TravelStream™ news feed for member lynley on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lynley en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:23:50 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1224624780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1224624780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1224624780/tpod.html Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:23:50 -0400 I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Tokyo, Kanto, Japan

I have some good and bad news for you. I know you have all been enjoying the peace and quiet of me being away, but the bad news is that I will be home tomorrow. And I would alos like to point out that this blog is being written with me having been awake for the past 24 hours and 27 minutes. Yep, I did not sleep at all on either of my first two flights yesterday. That is the problem with taking morning flights. I left London on what was supposed to be an 8:40am flight to Zurich (1.5hrs). But due to fog in Zurich, we left late. And as my flight and others were late getting into Zurich, my connecting flight to Tokyo (12hrs) left late too. We had all boarded and then were told we were still waiting on people. We sat there for at least 30 mins. But I made it to Tokyo, unable to sleep through any of the flight. I am still wide awake, but absolutely exhausted. I have just been out to Narita and visited the temple out there. It is huge! I have a 10.5 hour stop over here in Tokyo. Oh and Mum and Dad, the flight I am arriving on is coming via Christchurch. FUN!!!

So anyway, you want to know about my adventures. I believe I updated you in just as I arrived in Nice. My first day I spent in Nice checking out the sights on the hop-on hop-off bus. Unfortunately there were bus and train strikes so traffic was a bit manic and it took most of my day to do both routes. We even had to wait for an hour on the bus as one protest ralley started and passed us. I got chatting to a group of four elderly English women on the bus and then got off at the Russian Orthodox chruch with them to check it out. It is a beautiful church but so crammed full of stuff!

The following day was going to be my trip to Monaco, but as I was walking to the bus depot I ran into my room mates, the crazy older Brazilian women. They were such hard cases. I was adopted by them that week. They were going to Cannes so I decided to join them as I had no idea what to do in Cannes and kinda wanted to visit it. I was actually disappointed by Cannes. We did the Petit Train and all the kept pointing out was this hotel is famous cause movie people stay here and so is this one and this star did this here and this is the street to be on if you want to be seen and this is the street where everyone shops but you can't afford it.... Cannes is all about the movie festival and that is it. Having said that I did see some sand sculptures being made on the beach there which were pretty cool. In the end the Brazilian ladies caught the 2 hour 1 Euro bus back to Nice while I hung around for a little longer. Oh and the Brazilian women cooked up a storm that night. Free dinner for me!

The next day was... you know I can't remember what day it was. But I went to Monaco that day. I enjoyed Monaco. It was a beautiful bus ride out there along the coast. I got off outside the Casino and walked around the gardens there. No I did not go into the casino. I did however go up to the palace for the changing of the gaurd and then visited the state apartments. It is a beautiful palace. I saw the throne room where the prince sits for formal affairs. There were portraits around about Princess Grace Kelly. They loved her. She was a beautiful woman. It sounds also like the Monaco people respect their monarch and he does good by them. After the palace, I went and had lunch in the middle of the Formula 1 race track, kind of by accident really. I hadn't realised that was where I was till I sat done at the cafe and tried to work out where the race track was and then went, oh that's what those red and white barriers are for! I then walked along the waterfront and the race track and under the casino and tried to work out how I can get onto one of those flash boats. I decided the easiest way was to have a rich friend. After Monaco I stopped off in Eze Village on my way back to Nice. It is a small castle up on the cliff. It has beautiful views. It is now two very expensive hotels. It was more expensive there I found than in Monaco.

My final morning I spent doing the last of the sights in Nice which included visitng and archeological site on the hill top with stunning views of the beach. Nice is a beautiful beach spot. Then it was onto a train to Marseille.

