Four countries in one day

Before lunch today, we had been in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Germany. Not a bad effort.

We covered a fair few kilometres today - with stops to look at the castle which the Disneyland Castle was based on, and at Oberammergau, where the Passion Play is performed once every ten years.

Everyone on the coach (including us!) was tired today, so it was quieter than normal. We arrived at Munich late afternoon, having a quick visit to the Olympic Village, which was fairly striking, and the BMW factory, the grandeur of which made it easy to understand why BMWs are so expensive!

We were taken to a German beer hall and given a litre glass of beer, which was almost too heavy to lift. Developing the biceps! They sold us giant pretzels - a hundred times bigger than the NZ ones! The place was beautifully decorated and had a oom-pah band performing to add to the atmosphere. I am not normally a beer drinker, but It was a great laugh.

Munich is an interesting town. It was largely wiped out in WW2, but they rebuilt it exactly as it was before, including reconstructing the things that weren’t right before, which seems a little strange.

Both of us have to say that we are really impressed with the tour company. The organisation is superb and they are not taking us to junky places. We have a pre-organised wake up call at 6 am every morning (aaagh!), baggage is taken care of and everything works like clockwork. A great way

The Black Forest

Well, it wasn’t black actually, didn’t even see that many trees, but we tried Black Forest Cake - it was divine! We pulled up this little shop not far from the Swiss border. The owner plied us all with cherry liqueur (before 10.00 am) and exhorted us to spend all our money with him. He made and sold cuckoo clocks, and sold many souvenirs. It was a fun experience.

We were then driven to some more exquisite scenery - this time, the Rhine falls, where we walked close to the water and soaked up the very green and peaceful atmosphere.

Our last stop for the day was to ride a cable car up a 7000 foot mountain (Lucerne, Switzerland) and frolic in the snow. The views were stunning, and I think some of our party had not seen snow before. We were to have taken a cog-wheel train up, but it was out of action due to an avalanche.

Off to our hotel in Lucerne for a two nighter.

Into Germany

Wow, Europe is amazing! Every country is different to the others. So far, we have been into Belgium, Holland and now Germany.

Today (Thursday) we went on a cruise down the Rhine river - it was exquisite. Once again, the weather has been perfect. The river was a deep, deep green with beautiful forests rising up from both sides, and quaint houses and villages, as well as hill top castles. The boat was a floating palace, more like an elegant restaurant downstairs, with open air tables on the top deck. Along the riverside, we saw vineyards planted on steep hillsides. When there is so much flat ground around I am not sure why they do this, but it looked like it would be very hard work.



We explored Heidelberg today also, and enjoyed the contrast between that (a small town, and one of the very few in this area without extensive damage from Second World War bombing) and Cologne, which is a big town. In Cologne we looked at a cathedral of enormous proportions, that is supposedly home to the remains of the three wise men. The exterior was black with the effects of the pollution they have here, such a contrast with the very green countryside.

One thing about Europe that takes a bit of getting used to is the public toilets (or lack thereof)! Most are not the most pleasant, and many you have to pay to use. Even McDonalds in Cologne charged 1 Euro to use their toilet, we hadn’t budgeted for that! Fortunately, our tour guide knows where the best ones are, but she had some interesting stories of toilet misadventures from other tours to tell us!

The tour party is loosening up as we get to know each other better, and we are having some hilarious conversations trying to explain some of our Kiwi expressions (“drive around the roundabout”) particularly to the Americans. They’re a great bunch of people.