Move to UK and random travel in between - a trip of firsts

[Flashback]

Referring back to the original thread (http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ffer-committing-sins-europe-budget-24642.html) I shall be embarking on a journey over to Europe in 2 weeks time. I don't know exactly what it will entail, or where I will be in 2 years time (it's a 2 year Visa) ; but that's all part of the journey. I have a few irons in the fire for when I arrive regarding work, so it's a matter of pushing those contacts and seeing what I can come up with. A large part of this trip however is to see as much of Europe as possible while there so will be a good mix depending on what type of work I end up taking on.

Having completed my latest BAS, lodged my tax return and paid the last of my University bill I am happy to be leaving the country starting with an absolute clean slate:!:

After recently returning from a trip to MEL upon which I caught up with a lot of my great friends from AFF (Melbourne drinks and dinner - 14th Aug 2010) as well as others from high school, etc. it was time to start having a think about what needs to be done before I go. Unfortunately I picked up a bug a day or two before I left so am now battling with a very sore throat! Doc prescribed me some antibiotics and the irony is they're the largest tablet I've ever seen! :shock:

As I'm going on this trip as what I'd term a Flashpacker (A Guide to Flashpacking) I'm trying to travel light (even though my F ticket allows me a lot of luggage, but more for this reasoning later!) and this meant purchasing a backpack to travel around in and also needing to come up with a lot of necessity items, nice to have, and don't really need..... needless to say it's becoming an interesting exercise deciding on what to take. At least when I arrive the weather won't be too cold, so it will make packing lighter a bit easier.

I'm trying to limit myself to 20kg as once I land in FRA I don't know exactly where I'll travel for the week and a half I have before I hit London, which means I may end up on a flight on a LCC trying to trek back to London so need to be prepared for that. Luckily for me some of my relatives are flying over to the UK in a few days and flying EK which means they have 4x30kg ; perfect! I bagged up 2 of my suits with a few business shirts, and that was most of my workwear taken care of which I can then pickup once I arrive in London.

This TR may come in bits and pieces and may not cover every day, but only those that I consider may be important for people to read. Rest assured I hope to keep it interesting and will most likely report back in 2 weeks!

Upcoming flights: PER-SIN(SQ C)-FRA(SQ F)

My firsts: traveling around with a backpack :shock:, SQ C, SQ F, First Class on any airline, moving to another country to live without my family.

 

[anat0l]

Looking forward to this TR!

Onward and upward!

 

[ejb]

Goodluck with the move and I hope you enjoy your new life in the mother land.

A back packer flying F:!: What is the world coming to.

ejb

 

[Flashback]

Goodluck with the move and I hope you enjoy your new life in the mother land.

A back packer flying F:!: What is the world coming to.

ejb

Thanks! I figure if I'm going to submit myself to a life of roughing it then I may as well start it off in style!

As they often say, "well.. it's all downhill from here" so at least if I start high, there's a much longer time to fall in which case by then I'll already have left! :mrgreen:

 

[obrienja]

Flashware,
I'm based (usually) in SW London so if you've got anything you'd like to know DM me. You'll have a great trip over I'm sure and there's a massive amount of stuff to keep you occupied in Europe (and it's easy to stay a WP with BAs irregular J sales)
James.

 

[Flashback]

Hoping to get some posts happening here soon once I get some downtime, just a quick note ; currently doing my first hostel stay and have already done the usual AFF thing of helping someone with their travel plans. I noticed a girl in the lounge having some troubles booking a train ticket and managed to help her, she was very relieved!

Gave her a list of all the rail websites too, so that in the future she knows which site to go to for which country. I've done my good deed for the day:!:

 

[straitman]

Hoping to get some posts happening here soon once I get some downtime, just a quick note ; currently doing my first hostel stay and have already done the usual AFF thing of helping someone with their travel plans. I noticed a girl in the lounge having some troubles booking a train ticket and managed to help her, she was very relieved!

