Our Europe Trip 1999
Our 1999 Europe trip was GREAT!  We left for Europe on May 5th and returned May 24th.  Our plan was to visit several places (cities and countries) that we had the most interest in seeing and then possibly, one day, coming back to visit those places more closely.

Our trip will be outlined for you by the cities or places we visited and any comments or general information we choose to say about each place.  We can't include everything but we'll try to include enough for you to give you a sense of what we experienced and what may be of interest in the area.  Everyone has their own opinion about things and we do too so please remember that and don't take our opinions too personally, they are just our own observation and opinions based from what we experienced.

First things first. A few words about the Eurail pass.  If you're planning on being in various parts of Europe for a period of time more than one week and you are open to taking day trips, half day trips, etc., then using some type of Eurail pass should definitely be a consideration.  There are various types of passes that one can purchase and we would recommend that you consider that option.  When we thought about all the places we might want to go, how long we might be at each place and weighed it against renting a car or perhaps purchasing single train passes to each destination we decided the convenience of literally being able to hop onto any train was worth the peace of mind.  The trains are always very clean, well managed and punctual would be an understatement.  Here are a few of our own tips on Eurail travel (and other Europe travel tips) but I'm sure there are many more tips you can search and find elsewhere on the net.  If you're considering moderate-extensive train travel I would highly suggest seeking out other tips.  I've also tried to include some web sites related to Europe, especially to the places we visited,  that are informative, provide good tourist tips and will be around for awhile.

Paris: May 5th-11th
Great city, people were surprisingly nice to tourists and there is always something you can do in Paris.  We would recommend a minimum of one week just for Paris to see all the sights and take it all in.
Here are some of the things we did while in Paris:  We paid an obligatory visit to the Eiffel Tower and even took a slightly unique picture of it. Our visit to Notre Dame was very enlightening, don't miss the "crypt" under Notre Dame, it is also a must see!  We spent one day at Chartes, which is about an hour train ride from Paris, but definitely well worth it!  Near our hotel, around the corner, was Luxumbourg gardens.  A beautiful park right in the middle of everything.  We also tried to take advantage of all the wonderful museums in Paris and purchased a 3 day museum pass.  One of our visits was the Louvre where we saw the Venus de Milo, among many many other beautiful peices of art.  Another side trip was to Versailles, another "must see" in our books!  This is a huge palace with beautiful rooms to see and likely to take most of one day to see everything.  One place that isn't well known but definitely worth a visit to (especially since it's free) is La Samaritaine.  This is a nine story department store overlooking the Seine River and has some of the most impressive views of Paris!  Also near the Louvre, and near the Concierge is a beautiful church called Saint Chapelle with absolutely stunning stained glass windows.
After a long day of sightseeing the best way to get home is to use the very efficient subway system, which in our opinion, is second to none.

Brugges, Belgium: May 11th - 12th
Brugges is a beautiful small city that has a wealth of history within it.  Many canals, gorgeous sights and some of the most friendly people in all of Europe.  This was definitely one of our most favorite places and our only regret was that we only allotted 2 nights here.  If you are ever in this part of Europe it would be well worth the time to take a "pause" in your travel adventures and soak up at least 3 days in this wonderful place!  Our hotel accommodations were first rate!  We were fortunate enough to find a wonderful bed & breakfast, the Hotel De Pauw where the rooms were very neat and the proprietor was a very sweet and friendly lady.  From our bed and breakfast it was a very nice 15 minute walk to the center of town.  Here is a shot of the town square where various events are held and the corner post of many nice shops and restaurants.  Burg Square, from the bell tower viewpoint, in the immediate area of the town square.  Brugges has many waterways where this is a solid form of transportation and the scenery along the way is spectacular.  One of the most beautiful picture perfect spots was Minnewater pond and the bridge across the narrow end of the pond.  Such views!!!
If you're anywhere in the area, you really need to consider Brugges as one of your destinations where you can stop and "smell the roses".

Amsterdam: May 12th - 14th -  (Updated review!!).
Upon our arrival in Amsterdam, we stopped the VVV office at the Centraal train station.  We bought a phone card and a 2 day tram pass.  Our first impression was  "Wow, look at all the bicycles!".  We didn't rent a bike, but it is one the best ways to explore Amsterdam away from the tram routes. We hope to be able to return one day to Amsterdam and spend time in the Rijksmuseum and the Vincent van Gogh museum as well as explore the rest of Holland.  The Dutch countryside is very beautiful and would be well worth our trip. We stayed at the Hotel Eureka and had a view of the Amstel from our window.  Lyndon took a picture of Mark as we were getting ready to go out to eat at restaurant Sahid Jaya for our first rijsttafel "rice table".  I can't ever remember eating so much food. The meal was excellent and so was the Heineken. We did make it by the Anne Frank house, which despite the hour and a half wait, is worth the wait.  The world would be a much better place if we all had the tolerance and compassion of  the Dutch people. We also made it to Madame Tussard's Wax Museum, which was nice.  The canal network in Amsterdam is pretty extensive and frequently has a good deal of traffic on it, tourists or people just getting around on the water.  This city reminds us in some ways of the attitudes and atmosphere found in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

