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B&T Europe 2017
  • Brooke and Tyler Bernakevitch

B&T Europe 2017

A 23-day adventure by Brooke and Tyler Read more
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  • Trip start
    September 15, 2017
  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Flight to Frankfurt

    September 16, 2017 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C

    After months and months of planning, we finally departed for our trip to Europe. After a lovely "Uber" drive to the airport from Kelly (thanks Dad!), we got through security like a breeze and made a couple of quick calls to our mothers to say goodbye (Love you both!).

    Right before boarding we were a bit peckish, so we grabbed a butter chicken poutine (sounds great right?). Scarfed that down while waiting to board and then we were getting settled in our premium economy seats. Very spacious with lots of leg room and wide seats, amazing! Now even before taking off, I started to notice some heartburn, probably from the butter chicken poutine. That proceeded to last the whole flight. And we haven't even had any German food or beer yet!

    Now I have really been looking forward for this flight for awhile, primarily because I brought along my Nintendo Switch game console (can go from TV to portable mode), which meant I got to play a lot of Zelda on the flight!

    Dinner was a chicken and rice pilaf, with salad and chocolate cake. The wife of the couple beside us dumped her whole beef tenderloin onto her husbands plate and he demolished both (also looked like he does that regularly)

    Shortly after dinner service, Brooke's game plan was to start getting in the sleeping mode. But first we played this cooperative cooking video game that we both really got into. Afterwards Brooke got cozied up for a long nap (and I kept playing Zelda). Brooke was restless and could not drift off to sleep. I suggested putting on a movie to doze off to. She selected Good Will Hunting (I'm still playing Zelda). A while ago we had actually watched that movie with Gail, but Brooke fell asleep in the first 10 minutes. Now on the flight, she remembers that and is now actually getting into it. At that point we realized that we forgot something in Calgary, Brooke's super power of falling asleep anywhere. Finally I suggested she watch me play Zelda for a bit, and then she was out in 15 minutes (not that it's a boring game, she loves it).

    Brooke was finally fully out, and I was having a great time playing Zelda (also was doing a bit of a different game as well). Sometime when we were between Iceland and U.K., I decided that maybe I should try to get some sleep since there was only 2.5 hours left in the flight. It was great, I got a solid 20 minutes! (I was actually woken up by the breakfast service, which I did not expect). After the light breakfast, I could tell that I wast going to fall back asleep, so what did I do.........read a book........NOT.......played Metroid! (Brooke was able to get another solid hour nap in).

    We landed in Frankfurt and hustled our way through customs (no issue). Then found the security line which was incredibly slow. Really made the new international terminal at YYC look amazing. Got through security and made it to our gate with enough time for a quick washroom break, and then they were ready to board.

    Taxing on the runway now. Munich, here we come!

    Tyler & Brooke    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Munich Shopping

    September 16, 2017 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 8 °C

    Our flight to Munich seemed to start descending just after we got in the air. A quick flight with a kit kart bar and a cup of coffee (which I proceeded to spill in my lap during a minor bit of turbulence).

    We arrived and made it through the huge airport to get our luggage. The S1 subway train took us downtown to our hotel (something like taking the train during stampede ... very busy... except the Bavarian outfits are so much classier than the typical Nashville North apparel).

    We checked in at Hotel Metropol. Lovely location and helpful staff. We quickly got settled before going shopping at Angermaier. They have beautiful traditional clothing... the dirndls range from €100-1000. I did try on the €1000 one upon Tyler's suggestion... what a bad influence! Tyler and I both agreed it wasn't what I was going for. After close to two hours in the busy store, I came out with a beautiful dirndl in a light green color at a much more moderate price (photos tomorrow) and Tyler added an extra shirt and nifty pair of socks to his Brier lederhosen outfit. We finished there at 6 pm (living on only that kitkat bar since noon). Time to eat!!!

    We stopped at Augustiner beer haus for supper... two pork knuckles!!! Delicious and crispy!

    Now the jet lag is settling in as we go to bed at 9 pm before our first full day tomorrow!    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Oktoberfest!

    September 17, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    We've been busy and didn't have time to post yesterday so we will recap both days today!

    On Sunday morning we woke up bright and early, and by that I mean 5 AM. Our plan was to go really early to get in line at Oktoberfest. From previous research we had read that you had to be in line by 5 or 6 AM to get a spot in the tent without a weekend reservation. We got all dressed up in our lederhosen and dirndl and headed downstairs shortly after 6. The hotel breakfast started at 6:30 so we made the smart choice to wait around and have a solid meal. Breakfast consisted of an endless array of meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, freshly baked bread, countless jams, and some hot proteins. There was also actual honeycomb that we could spread onto our bread, delicious!

    Afterwards we headed out towards the festival grounds and it was just getting light out. When we got to the edge of the grounds it started to look like our research was incorrect. All we could see was the clean up crew from the night before. We decided to continue walking and seeing if we could find anyone else waiting. After a short walk we did find a small-ish group (~50 ppl) waiting outside the entrance, this was probably shortly after 7 AM. It was pretty chilly out, but not quite as cold as Signal Hill in St. John's (since I was in lederhosen again). We didn't know what time they would start letting people in, our guess was that they would open the grounds at 8 and then people would queue up at the tents until 9. We were incorrect again.....we ended up waiting close to 2 hours outside in the brisk morning air. I was starting to get quite cold (still not as bad as Signal Hill) and Brooke seemed ok because she has brought her shawl. By the end of it there were probably 300 - 500 people waiting in line (not sure quite how many, we couldn't see the back of the line).

    Finally 9:00 rolled around and as soon as they started to let people in it became a massive dash of Germans running towards the beer tents. We took off as well and eventually found the tent we wanted to go to first, Hacker Festzelt. This tent was beautifully decorated with pretty murals of Munich and Oktoberfest. Overall there was plenty of room to sit wherever we wanted to, especially for the first couple of hours. As a couple, we could have easily shown up at 10:00 AM and still found a seat. We agreed that if you were a group of 4 people of more, it would be much more challenging and that is where it is preferred to get there early.

    We enjoyed our first Oktoberfest beer (only sold by 1L steins) with a fresh baked pretzel (brezn). Throughout the morning it definitely got busier and more of a party atmosphere. The live music kicked off and we quickly caught on to the traditional drinking song "Ein Prosit"! This literally plays every 15 minutes or less and everyone joins in, lifts their mugs, and toasts each other.

    There was one guy at the table across from us who decided early on to stand up and get everyone to cheer for him as he chugged his whole litre of beer. As he proceeded to do this the whole tent erupted in applause and then security was on him like a hawk! After a short interchange he was allowed to stay, but we couldn't really understand which part got him in trouble. Throughout the rest of the day, this man continued to stand up and chug litre after litre, but he actually didn't drink that much of it since he would spill nearly half of it onto his shirt and pants! Literally he was soaked through in the middle of his chest all the way to the crotch of his leather pants.

    In the afternoon we enjoyed talking with a very friendly girl from Frankfurt, shared a standard half roast chicken, and sang and danced with everyone around us. After leaving the tent, we headed out towards old Munich and the Hofbrauhaus for dinner. Along the way we stopped to enjoy Marienplatz. Our dinner at Hofbrauhaus was a delicious couple of bratwurst, red cabbage, and spaetzle. At one point one tourist couple stopped and asked if they could take our picture, maybe we look a little local?

    The next day (Monday) we decided to start the morning with a more leisurely breakfast at the hotel. From there we decided to go back to Angermaier and do a bit more shopping. I had seen some of the locals the day before wearing fancy vests with their lederhosen and wanted to try some on. I ended up being successful and purchased a sharp, sleek looking vest to go with my lederhosen! We then looked through the dresses again with Brooke and she found a more country/village looking dirndl.

    Back at the hotel we got suited up in our new outfits and headed out to the Oktoberfest grounds. We had lunch at the Ochsenbraterei tent and enjoyed the Spaten beer with their speciality ox meal with potatoes. They had an amazing brass band in the center of the tent with a beautiful trumpeter. We then walked over to the Braurosl tent. There was still plenty of space available so we found a table to sit down at by ourselves. After a short while, another group showed up, sat down nearby and invited us to join them. There were people from Germany, New York and LA. We also started chatting with a couple of funny guys from Ireland who again mistook us for locals I think, since we knew more about the Ein Prosit song.

    In the evening we spent a lot of time walking the grounds, watching the rides, taking in the lights, and sampling the wonderful midway snacks (bratwurst, chocolate covered strawberries, and warm candied almonds). We tried to get into one tent, Hofbräu Festzelt, but it was way too busy and we couldn't find anywhere to sit down. We chose to go over to the Augustiner tent and were able to squeeze into one table to enjoy the late night atmosphere. We shared an obatzda, which is a typical German cheese dish with bread.

    Tyler & Brooke    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Birthday celebration!

    September 19, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    I'm 28 today! Starting the four days per year that Tyler and I are the same numeric age. The day started with a nice FaceTime chat with my mom followed by another hearty breakfast at the hotel.

    We decided to take in the Deutsche Museum. It did not disappoint! The walk would have been 30 minutes if we went directly but we chose to take a scenic route. We found an interesting square with outdoor market shops set up. Tyler bought me a small bunch of mini roses which I'm going to wear in my hair tonight. The produce and flowers looked so fresh and it was clear we stumbled into an area a bit less touristy and more authentic.

    We eventually got to the Deutsche museum and spent some time exploring the exhibits. The highlights were the interactive energy exhibit (according to the test Tyler has a social conscience and I believe in science), physics section and the pharmaceutical display.

    After the museum, we went back the way we came and stopped at Eataly (basically a big Italian marketplace). A glass of wine and pasta seemed like an excellent birthday lunch! "What is this red liquid drink that isn't beer? -caption for the photo of Tyler. We did a bit of souvenir shopping on our way through old Munich on our way back to the hotel.

    Now we are back at the hotel and going to go to Oktoberfest for our last evening in Munich!    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    A Real Cinderella Castle

    September 20, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    Today we left Munich bright and early for the Avis car rental depot. All went smoothly; however we were a little surprised to receive an Audi Q3 SUV instead of a Mercedes sedan. We left Munich during rush hour to head to Hohenschwangau. At the start, we had to learn the different road signs and try to decipher the speed limit.

    If you know me, it might be concerning that I am the main navigator while Tyler is driving on a road without a speed limit. We did pretty well. I only missed one exit which cost us about 5 minutes on the way. Unfortunately it was a rainy day but still a beautiful drive. We had a quick bratwurst and a wander through the town of Hohenschwangau before starting the 40 minute trek up the mountain to Neuschwanstein. The castle really is stunning ... we took lots of moments to pause and look at it even though it was between a drizzle and a solid rain the whole time.

    Guided tours are the only way to see the inside of the castle. The tour was very interesting. I did not know that Neuschwanstein was never actually used because it was the brain child of King Ludwig II and he died before it was completed. It was built in the mid-1800s as an homage to old German castles of the medieval ages. The interior of the castle consists of facades that represent different operas that he was into. There were also lots of swan decorations and some amazing carved wood details. After the tour, we walked a bit further to the main viewing point on Marienbruke. Again very stunning even though we were a bit soaked. The walk back down to the town was definitely a bit easier than the way up!

    Now I'm writing this as we finish up our drive to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Most apropos song we have listened to on the drive is Ed Sheeran's Castle On The Hill. We ended up taking a bit of a longer route through a few towns on the hillside which was gorgeous.

    I know Tyler will want to recount his feelings on the autobahn once he has finished driving but that's all for now. Ciao!

    Brooke & Tyler    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Driving the Autobahn

    September 20, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Today we had our first real experience of driving on the legendary Autobahn. For those who don't know, this is the highway system in Germany that has no speed limit. And let me tell you, it lives up to the expectations.

