Road Trip!

Between this trip and the last time I backpacked around Europe I have put on my fair share of European miles whether by plane, train or even a bus or two. The train system western Europe is unreal and the low cost airline flights are ridiculously cheap so I don’t have many complaints. However, I have always felt that you sacrifice a little bit of freedom with these types of transport as you are locked into a schedule and it is not always possible to get to smaller locations off the beaten path. For example in Europe there is just so much interesting history that is outside of the regular tourist cities.  I have frequently wished to rent a car and just go where ever I please.  With Cory and Dad coming over to visit I sensed an opportunity as both are the kind of people who are happy to take a car and see where they end up. 

We set out an ambitious plan, Ok, more accurately, I set an ambitious plan. Both Dad and Cory were happy just do "whatever". I had originally planned the trip for just Dad and I as it didn’t look like Cory was going to get the time off of work. The trip therefore was tailored to our interests with lots of historical stuff mostly focused on WW1 and WW11 .  This resulted in a trip that Cory would later coin the "war and death tour" after being dragged to just a few war museums and on one too many historical walking tours. But he got to drink a lot of good beer and enjoy some good food so he wasn't really that hard done by.

The route:

France

- Paris

-Vimy ridge

Variety of picture qualities due to a variety of car speeds
For some reason people on the autobahn were not keen to slow down
to help facilitate my collection. ;)

Belgium

- Ypres

- Bruges

Netherlands

- Amsterdam

Germany

- Berlin

Poland

- Warsaw

Czech

- Prague

Luxembourg

-          Mondorf les bains

Day 1 & 2:

Throughout the road trip we became masters of trying to get the most out of a city in only a day and a half.It was not really enough time to do an exhaustive exploration of a city but certainly enough to hit some of the highlights and get a feel for a place. I like to look at it as a taster of the city to see if it is one you wanted to come back and really spend some quality time in.   We also were able to pack lots into a day because we are not really the kind of people who will spend an entire day in a museum or art gallery.  Of course having said that, that is exactly what we did in Paris. Cory and Dad had impressively gotten up early the day after arriving, (no small feat in the face of jet lag) but less impressively they brought the rain from Vancouver so when we arrived at the Eiffel tower we found it covered in clouds and fog. 

So like every other tourist in the entire city we decided to spend the day indoors at the Louvre. And hardly surprisingly there was a massive line for the entrance.

Luckily I had previously done some research and stumbled across a blog that showed how to find some lesser known entrances apart from the main Pyramid one. I was a little skeptical with their promises to avoid the lines, but I convinced Cory and Dad that we should search for the secret entries I had read about. Amidst Cory's jokes about secret passages and the Illuminati we walked not even 400 metres away from the hundreds of people freezing their asses off in line and found one of the lesser known entrances to the Louvre. We walked in to find a lineup of all of 2 people and waltzed through the empty security checkpoint to find ourselves in the Louvre. wait time - less than 5 minutes. So if you are going to Paris do yourself a favor and read through these instructions on how to find the lesser known entrances. It is really a rewarding feeling to stand inside and laugh at the hundreds of people all waiting to go through the famous pyramid entrance.

But the 2015 war and death tour truly started off when we headed to the Catacombs in Paris followed by the famous cemetery Pere Lachaise. We arrived near the catacombs and surprise, surprise we found an insanely massive line. The line started at the entrance curved all the way around the block back to the entrance where it looped around and doubled back almost all the way back a second time around the block. Oh and it was not moving, at all. We stood in the line for about 30 minutes and moved all of about 30 feet and I had a sinking feeling that there was no way we could wait it out.  Sometimes researching pays off but other times you simply get lucky.  And this was a case of sheer dumb luck. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time, be a group of three people and be able to understand French. A French speaking family approached us and offered us 3 tickets to skip the line. Thinking it was a scam I quickly said no but as I watched their reaction and watched them walk away I just had a feeling that this might be legit. So I went after them an inquired why they were selling the tickets. It turns out the family had reserved 6 tickets online only to find out that 3 of their kids were actually free. The only catch was we had to return a couple hours later between a certain time period to use them. After getting the scoop, and going with the women to check the validity of the tickets at the cashier, we agreed to buy them. So we wandered around Paris, saw the Eiffel tower, went in Notre Dame Cathedral, had lunch, walked the Champs d' Elysses, saw the Arc de Triumph all before returning almost 4 hours later and heading straight past the line in to the catacombs. We even ended up entering the tombs at approximately the same time as the people we had been in line with. Poor suckers had waited in the cold for 4 hours, certainly made us appreciate how lucky we had been.  

