Adventures in Euroland: Day 7

FINALLY have internet again!


I will post my posts with pictures as I have time. I have written several but was not able to post them till now. I would like to post them with pictures, so I may spend a day or two catching up.

My one souvineir is the Swasian Swatch! It's super nifty. Swatch is a Swiss Watch company (hence the name, Swatch) and I declared it Swasian because it has an asian theme but it is a Swiss Watch. Hence, Swasian. SWASIAN SWATCH! I am declaring it my one souvinere from the trip. Food over here seems to be incredibly cheap, but everything else is very expensive. My watch was 48€. But I also expect it to last me a really long time. Plus, it is white and blue with a dragon on it, and neat modern looking Kanji on the face of the watch, so it was well worth it to me. I have had a hard time finding anything I thought would make a good souvinere for the family back home when I was in Bad Bentheim, but maybe I will have more luck here in Berlin.

Still very gloomy weather, lots of travel today. Took the rental car back to Amsterdam to turn it in and took the train all the way back to Berlin. A good 8 hours of travel. Yeehck. On the plus side, I think trains are really cool and we need more of them in the US. They are so awesome!

I have to say, I am very glad I am not having to travel solo. It is very intimidating for me, having been born and raised in a country where we speak only one language, to suddenly be thrust into an environment where English is no longer the primary language. Not everyone speaks my language. Announcements are made at the train station and signs are posted that I cannot understand. Its just unsettling because I feel lost and ill-prepared and at times it is kind of overwhelming.

I can only image what tourists must feel like when the come to the United States. There are a lot of places that post signs in several different languages. Sometimes even in English too. That would NEVER happen back home. We gripe about having Spanish subtitles on the signs at Wal-Mart because, "This is AMERICA, we speak ENGLISH here!" I really need to travel more and see what life is like on the coasts or if this is strictly a mid-west attitude.

Arriving in Berlin, was crazy. The city is HUGE. We got off the train at the central train station. It was MASSIVE. Like, 4 or 5 stories and trains arriving and leaving on every level, stores everywhere. It was NUTS! Definitely overwhelming because I had no idea where to go and couldn't read any of the signs. Thank goodness for pictograms!!! I never realized how helpful the little man and woman signs are and the like, but thank god for the graphic designers who made them and worked to implement them universally. They are a LIFE SAVER.

Nick and I made our way out to the front and got a Taxi. Our driver did not speak English, but Nick is pretty good with German numbers and was able to give him the address of our hotel, so we got there no problems.

Our hotel is CRAZY COOL. The pool is on the 8th floor! No joke. It's awesome. Everything is super modern and designy looking.  Here are pictures of my sweet and awesome room:

BED.





View from the window of my room, it looks down into the lobby.









There is a phone in the bathroom next to the toilet... you know... in case you have to talk while you're on the John.

Designer faucet.

Again with the glass and no shower curtain/door. Although this shower head makes it a rain shower. It's really cool.

TOWEL WARMERS!!! <3

These people know how to stock a mini fridge. See those bottles of water? Don't be deceived. They are 'mit kohlensauer'. That means they are SPARKLING WATER! EWWW!

All light switches in Germany are square buttons. (The one's at the hotel in Bad Bentheim were too, but they were not this fancy) These people like their buttons. Buttons to turn on the lights and to flush the toilets.






We were exhausted and starving so we dropped our stuff off and went out for food. We ate at a nice little cafe where the service did not take quite so long as it did in Bad Bentheim. I brought my pocket guide along, but they had a menu in English available, also in French and Spanish and German and Italian. Wow! You would never find that in America. At least not any parts of America that I have lived in. Well, as mentioned, maybe in Spanish in some parts of the country, (or perhaps in Japanese on parts of the west coast) but I would hazzard a guess and say that most Americans are stubbornly set in the idea that we speak English in this country. Period.

I went out on a limb and ordered water tonight. It came still and in a bottle. I almost wept when I drank it. No nasty carbonation, no apple flavor, just pure sweet delicious bottled water.

