some pictures--> amsterdam & keukenhof gardens

 

mommy home safe...

:)

Saturday, March 20

So we have arrived back in Odense. Our plan was to get me a bike and ride out into the country side.  Unfortunately, it is very foggy and very rainy.  I've been surfing the web while Beth takes a little nap.

The stores don't open here until 10:00 and they close at 1:00.    We will have a little while to get some last minute shopping in before we start the big pack.

We will be leaving the dorm on Sunday morning at 7:00 so we have time to walk with all the luggage 20 minutes get a train and ride for 2 hours and make it to the airport by 10:00.  I fly out at 12:15 in the afternoon. It's a wonderful 10 days.....yes with some tension once in a while.  But overall it was very good. Since we were on a train ALL NIGHT.  7 pm to 8 am my body is sitting here rocking back and forth.  What a crazy feeling!!

Yesterday, Friday, we went to see the Anne Frank house.  Very interesting.  While walking in the streets I was thinking about all the Jews that walked along the same streets on their way to the trains.  Very sad.  They are doing some renovations so a couple of the displays were closed.  We did see how and where the family lived.  They still don't know who revealed there hiding place.  I'm glad I had read the book before I came.  It gave me some background knowledge.

After the Frank house we went back to the hostel where we had stored out luggage and started back for the train station.  We stored everything there in a locker while we headed to the Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse, Holland, “The most beautiful spring garden in the world".  Once again we are off on the train and then we need to find the bus to take us to the country.  Unfortunately, it's cold and rainy.  We also find out that they had a hard freezer a couple of weeks ago so not many flowers are blooming.  :-(  It's still very beautiful and they have many flowers inside the buildings to look at and marvel at.  We did ask about bring bulbs home.  There are too many regulations to bring them to the states.  So the best way to order is on line.  Also, they don't dig the bulbs until September.

We give ourselves 2 hours to make the bus trip and the train trip back to Amsterdam to get our night train at 7pm.   We were doing awesome was even going to be able to get drinks and a snack before our train leaves. We were outside the station about 1/2 mile and they lost electricity to our train.  Not a big deal...we still have 1 hour and 15 mins to make the train.....we wait.....time ticks by.........and wait.....finally a train conductor came and we asked how long it would be....she was sure....so we tell her we have another night train to Denmark at this time is 6:35 and Beth was getting very worried.  We didn't want to stay another night in Amsterdam.   Finally the train starts to move...very slowly.  But we got back to the station at 6:45.  Remember we still need to go get our luggage out of the lockers and make it back to the platform in 15 minutes.  So off we go.  Running.  What a sight, I'm sure so we get to our lockers that are across the train station and we head back to the platforms.  The lady had anounced over the train that our night train would leave from 11b. So we were off and running again with all our bags. The train we had problems with was in that platform so we had to ask another person about the train location. Finding out it was on platform 4b right next to the luggage lockers... Off we ran again. 

We made it with time to spare thank goodness. 

We have had a long day of packing and doing some last minute things. We will mess with pictures next week sometime once we have recovered. 

Thanks for reading. Must get some sleep before Deb heads back to the states. 

Thursday--March 18th

So this morning we got up a little later. We got out of the hostel by 10:00 am after trying to be quiet for the other guest in our hostel room. We were quiet until 8:30 and I think that is pretty nice (Beth)...

We went back up the crazy hill... WOW... soooooooo very steep!!! (We saw a sign that showed it was between 12-15% grade in most places! And we thought the summit to Laramie was bad with a 5% grade!)

We went back so that we could look at the huge Cathedral at the top of the city. The Cathedral was built around 1300, it was huge inside with absolutely beautiful stainglass windows. We were disapoited that we could not read any of the information on the posters around the church because they were all in French... Oh well.

After that we walked down a huge hill that we just climed to the metro station below. From that metro we went down to the water (Lake Geneva) to check out the port city of Ouchy (pronouced oh-she... but looks like ouch! i hurt myself... hehe!) It was so cute! We walked along the shore in awe of the scene before us. We walked to the Olympic Museum. The gardens were so nice in front of the museum along with fountians making it a great precurser to the great muesuem at the top of yet another hill.

In the museum we were able to see up close all of the torches, and medals from each of the games. Along with Grecean artifacts, and other game memorablila. We also saw a few short movies about the spirit of the games, etc...

After the museum we walked back along the water and found the perfect place for some lunch... Crepes!!!! :)  I had a bacon and cheese crepe while my mom had a crepe with spinich and cheese. They were soooooooo yummy!

We took the metro up the side of the city again to our hostel were we then quicky collected our bags before hitching a train to Geneva Airport. We got there too early but we hung out and grabbed some snacks before our flight. We flew out of Geneva at 7:05 this evening and we arrived to our hoste (lost the paper with the address and had mom worried that I wasn't going to find it without an address, thank goodness i had checked it out on google maps weeks before and it somehow stuck in my head!!!) Our room is called the Zoo or (Artis in Dutch).

