A tale of Twin Cities

We left Madison, headed to Minneapolis, but we had a stop planned at a place called House on the Rock.  House on the Rock is an eccentric home built by a guy named Alex Jordan that was built into the side of a rock formation in Wisconsin.  It was amazing to walk around in this home and I imagined it would have been really fun to run around and play hide and seek in that house for a kid.  There were all sorts of nooks and pathways throughout the house.  There is also a room called the infinity room that is a ledge off of the rock that looks like it goes on forever.  Another thing that Alex Jordan did was create a fun-house type museum right on the rock, with all sorts of attractions like animatronic bands that play songs and there's an entire old timey street, a huge whale sculpture and the largest carousel in the world... All inside!  There was so much stuff around that it is impossible for me to remember all of it.

After we left House on the Rock, we made our way to Minneapolis.  Minneapolis is one of the two cities known as the Twin Cities.  The other is St. Paul.  These two cities are separated by the Mississippi River.  St. Paul is the state capital and Minneapolis is the largest city in Minnesota.  We went and saw the state capitol building and the Cathedral of St. Paul in the City of St. Paul, and then we headed to Minneapolis and saw the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and went by the Mall of America.

The State Capitol building has a huge marble dome.  It is the second largest marble dome in the world.  The only one that is bigger is the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City (you know... where the pope does his thing).  It was under construction which wont be finished until 2017, so we weren't able to see the inside of the rotunda, but the outside was still impressive.

The Cathedral of St. Paul, also impressive is the third largest church in the US.  It looked just like one you might find in Europe, inside and out.

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is a park that has a bunch of sculptures including one called "Spoonbridge and Cherry" and that is one of the iconic images of Minneapolis.

The Mall of America can only be described as overwhelming.  It is the most visited mall in the US, and it is the second largest in terms of size.  There is a Nickelodeon theme park in the middle of the mall that has 5 roller coasters in it, it's three stories tall, and you can find just about any type of food that you would want there.

I've got the body of a god...Haha!

Infinity room

Old Timey Street on the rock

Calliope machine that plays music by pneumatics going through the pipes and hitting and blowing on jugs.

Giant whale in the middle of one of the rooms.

Carousel was bright and ornate.

Minnesota State Capitol

Cathedral of St. Paul

Inside the cathedral

Looking up into the dome of the cathedral

Spoonbridge and Cherry

Fish sculpture in the sculpture garden

Busyness at the Nickelodeon theme park at the Mall of America

Cool Lego display at the Mall of America

Fields, Parks and a Capitol

Our second day in Chicago, we really got to experience the city's nickname.  It was quite the blustery day!  We headed into the city and got poured on and when we got into the city, we almost blew away the wind was so strong.  We had already made the decision to go to the Field Museum which worked out well.

The Field Museum is a museum of natural history and it is an impressive collection.  They have the largest, most intact, skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the world, and a hall of gems that has a 5,900 carat topaz and they had a couple special exhibits about soil and the biomechanics of human and animal bodies.  We spent most of the day in the museum and probably could have spent longer if we had the time.  Right beside the field museum is Soldier Field which is where the Chicago Bears play their home games.

The next morning, we left Chicago for the next stop Madison, Wisconsin.  As soon as we got into Wisconsin, we passed a place called Cheese Castle.  We didn't stop, but it's funny how much they take that cheese stereotype and run with it.  We took a route that took us through Milwaukee.  There we stopped by Miller Park which is where the Milwaukee Brewers play.  Then we drove around Milwaukee a little and saw the art museum there and a marina, then we kept on to Madison.

Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and is the home of the main campus of the University of Wisconsin.  We drove right in through campus and had lunch at a place called Mickies Dairy Bar.  The food was great and I had a chocolate milkshake was delicious.  After lunch we headed to the State Capitol building.  The building is very impressive and definitely american capitol-esque.  Inside was very beautiful with multiple different colored marble and granite all over.

Field Museum.

Sue the Tyrannosaurus Rex

Wisconsin State Capitol

Inside the rotunda at the capitol building

Beauty inside the capitol

View from around the rotunda

Chi-town, the Windy City

Chicago is an exciting city!  The buildings are tall, the monuments are artistic, the food is delicious, and the

When we got to town the first night, we went to a restaurant called Lou Malnati's which served deep dish pizzas and it was a good experience.  The food was delicious and the server was super nice!

Dad and I took a Metra train into the city the first full day in town.  We started walking around the city and first hit up the Willis Tower (formerly Sear's Tower).  That tower is TALL!!!... It is the second tallest building in the US, after the Freedom Tower in New York and stands over 1450 feet tall.  There are 108 stories in the building and on the 103rd floor there is a Skydeck that we were able to go to.  From there, you have a great 360 degree view of Chicago and Lake Michigan (On a clear day, you can see Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin too).  We also walked out on a glass deck and you can see all the way to the ground... That's an intense view, looking at 1350 feet between you and the ground.

