Day Fifty-One: Worn out shoes, worn out people!

This morning we were both a bit hungover but not as badly as you would expect luckily. We really wanted to just sleep all day but we had to leave the camp and go into Belgium unfortunately. We managed to leave around midday with some chips and juice for breakfast and got on the road. We seem to be driving on the same road which we came in on from Germany so that's a bit weird. We should get to a new bit at some point though.

We stopped after an hour or so to get some McDonalds for lunch and got 10 burgers, some for now and some for later. I only managed to eat 2 so far but hopefully I can have some more for dinner. I have just been catching up on this blog while driving, and sorting out our pictures. It will be nice to get to our destination and be able to have a nap and watch a movie or something.

Oh I forgot, there was a massive thunderstorm while we were driving, it was raining the hardest it ever has since we have been in Europe, I saw some lightnings and they were hitting the ground, I have never seen that before! Also when we stopped to get petrol we think a lightning hit the petrol station! I was in the car while Quentin was inside paying and at first I thought a car near me had exploded but it was just lightning, super crazy! It has stopped being a storm now though. I wouldn't mind if it kept raining, it might cool everything down a bit!

We drove until we were almost at the border with Belgium and then stopped at an overnight park near there so we could relax and read and stuff. We both had an afternoon nap and then ate some more burgers. Later we had some vegetable soup and mashed potato and watched the new season of Arrested Development. It looks like Portia De Rossi has had some major face surgery because she looks way different! They even made a joke about it in one of the episodes. It's still a good show though.

This is what happened to my shoe on the pub crawl, destroyed!

Bag of burgs!

Rainy time on a big bridge

Day Fifty: Sightseeing, drinking, brewery, drinking...

This morning we were a bit slow to get started again, even though I had wanted to leave earlier. We didn't get into the city until about midday so we got some snacks on the way because we wanted to go on a bus tour first of all. I got some edamame which I hadn't seen for aaages and we got some foccacia as well. They have sushi here and it's not even super expensive but it all has salmon and like fake crab and stuff in it so I don't want it. I will make my own in the UK.

We went and got tickets for the tour bus and went to get one but there were a million people waiting. Quentin asked a worker and he said to come back after 2 because there was a cruise ship in with 10,000 people and they were all going on the tours! We didn't mind since we weren't in a hurry so we went and got some fries and Quentin ate the bread and then we went on the train to the area which has a bunch of museums. We wanted to go to the rijksmuseum but the line was out of control so we went over to the Van Gogh museum and it was the same story. We don't like to waste time waiting in lines when we could be doing something interesting so we changed our plans and went to the Heineken brewery instead.

We got straight in at the brewery and did the tour which was pretty interesting, they even have stables with horses there which they use for something (I can't remember). You got to go through and see all the things they use for the brewing and people did some talks about the ingredients and stuff. There is also a sort of ride you go on which takes you through the brewing and bottling process. Then they do a beer tasting and at the end of the tour you end up in a bar and get some free beer there so it was a good activity!

Since we had given up the idea of being cultured we decided to go to the ice bar after that. It's a place where everything is made from ice, the walls, the bar, the seats, the cups and everything! They give you a sexy silver poncho to put on and some gloves and then you go into the bar and have a couple of drinks and watch a '4D movie' which seemed actually to be an ad for LG and it was hilarious how terrible it was! It was mega cold in the ice bar (maybe negative 18 or something) so I was glad to get out of there after not too long! It was fun though, and something you wouldn't do everyday!

After the ice bar we went to go get the bus but it turned out we had just missed the last one for the day so we went on a different tour bus which I assume is actually the same route etc but this one was one you could get on and off of whereas the other one wasn't. When we were going around we realised that we had actually been to most of the places we were seeing already which was cool. The commentary on the bus was pretty rubbish but it was good to see the city anyway.

After the bus tour we went and got some big beers and some dinner from the supermarket and sat down by a canal. I had a bacon, egg and tomato sandwich and it was actually pretty good, better than you would expect from a supermarket. After we had our beer we went to find the place we would be meeting a bit later for a pub crawl and once we had done that we went and had a cider by the water while we waited. The pub crawl ended up being a bit late to start because someone had messed up something and noone came to pick us all up for a while.

