After spending a couple of nights in Frankfurt (which was cold, wet and extremely noisy - I had picked St Patick's Day weekend to arrive!), I was very happy to move on to the medieval town of Bamberg. I got one of Germany's high speed trains and, 2 hours later, I was there. This is a great way to travel and relatively cheap if you take the 2nd class seats.
Bamberg has an historical centre, which is UNESCO protected, and I think that I have now walked every one of the streets within this centre. I really love places like this. I remember visiting quite a few in France. The buildings are between 800 and 1,000 years old and are being so well looked after. I've arrived before the major influx of tourists so have had the pleasure of ambling along without having to jostle for position.
I don't know a word of German and can't really even make out what the written words might mean. Except for Damen and Toiletten - very useful words! However, 95% of the people have been obliging and have spoken to me in English. Most of the locals understand German but they speak their own Bavarian dialect so I really don't have a chance trying to pick it up. I had my hair cut yesterday (couldn't stand the straggly mess it had become in my attempt to grow it long) and it was fun trying to explain what I wanted to the hairdresser, who spoke no English apart from the word 'OK'. There was lots of miming and hand gestures going on and, in the end, it's a passable job.
Tomorrow morning, I catch the train again and head for Munich. At this stage, I haven't decided how long to stay, maybe about a week, because I want to do a few side trips from there before going further south into Austria. It's very nice being able to travel at my own pace now, i.e. slow!
Tomorrow I'm
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Saturday, 17 March 2012
San Diego Blog
My final blog, before the next leg of my trip in Europe, reports on a lovely 2 days in San Diego. I was spoilt rotten by my mother's cousin, Pat, who very kindly picked me up from the airport, let me stay at her house in Dana Point (about halfway between San Diego and LA), fed me, wined me and loaned me her gorgeous x-type jag to drive around in! What a treat.
It's been a lifelong dream to visit the San Diego Zoo so my mission for the two days was to visit the zoo, as well as the safari park. This left no time for anything else but I can always come back one day. I went to the safari park first and absolutely loved it. There are a number of safaris that you can go on, apart from just strolling around the park. The safaris take you behind the scenes and you get to experience things that are not available otherwise. Of course, it costs quite a bit extra but it was worth it. I chose to do the Caravan Safari which involved climbing into the back of a truck and being driven into the giraffe and rhino enclosures. We were allowed to feed the animals which was very, very cool.
The safari lasted for two hours so I then had plenty of time to wander the park and see the other sights, including the cheetah run. This was where a 'tame' cheetah was unleashed so that he could chase a stuffed toy along a strip of grass for 100m in order for us to see just how fast it could run. It reached something like 60 mph in 3 seconds!
On the second day, I went to the zoo. Although I enjoyed it, I have to say that the safari park was so much better. Perhaps it's after seeing so many animals in their natural surroundings over the past four months, I couldn't really come to terms with seeing them in cages. The zoo was beautiful and they have tried hard to recreate something natural but many of the pens were small and there were too many cases of animals walking back and forward, back and forward. A sure sign that they were bored.
On my final day, Pat took me for breakfast at Crystal Cove, a gorgeous spot right on the beach, just north of Daytona. What a lovely way to end my time here. She then drove me up to LA, in time for my flight to Frankfurt. And that brings me to the end of almost five months of traveling. What an incredible time that I've had so far, so many new experiences and lots of new friends. Bring on the next adventure!
It's been a lifelong dream to visit the San Diego Zoo so my mission for the two days was to visit the zoo, as well as the safari park. This left no time for anything else but I can always come back one day. I went to the safari park first and absolutely loved it. There are a number of safaris that you can go on, apart from just strolling around the park. The safaris take you behind the scenes and you get to experience things that are not available otherwise. Of course, it costs quite a bit extra but it was worth it. I chose to do the Caravan Safari which involved climbing into the back of a truck and being driven into the giraffe and rhino enclosures. We were allowed to feed the animals which was very, very cool.
The safari lasted for two hours so I then had plenty of time to wander the park and see the other sights, including the cheetah run. This was where a 'tame' cheetah was unleashed so that he could chase a stuffed toy along a strip of grass for 100m in order for us to see just how fast it could run. It reached something like 60 mph in 3 seconds!
On the second day, I went to the zoo. Although I enjoyed it, I have to say that the safari park was so much better. Perhaps it's after seeing so many animals in their natural surroundings over the past four months, I couldn't really come to terms with seeing them in cages. The zoo was beautiful and they have tried hard to recreate something natural but many of the pens were small and there were too many cases of animals walking back and forward, back and forward. A sure sign that they were bored.
On my final day, Pat took me for breakfast at Crystal Cove, a gorgeous spot right on the beach, just north of Daytona. What a lovely way to end my time here. She then drove me up to LA, in time for my flight to Frankfurt. And that brings me to the end of almost five months of traveling. What an incredible time that I've had so far, so many new experiences and lots of new friends. Bring on the next adventure!
Monday, 12 March 2012
Washington DC Blog
Well, it's been a flying visit to Washington DC! Definitely not long enough to see everything that's here, I think I probably needed a week. So it was a matter of deciding on a priority list and just going for it. The hostel that I selected was in a good location which meant that I could rely on foot power, rather than buses or the metro.
This place is largely all about memorials and museums and they've done it very well. Due to time constraints (and the fact that I'm not a big museum kind of person!), I mainly focused on the exterior views. Rather than go into detail about everything that I saw, and bore you senseless, here's what I saw:
Day One: The White House, Lafayette Park, The Treasury, Washington Monument (the inside was closed due to some damage done in the last earthquake), WWII Memorial, Constitution Gardens, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial, Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Whew! My feet were sore after that lot!
Day Two: Guided tour of the U.S. Capitol, Union Station, U.S. Supreme Court, a walk down the Mall which is flanked by all of the museums, a quick peek inside the Smithsonian Institute and the Air and Space Museum, and finally, a walk around Georgetown - a posh residential area and where all of the embassies are.
It's a very nice city and I really didn't do it justice. So, for anyone thinking of coming here (that hasn't been already), make sure you give yourself a week, it's well worth it.
This place is largely all about memorials and museums and they've done it very well. Due to time constraints (and the fact that I'm not a big museum kind of person!), I mainly focused on the exterior views. Rather than go into detail about everything that I saw, and bore you senseless, here's what I saw:
Day One: The White House, Lafayette Park, The Treasury, Washington Monument (the inside was closed due to some damage done in the last earthquake), WWII Memorial, Constitution Gardens, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial, Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Whew! My feet were sore after that lot!
Day Two: Guided tour of the U.S. Capitol, Union Station, U.S. Supreme Court, a walk down the Mall which is flanked by all of the museums, a quick peek inside the Smithsonian Institute and the Air and Space Museum, and finally, a walk around Georgetown - a posh residential area and where all of the embassies are.
It's a very nice city and I really didn't do it justice. So, for anyone thinking of coming here (that hasn't been already), make sure you give yourself a week, it's well worth it.
Saturday, 10 March 2012
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