Gave her a list of all the rail websites too, so that in the future she knows which site to go to for which country. I've done my good deed for the day:!:

Always the gentleman :!:

If it was a guy would you have been so helpful :?:

 

[drron]

Always the gentleman :!:

If it was a guy would you have been so helpful :?:

Of course he would.
All the best Flash.Hope you have some wonderful adventures.looking forward to hearing about them.

 

[Flashback]

Always the gentleman :!:

If it was a guy would you have been so helpful :?:

Of course he would.
All the best Flash.Hope you have some wonderful adventures.looking forward to hearing about them.

Yep! In fact, when I went up to my room there were a few people up there, one of which who was a fellow Aussie (in Europe you say? never? :!: ). Gave him info on the Bayern ticket which he thought was really useful. One of the best ways for traveling around the Bavaria region in Germany.

 

[Flashback]

So the day finally arrived, it was time to leave what I knew behind and move on to an exciting new life.

My last day ended up being rather rushed as I had a few last minute things that needed tending to, so with the help of others I scooted around and got those done, popped in to the nursing home to see my Nanna and it was off home for a quick re-check on my packing and a quick little snooze. Given I only had an hour or so and was excited about my trip, the snooze didn't end up happening!

It was time to head to the airport. My younger sister came over and drove with my Mother and I to the airport. I was surprisingly calm and collected, because hey ; someone had to be! I knew when it was going to be time to head through to the lounge it was going to be anything but that

Upon arriving I grabbed my bags out of the car and headed toward the Raffles Class check-in, today I was going to be flying Business to Singapore then First to Frankfurt. Check-in all went rather smoothly, with me having already checked in online. The boarding pass PDF though only generated one for my PER-SIN leg and not the SIN-FRA, which the check-in agent was perplexed over. In PER the check-in agents are provided by Toll, so they're not SQ agents. Anyhou, it wasn't a problem and she was happy to re-print both my boarding passes onto SQ stock for me, agreeing that they're much nicer than a flimsy bit of paper! She had to call the manager over to get access to the F boarding pass, I guess ex-PER it's not something they'd use all too much.

Once that had been completed, I headed upstairs and sat there nervously waiting (to the point that I got a little bit sick, nerves got the better of me! :shock while my sister grabbed herself some lunch and my mother a coffee. I was not to have anything.. as I knew what treasures awaited me airside. Fast forward an hour.. and I felt it was time to head on through. There was the usual emotional farewell (and even thinking about it now makes me feel a little sad ) and it was off through passport control and up to the lounge.

The PER SKL is very small and cosy and I'd have to say not as good as the QP in the International Terminal. The food was decent enough with some nice pork buns, etc. The drinks selection was rather small, but again was passable.

I relaxed in there for 45 mins or so, doing a little last minute e-mail and some Facebook'ing upon which my flight was then called. Straight over to the priority lane (which was conveniently right outside the lounge door) and it was onto the plane.

SQ226 PER-SIN C (Business) A330-300


My Seat

QF009 style shot

Main Course: Gaeng Phed Moo - Thai style pork with red curry paste and lime leaves, beancurd with vegetables and steamed rice.

The TV screen, watching a bit of Mr Bean :mrgreen:

The amenity kits were handed out, which consisted of some strange looking sock things and an eye-shade. Not really much. It came in a cotton bag with a string that you pull at the top to tighten it.

The important part: choice of champagne was Charles Heidsieck or Bollinger Special Cuvee. I opted for the Bollinger throughout the flight, having a glass pre-takeoff, and then 2 glasses during the flight once in the air.

I started with an entree of Satay (had the lamb, rather than the chicken) which was v. tasty. It was then onto a starter or smoked salmon with nicoise salad served with citrus vinaigrette. Bread was brought around and I opted for the garlic bread which was in fact quite nice. The FA came around and offered the salad dressing separately and poured as much as you wanted. It was then onto the mains, for which I opted for the thai curry (as pictured above). It was very tasty and had a nice bit of spice to it! I ended up quite full by then, so passed on the cheese plate and opted for a small tub of chocolate icecream instead.

