We had our first “gentle start” we did not have to be at breakfast until 7:15 and were on the road at 8:15
Down the hwy to the Black Forest!! (Hofgut Sternen) for CAKE. We stopped at an old coach inn, where the young Marie Antoinette’s carriages stopped for the evening on her way to Paris there was also a cuckoo clock making centre and we learnt how the carving of the clocks was simply something for the farmers to do on the long dark winters, of course, boys being boys there was a bit of “mine is better than yours” so began the tradition of elaborate carved work . Lunch was of course Black Forest cake ( and a hamburger and chips). Bern had warned is that real Black Forest cake that is here may be drier than we get at home. Obviously we have good Black Forest cake everywhere I have been in Aus because now I know they are all pretty good 🙂 the only difference was a thin layer of shortbread biscuit on the base of the cake.
From the Black Forest , we drove onto Switzerland. Reaching the German / Swiss border we had to stop and Bern & Mario had to pay our road tax for Germany . Bern explained that they tax us on how many kilometers we have done on the country, how big the bus is and how many people on board. To pass from Germany cost €150.00. Then just a couple of hundred meters down the road we had to stop and pay Swiss road tax, slightly cheaper at €18.00
A little further down the road, we came to the Rhine Falls. These falls are simply stunning. We arrived in Lucerne and Mario dropped us off at the Lion Monument.
Lion Monument -Lucerne In 1792 an entire regiment of Swiss Guards were slaughtered while guarding King Louie the 16th in France. One of the members of that regiment was on leave and at home in Lucerne when the awful news arrived. Understandably he was devastated that all his friends had died. Many of the men came from this region and it was suggested a monument be erected in their honour. The Swiss did not want a statue that showed the “failure” of their guards, but would allow a monument to be built out of the city. This monument was designed and built in a small wooded area on the outskirts of the old city. ( it is now almost in the middle of the town but still in a quiet tranquil little park away from the busy town) The inscription over the cave says Loyalty and Honour of Switzerland The lion lays dying in the cave with a broken arrow in his back, but even is death he is seen guarding France, as his paw lies protectively on the shield with the Fluer de Lis. A shield with the cross of the Swiss flag is also seen. The report of the guards massacre had mentioned they were “slaughtered like pigs” so if you look at the cave itself you will see it is in the shape of a wild boar. The boar’s snout is on the bottom left, follow the cave up and you will make out the boar’s ear above the lions head and the rest of the cave in the boar’s body..
From the monument we walked a short way to our hotel.
Our excursion tonight was a Swiss Dinner and folksong show. We had cheese fondue, a lovely veal scallions dish and ice cream for desert. The show was very entertaining with yodelling singing and the long alpenhorn .
We were back at our hotel at 10:00 ready for another day in Lucerne tomorrow.
A nice sleep in today (6:00) good buffet breakfast, and we were “wheels rolling”at 7:30 on our way to Germany.
The motorway to Germany was not particularly interesting and Bern suggested that we would not be missing much if we had a nap. :). As we approached the boarder Bern announced that we would stop at a service station for a comfort stop. She warned us that the service station itself was basic ( and it was just like a small service centre with a cafe/restaurant.)
As we discovered yesterday, boarder crossings are non event – much like crossing our state boarders. Usually just a small sign on the side of the road The reason we stopped at this little service centre was because it is actually at a previous passport control boarder crossing. It was certainly an austere building.
We arrived at Boppard in time for our Rhine River lunch cruise. I had a good pork schnitzel and chips with a glass of local red wine On the cruise we passed lots of lovely little villages and some impressive castles.
The Reine River is now and has always been a major “highway” There are many barges that a sort of like semi trailers that just travel up and down the river delivering goods. The driver of the barge often lives in the small apartment ppm the boat. Can you see the living quarters on the right hand side of the picture? A lot of the barges even had a car on it so the driver could go out when he reached a port.
Back on the coach and on to Heildeberg.
Heidleberg was chocolate box pretty the village reminded us of a model train set. Bern took us for an orientation tour around the village and told us some history of the huge castle that overlooks the city. We had 90 mind free time to look at the shops and buildings then we off too our hotel for dinner.
