Vienna

Beautiful city...the lovely old buildings are very ornate and look gorgeous covered in snow. Unfortunately with the snow comes the cold brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Can't stay outside too long - got to keep moving and trying not to slip. There are people who's job it is to go around with a wheelbarrow full of pebbles sprinkling them on the ground to make the paths less slippery - works well. They sprinkle salt on the roads to help melt the snow.

We stayed in a two bedroom apartment in Rossauer Leande just outside the city centre and directly opposite a train station which proved to be very handy.

Went to visit the Schloss Schonbrunn - a large palace with beautiful large parklike grounds - unfortunately it was all under very deep snow - looked beautiful but absolutely no green at all - I've no idea what kind of plants they have there. There's supposed to be a maze but again the garden was whited out and we couldn't see it.
There was a christmas market set up in front of the palace - a great setting - and of course we ate lots of goodies and drank gluhwein to keep warm. Took some lovely photos.

One thing that struck me as strange was the dirty graffitied subway stations - it was like being in a different world every time we went to the stations.

Vienna

The train trip to Vienna was very picturesque - just beautiful looking out the window - lovely fields, villages and woods totally covered in snow. We arrived quite late and weren't quite sure where the hotel was so thought we would catch a cab - unfortunately it was peak traffic and the roads were totall covered in snow making traffic very slow.

Nurnberg documentation centre

We headed out early as we only had a few hours before we were due to catch the train to Vienna.

Andrew and Warwick wanted to visit the Nazi documentation centre historical display. We caught a tram which took us to the area where the Nazi rallies took place in the Zeppelin fields many years ago. The museum was full of quite compelling sad tales of the effects of the war and the Nazi in Nurenberg. The museum and the surrounding rally fields held many sad stories and left me feeling quite numbed.

Nurnberg

Train from Frankfurt to Nurnberg, nice comfy seat with table & window seats to see the view. Arrived in Nurnberg early evening and hotel was just across road - just as well as it was very icy - luckily there was a subway which took us under the road and came up closer to the hotel. Really have to take care when walking as the snow gets really slippery when it is compacted. The trick is to step on the fresh snow when you can as there is more grip.

Nurnberg is a very pretty city - the old town still has a city wall and large round turrets on each corner of the town. Many beautiful old buildings, churches and at the other end of town up on a hill is Nurnberg Castle. We didn't stay long at the hotel after booking in - we wanted to something of the town - so off we went to explore. The town looked a picture with snow everywhere and christmas lights and decorations all over.

The next day we spent a bit of time walking through the town and the city museum which was very informative - I didn't really know much about Nuremberg so it was very ineresting seeing the change that had occurred in the town over the years throughout the Nazi era and before and after. There were models of the town showing the effects of the massive damage caused by bombing during the war and the reconstruction that took place afterwards. We headed further up the icy hill - taking great care not to slip and walked around the Castle - we didn't go inside though. We were due to meet Warwick at the railway station at about 5pm.

We collected Warwick and checked him into the hotel....Then we headed back to town and to the Christmas markets. We soon came across one of their market places - a pretty sight with lots of wooden stalls decorated up with christmas fare - selling yummy lebkuchen and special small nurnberg sausages, lovely wafers filled with marshmallow lots of gingerbread and of course Gluhwein of many flavours.My favourite Gluhwein is the Cherry (Kirschwein) yum yum - some stalls add rum to their mix which makes it extra yummy and very warming - but you can't have more than two or you will be totally "rum numbed" We came across one stall which had a large number of people hanging around - discovered the stall was making an old traditional recipe - they poured heated rum through sugar and added it to the gluhwein mix making for a very yummy rummy mixture.

It was lovely wandering around while the snow fell and groups of musicians played christmas carols. We headed back and came across a Kinder market - a christmas market set up for the children with bright merry go rounds and "gluhwein" without alcohol.

