Arrival in Japan

Saturday 31 May

The flight last night pulled out from the Heathrow terminal seven minutes early but typically we took about twenty minutes to taxi before we took off for Tokyo.

We landed in Tokyo on time and took another fifteen minutes to taxi to the terminal where we purchased bus tickets to Haneda Airport, a trip which took a little over an hour. Arriving at the airport we had half an hour wait for the hotel courtesy bus, finally arriving at the hotel at 5:30 pm, 14 ½ hours after leaving London.

Our Last Week in England

Saturday 24 May

After breakfast we walked to the Avis depot to pick up our car and found we had been upgraded to a VW Passat with only 2 miles on the “clock”. Leaving the depot we drove up to West Cromwell Road and headed for the M4 along the A4 which wasn’t as congested as the roads into London on Tuesday.

When we merged onto the M4 the traffic speeded up for several kilometres then we saw a sign saying “traffic queued from junction 4B to 6”, which meant we were in first gear for several kilometres. After that the traffic flowed at about 100 km/hr until we left the M4 and rejoined the A4. We could have stayed on the M4 to Bath but we prefer to drive on smaller roads that pass through villages. After four and a half hours from leaving the depot we arrived at our friend’s house in Midford.

Sunday 25 May

As predicted, we awoke to heavy rain which was annoying as we had planned to go to the Westonbirt Arboretum for the day, however after breakfast the rain had eased so we decided we would go.

The arboretum was started as a private project in 1830 and carried on by subsequent generations of the family over the next 130 years before being given to the Forestry Commission who now manage it. The wooded areas cover over 600 acres with trees dating back to the original plantings but there are also trees that would have been mature specimens when the project started. The trees planted are from Europe, North America, Japan and China and many of the mature trees are over 35 m. high. One area has been planted with maples from several continents and there must have been over 100 varieties of Japanese maples planted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Rotary.

Another area is designated as a season’s walk with hundreds of azaleas and rhododendrons in full flower, these were nestled amongst beeches, oaks, limes or lindens as they a known in Europe and elms. As well as all the European trees in the wooded area there are many varieties of pines, spruces, cedars and redwoods together with many Asian trees, these are not single plantings but there are often three up to ten of the one variety. The forest areas contains hundreds of different varieties of trees, most of which would be over a hundred years old and is the largest collection of mature trees I have seen anywhere in the world, the copper beeches in particular are magnificent.

The weather all day threatened to rain and we had a few shower while walking through the forest but this didn’t spoil our enjoyment of the trees, though if the sun had been shining through the trees the scenery would have been glorious.

After dinner we were invited by the owners of our old house for drinks and to see the improvements they have made, we were very impressed with the changes to the kitchen and bathroom and while modern they haven’t detracted from the old style of the house. When we sold the house we gave them the plans we had drawn up to convert the old chapel into a garage with a mezzanine floor garden house which would be on the same level as the garden, they have now completed the alterations exactly to our plans.

Monday 26 May

Today is a Bank Holiday in England and unlike the last time we were in Bath we already have a car so we don’t have a car hire company wanting 50 pounds to open the office.

After lunch we drove into Bath to visit Ann’s nephew and his wife and to have a look at the improvements to their garden and house since our last visit.

They have about half an acre of sloping land with an old farm house on the outskirts of Bath, when they purchased it both the house and the gardens was in need of a lot of work. The gardens have now been completed with sweeping lawns and subdued colours of garden plants and behind a hedge is a cottage garden with stone paths and strong vibrant colours. Lower down there is a series of vegetable gardens beds each enclosed with a box hedge. Scattered through the garden are several fruit trees and an enclosure for six bantam hens, this is surrounded by a four wire electric fence to deter the foxes and badgers.

The old stone farm house has stone flag floors in the kitchen and dining rooms and hand sawn floor board in the rest of the house, they are slowly replacing the lath and plaster walls and ceilings and have just started some extensions which will blend in with the existing house. Being on the edge of Bath the view from most of their windows are open fields or their gardens, a wonderful location and no more than two km. from the centre of Bath.

Tuesday 27 May

A quick visit to our Bank and a walk around the centre of Bath and we were heading north on the A46. Our first stop was at Dyrnham Park a stately home now owned by the National Trust. There has been a house on this site since at least 1086 and the fish pond is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

The last family to own it, the Blathwayt, inherited it in 1686 through marriage and William Blathwayt transformed the estate between the end of the 1600s and early 1700s and his Dutch Garden was famous throughout England. Over the years styles have changed and the gardens are now mainly lawns surrounded by garden beds and the balance of the 106 hectare park, a tranquil English landscape. A herd of deer have roamed here since 1620 when the owners received a Royal Charter granting them permission to enclose the park.

The house is the typical “country seat” multi story with walls lined with paintings and old weapons and rooms full of beautiful furniture. Downstairs the large kitchen fitted with old “appliances” and pots and huge workbenches, a feature was the old open fireplace with stand for kettles and pots and a large spit in front big enough for a whole sheep. The spit was operated by the hot air going up the chimney turning a “windmill” which was connected to a series of gears and chains to rotate it. Other rooms included a dairy room, meat storage and a bakery.

We finished our visit with tea, scones, jam and cream, the worst scones we have ever eaten, when we tried to cut them they were reduced to a plate full of crumbs which we attempted to stick together with the jam and cream. We reconciled ourselves with the fact that the profit was helping the National Trust, but someone needs a cooking lesson.

Leaving the park we drove towards Cirencester but skirted the town as our final destination for the day was Stow on the Wold. Some time after leaving Cirencester we noticed a small National Trust sign pointing towards a Roman Villa and having some time we decided to investigate it.

We had to drive about four miles along very narrow country lanes with little passing bays every now and then and arrived at the site two minutes before last entry. We didn’t know what to expect but thought it may be a few stones marking out old foundations and were very surprised to find many rooms, some with the original mosaic floors and the underfloor heating ducts. The ruins were discovered in 1864 and uncovered and roofs placed over the ruins to protect them. It is thought the house was started in 120AD and was added to over three centuries so there must have been a very large farm to require such a grand mansion. Some of the rooms included a steam bath, a dry sauna, dining room and kitchen and living quarters, in the museum is a scale model of what is thought to be a good reproduction of the complex. It was well worth the detour.

After what was probably our shortest visit to a National Trust property we continued on to Stow on the Wold an old historic village and checked in to the Youth Hostel which is in a Grade II listed 17th Century town house in the historic Cotswolds.

Wednesday 28 May

Another British spring day – bucketing down. We drove from Stow on the Wold to my cousin’s home in Nuneaton to visit his widow, Edgar having died since our last visit, but we seemed to pick up our conversation with Brenda where we left off.

Lunch in a local pub and a talk fest well in to the night completed our day.

Thursday 29 May.

Surprise; the sun is shining and a pleasant drive through the country side and a short time on the M1 brought us to the National Trust property Waddesdon.

Before arriving we didn’t know anything about it and on arrival in the village before turning into the estate, we were surprised to find ten or so magnificent Victorian houses and a large hotel, all built in the same style. These were built for staff employed on the estate.

Waddesdon Manor is a “modern” large stately home built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1874 (to 1889) and is situated on a 2000 acre property; the family gave it to the National Trust in 1956.

The 45 rooms that are open to the public are stocked with top quality 18th Century French furniture and decorative arts, much of it acquired when the previous owners “lost interest” in their possessions during the French Revolution, one dinner setting was owned by Marie Antoinette. The walls are also covered with portraits and paintings from English and Dutch Old Masters.

In the garden is a magnificent aviary stocked with many endangered species of birds, dating back to the original Baron’s collection. Some of the birds they have managed to breed have less than one hundred in the wild, a very important conservation programme.