Marseille I didn't really like. I didn't feel comfortable there as I had been told not to go out at night on my own and I was staying out in the burbs. But I survived, even when the lady told me in French that you have to watch you bag around Marseille and the taxi driver also told me in French that there are a large number of arrests in Marseille as we drive past a van that has just been pulled overe with backup arriving and everyone one is jumping out of the police car with the guns drawn. I visited Ile d'If which is the prison on which Count of Monti Cristo is based on. The coolest part was that I met a woman from Lyon who was in Marseille babysitting her 13 and 17 year old nephews. Her sister had left her two tickets to the Marseille Philharmonic Orchestra performance at the opera house and she gave me one of the tickets for free. I had a great night. It was a Brhams and Beethoven piece with the Brhams being a piano concerto. The pianist had to do and encore and then the audiance kept demanding more and they had to give in and play one of the movements again to satisfy us. It was great. The next day I checked out the last of the sights in Marseille before catching a plane to London to overnight before heading to Ireland.

Then it was on to Ireland where it rained for the whole time I was there. I was assured that I was getting the real Irish experience. The worst part about Ireland is driving on the windy narrow very rough roads. They are worse than NZ roads. I flew into Kerry airport and then had to drive to Kenmare where I was visiting a good friend. I arrived earlier than he realised so had a coffee in one of the cafes while I waited for his pub to open. After a cuppa tea we headed out to Dingle and had a seafood lunch which was pretty good. Dingle is a fishing town. Everyone had raved about it but neither of us saw what they were raving about. We decided it was the weather. The next day after sleeping most of the day away (I was up at 4:30am the morning before and we didn't get to bed till 2am the next morning), and me learning how to play Backgammon, we headed out to Banane where we checked out stone circles, remains of houses and villages. It was an interesting site. And the rain was kind enough to stop for us. We then drove up to the top of the mountain and checked out the view and were nearly blown off the mountain at the same time. Wednesday morning we checked out the stone circle in Kenmare and came to the conclusion that it was built for the tourists and wasn't real. Wednesday I had to return to London. Getting back to the airport was an adventure. I took the wrond turn at Kilarney and went the long way to the airport, only just making it in time for my flight. But made it in one piece to Phil and Claudia's.

Thursday and Friday Phil and Claudia worked so I checked out the sights of London by myself. I took a ride up the London Eye, walked Southbank, saw the changing of the horse gaurd, walked to Covent Garden market, Traflagar square, through Hyde Park and visited the NZ war memorial. It is beautiful by the way, very Kiwi. So I did a lot of walking, covered a lot of miles. Thrusday night I caught up with Ryan for dinner. Ryan and I did our PhD's together. Friday night Aaron, Phil's brother arrived so after dinner we headed out to Southbank and had a good night taking photos and mucking around. Saturday we went to South Kensington and visited the Science museum, so cool, so many toys to paly with. It was funny it took two engineers and two technologist to solve some of the problems set up for kids! After the science museum we went to the V&A (Victoria and Albert) and checked out some of the exhibts. They were cool. Would definately go there again. Dinner that night was at Brick Lane with Phil's Aunt and cousin. Brick Lane is all Indian food that you haggle a price for. We got 30% off plus two free bottles of wine. Ended up being 10 pound each for dinner. Not bad eh! Sunday we hung around home and chilled. Aaron left in the morning. In the evening just Phil and I went to church as Claud wasn't feeling the best. And then Monday morning I snuck out of their room and left to come home very early. Yes Aaron and I were crashed on the floor in Phil and Claudia's bedroom. There were ten of us staying in their flat at one point.

So, what you really want to know is what was the best part of my trip. Of course I have to say that catching up with my friends was the best part. Apart from that, I really enjoyed Ireland, Tours and Zeeland. I have over 2000 photos which I need to whittle down into a sensible number of photos. Most are duplicates as I wasn't sure whether the exposure was right or whethere I have blur or not in the photos. You can't really tell on such a small screen.

And I have to admit I am looking forward to coming home. I have done a lot of soul searching and praying on this trip. It has been quite a journey, one I have totally enjoyed, but I need a holiday from travelling. AND that PhD is still a mill stone around my neck so it is home to finish it once and for all! Look forward to seeing you all soon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1202586240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1202586240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1202586240/tpod.html Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:53:06 -0400 I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Nice, Provence, France

Writing this I am sitting in a cafe overlooking the formula 1 track and harbour of Monaco. Yes boys and girls, today is a glorious warm day in Monaco and I'm sitting in the middle of the formula 1 track eating my very expensive lunch. After lunch I am going to stroll the waterfront dreaming of how I can get me one of those nice boats then catch a bus to Eze, a small village between Monaco and Nice.

