Our travels

A bit of a late update but we thought our blog needed a final post to wrap things up. We arrived back in London on the 27th and happily bought train tickets from the English speaking assistant, joyfully read all the English worded signs on the way from Luton airport to Paddington Station, and embarrassingly forgot that everyone around us could now understand what we were saying ("you're a poo" "no, you're a poo" was no longer acceptable public conversation). It was late when we got to the hotel so we rested up for the next day.

Em was still feeling ill in the morning and was very weak but nothing could keep her away from Oxford Street. We jumped on the tube and headed in for shopping and lunch with our dear friend Kat. By the time we did all that, and tracked down some absinthe for Japh, Em was feeling pretty ill so she went back to the hotel and Japh went somewhere he'd been wanting to go for ages... inside the residence of Mr Sherlock Holmes:

Fuzlet had wanted to keep Em company but Japh kidnapped him and took him in to meet Mr Holmes:

However, no pets were allowed, and Fuzlet found himself in trouble with the official man outside:

After picking Fuz up from jail the next day, we decided to spend our last day in London doing something nice and relaxing. We picked up some food from Paddington Station and went to the Kensington Gardens for a picnic:

Em was feeling happy to be out of bed:

Japh was happy to be squirrel watching:

And Fuz was happy to make the acquaintance of the newest family member - Paddington Bear:

We played around by the fountains:

Where there were some gorgeous little ducklings:

Then went for a walk through Hyde Park to see the Peter Pan statue (spot Fuzlet):

And the Princess Diana memorial fountain, which was kind of funny looking - just a long channel of water in a weird sort of circle shape.

In the late afternoon we headed out to Heathrow and after a long wait, jumped on the plane to Melbourne via Singapore. We had two seats alone up the back this time which was way better than the flight over, where we were hemmed in by a large man for the whole trip. Arriving in Melbourne, we were struck by the wonderful Aussie sense of humour as we went through customs...

Customs man: 10 weeks is a long time to be away
Japh: Yes, it was our honeymoon
Customs man: Oh.
Customs man: ...still together?
Japh and Em: Yes!?!
Customs man: Well that's a good sign...

And then, boarding our flight from Melbourne to Hobart...

Flight attendant to Japh: Last row on your left
Japh: Thanks
Flight attendant to Em: You're up the back too. So we can keep an eye on you.
Em: ???

We arrived back in Hobart early on the very last day of May, and were so happy to see our family and be back in wonderful Tassie. Fuz got to meet our new Harrods bear and the puppy and kitten airplane pillows we had bought in London:

But Em's reunion with friends has been sadly put off because of her prolonged sickness - her weakness and low immune system meant she caught a bad head cold pretty quickly after coming back and has been resting constantly. She's nearly all better now though and we're looking forward to seeing everybody and finding a house!

So this is the end of our travel blog, not sure if it will continue in any way now but thanks everyone for reading! We hope you enjoyed it, and if you commented at all, BIG thanks for being part of our record of our honeymoon

Love Emi and Japh

Well, here is the room of doom where Em has spent over a week feeling very very ill:

On only one day very early on was she able to escape, and luckily the Seine was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel:

And the Eiffel Tower only 5 minutes after that:

We were only able to stand under the tower before going back to the hotel because Em was too ill to wait in line:

And she went rapidly downhill from there.

Now, being sick is never fun, but being sick in a foreign country and in a hotel is all kinds of bad. The dvd player didn't work properly, even after we'd tried 7 dvds and watched as they froze every 5 seconds. Hotel staff ignore 'do not disturb' signs here and walk in on you when you're sick in bed, and then your conversation goes something like this:

Maid: Blah blah French blom blee
Em: Um... parlez vous Anglais?
Maid: Non. blah blee blom French flom flee
Em: No. Go away.
Maid: flee fly flum?
Em: Go away before I vomit on you

As luck would have it these things usually happened while Japh was out (he managed one or two short excursions around the city). Here he is in front of Notre Dame:

There was a cool guy feeding sparrows outside:

And prettiness inside:

It was only a day or two after this that Em got really bad (lying on the floor wailing kind of bad) and Japh managed to look online and find a British hospital stationed in Paris. After 20 minutes of agony in a taxi we arrived, only to be told it was strictly a gynaecological hospital so they couldn't treat Em. Well she wasn't having a bar of that so she promptly collapsed and forced them to bring a stretcher.

