Going East

The weather has been uncooporative the last few days, nonetheless I was able to sneak in some sight seeing inbetween intermitent storms.

On the second day I swam in the lake for some time. Since it was cool and grey I had the lake to myself. Even in the weather it was such a nice experience to float in the water.

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An unexpected twist… as I went to upload my pictures I found that the files were not there. The pictures are gone saving six that were taken in Zurich on Tuesday. Well this is disappointing.

I can only relate what I saw of Lucerne. It is a 50 minute drive from Zurich and is deeper in the Alps. The city sits on a spider like lake and is in a traditional medieval style. In particular there is two wooden bridges that cross a river entering the lake that are quite old. On one of the bridges sits a tower. Looking across old town up a slight hill there is a medieval wall encapsulating that side of the river. Though it is in the alps the weather prevented any sight beyond the foothills.

I am disappointed to see my photos gone, I remember the day but I will forget probably what I saw. I guess I will have to visit again some day.

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As I write this post the weather has cleared overnight and the Alps are once again in plain sight. I would like to return here one day to hike and camp in the high mountains.

I arrived in Uetikon am See in the late in the afternoon. Uetikon is a small town on the edge of Zurichsee and about 20 minutes from Zurich, also on Zurichsee. I had a very enjoyable flight on Swiss Air from Prague to Switzerland, but if I were one inch taller I think it would have been very bad, it is a sardine can. I was sad to say goodbye to Prague I barely scratched the surface, but now to Zurichsee.

I decided early on that the Switzerland trip would be more outside activities than my previous destinations. I began with a swim in the lake. It is something to swim in a lake that crests the Swiss Alps, it’s an experience. After some time at the lake I took the train to the southern point of the lake in a town called Rapperswil. It is a quaint Swiss town with a large castle perched on a hill on a peninsula.

After a short tour of the southern lake I hopped on a lake cruise up to Zurich. Zurich is at the northern-most point on Zurichsee.

I entered Zurich under gray clouds. There is a storm coming that may interrupt my plans but for today I beat the weather. I didn’t really do anything in Zurich but walk around near the river. I ran out of reading yesterday so I hoped to find an English language book store but being Sunday everything was closed.

It’s a nice city. kind of small, certainly expensive but is quiet and clean. Tomorrow I hope to visit Lucerne and Mount Pilatus but I’m not sure if the weather will hold, it maybe a rainy trip, we’ll see.

I woke with a plan …but first I had to wash.

As I waited for laundry I visited a great cafe and had a waffle, which is new for me since coming over to Europe. One thing to mention in regards to breakfast: the coffee is so much better over here, it maybe the thing I miss most when all said and done.

After breakfast I started my day visiting the Old Jewish Quarter of Prague which includes several synagogues, a museum, and the old cemetery. The cemetery is really unique because it’s been there since the middle ages and holds something like 100,000 people. This is a small area for so many and the ground is built up and undulating as the people kept building on top of grave sites. The area is also home to one of the oldest synagogues in Eastern Europe, pictured below.

On my way to the Jewish Quarter I passed a free gallery that was mentioned to me and decided to check it out. It was figure sculptures reinterpreted which was interesting but the building was really magnificent, it’s an old opera house.

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In the afternoon I visited Národní muzeum or National Museum which is in a crazy palace that is precede by at Wencelses Square, a long corridor with shops and hotels on each side.

Next door to this museum is the archaeology museum. One ticket will get you into a few different museums, including this one, so I stopped in. It was about the Celts in the Bohemia area. Following that I decided to try and see the National Monument at Vitkov, the site is a symbol of Czechoslovakia independence. It is built upon a very large hill where you can see much of the city.

That does it for Prague. I’d like to go back, I’d really like to see more of Eastern Europe, there is a vibe to the area that is unique and difficult to describe.

Next I’ll be in Switzerland. My plan there is to mostly be outdoors since my knee is doing better.

