The final chapter...Germany and the Netherlands

The last hurrah of my travels was a whirlwind of friends and northern European cities. From Spain I made my way towards Germany where I was greeted in Munich by snow, freezing temperatures, and Karl Gajan--the same Karl I traveled with in Egypt.  Even despite the cold, Munich is an enchanting place. 

Marienplatz - Mary's Square

Munich remains solidly Catholic--here this cherub slays a serpent representing Martin Luther and protestantism

We were sure to find time for German beer and pretzels.

Next I headed to the west, to the university town of Tübingen where my cousin Hanna lives.  A recent transplant to Germany, Hanna spent most of my adult life in Japan, so I hadn't seen her since I was very young.

Here's to red-haired McGaugheys!

Tübingen's Neckar River.  Every resident will proudly point out the yellow tower in the background as the place where Romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin went crazy.

A weekend wasn't enough time to get caught up on the last 10 years of each others' lives but I had to head north to the Netherlands for a rendezvous with my old Packer friend Tim Klasson.  Tim is a PhD student in molecular biology at Utrecht University.  We spent 2.5 days exploring Amsterdam, which is a wild place.  Here are some of the tamer photos. 

Amsterdam, with its many canals, is called the Venice of the North.  But unlike Venice where the canals are far superior to the streets, these canals serve mainly as tourist thoroughfares and homes for houseboats. 

So Dutch!

The Old Church (Oude Kerk), right in the center of the Red Light District

I returned to Germany for a few final days with the Gajan family.  They live in Oberbillig, just across the Mosel River from Luxembourg.  My family has actually been to Oberbillig once before...15 years ago!

Ray and Dave unite on the River Mosel, 1998.

I found time for a day trip to Luxembourg, one of the smallest and richest countries in the world.  It serves as one of the three headquarter cities of the European Union. 

Sophia took me to nearby Trier, Germany's oldest city.  Founded by the Romans, it still has roman ruins scattered around the city, like the Porta Nigra in the background. 

I got to end my trip in the same awesome way it began, 10 weeks ago in Egypt--hanging out with Sophia! Now she has cooler headgear. 

Well that's it!  It's been grand.  Next and last stop....Brooklyn.

Madrid is about THE PEOPLE

After Barcelona, Laurika and I took a night bus to our final destination as a traveling duo—Madrid.  There, Laurika spent a mere 2.5 days before heading home to the US.  I can’t believe she’s gone after 6 weeks of traveling together!  

What set Madrid apart from the other cities we’ve visited, is the people we know there.  Laurika and I each have 3 friends in the Spanish capital and it was such a pleasure visiting them. 

We stayed with Berta, who I met on my first trip to Spain a year-and-a-half ago.  Since then, we’ve taken a road trip up to Montreal together and now hung out in Spain once again.  The red and yellow alien in sunglasses is my favorite French-Columbian, Mafe, Berta’s roommate. 

I got to spend a TON of time with my old friend Jen who I studied abroad with in Mexico with 4 years ago.  I also had the pleasure of meeting her Scottish boyfriend Oli.

Aside from our newfound social lives, we also explored Madrid.  Highlights included an excursion to the castle of Manzaneras with Berta and Mafe, an anti-austerity protest, and an open-mic night of fabulous guitar music.  Next up for me is…Germany!

Castle of Manzanares...let's do a jig.

Charlies Angles...?

Man-date with Oli at Madrid's Temple of Debod

Anti-austerity, anti-corruption, anti-privatization of public services, anti-Angela Merkel--you get the idea--demonstration. 

Naturally we took part. Here Laurika met up with her friend Amy from Yale.

"Hunger, Ignorance, Sickness...Three Huge Businesses."  Spain has a staggering unemployment rate of 26% with an astronomical rate of over 50% for young people like us. 

When I wasn't protesting, I did get to take a bike tour...to see what it's like as a customer instead of a guide.  Here we dodge mounted police in Plaza Mayor.

Madrid's royal chapel: San Jerónimo el Real

Thanks to Mafe, I ended up playing a quick song at a local open mic night, Musica Por la Voluntad.  Everyone was supportive of this virgen extranjero.

We went out to dinner with Catalina.  Okay the connection here is difficult to explain.  15 years ago, Catalina used to babysit Laurika’s best friend!  So therefore she would often babysit Laurika as well.  Amazing to see someone after that long.

