MY 2000 ADVENTURE (continued)
June 12 – 10:15 am
We had a good dinner of schnitzel last night. Then I had a leisurely stroll partially up the hill behind the hostel with Shane. We came across a watch tower of sorts and from the top could see some of the valley. It was very green and peaceful there. The hostel and campground were nice with decent bathroom facilities. However, the dorm rooms were crowded and I had to share a room with six girls! I woke up at 6:30 am and the group took the boat tour from the town of St. Goar (established 7th century A.D.) to Boppard. There were a few castles dating from 1200 A.D. that dotted the river but I was amazed by the heavy traffic (barges) on the Rhine River. There were large hills alongside the picturesque towns and ubiquitous churches. From the boat I could hear the various church bells tolling. Our river tour guide pointed out one town that had a church that was attached to a pub. Even more incredulous was that the pub was only accessible through the church! I also noticed that the trains were electric powered. In sum southern German is an idyllic area with many campgrounds. A beautiful, sunny day today – on to Amsterdam!
June 12 – 1:05pm
I just had a McDonald’s lunch at Kalkenkirchen. I guess we’re close to the Netherlands border. We passed Dusseldorf and Arnhem (Bridge Too Far movie fame). Even though Germany is large vis-à-vis other European countries, travel is still fairly short compared to back home.
June 12 – 1:55pm
We’re now in the Netherlands/Holland and have departed the town of Venlo. I’m not sure how the Netherlands and Holland names are similar or different. The exchange rate is $1.00 Canadian to 1.50 Dutch Guilder. The German Mark was about 1.15 to $1.15 Canadian Dollar. I have only 61 Guilders to spend but I can use my credit card for big ticket purchases. The Netherlands has 15 million people and because of its small size is one of the most densely populated places on earth. It’s very flat and much of the county is below sea level. Hence there’s been much land reclamation.
June 12 – 2:40 pm
Another observation is that two popular small cars I’ve noticed are the Fiat Punto and a Smart. I just saw the new compact Volvo V40 station wagon. I also saw a Volvo 400 series hatchback – they are not manufactured and sold in North America.
June 13 – 11:00 am
Our group is just about to leave a clog and cheese making farm in the town of Katwoude. We’re now going to the town of Volemdam for everyone to dress up in traditional Dutch costume and pose for a group photo. I’m not in the mood for that and am short of money anyway. I bought a pair of miniature yellow wooden clogs with the three Xs. They symbolize fire, flood, and the plague that Holland has experienced throughout its tumultuous past. It’s a dull, grey day today like it was in Germany the day we left. It’s not that cold and as long as it doesn’t rain then I’m happy. After my tent flooding in Prague, I now hate being wet!
June 13 – 5:50 pm
I’m sitting in Dam Square in the heart of Amsterdam. My pen had just run out of ink so I ran to a Thomas Cook store where I got a free pen. Volemdam was a pleasant little fishing village and I walked around while the tour group did the group photo shoot. I suppose they think that I’m anti social. We stopped briefly at a large windmill where someone lived inside it! Apparently they are very rare now. I can’t believe the number of European Cup soccer paraphernalia here! There are banners hanging everywhere. I walked all around the heart of Amsterdam and down the twisting and narrow alleys. The Red Light District was interesting and obviously set up for the tourists. The rooms, with red lights and/or red walls, usually had a person (male or female) posing and in a thematic costume. I could smell the hint of marijuana in the air as I walked by a few of the cafes.
Had to make a decision to either visit the Van Gogh art gallery (world’s largest collection of Van Gogh’s works) or a sex museum. Of course I chose the former – he’s my favorite artist! But to make up for not seeing the latter I took the plunge and walked into a sex store. But there were many and they didn’t attract attention like the stores here do. So I casually entered and was amazed at the selection. Then I realized that I was running late so I quickly chose a magazine, paid for it, and ran to our group’s meeting place. I got turned around a few times as the city center is a maze of interlocking streets. So I’m now waiting for others so that we can head back to camp. Good bye Amsterdam!
