Back Home!

Well, a little late on the post, but I needed to end the blog. The last day in Scotland, we took a city bus to the city centre and used up the rest of the day exploring more of Edinburgh. We arrived home 2 days ago and I was extremely happy! The flight was 10 hours long and there were good movies all the way back (for once). There was a baby that cried for the duration of the flight, but lucky me, I had earphones and volume that went very high. I did not sleep at all and once again, I was stuck in the middle seat between two people. I moved twice and the rest of flight, I was bound to my seat like a prisoner. Both persons on the left and right side of me were sleeping, so if I wanted to move, it meant waking sleeping giants. I don't know what would have become of me if I would have woken the lady next to me. Anyway, after being gone for so long, it makes me realize how great our country really is and everything that we have. I did love the transportation system though. If I worked over there, all I would have to do would be to purchase a $3 ticket every day to work and I would never have to deal with automobile traffic again. All in all, I had a great time on the trip and on my next trip, I plan on backpacking around Italy. This trip will probably take place in a few years and with a friend or two. Until next time!!

-Dan

The Last Day in Munich With Baggage Problems...

We made it to Edinburgh safely. We did have a little trouble though. Here is how yesterday went:

So we packed our bags at the hotel. We evenly distributed the weight so that each suitcase would not exceed 20kg. After about an hour or two of re-arranging our belongings, we took our massive load (for 2 people) of suitcases down to the reception area and checked out of the hotel. We were lucky not to get the lady that had a blank expression on her face, she was standing behind the lady that was helping us. We called a taxi to take us to the airport with our heavy load.

As we were driving to the airport, the driver attempted to tell us two jokes and we failed miserably at understanding them, but we laughed anyway. We arrived to the airport and we loaded our luggage on carts. We arrived at approximately 12:20pm and check-in did not open until about 2:45pm, so we had a while before we could get anything accomplished. While we were waiting, we weighed all of our luggage to make sure it was evenly distributed. My carry-on was the heaviest, weighing in at about 32kg. The laptop is what weighed it down so much. We wanted to ask an EasyJet employee if we could add on an extra bag, so we weren't over the weight limit for one bag. In our attempt to find someone to ask this question, we did not succeed. There was no one at the EasyJet counter at all, and no one ever came in those 2 hours in between. So we patiently waited for someone to check us in. The line behind us quickly swelled into this massive crowd of people, and we were first in line!

Being first in line, we thought we would definitely get things accomplished and worked out with the baggage. Wrong!! 2:45pm came around finally and the two people walked up to the EasyJet counter, with blank looks on there faces. They were not even EasyJet employees, they were Swissport employees. They get everything set up for the check-in and finally ask us for our passports and booking number. We hand them over to the stone-faced man in front of us. We begin putting our baggage up on the scale and weighing them. Each bag was right at 20kg or was over by less than 1kg. So we were very happy and thought things were going quite well. We had succeeded in spreading the weight out amongst our suitcases. This is the mindset that we had the entire time stoneface was checking our baggage in. As the last bag went through, stoneface looked up at us and said something!! Amazing! What he said though, would ruin our day just like the first incident with the luggage back in Edinburgh.

Stoneface said, "You are 63kg over the weight", and we said, "What!!!". We looked back on our paperwork for EasyJet and no where did it say that there was a limit of the amount of weight you could bring on. What our paper work had said was:

Your hold baggage weight allowance is 20kg, and you may check in one hold bag per person free of charge. Additional hold bags may be carried subject to a charge of 5.00GBP per bag per flight wehn paying in advance and 10.00GBP when at the airport.

Nowhere in that sentence does it say that even if you pay in advance for the extra baggage fee, when you get to the airport, each kg of the excess baggage that you paid for in advance will be charged. So we basically paid the fee for extra bags for nothing!


Stoneface said that there was a limit of 20kg per person (which is what it said on our paper) and one carry-on, that is it, all else is excess baggage and is subject to charge (was not on the paper, it was supposed to be a fee of 5GBP when payin in advance). Each kg was 9 euros, that is a lot of money when converted to US dollars!!!!! So we argued with him and told him that he was wrong and the airliner is wrong. Stoneface looked up at us, and without saying a word he glanced back down and began writing. He handed us a piece of paper and said, "Bring this to the information desk and when you pay for this, I will give you your boarding passes." So we argued no more, because words were not getting through to thick-headed stoneface.

