Germany (part I) and Poland

Having finished with Croatia we went to visit our good friend Axel in Dresden. He's currently preparing for a big trip of his own. He hopes to do a fund raising activity where he rides his motorbike across most of Canada (that's him on his new bike)....



continue across Europe, and down into Africa. His goal is to raise money to help several charities in Africa. If you'd like to help him out with this, a donation would certainly be appreciated. Please check out his website at www.rideforafrica.ca

We only had a day with Axel before we moved on to meet some other friends from Canada who happened to be in Germany at the time. Here we four are at the Nymphenburg palace.



Together we toured Munich and saw, as much as we could with our time. Here's a scary looking skeleton we saw at a cathederal. Check out those eyes - they're spooky!



There were many other sights in Munich like their beautiful rathous (city hall)....



Once we had enough of cathederals, art museums, and palaces we spent part of a day at the science museum. It was really fun. And then it was off to Vienna, Austria. Here's their "rathous" (i.e. city hall)...



and some of the colors of the Vienna...



It was then time for the night train to Poland. First stop was the former capital city of Krakow. We had intended to visit Warsaw, but everyone said to skip it. Apparantly it was razed in WWII, and there's not so much to see. So we got a private sleeper car and took the night train to Krakow...



And I continued sampling the beers of the world. Believe it or not, this beer is actually pronounced as "jee-vyets"



Sure tasted good. Especially with the weather we've had. Have you seen all the blue skies in our pics? It's almost 35 degrees everywhere we go! A guy needs a tasty beer now and then just to see all the sights.

In addition to beer sampling, I'm doing my best to try the local dishes as well. We had a very good pyrogy meal at this nice garden restaurant in the centre of Krakow.



A world tour is not all smiles and good times – there's a good deal of historical education happening at the same time, and Poland has seen its share of bad times. We went to the Auschwitz and nearby Birkenau concentration camps where so many people were killed. Birkenau was particularly eerie as it has been left mostly untouched since the Nazis fled. It was odd to be standing in the very place where so many Polish civilians, Russian POWs, gypsies, and others had been systematically killed. I found it amazing what people can do to each other, and not just that, but after being the victims themselves, I don't understand how today Isreal can victimize the Palestineans. Do we learn nothing from our collective past? Not exactly a fun day, but a memorable one.

This picture shows one of the gas chambers that the Nazis destroyed as they fled before the camp was liberated by the Russian soldiers.



But Krakow has much to offer in its own right. Such as the "Singer bar". No singing happens here – it takes its name because each table is actually an old Singer sewing machine.



And no self respecting European city is complete without its castle. This is the Wawel castle (the "w" is pronounced like a "v", so you would call it the "Vavel" castle). It looked really cool because different parts were added over hundreds of years and they don't have a consistent look to them. But despite its feel of a mismatched lego castle built by a 10 year old kid, it did look great. In fact, it's one of the best looking castles I've seen (which by now is quite a few).



Not far from Krakow is an ancient salt mine. It is still active, and has been in continuous operation for over 600 years. Inside are many carvings made of the rock-hard green and black salt stone. The floor, ceiling and walls are all salt. And yup – I licked the walls, and it tastes exactly like table salt despite it not being white. I decided not to bother licking the floor. There were many large chambres and even a few small lakes underground.



I got a funny look from our guide when I asked him if there were any large pepper mines near by.

Next we were off to Wroclaw (pronounced "Vroslav"), Poland's third largest city. One cool thing about this city is that if you look carefully there are many (hundreds?) of little brass dwarves tucked away all over the city. This one was under a bridge. You can only get a good look at it from a boat. So with our rented kayak, we paddled by and snapped a pic of this shy guy...



I guess he was shy because he's washing his pants.

As with much of our European travels, we were Couch Surfing in Wroclaw (www.couchsurfing.org). Here we're all enjoying a Canadian dish Amanda prepared for dinner – it's maple glazed salmon. Mmmm



Our Couch Surfing hosts took us on a day trip through the country where we stopped at many sights including a small castle. I think it was overrun by invaders years ago, which might not be surprising considering their coat of arms. Check out thte one on the left...



Yup - that's a chicken roasting over a fire! At least it's got a sword through it.

We also went for a bit of a hike to another castle which dates back to the 1100's. Wow that's old. Here's our gang who did this day trip...



After that we jumped on a train to Berlin. Stay tuned as we're en route as I write this...

Slovenia and Croatia

After Italy we dipped into eastern Europe for a bit. First on the list was Ljubljana, Slovenia where we had a Couch Surf set up with Danjiel (yes, lot's of "J's" in all the words here – even the beer).



Anyway, Danjiel had a nice flat and we stayed in his living room. Here is a nice shot of his flat

Ljubljana was not what I expected – it was quiet, clean, and its people happy (maybe my expectation of eastern Europe was too harsh). Ljubljana, a small city of some 200,000 had a few sights for us to take in. I liked the "Dragon Bridge" which has a copper dragon at each of its four corners

And a prison that was converted into a hostel, which still maintains a bit of its prison feel.

We were told that during renovations each room was assigned to an artist with the same meager budget, and it was interesting to see how each room was done.


In the open air market we ran into a monster which I was able to video document. I am sure to get some sort of scientific award for my discovery.




Amanda dared me to go and feed him, so I brought him a fresh carrot and I survived to tell the tale.

Not far from Ljubljana is the small town of Postojna – home to Europe's biggest cave. It happens to be very well suited to tourism as it's almost horizontal for 20 km! They built a train track that runs 2 km into the cave, after which you can walk about 1 or 2 km further.

And it's huge in there. At some points the ceiling must be more than 50 feet up.

There were plenty of stalagmites, stalagtites, and columns to see.

And not only that, but it was well above 30 degrees outside, so it was really refreshing to spend an hour or st at +8 and out of the sun.

The next day we were off to Croatia, and decided sort of last minute to skip Zagreb and go to the small beach town of Pula instead. I know we won't get much sympathy from anyone, but the truth is that we needed a vacation from our holiday! Hey – there's only so many cathedrals, museums and castles that a guy can see before needing a break at a beach

Due to our last minute decision to come here we didn't try to arrange a Couch Surf, so we paid for three nights at an apartment owned by a very nice family. That's our suite just above the central garage door.

Right behind our flat was a small but reasonably intact Roman era ruin used as a venue for small concerts and things. One night during our stay there was something going on that we could hear, so we walked over and listened to this band for a while.



They were really enthusiastic

But try as we might, we just couldn't get away from museums and artifacts and whatnot. It turns out that at the centre of Pula is a pretty big Roman era ampitheatre.

One thing I found funny was this mini-golf by the beach. This thing was made entirely of concrete. It's going to outlast religion!

That house is solid concrete! I don't know what these guys were thinking when they made this thing. I mean, concrete construction requires plywood forms – so why not just make the obstacles out of wood and be done with it? But not this place – it's going to outlast religion!

After Pula we began a very long train journey up to Dresden to visit our friend Axel. There were many stops along the way. Here is us enjoying a typical train station lunch

And oh – see the luggage in the picture? That's everything we've got. One year, one bag and two carry on pieces. Not bad, eh?