Contiki Days 125-146

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Basically on Contiki we had one day of travelled followed by a day in the city that we had travelled to. What I've done is basically summed up the main event in each city instead of doing a day by day account as I have done in the past. Oh yeah it managed to rain in every single country we visited! We had some of the massivest thunder storms and we survived it all in tents!!! Even though it was wet the ground we pitched our tents on was so hard that before long all tent pegs were bent!!

Paris

Our day in Paris consisted of doing the normal tourist attraction. Climbing the Eiffel Tower, walking under the Arc de Tromf, strolled the Les Champs-Elysees, took in the stained glass windows of Notre Dame, saw the Moina Lisa in the Louvre and the two touching pyramids. For dinner we had traditional French cuisine sails included. Half of us then went on to see Moulin Rouge while the rest of us headed back to camp. There we were greeted by wet and flooded tents luckily for me mine was fine. We then had a camp sing along before heading off to the bar. And again the night our tents had to survive a thunderstorm!

Swis Alps

The village, we stayed in was beautiful! We even got cabins as it was pooring with rain when we arrived. From our campsite you could see several waterfalls and the snow on the top of the Alps. Breathtaking!!!
For our day in Switzerland we took the clog train up to Jungfaujoch, which is the highest point in Europe! There I wonder around with my tent buddy Talia. Our first stop was the Ice Palace with the South African boys. Now that i think about it I think it would have been safer if we were wearing ice skates through the place as we very nearly ended u on our bums. Inside this Ice Place were a range of ice-sculptures and the exit lead us to a beautiful view that was clouded over as they'd just had a fresh dump of snow. So we got a pic with the Swiss flag instead. It was then time for our pre-packed lunch!
Afterwards we went out to meet our group as our tour leader Lucian had arranged for us to have a snowball fight. So there we were out in the snow the South Africans vs the Rest of the World building up two walls and heaps of snowballs in the fresh snow. By now we had created quite a crowd of onlookers only made bigger when the boys decided it was shirts off time! I like to think that my team won the fight but the others may argue differently. Anyway our onlookers thought it was great and proceeded to take many a photograph of us and laugh at our misfortunes of falling in the snow.
I then went tobogganing down the slope only to have my dish fly down without me. luckily though someone on their way up rescued it for me. And so I tried again, it was heaps of fun but snow down your pants isn't it's a little cold! By the way wearing hiking sandals in the snow definitely not the best idea I've had........
That night we had a themed night of Tight and Bright!! Well the girls decided that because my bright blue top matched Talia's undies so well I should wear them on the outside of my leggings instead of the skirt I was planning on. Pity I had already had a few drinks and agreed to it......It turned out to be a very fun and entertaining night and of course us campers dominated the dance floor!!!

French Rivera - Nice

We started our day off by visiting a perfume factory. From there we headed into the city of Nice. Not too much was done here. It was sticky and hot so the majority did a spot of shopping before heading to the beach to work on our tans for the rest of the afternoon.
Tonight we all got dressed up in our finest and I must say that us campers scrubbed up quite well! We were off to the famous Monte Carlo Casino. First off though Lucian gave us a walking tour of Monaco, walking past the Royal Palace. When we arrived at the Casino there was a fee to get in so only a few of the group ventured inside while the rest of us had drinks in a local cafe.
Afterwards it was back to the campsite and off to the bar!

Florence

Our first stop in the city was a guided walking tour by one of the locals. Man are there a lot of naked statues in this city. After our tour we had some free time to wonder about. We did nothing much really it was way too hot. I wanted to visit the Dome (basillica) but the cue was way to long to be standing in the heat.
That night we had our group photo with the Florence skyline in the background before heading out for dinner. I had a little too much wine at dinner and hence was very chatty by the time we left to hit up the Space Disco club. Here they had some weird system were there is no cash until you wish to leave and the whole night you just use a drink card instead. Too bad if you lose it though you have to pay the full amount of €50. here we also had some issue with the Italian men not leaving the girls alone and before we knew it some of our guys were fighting with them. It was nice to know though that even though we'd only meet our boys a week or so ago they were willing to rescue us and fight off unwanted hands.

