Back Online, and Back in Switzerland

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well i guess its been a few days! so much for having a laptop making me update more often lol where did i leave off...

so it was way too hot in milano for me, got a sunburn, and sweated out a few bottles of water. so i got up early the next morning to catch a train further north. spent the afternoon on the train going through the swiss alps. beautiful!! it was interesting to see the houses/buildings change from italian to german style along the way. lots of alpine lakes too.
got in to Basel in the the afternoon. stored my big bag in a locker for the evening and got a nice map from the tourist info place at the train station and went straight to the zoo! I love zoos and i’d read that basels is one of the oldest and “best” in europe. it was only a sweaty ten minute walk from the train station, and man it was still too hot! can’t take 25 degrees in long pants and a bookbag. but the zoo was nice with lots of shaded benches, oh right and some animals too haha and ice cream!
booked a couchette (bunk bed) on the train to amsterdam from basel leaving at 11pm. bummed around basel for the rest of the evening, sat on the Rhine River bank for an hour or so to read and people watch while it finally cooled down a bit. they’ve got a beaitufl church up high on the riverbank with a great view out over the german side of town. oh right, basel straddles the german/swiss/french borders, real international flavor there, and the town was packed with folks out for a walk on a nice day. i love the people watching in europe! slow walk back through the old town to the train station just as it got dark to catch teh night train.

i hate however they do the reservations for night trains. i was in a car with about 10 rooms of 6 bunk beds. there were 4 or 5 rooms pretty much full (5 in my compartment) and then the rest were empty. i would have lsept much better without someone above and all around me the whole night. it was also hot and sticky, adn they all got off at different stops during the night. but by 5am my compartment was empty so i got a nice few hrs of sleep in before arrival in amsterdam around 10. based myself there for a few days since i know the city, and did day trips around.

went to brugge, belgium. beautiful medieval town, but just crawling with tourists! very pretty but not much on big sights, more atmosphere. would have liked to spend the night there to avoid all teh day trippers but thats it.

another day trip to Den Hague (The Hague). First took the train to zandvoort to the beach. it was about 8 degrees and breezy and i was in heaven. finally not too hot and not sweaty. sweater weather, is there any better? after a stroll on the beach, back to Haarlem and then on the train down past Leiden to see the flower fields. i read the numbers, can’t reember them now but millions and millions of tulips, daffodils, and other flowers. every color you can imagine in field after field. great views on that train ride! so anyways, went to the hague to see the netherlands parliament, and the UN presence there. it was later in the evening so most things were closed for teh day by the time i got there. so just walked around and soaked up the dutch ambiance.

one afternoon in amsterdam took my book to vondelpark, the amsterdam central park and sat on a few different benches, fed some aggressive crows and pigeons and ducks, watched a goose, gander and their 6 or 7 goslings cutsey up to all the tourists and get a little snack. what a great afternoon relaxing!

so i want to head down to geneva to meet up with curtis and emily before they fly home in a few days, so i left amsterdam to make a 2 day train-stopping trip down that way. first stop, aachen, germany (also known as aix-la-chapelle in french). stowed my bags in a locker for a few hours (open door, put in bags, put in money, close door, lock the door and take the key) and hit the streets. so aachen is where charlemagne set up his capital of the holy roman empire. their cathedral is huge, old, and smack in teh centre of the city. went inside and whoa hello beautiful! so ornate, every cloister filled with intricate art work, sculpture, alters, etc etc etc. just up the street is the city hall (both it and church 700+yrs old) on a square lined with medieval buildings. cafes spilling into the square and people everywhere.

back to the station, retrieved the bags, and on to the train to cologne (Koln with two dots over the o) for the night. got in around 6, and hotwire got me a 99 dollar deal on the hilton! SWANKY! beautiful room, only 2 mins walk from the train station, with a shower and a tub, a huge bathroom, two chairs, a huge bed, desk, minibar, tv, etc etc... too bad itw aso nly for one night, could get used to that! so after check in, caught a train down the rhine to Remagen of WWII fame, where the allies used the last bridge over the river to bring troops to storm Berlin to end the war in europe. not much to see in town besides the bridge abutments, but a cute little town right on the river, castles up in the hillsides, and a nice little pedestrian area with lots of shops and cafes. cute. but done in a half hour, so back on the train to cologne.

get off across the river from downtown cologne to go to the rhinepark. great views back towards the cologner dom (cathedral) adn the park stretches along the river. they have access ladders down off the walls that protect from floods so i took a walk on the riverbank. crazy to imagine romans walking the same area 2000 years ago, and trying to imagine what it all looked like back then. then to look up and see the worlds busiest railway bridge kinda took me back to the present.

anyways good sleep at the hilton, and up at 7 to start the trek to geneva. first to the train station, where, thanks to those efficient germans i can make reservations without buying a ticket (got my pass) on the machines and no line ups necessary! so i’m off to freiburg for a few hours, after 10 mins for changing trains in mannheim, with no troubles.

Frieburg is in southern germany in teh black forest region. hop off the train, stow the bags in a locker, and off to town. which is right outside the station. another beautiful medieval old town, with pedestrian streets lined with cute little shops. and PACKED! with people. of course the big attraction is the church, as it always is around here. old gothic church started in the 13th century. and of course, beautiful inside. and i had the luck of going in during a ‘concert’ which features organ music echoing through the place. sat in a pew for a while just soaking it all up.
back outside to a wonderful day (sunny, 10-15 degrees) for a walk through town. they’ve got little rivers running on almost every street. where the river flows into town, they damned it up. to prevent any fire that would break out from spreading, they divert a little of the river everywhich way and every street has its own little river running down. if anything caught on fire, they’d damn up the bottom and let the streets flood to prevent the fire from spreading. thought they were pretty smart! and no big fires after that so i guess it worked!
then i climbed up the hill behind town to the freiburg castle. didn’t see the actual castle, but did get great views of the city and surrounding countryside.

back to the station and on the train to geneva! whcih of course there are no direct trains so one train to Olten, then an easy switcheroo to another for geneva. make it to town no trouble, and phone up emily and curtis who are ready for my visit! so we head out for some supper, since its getting to like 7pm. however, we get to the restaurant and we're the first ones there. us newfs are such early supper eaters! the place started filling around 730 and was just getting going when we left at 830. quick walk down to the waterfront, and then its time to head to our own hotels. just got up this morning and there's free wireless while eating free breakfast. i'm in heaven! going back to meet curtis and emily soon, also gotta do some laundry, i don't have one clean piece of clothing left! blah.

no idea where i'm going next. Awesome! See you there!

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Comments

[Nan]

Whew!
Hi Jason: You sure write up a great blog -- feel like I'm there too -- was getting worried but guessed that it was an internet access problem but relieved t hear from you just the same. If you went MIA in Europe we wouldn't know where to start looking for you --RNC wouldn 't hack it (lol) Tou're having a wonderful time of it -- agree with you about the heat, if you're into sight-seeng its an exhausting drag. You're a pretty smart traveller, know where to get all the deals (Hilton sounds about my speed), Focus is on the election campaign here, whatever bit of excitement that stirs up (ugh). Keep in touch. Bye, Nan