June 14 – 1:00 pm
Our bus just passed a sign for Dunkirk. Sixty years ago almost to the day it witnessed a mass exodus of Allied soldiers heading back to Britain. How ironic! Unfortunately there’s no time for me to visit the area. Anyway our depleted entourage is traveling through the flat, green farmland and low lying grey clouds of Belgium. The Top Deck trip is almost over – where did the time go? ETA to London is 5:00 pm. I finally finished reading the book River God. It was fantastically written and the ending was emotional and brought a tear to my eye. I feel drained right now along with having anxiety about getting to the hostel safely. Since leaving Amsterdam I believe that this stretch of highway has been the longest and flattest since being in the Egyptian desert. Onwards…
June 14 – 2:15 pm
I’m on board the ferry Pride of Bugandy that was launched on May 16, 1992. The large ship is swaying gently in the rough waters. But it’s noticeable enough for a landlubber like me to feel queasy. I don’t think that I’ve traveled on a rolling ferry this long before. We made excellent time driving today so we caught the ferry early at 1:15 pm. Hopefully I can cash in my 291Pound money order. We should be in Dover soon. Goodbye to the European continent…
June 15 – 1:00 pm
I just had a cheap but decent lunch (sub for 1.80 pounds and three small yogurts for .99 pence in peaceful Holland Park. Its official name is Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
June 15 – 1:30 pm
I’m now sitting in the beautiful Kyoto Japanese Botanical Gardens (opened in 1991). Spokane’s Japanese Botanical Gardens park is much bigger and prettier though. The park is well laid out and is peaceful to wander around. I need to relax and mellow out today after yesterday’s fiasco. I anticipated minor problems with arriving at the Youth Hostelling International (YHI) hostel. But what actually happened yesterday after arriving in London very nearly gave me a nervous breakdown! Being alone and lost in a strange city, exhausted and carrying a shit load of baggage is not a pleasant experience. There was some consolation when I saw Kate and Nikki both trying to find a place. I hung around for a while in bustling Earl’s Court, where Top Deck dropped us off, as I wanted to avoid taking The Tube. I was getting exasperated with walking around aimlessly. Then a polite fellow walked up to me and gave me his hostel card since one it had vacancy. I’m usually weary of solicitors but the price was only 10 pounds a night or 55 pounds for a week as opposed to 23 pounds a week at YHI.
The hostel was called Holland Hostel and had to be near the lowest scale for quality for all hostels in London. Tiny bathrooms, small, dark and messy dorm rooms that are stuffy and reek of smoke and sweat. But the staff has been tremendously helpful. There is at least one person, older gentleman, who illegally lives there as he has little money. A fascinating guy who has traveled the world but now, sadly his world has been reduced to living in a cramped hostel. Others play chess including Brian who works here. It’s clouding over again and cooling off - excellent weather for walking and not breaking too much of a sweat. I found a corner store close to the hostel and I bought supplies for 7.50 pounds. I returned to the hostel and showered and shaved. The latter was very difficult to do because there was no window, only a small, useless fan, so that the mirror was fogged. Afterwards I spoke with a few people in the hostel and then trekked (one mile?) over to Easy Internet. It was a huge, brightly colored orange and immensely cheap Internet Café. It only charged 1 pound for six hours for late night hours. I surfed the web, read news, and emailed for three hours and didn’t get to bed until 3:30 am. I woke up this morning at 9:30 and ate cereal, a banana, drank juice and then went out to explore the neighborhood. There is a large, modern grocery store nearby called Tesco. I will walk around a bit and buy a book called Monsoon by Wilbur Smith.
June 15 – 5:00 pm
I just read a short article about two long lost Egyptian cities (Herakleion and Menouthis) that sank after a powerful earthquake in the 8th century A.D. Here’s my email that I sent to everyone that night:
Hi everybody! My Top Deck tour of Europe has come to an end and I’m safe and sound in the crowded confines of London. The whirlwind 18 day trip through Europe was fantastic! We stopped (in order) Shumen, Bulgaria; Bucharest, Brasov, Cluj Napoca, Romania; Budapest, Hungary; Vienna, Austria; Prague, Czech Republic; Kirchberg, Austria; Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland; St. Goar, Germany; Amsterdam, Holland. It seemed like I saw more places in this short trip than I did on the five week Middle East trip. Perhaps I did but it was a great way to see Europe in a short period of time. I really enjoyed seeing the Austrian and Swiss Alps. The mountains look very similar to our Rockies but there are many more towns and tourists. Amsterdam was a hoot and we saw a soft core live sex show. I’m sure much of the famed Red Light District is geared for tourists rather than the locals.