All in all an uneventful flight, service wasn't too bad (although more than 1 pre-takeoff drink would have been better, although because it was an A330 it makes it hard as whY PAX are moving through the cabin all the time) and my very first flight with SQ was definitely a good flight.

 

[Flashback]

Once I landed in Singapore, what else was one to do but head straight to the F SKL! I arrived and handed over my boarding pass and it was from there that I had to start running the gauntlet. :shock: My host asked me if I would like to dine, upon which I responded with "you only do this once, so sure, why not!"

She walked me through to "The Private Room" which is only accessible by passengers flying in F (whereas *A Gold members can access the main F SKL) and by the time I finally reached the table I think I had said good evening to about 10 people.

Once I sat I had a look through the menu, although I had already decided I was going to have the lobster. :mrgreen: The waiter came and took my order, and less than 10 minutes later I had the lobster on the table along with a yummy glass of wine (I forget what it was, now). The only champagne available was Charles Heidsieck (I did ask for Krug but was informed that was only on-board) so I declined and opted for the wine instead. Upon finishing that I decided on a plate of fresh fruits (to make me feel better for all the champagne I would be supping on!) which was very good and a small dessert consisting of some small chocolates. I topped it all off with an obligatory Singapore Sling, it was about time I finally had one...

I moved over to one of the nice comfy chairs and relaxed for 30 minutes before popping into the bathroom for a quick shave and heading off for my flight. Upon leaving about 5 different people said goodbye to me and wished me a well flight, and all addressed me by name! Impressive service! The service in TPR (The Private Room) was absolutely top notch and I never even had to think about scratching myself, without someone already pre-empting it.



As I headed over to the gate it was just as well I left when I did, it was final call and the queue was really long. That's OK! I simply cut through the middle and made my way to the other side and walked straight on as the premium queue was empty. Up the ramp I went and noticed there were 2 entrances to the plane, I'll take the one on the left I think... excellent, takes me straight to the F cabin where I was welcomed onboard.

Next... SQ F SIN-FRA.

 

[Flashback]

SQ26 SIN-FRA F (First) B747-400

This was it, the time had finally come. I raced down the ramp and was greeted at the door by the lovely Pauline and directed to my seat. It was going to be 1B today, a single seat by itself right in the nose of the plane. You have to do it at least once I figured! I was offered a drink of which I of course chose the champagne, which today was going to be the Dom Perignon 2000. As I was finishing my first glass and settling into my seat Pauline came up to me and asked if I would mind moving so that one of the couples could sit closer to each other. I explained that it was my first time flying F and that I really wanted this seat, to which she understood and said that was OK. Just of note when I was later talking to her about it and asking why the couple didn't simply take the 2 seats together in row 3 she said they both wanted window seats .. so I didn't feel so bad after all as if they really wanted to sit together, they could have

Anyway, I started to have a bit of a play with my seat and started to get comfy when the amenity kits, slippers and sleeper suits were brought around. The kit came in a handy for traveling Salvatore Ferragamo bag and the Givenchy PJ's looked nice and comfy. After having inspected the amenity kit (eye shades, cologne (Incanto), lip balm) I made my way to the toilet to change into the sleeper suit pre-takeoff as most of the rest of the cabin had. The cabin ended up having 6 people, so was about half full.

I settled in for a few more glasses of champagne, and it was time to take off. Upon collecting my glass my order for post-takeoff drinks was taken of which I was happy to move over to the first of many glasses of Krug:!:

It was quite different being in the nose of the plane, you could hear the wheels turning and it seemed to rattle a bit but I was ensured it was safe! The SQ 744 birds are getting close to retirement but they're still a very comfortable cabin to fly in.

