We're Going Home!

Tuesday: Got up and packed. This was not an easy task as we had both accumulated a lot of stuff despite having already sent 3 boxes of stuff home! We had each bought a small trolley case in Greenock so somehow managed to fit everything in. Got on the coach at 12:00, got to watch videos for the 2 hour trip to Birmingham where we changed coaches, boarding the Heathrow coach. Got to Heathrow about 5:30 and checked in, our flight was not till 10:15 so spent a while in the duty free shop (I got 2 bottles of Moet for 35 pounds which roughly equates to $85-90, not bad considering Dan Murphys price is just a touch under $60 a bottle) then wandered around the airport while we waited to find out our gate number. Wasn't particularly impressed with Heathrow, it was very big but for such a busy airport it didn't have much in the way of shopping etc! Eventually boarded our flight to Singapore. Singapore Airlines is great, the entertainment system means you can't possibly get bored! Started watching Wedding Crashers.

Wednesday: Landed in Singapore around 5:30 after a 12+ hour flight which went surprisingly quickly. I didn't get to see the end of my movie but thought I could finish it off on the next leg of the flight! Looked around the shops for a while and used the free internet. Didn't buy anything until we were about to board the flight and had some Singapore money to get rid of - I could have bought a 430g bag of M&Ms for $11 but thought that was a bit steep even for an airport! Ended up just getting a block of chocolate and a magazine. Boarded the plane, the entertainment was a bit lame on this particular flight, no on-demand movies or TV, very limited selection of programmes, no Wedding Crashers, and no Tetris! Can't complain about the food though, great as always! Can complain about the guy sitting on the aisle seat who slept through almost the ENTIRE flight, making it very difficult for the rest of us to get to the toilet!

Thursday: Landed in Adelaide. Quickly through Immigration and onto Baggage Retrieval where we were relieved to see all our luggage had made the journey with us! Then the fun part - Customs! It wasn't too bad, we only had a bit of food to declare and it was only confectionery, and we didn't get our bags searched! Then it was into the Arrivals hall and that was the end of our trip!

Manchester

Saturday: We arrived in Manchester a little after 5 on and were met at the bus station by Davey's cousin Sharon. We were taken to our accommodation which was actually a convent - we had separate rooms which was different! We were free to come and go as we pleased as we were given a key - there was no 10:00pm curfew or anything like that! In Manchester, in an area called Rusholme there is a strip known as the Curry Mile which is nothing but Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Iranian restaurants and takeaways! We went to an Indian place called Shahenshah Restaurant which was really nice, then we headed out to a few different pubs for a few drinks. The wine was nice (mainly Australian) but will someone please tell the English that white wine is supposed to be served cold????

Sunday: First went to Wythenshawe Community Farm which is for abandoned animals, where there were pigs, ducks and chickens, among other things. Then went to look at some gardens in the same area before going to a restaurant for lunch which overlooked a lake where people did things like windsurfing. After that went to the Trafford Centre which is a big shopping centre and bought some new clothes at FCUK. Almost tempted to buy an England shirt as they were SOOOO cheap but, well, it was England after all, just couldn't bring myself to do it! Later in the evening we went to the local pub to watch the World Cup final. After that we went to another Indian restaurant for another curry - the food was great but the service was SLOW!

Monday: Went into the city from where we caught a tram to the Lowry Outlet Mall (bought a ticket this time, unlike in Munich!). Bought a few tops then thought about going to Old Trafford (8 minutes walk away) but decided instead to go back into town. Took some photos in Albert Square which has some cool buildings and statues, then headed back to the convent. The bus terminated earlier than we expected, leaving us to walk the rest of the way which took us about an hour as we didn't really know exactly where we were so we followed the bus route which wasn't exactly direct! Went to see Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 in the evening - not bad, even considering the fact that we had to sit in the 3rd row!