From there, we walked to Millennium Park.  The park was picturesque and is home to the Jay Pritzker Pavillion and the Cloud Gate.  I was super excited to see them because, other than the Willis Tower, they typify what I think of as Chicago.  Frank Gehry designed the pavilion and it is used for performing arts.  Cloud Gate is a giant chrome cloud(ish) shaped statue in the middle of a plaza.  It's been nicknamed "The Bean" because it kinda looks like a giant shiny kidney bean.  It's cool seeing the distorted reflections all around the cloud and if you go under it, there is an "omphalos" (bean belly button) where you can see a bunch of different reflections and it can be dizzying to move around while looking up at it.

We had a Chicago Style hot dog for lunch which was great!  I think dad's going to try to make them when we get back.  After lunch we walked down to Buckingham Fountain and then down Lakeshore Drive and all the way to Navy Pier.  Navy Pier was designed by Daniel Burnham (who designed the 1893 World's Fair held in Chicago) in the 1910s and it now has a children's museum, a few restaurants, a beer garden, a large Ferris Wheel, an IMAX theatre and Chicago boat tours start there.

From the Navy Pier we walked to Michigan Avenue where it is known as the "Magnificent Mile"  There are upscale stores and hotels along the whole road.  The Drake Hotel is at one end of it and I was excited about that because that is a plot point in the original "Mission: Impossible" movie with Tom Cruise (and I like that movie alot).

We then walked to a Pizza place called Giordano's which have great deep dish pizzas.  We got a bacon, barbeque pizza and a bacon, pepperoni, salami, and sausage pizza.  They were super thick and very good!  Then we caught a ride on the Metra back to our car and headed back to the hotel for the night.

View from the top... of the Willis Tower

Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park

Cloud Gate!

The under belly of the Bean

Under the Elevated Train 

Sailboats on Lake Michigan

As above, so below... maybe you can find some of these buildings in the view from the top pic?

Chicago Water Works building

Chicago Tribune building

What's round on the edges and High in the middle?

It's Ohio of course!  Guffaw!  (I regret the decision to post that joke, but my delete key is broken)

We left Pittsburgh yesterday morning heading to Cincinnati.  As we headed out of town and into Ohio I noticed the terrain went from mountainous, to hilly, to flat.  It's clear we're heading to the plains.

The route from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati takes you by Columbus, OH.  Columbus is the state capital and also the home to Ohio State University, which yesterday evening played Virginia Tech in football (AND WON!!! GO HOKIES!!!).  I knew my friend Tim was going to the game so I texted him and found out where he was and we went into the city to meet up with him.  It was fun driving through the city and seeing orange and maroon walking around all over the place.  We ate at a local brewpub called Barley's that had some great food!  Then after dinner, dad and I walked to and around inside the Ohio Statehouse, the capitol building.

After leaving Columbus, we headed into Cincinnati.  We met up with some friends we know that live in Cincinnati (Kristen and Phil and baby Mary, and Margie is visiting).  We went out to dinner at Skyline Chili.  I was still stuffed from lunch, so I didn't get any chili, but it looked and smelled delicious.  Then we went back to Kristen and Phil's house and had a blast catching up with them.

The next morning, we went to Kristen and Phil's church, New City Pres. Cincinnati.  The people there were super friendly and it was a great service, though they did a bunch of worship songs that I had never heard before.  That's fun though because I love learning new songs.

After that we headed to Washington Park in a place called Over-the-Rhine (it's abbreviated OTR all over the place).  OTR got it's name from the German immigrants who walked from that neighborhood over a canal which the nicknamed "The Rhine" after the river in Germany.  Washington Park was nice with a few playplaces for children and a fenced in dog park and on one side of the park was the Cincinnati Music Hall.  The Cincinnati Celtic festival was going on there which had people doing flatfoot dancing, playing bagpipes and there were food stands all around the park.  Dad and I walked around OTR for a little while and then headed into the Music Hall and watched the Cincinnati Pops perform selected music from Disney's Fantasia while the video was playing above them on a screen.  That was a unique experience to hear the great music live and see the visuals matching up.

After that we drove around the downtown area and saw the Bengals' home stadium and Great American Ball Park (Home of the Reds) and then headed back to Kristen and Phil's home.  They sure have amazing hospitality to host us for dinner with a newborn baby and I'm very thankful for them!  After dinner we played games and reminisced about old times and then headed back for the night.  And tomorrow we will be on our way to Chicago!

Ohio Statehouse, Columbus

Inside the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus

Irish dancers in Washington Park

Cincinnati Music Hall

Beautiful Chandelier in the Music Hall

Me, Margie, Phil, Mary (In Phil's arms), Kristen, Dad... And Dasher sitting down.

Day 1, State 4

Starting out the trip out west has been long awaited.  Dad and I started out around 9:15 in the morning and headed north.  We traveled through some nice areas in VA that we had ne'er been to, then into West Virginia (Where we stopped and took off the Virginia Tech magnet from the back of the car because we were going to be heading through Morgantown), then into Maryland, back into WV and finally into Pennsylvania.  Let me say, the Allegheny mountains look the same in WV as they do in PA and as they do in Virginia... beautiful!

