The Aix Trip

I don't remember exactly what days I was in Aix, like 15-18, but I'm going to do them all in one felled swoop here. After my last post, Tim's host mother cooked us a very fine dinner. We started out with Apertifs, Claudio had some sort of champaign/wine spritzer, Tim and I a heavy, sweet wine, not unlike an ice wine.

Over these drinks and some small appetizers we chatted. I contributed little, speaking not a word of French. I did catch up a little with Tim, and through his translations spoke a little with his host. This went on for perhaps twenty minutes, and then we went to the table. The first course was a salad, mixed green, tomatoes, eggs, tuna, and onions. It was a fine salad, served with bread and glasses of rose wine, which I'm told was suitable for how hot it was outside.

The first course down, she brought out Ratatouille, and a platter of beef and potatoes. And of course more wine. For those of you unfamiliar, Ratatouille is a mixture of zucchini, tomatoes, and other things. I didn't think I'd like it, but it was spectacular. The beef was served with a pepper and cream sauce, and was delightful. I ate far too much, and winced when she brought out the cheese course.

I manned up and helped myself to a few slices of cheese and some bread. I was a little afraid that this was dessert, since I know how some Europeans like to consider cheese suitable for such endeavors. Fortunately, after I'd finished the last of my Bree, she brought out a chocolate cake.

And more wine. But the cake! It was very good on its own, but she served it with a sweet cream sauce that made it absolutely spectacular. Of course by this point I'd had something like five glasses of wine, so my opinion may have been skewed.

The meal was a great one, certainly the best I've had in Europe, which is saying something. It was the sort of two hour affair I'd been looking forward to, with delightful food and great company, even if I couldn't directly speak with some of them. The rest of the night we spent watching some films and generally lying about until we could walk again.

Claudio and I made our goodbyes and walked back to our hotel. He only got us lost once, we walked about two miles the wrong way up hill before he realized it, so instead of a twenty minute walk, we wandered about for near an hour.

The next day started late, as we only grudgingly woke from comas induced by so much good food and a sleepless night spent ironically in a sleeper car on the night train. We met Tim by the Big Fountain and had saw the movie Inception, which was quite good. After we had a light snack of some dessert crepes. We were due at a picnic in a few hours time, so we ate lightly, my crepe had but three scoops of ice cream!

We whiled away the hours until the picnic at Tim's host's house, and then helped her load the goodies she'd made into her car, and drove off. The picnic was being held for the students in the program Tim was doing, so Claudio and I were completely out of place, and of course I was the only one in the entire damned park that spoke no French.

We unpacked the picnic basket(s) and had ourselves another veritable feast. We started with a quiche, which tasted like what quiche should taste like. Claudio liked it so much he had three pieces. Knowing better, I took only one. The main course of this meal was a salad, but it was a very hearty salad. No lettuce, but potatoes, green beans, corn, tomatoes, onions, and generous chunks of chicken made it a serious contender for entree status. I had a few helpings.

Also there was wine. For the dessert course we had some of the left over chocolate cake from last night, and fresh melon. It was another fine meal, and I was glad to have had it. Afterwards we went back to Tim's to digest until the sun went down, and then we went to a few bars. We had a few beers at the first one, and then Tim decided we had to go get a Giraffe. A Giraffe is a three liter column of beer with a tap on it that you can buy for like 12 euro. It's essentially a big pitcher of beer.

After this Tim and I were somewhat drunk, and Claudio was mildly suggestible, so we walked around for a bit. We ran into some of Tim's classmates from America playing in a fountain between several crowded bars, and generally giving Americans everywhere a bad name. We watched them for a bit, and then Tim decided he needed to go to bed cause he had a test in the morning, or some such nonsense.

We stumbled back home, somehow not getting lost this time despite the booze.

The next morning we arose and again met Tim by the fountain (sort of the week's theme). After following him around for an hour as he tried (and failed) to get his travel arrangements situated, we had lunch at a place called Flunch. It was a sort of French Ponderosa, where you got a meal, but could also go to the buffet. It was pretty good. That night we were supposed to go to this Ethiopian restaurant that Tim had been talking about for days, but once we got there, he realized he'd been wrong and it was actually a Tunisian restaurant.

