Results tagged “Weather” from Europe 2016

Slept mostly ok I think. Woke up a bit before 6am. Average breakfast. Clear blue skies when we left at 8am. But it started to cloud over.

Had a morning pitstop at Kongsvold, a little guesthouse in the middle of nowhere. Then into the Dovrefjell National Park, but we didn't see any of the Greenland native oxen.

We did see another moose, a huge bird which I don't know if it was a large crane or a small ostrich, and another moose.

Stopped in Lom for a lunch stop. There was a vintage car parade going through town so the whole town was packed out and all these classic cars were coming and going so that was a lot of fun. Also had a look at one of the oldest stave churches in Norway.

The afternoon scenery was spectacular, especially the drive down into Geiranger. Absolutely wonderful.

In Geiranger we hopped on a cruise boat to see the fjord. Another fantastic experience.

All in all a great day.

Sadly our hotel room doesn't give us a view of the fjord, but I don't think anyone on the tour gets a fjord view, we all seem to be on the mountain side - probably you need to pay a lot more for a fjord view.

Dinner was in the hotel buffet. Pretty huge buffet. The drinks waiter was a bit hopeless though. Had to wait ages to get out of there and even then didn't sign for the drink I had. Oh well...

This room is *super* hot :( Can't open the windows more than a crack and the thermostats appear to not work at all. Sad times.

Woke up to a nice view this morning. Well really I woke up to all the light coming in the sides of the blinds. At 4am. Think I got a little more sleep after that. *Then* we opened the blinds and saw the view. I was too tired to really appreciate it though.

The hotel we had last night had completely retarded door locks, that sometimes you had to lock manually by swiping your card on the reader. Or worse, they simply didn't close properly at all, so you could just pull the door open. Dumb dumb dumb.

Pretty average breakfast (in the meh kind of way), and out the door at 8am.

Had a photo stop at Laksforsen to see a set of raging rapids, that also has a salmon ladder (which we couldn't actually see).

Then followed the river valley allll the way upstream, then allll the way downstream. The scenery was pretty enough, but mostly just forest, the river and some low mountains. Nothing super spectacular, although a few pretty parts in places.

Stopped for lunch in Steinkjer (Stinker!! ok not really). Shared some maccas fries with mum because we really didn't need much for lunch.

As we got further south there was a lot more gentle rolling hills and greenery and farmland.

Just before Trondheim we went to Hell! No really!

Then onto Trondheim. Checked in, then went out for a wander up and down the canal and looked for somewhere to have dinner. Bob and Joanne ran into us, so we had dinner with them and it was all very lovely. Finally got to check in a beer in Norway! Beer Traveller Level 5! W00t! The Norwegians, like the Germans, appear to revel in the sunny weather, and they were out in droves tonight.

Hoping the fantastic weather hangs around for another couple of days.

Last night mum stayed up late (11pm) reading and I had super restless itchy legs, so didn't get to sleep for ages :(:(:( Consequently woke up tired and grumpy. Then I was looking at the maps again and got depressed all over again at the really bad seat rotation scheme that doesn't alternate sides of the coach. Pissed off with the world and didn't want to be sociable at breakfast. In fact I was so upset I sat down looking at my food wondering if I'd even be able to stomach it.

*sigh*

Left a bit after 8am.

Once again, people with the awesome window seats on the right side of the coach slept most of the morning. Seriously why would you even bother coming on a trip like this if you're just going to sleep the whole way through it??? The only advantage of them sleeping was that they didn't take up half the window trying to take their own photos. There was one point where there was an awesome view to the left, and some other points later in the day I was able to lean across people to get some nice photos on the right.

We also took a ferry ride across one of the fjords because there's no road.

Lunch was at the lovely fjord-side town of Fauske. We had leftover chicken from last night's meal, and an icecream. The sun had also well and truly come out, so was feeling a lot better.

After lunch we left the fjords for a bit and headed into the hills, and I think most of the coach snoozed, including me.

On the way back south over the Arctic circle we stopped at the visitor's centre there for a break and we saw the little movie they had which was quite informative.  Of course the Arctic circle isn't there anymore, it's wandered north (at 14 metres per year) so is now a ways north of the current visitor's centre.  But it was still cool anyway.

Continued down and past more fjords and mountains, although not as spectacular. Watched a short film with Joanna Lumley about her trip to the Arctic to see the northern lights.

