6-18-02
	Well, Here it is, the first day of my European vacation. The first half of the day has
been uneventful, we awoke at 6:00 at the Days Inn, got a shuttle bus and went to the
airport at 7:30. Security wasn’t that difficult and the plane ride was mostly boring. We
spent quite a bit of time at the Detroit airport, eating, exchanging money, and just sitting.
Now we’re going to start boarding for out Detroit to Frankfurt, even though it’s twenty
minutes early. Write l8er.

6-19-02
	On the plane, we’re almost through with the flight. I n another hour or so we’ll be
landing in Frankfurt Germany. It has been an interesting experience to fly a plane of this
size, not too mention I’ve never been on a night flight before either. The breakfast snack
was pretty good. Just chugged a cup of coffee to keep awake, I already know there’s no
hope of sleep for the rest of this flight. I think it’s in my best intentions to work on staying
up now as opposed to anything else. Now that the sun’s coming up we can see that we’re
still flying over water, really thick cloud cover can’t see much.
	Land has been sighted, a sudden break in the clouds has revealed to us clearly that
we are in Europe. More later.

6-19-02 (continued)
	We arrived in Frankfurt at approximately 7:30, from then on it has been a waiting
game. We waited to get off the plane, since our luggage was first on the plane we waited
for it an even longer time at baggage claim, and finally we waited for our 2nd half of the
tour group. They turned out to be a bunch of Jr High kids from Pennsylvania with almost
more chaperones than kids. Finally we where off to Heidelburg, starting off out German
tour. Driving in Germany has been an experience I’ll never forget, to say the least.
However we have made it to all our destinations so far, so I can’t complain too much. Our
first tour was of Heidelburg Castle, the castle was truly amazing. Lots of great
architecture, just very impressive. We just got to our hotel after exploring the rest of
Heidelburg for a couple of hours. The hotel is quaint, which is just a nice way of saying
it’s small and doesn’t offer much more than a place to sleep. Everyone else ahs decided to
crash for a while before supper. I suppose I should get a little rest as well, after all I
haven’t slept since Monday night (more like Saturday morning).
	Well no such luck, no rest for the weary, I didn’t sleep at all those couple of hours.
But I did get some good drawing time in. Supper was good, different but good. Now
trying this sleep thing again, good night (hopefully).

6-20-02
	Guten Morgen, it rained last night, broke the oppressive heat. Now it’s cloudy,
rainy, somewhat humid, but still it’s nice out. We are now headed to Roetenburg, it’s
evidently smaller than the “small town” of Heidelburg which was 100,000 people. Last
night we had a good four course meal, first we had white asparagus soup with a lot of
chives, followed by lettuce, with a chive dressing, main course was pork slices in a
mushroom sauce garnished with chives, and our desert course was vanilla ice cream with
whipped cream on top, completely void of chives. All we had to drink was warm water.
Nothing here is cold, no ice, nothings chilled, and they don’t believe in “air con” as Nanai
calls it. Petra is our tour guide but she prefers to be called Nanai. For breakfast there
where very hard rolls cold ham, some kinds of cereal, and room temperature water,
orange juice, and whole milk, then scalding, black, strong coffee. the coffee was good for
caffeine content but other than that way stronger than for my taste. One of the very
interesting things I’ve noticed here is that there is almost no litter or trash around, yet
graffiti is rampant, just about everything contains some spray painted sign. Roetenburg is a
very cool town, it has a huge surrounding wall incombusing the entire burg. The city is
very old and was cut off from trade routes early in its life killing its growth and change. So
this city is basically the same as it was all those hundreds of years ago. There are many
architectural wonders there, I took as much film as I could, until I ran out. Now I need to
get more from my suitcase. I was sad to go after such a short time there. We are now
headed to Munich or Muenchen as it’s called in German. Well anyway, we are now
heading to Muenchen and we’ve been on out bus for two hours already, we have another
hour to go before we arrive. Naturally I’m bored. Of course I’m bored otherwise I
wouldn’t be journaling. Maybe I’ll try to dose off like everyone else.

