http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/kgeiter/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from kgeiter en-us Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:25:04 +0000 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:25:04 +0000 When this trip was over and I landed in Detroit to catch my connecting flight to Washington DC I had never been happier to be in Michigan. My immediate rehash of the trip left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. So many things had gone wrong despite the best laid plans of mice and men. I was still missing my boots my cell phone all my pictures the postcards people wouldn't be getting my http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Michigan/Detroit/blog-378641.html Hangovers are a bitch but you have to push through them when on vacation. We got up early with the intent to catch the train into Amsterdam to play tourist. We got ready and I suggested we drive into the city and park instead of taking the train. We were going to be heading back to Germany at the end of the day and I didnrsquot think it made sense to head in and then waste 45 minutes getting http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-378640.html We arrived to the Hotel Ibis near Schipol Airport outside of Amsterdam around 10 pm. We had hoped to be there hours earlier but were going to play the hand we were dealt. We quickly changed and headed to the airport to catch a train into the city. I was wearing my new 100 boots that I had only worn a couple times and absolutely loved. I was pretty stoked for our night out. We got into the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-378639.html We were almost finished with our trip but it seemed like something was constantly going wrong. We ended up having a great time out our second night in Rome but the problems seemed to push to the front of our conversations. We needed to put Italy behind us and focus on our upcoming trip to Amsterdam. Even though I donrsquot smoke I had agreed to eat a brownie or something or other. When in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Hessen/Frankfurt/blog-378638.html So Megan had been in Europe for a few months and wanted nothing more on her birthday than some ldquogoodrdquo American food. So we took the easy way out and headed to the Hard Rock Caf to be followed by a bus tour of Rome at night. There we met an American who would alter our night drastically. He entertained us with stories of being in the American and Italian armies yeah we thought th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-378637.html We woke up at 7 am excited to spend the morning touring around Venice before heading to Rome. I failed to mention in the previous sentence that we woke up at 7 am to a torrential downpour outside our window. There went our tour of Venicemdashno San Marco Plaza no gondola ride just strait on to Rome to start our adventure there. We packed up our stuff and made our way to the train station http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-378636.html Theresa was arriving today. I had been in Germany for 3 days with Megan and we were excited for Trsquos arrival. The three of us had been friends since high school and wersquod had plenty of adventures together. With us it was a guarantee that something interesting would happen. You had Megan the levelheaded one Theresa the culturally nave one then therersquos me the one who tend http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Veneto/Venice/blog-378635.html I was uber excited for todayrsquos trip with Megan. We were leaving the base at 1 am to head to Neuschwanstein to see the worldrsquos most famous castle. We were also going to see another one of Mad King Ludwigrsquos palaces Linderhof Castle. All in all it was going to be a 20hour roundtrip on a bus full of Americans. We Americanrsquos really are a peculiar bunch. For the most part http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Neuschwanstein/blog-378633.html Bitburg Germany A foreigner walks into a bar. There are two patrons a bartender and a 3legged dog. No one speaks a word of English. The foreigner needs to make a phone call but doesnrsquot know if they need to dial anything to make an outside call. Foreigner opts to hand the number to the bartender point to the phone and say ldquoBitterdquo please. Bartender agrees to make cal http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Rhineland-Palatinate/Bitburg/blog-378631.html I can count on one thumb the number of times Irsquove been able to sleep on a plane. Sometimes itrsquos the right thumb sometimes itrsquos the left but either way I look at it itrsquos only one of them. Since my flight had me leaving Detroit at night and landing in Frankfurt in the morning I came up with the grand idea that I would go to bed at 6 pm the night before my flight and wa http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Michigan/Detroit/blog-378630.html After Saturday's British Open round see entry Steve Stricker for details I had the fun game of trying to find someplace to sleep for the night. I had hoped to be able to find someplace to crash in Carnoustie rather than heading back to Dundee but thanks the rain and the fact that the town hasn't heard of eaves or covered entry ways I was heading back to the church to sleep outside again. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Carnoustie/blog-346764.html Saturday's British Open round played great for me. A Wisconsin guy had tied the course record and was in the final pairing wmy favorite golfer Sergio Garcia. I couldn't believe that I might play witness to either's first major victory. Garcia's famed for being in it on the start of Sunday but out of it by the 15th...Stricker's good for getting his name near the top of the leaderboard but has http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Carnoustie/blog-346762.html So I had these grand plans that I was going to queue it up for Saturday's centre court Wimbledon tickets on Friday evening...Rewind I had booked a hostel for Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday nights in London but decided that to save money I would just keep my bag locked up at that hostel and camp out overnight in the queue for Saturday's matches. Well I wake up Friday morning to a lot of rain. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Wimbledon/blog-346749.html Claustrophobiamdashit was suddenly all I could think about. The walls of the buildings were enclosing me. My 5rsquo1 stature felt like it could reach up and touch the bottoms of the balconies without stretching. The makeshift fences littered with people were on top of me. I couldnrsquot make a move without bumping into a drunk. I took a deep breath to remind myself that I was only walk http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Navarre/Pamplona/blog-346742.html It was never about the football for us. It was never about the unprecedented 3 MVP's or the Super Bowl title. It didn't matter that he held all major passing records.You see Brett Favre gave the game of football to us. He came in wideeyed with a cannon for an arman old school gunslinger. His first completed pass came against Tampa Bay. Do you know who caught that pass He did. That w http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wisconsin/Green-Bay/blog-254124.html I'll be honest. There is no fun in celebrating your country's independce day if you're not in that country. I think that is why the 4th of July was nothing to write home about for me this year. I was in Barcelona. I had randomly met a girl from Wisconsin and her American cohorts on the 4th and went with them to a 4th of July party at the Hard Rock Cafe. Seriously without the BBQ fireworks http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Lyon/blog-201313.html So other than being frugal with my money the only thing keeping me from going to a movie theatre and watching the new Harry Potter movie that opened the day before was the fact that today was the day for me to watch a bunch of cyclists fly by in a middle leg of the Tour de France.It should be noted that when I initially started planning this trip it was a planned vacation to go to the British http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Bourg-en-Bresse/blog-201308.html So it turns out that there were benefits to sitting on a fence for 8 hours over 2 days in Pamplonathe random people you befriended. So yeah the second day of the running of the bulls found me sitting next to 2 girls who go to Purdue and were doing a program in Lyon over the summer and would be heading to BourgenBresse the same day as I to watch a leg of the Tour. After 4 hours of rail time http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Bourg-en-Bresse/blog-201300.html I spent Bastille Day in Lyon walking around and taking in as much of the city as possible. What really intrigued me was the basilica of NotreDame de Fourvire that sits atop a huge hill that mind you I had to walk up 400 some odd steps the night before to get to where I was crashing that most people take the Funicular to get to. I got up there late morning and started my visit in the Crypt. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Lyon/blog-185960.html The real fight of Pamplona isn't in the street with the bulls or in the arena with the matadors instead it's along the route amongst the spectators. I had been told ahead of time that if you wanted to get a spot along the route to see the 8 am Bull Run you should get there no later than 2 am. Well at about 4 am the morning of the first run I finally started my trek to find a spot to sit. Ab http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Navarre/Pamplona/blog-185870.html