My EF plus 30 day adventure in Western Europe or traveling with teenagers can be a different experience especially when they're not yours, by Baldworth
 

Our first experience with EF or Education First was two years ago when my oldest daughter helped organize and recruit for a trip to Europe lasting 21 days and visiting 6 countries. For those of you who think its not traveling unless you stay at least one week in each place you can choose to stop reading now as this is not that kind of travel and I may never be able to afford that kind of travel until I put all three girls through college and retire from teaching. Anyway, as I was saying, my daughter brought mer into this 3 and a half years ago and we traveled through Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, and England for 21 days not spending more than 3 nights in any one place. We loved it and I got to spend my 50th birthday in Paris at the Eiffel tower. So when we got back I decided that I could organize another trip on my own and go to Europe without spending too much money. We looked for the longest trip we could find because the longer the trip the better value per day and came upon European Panorama, a 28 day excursion with an option for a three day cruise through the Greek Isles. We recruited the same friends of hers who ahd gone with us before and many others including other friends of hers and my middle daughter's. To make a long story short (and this is a long story) we finally ended up on a slightly shorter trip that ended in Spain instead of Greece called European Capitals. In addition to the 23 day trip wanted to do the Portugal extension so we could finish at the end of a week and then spend the weekend with the tour director from our trip two years ago, who now lived in Hamburg. Have you got all of that so far? Good because there's a lot more.
The trip to Portugal didn't work out because no one else from the European Capitals (EC) trip had signed up for it so we had to do some planning on our own. This was interesting because my oldest, we'll call her S, was in college two hours away and we needed to plan this together. Separately we began to look for someplace else to go between Madrid, Spain our EC ending point and Hamburg, Germany where we wanted to spend the weekend and finish our trip. We each came up with Barcelona and began to look for places to stay. We ended up with a low cost hostel on the Mediteranean for 22 euros per night per person in the Barceloneta area. I then began looking for low cost airlines and we were on our way. Our trip was set. We would spend two nights in London, England then two nights in Amsterdam, Holland (actually Edam) then one night in Heidelberg, Germany then two nights in Muenchen, Germany then two nights in or near Venice, Italy then two nights in Roma, Italy then two nights in Firenze, Italy two nights in Lucerne, (actually Engleberg) Switzerland one night in a small city in the Alsace region of France called Mulhouse then two nights in Paris, France then an overnight train to Madrid, Spain and two nights there. From there the rest of the 50 people we shared a bus with would fly home and we would take a train to Barcelona, Spain and from Barcelona we would fly to Hamburg and spend the weekend with Y. What a trip right? You have no idea. I want to say right here and now that EF did a pretty good job of making arrangements with a few exceptions and was a good company to travel with on a budget. Most of the nonsense that happened along the way was due to teenagers, prima donnas, and the law that we in the States call Murphy's Law and the English refer to as Sod's Law. If I had to do all over again I would do it in a minute. This will be my first trip report if anyone is interested so let me know if you want to hear it. If not, I'll just write it myself from my journal. It involves broken toes, trips to the hospital at midnight, $300 sunglasses, metros shut down due to World Cup Games, getting lost in the suburbs of Roma, getting lost in the canals of Amsterdam, etc...Let me know.

Baldworth

Hi Barldworth, this report looks very interesting and I would love to read more. It makes it easier to read if you use paragraphs, just a suggestion.

Its baldworth and it was supposed to have paragraphs, they just didn't make it through the editing process. I'll do better next time.

OK, I'm hooked. Please continue . . .

You're saying that all of that was just a query to see if people wanted to read the story itself? How long is this story? Is it available on CD?

You've got my interest. I do get bored easily so please use papagraphs.

Hi B,

If you are typing the report up in Word and pasting to the board, try saving it as a "plain text" file.

((I))

and IF you are typing it directly into the text box - use double returns to get ¶

Yes, do go on!

Alright, I am typing this directly into the post and I'll try to be better with my paragraphs, and yes Anthony that was only the teaser. I haven't even begun to describe the actual trip yet. It appears that you are interested so I'll get started on the actual trip.
My group consisted of five plus me; my oldest daughter S, her good friend R, her friend's mother L, a colleague's daughter ST, and myself. All of these people either went to school where I teach or in the case of R's mother she used to be a substitute there. For my daughter and I it was actually our third trip Europe as we went on an EF weekend with global points last summer to Paris.
We left on a Monday and took the shuttle from Chattanooga, TN to Atlanta, GA where our flight was. The flight itself was fairly uneventful, a 4:30 flight from Atlanta to Frankfurt, Germany. We ate well but didn't have the small screens in the back of the seats that we have had previously so were subject to watching the two films that were shown on drop down screens. I took a sleeping pill after dinner and actually slept for several hours. We landed around 7:00 in Frankfurt and had to find our way to the next flight at 8:25 from Frankfurt to London. I had had some contact with our Tour Director prior to the trip to get a feel for who would be directing our activities for three plus weeks and had found out the following: he was British, he loved history, he seemed to have a sense of humor, and he was an experienced TD. I thought we were to meet him when we deplaned in London at Heathrow but as it turns out it was another EF TD who directed us to our transport. Our hotel was on the East side of London out near the Docklands and the sight for the 2012 Summer Olympics, The Travel Inn-Beckton, and our driver showed us many sights as we rode along. He pointed out the smokestacks that comprised the majority of the Pink Floyd album "Animals" for those who have been around for more than a few years and many sights along the Thames. When we arrived at our hotel we were told that there were still two groups who had not arrived and we were to be part of 50 who would travel together. We met our tour director briefly and found out that he was dealing with a problem that had arisen before one group from San Diego left the USA. One of the kids had lost their passport in the airport in San Fran Cisco and she and her brother were there with a chaperone trying to figure out the best way to get a replacement and get going. It turns out that this would take another two days and they would not all join us until Holland but the result then was that we had a free day in London and the TD provided us with underground passes so we could go anywhere for the day and only had to meet for dinner at 7:00. We were off as soon as we checked in and my group followed me around as we toured the Tower Bridge area and others.
The second problem of the trip arose when we discovered that one of my party, L, had an ATM card that was not a debit card and wouldn't work in London. I loaned them money, she and her daughter, and a new pattern was set visiting ATM's in several cities and trying to see what would work and what wouldn't. The good thing was we spent the day in London, made it to Picadilly Circus and found my favorite Pub from last time, Callahan's, and downed a few Irish Cream Ales and Snakebites that seemed to make everyone relax. That's all for now, got to go to the dentist. I'll do part 2 later today or tomorrow.
No time to edit so sorry if there are any misspelled woords or typos.
Baldworth

Baldworth, Baldworth - do your students pay more attention that you do :)

<b>Double</b> return (i.e., hit return [enter], then hit it again)

This will be easier:

Alright, I am typing this directly into the post and I'll try to be better with my paragraphs, and yes Anthony that was only the teaser. I haven't even begun to describe the actual trip yet. It appears that you are interested so I'll get started on the actual trip.

