A Week in Iceland

We decided when we came over to Europe from the USA that Iceland seemed like an interesting place to visit, and passing through on the way back to the USA meant we would get a chance to check it out. So we booked ourselves in to do a short visit. Being winter, it wasn’t going to be as touristy as it might otherwise have been, so we were hoping that things might be a bit cheaper as well. Turns out, yes it was cheaper, but no, it was not cheap.

We decided to stay in Reykjavik for the week, as moving around only adds more expense, and we planned to avoid hiring a car (if possible). Managed to snag a place on AirBnb that was great, and far and away better value than any of the hotels I had looked at. Kitchen, lounge, bedroom etc and not the size of a shoebox. I was very impressed. Turns out Reykjavik was a great little city to visit. I didn’t have any idea that the population of Iceland was so small (~300,000 people or some such), so exploring Reykjavik was a bit of a surprise. When looking for accommodation in town, I had noticed that it (the city) looked a little on the small side, but this just meant that logistically, we were able to walk everywhere. It was great. Walk everywhere we did.

When we arrived there was no snow, much to our disappointment. After having very little snow in Prague, we were looking forward to enjoying some snowy weather, but the streets were completely clear of snow. Apparently we arrived shortly after a series of storms, and it must have turned all the snow into slush and ice (but there wasn’t all that much of that, either). However, it did snow for us during our stay. Quite a lot, in fact. It was wonderful. Big, fat fluffy flakes, quite different from the light snowfall we had seen in Prague.

Beautiful Iceland

What we got up to:

We went on a few excursions during our week, taking the opportunity to do some of the touristy things that we had avoided everywhere else. Tourism is a major source of revenue for Iceland, so there were a lot of things available to do as a tourist even in such a small country with so few inhabitants. Iceland reminds me a little bit of New Zealand, where there are plenty of things to see and do, and even extreme sports if that’s the kind of thing you want to get up to. However, unlike New Zealand, Iceland is one epically expensive place to visit. So although we did let loose a little and do some of the touristy stuff that we normally avoid, it still cost an arm and a leg.

Having said that, we didn’t get up to any of the extreme sports, and many things that are normally offered weren’t available during the winter months. Even the iconic Blue Lagoon was shut down for renovations, so unfortunately, we did miss out on going swimming in a hot spring in subzero conditions.

Our original plan was to hire a car and do the usual thing: do all the touristy drives around the countryside ourselves, and save a packet on money…and if it were summer, I think we would have. Being winter, we were a bit paranoid about the driving situation. Having limited experience driving on icy roads and having read many reports about the foolhardiness of driving as a tourist in Iceland during winter, we decided it would be better to opt out and do some guided tours instead. So that’s what we did. That and a bunch of hoofing it around Reykjavik visiting the various museums, craft beer establishments and various street art.

Down at the harbour, not everyone is in the water. Street art? Or a hulking relic? At any rate, it’s in a park.

…We ended up going on a boat tour to see the Northern Lights and two minibus tours around the southern part of Iceland: on the famous Golden Circle route, and also on a coastal tour to go check out some of the more accessible glaciers and the mysterious black sand beaches. It was certainly a relief to not be driving, and it was a nice change to have the constant banter of the tour guides telling us all sorts of interesting whatnot about Iceland during our sojourns out into the icy plains. I’m glad we did go the tour option, since it ended up snowing quite heavily for more than half the day of the first tour…and the minibus (even though equipped with studded tires) still fishtailed around a corner on an icy patch. Having said that, the driver did cruise around at 80-100km/h in snowy, icy conditions for pretty much the whole time, snow or no snow. There was no way we would have gone out in those conditions by ourselves, let alone drive anywhere near that fast.

