Switzerland and Paris!

The last 2 stops in my Contiki tour was Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland and Paris.  Switzerland is absolutely beautiful and breath taking, it's green with beautiful mountains although it did get a bit chilly On our way we stopped in to Luc and checked out the Swiss Guard memorial and went to a Swiss watch shop -. It was so hard not to be tempted.

 

Lauterbrunnen is nested at the bottom of Mountains with alpine streams and waterfalls. We went up Jungfrau Mountain on the cog train, highest railway station in Europe. Unfortunately the weather was not that great so we missed out on playing in the snow, and being able to see all the views down the valley. They have an ice museum you can wander through, this was very cool, both in temperature and awesomeness.

 

After a long drive we arrived to Paris to Champagne and snails, and checked into our last Contiki accommodation. Our last day in Paris turned out to be one of the best and relaxed days of the trip. We first hit up the Lourve to see the Mona Lisa, then we saw the Love Lock Bridge (putting our own little padlock on it) then we had time to hit up Notre Dame Cathedral, the  Arc de Triomphe  roundabout With the insane about five lanes wide with no actual lines and it's free for all - surprised we never saw a crash! We decided to rest our legs and got a bike ride to the Eiffel Tower - my new favorite type of taxi ride lots of fun and relaxing. Even had time to fit in a visit to one of the insane huge department stores full of very expensive designer bags, jewelery and clothes. We managed to find a watch worth € 75,000!

 
 

 
 

Our last night in Paris and Contiki ended with a Parisian dinner, which was yummy, Snails, Duck, dessert and lots of wine! After we went to a cabaret show, and to a pub, a great night was sad saying good bye to everyone after 18 days together!

Italy was SICK...literally

My 2nd trip back to Italy wasn't as good as the first. We arrived in Venice first and I got to see about an hr of it before the throwing up bug struck (that ended up crippling 2/3 of our tour) and I got to enjoy the heat of the Italy sun while throwing up in bins around Venice.  Before I became ill I did manage to see a few things but sadly missed the gondola ride. Venice is such an amazing city so many tiny alleyways and bridges, we even got to go to a glass blowing demonstration.

Next up was Rome, still not fully recovered I wasn't up for seeing too much especially in the warm weather on an empty stomach, but I did manage to have a tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum followed by the Sunday blessing from the Pope at the Vatican. It was pretty amazing, and astonishing to also see the amount of people who turn up to hear the Pope, it was difficult to find somewhere to stand.

Our last stop in Italy was Florence. I had no idea what to expect but found it really nice. It's a lot quieter than the big cities like Rome, with just as much beauty and history. We got to visit a major leather store, unfortunately i was a bit poor to buy a new handbag and even poorer to buy some jewelery when we visited the very cool Gold Bridge which houses only gold merchants and some stunning jewelery. Florence has a lot of art history with many great artists,   including Michelangelo and Leonardo da vinci born and influenced art in the Florence region so there were many nude statues everywhere.

                                                                          

Extreme Sport Country

Next on the list of places to visit is Austria. It's beautiful and very much reminds me of NZ. Extreme sports and skiing are big here, although there wasn't much snow around since it's summer. First thing off the bus we took a mountain bike ride in the town of Hopfgarten (the little town we stayed) following the river up. The bike ride wasn't very far (25km return) but we had amazing scenery and views.

After a few sausages for lunch we headed out to go PARAGLIDING it was awesome! Loved every minute of it. Incredibly views from up that high, my pilot even let me steer for a bit, very jealous of his job!

Then this morning we went white water rafting. It was only a grade 3 so not too intense. But it was great fun, even took a quick swim in the ice cold river full from the melted snow off the mountains. Now I'm pretty keen to head to NZ next yr and try the white water rafting there.

Leaving the cold and mountains now and heading for Italy, first stop Venice. Will try update again soon.

The land of Bier

I've just spend the last 5 days in the land of Bier (beer) lots of beer, and cheap alcohol.
Berlin was the first stop and it was a bit of a disappointment. We saw the usual attractions of the East side gallery, Berlin Wall, Check point Charlie, Holocaust Memorial, war memorial and the Brandenburg Gates. 

 War memorial

Holocaust memorial

Berlin wall

Unfortunately it was a miserable day and I started to get sick. Although the price of alcohol and food is crazy here. We went to an aldi like supermarket and check out the price of the bottle of Jim beam!

Our next stop was Prague and Dresden (small town on the way near border). Dresden was beautiful and had an amazing looking church in the town Centre. 

Prague is so far my favorite city! It's full of cobbled streets, old buildings, goregous bridges and yummy things called Trdelnik (pastry scroll with cinnamon and sugar cooked over a flame).

 

Astrological Clock

Charles Bridge

After Czech Republic we went to Munich, but before we got there we stopped at the Dachau concentration camp from World War II. It was huge and bit surreal.

Munich was pretty cool. We took a bike tour round the city, checking out the old monarch buildings, statues, but best was the English Garden. We rode past the nudists and ended up at the 2nd largest Bier House where i had the largest Pretzel and a pork knuckle i could not even attempt to finish!! Last we checked out the surfers on the River - it was awesome!

Huge Pretzel about 30 cm wide









This pork knuckle was intense and we got disapproving looks from the guy cleaning up at the fact it was finished!

The guy surfing on man made wave in the river of the English Garden in Munich

Not long now till I'm in Austria jumping off a mountain!

6 countries in 6 days

So I've been in Europe 6 days and already seen 6 countries! Monterosso has to be one of my favourite places. I walked the track between Monterosso and it's neighbouring village Venazza.  Absolutely beautiful views, recommend to anyone, you work your way round the coastline till the village comes into view.

 

Pics from Walk to Venazza - was a hot day and after the climb and walk to 90mins I thought it was nicest to return by ferry, which was a lot quicker :)





Nice was my next stop, my first view on France. Sadly i only had a morning here but i managed to walk along the beach walkway and even early in the owning there were lots people already at the beach sunbathing and swimming. I found my way to old Nice, and wandered around the old houses and markets. So much amazing fresh produce and spices. I went up Castle Hill and wandered round what has now been turned into a park with the old ruins tower and waterfalls. From up there you have amazing views of Nice, although all the steps and paths get very confusing and I got lost trying to get down the hill.

 

From Nice I flew to London for the night where I caught up with Cousin and met my Contiki tour the next morning and we left London for the ferry over to France. After traveling on the bus through France and Belgium we made it to the Netherlands.  The first night there we headed to the red light district. This was a bit of a shock to the system. We wandered around for a bit down alleys with lots of "coffee" shops, nearly naked woman standing behind glass doors and more sex shops than you've probably ever seen. We all went also to a live sex show. One of the weirdest and strangest things I've ever been to. Although it was quite funny when they had some of the group go up on stage.

The next morning we did a bike tour round Edam,  those granny bikes are hard to ride but great way to get to see the sights, we also watch clogs being made and I bought some yummy cheese from Edam.

The rest of the day I spent with a friend from NZ showing me the sights, drinking some local beer, waffles and fries with mayo. The evening we spend doing a river cruise through the canals and dinner out with the group. Still amazed by the bikes - they are everywhere! On our way to Berlin now so much to see!