This morning I went and watched the changing of the guard at the palace then took a tour through some of the apartments, saw the throne room and a family portrait of Prince Rainer III, Grace Kelly and the kids. Grace Kelly was a beautiful woman. They love her here, everything is Princess Grace this, Princess Grace that.

Yesterday I was Cannes with my room mates and was disappointed. It's really not that great. Nice on the other hand is beautiful. The water front promenade is amazing. Reminds me of Mission Bay and makes me miss home. It's better here for roller blading, running and cycling as it is a very wide promenade. Tomorrow afternoon I head to Marseilles for two nights before heading to Ireland. That reminds me I need to remind Andrew I'm coming.

Paris was not my favourite place. I felt kind of stressed out there. It is very busy and fast paced. The nderground was very good. My first day there I went on a bike tour to Versailles. The tour was awesome despite the rain and wind. Versailles is huge! It is an amazing palace.

The next day I walked the Champs Elysees all the way from place de concord to the arc de triumph, then climbed all 284 stairs to the top. It was an amazing view. After wards I joined a free walking tour and
our guide was a kiwi girl from Rotorua. Short to say I was disappointed in the tour. We only saw the Eiffel tour from a distance. I was glad I had seen it the night before.

The next day I packed in the last of my must see sights leaving Notre Dame and St Chapelle for my last morning. That evening I joined a night bike tour. It was the best thing I did in my whole trip. It is run by Americans but they are great. There was a couple a bit older than my parents from Hamilton in the tour and a bunch of Aussies. We all had a blast. The last part of the tour was a boat trip down the Seine. We also had some French red wine on the trip. Short to say some people couldn't ride in a straight line up the small hill from the boat and the rest of us couldn't ride in a straight line trying to dodge the others. It was a great laugh. Best tour ever. I would highly recommend Fat Tire Bike tours to anyone and they're not just in Paris.

My last morning in Paris I did Notre Dame and St Chapelle before heading to Tours. Tours was a noticeably more relaxed town. Saturday I went on a tour of four castles in the Loire Valley my favourite being Chenonceau which is built on a bridge. Then it was a quiet day on Sunday in Tours. Oh by they way everything closed on Sunday. And I mean everything except the tourist stuff which is not much in Tours other than a couple of cathedrals. I went on a petit train around the city for my main attraction of the day.

8:13am the next morning I was on a train back to Paris to catch a TGV (super fast train) to Nice. My train had problems so it was a good 30mins late leaving Tours. Thankfully it had scheduled stops on the way where it had to wait so managed to make up time.

And that has been France so far. Having a good time. Oh I'm sharing a room with three older i.e. retirement age Brazilian women. I've kinds been adopted. They are a hard case. I get serenaded to sleep each night. They always manage to get to sleep before me.

See you all soon. Not long now till I return to reality. Till then aurevoir.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1222612560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1222612560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1222612560/tpod.html Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:04:14 -0400 I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Koblenz, Germany

The next part of my journey saw me leaving Munich for Koblenz, or more specifically Mülheim-Kärlich, a small village just outside of Koblenz. I am staying with family friends who we met in Rarotonga.

Verena and Marc you will be pleased to know that the first thing I did when I arrived here was go and buy a pair of jeans and a warm jacket. I so needed it. Seemingly overnight the temperatures dropped. Saturday night in Munich was cold and Sunday during the day was just as cold. Koblenz was also just as cold. The temperatures are between 5 and 17 degrees C. Having said that, today is beautiful and warm and closer to 20 C. The sun is out and the sky is cloudless. We had to freeze through fog till about 12:30pm, but once that cleared it was very warm.

While I have been here I have taken a trip on a boat up the Rhein to Boppard. It took us two hours to get there and and hour to come back. The currents are strong on the Rhein. At one point the captain couldn't dock the boat to pick up a couple of passengers because the current was so strong.