    We started off in Munich and picked up our rental car. We had pre booked a Mercedes Benz C class (or something similar apparently) but they ended up giving us an Audi Q3 SUV. I was probably a little disappointed at the start since I had my mind set on something already, but it worked out fine and the vehicle definitely really gave 'er.

    We quickly got out of Munich and got onto the highway. The speed limit signs slowly built up until finally we got to 120. We didn't really know if this was an actual posted speed limit or the open section that we had heard of, so I kept it to 120 to 130. After a short bit, we got onto a secondary highway where the limit ranged from 50 to 70 to 100 depending if we were going through any little towns. There were also numerous passing lanes where I was able to test out the vehicles acceleration and get a feel for it.

    After the short mix up where my navigator missed a turnoff, we began the approach to Neuschwanstein where it became very curvy and tight. The general feel of speed limit is that everyone knows that within little towns it is around 50. And then in between (which can be short stretches) it goes up to 100.

    After the castle tour we headed back out onto the highway towards Rothenburg. However since we had barely eaten we needed to stop for some food. Our first idea was to find a small little restaurant in the town below the castle (Fussen). When we were driving through, it looked like a beautiful little town, but I didn't want to deal with (or pay for) parking. Luckily, we saw a sign for......McDonald's! And we both instantly were sold. It's always interesting to see how the menu differs in other countries. Saw a couple of things I hadn't seen for a while (Big and Tasty, McRib) and a couple new things (Happy Fries, McFreezy, and spring rolls).

    While we were stopped I was looking at the map on my phone and suggested to Brooke that we take a short detour to see some of the country side. Shortly after leaving we got off of the main highway and headed towards a town called Wald. The countryside was absolutely beautiful and it was lovely to see all of the little German towns. The fields mostly consisted of corn crops and grazing meadows for livestock. The roads we were driving on were incredibly twisty and fairly tight turns. Apparently the speed limit was likely 100 here, but I was barely able to keep it up at 80. I was definitely holding up traffic at times.

    After the detour we took another secondary highway and then got onto the A7 highway. This was where it really opened up and we had entered on the no speed limit Autobahn. Some general thoughts / experiences
    -It is a double lane highway for the most part. I would say that the average is about 130 to 140. The semi trucks go about 100 in the right lane. And I'm sure I got passed by cars in the 180 to 200 speed range on the left.
    -You don't really shoulder check while driving, you more so check a football field behind you to make sure that no one is coming up on you really fast
    -You definitely need to only use the left lane for when passing, get back over after clearing the car
    -Passing a long string of semis I would stay in the left the entire way and not dart back and forth in between them
    -The hardest part was judging when to move into the left lane when approaching a semi. There were times when I missed an opportunity to pass a semi and then got stuck behind them, had to slow way down, and then took a while for an opportunity to merge back in
    -Initially I was averaging 130 to 140 comfortably. Later on I was between 140 to 150 at a comfortable rate
    -Did not even think of turning on cruise control once because my speed was constantly changing
    -The road system really makes it seem that it isn't too crazy. The lanes are wide and the road curves with very wide turns. Brooke even agreed that it was not as crazy as she had expected and that at times the QE2 back home is crazier at times, probably because people are dumber.
    -There was one time where a car was coming up behind me in the distance and I noticed him flashing his beams really fast telling me to get over. I wasn't sure what to do since I was passing a couple of semis, then another car darted out behind me in front of the approaching car. Gave me some time to get over to the right lane.
    -The most wildest part was shortly after one of the other main highways merged onto the A7. This brought the traffic level up much higher. Then they had a passing lane form on a double lane highway (which I have never seen before). I'm pretty sure it opened up to four lanes and it was quite crazy for a short bit of time.
    -You really need to drive with 100% alertness the entire time. I was constantly checking all my mirrors for what was coming behind me, watching my speed, and looking what was coming up ahead. I was quite drained by the end of it.
    -On the portions where I had an open and straight section of highway, I decided to see what the Audi could do. I believe I got 'er up to just before 170 before backing off.

    Finally we got off the highway onto the approach to Rothenburg. We missed the turn off into the walled part of the city and found our way in another way. The streets are tight cobblestone roads and it was like driving inside of a castle. Definitely got lost trying to find our hotel, and then it magically appeared. Glad to hear that the hotel will park our car for us, because I was not wanting to have to deal with that.

    Went and found some German food and a well deserved beer to finish off the day.

    Tyler and Brooke    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Rothenburg ob der Tauber

    September 21, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    We woke up this morning in Rothenburg and took our time getting ready for the day. Had a excellent breakfast at the hotel consisting of some standard European fare, made to order eggs, and delightful waffles. I actually held off on completely stuffing myself for reasons to come very shortly.

    Stepping outside into the cobblestone streets, we found ourselves in a foggy crisp morning. We wandered off towards the main square to begin our day of exploring. There are many cute shops in the town and the first one we wandered into was a teddy bear shop, which had an impressive selection of teddy bears.

    Heading south, we saw a bakery that had the Rothenburg treat, schneeballe (snowball)! This consists of strips of pastry dough formed together into a ball. The outside is then traditionally coated with icing sugar or cinnamon/sugar (also less traditional options coated with chocolate). I had heard about these earlier and immediately got one to snack on. It was quite tasty, a little hard to bite through, and very messy at the end.

    Wandering along, we found the famous Christmas store featuring Kathy Wolfahrt ornaments. It was like walking into December! Brooke spent some time looking through the store, finding a handful of great Christmas ornaments (some for maybe our first Christmas tree?). Afterwards we meandered back to our hotel to drop them off.

    Aside - the fact that our hotel was quite central made it very effective to quickly go up to our room to drop off our bag, grab a coat, sit down for a bit. Loved it!

    While we were waiting in the hotel lobby and consulting the map, we overheard the hotel staff talking to another guest. She was asking where to find the best schneeballen, and the staff was very clear to not go to Diller since they are too much of a chain and the balls are like rocks. Looking down at my bag...we totally went to Diller. Darn! Guess we'll have to sample some more.

    Next we walked to the east side of the town and climbed up the steps to the town wall. You can actually walk along the entire town wall and take in the village that way. We found it very enjoyable! You can also see some of the homes/yards of the locals from up there. Walked all the way to the southern end and headed north back up the main road. We found ourselves in the most famous (and most popular) spot to take a picture in Rothenburg, the Plonlein/Siebers tower. It wasn't too hard to get some good pictures from the south side, but on the other side it was absolutely flooded with tourists, especially asians! They were everywhere and we chose to try and come back another time.

    We stopped quickly at the hotel to ask for a lunch recommendation since we wanted something that was not on the main road. He suggested a simple place called Spätzle Schwob, which was just around the corner. The sun was just starting to come out for the first time on our trip, so we chose to sit outside and loved it! Brooke had Roulade and I had schnitzel, both with Spätzle of course!

    When we were finishing up lunch, I asked the server where the best schneeballe in town would be. She gave us the recommendation of a little bakery called Beisbart which was over by the church. We found our way over there and I selected a hazelnut coated schneeballe. Both of us agreed that it was way better than the first one we had. The dough was soft yet still crunchy, however it still got really messy especially with the hazelnut outside.

    Walking north, we found our way actually out of the city walls. There was a path that we followed and later noticed that it was a trail that leads all around the outside of the city walls. We enjoyed the view of the valley (so lush with green forest all around) and also randomly played on a children's playground. Found our way back into the city and walked through Burggarten (garden area on the west side of the city), which had excellent views overlooking the cliff and valley that the town is built on.

    Heading back into the center of the town, we decided to go back to the main photo-op place (Plonlein/Siebers tower) and see if we could get a photo together. It was still really busy with other tourists and the sun was at a weird angle, casting shadows everywhere and almost directly into the camera. We were not successful (as in I gave up early because I didn't want to deal with crowds) and thought to come back later when the sun was behind the buildings. So instead we shopped around a bit and Brooke found a bottle of wine for a gift.

    Stopped off at the hotel to drop off the bottle of wine and take a moment to sit down. This turned into a short nap (even I closed my eyes for a bit, Brooke was out like a light). I also did some research about what we hadn't seen in Rothenburg yet. Doing so, I noticed that a lot of people commented that it is best to get the photo-op spot if you go really early in the morning before the tour buses show up. We agreed that that sounded like a good idea and decided to try tomorrow morning before we leave.

    After our rest we walked over to the main square to look at the town hall. We noticed that you could climb up to the top of the bell tower (for a small fee) and it looked like a great view. We started the climb up to the top and it was a moderate wide staircase at the start. Towards the end it became very tight and steep. The very last hurdle was a really steep ladder and a small hole you had to clamber through to reach the top. Once we were up there the view was incredible! We could see all edges of the town and all the German red hatched roof tops. It was totally worth the climb and admission! Since it was not overly crowded we ended up taking a lot of time to enjoy the view and take pictures.

    Once back down on street level we walked towards a portion of the town we hadn't seen yet. This included stopping to take pictures in front of a different tower since the sun was hitting it perfectly. We climbed back up onto the city wall and walked towards the north end of town. Our plan was to look for a place to eat in that area. This became quite an ordeal because we were both in an indecisive mood and couldn't agree on anything. We had been going hard all day and really needed to eat! Ended up walking pretty much all the way across town and eventually landed on a place called Roter Hahn. We shared a pork with spätzle and garlic cream sauce and some Nuremberg sausages with sauerkraut and potato pancakes, as well as a side of red cabbage and one beer. It was way too much food! Oops. I really had to step up to the plate and pack it in since our hotel did not have a mini fridge.

    After eating so much, another quick nap was in order (or more so, time to digest). Back to the hotel we went to lie down before our evening plans. We were wanting to go on the Night Watchmen tour which we had heard about and knew it was highly rated.

    The Night Watchmen tour runs every night at 8pm and starts from the town square where everyone meets. The tour guide is the last remaining Night Watchman of Rothenburg and he approached the crowd in full garb carrying his lantern and weapon. The tour consisted of the Watchman telling us stories of the history of Rothenburg, why the Night Watchmen existed, the dark Middle Ages, the prosperity of Rothenburg in the Renaissance and Reformation period, how the town fell into despair, and how the town was mostly spared during the 2nd world war. All throughout this he guided us through a few parts of Rothenburg. There were probably close to 200 people on the tour, but we were able to hear him quite well. It was very well done and we were quite pleased we went on the tour, highly recommend it!

    Afterwards we finished off the night at the Landwehr Bräu restaurant for a drink of the local beer, our new favourite. (we also realized on Brooke's Fitbit app that the day before at Neuschwanstein we were 2 flights of stairs off from getting the medal for 100 flights of stairs in a day, darn!)

    Tyler & Brooke    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

    September 22, 2017 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    We woke up in Rothenburg to a relatively clear morning. After a quicker hotel breakfast we power walked back over to the popular photo spot that we didn't get a good shot of yesterday. It was perfect timing... very few tourists around and the sun was in a good spot not to interfere with photos. After that, we purchased a box of Schneeballen to take as a treat for Tyler's family. We pulled away from Rothenburg reluctantly, but having enjoyed our time there immensely.

    Today was our main long driving day, which again meant lots of focus and energy from Tyler. I wasn't much of a help as I kept dozing off regularly during the drive. I think I'm coming down with a bit of a cold (I'm willing it not to get any worse).

    Our first stop was in Bamberg. We wandered around a couple of the main sights and stopped for lunch at a small cafe where we both had Turkish bread sandwiches and tea. I bought a lovely cashmere scarf as a memento (and extra warm article of clothing).