Frankfurt

Caught the train to Frankfurt. Arrived late and headed off to find our hotel - freezing cold and snowing - only had a few streets to walk luckily - arrived and settled in. Thought we might go for a walk and see if we could find the local Christmas market as we needed some exercise. Long walk to the town centre - arrived with only about a half an hour before it closed for the night, had a quick look around, the market was as usual in the city square next to their cathedral and alongside the river (so it was very cold) had a gluhwein to warm ourselves up and headed back to the hotel - somehow must ave taken a wrong turn as we seemed to be walking for ages...map was hard to read and it was getting colder by the minute...came to the realisation we were headed in the wrong direction so turned around still not quite sure where we were - though I knew we weren't too far away from where we should be.....Luckily we came across a taxi rank outside the Opera house and got a ride back to the hotel...nice to be back in the warm.

Next morning got up and went downstairs for breakfast - dining room overlooked a lovely garden which was covered with a sprinkle of snow - pretty as a picture. As we sat there the snow got heavier and heavier, it was going to be a chilly day.

We headed back to town and walked around the square - we had intended to go to some of the museums but they were all shut on Mondays.. so we went inside the cathedral for a look, not quite as spectacular as Cologne (Koln) but still very grand.

Walked down towards the river and found a lovely pedestrian bridge - very icy and slippery - climbed the sairs carefully and walked across - the wind as blowing an icy wid through us....absolutely beautiful though looking across the water towards the cathedral and other old buildings along the riverbanks.

Farewell Koln

Headed out for breakfast, went to the older part of Kol. We walked past a courtyard area and found a series of guards keeping people away from the building - we thought there must have been some visiting dignitary that they were guarding - but we were told that the courtyard is actually the roof of a concert chamber and when the orchestra is having a concert - if you walk in the courtyard the sound can be heard in the concert hall......so they stand guard to keep people away.

We found a lovely little restaurant where we had a traditional breakfast of eggs, cheese and meat slices and bread rolls.

Warwick & Karen headed back to Leiden and Andrew and I decided to have a look around the Cathedral, incredibly high building with magnificent stained glass windows - I'll never understand why they needed to make these buildings so big - absolutely overwhelming looking up to the roof.

Medieval markets Saturday evening Koln

Headed to the other side of town where some more traditional markets were to be found. On the way we passed through another Christmas market - (each market seemed to have it's own speciality) this one sold skewers of pork which were barbecued on large stoves in the open, beautiful carved wooden toys and ornaments and lots more.

The medieval markets had very traditional fare - mead, gluhwein (a more aromatic variety) and old traditional crafts.

Every market area had stalls decorated in a different style - all very Christmassy, lots of pine branches, candles and other decorations.

Headed off again and found a restaurant for dinner - by this stage W&K's friends had increased to 10 so we had to find a large table - Very German food -(same beer again!) sausages, schnitzel and potatoes... The waiters were funny - not much patience - very efficient!

The end of a long, cold and very enjoyable day.

Markets

Awoke early and headed out to see the town. Very cold now...walked to the Cathedral - huge building, quite a magnificent landmark. We found a lovely bread/cake shop and bought something for breakfast - we had planned to sit outside the Cathedral, however we found all the seats iced up! We just stood around and ate our buns and drank some coffee to warm ourselves up.

After looking around the shops - we headed to the markets which were next to the Cathedral. Lots of wooden stalls were set up around in the square. All the stalls were filled with christmas goodies - food or handcrafts. We tried the bratwurst sausages, the potato cakes with apple sauce (yum) gluhwein ( which was berries and wine and spices cooked up in vat) yummy, quite sweet and very warming - especially useful for warming hands up. Gluhwein is sold in special mugs which can be kept as souveniers or returned for a refund.

fer it started to get too cold - some of the others found a bar (brewery) where we could have a drink & something to eat and warm ourselves up....Unfortunately there is no rule about not smoking in bars in Germany and we soon found the smokey atmosphere a bit much to cope with...so we moved on.

