I was in Germany this past weekend! Slash the Netherlands! Rachel P, Kat, and I went from 2 Dec - 5 Dec. We got there Friday morning to Eindhoven around 9:15 after our flight from Malaga. We had gotten to Malaga at 11pm the night before and had a nice 7 hours to kill in the airport. Yaaaaay. Rachel and I slept on the hard ceramic floor and Kat slept on the metal seats. AKA not a good night’s sleep. I apparently almost got my head waxed over by a floor buffer and I didn’t even wake up. The 7 hours finally passed by and we were on our way to Eindhoven!
My friend, Michelle, lives with her boyfriend, Jim, in Kleve, Germany. They were nice enough to have us stay with them and even pick us up from the airport. It was so great to see her because I hadn’t seen her in a while. Her last trip to the states, I was never in the same city as her so we didn’t get to see each other. After she picked us up from the airport, we drove back to her town of Kleve and just relaxed for a little bit. We then went to Nijmegen, where Michelle and Jim work. We walked/explored the city centre. It was a very cute little city. We went to go pick Jim up from his internship after meandering through the city. With the car full, we headed to the supermarket to pick up our food for the next 3 days, all of which was INSANELY good. We had homemade pizza the 1st night with all kinds of toppings on it: peppers, 2 kinds of salami, onion, mushrooms, and lots of cheese. So so so good. Jim is an awesome cook. I also tried this mixed beer that they have there. There were all sorts of combinations from energy drink to cola to lemonade. I had the Cactus Fruit mix the 1st night and had grapefruit the second night. Both were surprisingly good! I got the Cola one to try for kicks and giggles the last night and it was not good. Not my favorite combination ever. Then I had some blackberry Greek yogurt for dessert which didn’t taste exactly like the Greek yogurt from home but was delicious none the less.
On Saturday, we got up around 9 to start getting ready for Amsterdam! Rachel, Kat, Michelle, and I went while Jim stayed at home for the day. He had some stuff to do at home and was making us cannelloni’s for dinner that night! We left via car and got there a little later than expected because the 1st park & ride we were at was full but we made it! Park and Ride is a system where you can drive to a outer part of the city, park in a garage there and then get free metro tickets to go into the city centre. It was very very convenient. We got lucky with the weather too; the night before there was a huge storm and the whole drive to Amsterdam was on and off rain showers. Once we got there, we started with a boat cruise/tour around the whole city. I hadn’t quite known about the Amsterdam-being-strewn-with-canals thing. VERY cool. For the beginning of the boat tour it was raining which was fine because we were covered in the canal boat. As the tour drew on, the weather changed to sunnier skies with breaks in the clouds. I’m very glad we did the tour because it allowed us to see a lot of Amsterdam. It is such a cool and pretty city with all the buildings/houses along the river. Tons of house boats too! Varying from very ratty looking to very nice looking, there were all kinds. We saw the 7 arch bridges, the famous skinny bridge and Anne Frank’s house (which was nothing too special but now it’s made me want to read her diary!) I also found out from our tour that the name Amsterdam came from the river Amstel Dam = Amsterdam. I think there’s more history to that but I don’t quite remember it. We also passed a bike garage. Yes, a BICYCLE garage. It was so big, it originally seemed like it held almost all the bikes in the city but nope. It felt like only a fraction once we started walking around the rest of the city. When our boat tour ended, we went straight up from the train station and went to a souvenir shop where I bought my obligatory post cards. We continued walking around and got the apparently very well known fries of the city. For me, they were very good but nothing too special.
I had wanted to see the I Amsterdam sign so we started on our quest to find it. The sign is literally read as I Amsterdam but the I AM part of it is red while the rest is white, giving the illusion of it saying I am Amsterdam. The journey there ended up taking a big longer than expected. Eventually, we found it and took lots of pictures with it. We headed back towards/through the shopping streets to stroll around. We went to a cheese shop which was had all sorts of delicious cheeses: pesto, spicy, cumin, aged. I bought a balsamic mustard spread that was very tasty. My plan was to use it as a stocking stuffer for my dad but I came across a slight bump in the road when I realized that it was 190 mL and the max for carry-on luggage is 100 mL. I, dumbly, tried to get it through security anyways and lo and behold, they found it and threw it out. So, sorry Dad! It was really good though!
Después, we went walking through the Red Light District. I guess I had never really thought about there actually being red lights above glass doors with half naked girls in the windows but, sure enough, there are! We also passed a lot of coffee shops aka a shop where you go and can smoke a lot of weed and get baked goods. Even not in the coffee shops, you walked through the streets and could smell weed everywhere. I’m glad we walked through the RLD because it’s definitely unique.