    We carried on with the long drive and got onto some serious Autobahn driving. Some comments from Tyler:
    -we drove the A70 between Bamberg and the A9. This was very curvy and twisty. It was quite challenging to keep up with the rest of the drivers. Kept around 130 and in the right lane.
    -when we got on the A9 that became a true super highway. 3 lanes of high speed traffic. The semi trailers stay mostly in the right lane. The middle lane goes around 140 to 150. And the left lane is cruising along 160+ (most of the time, unless someone is screwing up and slowing down traffic).
    -the A9 highway had a couple of portions of straight aways where it was actually clear and open. Along with everyone else I sped up to really give 'er. Going about 165 in the far right lane I was still getting passed by people zipping by
    -I topped out the day at 180 on a straight away

    As we approached the main highway turn off to Berlin (A9), all the signs for the Berlin exit were marked closed! Given our non-existent German language skills, we were worried we would be confused by the detour. Luckily, we could take the next exit to turn around which is what everyone seemed to be doing.

    We intended to take another break in Worlitzer park (at the suggestion of Rothenburg hotel staff). When we got there though, we couldn't find any parking that didn't require payment in coins and there wasn't anywhere to make change. We settled for just seeing the front of the park / stretching our legs before starting the last leg of our route to Berlin.

    The last 1.5 hrs was chalk full of construction much to our chagrin. We went back and forth on whether to drop our bags off at the hotel before or after returning the rental car. The decision was made for us when we ran into some road closures around the marathon route where we intended to drive (they're setting up early!)

    The hardest part of driving in Germany (and the driver agrees) was finding a gas station in the vicinity of the car rental drop off point. We felt a bit hopeless at times but eventually got on to the correct road. Tired and hungry and mixed up. We dropped off the car and caught a taxi to the hotel. Saw the holocaust memorial during the drive and we hope to go back there to see it again while we are here.

    We arrived at the hotel and checked in. We met up with Brett, Celeste and Kelly in the lobby and headed to a nearby Italian restaurant. Tyler had bolognese and I had tagliatelle with chanterelle and bacon sauce. We haven't yet seen Rae due to some travel hiccups that resulted from cancelled flights, lost luggage and long train rides.

    Tyler and I finished off the evening at the hotel pool (a pretty short visit to the pool once we realized the water was cold). Now it's earlyish to bed so that we can make use of our main sightseeing day in Berlin tomorrow!

    Brooke & Tyler

    PS
    The day included planes, trains, and automobiles for our group... Kelly, Celeste, and Brett arrived by plane as scheduled, Rae ended up grabbing a train from Düsseldorf due to some travel hiccups, and Tyler and I drove into Berlin in our fancy automobile.    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Berlin Birthday

    September 23, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    We woke up this morning in Berlin on my birthday! Brooke had a card already ready for me that she brought all the way from Calgary, so thoughtful. We headed downstairs to have breakfast with the whole family, what a treat. I was also really happy to see that Rae had finally made it in safe to Berlin last night. Breakfast was a wide selection hotel buffet with plenty of options. I even quickly noticed that they had prosecco available, so why not have a mimosa with breakfast? It's my birthday after all!

    After breakfast, Brett headed out to do his final training run, just a short 3km jog (sounds like plenty to me). The rest of us geared up for the day and headed out to go on a city bus tour (hop on/hop off type with audio descriptions). I likely am starting to catch a bit of the cold that Brooke has and was also feeling run down at the start of today. At any rate, I wasn't quite in the mood yet for selfies when Brooke suggested it (since it was the first time wearing our new Blue Jays hats), but I slowly warmed up to it since we "have" to take selfies.....I'm getting off topic...city tour! The tour was overall really good, we got to see a widespread look at Berlin with all the major sites, but obviously nothing detailed and up close. The route was slightly adjusted because of the marathon route and finish line being set up, but we saw nearly everything. At times it was hard to pay attention to the audio descriptions, but it was still good to get a sense of the overall city.

    Once we completed the circuit, we got off the bus and the girls went immediately to shop at the flagship Nivea store. They seem to sell some products that you rub on your face and make you smell weird, I don't really understand it. Mostly stood outside with Dad as we waited for them to finish. Brooke bought some hand lotion and lip stuff for her staff members (she also thinks the store clerk didn't charge her for 2 out of 3 of the lip things, good work Brooke!). We then zipped over to the hotel to drop off the purchases and a quick free bathroom break.

    Next up we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate to take in the sight and grab some pictures. This monument will be right near the end of the marathon tomorrow and we won't have a chance of getting a good look at it. So it was a good thing we did it today. Grabbed a quick lunch of bratwurst by the gate and then walked over to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

    The holocaust memorial (Proper name: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) consists of 2711 cement blocks/columns that are all of different heights. The ground is also not level. The effect of all of this is that in the center (where the ground is lower and the blocks are taller), you feel trapped. In the middle of the memorial, it would be easy enough to lose the person you're travelling with (and of course I was weaving in and out, trying to sneak behind people). The girls then entered the information center which lies below the memorial to what is a small but very powerful holocaust museum. There is a timeline of events leading from initial persecution of the Jewish people to full extermination. Another room consisted of notes from holocaust victims that were later found and translated. Where possible, the note would include a caption about who wrote the note and what is known to have happened to them thereafter. Of course, to think that these are the brief stories of just a few of the 5.5-6 million people murdered is almost unbelievable. I probably could have spent even more time there, although it is really quite overwhelming. There is also a room where they read the names and brief bios of people that were killed.

    Once the girls finished off at the Memorial, I suggested that we should head over to Legoland! I had noticed this on the tour bus and thought why not check it out since it was my birthday. The whole family was on board and we headed out towards the area of Potsdam Platz. When we got to the entrance I found out that you had to have a child with you to go in (didn't even count that it was my birthday or that I was acting like a child earlier). This is entirely because it is a "Discovery Center" that is geared 100% towards children. Darn.

    In the area we were able to catch a bit of racing happening on the main road. The marathon route is already set up and they have a couple of events happening today with the mini-marathon (~4km and it looked like only youth were running) and the roller blading marathon (literally a bunch of people racing the route on roller blades).

    Once we finished watching some racing and practicing some cheering for tomorrow, we walked over to Checkpoint Charlie where one of the crossings between West and East Berlin during the Cold War was located. Along the street they have a series of panels to read about the entire Cold War events, the Berlin Wall, and the escape attempts into West Berlin throughout the years. There was a lot of history to recall and I definitely learnt some new facts about the Cold War. I found it very fascinating to read it all and the fact that we were standing right there where it all occurred. And to think that this all happened not so long ago in the grand scheme of things. I also confirmed that I am a very slow reader as everyone else got way ahead of me, so much that Mom and Rae headed back to do some shopping while I was only halfway through. That's all right, I think I just take it in more thoroughly (so Brooke tells me 😉). There was also a cool map that showed the entire perimeter that the Berlin Wall took up. And they had the original patrol gate of Checkpoint Charlie, but it felt a little hokey being right outside a McDonald's.

    It was getting a little chilly out so Dad, Brooke, and I walked back to the hotel. Had a quick stop in a bakery because Brooke wanted to buy me a birthday treat, which ended up being a donut and a hot coffee. At the hotel we warmed up, had a short rest, and changed for dinner. By the time we left, it was fully raining out and we all walked over to the restaurant each under an umbrella.

    The restaurant was German cuisine with more beer to try, all right! Seems like we didn't grab the name of the restaurant since Brett picked this one out and we just went with the flow. Regardless it was great as a birthday dinner! I enjoyed the pork knuckle again (couldn't finish it), Mom had a deer goulash, and everyone else had schnitzel. We shared more of our stories from our previous week and heard about Rae's experiences of dining over in France and Spain. Our waiter had the funniest way of saying yes of course to all of our requests. Every time we ordered something his response was "ok fine" as if he was saying "if you must, I guess......😔." I'm sure we'll be making fun of it throughout the trip.

    Walking back to the hotel, it was raining hard and we had to avoid lots of puddles in the street. Time for a good sleep since tomorrow morning will be very busy. (Hopefully Brett is already asleep as I type this. Good luck Brett!!!)

    Tyler & Brooke    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Berlin Marathon

    September 24, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Today was marathon day!! Brett was off to the race early this morning and we didn't see him at breakfast... I'm going to ask him to recount his experience of the race later but this post will be our perspective on it.

    The rest of our group had breakfast at 7:30, finalizing the details of our spectator tour for the day. Kelly and Tyler had two options for the route but they chose the one that spread out the viewings the most.

    We walked north from our hotel to the 8km marker. We got there a bit early and got to see the wheelchair and recumbent bike athletes go by first (really amazing to use arm strength alone for the marathon). Next were the olympians followed pretty closely by Brett! It was lots of fun to cheer him on all morning and I think we all got a bit emotional. As soon as he passed by, we were starting a race of our own to make sure we got to the next stop in enough time.

    Did I mention that it was raining? If not, it's safe to say that if I don't mention the weather, then default is rain. We rushed down into the train station because Tyler spotted the correct train was already there. I was running after him and completely fell right before the door to the train. It was like sliding into a base (which for the record I've probably never done before). Mostly impacted my derrière and my left elbow. Very quickly assessed that nothing was broken (would have definitely hurt more if I had).

    We took the U bahn south to next view him at km 19. More cheering in our Canadian gear ensued. After that, we headed back to the subway (albeit a bit more cautiously). We took the U Bahn further west and exited at km 32. We were a bit concerned that time was tight and we didn't want to miss him so we ran close to one km opposite of the race path. We passed the Olympians as they went by before settling on a spot to stop and watch for Brett. We hadn't fully informed him of our location plans and I'm not sure if he expected us at that area. After he passed, it was back to the train.

    Next we had to take the S bahn east with a connection to our intended last viewing point. The first train came quickly in 2 minutes. We were disappointed to see the next train for our connection would be in 15 minutes. Calculating from where Brett was on the track and how long our commute would take, we knew it would be tight.

    The train took us to the Brandenburg station where we ran to catch Brett one more time before the end of the race. We were ready about 3 minutes before he passed by... phew!

    Following that we headed at a leisurely pace to the "family reunion area." After a few minutes, Brett joined us in his silver Berlin marathon poncho. A personal best time of 2:36:35. Incredible!

    We walked to Berliner Republik for the customary post-race beer with Brett. A much deserved liter of Paulaner! I tried a Zwick'l at the suggestion of Brett's friend Stephan who now lives in Berlin. It was yummy! We had lunch there (Tyler's turn to have roulade and I had soup and sausages).