We walked on over to the information counter and told the woman in front of us what had happened. "We were never told of this excess baggage fee, and nowhere on our paperwork does it say there will be a charge per kg. It simply states that you can pay for excess baggage in advance at 5GBP." So we proceeded to argue with her that EasyJet was in the wrong. We desperately tried to pull our way out of this one and our argument was not succeeding. We were slowly losing this battle. We told her that there are no numbers to contact EasyJet or email, so it is impossible to contact ANYONE with questions, the only number is a hotline number that costs about 60pence per minute (about $1.20 US dollars per minute). "EasyJet is definitely not EASY to deal with", she replied with, "I know, they are not." The SwissPort lady pulled out a long document and showed us where it said about the excess baggage. What the paper said, was NOT on the paperwork that we had.

We did not have a plan A or plan B, we were just angry and wanted to get on our flight and go back to Scotland. She decreased the amount of kg from 63kg to 40kg, so that saved us some, but was still a hefty amount to pay. We paid the amount, I walked back to stoneface and took the boarding passes. Onward we went to our gate. We ate lunch and boarded our flight and thanked god that we were that much closer to home. We our in Edinburgh now and this is our final day before we arrive home. When I get home, I am going to get down on my hands and knees and kiss US soil! We miss home and cannot wait to get back to it. Miss everyone!

-Dan and Andrea

Lausanne...

So we made it to our last stop, Montreaux. First we headed to Basel because I thought it looked interesting, but after stopping at the train station we decided not to. From the station, the city looked very modern and industrialized so we bothered not to go. Basel is in the Northern part of Switzerland and borders Germany and France. France was actually just beyond the doorway at the train station! We took the train down South towards Lausanne and Montreaux. We had to stop at Lausanne and take a bus to Montreaux. We needed someone that spoke French though. Where were you Dr. Bill??? The Chateau de Chillon was in Montreaux and it was awesome!! We spent most of the day there. Hey Bill, quiz time! What does Chateau de Chillon mean in English? No cheating and looking it up on the internet either! Anyway, after we were finished we took the train back to Zurich, which took about 4 hours. We went back to our hotel and crashed for the evening. All that train travelling really exhausts you! Enjoy the pictures. We did all of this yesterday, I was too tired to post last night. Tomorrow we fly into Edinburgh and will be there for 2 more days and then we fly home on the 5th. We can't wait to get back and see everyone! We are definitely home sick, BIG time! Talk to everyone later!

-Dan and Andrea

Bern, Thun, and Interlaken...

So yesterday we checked into our new hotel in Horgen, Zurich. We then caught the next train to Zurich Hauptbahnhof and then to Bern. Bern was OK, way too many people and a lot of construction going on. We left Bern after about an hour of walking around. I did find some local dry salami though and it is the BEST! I would never buy cheese here though. We have already purchased 2 wedges of swiss cheese and it smells like something had died in the room when we opened it. It is like that everywhere, and at the farmer's market it smells like that ten-fold. After Bern, we headed to Thun so we could see Schloss Thune (a castle). After climbing 5 flights of stairs and going up hill for about 20 minutes we had finally reached the castle. Unfortunately the time was 4:45pm and the castle closed at 5:00pm, and just like everywhere else, they stop taking guests at around 4:30pm. All that hard work for nothing!! Oh well. Thune did have a very cool river running through that had white rapids everywhere, I wonder if you could take a raft down it? We went to Interlaken after that and it was extremely beautiful! The mountains surround the town! We headed back into Zurich and to our hotel in Horgen. Today we are heading to Basel and some other places that we are not sure of yet. Talk to you all later!!

-Dan and Andrea

Lucerne...

Ok, I wrote this yesterday evening when we got back to the hotel, but I was unable to buy internet time last night for some reason. So I am posting this a day late.

