Well guys, the time has almost come to say 'au revouir' and 'Tchuss' To Europe!
We will be back in the country very early Friday morning. (we totally miss Thursday....weird!). See you all soon!
Kate and Tim
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Monday, 16 January 2012
Kate and Tim's guide to Paris....
Weather: sunny, not a cloud in site, bitterly cold
Sights: Eiffel tower, louvre, river seine, champs élysées, arc de triumph, streets of Paris, romantic bridges....too many to say, you should probably just visit yourselves!
Biggest decision of the week: chocolate eclair or macaroon(hmmmmmm....)
Breakfast: croissant and coffeeeeeeeeeee
Lunch: more croissant and cofeeeeeeeeee (and the odd croque monsiuer)
Dinner: steak, chicken, baguette
Snacks: chocolate, croissant, croissant, eclairs, macaroons, bread,
Kate's top tips for Paris:
- never trust the green 'go' walking man at a pedestrian crossing
- always have one eye on the pavement (the apartment dogs have to poo somewhere I guess!)
- walking is better than public transport....although tiring!
- 'Cosi' in the 6e arroisandment - a gem of sandwich bar - yummy yummy!!
Tim's top tips for Paris:
- Don't trust Kate's tips about the green walking man
- elevator is always better than the stairs at the Eiffel Tower....whew!
- finding vegetables on a French menu is as near impossible as finding sunshine in a
German winter
What Kate is looking forward to most about coming home
- vegetables ( does lemon tart count as a food group??!!)
What Tim is looking forward to most about coming home
- shorts and tshirts (Kate seconds this- very sick of having to put so many clothes on!)
More later....off to eat some sort of pastry (yet another big and tough decision)....
Sights: Eiffel tower, louvre, river seine, champs élysées, arc de triumph, streets of Paris, romantic bridges....too many to say, you should probably just visit yourselves!
Biggest decision of the week: chocolate eclair or macaroon(hmmmmmm....)
Breakfast: croissant and coffeeeeeeeeeee
Lunch: more croissant and cofeeeeeeeeee (and the odd croque monsiuer)
Dinner: steak, chicken, baguette
Snacks: chocolate, croissant, croissant, eclairs, macaroons, bread,
Kate's top tips for Paris:
- never trust the green 'go' walking man at a pedestrian crossing
- always have one eye on the pavement (the apartment dogs have to poo somewhere I guess!)
- walking is better than public transport....although tiring!
- 'Cosi' in the 6e arroisandment - a gem of sandwich bar - yummy yummy!!
Tim's top tips for Paris:
- Don't trust Kate's tips about the green walking man
- elevator is always better than the stairs at the Eiffel Tower....whew!
- finding vegetables on a French menu is as near impossible as finding sunshine in a
German winter
What Kate is looking forward to most about coming home
- vegetables ( does lemon tart count as a food group??!!)
What Tim is looking forward to most about coming home
- shorts and tshirts (Kate seconds this- very sick of having to put so many clothes on!)
More later....off to eat some sort of pastry (yet another big and tough decision)....
Friday, 13 January 2012
Paris!
Well here we are in Paris. A cute hotel in the 6e quartier, surrounded by little boutique shops and othe shops such as Louis vuitton (Tim says I am not allowed to go in! Boo) and restaurants and cafes (macaroons, pastries, coffee, etc etc etc) on every corner. Fabulous!!!! Thank you to my Aunty for the recommendation!!
We have just been on a walk this afternoon. 15 minutes to the river Seine, past the Louvre, grabbed a sandwich on the way (yummy!), sat in a park and drank our coffee. I think we committed a mortal sin here...take away coffee! There is this unwritten Parisian culture rule that you must sit in the cafe on the pavement and drink your coffee and watch the world go by! Oh well....next time....and there will be many next times!!
We will have to plan our days I think, because it is so tempting to just wander the crazy streets here for hours, and then suddenly the day is gone!
