The start of our trip, in a bar at the Philly Airport.
Inside the ghetto bus/tram thing that all passengers on the international flight had to cram into at the Philly Airport.
Yeah, keep that out of here!
Bad photo, but this is the transport system they have for international flights at PHL. Lame!
Ready for our red-eye flight to Dublin? I think so!
The sun rising over the clouds somewhere over the Atlantic ocean.
Finally! The clouds clear just as we are about to land in Dublin.
Our view from the back o the double-decker city bus from the Dublin airport to our hostel.
Jennye at Custom House Quay in Dublin, with the Grand Canal in the background.
Self portrait at the Grand Canal in Dublin.
Jennye's ridiculously overpacked backpack! Some of the contents were shipped back to the states the second day of our trip!
Cool building that contrasted with many of the crumbling relics.
Common stuff in Ireland, cool centuries-old stone walls everywhere.
A neat memorial built from stone in a large park in front of the National Museum of Ireland.
Dublin's light rail system.
Smithfield Square in Dublin.
Cool old chimney in Smithfield Square in Dublin.
An example of the impressive graffiti that nearly covered the city.
New shiny buildings were interspersed with old dilapadated building like these.
Capuchin Friary on Church Street in Dublin
Cool doors on cool buildings in Dublin.
Snapshot of the Old Jameson Distillery, which is still used as a museum,but mostly converted to lofts.
Images taken from the Dead Zoo exhibit at the Natural History Museum in Dublin. Photos weren't allowed in the exhibit, but it was full of hundreds of dead animals whose bodies had been preserved. Most of the animales were about 100 years old. It was VERY spooky.
The National Museum of Ireland, in the process of being restored.
When you walk around to the back of many new-looking buildings you will often find evidence that they are truly old buildings that have been renovated many times over.
The Guiness Brewery dominates a large portion of the Dublin footprint.
A map at a small church in Dublin. I wonder what nightmares the kids at the school grew up with?
Random... my name scribbled on a garage door. They even spelled it right!
More cool walls located along the tram line.
Almost speechless. This is an old church that has been converted into a lighting store!
No expense was spared in the Guinness Storehouse tour.
Really cool waterfall display at the Guinness Storehouse tour.
The atrium inside of the Guinness Storehouse.
Behind Jennye is the barrell building exhibit at the Guinness Storehouse.
Shots from the Gravity Bar at the Guinness Storehouse
The interior of John's Lane Augustinian Church in Dublin.
The front of the John's Lane Augustinian Church in Dublin.
Jannye snapping photos of everything that I was too lazy to shoot.
Stuck in a sudden downpour...
...hiding in front of yet another old church for protection from the rain.
Dumped on by Ireland's crazy weather.
Help us! No umbrella to save us from the sudden spurts of Dublin Sunshine!
Funny sign cause it looks like “crotch” and the guy is holding a shovel near his crotch. Haha.
Searching for an authentic Irish meal, this is next door to our hostel. No thanks.
Neat sign with a 3D Lincoln on it.
This is an entrance I would be proud to have at my place!
Dinner about to be served... Jennye looks little next to the oversized fixtures.
Getting drunk at Temple Bar in Dublin. This is the only shot that I took. Oh well.
Tiny hostel room packed with twelve beds. On our first night there was a drunk bunkmate who stumbled in during the wee hours and kept us up nearly all night.
Just one example of the old bridges crisscrossing the main canal.
A random street shot in Tralee Ireland, where our train dropped us and our bus would leave in a couple hours.
More cool old buildings in Tralee, Ireland.
St. John's Church, hidden by shops, but visible through a small opening.
Our gigantic bus trying to sneak through the tiny alleyways of Tralee.
The countryside on our way to DIngle. Many sheep and cow farms, but the hills above Ireland look desolate.
We finally get to Dingle to find this dog perpetually chillin in the window of the building across the street from our Hostel.
