Well we hadn't counted on it being 'Midsummer' and a public holiday... At first we wondered if our watch was wrong and we were in another time zone, was it actually 9am and the shops wern't open 'cause as the signs on the doors said, they didn't open till 10... no, we saw a big clock on a building and it was actally 10 and nothing was open...

Finding a big H&M store (every street corner in Stockholm seemed to have one of these stores) and deciding that we should get something wherever we could get it we managed to get a pair of black pants for Tim... OK now for shoes and some for Jo... Down the street we found as mall that was open, it just happened that the shops in the mall were all fashion boutiques and fairly expensive... oh well, after half an hour we both had black pants and Tim had a pair of shoes, at least we were pretty much sorted... heading back to the train station we paid for another locker to store all the various other clothing items, running shoes etc that we'd aquired on the walk around town

Around 6pm we caught the train that took us to the airport that Ryanair dubiously call 'Stockholm' airport... hmmm 100km away from the outskirts of a city and still naming it that cities airport seems a little far fetched... oh well...

At 10pm we took off from Skavsta airport headed for Glasgow and a job working in a hotel. We figuered we couldn't have made better use of our Eurail ticket, they were both so tattered you could barely read them, and Tim' was convienently in two pieces

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On the train we'd thought we should check and make a reservation for the train down to Stockholm the next day, we hadn't been able to do it back down in Munich. So after dropping our packs and working out which train we wanted we went in and managed to get the last 2 tickets available on the train talk about lucky

Deciding that our bbq the night before had been really good, and so would another one, we dropped into a supermarket and stocked up with a bbq and some meat... 'some meat' 'cause we don't actually have a clue what it was

Sitting beside the lake we fired up out barbie and cooked away enjoying a nice slow lunch waiting for the hostel to open at 4pm.
After check in we had a snooze for a few hours then went out to enjoy the seemingly endless daylight, wandering around the town and having dinner.

Having another good sleep in we went to visit the Jamtli museum, Jamtli is something like the name of the area in either Swedish or Sami... couldn't quite work out which sorry

The museum was really good, probably the best that we've been to so far. The whole thing was set out like a story, showing the life of the Sami and how the season etc affect what they are doing and where they are. After realising that we'd spent the best part of 3 hours and still needed lunch and to walk to the train station, we whipped up stairs and ate an awesome buffet lunch in the museum cafe man the Swedish prices are way better than the Norwegian ones

Grabbing our packs from the hostel, and quickly drawing our umbrellas we made a run for the train station on the other side of town...

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After a visit to the 'Fish Market', whale burgers anyone? we decided to visit the aquarium... this is billed as a must see attraction in Bergen. The walk took us about 20 minutes, and when we arrived we found out that the entry fee was going to be $70 NZD, so we turned around and walked back to town Looping back past the fish market we decided to visit the old buildings of the Hanseatic traders that once pretty much ran Bergens export trade of 'stock fish' (dried fish). These looked really cool, all really colourful and they seemed to be propping each other up. Some are leaning one way, with the building connected beside it leaning the other... pretty cool. There was a museum just beside the old building which showed the history of the traders, and the history of Bergen itself, the price wasn't nearly as bad as the aquarium so we checked that out...

After a bit more wandering around, and a very brief visit to the Fisheries Museum (which had a strong aroma of a school science lab) we headed back into downtown Bergen to grab some dinner and head to the station to catch our night train...

Our train left Bergen at 11pm and we had a sleeper carriage, we managed to get on board around 10:30 and were almost asleep when we started moving. Arriving back at Oslo's central station we caught the connecting train about an hour later which dropped us in Trondheim around 3pm.

A little bit train weary, we found a city map of Trondheim and started the walk to our room for the night, it turned into about a 45 min journey and we were pretty happy when we finally saw the sign and checked in. Heading back down to town the short way (always easier to see in hindsight) we found a supermarket and grabbed some sausies and kebabs and another disposable bbq for dinner.

We went and sat on the grass up above the hostel, at a large park around Trondheim's 'castle', by the time we'd started cooking there were probably around 10 groups of people all around our area doing exactly the same thing, these little bbq's a pretty popular! After dinner we headed back to the hostel for a shower and an early night 'cause we had a train to catch at 8 in the morning...

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Got up reasonably early planning on getting to Bergen in the afternoon... after heading over to the station/information office and realising that it was Sunday we decided to check on what time buses and trains would be leaving. After finding out that we'd missed the last morning bus by about 1minute (and we'd have to wait till 3pm for the next one) we bought a couple of tickets for the train and sat around waiting for the hour to pass. After heading back up the line we'd come down the previous day we hopped off one train and onto the train heading into Bergen, and after a couple of hours we were standing in Bergen's train station deciphering instructions on how to get to the hostel.

As it was lunch time, and we were by now getting accustomed to the ridicuously high Norwegian prices we headed out on a mission to find a supermarket, a couple of hours later we were back at the hostel with food to cook for dinner, having walked along almost every street in downtown Bergen... or so it seemed

Flam to Bergen remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We left Oslo and were pretty soon into the country side, its very green and looks really beautiful. There are lakes and ponds all over the place, and the rivers are very similar to those in New Zealand. Its the first clear water we've seen in rivers since New Zealand actually

The train climbs slowly and by the time we were nearing Myrdal, the station to catch the Flamsbana train from, the view outside was awesome. There aren't really any mountains but we were at 1000m and there was snow all over the place. Would be an awesome area to snowmobile around. There are little villages or collections of house all over the place, what they actually do up here was beyond us, and we figured they must be like holiday homes...

