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Trevor and Amber

45 Blog Entries
2 Trips
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Trips:

Nordegg
Europe Trip

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An ordinary couple with stereotypical "boring" jobs is ready for an adventure before life takes them captive and there is no escaping it.

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Berlin-Prague (Brenda

Berlin, Germany

We got up early, made it to the station in the nick of time, we had been told reservations were not necessary, so we didn't. But when we got on the train and settled, turns out most people did have reserved seats, so we stood for 1/2 hour in the hallway and at the end of the carriage, being jostled around. We finally found 3 separate seats, but in the meantime, I had made friends with 4 Korean boys in the carriage, they did not speak much English, but we managed. At the next station,we were able to sit together. When we arrived in Prague, they do not use Euros, so off to the bank machine, get a 2000 Krowne note, which no one will make change for, and we are trying to buy a bus ticket to the hostel. Bus tickets cost 100 Krowne each, so finally done. The exchange rate is 25 Krowne to 1 Euro, hard to keep track in your head what you were spending. We made it to the Chili Hostel, after bumping the suitcases over mostly cobblestone streets.
We headed for the castle there (whatever name it was) so we hurried, it was closing at 5pm. It was also raining. We get to the station stop, and turns out we still had another 2000 metres, yes 2km to walk to the actual castle, so we went to find beer. So we wandered around some more, had goulash with dumplings ( and beer) for supper, came back to the hostel, did laundry, went for a nightcap, came home to bed. I am the oldest person at this hostel, could be all of their mother!!

permalink written by  Trevor and Amber on May 30, 2009 from Berlin, Germany
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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Berlin Day 2 (by Trevor)

Berlin, Germany

Today we had a busy day planned. A were gong to get up early and line up to see the dome at Reitstagge (the german parliment). It is a huge dome in that overlooks the sessions, and it's free to the public. We wanted to beat the lines and get there early. We didn't and had to wait for about an hour and a half, they told us it would be only an hour. We got in finally, and headed up. It was cool when you first got in, there was a central columns covered in mirrors, all at different angles, put all pointing down towards parliment but not directly. I thought as we were traveling up the staircase along the outsides all the mirrors would point directly into parliment, but they didn't and it was dissapointing. We climbed to the top and checked out the view. It wasn't worth the hour and a half wait.

We then decided to go back to the Holocost memorial, that we saw on the tour the day before. There was an information center below. It was very enlightening and sombering. At some points you think to yourself how could people be so cruel? It was hard to read all the stories, but they had some interestig ones from survivors and the hardships that they suffered.

After that we headed to see a church that had been bombed in WW2, but instead of tearing it down they left it as a reminder. That was cool, but the church that they built to replace it was even cooler. It had blue stain glass windows, cut into squares, all the way around the church.

After this, we were all pretty exhausted so we headed back to our hostel for a nap. When we got in the room, there was a pair of blank panties hanging on the ladder to go up to my bed. And they weren't Ambers. They must have been by the lockers and the cleaning lady put them their, but there was another girl staying in the room, so we moved them to her side. Below her bed, there was an Irish guy, so for good measure we made sure he could see them, you never know they might be his.

We then headed for dinner and we ate outsite, even though it was 10 degrees, because they had heatlamps and blankets, quite ammusing. As we were leavong dinner We saw a bachelorette selling condoms, again quite ammusing.

After dinner we made our way back and called it a night. By this time the panties were placed on my moms bed, so obviously no ones and we just through them out.

permalink written by  Trevor and Amber on May 29, 2009 from Berlin, Germany
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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Berlin by Amber

Berlin, Germany

Wow what an incredible day of history! We took the night train leaving yesterday at 8pm and arrived in Berlin this morning at 9am and went to the hostel, as we were sitting trying to decide what to do I overheard someone ask some other people if they were waiting for the free walking tour. I asked what it was and since we had no plan it sounded like a good idea to get a first glimpse of the city. Our guide, Paulo was excellent and gave us a great refresher on the history of Berlin and significant events and buildings. It was so interesting and again makes me think back to high school social and appreciate everything Mr. Cender taught me. Some of the most interesting things we saw was the memorial sight which is essentially a whole bunch of rectangular pillars in a park covering probably a whole city block. The sight is very strange and the idea is to get people thinking about the memorial and what it means. At first I thought it looked like a cemetery but with no flowers and no names, the guide explained many other people thought it was to depict many trains or soldiers or if you walk through it the walls feel like they are closing in on you, it is very impacting and reinforces the fact that I want to go to a concentration camp. I feel it is important to remember what thousands of people went through and tell their stories.

