Departure – Dean and Danielle's European Adventure

Home Sweet Home!

deandanielle — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 21:56:15 +0000

After a very long journey we finally made it home Saturday afternoon. We were pretty shattered and very glad to finally sleep in a proper bed.

We had such a fantastic trip with so many great times and no regrets. All in all a great success.

My pack is all finished now and doesn’t look to shabby. I’m glad I did it.

Thanks for putting up with us for 10 weeks.

Farewell Europe

deandanielle — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 12:55:55 +0000

Our last day today. Was a crusiy day yesterday, just shopping around town. We went to a different beer hall last night and had a great time. We ate a traditional Bavarian meal of pork knuckle, cracking, potato dumpling and sauerkraut. The lady that served us didn’t speak English but was hilarious and kept tricking … Continue reading →

Neuschwanstein Castle

deandanielle — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:20:00 +0000

A great day today at Neuschwanstein castle. Got up nice and early and jumped on the train. After a 2 hour journey we arrived in Füssen which is 5km from the castle. We then caught the bus to the entrance. The line for tickets was huge so after an hour wait we finally had our tickets and began the 40 min uphill climb to the castle…we weren’t disappointed. It is pretty stunning from the outside.

Once we reached the top we then did a tour of the inside. It was never completed inside and the tour was very average. The ‘English’ tour guide spoke zike zis zo zit zwas zery zard zo zunderstand. After the tour we walked around to a bridge over the canyon which gives the great views of the castle.

Only two nights to go! Will spend the next couple of days looking around Munich and hopefully visiting the site of the first concentration camp.

Munich

deandanielle — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 16:02:48 +0000

Had a bit of a look around Munich today. Didn’t end up going to the castle, instead we went to the train station and figured out how to actually get there. We plan to go tomorrow.

We headed the main square but as it is Sunday nothing is open so there wasn’t much to see in the way of shops. We still saw some cool churches, palaces and clock towers before retiring to the beer garden for lunch.

Only 3 days to go! Enjoying the most of the sunshine while we have it!

Stuttgart & Munich

deandanielle — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 17:35:40 +0000

A pretty laid back couple of days. We arrived in Stuttgart yesterday to a hostel that required us to give them a phone call when we arrived…only problem is we didn’t have a phone. After about 2 hours of waiting and asking around we finally got hold of the owners and got into our room.

This morning we headed into Stuttgart’s main area where we looked around until our 2pm train to Munich.

We arrived in Munich, found our hostel then headed straight to a beer garden recommended by the locals…Augustiner Keller. What an amazing experience. So many people, great food and delicious beer.

We have our last four nights in Munich, then heading home! Tomorrow we are going to try get to Neuschwanstein Castle which is about an hour away.

Frankfurt

deandanielle — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 17:54:16 +0000

After an intersecting day we are now in Frankfurt. The day started off with our first cooked breakfast on our trip. We then jumped on a train at the awesome train station in Antwerp.

That’s where the fun started. Our first train was late arriving so we had to sprint so we didn’t miss the next train. We got there in in time but the train was jam packed. We had to sit in the doorway again, this time for 2 ¹/² hours… It was a nightmare. We finally arrived in Frankfurt to see a police car crash right in front of us, then two homeless guys decided to fight in front of us kicking each other and spilling their precious beer.

However, Frankfurt is a lot better than we thought and we had a great time exploring the old part of town (the rest was destroyed in the war).

We have two nights in Frankfurt before we head to Stuttgart. Glad that we travelled when we did as everywhere is getting very busy and we are really struggling to find accommodation. Would hate to go a month later.

Antwerp

deandanielle — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 19:31:00 +0000

Another great day on our trip. We got up this morning and cooked ourselves a free breakfast then headed into town. We only had the town hall to see so spent most of the day cruising around. The town hall was great, it looked just like the one in Mini Europe. It also had an NZ flag but no Australian flag…always good to see.

Town Hall

Last night in Antwerp tonight then heading to Frankfurt tomorrow morning. On the home stretch now, just over a week to go. Really looking forward to coming home.

Bruges and Antwerp

deandanielle — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 18:46:25 +0000

Had an amazing morning in Bruges. We got up nice and early and hired some bikes from the hostel and hit the streets. Bruges is an awesome city, one of our favourites so far. We saw so much more by biking round.

Once we had biked to the main square we climbed up the Belfry of Bruges which is the bell tower. The climb was well worth it as it gave us a wicked view of the city. We even got to see the how the clock and bells work which was pretty cool but loud!

We then carried on our cycle tour.

Once we had enough we headed back to the hostel, picked up our bags and jumped on the next train to Antwerp. Antwerp is Belgium’s second largest city and has a choice town hall built in the 1500s that we will check out tomorrow.

Brussels

deandanielle — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 17:40:18 +0000

What a day! The whole of Europe in one day….exhausting. We arrived in Brussels yesterday after a quick train ride from Amsterdam where we said goodbye to Jess. We chilled out for the arvo and even managed to cook our own dinner for the first time in a while.

This morning we headed out to look round the city. It is a very nice city, and even on a Saturday morning seemed very quiet. Our first stop was the cathedral, which was huge.

The cathedral

We then made our way to the Grand Place which is a big square that is surrounded by amazing buildings.

Grand Place

Next we walked down to the Palais de Justice. It is an awesome building but was like a lot of other buildings on our trip, under construction!

Palais de Justice

We then decided to do a tour of Europe so headed to Mini Europe and the Atomium. Was a really cool place to see but made us realise that there is sooo much more that we have not seen on this trip.

Grand Place

Viking

Chilling in the clogs

Amsterdam

Big Ben

Changing of the guards

The chunnel from England to France

My archenemy: The Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Brandedeburger Tor and dismantling of the wall in Berlin

Austrian wine maker

Atomium

On our way home we checked out the Parc de Bruxelles and the Palais Royal.

Parc de Bruxelles

Palais Royal

Last night in Brussels tonight. We are going to Bruges tomorrow. Danielle is currently eating some Zespri Kiwifruit straight from NZ!

Amsterdam: Day 2

deandanielle — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 16:51:15 +0000

Another great day in Amsterdam. We got up after a great sleep in then went looking for a place to hire bikes. It proved to be too much of a hassle as they wanted every single life detail so we decided to flag it and get water bikes instead. So we cruised around the canals which was a really cool way to the city.

We then checked out one of the Iamsterdam signs on our way to the Heineken factory. The tour was great, sooo much beer!