On Monday December 12th I
left for my Europe trip. I bought a train pass and made good use of
Europe's excellent train network, which I was very impressed by.
First stop was Berlin, in eastern Germany. Berlin has a fascinating
history, and it was interesting to hear of everything that went on
there and see the remains of the Berlin wall. I did a free walking
tour of the city, which was very informative. I also went to the
Pergamon museum, which has some amazing big artifacts, including the
Pergamon Altar.
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| Brandenburg Gate, Berlin |
On Tuesday I took a night train to
Cologne, in western Germany. Cologne has an incredible cathedral
which started construction in 1248. It is incredibly gothic and was
absolutely stunning to look at. I spent a long time walking around,
and also went up one of the towers. Its incredible to think of the
resources to build such a structure during that time, and it took
over 600 years to complete.
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| Cologne at night with the 'High Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Mary' |
I also visited the 4711 Cologne house,
home of the perfume by the same name of course. I also visited
Aachen for an afternoon, which is very close to the Dutch Belgian
border.
On Friday I left for Brussels, capital of Belgium. Brussels
is a very nice city. I visited the Magritte museum, which is an art
gallery, along with a museum on Automobiles and one on Comics.
Brussels is famous for the birthplace of the cartoon character
Tintin. And I visited the peeing boy statue, 'Mannekin Pis', a famous
statue in the city.
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| Manneken Pis, Brussels |
On Saturday afternoon I went to
Antwerp, which is known for its diamond sector. (I didn't buy any)
That evening
I went to Paris. Paris felt so much bigger then the other cities, I
think primarly because of the grand design of the city. I spent more
time than the other cities there, particularly because of all of the
interesting sights too see. I first visited the Notre Dame du Paris,
and did another free walking tour, which was again very informative.
Paris has an incredible history. I also did a tour of Montmartre, and
visited the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur. That evening I visited the
Eiffel tower, and went all the way to the top. Although it is perhaps
somewhat over hyped, it really is a quite amazing structure.
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| some tower I found in Paris...forget what its called |
The following day I went to the Louvre,
which is one of the largest museums in the world with over 35,000
artifacts and works of art. I am not too much into visual arts, but
the paintings and artifacts in that place were truly amazing. And
there really was something special about looking at the Mona Lisa...
I also visited the Arc de Triomphe,
which was commisioned by Napolean in the 1800's. The following day I visited the Palace
at Versailles, which was the royal palace in the 16 and 1700's. It is
also an incredibly beautiful place. That afternoon I went into the
Catacombs, which are abaondoned stone mines running under Paris for
several kilometers. Part of the tunnels were used as a burial place for
human bones from Paris' overflowing cemeteries in the 18th century. There are piles and piles
of human bones and skulls piled along the sides of the caves,
organized into different patterns. It was really creepy, but a unique
place to see.
My final destination was Luxembourg.
Luxembourg is a tiny country and with only 500 000 inhabitants, it is
almost the smallest country in the European Union. But I think the
city was the most beautiful city I visited in all of Europe. It is in
very hilly countryside, and was a fort built on a large hill.
Everything is very quaint and matches what I think of as
stereotypical Europe. The country is so small that the walking tour I
did sometimes gets to chat with the from the prime minister if he
happens to be going for lunch when they're outside his office. No
such luck this time though. I hung out with some fellow backpackers from
Brazil and Germany in the evening, and spent my last day there seeing
the beautiful city and surrounding countryside, before my long train
ride back to Holland.
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| Luxembourg City |