Golden Circle Tour

The Golden Circle Tour is apparently one of the must do items when in Iceland. Coaches, minibuses, super jeeps, horses and people in cars – everyone does at least some part of the iconic drive. Full of volcanic landscapes, waterfalls, snowy vistas and curious rock formations, the tour showcases some of the most recognisable aspects of Iceland in a convenient loop on one of the generally more navigable roads. For us, it was a great (if long) day out. We had opted to go on full-day tours, where they pick you up at 8.30am and drop you off 8-10 hours later. We waited for the tour bus outside the hotel across the road from our apartment, and while waiting, it started to snow. A lot. I was initially happy with this, since our experience of Iceland thus far was “Ummm…Where is the snow?” but at the same time, it was a bit like planning to go to the beach and discovering that it’s pouring rain. You couldn’t see all that much for all the snowfall, and I was a bit worried that our tour was going to be a bit of a white-out. Nevertheless, we were picked up and on our way (in the dark) so I guess the fact it was also snowing didn’t matter too much when you consider the sun wasn’t even up yet anyway. By the time the tour really got going and there was sunlight to be had, we were in an area that wasn’t snowing anywhere near as much.

We stopped in to visit one of the more accessible waterfalls and more or less slid our way to the viewing area. Much visited, the area was well trampled and largely ice. Having never had to really deal with ice, I was rather paranoid. However, I don’t think anyone fell over. But the waterfall was beautiful, as expected, and was worth the careful treading to see properly. The waterfall bordered on a major sheep-sorting area that the farmers use to sort out their flocks which was interesting. It was basically this large ring-shaped area with compartments to herd sheep in order to figure out what belongs to who. (Iceland has a bit of a relaxed approach to sheep farming…the sheep more or less go do what they want, where they want to, when they want to. Very independent, these sheep.)

Faxi.

Along the way, our tour guide stopped off & we fed a few of the horses that we happened by on the side of the road. Lovely animals, they were definitely familiar with the process of free bread from curious tourists. Soft and fluffy, they were very friendly and pleased to have us…or at least, pleased to have a snack delivered to their doorstep. They were definitely a hit with everyone on the bus. Who doesn’t love a friendly fuzzy horse?

Friendly little guy.

Out at another one of the waterfalls we visited I managed to axe myself on the ice. Basically, sneakers are not the ideal footwear for icy conditions, and the area we were visiting was 100% ice. It was more or less a case of “when” as opposed to “if” regarding me and parking my butt on the ice at some stage. So that wasn’t particularly great. (Ended up giving me a bogey arm for like…6 weeks – even now it’s crunchy, although now at least it works fine.) Others also failed on the ice. But the waterfall was awesome. (This one was mostly frozen, although I’m told it has never totally frozen over.) Afterwards, I sooked over a delicious bowl of traditional Icelandic lamb soup. Like everything else, it was expensive. Surprise.

Gullfoss. I have a sore arm thanks to you!! (Ok, it was my inappropriate footwear)

We also visited the geysers Strokkur and Geysir and stood around and waited for the active geyser to do its thing. Apparently the geyser “Geysir” in Iceland is where the name for the phenomenon was derived. It was a similar experience to visiting Rotorua in New Zealand, although considerably less stinky. For all the sulfur, I guess maybe the cold conditions make the fragrance less noisome. It was nice to explore the park, although the combination of icy ground, boiling hot water and plentiful steam didn’t make for the safest combination.

Out at the geyser fields. Positively steamy, and yet, still frozen.

Our tour guide also dropped us off to do a short hike through the snow at Thingvellir, where we got the opportunity to observe the various examples of the continental rift and volcanic rock formations at closer range. The crystal clear waters in the rifts were amazing – so clear and deep, people regularly go diving there in the super-pristine waters. We dutifully chucked some money in to better observe the depth (you’d never believe the water was so super deep otherwise) and were suitably impressed watching the slow drift all the way to the bottom. A lot of money was in that rift…

Eventually the day was over and we headed home in the dark. It was pretty low key, but it was a lovely day out.

That’s at least 20ft deep.

Can you see the money?

