Whirlwind Europe Trip - Day 1
 

This trip report will seem a bit late I know given that it took place in December of last year, but my friends and I have just recently begun to read through these Message Boards and we thought it would be nice to tell a little bit about our experience in Europe while also hoping that, given our youth (we were were all under 25 at the time of the trip) and small budget, our trip can give some insight for other young people wanting to see Europe on a budget and in a limited amount of time. To begin with, let me apologize ahead of time for my propensity for run-on sentences, pauses can seem too incovenient at times I am afraid. Back to the trip, though. We had been talking about going to Europe for a little while, but sadly, talking never seemed to provide the impetus we needed undertake such a venture. In the Spring of 2005, however, having been out of a school for about a year and not really feeling inspired any longer at my temp job, I looked into, and was lucky enough to get a three month internship working in British Parliament in the Autumn of that same year, meaning I would be living in London from early September to early December. This turned out to be the springboard we needed and my two best friends and I were soon discussing a two week trip around Western Europe at the end of my internship before flying home before Christmas. The plan was for them to fly over to London on Friday, December 9, the last day of my internship and we would go from there. We would spend the weekend in London, then it would be on to Paris, and from there to Geneva and a day traveling through Switzerland before passing through Munich on our way to Vienna. Then we would head back west through Austria and stop off at Salzburg and Innsbruck before spending the final five days of our trip traveling through Italy and seeing Venice, Florence, and Rome, all before flying out of Rome early Friday morning, December 23, just two weeks after we had begun our whirlwind trip through Europe. This is our story.

Friday, December 9, 2005:
Ryan and Will, my two best friends I had previously mentioned, flew out of Atlanta that morning around 6:30 or 7 to Washington D.C. to catch a connecting flight from there to London. Using their ISIC cards and University email addresses, they were able to buy round trip (from Atlanta to London and from Rome to Atlanta) plane tickets from www.studentuniverse.com for a very reasonable price of $500-$600. Having left Atlanta at around 6:30 A.M. local time, they arrived into London Heathrow Airport around 21:30 (to avoid morning and night confusion I will use the European clock in this report) local time. From here, it would have been faster to catch the Heathrow Express into Paddington Station in Central London, but I was able to save a few pounds for them by buying two Zone 1 daylong travelcards. Mind you, Heathrow is actually in Zone 6 and where we were staying for the weekend was actually in Zone 4 of Greater London, but I knew (bad though it may seem for security measures given that less than six months before had been the London Tube bombings) that we would be able to get on to the Tube leaving from Heathrow for Central London and Victoria Station without having anyone stopping to check what our tickets were valid for. The only times we would need travel cards to actually get across a barrier would be getting in and out of the tube stations in Central London and onto the National Rail system at Victoria Station to head to our lodgings in Zone 4 of Greater London, all of which stations were in Zone 1 and thus our travelcards covered those stations. It sounds complex I know, but Will and Ryan probably saved about $10 a piece by doing this. Our first night in Europe, our only goal was to get back to the place we were staying at in London and get some rest so that Will and Ryan (who was struggling at this point from all the traveling to say the least) could adjust to the time difference as quickly as possible and be ready to see London the next day. Our prices for lodging in London were as good as you will find, but that is only because we rented an extra room for two nights in the Host Family's home that I had been staying at while I had been living in London the previous three months, and it was actually in Thornton Heath, which is around Croydon, about 8 miles south of Central London. The costs for two nights lodging was 12 pounds a piece for Will and Ryan. And this was our first night in Europe all together. Given the rediculous length of this first post, which has actually only covered the first few hours of our collective time in Europe, I will write a separate post for each day we spent in Europe, and this is Day One. Not too exciting I know, but hopefully some of the logistics I have provided have helped for future planning. I will be back soon with a post for Day 2, though I suppose not everyone will be waiting with bated breath, but we shall see.

I love trip reports... but would you mind breaking with some paragraphs now and then? My eyes aren't 25 anymore! thanks..

and while I'm making demands, would you please post your entire trip report on this thread, instead of starting a new one for each day?
Just "reply" to yourself on this one and then you can add more days..
again - <i>thanks!</i>

I agree with Travelnut - please continue to post to this thread. I may lose you otherwise!

Good start and looking forward to more . . .

WOW!!! You went to all of those countries in TWO weeks!! How on earth did you do it? I mean, at my old age, I would have passed out in Switzerland. You three guys must be really in shape to do all that. Looking forward to see how you did it!

Thanks for all the feedback thus far. I will definitely make sure I just reply to this post instead of starting a new thread for every entry while also forming my posts in regards to actually breaking for new paragraphs. Once I get to typing, I tend to not pause properly as I should. Glad everyone has enjoyed it so far despite its length and faults.

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

I did one of those student whirlwind trips when I was a student. It was something that I would never do now. I remember beating my Eurail to death. By the way Eurail passes were a lot cheaper back in the Late Middle Ages when I did my whirlwind trip. Mine &quot;did&quot; Europe in 5 1/2 weeks. I went everywhere from London to Vienna to Rome to Edinburgh. Just thinking about it now tires me out.

Europhile, I am looking foward to hearing more!

Waiting with bated breath. Well, waiting at anyrate ;)

Cheers,

Murphy

Alright, guys. I have to admit, I was apart of this trip. I tried to lie early when I said it was amazing that Europhile23 did this. Actually, I was there with him. Due to my excitement, I had to stop the lies because I can't wait to throw my two cents in to the reports. I won't add much because Europhile23 is definitly the writer of the group, but I will try and contribute a little.

Whirlwind Europe Trip - Day 2 - London

With plenty before us, my friends and I awoke around 8 or 9 to get ready and spend the day in Central London. My friend Will had adjusted pretty well to the time change after a good night's sleep, but Ryan was still struggling a bit as he came to grips with how much ground he had covered in the previous 24 hours, but there was not a moment to lose.

Using much the same scheme for the trains that we had the previous day, I told Ryan and Will not to bother with getting a travelcard in Thornton Heath where we were staying due to the fact that it was Zone 4 and it would have cost extra. I told them not to even bother with getting a travelcard until we actually got into Central London because I planned for us to disembark at Waterloo Station where again (and I know this does not speak volumes of security measures which may well have changed since then) I knew there would be no barrier like there would be at Victoria Station to have to put a card through. We got through fine and only had to buy a Zone 1 travelcard so as to get around on the tube all day.

From Waterloo Station, we walked towards Westminster and the Houses of Parliament just a short ways away. I had planned long before this moment to make sure that this would be the way that Ryan and Will would go to see Westminster because it is such a grand and imposing view as you approach it from south of the Thames. You sort of just round a bend, and then there is the River with the Houses of Parliament in all their glory, the spires of Westminster Abbey just poking through in the background, and looking to east is the larger than you would think London Eye as will as the North Bank of the Thames with all its glorious architecture. I wanted Ryan and Will to be blown away by the moment, the grandeur of it all. I know I was the first time.

After overcoming our awe, we crossed the river, glaring at Big Ben the whole time, and headed towards Westminster Abbey. I would have liked to use my Parliamentary Pass to show my friends around the Houses of Parliament in all neo-gothic glory, but was unable to. We headed instead for Westminster Abbey. I had fallen in love with this place back at my first sighting in early September and I think the same was true for Ryan and Will. You hear all about it and you see pictures of it so that you recognize it instantly, but it still seems uniquely beautiful in that same breath. The inside was no less mesmorizing has we came across the shrines, and in some cases, a final resting place, of a whose who of historical figures we had read and learned about all our lives. This experience was just the tip of the iceberg however.

I should warn everyone at this point that my descriptions of all these famous places will not always be breaking new ground for a lot of readers on this forum as I am sure they are familiar enough with most, if not all the places I will mention. Still, I hope people find it entertaining enough and in some cases I hope what I write here will spark enjoyable memories for everyone as you remember what it was like the first time you saw some of these places.

Back to London, though. From Westminster Abbey we walked up Whitehall passing my various Government buildings, most notably 10 Downing Street and the Home of the British Prime Minister, which I suppose will be Tony Blair for a short while longer. Soon the boys got to see thier first magnificent European square, Trafalgar with Nelson's Column dominating the square. The National Gallery, full of works by the world's greatest artists, along with the stand alone spire of St Martin-in-the-Fields further enhance the beauty of the square. The bustling atmosphere also makes for great people watching as well.

This was, however, a whirlwind trip, so we did not linger long before heading down to Embankment Station to head out towards St Paul's Cathedral and its mammoth dome, only second to St Peter's I think, but we had yet to visit the Vatican so St Paul's was IT for us. It must be said that at this point my previously struggling compatriot Ryan had long ago forgotten his fatigue even as we rushed to see the sights at such a breakneck pace. There is no great cure for tiredness like the adrenaline rush you receive from marvelling at all these incredible sights that had previously felt so unreal such was the space between.

Such was the rush that Ryan, no friend to needless cardio vascular activities, did not pause to think about whether it would be worht climbing the seemingly endless stairs St Paul's offered on the way to the top of the dome. And he was duly rewarded with a veiw of London and beyond for miles. We were also fortunate enough have a view from the Cupola which showed a ghostly looking haze descending upon Westmisnter, providing for an erie, yet enchanting photo opportunity. We soon descended to the bottom and further reveled in St Paul's holy offerings before pausing briefly in the Cathedral's cafeteria to receive a little nourishment that would allow us to go on for a few more hours before really stopping for a meal.

