Florence Day 21

Florence day 21:

Since our train ride from Venice to Florence would only be two hours, we took that as an opportunity to sleep in (a little). We boarded the 11:27 train to Florence and got in around 1:30. The hostel we would be in for the next two nights was called Hostel Archi Rossi. Again, it was very close to the main train station and had so many good amenities – an awesome free breakfast, two different free walking tours each day, cheap wine and beer, and a really cool garden. The location to the rest of the city was great as well. If you (students) are planning on travelling to Florence at any point in the future, there is no reason to stay anywhere else (it was also like 25 euros a night).

After settling in to our room we headed to our first Florentine meal. We went to a place called Cafe ZaZa, a restaurant that was recommended to me and was close to our hostel. It was cheap and delicious – I had some sort of rabbit meat loaf thing. The house wine was very good as well and was around 9 dollars for a liter.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the rest of the city. Florence is definitely a lot different from Venice – to me, it seemed a little less touristy, the food was a little better (more unique), everything was cheaper and there were more things to do. It may also be that this was my first time to Florence and my second time to Venice.

Since we had a late lunch we skipped dinner and instead went to a wine bar right on the edge of the river that runs through Florence. It was called Cafe Noir and had good wine. Honestly, I don’t seem to have much of a pallet for wine as they all pretty much taste the same to me (which is a good thing as it has all been delicious). The cool thing about the bar was that it served aperitivo – basically an antipasto buffet that you can eat as much as you want from if you get one glass of wine. It was a good supplement for dinner.

We walked around a bit more (on the other side of the river) and ended the night with more Gelato. A good first day in Tuscany.

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Venice Day 20

Venice day 20:

For our only full day in Venice we did not have many things in mind to do before we arrived. We wanted to just walk around the city. We tried to eat as much food, drink as much coffee and wine as possible while the girls shopped. We did manage to make it to the most famous parts of Venice: the Rialto Bridge, Plazza di San Marco, and the island of Lido. But still, the highlights of the day were just exploring the city.

We probably stopped at three or or four different cafes – we usually sampled their esspresso, pizza, caprese salad, and of course the house wine. I don’t think we have been disapointed by any of the food or drink we have tried our entire time in italy. We also had our fair share of Gelato – it is tough to avoid.

After dinner was the U.S versus Ghana game. We found an Irish pub where a good group of Americans had collected. We watched the game and enjoyed some more wine. It was an awesome atmosphere and we still had a lot of fun even though we lost.

Again, pictures to come later.

Venice Day 19

Venice day 19:

We left Interlaken at around 7:30 am to take our second long train ride of the trip. It was still relatively easy – it took about six hours and 40 minutes to reach Venice, including an hour stop over in Milan.

Our accommodations in Venice were more along the lines of a hotel – we had our own rooms, bathrooms and even got towels! It was a nice change of pace. Our hotel (called Casa Gerotto Calderan) was a five minute walk from the main train station and located right near a central water bus stop. The water bus system is essentially a subway system that travels through the canals and made it easy to get everywhere we wanted to go.

The first trip we made after getting settled in was to the island of Murano. This is the island where all the city’s famous glass blowing takes place (it was moved here in the 1800’s because of the damage a potential fire would cause to the city). The island was a 15 minute ride on the water bus from our hotel. The first thing you notice when you arrive at the island is the amount of glass blowing factories – they line every canal. As soon as you get off the ferry there are people hawking free visits to the glass blowing factories so we followed one that was a few minutes down the road. The demonstration was five to ten minutes as we watched a glass blowing “master” construct a glass vase and a glass horse. It was pretty cool to see. After he is finished they usher you into the store where they hope you buy something.

We left the store and went to explore the rest of the island. It was cool to just walk around the canals and hop in and out of the stores lining the streets. We also visited a famous church on the opposite end of the island that had a very impressive mosaic floor.

After grabbing our first italian pizza of the trip (and thus far the best of the trip) we headed to another island called Burano. Burano was a little farther, about 35 minutes from Murano, and a little smaller. The unique thing about Burano is the color of its buildings – they are all very bright and can be seen from pretty far away on the water. The island is definitely worth the trip if you are in Venice. We had dinner on the island (Shaffer and I split squid ink linguine and another seafood pasta) and then took the 45 minute ferry back to our hotel.

pictures will have to come in a few days – I have not found a computer that will let me upload pictures from it. Sorry!

Switzerland Day 18

Switzerland day 18:

Left Gimmelwald at 10am to travel to Interlaken. We had to spend the night in Interlaken because we needed to leave early the next morning for Venice. Interlaken is known as the extreme sports capital of Europe. You can do all sorts of crazy things there – we decided to do one of the more tame activities. We did something called Canyoning, which basically involved going down a river in the mountains in a wetsuit. At different points we swam through rapids, rappeled down cliffs, and rode down ziplines among other things we needed to do. Again, we had amazing weather and the cold mountain water felt great. It took about three hours and was a lot of fun.

