Beer, Chocolate and Cheese (Oh, My!)
Posted on September 22, 2008
Filed Under Call us tourists | 1 Comment
By Reporter Sierra
Ah, Brussels. What other city has a statue of a peeing boy? What other city has so many examples of Victor Horta’s work? What other city has a structure that is a magnified atom? The answer is: none.
However, Brussels (also known as Bruxelles in French and Brussel in Flemish) isn’t all smelly, old statues, and buildings. There are also breweries and lots and lots of other beer places (thumbs up from Dad), cheese, chocolate, crepes, and waffles (four thumbs up from Sierra), and museums (thumbs up from Mom). But enough about those.
Now, allow me to introduce the star of the show … Manneken Pis! This statue of a peeing boy is small, only about 2 feet tall. But this little statue has an interesting, not-so-secret origin. Two, in fact, though neither one is proved to be true. The first is that the son of a duke was caught relieving himself against a tree during a war. Everyone laughed, ending the war, and thus a statue was put up to honor him. The second story is that a regular boy peed over a wall during another war.
Our co-star tonight is … The Atomium! This structure (pictured at the top) is an atom magnified 165 billion times. It was built for the 1958 World’s Fair. Six of the nine spheres are accessible, and five of the nine spheres have two floors. The middle sphere has a snack bar. Four spheres are exhibit halls and a children’s party room. The top sphere houses a restaurant as well as a panoramic view. It is also the only sphere accessible by elevator (except the bottom sphere, where you get on the elevator). The elevator was the fastest in 1958, at 5 meters per second.
Another cast member is the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, also known as the Museum of Comic Strip Art! It features exhibits about much-loved characters such as Tintin and the Smurfs. Located in a building designed by Victor Horta (”The Father of Art Nouveau”), the museum has no problem telling you loudly, “I was designed by Victor Horta, the Father of Art Nouveau!”
In the role of the Musée Instrumental is … the Marvelous Musée Instrumental! Displaying more than 3,300 instruments, the Musée is a must-see for all music lovers who happen to be in Brussels. What’s more, wireless headphones allow you to listen to an instrument by standing in front of it!
The Museum of Belgian Brewers is small, but the admission fee includes a glass of beer. (”Hooray!” say Mom and Dad. “More beer!”) The Museum consists of basically one room, in which there is a loooooooooooooooong movie about beer in Belgium and a few information panels.
Some of these characters can be visited by doing an Official Brussels Walking Tour. To visit the rest, well, you just have to get off the extra-beaten path.
Well, that concludes today’s post. Log on next time for yet another post by the one, the only … Reporter Sierra!
Beware of Big Gray Men
Posted on September 15, 2008
Filed Under Adventures | 1 Comment
Posted by Daria
So we’re walking around Brussels, on our way to see the Manneken Pis, a tiny statue of a peeing boy that is the city’s most famous tourist attraction. Two large gray statues loom up ahead on our right.
“Look,” says Sierra, “there’s van Gogh.” (Yes, she knows who van Gogh is.) “I think it’s a man.”
We walk a little closer, and quick as a flash, a statue lunges at us and claps its hands.
We both fly a mile in the air and shriek. He grabs my hand and motions for Sierra, coerces us into posing for a picture. Asks where we’re from, I say, “New Mexico.” He says, “Barack Obama.”
He requests (demands) money, we give him some, he gives us a postcard featuring himself and the other “van Gogh mime.” The other guy has hardly moved all this time, just glanced over once. We walk away, laughing, and vow to be more careful about approaching statues on the street.
We’re still rattled an hour later. One of our new travel mottos is “Watch out for van Gogh!”
Where We’re Staying
Posted on September 15, 2008
Filed Under Call us tourists | 2 Comments
Posted by Daria
During this trip we’re staying in a variety of accommodations—apartments, bed & breakfasts, small and large hotels, and hostels. They have one thing in common: They’re either cheap or as cheap as we could find in a particular area. Cheap in the heart of Brussels isn’t the same as cheap in the forests of Luxembourg or cheap in an extortionate tourist town.
One option is youth hostels. These are buildings with dormitory-style rooms, shared bathrooms, and communal entertainment and dining rooms. They were originally created for older high school and college kids who are backpacking around, but over the years many have added family rooms to appeal to people with kids. The price includes breakfast, a small Continental buffet with European standards like deli meat, different breads, chocolate spread, jams, cereal and coffee or milk.