Our favorite hostel of the trip, The Hideout Hostel in Dingle Ireland.
Jennye hanging out in front of the hostel, talking to Pete.
Photos from our first night at a bar in Dingle
Tiny bathrooms are what you can expect of hostel travel. This one was probably the tiniest. Here you see the shower tucked behind the sink...
...and the toilet tucked behind the other side of the sink. Good luck trying to put on your pants in there!
Main Street, Dingle Ireland
Main Street, DIngle Ireland
Dingle is a postcard-perfect town, until you wander down some of the hidden alleys. Then you start to wonder if you are in a horror movie and the evil monster hasn't yet made its first appearance.
More cool stonework, there was plenty of it to be seen. Sometimes it was hard to tell if a building was very new or very old.
Jennye and one of our hostel bunkmates relaxing at the bar. (Danielle?)
Me and Abby, another hostel roommate, downing some liquid courage.
Great bathroom door signs at the Dingle Pub!
Yet another Hideway Hostel roomy hanging out with us.
Inside of the Dingle Pub on a Saturday Night.
The Dingle Pub, our second night in Dingle.
On our third day we had hoped to bike around the Dingle Peninsula, but the weather was nasty. We settled for a bus tour.
No one really wanted to get out of the van because the wind was hellacious!
The Gallarus Oratory.
Back in Dingle, this is the main dock for the fishing trade.
Another crack in the facade of this postcard town, Big Brother was watching from everywhere and every tiny little shop had a security system box right on the front.
More cameras watching us everywhere, everytime...
I love the signs. I wonder who came up with this one.
On our third night in Dingle we practically dragged the entire hostel along with us on a short pub crawl that lasted only two pubs. Here, Laura and Shannon get ready to plunk some keys.
Amber is rockin out on the old Piano in Dick Mack's Pub.
Amber still treating us to some piano action.
Angelique and Teuntje were some of our bunkmates from Holland.
Laura getting camera happy again at Dick Macks.
The bartender in Dick Macks was having a little fun with us, snapping photos with our own cameras, but not when we were ready and smiling, only when we finally would start yelling for him to take the damn photo already!
Dick Mack's was rated as a must see in Dingle, but we were a little disappointed. No live music and the place was empty inside.
Another good sign. We deciphered this to mean that if you light dog poop on fire then it is fine, and you might even make 150 Euro! Shouldn't there be a red slash through this red circle?
Back to the Dingle Pub after Dick Mack's. We were treated by authentic Irish guitar. This guy was a hoot, and sang for us a song called Seven Drunken Nights. Go look it up on YouTube.
Our whole posse drinking late into the night.
Tiny, tiny hostel rooms are hard to keep clean. This is our room at The Hideaway in Dingle.
The best hostel host in the world! Thanks Rebecca! She kept The Hideaway in tip-top shape and was always willing to chat with us.
Monday morning, on the bus back to Tralee. The whole landscape there is nearly perfect, here is just another rock wall bordering someone's driveway.
Our train that took us from Tralee Ireland to Cork.
Murphys and Guinness advertising was wallpapered all over Ireland, much the same as Corona and Dos Equis in Mexico.
You can't escape from Gresham. This was across the street from our hostel.
Clever marketing for a chicken joint. We didn't eat there, though. Haha.
Decrepit building along the Custom House Quay
Cool curved wall showing the true age of the old building.
Trinity Church in Cork, Ireland
A smaller outbuilding of the Trinity Church.
Our Hostel, the Bru Bar Hostel, had a pretty rocking bar on the main floor.
Jennye crashed early tonight, so Tristen, one of our roommates from Vancouver BC, joined me in search of a cool bar. We found The Mardyke on Sheare's Street. It had billiards, a bowling alley, several bars and even Karaoke Pods, which are like little private recording studios.
The Mardyke billiards area...
...and the Mardyke bowling alley.
Shopping in Cork...
...and more shipping in Cork.