The next day we drove up the Mosel river to a town called Cochem. The Rhein and Mosel rivers both meet at Koblenz. We visited a castle up there and saw a lady with a falcon doing a dispaly for children. It was interesting to watch. Oh, and we stopped for coffee when we arrived and before we left. Manfred needs his coffee breaks!

Thursday we packed up and headed to the Netherlands. Manfred and Mieke have a caravan up there. Meike is originally from Amsterdam. Funnily enough the area we were going to was Zeeland. We were there for four day and had beautiful weather. It was cold when we left Germany but as soon as we arrived at the camp site, I was running round in a singlet it was that warm. Ok maybe just a little cold for that, but I was stubborn and foolish enough to do it. Each day while were were there we headed to a new town/village. I covered a lot of ground in those four days. I even visited the North Sea three times, stuck my feet in the water once and saw motorcross races on the beach. One day Meike and I rode bikes to a nearby viallge. Everyone travels on bikes in the Netherlands and quite commonly in the towns in Germany too. One thing I had to do while in the Netherlands was eat a Herring Dutch style, which is raw with onions on it. It took me a while to eat it, trust me. Between being raw and having bones getting stuck in your teeth, it was an experience and not one I am in a hurry to repeat.

Tuesday we came back to Germany (it's a four hour drive through the Netherlands, Belgum and the Netherlands again to get to the campsite). Manfred and Mieke had some friends turn up who were on their way home from canoe marathon races in Chechz Republic. They stayed a night and were an interesting couple. After they left we walked through Koblenz but it started raining on us so we had to cut the trip short. It took us three days to finally see and do all we wanted to in Koblenz. One day Manfred left Mieke and I in town as he wasn't feeling well. We caught a very full bus home later. Saturday was a special trip in just for Italian Eis (Ice). Apparently it's a must.

Sunday, I sat through a German church service. It was much like home except all in German. There were a couple of English songs sung not that I knew them. After lunch we headed to Bad-Ems, which is a famous bath town on the river Ems. The Russian Zar and the Dutch Royal family used to come down here. There is a beautiful palace on the river too. Can some rich friend buy it for me please!

And that has been my journey for the last two weeks. Tomorrow I am catching a train to Säarbruken then jumping on another train to Paris. I am spending two weeks in France, not all in one place, Paris, Tours, Nice and the French Riverea and Marseille. I will update you with the details of my adventures as they come to hand. Hope all is well at home. And for those of you missing me, I'll be home soon (3 weeks left).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1221440400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1221440400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1221440400/tpod.html Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:23:32 -0400 I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

On my final night in Munich I write this blog. Tomorrow morning I am catching a train to Koblenz where I am staying with family friends for a couple of weeks. I have spent two weeks based in Munich doing all sorts of different trips. It has been an adventure that is for sure.

Those of you who have been jealous can now stop being jealous. Verena and I came down with food poisoning from our road trip. She was unfortunately was sicker than I was but I have also had a cold on top of this. As a result this last week we have not done what we had hoped to do. After Dresden we crammed Weimar and Bamberg into one day and got home at 9:30pm. These were two very different towns. Weimar is like the cultural center of Germany. One of the Duchesses of Weimar invited philosophers, writers and Liszt to Weimar. Also Martin Luther frequented Weimar. They are very proud of this literary history. Being a Sunday, it was very quiet. Shops in Germany are closed on a Sunday. I'm quite enjoying it. The tourist spots were still open so we checked them out.

Then we headed off to Bamberg and raced around seeing the things we wanted to see before they closed. There is a magnificent church there with this angel with an almost devilish smile on her face on one of the aisle as you walk in. It is quite bizarre. There is also a tomb there for a pope, apparently the only one north of the alps. Catholic churches are strange round here.

Back in Munich we rested on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons Marc was my tour guide. He took me out to Dachau, the concentration camp that all others were modeled on. It was weird visiting it and seeing what actually happened there. Sometimes thought you can still talk yourself into not really believing that this all happened.

