The final couple of weeks through Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands

Seemingly a whirlwind trip over the last sixteen days, we have spent nearly two of those weeks in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Singapore combined. That said, we are edging ever closer to the flight home after five months of travels which has coloured our enthusiasm for sightseeing just a little! 

Yes, as predicted when we hit Germany again, suddenly autumn/winter arrived with a vengeance with daytime temperatures dropping dramatically from the almost balmy 18 degree summer days in the UK, to the coldest 9 degree days spent in Copenhagen, with freezing winds sweeping in from Siberia and places cold. Coats, scarves, beanies and cranked-up central heating were all required to maintain our comfort levels.

The German leg of the journey continued up through the middle of the old GDR mostly on auto-bahns which afford reasonable views (for passengers) visiting Naumburg with its magnificent Lutheran cathedral, Quedlinburg  a town of beautifully restored half-timbered architecture and on to the old Hanseatic port of Lȕbeck on the Baltic coast. One of the pleasures of this trip has undoubtedly been historical education and Lȕbeck gave us the opportunity to visit a wonderful museum full of interactivedisplays dedicated to Hanseatic traders and the northern European region. The colossal St Marys Church, whose bells are lying where Allied bombers felled them, is also worth a visit.

Half timbered town Quedlinburg

Old Gate, Lubeck

The bells of St Mary's left where they fell after bombing.

Some of the lovely old Hanseatic warehouses in Lubeck

After Lȕbeck, we hopped on a ferry from Puttgarden for a twenty kilometre journey to Rodby in Denmark; it must be the most expensive ferry in the world (100 euros each way for two people and a small car) although the organisation and speed of travel were very impressive with up to 48 departures a day across this narrow stretch of water.

Copenhagen didn’t excite us as much as we’d hoped; the weather was wet and freezing and one rare moment of blue sky and sunshine gave us an inkling of how much nicer it might be on a summer’s day! Public transport is excellent and, of course, the population make great use of bicycles – pedestrians and drivers have to be constantly on alert!   There’s certainly plenty to offer, it’s encircled by water, has a rich history and the Danes are extremely hospitable with everyone having an almost perfect command of English.

Copenhagen, old stock exchange

Lots of building in the city including the new city metro project

As a Scandi-crime fan, Sally wanted to travel across The Bridge from Copenhagen to Malmo in Sweden.  Again, the prospect of $75 to do a return trip by car for just a few hours was a bit daunting to the budget, so we went over The Bridge by train, or should I say under the bridge as it runs below the road level so we didn’t get much scenery to look at! It was a Monday too, so much was closed in Malmo (as in France, Denmark and Germany) and we found ourselves eating lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant (getting ready for spicy food again at home) and sheltering from the rain. 

  

Another day, we were reminded of our early history lessons at the Viking museum in Roskilde. The Vikings were virtually invincible and ruled Britain, Scandinavia and Northern Germany for over 300 years. The museum has excavated five of their boats and there are woodworkers making wooden boats with the old tools too.  Louisiana is an art gallery on the shores of the Niva Bugt fiord overlooking Sweden. We rounded out an enjoyable day there viewing a couple of exhibitions of post-modern art and Danish design.

what a difference some sunshine makes! Copenhagen Neuhavn.

Viking Museum

Copenhagan waterways

The last lengthy journey in our trusty Peugeot 2008 was back into Germany, stopping in  Bremen for a thorough shampoo and vacuum and on down into the Netherlands again where we finally bid farewell in Den Haag after 18,150 kms and 141days. Apart from a few GPS tantrums, the car performed relatively smoothly, although we did decline the opportunity to purchase post-lease and ship it back home. We recommend leasing a car from Peugeot or Renault as you can take the car all over Europe including the UK (for now!) and it is very reasonable compared to hire cars, even for a short stay.

We clocked up our 34th Airbnb stay in Amsterdam, with a gorgeous two storey light and bright apartment in walking distance to the city and our wonderful hosts, Silvia and Richard who live downstairs. Overall, we found great accommodation across Europe and hosts and would recommend AirBnB to anyone who wants their own space, real life not hotel life and enjoys meeting the locals. Just make sure you use the right filters for self-contained accommodation, parking, double bed, kitchen etc etc and communicate with your hosts before you arrive.  The only glitches being the occasional absence of a kettle and toaster in some spots and a few steep staircases – not the end of the world really!

Three days in Amsterdam in somewhat milder weather was spent in the company of Sally’s brother  and his wife who trained it over from St Malo. We walked the length and breadth of the old city - along canals, cobbled streets, around markets, across bridges, through parks, into shops, hopping on and off trams and a boat and we had a ball. There is no doubt we needed some company, our own was getting somewhat jaded after 5 months together!  The city was full of visitors, cafes were bursting and we were never bored. Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum were duly ticked off as well; Vincent’s ten years of prolific work has been well and truly consumed on this trip, this was the fourth exhibition dedicated to him we had seen.