Liverpool

After a couple more days hanging out in Greenock Jane and I said our goodbyes to all and jumped on a bus from Glasgow to Liverpool via Manchester. Trip took 5 hours and once again I slept through most of it. Jane must be getting really annoyed with the lack of conversation when we get on any public transport.

We stayed at the Adelphi Hotel in the middle of town which was just a short walk from Matthew St (where the Cavern Pub is) and a 5-10 minute bus ride to Anfield and the Albert Docks where the Beatles museum is. After a pretty average dinner and a couple of drinks at the bar downstairs Jane and I decided to head to bed so we could cram as much into tomorrow as we could.

Next day we caught a bus to Anfield where I had previously tried to book a tour of the ground with no success. We could get into the museum without a problem but I thought if we turned up on the day there might have been a cancellation. Unfortunately this wasn't to be so we just had a look through probably the best trophy room in all of England. Then off to the Albert Docks for lunch and a quick look around all the souvenir stores. Managed to pick up a retro Liverpool top on the cheap which was great and Jane continued her collection of post cards from everywhere she has been. After that we went back to town, and headed to Mathew Street to check out the Beatles shop and the Cavern Club (not the original one) which is very dingy, and a LONG way down!!

Later in the afternoon we got back on the bus and moved onto Manchester which we'll go into in our next entry.

On the road again

Sunday....
Well with the pubs closing at 1.00am we wasn't suffering too badly after our pub crawl however we did hang around my cousins till after 4.30 so we both were suffering from a lack of sleep. Today involved heading back over the water to Dunoon to see a few more cousins we didn't get to see the last time and from here we have decided to head up the coast to Inverness where we will stay tomorrow night.

Highlight of the day had to be my cousin Robert singing American Pie at a dodgey karaoke. Went to a couple of pubs in Dunoon but they are fairly quiet so we headed off to bed early (4 hour drive tomorrow).

Monday....
Off by 9am and again thanks to Grant and Heather for putting us up for the night. Jane and I both agreed the trip up to Inverness was probably the most scenic part of our entire holiday. We stopped off at Loch Eck, Loch Lomond, Glencoe and of course Loch Ness. No sign of Nessy but we did get a bit of a look at Urquhart Castle which was on the Loch.

Stayed just outside of the city centre and didn't really want to see too much in there. We were more interested in the drive up there.

Tuesday....
Left early in the morning so that we could get back to Greenock to pick up a few things before heading off to Edinburgh for the night. We got stuck behind a big truck on the way back (of course on the narrowest part of the road where there was no room to overtake). We reached Greenock and quickly popped into see Nikki who was heading off the next day with Frank on holiday down south. Then it was off to Edinburgh.

Only took an hour and a half.. maybe 2 hours to get there. We both thought this was a WAY better place to visit than Glasgow. A lot of touristy things to do like the castle and a heap of monuments around as well. We stayed in Princes St which was a prime location to get from one place to another.

Awesome dinner at a local bar that did slightly better than your normal pub meals. Then we watched a pretty good game of football between Germany and Italy.

Wednesday....
Headed back to Greenock to grab all our gear. We will be staying at my dad's sisters house tonight and they wont be there so gives us a good chance to chill out. Besides travel today we also visited Edinburgh castle and cruised around the place looking for souvenirs.

Took Aunt Anne and her partner Andy out for tea to a Portgugese resteraunt to thank them for putting up with our coming and going over the past week. Davey had chicken on a sword, very impressive. Early to bed again.... are we starting to get old here??

Pub Crawl

Friday....
With the pub crawl planned for today the little food poisoning thing couldn't have come at a worse time. We managed to make it out for lunch at the marina in Inverkip just out of Greenock but for the day that was it. Davey went to bed around 5pm and Jane watched tele for the rest of the night.

Saturday....
Well we woke up fully refreshed and ready to hit the town. We started the day just hanging round taking it easy. We planned for a big one today plus two big games on the tele, England v Portugual and Brazil v France. When 5.30 came we already on a high after England were kicked out of the world cup thanks to joint 2006 Scottish Players of the year Christiano Ronaldo and keeper Ricardo.