She had a pretty scary episode where her hands and arms spasmed and seized up but a lovely British nurse gave her fun sedative drugs which calmed her down. Then she got to ride in an ambulance to a different hospital where they could treat her but couldn't speak much English. Lying in a cold room for hours in pain while you wait for blood test results and being spoken to in a language where the only words you know are 'hello' 'goodbye' 'thanks' 'cow' and a certain swear word is NOT FUN. Only the swear word came in handy.

Finally she was prescribed four different types of drugs and we took a taxi back to the hotel (managing to see the Musee D'Orsay, Champs Elysee and Arc de Triumphe from the windows...so we did get to see a bit of Paris...).

Japh stayed in the hotel with Em for the next few days and tried to find her food she could eat but hey, that's another stupid thing about Paris, so she could barely eat and has lost a massive amount of weight. He did manage to venture out today on our last day to try and revisit an Absinthe shop he'd found the day he visited Notre Dame:

but they were closed (as, apparently, is everything on Monday. I think this city hates us).

As you may have noticed, Fuzlet hasn't featured much. He was very busy looking after Em, although he did demand a fee for his services:

And he did get to see Notre Dame, even if it was just a picture in our room:

We are thankfully flying back to London tomorrow for two nights, and then flying back to Australia. We cannot wait to be home!

As some of you might know, I (Em) have been very ill in Paris for the last week and had to go into hospital. I'm still not well, and writing this from the bed of my hotel room (which is the most I've seen of Paris... it's totally not all it's cracked up to be! Don't come here for the hotel rooms!)

But anyway, Berlin was great, because I wasn't sick there and we saw lots of stuff. We were there for 4 whole days. On our first day we saw some of the main attractions. From Alexanderplatz we caught the public transport (we totally mastered the s bahn and u bahn and felt like very intelligent travellers) to the Hauptbahnhof, Berlin's massive main station. Right near the station was the incredible Reichstag, the house of parliament, which Fuzlet thought was most impressive:

He was also impressed with Brandenburg Gate, where thousands of East Berliners poured through when the wall came down:

There are now just masses of tourists there. And a Starbucks.

From there we wandered up a long stretch of road by the Tiergarten to the Victory Column

Which we stupidly climbed up. So that nearly killed us, but we did get a good view looking back over the Tiergarten and down to Brandenburg Gate:

On day 2 we wandered back past the Reichstag:

And down to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial centre. It is all underground, with thousands of grey stone columns of different lengths on the ground above:

It was pretty intense inside, with photos and stories of some of the victims:

We were blown away by the extent of the tragedy, and by some of the preserved words of the victims. It was so sad.

From here we went to the site of Hitler's bunker, the site of his and his wife's suicide, then along to Potsdamerplatz and out to Checkpoint Charlie:


Where we saw an incredible museum documenting escape attempts (homemade hot air balloons, scuba diving gear, people who risked their lives to build tunnels, border guards who vowed never to shoot at humans), and saw a piece of the Berlin wall:

Day 3 was a bit less emotionally intense. We set out to find the book burning memorial, which was so difficult that we finally convinced ourselves this was it - empty bookshelves in a modern grey building:

We found a cool little market by the river:

Where we found some cars my dad and uncle would have liked (which were sadly too expensive. And for little people):

Fuzlet wandered off and we eventually found him in front of the Berliner Dom:

Naughty cat.

We had lunch at a very cool cafe that had chairs on swings:

And beer:

Day 4 was all about the zoo, which is massive. It's home to the famous Knut the polar bear, whose mother abandoned him and he was controversially raised by humans. You can see the effect of this as he is totally different to the other polar bears and constantly acts up for the audience. It was a bit sad:

We also saw an exotic bird:

Zebras:

Pandas:

Big cats (Fuzlet hid):

Llama type things (this is for you twin!):

And monkies:

I got confused and nearly took the wrong primate home....

