Dachau, about 15km outside of Munich was the site of the first Nazi concentration camp, and they have a memorial museum which is both fascinating and horrific at the same time. The Nazi's built this when they came to power in 1933 and this became the model for all the other camps that followed. The museum is excellent but leaves you feeling very sombre, bewildered and outraged that mankind could be so cruel. I actually visted here about 17 years ago on my first trip through Europe and it was always one place that stood out in my memory. Today the [View Full Entry]

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Munich was always going to be our major comfort stop on our trip, as we were going to be staying with our great friend Vicki from back home in Australia. Vicki bravely moved from Sydney to Munich 6 months ago for a 18 month stint for work. One of the funniest and most frustrating parts of our trip happened before we even got to her house after the half day drive from Lucerne. We had an address but no real directions to get to her house, and our maps are really designed to get you from A to B and seeing [View Full Entry]

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After the severe beating we took by the storm the night before, we finally could see how we survived in the light of day and try to get everything dry again. We headed into Lucerne and spent a few hours wandering the streets. In typical Swiss fashion it is on another lake and has a river running through the town which travels at a fair rate of knots. It also has some amazing bridges crossing it. Had a small bout of rain so headed into the Picasso museum which was actually really worth the visit, showing his life in photos taken [View Full Entry]

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Finally left beautiful Interlaken heading for Lucerne on one of the hottest days so far in the trip being well into the high 30's. We stopped at the Swiss Cultural Museum on the way which is laid out over a very, very large site and brings together all the various different cultural aspects of Switzerland from housing styles to arts and crafts and loads more. Later in the day we got to Lucerne and enjoyed meal and a drink at our site on the banks of another beautiful lake just outside the main town. For the rowers reading this, the long [View Full Entry]

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Interlaken in Switzerland has been the highlight of the trip for a number of reasons. * Everywhere you look its just breathtaking views. * I went paragliding off the top of a mountain for my birthday. * Beautiful clean air and lakes full of sparkling clear water. * Its just a great place. We ended up staying in Interlaken for 5 nights which is longer than we had originally planned so this is where not stopping with the football hooligans in Heidelberg paid off (no offence meant to any English footy supporters) On the way into Interlaken we took one of [View Full Entry]

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We are actually righting this entry about 1 month after the fact but will keep the entry dates true to our travels for our own records. We have copped a little abuse about why we have taken so long to create new updates, but it's basically because we didn't want to sit in internet cafes all day when the weather and sights were so beautiful. We are now back in UK and the weather is crap so it's a great time to do some more updates. Anyone who has travelled in Europe and UK will know that when the sun is [View Full Entry]

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As mentioned in the overall Interlaken entry, I had my birthday here and had a great time. Heres the photos from the sensational Paragliding I did from the top of the "First" cable car. Hope you like. [View Full Entry]

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Day whatever, and its time to change countries and head into Switzerland. Apparently, (we found out after we left Switzerland) we were supposed to stop at the border and buy a pass to use the Motorways, or face a massive fine (were talking about 2,500 euros or about $4,000) but of course no one bothered to tell us that and there were certainly no signs telling you. Even the nice police at the border didn’t pick up that we didn’t have the pass on our car. Anyway, nothing happened, so we got the cheapest drive through Switzerland of any tourists this [View Full Entry]

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Finished off the Rhine River and headed south towards the Black Forest. We were going to stop in Heidelberg, but when we pulled into the camp site we could see that it was full of English football fans. After deciding that maybe this wasn’t going to be very restful we then decided to head off into the Black Forest (couple of hours drive) and gain a day in our itinerary (a move that would prove one of the smartest we have made so far). Saw some really great places along the way and I have to say that as a travel [View Full Entry]

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Left Cochem and travelled up the rest of the Mosel valley and then crossed over to the Rhine Valley where they meet in Koblenz. Then the fun started. The day we want to travel down the Rhine (a Sunday), is the one day a year that they close the road along the river for a cycle event that covers most of the valley. Now while this sounds like a great idea and certainly something I am sure the locals love, for your average tourist like Rach & I, it was a complete nightmare. Now lets put this in perspective. The River [View Full Entry]

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