I tried to buy a small souvenir from each county I saw that was representative of its culture and history. For instance, I bought a small pair of wooden clogs from Holland. They had the traditional yellow with three Xs (fire, flood, and the plague). Apparently these three famines have decimated the country over the centuries. Thus there were many black and white flags in Holland with three Xs. Euro 2000 (Europe’s World Cup soccer tournament) is currently playing. It’s a huge event here with many stores devoted just to selling soccer paraphernalia. The trip from Amsterdam to London went smoothly. Much of Holland and Belgium are flat and below sea level. Hence the name Low Countries. We took a ferry from Calais, France to the grey cliffs of Dover. It was a typical overcast day with very low lying clouds but it didn’t rain. I just found out that since it’s after midnight here now that the store charges one pound for six hours of Internet use! So I don’t need to rush with typing. Anyway upon arriving in London our group was subsequently shuttled to Earl’s Court in western London. It’s a popular place for backpackers to congregate. Many of us had tons of souvenirs that had to be somehow carted around. My bags were weighed down but I somehow managed. My anxiety quickly grew once the realization hit me that I was on my own in a huge, unfamiliar city.
To make a long story short, my reservation that I thought I had with a hostel in downtown London wasn’t actually in their database. So I was left scrambling around trying to find a place. I lingered around the Earl’s Court underground tube station and rested up my aching muscles. Then a bloke, who must have noticed my predicament, came up to me and asked if I needed a room. He was very helpful and gave me directions on how to take the train to the flat. I was very tired and frustrated and normally wouldn’t have taken advice from a stranger. The hostel was in the famed Kensington area where Princess Diana lived. But the building was in a rather dodgey area but it was close to the tube. I’ve talked to people from different parts of the world and they have a lot of street smarts. But I wonder why they are now virtually destitute. Anyway I have four full days to see London before I leave early on the 19th. I’ll be taking a week long Haggis Tour up to Edinburgh and back to London. Then I have a free day back in London to rest up before leaving on the 28th. It’s now 1:20 am and I’m tired but I want to take advantage of my time on the computer here.
I did some more Internet surfing and ended up sending another email. Here is an edited version:
I discovered a couple of days ago about President Assad of Syria dying. I’m glad that I’m not in that country now as it could be politically unstable. It’s late here (2:46 am) and I’m tired. Luckily I have a few days to rest in London before my next tour starts. My hostel has a laid back environment as people frequently play chess. I’m in a dark and dingy dormitory room with little space to store my stuff but I only pay ten pounds ($21.00 a night). I’m only a 45 minute walk to downtown so I can’t complain too much about things. Places I want to see in London are the London Eye (world’s biggest ferris wheel), see a theatre play in the acclaimed West End, and see many art galleries and museums. I only had time and energy to see the Imperial War Museum. I saw the Van Gogh Art Museum in Amsterdam. It was great and had the world’s largest collection of his works although there were only 200. He was only an artist for about ten years and he died so young (37). Unfortunately my favorite painting of his (Starry Night) is at the Metropolitan Art Gallery in New York City! I’d like to get a reproduction of it sometime. My camera ended up suffering fatal water damage from the tent flood in Prague. It may have been a tiny amount of moisture that got inside the camera. It was a good camera and lasted me ten years. I remember the day that I bought it at the Best store in Spokane in August 1990. So I bought three disposable cameras in the hope that they would last me the rest of my trip. Unfortunately I don’t know if I will be able to salvage the sixteen shots that I had on the roll of film in my old camera. I took many photos of the Hapsburg summer palace in Vienna.
posted by Michael at 11:42 AM