He decided he didn't want Tunisian food, whatever that is, so we went to a burger joint. I know what you're thinking, a hamburger in France? Is he mad? Yes, he's mad, but it was actually pretty good. I got a Texaco, which was a burger with avocado and bacon. It was very good, and the fries weren't bad either, but they were French Fries, I suppose.

The next day was a short one, as we had to be on the bus at 3. Basically we followed Tim around as he figured out what he was gonna do with the rest of his time in Europe, and then we had lunch. I had a giant ham and cheese sandwich on one very large piece of french bread. It was called a Croque Monsieur for no apparent reason. It was pretty good. Claudio got the Croque Madame which was the same, but had an egg on top, cause he's a girl.

The train ride was like 6 hours long, and kind of boring. There was some cool lighting on some Swiss countryside after a storm had blown through, but that was it. Today's my last full day in Europe, and I think Claudio and I are gonna hang out with some of his friends and play Halo, which seems fitting.

Tomorrow I get on my plane back to the States at 10:30, and I'll be in JFK at 1:30 somehow. It's a seven hour flight that takes three hours, or something.

This is likely the last post of the journey, so thanks for tuning in!

-Chase

Day 13&14- Crumbled Glory

So I'm a few days behind, but I couldn't find internet anywhere. Sunday morning we left Switzerland, right around 6AM. One long long long ride later, we were in Venice, city of lights. No, wait, that's what, Paris?

Venice, city of Venice. The Grand Canal was Grand. Claudio and I took the water bus down it, which was sort of like a poor man's version of a tour. There were a lot of really cool buildings that I don't have time to post pictures of. We got off next to this big church at the opposite end of the city that we'd started on. We walked back towards the hotel, walking through really cool narrow streets full of shops and mini restaurants.

A Venetian shop will sell only one of four things, pizza, gelato, masks, or glass. Many of you know this, but for those who don't, Venice has no proper streets, but canals and walkways that crisscross each other. If you're not willing to shill out 80 euros for a gondola (I wanted to but Claudio wasn't having it... Kidding) its a lot of walking. Of course I've gotten used to this in Europe.

Venice is beautiful, it really is, but you can tell its long past its glory days. The water of the canals is filthy, and is full of trash and bottles. The buildings look grand, but several are old and crumbling. And of course the city is sinking, but let us not linger on that.

The Gelato(sp?) ranked amongst the best ice creams I've ever had. The pizza was good, but hey, it's Italy. I really just liked walking around the narrow streets, listening to the Gondoliers try to get us to ride their boats, and of course watching the boats themselves. I still don't know how they manage them with so few strokes. My running theory is they have a track system like a roller coaster.

In fact, I'm waiting for the day when Venice becomes a giant lazy river. I cannot wait. I was so excited because the restaurant we chose for dinner had rice served with squid ink. Those of you in the know know that I've been wanting to try something like this forever. Alas, they were out. I had spagetti instead. I felt like such a tourist.

We went back to the hotel so that Claudio could take a dump, and then he decided he wanted to go back out into the town to find some dessert. At this point we'd nearly gotten lost on the way back, and now we didn't have the setting sun to guide us back. We did make our way back safely enough though.

The next day was more of the same, we visited a couple of very cool churches, and I didn't know if I was allowed in since I wasn't catholic. We caught a train at 8 to France, and the sleeper car was none too pleasant. Essentially the train car turned into a smelly sauna when it stopped and they turned the air off.

We got into Aix around 11, and then went looking for Tim. We didn't get his phone number for no apparent reason, and Claudio thought we could find him by just looking around. We found an Italian Cafe with WiFi and told Tim to meet us at the big fountain. We found him, and have been sitting in his bed room ever since. His host mother is making us dinner, and then Tim said something about booze. I don't know.

