The Build Up

I thought I would give you some background on this trip and how it came to be. First off, for most people a backpacking trip through Europe is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not for me, thanks to very generous parents and a wise beyond his years older brother, I have already been to Europe and traveled around for a month. While Nicole has had her travel opportunities, I think that one of the reasons behind this trip is so that she can join in on my many stories about strippers in the red light district in Amsterdam and 75 cent beers in Prague. So the seed was planted many years ago and thanks to an over-valued appraisal and Chase's then-higher LTV limits, the Allens have the resources to pull the trigger on this trip.



So that's how it all started. To keep our friends and family updated, we made the decision to create this blog. Again, I hope to stop by an internet cafe every couple days to update this site. So enjoy and please post! It will be great to hear from you all!

London, England Aug 2 thru 4th

We are staying at our good friends Jeff and Alanna Weise's place Saturday and Sunday night. They live about 25 minutes outside of London. It will be nice to see them as it's been almost a year since they moved overseas...

We arrived safely and are at the Weise's place...these Engligh keyboards are already f'ing killing me so I will keep this short and simple.

Flights went ok - we met Mia Hamm in Philly -pretty cool stuff, good way to start the trip.

Now we are going to lunch , the pub is called Ye Olde Fighting Cock...claims to be the oldest pub in the UK. Here is a pic for you to enjoy.

Sorrz this took so long and the z's are y's and vice versa. our pub crawl was great, a bit taxing on Eric as he was going on verz little sleep but what can zou do? we went to 6 different pubs and met a varietz of englishman and woman. manz pints later, we came back to the weise apt and enjozed some local Indian cuisine and hit the bed.

Daz 2 was in the heart of the citz where we first hit up the Eye ' great sites and not too bad of a que (thats european for 'line'). after we went to view big ben , westminster abbez, buckingham palace and trifalger square among others. It was here that i realiyed how much walking there trulz would be and possiblz, how unprepared i was. quick dinner at another pub and back for some sleep.

Two days is not nearlz enough to appreciate the great citz of London but we did our best. 60 degrees, a bit rainz and full of clouds, typical british weather maz have been our onlz complaint

Paris, France Aug 4th thru 7th

Where we are staying: Hotel George Opera

going to have to make this quick as we are on q columbian keyboard and many of the keys are switched; we are doing great lots of walking seen all the major sites; more to come tomorrow in lucerne: miss you all but not that much :-)

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Day 1

Took the eurostar into paris, amayinglz fast and verz silent. Got lost for the first of wat will be manz times on the waz to the hotel. once setteled we hit up the eiffel tower, maybe zou've heard of it. Aside from a two hour wait it was amaying. The view was spectacular, we could see all of London. We also walked the grounds of the hotel invalides, where napolean is buried. Throughout the daz we munched on French food at some of the manz brasseries. We also were able to enjoz some wine. We enjozed a nice anniversazr dinner near the eiffel tower, and were able to see the tower lit up at night, it was a blue color and verz romantic. Again anoher great, but exhausting daz.

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Day2

Nicole failed to update her alarm clock watch as paris is an hour ahead of london so we started daz 2 and 3 an hour later, kind of funnz as i wondered where the time went. we took the metro out to Versaille for a day trip and the palace did not dissappoint. the grounds are breathtaking and incrediblz expansive. we could have taken 2 dazs to walk the whole place. hall of mirrors had manz mirrors as one would expect. not too sexy sounding but its great when zou think back to the hundreds of years ago. we got back and had a typical frenc dish called pizza. we also met a nice texas couple whom i argued politics and called them eff'ing republicans while shaking my fist in the air. the place we ate had the notre dame as a backdrop ' cant really compare it to anything back n the states.

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Day 3

our last daz in paris and 3 days worth of sites to see. this trip has become a struggle between nicoles yearning to see every single site in each city and my tendency to want to relax and move at a slower pace. so far, nicole is winning the battle (as is the case back home) the louvre we hit early to avoid the crowds. from 930 to 1 we walked the halls viewing such masterpieces as the mona lisa and venus de milo. the outside of the louvre with the triangle entrance is quite impressive too.

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next up was notre dame which we had seen the night prior but the interior was a site to behold. not being too religious in our nature, we were moved bz the beautiful carvings, paintings and plate glass windows. the line was very long to the top so we decided to hoof it over to the arc di triumpe for a quicker view of the citz line.