Walking down the sidewalk, we discovered a tiny little alley that served as a courtyard for a fancy hotel. There was a natural, rain-fed waterfall in the back of the alley.
We had one more visit left in the Cork area, and it was the Blarney Castle.
Blarney Castle peeking over the trees.
Yet another Blarney Castle photo.
Yet another Blarney Castle photo. This is a cool window located in the dungeon area.
Yet another Blarney Castle photo. Looking up from one of the decaying outbuildings.
Yet another Blarney Castle photo. A fireplace that had been on a higher floor, but the floor was wooden and disappeared long ago so now the fireplace just sits up in a wall.
Yet another Blarney Castle photo. Looking up from the smaller spiral staircase, my favorite feature.
Yet another Blarney Castle photo. Looking down the spiral staircase about five levels up in the castle. The higher you got the smaller the staircase became.
Yet another Blarney Castle photo. You can see a tourist laying on his back kissing the Blarney Stone. Thousands of people kiss it for good luck EVERY DAY!
Yet another Blarney Castle photo. This was the second (exit) staircase and was more polished.
Cool bench at the (you guessed it) Blarney Castle.
More beer. This time it was Blarney Blonde, a micro offered at a pub near Blarney Castle.
I didn't take a watch with me, and since my cell was packed away I was forced to buy an Irish Wristwatch (say it fast, good luck) and chopped the band off.
We hop on Aer Lingus Tuesday evening and fly from Cork to Berlin. Here is Berlin at night through a dirty window, taken with a crappy camera. Enjoy.
This is the Berlin train map... seems simple enough, right?
One of our trains in Berlin....
...and another of our trains in Berlin.
This is the bathroom in our hostel. Clean, trendy and smells like mold. Oh well.
The lobby at the Wombat Hostel in Berlin. Very chic!
Our room at the Wombat Hostel in Berlin.
The Fernsehtum (Television Tower) in the center of Berlin is 1200 feet high and is like their version of the Seattle Space Needle.
Plenty of bikes in Berlin. Berlin bikers get the right of way from cars AND pedestrians!
There were subways and above-ground trams crossing all over the city.
More shots of the Fernsehturm.
A German poster for Inglorious Bastards
At the Alexanderplatz train station in Berlin, sleeping dogs have the right of way.
The Berlin Cathedral.
A random tunnel full of graffiti and a woman playing the accordian.
I happened to be wearing my Ghostbusters shirt while we discovered some graffiti of Slimer.
Boat tours making their way up and down the canal.
In some places the trams are just part of traffic.
A lot of rebuilding has taken place, here is an example where some columns were added to the front of a brick building -- but the columns are fiberglass!
The tops of the city buildings often have little lofts and balconys. We were waiting here to start our bike tour of the city.
More of our bike tour: The Egyptian Musem of Berlin.
More of our bike tour: Berlin Cathedral.
More of our bike tour: One of a few partws of the Berlin Wall that is still standing.
For 50 Euros you can go up in this tethered balloon for 30 minutes and just hang out. I skipped it. :(
More of our bike tour: The Holocaust Memorial
More of our bike tour: more of the Holocaust Memorial
More of our bike tour: Brandburg Gate
More of our bike tour: Hotel Adlon, where Jacko did his famous baby-dangling a few years ago.
More of our bike tour: Bundestag, or the House of Parliament
More of our bike tour: You can walk up to the top of the Bundestag for free and actually look down and watch the Parliament doing business. It is one of the ways that the German government is trying to be more transparent, literally.
At this point I was amazed to see a bike in this condition, but once I got to Amsterdam I wouldn't have even bothered to take a photo.
More graffiti which I thought was cool. It was throughout the city, where tagging is not against the law.
Jennye posing with more graffiti in Berlin.
The view from our hostel room. I watched for about 15 minutes as pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, trams and scooters all managed to get along peacefully. As you can see here, the bikes have their own lanes (red pavement) and signals, although it seems that about half the bike population choose to ignore the markings.