    We headed back to the hotel for a brief rest so Brett could shower. I made the mistake of actually having a nap and really struggled to get up and go. The rest of the afternoon was spent seeing bits of the Berlin Wall. We took the subway to the East Side Gallery, a long stretch of murals representing the wall. There were some very interesting sections. We then decided to head to the north segment of wall. They also have a memorial to the victims of the wall there and we spent some time reading the posted information. By this point, all of us were pretty tired and so we went back to the hotel for another brief rest before dinner. We had our last German meal at the Augustiner beer hall. I ended up having salad but Tyler is still going strong on the German food (Goulash and spaetzle). When we finished dinner it was already quite late and so we headed to bed. A busy last day in Berlin before our journey to Prague tomorrow!!!    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Brett's Perspectives on the Marathon

    September 24, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Awesome time!!! That, and:

    - flattest marathon I've ever done, even moreso than the Saskatoon race! A few little inclines going over canals, but that's it. Also, basically no wind at all, totally still! Even with it being a full loop course.
    - it was lightly raining / misting for a good portion of the race, which was likely a damper on performance - traction, clothes taking water, puddle-dodging. But, made the most of it!
    - there were musical acts everywhere, which always helps with keeping spirits up. Mostly brass bands, but some rock ones too. The highlight was a choir of 6-8 people playing 3 m horns that like yodelers use up in the mountains - alpine horns? Not sure of the name - and they were all playing various notes in tune.
    - there were spectators for basically the whole course, out even in the rain. Got lots of "Go Brett!" cheers. Some people were cheering and playing music from their upper apartments.
    - great neighbourhoods and landmarks to see - you go around the Victory Column at the very beginning, later go by the Reichstag and TV Tower, eventually through Potsdamer Platz and through the Brandenburg Gate to finish. Lots of tall, nice churches too. Probably should have savoured the Gate a bit more, though did turn around after going through to appreciate it. I was about ready to be done by then, which brings me to:
    - my pace...got slower as I went. After the runners spread out, I held the target 3:30 min/km pace ok for the first 10 km or so, but then with the rain and I think the fact that that's just too fast a pace for me to hold that long, it gradually dropped so that it was tough to stay below 4:00. Maybe I could have made my form a bit better, but it was just so hard to keep the pace going. By the last 10 km my legs were really stiff and hurting, it's never really gotten that way before.
    - but, pushed through, stayed upright & strong through the finish line and still got a personal best by more than 4 minutes! Was close to breaking into tears as I often am at finish lines, gave the mascot a big bear hug. Got my refreshments, my non-alcoholic beer (they're pretty common here, was actually pretty refreshing - don't worry, had plenty of real beer that day too), and met the family, as well as my friend Stephan who lives here.
    - it was so great having all of them out here, getting through these races just wouldn't be the same or as doable without that. And, it was an amazing, well-put together race in a great city with a huge crowd turnout. Not sure what's next, I think I'll try the lottery entry for the London 2019 race, though I'll look into Tokyo's entry requirements too - if I can use this Berlin result, maybe I should while it's valid! At the beer hall dinner afterwards, met a group of Hong Kong runners, and one of them had gotten a special medal today acknowledging she'd done all 6 Majors - motivation to keep pursuing the other 2!

    Brett out.    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Journey to Prague

    September 25, 2017 in Czech Republic ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Today we left Berlin and journeyed over to Prague. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel buffet making sure to enjoy all of our favourites (Brooke loved the fig mustard with a variety of soft cheeses and a pretzel bun........I had 3 of the small little donuts). Then we had to pack everything up and be downstairs by 8:45 for bus call.

    We had previously arranged car service transportation to Prague through the travel agent and our driver showed up right on time. His name was Martin and we later found out that he lives in Prague, driving all the way to Berlin this morning to pick us up. The vehicle was a large van that comfortably seated the 6 of us with luggage. Oddly enough, Brett, Rae, and I ended up in the middle seat all together - just like road trips back to Saskatchewan in Dad's Acura. However this time we had way more elbow space and managed to not annoy each other during the trip (it most certainly wasn't because we're more mature now). Everybody spent the drive reading or napping. Rae and I watched a bit of the live action Beauty and the Beast on the ipad. At one point Brooke, Mom, Brett, and Rae were all sleeping, and I was right in the middle, so I played a bit of Zelda by myself, perfect! Brett and I also played a 2-player co-operative game and enjoyed it. After Brooke woke up from a solid nap she read more of her book, A Woman in Berlin (which she is really enjoying).

    We arrived safely in Prague and pulled up to the Augustine Hotel. It is a beautiful hotel that used to be a monastery for monks and has been converted into a hotel. The room is very homey and spacious. After a short moment to get settled we all met down in the lobby and headed out into the old city. We walked down towards Charles Bridge. This is the old famous bridge in Prague open only to pedestrians. Obviously it is very touristy and filled with people. The views from the bridge are spectacular and you can really take in the beauty of Prague. Hopefully we will learn more about the bridge tomorrow!

    Walking through the narrow streets and looking somewhere for lunch, we landed on Cafe Lippert which was right in the Old Town Square. The prices were definitely jacked up for being in a touristy area but we did have a wonderful view of the square for our first meal in Prague. Brooke had a duck thigh risotto and I actually had a salad for once but with smoked duck breast. The beer options were Urkell and Kozel (which seem to be the two main beers available here). Going down to the bathrooms was incredibly interesting because it was quite deep below the main level and you could see all of the stone and brick support structures.

    After lunch Rae, Mom, and Dad headed out on their own to go to a regular mall to shop for some basic clothes for Rae. Brett, Brooke, and I headed off to see some sights and do some shopping. Brett had a couple of main areas that he had in mind so we headed off in the direction of one of them. Along the way I spotted a shop with some intricate Czech Easter eggs, which Brooke thought were really cool and planned to maybe come back later. Going further along we came to the Havelske Trziste which was a number of market stall shoppes in a row over a two block section. They were selling anything from junky souvenirs to fresh fruit. Some of the items that caught our eye were a goulash spice mixture and these paintings of the city (Brooke is on a mission to find a piece of artwork while we are in Prague).

    Carrying on we found our way to Wenceslas Square (Vaclavske Namesti) which is one of the main city squares and is named after Saint Wenceslas (who was indeed looking out). The square is really a wide long boulevard with shops and interesting architecture on both sides. Brett had done some research on the whole area and was pointing out interesting facts wherever he could. We walked all the way to the end where the large statue of Saint Wenceslas on a horse is and then headed back the other way. Brett then took us on an impromptu self guided walking tour from his travel book and we saw a couple of different areas including a garden that was really close to the main area but felt so quite and peaceful. At the end we tried some honey mead and ended up buying a bottle to take home :)

    We then started meandering our way back towards the bridge but were popping into multiple shops to look at the souvenir glass work. We ended up going back to the store we stopped at earlier and Brooke got a few of the Czech Easter eggs and I found a cool wooden puzzle game that looks similar to a Rubik's cube with multiple moving parts. We found our way back to the bridge and crossed back over towards the hotel.

    Next up was to find some pastries for dessert. Walking around earlier I had noticed a spiral pastry that was being made right on the street called trdelnik (roll the r). It is originally probably from Romania but it sounds like it is common in European countries around this area. It is made by rolling dough around a pit and then cooking it over an open flame. The outside is then coated with a sugar mixture. Not wanting to make the same mistake as in Rothenburg, during lunch I found some wifi and looked up someone's posting about the best trdelnik in Prague. I located the highest rated one on the map and we headed off for the afternoon. I am glad that I made a point of doing this because they were everywhere and I wanted to try the best one! The store we were looking for was called Creperie U Kajetana and it was supposed to be on a road west of one of the church squares. We found the correct road but were starting to get a bit testy with each other since we were walking up a steep incline, had to be back soon, and didn't know where the shop was. Thankfully offline Google Maps came to the rescue and we were only about 200m away! We quickly found the store and ordered two trdelnik, Brooke had cinnamon on the outside and I had mine coated with caramel in the inside. They were delicious, piping hot freshly made, and totally worth seeking out. The taste was similar to a scuffle and was very filling. There is also a less traditional option of ice cream or whipped cream inside the dough, but maybe I'll try that tomorrow.

    Quick rest back at the hotel and then it was off to dinner. We chose a place that was recommended by our driver Martin earlier called Bedesa and just a short walk away from the hotel. This was a more local restaurant and the beer prices reflected that, very cheap! Brooke had a gnocchi dish and I had a pulled pork shoulder with sauerkraut. Very good so much that we would almost want to go back there tomorrow.

    After dinner we walked back down to Charles Bridge to check out the view of the city at night time. A lot of the buildings are lit up and you get an incredible view of the city. I tried to take a couple of cell phone pictures, but the quality was not good and could not do the view justice. We all just stood there and took it all in. Prague is very beautiful and the view was really breathtaking.

    We finished off our night at the hotel bar to sample the specialty St. Thomas beer that is specific to the hotel we are staying at and was originally made by the monks. It was a dark beer that was a nice change of pace from all the German pilsners and lagers we have been drinking. While we were enjoying our night cap we listened to the classical music piece The Moldau by Smetana. Mom had realized that the piece was referring to the river that runs through Prague and explained how the music captures the different areas that the river flows by and then changes key when it opens up into the ocean. Lovely.

    Now we need to get some rest as we have a full day of activity planned for tomorrow in Prague.

    Tyler and Brooke    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    One of my new favorite cities

    September 26, 2017 in Czech Republic ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Prague is incredible... which I knew it would be going in. However, today it became even more clear that we'll really need to come back here and maybe stay about five days. We started the morning earlier than everyone else... Tyler, Brett and I left the hotel at 7:15 to go back to Charles bridge before the hordes of crowds would arrive. Seems like this is a successful idea wherever we go. Similar to Rothenburg, there were much fewer people crowded on. We enjoyed the view and snapped some great photos. We also saw two brides/grooms on the bridge. Wedding photos at 7:30 AM? I wonder what time they had to wake up!! Then it was back to the hotel to meet everyone else for breakfast. There was another wide array of "continental breakfast" options (quite a bit more extensive than what continental breakfast is at home) and we each had a hot item (for us eggs Benedict).

    Our walking tour was with David, an Englishman who has lived in Prague for 12 years. We spent from 9:30-5pm with him leading us through the main parts of the old city. We started by crossing a different bridge north of the Charles bridge which gave quite a nice view of the bridge itself. He then took us to the Jewish quarter and explained lots of the architectural styles of the buildings. We also walked down Parizska street which is the high end shopping district with lots of designer stores. This brought us again to the old town square that we had visited before, but this time we learned more about the history of the Tyn church. It is unusual that the front facade is completely covered by some relatively undecorated buildings built directly in front of it. Apparently when one religious order conquered the other they built these buildings to spite the old ruling church. Can't quite remember what religions... maybe Catholic and Protestant. Also in this square is an astronomical clock. Very interesting although we couldn't really read the clock. Apparently they blinded the man who made the clock to avoid another city getting the technology to have an astronomical clock.

    Next we walked into the Tyn church which was absolutely beautiful. We had been seeing signs advertising evening concerts in the churches and this one included The Moldau. We decided to buy tickets to go in the evening. Seemed to be a very fitting thing to do! Especially since we had been talking about and listening to that piece yesterday!

    We walked into another church known to have a thief's arm hanging from the ceiling as a warning to future potential thieves. Next we headed to a Kubist style building. We went to the second floor for a quick cup of coffee. Tyler and I had Turkish coffee (strong and with the grounds in the coffee). Next we admired another city tower (apparently this one was previously the powder tower). From there we walked to see the National theatre which houses the Smetana hall. In the basement there's an interesting 'American' bar. It's what you might imagjne an early 1900s fancy North American bar might have looked like. We walked through this and carried on. We covered so much ground in one day.

    Next we walked through the famous Moser glass exhibition gallery and store. Incredible carved glass details and of course very pricey. Certainly makes the glass souvenirs sold everywhere else look poor. If you want to buy glass in Prague, Moser is the place to go but you would need to be planning for a large purchase to get an heirloom piece. And then shipping it home safely too!

    Next we got to Wenceslas square and then back to the Havelske market. Tyler and I held up there for a couple extra minutes to buy a painting of Prague. We picked one that is definitely recognizably Prague and Tyler managed to haggle the price down by 100 crowns. It's all rolled up and we'll have to get it mounted once we get home and put it up!!!

    Lunch was at Cafe Slavia - Tyler had duck and I had beef goulash. Yummy as usual. Our afternoon tour was mostly to be at the castle/palace area. We took tram #22 to get to the area. We elected not to buy tickets to go into any of the buildings so we'd have time to see more, but we did walk into the amazing gothic cathedral, St. Vitus. While on the grounds, someone important must have arrived. There was a band playing and the hourly change of the guard was delayed just long enough for us to actually get to see it.

