Europe

Europe United Kingdom

Pottering Around London

It’s rather nice having an apartment in a city as you can take it easy, sleep in and generally potter around at your leisure. Over our last few days in London, that’s just what we have been doing. One day, we caught the train along the Circle Line to Piccadilly and then walked through the […]

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Europe United Kingdom

A Really Old Tourist

It is very easy to get around London by bus and train. So far, I have preferred the Tube as its easier for me to work out where they go and stop. I’m not really sure how to learn the bus routes and their possibly unpredictable stops. Our nearest station is at Gloucester Road on […]

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Europe United Kingdom

Greenwich History

Greenwich has a number of places of great historical significance. Some are obvious such as the Royal Observatory and The Old Naval College. Less well known, for example, is the church of St Alfege who was canonised in 1011 and martyred on the same place as the church now stands. I believe that Henry VIII […]

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Europe United Kingdom

London

On our arrival into Heathrow, we had a very speedy passage through Immigration & Customs and were picked up by our driver who had us to our apartment at Kensington within 45 minutes. On our last trip here (staying in the same little apartment) we had landed just behind a full flight from Kenya and […]

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Europe

Our Last NIght in Munich

It has suddenly become much colder here. On Thursday in Munich, it snowed all day – just enough to make the gardens and rooftops look white, but not enough to settle on the footpaths and roads. We were very glad that  we had chosen that day to visit the BMW factory and be out of […]

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Europe

Munich

Munich is right into the Christmas spirit, except that the big event here is Advent – the period leading up to Christmas. As in most other European countries, the big event for families is Christmas Eve – that’s when St Nicholas arrives and all the celebrations of the season take place. Yesterday, we spent most […]

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Europe

The Train to Munich

There’s nothing much better (apart from being upgraded on a plane flight) than travelling across Europe by train. These guys really know how to do it properly. What a way to travel! We caught an Austrian Railways train from Vienna yesterday. It had originated in Budapest and we reached its termination point in Munich 4 […]

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Europe

Memorials in Vienna

Vienna has many monuments in the shape of grand buildings and probably all of them are worthy of some form of description. We came across a significant one just a few hundred metres from our hotel – The Russian Memorial! Near the end of World War II, Soviet forces captured Vienna and freed it from Hitler’s […]

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Europe

Schonbrunn Palace

Today, we decided to head out to see Schonbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Habsburgs. It was a quick fifteen minute train ride along the U4 line from our station across the road from our hotel. There was another Christmas market operating at the Palace, making the grounds very busy.  It seemed to have […]

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Europe

Christmas Markets in Vienna

Vienna is famous for its many Christmas Markets which are scattered around the many parks and open spaces of the city. They are an age-old tradition. The forerunners of the present-day events date back to the Middle Ages when in 1298 Albrecht I granted Vienna’s citizens the privilege of holding a December Market or “Krippenmarkt”. […]

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Europe

Vienna

It’s easy to see why so many people fall in love with Vienna and declare it to be their most favourite city in the world. It is simply a beautiful, charming city.   The first impression that one gets of this city are of the grand palaces and impressive buildings along the ring road which […]

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Europe

Travelling to Vienna

We were due to leave Melbourne at 4:40 pm for Vienna yesterday, but didn’t eventually leave until just after 8:00 pm. The emergency door lighting function on the plane had failed and they had to fly a new part down from Sydney and then install it. This was my third flight on The Qantas A380. […]

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