Best and Worst of the Trip

Charlie is going home tomorrow, so we decided to look back upon the highs and lows of our three weeks travelling in Europe.

Most beautiful city: Prague

Ugliest city: Stuttgart, all the communist buildings and memorials in Dresden, Berlin, and Sachsenhousen.

Best food: Indonesian food in Amsterdam, sausage wrapped in dough and baked, goulash in Prague, Chinese food in Vienna, currywurst in Stuttgart

Best dessert: Belgian waffles, Principe cookies (sold everywhere), helado y café, apple strudel

Worst food: “Coated fried cheese” with mayonnaise on a bun in Prague, ham flavored chips in Amsterdam

Best drink: Hofbrahaus dark beer (Sam), Kozer beer in Prague (Charlie), latte in Austria, espresso in Prague, Beck’s, Heineken, all Belgian beers, all Czech beers

Worst drink: a pint of chocolate pudding that I thought was chocolate milk when I bought it in Amsterdam, Kiwi flavored sparkling water in Prague

Best train: Stuttgart – Munich (lots of snow, shepherd, kids sledding, cross country skiers), and the train through Austria too (snowy mountains and lots of skiers and boarders on the train)

Best public transportation: Madrid’s metro, Prague’s metro (free for us), streetcars in Dresden

Best train station: Amsterdam (cool looking building and close to everything)

Worst train station: Dresden (there was no heat so it was really cold and it was under construction and was evacuated for 20 minutes for an unknown reason)

City I’d most like to live in: Madrid or Munich (Sam), Vienna – preferably in the Hapsburg Palace (Charlie)

Best market: the Viktualienmarkt in Munich

Most bikers: Amsterdam

Best weather: Belgium and Madrid (sunny and sort of warm during the day)

Worst weather: Vienna (rainy, cold and slushy)

Best hostel: Die Boofe Hostel in Dresden for the free wireless internet and double room.

Best bar: a communist themed bar in Berlin where white college-aged German guys were rapping in German, a funky bar in Berlin with a fire breathing dragon, the hostel’s bar in Brussels

Best museum: the Heineken Experience, Reina Sofia museum of modern art in Madrid (Sam), Anne Frank house (Charlie)

Best museum we didn’t get to go in because it was closed: Deutches Museum in Munich and the Beer Museum in Brussels

Coolest stoplights: Berlin (the East Berlin symbol of a little guy for the walk and don’t walk signals is still used and its really famous, Charlie bought a shirt of the guy)

Most underwhelming sight: the Mannekin Pis statue in Belgium (a famous statue and fountain of a little boy peeing) and the Astronomical clock in Prague

Most breathtaking view: from the top of the tower in Old Town Square in Prague

Best bridge: the Charles bridge in Prague

Best city square: Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Old Town Square in Prague, Marienplatz in Munich

Best church: the Lutheran Church in Dresden (bombed and rebuilt) and Kaiser-Wilhelm Church in Berlin (bombed and not rebuilt) (Sam), the Palace Church in Prague (Charlie)

Best sign: Köck (a German bank), EXTRA DICK! (on a package of cheese in Germany, it means “extra fat”), Gute Fahrt (means “safe journey” in German), Schmuck (We think it means “jewelry” in German), and a Brussels metro stop that is too vulgar to post.