After canyoning we had dinner at a great thai restaurant reccomended by our guides. Very delicious. All in all a great way to end our stay in the Swiss Alps.

Here are some pictures (taken by the photographer with us):

all of us in the river

our whole group and guides

(we have a lot more pictures but they are tough to get onto the blog – I will post them when we get back)

Switzerland day 17 – pictures

I will give a more complete description on how we spent our 2nd day in Switzerland in a later post, but I think the pictures stand up well enough on there own. Basically, we had picture perfect weather, hiked for five hours, ate fondue and watched the US soccer game at a german bar, then passed out back at the hostel.

Enjoy the pictures

literally the view out of our hostel window

Kristin and Nicole enjoying morning coffee before the hike

I told you there were cows everywhere

stopped for a beer

top of the mountain

view from Murren

part of the route of our hike

fondue, beer and soccer

Switzerland Day 16

Switzerland day 16:

We woke up early to catch the 6:40 train to Switzerland. This was our longest train ride yet – probably about 8 hours worth of traveling before we arrived at our final destination.

It took about seven hours to get to Interlaken, Switzerland which is affectionately known as the tourism capital of Switzerland. However, there are many surrounding towns in the valley and in the mountains (we were in the heart of the Swiss Alps) that have virtually no sign of tourism. We left Interlaken en route to Gimmelwald – a small mountain village of 120 full time residents that is only accessible by cable car.

The weather in Gimmelwald (as you would expect) can be pretty volatile. We ran into a couple who was leaving that had been there for a few days and said it hadn’t been warmer than 40 degrees and that in rained the entire time. Luckily for us, the weather was turning and the sun was starting to peak out. It was warm enough for shorts and a sweatshirt.

The hostel we would be staying at for the next two nights is called Mountain Hostel – the name is no exaggeration. It sits right on the cliffside in Gimmelwald overlooking some amazing scenery. Once we arrived at the hostel (it was a pretty decent hike, we chose to walk down from Murren which took about 30 minutes with all our luggage) we spent the rest of the evening enjoying the fresh mountain air and the company of the other guests at the hostel. We explored the rest of the town, bought some groceries and cooked dinner in the hostel’s kitchen. It could not have been a more relaxing night.

Here are some pictures from our first night in Gimmelwald:

the view down from our cable car

standing in one of the many creek/waterfalls running down the mountain - the water was delicous

there were cows on every hillside

it was still a bit cloudy so the scenary pictures didn’t come out great. However, we lucked out our next day in Gimmelwald…

Munich Day 15

Munich day 15:

After a fun night at the beer hall, we woke up early to see the rest of the city. Our hostel offered a free walking tour of the city so we decided we would take part. If you ever stay somewhere that offers a similar service I highly recommend you take advantage. Its not a “free” tour but it is different because you pay at the end of the tour and are free to give the guide what you think he deserved. Our guide was amazing and definitely earned every penny.

We walked straight from our hostel to the center of the city (made a quick stop at the famous church The Frauenkirche) where the famous Glockenspiel is located. The building is called Neues Rathaus and is the city’s town hall. We got there just in time to see the 12pm show, watched it for 10 minutes and then went on our way. Our guide (Ozzie) kept us moving the entire time – we were able to see most of the important sights in around three hours.

Some of the other sights and stops on our tour were the market for beer and bratwurst, Hofbrahaus to learn about its history as the beginning of the Nazi movement, and the location of the Beer Hall Putsch (read about it here to learn more – it seems like it is overlooked in American schools). We learned a lot about the Nazi movement and how Munich has tried to wipe that era from its history. Our guide did a great job informing everyone about the rise of the Nazi party and showing us where famous Nazi events took place. In fact, a lot of the sights that we saw pictures of only a week before at the Holocaust museum in Israel we got to visit first hand.

One other fact about Munich that most people don’t realize is that the entire city was almost completely leveled by the end of World War II – only a few buildings that were built before 1945 remain today. But, because the Nazis took kept such detailed records (they photographed every building), the city was able to rebuild itself to look exactly like it did before World War II. So if you are ever in Munich and see all the “old” buildings and architecture, remember the building you are looking at is probably less than 65 years old.

After our tour finished we spent the rest of the day shopping and sampling the rest of Munich’s breweries. Munich has six famous breweries that have all been brewing beer for centuries – you can read about them here.

We ate dinner at one of the only beer halls that serves Wheat beer in Munich (here). They also have very traditional Bavarian food – it was quite tasty.

Here are some pictures from the day:

the Glockenspiel

yes, Nicole ate her whole bratwurst

where the Beer Hall Putsch happened

my favorite beer in Munich

all of us at the market