Love Kate and Tim
We have just been on a walk this afternoon. 15 minutes to the river Seine, past the Louvre, grabbed a sandwich on the way (yummy!), sat in a park and drank our coffee. I think we committed a mortal sin here...take away coffee! There is this unwritten Parisian culture rule that you must sit in the cafe on the pavement and drink your coffee and watch the world go by! Oh well....next time....and there will be many next times!!
We will have to plan our days I think, because it is so tempting to just wander the crazy streets here for hours, and then suddenly the day is gone!
Love Kate and Tim
Thursday, 12 January 2012
On the move
Hello all!
Well it has been a busy few days! We travelled from Leipzig to cologne, stopping off on the way at Eisenbach to look at a castle. We spent a night in Cologne, right next to the Dom. It was a pleasant surprise to be woken just before our alarm, to the sound of the cathedral bells ringing! The cathedral was super huge, the biggest in Germany I believe.
We then drove down the River Rhine and Mosel to Trier. Beautiful drive, must be on all your "to do" lists if you ever come over. I got a little Kodak happy, and may have taken quite a few photos of the river, towns, castles, palaces, etc. you name it I took a photo of it! Lol.
Trier, another "must see/do" on your lists, is unreal. We stayed at a Hotel looking over the Porta nigra (google it). A roman gate built in the 3rd century. We trooped around Trier for a day, saw Constantine's Basilica. Would have loved to have spent more time here, just looking around, drinking latte macchiatos (remember those Dyson family??? Yummy!), and looking at this great old town. Tim was a little excited about this place!
Oh, and as we were driving through the forest, there was snow!!! Sorry Heinrich family, not enough to make a snow angel, only a few handfuls! It is still super cold here, I lost my gloves for a few days and was pretty sure that my hands were going to turn to ice blocks and snap off lol! But I have found my gloves, so no need to worry!
The food we have been eating is great. Lots of bread, much better bread than our bread!!!!, cheeses, meats, pastries, etc. There are a lot of pet dogs here, and they take them everywhere, and I mean everywhere. They even take them into shops (even saw one in the Villeroy and Boch shop! Eek!). But that just means that there is the occasional puddle!! Millie would have a field day here!
We are now in Frankfurt and the Germany book is at the bottom of the bag. Our Paris guide is now getting a workout as we travel there by train tomorrow morning. We are a little worried as together we know three words of French. Should be fun!
Well it has been a busy few days! We travelled from Leipzig to cologne, stopping off on the way at Eisenbach to look at a castle. We spent a night in Cologne, right next to the Dom. It was a pleasant surprise to be woken just before our alarm, to the sound of the cathedral bells ringing! The cathedral was super huge, the biggest in Germany I believe.
We then drove down the River Rhine and Mosel to Trier. Beautiful drive, must be on all your "to do" lists if you ever come over. I got a little Kodak happy, and may have taken quite a few photos of the river, towns, castles, palaces, etc. you name it I took a photo of it! Lol.
Trier, another "must see/do" on your lists, is unreal. We stayed at a Hotel looking over the Porta nigra (google it). A roman gate built in the 3rd century. We trooped around Trier for a day, saw Constantine's Basilica. Would have loved to have spent more time here, just looking around, drinking latte macchiatos (remember those Dyson family??? Yummy!), and looking at this great old town. Tim was a little excited about this place!
Oh, and as we were driving through the forest, there was snow!!! Sorry Heinrich family, not enough to make a snow angel, only a few handfuls! It is still super cold here, I lost my gloves for a few days and was pretty sure that my hands were going to turn to ice blocks and snap off lol! But I have found my gloves, so no need to worry!
The food we have been eating is great. Lots of bread, much better bread than our bread!!!!, cheeses, meats, pastries, etc. There are a lot of pet dogs here, and they take them everywhere, and I mean everywhere. They even take them into shops (even saw one in the Villeroy and Boch shop! Eek!). But that just means that there is the occasional puddle!! Millie would have a field day here!
We are now in Frankfurt and the Germany book is at the bottom of the bag. Our Paris guide is now getting a workout as we travel there by train tomorrow morning. We are a little worried as together we know three words of French. Should be fun!
