Britty and myself turn 1

On Saturday, the 5th of August, Britty and myself officially turned 1 year old! One year has gone so fast, and has been extremely exciting! If 18 months ago someone would have told me that in 18 months time, I would be living in Germany, with a beautiful German chick, there is no way I would have believed them!

To celebrate our anniversary we went to a restaurant just below our flat. It was quite expensive, but because it was a special occasion we decided just to sit down, and not worry about the price. I had some chicken, with lemon sauce, and Britty had fish, with a tomato filled with vegetables. Both meals also came with the standard German potatoes!

After dinner we decided we would stay in, and play some poker. During the match we had some of the best hands I have ever seen. I had to take a photo of this one! Check it out.


I was dealt a pair of Aces, and Britty was dealt a pair of Kings! At this stage Britty was winning the match, but I put most my money (Monopoly money of course, we are too poor to buy chips) in, and managed to almost double up when the cards fell my way.

The last hand of the match was also very exciting. We were pretty much both all in. We flipped over the cards with just the river to go, and Britty had already made a low Straight. She had also grabbed the big pile of money as to claim the win! I had an 8 and 9, and the only card in the deck that could help me was a 7. On the river I hit 7 and somehow won the match with a higher Straight! I also claimed the pile of money! :)

We both had great time on our 1st Anniversary, and I know there are many more anniversaries to come!

A few more photos from Chad's visit!

Was just downloading the final photos from the camera, and found a few more from Chad's visit. These were taken on the last night Chad was in Kiel. We decided to go to the local pub for dinner, and a couple of drinks. Here they are.

Photo inside the Forstbaumschule. Chad, me, Ingola, Nadine sitting waiting for our food to come! We were so so hungry.

Britty and myself with Chaddy outside the Beer Garden.

Another random photo of Chad.

Chady posing with the three girls! Go Chaddy!

Bye for now. Scott

London - Part 2

The next two days in London was also spent mainly site seeing. Here are the photos from Thursday and Friday in London.

Doing the tourist thing and getting a shot with the Tower Bridge in the back ground.

Photo from inside the Tower of London. This was quite an expensive attraction, but we did get a tour, and we did get to see the Crown jewels. This was pretty cool. Of course there are no photos allowed in the Vault that houses the jewels.

Me at Trafalgar Square. This is where I had arranged to meet up with Thomas K. Trafalgar Square has a really good atmosphere. The day was warm and everyone had their feet in the water of the fountains.

Me with Thomas, before Thomas had to go back and do some more work. He also gave me a good indication what it is like to live and work in London.

St Paul's Cathedral was our next stop. Beautiful building.

The view from the top of the tower at St Paul's Cathedral. Some 535 stairs but well worth it once again.

Me as a spec in the distance on the stairs at St Paul's Cathedral. It is damn huge.

The mandatory photo of the telephone box.

The Temple Church. Was closed and couldn't go inside.

Some of the many stage shows playing in London.

Didn't have time to go in but walked pasted Shakespeare's Globe.

I thought this was pretty cool, the roof of the British National museum.

As you can see we stayed in top quality in London. This was expensive enough!!

We had a great time in London. The only problem was having to catch a 6:25am flight on Saturday from London's Stansted Airport. We needed to get out of bed at 2am, get a Taxi to Victoria Bus Station, and then go on an hour and a half long bus ride to the airport.

We ended up getting to the airport at about 4:30am, which was good because we arrived just before Ryan Air check in opened. We ended up with quite a good Sequence Number for the flight (i.e. who boards first), but in the end this didn't matter at all because Ryan Air called families first, then Sequence numbers 1 - 90!

For those who have never been to Stansted, everyone waits in a lounge area until their plane is ready for boarding. Once your flight is ready, everyone gets on a train, that runs you to the boarding gate. This is a great idea, however the boarding gate lounge is way to small for the amount of people it needs to cater for.

So as soon as they called numbers 1 – 90, all people for the flight, crammed into this tiny area, started pushing, and shoving their way toward the front. It was absolute mayhem, and chaoss. The Ryan Air staff had no way of turning away people with a higher sequence number because there was just no where for them to go. In the end they just let them on.