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284 steps later we arrived at the top of the arc. similar to the view from the eiffel, the arc presented us with the beauty of paris. on the way down, we had had enough waking for the trip and went back to the hotel for some home made dinner in the form of crackers cheese and some turkez...not a bad way to end the 3 dazs...

Lucerne, Switzerland Aug 7th

Where we are staying: Hotel Des Alpes

just got in to lucern after a long train ride that began at 624 am and ended at 1215. my initial take on this city is it appears to be right out of the movie willy wonka. its a small town but the views are the best that i perhaps have ever scene. we just checked in to our hotel right on the water see above picture. at this point i will leave zou all with our best wishes from overseas and a promise to update this tomorrow or saturdaz at denas. thanks for the anniversery wishes and a special thanks to scott for keeping our cats alive. look forward to seeing you all but not for a few more weeks.

The rest of our day went as follows: we took a 2 hour boat cruise along Lake Lucerne, it was very nice and relaxing. The views of the mountains were fantastic. A nice Swiss gentleman also gave us some insights to what we were looking at so we enjoyed our free tour guide. Once we got back to land, we got dinner and had a few beers. Nicole is really surprising me by how much beer she can take down. She is going toe to toe with me and she may even be handling it better. After dinner we walked around the little shops and bought some chocolate. We got two pieces for a grand total of 17 Swiss Francs or 16 bucks (gohoyoyoy, grabbing shirt collar). Quality chocolate as you would imagine but not even Augustus Gloub can afford to eat that well every day.

The next morning we walked around and saw the Lion in the Rock , which is this lion carved into the mountain. Very impressive stuff. Not too much time to do anything else as we had to catch a train to Geneva at 15:00 hours.

Geneva, Switzerland Aug 8th and 9th

Where we are staying: My high school friend Dena Masi now Dena Young lives in Geneva and has agreed to put us up for the weekend. We look forward to seeing her, her husband and having another great not to mention free place to stay.

We arrived in geneva friday night and Dena picked us up from the train. Having not seen her in 10 to 15 years by my calculation, i was worried i wouldnt recognize her. luckily nicole and i stick out like a sore thumb with our huge backpacks and white teeth so she saw us immediately. we showered and headed out for drinks-dinner. many many drinks it ended up being culminating with myself (eric) doing a 'backdraft' shot, which involved fire, some liquor, a straw and some spices. not the best idea at 1 am after too many drinks. but a memorable moment in what has been a very memorable trip.

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day 2 in geneve and the advil was flowing. dena and her hubbie brian were very hospitable and had a full breakfast ready. we went out to see the sites which if you arent interested in the financial district, there is not much else. a beautiful cathedral and the 'jet' which is a monstrous water stream pictured above. after our quick site seeing we met up with dena and some english, aussie, and south african friends...americans too. very cool people and very accomodating to us yanks. we chilled at a beach, had a few beers and back to their apt to get ready for the 'fete' which is an annual festival to celebrate something....not too sure what, maybe the swiss' sense of neutrality? the fete was jam packed with people but we were able to enjoy the 45 min fireworks display to end the night. millions of bucks spent on the show and well worth it, we have many pics to prove it.

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overall, a relaxing weekend spent with some old friends. got to do some laundry, watch espn sportcenter via slingbox, call home via vontage, and meet some new people

Cinque Terra, Italy Aug 10th thru 13th

Where we are staying: Il Borgo Di Campi

these towns are amazing. we got in to la spezia after a somewhat long train ride...we taxied into our b and b which is basically built right into the cliff. our apartment is cool with kitchen and a private garden. the first night we got in late so we only had time to stop into town for some groceries. we had dinner at the hotel restaurant where i quickly realized the shrimp in italy is not the same as the shrimp in the usa. shucking it myself was a real treat but with the couple liters of house wine to help, nicole and i enjoyed our dinner with the view of the mediteranean in front of us. the mussels were fantastic too as an appetizer, Isa you would have loved it.

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day 2 in cinque terra was all about walking or should i say hiking. the trip from one town to the other was a little over 9 km or 5 hours but after all the walking in our prior cities we were up to the challenge. its not often that i can drink 5 liters of water and not have to pee once. up and down the cliffs of cinque terra we went, stopping at each town for lunch, ice cream and water. the pics should be amazing...we came home to our villas where i made pasta and we ate out on our garden. some local wine, bread followed by pringles and pass the pigs, a great way to spend the 2nd night.