Kunsthaus Tacheles: An early 1900s shopping center that went banko, then was reinvented year after year by new entrepreneurs. In the 30s it was converted to be the Nazi SS headquarters and over the decades slowly deteriorated until 1980 when demolition began. A group af artists staged a protest to stop the demolition, and in 1990 the half-destroyed building was converted into an artists commune full of bars, art galleries and artists lofts. This was the COOLEST thing we found in Berlin.
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Jennye standing in the sand-filled courtyard drinking a brew.
Kunsthaus Tacheles: View from the courtyard up to the red 3rd-level bar, white 4th-level gallery and blue 5th-level bar.
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Neato bathtub bench
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Neato springy seat.
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Another view from the courtyard showing part of the inner building that looks rough, but is still solid.
Kunsthaus Tacheles: The outdoor courtyard bar
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Standing at the bottom of the main stairway. There was trash everywhere down here, but it was staged, as the rest of the building was spotless (except for the obligatory graffiti of course)
Kunsthaus Tacheles: On the 2nd floor somewhere
Kunsthaus Tacheles: The 4th floor somewhere
Kunsthaus Tacheles: A hallway leading to various art galleries
Kunsthaus Tacheles: another hallway
Kunsthaus Tacheles: One of the artist's dogs
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Looking down into the courtyard from the 5th-level bar
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Tents full of art next to the courtyard
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Very hard to see, but this is part of the building that was started to be demo'd but still stands. Some dim lights in the wondows lead me to believe that people are living in the rooms. Squatting is legal in Berlin!
Kunsthaus Tacheles: The 5th-level bar was carved out of the old attic. There is no wall on the left and you can look over the courtyard.
Kunsthaus Tacheles: 5th-level bar
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Looking down the main staircase
Kunsthaus Tacheles: The main staircase
Kunsthaus Tacheles: The 3rd-level bar
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Cool lighting in the 3rd-level bar.
Kunsthaus Tacheles: The bottom of the stairway full of broken glass and litter, but it was the ONLY place in the whole establishment that had any trash, so I think it was there for ambience.
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Main level bar and restaraunt.
Kunsthaus Tacheles: Front door of the main level bar and restaraunt.
Dunkin Donuts in Berlin! It was early, maybe I'll get a donut...
...or maybe not! There were bees all over the donuts inside. The employees didn't even care... just look at how much of the frosting was being eaten!
River boat tour: Pergamon Museum
River boat tour: The bottom of a neat old bridge
River boat tour: When we bought our tickets they forgot to mention that this tour had no english, just german. Oh well, I guess it felt more authentic this way.
River boat tour: I'm not sure what this building is, but it was a great example of how much of the architecture in Berlin was cutting edge and very futuristic, in sharp contrast to the old and crumbling historical buildings.
The new Berlin Haptbahnhopf -- or main train station. More cutting edge architecture.
Finally I get to ride on one of the fast trains as I make my way from Berlin to Hamburg.
Hard to tell from this video, but we are screaming! The ride was incredibly smooth.
I'm finally in Hamburg! Mayzie poses with some gas station advertising.
Another Hamburg perk -- drinking beer in the bus
Mayzie Wusz: future beer spokesperson
Jenna and Nick as we wait for dinner.
Even Mayzie knows how to enjoy a good drink (apfelsaft, her favorite)
Nick and Mayzie playing on the big spinny merry-go-round thing at the playground.
Jenna trying to shake off the woozy feeling in her tummy? Nah.
Some quick video I took from the merry-go-round.
Walking back from dinner, this was an abandoned-looking tunnel that went through a bridge footing.
A flourescent light under a bridge, with what looks like years of spiderwebs.
Nick messing with the spiders... there were some big ones.
Nick and Mayzie as we walk home from dinner.
