THE video

Here is 40 + minutes of footage from the trip over the course of the last few months. I have spent way too much time working on this, and am glad to finally be able to present it to the general public. Enjoy!

Last day...

Destination... Cologne!

Cologne, Germany is another huge German city. Here we were in awe of their giant cathedral which is the center piece for the city. We climbed over 500 stairs to go the the top of the cathedral for some spectacular views and photos. Here we also went to the chocolate museum, where we saw the entire chocolate making process and learned more about chocolate then I would ever need to know. One of the coolest things we did is drink and eat at a bar that is so old that it was first mentioned in texts from the 1300's. They throw beers down on the table before you even sit, and make sure that you never run out. Here we ate some liverwurst and pickled herring, which tasted much better than the "fine" French food from the fancy Paris place. Cologne was the perfect was to end our mad dash through Europe.

Destination... Dusseldorf!

Dusseldorf, Germany Is home to the "Worlds longest Bar". This means that there are some 40 or so bars right next to each other, effectively making it the worlds longest. We went to a hand full of these bars trying the local beer and having exotic drinks (I tried a "Flaming Moe" and almost burnt my hand off). The German people were very friendly and helped us when we got lost (Dusseldorf is huge!). We went up in a giant tower and took pictures of the city and the beautiful Rhine river. We also went and looked at the Old Town, which has some interesting buildings and some strange surprises (See photo). Miranda spent her birthday here and we had a whole lot of fun.

Destination... Paris!

Paris, France was an experience to say the least. This city is larger than life, everyone of it's inhabitants is a character, and every hour brought a new story. To write about everything that happened in Paris would be difficult, so I'll do my best.
French people are crazy. The walk around eating 3ft sticks of bread, they wear heavy black jackets in the hot sun, and they Drive like maniacs. The strangest thing about the French people, is that they seem to think I am someone who I am not. Maybe I look like someone famous in France, because I was constantly getting the strangest looks from people. At first I thought there was something on my face. Then I thought maybe they just like to stare. I was assured there was nothing on my face, and no one else was getting the confused looks. Soon I noticed a French guy tap his girlfriend shoulder to get her attention, he then said something and pointed at me, her face lit up and they both got really exited. A group of guys ran up to me, one of them began repeating "salut, salut!", which I am told is a greeting usually reserved for friends and people you know. Soon Erin noticed a lady who's jaw dropped when she saw me. I walked by a cafe patio full of about fifty people enjoying the sunny day (still all dressed in black jackets), at least a hand full of them were visibly freaked out by the sight of "me". This continued to happen throughout my time in France (and even by a French couple we sat next to in a coffeeshop back in Amsterdam). I am pretty sure that this is my punishment for the whole Cap'n Creepy Picture poaching fiasco. (Whatever, who hasn't taken a photo of a stranger and manipulated it to be an iconic image featured on T-shirts and G-string thong underwear.)
There was also what I call "The great Paris Dinner Fiasco"... We all got dressed up all fancy with the intent of going to a nice French restaurant. It was an extremely nice restaurant, and very busy. While waiting for our table we went to the bar, Jeff saw a half empty mixed drink sitting on the table, and asked the bartender what it was. The bartender said something in French and made the same drink for him. I walked in, and like an idiot, and said "I'll have what he's having". We then get seated, and well, we all kind of start to get sick. Erin, seemed to start feeling bad first. We tried to stop her food from coming out, and seriously pissed off our stereotypical French waiter. Soon our fish came, by now both Miranda and I were feeling dizzy. The fish did not help, and we had some problems eating it. Not eating the food pissed off the whole staff. Miranda overheard them talking "smack" about the "Americanos" We had to get our bill early and leave (it wasn't exactly "cheap" either). Oh yeah, and the drinks we had at the bar... were made with Absinthe (Damn, we are stupid).
We Did plenty of sightseeing. The Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triumph, Louvre Museum, all very fun. I got to see the Mona Lisa, which was really cool, and very small. Also hung out at the Eiffel tower, didn't make it to the top though (It's just not my scene, man). I did make up to the second level though (I took the stairs... ouch).