My group consisted of five plus me; my oldest daughter S, her good friend R, her friend's mother L, a colleague's daughter ST, and myself. All of these people either went to school where I teach or in the case of R's mother she used to be a substitute there. For my daughter and I it was actually our third trip Europe as we went on an EF weekend with global points last summer to Paris.

We left on a Monday and took the shuttle from Chattanooga, TN to Atlanta, GA where our flight was. The flight itself was fairly uneventful, a 4:30 flight from Atlanta to Frankfurt, Germany. We ate well but didn't have the small screens in the back of the seats that we have had previously so were subject to watching the two films that were shown on drop down screens. I took a sleeping pill after dinner and actually slept for several hours. We landed around 7:00 in Frankfurt and had to find our way to the next flight at 8:25 from Frankfurt to London.

I had had some contact with our Tour Director prior to the trip to get a feel for who would be directing our activities for three plus weeks and had found out the following: he was British, he loved history, he seemed to have a sense of humor, and he was an experienced TD. I thought we were to meet him when we deplaned in London at Heathrow but as it turns out it was another EF TD who directed us to our transport.

Our hotel was on the East side of London out near the Docklands and the sight for the 2012 Summer Olympics, The Travel Inn-Beckton, and our driver showed us many sights as we rode along. He pointed out the smokestacks that comprised the majority of the Pink Floyd album &quot;Animals&quot; for those who have been around for more than a few years and many sights along the Thames.

When we arrived at our hotel we were told that there were still two groups who had not arrived and we were to be part of 50 who would travel together. We met our tour director briefly and found out that he was dealing with a problem that had arisen before one group from San Diego left the USA. One of the kids had lost their passport in the airport in San Fran Cisco and she and her brother were there with a chaperone trying to figure out the best way to get a replacement and get going.

It turns out that this would take another two days and they would not all join us until Holland but the result then was that we had a free day in London and the TD provided us with underground passes so we could go anywhere for the day and only had to meet for dinner at 7:00. We were off as soon as we checked in and my group followed me around as we toured the Tower Bridge area and others.

The second problem of the trip arose when we discovered that one of my party, L, had an ATM card that was not a debit card and wouldn't work in London. I loaned them money, she and her daughter, and a new pattern was set visiting ATM's in several cities and trying to see what would work and what wouldn't.

The good thing was we spent the day in London, made it to Picadilly Circus and found my favorite Pub from last time, Callahan's, and downed a few Irish Cream Ales and Snakebites that seemed to make everyone relax. That's all for now, got to go to the dentist. I'll do part 2 later today or tomorrow.
No time to edit so sorry if there are any misspelled words or typos.

Baldworth

I am really looking forward to the continuation of your story, as a fellow teacher who has brought groups abroad.

Thanks for sharing!!

%%-

I'm a little confused, was this a largly &quot;adult&quot; trip or were most of the participants children? Most of EF's trips are around 6 to 8 children per adult chaperone.

Thank you janisi for the edit. Sorry guys but sometimes life get in the way. The first afternoon continued from the pub to finding our way back to our hotel. We had to find the Docklands line which is somewhat hidden when you get off at Tower station. After wandering for about 30 minutes and getting turned around we asked fro help and a very nice British gentleman steered us in the right direction. When we arrived at the shopping center where our dinner meeting place was located it turned out that we were the first ones there. This was another pattern that emerged as it was rare that my group was late or not around whenever we were supposed to meet. For the first two weeks of the trip my group stuck to me like glue and it was very difficult to get them to try things on their own.

Let me tell you a little bit about the groups. My group consisted of me, age 52 my daughter and two of her high school friends (they are all now in college approaching their sophmore years)all 19, R's mother age 40 something, and ST age 25. Past S and I there wasn't a whole lot of experience but there was a lot of interest in history and the particular places we were going to see, except for N who was there to have a good time and collect some experiences along the way. The OTHER groups were not like us. There was a group from a small town outside of Charlotte, NC comprised mostly of either high school seniors or just graduated about to be freshmen in college. This group was there to party and get some cultural experience during the day. There were about 14 students and three adults who tried hard at times but weren't always in tune with what their kids needed or wanted.Their main group leader we'll call M. There were two groups from the San Diego area of California and it appeared that all of these kids came from families with a decent amount of money. One group had 18 students and two teachers B and SA and the other had six students and one teacher/group leader L. Altogether there were 50 together in hotels and on the bus and wandering the streets of each city en masse. When we hit a small hotel such as in Edam, Holland Heidelberg, Germany or in the suburbs of Rome, Italy we overwhelmed the place. These were not bad kids but some in each of the two California groups were as young as 14 and several were 15. One group who all spoke fluent Mexican Spanish only spoke Spanish whenever they were around each other in a hotel lobby, on the tour bus, on a walking tour, and tended to stick together excluding others for most of the trip. But I digress.

We all finally made it to the dinner spot and realized there were two places with the same name and we were at the wrong one. We walked together through the shopping center to a balcony and waited for...are you ready?...hamburgers and french fries! They weren't even good hamburgers. It was the worst meal we had the entire trip and I could have done better in their kitchen using their materials! After dinner some of the kids went to a bar, some went back to their rooms and crashed after many hours without true sleep, and most of the adults and some of the kids went to the hotel pub and watched whatever World Cup match was on TV and had a beer or two. The three from San Diego were not in yet and so my daughter did not have her room-mate yet. Day 1 and Day 2 finished. Day 3 and our ACTUAL tour of London to come later.

