Days 80-82 - Paris and Rouen

DAY 80 – PARIS      08/03/2009

Our hostel, a pretty painless experience to this point, got quickly more unpleasant this morning. We had to change rooms, not normally a problem, so we headed out at 8:30 (checkout time 9am) to see what the deal was. At that point they had not yet worked out the sleeping arrangements for tonight yet, so we were told to come back in fifteen minutes. When we did, the receptionist (not the sharpest knife in the drawer) had great difficulty working out the situation, tried to book us in under the wrong name, then told us that we could move our bags at 10am after all the people in our room woke up. Apparently this is against policy and the cleaner (perhaps higher in the food chain than the receptionist) was quite unimpressed and let everyone know about it. It all worked out okay in the end, but it was frustrating.

 

We spent most of the morning (after organising our bags) walking to the catacombs in the south of the city. With some difficulty (not helped by the rain) we found them and journeyed up to 20m underground through the old quarries and mines where, in the late 19^th Century, the Parisian government exhumed and moved thousands of bodies from the overflowing city cemeteries under the cover of darkness. They didn't ask anyone's permission or anything, and everyone from the poorest peasant to some very wealthy and famous people were moved and unceremoniously dumped in the disused mines underneath the city. A clever entrepreneur turned it into a tourist attraction, and there we were today. It is mind-blowing, the sheer number of bones there – the walls are literally made of bones and they arranged the skulls into all sorts of interesting patterns in the walls. It was a little morbid, but incredibly interesting and something I can honestly say I've never seen anything like in my life. The tunnels go for about 1.7km, not all with bones but there was a good twenty- to twenty-five minutes where we were literally surrounded by skeletons. There were also a couple of cool areas where the roof was about to cave in and they had reinforced with concrete, so the space (up to 11m) was quite cool. In a rather humourous twist, a woman brought her small children (5-8 yrs old) into the catacombs and was explaining it to them. The girl was adamant that she didn't want to be buried in a coffin, and when asked where her ashes would be sprinkled she replied "I don't know where my favourite place is… maybe Disneyland". It had Keeley and I in tears.

 

Once we finished there, we headed back to the hostel for lunch, visited a very classy French café for some amazing chocolate milkshakes (more chocolate than milk, we thought) and internet, and then headed for the Arc de Triomphe to see the 'lighting' of the eternal flame, intrigued as to how an eternal flame could be lit. The Arc is suitably imposing, on a scale you can't imagine ever being approved for construction today (but hey, when you're Napoleon Bonaparte, anything's possible). The roundabout around it is also pretty hectic, with no road markings people drive wherever they want and it's not surprising that there's an accident on average once every thirty minutes there. The actual ceremony, held every day at 6:30pm, was disappointing, looked amateur and generally insignificant, although I'm sure the people involved were paying a great tribute to lost soldiers or something. The whole thing felt poorly done, and we left feeling disappointed. At least the Arc itself was impressive. We met a couple of nice people over dinner then settled down for bed, one more day left in the French capital.

DAY 81 – PARIS      09/03/2009

Our final full day in Paris was a pretty quiet affair – we got up late and left the hostel with a couple of objectives; we needed to find Keeley another hat (more of an everyday affair than her souvenir beret), get some cornflakes for breakfast tomorrow, get Marion a gift for letting us stay in Rouen with her for the next couple of days, and print off some photos. We managed almost all of these. Convinced that a brand-name hat would be better than a rip-off souvenir one, Keeley sent us down to the Les Halles area to find some brand name shops. We did encounter a cheap crepe stall, and lots of clothing stores, but alas no hat suitable for the purpose. The area down there is quite nice though, and has a cool pedestrian shopping strip feel to it. Walking back up to the hostel for lunch, a little dejected, we were further disheartened to find the photo place where we were planning on printing our photos was closed on Mondays. Things improved after lunch though, where we changed tack and headed to the shops near Sacre Coeur, found Keeley a hat and bought some very cheap corn flakes. With only one mission viable and left to complete, we tried our luck with a packet mix of cake, figuring that the act of making Marion a cake would win some brownie points. The mix was pre-made, instructing us to simply pour and cook. This seemed to be a dream, until we discovered that the top would burn before the middle cooked. A helpful Irishman named Paddy (seriously) suggested that we should put the mix into a bowl, then float the bowl in water on the stove (think melting chocolate). He was so adamant that this would work, Keeley ran with it. All it did was melt the mix a little, and he was the laughing stock of everyone. On the upside, when we baked this semi-melted mix the centre turned a little running like self-saucing pudding and it was very good. We eventually decided to buy a pre-made cake and write "merci" on it with white chocolate, and with a Toblerone and some Aussie regalia we figure she'll love it.

