Shopping day today so off the Grand Bazar and we found a special urn we have always wanted but did not buy last time as was so expensive, we found one in a little shop where the guy was desperate to sell something, so we ended getting him down to almost half his starting price so we snapped it up. I had planned to buy some new shirts and snapped up another bargain getting two Tommy Hilfiger dress shirts for about 15 NZD, very nice quality. Getting tired of the hustle we went down to the water front for some space and fresh air, decided to get a ferry to somewhere so got on a boat to some place called Kadıköy, on the Asian side, miles down the coast just for the hell of it. Had ... read more

Off to Turkey today and a very early flight at 6.45am so were up at 3.45am for the run to the airport. The flight was only 2 hours but the breakfast meal they served was poor, an unusual slipup for Turkish Airlines who up until know have been great. Our little Turkish man met us at the airport for the crazy trip to Istanbul. It is a great feeling to be back here as we really enjoy the feel and people of this country. Arriving at the Hotel Evsen we were greeted by a really friendly joker and shown to our room, it was less than perfect but ok, no real window so a little claustrophobic still was very nice with marble floors and so on and the staff are great. We decided to head off ... read more

After breakfast we set off back to Hertz to see if they had my phone, the very helpful young fellow said he would find out and we had to come back between 1200 and 2pm, not feeling very hopeful we had no choice but to go see the sights of Vienna. This is a great city with a huge amount of classic buildings built circa 1800 with so much fine detail and stunning designs, adorned with statues and fret work close the French penchant for over doing the detail. Austria dates back to Roman times with a garrison built around 100ad driving the current celtic inhabitants north, a small settlement was started adjacent the garrison area began. Around the 10th century the turk Emperor Otto 1 started an outer eastern province called Osterick, Vienna and was ... read more

Had breakfast in the Schloss main dining room, which is actually the ballroom and after that we wandered the castle and gardens for a while, still raining and very cold but never mind we made our way into the old town for a look around, not much really to the town, very expensive but the main feature is the Fortress Hohensalzburg. We decided against the 900m walk and chose the funicular or cable car in our terms for the trip to the top. The fortress is massive and covers around 5-6 acres and the keep and tower is a further 4 levels higher than the main castle. The fortress history dates back possible to 180ad where there was possibly a small church on the top of the hill however the first real evidence dates to around ... read more

Our original plan today was to catch the hop on hop off bus to see the sites around Munich but the walk yesterday showed us that we can walk the whole central city area and save 50euro. We set off and first stop was breakfast as the hotel was 7.50e each for toast and jam. Feeling this was not up to par we found a great little place serving great coffee and food at around half the cost. First off we are staying next to the Sendlingtor or south tower entrance to the city and the Isator or eastern tower was the first point of call, built around 1300 and untouched since, even the allied bombs missed it in WW2. Next stop was St Peters church another fine 13th century church and again missed by the ... read more