Strasbourg Whirlwind

It sounded too boring to just take the train straight back to Brussels after Nurembourg, so to make things interesting we took a train to Strasbourg Saturday afternoon and an evening train Sunday to reset our schedule and location back in Brussels for Monday morning.  Strasbourg is just across the Rhine river from Germany but the region has a history tied to both countries.  The street signs were in German and French, our menu for the wonderful French dinner Saturday night was in French, German, and English.  Sunday morning we packed up and left the bags at the hotel to go exploring.  There was a tasty brunch in Kebler square where we tried Flammeküche (see picture of one with cheese and bacon), an Alsace regional dish that was closer to a cheese crisp than I could find in California Mexican restaurants.  The nice picture of one of the canals doesn't do the weather justice though, there were all gray clouds above and behind us with it raining on and off all day.  Today is actually much like that but I'm in Leuven, Belgium; apparently somebody told the clouds which train we were on. 

 

Strasbourg was wonderful.  It was a short trip, but then it's a small town and I'd much rather claim to have seen a small town in 24 hours than to have seen a country in a weekend.  We'd heard nice things about the city and it lived up to its reputation.  The train ride back from Strasbourg was nice; although it was 5 hours we didn't have to deal with any transfers and we had reserved seats.  The path took us through three countries (France, Luxembourg, and Belgium) and got to watch a lot of scenic farmland and small towns going by us (but without experience the intermittent rain firsthand).  There was a delay in Luxembourg so I ran into the station and grabbed some grub and now can say I ate dinner in Luxembourg.  So Leuven is part of Flanders region, and I'm told it's better to just speak English than to speak French, even though that is most typically used in Brussels (and Leuven is only 18mi away).  There's a long-running controversy and a lot of pride at stake between the regions in Belgium and it seems even Leuven University had a split over the Language thing, it had been bilingual (Dutch/French) but that didn't work once people had few enough other problems and needed something else to worry about.  There is a Stella Artois brewery here, although Stella is from 1926, the brewery started running in 1366!  I think I might go chill with Stella tonight...

Nürnberg

I love the smell of free wifi in the morning! It's raining here today (which makes the hotel's delivery of a forecast of 81 degrees & sunny seem all the more ridiculous), so I'm presently chillin' in Black Bean: The Coffee Company in the Old Town. I took a walking tour yesterday--the weather was perfect for it. I think that makes today a museum day.
Most of the important historical sites have been restored since the war, but I think the most unique thing is that the city never tore down its Medieval defense wall. Most old cities have one site of remaining wall and a map of where it used to run.

Last Day in Munster

Tonite I'm on to Nuremberg. Geez, I think I'm starting to use British English or something. So today was more of a chill internet/planning day. I've got tickets booked now for Romania and also back to Arizona. I'm also seeing if I can work in a bike trip thru Switzerland before or after Romania. And of course proximity warrants a trip to Oktoberfest before returning stateside.

Nuremberg for two days then maybe a stop on our way back to Brussels. I'm afraid to add up all that I've spent on trains recently, but considering that the purchases were all last minute it's still worth it. Oh, and for the record the German train ticket machines will take US credit cards (my theory is that that is why the lines to get tickets in Germany are so much shorter than in France).

I finished reading the 'Prince of Tides' yesterday. Not that its nonfiction, but anybody that thinks their family is messed up could probably be comforted by reading that book. I don't know that I would have picked the book at a store, but it came preloaded with the ereader App on my palm TX. It really makes you think, and reaffirms my belief that if we could just provide sufficient therapy and/or a safe place to reside, perhaps we could stop the cycles of abuse and violent crime.

But on to a lighter subject: ROAD TRIP! 4 hrs by Audi to Nuremberg. Autobahn here we come!!!

The Cost of Internet and some catching up...

Since the last blog, well, except for the Heidelberg announcement, I've been around a bit.  I had an awesome time in Paris with friends, then helped some other friends moving apartments and spent about a week exploring Brussels.  I took a day trip to Brugge, and was a little disappointed.  I had heard so many recommendations about going there that it was perhaps overhyped.  I would have to say that everybody that puts that much emphasis on visiting Brugge, didn't have the right person showing them around Brussels (or Bruxelles).  Brugges is a quaint little town, and has its charm, but you could compete with it by spending an extra day in Brussels other than the canal experience (in which case Amsterdam or Venice have much more to offer on that front).  I have truly had a first-class experience in Brussels.  The city has history (its been stuck between the major European superpowers and yet somehow came out independent), it has unique architecture, it has modern buildings, it has a very diverse population, it has a great variety of food, and one might say it has an obsession with Beer.  After a week in Brussels I feel like I need to go back and study the different types of beer so that I might gain an even better appreciation.  I was introduced to a few friends of friends, who consequently showed me even more places around Brussels, and I talked to even more people living there who weren't originally from there but had ended up settling there for quite some time.

 

And it's location for additional travel...I'm now taking advantage of that.  I visited Cologne for the weekend, and wish I had known more about it beforehand (another personal assignment to visit wikipedia and such).  It was actually quite a nice city and one of the key cities in Europe during the middle ages (and less than 2hrs by train from Brussels!).  This was my first venture into Germany, thus ticking another country off my list.  I also got to visit Munster, which I yet again didn't do enough research beforehand and had earned the most livable city award for the world in 2006 (amongst cities with populations 200K-750K I think).  It's got equal bike vs. car trip percentages and an average of 2 bikes per capita, hence considered the biking capital of Germany.  Unfortunately it was pouring rain for 2 straight days so I may have to try biking there next week to really get a feel for the city.  I biked around Heidelberg today, and it's got quite a nice set of bike paths around the river that you could see a lot of residents enjoy.  I may have to try renting a mountain bike tomorrow if I've got enough time by myself to go explore the countryside.  

Willkommen to Heidelberg!

Many things to catch up on. Maybe tomorrow. Guten tag!