We had about a minute after arriving at Myrdal to buy a ticket and get aboard the waiting train, and made it The journey down to Flam is a descent of around 900m and was really cool, half the time we were in tunnels and looking out over precipices. 45minutes later we were in Flam.

After once again scouring the supermarket for the cheapest items we left with a tin of spaghetti for lunch and a disposable barbaque and salmon fillets for dinner hey, just because its cheap doesn't mean it can't be good

Deciding on splashing out we rented a double sea kayak for the afternoon, well more like the evening as we set off at 5pm. After getting to grips with the synchronised paddling thing (well just about ) we climbed out down the side of the fjord to go for a walk and visit a waterfall.

Hopping back in we continued up the fjord to another waterfall that crashes into the water. After manouvering through a cruise ship and a ferries wake we pulled ashore on a sandy beach for dinner.

Firing up the BBQ we sat watching the fjord and drank a lukewarm beer waiting for the salmon to cook After eating one of the best meals that we've had so far we quickly packed up and paddled furiously back toward Flam. We arrived about 1 minute before 9, and as we were supposed to be back by 9 we at least got our moneys worth, not a minute wasted

Heading back to the campground and after sitting outside admiring the view we headed to bed about 11pm in full daylight.

Oslo to Flam remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Luckily our navigation radar is by now in top form and we found the hostel without any bother, and without having to pay for the bus that was suggested By that point we were starving and after getting to the room we dropped our bags and headed straight back out to grab something to eat. We dropped by a supermarket we'd seen on the way to the hostel, and were introduced to Norwegian prices. A bottle of orange juice was about 6NZD, throughout the rest of Europe we'd payed about 2... a loaf of bread was about the same price! Finding probably the cheapest products in the supermarket for our lunch the next day we grabbed them then headed over to Maccas for dinner.

Throughout Europe so far we have found that fast food is really cheap, about half the NZD price we are used to. However in Norway it seems to be about twice the NZD price, and seems to be the case for everything. Some things are even more expensive, think 4 times the NZD price... ie a can of Coke here costs us about 4NZD...

After a good nights sleep we got up early to be at the station for our 8am train

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After finding the RyanAir section of the terminal we checked in and wandered through security, after confirming that Tim was neither a drug courier or bomb carrier we were allowed to wait for the plane.

Joining the queue for check in we stood for about 1 hour before finally our plane arrived 30 minutes late. After patiently waiting we were fuming when we finally got our seat, after the worst organised check in we've ever seen. People that walked straight past the queue and to the check in desk, pushing in, were served, and then after having us line up in gates , all the ropes were dropped and it was just a mass of people that swarmed toward the plane... ridiculous.

It's a short hop over to Oslo, and about 1 hour later we were walking through customs in Norway

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After a quick look at the map and feeling confident we headed off down a quiet street, it looked like a short cut on the map, and luckily it put us just where we needed to be. After about 10 minutes we where inside the hostel thankful for the airconditioning. After changing into shorts we went for a wander to grab some dinner then headed back to the hostel. After checking emails etc we had an early night.

Woke up after a nights sleep in probably the hottest room we've ever slept in, after having a shower to rinse off the dripping sweat we packed our bags and struck out for the Midi Station. Contrary to how it sounds this is actually the southern station (the Dutch version Sud Stat makes more sense). We hopped of the tram at the station and put our packs into a locker then sat down for some breakfast.

We had a map from the hostel that had a list of all the good things to check out, so heading out from the station we wandered in the direction of the 'Flea Market' apparently a not to be missed destination. Arriving at what looked to be a rubbish dump full off dirty,broken,dusty household items neatly laid out on the ground we wondered what all the fuss was about... It most definitely deserved the title 'Flea' market as that would be about all that you'd get there...

After beating a retreat down streets with plenty of curious stares from the locals opening up shop for the day, and slightly wary of the value of the 'must see' places on the map we decided to head toward a Brewery Museum that wasn't too far away (luckily for us Brussels is a perfect city to explore on foot, its flat and pretty compact). Following the map we arrived where the brewery was supposed to be; and saw a big area where a building had been demolished... Looking around, and seeing nothing promising we wandered a block up the street looking for where the place might be. It was only on our way back to the station after giving up hope of finding the place that we spotted a sign down a side street. The museum turned out to be a working brewery, not a normal brewery, but a 'Lambic' brewery. The difference turned out to be the way in which the beer is fermented. Lambic beer undergoes 'Spontaneous Fermentation' which means that the yeast that cause the fermentation process are introduced by exposing the 'wort' or liquid left after boiling water with wheat and malted barley to the air. This happens in a big open bath under the eaves, and the special yeasts fall into the liquid and begin the process. It just so happens that the most 'special' of these yeasts comes from the river that has been capped and flows underneath Brussels, and that that capped river was for many years Brussels main sewer The beer produced at this little brewery is now the only commercial beer in the world left being produced using this method of fermentation, also they stick to tradition in not adding any sugar or preservatives to the beer, so when you taste it its very bitter, even sour... but really refreshing and different!