We also saw the incredible aquarium:

Where we saw snakes:

As well as crocs, ants, massive bugs, spiders, fish, and... we found Nemo!

It was that night (the 19th) that I got ill and have been sick ever since. The trip to Paris was horrid, and things have been pretty miserable, so our Paris post should be a bit different! We fly to London on Tuesday and back to Australia on Thursday so if we could have everyone sending positive thoughts/prayers/doing 'get well em' dances that'd be awesome.

See you all soon

The food in prague is - in a word - repulsive. In two words - utterly repulsive. After a long train trip where Japh had to sit on our luggage because there were no seats free (although we did meet two lovely middle aged German couples who helped translate for us), we were looking forward to a nice evening meal in Prague. But nooo. We ordered two harmless sounding meals - vegetable risotto and potato pancake with chicken and vegetables. My risotto tasted like the scum off the bottom of a week old wok, and Japh's potato pancake looked (and tasted) more like a damp, dirty sock in a mouldy cocoon. Badness.

The next morning we both felt kind of ill but decided to wander through Prague for a bit. While in Nuremberg we hadn't managed to track down the iron maiden. No, not the band - the iron maiden of Nuremberg was a medieval torture device that featured in a short story by Bram Stoker called The Squaw that we both read in Croatia. So when we saw a medieval torture museum while walking through Prague we thought we might find her there - and we did!

I won't give more details about the museum because it was truly gruesome, although very educational. From there we headed along the river to the Charles Bridge, where we saw a little man playing a fun instrument with a fake monkey:

Then we wandered up through old town, which was very pretty:

And also good for shopping - LOTS of marionette shops, so Japh was happy;

We walked up the hill towards the castle, and had a great view out over Prague:

But decided to skip paying to get into the massive newish castle section. Instead we went straight to the awesome old section which you could get into for free:

Where we climbed about a million steps to get this view of Prague:

We walked back down over the bridge and found the beautiful Old Town square:

With its very cool astronomical clock:
.

I don't know if you noticed, but we forgot Fuzlet. He was VERY grumpy. So the next day we took him back to the Charles Bridge:

Where he had this view of all the people, the statues along the bridge, and the castle in the background:
.

He listened to some live bands and buskers, visited a bookshop, wandered along the river past some gardens, and then tried to make the acquaintence of two strange blue people who were standing in some water and swivelling their hips around:

Before realising that they were peeing, and that was awkward. He was so embarassed that he asked to be taken back to the hotel, so we left him there then went for a beautiful walk along the river at night:
.

We had a disgusting, undercooked pizza for tea (I'm totally not exaggerating about the food. The specialty was 'pork knuckle' which sounds so wrong), then we tried some Absinth prepared the Bohemian way (they set it on fire). I think the high alcoholic content actually made Japh smarter because as we were using the elevator in the hotel the next morning he noticed a sign saying 'schindler' and cleverly pointed out that we were in Schindler's lift. Funny boy!

And that was it for Prague! We were glad to be leaving. It's a very beautiful and interesting city, but the difference between Eastern and Western Europe is huge - everything is more run down and unreliable in the East, and the Czech food was truly dreadful. We also went to the wrong train station because the website was incorrect, and had to do a mad dash to the right station in a taxi we bartered down to half price because that was all the money we had! That kind of stuff didn't bother us early on but we're both feeling exhausted now. Arriving in Berlin's main train station was like a return to civilization. More about that in the next post!