Hey guys! Just got back from Lucerne! We arrived at the Lucerne hauptbahnhof at about 11:50am. We walked over to the opposite side of the station and found the museum and a really cool looking fountain. The southern Swiss Alps were in the background and they were unbelievable! The temperature was about 65 - 70 degrees when we first arrived, but that would definitely change later on in the day. So we stopped at this little gift shop and I found some very cool pieces to bring back. After shopping for a bit, we decided to go to Mount Pilatus. As soon as you get out of the train station, Mt. Pilatus is the first thing that you see on the right. It is HUGE! There was snow all over the top of it that you could see from below.

We purchased a ticket to ride the boat to Alpnachstad-Pilatus. The boat ride was very fun and the views of the alps were great! Mount Pilatus sure towered over Lucerne! After we arrived at Alpnachstad-Pilatus, we took the tram up the mountain. It was such a fun ride up and at some locations, there were 47% gradients! There were about 8 of us crammed into a small tram car, so I was not able to get very good shots, but the ones that we managed to get were pretty good. As we ascended, the temperature dropped VERY quickly. We put our warm clothes on and prepared. The snow began to appear and the top seemed like it was getting closer, but in reality, it was still thousands of feet away. After about 20 minutes of riding on the tram, we finally arrived to the top (7000 feet up!!). The temperature was probably 30-35 degrees and it was not windy. The panoramic views of the Swiss Alps was amazing! We walked through a cave-like area that circled from one side of Pilatus to the other. There were numerous lookout points with fantastic views of Lucerne and surrounding areas. The snow was beginning to melt and icicles were forming on the ceiling of the cave. I had to be very careful with my camera because the water was dripping all over the place. Mom was almost struck with a falling icicle! We were dodging falling ice and snow at every turn! We finished through the tunnel and my hands were frozen. As we left the tunnel, I witnessed a mini avalanche and it sounded like a bomb going off when it fell. I cannot imagine what a large avalanche would sound like!!

We descended the mountain on a cable car, the world's steepest cable car. We arrived at the bottom and continued our tour of Lucerne. We saw Chapel Bridge, Lion Monument, and extravagant shops everywhere! All in all, Lucerne is a must-see city when in Switzerland. We took the train back to Zurich at about 10:10pm and it was a quick 50 minute ride back. Tomorrow we will be heading to Bern, Switzerland's capital. It is supposed to be fascinating. Will post again tomorrow. We will be at a new hotel tomorrow, so hopefully they will have internet there. We miss everyone so much!

-Dan and Andrea

Zurich University Pictures Continued...

Zurich University

So today was my day at Universitat Zurich (University of Zurich). I took the tram #7 from our hotel to Tierspitel (Animal Hospital) and the length of time was about 5 minutes. I arrived at around 8:30am and had to wait until about 9am to meet with Gabriela Schmid (secretary of Dr. Joerg). While I was waiting, there was another person waiting for her as well. She was from Berlin and her name was Yana. She spoke good English, so I was able to have a translator for the day. We were given overalls to wear for the day, they were actually very comfortable!

So I started the morning by going on medication rounds and administering medication to all of the horses. For being a first time visitor, they let me do a lot! They gave me the medication to administer through the catheter on two of the horses. It was very different administering medication to an animal MUCH larger than a dog, especially through a jugular catheter. The lady that was going around with us on the medication rounds was an intern and did not speak any English, so Yana needed to translate all that she was saying. After the horses were given their medications, we headed back inside, where the surgery suites were. We were given the grand tour of the facility and let me tell you, it was AMAZING!!!!! The equine facility is extremely large and there are approximately 60 stalls. The anesthesiologist took us to the surgery facility where they perform all of their orthopedic procedures. It was a very large stand-alone building and even had a recovery pool inside. The operating table was a hydraulic table and the room that it was in had the most state-of-the-art equipment. To get an idea of how sterile they keep the rooms, the ventilation system changes the air in the room 20 times in an hour! So every 3 minutes, fresh air from the outside is circulated through the room. Then there were cameras at every angle so that doctors and vet students on the outside could use a joystick to control the view of the operating table. Everything was controlled by a flat touch-screen that was embedded in the wall.

