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For a month, Mick and I are touring around Europe once again, staying at several beautiful places en route.
The trip started on June 24 with us arriving at Brisbane International Airport, cameras and luggage in hand. The first leg of our flight was to be a Singapore Airways Airbus A330-300 (yes, I was reasonably worried...).
Thankfully, the trip went off without a hitch, as well as all the usual brilliant service we have come to expect from Singapore Airlines!
After a quick stopover in Singapore, and after a quick shower, we boarded our S.A. Airbus A380 Superjumbo for the following leg to London Heathrow. After an interesting takeoff (we're pretty sure we used every inch of that 4km long runway!), our fuly laden A380 got us to London without a worry, and about half an hour early to boot! Wonderful flight though, the plane was very quiet, especially for its size! It certainly made it easy to sleep! Very comfortable aircraft, and certainly one I would enjoy riding in again.
Arrival into Heathrow saw us arriving into a rather thick fog and low cloud cover, which lasted for around half the day. After a quick exit through Customs etc. (no problems at all!), we were on the Heathrow Express to London Paddington station. Once there, we found our way to the London Underground, onto the Northern Line and off to our home for the next few days, the Camden Lock Holiday Inn. Previous thoughts about the nice location of this hotel were squashed quite quickly though, as we soon found ourselves in a rather dingy, rather dodgy area of London! But nonetheless, we found our hotel and settled in quickly.
After settling into the hotel, we headed off to see a few London sights and ended up riding the London Eye, giving us quite a good view of greater London, before a few more rides on the Tube and thence back to the hotel for some rest after our rather long (24hr) flight! Later that night we headed out with a friend for a few drinks. We realised then that this holiday would take some getting used to, as the sun did not set until around 10pm, with complete darkness not setting in until somewhere around 11pm! This has made for some very long days thus far!
The following day we went out with a couple pommie mates to the West of England to get some train shots, as well as see Stonehenge and a few other sights, such has the many canals around England and the many locks that go with them! Although it was a generally overcast day, some nice photos were to be had and some great scenery was taken in, with the sun coming out late afternoon just in time for a couple of shots of the XPTs older cousin, the HST.
The next day was mostly spent checking out some more London sights, such as the Castle of London and getting some photos of the London Underground in its overground sections, and riding on some other tube lines.
The last full day of our stay in London turned out to be a very nice, sunlit day, so we made our way out onto the National Rail services and got a few photos of them before lunch, with some rides on the driverless DLR Railway after lunch, before retiring for some rest in our hotel room in the evening. Later in the evening we headed back out for some night shots of the Tower Bridge and surrounds as well as a couple of shots at St. Pancras International station.
The next morning saw us arrive at St. Pancras International station nice and early ready to board the EuroStar to Brussels Midi, followed by the Thalys to Amsterdam Schipol International Airport where we caught up with our friend there and picked up our hire car.
I will continue the saga in the following days until I am caught up with our current position
I had to laugh in Zürich yesteday when our tram side-swipped a car whilst travelling at approximately 30km/h. What idiot attempts to start a reverse park on a narrow street when a tram is passing? The tram recieved minor damage on four of the five cars. I don't think the driver would have much left of the front left-hand section of their car.
After picking up the car, dropping our things at our mates place where we were to stay that night and having a drink, we headed out trackside to grab a couple shots before dinner in the beautiful afternoon light.
After a few partly successful shots, we headed back to Marco;s house for dinner.
Heidelberg The next morning, we departed nice and early for our trip to Heidelberg, Germany. Once into Germany, we hit the famous German speed unlimited Auto Bahns, where we had an average speed of approx. 150km/h, and a top speed of 180km/h. Even at these speeds, we were still being overtaken as if we were stopped!
After a rather fast trip, we arrived into Heidelberg and found our hotel for the next few days. We didn't get up to a whole lot today, just a bit of a look around the place to see what was there. Turned out to be a very beautiful city!