Once in the air it was time for the meal service to start. It started off with some warm roasted nuts (which came out with my Krug) which were very tasty! My table was then set and I was given a choice of breads, from which I chose the nicely unhealthy garlic bread again. I ended up polishing off 3 pieces of it, yum! I then moved onto my appetiser which was Duckliver terrine with smoked duck breast, fig compote, baby lettuces and mustard dressing. It was a great start. I also took the option of the soup which was White onion and thyme soup, sauteed mushroom, iberico ham.

I then went for something fairly standard for my main, as I wasn't too fussed if I didn't eat it all as I had been doing nothing but eat all day! But when you're doing this once in a lifetime flying experience, why not live it to the full! I went for the Roasted chicken breast with natural jus, petit pois, panchetta, spring onion. By this stage I was extremely full so passed on the dessert and swapped my Krug for a bottle of water. I went to the bathroom and by the time I got back to my seat the table was cleared and my seat had been put into bed mode and an extra duvet was provided. Perfect! By that time my bodyclock was sitting on about 2.30am so it was time for some sleep.

I slept really well and got about 6 hours. When I woke up the rest of the cabin was dark and everyone was sound asleep. Not me! When I'm awake, I'm awake so I decided to make my way to the galley and had a chat with some of the FA's. Had a really great conversation about many things including this being the first time I've flown with SQ (and how great the service I had encountered had been), my first time in F and about my adventures in moving to London to live. Meanwhile I had numerous tastings of Krug and Dom Perignon as you'll see from the photos The male FA (I forget his name now) agreed that the Krug was a good drop. He also mentioned his wife is an FA and she was back working in the whY cabin on the flight and that they generally work together about 80% of the time.

I then decided to go have a little nap again, and slept right through till it was time for the breakfast service.

I decided to use the Book the Cook option and opted for the Nasi Biryani. I'm not one to go for a boring, continental style breakfast so this suited me perfectly! I had some fresh fruit with it, a bowl of muesli and berries and a glass of Dom (why not...!) as I had finished their stash of Krug (I believe they only had 2 bottles on board). I ended up filling in a feedback card (which they suggested) and was told it gets sent straight to the top. Oddly enough a week later I received an e-mail survey from *A asking about my recent experience.

After this it was time to change back into my clothes and get ready for landing. Overall impressions of SQ F was fantastic, the service was great and the FA's were very friendly and attentive. I never had to ask for anything, it was always being offered to me.

Unfortunately the ride was over and it was time to bid them all farewell. They all wished me luck with my new ventures and hoped to see me again soon. I jumped off the plane and went straight through passport control due to being first off and then went through to wait for my bags. Priority baggage worked fantastically. We waited a few minutes for the bags to start coming out, and then out my backpack came lol nicely tagged with F Priority tags. I grabbed my backpack and small suitcase off the conveyor belt, walked straight through as I had nothing to declare and went and withdrew some money from the ATM. I was now in Germany and ready to start a short holiday before arriving in the UK!




Next: Germany / Austria - Munich, Salzburg, Nuremberg, Cologne, Paderborn.

 

[Flashback]

Frankfurt to Munich

Regional DB trains

Upon arriving in Frankfurt I had a little bit of time to kill, so the one time I didn't need a fast-track through immigration and customs! Not to worry. I made my way to the train station and purchased a ticket to Kahl (Main) station, about a 45 minute train ride from Frankfurt Flughafen (airport), which went via Frankfurt am Main (central) train station. This was a nice little trick I picked up from the friendly folk over at FT. Rather than pay 79 euro to catch the ICE to Munich (in 3 hours) I could get myself to Kahl station, then after 9am the Bayern ticket (for unlimited travel in the Bavaria region (bus/regional train/subway) from 9am to 3am the next day) would then get me right down to Munich. As you may have guessed Kahl is the first stop in the Bavaria region. Once I arrived in Kahl I caught 3 different trains, changing every 1.5-2 hours or so. This suited me fine as I was staying with a friend in Munich and he didn't finish work till late afternoon, and I wasn't interested having spent the past day traveling in dropping my bags at the station and doing a little sightseeing so this was a perfect fit. I ended up arriving at Munich's main trainstation a little after 3 upon which I took in the scenery of the station and did a little people watching. I was still feeling full from the previous day's eating! :shock:

Eventually my friend arrived and we made our way to his place to dump my bags.


