Andy Steves Does Europe! Part 2
The European Adventures of Andy Steves and Alex Matteson
Graduation Summer, 2005
Nice and Monaco — Alex (July 5)
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| Monte Carlo—pick a yacht, any yacht. |
Well, I have a new favorite place — the French Riviera! Andy and I arrived yesterday in a town called Beaulieu. The coast is full of small towns like this, and it is beautiful. We were only able to get a day train from Barcelona so we missed an entire travel day but it wasn't too bad. We had a pretty mellow evening last night. We checked in to the hotel, walked around a little, ate some peanut butter for dinner, read and went to bed. Today we got up at like 8 so we could get out and see stuff. We first went to a fresh market where we bought the day's food, apples, bananas, and peppers. Then we caught the train to Monaco! Wow! Just walking out of the train to the train station is amazing, all marble with views of the harbor and ocean everywhere. We walked outside and the first thing we saw were yachts that could be small ocean liners. Some were at least 200 feet long (they had 2 smoke stacks!).
This is a very, very, very, very rich town — it has the highest income per capita. We walked around the harbor and gazed at million dollar boats and cars. Andy and I agreed that we would never bring our wives here if we didn't have money because we would feel like failures compared to some of these guys. The town itself is beautiful though. We bought a bus ticket and went to the royal palace. Um...to me I found the Bentley and Aston Martin parked outside to be more interesting. Ha ha! Actually, there were more guys taking pictures of the cars than of the building and views. We are in Nice right now because it has the cheapest Internet connection; Monaco wanted €9 euro for half an hour! We're about to meet up with a group from our old high school. It will be fun to hang out with Americans besides Andy for a while.
Budget Examples — Andy
For all of you interested or wondering, here's a sample list of our expenses over these last couple days. Thursday June 30 in Madrid: €19 train tickets, €41 half of our hotel room, €5.50 dinner, €1.50 ice cream, €1.50 Internet.
Friday July 1 in Madrid: €1 Botanical Garden visit, €1.80 Ice cream, €3 Prado museum, €3.50 Royal Palace, €1 Internet, €6.67 food for the day, €6 Tapas, €8.50 Drinks, €41 half of our hotel room. Saturday July 2 Barcelona: €2.50 Internet, €8.50 food, slept free on night train Sunday July 3 Barcelona: €35 half of hotel room, €5 sandwich, €5 metro, €8.50 food, €9.50 train. Monday July 4 Nice: €6.50 McDonalds, €1.50 Internet, €32 half of hotel room. Tuesday July 5 Nice: €8 food, €3 bus, €32 half of hotel room, €1.80 Internet. So (with a Eurail pass and groceries rather than restaurants all the time) it can be done!
Cinque Terre — Alex
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| Andy riding the wine pickers' train in Cinque Terre. |
Ok, well Andy and I ended up taking 6 hours of train rides to get from the French Riviera to the Cinque Terre, even though it looked like half an inch on the map. Anyway, we are staying in one of the five towns that make up what you know as the Cinque Terre. The town is called Monterosso. We got in rather late and settled in our hotel room and then went out. The funny thing was, on the train ride over, by complete luck, we ran into one of the tour guides we met up with back in Amsterdam and we got invited to dinner for free! If there is any place better place to propose to someone I want to see it; the vistas from where we ate were breathtaking at sunset. Just picture sitting on a rock terrace eating pesto in its birthplace on perfectly cooked pasta all while looking at the sun set into the sea. That's kind of sappy, but it was awesome. After dinner, we went back to our town, and as it turned out there is live music every night for this entire month. We were still with the tour guide, Ben, who is about 28 or so and one of the coolest guys ever. We went to a bar and got some drinks and listened to the music. After we had sucked our glasses dry, Ben and I bought a bottle of wine and shared it. Andy hates the taste of wine with a passion so he didn't really have any.
At this point it was about 11:30 and most places were closed. We didn't want to go to the bars because a rum and coke was 5 euros! (much cheaper to buy your own stuff at a store and mix it). So we went into the only place open and we ran into a group of 7 or so kids from Ohio studying in Florence and taking a break. We all bought beer that looked like the size of a liter of coke for like 2 euro and went on a walk on the beach. Andy got tired and went back to the hotel while I stayed out and chilled with our new friends. When we parted ways we set up a meeting spot for the next day and we were going to meet at 1 p.m. but we went there today and no one showed up. I'm hoping that they were just drunk and didn't remember because otherwise it's rather sad that they ditched us. Well, that's about it for the exciting stories so far. Tonight Andy and I are headed to the Blue Marlin. Playboy rated it the best spot in Europe to meet girls, which is just a few minutes away in the next town. Hopefully I'll have some more stories for you then :)
P.S. I really hope anyone reading this doesn't think that we are drunks and all we do is drink, because we go to a lot of museums too, ha ha.