After our grand tour, we went back over to the first facility where they were performing radiographs on a horse. The radiology facility is HUGE! I guess it needs to be for horses. They also had 3 digital radiograph machines for small animals. There was also a very large team of radiologists. After they had performed the x-rays, I helped a group of doctors place a jugular catheter on a foal. The original catheter was twisted so bad, that a new catheter needed to be placed. The foal had Septic Arthritis and it had been through 3 rounds of antibiotics with little improvement. Today, they obtained a synovial fluid sample and sent it to the lab for further analysis.

After I helped with the placement of the catheter, I ate lunch at the cafe with Yana. I had a salami and pickle sandwich on baquette, very good! After lunch, I went over to the small animal clinic and helped with surgery. Dr. Claudio walked me through the entire clinic and they have some pretty impressive equipment. There is a CT just like the one at
Animal Health Services clinic, only rather than the table being the mobile unit, the scanner itself moves and the table is stationary. I met Jennifer, who was from Canada, and spoke mostly English but knew some German. She was prepping a calico cat for surgery. The cat had been hit by a car and had a broken tail and fractured hip. They took the cat into the surgery room and prepared for surgery. Meanwhile, Dr. Claudio gave me a tour of the surgery suites. I have MANY new suggestions for the clinic that I think would help during surgery, A LOT. The rooms were divided into separate sections. There was opthalmology, gynecology, soft tissue, and orthopedic. I went back into surgery with Jennifer and observed Dr. Claudio and two other doctors perform the surgery. Talk about a tight workspace! Jennifer told me that even with 3 doctors, orthopedic procedures still take up to 5 hours. She gave me her email address so that we could contact her on places to visit in Switzerland. I took the tram back around 5:30pm and went to dinner with Mom to Zeughauskeller Restaurant. I had the sausage platter and Mom had a beef curry/garlic sauce dish with rice, both were excellent.

On the way back to the hotel, we walked along the Bahnhofstrasse. It is very famous for its shops and restaurants. There are shops all along the street as well as up numerous alleys that branch from the main road. We caught the tram back to Hauptbahnhof, and went back to the hotel. Well that was our day, and tomorrow we will be heading to Lucerne. Talk to you all later!

-Dan and Andrea

We Arrived in Zurich!

Hey everyone! Well, we finally made it to our destination, Zurich. The train ride from Munich to Zurich was about 5 hours. The ride was quiet and VERY smooth. We did end up sitting next to an obnoxious couple though! They were very loud and it seemed as if they made jokes at every new person that walked passed. They finally left at one of the stops and we had the seats to ourself. We arrived in Zurich, Switzerland at about 4:45pm. The Hauptbrahnhof (central station) was very nice and clean. We purchased our Swiss Pass after waiting in line for about 1 hour. The Swiss Pass allows us to travel all through Switzerland and almost all of the major cities like Berne, Lucerne, Zurich, etc. allow you to travel for free, as long as you have the pass that you paid for.

We checked in to our very nice hotel, called Central Plaza Hotel. The rooms are VERY nice and the people that work here are extremely nice. Talk about high security though, the room key is also the key for the elevator. You cannot get the elevator to operate unless you insert your special card. We ate dinner at the restaurant at the hotel and had very good food. After dinner, Mom unpacked her suitcase and I walked around the city for about an hour. I found some very cool shops and restaurants. When I came back to the hotel, I went under central station and there was a whole other city underneath! There were dozens of shops at every turn! That was pretty much our day today and tomorrow I will be up at around 6:45am and need to be at Zurich University at 9am. I will definitely post pictures of my experience tomorrow. Talk to everyone later!

-Dan and Andrea

Last FULL Day in Munich...

So today was the last full day in Munich. We started out this morning by eating breakfast down in the dining area. They have HUGE breakfast buffets and the food is DELICIOUS! I had eggs, yogurt, some kind of oatmeal-cereal, toast, and fruit. I was definitely full after that. We attempted at asking the woman at the front desk if she knew how to get from Hauptbahnhof (central train station in front of the hotel) to the English Gardens, but she made it very confusing when trying to talk to us in English. We purchased our train ticket and it was only 9 euros for two people and the train pass was valid for 24 hours. We arrived near the English Gardens and walked for about 45 minutes in an attempt to actually find the gardens. I pulled out my handy dandy "German At a Glance Book" (thanks Tanya!!!!) and learned how to ask where the English Gardens were (Wo ist die Englisch Garten?). The lady I asked ended up answering me in English! After all of that hard work! Jeeesh!

