Europe 2006

Munich

2005-07-19T16:39:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking about squeezing Munich into the itinerary. I think it would be awesome to see a World Cup game while it's in Germany, but I will be in Berlin before it starts. Without going too far out of my way, I could see a match in Munich. I'll have to see how much it costs and how realistic my chances are for getting tickets.
It seems as if tickets are already sold out for every single match in every city (and have been for a few months) I guess that is to be expected with so many different countries involved. You can still purchase "TST" tickets which allow you to follow a specific country through the course of the World Cup (but that would require traveling to whichever city they happen to play at, and most of these packages have been sold out already as well. There are only a few countries that remain) It looks less likely that I will be able to see a game. I'm thinking about leaving Munich on the itinerary anyway tho. What's 3 more days when I'm spending that much money anyway?? Maybe I can scalp a ticket once I'm there... who knows?
Now, I'm afraid that if tickets are sold out, there may be no hotel rooms available either. That's a very good possibility. I've already started to get my hopes up for revisiting Munich. I don't think Berlin should be a problem since I will be there before it starts. hmmm, I'll have to look into it some more.

First Draft: Itinerary

2005-07-05T17:15:00.000-04:00

May 29th > Fly into Paris, France (1 day)

May 30th - June 2nd > Train to Amsterdam, Netherlands (4 days)
- Anne Frank house

June 3rd - 5th > Train to Berlin, Germany (3 days)
- Berlin Wall

June 6th - 10th > Train to Prague, Czech Republic (5 days)

June 11th - 13th > Train to Vienna, Austria (3 days)

June 14th - 16th > Train to Salzburg, Austria (3 days)
- Mozart's birthplace
- Sound of Music tour

June 17th - June 19th > Munich, Germany (3 days)
- World Cup soccer match, June 18th

June 20th - 22nd > Train to Zurich, Switzerland (3 days)

June 23rd - 24th > Train to Lucerne, Switzerland (2 days)

June 25th - 27th > Train to Geneva, Switzerland (3 days)

June 28th > Train to Marseille, France (1 day)

June 29th - July 3rd > Drive North through France (5 days)

July 4th - 5th > Paris, France (2 days)

July 5th/6th - Fly back to US

Speak Their Language

2005-07-05T04:04:00.000-04:00

Nice, France (2002) - John and I had paid for excursions for each of our cruise destinations. We had paid a lot of money for them and they were nonrefundable. We had joked about partying too hard and accidentally sleeping through one. On our very first day, that's exactly what we did. We had been out until about 5am and needed to be up and ready by 8. We awoke by a knock on the door. John calmly asked our room service guy what time it was... It was noon. We rushed to get ready in a mad attempt to catch our tour group. We soon found that it would be impossible, but decided to hit all of the same spots on our own. In our rush, we forgot to bring a camera, so we decided to buy a disposable. We walk up to the first girl that we see, and John (stooping down pretending to hold a click an invisible camera) says very slowly... We... Are... Looking... for a C-a-m-e-r-a, C-a-m-e-r-a... P-h-o-t-o, C-a-m-e-r-a... The girl starts laughing and says, in perfect english, "yeah, I think they sell cameras in that store over there" We were pretty embarrassed, especially john, and realized that we should ask if they speak English before assuming they didn't. It turns out this destination was an easy one to explore on our own, and of all the places to miss our tour, this was the one. We also argued that we had not received our wakeup call (which I'm sure we just slept through) and got our money back for the excursion. We ended up saving about $100 each.

Mystery Of The Puddles

2005-07-05T04:03:00.000-04:00

Paris (2003) - Even though it never rained during our stay, there were a lot of puddles along the curbs in Paris and the city (at least where we stayed) had a unique stench to it. One day, Sarah and I were walking along the street in broad daylight when a woman walks up, pulls her pants down, squats by the curb, and proceeds to pee. The mystery of the puddles and the stench were both solved and we took extra caution to avoid the puddles from then on.

First Day In Europe

2005-07-05T04:02:00.000-04:00

Barcelona (2002) - John and I had just boarded our cruise ship and had about 3 hours before the ship took sail. We decided to rush into town and see what trouble we could get into. We immediately found a taxi driver and asked him how much it would cost to take us into town. He didn't really speak English, but he seemed to understand. He told us it would be 20 Euros. This was our first day, and having no reason to be skeptical, we agreed and paid him the money. We got into the cab and he drove us about 100 yards, then stopped the cab. We were in the middle of town. We had been in Spain for less than an hour and had already been swindled out of 20 bucks. We made up for it afterwards tho. We found a small local bar outside of the tourist scene. We drank and drank for 3 hours with the locals. No one understood too much of what were saying (except a very friendly, possibly gay, bar owner named Mario) but we knew how to say cerveza so everything was good. We watched Spain play and win a game in the world cup, and finally it was time to go. Our bill was about 10 dollars!! We gave a generous tip b/c we were expecting to pay a lot more. Then, we had to run to get to our ship on time. As all of the other passengers were doing the required safety runthrough on the deck, John and I were sprinting to make sure we got onto the boat on time. We made it as they were lifting up the boarding plank, and were quite possibly the only people to have ever missed the mandatory instruction and still board the ship (I wonder how many times they announced our names as the missing passengers)

Better Than Nyquil

2005-07-05T04:01:00.000-04:00

Train to Paris (2003) - When I went to Europe with Sarah in the summer of 2003, most of Europe was experiencing record-breaking temperatures (a lot of stories will derive from this fact) Our first train happened to be an overnight train from Barcelona to Paris. It was July 30th (which happened to be Sarah's birthday) To celebrate, we had bought a couple bottles of wine at the train station. However, we forgot to purchase a wine opener (or even look to see if they had one) At first, we thought we would just wait and celebrate later, but the train was sooo hot. Thoughts of celebration turned into thoughts of desperation. We needed to open the bottle of wine to help us sleep in the unbearable heat. We asked people on the train, but no one had an opener. Finally, we resorted to using my pocket knife. Slowly, small bits of cork were extracted and after about an hour and a huge mess, we succeeded. Drinking straight out of the bottle, we drank ourselves to sleep, still sweating but a little too tipsy to let it ruin our ride.

The Haunted Water Fountain

2005-07-05T04:00:00.000-04:00

Seville (2003) - Sarah and I had just finished touring a church (where Christopher Columbus is buried) and were about to exit the building. Before the exit, there was a water fountain and some bathrooms. I went over to the water fountain and the water automatically began to come out. However, as I leaned over to take a sip, the water turned off. I did this a couple times, and finally discovered that the sensor was at the waist. When anyone actually leaned over, their waist would become too far away for the sensor to pick it up. You had to put your hand in front of the sensor to get a drink. The different ways and rate at which people figured out this out was very different, and Sarah and I spent the good part of an hour laughing and watching this occur. Some people figured it out pretty quickly, some continued to try and try, some stood back completely bewildered as if it was haunted, and others left in a rage without ever getting a sip. I could have spent all day watching and probably would have if Sarah hadn't finally convinced me to leave. I wish I had a video camera for it though.