Late start after huge breakfast including omlettes and turkish coffee. Rainy morning but we headed up to the Grand Bazzar - in search of souvenirs and Barcelona FC on anything - Coopers new passion. Lots of old narrow cobbled steets - and cars just go every where very fast - crossing the road is risky but can be done. Headed in to the Grand Bazzar - each entrance now has a security guard with a hand scanner making sure all is well. We powered through the leather section - luckily as I'm only a woman all enquiries were addressed to Greg - when they weren't chatting to Kasey! Then everything pretty much became the same, carpets, copy stuff - bags/shirts/jeans, glass lights, scarves, painted pottery/tiles and general stuff. We all found it overwhelming after just 1/2 ... read more

Where do I start - I know, getting to the airport in Vienna 2 hours early because i didn't read the ticket properly!!!! That aside, We did fly the Turkish budget airline, Pegusus - another success booking online! Late into the airport which is 1 hr outside Istanbul, by the time we got to the hotel it was after 7.30, a quick checkin and chat to Yusuf about orientating ourselves then across the road for a great dinner - such amazing service. We then went back to pack for our trip out to Gallipoli - all very tired and knew we had to be up at 6am the next day to get our bus (a 5 hr trip). The trip out saw Kasey and i using the Asian toilets for the first time (place to put ... read more

A fond goodbye to Kristina and Prague - on the train no problems and a great trip to Vienna - it went pretty fast. We grabbed a taxi to the hotel and were walking the streets -as usual by 4.30pm. Light rain fell pretty much for the whole first day. Headed to the opera ring and towards the opera house. At the last minute we decided to queue for tickets for the performance that night - RS (rick steves) had explained it all - for 3 euro each we would get inside the opera house with standing tickets. We wore our best travelling clothes - ok not really, we just wore what we had on to the Vienna opera house - but we weren't the worst dressed! The process was long- the kids amazingly patient. We ... read more

after an amazing breakfast which included hot chocolate and kristinas toasties we headed off back the kids island. Went via the postoffice to off load a couple more kilos of stuff! then caught the cable car through the park to the highest point in the city so we could walk down to Prague Castle, which isn't one castle but a huge complex where royals have lived since about the 9th century. It is huge with amazing views over the city, it took ages to just walk through without stopping and seeing much, the whole place just felt so different. Sunny hot day meant we all ended up getting burnt! The churches and palaces are plentiful, but a lot of buildings don't tell you what they are which adds to the mystery of the place. From the ... read more

Early start, left at 7.15am and second in line to Anne franks house at 8am, very cold but worth the wait. By the time we got out there was a 2 hours wait to get in. Am glad we took the kids to see the play - it gave them context for the museum. All of us were left with lasting impressions of how life was for jews and other minorites under hitler. We can understand why it is just so popular, you couldn't come to Amsterdam without seeing it. Mid morning we tried the pickled herring sandwich - certainly and aquired taste but we did all try it! We then headed off to find the free tour - a group of 30 from all over the world, no where as good as the Dublin tour. ... read more