Looking Forward to the Tour de France — Andy
For those of you that don't know, I'm a huge cycling fan. I've spent many a Sunday afternoons watching cycling races. We are about half a days travel from the southeastern part of France. And fortunately, the Tour will be making its way through that area in several days. This morning I spent over an hour working out train reservations, and the tough hotel reservations near the French ski resort town of Courchevel. I've been so fortunate to meet Matteo, one of my father's friends, at Hotel Pasquale in Monterosso. He spent much of his time talking in Swiss, French and a little Italian to help me out. I was prepared to spend near 150 euros a night, but Matteo landed us a place for only 50. Lucky! Ah well, we leave the day after tomorrow from the beautiful Cinque Terre at the ugly hour of 5 o'clock in the morning. We hope to get quality pictures as well of extraordinary experiences to relate to all of you reading. Thanks, Andy.
Long Train Rides — Dirty Alex (July 11)
Well, Andy and I left Spain for the the Cinque Terre and now we're back in France to catch part of the Tour d'France bike race tomorrow. After this long series of train rides we are really tired. And, when we got into town today I looked in the mirror and I couldn't stop laughing. First of all, for some reason I had goat cheese all over my shirt and yogurt on my shorts and enough crumbs in my beard to feed a starving family. I looked like a homeless man! Actually this would explain all the strange looks I got when we passed through Milano today — the fashion capital of the world. I can't even begin to explain how much I am looking forward to a hot shower in my own bathroom and a haircut.
Tour de France — Andrew (July 15)
We made the long journey from the Cinque Terre in Italy up to a small town called Brides-les-Bains in SE France. The train took a good day as we had our first train at 5:19 in the morning, but we made it, and what we were about to see was all worth it.
Last night, as Alex and I were out exploring the town and looking for dinner, I noticed a strange thing. As in all of Europe, the menus of restaurants are posted outside. But the menus in Brides-les-Bains were different, next to the prices on their menu, each item had a calorie count. As the night progressed it became more and more apparent to me that we had stumbled upon a diet town! From the expansive recreation center to the spas on every corner, all the signs were there. While this doesn't seem so bad to most people, it's kind of a scary to a hungry 18-year old young man. In the end, however, we survived.
The next day, Alex and I got ready for this once in a lifetime chance — to see Lance Armstrong in a mountain stage in probably the last Tour de France of his career. Our town an alpine ski resort: the world famous Courchevel. I guess. Haha, I never heard of it. Anyways, we were about 20 kilometers from the top of the hill, where the stage ended. The riders were expected to pass around 4 pm, so we started hiking up at noon with a couple baguettes, nutella and bananas. We set out hitch-hiking. One guy told us that what we were doing, putting our thumbs straight up, meant f-you in French and we should point it down. Not knowing any better and hoping for a change in luck we tried that. All that resulted was funny looks, so we decided to point them sideways and play it safe. After around 40 minutes of hitchhiking, we were picked up. Two Belgian brothers, and two Taiwanese invited us into a 5-seater car. The older of the two brothers, a 24 year-old Belgian spoke flawless English and translated everything said in the car into two languages as soon as he heard it, including announcements and other information on how the race was going that was being broadcast from loudspeakers along the course.
After 20 minutes we stopped and found a place next to a switchback, so we could watch the riders both coming and going. Once we got settled, everybody broke out their food and shared it all around.
All of a sudden, they started speaking rapidly back and forth until they told us "On y va," "Let's go!" We piled back into the tiny car and headed farther up the mountain, into the final kilometers passing the 10, and 5 Km balloons. All the while we two Americans added significant weight to the already over-loaded car and the older brother was much better at speaking English than using a clutch. They were blasting some Beethoven symphony while the two brothers sang along. I was just chilling in the back, taking up half a small European back seat, smelling burning clutch, singing along to a wordless song, passing rainbows of bike fans and enjoying glimpses of the French Alps.
