2006 Euro Trip
For about a month in June and July of 2006, I went to Europe.
The first week, I was with my mom, my brother Paul, and my sister Di in
Switzerland (aka "The Schweiz"). After traveling with them, I headed up to
Germany and Denmark to visit friends and relatives. Here are some pictures of
the trip; I hope you enjoy them!
A huge fountain at the edge of Lake Geneva, taken from Geneva.
A mixture of fun: drinking beer and playing a huge game of
chess in a park in Geneva.
Some very large statues in the same park.
Paul, mom, and Di in a park in Geneva.
Some "Kunst."
Di in a park.
This picture was taken in the town of Murten, where we stayed
the second night. It, like all of The Schweiz, was very nice and quaint. In
fact, Switzerland seems suspiciously like an amusement park.
A restaurant with a backyard patio getting set up to show a
World Cup game.
Some boats on Lake Geneva.
An old chocolate factory on the river in Bern.
A game of sand volleyball in the middle of Bern. It wasn't
really nearly as interesting as one might imagine.
A statue on top of a fountain in Bern. It's a child-eating
ogre. Bern was awesome!
I'm not sure why exactly I like this photo (well, besides the
picture of the chicks making out), but I do. It was just some of the trash in
the bottom of the ogre fountain.
These next few photos are from a place called Ballenberg,
which is a sort of amusement park that collected old, authentic houses from all
over The Schweiz and grouped them by region. It was very nice and quaint (of
course).
Ballenberg even had a bowling alley!
One of the Ballenberg houses in the Italian part of the park.
Mom eating a döner in Interlaken. Mom's great!
A picture from our hotel room in a town called Mürren. I used
one of my favorite photo tricks: just put your sunglasses in front of your
camera lens, and your pictures automatically look 50% more apocalyptical.
Paul on our balcony.
This guy or girl nonchalantly parasailed by our balcony. Like
I told you: The Schweiz is an amusement park!
Cool clouds.
Everybody loves cows. Except grass.
Paul on one of the park's rides: Luggage Cart!
A picture of the Jungfraujoch with clouds rolling in. Taken
from the Schilthorn, a neighboring mountain where they filmed a Bond movie.
A cool piece of art on top of the Schilthorn.
A picture of me hanging out in the Schilthorn lounge.
In The Schweiz, most of the hiking trails are best not
traversed in pumps.
The Schilthorn, with its "hot-shit-in-the-70s" revolving
restaurant. It was really nice, with great food.
A self-portrait of your intrepid guide.
Paul and I got off one gondola early on the way down the
Schilthorn, and we walked to the bottom. It was a great view and a great hike.
The hiking trail signs in the Schweiz rival the road signs of
Mexico City in terms of baffling complicatedness.
Switzerland is so adorable.
Basically, it's precious.
Paul and I stopped for a beer at a little restaurant on the
middle of a hill on our hike down the mountain.
When I worked at the dairy, I could never get this close to
the cows, so this hike was pretty fun for me.
Something about cows in mountains just seems so right.
I'm not sure why, but this picture reminds me of the hills at
the start of Soundgarden's video for "Black Hole Sun."
A track for a funicular railroad leading out of Mürren.
This was part of a sign telling you to pick up your dog's
crap, but I still thought it was cool because quite a few people call me "Sitz."
A dungeon in a castle called Chateau Chillon, just outside of
Montreux.
A courtyard at Chateau Chillon.
The chateau from the outside. As you can see, it's directly on
Lake Geneva.
One day in The Schweiz, we went on a "chocolate train." The
train took us to the Callier chocolate factory, as well as to a cheese factory
in Gruyere (seen above).
Here's a picture Paul took of me in the sampling part of the
chocolate factory tour. On the left you can see (sort of) my mom. We like to say
that she's blurry because she's eating the free chocolate so quickly!
A picture of the chocolate train. Such a magical train
actually does exist in this fantasy land!
Di's boyfriend was waiting to pick us up at the Lausanne train
station.