From St Paul's we headed further into the Old Town of London to see the Tower of London. Light was fading by this time (around this time of year, it is fairly dark in London by around 4:30) and the woman at the ticket window told us it would be better to come back another time so we were not rushing through the castle, but who knows when we were going to be in London again, so we thought an hour and a half she allotted us with was plenty of time to take in the surroundings. And it really was for the most part. We certainly moved with great pace at some instances, but when we finished with our own personal tour we did not feel like we should have spent more time on any one thing. We saw the Ravens, talked with the Beefeaters, got a feel for medieval times, paused along the dock to snap some beautiful nighttime photos of the Tower Bridge. We did not even really feel like we rushed at all.

I am sure there are more things to see, but again, this is a whirlwind trip through Europe, not a methodical walk. We kind of figured for our first trip through Europe we would just see as much as we thought possible with ruining any of it for us. Then on other trips back we would be more contemplative in what we did and try to appreciate it more than merely enjoying it. And it worked brilliantly for us.

It was about 6 or 7 and already that day we had visited Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, and the Tower of London, and we seemed no worse the wear for it. However, I maybe did go a bridge too far with my next undertaking. I decided we would head back towards Central London and Leicester Square to grab a bite to eat, but I thought it would be nice to have Will and Ryan stop off at Covent Garden, a great open-air market with endless amounts of items to buy and a great overall atmospehre. Hunger was catching up with us though and we did not linger long before walking towards Leicester Square and grabbing a bite to eat a popular chain restaurant. Here, Will and Ryan tried out Fish and Chips for the first time, and it met with their approval. Local cuisine would turn out to be a continuing highlight of our trip, and it was really no different in London, though it was probably the least spectacular to all of us. It was here also (though London is certainly so commercialised, and Americanized in some cases that this is not a big issue there) that Ryan and Will learned firsthand that Europe is not service oriented, which is fine for us, but something new certainly. A little more ice and free refills would be a welcome addition, however, to European ettiquette.

After dinner, the day began to wind down for us. We went walking through the carnival atmosphere of Leicester Square en route to Piccadilly Circus and Eros with all its lights. We ventured a short ways down Regents Avenue to view the overhanging Christmas Lights. It was all beautiful and splendid, but it did not feel all that different from New York City at Christmas time, so the wow factor was not really there fo us. Still, Piccadilly always warrants a look.

We coasted on down to Trafalgar once more and breathed in the cool night air as we looked down towards a well lit Big Ben. Then we passed through the Admiralty Arch and walked down the Mall towards our final piece of sight seeing for the day: Buckingham Palace. At nighttime, it was hard to take in all the grandeur of the place, but certainly it did not seem small to Ryan and Will. It was underneath Queen Victoria's statue that we really paused for the first time that day to just sort of take in everything we had done that day and all that we had seen and all that we would see in the coming weeks.

I remember us just sitting there and looking and Buckingham Palace and just thinking and saying to each other, 'Wow! We are just sitting here hanging out in front of Buckingham Palace right now.' We had come a long way and were just glad to be there together. At that point we knew there was never going to be any regret about this trip except leaving and going home. We were happy to be here and ready to go home and get ready for the next day, because by this time tomorrow we would be looking over the City of Light from atop the Eiffel Tower.

I hope in other posts to give you better specifics of my finances for the trip, but for some reason on this day in my travel journal I only listed my total financial output for the day, which came to something like 47 pounds, which I guess is close to about $80 to $90. Not bad I thought. Well, that is all for now, hope to be back with another post before too long. Also, let me apologize now for this and future postings for any punctuation errors as I guess through all this rambling, it is just a post on a Message Board, not literature, so I did not bother much with proofreading. Hopefully is readable and makes sense.

Great report so far. Keep it up.

I want to add that we did see a lot and did move quickly, but we never thought that we were missing something. My fellow traveler forgot to mention that we saw the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London too. So for all of those people thinking, &quot;they forgot the crown jewels!&quot; Well, we didn't. I was also trying to think of the restaurant we ate at, but I can't remember now. Might try and find out, and then post it.

I'm out of breath but waiting for more about your trip.

Europhile(s)-
Great report-looking forward to more!

Sunday, December 9, 2005 - Day 3 - London/Paris

Given that we were going to have a lot of early days over the next two weeks, we let ourselves sleep in a little our last day in England. Our Eurostar train for Paris did not leave until around 13:30 and our only plans before had been to go to the London Eye before going to check in for departure to Paris. Unfortunately, we dragged behind this initial schedule and were unable to ride the London Eye, though this was mainly due to the fact that we did not expect such a large line to ride it. It must be said that this was really the only time where lines were a problem for us in Europe. Being December, we were able to do a lot of things that might have taken hours to wait on during the Spring or Summer which was quite nice and has probably spoiled us for future trips to Europe that do not take place in the Winter.

Having involuntarily saved the London Eye for our next visit to the city, we headed back to Waterloo Station to grab a bite to eat and make sure that everything was good to go for Eurostar. Given other prices I have seen for a Eurostar trip to Paris, I think we did pretty well, largely thinks to our International Student Identity Cards (ISIC). Since we already had a rough itenerary set in September for this trip, we had gone ahead and called the people at ISIC and ordered our tickets over the phone for $60 a piece before I had left for London. ISIC can be overrated at times, but it was a big help here and saved us a fair bit of money I think.

Before and during the train ride, my friends and I were greatly anticipating the beginning of the continental leg of our trip. I know I was especially since the previous few days I had been visiting sights I had covered months ago. But France and Paris was the first time I found myself in an unfamiliar setting for some time so I was definitely excited to be visiting a new place after getting use to London over the last few months and having it feel more like home than a foreign destination. Plus, having lived in London for three months, I had been able to steer me and my mates around London rather seamlessly, but now would be the first time when we really were on our own and it was down to Will's extensive and intensive planning and our collective ability get by in new places that we had never been, and with only the most very basic knowledge of these foreign languages. In fact, we spent part of the train ride over there practicing our basic French phrases that would help us get by. Such was our ignorrance that we did not realize that seemingly all of Paris, nay, seemingly all of Europe spoke good English. It made me feel quite arrogant everywhere we visited in Europe (despite the fact that we were visiting very mainstream places as it was not like London was a bastion for linguistic diversity) spoke decent English while many places in America (outside of heavily Latino populated areas) and England I gather do not bother to appeal linguistically to the foreign traveler. Thus, I have sworn to learn at least one foreign language over the next couple of years.

Back to the trip, though. After practicing our French and reveling in the English and French countryside (as well as the speed at which we passed under the English Channel) we arrived at the Gare du Nord around 17:00 local time. I would suggest that from here that the best thing to do would be to go to your hotel, but Will, in all his infinite wisdom, thought we should carry a backpacks with us and head first to Montmartre and Sacr&eacute;-Cœur to see the sun set over Paris. So we bought a 3 day Metro pass (since we would be here for two night and three days) for under 19 Euros and headed the Metro stop for Montmartre.

Bear in mind that we were European adventurer novices at this point and the names Montmartre and Sacr&eacute;-Cœur were just more French words to butcher. I knew of a Bohemian hangout in Paris with its famous stairs to climb to the top, but I was not aware that it was called Montmartre and it was the highest hill around Paris. So we got off the Metro station and questioned how to get to Sacr&eacute;-Cœur and were pointed more or less in the right direction. We kept rounding a bend of roads that elevated a little higher each time and we began to wonder if maybe we should not be carrying our 50 pound backpacks. Then we saw the beautiful (yet steep) stairway that we would have to climb to get to the top. Mind you, there are probably better ways to the top of Montmartre, but think European novices.

Halfway up, Ryan was in no doubt Will had erred in his planning as he had to take a moment (we all did by this point) to rest before climbing any further. I dropped my bag and scouted ahead and assured them both it was not too much further. It was not, but it was still painful. We finally got around the top of Montmartre and marvelled at the Bohemian setting while catching our breath at the same time. It was beautiful to take in for me and Ryan while Will not took his turn to actually look for Sacr&eacute;-Cœur. At this point, Ryan and I agreed (in all the breath we could muster) that Will's idea had been well conceived, but very poorly executed. It would have been great to get there at sunset, but being unfamiliar with Paris, we never really stood a chance to make it by then given that this was winter and the sun set early. Yet for Ryan and I the main issue was always having to carry our lumbering backpacks up the hill. We thought for certain that at any given time, Ryan was done for, but he persevered (probably imagining Will as a pinata) and made it to the top.

Once we overcame our bitterness, we realized the trip to Montmartre was definitely worth it (as I am sure anyone who has been there can attest to) no matter what the obstacles, and Will would be forgiven, and it must be said that he ran a thoroughly flawless operation from here on out in regards to his planning. When we finally made it to Sacr&eacute;-Cœur, all pettiness was completely put to the back of our minds. The cathedral sits on its throne atop Montmartre peering wondrously over the city with and the light shining upon its tall, thin domes gives it an angellic look at night. Moments like this, after months of planning, was why we had wished so greatly to come to Europe I thought. In one instance we were cursing each other, and in the next, we were grabbing our cameras with mouths gaping to snap pictures in order to some how record the granduer of the moment.

