James back again... Well, after the delicious roast chicken with spaghetti bolognaise etc. (That's what you call fusion cooking...?!), we left for the train ride to Aswan. Before we even got out of the street our hotel was on, our bus was blocked in by a car that had been left in the middle of the road, contents: a couple of unsupervised kids. Our bus driver, not wanting to make us late for the train, decided to get in the car and relocate it for the owner, with the kids still sutting in the back seat...., just as the driver returned [View Full Entry]

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Finally, the Giza Pyramids!! We were up at a reasonable time today and made our way to the Great Pyramids before it got too hot (38 degrees is nothing). Okay, I apologise now for the history blurb that is about to follow, but I love this stuff and have to get it all out. Feel free to skip along ahead if you get bored! Sal gave us the rundown in the airconditioned bus on the Great Pyramids built over 4000 years ago by Cheops, Chepphren and I forget the other dude's name (memory is going already). Each of them were built [View Full Entry]

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It is very surreal being here in Egypt after waiting so long to get here! We headed out about 9am to go up the Saqqara and visit the first ever pyramid to be built - the step pyramid by Djoser built over 4000 years ago. Our guide - Saleeb or Sal - was fantastic. He had been studying Egyptology for over 12 years and is a Dr at one of the universities here. He filled us in on Cairo as it is today - crazy traffic in all where you didnt need a license to drive until a few years ago, [View Full Entry]

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Hi, James again. Well the trip from Rome to Cairo started well........ Our shuttle bus that we organised yesterday didn't turn up. After a phone inquiry (With only 30 minutes to go before checkin) we discovered that the driver may have slept in, and that we should take a taxi which would cost about the same anyway.....?! After running to the train station (Back packs and all), we took the express train to the airport, checking in slightly late, but making it in the end. After an uneventful flight via athens, we arrived in sunny Cairo in one piece. The drive [View Full Entry]

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Well, today we trekked down that hill again this morning from the camping village in the 35 degree heat, backpacks and all, and made our way to the train station. Thankfully the train ride to Rome was relatively short and sweet and we actually managed to find our hostel pretty quickly as it was only about a 7 minute walk from the train station. We dumped our stuff in our modest room (being where you can hardly open the door to get in because the bed is in the way and our shower is over the toilet - but who's complaining?) [View Full Entry]

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Its James again, taking up the story in Florence (or as they say here Firenze). We arrived after yet another train ride. Unfortunately I must have insulted the lady at the reservations office in Venice after guffawed at the 15 euro ($30 AUD) reservation fee per person, resulting in Tania and I being separated on the train. Mental note to self, must hide such feelings! Any ways, we arrived at the train staion of Figline (Pronounced fill-inye), where our shuttle bus (looking like a corny Thomas the Tank-engine ride) picked us up and took us the the Girasole Plus camping Village, [View Full Entry]

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We spent most of the day yesterday on the train to get to Venice and saw some amazing scenery coming out of Switzerland - beautiful aqua lakes that were so still they reflected back the mountains surrounding the villages. We are staying in a small hostel on the mainland of Venice and chowed down on our first real Italian pizza from the cornershop for just 7 Euro for the two. We caught a water taxi today across to the island Venezia and cruised around the Grand Canal for a while. It was really hot again today and there were tourists everywhere. [View Full Entry]

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Well its about time that I (James) shared some of the blogging workload, however, please note that my editing skills are not quite as refined as Tania's. After the thrilling hights of skydiving the day before, we decided a quiet walk into the swiss alps was in order. We took a train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, then a bus to a small town (Cant remember the name), where we jumped on a cable car to the scenic (and very high up) town of Gimmelwald. Not so good for those with a fear of hights, or a fear of cable cars. The [View Full Entry]

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We took the night train from Berlin to Zurich which wasnt exactly comfortable as we had reclining seats that didnt really recline all that well. From there we caught a short train into Interlaken and got there about lunchtime. The scenery is just incredible. Beautiful aqua lakes situated in the valleys that are surrounded by incredible mountains. We took a good 40 minute walk with our packs on to find the hostel and it was about 30 degrees again, so that was a bit of fun. We checked in and started to look at what we could do for the afternoon [View Full Entry]

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We had a late start in the morning as we actually had a bit of a sleep in!! We said goodbye to our American friends as they were headed off to Prague, and we went into the city to go for another wonder. We went to the old church in the middle of town which was once a huge cathedral. It was bombed in WWII and only a very small portion remains today and they left it in this state to show what war can do. The windows are still totally blown away and its quite sad to see so much [View Full Entry]

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