http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Chelfie14/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Chelfie14 en-us Sat, 26 Dec 2009 02:28:59 +0000 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 02:28:59 +0000 Recently took my first visit to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville North Carolina. The Biltmore was originally constructed in 1895 by George Washington Vanderbilt. The Estate at its height included 125000 acres. Now it includes 8000. Much of the previous land is now a part of Pisgah National Forest. It still includes the house the stables Deerpark Lionel Crest a winery Riverbend Farm garden http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Carolina/Asheville/blog-387504.html While in Williamsburg I took a day trip to Jamestown. Jamestown is the first permanent English settlement in the United States. While there you have two options to check things out. The first is Historic Jamestown. This is run by the National Park Service and they charge you a maintenance fee to enter. The excavations of the original fort are going on there and they have exhibits and other thing http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Jamestown/blog-370011.html So I arrived in Williamsburg and checked into my timeshare. I am staying at the Wyndham Kingsgate. My unit has two bedrooms two bathrooms a pullout couch a dining room and a kitchen as well as a washer and dryer. I love it. The facility has both an outdoor and indoor heated pool an outdoor hot tub a fitness center a restaurant and an arcade with unlimited play. It's near a KMart as well http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Williamsburg/blog-370009.html Okay so my second day in Gothenburg was interesting. The snowstorm wasn't as bad but it was still windy and cold. We left the apartment and took the tram to the Central Station. From there we walked around to find that the Chinese place we were going to have dinner at was no longer there. So we saw a few things like the Domkyrkan Mariakyrkan and some statues. I got to see the famous Avenue and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Vastra-Gotaland/Gothenburg/blog-258964.html I arrived yesterday in Gothenburg. Angela described it to me as a really large Gamla Stan old city in Stockholm and I think she's right. This means I have so far decided I like Gothenburg. There are trams and busses which reminds me of Brussels. Robin's Dad's apartment has a great view and I can see the bridge that crosses the ocean. Anyway the only hitch in the visit is that there is a snowst http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Vastra-Gotaland/Gothenburg/blog-258269.html So I decided to write an entry that pretty much describes a typical day in my life and maybe explains a few things about life here.530 AM I wake up. I get dressed in long underwear jeans a hoodie a jacket a scarf a hat and boots or tennis shoes.615 AM I catch the bus out in front of my apartment building to Vasterhaninge Station. It's a bus and train station. Anyway it's a 9 minute ride f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Stockholm-County/Stockholm/blog-248551.html Yesterday was my birthday. I slept in then I got up and took the bus to the terminal. Then I took the commuter train to the city where I took the subway to Gamla Stan. Gamla Stan is the old part of Stockholm. I walked around and bought a notebook and some postcards. Then I had some hot chocolate and a sandwich before meeting Mia and Elin at the subway. We went to the movies and saw Gone Baby Gon http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Stockholm-County/Stockholm/blog-245513.html Well it's been some time since I have written in this blog so I supposed today was a good day to start. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my life you might not know how reassured I feel that I can once again click Sweden in the location box. Anyhow I am south of Stockholm in a suburb and so far it has been interesting. There are still some patches of woods here which is nice. It hasn't http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Stockholm-County/Stockholm/blog-243857.html Well my first visit to the United Kingdom was both good and bad but isn't everything We left Brussels on the Eurostar hispeed train which was lovely. We shared a table that had 4 seats around it. Since we only needed three we had one empty to leave stuff in. To our delight besides having friendly staff the train also fed us breakfast. It was good too. I had hot chocolate an omelette yogurt http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Pimlico/blog-222667.html Well I left on Friday the 9th from Brussels Airport to Stockholm. We managed a cheap flight with Sterling an outfit from Denmark. It was good for such a short flight. Anyway we arrived without any problems exchanged our money and then wandered through everything until we found Johan and Robin. Monica spotted them first much to my embarassment. We walked through the airport thinking to eat t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Stockholm-County/Stockholm/blog-220231.html Well last Sunday we went to the spa in Valkenburg. Melanie and Evelyn took us. We went in and changed. I wore my bathing suit. Anyway we went into the aromatherapy pool which does lavender scented water. Then we went in the warm jet pool. Then I went around the lazy river. Monica Melanie and Evelyn went into the nude part of the spa. They did a honey treatment with ice and salt. I wanted to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/blog-215965.html So we went out on Friday night and I discovered a few things. We went to Nua's which is next to O'Reilly's. For those of you who have never been to Brussels you need to know about the nightlife. All the nightspots downtown are small. They're really bars with dance floors. People are packed in there like sardines. Think firetrap. Anyway they smoke inside and they smell like alcohol. You have to p http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-215045.html Yesterday we took a daytrip to Amsterdam since Monica wanted to go. I didn't really care but I didn't want her to go alone so I agreed to it. We took the train from Midi and got there in about 3 hours. Then we got out and booked a canal cruise. We ate lunch which was good. I had a club sandwich and hot cocoa. Then we headed onto the cruise. The boat was long and had a glass roof. It was nice http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-213089.html We went to Brugge yesterday. It's an historical city in northern Belgium not far from the North Sea. We saw a neat square with a huge fountain. Then we walked down one of the main streets. We were in the shopping district. They had great clothes toys home items Brugge lace and plenty of other things like tapestry bags. We saw the typical souvenir shops with mugs and the like too. The best par http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-211223.html Allright so we drove from Brussels to Ghent. Once we arrived we visited the tourist center and then went into St. Bavo's Cathedral. We saw the famous Lamb of God painting by the Van Eycke brothers. We went down into the Crypt. They had old Bishop's robes down there. It was odd seeing so many people buried in the church. It was beautiful though. I enjoyed walking through. They had neat statues and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/East-Flanders/Gent/blog-211231.html So we took the train from Brussels to Frankfurt then from there to Linz. We arrived in Linz on Saturday morning and Lukas was there to greet us. We then took another train to Molln his hometown. His mother picked us up. We rested and had showers and such. Ham and cheese was for breakfast with bread. Then we walked to the river and played cards. We had Tirolerkndel for lunch and it was good. Th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Upper-Austria/Linz/blog-209043.html On Saturday we went downtown using the bus system. It was the annual Nuit Blanche. We got off at De Brouckere and walked around through the alleys malls and other places. It was alot of fun and we ate at a chinese restaurant for dinner. The ice cream and spring rolls were very good. We saw the display at the plaza where they had people dancing on a stage. They also had the Dexia Tower all lit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-207415.html We stopped in Memphis and stayed at the Holiday Inn. The next day we went to Graceland the home of the King of Rock N Roll Elvis Aaron Presley. I asked Johan if there was one thing he really wanted to do while on this trip and he said see Graceland. It was in that moment that I loved him anew. If you know me you know I love Elvis. Seriously people...So we arrived there and went to the gift shop http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Tennessee/Memphis/blog-202554.html Well there were good parts and bad parts. We found a cheap hotel but you get what you pay for. I finally got the wireless to work by magic. There was a pool and a hot tub and a laundry. The inside room wasn't the greatest but there was HBO. Either way we ended up staying an extra day. Here's the story about my Bad Week.We got in and took the car in since it was acting tired. We got a rental car http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/San-Fernando/blog-202551.html I made the decision to visit Manzanar War Relocation Center while we were out here. We took the scenic route from Las Vegas and crossed through Death Valley. Keep in mind folks to take careful precautions to ensure your car doesn't overheat if you take this route. It's beautiful though in a scary sort of way even though it's hot.So we finally got there and saw that there's only one building left http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Lone-Pine/blog-202549.html