One thing that impressed me was the wine cellars which are modelled on the private cellars at Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and are stocked with many vintages from this Chateau. The current Baron now lives on another estate but uses these cellars for his collection of wines dating back to 1868. The cellars can hold 15,000 bottles and their sizes range from a standard 750 ml bottle to an Imperial which holds 6 litres (8 bottles). The annoying part of our visit to the cellars was there wasn’t a glass or corkscrew available.

We left the estate at 5:00 to drive some30 miles to Jordans Youth Hostel, a very old timber building and access to the rooms were all on the outside as were the toilet facilities and as it had started to rain, again! We didn’t dawdle from the common room to our beds, which for the first time on our travels were in single sex dormitories, Ann’s at one end of the building and mine at the other. The disadvantage of this arrangement was that the people we shared our rooms with were workers and all were up and ready to leave for work before 6:00am.

Friday 30 May

We left the hostel at around 10:00 am intending to drive to Windsor for a “look around” before driving on the Heathrow, however after taking over an hour to drive six miles we arrived at Windsor and turned around to the M4 to go to the airport, arriving six and a half hours before our flight. We are lucky to be leaving today as tomorrow there is to be a demonstration at the airport and access to the terminals will be very difficult.

We are currently sitting in the JAL Sakura lounge waiting to fly out to Japan where we will spend ten days before returning to Australia.

London to Bath and Beyond

Saturday 24 May

After breakfast we walked to the Avis depot to pick up our car and found we had been upgraded to a VW Passat with only 2 miles on the “clock”. Leaving the depot we drove up to West Cromwell Road and headed for the M4 along the A4 which wasn’t as congested as the roads into London on Tuesday.

When we merged onto the M4 the traffic speeded up for several kilometres then we saw a sign saying “traffic queued from junction 4B to 6”, which meant we were in first gear for several kilometres. After that the traffic flowed at about 100 km/hr until we left the M4 and rejoined the A4. We could have stayed on the M4 to Bath but we prefer to drive on smaller roads that pass through villages. After four and a half hours from leaving the depot we arrived at our friend’s house in Midford.

Sunday 25 May

As predicted, we awoke to heavy rain which was annoying as we had planned to go to the Westonbirt Arboretum for the day, however after breakfast the rain had eased so we decided we would go.

The arboretum was started as a private project in 1830 and carried on by subsequent generations of the family over the next 130 years before being given to the Forestry Commission who now manage it. The wooded areas cover over 600 acres with trees dating back to the original plantings but there are also trees that would have been mature specimens when the project started. The trees planted are from Europe, North America, Japan and China and many of the mature trees are over 35 m. high. One area has been planted with maples from several continents and there must have been over 100 varieties of Japanese maples planted to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Rotary.

Another area is designated as a season’s walk with hundreds of azaleas and rhododendrons in full flower, these were nestled amongst beeches, oaks, limes or lindens as they a known in Europe and elms. As well as all the European trees in the wooded area there are many varieties of pines, spruces, cedars and redwoods together with many Asian trees, these are not single plantings but there are often three up to ten of the one variety. The forest areas contains hundreds of different varieties of trees, most of which would be over a hundred years old and is the largest collection of mature trees I have seen anywhere in the world, the copper beeches in particular are magnificent.

The weather all day threatened to rain and we had a few shower while walking through the forest but this didn’t spoil our enjoyment of the trees, though if the sun had been shining through the trees the scenery would have been glorious.

After dinner we were invited by the owners of our old house for drinks and to see the improvements they have made, we were very impressed with the changes to the kitchen and bathroom and while modern they haven’t detracted from the old style of the house. When we sold the house we gave them the plans we had drawn up to convert the old chapel into a garage with a mezzanine floor garden house which would be on the same level as the garden, they have now completed the alterations exactly to our plans.

Monday 26 May

Today is a Bank Holiday in England and unlike the last time we were in Bath we already have a car so we don’t have a car hire company wanting 50 pounds to open the office.

After lunch we drove into Bath to visit Ann’s nephew and his wife and to have a look at the improvements to their garden and house since our last visit.

They have about half an acre of sloping land with an old farm house on the outskirts of Bath, when they purchased it both the house and the gardens was in need of a lot of work. The gardens have now been completed with sweeping lawns and subdued colours of garden plants and behind a hedge is a cottage garden with stone paths and strong vibrant colours. Lower down there is a series of vegetable gardens beds each enclosed with a box hedge. Scattered through the garden are several fruit trees and an enclosure for six bantam hens, this is surrounded by a four wire electric fence to deter the foxes and badgers.

The old stone farm house has stone flag floors in the kitchen and dining rooms and hand sawn floor board in the rest of the house, they are slowly replacing the lath and plaster walls and ceilings and have just started some extensions which will blend in with the existing house. Being on the edge of Bath the view from most of their windows are open fields or their gardens, a wonderful location and no more than two km. from the centre of Bath.

Tuesday 27 May

A quick visit to our Bank and a walk around the centre of Bath and we were heading north on the A46. Our first stop was at Dyrnham Park a stately home now owned by the National Trust. There has been a house on this site since at least 1086 and the fish pond is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

The last family to own it, the Blathwayt, inherited it in 1686 through marriage and William Blathwayt transformed the estate between the end of the 1600s and early 1700s and his Dutch Garden was famous throughout England. Over the years styles have changed and the gardens are now mainly lawns surrounded by garden beds and the balance of the 106 hectare park, a tranquil English landscape. A herd of deer have roamed here since 1620 when the owners received a Royal Charter granting them permission to enclose the park.

The house is the typical “country seat” multi story with walls lined with paintings and old weapons and rooms full of beautiful furniture. Downstairs the large kitchen fitted with old “appliances” and pots and huge workbenches, a feature was the old open fireplace with stand for kettles and pots and a large spit in front big enough for a whole sheep. The spit was operated by the hot air going up the chimney turning a “windmill” which was connected to a series of gears and chains to rotate it. Other rooms included a dairy room, meat storage and a bakery.

We finished our visit with tea, scones, jam and cream, the worst scones we have ever eaten, when we tried to cut them they were reduced to a plate full of crumbs which we attempted to stick together with the jam and cream. We reconciled ourselves with the fact that the profit was helping the National Trust, but someone needs a cooking lesson.

Leaving the park we drove towards Cirencester but skirted the town as our final destination for the day was Stow on the Wold. Some time after leaving Cirencester we noticed a small National Trust sign pointing towards a Roman Villa and having some time we decided to investigate it.

We had to drive about four miles along very narrow country lanes with little passing bays every now and then and arrived at the site two minutes before last entry. We didn’t know what to expect but thought it may be a few stones marking out old foundations and were very surprised to find many rooms, some with the original mosaic floors and the underfloor heating ducts. The ruins were discovered in 1864 and uncovered and roofs placed over the ruins to protect them it is thought the house was started in 120AD and was added to over three centuries so there must have been a very large farm to require such a grand mansion. Some of the rooms included a steam bath, a dry sauna, dining room and kitchen and living quarters, in the museum is a scale model of what is thought to be a good reproduction of the complex. It was well worth the detour.

After what was probably our shortest visit to a National Trust property we continued on to Stow on the Wold an old historic village and checked in to the Youth Hostel which is in a Grade II listed 17^th Century town house in the historic Cotswolds.

Greenwich

Friday 23 May

Our last day in London and we caught the Thames Ferry at the Embankment Wharf to travel down to Greenwich to meet a Sydney couple with whom we have corresponded for around 15 years on family history matters. Lionel is working in London for about two years on the Olympic Games Stadium site clean up before construction starts.

Arriving at the Greenwich Wharf which is beside the burnt out Cutty Sark, this old sailing ship is currently being restored after being badly damaged by fire, a short walk to the Old Greenwich Royal Hospital which was originally built as a home for sailors in the 1700s. After we met Helen we walked around to the old Trafalgar Inn which is on the edge of the Thames and sat at a table looking out on to the river mud flats just on tide change, by the time we finished lunch the river had risen by probably by 2 metres and still rising.