We made our way back to the train station to hop on the metro to get back to the P & R garage and drive home to Kleve. We got back at 9 and walked into a wonderfully smelling apartment. I had my grapefruit beer with delicious homemade cannelloni. After dinner, we played Scene it! and Trivial Pursuit. It was so much fun; it was a nice break from student life because it felt like I was back at home. It was nice to enjoy such simple pleasures such as cooking in a kitchen again and playing video games in a living room with friends.
Sunday was the Christmas Markets in Cologne! We left around 10:30 for Cologne which was only an hour away –much closer than Amsterdam. We really lucked out with the weather. It was chilly but not rainy. We did a P&R like we had done in Amsterdam and it worked out really well. We first went to the markets by the famous Cologne Cathedral. Just like it was in Paris, Christmas made things magical. There were lots of stands adorned with gold stars, pine tree garland with loads of Christmas trees strewn around with a giant one in the center complete with white lights coming from the top and making a pretty circle around the market. The smells of the markets were divine. I wish I could have bottled what it smelt like. There were many baked goods, bratwurst, hot mulled wine, garlic mushrooms, and the list goes on and on. Mmmm. We ended up bringing a little Granada to the markets when we did a tapas deal when we returned to the market to eat. More about that later…
But, primero, we, of course, went to Starbucks. This time was especially special though because they had Lebkuchen. I will save you the trip to WordReference.com and inform you that that, my friends, is Gingerbread! Need I say more? I got myself a Lebkuchen Frappuccino. So good. Then we walked down some streets and headed toward the river and another Christmas market! This one was just as adorable as the first. Here we ate lunch; I got a bratwurst that was so good and flavorful. It was crispy on the outside with a toasted bun around it. Add some spicy brown mustard on top and it was the definition of perfection. We also went to an assorted roasted nut stand where Rachel, Michelle and Jim got some nuts. Luego, we walked toward the river to go along it and head back up to the 1st market.
Once at the fist markets again, we started off with some Glühwein, mulled wine. They also have different things you can add in so I got mine with some Amaretto in it as well. I thought it was very good (a vast improvement from Paris’s). They serve their Glühwein in an actual mug that you pay a little extra for on the front end and if you want to keep it, then you’ve paid for a mug, but if not you can bring it back to where you bought it and get part of your money back. I decided to keep mine because it was really cute! It said Christmas Markets at Cologne 2011 in German and had cartoonish drawings of the church, the huts, the trees, etc.
We began our tapas adventure shortly after that with fried potato patties with applesauce. We also had a baked bread loaf topped with vanilla and cherry topping, a baked apple with spices and a vanilla sauce, baked apple strudel, and AWESOME cooked mushrooms with a garlic cream sauce. I also got a chocolate covered banana on a stick. We stayed at the markets until around 5:30 and then headed home.
The last night, Rachel, Kat, and I were cooking for Michelle and Jim! We made them stuffed chicken with feta, arugula, onion, and garlic. Our salad was lettuce, chick peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Kat made a cheesecake for dessert (that had the best of intentions of tasting like vanilla but ended up tasting like butterscotch haha. Lost in translation: vanilla extract edition). They all were very good though. While we were cooking, Michelle and Jim were watching Friends re-runs so while we ate, we continued to watch. I LOVED it. I haven’t seen Friends episodes in so long, it was so much fun to sit there and crack up at old episodes.
Finally, we went to bed and set our alarms early because our flight was early morning. Michelle and Jim were kind enough to drive us back to Eindhoven for our flight and then head to work after. There was traffic so we got there later than expected but still in plenty of time to make it through security (sin my amazing balsamic mustard) and get our gate #. Since this year is strange and the CLM didn’t have Puente, I still had class on Monday. I had missed my first 2 of the day but was attempting to make it back in time for my 4pm and 6pm class. After literally dropping all my stuff off at home, dumping my backpack out and refilling it with my school stuff, I booked it over to the CLM to only be 20 minutes late for my 4pm class :)
This was an awesome last big trip of my first semester abroad in Granada. It was a treat to see Michelle and Jim too! They were so nice and hospitable towards me as well as my friends. I can’t wait until they can visit Granada and I get to show them around my cities! Here’s to looking forward to the many more trips I have in my future as well as my last 2 weeks with this amazing group of API Granada Fall 2011 people. I can’t even begin to imagine Granada without these people.
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