Amys European Adventure

Last Post!

2009-11-02T14:51:00.001-08:00

Day 36
We arrived in Singapore sometime in the afternoon, though it felt like morning. We had one night booked in at our hotel so we went there and made up for all the sleep we didn’t get on the plane.

Day 37
After waking up to the hot and sticky weather of Singapore we decided to have a wander around the Singapore zoo, as we had free tickets. After catching the MRT and a bus there we finally arrived and started to wander. There weren’t a lot of animals that we wanted to see, so we just wandered around and I took photographs. Before leaving the zoo we went and had a look at one particular animal, the polar bear. Mum and I were both curious as to what kind of enclosure they would have the polar bear in, as the weather in Singapore was very hot and humid, weather quite the opposite of the Arctic. The polar bear was kept in a outdoor enclosure with cold water for it to swim in, but they had a air conditioned room for it to lounge in.

After the zoo we went back to our hotel and headed to the airport. We had about 2 hours to waste before our flight left so we did some shopping, mum bought a beautiful pearl necklace, and I bought some shoes! After the shopping we boarded our flight, which unfortunately had lots of babies on it, so neither of us got any sleep.

Day 38
Back in Australia today! After arriving at Sydney airport we collected our baggage and went through customs. As we had bought some cheap saffron in Hungary we were worried if we could get that through, luckily after explaining that it was commercially packed in a glass jar, we were allowed through, and they didn’t even check through our suitcases. Mum had arranged to hire a car so that we wouldn’t have to wait around the airport for hours waiting for a flight, or bus back to Canberra. As we were both tired, though especially for mums sake, we called in at our cousins house in Sydney and had a sleep and a shower, it felt wonderful! I slept the entire way back to Canberra and when we arrived home I was excited to see my dog, Benji, who had clearly not forgotten me as he ran out and gave me his version of a hug, which nearly made me fall over.

Last few days!

2009-11-01T01:24:00.000-07:00

Day 33
Another rest day today, we went to church in the morning and then rested during the afternoon. As we’re getting towards the end of our trip, mum and I are pretty tired.

Day 34
Our last full day in Vienna, we’re all going back to reality soon. Today we just decided to do the last few things that we really needed to. We got up and took the kids to school then headed off to Metro which is a big store that sells different products to business owners or people with special permission (such as a diplomats wife). They had some brilliant stuff there, my favourite being a 5kg jar of Nutella. Next we went into the city and just looked around, before going to the Hotel Sachre for some of the famous Sachre Torte. After wandering the shops for a little while longer we went and had a traditional Austrian lunch of savoury pancakes. After we picked the kids up we headed to the Prater; a big park filled with rides and little amusement stalls. Me and Mia went on two roller coasters and then on the dodgem cars 5 times! On the way home we told Charlie that it was our last day with them, his bottom lip stuck out and started trembling and then he asked ‘Mummy, why do they have to leave?’

Day 35
A sad day today, we’re leaving to go back home, in the morning we decided to do a little more shopping and just spend time with Bindi. As per my request, we went to the Lindt shop again and we tried some Christmas chocolate. It’s chocolate, with a hazelnut filling that has a hint of cinnamon and coriander to make it taste ‘Christmassy’, it was surprisingly good! While we were looking for a bag to take all of our chocolate back in, we had a look at the backpacks, thinking that they might be cheaper, it was shocking to see that the cheap ones were around 80 euro each! We decided to have a quick look for formal shoes, not expecting to find any as most shops were just selling winter shoes, and we found a beautiful pair of lacy gold shoes that were made in Milan (apparently the ‘Shoe Capital’). After our shopping we went to the airport and flew to Frankfurt, where we would then continue on to Singapore.

Zotter Factory!