Baldworth

Fascinating. I can tell we are slowly working up to some extreme events. Perhaps this will become &quot;Final Destination 4&quot;. ;)

Well, I'm still here so you've kept my attention so far, but I deduce from your title there are still about 29 days to go....

You'll need to condense the rest of the report a bit to have me there at the end!

Quite an adventure to travel in such a large group. Thank goodness you are able to break up into smaller, more personal groups.

Looking forward to how this works out . . .

Dear Baldworth, I think those paragraphs need a bit more attention to be honest. Loving the report, though I just hope a live long enough to read it all!

Day 3

We were still two people short as Willie had come along to England but his sister Kim nad their chaperone SA were still taking care of passport business. Jonny, our tour director (TD) had a meeting with all four of the group leaders and then a general meeting with all of the participants before we left on the bus to go into London to have our tour. We saw many of the same places we had visited the day before but we had an excellent city guide who added a lot to the experience. He shared amny details about places including Lord Nelson's body which was kept in brandy and stored that way until he could be returned to London and buried in his crypt under St. Paul's Cathedral. The day before we had seen the outside of Parliament, the outside of Westminister Abbey (they wanted about 13 pounds to tour), Trafalgar Square, and had walked out onto the Tower Bridge. This day we road evrywhere on the bus, visited St. Pauls, and got a great spot to view the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace thanks to our city guide. We ended up in Trafalgar Square again and decided as a group, of 6, to stick together and see how many places we could see before dinner that evening.

I had wanted to see the Rosetta Stone, someone wanted to see the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park, we were all hungry, and another wanted to tour the museum in Trafalgar Square. We had gone to Picadilly Circus in order for everyone to know where our evening meeting point was for the walk to dinner. We decided to take our chances in China Town and eat lunch first. We had an excellent meal and headed back to catch the underground.

In the process of walking back we had to pass through a covered walkway that was separated by metal poles and above them scaffolding. I had stopped to let everyone catch up and leaned on one of the poles. Little did I know that it wasn't attached to anything and the next thing I know I am trying to keep a 20 foot metal pole from falling into the road into an oncoming taxi. One of my companions is trying to help, two others are gasping, and the other two can't stop laughing. Finally, before the pole actually hit something, a workman came up and grabbed the pole and got it under control. It took 15 minutes just to get my heart to stop beating fast. I hope this comes through in writing but I was sure I was going to destroy something, most likely a moving vehicle and it scared the hell out of me. Afterward we caught the underground and rode it to Holborn, the stop of the British Museum.

After about a fifteen minute walk and two stops for directions we found the British Museum and discovered it was free. Shortly after entering we found the room with the Rosetta Stone, the very object that had inspired my interest in World History when I was 14. After several pictures we moved on and explored the rest of the museum mostly consisting of ancient scuptures and artifacts from Egypt, Babylon, and Greece. It was quite an experience.

We made our way back to the underground and decided to go to Hyde Park. We rode to one corner of the park and decided we wanted some coffee/tea/hot chocolate before we explored the park. We stopped in Knightsbridge and had a very enjoyable experience. N decided he wanted to go back to the hotel and rest(sleep) before dinner so I gave him underground and Docklands Line instructions and he left. The rest of us walked through Hyde Park for about 30 to 40 minutes before reaching the Peter Pan statue and then the Italian Gardens beyond. By the time we were through ewe realized that we had exhausted our afternoon and needed to go in the direction of Picadilly Circus and our meeting point at the fountain. We went back to Callaghans for another round of drinks and then went to meet the other and wait for N.

The meeting time came and everyone was there except for N. I decided to stay and wait on him while the others went on to dinner. I watched them walk away and armed with good directions waited for N to arrive. I waited ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes and was beginning to panic when after 40 minutes he finally arrived running out of the underground, huffing and puffing and telling me the story of how it had taken him an hour to get from the hotel on the Docklands Line to the Circle Line and then the Bakerloo Line in order to get to Picadilly Circus. Personally, I think he overslept. We went to dinner and stuffed down mediocre fish and chips which was much better than what we had the night before at Fox London.

After dinner my group decided to stick together and go to Covent Garden where two years before we had listened to numerous street performers with genuine talent. When we got there there was almost no one in the Garden and only a couple of performers, neither of which were musicians. Disappointed, we walked back toward the entrance beforedeciding to stop in The Nag's Head and have a couple while watching the end of the World Cup match. England tied whoever they were playing and we had two ales/shots/snakebites. Afterwards we went back to our hotel via the same basic route and went to bed. End of Day 3 and still two California people have not joined the tour.

Baldworth

I'm enjoying your report. When I was 15 I went on a three week bus trip to six countries, followed by a six weeks French school in Montpellier.


There were about 35 kids from assorted schools in Louisville, Ky. We only had two chaperones and mostly behaved ourselves. I don't think we had curfews though since I rode around London one night with a Bobbie (actually it was in the wee hours of the morning.) None of us lost our money or passports. Guess we were lucky. I've never lost my love of European travel since this experience.

Trips like this are better than any classroom experience. I think chaperones like you do a wonderful service to your students. My parents weren't able to finance a trip for me and themselves, so I may not have ever made it to Europe if I hadn't been able to take this first trip. I learned so much about travel on this first whirlwind trip.

Oh this is good. Keep going.

There will be more tomorrow. I am trying to upload about 500 or so pictures from the trip to be viewed at Kodakgallery.com. Hopefully by the time I finish with the report I will have the pictures uploaded, labeled and they will help explain some of what happened along the way.

Baldworth

This looks like it is going to be good :)

One minor thing &quot;<i> . . . the outside of Westminister Abbey (they wanted about 13 pounds to tour)</i>&quot;

It is REALLY too bad you didn't go inside -- BTW the Abbey doesn't cost &pound;13. It is &pound;10 for adults and &pound;6 for students.

