Copenhagen aka Københaven

I met up with my Mum, Grandma, sister and my sister's boyfriend (Tim) in Copenhagen as we had arranged. So Mum and Grandma were staying at a nice B&B, Elizabeth and Tim were at a cheaper B&B and I was slumming it in hostels! It eventuated that the B&Bs were, in fact, only Bs as neither place provided breakfast.

There were heaps of interesting things we did but some of the highlights were:

Roskilde Viking Ship Museum
After excavating the remains of four Viking Ships found at the bottom of Roskilde Fjord in the 1960s there is now a museum dedicated to the ships and to Vikings in gerneral. My Great Grandmother's last name was Thorburn, so I've always used this weak link to claim to be a bit Viking and subsequently loved this place. They had people doing all the yee olde Viking type crafts as well as letting you go sailing in a replica of one of the ships in the museum! Great fun!Tivoli Gardens
This is an old school amusement park where they have an ancient wooden roller coaster (one of the oldest in the world) as well as high tech rides, candy floss stalls, throw-a-ball-and-knock-down-the-blocks type games as well as live performances on stages mostly insprired by Han Christian Andersson's stories (such as The Ugly Ducking and The Princess and the Pea).

Malmö
Just across the bridge (see 'Bridgy Bridgy Goodness') is Sweden and the town of Malmö. Wohoo, another day trip to a different country. I don't think I'll ever get tired of day trips to different countries =) Malmö is pronounced mal-moo which literally translates as Bad Cow.......ok, so I made that last bit up. We did, however, eat Reindeer whilst we were there so I'm sorry to say that Santa's rounds might take a little bit longer this Christmas =P Also, I was on the constant look out for a stereotypical Swedish Heidi (blonde with two platts in her hair down each shoulder). However, I only spotted two and one was bleached blonde so didn't really count :-(

Københaven
The city itself is really nice. Not quiet as nice as Amsterdam who's maze of canals are deligtful, but certainly in the same league. I'll let the photos do the talking for Copenhagen. (Note that the credit must go to Elizabeth and Tim for the last two photos).

Bridgy, Bridgy Goodness!
Ok, to be honest, my favourite part of this trip was the bridges! I now proceeded to the world's second biggest suspension bridge from Zealand (one of the main islands of Denmark) to mainland Denmark (the bit that joins up with Germany). The Great Belt Bridge as it's known http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Belt_Fixed_Link is reclaimed land for half the length, then a huge suspension bridge for the road and a tunnel for the railway, and the final stretch is a causeway. Its biggest span being 1624m (compared to the Kobe bridge which is 1992m). Unfortunately they don't have any particularly good viewing point so I'll include a photo from the internet to give you a better idea - I know you're all dying to see it yourselves =PThere was also the bridge to Sweden as already mentioned. This was basically a big causeway which becomes a tunnel and appears, from above, to be a bridge to nowhere and looks really cool!Ok, enough about bridges now. We all had a great time and to finish of this post, here's a photo of (from left to right) Mum, Tim, Elizabeth and Grandma.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a beautiful city and I was only there for one and a half days because of all the time spent travelling there by train and then flying out to Copenhagen afterwards.

As already mentioned in my last post I was there with four Americans that I met in Berlin - Mitch, Rafael, Eva and Emma. They were great company and we spent heaps of time just hanging out in coffee shops and things as well as taking in a couple of museums and just wandering through the city. So there's not much to say as I had a very relaxing time in Amsterdam.

Good times!