After Dachau we went and visited on of Munich's castles and it beautiful gardens. The next afternoon we took in all the city sights. Did you realise that Hitler first attempted to take over power in Munich. Munich was Hitlers base city. There is is much history here relating to the war. I always assumed it was Berlin, but it wasn't. Can tell I didn't do history at school.

Thursday I visited the old and modern art museums with Panos, a friend of Verena's who was born in Munich but is from Greece. I managed to see a couple of Rembrandt's, which were amazing. They were scenes from Bible stories which really touched me to see. The interesting thing was that the artist of old were fascinated by both biblical stories and mythological stories and so painted both and displayed both next to each other, which I found kind of ironic in their contrast.

Friday we headed to Lindau. The weather wasn't fantastic so we checked out the island and had Hot Seele ("sole") for dinner at an Irish pub. Hot Seele is a typical Lindau dish. It is like a baguette gut in half with onion, ham/pepperoni, cheese and other things. It was quite nice. Saturday was raining so we had a look at Verena's photos from here NZ trip and then headed home via Austria. Yes I have been to Austria. There is no stamp in my passport as there is no border control but I have the credit card receipt to prove it. Petrol is 20c cheaper in Austria. It is €1.48 here in Germany.

Today we had brunch at a student pub with Florian (CACM* exchange student 2007), his girlfriend, Verena (CACM* exchange student 2005) and a few of their friends. Marc (CACM* exchange student 2006) finally joined us 2 hours late. Marc, his girlfriend and I then spent the afternoon at the BMW museum. It was quite cool to see all the cars, concept cars, motorbikes, engines and that BMW first did areoplane engines till the end of the 1st world war. It is a fascinating place with some sweet cars!

And that is the update on what I have been doing over the past week. It was been great. The weather has been nice until the last few days. The temperature is dropping and getting quite cold. There goes my summer, hopefully not. Hope all is well back home. Talk to you soon.

* CACM is the Center for Advanced Composite Materials at the University of Auckland, where I work/study, depending on your perspective.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1220736720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1220736720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1220736720/tpod.html Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:59:56 -0400 I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Berlin, Germany

After arriving back in Munich from Croatia, I stayed the night in Munich before heading off for Berlin. Verena and I drove all the way up (580km) in 7 hours with an hour stop for lunch and a 20 minute rest break and we got lost arriving in Berlin. Google directions are not good when you get to cities. Mind you getting lost took us past all the sights we were going to see the next day anyway. We were staying in the flat of a friend of Verena's, Sunje, who she met in NZ. Sünje doesn't live there anymore, her brother lives in her room now. Sünje lives with her boyfriend. But the room we stayed in, the guy lives out of town durning the week as he works in another city. Confused? Yea I was too.

Berlin is cheap for accommodation and food. It was real good. There is still the division of East and West, but not terribly obvious. It was only 19 years ago that the wall came down so you'd expect there to still be some difference.

I spent two full days in Berlin checking out all the sights like the Reichstag, the East Side Gallery) the largest remaing section of the wall, checkpoint charlie, the hollocust memorial, the Brandenburg gate where the French, American and British emabssies all compete to be the closest to the gate. We also went to Potsdamer Platz which was detroyed and a wasteland during the wall, now it is fully rebuilt into a bustling center. They say this is the symbol of the 'New Belin.' All the important sights I saw in two days. We were exhausted after that. Sünje also took us around and showed us the Berlin you don't see as a tourist. We went out for drinks on the first night as it was a friend of Sünje's birthday. Another night we went to a Vietnamese restaurant. This is one of two restaurants in the chain. The first is very popular and you have to queue for. The one we went to people don't know about yet so it was easy to get in. I also had a curry-wurst which is unique to Berlin. It is a sausage with curry powder and a lot of sauce. One night we had Arabic food for dinner and we sat outside. I had the pleasure of having an albino rat hanging around my feet. We reckon he came from the subway rather than the kitchen. Still an interesting dinner experience.

