For those of you stil reading...

Hello...hello....anyone out there?

For those dedicated few that may still be checking this blog even though the trip is over, I just wanted to mention a few things:

1. we made it home alive (and in comfort with another great score on our airplane seating!)

2. PICTURES, PICTURES, PICTURES! Stay tuned for pictures posted to the blog soon, though it might take a week or so to sort through them all and give you the very best (highlights will include: Leo shouting at Johnny Mac at Wimbledon, Pamplona Costumes (including the imfamous capris), 1000 pictures of gargoyles, and much more)

3. If you've been reading (whether you enjoyed it or not) if you wouldn't mind sending me an email at blyle@vt.edu (or just post your name right on the blog), we'd love to know how far reaching our blog was and how many people might have been reading (we're really curious).

4. We had a great time blogging, hope you enjoyed reading, and stay tuned just a bit longer as there may be some more final thoughts about the trip and definitely some pictures soon to come.

Thanks, looking forward to hearing from you.

Hookers and Hash...

if any of you know me even just a little you already know that here in Amsterdam I saw both, but partook in neither. So sorry to disappoint, but you know, I yam what I yam.

So this is it, the last night of this long and wonderful journey and despite a rained soaked day we're going out on top (literally, I'm on the top bunk and Leo is probably much higher than that).

Amsterdam has been a nice enough stay, but coming here at the end of a six week trip I've been pretty much overwhelmed by a "been there, seen that" attitude and I've been pretty much ready to get home. I took a nice little bike tour that took me to a cute little dutch farm/cheese shop/wooden shoe factory, run by a crazy farmer that likes to shake a tail feather. I took some nice walks around the canals of this Venice of the north (Amsterdam reminds me a lot of Boston, not sure why, but its true). I ate some good tasting, but gross looking shoarma (sp?), and some good Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Boom Chicago was good for a few laughs. Today was all about some Van Gogh museum, like Leo, I became a VVG convert last time I was here. This time they had a cool exhibit of his drawings, which I knew nothing about, but enjoyed seeing. But the highlight of this stay was without question I wonderful evening with the Rohr Family Friends - Bert and Nel. We rode the train about 20 minutes out to meet them and walked back to their house where we had some surprisingly delicious dutch food. Don't ask me what it was, because even if I did know, there is no way I could pronounce it. Then, as Leo already described, we walked through a really cool old village with lots of windmills and farm animals and cool doorways. All the while we thoroughly enjoyed the company of a delightful real-life dutch couple. What a way to end our trip. I think we both found it fitting that our trip was basically bookended by our trips to visit people we knew (starting with Mike and Kate in London and ending with Bert and Nel). The dinner and walk were great. (sorry I can't be more creative and funny about it).

So that's pretty much it for Europe. We're headed out of here early tomorrow morning to catch our plane and come home! Looking forward to being back in the good ole USA. See you all soon.

It's A Race Against Time

Will our heroes make it out of Amsterdam alive???
Will you please shut up???
Will this blog make it out of me before I descend into madness???
Stay tuned to find out.
Well it is 9:30 on the eve of our departure. This will probably be our last post from Europe. But do not fret my darlings. It has been a good ride. We have spent most of our time in Amsterdam apart, exploring the city as we individually saw fit. I can only tell you about my times. Yesterday, did the Van Gogh museum, and inhabited some moments of perfection in the park outside. I'll admit, before this trip I wasn't a huge Van Gogh fan, but now I'm a convert. The man was out there, but he was there.
This morning was dedicated to the Anne Frank house. I got there early cause a full day was planned, and as Bryce says, that is a really well-put-together museum. Very classy and very informative and very tear-inducing. I haven't cried that much since a certain character in a certain book bit the dust. It seemed mother nature agreed with me, since when I went in it was nice and dry and by the time I left the sky had opened up. A few last minute errands were executed before Bryce and I took the penultimate train ride out to visit...
Yes Bert and Nel!! We had a fantastic time with them!!! They made us dinner, a surprisingly good compote of kale along with gravy and sausage. Then we took a walk to a Colonial Williamsburgesque little Dutch village that had working windmills and woodshops. It also had an alarmingly slug-covered ground. When the sun went down and the temperature followed, we parted ways at the train station with a hug and a wave. And now we are back in the hostel for our last night. Bryce intends to stuff his face and fall asleep. I intend to explore space and time.