 

Other than that, we didn't do much, eating too much for dinner, walking down to the Moulin Rouge to see it by night, and generally preparing for our trip to Normandy tomorrow.

DAY 82 – ROUEN      10/03/2009

We woke to a drizzly day in Paris, checked out of our hostel and metro-ed around to our train to Rouen, where we would stay at Marion's house, one of the students we hosted at my place a few years ago. The train station didn't put up the departure platform until ten minutes before departure, which had Keeley a little on edge, but other than that the wait was pretty uneventful. We played cards in the station and on the train and before we knew it we were in Rouen. Marion's friend met us at the station and power-walked us to her house, where we dumped our bags and spent the afternoon relaxing on the couch. I listened to music and Keeley watch The O.C. on DVD. When Marion arrived home from uni, she was very excited to see us, and also because she found out today that she's going on exchange to Mexico through her business course at uni.

 

That evening was very enjoyable, with Marion's best friend Marianne (?) and her Australian boyfriend coming over for tea. It was good to have a good meal again, as our food in Paris had been below our usual standards, and share a couple of bottles of wine. We exchanged travel stories and generally just enjoyed the good company. Tomorrow we'll explore Rouen a little and then we try "traditional French food"… whatever that means.

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Days 75-79 - Barcelona, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Paris (it's not that bad, I promise)

DAY 75 – BARCELONA      03/03/2009

Our day started with a pretty painless trip to the bus station to buy tickets to tonight's bus to Bilbao. Strangely, you can't buy tickets for the other bus (San Sebastian to Paris) from here, but if San Sebastian's office is as easy as this then it shouldn't be a problem. We then proceeded to walk back to La Rambla, got distracted in the market again and bought some real, fresh juices. Keeley had a strawberry and banana concoction and I experimented with kiwifruit, coconut and mango. Both were excellent purchases. Our real aim for the morning was to walk up to the top of a hill to the west of the city centre that apparently had some pretty good views of the city. We weren't disappointed, and we did get a really good appreciation for the size of the city from there. It was pretty good, with the only downside being the buildings immediately adjacent to the hill being probably one storey too tall to see the waterfront properly. There are also a number of stadia from Barcelona's Olympics still standing on the hill, so it was interesting to see them as well. The Olympics were important for the city as it was the reason it is so nice now – sand was shipped in from Egypt to make the beaches, palms were hired from Hawaii, paving was done throughout the city and it was generally smartened up to the pretty cool place it is today.

 

Following our walk, we dropped once more into the market to buy food for tea, picking up a lot of steak for only €3, and some vegetables. The staff at our hostel were good enough to let us use the kitchen and everything even after we'd checked out, so that was good. Our final excursion in Barcelona was to the Sagrada Familia church, Casa Mila and Casa Battlo, all by the famous architect, Antonio Gaudi. The man's style is unrivalled, and more than anything you are just amazed at what he had the tenacity to do with stone. Undulating, almost biological facades are somehow even more impressive when you think that no stone in them would be the same and they stand out against the rest of Barcelona's otherwise relatively unimpressive architecture. It was great to see them 'in the flesh', and Sagrada Familia particularly will be absolutely amazing when it is finally finished in around 30 years (it was started in the late 19^th Century).

 

The night ended relatively quietly, watching a movie and relaxing in our hostel before another couple of no doubt uncomfortable bus rides.