There were six of us and on one wanted to spend that much on the first day of travel. Besides, if is 10 pounds then that is $18 and we had too many other museums that were already part of the package tour to see and I couldn't do anything at that point without the whole group folowing. I'm sure it was spectacular but I would have had to deal with a small revolution and it wasn't worth it at that point.

OK. For those who want to read a long trip report instead of a long title here goes with:

Day 4 -
We left the hotel at 8:30 to catch the ferry that would take us across the English Channel to Holland. We went through customs just like going on an airplane and traveling from country to country and checked our bags the same way. The main thing that I notices was that we had to wait for about 20 minutes while motorcycles were ridden onto the ferry with leather clad riders. There must have been at least 500 if not more like a thousand. Once we got to board we found a table and set up our group area just like any place we had eaten in England. This was becoming a habit. Circle the wagons and don't let any foreigners in. I was already tired of this routine as I had enjoyed some of the best times in my life meeting not only people from other countries on my previous trip but those in other groups such as the one from Idaho. I wanted to sit with other people and interact but they were having none of it. Every time we sat down anywhere it was always a table for six and always the same table if we ate in the same place more than once. I would have to do something about this but not now, it was too early in the trip. I would wait until we had been traveling for a while and break off then. Meanwhile, we all at one time or another wandered the ship and scouted out what was available. There was a movie theater (not free)a store, two or three restuarants, a sports bar, and a casino as well as the usual amenities. N found the store and proceeded to buy a bottle of Dooleys, toffee flavored vodka which he and S and I drank over the next three hours while we played spades to pass the time. It was good stuff and S bought a bottle for her mother before we finished the ferry ride.

All in all it was a comfortable, smooth way to cross the channel and get to Holland. We arrived in Holland about 3:00 in the afternoon and were picked up by Geoff our bus driver from Holland through Paris or about fourteen days. This was to be our home on wheels and where we would spend long hours riding to cities, around cities, to and from sights in cities and sometimes to and from dinners and places like the Hofbrauhaus. Geoff was from Belgium and we would soon learn most of the words to &quot;The Belgian Song&quot; his offering to us on the way to the hotel that evening. For now his job was to get us into Amsterdam and drop us off at the main train station where we would get our first taste of the city.

The city was wonderful, full of life, coffee shops, canals, street performers, every style of clothes anyone could ever want, the red light district, World Cup souvenirs, museums, and many other things to see and do. While waiting for the group to take advantage of the WC we were auditorally attacked by a very loud street preacher who was determined to save the entire city, IN ENGLISH! He must have mentioned the devil at least 25 times as well as fornication and many other evils he was sure the people of Amsterdam were addicted to and we were so glad to get away from him we almost ran down the street when everyone showed up from the lou. We walked down the main street to Dam Square and located our meeting place so that we could have about 45 minutes of free time before returning to the bus and proceeding to our hotel in Edam and dinner at the &quot;Hotel't Tolhous&quot;. WE just had time to make a quick run through the &quot;red light District&quot; and get N accosted by a guy who was willing to sell a nineteen year-old American &quot;anything he wanted&quot;. It was an interesting experience and I'm glad we were all together for this one. We rode back to the hotel, about 30 minutes away, in very scenic Edam and saw windmills, numerous cows, small bridges with weighted draws that could be easily raised for boat passage, and a huge dike where the bay was created by holding back the water from the reclaimed land. The views were awesome.

While waiting for dinner in the hotel lobby, something happened that seemed uneventful at the time but would prove to be the first in a series of events involving one of the students and anyone around him at the time he had alcohol in his system. He plopped down on a couch in the lobby and put his feet on the couch, shoes and all. My room-mate, B, told him nicely that we were in a hotel and he probably shouldn't put his feet up on the the couch since he probably wouldn't do theat same thing if he was at home in his own house. Be sat up and removed his feet but clearly resented anyone telling hi what to do. For the moment it was forgotten. Remember this later.

We went into what turned out to be probably the best dinner we had the entire trip. It was a buffet that features o many different things I couldn't begin to teel you what all was there. There were at least five different entree's, many different vegetables, potatoes of two or three different varieties, and desserts of all descriptions. It was phenomenal! I found the biggest plate I could locate in the cupboard and proceeded to fill it with as much as I could to the tune of about fourteen inches across and three inches high. I ate all of it and was so stuffed I couldn't do anything for about fifteen minutes. By the way, we were all six at a table at the end where we would also eat breakfast the next two mornings. Circle the wagons. After dinner we took a 45 minute walk in the town of Edam just to wear off dinner. It was serene and quiet and a total contrast to Amsterdam. Afterwards, we went into the bar and had a few Heinekens with the TD. Heineken was the most available beer, especially on tap, on most of the tour. After about three and a shot of abileys, it was time to go upstairs and go to bed. Our last two travelers had arrived from San Fran Cisco, S had a room-mate at last SA, and were complete.

Thirty minutes later I was disturbed by a knock on the door. One of my room-mate's students had lost his wallet in the room where we ate dinner and my room-mate B was fast asleep. I threw on some clothes and went downstairs to help T look for his wallet. This was actually his passport holder and had all of his money, about 300 euros, as well as his passport and all of his identification. We looked all over but could not find it. We notified the front desk that it was missing and returned to our rooms. It was about midnight. Iwas awakened again about 30 minutes later by the guys across the hall who had come in fromsomewhere and were now very loud in the hall outside my room. More later.

Baldworth

Day 4 part 2

Something that I neglected to mention that we did while in London was to visit the main train station at King's Cross where they actually have platform 9 and three quarters set up for all Harry Potter fans to have their picture taken. It was great fun. After dinner that night we tried to take N to a casino he had heard about on Edgeware Road but none of us were dressed properly for the upper class gambling set and they wouldn't let us in. It was somewhat of a relief but I think he would have lost all of his money anyway and we would have spent money on expensive drinks. Covent Garden and the Nag's Head Pub was after that.

We spent the rest of day 4 now into day 5 trying to get the kids from North Carolina to quiet down in the hall as they had asked everyone to be quiet after 12;00, not an unreasonable request but one that was not easy for them to comply with. The manager came up twice and asked them to get quiet, the last time being sometime after 2:00. Needless to say they slept evry chance they got the next day and several of them looked beary eyed most of the trip.