So Berlin seems like a really cool town and I am looking forward to getting to see more of it tomorrow. The fashion is different here, people seem to care a lot more about their appearance. Well, maybe not a lot more, but I would say the sense of style is more sophisticated here. I have noticed LOTS of girls with very short hair, especially from the age of what appears to be mid 30s and older, but even lots of younger ones too. I'm not sure if this is just common here or if it is a current style trend, but there are very few women with long hair. I have also noticed there are lots of make up or cosmetic stores EVERYWHERE. Pretty much on every corner it seems like. Sandwiches seem to be a very common food in Germany. There are sandwich shops all over the place too.

That about sums up my first impressions Berlin and its people. Bad Bentheim the people were friendly for sure, but there is definitely the big city feel to Berlin.I am really looking forward to the museums tomorrow. At some point this week I am going to try some German beer too. Although I will probably stick to ordering mostly wine. It's actually cheaper than water to get wine with dinner. Crazy, huh? Water is 2 or 3€ for a tiny small bottle and wine is about that for a quarter of a liter. 5€ for half liter. Looking forward to seeing more sights and eating more delicious food.

Adventures in Euroland: Day 6

Thoughts on a quiet day:

Walked around town more, things that I have noticed.

Even though there is lots of country side in this country, space in town is very cramped. Hallways are narrower, streets are narrower, elevators are freaking TINY.

Here in Bad Bentheim there is little to no ambient noise. When walking to dinner in the evenings there is very little light polution, and no sirens, no cars, no dogs, its very quiet. You can hear the wind and the gentle rain, but usually not alot else as compared with most towns in America. Even when eating in the restaurants the ambient noise level seems to be much quieter. People talk very quietly, and Nick's voice seems to just carry, which is kind of awkard. Places are just very hushed.

There is a lot of new mixed with old. I think I may have mentioned this before, but you just see a lot that.

Most people here seem to prefer cash. I dont think I've seen anyone pay for anything by card yet.

It is interesting to me that so many people speak multiple languages. It really makes me want to learn more. Esepcially to improve my Japanese before I got Japan. Big time. I think about how difficult it must be for people to travel to America if they don't speak English since a lot of people in our country only speak English.

I do find it interesting though, and incidentally enough Nick has had the same experience; when trying to commnicate with someone in German, if it is kind of spurr of the moment, we've both answered people in Japanese. How weird is that!? I am not sure if it is maybe just the part of the brain that stores foreign language freaking out and pulling the first thing that it comes across out to respond with or what, but it's odd. Someone will ask a question and instead of "Ja" (Yaw) we've both nodded and been like "Hai" (Which is yes in Japanese). It's the weirdest thing.

Also, here are pictures of the hotel here in Bad Bentheim. It's very cozy. :)

Here is the bakery where Nick and I would get our lunch. It was called Joh Wittenbrink. They had some tasty deserts too.

A view of one of the streets from my room.

Do you know what this is? This is awesomeness made metal. Basically all the bathrooms have towel warmers in them. Oh. My god. I want one in my house.

Showers do not come with curtains or doors. The standard seems to be a piece of glass that comes not quite half way down the tub with a shower head on that side. Very cool. Except its hard to shower without getting water on the floor. : /

The bathroom at our first hotel had two parts. One room had the tub and the sink...

The other was a tiny closet sized room with the toilet in it. The button on the wall flushes the toilet. Almost all the bathrooms I have been in have either two handles, one for flushing a little (or going number one) and one for flushing more (when you go number two) or you can opt to push to flush, and push back to stop. These people are serious about not wasting water on flushing toilets. I actually like this set up a lot better than the way toilets flush back home in America. It's pretty spiffy.

The totally suave and very amazing swimming pool of modern luxury. This was the coolest pool I have ever been in. The lights on the wall and in the pool change colors. Also, the water was really warm. And a lot less chlorine smelling/feeling than pools back home. Probably because I don't think a lot of kids get to swim in here, so its not needed... if you catch my drift...

