UK & Europe

Contiki Tour Part 4 - Germany

snape_and_coles — Thu, 9 Feb 2006 09:15:00 GMT

Before we actually got into Germany, we had one more stop in Austria – Mauthausen. Mauthausen was one of the Nazi’s largest concentration camps during the WWII. It’s definitely hard to describe it, or how we felt. As much as it was interesting, I found it eerie. Especially the gas chambers, the incinerator room, and the ‘dissecting room’. Realising that you are standing in a room responsible for so many deaths is really chilling. For me it was anyway. Definitely glad we experienced it though.

Moving on from there we made a quick stop over in Mondsee. A no-name town who’s claim to fame is that the church in Mondsee was used in the Sounds of Music. It’s used as the church which the daughter and the Nazi boy get married in. That was about it.

After Mondsee we headed off to Munich, arriving in the afternoon! For dinner tonight we headed off to the Hofbrauhause, which is apparently the most famous German Beer Hall. Had a really great night! Ate huge pretzels, ate a Pork Knuckle for dinner (traditional dish, really nice), lots of Prosting (‘Prost’ is like cheers in German) and of course, lots of litre steins!!! Also learnt the Hofbrauhause song, which was good fun to join in the local sing-along. Ended the night in there with one of the guys on contiki jumping up on the table to do a jig and getting kicked out, simply because we were told by the tour manager that if you did that you’d get kicked out by Security. Turns out we were told correctly! A very fun night!

The next day we had a free day in Munich. We started the day off by watching the Glockenspiel in the main square, and as we were warned before hand, it’s the most overrated tourist attraction in Europe (in our opinions)! Just 15 minutes of out of tune bells, clanging to no particular tune, and old wooden carvings twirling around in circles! The story behind it is that of the original Oktoberfest, and people celebrating the massive wedding of a local lord or nobleman, but very uninspiring. After this we walked up and down the shopping mall. Then went into the Frauenkirche Church, to see an apparent imprint of the devil’s foot! The story goes the devil went to step into the church, but his foot burnt and he reeled back in pain leaving a footprint burnt into the floor. Basically it was just a moulded divot in the sandstone… A bit more shopping, and then back to the Hofbrauhause for another stein or two!

Tonight back at the hotel coles took a chance and dialled home from the hotel phone… 50 euros later for a 20 minute phone call. That’s around $75 Aus for 20 minute phone call!!!

Anyway, next day we were off to Switzerland, via a quick stop off in Lichtenstein!! More on that in the next article!!!

Love to all at home!

Snape & Coles. xoxo

Contiki Tour Part 3 - Austria

snape_and_coles — Thu, 9 Feb 2006 04:19:00 GMT

From Venice we headed into the Germanic Countries, starting with Austria! First day was pretty much a travel day. Stopped to have the first of many Pork and Potato meals for lunch, and arrived into Vienna late in the afternoon. We stayed at the nicest hotel on our entire trip in Vienna. Indoor Pool and sauna all very nice. The first night we just stayed in the hotel, went swimming and drank cocktails through happy hour. Bit of a bludge!

The next day (we’re up to 14/1/06 by now) we had a day in Vienna, which was the coldest day so far: -3 degrees at midday, so funnily enough we spent most of the day inside. Started off with a drving tour of the ring road around Vienna and saw all the major monuments and buildings, and then we sought out a nice Viennese coffee place, and a nice Viennese Schnitzel and enjoyed the great indoors.

In the afternoon we went to a schnaps (yes, spelt with one p) museum for a talk and ‘taste testing’. :) Austria is the home of schnaps, and the place we went to has been making schnaps the same way for centuries. The actual proper schnaps tasted quite disgusting. Somewhere between metho and rotten fruit, but the liquors they made (what we know as schnapps back home) was great and all different sorts. Cherry, mint, chilli, gold flaked & Absinth. We got about 9 shots of schnaps before they cut the group off… After that we headed back to the hotel for a room party in the hotel, and that was pretty much Vienna!

