Europe Jul07
From TheGredil
You can see all the photos here
Our trip began in the early hours of the morning with a train trip from Scarborough to London. We stored our luggage at the train station and headed off for some quick London site-seeing before our train to Paris. The Eurostar was comfortable enough, although as with most long distance trains, grossly lacking luggage storage and one of our suitcases ended up 4 carriages away. The trip across the channel was so quick and uneventful that it was hard to believe that we had just crossed to the continent. Only a short part of the trip was actually spent underground (and water) and we did get to see a large amount of rural south-east England and north-west France.
We arrived in Paris and got on the underground to head off to our hotel. Thanks to Leisa's planning ahead we new exactly where we needed to go and once we got hold of a map the Paris transport system was extremely useful and easy to use. We used it extensively for all our Paris travels. We did all the very touristy things; Eiffel Tower, Pont Neuf, Pont Alexandre III, Arc de Triomphe, etc. We did a cruise up the river, by night which was very nice (although, we had to wait until 10pm for it to get dark). We also went down into the Catacombes, where millions of Parisians bones were exhumed and are now located underground.
We then moved on to Munich and went to the BMW factory and up the 290m Olympic tower which overlooks the Olympic village. We went to Eagles Nest near Berchtesgaden which was Hitler's Alps hideaway just near the Austrian border. The scenery was amazing, even though it was raining a little. We also touched on the 'Englischer Gartens' which are very pretty. We only saw a small section as the weather wasn't too good and the gardens are huge. We had seen people riding through the streets with surfboards under their arms which we thought was a little strange for Munich. Whilst we were wondering through the gardens we came across people surfing in the river. It was a constant artificial wave and the locals were more than happy to show off their skill.
From Munich we went on to Venice. To be honest I think it is overrated and the food in other parts of Italy is way better. We still had a good time and climbed over endless bridges (there are 409 in total in Venice!). It was packed with tourists but we expected that. By this stage in our trip we hadn't actually seen much sun, even though it is supposed to be summer. Venice was quite hot, with temps in the mid thirties so it was a good chance to eat lots of gelati and soak up some rays.
After Venice we caught the train to Zurich. Considering we were travelling first class we were all a little disappointed with the level of comfort. Considering we were on the train for about 7 hours it was quite cramped. Having said that, we still loved the trip through the Swiss Alps, there was some absolutely amazing scenery. Zurich is a fantastic city, we could really handle living there. It is so clean and pretty. There were endless Porsches, Aston Martins and other extremely expensive cars around. I guess it is the money capital of the world though.
From Zurich is was a train to Paris and then back to London where we had a nights rest before heading off to Buckingham Palace to the Queens Garden Party. The gardens there are absolutely beautiful and so huge. We didn't actually get to meet Liz but we were within a couple of feet of her. The food was so good, definitely some of the best I have ever had but you would expect that of a royal event. After that we spent a day in London before heading to Cambridge to spend time with the Cole side of the family.