First pub was the Albert Hotel, tiny little pub in Gourock and it was mobbed with scots wearing Portugual tops and all really getting into the next game where France were doing Brazil over. I was a little disturbed when Frank (cousin Nikki's partner) ordered himself a tops, otherwise known as a shandy where I come from. Excuses like "I have to work really early in the morning" weren't going to cut it. By the time we got to the second pub he was on the hard stuff, full strength American beer.

Next up was the Wherry Inn. Once again a small pub and it was here we were told that we would have to be at the pub we wanted to end up in by 11.30pm. Seems there is a curfew in Greenock/Port Glasgow and you can't get into a pub after this time. So the Wherry and the next pub , the Vic, was a bit of a blur as we made out way finally to the Cafe Continental. Not a bad place, bigger than the rest and was playing some ok 80's music so not too bad at all.

Disgracefull effort by Jane and the girls though when the people next to us got up to leave and left 3/4 of a chocolate mudcake on the table. The girls proceeded to grab the cake and devour it not once thinking about how long that cake may have been there or what the previous owners did to it.

Greenock Morton FC

Today we set off from Dunoon back across the ferry to Greenock where I had planned to go straight to my Aunts but no one was home when we called so instead I dragged Jane down to the famous Cappielow Park to see if I could get myself a Morton strip.

The team that made hoops famous have never have my size in stock when I check on the net and suprise suprise still no joy. Better yet they are changing their strip this season to resemble the Argentinian home strip so they are doing away with the hoops altogether. (Now that everyone else is doing it it's time for something different, I've even heard of teams doing it with green and white hoops... what the??). I could get my hands on the away strip but the blue and red tartan strip was a bit much.

So we headed off for my mum's sisters house for tea and to meet all her kids (and there kids etc) when I came down with a nasty case of food poisoning. It was either the subway I had for lunch or the Chinese buffet I had for dinner. I don't know, I'll let you decide.

So that put a quick end to my night as I spent the rest of it (except 2 hours of sleep) with my head in the toilet bowl and waking Jane everytime so that she too had little or no sleep (hey, I'm a sharing, caring kinda guy).

Meant to be doing a pub crawl tomorrow.... we'll see how it goes.

Glasgow/Dunoon

Monday....
We headed to Glasgow on the train with Davey's cousin Jason to watch the Australia v Italy game on the big screen at the Walkabout hotel cos we thought there might be a few Aussies there to watch the game with us (no we had not completely had enough of Aussies by now, after all it had been 3 whole days since we'd seen any!). In the end there were several hundred so that was great! Everyone knows the result so I'd rather not go too much into that, but other than the last 15 seconds of the match it was a good day oot!!

Tuesday....
Cousin Nicola and her partner Frank have a spare car so they have lent it to us to save us having to hire one over the next 10 days. Fantastic effort guys!! Today we went to the Winnhill (I think that's right) golf course with Jason where Davey was given a golfing lesson by his younger cousin and some cows. Afterwards it was off to a pub for lunch with Donna (another cousin) and then went back into Glasgow for a wee bit of shoppin'.

Wednesday....
We were off across the water to Dunoon today to see my Uncle Sammy and Aunt Sheena. He was out in Oz last year for Susan and Sean's wedding so we had a bit of catching up to do plus meeting the rest of their family. We stayed just down the road at Heather and Grants house (more cousins) and so far (no offense to any other rellies or hotels) this is by far and away the best room we have ever stayed in!!!!

Tomorrow we'll be heading off early to go see more rellies and also pay a visit to the mighty Greenock Morton's club shop.... if it's open!

Greenock & Pt Glasgow

Well with the hussle and bussle of our German tour behind us, we flew into Prestwick Airport in Scotland to meet a lot of relatives in a short amount of time.