Didn’t find it an exciting place exactly, but was good none the less. If we were more into the culture of Austria we could’ve spent days seeing all the museums and concerts (home of Mozart among others) but there’s always next time!

The next day we headed off to Munich! (See the next entry)

Snape & Coles

Xoxo

Contiki Tour Part 2 - Italy

snape_and_coles — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 10:42:00 GMT

OK, so the next country on the list after France, was of course, Italy! After leaving Nice, we headed onto;

Pisa: We just did a quick stop for a couple of hours through Pisa, and it’s really not worth much more than that! Pretty much it’s 3 major buildings (they are interesting and beautiful in themselves) however that’s pretty much all there is in Pisa. 3 Buildings, the surrounding slum suburbs, and heaps more gypsies trying to sell you crappy tourist things. Was glad to see the leaning tower though. A really strange sight! And the other two buildings in that square were spectacular too, but didn’t really look into those. Anyway, from Pisa we headed onto our next stop;

Florence, Tuscany: Didn’t get a chance to do anything cultured by the time we got to Florence the first day. Just headed to the pub, and had an interesting night involving jugs of cocktails and kareoke! J Although we did get a good firs impression of Italian food from the food stops and the hotel dinner!

The next day was exploring Florence. We started the day with a talk on Leather, in particular Florentine Boxes which Florence is famous for. Basically a jewelry box, which when completed in one whole piece of leather, with no metal hinges or latches, made originally for the Medici family (another interesting story if you’re after something to research!).

After the talk we went on a guided our of Italy (It’s illegal for anyone to guide tourists around Italy other than qualified local guides!) and saw Michaelangelo’s AND Galileo’s tombs, which are in the same church, saw Michaelangelo’s house, Piazza del Nettuno with Neptune’s fountain, and about 12 sculptures including one of two replica’s of David. Walked down Piazzale degli Uffizi with statues of lots of famous florentine’s, including Michalangelo, and then headed to Ponte Vecchio.

After the tour we went to see Michalangelo’s David, which was possibly the most awe inspiring piece of art I’ve seen. I’m not a big fan of art, but I loved the statue. The attention to detail was amazing. All the religious paintings in the museum were great too. Then we just walked around Florence.

For dinner we had a Tuscan dinner, at a Monastry. Was a great night, with a monk trio entertaining us, and a soprano singer. And the girl’s on the tour’s first experience of sleazy italian men!!! Hahaha! Also got introduced to Imperial drops. The monks up there a few hundred years ago had too much spare time, and managed to create a drink that is 90% alcohol. You have about half a shot at a time, and it blows your head off… Taste’s alright though! J After dinner went to a cheesy euro ‘Space Electronica Disco’. Good fun to finish the night though! Next day onto;

Rome: Spent the entire day on the bus today! Finally got to Rome about 4 in the arvo. Caught the metro into Rome for the night, which is apparently one of the most dangerous metro’s property wise apparently infested with pickpockets. Headed straight to the spanish steps, which were great. Then went onto Fountain di Trevi. Which was yet another piece of Italian art that was awesome. A HUGE fountain! Then walked into the Pantheon, which was a great building with a huge hole right in the middle of it all! Also had Raphael’s Tomb in there. Was also interesting to see bullet holes from the Nazi’s invasion lodged into the building everywhere. We then walked to Piazza Navona for dinner!

The next day was huge. Left at 7am, and went straight to the line for the Vatican. Went into the Vatican Museum, which just had so much art it’s ridiculous. Some really interesting tapestries. They have a map room, which is wall to wall tapestries of maps of Italy, and also some very interesting tapestries which ‘move’ as you walk past. Of course it was topped off by the sistine chapel, which was just amazing. The guide taking us through, and explaining things and pointing out certain interesting things (such a michalangelo’s face in one of the paintings). Afterwards we went to St Peter’s Basilica, and it was… amazing as well! Just so mind boggingly enormous!!!!! The design for the basilica was done by Michlangelo and he designed it to have all these illusions of perception, which just made it all the more incomprehensibly gigantic!!! Almost surreal. Has an extra appreciation for it after reading Angels and Demons. Saw the swiss guard, saw st peters square, the pope’s bedroom, and all that just In the morning!!!

