Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
For this trip we choose to leave and go back from two different airports. We land in the morning in Bremen (city where we have been other times). We take the car and go quickly in the center, visit the Schnoor, a district with typical houses, the Dom St. Peter, the Markt, the Rathaus, the Gewerbehaus, the Frauenkirche and the Battcherstrasse. In the afternoon we stop for a brief visit to Oldenburg, not far from Bremen.
Walking through the main streets we arrive at the castle. We pass the border and continue our trip to Netherlands. We follow the road along the coast, stopping for some photos in Loppersum. As we proceed, we meet some of the many dams. In the evening we stop in Dokkum. After finding an hotel, we visit the city, but unfortunately it rains heavily.
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
Today it’s sunny. We continue in direction of Amsterdam. We stop to Terpenes, where there is a church on a hill of mud. Then we cross the dam Afsluitdijk and arrive in Bergen aan Zee with its sand dunes. We climb on top of one of them, and then we enjoy a run down as some children are doing.
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
We decide to go to Amsterdam by train, but the machine to buy tickets cannot accept credit cards, coins only, we are 4, it’s almost 30. So we decide to go back to the hotel and drive to Amsterdam. After parking, we walk a while around the channels, we pass from the Dam Square, the Begijnhof, the Wester, the Waag and come to the Museum NEMO.
We return then to the center, we see the Oude Kerk (it starts to rain, it doesn’t last long, but it rains hard). For dinner, we choose a restaurant on the top floor of a building from which we see the sunset over the city.
Friday, August 13th, 2010
We go to Rotterdam and visit the windmills of Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is a UNESCO site: there are many mills close, along channels. We see one of them inside, and shortly after, the mill wheel and the blades start spinning.
After the mills, we cross another dam Neeltje Jans (where we take a short break). Our destination is Brugge, Belgium. To get there we decide to cross several islands connected by bridges. On one of these islands there is Veere, a very pretty town where we spend time strolling through its streets and climbing the tower of De Grote Kerk. So we search for an hotel near Brugge, but we cannot find anything, so we go back to Netherlands and find a hotel in Ijzendijke.
Saturday, August 14th, 2010
In the morning we visit Brugge: the Markt, the Sint Salvatorskathedraal, St Jans Hospitaal, the Begijnhof, the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk, and some other monuments. We spend most of the afternoon to drive to Munster. The cathedral is already closed so after seeing it outside we go to the Rathaus and the Prinzipalmarkt. We pass by some churches and then we stop for dinner. After dinner we go to pubs area where students crowd them.
Sunday, August 15th, 2010
We visit the cathedral inside and listen to the Mass (in German). Next stop: Cologne. At short distance from Cologne there is Altenberg, an ancient abbey with beautiful stained glass windows. It starts to rain. Then we visit the cathedral of Cologne (where we take refuge to escape the rain that continues to increase. We also visit St. Maria im Kapitol, and we pass Alt St. Alban and Ratahus. In the evening we reach Aachen.
Monday, August 16st, 2010
The munster is being renovated and we cannot visit it inside. But We visit the Rathaus. Leaving the city, we cross the valley of Ambléve, we go to Luxembourg, and we stop in Trier.
We walk along the main streets: the Porta Nigra, the Dom St. Peter, the Church of Our Lady, the Hauptmarkt, the Roman basilica and then back to the car, towards the airport of Hahn. We land in the evening.