Aww man, I still get chills thinking about out Tour de France experience. So we parked the car, and took two gondola rides up the mountain to within a kilometer of where the stage was going to end for that day. All this time, we were talking about everything from our new friends' bike trip they planned to start the next day, to how Bush is messing up the world. It was actually the older brother's birthday as well. We found our home base on a high bluff giving us a view of several switchbacks down the hill, as well as an opportunity to get right along the barriers for a close up photo. We got there around 2 pm so we had about 3 hours to kill before the actual riders came by. You could feel the tension and excitement in the air. All over there were campers with crowds around them watching the fast-approaching race on satellite TVs. At other times, we would just relax with our friends and learn more about French culture they never taught me in French class in school.
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| Waiting for Lance. |
Finally, the publicity caravan started making its way past our positions, letting us know the race was about an hour away. The Belgians explained to us that the more noise you make, "zee better to chance to get som-fing." We gladly followed their hysterical examples — with great success. By the end I personally had 4 noise makers, 3 hats, 4 water bottles, cheese and crackers, 2 pieces of dark chocolate, and several key chains. All monetarily worthless, but hey, this is the Tour de France!
Then came what we were waiting for, I could see the bikers passing where we first stopped, earlier that day on the satellite TV, and I heard the TV helicopters in the distance, slowly making their way towards us. The excitement levels of the crowd were directly correlated with the volume of the helicopter blades. From our perch, we finally saw 8 motorcycles speed around the corner, and then several cars stacked with bikes blaring their horns. Then came the first group of cyclists. Among them was the king, Lance Armstrong. As soon as I saw them, I took off to get a spot along the fence, with my camera ready. I got an unbelievable view of these riders' sweat-salty faces. And within 15 seconds they were gone. I was close enough to see the color of Lance's eyes. Lance was doing his dance, with a kind of concentration I've never seen in a person before, but for which he is famous. Five hours of waiting was so worth the 1.5 seconds I may have been within 10 feet of this hero. Aww man, I hope to never forget this either.
Armstrong went on to easily win the yellow jersey that day, and further declare that he is still no old fogey to the world of cycling.
Tour de France, Tour de Switzerland — Alex
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Well, in the last couple of days, Andy and I have seen the Tour de France, gone biking up mountains, paragliding, and hiking up the Swiss Alps. The Tour de France was so cool We ended up getting a great spot a kilometer from the finish line and had to wait about five hours for them to go by us. It was just a huge party all around. They had caravans going by all day just throwing free stuff out and getting the crowds pumped. When they finally rode by us Andy almost had a heart attack! I mean Lance Armstrong was about one meter away! It was a great day all around. On the ride back we all started singing songs and talking politics. Oh, the first thing I told them by the way was that we didn't like Bush. Having said that, everyone lightened up and relaxed. That was a key move!
Next we headed over to Interlaken, Switzerland where we stayed for only one night. But that one day was the most intense so far. We arrived late, got a bite to eat and hit the town. Someone told us that there was a good nightclub to go to and we went about midnight. As it turned out, the club itself was amazing (it used to be an underground military bunker but now has a bar and dance floor). But there were about 4 girls and 30 or so guys that all had the same mission as Andy and I, so we didn't really stay long. It probably would have been great on a Friday or Saturday, but not a Tuesday.
The next morning I woke up late, missed breakfast, and was only able to grab a piece of bread before we started the day. The owner of the hotel, Fritz, took Andy and me out on a 4-hour bike ride through the mountains. We gained about 3,000 feet of elevation. That may not sound impressive, but for someone who doesn't bike at all it was intense. When we stopped for water at the top, I was sweating so much that it had turned to salt and I had white lines of salt all over my face and basically everywhere on my body. You might think that after a ride like that you could stop for something to eat or a shower, but no, that wouldn't be the Swiss way. As soon as we got back we hopped in a car and went to the top of a mountain and went paragliding.
Wow! It was amazing. Andy and I were each strapped onto a pilot and started running down a grassy meadow and right before the meadow hit a cliff you sat back and let the air just lift you up. I've never experienced anything like it. We flew — lashed safely to our expert pilots — for about 45 minutes and had the time of our lives.
Once again, as soon as we landed we started out on a hike up one of the Alps looking for Ipex (goat-like animals that are about 100 pounds and have huge horns). We hiked for a few hours, it was after 8 pm by this time. At the top of a mountain, we just sat there…looking at groups of these animals grazing and listening to the beautiful sound of silence.
