Day 16 - Vienna (what to do)

Ok started the day off with a nice breakfast and then caught the train to Vienna. Daddy promised free wifi on the train but it didn't work (ha told him so). When we arrived in Vienna we got on the U3 tram/underground (for the first of seven times) and took it to our accommodation which is in a church. The accommodation opened at 3...... It was 1..... Yay two hour to spend with big packs. So we hopped on the U3 again and went back to the train station where we found some lockers. Ok next up we got on the U3 again and took it into the city centre where we took a tram around the edge and hopped off to look at some building. Also we found a food festival (a bit like TASTE) where there was heaps of food (no der).... And guess what..... There was an Australian food stall. Can someone tell me what Australian food is because I don't know. Anyway they were serving kangaroo, steak and prawns and also some other not very Australian combos like mango and something. So after this we made our way via the U3 back to the train station and collected our big packs. Ok then we made our way back to the monastery and got our room. The room is fantastic and the shower is the best we've has all holidays.  Also it's only a block's walk to the food festival so that was where we had dinner. We had aLebanese  kebab, a butter chicken to share and an ice cream each for dessert. Now the torture began...., we took a pointless scenic route back and it took a while. Anyway The bed last night was fantastic if a bit warm. 

Over and out

Alastair

Day 15 - Werfen (an accidental rest day)

Well my day started early at 12:00 midnight with my head over a toilet bowl. Gotta "love" gastro!!!! So I spent most of my day recovering. Finished a book or 2 though which was the highlight of my day. Spent most of lunch time talking to people back in Adelaide. So that that was my day :P. mum will finish this post explaining what they did today 

Mum: 

Andy and I went to the biggest ice hole in Europe (Andy says its all in the pronunciation). Caught bus, cable car  and walked 20 mins up the mountain to the ice caves. Ice cave tour 1 hour 15 and was very interesting. Ice stalagmites and stalagtites like in limestone caves. Andy made me walk down a very steep  trap, across scree slopes. Walk took 1 hour 10. 

Alastair:

Mum and dad got home at about 2:30 

Feeling a bit better now 

Ttfn (tar tar for now)

Alastair 

Day 14 - Werfen (the daily blob)

Started the day with a pleasant train to Werfen Austria. :D when we arrived in Werfen we got our sense of direction and headed for the local bus station. We found out to our great surprise and delight that the bus to our hotel (aren't we spoilt) was free!!!!!! Yay. Anyway when we got to the youth hotel they had given us a room for two because they had forgotten me :( but anyway the hostel is amazing. The beds are good and the view from the main balcony of the Werfen  castle is fantastic. Anyway we headed off to the castle where we caught a funicular (lift like thing on a slope) up to the castle and when we arrived we: looked at the armoury (so many swords), watched an amazing birds of prey show (so many amazing birds) and went on a free tour around the castle. The birds were amazing there was: big eagles, huge buzzards and super fast falcons. Yeah it was very very cool. The castle tour was very interesting and mum loved the easy to use audio guides. Ok quote of the day today was said by mum. She said "I'm sick of walking". It was amazing for me because I wasn't the first to complain woooooooo. (For those who don't know mum always tries to walk the family everywhere). Anyway we got tomorrow's lunch and then went for a "nice" long walk home up a bloody great big hill. Mum suffered but I was fine just a bit puffed. Anyway dinner tonight has been fantastic. It was 12 euro for a main and dessert because we are staying at the hotel. The meals were fantastically huge and I'm officially a fat blob writing a blog that why today's blog is a blob. Anyway I had a huge schnitzel with ham and cheese in it with chips and for dessert I had a pancake folded over ice cream covered in chocolate sauce with cream on the side. IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! Mummy had a veal steak with dumpling swimming in mushroom soup!!! And for dessert she had a apple strudel with ice cream. Daddy had the same main as me and the same dessert as mummy. Everyone is very stuffed. So a short day.

Tschus (meaning goodbye in German) 

Alastair price 

Day 13 - Munich (Dachau)

slept ok last night after finally conquering my pillow (it really big, square, and thin and I has to fold it in half to sleep on it)

Had a fantastic sleep in this morning and we managed to leave as late as 9:10 :O. First stop take away coffee and hot chocolate (which I was lucky to get because mum thought I would spill it all over myself, but in the end she got me one so she could prove herself right) 

anyway then we took a few trains to dacha concentration camp. It was very confronting and very eye opening as it truly gave me a feeling of how bad the war really was. You know you feel bad about it when your learning about it in school but when your actually standing where these people stood and looking at pictures that should have come from the latest horror movie it really hits you.........

