Brisvegas Adventurers

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Heading out on a train between the Swiss and Italians Alps we all head towards Milan to pickup a new car in which we will be residing in for the next week.

After finding some toilets and loading up the car we are on our way right out of Milan and straight to Venice! The drive itself was fairly uneventful except for the fact that everyone but us was driving on the right side of the road.... and that there was a traffic jam going into Milan for around 300k´s!! Arriving in Venice was a bit of a mission, but with my trusty stick and camera everything went quite well.

Ahhh, Venezia (that is Italian for Venice!).... It was much better than I had imagined, we were lucky to go on a slightly cooler day and there was no smell of sewage at all, ( at this point I would like to point out that Erika and I have only had 2 bad days of weather and one of the mildest winters experienced in a long time while being here). We spent a good 6 hours or so walking around and managed to find our way around quite well. The shops were in their hundreds and the streets were so narrow that it took some serious shoving to get the girls moving for pretty much the whole walk - but it was fun the entire way. Avoiding the gondola´s in favour for a water taxi and for about a third of the price we saw a massive amount of the city which was terriffic. Thinking about staying another night we opted out of it and headed towards France again the following morning.

Picking a few little towns to visit along the way we came across Lucca, a walled town which had them built not to protect them from assaulting armies but the water level. It was a really nice place and had some amazing little suprises nestled away within its narrow streets and was refreshingly devoid of tourists. Jumping back into the Opel station wagon we continued onto Monaco.

Monte-Expensive-Carlo is the most famous region of Monaco and we only popped in to do a tour of the race track and have a slice of pizza before continuing onto Cannes, home of the International Film Festival and roadside roast chicken stands. From Cannes we went inland and discovered some really amazing places: Antibes, Biot, Grasse, Gourdon, Saint Paul and Nice. The photos will have to wait but I will let them do all the explaining once they are posted.

Leaving Cannes and my parents in Marseilles was quite sobering and made us feel like abandoning the backpackers life style after having a life of comfort for the past 3 weeks while being in their company. But despite the feelings we pressed on to Spain and more specifically Barcelona!

The 9 hour bus ride was quite pleasant actually with background noise being minimal until some children became friends, but that was half interesting too. Once we arrived in Barcelona we were really taken back by the beauty of the city and the really nice hostel! With our spirits restored and our appetite for sights once again whetted we walked. The most amazing sight we saw was the Sagrada Familia Info Here but the most amazing experience was the Magic Fountain, unfortunatley I cannot really describe it well enough to do it justice without some pictures. Google will display some for you in the mean time though. We also met two other Aussie couples just starting their world trip and the excitement from them was hard to contain and spread quite quickly back onto us and the remainder of our journey.

I am being assaulted by black hovering things so I must depart, farewell and see you all in a few weeks!

Getting back to where I left off...

Leaving Budapest we all drove in a pretty straight line straight to Salzburg. Salzburg is the home of the Sound of Music movie and it is a terriffic little place filled with history and some pretty incredible sights. dominating the skyline is a massive castle that started construction in 1077! There were a few other interesting things about the city, the primary one being that it was the birth place of Mozart. We spent two nights here and then went for a drive through Germany on our way to Innsbruck.

The drive! Wow what a difference having a car makes to your opinion of a country. You get to see sights out of the main cities and really get a feel for what the country is and what used to be like.

You also stumble on things that really blow you away, for me that was the Durnback War Cemetery, it was something we flew passed and with that glimpse I knew I had to go back and check it out. So with my dad testing the suspension and tyres on the rental car we plowed back to have a proper look. It really had a dramatic effect on me and despite the below zero temperature I could not pull myself away from it without walking a majority of the cemetery. It was very well cared for and the Germans go to a lot of work with other sites like this all over the country. You can get some further information about it here.

Powering on to our next destination, Neuschwanstein Castle we were greeted with a postcard view. Fresh snow covering the trees and mountain the castle is perched on really made the castle look like it was floating in the clouds. The walk up was pretty fun and there was a compulsary guided tour that we all get herded along with, the castle was never totally finished with only 70% or so of the work being completed. The reason for that was the King died and the new ruler had no interest in seeing the castle or playing for its completion. With the tour down and the hill decent completed we drove on to Innsbruck.