Dinner was a buffet dinner as there was a conference in the hotel as well as us. The conference delegates the moan dining room, do the hotel gave us a private room. The buffet was typical German food. Cold meat and cheeses, a ( we guesses cream of cauliflower and broccoli) soup,a lovely beef goulash type dish, and steamed veges. We were actually all very excited to have veges and I noticed almost everybody with a full plate of vege 🙂
After dinner I excused myself from the table and had an early night.
Today is the first day of my coach tour :). From now on this blog may seem a little disjointed as I will type in small bits throughout the day from the bus and then upload (hopefully) each night when I have wifi at hotels
As mentioned already it was an early start. Breakfast was in the hotel at 4:30 and we boarded the coach at 5:00. There are just 26 of us so far with another 6 to collect in Amsterdam. So a nice small group of 32.
Our tour guide is Bernadette (Bern) and our driver is Mario. Bern has asked us if we all have our passports with us and not in our suitcases , as we have to pass through French Customs on English soil in Dover before boarding the ferry.
The trip from London to Dover is approx. 1.5 hours, it is a shame it is a wet drizzly day 🙁 but not too cold. Bern explained a bit about the trip and we just settled on for the drive. I did notice a service station on the highway with fuel prices of £1.26 so I guess we can’t complain to much about our fuel prices
We drove onto the ferry and could then get off the coach and have a look around the ferry. There were restaurants, coffee shops, bars and duty free shops on board. I bought a cup of tea and got chatting to an Aussie couple from Melbourne. The cruise was very smooth and an announcement soon came to return to vehicles.
Off the ferry , we travelled through the French countryside and on to Belgium. We were on a 100kph hwy that went through lush green country and quite a number of wind turbines.
Leaving Belgium, we crossed into The Netherlands. A short lunch stop at a highway service centre and we were on our way to Amsterdam.
The porters delivered our bags to our rooms and we had around 45mins to refresh before we were taken into the city to look around.
We were taken on a nice canal cruise and Roland our Cruise guide pointed out may sights of the city and told us a lot of history. We then went or a walk through the”Red light District” the girls rent windows and “advertise” their “goods” (Hey I am trying to be delicate.. my Mother is reading this !!! hahaha)
Roland explained that, literally this is where we get the term “Window Shopping” from.
We got back to the coach and were returned to the hotel at around 10:00pm. It was a long day, so I was very grateful that I had a quiet day the day before. We are up at 7:00 tomorrow and on to Germany.
Had a bit of a sleep in today and pottered round leisurely this morning. I over-did it a bit yesterday, so a slow day is definitely in order.
I packed my case, had a long shower, made breakfast and checked out at 10:00 It was nice cool morning again (about 10 degrees)
I asked at reception about a taxi to take me to my next hotel, and was told that taxis were very frequently passing out the front and it would be easy to flag one down. It was 🙂 and in just a couple of minutes I was in a cab and on my way to the DoubleTree Hotel in Islington.
The trip took about 20 minutes and cost £13.60, I gave the cabbie £15.00 and he seemed really surprised when I said keep the change. Maybe they don’t tip cabs much here.
Checking into the DoubleTree was a surprise as the lady handed me a warm chocolate chip cookie! I can honestly say I have never been given a cookie at check-in anywhere!! You can read about the cookie on the Doubletree website http://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/about/cookie.html
After explaining where my room was, the receptionist told me where to find the Trafalgar rep in the lounge area. I went an introduced myself and received my tour information, along with the news that there was a wake-up call booked for 3:45AM!! Now I was glad that I had planned a “nothing day”
I went up to my room, settled in, had a nice long skype chat with Mick, ordered a late lunch from the room service menu watched some TV and pulled the curtains so it was nice and dark and went to bed around 7:30pm.
I must have needed the sleep as I slept straight through until just before 2:30am.
I got up made myself a cup of tea and wrote this blog entry before a shower and and I am ready for the next adventure.
Amsterdam this afternoon 🙂
Hyde Park Suites. The building where reception was.
A big day of sightseeing today as today is my last day before I meet up with the Trafalgar tour people tomorrow afternoon.