After tasting the plain Lambic beer, which is a mix of three different years batches we got to try the Raspberry Kirch, or Raspberry infused Lambic, this is made by putting 150kgs of raspberries into 1000L of Lambic and leaving them to steep for 6 months... as you can imagine its pretty fruity, but really good, more like a wine that a beer.

After the brewery we headed to a Viatnamese restaurant for lunch, on recommendation of the map. Had an awesome feed for not too much and then headed off for the Grand Place, or Brussels main old town square. On the way we dropped by the statue of Manneken Pis, a statue of a little boy taking a wee... Its apparently the 3rd actual statue as the others have been nicked. The reason for the statue seems to be that once long ago a little boy peed on a fire, putting it out and saving the city... Brussels has this civic pride in being a city of strange/quirky things, they say that they like having things for no reason.... such as the live size horse drinking a cup of coffee at one of the tables where we had breakfast, and the massive speaking horn on a street that you could go and address the non existant masses from. Oh well if it makes them feel good i guess its all good, seems kind of desperate though...

After Manneken we walked up the street to the Grand Place and had a look at that, this is probably one of the nicest town squares we've been to, there is a whole row of old Guild Houses that belong to the various guilds that used to control the trades in town, each of the buildings has ornamentation that relates to the occupation. After a bit we headed in the direction of Belgium's Comic Book museum.

We almost made it to the museum without getting wet, up until then it had been a beautiful sunny day and really hot, but about 100m from the museum the sky opened and a huge downpour hit us, as we must have been boy scouts in previous lives we were prepared, and whipped out the priceless umbrellas We payed the exorbitant entry fee for the museum and wandered around with a book translating the information panels into English. Unfortunately the endless comic strips themselves had no English translation and we kind of missed most of the content of the museum... oh well...

We headed back out and decided to head toward the station to wait for the night train, after dodging more torrential rain with our trusty umbrellas, we got back to the station in time to grab some dinner.

After a long wait for 11:40 to roll around we were finally boarding the train. Hopping onto the car that we had a reservation in, we were hit by a stench of unwashed human... and then found that the culprit was occupying our reserved seats... retching, we quickly scouted out the only unreserved compartment on the train and swiftly closed the door, drew the curtains and stretched out on the seats. (Some trains here have a car which is made up of 3 x 3 seat compartments. Normally you sit in an uncomfortable silence as you face someone whose previously personal compartment you have just invaded, but at night you can pinch all 3 seats on one side and stretch out ) We had a pretty good sleep that night, and woke up in time to be ready to get off in Bremen at 5:54am... as we drew up at the station we saw that the sign said Munster, and a flicker of doubt made us check the map...to find out that Munster was about 1/2 of Germany away from Bremen...a quick check with an oncoming conductor informed us that the train was almost 1.5 hours late! Sweet! that meant that we would get to Bremen at a much more sensible time

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The Dom is an absolutely massive structure, it stands directly over the station. As soon as you come out of the doors you can't help but see this huge building, it is apparently the largest Baroque building in the world and there'd be no point in arguing. The whole thing is covered in carved crazy faces and big arches etc, and the whole lot is covered in a layer of grime that makes it all look black

Inside your eyes get pulled upwards by the towering columns, even though they are really thick they give the impression of being quite delicate by the way they are shaped from a whole lot of thinner columns. There are massive stained glass windows which a really colourful with the light streaming through, and theres not anybody yelling and telling you to be quite

After wandering around down on the floor of the church we found the entrance to the stairs heading up to the belfry, after climbing a tiny spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever we arrived at a platform which another normal staircase had been built on which took us straight up and on to the top of one of the cathedrals needle like spires, the view was pretty good, fairly similar to the view off the top of the Reichstag actually. After negotiating an even thinner staircase spiralling down from the very top we made it back to the platform and headed back down the wider staircase, dropping in to see the bells hanging in the belfry on the way back down to ground level.

After grabbing the bags from the hostel and heading to the station we had got some lunch from in the station and went and sat in the sun on the steps in front of the Dom.

Jumped on the train at 2:45 and arrived in Brussels just a couple of hours later

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To begin with the boat headed downstream past the industrial and cargo areas of the river, (there are more boats ferrying cargo along the Rhine than cruise boats) and after about an hour we reached the area of the river known as the Rhine Gorge. It is this area that has got UNESCO world heritage status.

As soon as you enter the gorge the castles on the hillsides begin, there seems to be one on every outcrop and in between there are little villages that have intricate churches that would seem to be able to house the whole population

Around 2pm we arrived in Koblenz which is the end of the Rhine gorge and the heritage area, though we had planned to stay on board all the way to Cologne (arriving at 8:20pm) we hopped off and walked around until we found the train station so we could catch a train to Cologne and beat the boat there by 4 hours. After a quick trip on the train we found the hostel really easily 'cause it was only a block from the station. We checked in, went and grabbed some supplies from the supermarket down the street, had a quick dinner and went to bed early

Crusing the Rhine remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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What a day.