The World Cup Final and Berlin

Upon my return to Berlin I stayed at the best youth hostel ever! It's called 'The Circus' and has breakfast until 1pm, a bar with a big screen for the World Cup, genuine English speakers at the 24 hour reception, free wireless internet and swipe card access to all rooms! Oh, and, no, I wasn't paid to say that =)

I met up with Anna Jackson (first photo), an old school friend of my sister's, and her boyfriend whilst I was there. They were great to hang out with and it was them that I went to watch the World Cup Final.
We were at a beer garden where I had wheat beer and sausages - very German! The game itself was fantastic with some very passionate (or possibly just drunk) people in the crowd making a great atmosphere. I had a fantastic evening anyway especially since I was supporting Italy on the night (for those of you who are ignorant on the subject, Italy beat France on penalties after a 1-1 draw).
I also tried a 'Berliner Weisser' whilst I was there which claims to be a traditional Berlin beer drink. It would of been rude not too! However, it involves mixing beer with a green sunstance of unknown origin to create an.....odd......fizzy beverage. I suggest you try it. But I doubt you'll need to try it more than once. I also met a group of four Americans of a similar age staying at the hostel and hung out with them for a bit resulting in me going to Amsterdam with them for a couple of days rather than direct to Copenhagen as was the original plan.

Salzburg

I awoke in the morning to find that the weather had got worse and now instead of just cloud there was rain as well. By the time I'd finished breakfast the rain had stopped and I decided to wander around Salzburg for a couple of hours before I had to catch my 8 hour train to Berlin.

So, although I was not there long enough to get a decent impression of the place I can say this. Salzburg is very picturesque and famous for it including being the birthplace of Mozart (see photo 2) and being the setting for The Sound of Music. There are about 1 million different tour operators sucking tourist dollar from The Sound of Music so I refused to partake and just wandered around with my pack on. There's heaps and heaps of different old buildings to see and I didn't have time to do the place justice including missing out on the huge castle that dominates the skyline.So whilst it would of been nice to of had time to spend longer there it's just another one of those places that is a tourist mecca. Oh, and there's this upside down helicopter in one of the town squares.......it's probably deeply significant but my German isn't good enough for me to be able to find out why. Please feel free to enlighten me =)

Berchtesgaden

After Füssen I went to Berchtesgaden in the far southeastern corner of Germany and then took the evening train to Salzburg where I stayed the night.

Berchtesgaden is the sight of The Eagle's Nest - Hitler's mountain top teahouse that you might know from Band of Brothers. It's located about just below the summit of a mountain and is accessed by a long road, then you walk 124m along a tunnel before travelling up a 124m lift. It's construction was completed in an astonishingly short period of time, even by todays standards, as a 50th birthday present for Hitler. Ironically Hitler suffered from vertigo and claustrophobia and so visited his new teahouse, which cost US$14 million to build in today's money, only a dozen or so times. That's some expensive tea. Whilst I'm sure the views are spectacular from the top I wouldn't really know as it was enshrouded in cloud. However here's a pic I've filched off some website to give you an idea of what it might of been like.The other point of interest is the museum and underground bunker system. The entire area, by way of background knowledge, was Hitler's holiday home. During the war he then started developing it such that it became a military base where, had it been completed, it would of served as a second command post with communications facilities equal to those available in Berlin. So the bunker system is fairly vast and, scarily enough, just like the underground tunnels and things you go through in all those WWII computer games.The whole place was really interesting and to cap it off, the tour guide had no spare space but said I could tag along for what turned out to be less than if I'd paid for the museum, bunkers and Eagle's Nest without any kind of guide - score!

Füssen

After spending two nights in Friedrichshafen I moved east to Füssen to take in the Bavarian Alps (Bavaria as you may know is name of the southeastern region of Germany) and Schloss Neuschwanstein (the Fairy Tale Castle).

One the day I arrived I traveled up Mount Tegelberg on a cable car as I'm afraid I'm not that fit and active. The views from the top were absolutely stunning and the camera just doesn't do them justice but here are a couple of attempts.

The next day I had the entire day to visit Neuschwanstein. This castle was built by 'Mad King Ludwig II' who was supposed to be a hopeless romantic and built three castles/palaces each one grander than the next. However, this meant that he ran up huge debts and the powers that be had him declared insane and seized all his assets to pay off his debts. A couple of days later, after going for a walk with his doctor, both of them were found dead, drowned in shallow water. No proper investifation was carried out and to this day the true reason behind his death is unknown and whether or not he was really mad at all is a point of contention. As a result his memory is adored by the people of Bavaria and you can go and there is now a musical about his life and about half a dozen different books about him available for sale at the many tourist shops.