Once they did we headed to the first bar and had some shots and beer. We ended up going to I think 5 places but we didn't leave until around 2am and we were definitely ready to go home by then! We had had so many shots and all sorts of drinks and talked to heaps of interesting people so it was cool. There were people from all over the world on the pub crawl, like from Scotland, Wales, Australia, Norway, England, Germany and probably heaps of others but I don't remember. The pub crawl was all through the red light district so we saw the prostitutes in the windows as we went past as well. They were much better looking than I expected! And quite popular! When we went to get the night bus home we accidently got the wrong one at first and went a bit out of town before we realised and had to come back in! We got back to camp eventually though and had a good sleep.

Inside the Heineken brewery

Quentin in the brewery where you can get your name on the bottle if you want

In my poncho at the ice bar

Hanging out by the canal in the afternoon drinking big beers

The pub crawl has begun!

Running through the park in the rain, exciting!

 

Day Fourty-Nine: Cheese! Beer! Fries! Friends!

This morning we had some cheese and tomato on toast and went through some more brochures and decided to get a 'holland pass' which gives you entrance to 5 attractions/activities and also some transport. We went to get the train which is just down the road from the camp and it turned out we had to get one train, then another train, then a bus to get into town since they are doing some construction on the line or something. It ended up taking about 45 minutes when it is supposed to take 15 but oh well.

We went to the tourist office at the central station and got the passes and then went to do out first activity, canal cruise! The place it leaves from was just near to the central station too so that was cool. We got on a boat straight away and went all around the city. It had commentary as well so we learnt some facts, like the houses are all tilting and leaning on each other because the soil is so soft that they sink, and they are built on piles which rot. Lots of other interesting stuff too. It was awesome to see everything from the water!

After the boat tour (which was about an hour or so) we were hungry so we went for a walk around the city to find somewhere to eat. One of the first things I saw was a fries place which said it was the best in the country or something so obviously I had to try them. I think we have better chips in New Zealand though! Also the fries are always with mayo here which would be great for Ganny but not so much for me since I don't like mayo very much. I got them to put ketchup instead though. Then we went to this place where you can do a cheese tasting and booked that in for later.

We found a place that looked pretty promising for lunch and had dutch food which we wanted. Everywhere here has heaps more seats out on the footpath than they have inside and noone sits inside, probably because it is so hot! Anyway one of the foods that the guidebook said to have in the Netherlands (apart from fries which it also said) was croquettes and luckily they had them at this place so I got them and Quentin had a cheese, pesto and tomato panini. The croquettes were awesome but I have no idea what was in them and probably don't want to know!

After lunch we had an hour or so before the cheese tasting so we just walked around the city checking out all the interesting stuff. We went into a really amazing church which had tonnes of awesome stained glass and all sorts of wooden sculptures and stuff. It was super cool. The whole city is full of places to eat and interesting shops and other stuff like sex museums! It is a really interesting place to walk around anyway. Oh and the coffee shops where people go to smoke pot are everywhere as well so the whole city sort of smells like it.

For the cheese tasting we went to a cheese shop whhich had heaps of different cheeses including massive wheels of cheese which looked delicious. Downstairs they had set it up like a classroom with desks for two people and each desk had wine glasses and cheese boards with all different cheeses. The lady in charge told us about some of the history of the company and the cheeses and we watched a video which was a bit ridiculous and not informative but funny with how serious it seemed. Then we got to taste all the different cheeses which were matched with wines (and one with port) and we had to write down information about each like the smell and the texture and the taste and everything. At the end we all got certificates to say we were cheese tasters, it was so much fun, and delicious!

After the cheese tasting it was time to go and meet some friends of Christines, Anna and Josh, at a bar near the central station. We totally got lost on the way and had to go into a hotel to ask for directions but we got there in the end and were only 15 minutes late! The bar was really cool, it was right on the water and had heaps of picnic tables outside and people were just sitting on the edge of the canal and some people had brought their boats over to hang out at the bar! Anna and Josh were super nice and easy to get along with and it was awesome to hang out with some people again after being alone for so long!