6-21-02
	Today we went to Marian Platz in Central Muenchen we went there last night as
well. It was a bit unnerving to be in a foreign, large city, the day before one of the biggest
sporting events for Germany. One guy approached us and became very interested when he
learned that we where Americans, I really think he wanted to fight us, had we stayed there
longer he probably would have. Today went better, the Platz isn’t as intimidating in the
day time. The shops where pretty cool and the whole group enjoyed the time spent there.
	We just got back from the Concentration Camp Dachau, it was a very sobering
experience. The atrocities which that place has bore witness to, it is disheartening. That
place, however, is a painful reminder that things like the Holocaust can never happen
again,  we must work every day to prevent such horrors. May God have mercy upon the
souls of those dead.

6-22-02
	Off we go again! Today is our last day in Germany, next stop Austria. we’re not
leaving Germany yet, we do still have a few more stops. I’m glad that we’re still going to
a country that speaks German, so we’ll still be able to communicate somewhat. Can’t wait
until we get to London and can speak English to everyone! Well I should probably take a
break for a while, I didn’t get much sleep last night, we stayed up late playing cards. So
I’ll try and nap, and write later.
	Our first stop was the castle that inspired Walt Disney to make his famous Disney
Castle. It was pretty cool to see, but I didn’t get many good photos of it. I did however
get some excellent shots of the tame ducks that where swimming in a lake carved by
millennia of mountain springs and probably a glacier or two. When we finished there we
headed to a very beautiful church in the middle of nowhere, its German name means
“Church of the Meadows” and that was certainly true. The church itself was nestled on a
large rolling meadow, cows grazing right alongside the majestic building. Forrest densely
surrounding the meadow and magnificent mountains looming over everything. The church
was very gaudy on the inside and I didn’t get many pictures, mostly because I realized that
there was a sign that said we couldn’t take pictures. So I took a few more outside and we
where on our way yet again. Our last stop in Germany was an old small castle, built by a
crazy eccentric man in the 1600’s, King Ludwig II.
	We’re in Austria now, the mountains are an amazing sight to behold, I can not
describe in words, their magnitude. The humbleness you feel in the presence of these
mammoth formations. The incredible contrasts of mountain and valley are astounding. To
be riding along on a relatively flat piece of land, only to see the next minute, a several
hundred foot drop.
	The group is presently residing in our hotel in Austria, it’s a small building, but the
rooms are huge. At least in comparison to our rooms in Muenchen. The meal was very
good tonight not to mention we had cold water to drink, a first on our trip. I really like
this hotel it’s a shame we leave tomorrow. Well, das ist alles fuer dich. Schreibt spaeter!

6-23-02
	Three hotels down, three to go! This morning started like most on this trip. I got
up earlier than everyone else, got my shower completed, and then made sure my
roommates didn’t sleep through wake up call. Breakfast was really good this morning,
there where lots of unusual foods there, but still quite delicious. We first went to
Innsbrook for some tourist shopping today. Now we’re in Lichtenstein, pumping gas into
the bus, this may take a while. I’m not sure what all we’re going to be doing for the rest of
this day, it doesn’t really matter to me, I’m just really tired of all this travel.
	These mountains are truly some of the most lovely things the human eye can see.
but flat farm land would look awfully good right about now as well! Lichtenstein wasn’t
all that impressive, it does have its wonders and points of interest. However to this casual
observer Liechtenstein appears to be merely a tourist trap owned by Switzerland! But
seriously they both have a special place in my heart now. Halmuettt our bus driver
attempted several times to kill us all, with his driving. He’s a very good driver, so he drove
several km over the speed limit on hair pin turns! The hotel here is very nice, nestled high
in a valley, thick forests, clean air, it’s really nice. Chris, Lisa, Ryan, Christina, and I went
for a walk after supper. The countryside, seen up close is far greater than could ever be
experienced through a bus window or a picture. We walked up a path in the woods to a
waterfall and then Chris, Lisa, and I hiked up a game trail, or something, father up the
mountain. It was so beautiful and peaceful, on the way down Lisa found a tree with a
heart and names on it, so we got the idea to carve our initials and USA into it. Descending
the forested areas was a challenge and then we ran about a mile back to the hotel. We
played P&A (Presidents & A**holes) again tonight, I was president 4 times in a row! This
was a good day, it didn’t start out the greatest but it’s a lot of fun now, Pilatus will be
great experience tomorrow! G’nite!