After a German breakfast on Friday we headed off to Potsdam where we saw two palaces. They are both on the same grounds and were buit by the same guy. He preferred the smaller of the two. These I believe survived the war. They are doing some restorations on it at the moment. We went inside the bigger of the two and had to wear these huge slippers so as to not damage the floors. It was funny, you couldn't walk in them so you had to slide around instead.

After Potsdam we headed to Dresden and got lost again with Google's directions. The streets are not clearly marked as they are tiny signs across the other side of the road and google takes you along some strange routes. It's true I promise, you try it!

So today we have spent the day wondering around Dresden and now we are exhausted. I'm writing this and Verena is probably fallen asleep in our room. She was exhausted. Dresden was pretty much destroyed. All the old buildings have been rebuilt to look like they used to on the outside. The inside is more modern and houses museums.

Tomorrow we head off to Weinmar and Bamberg on our way back to Munich. I think Monday will be a rest day.

And that is probably enough information to bore you with today. Having a great time, the tan is looking better everyday. My feet are starting to not enjoy this holiday with all the walking. Will update you later on the haps. Hope all is well back in the real world.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1220265000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1220265000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1220265000/tpod.html Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:46:06 -0400 I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Korcula, Croatia

Today is my last in Croatia. I have spent most of my time of the island of Korcula, specifically in the small village of Zrnovska Banja where Miro lives. It is a village 10 minutes from the main town. It is the first sheltered bay from Korcula. Often yatchs will drop anchor in the bay so it can get quite busy. But mainly it has a smattering of
locals and tourists swimming and sunbathing. Just down from Miro's is a little beach of stone. Mostly it is a concrete path, big rocks and private jettys. The little pier that Miro's parents moor their boat to is gossip central at 5pm every day. There are about five or six older women that come down for their swim, sun and to catch up on all the local gossip. There are at least three generations represented with the youngest 29.

There are a lot of people in Korcula who work elsewhere but come back for the summer. I met a girl Irena who is studying medicine Belgrade and her mum is a plastic surgeon there too. They were over for the summer like Miro. There are two types of people left on the island, those who work and those who sit in cafes drinking coffee and smoking all day long while their wives are at home in the kitchen. Smoking here is like breathing air, everyone does it. It seems that you are unusual if you don't smoke.

The women not only smoke but are obsessed with tanning. This is all the women, young and old and tan lines are not acceptable.

As soon as I arrived I met the mayor of Korcula town. He is Miro's uncle and was over visiting when I arrived.

This morning I had to get up at 5am to catch the 6am catermaran back to Split. It's a two and a half hour trip. Thankfully the sea has calmed down this morning. It was blowy and choppy last night. From Split I catch a bus to the airport which is a 30 minute drive out of town. This morning I will check out some of the museums around the old town.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1219712580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1219712580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lynley/1/1219712580/tpod.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:21:01 -0400 I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

After a long 30 hours traveling, I finally arrived in Münich. It was an interesting trip to say the least. On arriving in Shanghi, we all had to go through immigration and collect our bags and re-check in. Immigration was fun. None of us who were transferring had visas or addresses to fill in on our arrival cards, so we were taken aside into another queue and the guys checked our passports and tickets. They kindly let us in. But you pick up pretty quick that the Chinese are not someone you want to mess with.

I had a two hour stop over in Shanghi, which was just enough to get through, pick up my bags and head to my gate. I think I had about 15 minutes to spare. It was another 12 hours to Zurich with a three hour stopover then a one hour flight to Münich.

Today, Verena and I went to the Olympic Park and went up the tower there and saw the view of the city. It unfortunately started raining just as we arrived so our pictures weren't so great. We then headed to town and checked out a couple of the old churches, watched the clock on the town hall play the glockenspiel. It only places twice a day. And we finished off the day by going to one of the beer gardens by the lake in the English garden. It was nice and relaxing sitting there by the lake.

Tomorrow morning I am off to Croatia for a week then I'm returning to Münich where Verena and I are planning on heading up to Berlin for a couple of days. Don't get too jealous of me now, holidays are hard work.
]]>