After lunch we walked to the old hospital which after is ceased to be a pensioners’ residence, became the Royal Naval College and is now part of the Greenwich University. We first went to the Painted Hall which was designed as the pensioners’ dining room but when completed it was considered too grand for pensioners and it wasn’t used as a dining room until the building was converted to the Naval College. It was in this room that Nelson’s body laid in state before being taken to St Paul’s Cathedral.

From the Painted Hall we walked across to the courtyard to the Chapel which is still in use, on the wall was a list of Chaplains starting in 1732, it was interesting to note that the chaplain before the current one was a women, it had only taken 270 years for a women to be appointed.

We then walked through Greenwich old market and the village before catching a bus back to the house they are renting, it was the coach house for the house next door and has been converted into a very comfortable house. After supper we caught the bus to North Greenwich station, which is beside the Millennium Dome and travelled on the Jubilee Line back into the city.

Tomorrow we leave for Bath, hopefully to stay with friends in the village where we had our house, we haven’t been able to contact them so maybe they have left town knowing we are coming.

This may be our last posting before we arrive in Japan at the end of the month as we may not be able to access the internet.

England and the Chelsea Flower Show

Friday 16 May

Off to England today but there is no rush as the train doesn’t leave Brussels until noon and hotel check out is 11:00.

Check in at the station was similar to an airport, boarding pass through a machine to open the entry gate then all luggage through the x-ray machine and passengers through the screening machine. After collecting our luggage we proceeded to the Belgium counter for a passport check and thought next stop would be the waiting area but no we then had a UK passport check.

When we were called to board we had quite a walk along the platform as the escalator deposited as carriage 14 and we were in carriage 2. The train departed within a few seconds of the advertised time and we were soon speeding through the Belgium countryside at up to 300 km/hr.

About an hour after leaving Brussels we noticed large green chain wire fences topped with barbed wire on both sides of the line, these were built to stop refugees trying to cross to England through the tunnel, shortly afterwards we entered the “Chunnel and popped out the other side in about 25 minutes. An hour and forty five minutes after leaving Brussels we arrived at Ebbsfleet International Station near Gravesend in Kent.

Avis had our car waiting and a signature on the bottom of the form saw us on our way and we were at my cousin’s home in Maidstone half an hour later.

Saturday 17 May

The weather forecast was correct, rain! We hadn’t planned anything for today so we were content to sit around and talk; I think after all the walking we have done over the last weeks it was good to do nothing.

Sunday 18 May

We awoke to clear skies although the breeze was rather cool, we had suggested we go out for lunch so my cousin thought Port Lympne (pronounced Lim) would be a nice place to go. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up at a wild life park and not the seaside.

Port Lympne is owned by the Aspinell Foundation and has the largest and most successful gorilla breeding colony in the world. We started on their African Safari, one hour on the back of an old army truck fitted with bench seats, driving around the large enclosures with various animals roaming free. At the end of the drive we walked for about three hours past the many exhibits but decided we wouldn’t have lunch in the park but would go to a little country pub appropriately called the Tiger Inn.

The pub was an old derelict building which was purchased by the local farmers and restored and is now run as a co-operative. Lunch was nearly supper as it was after 4:30 when we arrived but meals were still being served so we had a tasty pork roast whilst .sitting in a little cosy dining room. After a pint or two we left the pub around 6:30 to drive back to Maidstone, a rather late lunch.

Monday 19 May

After breakfast we drove down to Tenterden to visit another cousin, we have done the trip many times over the years and took a wrong turn early in the trip, however the roads are sign posted so well it only took a few minutes to work out our slight detour and get back on course.

When we arrived they were baby sitting their four year old granddaughter who is called Amber, the same as our first granddaughter. Rather than eat at home we drove to a nearby garden centre which has a very nice restaurant and enjoyed our lunch surrounded by seedlings and plants. After a four hour talk fest we headed back to Maidstone.

Tuesday 20 May

After breakfast we headed for London, one problem with driving to London is if you stray into the Congestion Zone you are charged eight pounds or ten if you don’t pay by midnight. Before leaving I accessed the Automobile Association web site and downloaded three pages of instruction how to get from Maidstone to Earl’s Court. Without these instructions I doubt if we would have found the hotel as roads suddenly become one way and we had to drive in a loop to get back on the road when it became two way again.

We eventually arrived at the hotel after being directed by the instructions which appeared to have us driving around in circles, our last turn from a main road was only 200 m from the start of the Congestion Zone; well done AA. Because parking was almost impossible we dropped our luggage at the hotel and continued on to the Avis depot to return the car and walked back to check in. The hotel is only a few minutes walk from the Earl’s Court and West Brompton underground stations so it will be easy to get around in London over the next few days.

Wednesday 21 May

Today was going to be a quiet day in London as we hadn’t planned anything, I have been coming to the UK for 56 years and Ann for 33 years and over the years we have just about “done it all”. So after breakfast we set off for the museums and walking up to Earl’s Court Road we crossed over intending to walk along some quieter streets rather the Cromwell Road. When we entered the side street off Earl’s Court Road we noticed a big red “C” painted on the road and a series of overhead cameras, this was the start of the congestion zone so yesterday if we had turned left instead of right we would have incurred an eight pound charge.

Arriving at the Natural History Museum there was a very long queue and one of a similar length at the Science Museum so we walked on to Harrods to have a wander through the food hall and to have a look at the height of bad taste and an old man's delusion, the ring and wine glass supposedly used by Diana.

From Harrods we walked up to Hyde Park and watched a squad of young mounted Horse Guards soldiers being put through their paces by a drill sergeant, I have seen a “bag of spuds” ride with more style and grace, they didn’t have a clue. When they dismounted, some of them were so small and looked so young I thought they may have been on a primary school outing, but after their drill they crossed the road into the barracks, so they must have been new recruits.

From the park we walked back to the Science Museum and after about an hour realized that we covered all the floors on previous visits, so walked around to the Natural History Museum where we spent an enjoyable few hours on the ground floor in the Dinosaur and mammal exhibit, so we will have to return to check out some of the upper floors as I’m not sure which ones we have covered in the past.

For tea we decided to walk up to one of the many pubs nearby and after a meal and a beer we returned to the hotel to watch the final of the European Cup between Chelsea and Manchester United, which had started while we were in the pub and at the moment it is 3 – 2 Chelsea in the penalty shoot out.

Stop Press: Manchester United won 5 – 4 on penalties.

Thursday 22 May

Today is our day to visit the Chelsea Flower Show so we caught the train to Sloane’s Square and walked down to garden site and joined the queue to have our bags searched before we entered the show. The days of arriving at the gate to buy a ticket have long gone; all tickets are pre sold months before the event.

After entering we walked down the first lane which was lined with stalls selling everything from multi coloured or floral Wellingtons (gum boots), artists original flower drawings, statues, garden tools and seeds. After we walked along the lane we set off to view the 21 gardens designed and constructed for the show. As expected most of the gardens were designed using plants normally associated with English gardens, a large number also contained water features. It was interesting to see a couple of gardens had Australian tree ferns and other natives incorporated in their display, and the one that attracted a lot of attention was the one designed by Jamie Durie which featured 100% Australian native plants, the first time ever at Chelsea.

To quote the BBC web site; “Capturing the essence of Australia has been the main inspiration behind this year's garden design by Jamie Durie. The garden is representative of the different facets of the country with a vast sweeping and undulating deck that represents both our vast golden beaches as well as our deserts, while a stylised pool at the foreground of the design is representative of wetlands found in Kakadu. The heartland of the country is highlighted by the work of Australian indigenous artist, Gabriella Possum, at the rear of the garden. Her work is painted onto a 20-metre-long wall, which represents the deep red earth of Central Australia. Amazing Kimberley sandstone, mined from Western Australia, forms a stacked stone wall that holds the garden beds apart from the deck. The plants are all Australian natives and feature some of our iconic plants including Macrozamia moorei trees and Xanthorrhoea species typical to the Western Australian bush.”

