Our European Vacation My favorite vacation was a trip to Europe in 1990. My son, Josh, and I went for a family reunion in Germany. Aside from the three days and two nights at the reunion near Bonn, Germany, we had Eurailpasses, an International Youth Hostel membership card, and almost three weeks to go wherever we wanted.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The smallest house in Amsterdam The day we arrived we took a boat tour of Amsterdam. If you look at the picture on the left you'll see a white section of the building which seems to be three windows wide: two on one level, one slightly below. Look more closely. The window which is slightly below and the one directly beneath it (mostly obscured by the cars) is the smallest house in Amsterdam!! Two stories high, one window wide. Josh slept through most of the boat ride. After the boat tour I barely got him across the street into the train station where he decided not to go one step further. He slept on the train station floor for a couple of hours. Being Amsterdam, we hardly attracted any attention as he lay there snoozing while swarms of commuters hurried by.

Accomodations Our first night we decided to stay in a real hotel. We chose the Hotel Sint Nicolaas. In this picture I think Josh is excited at the prospect of a good night's sleep! We liked the hotel and the rates were reasonable. We both rested very well, although I think by that evening I could have slept like a baby almost anywhere - even the floor of the train station!

From Amsterdam we took a night train to Montreux, Switzerland (home of the Montreux Jazz Festival.) We reserved sleeping accomodations. Though not required, on busier trains they are recommended if you want to sleep relatively well and don't like sleeping sitting up.

Montreux, Switzerland

Chillon Castle One of our first adventures was a trip to Chillon Castle. We went to the top of the castle. The first flights are stone steps, then wooden steps, then finally a wooden ladder sort of thing. It got darker and darker along the way. The view from the top was well worth the climb.

Inside the Castle If I remember correctly, this is the main hall in the castle. If I'm mistaken, it's still a pretty darn big room in the castle. This room is called Salle des Fêtes. Josh loved the armor. The pictures are of opposite ends of the room.

Gunstock In this same room was a case with this beautifully inlaid gunstock. The available light was poor, and the case had a flourescent light in it. Nevertheless, I put my lens to the glass and snapped away. The inlays are ivory and mother-of-pearl.

The Castle and the Promenade The outside of the castle. There was a moat, and the castle juts out into Lake Geneva, which they call Lac Leman. We loved Montreux. We stayed at the youth hostel on Lake Geneva, halfway between the castle and the town. It's a lovely walk along the lake from the town or the youth hostel to the castle. There are flowers along the way, and the promenade is very clean. There are even bags and bins for doggie poop! Our first day in Montreux we made the mistake of toting our luggage carts uphill and downhill on the road that goes from the train station to the youth hostel, just a couple of blocks north of the lake. Halfway there we got on the bus, where the kindly gentleman mentioned earlier queried us. When we walked to town later that day we walked the flat-as-a-pancake promenade with the lovely view of the lake and mountains. If only we'd known...

La Beigneuse This is a statue designed by a local artist. It is situated by the lake along the promenade in Montreux. The picture's silhouette effect loses some of the beautiful detail, yet retains something of the lovliness of the statue and the surroundings.

Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) Sunset from the promenade along the lake. Alps in the background. It's even more wonderful in real life. Behind those mountains is the Matterhorn. You can's see it in this picture but you can in the panoramic QTVR at Montreux's official site. The link for the QTVR is at the bottom of the header. The Matterhorn is rather small in the background way to the right of the town, once you are looking over the lake.

Merten, Germany

Family reunion, October, 1990 About 65 relatives, descendents of Julias Christian Burandt, attended. Of all the people at the event, I had only met two of my cousins before. They had visited us in the States, one in the 70's, the other with his bride on his honeymoon in the late 80's. They both lived in Germany. We're all third cousins to each other. They'd never met each other until this reunion! Most of them spoke English. Even the ones who said they didn't could actually communicate sufficiently in English. We promised to learn German before we returned. Faithful to our promise, we haven't returned yet! We had lots of fun, ate good food, took walks in the countryside. Interestingly, the property behind the facility where we had the reunion is a stud farm (horses). The father of the five eldest siblings who were at the reunion had been the son of a horse breeder in Prussia, and had been forced to leave his home (the plantation Gross Trampken - it's now a farm commune in Poland) during WWII. He was hired by the owner of the stud farm, before it was a stud farm, and convinced the owner that it would be a good business. He was right! Here is a picture of some of my relatives and a few of their significant others: Before we had a V-8. After we had a V-8.