Rome

Our first day Lucian took us on a walking tour past the Trevi Fountain and the onto the Patheyon. Where as he was talking outside the sky opened up we heard the biggest clap of thunder and were then drowned in minutes! We then waited for the weather to subside before walking off to find a place for dinner.
Our second day we had a tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum before free time for the rest of the day. Most of us headed off to the Vatican, the museum's and St Peter's Cathedral, which is absolutely massive!!
Back at the campsite it was then pool time to cool off from the heat of the day before dinner and socialising of course.

Venice

Our first night here there were also 5 other Contiki groups so we had the beach Olympics. This consisted of oily abs, sumo wrestling, tug of war, wet t-shirt comp and a boat race. And es you guessed the campers showed up all those concept tours and took the winning prices! Serves you right for looking down on us!!!
The next day we took the ferry over to the city and had a lace and glass blowing demonstration before setting off by ourselves!. It was stinking hot! We walked the streets took in the sights and napped in the park. luckily we didn't get lost. Our next activity was a gondola ride through the canals.Gondola ride through the canals plus hot sun and a bottle of champagne equals a very happy Vicki!!
By now it was time to head back to the campsite weer we had dinner waiting for us cook by the local on site chefs. It was donkey's ribs and chicken? Very tasty whatever it was.
We then of course owned the dance floor of the bar.

Vienna

When we arrived our campsite was nearly flooded! We found out the next day that Vienna hadn't received that much rain in over 100 years! Of course the rain stopped as soon as we had our tents up and they were soaked through.
this night we went to Prater amusement park but most of the rides were closed due to the rain. It is also the home to Europe's oldest fairest wheel. A few of girls decided just to do dinner and what a fantastic meal we had!! It was then back to camp and an early night for all.
Our second day started off with a walking tour of the city lead by Lucian. We walked through the Hofburg Palace finishing up at St Stephen's Cathedral. I and Sarah decided to have a peek inside before heading off to check out the town.
In the afternoon we were taken to the Schonbrunn Palace which had a massive fountain in the backyard. The gardens were also huge and very impressive. From there we moved onto the local Schnapps museum were they still make their own stuff. we were given a tour before being allowed to sample some of the produce.
it was then time to head back to camp before heading out for the night. Lucian managed to scrummage up quite a few pubs with decent deals on so we all got quite merry. Again the boys got into a fight but this time over an accidental spill of a glass. We soon got over it and moved onto the next club. At the end of the night 4 of us got separated from the rest of the group and decided to call it a night. The only problem then was it took us an hour to get back to camp cos our cub driver had no clue were we were going! By the way it was raining again!

Prague

Our day in Prague consisted of a walking tour by our one and only Lucian before we headed out on a river cruise for lunch. Our trip back down the river was supported by commentary of what we were viewing.
I then hung out with a couple of girls before it pissed down with rain as we were due to meet up with a few others. We soon moved onto an Irish pub before catching up with Lucian and the rest of the group. We then went out to a couple of bars before hitting the biggest nightclub in Europe. 5 storeys high and to be honest not the best the only decent floor was the ground one. Plus the drinking age is 16 so there were quite a lot of teeny boppers hanging around. We still managed to drink and dance the night away into the wee hours before taking a taxi home. In which our lovely tour manager past out on the taxi driver's shoulder.
The next day the campsite owners decided to blame us for an incident by the pool involving broken glass. But seeing as they couldn't identify us and none of us were actually around when it happened we were eventually allowed to leave 2 hours behind schedule! Not impressed!!!

Munich

We only had one day in Munich which was spent half travelling we did however manage to see the famous Glockenspiel clock strike 5pm. It is very over rated, before heading off to the beer halls. I surprised myself by drinking my full litre pitcher of beer!!

Heidelberg

Again we only had one night here and we were lucky enough to get cabins...........Sara cooked us up a storm for our last camping dinner together and we drunk the night away.
While we were there we also had free time to walk the streets of the town and visit the makers of beerstiens and Birkenstocks in the Rhine Valley.

Amsterdam

Well what can i say about Amsterdam??? It was a whole bunch of fun. However we were a little grossed out after being taken to a sex show. Definitely not my cup of tea.
I also visited Anne Frank's house while I was there. And we were taken to a clog and cheese factory and were shown how both were produced/made.
Amsterdam also brought us our last night together and to say goodbye we had dinner out as a group and then went onto clubs to party the night away!

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