Krakow - September 27,28,29 2006

It was a long journey to Krakow from Budapest. In fact, getting to Krakow isn’t the easiest task in the world unless you fly. We also had only five minutes between connecting trains somewhere in the middle of the Czech Republic, so were rather concerned that our train was actually going to make the connection. In the end, we got there ok, which was a relief as a friend of ours visited a month after us and he had to wait for several hours after missing a connection somewhere in Poland.

Due to the longer journey to Krakow, we had booked three nights there, despite Krakow being a small town. Besides, we had planned to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, so an extra day was required.

Krakow is a small town as mentioned, with a massive town square…seriously, it is enormous, with an undercover market area in the centre and surrounded by loads of restaurants, bars and cafes….no doubt filled with the great unwashed when the weather warms up, enjoying the cheap beer and food. Where possible, we try to avoid the Brits overseas.

Krakow features a Royal Castle which was quite good, although we didn’t go inside….however, the royal courtyard was very impressive and ornately decorated. Again, the castle, as always, was on the hill with views across town and the sweeping river.

There are also medieval cobbled streets which were interesting and we managed to eat traditional polish food at a restaurant called Polskie Smarkie.

Interesting, especially the pasta with lard chunks on top. Hmmmm.

The major reason for our visit to Krakow though was to visit Auschwitz, which we did on the second day. We caught a bus there and this included a local guide who was very respectful and informative.

Not sure there is a good way to describe Auschwitz except to say that it is incredible that people can be treated the way they were by the Nazi’s.

There are two parts to the concentration camp, with Auschwitz featuring brick based buildings that housed the prisoners. There were also gas chambers, which we walked through and more poignantly, masses and masses of human hair, (which was recycled by the Nazis into socks, overcoats, etc) spectacles, luggage bags, shoes, etc. And these masses of Jewish possessions were only the tip of the iceberg.

Birkenau, by comparison, is a short drive away and was partially destroyed by the Nazis as the war was ending, and featured wooden huts, built by the prisoners themselves, with bunks. Must have been absolutely freezing.

Also, there was a railway track in the centre of the camp where the Jewish people were unloaded from the train, after paying their own way there no less, and they were divided into two lines by some Nazis, those who were strong and fit for work, and those who were weaker, smaller, younger, older or generally unfit for work. These people were sent to the gas chambers under the pretence of having a shower whilst the former group were sent to work...but they lived.

It was very sad and poignant, but again, you have to learn from the past and move forwards into the future…all the time recognising the mistakes of the past, to ensure they are not replicated in the present or future.

Definitely a place that makes you appreciate your own life and good fortune.

Budapest - September 25,26 2006

A state of the art motor vehicle in Hungary!

We only had two nights planned for Budapest and we didn’t realise it was such a large city, area wise. Consequently, this was one place that we simply didn’t have enough time to spend there, to do the city justice.

Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and that’s right, Pest. Fittingly, we stayed in Pest.

The city is divided in two by the Danube River, which is pretty bloody wide. There are also loads and loads of those river cruise boats in there at all times and this looked to be a pretty cool way to see Europe.

Plenty of grey folk there!

The River Danube

On the Pest side, there are more shops and whatnot, whilst the Buda side features a serious hill on which the Royal Castle is perched. We headed up to the Royal Castle, walking of course, Sam whingeing of course!!!!! (She is English.) (What Dave failed to mention was that we were originally heading up on a bus, which turned out to be the incorrect bus and we got off at the back of the castle!) and when we finally reached the top, the views of the river and various bridges, including the brilliant Chain Bridge (in my top 5 bridges of the world) was absolutely spectacular. You can take the funicular railway to the top to see the view, but again, why do things the easy way when you can make a journey of it and talk about it later!

We also ventured to an absolutely incredible, and brilliantly presented (best museum presentation I have ever seen) museum, called The Terror Museum or House of Terror.