    Following this, we walked through the area surrounding the palace to the Strahov monastery (which unlike our hotel's monastery is still an active monastery). We sampled some St. Norbert beer brewed there (an amber beer for Tyler and I).

    We started walking back down the hill to the main area but stopped for a photo where there's a great panoramic view of the city. We continued the long downhill walk all the way to Charles bridge. We wanted to make one last stop at the Lennon wall (sounds cool right? Something Beatles related). We got there and saw it... really just a bunch of quite ugly and often profane graffiti. I decided that was the only ugly site I saw in Prague. Especially after seeing the East side gallery in Berlin which was quite profound and meaningful. Anyway, if that's the only underwhelming thing in Prague, I think I won't hold it against this lovely city.

    We said goodbye to David, then Tyler, Brett and I headed back up the hill for another trdelník. Tyler had caramel again which was an awesome choice. Instead of a dessert treat, I opted for a small glass of hot honey mead. It was a bit of a walk to go back to get that but was totally worth it. I'd like to say it helped with my cough but that's probably not true.

    We headed back to the hotel to rest a tiny bit and freshen up for the evening. Next was the concert! We walked back to the old square. The girls stopped at a botanical store thinking we might want to get something. All of it was really smelly in an earthy way and not quite our style. The boys may have been surprised to see we had made no purchases when we joined them in the seats. The concert was lovely. We even got to hear the pipe organ from the back of the church (a bucket list item for Tyler). The Moldau was definitely the highlight but it was just overall quite a special experience. After the concert, it was raining a bit. Tyler and I held back to take off his sweater to avoid it getting wet. When we got out, everyone had disappeared! We weren't sure if they were nearby so we didn't want to move too far. We had also talked about maybe going to a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner. Tyler went in that direction to look and I stayed by the church in case someone came back for us. Tyler and Kelly crosses paths and we headed to the restaurant.

    Two beers and two pizzas drained us of our last Czech money pretty much exactly. We are coming home with one crown to keep as a souvenir... I guess we were quite accurate on how much cash we needed!

    Today is our record so far for number of steps in a day... 30000! (That did include an extra few minutes walking around our hotel complex once we realized we were close to that number but not quite there).

    It was a very full day in Prague but we definitely got an overview of the highlights of Prague. I hope to be back for more exploring! Tomorrow we'll be back in the van to commute to Nuremberg to board the boat!!!

    Brooke & Tyler    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Nuremberg and Boarding the Boat

    September 27, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    This morning we had to pack up and sadly leave the beautiful city of Prague. Dad had two remaining free breakfasts to use up so Mom and Rae enjoyed the lovely continental breakfast (and made sure to sneak some dates for Brooke). The guys instead opted for a hearty breakfast of........McDonald's!! Nothing like an sausage and egg McMuffin to get you going in the morning! I grabbed a greasy breakfast for Brooke on the way out as well, she was most grateful. Then it was loading up the van with our same driver, Martin, from before.

    The car ride was about 3 hours to Nuremberg. Rae and I finished watching Beauty and Beast, Brett read and listened to a podcast, Mom napped and then read about the cruise, Brooke blogged and read her book (didn't nap that much actually), and Dad looked at the pictures in the Czech newspaper and pretended to know what was going on.

    We arrived at the pier in Nuremberg and found our boat, the River Beatrice. We were able to unload all of our bags and check into the boat. The rest of the tour group actually began in Prague as the official start to the tour and were still en route when we arrived, so it wasn't a mob of people yet.

    The cruise company called us a taxi and we all loaded into one car to head into the main part of Nuremberg. We were planning to join up with the rest of the tour group at 2:00 PM so we had about an hour and a half to ourselves. First order of business for the two of us was to hit up the ATM to take out more Euros (no thanks to Oktoberfest). After that we toodled around the main town square a bit. Grabbed a lunch of bratwurst on a bun with onions, definitely hit the spot. Brooke and I wandered up to a Toy Museum to glance at the entrance. It looked like a history of all sorts of toys that children played with. If we had more time we would definitely take the time to go through it.

    While we were walking back to the square, I noticed that a bus had shown up with the sign UniWorld on it (which was the name of the cruise company) and it was only 12:50 PM. We started to get a bit worried since we might miss the tour and I didn't know where the rest of the family was. Turns out that they arrived an hour early in order to see the square as well, perfect.

    Since we still had time, we went to Wicklein, a Czech gingerbread store. They make authentic Czech gingerbread there which is quite different then how we make it at home. There seem to be more spices and fruit used, and there was a unique wafer adhered to the bottom of the cookie. Turns out that this was actually similar to a communion host. When monks would make the gingerbread years ago, they realized if they used the communion bread it would not stick to the baking sheet and acted like a parchment paper. Very interesting!

    We had about a half hour until the tour started and we noticed that Brett grabbed a beer while he was sitting in the square. This sounded like a great idea since the sun was finally out and we were going to be going on a walking tour (so we assumed). Brooke and I walked over to the cafe and got a bottle each. Brooke was really happy to walk around in the city with a cold beer, and why not, we're on vacation! We walked over to the tour meeting point and met up with the cruise director. We then found out that we were getting on the bus and the tour was around the city, and we can't bring drinks onto the bus! Uh oh! That meant we had to hurry up and finish our drinks, and I had to help Brooke out quite a bit.

    The bus first went by the Palace of Justice where they held the Nuremberg Trials after WWII and held the Nazi leaders accountable for the war crimes. It was amazing to drive past the place where it actually happened. Then there was a fancy cemetery and some other stuff. I'm not really sure because for some reason the motion of the bus, the calming voice of the tour guide, and perhaps some things mentioned earlier, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open! Brooke did fine though!

    Our first stop was at the Nuremberg Castle where we walked through it and our tour guide explained some of the features and history. The most interesting part was that during WWII, the castle was 90% bombed and they managed to rebuild it after the war!

    After the castle, we boarded back onto the bus and headed off to the former Nazi rally grounds. This is the area where Hitler held his political rallies and propaganda videos during the 30's before the war started. We first drove through the Congress Hall which was supposed to be a massive stadium that would rival the Colosseum in Rome. It was never finished due to the war starting. There is a museum as part of it explaining the history of the Nazi party, but it is not a massively beautiful tourist site, quite ugly in fact.

    Next we went to the Zeppelin Fields which is the actual spot where Hitler held the Nazi rallies. This is a massive field that could probably fit four football fields in the center and the outside is surrounded by stone steps for seating. A lot of the stone steps are overgrown with weeds and grass. Both of these structures have been left standing in order to remind everyone of the terrible atrocities that happened and to make sure it never happens again. Our guide also explained that the city of Nuremberg has elected to use the former Nazi rally grounds in ways that the Nazis would not approve of. We found it very interesting that the buildings are not being preserved in beautiful ways (as opposed to the buildings in Prague). They are not used as money making devices, they are just there as remembrance.

    We finally got back to the boat and waited in the line to grab our room keys, then were escorted to our stateroom. Quite small, but to be expected. We unpacked all of our clothes (which will be a treat not to have to pack up in 2 days) and got a bit organized. Then found a good seat in the lounge for the start of the introductions and listened to the Captains safety speech.

    Immediately following that was dinner in the dining room on the main deck. The room is beautifully decorated and it sounds like we will be having a 3 course dinner each night while we're here. Uh-oh said my waistline! The dining hall did get quite loud with 150 guests in one main room that isn't designed for sound, but I guess we'll have to expect that. All 6 of us had the local veal for dinner, then I ordered a cheesecake for dessert and Brooke had a cheese platter (which she loved), others had a honeycomb ice cup. As soon as my dessert came I immediately had food envy and ended up ordering a second dessert. Waistline satisfied for the short term, will be unhappy when we get home.

    Right after dinner I did a quick load of laundry and now have a reload of clean underwear for the remainder of the trip!

    Turns out that the four of us kids are the youngest people on the boat by 20 years! When Rae went up to the bar to order a drink, the bartender was definitely surprised to see someone younger. After dinner, the 4 kids headed down to the lounge to do some reading and writing (Dad went to bed). We sat in the far corner by the door as there was a "sock-hop" happening on the dance floor (+50's dancing). The four of us were doing highly "intellectual activities". Brett was journaling, Rae was transcribing her journal, Brooke was reading, and I was typing this blog. We had so many questions by the other guests of "are you guys students?" and "are you doing homework?". But it's all good, everyone is very friendly. Brooke went to bed early to get some solid rest (still has a cough) and the 3 of us went and sat at the bar and chatted with the staff as we had our night cap.

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  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Regensburg and BMW Factory Tour

    September 28, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Today was our first morning on the boat. It's kind of easy to forget that we're on a boat really. It was a bit of a sleep in for us since we were in motion and not able to get out and starting running around a town even if we wanted to. The breakfast buffet was quite extensive and Tyler is still grappling with the tendency to overeat now that there's so much included food at hand. After breakfast there was a presentation by the cruise director Ibi. She explained day by day the activity options. A few of us got dozy, but that's ok as we had already read the information packages and made a lot of our selections.

    We were still cruising in the morning so we had more spare time throughout the morning. Before we knew it, it was time to eat again. Again lunch had tonnes of options; the popular choice at our table was fish with rice. It was very tasty.

    The boat was a little late arriving to the dock at Regensburg but we were all ready to disembark to carry on to the afternoon activities. Rae and Celeste decided to spend the afternoon in the town of Regensburg but the rest of us opted for the BMW Factory Tour. We got an extra brief city tour (extra short since we started late) and then it was on to the bus to drive to the factory. Just seemed like an opportunity not to miss and we were so right!

    We met our tour guide Stephanie who walked us through the various areas of the factory. After a short informational video we started the tour. Absolutely no photos allowed on the tour which in a way was good as we could just really take it all in. We started in the body shop seeing the "robot garden" where the robots would weld together about 5000 individual parts on the body of each car. Then these frames move on to what she called the "petting zoo" (no shortage of interesting names to describe what they're doing). The petting zoo is where the staff use some type of gloves to feel the surface and make sure there are no defects in the body of the car. There were lots of interesting things that we learned and watching the numerous robots working away was mesmerizing. The next stop was the paint shop. We learned about the 5 layers of paint that they use and the different colours of the filler layer. Again we watched the robots, this time spraying paint on the body of the cars. This was termed the "robot ballet." There was another short video (the seats were BMW car seats... comfy). Next we walked past a huge building that stores the painted car bodies until it's time for assembly. Again super interesting to see the complexity of the system to build the cars.

    The last and most impressive stop was the assembly building. We saw the BMW associates installing the tires, doors and parts of the interior. This was where the most human work seemed to be needed. It is amazing that they have everything lined up properly so that the correct door comes down right on time with the matching car. We were warned in advance not to take the BMW decals from the assembly line. Of course we wouldn't have anyway, but I was amazed to see that we walked right past an open case of them! The tour was result very impressive and I'm sure we only got to see a small portion of it! There was a quick stop for the gift shop and then back on the bus to get back on the boat.

    Immediately when we returned to the boat, there was a lecture about the construction and technology of the canals. Very interesting and I didn't know anything much about it before.

    We got dressed for dinner (Tyler decided on lederhosen because he stained his good pants with gravy on his birthday, but I took the opportunity to wear the nicer clothes I brought.) Tonight was the captain's reception and welcome dinner. We were introduced to the leaders of the different groups of the staff. Dinner was a multi course meal. The main course was steak and was very tender and cooked properly. It was a relaxed and enjoyable meal. After dinner, we retired to the Captain's Club, a room where they have board games and lounging space. Much quieter than the bar lounge. Rae and Brett journaled, Tyler played Metroid, and I worked on this post. Another great day!!!

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  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    100 Flights of Stairs!