We ended up with seats right at the back of the Plane, which ended up working out really well because we were first off! All those people that pushed their way to the front of the line, who got on the front of the plane, got stuck in the customs line at Lübeck!

When we got off the Plane our luggage was fast for a change, and Britty was there to meet us. We went into Lübeck, had some breakfast, then headed home for a nap. We really needed that sleep because later we headed to the Max Disco Kiel.

Getting ready to go. Chaddy was having such a great time!! I called this, "Team Chad, Euro 2".

The next day was Chad's last in Kiel. We all went to the beach, then to the Beer Garden down the road for dinner. On Monday morning I drove Chad into Hamburg, where he stayed one more night, then headed out to China on Tuesday.

Overall, it was a great trip.

Bye for now. Scott

London - Part 1

After Prague we took an EasyJet flight to London. In London we were staying at the Generator Hostel, the largest hostel in London. The hostel was located near Russell Square, which is pretty central, and gave us a good base for exploring the city.

We arrived pretty late on the Tuesday afternoon from London's Gatwick Airport as a result of it taking approximately 1 hour to get our luggage (AGAIN!!!!!). I guess by this stage we were getting use to this, so it wasn't so bad. The trip from Gatwick to Central London wasn't so bad. We took a fast train from the airport to Victoria Train Station, and then we used the Underground to get from their to the hostel. The most difficult part was finding the little hole in the wall, which was the path way to the hostel. It was a relief to make it and finally sit down!

The next day we went out on foot to see as much of the city as we could. Here are some of the photos from the 1st day. There are lots (of course!) so I have broken the post down into two.

The first thing you see when you come into London on the train. The Eye of London is pretty huge. We didn't go on it because it was a little expensive for our budget.

I remember Chris J, who was originally (and I guess still is) from England, telling me that "Big Ben is a F*N Legend". After seeing it, I couldn't agree more.

I like this photo.

This is as close as you can get to the Prime Ministers house. I don't think he was home on that day.

The Houses of Parliament. Very Very nice building, impossible to fit in one shot with my camera from this close. Unfortunately we missed out on the chance to tour it. Tours started the following week!

The entrance to Westminster Abbey. We waited here for quite some time to get in. It was well worth the 10 pounds!

Was very difficult to get a photo in front of the abbey without other people getting in the way. This was after we had finished our tour. We spent almost two hours inside. It really is quite a strange feeling to be walking around in there, on peoples tombs. Also some very famous peoples remains live in there. Quite cool really.

Photo in front of Buckingham Palace.

Couldn't resist this photo opportunity. At the gates of the Palace. Had to fight the crowds to get this photo.

A very busy Oxford Street. Lots of tourists! So many tourists.

Did the trip to Harrods. Even bought a UK power adaptor there. Was surprisingly cheaper than the hostels rate.

For the Queen Lovers out there. The "We Will Rock You" stage show.

Lots of walking was taking its toll. Next day we would do everything on the Underground.

The first day ended with some Drinks with Monty, who didn't have too much trouble coming in for a few beers. Was good to hear that he has a job.

After a few drinks we pretty much decided to call it a day, and get some sleep. Next day we planned to meet up with Thomas K for lunch, and we also wanted to checkout the Tower of London. I will post the photos later. Bye for now. Scott

Prague

The next few days in Prague were spent site seeing. We did so much walking, and I took so many great photos. Here is a small selection of the photos I took.

This pictures was taken in the Nove Mesto, or the "New Town". It was founding in 1348 (yeah really new I know!). The main part of this area is Wenceslas Square where this pictures is taken. That is a statue of Wenceslas in the background. There is heaps of restaurants, shops and banks in this area. Very nice area!

Another photo in Wenceslas Square. This was our first stop from our hostel.

Wenceslas Square looking in the other direction. It was really very big!

This one looks over the Vltava River toward the very beautiful old town area and Prague Castle! Bit of a walk but well worth it.

A walk over the Charles Bridge is just Fantastic. Not only are you walking toward the Castle, but along the whole length of the Bridge are statues. One after the other, I guess the Royals use to like lots of statues!