Hopping on the train I headed to Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately it was a bit grey and drizzly so the photos are not great :(. It was amazing to see the scale of the buildings and the well thought out design of the city.
Walking through the magnificent Admiralty Arch, I found a statue of Captain James Cook. On a fine day, you can see straight down The Mall to the gates of Buckingham Palace, but today there was too much traffic and too much rain 🙁
I headed towards Piccadilly Circus and browsed the many shops on the way. The huge neon signs at Piccadilly are in sharp contrast to the old stone buildings.
Walking up Oxford Street I came across the Selfridges Department store. A quick browse at the “unaffordable luxury” was interesting. I came across the Food Hall and Meat Mart. Wagyu Rib Eye for “just” £125 per kilo (approx $230) or a Rack of Lamb at £34.50 per kilo ($63 00) In the vege mart I saw an odd French cauliflower. It was bright yellow!!!!
Leaving Selfridges, I made my way to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard. I knew there would be heaps of people and the crowd coupled with a sea of umbrellas meant I really didn’t see much at all. I could get glimpses of the guards and of course could hear the bands as they marched their way around. It starting raining a bit heavier, so I decided to head towards the Royal Mews.
The Royal Mews are where the Royal coaches and horses “live” An informative audio guide was available and I enjoyed learning about the elaborate coach, the horses and riders. The last coach in the tour was the stunning Diamond Jubilee Coach, which was a gift from Australia to the Queen. I had previously seen an ABC documentary on the man who built this amazing coach. When he pitched the idea to John Howard, it was met with resistance, but he persisted. John Howard finally relented and asked the Queen if she would accept a coach as a gift. She agreed on the proviso that it did not cost the Australia tax-payer any money. So that ruled out any government funding. The coach builder raised the funds and it took 8 hears to build the coach. As it the newest coach, it is the most comfortable and has become the Queens favourite.
Finishing at the Mews, I headed back through St James’ Park to Westminster Abbey.WOW words just cannot express what an amazing place Westminster Abbey is. So much history, it is hard to comprehend that the building is nearly 1000 years old. The floor is covered in tombstones and the walls lined with so many monuments. Again a very informative audio guide was available, this one narrated by the actor Jeremy Irons.
After the Westminster Abbey, I hopped on the underground and headed for Harrods. Harrods is, of course, over the top commercialism at its finest :). I did notice that the cash registers were ringing regularly.
Back on the train and back to the hotel and ready for an early night. I remembered to wear my pedometer today and clocked up 13896 steps!!! and 9.71 km . No wonder that my feet are tired :-).
Started the day with a breakfast of bacon and eggs cooked in the apartment
I organized what train I needed to get to the first point of my day sightseeing – Big Ben
Checking the weather app on my phone I was happy to see it was 4 degrees at 8:00am. So jeans, boots, scarf and gloves on, I headed out.
A quick train journey and I emerged from the Westminster Underground station right at the base of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and the Westminster bridge.
Returning back towards Big Ben, I headed to the Westminster Pier to do a Thames river cruise that took me past a number of sights before stopping at the Tower of London.
The captain on the boat had a humorous commentary as we travelled up the river. One funny story involves the building of the former OXO gravy/stock cube company. None of the commercial buildings along the river were allowed any advertising. The planners of the building applied for some round windows and some square windows. Consequently the placement of these windows happen to spell the name of the company 🙂
The Tower of London was a fascinating look into the sometimes dark past of London. There was an audio tour that guided me along the exhibitions.
After the Tower of London tour, I headed back to the River Cruise for the return back to Westminster and home.
It ended up being a top of 16 and I carried my cardigan, gloves and scarf more than I wore them 🙂
Big Ben
House of Parliament & Big Ben
House of Parliament , Big Ben & Westminster bridge
London Eye
Red Phone Box…Dr Who or Superman??
River Cruise Boat
Tower Bridge
Ceramic poppy display at the Tower of London. ach of these poppies represent a British soldier who died in WW1
OXO Building Not signage …just windows 🙂
Random..Not quite sure why there is a glass of white wine in a police box ????
