Niagara Falls/ Canada/Boston/New York/ Chicago/Memphis

Dear all, this is my second last post as I will not get time to do another one before I am  on the plane to come home.
We flew  to Boston  (to get a connecting flight) but had to fly  back to Washington  due to our connecting flight being cancelled. We left Washington at 10.00pm and finally arrived at Niagara Falls Hostel close to midnight to  find we were locked out. I climbed up to the window via the 1 st floor verander but couldn't make anyone  hear.  After having experienced a night under the stars before and not wanting to do it again Jack went to a nearby hotel and got us a room. The following day we went on the 'maid of the mist ' tour and walked around to the US side of Niagara  to walk down under the falls- it was a magnificient sight.

The next day Mike from Bradford, near Toronto, came and picked us up as we were feeling a bit flat from all the mess ups and couldn't get ourselves to where they lived. We stayed with them  for three days. It was great to catch up with Ellen, Mike, Jordan, Ben, Stephen, the family dogs and  the cat.  On Ellen's day off, they showed us around Toronto,  took us up the C & N Tower and lastly , took us out for our first decent meal in three months.
Mike kindly drove us all the way back to Buffalo to catch our plane to Boston. (3 hours driving)Since we only had a day in Boston  we tried to fit in as much as we could.  We did a tour of Harvard University and  managed to see the New York Yankees play the Boston Redsox in a stadium filled to capacity.

We then caught a bus back to New York and visited the NYFD 9/11 memorial site which is to be transferred to the new one when it is completed - quite a sad memorial.

The next day we left for Chicago and did a walking tour from the hostel and then caught a bus out to Hyde Park(Obama's suburb)to see Chicago University play their 1st football match for the season. (still can't undersand it) On the Mondaythe city was celebrating the 40th anniversary of 'Soul Train' and we watched as they danced in the park and then attended a concert. (it was fantastic to watch) Blondie was appearing at the House of Blues but we missed out as we left 2 days before the show.

Memphis saw us spend 5 hours at Graceland and the museums. It was a great place to visit and I think all of Memphis thrives on Elvis. We also visited the Rock and Soul Museum which showed how Elvis was influenced by the Soul music and how the music originated.
Another great place we went to was the Civil Rights Museum  where it showed the struggles of the African Americans from the South and what they did to gain equality. This was also the place where Martin Luther King was assasinated and there was alot of displays explaining all the things he did. It was quite moving watching the  live footage of when he was shot. Beale Street was pretty quiet during the day but livened up when about 100 bikers arrived for their Wednesday hangout.

We are now in Rapid City South Dakota- out in the middle of nowhere and are doing a trip to Custer Park and Mount Rushmore where the Presidents are carved in  the mountain. It's then onto Vegas for 4 nights.
Must go
Love C & J


                                                         'The Bean' Millennium Park Chicago

                                                            'Soul Train' celebrations

                                                         View of 'Magnificent Mile' Chicago

                                                        Niagara  Falls - Canada side

                                                         Cave of the Winds Tour

                                                          Harvard University grounds

                                                     John Harvard Statue

                                                          Sun Studios

                                                     Graceland Gallery

                                                       Some of the many outfits

                                                                 Beale Street-Memphis

                                                        Wednesday night in Memphis

Site of Martin Luther King's assassination

 

U.S A

                                                     Harlem week in Central Park

                                                              Jack found a mate

                                                            Central Park

                                                        Steps at Times Square

                                    View of Empire State Building from the Rockefeller Centre

                                                   Up the Empire State Building

                                                   Central Park fountain

                                              Martin Luther King Memorial - Washington

                                                Outside the White House

                                                       Abraham Lincoln Memorial

                                                     Korean War Memorial - Washington

                                                                    Times Square

Hi all, at the moment we are on the bus to Washington D C, the bus was running about 45mins late to pick us up but the driver has assured us he will make the time up.

Our week in Orlando was extremely hot but we had a fantastic time doing the theme parks. At the resort we stayed in and in many others, Disney had a shuttle to and from every park every 20mins., so we could come and go to the parks as we pleased We encountered a few thunderstorms but did not miss out on anything - I have never seen so many people sweating and looking for the mist spray taps before. As we were heading to the gate you could tell which people were just arriving they looked so fresh. Some of the rides we went on were absolutely amazing. At Universal Studios we had an express pass that allowed us to go straight to the front of the queue- it was well worth the extra money. Some of the parks were open until 2am but we didn't manage to stay until then. There was no end to the merchandise you could buy, if we were going straight home I would have bought a case full of souvenirs.

Our trip to the Kennedy Space Center was also a day well spent, although we needed more time.

Our week in New York has also been great, our hotel was 2 minutes from Times Square so we would be down there every evening. On the first day we did bus tours around Uptown, Downtown and over to Brooklyn and then went to see Million Dollar Quartet off Broadway.