If you want to see a video of the garden and Jamie describing it go to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/chelsea/show_gardens/flemings.shtml

And to view all the gardens check out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/chelsea/show_gardens/

After we walked around all the garden displays we entered the huge pavilion to see the displays provided by many nurseries, bulbs, cacti, tropical plants, carnivorous plants, roses, Australian natives, liliums, just to name a few. For anyone interested in gardening the range and types of plants, flowers and vegetables were wonderful, but frustrating when we realised that while many could be grown in Australia, our water problems make it impractical to attempt to cultivate them.

After six hours of delight we headed up to Sloane Square to meet a friend for coffee before returning to our hotel.

Kent and on to London

Friday 16 May

Off to England today but there is no rush as the train doesn’t leave Brussels until noon and hotel check out is 11:00.

Check in at the station was similar to an airport, boarding pass through a machine to open the entry gate then all luggage through the x-ray machine and passengers through the screening machine. After collecting our luggage we proceeded to the Belgium counter for a passport check and thought next stop would be the waiting area but no we then had a UK passport check.

When we were called to board we had quite a walk along the platform as the escalator deposited as carriage 14 and we were in carriage 2. The train departed within a few seconds of the advertised time and we were soon speeding through the Belgium countryside at up to
300 km/hr.

About an hour after leaving Brussels we noticed large green chain wire fences topped with barbed wire on both sides of the line, these were built to stop refugees trying to cross to England through the tunnel, shortly afterwards we entered the “Chunnel and popped out the other side in about 25 minutes. An hour and forty five minutes after leaving Brussels we arrived at Ebbsfleet International Station near Gravesend in Kent.

Avis had our car waiting and a signature on the bottom of the form saw us on our way and we were at my cousin’s home in Maidstone half an hour later.

Saturday 17 May

The weather forecast was correct, rain! We hadn’t planned anything for today so we were content to sit around and talk; I think after all the walking we have done over the last weeks it was good to do nothing.

Sunday 18 May

We awoke to clear skies although the breeze was rather cool, we had suggested we go out for lunch so my cousin thought Port Lympne (pronounced Lim) would be a nice place to go. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up at a wild life park and not the seaside.

Port Lympne is owned by the Aspinell Foundation and has the largest and most successful gorilla breeding colony in the world. We started on their African Safari, one hour on the back of an old army truck fitted with bench seats, driving around the large enclosures with various animals roaming free. At the end of the drive we walked for about three hours past the many exhibits but decided we wouldn’t have lunch in the park but would go to a little country pub appropriately called the Tiger Inn.

The pub was an old derelict building which was purchased by the local farmers and restored and is now run as a co-operative. Lunch was nearly supper as it was after 4:30 when we arrived but meals were still being served so we had a tasty pork roast whilst .sitting in a little cosy dining room. After a pint or two we left the pub around 6:30 to drive back to Maidstone, a rather late lunch.

Monday 19 May

After breakfast we drove down to Tenterden to visit another cousin, we have done the trip many times over the years and took a wrong turn early in the trip, however the roads are sign posted so well it only took a few minutes to work out our slight detour and get back on course.

When we arrived they were baby sitting their four year old granddaughter who is called Amber, the same as our first granddaughter. Rather than eat at home we drove to a nearby garden centre which has a very nice restaurant and enjoyed our lunch surrounded by seedlings and plants. After a four hour talk fest we headed back to Maidstone.

Tuesday 20 May

After breakfast we headed for London, one problem with driving to London is if you stray into the Congestion Zone you are charged eight pounds or ten if you don’t pay by midnight. Before leaving I accessed the Automobile Association web site and downloaded three pages of instruction how to get from Maidstone to Earl’s Court. Without these instructions I doubt if we would have found the hotel as roads suddenly become one way and we had to drive in a loop to get back on the road when it became two way again.

We eventually arrived at the hotel after being directed by the instructions which appeared to have us driving around in circles, our last turn from a main road was only 200 m from the start of the Congestion Zone; well done AA. Because parking was almost impossible we dropped our luggage at the hotel and continued on to the Avis depot to return the car and walked back to check in. The hotel is only a few minutes walk from the Earl’s Court and West Brompton underground stations so it will be easy to get around in London over the next few days.

Ghent

Thursday 15 May

Today is our last full day in Europe so we decided to spend it in Ghent a town midway between Brussels and Brugge a distance of 58 km. The trains run every half hour and the train we caught ran express from Brussels taking thirty minutes to arrive in Ghent, when we compare the trip from Middle Brighton to the City which takes 22 minutes, it make you realise what a pathetic train system we have in Victoria and a country system that is almost non existence.

Ghent is a city that is not on the itinerary of a lot of tours but it is a city well worth the visit being a very old trading city on rivers and canals. In medieval times was the second biggest city in Europe next to Paris and with wool imported from England was Europe’s largest cloth manufacturer, it had a direct connection to the sea via rivers and canals to Brugge which was an active port, since those days the sea has retreated and Brugge is about 40 km from the sea. With the loss of access to the sea in the 1700s Ghent importance waned as it didn’t have a direct access for its imports and exports.

From the station we caught a tram to the city centre and a very helpful tourist information centre provided an excellent map and walking guide to the old town starting from the Belfry which towers over the town. As expected the route took us next to the Cathedral which is best known for its painting of The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by the Van Eyck brothers, another church we visited in town also had a Van Eyck painting.

Our tour took us past buildings dating back to the 1500s and through many old squares, several of which had old trade guild houses from the prosperous days of the town, Masons, Tanners, Mariners and many others. We arrived at the bank of one of the rivers to find a large cannon “Mad Meg” which is 425 years old and has never fired a shot, there is a twin to this cannon at Edinburgh Castle. A little further on we entered the old Butcher’s Market, a large building with huge rough sawn timber trusses which is now used to promote local produce, an interesting feature were all the hams hanging on strings from the beams.

Further on we arrived at the Castle of the Counts originally built in 1180 and which has been restored, our entrance fee included the use of a little video unit which had actors re-enacting scenes from the days of the original count. The castle also has a display of ancient weapons and armour together with a display of instruments of torture and execution, including the guillotine which was used by the town until 1861.

The walking tour led us to several churches, all with the size and grandeur of a cathedral; we are amazed at the number of large churches, even in small towns, and wonder how the population can support them. The art works in a lot of these churches are worthy of an art gallery and in Belgium there are paintings from many of the old Flemish Masters hanging in churches.

After concluding our walk we returned to one of the rivers to take an hour’s tour along the rivers and canals around the town, this gave us a different view of the town. Just as the river tour concluded it started to rain heavily and we ran to the tram stop and managed to attract the driver’s attention before he drove off, which saved us a fifteen minutes wait in the rain. Arriving at the station we again had to run for the train and just made it on board before the doors closed and like our trip in the morning we arrived in Brussels thirty minutes later and nine and a half hours after we left this morning.

Tomorrow we leave for England on the Eurostar through the “Chunnel” and I’m not sure when we will next access the internet.

Brussels - Day 2

Wednesday 14 May

A slow start this morning and we didn’t leave the hotel until 10:00, catching the train to Central and walking to view the statue known around the world “Manneken Pis” which is, like the “Little Mermaid” in Copenhagen, quite diminutive and not as expected. Walking around some of the smaller streets in Brussels Central we found two more statues with a similar theme as the little boy. “Warning the following photos may offend.”

We decided that we would eat our midday meal at a restaurant and found a little lane which ran into a narrow street, both lined with restaurants specialising in seafood and chose a local favourite, mussels cooked in white wine and a small plate of French fries, accompanied with a small bowl of salad and a half bottle of wine. The meal was most enjoyable but we wouldn’t want t do it every day as it cost $117 for the two of us.

