Week 77-78: Amsterdam, Berlin, Austria, and Český Krumlov

As if nine days together in Ireland were not enough last month, our friend, Nate, flew across the pond to spend another 10 days with us.

This adventure started in the tulip fields of Amsterdam and ended back in Austria with additional countries, hikes, climbs, and walks in between.

Wednesday, April 13

Eric and I landed in Amsterdam at 9am. Nate landed at 9:20am.

We synced up and took a train into the city where we picked up our rental car and drove out to the picture worthy tulip fields and the Keukenhof gardens.

The gardens are only open for 8 weeks a year. From mid-March to mid-May. You can imagine this is a popular place and becomes crowded quickly. The Keukenhof has an average of 25,000 daily visitors and tickets frequently sell out.

Because of Covid, this was the first time in two years the Keukenhof was able to open for visitors. While the flowers were there, there was no one to admire them. We were happy the timing worked out for us to be one of the first visitors back.

The Keukenhof, also known as the “Garden of Europe”, sits on 79 acres of land and contains 800 different types of tulips.

More than 7 million flower bulbs are planted by hand each fall in preparation for the spring.

We were fascinated by this man mowing the grass. It was so satisfying to watch, Nate asked to push the mower himself.

…and the man let him.

We are lucky to be able to go to Amsterdam so easily to see the largest tulip display in the world.

Prior to moving abroad, we had plans to go to the Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan, which is the largest tulip festival in America.

As we were approaching the gardens, we got our first glimpse at the infinite rows of tulips. 🌷

After a couple of hours meandering through the fields, we headed to lunch on the beach.

*Looking out at the ocean from the sand dune.*

By then it was early afternoon and we were planning to drive further towards Hague and Rotterdam, but since we only had 36 hours in Amsterdam, we decided to turn back and explore this new and exciting city.

We returned the car, checked into our hotel, and walked up and down the canals for the rest of the evening.

You have to be extremely alert when walking around in Amsterdam. If it is not a car or motorcycle wizzing past you, it is a cyclist.

Thursday, April 14

This was the morning I had been looking forward to the most for a long time.

It is the day we got to visit the Anne Frank House. The house sits in the center of Amsterdam and contains the secret annex where Anne Frank wrote her famous diary during the Second World War.

As I shared on social media already, I was reading the Diary of Anne Frank and finished it just moments before touching down in Amsterdam. While reading the book, I found myself flipping to the front cover every few pages or so. To see the face behind the words provoked several emotions. Flash forward to standing in the actual room where Anne Frank documented her life in hiding was surreal.

*Posing in front of the house with the diary.*

We were not able to take any photos on the tour, but in the room where her parents and sister slept was a wall where they kept a height chart. While the house has gone through maintainence renovations, the museum preserved the wall with those faint little lines marking each of the girls‘ heights during their two year stay in the annex.

All 8 residents of the secret annex were taken on August 4, which is my birthday… just 48 years before I was born. One of the residents, Peter, was moved from Auschwitz to Mauthausen, which is located just an hour from our house in Gmunden, where he died.

After a somber morning, we checked out of the hotel, but left our luggage in the lobby so we could still enjoy the rest of our time in Amsterdam.

We had lunch at a delicious Chinese resturant and spent the afternoon going in and out of shops. We were getting a bit tired of being on our feet, so we hopped on a guided river cruise.

A couple things we learned while on the cruise:

There are more bikes than “Amsterdammers”.

Houses in Amsterdam are very narrow, because owners paid taxes for homes based on the width of the facade facing the canals. To avoid paying high taxes, houses were designed to be narrow, yet tall and functional.

*Tall and narrow homes along the canal.*

There is a low rail along the canals because people accidentally mis-judge the distance and drive into the water.

By 6pm, it was time to grab our bags from the hotel and head to the Amsterdam Centraal train station where we boarded the train for Berlin.

At 7:30pm, we boarded the train and, at 9:30pm, we arrived in Dusseldorf where we waited for the second train to Berlin.

Friday, April 15

We did not sleep at all.

Although this train was an overnight train, it was not a “sleeper”. It was the intercity train, so the lights stayed on and the announcements were made all throughout the night.

Eric and Nate played 58 games of UNO during the ride and had maybe 30 minutes of sleep.

We pulled into Berlin at 5:30am, put our bags in the train station lockers, and grabbed some breakfast.

After breakfast, we found we had some renewed energy. While the city was still asleep, we set out to explore some sites.

Coming out of the train station, we walked past The Reichstag, one of Berlin’s most famous landmarks. It served as the seat of parliament in the German Empire. During the Second World War, the building was heavily damaged. Since 1994 and the fall of the Berlin Wall it has been rebuilt and renovated.

The Brandenburg Gate

Checkpoint Charlie
The best-known crossing point at the Berlin Wall between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.

We had about 90 minutes before our tour began so, at 8:30AM, we rented electric scooters and drove across Berlin until we reached the Berlin Wall Memorial.

In 1961, The Berlin Wall was built by the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War to prevent its population from escaping Soviet controlled East Berlin to West Berlin, which was controlled by the major Western Allies. It divided the city of Berlin into two physically and ideologically contrasting zones.