But it wasn't to end there, our instruction for getting to the hostel in Heidelberg left a lot to be desired. We climbed aboard the bus that we were told to take and about 25minutes later found ourselves at the end of the line, in the middle of nowhere... After talking to the driver in School Cert German we found that we needed to get a tram that arrived in about 20 minutes, and that that would put us back in the general area that we needed... about 1/2 way between the train station and the hostel... so after walking that distance to the hostel we found that our 'room' was infact back down the way we had just walked, about 5 blocks... So wandering around Heidelberg around 11pm at night, with heavy packs we finally found our room and quickly showered and hopped into bed... as we had to get a train at 7:20am the next day and we didn't know which bus to catch we set the alarm for 5:45am... only 5 hours later.

So our day had consisted of:

Train, Luzern - Olten
Train, Olten - Bern
Train, Bern - Geneva

Train, Geneva - Basel
Train, Basel - Mannheim
Train, Mannheim - Heidelberg
Bus, Heidelberg HBF - Middle of nowhere
Tram, Middle of nowhere - Bismarkplatz (middle of Heidelberg)
Walk, Bismarkplatz - 'Hostel'
Walk, 'Hostel' - Room

What a day

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From Chur down to Luzern we headed down a big valley, was just like heading down the Eglington Valley toward Te Anau, except that there were villages everywhere and big industrial building every now and again. Went past a few large lakes that were absolutely covered in boats and had one more train change to make to get into Luzern.

Arrived Luzern and Jo went and bought a phone card to try and call the pharmacy in Geneva (Sunday though so no luck). After heading outside the weather had taken a turn for the worse and was about to rain (30minutes earlier was scorching sun). Putting the Eurail passes to good use, we climbed aboard a short return lake cruise on Lake Luzern. This was meant to stop us from being caught in the rain, however just as we were about to get off the heavens opened and was wetter than ever for our walk to the hostel. Deciding the discression was the better part of valour we caught the bus to the hostel. After going for a walk along the side of the Rotsee and into town we grabbed some dinner and found a much faster way back to the hostel than the way we'd come. We decided to walk back to the station the next morning and as it was Monday we wanted to call the pharmacy in Geneva.

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Arrived at Chur and the engine was changed back to a normal 'adhesion' one for the trip on to St Moritz, this is probably when the scenery is at its best, its the typical picture postcard Swiss scenes. Arrived into St Moritz into heavy rain showers and caught the bus around to the hostel. The Hostel in St Moritz was awesome, we had dinner included in the price for the night and so had a huge feed of salad and beans etc. There was pork stew and mashed potato as well, and soup and custard and fruit for desert. Pretty good deal for only 2 more euros than what we have been paying at all the other hostels...

Had an early night in St Mortiz and got everything sorted for the next days early start to get the train to Luzern. Had a battle with understanding instructions for the washing machine (they were in a dialect of German/Romanche that was far removed from School C German) but finally got some water noises being made and swishing happening. After going back about 40 minutes later to put it in the dryer we found that the washing machine was red hot and was still at the start of the 100 minute cycle... in what seemed to be boiling water... oh well at least the clothes would be germ free... after even more of a battle we got the clothes rinsed in cold water and spun and into the dryer to get in the morning. Morning comes and we go to grab the clothes, find that Jo's Icebreaker is a new, slimmer fit. Her week old singlet is a nice new shade of misty grey and Tim's T Shirt print has mysteriously disappeared... gone, completely gone Oh well not much we can do, off to catch the train.

Brig to St Moritz (Glacier Express) remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Was a beautiful day when we got of the train around lunch time in Geneva, we didn't have any Swiss Franc's so we couldn't put our luggage into a locker. On the train up from Lyon we'd read that our Eurail pass gave us free reign on the regular boat services on all of Switzerlands lakes, so we decided to investigate getting a boat up to Lausanne. (There were at least 2 trains per hour heading to Lausanne from Geneva anyway). There was a boat leaving at 3pm that we decided to sit around and wait for, so after sitting on the lakefront and eating some lunch we'd bought the night before we decided to go grab some drinks and more food from a supermarket. On the way back we dropped into a pharmacy and Jo got a hair clip 'cause it was really hot. (The significance of this will become apparent later...)

Got on the boat for 3 O'clock and grabbed a seat out in the sun for the cruise up to Lausanne. On the waterfront in Geneva there is this massive waterspout that they have set up, it's absolutely massive and only later did we realise just how big, we could see it all the way until about 20 minutes from Lausanne (3.5 hours later). Geneva was a beautiful city and we decided that we'd be keen to go back...

Arrived Lausanne around half past six, on the waterfront after we hopped of the boat there were a couple of guys who apparently still think that roller skating is cool... This guy was doing spins and all sorts thinking he was the MAN strutting his stuff as we videoed him, having trouble holding the camera still from our laughing Putting the camera back into Jo's 'Prada' handbag the receipt from the pharmacy in Geneva fell out, we were in the process of checking it to see if the full credit card number was on it (over here they print the whole number, plus your expiry date, so if anybody finds it they can use your details on the internet etc) when we spotted the amount that Jo had been charged.... 214 Swiss Francs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for a hair clip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ps. thats about $250NZD). Alright, so we needed to get this overcharging sorted, but we were in Lausanne, leaving in the morning to go to St Moritz on the Glacier Express. We Headed for the hostel and checked in and showed the girl the receipt, she tried calling the pharmacy to get them to refund the difference but they were closed, and it was Friday....

