Last night we arrived at the apartment after 10:30pm, greeted by the receptionist at the time who, thankfully, spoke English. The apartment is huge - the largest by far we've stayed in so far. The only downside so far is that the reception is rarely manned, and when we did contact someone this morning to ask about washing, they couldn't speak a word of English. I've been trying to find an English-German phrase book since we arrived in Munich a few days ago, but it has proven near-impossible. I'm sure that I could pick up enough for simple questions if I [View Full Entry]

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This morning we woke to get an early start on the day (and I wanted eggs for breakfast today - I missed out on them yesterday). My foot felt the same as yesterday, which wasn't encouraging. The plan was for me to stay in our room until checkout at 11:30am, and then catch the bus into the city to meet Karina, then we'd come back at 4pm to collect our bags and catch the train to Vienna. However, after speaking to the owner on the way out, Karina returned to tell me that I could stay in the room until 4pm [View Full Entry]

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Last night we arrived in Salzburg after 10pm and caught a taxi straight to our hotel. We picked the key up from the hotel restaurant and went straight up to our room - wow! The room is huge - larger than our apartment in Paris and more roomy than our NY apartment! We crashed immediately. We woke this morning to spectacular weather and a snow-capped alpine vista out our window. The only problem was the fact that I had great difficulty walking to the bathroom some 10 feet from the bed. Not a good sign. I hobbled downstairs to breakfast and [View Full Entry]

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Not loving this overnight train business. After a night of shuffling bags around in a space not much larger than the bags themselves, at least I can solve the Tower Of Babel in about 20s now. Didn't get much sleep, only to wake up and get dressed thinking it was 7:30am when, in fact, it was only 6:25am. Hmmm... At least we had a small breakfast served on the train. We arrived in Munich at 9am and found the lockers to dump our baggage after booking the Vienna-Venice overnight train. Not quite sure what I've done, but my left heel started [View Full Entry]

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Another late start after our 1am finish last night. Again, absolutely perfect weather for our last day in Paris! Karina booked the accommodation in Venice, which means we're set for the next 2 weeks except an overnight train to Venice which we can't seem to book from here. After a quick breakfast we pack our bags for Munich. Checkout is 11am, and we stretch the definition somewhat! At least they allowed us to print our accommodation vouchers and store our luggage until we return this evening to catch the overnight train to Munich. We catch the subway again to the Catacombs, [View Full Entry]

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A relatively late start this morning, another perfect day weather-wise! We're not out the door until around 11am and head to Notre Dame, which we visited on the evening we arrived but not since. This time we could go inside, and it's even more impressive than outside. Huge lead light windows look spectacular passing the bright morning sun. We were surprised that photography wasn't discouraged, although it's impossible to capture any of the majesty in the low light. Next stop was the comic shop where Karina saw Frosty The Snowman in the window. We stumbled across a street of 5 or [View Full Entry]

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It was very difficult to get out of bed at 6:15am after such a full day yesterday. A quick breakfast and we caught the RER (train) to The Eiffel Tower. The weather, BTW is absolutely perfect! Rushing towards the tower at 7am we were dumbfounded by the number of people already queuing up - none! Nada. Zero. Barely even a soul to be seen, actually. You could choose to ascend from any of the 4 corners - two of which had only lifts to the 2nd level, the other 2 only stairs. From the 2nd level to the top was another [View Full Entry]

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Out the door around 9am and looking to buy something for breakfast. Clearly everyone else in Paris is still in bed, because absolutely nothing - not even sandwich shops - are open. In the end we give up and make do with a banana each. Our plan is the 2-day hop-on hop-off open-top bus tour. The weather is spectacular - if not slightly too hot - and it's not long before we're off on the 1st circuit of 4 included in the ticket price. This is the main leg - Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Arc de Triomphe for starters. [View Full Entry]

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An early rise and early breakfast to catch the 8:53am from St Pancras (Kings Cross) in London to Lille, France. A 20 minute tube to the station from Earls Court and a short walk with a few sets of steps to contend with and we found the Eurostar departure point, checking in with only a few minutes to spare. Inside the train you could imagine yourself on a plane, 2 seats either side of the centre aisle. Your ears even keep popping! We weren't issued seats together, but a kind lady agreed to move when Karina asked if we could sit [View Full Entry]

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It took us a while to get out the door this morning, mainly because we were trying to figure out the best way to get to Paris tomorrow. Time was getting on so we grabbed a cheap lunch around the corner and jumped on the underground to Madame Tussauds. We arrived not long before 11am and the lines weren't *too* long to get in - about 10 mins. The exhibition was great - except for the number of people inside. At times the crowd thinned, but in places we couldn't even move, which dampened the experience a little. It's obviously a [View Full Entry]

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