The train from Frankfurt Flughafen to Kahl (Main)

I see a lot of this in Europe. I have never seen it in Australia before.. is it because the plane only does it when it's a certain distance away from the airport, and that's why we never see it because we'd never be far enough away from the airport?

The train and Kahl (Main) station.

 

[medhead]

Cool trip report. Looking forward to future instalments.

Good to read of the train trip you did. I mentioned the Bayern pass option to my brother for my similar trip to Munich next year. He offered to meet me at the airport and get a hire car for some Autobahn experiences.

Frankfurt to Munich

Regional DB trains

I see a lot of this in Europe. I have never seen it in Australia before.. is it because the plane only does it when it's a certain distance away from the airport, and that's why we never see it because we'd never be far enough away from the airport?

We see those regularly in Adelaide, must be all the aircraft flying over to and from Perth. My kids call them "fairy flyers".

 

[Flashback]

Munich

Upon arriving at my friend's place the bags were dropped and we decided it was time to grab some dinner. We walked from his place to the site of where Oktoberfest was going to be held. It was absolutely massive! There were huge beer tents all over the place and lots of places to have a bite to eat (although inside the tent this is all provided for you anyway, you really have no reason to get out of your seat other than to use the bathroom!).

I'm not sure whose idea it was to have a few roller coasters at such an event, but hey! Good luck to them!

After walking through the whole venue we decided it was time for a beer and some dinner. We found a pub that was not too far from the Oktoberfest site and settled in there for a nice 1/2 pork knuckle.

After demolishing the pork knuckle, which was a very nice introduction to German food, we decided to walk back to my friend's place rather than catching the U-Bahn. After having that and a few beers I think it was a good idea to justify having eaten something so unhealthy! :shock:

With that it was time to hop online and check a few e-mails and then it was time for bed. It had been the first time I'd really stopped since I left Perth so I was ready for a good night's sleep. Luckily I wasn't suffering from any jetlag.

The next day brought the standard touristy things with my friend showing me around to all the major sites which includes the world famous Hofbrauhaus.

We spent about half of the day out and about seeing sites, after a nice German style breakfast which consisted of bread, some cold meats and some meaty type thing in a kind of tube (best way I can describe it!!) ; but whatever it was, it's one of the nicest things I've ever had! Add to that some cucumber and tomato and it felt like a somewhat refreshing breakfast.

After being out sightseeing all day we decided that relaxing for a few hours was a good idea. We ended up venturing out late evening for dinner and had some mexican ; as you do..... from there we went to a really cool German bar, it was like the bars you'd run into when in Cologne. You buy a tray of 200ml Kolsch beers and it simply gets marked off on a card, when you go to leave that's when you then settle the bill. This was quite a hidden away place, so no tourists were here. As a result it was Germany speaking only! Not to worry.. I managed to hear a few words come out of a girl standing behind me, so I asked if she spoke English and off we went from there. We all ended up heading over to an Irish Pub (gee, there's one in every city in the world!) for a few pints, then we bid the people we met farewell. That wasn't to be the end of our night though! We ended up heading to a club which unlike back home, happily let us in at 4am. It was soon approaching dawn and we decided it was time to call it a night, but not of course before buying a slice of yummy pizza to eat before jumping in the Taxi to head home to sleep.

After a somewhat late start to the day, we finally ventured out in the afternoon in search of Weisswurst. Now the thing with this, is you're not supposed to have it after 11am... so of course being 4pm we were up for quite a search! After getting 5 knockbacks we decided to head back to Hofbrauhaus and we were in luck! Going totally against 'the rules' we knuckled down into the tasty dish.