2009-10-30T20:24:00.001-07:00

Friday
Today we wandered Vienna. First we went to see the Lipizzaner horses train, it wasn’t particularly exciting, but it was worth seeing. It was just the horses walking around nicely to music, but the building they were in was beautiful, all made of marble with three big crystal chandeliers! After the horses we went to the House of Music which is the music museum. The first part was dedicated to the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra and just had some information about them and objects belonging to the conductors and famous members. The rest of the museum was about sound and music with displays explaining how sounds go from the air to your brain. The museum was very good, and finished with an interactive display where you got to ‘conduct’ the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Saturday

Today was one of the greatest days of my life! The day started out with us driving to Reigesburg, an hour’s south of Vienna, to the Zotter chocolate factory, but before that we went to a castle. The castle was situated on top of a hill, which had rocky cliff faces on its side. We took a funicular up to the castle and made our way inside. As with most medieval castles there was a moat, but this one was filled with about 40 rabbits! We were trying to convince Mia, who is 6, that these were rabbits like the one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail that could kill you, and that the rabbits were used to defend the castle! Sadly she did not believe us. The castle was very interesting, the first part had information about witches and how they punished people they believed to be witches. My favourite room in the castle was the ballroom which had a lovely marble floor, a grand staircase, high decorated white ceilings and a beautiful glass chandelier!

After the castle we headed to the Zotter chocolate factory. We were meeting people from my uncle, Simons work. My uncle is a diplomat so they were all people involved with the Australian Embassy in Vienna, and also the Ambassador himself, who didn’t really look like what you would expect an ambassador to look like. The tour was very interesting and we had Julia Zotter, the daughter of the founder of the factory, as our tour guide. Normally there aren’t tour guides there, but because we were Australian, she wanted to show us around, as Austria is often confused for as Australia. We got to sample so much chocolate during the tour and there were some interesting flavours such as cumin, Indian masala and fish! The chocolate factory was a definite success!

2009-10-29T01:18:00.000-07:00

Day 29
I was pretty tired today after just getting back from our trip so I spent the morning in bed then just had a quiet day at home.

Day 30
Another new country today! Simon took Mum and me out to Budapest in Hungary for the day. It was a two and a half hour drive, so we got up pretty early and headed out. The first thing we did was go to the market there, It was very similar to the Victoria Markets in Melbourne, but a bit bigger. The bottom floor was full of food, with stores selling fruit and veges, and others selling meat. Almost all of them were selling paprikas (chilies) of all different types, such as cherry paprika! The top floor sold less edible items like lace tablecloths, hats and your typical touristy trinkets. The hats were all beautiful, they were made of leather and had real fur trims on them!

After the markets we headed to Buda castle. Just for a little background, Budapest used to be two cities, Buda and Pest, which were separated by a river, the Danube. Buda castle was the castle on the side of the river that used to be Buda. The castle was beautiful with lots of ornate stone carvings and an amazing church. Near the church were two men with an eagle and a hawk, I got to hold the hawk which was quite heavy. After the castle we drove to a park that had lots of communist statues in it, but first we quickly called in at parliament, which was decorated with beautiful stone carvings that looked like lace. The communist park was just a small area where all the communist statues were moved to after the fall of the Soviet Union. There were some interesting statues; my two favourites were one that looked like a communist version of John Howard, and one that was of Lenin’s feet!

I'm not quite sure where the photos of Budapest are, so I will have to upload them later!

2009-10-28T02:19:00.000-07:00

Day 27
Today we spent the day in Munich, it was nice to spend the day in the one place. The first thing we did was catch the train into the city and look around, we saw the Rathaus (city hall) and walked along a few streets. Then we went to the Deutches museum and looked around. It was mainly about different modes of transport so there were ships, planes, rockets and other similar vehicles there. After spending a bit more time in the museum we had a look around the markets and wandered through a few churches. Mia and Charlie both enjoyed lighting the candles that were laid out and lit candles in three different churches.

Day 28
We’re all heading back to Vienna today to conclude our holiday within a holiday! On the way we stopped off at Herrenchiemsee castle, a beautiful castle built on an island in the middle of a large lake. The castle was similar to Neuschwanstein, as it was made by the same man, as everything was dedicated to someone. This castle was built after the style of King Louis the 14^th of France. The rooms were all dedicated to Louis or the kings following him. Then we headed towards Vienna and we were planning on calling in at a concentration camp, but the weather turned cold and started snowing heavily so we decided not to. Because we couldn’t go to the concentration camp we decided to go to Eagles Nest which was Hitler’s bunker during WWII. We walked through a small amount of the underground bunker system. Afterwards we all went outside and threw snowballs at eachother.