This museum is situated in the old building that housed the Nazi Party, then after their fall, the local Communist Death Squad people. This was up until the late 80’s, so not long ago at all…amazing really….and undoubtedly the same crap is going on somewhere else in the world as we speak. Anyway, the museum showed the way people had to live in fear for years and years and how they turned on each other, plus, it highlighted and demonstrated the torturous conditions prisoners had to endure.

Some had to stand in a cell that allowed them no room to move at all…other cells didn’t allow the prisoner to stand up properly, another was called a wet cell as it was always wet with water on the base….just incredible.

We also wanted to visit a park, just outside the city that features a massive collection of the huge statues of the military dictators and their cronies. Would have been good to see them all in one place as they probably wanted to destroy them, but instead, looks like they are now making some cash from the display…good luck to them.

View from the castle

There is a fair bit to see in Budapest and despite the language difficulties, it was not a bad place, but as I say, definitely a place we need to go back to, in order to investigate further and in more detail.

The brilliant Chain Bridge at night

Ljubljana - September 23,24 2006

Slovenia. Not a country we had really heard much about previously, let alone want to visit.

Still, when we were researching our trip, we wanted to visit as many places as possible, especially new and interesting places, plus, Slovenia, being just north of Italy and part of the old Yugoslavia, was on the way towards Budapest and Krakow, places we wanted to visit earlier in our plans. Besides, Ljubljana is a cool sounding name for a town, so why not!

We had a hotel booked a small way out of the town, but Ljubljana is only a small place so it was no drama and a short bus ride took us there.

The Hotel was simple and turned out to be QUITE noisy, especially the first night, but nevertheless, it didn’t spoil our time in Ljubljana.

Ljubljana is only a very small town, but it does have some interesting things to see, including the castle on the hill, with spectacular views of the town….some great cafes next to the river and an interesting bridge that has three separate crossings….one for road and on each side, at odd angles, two pedestrian only crossings….never seen anything like it before, so I was interested in that.

As mentioned, the castle is on the hill, so we trudged to the top of the hill with Samantha whingeing as usual, but walking is good for you and it’s always good to test your character as well as hearing Samantha whining about the steepness….it wasn’t actually that bad and we both survived the ordeal to tell the tale!

One of the best things about Ljubljana was the cafe we ate at...twice. Wasn't exactly local based food, but the food was fresh, the service was good, the prices were fine and the beer was tasty and cold, so all in all, no complaints at all.

On leaving Ljubljana, we caught the most old fashioned train of the trip for our journey to Budapest. The journey was slow and was punctuated by Hungarian border guards taking everyone’s passports, with no explanation, until they had processed them over the border!

Still, all was well and we continued our journey. Incidentally, the countryside on the way to Budapest, in Hungary, reminded us of the scrubby landscape of country NSW.

Venice - September 21,22 2006

Venice is an interesting, and completely different, city.

Venice’s highlights include….water everywhere, narrow walking streets where you get lost easily, loads of tourist shops selling anything and everything touristy – including Morano glass (and inferior Chinese made glass), not a single car, and the mandatory gondolas.

There are gondolas everywhere! Didn’t see (or hear) any singing Gondoliers though. They travel through the narrow waterways as well as the main, wider waterways along with the water taxis and water ferries that took us to our hotel on the island called The Lido.

We initially went to our hotel on The Lido, which took about an hour to get to, was rather warm too. After freshening up and checking in to the Hotel, we ventured across to Venice to have a good walk around. There is a famous square in Venice called St Marks, which features a massive bell tower, the brilliant square surrounded by restaurants and bands (at night) and the Moorish styled church. When we first clapped eyes on the St Marks Square we were amazed by the amount of people there….absolutely jam-packed. Sod that we thought, so we walked around the outskirts of the square and headed on to the famous marble Rialto Bridge that crosses the main waterway, the Grand Canal. (see above)

Venice is an easy place to walk as it is very flat and despite the amount of people, it was good fun to walk around, browsing the shops occasionally, but just getting a feel for the place and looking at the gondolas cruising up the extremely narrow waterways. We also heard a few westie Aussie accents around the place so we avoided these people, although they did give us a good laugh.