Innsbruck the city of Swarovski, and that is about it... So with that being the only attraction we tackled it head first with a belly full of beer and schnitzel. HOLY SHINEY BALLS OF CRYSTAL BATMAN!! The place was amazing and was really not what I was expecting, the place was decked out in so much crystal that it almost burnt the eyes! The girls loved it and the boys were impressed but less inclined to oogle at all the shiney things. Having eaten all the Schnitzel there was to eat we decided to leave promptly to Switzerland.

Swit-z-land
Having found ourselves back in the land of watches, cheese and chocolate we were made at home in a little flat from a friend of a friend. When we were there last we left out a few of the big sights for when we returned so we tackled them with the zeal of a mountain goat! Aletsch glacier, Matterhorn and the surrounding country side was all conquered by the mighty aussie backpackers, with of course the help of my trusty trike! THE TRIKE was something of a worry for me as I dont have a motor bike license or a manual car license... But it all worked out in the end as everyone jumped on a bike and hurtled down the freeway at 160kph for the days adventure. With the beard and a growl I think I pulled the ride off quite well and with a dash of style to boot. There was plenty of other things that happened here, the revisiting of the igloo and some more bob sleding but those details will have to go untold until we return.

Time is a harsh mistress and Erika is hungry so I must go!

So we left Dublin quite a time a go and since then have visited the following places while with my parents:

Paris - France
Vienna - Austria
Prague - Czech Republic
Bratislava - Slovakia
Budapest - Hungary
Salzburg - Austria
Drove through Germany for a day
Innsbruck - Austria
Brig - Switzerland
Lucerne - Switzerland
Montreux - Switzerland
Venice - Italy
Lucca - Italy
Monte Carlo - Monaco
Cannes - France
Several towns of the Provence area in France: Antibes, Biot, Grasse, Gourdon, Tourettes and Saint Paul de Vence
Avignon - France

So lets go over that whole trip a little more!

Spending another few days in Paris was great, we got to see the Eiffel tower at night with its spectacular light show every hour and went to the top again but this time we used the lift the whole way up....

Eiffel Tower by night

The next day we powered over to Versailles and saw the palace that King Luis and Marie Antoinette used to inhabit until they were dragged out of by an angry mob and beheaded in the center of Paris for their poor leadership and whimsical manner towards the people. The size of the palace is outstanding and took us a good 2 hours to only do a small portion of the rooms and another 3 hours to get a paddle boat in the giant canal within the gardens and visit Marie's private estate and village.

All of us standing in the gardens over looking the grand canal

Versailles Villiage

4am the next morning we got up to fly to Vienna for some breakfast and a hot cup of coffee! With breakfast done we set out too see what Vienna had to offer. After brisk walk around the 8km scenic route we head back to the hotel to get changed for a classical music concert. The second day saw us finishing off some off the other sights including a street designed and built by a group of artists, known as the Kunsthaus. Leaving Vienna by car we head off to the Czech Republic and Prague.

Vienna Palace

Mum and Erika having something to eat from a small market stall.

Art house designed and built by a community of artists.

Prague for the second time was much better, the weather was more favourable and we were doing it in more style with a car and in nicer accommodation. Our first visit was very restrained as we knew we were coming back and I am glad we left things to do! We went with a guided day tour which was great, the whole idea behind doing a tour rather than taking yourself is you get a history lesson as you go and get a few glimpses of the city that you would have missed by yourself. We were staying near the Prague castle and Dad even managed to get directions from one of the guards!

City of 1000 Steeples

Astronomical clock, if you can find someone who can read it correctly it should display the time to the exact minute and has been running since the 14th century.

Charles bridge and the Castle

Dad asking for directions, the guy cracked a smile at that one!

Bratislava was very odd place and you could see that is was trying very hard to get itself up-to-date with modern infrastructure and some new building projects but it was still very much a small town, despite it being the capital of an entire country. We only stayed for a few hours and had a giant schnitzel but that was all we could really find to do there....

Budapest! Now this place was amazing, the Danube river flows through the city splitting it into two sides, Buda and Pest. I would have to say that this is one of the most beautiful places I have been to and it is a city - but only at night! The massive floodlights lighting up the cities monuments and buildings reflect off onto the river and the result is spectacular. The stay here was much too short and I did not even get to climb up any stairs!

Budapest by night

Here is some more of Budapest

And more!

