laurenwtravels

The sun shone through our curtains to start the day. A tasty breakfast was followed by a steep hike up to Salzburg fortress. The heat made the walk tough but we made it to the top. We took a seat to regain some energy and happened to get chatting to an old British couple for a good half hour. Its amazing the stories people have and just how friendly people can be. A look inside the fortress was next and there were plenty of exhibits and artifacts to see,most of which had been found in the Castle itself. We then hopped on the Funicular railway back down the hill. We stopped at a small cafe for some lunch then walked around the city. Outside a dainty square was a statue of Mozart with a band in ... read more

We woke up and went straight to the train station. We rode the train to a town called Orianenburg where the Sachsenhausen concentration camp is. We had a tour around and found out some awful stories. I won't go into detail but you can imagine the kind of things we saw there. There were also huge memorials built on the camps grounds. We climbed up a watchtower to look out on the camp. A fascinating place to visit but it really makes you think about the terrible goings-on. We then took the train to the Olympic Park for some happier thoughts. The controversial Berlin Olympics were held in 1936. It was rather contradicting realising that while these games took place,the Sachsenhausen camp was being built just up the road. We walked around the stadium which is ... read more

We had an early start to head to the train station. We dropped off the hire car and got on a train to Berlin,Germany. It was around 6 hours on the train from Amsterdam. Once we arrived in the city it was late and getting dark. We had a look around the streets close to our hotel and discovered an exhibit of bears. There were several statues of bears representing different countries. They lined a whole street and we spent a good half an hour looking at each one. Each bear had different designs supposedly linking to the country it represented. There were some really interesting ones,and some rather odd ones. Some were very obvious as to which country they were and others left it to the imagination. They were very interesting to see and passed ... read more

After another continental breakfast we drove to a village museum called Zuiderzee in Enkhuizen. It was similar to a place called Beamish in the North East of England,although bigger. The surroundings were great and the whole place was well laid out and a lovely place to visit. There were lots of old buildings made to look like they would have in past years. There were many shops and places of work. There was loads to see including a boat building workshop,old house with typical layouts,a cheese shop,a sweet shop,a pharmacy and much more. There was a choir singing stories of the past in Dutch and about the role women played many years ago. The ambiance was delightful and the experience was thoroughly enjoyable. Once we had left the museum we headed to a nearby restaurant where ... read more

An quick flight from Edinburgh saw us arriving in Amsterdam at 8am. We picked up a hire car and drove to Hoorn. We checked in at our B & B and then met with our friends. They took us into the town and we looked around a funfair. The funfair was something else,the rides were in the middle of the town and some of them looked centimeters from hitting historical looking buildings! The town seemed very friendly and the atmosphere from the fair was welcoming. There was loads of rides and food carts. We had a nice meal with our friends and then they took us to the nearby lake to see a firework show. The fireworks were very good,and the setting was perfect. The fireworks reflected on to the lake. We then returned to our ... read more