Firstly we were met at the airport by Aunt Betty & Aunt Sadie who took us to Port Glasgow where we would be staying for the first couple of nights. This is where I was brought up before we left for Australia way back when America still had the America's cup and Adam and the Ants were still that fresh new sound. The place hasn't changed much in 25 years so I'm glad mum and dad decided to move to Australia.

It was great to see all the rellies on my dad's side again as well as a couple of family friends who lived not too far away from my old home and school.

There was a rumour going round that a couple of the cousins my age (on my mum's side) were heading off on holiday in the couple of days so on the Sunday we headed over to Inverkip to have a barbie and drink heaps of fosters.

Apparently because everyone in Australia drinks fosters they thought it would be nice to give me a little piece of home. Little did they know that Fosters was our joke to the rest of the world.. a bit like what Canada do with Brian Adams. Will need to teach these guys how to cook a proper barbie as well. Nath, not a patch on your barbie.

Once again great seeing everyone and spending a few days with nothing planned, unlike the past 5 weeks or so!!!!

Will update again later!

Australia Vs Croatia

Well game 3 in group F was always going to be the big one. With Brazil beating all 3 teams and after our outstanding performance against the Japanese we needed just a draw to move through to the round on 16.

The game was in Stuttgart which was about a 4 hour train ride fom our location in Munich. We arrived about 1pm and finally we managed to meet up with Vias, Dwayno, Nicko and Watto. To say the Aussies were out numbered would be an understatement. According to the papers around 50,000 Croatians made the trip to Stuttgart to watch it at one of the live sites in the middle of the city.

This was the first time we have been out voiced since we got here but that didn't stop us proudly singing some barmy army songs and claiming them as our own.

The game started with one big suprise as Zelko Kalac came in for Mark Schwarzer. As we don't get anyAussie newspapers or any news programmes in English we can only assume it was a tactical change.

2 mins in and1-0 down. We hadn't even touched the ball! Flares going off on the outer side and we were stunned. The rest of the match was pretty much all the Aussies attacking. Craig Moore stepped up when it counted with the penalty, he and Lucas Neil were magnificant. Harry was given B.O.G but all played well.

Our hearts were in our mouths towards the end when Kalacs, who obviously had a bet on Croatia going through, threw the ball out to their midfielder. Thankfully Craig Moore was there to ensure his bet will not be paid. Well we all know the result and next up the Italians. Good to see the lads do the lap of honour and yet again only Timmy Cahill went to the crowd and signed autographs. He even swapped his shirt with some guy in the crowd.

The train back to Munich left at 1am and as you can see from the photo the traing was pumping all night long. For the next 20 hours Jane and I will be travelling all over Germany before we make our way to Glasgow to hang with the rellies.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Last days in Munich

Over the past few days we have only had one thing planned and that was a trip to Öhringen on Monday to see the socceroos train. No chance of getting lost unlike previous trips as we were on a train. We got to the town which is not very big at all and there would have been dozens of people at the train station ready to greet us. I felt a bit like the Beatles when they arrived in Adelaide.

Training went for about and hour and no Harry Kewell due to his appointment with FIFA for his outburst after yesterdays game.

We then went looking for food. Davey had a traditional German delicacy called a Kabab. It´s shaved bits of meat with salad and garlic sauce wrapped in pitta bread. I believe we may have these in Australia.

On the way back from Öhringen about 20 knobheads got really drunk and outta control. One kicked in a window on the train so he was kicked off about an hour out of Munich. We did manage to drink the entire train dry which was a feat in itself as not many were drinking and I counted 5 kegs being taken fron the train when we got off.

The rest of this week so far has been spent soaking up the 30 degree days and trying to get a tan. For me (Davey) this means trying to go from that pale blue colour to something that resembles white.

Off to Stuttgart tomorrow for the last game. If you hear thge Aussies booing the Croation national anthem this is because in Öhringen a few Croats got into the training camp and when Advance Australia Fair was being sung they started chanted and being really disrespectful... I can see Aust v Uruguay all over again.