not designed for tall people

~It is sometimes more advantageous to die than to live~

 

Thecatacombs had over  6 million skeletons made into walls and other cool arrangements and was a very interesting attraction. Would we have appreciated it as much after 3 or 4 hours in line, I’m not so sure.  

After ascending a couple hundred stairs out of the ossuary
I guess they don't want to add anyone to the collection

Day 3

After two days in Paris we picked up our rental car and managed to navigate ourselves out of the city and off for our adventure.

 We headed up to northern France and our first stop was Vimy Ridge and the Canadian memorial to the fallen soldiers of WW1. 

This monument was built on the battlefields of perhaps the most defining battle in Canadian history. It was the first time Canadian troops fought together as a Canadian unit rather than as a part of the British army and they successfully captured this hill overlooking some strategic cities. I had seen pictures of the monument but it was a sight to behold in person. We lucked out and had a sunny day to take it in with. I think it was our last sunny day of the trip come to think of it. The sky in every other picture after this is a consistent grey I believe. 

Over 11 thousand names are inscribed on the monument

 But what was really striking about Vimy and the surrounding battlefields were the craters still visible 100 years after the war. They had fields stretching for kilometers with large holes where chunks of land sometimes the size of small lakes had been blown away by shells and grenades.  Lush green grass covers the land but the devestation that occurred there is still very visible.

  

We crossed over into Belgium and made our way to what we thought would be a small sleepy town of Ypres. It actually turned out to be quite a happening place with a Christmas market full of pubs, an outdoor skating rink and a cool downtown area. 

They also had a super cool tradition where every night veterans, people from the town and tourists alike gather at the Menin Gate for a brief 10 minute ceremony complete with police stopping traffic, bag pipers, laying of a wreath and buglers playing the last post. Every night of the year. Pretty incredible really.

Day 4

We explored the Belgium country side as we made our way to a small First World War museum. The museum had examples of trenches and tunnels from the First World War and a massive collection of artefacts. 

 They also had these machines which took old black and white images of the war and made them 3d. it was quite impressive and really gave you the feeling you were standing in a trench and looking out or crawling through the mud.

As we were driving away we saw a white field in the distance.  Snow? Nope not cold enough.  We drove a little closer and the white began to separate into barely distinguishable rows upon rows of graves. War cemeteries are not uncommon in northern France / Belgium. There are literally hundreds. We had passed several so far on our drive nearly every 5 kilometers or so. 
 
 However the size and scope of this one was absolutely unbelievable. It took almost 10 minutes to walk from top to bottom and as we did so we began to realize that many of the graves were actually for more than one soldier. Sometimes up to 6 unknown soldiers sharing one tomb. All in all there were over 7000 graves in this one cemetery.

 We continued on for the last war themed stop (well last for a few days) and went to the medical support station where John Mcrae is believed to have written his famous poem  In Flanders Fields. 

The friendly cemetary cat

This particular medical station was built hastily during one of the most horrific battles of the war when the Germans unleashed poisonous gas on British and Canadian troops.  They have restored the medical barracks and they still stand as they stood over 100 years ago. This was a doubly cool as Dad’s grandfather was a medic in World War 1 and we have read through some of his diary which describes working in places like this one.   As Dad put it - one extra bullet and none of us would have even existed to come back and visit this place

 

We continued on and pulled into Bruge for the night. A city that had absolutely no war or death ties, just good beer and chocolate. Unfortunately we pulled in on a Monday which was bizarrely the day where nothing was open and we found a very sleepy town. 