Southern Coast Tour

Another day out in the minibus, this time with a different tour guide. I’ve never heard anyone talk so much. Ever. Seriously. He talked almost incessantly for the entirety of the trip, which lasted for more than 8 hours. I don’t know how he managed it. He made a mammoth effort to pack as much information about Iceland into the tour, and he was extremely knowledgeable about anything he was asked. It was nuts.

We visited another of the local horse farms and hung out with the super friendly Icelandic horses. They are a special breed out of Norway – they are super cute and shaggy and sort of small. Very pretty horsies. Wouldn’t have minded doing one of the horse riding tours, since they were such lovely animals. But maybe not while it was snowing. Too darn cold.

Hi guys! We didn’t bring you any food…

Our tour guide took us out to various waterfalls, visited the coastline and checked out the basalt columns and black sand beaches, all the while regaling us with various stories and information about life in Iceland. It was interesting to learn more about their sheep, which they more or less let loose to roam the mountainsides until the weather starts to get too cold, at which point the farmers band together to round them all up and sort out their respective flocks. That’s some low-intensity farming.

At the black sand beach. If anyone’s seen Sense8, this is where Riley climbs into the sea caves…

Black sand for as far as you can see…

“Sand” is perhaps not totally accurate…

Skogafoss. Murray climbed to the top. I erred on the side of “No, thanks. It’s safer down here…”.

Part of this tour was to visit two of the glaciers near the southern coast, so this time, when we stopped at a service station we invested in some spikes for our shoes. This turned out to be rather invaluable, and I’m glad I had them when we visited the glacier. People were landing on their asses left and right. Me? No falling today, thank you very much. Our guide took us out on a mini-hike onto the glacier, to some of the safer areas that are still beyond the area that non-tour guide people are meant to venture. It was very interesting, and certainly quite different from our last glacier experience. (That was in New Zealand, and we were wearing our thongs. On the glacier. As you do when you’re Australian and it’s summer, I guess.) The sheer size of the glacier was ridiculous, and we were informed that it was already much, much smaller than previously. At any rate, that was one immense ice-cube, receding ice, or not.

Out at the glacier, there’s plenty of people out for a spot of hiking.

Checking out the glacier. That would make a heck of a lot of ice cubes.

The last of the light was spent visiting one last waterfall. However, by the time we got there it was pretty much dark. It’s a bit tough doing an all day tour when the sun doesn’t get up until late morning, and is then gone by early afternoon. Either way, the waterfall was still beautiful, and was also thoughtfully lit with floodlights. By then with the dark, the cold was also back in full force. We didn’t stay long, since it was really *&^$ cold. Some people didn’t even get out of the bus (or at least, for no longer than a moment)…It’s a bit funny to think that some places we didn’t see to best vantage because it was just too cold.

At the end of the tour, as we were driving back in to Reykjavik, our tour guide sang us an Icelandic lullaby, since it was dark and pretty much everyone was tuckered out. It was most peculiar, but nice.

Catching the sun start to set before heading out for a bit of a glacier hike.

Northern Lights Boat Tour

So, having never been anywhere close to being able to observe the Aurora Borealis, this was likely to be our best opportunity to see it while we were visiting Iceland. The light pollution in the city meant that we were unlikely to see anything without at least leaving the town, so the options were to go on another bus tour or go out on a boat and see what there was to see out at sea. Having already gone on two bus tours, we opted for the boat tour for something a bit different. We had made friends with an American tourist a few days before, so he came with us to go searching for the Northern Lights as well. …It was cold. We toughed it out for a while on the bow for as long as we could uncomfortably manage, before heading back indoors to defrost (our American friend wasn’t quite as rugged up as us, so I’m surprised he managed for as long as he did). There wasn’t a lot of magnetic activity on the night we were out, so although we did see the Northern Lights, it wasn’t exactly a spectacular light show. It was also not anywhere near as colourful as I had expected, although, if I had done more research regarding it before we went, that would have made a lot more sense. Basically, your camera or video camera is at a distinct advantage versus human eyesight. It was a rather dull display of hazy greens and rose pinks in the sky, not the bright colours I’ve repeatedly seen in various photos and videos. The crew were taking photos with their DSLR cameras, and the colour difference was quite distinctly more vibrant. Our phone cameras were not exactly up to the challenge. Still, it was interesting, and a fun trip learning about this curious spectacle.