6-24-02
	Today we went to Innsbrook, a fair sized town, but compared to normal towns in
Europe it’s small. Only about 60,000 people live in the village of Innsbrook. This town
relies entirely on tourism for income (they have absolutely NO industry) and we where
certain not to disappoint them today! We went for a two hour tour of the town, then some
hours of shopping, finally a trip to the top of Mount Pilatus, over 7,000 feet tall.
Unfortunately it’s been raining all day and Mt. Pilatus was basically a trip up into a cloud,
I did get a free hat out of it though. After Pilatus the official day was over, so we headed
back to the hotel. Chris, Lisa, Josh, and I headed back to the waterfall and tree tonight. It
was a lot more dangerous because the ground was really wet. We had to come back
because no one had had a camera last night. It’s so cool to know that three friends hung
out in the Swiss Alps and we have left a part of that experience there. I’m even happier
that I was a part of that. We ran all that way back again it was a lot of fun. I talked to both
of my parents tonight, that was good, glad to get caught up on homeland events. We
stayed up late watching American T.V., we have a long ride to Paris tomorrow (or should
I say today?) and everyone wants to be able to sleep on the bus. Well, I think I should cut
this off for now, I do need some sleep.

6-25-02
	Well I’m on the bus now, it’s going to be a long ride. Breakfast was really good
this morning, cold cereal and juice, warm rolls, lots to eat. We left almost perfectly on
time, so maybe we’re going to arrive in Paris ahead of schedule. There wasn’t too much of
a pause at the border, Nanai had to give the government some papers for tax purposes if
people bought really expensive things in Switzerland. Paris is not 520Km away. France is
interesting, a lot different than the huge mountains of the Alps, a few less trees than
Germany. It reminds me a lot of home only I haven’t seen many farms and it’s not very
flat. Need more sleep, write later.
	We’ve arrived in Paris, traffic jam, ‘nuff said. Since the city’s less than new streets
are very narrow, Halmuett cussed up a storm because of the impossibility to find a parking
space. We finally tried to just park on the street,* no sooner had we stopped than a big car
pile up formed behind us. One guy couldn’t wait and he jumped out of his car  and started
swearing and running towards the bus, Nanai just laid into him, she made the guy go back
to his cab. Nanai later told us the only reason she went off on his was because Halmuett
speaks very limited French. The rest on the night was uneventful, for supper we had pizza
as an appetizer, roast chicken with scalloped potatoes, for a main dish, and a caramel
custard for desert. We stayed up quite late tonight as well, playing cards, as s usual.

*Little did I know when I wrote this, but Halmuett actually was having basically a nervous
breakdown. He had never driven in Paris before, and after a while of trying to find a place
to park with people honking at him, no place to park. Halmuett just slammed on the
breaks and refused to move. Nanai, tried to reason with him, but he insisted that he was
not moving until the police came with a wrecker and picked up each and every single car
that was sitting in his way. Nanai told him that was never going to happen and finally
convinced him to start backing up the cars until they came to an intersection and could
drive around him.

