the TREVOR to EUROPE tour -- part 1

Joe and I recently returned from a wonderful 10 day vacation in Holland and Germany. We took our nephew, Trevor, who is 19, with us on our adventures. It was his first trip outside of the USA, and we thought it was a good opportunity to show him a bit about "travelling, Joe and Ellen style." It turned out to be a very fun trip.

Trevor was the photographer on our journey. I thought it would be interesting to look back on our adventures through his eyes, seeing what caught his attention as he experienced places and things for the first time. He took lots of pictures, so I had plenty of choices in choosing what to share here.

LONDON

We started our trip by flying to London on an overnight flight. We arranged an afternoon-long layover before our connecting flight to Amsterdam to give Trevor a tiny taste of London. We took the tube into the Tower of London area where we spent some time walking around and seeing the sights.





















After a nice walk we took the tube to Leicester Square and found a Chineese restaurant for lunch. Lots of decorations were still in place as the Lunar New Year celebrations had concluded just a few days earlier:


AMSTERDAM

We spent a day in Amsterdam resting up from the flight and London. Our hotel, a Holiday Inn, was located a ways south of the center city, near the RAI convention center. It turned out to be a perfect location because it was at the end of a tram line (meaning we could wait inside the warm tram cars instead of on a cold platform) and an easy walk to the metro and railway stations. The neighborhood was generally residential, although the hotel was surrounded by other hotels, office buildings and convention center stuff. We enjoyed staying away from the hustle and bustle of central Amsterdam, yet it was great having access to it with an easy tram ride. Go-anywhere tram passes made it all effortless.

Since we took the train (railway) from the airport directly to the RAI station, Trevor's first look at the city was through the back door, rather than seeing it for the first time emerging from Centraal Station, the introduction most people make. He had a tram ride through the suburbs before we were thrust into the throngs of people and the bustle that is so typical of the city.

Joe arranged things so that one of our first stops was at his favorite Vlameese Frites (Flemish french fries) stand, to introduce Trevor to one of his favorite Dutch treats. The stand is a takeout-only window that serves made from scratch fries in paper cones topped with your choice ofseveral different sauces. The traditional (and by far the most popular) sauce is a Belgian mayonnaise, but there are lots of others to choose from, including ketchup, curryketchup, peanut, cheese, beef and I'm not sure what else. I've even seen some people get their sauce topped with tiny diced raw onions. The stand has been around for several decades, we've been visiting it for many years, and they always serve up the world's best fries.

Since we were taking things easy for our first nights in Amsterdam, we mostly just wandered around and spent some time getting the feel for things. At one point we wandered into a candy store and Trevor began chatting with the young men working there, asking them for recommendations on what to try. A very fun evening.


TRIP TO NURNBERG

After 2 nights in Amsterdam, we boarded an early morning train for the trip to Nurnberg. We had booked the trip well ahead of time, getting us rock-bottom fares and letting us opt for the trip with the most train-changes so we could show Trevor how its done. We wound up on 5 different trains on the trip out, which were more than we actually needed as Trevor caught on to things right away and was able to find the right platforms, trains, cars and seats for us by the second change. The unexpected bonus was that all those changes managed to route us on tracks running along the Rhine river for most of the trip through Germany, rather than the usual Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Nurnberg route. So we spent a sunny afternoon relaxing on the train, enjoyingthe incredibly beautiful scenery along the Rhine. It was a fantastic ride.

On the platform, Amsterdam Centraal Station

above: views of a rainy morning in the Netherlands. Our train took us through Utrecht and Arnhem before crossing into Germany.

above: views from the trip along the Rhine

Before nightfall we were in Nurnberg, reveling in all things Bavarian.

the TREVOR to EUROPE tour -- part 2

Nurnberg

We were in Nurnberg for 2 days and 3 nights. Joe and I stayed in a beautiful suite at a new Holiday Inn, just inside the walls of the Altstadt (old part of the city).
Trevor stayed at the Youth Hostel, which is located in the castle, also in the Altstadt, at the top of the hill. The Youth Hostel is in a building that was originally the Imperial stables. One of the hostel managers was kind enough to give Joe and I a look at one of the private rooms (they also have dorms) and they invited us to consider one on our next visit. The room we saw was very clean and spartan, furnished only with bunk beds and a closet, a big contrast to the fancy suite at the Holiday Inn. Of course the hostel's rate was a small fraction of what the Holiday Inn charges, so we filed away the information for future trips. And made note of the magnificent, sweeping views of the city out of every room's window, they really do have a magnificent location.

