Sams little update

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Yo! Im just writing a little update to let you know we are still alive!
We've got quite far since the last post so im not going to waffle about everywhere we have been, just a short bit about each place.

After brugge we went to Anterwerp, got moved on by the police after parking on the side of the road to a car park about 150m behind us we missed! Anterwerp was an interesting place but we were soon put off after someone tried to open the van door just before we went to sleep.

After this we headed in the direcetion of Amsterdam, stopping at a couple small towns on the way which were very dutch (Flat and windmills everywhere)

Once we got to Amsterdam we found my aunties house where we were staying and then ventured out over the next few days visting such things as The Anne Frank house, red light district, swimming pools, the dungeons and the torture museum. A very touristy week for us! Was nice being in the warm for that week and having access to the internet to catch up with people. Also gave me a chance to buy the european map for my sat nav which, stupidly, i thought we wouldnt need.....ha, and also to order a new battery for my laptop after it decided to break on the second day. (The new battery is posh! its got a little stand on and everything)

A week and a day after we arrived at my aunties we decided to move on. After saying our thanks for letting us stay, we put back on the 3000 layers needed to brave the van again and we were off....... 4 litres of oil, 50 euros of fuel and 8 and a half hours later we arrived in Berlin.

Berlin was not quite as we expected. We saw the Reichstag, a preserved war bunker, and the holocaust memorial along with a couple of other war things, but other than that we didnt really find much else in Berlin. Its a very modernised city with a couple of obvious bit of german engineering but i found it lacked character.

So we moved on the Dresden, which like Berlin, we bombed over 80% of it in the war, so again this was a very recent city, however with Dresden they rebuilt as much as they could with original bricks, so it still had all the old character buildings which made it a very pretty place. It was also alot quiter walking around which was nice after the hustle and bustle in Amsterdam and Berlin.

Our next stop was Prague. On the drive there we saw our first bit of snow after choosing to avoid a toll road. It took us through a couple of little alpine towns on the Czech/German border and then into 5 or 6 ghost like town in the country side of the Czech repulic until we reached a 4 mile stretch of straight road which led us basically into Prague. It was a very very nice city with lots of history, which we learnt on our tour of 'the under ground city' after they buried the old town the prevent flooding! Bit of an over reaction in my opinion.. but anyway the old castle from which the city started had a very nice cathedral in it. Google it for some pictures, i cant remember its name but im sure if you type 'old cathedral in prague' something will show. It was also very cheap in prague so i bought my self some new shoes which actually have a full sole!! We also found there was alot of English groups who were very laddish, shout and swearing and just being english.... reminds me of a trip the school did for business studies haha.

After Prague we headed straight for Austria, to a little alpine village called Arbesbach which was absoultly stunning. We parked at the base of an old tower which stood about 100 metres higher than the village itself, and had amazing veiws of the landscape. Because it was 842m above sea level there was 2 foot of snow everywhere, which meant a night temperature of -15 and a day temp of -4. This meant that the water on the inside of the van had frozen in the morning, as had the condensation on the windows and metal pillars. The bed however is very warm, just our heads that get cold if the duvet is pulled off by someone........ which is why i sleep in my balaclava haha!

The drive from there to Melk where we are now was my favourite. Alpine roads covered in ice and snow which were similar to zig zag hill, but steeper and tighter.. For some reason though, even with ice and snow on the roads you can still push on at 30-40mph and not slip and slide at all. Even the hills, i was amazed that we could easily get up hills like Spread Eagle covered in ice without any problems. Obviously the europeans, unlike the english, know what to do when snow hits.

Anyway we are now in Melk, which is where i came on a college trip just over a year ago, but hopefully this time im here, no one will get deported.

Well sorry my quick update turned into a full blown novel, and i know most of you probably skipped the middle bit and just read this bit to see where we are now, but thats whats happened over the last 2 weeks.
We are currently in a hostel for 2 nights so contstantly showering, and making the most of our free buffet style breakfast.. After this we are steadily heading to Zell am See to see a freind of Verity's and to get some snowboarding in!!! BOOM!

See y'all later! x

ps. i know i says we are in linz in the title, but its the closest place i could find to Melk.

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