St Vitus Cathedral in the grounds of Prague Castle. This was just amazing! Inside was so amazing, and this Cathedral was freakin Huge! We spent a lot of time here.

The view from the top of St Vitus Cathedral. We decided to go to the top (because we paid for it) even though it was some 500 stairs, and it was a very confined space. After fighting the crowd up the stairs for what seemed like 45 minutes, we finally got there. The view was well worth it!

Picture of St Nicholas church in the "Old Town" area just below Prague Castle. This was absolutely brilliant inside. I would love to post some pictures but taking photos wasn't really allowed!

This photo is of the "Old Town" on the Charles Bridge side of Prague. The Clock on the left is the famous Astronomical Clock built in 1410. This was just before midday, and on the hour it puts on a bit of a show with statues and bells moving and chiming. It is quite cool. On the right is the Tyn Church which was built in 1365. This is very impressive.

A long shot of "Old Town Square" with the Jan Hus Monument which was placed there in 1915.

Another angle of the "Old Town Square" with the Tyn Church in the distance.

Me standing on the stairs of parliament house. The art work is very impressive. So were the Gardens.

On the last day in Prague we took a train to the small town of Plzen. This is the home, and birth place of the first Pilsner beer. The brand now called Pilsner Urquell is now exported world wide and was our favorite drink in Prague. In some pubs you would get a 500ml glass for as little as 24K, which is about $1.50 AUD and less than 1 Euro. The processes for brewing has been modernised over the years, but they still brew some beer in the old fashion way. This picture is of me enjoying the unfiltered beer directly from the barrel, which was deep down underground in the extensive cellar network. It was very very nice.

Another shot of me at the brewery.

The next day we flew out to London. London photos coming soon!

Bye for now.

Scott

Well lets start from the beginning!

As most of you know, Chad arrived from Australia on the 19th of July for part 3 of his tour around the world. On the first night Chad got here, we pretty much just had a quite night, and Chad caught up on some sleep.
On the 20th of July, I decided it would be nice to take Chad around Kiel. This tour was of course always going to be on bike. We rode around the main parts of Kiel, got some lunch and then headed back to our place for some dinner. Chad was lucky as he had the privilege of riding the Wizard of OZ bike. Check out the photos.

What a photo. Chad with his first experience on the OZ bike. Lets just say he wasn't really that keen about riding it!

And another one!

What else should you have for lunch in Germany? I think Chad really enjoyed this big sausage!

After dinner one of Britty's friends, Nadine, came around and joined us for a trip to a German night club. I call this "Team Chad, Euro team 1". As you can tell, Chad was very much enjoying himself!!

On Friday the 21st of July we headed to Prague. The flight was at 7:15pm German time from Hamburg Airport. Our flights were with Czech Airlines, and everything went very smoothly. The only issue we had was at Prague Airport, when it took about 1 hour for our bags to come from the plane.
When we finally got to our hostel, it was about 11pm. We checked in, and walked into the room, and met our American room mate. He was quick to introduce us to one Prague night club. It wasn't really my taste in night club, but it was still quite interesting. The thing that sticks in my mind was this stage area that was covered in by glass. Inside the glass area, there were people giving patrons of the club free haircuts. Each person would go in, and come out with the strangest haircut you have ever seen! Girls with long hair, were coming out with full on Mullets! After a couple of hours of this, we got stick of it and headed back to the hostel.
More to come later. Enjoy! Scott

In London

Well today Chad and myself have done heaps of walking and explored quite a bit of London. First we made it down toward the houses of Parliament, then we headed over to Westminster Abby, and then past Prime Ministers house. Then we walked to Harrods, and through the parks and into Oxford Street. So all in all a good day.

Tonight we plan to have some 1 pound drinks at the hostel we are staying, and I am hoping to meet up with Monty (also from GU). Monty has a knew job so I am not sure if he will make it here.

Tomorrow I am heading out to lunch with my old team leader from GU, Thomas. Should be good.

Anyway my time is running low here, better go. Everyone keep well.

Scott