Semana Santa [10 days of European adventure]

So sorry it has taken me so long to write this blog post about semana santa. Semana santa was not so relaxing so after coming back to Granada I needed to digest and relax for a little while before writing. For semana santa, which was 10 days long, I traveled to Germany, the Netherlands, and Scotland. It was such a great trip full of tons of traveling, sightseeing and meeting new people. This may or may not be a super long post. Feel free not to read the whole thing.

Germany.
On Friday March 30th, I took a city bus full of people to the bus station in order to head to the airport in Malaga to fly to Germany. I was full of nerves because I had never traveled by myself before. After what seemed like a long bus ride to Malaga we made it to the airport and from there it was another waiting game. The gate for our flight was not called until 10 minutes before. My travel partner Alicia and I were both a nervous wreck. But we made it on the plan and prepared for our 2 hour flight. We finally began to decend and all I could see was farm land. We got off the plane and the smell of cow hit me. We arrived at Dusseldorf Weeze airport, which to my surprise is not actually in Dusseldorf, but about an hour away from the city. At this point I tried to stay calm and figure out how we were going to get to the city. We asked the information desk and the German woman wasn't very helpful. She told us to take the bus to the train station, but when we walked out to the buses there were none to be see and lone behold all the information was written in German. So we headed toward the door of the aiport to talk to someone else when we run into someone from my program.  He just happened to be spending his break in Dusseldorf with an old foreign exchange student. I asked the foreign exchange student if he knew where Gruiten was and by some miracle it was his village, which we found out was really small. He offered to drive us to our destination.  We hopped in the car with him, and sped down the autobahn toward the family's house where we were staying. The house of the family was pretty far into the woods, but was so peaceful. The family was absolutely amazing. Feeding us amazing food like German sausage and potatos, chocolate, ice cream and so much more.  They even had the fuzziest cat I have ever seen.  The cat is the son of the Friskies cat, so he is pretty much famous too.

On our first full day in Germany we visited the Neanderthal Museum, which was supposed to be about an hour walk away, but turned out to be 2 hours with us getting turned around in the woods. It was a great walk despite all the wind and sprinkling. The next day we headed to Cologne.  As we were at the train station buying our tickets these two German men saw that we had bought the wrong ticket and offered to take us to Cologne on their ticket. So we headed to Cologne with these men who turned out to be super nice. They showed us a little bit of Cologne before they had to head to their meeting. Walking across the bridge into part of Cologne we saw this really cool display of engagement locks. People who are engaged write their names and the date and put a lock on the bridge. It is so sweet!  While in Cologne we visited the Dome where we climbed up 533 steps to the top. It was such a rush being up that high.  We also went to the chocolate museum where we sampled some Lindt chocolate and got to see how it was made.  I also disovered that there are Roman ruins pretty much everywhere. The next day we headed to Dusseldorf where we saw lots and lots of shops. There wasn't too much to do there besides shopping. Here are some pictures from Germany!

 The Dome

The next day we took a train to Amsterdam. Holland turned out to be nothing like the Holland, Michigan that I know. The only thing in common is the tulips, but there ends the similarities. In Amsterdam I saw things I thought I would never such as the red light district (such a sad sight). While in Amsterdam for our short time we tried to pack as much in as we could. We visited the Anne Frank house, which was such a blessing to see and to experience. We also visited the Tulip Museum (I assume now that it was meant for people on drugs). I also went on a canal ride and saw a lot of the city. We visited the Van Gogh Museum and the Marijuana Museum (more informative than you would think). The 2 days that we were there were absolutely packed. Here are some pics!

 Anne Frank House

After just two days in Amsterdam we headed to the airport once again to go to Edinburgh, Scotland. We arrived pretty late at night there and went straight to bed after a long day of travel. The next day we woke up and were ready to explore the city.  The day provided for beautiful sunny weather (unusual for Scotland) so we decided that it was the perfect day to climb up to Arthur's seat. It was such an amazing view. Along the way we got to see the Queen's castle where she stays when she visits Scotland. The view from the top was breathtaking and a bit windy. On the way back down we decided to take the path less traveled, which we will just say was interesting.  That night even though we were tuckered out, we decided to go on the free pubcrawl with our hostel.  During the pubcrawl I met the crocodile hunter, a 33 year old man from Australia who decided to creep on me. I was officially creeped out. The following day we went to the Craigmillar castle and had fun weaving our way through the rooms. Then after that we walked through the National Museum of Scotland. The museum was huge and had so much stuff in it. You would have to spend days in there to see everything. It was crazy! That night we went on a free Potter trail tour in which we got to see the places where J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books and where she found her inspiration. Our tour guide was dressed in robes and even handed out wands. It was pretty awesome! The next day we took a day trip through the highlands to Loch Ness.  It was a lot of riding in the bus, but was worht the views that we were able to see! Too bad I didn't get to see Nessie though.  The following day was the day we had to leave and it was Easter. I had a chocolate bunny and a cadburry egg to celebrate then we hit the double decker bus to the airport and then headed on our way back home to Spain. Here are some pics!

 Arthur's seat

 Craigmillar Castle

 Tour guide for Potter Trail tour

 Haymish the highland coo

 Loch Ness

 Scottish Monument

Happy Easter!!

Overall the trip was so great. Full of planes, trains, and buses. Three countries in 10 days was a lot to handle, but I am just so blessed to have had the oportunity to travel to these places.