As we had bought a 48 hour water boat pass, we went across to a surrounding island called Murano, where they produce brilliantly coloured and designed glass. This was interesting, although, if we were rich, we could have spent up big. Not to worry.

One of the major highlights was spending some time in St Marks Square. (above)

We did wait however, till it was getting towards dusk and we simply sat in the squre, watched the people feed the disgusting pigeons as they flocked and landed all over them (why would you want to do that?).

The day trippers had gone back to wherever they are staying, off the island, and it was largely deserted, especially compared to earlier in the day. The square actually changes colour quite dramatically through dusk and it was very impressive when all the lights switched on and the ambience was great as the big bands played various songs throughout the evening.

Most enjoyable indeed.

As mentioned, Venice is certainly an interesting place, perhaps a frag overrated but definitely glad we visited there and we’d consider going back at some stage, perhaps for a day trip only.

Verona - September 20 2006

Roman Arena

After Firenze, we went north to a small Italian town called Verona.

We had heard Verona was beautiful and we had also researched the town, discovering a colosseum like arena, built by the Romans and used today for concerts. Unfortunately, no concert was being held on the day we were there, however, another time for a visit is likely.

Verona is also a very pleasant town to walk around, with a stunning river and several class bridges (I like bridges!), plus the aforementioned arena as well as the usual great Italian Restaurants to choose from.

Not sure if we ate at the best restaurant by any means, as we normally choose a restaurant frequented by locals, however, the food was tasty, cheap and I had horsemeat, which was new to me. It was OK, but not incredible.

We only stayed in Verona for a single night at a very nice B and B, but Verona generally speaking, is a nice place and it would be worth spending more time there.

Firenze (Florence) - September 17,18,19 2006

Ah Firenze…a wonderful city. This city was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

Firenze is situated in Tuscany and had we been there earlier in the year, we would have passed through fields and fields of sunflowers, which I’m sure would have been another highlight. As it was, Tuscany has a nice feel, with rustic cottages in small villages, so, perhaps at another time we can spend more time travelling through the region.

We left Rome when it was raining heavily, with expectations being that Firenze also would be raining, as it is only a couple of hours north of Rome by train. Surprisingly, whilst it rained most of the way to Firenze, we were greeted by leaden skies but no rain. We made our way to our hotel room and then trundled into the city to have a wander around.

As is our way, we had researched the town reasonably well and we knew there were a couple of art galleries that we wanted to see (Academia and Uffizi), a wonderful bridge featuring shops atop the bridge (Ponte Vechio), a mandatory river, the Duomo (Church dome), plus a walk across the river to the top of a hill that would feature stunning views of the town.

The first day of arrival in a town we normally walk around, simply getting acquainted with the new town and we did this. On our travels we walked past the Academia Art Gallery. We had heard the lines for entry were always large and on this occasion, the lines were not so bad it seemed. So we stood in line, and headed on in after about 30 minutes wait….not bad considering some people wait for two hours!

The Academia Art Gallery doesn’t have much to be honest (perhaps we are philisteins) but we had seen a lot of religious art in Rome and quite frankly, there’s only so much religious art and propaganda that you can take. However, there is the incredibly brilliant sculpture by Michelangelo, David.

David (to be expected with a name like mine) was awesome. In fact, we were very surprised at the detail and more particularly the actual height and size of the sculpture.

The only problem was that the people who ran the museum, in what can only be described as crass commercialism, don’t allow photographs. In fact, they employ several people to stop people from taking photos (in vain). The thing is, the wages they spend on stopping photos being taken couldn’t possibly be matched by people buying postcards at 50 euro cents!

People would still buy the postcards anyway!

Anyways, part of the fun of the place was watching people surreptitiously taking photos of the statue. Normally, we respect what they say about photos as it can destroy art works but sculptures can’t be damaged by a non flash camera, and it was capitalism gone wrong, so we also took a quick snap of the statue. Was funny, but I guess you needed to be there to appreciate the moment.

