Germany

Scary, scary Eiffel Tower piccy

Apple Wine - like bad Cider.

Been having a great time so far... London and Paris were great be we decided we like Germany best so far. Everything works, everyone speaks English and you can buy a beer absolutly anywhere. Max would've loved the tower of London, with very old armor, weapons and torture devices on display.

I've had to learn basic French and German at a very rapid pace. It was a bit difficult in France but you can often get by by smiling and pointing.

Germany has strict regulations regarding the quality of their beer – only yeast, hops, wheat and water are to be used – no preservatives etc, which makes it top quality stuff. They cant even import beer that doesn't meet the regulations. All the stereotypes about Germans are true, the men all tuck their t-shirts in and the trains run on time. I got in trouble when I bought a t-shirt yesterday for not bringing the coat-hanger up to the counter WITH the t-shirt. The people here are generally very friendly though.

We stayed at a place called Nue-Isenberg just before the tour, which is just outside of Frankfurt. A lot of towns around here were flattened in the war, so there are very few old buildings like there were in France and London. We drove for most of the day to Berlin, which is where we'll be for the next 2 nights. We're staying in East Berlin which so far looks a bit run down, with lots of colourfully painted apartments (people went mad colouring up the place when Communism died here 17 years ago and buildings no longer had to be grey). I'm looking forward to seeing the Berlin wall tomorrow, and Auschwitz the next day. We've had a lot of interesting European history lessons since we've been here which kind of seem like fairy tails involving kings and queens, but the story of Berlin I find most fascinating, I remember it! East Berlin is still coming to terms with it – there is a 20% unemployment rate here despite the country doing so well economically in general.

Went to an Italian pizza joint for tea tonight, I figured if they don't speak English we might get by with the little bit of Italian I know. The food and service were great, and the waiter did speak English. He offered us a grappa on the house when we'd finished. I said no but Greg took one and he's now asleep in bed at 8.45pm.

Until next time,

Amy

Photos- 1. Eiffel Tower from about a third of the way up 2. Stall at market in Frankfurt selling apple-wine.

Leaving London

We are going to be taking the Eurostar train via the Chunnel today for Paris.

Buying the tickets we had the nasty surprise of being asked GBP300 for them. Ahem. Maybe we should have flown!

Still, we got them along with a museum pass that ought to cover us for the time we are there, so that will be nice. We are off at 10:40 am local time - so about three-and-a-half hours from now. The trip only takes 2.5 hours.

Just to bring you up to date, we did a walking tour of the city on Monday, which wasn't too bad; saw the Life Guards trotting along, watched a couple of guys from the Royal Artillery mounting guard as two of the regular Guards Regiments are on foreign deployments.

Also passed some of Londons' "Gentlemans' Clubs" - a notion with a very different connotation in Australia. It was interesting to note that the sexist old Tory Club had to make Margaret Thatcher an honourary man so she could be a member.

Our tour Guide was the Queen Mums' medic (so he says) and imparted to us a secret we may never share, even if you ask nicely.

After this we went aboard the HMS Belfast, a WW2 "Big Gun" cruiser and had a good look around. I was very tempted by the Airfix ships in the museum shop and had to remind myself they can be bought in any hobby shop back home. Globalisation homogenises everything.

That evening we went out to Soho for a poke around and some diner. We watched a drug deal go down in frot of our pub - do they stage these for the tourists? - and I was offered a sexual service from a tout, but I informed the person that I was taken, sadly.

Yesterday was started with Westminster Abbey and the train booking heart-attack session at Eurostar. Spent a quiet evening last night reading in the pub and updating our travel diaries.

Washed all of our clothes in the bathroom sink - they are nearly dry now (2 days later!)

30th September

Went today on a tour of the Tower of London and a walk over the Tower Bridge.

We followed that up with an open-topped bus tour that gave us a nice overview of the city and took us to quite a few places we'd not yet been.

The traffic here is nuts; I'll append a short video clip when I can a bit later on - I'm in an internet cafe right now on impulse coming home from the pub.

We're already both craving fruit and veg, so we've been eating a salad or two in the past couple of days; pub grub is all very well, but...

anyway that's about it for now until we've written up something better - more later on.
UPDATE: Look fot the rickshaw.

AFL Grand Final - and other things... 29th-30th September

Writing from our hotel room where the Soccer/football is playing before we go to breakfast.

2007 AFL Grand Final

We watched in the “Walkabout” in Covent Garden, one of a chain of Australian theme pubs that give an authentic beer-barn experience. Cost us 15 pounds each which got us two drinks and a bacon and egg sandwich plus entry.

We took a black cab to get there which cost something like $35 to get us about 3km – I think we sadly disappointed the driver with our scanty tip.

Amy thought the atmosphere was great, about 50:50 Aussies:Poms. We stood behind a couple of what we thought were Poms; they had the full accents, after all. Turns out they'd been here for two months. How hard had they been working on their accents? Did they have a dialogue coach?

Anyway the game was all done by the end of the first quarter, but we watched it through and then went back to the hotel for another hours' sleep. We were still jet-lagged and really didn't throw it off until last night when we slept the last of it off. Ate a huge breakfast and did NOT need lunch at all.