We ended up staying there for about 5 hours drinking beer and eating dutch croquettes. Apparently it's quite normal to eat horse here so I didn't ask what was in the croquettes! It seemed like there was a little bit of meat in there but I just tried not to think about it! We had some nachos too which was awesome because I hadn't had guacamole in ages. We had to leave the bar eventually since Anna and Josh had work the next day and we didn't want to keep them out too late. We walked back to the central station and got the bus then the train then the other train back to where we were staying and went straight to bed because we were tired from all the beer!

Central Station

I'm on a boat!

Apparently there are seven bridges in this picture

FRIES!

Mmm deep fried goodness!

This is actually a shopping centre!

Inside the awesome church

Cheese tasting!!

Day Fourty-Eight: Just eating and driving

This morning we were woken up by a guy with a leaf blower going all around the area we were parked which was quite annoying since it was only about 8am but what can you do. We had some coffee and got ready before going into Cologne to get some breakfast and do some supermarket shopping. I got a massive bucket of popcorn which I am excited to eat.

For breakfast I went into a bakery and got a few things. I couldn't tell too much what they were but one ended up being a tomato, mozzarella and rocket panini, one was a meatball bun, one was a tomato and pepper pastry and the other was a giant biscuit type thing. They are all really yum! We couldn't eat it all so maybe it will be lunch as well. We ended up driving through most of Cologne to get back to the motorway for Amsterdam which was pretty cool. There were gondolas which went over the road at one point but we weren't sure where they were coming from or going to or what they were there for.

We didn't stop for lunch, just ate more of our breads and snacks which were yum. It turned out that my massive popcorn is sugar flavour instead of salt! I added some salt which made it better but still too sweet. We noticed when we got to the netherlands that they are the first country we have been in where they actually have cows and sheep and stuff in the countryside like we are used to in New Zealand. All the other countries seemed to just have crops. Also there seems to be about as much water as there is land, there are canals and lakes and rivers everywhere here which is pretty cool.

We didn't see many windmills yet but quite a few wind turbines. Maybe when we are driving through the rest of the country we will see some more windmills. It was late afternoon by the time we got to the campsite so we just hung out there and started planning what we wanted to do in Amsterdam so we would be prepared for the next day. I had a yum salad for dinner with beans and corn in it and Quentin had a sandwich, boring! It is a bit cooler here but only like in the 20s rather than the 30s. It's still nice to be a bit cooler though!

Giant cookie!

Tomato pastry you are delicious!

Cologne in the rain

The Netherlands!

First Windmill

Day Fourty-Seven: Chillin at a castle

This morning was overcast which was the first time it hadn't been super sunny for I don't know how long! There were even a few raindrops! Not many though so it was still pretty hot. I miss the cool mountains! We had some breakfast at the camp and got all our stuff organised. I thought about going for another swim in the lake but couldn't be bothered so we packed up and went into Heidelberg to have a look at the town and the castle there which was supposed to be pretty cool.

The town had a big river running through it and some big fancy houses on the side opposite us, with the majority of the town on the side of the river we were on. We drove up the hill to the castle (schloss in german) and walked through the grounds to get to it. There were quite a lot of people there having picnics and reading in the park and stuff like that. I was just telling Quentin about how I wanted to find a place selling bratwurst  (no idea if I am spelling that right!) so I could try one when we came to the ticket office and there was a place next to it selling bratwurst! I had to get one to try and it was actually really good. I haven't had a non-vege sausage for years I don't think so it was a bit different. I would have one again though. They had one called a fire-sausage as well but I wasn't brave enough to try that one.

We went in to have a look at the castle which was really old and awesome. Obviously people had been coming to see it for a long long time since people had written their names on the walls from as far back as the 1800s! It was really cool to see that people were still doing the same stuff back then! There was a restaurant in the castle where you could do some wine tasting but we didn't feel like wine, too hot! There was a cable car which goes up the hill from the town to the castle and then further up so we had a ride on that as well to check out the view. Then we walked around the grounds some more and got back on the road.

It seems like you can't really avoid going on motorways in Germany, even when you set the GPS to avoid them so we have mostly been on them except for when we go off to have a look at a town. We drove for a few hours before it was dinner time and went to McDonalds because I had seen that they have a vege burger here (and a McRib which I thought Suz would like but probably not us!) but when we went to McDonalds for dinner they didn't have any vege burgers. I'm not sure if they were sold out or if they don't make them anymore but that was a bit disappointing. We had dinner there anyway since at least you can see what you are getting, easier than trying to figure out a restaurant menu!