A statue at Herrenchiemsee castle

2009-10-27T03:10:00.000-07:00

Day 25
Our last day in Switzerland today, we are heading off to Singen in Germany for the night. Another long day of driving, but to make it a bit more interesting we decided to call in at Liechtenstein. Sadly everything was closed in Liechtenstein as it was Saturday, so we filled up our car, bought a kit kat and left. We were in Liechtenstein for all of 10 minutes. We arrived at our hotel in Singen got dinner at a Turkish place, the people there were very friendly, but hardly spoke any English, it was interesting communicating with them.

Day 26
Drove to Munchen (Munich) today, but not before making a few stops, the zeppelin museum and Neuschwanstein Castle. The zeppelin museum was interesting, but couldn’t really hold my attention for long. Next we drove to Neuschwanstein castle, it was absolutely amazing, and it looked like it was pulled right out of a fairy tale. We caught a horse and cart up to the castle itself and waited around for a few hours until our tour began. The inside of the castle was beautiful; all the rooms were incredibly ornate and shiny. All of the rooms were dedicated to operas by Richard Wagner in some way, after a while it all got a bit creepy and obsessive.

2009-10-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

Day 23
Off to the Matterhorn! We got up early this morning to leave for Zermatt, but with some very nice stops along the way. Our first stop was the Calier chocolate factory, a wonderful place where entry is free, and you get to eat all the samples you want! After the chocolate factory was the Gruyer cheese factory (I live a very tough life!) where we got to see how Gruyer cheese was made, and then sample some. A few hours later we arrived at castle Chillon by Lake Geneva. We did a tour of this amazing 12^th century castle, and I got some amazing picture. Later we arrived in Tasch and parked our cars then took the train to Zermatt, Zermatt is a car free town.

Day 24
Got up this morning very excited to go up the Matterhorn. We took a 15 minute walk to the cable car station then took 3 cable cars up to the Klein Matterhorn which is 3883m high! We went outside and threw a few snowballs around, I accidentally got my cousin Charlie in the face (whoops!) We then went into the Glacier tunnel, which was a beautiful tunnel about 3m in diameter that was drilled through solid ice! Inside it were some beautiful ice carvings. After the glacier tunnel we finally got to see the Matterhorn (4478m) from the viewing platform, of course there was a fluffy white cloud that stayed in front of the Matterhorn the entire time, so we didn’t get a good view of it. However I got some lovely photos of Breithorn (4164m) and of some groups of climbers making the difficult ascent to the top.

2009-10-26T00:07:00.000-07:00

Day 21
Left Venice for Lake Como today! The drive to Como took about 3 hours, but unlike from Vienna to Bolzano, the view was not very nice for the entire time everything was industrial. Mum and I were expecting to be staying in a small town, but for the whole time everything was residential areas. Technically we were staying in a small village, but unlike Australia where two towns might be 20km apart; these little villages were directly next to each other. Our bed & breakfast was a lovely place, although it was in a built up area as it was on a hill, when you looked around you felt like you were in the middle of the country.

Day 22
Today we left Italy to go to Interlaken in Switzerland, but not before having breakfast! Our breakfast consisted of bread, hot chocolate and homemade jams, including peach, strawberry and raspberry. The drive from Como to Interlaken was amazing, we went through a 17km tunnel, and then drove through the mountains. Just looking at the mountains you felt like you were staring at a postcard. We were just going through the foothills of the Swiss Alps, yet we were at a higher altitude than the top of Mount Kosciusko! The water in Switzerland is the most amazing colour, because the bottom of the streams and lakes is rock (unlike dirt for us Australians) the water is an icy blue colour!