From Jane: Just one last thing on the national anthem - I don´t know if you would have picked it up on TV but the crowd all sang it at both the games so far and they sang Advarnce not Advaance like they do at the cricket.

Tschüs

Aussies vs Brazil

Sunday 18 June was a day that many had been looking forward to for a long time - the big game between Australia and Brazil. As it was a 6pm game we didn't have to get up too early, and probably around 11:30ish we headed to the Englischergarten to try to find the rest of the Aussies who were meeting there. However the Englischergarten is massive and contains 4 beer gardens and we couldn't find them, so we made our way to Marienplatz which was where we had to catch the train to the stadium.

Marienplatz was buzzing, lots of Brazilians there with their drums etc creating a really cool atmosphere. We descended the steps to the subway to catch the train. Fortunately we got on the first train that arrived which just happened to be full of Aussies. It was quite warm on board and already crowded after we got on, but still more people got on at every stop! It wasn't long before the singing started, first "Waltzing Matilda" and then the even bigger Australian hit, Bon Jovi´s "Livin' On A Prayer" !?!?!

We got to the ground and we wished it had been dark because the stadium lights up in the team colours. And when I say lights up I don´t mean a couple of lights, I mean the entire stadium.

Now on to the game......

You saw it, I saw it, the rest of the world saw it. It will go down as one of the worst displays of refereeing that the World Cup has ever seen. (Sorry England, hand of god was only one bad decision). The ref took the Dukes out of the match with what can only be called `questionable´ decisions.

So the Brazillians won 2-0, not a fair scoreline if you ask me but that´s the way it will stand. That night was very quiet in town. Most Aussies headed back to the campsite and around 11.00 it started to pour down to make the evening just perfect.

Tschüs for now

PS: Mr Paparella and the ladies.

For those of you that know Steve he is a complex individual whose mild mannered nature impresses the ladies. HOWEVER, get a couple of €1,00 beers into him and he´s a different person. This includes going up to girls who are clearly chatting to someone else and when that person has gone to the loo, taking the girl and headed off into the sunset. Well done Steve, hats off to ya!!!! Good to see you found your way back to the campsie as well and as a true gentlemen not telling us anything!!

Munich

The trip from Bad Dürkheim to Munich was a long one, with us leaving at 9am and not arriving in Munich until well after 3:30. On the way our driver took out one of his side mirrors while trying to get to the petrol pump which caused further delays and summed up the day really! Eventually we reached The Tent which was to be our home for the next 9 nights. For those who are familiar with The Tent, it is a massive tent which holds about 400 people which is put up every summer in Munich until the end of the Oktoberfest. Luckily for us we were staying in the same tents as we were in Bad Dürkheim, not the big one! Putting up the tents was a shambles, eventually we got away and jumped on the tram to find a pub to watch the Germany v Poland game. When we were nearly at our stop, a ticket inspector got on and since we didn´t have tickets, we legged it. We ended up watching the game at a pub and then went to Marienplatz which is where all the Germans were celebrating their win, and we met people from various different countries.

The next day was the big Biergarten crawl, we went to Hirschgarten, Park Cafe, Augustiner. Then a bunch of us went to the Englischergarten where we met some Irish lads who are also staying at The Tent and they offered to give us accommodation if we go to Ireland!

The following day we did a day trip to Salzburg which is in Austria. Stunning scenery, nice old buildings, Mozart, and The Sound Of Music. And all the bottled water has bubbles in it (just like in Germany).

Yesterday we went to Dachau which is a concentration camp, which was quite interesting. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and preparing for the big Samba party that evening. In the end it was a bit of false advertising, there were only a handful of Brazilians there. However the Footy Show guys (Sam Newman, Garry Lyon, Matthew Johns) were there and they even got Colin Hay (Men At Work) in to sing the Aussie anthem "Down Under"!

Will update you on the big game and Steve Paparella#s performance with the ladies on the next blog.