    September 29, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    This morning we woke up docked in Passau, Germany. The beds are quite comfy and you don't even realize that you are on a boat. We had another full breakfast (it's going to be really hard to go back to just peanut butter and jam). Then a quick shower and we headed out for our morning tour.

    All of us chose to do the panoramic city tour of Passau. This was a bus tour that took us to two separate locations high up to get a great view of the city and river valley. The bus took us up to the first stop at the main castle of Passau, Veste Oberhaus. This was the main fortress of the city hundreds of years ago and is probably 200 to 300 ft above the main city and overlooks the river valley. Even though there was still a bit of morning fog, the view was incredible! You could see the three rivers that come through Passau and really appreciate the beauty of this small city. Our tour guide, Maurice, pointed out some of the main buildings in Passau as we had an opportunity to take some great pictures.

    Our other stop on the bus tour was across the valley at an old church that is up on the hill. Here we were able to see the view of the city from the other side of the river. We were also able to go in and see the church. Unique to this church was an enclosed staircase that went all the way up from the base of the hill to the top. The inside of the enclosure was filled with icons the entire way up. Maurice told us that pilgrims will climb this staircase one stair at a time and say a prayer on each step. We were able to go down a few steps at the top and get a good view.

    The bus dropped us off back at the boat right in time for lunch. Luckily they were serving German food, so I was able to get my fix of sausages and pretzels one last time before we leave Germany tomorrow! They even had obatzda (cheese spread) so Brooke was delighted. After lunch we started to split up and do different activities for the afternoon. Rae, Brett, and Mom had booked to do a 20 km bike ride through the river valley. Dad had gone to a pipe organ concert at the main church St. Stephen's and was going borrow a bike from the boat and explore Passau, followed by a massage at the spa. Brooke and I chose to head back over to the castle and climb up the stairs to get a good workout and see the view in the afternoon without fog.

    While we were walking over to the base of the stairs, I mentioned that we should try and get to 100 flights of stairs on Brooke's Fitbit. Previously at Neuschwanstein Castle we noticed at the end of the day that we climbed 98 flights of stairs. Fitbit gives you a medal at 100 flights of stairs, so we were so close and didn't realize it. Brooke wasn't too sure if we would be able to do it, but I said let's see where we are at when we get to the top. Starting at the base of the climb we had already logged 20 flights of stairs from earlier in the day. The climb took us through different parts of the castle. It is always amazing to think how old everything is in Europe and how nothing in Canada can compare. Parts were stairs and parts were very steep inclines. We reached the top probably in about 20 minutes and got to see the same view again, still great and actually better in the afternoon. Climbing all the way up, we were now at 50 flights of stairs, not bad! We thought by the time we go all the way down we'll just have to get another 20 flights or so. We can do this! About halfway down, Brooke realizes that it is not logging any of our activity as we go down the stairs, oh no! We made the incorrect assumption, but I guess it makes sense since it is much harder to go up than down right?

    We get about 3/4 of the way down where there was a fork in the road for a different way up and decided that we were going to go for the 100 flights achievement because we might not get another opportunity on this trip. We started out on the other path up which was more through the forest trees like a path back home in the mountains, but it was still incredibly steep at times. Now we're starting to tire out and our legs are really feeling the burn by now. Had to take a couple of breathers and water breaks on our way up, but we eventually made it, back to the same old view point. Now we were around 78 flights of stairs. On the way down we did a couple of bonus flights up and down to log some more. We got down to the very base and were at 88 flights, time to bring 'er home. We headed back up once more up the main stairs, very slowly now, eventually making it to 100 flights of stairs! Right at a beautiful view point of the city as well. We felt so victorious!

    After we got back down we walked into the main part of the town, heading towards the center church of Passau, St. Stephen's Cathedral. This church was one of the most gorgeous that we have seen so far on this trip. The statue work was fascinating all along the walls and the icons on the ceiling were beautiful. The feature of the church was the incredible pipe organ in the back. It was absolutely stunning to look at and made us a little jealous of Dad who went to the pipe organ concert earlier in the afternoon. It is probably one of the largest pipe organs in the world with around 17000 pipes.

    Afterwards, we walked down to the main road and over to a square where we had spotted a place to grab a victory beer. It was actually a Lowenbrau specific beer garden, which is one of the beers we enjoyed at Oktoberfest. Turns out that this brand of beer is actually brewed here in Passau so it was a great choice to enjoy out in the warm sunshine. Very well deserved! Once we were finished we walked back over to the boat to drop off a couple of things.

    Our next thought was to take out a couple of bikes from the boat and bike around the town and see some other spots. It was a simple process to get a couple of bikes and helmets and we were set up in no time. Brooke needed a moment to get her bike legs back (she's too used to spin class and a stationary bike); then we headed out down the main boardwalk. Once we got towards where we had to cross the road to get into the main part of the town, things got a lot harder. We had to be a lot more careful with the road traffic, encountered some cobble stone, and had to start and stop a lot to make sure we were together and if we were allowed to take bikes on certain roads. At one point Brooke took a little fall (she is fine) while trying to get off her bike to walk it up some cobblestone. Turns out the basket on the back of her bike tripped her as she was swinging her leg off of it, not used to something being back there. That dropped our confidence down and we meandered for only a little bit more. We did find some pedestrian only streets to go down though. We decided to call it an afternoon, head back to the boat, and turn the bikes in. We were not very successful with biking this afternoon, really hoping that we are much better tomorrow.

    Back on the boat we hit the showers and got ready for dinner. Had a bit of downtime to read and blog before dinner service started. We each enjoyed the fish which was a nice change from all the meat we've been having. I ended up ordering two desserts again, oops (but I did climb over 100 flights of stairs today).

    After we finished at dinner, we went up to the lounge for a drink and to enjoy listening to the entertainment who was a gentlemen playing guitar and singing popular songs. For the most part he was really hitting his target audience with lots of oldies. However I don't think he knew Last Saskatchewan Pirate. The groups on either side of us were very surprised that we knew nearly all of the words. One woman even came up to compliment us, asking us how we knew these songs (not hard with road trips in Saskatchewan listening to the music Mom and Dad liked, plus they are classics).

    Rae heard that some of the staff were going to go out that night into the town, since we were docked in Passau all night. We wanted to check it out so Brett, her, and I went off the boat around 11:30 (Brooke went to bed earlier, probably the smarter choice). The club was literally a one minute walk away and when we got in it was absolutely packed. Realizing that none of us actually wanted to be there we turned right around. Popped in the Irish pub for maybe a beer, then realized that we can get free beer on the boat, so we went right back to the ship. Very unsuccessful but we figured Mom would be happy. We had a night cap at the lounge and then went to the back side of the ship after getting tired of listening to this large man from Missouri talk about nonsense. Sitting in the back of the boat finishing our drink, Brett and Rae got the great idea to go for some late night McDonald's. I wasn't too keen on going but off we went on the 7 minute walk. Grabbed some double cheese burgers and junior chickens and called it a night close to 1:00 AM. Tomorrow we are all doing an early morning bike ride at 9:00 AM, just a short 26km. Hopefully we'll be rested enough!

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  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Biking from Germany to Austria

    September 30, 2017 in Austria ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    The main event today was our long anticipated bike ride from Passau, Germany to Engelhatszell, Austria. All six of us have been planning to do this for months. We started with another hearty breakfast (porridge for extra fuel). The whole idea with the bike ride is that we bike while the boat cruises. Pretty cool to think that we nearly kept up with the boat for a total of 28 km! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

    We got set up with our bikes (Tyler ended up with a helmet that had maple leaves on it). The first few minutes of the ride were through the town to get to the bike path along the river. Definitely easier to bike through the city when you have a near 7 ft tall German man named Lars holding traffic for the group. We had three guides: Ilse, Lars, and Jeanette. We even passed the spot where I had my small fall yesterday and all was good! This part was a little stressful with the cobblestones and slight hills but everyone made it and then we were on a path by the river.

    It was a brisk but beautiful morning. The whole bike ride was quite a lovely experience. It was overall quite even terrain, occasionally small incline up or down. I mostly stayed near the middle of the pack and was very comfortable with that (Tyler liked to be near the lead but frequently checked in with me to give me water and make sure I was ok). I think Tyler was hoping to get up to a faster speed than we did. It just wasn't that type of bike ride.

    For me, looking around at the beautiful autumnal leaves was a highlight. The scenery was quite breathtaking. We took a brief pause at the German/Austrian border (no passports just a sign on the side of the road). The guides had mentioned at the start that we would be taking two ferries later in the ride. We got to the point where the first ferry was supposed to pick us up and after a few minutes, the guides realized that they'd already changed to the winter schedule and no ferry would be coming. Ilse described it as a "curious situation." What this meant was walking through a couple felled cornfields and carrying our bikes up and down 45 stairs when we got to the bridge by the lock. It did mean we got to see our boat as it had entered the lock and was still in the process of going through. We can now say we caught up to the boat! After the lock, it was just a short bike ride to our beer stop in Engelhartszell. I had a radler (beer and lemonade) and we all had pretzels. It was probably the most well earned drink of the trip so far since we had biked all morning... excluding Brett's drink after the marathon of course.

    The last bit of the bike ride flew by. We did get to take the short ferry ride across the river to the area near where our ship was docked. What a beautiful way to spend the morning!!!

    We returned to the ship and it set sail just about immediately. We had lunch and then had a very relaxing afternoon. Sitting on the top deck reading was beautiful although a bit windy. I did have a short nap and then there was tea served in the lounge. It was a refreshing snack and peppermint tea. I went back to the room and iced my bug bite (of course I got a bug bite when Tyler and I were hiking in Passau). I've also got some great bruises from biking on my other leg... I'm overall a bit battered and bruised but that's kinda par for the course for me.

    Tonight we were invited to an exclusive gala dinner because of the type of room that Kelly and Celeste booked. This dinner was served in the Captain's Club area. The highlights of the meal were the cheese ravioli that was much like a perogy, the yummy pork tenderloin wrapped in prosciutto and especially the pastry chef surprise dessert. It was a white chocolate dome that was hiding a macaron and whipped cream inside. Tyler's favorite dessert of the trip!!! We also had a cake for Celeste's birthday and sang Happy Birthday. I had asked for a cheese plate as well and they brought a huge cheese plate. Way more than we needed and everyone (except Tyler) just had a few bites.

    Right after supper, we all got changed for a stroll into Grein, the town where we had docked for the night. We were just docked there until around 3:30 am actually as it was intended as just as much time as the captains needed to rest after the long day.

    Grein looks to be a very tiny place. We meandered around for a while and found a fountain to take some photos with. Then we headed back to the boat after a photo with the Auf Vedersen sign as homage to The Sound of Music. In the boat, they had a concert of Austrian musicians playing Dixieland music. We caught the last couple songs which were very enjoyable. We finished the evening in the lounge. Looking forward to exploring Spitz, Austria tomorrow!!

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  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    The Wachau Valley and Spitz, Austria

    October 1, 2017 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    This morning we woke up and it seemed really hard to get out of bed, even after a solid 8 hours of sleep. It is going to be really hard getting back to regular life after this. Anyways, we had a lazy breakfast with mimosas and eggs benedict. Then it was time to get ready for the morning tour.

    Our boat docked in Spitz, Austria around 9:00. We were ready to offload the ship around 9:30 and met with our tour guide, Verena.

    All 6 of us did the same tour together. It was a tour of a shipping museum mixed with an opportunity to taste different apricot food and drink. They split the group into two sections and Brooke and I went to the apricot tasting first.

