Dilini
Dilini G Joined: May 30th 2006
Logged in: June 10th 2011
Logged in: June 10th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
BMW showroom
There was no way I would go to Munich without visiting the BMW showroom and museum. I apologised to Elsie beforehand as i had a feeling she would be bored (she did enjoy it a little, I think :) ) BMW - Bayerische Motoren-Werke, or Bavarian Motor Works in English. I was in heaven. I will let the pictures do the talking... We were lucky (?) enough to be in Germany during the World Cup (soccer that is)... unfortunately there wasn't a match in Munich at the time, but we managed to get to the main Olympic Stadium (conveniently not far from the BMW showroom) to watch Australia v. Italy. Yes that famous match, with the famous dive.. and the famous penalty. Big sigh. There were Italians all over the place chanting 'Italia Italia' 'Aussies go ... read more
Swastika mosaics
The ‘city gates’ into Muncih, which were a part of the original wall that surrounded the city during the time of the war still stand! We visited the church whose two huge towers were used as landmarks by the British during the World War when they were attempting to bomb Munich. We walked through the English Gardens, visited the Hofbrauhaus - one of Munich’s famous beer halls, and one in which Hitler once delivered one of his infamous speeches - we visited an old art house, on whose roof mosaic swastikas still remain. This is a rarity, as the swastika is now illegal in germany. In this arthouse, commissioned by and built during the reign of hitler, we were also lucky enough to see an old plaque commemorating some of the biggest supporters of the Nazi ... read more
getting our passports stamped
The 3rd smallest country in the world! And absolutely beautiful too… had to pay 2 euro to get a stamp in our passports to prove we’ve been there! What a scam but we fell for it anyway!... read more
Luzerne
I have to say, everywhere in Switzerland is absolutely stunning. We stopped in luzerne on our way to Munich.. we bought more swiss army knives, ate some delectable swiss nibblies, and soaked in the beauty at our pit-stop…... read more
Glockenspiel
Our first experience in a 6 bed mixed dorm… hmmm. But we were lucky, the guys who did end up staying in our room were quite nice. Foo and I, pessimists that we are, were imagining all sorts of horrible things about dirty old men phew! Munich is an amazing city. Aptly called the beer capital of the world, beer houses are dotted throughout the city, with many tourists as well as locals thronging to them. Also the home of the famous Oktoberfest, which for us non-beer drinkers, somehow doesn’t appeal. An interesting fact though… there is no Australian embassy in munich, it is in berlin. But apparently, during Oktoberfest, a temporary embassy is opened in munich, to help deal with all us aussies who have a few too many beers and manage to misplace ... read more
Alps
Needless to say, Lauterbrunnen, with all it’s stunning mountains and valleys, rivers and lakes, provides plenty of opportunities for all sorts of extreme sports like paragliding, bungee jumping and white water rafting. Foo and I weren’t game enough to try any of that, but we did go for a hike to see Trummelbachfalle (Trummelbach Falls). Trummelbach Falls is a glacial waterfall - as the sun melts the ice and snow at the mountain peak, the resulting water works its way downwards, crashing and carving its way through the mountain to reach the bottom. We took a tunnel lift (similar to what miners use) up and into the mountain, and followed the waterfall on its tumultuous journey down. The water temperature was just above freezing, at 2 degrees Celsius!! Even though it was really hot outside (I ... read more
view from our dorm/chalet room
Absolutely picturesque! And, thankfully, not as cold as we thought it was going to be. It was our first experience in a multiple bed dorm… a 6 bed one - all girl dorm though. It was also our first experience with shared showers and bathrooms! I think we struggled more with the idea of this than the idea of sharing our room!!!! Lauterbrunnen is a tiny village in German Switzerland, nestled in a valley at the foothills of the Alps. Breathtakingly beautiful views meet you at every turn… Swiss chalets and snow-capped mountain peaks, rolling green knolls, and stunning waterfalls. A walk through the village brought us across quaint little churches, fast flowing streams which originated in the mountaintops, and even a goat, just as curious about us as we were about him! We were only ... read more
The River Seine
The Basilique du Sacre Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) is located at the summit of the Montmartre butte - the only hill in Paris, and the highest point in the city. Paris is a flat city - no hills except this one. From the top you look out over the city and it's amazing. The actual church is amazing too - breathtakingly beautiful on the inside (again no photos unfortunately). Not being Catholic, it is still an awesome experince walking into the place. You really feel a sense of peace - I still believe that no matter what religion you belong to, if any, when you walk into a place of worship, there is a serenity... That evening we went to see the Eiffel Tower - the Parisian icon you simply cannot go to France ... read more
Paris by dusk..
Paris is a beautiful city, full of old and beautiful architecture. Full of beautiful people too! We couldn't get over how good looking, and well groomed everyone was! Male and female both, they were definitely pleasing to the eye - good to know that all those rumours have some truth to them! And there were designer stores everywhere!! Certainly not something we see too much of in lovely, down to earth Perth :) We saw the famous Moulin Rouge (French for 'Red Mill'), nestled on the streets of the Red Light District (though a show there was out of the question on our backpacker's budgets as a standing ticket alone was over 100 euro!!).. We did a da Vinci Code Tour walking through the city - definitely recommend it regardless of if you have read the ... read more
Dover
Well, after months of planning and anticipation, out Busabout journey finally begins on a Tuesday at 8am. This of course, required us to wake up around 5.30 so we could get ourselves and our backpacks (which we still weren't used to carrying around with us) to Busabout headquarters in time for departure... we made it, but only just! :) Foo and I were the last to get on the bus, we scraped in with minutes to spare :) So we were on our way... we settled in for the 2.5 hour ride through the English country to Dover. The legendary White Cliffs of DOver greeted us as we approached the harbour... Amazing.. The ferry ride across was reasonably uneventful - the 2 hours or so flew past as Elsie and I were distracted by some lovely ... read more