Weird things in Iceland:

The Supermarket.

The supermarket. As always. Weirdness is always a major factor at supermarkets, and Iceland was no exception. Staying for a week meant that logistically, we were going to need to cook for ourselves at least a couple of times. So it was off to the tiny Bonus supermarket near us to stock up on supplies. Their cold case is just a giant cold room. As in, a walk-in refrigerated area with all of the cold goods inside. It was pretty weird being inside a cold room with supermarket shelves inside it.

They had a lot of smoked meats, but not all that much of the fresh sort. The freezer section was jam packed with lamb chops in giant bags, and various fish and seafood (and later we discovered, Minke whale). We picked up a smoked rack of lamb, which turned out to be delicious, if totally peculiar. Tasted mostly like bacon. It was also cut rather weird, with the rack not being separated at the spine. So I guess we sort of bought most of a ribcage…rather than a rack.

Their Skyr yoghurt was also pretty delicious. Delicious, but healthy. High protein and very little fat, yet somehow still tastes like a full fat yoghurt, and sweetened with stevia. Later, we discovered it was everywhere in Portland. Never seen it previously though. If we had it at home I reckon I’d buy it, although coming from Iceland, you’d probably have to part with half your wallet to buy any.

Strange Food:

We went to a tapas place in Reykjavik to get a bit more of an experience of Icelandic food. Having already eaten their lamb soup and fish stew, this was an altogether different experience. Fairly sure most of the things we ate fall into the “not cool to eat anywhere else” category, but is apparently normal in Iceland, at least. We got a set menu, and it included all manner of wildlife: horse, puffin, lamb, whale, lobster and a bunch of other mystery chow – but fortunately no hakarl (their horrid fermented shark). At any rate, all of it tasted fantastic, but I can officially report I was the unfortunate recipient of some serious puffin-related reflux later. It was worth it to try these things just the once, but I don’t think I would do it again.

Hot water:

More hot water than you could possibly use, although slightly (ok, more than slightly) fragrant of egg. Iceland uses the geothermal bounty at its disposal to provide energy and hot water to the masses, so there was absolutely no feeling guilty about an extended shower. Glorious.

The Penis Museum.

Or more accurately, the Icelandic Phallalogical Museum. We decided to visit, because… well, it’s not likely to get any weirder than that, is it? It was definitely an eye opener. It was largely a collection of the treasured bits of various sea creatures (read: mostly whales and seals) from the surrounding waters, although there were many additional specimens donated from places all over the world. Who knew there was so much variance in such a common anatomical appendage? Unfortunately, there wasn’t much information other than the curated descriptions of which animals the various specimens were obtained from. I feel like there was a lot more to be learned and much more that could have been done with the subject material to make the exhibits more interesting. Oh well. It was still quite an unusual find.

Leaving Iceland

So…after a week, I’d say that I was satisfied with what I had seen and felt like we had done more than enough. I’d rate our trip to Iceland as well worthwhile, although hurtful to the hip pocket when compared to most of our experiences in the rest of Europe. The food was great, the people were lovely and the country is beautiful. Plus, as an added bonus: everyone we met spoke perfect english and I only fell over once. I’d be happy to go back and see more of the country, although perhaps in summer instead?

I’m sure Murray would have gone for a ride if he could…

So…Prague in December. The whole idea was to go somewhere that would be fabulous and snowy at Christmas. So, we (I) decided on Prague. A beautiful city, even more so when coated in snow, Prague sounded like a great destination to see Christmas markets and generally soak up the holiday spirit in a European location. It was recommended by many travel articles as one of the best places to visit in Europe for a white Christmas, although historically, it seems that the likelihood of getting snow for Christmas is closer to slim to none (thanks travel mags…). Nevertheless, we decided to risk it, since I didn’t really want to go to Finland/Sweden/Norway etc and deal with the extreme cold for an entire month. (Mostly because I prefer to keep my skin attached to my face. Cold, dry air is not a winner in my book.) Reality more or less delivered what we expected: definitely beautiful, great Christmas markets but alas, no snow (at least not at Christmas).