2009-10-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Day 19
Woke up to the tinkling of cow bells and the ringing of church bells this morning. It was magical when I woke up; the view from the nearest window was of a castle and the dolomites. After we packed the car mum and I continued on our journey towards Venice. We successfully navigated our way through Italy (with the help of a GPS) and arrived in a parking lot in Venice. We started walking towards hotel and had been walking about 15 minutes when my mother realized she had left the headlights on. Half an hour later we arrived at our hotel at the exact time that the Alfred Deakin High School was arriving. I got to catch up with my friends on the trip, and the best reaction of them all was Clare Moore’s. I casually said hi to her, and she assumed I was someone else from the trip and greeted me casually. A second after that she realized it was me and screamed ‘Hey!’

Day 20
This morning we decided to try out the hotels breakfast, which was a mistake. They were very inefficient there; Mum and I had been sitting down for 20 minutes before they brought us some bread and hot chocolate, 5 other people who had come in later were served before us. After breakfast we headed towards the vaporreto stop that would take us to Murano. After 10 minutes of wandering through the tricky streets of Venice I looked at the map and quickly navigated us to our stop! The boat ride was about 25 minutes long and was very enjoyable. The first place we went to on Murano was the museum. The museum had fascinating glass objects in it, the most amazing being a little glass vase that was made around the 1^st century BC. It was hard to comprehend that this little glass vase was older than Australian culture. After the museum we looked around in the shops and saw some amazing little figurines. There were all types of animals, the best being some tiny glass ants that were a little bit smaller than a bull ant! When we got back from Murano we wandered around the Jewish Ghetto, which was pretty but not entirely interesting. Then we went to a little church that was full of beautiful paintings.

2009-10-25T01:27:00.000-07:00

Day 16
Today was the day we went into the city of Vienna. We caught a train in to the information centre and worked out where we were going. First we went to the Jewish Museum, which was very interesting. We were expecting it to be more of a historical museum, but it had a very modern exhibit that was about stereotypes of Jews and other races & religions. After that museum we went to a second Jewish museum that was built over the remains of an old Jewish Synagogue, which you could see the foundations of underneath. After the Jewish museums we went to the Mozart museum. It was amazing being able to walk around the place that Mozart used to live.

Day 17
Today my aunt Bindi had to go to a presentation to a charity, so me and mum looked after her kids, Mia and Charlie. We took them to the Schonbrunn Zoo, one of the oldest zoos in the world. While we were at the zoo we saw a squirrel that came right up to us. Mia who is nicknamed the squirrel princess loved it, and after we left we asked her what animal she liked the most, she said the squirrel.

Day 18
Off to Italy today! Spent most of the day driving, then arrived at the place we are staying at. It was near Bolzano in Italy and is set high up on the mountain. On the drive there we stopped off at the Swarovski Museum. We had expected it to be about how the crystals were produced, but instead it was full of lots of weird artworks, the oddest being some dancing legs, without a body.

2009-10-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Day 13
Last day in London today, we just got up, then caught the train to Luton airport, checked in, got on the plane and went to Vienna. Then we caught the airport bus to Schwedenplatz, walked to Bindi and Simons apartment then crashed for the afternoon!

Day 14
Decided to skip Monday as we didn’t do anything, we just used the day to rest! Then on Tuesday we drove out to Bratislava and did some shopping. I bought my formal dress, then we went out to the Lindtt outlet and bought some chocolate, there were some very interesting flavours; Mango & Chili, Blueberry & Lavender, Chili & Pomegranate and Strawberry & Rhubarb.

Day 15
Today we caught the train to Schonbrunn Palace. We took an audio tour around the palace and looked in all the different rooms. Everything was made out of expensive polished wood, with gilded edging. We looked around the gardens and walked up to the galleria. Afterwards we caught the train to some markets, all the stalls seemed the same; there was a clothing stall, a dried fruit store, a fresh fruit store repeated over and over again. Then amidst them all there was a gherkin stall.