Another impacting site was the place where Adolf Hitler committed suicide and what Berlin has decided to do with the space. The ground space above where the bunker was is now a car park with nothing at all to indicate why the space is significant, in fact throughout the whole city i think they have done a really good job honoring the people who suffered so much without paying any tribute to the men responsible. Later on the walk we saw one of the largest remaining portions of the Berlin wall as well as the square where the huge book burning took place, again I love the artist symbolism of how they have commemorated this site. On the ground there is a green wreath where you can look through a glass tile in the ground to a part of the library that is completely sealed off and inaccessible with white empty shelves lining the walls. I will let you think about the symbolism of that.

After the tour we went and had a nap and then some drinks and dinner at the hostel we then headed for museum island and visited two museums for free. The first had manz egyptian and greek artifacts where we saw the bust of Nefertiti which to be honest i dont know what the deal is but maybe if we could have read the german explanation i would know. The second museam was an art museam with a few pieces from Monet, it was nice.

permalink written by  Trevor and Amber on May 28, 2009 from Berlin, Germany
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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Last day in Paris (by Brenda)

Paris, France

Our last day here in Paris. We went to see Sainte Chapelle for an hour. The lower chapel was smaller, less detailed, but proceeding upstairs the stained glass windows were amazing. Pictures of mostly every biblical story were depicted. Part of our entry involved a security check, Trevor was carrying a paring knife we were using to cut fruit for lunches. So it had to be secured, with my passport, for the time that we were in the chapel.

Amber left us after that to do some shopping while Trevor and I went to the Catacombs. They are located under the city, where an old quarry existed, where rock had been taken to build many of the buildings. Cemeteries from all over had been moved to this site over the years and now 'dem bones 'dem bones 'dem dry bones were piled 6-8 feet tall and as deep as you could see.they were layered with skulls and long bones, each section commemorated the approximate year of burial. This was at the bottom of some very curvy steps and long damp dark tunnels. - not for the claustrophobic or out of shape people. We met a family from Chicago in line , Trevor starts making ghost sounds on the way down. To scare the boys about 5 - 10 years old.
We met Amber after at Sainte Denis basilica (we were half hour late as we misjudged the distance and train times). There we toured the crypts of mostly French royalty, from early 7th century to the French revolution (1790) including Marie Antoniette and King Louis XIV. We went back to the hostel to pick up our bags and made it to the train station early, where we boarded the night train for Berlin.

We were in a 6 person 'couchette' small bunks, three high, at least we could lay down to sleep.it was quite restful. One of our mates there was a Mongolian man who was in Paris with his 80 person choir group, they has been in an international contest there. We could hear some of them singing in another room of the train. He spoke only a little English, mostly Russian as he had spent 8 years schooling there, learning to play the violin. The french countryside looks like the prairies, very green this year, crops of wheat, barley, canola that I recognized( still a farm girl at heart). We arrived in Berlin at 9 am - that is amber's story to tell, BUT beer is getting cheaper, only 3 euro for 500 ml (50 cL they call it) compared to 7 - 9 in Paris.


permalink written by  Trevor and Amber on May 27, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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Paris by Trevor

Paris, France

Last night we decided that we were going to go to Berlin. So we got up and went to the Train station to get our tickets. We had to wait in line for an hour (our longest wait yet). By the time we got out of there it was around noon.

Our next stop was the Eiffel tower. The night before the line ups had been huge (45 minutes) just to get tickets. So we got out the metro and there is loads of people crammed in by he stairs out. It was pouring rain, heavily. The guys who sell cheap souvaneirs tried to sell us an umbrella, even they had one. We ran accross he square and decided to grab a bite to eat and wait for it to calm down a bit.