Sunday, 8 January 2012
Autobahns and moles
We stayed at Siine's uncles house in Eberswalde, just outside Berlin from Wed - Fri. We took the train each day to Berlin - only 30 mins. On Thursday we visited Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, the German History Museum ( absolutely fantastic!), GDR museum (museum about the soviet occupation in Berlin). It is such a strange thing that Berlin is a city just like Melbourne but was divided in two by a wall with such different rules and living standards. You can tell the difference even today straight away as soon as you cross from west to east Berlin. The buildings in the east are like concrete blocks, while the west has more style. We saw portions of the wall that are still standing. We also went to Checkpoint Charlie - old border crossing point between west and east Berlin. Potsdamer platz was great, because I bought some shoes! Lol. On Saturday we drove to Potsdam, south of Berlin, to see the castles. Huge castles, the most famous called Sansouci. I had been here 10 years earlier in the summer and it is interesting to see it in the winter. All the statues are covered in little wooden houses (which look like backyard dunnies lol), to protect them from the weather. The huge gardens are also very plain at the moment, but you could tell how beautiful it would be in summer. there is even no water in the fountains! We headed down to Leipzig after, via Wittenberg. We visited the church where martin luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door to change the course of church history...although the door itself was covered in scaffolding for repairs over the winter lol!
The food here is so cheap!!! So let's just say we are making the most of it! The accommodation is also cheap. Tim is fascinated by the moles here - anywhere there is grass there are mole mounds all over. Tim has taken a lot of photos of these lol!
The weather here is rainy everyday, and sooperdooper cold. I did bring my sunglasses, but I think I can honestly say I have seen the sun for only 10 minutes total over the past 2 weeks! But it is still awesome to be here!
Oh yeah...we hired a car until next Friday because we got sick of the poor weather and it gets dark at 4pm! So we are hooning around in a Renault for the next few days! Autobahns are great fun - no speed limits! But I won't tell you how fast we have been driving until we get home!
We are going to Cologne tomorrow and will then go to Trier on Tuesday in the southwest. Apparently there is super old stuff in Trier. Not sure if we will have Internet in cologne, but we will in Trier, so will blog again then.
With love
Kate and Tim
The food here is so cheap!!! So let's just say we are making the most of it! The accommodation is also cheap. Tim is fascinated by the moles here - anywhere there is grass there are mole mounds all over. Tim has taken a lot of photos of these lol!
The weather here is rainy everyday, and sooperdooper cold. I did bring my sunglasses, but I think I can honestly say I have seen the sun for only 10 minutes total over the past 2 weeks! But it is still awesome to be here!
Oh yeah...we hired a car until next Friday because we got sick of the poor weather and it gets dark at 4pm! So we are hooning around in a Renault for the next few days! Autobahns are great fun - no speed limits! But I won't tell you how fast we have been driving until we get home!
We are going to Cologne tomorrow and will then go to Trier on Tuesday in the southwest. Apparently there is super old stuff in Trier. Not sure if we will have Internet in cologne, but we will in Trier, so will blog again then.
With love
Kate and Tim
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Road Trip to Berlin
Today we leave for Berlin with a quick visit to Margdeburg. We will be staying at Siine's uncles unit just out of the city. On Saturday we are on our own as Siine and Wissam head home and we leave for Leipzig for two days.
Oldenburg and Bremerhaven
The 'Ellis Island' of Germany. From here at Bremerhaven 7 million Europeans emigrated to the New World!
New Years Eve Photos
Inga, Jonas & Siine with the little fireworks.
Monday, 2 January 2012
Oldenburg
We are now in Oldenburg visiting Siine and Wissam's place. Earlier this year Nicole, a friend of Siine, visited us in Australia so we are going to return the favour today. On the third we go to Berlin.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Happy New Year!!!
We enjoyed a fun evening with Siine and her family. It all began with a Hoppner family tradition of watching 'dinner for one'we then sat down for a grill meal which involved cooking the food in the middle of the table. A fun bilingual game of a combination of pictionary and charades! Very interesting and funny as me mixed German and English resulting in Wissam (Siine's husband) impersonating a rooster! It was then time for the count down complete with a stack of fireworks that lit up the sky!!!
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