Thank you for joining us on this journey. It is as much yours as it is ours. Hopefully we will see each other soon.

Yours,
Leo

p.s. I love you mom
p.p.s. and Ruth

Why don't you get lost in Amsterdam?

It would be easy. All the streets look the same. Not to mention all of the "things" that you can get here. But we won't say too much about that. So I don't have that much to say. Then why post you might ask? Well the urge struck me, and I'm in a library that has free internet, and that's a good thing. We're about to go to an Improv show called Boom Chicago that we hear is pretty good. Other than that, all I've done in Amsterdam is sit in the park and look at the clouds, oh and play a little frisbee golf before it started raining, but it was that mist kind of rain that I like so much, so it wasn't bad.

To Robyn and Bill. YAY! So cool that you are coming down to play frisbee. I can't wait for Sunday.
To Chuck, Thanks.
To JKR, I love you.
To R.A.B.-I know what you're up to, and I like it.
To A-remember what we talked about playing spades at the lockin?
To F-Captains please.
To all...peace and godbless

OK OK, sorry!

Lest I feel anymore of RAP's wrath, let me apologize for my grievous error, I don't know how I turned off the comments on my mammoth post, but I think commenting is back on, so everyone go back now and leave me sympathic posts regarding my Venetian trauma.

I wasn't really planning to post now, but quick thoughts:

Brussels - what's the point? I'm not entirely sure why Brussels even exists. To be fair we got there at 6:00am and I don't guess there is a lot going on anywhere at 6:00am. We had some waffles (delicious), watched that little statue pee (all of the Crosses would have, no doubt, found this as hilarious as I did), we looked at the "most beautiful square in the world" which was quite pretty, we took in the most useless chocolate museum in the world (though we scored some pretty good free samples) and we took in the Royal Palace with about 70,000 of our closest Belgian friends. All in all our 6.5 hours in Brussels were very...so-so.

Amsterdam - we got here and showered and I was all about taking a canal tour. Leo, however, wanted to stay in his bunk and "journal" though I suspect when I get back to the room he will not be there and by "I need to journal" he meant "I need to ditch Bryce so I can score a cheap hooker," but I guess we'll see about that.

Ok, more on Amsterdam after we actually see it (so far the city is beautiful, but the street preformers are pathetic).

Sorry for the confusion, don't forget to post retroactively to my previous previous post.

Ich bin ein Berliner

Well no I´m not but I wouldn´t mind it. Our hostel was actually right across the street from where Kennedy made that infamous speech. Berlin is Awesome! Würzburg was Awesome! Munich was Awesome! I guess that means that Germany is pretty freakin awesome! I´m proud to call myself Pipe.
I´ve spent most of my time in Berlin walking and lounging, and yes finally playing some frisbee in the extensive park system that they have here. Yesterday was spent completely in one park where they had this concert called Yellow Lounge, which consisted of mostly classical music being played while people chilled around a pool floating in the middle of the Spree river. It was very laid back and a very cool day. Today I walked through the Tiergarten and made up around 14 holes of golf before I ran out of park and ran into the zoo. So I thought, why the hell not? The zoo was certainly worth Berlin placing the train station next to it that U2 would later name a song for. For those of you confused by that sentence, consult your local record store (or neighborhood yard sale apparently) for Achtung Baby.
So there´s only one stop left (not counting an afternoon in Brußels(haha I just wanted to use that key)) and that´s Amsterdam. It´s time to throw all caution to the wind, drop all the weight that´s slowing us down(see ya later clothes), and seriously end this trip in style!

Auf Wiedersehn Deutschland! I loved ya even though I didn´t understand one word whilest I was here.

p.s. mom the email for Bert and Nel didn´t work and I don´t have their phone number, though you do. Please email it to me at cooleo626@hotmail.com

random notes...
Hey Megan! Glad to hear from you and I can´t wait for that epic battle on the 6th.
I now have a strange desire to watch Night Rider
Mein Hotel ist nicht weit von hier
Hitler sucked
German musik, or at least the American music that Germans play, ROCKS! I already mentioned the sweet 80s internet cafe. Then there was this radio station that within the course of a few hours played, Thriller, Summertime by Fresh Prince, Don´t Speak, plus all these current hits from the US.
Dangit Bryce beat me to posting, one way to fix that...