    Spitz is located in the Wachau Walley which is very abundant in apricots and they had six different items for us to taste. The reason for apricots being an important product has something to do with an insect that infected the vineyards in the 19th century. The apricots saved the farmers from financial ruin and remain an important product even today. First up was an apricot schnapps which was slightly better than a regular straight vodka (at around 10:00 AM). Next up was an apricot liqueur which was like drinking liquid gold, to die for. Afterwards we had an apricot jam which was very delicious. Then there was a chocolate coated apricot kernel. The kernel of the apricot is a little seed that is inside the pit (looks like a nut). It normally has traces of cyanide in it and is normally poisonous, but by roasting them it makes it safe to eat. Verena proved this by eating one herself before offering them to us. These were actually quite tasty. Next was an apricot chutney that was similar to a BBQ sauce (which Brooke loved). And last was more apricot kernels that were roasted and lightly salted. All of these were delicious and quite a treat!

    After we finished with the tasting, we switched guides and went through the shipping museum. This was all about how they used to transport goods up and down the Danube centuries ago before they had steam engine boats. There were some nifty miniature models of boats throughout. The models were made by a man who is now 95 years old and the most intricate one took 12 years to build. The museum tour was ok, but not extremely interesting. I don't think I would go on my own and I'm sure they get everyone to go because of the apricot tastings.

    Next we went back to the ship where our tour guide held a wine tasting for us. We sampled four wines from the Wachau Valley, all from the same grape variety, gruner veltliner. They were quite generous pours for just tastes and by the end of it, I was definitely starting to feel the wine and it was only noon. Lunch was next and we all needed some solid food. For some reason I had two desserts again.....uh oh said the waistline....oh well :)

    After lunch we were all signed up for a hike (which was well needed) through the wine country hillsides. We walked up through a forested area and made it to the top of the hills beside the river where all of the vines are planted. Much of the wine is grown on terraces and it creates a picturesque landscape of wine country mixed with the Austrian villages, beautiful! We stopped for a moment to enjoy the scenery and take some pictures. Brett, Rae, and I clambered up to the top of a stone archway and Brooke got some great shots.

    We got back to the boat around 2:30 and the boat departed shortly thereafter. We spent part of it up on the top deck enjoying the view of the hillsides as we cruised by. It gets quite breezy up on the top when the boat is moving so we have to be dressed warmly. Brooke finished her book this afternoon, The Woman in Berlin, and will try to start her next one soon. We also had some time to grab a nap and then some Zelda (Brooke suggested it).

    We got changed for dinner and I managed to do another load of laundry! Now I have clean socks for the rest of the trip. This evening, lots of the boat passengers got off to go to a private concert in Vienna. We elected not to go since we went to a concert in Prague and we knew that it would be something similar with only 8 or 9 musicians. And we would be able to enjoy the boat with far less people. They ended serving dinner quite early and it was a buffet service. We chose to eat later to avoid the rush of people which was a smart idea.

    For dinner we ate with a couple we had met from Halifax, Bill and Jill. It was lovely to eat together and share in the conversation with some fellow Canadians (everyone had a mutual distaste for Air Canada Rouge). Dinner was classic Austrian food and the highlight was the wiener schnitzel, which I had to have a double portion of. Overall I ate way way way too much food and felt incredibly uncomfortable after dinner. So much so that I think I might have to put myself on a self-imposed diet tomorrow.

    After dinner we went and enjoyed the quiet lounge without the entire boat on board. It was quite nice actually. We took a picture with our favorite bartender, Lazlo, who is switching to a different boat tomorrow.

    Once the rest of the boat got back from the private concert the lounge got much more busy. They had actually served a late lunch (must be at a wedding) of Austrian food. We grabbed a road pretzel for tomorrow and decided to call it an early night.

    Tomorrow we explore Vienna!

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  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Unexpected Slovakia Sailing by Night!

    October 2, 2017 in Slovakia ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    An unexpected extra country along the way... around 11pm we passed through Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. We all traipsed out to the front of the boat briefly to see the lights of the city and snap a couple photos. We can (sort of) say we were in Slovakia too along there were no stops there.Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Wien aka Vienna

    October 2, 2017 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    As usual, we started the day with a sumptuous breakfast on the boat. Tyler has himself on a bit of a "diet" ... he skipped bacon this morning. Our day in Vienna started early; we were on a bus at 8:15. The city tour started by driving by the major sites with our guide narrating (another lady called Verena, must be a popular Austrian name). Everyone got a bit sleepy during the drive. Tyler poked me awake during the important bits and I really tried to keep awake and hear about the buildings.

    We drove around the ring road that borders the main area and provides a nice overview. There really seemed to be a lot of palaces... the Hapsburgs apparently liked to build new parts to the palace over time. The main palace is called the Hofburg palace. We exited the bus to carry on with a short walking tour. The highlight of this was a beautiful library in the State Hall. It was a huge room reminiscent of the library in Beauty and the Beast with ladders and countless books. I especially enjoyed this part of the tour. Next we walked to see the stables of the show horses (none of them came out so we only saw them from a distance). We stopped in St. Michaels platz where the main palace entrance is. They have an excavated area in front showing walls dating back to Roman times. Again, just nothing that old in Canada!!!

    The walking tour concluded at the square in front of St. Stephan's church. It is quite lovely from the outside. Interestingly enough, one of the towers is very tall and was completed in gothic style. On the other side, they had planned for another symmetrical tower but by the time they could finance the construction, gothic architecture was out of style. And so they put on a renaissance turquoise dome and called it a day.

    At this time, there was the option to go back to the boat but we of course opted to stay longer in the city. Since we were beside the church, we decided to walk in before moving on. Overall, this church was less ornate than some of the others we have seen but certainly still enjoyable. Next we walked through some of the shopping streets. The girls glanced into two different Swarovski stores. No one bought anything but we did see a Darth Vader crystal statue that costs 8500€.

    We continued to meander to see the opera house and the Johann Strauss monument. Tyler and Brett scared some pigeons along the way (Brett succeeded in finally kicking one).

    Next we went looking for lunch. We went to Baker Strasse (Verena had suggested it). We found a restaurant that was certainly off the beaten path with quite reasonable prices. All of us had Wiener schnitzel. Following lunch, our group split up. Rae, Celeste, and Kelly went for a bit of shopping before catching a bus to the boat. Tyler, Brett and I continued to explore.

    We wandered to the Volksgarten (roses). It was beautiful and had a lovely aroma. There were rows of trees with placards and dedications ... not sure of the significance but just seemed very special and important.

    We walked to the ring road to see the lovely buildings again. We saw the parliament and two museum buildings. We also enjoyed the statue of Marie-Therese in the middle of the museum buildings.

    Next was the Heidenplatz statue and the Burggarten. Again lots of beautiful things to see but we should probably try to learn something more about the history next time we come here.

    Brett wanted to buy schnapps and so we asked the tourist centre where to go and they suggested a nearby grocery store. The next order of business was to try the famous Viennese chocolate torte. Apparently it is a popular dish, but only one place can call it the original (by law, decided in court). This is at Hotel Sacher. We waited in line for a table, everyone wants to try it. We each had a piece of cake and a fancy coffee. The cake was quite moist and delicious with a nice tang from the apricot jelly layer in the centre.

    We slowly made our way to the bus pick point with a few clothing shopping spots for me and a stop at a comic book shop for the boys. Brett accidentally ordered a burger at McDonalds when he was trying to see the prices. Oops! At least it was still a few hours until dinner.

    We saw some other people from our boat and so we knew we were in the correct place. The bus was a touch late but still plenty of time until we would set sail. Back at the boat, we rested and showered for dinner. They scheduled the special farewell supper on our second last night to allow more packing time tomorrow. Probably a reasonable idea. Again a five course meal (or six course if you count the cheese... which I really must since it's been one of my favourites every night). Then it was on with sailing overnight to arrive in Budapest tomorrow near lunch time. This week has gone by fast but I really think we've chosen some awesome excursions along the way.

    Until tomorrow in Budapest!!!

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  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Buda and Pest... (A Tale of Two Cities)

    October 3, 2017 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    (busy couple of days and did not find much time for blogging. Currently at the airport on our way to Amsterdam and have some downtime)

    Today we woke up and were still sailing so there was no need to rush off for breakfast. I got dressed around 7:45 and went out to the top deck by myself to enjoy an early morning coffee. It was a very brisk morning and it woke me up quite quickly. The boat was just passing the final borders of Slovakia while I was up there. Headed downstairs for a leisurely breakfast and everyone else started to trickle in.

    The boat was set to arrive into Budapest around 11:30, so we had some time to relax / get a bit organized in our packing for tomorrow. After a bit of organizing in the room, Brooke and I took a much needed chillax moment and played some Pokémon together ☺️

    Closer to 11:00 we went over to the lounge and found Brett, Rae, and Mom. Turns out we missed a strudel making demonstration by one of the chefs. Mom said it was pretty cool, but that's all right, we can't do everything. There were still two pieces left so we got to taste it anyways.

    As we were nearing Budapest we went up to the top deck to take in the views of the city. The cruise manager Ibi who is from Budapest was on the mic pointing out everything and explaining some of the history. Then as we turned the corner to view the Parliament building, they had one of the butlers, Sandor, saber a bottle of champagne with a sword to commemorate our arrival. It was very cool! There was also blue prosecco for all the guests for the blue Danube. The view of the parliament building in Budapest is truly stunning! It is such a majestic building and is the centrepiece of the city.

    We went downstairs for a quick lunch. They were serving some classic Hungarian dishes as well as fresh cooked mussels! A lot of people know that I avoid shrimp mostly I've had a sensitivity in the past (last time was in Venice 6 years ago and it did not end well). Earlier this year in St. John's at the Brier I tried mussels and it sat perfectly fine. So I thought "all right, fresh cooked mussels, I can eat them, and they're free!" So I proceeded to demolish a bowl and a half of mussels (along with goulash).

    Our afternoon tour started right after lunch at 1:15. It was a bus tour through the city with a couple of stops. Our guides name was Erika and she was delightful, had been doing tours since the 80s during the communist era. Our first stop was the west side of the city in Buda up on the hill at the Matthias church. It was beautiful inside and was a much different style of church. Our guide said that there was more of a mosque influence in the decor due to when it was constructed and the geographic location of Hungary. It reminded me of the mosque in Istanbul. The roof of the church was also pretty with a porcelain mosaic type of look.

    Afterwards the tour went out onto the Fisherman's Basttion which was essentially a panoramic look out point. It was slightly foggy out but the view was still great. Our guide mentioned that there have been 4 separate people who have died here this year from falling over the ledge, all Asians (she said they have been due to selfie sticks).

    Next we had some spare time and took a stroll into one of the grocery stores so the girls could buy some paprika. Our guide told us "this is where the locals buy their paprika". Turns out later that we figured out that Mom, Rae, and Brooke got slightly hosed there.

    While Brooke was in line waiting to pay for the paprika, my stomach turned upside down. Uh oh! Maybe I shouldn't have had the mussels.....? Sweating bullets and looking around for a bathroom, I'm getting nervous. I get a moment of reprieve, but then need to find a WC stat. Brooke saves the day and guides me to a cafe she spotted earlier. Long story short, crisis averted, but I don't think I am over my shellfish sensitivity.

    We got back on the bus and toured around the city some more and went over to the Pest side. It was interesting to hear Erika talk about all of her experiences during the soviet era. We did make one more stop at Heroes Square, but it was really starting to rain. Didn't spend that much time there, it is a bunch of statues of the important kings and leaders in Hungarian history.

    Back on the boat we unwound and got showered and changed for dinner. Went up to the lounge for 6:00 because they had a master pianist on board to play a short concert. His name was Balazs Bakos and was a Hungarian native. He was truly masterful at the piano and it was mesmerizing watching his hands move, especially the final number where his hands were literally a blur and moving too fast for the human eye. Mom thought it was incredible. The most unfortunate part was the crowd that he was playing for. There is no guarantee that everyone there will want to listen and appreciate the music that is being played. So much so that it was quite noisy at times with chatter and laughter.

