http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Shane-and-Meg-do-Europe/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Shane and Meg do Europe en-us Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:04:42 +0000 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:04:42 +0000 Berlin GermanyBerlin is such a great city We went to the zoo like the super dorks that we are. I kind of obsessed over this silver monkey and Shane had it in for the lions tigers and bears. It is such a new feeling city. There are lots of museums and tourists but we stayed in the Kreuzberg Turkish Quarter and it was very friendly. Free parking rocks Food booze were well priced espec http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-434011.html Wales Conwy Caernferon ie. excuse to add picturesThe glorious Conwy Castle and exploration of the town. Doves pigeons are doves just white pigeons. In this castle King Louis had himself a private privy built eh. We looked down it. You really canrsquot understand Welsh at all. It is a lovely sounding language though. Hand gestures gets ye by. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Llandudno/blog-431699.html Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Germany Sobering and impossible to fully grasp the two hot and dusty hours we experienced can only come the smallest step towards comprehending what occurred here. It is tradition for each new Prime Minister of Israel to visit this former work camp. Part of the Jewish barracks was burned by Neo Nazis and that is why you can see the fire damage in some of the s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-431690.html Salisbury Cathedral in South West England near StonehengeHoly House of God We felt a touch blasphemous sneaking in for the price of onehellip It was impressive Supposedly the granite columns holding up the tower are supposed to be the sagging under its great weighthellip Scary... Lots of really old graves in the floor and the foundation is only 4 ft deep they showed us itrsquos tru http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Warwickshire/Warwick/blog-431366.html lth2gtAmsterdam The Netherlandslth2gtFlat fields dotted with cows and the odd wind mill here and there. We head straight to Amsterdam with thoughts of neon lights filtering through the haze of smoke while we cruise down the canals enjoying a nice cold Heineken. Well we werenrsquot disappointed but it wasnrsquot quite as idyllic. The canals are really reserved for tourists packed http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-430173.html The lovely town of Bath sort of I am not joking about needing a bath. I am not the best smelling of people on a good day.We are a bit behind on blogs as we have been having trouble coordinating battery power and free internet.We actually visited Bath ahwile ago but it was so awesome we thought a belated post was due.The place is called Bath because it is centered around some old Roman bathing p http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Somerset/Bath/blog-426476.html Conquering Heights Shane has been challenging his fear of heights regularly here in Europe. This post is about a few of our high up adventures Part I Cheddar West England We went to Cheddar on an off chance well not really..Meg likes cheese and that decided it. We did get some really lovely cheddar cheese and 5L of cider Meg eagle eye spotted this farm fresh cider shop on the way in. M http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Somerset/Bath/blog-418457.html The journey has begunWe have officially begun touring Europe WooHooWe picked up the van in London and Shane had an extremely stressful driving experience.Driving on the wrong side of the road while sitting on the wrong side of the vehicle shifting with his left hand in a large van in London which has the narrowest streets possible and the fastest most impatient drivers. Luckily we negotiate http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/East-Sussex/Brighton/blog-416383.html It is time to name the van...suggestions welcome We have a van...well we are getting it tomorrow but the deposit has been paid.The make is a '88 Ford Transit which is a commercial type vehicle with the modification into a camper van done professionally by a company that takes vehicle from factory and coverts them. The other option was some home brew van with much hippie character but much l http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-415576.html We are going to look for vans today. We explored a few options such as long term leasing and Euro rail but all either lacked the freedom we want or were too expensive. Actually the long term leasing was outrageous...one quote for the six months was 70 000Either way after some more internet detective work we found some good sites for buying vans and even got a reasonable quote for insur http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Barnes/blog-414974.html We have arrived The flight was actually very smooth with no delays and very little turbulence.Shane's worries that flyglobespan was a one way ticket into the Atlantic seem to have been unfounded.Unfortunately Meg's bag did not fare so well but we are sure it will arrive soon pCustoms was interesting...Here is essentially what the agent said to us1. You have no proof that you are employed in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-414730.html