I am glad my mom finally made some new friends on the plane. So far she had not been talking to many people because of the huge language difference. But finally some nice Dutch guys visited with us the entire time on our flight! :) One was a personal buttler for a Dutch couple who live in Geneva while the other was a student at a conservatory in Switzerland for classical trombone.

The computer here is not able to download pictures on to the blog either but we have lots of good ones to show you all!

We will update on Saturday night because after a day in Amsterdam we will take a night train back to Odense Friday night. Woooooot! Haha!

Have a great rest of your day we are headed up to bed.

wednesday, March 17, 2010

We are unable to upload any photos at this Hostel.  So you will need to look at another time.

We have traveled all day on a Scenic Train from Lucerne to Lausanne & what a BEAUTIFUL RIDE.

We stopped Interlaken and walked around the cute shop along the main street.

We only stayed in Interlaken for an hour and a half before we went on our next train that stopped at Ziessmann (spelling check later on that name!)

The view was amazing though the alps... winding around and going over bridges and tunnels!

The water in the lakes... oh my goodness... the most pure blue aqua color you can imagine!!!! Just amazing!!!!!!

From Zwissmann we switched onto a fancy train with HUGE windows for the last leg of our senic train ((check out http://www.goldenpass.ch/default.asp?OrgID=6&LinkID=247))

But our last train stopped at the town of Montreux on the most eastern corner of Lake Geneva. It was so cool to come out of the mountains and wind down the mountain through these cute little towns!

We then took another train to the city where we are staying tonight: Lausanne. What an adorable city!!

We decided to walk into the city center. Oh my gosh it feels like everything is uphill!!! Like my mom said ''I thought San Fransico had hills!!!''

We walked up to the church and could not find an open door but we will go back tomorrow... except not walking we got some metro-bus cards from the hostel... think that is a good plan!!!

We are now just hanging out at the hostel... think we might go to bed pretty early since we are tired and everything is closed up anyways... get a headstart on the morning tomorrow!!

We will make sure to upload pictures as soon as we can because  they are amazing!!!!

Remember you can always post comments we love feedback!!! :)

Have a Happy St. Patricks day!!!!

tuesday---

(( 1st picture: view from our window))

((2nd: Small side chapel in the large JesuitKirche in the center of Luzern))

((3rd:First stop on our ferry trip on Lake Lucerne at Vitznau...Very Foggy!))

((4th: Mt. Stanserhorn through the fog around noon))

((5th: The town of Vitznau))
((6th: fog finally cleared-clearing at Weggis another town we stopped off in for an hour!))

((Mt. Pilatus=2132km high))

((Center of Lucerne with Mt. Pilatus))

((Mommy and Bethy on the ferry nearing Lucerne after exploring the other side of the lake!))

Out of computer time. Will write details later!! :)

Monday March 15th

So today... (warning: we are on a crazy keyboard so if things look funny... then... sorry!)

We woke up at 6am to get ready... We took at train at 7:45am to Copenhagen Airport. We got there early and ended up having our flight be delayed for an hour because of staffing issues. We were worried we had the wrong gate because nobody made any anoucements until 45 min had already gone past the time we were supposed to leave... but either way we got into Zurich by 4:00pm...

From Zurich we bought tickets to our next desination: Lucurne. We took a double deckered train for an hour by a few beautiful lakes and in some very large tunnels cutting through the mountains.

With witt and cunning Beth guided us to our hostel. (Which wasn't so far but she found it quickly)... After dropping off our bags in the hostel and getting everything reorganized we headed out into the cute little city! Wandering in and out of adorable chocolate shops and gawking at all the cute (but expensive) clothing in the windows. Like any old town shops in Europe the high priced shops were located here. But still made a feast for the eyes. :)

The shops all closed at 6:30 and we walked around looking for someplace Swiss to eat at. I think there is nothing better than being in a fun location and trying the local cusine!!! It took us a while to find the perfect restraunt, finding too many Italian places off the bat. Finally we returned to one of the first palces we had found when first walking around the old town.

We ordered the `Swiss Specialty' which included Swiss cheese fondue with bread, sausage in a brownish-red wine gravy sauce, and then some fun hashbrowns with cheese and onion and with long strings of potatoe that were like noodle shapes...

We just came back from dinner nice and full, ready to do this update for you. The food picture would not load but you will see it in all its glory later!

Have a lovely night!

~Beth & Deb

Sunday, March 14

Saturday night.

So we left here around 9:45 pm to meet some friends.  Most people don’t go out at night until after 10:00.  Had a nice visit with her friends from Denmark and some friends that are visiting from North Carolina.  We were return home at 12:30. 

