http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Blueveincustardthrower/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Blueveincustardthrower en-us Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:08:14 UTC Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:08:14 UTC So I've been really slack with updating my travels just because not a lot has been happening lately. Be warned it's pretty boring haha.I haven't finished writing about London yet so I'll start this entry with that. Buckingham PalaceSo first of all this is London Day 4 and not day 3 even though it jumps from 2 to 4 simply because it was the 4th day I was staying in London. I spent the day with http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Tyne-and-Wear/Newcastle-Upon-Tyne/blog-332547.html So I've been pretty slack about updating my blog since I've been back mainly due to lack of travel fatigue and just plain laziness. Windsor CastleSo I started off by myself at 8am and got on a Evan Evans tour out to Windsor Castle. Going on another tour proved to be a weird experience as the people on the tour were slightly uh... more aged then Contiki 1835. Basically I wasn't going to get http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Wiltshire/Stonehenge/blog-332491.html London Day 2 So today I was meant to be catching a 'Hop on Hop Off' bus but when I got to where the bus stop was I had to wait 30minutes My thoughts Fuck that. So I started walking towards Tower of London. I managed to walk all the way to St. Paul's Cathedral which is probably about 10mins walk away from the London Tower by the time the bus would've arrived at the bus stop. I decided to ca http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-327528.html London Day 1 Today was my first relaxing day. I didn't have to leave the hotel I stay in after tour until 11am so I chilled out had a bath I'm paying for the hotel so I've got to take full advantage of that shit and booked some touristy stuff around London for the next few days. Places on the bill Tower of London London Dungeon Buckingham Palace Windsor Castle Bath and Stonehenge. Cost m http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-327524.html This is basically just summary for anyone who may be curious on doing a Contiki tour from my experience. Contiki Conclusion European WhirlTour in general is incredibly fast paced. It's designed to maximise your amount of sight seeing in a short period of time. Typical days would consist of Day 1 Travel for Full or large part of DayDay 2 Explore city all day from early on in the morningThe f http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-327513.html PreParisParis is our last city on my Contiki Tour and what better city then the worlds most touristy. There was a shit load to see and hardly any time to see it as we were only staying there for a day. My plan for the day was to go up the Eiffel Tower Climb the Arch De Triumph See the Mona Lisa and go up into the Notre Dam bell tower. Eiffel TowerWe got dropped off at the Eiffel tower at 9am i http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/-le-de-France/Paris/blog-325627.html Road to ParisSo this is our longest drive for the entire tour. We didn't stop off anywhere special as we had lots of hours to make up. We did however stop off at a few service stations in France where I would get my first taste of the country. Thus far I think the French are a bunch of rude snail eating condom sandwiches. They really hate tourists. Even though I was politeFor example I went u http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/-le-de-France/Paris/blog-325620.html Jungfrau Mountain Jungfrau mountain is the highest mountain in Europe sitting at about 4158 metres. Even though it's nearly the end of summer due to the altitude there's still snow on the mountain. It was 2.5 degrees when we were up there. We caught the train up to the mountain which is about a 2 hour ride. I've got a photo of me doing the matrix in the train which is made possible as the tracks http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Lauterbrunnen/blog-325608.html Road to Switzerland Four days left of tour. We've got some long drives ahead of us starting with today which will be about 12 hours. The drive is from Florence to Lauterbrunnen.Switzerland is fucking beautiful. Lakes rivers old mountains lots of green grass trees and snow in some areas. I think it's actually more beautiful then Austria which is hard to beat. To put it into perspective think http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Lauterbrunnen/blog-324962.html Florence Started off the morning driving to Florence. It was about a 4 hour drive from Rome. Met up at Santa Croce Church for our group photo which I think is a bit of a rip off so i didn't order one. As soon as we finished this fucking gypsy came up and asked us for money. Literally. Photo taken then she walks up and asks for money. I felt like saying Got curtousy bitch Grr.After that it was http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-324723.html RomeStarted off by catching the train to Rome. I was quite surprised that there were signs and videos on the train warning you to be careful of pick pockets. One of the guys from tour fainted at the train station and had to go home. Stink buzz for him. I think it's probably from too much drinking so I wasn't sympathetic at all. First up an Imperial Walking Tour including the Roman Forum and the C http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-323906.html Finally got to a computerRoad to RomeThere's not much to write in this entry as we spent the majority of the day driving. I really liked the scenery coming into Rome. Heaps of wineries and fields full of crops. I always imagined Italy in general to be really dry as that's all I ever saw in pictures but this really changed my idea of it. Bus CrashWhen we were nearly in Rome the bus crashed into a http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-323888.html VeniceWe started off the day nice and early and caught the boat into Venice. I was already sweating like crazy by the time we arrived there. We went and saw a guy make a glass vase and a glass horse. It took him about 2 minutes to make both ofthem. Then off to a lace making place which was pretty fucking boring. We then had a free day to do whatever we wanted. I needed some sunglasses and Mecha kn http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Veneto/Venice/blog-321161.html Computer Im using sucks the bean bags and doesnt have a apostrophe. White Water RaftingOn the way to Venice the coach stopped off before we left Austria and we went white water rafting. This was badass. We had a boat with 6 people not inc the driver. 4 guys 2 girls. Our driver was realy cool. He was real hungover from the night before. The rapids we went on were only grade 2 so it wasnt going http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Veneto/Venice/blog-321158.html Computer Im using sucks the bean bags and doesnt have a apostrophe. HopfgartenLeft munich and headed into Hopfgarten Austria. As you enter the country youre surrounded by the greenest grass most beautiful hills and clearest rivers youve ever seen. I know it makes me sound like a batty pirate describing it like that but it is truely a spectacular sight. We arrive ast our cabins in to see the rep http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Austria/Tyrol/Hopfgarten-im-Brixental/blog-321156.html Dachau Concentraion CampWe had really good traffic on the way to Munich so Mecha and Rocket let us go to the Dachau Concentration Camp. I felt really weird about coming here as I get really bad feelings about this sort of stuff. When we walked in the front gates I felt like vomiting. The continued with me for the hour that we had there. It was fucked up. Really fucked up. The Dachau Camp was the f http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-319796.html PragueToday was the first day on tour we actually got to sleep in. Our first activity wasn't until 1145am which was the River Cruise and lunch. The lunch was really good first decent meal I've had on this tour. Lots of vegetarian options including deep fried Colliflower. It was alright but nothing to rave about. The cruise was really nice. You really start to appreciate how awesome Prague actua http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Czech-Republic/North/Prague/blog-319783.html Dresden On the way to Prague we stopped off at Dresden a city that was almost completely destroyed by bombders during the war. Despite this the town has been reconstructed and actually looks some what upper class. I didn't take many photos as time was limited but you can see from the church photos that some of the old blocks were used when it was reconstructed. Went and had a potato and cheese http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Czech-Republic/North/Prague/blog-319180.html We started off the morning going on a walking tour. We went to a few places which to be honest I can't remember all the names for. Some real wicked architecture though. The Germans obviously have a lot of really bad history but are taking corrective steps to fixing what they can which is really cool. There's pleanty of history throughout the city and lots of explainations for what has happened. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-318817.html On the bus at 8am and off to Berlin. We got out 'morning song' today. The monrning song is a song that's plaeyed every morning when we leave. It's a Canadian Irish song called Home for a Rest by a band called Spirit of the West. By george it rules. The trip is supposed to be our longest journey for the entire tour. We arrived at about 4pm and went to the Brandenburg gate the Jewish Holocaust Me http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-318809.html