Lausanne via Geneva remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Arrived Lyon about 4pm, after finding a city map we realised that our hostel was on the other side of town. Just as if we were old hands we went straight to the metro, bought some tickets and navigated our way along the passages to get on the train, after changing lines and climbing aboard another train we arrived as close as we could to the hostel, only problem was it was up a steep hill, and it was hot... After a slow slog up to the hostel we sat around and sorted out what we were going to do the next day, went and got some dinner and then came back had a beer and went to bed

Next day we got up and walked to the Museum of the Resistance and Deportation, a museum about the French Resistance. It was fairly interesting but lacked any real exhibits, i mean they could have put the museum in book form, we just walked around the whole time reading panels, there wasn't actually any items or anything to look at... We had a meal across the street for lunch and then caught the metro up to the Lumiere Brothers Museum, these are the guys that invented the cinema, and the movie camera. This was a more interesting museum with lots of things to look at, read and buttons to press to make things light up and spin around After checking this out for about 2 hours we caught the metro back toward the hostel, caught the funincular railway up to the top of the hill and went and visited Lyons Notre Dame Basilica. Another really decorated church, this time with an underneath chapel that was also massive and lavishly decorated, pretty cool.

We walked down the hill back towards the hostel, got a little bit lost, bought some groceries on the way and finally climbed back up the hill to the hostel... All's well that ends well We ate dinner and then sat around until heading to bed, as we had an early start to catch the train toward Switzerland and Lausanne...

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Pisa was really nice in comparison to Rome, it is a university town and everyone there seemed to be a lot more laid back than the other places we'd been to in Italy. We dropped our packs at the left luggage office at the station and walked following our map to the tower. It really is as crazy as it looks when you see it in real life. It doesn't seem like it should be standing. Looking up from the base of the tower the overhang is massive.

In the same area there is a Cathedral (the tower is the belfry) and some other building and all of them are leaning. The Cathedral seems to have sunk in two directions from the middle and looks pretty weird After seeing the tower and thinking it funny that people from all over the world come to see some ones cock up we caught the train toward Manarola...

As you arrive in the Cinque Terre you seem to relax, you get off the train at the station which is just an opening in the tunnel, the train is actually in the tunnel at both ends and the platform runs into the tunnels. After wandering up a really steep hill in the blazing sunshine we made it to our hostel, we just had to wait 45 minutes for it to open... we made ourselves comfortable on a bench and watched people wandering by.

The next day we got up reasonably early and whipped down to the station to buy our ticket to walk on the main tracks, you have to get a ticket to walk between the villages along the main route, it was about 5€ each. We walked down to Riamaggiore (the first of the 5 villages) and got a coffee and croisant for breakfast, then headed back to Manarola and kept going. Corniglia was not too far away from there and we got there after not too long. After finally finding the right way to continue onwards we started climbing and the track got thinner as we went. The views were beautiful, looking back down onto the towns we had just left and across and through the grape vines and olive trees that are planted in terraces built all over the steep hillsides. After about an hour we arrived at Vernazza and stopped to have some lunch.

This was a really beautiful village as well and a little bigger than the other three, it had a beach area behind a breakwater, looked really tempting until we got closer and saw about a million little purple jellyfish drifting backward and forward... After lunch we began the brutal climb upwards onto the cliffs to head to Monterosso, the climb wasn't made any easier by the temperature, it was a stunning day, no clouds and no wind. After wandering around high up above the sea we decended sharply and arrived into Monterosso, the last and largest of the 5 villages. We decided not to walk back but instead caught the train back to Riamaggiore and walked back to Manarola, thank you Eurail ticket Was an awesome walking and would like to come back maybe at some stage to do some more of the walks (you can climb onto the hills higher up behind all of the villages and there are more tracks and roads that link together all over the place)

Packed our bags that night and got ready for the trip to Nice the next day...

Pisa and the Cinque Terre remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We arrived in Rome in the early evening after riding down from Venice on the train, its quite a long journey and not overly scenic so was good to stretch the legs, the hostel wasn't too far from the station, about 4 blocks, but it was only when we were about to go in the door that we remembered that we had to pay in cash, and the nearest ATM was back at the station... so 4 turned into 12 blocks but we finally made it. The hostel we stayed at had most probably the smallest shower cubicle that was ever manufactured, you could barely pick anything up from the floor because you became wedged between the sides as you tried to kneel down, was good to have a private shower in the room though.