6-26-02
	Today we had our only full day in Paris. Our first excursion was a tour of the city,
one interesting thing was that our guide wasn’t even French, he was Swedish, but that was
alright with me, he was easier to understand anyway. The tour was interesting we saw a
lot of very old buildings, the Church of Notredahm, the Luve, and we finished off with a
tour of Versailles. The castle was huge (two thousand rooms!) there where a lot of
paintings and statuary there as well. You could tell that it was built by the most powerful
person of one of the most powerful nations at that time. Everything was designed to be as
big and impressive as possible. The ones that didn’t go to Versailles where allowed to
wander Paris for a couple of hours & we met them at the Louve. The museum was very
big, very impressive, and we had no time to see it.  All that we had time for was 1 hour to
see the Louve. We made the most of our time, however. I saw the Mona Lisa and the
Venice de Milo, so I’m mostly happy. After all our sight seeing we went to eat, it was an
alright meal. First we had bread, a cheese pastry, and lettuce in a brown Vinegar sauce.
Main course was chicken in a creamy mushroom sauce, along with, get this: french fries,
am I the only one that catches the irony in that? And for desert we had what appeared to
be a very expensive ice cream sandwich. The ice cream bar was chocolate ice cream on the
bottom a layer of vanilla ice cream, a thin chocolate cookie, and a vanilla sauce drizzled
over it. After dinner Helmuett left us, he has the rest of the day off, tomorrow free, and
then he’s taking another EF tour back the way we came. Everyone was sad to see him go,
but we did leave him with a rather large tip. I think he received over a hundred € dollars
from us. I don’t think I’ll ever forget Halmuett saying “Thank you very much!” in his thick
Austrian accent, it was actually the only English words I ever heard him utter. After
Halmuett’s departure we where restricted to walking or taking the Subway. When we
where done eating we walked to the hotel, dropped off our stuff and got on the Subway to
go to our “Paris by night” tour. Which was basically going up in the Eiffel Tower, and
then going on a boat cruise down Paris’s main river. We got back to the hotel really late
and everyone went to bed almost right away.

6-27-02
	We got up early this morning for out last few hours in Paris and France for that
matter. Everyone was ready or go by 8:15 for our 8:30 rental bus. It wasn’t until almost
nine that we discovered the bus didn’t want to drive down the street they said they’d pick
us up on. Needless to say, we where a little upset. After we found where the bus driver
“preferred” to park we drove to Paris Train Station. It took sometime to get through
security and just normal train (I’m assuming) procedure, but now we’re on the Eurostar
and on our way to London, Great Britain. Maybe I’ll write more once we arrive in
London.
	Upon arriving in London, it’s not that bad, feels very good to be able to read the
adds, talk to other people and understand passersby. Then there’s that driving thing that
messes up the whole almost American feel. It didn’t take long to find our hotel in
downtown London, not far from the Eurostar station. We dropped all our things off and
before we had a chance to find rooms we headed back out to go sightseeing. We took the
“tube” London’s subway system to get to a central square, I think it was called Piccadilly
Circus. We had an option to see a play and use our free time at the square to get tickets,
but Phantom of the Opera was sold out, I didn’t feel much like going to see Les
Miserables so I didn’t see any play in London.  Around 4:30 we headed back to the
subway and back to the hotel. This time we got rooms and had to partake in a 4-year EF
and whatever-the-name-of-this-hotel-is’s tradition of guys carrying the girls suitcases to
their rooms on the top floors. By the was there are six floors and no elevator, so I carried
four suitcases up before finding my room. The rooms on the first floor, which is what all
the guys got, are small, mostly because they where designed to be servants quarters when
built. Now I only have one roommate, Ryan, instead of having both Zach and Ryan, so the
small accommodations are do-able. Zach got his own private teeny-tiny room on the third
floor, I think it used to be a closet. They have free internet here so I’ll have to make use of
that soon. People mostly milled around until supper, some used the i-net, others talked. I
mostly wandered and hung out with a couple different groups. After enough waiting it was
time to eat. The supper was very good, it was buffet style and there was a lot of different
English style foods to chose from. It was all really spicy, but still quite good. After supper
I finally had time to check my e-mail and get a few words sent back to America. We spent
some educational time just talking with Nanai, it’s fun to learn about a different country
first hand. Mr. Schroeder, Chris, Josh, Zach, and I also educated her on the ins and outs of
baseball and Nascar racing.
	We played P&A again tonight, it was a lot of fun, great way to relax after a
somewhat stressful day. We played for a couple hours, but we had to quit playing after
10:30 because they closed the hotel then and everyone was supposed to be in their rooms
after that or something. Since we where playing in the restaurant and no one felt like
moving the game after we had to leave the eating area. Well that’s it for today tomorrow
is our last full day in Europe! Write later.