DAY 76 – BILBAO/SAN SEBASTIAN      04/03/2009

Our overnight bus was another saga, and another late service from our friends at Alsa; only twenty-five minutes this time though. The thing that annoyed us both was the lack of information available on the boards. The bus was at least comfortable – we stole the back seat and spread out, so that helped. We arrived in Bilbao, a little disorientated (the bus driver's heavy accent meant we were caught off guard and didn't realise where we were until we stopped. In the confusion Keeley lost her prize Italian scarf, this loss being the more painful for the loss of her Scottish hat only a couple of days ago. The weather did little to brighten her spirits – it was raining. We decided the rain wasn't heavy enough to be uncomfortable so we walked through it. This turned out to be a bad idea, as we were so early that finding a supermarket that was open (to buy milk for breakfast) turned out to be a long, arduous walk. On the upside, we did get to explore Bilbao pretty thoroughly and see some of the amazing, modern buildings in the city. The Guggenheim museum, as impressive as it is, is only the start of this city. It's really turning around its industrial heritage with some pretty edgy modern architecture, sculpture and urban space. It's a pity the weather was so miserable, because it would have been good to explore it more. In comparison to Barcelona, where I feel comfortable that I explored it enough, I felt that we barely scratched the surface of Bilbao. I guess you can't control the weather though, and it was still pretty good to visit.

 

Another bus, another city as we arrived in San Sebastian to more rain. Keeley was getting pretty grumpy by this point, and I had no intention of lugging our big backpacks around all day so we dropped into the café of a swanky looking hotel just near the bus station. It was a good move in the end, as not only did we get coffee and a map, but it let Keeley dry off a bit while I walked the 20mins into the city centre to find the tourist information. Fortunately it dried up a fair bit by then, and the sun was even peeking through for fleeting moments. The walk was actually pretty pleasant, and when I gathered my info and found Keeley again we dropped our bags at a local internet café and started exploring. The city is very pretty, even on such a gloomy day, with a lot of nice squares and boulevards. We sampled some tapas, traditional Spanish food where there are lots of small 'tasters' of things and you eat one of everything, before getting on a bus to the science museum. The view over the city is pretty good from the road as you drive up the hill, looking over a couple of big sports stadia and toward the bay. The science museum itself is very impressive, rivalling the London science museum for quality. Literally everything was interactive, covering all the regular bases of mass, electricity, light, communications and environment. It easily occupied two-and-a-half hours of our time, and by the time we left we had missed another torrential downpour. We explored the city a bit more, looking in some shops, making some pita bread and steak sandwiches for tea and generally just checking the place out before everything shut up shop. We are now in McDonald's, planning our next few days in Paris and waiting for our midnight bus. San Sebastian is another gem of Spain, and in some better weather I can imagine being able to spend a few days here.

 

Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable day apart from the rain. Both places are definite must-sees for my eventual return to Europe, that's for sure.

DAY 77 – PARIS      05/03/2009

I really don't like buses. They are uncomfortable to sleep in and you end up too close to other people. For example, on last night's bus two guys had a huge argument in different languages about one of them reclining his seat too close to the other one. Also, Keeley had to contend with a rather oversized bum taking up most of the seat next to her. We did get some sleep, fortunately, probably owing as much to tiredness as anything. When we arrived in Paris (finally, after contending with heaps of traffic at 10:30am!) we found the metro system almost as good as London's. There was a cool board, admittedly a bit of a relic of the 20^th Century, that lit up all the stations you would go through to get to anywhere in Paris from the bus station. For example, Keeley just pressed the button for our station and it showed the quickest route, including changes and everything. It was nothing a touchscreen computer couldn't have done, but it was cute.

 

Our hostel is literally across the road from the metro station. We had heard some pretty terrible stories about it, and braced ourselves for the worst, but it's not too bad. There are some odd things, like each room only has one key for everyone to share and the eating area is outside in the courtyard under a shade sail, but other than that it's actually alright. We do have to fight through a few street cigarette and jewelry salesmen to get anywhere, but they're not scary in any way, just annoying.