The next day we decided to get a ticket that allowed us to use all of Rome's public transport for the day, we hoped onto the subway line 'B', this was more than obviously the B grade line as the train was completely covered in graffiti, the walk down to the tunnel was past the most dirty roughcast plaster you have ever seen, the dust and grime was hanging off all the tips of the plaster... Anyway it got us to where we were headed (the Colossium), well almost. It shot straight past the stop that we needed and left us down at the next stop, Circus Maximus. This wasn't so bad, or so we thought as we were going to walk down to there anyway. Once we were on the surface things started going downhill though, the street we needed to head down was blocked off and there was half the city of Rome lining the sides watching what seemed like the entire Italian army march along. We had a map so thought we could circumvent the blockage, after walking for kilometers we were stopped at our final crossing point when we ran into the other end of the parade route... After walking all the way back which we'd come (taking a short cut over Capitole Hill sic) we managed to cross the street that had earlier been blocked and finally after about 2.5hours of walking we caught a glimpse of the famous structure. After having a picnic lunch we walked all the way back to the Circus Maximus metro stop and headed in the direction of the Vatican...

Arrived at the metro station that was closest to the Vatican and walked for about 10 minutes till we were suddenly in St Peters Square, as the queue for entry into the Basilica wasn't too long we joined it and after about 20 minutes we were being metal detected and allowed to head inside. The inside is absolutely massive, what at first appeared to be the inside of the church was in fact really only the first wing of the entire thing. There were four of these wings centered around the massive, soaring cupola. Every surface was covered in carvings, frescoes or mozaics, amazing We then exited the church via the crypt under the building, walked out and back into the scorching sunshine...

So we still had plenty of time left in Rome and nothing else planned to have a look at, we had decided not to queue for the Vatican Museums because from what we'd heard the line was massive (a few days earlier it was around 3 blocks we'd heard from Chris and Jo that were there) As it was around 3 O'clock we thought we'd go and see how long it was, as it turned out there was no line and we walked straight into the Museum and about 30mins later after walking through the labyrinth of passages we were standing in the Sistine Chapel, if all the other churches we've stood in were decorated, this one was the next level, but it was only painted, every part of the room was covered in paintings, obviously they'd got a bit cross eyed by the time they made it down to the bottom sections because all around the bottom they just painted some curtains Although you'd think this place would be peaceful some Italian dude on a power trip standing keeping watch keep bellowing out, no photos, shhhhhhhhh, quite please this is a holy place... and clapping... It was ridiculous, it couldn't have been less holy if they tried, all the other churches we've been in have been respected by the people in there and just have a quiet murmur much nicier that some dude yelling and screaming.

We headed back to the hostel via the Trevi fountain, this fountain is wicked, if only there weren't so many people, it was absolutely packed in the tiny piazza where the fountain is, beautiful all the same. We watched an american woman try and through a 2€ coin over her shoulder into the fountain (it means you will return to Rome), she failed miserably and hit another woman in the head, and the coin was eagely snatched up by some little kid As we didn't really have any great wish to return we forwent tossing in a coin and hoped back on the metro and retired to our room.

P.S. Due to a minor technical hiccup (clearing the memory card) we no longer have any photos of our day in Rome... oh well

Rome remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Wandered around Venice from 5:30 until 9:30 was really nice to see the light reducing and the lights coming on. The streets (can you really call them that) were an absolute maze but with a map in hand we arrived where we had planned to end up, San Marco, or tourist central. People were feeding pigeons in the piazza, for 1€ you could by feed and have pigeons acost you and eat out of your hand... weird. Wandered around just following our noses, outside the Prade shop there were these guys with big sheets layed out with heaps of rip off bags laid out, Jo was smitten (with the bags) and decided to do some 'African business' and bought a 45€ bag for 25.

So wandering around with a camera and a fake Prada bag stuffed with newspaper we saw the rest of the sights until we caught the bus back at around 10pm.

Venice is a strange place, can't really see it exsisting without tourism. If people didn't come to see a city built on water it would have ceased to exist years ago. The city itself is having rather a hard time of it, some parts are sinking at up to 10cm year! The place seems to be being raped of all it can with no money being put back into anything that doesn't have an immediate monetary return. It's a shame because all the buildings are really cool, but most are ready to fall down. For the number of tourists in the place it seems that there must be money available to improve things... I mean the vaporetto (Water buses) seem to be last upgraded in 1980... (this was obviously the last time somene arrived selling music to, as the soundtrack to Venice would definetly have only been released on cassette )

All and all though its a nice place to visit, and glad that we went.

Ciao !

Venice remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Got the train early on Tuesday and arrived in Salzburg mid morning, the weather was a little damp but nothing that our trusty 2€ umbrellas could't cope with, well for most of the day anyway, umbrella 1 of 4 fell to the cause a little later in the day

We decided against paying 0.7€ for a town map at the train station, betting that if we could get to the main tourist office in town we would then hopefully be able to grab one for nothing, great success! we found our way to the office just as we'd hoped without a map and picked the same map we had just been quoted 0.7€ for, for free. Wasn't much in the way of information at the information centre, and as we didn't want to book a ticket to a sound of music rip off later on that night we wandered out into the Altstadt and into a labrynth of alleyways and small streets. Battling against the continual waves of tour groups following flags, sunflowers, pink umbrellas and anything else that made the tour leader stand out, we found our way to the first nice cup of coffee since leaving New Zealand not exactly cheap at 2€ but not too bad...