So we finally arrived at the Englisch Garten and it was beautiful! There were not any actual "Gardens", but it was a HUGE park with all of these grass fields where people were lying on the grass catching a tan, dogs were running wild, and there were people playing accordians at several spots. We came across the Bier Garten and I ordered some kind of German sausage with sauerkraut as a side. I also grabbed a bier, it was called "Franziskaner Weissbier", which was pretty good. It began to rain pretty hard while we were eating, so we had to take cover under all of the trees. Once the rain passed over, we headed back towards the train station ISARTOR. Isartor then went to Marianplatz and then finally to Hauptbahnhof.

We bought our tickets for the trip from Munich to Zurich and will be leaving at 12:04pm. We went to our hotel room and rested for about an hour and worked on the internet and took off once again. We rode the train to Marianplatz and saw the Glockenspiel (giant clock where little wooden men dance around when the bells go off). It was actually under refurbishment and is getting ready for a 800th anniversary celebration or something of that nature. We walked near the museum and near a cool fountain. On the way back we came across a group of guys that were jumping off of the bridge and into the water below. For dinner, we found a chinese restaurant that had a large selection of food that was VERY good.

So we came out of the restaurant and couldn't find our way to Marianplatz. We walked in the opposite direction of the train station, but we ended up seeing a whole new area of Munich. There was a pianist that EXTREMELY good and was playing many classical pieces and Flight of The Bumblebee. This guy was so fast, I couldn't keep track of where his fingers were as he was playing! We finally found our way back to the Marianplatz platform and made our way back safely. Another day survived!! Woohooo! I have posted some pictures from today. Talk to everyone later!! You guys better keep up reading, you are way behind. I have already wrote 3 new posts.

-Dan and Andrea

EVERYTHING is in German!

Ok, we have finally arrived in Munich and the airport was English-friendly and most signs had translations into English. The flight went very smoothly and we arrived in Munich around 4:50pm. I went outside to check on taxi prices and the guy I was talking to barely understood my English. It cost 50 euros to get from the airport to the hotel. It was raining very hard all the way to Munich and the lightning was fantastic! We dropped off all of our luggage to the hotel and set off on our journey through Munich. We found a German beer garden and I don't quite remember the name (also don't know how to spell it). We ate the Munchner Weisswurst Platte (Munich sausage plate) and also had my very first beer in Germany, it was called FRANZISKANER WEISSBIER and was VERY good.

I have seen many german locals but there is also an abundance of middle-eastern people. The restaurants are mainly middle-eastern and the German restaurants are in back alleys (weird). I bet the food is really good further away from the city center. Anyway, we are sitting in our hotel room right now and I am going to post all of the pictures that I haven't been able to on the previous blogs, so go look at the posts from before. So I am going to post all of the pictures that I have been behind on, on this post. If you hold the mouse arrow over the picture (don't click), but hover the arrow over the picture and the name of the picture will show up. Well, we miss you all and we still have one more day in Munich and then we take the train to Zurich. Talk to you all later!

-Dan and Andrea

P.S. Oh, and if someone could check and see when I work when I come back (if the schedule is done yet).

Leaving Edinburgh...

Today was our last day in Edinburgh and we stayed at the Hilton near the airport. Everything went smoothly until we checked our baggage in. The limit was 20kg and each one of our bags was over the limit. We had to pay $$$$$!!! There was nothing that we could do because the lady checking in our baggage had already sent 3 of them through. When it came down to the last bag, she THEN said that we could stow some bags at the airport until we got back. Why didn't she tell us that BEFORE!! Ahhh! Anyway, we will not dread on this unfortunate event. Donations would be appreciated to help compensate for this loss :)

Anyway, we will be boarding our flight here shortly. Will hopefully write again tonight or tomorrow. Miss everyone!