We cut back on our hostel plans after discovering that in countries such as Switzerland and France, they cost more than hotels if you’re paying for three people. (”Under 12 free” is not universal.) And many of those in large cities get horrible reviews on hostel review websites.
Germany and Luxembourg have nice, inexpensive ones, however, so we chose three. The horror stories (just kidding, sort of) follow.
Rothenburg (Germany). Located in a great old building (at top), a former mill. Pros: Right in the center of town, view of old buildings and red roofs, sink and shower in room, men’s and women’s toilets very close by, tomatoes at breakfast, lots of hooks in room. Good, cheap beer and wine for sale by the bottle. Cons: Tiny pillows, light in women’s toilet “went strobe,” room curtain hung down so it was in the way of the sink. Ceiling was slanted, leading to bumps on heads. About $80 per night.
Ulm (Germany). Located in a modern college-type dorm in a suburban area of Ulm, a city that was heavily bombed during World War II but still has a gigantic cathedral. Pros: Modern, lots of entertainment options, many showers and toilets in communal rooms, strong shower, humongous sink room (”sink heaven,” Sierra called it), cool laser beam door lock, useful shelf by window. Cons: Shared changing area (although the women’s had one private shower with its own changing area), noisy kids in the hall at 1 a.m., two reading lights didn’t work. About $70 per night.
Hollenfels (Luxembourg). Located in a tiny town next to a beautiful old chateau in a former chateau building (see below). Pros: Large room with four double bunks for the three of us (so plenty of extra bedding), fitted sheets, very quiet, freshly made strawberry-rhubarb tart at breakfast one morning, cool retro hair dryers in shower rooms. Cons: Co-ed bathrooms (although the showers were single-sex), bathrooms a ways away, showers in the basement, showers that shut off every 12 seconds, no hot water in sinks, room not that clean, no reading lights. About $60 per night.
Ha-Ha, Holland
Posted on September 15, 2008
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Posted by Sierra
Comments Courtesy of Sierra
“Come to Holland, and have an Amsterdam good time!” Mom says commercials for Holland (aka the Netherlands) used to say this way back when she was a kid. Well, commercials may not say that anymore, but you can still say “Ha-ha!” to Holland and have an Amster-dam good time.
According to The Slow Travelers Guidebook, Holland has many interesting attractions, such as:
* Amsterdam (pictured above), in which there are several points of interest (see below). “I Heart Amsterdam!”
* Leiden, which is like a mini-Amsterdam. “Historic, but looks a little too much like Amsterdam for me.”
* Gouda, “Home of Gouda Cheese,” jokes the Curds ‘n’ Whey reporter. In fact, big rounds of cheese hang above the streets, a scent of gouda is all around the town, and you can’t walk two feet without tripping over a gouda cheese shop. “Heaven. Enough said.”
* Katwijk, a wonderfully quaint little seaside town. The Slow Travelers stayed in a very luxurious apartment, which was part of the Nicoletten Apartmenten. “Great big apartment, the seashore is pretty.”
* Giethoorn (Goat Horn), which is a quaint little town with a large network of canals. “Cool, especially the fact that the town centre is only accessible by boat, foot, or bike.”
* The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Now a museum, it shows you the secret entrance to the “Het Achterhuis,” or “The House Behind,” as well as the house itself and the office building the House Behind is attached to. “Very, very moving, almost as moving as the book.”
* The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Housing The Milkmaid, The Night Watch, and other famous paintings, the Rijksmuseum is a work of art itself, being located in a small castle. “I liked it, the paintings were amazing, especially The Night Watch. The building is just as cool.”
* The tram, which is an excellent way to get around Amsterdam, as well as an excellent way to get to Amsterdam from nearby towns.” Moves very softly and quickly. The tracks it runs on are all over the place!”
* The Valk (Falcon) Windmill in Leiden. Inside there is a museum, as well as many ladder-like stairs that take you near the top. “Those steps take some getting used to.”
* 19 windmills along a canal in Kinderdijk. These were declared a World Heritage Site in 1997. “It rained most of the time we were there.”
So you see, there’s more to the Netherlands than just windmills and wooden shoes. And whether you’re gobbling cheese in Gouda, browsing paintings in Amsterdam, or brushing up on your Dutch, you’re sure to have a good time!
What’s the windmill saying?
Posted on September 12, 2008
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“Ik ben op het werk.”
At least that’s how we think you’d say “I’m at work” in Dutch.
