Europe and Beyond

We left Bled via the Lake road to get one last look, then headed into the hills and towards Italy.  The road was quite twisty and very skinny again in places but after climbing to almost 2000 metres and back down to about 100 we made it to Italy.  As usual we had the GPS set to avoid tolls and after cruising on a freeway in Italy for about 15kms, the GPS advised us to get off.  It then suffered a nervous breakdown and had absolutely no idea where we were and kept telling us to turn right every 10 metres.  We eventually worked our way back to the Toll road which at least had signs to Venice and about half an hour later the GPS started working again.  We tossed up whether to trust it and decided we would, knowing the Tollway was available nearby for backup.  It continued to function all the way to our hotel, so hopefully it just couldn't 'see' enough satellites to get a fix and will be OK for the rest of our trip. After checking in we caught a bus the 20 mi...

We woke to a wet miserable day in Hallstatt and a few decisions to make.  We could leave and have a leisurely drive to our next destination, or stay and make the most of it.  We both felt we hadn't finished with Hallstatt so decided to stay and walk around the city again.  We re-traced some of our steps from yesterday but also went higher and visited the Catholic Church.  We had seen a postcard of some strangely decorated human skulls and wanted to visit.  Many years ago Hallstatt was running out of room for their dead, similar to Paris, and decided to dig up remains that had been buried for at least 10 years and relocate the skull and arm and leg bones.  Prior to being relocated it became the fashion to bleach the skulls in the sun and label them with the persons name and year of death and decorate them with Oak Leaves (symbol of glory), Laurel (victory), Ivy (life), Roses (love) or Snakes (death as in Adam and Eve).  The most recent body was added in...

With only one night in Salzburg and a long drive ahead, with a stop, we decided to use the Tollways to get from Vienna to Salzburg.  That meant buying a Vignette for 8.50 Euros, giving us 10 days of Tollway driving - pity we only need two. The stop we made was at Mauthausen Concentration Camp, which as you can image was quite sad.  The memorial was well done with a mixture of original and restored buildings and a museum area.  We had audio guides to take us through some barracks and listen to stories from a few survivors.  We also saw the gas chambers and crematoriums along with original photos from when the camp was active and from when the American's came to free the prisoners.  All up around 93,000 prisoners were killed there. Salzburg has a quaint little village feel to it.  The 'Old Town' area is of course very old with some buildings dating back to the 7th and 8th centuries.  In the main shopping street all the shops have elaborate signs iden...

When we were on our walking tour our guide suggested two villages worth visiting, Cesky Krumlov and Telc.  Telc was only a half hour diversion, so decided to go there on our way to Austria.  It looked like a regular village until you walked into the centre.  This was surrounded by walls and lakes and dates back to the 13th century and was much larger than we expected.  Of course it had gorgeous old buildings and a really quiet atmosphere. We then headed to Vienna, Austria but didn't arrive at our hotel until 5:00pm.  As we are avoiding Toll roads we are going through some pretty countryside but finding it is taking 1 to 1 1/2 hours longer than expected. We certainly see some interesting sites though, not least of which were the 1/2 dozen prostitutes on a side road waiting for truckies to drive along. Once settled into the hotel we were back out again, hoping to make the most of our short stay here. Fortunately the sun doesn't set until around 9:30, so w...

Time to leave Germany and head to the Czech Republic.  One final blast down the Autobahn, nothing too serious, before the GPS took us off the main roads to a 'B' road.  We have told it to avoid toll roads with the hope we end up going through more villages and that was happening. (Autobahns are toll free) The architecture in the first village was quite different to Germany but beautiful just the same.  The roads though were more patchy and skinnier than similar roads in France or Belgium. Prague is a busy city with limited street parking, but our hotel has some parking available. On arrival anywhere we look on the Internet for the 'Top 10' places to visit and then decide which of those sound interesting. So after 'Czeching' this out we wandered into town with a vague plan to go past some of the top 10, but mainly just to take in this city.  We managed to see Wenceslas Square, named after 'Good' King Wenceslas, and the Powder Tower (11th century), ...

We arrived in Berlin around 3:30pm with our two personal tour guides, Laura and Chris.  Actually they didn't know Berlin all that well, but obviously can read and speak German so were a huge help.  And it was very nice to be able to spend more time with them both. First thing was to catch a train to Alexanderplatz, a vibrant shopping district.  We then began walking with no real plan other to head towards Brandenburg Gate.  There were heaps of people out and about in the main street Unter den Linden and we enjoyed the walk, passing Museum Island - with at least 6 different museums, and just people watching.  First impressions were of a pretty funky town with people on bikes everywhere.  We found the bikes amusing, some were circular, some rectangular, both with about 8 people aboard, all pedalling, and some drinking beer as they went.  We also saw a bike with a mattress out the back, so two people could lie down whilst the guide did all the pedalling...

When your host has a friend at Mercedes and he hands you the keys to a E200, points you to the autobahn, there is only one thing for it - put your foot down! meanwhile Trace and Elisabeth sat in the back drinking a Piccolo of Champagne each.  Bliss all around. I drove to a local lake created when a dam was built on the river and used to make hydro electricity.  This dam had been blown during the war, not sure if it was by the famous 'Dam Busters'.  After the dam I drove to 'Herkules' which is a statue in nearby Kassel and was built in 1696.  Below the statue of Herkules is a series of ponds, cascades and fountains that is all gravity fed and quite brilliant for it's time.  Unfortunately they only turn the water on Wednesdays and Sundays, so it was dry for us. but still looked fairly spectacular - despite the scaffolding. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch here before driving into town and unfortunately it was time to return the Mercedes. After...