The next day was sightseeing day, where we visited a number of the tourist attractions in Heidelberg, including the Old Town, the Old Bridge and the Heidelberg Castle, all of which were very scenic. After getting some rather nice shots, we headed back for lunch and a snooze before heading back out for a few afternoon photos of the Castle and surrounds, as well as a bit of trackside photography.
That evening we had quite a nice dinner sitting outside in the evening light before getting some night shots of the trams running around the city, particularly in front of the rather odd statue of a wallaby-looking thing. After quickly getting rid of a Jahovus Witness (sp?), we took a few more night shots and then headed to bed, ready for our trip to Zurich the next morning.
Heidelberg turned out to be a very, very picturesque city, with a large amount of history throughout the enitre area, as well as some good train spotting areas and masses of trams, and it certainly comes highly recommended to anyone thinking about going!
You wouldnt get Ed out of the BeerHousen or the Knockshoppen if I went to Europe! Dont start about Amsterdam I would have to dry out for 2 months after that joint or 2!
_________________ What you say here stays here!. Don't piss me off! I'm running out of places to hide the bodies.
The beer has been quite good over here so far, tried a few different ales, haven't come a croppa yet!
Ed, you would be in wonderland over here during the summer! Beer on tap (or in bottles anywhere that isn't a pub!), hot, scantily clad women walking around everywhere, plenty of food to be washed down by abovementioned ales... It's brilliant!
Anyways, I shall continue with Zurich:
Zurich
With another fast trip along the Autobahns until Switzerland, we arrived into Zurich in quite good time. Once again, there were trams a plenty, as well as a new addition for us, Trolleybuses, in addition to the heavy rail.
Once we found a hotel for the night (only 1 night in Zurich, unfortunately!), we headed out for the afternoon to try and catch some local culture and go for a swim. After recieving a tip to go down to the lake and hire a boat, we were soon on our way with our 24hr tram pass, heading towards the lake. Upon hiring our paddle boat and being told we were allowed to jump out into the lake if we so desired, we headed out towards the large water fountain to cool off, while virtually flooding the boat at the same time! Once we got out towards the centre of the lake, we decided that the water was too inviting to resist, and dived straight in! Beautiful temperature, crystal clear water, absolutely lovely!
Once Mick had enough, he spent the next 20-odd minutes trying to climb back into the boat, while I climbed into and jumped back out of it several times, laughing every step (or swim-stroke) of the way!!!
Once back into shore, we we headed back towards our hotel so we could dry off. One thing about European cities is the vast amounts of grassed areas for recreation and sunbathing etc. We had a walk through one on our way back to the tram stop to head back to the hotel and all I can say is "I love summer in Europe!" Plenty of scantily clad, very attractive women sunbaking and swimming! After passing through the vast amounts of hot European women, we made our way back to our hotel to change and get ready for some dinner, as time was closing in rather quickly.
Back out into Zurich Old Town centre, we headed to a rather nice alfresco type Italian restaurant, where we soon found out that Switzerland isn't exactly the cheapest place to go to! 1 500mL Coke and 1 Large Pizza (which was very large, mind you!) cost approx. AU$ ???. however, it was a brilliant meal, and we found out the next morning that it was very well worth the money as it cost us around AU$15 for a regular meal at MacDonalds! So we were quite happy afterwards about the price of our pizza
After dinner we headed off to get some night shots of the old town and a few other features around Zurich, which paid off quite well, although the constant wind and the trams running across the bridges caused many deleated photos due to camera shake! But all in all, it worked out quite well, with some tram shots being taken just before heading back to the hotel for the night, the time being after midnight already!
The next morning saw us up nice and early for some daylight shots of Zurich town centre and trams before heading off to Salzburg later in the day. We once again took the tram in (gotta love 24hr all zones/modes tickets!) as the trams stopped pretty close to the hotel entrance, and parking isn't exactly great in European cities.On our way in, we were travelling well when we passed very close to a stopped car who was waiting behind another car who wanted to park. Next thing we know there is a loud *crunch!* that goes all the way to the end of the tram! Once past the obstruction, the tram driver stopped to see what was going on. Turns out fucktard in the car waiting to reverse park couldn't wait anymore, and decided to start his reverse park as we were going past. End result being he now has some major panel damage to the front left hand side of his car! Once stopped (in the middle of the intersection), the tram driver (who was talking on the two-way radio) finished talking, jumped out of the tram and checked the damage to the tram. Once he saw it was only minor damage (just a scrape along around 3/4 length ofthe tram), he jumped back in, talked on the two-way for a short time, did something in the locked boxes behind the cab, jumped back into his cab, closed the door and off we trotted into the next station as per normal! A rather non-event to the driver it seemed!