Every night dozens of slugs would make their way across the walkway at the Wusz apartment. Here is one that Mayzie photographed for us.
On friday Jenna, Mayzie and I took a nice bike ride through the local neighborhoods. This was a cool house.
Mayzie has her own trailer where she would actually fall asleep!
Smile Mayzie!
We rode our bikes to the Ohlsdorf Cemetery, which was giant. We rode there for two hours and didn't make a dent.
This courtyard consisted of many extremely old (1600s!) markers that had been damaged (probably during war) and moved.
More extremely old grave markers.
This marker shows 1676! Incredible.
Cool old grave marker.
Another cool old grave marker.
This sign has my name on it! It means Sailor Cemetary
After the cemetary we hit up a really cool playground at Stadtpark. Check out this zip line!
I'm on the zipline...
...and Mayzie loved it too.
Video of Mayzie on the zip line.
A video that I took on the zip line.
In addition to the zip line, there was a GIANT swing. Where was this stuff when I was a kid?
A cool beer garden with a fake plain crash.
Since graffiti is legal in Germany, there are actually stores dedicated to the latest gear. Crazy!
Is this ice cream made from real smurf?
This is a public pisser on the sidewalk next to a bus stop. One more cool thing that we need over here!
Darren's turn!
That evening we took a ferry to downtown Hamburg.
Yet another Hamburg perk... you can drink beer just about anywhere!
Mayzie playing with the camera... a photo of her holding a camera showing a photo of me with a camera showing a photo of her. Haha!
Me taking a photo of Mayzie
Mayze was pretty fascinated with cameras.
The second level of our ferry, very comfortable.
A cool building along our ferry route.
Other ferries and ships, the waterway was very busy.
Hi Jenna!
Another building we passed on the ferry. It looked like a ship.
Jenna had a multitude of ways to keep Mayzie occupied on the ferry.
Helping Mayzie stay focused on her coloring
More graffiti... this time INSIDE of an apartment building.
Photo of the Aussenalster, or Outer Alster Lake, which is right near downtown Hamburg and is very popular for recreation.
My awesome rental bike! They were everywhere and very easy and cheap to rent electronically.
Our transportation for the day... I have the cool red rental bike.
A great day for a bike ride.
A bronze statue on the front of St. Michael's Church that shows the archangel conquering the Devil.
The brickwork inside the church shows decades and centuries (built in 1786) of wear and tear.
The view to the east from the top of St. Michaels Church: St. Nikolai, a gothic church in the foreground, and St. Catherine's Church to the right of it.
The view to the northeast from the top of St. Michaels Church: The Aussenalster
The view from the top of St. Michaels Church: Nick pulls a Jacko with Mayzie's baby doll.
The view from the top of St. Michaels Church: Mayzie is not happy with Nick!
The view to the south from the top of St. Michaels Church: Hamburg Harbor
The view from the top of St. Michaels Church: It was cold and windy up there!
St. Michaels Church: I took the stairs down instead of the elevator. The next few photos show how cool it was...
St. Michaels Church: Taking the stairs down
St. Michaels Church: The clockwork machinery
St. Michaels Church: the clockwork machinery
St. Michaels Church: Some of the old bells
St. Michaels Church: Windows in the upper half
St. Michaels Church: Access holes for who knows what
St. Michaels Church: Nick and Mayzie took the elevator and beat me down!
Years ago when the new bridge was built, this old tunnel under the harbor was made obselete. It is still in use, though, although weekends are only for foot and bike traffic. The tunnel has four large and two small elevators at each end. The large elevators are for CARS!
At the bottom of the tunnel entrance, this is where cars would head into the tunnel.
There were two identical tunnels, one for each direction.
On the south side of the harbor now, we had some quick ice cream (which was super cheap over there)
More ice cream eaters on the south side of the harbor.
A fake sternwheeler! The paddles barely skimmed the surface of the water.
Back in the tunnel... this is the view from the top of the stairs.