Berlin

Even though my previous post did not seem to resonate with the reading public and obviously no one gives a damn, I would like to start by saying that German public transportation has been, thus far, excellent. Their trains are great and Berlin's local transportation worked like a dream.

Ok, so Wurzburg was very quaint. Very German-y, we saw a big old castle way up on a hill with a nice view, we saw an incredibly gawdy royal palace that was decked out in Roccoco style, and we saw a gummy bear shop and I've never seen Leo so happy. Thats pretty much Wurzburg.

Now, Berlin. Berlin Berlin Berlin, I have been extraordinarily pleased with our stay here. This was one of the places that I demanded we go before the trip, but I didn't really know what to expect, I didn't even really know what kind of sights and culture there was to see. Even when we arrived I didn't know what to expect. On the bus ride from the station to the hostel, I told Leo that the city seemed different from the rest, more metropolitan, more modern. I'm not sure he agreed, but the city is unlike any other place I've been in Europe. I couldn't really put my finger on it until I had been here a while and been on a tour and stuff. The difference is that its NEW! The city has the most incredible 20th Century of any place I've ever seen and much of that history involved it being destroyed, so everything has been built in the last 60 years, much of it in the last 15 or 20. Also, unlike all the other places we've been Berlin is ashamed of much of its history and has therefore actually torn down a lot of historic sights, even if they weren't destroyed in the war. Everywhere else glorifies its history, but Berlin has to hide some, or at least try to get past it.

I pretty much fell in love with a tour company here called "New Berlin." Leo and I both went on their free general tour of the city on our first full day here. I then used thier other tours to plan my days. After the free tour we checked out some museums (including the Pergamon Museum, where I actually enjoyed looking at super-ancient artifacts! that might be a first, but they had this really cool Babylonian gate, ok, it doesn't sound cool, but trust me). We split up there so Leo could gaze for hours and I could leave while I was still enjoying it. I took in an organ concert at the Berliner Dome (Berlin Cathedral) and we met back at the Reichstag (Capital Building) where after a 45 minute wait we had an incredible view of the sun setting over the whole city. I really loved the Reichstag, it has this great glass dome that you can walk around and take in the whole panarama of the city. After that we took in the "ultra modern" Sony Center and FINALLY saw "War of the Worlds" (review available upon request). Next day, I took in the Jewish Museum, then went on the "Third Reich Tour" from my favorite tour guides. This was obviously all about the Nazi years. Then I took the S-bahn out to the Olympic Stadium where Jesse Owens showed up Hitler in 1936 and took a cool tour of that. A nice walk through the Tiergarten (their Central Park) and some window shopping and I called it a day. Today, we both went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum which had some really cool artifacts from the Wall and the East Germany Years, particularly crazy devices that people used to sneak out of East Berlin. I had to hurry through a little more than I would have liked so that I could catch the "Red Berlin" tour that took us to lots of Cold War sites. The highlights of this tour were a stop at the Stasi Museum (East German Spies - 1 in 7 East Germans were working for the Stasi, either by choose or (mostly) by coersion) and a little strip of the Wall that is still standing just as it used to, with the inner and outer wall, with the "death strip" running in between. Throughout town you can see little pieces of the wall and it doesn't seem that intimidating, in fact, you think "what's the big deal" but when you see it all together like that it seems incredibly imposing and impossible to cross (though a few people did make it over the years).

All in all, Berlin far surpassed my expectations. The history was incredible and it was actually a very beautiful city in its own way. I think I learned more here than anywhere else and it really captivated my interest in a way that no other cities have on this trip. I hesitate to call it my favorite, but it was definitely the most interesting.

Well now we are off to our final overnight train (I have a bed, thank God) and we will awake in Brussels. One day there then we are off to Amsterdam tomorrow night for the rest of our stay. Home feels right around the corner (and thats a good thing). More later from the Red Light district.