Culture Corner: EuroTrip 2022
What in the world did we spend all our time doing in Europe, in the downtime between foods? We covered a lot of ground — walking an average of 10 miles a day for most of the trip — and were lucky enough to experience many of the cultural highlights each city had to offer. A few of our favorites are below.
The Catacombs of Paris
I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from this attraction (nor am I sure that “attraction” is a fitting descriptor). My sole reference point was a trailer for a horror movie some years ago that featured / took place in the Catacombs, which of course primed me to assume that this experience would be a frightening one.
The Catacombs are located 20 meters beneath Paris, accessible by a tightly winding staircase that takes you down and down and down until you feel the quiet dampness pressing in on you from all sides. You follow the soothing voice of an audio guide as you duck through the tunnels toward the final resting place of thousands of the dead.
Surprisingly, this wasn’t as creepy as I was worried it would be. I debated whether I’d need to have my anxiety medication on hand, between the nature of the place and the sheer depth and apparent difficulty of making a quick escape should the need arise, but this concern ended up being unnecessary. Between the design and the way the tour is structured, it’s clear that the intention here is to honor the dead and minimize disturbance. When you reach the tomb itself and begin walking among the bones neatly arranged and adorned with different quotes, prayers, and biographical information, the space takes on a peacefulness that I wasn’t expecting.
The Catacombs are what I would call a “should not miss” feature of Paris. There’s something so unique about the quiet of this place surrounding you, even while you know Parisians are walking, driving, and going about their day far above your head. And when the tour is over, the climb out into the fresh air viscerally reignites your sense of being alive.
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
We ended up in Luxembourg largely due to geography and timing. When we were planning our trip itinerary, we found that this country, one of the smallest in Europe, was in the path between France and Belgium, and we figured since we were unlikely to do a future trip solely to visit, we might as well fit it in.
We only spent about 24 hours here, so our visit was likely a snippet of what it has to offer, but what we did see was great. Luxembourg is truly — for lack of a better word — cute. It’s part metropolitan city, with a smattering of different international restaurants to accommodate the many travelers and immigrants passing through; part flashback to medieval Europe, complete with a protective city wall which remains mostly intact. Every walk around the city had a slightly different vibe, and overall it was quiet and incredibly well-maintained.
Even in light of all this, I don’t think I’d say a separate or extended trip here is needed, but if you’re in the area it’s definitely a worthwhile stop. The sparsely filled streets and expansive green spaces here were a nice respite between the bustle of Paris and Brussels, one that I think we sorely needed.
Atomium (Brussels, Belgium)
I think it’s a shame that the Atomium is not among the most well known attractions in Europe. Just a short train ride north of Brussels’ city center, it has all the right elements: over 300 feet tall, an observation deck with fantastic views, and very shiny. Built in 1958 it is part of an exclusive group of buildings constructed for a World’s Fair like Paris’s Eiffel Tower, Chicago’s Ferris Wheel, and Seattle’s Space Needle. Its structure consists of 9 steel spheres that could represent an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Even on a cloudy day walking around the base of it was a very enjoyable experience; we watched a maintenance crew dangle from one sphere so they could maintain the mirror-like finish.
Edibles Workshop (Amsterdam)
It’s common knowledge that you can walk into any one of Amsterdam’s numerous coffee shops and casually order marijuana. Even the convenience stores have cookies, brownies, and other sweets that claim to contain weed. However, we learned most of the readily available edibles do not contain any THC at all!
Finding a workshop on Airbnb experiences to learn how to make our own edibles was one of the best decisions we made throughout the whole vacation. Our host, Thomas, was incredibly knowledgeable about the science, legality, and history of marijuana in the Netherlands. It turns out it is still mostly illegal, but their approach is completely different. The government decided that heavily taxing sales and providing thorough, safety-based education was a better use of their time than an incarceration-based approach like the US.
We first met at a small local coffee shop that has all of their products tested for purity and potency. Thomas walked us through all our options and acted like our own personal sommelier so we were able to choose a strain of hash that fit our needs. He brought us back to his apartment, climbing up a traditionally narrow Dutch spiral staircase, where we baked some very tasty brownies. He also demonstrated how to extract the THC from marijuana plants and make a concentrated oil that can be used in a variety of applications; including making gummy candies!
We’ve had very good luck with meeting other vacationers while attending Airbnb experiences. This workshop was a good way to ensure that other people had similar interests as us.
After all of our hard work, we of course had to test drive the brownies over the rest of the trip. And let’s just say they were an extremely successful addition to our adventures ;)
Anne Frank House (Amsterdam)
The thing about Europe that can be easy to forget or lose sight of in the midst of all the country-hopping fun, is the impact of the Second World War and the Nazis on this continent. Paris, Amsterdam, and Belgium all experienced terror and occupation during Hitler’s reign.
There are plenty of museums and monuments to this horrible period, but few compare to what has been cultivated at the Anne Frank House. The reality of her circumstances is impressed upon you from the moment you walk in, the whole space almost eerily quiet. You’re struck by the reality of their captivity as you navigate the space with your own body, when you read Anne’s words and imagine her writing them while locked up precisely where you now stand. It’s immersive, and it’s tragic.
The craziest feeling though, and what drives home the impact, is stepping back out into the street and feeling the grasp Anne’s story had on you slowly ebb away as you deal with traffic and dodge people who have perhaps no awareness of the sacred ground they tread.
Dutch Culture Day
Tulips, cheese, windmills, and clogs! We got to enjoy learning about Dutch culture on our second Airbnb experience of the vacation. We met up with our tour guide early in the morning so that he could drive us from Amsterdam to the Keukenhof, the famous tulip fields that draw tens of thousands of visitors every year.
The range of flowers and plants grown on these sprawling grounds is very impressive. We were visiting during the first week they were open for the year, so we got to see daffodils and hyacinths in full bloom. The tulips were being grown in a very impressive green house that housed dozens and dozens of varieties.
We spent a couple hours walking around taking in all the flowers before piling back into the car to drive up north to the quaint village of Zaandam. Most of the Netherlands is actually below sea level so much of its infrastructure revolves around canals. We got to walk around a quiet, car-free neighborhood full of tiny shops and residential homes.
The Dutch have also been utilizing windmills for centuries, for everything from sawmills to grinding peanuts into peanut butter. We went inside one windmill that was grinding pigments for paint. We went through the interior of the structure to see the inner workings of this windmill and into the private pigment room. Artists from all over still come to get just the right color combinations for their future masterpieces.
After the windmill tour we got to the shopping district of the village. Every shop had an impressive history of selling unique wares, and they continue to thrive. The cheese shop had all sorts of tasty samples, the clog shop gave us a live demonstration of how to carve a wooden shoe from a log, and at the bakery we learned how the Dutch used to sleep in a bedroom smaller than most American closets.
This really was one of the most unexpectedly fun and informative days.