Second day we took a ferry to Liberty Island and climbed up the Statue of Liberty to the crown. (glad it wasn't any hotter)We then wandered around to Wall Street and over to the site of 9/11 where they have a preview site of the memorial being built.

We used the subway to get about and took it over to Brooklyn so we could walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. We spent an enjoyable day exploring Central park – buskers, rappers, people selling beautiful pictures and John Lennon's 'Strawberry Fields' area.. It is such a beautiful park and I would love to see it in the snow and Autumn.

It was Harlem week this week and so on Sunday we took ourselves to Harlem and experienced some great culture. I have a video of some of the people dancing in the streets with whatever they had in their hand at the time – totally enjoyable.

Sunday we started the day with a church service held in a theatre where you were ushered to your seat. For one hour they sang songs and then the preacher got up and delivered his message in a very enthusiastic way- it was just like you see on TV. (people swaying and hands outstretched saying Amen)

We did the other important sites of the Big Apple being the Empire State Building and the Rockerfeller Center we also walked along Fifth Avenue and saw Brooke Shields, Daniel Radcliffe and Lady Ga Ga.

Washington

It has been hot here and we have used the hop on bus to get around. Have seen many famous places of interest including the FBI headquarters, Martin Luther King Memorial, Arlington cemetery(Kennedy Memorial) Pentagon, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument(which now has cracks in it after the earthquake) White House, Capitol Building and every other government building you could think of.

Being part of the earthquake scare has been interesting, but now we are on 'Hurricane Watch ' which is threatening most of the east coast, so it's good we are flying to Buffalo today. We are due in Boston on Monday so hopefully it will be all over by then. (This part has been typed at the airport)

Love to all C & J

Having trouble uploading pictures so will try another time.

The last of Europe

Berlin

First up – walking tour. We covered all the main tourist sites and decided which ones we would go back to. The sites included Brandenburg Tor, Checkpoint Charlie, Jewish Memorial, Museum Island, site of the 'book burning' Reichtag and to parts of the Berlin Wall. We also went out to Sachenhausen - another Nazi Camp just outside Berlin where we learnt more about what went on. We also were given a couple of free tickets to go up the tower at Potsplatz to get a great view of the city. Most days were suuny with a couple of rainy ones, when Jack then went off to visit some of the museums. (ways of escape across the wall)

Amsterdam

Arrived after a 7 hour train trip from Berlin to beautiful warm weather in Amsterdam and immediately took a cruise around the canals, this was just as exciting as Venice. Bikes- millions of them and I don't know how many times we nearly got ran over – thank god they have bells on their bikes. Quite an exciting place and the 'Red Light District' was an eye-opener. We took a trip to the countryside to make sure we saw some windmills, cheese and clogs- we weren't disappointed. I had considered taking a bike ride around Amsterdam but it looked a risky activity for tourists without a helmet. On one of our days Jack went to the Heiniken Factory and I went to the Van Gogh Museum. A visit to the Anne Frank House was one we really enjoyed.

Paris

Thousands of people all wanting to visit the same thing- the Eiffel Tower. Jack refers to the Eiffel Tower as the oil rig and says it looks good at night. It took us 1 hour 20 mins to get to the top after waiting along the way up and in line, but it was worth it. I just couldn't believe we were there looking at it.

We did lots of walking and lots of riding the Metro. We managed to get into the Louvre to see Mona without a wait as we were lucky enough to find a different entrance, we took a cruise along the Seine and visited the Pantheon, Catacombs, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coure, Notre Dame, Luxembourg Gardens and the Moulin Rouge windmill. On the last day we took a trip to Monet's Garden at Giverny, 45mins out of Paris. .

Riding the Metro at peak times is certainly interesting, with people performing on the trains to evangelists on the platforms, not to mention the number of homeless people lying about. Personal space on board the train is a rare experience, it is usually an armpit, face or back that you are close to.

Sometimes it feels like you have walked a kilometre by the time you have reached your designated platform.(going through many tunnels and up and down escalators/stairs )and we still can't get used to dogs on public transport, in fact I nearly stood on a dog's foot as I didn't see it sticking out .

So the history tour is over and it's theme parks for 7 days straight in very hot weather, hope we can handle it.

Hope the weather is warming up a bit and that you are all well.

Note in the picture below the open male toilets around Amsterdam central area.

10 hour flying trip and we have hit the theme parks in 36c.