We just wanted sandwhiches, so we found a place and it had wifi. It needed a code, so we asked he waiter and he came back and put a price of paper on he table with a nickel on top. Amber tried to look at it and didn't get it,she held it up to the light, I thought you might have to scratch the paper and it would show up, no dice. Amber's looking around and there is another waiter jsut killing himself laughing at us. It was now obvious that the waiter "pulled a fast one" on the "tourists". He came back with a big grin on his face and gave us the real code. We had a good laugh. The food here was really good and the waiter we had was awesome!

So we headed out to the tower, by now the rains had driven away practically all he other tourists so there was no lines. The top level was closed because it was in he clouds, when we got there so we bought tickets for the 2nd level. Once up there, there was a great view, it was freakin cold because of the wind and rain. We hung aroudnd for half another becuase they told us that they were opening he top level, so we bought out tickets for that and waited in line. Finally we started moving and rode the elevator to the top. It was even cooler up that, wow Paris looked amazing. A few pictures later, us getting in a few romantic kisses and we headed back down.

We took the stairs at the Eiffel Tower.

We decided to check out some other things, one cool thing was he Pantheon, a really old church with a huge dome that was coverted to secular use.

The church was beautiful and we got to climb to the top where we got some cool shots of the tower and notre dame from a distance. Inside of it was somethign called fulcrum's pendulum. It was the neetest thing, it was suspended from the center of the dome and there was plumb swaying back and forth near the ground. On the floor were the hours of a day, all the way to 24 and the pendulum swung exactly on the right time. No mechaics no anyhong just motion. I won't explain how it works, just google it, it's really interesting.

After that we had a really good dinner at a auhentic (not touristy) French resturaunt.

After that we headed back to he hotel and planned to book some stuff for Berlin. We found some hostels in our books that we wanted to stay at, so mom and I went down to use he computer, a couple must have just got there and they were friendly. They said they would be really quick, so we waited. And we waited while they wrote their blog ... checked his and her Facebook ... His and her Email ... His ESPN ... frickin ESPN are you kidding me, so much for being quick. I even started tapping my toe after a while, so annoyed! Finally they left and said "sorry for the wait", bullcrap you were.

Finally we got on and were able to book a hostel for our stay. And quickly updated our blog and headed to bed.

permalink written by  Trevor and Amber on May 26, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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Paris (by Amber)

Paris, France

We tried to start today early and did ok at least we made it to the Louvre before it opened so that is an almost miracle. When we visited the Louvre grounds I knew it would be a long day to actually visit the museum based on just how massive this beautiful museum really is. I think from what I briefly read the Louvre was once a palace and they have since added on to it to expand the museum. This explains the absolutely beautiful architecture which fascinates me as much as the massive amounts of displays and beauty of the displays.

When we got into the Louvre we decided to go see The Mona Lisa or as Brenda would say Mona which was her favorite piece to see. Part of the reason we went there first was because we really didn't know where to start and also to avoid any lines and crowds as we were one of the first 50 people in. I think most of the people had this thought because there was already a crowd by the time we made it all the way there.

I don't really even know what to say about the various pieces of artwork as there was so much and so many dynamics of different types of art that I found so intriguing. I will say that my favorite sculpture was "Cupid Awakening Psyche" which was also Trevor's favorite piece. It is a beautiful depiction of love.

There was also this tiny room in the back of the Denon wing which had small sketches by various artists which I absolutely loved. The little dark room was absent of colors and formal frames but it felt like i was spying on works of art in progress and getting a glimpse into the artists and the models.

I don't really even know what to say about the various pieces of artwork as there was so much and so many dynamics of different types of art that I found so intriguing. I will say that my favorite sculputure was "Cupid Awakening Psyche" which was also Trevors favorite piece. It is abeautiful depiction of love.

There was also this tiny room in the back of the Denon wing which had small sketches by various artists which I absolutly loved. The little dark room was absent of coluors and formal frames but it felt like i was spying on works of art in progress and getting a glimpse into the artists and the models world. (I know so profound)

After 5 hours at the louvre we probably didn't even see half of it but our brains were so tired we decided to get lunch and check out the Notre Dame cathedral. On our way we stopped at the. Concerergerie which is an old prison where Marie Antoinette was held before she was beheaded by the guillotine during the French revolution, it was really interesting and also had a list of names of all the people held in that prison to be killed during the French revolution. They also had a room set up similar to what Marie Antoinette would have been like they even had a rig which they believe was in her cell and a glass she probably drank out of right before she left the prison. I am really appreciating high school social studies.