Then we turned around and there was a great, well-lit watchtower looming over Paris with a fiery looking eye keeping watch over the city. It the Eiffel Tower of course. Miles away it seemed like the most amazing thing on earth. We were in Paris and loving every second of it. We just sat down on the stairs below Sacr&eacute;-Cœur and soaked up the amazing feeling. It became quite clear then why this is one of the most romantic cities in the world. I imagine that millions of couples have fallen in love for the first time, or all over again, on top of Montmartre when looking at the beautiful canvas before them. I fell in love with Paris at that very instant.

After gawking over Montmartre, we finally headed back to the Metro to head to our hotel. The Metro is very convenient to use in Paris. It can take you just about anywhere you want to go and is easy to follow. Anyone who is use to the London Underground should not have a problem here. Using it, we headed towards our Hotel, called the Hotel Beaus&eacute;jour Montmartre (http://www.hbeausejour.com/index.english.html). It was not far from Montmartre as you might guess from the name. I believe it was located around the northwestern part of Paris. It did not take long to get anywhere that we needed to go from there and if you check out that morning, you can still leave your bags there if you are still going to be doing more sightseeing in Paris. It did not have an elevator, but the room was spacious enough for three people with a kind sized bed and a roll away. The bathroom was nice. They did not have regular shower, just a detachable showerhead that you use while sitting in a tub. It costs something like 28 Euros a piece for the three of us staying in the room. It provides breakfast in the morning. Bearing in mind that we are young and so we were not really looking for luxury as much as comfort, it was a great fit for us.

After checking in, we headed spend a little time resting, but not long before head out again around 20:00, this time heading for the Eiffel Tower which would be the main event for our first evening in Paris. We got off at the Metro and were shocked that we did not see it instantly, but we did not have to wait long, and then of course, it was more gawking and picture taking as we looked at the lit-up tower that every now and again twinkled in the night sky for all of Paris to see.

We moved towards le Tour and were absolutely blown away by it for the second time that night, but it would not be the last. Hard to believe that at its genesis Eiffel's iron constructed tower was thought by Parisians to be a terrible eye sore. It was anything but to us from any angle we viewed it from. We marvelled underneath it as we looked up into the belly of the beast and its iron belt. We marvelled from the courtyard beside it. We marvelled from the phone booths as we called our families and told them that we were standing here, talking to them thousands of miles away, looking at the Eiffel Tower.

Sadly, the only strike against le Tour was the incessant hounding from street vendors trying to sale us small, lit-up replices of le Tour. We would say no to one and another would just come right up to us, saying 'half-price'. One even jumped out from some bushes to try and persuade us. We said no thank you and headed straight for the Main booth and spent 11 Euros on a ticket to the top. Again, it was nice to not really have to deal with much of a line as I am sure in the busy season, it would be a two hour wait to go up, but we only waited about twenty minutes before heading up.

Even though it ws nighttime, the sights from atop le Tour were still spectecular. Paris definitely earned its nickname 'City of Light' for from up high as we were. The Grand Palais below was glorious. The Champs-&Eacute;lys&eacute;es was unmistakeable and we even spotted the towers of Notre-Dame in the down the River Seine. The wind and the cold made it a little uncomfortable, but it almost added to the joy as me and Ryan in particular dared to walk into a wind tunnel that seemed as though it would blow us off. We could even feel le Tour sway a little bit.

After enough revelling, we finally made our way down the le Tour, still bouncing off the walls though from what we had just seen. It was moments like this that provided us all the adrenaline we needed to make it through our whirlwind trip. We headed to a brasseries not far from our hotel and had Roast Chicken that probably seemed par for the course in Paris, but as tender and juicy as any we had ever encountered. We had a meal fit for kings (or at least distinguished Southern Gentlemen) for a total amount of 4.50 in Euros. I think might total financial output for this day was something like 5 pounds in England and and 60 Euros in Paris, which included our Hotel, a Metro ticket, a tour of the Eiffel Tour, and dinner. Not bad for two countries in one day.

Yeah, I had the best intentions of us getting to the top of Montmartre before the sun had set, but I would like to advise all young backpackers wanting to do this with a 50 pound bag straped to their back....NOT to do it. First go to your hotel or hostel, and drop off your luggage. I can guarantee that the view will be just as beautiful at night because of all the lights. Plus, if you decide to do it our way, your fellow travelers might decide to drop kick you in the face when they get their strength back. However, everything worked out and Paris was stunning. Maybe my favorite city that we saw, and that is saying a lot considering all the cities we did see in our two weeks there. More to come...

Gentlemen,
Keep this report coming! I am so enjoying hearing the details of your trip and seeing Europe through the eyes of eager and unjaded young people. You are doing a wonderful job of conveying your feelings with each new view and experience.
Teach

Europhile23 and 7

I am really enjoying your trip report, especially getting both of your views on your trip. E23, your descriptions of Paris are fantastic. I feel like I am there.

Looking forward to the next installment!

Johanna

Monday, December 12, 2005* - Day 4 - Paris

*The date for the previous day was wrong, we were in Paris on Sunday the 11th, not the 9th of December.

We awoke this day at a moderate hour with much to do. We helped ourselves to a wonderful French breakfast of crouissants and bagles with juice. A modest breakfast for sure, but all we required for the day ahead. We probably left our hotel around 10:30 or 11 and made our first stop of the day at le Arc de Triomphe and des Champs-&Eacute;lys&eacute;es. I know that this area can seem like a tourist trap and locals probably loathe it, but it is a great stop on any trip to Paris. You just feel like you have to see it. Le Arc was marvelous. It looks a relatively simple design and it is not exactly stand alone architecture, but I guess it does give Paris and empowering feel. Le Arc brilliantly marks that end of des Champs-&Eacute;lys&eacute;es and Napoleon would feel satisfied that his victors from Austerlitz have been fully rewarded for their accomplishments as millions and millions of people admire its stature each year.

Our visit to le Arc also showed the incredibly hectic side of Paris. I do not see how it could ever be worth driving down des Champs-&Eacute;lys&eacute;es or around le Arc unless you were doing it just do it. The avenue is marked with cars as far as you can see and they seem to race around le Arc. It was not until after we returned home that we discovered we could have gone to the top of le Arc for a beautiful 360 degree view of Paris at daytime which we greatly rued. Still, I'm not sure we felt it would be worth the risk to cross the murderous traffic to reach le Arc, though I suppose there may have been a subway to get there. Even then, by this time, the weather (which ironically was absolutely perfect in England of all places) began to deteriate into a chilly, grey, and endless fog and it would be Italy before we saw the sun again. Not that we let it bog us down. It would have been nice to have a little big better weather, but we figured coming in December made this more probable anyway. If we had to do it over again, we would not change a thing in regards to timing.

From le Arc we next headed to Notre-Dame. This was definitely one of my favorite areas of Paris. I enjoyed our walk up the River Seine up to the Cathedral. I greatly enjoyed looking down onto the river and its bank with the the homes and flats and other buildings just across the street from the river on the southern bank. All of the architecture seems relative, but this was one moment where it did really mesh all together to make for lovely viewing. It felt and looked uniquely Parisian which made me happy because I did not feel like I was being ripped off or taylored to.

I know what you are thinking, wow, this is just the walk up to Notre-Dame. I am probably overdoing it here and there is nothing really at all that great about the Seine with its bordering houses, but it was often the simple things like that I enjoyed as much as the other stuff we did. Things like Swiss rooftops and spires covered in snow or a Roman backway alley that houses a great Pizzeria off the beaten path. Maybe most will agree with me on this sort of thing.

Anyway, back to Notre-Dame. I would not all want to feel as though I was not showing it the proper respect. It's beautiful, plain and simple. The front towers certainly lend it to comparison as almost a poor man's Westminster Abbey, but I think Notre-Dame as much more romantic and spiritual feeling (and I do not consider myself much of anything other than an agnostic as this point in time) about it. It's beautiful of course on the outside and very intimate on the inside. Its darkness inside gives it more reverence I think. This a tourist spot, sure, but this is first and foremost a place of worship, and nobody should belittle the fact. Westminster Abbey felt more like a museum built around a tiny church. If I did consider myself deeply religious, this is the kind of atmosphere that I would prefer to worhsip in. In churches in America I find myself easily distracted, but I think if I came to church to a place like this, I would have greater understanding and affection for what I was sitting through. Our soft whispers to each other inside the Cathedral displayed the respect with which we had for this place within minutes of our visit.

After touring around inside, we spent 4.50 Euros to visit the top of the Cathedral, which provided a great view of Paris, even in the cloudy conditions. After we had conquered the stairs of St Paul's we thought it did not look to high to the top of the cathedral, but either we were wrong or our underestimating really caught us by surprise. I made it up first (I think by this time Ryan and Will were already calling me a 'Machine' for the simple fact that I seemed to show no level of fatigue in anything we did, though I put it more down to adrenaline from being in Europe and wanting to experience absolutely everything I could) and gazed over the city littered with French flags. The Eiffel Tower of course rose out of the grown clearly and we would all make sure to take pictures of ourselves with le Tour looming in the background. Montmartre and Sacr&eacute;-Cœur were visible to the northwest while all around the Gargoyles, which we absolutely loved, kept guard. I often wonder why sometimes why such evil looking things get put on Cathedrals?