We then headed back toward St Peters Kirche (Church) and headed inside, this place is awesome, its a Baroque basilica built in 806AD, thats quite old Beside it was one of the oldest restaurants in this part of the world, its connected to the church in a big sort of monastry building. (We knew these dates as we were pointed in the right direction by a helpful American man that saw us looking at the map in the rain and came up and had a chat. It seems that the Kiwi accent makes a bit of a difference as well, they always want to know where we are from and about New Zealand. All New Zealanders overseas seem to be unofficial tourism ambassadors, as we have been quized no less than 4 times in the last few days about where to go, what to do, how long to spend and when to do it...) Anyway back to what the church looked like, inside was all gilded in gold, try saying that 10 times fast. There were huge frescos everywhere and the most intricate carvings in every other space. Pretty cool.

Outside was a little graveyard fitted in between the church and the cliff, in the cliff was a small catacomb that was chipped out by monks apparently. Had a look in there and took some pretty cool pictures

Headed out and towards the funincular railway that takes people up to the Festung Hohensalzburg, this is a huge castle complex that was built over a long period of time by successions of Arch Bishops of the Salzburg Bishoporific (sic). Being on a tight budget we decided to forgo the train and started the walk up, luckily it wasn't too far and we had arrived before too long. Looked around the museums that they had set up (cost 7€ to enter the castle, this covered everything we did). Was pretty strange looking at a museum with old Axis fighting uniforms and weapons, saw panzerfausts and other heavy artillery as well. We also had a look around the Court Chambers which were really lavishly decorated with blue velvet with gold studs, this continued all over the roof which represented the stars in the sky... There were crests of other allies of the Salzburg arch diocesse.

Just before leaving went on an audio tour of a section of the castle, this was the only way to head up the tower, and also found about the history of the castle. We also went through the prison cell that they had set up, not the most inviting of places, heaps of shackles on the walls and a big wheel that they used to drop on prisoners limbs to smash the bones, then they would strap the prisoner to the wheel and leave them there to die...

Caught the train to Innsbruck at 4:30 and arrived at 6:30, spread out on the beds and then another New Zealander with her boyfriend from the UK arrived. Was pretty funny cause a little later on she said as they were coming up the stairs they heard american voices (next dorm room) and were hoping that they wern't in that room (see munich entry), when she said hi to Jo and recognised the accent she was very relieved

Went down the street to a little cafe and had spag bol for dinner with Chris and Jo, yip that was her name too . Had quite a few beers and headed back to the hostel latter than intended

Next day in Innsbruck was a little slow, the weather meant that we couldn't see the mountains and didn't really want to pay to stand in the clouds. Went and saw a bell factory that had a museum attached, was alright but not worth the 4€ they charged... Oh well. We got the laundry done on the way back, just so happened that the local ethnic (maybe slovenian or hungarian) gang seemed to be doing their washing that day. We hung out for the 30mins we had to all the while getting rather odd stares, grabbed the washing as soon as it was reasonably dry and boosted back towards busier streets Went and had dinner down the road from the hostel at another little cafe type place then called it a night.

Salzburg and Innsbruck remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We went to the Euraid office and managed to make reservations for all of our train rides throughout Europe. Now we have a big wad of train tickets that mean we won't be kicked out of a seat. We then whipped over to the train that was headed for Garmiche Patenkirchen which is the picture postcard alpine village that is at the foot of the Zugspitze (Germany's highest mountain) and is where the Winter Olympics were held in 1930.

After a wander around town looking for anywhere that had some sort of information that told us where to go for the ride to the top of the mountain (2962m) we managed to find the tourist office with the girl behind the counter dressed in traditional Bavarian costume (as were random people around town), she pointed us in the direction of the station for the funincular train up the mountain and let us know it was leaving in a few minutes. After paying the hefty ticket price of 47€ each (typical tourist towns ) we hopped aboard for the ride to the top.

The area was really beautiful with all the half timbered houses and barns for the cattle scattered all around the valley floor. The train heads through a tunnel for about 15mins and then drops you off at a transition point to climb aboard a cable car to the summit. It was at this point that we realised that everybody else was wearing hiking boots, trousers, jackets and hats etc... oh well its summer isn't it and whats wrong with wandering over snow and rocks in shorts, t shirt and jandels at 3000m? Did get a few strange looks and laughs though

Ordered something for lunch, we knew what the beer was, but the other part was a lucky turned out well though and enjoyed a soup with some still unknown dumpling kind of thing bobbing around in it, could well have been liver... and it tasted delicious

Hopped aboard another cable car that seemed to go down vertically for the ride back down, this cable car went right down to the valley floor so was a longer ride than the one onto the summit. Arrived back in Garmich Patenkirchen just in time to grab the train back to Munich.

Today (Monday) we got up and hopped aboard another train, this time heading to Dachau... yip heading for the concentration camp. Arrived in the town and caught a bus that we were 50% certain was the right one, it was, and we arrived at the camp itself. Wandered around the camp, looked at the barracks that the prisoners were supposed to live in. Saw the crematoria, this building is disturbing in how calculated the design was, imagine a long building with four 'ovens' in the middle section. Now on one end there is the 'waiting room' were prisoners were placed to wait for their 'shower'. A door opens across to the 'shower' room, there are fake shower heads so that prisoners didn't panic and refuse to enter. There are flaps so poison gas pellets could be added from outside, also there is a big ventilator duct that blows warm air in, it makes the gas get produced faster... Now another door opens to another bare room, this is where bodies from the 'shower' room were to be shifted to before the next group were ushered into the showers, and also where the bodies would wait until the backlog could be cleared in the central room the crematoria itself. On the other side of the crematoria was another room which was used to hold the backlog of bodies from the firing range, and other killings around the camp. How any human being could inflict such calculated, cold blooded killing on others is impossible to comprehend. Dachau was the 'model' camp which all others were based upon. SS members who had trained at Dachau were placed in positions of authority at as many other camps as possible to spread the 'Dachau Spirit', a hatred of the prisoners with no mercy or remorse. Almost unbelievable. The weather was suitably fitting for being in such a chilling place, the temperature has swung from being in the high 20's to about 8 degrees and drizzling rain with it.