After lunch we walked up to the cathedral, a large twin towered Gothic building, the stained glass windows throughout the cathedral were more like historic paintings than religious windows, with historic events portrayed. The pulpit which was carved by Hendrick Verbruggen from oak had among many of the scenes, Adam and Eve being chased from the Garden of Eden by a skeleton. A side chapel had a most unusual altar, two bronze pelicans supporting a glass top.

Our next stop was at the Parliament House, a very plain and uninteresting building nothing like the parliaments in other capital cities. Over the road was the Belgium Park also very uninteresting, very little grass, no flowers and uneven dirt tracks, we thought the park linking parliament and the Royal Palace would be a show place, it certainly didn’t attract many people on a warm day. We walked on to the Palace of Justice a building reminiscent of St Paul’s in London and topped with a gold dome and a surmounted by gold crown, and like many large buildings in Europe it was also decorated with scaffolding, which we call European Art, this was confirmed as art years ago when we visited the Louvre and they had scaffolding all through the galleries, so it must be art.

Brussels centre is a series of cobblestone winding streets and lanes, many for pedestrians only and it must be a nightmare for drivers. There must be a huge amount of money spent throughout Europe on repair and restoration of buildings and Brussels is no exception, with many old buildings covered in scaffolding. Also throughout Brussels there are large comic strip murals on the walls of buildings and many are based on the adventures of the comic strip hero Tin Tin, there is even a walking guide to find them.

We thought Brussels to be rather grubby with areas outside buildings and footpaths littered with cigarette butts and at lunch time today a waiter from an adjoining restaurant came out for a cigarette and just threw the burning butt on the street and went inside. Throughout Europe there aren’t any restrictions on smoking in restaurants and bars and at times this practice spoiled the enjoyment of our meal, but if it’s allowed you can’t complain. Another thing they don’t seem to bother about is cleaning up after their dogs so you have to spend as much time watching where you put your feet as looking at the sights. All that aside, we have had a wonderful time so far and the people we have met have been very helpful and friendly and we have enjoyed all the places we have visited.

Brussels

Tuesday 13 May

The hotel in Luxembourg is in a street which is closed to traffic while they replace the water pipes; consequently we had to drag our cases across gravel to get to the hotel. To compound the problems, a film crew has been working in the street and their portable generator ran till 4:00 am this morning; time to move on to Brussels.

We planned to catch the 9:24 train but we arrived at the station in time to catch the 9:04. We soon crossed over into Belgium as the country of Luxembourg is only 54 km wide and the train was travelling at 100 km/hr+. We noticed the change in farming, other countries we have travelled through appeared to concentrate on cropping and we hardly saw an animal in the fields, this morning every farm had cattle in the fields and there was very little cropping. Hay making has already commenced which seems very early in the season but as their cattle are indoors throughout winter the farmers need to produce a lot of feed for the winter months and they probably are able to harvest the grass several times in a season, unlike Australian farmers who only get one cut.

We arrived in Brussels just on noon and as our hotel is about 300 m from the main station we arrived two hours before check in time but they let us into our room early. After lunch we caught the train back to the central station, which is closer to the old part of town and wandered around for a few house to get our bearings. As we managed to go the whole day in Luxembourg yesterday without entering a church the strain was too much so we just had to visit two churches, an RC and an Orthodox, so we didn’t get religious withdrawals.

We also had a quick look at the Grand Place or town square which is bordered on all sides by magnificent buildings, the town hall building was commenced in 1402 and I think the youngest building was constructed in the 1600s. From what we saw this afternoon I think we will enjoy our walk around Brussels tomorrow, particularly with all the chocolate shops around town.

I have just downloaded a photo sent to us from the hostel we stayed in at Erfurt, so in case you have forgotten what we look like, here it is!

Saturday 10 May

As we had planned to catch a train earlier than on the last few trips we went down to breakfast just before time to find everything still locked up and the girl hadn’t arrived, it was also her first day preparing breakfast so we had to advise her what to do and so had a rushed breakfast.

To save time we cut through the park instead of following the road and arrived at the station with plenty of time to spare. Lining the stairs to one of the platforms were more than twenty police in full riot gear and the concourse was full of Erfurt football fans who, we understood, were going to catch a train to the match. While we waited on our platform another twenty or more riot police lined the opposite platform beside a waiting train. And we thought Collingwood fans were unruly.

Our first train leg today was, we thought, to Frankfurt and we would have changed trains there as the stop after that was the airport station, luckily we happened to look at our reservation for the next train and discovered it left from the airport.

Our next leg was to Koblenz and shortly after leaving Frankfurt the train ran parallel to the Rhine River; passing through Mainz and it was just before arriving in Koblenz that we left the river. It was interesting to travel beside the river in the opposite direction to the way we sailed three weeks ago and it was the section with all the castles so we were able to view them again.

We change trains again and shortly after leaving Koblenz we ran beside the Moselle River, revisiting towns that we had sailed past previously. Our first stop was Cochem and while in the station we could see the magnificent Reichsburg Castle we had visited on our cruise and high above our head was the lookout that we had caught the chairlift to. Leaving the station we entered the 4.5 km tunnel built in the late 1800s, quite an engineering feat. For the next hour we crossed and recrossed the Moselle River as it cork screwed its way along, finally arriving in Luxembourg seven hours after leaving Erfurt.

Now we have to adjust to people speaking French and try to use the little French we know, which is almost non existent and after spending thirty two days in Germany, it may be difficult as we have already found ourselves using German phrases since we arrived in Luxembourg. We later found that French, German and Luxenbourgesse are all official languages. The later is a mixture of the first two and it was declared an official language in 1984.

Sunday 11 May

Being Sunday we decided to leave our walk a little later than usual, so it was after ten when we started. As we arrived in Luxembourg yesterday we saw a very deep valley beside the train line but didn’t realise its significance. Walking up to the old city we crossed a single arch stone bridge erected in 1900 and at the time it had the longest stone arch in the world. The valley the bridge spans is one of the reasons the site for the town was chosen in 963 as the valley walls helped provide a secure location.

Over the years the town was captured by armies of various European countries and each improved the defences until it had the one of the best defences in the world and it was called the “Gibraltar of the North”. So strong were the town’s defences that the Treaty of London, signed by the European Superpowers in 1867, stipulated that the town’s defences be pulled down.

When we arrived at William Square in the Old Town we decided to book for an English walking tour and when it started we found that it was also a German tour and the guide’s main language was German but she added enough English for us to follow. The tour took us past the Grand Duke’s Palace, Parliament House and on to the edge of some of the old walls looking down into the Petrusse and Alzette Valleys which appeared to be 50 m. or more below us, from there we could also view some remnants of the old walls below us. Walking on we arrived at St Michael’s Church which was originally built on the site at the time of the town’s founding, but like many old churches has been extended and rebuilt several times in its history.

The walk took us through several small lanes and past many old building before arriving at the city’s Notre-Dame Cathedral, a very simple Gothic building, from there we returned to our starting point. When we started the tour we were given a very comprehensive walking tour guide of the city and we only covered a small part of the points of interest so we have a good starting point for tomorrow.

Monday 12 May

The sun was shining again this morning so I decided I would end the week of sunny weather by wearing shorts, but the weather gods continued to smile, another 25C day.

We walked up to the multi arched stone Viaduct Bridge and followed a winding lane down to the floor of the Alzette Valley and crossing the river followed the course of the old Wenzel (Wenceslas) wall past several round towers over an old walled bridge and climbed up to the town level. Walking along the path at the base of the cliffs we could see what appeared to be caves in the cliff face, these were openings from the 23 km of man made tunnels built beneath the town and in times of danger could house thousands of people and horses and all the services needed to support them.