We soon descended from the top and I spent a little while walkinga round the back end of the island Notre-Dame was on because I wanted to get a picture of the Cathedral from the rear with its spire rising up. It was probably early to mid-afternoon that we crossed over the Parisian mainland and walked up the bitterly cold and windy Seine to our next destination, the Louvre.

After reading what follows, people will probably feel that we did not do the Louvre justice and feel that this is one negative impact of a whirlwind trip around Europe. We probably only spent an hour or an hour and a half there. Part of it was the whirlwind factor certainly, but there is more to it than that. We found the Louvre fascinating (I mean, my God, it has pyramid for an entrance), but we are not art afficionados (though we realize there is more than just art there) and do not feel like we could have ever showed it the proper respect. The works of art we saw were famous and we all enjoyed our particular types of paintings, but we cannot really tell you what makes them great besides the obvious. We saw the Mona Lisa and thought it was very interesting, and thought it was cool in general to see maybe the most famous piece of art in the world, but acknowledged we do not know what makes it specifically great. I think we appreciate sculptures more than paintings because it is pretty clear why a good sculpture should be revered. We enjoyed seeing the Venus sculpture. Yet we did not linger long. Again, part of it is down to the whirlwind factor. We had not stopped to eat anything since breakfast and it was getting close to 16:00 or 17:00 and it was cathing up to us. The other factor was that the Louvre was so intimidating. It's just so massive you feel like you spend a week there before you come to close to appreciating all that it entails. That said, however, no one should read into this as a mistake on our trip. We would definitely do it over, because after all, you do get to see such famous pieces of art that you never dreamed of seeing along with the works of names you have grown up with all your life. It was worth it for that alone, and there was more than just that that we enjoyed, all for 8.50 Euros. So overall, absolutely no regrets on our part.

Our search for sustenance led us back towards des Champs-&Eacute;lys&eacute;es, which allowed us the chance to see the avenue at dusk and, later, darkness, with Christmas lights further enhancing the avenue's reputation. We walked down a side street off the avenue, and it was off the avenue at a part before des Champs-&Eacute;lys&eacute;es gets rediculously crowded with luxury shops, and ate a local brasserie in a nice, calm, easy-going part of town. The place was not too crowded, definitely seeming more local spot than tourist trap. Our dinner there was amazing. The French reputation for culinary excellence is well-earned. I remained loyal to my roast chicken from the previous night (I am a pollo man if nothing else) while Ryan tried the roast duck and Will had the lamb. 'Kudos to the chef' was the verdict all around. We only wished food back home was this good or that we had some local French-style brasseries of our own. Now I must confess that I regret that I do not remember the desserts that we had after dinner. Maybe Will can help me on those, but they were even better than the meal, and the meal was excelllent. We got two different ones and after the first bite we looked at each other wondrously thinking that this might have been the best thing we had ever tasted. It was that good.

After dinner, we began to wind down our day quite early. We still had to go back to our hotel and pick up our bags and head to our next hotel which was closer to the train station that we would be leaving from quite early the next morning, another reason for our early end to the evening as it would be an extremely early wake-up call before leaving Paris in the morning. But we still spent around an hour in the early evening walking up des Champs-&Eacute;lys&eacute;es back towards le Arc de Triomphe which looked even better at night time as cars move a million miles an hour around it. Though we would still be in Paris until the morning, we felt like that this leg of the trip was over and the walk down le avenue was felt more like bidding adieu to Paris.

We checked into our new hotel, not far from the train station we would be departing from the next morning (it was either the Gare d'Austerlitz or Gare de Lyon, maybe Will could say), later that night. Like the first one it was simple, but all we needed. It even had an elevator and a shower (making us feel like kings considering our humble standards), though the elevator was only big enough for maybe one person at a time. The hotel was called le Hotel Gobelins (http://www.hotelgobelins.com/frame.html). It may have been our favorite hotel of the trip (again please bear in mind our young person's, simple standards) even though we were probably only there less than 12 hours. We were sad that our time in Paris was drawing to an end, but excited to experience really our first European train ride the next day before ending up Geneva, which would be our third country in three days. Stay tuned.

I forgot to mention all of my finances for the day. The hotel we stayed at that night cost just under 30 Euros a piece for three of us in one room. I spent a further 21 Euros on dinner (have to love no free refills, but the dessert fully warranted the bill) and I think for the day I spent a total of around 65 Euros.

Europhile(s) -
Great trip report - love the details and your perspective!

As I'm sure others will tell you, there is a tunnel under the Champs Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe so you would not have needed to risk your lives. The view from the top is wonderful. However, I'm glad you were able to climb to the top of Notre Dame.

As for the Louvre, there is absolutely no way to give it the attention it deserves! We picked a wing (the one with Mona Lisa) and concentrated on it for a specified amount of time, leaving the rest for another time. You did well, understanding both your time constraints and interest level. And, you know, we can appreciate that a painting is special without really understanding why it is!

Wonderful job and looking forward to more . . .

Saving for later.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - Day 5 - Paris/Lyon/Geneva

We were early risers today as our train leaving Paris was set to leave at around 7:15 and we had a long travel day ahead of us that would end up with us in Geneva, Switzerland. Of course, this would not be your ordinary travel day being that we would be passing through much of central and eastern France before ending the day in Switzerland. When you say travel day in America it means interstate roads with mainly only billboards to stare it. Travel days in Europe are infinitely more interesting This would be the first day that we were using our Eurail passes, which with our youth discount cost around $380 I think for a 15 day pass. We got there extra early to get our passes verified and make sure everything was set, which it was. It was as this train station, again I forget which one but either the Gare de Lyon or Gare d'Austerlitz, that we discovered the goodness that is a French pastry. We thought maybe it was just a French specialty (I was having a croissant with delicious feeling in the middle after all), but we soon discovered that all of Europe specialized in making of an excellent pastry, a fact that we took full of advantage of just about every morning.

With our bellies content, we were soon leaving Paris and in order to see a little bit more of France, Will had us taking a train first to Orleans where we would then change trains and head towards the sleepy town of Vierzon. We did this with enough relish, but due to the early hour, it was not quite of a romantic excursion as we had planned. Ryan and Will slept fairly comfortably while I looked out onto the pastoral landscape before us. At Vierzon we changed trains again, this time boarding a train heading for Lyon. This would be a four hour train ride, so we had more time to sit back and relax after at previous stops we had scurried so madly to make sure we caught our connecting train that we felt as if we were preparing for airborne drops. What added further to the peacefulness of the train ride was that there hardly seemed to be anybody on the train, it seemed as though there were maybe only 5 or 6 people per car. With this setting, Ryan and Will slept a bit longer while enjoyed the countryside, which was plain and flat to begin with, but as we drew closer to Lyon we came upon rolling hills with towns tucked away on the side. Really quite extraordinary looking from where I was sitting.

We had arrived into Lyon around 13:00 with every intention of spending a few hours in the city, checking out as much as we could around the train station before getting on either a 17:00 or 18:00 train heading for Geneva. Then we stepped out of the train station and felt what we thought was maybe the coldest, most piercing wind ever. We settled for a fine French meal at yet another local brasserie instead. And when I say local, I mean just that. Lyon is of course a big city (maybe the second or third largest in France), but it does not have that cosmopolitan feel of one of the largest cities in French. Part of its economy is of course geared towards tourism, but that does not necessarily mean the city caters to the English speaking world with great aplomb. We arrived at this brasserie and instantly asked 'Parlez vous Anglais?' and the hostess looked as strangely, shaking her head. It turns out the manager was the only one who could speak English (and only a little at that) and so he was basically our main waiter (not that business required much from him anywhere else).

Now it may seem that we were being typical arrogant Americans here, but we thoroughly enjoyed this setting. We enjoyed that this would be an authentic French meal and atmosphere. We picked out what we wanted (some form of pork roast for me and Will and a sort of seafood dish I think for Ryan) and again our meal was thoroughly excellent and left little to be desired. Its quality was every bit worth the 14 Euros I spent on it, especially given the atmosphere which we figured was a popular lunchtime spot for local businessmen and workers on a break.

After having put warm food into our bellies once again, we braved the weather once again to head back to the train station. Since we had cut down on our time in Lyon, we were hoping to catch an earlier train to Geneva, but they were all reserved, leaving us with really no choice but to sit around and wait for our early evening train out of Lyon. It was a pity and probably the only time where we had to sit idly by and watch hours pass by that we would have hoped to be doing something productive, especially considering that Lyon looked a lovely city to walk around. It was just that cold.

After a few hours wait, we were finally able to board a train to Geneva, this time absolutely every seat was taken, but we were soon left to our own devices again as this just turned out to be local passengers on their way home from work and nearly all were gone again after a few quick stops. All that was left was a nice easy ride to Geneva.