Anywho, see you all later!
-Chase

Day 11- The Great Beerscape

So we made our way to the beer museum, only to find out it didn't open for another hour. Damn. And after we spent a solid twenty minutes looking for it. Anyway, we walked around for a while before deciding to make our way back to the most famous beer garden in Munich, which probably makes it the greatest beer garden in the world. The Hofbrauhaus. I wasn't even hungry, my breakfast looked like this, after all.
That's weisswurst, weissbier, and a bretzel, And sweet, sweet mustard.

Anywhoo, going back to Claudio's policy of not having to be hungry to eat, we sat down in the building capable of holding 3500 guests, and ordered two Russ'n. That is a mixture of lemonade and weissbier. It looks something like this.

That's my fist on the table in front of two 1 liter tankards of our drinks, and oh meine Gott was it good. We decided that with this much beer, we didn't need actual lunch, and so just ordered a desert. It was sort of a Swedish pancake served with powdered sugar and applesauce, or smashed apples, as the Germans call them. The dessert was good, but the star of the show was the beer.

Afterwards we stumbled about Munich, coming across some cool stuff by accident. One. of these cool things was this awesome church sandwiched in between the houses on either side of it.

I have no idea why they shoehorned a place of worship into this tiny space, but it is very cool looking. Here's a picture of the interior, all statues and gold.
A just insane amount of detail, especially for us Protestants, who are used to a more demure setting. We kept walking for what felt like days, but was only a few hours. We finally made our way back to the beer museum, but it turned out to be sort of lame.

We strolled some more, just looking at the architecture. Munich was largely spared by the war, so unlike Berlin it is chock full of old timey buildings. Like this one, a huge ornately sculpted building in the middle of a shopping district.
I believe this was where the Glockespiel is, but we didn't actually see it in motion.

Another really cool thing was this huge open air market there, where you could buy bread, vegetables, fruit, meats, cheeses, all sorts of things. We didn't get anything, we were too full of beer, but it was very neat.

My pictures don't do the city justice, Munich is very, very cool. We could have easily spent a week there alone. We left there shortly after noon on a train with no air conditioning. I am now back in Switzerland, and took a much needed shower, having sweated for some 20 straight hours.

Sunday finds us on an early train to Venice. Until next time.

-Chase

Day 10- A half day in Berlin

Hey y'all, I didn't get a blog up last night due to lack of internet, but I'm sitting in a starbucks in Munich so I'll write up a quick one.

We had a bit of a late start, sleeping in until about 9 and lounging around the hotel. We then headed towards museum island, with only the vaguest directions. We found our way and went to the Neue museum, or New museum. An ironic name considering its full of ancient artifacts. There were Roman, Greek, and Egyptian artifacts, all very cool. We then went to the Alt Museum (old museum), which wasn't as cool, but had a series of greek and roman statues.

We then had a late lunch at a place called the Twelve Apostles. It was an Italian pizza place with a pizza named after, you guessed it, each one of Jesus's disciples. I got the Simon which had pepperoni, spinach and goat cheese. It was good, but far too large for me, and I left a good quarter of it on the plate.

We then made our way to the train station even though our train didn't leave till eight. Claudio thought we had to be there early, so we basically sat around for the better part of three hours. I read a book, so I wasn't suffering any, but Claudio looked bored. When the train finally arrived I made my way aboard with trepidation, my last experience not being so good. This one was much better though, we shared our room with a Swedish lady and her son, and both spoke very good English. We were joined by a German hippie later, which was weird, but it was a good trip, all said and done.

We got off the train in Munich this morning, and immediately started looking for a place selling Weisswurst. We came across a decent looking restaurant and sat down. Claudio and I each ordered the wurst and a beer. Yup, nine in the morning and we were drinking. I have a picture of it that I'll upload later. I've entitled it "Munich Breakfast." Before you all get offended, let me add that EVERYONE there was drinking beer, it's a Munich thing, trust me.

After that we wandered, and right now we're slowly making our way to the beer museum. I personally am hoping they let us drink our way through history.

Until next time,
-Chase

Day 8 Con't and Day 9- Ich Bin Berliner

Disclaimer: I'm operating with limited bandwith at this hotel, so no pictures in this post, sorry.