We hiked back down and Andy and I went to a neighboring town, Gimmelwald where we are staying in a really cool hostel. I was woken up this morning to the sound of cow bells and goat cries and looked out my window and had a perfect view of the icy mountains all around us all while listening to Bob Marley's greatest hits playing in the background. Life is good.
Fun Day in the Alps with Fritz — Andy (July 17)
A couple days ago, we arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland from Brides-les-Bains in France. As we checked in to our hotel, Fritz at Hotel Lotschberg recommended a place to eat, as well as one to socialize. So we set out to check them out at around 10:30. We had a great dinner (one of the best beef fajitas I've ever had) and then started our crawl to Hooters (very American I know), and to Balmer's Bomb shelter.
When we got to Balmer's, there were 3 bouncers on the way in, all pointing us in the direction of muffled bass beats. The tension grew as well as my excitement as I looked forward to a scene my dad has raved about for years. We descended into an old bomb shelter with foot-thick walls, and dark passageways, turned a corner and we were there! There were disco balls turning and a live DJ as well as TVs and a full bar. Great! Except we soon realized Tuesday night is not the night to find a bumpin' party. The selection was great, if you are a girl — around 25 guys and maybe 4 or 5 girls. So after a bit, we turned around and returned to our comfortable hotel at around 1:30, looking forward to the next day of fun Fritz had invited us on.
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Fritz promised us "a little bike ride, with some gliding, and maybe a little hike after." Neither Alex nor I had any idea how hard could be. We took our time getting ready, because our appointment with Fritz was at 12. Alex skipped breakfast, and I caught the tail end getting some bread, and some real Swiss cheese (Fritz actually has a cow he collects milk to make his cheese from). I cycle a little bit. But that's on a road with a nice-fitting bike. Fritz met up with us decked out in spandex, biking cleats and an actual wrist watch altimeter. This was the first sign that this may not just be a "little ride" like he said. We saddled up and started making our way out of town. He says "Yes, today, we do one thousand meters, up the sdjokedeberdenhilkly and around the somethingorothermountain." "OK, I say." Long story short, we go all the way up a gosh darn mountain in the thin Swiss air. We made it, but just barely.
He hurried down the mountain for our paragliding appointment. We had time to pick up a Snickers candy bar but nothing else. Many times, Fritz has offered to take my dad up, but he's either too busy or chicken. Missing out! This was one of the most incredible things I've ever done. You just take a couple steps forward and WOOSH, you're up in the air as free as a bird. It was a beautiful 40 minute ride with 360-degree-big-as-you-can-get views. I only wish I could do this over my home town, so I can see everywhere like a bird. Anyways, I learned from Fritz that you can tell where the thermals are by looking at the clouds forming above a point of a mountain. So we would circle around the same area and gain up to 20 feet per second. Fritz said any more, and "We would risk a collapsed wing," something I'd take his words for.
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| Alex very high in the Alps. |
The only thing not beautiful about our flight was our landing. Fritz told me to run when we touch down, so I tried but was tugged back and into my seat. I quickly fell over, turned over, was stepped on by Fritz, and then dragged by a re-inflated parachute. So if you go parasailing — run.
In Fritz style, we quickly packed up the 'chute and we were complaining of hunger so much, he said "fine, I take you to eat." (We stopped for maybe eight minutes in the bottom floor of a supermarket.) We walked back to Fritz's place and "now we go on a hike." By this time, it was around 6:00 with the sun starting to hover over the horizon. We loaded up his car, and left town, again heading up a trail.
During our 45-minute drive, I learned that Fritz is an interesting pile of contradictions. We started talking about his aggravation with farmers' attitudes towards everything from tax-refunds to roads. I asked him "do you consider yourself a city person or a country one?" "Oh, nobody knows these hills better than me, I grew up out here." Yet he owns a hotel in the city, and every five minutes he'd say "look as this grass, you know, farmers are paid not to cut it, then cut it; not to make milk, to make milk, etc." As he says this, we pass some fundamentalists. "Ah, earth-mamas, always trying to tell us what to do, wool socks and wool dresses." This leads us to his explanation of his new gun license. It took him four years to earn it, and he is already preparing for his first season of hunting starting in September. This lead to discussing the private farming roads that the state paid for. I'm a little confused about the issue, but I guess you're supposed to have a license for driving on these back roads. But Fritz says, "I have not and will not ever pay to drive on these roads tax-payers like me paid for. Look at these farmers — how much taxes have they paid? And they get to use them."
