Germany

Before taking off from Zurich, I had to laugh as I was packing away the last of my things and I had to make the decision of what to do with the so ever helpful toiletry case that Air France had given me to aid ease the loss of my luggage (pic left). Of course I threw the mofo out after a little picture to remember the appropriately representative slogan, and the good times me and the bag had together.

Well, my first taste of Germany came via the Autobahn, as I scooted up from Zurich to Darmstadt with a ride that Claudia set up for me. Talk about Benzes, Beamers, and Audi´s !!!!! You´re rollin at 130-140 K per hour, passin on the left, and all of a sudden you get the highbeams in the ass to move over as a "family car" or wagon just blitz past you at 160-170......No Problem! It´s pretty crazy, but it seems to work alright.


Frankfurt

From Darmstadt, I took the train straight to Frankfurt and met up with Claudia. I am so full of it to have so many good friends! Claudia (left in left pic) came to meet me at the train station with her friend Katarina (right in left pic). Katarina just moved to Frankfurt and was nice enough to receive us. We went straight into town to get some drinks. Started with some Apple Wine ! Which is the indigenous drink of the Hessen area....not bad....a little bitter.....you usually drink it with carbonated water.

This next part is for Claudia since she hasn't heard this story before. Then we went to an Irish bar and I met my new best buddy (for the next hour or so). A true jovial and loud german named Berndt, who greeted me with "Where are you from ?.......... Canada !!! ..... I love Canada !!....but I would never go there for vacation...but I love Canada !!! " And then to fullfill my first hours in Germany, Berndt offered me a shot of, as he said it incredibly fast, " YEABEREISTER !!!!!! ", and after having him repeat it thrice, I realized he meant Jagermeister, so.... (pic right with Berndt) I couldn't turn down a shot of Jagger from a german dude. It was kinda bitter sweet though as Berndt was supposedly a ICE (high speed german train) conductor and was taking off in 3 hours, completely pissed, to operate the Frankfurt-Hamburg train. He was a nice fella but a little on the unprofessional side.

Frankfurt is a well known german city, and I had heard the name a few times, but it's not because it's so beautiful, or has an extensive history, it's because it is pretty much the business capital (pic left), but especially, the main flight hub in Germany so you hear the name quite often because of that. It is also the only german city that boasts a skyline. laadee friggin daa ! Well, it's still nice and so Claudia and I did the tour in just over 2 hours and that was enough. (pic right of the Main river with the cathedral) There was also a very cool structure to indicate one of the metro stations from above ground (pic left).


It's actually really nice, even Claudia was surprised, how friendly germans are towards travellers. As soon as they here english spoken, they ask where I am from and get into a good conversation. I think the beard kinda helps too cause no one, no where, sports one so people take notice and usually realize I am a tourist from my attire (especially the beard!).



Weisbaden

Next, we went to spend a night in Weisbaden at another of Claudia's friends', Ianna. Not much to do in Weisbaden but it was a wine festival with many kiosks of regional wines and great german staples like brautworst. We scored a little table with the bavarian style band playing, and had a few bottles of really good white wine (pic left with the girls). It was a really good night, and once being relatively intoxicated, Claudia and Ianna watched the DVD of an old german sitcom. I was interested to see what it was all about, but you can see the novelty intrigue wore off very quickly (pic right of me "watching" the TV).


Trier

The next day, kinda hungover, Claudia and I made our way to her place inTrier on a gorgeous train ride that follows the Rhine river all the way. There are vinyards all along the route, and also many castles and beautiful villages. Places I would really like to go back and visit.

Then we hit Trier. The first night, Claudia had invited me to a wedding. Actually no wedding, but just the party since the couple had gotten married last year. I had my first weissbeer, or weitsen beer (white or wheat beer) which is a staple of that area and all of Germany actually. Free alkeehawl, and great buffet but we were tired and the party kinda died early so...... meh!

Trier is so rich with old Roman ruins and monuments. Really gorgeous to visit! The city center is quite breath taking too, with the classic german houses (pic left). The Porta Nigra (pic right) gains access into the city center, or old town. I took a tourist pass that gave me access to the main monuments, so off I went to dwindle in impressive roman history.

The Dome Cathedral (pic left) was really impressive, and so were the carvings and dome ceilings from within. Then I checked out the Basilica but it was the Palace and backyard of the palace that were impressive..........straight out of a renaissance novel (pic right).


But the piece de resistance for me was the Kaisertherman, the old roman thermal bath house (pic left). You can walk underground in all of the stone passage ways (pic right) and see the bathpit remains, and with all of the grass and vegetation growing everywhere, it's so peaceful ! It was kinda spooky and beautiful at the same time.

I also checked out the arena. That was pretty impressive too (pic left). Going into the underground barracks to see where the warriors or whatever was kept down there. Pretty cool especially with the vineyards in the background.
Another big sight in Trier is Karl Marx's house as he was born and lived in Trier. Quite a name to incorporate into the town history! I checked out the house and took a picture but I really should've taken a picture of the incessant groups of Japanese people that flock towards, take rounds of pictures and then get back on the bus. This is a familiar Trier activity it seems.
The main sight in the surrounding area, and all of Deutschland is beer. Germans love beer, and they're damn good at making it! And the small town of Bitburg is just 30 minutes away so the well known brau is brewed there (pic right). I really like the slogan as Bitte means please, and ein is of course one.