Amsterdam looking through the bridge tunnel!

Amsterdam houseboats and canals

Our last stop is Singapore where we have caught up with Tony’s cousin and his family who are visiting from Phuket, relaxed by the hotel pool and tried a local restaurant or two. We sweated our way around Singapore’s famed Botanical Gardens this morning, another UNESCO World Heritage site with its amazing orchid garden, frangipanis and bromeliads.

Sleep is a little disjointed and we hope to have our biorhythms back in the right time zone by the end of this weekend! It has been an amazing trip and well worth making it happen!  We have seen so many different places and landscapes and caught up with old friends and family (and cadged beds off them all too!) What’s next?  Probably a part time job for both of us so we can save up for the next adventure!

Leaving you with some of my favourite flowers!  Thanks for keeping up with our journey and look forward to seeing many of you soon!

Dutchland and Deutschland

We call the country Holland and its inhabitants Dutch, however it is known in Europe as the Netherlands, and the region “Holland” is actually only a small largely reclaimed area around the ports of Rotterdam and the Hook of Holland. It is such a flat and compact country that we didn’t see any inclines until we visited Maastricht near the Belgian border and that hill was such a surprise that we got lost on a bike track trying to navigate to the top of it to see the view.  We had to extract the car very carefully in reverse with some assistance and much to the wonderment of the many Dutch people out for a Sunday walk! Everyone we met in the Netherlands had almost flawless spoken English, were friendly and helpful and we could understand most road signs, apart from the one that said no entry to the cycle path for cars!! We will blame Satnav for that one!

We were both really taken with both Delft and Rotterdam. Delft is a pretty town, virtually untouched in WW2, the home of a famous pottery and full of beautiful old buildings set along the canals. Two great initiatives left us tourists happy: there was a map dispenser on a pole outside our parking building (see below) and both the Niew and Ald Kirkes (one 800 years and the other 650 years old) had toilets inside the church – very sensible!

Along the canals in Delft

Aachen

Some of the OTT decorations in Charlemagne's Church in Aachen

Hours of fun to be had,movable characters on the puppet water fountain!

 Rotterdam has been made-over after being virtually destroyed in the war and it is now a bold, bright and brash city with some wonderful modern architecture. We left our car at our AirBnB and used the waterbuses to get into the city - a relaxed way to get to work, I would think too.  Being the biggest and busiest port in Europe gives Rotterdam plenty of economic capital and the Maritime Museum was well worth a visit too.

We’re back in Germany now, this time for a couple of weeks and have so far travelled down the west side visiting Aachen, Cologne, Bonn, Speyer, Heidelberg, Baden Baden, Ulm and yesterday, Bamberg. We haven’t had to rely on Sally’s rusty German much yet as most people respond to our hesitant inquiries in excellent English.  The main problem comes when trying to translate menus and sometimes what we end up with is a complete surprise – though invariably very delicious!

We had a lovely break staying with old friends from Paris at their place near Bonn; 38 years since we’d last seen each other. They’ve lived all over the world from Washington to Buenos Aires to Abu Dhabi and Bangkok so there were plenty of tales to be told and ideas for our future holidays too!

By concentrating on the 'aldstadts' or old towns which are usually compact mid-city areas full of history and by having plenty of coffee/tea/lunch breaks and spending only at the most 4 hours looking around, we are staying fairly fresh. Picasso and the Impressionists got a battering in the south of France, whereas here it is the churches more than anything that have amazed us by in their size and history. Each church seems to be bigger than the last and they have been renovated to impress with their size and clean lines rather than the more richly decorated churches in other countries in Europe.

Ulm was an interesting juxtaposition of old and new, with modern architecture right next to the centuries old church which was once the tallest building in the world. It seemed to work well and the inner town was very pedestrian friendly too. Bamberg is another picturesque town full of half-timbered houses and multiple churches! Both are UNESCO World Heritage places.

Bookshop in a deconsecrated Church in Maastricht - great re-use!

Ulm - old and new

Schloss Drachenburg,Konigsberg looking along the Rhine

Speyer, site of one of the largest churches in Germany

Autumn in Schloss Schwetzingen, near Speyer

Schwetzingen

Bacharach and not a Bert in sight!

Speyer Cathedral

Ratshouse, Ulm

Bamberg, beside the Dom see http://www.bavaria.by/bamberg-old-town-unesco-bavaria

The formal gardens at Schloss Schwetzingen, near Speyer, made an impression; everything was geometrically laid out on a huge scale. Three hundred year old trees that had been espaliered and painstakingly trimmed were works of art and the various temples and sculptures placed around the gardens often surprised with their beauty.  There were lots of great photo opportunities around every corner.