 

We tried to get something out of our day here, so we rushed down to the Notre Dame cathedral hoping to catch the 12pm English tour we read about in Lonely Planet. Unfortunately, the tour wasn't until 2pm and we didn't really feel like waiting around, so we checked out the cathedral and moved on, just exploring the streets. We did come across Norman Foster's Pompidou Centre, which is very cool to see in person. The idea behind it is a building being turned inside out, with all the circulation, plumbing, ductwork, etc on the outside and free, open plan space inside. It was pretty impressive. We also walked down to the Moulin Rouge, read a little about the history of it and saw the exorbitant prices – one for the next visit when we're rich we think. We did some supermarket shopping, made a mess of the meat sauce for tonight (a combination of too much chilli and frozen mince) but in the end had some good nachos and spent the night chatting to some guys from the hostel. All in all, it was a surprisingly pleasant day considering how tired we are. Early night tonight to allow us to tackle a walking tour and the Eiffel Tower tomorrow.

DAY 78 – PARIS      06/03/2009

We headed for the New Europe walking tour of Paris today. Our guide was a loud Kiwi with a speech impairment, but he was entertaining enough. From the fountain of St Michel (the leader of God's army and the angel who banished Lucifer to Hell) we heard how the original crown of thorns worn by Christ is held in Notre Dame after being bought by a French king for the equivalent of €300 million, saw the bulletholes in the police building, the only scars of WWII in the whole city, then walked along the Seine and saw the Pont Neuf, which is adorned with over three hundred sculpted heads. The legend goes that King Henri IV held a big party, got everyone drunk and had their drunken likenesses recorded so they could be used to decorate the bridge. We also saw a couple of very nice palaces, including the one and only Palais de Louvre, saw the obelisk outside it (they put a giant condom on it for World AIDS Day one year) and walked up one of the main axes of Paris towards the Arc de Triomphe to end at the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, two famous art museums. The tour was quite good, giving us a pretty good overview of the city.

 

We then went to the Eiffel Tower, climbed the 668 steps to the second floor and caught the lift all the way to the top. The view was incredible – we were lucky to get an almost perfectly clear day. It's strange to look over the city and see the centre being quite low (less than five storeys) then suddenly skyscrapers appear further out. It's almost the opposite of a 'normal' city. You also get an appreciation for the huge boulevards and axes in Paris when you see it from so high up. The park at the base of the tower, Parc du Champs de Mars, is really nice and the tower itself is simply incredible. It really does look like something from another time, with its expressed riveted steel construction and simple brown paint. We also thought it was cool that they still let people climb it, especially since it's much cheaper to climb than catch the lift all the way.

 

To round off our already big day we went to the Louvre (which is free after 6pm on Fridays) and saw a mind-boggling collection of art, sculpture and artefacts. Apparently it would take you approximately sixty-five days to see everything in the Louvre if you spent 30 seconds at each item, and that is very believable. The place is indescribably massive, and we only scratched the surface. There are apparently 100,000 pieces in its collection, with only 35,000 on display. You could even see one of the storerooms at one point, with the pieces covered by various drapes. We did see the Mona Lisa, a small painting covered by a huge glass case, and a lot of very interesting Egyptian artefacts including a real mummy and sarcophagi. By this point we were pretty tired so we headed back to our hostel, satisfied that we had spent the day very successfully.

DAY 79 – PARIS      07/03/2009

We found it pretty difficult to get up this morning, but made it in the end and after much difficulty at the train station (the automatic ticket machines were very uncooperative) we were at the Palace of Versailles. This place redefines 'big'. The palace itself has several wings, extending in all directions. It is imposing from any angle, but the best view is from behind in the gardens, where the façade stretches out and has a really nice symmetry and consistency of decoration. The gardens themselves dwarf the palace, which is obviously no mean feat, including a couple of man-made lakes where you can hire boats to row around on. One particular Asian couple struggled with the rowing concept, attempting to row backwards. It was very funny to watch. They hire out golf buggies for the elderly so they can see the whole thing. Although some of the trees were sans leaves, owing to the winter, the forms of the gardens were clearly evident. Scattered throughout were heaps of little fountains and other places of interest, like a pretty cool stone amphitheatre thing. Perhaps the most impressive thing about them was the realisation of a completely planned garden on such a big scale – you really got a feel for the huge axes running through it and they had their full effect because of the scale. It was really cool to see.

