We went to Auntie Sue's place in England and spent Christmas with her and her family. It was a wonderful 4 full days. Christmas Eve we had a dinner party, playing games and eating great food. It was fun and watch out I have some new games to share that are quite hilarious. Christmas Day we opened gifts and had a relaxing day. We visited Chris's grandma and afterwards had a Christmas dinner. It was a very nice Christmas. It was nice to be among family. Boxing day we went for a walk in the hills. It is beautiful in England.
The weather was very unusual, sunny the entire time we were there. Saturday we went to Blackpool, which is very much like Santa Cruz and the boardwalk. It was great but, of course, much was closed for the season. We went around the shops and along one of the piers. The next morning we got up early to go to our second stop, Brussels.Ryan air is a very cheap discount airline, and you truly get what you pay for! We did not realize they have non-standard weight restrictions on the bags and so had to do a lot of juggling to get stuff tranferred to our carry-ons & reduce the weight of the checked bag. But despite a very rude Ryan Air lady (we really don't like air travel) we made it to Brussels.
After some confusion over hotels (turns out there is more than one Crowne Plaza hotel in Brussels) we found our hotel, dropped our bags, and went out for an explore. We realized we were in the center of the EU buildings and the place was dead. Everyone was home for the holidays. The buildings were empty. We went into the old town and walked around the city museum just before it closed. Then we found a pizza place to eat at. It ended up being an early dinner instead of a late lunch. It was now dark and so we walked around and found a Belgium Waffle dessert place. It was yummy. We made it an early night that night.
The next day we were thinking of going to Brugge, which is the city that is known for its lace, but we really did not get to see Brussels much the day before so we decided to wander Brussels instead. We went to the central EU headquarters. Again, very modern, and again deserted. Who is running Europe during the holidays?? The buildings were huge and very modern. We noticed that Brussels is a very big business town. At least that is what it seemed to us. The old town of Brussels is nice and quaint. There is a lot of shopping and restaurants there and few old buildings although it seems they've replaced a lot of the original old town. The EU is really the main focal point we saw. Like all towns in Europe there is also a big church that we explored. There seems to be at least 4 churches in every town. Some huge and some big, nothing really small.Brussels became a relaxing part of the trip where we wandered around and took it easy. I had a horrible cold and Chris was just getting over his. I did not have much energy to do much more.
Tuesday, we took a train to Amsterdam in the morning. We got to Amsterdam and figured out how to get across the water to our hotel. Thanks to a very nice lady we found our hotel. We dropped our stuff off and took a hotel shuttle to town. We walked around some and found the
Rembrandt museum, but it was closing in 15 minutes so instead went to find a place to eat. The weather started to get bad in Amsterdam. It was very cold. We ended up going from one place to the next just to stay warm. It was mostly cafe's and had hot chocolate a lot. Amsterdam is unlike any of the towns we've visited previously. There are more canals than streets (at least in the old town), and it is very much a party town. We think the Amsterdam construction workers must party just as much as everyone else because a lot of the buildings lean at odd angles.On New Year's eve we walked around all the streets. It was very foggy and cold. We went to the Van Gogh museum. He managed to create a lot in a very short time, he only took up art later in his life. Chris originally hoped to do another 2 (or 3 or 4) museums, but unfortunately we were already getting later in the day (oh darn) so instead we walked around the shops and ate Thai for dinner. Afterwards we found a local pool hall. We played darts for a half hour since they closed early for the new year as well (guess the bartender wanted to party too!).
At ~9:30pm We ended up at the main square early for Amsterdam's main celebration in front of the old town hall. They had several Dutch bands play. They seemed to be well known bands. We were amazed at how much English was spoken in Amsterdam. The announcements were done in both English and Dutch. We were pretty close to the front and along a barrier that gave a path to the sound booth. A camera man would go up and down filming the crowd. I got on the big screen a couple of times. It was quite fun. The count down was counted down in different languages. We caught the hotel shuttle back to the hotel after we walked over all the glass bottles and beer cans. We saw many people doing their own fireworks and firecrackers. Our hotel was over the main river and a little away from the town so we could see different sets of fireworks going off over the city. I still heard some going at 1:30 am. It was quite a night.
On New Year's day Chris again wanted to go to the museums (nerd) but unfortunately they were all closed. So instead we walked around some more, went to a park, and stopped several times for hot chocolate. At around 6:30pm we caught the train to Cologne. It was one of the really nice high speed Deutsch bahn trains. It was a very relaxing trip, except for the very funny Swiss bohemian guy who had obviously very much enjoyed his time and Amsterdam (and was still enjoying it on the train).
Cologne is a typical city we found. The thing that stands out about Cologne is the cathedral. It is the largest Gothic style cathedral in Europe. It is amazing. There was a children's reinactment of the Three Wise Men and nativity scene. The cathedral was built to house the remains of the Three Wise Men that had been transferred (aka stolen) from Milan around 1000AD. We went up the 509 spiraling steps that were very narrow and steep to the top of the tower. We saw the bell chamber. They went off right as we were leaving the room and man, they were loud! My ears were buzzing, and with the stair climb and the loud noise I was getting dizzy and nauseous. We made it and then, we asked ourselves, "Why did we go all the way up on a foggy day where we could only see downward and just the bottom of the next building over?" Well, so much for the view but it was still a great experience. And of course, the next day was bright blue sky and sunny! We walked around the park that went all the way around the town. On the other side of the Rhein river there was a tall modern building where we noticed people at the top. So we went to the top observation deck of this building and got our view this time. Luckily this time with an elevator bringing us there! Now we have the cathedral in the view as well.We are now back in Munich and found that our cat did not like us leaving one bit, or maybe she did and showed just how much fun she had. Stuffing from her bed everywhere, things fallen over, clothes out of a drawer and all the closet doors open. It looked like she had a party with all her friends over. She has now finally stopped purring after non stop purring since we got home, but still has not left our side. Millrose kept her company while we were gone. Unfortunately, she did not get to see Northern Europe during winter this time.
As usual all our photos can be seen at our picasa web site (see link on side bar). I hope Christmas and New Years went well for you all.