So last time we chatted I was headed for a train to Berlin. Claudio and I got dropped off at the station and had an hour to kill, so we went shopping. He got a couple beers, I only got one. Tell Bier. Named after Swiss hero Wilhem Tell, the guy that shot an apple off his son's head. A beer named after the national hero, how can that go bad?

Well for one, it was only half the price of one of his beers, and two, it was none too cold. So we get on our train, and I see our sleep room first hand. For those of you unfamiliar, a sleep room is a medium sized closet with with six two by five foot slightly padded benches that Claudio assured me were beds. They stack above each other, three to a side. Our room was full, and it was ok at first, since they can fold into something approximating a couch when no one's sleeping.

In a real life case of forshadowing, the Tell Bier was horrible, absolutely awful. It left a horrible taste in my mouth. Claudio and I decided to go to the Food Wagon part of the train instead of hanging out with some older German speaking people. We make our way to the overcrowded car and order a couple Franziskaner Hefeweisses. Now, I've had these in the states, and they're amazing, just the thing to brighten up the trip.

Of course the train lurches and I spill some on Claudio, but there's plenty to go around. We stand for about ten minutes, drinking our beer, me watching for people leaving their table like a vulture watching a dying water buffalo. Finally, as slowly as a dying water buffalo, an older gentleman vacates his table. I'm sitting at it not three seconds after he gets up. Shame is a luxury I cannot afford.

Claudio has ordered us a couple sandwiches, explaining that "You don't have to be hungry to eat." I'm starting to see why he came to America. We enjoy our sandwiches and beer, and the absolute pitch blackness outside the window for a couple hours. We head back to the sleep closet about midnight, only slightly tipsy.

Claudio and I have the middle bunks, which means we wedge ourselves between the other two people on our sides. I managed to get up there despite someone having put a bag in my bed, and I didn't even step on anyone, though I was tempted. I found that I sort of fit if I scrunched up just right. Too far one way and my knees would hit the far wall, too far the other and a diabolically located metal nub poked me in the head. Also, Claudio snores.

At one point in the night the guy above me dropped his hand down and it fell on my knee. I'm telling myself it was an accident. About 2 in the morning a train official came in and turned on the lights. He would have woken me up had I been able to get to sleep. The guy who'd nearly groped me apparently had showed up a week early, and so technically didn't have a ticket for the train. Fun.

But like all good things, this too ended. We arrived in Berlin at 8 in the morning. I asked Claudio where our hotel was. "I dunno" was my answer. We eventually found it and dropped off our very heavy bags. We had a tour booked but it didn't start until 10. We started walking, Claudio wouldn't tell me where we were going. It turns out we were going to the embassies, and the big famous gate with the horse drawn chariot and the pillars. The Russian embassy is HUGE, some 4 times larger than the U.S. one. This is not fair.

We got on the bus that toured the city, and listened to the recorded tour for two hours. It wasn't too bad, except for the timing, which was occasionally off. On the second circuit, we got off in the shopping district, and had some lunch. I got the large weinerschitzel, and it was. Large. Probably 13 inches long by 6-8 wide. It came with a small salad and some potato salad. Whoever said portion sizes are smaller in Europe obviously never at here.

We walked for a while and came to the Ka De We which is the world's biggest whatever it was. It was not a mall, though parts of it seemed like one. It wasn't a grocery store, though you would be hardpressed to explain why. The first floor is perfumes, the second men's clothes, the third women's the fourth shoes, the fifth toys, but the sixth...

The sixth floor was the closest thing to God's pantry that we have here on earth. There were some four hundred types of bread, thousands of sausages and cheeses, candies from the world 'round, tea in more flavors than I have numbers for. The dessert counters would make women weep and strong men cry. The only thing stopping me from buying one or two or six slices of the most heavenly looking of desserts was the three pounds of schnitzel in my gut. Claudio found Mt Dew, and was happy as a clam. I just soaked in the various smells and sights, and nearly swooned.