Shanty village planted next to the highway just out of Budapest

Now this post is taking a real long time to put together so I am going to have break it up and finish the rest of the details once we reach Spain. To leave you here are a few more photos...

Innsbruck

Venice

Neuschwanstein Castle

Durnbach War Cemetery in Germany from WWII

The trike I rode around Switzerland

The Black Valley! This place was amazing, with a tiny winding road barely wide enough for a single car.

Ballycarberry Castle built 1594

Ross Abbey. Due to thick mud I was unable to explore any further than the bordering road, although I did try and turned my sneakers into a terrible mess by bogging myself!

Land Ahoy! ...if only these words were said a few decades earlier...

A typical corner on a class three highway in Ireland.

Leaning back on a small stone wall to capture the view below.

The Ring of Dingle scenic drive. Stopping somewhere along the route to take a photo.

Farming land in Ireland

The cliffs of Moher. One of Ireland's premier natural attractions.

Scenic photo!

Erika bravely entered the woods alone, she came out alright though after she gave the wolf a talking to about brushing correctly to keep those shiny teeth.

Dating back to 3000BC, this tomb housed the remains of 33 people.

The Twelve Ben's mountains and lakes and a sheep.

Yep, so we splashed out and got a car by ourselves. After doing some figures on how much it was going to cost to get public transport everywhere, and the time we would have spent waiting for the afore mentioned transport we hired a car from Irish Car rentals (just to support the locals - and because they were the cheapest).

Let me backtrack a few days and get St Paddy's day covered off...

There was some drinking, some singing a little bit of dancing and a whole lot more drinking filled up with some great people and a great venue. I was a little hesitant with some of the local brews so I sampled a few of them through a half pint glass - DO NOT TRY THAT IN IRELAND!!! St Patricks day in Cork was almost stopped because of that little mistake... After a few friendly words and explaining to them that I was Australian and everything thing was ok, the music was turned back on and up a little bit louder.

I also managed to get two hats for myself and Erika - with a little bit of bartering using a stain glass lampshade that was adorning a light next to me at the time, much to the Irish mans glee and the barmaids distress... We finished up in the wee hours of the morning with me feeling slightly under the weather and with Erika feeling a little bit hungry.

St Patricks day + 1

So with the car organised the first thing we did was go out and get drunk! We met a few people and ended up inviting 4 other people with us so we ditched the two who seemed like the least fun and opted for two Canadian guys. After packing the Opel (Europes Holden) Astra with all our gear we set off towards the Ring of Kerry. Now the highways in Ireland are not really highways, they are very narrow and very winding roads with a speed limit of 100kph on them! As hard as a tried I just could not get to the speed limit - after the first few wheel slides I decided to stop trying, especially considering that 90% of the corners are blind and there was often quite a steep drop or sheep running across the road! But the scenery is amazing and the changing weather is also mid blowing, it was sunny for a few hours then it was hailing for 30 minutes, then raining, then bucketing, then hailing, then sunny, then hailing, then really windy and hailing!

St Patricks day + 2

With the Ring of Kerry done and dusted (and some mighty fine seafood chowder consumed) we went on to our next destination, Kilarney. This little town was great, the hostel was also great - with a very mad and dirty Irish man behind the counter this is what I thought Ireland would be like. The hot water tank exploded and the Irish guy wanted to spit on all the girls to clean them! There was a lot more he wanted to do as well and his open hate for all things related to tourists was such a laugh (if you know my brother Ben he was like him but smaller and 10 times as angry).

St Patricks day + 4

With the sights around Kilarney conquered we drove on to Galway. Armed with our trusty map with sights cleary marked on it we drove past most of them! Seriously this map was placing things up to 15kms off target and with Irelands reputation for great signage (there is none!!) we just took any random road to see where it would take us. After seeing a waterfall for the second time we decided that it was in fact the one we were looking for and parked the car, only to find the only sign deep within the carpark itself stating that we were in fact at the waterfall. We have not yet planned our trip for tomorrow but that is something we will worry about when the time comes!

I left this for a seperate entry considering it is such an important thing!

So for a while now I have been thinking about 'popping the question' and I got around to it in Switzerland at 2000m above sea level - so if the question did not take her breath away then the altitude surely would!!

