"you have face like baby"

The day we left Luzern, we took a train called the Golden Pass. We saw absolutely amazing views. We saw the Swiss countryside, waterfalls coming down the mountains, and gorgeous lakes. The weather had FINALLY cleared up, so we were excited for the nice day. One of our train stops was in Interlaken. When we got off the train we used our best sense of direction and successfully found the lake. The water is so clear and it’s just so awesome seeing these magnificent views. After a full day of trains (about 8 hours), we finally made it to Geneva.

The first thing we noticed when we got off was that the primary language is French. It’s funny that even though we don’t know German, we had gotten used to it. But we made do. We had a little trouble finding our hostel, so we asked a business man who pointed out the steeple of the church, made a little hand movement to walk straight, and we figured it out.

Our hostel was actually one of the old buildings by the St. Pierre Cathedral. This is where John Calvin did most of his work and the Protestant Reformation started. We stayed in a dorm style room so we had eight other girls from many different parts of the world with us. On our day in Geneva, we went to the lake which was just beautiful. On the way, we stopped for our default breakfast (croissants and bananas) and the owner of the little store told us “you have face like baby. be careful; there are pickpocketers everywhere.” So I guess we were glad he was concerned for us.. Nevertheless, nothing bad happened, so it’s just a funny story. We took a boat ride around the lake and saw the mountains and all the houses and then we took a little train ride to see the rest of the main sites. Geneva has the UN headquarters which was cool to see. Ashlyn and I definitely hit our traveling wall when we made it to Geneva. We were a little tired, but we still made the most of it. We were very ready to get to London and woke up at 4:30 the next morning to get to the airport!

Calvin's Chair

We hope you’ve enjoyed the update on the beginning of our trip. Sorry that it has taken a few days, but tomorrow we will tell you about our first week in London!

Sarah

Cheese, chocolate and t-shirt towels

As much of a blast we had frolicking through the hills of Salzburg (we didn't really frolic), the time came when we had to pack up our backpacks yet again and move on in our journey. We hopped on a train to Luzern, Switzerland. The train ride through Austria and Switzerland was beautiful! Look for the next post on Geneva, when we took the rest of our ride. The Swiss countryside is amazing!

When we arrived in Luzern, it was of course raining. We trekked to our hostel, which sat pretty much on Lake Luzern. After being spoiled by pensions and cute budget hotels, Backpackers Luzern was a bit of a culture shock. In all honesty though, it really wasn't bad and we learned to make the best of community showers and no towels. PDA Blog Life Lesson #1: Dirty t-shirts are perfectly capable of doubling as towels. Cotton absorbs like you wouldn't believe! So after checking in, we dropped our backpacks and went out to face the rain and cold and find some food. Switzerland is a bit of catch--the exchange rate is great, but everything is expensive. We found a little pizza place in the Old Town and were able to see the historic bridge over Lake Luzern. We called it a day pretty early, and after a few rousing rounds of Rummy, went to bed in our little room.

We spent the next day sightseeing, heading first into Old Town to see the Lion of Luzern. It is a monument honoring Swiss soldiers who died during the French Revolution. A giant lian is carved out of stone, and it really is a neat thing to see. There's a little pool there as well. We then headed on to the city wall, where you can climb up into towers overlooking Luzern and walk along the wall above the city. There were some amazing views! We climbed up into a very high tower with an old clock bell in it, and the stairs were so steep that our legs were sore for days afterwards (little did we know, we had a 90-stair climb waiting for us at our flat in London). We had an AMAZING lunch at a Swiss Fondue restaurant. Cheese and bread, what more can you ask for? Then we were able to use our Eurail (train) passes to take a boat tour out on Lake Luzern. It was a nice break from the rain and we were able to see some of the little stops all around the lake. The water in Switzerland is so beautiful!