 

Tired, we headed back to Paris and stopped at the supermarket and a small fruit and veg market to get food for tea. More importantly, however, we also went down the street towards Sacre Coeur so that Keeley could find a beret to replace her missing Scottish hat. We did find one in a souvenir shop eventually, but we also diverted to the church for a look. The location is stunning; the highest piece of real estate in Paris, and you can look out over the city. There is an impressive staircase leading up to the church itself where a few groups were busking. One pair were dancing, and were pretty impressive with their athleticism. The church is a place of perpetual prayer, meaning you are supposed to be completely silent inside, a fact lost on the tourist behind us. It is not the biggest, nor the grandest church we've seen, but it is very impressive. There is a large mural of Jesus on the dome over the altar complete with gold leaf. The side alcoves are also quite nice, as are the stained glass windows. There are hundreds of little candles almost completely encircling the congregation, giving the place a cool medieval lighting.

 

I am really pleased that we've managed to see most of the 'big' tourist sites already, leaving us with a couple of days up our sleeves to revisit anything or just explore the city. This is how Berlin should have been. Tomorrow we finish off our list of must-dos with the catacombs and Arc de Triomphe.

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Days 72-74 - Bern and Barcelona

DAY 72 & 73 – BERN AND BARCELONA             28/02 - 01/03/2009

We left Interlaken for Bern, which was the easy part of a very long day. We had to meet the bus for Barcelona in a carpark to the side of the main train station in Bern. Unfortunately, the time the bus was scheduled came and went, and after an hour we were packing up to go to the station to book a ticket on a train. Luckily for us we hadn't quite left when the bus rolled in, over sixty minutes late. We had already contacted Alsa + Eggmann (the bus company) previously and attempted to buy tickets, but for some reason it was not possible on the net or over the phone so they said we could buy it from the office in Geneva. When we arrived in Geneva, a lady with a clipboard demanded over 300 Swiss francs in cash from us, which we obviously didn't have. We finally convinced her to let us use our Visa card in the office itself, and although she ripped us off a little with some 'surcharges', we finally got our tickets. The rest of the long overnight ride was pretty uncomfortable, getting patches of sleep, and after seventeen hours on the bus we finally arrived in Barcelona. One more complication to our already complicated journey – the address for the Barcelona terminus on the website was wrong and the directions we had researched where completely invalid. Our walk to our hostel was about 5km – pretty manageable after all the walking we've done in the last few months. Our hostel didn't open until 8am (it was now around 6am) so we napped on a park bench until we could get in. From there our day quickly improved.

 

We explored Barcelona a little bit during the day. There was a marathon on that apparently had 9200 participants in all shapes and sizes. It was a pretty big event snaking its way through the city. We think it was also related to the colourful parade that we saw along the waterfront – it seems that February/March is the carnival time for a lot of European cities. The parade seemed to be in benefit of some kind of children's charity with many parent-and-child groups dressed up as pirates, ancient Greeks, air hostesses, witches, Disney characters, drum groups, etc. It was pretty impressive. We also checked out the markets along a rather unimpressive La Rambla (the main avenue in Barcelona), wandered the cool waterfront, and saw a number of landmarks like the Spanish version of the Arc de Triomphe and the church of Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous uncompleted creation.

 

Tired from all our walking, we finished up early and are heading to bed, ready for another big day tomorrow.