There are also several other Michelangelo (unfinished) statues that are great too....in fact, it appears that people are trying to escape from the marble.

After the Academia Art Gallery, we headed out and walked around the town, enjoying the town. It’s really a brilliant town and a pleasure to walk the old, cobbled streets.

During our time in Firenze, we saw the Duomo, the Uffizi Gallery with a brilliant display of the genius Leonardo Da Vinci (Don’t forget the beautiful Birth of Venus by Botticelli…Samantha). and the Ponte Vechio (a bridge with shops used by the Medici family as a private walkway to the Uffizi Palace, when they ruled Florence) as mentioned, plus we walked the hill to gain the stunning views, but best of all, we ate fantastic and tasty Italian food at some local (out of the way) Trattorias and we even got chatting to some very friendly people from Australia and Miami.

It was very good to visit Firenze and we had a wonderful time….Will definitely be a place we revisit at some stage.Dave in Firenze with the Duomo in the background.

Rome – September 14, 15, 16 2006.

We were looking forward to getting to Rome and we had a room booked near the Vatican City. The train journey was reasonably lengthy but coming from Australia, it wasn’t as bad as travelling from Sydney to Melbourne on the train, I can assure you. In fact, the trains are far more comfortable, and despite the fact that the announcements are made in Italian, the communication was still better than on Australian trains!

So, we arrived by train in the evening and we had been warned on various travel websites to be wary of pickpockets at the main rail station, as well as the bus we were travelling on to our room. In fact, the bus we were travelling on to the room we had booked has been dubbed ‘The Wallet-Eater’, such is its reputation.

We managed to get away with no such problem but the bus was absolutely jam-packed, which made it interesting with our packs, but we just pushed people away as required and all was fine. When it came time to get off the bus, it was absolutely tipping down with rain. We had a bit of a walk to the room we had booked, which incidentally, was a room in a flat, however we rarely saw the people who lived there….so that was fine. Anyways, we got to our room ok, wet and hot but fine. We decided to shower and change clothes and as we headed out for a meal, the rain had eased slightly. The meal was a simple pizza for me and a pasta for Samantha, ok but nothing special. After the meal we headed across the road to the Vatican and we walked around St Peters Square for a while. The rain had stopped, although it was still humid.


St Peters Square looks larger on TV when it is filled with people but it is quite large, with a massive obelisk in the centre and various fountains around the square. At the top end is St Peters Basilica and to the right is the Pope’s apartment where he pops his head out from time to time. There are also loads of statues of various Saints adorning the top of covered walkways. The Catholics certainly don’t muck around when it comes to spending cash on themselves and it was very interesting to be in the Vatican.

We wandered back to our room to rest and we wondered if we were going to get a decent day to wander around, or if it was going to rain every day we were in Rome.

Fortunately, the next day revealed blue skies, so off we trundled to see the sights of Rome and experience the much lauded crazy Roman drivers. First stop was the Pantheon. The Pantheon is an ancient columned church with a domed roof that features a hole in the ceiling. I’m no architect, but it was extremely impressive and as I understand, the hole in the ceiling strengthens the dome. Either way, it was bloody good and as it is still standing, in brilliant condition, one must take one’s hat off to the Romans as they were truly outstanding in their forward thinking, architecture, roads, sewers, etc etc. We still shake our heads and wonder what went wrong with the Romans….why are they a complete rabble now? Who knows.


Rome is a brilliant city with loads of beautiful piazzas (squares)…many featuring stylish and wonderful fountains designed by great artists. It also has loads of columned buildings as you’d expect and it’s a city where you can walk and walk and walk and see things appear from nowhere that are brilliant. In fact, there are so many amazing ancient sites here in Rome that some are completely ignored. This may sound trivial but imagine if Australia had a single roman column…it would be an incredible tourist site…guarded no doubt and roped off from the public….here in Rome, nope, just out in the open, cars parked right next to them often, ancient columns about 2000 plus years old. Incredible for me anyway! I was impressed.