So, after I left The Schweiz, I went to visit my friends Brian
and Barbara in Munich. This is a picture of them at a beer garden restaurant
where we watched the Germany/Argentina World Cup game. Sorry, Argentina...
I don't think I'd ever seen "German patriotism" before the
country hosted the World Cup, but it was blowing my mind and freaking me out a
bit. In the two years I'd lived there, I'd only seen flags on government
buildings before.
One saw lots of German flags used as skirts (sometimes even by
the creepy, quasi-goth German dudes, like the guy above).
This was kind of cool, though: they had these girls walking
around with huge baskets of pretzels, like the keno and cigarette girls in
casinos.
In the line for beer and food at the Biergarten.
There was a huge line for assorted beer and pork products.
Some German fans.
Small things like this get wars started.
Here's me in my "Germany" jersey I got in Mexico City for
about 3 dollars. Also, you can see the "Vorsprung durch Technik" on the screen
behind me. It's the Audi slogan in Germany, but also the first three words of
U2's album "Zooropa" (after the word "Zooropa").
A German fan (who I don't actually think was German) with the
only Argentina fan I saw that day (although I don't think she was from
Argentina, either).
Showing off the good-luck underwear I bought for the game.
Brian and Barbara with a cigarette machine on the walk home
from the game.
To an absurd degree, everything in Germany revolved around the
World Cup for a month. This was especially prevalent in advertisements, like
this ad in the window of a traditional photo studio. For some reason, the text
surrounding the girl grabbing her huge boobs reads "Football World Cup 2006."
For about two days I went back to the ol' stompin' grounds of
Regensburg, where I studied for a year. This sign is from a "beach" in
Regensburg, which was actually the top level of a mall's parking garage filled
with sand and lawn chairs.
Here's a shot of the "sky beach." I went there with my host
brother Jens one afternoon. It was actually pretty cool, and I wished they'd had
it when I was living there.
Back to Munich for another game viewing in a Biergarten. This
time we went to the Hirschgarten, where there were four huge screens and
thousands of people. Unfortunately, it was the quarter-finals game against
Italy, and the Germans lost.
The sun setting over the Biergarten. The game started at 9 pm,
so the place was absolutely packed by then. We actually arrived 5 or 6 hours
early to get a place to sit (and some good food).
"Hirschgarten" actually means "deer garden," and it's so-named
because there are actually deer in the perimeter of the garden.
Here's yours truly with a plate of ribs I polished off. Brian
introduced me to the concept of "Fat Elvis Days," and we certainly observed them
to the fullest extent for my stay in Munich.
Just a few of the things that make Fat Elvis Days the best
days. Notice the German flag/tablecloth. Like the previously-demonstrated
flag-as-skirt, the Germans don't seem as skittish as the Americans when it comes
to desecrating their flag.
Speaking of flag desecration... After the Germans lost, there
was weeping, wailing, sobbing, and gnashing of teeth...and the ladies were also
sad. So Brian decided to do some lines of snuff (i.e., sniffing tobacco, i.e.,
NOT COCAINE!). I just thought it was kind of funny, although we had to explain
to the people around us that it was just tobacco dyed white.
Yep, that's a fifty. And NOT ILLEGAL! Don't worry!
This was on an air freshener.
After visiting Munich, I headed up north to Hannover, where I
met up with Henni and her son Jan. Henni was the host mother of my friend Josh
when I lived near Hannover. Jan was graduating from a college in Wilhelmshafen,
so we went up to the north coast, and to Ostfriesland, where Henni's from. This
ship was in Wilhelmshafen.
This was in a city in Ostfriesland called Esens, where Henni's
from. There was a town festival starting that evening, so they had a big torch
procession with marching bands, guns firing, and beer.
A picture at the start of the procession.
Henni, one of the coolest ladies you'll ever meet.
Here's a shooting demonstration in front of the town hall. The
guns were comically loud, but that made it that much cooler.
Putting out the torches at the end of the procession.
There's just something so wrong about this picture, which was
on the side of a truck from a slaughterhouse.