Followed a truck over a long detour which slowed us down quite a bit - didn't get to the hotel til nearly 7pm. The room is nice enough and has a lovely view of the mountain next door, but it's *hot* :( Thermostat is as low as it will go but the head from the minibar fridge is winning out. Not going to be using the doona again tonight :(

I was in a tshirt all day today. I did put my coat on for the ferry ride. But even in the snow at the arctic circle I was just in my tshirt. Silly really.

Dinner was in the hotel - buffet style. Pretty average meal really, but dessert was nice enough. A bunch of them were going to go for a walk after dinner, and I'd have loved to have gone, especially as we've done literally no exercise all day, but that would add another hour to going to bed time and I'm exhausted.

After the last two nights I decided I really needed an easy day today, so skipped the morning optional activity.

Bit of hurty in the morning so awake earlier than I wanted. Had a fairly leisurely breakfast with some nice choices.

After breakfast I came up to do computer stuff. And given that it rained all morning I'm not regretting my choice.

I used the time to various *stuff*. I checked the downloads of my photos, and I'm super glad I did as there was a day on the Reformation tour where I'd downloaded my photos before dinner, but had taken a whole heap at dinner, but hadn't downloaded them. I was super lucky I checked and that I hadn't already cycled that memory card, otherwise I would have lost all the people photos I took on the last night of the reformation tour. Backed everything to memory stick and external hard drive. Also completely repacked my suitcase which made me feel a lot better. I paid my phone bill (excess usage from being overseas). Blogged some stuff on my main blog. And just looked through photos.

The afternoon optional activity was a wilderness river "cruise". It's really not very well described so I had no idea what to expect. What it actually was was these motorised canoes that held between four and seven people in single file, and we motored up the river and back (20 km/h upstream, 35 km/h downstream). Unfortunately didn't get to see any wildlife except for a few birds. But it was somewhat exhilirating in the cool arctic air (not cold mind you!).

After the ride we got out and had some waffles by the fire sitting on reindeer skins (which are surprisingly warm, who knew) and got to see the remains of the ice hotel they build every year but has since melted. We got to see a bit of a promo video of it too which was pretty cool. Would be an awesome experience to stay the night!

The evening's activity was to a husky breeder's house for a dinner of bbqed salmon and veggies. After dinner was some stories from the owner who breeds and races her Alaskan huskies. She was a great story teller, it was really intersting. Then we got to go and play with the dogs and even got to hold some four week old puppies. Sooo cute!

Then back to the hotel.

Woke up 5am. But I was stressing about getting washing done and having breakfast before getting into town by 9:15am. So I wasn't getting back to sleep.

So we got up and headed down to the laundromat. Except they must have forgotten to turn the alarm off because this siren kept going off. I was super tired and hungry and the loud noise made my brain explode. We don't think we managed to get any detergent into the machine. Sigh.

Took the dried washing back to the hotel, had breakfast, but I was still super tired and grumpy. Finished getting ready and checked out, leaving the bags and the car at the hotel.

Then walked into town. We got to the Festspielhaus at 9:30, which does indeed tour the Felsenreitschule.

Except.

They don't allow photos. At least at the moment because they're setup for some festival which starts tomorrow. Well I wasn't going to pay 7 Euro to not be able to take photos, especially when it would have taken up an hour of perfectly good sunlight. Maybe next time.

And that's another thing. The damned weather forecasts are completely useless. They predicted rain for today, but it didn't come until much later in the day, and even then not much while we were still there.

So we walked up behind the festspielhaus and over the ridge to the other side. Walked along Nonnberger Hauptstrasse to find where they all had the carriage ride. Then all the way up to Nonnberg abbey. Went into the church this time which I didn't do last time.

Then back down into the old town to all the platzes where various bits of the movie were filmed, and the Mozartsteg.

Finally walked up to Kaputziner Closter to check out the view back to the old town.

Came back down and went to a place where I'd noticed earlier they sold Salzburger Nockerl, which mum had never heard of. So that was lunch (along with some cream of asparagus soup).

Went back to the hotel to pick up our bags, then headed back to Munich.

But with all the roadworks and just general traffic, the trip took about four hours :(:(:(

By the time we'd checked into the hotel, gotten petrol for the car, returned the car, saw about checking into our flight tomorrow and finding something to eat it was after 9pm :(:( So much for an early night :(:(:( Fortunately I didn't manage to bingle the car, so that was a huge relief. Driving on the wrong side of the road is super stressful! Who knew!