Today we visited Kinderdijk, which has the largest concentration of windmills remaining in The Netherlands (there used to be 10,000 in the country; now there are 950).
We learned that how the blades are set sends a signal. “Korte rust” (when the blades are straight up and down and straight across) is working position. An “X” means “lange rust” or resting position. When the bottom blade is angled to the left it means “vreugde” (celebration), while to the right would be “rouw” (mourning).
That concludes your Dutch lesson for the day.
Fried Dough by Another Name …
Posted on September 10, 2008
Filed Under Food | 1 Comment
Posted by Daria
Throughout the world, wherever you travel, chances are you’ll come across a local specialty that’s a variation of fried dough. Call them doughnuts, beignets, sopaipillas, buñuelos, won tons, churros, elephant ears, zeppoles, whatever, someone takes a hunk of dough, drops it in fat, and fries it up. And it usually tastes really good.
Rothenburg has its own version of fried dough, called the schneeballen. That’s German for snowball, and the original schneeballen is made of strips of dough formed into a ball and coated in powdered sugar, which gives them a snowy character. The local legends say that schneeballen are around 150 years old and were originally made for special occasions.
Sierra’s eye was drawn to schneeballen from the moment we first spotted them on one of Rothenburg’s quaint and charming medieval streets. Every five shops or so, we’d run across a backerei, denoted by a pretzel sign hanging over the door, with snowballs in the window. They come in a variety of flavors beyond the original, including cinnamon, nut, chocolate, and coconut. Some are filled with nougat or marzipan or another flavored filling. They come in a variety of sizes, but the standard one is about the size of a fast-pitch softball.
Finally, late one afternoon, Sierra got to try one. After much deliberation over which backerei to visit and which kind to have, she selected a schokoballen—dark chocolate filling, chocolate icing. I went with an original. We got them from one of the outlets belonging to Diller’s, which claims to have invented them and has even named its hotel the Diller Schneeballentraume (snowball dream). There are numerous Diller’s Schneeballen shops and even a small truck that sells them off-premise.
In Sierra’s words, “It was like somebody took this snowy bread and dipped it in chocolate fondue.” Well, OK. I thought the icing tasted like the icing on a chocolate eclair. The dough was like the dough for the Polish cookies chrusciki, only thicker and not as delicate. According to one sign we saw, the dough is made with a lot of egg yolks, just like chrusciki, and prune liqueur, but we couldn’t taste anything pruney.
When we got to Dinkelsbuhl the next day, what did we see but more schneeballen. However, they were referred to as “the Rothenburg specialty,” so maybe they really are that local. If we find them elsewhere, we’ll let you know.
Legoland: German Ingenuity Meets Imagination
Posted on September 10, 2008
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Posted by Sierra
Raise your hand if you were ever taken to Legoland by your daughter. AH! I see Stan (AKA Dad) and Daria (AKA Mom) have raised their hands! That’s right, folks! I took my parents to Legoland Deutschland (Pronounced DOYCH-land). I paid for the tickets and parking. It was $110! But it was worth it.
For those of you who have never been to Legoland, I’ll describe it. The entrance is made out of Legos seemingly meant for giants. The cars on the rides look Lego-y. There are a billion kajillion things made out of Legos. For example …
* A Lego Einstein face with eyes that follow you
* A ton of Lego animals
* People made out of Legos
* Gargoyles made out of Legos
* Torches made out of Legos
* Fountains made out of Legos
I rest my case.
Rides are a big part of Legoland. Some cool rides are:
Feurdrache/Firedragon: The train is shaped like a dragon. The coaster sends you into a tunnel where you see a few scenes made out of Legos. Then it sends you down, over and sideways, but not upside down. It’s the best coaster in the Land (in my opinion).
BIONICLE Power Builder: A ride for older kids, the Power Builder starts off uniquely. You receive a card and program your own ride. This takes very little time, and soon you’re in line waiting to climb into a clawish-looking thing. You get in and burst off, spinning, flipping, going upside down, and whatever else you programmed. Not for those who get ridesick.
Comment from Mom: I went on this, closing my eyes and hoping it would end the whole time. But it was really cool! Also, I didn’t under the programming thing and just pushed buttons randomly!
Wellenreiter/ Aquazone Wave Racers: This water ride spins standing riders around on jet ski-like vehicles. Viewers use buttons to squirt riders.
Kids Power Tower: Riders sit on seats and slowly (or quickly) pull themselves up to the top. Then they let go and falllllllllllllllll! Repeat.