Once we arrived at town level we walked back through the old town to the old walls and cliffs at the north of the town and climbed up some stone steps to the start of a series of three parks. These parks were full of people enjoying the sun as today is the Pentecost Holiday and like yesterday very few businesses in town are open and only the larger restaurants were operating, thank goodness for the “thermos” and bread roll from breakfast.

Crossing the road at the end of the parks we walked down a steep winding path to the floor of the Petrusse Valley and followed what was once a stream but is now a concrete viaduct to the base of the viaduct bridge and climbed several hundred stone steps which brought us back to our starting point and a kilometre walk back to our hotel, a pleasant seven and a half hour stroll.

Erfurt

Wednesday 7 May

A much quieter night last night, I don’t know if there was anyone else on our floor, if there was we didn’t hear them. The room we were “upgraded” to in the hotel section (“and we won’t charge the additional amount”) was actually smaller than the room we had in the hostel section, so I suspect A & O Hostel/Hotels charge more for less by calling the room a hotel room.

We have been staying in hostels for over 20 years and this was the noisiest one we have stayed in, hostels usually have a noise curfew and anyone not complying is asked to leave. When I asked the manager why A & O Hostels didn’t enforce a noise curfew and ask people to leave, he said ‘we would lose half the students staying at the hostel”, it doesn’t matter if other guests are disturbed. If this is the attitude of the company at their other hostels in Germany and Prague we wouldn’t recommend A & O Hostels to anyone.

As well as being noisy the hostel was cold and clinical, most places have a warm and welcoming feel but this hostel had as much warmth as a morgue slab. However the desk staff were very charming and helpful, it is probably the company policy and sterile box construction, building and rooms, that makes is such a cold place.

On a happier note, it was another warm sunny day, two in a row, and travelling on the train to Erfurt through a wonderfully green countryside with hectare after hectare of cereal and canola crops, the sun shining on the yellow flowers of the canola was a beautiful sight.

Another part of the scenery which we should have mentioned before, all through Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany there has been clumps of lilacs everywhere, in parks, the woods, along the side of the railway and lining farm fields, ranging from white to the deepest purple and the perfume when we have walked past them, has been overpowering

To further brighten our day, when we arrived at the Re4hostel in Erfurt we found it to be in a heritage listed old Police Station, large comfortable rooms and a nice outdoor area, with a well kept garden, to sit and enjoy a coffee and very friendly staff. After checking in we walked into the old town area for dinner, through winding lanes lined with lovely old buildings and from what we saw we are going to enjoy our time here.

Erfurt has a very old university founded in 1392 which closed in 1816 but was reopened in 1994; probably its most famous student was Martin Luther who graduated in 1505.

Thursday 8 May

After a good night’s sleep, we awoke with the sun streaming into our room, a record three days in a row; our room is decorated with original oil paintings and pots of plants and is about three times the size of the box at our previous hostel. A nice breakfast and we were ready to tackle the town.

We walked back to the main station, but unlike the way we came last night, through a park and continued up the Bahnhofstrasse to the Reglerkirche, one of many old churches in the town, this church has a carved altar, dating back to 1460. Further on we arrived at the old fish market square, dominated on one side by the Rathaus and on two other sides by Renaissance houses from the 1500s. A short distance from the square is the medieval Kramerbrucke (Merchants Bridge), 120 m long and Europe’s longest bridge with houses on both sides, walking across the bridge we viewed it from the outside and the stream flows underneath through three arches.

Our next stop, on what has all the appearances of a religious pilgrimage, was the Augustine Church and Cloisters, home to an order of Protestant Nuns but in the early 1500s it was a monastery. Martin Luther was a monk her from 1505 to 1511, after he graduated from the university and it was here that he read his first mass after being ordained as a priest.

We decided that we would go back to the hostel and have a relaxing afternoon and as we approached another church, heard organ music so decided to enter and we were entertained for about twenty minutes by the organist practicing. The church was St Michaels were Martin Luther preached in 1522 (this is beginning to sound like a religious instruction class) and it has a decorated organ built in 1652. When we arrived back at the hostel we were advised by the owner that we have what the locals call “Spring Tiredness”, so that was a good excuse to sit and do nothing for the rest of the afternoon. “Here endeth the lesson”.

After a rest and a G & T we felt ready to face the walk back into town for dinner in an old “Beer House” a very old building with dark timber panelled walls and the passage to the bar lit with candles. The owners must have gone to every garage sale and op shop around as there wasn’t a spot on the walls that wasn’t covered with old photos and many old enamelled advertising signs, going back to the 1880s. The photos included family groups, school photos, people in military uniform and many others, together with old wood cuts and etchings; we wondered what stories were attached to all these photos. After a meal of Thuringen Bratwurst and Bratkatoffeln (sausages and fried sliced potatoes) washed down with a local beer we walked back to the hostel for a coffee.

Friday 8 May

Another bonus a sunny day and we set out to continue our religious pilgrimage. In the Middle Ages Erfurt had ninety churches, convents and monasteries which gives some indication of its wealth and that it was on several trading routes, today it has twenty churches. I suppose the reason it still has so many is that the government levies all Christians a 9% church tax in addition to their income tax, this money is used to support the day to day running and maintenance of churches in Germany.

We arrived at Dom Platz, the square below the cathedral to find the annual three day flower and plant market had just begun, there must have been fifty plant and seedling stalls together with food and handcraft stalls and a stage with several band and traditional singers.

Climbing the 70 steps to Marien Cathedral which is built on an artificial hill, we realised that there is another large church, St Severus right beside it and wondered if they compete for a congregation or take it in turns to hold services.

Climbing an even larger hill we arrived at the gateway to the Petersberg Citadel a large complex covering 36 hectares and surrounded with 20 m high walls. We joined a guided tour, all in German, but we were able to gain some information and the guide added a few words of /English from time to time. The reason we joined the tour was to visit the labyrinth of tunnels which had been built under the complex as these can only be viewed on a tour. We didn’t obtain a complete understanding why they were built but we think as part of the defences and to provide an escape route if necessary, though they would have to dig their way out as the tunnels don’t have any openings outside the walls even though they extend well past them. They were also used for food storage as cellars had been built open off the tunnels and one had a well.

Returning to the old town we walked around several street we had missed yesterday and found some more historic houses and a few churches, I don’t think we could have missed many churches over the two days.

Another interesting feature of the town is the River Gera which is only about ten metres wide; it splits and rejoins many times as it meanders through the town creating a lot of small islands. It also appears to flow in a circle around the old town’s perimeter but that channel appears to be man made.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to a quiet day on our way to Luxembourg, if one considers three different trains and a six and a half hour trip a quiete day.

Dresden - Day Two

Tuesday 6 May

How typical, the day we plan to visit the Hygiene Museum the sun is shining and we will be indoors for a large part of the day.

The Hygiene Museum was started in the early 1900s and in the 1930s they produced the first transparent human complete with bones, muscles and arteries. The museum was developed to unlock the mysteries of the human body for the general public and like many other institutions in Germany it was high jacked by the Nazis to use for political propaganda and several of the doctors including the Director fled to the United States.

The museum deals with all aspects of the human body from conception to death, all the senses and organs, interactive displays, films, models of various organs and many preserved part of the human body are displayed. The display also covered social science, history and scientific research together with scientific instruments both old and new. The scope of the exhibition covers every imaginable part of the human body from DNA to reactions in the brain from various stimuli. As a large part of the explanations accompanying the displays were in German we probably didn’t spend as much time as many visitors but still spent nearly four hours to cover all the display.

The museum also mounts temporary exhibitions for up to six months and the current display is on happiness, luck and fortune, walking through this display and the children’s museum meant we spent over five hours at the museum.