Another shot of the pool.













PEACE! 

Adventures in Euroland: Day 5

Das Schloss!

Tour of the castle. It was amazing!

There are a couple different parts to the Castle. There was a church building, walls around the castle, a newer finished part to the castle, a tower, a keep, and a part that was being renovated. The castle has been built a few different times, having been destroyed or having parts of it destroyed since it was first built in 1050 A.D. WOW.

I cannot explain how cool it is to be standing in something that old. It was also very creepy. You just get a weird feeling being around/in something with that much history attached to it. As I mentioned before the castle has been burned down or destroyed several times, it was used as a prison and has a dungeon, so many people have died there as well.

To the left are pictures of the inside of the furnished and finished part of the castle itself. (I think you can click on the pictures to pull up a full sized version) The dining room, a mosaic on the floor, etc. Everything was very elaborately and richly decorated. It was a mixture of Gothic, Neo-Gothic, and Rococo architecture and interior decoration styles.

 Not a single detail was overlooked. Even the ceilings were richly decorated. I have pictures of carvings on the wood paneling, of tiny details EVERYWHERE. At some point I will put up a gallery and link to it, but for now here are some of my favorite pictures from the castle.

Here is a picture from the library. It's hard to see because it was pretty dark inside the castle, but all of the wood work was carved with incredible detail.

 One of the family lines who lived in the castle at one point had a swan as part of their crest. I think it looks more like a Flamingo because every time you see it is painted red, or the red has faded to kind of a pink color. If my Aunt Doni had a family crest, it would probably be a flamingo and look something like this. :)

 Here is a real honest to goodness Treasure Chest. The D&D side of me couldn't resist getting a shot of this.

Family lines and crests of 'Lords of the Castle'.

 A more detailed family record for families who have owned/occupied the castle at various points throughout history.

This stuff also made me think of my Aunt Doni, who works for the Repository dealing with illegal imports of animal products into the US. She sees stuff like this all the time, except usually more exotic. Aside from the antlers everywhere they even had serving dishes and utinsles made out of deer hooves!

Some really neat examples of armor on display.

 Another shot of the outside of the castle.

 My favorite part of the castle were the unfinished parts. The battery tower and the keep were both carved stone like this and unfinished. The tower used to house cannons for defending the castle and prison cells. I got the strangest vibe from being in the tower and the tower basement. The tower featured the spiral staircases you usually see when people draw or make movies about castles. Well, they really do have spiral stair cases in towers like that, although the steps are a lot more narrow than I would have guessed. It's hard to tell, but I tried to take a picture of my feet on the stairs. I have pretty small feet and not even my whole foot fit on the step at close to the widest part of the stair. It made climbing the tower a tiny bit nerve wracking, but still VERY COOL.

Spiral Stair Case of AWSOMENESS.

 Very old, very steep wooden stair case in the keep tower.

More stairs to the top of the keep tower.

Looking out over the castle gardens and to the north-west from the keep.

The castle as seen from the keep.

The church steeple as seen from the wall near the keep.

The keep itself. This part of the castle is roughly 30 meters high and you can climb all the way to the top and look out between the crenelations. The walls are 5.5 meters or 16.5 feet thick. (Yes, they really are that thick. You can see how thick they are when you look out the windows of the keep from the inside) I didn't get a picture of it, but at the ground floor there is a square hole that was roped off and had a grate over it. I later read that this is called an Angstloch or "Fear Hole" and that it goes straight down over 12 meters into the dungeon. There are no lights and no windows in the dungeon and the only way in or out is via a wench that used to be installed directly over the hole. In Medieval times it was used as a prison. In more recent years it was used as a gun powder storage room. Either way, it was a very dark hole and gave me the chills.