Nurnberg Jugendherberge (Youth Hostel)

The Castle

above: views from the castle area

above: pictures of different areas around the castle

We did take a tour of the Nurnberg Berg (castle), which allowed us entry into some of the buildings. The castle is not now furnished, so for the most part we were seeing massive empty rooms, which looked even more massive without much in them.






A couple of the rooms did contain large candlesticks and massive stoves made from ceramic tiles and some rooms had portraits of important historical figures hanging on the walls, but that was about it. The tour was in German and as a result we didn't pick up too many actual facts or accounts, but it did allow us access into the castle, so it was hardly a waste of time.

One of the most interesting aspects in the tour was the demonstation of the castle's 47 meter deep well. The guide demonstated its depth using a pan with burning candles which was lowered to the water's surface using a winch--and it took awhile and looked very far away indeed when it reached the water! He also poured bursts of water from a pitcher to demonstrate how long it took for the splashes to hit the well water. (After the pan with the candles had been safely retreived!)

The castle tour also allowed entrance to the adjacent museum, which was very intersting. It was full of artifacts relating to the history of the castle, most of them relating to fighting and defense, which was what this castle was all about. This wasn't a castle where people lived and worked, that took place outside its walls. The castle was used for defense when needed, and also as accomidations for the various kaisers and kings of Bavaria when they were in the area.


very old swords


newer swords


pikes


knives

a suit of armor with very pointy toes!

The oldest parts of the castle were constructed around 1170, and of course more was added over time. Like so much of Europe, the castle suffered extensive damage in the second world war, but it has been carefully restored and rebuilt and much of the reconstruction is not obvious unless you look with an eye towards seeing it.

DB Museum

After touring the castle we headed down the hill into town and stopped for a visit at the Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Railway) transportation museum. This is a huge museum that features a wide variety of exhibits about trains, but also encompasses other forms of transportation and communication. There were a lot of interactive displays illustrating things like how track switching and signalling work and how switching works in various types of telephone exchanges. Lots of engines and rail cars were open to see what they were like inside. There was a huge model train layout, mesmerizing to watch as the many trains ran around its kilometers of track. In short, it was a very fun and interesting museum. Our visit was cut short by closing time and we were left wanting more.





above: a couple of autos we saw at the DB museum

Furth

One of the reasons Joe and I included Nurnberg in this tour was to introduce Trevor to the area his paternal grandparents lived for so many years, and where his father and I spent some of our childhood. So we spent the better part of a day in Furth, where we'd actually lived. We wandered around the old neighborhood in the Sudstadt (south part of town), looking at the houses we used to live in, the high school and remains of the kaserne and American community. It's been about 10 years since the kaserne was closed and the American Army left, and much has changed. Army quarters have been refurbished, spruced up and balconies added, they look good and are full of residents.


Jakob Wassermannstr 9, we lived here 1966-71



view down Jakob Wassermannstr

The block which used to house the base theater, Foodland and the gas station has been scraped off and now houses a small shopping center with a Fristo (drink) market, grocery store and several other shops.


this is the corner which used to house the gas station


Foodland and the theater used to occupy this block



Nurnberg High School, still being used as a school


Neumanstr 36, building housing the apartment where my parents lived, 1971-95

It was interesting for me to go back to this part of the world, having lived there such a long time ago.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Bavaria, one of our favorite places in the world. We spent a lot of time just wandering around Nurnberg, absorbing the beauty and ambience around us. Most of our time was spent in the Altstadt, lots of narrow cobblestone streets and interesting buildings. We walked around the shopping areas and market area, making sure Trevor joined us in turning the gold ring on the fountain (which according to legend, ensures you will return). We also spent some time in traditional and not-so-traditional Gasthauses eating bratwurst, schnitzels, kraut, kartoffel salat, brotchen and bretzeln and drinking some wonderful draft beer. We'd been concerned that Trevor's eating options would be limited on this part of the stay (he is a vegetarian), but it all worked out. One of the Gasthauses we ate in was run by some people from Ethiopia, so Joe and I had (very good) schnitzels while Trevor enjoyed an Ethiopian vegetarian dish. One morning we stopped at a supermarket and then had a picnic in our luxurious hotel suite. Our time in Nurnberg was a lot of fun.


"Weisser Turm" a tower just a couple of blocks from our the Holiday Inn, it now houses an entrance to the underground station.


scene in the Altstadt


Opera House, located adjacent to the DB transportation museum


beautiful mosaic picture


another tower along the wall ringing the Altstadt






All too soon it was time to board our train back to Amsterdam. On the trip back we had an easy ride with only a train change at the Frankfurt airport. Before we knew it we were back in the Holiday Inn at Amsterdam RAI.