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Published: April 13th 2009
Where do we start? We have had a huge 4 months and covered a lot of ground. Andrew and I have been very busy with Uni, dashing between Salzburg and Graz weekly and working very hard. Andrew had classes with Bob Brookmeyer for a month and performances with him around Graz and in Vienna. As well as all this we ended up having a quick round trip back to Australia for 5 days for Andrews best friends funeral, and just yesterday returned from a 10 day holiday with my parents travelling through Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and Austria.
This blog is about all the fun times we had with Maripete (AKA Marianne and Peter Cook) over the last 10 days.
Day 1, 2nd April. We left Graz at 5.30 am on a train bound for Salzburg. 4 trains and 9 hours later we arrived in Würzburg, Germany. It should be noted that the previous night Andrew had his last Gig with the KUG Jazz Orchestra and we partied until 4am, walked back to his house, packed and caught the train by 5.30. We were a little tired.
We arrived in Würzburg at around 4pm and found Dad and Mum.
They had flown in from Melbourne, arrived in Frankfurt and driven 2.5 hours to come and meet us. It was great. I hadn't seen Dad for a year. We headed off to find their rental car, dumped our stuff and went for a cruise around the very nice town. It was a lot of fun looking around the town and great to see the reactions of Maripete to all the buildings etc as they had never left Australia before. Incredibly it was sunny and hot - unlike our weather for the past 5 months and has stayed like this ever since. We headed back to our rental car and punched "Erfurt" into the GPS system. We headed off, dad driving on the wrong side of the road, through a country he had never been in before and with road signs he couldn't read - awesome. For some reason our trusty GPS took us to "Niggleweg" - a 15min trip down the road, instead of our 3 hour away destination! Who knows why, however she was forever referred to as "Niggleweg" from then on. It wasn't the last time she let us down.
We arrived in Erfurt, Germany at about 8.30pm,
booked into our accommodation and headed next door for some dinner. Maripete had basically been constantly awake for 3 days straight, so we wern't supprised to see dad do a head nod as he ate dinner! Home to bed.
Day 2, 3rd April. We had a little look around the small town of Erfurt in the morning. Its a very quaint town with 2 massive churches in the centre on a hill, we cruised around some markets, ate some bakery delights and headed to the car for our 3 hour trip to Berlin.
We arrived in Berlin to our hostel "The 3 little Pigs" after cutting about 5 laps due to a truck blocking the entrance, then headed into the city to check it out. We must admit, Berlin was like nothing we had imagined. Visually it was not as exciting as we had anticipated. We walked around buildings, that didn't mean a lot to us and overall were a little dissapointed - this opinion was to completely change the next day. We ate dinner sitting outside in a nice german resturant, drinking beer and wine.
Day 3, 4th April. Maripete have been very excited in Europe. Every
morning they are up and waiting for us to wake up. Dad was up by about 6am every morning, writing in his famous diary. We ate all you can eat breaky at our hostel before heading out to join our "free" tour. Colin was our tour guide for the next 3.5 hours and he completely transformed our opinion of Berlin. Suddenly the odd buildings we had seen the day before, the monuments that hold no descriptive plaques, the streets, even a particular carpark made sense to us and we began to love the city. Colin was an excellent tour guide, working on a tips only basis. He explained to us that Germany doesn't want glorify the hollocaust and therfore the majority of monuments dont hold any plaques. Hitlers bunker where he died is a very ordinary carpark, walking past you would never know. We were shown "Checkpoint Charlie", parts of the berlin Wall, important monuments, churches, even the building where Wacko Jacko held his little baby over the balcony. We had a great day.
Day 4, 5th April. We got up early and decided to have one last look around town and through the markets before heading to Prague,
Czech Republic. As we walked around we couldnt believe how many police were out and about, we knew something was up. We turned the next corner and were just in time to see the massive Berlin Marathon start. It was great, all the roller skaters absolutely hooned past, we headed off as we needed to get going but eventually the wheelchairs, runners and walkers were also to go through. There would have been tens of thousands of people in this marathon - no exaggeration. We made it back to our hostel a little later than we thought and were very keen to get going on the road - unfortunately the marathon went straight past our hostel and we were blocked in until 2.30pm. Fun Fun
Eventually were were back on the road again and travelling along the awesome German Autobahns - us travelling at 130km/h in the SLOW lane and being overtaken at about 200km/h. Dad had gained a bit more confidence by the 4th day and was zipping in and out a lot more. We arrived in Praque in the late afternoon and good old "Niggleweg" decided to crack it. She had no idea and in the end Andrew
had to take over and direct us through the crazy Czech Republic traffic. We arrived a little stressed from the drive, had some dinner and went to bed - not before Mum and Andrew saw a massive rat run in front of them, just outside from our hostel.
Day 5, 6th April. Prague!!!!! "Wow. Have I just seen the most beautiful city in the world - probably" - Quoted from Mr. Peter Cooks famous travel diary. I think we would all have to agree.
Everywhere you look are churches, castles, beautiful buildings, markets, bridges, narrow cobblestoned lanes - and unfortunately, tourists. Our time in Prague was definately too short, there is so much to see. We had a great time. We walked up many lanes, higer and higher - Maripete powering in front of us, Andrew and I puffing, before we reached the top and Prague Castle. A Massive, ornately decorated building complete with Gargoyle drains. Great day. Hopefully will be back here again one day.