After continuing our journey without further delays, we jumped off to grab some breakfast before getting some photos of the town and heading up one of the many hills to try get some city overview shots, which we generally succeeded in doing, before heading back to the hotel to check out and begin our journey to Salzburg, Austria.
Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:50 pm Posts: 1944 Location: Looking for the last traces of a line somewhere
Ah, bringing back many memories for me there. Who'd a thunk it was 20 years ago I was doing just the same. Cruising around Yurrup, drinking beer, perving, trying not to go broke...
Keep up the good work. Go visit a park in Germany on a hot day... rudie-nudies everywhere.
_________________ Light me crud and throttle me dongler!
Unfortunately we didn't get to see any rudie-nudies while we were there, but we were quite happy with the vast amounts of scantily clad ladies walking around everywhere! Although it certainly is still a case of trying not to go broke...
Anyways, its now off to Salzburg:
The trip to Salzburg was simply breathtaking, with the journey taking us through the Swiss Alps. Although we took the highway which took us through the tunnels under the Alps (as the GPS failed on departing Zurich, so we were going by road signs and very limited Zurich City/Salzburg City maps), the times we weren't in the tunnels (probably around 60% of the time), we were simply speechless with the natural beauty and size of the Alps, it was simply stunning! Certainly well worth a visit, we just wish we could have taken the pass road which takes one through the heart of the alps instead of many, many kilometres of tunnels.
On arrival in Salzburg, we found our hotel with surprising ease without the GPS. We had heard a couple complaints about this hotel, so we weren't sure what to expect, especially for 50 euro per night. Our fears were very soon replaced with disbelief when we entered the room! It was the biggest hotel room I have personally ever stayed in, with plenty of old style charm in the furniture and the entire room. Plenty of room to stretch out, relax, take advantage of the free high speed wireless internet and, simply, enjoy our stay! As we had arrived in the evening, we soon set out to find some dinner, however after a 20-30minute search, we had to be satisfied with McDonalds again, as it was getting rather late by this time. We realised at this stage that this was the first European city we had come across that does not have trams! Instead, Salzburg has a rather extensive network of articulated trolley buses, in addition to the normal buses for outer routes.
The next day saw us trying desperately to fix our godforsaken GPS unit so we didn't have to attempt to navigate the ridiculous European streets. Upon finding a (large) download that would hopefully fix our problem, we headed off for a hop on-hop off tour of Salzburg, where we were also convinced to buy a ticket on their tour boat to travel on at some point thoughout our stay. For today, however, we were only interested in the bus tour, as the rain was helping to keep us indoors. As we had hoped, the tour gave us plenty of ideas for the next day or two of our stay, and gave us many ideas for places to eat.
With the tour taking us around an hour, we were back in the hotel with the tireless struggle against the GPS, which took up the rest of the afternoon and evening to get working, much to our disappointment, as this was a wasted day on our limited and rather fast paced schedual. With dinner time fast approaching, we headed off the the old part of town to russle up some grub. We were pleasantly surprised to find another nice Italian alfresco restaurant where we enjoyed another fantastic meal before watching a random street actor for a few minutes and heading back to our hotel.