    We went down to the dining hall for our final dinner on the ship. We were in a bit of a rush to finish dinner since the ship was going to be sailing up and down Budapest at night. Dinner was a pork tenderloin (we think) and I actually only had one dessert this time. Brooke even had to order her cheese plate to go because we rushed over to our room to bundle up for going up top during the evening.

    Budapest is lit up beautifully at night with all the major sights and bridges brightly lit. The grand piece was the parliament building again. I could sit and view the building for hours and the pictures we took in no way do it justice.

    The two of us were the last in our group to stay up top enjoying the scenery. Eventually "Missouri" came up as well. This was one of the passengers that we have been laughing at and making fun of the entire trip. He's an obese American who has been drunk the entire time on the boat (so much so that we saw his wife bring him coffee and water in the morning likely due to a headache). Anyways, Missouri comes up to the top deck after we had passed all the major sights, already turned around, and were in the University district. He pulls out his iPad, starts filming the scenery, points at the university building and says "well.....there's parliament". The two of us die with internal laughter and Brooke was uncontrollable and had to press her face into my chest and pretend to be cold. It's impossible not laugh at American tourists when they demonstrate that level of ignorance.

    We spent the remainder of our final evening on the ship in the lounge enjoying the cocktails and discussing a plan for Budapest tomorrow. The four of us kids literally closed down the lounge while we were just chatting away. Even the bartender said goodnight to us.

    We will miss our time on the river cruise, but it will be nice to depart and be more active.

    Tyler and Brooke    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Last Day of the Family Trip

    October 4, 2017 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Today we disembarked from the River Beatrice. Time has been flying really fast! Our rooms needed to be cleared by 8:30 AM and so we did need to get up quite early to shower and pack. It felt quite different to have to pretty much pack up from scratch rather than the quasi unpack we do in hotels... it sure was lovely to have a home base for a full week though!

    Once we were finished packing, we headed to the dining room for our final included breakfast buffet. I was concerned that they were going to shuttle our suitcases up to the taxi pick up area and so I kept checking in on that. At one point, the bags did accidentally go up there. Probably would have only meant picking them up from another spot but I was a bit paranoid that they would accidentally get on a bus. No more baggage issues needed! Anyway, we had our breakfasts, grabbed our bags and walked to the Marriott. The Budapest Marriott hotel is along the Pest side of the river bank and was only about a ten minute walk from our boat's dock. It was definitely a shorter walk than six years ago in Paris when Tyler insisted that we walk from the central train station to our hotel. Once checked in to the hotel, two of the rooms were ready so we were able to settle ourselves before heading out for our day of activities.

    One of the plans for Budapest included the boys going for a hot shave. Sort of the pampering experience of a facial for women from what I can tell. We all started walking in the direction of the shop that Sandor had looked up for us but eventually us ladies decided to walk to the Vaci utca, one of the main shopping streets. We planned to meet back up in an hour. Celeste, Rae and I enjoyed shopping in the stores: a smattering of tourist and Hungarian craft/gift shops and clothing stores with reasonable prices. Rae tried on some dresses in a very neat shop called Springfield. Later in the day she went back to get it! Such a cute dress! We then reconvened with the boys. All of them looking very dapper after their shave.

    We headed in the general direction of the parliament building along the Vaci utca. We stopped at a small basement Lego store along the way and were very impressed at the extensive array of Lego Star Wars keychains. These are becoming somewhat of a traditional vacation souvenir for Tyler. I don't think it was on his radar for this trip, but upon seeing them we decided we'd come back later to decide between all the options. We left the store planning to return tomorrow to use up as many forints as we had left on Lego. Not something we had planned for Budapest!

    As we neared the lovely Parliament building, we took a few photos. It really is a breathtaking building. Kelly got the tickets all set up in advance and we stopped to check on when to arrive and get the physical tickets. We had about 50 minutes for lunch. We walked just to the other side of the parliament building (which is surprisingly quite the jaunt) to buy Hungarian salami sandwiches with pickles and hard boiled eggs. Tyler was hangry but I think it hit the spot.

    Next was our Parliament tour. Really a must do, especially given the amount we have already enjoyed the exterior of the building. We walked through the main corridors learning about the building from our guide. In some ways, the building is just as lovely as the inside of some of the palaces. Interestingly enough, the entire building except the main dome is symmetrical, which adds to the grandiose nature of the building. It also allows them to hold guided tours without interrupting the actual government proceedings. There's even a duplicate of the main assembly room. There is only one of the central domes of course, and in it is housed the Hungarian coronation crown, sceptre, orb, and sword. A fitting location for such regal relics!!

    At the end of the tour, there was a small hall with a museum about the Parliament with excellent info, videos, pictures, and a model. We enjoyed this pretty much the same amount as the walking tour itself!

    Upon exiting the Parliament, we thought of going to see the Shoes on the Danube monument. We started walking in that direction but weren't sure where it was and thought it might be a ways away. So instead we decided to head to the large market by tram. We attempted to validate the tickets we purchased, but nothing seemed to happen when we inserted them into the rickety machine on the tram. Well, at least we tried.

    We arrived at the market. Tyler says it's not as big as the grand bazaar in Istanbul but I thought it was pretty cool. The main level hosts mainly meat, cheese, fruit and spice stands. This is where we noticed the lower prices for the same Hungarian paprika. On the upper level, they sell a variety of souvenirs, clothing, embroider tablecloths, etc. We scouted it out after Tyler had a strudel. After making a circle, we went back to a shop to buy a Hungarian Easter egg! I love how they remind me so much of pysanka! The next order of business was to buy more paprika, at nearly 30% cheaper than yesterday. Tyler stopped for one more pastry, this time a dough crescent filled with poppy seeds before we all got back together.

    We walked back up the shopping street and stopped at an English pub called Pointers Pub. We were drawn in by the happy hour prices: 390 forints for a 500 ml beer... about $1.60 CAD. We also shared a salami pizza.

    From here, we all split up for a bit before dinner. Tyler and I went back to the Lego store to re-evaluate but not purchase yet. So many options!

    We took a few minutes back at the hotel to change. I laid down for a few minutes. As usual, not a great choice... it was hard to get back up.

    We went to a riverside restaurant called Dubarry for our last supper on the trip all together. The four of us 'kids' had the idea to take Celeste and Kelly out on our last night as a thank you for the fabulous trip!!! Brett had researched the place and it was awesome! Tyler and I shared Goulash soup to start. I had a lovely salad with smoked cheese on top (reminds me of an awesome salad I used to have in Edmonton on White Ave). Tyler had the pork Goulash with cabbage. We enjoyed Hungarian wines with our supper also. At the end of supper, the four of us sorted out our cash (still so odd to be paying in literally thousands of the currency). We took a family photo outside of the restaurant at the end.

    One thing that came up on trip advisor as a Budapest attraction was a pinball arcade called the Flipper Museum. We weren't sure if it was going to make it on to the list of what we could do in Budapest but when we realized it stays open until midnight, we thought perhaps we could. Tyler, Brett, and I took the tram there. We actually succeeded in validating our tram tickets. The machine made a satisfying beep and stamped them and we felt more legit. We arrived at the museum shortly before ten. I'd have to research how many pinball machines they have but it must be 50-75 at least. It spanned multiple rooms. Perhaps the least busy room held the oldest machines. Some of these dated back to the 1940s but they were quite amazing to see and try out. Some notable favourites were Super Mario Bros, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Apollo 13. I had a bit of beginners luck on Apollo 13 and somehow initiated a launch sequence that spat out about 20 balls at once. Overall a super interesting place to go and we had an awesome time!

    We thought about taking the tram home but wanted to buy tickets and the machines don't take cash at night. So we jumped in a cab and arrived at the hotel near midnight. It'll be a tired flight for Brett tomorrow (7 AM) departure, but I think we'd all agree it was worth it!

    Tomorrow is our last partial day in Budapest!

    Brooke & Tyler    Read more

  • Brooke and Tyler BernakevitchB&T Europe 2017Traveler

    Budapest and over to Amsterdam

    October 5, 2017 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    This morning when we woke up, Brett was already over in Vienna on his route back home. He will get in in the middle of the afternoon back in Alberta. We did some packing and went down to meet Dad, Mom, and Rae for quite a light breakfast. Went over to Starbucks and I had only a muffin and a coffee. Guess I'm trying to wean myself off of the buffet breakfasts and bacon we have been enjoying every day. Spent breakfast chatting and telling everyone about the pinball museum we went to the night before.

    Went back to the hotel to load up our bags again (getting really good at it) and dropped them off in Mom and Dad's room for the day. Downstairs we said goodbye to Rae with lots of hugs. She has a direct flight home to Toronto and will also get in in the middle of the afternoon Ontario time. Sent her off in the cab and wished her safe travels.

    Now with just four of us left, we went out for a morning walk with Mom and Dad around 10:15. Headed north along the river and crossed via walking across the Chain Bridge. Over on the other side Dad suggested that we take the funicular up to the Palace. The ride was quite neat and it was a quick way up the hill. Up there we enjoyed the view, poked our head into the art museum, and intently watched two ugly ravens try to crack open a nut.

    Back down on street I wanted to get one last look at the Parliament building from across the river, so we took a 10 minute walk up the river. Found a really good spot and took it in one last time. Probably my favourite part of Budapest.

    Next we walked back over to Pest and stopped at the hotel for a quick free bathroom break. Then we went back to Vaci utca to find a place to have lunch. Brooke and I first went back to the Lego store for the third time and I decided on which keychains to buy. Got a Boba Fett and Y-Wing Pilot and Brooke got a Rey.

    We landed on a restaurant called Soforras on the main pedestrian walkway and ate outside. They had a lunch special for 2900 Forint (~$12 CDN) which included goulash soup, paprika chicken with dumplings, and a jam pancake. It was a great deal and a filling lunch before a flight. Afterwards we said goodbye to Mom and Dad and headed back to the hotel to grab our bags.

    Headed off to the airport shortly after 2:00 for our 5:00 flight. At the airport, the line to drop off our bags was quite long, but we had plenty of time so I wasn't worried. Once we were through security we sat down near the gate and I spent the whole time getting caught up on blogging. Once the flight was announced at the gate, it became an incredibly inefficient process for boarding the plane. Everybody queued up around the gate and there were still people coming off of the plane from the previous flight. And they didn't even board by zones. We also heard that the plane was late getting in because of a storm in Amsterdam (later confirmed by our cabbie) so it was a good thing we didn't have an earlier flight.

    During the flight I blogged more, Brooke napped, we got free beer and cheese sandwiches, Brooke blogged, and I played a bit of Metroid. Then we safely landed in Amsterdam.

    Our bags were literally the first two on the luggage trolley, what luck! Then I spent some time trying to figure out the transit system to our hotel. After a while Brooke suggested that we should just take a taxi since it was getting late and we were tired. I decided to not get stubborn about it and we went over to the taxi queue. The taxi ended up being expensive, but we made it safely and were not exhausted by the end of it.

    Our hotel is decently centrally located. There is no elevator and there was an incredibly steep staircase going down to our room. We spent a bit of time in the room getting settled and then headed out to find some dinner shortly after 9:00.

    We walked to one of the main squares (Rembrandt square) which was still very active. Walked around a bit looking at menus, sat down at one restaurant, Brooke wasn't feeling it so we left. Went to a Mexican restaurant that we passed earlier and had a solid meal that hit the spot.

    Finished off the night at our hotel bar, looking through our Amsterdam guide book.

    Tyler and Brooke    Read more

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