2009-10-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

Day 10
This morning we were going to see the changing of the guard, but before we could see that we wandered around London for a while. We saw Big Ben (which wasn’t that big) Parliament house and Westminster Abbey, which cost 15 pounds to get into, which we found ridiculous. Next we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. It was very impressive, with a marching band playing songs like Somewhere Over the Rainbow, then they started marching and were very organized. After the changing of the guard we walked to the strand where I bought a pair of shiny, cherry red Doc Martens for 70 pounds, which is very good, seeming my silver ones were $210. After shopping we went back to our hotels and relaxed before going into town to see the Lion King. It was absolutely amazing, with wonderful music and costumes.

Day 11
We didn’t do a lot today as we were tired from our wonderful night out at the theatre. We went shopping along Oxford street then spent the rest of the night just relaxing.

Day 12
We went to the tower of London today, it was amazing. The beefeater we had as a tour guide was very funny, making jokes about the French, the funniest was when he told us that the English king at the time of the battle of Agincourt said that it was not the English that won, but God. He then explained that God hated the French. After the Tower of London we went to Kensington Gardens which had the Peter Pan Park. There was a long line to g3et in the park, but there were lots of rude people pushing in line. Next we went to the Portobello Road Markets where I bought a lovely sparkly necklace with earrings for 8 pounds. Me and mum also bought a toast rack to remind us of London. Afterwards we went to the London Westfield, very similar to the ones back home, just a lot bigger.

2009-10-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

Day 8
Today we left for London. We caught the train to Paris Nord, the big train station, and had to haul our heavy suitcases up the stairs and made it to the Eurostar lounge where we waited to board. The train was brilliant, we were traveling leisure class which meant comfortable seats and a nice meal! After we arrived in London I waited impatiently for a call from my aunt Bindi and uncle Simon to say they had arrived. As soon as they arrived we met up, which was wonderful because I got to see my little cousins Charlie & Mia. Together we went to a brilliant toy store in the centre of London called Hamleys, it had everything!

Day 9
This morning we had a lovely English breakfast served to us, it consisted of a fried egg, bacon, a sausage and some baked beans, with toast in a toast rack. We met up With Bindi and went to a science museum which had lots of interesting exhibits. We also saw a 3D movie in the IMAX theatre there about flies that went to the moon! Next we walked to Buckingham Palace and looked around for a little while. After seeing all the beautiful buildings in Paris, Buckingham Palace was quite unimpressive and small. Next we went to Harrods, a big (incredibly overpriced) department store. Then we met up with Simon and had dinner in a fancy, somewhat healthy, take-away style store.

Day 6 - 7 Paris

2009-10-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Day 6
Today we went to see the Notre Dame. As always it was surrounded by tourists, but nevertheless beautiful. The inside of it was astonishing, stained glass windows, high ceilings, beautiful statues and paintings. The worst thing about it was the tourists, there were very clear signs saying no flash photography, also with diagrams. Almost everyone completely ignored this, and to make it all worse, as it was a Sunday there was a mass going on.

After seeing the Notre Dame we walked to the Pantheon, a 2 minute walk from our street! It was absolutely beautiful in there; there were paintings and statues of the French revolution. Underneath the Pantheon there was crypt which contained the bodies of some French philosophers and writers. Next we went to the Musee de Cluny, which had some beautiful tapestries from medieval France. Once again, it was difficult to comprehend how old everything was. For our last museum of the day we went to the Musee de l’Orangerie to see Monet’s water lilies.

Day 7
Today was our last full day in Paris, so we did what every tourist does, we went to the Eiffel Tower. The queues there were very long, so we decided not to go up. Down the bottom of the tower was a gypsy with a note, we didn’t speak to her because we had read on the internet that they will try to scam money out of you. After the Eiffel Tower we caught the metro out to Sacre Coeur and walked around the church. The area that it was in, Montmartre, was very dirty and had an unsafe feeling to it. The last thing for the day was a walk down the Champs Elysee, it was full of overpriced designer shops. The highlight was some amazing statues of people that were missing a chunk of their upper bodies, and their head and shoulders looked like they were floating.