The checkin process was super painful. Terminal 2 at Munich airport only has checkin counters for Lufthansa. And its partner airlines in the fine print. So that was a little confusing. So we went to try checking in with the machines, but it both of our names up incorrectly, then refused to let us checkin. None of the human-operated counters showed general checkins, it was all just "bag drop" stuff. We asked the local Lufthansa help and she just said we just had to get in line with the bag drop queue. Really not a very user-friendly process.

By the time we got everything sorted and caught a bus back to the hotel, it was 9:20pm :(

So for once we got a hotel with a reverse cycle air conditioner that actually works!! Hot food options for breakfast pretty limited though.

We were going to go into the old town this morning but the weather forecast was for better weather today than tomorrow, so we decided to go out to the lakes district and the other local Salzburg area sights today instead.

But of course everything was stil cloudy (low clouds covering mountains) and when it wasn't cloudy it was super hazy. So pretty much everything sucked.

We went to St Gilgan first to do a quick photo stop from the lookout.

I wanted to go to the spot in the movie where the little train goes up the hill, and I knew where it was and there's even a road to it, but of course the road is closed at the bottom of the hill isn't it. So that was a fail. (We could have tried to go up on the railway itself, but it would have taken up half the day and we didn't have that much time. Maybe next time. Sigh.)

Next over to Mondsee. Drove along the south side of the lake on the east end where the kids are hanging out of the trees (not really sure which bit exactly though - trees change and clouds covered the mountains). Then along the north side at the east end where they're all on bicycles singing do-re-mi. Again, everything was in cloud.

Continued onto Mondsee town. Went into the Basilica where the wedding scene was filmed (I'd been in there before last time we were here, but got some different photos that I didn't get last time). Then up the hill to the Maria Hilf church - one of the stills in the opening credits.

Next over to Sankt Lorenz. They claim a particular church was used for the opening credits, but the church that's there is different (different steeple). Of course it's possible the steeple has changed - certainly one in Salzburg town has changed. The position looked right so who knows. I was trying to find some other spots there whey they drive along in the car with Max and the Baroness but it was too cloudy and hazy and mum was getting bored so gave up on that idea :(

Finally over to Eugendorf to find another church used in the opening credits. But instead of being on a little grassy hill, it's now blocked by a little forest of trees.

And then back into Salzburg for locations closer to town.

First was the Maria Plain church. It gets about a second of screen time right at the end of the wedding.

Then to places mum was more interested in.

Firstly Leopoldskron for the view to Untersberg. You need to be a hotel guest to get into the gardens though :( Maybe one day we'll be able to stay there.

Then over to Frohnburg. That was pretty cool. And we had a nice view of Untersberg from there as well.

Then to Hellbrunn to see the gazebo. Mum was pretty happy about that.

Tried to go to see Anif Palace but you can't get anywhere near it because it's a private road. So that was a fail.

Brief stop at Elsbethan for a church still from the credits.

And finally to the actual villa the Von Trapps lived in. Again, you can't really go in and see it because it's a hotel now.

So we got back to the hotel around 5pm. The pedometer claimed we'd done 11700 steps so far today ?! I was happy at that point to call it a day, but because the weather forecast for tomorrow was for rain mum wanted to go into the old town while it wasn't raining (just super hazy).

So walked down to find the local laundromat first (at least a fifteen minute walk away :( )

Then down into the old town. Walked along the river for a bit. Then into Mirabell palace. Tried to find the lift up Monchsberg but had trouble finding it. Ended up finding the horse bath first. Eventually found it. Last time we had Salzburg cards so could just go up. This time we had to pay the 2.30. Walked along the terrace and across the top of the hill, which we didn't do last time. Then down next to the theatres. Got photos of the entrance area to the theatres used in the movie, but to see inside you need to go on a tour. Their website says the only tour for the Felsenreitschule is at 9:30am. An advertising board we saw said 2pm. So who knows which is right.

By now it was like 8pm and we hadn't really eaten since breakfast. We thought we'd see if we could find some pork knuckle but of course that's easier said than done when you're tired and hungry. In the end I hacked into a random hotel's wifi and found a place that sold it on the way back to the hotel. But to be honest, it wasn't as good as Zierholz. The meat was ok but there wasn't any crackling (well there was, but it was rubber not crackling). Sad times.

Finally back to the hotel around 9pm. Ridiculous. So fricken tired.