In the morning I went to visit another gallery of Prague the Veletržní palác, a gallery that focuses on 19th-21st century Czech artwork. I didn’t realize it at the time but the building is undergoing extensive renovation and unfortunately the 19th Century work was unavailable. It is a fascinating look at art that is trying to escape the french influence of the early 20th century, especially the artwork made post 1940.

Afterword I went to a restaurant that focus on Czech food I had pork ribs and pickled vegetables. I got the impression that the meal was more suited for the deep winter but it was good.

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I visited Center Prague again and took in a few sights. While on my way I took a few photos.

The train into Prague is a beautiful ride it mostly follows the Elbe river through valleys. It is an easy train ride and my favorite of the trip.

My entry in Prague went smooth. I stepped into the city and went straight through the medival streets to the cash exchange in central Prague. Czech uses the Czech Crown for currency which is a fraction of the Euro, so you’ve got to wrap your head around paying hundreds of crowns for a meal or coffee. I found on the first day that public transportation is extensive which is really helpful. I easily found my new stay in the Holesovice area.

My first impression of Prague is that it is old. The streets are narrow and curve unexpectedly and there a mix of Baroque and Gothic architecture abound. It looks like a time capsule of Medieval Europe. The second thing is that it is full of tourist, really very dense with tourist.

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On my first full day I wen’t to the Charles Bridge, a standout in all the guidebooks. It is a large bridge with saints and martyr’s statues. From it’s location you can see the hill where the Prague Castle stands and St. Vituve’s Cathedral.

Prague Castle composes many buildings in it’s castle grounds including a basilica and cathedral. A highlight of the grounds has to be the Cathedral housing the left arm of St. Vitus. It is huge and in a classic Gothic style, it is an imposing building.

Next to the cathedral stands the the thrown room to several Holy Roman Emperors in the Middle Ages. It is really cool inside though from the outside it is unassuming. Walking into the great hall where Emperors stood is an experience and than seeing the throne adjacent to it. As I wandered about I could imagine what it would have been like during the 1200’s entering into this expansive hall to have words with the King.

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In the evening I visited one of the many Prague Galleries. This particular one focused on Impressionism.

This post will cover two days in Berlin because I’m a little behind in the blog and I wasn’t able to do as much as I wanted to due to my knee injury.

In the early morning I went to see Checkpoint Charlie, the famous American Checkpoint between Soviet controlled East and American/British/French Controlled West. There’s really not much in the large intersection except for the checkpoint and the sign of the american soldier on the East side and a soviet soldier on the west side.

After this brief visit I walked up the block a ways for breakfast and to checkout the Gendermanmarket as square with a music hall and a church.

I went down into the subway from here to see the Holocaust Memorial and Tiergarten Park.

Right outside of the Tiergarten is the Reichstag so I went there next but on my way I found the memorial below to fallen soviet soldiers from the Battle of Berlin

As the day ended I visited the National Gallery and the Brandenburger Gate, a traditional through way from west to east.

The national gallery was good I would have liked to have spent more time at it. I have found throughout this trip that I really enjoy the galleries, It’s something different to see in reality world renowned artwork. the works often depict life or at least what people were thinking about at the time of their creation, its a fascinating retrospection.

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The following day I went off see the East Side Gallery. A fragment of the Berlin Wall that depicts graphetti about peace and the reunification of Germany.

Following the East Wall Gallery I walked the waterfront for a time and picked up a really good burger at the Burgermeister, a burger shop underneath the subway. In the evening I went to see The Dead Don’t Die at a small theater near where I was staying. It was a really cool little theater in a traditional Berlin building.

As with all the cities I’ve visited there is much I’d like to still see and do. I would certainly revisit Berlin especially to see some of more Museums, I’ve got to remember museums close on Monday’s!

I visited Berlin to experience European modern history but what I found was a city that has been largely rebuilt and overlayed with the new and yet throughout the city there are reminders of a difficult past.

I began my journey at the Berlin Wall Memorial, the dividing line between the Soviet East and the GDR and the French/English/American influenced West Germany.