We walked around for two days (the second day being wet again), visiting various sites, the Spanish steps, named because the steps are near the Spanish Embassy…..a massive building that impressed me that I don’t even know the name of…how ignorant of me!.....but that sorta describes Rome…so many sites to see…..we saw the Colosseum twice…once at night and again the next day ….didn’t go inside as it was raining again when we walked by….the Roman Forum was amazing…again, ancient buildings and columns…incredible that they still stand, many of which are remarkably intact….you do need some imagination but just amazing….various churches….the Trevi Fountain…we visited twice…once during the day and again in the evening. We had heard it was busy and crowded and this was true the first time during the day. However, we pushed to the front easily enough and took some photos…in the evening though, we could hear the throng of the crowd as we approached and we were amazed at how many people there were. Maybe two or three times as many as during the day….it was ridiculous….fortunately we had taken many photos during the day so a couple of swift snaps and we were on our way. One thing, it’s apparently a tradition to throw some coins in to the fountain to guarantee a return journey to Rome….what a ridiculous thought….not throwing money away!!!! My mother brought me up to believe that if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves….well, Mum is basically Scottish!!!! Anyways, no money was thrown in, let me assure you….not even five aussie cents! Besides which, they don’t want coins thrown in as it stains the marble and again, the gypsies fish the coins out of the fountain, so no point throwing in coins to start with, I say!!!!




I’ve saved the best till last I believe….the Vatican Museum incorporating the St Peters Basilica and Sistine Chapel. How to describe these attractions? Amazing and impressive are the best two words I’d say.

As I mentioned, the second day was sunny, so we headed to the Vatican (we had read that after 12 midday is a good time as most of the people get there early or later on…people are always busy stuffing their faces at midday, thus as good time) and found it to have a reasonable length queue but not so bad. We had also intended to get a tour of the Vatican Museum from a group that we had read about on the net but we couldn’t find them….so, we walked forward in the queue to get into the St Peters Basilica and as we were in the queue we heard a woman say that a guide was doing a free tour of the St Peters, so we joined that group……was very good and informative. Of course, we knew they would use this tour as a tempter for the Vatican Museum tour and whilst not cheap, was very worthwhile…more on that….

Back to St Peters Basilica….this place is great. It is just amazingly HUGE!!!! Inside is amazing, with mosaics on the wall that look like paintings they are that good. Plus, there are some bodies of past popes who have been canonised and for some reason, they deem it appropriate to display their mummified bodies inside a glass casket. Interesting. There is loads of marble on the floor and elsewhere, it truly is a great church.

From there, we headed around several corners, away from St Peters Square, to the entrance of the Vatican Museum. The amount of paintings, sculptures and artefacts on display is amazing, which just goes to show how many things the Catholic Church has managed to steal, I mean, acquire, over the years from various places around the world. The museum is huge and it took a good while to go through the place….having a look at selected sculptures, famous (and massive) paintings, ancient baths, tapestries, ceiling works, etc etc. Finally, the end of the tour and the museum, we arrived at the Sistine Chapel. Everyone has heard of the Sistine chapel and seen the paintings that are on the ceiling. The ceiling is very high, so hard to see the paintings in clear detail, but incredible to think Michelangelo and his team, some of whom he sacked because they weren’t up to the job, finished the MANY paintings, on the ceiling no less, in about three years. Wouldn’t happen now, that’s for sure! One other point to note on this room, this is where the chimney is used to burn stuff when they elect a new pope, so that was interesting.

Overall, Rome was a great place with loads of good trattoria’s and places to eat…not expensively either, incidentally….there are loads of sights….loads of crazy drivers and motorbike riders….the Vatican is great and generally, well worth visiting.

Geneva - September 12 & 13 2006

The trip started brilliantly, when we were stuck on the Easyjet plane, at Newcastle Airport, waiting for some Geordie muppet to fill in some paperwork and file it for the flight to Geneva. We waited for about an hour or so, eventually the pilot organised for the details to be filed alternatively, without the assistance of the aforementioned Geordie muppet and off we went.