Slept ok with open window.  Had breakfast (turns out they do actually have bread rolls) and got ready and checked out. Went with the group to the airport (got a new coach and a new driver but he was running a bit late). Got dropped off and terminal 1, and walked under to terminal 2 to pick up the keys for our car. Fortunately we were able to get a car with a GPS! Went to the garages to pick up the car (of course it was down the far back corner wasn't it?). But couldn't figure out how to change the language of the GPS to english, or how to even take the parking brake off, so had to walk wayyyy back to try and find someone, which took even more time out of the day. Turns out the parking break is a little switch in the middle. How bizarre! We also couldn't get the GPS to talk to us, but of course by that time we were out on the autobahns so I couldn't stop and fiddle.

Stopped for a pitstop at a rest house, and bought an Austrian toll sticker (8.80 for ten days). Also got the GPS talking to us.

Our first real stop was the closter at Hoglworth. It was also our first trip off the major roads onto teeny tiny roads which was, er, interesting. Of course I couldn't document any of it :(

Drove onto the hotel, negotiating Salzburg streets which was pretty stressful. At least there's free parking. And free internet! But it was quite late by the time we go there, on account of roadworks all up and down the autobahns. I'd been hoping to get here a lot earlier, and the weather was closing in (proving again to me that it's *always* cloudy and rainy in salzburg). The forecast was for rain the rest of our stay, so I thought we should get up the mountains first. But the mountains were mostly clouded over which was pretty sad making.

Anyway, so headed out again. Headed up Mehlweg first, but overshot where I'd been aiming for, so didn't find *the* hill I wanted to see. But I suppose we were close. Except it was so cloudy and rainy you really couldn't see anything :(

Then along the Rossfeld Panoramastrasse. This road is 8EUR and the top of it goes along the Austria-Germany border. But it was all clouded over so couldn't see anything. But luckily the clouds parted a little bit here and there and could at least see the view. Got to pretty close to the ridge the family walks along at the end of the movie, but couldn't find the exact spot (I think it's all covered by trees now anyway).

Then back down and south. Found two of the churchs used in the opening shots of the movie (and the intermission) in Kuchl and Golling.

Then continued south to Werfen. It was getting too late to attempt the Sound of Music walk from the town up to the meadow, so we drove up. I think the actual meadow is on private property, so we just stood at the top of it. It was pretty cloudy and getting dark, so didn't get the best shots, but at least go the idea.

Finally drove back to Salzburg. Went across to the station and just got some sandwiches for dinner which we ate back at the hotel.

The hotel in Strasbourg was too damned hot. There was no airconditioning, only a heater (that was on when we arrived). Left the window open all night which helped a little. But also in the bathroom there was a hot water pipe heater that kept the bathroom super hot (we kept the door closed to contain the heat - which of course my washing all dried overnight which was a bonus!). Woke up at 6:15, which was a sleepin!

Breakfast in the hotel was also complete chaos an there wasn't enough seats for everyone. We eventually found a table for six, but noone else from our group joined us.

We had a different coach driver today - our previous one (Dorrell sp??) had to have a mandatory break day, and then was going to pick up another tour. The new one had the radio on which was a bit annoying (talk shows and advertising in foreign languages made for just noise. Someone eventually asked them to turn it off which was good.

Had a pitstop north of Basel, then crossed the border into Switzerland. Had to wait about ten minutes at the border crossing.

In Basel we picked up another local guide and went for a bit of a walking tour. Didn't really see that much, just walked past the Fish market, the Rathaus and up into Barfüsserplatz and then it was lunch time and we had an hour off. But we had no idea what there even was to see. So we asked where the tourist information was, and also toilets. But the guide just said go to a cafe to go to the toilet (not much use if you weren't going to any cafes) and pointed at the wrong place for the tourist information. Not a terribly useful guide. Anyway, I saw a big i so we headed for that, and got ourselves a map. Walked past the Münster and down to one of the bridges to look along the Rhine, then headed back. Found a free toilet next to the tram ticket office.

Then the tour carried on. But all it did was take us to the Münster (which we went inside) and the cloisters next door. And then it was raining. Quite heavily. So we tramped down the hill to where we could take a tram up the hill to our hotel, and that was the end of the tour. And at that stage it would have been the end of the day and it was only around 3pm. So it would have been a complete dud of a day.

Except.

The sun came out.

So we headed out again to take advantage of the sunlight.

Took a tram all the way down to the other side of the Rhine over Mittlere Rheinbrücke, then walked all the way back, stopping at many of the things that were in bad lighting earlier, and seeing a couple of extra things too. Added another five thousand steps to the day.

The hotel is fairly nice, with a double-sinked bathroom and toilet with separate door. Although we have a courtyard-facing room so the view is nothing special.