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day 3 , we are in the main town of monterosso now and just finished a couple hours in the sun, enjoying the ocean and relaxing. should be able to get this updated once we get into munich or maybe prague...look forward to updating when we can, hope all is well and continue to post...padraig harrington won the pga...just found out right now, kind of sucks to not have internet within your reach 24-7.....and then again it kind of doesnt....

Munich, Germany Aug 14th and 15th

Where we are staying: Hotel Mayerhof

we arrived at our hotel after 11 hours of train travel. not the best way to spend the day but it was relaxing and we caught up on some postcards and journal entries. we decided to celebrate our first night in germany by going to the Haufbrahaus, which is the world famous beer garden in the middle of the town. a couple huge beer steins, sauerkraut, sausages and a pretzel for dinner, not sure if there is a more german meal and it was tremendous. the beer was excellent. back to the hotel we went and caught up on some olympics via Eurosport.

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Day 2 - internet is free at the hotel which is tremendous. i am downstairs right now, waiting for nicole to get ready. the plan for today is to go on the Mikes Bike tour, which is also pretty famous, hope to meet some Yanks , drink some beer and try to not fall off my bike.

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ok so where did we leave off? oh yeah the bike tour, well we got to the bike shop and were introduced to our tour guide. i thought the guy looked a bit familiar but thought nothing of it until he asked where i was from and i , of course, told him upstate new york. to which he replied, penfield? and i said with a shock, uhhhh yes. turns out the guide was dave bredhoff, a high school friend who we used to play rec soccer together back in the late 80´s. small world it is right? the actual tour was great as was to be expected, we learned a lot about the city and got to drink a lot of beer in a short time frame at our intermission stop in one of the beer gardens. we also met a couple girls who were traveling via the internet phenomenam of ¨couching¨ it. basically they meet people through the internet who offer up their couches to travelers, allowign for free travel with the only downside being the strong possiblitiy of getting murdered or robbed while you sleep for free. anways, these ladies like to drink and are a few years younger so we went out for some cocktails with them and their internet munich date , a man named jurgen. many many drinks later with a few shots thrown in for good measure, nicole and i decided to call it a night, knowing we had a very long travel day to prague coming up.

Prague, Czech Republic Aug 16 thru 18th

Where we are staying: Eurostars David

day 1 'the train ride itself wasnt too difficult to deal with, we got in early afternoon after slightly getting lost from the train station (whats new?) the hotel is amazing by the way, vaulted ceilings, 6 headed shower, a-c etc. we took advantage of the sauna facility, showered and headed out for dinner. we enjoyed our meal overlooking the national theatrehouse on the river pictured to the right. the food was excellent and since we were both a bit hungover from the night before, the bill was a bit more reasonable minus all the normal alcohol charges. we returned to the eurostars for a good night sleep.

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day 2 , this was the first miserable day that we had all trip so i guess we cant complain that much. but when you think of eastern european weather, 60 degress and rainy probably comes to mind. and that is exactly what we had to deal with. but you know that will not stop nicole from going out and experiencign the city! we went up to the castle which was spectacular regardless of weather. the surronding grounds were interesting as well including a crypt, painting gallery and history of the castle itself. problem was anytime we stepped outside we were huddled under our travel umbrella, miserable. in the end the day was not wasted as we checked off many of the sites we wanted to see. we ended up having lunch-dinner at a niche czech restaurant, grabbing a bottle of wine on the way home, drinking said bottle at the hotel and going out to listen to a nice spanish mariechi band plus more wine. the night was very memorable indeed, a great way to end our first full day in prague.

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day 3 - the hotel offers complimentary breakfast which im sure my grandmother would love, croissants, meat, cheeses, fruit, coffee, tea, juices...very eastern european. we tried to rid ourselves of our hangovers with these meals and it seemed to have worked. the weather turned out to be ideal, low 70s and no clouds. we went to the old town and walked st charles bridge., went through the old jewish town , name alludes me right now, and had SUBWAY for lunch. its very nice to get a taste of home every week or so with STARBUCKS being the last bit of USA we were able to enjoy. we finished the day with some shopping and then went to an irish pub to watch the Man U vs Newcastle game. the actual finding of the pub took about 45 minutes or 40 minutes more than i expected but once we got to the pub it was worth it. we had a few pints and watched a decent match , with the end result a disappointing 1-1 draw for Man U. but and more importantly we met a couple Irish girls who fancied us with their travel stories and we were able to entertain them with ours. its amazing how much cooler people are when they have an irish accent. but that leaves me to right now, fairly early in the evening at 940 pm local. nicole is up in the room finishing her book and we will probably hit the bed soon. tomorrow is a long day of some more sites to see and a late night train voyage which neither of us our looking forward to. we did book a private double room on the train so i expect the security to be better than my last night train visit where the person next to me was robbed. not too worry though moms, we will take the right precautions and come home in one piece. until then, good night from Prague, love and miss you all. go carl petterson!!!! i have him on my fantasy team, about 10 holes to go and he makes me some money!

