Joe & Kim Pollard
We are finally going on our "long walk" through Europe...enjoy our blog!long walk
Travel Blog Posts
October 21st 2005
(Posted October 21st by Kim) This page has some highlights of the cultural differences both Joe and I noticed on our trip. Remember, we were in 4 different countries and even different parts of countries have different cultures, so we were faced with a lot of differences in a short amount of time, but that was half the fun! One of the first things is that we were relying on public transportation the whole time. We were on trains, subways, trams, buses, bicycles, and on foot. The Europeans definitely do a MUCH better job of providing a complete transportation system where you don’t have to have a car to get around. Munich probably has the best and most complete system of transportation with subways, trains, buses, trams, and bicycle paths. In general Italy’s system was less ... read more
September 30th 2005
It's official, 44 hours is a VERY long time..... that's how long it took for us to make it from our bed in Amsterdam, to the next bed, in Houston. We left the Robertson's apartment in Munich at about 12:45 AM, to make the 1:03 subway to the train station.... once we got to the station, we had to wait till 3 AM to catch the first train to the airport.... This is a very nice train station, and it is central to a very nice mass transit system (Munich's is apparently one of the best in Europe), but it's pretty freaky in the wee hours during Oktoberfest.... Anyway, we tried to blend in with our huge packs and made it safely to the airport at 4 AM. We checked in with Air France for our ... read more
September 28th 2005
Our last “day” of traveling was pretty interesting. We took a train from Amsterdam to Cologne to Bonn, and from there took a local commuter train to the area where the Birkenstock factory is located. We had to keep asking directions from locals to find the place as it was about a 30 minute walk from the train station and no signs really pointing the way except the one right by the factory. There’s an outlet store near the factory that Wilson had been to last time he traveled in that area, and he tempted us to go with promises of rows and rows of Birkenstocks like the scene from the Matrix with Birkenstocks instead of guns. While it wasn’t quite like the Matrix movie (apparently they’ve changed the store since he was there last) they ... read more
September 28th 2005
So, we've made it back to Munich! Now, it's time for the long trip back to Houston, then to Austin again. It's midnight 30 here, we catch the subway at 1 (last train to airport), where we'll wait for our 6:45 flight! UGGGGGG We're looking forward to getting home. Once we get there, and sleep for 22 hours straight, we'll upload some pictures, and write a bunch about the places we've been. So far we have 663 pictures (no exageration) from our camera, and another 180+ from Tanya and Wilson! Y'all come back now, hear?? We're on our way.... -Joe... read more
September 27th 2005
(posted Oct 13) When we lived in Germany, and I was around 4-7 years old or so, I went to Madurodam at least twice. My parents took me once and my grandparents took me once. I can see now why I enjoyed it so much. As a kid this place was awesome, but even now it's very impressive. Madurodam is an outdoor museum that exhibits scale models of many of the most famous/interesting places in the Netherlands. The models are amazing. There are several hundred highly detailed models, including a very impressive model of the airport, some working locks (used to transport watercraft from low- to high- water and vice-versa), and tons of other buildings. As a kid, one of my favorite parts was the moving vehicles: planes, trains, and automobies.... and boats.... Like the automobiles, ... read more
September 27th 2005
(Posted October 20th by Kim) Amsterdam is a very peaceful canal city- surprising with its “bad” reputation. My overall impression is that as long as you avoid the red light districts and coffee shops that it’s a pretty cool place. I found a Christian hostel in one our books that we stayed at to avoid some of the craziness we might have come across at other hostels. We spent the morning taking a canal cruise to get a good feel of the city from the water. The architecture is pretty amazing there, just ask Wilson! I think someone told me that Amsterdam actually has more canals than Venice, but I could be wrong about that. Amsterdam is newer than Venice and it shows in the feel of the city (new is 17th century, still much older ... read more
Wow, it's been a while
Published: September 27th 2005Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » AmsterdamSeptember 27th 2005
Okay, so it's been forever since we've blogged. There's two REALLY GOOD reasons: 1) We don't have time for you 2) It's taken till Amsterdam to find a cheap internet access point. I'll elaborate on 1).... We've been to Munich, Florence (Italy), Lucca, Cinque Terre, Rome, Venice, Zurich (Switzerland), Interlaken, and are now in Amsterdam (Netherlands).... Expect to get individual blogs on each of these but probably not till we get more time. We've got some AWESOME pictures, including about 70 from the Colliseum alone. Also we've been to La Spezia, Milan, Augsburg, Brienz, Basel, and a few other places.... Headed over to Madurodam (madurodam.nl) right now, and then to Cologne (don't remember the English spelling... Koln in German).... and Bonn. We've spent at least three nights in "night trains", which are cars with beds in ... read more
September 26th 2005
(Posted October 18 by Kim) We totally enjoyed sleeping in on our second day in Interlaken. We got up and decided to try and go sailing before taking the train back to Zurich that evening, but the sailing place was already booked up for the day. The weather was very cloudy and cold, so we decided para gliding wouldn’t be very fun either. We decided to just take the ferry boat to the end of one of the lakes instead and then either ride it back or we could take the train from there. It was a great way to just see the lake and the mountains! The water was so blue in the lake and the river in Interlaken that we joked about it being dyed blue, like the treated toilet bowl water. The water ... read more
September 25th 2005
(Posted on October 16 by Kim) After Venice we headed to Interlaken via a night train to Zurich. My friend Jesi had highly recommended Interlaken as a fun outdoor adventure place for both Joe and I. We had thought we would do something crazy like ice climbing, but by this time in the trip we were both exhausted, out of clean clothes, and tired of spending money. Our lodging was very reasonably priced in Interlaken, but the food was very expensive. When we finally decided on a lunch place in Interlaken, Joe decided he might as well go all out and ordered a steak. Plus, we’d been eating lots of pasta in Italy, and many of the pasta dishes had no meat or much smaller amounts than what we were used to. The steak was pretty ... read more
September 24th 2005
(Posted on October 11th by Kim) Venice is the city of my dreams- the answer to my friends in high school who asked “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?” I never imagined that I would actually go, though. This was Hartley, Texas, population 300 where several people in my graduating class had never even left the panhandle, much less the state of Texas. But on September 24th, I was there wandering through the floating streets and even enjoying on romantic ride on a gondola…just like in the pictures, with an even cuter guy next to me than I’d imagined! Visiting Venice really was a dream come true for me! Even though we only spent a day in Venice, it was well worth it. We arrived just after lunch. I was ... read more
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