London

Yes, finally the last stop on our European experience. The home of afternoon tea, James Bond, the Tube and Australia.

After our incredibly long bus ride from Scotland we arrived with no directions or contact details for the hostel thanks to my dead phone battery. We were able to remember the Underground station and found it without too much trouble from there. After checking in, we went into town and met with Lou and H-man for dinner at a Japanese restaurant in China town near Leicester Square.

The next day we set out to see the art and design museums. We started at the Tate Modern which was pretty cool - both the art and the slides. After that we checked out the Design Museum, walking past London and Tower bridges on the way there. That afternoon we saw the London Eye, Westminster, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.

Yesterday began our Monopoly quest - to get photos at every place on the Monopoly board. Lou, H-man and Simon joined us, with a brief appearance from Tom and Jane. We managed to get photos at 15 of the 22 locations, which was a pretty good effort for one day walking around the city. That night we spontaneously decided to see a West End show - Avenue Q - which is an adult take on Seasame Street. It was fantastic and very funny, with a mix of live cast and muppets.

Today we went to explore the famous London landmark - Harrods. That place is amazing, and even more amazingly expensive. After a quick lunch in Covent Garden we hopped on a train towards Cambridge to see Aunty Jess. We arrived around 5 and stayed for a great home meal. Priya was a little shy, and a bit sick but was cute non-the-less.

We are now on the train, on the way back to sample the London nightlife. The flight home is tomorrow night so hopefully we can finish our Monopoly quest during the day.

Edinburgh

Gutentag?? Ciao?? G'day! Yes, we are back in the land of the English speaking... well kinda. Edinburgh was the destination after a very short flight from Cologne in Germany. The land of Loch Ness, Haggis and funny accents!

We arrived the earliest out of any city so far, around 11am local time. We weren't able to check in that early when we reached the hostel so we went out for a cheap meal at a pub they recommended and wandered the city for a while. After checking in, we walked some more, and some more, finally having some pasta (for the first time in a while) at a small cafe.

The next day we continued our walking. We had decided to walk the seeming short distance on the map from the city to the port to the north of the city. We strolled thru nice little streets and the very cool Royal Botanical Gardens on Edinburgh (yes, I am being serious, they put a lot of effort into making the place interesting - including a gallery displaying the art and photos of the students that take the free art classes they run). We kept walking and walking and finally reached the water. We found an awesome little pub overhanging the end of the water and filled ourselves up on homemade pies, chips and veggies. We continued walking after lunch over to the very big and modern Ocean Terminal shopping center where we did a little shopping, took in the majesty of the Royal Yacht Britannia and saw a 'flick' at the cinema. Afterwards it was straight home for icecream and bed.

The next day we explored the other side of the city and found some nice open parks and little shopping streets. Walked around in circles a few times without realising too. Made lunch and dinner back at the hostel to try and save a few quid. Jeni slept the afternoon while I spent a few hours wandering round the huge book store on the corner looking for a book for the bus and plane home. That night we did yet more walking - the city is great at night with the huge castle all lit up in the middle.

Yet again no tourist attractions... I guess we are saving our money for London which we hear is fairly expensive. One interesting thing I noticed in Edinburgh however is while it had a large amount of old churches like most other European cities, more than half the ones we saw had been converted into refuges, nightclubs and even a picture framing business. Just an interesting observation. We also saw other cool things like old Police boxes converted into coffee stalls on the street. Edinburgh is a very arty city and I guess we walked so much as to try and soak it all up.

Anyway, we have arrived in London now. My phone battery just before the 9.5 hour bus journey so I couldn't write the blog on the way. It is much easier to write on the computer anyway (because you don't loose your entire post when you accidentally hit the wrong button by accident). A London update shortly!

Köln

Back in Germany, at the home of the original eu de Cologne and the second largest festival in Germany after Oktoberfest.

We arrived into Köln with Simon, but shortly after split as we were staying in different hostels. We stayed 15 minutes out of the city in a hotel.