I also met some of Claudia's friends. The coolest were Bianca and Miguel. They had us over for coffee. They were so welcoming and it was so cool talking spanish, and english, and listening to them talk german. A great lingual menage a trois.

Luxembourg

While in Trier, Claudia's friend Katarina (now in Frankfurt but kinda still in Trier) was leaving on vacation with her boyfriend Stefan to go to the States. They were leaving from Luxembourg airport, and were leaving Claudia their car. So....... we left with them, dropped them off at the airport and then hit Luxembourg city for the day. It's only a little over an hour from Trier so it was the perfect opportunity to check it out. It was so perfect, and Katarina and Stefan are also super amazing people. Just cracking jokes and laughing and smiling all the time. My friends, and there friends are just awesome people. I am so full of it to fall upon these great characters all of the time.

And what a gorgeous town. It is the city of bridges and aqueducts (pic left), and ahhh man is it ever green and lush......full of vegetation. It was a little empty and boring at first since it was a Sunday, but then we found the lower old town with the river running through it.........OHHHH CRAP is it ever gorgeous (pic right). Of course, with such majestic scenery and beautiful views, you do feel a little high class.......well obviously with good reason......I mean come on.......look at me ! (pic left). Just a nice walk in a sheltered and well kept wilderness (pic right with Claudia up ahead)


Back in Trier, Catou (a friend from the Douglas back in Montreal), and her boyfriend Matthieu joined the band wagon since they were heading up to Leiden, Netherlands for a neuroscience conference that Catou was taking part in. I was going to use their services in the way of a ride up there myself. They will be in europe for a month vacation as Matthieu has his own neuropsychology conference in Austria in late September.

First action with Catou and Matt, Claudia set up a wine tasting at a vineyard / guesthouse that her parents always buy their wine at. This was in the amazingly beautiful town of Urziger. The whole city, and area, is wrapped by the Mosel river on one side, and the vineyard hills on the other. The Mosel valley is well reknowned for its great white wine and Riesling grapes. We tasted a few wines (pic right), from dry "trocken", to semi-dry, and to sweet, and with various years and quality of grapes in between. The couple that take care of the vineyard / guesthouse are just so sweet and we had a great time with Claudia doing her regular duties of wine tasting translator. It was a really cool experience and the wine was so good.

I usually hate white wine but this was good, sweet, and really cheap stuff, so I bought two bottles.....well bought.......I thought someone had paid globally for all of the bottles we took, but no, and when we called the couple to tell them I hadn't paid, they said, "oh, consider it a gift"..........I really have the biggest horseshoe up my ass it's not even funny.

Then, the sweet couple suggested to check out a classic Mosel valley town just up the road. I forget the name of the town , but man was it ever nice. Surrounded, and immersed in the vineyards of the countryside (pic left), and the small, small town square was totally representative and really nice (pic right).

Another great day in the books !

Claudia was just perfect! She had all of these things organized, and I saw a bunch of cool stuff with her, as she was my personal guide and translator. We didn't do that many towns, but what we did was to the point, and it seemed we kept on moving all the time. It seemed like we were together for almost 2 weeks, but really it was only almost 1 week. Right ? Hey Dr. Buss ?

I had such a good time for my quick intro to Germany, and it was all thanks to Claudia !

Claudia was also attending the conference in Holland, so she left early, and Catou, Matt and I went up in their rental car later (pic left). We tried to visit the Bitburger brewery but couldn't get in.....You have to reserve ahead. Then we were passing quickly by Belgium so we stopped in Liege for a beer and fries. It was tasty but nothing to see really in Liege. Kinda grey!

So we took off after the beer and went straight to Leiden, in the Netherlands. Catou and Matt had booked a B&B there. So friggin sweet......they snuck me in...........we had a nice heineken (pic left) and I slept on the floor........had a nice shower the next morning, and then went with them to check out the conference. I wanted to see my supervisor from the Douglas, Dr. Jens Pruessner, and atleast shake his hand. He's such a cool guy. Everyone is always respected on the same level as soon as you meet him. He is a really intelligent man, and has been a superb mentor in the past couple of years. He was actually presenting at the conference and it was nice to see a master at his work (pic right). Calm, collective, and the question period is answered with prepared slides.......what a pro ! It was really cool cause after his talk, we got to chat and he was happy to see I was having such a good time and he gave me some suggestions since he had done relatively the same trip on his motorcycle when he was my age. And I got a free breakfast, and lunch at the conference........what a deal man !!

Leiden is a really gorgeous town with all of the canals and old buildings. So cool! The nicest difference in Holland are the bikes. Holy shit are there a lot of bicycles.....and they're not new expensive bikes with shocks or skinny tires....no sir......there about 30 years old with the semi-curved handle bars, and two speeds, and everyone is on a bike. NO EXCEPTION! It's so cool to see people of all kinds racing by. Girls all decked out going to the bar; rapper kids with their music blaring (pimp my ride style). and businessmen in suits.........all passing by on their grandma style bikes........it was so cool!

After the conference experience, I took the train only a half hour to THE DAM! That's right, Amsterdam!

I shall save this for the next entry since it's getting exhaustive already, and I have a brand new era in my life that starts in Amsterdam. It has to do with a special lady that I met in the red light district..............................You'll have to wait for the next time for the juicy details.

Later ! Love you guys !