Our bags are packed, we're ready to go, we're standing here inside our door, we hate to wake you up to say goodbye . . . so we won't . . . in fact we're gone!
To get to Venice's Santa Lucia train station to catch our train to Florence we caught another water shuttle. Once you get your head around the public transport system in Venice getting to where you need to be is quite easy. Forget about being patient and polite though. We've discovered that there is no such thing as waiting in line and taking your turn in Europe. You have to allow yourself sufficient time to arrive at the station/stop from where you are departing and then position yourself as close as you can on the platform where you have to board. It's not about being rude and pushing in so much as standing your ground and ensuring no one pushes in front of you. Last time we were 'polite' was in Prague and we ended up separated ... read more
The journey from Dubrovnik to the airport is a reasonably lengthy and costly one but affords you the most magnificent views as you travel along the coast most of the way. We have come to love the European taxi drivers. They arrive on time to pick you up and they get you to where you need to be on time. On the down side they usually reek of cigarette smoke, drive like men possessed and sit on their horn the whole way hurling abuse at every other driver on the road. Hey you can't have everything! Our flight to Venice was with Croatian Airlines. We had flown with them from Munich to Dubrovnik but on that occasion our plane was actually a Lufthansa plane (Lufthansa and Croatia Airlines are aligned.) On this occasion our plane was ... read more
The cold virus I caught laid me low the first few days back in Dubrovnik. Fortunately we had four full days and by day three I was well enough to do some sightseeing. We caught a local bus up to Old City and were amazed at its size. We thought it would take just a few hours to walk through but we could have been not be more wrong. We didn't have a lot of information on the history of the city and also didn't know the significance of the buildings within it so decided we would return the following day and join a walking tour. We have found that city walking tours, in particular the ones where you just turn up and pay on the day, are a wonderful way of ensuring that you ... read more
We have returned to Dubrovnik and Hotel Lapad. Our room is perfect. I am not convinced that we were upgraded as we were told we were when we were here last as this room is far more luxurious. Admittedly the room we had before we went on the cruise was in the old part of the hotel, a building with historical significance, but this room is new and has a balcony and magnificent view of Port Gruz. We are a little weary and I have caught a cold virus so we will order in tonight and have dinner on the balcony! There is much to say about our seven days at sea so sit back and relax because this may take a while! I alluded in the last blog entry that the Panorama was 'interesting'. Keep ... read more
Our stay in Munich was brief. It wasn't on our list of places to visit but ended up on the itinerary as it turned out to be the best fit to facilitate our flight to Dubrovnik. We arrived at our hotel to find we had been upgraded to a suite. Very luxurious! Huge room, magnificent view, beautiful furniture, a television image 'in' the bathroom mirror and, wait for it . . . flashing coloured strip lighting in the shower. Very Saturday Night Fever! We thought we might take a beer and brewery walking tour through Munich. We arrived at the designated meeting place under the New Town Hall glockenspiel and found others waiting there for the tour also. Unfortunately the tour guide didn't turn up which was disappointing as we were quite looking forward to doing ... read more
We had a pleasant, uneventful bus trip to Nuremberg. Locating the bus 'station' in Prague where the coach we were to catch was to leave from was a little challenging . . . there isn't one. Just three bus 'stops' on the derelict side of the Holesovice Nazradi train station. Not sure how we found it but we did thank goodness because more transport issues we don't need. Nuremberg is another beautiful medieval walled city. It also has a wealth of Nazi history including of course the Nuremberg Trials. We spent the morning of our first full day in Nuremberg in Old Town. We walked up to the Imperial Castle, considered to be one of the most important castles of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a fairly punishing 'walk'. . . felt more like a ... read more
We should have taken it as a sign of what was to come, a gruff taxi driver who reeked of cigarette smoke, greeted us with little more than a grunt and yelled out "arschloch" half a dozen times during our short journey to the train station. One scary frau! Then our train to Prague was late, not by a great deal but it puts you on edge and you wonder whether you have the right time, right platform etc. It's reassuring when you speak to others and they are waiting for the same train so that's what we usually do when we are unsure. When we eventually boarded we found someone sitting in one of our seats. She was adamant that she had the right seat and showed us her ticket. I had to point out ... read more
The train journey from Warsaw to Berlin on Monday went without a hitch. Hallelujah! Longish journey, just under six hours, but we are finding the train trips quite restful. Clive finds them particularly restful, in fact so restful that I had to nudge him a few times to stop him snoring. A delightful young German man struck up conversation with us during the journey. He is an architect who lives in Kelsterbach but works in neighbouring Frankfurt. He was returning from four days of studying the architecture of Warsaw. It was his first train journey in first class and he was very excited. Not sure why as it was just a normal EC train and not all that spectacular! Granted plenty of leg room and that counts for something on those long journeys. He gave us ... read more
The day started with an hour walk to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It didn't seem that far on the map but our map reading skills are obviously not getting any better! In our defence there is much construction happening and roads are closed off here there and everywhere which, when you are trying to find your way around a foreign city, can throw you for a loop! The hotel reception had assured us there would not be a line to get into the museum. Unfortunately this was not the case and we had to wait an hour to get in. Well worth the wait. The museum is a dedicated record of Warsaw's doomed rebellion against the Nazis in 1944. Yet again we were staggered by what the Polish people endured during World War II. The photographs ... read more
We caught the train from Krakow to Warsaw today. Another regional train and thankfully the last while we are here in Europe. It's more or less a local train so not nearly as luxurious as the trains that take you from country to country. We asked the hotel to confirm which train station we had to go to to catch our train as there are two stations in Krakow. Thank goodness our taxi driver knew where to go because if we had taken the hotel's advice we would have ended up at the wrong train station.The taxi driver even knew which platform we had to be on. Bless him because when we arrived at the station everything was in Polish and no rail attendant or information counter in sight! We only located our train because there ... read more