The first night we headed back into the city for a meal, which turned out to be at a steak restaurant. I did however try the local brew called Kölsh, which was quite refreshing and light.

The next day was a late start, and we didn't get into the city until the afternoon. We spent the afternoon just wandering around the city. Jeni bought the bag she has been lusting for ever since she saw it in Munich. That night we went with Simon to a Köln pub which was great. The Köln Karnival is on at the moment and it is getting close to the end when they have their 'crazy' days. A lot of the locals in the pub were dressed up in their colourful costumes.

Our last morning was another slow one, but in the afternoon we checked out the Köln Applied Arts museum which was interesting, and then met Simon again and headed to the Chocolate museum. The place is pretty cool, mostly because they have their own little chocolate making plant inside where you can watch the whole process from start to finish.

All in all, Köln is a pretty cool city. It is not terribly touristy but was well worth the visit (especially for the cheap German prices). We flew out this morning to Edinburgh in the UK so we will update shortly on what it is like here.

XXX

We have just finished our very brief stay in Amsterdam. The title of this post refers not to the Red Light District, but rather is the 'symbol' of the city that is on everything from sewer covers to churches.

We arrived after a 3 hour train from Brussels. It was snowing along the way, but it was just cold and windy when we arrived. Got the keys to our accommodation which was a nice and cosy little apartment (no kitchen though).

Amsterdam is a very laid back multicultural city, so the first night we had Indian currys for dinner with H-man and Lou. After that we went for a walk round the red light district (which is, surprisingly enough, full of red neon lights) and checked out some of the coffee shops around town.

Yesterday we took a free tour of the city, and learnt a fair bit about the history of the city. We spent the afternoon shopping in the quaint little shops all over the city. Had dinner at a great little noodle place next to where we were staying.

We again missed all the tourist traps like Anne Frank's house and the art museums and just spent the time exploring the city instead.

The weather here is unbelievable: rain, hail and shine... and snow too! The first day it was snowing and sleeting on our way to dinner, and yesterday the weather would change between sun and rain/hail every half an hour. Today, just as we arrived at the train station, a snow storm/blizzard blew in. I managed to get a few photos as we were leaving of a blanket of snow over Amsterdam.

We are now heading back into Germany for a few nights before our flight to Scotland.

Brussel / Bruxelles

The Lonely Planet guide starts its section on Brussels by saying "It's hard to fathom how Brussels got labelled 'boring'..." Well, I can certainly see why people find this city boring. It is only when you really explore this city that you find its true culture and spirit.

When we first walked out of the train station all we saw is a dirty, bland city. Our opinion was not helped by the fact we walked 15 minutes in the opposite direction of the city. After help from a nice lady, one wrong tram and another 20 minutes waking later we finally arrived at the hotel. That was not our only navigational mishap (although we can blame it on the incorrect directions from the hotel), we were continually walking in one direction thinking it was another.

While the city is mostly dirty and boring, the occasion spark of life randomly appears on the sides of buildings in the form of comics. The whole city is obsessed with comics, and not surprising seeing it was the birth place of Tintin. There are comic stores on every street, a comic museum and a whole store devoted to Tintin comics and figureines!

The other things Belgium is famous for is beer, chocolate, fries, beer, chocolate, waffles and mussels. Infact, food in general is fantastic.

The first night we headed out into the city and found a small, dimly lit middle eastern restaurant called Kasbah. Not only was the atmosphere fantastic, I can say without hesitation that it was the best meal I have ever had! Jeni had a meat ball Tajine and I had lamb cous cous. Jeni's came out with the Tajine still steaming while my seemingly simple meal came out in 3 dishes. The first was a plate of cous cous, then a pot full of huge simmering vegetables, and finally a plate of the most tender lamb I have ever seen. I was full without needing another serving of cous cous and Jeni got stuck into some of the left over veggies. The local beer was great too.