Notre Dame cathedral was beautiful but to be honest not what I was expecting with all the hype we have seen many other churches that are just as beautiful and just as large as the Notre Dame cathedral but it is very beautiful. After the cathedral we got back to the hotel and walked up to Montematre for dinner and a great view of the city, we also bought some cool souvenirs.



permalink written by  Trevor and Amber on May 25, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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Versailles (by Brenda)

Paris, France

Hi all. Part of my duties with this trip is sharing in the blog, so here goes. Yesterday, I recovered from the plane ride, slept well and up early, ready to go. We arrived at Versailles, after a couple of train rides, picked up a Starbucks coffee, (right next to the McDonalds)- cannot get away from them. We wanted to get the most out of it, so we stood in line to rent the head phones, did not have the right ticket when we got to the front, so back for tix, then back into line again. Anyway, we saw lots of queens, bedrooms, anterooms, Louis XIV and XV furniture and silk chairs. Then outside for lunch, on the gravel, all the grass was roped off!! The whole grounds is HUGE, including the Grand Canal, which is impressive, but kind of weedy. The gardens were mostly shaped trees and bushes, in triangles, would be nice to see from the air. On the way out, we checked for a classical music concert, that we thought was beside the fountains, but it never happened. Then off to the Eiffel Tower, to see the lights come on, around 10pm. We thought they would start at the bottom and rise up, but they just slowly became brighter, then a laser show for 5 minutes at 10pm. Really impressive. Lots of vendors in the area, selling trinkets off all kinds and women begging for money, sad! I have already tried 3 different beers and cannot say any of them were bad. CHEERS to all

permalink written by  Trevor and Amber on May 24, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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Paris Day 2 (picking mom up)

Paris, France

We got up and planned to leave our ridiculously expensive hotel in "hooker-ville". We thought we had to pick mom up at the airport at 6 that night so we were taking our time, so we were goig to do laundry. We' were like half packed when I decided to check what time mom's flight came in. Holy crap it was landing in 15 minutes at 10 am not 6 pm, and we were no where near the airport. We frantically packed the rest and checked out. The train ride their seemed to take forever, and there was 2 stops at the airport and we didn't know which to use. We got there about 10 minutes late, but then we got trapped in the train station. Our metro passes would not let us out, because we were in a different zone. So we were looking for a machine to buy tickets so that we could use gem to get out, but there was none there, we literally could not get through, I even tried to squeeze. I yelled at some lady who was in a uniform for help but she ignored me. Finally we looked at all the gates and one was green, it was broken, and it let us through, that was another 5 minutes.

So now in the airport, we had to find mom , so we found an arrivals board, crap her flight was 10 minutes early. Terminal 2 and we were in terminal 3, we did stop too early, so we got onto another transfer train that took us to the right place another 10 minutes. We then dashed to terminal 2A which took another 10 minutes. Finally we found her waiting patiently, looking like she was on the verge of panicking but she had only been waiting 20 minutes or so.

We later rationalized why we thought the flight was at 6 pm. At home i had of an appointment in my calender for 10am, but here the time change is 8 hours (what do you know). So when I adjusted my time zone, it changed all he appointments too.

Thank God I checked that email that morning.

So we came back into Paris, found our room a few blocks away, but definitely more respectable, but couldn't check in quite yet. So we took mom to . . . wait for it . . . a laundry matt! We had laundry to do and it was close. Half way through mom and I checked into the room and I left her so she could have a small nap and went back to amber.

After mom rested a bit, we hit the metro and went to concord square. This is where the guillotine was during the French revolution. There was a huge obelisk with a golden tip. We could see the Arc de Triumph as well and it looked pretty close so we thought we my as well see that too. So we started walking, and we walked and walked and walked and it look like it was getting further away. An hour later, we made it there. As we looked back to concord square, we realized we walked all uphill. We took the metro back to the Louvre to see the pyramids. After grabbing a bite to eat, we jumped on a tour boat on the river seine. It was an hour cruise all the way from Notre Dame cathedral to the Eiffel tower (or tour Eiffel as it is known as here).

