The First Post, This is a long one.

After landing in Frankfurt, Germany on September 11th with no problems we jumped on a train and headed into the city centre. The first hostel we stayed at was located right next to the train station which made is very easy to find. After checking in, we took a walk around the block, snapped some pictures of the European Central Bank Building and were impressed by all the nice cars. We were still pretty jet lagged so we had some dinner on one of the many sidewalk cafes and made it to bed nice early.

The next day we picked up the rental car we booked for the weekend and drove up the Autobahn towards Bonn where we stayed the night Friday. It was raining out so the speed was kept down and the countryside was somewhat harder to see, but it still felt good to be in a car again. After getting lost and asking for directions about 3 times we finally found the place we stayed at, which turned out to be located pretty much in a forest.

The next day we headed out to the Nürbergring, a world famous race track where some of the best new German cars are tested. The road we needed to take to get there turned out to be closed, but after seeing some exotic cars dive by we decided to follow them and eventually found the track. We parked the car and got sidetracked in the parking lot by the endless amounts of rare Porsche 911s and other amazing cars. We walked around the pits a bit and soon realized the race that we had hoped to see had already ended. We were not sure if it was because of the rain or just the timing, but in the end it was still worth the visit.

Can you guess which one was our rental car?

From the ring we drove up to Köln. That night we took a walk through the town and checked out the sights, including the DOM at night. This cathedral has quite the presence. As well, to our surprise we stumbled upon a street festival with live music which was pretty cool.

On Sunday, we saw the sites of Köln by day and checked out the inside of the DOM. We then took a drive around the city before cruising down to Frankfurt where we had to return our car. It was a beautiful afternoon so were were able to fully experience the Autobahn, the Rhine Valley countryside and all the cars flying by us, most of the time.

Above is a familar sight on the autobahn, the no speed limit sign!

Monday we hopped on the high speed ICE train to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is like no other place. It's really hard to describe the feeling of walking down the winding narrow alleys over the many canals, watching out for all the bikes and taking in all the beautiful buildings.

Amsterdam has so many things jammed together. In the heart of the city it is literally packed with bars, restaurants and shops with many pedestrian only areas. In general, things were expensive so we made sure to get lots of walking in and check out the various districts. We also visited the VanGough Museum. Normally Joel is not too big into art but on that day he actually found an interest in the works on display.

On Monday night we were even able to find a sports bar where although 49 of the 50 TVs were playing soccer, Scott was able to sit in front of the one playing the NFL highlights from Sunday's games.
After Amsterdam, we headed back into Germany towards Hamburg. Going to this large port city was a nice change from Amsterdam. We checked out Hamburg's apparently world famous St.Pauli district by night and took a walk by the harbour the next day. As it turned out the hostel we were at was in a pretty nice area and was not busy at all. So we took some time to do some laundry and try and relax after what felt like some intense traveling so far on the trip.

Friday we headed to Berlin. The hostel we booked was right off the rail line which made it very easy to find and get back to. This hostel was big and turned out do be a good find. After taking in a walking tour with a Third Reich theme on Saturday and then going on a pub crawl that same night we were pretty worn out on Sunday, but still made it out to the German History Museum. After an unexpected extension to our stay in the city, we were also able to see more sights including the Berlin DOM and the Olympic Stadium. This also gave us the chance to meet and get to know a good group of people (mostly Aussies) in our hostel. Berlin was cheap, easy to get around, and had lots to do so it we were happy to spend a week there.