After the reunion we stayed for a couple of days with relatives in Cologne (Koln), Germany. They were warm and wonderful, fed us, entertained us, washed our laundry, and let us rest!

Cruising Down the Rhine, Germany

Bacharach My cousin Uli took us to Bonn to catch the Rhine Cruise, one of the free perks which came with the rail pass. While cruising, I read a map I'd purchased about the castles along the Rhine. Castle Stahleck in Bacharach was a youth hostel, so we decided it would be fun to stay there. What we didn't realize was that we had to drag our suitcases (minus one we'd left in Cologne with our realtives) up the mountain! Half way up I didn't think I could go one more step. Several young men bounded up the trail right past us without so much as a how-do-you-do. Not one of them took any notice of us. Just as I was about to give up - or at least sit down and cry for a while - a kindly Norwegian couple in their seventies stopped to offer assistance. The husband carried half our luggage, which didn't even slow him down, and cherfully ascended the rest of the way up the mountain. I couldn't thank him enough! Then the person at the reception desk informaed us that Josh and I would have to sleep on separate floors, as males slept on one floor, females on another. Josh, being only 9 years old and in a strange country, refused; nor did I want him to stay with strangers. The receptionist, realizing our difficulties, said we could share a room on the females' floor as long as Josh used the males' rest room on the next floor. Whew! The view from the mountain top was spectacular. The inner courtyard of the castle. This photo depicts what youth hostels are about. Youth having fun. It can be noisy, especially on Saturday nights, just like in the States. Things settled down around midnight. The tower, which is not seen in this photo is much older. The castle began in 1135 and has been a youth hostel since 1925. This was the first place we stayed that had the heat turned on. It was wonderfully comfortable. Then in the middle of the night I woke up rather cold, and could feel a distinct breeze. I walked down the hall, looking for open windows. Finding none, I returned to my bed. I was sure there was a very cold draft coming from somewhere, so I got up again, and went down to the main floor. There was nobody in sight. Someone had left the castle door wide open! I closed it and went to bed, and sometime before morning it was toasty again.

The Romantic Road, Germany

After the Rhine cruise we stayed with my cousin Michael and his wife Steffi for a night. They made vegetarian spaghetti for us and we had an an enjoyable, if brief, visit. We were planning on taking a bus tour of the Romantic Road (which refers to the Romans who once occupied the area) and Michael recommended we stay in Dinkelsbuhl along the way. So we had our luggage tagged for Dinkelsbuhl and got on the bus.

Rothenberg On the way we stopped at Rothenburg, and the driver clearly informed the passengers that if we were not back on the bus at 1 p.m. it would leave without us. With that in mind we went exploring Rothenburg and thoroughly enjoyed Siegfried's Mechanisches Musikkabinett, a museum of music machines, Kathe Wohlfahrt's Christmas store, and St. Jakobs Kirche (St. Jacob's church). We had twenty minutes to return to our bus station, plenty of time, only we'd forgotten which direction it was in. Sounds simple enough. Ask for directions. Wrong! We were informed that there are three bus stations in Rothenburg, all in totally different parts of the town, and there was no way to tell which one was ours. Not to panic, we went to the tourist office. Closed for lunch until - you guessed it - 1 p.m. So needless to say, we missed our bus. Now I started to get anxious. I'd left some expensive camera equipment and a back pack on my seat in the bus, besides the checked luggage, and our two essential luggage carts which were with our luggage but not officially checked. They didn't even have our names on them. When the tourist office reopened, the wonderful people there phoned ahead to the tourist office in Dinkelsbuhl and asked them to retrieve our luggage and the things we'd left on the seat when the bus arrived there. At this point, I'd forgotten about the carts not being checked and didn't mention them. Also, the bus driver owed me about $15 in change, which I figured I'd never see again. I didn't mention that either. The tourist office personnel then assisted us in getting the right train to Dinkelsbuhl. When we arrived there, the Dinkelsbuhl office had indeed retrieved our luggage and the things we'd left on the seat, but no luggage carts. They suggested we meet the bus the following day to see what we could do about getting our carts. I figured it was at least worth a try. The following day the bus arrived as scheduled and the bus driver immediately recognized and greeted us cheerfully. Without a word from us about who we were and what we wanted he gave us our luggage carts and the change we were due! We were amazed! It turned what had seemed to be a setback into a wonderful experience.

