We really enjoyed our short stopover in southern France, and found that it really is “nice in Nice”. We arrived in Nice on Thursday afternoon after a lunch stop at Aix-en-Provence. From the coach we had our first view of the beautiful pebble beach with its crystal blue waters and throngs of people. We didn’t have time to stop then though, as we needed to check into our hotel and get ready to head out to Monaco for dinner, and later, the casino. All dressed up, we made or way over the winding hills to Monaco - the home of the [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was another long day of travel to Avignon. We had a lunch stop along the way at the medieval city of Carcassone which was pretty cool. The city walls are still in place and the interior is lined with narrow streets full of cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops. We didn’t have much time to explore but we had a quick look around then ate lunch in a sunny little tree lined square before piling back onto the bus. We arrived in Avignon “The City of the Popes” in the late afternoon and had a couple of hours to look around [View Full Entry]

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An early start to a long day! Today our tour group headed off to Barcelona by coach - approximately an 8 hour drive. Not long into the journey the skies turned dark, and the rain started. It was amazing just how much water there was. Not long after it started hailing! It was so loud hitting the roof of the coach, and quite an amazing sight to see in Madrid. We stopped for morning tea at a small truck stop, and then headed onto Zaragoza for lunch. The rain was still pouring down by this time, so everyone got soaked getting [View Full Entry]

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On Saturday we flew to Madrid, the second greenest city in the world, to begin our Contiki tour. We arrived at about 4pm, checked into our hotel, and enjoyed the heat (about 30 degrees) until we met up with the group for the first time at 6pm that evening. The first part of the night involved doing administration things for the tour, but at about 8.30 we headed for our first dinner as a group. We quickly found out that a lot of the Spanish don't speak English, and are quite rude to those who don't speak Spanish! After dinner our [View Full Entry]

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We spent two nights in Leeuwarden, staying with Brandt's cousin Femke, her partner and their cats. It was nice to stay in a proper house again after living in our small flat in London, and then travelling the past few weeks. Yesterday we did a lot of driving around the small Friesland villages recommended by Femke. We drove into Gaastmeer for a coffee, and then onto Heeg where we had a good lunch, then continued along the coast. We saw a lot of farmland, and the traditional high roofed farm houses where hay used to be kept in the top levels [View Full Entry]

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Today we visited my great auntie Joop at her home just outside Utrecht. We had a good chat and Rochelle played hostess making us coffee, soup and lunch then more coffee. Joop told us some of our family history and told us how to find the house where she and my Opa (grandfather) grew up. After lunch we left Joop and set off to find the house. We found the road without too much trouble and think we found the right house. We took a few snaps of the house and the surrounding area then had a look around the nearby [View Full Entry]

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Finding our hotel was a nightmare. We must have missed a turn on the ring road coming into Brussels, and from then on our written instructions on how to get to the hotel no longer helped. The street the hotel was located on didn't exist on our map which was decidedly unfortunate but we eventually made it to the hotel about 9.30pm and checked in, pretty tired from all the searching. The following morning we took a short walk to the centre of Brussels and spent the day walking around the 'Lower Town' which seems to be mainly a tourist centre. [View Full Entry]

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We had a relaxing time in Amsterdam. It was wet and cold the day we arrived, and we turned up at our bed and breakfast early, hoping we could drop off our luggage. The guy running the place was really helpful, and gave us directions to the areas of Amsterdam popular with locals rather than tourists, meaning we avoided the crowds and had some excellent food. We weaved our way through the cyclists, and found a nice place out of the cold to settle in and drink the evening away. On our second day we woke to breakfast in bed, and [View Full Entry]

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We finished our jobs, left our flat in London last week, and began our European adventure. First stop Paris! We arrived at around 1pm by Eurostar, having left London early on Sunday morning with Eddie, my workmate from Tait (who arrived in London on Saturday). We were a bit worried for a while as the tube was unexpectectedly suspended on our way to Waterloo, and we were informed that all underground lines were closing and everyone had to get off and find alternative transport. Luckily, we were able to flag down a taxi which got us to the station with plenty [View Full Entry]

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This weekend we headed off to Amsterdam on a 2 night boat trip. When booking the tickets we didn't realise how far the departure point for the boat was from London, so we had an extra trip up to Newcastle to catch the boat. We left London by train on Thursday morning, and arrived in Newcastle about 3 1/2 hours later. Our train had been delayed, but we still managed to hop straight on one of the buses heading from the railway station to the Northshields port, where we boarded our ship (called the King of Scandanavia). The ship left Newcastle [View Full Entry]

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