We wondered around for a while, got thoroughly lost and then stumbled upon a neighborhood pub far from the regular tourist routes. We were a little skeptical when the waitress started us off with an unasked for shot glass full of carrot juice followed by a cauliflower puree. But both were excellent and we were treated to one of the best meals of the trip. Everything was hand grilled by the chef over a fire pit in the main area where we were eating. In between grillings he took the time to tell us what he thought about Dad’s beer taste ( he wasn’t a fan) and  he also mocked the next table’s choice of a well done steak. He was quite a character.

Day 5 & 6

We headed out from Bruge and made our way up to Amsterdam. We stopped on the way in little town called Kinderjik which has been put on the map by its collection of antique windmill. There are 19 windmills on a beautiful walking trail. The trail is many kilometers long and it was bloody cold that day so we only saw about half of them before wussing out and returning to the car.

When there is no space on the rail
use the inside lol

We then continued on to the city of Amsterdam where dad probably had his most stressful driving experience. The city is really not designed for car traffic, as a car you are just in the way for the hundreds and thousands of people biking around everywhere. I have never seen so many bikes in my life. And it was cold and rainy so I can only imagine what it is like in the summer. Our walking tour guide astutely called them Cyclopaths. Very accurate as cyclists make no effort to avoid pedestrians – ESPECIALLY TOURIST PEDESTRIANS. They seem to take pleasure in teaching tourists the ways of the street by missing you with as narrow a margin as possible. Or better yet just clipping you enough so you feel it but neither you nor the biker are knocked off your course. You learn very quickly in Amsterdam to look both ways for cars, trams and BIKES. You also learn to jump out of the way when you hear a bell behind you because they are certainly not going to go around you if you don’t move.

The city of Amsterdam has a very cool, distinct vibe. Where other cities feel a little sleepy and empty in the off season, it felt alive and fun even in the middle of winter. It has both modern and traditional architecture all mixed in. 

We found "Nemo" (the name of their science world)

Maybe this has a little to do with Amsterdam being known as the city of tolerance. This reputation is earned for two different reasons. Firstly because Amsterdam has often been the forerunner in accepting things that take other countries a bit longer to get on the bandwagon ie. gay rights.  Secondly, and perhaps more popularly,  because Amsterdam tolerates things such as drugs and prostitution that other countries usually prohibit.  Activities that usually occur behind closed doors or in shady areas  are front and center in this city. It is quite something to walk down any given street and pass a “coffee” shop or two followed by a magic mushroom store, in between three BDSM stores and a condomery (yes that exists). Our tour guide explained that Amsterdam is willing to legalize or look the other way with on things that other countries make a big deal of as long as A) it brings in money B) isn’t too obvious and C)doesn’t do any harm.

Red light district with the church in the back

I have volunteered in the downtown east side of Vancouver for the last 4 or so years doing outreach programs that target drug addicted women and prostitutes. It was quite a study in contrast to stroll through the red light district and see these healthy, well off women in heated, lit up booths, talking on their cell phones and dancing in barely any clothing. Survival sex workers on the DTES, on the other hand, are usually  standing in the cold and rain, dressed in dirty clothes, working dangerous corners all to try and pay for their next hit.  At night the red light district is absolutely filled with women working windows and all around there are signs directing you to the nearest peep or live pornography show. All of which ironically forms a ring around an ancient Catholic Church and preschool. Whatever your opinion is on prostitution… criminalization, decriminalization, demand side prohibition or legalization, the Amsterdam red light district delivers some food for thought. The in-your- face commercialization of it is astounding. Vegas on steroids. It is truly bizarre to picture a parent walking their kid to preschool in the morning through a corridor of street level windows filled with naked women dancing at all hours of the day.

