Germany

Has started to get even colder as the days have gone by..... living in the van in wintery conditions is not as fun as it sounds. Despite this we have had a great time in Germany!

We had read in the guide book that the German police were very efficient, and no sooner had we crossed the border, a car in front of us put on an LED sign in the back window that read 'police please follow' After they had checked our passports and licence and car ownership documents we were back on the road. Looked like they were pulling over a few vans.

First stop was Munich and we looked around the city for 2 days even though it was freezing cold and raining. Lots of lovely shops and a large clock that does a little puppet show thing at noon everyday (kind of like the ones in a cuckoo clock). Lots of the fashion houses had shops here, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vitton, Micheal Kors etc. Not that I could afford to be looking in them! They all had doormen in suits and I doubt they would have even let me in in my trackies and sneakers.

We have been eating a lot of pretzel breads, they are soo soo delicious and soo soo cheap!

Tried some German sausage......Justin liked them but I wasnt a fan. Give me Campbell's butchery anyday.

Went to the HB beer hall and it was just like you see in the movies! A massive room lined with tables with bench seats and people everywhere drinking from giant steins. There was even a 6 piece folk music band all in traditional outfits. It was sooo busy that you could hardly move and there were lines of people waiting for tables. Once we managed to make our way back outside, they had stopped letting people in. I think it was so busy because of the rain and there was also a football game on so lots of fans in town.

Went to a few shops that had walls of steins and cuckoo clocks. Amazing detail.

Our next stop was an impromptu one at Freidrichshafen. There were a lot of people around so we stopped to see what was going on. They had some sort of fesitival or fete going on so we stayed for the afternoon. Saw some traditional dancing and listened to a awesome folk band.

We found out this was also the best place to view the Southern Alps of Switzerland, but because of the weather you couldn't see them! Suck!

The next day we crossed the border into Switzerland and spent the day in Zurich. It was a lovely city with cute buildings and shops. Again the weather was bad, so we didnt get to see any of the mountainous scenery.

From there it was back into Germany to Freiburg. This was the main city in the Black Forest which is where we wanted to go. We had a look around (just another town) and bought a map of the Black Forest. We decided to go to a place called Triburg which had a walk to a nice waterfall. We drove up a windy hilly road and arrived just after dark so parked up for the night. We thought it had been particularly cold during the night and found out why when we opened the door to find ourselves surrounded by snow!!!! It was still snowing so we decided to head back down the hill as we had no chains and it wasnt exactly a main road. We spent another day looking around Freiburg and then headed north. There were lots of beautiful 'typical' German houses in this area with the lovel balconies and flower boxes.

We stopped at Baden-Baden next for an afternoon. It was a lovely town with lots of lovely shops and gardens. They were also on the site of a thermal spring which meant there was a couple of fancy health spa places based on the old style Roman baths. (The Romans had had baths here back in the day) From the look of the brochures it would have been wonderful. I would love to come back and spend a week at the spa.... maybe I will have to settle for a weekend in Hanmer.

Next was Heidelburg, a lovely town with a castle ruins and a very touristy 'historic town'. We went to the castle for a look. They had the worlds largest keg, capable of holding 222,000 litres of beer! Had stairs and a platform so you could stand of the top of it!
Heidelburg also had the most amazing christmas shop I have ever seen! I want at least one of everything!

On the way out of Germany in the direction of Luxembourg we suddenly realised that there would be no more pretzel breads. We pulled off at the next motorway exit which took us to Saarlouis. The first bakery only had 2 left, the second bakery we got two more then we found a bakery with hot ones so we ate them straight away and kept the rest for later. This is also where we finally gave into the cold and bought gloves.

Austria

We had originally decided to go to Slovenia and Croatia after Italy but time was getting low so we decided to give it a miss and therefore not have to drive like maniacs for the rest of our time in Europe. That meant we were off to Austria.

We have 1 thing and 1 thing only to say about Austria - We heart you!!!!!

Right from the start it was amazingly beautiful. Mountains everywhere. Everything tree covered which im sure looked even more amazing right now as the trees had started to turn for autumn and the colours were amazing. We stopped numerous times for cups of tea and scenery viewing. This may have also been because it was super cold!

We spent some time on the side of a lovely clear and still lake, again amazing scenery and surroundings.

Our second stop was a small village called Werfen. Home to the world's largest ice caves. We decidied to splash out and go to them. First you have to drive for 20mins up the steepest hill I have ever seen which was a bit hard on Ted.... luckily we had to stop to take photos a couple of times.... From the ticket office it was a 20 min walk followed by a cable car ride that took you 500m up the mountain in 3 mins. This was then followed by another 20min walk to the cave. But it was worth it. The view was amazing. In the caves which are a constant zero degrees you are taken on a guided tour of 1km of cave full of amazing ice formations. No ohotos allowed inside the caves unfortunately. Since we and another couple needed the English version of the German presentation we got to go at the front which meant we had the best view from the guides magnesium light the whole way through which was great. We dedcided that we would stay the night on the mountain in a off the road overflow carpark. Well worth it, the view in the morning was spectacular, we were above the clouds! Crazy!

From Werfen we headed to Salzburg. We spent a couple of days looking around the Mozart mad town. They have many beautiful squares and lovely little boutique type shops. They also had a crazy cemetary and catacombs that were built into the side of a cliff. All you could see from the outside was little windows. We went in for a look inside, roughly dug tunnels and a couple of alters.... eerie but cool. We got some sourdough bread from a bakery which still uses a water driven mill and a log fired oven.

From Salzburg we moved to Germany as it was right on the border.
Even though it was only about 9C or less the whole time we were in Austria we loved it.
Beautiful beautiful country.

