Köln Germany

On Saturday the 2nd of December, Britty and myself headed toward Western Germany to start our trip to Munich. We had heard lots of good things about Köln, so we decided this would be our first stop on the tour.

Köln or Cologne in English is a city of about 1 million people, and is the 4th largest city in Germany. The city's major landmark is the Kölner Dom, which is a huge French Gothic style cathedral which is certainly impressive. The landmark is known throughout Germany, and with so many English speaking tourists, I guess it must also be well known in the UK.

It took us about 5 hours to get to Cologne from Kiel, it should have been 4, but with road works blocking a major street (this was only start of our roadwork woes), the GPS navigation system had trouble getting us close. Once we finally located our hostel, we set out to see the city. The city was packed with people, and so to were the Christmas Markets. Christmas Markets are hugely popular in Germany, I think that most cities have some form of Christmas market. To me most of the stuff they sell at the Markets is just useless, but the atmosphere is good, and that makes it enjoyable. They also sell this hot red wine (Glühwein), which is just fantastic when the temperature is about 3 or 4 degrees! After a couple of mugs of this stuff (and sometimes with a shoot of rum), you tend to forget about the cold.

Cologne also have a very beautiful old town which is very very good on a Saturday night. The only thing was they tend to sell beer in this little 200ml glasses which really annoyed me! It wasn't until we went to an Irish Pub that we managed to get a full size glass.

Well enough of the talk, you want to see the photos. Here they are.

The Kölner Dom from the central train station.

The Dom in the background with the markets in the foreground.

Cologne is a city situated on the River Rhine. One day I want to take a full cruise!

Britty and myself decided to climb the Dom tower. This is a picture of me in front of the largest Bell in the building. They call him Fat Peter. Fat Peter is too big to ring everyday because they are worried he will bring down the entire tower. So he only gets rung at New Years and on special occasions.

A view of the Markets from up the top of the tower. There were something like 460 stairs to get to that height.

Me and Britty in front of the Dom. The guy who took the photo didn't even try to get more in!

On Sunday we went for a drink. These guys are actually a machine, people put in 1 Euro, select a song and then they play. Is quite cool.

One final shot of the markets at night

You can find the rest of the photos of Cologne here. After our two nights in Cologne it was time to move onto Munich. Tonight Britty and myself are heading to the Christmas Markets in Kiel with some people from Britty's work, so unfortunately I don't think I will have time to post, but I will see how I go.

One last thing! GO AUSTRALIA!!! Scott

I didn't even realise!!!

When I am on the road, I usually post to the blog via email. It is quick and easy, and means you don't need to bother logging into blogger (this is especially good when Internet Cafe computers don't have Firefox!!). I just write a standard email, remove my usual footer, and then hit send. Within seconds the blog is up-to-date.

Thing is, when posting via email, you can't see your post counter. When I finally logged back in today, to my surprise I found I have reached 100 posts!! This is huge for me, considering when I think back a few years I doubt I would have even entertained the idea of starting a blog, nether lone maintaining one.

In years gone by, I hated writing full stop! When I was at school, I hated English so much because it meant I had to read and write, and that took time. I much preferred to spend my time playing basketball, or working out in the gym with Adam. The last thing I would have considered was making time to write.

Today though I feel differently, and really enjoy working on my blog. Sure much of my blog is pictures of places I have visited, or just minor things about Germany that are different to home, but some of these posts have taken a lot of time to prepare and for that I feel reasonably proud.

When I look back over my blogs history, I am pretty happy with the way it has turned out. The blog provides me with a complete record of the events of my trip. It has photos, names of places, names of people I have met, and things I like and dislike about Germany and the other places I have stopped along the way.

The other great thing about the blog is the readers. Most blogs out there only have one reader, and that is the author, but I have to say I have a few more than that. People from all over the world have stopped by my website on occasion, and I have received good and bad comments (mostly good of course!!). People wishing Britta and myself well, people complementing me on some of the photos, and people having their say on things. For me blogging has been about my trip, and keeping people informed about what I am up to. For others it is about so many different things! That's what makes blogging cool.

So now I have reached 100 posts, I have to focus on creating the next 100. In February my time in Germany comes to an end, and I will have to rethink blog content. That gives me about 7 weeks to think and come up with some new ideas!

Until then though I still have lots of material to work with. Catching up on recent trips, Christmas is on the way, New Year, moving out of our place here, a going away party, and our visit to Amsterdam to fly home to OZ. Its going to be a busy 7 weeks!!!