The Berlin Wall Memorial
This once hated wall has become one of Berlin’s major tourist attractions. This memorial commemorates the division of Berlin and the deaths which occurred there. In 1989, the wall came down, but there are a few sections preserved and left standing.

The western side of The Wall was covered in colorful graffiti because West German artists were free to express themselves. The Eastern side remained bare because direct access to the wall was forbidden from that side, and freedom of speech was discouraged.

In 1990, Berlin opened the East Side Gallery. Unfortunately, we did not make it to the East Side Gallery, but it is the longest surviving section of the wall where graffiti now covers the east side.

By 10am, we switched gears from the cold war and the Berlin Wall to World War II.

*Bricks in the road marking where the wall used to stand.*

On the tour called “Hitler’s Berlin - the rise and fall”, we visited the Gestapo Headquarters, Hitler’s Bunker, the Holocaust Memorial, the Reichstag (again), among other important historical sites.

Hitler’s bunker, the place where he committed suicide, is now beneath an apartment parking lot.
The Gestapo HQ is now is now a terror museum showcasing the instruments Nazi’s used for persecution.
The Holocaust Memorial is a place of contemplation, remembrance, and warning located in the middle of the city.

By 12:45 PM, we were back at the Berlin train station to catch the next train back to Austria.

After 8 hours, 2 trains, and an unplanned bus ride later, we made it to Linz where we exhaustedly loaded into our car and drove back to Gmunden.

We defenitely would not recommend this route to anyone, but looking back on it, it is a fun story to tell and another memory we now have together.

Saturday, April 16

Unsurprisingly, we slept in.

I woke up at noon. Eric woke up at 1PM. Nate was the last riser at 2pm, but he also had only slept a handful of hours since he left the states…

The poor dogs were so confused on why they were not fed at 8AM–oops!

After the past few days we had, we took it easy this day. We walked around the mall, ate lunch at Steiners, walked around Toscana Park with the dogs and enjoyed a nice sunset over the Traunsee.

*Eric and I with Schloss Ort in the background.*

Sunday, April 17

We spent Easter Sunday at Gosausee.

Eric and I came here in Week 57 and were excited to be back.

While there are a lot of lakes we could have gone to, we came back to this one because it is one of the most beautiful and we remembered it had a cool Via Ferrata situated along the lake.

This was Nate’s first time on a Via Ferrata, so to start out on a B/C route is an accomplishment.

There were alot of people passing by taking pictures as the boys were making their way along the wall, which was fun to see.

After we got back, Nate decided to jump into the lake. It was only 46 degrees outside. There is no way it felt good to jump in, but he survived.

Monday, April 18

Another day. Another hike. This time to Langbathseen.

*Eric and I admiring Vorderer Langbathsee.*

Again, Eric and I have been here before. This was our week 3 destination and it was prettier than we remembered.

*Eric, Nate, and I in front of Vorderer Langbathsee.*

Coming here on a Monday is ideal. The trails were fairly clear of other hikers. We saw a man riding a horse through the trees (he makes an appearance in the “Austria video” below), which was a bit unusual to see.

*Eric and his Tilley hat with the best backdrop.*

Tuesday, April 19

The boys went to Salzburg and the casino while I stayed home and caught up on editing pictures and relaxing from the first half of the trip. Eric brought back €200 in Blackjack winnings and some Mozart kugel chocolates from Salzburg.

Wednesday, April 20

We dropped the dogs off at the pet hotel for the day and drove to Český Krumlov.

This was my third time here. Just a two hour drive from our house, it makes for an easy day trip and a cool place to take our visitors!

*Actually, this might be my favorite angle.*

*The different roofs reminded me a little bit of Amsterdam houses.*

*Eric and Nate in front of the castle moat.*

The castle bears were really active this time. Usually they are just laying down and I feel sad for them to never know a life outside of the moat. This time they seemed to enjoy the nice weather and their toys.

Bears have lived here since the 1700s!

We ate at my favorite Czech restaraunt for lunch–Laibon, a vegan friendly restaurant on the Vltava River.

Thursday, April 21

We hiked the Kleiner Schönberg. A mountain peak next to the Traunstein.

After walking 30 minutes from the parking lot, through a couple of tunnels and across a bridge, we began the actual ascent.

There are no pictures of our ascent, because it was very steep and heavily rooted with trees, which made it hard to concentrate on taking photos.

After an hour and 35 minutes, we reached the summit and amazing views.

Directly opposite is Traunkirchen.

To the left is the Sonnstein (which we climbed in week 35) and Ebensee.

To the right stands the Traunstein and our lovely town–Gmunden.

Eric’s photo with his hat was later re-shared on Tilley’s IG main feed, which is really cool!!

Friday, April 22

A trip to visit us in Austria is never complete without a stop in Hallstatt.

*Swan swimming towards the boat houses.*

This was our 7th time here and we hit our usual route.

If you made it this far, thank you! We love our adventures and sharing them with all of you. Now here is the final video from week 77-78. A recap of all the things we did in Austria!