DAY 74 – BARCELONA      02/03/2009

The main aim of today was another of our now-favourite free walking tours, this one not actually run by New Europe, but nonetheless we wanted to see some of the city and meet some new people. Initially, we cut the meeting time a little fine, but did make it (since when do the tours leave on time anyway?) and spent a couple of hours wandering the Gothic quarter of Barcelona. Although much more informal than the tours we're accustomed to, it was quite good to see a few places in the city. For example, we saw the building where Picasso learnt (his father was a teacher there and quickly realised his talent). There is another street that is dedicated to Saint Eulalia, a thirteen-year-old girl who spoke out against mistreatment of Christians in ancient Barcelona and was punished in several terrible ways, such as being rolled down a hill in a barrel full of sharp objects. She miraculously survived all these punishments until her head was finally chopped off, or so the story goes. The other major saint that seemed to appear regularly is St Jordi, or St George as we knew him. The dragon that he fought was apparently not far from Barcelona. We also saw a Placa (square) that was dedicated to George Orwell, who fought for Barcelona against King Franco and penned a book here. Unfortunately, it is now the centre of Barcelona's drug trade.

 

The main cathedral in the old quarter was also pretty interesting, and there were a few buskers playing some amazing music. We dropped into a palace (now a ministerial house or something) and saw an amazing ceiling carved from a single piece of wood brought back from Christopher Columbus' voyages. Interestingly, and unsurprisingly for anyone who has been to Melbourne Uni, the centre for architecture opposite the cathedral is perhaps the ugliest building in the city, but it does have an interesting mural by Picasso on the outside, although it is Picasso imitating the work of his friend. It was drawn in a pub when the two were criticising each other's work. We also learnt about the history of tapas and paella, two traditional Spanish dishes. Tapas was invented because the government was concerned it's citizens were drinking too much on lunch break, so created a law that said all alcohol sold must have food with it. A bar in the south of Spain created what we now know as tapas, small 'titbits' of food (pretty much anything) on plates that could double as a lid for the drinks to prevent flies getting in. Paella is a rice-based dish that is again, pretty much anything with a romantic story about a boy who invited a girl over to his house for dinner but discovered he had nothing but rice and leftovers and a little saffron herb in his cupboard. It was such a hit with the girl that word quickly spread and now we have it.

 

After the tour we went to the huge market off La Rambla, the main pedestrian street running north-south through Barcelona. The market had a mind-boggling array of meat, cheese, seafood, fruit and vegetables on offer. I bought a plate of assorted fruit, including a couple of really 'out-there' things like a weird fruit with pink skin and white flesh with tiny black seeds. It was really good to have fruit again though, as it's pretty difficult to get a good variety on a backpacker budget and then carry them around with you. We picked up some really cheap eggs and meat so we made hamburgers for tea – it was delicious; just what we needed after a rather disappointing experiment with packet mix sauce last night.

 

Tomorrow we are heading up one of the hills overlooking Barcelona, then we have two overnight buses in a row to get to Bilbao/San Sebastian and then Paris.

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Day 71 - Interlaken

We got up very early to catch a train up to Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe. The view from the train on the way up was pretty incredible, looking through valleys and up towards the frozen peaks. The train was partially pulled along by cog drive in the steep parts, and it got pretty steep! The last leg was a tunnel through the mountain, which was actually pretty disappointing because you couldn't se anything. The facility at Jungfraujoch itself is pretty well set up, but as we were on the first train it was pretty empty. We walked inside a glacier, where they had carved out some tunnels and ice sculptures. We also went out and stood on the top of said glacier, but the 40km/h wind and -11°C temperatures made it slightly less enjoyable. Visibility was only fifty metres or so at the top of the mountain, which was also pretty disappointing as we had read lots about how it is supposed to be an unmissable European experience. We left feeling a little ripped off, as the train was very expensive, but I guess there's not much anyone can do about it. The views on the way down were even better than on the way up, and because it was later in the day we saw a lot more skiers. This place challenges everything you think of when you think "ski resort". You can literally ski down the mountain the second you step off the train – there are no platforms as such. Each station has about a dozen lifts and even more runs snaking in every direction. There are people everywhere – three trains go up at a time, every half an hour to hour, and they are always packed. Some of the chairlifts look like they go for kilometres. Most of all, it seems like you can ski just about anywhere. There are runs sort of marked out, but there is just a big white blanket of snow (especially further up the mountain) where it feels like anything would be possible. There were even a few medium-sized groups of sledders, reminding us of our excellent experience last night.