Question: Do Germans really like David Hasselhof? Answer: Yes,
they do. This is an airbrushed background of a carnival ride.
A lady selling smoked eels (and only smoked eels) at a stand
at the carnival. I'm all for diversity and being open to new cultures, but this
is still just nasty.
The next day, Jan and I went up to the island of Langeoog.
It's one of the islands that make a line to the north of Germany's North Sea
coast. It was very beautiful.
Part of the beach was entirely covered in shells.
The North Sea coast has some of the most extreme tides in the
world, and at low tide the water actually sinks to the point that one can walk
the 10 or 15 km distance from the mainland to the islands! This picture was
taken as the tide was starting to go down.
This picture sort of shows that the whole island is basically
a large sand dune.
Whatever; just as long as they don't make a "Shaggy Cow"
movie.
Back on the mainland: Henni (center) with her sister and
daughter Kerstin.
One of me and Henni.
A picture of Henni's family and friends. Jan; Henni's
brother-in-law and her sister; Henni; two family friends; and Kerstin.
Another picture of me and Henni.
After Ostfriesland, I went further north to Denmark to visit
my relatives near Copenhagen. I took this picture of a grain field when I went
for a bike ride one day.
Here's the bike I borrowed from my Aunt Grethe. It was nice
ride, but my thighs were hurting afterwards, since I seem to be quite a bit
taller than her!
Speaking of height, this sign was on the top of the doorframe
in Grethe and Aspee's guest house. Despite the sign, I hit my head a good three
or four times.
Here's an old-fashioned water pump at Grethe and Aspee's
house. Denmark gives The Schweiz a run for its money in terms of fantasy-land
status.
One thing that The Schweiz doesn't have, though: oceans. This
is the Baltic Sea, as seen from a town called Tisvildeleje. We went there one
evening for ice cream (quaint! quaint! quaint!), and I went back the next day.
It turned out to be the best beach I've ever visited!
I think many of us want to be this guy.
Grethe and Aspee's house in Kagerup, somewhat near Copenhagen.
Grethe and Aspee bidding me farewell from their beautiful
house.
From Denmark, I went to visit my friend Clara in Berlin. On
the Danish train, though, I saw this pretty morbid mural. It took me a bit of
time to realize it, but it seems to be a picture showing medieval Danish troops
killing Swedish troops.
My friend Clara. I know her from the year I stayed near
Hannover. She lives in Berlin now, and she and I went to Potsdam one day.
A church in Potsdam. Potsdam turned out to be one of the
nicest cities I visited on this trip, which was all the more impressive due to
the fact that it's still in the process of reconstruction. It was a part of East
Germany before the wall came down.
Buildings in the Dutch Quarter of Potsdam.
A picture of Clara back in Berlin. I tried taking pictures of
her to annoy her and get her to hang up the phone, but it didn't really work. I
did get some nice pictures while I was waiting, though.
I believe this is a picture of the French Cathedral in the
Gendarmenmarkt.
Another talking-on-the-phone picture.
You have to admit, though, that Clara's got some cool shoes...
Clara and I.
A picture with the new Holocaust Memorial in the foreground.
It's huge and impressive, and right in the center of Berlin.
Although it's not entirely uplifting.
A city scene with the Berlin Cathedral and the TV Tower in the
background.
I thought this was a cool picture.
A sculpture of various books by some of Germany's most famous
authors. The sculpture is in the square in Berlin where many of their books were
burned under the Nazi regime.
After walking about 10 hours one day, Clara and I decided to
take a load off in a Biergarten. Not as elaborate as a Munich beer garden, and
with much smaller beers, the Berlin Biergarten scene still provided a welcome,
relaxing break at the end of the day.
Well, here's me drinking an odd but delicious beer with cherry
flavor in it. The thumbs up is not only for the beer, but also for Europe.
Thanks for a wonderful time to everyone that I was able to stay with and visit;
I can't wait to see you again! And thank you, too, my dear readers, for making
it this far!