http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/matt_werner/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from matt_werner en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:02:46 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:02:46 +0000 OK rather than putting the same stuff in many emails I put it all together here. Planning for Africa 2010 is pretty much done only things not determined are what to do when I have a few days in a city. I have paid deposits for pretty much everything except flights from SYD ltgt JNB and JNB ltgt NBO.Sat 170710 Fly SYD gt SIN catch up with a friend there for a dayMon 190710 Fly http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/blog-440300.html Was up at 6am to spark up and get my arse to the course for the run. Headed in with some Americans that were staying in another room but had my guts decide they wanted to get rid of the tap water I had drunk at 4am along the way. Portable toilet block was out of paper so after hassling the cleaning guy for some got the Cabury squirts out of the way then made my way to the entry gate to get into t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Navarre/Pamplona/blog-296962.html Much less tourists was the first thing that came to mind so the hot Spanish girls stand out even more lol. Puts first week of uni to shame.The green on the pedestrian crossings here dont beep they make a bird style tweet. Gives me a chuckle.Was 39 degrees the day I arrived and had a wander around but was just a dry heat so much more bearable than Barcelona. Checked out a few things in the arvo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/Madrid/blog-295380.html Well it is still just as hot and humid here. Cant do anything without breaking a sweat even blinking lol. Been seeing a few things...Did a walking tour around the old town which was the original city the Romans founded. Guy doing it was pretty good throwing in plenty of jokes like going to the highest point in the old town which has an elevation of 16m above sea level.. he said any Dutch peop http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-293647.html Said good bye to everyone in the morning then on the train to Bayeux which took about 2 hours. Liked the town straight away quiet little place fair share of tourists but it was nice. Checked in then went for a walk around town and checked out the Normandy invasion museum was pretty good actually. And it had everythi8ng in French AND English which was very helpful.A local couchsurfer Nathalie c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Lower-Normandy/Bayeux/blog-292105.html Dramas getting here... the only morning buses that went past the BB were too late to get me onto the correct trains to connect with my cheap flight to Barcelona so I ended up wandering around St Malo for a few hours then getting the TGV into Paris in the afternoon then an overnight train from Paris down to Spain. A lot more expensive than in eastern Europe...Was rather hot when I got here at lu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-292228.html Seems everyone has a bad French restaurant experience and I have one now too. Didnt do much during the day was feeling a bit over it so hung out and chatted with other people then went and did some washing. The rest of them came back about 6pm and we had a couple of drinks then headed off into town to go to dinner at about 8pm deciding somewhere in the Latin quarter.Got out from the Metro and p http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-291958.html Went out the Palace of Versailles yesterday dont know why I bothered really. Took 35 mins at the train station to buy the bloody ticket France and their ticket booths why cant they just get their ticket machines accepting notes and some old farts are whinging about shit and holding up the line... and its always LOCAL or American old farts. .Feel asleep about 50000 times on the train on the wa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-289608.html Seems there are a lot of illegals in Paris as well selling well attempting to sell crap to tourists just like in Rome. This time it is stupid little Eiffel Towers some even light up. But the same mode of operation 20 guys all walking around or with blankets down on the ground in close to each other near the Eiffel Tower. Some try to sell you bottles of wine to have with a picnic I guess. And t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-288681.html I had never got the idea of putting mayonnaise on hot chips it was always tomato sauce but after getting some fries from the main square in Brugge with the different kind of mayonnaise to what we have in Australia it makes sense. Pretty tasty.My few days in Brugge were pretty good. Got there lateish and didnt see much the first night despite the sun being up until 1030pm ran into some Aussies http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-288675.html Checked out of the hostel and put my stuff into storage at the station then went for a look at the cathedral. It is a big and spectacular building but it isnt decorated that impressively. Of course I had to climb to the top lol.Starting chatting with an English girl and Japanese girl while up there the English girl was gorgeous Had a drink with them and will hopefully catch up with the English http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-287658.html Stuggled a bit getting up and so missed getting on the earliest cruise on the Rhine. I was planning on getting the earliest one getting off at St Goar to check out the Rheinfels castle then getting on a later one to continue onto Koblenz. So I jumped on a train to St Goar which luckily for me was also packed with bloody Year 2 or 3 schoolkids. Grrrrr.Off at St Goar no lockers at the station bu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/North-Rhine-Westphalia/Cologne/blog-287649.html Train to Frankfurt required several changes but I finally got there. Handy that the ticket terminals at the station let you print out the train timetable. Found my hostel was in the middle of the red light district got hassled by spruikers at 3pm lol.But there was two reasons I stopped at Frankfurt. One was to catch the boat the next morning foir a cruise up the Rhine to Koblenz but the main one http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Hessen/Frankfurt/blog-287642.html Caught the train up from Regensburg checked into the hostel and went out to the old Nazi party parade grounds. The museum there was pretty good detailed how important the whole yearly rally was to the party and turning Hitler into a kind of demigod.The grounds were a different story. There had been a rock festival there over the weekend Metallica Rage Against the Machine amongst many others http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Nuremberg/blog-286145.html Just like the photos the place is really nice. Under attack from tourists and American students during the day but worth it. Did a self guided walking tour off the tourist office map took a million pics and had NO RAIN A nice change. Stayed in a BB that was pretty nice too and not very expensive either. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber/blog-286141.html Not a bad town copped a lot less damage than other towns in WW2. Went out to Walhalla as well and had dinner at a beer garden with a local couch surfer and some of his friends watching Germany in the soccer. Didnt care about the soccer but the food and beer were good http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Regensburg/blog-286140.html So far the best euro6 I have spent was today on the tour at BMW. Went through their production facilties seeing how things on 3 series cars progress from the start when steel is delivered as rolls through different stages finishing with testing the car on the dyno. Took a couple of hours and the guide was pretty funny with a dry sense of humour and Austrian accent. Well worth the money. Chec http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-284170.html Arrived here in Munich 2 days ago and its all good so far. First night had a few at a beer hall after arriving late then yesterday did a walking tour and spent the afernoon wandering around until going to my couchsurfing host's place.Going to do a Third Reich tour this morning then go to Dachau this afternoon cach an early train tomorrow and go out to Neuschwanstein and surrounding area for the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-283582.html Cant say too many good things about Nice I just didnt like the place. Was there quickly to drop off stuff before going to the Grand Prix in Monaco so didnt really see much except for the few hundred metres between the hostel and train station.There just doesnt seem to be anything to the place... the old town is nothing special really the beach is an absolute joke with no surf and no sand ju http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d-Azur/Nice/blog-281178.html Left Avignon early and had stopovers in Geneva meh and Bern liked it on the way to Gimmelwald. Sensational the pictures dont do it justice. Hiked with some Canadians up into the clouds until the snow was too much to keep going weather no good for the Jungfrau train or Schilthorn gondola. I was wetter inside my poncho from sweating than I was on the outide from the snow and rain. After gettin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-West/M-rren/blog-282275.html