Berlin, Amsterdam & London

Frankfurt/Berlin, Germany

We stayed only the one night in Frankfurt, as all reports are that there isn’t a huge amount to do or see. I would concur, although, the area we stayed in (red light district) was somewhat amusing, and there was a small farmers festival on selling interesting food and displaying a variety of over excited barnyard animals.

We again managed to take advantage of the ride sharing program and we scored a lift from Frankfurt to Berlin. We pulled into Berlin in the afternoon and made our way to the hostel. It was a bit out of town, but in the heartland of East Berlin. We loved it. The hostel was cheap and had everything we could ask for. We had planned to stay in Berlin for 3 days, we extended our stay again and again and again and eventually stayed 8 days.

Berlin was cheap and that was such a nice change from Switzerland so we were able to live comfortably and stay under budget. We spent our days wandering the city, visiting all the tourist hot spots. We did the free walking tour and were mesmerised by the modern history of the city. It was so bizarre to think that right up until 1989 the Berlin Wall was still up.

The primary reason that we enjoyed Berlin so much was due to the alternative culture. We did the alternative walking tour which looked at street art and all things ‘alternative’.

One of the days we headed out to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The camp became the blue print for all the other camps that were built. All though it was a work camp rather than a death camp, there were still 30,000 deaths, and Sachsenhausen was where they experimented with methods of mass killing. It was an incredibly humbling experience.

Berlin was both Al and I’s favourite city in Europe and we can’t wait to head back there again. We hopped on yet another overnight bus and headed for Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, Holland

The ridiculous overnight bus dropped us off in Amsterdam at 4:00am on a Sunday morning. What on earth we were supposed to do at that time, I have no idea. So we headed to our hostel, where they reluctantly let us in and allowed us to hang out in the smoking room. We weren’t allowed to sleep though, so we sat miserably waiting for 12:00pm (check-in time) to arrive. It got to about 6:30 when we decided we were sick of inhaling second hand weed smoke and we went for a walk. It was bitterly cold, and pitch black, the streets were filled with rubbish and the occasional late night party animal. We made our way through the streets and finally found a cafe to defrost in. One of the few things that we wanted to do while in Amsterdam, was to go to Anne Frank’s house and we decided to head there early to beat the rush. We toured the house which was very interesting and I decided that one day I’ll have to read the diaries. As we left the line to get in had extended round the corner to the end of the block – lucky we did beat the rush, otherwise we’d probably still be there.

We made it back to the hostel, checked in and slept for the afternoon. In the evening we again wandered the streets, had dinner and had a quiet night. The following day we hired bikes and rode about, we made it to the sex museum, perused the red light district and tried to find quality ‘coffee shops’. In the evening we went out for dinner, again hit the red light district and found a coffee shop to test out. Our visit was brief and entertaining, and the 10min walk home took 2 and half hours.

The following day we relaxed, did some sightseeing and shopping. We said farewell to mainland Europe and hopped on an awful overnight bus and headed to London.

London, England

The bus was dreadful. Why we kept opting for overnight buses, I don’t know. The bus was smooth until we got to a pit stop, where the doors were flung open, and most people got off. There was a serious breeze blowing and at 1:00am it was probably about 4 degrees. I couldn’t wait for the doors to close and for the bus to move again. We arrived at the border, everyone got off the bus, went through customs and hopped back on the bus. It was a fairly smooth process and we were running ahead of schedule. It was quite bizarre, but we travelled across the channel, on the bus, in a train. The bus was driven on to the train, and we were taken across to England. As we were pulling onto the train, the bus driver was bragging about how early we would be, and how good a run we’d had. All of a sudden, BANG, and the whole bus shook. Our bus driver had smashed into the kerb. All was ok, we got onto the train, arrived in England, drove away, and then pulled into the first service station. The wheel was ruined. So we all had to get off the bus at about 4:00am and wait 2 hours at a service station in freezing weather. Not happy. We arrived in London 3 hours late, and again having had no sleep.

We made our way to Tom, Phoebe and Tim’s place and crashed. The following 10 days blend together in my mind, but we did lots of; lazing, catching up, drinking beer, eating pizza (one of 3 foods Tom eats), watching football, shopping and drinking beer.

I did make it to an English Premier League game, and not just any. I got to see Newcastle take on West Ham at Upton Park. It was great to watch the magpies play. However we sat in the middle of the West Ham fans, and I was told not to cheer for Newcastle if I wanted to get out alive. It was quite difficult, especially when Newcastle ended up winning.

Alison had a great time going to a few shows in the West End. She got to see Lion King one afternoon, and one evening she went to see Chicago with Phoebe. I’m not big on musicals so I gave it a miss, but by all reports they were both great shows.

We loved hanging out with Tom, Phoebe, Tim and John, and having a place of our own – even if it was on their couch. Lucky for us they are all home now (except John), and there not living in the sad cloudy land. We rushed to the airport, and we were running horribly horribly late. Made it to the check-in desk and were handed 2 business class tickets. We relaxed, made our way to the gate. Got onboard our plane and into our beautiful seats/booths. What a way to fly. The food was amazing, as was the wine. Loads of movies to watch, and the seat transformed into a flat bed. I didn’t want to get off.

It was sad leaving London as we knew our Europe travel had now truly finished, and we were nearing the end of the line.