I have some friends in Switzerland from a few years ago when they boarded with my family, one of them (Bari) helped me out with buying the ring and another (Sebi) helped me out with the location. His parents have a chalet up in the Alps and I thought that would be the perfect place to do the deed.

So after arriving, lighting a wood fire and settling in we popped on our snow shoes and I popped the ring in my pocket and we set off into the snow! Reaching a small summit with no one else in sight and only the sound of crackling ice and melting snow I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the ring box.

I made some causual remark then asked Erika, if she would like to marry me. At first she did not believe me but it sank in and she said yes! So that is the news everyone, we are engaged!

Photos coming soon!

So the longest stay in any one place has so far been in Switzerland with 17 days spent here. That was a few more than was planned but my credit cards were damaged and Erika got a bit sick. This story is best told from the begining so here we go!

After a short flight from Prague to Geneva we jump on a train and head off to Brig to meet the Swiss friends I made so long ago. With an ice hockey game planned for the evening we are greeted at the train station by two grinning Swiss people!

The first ice hockey game was great, both Erika and I loved the sport and we managed to see another 4 games and our team entered the quater finals before we left. Erika picked up a team scarf on the last game and will hopefully carry the good luck winning streak with her while we continue our way around Europe.

So with the hockey done on to our next challenge! Skiing!! Sweet lordy lord that was some fun, the Swiss guys wanted to put me in the amatuer down hill race since all I could do was go straight and build up speed. After almost killing two of my instructors I began to pick up the basics with Erika already doing jumps by the time I could stop myself and turn right and left. By the third time we were comfortable with it but only on selected angles of decline.

Now having witnessed or enganging in two winter sports the next one was bob-sleding. Erika was to have no part in the fun but hurling down about a 1500m of snow is really quite fun. Now the bob-sleds I was using was not the typical metal bullet but a contraption that looks like a mini ski mobile without the engine and alot smaller! The first time wa a bit of a laugh with me almost hurling into a dog and destroying an igloo! But after that it was a lot of fun, leaning into the corners and flying off the track into 2m of snow is really fun. The best thing about it is that crashing does not hurt at all so when someone pulls at your steering ski's and sends you flying through the air it is very fun and very funny.

One of the more remarkable experiences was in a hot spring up in the mountains. After a 30 minute drive up a winding mountain pass we reach a little skiing village and the home of the Swiss hot spring. Now this place is amazing, you have something like 5 million litres of water flowing through this pool a day and it is a very refreshing 40 degrees - even when the snow is flalling right onto your face! After an impromtu attempt at a poolside snowman and doing some snow angels in a pair of shorts in -10 degree weather I jump back into the pool to warm up again. Throwing snowballs at the old people is something that is frowned apon, so dont do it! But hurling snow balls at each other is perfectly fine.

Carnival, or what the locals call 'Catch'. This is an excuse to stay intoxicated for almost 2 weeks if you follow it around to the nearby towns and villages. Imagine 15,000 people drinking and laughing in a tiny town center! Then add several large brass and drum bands roaming around belting out some really loud music, then on top of that have everyone dress up! Well I got really drunk along with the entire population of the town and caught a bus home in the early hours of the morning. It is a whole lot of fun and something we will never forget, mainly because we have photos!

One of the other great things about the Swiss people is the amount of alcohol and food they consume, it is incredible! Bottle of a wine with the entrè, two with the main, one with desert then some schnapps with the coffee! No wonder these people are neutral, they are too full and drunk to every lift a finger against anyone! Back to the food, after the ski mobile and the bob-sleding we all hop into an IGLOO!! and have some fondue (fondue is a big pot with melting cheese and wine). What an amazing place it was.

So with Switzerland wrapped up for another month when we go back there we are off to Italy!, but I will tell you about that later!

There are no photos this time but when we get to Ireland in 2 weeks I will proimise to put a lot up.

So as we have promised these are some of the photos we have taken on our journey so far, these will take you from Bath to Brussels and on to Paris!

We are going to Germany tomorrow so Erika will fill you in on what has been happening in a few days. I just added a video so make sure to go down to the bottom and have a look!

Here we have the Bath Abbey

The Manekin Pis

Bruges the plesant little town in Belgium

The Lake of Love and us

Us again, this time with the Effiel Tower above us

One of the many sculptures in the Lourve, Paris