Our apartment for the month was a bit out of town, in Prague 9, an ex-industrial district that has been more or less overrun with drab apartment buildings as the population continued to spread. Basically, staying in town was going to part us with too much of our money, so we chose the outskirts of the city. Being so far out, we thought this might be a bit of a problem, but we found that over a month, the hire car didn’t even get a whole tank worth of use. As it happened, being out of town was not an issue, as public transport in Prague has been excellently organised to enable you to get just about anywhere, and affordably at that. Trams, buses, subways and trains to take people from A to B, so efficiently so, that everywhere we travelled only required maybe a 5 minute walk to get to the next portion of the public transport journey…And the public transport system was pretty much idiot-proof. (With the help of Google Maps.)

Here’s where we stayed: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6302735

It was pretty nice. In fact, very nice. And our hosts were the best ever. We even went out one night to hang out with our hosts, which was really nice and not at all weird. (They like beer too!) Totally recommend if anyone is thinking of heading to Prague.

What we got up to:

Honestly, this particular month we didn’t really get up to much. We thoroughly explored the city, both on foot and via public transport, and saw almost all the things that we deemed worth seeing. Prague takes the cake for ‘Most Beautiful City Visited’ for us, with the grand old buildings and beautiful architecture seemingly almost everywhere throughout the city. There hasn’t been anywhere that has come close to being quite so grandiose. I was most impressed…And pretty stoked with the hustle and bustle after being in Montenegro in the low season. Saw more people in one busy street than everyone combined in a whole month.

Unfortunately, Murray got a decent dose of the cold, so over half the visit was lost to sniffles, spluttering and presumably also to efforts at recuperation. I managed to dodge it somehow, so at least it was only one of us suffering through the Christmas/New Year period. Murray was banished to sleeping on the sofa, which probably helped with avoiding spread of the pox. So, as a result, not much happened other than keeping warm indoors, working, and watching the snow fall from the comfort of the couch. It wasn’t so bad, in fact, it was nice to have some quiet time.

Plenty of beautiful views of the river.

Plus some views of some pretty weird things too…

Bohemian Paradise:

We did one major day out on the road, and drove north up to an area known as Bohemian Paradise. Probably not the best time of year to experience it; the drive out was relatively plain and the areas we saw were not nearly as beautiful as they could be if we had been there in summer or autumn. However, there were castles everywhere, peeping out from the forests. Epic, and quite different to those we had seen in other countries. Seeing castles never gets old, even if it just a case of spotting them from afar. The only one we ventured near was to Trosky castle only to find it was closed for the winter season, which was a little bit disappointing. However, I suspect that would have been the case almost anywhere we could have visited, given the cold, wet & frozen weather. We also stopped in at a couple of the national parks in the area, but unfortunately in winter the forests are mostly leafless, wet and mushy so we didn’t go for much of a hike. Either way, it was still a beautiful day out.

Walking the stone forests of the Bohemian Paradise.

Christmas Markets:

The Christmas markets certainly delivered. I was expecting pretty lights, delicious smells and lots of Christmas cheer, and we certainly got it. There were markets set up utterly everywhere, and the delicious smell of gluhwein was a near constant fragrance at every square and corner. I really enjoyed seeing the markets, even if we didn’t buy anything other than tasty mystery consumable items. (This whole year has been an effort to not collect any crap, since there is nowhere to put it. Collecting memories, not stuff.) Kind of wished I could have bought some of the ornaments to take home, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have survived another couple of months of traveling. (Or more accurately, abuse during flights from A to B.)