Tschüs!

Kaiserslautern

Well 32 years in the making and finally it is here. The Aussies are back on the world stage and ready to stick it up all those who think we are only there to make up the numbers.

We all met in a square in the middle of Kaiserslautern (about 3,000 Aussies) and we took over the town.

Beer was flowing for most of the morning and hats off to the German Police who just sat back and let us do what ever we want. There was a CD with all the Aussie hits which meant the 20 Japanese supporters near us moved on as they didn't know what was going on.

Then it was off to the big game. All the Japanese supporters were sitting in the expensive seats and true to form all us Aussies and token Aussies were behild the goal. The noise was deafening and the Aussies started the game in top gear.

I won't give a running commentary on the game as I am sure you have all seen it but sufficed to say Timmy Cahill - Champion, Johnny Aloisi - Champion, Harry Kewell - Disappointing.

After the game it was back to the square where we celebrated well into the night and we're looking forward to the Brazil game.

Tschüs!

Bad Dürkheim

We managed to get onto the bus from London to Frankfurt which was sweet! There were several hundred Aussies waiting to get onto the bus so the 3:30 departure time was a bit ambitious! Eventually we left and before long we hit the White Cliffs of Dover (not literally) and jumped on the ferry to Calais. From there it was a long bus trip with a stop in Antwerp and another somewhere in Germany, before we arrived at the Frankfurt airport to collect our tickets and merchandise and were then driven to our campsite just outside the town of Bad Durkheim.

Our guide who called himself mini me (a clear foot shorter than Davey) who has been doing these tours for a while now so we were confident all would go well.... stay tuned to see if this was the case!

Campsite was nice and about 550 Aussies there pretty much rinning the campsite. Beer was cheap, food was greasy and the weather was hot. Spent the first night getting to now a lot of people of which we remember about 3 names. We'll just call everyone maaate and be done with it.

Tschüs!

London

We arrived in London yesterday around lunchtime after a pleasant 1 hour or so train journey. Our hotel was in Hyde Park, only a stone's throw from Paddington Station. We were pleased to find that it had a lift, TV, bathroom AND full English breakfast thrown in! After checking in and dumping our bags we hopped on the tube for a whirlwind sightseeing tour.

We saw the Houses of Parliament ('Big Ben' which is actually the bell inside not the tower!!), Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge (really disappointing - we thought it would be something spectacular but it's just an ordinary bridge!), Buckingham Palace and the London Eye. We stopped off at a couple of pubs along the way, at one of them we watched Germany beat Costa Rica. Then it was back to the hotel briefly before heading out to Earl's Court in the hope of finding a good meal and a pub to watch the Poland v Ecuador game. We found a pub, watched the game and then had an Italian meal.

Today we went to Lord's which was obviously a highlight for me (Jane) except for the annoying people who kept walking on the oval even after they were told not to! Right now we are waiting for the bus to Frankfurt but Davey thinks we might not be booked on it in which case we will have to find accommodation for the night and work out how we are going to get from Hahn airport (about 110km from Frankfurt) to Frankfurt airport, then into town and then to our campsite! So fingers crossed for us getting on the bus - will update you when we get to Germany!

Cheers

Portsmouth

Well after quite a few days on the go it was time to kick back and enjoy the seaside tome of Portsmouth, well Cowplain actually but no-one knows where that is.

Met up with some family here and enjoyed checking out the local pubs and the surrounding attractions.... bushes, toilet bowls etc.

We did manage to climb an attraction called the Spinnaker Tower which had a really spectacular view from the top, and on the first level there was a glass floor where you could stand and look down 100m which was really cool! Well for some. Others like Davey with his hatred of anything high (must be a short man complex thingy) wasn't as excited. That was pretty much all we did the first day except to go to another couple of pubs, meet more rellies and have a whale of a time.

Day 2 started early. We got up and decided to join one of our cousins on a trip to Salisbury (people in this country actually go out of there way to go there, unlike Adelaide), Stonehenge and Bath.

