Running out of superlatives!

Lucerne is so beautiful, with the lake in the foreground and the mountains soaring all around, a real contrast to the flatness of Holland and Germany.

We have had so much fun today! We’ve taken two of the optional excursions. The first to a Swiss lunch, three courses Including a fondue and bratwurst, and entertainment consisting of yodelling, the alp horn, spoon playing, and a band based around an accordion. It was fantastic - until I was one of the unlucky ones called up on stage for audience participation in the yodelling session! I had to yodel, accompanied by the accordion and the m.c. only. Horrific. After we had all done our bit, they made us come to the front again and skull a Swiss beer while they sang a song from each of our nationalities - I got Pokarekare Ana. I can hear my children laughing at me from here!!



After that, it was great to relax on a cruise around the lake. The weather is still wonderful, so we’ve been lucky.

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.

Big Day Out on Wednesday

Well, our early start was a shock to the system, after a late and not particularly restful night - the aircon didn’t work and the locals were partying, so it was a very hot and noisy night.

Today we were in Amsterdam - a very 'liberal' city. We did a canal boat trip which was lovely, especially with the glorious weather. We are told that Holland very seldom has fine weather and it got up to 25 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, so we’ve been lucky.

The buildings here are tall and thin - and crooked! They lean against each other for support, and some are ‘stapled’ together with metal rods to hold them up. We were told that they are sometimes built sloping forward to provide rain protection to the front of the house -maybe they haven’t heard of eaves! We also visited a diamond factory and saw a couple of $100,000 diamonds (stones only, the ring would’ve been extra), but we were not tempted to buy. I did manage to get a lovely ring stuck on my finger, but they got it off me in the end!

Passed briefly through the red light district - that was an eye opener!

Amsterdam has a population of 800,000 and has 600,000 bicycles, so you had to watch out for them. There were parking buildings for bikes where we saw thousands of them together - quite a sight.

After that we headed out to the countryside where we toured a working windmill, run by a very eccentric fellow, as well as a cheese factory (yummy sampling) and a clog making workshop, both with the obligatory entertaining host.



Lastly we visited a most beautiful lakeside town, which was hugely tourist focussed - t-shirts, windmills and other souvenirs. Sampled Dutch Apple cake - it was a little disappointing.

Our fellow members of the tour are a friendly bunch, with a range of ages of 40ish to 70ish, but we’re having a good laugh with them all.

Germany tomorrow, including a cruise on the Rhine!

Over the ditch...

Here we are in Brussels, Belgium, famous for it’s lace, it’s chocolate, waffles and beer. Looked at the first, and tasted the other three so that’s a good effort, eh?

It is a pretty town, and gorgeous weather today (Tuesday), but streaming with people - mainly tourists by the look of it. The driving is erratic and they are forever honking impatiently.

We arrived at 1 pm local time (an hour ahead of England) by Eurostar. The train was comfortable and quick, not much different to a commuter train really. Our tour guide is very friendly and knowledgeable and the tour party of 42 people consists mainly of Australians, with 10 Americans and around half a dozen kiwis.

We were taken to the Grand’Place, a town square with amazing old buildings and lots of shops aimed at the tourists. We had a couple of hours to wander around before reboarding the bus for a tiki tour around town. The bus is almost brand new, it is only on it’s 2nd tour, and is very big. It will be quite different for us, since we have been touring by ourselves in the UK, to get used to being in a big group - it felt a bit like being on a school trip at times! We leave at 7.30 am tomorrow, which will be a shock to the system!

There’s a welcome dinner tonight, here at our hotel, where I guess we will get to know the rest of the tour party better.

Some thoughts on B&Bs

We stayed in 13 different places over our 16 days in the UK. These included Guest Houses, an Inn, Farm Stays and B&Bs. Of the 13, I would happily go back to all but 3, who were ok, but had a negative factor about each.

Observations -
- we paid around 60 to 70 pounds a night for most of them
- most had ensuite bathrooms
- 3 had pink baths!
- in most bathrooms, the toilet paper matched the walls!
- most had Infinity hot water in the showers, but very poor water pressure
- pink and green floral was the predominant colour scheme
- in many cases, the bedding, curtains and chair upholstery were all the same fabrics
- many had squeaky floorboards, or doors that didn’t fit the door frames, which added to their charm
- one had (very) sloping floors, and sagging ceilings!
- the people were nearly all exceptionally friendly, those who weren’t were simply more reserved

All in all, a great experience!

We may be out of touch for a bit in Europe, as it appears the internet may cost heaps there - will do our best!

Farewell to the United Kingdom (for now)

We had a lovely day today ambling through the countryside, until we got in to the London traffic. Our B&B last night was in a house that was only 10 years old - from a house built in 1624 on our first night, it was quite a contrast! It was a lovely rural setting and the weather today was gorgeous so we have ended on a high note.

We had a look around Eastbourne this morning - it appealed much more than Brighton. It was very pretty and much easier to navigate.

From there, we drove through a town called Battle, which was the location of the battle when William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066. Then on to our final castle (a semi-ruin) built by another bloke who wanted to show the world how wealthy he was. It was set in beautiful grounds where people could picnic and many families were there enjoying the sunshine.

From what I have seen, family life in the UK is strong - we have seen many families out and about and without exception, parents have dealt wonderfully with their kids. Lots of grandparent involvement also. Lovely to see.

On our way up to London, there were huge delays for traffic going the opposite way to us, including several hundred motorbikes travelling in convoy - it was quite a sight. Had a good run until we hit the outskirts of town, which wasn’t surprising. We dropped the rental car back having driven around 2,500 miles - it was a good wee motor and the travelling was pretty smooth all in all.