 

I also got to see someone from my childhood—Javier Martin.  Javier lived with my family for 2 years in the mid 90s when he was a student at Brooklyn College.  I saw him a year-and-a-half ago in Madrid but I didn’t get to meet Karen, his amazing 9-year old daughter, until this time around!

ANDDDD finally, Laurika spent her final hours in Spain with family friends: Wade, Carmen and Jon. Yay for friends!

Colorful Barcelona

After saying goodbye to Brandon, Maurizio and Michele we headed for España and spent several days in Barcelona. The city is really striking and the greater Catalunya area has connections to Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalhí and of course Antoni Gaudí.

Gaudí's work appears all around the city

We visited Parc Güell, which was designed as a high end neighborhood by Gaudí. This curvy bench is the longest in the world.

Say, Whiskey!

We also took a Picasso tour and visited sites that were important to his life when he lived in Barcelona as a teenager. This is  the 4 cats restaurant where he used to draw and mingle with young artists.

Another day we rented bikes and went down to the beach

Barcelona has lots of cool public art

We found some delicious tapas

And saw lots of Cataluyna flags. Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya, whose people have a strong separatist movement after having been oppressed under the dictator Franco

We visited the city's Gothic area including the Cathedral

and practiced some night photography

And of course we had to visit Gaudí's masterpiece, the Segrada Familia church, which is still being constructed

The Judgement facade features these beautiful angular carvings

Being inside of the church feels like you're walking through a forest

Gaudí was very inspired by nature

Columns with branches form a canopy overhead

The lighting cast by the stained glass is beautiful

Gaudí was a master at creating moods

Architects and designers are still finishing the church according to Gaudí's plans

The facade on the other side is the nativity and features a completely different style of carvings

Gaudí's love of nature is clear here. Turtles hold up the columns

After having spent so long in Rome it was nice to see some more modern styles of art and architecture.  Our 4 days in Barcelona flew by and soon enough we jumped on an overnight bus to head to Madrid.

Rome: Mother goose, has the mouse found the cheese? Over.

Ah Roma! Our time in Rome was split in half with the trip to Bologna/Venice sandwiched in between, so I'm gonna be writing about both parts here. In our first 4 days in Rome we got in as much sightseeing as possible, but also spent a good bit of time just wandering around the city and taking it all in.

We visited St. Peter's Basilica, the official church of the Pope

The inside is absolutely stunning and the scale is unbelievable. The entire nave is the length of 2 football fields and the gold lettering around the dome is 6 feet high

The decorations inside the dome are all done with intricate mosaics

The statue of St. Peter - we saw several identical copies in other churches around Rome. Rubbing the toe brings good fortune 

A beautiful view from the top of the dome looking out onto St. Peter's square.

We caught up with Maurizio, who we first met several weeks ago at the bus stop on our way to the farm. He gave us an awesome private tour that included the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Capetoline and Paletine Hills.

Us at the Colosseum. The area above the sloped arches is where the seating was and the upper levels were for the women

Maurizio explains how Roman coffins were converted to water basins during the Middle Ages.

Constantine's arch, which is said to be the inspiration for Paris' Arc de Triomphe

We also explored much of Rome on foot. This view is of one of the bridges that crosses the Tiber river

A tzidakah (charity) box in the old ghetto neighborhood, which is still the center of Rome's (small) Jewish community

This was all during our first visit to Rome. However, after returning to Rome from Venice we had a much more unconventional time.

We couch surfed with Michele, an awesome screenwriter in Rome. Here he is about to pick some lemons from the neighbor's tree.

And then tragedy struck. Ray caught a bad cold, which we will herein refer to as "the plague" and long story short both me and Michele got a little sick as well, and we had to cut our sightseeing short. But, while Ray was sick I did manage to do a few fun things:

The Sistine Chapel! Beautiful, but also filled with noisy tourists and guards who yell at you not to take photos. This was the only one I could sneak in

I took a cooking class! Cutting up some yummy hand made pasta!

When Ray finally started feeling better we made it over to the Pantheon. This structural masterpiece was saved from destruction during the Middle Ages because it was converted from a pagan temple into a church. Note the cross on top of the Egyptian obelisk

And then this happened....

That's right, my crazy boyfriend flew across the world to come see me for 12 hours for a post Valentine's Day surprise. We had a nice dinner and the next day he was back on a plane to return to work.

Apparently everyone (Michele, Maurizio, Ray, both our mothers, my roommates at home) was in on the surprise. I couldn't believe that nobody had spilled the beans! Shortly thereafter we said goodbye to  Rome ourselves and hopped on a plane. Next stop.... España!