 

[Flashback]

We then decided to head over to BMW world where the BMW HQ next door to it looked very impressive. A short walk from there was Olympic Park, the site of the Munich Olympic games. It is a very impressive area and there's a nice lookout you can walk up to for a great view over the city. It's all very green around here and they've also got a little lake. It's a really nice spot to just sit down and chill for a while and take all the sites in.

After dinner, we decided to walk back through Marienplatz to the Tram so my friend could show me the club we went to the previous night (as my recollection wasn't that great ) and while walking through we came across this great act, he was really good to watch and listen to.

This then brought the weekend for a close, but it wasn't time for me to leave Munich yet. I decided on doing a daytrip on Monday, which would have me out of the house all day anyway while my friend was at work. It ended up being about 12 hours all up including getting there and back, which was 2+ hours each way on train/bus. I decided to do it on a tour run by Sandemans, who operate the free walking tours in a lot of cities in Europe. We all met at Munchen Hauptbahnof (Munich central station) and paid our money and it was then on our way to Neuschwanstein Castle, the infamous castle that Disney's Sleeping Beauty was modeled upon.

The bus ride from the train station to the site of the castle gave us some amazing views of the Bavarian Alps. Just a note for anyone deciding to go and see this, it's a long, steep walk up to the castle from the bottom where the bus will drop you. It takes a good 20-30 minutes to do but I found it very rewarding. There is an option to catch a public bus up also but the lines are huge so you don't really end up saving any time. One of the interesting things to note about this castle is that it was built by King Ludwig II, the dreamer. He was a very eccentric person and this is shown very well through the insides of the castle. A lot of the paintings on the walls are depicting well known fairy tales from around his time. One of the rooms also is a cave, stalactites and all! Amazing. It's a short tour through the castle though as only 1/3 of it was ever finished. I won't spoil any more of it for you, so to find out why go and see for yourself!

After a long day it was time for a nice relaxing train ride back to Munich to grab a quick bite to eat, pack my bags ready to leave the next day and get a good nights sleep. I was exhausted after such a long day!

My final day in Munich had arrived and it was time to purchase another Bayern ticket. It was going to give me great value today!

 

[Flashback]

I had decided I wanted to also visit the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. This was only a 20 minute train ride from Munich so was easy to do, and being in the Bavaria region I was able to include this on my Bayern ticket which made life much easier.

I won't go too much into my visit to Dachau but more so will mention that it was a very moving and chilling thing to do. The fact that you're walking through a site where so many terrible things happened is really chilling to think about. I ended up buying the audio guide (well, borrowing I guess as you don't get to keep it!) and spent a few hours having a look around at my own pace.



Those of you that have me on Facebook feel free to jump on and have a look through my photo album, I have many more photos of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial.

After having seen what I came to see it was back to the train station and time to head to Salzburg, Austria. This is where the Bayern ticket really paid itself off for the day! Salzburg technically isn't in Bavaria, but because it's so close the ticket is valid for travel to/from Salzburg and anywhere else in the Bavaria Region. Awesome! A 20 minute train ride back to Munich and then 2 hours later on the Regional Train I was in Salzburg.

Here begins my first hostel experience.. :shock:

 

[Flashback]

Salzburg

I thought I'd start this one off with the obligatory QF009 style shot, plenty of legroom here for me on this ride!

Upon arriving I tried to find a tourist information spot to find out exactly where I was and where I needed to go, I was also hoping to get a map. This unfortunately wasn't to be.... each place I went to, told me I needed to go to the other one! I was going around in circles! I ended up just walking the other way... and eventually saw the landmark the hostel had mentioned so I knew I was on the right track. 5-10 minutes later I finally arrived somewhat hot and bothered and checked in. I found the staff here not overly welcoming but apart from that this was a very nice introduction to hostels (compared to some that I was to visit in the following days...! :shock. Free, cold filtered water was available in the lounge area and Wifi was available all throughout the hostel. Cool. This is where I met the girl I mentioned earlier who was struggling booking a train from Paris to Brugge. We had a nice little chat and then I decided to head up to my room, freshen up, and see some sites.