After visiting the memorial I took the subway to the Seer waterfront to visit the DDR (GDR for English Speakers) Museum. I wanted to learn more about life on the East Bloc under socialist rule. It is a museum full of interactivity, they have artifacts of everyday life as well as doctrine of how life should have been under a complete socialist rule. I found it interesting to note that the East could not really make the conversion to communism nor could they entirely live life in the rest of the Soviet Union, they were like an island.

After the museum I checked out the famed TV Tower in Alexanderplatz only a little way off from the DDR Museum.

My knee was giving me some grief so I wasn’t able to move around the city a whole lot on this day. I ended the day in Hackesche Hofe and enjoyed a particularly nice meal of spaetzle, mushrooms, and steak.

The train from Amsterdam to Berlin was easy going, as all of my long distance train rides have been but as I entered Berlin HBF Station I was met with lighting and thunder …a premonition for the issues to come as I entered Germany’s Capital.

I have now navigated the metro in London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam but none of that gave me the knowledge necessary to deal with Hauptbahnhof. The signs are intelligible and the station a labyrinth of escalators. I spent far too much time walking in circles looking for the tram to my new place. Exhausted and irritated with walking in circles I found the tram but that was not to be the end of my long day. The rain was coming down in sheets as I made my way out to the tram station across the street when a misstep and a slip retched my left knee and took me soaking to the ground, already an injured knee on the mend it now sparked with pain. Now standing in the tram, soaking and in pain I try and navigate the ticket system. I’ve found that, at least in Berlin, knowledge of the German language is a must, there is little in the way of instruction in English. Gazing at the hieroglyphics I simply buy a ticket that I hope pays my way to my destination. But the day wasn’t over, the final stroke for my knee came as the tram made a sharp turn and I stupidly was in the cross section of the tram, so as the tram turned the floor rotated on my left side opposite to my right twisting my knee once more.

I did make it to my new room, limping up 6 flights of stairs but I’m afraid that I may be a bit limited in movement over the next few days. I hope that Berlin isn’t too big and has a lot of elevators and escalators.

On the last day in Edam I wanted to revisit Amsterdam but my phone and bank card got in my way.

Standing on the bus from Edam to Amsterdam I tried to use my card to pay for the ticket, the only way to pay for a ticket in fact, but it wouldn’t go through. I got off the bus in panic and than remembered that I had a purchase declined the previous night when I went to add more minutes to my phone sim card. So now it is that I have no phone and no money. This began a long winded journey where I walked to the next town over to the bank(Edam has no bank) to try and convert cash to euro. This plan would have worked if there was a cash exchange in the bank in the town I’ve now walked to, the only cash exchange is in Amsterdam and I currently cannot get there. Finally, I asked to use the phone from the host that I was staying at and resolved the bank problem.

So, now begins my journey back to Amsterdam. It was late afternoon and I had a ticket for the Van Gogh Museum so that’s where I headed first. It is a good museum that follows the trajectory of Van Gogh’s life as represented by his art. I was surprised by the clarity of his painting, in pictures it always looks kind of muddy but in reality the brushstrokes are clear and defined. He had an admirably vision but was ultimately tortured by mental illness.

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I greatly enjoyed the Netherlands and happily would visit again. The people of the Netherlands are by far the friendly folks I’ve met on my journey through Europe.

Next time I’ll be in Berlin, Germany. Guten tag.

I attended the famed Edam cheese market festival today before a striking thunderstorm and rain hit the town for some time.

The Edam Cheese Market is run through the July and August months on Wednesdays. It is a recreation of the market as it would have been seen prior to 1950 when the industrialization of cheese manufacturing killed the tradition. Basically the cheese farmers come to the village via the canal or horseback and bring cheese to be weighed and than priced for the consumer at the market. It is a pretty big deal here and has a real festive quality.

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The weather came in near noon when the market was finishing up and dampen my outdoor plans for seeing Zanse Schaans. I mostly took the time to read and drink espresso until it cleared in the evening and I was able to walk along the beach.