Things I Never Want to Forget About Europe

First, I always want to remember how grateful I am to my mother for giving me the opportunity to share this experience with her, creating memories for both of us forever.

Houses are very narrow because they were taxed on the amount of land they use and then they built up. Many of these houses are over 500 years old and are sliding sideways, making them look very tipsy.

Holland is just two provinces--The Netherlands is the name of the whole country

The Red Light District of Amsterdam--I've always heard of it and always wanted to see it. Two kind fellow passengers took me out with them to see the sights. Incredibly narrow alleys with real red lights over 400 windows. 1000 girls (to cover the various shifts). They pay about $100/night for a window. The girls were all completely dressed. After negotiating with the customer they close the drapes for privacy. Photos are not allowed or you may find yourself in the canal.

The "coffeehouses" are numerous and no one pays any attention to them, but they do emit a strong aroma.

One thing that made me crazy were all the people on bikes (no one wears a helmet) and no hats or umbrellas. It didn't matter how hard it was raining, they just went on without them.

Outdoor urinals--can you imagine! right out on the street!

They have a Museum of Bags and Purses.


Augenroller--The Eye Roller--his eyes move back and forth and he sticks out his tongue on the hour.

Schmuck means gem or jewelry.

Gas costs $9 a gallon.

For public toilets, you must pay a "fee to pee." Usually 50 cents. In one place we paid 70 cents, but that's because a brush came out to clean the rotating seat after every use.

"Let's have a reviver, Georgie!"

In the Cologne area, beer is served in tall narrow glasses and they will keep bring you more and more until you put a coaster over the glass to indicate that you are finished.

There is a purity law regarding beer brewing--you may only use four ingredients: hops, barley, yeast and water.

During a night out in the Drosselgasse wine alley of Rudesheim, we went wine tasting and had to fish the little bugs out of our glasses. We were each served a liter of Riesling wine with dinner and they all sang the whole way home on the bus.

Contrary to popular belief, in the middle ages chastity belts were not used to keep wives and daughters pure. They were used on prostitutes who didn't pay their taxes.

The gigantic slabs of wurst people ate at lunch.

In Bamburg, the Church owned the land and would not give the townspeople a place for their city hall, so they built it in the middle of the river.

Our friend had to go into the hospital for two days while on the trip. For breakfast they served her a bread roll, a piece of cheese and 3 slices of salami--in a hospital!!

Schneeballen--a round pastry ball deep-fried and coated with different toppings.

The little old ladies who spoke to me in German, assuming that I understood, as I nodded along.

The Mainz cathedral was built in 8 years and burned to the ground on the day of its inaugeration.

The Marksburg castle is the the only intact remaining castle. In the bed chamber there is a bed that is approximately 4 ft by 4 ft for two adults to sleep in. They slept sitting upright because of all the smoke from the fires and candles.

It is a saying that a women's blouse should be well constructed, so you can "see how much wood she has stacked in front of her cabin."

When the ship approaches low bridges, the wheelhouse lowers to the level of the deck. The captain pokes his head out a hatch on top. Once he asked me to sit beside him as we went under and he stuck his hand up to touch the bottom of the bridge.

So, what have we done so far? In Amsterdam, there was the canal boat trip with the houseboats lining the edges, a long walk in the rain and a short trip to see the Red Light District.

Next, we sailed to Cologne to see the cathedral and the old town. The town of Koblenz  was lovely to wander through. We toured the only intact castle left in Germany called Marksburg followed by beer, sausages and pretzels at a brewery.

The highlight of the trip is the little villages lining the Rhine, including the rock of Lorili. They waited until morning to sail for us to have the best views. Of course, it was a shivery cold, foggy morning, so that didn't work out so well. But I managed to take a few pictures.

We toured Mainz, which was supposed to include the Gutenberg Museum, but we ditched it because we were tired. There was a special tour of Rudesheim with a winery and then dinner with lots of oompah music and a liter of wine each! They sang all the way home on the bus.

Today we saw castle and town of Heidelberg.

What's left? Only Wertheim, Karlstadt, Gerlachshausen, Schweinfurt, Bamberg and Nuremberg. Other than that, we just eat ALL THE TIME! 

Dream of my lifetime--Europe! Specifically, a riverboat cruise of the Rhine River from Amsterdam to Nuremburg. We started with two rainy days in Amsterdam, but trooped through it to see the sights. The canals, tipsy houses, coffeeshops and of course, the Red Light District.

Today we had a day in Cologne. When I came around the corner and saw the awesome of the catherdal, the power of it was breathtaking. The town was mostly destroyed during World War II, and has been reconstructed around the main square.

We skipped out on the ship board dinner tonight and ate bratwurst, cabbage and potatoes in an authentic German pub.

More Images of Costa Rica

Tha..tha...that's all for now!

Images of Costa Rica

Things I Never Want to Forget About Costa Rica--Part 2

Paddling hard into oncoming white water rapids, glancing backwards, and our guide is calming eating watermelon.

The biggest, baddest crocodiles on Rio Tarcoles have names like Fidel Castro, Saddam Huessin, and Mike Tyson.

Vampire bats secrete a substance to stop the coagulating of blood and interfer with feeling, so they can lick the blood as much as they want. And they return to the same victim, night after night.

My skin was luxuriously soft for days after the mud baths.

Leaf cutter ants harvest leaves to take to their nest, where they grow fungus to eat.

The sun rises at 5:30 every morning, sets at 5:30 every night, year round.

On the hanging bridges tour, our guide wanted to keep us safe

and warned us to keep focused on where we were walking.

Ali said, "I didn't come all this way to look at my feet."

Impatiens are the "national weed."

They eat everything with Lizarno sauce, not spicy, but tangy.

A group from New York, stopped our guide, a biologist, to ask what that animal in the field was. He said, "What animal? I cannot see an animal there, there is a cow in the way."

Little children walk for miles alone to school, perfectly safe.

Took a close up photo of an eyelash pit viper--1 of the 5 deadliest snakes in Costa Rica.

I'm incapable of uttering the simplest Spanish phrases, in spite of 2 yrs of college level classes.

Met up with Billy, Sandra, and Cody from Truckee at a very remote resort. How do these things happen?

Coffee tastes the same whether it is fresh ground or not, it just smells better.

Shampoo ginger smells like shampoo.

The average Costa Rican makes $500/month, but food and energy are very cheap, and medical costs are covered through a very inexpensive medical plan. They pay no income tax if they make under $600/month. However sales tax is 13%.

Sloths' fur turns green from the chlorophyll in the leaves they eat. They must climb down to use the ground to defecate once a week.

There are 5 types of bats: nectar, fruit, fish, insect, and blood.

Chicken of the Tree is iguana.

The males turn bright orange during mating season.

A pig walked right through the middle of the dining room while we were having dinner.

Jesus Christ lizards are not called that because they walk on water. No, it is because when one is running towards you, you shout, "Jesus Christ!"

When someone has been dead for 5 years, they open the crypt and scoot the bones aside to add someone new.

"Nightclub" does NOT mean disco. It is a strip club and the strippers are not exotic dancers, they are prostitutes advertising their wares.

I was thrilled to see toucans, scarlet macaws,

neon blue Morpho butterflies, yellow flycatchers, green honeycreepers,

howler and capuchin monkeys and a coatimundi.

The people of the Maleku tribe were almost wiped out

and there are only approximately 700 left.

They greet each other by saying "capi, capi"

and knocking on the other person's shoulder.

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If you were on the trip, what are you're most memorable things? Share them in the comments.