Epic stain glass on our walk past the Christmas markets in the castle complex

Christmas Day:

We went to the zoo! With not much else to do, we elected to see what is touted as the 4th best zoo in the world (and second best in Europe). It was definitely the best zoo we have been to. Had a great day, and spent all day wandering through the giant grounds with what seemed to be largely non-Czech visitors with the same ideas we had. There were more cat species (Kitties!!! Kitties everywhere!) there than I have seen anywhere else, it was quite fascinating, although also a bit depressing since cats so large couldn’t possibly be happy enclosed like that. There was a tiger that was roaring (miaowing?) unhappily. Sounded just like Ninja on the way to the vet, except with the volume turned up so loud you could hear it from ages away. Great facility, and the enclosures for the animals were far and away the best I’d ever seen. The whole experience was very impressive, and we had a lot of fun playing around with the monkeys (mostly through the glass, but they were certainly curious). We were there almost from open until close, & I could have stayed longer, but logistically, there is only so much walking you can do before it is not so fun anymore…

If they weren’t flapping around and squawking I would have said they were fake. I’ve seen lawn ornaments that looked more lifelike.

Hanging out inside the lemur exhibit. Where the fence is to keep the people out, not the lemurs in.

Sedlec Ossuary:

Czech is famous for its bone churches, and Sedlec is probably the most famous and most easily accessible from Prague. After reading about it on Atlas Obscura, there was no way that we were going to miss out on seeing such an oddity. Basically, the bones of many (up to 70,000) were harvested from their mass graves and made into various works of art, adorning what seemed like every available surface of the small church. It was both creepy and spectacular. The chandelier was magnificent. I can’t believe someone had the task of extracting and cleaning all those remains to make them what they are today…

This picture can’t depict just how awesome the chandelier actually is.

Bones, neatly stacked, ordered by size and type…and then built into…stuff.

New Year’s Eve:

Seriously, we did not get up to anything for New Year’s Eve. Murray was at the peak of being sick with the cold, and we had been forewarned about going out into the city on the eve of due to firework related hazards. Basically, the town gets drunk and then ends up lighting everyone on fire through unsafe firework handling practises when drunk – which I guess makes sense… Because fireworks are totally legal. You could buy them from the supermarket, in all sorts of sizes from small tom thumbs through to giant cakes (with hilarious names, none of which I documented, unfortunately). We meant to buy some, but somehow never got around to it, not to mention feeling a little awkward about setting explosive stuff on fire in an unfamiliar space… However, there were more than enough locals on top of the pyrotechnics in our area. Midnight was well preceded by copious amounts of fireworks, pretty much starting as soon as it was dark enough, and continuing until well after the 12am mark. It was most curious seeing fireworks going off from pretty much every conceivable direction. Certainly not the epic-ness we are used to in Brisbane & Sydney, but still, pretty cool knowing that the fireworks were probably set off by your neighbours.

Supermarkets in Czech Republic:

Whenever a country has a hypermarket, that’s generally the place I choose to shop. Given the many mysteries of what each country stocks in terms of produce and range, the hypermarket I’ve found is the best place to be in order to produce a semblance of a normal shop. You might even get to leave with a couple of brands you recognise from home (but probably not). Czech offered two options: Albert and Globus as their hypermarket/supermarket chains, with Globus only available as a hypermarket. So that made Globus the choice for us, and it turned out to be one of the more normal shopping experiences we have had in our year away from home. You have no idea how nice it is to go buy food and find the food you want is actually sold at the shop you are at. Things you might take for granted, like salad greens, cream, bread (yes, bread) and prepackaged meats have been a constant source of consternation. After having been in Montenegro for the previous month, I was like a kid in a candy store. Real food!!