-Dan and Andrea

Isle of Skye Part 2

Hey everyone! Well, we have a late start today because Mom ended up getting sick. I think it was the food she ate last night. She took a short nap and was feeling better after about an hour. We are heading to Dunvegan castle today and an area called the Fairy Glen that is in a town called Uig. It is supposed to be very beautiful.

Yesterday we ended up going to a place called Kilt Rock. It was magnificant and there was a waterfall that was pouring into the sea, about 200 feet up. We went in to a small town called Staffin and I bought my 99p burger (99p is about $2 US)!

It is raining right now, or misting. The rain seems to disappear once we are away from our hotel. I think because the hotel is right at the base of the mountain and is at a higher elevation than the rest of the island, the clouds seem to just hang there. I still cannot upload pictures, I tried hooking my camera up to the computer, but they have it set so that all you can do is use the internet because I cannot access any other part of the computer. So, maybe when I get back to Edinburgh, I will be able to obtain access to a wireless internet. If not, the next time will be in Munich. So off I go for now, hope everyone is doing well and will talk to everyone later!

-Dan and Andrea

Isle of Skye

So after a very LONG drive from Fort William, we finally made it to the Northern-most tip of Isle of Skye. The road was a single lane the entire time to our hotel with a few wide spots for cars to pass eachother. We are staying at a very nice hotel that has awesome views of the sea. We watched Braveheart last night and it really angers you that the English did that to the Scottish people. We chatted with a few Scots and they still dislike the English. Pretty amazing how something that happened hundreds of years ago, can still have an effect on how people think of eachother.

This morning was very foggy and the clouds hung over the mountain in a very surreal way. The fog seems to turn into a blowing mist and blows down from the top of the mountain and is like getting a fine-mist shower. We are at this internet cafe on the island and it is very nice inside. We are going to try and make it to Dunvegan Castle today, but if we do not, we will just stop and look at the Trotternish Peninsula and the Old Man of Storr (a cool rock formation).

I cannot upload pictures at the moment because there is no wireless internet, only their computers and I don't want to unhook their cables either. So, the next time I post pictures might be tomorrow, I am going to try and hook up my camera to their computer. I captured some very beautiful images of waterfalls in the forest and of the mountains in Glen Coe. Miss everyone and look forward to coming back. We are getting homesick already and still have 2 weeks to go! Talk to you all later!

-Dan and Andrea

Car Trouble With a Twist...

Hello everyone! Well, we are in Ballachulish just past Glen Coe. We were driving up the main road to Fort William when all of a sudden a car came into our lane! Ahh! We were forced to hug the curb which runs the length of the carriageway (highway). We heard a hissing noise and realized the tire had blown. God was definitely with us, as there was a gas station about 25 yards from where the incident occured. We placed the spare on and drove to the nearest hotel. The hotel that we found was like a castle and the staff at the hotel treated us with the ultimate hospitality. We were able to use the phone and they decreased the room rate by more than 50%! The room is incredible! We ate dinner at the restaurant within the hotel called the Bulas Bar and Bistro. The dinner was great and I had a Velvet beer and Mom had a glass of Pinot to relax from such a stressful event. After dinner we enjoyed a wonderful Scottish bagpiper and dancers in the main reception room. The bagpiper was very funny and had told several jokes that had us laughing so hard. I do think that we were the only Americans in the room as the rest were from Germany. After the show, Mom had her picture taken with the bagpipes and a Scottish hat on! We did make it to Puck's Glen, which was deep within the Argyll Forest. I was going to upload some new pictures, but the Wi-Fi signal is too low here, so the pictures cannot be uploaded to the website. When I do come into contact with a stronger Wi-Fi connection, I will put the pictures from today up. I do not know where we are getting this internet connection from, as the staff said there was no internet here. I guess this is truly our lucky night. The car rental company will be coming in the morning to place two new tires on the car, free of charge! Will write again tomorrow and let you all know that we arrived in Isle of Skye safely. Miss you all!

-Dan and Andrea

P.S. Yesterday, we I forgot to mention that we went to Doune Castle, which is where they filmed Monty Python and the Holy Grail for all you Monty Python fans!!! I stood where the French guard said, "I fart in your general direction!" The picture of the castle above is Doune Castle.