Ah well, regardless, Fritz is a warm guy, with so much energy it has earned him a reputation region wide.
Later we arrive at a little grassy spot, park and head up yet another mountain. We reach the summit just in time for sunset, with a herd of Ibex not 15 yards from us. It was a surreal scene with Interlaken far below us, with a man that can name every mountain in sight and brag he's climbed up and skied down nearly everyone of them too.
Fritz later drove us to the gondola station below Gimmelwald. Exhausted and hungry, we arrived at our hostel, grabbed our sheets and dove into them. If you're going to have a "day of fun and adventure" with Fritz, make sure you've had good sleep and a lot of food in your belly. Something of which Alex and I had neither, but nonetheless, I will never forget our day with Fritz.
Mountain Hostel Switzerland — Alex (July 16)
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| Friends at the hostel. |
Well, we are staying in a great hostel called mountain hostel in Gimmelwald high above Interlaken. It has been great hanging out with people from all over the US, and hearing stories about their travels. For example, Andy and I got back from a day excursion to the top of a mountain where we took some pictures and did some sledding and had a good time, but we got back at around 7 and our friend, Rich (who sleeps below me and always seems to end up with my blanket in the morning — we both have no idea how that happens) had met some hot twins earlier and invited us to go hot tubbing (yes, the hostel has a hot tub!). It ended up being 5 guys and 2 girls, not the best ratio — but fun considering we were all packed in a four-person hot tub. We all just talked about where we came from, school, where we had been, and where we were planning on going in Europe.
After that everyone sat down for dinner in what looks like a summer camp dining room. I guess everyone but Andy and I pitched in 10 Swiss francs for a huge dinner that a chef that is staying here cooked. But Andy and I had food from the store, like a salad, pizza, and bananas and we survived. We ate with Rich and had a great talk about business trends, religion, school (he is 23 and graduated from school in Texas and had a lot of college advice for us).
After that, people cleaned up and just chilled. People were playing the piano, drums and whatever they could find and just singing and having a blast. I ended up getting involved in an intense game of hearts, 13, and an hour-long UNO game until we all just about fell asleep on our cards. We went to bed and woke up this morning once again to the sound of flies and those freakin' goats who I swear I want to kill because they wake me up every morning at 6:00. They just won't shut up! I decided to stay at the hostel today because it was overcast and rainy. We have been reading, playing chess, and talking to people passing through. It's been great relaxing day and a great stay over all.
Layover Day — Alex
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Today Andy and I had basically an entire day to just chill. We are taking a night train to Rome, and are staying there for a day and then catching another night train to Sicily. So, we got up and left the hostel with two new friends, Missy and Kristen, and we headed down to Interlaken. We said our good-byes and Andy and I headed over to a swimming pool that we had seen on the train ride up. It was awesome! It ended up being a large workout place that had a 30-foot-high dive, volley ball court, tennis court, restaurant and lots of space to lie out and play soccer.
We got there about 11:30 or so and it was overcast so not many people were there so we had the pool to ourselves. While sitting and eating some bread we met 2 guys from Texas who had just graduated college and we started talking about the Tour de France for like an hour. So, by this time it was 1 and the high part of the high dive (it is split into 6 sections at different heights) didn't open till two and so we spent the rest of that hour psyching ourselves out by looking at how high it was.
We did a couple practice rounds on the 15 footer and got our confidence up. 30 feet may not sound very high, but when you standing at the edge of that looking down into the water and look around and see 20 people watching to see what you do, you get nervous. When we got to the ledge, there were 6 or more kids just standing there deciding whether or not to jump. So...I just literally pushed them all aside and took a running leap off. I swear I was going at least 25 mph because right before you hit you could feel the wind running through your hair and the impact of that water hurt bad if you didn't have your feet pointed and arms at your side.
We all jumped about 3 times and got a snack at the bar and some random kid came up to us and asked if we wanted to play volley ball. We walked with him over to the sand court and embarked on an intense game of 6 on 6 verses some German guys and a girl that looked like Big Foot's daughter. She was a machine and when she would spike the ball you would just step aside to avoid the pain. We played for about 45 minutes and then decided to go for another swim and then we went our separate ways. It was a really, really nice day of nothing!
To contact the travelers, email Andy or Alex. Read more about how their journey began.