Col & Rens UK Trip

Lake Lucerne is awesome. We have spent 2 days here and its just amazing. From our hotel we can see the lake which we are on the shore of, and all the alps with the snow on top. We went to a swiss folklore evening last night which was ok. Typical swiss instruments and yodalling etc. Today we have been on a boat cruise around the lake and also to the top of Mount Titlis which is over 3000m tall. We went on 3 different lifts to get to the top where it was -11 degrees. Amazing views and heaps of photos taken. Now we back in our hotel and its 10:40pm and we off to Paris tomorrow. So far everything has been really good.

While it has nothing to do with our holiday i still thought it might be interesting.

Watching Dawsons Creek in Italian is far less annoying and irritating than watching it in English.

We arrived in Venice and went on a night tour. It was a lot bigger than I thought it was. I assumed it was a tiny little island. Its like a whole city. Impressive. Came back following day and had gondola ride and had nice lunch along Grand Canel. Nice to spend the day looking around.

Next day we left for Rome. While in Rome we saw inside the Colosseum, saw the living pope, the tomb of the pope that just died, and other Rome things. Colosseum was really cool. Next destination was Florence. This was more of a pitstop on our journey to Switzerland. We saw the city quickly and left the next morning. We drove and arrived in Lake Lucerne..

Vienna was another really nice hotel. Across the road was a supermarket which was handy. We went into city centre and had a look around there. Looked at St Stephens Cathedral which was amazing. Caught the underground back to our hotel which was interesting. That night went to a wine village and had a country dinner. This was an optional thing and strangely only Aussies were on this dinner. Stayed in Vienna again that night. Next morning we headed off to Venice Italy...

We left Wurzburg and headed towards and stopped at Nuremberg. Had a look around there and bought some chocolate and gingerbread. So far everywhere we have been we have walked away with chocolate. Continued on the road down to Prague. Hotel had a short shower. With me just standing in the shower my head would touch the roof. I had a shower when we arrived at the hotel which was lucky as the following morning there was no hot water. I kinda laughed at that but someone who enjoys her showers a little more than I, wasn't too happy. I wont mention any names.

The same night we went to a Czech folklore evening. They had instruments and dancing for old school Prague times... Wine and all drinks included. A guy came around and would fill up glasses with wine by a spray kind of thing. Had it on his shoulders and tube out of it and it was like a garden hose into the glass. Next morning we went on a tour around the city. That same day continued on and travelled to Vienna...

We caught the underground to get to the departure hotel but there were works between our two points so we had to get as close as we could and catch a taxi. Left from hotel and headed towards Dover. Caught the ferry and got across to France. Drove to Brussels and stayed there the night. Really nice hotel which we weren't really expecting. I was expecting something fairly crappy. Something where you had to supply your own toilet paper etc. Maybe slightly exaggerated but I wasn't expecting much. turned out to be one of the nicest hotels I have stayed at. Tasty breakfast too.

Next morning off to Germany. Drove along the Rhine River and had a look around a little town there. I think the only english these places know is 'i sell' and 'it costs'. River cruise was nice. A few castles along the river which make it interesting. Continued on and stayed in Wurzburg. Interest place. On the tv as a normal channel was R rated programming.

Its funny being in non english countries. You cant understand a word they say or is written, but you mention Coke and they know what you are talking about. Ahh beloved coke. Everything might be different here but you are still the same.

Well its been a while since this was last updated as we really haven't had wireless anywhere.

We went on the Jack the Ripper tour on our last night in London. I didn't really know anything about him so I learnt a bit. We drove on a bus and saw 3 of the 5 murder sites, walked to a forth murder site. The tour was about 70% Jack and about 30% criminal history. Had a cruise along the Thames River also. We bought a book on Jack before we left on our tour for something to do on the bus.

We booked a night in the London hotel we stayed at for when we finish our tour. Hopefully we can add a photo or two...

This morning we left our fairly cold hotel for the bloody cold streets of London. With scarfs and beanies, it is still cold. I think we need gloves. We walked about 2km down to a sightseeing bus point where we could trade in the vouchers we had for tickets thanks to the lovely folk at Radiant Systems. We got on the bus and off we went. We had both been to London previously but found the bus was really good. We went past most of points and took a fair few photos. A few of which will be below.







On a slightly different topic. While on the tour today i saw an ad in a shop window front advertising laser eye surgery. £395 per eye. A fair bit cheaper than what I payed for it in Australia.

We have booked into the Jack the Ripper tour tonight which should be interesting. It finishes up in a pub and today is St Patricks day.

I'm not sure how many people i told about this but i told a few. A year ago when i was in Florence Jace and Narrelle bought myself and Wylie Paprika Pringles. I liked them. A lot. Everytime since i have walked in a supermarket i always look for them on the off chance they are here. Never are they. They are not in Australia.

We went to a supermarket today and guess what i found!! Paprika Pringles. We bought them and i have to say they are tasty!! Im glad they were otherwise i would have been annoyed i went to so much effort to get them only to be disappointed. Anyway.. A sad photo.

We arrived safely in London which we were both happy about. We got to our hotel and at first glance we thought it was a dump. Our room was downstairs where there were only about 4 rooms of which i think only 2 were being used as a lot of renovations going on. There is a picture of our door and the cables that are clearly visible. Slightly concerning...

But the bed is comfortable, and breakfast is included. We have wireless internet in our room so are often on messenger. The PC has headsets and all software for voice chatting and web cams etc so im happy.

We walked down through Hyde Park yesterday and down to Buckingham Palace. Damn it was cold. We had scarfs on but next time we will be taking our beanies as well!

We saw the Chicago Musical last night which was really good. Im not normally a musical kind of person but i actually did enjoy this one. Strangely i knew most of the songs...

Today we are going on the Sightseeing Bus and then hopefully on the Jack the Ripper tour tonight. Tomorrow we leave for our tour.

We departed Australia and arrived safely in Japan. We flew on a 747 and we actually sat upstairs.Well we arrived in Japan and it was interesting. Our Hotel we stayed in was really nice. It had one of those toilets that not only flushes but sprays up a nice stream of water. At first it was strange, and after a few seconds it becomes disturbingly comfortable.

We tried to withdraw some money but all the ATMs were not accepting our cards so we exchanged the $10 Australian we had left. Across the road was a 7/11 like store where we bought some noodles and a few other little odds and ends. Both the noodles smelt like fish. Its strange buying something which has absolutely no english on the box.

Next morning we were able to check in for our flight to London and put our bags in etc from the hotel foyer which made things easy. No transporting luggage to airport. Breakfast that morning was awesome. It had the stanard bacon, eggs, etc but also had lots of foods. They had boiled eggs, pancakes, fried rice, egg rice, steamed dim sims, and lots of other strange things. Japanese Picklese???? Strange...

That was pretty much Japan in our 18 hours there.

There is just under 2 days until we depart. Our Japan Airlines flight departs at 6am on Tuesday 14th March. We stop over in Sydney for a few hours then its onto Japan for the night. We arrive at 6pm in Japan. Flight to London leaves at midday the following day arriving in London mid afternoon on Wednesday 15th March.

We are in London for 3 nights and then we are going on our tour. Click the picture to the left for a map of where it is we go on our tour.

For more information on where the tour goes and what we actually do follow this link