From the museum we walked to the Old Town to the Church of the Holy Cross and just missed a fifteen minute organ recital, so we continued to the Church of our Lady to view the interior which is rather grand and colourful for a Protestant Church with the Altar and surrounds similar to some of the Baroque Churches we have visited but not as busy.

While we were sitting in the church around two hundred school children, ranging in age from around ten to fifteen, trooped in and assembled in the Choir, as the European's call it, and proceeded to rehearse for a concert in the church tonight. The quality of the singing of a very difficult classical piece and the acoustics of the church silenced every visitor. We later learned that this was a World Childrens’ Choir with children from, Australia (Adelaide), Hungary, Africa, America, China and other countries and this was the first time they had sung together, the harmonies of the various parts was amazing and although the conductor asked them to repeat some passages again I think he was quite impressed.

From the church we retraced our steps past some of the old buildings to the Augustus Bridge an, old stone bridge with around eight arches and walked over it to the New Town. Unlike the Old Town only a few of the old buildings have been restored and this side of the Elbe River and it is very modern. We spent about an hour walking around and stopped for a meal before walking the three km back to the hostel and hopefully a quiet night. After complaining to the manager about the noise last night we have been upgraded to a better room on the fifth floor and given a discount on our account.

Tomorrow we leave for Erfurt.

Dresden

Monday 5 May

Yesterday, shortly after leaving the Dresden station, a lady asked us in German, how to find the airport bus when we replied that we had only just arrived she answered in English. It turned that she is working in Dresden but used to live in Parkdale and teach at Brighton, Wilson St. Primary School, small world!

Today we thought we would visit some museums as the weather threatened rain but found out that every thing is closed on Monday, so set off on a walking tour of the Old Town. Around the railway station there are many modern pedestrian malls and every where we looked there were more buildings under construction, there was hardly a city block without some development. From our knowledge of WW2, Dresden was fire bombed in Feb 1945 and from all accounts totally destroyed, so we were surprised how many old building there are in the Old Town, however inside the ones we visited there were photos of the building after the bombings, in a lot of cases just a burnt out shell remained but the reconstruction has restored these old buildings to their former grandeur.

The old town hall was destroyed but the tower remained and a new “old style” building has been built around the tower. The Protestant Church of the Holy Cross has been restored in its original form but the inside is very plain almost as if a cement wash has been put on all the walls, further on, in a large square is the Church of Our Lady with a statue of Martin Luther outside, restoration of this Protestant Church was completed in 2005, aided with donations from around the world. We weren’t able to view the interior as an organ recital was in progress but hope to return tomorrow.

Today we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at one of the many street side restaurants, a schnitzel, mushrooms and hash browns, a glass of wine and coffee for two reduced the drag on my hip pocket by the equivalent of $75, next time we will eat at the edge of town. Walking on we arrived at the terrace overlooking the Elbe River and a view of the New Town, this section of town didn’t appear to have as many old buildings, beside us, where we stood was the very large classical Kunst Academy with its glass dome and the names of many old, painters, writers and philosophers engraved on its façade. Following the river around we arrived at the Roman Catholic Cathedral which had also been restored in its original style and the interior was very plain compared to the Baroque style churches we visited along the rivers. Beside the cathedral was the old Royal Palace and along the façade of the old stables building is a 102 m. long mural, the Procession of Princes, the scene, a long row of royalty on horses was first painted in the 1870s and then transferred onto 24,000 Meissen Porcelain tiles in 1904.

At the rear of the palace is the Zwinger, the home of many museums built around a large grassed courtyard with fountains, on three sides of the courtyard was a parapet which enabled us to view the intricate patterns cut into the grass and also have a close up look at the Glockenspiel with its bells made of Meissen Porcelain.

As it had started to rain we walked the 2 km back to the hostel to find that we were sharing the floor with a bus load of young secondary students running riot, kicking and banging on doors and slamming them and yelling in the corridor. We tolerated the noise for about half an hour but being a pair of “Grumpy Bums” we headed to reception seeking a teacher, who typically was resident on another floor well away from the noise. It has been relatively quite for the last hour or so but the noise level is slowly increasing again.

A & O Hostels obviously aren't concerned about people disrupting other resident peace because we have complained to reception and they don't seem to care. At midnight Ann went out and asked them to be quiet and go to their rooms and at 3:00 am I went down and got the night manager who sat in the corridor until everything was quiet. We certainly won't recommend A & O Hostels to anyone.

Vienna to Prague and on to Dresden

Thursday 1 May

This morning, as we were packing to leave, we heard a brass band and looking out the window we saw, what appeared to be a children’s band marching past the railway station accompanied by many people carrying red flags, it is May Day. Shortly afterwards another band, dressed in traditional Austrian costumes, marched past directly under our window, they were also accompanied by flag and banner carrying people.

We walked down to the main railway station and caught the tram to the south station, compared to most of the modern Vienna trams this line operates with trams old enough to be in a museum. On the way to the station the tram entered a tunnel and the next four stops were underground before emerging just before the Sudbahnhof to catch our train. Prague was just a stop along the way for our train as it continued on to Dresden and Berlin before finally finishing at Hamburg, I don’t know how long the total trip would take as the Vienna to Prague leg was 4 ½ hours.

Travelling through the Austrian countryside we were surprised how flat is was and the crops in the fields were planted in strips instead of planting the whole field with one crop, so the yellow, green, brown patterns (canola, wheat, fallow) were replicated time and time again, this and the absence of any livestock was quite different to the Australian countryside. The other noticeable difference is that all the countryside is green.

Shortly after leaving Vienna we passed an apple orchard, unlike any we have seen. The rows of trees, about 200 metres long and 3 metres apart, the trees in the rows planted so close together appeared to have been pruned with a hedge trimmer and looking down the rows the appearance was of a green hedge around 1 ½ metres wide and 1.8 metres high.

At the border the Austrian train crew were replaced with a Czech crew and soon the country changed, the flat open plains were replaced with wooded hills and the arable land was in much smaller lots. One farm we passed there were several men planting a ploughed field by hand and their equipment was carried on a horse drawn cart, not a tractor to be seen. The houses and towns were similar to those in Hungary, very run down and in need of a lot of maintenance but in the larger centres, as in Hungary, there appeared to be a lot of construction of new buildings.

The train system is very good compared to home, the carriages are clean and comfortable with a nice dining car and stand up buffet catering for the passengers and the electric locos travel swiftly, much faster than the Victorian Sprinters. Since leaving Budapest and travelling to Vienna and on to Prague all the line has been electrified, I don’t know how many hundreds of kilometres we have travelled but when compared to Victoria, which once had an electrified line to Traralgon, 160 km, which our progressive government pulled out, it makes us realise how pathetic Victoria’s train system is, or non train system as the case may be.

Arriving in Prague we were able to draw some Czech money from an ATM, this was necessary as the Czech Republic like Hungary still use their own currency and not Euros, we were then able to buy a ticket on the Metro, which was handy as our accommodation was a ten minute ride away. We have a self contained room in a hostel but unlike others we have stayed in, it faces onto a lawn and garden area and well away from the main building so it should be very peaceful.

Dinner tonight was at a restaurant brewery which still produces several beers on the premises and the brewing vats were behind a glass wall in the restaurant. The walls and display windows were full of old brewing and bottling equipment and photos as well as barrel making equipment. We had to queue for about twenty minutes before we could obtain a seat but the meal of venison, cranberries and dumplings with a half litre of their beer made the wait worthwhile. We could have had eight 100 ml sample glasses of the various brews but cherry, nettle, banana, wheat or coffee beers to name a few, didn’t appeal to us.

Back to the hostel with its comfortable bed and light weight doonas gave us a great night’s sleep.

