Beer, Brauts, and Sauerkraut

From Amsterdam, we traveled over to the Rhine Valley in Germany where we stayed in a cute little town called St. Goar. The town is located right on the Rhine River, with beautiful old castles still nestled in the hill sides.

It was here that we were introduced to amazing Riesling Wine and Ice Wine. We stayed in St. Goar for a night and then headed over to Munich.

Munich was great!!! I'm not much of a beer drinker, but I think you have to be when you visit Munich. Alby and I both enjoyed the great German food at the Hoffbrau, and loved roaming through Munich's main square during the evening.

Amsterdam & Space Cake

In London we met up with the Contiki group and boarded our faithful bus. We had an early morning start and drove through England, and boarded a train that would take us across in the English Channel in a Tunnel (aka Chunnel). Once we were across, we drove north into Denmark and drove into Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city. We arrived early in the afternoon and wandered a bit through the main town. We both love food in different places, and we definitely found some great grub in downtown Amsterdam. Our first snack was a shewarma sandwich from a street vendor....so yummy!! After a brief afternoon walk, we settled into our motel, changed, and came back to downtown to see the city at night.

Amsterdam and the Red Light District are just crazy! Talk about being very liberal and open! We definitely saw some interesting shows and museums in Amsterdam and sampled some of their famous Space Cake. If you want details you'll just have to ask us ;)

The next morning we walked over to the Heineken factory, and through the parks, and Anne Frank's home.

Overall for a quick day and half we got a great feel for the city and hope to visit again!

Gloomy London

We boarded the American Airlines flight to London from SJC (via Dallas) pumped for the next 2 weeks of hard core traveling :) But boy was the flight long!!! I was thrilled when we landed in London, even thought we arrived to a pretty dreary looking sky. We hoped off the plane and boarded the Gatwick Express that would take us the main station of the London Tube.

One small detail we didn't realize when we booked our tickets was that we were arriving into London over Easter weekend, and much of the city was closed for the holiday. Alby and I both were pretty tired from all the traveling, but were determined to make the use of all our time in London, so we showered and headed back out onto the Tube. Public transit in London was great, we loved the ease of getting everywhere quickly and cheaply :)

The first day in London we made it over to Buckingham Palace, and our timing was just right to see the changing of the guards. It's a pretty elaborate tradition, that really doesn't seem to serve much purpose but provide something for tourists like us to watch.

The rest of the day was filled with lots of walking and Tube rides with Alby and I traveling all over London, trying to visit all the highlights. Some of the places we were able to visit were: The London Eye, Shakespeare's Theater, London Bridge, Big Ben, Westchester Abbey, National Muesuem. We ate great Indian food for dinner, and visited London's China Town ....how's that for hitting both our cultures :)

The Kwoks Tackle Europe in 2005

Alby and I both had not been to Europe, so for our next big trip we decided to take on as much of Europe as we could in a quick sweep. Our friends had taken tours through Contiki, which is a tour agency for people age 18-35, and we thought that this would be a great way to see a lot of Europe in a short period of time. We booked the tour called European Discovery. The tour started in London, went across the Chunnel and went to Amsterdam, Rhine Valley (Germany), Munich, Innsbruck, Lucerne, Venice, Rome, Florence, and Paris. We loved the trip, and definitely recommend it to those who have never been to Europe and want to see a lot in a quick time. We'll definitely be returning to Europe but this time to see the places we know we loved and want to spend more time at.