Salisbury was a quiet town which rates highly due to their cheap beers and nice bakeries. We saw the Magna Carta in the main cathedral then it was off to Stonehenge. Basically a lot of rocks in the middle of a field, how did the get there? who knows and most impotantly who cares!! Haha, no it was quite good and we got some excellent photos.

Bath was the pick for me (Davey). Really cool place with nice houses and of course the Roman Baths. Didn't get a lot of time there as it was closing (the Baths, not the city) so then it was back to sunny Portsmouth.

Everyday we have been here it has been 22-25 degrees and sunny as, great drinking weather! Rest of the time here (another 2 days) involved shopping and just relaxing with family. London next then off for Germany!!!!!!! Go the Aussies!!

C ya!

Amsterdam

Well hi again, this is a belated post for Amsterdam. We caught the Eurolines bus from Brussels to Amsterdam which was a shorter trip than the previous one. From the bus terminal we managed to find our way to the correct train, then from there we found the right bus stop to wait at and call our hostel for a pickup - it was like one of those adventure computer games, only in Dutch! The shuttle didn't take long to come and it was only a 7 minute ride to the hostel. Immediately we knew this was something different, it was really a caravan park, situated on a picturesque lake. The accommodation was cosy, with communal bathroom and a large communal tent complete with fridge, Bob Marley music and several lounges for chilling out! Due to the lateness of our arrival and the distance from town we decided to stay in for the night and dined on the best toasted cheese sandwiches you could possibly imagine! (OK maybe not the best but we were hungry and they did the trick!).

The following day we got the first shuttle to the station to make the most of our only full day in Amsterdam. Amsterdam was full of Aussies as Australia was playing Holland in Rotterdam which wasn't far from there. We had breakfast (poffertjes which are traditional Dutch pancakes - mmmmm!), did a canal tour which was nice, then hit one of the "coffeeshops" which was showing the game. We stayed there for the duration of the game, Australia drew 1-1 which was a great result (I think Aussies actually outnumbered Dutch at the bar we were at) then grabbed some snacks and headed back to the hostel. We spent a few hours in the communal tent with some Americans and even a few Aussies all comparing notes as to what kind of weed they were smoking! Pretty laid back place Amsterdam! The next day we left early for our flight to England which will be the subject of our next post!

Brussels

Well after leaving the wonders and weather of Paris behind us we took a short 4 hour bus ride to Brussels. This is more my (Davey's) kind of town. Plenty of pubs, bars and watering holes to quench your thirst.

Once again the hotel was nice (they all are soo much better than the first one) and we get breakfast with this one as well.

After a bit of souvenir shopping be went to check out the Grand Place which is a big square with old buildings... and did I mention pubs? Then after a brief nap it was off to check out the Manekin - Pis which is a little statue of a boy taking a wizz over the city. Classy! Well with this many pubs around I'm sure the sculpture had more than enough models to base this on.

Now we are off to Amsterdam (this was only a brief stop so we weren't travelling for 8 hours on a bus) and hopefully we can go to a pub and watch Australia vs Holland which is this Sunday.

Cheers for now

Paris

Well we've come to the country famous for the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and of course those Fromage eating surrender monkeys. Yes that's right we are in France.

The flight was a bit of a saga, well more the shuttle from the airport. They somehow didn't get our reservation and we were left stranded some 80kms out of Paris. We had to arrange a special shuttle for ourselves which cost us €60 (about $110..... ouch!) We got to the hotel about 12.30am so it was straight to bed.

We awoke to find that our hotel, which wasn't too bad for a 1 star hotel, was only a 5 min walk from the Louvre and our day tour started from just around the corner. So after scoffing a very large baguette each we headed out to the Louvre and jumped on the tour bus.