Amsterdam, Netherlands Aug 19 thru 21

Where we are staying: Qbic Hotel Amsterdam

So I am about two weeks late on updating this blog. Hopefully those who have been following along aren't too disappointed but as you can imagine, we had quite a lot to do when we got back.

We took the night train into Amsterdam which was a much much more pleasureable experience than in 2000. We booked a private double which meant instead of a small compartment with 4 bunkbeds, not much else and a small lock on a sliding glass door, we had one bunkbed, a sink, complimentary bottled water, an attendent that we could call with any issues, a key to our "room" and two extra lock bolts. Of course, we still had to deal with the constant stops and loud train noises so sleep was difficult. It was very nice to know we were safe though.

Day 1 in Amsterdam, we went to our hotel , a good 25 minute tram drive outside of the city, and checked in. The rooms are like the pictures in that link, very minimalistic with a queen sized bed, flat screen tv and small bathroom. We tramed it back into the town and met up with our friends from Munich Lindsay and Lisa. They were on their 3rd day in Amsterdam and showed us some sites in the Red Light District which neither one of us will ever forget. The prostitutes in the windows soliciting business is very weird. But even more strange are the coffee shops where kids roll blunts as cops walk by. We had a few beers, got some NY Pizza and actually had to head home early 7pmish as I was exhausted from the train ride. It was nice to relax in our room after a long 48 hours, we actually watched Usual Suspects and had some dessert that we bought on our way home.

Day 2 in Amsterdam, after getting a very good nights sleep, we headed to the Van Gogh museum. Overcrowded as it was, the paintings were impressive and we bought the audio guide so we were able to understand quite a bit about the life and work of the master artist. Next up was the Anne Frank huis (house). A long wait but well worth it. It was my second time in the famous house and the experience was just as powerful. To think that two families spent years in that small area is truly amazing. On a sour note, there was an idiot American woman who actually answered her cell phone while walking through the Anne Frank house!!! To have your phone on is disrespectful, to keep your ring tone at its loudest is ridiculous, but to answer the phone and discuss your plans for the night, in a loud voice mind you, is incredibly embarassing. I don't think I have ever been less proud to be an American.

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That night, we headed back to the RLD as both Nicole and I wanted to see the night life. We went to a bar right on the main street of the district for some beers. Russia was playing the Netherlands that night and we got some prime seats where we could watch the game and look across the canal at a high class brothel where a nice looking lady was selling herself. I am not sure what Nicole enjoyed more, cheering for the Dutch or tracking the men who entered the whorehouse and left exactly 15 minutes later. Later on, a couple Russians sat next to us and with about 10 minutes left in the game, Nicole and I had to root for the Reds as neither one of us wanted to get killed by these scary KGB agents. Finally, we got some pastries and headed back to our hotel after a well spent day.

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Day 3 - Our last day here, we grabbed a great breakfast at Bagels and Beans, a Brueggers knock off that hit the spot. We found the Rembrandt house after a decent walk, it turned out to be a very cool place, Rembrandt was a rich man and the house was kept like he left it. I actually liked this museum better than the hustle and bustle of the Van Gogh museum. After, we went to the Horticus garden which as you would expect, was a large garden full of plants and flowers. It was impressive the amount of types they had and there was a cool butterfly house as well. Our next stop was the National Zoo. A very wide range of animals, some of my favorites were the monkeys, leopards and large turtles. It was an expansive place and we spent a good 2+ hours walking around, enjoying the nice day. After, we swung into the main shopping center and got some souvenirs. We then walked around at the huge park and unfortunately contiuned to walk back to our hotel. I say unfortunately because we didnt really know where we were going and ended up walking around for an hour. Finally we found our hotel and decided to get some Burger King to cap the night off. All in all, a very enjoyable day with twice as much walking as we probably needed.

London, England Aug 24 and 25th

Where we are staying: Back to the Weise's place for our last couple nights.