We arrived in Geneva probably around 20:00 and after checking in with our families back home we made a quick walk to our lodgings for the night, the City Hostel of Geneva. This was a really nice place, especially as hostels go. The rooms were small and compact and hard to maneuver around, but all we needed to sleep in for a few hours before heading out on our next leg of the trip. The bathrooms were really nice and there was a good atmosphere amongst the travelers in the main lobby. For the one room it costs all three of us 31.50 Swiss Francs apiece. I think that probably works out to around $25.

After checking in, we headed back towards the central part of the new town of Geneva and had dinner at a local Pizzeria which seemed to be run by a number of tireless young women quite effectively with delicious pizza. Nothing too exotic or different about it from regular pizza, just good pizza.

We had planned to make an early night of it again as we had awaken quite early that morning and had another long day ahead of us the next morning (they were are long of course, but glorious). We thought after dinner we would walked down to the lake to see what Geneva and Lac L&eacute;man looked like at nighttime. In a word, beautiful. Even though it was dark and the famous fountain was not spewing water, we had much to look at and admire, not least St Pierre Cathedral, the adopted home church of John Calvin. It rose and gleamed peerlessly in the Geneva skyline across the way from where we were. We decided that this area of Geneva (this area being the Old Town, or medieval section of Geneva) deserved more of our time. Even Ryan, who was the biggest advocate of an early bedtime, did not hesitate in following me and Will across the way.

This area of Geneva made us fall in love with the city immediately. It was only a shame that it was kind of late at night and we could not enter all the lovely looking shops, but the walk around the Old Town was well worth it all, with its narrow cobblestone streets lining the hillside of Old Town with Swiss flags draped all over the alleyways below St Pierre's Cathedral. The views from the precipice next St Pierre's Cathedral also provided breathtaking views of the city and medieval section below. It was around here that Ryan decided that he could see himself living in Geneva one day, or at the very least, certainly would not mind it. Bear in mind that this is Ryan, who until then had seemed like he would be content not to ever step outside the South. This resonated with Will and I deeply. Of course, now we try to hold him to the supposed promise that one day he must move to Geneva and we will move with him of course. If he changes his mind, we will simply beseech him.

Of course, it would not have been too long before Will and I came to this conclusion ourselves that we would not mind living in this city. Geneva certainly has a huge international profile (i.e., CERN, Red Cross, a number of other international organizations based here), but it has sort of a small town feel. The physical nature of the city does not seem that big at all. We walked from New Town to Old Town without the fuss or bother of anything other than a modest walk. The population is, again, pretty modest (185,000 people) given the profile of the city. Maybe one day...who knows. For now, though, we just headed back for the night to get some sleep to prepare for the next day's adventure, which would take through the Swiss Alps and end up with us in Munich, bringing us to our fourth country in four days. We could not wait.

As you see folks, this is the part of the trip that becomes &quot;whirlwind&quot; in a sense. Maybe it was because we were all under the age of 25, but it is really exciting doing so many things because you really feell like you are getting your money's worth. Yeah, we could have spent more time in places like Geneva, but we got the feel and personality of each city and that is most important. Being that we are all still young and very much in love with Europe, we knew we had plenty of time to go back to these places and spend more time in each one.

Just for everyone's info., we left Paris for Geneva from the Gare d'Austerlitz train station. I think most trains leave from there if you are going south. Although it was December, central France is still a great place to see while traveling by train. More to come....

Actually, more trains leave south from Gare de Lyon, but since you went to Orl&eacute;ans, it was Austerlitz. A direct train to Geneva would most definitely have left from Gare de Lyon.
I am very much enjoying the trip report, because I was a whirlwind traveler myself in my younger days, and it served to give me an idea of all of the places to which I would return later in life.

Kerouac, you are right. I forgot that we wanted to go south, but you have to break it up into segments if you do that. Therefore, we left from Austerlitz. I remember now that you usually leave from the Lyon train station if you go the fastest way to Geneva. We went a little more of the scenic route, I guess. Good to see a fellow speed traveler!!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - Day 6 - Geneva/Brig/Berne/Zurich/Munich

As you can see from the info above, we covered quite a bit of ground this day, beginning in Geneva and ending up in Munich. It was another early start, but not quite on par with yesterday's 5:30 wake-up call. We went with a pedestrian 7:00 or so as we wanted head down to Lake L&eacute;man once more to try and see what central Geneva looked like in the early daylight, but, in keeping with the weather of the moment, it was grey and foggy out, meaning that things did not look all that different than they did the night before. Still, we enjoyed our final view of Geneva before heading to the train station to have our daily pastry before catching either an 8:15 or 8:30 train to Brig, Switzerland, which is a small Alpine town in Southwest Switzerland, where we stop for a little while before heading on to Berne.

But before we arrived in Brig, we would get to really have our first glimpse of the Alps, and our affection for them was immediate, even amidst the fog. Were not far outside of Geneva before we starting seeing the towering peaks, or at least the base of them due to the visibility. Do not get me wrong, I would have preferred to have been able to seen the Alps in all their glory in the full sunshine, but I thinking seeing how they big they looked, even shrouded in fog, probably blew us away as much as it would have seeing them in full daylight. I guess maybe again maybe because it was a weekend, or maybe just there is not much traveling all the time in the wintertime, the train we were was pretty vacant. We often had row after row just to ourselves, and we took full of advantage of this as we traveled along Lake L&eacute;man and the snowy mountains bordering it by moving seamlessly from one side of the train to the other to see what next breathtaking view we could take in.

We continued in this manner all the way to Brig. Once we cleared Lake L&eacute;man, we started traveling in the valleys in between the mountains, coming upon postcard scene after postcard scene of Alpine villages tugged between the mountains or hugging to the foot of of the mountains. We even spotted centuries old castles and watchtowers perched upon the crest of various stand alone hills in the valleys. Our only regret (besides the foggy skies) was not being able to stop off somewhere and take picture after picture of these places, which is something I tried to make up for while in Brig.

We arrived in Brig around 11:00, and had roughly an hour before we were to catch a train that would take us into the heart of the Alps on the way to Berne. As previously mentioned Brig is a small Alpine town of maybe 5,000 residents and it looks fairly typical I imagine as low lying Alpine villages go. It clings to one of the foot of one of the mountains and stretches out from there with its typical architecture of Alpine homes with various spires, marking churches, shooting up across the beautiful Brig skyline.

Upon our arrival into Brig, we had hoped to find some lockers to drop are increasingly heavy backpacks so we could spend half and hour or so walking around the town center, but were discouraged in our hunt. We at first settled for a precipice close to the traintracks from which to view the city, but this was not anything liked we hoped, so we resigned ourselves to just sitting at the train station while waiting on our train to Berne, which would not arrive until a little while after 12:00, meaning we had to sit around for roughly 30 or 45 minutes. We soon settled in a waiting area, but I had already grown enamoured of our surroundings in Brig and was not really content to just sit there and wait, so I resolved to walk through the town anyway, but since Ryan and Will did not care to join me, they were kind enough to let me leave my backpack under their care while I went on a quick thirthy minute hike through the town of Brig. This thirty minute excursion would turn out to be one of my fondest memories of the trip.

I began by ascending a low lying ridge towards the center of town which was marked by a small Christmas market and a large Christmas tree. The street leading up to here was marked with a number of specialty shops and I soon gathered that Brig fancied itself a humble gathering for skiers in the area. From the town center, I headed to my left towards a local highway that led slightly away towards a hilly ridge that housed a lovely little Baroque church and what was either a huge mansion or a local museum just on the edge of the city. This is where I really fell in love with Brig. The church would have had all I desired to begin with as far as pleasant viewing goes. It was of a Baroque nature as preivously mentioned and had this beautiful courtyard below that had a light dusting of snow covering up just about all of the ground. It was one of those sights you dream of seeing in Europe. From here, I climbed around the side of the church and came upon a little medieval alley that I was sure that I would get lost in, but went ahead anyway and climbed on the side of the highest point of the ridge towards this aforementioned mansion or museum (on a second though it may have been a small castle) which when I turned around offered me this breathtaking view of the town and its skyline as it inched closer and closer to the base of the mountain which only added to the romanticism of the view. This was the view I had been clamouring for ever since we approached. With a few minutes to spare, I took it all in and unleashed my camera, though I again slightly rued the foggy conditions, but still, even if I was not able to do my view justice with a camera, I knew myself what I had seen for those fleeting moments when all seemed laid before me. It was beautiful.

After a few moments contemplation, I descended upon the town, finding my way down a medieval street a different way than I had come up, but one that was effective none the less. I got there with a few moments to spare and started showing Ryan and Will some of my pictures, but I knew looking at them then that I would not be able to properly convey the beauty which I had just been witness to. Satisfied, we soon caught our train to Berne shortly after noon.