Day 5 -
This was our day to spend in Holland where we had a tour of the Anne Frank House followed by a canal tour and a presentation at a diamond factory. It was a very moving experience to be in the same place where her story unfolded over the course of WWII and the Holocaust. I took a picture in the lobby of Shelly Winters with her best supporting actress oscar and almost got removed from the premises for it. They don't allow photography of any kind. I believe it is just so that they can make money off everything that is sold there but I did get that one picture before I knew and some great pictures of the outside and the cnals in the area.

We then took a canal boat all over the city with a very strange pilot that I dubbed Captain Jack. He played a pre-recorded tape through most of the tour but it ran out and he took us to places that must not have been on the planned cruise. He then began to talk to us in his broken English which we found very amusing and play his favorite &quot;American Music&quot; on his music system. He played the theme from &quot;Grease&quot; and a few other cheesy songs that most everyone knew in some fashion and proceeded to regale us with stories of his family life while he gyrated to the music. He even looked a little like Elvis when he pseudo-danced as he piloted the canal boat with great skill. His favorite word in English was WOW! and he used it to describe everythiing from his favorite music to his wife and addressed us as peoples. We all laughed a lot and thoroughly enjoyed all of the cruise, both the canned voice part and that narrated by Captain Jack. We went through a diamond factory afterwards that was for me a reasonably forgettable experience but one of those that help EF pay for the trip or get lower rates for certain tours and accomodations. I wrote it off as necessary and moved on. After that we went to Dam Square again and dispersed for an afternoon of free time. We had planned to go to at least one if not two museums and then check out the coffee houses in Amsterdam fo the afternoon. The main museum was having some work done and had a line/queue of about an hour and a half so we moved on to have lunch and decide plans for the afternoon. We ate near the park with the I AMSTERDAM sign in block letters and decided that most of us wanted to see the Van Gogh museum nearby. S and N wanted to look at other things and shop a little as S had seen a Van Gogh exhibit previously in Atlanta and N just wasn't interested in any museum that wasn't already payed for. We spent about fifteen minutes in line and then an hour in what could only be considered a wonderful exhibit of Van Gogh's work. Most of his better known pieces were there but some of his besst known work either resides somewhere else, such as Strry Night, or travels from place to place and wasn't there. It was however a great exhibit. Afterward we met the other two in the park again and found out that they had been to a cofee house. We decided to follow up on our initial idea to check it out and spent the next hour or so there. I will not go into the details of that experience except to say that we spent most of the next two hours after we left wandering aimlessly and couldn't seem to find our way to our meeting place until a few things became clearer. We did make it to our dinner meeting place on time at Rembrandt park and sat almost quietly while the rest of the 50 talked loudly and joked over dinner. Enough Said.

We had a great ride back to the hotel in Edam and I got some great pictures of the sun setting over the water. T's passport holder with his money and everything else magically appeared under his bed when we returned to the hotel. Don't ask how because I really don't know and the main thing was that he got his money back. The night was a little quieter that night and I let my room-mate handle anyone who was rowdy in the hall. We also had settled the ATM problem we had as L's card, not being a debit card, would still not work anywhere. We had called home the night before and her husband had taken $1,000 out of the credit union where she had hoped to access it and deposited it into my account with my wife's help so that I could get money out for them as needed. Problem largely solved.

One other thing, part of the reason we wandered around Amsterdam for an hour and a half lost, beyond the obvious, was that we didn't have a map other than the one in my Rick Steves 2005 Europe Guide Book. Rick Steves is very good for a lot of things but city maps are just not one of those things. I used my book as a resource for eating places, gelaterias, sights to see, country maps, prices and what was free, etc... but I'll never again be in a city (especially one with so many canals) without a decent map. I brought this up the next day with the TD in Heidelberg and we were never without city maps again. You just can't be expected to navigate a city without a decent city map. When you travel in a large group the other thing you must have is the name and address of each hotel you are staying in for each traveler. It can become essential as we will see in Rome. The next day would be a travel day and we would put Holland behind us, cross the Rhine, travel on the Romantic Road, visit a medieval walled city for lunch and a city wide yard sale, and arrive in Heidelberg Germany before dinner. I'll leave you for this day with a few words from &quot;The Belgian Song&quot; as our bus driver introduced us to it on the way home that evening. &quot;Aunt Veddecker its great to be a Belgian. I'm not English, I'm not French and I'm not Dutch. I'm a Belgian so thank you very much. I'm not Spanish, Portuguese or German. I'm not Irish, Danish, or Italian. I'm a Belgian so thank you very much.&quot; There is more about eating french fries with mayonaise and recognizing famous Belgians with a very short list. You get the picture.

Baldworth

LOL baldworth, what a fun report!! You are a teacher? Wish I had had a teacher like you when I was a student.
Looking forward to the next installment.

Not to be picky or anything, baldworth, but you have a long report AND a long title :)

I will have to read this when I get a minute. Am packing for our own 25 day adventure.

Day 6 -

This was one of the more uneventful days of the tour although it was our first long day on the bus. We left Edam about 9:00 and traveled across Holland to the German border, headed for Cologne(Koln). As soon as we began certain things became clear. Some of the kids were mixers and some of them were intent on staying within a group and keeping to themselves. A group of girls from San Diego huddled together and spoke Spanish almost exclusively when they were together. Their self-appointed leader was the newly arrived K who had lost her passport in San Fran Cisco, borrowed money from her chaperone SA, and somehow managed to either find enough money or charge a pair of 300 euro Christian Dior sunglasses. Poor little K, don't you feel sorry for her? Neither did I.

My group sat in the back of the bus while all of the other adults sat in the front and I shared a seat with one of the girls from North Carolina as there were no more empty spots when I got on. This was another pattern that would begin here and last for awhile. Certain of the California kids would get up early each morning we were going to be on the bus and grab seats at or near the front of the bus before anyone else had a chance to get on. This would not have been a problem in and of itself except that as we began to move southward it began to get hotter and the bus had a problem with the air conditioning system and could not seem to work beyond the middle seats. My group would suffer through the heat in the back of the bus throughout Italy and only claim front seats when on the way from Florence to Lucerne, Switzerland. For now though, we were in the back. It was interesting sitting in the back and listening to the interaction as some kids made the attempt to talk to each other and others made it a point not to. I marked this for future reference.