Love C & J

                                                          Urinals in Amsterdam

                                                            Bike city

                                                   Zaanse Schans  windmills

                                           
                                                              Brandenburg Gate Berlin

                                                      Jewish Holocaust Memorial Berlin

Eiffel Tower - Paris

                                                               
                                                                             View from inside the Louvre - Paris

                                                             Monet's Garden - Giverny

Prague and Krakow

                                                         Old Town Square Prague

                                                      Charles Bridge Prague

                                             Municiple House - Museums/Galleries

                                                Charles Bridge - Prague

                                                      Sedlec Ossuary - Kutna Hora Czech Republic

                                                      Polish National Dress

                                                         Rynek Glowny Square - Krakow

Plac Bohaterow Ghetto Square  (heroes square)

Another train trip and onto Prague.

We arrived in Prague late in the day but went off to get our bearings. We found our way to the Old Town and stood and watched the Astronmical Clock do its thing(definitely overrated) with thousands of others. The following day we did two walking tours, one around the Old Town and the other up around the Castle District and both were so interesting. We took ourselves off to Kutna Hora outside Prague by local train (interesting when you don't know where you're going) and visited the Church of Bones(Ossuary) – most unbelievable sight I have ever seen, every decoration in there was made of human skeletons. If any of you are interested in the history behind it I'm sure it will be available on the Net. We then spent the afternoon walking around the Jewish Quarter including their cemetery which has an interesting history also.

 We had seen the Metronome that had replaced the statue of Stalin from a distance and so decided to climb the stairs to it to get a closer look – it was 23 metres high and many others had climbed the stairs also to take a closer look. We walked back across the Charles Bridge with its many statues and many hundreds of people. Luckily it was late in the day otherwise it would have been with thousands of people.

On the last night we thought we would go out for a walk but just as we got out the front of the hotel it began to thunder. The storm went on for about 45mins with thunder,sheet lightning and fork lightning continuously. So that put an end to that..

Krakow – we would've liked to stay longer. Another city with an interesting history. As we walked around I couldn' t help looking at the older generation and thinking what they must have went through and how lucky they were able to survive. We did the tour to Auschwitz and Birkenau and saw some of the buildings that remained from that horrendous time in history. Being part of a tour did not really give us enough time at Birkenau to walk around and reflect more. Still it was easier to organise as a tour to go there from the hostel.

Our happier visit was to Wieliczka Salt Mine. When we went in I thought this is a bit like Sovereign Hill but I was quite wrong , 64 metres underground and statues made from salt was amazing, but then we went into the chapel where the altar, statues, carved pictures and stairs were all made of salt -hard to believe. The mine also had three man made lakes in it.

We had one day left and visited Schindler's Factory, it has been turned into a museum and is very well done as it  shows many different aspects. A place that you could spend hours.

From there it was a 10 hour train journey to Berlin, so that's the next instalment.

Innsbruck, Salzburg & Munich

                                                              Bergisel Ski Jump Innsbruck

                                                       View from our street - Innsbruck

                                                  Looking out over the Alps from Hungerburg

                                                        Mozartplatz Square

                                                  At Festung Hohensalzburg Castle Salzburg

 

                                                      View from walkway to Nonnberg Abbey

                                                         Glockenspiel Munich

Finally I've got around to filling in the gap.         Schloss Neuschwanstein

We arrived in Innsbruck( a bit cooler) from Venice to be surrounded by beautiful mountains with a touch of snow still on them. The river at the back of our hotel was the bluest/green colour we had ever seen and flowing swiftly. As we do in every town, we took ourselves off for a walk in the afternoon and discovered the city. The next morning we did the hop on/hop off bus and visited the very exciting Bergisel Winter Ski Jump – I would love to watch someone actually jump off it, as it is quite scary just looking at it. We looked up at the mountains and I decided we just had to take a trip to the top – can't say Jack thought that was a good idea. He went along  with it and on the last, very steep cable car ride his knuckles were turning white because he was holding on so tight.. I must admit I was feeling a bit nervous as I looked back down the mountain. It was a relief when we got out but worth it, the view was spectacular, we were surrrounded by parts of the Alps . This town must be so beautiful when there is more snow around.

Our next stop was Salzburg-home of Mozart. Everything centred around Mozart and you could choose from any number of concerts to attend, most of these were being held in the churches. Bells rang constantly as we wandered around and called into the churches, we often found people singing so we would sit and listen for awhile- the girls singing the Alleluia from Shrek were just beautiful. We started off listening to international groups at the Mirrabelle gardens and then attended the concert at the Cathedral. The next night we walked up to the Nonnberg Abbey(where the nuns don't speak and Sound of Music fame) to attend another concert. The Sound of Music tour was a bit of a take but had to be done and gave us a chance to see towns out of Salzburg and the church at Mondsee that was used for the Sound..... We made our way up to the fortress up on the hill and then followed the walking trail along the old city wall to the other end of town.
Munich saw us cover Dachau concentration camp, a couple of city walks, including beer gardens and the famous Hofbrauhaus and  the Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen which the Sleeping Beauty Castle was modeled on and some of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed there.

So ends the gap in my blog.

Love
C & J