Very cool, this climbing wall is located in Flora Park, Schanzenviertel, which is a large bohemian nieghborhood where we found a giant street party going on.
Street party at Schanzenviertel, loud rave music is reverberating through the crowd.
Schanzenviertel street party
Mayzie making pretty for the camera
The coolest fire station anywhere, in the Schanzenviertel of course.
At the Wusz home, a very cool chrome gnome!
Sunday we decided to rent a canoe and explore the many canals throughout the Wusz neighborhood. While on our canoe trip this was one of the first buildings we saw. Some kind of theater maybe?
Please tip your guide.
There were many friendly geese and ducks to feed along the way. Feed them once and they won't stop following you around, though!
Darren the canoe leader!
There are awesome old bridges everywhere you look.
Yet another cool old bridge ahead, and lots of interesting back yards on each side of the canal.
More funny ducks looking for food.
Old buildings combined with new.
We were out of food at this point, but the swan didn't care. He was hungry and started getting a little aggressive.
Check out Jenna, she isn't too cool with that swan getting close!
Down, boy, down!
Yet another bridge. Yawn...
As we were crossing the lake there was a guy in a red jacket yelling at everyone with a bullhorn. We couldn't understand him, though. It turns out that he was trying to start a race and we were in the way. Oops!
And the canoe trip is over. After two hours of sitting on a wooden seat and not being able to move, the first few minutes of walking can be a little tricky!
Never enough ice cream!
Later in the day Nick decided we would head out on the Autobahn for some spirited driving. Hmmm... looks pretty much like the freeway in Portland if you ask me!
This means 60KPH limit and no passing. Also, Accident Danger.
More traffic jam action...
And there is the Accident Danger. Ouch. We are still going S L O W.
Now our two lanes have almost no room to move... and we have to squeeze by this boat at 40MPH!
Hey, a sign for congestion! What is going on here?!?
Finally the traffic clears up and we drop the hammer. Nick is doing about 130KPH (80MPH) in the Escort, and this guy blows by is in his Bimmer like we are parked.
Back at home that night it is morning in Portland. Aunt Becky just woke up and is having a little chat with the fam.
Monday morning and I am out of Hamburg, on my way to meet Jennye in Brussels. Heres the tram getting me to the main trains station.
And here is the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, the main station.
For some reason the germans love everything to be carbonated. Most of the bottled water and apple juice is fizzy. In fact, it was hard to buy non-carbonated juice and water!
Here's the train taking me to Brussels.
Along the tracks you would often see storage of old train cars just gathering dust.
And there would be old tracks just deserted, as you can see through the weeds.
In Cologne, Germany, I transferred to another high-speed train.
A minute earlier were cruising at 210KPH, or about 130MPH. It did not feel like it at all, very smooth.
New Audis heading from the factory.
My first view of Brussels from the train station. Pretty standard downtown view.
No one to take my photo as Jennye's train from Nurenburg is delayed by hours.
A nice tree-lined street from the station, the same street our hostel is on.
Me trudging along with the backpack.
Finally Jennye shows up and as I make a fool of myself singing Tribute up on the karaoke stage, she chats it up with this cool guy. David spoke like seven languages, but we couldn't get him to karaoke!
Yup, I'm a sucker for karaoke. Damn.
Then I got drunk and did a song with this guy... I don't even remember which song, something from the 80s.
The bartender was hella cool and wanted to get in a photo with us. I can't remember her name either, now. Sheesh.
Jennye is slightly drunk back at our hostel....
...but I am hammered. Now I am the loud, drunk guy getting into the room a early in the morning and waking everyone up. Oops.
Brushing and blowing to save time. Hahaha.
I was amazed by the hairdryer for some reason.
Maybe I am still singing, I can't remember.
We didn't know then, but now we do: the Brussels Stock Exchange
Jennye posing for the alley shot.
Cool gothic architecture.