We stayed the night at a motorway place since they are easy to find and we don't have to go looking around the countryside for them. There were a few other campers there and heaps of trucks. We have seen more trucks in Germany than anywhere else I have ever been, I don't know if they all just go through Germany or what but they are everywhere all the time.

View from the top of the cable car

Old school graffiti

Part of the castle

We are at it!

Mmmm German sausage

Day Fourty-Six: HUNG!

This morning we were both feeling a bit sorry for ourselves after a long night of German vodka, Quentin more so than me! I went and got some fish and chips for breakfast from the restaurant at the place we were staying but Quentin didn't want any. They have sachets of everything here, including lemon juice for your fish, pretty cool! After that we got back on the road again, we decided to only do a shorter drive today since we were both tired and do more over the next couple of days so we just stuck to the motorway.

Around lunchtime we stopped at McDonalds to use their wi-fi and find somewhere to stay. Also to have a cheeseburger! I found a place which looked good and had a lake and was only about 20 minutes away so we went over and checked in. It is a super nice place, they have a huge area and different sorts of accommodation like campers, cabins, tents etc all set around a big lake which has this awesome set up for waterskiing without a boat, it's hard to explain but I will put up a picture.

There are also some shops and restaurants and stuff. I went for a swim in the afternoon and then it was still really hot so had a cold shower. It is 8.30pm now and still way hot! I wish we were back in the mountains again where it was nice and cool! We went and had dinner at one of the restaurants here, Quentin got the german version of a pizza which was called something else which I can't remember. I got something called a gyro wrap which came with delicious potatoes and a sauce which was like tzatziki. The wrap was delicious, I think it was chicken and it had salad as well, and what looked like massively hot mini peppers but were actually just yum, confusing!

We are both super full now though so we might just hang out in the van and watch something. It is still sunny as though so hopefully the sun will go down soon and it will be a bit cooler! For the next couple of days through Germany we are going to go off the motorways so we can see more towns, and tomorrow I think we are going to visit Heidelberg because it sounds cool. I am looking forward to the Netherlands too! Just a couple of days away. Too bad we only have one week of our trip left, it is sad to have to go back to reality.

Iced coffee so good even Krys would like it!

Potato amazeballs!

German pizza!

Waterskiing contraption

More of the waterskiing thing

 

Day Fourty-Five: Shots shots, shots shots shots, shots shots

This morning most of our camper friends had gone by the time we woke up which was surprising since it was only 9am and we didn't hear them leave. People were already starting to arrive to go to the lake though, it must be a super popular spot! We did our cleaning chores and had breakfast there, some of the bread from the bread vending machine, and read for awhile before we packed up. A lady went past on rollerblades and a dog ran out from somewhere to chase her but then the dog got in trouble. There are so many dogs around every camp! A lady brought one over to visit Quentin last night but we didn't know what she was saying because she was speaking German. The dog liked Quentin.

Around lunchtime we left the camp to drive to our next stop. We have been on the motorway so far this morning which is interesting, everyone goes so fast, Quentin said some people were going about 160km! Not us though. We have been looking at everyones number plates because they all have a letter on to say where they are from. They are mostly German but we have seen Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Slovakia and maybe some others, I think everyone is on holiday! There are also some exciting cars like lambourghinis and stuff which are interesting to look at. Not as much interesting stuff to drive through though so hopefully we won't be on the motorway the whole way through Germany!

We stopped for lunch at a picnic area on the motorway, I had a salad with sundried tomatos and gouda, yum! Quentin had some vege burgers, we found a bunch of vege stuff here so thought we should try some. The burgers were pretty good too. There was a major amount of traffic on the road we were on, going both ways! We didn't know if it had been a long weekend or the end of a holiday ot if it was just always this busy. We decided to stay at a motorway aire tonight to avoid the hassle of finding somewhere else and because we had seen quite a few on the way so we just stopped at the next one we saw.

