Southern Germany

Hi all,

Next stop on our rail journey was just across the border into Bavaria, in the charming 'big-village' of Munich, where we enjoyed excellent weather, food, shopping, history, and beer.  It was especially nice walking through the huge Englischer Garten (amazingly translated to: English Garden), where surfers ride a vicious man made wave that then turns into a pretty little stream running through the gardens; although it was spoiled somewhat by the many number of old German men lying around naked.  Anyway the food (pretzels and schnitzel!) was pretty damn good here, as was the beer, and we had a very nice time indeed wandering around and going on a walking tour of the town.

We then headed further north to the little town of Heidelberg which was quite similar to Salzburg (but a lot hotter!), being on the edge of a river with an old Castle overlooking it.  There was a nice long shopping street and had a cool university town vibe, and made a good stopover before heading up to Amsterdam, but more on that next time.

L + D

      Bavaria!

      Germans sure do love getting their clothes off when the sun comes out, see if you can spot the naked man in this shot

      Cream cheese & chives in a huge salty pretzel... genius!

      Incredibly delicious Vietnamese in Munich!

     In the very nice Augustiner beer garden

      The riverbank in Heidelberg

      The old town

Austria & Czech Republic

Hi all,

Our next section of rail journey took us from Budapest to Vienna on the very comfortable Railjet train, which was much more pleasant than the overnight trains in Eastern Europe.  We explored the classical sights of Vienna, but importantly had the most delicious schnitzel and beer!  The very big, spread out city tired us out the next day, so we visited a little beer garden for.. you guessed it, schnitzel and beer!

We then headed north to Prague which is very charming with its soaring spires and Gothic churches, but unfortunately overrun with American tourists.  We went on a day trip to the small town of Kutna Hora which houses the very creepy but fascinating 'bone church', decorated with the real bones of thousands of people whom died in the Black Plague; its centrepiece being a chandelier made from every single bone in the human body.  Oh and true to legend the Czech Republic really does have the best beer on Earth.  Fact.

We returned to Austria for a quick stopover in Salzburg - the home of the sound of music, which was very pretty. We enjoyed wandering around the Mirabell gardens and by the river, also trying some local style dumplings and a dessert made to look like the Austrian Alps called Nockerl.

L + D

     Creepy circus folk in Vienna aka mural in our hotel room in Vienna. 

     Tastiest schnitzel

     Just a little beer for Damien

     Gothic Prague

     Tastiest beer

      The chandelier of bones

     Pretty Salzburg

Bulgaria to Budapest

Hi all,

Well our very first overnight "sleeper" train ride from Istanbul to Sofia was somewhat of an adventure in itself.  Crossing the border into Bulgaria involved a passport check at 2am, Turkish customs check, Bulgarian customs check, another passport check, and then a bribe to a Bulgarian official for an unknown violation that could only be solved by cash payment to him alone.  Oh and it was 5 hours late too.  We arrived in Sofia and were pleasantly surprised with how nice it was, a very underrated city with lots of Communist relics, pleasant shopping streets, good food, and perfect for a rest before our next sleeper train.

Sofia to Bucharest in Romania saw our train become slightly more comfortable than the last (but not by much) and the delay in arrival was reduced to just 2 hours so that was nice, then we got our connecting train to beautiful Brasov in the Transylvanian mountains arriving in the early afternoon.  Very pretty little town close to some cool castles, fortresses and palaces which we visited the next day, and Dracula's Bran castle (although not the actual home of Dracula) which was fun to visit.

Our next and final sleeper train was from Brasov to Budapest which amazingly arrived dead on time!  Our cabin which was a first class sleeper was unusually smaller than our previous second class couchettes, but we travelled through some amazing scenery on this leg.  Our hotel in Budapest was excellent, and we enjoyed delicious breakfasts here in their Parisian style cafe (mmm super salted butter).  We spent a few days here to enjoy the beautiful city which we both really liked and did a few walking tours, visited some impressive Communist era museums and statues (Memento Park), and enjoyed nice heavy Hungarian food and beer!

Next up Central Europe!

L + D

      Sunflower fields in Bulgaria

      Sunny Sofia

      Our bunks from Sofia to Bucharest

      Transylvanian mountains

      Brasov!!

      Peles Palace

      Tasty Hungarian Langos

      Bran Castle, aka Dracula's Castle

      Fortress Rasnov

      Our little cabin to Budapest

      Gerloczy Hotel in Budapest

      Nothing says obey me or I'll kill you like a firm handshake

      "Comrade!!! You have forgotten your coat!!"

      Some dumb American tourist disrespecting the might of the Soviet Union