Wine in Bordeaux

We only had one day in Bordeaux so we had to make the most of it. We booked a tour of a winery in the afternoon so we explored the city in the morning. 

That afternoon we took a train to St. Emillion to visit Clos Madeline Vineyard.

First we took a tour of the vineyard and our guide explained the process of growing the grapes and how the different types of soil affect the quality of the grapes. The most interesting fact that we learned was that the best grapes are grown on a slope due to the minerals in the soil, which is why you see so many vineyards growing on hills.

Next she took us to where they make the wine. We saw the wooden vats where the first steps of wine making occur. They do everything by hand at this vineyard and use heat instead of pressing the grapes to make the wine.

We went into the fermentation room where they store the wine in wooden barrels. This is the longest part of the winemaking process. Most of their wines are not mature enough to drink for almost ten years.

After the tour there was a wine tasting where our guide taught us how to properly prepare wine before drinking. We tried the different qualities of wine from the vineyard including 5 red and 2 white wines. 

After the tour we took a mini train ride around all the vineyards in St. Emillion.

 It was a great way to see the beautiful landscape of the city and its vineyards. 

Beach Bums in Barcelona

We flew to Barcelona from Milan in the afternoon and decided that we definitely prefer taking trains over flying. Some people might think that flying is faster, but the whole airport process takes about the same time as it would to take the train. Plus on the train we can relax the entire time!

When we got to Barcelona we hurried to our hotel to put our stuff away and then ran to meet up to take another Fat Tire Bike Tour. Our tour guide took us around the city explaining the history and architecture of the city. 

We stopped by a park right beside the Barcelona Zoo and found a big statue of a mammoth. So of course we thought this was a great photo op.

Next we went by Me Grada Familia, a church designed by the famous architect Gaudi. This church was started year and is not estimated to be finished for at least 75 years.

At the end of the tour we stopped at the beach to get some dinner and drink some sangria.

The next day we went to Stiges a beach outside the city. Our bike tour guide recommended this beach because it is less crowded, has softer sand and is way more beautiful. The beach was full of locals, which was kind of a culture shock for us. We stood out as tourists because we were the only ones with our swimsuit tops on. We stayed on the beach all day relaxing in the sun and working on our tans. 

That night we went to watch the Magic Fountain. It is a large fountain that does a light show to music and it was surprising entertaining to watch.

 

Although the music was not our personal favorite with many songs from the 90’s the light and water show was one of the coolest things we have seen. 

Home Sweet Bergamo

We arrived in Milan early from our night train and freshened up in the train station bathroom. One of the first things we had to do was get some authentic Italian gelato, this was one of the things we had been waiting for the whole trip. 

Then we went to see the Duomo and walked around the city center before our reservations to view The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. To view The Last Supper we had to plan ahead, we had to book the tickets two months in advance because only 30 people are allowed to view it at one time. Once inside Santa Maria delle Grazie you are only aloud to view the painting for 15 minutes.

The painting was large and it covered an entire wall. It was painted in 1498 and has been restored many times. The most interesting part of the painting was the different expressions on the apostle’s faces and how they depict their personalities.

After the viewing we headed directly to Bergamo to meet up with our friend Carrie. Two summers again we both studied abroad here so we were very excited to go back. The students had a party at a local winery that night so we went to meet up with them. The winery was on the side of a small mountain that had a beautiful view of the city. 

After the winery we went to Citta Alta to hang out at our favorite restaurant for some drinks with Carrie. We were so excited to be back in Bergamo to see the city and some familiar faces.

Next stop Barcelona!

Tours of Munich

Our first day in Munich we took what else, but a free walking tour, our forth of those if you’re keeping track. Our first stop was The Glockenspiel in Marienplatz, this clock is a little bit cooler than the clock in Prague. The statues move in a circle depicting a wedding scene and celebrating the end of the plague.

 Our tour guide, Travis, was a unique fellow. He dressed in the authentic Bavarian style, lederhosen.

He took us to many major sites including the street where the Beer Hall Putsch took place. After the tour we climbed to the top of a church tower to get a better view of Munich. We could even make out the outline of the Alps.

 

That night we decided to go on a Beer Challenge tour put on by the same company as the free tour. They took us to 3 major beer halls, most notably the Hafbrauhaus. They taught us a German drinking song, history about beer gardens, and a new party trick with a liter mug.

At Hafbrauhaus they waiter carried 13 liter beers at one time.