It had a shop and a restaurant which serves different things at different times of day, but a lot of fish. They had an outdoor area to sit as well but it was way hot! We got Quentin a big beer and I got some apple juice to mix with this berry vodka I had and we went and sat in the shade of our van and had some drinks. After a while we decided to try wine with the berry vodka (which was really like a berry smoothie with vodka in although you couldn't taste it, man it was good!) and that was also pretty good! We were a bit tipsy then and being entertained by some truckers who were arm wrestling across from us. One guy was winning all the matches. Then the next thing you know they came over and asked Quentin if he wanted a match!

We went over of course and it turned out they were all truck drivers from Poland and after Quentin got quickly beaten they got out the vodka and we all started having shots of it! I never thought I could do vodka shots but it wasn't actually too bad, we didn't even have chasers! So extreme. We ended up hanging out with them all night even though they mostly didn't speak english (two guys spoke a bit) and it was really funny. A nice old man truck driver from Turkey came over and gave us some salad to share which had potato, egg, onion, tomato and jalapenos in it. The salad was delicious but they tricked me into eating some of the jalapenos (it was dark by this point) and they were really spicy!

I found out that they call jalapenos paprika, and onions are tabbouli in Polish, weird right! They were teaching me some other words but they might be swear words so I won't put them in! After a long night Quentin went missing and we all had to go and search for him, we found him sleeping on the grass and two truck drivers had to carry him to bed! Too much vodka haha. The polish guys were convinced that Polish vodka, beer, food and country "is the best" so we had to promise we would go there on our next trip. They were so friendly as well, telling us to come and stay with them and their wives would cook us food, Polish people are super nice if they are anything to go by! "The best"

Vending machine breads!

Big strong beer, 10%!

Tipsy!

Quentin is going to bed.

Salad, nom

New friends!

 

Day Fourty-Four: Four countries in one day!

We woke up to the most amazing view this morning, it is so awesome in Switzerland, definitely my favourite country so far! There were a few people around going for walks near our area, I saw a couple who had two yorkshire terriers, a black one and a white one, so cute! It was actually cold last night, amazing! This morning was nice though, sunny with only a few clouds.

We had toasties and coffee for breakfast again, it's going to be a hard habit to break! Then around 11 we started going down the mountain. We went for a few more small towns and saw some more gondolas and heaps of people walking and biking around the mountains. When it was time for lunch we stopped in a really cute small town to try and get some fondue but we walked around the whole town looking at the menus and everything and I didn't see any fondue. Also I can't read any German so we didn't want to try and risk ordering something when we didn't know what it would be! Definitely do not want to end up eating raw meat or something, gross!

Instead we just kept going and not long after that we were in Leichtenstein where we found a kebab place so we stopped there since I have been wanting a kebab for weeks and hadn't got one yet. We got a falafel one and a mystery one, we couldn't tell what it was from the picture but both were delicious! We could have had just one between us really but now we are way full! Lichenstein is only 25km by 6km so we were out of there pretty quickly after lunch and into Austria since we are going through the corner of it to get to Germany. We will be in four countries in one day today I think, crazy!

We stopped in Austria to use the McDonalds wi-fi and I went in to see what weird stuff they have at their McDonalds and get a milkshake. They have shrimps on the menu here, and also corn on the cob with butter, those were the most interesting things. No coffee milkshake though sadly. We went for a walk around a massive lake which is part of Switzerland, Austria and Germany and heaps of people were hanging out by it and swimming and boating, it was pretty warm, maybe around 28, way warmer than up in the mountains!

We want to stay for the night in Germany so we are at McDonalds to use their wi-fi again (should have thought of that earlier!) to see if there is a good campsite around. Also we wanted cheeseburgers, gotta make the most of this meat eating time before we get back to the UK and go back to our proper vege ways! We found a camp which was only about 5 minutes down the road and looked good so we got the directions and then went across the road to the supermarket. It is always fun to go to new supermarkets and this one was cool, it had a bread vending machine! You pushed the button for what you wanted, like a croissant or a loaf of bread or a pretzel or something and then it would pop out, the croissant came shooting out in a little tray, it was very exciting considering how much I love vending machines! Basically the highlight of my day haha.