While the route to Brig had kept us in touch with the mountains, the route to Berne took us into the belly of them. Soon after departure from Brig, we were soon rising high into the mountains from whose rising side offered us views of various towns and villages thousands of feet below. Our sights encountered upon this path varied from a mountainside soccer field (I mean literally, it was perched on a cliff on the side of the mountain to the extent that we figured many games must have come to a halt when the a ball would be kicked thousands of feet over the side of the mountain) to high valleys stretched between white capped mountains. For a while, we seemed to be completely separate from the rest of the world. We passed more ancient cliffside watchtowers as we glided by remote mountain paths. For a little while, we even climbed high enough to be granted a reprieve from the foggy weather and as a glorious blue sky along with a snow-capped mountain peak view was granted to us. We were mesmerized by this seemingly holy site as we all came to a halt on this particular side of the train as tried to take in what we were saying. The Swiss Alps were fast becoming our favorite part of the trip.

The rest of our train ride to Berne offered sights of beautiful Alpine towns and villages such as Spiez and Thun nestled amongst the lakes and mountains (I would imagine we did not pass by too far from Interlaken). It seemed to us that residents of these towns much live in endless bliss amongst such beauty, seemingly with no one other than gawking foreigners such as ourselves to bother them. As we approached Berne, we knew in an instant we would have to pass back by this way again some time.

Our visit to Berne and what we saw there only consisted of what we saw as the train from Brig approached and as the train to Zurich departed. Our only business there was too switch trains for Zurich, and we had to do that at a moments instant as the train was quite crowded and not far from departure when we got to it. On our trip to Zurich, the Alps were never out of sight, and thus our mood became visibly reserved as we had to accept that our sojourn through the Alps was over for now. Yet we tried to keep this from affecting too greatly our less enthusiastic mood as we approached Zurich.

Zurich, again, so to speak, could be listed sort of as a casualty of the whirlwind part of our trip. We probably arrived there around 15:30 or 16:00, and only gave ourselves 3 hours to walk around the city a bit. But it was far from a bitter disappointment. We only regret that we were not prepared for how expensive Zurich is. Our first order of business had been to find a suitable restaurant to eat at, but as our search grew fruitless due to the much too high prices from our perspective, it turned out to be our only real order of business in the city. We realize that everything was in the cost of Swiss Frances, which is below the standard of the dollar, but we were still put off a little bit by everything. I mean, the walk around Zurich was lovely, but we just could not find what we thought was affordable eating on our constraints. In one of our few culinary disasters (and I am probably involving myself in a little hyperbole there), we had to settle for McDonald's, Zurich style. And even here it cost something like 21 Swiss Francs for your basic Big Mac Value meal. Next time, we will just go ahead and devalue the Swiss Franc and suck it up.

Yet we still had no real complaints from the city. The Old Town that we walked around was beautiful while the Christmas market inside the train station was probably the best one we visited in Europe when it came to sheer size and quantity, as well as quality. After our very modest late lunch ad McDonald's, we headed towards Lake Zurich to view its setting with the Alps in the distance as the barely visible sun set over them, causing a fine ray of light to shine through the grey clouds. From here, we headed towards the Limmat River get a lovely view as the river split down the middle of the city with its famous Baroque church on one bank and magnificent spire on the other, whose encompassing beauty was further enhanced by the dimming light. From here we headed back towards the train station and did bit of Christmas market shopping before boarding our train to Munich.

In a less whirlwind trip, we would probably be telling you about a beautiful landscape witnessed by us as we traveled from Zurich to Munich, but the sun set had already set, leaving us with nothing more than snowy embankments to view as we headed east. I think we actually passed through Austria on the way, which I guess along with Germany later that night marked our fifth country in four days, and three in one day. We arrived into Munich later that night with our only objective to entreat ourselves to a modest cafe dinner before checking into our hotel, the Jaegers Hotel (http://www.jaegershotel.de/), not far from the train station. It was a hostel more than a hotel, and quite modest, but again, all that we really desired. The room was sort of like a long hall with a TV, a bunkbeds, and roll away bed. There was this peculiar sort of Porta-shower that looked totally out of place in the room and the bathroom was in the hall, but it was all cozy enough and we slept without a problem that night and the man at the front was quite courteous in helping us with anything we might need while in the city. All for the cost of just under 20 Euros a piece for the room. Very economical I believe. My total financial output for this day was a little over 31 Swiss Francs (thanks a lot McDonald's) and just over 23 Euros for the German leg. Also, I forgot to mention my finances for the previous day in traveling from Paris to Geneva, which was 48 Euros and 31.50 Swiss Francs. We were traveling well within our resources and loving it, and now we were getting ready to see a bit of Germany, not all would be full of beauty on this visit, however. More to come.

I know my story about Brig isn't quite as exciting because Michael was the one who took the hike around the city for 45 minutes. My 45 minutes at the train station included a 20 minute search for a sortie, followed by relief I might add, and then I made it to the little Swiss shop in the Brig train station. There I bought a box full of Swiss caramel candy, which is still in my car at this moment. I was pretty hungry, but I didn't want to ruin my lunch/dinner in Zurich, so I bought these caramels.

Moving on to something more interesting....

For anyone who is traveling by train through Europe, I must say the trip from Brig to Berne is a must. I can't even begin to tell you how beautiful it was, especially when the fog cleared only for 5 minutes and we could see the clear sky and tops of the Alps. Another great thing about that trip is seeing the Alpine villages literally in the Alps. I was blown away that there was actually communities thousands of feet up. Great trip!

Also, to add to our McDonald's disappointment, I will advise no one to &quot;have it your way&quot; in Europe if you don't know the language. Zurich being the first German-speaking city we had visited, I wasn't up to par on my German, so when i tried to order a Cheeseburger with just mustard and ketchup, i got a regular cheeseburger with a side of honey mustard and extra ketchup on the side that cost more. Bringing my McDonald's value meal to a grand total of $7.50. The franc to dollar conversion isn't too good.

Anyways, Zurich's old town is definitly not to be missed, so I advise anyone going through Switzerland, to stop in Zurich and explore it's grand status.

More to come....

Dachau and Munich...

Thursday, December 15, 2005 - Day 7 - Dachau/Munich

Today, we let ourselves sleep in a little bit and probably awoke some time around 9 or 9:30 and headed back towards the Munich Hauptbahnhof to get our ritual breakfast of a carbohydrated beverage and a pastry and afterwards checked with the ticket office in the station to see if our Eurail passes would be eligible to use on the S-bahn train that we wanted to take out to Dachau, which they did. From here, we thought it was the simple matter of reading the S-bahn map and seeing which train we would need to take to get to Dachau, which we though we did easily enough (and by this time we felt like Transportation maestros after navigating our way around London and Paris with considerable ease. This thought process would soon turn out to be pure folly due to the quirk that is the German S-bahn.

When we caught our S-bahn train at the station, it said we needed to catch this one to get to Dachau, and the one we got on did indeed list Dachau as one of its stops. However, we were not clear that this train we were on merely took us to a station where we would have to switch trains in order to actually get to Dachau. A sweet old German lady somehow realized we were making this error and tried her best to tell us that we needed to get off at a particular spot to switch trains for Dachau, but we found her advice more reassuring in some how thinking that we were still on the right path. Then we saw her get off at where we should have and we kept on going and by the next stop realized that we had erred and would have to head back to the previous station. In the end, we actually made it back and caught the train to Dachau that we would have caught had we gotten off initially anyway, so we did not lose anytime at least despite our error. We just felt bad that we had not heeded more clearly of the sweet old Germany lady.

When we go into Dachau it was fairly simple to get to the concentration camp from there. At the train station there was a bus that came through quite often, I forget which number it was, but it will be clearly marked for Dachau, and you just pay 2.20 Euros for a round-trip bus ticket and it will get you to the camp and back from the camp when you are done.

Once in Dachau, I suppose I thought it must be weird to live in a city that is noted mainly for being the site of a concentration camp during the Nazi regime, as though maybe the citizens should hang their heads in shame for what happened there, but it is not as if they were responsible for what happened. After all, we live in Chattanooga, TN, not far from where the Trail of Tears began for the Cherokee Indians. I feel there was great wrong done there and wish it did not happen, but I do not awake every morning feeling I must pay for the sins of our fathers.

Still, though, it is quite different. The Trail of Tears was 170 years ago, the Holocaust ended little over 60 years ago and its victims and perpetrators still walk amongst us. Beyond that, though, we have all seen films like Schindler's List and The Pianist and are well aware of what happened in places such as Dachau, which it must be said, is relatively small when compared to other concentration camps. Of course, part of this is because it began as a work camp. Still, 40,000 people who entered into the camp never left and thousands were gased and cremated while others were guinea pigs as Nazi doctors tried out new scientific and medical methodologies.

Entrance into Dachau is free (it would be disrespectful to charge people to come to this place) and you walk down a lonely dirt road before coming to the Main Gate and it hits you instantly and you feel as though you are walking back in time when you walk through the gates as you ponder the great evil that occurred here.

I do not feel as though I want to dwell on Dachau too much, nor do I think particularly think readers would want me to. All you need to know is that a visit to this place will leave you feeling stone-cold walking through it. How could you not after seeing the cramped barracks the prisoners were stationed in? Or walking in the footsteps of thousands of murdered victims as they walked into the gas chambers, followed by a the crematorium room. The day we visited Dachau was a fittingly cold and grey day. I would like to say 'We will never forget', but Bosnia, Rwanda, and currently Darfur seem to infer that we have.