The following morning, we decided head out to get some train photos as it was reasonable weather and we had finally got the gps working again. We decided to head out towards the Alps to grab a photo of the RailJet, a new high speed service for Austria/Germany. On the way we stopped at a station that looked partly promising. Once arriving on the station, we were soon disappointed, as the sunlight was in a fairly bad position. Nonetheless, we stayed for a few minutes to see a few trains head through, as they were pretty close by. After watching a couple passengher trains head through, we headed off again, bound for a possibly better spot to catch the RailJet. After a short drive, we arrived at a nice country level crossing, just as another train was coming through. About 20 minutes pass before we finally got our shot of the RailJet, thankfully in nice sunlight and everything! So with at least this photo under our belt, we headed off again for another station along the line a bit further. On arrival at the station, there was some little heritage railmotor sitting on the station, waiting for departure time. We were able to find a pamphlet about the railmotor and found it was heading out into the countryside on a little tourist branchline. So off we trot again, as departure time was about 10 minutes away. We got to a nice spot just outside a small town right beside the line and waited for our train to come along, all the while a storm was building in the distance. Thankfully though, we were lucky enough to get a sunlit shot with storm clouds in the background, with the sun disappearing seconds later! With the storm closing in quick, we headed back into town and got some food before traveling back to Salzburg. On the way back, we stopped in at a service station on the German/Austrian border (we had travelled back into Germany for these shots), where there was a beautiful view of a small town settled in amongst the Alps, all with the train line in the foreground! So we waited around a little while to get a shot, which was certainly worth the wait when we got a couple loco-hauled passenger trains come through.
After this, we headed back to our hotel for a bit of a rest, before we decided to head down to the river cruise. The boat that we were on looked like a complete piece of shite! It is a one of a kind, designed specifically for this job cruise boat that holds around 30-odd passengers. The river through Salzburg is very fast flowing, requiring the boat to boast 2x350HP Jet engines for its trips up and down the river. Starting off on our cruise, we were travelling at approx. 10-20km/h at most. Mick and I were laughing amongst ourselves at the boat while taking in the scenery, when the captain came over the PA saying he was sorry about the slow speeds, he wanted to let everyone see the old town before we notched it up a bit and started cruising at 40-50km/h. "Bullshit!" thought Mick and I, "We'll believe it when we see it!" Sure enough, within a couple seconds of thinking that, the engines were put into full throttle and of we went, flogging it along the river at about 45km/h with a rather amazed look on our faces! Once we got to the upper end of the river (well, as far as we were permitted to travel), we did a U-ie and headed back down stream, back to our dock. Once we got there, we had another surprise, as our captain once again got on the PA and told us we weren't able to head down the river as far as normal, so we were going to do something different... And we certainly did do something different! A few seconds later, the music started playing and we were doing the waltz... with our boat!! Doing the waltz with a jet powered tour boat, not something I was expecting to do in the middle of Salzburg!! With that lasting a couple minutes, including several 360 degree turns, we docked again and Mick and I headed off in search of some dinner, which turned out to be a local pizzaria with some more excellent pizzas on offer!
As this was our last night in Salzburg, we went out for some night shots of the local castle and old town which turned out quite nice, even though we had to wait until around 22:30 to get actual night shots! Either way, we returned to our elaborate hotel room quite pleased with the results of the day, even with the shitty mid-day weather mixed in. The next morning saw us checking out of the hotel, grabbing some breakfast, filling up the tank with some cheap(!) fuel (well, cheap for Europe, 0.87 euro, roughly AU$1.50/L) and on the road for Prague, roughly 350km away but over 5 1/2 hours driving time... Or so we thought...
I know I'll get around to continuing this Travelogue sometime soon, however work has been very hectic since I arrived back! But for now, here are some cabride videos from our time in The Netherlands at the end of our holiday
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:39 am Posts: 157 Location: 21 miles from Griffiths Bros Teas
Am treating myself to an S-Bahn / U-Bahn cocktail with ICE next month. Any infrastructure 'must sees' you can recommend in Frankfurt, the Rhineland, Basel, Zurich, Munich, Prague, Berlin, Stockholm, Malmo, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Hanover and Cologne? Freelance traveling mostly using Eurail and the occasional DB Call-a-Bike.
_________________ When the shit really hits the fan, plain competence always beats showy charisma.
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Don't piss me off! I'm running out of places to hide the bodies.