After lunch we walked all through the Roman Forums, which are all ruins but great none the less. We then walked to the Circus Maximus, then onto the Mouth of Truth, then Rushed back to head into the Colloseum. If I actually wrote about these in detail I’d be going on even more than I have (believe me, I could about Rome!). The next day went to;

Venice: The first day was nothing but bus. 8am till 8pm bus ride!

The day after however, we headed into Venice, and had a fairly fun day. Started with a talk on Venician lace and Venecian ass, which they are famous for, and also saw a demo of glass making which was interesting. After lunch (by now we’re starting to loath Pizza and Pasta) went to the Piazza Sam Marco with so many pigeons they swarm at you if you have food!!!! We then went on a gondola ride in the grand canal and through some side canals which was great fun, after this we finished off the day visiting the Doje’s palace, which was pretty much another art gallery, but with a armory/torture exhibit attached! Good fun! Then we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we headed off to Vienna in Austria, and seeing as I’ve written 3 pages in Word, I’ll stick with the country by country account of Contiki. Hope you enjoy the post!

Love to all back home! We’re safe and sound at the moment in Wales, and heading to Ireland in a couple of days!

Love Snape & Coles. xoxo

Contiki Tour - Part 1.1 France

snape_and_coles — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 09:40:00 GMT

Hi everyone!

OK, so after 2 failed attempts and roughly 1 1/2 hours wasted typing on this blog... I'm having another go now that we are back in London. Bacially seeing as it's all past tense, I'll just review most things we did so you know what we've been up to for the past 22 days!!!!

So first stop on the contiki tour was France!! And first city of all:

Paris:We started off the contiki tour heading accross the channel on the ferry, and drove through all the WWII grounds, particularly where the battle of the somme took place. Was hard to imagine how it was as it was all over grown, and back to being farmland basically, but was interesting hearing all the stories about the battles. We got into Paris pretty late in the afternoon, and after a quick stop off at the hotel, we headed straight to the Louvre to get that done. It was a real rush through, and didn't really get to see much, however we did get to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus De Milo, which was definately something we wanted to make sure we saw. After the louvre we went on a driving tour of Paris, which was spectacular. 'The City of Lights' was actually EXTRA lit up still from christmas, so it really was a great sight, particularly driving down the Champs Elysee with all the car lights and fairty lights. We topped off the first night by climbing the eiffel tower, which gave us amazing views of the city, and our first experience of european gypsies!!!! :)

The next day we spent walking around Paris. We saw Notradame Cathedral, then jumped on the Metro to go to Hotel des Invalides. Basically, this is a war hospital from Napoleans days, still used today. It also has a war memorial attached to it documenting French Military history. In the building next to it, is a huge cathedral style building, which was originally Loui the something's personal chapel, but was converted to hold Napolean's tomb, and the tombs of some of his more succesful Generals. Napolean being the egomaniac he was, he had his tomb set up so that to see it you either have to bend over (bowing to Napolean) or it's above you (look up to Napolean). Afterwards we headed to the Arc de Triumph and actually climbed to the top of it. Again, great views of Paris, and in particular their crazy drivers. The 12 lane round about surrounding the Arc has an average of 1 accident per 7 minutes. 12 lanes, but no lane lines!!!

After that we walked down the Champs Elysee and looked at all the shops. That night we headed to the Moulin Rouge, which was a really great show. Expensive, but worth it. Great entertainment and great food. (Pam - Coles actually ate a steak... and liked it!!). Afterwards went to the pub next door and got to know the people on our tour! Great first two days on tour!