Anyway we went to the camp after that which was packed! They were having a wedding and a lot of people were there to swim in the lake that they have as well I think. We found a nice place to park anyway near some other campers and had some salad for dinner since we were still pretty full from kebab and cheeseburger! We also had what I thought was a big beer I bought in Lichtenstein but was actually cider, bonus! Then we watched the silver linings playbook which Quentin liked but I thought was boring and had too much arguing and yelling in it.

The view from the front of the van that we woke up to.. amazing!

All the houses are this cute!

Kebab! The man who served us was drinking a beer. Then he had another beer.



The prince or king of Liechtenstein's castle, you can't go in it.

This is a blimp we saw, I tried to take a better picture but it was moving too fast.

At the lake in Austria

Sunset in Germany

Day Fourty-Three: I'm on the top of the world!

It was nice to wake up and not be boiling hot this morning. It was also really quiet, probably because we weren't too close to a town. A couple of trains went past while we were having breakfast (my favourite cheese and marmite toasties) and they have a carriage on the end which is open so you can sit there and see everything way better which is cool but it might get a bit cold in that one. I can see why people would want to go on a train ride here because it's so pretty.

We packed up after breakfast and headed to Saint Moritz which wasn't too far away. On the way we stopped to play in the snow for a bit which was cool. It's the middle of summer but there is still a bit of snow around, I bet they have so much of it in the winter! I saw a sign that said we were about 2100 metres above sea level. You could go on a gondola to 2800 metres which must be pretty high! I have seen a million gondolas everywhere here, it would be pretty awesome to go on one.

We stopped in Saint Moritz for lunch, it is a place that rich people like to go so it had the obligatory shops like Chanel, Michael Kors, Miu Miu etc, not that we are interested in them! We got some picnic food and went to have a picnic next to the lake. We had some potato salad, pasta salad, cheese (which looked like brie but tasted a bit like butter, maybe a bit too creamy for me!) and some awesome bread which had cherry tomatoes baked into it. We watched the ducks while we had lunch, there were a couple of ones we hadn't seen before which were all black with white beaks and white faces. There were also tiny fish jumping about and a person went swimming in the lake which looked freezing!

We have seen a lot of people going for walks in the mountains, and a lot of bike riders as well. It is raining as we are driving and I write this and I just saw a guy biking up the mountain looking pretty unimpressed about it. We just found a place that we might stay for the night. It is up in the mountains with snow around and a river and waterfall next to us, pretty amazing setting for a camp! I have seen some no campervan and no tent signs around but I figure since we are just in our van and not taking up any extra room we should be all good to stay wherever we want. I guess we will find out if someone comes and tells us to move anyway!

It is nice to have it rain again, although I hope it doesn't rain heaps for the rest of our holiday! I can't belive that we have been travelling for 42 days already, it's so crazy. And only 12 days to go, it is quite sad. Hopefully we will find jobs quickly but not too quickly once we get back to London because I will need some time to adjust from just doing whatever I want! It's a bit misty here now which makes everything look interesting, like the mountains are hiding in the fog. Luckily we have hot chocolate if it gets too cold! And some fresh spaghetti with pesto for dinner, yum! Then tomorrow we will get to go and see more of Switzerland. Apparently it is 70% mountains so I guess that is what we will be seeing!

We both want to come back, maybe in the winter and go see more of Switzerland since we are only going over the right hand corner of it on our way to Germany. I would love to go up Jungfrau (something like that) to 'the top of Europe' and also see Bern and Lucerne but we didn't have enough time to go over that way on this trip. It's good to see where we would want to go back to though. We also want to go down to Naples and Pompeii at some point, maybe next trip! And also sailing in Greece. So much travel plans to make!

We ended up being the only ones staying the night at the place we chose but there was a camper across the road from us by the lake and a few more down the road so we weren't totally alone. We drank the last (3 bottles!) of our wine from Italy which we chilled by putting it in the waterfall which worked really well, it was delicious. We had spaghetti with tuna and basil pesto for dinner, so good! It is Quentin's favourite meal. Oh yeah and where we stayed was 2363 metres above sea level, crazy!

Snow time!

The lake at St Moritz

Church by the lake, pretty awesome!

The lake across the road from where we stayed

View from the van on one side

Walking in the snow area