Moms eyes had a hard time staying open about half way through. Exhaustion finally caught up with her. I had to keep elbowing her. After the boat tour we finally brought mom back so we all could get some sleep for our next adventure.

permalink written by  Trevor and Amber on May 23, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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Paris Day 1 (by Amber)

Paris, France

We got to Paris by train a day earlier than we planned because when we went to buy our tickets for sturday the 23 all the seats were booked and we couldn't come a day late as we would miss meeting trevor mom at the airport. Because we were early We hadn't booked a room for and thought we better do that first so decided to call a few places but couldn't figure out our phone or the calling card so we decided to just go to the hotel we had booked for the rest if our stay in Paris and see if they had availability and if not hopefully find something close by. We had aleeady figured out qhich metro station we needed ( i know shocking we actually planned ahead) so we headed down to the metro and waited in line. At the front if the line i politly asked the 40+ ticket agent if he spoke english he covered his mouth and said "me" as if to say why would i disgrace myself by speaking english. After signalling that we would try to tell him in French he started laughing and spoke English. I told him we needed two five day passes for all of Paris to which he replied jokingly for "me and you". I laughed and said yes and he told Trevor to pay. Playing along I asked what he wanted to see in the city with me and he laughed and told trevor he could work the ticket desk. After paying for our tickets and getting maps he asked again if i was sure i wanted to see paris with trevor. I said i dont have much chose he paid. as we walked awayhe signalled to me "call me". The girls behind us could hardly contain themselves.

we got to the hotel we found at that there is some big tennis event happening and we would probably have a hard time finding anything in the whole city. Great. We walked to about 5 nearby hotels when Trevor started panicking as for a brief moment before I calmed him down he thought we would have to sleep on the street. I saw a nearby side street and convinced him to check there before freaking out. The first place had a tiny room but for a small price of 135€ which is about $200 Canadian while Trevor had checked that place I find another one and convinced the lady to let us stay in a single room for 70€ still the most we have paid for a room yet and by far the smallest room. We actually paid less at the fairmont. After checking in we headed to a cute little resturUnt for dinner and then walked to .......... Which was close by and had a great view of the city. There were hundreds of young people hanging out eating and drinking and watching some local performers. We walked through aimetourist shops and walked by the moulin rouge before heading to bed. So far Paris has not disappointed and we have hardly seen anything.

permalink written by  Trevor and Amber on May 23, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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Our short stop in Geneva (by Trevor)

Geneva, Switzerland

The plan was to stay in geneve for 2 days. We arrived at the train station and needed to get to our hotel. But first we decided to book our tickets to Paris for the saturday. Good thing we checked, because there was no tickets left. So we booked them for the Friday instead. One less day in geneva.

We pre booked this hotel, because things in switZerland are really expensive. The hotel was located near the airport, so we got a map from the tourist place. We had 2 options, amber thought the tourist place say it was a 15 minute walk, so thought that was ok. I really didn't want to get lost, so I thought we should take he bus, but the next bus want for 45 minutes, so we decided to walk. One look around the corner and all we saw was freeway. So we decided to wait for the bus. I looked at the map a bit more and then thought I understood where to go, so we decided to walk.

By the way the place we were staying was in France, just across the border. Anyway we walked for about 30 minutes and came to this huge parkade. The road seemed to end leaving the freeway looking overhead. Walking seemed like a bad decision. Another look at the map and I realiZed we were still on track, but we hadn't covered as much ground as I thought.

Finally we came to a bus stop. It was best to wait. So we caught the bus, the same bus that we could. Have just waited for without walking for 30 minutes. We only stayed on a few stops so the driver let us not pay. We then transfered to get into France and to our hotel.

The hotel was cheap but that is why we booked it BUT it was TERRIBLE. The beds were so uncomfortable and we both slept really crappy.

So we got up early he next day. We walked all the way from France into Switzerland and headed to geneva by bus. We only had half a day so we thouhgt the best way to see the city was by a bus tour. No dice, they didn't start until the afternoon.

So we went and saw some stuff on our own. There was a cool fountin and shot 10 stories into the air. It was from 1890. And a clock made of flowers. A cool theater. And some other stuff I can't remember because I am witing his entry a few days layer.

Then we were off to Paris.

permalink written by  Trevor and Amber on May 22, 2009 from Geneva, Switzerland
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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