The next day we spent most of the day in chocolate stores with mouths watering and filling our bellies with free samples. We went to a pub that night where Jeni had mussels, and I had Belgium beef stew, fries (a Belgium invention, not French) and 2 Belgium beers - Kwack and a framboise (raspberry) beer.

We missed most of the touristy stuff like the Atomium, Mini Europe, EU headquarters and various museums - partly because they were too expensive or closed, and partly because we just wanted to explore the city. We saw heaps of cool little design studios and trendy stores, all in back streets and out of the way corners.

All in all we really enjoyed Brussels and would definately would have liked to stay for a few extra nights, if for no other reason than to eat!

Musée Paris

Yes, Paris is full to the brim with more than its fair share of museums and art, and we took a crack and seeing as much of it as we could. Had I not kept a close eye on Jeni she would probably still be wandering one of the museums or galleries we saw.

We had a huge day on Friday. We got up early to see the Centre Georges Pompidou which is the modern art gallery. We arrived an hour early at 10am and didn't leave until well after 5. Jeni described it as walking thru all her art history textbooks. Myself, I loved the Hergè (creator of Tintin) exhibition - with all the original sketches and storyboard mockups in French, and the photography.

That evening we met with Brooke and Tash for cheap meals (€10 for three courses) in the Latin Quarter, then headed over to the Louvre because it was free on Friday nights for youth. We spent from 9.00 to 9.45 madly running around the Louvre trying to see as much as possible before it closed. The place is amazing, with all sorts of wonderful surprises. A great balance, which is a nice change from the 'boring' galleries of Italy.

After the Louvre we decided to walk the city at night. We walked from the Louvre along the river to Place de la Concorde and then the entire length of Champs Élysées to Arc de Triomphe. Managed to finally get home after midnight exhausted.

The next day it was sunny and clear, a nice change from the low cloud which was around since we arrived. We decided to check out Tour Eiffel which we had been holding off. We got there, took some photos but decided against going up because it was too windy and the girls were cold. We instead walked down to the river and took one of the tourist cruises. After that, Jeni and I took the metro down to the very new and impressive La Défence. That night we had dinner in the Latin Quarter again.

Today was the first Sunday of February. This doesn't mean much at home, but for Europe it means that most museums have free entrance. We chose to go back to the Louvre to check out the parts we didn't see the first time.

So, to sum up our Paris experience - it was great. Beautiful by day and night. The people were fantastic, and we saw none of the snobby attitude we had heard about. Overall we really enjoyed it - especially the art and culture of the city.

Paris

We have made it to Paris, the city of love... I mean Louvre.

It took 6 hours and 4 trains to get here from Switzerland. It wasn't too bad though: a train down off the mountain, two 1 hour trains thru Switzerland and a high speed TGV all the way to Paris from the border.

The place we stayed the first night was great. It was an old mansion converted into a hostel by a youth association. The only problem was that it was expensive (almost twice our budget) and it was full of groups of school kids that did nothing except run down the hall and slam doors.

We spent the next day sight seeing: Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, Jarden du Luxembourg and Champ de Mars. We also met Simon during the day. That night we changed to Simon's hostel. Even though it is much further out of the city, it is under budget and has a kitchen. We had dinner with Tom and Jane that night and caught up on stories and experiences. It turns out they stayed in the same place in Rome as we did, the B&B with Monica.

Today was fairly quiet. We walked up the steep hill at Montmartre and saw the cathedral at the top, the view (it was hazy and cloudy) and all the portrait painters in the square. We had chocolate eclaires for lunch and wandered round the city for a bit before jumping on the internet to sort out itineraries, flights and accommodation. After finally sorting everything out we cooked steak for dinner.

What I haven't mentioned yet is the city and the people. Jeni and I had preconceived expectations that the French would be horrible, the city expensive and the place dirty (like Italy). In reality, it couldn't be further from the truth! Everyone thus far without exception has been friendly and helpful. Paris itself is extremely beautiful and there is public art everywhere. It is also pretty average prices (except accommodation in general).

Anyway, big day ahead and it is getting late.