Friday 2 May

Breakfast this morning was in the hostel garden, for two reasons, the sun was shining and the dining room was full. After breakfast we set off to explore the Old Town of Prague, we had heard that Prague was the place to visit for Europeans but nothing prepared us for the crowds, literally thousands packing the squares, lanes and churches and this before the tourist season has started. Yesterday was the May Day holiday in a lot of countries so perhaps people have taken a long weekend and come to Prague for the break and like us made their first stop in the Old Town Square to view the Astronomical Clock chime the hour, there were so many people with guides it was difficult to get a clear view of the clock with the guides holding up their umbrellas, flowers, flags, sticks and folders to rally their charges, like a hen clucking to its chickens.

There are two churches on the edge of the square, Tyn Church and St Nicholas and after the Baroque excesses we had viewed in churches along the Rhine, Moselle and Danube Rivers these were quite subdued. Nearly every church we visited or passed today had advertisements for classical music concerts during the day and in the evening; if we had a week to spare we could have enjoyed the works of many of the great composers of Europe. At the edge of the square Ann found another of her "friends", but as usual they didn't want to talk to her.

Walking from the square we entered the old Jewish section of the town, with its museums, synagogues and old cemetery, which is now closed for burials but while it was in use they kept topping it up with earth until they had twelve layers of people buried.

The museum has one of the most extensive collections of Judaic art and artefacts in the world and was started in 1906 and after the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia the Rabbis suggested that the Nazis set up a central museum for all the Jewish Memorial objects and artefacts that they were confiscating throughout the region. This was agreed to by the Nazis but for a different reason to the Rabbis, the Rabbis wanted to save their precious objects but the Nazis set it up as a museum of an extinct race.

From the Jewish town we walked on to the Vltava River and the Rudolfinum, the concert hall. While we were admiring the building and the statue of Dvorak, a convoy of around thirty restored US jeeps, blitz wagons, trucks and an old staff car drove into the square, all the drivers and crews were dressed in authentic US uniforms and carried WW2 weapons, side arms, rifles and machine guns mounted on the jeeps, we thought the Yanks were coming to win the war again. I must check my dates on the end of the war in Europe; 5th May rings a bell, so maybe this was to commemorate the end of the war, because the Russians "liberated" Prague.

We then crossed the river and climbed several hundred steps to the top of a hill where a giant metronome is erected; its steadily beating arm is visible from the old town. The walls lining the steps and all the walls throughout the park are covered with graffiti; it’s a shame to see such lovely old structures defaced and at the top the skate boarders have ripped up steps to make ramps. However the surrounding parkland and the view of the old town and all the bridges across the river was stunning.

We walked on through the park past what we think was the old summer palace, in the process of restoration, with the intention of making our way down to the old stone Charles Bridge and back across the river, instead we arrived at the back of the castle but we had the bonus of seeing the guard being changed.

Walking through the castle courtyard we found a street that took us down the hill past the new town St Nicholas Church and eventually arrived at the Charles Bridge. This wasn’t a good move as the crowds were packed and moving very slowly, when we reached the point of no return we found out why, half the bridge was closed for repair and the remaining part was only about four metres wide, it was like trying to empty the MCG after a Grand Final through a narrow tunnel but with people trying to go the other way, there were also about ten people in wheel chairs being pushed along in the crush. It took us about an hour to cover the hundred metres or so of the bottle neck, not a lot of fun.

Both sides of the bridge were lined with artists with paintings and crafts for sale and if the crowds weren’t so dense it would have been a pleasant experience strolling along and admiring their work. After passing under the Old Town Bridge Tower we walked to the nearest Metro station and arrived back at the hostel eight hours after leaving; if we thought we had walked ten km in Vienna the other day we must have walked closer to twenty today. After enjoying a meal of pork, sausage, dumplings and sauerkraut washed down with a beer, bed beckons.

Saturday 3 May.

Today we “got smart” and caught the Metro under the Vtlava River to the west bank, thus avoiding the bottleneck on the Charles Bridge. Walking up the old castle steps from the Metro we arrived at the east entrance of the Prague Castle which dates back to the 9^th Century, the largest castle complex in the world and purchased our multi entry ticket, we were surprised to obtain a 50% discount for being old. The first section we visited was the Golden Lane a narrow lane with tiny 16^th Century houses along side of the Castle wall; these were former residences for the Castle’s riflemen and later Goldsmiths, and the ceilings were so low that many people had to bow their head to avoid hitting it on the ceiling.

Our next visit was to St George’s Basilica, a very plain church, both inside and out, and the flat timber ceiling was unlike any we had seen before in Europe. Walking on we entered the exhibition of the “Story of the Castle” virtually a museum of artefacts, weapons, clothing and records from the Castle. Many items on display were recovered from tombs of kings and bishops buried at the Castle and the display traces the history of the area back to the first inhabitants, which excavations have revealed were living there around 3,000 BC. Leaving the exhibition we entered the Great Hall of the Palace, the largest high-Gothic vaulted space in Europe, in excess of 50 metres in length with a hand sawn timber floor with planks 30 cm wide.

Probably the highlight of our visit was the St Vitus Cathedral and because there wasn’t an entry charge we stood in a queue for about twenty minutes in the rain, trying to avoid the water spewing from the Gargoyles’ mouths. The cathedral is a huge Gothic building, construction commenced in 1344 and it wasn’t completed until 1929. Many of the windows are made of glass pieces so small they look like mosaics and we heard a guide say that it was coloured glass, not stained. In the apse is the tomb of St John of Nepomuk, two tonnes of Baroque silver with silver cherubs suspended over the top. A chapel on the side of the Cathedral contains the tomb of King Wenceslas, probably the most venerated person in the country.

A little further on we came to the entrance to the Great Tower of the Cathedral and being a mere 287 steps to the top we decided to climb the very narrow stone spiral stairs. These stairs are the only way up and down, so in both directions we had to hug the wall to pass the people going in the opposite direction, I thought I would have worn a hole in my sleeve from rubbing against the wall. From the top we had a 360 degree view of Prague, probably one of the best vantage points in the City and well worth the climb.

We were curious about a strange looking wall we could see; from where we were it looked as if small figures were stacked one above the other, descending the tower we made some inquiries and were directed to some gardens back near the Metro Station. These were the Wallenstein Gardens attached to the Wallenstein Palace, home of the Czech Senate and the wall that we saw was actually a fake stalactite grotto full of hidden animals and strange faces.

As it was over eight hours since we left the hostel we thought it was time to return and boarded the Metro, making a brief stop at Museum Station to emerge in Wenceslas Square to view the statues of King Wenceslas and then reboarded the train and arriving back 9 ½ hours after leaving. (Just slightly exhausted!)

Sunday 4 May

A quiet day today as we travelled 2 ¼ hours to Dresden and as we didn’t have to catch the train until 12:30 we had a late breakfast and enjoyed the sunshine in the hostel garden until we had to leave for the station.

There was a large crowd on the station and we walked from one end of the train to the other looking for our carriage number on the door, it wasn’t until we reached the second last carriage that the crowd thinned and we found that the carriage number was an electronic sign on the side and our carriage was at the other end of the train. When we boarded we found someone sitting in our seat as there weren’t any reserved signs displayed but when we produced our tickets they moved, however a group of 65 students returning to Sweden had more problems than us, as nearly all their reserved seats were occupied and it took their leader over 45 minutes to convince people to move and from the look on the faces of those moved “Not Happy Jan!” Several sat their ground arguing that because there wasn’t a reserved sign displayed the students didn’t have a legal right to the seats, eventually the problem was sorted by the conductor. Were glad we’re not travelling on the next two days as there are groups of 330 and 250 students leaving Prague to return to Sweden so we hope the railways put up the reserved signs.

For a large part of the journey the train travelled beside the Elbe River passing several small towns and villages and being a sunny day and the end of a four day weekend there were people every where along the river enjoying the sun.

We arrived in Dresden on time and a short stroll took us to our hostel only to be informed check in time was 4:00 pm, so we had to sit, together with several others till 4:03 before we were given our room keys. Such efficiency.