Munich: May 14th - 17th
We were very impressed with the cleanliness of the city and the overall "orderliness" of the people.  We always felt safe there and noticed there was an unusually small amount of police around.  There was no one checking for the train pass tickets, honor system there.  Munich is home of the Hoffbrau Haus, a very large bier garten overrun by tourists but still a must-see.  When we arrived in Munich, it was already over a week into the trip and we were ready for an American style hotel, so when we checked into the Hilton we were very very pleased with the accommodations and our room happened to be on a corner giving us a great deal more space.  One of our close destinations was the Glockenspiel, which was in the Marianplatz area.  Here is a view of the Glockenspiel from the St. Peters bell tower and a full view from a different perspective.  Slightly further away way, Gartnerplatz, provided us with a closer look of residential apartments mixed in with small mom & pop businesses.  This is another view of a drive circle in the same area.
We did make it to a nearby concentration camp, Dachau, and took a walking tour of the camp.  It was very depressing to witness, even now, the conditions in which people were forced to live in and the pain and suffering this place offered.  I am only including one photo of the "Krematorium" as the other pictures are too depressing.  We also toured Nymphenburg Castle, where King Ludwig resided during his reign over Baveria.
One thing I am reminded of when I think of Munich was that, even late at night, we always felt safe walking even when there weren't any people around.   Munich has much to offer as one of your Europe destinations and in our opinion should not be missed. 

Zell-am-see, Austria: May 17th - 18th
This is a beautiful ski resort town located on a pristine lake in the shadow of Grossglockner.  Even during the off season it was well worth spending the day there and we'd definitely recommend this lovely area especially if you're in the area and need a place to stay.  Zell-am-see sits next to a beautiful lake and there is a lovely park area where you can just sit and soak in the beauty of this place.  Don't let the overcast sky fool you in the picture, it was absolutely beautiful!  Our hotel, St. Georg, was very nice and very representative of many of the inns in the area by looks, price and accomocation.  Our evening dinner meal and breakfast, which was excellent, was included in the rate!  The hotel room was cozy and provided us with very adequate views and views of other inns just down the road.  All in all this was a wonderful single night stop and an un-expected surprise for the small amount of money we paid.

Grossglockner, Austria: May 18th
After our stay in Zell-am-see we left shortly after breakfast on our journey up to the Grossglockner glacier.  Our journey was to take about 3-4 hours up and back down with not much dilly-dallying along the way since we had a long day ahead of us.  Some of the views along the way were absolutely breathtaking and deserves as much time as you can afford to take it all in.  Near the top we stopped at Edelweisspitze which affords us a panoramic view of the whole area.  There were also some large snow drifts where heavy machinery had to carve out space for a parking lot.
Once we made it to our destination I had some issues going down several hundred feet on what is called a funicular.  This is basically a tram that creeps down the side of a mountain and it didn't appeal to me at all.  When you get down to the point where you walk you must take notice of the "danger ice" signs which basically tell you that you could die at any moment by walking on the glacier and falling in a deep ravine. Oh well, we did it anyway.  Here is a shot of Lyndon from the glacier look back up to that mountain tram thingy.  Since Lyndon's first trip in 1979 to 1999 the glacier had lost about 200 feet of surface!

The "rock" (on the way to Innsbruck)
After we left our favorite glacier, along the way to Innsbruck, we had a slight mishap.  We were traveling on a road behind several cars with a commercial van in front of us.  As we were driving through a road construction zone, the van in front of us ran over something that he could clear and we couldn't, but didn't have enough time to avoid hitting.  Our oil pan took a severe blow and the oil light came on within 30 seconds of that horrible sound.  We were very lucky because we were just coming into a very small community where there was one gas station, one convenience type store and one auto repair-car dealership (very small).
We coasted into the convenience store and, being that far into Austria, not a single person could speak any English.  We tried our best to explain to the clerk what happened and once he realized he got really excited and grabbed several paper towels and gave Lyndon and me some and took a wad himself.  He proceeded (frantically) to show us that we needed to clean up the oil underneath the car and quickly!!  After it was all cleaned up and through many a despairing moment of chewing up the German language we managed to get him to call the auto repair place to come get us.  About 30 minutes later this guy shows up in a small truck with a rope!  This wasn't going well at all because I had to be the one in the car being towed and I just knew I'd run into this poor guy while he was pulling me, but somehow, we made it.  He brought us to his family-owned gas station/repair shop & car dealership and their home on the second floor!  After a few ooohhhs and ahhhhs, some pointing at various things underneath the car, we saw the big hole in the oil pan and other things that you could fit a golf ball through.  Through some rough translations through his son, who could speak some English, we managed to get Hertz out there to pick us up.  All in all we were back on the road in about 3.5 hours, with a new car from Hertz, on our way to Innsbruck.

