Hamburgers in Hamburg

Arrived in Hamburg last night, checked into our hostel then went for a wander around Hamburg central. The city centre is still well lit up for the festive season and, despite the passing of Christmas, Christmas markets are still open (woooo!). Had hamburgers for dinner, how could we not?

Hamburg Town Hall

Today is our only full day in Hamburg so we got up early(ish) and took a walking tour of the city in the freezing cold and fog. Highlights include St Nickoli, a church bombed during the second world war and left unrestored as a monument, cool buildings with some twisted history and Mel chopping off Brads head during a reenactment of the last moments of local pirate/folk hero, Klaus Störtebeker.

St Nickoli in the fog

Budget tip of the day: Free walking tours are a good deal, even if not entirely free.


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Location:Max-Brauer-Allee,Hamburg,Germany

Lions and Tigers and Bears, O My..

We have had some great adventures in Berlin. Saturday (boxing day) we went to Potsdamer platz, saw remnants of the wall and the memorial to the Jews killed during the holocaust. Then we went to Checkpoint Charlie and explored the museum of the wall. It was incredible to see all the different ways people came up with to sneak over/through/under the wall.


Remains of the wall

Sunday we went to the Berlin Zoo. It was really good, although some of the enclosures seemed a wee bit small since many of the animals were stuck inside for the cold. We saw Lions, Tigers, Bears, Elephants, Hippo's, Monkeys, Rhino's, Camels and many other exciting animals. We even got to watch the hippo's being fed- great big loaves of bread! We spent several hours admiring the animals.

Lions...& Tigers..... & Bears!!! Oh my.Plus hipposAnd other scary animals

After dinner we went to yet another Christmas market, this time centred around the Kaiser-wilheim memorial church which is an amazing church unlike any church I've ever seen before. It has a great hole through the middle of it which was lit up beautifully. We wandered through the markets, once again enjoying the festive-ness, and enjoyed a kebab of strawberries coated in chocolate and some more Glühwein (hot wine).

This morning it was up early (by recent standards anyway) to check out of our hostel, drop our bags at the train station and squeeze in a bit more touristing before our train to Hamburg. We saw the Berliner Dom (cathedral) which is another amazing looking church. Then came a visit to the DDR museum, all about life in East Germany (Deutschland Democratic Republic). Cool little museum, everything was avialable to play with and try.

Heading to hamburg now.

Budget tip of the day: every country is different, but in Germany buy train tickets earlier to get cheaper ones. Don't wait till the day, like us today. Tickets can (and did) double in price.


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Location:Berlin

Christmas in Berlin

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

What a different christmas it has been for us. We had a leisurely start to the day, with bacon and eggs for breakfast. About midday we took the metro into town and went to the Reichstag (German parliament). We joined the queue and went up into the dome, for some great views of the city and an excellent audio guide explaining everything that we were looking at.

Christmas breakfast

Reichstag building

Inside the building

Brandenburg gate

Then we went to the Christmas markets at Alexanderplatz, which were fabulous! We explored the stalls, saw the ice rink, saw Santa and tried some local deep fried food and hot wine with amaretto (yum).

More christmas market food. Deep fried dough with garlic cream and capsicum. yum

Now we are watching German tv, and enjoying a slow progression of eating over the night.


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Location:Heilbronner Straße,Berlin,Germany

Chilling in Cologne

Arrived!! That only took 11.5 hours, four trains and 1,000,000 different stories about what to to by the (very helpful) help staff.

Cologne (Köln in German) isn't the most attractive city, but it does have some draws that managed to tempt us.

We only had one full day in Cologne so had to use it wisely. Spent the morning wandering the cities many christmas markets before seeing the Dom, a massive, crazy, towering gothic church. Declined the offer of climbing the steeple as Mel was still struggling with the flu. Had a good tradational german lunch at a Christmas market. Mel had deep fried potato cakes (Kartoffelpuffer?) while I had the tradational steak-the-size-of-my-head-in-tiny-bread-roll. Delicous!!

Cologne Cathedral

Christmas market food

Deep fried potato thingees

Cologne cathedral

After that lunch we walked (well... waddled) to the cocolate museum for some more eating. Learned all about cocolate while partaking in regular samples. By then the day was growing old so we headed back to our hostel.

Aim tomorrow is to get to Berlin without travel issues.

Budget tip of the day: it can be cheaper to fly to Berlin from Cologne. Check both options

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Location:Cologne

Ambling in Amsterdam

A foot of snow during our first night made Amsterdam amazingly pretty.