Koln was very scenic and you could see the cathedral, tall and black, standing out against the clear sky and city outline from a great distance. We ate lunch, I bought a T-shirt written all in German and we toured a fantastic Gothic cathedral. The whole time we wandered outside the cathedral, which was a central location in Koln, their were groups of Germans roaming the streets dressed in national colors or wearing some form of the German flag who were chanting something in unison abut their country and its chances in the World Cup match that day. It was wonderful to witness that kind of national pride leading up to a sporting event without any displays of idiocy or violence. This went on the entire time we were there and overshadowed the details of the great cathedral. My suggestion is this; if you want to see a great Gothic cathedral Koln is a great place to start if you are in the area. It is all of the things that a Gothic cathedral should be. After lunch and the continuing show, we moved on.

We crossed the Rhine and began to move more south. I was having trouble with the international cell phone that EF had provided and could not get hold of the guy who was supposed to meet us in the airport in Hamburg on the 14th of July. There had been a chance that he would be in Heidelberg on the same Saturday that we would and he knows his way around the city so I was hoping we could meet him there as well as in Hamburg. It was not meant to be. The phone was working for calling home but I would not speak to Y until we were in Barcelona after the EF portion of the trip. Remember that we added six days onto the end of the tour for three of us and five for two others who would end in Dublin, Ireland instead of Hamburg. The point is that it wasn't happening that day so we moved on to Heidelberg.

We traveled through German wine country down the Autobahn with cars passing us at incredible speeds and bus politics beginning to develop. From the stories I was hearing, while many of the kids slept, most of these kids came from families with a least a decent amount of money and fairly expensive homes. They were not used to roughing it at all and expected things to be done for them. They drove expensive cars or planned to when they learned to drive (except for some of the NC kids who were a little more down to earth).

We finally arrived in our village or town about fifteen or twenty minutes outside of Heidelberg, Germany, checked into our third hotel where we were actually on the ground floor away from most of the noise and the kids and went into the restuarant for dinner. Most of our meals consisted of some kind of pork and potatoes but this night we also had a very good soup as a starter and the pork was very good. My room-mate, who was sitting at another table of course, made the waitress mad when there wasn't enough soup to go around at his table and he dared ask for more. German waitresses tend to be a bit gruff unless you soften them up a bit and I guess his demeanor didn't suit her. Anyway, after dinner most of North Carolina decided to take the train into Heidelberg and find a club as they attempted to drink up Europe, a contingent from California including the adults and ten to fifteen kids found a bar and watched Mexico paly in the World Cup. We decided to buy a couple of bottles of wine and sit on the hotel porch and eat cheese with the wine.

That reminds me of something important that I left out as it wasn't originally planned. There had been an optional excursion planned for the full day in Amsterdam to see flowers and visit an old Dutch village and a clog and cheese store as well. The optional excursion didn't get enough people to sign up so EF decided to send us all on our bus to the clog and cheese store, probably some agreement they had again to make the overall cost of the tour lower. We didn't mind at all as we had a very good demonstration about how the wooden shoes are made and another about how the different types of cheese are made. Afterward we left through the store with the chance, of course, to buy clogs and cheese with samples of each type of cheese. The cheese was very good and most everyone on the tour bought some as well as several who bought clogs for themselves or someone back home. The guy who showed us how to make clogs spoke about ten different languages, including fluent Mandarin Chinese to one Chinese member of the California group we'll call J who would come to spend a lot of time with my group as the tour progressed. Most of us left the store with something.

Which brings us back to the porch at our hotel outside Heidelberg. N had bought some garlic flavored cheese to eat that evening and we sat through the evening and ate the entire wheel, about the size of paperback book except round and thicker, and polish off the medium sweet white Rhine Wine. It was a very pleasant evening only marred by my daughter S who was determined to go into town and find a club, while we convinced her that she had already had enough to drink and needed to sty there. This was the first of many lessons in the drinking of wine with the right food at the right time and in the right place. German white wine from the Rhine can be very good and the cheese made it all fit together well. Even ST had some and seemed to enjoy it. We broke up the party about 12:00 when the hotel was closing up for the night and wanted to turn out the lights on the porch.

This is a great story, Baldworth! It seems you are a very patient chaperone. I can't wait to hear (read) the rest!!

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ttt

Day 7 -

We spent the morning touring Heidelberg and Heidelberg castle. The castle is not as spectacular as some but has many interesting features. It is the home of the world's largest wine cask, has a grand view of the river from the back balcony and shows the effects of many efforts to storm or blow up the castle. They also have wine tasting in the basement including a very sweet but very tasty white dessert wine that only runs 50 euros per bottle. We enjoyed the castle.

After the castle we wandered down to the city and then over to the river for some great views of the castle. We then boarded the bus and began the ride to Munich. We rode over toward Stuttgart and joined the Romantic Road just past Rothenberg. The aim was to have lunch in Dinkelsbuhl, one of the few remaining walled towns left after the ravages of the Black Plague, the Thirty Years War, and World War II. This town is not a recreation. It still has a wall all the way around and a moat in front of that with limited entrance only by way of a few bridges. It was like stepping back in time and we found a place for lunch without spending very much money. After lunch we walked around and found a town-wide swap meet or yard sale featuring all sorts of memorabilia, crafts and various other things. N bought a WWII era gas mask for his father and we all managed to find something that we could haggle over the price and take home without feeling that we were just buying souvenirs.

Afterward we traveled down the Romantic Road until we left it to head over to Munich. When we got to Munich it was almost dark and a storm was building as we found the Hotel Domicil, the same Munich hotel we had stayed at two years ago. Just as we arrived and got the OK to unload after getting the bus parked in the right spot, the heavens unloaded. We formed a human chain and all of the guys helped Geoff get the bags unloaded and to the dry safety of the hotel overhang. Being in the number one unloading spot, I got the wettest of all but we got the bags taken care of and most of them didn't get very wet.