We flew into Geneva at about 10pm local time and went off looking for the bus to take us to the hotel as it wasn’t far. It took us a wee while to find the bus stop, then we were confronted with the problem of local currency. Switzerland is not part of the European Union and as such, doesn’t operate with the Euro. Instead they have Swiss Francs. Now, I know what you’re thinking, you should have gone to the bank David and Samantha to get to Swiss Francs….well, we did. The thing we didn’t get was coins…in fact, you can’t get coins from UK banks for overseas currencies. So, we needed coins to buy bus tickets, as notes were not accepted…

who’d have known this? Sure, we could have gotten a taxi, but we were on a bit of a budget and besides, why do something the easy way, when you can do it a more difficult way…so we persevered and got talking to first an Australian guy who was in the same predicament as ourselves and then, shortly before the bus arrived, an English guy who lived in Geneva. He was kind enough to buy our tickets and we paid him back, plus we also paid for the Aussie guy…he was looking downcast and we had to help a fellow good guy!

Anyways, we had our ticket and off we went….not too many problems finding the hotel but then the fun started! The Hotel was at the top of an apartment block and you had to press a buzzer to gain entry. We did this for several minutes and we were getting a tad worried (Tad worried, we were stressing it big time….Samantha) as it was now about 11.15pm local time. We had the phone number but the area code was strange and difficult to work out from the provided number. In the end, despite the area being rather deserted, I used my basic French and asked a local lady the area code to use. This sorted the situation out and we gained access after a while of concern about whether we would get into the hotel or not!

Geneva is famous for Rolex watches, Swiss Army knives and Banking.

We thought, being the home of banking, we’d have no problems finding a bank to cash our traveller’s cheques. No, unfortunately not that easy. Yes, we could transfer to Swiss Francs but we had enough of these, but we wanted Euros. We could have paid a large fee…perhaps this is why the Swiss are famous for their banking…making serious money by charging fees….anyways, we didn’t worry and decided to get cash in Italy later on.

Geneva has a massive man made geyser in the middle of the lake which was kinda cool, but we thought the best part of Geneva was the old town. With winding streets, old style buildings and shops all well displayed with a range of goods, this is the area that we spent most of our time wandering.

The weather was quite warm and overall, we had an enjoyable time in Geneva….a nice place to relax into our trip rather than hitting the faster paced cities like Rome.

Two nights were spent in Geneva and on the 14th September, we caught an 8.50am train to Rome, via Milan and Firenze (Florence).

Europe - September, October, November 2006 (overview)

The Europe trip had been planned for a long time. Ever since we got back to Australia, we had thought we hadn’t spent enough time in Europe, so we researched some places we wanted to go, jetted back over here to England as you know, safe in the knowledge that the puppies were happy with their favourite people in the world and we set about planning our trip in Europe.

The trip took a bit of organising and it went through several changes.

Initially we wanted to visit as many countries as possible but it simply wasn’t feasible once we started to plan the journey in greater detail. Some of the countries and cities we wanted to visit but couldn’t (and will have to wait till later), include….Croatia – Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik….more cities in Germany including Berlin, Dresden, Munich…..Scandinavia, Holland – especially Amsterdam…..Belgium – Brussels….Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, etc etc…the world has so much in it….even after you travel for a while, you realise you’re only touching the surface, but you can only do your best!

Anyways, we settled on the plan to start in Geneva, then head to Rome, Florence, Verona, Venice, Ljubljana, Budapest, Krakow (including Auschwitz), Vienna, Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, Strasbourg in France, Lyon, Arles, (Avignon), Carcassonne, Barcelona in Spain, Seville, Granada, Madrid, Burgos, Bordeaux in France, Tours (Chateaux’s including Clemenceau and Amboise), Mont St Michel, Rennes, Paris and finally, back to Durham via Newcastle airport. The plan included flights to Geneva and return flight from Paris, through the customary Dave and Samantha Air Alliance Partners, Easy Jet…. as well as rail tickets for Europe through Inter Rail.

Overall, all went smoothly and there were few hitches, which was great.