A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

(Jump to Sunday the 18th.) Today ate leisurely knowing that we'd chosen a 12:32 train into Paris. There was even a good, thorough BBC documentary on the implications of American Rap or Hip Hop music. Whereas, MSNBC runs around asking people's opinions of the 60th anniversary of the UN. Let me tell you, most ordinary people don't have opinions worth broadcasting.

Rolling through the French countryside was interesting. There was much more farm land than I'd envisioned. I guess I think Europe should be more widely populated as it's been here so long.

We arrived right on time at Glace d'est at around 4:12. Luckily one of the areas that Jay had written down was only a few Metro stops away from the station. We're one station down from Place de Republique at Oberkampf. It was easy to get to this area. We then walked and stayed at the second hotel we asked about. It was small. The prices here are a bit more reasonable than what we have seen so far in Europe. Still I'm spending Euros as if they were Canadian dollars. C'est la vie!

We managed to walk to Notre Dame before sunset. The map of Paris maps things look like a hop and a skip; however, my feet are killing me after that JOURNEY.

Labels: Eurotrip 2005, Paris

It was grey and cloudy when we got up. We wanted the 'official' tour of the city, so we bought tickets to the tour bus. Just like in other Brussels, we pressed ENGLISH from the nine or so other choices and slipped on the free headsets. I seem to remember college kids had these jobs once upon a time. Now, we've forsaken the fun for efficiency.

The tour was around an hour. We, again, took the 'second story' and shivered although covered in the front section by a roof. The rain continued. As the tickets were valid for 24 hours, we did the same trip in the afternoon. This time I had on a proper sweatshirt and the sun eventually broke out.

It was nice to have a short nap today. We changed hotels from yesterday. That was the very first thing we did in the morning. The room was fine Hotel Zurich but there was a nightclub close and we had a room over the front street. I didn't sleep soundly for the whole night. We have a smaller but quieter room at Hotel Bristol now. Yet, only for tonight.

Tomorrow we will go to Paris. We even bought the tickets ahead. The 12:15 train arrives at around 4:00 there. Hopefully, after we get all settled, I'll find a place to upload the missing photos and these words.

Labels: Eurotrip 2005

Today, after getting up from our basement suite at the hotel, we packed and went to the train station. We bought a locker for the bags. Then, we did a final walk around the river front of Frankfurt.

For a large majority of day we followed the Rhine river on our way to Luxembourg. It was a very beautiful ride. I have always thought in my travels how everybody thinks of their location as nice, beautiful, or even as "God's country". In actuality, lots of geographically-separated areas share common appearances. I saw the rolling hills of Vermont today. I saw meadows that could've been in the American midwest. I saw vast areas that reminded me of the Okanagan region of BC and Washington State. The common castle on top of the hills reminded me I was on a different place on the globe. That, along with the buildings of the towns and the languages being spoken on the train.

We got to Luxembourg in plenty of time to check in and walk around the city. This is smaller that other places we've stayed. It's cute.

Labels: Eurotrip 2005, road trip, train

We figured that we'd done Brussels and it was time to move on. We got up, ate breakfast, and walked down the hill to the North Station. We had looked at a map and decided we were ahead of our own schedule which exists only in our heads. We didn't need to run to Luxembourg. Therefore, the map showed that Frankfurt, Germany wasn't too far away.

If you've got the cash, travel by train is a snap. We had to go into Cologne, Germany to catch an ICE train to Frankfurt. It's probably the fastest I've ever travelled on land. It's too bad that rail doesn't make sense in North America. You'd think, now that air travel is such a burden due to security that some routes would work. How about a Montreal --> Boston --> Hartford --> NYC --> Washington DC high-speed line?

We got into Frankfurt in the late afternoon. Wouldn't you know there's an automotive exhibition going on. Hotel rooms are more than double normal prices. We're paying more than I care to convert to Canadian dollars. Plastic will hold everything until we can sort out back in Vancouver at the end of the month. Just gimme another German beer.

Labels: beer and wine, Brussels, Eurotrip 2005, train

We had a fine breakfast at this hotel. We're staying in the Hotel Albert. Right after, we walked down to the North Station and took the Metro to Central Station. There were competing companies offering city tours. We got on the upper, open deck of a bus. It had audio commentary through headphones. We just had to select English from a list of many. The tour was designed with 10 stops where you could hop off. We didn't and were on the bus for more than an hour and a half.

We ate lunch down near the area in yesterday's photo. I'm still full. We spent the afternoon sightseeing.

Belgium is an interesting place. Around 40% of the population speak French and a larger number Dutch. As we are staying in the north quarter, we also hear a lot of Arabic and Turkish on the street. The country considers itself the capital of Europe. Except for its chocolate, lace, waffles, and beer, I think knowledge of Belgium is a bit low key.

Labels: Brussels, Eurotrip 2005

These entries aren't too insightful. It's more difficult than I thought to distill the events of a trip while it is going on. Maybe the paper journal I kept in Sri Lanka last year worked more efficiently. I don't know.

Today we left the Netherlands. We went to Amsterdam's Central Station and bought tickets to Brussels, Belgium. On the map it looked so far, but in a train marked as International, it didn't take long. We disembarked in less than three hours. I love flying along on rail. It's a real shame that rail doesn't seem to work in North America.

We came to this city without any reservations or plans. Wouldn't you know there is another international exposition that is filling all the hotel rooms. Well, not exactly all as we managed to get one for tonight. I don't know if we'll be able to extend here or have to look elsewhere.

My feet are tired as we walked around Grand Place which is very far from where we're staying. It was very cute and almost magical in a Disney sort of way. Food and most things seem cheaper here than in Holland. We ate in one of many Turkish restaurants for lunch. They gave so much food we just did sandwiches for dinner.

Labels: Brussels, Eurotrip 2005, train

Tonight's the second evening that I'm writing and saving as a text file. As soon as we moved to the upgraded room, I lost the free internet connection. I'm still getting several but they are secure.

Last night we finished Amsterdam by walking around most of it. The famous 'red light' district was pretty in a neon glow.

Today, we got up very, very late. We didn't get down to the breakfast until 10:15. After that, we walked to the Rembrandt museum. Although interesting, I just think a few lucky artists got good PR. Some didn't even manage to achieve fame in their own life. It might also be that those who create a large enough body of work cannot be forgotten. The modern equivalent might be the Beatles, or perhaps Madonna. In order to be a deva, one just needs to weather enough years.

Jay called a pen-pal that he's had for over 15 years. The guy lived in northern Holland, so we took a train up for a visit. The distances are short here and the rail system very good. We flew past many cows, sheep, geese, and canals. It was a very nice visit an only an hour each way.

We didn't finish until almost 10:00. Since we want to get an earlier start tomorrow, we'll not be doing anything tonight. We will head south on rail tomorrow and end up somewhere.

Labels: Amsterdam, Eurotrip 2005, train