So enough of that 

Next we went into Munich's main garden/park. We walked around for quite a while in search of hire bikes. (Found an ice cream on the way, I had banana Carmel flavour) anyway found bikes and me and ...... No dad and I (much better) went for a ride to the southern edge where we watch people surfing on the river (here's a photo) 

It was very cool :D. Anyway then we went back and mummy had a ride around with me and I got us lost. Fun stuff.... And that was our day. We caught the bus home and ate supermarket frozen pizzas for dinner (we cooked them before eating them so no they weren't frozen) 

Catch ya later 

Alastair 

Day 12 - Munich (BEER!!!!!!!!)

Wow the day has come where the highlight of the day is alcohol...... Yeah that's sad.

Ok early start to the day waking at 4 o'clock and heading to the airport (after eating breakfast and dropping the hire car back and all that jazz). Flight was good and we arrived in Germany (Munich) at 2 o'clock. Ok attempted to use the phones in Munich airport for a while..... Guess what.... You has to put money in :P we were trying with the credit card. Once we finally escaped the airport (by train) we got a lift to our apartment (aren't we flash) and slept... Narrrr i wish!!!! Instead me and daddy went shopping (in Germany without knowing any German..... Wow intelligence for the win). Anyway we survived and the hardest thing was carrying all the shopping back in our hand. (I may have dropped some stuff along the way). Anyway next up we made our way back to the train station and caught a train into the (kinda) city center. From here we we went for a wander around the old town and then proceeded towards the BEER HALL!!! Ok when we got there (after following my fantastic direction.... No sarcasm intended) we sat down at a table with out a table cloth and ordered.,,........: 2 1/2 glasses of Weiss beer, an orangeade, two lots of sausage combos  and finished with and apple strudel with custard and cream. It was all fantastic!!!!!! Ahhhhhh.

So yeah that was today blogs might be a bit irregular for a few days because we don't know where and when we may get Internet. 

Tootle pip 

Alastair price 

Day 11 - Iceland (day 7)

Ok hostel was average, and mummy's a bit sick. Anyway so we back track to the cliff where there was puffins and got a really good view of them and some great pictures :D everyone is very happy the we finally got to see then properly...., they're soooooooooooooo cute :D (mummy wants some pet puffins at home) ok so next we went to another waterfall but this one we could walk behind :D it was very epic and everyone got a bit wet. After much driving we reached out third stop which was....... Wait for it ............. A supermarket which was cheap :D anyway we are all prepared for the next plane trip and we bough some presents for the fatties (fatties = Kate and Morgan). Next stop another waterfall which was very pretty much more like a cascade than a waterfall. Then after this we went to geysir (the original geysir). Here we saw and named the d**k head of the day. He was standing UP WIND of the geysir with his very expensive looking camera on a tripod. So the geysir went of and he and his camera got soaked in very hot water and he had to legit. Tehehehehehe it was very funny to watch. Schadenfreude I love it. Anyway the geysir was very impressive and went off about every 5-10  mins. We got some nice pictures and I spotted the web cam the we watch before going to Iceland!!! Had lunch on the edge of a lake in a pretty mini park. 

Righto off we go next up was a national park where the medieval Icelanders had their  annual gathering which went for 2 weeks. This was actually really interesting  and it was nice to learn some of Iceland history like how many country have controlled it. Here we filled our drink bottles (just as a random comment the national park is in the middle of a huge rift which was kinda cool because the ground had heaps of large crevasses in it. 

Soooooo...... The next stop isn't one I enjoyed very much because I generally don't enjoy being underground (especially not when the ground is littered with bits of rock that have fallen off the roof. So we went to a giant lava tube that went for 1.3 km. lucky for me we only worked into 200m. Mummy short legs struggled a bit and so did I on the way in but for me on the way out my fear of being underground got me out really bloody quickly. So yeah "fun stuff". 

This is our last day in Iceland. We are off to Munich Germany tomorrow for 2 days which should be fun :D. The weather here in Iceland is changing every 5 minutes it was foggy to begin with, then bright and sunny by lunch time, then raining and foggy again. I have a feeling I won't miss the Icelandic scenery and I am looking forward to continuing my holiday. 

Signing out

Alastair (way I should do a different ending every day........ Hmmmmmmm....... Challenge accepted) 

Day 10 - Iceland (day 6)

So started day with a fantastic look at a lake with huge ice bergs and then went to the bottom of a glacier, then to a national park where we walked to a waterfall. The walk was nice because it was in an Icelandic forest which is waste high shrubs.... But it was still nice. Ok then we went to look for some puffins in the fog, rain and freezing wind  and found the puffins :D (finally) ok then we went home... Goodnight sorry about the shocking blog I'm sick and very tried.