We left, eventually, and caught our bus after missing it only twice in a row. Not bad, all things considered. We then went to Checkpoint Charlie for a bit, one of the points where you could pass from the east to the west during the great divide. Then it was back to the hotel, we're both pooped. Tonight we'll have some dinner and a few beers, and that's about it. Tomorrow we'll visit Museum Island, which promises to be fun.

Until next time, Tschuss!

-Chase

Day 8- The Great Train Ride

So yeah, I skipped Day 7- The Endless Sunday Drive. It was a drive from France to Switzerland, and that was about it. Apparently it is against the law to drive your truck on Sunday in France, so every gas station was full of truck drivers. A quick note on French gas stations, they all seem to have a bakery and a cafe built into them.

Now on to less pressing matters. Today was mostly recuperation from the French trip, now forever known as EuroTrek Phase the First. Tonight begins EuroTrek Phase the Second, where Claudio and I go to Germany. France was almost entirely war memorials, and so the Blog was somewhat solemn and morose. Germany will be more light hearted (hopefully). We will be in Berlin for three days, I think, and then we head to Munich for a bit.

We don't have any set goals like we did in France, but I'd like to have a good old fashioned 4 or 5 course meal that lasts for hours. I think that sounds cool. I also plan to sample a little German beer. There are some cool museums, or so I've heard. We shall certainly visit a few of those. Claudio says we must try the Weisswurst in Munich, and who am I to argue.

We went to Aldi today to stock up on provisions for the train ride, I got a french style salami (white on the outside for reasons that weren't properly explained, but very delicious) some chocolate pastries that in France go by the name Maxi Pain, some little chocolate cookies, and some sort of cereal bars. Claudio probably bought something too, but I didn't pay attention.

The train trip will be a long one, about 11 hours. I found out that I cannot buy new books on my nook outside of the United States, so I may be forced to read Pride and Prejudice, one of the free classics that come preprogrammed on it. I'll have about three and a half good hours on my laptop, so maybe I'll get a little writing done on the train.

We get into Berlin tomorrow morning around 8, tired and stiff from trying to sleep on the train. I'll write more later. Auf Wiedersehen

-Chase

Day 6- The Beaches of Normandy

So of course last night I didn't have internet, so that's why the no update. Anywho, Normandy! This was the part of the France trip I was most looking forward to, and it didn't disappoint. We drove the two hours to the beaches and started in Arromanches which was the site of one of the artificial ports put up to support the Normandy invasions.

A little background for those of you that don't know, the Germans had heavily fortified every port in that part of France, so to take an existing port, we would have had to essentially destroy it, and then rebuild it. This could have taken years. Instead, we built pieces of piers and waterbreaks in England, and then towed them across the sea. Two days after we invaded, Arromanches was being turned into a ready made port. Old ships were sunk to provide a break water, and piers were built from prefabricated sections that ran from the beach into the sea. They would float on the tide, and so they could be used 24/7. More break waters were put into place, and the piers were capped with pieces that ships could dock with.

Just a handful of days after we stepped foot on French soil, the harbor was open and bringing in hundreds of tons of supplies and vehicles a day. This allowed the assault to continue, and France to be freed. Its sort of an unknown part of the Normandy lore, but it was very important. To this day there are pieces of the old harbor still there, as you can see below.
This is one of the pieces of the pier. In this picture below you can see part of the old break water.
There was a museum explaining all this with some really cool dioramas that I probably should have photographed. I DID grab a photo of a jeep they had, cause it was cool looking.
After that we headed to the German gun battery at Longues-ser-Mer. This was a grouping of 4 anti ship guns set back from the cliffs and an observation post in the cliffs themselves. These guns were hit by planes and naval bombardment before D-Day, but weren't knocked out. They dueled with warships throughout the day and also fired onto the invasion beaches. Eventually they were put down by naval guns. They were later captured with no resistance.

