Trip to Europe, the rest

It's been a while since my last post and the story of my trip is starting to fade. Here's a quick run down of the rest of the trip.

Amsterdam
Amsterdam's a cool city. I know it's a cliche place to go and party, but it's still a good time. The tourist area, especially the red light district, is over-hyped in my opinion. There's a lot more to the city than the party spots. We walked around the city away from the tourist areas and there are some really nice neighbourhoods to walk around in and soak up the atmosphere. I'm sure it's a really beautiful place in the summer time. We checked out the Van Gogh museum and the science centre and took a canal boat tour. I didn't really take many pictures of the place though.

Brussels
Brussels was my favourite spot. It was mainly untouched by the world wars so a lot of the old building are still there close to their original state. The grand square is amazing. You don't really see it until you walk into it and once you're there it's awe inspiring. Especially when it's all lit up at night.

Here's a stitched shot that I modified into black and white and tried to give it an old look:


There are some cool spots around the city and I'm sure you can spend a whole week there and still be looking for places to explore. Le Cirio is one of the coolest bars I've been to. It's got a really old feel to it. The bartenders are old guys that are pretty funny. A La Mort Subite (the sudden death) was another cool spot. It seems like it's been a place were people have gone for an after work drink for years. Has some of the best beer I've ever tasted. The peach beer is really good.

Bruges
Bruges is the most well preserved medieval town in Europe. If you haven't seen it, check out the movie "In Bruges"...it shows how scenic the area is and it's a good movie. It was a bit of a time warp going there...really slow pace. We climbed up the bell tower and had a good lunch of crepes. We also stopped in one of many chocolate stores and had some really good hot chocolate.

Here are some pics:




After the day trip to Bruges, we hung out in Brussels for another night and then hopped on a train back to Mannheim.

Meinz
Germany has a festival called Carnaval. Not sure what it's fore, but I think it's the same idea as Brazil's carnival...last party before the lent season. We took a train to Meinz because it was recommended as a cool spot to check out the festivities and it was less than an hour away. Overall, it was a really fun day. We got dressed up and checked out the parade and the atmosphere.







Heidelberg
Heidelberg's another cool little town about a 30 minute train ride from Mannheim. It's got some cool little bars and an old castle at the top of a hill. Really scenic. Unfortunately the weather was cold, rainy, and cloudy. Still cool to see.

I was pretty wiped by the time end of the trip. The flight home was good...I slept for most of it. Overall a great trip.

Trip to Europe, Berlin

The elective courses that I want to take are scheduled so that I was frontloaded with two courses in January and early February and backloaded with three courses in March and April. In between, I had 6 weeks of free time...well mostly free time. I got a job as a teacher's assistant for a 4th year commerce course on management of new enterprises and the Tricolour Fund is an ongoing project course.

3 of my classmates were on exchange in Mannheim, Germany, for a couple of months. They had some travel plans laid out and talked me into going over there and travelling with them for 10 days. It doesn't take much to convince me to go on a trip anywhere...I just checked my finances and made sure I didn't have any outstanding deliverables for the fund or my TA work.

I met up with them in Mannheim on a Friday and that night we took a train to Berlin. Berlin was an interesting place. Apart from the old buildings like Reichstag, it felt a lot like Toronto...except with Germans. We spent a couple of days there...had an awesome dinner at a rustic Italian restaurant and went to a club. We checked out the historical sites...the holocaust memorial put a somber tone on the second day...kind of depressing combined with the cold snowy weather.

Here are some pics in any case:

A square in Mannheim


From the Reichstag




Sometimes the people around you make a picture...it's worth putting them in your shots. Here are a couple from around the Brandenburg Arch. You get some surprises like this one...


...or you can people watch and take some interesting ones.


Had to stop and check out this Bugatti


There are some really nice spots around the area...like this pano shot of the museum and cathedral (forget the names) near the arch


(I forgot to set the camera to manual so the exposures were all different. Had to photoshop it quite a bit to even things out...)

Of course, had to check out the wall...


Next was a brief stop in Rotterdam to have some lunch with some other classmates on exchange and on to Amsterdam...