I spent a good two hours just roaming the grounds looking at everything and taking lots of pictures. And after I left, I still didn't feel like I had taken enough. The tour was only 3,50€ and WELL Worth it. I wish I spoke German and could have taken the tour, but the lady in the office was kind enough to dig up a guide book about the castle in English which she let me have. :D On my way out I told her "Dankeschehen! Es ist wunderschön!"

Here is a picture of the inside of the church.

I also included this picture because Nick and I had a conversation about how people probably take for granted that they live in a city (or even in a country) which has historical sights that are older than our nation. Like, "Oh... yeah, I pass the castle on my way to school or work every day. Its no big deal." We don't have things anywhere near as old as this that are man made in North America, but as you can see by the graffiti on the door to this prison cell in the Battery Tower, people over here don't seem to take notice....

Adventures in Euroland: Day 4

OMG SLEEP WTF?!
Woke up again today at 4:30am. I stared at the ceiling until 6. Then met Nick for Breakfast. I would love to get my sleep schedule back where it should be. : /

The hunt for the windmill continues and a nice old man tries to talk to me:
Anyway, breakfast, then to the bakery and back to the hotel room to hang out till about 10 or so when the castle opens. It is raining again and very gloomy out. Chilly and gloomy. But like the post office, neither wind nor rain nor sleet nor snow will keep me from my quest!

So I headed out into the weather. I wandered down a few different streets this time. I found a bookstore which I would like to explore tomorrow. I also spotted a little Thai/Chinese place which I will try to talk Nick into going to. If Italian food is as good as it is, or really that much better than it is in America here, I hope the Asian food is just as good too.

I looped around the castle and back towards the hotel, past it, and down another street I hadn't yet traveled. I walked down this way for quite a while.

I saw some signs that had to do with the windmill, but I have yet to find the windmill itself. I'm pretty bummed that I don't read German or Dutch.


After having been out in the rain for an hour or so and coming up empty on my search for the windmill it was time to head back to the hotel. On my way back I passed a really nice old man, (I did say this town was pretty much mostly old people from what I can tell, I've seen very few younger people here)

Anyway, so this nice old man said "Guten Morgen!" (Also, pardon my German spelling, I know its terrible) and then he said a bunch of stuff after that which I did not understand. I felt so bad! I wanted to speak to him and be like, "HI! Good morning to you too! This is really swell weather, even if it is a little chilly. I think your town and your country are beautiful!" But alas, I was kind of taken by surprise and all I could manage to sputter was "Uh, I'm really sorry, nein Deutsch." :( I am so sad. I didn't even ask if he spoke English. Sprechen zie English? :( He  said, "Oh, Ok, Thank you." and walked away. I was crushed. Like, I really cannot explain how sad I am that I didn't get to talk to him. :( I wish I could speak every language under the sun. If I had a super power, that is what it would be. To read, write, speak, and understand every language known to man. I vow that when I go to Japan I will be able to communicate with the locals, at least on a rudimenary level.

A very wet and very cold and very sad Tiffani arrived back at the hotel a short while later. :( I got back, hung all my soaking wet clothes out on the heaters to dry, and suited up for some lunch and then prepared to go see if the castle was open.

My clothes drying on the towel warmer in the bathroom. These things are SO handy!

Bad weather and evening meal time:
After I got back, ate my sandwich and set my clothes out to dry, I was feeling a little sniffly and very cold. The weather didn't show any sign of improving so I opted to wait for tomorrow to see if the weather improves a bit for Castle Viewing. Whether it does or not I will still be going as the Castle is only open Saturday, Sunday and Thursday and tomorrow will be my last chance to see the castle before we head to Berlin.

I hung out at the hotel for a while and when Nick got back we decided to try to the little Thai/Chinese place for dinner. The food was pretty good, but I don't think it was quite as good as the little Italian place. I have to admit, I think it is kind of funny to see/hear Asian people speaking German since back in the states they usually speak their native Asian language when working, and speak English with an accent. Just an observation, no disrespect ment to anyone.

So, all in all another laid back day, hoping for better weather tomorow.

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.