Long high walls, great tasting beer(s), Czech you, fined in Switzerland and one last ski for the season!

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Hia All,

Well allot has happened since the last blog including babies & engagements!!!

Hey before you get too excited, not us! Our beautiful niece, Hannah Rose Golliker was born on 24 March, weighing in at 8lbs14oz (4.040kg). Congratulations Steve and Lee. Thanks guys, more pressure on us now!

Also breaking news: Cape Town comes to a standstill as thousands of single women congregate in the city for a mass protest as South Africa’s ultimate bachelor succumbs to the pressure and gets engaged. Yes Wendy’s brother, Kevin, is engaged!!! Hey Anja well done, what’s the secret? Nice one guys.

Gee, the things one misses whilst away.

So, time to catch up with our blog again. Having left Holland the plan was to see Berlin, Munich and then head into Switzerland and France for that last bit of skiing for the season and then head back home via Germany.

First stop was Berlin. A city divided by the cold war with the infamous Wall. Now Germany’s capital it is an interesting city that is actually very modern. The highlight of course was seeing parts of the wall and visiting Checkpoint Charlie, Tiergarten, Reichstag (Parliament) and Brandenburg Gate which is the quintessential symbol of Berlin.

On route to Munich we decided to turn left and head south through Czech, as one does. Oh well there goes the plan out the window. As soon as we crossed the border the landscape became more barren, roads in worse condition and even ladies of the night out on the streets, which we could not understand as it was daytime? We spent a few days in the ever so popular capital, Prague. We knew it was popular but this place was ridiculous with the damn holiday makers everywhere, again. Of course we forgot it was Easter weekend. Well at least that meant we could share some great Easter markets with the masses. Anyway Prague is known as one of Europe’s most beautiful capital cities and quite rightly so and is well worth a visit, besides the crowds.

From here we headed east to Kutna Hora and Kostnice Sedlec, the Church of Bones. This chapel crypt contains the bones of 40 000 people arranged in the form of pyramids, garlands, a chandelier and even the Schwarzenburg coat of arms, a truly macabre site, but a serious WOW factor and none of the bones are joined or fixed together in any way.

Next stop was Ceske Budejovice as Wendy was keen to see their Medieval Castle, however (here she comes again) when we got there it was closed and only opening the following week. In all our travels this has very rarely occurred, damn all this way for nothing. Well actually not, as this meant we had time to visit the famous Czech brewery, Budweiser Budvar. So Robert was delighted with the outcome as we sampled the local brew on the brewery tour. Damn fine beer!

So eventually back into Germany and onto Munich. Founded in 1158 and with its fine palaces, museums, the extraordinary Rococo church, Asam kirche and the large beer halls makes it one of the cities we enjoyed the most. We had no preconceived ideas about this place before we arrived, unlike other cities. Also it seemed to have survived the two world wars very well. Munich would not be complete without a very sobering visit to Dachau concentration camp. In the 12 years of its existence over 200,000 people were imprisoned here and allot never made it out, enough said.

As time was running out for us and summer approaching fast we decided to head back to the ski slopes for some end of season skiing. First stop was Flims Waldhaus in Switzerland where our old friend Anita joined us for a long weekend. Then onto the famous Zermatt where the famous Matterhorn can be seen. We arrived at our campsite on a Monday evening and there was no one to book us in, just a number to call. So we called and were informed that they will be there the following evening to book us in and will arrange a taxi for the morning to take us to the ski slopes. We thought it odd that there was no free shuttle bus so the next morning decided, sod the taxi, we are driving in as there are always large car parks near the ski lifts. It was rather an ominous road in and only one car width wide which meant plenty of pulling into alcoves for other vehicles to pass. We eventually made it into a very narrow street in town where even the taxis are like the mini loaf vans. We were stopped by a local in a truck and he informed us, “Getta outta here the policie will giiva youa a bigga fine, only for locala vehicles”, Ooops. We had no sooner turned around and the damn police arrived. Needless to say lots of pleading, begging and charming later still resulted in 100swiss francs fine and an escort back to the campsite - ignorance is not always bliss. Now back at the campsite we were determined to ski Zermatt so reluctantly called the campsite owners again to arrange the stupid taxi. Once they arrived they charged us for the missed ride. Be warned Zermatt is an expensive resort.

This encouraged us to head into France and ski Samoens (part of the Grand Massif) for a few days. The campsite is 150m from the main gondola and it snowed when we arrived which meant a few days of fresh powder, what a way to end the ski season.

With only a few days left on our majestic journey we headed back into Germany once again and onto Wissen. We had a great few days getting to know Anja’s parents. Well we suppose you could say Wendy was checking out her brothers future in-laws. They really made us feel at home and part of the family. Christa and Hartmut thanks for a great time and see you in Cape Town.

That was Anja’s parents and next was her friends Alex and Goetz. We actually met them back in Cape Town in December 2006 and we promised to visit them around October 2007, well better late than never. As it was Sunday when we arrived in Bonn they had prepared a grand traditional German lunch and also invited friends Yuri and Holger to join us. A great meal and a few glasses of wine later Goetz entertained us with his saxophone. Having only been playing for a short time we were all very impressed. Yuri, Holger, Alex and Goetz thanks for a grand time.

If you read this next bit of blurb sloooowly it’s because I’m writing it very sloooooowly, our next destination is the last, back to London. That means the end of the road. We will send one more blog to wrap up so to speak once we have arrived back and shaken off the cobwebs.

Until then

Be awesome
Rob and Wendy

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