That day the Swiss team was playing in the World Cup, so you can imagine how crazy the city was getting. Our room didn't have a tv, and we weren't able to find a very good pub or restaurant to watch the game, so we headed for a museum to take shelter from the rain and general craziness. The museum was called the Rosengart Collection, and it was a private donation to the city of Luzern from Siegfried and Angela Rosengart, friends of the famous artist Pablo Picasso. The museum holds countless Picasso paintings, as well as photographs of the artist and his family. There were also lesser-known works from other famous painters: Miro, Wallinsky, Matisse, and others. I was in heaven. We spent a couple hours wandering around, and then ventured back out to get dinner and head back to our room. We were starving, and so we grabbed some quick and cheap things at a Coop, (or co-op, we couldn't tell) which was basically a little grocery store. Thinking we couldn't go wrong with ham and chicken sandwiches, we were relieved to be back in after an exhausting day. PDA Blog Life Lesson #2: Never assume that if you can't see any condiments on the sandwich, they aren't on it. It may sound petty, but you try eating a chicken and pimiento cheese, or ham and tartar sauce, sandwich and see how you like it.

All in all, Luzern was an interesting, fun, tiring, eye-opening experience. It's a beautiful city, and I'd love to go back one day when the sun is shining and I have room in my backpack to do some awesome shopping. We left the city early in the morning and hopped on yet another train to continue through the Swiss countryside. Look for our next post on Geneva, and then it's back to London for good!


This is the picture of the famous bridge in Luzern. The first is what we saw in the gloomy weather.. The second is what Sarah saw three years ago when it was nice and sunny. Yeah, we missed out...

We miss you all!

"The hills are alive...."

Hello to everyone!

As Ashlyn said, Munich was so much fun and we saw some amazing things. Our next stop was Salzburg, Austria. Before we caught the train that morning, we went to the Olympic Park in Munich. I thought it was so cool seeing where the Olympics took place and all the different arenas that there are. We successfully caught the train and made it to Salzburg. It was raining yet again; the bottom of our jeans stayed wet on this trip. As Ashlyn said, the place we stayed in Munich was kind of like a hostel, so we expected about the same in Salzburg. Well when we got to our hotel we were pleasantly surprised to have a beautiful room and not have to share a bathroom with anyone (Thanks, Mom!).

While in Salzburg, we did a Sound of Music tour. It was so cool seeing where this great movie was filmed! The park right across from our hotel is where Maria and the children danced around the fountain and through the garden while singing Do Re Mi. They actually used two different houses for the Von Trapp mansion and we were able to see the back of the house on the lake. We then went and saw the gazebo where “I am 16, going on 17” was filmed. The best part of this tour was seeing the church where Capt. Von Trapp and Maria got married. When we walked in there was actually a wedding in progress and we heard Ave Maria being sung. It was amazing seeing a wedding in that beautiful church. Fun fact about the Sound of Music: the way they filmed the aisle made it look four times longer than it actually is. We saw some of the Austrian countryside on the tour as well and tried some apple strudel at a little café, which was amazing! For our last adventure in Salzburg we went to the Fortress which is high up on a mountain and got some shots of Salzburg from above.

Overall, Salzburg was by far our favorite stop. With the gardens, all of the Sound of Music sites, and just the city in general, we would definitely suggest you making a stop here if you ever get the chance. Enjoy the pictures!

Sarah

A little bit of sleep and a whole lot of German.

For the first ten days before we arrived in London, Sarah and I traveled through Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We flew into London on Tuesday morning (June 15), dropped our gigantic suitcases at the study center, and hopped on a plane at 6:15 the next morning to Munich. We stayed at place called Pension Locarno, which was kind of like a hostel with training wheels. We started exploring the city right away, in the middle of rain and cold (which became our theme for the week). We took the tube (subway) to the Marienplatz, or City Center, which was historic and beautiful! There is a giant building with a famous Glockenspiel, which has life-size characters that dance to the tower bells on certain hours. Everyone stands in the square and watches. Munich is such a fun city because it is definitely urban, but doesn't feel as much like the hustle and bustle of a big city. Probably because the Marienplatz is also very touristy. But that is what we were, so we embraced the tourist-ness with open arms.