Two things I will say about this story.  The first thing is that we later found out that Europe has some of the strictest environmental laws in the world and this guy was in a purple panic because he didn't want to be fined for having oil spilled.  The second thing is that when we rented the car in Munich, we used the American Express Platinum card and chose to decline the high price insurance and, in the event of an accident, let American Express be our primary insurance coverage.  This arrangement worked very well and American Express took care of all of the charges!  Great going American Express!!

Innsbruck, Austria: May 18th -19th
The only things I can say bad about our visit to Innsbruck was that it was way too short, especially because of the delay getting there.  We arrived around 7:30 pm and were very tired but found our hotel fairly quickly.  We stayed at a bed & breakfast called Gasthof Altpradl and the innkeeper was a very nice lady with a big dog who also checked us in.  The hotel room was cozy, nice, clean and very comfortable.  The only complaint was that we were near some bars and the noise was occasionally disturbing.  Just put in the earplugs and you hear nothing ;)  We walked from our hotel room, through a small park, on our way to eat at a restaurant our innkeeper suggested.  The restaurant was great and the food was in large proportions for a very nice price.  After dinner we took about 2 hours to walk all around Innsbruck, stopped in a couple of bars, had a beer or two and window shopped along the way.  Innsbruck would likely be a very nice place to visit if we had arrived much earlier and had more time to spend there.  Take a look at the funny car we walked by on the way back to our hotel. Talk about saving gas!

Rothenburg, Germany: May 19th - 20th
One of the most memorable places we visited in Europe was Rothenburg.  It was a city within a city.  About 40% of the city was bombed out in World War II but was restored some years after the war.  The old town has a wall completely surrounding it with all the modern conveniences of 970AD!  We stayed in the Gasthof Goldener Grelfen which was very close to the town square and we had a second floor view of the busy street and town square.  When we checked in, we did so downstairs in the restaurant of the hotel.  A young woman who was serving tables, seating people and doing several other things gladly checked us in and got us settled in record time!   Our hotel room was very large and extremely accommodating.  Normally we'd expect a small cramped room with a tiny bathroom, but we actually had a room comparable to any standard suite in the US.  The "old town" we stayed in was fairly small and easy and fun to explore on foot.  Along the way we watched part of a court re-enactment on town square, visited the Kriminal Museum and were in awe visiting St. Jakobs Lutheran Church.  This is a beautiful view of the Altar of the Twelve Apostles and this is the Holy Blood Alter.  We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and it happens that it was a local favorite among the "inner" townspeople.  It was a real experience!  In particular one thing I recall is watching two young Japanese women, eating alone, trying to figure out how to eat the food they were served!  One piece of meat was huge and they kept laughing at, poking their fork into it and taking pictures of it.  They had a blast!!

Machenbach, Germany: May 20th - 23rd
Machenbach is a small town very close to Ramstein Air Force base, where our friends Juana and Mark reside in a beautiful home with a separate (attached) upstairs apartment.  They have a beautiful back yard and the neighborhood is very similar to a quiet cozy suburban neighborhood in any small US city.  During our stay with Mark & Juana, we visited Heidleburg, which has a beautiful castle perched neatly on a hill overlooking the city, as if it were keeping guard.  The view from the castle looking down over Heidleburg was also wonderful.  Here is a shot of Lyndon and Mark on the castle grounds and here is another of us beside a huge keg of wine used for Castle events way back when.  We also drove to Idar Oberstein, had a wonderful lunch, did a little sidewalk shopping and stopped to admire the church that was "built into the mountain".  Our stay with Mark & Juana was very relaxing and a great way to help cap off a wonderful Europe experience!  It was time to leave and we had a wonderful send off at the train station on our journey back home.

Frankfurt, Germany: May 23rd - 24th
This was our departure city back to the US and we had the opportunity to spend an afternoon and evening in Frankfurt before saying goodbye to Europe.  We decided to lay down a few more bucks and we stayed at the Sheraton on the airport grounds for convenience.  Basically getting up in the morning and walking to your terminal is the way to go if you can afford to do so :)

Flight home: May 24th
The flight home was very very long.  We left around 10:30 am and arrived in Houston (to transfer to Austin) around 2:30 pm but were actually in the air around 10 hours.  Air France seating configuration leaves much to be desired for long haul flights, but most airlines would also fit this statement.  We could not wait to get off that plane!