Blogs from Austria, Europe - page 7

Vienna 2 The problem with writing a blog a week or so after it happened is that you forget some of the things that happened. How could I forget the visit to Schönbrunn Palace? Ken stayed at home as he was nursing a cold so Jane, Jenny, Stefan, Susanne and I went along. We took a tour of the palace, which is quite something to see. It was built to rival Versailles and, although not as sumptuous inside, is beautiful in its own right. The grounds include the Gloryette, a magnificent arched building which looks down to the lake and fountain in front of the Palace creating great views in either direction. The trees of the garden avenues were in full autumn colour and I am sure that in summer the gardens would be splendid with ... read more

Woke up early for breakfast as we were leaving at 8.30am to go Budapest (Hungary), via Bratislava (Slovakia). We though today we'd bring out bags down with us so we could get onto coach quicker; sit together and at the front. Breakfast was the same thing as yesterday. When we got downstairs we saw Gina and Edward sitting in the breakfast bar, they had only just got in from nightclub at 6.30am. They looked so very hungover and tired – Gina tried eating some breakfast but ended up spilling coffee same as Maya yesterday. Quite a few other people did too – not very good jugs! Gina and Ed are crazy, I was well impressed!!! We were the first ones on the coach in the end so we sat at the front, mainly so I could ... read more

Today was the say we met up with the Contikis. We woke up early to pack and to grab some breakfast. We thought we’d try the normal breakfast restaurant downstairs in case they had more choices but decided to make use of the Executive Lounge. It was a bit better today.. they had marble cake sooooo tasty!!! I stole some Nutella too… its just too good and in convenient packaging :p We went for a walk along the Danube River outside our hotel, there were millions of of ducks, swans and runners and couple of boats went past. We walked back around to the front entrance and went upstairs to grab our bags to check out approx. 11ish. When we went to the reception Fiona posted a postcard back home to herself which I thought was ... read more

Today is the first day of my 8 day trip to Europe, it was so exciting to go travelling again. Colin drove me to the airport where I met Fiona at 11am, as usual we were FAR FAR too early... better be safe than sorry haha. We had to sit about waiting for ages for the desks to open to check in out bags. We were starving but as usual, Heathrow being rubbish there just wasn't any where for us to eat. Once we had checked in we used my "Fast Track" pass to get though security in record time, i swear it only took like a minute. Fiona and I had a really bad craving for McDonald's neither of us knew why but the extreme lack on Mc D's at the airport made us sad. ... read more

Hi all! Ok so I have been massively slack on keeping you all updated on my trip, but that's largely due to all the amazing things I've been getting up to! So from Munich we thought we would recover in Berlin...Didn't happen obviously as Berlin has the greatest night life. we were meant to be there for four nights but I extended our stay as Berlin had well and truly taken my heart! Everything from the culture to the nightlife to the amazing history and food and of course beer is just mashed up all forming and amazing place to be. I absolutely loved the street art so it helped that we found a friend who happens to be a tour guide, so we got all the local knowledge! We had an awesome time exploring old ... read more

This is my first entry in the blogosphere (a word with all the charm of herpes), and I am trying to find my voice...I am normally quite a cynical and strident person but thought that after 2 mindfulness courses I should channel the buddha...unfortunately it seems he is also cynical and strident .. My life changed 6 months ago when I was given an opportunity to view freedom from up close. Although unasked for I have been assured by many that this is a chance of a lifetime to discover who I 'want' to be. This is not really welcome advice as who i want to be is the ostrich i was a year ago however as we have not yet mastered time travel the only possible movement is forward. Strangely enough setting a slightly mad ... read more

Well here we are at the last stop on this trip. As I wrote this we were in a lounge at the spanking new Vienna airport, waiting for our flight to London to connect with our flight to Sydney via Tokyo and then on to Melbourne. Whew. It's was 2pm in Vienna and we arrived in Melbourne around 10am on Friday! We had a nice apartment for our 4 days here - again good to be able to spread out and make ourselves at home for a few days. Like most European cities, Vienna has an excellent public transport system and we had no trouble getting about and seeing and doing what we wanted to. Of course the main reason for coming to Vienna was to see and spend some time with Annie, sister of our ... read more