6-28-02
	Hey yo-yo waddup? Last day in London! I’m really glad, tomorrow at 3:00 CST
I’ll be home in the States! Today we had a really boring tour guide, she had a very thick
British accent and thought everything was the greatest and wanted us all to know how
lucky and truly blessed we all where to be on this tour and to be able to see “her
majesty’s” palace. Even though I really like the British and their country, I really can’t
stand a lot of their views, mostly on their government system. We saw a lot of cool stuff
on the tour, like St. Peters Church, The Parliament Building, Big Ben, and a lot of others
whose names have alluded me as of present. I found the changing of the guard to just be a
very disrespectful tourist trap, I didn’t respect the British military at all after that. Once we
where done with our tour everyone was turned loose to wander the streets of downtown
London. The Minnesota group decided we’d go to McDonalds for lunch & then some of
us headed to Hard Rock Cafe: London. We spent a lot of time at Hard Rock, not to
mention a lot of money as well. We decided instead of actually finding something to do,
we did some more souvenir shopping> One of our more interesting excursions was
souvenir shopping in an expensive car dealership, building. It was all indoors and air
conditioned, not to mention we picked up lots of free hardcover books on the new cars,
like BMW’s and Mercedes. We finished off our touring by going to our meeting point and
sitting and watching the people from our perch on the big steps of a fountain in the center
of Piccadilly Circus. There was an authentic Scottisch Bagpipe player and a lot of other
interesting people. Once everyone was gathered we went to our final supper in Europe, at
Planet Hollywood! We only had an option of Hamburger, Cheeseburger, or Veggieburger,
but still, the food was okay. The building itself was the most interesting. I figured there
would be lots of replica’s of movie props, but actually there where several real movie
props and movie costumes. One of them was the actual Ghostbusters painting from the
end of the Ghostbuster’s II movie, there was also one of James Bonds tuxedos, a gremlin
puppet, and the Hans Solo carbonite Statue, it was awesome. After supper we took “the
tube” back to the hotel and I packed for a good two hours, now all of the Minnesotan kids
are hanging out in one room, going to stay up as late as possible. I must go for now, write
more on the plane.

6-29-02
	Well Journal, this it. In just ten hours I’ll be back in the USA and my European
vacation will be over. All in all it was a good experience, there where lots of new things to
see and experience. This morning we where awakened half an hour earlier than what our
wake up call was supposed to be and breakfast was fifteen minutes late. So we got off to a
rocky start, everyone’s  tired and hungry, the bus ride took well over an hour, it was a
classic double decker bus, the first we had ridden while in London. The bus had really bad
shocks and swayed back and forth from every bump. The constant unsteady rocking was
exciting at first, but soon became just an annoyance to help the hindrance of sleep. Once
we got to the airport  it wasn’t that bad. We checked our luggage and then had a tearful
goodbye to Nanai. I was glad to have met her, Germans can be pretty cool. The security
was tight, but not paranoid I didn’t have any trouble but one in our group did, she had to
have her entire bag searched completely. And that brings me up to the present. Right now
we are all just chilling in the terminal, waiting for our flight. 
	My time in Europe is coming to a close and soon this journal will be complete. As
I go on into the sands of time, I leave you , the reader, with these words: “carpe de um”
seize the day. For that is what we all must do, enjoy the time we have, because nothing is
permanent. The song is sung, the day is done and soon we must depart. Habt eine shoene
tag! Tschuess!

		-Fin

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