Day 7

Up until now we had managed to cover 3 countries with very little driving. One could drive straight from Paris through Beligum and in to Amsterdam with a total driving time of 4 hours. That driving time would barely get you into the Okanogan in Canada never mind through a couple countries.  However from this point on we were facing some much larger countries and some much longer driving times. Luckily we were heading out of Netherlands and into Germany, land of the speed limitless Autobahn. Unluckily our day of driving across Germany was fairly miserable weather so Dad didn’t really get to fully let loose. although some other drivers in fancy non-rental cars had no qualms about doing 200+km,  rain or no rain. 

Since we wanted to have more time in Prague we decided to stay away from any big cities in Germany and just do quick stops on the way. I picked a random hotel that seemed to be on our route. But after a long day of driving we ended up basically living out a few verses of Hotel California. We found the hotel after about 45 minutes of driving dark and windy streets into the middle of nowhere. Or more specifically Buckow, Germany. We arrived at the hotel and there was not another car in sight, just the owner of the hotel staring at us through the glass door. I entered to check us in only to find that she did not speak a word of English, or French. Just German. Shit. This was the first and only time this happened on the trip, it really is amazing the prevalence of English across Europe. But in this case, thanks to google translate we were able to get the necessities figured out. The hotel owner than left and we had the hotel to ourselves for the night, all four floors of it. Creepy.

Day 8- 10

These couple days saw us crossing the border into Poland and staying in Warsaw for 2 days followed by a day exploring Auschwitz.  Poland is a wonderful cheap country and a wonderfully interesting place historically. Aka I was pretty happy there even though it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. But between Warsaw and Auschwitz I can’t even begin to cover it in this blog post as it would A) be way too long and B) would bore all non history fans to tears C) wouldn’t do it justice. I plan to try and sum it up in a separate blog post to follow.

We did have some fun navigating in poland as our GPS decided to drive us into the middle of nowhere for 400 or so kilometres

Day 10 &11

We were not originally planning on doing Prague on this trip but since we were already in southern Poland and we had all heard nothing but rave reviews of the Czech republic we decided to check it out.  Even in wintery weather I can see why people love the city. The views are beautiful and the architecture of the city is incredible. I don’t pretend to be an architectural expert but our tour guide was and she certainly gave us an appreciation for it. 

 This was our 4th or 5th free walking tour of the trip. I can’t recommend them enough as there is a company that runs it in pretty much every main city in Europe. In case you were reading too quickly… FREE walking tours. The guides work for tips alone, meaning that you get to decide how much it was worth at the end. Also meaning the tour is always fantastic as the tour guides put a lot of effort into making sure you enjoy it, learn a lot and want to tip at the end. It is a great way to see a lot of the city in a short time (usually less than 3 hours) and to learn interesting facts about things that you usually would have just walked right by. It really makes you appreciate things more when you know the back story behind them and it makes the city and its sights a lot more memorable.

For example we definitely would have walked right past this - the narrowest street in Prague. They have a traffic light because pedestrians can only walk one way at a time. 

Or these the humerous garbage and recycling bins. 
Silver only/ Gold only

And she re-enacted the clock's performance so we didnt have to wait around and watch it. Although we did catch it later without trying. 

Also this wasn't technically a part of the tour, in fact he was on the tour with us. He was soooooooo tall. Dad felt the need to take a picture to mock me with. 

After our walking tour we were staring across a big river, up a long hill to the Prague Castle. We wanted to go up but on the tail end of our trip filled with walking tours and long treks, suffice to say we were all kind of lacking the motivation to hike it.  Instead I convinced Dad and Cory to rent segways to head up to the new Prague area and the Castle. Yes… my Dad got on a Segway… there is photo evidence. And he only crashed it once, which was par for the course with the rest of us.  It was a great way to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time but they are a little stressful at times as they kind of have a mind of their own. I can better understand how the inventor met his end. I certainly would not want to take those things near any sort of cliff.