From here, I will cover happier times in Munich. Not that we were unhappy in Dachau, it's just that are going to feel a particular way regardless there, you are not meant to feel happy, but more contemplative there. Dachau was well worth it and I strongly urge any who have a chance to visit the camp, but we were happy to be heading back towards Munich so that we could see a little bit of it before we got on a night train to Vienna later.

In Dachau, we had worked up quite and appetite, and our first order of business was to have would turn out to be a bit of an early dinner I suppose around 16:30 or 17:00. We first headed towards towards the city center and walked around the famous Town Hall tower while briefly taking in the huge Christmas market that filled the square. Being huge soccer (or football) afficionados we enjoyed taking in some of the early World Cup 2006 hysteria. Not much past some t-shirts and World Cup memorabilia, but we were excited to know that were in a city that would play a major part in the forthcoming World Cup in Germany.

After our brief interlude into this market, we walked on down from there towards a smaller, more relaxed market, just around the corner below a lovely little baroque church that was perched on a small precipice, looking over everything below. We walked around below in this area and kind stumbled on this restaurant called Bratwurstherzl, which was kind of hidden off the main part of the square. It turned out to be a gem of a place. When we first got there, there was hardly anyone there and lots of empty tables so we thought were good to go, but the man working there said we could not eat here because all these tables were reserved for people who would be coming in around 19:00 or 20:00. We were a bit incredulous as we thought in no way would it take us that long to eat, but again this is Europe, where they savor their meals and all they encompass, not just eat them, and I love that about Europe and think we should do it like here in America. But then again, you will not often eat at hole in the wall places like we did that night in Munich. Places like Chili's and O'Charley's do not exactly look to adhere to this policy.

Once there, we saw down and looked over the menu while our waiter (who as it turned out was the same man who had seated us) brought us some pretzels which were incredible while taking our drink order. I was fine with a coke, but Ryan and Will undertook the true Munich experience and had some German Wheat Beer. Now, we do not fancy ourselves anything like beer afficionados at all. When we drink (which is rare), it is liqour or fruity kind of drinks (yes, please feel free to emasculate us if you will), so I marvelled at how much they enjoyed this Wheat Beer, but this is Munich and these are real Bavarian hops I imagine, so maybe not that surprised in the end. But they enjoyed it for sure. We found equal pleasure in our meals. I had a delicious kind of pork while Ryan and Will were more traditionally German with their wiener schnitzel and sauerkraut. Actually, their separate meals may have actually varied, I will leave Will to clarify this, but I know that they absolutely loved it and once more it was a joyous culinary experience for us all in Europe.

Afterwards, we sat around a little bit and just relaxed and took part in the European post-meal meditation, just relaxing and soaking up the atmosphere. After a while, the formerly barren place began to quickly fill up and we soon realized that this was a popular establishment for locals to visit for their post-work meal and it was fun just to take in all these Germans have their banter with friends and loved ones while they downed a pint of good German beer. I thought I could easily get used to this. It would be nice to just go to work and every evening meet some friends for some drinks, food, and good friendly banter about anything and everything.

We could not stay forever, though, we wanted to make sure we fulfilled our promise to the old man and got out of there before we took up anybody's reserved table. From here, we headed back to the big market around Town Hall. Here, we separated for about an hour so that we could all kind of branch off on our own for a little while to take in the parts of the market we wanted to before meeting back at a certain spot around 20:00. I did this gleefully enough and rummaged through a great soccer store (that I could only dream of having in the US) before heading back into the market and buying myself and World Cup 2006 shirt before trying to find the perfect Christmas gift for my mother, though unsuccessfully.

After meeting back up, we continued to just walk around a little bit, but it was growing chillier by the minute and a lot of shops were beginning to close down. We braved through a incredibly cold wind to look the Frauenkirche with its two famous domed towers. We soon realized it was too cold to be wandering around much of the city for too long and resolved to head back to the train station to sit it out a bit before catching our night train to Vienna, which was going to be leaving shortly before midnight.

Munich is definitely a place we look forward to coming back to and seeing more of. Our trip to Dachau took a little bit longer that we had anticipated, so our time in the actualy city of Munich was far too short. We had wanted to walk around a bit more and take in one of the famous biergartens, but we would have to save that goodness for another time. For now, we would just wait at the Hauptbahnhof for our night train that we would take into Vienna, hoping that we would be able to sleep on the beds in the cart. It would be interesting for sure.

My finances for this day amounted to around 55 and 60 Euros all told, including some gifts that I bought, so Munich was good price wise for me. Well, stayed tuned, a day with some true Viennese was on the schedule for our next day in Europe, and what a long day it was.

Great to get the perspective from people who pulled off such a fast-paced trip covering an incredible amount of ground in a short period of time!!

Nice report - looking forward to more.

As someone roughly twice your age, I can't imagine carrying 50+ pounds up to Montmartre. I would have split a taxi and gone hungry that night...

Friday, December 16, 2005 - Day 8 - Vienna

Our day literally began with a lesson learned for future trips across Europe. Do not book a night train that has puts 6 beds in a room, piled on top of each other. For one, you are more likely to be sleeping in cramped quarters with total strangers, and two, there is barely enough room to breathe, much less maneuver around. It would be a lesson learned as we took a night train from Munich to Vienna on day 8 of our journey. It was manageable, but certainly not anything that we really want to try again, maybe a 4 bed per room cart, but never again a sixer. All that said, we arrived comfortably enough into Vienna around 6 in the morning.

Waiting for us at the station was a friend of Ryan's uncle, Felix, whom he had met while doing a bit of traveling himself, and they had remained close friends ever since. Ryan was able to arrange lodgings with Felix for when we came into Vienna, which we were incredibly grateful for. It was a little tricky at the beginning because Ryan had only met Felix once, and it was years ago, so he did not quite recognize him once we got off the train though me and Will had spotted an older gentleman who looked as though he was probably looking for three dazed and confused Americans, but Ryan swore that was not him. Well, 20 minutes later, this older man again came up to us and said, 'Ryan?', and thus we met the great Felix formally. Ryan had apparently been thrown off by the fact that Felix was wearing a hat. No harm no foul, though, and Felix quickly led us to his car as we headed for his son Wolfie's house, where we would actually be staying.

Felix and Wolfie are probably two of our greatest memories of the trip with they showed us and did for us. At six in the morning, with the sun not even up, Felix was already energetically pointing out parts of the Hofburg Palace as we headed to Wolfie's. We had worried that we felt bad about having Felix come and pick us up at such an early hour, but we soon figured out that Felix's energy levels were limitless and thought to ourselves he probably rises at least this early every morning in anticipation of great new day. When we arrived to Wolfie's house, it did not seem that the apple fell far from the tree. Wolfie was fixing a breakfast for us that consisted of a number of rolls and bagles and other delights that we were more than happy to consume on the account that last night's train right was not highly effective in re-energizing us. This was definitely our longest day in Europe because had begun so early after not really getting a good night's sleep, and we would have to struggle through parts of the day just hoping not to collapse, which, again, we mainly blamed the night train.

After breakfast, Wolfie had to head off to work while Felix took us back into the city to show us around. You of course cannot see all that Vienna has to offer in a day, but you can certainly get a feel for the feeling with someone like Felix showing you around. Felix would prove to be a plethora of knowledge on all things Austrian and Viennese as he took us around all day. Before going back into Vienna, though, he took us to the top of a mountain so that we could overlook the beautiful Vienna Woods, while also pointing out that where we were looking beyond the Vienna Woods in the distance was actually Slovakia. So close to 6 countries in six days.

We soon headed back into the city as Felix drove and pointed out the different districts of Vienna and how they were aligned and what they represented. Then we parked somewhere around the city center and began walking down what I guess was the main street of Vienna as it was full of pedestrians while being mostly closed off to traffic. We simply walked down the street took in the seemingly limitless information that Felix was feeding us. We soon came to St Stephan's Cathedral and appreciated its architecture before walking in and seeing the great wealth displayed in the church.

From St Stephan's we headed to this lovely sort of Market/Grocery store. I mean, it had the look and display of a sort of neighborhood grocery store, but me, Ryan, and Will could only dream of something like it back home. I guess it would more comparable to a Fresh Market because it did not seem to sell a lot of brand name food, but it still seemed like something greather. If we ever lived in Vienna, we would shop here and have glorious meals each and every night. The bakery seemed absolutely first rate and I regret greatly that we did not just buy a loaf of bread and eat it right there. The aisles were lined with all sorts of food imported from just about everywhere in the globe. We knew this because labeled underneath the food were the flags of the countries of the food's origins. They were not messing around with their culinary delights. It was really inevitable that I would buy something, and I selected some Austrian coffee to give to my parents as a Christmas gift with Felix's express consent after Ryan had picked it out. I also bought a few Austrian chocolate bars which Felix had said were favorites of the Royal family in England. Surely they cannot have bad taste I thought. Totaled, I think I spent about 16.70 Euros on gifts here, and could have spent much more if we had time to eat all they had to offer.

