Today is why we are in Switzerland. The wedding of the century. Like a fairy tale. Friends and family from the four corners of Earth. After rain all the way from Denmark over the past week 7/7/7 turns on a sensational day - good enough to go paragliding - like some locals did. For me there was an unforgettable event unfolding. The activities in the castle were amazingly well organised. Juliane and Ueli had activities set up for each area of the castle with the guests moving from room to room to try their hands at different tasks. Great fun - [View Full Entry]

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After about 14 hours on trains we arrived at Lausanne. An almost instantaneous leap across the platform and our connection is underway along the northern edge of Lake Leman (Lake Geneva). We pass through Villeneuve (Red Bull Acro Competitions will be here in a month or so), on to Montreux, past the beautiful Chateau Chillon (on the banks of the lake) and finally arrive in Aigle around 8:30am. Across from our hotel is a great little shop - a chocolatier. Breakfast calls. Walking back down the street we see a couple that look familiar (even though we haven't seen them for [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday evening we all caught the train for Heidelberg - an easy trip. Got a cab to our hotel - not expensive, a short trip, formula one driver. I guess this hotel is alongside a busy road, as, in spite of double glazed windows and roller shutters, we each have a pair of earplugs beside the bed... We have arrived in time to find a Pizzeria near the hotel that opens until 11pm - Jo hit it off with the proprietor - being the only one with some Italian. Thursday morning we check out of the great little pub (Auerschtein [View Full Entry]

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After a couple of days in Hannover we got in a nice tour (between showers) around the historic parts of the city. Especially dramatic was the set-up in the old town hall, of 4 models of the entire city of Hannover, dating from about 1600. The last two were in the first half of the 20th century, the 4th one being 1945. Shocking to see the contrast. The ancient churches that have been faithfully rebuilt in the style and materials they were originally made from were amazing.. Due to industrial action in railways, Jeff got half-way from Dusseldorf and missed [View Full Entry]

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Well, train travel really IS the way to go. Had two beautiful trains from Kobenhavn. The route went a different way than I expected and at one stage the train stopped, shut down and seemed to have been evacuated of all but 2 or 3 pax. Then I noticed we were surrounded by large transports - not a hijack but we had driven (very long train) on board a ship and for 45 minutes getting our sea legs all while inside the ship. Next stop, train exits first and we are in Germany. Arrived by tram to near!! our hotel [View Full Entry]

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Now we are at Hamburg railway station, about to connect to Hannover - expect to arrive about 11pm. All travelling well, but a bit foot-sore after our day in Copenhagen.. I think a large rain mass is moving across central Europe (there has been flooding in Britain). We managed to avoid it by going north from Oslo when we were in Norway. We had nice weather while Oslo had rain each day we were away. It began to drizzle just before we left Copenhagen and rain was falling on the train windows as we pulled out. [View Full Entry]

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It's been a day of reorganising and repacking so that all four of us are equipped for the journey through four more countries and so we are equipped for the "Wedding of the Century". Chris and I walk around to the pizza shop opposite Sofienberg Park to fetch lunch. In the afternoon we all get a cab outside the apartment to take us to the ferry terminal for our overnight passage to Denmark. [View Full Entry]

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This morning we went with Zoe on the tram to Frogner Park to see the gardens and numerous sculptures of Gustav Vigeland (1869-1945) Soon we leave Helgesensgate for the port and get underway for Denmark overnight. We are due to arrive about 9am Copenhagen time. [View Full Entry]

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Today Chris went out doing outdoors stuff with friends - rappelling etc. We all met up at Glen and Trine's place for dinner. Toby, Alli, Angas and Espen were there for a while. Then we had an amazing meal of local crabs and prawns. The crabs were a new exercise in dining. We stopped when Christer had finished the last of the prawns, then topped it off with gateaux made by Trine during the day. Caught a taxi home (after the wine, cognac etc. - alc. limit here is 0.02) - What's dearer the taxi or the fine? Got off the [View Full Entry]

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Tonight we drove up to Skjetten to have dinner with Chris' dad, David, Merete, Maiken and Sebastian. We had a lovely evening wth them until the sun was in decline (each night it's about 1am)... [View Full Entry]

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