Lyon:The next day was mostly a travel day. We headed to Lyon from Paris, doing a quick stop through a town called Foutainleur. The towns claim of fame being a really elaborate chatteau who's previous owners include one of the Loui's, and Napolean. Lyon was only a quick stop over for the night, but we had a good time and ate French Cuisine : snails!! That was interesting. We'd been given a fairly apt description. They taste like Basil or Garlic chewing gum. Interesting, but glad we tried it!

Nice:The next day we drove onto Nice, however the first night we spent in Monaco! That was a great night. You could smell the money on those people! Apparently you have to pay a non-refundable £2,000,000 to apply for a citizenship in Monaco! And you can still get knocked back! Went to the monte carlo casino, which is one of the most prestigeous casino's in the world. (Gamblers: Minimum blackjack bet was 25 euros per hand ($40 AU) and everyone else was betting thousand's of euros at a time!). The next day we just explored Nice on a free day, which was a lovely town. Sitting on the Mediteranean Sea, it was really picturesqe with aqua water, and cliff side houses. Got some great views from ontop of one of the cliffs all along the main beach. Just bummed around for most of the day. At night we had a great night at Wayne's Bar which was a really great place.

The day after Nice we headed onto Italy, but I'll leave that for the next installation on the journal. FOr now, enjoy what we've done in France (that was about 3 weeks ago) and we'll try and update as soon as possible. Hopefully on a computer where we don't have to pay for internet!

Apologies to all who've been watching the site, but the past three weeks has been non-stop.

Love to all back home!

From Snape & Coles xoxo

Contiki Tour Part 1

snape_and_coles — Sun, 8 Jan 2006 14:49:00 GMT

Hi Everyone! Will have to be a quick update cause in an internet cafe and typing against the clock for 4 minutes!!!!

We're both having a great time and the trip so far has been excellent. So far we've hit Paris, Lyon, Avignon, Nice, Monaco and last night into Italy and Florence. Every place has been great so far! Paris was beauftiful with the lights up still from xmas period. Went up the Eiffel, up the Arc du Triumph, in the Louvre, etc etc. Brilliant!

Lyon and Avignon were just quick stop overs but we're good none the less. More details later. Monaco was, well, rich as. (Fellow gamblers: Minimum blackjack table bet of 25 euros. And that gets a look of discust from teh dealer.)

And Florence has been awsome today!!!!

More details to follow! Gotta beat the clock!!! Love to all! See ya!!!! xoxox

Contact Us...

snape_and_coles — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 07:48:00 GMT

A bit delayed, but the number for our phone over here is 0044 7756 926 696 for anyone interested. the 0044 is the country code, so no + sign is needed.

Update 7/12 - 21/12

snape_and_coles — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 07:27:00 GMT

So, the last update was 6/12. That seems ages ago. Haven't even mentioned Holland! OK, so again, I'll try and keep it brief.

Well we went to Canturbury, and more specifically Canturbury Cathedral, which was really awe inspiring. For me, I'd never really seen any of the really elaborate churches or abby's, so it was really interesting. And we did a quick tour through with Phillip, and heard all about Thomas Beckett and Henry VIII (I think). Interesting story if your interested in that stuff, and saw the crypts and the church treasury room etc etc, all very interesting. And we get to revisit it in the full swing of things for the christmas carols or service or something, which yet again, should be really good.

On the Friday 9th we headed to Dortrecht (previous capital of Holland before amsterdam) with Melissa & Adam, which was a great little weekend away. Bascially stayed with Adam's aunty and uncle, in a really eaborate and old house, 4 stories, on the water of Dortrecht Harbour and canals, and the sort of place where there's big portraits of the original owners, and all the rugs are ancient, and yeah. Everything sort of had a story behind it. Will get the photos up when we get to christine's. Daisy and Sam were excellent hosts, huge meals, lots of good dutch food and beer, great time. Climbed the tower of the local cathedral, which got us some pretty damn good views of the city. And gave me my exercise for the three months! Heading back from Holland we stopped into Brugge in Belgium, and spent the afternoon walking around the streets and getting some really awsome chocolate. So good! After that just headed back to Poole, and spent the rest of the time there bumming around, going to the local pub, and shops!

