Switzerland,St Goar,Berlin & Hamburg

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ok so onto switzerland i go! We stayed in a hotel on top of Mount Pilatus - 7000 feet above sea level....bloody high if ya ask me!! The weather was pretty cold but im kind of getting used to it now and its not AS cold when its snowing which is cool! To get to our hotel we had to get 2 gondolas(not like the ones in Venice) to the top. The first one took about 30mins then we got off and then onto another one that took about 5mins. The hotel itself was pretty basic but the views were AMAZING!!!!!!!! it was just so unreal to be up there!! We had the Swiss Alps as our view from our bedroom window!! You wont get that back home thats for sure! There is absolutely nothing...and i mean nothing...to do when your up there!! When you get to the top, theres 2 small hotels...thats it! So once you get all the photos you could possibly take of the beautiful scenery, theres not much else. The hotel put on a "disco" for us in the reception lobby...haha it was so random coz the reception desk that we checked in at was turned into a bar just for us!! They closed the bar at about 1130pm so we hung around downstairs to count to midnight for my birthday!! YAY im 18 now!!! wooohooo!!! haha ok so that was the first night...the next day i slept in until about 730-8am, went to breaky but missed out by about 10mins....then went back to my room so people could call me...left the hotel at about 11am...ish...ash and I took the gondola back down to the bottom of the mountain where we grabbed some lunch and wondered the streets. We didnt get into the main part of town because we didnt have maps of the city and the last gondola leaves at 3pm and if you miss it then you have to find some other accommodation for the night so we thought we would wonder around in that general area incase we got lost! There wasnt much to see in town anyway, its mostly scenery. So we got on the 2nd last gondola back to the hotel, took some more photos(if its possible to take anymore!!) then went to the room for an afternoon nap....haha im getting old now!!! that night the hotel put on a movie night for us...well we were told it was going to be a movie night but we watched one movie and that was it...better than nothing though!! The next morning we got a bit of a sleep in because the 1st gondola doesn't leave until 9am so we slept until about 8am, had breaky, packed bags and left the beautiful swiss alps behind us. So back onto the coach for another big day of driving...time to head up to St. Goar, a small town on the Rhine Valley in Germany.
When we arrived we jumped off the coach and went to a place that makes German beer steins, I left before I broke someting expensive...something I would do!! The hotel was next door to the beer stein place so we checked in...had another nap....haha...at 6pm we went downstairs for dinner and then at 715pm we walked about 100m down the main street(the main street in St Goar is probably 200-300m long) to a winery for our Rhine Valley wine tasting night. Yes i went to a wine tasting night and i don't like wine....but hey when in Rome...or St Goar!! haha so there i was sitting at this big long table with the rest of our group with a giant shot glass filled with wine in front of me...some guy that im sure had been drinking all afternoon told us about the wine from that region and showed us how we were meant to taste the wine...the first wine i thought was disgusting!! the second one was just as bad but slightly better, the third one was nice(well it was either nice or i had drunk enough to like anything at that stage) then the last one was just as good. We also got a chance to taste ice wine....absolutely beautiful!!!! well compared to the rest of them and after i had already had a few haha!! The ice wine would normally cost anywhere between €50-€75 per GLASS in a restaurant!!! So going by the price of it, i think it was a good wine even though I'd had a few before it!!
So when we got back to the hotel we all ended up back downstairs in the bar for a few more drinks. It turned into quite a big night!! I did however manage to put some photos up onto the site but it cost too much to put them all up and it was too slow.
So even though St Goar was a tiny town with nothing to do, we managed to turn it into one of the best nights on tour!!
From St Goar we drove up to Berlin for 2 nights. The first night there we headed next door to the Generator hostel(well known hostel chain throughout europe and one of very few that actually have a bar within the hostel). Most people(including my 2 room mates) left around 1030-11pm but i decided to stay on a bit longer. By midnight though, the 5 of us left were pretty stuffed so we thought we'd called it a night. Before we could do that though, we went around the corner to a kebab place(kind of like Ali Baba but the kebabs are so much bigger...and cheaper!!)...it definately filled the spot!!
Ok well Im sorry to leave you all in suspense but I must be off...I will do another update soon.
Ciao ciao xoxoxo

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Comments

[Mum & Dad]

Photo's when???
Hey Kel, sounds like you are doing a good job of keeping up.I told you wine was nice but I have never tasted "ice" wine, sounds divine!! How long have you been 18??????? Are you trying to make up for lost time?? The tour must be starting to wind down now, back to reality!! Sounds like you are having a ball, enjoy!!! Luv always Mum just going out to buy pad locks for all the fridges that has wine and beer in them.sounds like you are having lots of fun.cant wait for the next email lots of luv dad.