Canals of Amsterdam

Unfortunately, Mel caught a local superbug, meaning touristy times are suffering as we try and get her better. On our first full day did make it to Anne Frank Huis. Amazing well done, very much worth while. On the second day we invested in a tram daypass to limit Mels exposure to the elements. Had a walk through the canals and side streets around the centre of town before visiting the Heineken brewery for some branding and propoganda, made worthwhile with free beers. Finally, we made a quick wander through the infamous 'red light district'. Brings new meaning to the term 'window shopping'...

So many bikes

Houseboats

Currently at train station. Trying to get to Cologne by train with minimal success. Turns out a foot of snow is bad for high-speed trains.


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Location:Amsterdam

When good trains go bad

Left Brugge this morning for a quick train to Brussels then a high speed train to Amsterdam, ETA 15:45. It's currenty 18:47, had a few 'bonus' hours in Brussels midi station and since leaving there have had to make an unplanned train change for "logistical" reasons. Not actually sure what train we are on now. Currently rapidly closing in on Amsterdam. We think.

Budget tip of the day: waffle 5 pack from the supermarket. 50c for sugery snackfood to whittle away the hours between trains


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Location:Unknown

In Brugge - part 2

Woke up this morning to find it had SNOWED. All of Brugge was white and perfect. Celebrated by climbing the 322 steps of the belfry as well as taking lots of pretty snowy photos.

Bruges by night

Bruges belfry


After lunch it was museum time. We visited two Brugge museums and the Memling in Sint-Jan, a former hospital run by nuns. Finished the day with waffles before a tradational Dutch dinner at an Argentinian steak house.

Currently on a two-storied train back to Brussels for our connection to Amsterdam.

Budget tip of the day: buy a bruggepass, only €5 if you're under 26 for access to the belfry and all of Brugges museums.


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Location:Brugge

In Bruges

Been gone for less than 48 hours but been busy. Left London on the Eurostar at 7:30am, arrived in Brussels 2 hours later. Spent the day sightseeing in Brussels, ate waffles and fries and saw lots of TinTin stuff. Only negative side was a (very talented) pickpocket lifted Mels cellphone, which resulted in a brief visit to the local police station ('police' in Dutch is 'politie').

Brussels

After Brussels adventures, we hopped onto a train to Leuven. Met James and Esther for a few(ish) of the local beers and had the largest meal known to mankind at a student local.

Next day we powerwalked through Leuvens sights before catching a train to Ghent, where we had ourselves a whirlwind walking tour of the churches, canals and awesome old buildings. Then back on the train to Bruges, so far enjoying Christmas markets and general Bruges prettyness before packing it in early for a day of sightseeing tomorrow.

Gent

Gent Castle

Budget tip of the day: if ever traveling in Belgium by train. Enquire about a 'go pass'. €50 for 10 trips anywhere in the country = awesomeness!!

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Location:Bruges

Mel & Brads winter adventure!!

Our next adventure officially started today. We moved out of our flat in leytonstone, stored our stuff, and took one, small, carry-on sized bag with us for the next 5 weeks. First stop was Journeys hostel in Kings Cross, 17 bed room was suprisingly ok. Next step is the Eurostar at some ungodly hour of the morning....

Budget tip of the day: Journys hostel kings cross. 17 bed dorm 2 minutes walk from Kings Cross station. Bargin.

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Location:London

Drinking Port in Porto

This weekend we adventured to Porto, Portugal. We arrived Saturday afternoon and went straight across the St Lois I bridge to the port houses. First up we did a tour of Sandemans, learning a lot about how to make port, why it's so high in alcohol (they add extra wine alcohol to it!) and tasting a white port and a Tawny. Both were a wee bit on the sweet side, but thoroughly enjoyable.

St Louis I Bridge

Sampling the Sandemans Port

Sunday was a real mix of weather (reminds us of home...). One minute beautiful and sunny, then rainy, then sunny followed by hail. Still, we managed to do a good tour of Porto. We saw several chruches, including Se Cathedral where Henry the navigator was baptized, Sao Francisco Cathedral which supposedly has 400 kg of gold inside and a few others with blue walls. We also ventured out to Casa de Musica, an oddly shaped building and wandered along the riverfront.

Casa de Musica

Sunday afternoon was back to the port houses. This time to Crofts where we had another tour, sampled another white port wine, a Ruby, a pink port and an LBV (late bottle vintage). A great way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon. This morning we wandered round the Monastery before heading to the airport for our flight back to London. All up a great long weekend!