Dinkelsbuhl A lovely old town with lots of flowers and red tile roofs. The town is surrounded by a wall. As you walk around the wall every now and then you come to a tower. Each is different in appearance. During our walk around the wall we stopped at the 3-D museum, which was both fun and educational.

Local pottery shop in Dinkelsbuhl I bought a neat little oil lamp here. [More info about the shop, Dinkelsbuhler Keramik, on the town's website.]

The Nightwatcher The first evening we were in Dinkelsbuhl someone mentioned the Nightwatcher to us. So at 9 p.m. we went to the front of the church to follow him on his rounds. He crossed the street and went down a couple of buildings to a tavern, where he stopped, sang his nightwatchman song, and was greeted by the tavern keeper, who gave the him a glass of wine. The nightwatchman took a sip, then passed it to the group of us who were observing his ritual. The glass was passed around. Then he crossed the street and went down to the next tavern where he repeated his song. Here again, someone emerged from the tavern and gave him a glass of wine. This time he drank it all himself. At this point we left and went back to the youth hostel to cut some Zzzzzzz.

After two days in Dinkelsbuhl we took a night train to Vienna (the birthplace of my paternal grandfather) Austria. We didn't reserve sleeping accomodations. They aren't always necessary. You can lie down on the seats if you have the compartment to yourself. This way we saved a few dollars, which were in short supply on this trip, and still got to lie down to sleep!

Vienna, Austria

Hofburg Palace The wall which is covered with graffiti is actually a cardboard covering, so people can do their thing without damaging the real wall. We saw lots of graffiti in the parts of Europe we went to. This was a very practical alternative to damaaging a historical landmark and was rather interesting to read.

We'd written in advance for tickets to see the Vienna Choir Boys sing in their home "church" a.k.a. the Hofburgkapelle (the Hofburg castle's chapel), but they were all out. We went anyway, and bought some expensive tourist package tickets, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. We got to sit in the best section of the chapel, though we didn't actually get to see the boys choir, which was on the third balcony. Well, we did see a couple who occasionally peeped over the railing.) The acoustics were superb, and they were accompanied by what sounded like a full orchestra and what I dubbed "the Vienna Choir Men."

Lighting the Candles Gold everywhere in this place! I guess that's what you expect in a palace chapel. I took this picture from my seat. During the service, a regular catholic mass, Josh asked if he could take his shoes off because they were hurting him. Nobody could really see, so I let him. After the service, he couldn't get them back on! So he had to walk the cold sidewalks in his bare feet, but didn't seem to mind much. With our tickets we got a tour of the Imperial Burial Vault and museum.

From there we walked the few blocks back to the youth hostel. This was a great place to stay because it was right in the heart of the old part of town and had private rooms, so we didn't have to pack everything and store it during the day. On the way we stopped for a photo of Josh in front of the Vienna Opera House. If you look very closely you can see he doesn't actually have his shoes on, just the front half! But you'd never have known if I hadn't told you. It'll be our little secret...

Humor is where you find it While in Vienna we came across a street fair. I love the juxtaposition of inflatable castle against fine architecture. Yes. once again, that's Josh, my favorite subject, belly down and having a blast.