One of the cool old buildings in Grote Markt.
The same building from a different angle.
More of the buildings surrounding Grote Markt.
Brussel's national symbol, Mannekin Pis, a small statue of a boy peeing. I'm amazed at how many people were there to check it out.
Inside the Mannekin Pis bar, money from all over taped to the woodwork.
On the roof of a train station was this skate park.
Kapellekerk, founded in 1134!
Inside Kapellekerk.
The Lady of Sablon Church was started in 1400 and took over 150 years to build!
Sablon Church
The Law Courts of Brussels under renovation
The Law Courts of Brussels
A randomly-printed building somewhere in Brussels.
At Delirium, a bar that holds the world record for the most beers available!
Inside Delirium Bar.
Delirium's front door... head here if you like beer!
Back to Grote Markt at night. Beautiful!
Grote Markt at night.
As we were walking through Grote Markt at night, the entire square went pitch black and then a light show began on the hotel building. This is the grand finale.
Saying goodbye to Brussels, now on the train headed for Antwerp, then on to Amsterdam.
We arrive in Antwerp and the train station is amazing. It is very old, but has a new glass structure built around it.
Trains in the station stop on every level and because of the construction, you can see them all.
This is the inside of the old station.
Towering over the cityscape is the Cathedral of our Lady, by far the tallest building that we could see during our walk. Construction was started in 1352 and although the first stage of construction was finished in 1521 it has never been officially completed. It was supposed to have two matching towers, but only one was ever finished.
The front doors of the Cathedral of our Lady.
The Cathedral of our Lady from bottom to top.
Compare the height of the church to the buildings around it.
Belgium is definitely beer heaven, this store was not unique. You could find them all over!
An interesting statue of some little people staring at a big guy's camel toe.
Heet Steen, a castle built from 1220-1225, is Antwerp's oldest building.
Some metal scrap art inside the window of a tattoo parlor. Alien!
More scrap art, its Terminator and more Alien stuff.
This is the Diamond District. Pretty uninteresting, except that there really were lots of Hasidic Jews running around. There are a couple in this photo!
Jennye was disappointed that the Diamond District wasn't a shiny, retail diamond jackpot, but we still managed to find some retail joints for her to window shop.
Back on the train, time to head to our last city, Amsterdam!
Almost captured it well, but just missed the good shot. On the left of the screen you can see a radio-controlled lawnmower. The operator was walking behind it with a large handheld controller. I want one!
Amsterdam!! We just walked out of the train station and there are throngs of people crowding the streets. We're here!
As we walk to our hostel we stride by Dam Square, where there is ALWAYS something going on. Here is a breakdance session in progress.
We are checking into the Bulldog Hostel and this cat wanders up and just stares at us. Very friendly.
From our hostel window you can see the Oude Kerk (Old Church), which rang out different musical tunes on its bells every 15 minutes. Great.
Our hostel room with six bunks in it.
Did you ever wonder where the best coffee shop is? Just read the sign.
Damstreet, a major food and (ahem) coffee shop paradise.
In a city where pot is legal and common, is there any surprise that french fry shops would be everywhere?
Lets not waste any time, shall we?
Signs in other languages are funny. Reading this one will make you smile, I don't even know what it means and I prefer not to. Hehe.
In a shop window, the sweetest-looking pillow ever!
Bikes, bikes, bikes. Here are some full-size scooters.
More cool bikes: Gazelle Cabby, a cargo bike with folding storage carrier. Look closely, the front bike is folded and the one in the back is open.
Jennye and I rent a couple of Dutch bikes and start roaming the city.
Inside the Heineken Brewery tour, nothing compared to the Guinness tour.
One interesting feature of the Heineken tour, these are old prototype bottles that were designed to be recycled into windows or bricks.
A quick stop in the Van Gogh Museum.
A large park in Amsterdam, called Amsterdamse Bos, had many trees that were vertically challenged.