Sampling the Crofts Port

St Louis I Bridge

Us looking out over Porto

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Bathing in Bath

Last week we rented a car and drove across to bath via Stonehenge and Avebury. Stonehenge was amazing, perched in the middle of a wild, windswept field. Avebury is less well known, but some just as impressive stones and earthworks.

Stonehenge

After we had finished stonewatching, we completed our drive up to Bath. The weather by now was constant heavy rain so we stayed in for the night, watching the end of the All Blacks before heading out to spend some time in the local, trying some native ales, while watching Scotland beat Australia (did that really happen, or did we have too many brews?).

The next day was just as bad weather wise, but we bravely headed out. First stop was the Roman Bath house, amazingly complete ruins. We then stopped at Sally Lunns for an original Sally Lunn bun, not like expected but yummy anyway. Next we wandered the town and markets, dodging the rain. Saw the pulteney bridge over the river Avon, the Cresent and finally the Bath Abbey.

Sally Lunns at Sally Lunns House

Bath Abbey

Roman Baths

On our way home we made a spontaneous stop in Oxford for an explore. Wasn't too much to see, as it was dark by now, but found the Oxford castle and a cool pedestrian town centre filled with students.

Next up Porto!!

New house & jobs

Just a quick post to say we have a new house! It's only short term, until mid-December. It's in Leytonstone, on the central line. Both of us are working now too, Brad as a cycle sandwich delivery guy and Mel is back temping at St Barts hospital. Busy planning our next adventure now......


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A few days in Edinburgh

Brad had to be the hard working one, while Mel went off to Edinburgh to hang out with Danielle and Ryan for a few days. First stop was Birmingham overnight. There's not a huge amount to do in Birmingham, but I did see a church, a nice park, the bus station and the train station.

Bizarre building

Church

Next up was a ridiculously early train from Birmingham to Edinburgh, where we were lucky to be able to stay with Danielle and her flatmate Yvette. Monday afternoon Ryan visited Edinburgh castle while I had a nap (done the castle previously), then we went to a good old scottish pub on the Royal Mile for dinner before doing the halloween pub quiz (sadly we weren't very good - just don't watch enough horror movies). On Tuesday we wandered around the city while it attempted to rain, and then we spent the afternoon at Chocolate soup, where we enjoyed some excellent chocolate brownie sandwhiches.

Wednesday put on a much better day for us, so we began our day of climbing. First up, we climbed up Arthurs seat for a great view of Edinburgh. We followed that by wandering the length of the Royal Mile then climbed Scott Monument (a very narrow winding staircase - 287 steps in total). In the evening we headed up Carlton hill for a great view of the sunset before we made our way to yet another pub for dinner.

A great few days hanging out in Edinburgh

View from Arthurs Seat

View from Scott Monument (61.1 m high)

View from Scott Monument

Scott Monument

Sunset from Carlton Hill

Back in London

Safely back in London after a very pleasant Ryan Air flight. We've finally updated our old posts with some photos. The final tally for our trip to Greece and Italy:

Days: 26
Planes: 2
Boats: 5
Metros: 8
Funiculars: 1
Trains: 19
Buses: 5
Accommodations: 13 (including one boat)
Pizzas: 5
Gelati: many...

Floating through the canals of Venice

First up, we had a great time in our random little town of Ferrara. We hired some old bikes and cycled around the old city wall and zigzagged our way through the little cobbled streets of town. Unfortunately the weather was pretty shocking and at several times throughout the day we had to seek shelter from the rain. All in all a nice little spur of the moment visit to Ferrara.

After that we re-joined the beaten track and made our way to the canals of Venice. We arrived at the S. Lucia train station, stepped outside and were instantly captured by the beauty of the Grande Canal. We wound our way through the tiny little streets in search of our hotel, managing to cross all three of the original bridges over the grand canal on our way. We stayed in a nice hotel, overlooking a beautiful little canal. First stop after settling in was St Marks Piazza. We went into St Marks Bascilica, which was pretty amazing, though not a patch on St Peters in Rome, then went up the Bell tower for an amazing view of central Venice and the outer islands.

The Grande Canal

St Marks Piazza

Yesterday we moved to a hostel on the other side of the island, called A Venice Fish. We caught a Vaporetto most of the length of the Grande Canal (the budget version of a gondala ride). Then once again we spent the day wandering, with no clear direction. We stopped at several nice churches, saw the prison, and enjoyed a coffee by the Grande Canal. We really enjoyed our time in Venice, and would definitely be keen to go back and explore some of the other islands one day.









Now Ryan is in Berlin, and we are in Genoa, heading back to London tomorrow.