Central and Western Europe April 2017

We slept very well, Danielle said these were her favorite pillows she has ever slept on (from IKEA). We got up at 4:30PM. We woke up earlier than we wanted but our Europe body clocks would not let us sleep any longer. So we just got up, had our last bite of oatmeal and were off to the airport. We walked back which took about 15 min this time since we knew where we were going and to our terminal which was a ways away. Boarded quickly and the first flight to EWR was only 50 min. Then we had to go through security again in EWR which a very dirty airport, and on to the last flight which was an 1 hr and 30 min to SAV. Alex's Mom and Pop picked us up with lunch in a cooler for us which we were grateful for because we were starving (turkey sandwiches, potato chips, a panera cookie, and a banana). Yum American food--hahaha, not really! Then we arrived back on Hilton Head and Danielle had to go right into work (even though she was let go that Friday-shitty).

We got up at 7:15AM (because we went to bed so early, we woke up pretty early) and went down to the free breakfast. They have a 4 person crew making and running breakfast. Even though there were so many people staying here, breakfast was fully loaded with food and ran so smoothly. There was toast, white or wheat, 6 kinds of cereal, all kinds of jam flavors, bananas, apples, plum looking things (rather tasteless), meats and cheeses, milk, coffee, water with oranges, cucumbers, or lemons in it. Danielle made a pb and j with a banana and come cereal and Alex had a meat and cheese sandwich and cereal too with his coffee. We both grabbed with pastry looking thing and after one bite, Danielle knew it was meat and that was the end of that. Eww. The cafeteria was packed with people of all ages (we had a young male rugby team they were maybe 10 (20 of them all under 12, but very well behaved) or so and then adults too) but there was a table open so we sat down and ate and even made sandwiches t...

It was a rough sleep-because Alex was warm we had the window and shade open and there was a large electric billboard that flashed lights the whole evening and morning. Also there must be a bird gathering next door because we had birds start their calling like 3 or 4 AM and they were loud and obnoxious. It was hard to get back asleep once we were woken up. Our alarms pretty soon after that, around 5:30AM went off and we were up and our of the hostel. We took a train by 6AM, to a bus at 6:15AM, to the airport by 6:35AM-their public transport and signs to follow were excellent. It was very easy to find the train, bus, and we made it early to the airport. The check-in was not even open when we arrived so we had to wait for about 15 min or so. We checked in online, but Ryanair makes you get a date stamp on your ticket before you can go up to security. So we got that and headed toward security. Right before the entry, we sat down and ate our protein bread things which were actually really d...

We got up at 7:30AM, had oatmeal (again--we ate a lot of oatmeal and Alex was very sick of it, but that is what we knew would travel the best and give us some fullness). Then off to the train which was about a 20 min walk. Every train we have walked into has been very warm until it leaves and then a little A/C will come on. This one not being an exception, it was really warm this train. However, the A/C was much more powerful then all the others so it actually cooled down nicely (that is first train thus far that has actually cooled down quickly, the rest have been fairly toasty). We took our layers off as we entered and got comfortable, this would be the last train ride (5 hours and 20 min). All the trains have left on time except Munich which were all about 5-10 min late coming and going. This train ride was pretty long, but we napped, talked, and played hangman. We knew we were in Scotland, because of all the green pastures, sheep, lambs, and goats, open fields, rolling green hills...

Throughout the night, Alex had to check on the laundry because apparently the washer/dryer was only a washer and all the clothing was wet. He was such an amazing husband and didn't wake Danielle but hung up all the clothing in the spare bedroom and put a fan on to dry them. Even by 7AM the clothing was still very wet, but we made it work. Alex didn't get a whole lot of sleep then! Danielle still was not feeling great, so she slept more but not very well either. We woke up once together and decided we needed more sleep so we slept until after 8 today. We had some oatmeal with toast and hazelnut spread which we snatched from our hotel in Amsterdam. One of the other girls who was staying in this Airbnb must have had a not so good night because when we both used the bathroom, there was some throw-up by the shower--ewwww!! Come on ladies. It was disgusting. Another not so good thing about our place is that we could not connect to the internet at all, no signal nothing (we ended up g...

We both woke up around 1:15AM to a loud car outside out window who got trapped outside in the little outside walkway.  We didn't know how she got there, but she meowed for like 45 minutes. Our room was very stuffy (couldn't control the temperature so we opened the window but that made the cat louder and Danielle all stuffed up. But then when we closed the window, Alex was terribly warm. We finally fell back asleep and got up at 6:35AM. We got dressed, went to breakfast (supplied by the hotel) and then off the other train. The breakfast had a lot of choices-bread for sandwiches with 3 meat options (salami, ham, and pepperoni), cereals, milk (4 kinds- strawberry milk, chocolate milk, white milk, and one that was orangish), tea/coffee, hazelnut spread which Danielle made a sandwich with, jams, hard boiled eggs, cheese, cucumbers. We both had our fill! The train station was about 3 min away, just over the river so it was a super easy walk. Got on the train and were off to Brussels,...