Bec and Andrew's Honeymoon

After 8 1/2 weeks of travelling we are finally home. It´s a bit sad after such a long holiday but we are happy to be home and looking forward to catching up with everyone soon. We have had plenty of adventures some of which I have already shared with you on this webpage.

I had to cut short my previous message from Munich as we were running out of internet time so I'll try to continue from where I left off. We travelled from Prague to Krakow (Poland) using the Eurorail, it was very relaxing as we had a cabin to ourselves for the whole 7 hours and even better we knew it was going to be the last train journey for a very long time.

Krakow was beautiful and I felt it wasn´t as tourist driven as Prague. For dinner we had a traditional Polish dish called Perogi. It was nice but it didn't taste as good my grandma's Polish cooking as you would probably expect.

The next day we went on a city Tour of Krakow and their Castle. It was interesting hearing about the battles and alliances between Poland and other countries over many centuries. Bec and I were the only people on the tour so we had our own personal tour guide and a coach driver!

In the afternoon we spent about three hours trying to find Schindler's Factory, which was also used in the movie Schindler's List. When we had given up trying to find it, we hired a taxi to take us there and it looked like any ordinary factory that we could have easily walked past. That night we had dinner at the hotel as it was a tiring day and we were leaving early for Munich, Germany the next day.

It was pouring with rain when we were ready to leave the hotel at 5am the next morning and the hotel's pick up service was late. Fortunately after a quick reminder phone call from the hotel, the driver of a mid 90's Mercedes sped around the corner ready to go. The 30 minute trip to the airport was a memorable experience as the driver was determined to get us to the airport on time...actually in record time.... it was a bit scary travelling at 170km on wet roads but the driver and the car performed brilliantly. We were both relieved when we made it there in one piece and on time.

We flew to Munich within a couple of hours, which was a nice change, and we had the whole afternoon free to explore. That night I had the tastiest schnitzel ever... that's a big statement as I regularly have schnitzels in Adelaide. It was a pretzel-crumbed schnitzel fried in butter and served with wild cranberry sauce and salad. It was so good we went there again on the last night before flying home.

The following day we when on a quick city tour and did some final souvenir shopping as it was last major destination of our honeymoon. At night we went on a Beer and Brewery tour which took us to a number of pubs around Munich finishing off at the infamous beer hall Hofbrauhaus. It was a huge place and most beers were served in huge litre steins.

The next day we managed to get up early for a castles tour around Munich. I've had better days as I was still recovering from the big night of beer tasting. We saw the two main castles of King Ludwig, which were built in the 1800's. This king was very eccentric, so much so, he was dethroned for being mentally unstable. One of the castles, Neuschwanstein, gave Disney inspiration for the construction of the Disneyland Castles. It was snowing at Neuschwanstein which made photo taking very difficult but if they turn out they will be amazing.

Finally it came to the last day. We decided to take it easy and make our way to the airport early, ready for the 30 hour trip home. We flew from Munich to London, Singapore, Melbourne and finally Adelaide. Bec's parents greeted us at the airport with our beloved dog Willow who had been staying with them (my parents live interstate).

We would like to thank everyone for your best wishes and messages during our trip. We had a great time and can't wait to share our photos and stories sometime soon.

We have FINALLY reached our last destination of our Honeymoon, Munich.

Just a minor correction...Bec has just reminded me that this isn´t actually the last destination...we are going to London (Heathrow) on Monday for few hours to get a flight home.

We are have had a busy couple of days using the Eurorail from Salzburg we went to Prague, Cech Republic and then to Krakow, Poland. This morning we flew from Krakow to Munich, Germany.

Whenever we spoke to people about Prague they would say.... "oh..that´s such a beautiful place and the beer is so cheap". We can agree with both of those comments. Beer was about 0.50 Euro to 1 Euro for a large 0.5 litre pint which is cheap. 1 Euro is about 2 Australian dollars.

Prague was an interesting place with a very colourful history. As we only had one full day to explore we went on a city bus tour and took a horse and cart ride around the major tourist sites.

Since we were so relaxed from Salzburg it took awhile for us to get into the travelling mood again. On the train to Prague we were in a cabin with a local who wrote down a few good spots to eat and the must see tourist attractions which was really handy.

Sorry to end this so quickly but I am running out of time on the internet. I´ll write about Krakow and Munich soon.

We have made it safely to Salzburg, Austria. The Eurorail was very comfortable, I found it much more enjoyable then the coach we were traveling in for the past couple of weeks.

Before I write about Austria I´d like to expand on our coach tour from Paris to Rome. We saw so many things it’s difficult to remember them all.