Once we got into our rooms and I was able to dry off a little, the logical thing to do was to go to the bar and sample some good Bavarian beer fresh from the tap. B and I went to the bar and started another trend that would last all the way through Madrid; wherever he and I went to have a beer or other adult beverage a small crowd would eventually gather and join us for most of the evening. This night we were all wet and the beer was good so we passed the remainder of the evening sitting in the bar and even met a guy from Transylvania who we referred to as Dracula, that may have been gay, may ahve been after one or more of us, claimed to have killed twenty men in some sort of civil war, and had one bloodshot eye to go with one normal clear one. It was an interesting evening and many of us drank too much, including my daughter who developed her first hangover the next morning and delayed our joining the group for the tour of Munich. Day 7 over after B used his credit card to pay for the majority of the beer to which he needed to reach a $40 minimum. We all gladly helped him.

Really interesting story - and please keep up with the details. I love it all!

You must be a saint - I would have lost patience long before!

Have I run everybody off? I hope to get back to this later today but I have to compete for computer time with wife and three teenage daughters, two of which were at band camp all week. I also went to my 34th class reunion yesterday and got back about 3:00 am. Life happens.

TTT
Baldworth

Day 8 -

The morning broke with a lack of space for breakfast as the outside chairs and tables were wet form the previous night's rain and both EF groups were scheduled at the same time for breakfast. Eventually things worked out and I actually sat down to breakfast without an entourage. I didn't notice that S and R were not present until R walked up to the table and greeted me with the news that S was hungover and sick. Throwing up sick and not able to get out of bed at this point was the state for my oldest daughter. Ah, her first official hangover as the previous night we had all drank too much at the expense of B and then Dracula. I was feeling a little off but managed to get going and coffee helped but she was sick after she got out of the shower and was in no shape to go anywhere. I made arrangements with my group and the TD to go on the bus tour of Munich and we would try to meet them at the Marienplatz at 11:00, and if worse came to worse before dinner at 6:00. I stayed with her, she stopped throwing up, and we both caught up on some extra sleep.

She took a little longer to get ready than I had planned on and we didn't get started toward the train stop down the road until 10:30. We had found the station easily enough but could not figure out the ticket machine and finally just got on a train. It turns out that we were going in the wrong direction and the airport really was our endpoint so we went two stopps and boarded the train going in the opposite direction. Without tickets and without a clue as to how to get them, speaking no German, and with my hand on several euros in my pocket the plan was to plead ignorant tourist if anyone actually asked us where our tickets were in anything close to recognizable English. We had 14 stops to go before we reached the city center and the Marienplatz stop. Our luck held and we managed to ride the entire way without a ticket, got off anf found our way to the meeting place, at 11:25. No one was around the square when we got there but we did manage to find the group leader and his girlfriend from the NC group and verify the next meeting time before our group was supposed to go to Dauchau, 2:00. We decided to go up into the tower above St. Peter's and then eat lunch and walk from one city gate to the other if possible. The view from the top of the tower was spectacular and there just happened to be an older German gentleman with two visitors who appeared to be his daughter in law and his grandson and he was pointing out all of the basic sights from the tower. We followed and listened as he pointed them out. When we descended we went to the market for fish sandwiches, walked from one former city gate almost to the other, bought some souvenirs for her two younger sisters, and headed to the meeting point. Everyone was glad to see us but it appears our group had actually done quite well without us for once. Imagine that! We boarded the bus and headed for Dauchau.

About 20 minutes later we arrived at an empty parking lot that was in a different location than I remembered entering Dauchau from two years previous. Something wasn't right. When we got to the new entrance in front of the old train entrance with the sign reading &quot;Arbeit Macht Frei&quot; or Work will set you free, the camp was closed. Our TD hadn't checked his facts and the site is closed on Mondays. We really couldn't have arranged to go any other day so there wasn't much he could have done about it. We decided to spend the afternoon at Nymphemburg Palace on the outskirts of Munich and off we went. Most of us didn't want to spend the euros necessary to visit the inside so we wandered the grounds of the Italian style villa and chilled in the shade of the stairs or the woods behind. It was a letdown from Dauchau but it was all we had. When we were done we headed to dinner at another brauhaus and more pork and potatoes. The night was young but it was time to go to the Hofbrauhaus, the place where Adolph Hitler tried to start the Nazi revolution in 1923 and failed with his beerhall putsch. This place is now a caricature of itself complete with old Bavarian gentlemen in their lederhosen hanging around for pictures and the oompah band playing a variety of songs both German and American. The place is still a lot of fun even with us arriving at 7:30. The beer mugs hold a liter and people stand up and sing out loud and some choose to dance in front of the bandstand. Some sip one beer, some try to down a few, and most don't get past their second one unless they are there for a while. Afterward everyone was happy and it was a raucous ride home until bellies full of beer mixed with a bouncy bus ride and several kids began throwing up the beer that went down so smoothly just thirty minutes before. It got very strange very fast. When we got back to the hotel apparently there was an issue with one of the NC boys who didn't want to help clean up what he had thrown up. He was telling off anyone who would listen and establishing a pattern of speaking loudly and profanely to anyone around, including my room-mate who didn't deserve to be spoken to that way and who's only offense had been to ask BE to move his feet off the couch in Edam four nights previous to this. We were beginning to see BE's true colors when he ingested any alcohol, we just didn't know it yet. Everyone else just went to their rooms and tried to clean up as best they could while those responsible for the mess on the bus cleaned it up except for BE. We were finished with Munich and would leave the next day for lunch in Innsbruck, Austria and our destination in Venice, Italy or at least The Lido Jessolo where we would be staying.

hmmm... what will happen next? :) This reads like a novel more than a trip report! I look forward to the continuation!

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Day 9 -

Day 9 opened with a trip south from Munich towards Innsbruck, Austria through the Alps. The scenery was absolutely fabulous and the first view of the Alps for most of the students on the trip. Innsbruck is in a mountain valley where the River Inn meanders through the meadows. It was the sight of two Winter Olympics, both the planned one in 1964 and the unplanned one in 1976 when the original sight fell through. The older part of town is very scenic and remenscient of the Middle Ages. The buildings have signs out front that describe what type of business without words only using symbols and wrought iron. The mountains are all around as you look up. We ate lunch in Nordsea or fish place that mainly sells sandwiches but has other seafood and fish items as well. They are all over most of southern Germany and apparently in Austria as well. Good food, reasonable price.