Sunday

Today, we have taken life pretty easy.  Just like home.  We went to mass here in the city.  It is very old and beautiful church.  Everything was in Danish so didn’t understand the readings or the homily.  It was still great that I did understand different parts that were going on.  That’s one thing I love about the Catholic Church.  It’s always the same no matter where you are. 

After mass we went to the Hans Christian Anderson house.  He is very famous children’s author from here.  One of his most famous stories is the Ugly Duckling & The Little Mermaid.  It was great to go and see, he is also famous for paper cut outs.  These are beautiful.  While we were at the museum that had a special display of Psaligraph Karen Bit Vejle see the website for more details.  It’s amazing that they can cut these out!!

http://museum.odense.dk/whats-on/what´s-on/exhibitions/2010/scissors-for-a-brush.aspx

After we went to the museum we headed over to get lunch.  We found a little Chinese food restraunt that was fast and easy. 

Then we headed to the train station to get our tickets for tomorrow.  We are going to leave for Switzerland in the morning and need to get back to Copenhagen to fly to Zurich.  I don’t think we will have a computer handy to update the blog.  Not sure when I will update again unless we find a computer at the hostels.  But if not then hopefully, by Friday night or Saturday.

After getting our tickets it started to rain and snow.  It was very cold walking so we headed to the grocery store to get stuff for supper.  The store here was very tiny.  Only 3 aisles of groceries.  I think it would fit into the school library.  They don’t have many items of the same thing.  They did have a large selection of bread and meat but other than that not many choices.  The isles were also very narrow; you might get 2 people in the aisle side by side.  But it is very tight.  If you don’t bring your own bag you have to buy one.

We walked back to the dorm for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon nap.  Some things don’t change. :)

Beth is making dinner now she shares a kitchen with 8 other people.   

Not a very exciting day, but very relaxing.  We will need to leave at 7:15 am to get to the train station on time.  It takes about 15 – 20 minutes to walk there.  

((In front of H.C. Andersen's childhood home))

((Main transportation in Denmark--> The bike!))

((The paper cuttings... So cool!))

Day 2

After a wonderful nights sleep.  We got up had showers and a chocolate danish crossit.  It was very tasty.  Then we left here and walked all over the downtown area of Odensa.  they call it the Center.  We did lots of looking at everything.  1st stop was a drug store cause I can't find my toothbrush or make up.  I'm going to call home to see if I left it behind.  After that we walked around looking at jewerly, shoes, clothes and etc...,  Beth keeps telling me that everything is very expensive here.  I thought the stores seemed to be priced about like home.  But, this includes the taxes.  Most dresses or shoes are around $30.00.  <>Walked to a catholic church and also stopped at the Sankt Knuds Kirke church where the patron saint of Denmark is buried here, King Knud the II was killed here while kneeling in prayer.  After that we sat in the sun enjoying some licorie.  Danish people love it!!!  :-)  We enjoyed a birthday lunch and meet my mom at "Hot Pot".  It's a lot like Magolina grill but you cook your food in a sauce at the table.  It was very tasty.  There we 12 of us there.  It was fun to talk and meet all of Beth's friends.  Tonight we are going to a club so I can see the night life here.  I was informed that I was too old to go to one place.  They only let people in if they are under the age of 28!!  Wow, did that make me feel old.

Enjoy more pictures from the day. 

((With H.C. Andersen... Prams & babies outside cafes while parents enjoy coffee on the other side of the window... Lunch at Hot Pot.... More prams outside of the cafes... Cute shop with Danish flag))

automobile, planes, trains and canal boat

Hey everyone,  I made it!  I didn't get lost or anything.  

As most of you know I'm not a wonderful writer.  It's been a long day.  Left the house at 6:45 Thursday morning, arrived in Copenhagen at 7:45 Friday morning.  Beth was waiting for me as soon as I came through the customs doors.   We shopped and looked around the big city, took a canal tour of the city, ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant .   It was wonderful food.  My cousin Erin would be so proud of me!  :-)  It was very cold in Copenhagen.  34 degrees but it''s right on the water so very chilly.  Everyone rides or walks around here.  I'm surprised most by all the parents pushing prams around with there children.  They leave them in the pram while they go into the shops or get a bite to eat. You would see all these prams outside the buildings and the children just waiting!  It was crazy!

** In the Washington D.C. Airport**

**On the first train into Copenhagen Central Station**

**Soldier boy at Toy Store made of LEGO**

(LEGO--Danish Company!!!)

**Ny Haven houses along the famous canal**

**Church Steeple**

**Very Danish looking house boat!**

**The Little Mermaid--Story & character off Danish fairytale writer, H.C. Andersen**