 

When we got back we were tired and hungry, and still feeling quite hollow and angry at getting so little at the top of the mountain. Keeley slept most of the afternoon and I went for a walk to the lake to the west of Interlaken. The track is pretty muddy and slushy, but closer to the lake itself it's quite pretty. There were lots of birdwatchers out, and the sun was quite warm as it was a cloudless day. The view of the mountains from there was pretty special, and the water in the lake is a magnificent blue and crystal clear close up. There is a small 13^th-century castle/storehouse there that originally protected the shipping route through the Alps when it was controlled by the Germans. It is pretty cool to see, and in fairly good condition considering its age. Nearby there is a nice golf course and a lakeside town (Neuhaus) that would be very popular in summer I think.

 

Unfortunately, we also missed out on a make-and-taste session at a local Swiss chocolatier as a big group had booked it out. This was pretty sad, but we figure it is something we'll get a chance to do in Belgium so it's not too bad.

 

Tomorrow we are on an 18-hour bus ride from Bern to Barcelona. It is a long haul, but hopefully we only have this and the ride between Paris and Copenhagen that will be that long and uncomfortable.

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Day 70 - Interlaken

After one final look around Bern we got on a train to Interlaken with some American girls we had met in the hostel. The train ride was comparatively short compared to our other trips and it didn't take long to find our hostel and dump our bags. We wandered around the town for a bit but were a little disappointed. There doesn't seem to be much to do in the town itself and there isn't even much variety in the shops; it is mainly an assortment of chocolate shops, souvenir shops and restaurants. Additionally, EVERYTHING closes for lunch from 12-2pm so it was a little annoying not being able to go into some shops. On the upside, we did try some amazing Swiss chocolate praline truffles. They were brilliant, and we quickly realised that the cheap supermarket chocolate that we have been snacking on is very poor quality in comparison. The smell as you walk into the chocolate shops is just brilliant, and there are some interesting combinations available. I have never seen so much Toblerone either.

 

The rest of the afternoon was relatively uneventful as we passed the time talking to the girls (Alex and Alyssa) and relaxing. It was all building up to the fantastic night sledding we did. We met at the shop, got fitted with some snowboard boots, and jumped in the bus for a twenty-minute ride up into the Alps. There was only the four of us in the bus, plus the guide, which is normally too few to run a tour but they did anyway. We jumped into a rickety old gondola-lift from 1975 up to the top of the run, then sledded down. The views are amazing, even though it was night, because the snow and stone/trees contrasted so much with each other. Also, you could see the little villages nestled amongst the Alps, which was cool. High above us, much higher than anything else, was the solitary white light of the Jungfraujoch train station, the highest train station in Europe at 3400-odd metres. We are visiting it tomorrow. The sleds are very easy to control and a lot of fun, and we got some decent speed up. The best part was that our eyes adjusted quickly to the light and it was pretty easy to navigate the slope. We stopped and saw a frozen waterfall, and the snow cover was so thick that the railing that normally prevents people from falling into the waterfall and river was buried (so at least 1m deep). At the end of the run we ate fondue and a Swiss potato cake thing and had some beer and a bit of a laugh. It was great fun and definitely something I would do again.