Went on to the Imperial War Museum where Horne spent a happy few hours photographing tanks and fighter planes while Amy sat it out in the Cafe with a map and a Lonely Planet Guide. It was funny to see the “Monty: Master of the Battlefield” exhibit that didn't really talk much about his methods – I got more out of a 1974 Airfix Magazine Guide!

Had a very nice fresh OJ at the kiosk in the IWM's lovely grounds.

We were intending to go to a Comedy Club last night, but it was booked out, so we had some dinner at a pub and came home for an early-ish night – we are now staying at Luna Hotel near Victoria Station.

This morning we will transfer to our new, cheaper hotel half a dozen doors down the street past Ecclestone Square before going off to see Buckingham Palace then in the afternoon take a London Bus Tour to hit the main tourist attractions. Later on we'll Camden market, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

Oh, and we saw a brawl in the street.

More later.

Arrived in London

Hi all - we arrived in London about about four hours ago.

We are both well and made the trip without incident*, although we are pretty tired just now.. We left out bags at the hotel, went to the nearest Tube Station and bought ourselves some tickets so we can get about a bit today and orient ourselves.

When we can get to our hotel room, we'll have an extremely long and hot shower and sleep a few hours - I think we managed about two, two-hour naps each on the flight. Still, no signs of DVT, so that's a good start!

For now, we'll just be having a poke around and see how we go. We are feeling like it's mid-afternoon, so we are a little out of whack.

Tomorrow morning we'll be watching the Grand Final at 04:00 local. The horror.

More as time permits - we are going now to book another few nights accommodation.

*OK - Horn got taken aside and had a random explosives check and a nice, comprehensive patting down at Singapore. Mr Hepponstall, please keep your speculations to yourself.

Itinerary

If by chance a meteorite should hit some bit of Europe that we are in, you can check here if we were anywhere near ground zero.

We'll update this part of the blog as we continue to fine up our plans.

UPDATED 17 September.

Thurs 27th Sept.
Depart Melb. Flight QF426 11am
Arrive Syd 12.20pm
Depart Syd 3.30pm flight BA16, Boeing 777

Fri 28th Sept.
Arrive London 5.55am

Staying at Thistle Kensington Park, Da Vere Gardens, Kensington, West London Ph. 0870 333 9112
On 28th Sept.

Don’t know where we’re staying in London from 29th – 2nd.

Weds 3rd Oct.
London – Paris on Train; woo-woo - thru the Chunnel of Doom.

Staying at ???

Fri 5th Oct.
Paris – Frankfurt.

Depart Paris (CDG airport) Flight LH4219 2.05pm
Arrive Frankfurt 3.20pm
Staying at Hotel Mercure on 5th

Sat 6th Oct.
Frankfurt - Start tour
Trafalgar “Highlights of New Europe” tour

Sat 20th Oct.
Tour finishes.
Staying at Hotel Mercure on 20th Oct

Sat 20th Oct.
Tour finishes.
Frankfurt – London

Depart Frankfurt Flight ????
Arrive London ???

Staying???

Sun 21st Oct.
London – Hay on Wye

Hire car @ Heathrow
Staying @ The Bear - http://www.thebearhay.co.uk/

Tues 23rd Oct.
Hay on Wye – around Fishguard

Staying near Fishguard, ahh Fishguard, romance is thy name.

Weds 24th Oct.
Fishguard – Rosslare

Stena Line Ferry Departs 2.30pm
Arrives Rosslare 6.00pm

Staying @ St Helens Hotel, Rosslare – http://www.sthelenshotel.ie/


Thurs 25th Oct.
Fishguard – around Dublin
Hire car in Rosslare
Stay somewhere around Dublin

Fri 26th Oct.
Dublin – Inverness

Aer Arann Flight no. RE355
Departing Dublin 10.30am, Arriving Inverness 12.00

Staying in Inverness

Sat 27th Oct.
Inverness – Orkney Islands

Hire car in Inverness
Get ferry to Orkneys – Pentland Ferries
Departs Gills Bay 1.45pm

Staying @ Stromness Hotel – www.stromnesshotel.com

Sun 28th Oct.
Staying @ Stromness Hotel

Mon 29th Oct.
Get ferry to mainland – Pentland Ferries
Departs St Margaret’s Hope 8.00am

Staying in Edinborough (maybe)

Tues 30th Oct. – Sun 4th Nov
Edinborough – London (via Aberdeen, Speyside, York, Nottingham)
Accommodation not planned

Sun 4th Nov – Tues 6th Nov
Around London (inc. Brighton and Portsmouth)

Weds 7th Nov
Flying home

British Airways flight BA15
Departs Heathrow 9.45pm, Arrives Sydney 10.30am

The Final Frontier

Australians have this idea that Europe is always cold.

I think we see the place as perpetually veiled in snow and thus we always think of how much cold weather gear we'll need when we go there.

Consequently Amy and I have gone and bought some thermals - for when we are in the Orkneys, naturally. I'm sure I'll be quaking with cold in Skara Brae.

In the meantime, I can pretend I'm in Star Trek.

I forgot the red-eye reduction; sorry!