See you all soon (the two people who are reading this, that is... only two people commenting? No one misses us?)
Em and Japh

It was so hard to leave Lauterbrunnen last Wednesday. It was almost as though Lauterbrunnen didn't want us to leave either, as we had massive delays that made our train trip to Germany 2 hours longer and about 50 times more painful. We finally crossed over the German border (with Em whispering 'don't mention the war') and arrived in Fussen in Southern Germany. We stayed just outside Fussen in a village called Hopfen, which was on a lake with the alps in the distance. Here's Fuz by the lake, which was a half minute walk from our accommodation:

We were struck even on our first night by how warm and friendly the Germans are. We were starving and Japh went to find takeaway, but all he could find was a schnitzel house that didn't do takeaway and they didn't speak English. They went out of their way to help us though, and kept the kitchen open, cooked us some schnitzels, and gave them to Japh on plates in a little crate so he could carry them back to the guesthouse.

We caught a bus into Fussen the next morning and our bus driver was lovely, telling us where to catch the bus to the Bavarian castles. There was an old man on the bus wearing Leiderhosen and chattering away in German to the driver, he was great. Didn't inspire Em to let Japh wear Leiderhosen though.

We decided to just visit one castle - Neuschwanstein, built by mad King Ludwig II. This was inspiration for the look of Disney castle, so it's very fairytale looking. It's built up the top of a hill in a German forest with a big waterfall tumbling down the hill opposite. We caught a horse-drawn carriage through the forest up the hill. Here's us up the front of the carriage in the village:

And going up the hill, with another carriage coming the other way:

Here's Japh outside the castle:

Sadly we weren't allowed to take photos inside. I expected it to be like a normal castle but it wasn't - the walls were painted with spectacular scenes depicting the works of Wagner, and Ludwig's bedroom had intricate wood carvings all over the bed, seat, walls, etc... and hidden doors in the walls that opened up into other rooms... and even an artificial cave! We were led around by a hilarious German tour guide. Benjamin was probably around 25, he had Mr Burns hands (Simpsons reference for those who don't watch it) and he half slid, half crept, along the floor. He was very thin, always blowing his nose, and spoke English in the way that people often imitate Germans speaking English. He was awesome.

We did a walk through the gardens after exploring the hotel, where we had a great view of the valley below (Ludwig's childhood home is the castle in the pic):

We walked all the way around to the waterfall, where Fuzlet asked to have his photo taken in front of the castle:

Japh had his first German bratwurst on the way back down the hill, then we caught the horse-drawn carriage back down to the village. On the way Em noticed a couple taking a photo of our carriage. She got a shock when they lowered the camera. Those of you who are paying attention might remember us mentioning a WA couple (Mark and Terri) who we met on a cruise up the Croatian coast, who recommended Hvar accommodation for us. Well, that was the last we saw of them... til we were coming down a hill in Bavaria, and there they were! It was the most incredible co-incidence.

The next morning we booked a hotel at the last minute in Nuremberg because we couldn't get Munich accommodation. We literally managed to book it two minutes before we had to check out. Not good for Em's nerves. We had a really long train trip which was made worse by two young German guys playing loud music... although it was kind of funny when one song started "Oh my God Becky look at her butt. It is soooo big", and 'I Like Big Butts' started blasting through the train while traveling through rural Germany. Bizarre.

It was too late to explore by the time we arrived so the next day we left our hotel and went straight to the Imperial Castle:

They didn't have any English tours so we followed along on a German one. Em pretended to understand and react to what the guide was saying, and Japh rolled his eyes at her.
Japh was very amused by all the decorative touches in the castle, such as this:

Because they reminded him of a computer game he used to play where he ran around shooting Nazis.

We wandered down the hill and found a cool little Wursthaus restaurant where we shared some German sausages and Japh tried the local beer:

Just nearby was a large square with a market, where Japh bought some chocolates with chilli and marzipan and Em checked out the famous Schoner Brunnen fountain:

Then we wandered to the famous Henkersteg Bridge (hadn't actually heard of any of these before so maybe not so famous?):

We were heading to Prague the next day so we headed back to the hotel fairly early, buying some drink on the way - where Japh managed the entire transaction speaking German then messed it up by saying 'please' instead of 'bitte'... which the guy found hilarious... but Em was very proud of him!

And that's it for Southern Germany. We've since been to Prague and are now in Berlin, so hopefully we'll get a Prague post up soon.
Love Em and Japh