So thank you to everyone that has contributed to my blog over the first 100 posts. Thank you to all the people that just read, and of course a great thanks to Google for making blogger available to the millions out there! I hope people have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing. Scott

Lets take it back a little.....

Before taking off on our Germany trip, I was in Italy. The first 7 days were spent in Rome and Venice, then it was time to move onto Florence.

Florence is a great city, so busy, so happening, and very beautiful. Those that have been to Florence will know that the city is full of museums, and is very very famous for art. Given that I know nothing about art (except for maybe a handful of very famous artists), the two nights spent there was enough for me to see the city.

Here are a few photos I took on the walk through town, check'em out.

I went for a walk to see Neptune's fountain, and was not disappointed. This is a huge fountain, and is certainly a work of art.

Next to the fountain is the replica of the David Statue in Palazzo Vecchio. The real statue lives in Academia Gallery. I also visited the Gallery on the trip. The statue is just incredible and is massive. It is worth seeing!!!

Next it was onto the Duomo. This Cathedral is massive and most certainly stands out as the major landmark in Florence.

I also walked up the hundreds of stairs to the top of the Church. Was such a great view.

On the way up to the top of the Duomo I took a photo the art in the Dome. Even for someone like me that knows nothing about art, it was pretty unreal. Some of the paintings are just extremely weird but cool.

Long way down from the top of the Dome! Wouldn't like to fall.

The Church of Santa Croce.

The best view of Florence from Piazelle Michelangelo.

Another shot from Piazelle Michelangelo.

Ponte Vecchio, the oldest of Florence's six bridges. This was the only one that was not destroyed in the war.

On the way back to the hotel I saw this little guy sitting in the shop door. Cute puppies are everywhere in Italy!!

These are only a sample of the photos I took while in Florence. You can find the best photos here. I also visited Pisa on the trip. Pisa is of course famous for the leaning tower. The Tower is much bigger than I imaged. You can find my photos here. Well that just about does it for my Italian posts. Tomorrow I will try to work on some stuff from Britty and my trip of Germany.

From Pisa Italy

Back in Kiel

Well after about 1 month travelling, I am finally back in Kiel for the rest of my stay in Germany. Today Britty and myself drove back from Halle in Eastern Germany. In a way I am very happy to be back, and am looking forward to sleeping on my own bed again.

I have downloaded the photos and will start to post them in the comings days. For now it is time to catch up on some sleep. Check back again soon. Scott

Now in Nürnberg

Yesterday Britty and myself drove to Nürnberg from the south of Germany. On this trip we have been using a GPS Navigation System for directions. The system has helped so much, and is brilliant. The only thing it cant seem to do is direct us around traffic. Yesterday we got caught in 3 different traffic jams, two of them taking about an hour to get through. The first one was caused by road works. For some strange reason here in Germany no one seems to worry about closing lanes in peek hour, meaning there was a 15KM traffic jam for no real reason. The second jam really had no cause, but lasted for even longer. The trip in total took us 5 hours, to travel about 350KMs. Bit suck full really.

 

Anyway today we explore Nürnberg. I think we will take a look at the city centre and the famous markets. Should be fun. Bye for now. Scott

Halfway through Germany Trip

Hi everyone. Britty and myself are currently in Munich. Munich is a really really cool city with so much to do after the sun goes down. So far we have tried to local pubs and consumed quite a bit of beir. On Monday we went to the famous Hofbräuhaus and I couldn't help but have a 1L beir!

 

Tonight we are heading out for some more drinks with one of Brittys friends. The weather has turned cold today so I guess we will sample the Glühwein (hot red wein with a nip of Rum) at the Munich Christmas Markets.

 

Today we also went to the Concentration Camp at Dachau. It was a pretty werid feeling being in the place were some 30 000 people were killed by the Nazis back in the 30s and 40s. The video is pretty sick, but it gives a very accurate picture of what happened back then.

 

On Friday we are going to drive down toward the Austrian Border to see the famous castle Neuschwanstein (Disney Castle). Once we finish there will we then head to Nürnberg for the next stop in our adventure.

 

Hope all is well where ever you maybe. Scott and Britty

Tour of Germany, Goodbye Germany

Britty and myself are just about to leave on our tour of Germany. First stop is to pickup Britty's Dad's car from Bargstedt, then we head on our way to Köln.

On another matter I have worked out when I will leave Germany for the sunnier sky's of Oz. I am scheduled to leave here on the 4th of Feb. I have moved the flight from Frankfurt to Amsterdam to see one final destination before heading home. At this stage I am hoping that Britty will be able to follow by the start of May!!!!

I will endeavor to post a few times while we are away. Catch you all soon, Scott