The home stretch was in sight as we left Berlin. We spent two days in Cologne, in western Germany, enjoying non-backpacker-like luxury in a hotel overlooking the Rhine - other highlights of Cologne were the great food in the local breweries and the surprising number of professional beggars crowding the entry to the local cathedral. We then flew to London for a few days and finished off some essentials before heading back to Sydney - the National Gallery in London was well worth a look and a day trip to Oxford (didn't meet the romanticised image that I had in my [View Full Entry]

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We jumped on the train to Berlin, successfully avoiding being ripped off again by a Prague taxi driver. German rail impressed us but our trip was continually being interrupted by people who had reservations for our seats. The train was almost at capacity and the only place we could find was in the even more luxurious dining car - we had a three hour trip and felt like stowaways, hoping the waiter wouldn't kick us out - that bowl of soup had to last a long time :-)! Mind you, most of the dining car travellers appeared to be in a [View Full Entry]

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Stopped in a little hidden away corner of the Czech Republic, in a town called Cesky Krumlov. It's probably a very nice place in summer. Plenty of people had found their way here, including lots of Aussies. On our first night, Lisa and I duly took our share of the free keg which was on offer by the hostel, while chatting with a guy who claims to be the scriptwriter and engineer behind some of the biggest punk rock and pop groups in the Czech Republic (mind you, I'm still trying to find the Support Lesbians' latest CD in the shops). [View Full Entry]

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Merry Christmas everyone!!! We started our day in Vienna working out how best to pick Nick´s brother Josh up from the airport and hoping the plane wasn´t too delayed after all the fog all over Europe. We made it, Josh made it and all was good! Well Christmas over here was a little different to what we might usually have at home, about 1 degree (though no snow still), a trip around town on the tram and a hot lunch in a cafe followed by a little nap (I think that´s when Nick and Josh thought they should have been playing [View Full Entry]

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Well Austria is certainly a little chillier than Italy! We got very excited on the train with all the snow everywhere but by the time we arrived in Salzburg it was all gone :-( Never mind, Salzburg had a great Christmas atmosphere with markets and outdoor ice skating so we spent our time wandering around checking out all the decorations. The markets are also full of special Christmas punch and glüwein, a sort of hot mulled red wine, and there were people drinking throughout the markets. One of the big thing of course about being in Austria was the Wiener Schnitzels, [View Full Entry]

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Well how could you complain about Florence, art and hand bags??? Nick may have been a little jealous about David but he really is just amazing. We may have been a little ripped off in Florence with gelato one time, 20 euros later was just a little too much... Venice was just gorgeous yet again thought we're not sure how people who live on canals survive.... Trying to make our way to St Marks Square was a little frustrating, seemed to be justy a combinatation of several shops (glass wear, shoes, masks and anything else). I must admit I was very [View Full Entry]

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Roma, what a place! Not wasting any time, Nick headed off to St Peter's Basillica at dawn the first day that we were in Rome (while Lisa slept in). The Basillica glowed in the morning light and the absence of any crowd whatsoever made it a very different experience to that a day later when both of us visited at a more leisurely hour. To quote Lisa after several minutes of awe, we didn't know where to look first, it was so impressive - the sculptures were magnificent and the ceiling was an enormous artwork in itself. Even nuns were taking [View Full Entry]

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Nick was very brave and volunteered to pick up a hire car in Como to make our way through Tuscany down to the Amalfi Coast. After a few shaky initial moments he did very well and after only about 40 mins we made our way back to our hotel 10 mins walk away...! Something we discovered early - the one way streets - which are lovely to walk on but not so nice to drive on. Tuscany was relatively easy to navigate around and we visited some lovely fortified towns on top of hills with fantastic views. There seemed to be [View Full Entry]

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Spent a few days in Zurich, by far the most happening city in Switzerland. Great vibe, heaps of bars, cafes and shops everywhere. We were lucky to have a guide to show us some "real" spots, Nick's old school friend Murray. He even convinced Nick to eat out in a vegetarian restaurant which was heaven!!! Well they say that Lucerne is "the Switerzland people think of when they think of Switerzland" and it's true. Lucerne has the old medieval town with the obligatory cobblestones, a gorgeous azure coloured lake and of course the mountains. It was rather cloudy when we were [View Full Entry]

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It was relieving to pick up the pace a bit in Switzerland after the dozy French regional cities (although we were in those places on a Sunday and Monday). We arrived in the Swiss capital, Bern, on Tuesday night and were lucky to get out of the train station without any bruises! The nightlife here was more exciting, with an old world feel around the town. The next day, we wound our way around the River Aare - I haven't seen a river as clear as this for a very long time. The air was also so clean and wonderful to [View Full Entry]

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