Tonight we are staying in an apartment in a converted railway station at Droyssig which has great hosts, fabulous views from the window and Tony explored the bike path this afternoon with a 10km ride.

The weather is cooling down now and autumn is showing its colours in the trees – something we miss in Australia.  Hopefully, Copenhagen will not be too icy this coming weekend though tonight they have forecast the slight possibility of snow in northern Europe in the next few days! Brrr…

Late summer and early autumn in England and Iceland!

We have always maintained that the best time to visit England is late summer/early autumn when the weather is at its best, the kids are back at school and the trees are beginning to change colour. Quieter (for England!) roads, warmish and mostly dry days and the gardens are still lovely. Mind you, traffic is never far away, even when driving down narrow country roads bordered by high hedges.

We have traveled all over the UK this trip and never cease to be delighted by the beautiful cottages and villages and green and leafy vistas we have seen on the way.  The place names are so descriptive like Upper and Lower Slaughter near Bourton on the Water, the Puddles - Allpuddle, Tolpuddle (of Martyr fame) and more.

Saffron Walden

While in Devon, we made the trip to Cornwall to see the Eden Project, where a disused quarry has been brilliantly coaxed back into life as an educational and participatory experiment with plants from throughout the tropics and the Mediterranean growing in huge biomes with the rest of the space planted out in vegetables, British trees and shrubs.  We did find a few Kangaroo Paws and Everlastings which were tucked into the South African display – they obviously haven’t heard about the thousands of amazing wildflowers we have in Western Australia!

 

We stayed with friends in Bristol and just outside Gloucester and enjoyed wandering the old docks in both cities where warehouses now house inner city workers and their families and gardens, old boats, bridges are now next to restaurants, bars and cafes.  

Some aging mods revving up for a cruise - lots of 2 stroke burnt up!

 We joined the Australian National Trust  before we left which gives you free entry into National Trust and English Heritage properties in the UK too. Great value as the cost is more than recouped by just a couple of free visits to NT UK properties on your travels and you can get involved in the NT when you get back too!

Over a couple of weeks of travelling through the south of England on our way to visit friends and relations, we visited a varied assortment of properties filled with all manner of furniture, collected knick knacks and paintings and some marvellous formal & informal gardens including Arlington Court in Devon ; Westbury Court Garden and Tyntesfield in North Somerset; Snowshill near Gloucester; Wimpole near Cambridge, with the final visit yesterday to Winston Churchill’s home at Chartwell.

Snowshill where Charles Wade kept his eccentric collections

Cambridge is a favourite family spot and we were lucky to have lunch at Trinity College in the Great Hall with some illustrious living Fellows and with Henry VIII looking down on us as we ate. Just a bit different to good old Murdoch Uni!

Yet another highlight – a family trip to Iceland!

Rugged up for an Iceland autumn!

Iceland is so named for a good reason although our first day proved a false start as the sun shone brightly unlike the other four days, albeit with a top temperature of 10degrees. Thermals, beanies and coats are de rigeur although we spotted a few locals in shorts and the odd tshirt. Aside from the weather, the scenery is superb - wide open spaces, mountains and fiords, waterfalls and geysers, lava fields, glaciers and lakes. Reykjavik, the capital houses over 60% of the 320,000 population so once you exit the “built-up area” it is very like parts of the South Island of NZ. Fences along the side of the roads keep horses, sheep and cattle in and every few kilometres you see a farmhouse and out-buildings or two and little else but sea, lava fields, mountains and sky – so much space!

In order to sample this wonderful scenery you need to travel long distances.  You can take bus tours but we chose to hire a jeep which would fit the six of us. The roads are pretty good and weren’t busy.   

Solheimajokull glacier, part of  http://www.icelandontheweb.com/articles-on-iceland/nature/glaciers/myrdalsjokull/

Pingvellir rift in the fissure zone

Tourism is a major source of income and seems a natural fit for Icelanders, they are friendly and happy to share their country and, luckily for us, are natural English speakers because their language is not easy to pronounce or even spell. Try Pingvellir when the p is sounded as th, or Myrdalsjokull.

With a geologist amongst us, we learned about the different sorts of lava which cover the landscape – the main landscape colours being green and black – black lava/rock and sand.   At Pingvellir we saw the rift in the fissure zone which runs through Iceland, being situated on the tectonic plate boundaries of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Then on the south coast, the bridge between the Eurasian and North American plates on Reykjanes Island.   All this and shots of steam from hot pools and geysers everywhere.  Iceland is self-sufficient in renewable energy with geothermal power stations dotted around the landscape. 

With one final visit to the New Forest, our stay in the UK is over for another few years and we are now on the boat steaming past wind turbines in the channel on a flat and misty sea towards the Hook of Holland! Just one thought to leave you with from Sculptures by the Lake