Dschungel X-pedition/Jungle X-pedition: The train glides down the river, then you plunge into darkness. You turn backwards and fall down, under a waterfall, then you lazily turn frontwards again, and plunge down a HUGE hill. Those in front get wetter.
Project X-LEGO Test Strecke/Project X-LEGO Test Track: You go up a hill kinda fast, then go up down up down up down up, then zigzag ’til you go down up to the end.
Kapt’n Nicks Piratenschlacht/Captain Nick’s Splash Battle: You climb onto a slow moving ship with water guns. Viewers can shoot at you and vice versa. Barrels around the path have targets in them.
The coolest non-ride thing at Legoland is Miniland. Miniland is a section with models of different areas. These include:
* Venedig/Venice (pictured)
* Berlin
* Niederlande/The Netherlands
* Schweiz/Switzerland
* Frankfurt
* Allianz Arena
The models are extremely realistic-looking and some of Dad’s pictures make them look like the real thing.
We went to Legoland at the right time, because the longest line we had to wait in was about 15 minutes. Legoland was fun, and taking Mom and Dad there was funny. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.
The City Inside the Walls
Posted on September 3, 2008
Filed Under Call us tourists | 3 Comments
Posted by Sierra
Red gabled roofs, walls guarding the town, and schneeballen. Where can these things be found? The first two are found, well … lots of places. But the latter is a Rothenburgian specialty; I’ll let Mom reveal the “nature” of them later. Rothenburg is a small town in Bavaria, Germany. It is picturesque and quaint, or at least the fortified part is. We stayed in a hostel. The windows on it are very unique, because the shingles arch over them, looking like waves. A lot of Rothenburg buildings have these wavy roofs, as well as steep triangular shingled roofs.
Overlooking the Tauber Valley, the fortifications are a major highlight of the town. From the Klingen Bastion to the Kobolzeller Gate(if you think those names are funny, you should hear the names of other places), there is a 2.5-kilometer (about 1.6-mile) walk on the wall. This requires the Art of Single File but is a good way to avoid the cars and much of the crowd.(Writer’s Pick for Coolest Thing to Do in Rothenburg!)
The cobblestone streets aren’t too dominated by cars, and some of the buildings date back to the Middle Ages. The curbs are low and almost go unnoticed, and it’s interesting to see the cars half-parked on them. Quite a few building have sundial-like clocks, which look ancient. Multiple churches, a three-part Town Hall, gates, towers, medieval museums, gardens, and “olden days” streets make up Rothenburg.
The town seems made for tourists, though not “tour bus” tourists. More common are the “slowtravelers” tourists, people who read about a town and head there ASAP. The signs seem very different, with interesting designs and coats of arm. There are many types of shops, such as Christmas shops, toy shops, antique shops, and overall assorted shops that sell items like Swiss army knives. If you’re in the mood for a cookie or some bratwurst, there are plenty of places that sell both.
An important thing to remember is that Rothenburg is not Epcot, and that’s why Dad is smiling.
Another Unsatisfied Customer
Posted on September 3, 2008
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Dear US Airways,
I regret to inform you that we have had an unsatisfactory flight on one of your airplanes. This flight was from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Frankfurt, Germany. It was Flight 704, and the plane was A330.
The first unsatisfactory thing to happen happened when we were still on the ground. There was a 45-minute delay due to “equipment problems.” We were able to listen to music, but that was about it.
After we took off, the entertainment system, which had a screen in front of each person, wouldn’t work at all. The armrest electronic gizmos, which controlled the light and audio, frequently stopped working. Every single person on that plane took an 8-HOUR FLIGHT without the benefit of most of the entertainment system.
The main reason for my anger is the way the situation was dealt with. For starters, no announcements were made explaining about the electronic glitch(es). Passengers who wished to know about these had to ask either a steward(ess), or a person who had asked a steward(ess). None of these people were told much.
Finally, no services, coupons, discounts, or other forms of apology were offered.
I close by saying that my family and I will most likely use other airlines in the future.
-Sierra K. Hieronymus
Repesenting the Hieronymus/Labinsky Family
Loosening up for the long flight
Posted on September 2, 2008
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With the New York City skyline as a backdrop, Daria — under Sierra’s careful supervision — does some airport yoga in Newark.
We’re in Charlotte now, waiting to board our flight to Frankfurt.
The airport has free wi-fi (thumbs up) but won’t let you access beer sites (thumbs down).
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