Blogs from Germany, Europe - page 6

Our second night aboard the Viking Magni was very comfortable. Our destination on the next day was Cologne. We had visited here before and had not booked any tours. Most of the other passengers alighted at Lons to do a walking tour of Cologne but we stayed on board. We happily read our books in the Lounge, watching the riverbanks slide by. By 12 most of the passengers had returned in time for lunch as we tied up just opposite the famous Cologne Cathedral. The weather was overcast and cool. We wondered where the hot summer had dissipated to, but we enjoyed our lunch on board. About 2-30 we decided to alight and see a little of the city. We were berthed near the huge Hollenzollern Bridge, on the opposite side of the river to the ... read more

I woke a few times overnight and heard the air conditioner going, then I remembered we didn't have one, which meant it was raining persistently overnight. And the morning was no different. We left around 8:30am with the rain still falling. At least it wasn't too cold. The forecast predicted rain for most of the day with a chance of thunder storms. Not ideal. The day was meant to be all on the river today. We made good time considering the conditions and had ridden 23 of our 60kms by 10am when we rode into a town and spotted a coffee shop. We figured we could use a coffee (and cake as it turned out) and stopped for our morning break - probably for longer than we should have but it was dry inside. Jeff was ... read more

Sunday: so last year, we left the hotel (the same one) drove to a train station (ten minutes away) hopped on a train and were at Potsdamer station in less than an hour. Today, we left the hotel, drove ten minutes and ended up with Google telling us we had arrived, no trains to be seen and we were literally in the middle of a roundabout. Ash amended his sat nav to take us to the actual station instead of just 'blankenfelde' (not the car park, the station) and this took us fifteen minutes back to almost where we had come from because of a closed road (open road it would have taken us three minutes.) We got there and..... No station..... But really close. Finally we thought it might make sense to put the actual ... read more

After a week of relaxation in Bratislava and Graz, I felt sufficiently rested and recuperated to tackle my next multi-day hike through the mountains; and where better to do so than the Bavarian Alps? So after leaving my dear friend Kathi in Graz (where we'd had storms every day) and taking the train to Salzburg, I was up early the next day to take a 45-minute bus ride across the border to Berchtesgaden NP, nestled in the extreme southeastern corner of Germany. The plan was to do a 47km loop hike (known as the Watzmanntour) that starts and finishes at the park's most prominent lake (the Königssee) whilst first climbing - and then circling - its most prominent mountain (the Watzmann). By staying in mountain huts (and one 'Nature Friend House') along the way, I could ... read more

Lego house. Just wow 😎 after an great night's sleep, we headed back to Billund to visit Lego central. After struggling to find somewhere to park with a roof box, Ash dropped us off and myself and Seth headed in, not entirely sure we'd ever see Ash again given his sense of direction..... We shopped, the staff were immense and we got ourselves tagged in. Ash did turn up, surprisingly, and we headed in. It's hard to describe how amazing this place is. Fewer inappropriate slogan t shirts here and a strange sense of calm despite it being busy. It's an incredible building and, I think, the fact that everyone is just playing with Lego and the magical tech they have just makes everyone.... happier. After another awesome day it was time to leave, Ash failing ... read more