Adventures in Euroland, Day 3

Morning adventures:
Today was pretty laid back. Aside from the fact I finally realized how incredibly dehydrated I was and how sick I felt this morning. I was very much awake and feeling pretty terrible about 4:45am. I hung out in bed till it was time for breakfast. Got up, had some breakfast. It was my first Breakfast in Europe. They had cereal and cold cuts at the buffet. I didn't realize this, but I guess it is fairly common to have sandwiches for breakfast over here. Hmm. Who knew? I opted for cereal. It was a really tasty oat and whole grain cereal with lots of berries and fruit in it. DELICIOUS.

Bad Bentheim is somewhere about 52 or 53 degrees above the equator. To give a point of reference; Boulder, CO is about 42 degrees above the equator and Tulsa, OK is somewhere in the upper 30s I think. So the sun doesn't come up here until sometime after 8am this time of year. We're also not TOO far from the ocean so it has been very damp and rainy. The sun came out for a while this afternoon, but is has rained/misted off and on all day every day since I got here. Guess that helps expain how incredibly green everything is.

There is a small cafe near by. Nick usually buys his lunch there in the morning and takes it with him to work. I went with him and got several bottles of water. (Which, the only not carbonated water they had were bottles of apple flavored water. What is with these people? What is wrong with just plain water?! Although, admittedly, the apple flavored water isn't too bad once you get used to it.) The lady looked at me like I was nut, but I'd had very little to drink in the last three days or so and I was feeling pretty awful. So pardon me for hoarding some water, but I am determined not to feel that bad again on this trip. I went back to the room and cat napped a bit till the sun came up.

I headed out about 8:30 or and walked around town for quite a while. It was very chilly, but not unbearably so. It turns out the castle is closed on Fridays this time of year, so I headed out and about in a 5 or 6 block radius from the hotel. Everything just feels OLD here. It's really neat. The walls are covered with moss and ivy, there are narrow little alleys hiding everywhere. It's just cool. This place exudes what I picture the quinessential little European village to be. It's also full of old people.

I walked around the outside of the castle and got some pictures. Here is a really cool Lion statue outside the castle.

ROAR!

Backside of the castle.

Looking up at the castle from the street level.

Another view from the street.

Castle gardens, all the brown areas are full of rose bushes, but they are not in bloom in January. :(

Castle chapel belfry.

Near-by church. You can hear the bells ringing all the time. The ring for half an hour Sunday from 11:30 to 12. It is really neat to hear them throughout the day.

 It is sacrilegious to let your dog poop on church property. >: O

Some sheep hanging out on the castle grounds. They baa-ed at me a lot.









I didn't make it out to the windmill. I think that is going to be a pretty far walk and I am having trouble matching street names to the map as the streets are not well marked here.

I also had a little trouble with feeling car sick on the train, (probably due to lack of sleep, food, and water) But just to be on the safe side I took my handy phrase book that my brother got me for Christmas and set off to communicate with the locals like a pro.

Ok, so this ended up being mostly me pointing to the word "Motion Sickness" in German in my phrase book and asking "Das Bitte?" But either way everyone I 'spoke' to was very nice and I got my medication. :D I figured better safe than sorry since it will be a several hour train ride to Berlin on Tuesday.

Having wandered around for several hours I headed back to the hotel to warm up for a bit, It was probably 10:30 or so. I surfed the web, responded to e-mails, etc and promptly fell asleep about the time I was thinking I should get some lunch. (Maybe 1pm?)

I woke up about 4:00 and hung out till Nick got back from work.

Best Dinner EVER:
This past weekend in Nashville Nick's best friend Dustin told me that dining is really a different experience in Europe. He described it as, you go in and sit down and EVENTUALLY someone comes over to get your drink order. Then you wait and EVENTUALLY they come back with your drinks. And you wait some more. And then after a while they come back and take your order. And then you wait, and you wait, and you wait and then you get your food. Then, after you are done eating and you sit for a long time, eventually they bring your check back to you.

Boy was he right. Up till tonight we had only eaten in the buffet. Eating out is pretty much exactly as Dustin described it. A whole LOT of wainting. It does kind of smack you in the face with just how face paced and impatient our culture is.

HOWEVER, once we finally got our food, OH MY GOD. We ate at a little Italian cafe a few blocks away. The tortellini I had would easily put Olive Garden, Macarroni Grill, and I'm sure any other Italian place in the states to shame. IT WAS SO GOOD. Words cannot even express the deliciousness of dinner. It wasn't a very big serving by American standards, but I ate it all and I felt very satisfied at the end. Did I mention how freaking delicious it was???

Anyway, that about sums up my day. Pretty un-eventful. I am looking forward to touring the castle tomorrow. It doesn't open till 10, but I a looking forward to spending quite a bit of time there. Night All.