The first destination for the tour was Paris. It took about 8 hours to travel to Paris from London so we were looking forward to a good nights sleep. The following morning we had a quick bus tour which gave us a look at the main attractions i.e Notra Dame, Eiffel Tour and the Louvre Pyramid.

Following the tour, we went on our own to explore Paris using some basic French that I’d learnt in school many years ago. First task was to see Mona Lisa in the Louvre. I was expecting huge crowds and line ups but fortunately this wasn’t the case. We manage to find the famous painting very quickly and I was surprised it was about an A3 size as many people had told me it was much smaller. Louvre was definitely worth a visit, I was surprised to see that we could take photos in some parts of the Louvre (obviously not of the Mona Lisa but of the statues and sculptures etc).

Following this we climbed the Eiffel tower, all 700 steps, to the second viewing platform and had spectacular views of the city. Bec also found a snack to rival the jam and cream donuts from Brampton; French waffles with chocolate sauce (melted Nutella).

To finish off the day we went on a river cruise and had dinner at.... (I’m embarrassed to say it).... Planet Hollywood. We were craving a steak so unfortunately I didn’t get an opportunity to try snails in France, maybe next time.

From Paris we traveled to Lucerne, Switzerland. It was a beautiful place nestled in the Swiss Alps with a huge lake called Lake Lucerne (of course). This best memory from this day was the dinner... the whole tour group went to a music/dinner night and some people including yours-truly went on stage. Bec and I went on stage and participated in a traditional Swiss dance and to finish off the night I was dragged up on stage to try out some yodeling. Fortunately, we didn´t have the video camera with us that night and I will not repeat the act for anyone back at home.

After that hilarious night we went to Venice, Italy. We were fortunate enough to witness an event that only occurs in autumn and winter, the flooding of St Mark´s square. During the high tides in Autumn-Winter, the low lying areas of Venice flood. Temporary fold-out walkways (similar to the collapsible tables that are using in Wrestling WWE-style) are put up for a few hours so locals and tourists don’t get their feet wet; it was amazing to see.

From Venice we went to Florence for some shopping and Pisa to see the leaning tower. After Florence we travelled to Rome.

Okay now I have comprehensively written about the coach trip so I can now write about my favourite place so far, Salzburg, the home of Mozart and The Sound of Music.

We arrived in Austria at about 4am on 2nd November for those of you who didn’t know it was my birthday on that day. Yes....30 years young.

For the first time in my life and probably ever I can say it snowed on my birthday. I’ve had 37 degrees in Australia but never minus 5. The train ride from the Austrian border to Salzburg went through some of Austria’s ski slopes.

The blanket of snow was about a foot deep and it was spectacular. Bec has taken more photos of the snow then of the Colosseum in Rome....now that´s saying something. Someone told me it was 25 degrees in Salzburg last week and now its covered in snow ! Winter has finally arrived.

We went on a city tour yesterday and last night we went to a beer hall for dinner. We managed to finish off a few litre steins and a small glass of jagermeister and tried to speak German to a few locals which was a challenge but also good fun.

Today we went on a Sound of Music Tour to satisfy Bec´s love for the movie. The tour was worth doing, just to see the snow covered mountains and the Austrian lakes district. While we were driving through some breathtaking scenery doe-ray-me was playing through the speakers of the coach, I couldn´t stop laughing.

Wow this has been a long message. I’d better go and I’ll try to write again soon. Thanks for your emails we´ll try to respond to them as soon as we can.

We have been having a great time in Rome but it's now time for us to use the Eurail.... I hope everyone keeps their fingers crossed for us as we leave tonight at 7pm and travel to Austria arriving at 4am.... yes 4am ! (I thought honeymoon's were supposed to be relaxing).

Today we saw rain for the first time in about three weeks. We have been very lucky with the weather so far and I really hope it continues when we start travelling North (but I won't hold my breath). I've seen some of the weather forecasts for Prague and Munich and it's getting down to 0 °C overnight with a wind chill factor well in the minuses. I guess we have to expect that as we are travelling in Autumn.

Time is running out on my internet so I'll write again soon.

We have finally finished our Western Europe coach tour and arrived in beautiful Roma. This place is amazing and the people are very friendly but it does help to know some basic Italian! I was practising Italian before I left Adelaide and I have had to use it on a few occasions.

Some highlights of our 11 day tour were climbing the Eiffel tower in Paris and going on a Gondola ride in Venice. The beer has been great everywhere but I have started losing weight since I haven't been drinking Guinness.

Bec has been loving all of the historical sites of Rome especially the Coliseum and Ostia Antica which was an huge old Roman Port.

I haven't much time left on the internet so this is only a short message to say hi and I hope to update this site again soon.