On the 14th we headed down to Exeter via bus, which took about 5 hours, but wasn't actually too bad, cause about half the time was driving along the coast and got to see some pretty nice scenery. Did you know idiots ACTUALLY surf over here in the winter? I wouldn't even go near the beach, let alone in the water. By the time you get into the bloody wetsuit, hood, booties, and gloves, hypothermia'd be setting in and you're off to hospital! Anyway, met up with Jane at the bus station, dinner in a pub, and then spent most of the time there (about a week) travelling around to National Trust Houses, which are all really interesting and great to walk around, but a bit hard to write about without going on for pages and pages. One highlight was Killerton House, which was this old house some aristoractic family had made back in the day, and just really demonstrated how powerful they were. They moved entire villages to better their view of their estate, had a little hut specifically for a bear that one of their sons decided he liked the idea of, and the garden was full of all these really rare and bizarre trees and plants, like bamboo, and those huge trees that grow the biggest in the world or something. Redwood? But yeah, the owner paid twice the average salary of the day to buy one of these trees, and there's about a dozen scattered on the property. Realy interesting time in Exeter, and Jane and Chris were both good fun! Oh! We also went to Bath while we were at Exeter. Which I loved! Thought the Roman baths was really interesting, and really demonstrated how ingenious the Romans were in their day.

On the 20th we caught a train from Exeter to where we are now in Gloustershire staying with Mandy & Alan in Cirencester. Haven't really done anything much here yet. Only got here yesterday evening. Sat up drinking too many bottles of red wine (we drank every drop of wine in the house between us... oops!) and then today spent the day in town, and went to the Roman Museum where Mandy works, which was fascinating. Cirencester was actually the second largest Roman town in Britain behind London, so there's heaps of history and artifacts. Aparently it's quite normal to be diggin in the garden and unearth Roman pots and other artifacts. Bizarre!

Anyway, that brings you up to date in really brief detail. Sorry we haven't updated for a while, but we haven't had real good access to a computer for a while, and been too busy actually doing touristy stuff to sit in an internet cafe. Heading to the pub tonight, which should be a laugh. Aparently the owner is well known for taking a dislike to some of his patrons, and just kicking you out with a torrent of abuse if he feels like it, and apparently Alan's not on his good side, so should be a good night!!!!

Looking forward to Christmas back at Pluckley! Should be good to cath up with bobbo after that and compare travel stories. From the sound of his e-mail he's having a pretty wild, at times dangerous trip, so should be funny. So New Years in London, then off to Europe on Contiki!!!!

Hope everything's good back home. Steer clear of the riots, and hope everyone has a great Christmas! Think of us when you're downing one thousand beers at Greengate!

Love to all back home,

Snape & Coles.

The past few days...

snape_and_coles — Wed, 7 Dec 2005 05:49:00 GMT

We're still in Pluckley, and basically just doing day trips out to places. So since our last entry:

Sunday 4/12:
Had a fairly local day on Sunday. A day of rest so to speak. Went for a little trip to a local 'Santa's Grotto', which is where the villages have their Santa thing for kids. And also a big xmas shopping thing. They sell trees and decorations, and turkeys for dinner. That was about it... Had a big traditional baked dinner.

Monday 4/12:Monday was huge. Went to France for the day. Only took about an hour to get over there which was really good. Started off the day with a lunch in the village square of Saint Omer, which was really nice. had a traditional regional dish of 'Flamenkurche' or something, which is like a thin pizza, with creme cheese paste instead of tomato. Very nice. Then went on to shop in a hyper-mart, which is just a HUGE shop. Kinda like a woolies, myer and target combined. Oh, and lots of cheap alcohol. Was fun trying to speak the little french I knew in the shops. Coles was hesitant to go into shops alone cause she didn't want to get stuck explaining she couldn't speak french. Came home via a coastal town and went to a parlour cafe. Again, very nice. And then had the drive through the french countryside.