Day 12

To make our return we once again had to traverse Germany, but this time we had better weather to let it rip and enjoy the autobahn a bit more. We were enjoying the drive, got about 10 or 15 km into Germany when a car came out of nowhere and cut us off. The back window then illuminated with the word – Polizei – that one was pretty easy to figure out, and then – Folgen- does that mean follow?  While I was busy trying to translate it, the car made it pretty clear what it wanted and we followed the unmarked cop car into a rest stop. Did we really just get pulled over on the autobahn? How is that even possible - there is no speed limit?  It turns out we had been pulled over for an ID verification. After looking at our passports they let us go on our way. After some googling we found out that this is quite a common thing for the German police to sit near the borders and pull people over as there are no official border inspections between EU countries.

We finished off the afternoon in Heidelberg, Germany, a lovely city right next to a mountain. We enjoyed a rare sunny afternoon, hiking a bit before descending to the town to eat some good snitzel and drink some good german beer.

lots of wood carvings on the trail

Day 13

We headed out from Germany, but right before we crossed over into France I convinced Dad and Cory that they should check out a Primark store. I had been unsuccessfully dragging Cory into stores all over Europe to find some new clothes. But thanks to his height and specific taste in clothing he is not an easy person to find clothing for.  We pulled into Saarsbrucken, Germany and tracked down the Primark. Even Cory and Dad (two thoroughly unenthusiastic shoppers) could not resist the prices in Primark. 

None of those are my bags.

With our trunk, and now backseat full we decided on the spur of the moment to add one more country to our list for the trip. Because really 7 just has a better ring to it than 6. We took a small detour through Luxembourg for the afternoon just because we could, and because now we can say we have been to the only Grand Duchy in the world (aka a country ruled by a Duke).  Luxembourg is really, truly a tiny place and can anyone name a city there other than Luxembourg city? But we crossed over into a small southern area of the country to find a town called Mondorf Les Bains, a city known on Wikitravel for its thermal spas and having the only Casino in the country. I guess when you can drive end to end in less than 2 hours why would you need more than one?

Day 14

This was our day to return to France and get close to the airport. We took some nice scenic routes as we made our way through small towns and gorgeously green fields to descend down from the border of Luxembourg and France back to the hustle and bustle of Paris.

Despite every travel website I have ever read saying not to use a car in Europe I am glad we did. Yes, it was expensive to rent an automatic and Yes, it was a pain finding and paying for parking in certain cities. But I think in the end it was worth it to have complete freedom and autonomy on the trip, we were able to do our trip, our way. We were able plot a course on the GPS and pull over and explore whenever we wanted. This enabled us to stumble across some cool small towns that looked absolutely shocked to have tourists wondering through their streets.  We got to spend quality time on the road and see some beautiful scenery and some interesting sights. So without further ado... road trip randoms

Beautiful sunsets...

Brrrrrr....

Belgian psychotherapist office : (   : I   : )   ; )

Art on the French motorway meant to make it more fun to drive

Massive Celery root piles on a random farm that for some
reason made Dad happy and needed to be photographed

Every highway we drove in Europe was packed with trucks

Interesting small little dutch town with a star shaped fortification

And when you have internet you can do useful things like write a good portion of this blog post during a 4 hour drive from Poland to Prague. Actually my phone and its data was a lifesaver on more than one occasion on this trip as some hotels had some spotty or non existent wifi. Plus we didn’t prebook anything for the trip other than the car which gave us lots of flexibility but meant I was usually scrambling to find a hotel as we drove towards the city. While Dad and especially Cory detoxed from not being able to google things at will, my phone thankfully worked in every country that we went to with the exception of Belgium. If anyone is going to spend some time in France I can’t recommend the Free Mobile Plan enough. I pay 20E (approx $30) a month with no contract, have unlimited texting/calling within France but also to other countries including Canada meaning I can call home when I want. It also has 20 GB of data per month and after you use it for 60 days you are entitled to 35 days of coverage and data in the rest of Europe (excluding certain countries – aka Belgium). When you compare it to your average Canadian plan it is an unreal deal. How on earth do we pay as much as we do in Canada for our plans?

My phone having lots of data is also a lifesaver right now as I am finishing up this post on a wifiless farm, somewhere in the middle of French Farmland, corralling horses and hiding from an evil goat. But that is a story for another blog. Perhaps when I am back in civilization.