My European Adventure: Part 2

I left off in my European adventure in my last blog post on the fifth day of travel, in Helsinki. We were all catching a 6:00am flight from Helsinki to Frankfurt on the sixth day, which was Saturday April 28. Brutal. Waking up to be at the airport for just after 4 in the morning is not my thing. The rest of the guys had about an hour layover in Frankfurt before returning to Toronto, while Jeff and I had arranged to stay on for an extra six days.

So the sixth day we arrived in Frankfurt and obtained our rental car. We lucked out and got an Opel Astra, a type of car that I'd never heard of before. Jeff says they aren't carried in North America, at least not commonly, so it's not surprising that I've never heard of it. We drove about two hours from Frankfurt into Koln, Germany for some sightseeing. The drive was really fun, and I had a blast stopping at the German Serways, which are like up scale gas stations/rest stops along the autobahns. They've extremely clean, and serve reasonably priced fresh food. Stuff like bratwurst, chicken, steak, and pasta are all cooked up fresh in front of your eyes - so much better from pulling through a McDonald's on the side of the highway in Canada! Jeff and I often stopped at one on our longer driving days, and we were never disappointed with what we got.

Once we got to Koln, we both had a nap at our hotel, the Mercure Severinshof Koln City. We then explored the famous Koln Cathedral, known in English as the High Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Mary. Apparently, it's Germany's most visited landmark. This I do believe, as the place was swarming with tourists such as myself. It was an amazing experience, and I highly suggest it to anyone travelling in that area. We also stumbled upon a bridge of 'love locks'. The Hohenzollernbruke Bridge is mainly used by trains, but the pedestrian walking path that connects Koln over the Rhine has over 1000 locks attached to its side. Apparently, these locks are supposed to commemorate a couple's devotion to one another. It was actually incredibly romantic to see, and after the cathedral it was my favourite part of Koln.

Our Opel Astra station wagon 

Incredibly beautiful cathedral - it took my breath away

The 'nave' of the church

Exterior side doors of cathedral

Love locks in Koln :) 

The seventh day, we drove to Volendam, Holland. We stayed in the Hotel Old Dutch, which was located on one of the main walking streets in the town, just across from the harbour. We loved our stay there! When we arrived we had a brief time to rest from our 4 hour drive before we grabbed dinner and visited some of Jeff's relatives. I snapped some pictures, and one the way there we came across a tulip field!!! It was awesome.

Out hotel

The view from our room 

Tulip field! 

The eighth day was Queen's Day in Holland, and it seemed to be sort of like a combination between Canada Day and St. Patrick's Day over here. Most of the younger people dressed up in outrageously orange outfits and drank beer all day, and there was a marching band of people in traditional Dutch clothing in the morning to kick off the celebrations. We really enjoyed it.

The marching band - they walked past our hotel room twice!

A local party in Marken

The ninth day we took the bus from Volendam into Amsterdam and spent the day there. I had a really good time even though the city was filthy because of all the Queen's Day parties from the day before. We had the best Chinese food I've ever had for dinner that night in Amsterdam on a floating, 3 storey restaurant!

Canal in Amsterdam

Anne Frank's house

Amsterdam's floating flower market

Chinese 'Sea Palace' restaurant - the food was so good! 

The tenth day we drove back to Frankfurt from Volendam, and stayed Best Western Grand City Frankfurt. Sad to say, it was not like the Best Western's that I have stayed at before. It was not clean, or in a safe neighbourhood. We'd had great luck with hotels up to this point. Oh well.

The eleventh day, which was also our last day in Germany before our flight, we drove over eight hours (round trip) to see Neuschwanstein Castle outside of Fussen, Germany. It was totally worth it! The scenery was amazing once we got closer to the castle, and we certainly got our exercise that day with the steep 1.5 km hike up to the castle in the sun!

Jeff at the base of the castle

Neuschwanstein Castle

Me standing in the courtyard

This was like a postcard - the countryside from a lookout point on the walk up to the castle

Beautiful mountains marking the German-Austrian border

The twelfth day, we packed up all of our souvenirs and headed back to the airport. I was sad to leave! We flew Frankfurt-Toronto and arrived, on schedule, around 8.5 hours after we took off from Germany.

The whole trip was amazing, and an experience I'll never forget.