The room wasn't overly huge, but was functional. Access to the room was by keycard and that same card was also used for your locker. A nice touch!

Salzburg is a really pretty city so I decided to head out and have a look around, with my aim being to walk up to the castle. As with any good European city the castle is always at the top of the hill so another long steep walk was ahead of me. This one was much easier than Neuschwanstein Castle though!

After viewing the castle I decided to walk around and soak up the sites of the city. I came across some locals playing chess in the city centre and also found the big chess board I had heard about.

There's not a huge amount to do in Salzburg so I headed back to the Hostel after grabbing a bite to eat and went up to my room. I ended up having a good chat for an hour or two with some of the other people I was to be sharing with that night and just after 1am I finally got into bed and went to sleep. I thought that as far as a Hostel goes, this place is quite decent.

The next morning I got up, showered, had breakfast and packed my bags ; it was time to move on to the next city. What's that I hear you say? Yes! Bayern Ticket! 20 euro later I was back on the train and heading to Nuremberg. Unfortunately I had to go back through Munich to get there, so it was a 4 hour trip ; but was a nice relaxing start to the day as I didn't have to do anything but sit and stare out the window.

 

[Flashback]

Nuremberg

Why did I decide on going to Nuremberg? Well, when I was in Munich I was on Facebook having a chat to a family friend and she asked me where I was. I mentioned I was in Germany to which she replied "Oh! I have a brother who lives there, you must go and visit!". As I hadn't planned anything for after Salzburg I set about working out how to get there. The best way from Salzburg looked to be getting to Nuremberg (using the Bayern ticket), then onto Cologne, then onto Paderborn (near Dortmund). I decided 1 night in each town would be enough and so I had finally arrived in Nuremberg, 4 hours after leaving Salzburg.

I checked in to the Hostel which had a bit of a rundown feeling to it so I knew it was going to be my first "real" stay! :shock:

I did a quick recon of the hostel and while it was clean (well.. the rooms were OK) and functional, I was glad I was only spending one night there. The showers were very mediocre so it was thongs on and a very quick wash!

Just as I was about to leave 2 American guys headed into the room and we started chatting. There another Brit in there also who joined in. We decided we'd go for a walk around town and view some of the sites. First stop, the supermarket I had found earlier in the town centre. It's quite a novel idea that you can street drink and also that beer is so cheap! So 40 euro cents later we each had a 500ml beer and consumed it on our walk up to the Imperial Castle.

The architecture of the Imperial Castle was like nothing I've seen, it seems to have been a mishmash of designs with different parts of the castle each having a different look and feel to them. It was free to walk around this one and the gardens which was a bonus, but if you wanted to go inside the actual building that cost. I had already been in a few by this stage so passed on going inside.

The buildings in Nuremberg have a very unique feel to them, kind of like toy houses. The picture on the left illustrates this perfectly. On the right, you can see the U-Bahn station below the building.

We stumbled across this very interesting fountain. As with a lot of European statues... it is somewhat revealing in what is depicted. Those of you with me on Facebook feel free to have a closer look through the photos I posted, as they're not really suitable for here.

We ended up finding a small restaurant for dinner which was very nice however the person taking our orders messed up! 3 of us had ordered similar things but when the meals came out they were all exactly the same, and nothing like what we had ordered... it was too hard to send it back so we accepted what was there with the gracious offer of a shot of schnapps once we had finished our meals. Guess one was not to complain. The food ended up being really tasty so it wasn't all bad.

We headed back to the Hostel after dinner for some relaxing time and after checking some e-mails/AFF it was time for sleep for me. I had a reasonably early start to the day as it was back to the train station and off to Cologne.

 

[docjames]

Great TR.

Bringing back so many memories (i think i've visited all those you've mentioned!).