Spring Break

Spring break!!! The best part of the spring! J Katy, Bess and I (Emily was touring around London and Paris with her mom for the week) decided to go to Germany, Amsterdam, and Brussels for the week.

Mine, Katy's, and Bess' Backpacks

My friend, Betsy Miller, is teaching and living in Neuss, Germany, near Dusseldorf so we stayed with her from Friday until Monday morning. We flew RyanAir from London Stansted to Dusseldorf Weeze and it was probably the weirdest flight I’ve ever been on! It only cost five pounds so no complaining, but it was bizarre—advertisements were played randomly and there were no assigned seats. Anyway, we got into Dusseldorf around 5:30 and Betsy met us at the stop. We took the train back to Neuss and headed to the grocery store to pick up dinner—tacos! The most natural thing to eat in Germany of course! Her apartment was the CUTEST! It was fully furnished by IKEA and it was wonderful! The only downside was the fact that the heat had been turned off... but with multiple layers and heaps of blankets we kept warm enough!

Our room in Betsy's apartment

Taco night!

Betsy in her taco attire

After the taco experience, her friend, Meg, came over before we headed out for the night. Meg was so cool! She's from Iowa, so we had another American to bond with. We ended up heading to the Skihalle nearby, which is a huge, indoor ski hall, with Meg and their friend, Sven. We didn't go skiing--we went to the bar/massive dance party inside. It was so much fun! I mean, I'm no good at dancing but I love it anyway.

The next day we woke up and had a really yummy breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. MUCH better than our usual school dining hall breakfasts with cardboard-flavored "eggs" and fried beans. We showered and got ready when we were done so we could head to Cologne. Cologne is the next city over from Neuss. Betsy gave us a sweet fountain tour and we got to go to the chocolate museum!!! It was awesome. There were chocolate machines and rooms with random chocolate information and a rainforest room with tropical plants! AND we had the best hot chocolate ever afterwards. We headed back after that and decided to order pizza for dinner. We were planning to go to Betsy's friends' apartment for drinks in Dusseldorf and then head out to bars in Dusseldorf. We met up with Meg and Sven again and some other friends of theirs. Eventually we went into Dusseldorf and met up with Sven's roommate, Dave, and their rugby friends. We met D, who was our age, so that was fun, and Mark, who is from Australia. They were all really awesome and fun to be with. It was definitely a fun night!

Sunday we all slept in and just sort of hung around the house. It was freezing outside so we didn't have a huge desire to wander around. We went into Dusseldorf for German food for dinner, though! I had schnitzel! I usually don't like pork, but it was good. When we got back, we packed up and sadly got ready to go :(

We left Monday morning at 11:00--we took the train!! Well, trains is more accurate--we had a few changes which all went smoothly! We finally arrived in Amsterdam around 3 and took the tram directly to our hotel. It was cool because the tram was above ground so we could see the city on our way. The language is BIZARRE. The hotel lady kept saying, "Okey Dokey!" It was pretty funny. Anyway, Amsterdam is awesome!!! Bikes are everywhere and you definitely have to wait at crosswalks until the lights say to walk because otherwise there's a good chance you'll get hit by a bike, car, or tram. Crazy! It's absolutely beautiful though. The canals are everywhere. I couldn't stop taking pictures and usually I never take out my camera!

We went to the Anne Frank House after we checked into the hotel and it was totally worth the entrance fee. It was very sombering and I learned so much. I didn't know that the family was staying in Anne's father's work building--I guess I always though that they lived with a family. It was definitely a good choice to see the house. We wandered around the streets for a while and found a restaurant for dinner. Bess, Katy, and I each got grilled cheese, tomato soup, and apple pie. HELLO, WE ARE FROM AMERICA. It was really good though! From there, we walked back to the hotel and went to sleep as we were exhausted.

The next day, Tuesday, we woke up and headed out to the Van Gogh museum, conveniently located about 10 minutes away! We walked there and found Vondelpark on the way! Vondelpark is a huge park in the city--so pretty. The museum was really interesting because it had a lot of background information. I didn't know much about Van Gogh before so I loved it. We walked around afterwards and found the I AMsterdam sign/sculpture/whatever and took loads of pictures in front of/in the letters. We hit up the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and wandered some more. We pretty much spent the afternoon wandering through the city or the park. It was a day well spent. For dinner we went to Wok to Walk, recommended by Betsy and Meg. It was really good!! Again, we wandered back, got some ice cream, and went to bed. We had to waked up early the next morning to catch our train to Brussels.

We got to Brussels smoothly and stored our backpacks in lockers for the day. We somehow messed up the directions to the Grand Place and started walking the wrong way, but eventually found our way to the area. It was pretty cold outside so we ran into the first waffle house we saw (since waffles and chocolate were the only reasons I wanted to visit Belgium in the first place). It was pretty good! A chocolate shop was right across the street so we headed there next. We didn't buy much, but we went into PLENTY of chocolate shops around the city so it was just fine. We found Mannekin Pis, a statue of a little boy peeing, and it was dressed up in Tibetan Monk clothes!! Clearly, we were meant to be there that day... first our real monks in Paris, now Mannekin. After that, we really had nothing to do. It was a LONG day of wandering. We couldn't find much to do, mostly because it was so cold that we just wanted to be inside, so we went a cathedral and took a lot of pointless pictures. We ate dinner at 3:30 and sat there until probably 5 when we finally just walked back to the train station. We took the Eurostar back which is always a nice way to travel, and got back to London around 9:30! It was a super fun trip, even if Brussels wasn't well thought out. I'd definitely recommend it. If you want to see more pictures, you can look at my album online here! Enjoy!

:)

Jackie