Whoa, closeup bike rider!
The BikiniBar, a sculpture that doubles as a public meeting space.
We met up with Laura (who we met in Dingle) and William. A round of Absinthe please!
Sanji, another one of Laura's friends, also joined us for some absinthe.
Funny faces after downing the absinthe.
Lets get straight to the point and call our place Sexy Land!
Beers, beers, beers, never enough...
Coolest urinal ever! WTF?
This painting was on the wall in the hallway of the Bulldog Hostel.
Wow, you can't escape Americana no matter where you go!
Bikes by the thousands were EVERYWHERE in Amsterdam.
Magere Brug is for some reason a real tourist draw. Not sure why.
We moved into our new hostel, the Flying Pig. This is the view from my pillow. Its fun to people watch while resting.
Jennye pulled a washer and dryer out of that backpack once, I swear!
The walking and shopping road in front of our hostel.
More walking and shopping. Yawn.
Now this is an emergency sign that I have never seen before.
Maybe because these stairs are ridiculously short and steep.
Potsmoker's paradise, a fast food restaraunt that is just a fancy vending machine. The sign even says that all food is made fresh daily!
There were all sorts of craft in the narrow canals. This boat is probably in the six figures.
And a minute later a very large row boat cruises by.
You are not allowed to take photos of the red light district, but if you fake that you are taking photos of the church and you just happen to capture some of the girls in the background...
A shirt that I almost bought.
We took a train all the way across Amsterdam to catch a movie, but the theater was gone! The facade remained and a new building was being constructed behind it.
Maybe a car lift to get cars in and out of a parking garage? We couldn't really figure it out.
Dam Square at night.
The shopping disrict in front of our hostel complete evaporated after 6PM. Seriously, it was eerie.
We rented a boat-bike and pedalled around the canals of Amsterdam for about an hour.
View from our pedal boat.
When you don't have a yard for your animals, they have to get creative.
A grip of pedal boats behind us, and a large tour boat slowly ramming them out of the way, one at a time. We were too fast for them!
The streetcars ran right through groups of people, patiently dinging the bell.
In de Wildeman, a cool bar with over 400 beers. I dropped $10 on a new imported Porter that they just got in, but it turned out to be imported from Denver! At least it was good.
Not sure what is inside, but I'm giving them points for the creative sign.
The only performer that I ever gave money to, his dog was dreaming and constantly twitching. Very funny.
Some cool images on the wall of a bathroom. Clever.
Another funny image on the bathroom wall.
Uh oh, Jennye wants a tattoo!
Here we go! I should have probably taken a photo of the finished tattoo, but I forgot to.
We are the first people in the Winston Kingdom on Battle of the Bands night. No photos, but the place filled up and te bands were all pretty good.
This is how the Amsterdam alleys look at night. Dark, but if you look closely you'll see that there are lights on the ground all the way through.
Checking out of the Flying Pig, admiring the chandelier collection.
This was the “chill” room at the hostel, where cigarettes were banned, but please smoke all the marijuana you want.
I'm tired of the weather here, and I'm ready to head back home to the sun!
Another interesting sign. Does it mean that you are not allowed to carry assault rifles or that you should watch out for crazy postal workers?
Amsterdam tried to be clean, but everywhere you looked was a light layer of filth.
Amsterdam airport. This is the plane that gets us back to the states.
Still sitting on the tarmac, here is Jennye's giant back heading up the conveyor built.
The last bit of Europe property we see as we leave.
After seeing the southern tip of Greenland and part of northern Canada, we passed this cool thunderhead.
Postscript: I drank a lot of beer in three weeks, and I took photos of every nearly every beer that I drank. For your pleasure...
Interesting Cars: small cars
Interesting Cars: foreign cars
Interesting Cars: convertibles
Interesting Cars: exotics
Interesting Cars: taxi and emergency
Interesting Cars: industrial
Interesting Cars: classics