After lunch we went in search of Schnopps, which is made in the mountains of Austria, and after twenty minutes of searching and asking questions came upon a shop. As it turns out, the shop was not only a schnopps shop but the very one featured in &quot;Passport to Europe&quot; on the Travel Channel with Samantha Brown and she had pictures on the wall of Samantha Brown and many other celebrities who had visited her store. The proprieter was very helpful and explained the differences between the various kinds as we tasted them. We all bought some and left feeling a great sense of accomplishment as we had found what we had all been looking for. Mission accomplished!

The ride through and out of the Alps was very scenic but the best has to be coming out of the Brenner Pass near the tail end of the Dolomite Mountains through endless terraces of vineyards and castles. It is a breathtaking ride if you like either part of the scenery and especially if you like both. On every hilltop there is either an old castle leftover from the middle ages or the ruins of one. I was in heaven again.

We finally pulled into Lido de Jessolo about 8:30 in the evening very hot and sweaty from riding in the back of a very hot bus and looking forward to a swim in the hotel pool. Once we parked we could clearly read the sign that read &quot;Pool closes at 7:00&quot;. It wasn't going to happen. We put our baggage in the lobby and moved to the dining room for dinner. The food was good but Venice had been the highlight of the Italian cuisine two years prior and this was a letdown. The highlight had to be my daughter S who had been training for a year in Italian to ask the waitress &quot;Excuse me maam, vegitareano&quot;, referring to her friend R. This was the result of all of her preparation for traveling in Italy? We ribbed her about it the rest of the trip, even when she used the Italian to help out in certain situations to come.

After dinner some of the kids headed to the beach area along the Adriatic and B and I headed for the store to find my favorite Italian drink, Limoncello. As far as I am concerned there is no better summertime drink. We found a variety of brands and types and purchased two. When we go back to the hotel we decided to set up shop in the back lobby for two reasons; first the room were not air-conditioned and second, the World Cup was on and it was the best place to watch with more than two people. As was the case two nights before, many of the others on the tour gathered in the lobby with us to watch the game and sample Limoncello through both World Cup games. At least the hotel supplied us with ice. Others joined us as they came in from trips to the beach. It was a good evening. Next day, water bus to Venice and our tour of the city that would be the favorite for many.

I am enjoying this perspective - but, as I said before, you have much more patience and understanding than I!

Please continue . . .

I'm finding this interesting. How old are these kids that ended up puking all over everything?

The kids who were throwing up on the bus were in the 16 to 18 year age group, mostly 18. They should have been old enough to know better but as I said before some wanted to drink their way through Europe and a few had real issues when they drank anything.

Day 10 -

Venice was very hot and even more humid. There were no air conditioners in the rooms. A cold shower felt good in the morning. At breakfast we sat at a table made for 10 as we had the evening before. I forgot to mention that the previous night we had filled up a table before the last two of my group had come in for dinner and they had actually had to sit with the TD and the bus driver to eat. Oh the horror!
We all survived.

After breakfast we boarded the bus to meet the ferry to take us to Venice. It was about a twenty minute ride and we were there. Once there we had some scheduled events and a reasonable amount of free time. We had to go through a glass demonstration that was very hot and average compared to a previous demo. Then we were given a demonstration of the different types of glass and the colors and the prices involved. I don't think anyone bought anything but I don't really know as I left as soon as the demo was over. Too expensive! We had a little while so we took pictures of each other with pigeons in various places and then met our city guide for a walk through Venice. She was very good and she even pointed out the different types of windows from the different periods. We saw parts of Venice that I never could have found and got some great pictures. Afterwards it was time to go on a gondola ride and I had decided to pass this time. It cost 25 euros per person and I had done this two years ago. The last time we were supposed to get a 45 minute ride and only got 25 so it was somewhat of a dissapointment. I also had figued up the actual cost of the ride and knew that this was one place EF and other companies allow their TDs to make a little extra cash. I just couldn't justify the expense again so I decided to take pictures while others got into and out of the gondolas. I wandered around for awhile after waiting on everyone to make sure they got on the ride and no one missed getting tickets to the Doges Palace if they wanted them. We wer all free to go to the Doges Palace at our own leisure during the free afternoon. When the ride was over we all decided we wanted two things; inexpensive Italian food and air conditioning. We found both at a reasonably priced restuarant found by my daughter that served very good pizza and other dishes. My daughter finally got to use her Italian and communicated with the waiter very well. The best part though was when she looked at him with the map of Venice in hand and asked where are we, intending to find out our location and getting a smiling answer of &quot;Venezia&quot; in return. This was obviously his favorite joke for tourists and when we pursued him further he showed us exactly where we were. We decided we would all like to go back to the Rialto Bridge and then try to find the old Jewish Quarter after touring the Doges (Dukes) Palace. The palace was very nice once again with its huge halls, wonderful frescos, and exhibits of armor and weapons. This Gothic hall was built to show off the power of Venice and its ruling body , which was actually a council headed by the Doge or Duke of Venice. It was really all about commerce. After the walk through we filled our water bottles and soaked our bandanas an headed out to find the Rialto which was well marked and the Jewish Quarter beyond which was not so well marked.

The first was simple and easy to get to and the second was not difficult with the map in my Rick Steves guide (Best of Europe 2005). The only trouble is that it was not marked when we got there and we were running out of time and had to make our way back almost after we found it. We had walked through about 2 thirds of the area on that side of the islands and I found our way back using the signs for Piazza St Marco with a few minutes to spare. We were tired and sweaty but we had seen a lot of Venice and some places that only those who get adventuresome saw. The ride back on the ferry was quieter and many fell asleep. That night it was time for many of the kids to go to the Disco so after dinner they all changed into their dancing clothes and accompanied the TD to the dance club. B and I took up our positions in the lobby and watched more World Cup as we sampled more of Italy's wines and chocolate. It was too hot to go to the room until after midnight and even then it was muggy. It was a restless sleep. The next day was time to travel to Rome.