London & Train Trip

Train Trip to London

Was an early morning. We needed to be at Berlin Hauptbahnhof for train leaving at 7.20am.

This train took us to Cologne where we had about 5 minutes to transfer to another platform, lugging our heavy suitcases down the stairs then back up again because there were too many people

London 1 day - (Photos of London)

The view outside our room up near St Pancras/Kings Cross Station was nice.

Weather was very ordinary drizzling, raining, overcast, cool so we decided to do the hop on hop off bus and not walk. I got absolutely saturated on the bus tour as I was determined to sit outside!! Bad move.

Summary of where we went included:

- Tower of London (watched the tower bridge open up too)

- Big Ben/House of Parliaments

- St Pauls Cathedral (and half evensong)

- Big City Tour

Dresden & Berlin

Sitting on the Thalys train from Koeln to Paris Nord on the way to London. Just enjoyed lunch with wine and the Belgium scenery is flying by at over 300klm/hr. As this is just a short trip I will post my photo links upon my return.

My week was lots of fun spending with relatives and trying to improve my German.

Over the past week we achieved:

- A stopover in Dresden

- A day trip to the Harz Mountains

- A day trip to Potsdam

- Listening to the Australian Chamber Choir sing & dinner afterwards.

- Walk up the Dome at the Reigstag for lovely views of Berlin

- Coffee and Cake up the TV Tower with spectacular views of Berlin

Its one day in London then I'm back to Australia. This trip, as all trips always has gone so quickly!

Salzburg, Vienna & Prague

Well it seems that we have been so busy that I've not posted anything about Salzburg, Vienna & Prague.

Photo links will be posted at a later stage.

Salzburg - 3 nights (2 1/2 days) - (Photos of Salzburg)

Highlights of what we did in Salzburg included:

- Untersberg Mountain Cable Car to see the Austrian Alps (1836m)

- Hohensalzburg Fortress

- Mozart's Birthplace

- Michael Haydn Museum

- Hellbrunn Castle & Trick Fountains

- Salzburg Cathedral

- Mirabell Palace & Gardens

- Klavier concert

- Good coffee and cake

The weather was so lovely here. This is my favourite town so far on the trip.

Vienna - 4 nights (3 1/2 days)

Highlights of what we did in and around Vienna included:

- Vienna University

- Cathedrals & Churches

- Staatsoper

- Hofburg Palace

- Stephansdom Cathedral (also went to quartet strings concert & Sunday morning choral mass)

- Schloss Schonbrunn & gardens

- Cruise up the Blue Danube from Spitz to Melk and explored the Benedictine Abbey.

- Good coffee and cake

Unfortunately the weather in Vienna was not too kind to us so we spent a lot of time indoors at museums or madly trying to take photos with umbrellas

Prague - 3 nights (2 days)

Highlights included:

- Old Town Square (Tower viewing and the astronomical clock). A bugler plays each hour at the top of the tower too.

- Charles Bridge

- Prague Castle (St Vitus' Cathedral, Golden Lane & Old Royal Palace)

- Czech Museum of Music (Instruments & Dvorak exhibition)

- Concert in St Nicholas' Church (Violin, Piano, Organ, Harpsicord, Oboe & English Horn)

2 days is definitely not enough time to explore this town. We had beautiful warm weather here too.

Munich

Train Trip - Marl to Munich

We got an early train from Marl to Essen, then onto Munich. We went through a couple of lovely towns including Wurzburg which had a lovely train.

Munich - (Photos of Munich)

In Munich we stayed with my Aunt's friends family in their townhouse in Munich. It was lovely to catch up with them again after a few years now. Over the time when we were there we managed to do the following

* Sightsee around the city on foot & by car. The glockenspiel (clock) show was awesome although it went a bit long with no major climax.

* Enjoyed dinner & beer (Paulsaner) in a local biergarten.

* Watched the 1st game of the Womens Rugby world cup. (We arrived in Melbourne on the first night)

Gescher

Day 5 & 6 - Gescher (Photos of Gescher)

Highlights in visit to Gescher included:

Visited the the town my father was born in

Looking at the church my Opa & Oma were married in.

Seeing the house my father grew up in Germany

Met some more cousins who live in Gescher

Visiting the bell shop to buy a bell for my mother

Europe Trip - Cologne & Marl

Day 1 (Flight)

Our first flight from Melbourne to Singapore on the A380 was delayed. On this sector I managed to stay awake. Was not particularly impressed with the range of movies but watched "No Strings Attached" and . I did like the fact that the screens were

We then got off the plane in Singapore and literally walked around the corner to the next plane. Our flight to Frankfurt on a 747-800. On this flight we had worked out that I needed to sleep a few hours as we would be arriving in the morning. I ended up with about 6 hours sleep, which was really good.

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Day 2 (Cologne) - Photos of Cologne

We walked for what seems like ages to get from the luggage hall to the train to catch the international connecting train to Cologne. The train ride of just under 1 hour, travelling up to speeds of just over 300klm/hr. After arriving in

Cologne we checked into the hotel just next to the station. View outside our room was the Cologne Cathedral.

The rest of the day included:

Cathedral Dom (End of service so heard organ played. On way out rehearsing choir)*Walk through the Old Town on way to the Schokolade Museum. Ate Bratwurst in Brotchen (Sausage in Bread) and Pommes Frites on way to 2 hour cruise down the Rhine.

Finally to end the day we then had headed to Cologne Cathedral to organ concert with organist Winfried Bonig. He played Vierne, Bach, Durufle & Liszt.

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Day 3 & 4 (Marl)

Got train to Essen then onto Marl Sinsen. We were picked up by cousin Gert (who speaks a little English). But wife speaks no English & 3 children speak very little. From my 3 years of German I learnt at school 20 years ago I really don't remember alot. On the 2nd day here it was a public holiday (Corpus Christi day). I downloaded some German notes so that I am able to learn some German. In the afternoon we went to visit a cousin for Kuchen (cake) and Kaffee (Coffee).

What a game Billie!

Now I wasn't really revved to go to the Storm tonight as I normally am, especially since Matt Duffie wasn't named in the team on Tuesday. The Canterbury Bulldogs having not lost a game so far this season & Storm loosing their only away game. Anyway after long but very productive day at work I decided to go.

I turned up and sat down & low & behold I didn't have enough time to sit on my seat before he scored a try right in front of me! Of course just had no time to pull out my camera... it was that quick like 49 seconds into the game. And then the rest of the game where Billie was on fire! He has matured so much over the past couple of years. The other good side is that the Bulldogs scored enough points so as not to knock the Broncos out of the top spot.

Yes we are in no 1 spot for now... Lets hope we can stay there for a while yet!