We got to Pittsburgh for our first stop and headed into town.  We rode the Duquesne Incline (A funicular rail car) up and down Mount Washington and got a beautiful view of downtown Pittsburgh.  From the top of the hill, you can see the convergence of the rivers known as "Three Rivers" which is where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet up and create the Ohio River.  It's a cool sight to see all the steel bridges that span the rivers.  There is also a great view of Heinz field, where the Steelers play.

After leaving there, we traveled over to the University of Pittsburgh.  There is a huge tower there called the Cathedral of Learning (I hear the other area colleges call it the "Tower of Ignorance" in the spirit of sibling rivalry)  The tower is about 40 stories tall and there are offices and classrooms all over the building.  Walking inside is an interesting mesh of old and new.  The high vaulted ceilings and wooden benches and tables make it feel like an old gothic cathedral and then there are students sitting at those tables with laptops open, wearing Beats headphones, and playing Mahjong on their smartphones.  We went up to the 36th floor and there were some observation windows where you could see all around the university.  There were also some rooms on that floor that are used for classrooms.  I think it would be cool to have class over 300 feet in the air.

As we were heading back to the car, I noticed a large group of people playing Quidditch (Game wizards play in Harry Potter)... nerds!  ...but I kind of wanted to play.

For dinner, we ate at a Primanti Bros. restaurant.  They have sandwiches that are stacked tall with meat, cheese, coleslaw and fries.  Yep, that's right! They put the fries right in the sandwich.  From what I hear, these are a uniquely Pittsburgh sandwich and it was good.

Tomorrow we head to Cincinnati and continue leaving states behind us.  Looking forward to seeing some great people there!!!

Duquesne Incline

Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet.

Cathedral of Learning.

Heinz Chapel.

Ending where I began, this European chapter ends.

Back in Brussels ready to fly out.  This has been a wonderful adventure and I've had the time of my life.  I look forward to seeing friends and family soon and sharing wonderful experiences with you all.

Thank you to all the people that I met and hung out with along the way.  Thierry, Lauren, Ondrej, Ted, Carolyn, Brad, Stacey, Josh, Dennis, Cynde, Ahmed, Jacquie, Dylan, Jo, Lea, Doug, Tavi, Jeni, Ron, Alessia, Rebecca, Josh, Noah, Lizzie, Lydia, Danny, Teddy, Shari, Seza, Todd, Nicolette, John, Sebastian, Michel, BokGyu, Brad, Dan, Cameron, Billy, Brad, Luigi, Tom, Nicole, Alex, Jenny, Anja, Elena, Froonk, Markus, Elli, Carina, Jasmine, Stefanie, Talal, Sheng, Vinnie and Joe.

If you don't see your name on the list, it's probably because I never caught your name.  There are plenty of other people that I met and hung out with, but never got your name or I cant remember it at the moment (I haven't forgotten you though).

Another big thank you to all the people back home who sent me messages throughout the journey!  You helped keep me positive and reminded me of your friendship!

And last but certainly not least, a HUGE thanks to Rosalie for travelling with me for two months... and putting up with me that whole time!  I know I would not have enjoyed this trip as much if you hadn't been here with me.

This chapter ends, a new one begins...  Check back in a few months for the US trip blog!  Same bat address, same bat channel.

Viva Colonia!

Cologne, Germany is a very nice city.  The buildings are beautiful and the people are so nice (when I was on the train from Salzburg to Munich, I met a German girl that said Cologne is probably where the nicest German people live).

The first night in town, I went out with a group of German people to a couple pubs and a dance club :)  Even though they only spoke a little bit of English, the people treated me like one of them.  They also taught me about a song called Viva Colonia that they sing at sporting events and in clubs and jump around and have fun while doing it!

The rest of the city is also beautiful.  The cathedral there, Kolner Dom, is stunning.  It has the fourth highest spires in the world (interesting tidbit - The highest spires are in Ulm at the Ulm Minster which I saw on the train ride from Heidelberg to Cologne)  The stained glass windows inside are very intricate and beautiful.

Around the area of the cathedral, there is a bridge that the trains cross to get to the main train station and there are pedestrian paths across the bridge too.  Along those paths people who get married will put a lock along the fence there which is really cool to see.

Around the area of the city hall, there are large open places with restaurants and brew halls all around.  The weather was very nice so they would have tables all over the plazas with people filling them.

This is the last new place of my journey and I have to say, it has gone by too fast.  I will be glad to get back home and see friends and family, but I will also miss the people that I became friends with.

This is what the finial at the top of the spires look like up close.  They are huge!

Kolner Dom.  The largest church facade in the worl... i think.

One of the stained glass window inside.

Notice the intricate glass design.

One side of the cathedral.

Cathedral with the afore mentioned train/pedestrian bridge in front.  You can see the locks there across the bottom.

Closer view of the locks... There are probably over a quarter-million locks!

Rathshaus.  City hall building tower.