After our market fun, we continued to just generally walk around Vienna for a short while, not really stopping to do anything tourist specific, but just walk around and listen to what Felix had to say about various subjects. We walked around the huge Hofburg Palace at times and reveled in the luxury and extravagance of the Habsburg dynasty. I knew the Palace was prominent, but I was not aware of just how much room it took up. It seemed more like a large set of buildings built around the old city to act as protecting barrier of sorts, which I suppose it was.

Walking around with Felix, we could tell that he was incredibly proud of being Austrian, and more specefically Viennese as beamed with pride as he told us about the greatness of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and how Vienna was once THE cultural bastion for the rest of the world. Walking across an old shop, he pointed to a map sprawled across the window which showed us land mass that the Empire took up, which was quite massive of course. Felix was perhaps born just a century too late, I thought, though you could never look at Felix and think him unhappy. We continued on this well guided tour of Vienna until lunch, where Felix also proved the generosity of Viennese culture.

With much walking underneath our feet, we were only too glad to take a break and grab a fine Austrian meal at a local place that did not seem too different from the Bavarian restaurant we had eaten at the night before in Munich, though at the time of day we were eating (around 13:00) I would not expect it to be. The particulars of this meal escape me somewhat except to say that I had some more fine roasted pork of some kind. Just delightful, and whatever it was that Ryan and Will had, they seemed quite content with it. Felix, however, would not be content with letting us pay for our meals. As soon as the bill landed on the table had gobbled it up so that we would not see how much money he was spending (though I spotted at least 70 Euros on their for the four of us) and insisted on paying. We implored him to please let us pay for our meals as it was of course the very least we could to after he had let us stayed with his son while taking time out of his day to show us all over his wonderful city. If anything, we should have been paying for his meal. Yet he only seemed to be bothered by the notion that we would actually pay for our meals in his presence. He felt it was his duty as a good man of Vienna to pay, and pay he did, and we were extremely grateful.

After lunch, we began to wind down the afternoon a bit. We walked just a short while longer around the Jewish part of Vienna while also spotting the oldest standing church in Vienna (some 800 or 900 years old I believe) before hopping back in Felix's van. He did have one more special place he wanted to take us however. He took us to one of the most abstractly designed houses you will ever see. I say design, but it is really a piece of art done by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, born in Vienna as Friedrich Stowasser in 1928. He loved to use anything as art work as you would be able to see if you ever saw one of his houses in Vienna. I wish I could tell you exactly where it is as it is definitely worth seeing, but I cannot say for sure, though I suspect with the knowledge of his name you would at least be put on the right track.

Hundertwasser loved crazy shapes and he wanted everything to look uneven so that it did not match anything else in his work of art. He also loved to randomly gorw trees outside of window panes. It is really crazy to look at in person when you come upon it. The walkways are not even the same at they rise and fall at random intervals so that you maybe walking up a slope while somebody next to you is walking in a hole. Hundertwasser's houses are really worth checking out if you are ever in Vienna. It is crazy.

Once we concluded the madness and genius that is Hundertwasser, we drove around Vienna just a little while longer as Felix showed us the world famous Prater with its wheel before crossing over the Danube and taking a look at the development across the river. But it was not long before he dropped us off at Wolfie's house, probably around 17:00 or 18:00, where he would would part ways with us and leave us under the care of Wolfie for the remainder of our time in Vienna. We were sad to say bye to Felix and it was immensely joyful to have him lead us around all day. All that said, we were quite tired all the same and relished the idea of having a nap before Wolfie got home from work. I myself, much to Will and Ryan's amusement, had taken initiative earlier in the car on the way back and dozed off a number of times with my head drooping and tongue sticking out, some much I am afraid that by the time we got to Wolfie's house, I was pretty refreshed and ready to go, but he was not home and Ryan and Will wasted no time in falling asleep, leaving me to my own devices for an hour or so. Wolfie finally did get home and by 19:00, we were all ready to go again and finish off our only night in Vienna in whatever way Wolfie saw best.

The best way, it turned out, was to drive down to the local U-bahn station and buy a ticket for 3 Euros and we took the train back into center of Vienna and when to a part of the Hofburg Palace where there was a lovely Christmas Market stationed. We spent 30-45 glorious minutes here walking around, checking out what was being offered. Plenty of good things were for sale, but I was still on the lookout for the perfect gift for my mother, and was still not satisfied enough to buy anything yet. Before the market closed down, Wolfie had us try this sort of drink which was oddly flavoured but still good. I think it is one meant to sort of sip on in the cold weather. Maybe Will can has a better recollection of it than I do.

With our Christmas market shopping done for the night, Wolfie next took us to a Royal Beer Hall not far from the palace for dinner and some drinks. I was still quite fool from lunch actually and only went with some sort of appetizer that was pork wrapped in cheese. I think Ryan had some ribs and whatever Will had (I forget exactly), he loved it I am quite sure. We also ordered some beers. Mine was okay, considering I just do not really enjoy beer. Ryan liked his and Will got some sort of dark beer which I wish I would have partaken in. We were quite content in this atmosphere as it definitely had the boisterous social atmosphere that you would expect from a German speaking Beer Hall. We just sat there for probably a few hours just talking about Wolfie about any number of things from Austria to soccer to world travel. Wolfie is probably only a few years older than us, so we were able to relate on a lot of things with him. We thought it was cool that he was a big Rapid Wien fan, which is one of the local soccer teams in Vienna, and that where we parked to get onto the U-bahn is actually where their stadium is, so we went got off there later tonight, we would get to see a real live European soccer stadium. Like school kids we were, at least me and Will, when we did see the stadium on the way back from the U-bahn station.

From here, our night was soon drawing to an end. After our fine meal which costs about 10 Euros, we got on the U-bahn (and saw the stadium as previously mentioned) and headed back towards Wolfie's house to call it a night, probably somewhere close to midnight. We did not toil long as it had been an incredibly long day and we looked forward to some sleep (especially since we decided to sleep in a little the next morning) before leaving Vienna and heading across Austria tomorrow, seeing Salzburg and Innsbruck along the way. Before falling asleep, we had another one of our contemplative moments together where we discussed how lucky we were to have Wofie and Felix take us around Vienna. We had been a bit apprehensive before hand I think about having total strangers (well at least to me and Will, though even Ryan only vaguely knew them) house us and show us around. But maybe we just really underestimated the kindness of the Viennese people. Vienna's elegance, it turns out, goes hand in hand with the goodness of its people, and for that we were extremely grateful, and felt genuinely lucky as this had definitely been one of our favorite parts of the trip, and all told, only about 33 Euros were spent this day.

Thank you so much for posting one of the most enjoyable and unpretentious trip reports I have seen in a very long well.

Ah, memories of my own Eurail 5 1/2 week do-it-all first trip to Europe--in 1969!

^

What a great trip report I love your description of your experiences. I admit getting a little teary when reading.....

&quot;I imagine that millions of couples have fallen in love for the first time, or all over again, on top of Montmartre when looking at the beautiful canvas before them. I fell in love with Paris at that very instant.&quot;

How eloquent! Keep posting!!

Europhile23, you are such a heartbreaker

I so enjoyed reading your trip report last night! You have such a writing gift -- most young guys (if they even thought to write a trip report!) would just concentrate on what they drank and ate! Thanks for all the detail on the architecture and scenery! I'm keeping it for sometime when I take a trip and can spend a little more than hours in a country! We're waiting for the next installment -- hurry!

joy/luvparee

&lt;Given other prices I have seen for a Eurostar trip to Paris, I think we did pretty well, largely thinks to our International Student Identity Cards (ISIC). Since we already had a rough itenerary set in September for this trip, we had gone ahead and called the people at ISIC and ordered our tickets over the phone for $60 a piece before I had left for London. ISIC can be overrated at times, but it was a big help here and saved us a fair bit of money I think.&gt;

A nice report but the above is simply not true even if StudentUniverse had you believe it was. You got a Youth Fare on the Eurostar for being under 26 - had nothing to do with the ISIC card - there are no student fares on Eurostar.

I hope you could get some discounts elsewhere to merit the card's purchase - perhaps the insurance that comes with it is worth the price but many find they can't use the card much in Europe where discounts are often based on being under 26 or your regular student ID could work as well.

But the ISIC card got you no discount on the Eurostar.

PalenqueBob, whatever the case may be, I can confirm that we made our reservation my calling the number on back of the ISIC card. Now if we actually got a rate because of this ISIC card, or they were just helpful in finding the cheapest rate, who knows. But me being the one who planned out most of this trip, the rate we got when calling the ISIC number was by far the cheapest. Bottom line! And to us, that is all that matters.

Yes, it may well be that the ISIC card was not responsible for our discount at all. We just called the number on the back of our ISIC card, which may have connected us to STA Travel instead of actual ISIC people, but either way, whoever we did call was associated with ISIC in some manner and in whatever way, they were able to get us cheap tickets for Eurostar, though I think it might also be worth noting that one of the reasons we were able to get them so cheap (besides the student discount or youth discount or whatever the discount was) was because we bought our tickets I guess a little over three months before we actually used them. While I am writing here, I wanted to go ahead and also thank everyone for the positive feedback so far. I admit I probably go a little overboard with stuff and make the smallest things seem overly grand, but on the other hand, I guess it is good when you can view in such an appreciative way. Another post should soon be coming.