After exploring the City Center and finding something to eat (and struggling to order, due to our lack of German tongue), we went to bed early. The next morning we got up and caught a bus out to Dachau, the concentration camp. For those of you who know me and my strange fascination with the Holocaust, this was absolutely one of the things I've wanted to do most in my life. I'm twisted, I know. Visiting Dachau turned out to be an emotional roller-coaster. It was disturbing, moving, interesting and inspiring all at the same time. [Disclaimer: I promise my posts won't be this long all the time. But you can't really just say, "I saw Dachau, one of the most significant and traumatizing sites of World History. It was neat." So bear with me.] We went in the main gate, the famous one which says "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Brings Freedom"). We watched a little video with background info about the camp, and then walked all around. It was cold and dreary that day, and walking around, there was an eerie stillness. To stand in that courtyard and know that 70-some years ago, people were being murdered as they walked around...it was an indescribable experience to be there. We were able to also tour a replica of the barracks (the originals were torn down after the camp was liberated by US soldiers), as well as the crematorium and the gas chamber (which was actually never put into operation). It was maddening to think of all the prisoners in the camp.

We were also able to spend a little bit of time walking around the actual town of Dachau. One of the interesting things the museum in the camp focused on was the propoganda of the Holocaust and World War II. Many residents of Dachau knew that there was some type of persecution going on inside the camp and chose not to inquire any further. But some residents were told that the camp served only as an isolation for Jewish people, and that their living conditions were actually improved once inside the camp. For me this was the most interesting part of the museum, and also the most unbelievable, as it really showed the power of persuasion and popular belief.

The entire time we were in the camp, a father and his son seemed to be always nearby. They were American, and so I was able to listen a little bit to what the father was telling his son...the boy was probably about 9 or 10, and his father kept stopping him to explain certain things. At one point, the father started shouting, and as I turned around in the courtyard, I realized he was yelling at several boys there on a field trip. As they walked out of the courtyard and further into the camp, one of them had left a plastic Coke bottle on a little wall. The father kept shouting for them to come back and get the bottle and take it to a trash can, and I think that finally they did. Strange as this situation was, I think it was one of the most moving moments inside the camp for me. As the father and his son walked away, the father stopped and put his hands on his son's shoulders. I watched as he spoke to him, telling him how those boys were disrespectful to not only property that wasn't theirs, but to the memory of an entire people. He looked his son straight in the eye, and urged him to never forget about something such as the Holocaust. Maybe it was because I'd just taken a class on it, or because I was feeling particularly sensitive at the moment, but I felt so proud of this man encouraging his son to take up the memory of the Holocaust as his own. It really is our great responsibility to take on these injustices as our own, because that is where they started--with an evil idea that became a belief, and the unwillingness of people to see through it or speak against it. Ok I'm done with my rant...but it was just a really significant day.

After leaving Dachau, we spent the rest of our time exploring central Munich. We found the Englischer Garten, which was SO beautiful. We also toured Die Residenz, a palace where royal and political German families lived. Finally, we closed out our time in Munich at the famous Hofbrauhaus, which is a HUGE beer garden. It's packed and has such a great atmosphere. There are specific booths where only locals can sit, and if a tourist or non-local sits there, the waiter refuses to take your order until you move! And if you're wondering, German beer really is a LOT better than American beer...and that is coming from someone who never drinks it, so that's saying something.

We had such a blast in Munich! Here are a few pics so you can get an idea of our first few days in Europe. Sarah will update soon about our new favorite city, Salzburg!!
Love from across the pond,
Ashlyn

Hello from London

We made it to London! We've survived our first ten days and we saw some amazing sites. We will have pictures and stories up very soon! We just wanted to give you a quick update now that we're in London.

For our blog title, we wanted to incorporate some things we saw and experienced over our first ten days of traveling. As the days progressed, it became clear that the most obvious difference we saw between Europe and America (besides the languages) was...excessive amounts of PDA--Public Displays of Affection. Witnessed in all forms and locations, we decided to incorporate this less-than-endearing characteristic into our blog. And so this is what we came up with--another form of PDA. One that is much less offensive, and much more enjoyable for others.

We're so excited to share these amazing adventures with everyone! As soon as we have better internet access, the pictures will go up and we'll give more detailed posts about our first ten days backpacking and our first few days in London. We miss you all!

Until next time,
Sarah and Ashlyn