Neuschwanstein itself is supposed to be the most famous castle in the world. So naturally I doubt any of you have ever heard of it. However, if you know the movie 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' it's that one. Ludwig designed it not with the assistance of an architect, but with the help of a set designer as he was inspired to build it by the operas of the German composer Richard Wagner. The result is absolutely fantastic and although the debt collectors caught up with him before he could finish the interior the outside is complete and I'm sure you'll agree that being referred to as the Fairy Tale Castle is totally justified.

Friedrichshafen

Friedrichshafen is on the Germany shores of Lake Constance which borders Switzerland and Austria as well. It's one of the German people's favourite summer holiday spots because of its beautiful beaches. The main reason I went was to see the place was because the alps rise up from the southern shores which creates rather beautiful scenery. I was not disappointed but the whole place was a fairly typical tourist beach town and so not much of a place in itself.
The other point of interest for me was that Friedrichshafen was the home of one Otto Von Zepplin whose name has been imortalised by his airships, particularly the infamous Hindenburg. The museum dedicated to his work and the history of the town was really cool as it's based around a reconstructoin of a section of the Hindenburg to show you just what it was like as well as providing a lot of history on the development and technology behind airships. Similar to the Daimler Benz museum in Stuttgart, each person gets an electronic device that tells you about each room and exhibit. I found it fascinating, but then again, I'm an engineer. =) You can still take rides in Zepplin's to admire the scenery (as you can see in the first photo), which would of been fantastic. However, at over 300 Euros my budget didn't quite stretch that far.

Four Countries in One Day Take 3

I may well have peaked, achieved my greatest ever acomplishment, well, until I visit five countries in one day!

Seriously though, I had planned to mearly visit Liechtenstein which is wedged between Switzerland and Austria just south of Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leichtenstein As it turned out the usually impecable European rail services let me down resulting in very long stopovers in Lindau (in Germany, right on the German border) for an hour then somewhere in Austria for another hour before arriving in in Schaan-Vaduz which is in northern Liechtenstein and a short bus ride from the capital, Vaduz. After four hours in Vaduz I had to catch the train back via Switzerland, which invloved a mere 45 minute stopover, before getting a train back to Germany where I arrived in Freidrickshafen on the shores of Lake Constance from where my adventures were to continue. So, in summary, 6 hours on or waiting for public transport and four hours of visiting Liechtenstein. =)

So, why visit Liechtenstein anyway? Most people have never heard of it and almost no-one knows where it is. Well, I guess I'm just a bit odd and, for me, it's endearing qualities are this: It's total size is 160 square km which makes it the fourth smallest country in Europe (behind Vatican City, Monaco and San Marino) and about the same size as Tauranga; my mate, Tim Llewellyn, once met a drunk guy at Oktoberfest singing Liechtenstein football songs and they have the honor of being the only team in the history of international football to have ever lost to San Marino; they are one of only two countries in the entire world to be not only landlocked themselves but also surrounded by landlocked countries (the other is Uzbekistan); and last but not least, they have their own postage stamps.

To be honest, Liechtenstein is actually very dull. I was there on a Monday so all the Museums were closed except the postage stamp Museum (free entry, arguably Liechtenstein's main attraction). The only other point of interest is the castle. However, since the Princes of Liechtenstein still live in it you can't go in and the outside was covered in scaffolding. It has a nice church, but it's rather small and nothing special (yes, that's right, a European capital without a massive Cathedral!). So I spent the day eating lunch, drinking the local beer (which was lovely, they're very close to Germany after all and there is no such thing as a bad German beer in my experience) and writing and sending postcards so that as many people as possible can enjoy the glory that is the rarity of a Liechtensteinian postage stamp!

Having said all that, however, I had an absolutely fantastic time. Life goal number 324: Visit Leichtenstein - tick!