22 days, 6 countries, I must be in Europe!

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I can't belive I've been travelling for nearly four weeks already, time really has flown and I'm sorry its taken me this long to give you all an update! But here it is...

Ahh, where to begin! After 22 days on the road my mind is a blur of beautiful and amazing places, historical facts and legends and names and details of travellers Ive been meeting alont the way and their invaluable travel advice on locations I'm yet to visit. I have not yet encourntered any major distastors so I'm happy to report that I'm alive and well...actually I'm pretty fantastic 😊

While I won't bore you with the full detail on where I've been and what I've done over the last few weeks, to give you a high level summary, so far I've been to London, Paris, Bern, Lauterbrunnen, Lucerne, Munich, St Johann in Tirol (Austria), Venice and I'm currently in Rome.

And for those of you who have time to grab a cup of tea and read some more, here are a few of my favourite travel adventures so far...

1. When things don't go according to plan...in London
I'm sure I'm like most people in that when disembarking from a 21+ hour flight the only two things you want are a shower and a bed to sleep in. So as you can imagine I was feeling great when, after managing to negotiate the tube at 6am and get me and my 35kgs of luggage (I never was good at packing light) to the house in St Johns Wood where I was supposed to pick the keys up for the place I was staying that night, I knocked on the door and got...nuthin. Nobody was home! After a few phone calls on my mobile (thank you international roaming) I ascertained that the rellies who had the keys were in Paris, not returning until 7pm that evening. Great. After briefly fighting back tears of exhaustion and reminding myself that the most interesting part of travel is when things don't go according to plan, I did what anyone would do, found a good cup of sleep substitute at Starbucks. Coffee kicked my mind back into gear and I decided to find the closest hostel, and pay for a night so I could have a shower. So me and 35kgs got back on the peak hour tube and went to Paddington, where I found the hostel I'd looked up in my trusty Lonely Planet guide - "Wake up" London - had closed two years ago! Not my day. I then staggered with 35kgs through the streets of Paddington looking for a hotel with a reasonable room rate. Eventually, after a detour through Hyde Park (it seemed like a good time for a stroll...with 35kgs), I found a backpackers with a trully awesome aussie chick behind the counter, she let me shower in her room and then stored my bags for the day for £3. Best shower ever! The rest of the day was ok after that, I went for a wander around London, picked up my bags and, for the last time, lugged 35kgs through the tube, back to St Johns Wood, to have a long relaxed dinner, get the key and tuck myself into bed by 10pm. At least doing it this way jeg lag really wasnt a problem for me!

2. The romance of a yaght in Paris
I love France, but Paris on a hot summer day is revolting. So of course the one day I'm in Paris is it stinky humid and hot, which somewhat dampened the novelty of sleeping on a yaght moored just off the Siene next to the Bastille. Determined to enjoy myself however, my brother Matt (who I saw in Paris and then met up with again in Munich) and I had a nice wander around Paris, it took me less than 15mins to locate the nearest bakery and order "un eclair au chocolat sil vous plait" with my terrible french, and less than a minute to consume it. Since then I've been trying to savour the yummy food Ive been eating, but usually failing. Instead I buy duplicates, like the two massive gelati's I had yesterday near the Vatican. Tasty. Anyway, back to Paris. The yaght turned out to be a fun experience, it was good to see Pete (my second cousin and owner of the yaght) and Matt and I had a tasty meal overlooking the Bastille. By 2am it was even cool enough to sleep!

3. Snow, sun and fun...in Switzerland
Sigh. Switzerland. What a lovely country. I had three stops in Switzerland, the quaint capital Bern with it's massive cukoo clock and fast flowing glacial river, Lucerne, with its famous wooden bridges and lovely old town with it's beautifully painted facades, and Lauterbrunnen, which takes the cake. A number of people had told me this was their favourite place in Europe, and I can understand why. It reminded me of Queenstown in New Zealand - ski town in winter, adventure playground in summer. As I'd done a bunch of adventure things in Queenstown before (and it was a whole lot cheaper there!) I opted instead to follow the standard tourist track and head up Jungfraujock "Top of Europe". The bonus with Jungfrau is that you can catch a train all the way up instead of hiking, which is handy as it's around 3000m higher than Lauterbrunnen. So for the low low price of $120 aussie, I caught the 6.39am "Early bird special" train to the top. You change trains at Kleine Sheidegg, and from there it's a steep cog railway through solid rock to get up to Jungfraujock. It was amazing up the top, there was a cool ice palace and some good views of Interlaken before the cloud cover closed in. Fellow traveller Penny and I had a great time, until we got wet feet from hiking 20 mins in the snow on the hunt for the glacier you could walk on. Eventually we stopped some mountaineers with icicles on their face (it was cold up there!) to ask how much further the glacier was, they looked at us strangely and said "You're on it. Make sure you keep to the path becuase there are crevasses on either side." It took Penny and I no time at all to take some photos and head back into the relative wamth of the Jungfraujock main station - I was looking for your classic blue glacial ice! We were walking in snow! Anyway, we eventually left Jungfrau and caught the train to Kleine Sheidegg as our cheapy tickets only got us that far, and we had to hike from there to Lauterbrunnen, down 1200m, but it was a great hike in beautiful weather, accompanied by herds of cattle with bells around their necks. Penny was wearing a pedometer (a teachers inititive in London), so my fun fact for that day was that we walked 50 000steps, but after a few beers that we chilled in the stream that flowed through the campsite our sore legs were soon forgotten!

