-Penteli restaurant.  It's an old Greek house with fabulous Greek food.  Athens & Florence, Italy are now my two favorite places in Europe to eat.