What are they? If you guessed pocket sundials you are absolutely correct. These were in the Vienna Clock Museum. A fascinating place with a great collection. Highly recommended!!

If in Vienna you must visit the amusement park Prater with its famous Riesenrad ferris wheel.

Another wonderful experience in Vienna. This is Stadtpark where Johann Strauss, Jr. used to play. Every evening there is a free concert.

After two nights in Vienna it was time to move on. During the whole trip we didn't stay more than two nights in one town. At 9 p.m., after a day full of fun, we were at the train station deciding where to go. Salzburg? Berlin? We only had a few days left, and frankly I was a bit stressed by being in a new place every other night. We decided to go back to Montreux, but we'd just missed the most direct train by a couple of minutes. So we waited an hour and took another train, which eventually got us there. This was, unfortunately, a busier train, and we hadn't reserved sleeping arrangements. We managed to keep a compartment to ourselves for several hours by spreading ourselves out on the seats and sleeping. Finally the train was full and a couple of young men who smelled of stale alcohol came in to share our compartment. They were kind enough to share my side of the compartment so Josh could keep sleeping.

Switzerland

The Matterhorn On our second visit to Montreux we did some things we'd run out of time to do on our first visit. One was a trip into the Alps. We went to Zermatt, which was as far as our rail passes would take us, then... ...we went past the Matterhorn on a cog wheel train to Gornergrat...

...and took a cable car from Gornergrat to Stockhorn.

On top of the world! Well, at least way up there!!! Stockhorn, 11,586 feet It's last year's snow. We enjoyed it anyway.

We also took a boat ride on Lake Geneva, another free perk that came with our Eurail passes. We bid Montreux a fond farewell and went back to Cologne to visit our relatives and retrieve our extra suitcase. Then we took the train to Amsterdam hoping to get there in time to buy some wooden shoes and lace curtains. When we emerged from the Amsterdam train station, with about an hour to shop, there were street vendors with their wares spread out all over the plaza. I'd looked for earrings all over Europe and not found any I liked. Now I found lots of them! So back into the train station for money exchange (fortunately the teller remembered me from a few minutes before and didn't charge me a second fee!!) After selecting a couple of pairs of earrings we dashed off in search of wooden shoes and lace curtains. Before the hour was up we had souvenir shoes for Josh and his younger brother, David and for a neice and nephew. I also found some lovely lace curtains with windmills. I have them safely enclosed in a Tupperware container until a find a window that is just right for them.

Amsterdam & Haarlem, The Netherlands

The end of the trip At last our trip was ending. This is me on one of many little bridges in Amsterdam. We didn't make it to numerous places we'd hoped to go: the Arctic Circle, Greece, Budapest (the birthplace of my paternal grandmother), northern Italy. Still, it was amazing how much travel and fun we squeezed into those three weeks on our minimal budget!

Our last night in Amsterdam (or so we thought...) We'd planned on staying at the Hotel Sint Nicolaas. Well, it was Saturday night and without reservations you can't stay anywhere in Amsterdam! Another learning experience. So we hopped on a train and got off in Haarlem, which we'd cruised through at the beginning of our trip, and stayed at the Golden Tulip Lion d'Or. A wonderful meal at the Hotel's fine restaurant and a great night's sleep were a delightful finish to our European Adventure. The next morning we flew back to the States and spent a week with friends in Baltimore recovering from our vacation!

Fairies FAQ Fun Music Mary Engelbreit Links to other parts of the Universe

Links to other sites about Europe Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door (ETBD) The Official Site for Chillon Castle Le Chateau de Chillon - great photos Lonely Planet - Destination Switzerland The Worldwide Hostel Guide

Youth Hostel, Montreux Passsage de l'Auberge 8 1820 Montreux-Territet (VD) Tel. +41 (0)21 963 49 34 Fax +41 (0)21 963 27 29 montreux@youthhostel.ch Take me back to where I was!

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