4. Bavarian Beers and Castles
I was a big fan of my only stop in Germany for now - Munich. Within two hours of arriving I was in Hoffbrauhaus with a stein (1L glass) of beer, chatting to some hilarious German climbers from Cologne (finding Germans in Hoffbrauhous which is traditionally touristy was random, but great!). That set the secene for me in Munich, I went to a beer hall every night I was there (but I guess that's what you do in Munich). The best thing I did in Munich was take a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. Most people know Newschwanstein Castle as the castle that Walt Disney based his logo on. I'm far more attracted to the castle for its historical and musical connections. It was built, starting in 1868, by King Ludwig II, who was an eccentric guy, his sanity was questionned, but from what I can tell from the stories and his buildings was that he is just like many artists I've known - left of centre. Anyway, he was mates with Richard Wagner, who, although I'm not a huge opera fan, I've got a lot of respect for simply because of what he did with his music and operas. Ludwig was rumoured to have "relations" with Wagner, whatever, but he dedicated this castle to him and many of the pictures around the castle depict legends that Wagner based operas on (such as Tristan and Isolde, Percivale, Lohengrin etc.) Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photos of the interior, but there were some whacky rooms and funiture, like his artifical cave, his bed which took 14 carvers 4 years to make, and little funny things, like one of the columns is painted as a plam tree. Nuts! And every wall is covered in pictures. It's a pity the castle was never finished. It's also a pity that when we walked up there it bucketed down with rain and we got completely soaked! My poor hiking shoes did ok in the Jungfrau snow, but were no match to torrential rain while walking uphill. But it was a great day and certainly a highlight of my trip so far, also because for the first time since falling of a bike last time I travelled I went for a bike ride and survived! Yipee!

5. St Johann in Tirol
This was my only stop in Austria, and I loved it. So much so that I'm hoping to come back here in winter and go for a ski as the slopes looks amazing even without snow! I won't write much about it here though as it was basically a relaxing couple of days with some good company and food, and some nice hikes and bike rides...so on to...

6. Venice...Rome...still looking for a winner in Italy
Right now, I'm sitting writing this outside my cabin on a lovely sunny Rome day in the shade of a tree, and although I can happily report that I've done all the "amazing" things as far as sights go, the Colosseum, Sistine Chapel, Roman Forum, alley ways of Venice, St Marks bastillica, I am yet to be blown away by the sights of Italy. They're really impressive and have the wow factor, but at the moment I'm quite happy not to come back, I think mainly because, particuarly in Rome, it's really hot, and the constant threat of pickpockets takes away from the fun of the place. I'm hoping that my next two stops, Sienna and Florence will inspire me with their Tuscan countryside, but I guess I'll see soon enough! What has been fantastic in Italy is the food, particularly the gelati. I'm on a one or more a day habit at the moment, and I haven't had a bad one yet, although some have been better than others! Mmmm...chocolate and bacio gelati...so at the very least I'll be eating my way around Italy! I've got 9 more days here before I'm back in France, Nice.

And that's about all from me for now - I miss you all, and I'll try and write more frequent and shorter updates from now on!

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Photos

Ice bear in ice cave...
with stupid looking Katie bear beside it...

Summer in Europe!
In case you ever need to find it, this is what the glacier looks like on Jungfraujock

When in Munich...
With fellow busabouter Logan in Hoffbrauhaus

The pretty canals around Venice
This was taken on Burano, an island off Venice, which had very cute painted houses.

Comments

[Roberto]

That's not a bear!!
KT, Let me be the first to post a public comment.. Your photo's are amazing and it's great to see you are having such a good time. I wish you safe travels, good food, wine, chocolate and activation. But watch out for those dirty Italian men. ;)

[Frank]

Bier, Beer, etc. etc.
You certainly take after your Dad. Have you left any beer in Muenchen for the Oktober Fest? Sounds (looks like) you are having a great time. Travel blog is agreat idea - luckily you rememvered to do something about it after 4 weeks. Love the place you bought at Neuschwanstein. Bit over the top but I suppose if we can stay there for nothing I shouldn't complain too much. Keep enjoying yourself - love from the Bakker clan.