We took in most of the usual sights and climbed to the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. Weather was a bit poor as it rained on and off but that didn't dampen our spirits. The tour bus had 4 different routes. The main one took in all the usual attractions, another went to Bastille (which isn't there anymore so what was the point????). The third went to Montmartre where we climbed the steps of the Sacre Coeur (basically a big church with an awesome view of paris.... when it isn't raining). The last went to Montparnasse which again we did but didn't really have a lot to offer.

Over the two days we took a heap of photos and yes once again we have an internet connection with no access to put photos onto it. We promise by this time next week we will have a photo on here for each day.

While in Paris we also took in the White McDonald's arch on the Champs Elysees. Supposedly it is the only McDonalds in the world where the archs are white. Possibly the best thing I've seen so far :)

Food wise we had baguettes, crepes, creme brulees and croissants. No frog legs or snails, we weren't that game.

A Bientot

Florence

Well much has happened since we last wrote. We spent another day or so in Rome where we continued on the Hop On Hop Off bus tour, seeing the St Peters Basilica up close and personal in the Vatican, but being a Sunday we had NO chance of getting in - took some photos though which we will hopefully publish soon! We also saw the Spanish Steps which we had heard all about so we thought we'd better go and climb them!

Then it was onto the Eurostar train to Florence, it was a most pleasant journey, enjoying the delightful Tuscan countryside and before we knew it we arrived at Santa Maria Novella Station. The guesthouse (Il Ghiro, tell your friends!!) was only a 2 minute walk from the station and after we had climbed the 3 flights of stairs we were shown to our room complete with bathroom, towels and TV!

That night we enjoyed an authentic Italian meal at a place nearby as well as a drink at a not-so-authentic Irish pub!!

Yesterday we decided to visit the Duomo which is the main cathedral and is HUGE! Instead of joining the massive queue (which is becoming a recurring theme here) we decided to climb the 463 steps to the top where we got a panoramic view of Florence - photos to follow! In the afternoon it was another scenic Tuscan drive to Pisa where we saw all the sights.

Gypsies everywhere trying to flog off their crusty merchandise. Everytime you say no they keep coming back. Wouldn't mind heading back there with the lads to ruffle a few feathers.

Today we are leaving beautiful Florence and heading to Paris via Rome. Get in very late so wont have time to do anything other than check in and sleep. Hopefully the next internet cafe will have a facility to download photos so we can add them

Ciao for now!!

Rome

We arrived in Rome yesterday after a 12 hour flight from Singapore. The flight went pretty quickly again (doubt it will be like that on the way back). Got to our hotel which is a 2 star establishment... let's just say it hasn't been graded in a while and leave it at that! At least it is close to everything we need.

Went in an illuminated tour of Rome which was spectacularrrrr. Saw all the usual tourist things and saw a few good hotels in a different location for next time.

Today we started off with a visit to the Vatican. It opens at 8.45 and we got their with out tour about 8am. Line up was mamouth, almost Heaven esque (That's Heaven the original, not Heaven II Bradz).

Once again very overwhelming to see so much stuff in the one place and did I metion it was huge!! Everything is here. Even the monuments to different historical figures, seems they all tried to out do themselves when they created them.

Well enough for now, coloseum tomorrow as well as the Spanish Steps then off to Florence.

Ciao for now!
Davey & Jane

Singapore

Helloooo to all from Singapore,

We arrived at 6pm local time and our flight to Rome boards at midnight. The thought of spending 6 hours wandering around an airport didn't sound too appealing however this place is huge!! We've been here just over 4 hours and we still haven't managed to check out all the shops.

First stop off was the 'Oasis' where we enjoyed a masage and free internet. Can't believe how many Aussies are here. Couldn't really tell you were in Asia at all.

The flight here went really quickly all apart from the idiot woman in front of me moving her seat all the way back without checking to see if I was finished eating...... luckily for her I was :)

When we get to a computer with an accessible USB cable we'll add some photos.

Catch ya!

Australia Day 2006

Getting ready for a big afternoon... 7.30am