Kasari73

Saturday 1st August My god August has arrived, crikey I have to go back to work by the end of this month!!!! Alas this morning we get wake up calls at 5.15am...... by mistake.... :( so as a result I am up and ready by 6am!!!! and breakfast not till 6.30am!!! This is because this morning we are catching the ferry to Holyhead which is where we arrive around 11.30... hooray some sunshine!!!! Sorry to say I am heartily sick of leprechauns, shamrocks and everything Irish having had the tourist spiel and commercialisation in my face non-stop for the last four days.... So I am THRILLED to be back in Wales!! Our first stop today is at the longest place name in the world for a quick photo - and it's called: Lanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllantysiliogogogoch (hope I have ... read more

Monday 27th July Cardiff Went to bed by about 10pm last night and with Dan's warning about the morning wake up calls not always being reliable it meant that I was awake at 4.30am worried I had overslept!!! DAMMIT!! So after a broken morning sleep I dragged myself out of bed at 6.15am and got my wake up call at 6.30am!!! Had breakfast which was the works!! cereal, cooked breakfast, fruit..... blah blah..... and then we were OFF to Cardiff Castle for a tour of about 4 rooms and then walked up and in the Motte Bailey Castle - went to the top!! Motte actually refers to the slope created by digging a ditch around the castle and then they pile all this material up in a mound and on top of the mound they build ... read more

Monday 20th July 2009 Our last full day in a destination on this tour, it's finally coming to a close, the first week of the tour seemed to go so slow and the last week or so has just flown by! Up at 8am this morning and checked out the breakfast at the hostel, bread and coffee is free but I buy muesli and orange juice... its hideous!!! Then we all troop just up the road to Mike's Bikes and are split into two groups for a bike tour around Amsterdam which is really great. Most people in Amsterdam bike or take the trams - looking at the city feels like looking back in time as in NZ we used to have trams and not anymore. We go past Anne Franks house and the queue is ... read more

Thursday 16th July 2009 Up at 6.30am this morning to have bags ready by 7 and breakfast by 7.30am when we leave Kirchdorf, Tirol, Austria and head off to Prague.... It only takes about 30 minutes and we are in Germany, completely different countryside now passes by the windows, Austria was just beautiful with mountains, green valleys and cut houses. In Germany its flat and the houses are diffferent - not that they aren't lovely but it is different to Austria - it's pretty amazing that these different countries have not blended together and lost their identity or culture which why I am so opposed to the Americanisation of this world.. I hope we don't all blend together to become one big BLAH! Otherwise what would be the point of travelling if everywhere we went was ... read more

Monday 13th July 2009 Venice Today is our free day in Venice - hooray!!! This is one of the places on my list that I am really looking forward to!! I wakeup at 7 and can hear the planes flying overhead as our camp ground is near the airport. This camping ground is part of the nationwide chain that we have stayed in at all our stops in Italy. At 7.30 Joy knocks on my door and we all get ready thinking that breakfast is at 8 but we find out it’s been changed to 8.30 so we all troop over to the internet facilities. I try ringing home but they hang up on me ☺ not intentionally of course…. Lol…. At nine we load up on the shuttle bus that is provided by the camping ... read more