Dinner in the hotel restaurant was quite nice. But even though I hadn't eaten anything more substantial than an apple since breakfast, I still couldn't finish it.

Breakfast as usual this morning, then checked out.

Our first stop was in Potsdam. I'd been here with the sweetie eight years ago. Last time we hired bikes and got around *heaps* of the palaces and things to see. We also had a brilliant day for it. Today it was grey. :(

Our first stop was the Glienicker Brücke - "Bridge of Spies" - for a quick photo stop.

Then onto Sans Souci palace. The vines hadn't come out yet so it was all a little grey. But still quite pretty and there were bulbs already flowering in the gardens at the bottom.

Then they took us into town and dropped us off for some free time. We went into the Nikolai church because that was just there. Then mum and I went off for a walk. Got up to the Brandenburg Tor, then back up Brandenburger strasse to Nauener Tor, back through the dutch village, and back to the coach.

Most people slept on the coach ride south to Leipzig. I stayed awake and talked to the sweetie for a bit. Had a brief toilet stop (by now this is the third toilet I've had to pay for today :(:( ) and continued on, getting here at nearly 3:30pm.

In Leipzig we met a local guide for a walking tour of the old town. Highlights included the Thomas Church, the oldest coffee house in Germany, the market square and the Nikolai Church.

Then to the hotel. Not a bad room, although the view is a little boring - the roof of the atrium!

Went out for dinner tonight to a restaurant in the old town. Had some mushroom soup, some sausage and potato, and this weird (but nice) cake thing with apple sauce.

Sadly, yet again, I couldn't be with the sweetie on our anniversary today :(

Slept well for the first half of the night, but woke up to pee and had pretty broken sleep after that.

Breakfast was much the same today as yesterday (but they had bacon today!)

We were given the morning off to do what we liked. Except it was raining.

We decided to go to the Checkpoint Charlie museum first, since it opened at 9am and it was raining. I wish I'd done a bit more research, because if I had, I probably wouldn't have gone. I was expecting a lot more about the history of the wall and the escape attempts, and there was a little bit of that. But most of the museum is just a rabbit warren of rooms *covered* in text and some photos. And most of it has nothing to do with the wall. There was an awful lot about world politics.  There was stuff on Ronald Reagan. There was stuff on prisoners in North Korea. There was even some stuff on Picasso and art.

!?

It was the most confusing and disorganised museum I've ever been to. Really didn't enjoy much of it at all. As we came out we found maps which *may* have helped cut down the confusion.

So we'd gotten to the museum by an M29 bus. We bought all day tickets (7EUR) so we could hop on and off without having to stress about tickets. The bus stop where we got on sold tickets, although they only worked with coins and credit cards, although it wouldn't take mum's credit card so she had to buy hers on the bus (I didn't have enough coinage for both tickets). After the museum, we decided to take trains to Alexanderplatz. Getting to Friedrichstrasse was easy enough, but Friedrichstrasse is a huge, confusing, and very badly signed station. We got quite confused about where to go to get a train to Alexanderplatz and ended up asking someone.

At Alexanderplatz we walked out of the station and looked up. Good news! We could see the tower. Which meant we'd be able to see out of it. So went and lined up at the first security checkpoint to get into the building. Because it had been raining the queue was very short - only a few people in front of us. Inside we took one look at the queue to buy tickets, and went over to the vending machines to get them. Went straight in :) (after passing another security check). It was mostly cloudy, but quite clear, and the sun started to peek through. Took photos out of every window to make a panorama. It'll be interesting to compare photos from this trip to the ones I took last time to see what sort of construction has happened in the past eight years. We also ran into several groups of people from the tour who had the same idea as us. They couldn't get into the Reichstag dome because there were no available tickets til 6pm!

Next we headed back down to find the chocolate shop Robert and Winsome had told us about. And continued to get frustrated with the public transport system here. Specifically signage for people that need to figure out where to go. Or, as the case may be, the complete lack of it. Some stations had at least a board that had the stations on the line it was on. But others didn't. And very few of them have an overall network map so you can figure out which line you have to be on and which direction to go. *Eventually* found the right train at Alexanderplatz and went to Statdmitte, where we found the chocolate shop right outside the train station entrance.

The chocolate shop is pretty amazing. It's got all these huge models made out of chocolate, including the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Fernsehturm, and even the Titanic and an A380! I bought myself a small sample of chockies to try.