Tuesday 5/12:Yesterday we just went to Ashford. It's a biggish town with a local shopping mall. Got a mobile phone, so if any one wants to msg/ring us from Australia, the full number is: 0044 775 692 6696
Today we saw a fox in the back yard- they are huge!

Wednesday 6/12:Today has been the coldest day so far- the ground was frozen this morning and was sooo foggy. But we still managed to see our first squirrel! We spent most of the day in Canturbury. We had a tour of the cathedral by Coles' Uncle who is an Arch Deacon in the area (so we got the bonus of getting in for free). Went to a Roman museum of the town which was pretty interesting and then had lunch. Spent the rest of the day walking round the shops which has kinda become spot the difference to Australia.

The next big thing planned is Holland with Coles' cousins which we are both looking forward to.

Love to you all,

Coles & Snape

PS: Check the new photo gallery for more photos!

Arrived Safely!

snape_and_coles — Sat, 3 Dec 2005 05:53:00 GMT

Hey all,

Well, we arrived safely in London to a sweltering 7 degrees yesterday. Apparently they're currently in a 'warm snap' over here, as opposed to the 'cold snap' they've had the past couple of weeks, which has been three degree days. The village we're staying in (Pluckley) is tiny. We live on the 'main' street. Which involves a church, a pub, a butcher, and a combined corner shop/post office.

The flight was fine. Only a quick stop over in Bankok and Dubaii and we were in London. Took about 25 hours all up. Other than a near miss with a rouge dog on the Bankok runway it was rather uneventful. The first self protrait of us looking tragic is at Dubaii airport after about 17 hours in the air. Went straight from the Heathrow airport to coles' cousin's (Laura) who's the pregnant one in the photo. Went for a walk through an apple & pear orchid opposite where we are staying, at about 4, just before it went dark. It was absolutely freeezing thinkint it was about zero but apparently it was still just 7. Bloody freezing.

We managed to sleep off most of the jetlag last night, with the help of sleeping tablets, and we went driving today to a local Bodium castle which was really cool. The first castle I've (Snape) ever seen, and it's exactly the sterotypical castle. Started off as a fine day, but we got stuck in a quick downpour and had to run back to the car so just went to the pub and had lunch.

Anyway, that's it so far. Lots of stuff to talk about, but trying not to go on TOO much. Heading to France on Monday for christmas shopping which we're both excited about. The photos attached are pretty self explanitory, but they've got descriptions anyway.

Anyway, speak to people later,

Snape & Coles.

PS. Check the photo gallery for all photos of where we are and where we've been!

Only 1 day to go!

snape_and_coles — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 22:37:00 GMT

Ok,

So after the send off party last night, it's only one day to go till we fly out for three months! We thought we'd put up the first journal article with a quick run down of sort of what we're doing. To keep it short and simple:

December:
We arrive on 2/12/05. We'll be spending most of December with relatives in England, tied in with a few trips to Amsterdam, and possibly France or Belgium. On the 29th we head to London for a few days including NYE staying in the contiki hotel.

January:
Starting 02/01/06, we spend most of January doing a contiki tour of europe. In a basic outline we go from London to France, Italy, Germany, Austria, . We get back from the contiki tour, and then head to Wales for a few days, and then ferry accross to Dublin for 4 nights including Australia Day! Should be good fun!

February:
February we're basically spending with relatives in England again. Coles' mum Pam flys over on the 5th, and we're spending a few nights in London, then going on a trip to Madrid, Spain. Hopefully we'll work in a visit to catch up with Greg and Young who will have an overlap of about a week when they move over there.

Anyway, that's the sum up of the trip. Said I'd be brief and I've tried to. We'll be updating this site as well as doing the e-mail rounds when we get a chance. Might even send postcards to a lucky few just for the sake of it. :)

See everyone back here in 3 months!!!

Snape & Coles