The rest of Italy

Verona was great fun. We did the touristy Romeo and Juliet tour. First we saw Juliet's house and the famous balcony. Next was Romeos house, not quite as touristy and just a high fence with a brick house.... not really that great, could have been anyones house. Lastly we went to Juliets tomb. We also had our first proper Itlalien pizza from a pizzaria. Delicious! Their Roman arena was also very pretty - made of pink and white marble.

Next and last on the list for Italy was Venice. A crazy place that has no traffic at all on any of the streets. You drive your car or take the bus or train across a 4km long bridge and then you can go no further unless by foot or boat. Its great as you can waltz around all the streets looking at everything and not have to worry about the thousands of cars and scooters or bikes there usually are in Europe. As to avoid paying the $60NZD parking fee we (like most people) parked our van on the other side of the bridge. Most people then got the train or bus across but we thought we would have a go at walking. On the way we meet an American family who had no idea what was going on so we explained it to them. They took us in their car to another carpark closer and then we went across to Venice with them on a 20min boat cruize that they paid $100NZD for! Crazy! They were lovely and said we could get the last boat back with them again if we wanted later on. We walked the streets which were just lined with touristy souviener shops (we dont mind that) Apparently not many people actually live there these days as it floods often. They have a beautiful main square with a large highly decorated bascilica. There are something like 180 canals and 300 bridges in Venice, it is such a beautiful and crazy place! Our favourite Italian city by far.

Italy

Our first stop over the border into Italy was Genova. This was a town where we wanted to have a look at its historic port and other things around the waterfront. Unfortunately there was a boat expo on so once we finally found a park and made it down to the waterfront we couldn't get acess to any of it without a ticket to the expo, which was going to cost us $60 NZD so we gave that a miss.

Next stop was Pisa and of course the leaning tower. As the guidebook suggested the tower is all Pisa has to offer the tourists but it was good. It is so leany! I didn't realise it had been built over a 300 year period and therefore the last two layers were built back up straight as it had already started to lean. If you follow a straight line from the bottom it is on evn more of a lean than it looks at the top! The guidebook also suggested that the square the tower is in is one of the beautiful gardens in Europe. All I can says is...LIES. Grass and chains is not beautiful. They had a lot of souvenier stalls but was good fun to look through.

Our next main stop was Rome where we decided to stop a couple of days at a camping ground. It was called Happy camping village....great. After taking public transport into town we had a look through Rome for a day, went to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Vatican and threw our pennies in the the Trevi Fountain as well as looking at some other impressive buildings on the way. It was a big day but enjoyable.

Next stop was suppose to be Florence but that turned into a bit of a nightmare. After half a day of traffic jams, non existent parking, and the sat nav having a meltdown we decided to give Florence a miss and carry on.

Next official stop was Verona where we are now. Have just arrived so you will have to wait for the low down on that till next time!

Mediterranean Coast France/Italy

Our first stop back in France was Perpignon. A very pretty city with a really cool fountain.... Also a pretty wicked palace with massive moat walls (Justin was impressed).

Next stop was Nimes. Other than an Otago rugby shop and teatowels with bulls doing the Haka there was a lot to see here that was very inpressive. They had a large Roman arena, like a mini colosseum that they still use to house bull fights. The best bit was the Roman gardens. A series of canals built off a natural spring with a lot of beautiful statues and gardens over a large area. We sat there and enjoyed the sun for a while, it really was beautiful.

From there we went to nearby Pont du Gard which is home to an aquaduct built by the Romans to carry water back to Nimes. It had a nice river where we could have a bit of a rest day and it was a nice walk to the aquaduct. A massive 3 story wall that originally ran from a water source back to the city.

Another amazing French sight (we love France) was our next stop - Fountaine du Vaucluse. A huge underground spring which comes out through a cave and gives amazingly cold and crystal clear water to the river that runs from it. The water level was quite low so we could go right down to the cave. The clearness of the water was unbelievable. We spent a day there , wish it could have been a week!

At our halfway point, day 75 we headed to Cannes, the very last of the French coast. This is where they keep all the massive super yachts. We went for a walk around the marina and were very impressed. Oh to have money! The rest of this coast all the way to Monaco was one big resort strip with all the towns joining together. A lot of big hotels and marinas full of nice boats.

The last of Spain

We slept at the top of a moutain near Cuenca which meant it was freezing..... but we did have a nice walk with brillant views in the morning. The reason we were there was to see Ciudad Encantada a lot of large rocks, many of which are in the shape of animals and other things. Back in Cuenca we went to look at the 'cliff houses' which were built in the 15th century and really do hang right off the end of the cliff. Don't think you could pay me to live there...... not sure why anyone thought it was a good idea to build a house there?!

That afternoon we drove onto Valencia. It was a beautiful city with a lovely main square, lots of large inpressive buildings. It had also had a revamp of its water front a few years ago for the Americas cup so that was lovely as well. The harbour was lined with the boat sheds of all the Americas cup teams and we found the Team NZ one.

Next stop and the last for Spain was Barcelona, got a bit lost when we somehow ended up on a road that wasn't finished being built yet, but a friendly local helped us out and we made it eventually. We got there on the last day of their biggest festival of the year, it meant there were a lot of people around but unfortuately most things were winding down. We did however get to see a perfprmance by the human tower builders. Teams of people build these really really high towers with there bodies, and the top is usually a little girl who only looks about 5! It was crazy! Just as we were leaving the square one fell, but everyone seemed ok! The main strip of Barcelona is packed with buskers of every kind and a lot of artists so that was an entertaining afternoon. While Spain had been a lovely country for the most part, it was also a very big one so we were ready to move on to the next part of our journey.