Cologne (Koln) Christmas market

Headed off by train on friday night - met up with Karen J in Amsterdam, and continued by train together. Arrived in Koln late evening - to find covered cars parked along the road. A bit chilly!!brrrrr We found the hotel and checked in, nice and warm inside. Warwick & Karens friends also had arrived from Leiden and had found a small brewery (pub) down the road so we set off to join them. We found the place and stepped inside to find them sitting at a small table. We weren't terribly hungry as we had eaten sandwiches on the train. The others had already ordered some food sausages and sauerkraut. Luckily one of W & K's friends spoke German so was able to explain the procedure.... The bartender was a rather large woman (wouldn't want to mess with her - she looked like she could just pick you up by the scruff of the neck and toss you out the door without any trouble), apparently the brewery pubs only serve one type of beer (Kolsh) which is the local Koln beer when you sit down, the bartender comes along an places a beer in front of you and puts a mark on an upturned coaster on the table..whenever your glass becomes empty the barmaid automatically puts another in front of you - if you don't want any more you have to put a coaster on the top of your glass. The barmaid seems to spend all night walking around with a tray full of beer plonking them in front of people! inally headed back to the hotel - next day we head off to find the christmas market.

Amsterdam

Decided to spend the day in Amserdam - though by the time we gt moving it was more like half a day.

Took a canal boat ride and got off near the museum quarter. Walked for a while before we came across large markets. Lots of stalls selling just about everything, the weather started closing in so we thought we would grab some lunch then head off to the Van Gogh museum. Stumbled upon a Soup Winkel (shop) so as we were freezing by that point - decided it would be a good way of warming up. I chose some carrot,coconut soup and AJ & W had some Moroccan Chicken soup. delicious and certainly warmed us up enough to continue our walk.

Afternoon spent at the Van Gogh Museum - lots of his paintings on display as well as a fascinating insight into the way he came to be an artist and develop his style.

By the time we came out the light was fading so we decided to head back to the station (about 2ks walk) Lovely seeing the Christmas lights going on as we walked along.

A day around Leiden

We decided to spend a day wandering around Leiden checking out the sights. Headed off down the road and came across the marketplace. Stalls selling all kinds of foodstuffs, fish, meat, nuts, cakes, biscuits, in fact any kind of food. Bought a few bits & pieces, then found a cafe where Andrew spied a lovely apple tart which e just had to try....mmmm very nice.

Headed back to W's place to put food items in fridge before heading out to see more of Leiden. Ended up in local windmill which has been turned into a museum. Didn't realise this would involve climbing up many flights of extremely steep stairs (7 floors) plucked up the courage to go up to 6th floor before realising what comes up must come down...and I was totally bamboozled as to how I was going to get down from there....seeings as how I am totally freaked by heights and the descent consisted of approaching a hole in the floor backwards and stepping into midair somehow hoping your foot will come in contact with a step (nothing to hold onto to steady yourself) - didn't seem possible - but the thought of staying up there forever didn't seem much of an alternative so I very bravely (so I thought) descended ever so slowly- trying to look like I was in control whilst my brain was freaking out - until I reached the ground safely.

For dinner we had booked a table at La Cloche restaurant a few streets away from W's where we had eaten last time we were here in Leiden. Freezing cold outside - but it was worth the walk. Lovely meal. Finished off the day beautifully.

A day in Haarlem followed by Pancakes for supper

After a late start to the day we headed off to Haarlem for the day. About a half hours train trip from Leiden. Lovely town - walked around to see what we could - lovely old windmll, took some photos. We visited a fascinating museum with a very eclectic mix of displays. A coin room, a fossil room, strange and amazing machinery some used for measuring sound, creating electricity all sorts of wonderful contraptions. There were rooms housing a fine collection of old oil paintings and sketches. Found a lovely little restaurant where we had burgers - yum yum

Headed back to Leiden. Dinner at K & W's then out to supper. Pancakes - the biggest you have ever seen! I had sour cherries, AJ had goats cheese with walnuts & honey, Waz had apple and Karen had raisins & sugar. Pancakes the size of a large serving platter!

Hello Netherlands

Finally arrived in Leiden, 30+ hours after leaving home - a very long but uneventful flight. Weather not as cold as I expected 5degrees celsius though later in the week we have been told, there is a possibility of snow. Met up with Karen & Warwick and set about planning the rest of our visit. Very tired - so early night.

Awoke Tuesday to find it raining - so warm rainproof clothes required today.

Time to pack........

Off to Netherlands tomorrow. Not packed yet so better get on with it. Due to fly from Sydney about 6pm transit stop in Bankok then on to London - catch flight to Amsterdam - probably arrive totally wiped out, but never mind....we're on HOLIDAY!!!!!!!!