 

The breweries we visited serve beer that follows Reinheitsaebot also know as the German Beer Purity Law. There are only six breweries that follow these laws today and are therefore the only breweries allowed to serve at Oktoberfest.

The next morning we took a tour of Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp. Dachau served as a prototype or model camp for all the other Nazi concentration camps. This camp was built mainly as a male work camp unlike Auschwitz, which was a death camp.  Over 200,000 prisoners were kept at Dachau over the 12 years it was in operation. 

We walked through reconstructed barracks that were built initially built to hold only 50 prisoners. Due to the evacuation of other camps, Dachau became severely over crowded and at times held over 300 prisoners in each bunk.

They also reconstructed part of an electric that was used to keep prisoners from escaping.

Even though Dachau has a very dark past, we were glad we went on the tour because we learned a lot and saw first had the physical and psychological terror the Nazi party inflicted. The surviving prisoners of Dachau wanted the camp to be turned into a memorial to serve as a learning device so we may never forget and repeat the tragedy of the Holocaust.

Munich has been one of our favorite cites but we are looking forward to heading back to Italy!

Good Ole' Prague

The morning after we arrived in Prague we headed out to catch the free walking tour offered by the same company as all the other tours we have taken. This tour was led by Ben, this is the third city that he has been a guide in.

 

Our first stop was the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square. The clock is famous not only because it chimes every hour but also because it has moving statues. When this clock was built the moving parts were very advanced, although now it’s pretty lame. There was a huge crowd around it so Ben had a plan for all of us to start cheering and clapping as soon as the clock stopped moving to try and get the whole crowd to cheer with us. This was funny because the clock really wasn’t that cool so everyone was confused to why we were cheering.

Our next stop was St. James Church where legend goes a thief tried to steal a necklace on the statue of the Virgin Mary. The statue came to life and grabbed the thief’s hand. The clergymen found him the next day, they decided that this was a miracle and could not damage the statue so they cut off his arm instead. To this day the arm of the thief hangs from the ceiling of the church.

To illustrate the story, Ben picked two people from the tour to play the Virgin and the thief, Stasia was picked to play the thief and had to reenact the story in front of everyone.

 

We also saw the Charles Bridge, the oldest bridge in Prague, was built by King Charles to withstand the floods.

After the tour we headed up to the Prague Castle, the oldest castle in the world! The view of the city from the Castle was so beautiful.

The next day we planned to visit the Old Jewish Cemetery and the Powder Tower. The cemetery contains almost 12,000 tombstones within a square block although the number of people buried there is believed to be much greater. The cemetery dates between 1439- 1786, during this time this was the only land the Jewish people were given to bury their dead. Walking through the crowded piles of tombstones was eerie and disturbing.

The Powder Tour was built 1475 to replace the old gate of Prague. The tower earned its name because it was used to store gunpowder. To get to the top of the tower we had to climb a steep spiral staircase. Today the upper gallery offers a beautiful view of the city center and Prague Castle.

Jessy’s wheel broke on her bag on the way to find our hotel. The streets are all cobblestone and very bumpy. We went back to find the wheel and she tried to reattach it but it was still loose. So on our long journey to the train station to leave Prague Jessy had to carry her forty pound backpack on her back.

Berlin: Poor But Sexy

We arrived in Berlin after our relaxing night train and went straight to our hostel to refresh and then explore another city with another Fat Tire Bike Tour!

 

Our tour guide, Charles, took us to all the main sites in Berlin…

including Checkpoint Charlie, a remaining portion of the Berlin wall, and many other historical sites. 

He talked a lot about WWII and explained how the Berlin Wall came to be and how it fell.

 

The Berlin Wall was constructed overnight separating families and people from their jobs and homes. Many of these people were not reunited for 28 years. Now there is a line all around the city showing where the wall used to stand.

We were very surprised by the economy in Berlin. Many of the buildings have still not been rebuilt. To hide all the empty space they wrapped large pictures of buildings around scaffolding. Charles liked to make us guess if buildings were real or fake. During the tour we stopped at an authentic German beer garden.  We were very excited that they had pretzels but disappointed the Germans eat their pretzels with butter and not cheese.

 

On the bike tour we met three girls from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and made plans to meet them the next day.

The next morning, we got up to go meet Sara, Caroline and Aimee, our friends from the bike tour. There was a Cultural Festival going on in Berlin so we all decided to check it out. There were many streets filled with vendors selling food and crafts from every culture.

We tried some new food and shopped around until it was time to get on the train and head to Prague.