This is a rare sight because the guns are still in the bunkers, and it was very cool to see. Here you can see the bunker rising out of the hill, its mouth pointed at the sea.
This one contained the only gun actually destroyed, as you can see here in these pictures.
It is sort of hard to see, but you can see the ruined cannon, and the light streaming in the back where the roof caved in.
Here's a shot from inside, and you can clearly see the damage done to the back of the bunker.
Anyone standing in here when that happened probably didn't walk away.
Here is what the bunkers looked like normally, and even on this one you can see the pitted walls and roof. The people standing next to it on the right are full grown, and give a good idea of how large these guns are.

This picture is what the gunners could see from their position. Of course they had an observation post too, which did most of the spotting.

Here's all four bunkers in a row.

And here is the observation post, built into the cliffs by the sea. Also you can see Claudio. The post is two levels, one is completely enclosed and has only a forward viewing slit (maybe for a machine gun?) seen below, and the top level was covered by a sort of concrete umbrella.
As you can see, this too was hit several times, but nothing penetrated its thick armored shell. Below you can see what a German gunner would see looking out of this vision slit.
And in the next picture you can see what the observers up top would see.
A pretty good view of the ocean, which is what they needed I suppose.

Our next trip was to the U.S. Military cemetery that is on the heights above Omaha beach, where so many of our brave soldiers died. We walked down onto the beach before we went into the cemetery proper, and even though little of the battle remained visible, there was still a feeling in the air. Standing on the beach you saw the heights in front of you. During the war they would have been covered with bunkers, machine gun emplacements, and razor wire. It was an ordeal for me walk all the way up and down, let alone take it from a deeply entrenched enemy.
It may not seem like much now, but this was hell seventy years ago. After the arduous walk back up, we went to the memorial which stands at the head of the cemetery. It had detailed maps of both the Normandy invasions and the greater battle for Western Europe. It was a lovingly tended for place of beauty and solemnity, as is fitting.
Here you can see the flowers and some of the crowd. In the picture below, you see the cemetery from the memorial. Bear in mind that the Rotunda at the back is only the middle of the cemetery, a like number of plots are unseen behind it.
The beauty of the reflecting pool and the perfectly kept lawn and trees, the simple austere grave stones, white crosses for the Christians and white stars of David for the Jews, it was all very striking. It was a very solemn and meaningful experience. I walked through the cemetery, occasionally reading a gravestone, surrounded by nearly 10,000 American dead. I felt sad, even though I'd never met any of these people, especially when I came across a gravestone such as this.
The inscription reads, "Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God." There were many such stones in the yard. Many such soldiers who died for their country now lie unnamed and unknown in foreign soil.

We walked through the cemetery for a long while, not saying a word, not wanting to spoil the solemnity of the place. Eventually we left, but it was a while before I could again make myself speak.

Full of somber thoughts, we made our way to Pointe du Hoc, but stopped at a restaurant nearby for a bite to eat. I had duck cooked in cider, with a glass of cider to drink. Judging from the number of signs with Cidre on them, this part of France is known for such things. It wasn't like American cider, it was thinner, and slightly alcoholic. Still, it was good, and gave the duck good flavor.

After lunch we continued to Pointe du Hoc. For those of you not in the know, this was the spot of a small but fierce battle on D-Day. Pointe du Hoc is situated right between the two American beaches, and had several 155mm guns that could be fired at either site. Three ranger companies assaulted it. They landed on the beaches and had to climb up steep cliffs to reach the spot, and when they finally gained the summit, they found that the guns had been moved.

A small team went in search of them and found them sitting a mile inland. The team destroyed the weapons with thermite grenades, and even though they did this but a stones throw from 100 Germans, they did it without getting caught.

Their mission completed, the rangers then held Pointe du Hoc for two days against several counter assaults, and at the end, only 90 men of the original 225 were still fit to fight. It was an amazing feat, and afterward our government turned it into a monument. The field was left like it was, strewn with destroyed bunkers and shell holes.
Here is a view of the field, clearly visible are the many large holes that bombs had caused.
Here is a picture of a destroyed bunker, with Claudio in the foreground.
Here is a picture of the cliffs that had to be scaled that day, not pictured, Claudio.

It was a big day. I saw a lot of things I've wanted to see for a while. Again I've walked the same ground as some very brave men, and I feel honored for the experience.