Goodbye Germany, Hello Amsterdam!!

Hello everyone!

Sorry it's taken us awhile to find a computer! We made it here safely and began our journey along the Rhine River in Germany. We cruised the river by ferry from Rudesheim to Bacarach our first afternoon, and enjoyed views of the amazing castles lining the river along the way. Our first evening, we stayed at a pension (similar to a bed and breakfast) - where we were served a traditional German dinner consisting of goulash (meat and potatoes) and vegetables. The next day, we toured the ruins of Burg Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar, Germany. Then, we cruised to the large city of Cologne. We spent about 3 hours trying to find a place to stay because we were unaware of a 'gaming convention' that was taking place ( ie: computer games, which is why we were unaware...) . We ended up getting a good rate at a hotel afterall and everything worked out perfectly. Lucky for us, even Subway is open til 5am in Germany... but we were able to find a great Cuban restaurant where we enjoyed €4 drink specials and a late night dinner. This morning, we visited the Kolner Dom Cathedral in Cologne, which was absolutely breathtaking... literally. We walked around the Cathedral looking for the main entrance in the record-breaking German heat. Then, we found what we thought to be the main entrance to the building. We paid our entrance fee, and began our tour - which turned out to be a 450ft vertical climb up one of the cathedral tower staircases. During the humid climb, our lack of direction was exhausting - but all in all, the views of the city and the tower bell were worth it and amazing. After our descent back down the tower staircase, we questioned whether that was all there was to the tour. We then walked around the rest of the cathedral and found the REAL main entrance, which allowed us to view the inside of the cathedral for free... who would have thought??! The ceilings had to be 200 feet tall and the display of stained glass was the best we'd ever seen. Mike said the cathedral was probably 2x the size of the St. Patricks Cathedral in NY. Hopefully we will get some pictures of it up here soon.

After our visit to the Cathedral, we took the train to Amsterdam (an easy 2.5 hour train ride). On our ride, we ran into some Amsterdam locals (a mother and son who were returning from a vacation in Cambodia). They gave us a wealth of information about the city and reassured us that our hostel reservations were in a good location. Tonight, we are bunking up with 2 nice guys from Italy, although we really only met them for a few minutes before going our separate ways for the evening. Amsterdam is definitely a happening place... tonight we hung out on the Leidseplein until about 1am, where the streets and bars were still crowded when we were heading in. We watched the performance of a Dutch band called de Corona, who performed music ranging from Sublime to national songs of the Netherlands. We could only understand half of what was said (or maybe less), but it was a great time!

We've already decided to stay an extra night in Amsterdam. Tomorrow we plan to visit the Van Gogh Museum and the Heineken Brewery... we don't know how much farther we'll get from there!

We'll keep you updated on our travels.

Proost!
Love, Mike and Kristin