Day 6, 7th April. Once again we left a litle later than anticipated, and headed off on our long journey to Krakow, Poland. The drive was VERY long. It took us about
8 hours to get there. Well done to MR. PC who drove the whole way. The Polish ecconomy struggles with poor roads and poor buildings but the actual city of Krakow is very beautiful and was the only large city in Poland that escaped WW2 unscathed. We arrived late and headed out to find some dinner, instead we found the largest medieval town square in Europe complete with bustling night markets, fire blowers, church, tower, horse and carts and Maripete. It was fantastic. On the way back to our hostel we found probably the BEST resturant of all time. Live music, traditional dress, traditional Polish food, very cheap. Suddenly all the lights would dim, a bell would ding and a chef would dash out with a flaming grill and serve people their meal from a sword! Next thing someone else orders another meal and the chef darts out with a massive wooden chooping board and instead of carving up the pheasant, in 2 massive strokes - like you would chop wood - the pheasant was served.
Day 7, 8th April. Massive Day. We got up early and head out to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps, 1 hour away. "Niggleweg" struggles and
we find for the 1st time Dad driving on the left side of the road - just for a second. Auschwitz and Birkenau camps were much bigger than we would ever had imagined. It was devastating and hard to comprehend. A day we will never forget.
We returned to Krakow, parked the car just down from where it was yesterday in between a few cars and headed off for some fun in the centre. We walked up to the Wawel Castle and Cathedral and around the grounds, explored the night markets and ate some dinner. After a "smooth" Polish vodka back at our favorite resurant, we started home. We arrived at our hostel 10 mins later and once there discovered that we hadn't actually passed our car - surely we must have passed it. After walking up and down the street a good 3 times we were certain it definately was not there. Our car has been stolen! At this stage everyone but Andrew starts to get worried. What was in the car? How will we get it back? etc. Andrew however decides this is prime time to start recording everything on the video camera - assuring us we will
be thankful one day.
We head into the hostel and ask Ola, the receptionist what to do. She first rings to see if the car has been towed away - it has not. We are asked to look for it one last time before she rings the police. The police are rung and dad starts to think about his insurance policy. At the very end of the 10min police call, the police discover that actually they have impounded the car and its not stolen as previously thought. We were all very relieved. Ola organises everything we need to do tomorrow, and we head to bed for an early start the next morning.
Day 8, 9th April. We awoke early to start the process to retrieve our car. First we head out to the Pound, 20 min cab drive away. After searching around for at least 15 mins, we find our car, but cant actually get to it. No one speaks english and we cant find the entrance. Eventually we find the front gate and only Mum and Dad are allowed inside the car jail. Andrew and I are locked out. 15mins later they appear again. They have paid a
KUG JAzz Orchestra
Last Performance with Bobby Bfine, now we need to head out to the police headquarters. Another 20min taxi ride and we arrive at the police station. Thankfully the police are very nice, and actually thought it was pretty funny. Apparantly we had parked in the "peoples place" where they catch the tram. A road sign about this would have been nice. Hopefully the other 4 cars that also parked there were impounded as well. At the police station we paid another fine before heading back out to the pound to pick up our car. WOOHOO, everything goes smoothly and we have our car back. We head straight to the hostel, pick up our stuff and get out of Poland ASAP! 6 hours later we arrive in Vienna, Austria.
Day 9, 10th April. Back in our home soil of Austria we feel a little more comfortable having the advantage of knowing some of the language again. Our hostel room is very big and we waste no time spreading out. Andrew and I are Maripete's tour guide for today as we have been here a few times. First stop is Schloss Schönbrunn for its incredible gardens and unrivaled view of the city. Second stop, Vienna
centre - Museums Quartier for lunch, then through the gardens with a HUGE museum either side of us, then through a big archway into an open space outlined by the MASSIVE state library, then through another huge walkway into the main city circle. Maripete agree - Vienna is HUGEMUNGUS!!
Next we head for the Danube and see the sights along its shore, stopping for a realxing drink in the sun. Then we head back to the centre and check out the biggest church Maripete have seen so far, St. Stephans Dom, maripete both inspired to attend part of the Good Friday service - Andrew and I went and ate a steak - actually some chocolate. Exhausted we returned to the Hostel grabbing some delicious Turkish food on the way home. Great day all round.
Day 10, 11th April. We headed off on our last leg of the journey - destination Salzburg. 1 hour out of Vienna we stopped at a very cute little town called Melk. Melk is a small town of just 6500 people but holds a massive Benedictine monastery of international acclaim. We stopped here for a couple of hours and had some lunch, then headed off
Erfurt
13th Century Gothic Dom St. Marien to Salzburg 2 hours away. We arrived back at my house. Andrew pumped up the lilo, I made dinner, Mum washed clothes and dad organised some photos on facebook. We had a very relaxing afternoon, before having a quick look around Salzburg and then to bed.
Maripete headed off to Munich airport at 6am the next day to drop off "Niggleweg", not before she caused them some more grief and took them to the wrong place, then headed to Rome on a plane. Andrew and I are very jealous and wish we were back in Rome. Maripete have a tour around Italy before heading to Turkey for Anzac day, Andrew and I were hoping to meet them there, but unfortunately, even with K. Rudds money we dont think we can aford it. We will catch up with them again on the 26th April when they return again to Salzburg. We have had a great trip. So much fun. The car trips have been great. Thanks Dad for driving us around.
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kato
non-member comment
awesome times guys! love to you all :)