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Days 68 & 69 – Bad Gastein, Salzburg, Bern

The breakfast at Euro Youth Hostel in Bad Gastein was epic. There is no other word to describe it – cereal, yoghurt, fruit, cheese, meat, bread, rolls, juice, tea, coffee the works. It certainly put us in a good mood for the day. We also Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa, which I think they were pretty impressed by. Grandpa was a natural and who knows what will happen – he might subscribe to this webcam thing soon…

 

Our first stop of the day was the thermal baths. The complex is incredible. It is situated just over a natural thermal spring, and around 750,000 L of water runs through it every day. The water from the spring is so hot (around 50°C) that it has to be cooled down before they can use it in the pools. There are four large pools, a waterslide, a sauna, but best of all, one of the pools is outdoors. It is absolutely incredible to be sitting in a pool while snow falls on your head and shoulders. The view over the ski slopes is amazing, and the fog generated by the interface of the cold air and hot water gives the whole thing a little bit more magic. Sitting in the bubbles and warm water seemed to release all of the tension in our muscles after lugging our packs around for the last little while, and we walked away feeling very refreshed. It was a great experience.

 

The chapter on Bad Gastein closed pretty quickly after that – we got on a train to Salzburg after lunch and arrived in the afternoon. The city was initially a little disappointing as so many people we've met had built it up to be gorgeous (a little like Prague I suppose). It was pretty, but not particularly stunning. The castle is suitably foreboding overlooking the town from its seat on the hill, and the old town is actually quite enjoyable, with markets and lots of good window-shopping lining the cobblestone streets. One especially interesting sight we saw was a couple of guys hurling big iceblocks off their six-storey roof onto the pavement below. One of those things we just would never see at home (obviously). The night passed slowly as we waited for our 11pm bus to Bern. The Austrian Eurolines (bus company) website was useless and the number they gave for their call centre wasn't connected. Additionally, the pick-up point was in a back road near the train station, there was no timetable up, and the lady at the tourist info was not exactly reassuring ("the buses almost always go from there"). We joked about having to catch the 12:44am train to Zurich, but the bus did come and we spent a long, restless night undoing all the good work the thermal baths did.

 

Bern is a fantastic town (it doesn't exactly come across as a city in the Australian understanding of the word), and it probably helped immensely that the sun was out and it was a spectacular day. Our hostel is pretty good, with a cool common room and good kitchen. Keeley struggled much more than me with the tiredness so she spent most of the afternoon on the couch relaxing. I didn't accomplish much myself, although we did see the cool cathedral with its 12m-high stained glass windows and beautiful Gothic tower and interior. It is a really pleasant place to walk around – almost every block has an undercover arcade so it would be great if it were raining. There are some really modern structures like the wavy tram stop outside the glass-box Hauptbahnhof (central train station) mixed in with the old, Renaissance and Swiss-Gothic buildings. There's a cool fountain near our hostel depicting an ogre feasting on small children, we saw the bear pits (a pretty sad affair after seeing the good pits in Prague zoo and the Alpine zoo, as these were little more than holes in the ground), I explored the parliament building complex and its gardens, and generally just soaked up the city. It's one of those places that is hard to leave, but would be boring if you spent too long here. Besides, we're going to much more exciting places tomorrow (Interlaken).

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Day 67 - Munich/Bad Gastein

Today was a bit of a disappointment, as the museum Keeley really wanted to see was inexplicably closed without any signs or anything up. This meant we spent the day just wandering around Munich, shopping and checking out the festival again. Unfortunately, the stage entertainment was no better today with the exception of six middle-aged men in fat lady suits dancing to "Girls, girls, girls". At least they were intentionally terrible – the local dance group composed of about a dozen 15-16 year old girls was rubbish. There were less people dressed up today, but still enough craziness to make it interesting walking around. When we finally got sick of the city centre, we went to the hostel and played table tennis, and finally got on the train to Bad Gastein. It was delayed a bit in Salzburg, but generally the ride was typically comfortable as we now expect from Deutsch Bahn and OBB (Austria's equivalent). Once in Bad Gastein we met a couple of other residents of the hostel – a Kiwi called Alex and some rather drunk Norwegian girls. They shared their food with us, which is always a bonus. The hostel itself is a bit annoying in that it doesn't accept any form of electronic payment, so we have to go and find some money pretty quickly in the morning as we have become accustomed to not needing much cash. The other adventure tomorrow will be the thermal baths, the one reason we are in Bad Gastein in the first place.

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