Then back to the hotel. Train from Stadtmitte to Halesches Tor to change trains (and a long walk rivalling the Paris metro to change trains) for a train to Uhlandstrasse.

Only had a very brief stop at the hotel, then we were on the coach, heading out to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It was only a small camp in the scheme of things, and not a lot is left, but it was quite interesting, and pretty sad.

Finally back to the hotel. Got some stuff done before dinner (nice again as always) and finished up after dinner. Time to wash hair.

Saturday morning I mostly finished packing and organising, and headed for Sydney around 10am. I didn't manage to get any music to listen to put onto my phone, so didn't end up listening to anything.

When I got to mum's, we went down for the village trivia afternoon. We did quite well in the three question rounds (actually we won that part of the scoring), but did really badly in the filler round which let us down so we came second.

Then we got ourselves ready and went and caught the five o'clock train from Kirrawee and caught the train out to the airport.

Checked in (the Etihad signage was a bit bad and it was sending economy to the business class checkin.. fail!!), did the automatic machine thingie for immigration then through security. Had a wander through the duty free store and stocked up on some whiskeys. Then went and found something to eat for a light dinner (since dinner on the plane wasn't going to be for a while), and finally found some of the others travelling together with us.

We had an A380 for the first flight. I still think they're ugly and overrated. And this time I couldn't get a strong enough GPS signal. I finally got it by going to an exit door which gets a lot closer to the sky. But it struggled to maintain a lock. Very frustrating.  So missed out on any sort of GPS track for most of the trip.  The planes so have internet and mobile reception though, so was able to SMS the sweetie from over the Indian ocean and over India :)

I had some pasta for dinner, but didn't eat quite all of it. Watched Slumdog Millionaire which was pretty good. At midnight I attempted to doze. In fact attempted to doze for the next seven hours. I don't really know how successful I was. But the time did feel shorter than seven hours, so probably did get a bit of sleep. Then I watched The Heat (pretty silly), while having breakfast, followed by Star Wars The Force Awakens. But unlike Qantas, they don't allow you to play movies right up to the gate, so missed the end. At least, unlike Qantas, Etihad have pretty good quality screens to watch things on.

At Abu Dhabi we wandered through the security check for transfers, then wandered up to the pretty circular terminal to hang out for a couple of hours before the next flight. We looked around the shops, then had some Scottish Restaurant for our next meal (breakfast had been a few hours ago, and it was still a few more hours til our next one).

Our next flight was an Air Berlin A330.

I finished watching Star Wars. Brunch was a choice between chicken rolls and cheese rolls, so I had a cheese one.

Then I watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which I didn't think I'd seen, but part way through I realised I had. Oops.

I got spun out by all the snow on the mountains of Iran and Turkey (they fastidiously avoided Iraqi and Syrian airspace). Flew over Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, but they were all covered in clouds and couldn't see anything.

I tried watch Maze Runner, but it was too dark to see it (a lot of people had their windows open and it was very bright). So watched The Incredibles instead.

"Dinner", although lunch time Berlin time, was a chicken and veggies thing.

So got to Berlin and parked out on the tarmac and took a bus to the terminal which is always cool. Took ages to get through passport control though - too many people all at once (it was totally deserted after we got through). I suppose most flights there are "domestic" (EU) flights, so they probably don't deal with huge numbers of international flights - they all tend to go to Frankfurt etc I'm guessing.

Met up with the tour guide (Roberto) and our bags were taken to the coach. It was pretty cold, I think they said 6C, but I didn't find it unpleasant. Got driven straight to our hotel.

Hotel is nice enough. Although has the european "all or nothing" setup with the doonas, and we couldn't get the air conditioning to get cold. We dumped our stuff. I had a shower. After forty hours since my last shower, it felt great.  Also reorganised our bags from flying mode to ground mode.

Then we headed out for a wander. Mum wanted to find a Deutsche Bank cause she can withdraw with less fees. We ended up half way to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, so wandered down there to have a look. Last time we couldn't go in and they were repairing the mosaics on the floors. Now you can go in and it's quite beautiful inside.  Because the hotel was so hot I didn't think to take a jumper.  It was pretty cold in the wind and everyone was all rugged up.  I think I was the only crazy person in a tshirt :)  But didn't get very cold.

Came back to the hotel and had some dinner - a delicious soup, some pork and some nice chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce.

Then to bed. Went to bed around 9pm I think and pretty much passed out. Woke up to pee (and all hot and sweaty cause the room was so hot), then back to sleep (with no doona at all) till quarter to seven. Epic win!