Heading for Salzburg tomorrow, can't wait to get back into the mountains just there for the day before moving on to Innsbruck for a couple of nights. Hopefully there will be less Americans that have just graduated from 'college' and tell each other about how they are having the 'oh my gosh, the time of my life' at 3 in the morning while climbing into bed in a room with 38 other people trying to sleep. Some of the hostels we have been at are full of these people that spend 4 nights in a city, when we ask them what they have been up to we find out that we have already seen all that they have, and we've only been there for the afternoon. At least we find out where the most tourist packed beer halls are and we know which to avoid .

Munich was a bit of a let down on what we've read about it, pretty much its full of tourists from everywhere who are here to drink beer, the thing is thats all thats here, true there are some old buildings and a big park, but the old buildings aren't as nice as those we've seen in Dresden and the Tiergarten in Berlin was a beautiful park...

Tschuss from Munich

Munich remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Arrived at Dresden Neustadt Bahnhof and wandered outside to blazing sun. After a few technical difficulties, ie Einbahnstrasse means one-way street and isn't the street name... we managed to find our way to the hostel. Dropped our bags and headed back towards town with a map this time. Dropped past the station for a beer to accompany our map reading and decided to head for the altstadt (old town). Wandered down through a street market and crossed Augustusbrucke (a bridge) and entered the altstadt.

This place is amazing, the buildings are so decorative, Germany must have so many stone people! Headed back towards the hostel after planning what to do the next day over a currywurste and another beer at one of the Imbiss at the market.

(Germany has heaps of these street stalls called Imbiss which serve various sorts of wurste (sausage) and always have beer available. It isn't unusual to see people having a beer mid morning )

Saturday we had all day to spend in Dresden, we left our packs in a locker at the Neustadt Bahnhof and walked back to the altstadt. We bought a day pass to the museums and checked them out. Saw a whole bunch of paintings by the old masters and also Dresdens crown jewels. Also went into a museum that had heaps of swords, suits of armour and old guns made out of ivory and stuff. Amazing how decorative all these things are...

About lunch time heard huge claps of thunder and it started pouring, cool thunder storm soaked absolutely everything except for us 'cause we'd put our newly aquired umbrellas in our daypack even so we did shelter for a while in the Dom (cathedral) This the cathedral that was almost entirely obliterated by the allies during the second world war and has now been completely rebuilt (as has a lot of the altstadt)

Guten Abend

Dresden remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Bought our gear over to our new hostel this morning and then hired a couple of bikes to whip round town quickly. Theres cycle lanes everywhere and on the busy streets the cycle lane is a lane of different coloured cobbles on the footpath, feels really safe riding round.

Went for a ride over to the Hauptbahnhof (Main train station) and validated our Eurail tickets and reserved tickets for all our night train connections. First station we went too the Frau behind the counter didn't speak a word of English and wasn't too interested in helping us, so we left At the main station they had a designated English counter which was a whole lot easier... and the guy actually wanted to help us

Had lunch in the Tiergarten which was beautiful and so peaceful compared to the streets, then we came back to the hostel and had a snooze for a couple of hours, was much easier making the beds in the light as well (had quite a battle putting a duvet into a duvet cover in the pitch black last night, whilst trying not to wake up the others in the room)

Just got back from visiting the Reichstag, and climbing up the glass dome. From there you can look down into the area where the German parliament sits, also get a really great view over the city up there. We were lucky 'cause the sun was just setting as we were arriving at the top.

Off to Dresden tomorrow, the train leaves every two hours so we shouldn't have to spend too long wandering around with full packs and nowhere to leave them.

P.S. Did you know that Berlin has over 50 McDonalds outlets? No we didn't either until a massive sign let us in on the secret

Tschuss

Berlin remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Nottingham remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Went for a walk today from our hotel along Nathan Road to Tsim Sha Tsui. Along the way was fitted for a suit that I'm picking up in London, got lots of strange looks 'cause it wasn't exactly the main tourist drag. Probably the main thing apart from the heat and humidity that stands out here is the smells, these crazy chinese medicine shops with dried fish and other potions spread over the footpath have a pretty unique odour

Crossed Victoria Harbour on the Star Ferry and then wandered round until we banged into a sign that said Peak Tram, followed the haphazard signposts from there until we arrived at the terminus from the completely different direction than everyone else.

Heading out to watch the light show across the harbour later on tonight and will then check out Temple Street Night Market.

Aufwiedersehen

Hong Kong remains copyright of the author timnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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