Prepackaged salad bags, recognisable meats, multiple choices for brands and types of cheese etc, it was all rather exciting after having been deprived for a while. I even managed to buy coconut oil for the first time in months, and almond meal as well. I was very impressed, although a bit mystified, as there were multiple large sizes of hazelnut flour to purchase, but only tiny packets of almond meal. What do they use all the hazelnut flour for? At any rate, there were lots of things I hadn’t seen in quite a while…Plus some things I had never seen. Like string cheese and smoked meats packaged as a braid. Plus ridiculous quantities of sausages…Globus had more sausages than you could poke a stick at. It was great. Having not met our German-sausage needs when in Munich, Prague managed to be an excellent source of various mystery meats in sausage casing. All of it was delicious. Some of it I wasn’t really sure how to eat, but…since we didn’t get sick, and it tasted fine, I guess it was a success? I think I may have tried to cook a liverwurst as if it were a sausage…(to be fair, it looked like all the other sausages)…

Beer in Czech:

Totally a winner. Prague is a huge city, and with it comes a lot of the perks you would expect. Like a real beer scene. What a treat. Especially after being in Montenegro. Fab places like BeerGeek made for a great spot to enjoy some decent beer, a meal and have a good chat with the locals. Great range & great prices, too. In general, definitely loved the low cost of living in Czech. It was fantastic being able to enjoy such a great quality of life without having to pay as much as we did in some of the other European countries we have stayed in.

Visiting Czech:

Since our visit was so uneventful, one post is more than enough to cover most of what we got up to. However, it was still a fantastic month nonetheless. Would love to see more of the Czech Republic if we ever get the chance, although I get the impression we would have to move around to see it properly. Beautiful Prague, it was a pleasure to have visited.

Next up:

Last stop in Europe: Iceland for a week before off to Portland, Oregon, USA!

Visiting Montenegro

Our exodus from Italy was not an experience worth repeating, and after much mucking around trying to refuel the rental car (belatedly discovering the local petrol stations were not open before 8am) and getting stuck in traffic (as a result of driving around madly trying to find an open petrol station), we eventually managed to get ourselves to the airport. Everything about this particular trip was unfortunate, and despite having left plenty of time to get from our accommodation to the departure gate, we barely made it there in time thanks to repeatedly getting held up every step of the way. However, we made it to Montenegro in one piece to begin the settling in process all over again. Unfortunately, although we made it in one piece, Murray’s bike did not. RIP the beloved Cervelo R5, a casualty of combining carbon fibre and luggage handling/flying one time too many.

Where We Stayed:

We set up shop in Dobrota, in the Bay of Kotor. Overlooking the bay, it was definitely one of the nicest locations we have stayed at to enjoy some spectacular scenery from the comfort of the couch. Other than that, the apartment was pretty average. It looked good, but smelled funny, and as it turned out, had a seriously bad mould problem. It was also plagued by circumstances beyond control, such as repeated electrical issues, building-wide power-outages, and frequently craptacular internet. However, we can’t really complain, since it was also very cheap, and was reasonably comfortable, problems aside. The power outages, although inconvenient, also provided a good incentive to get out the house more often and go on a day trip. As a result, we probably saw more of the countryside than we otherwise would have.

Here’s where we were staying, if you’re interested: https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/1737115

View from outside our place.

Bright, pretty Strawberry Trees adorn the roadsides and are utterly everywhere along the coast.

Places Visited:

Logistically, it seemed like we visited almost everywhere in Montenegro. I’m pretty sure this has been our most comprehensive country so far. (Which I guess is unsurprising, given it is a rather small country. There are more people in Brisbane than all of Montenegro.) We drove on almost all the major roads on our trips out and about, and quite a few minor ones as well. (Also some probably not suited to the hire car. Really, they should just hire out cars with a higher clearance as standard because I’m dead sure that we weren’t the first people to tackle a dirt road in a rented hatchback.)

I’m not going to write about everywhere we visited, since this particular month had too many destinations to recount them all. Safe to say, lots of random places were visited, and they were (almost) all awesome.

On the whole, we were pleasantly surprised at the high quality of most of the roads, it’s clear that the government has poured a tonne of money into road infrastructure. Driving in Montenegro was definitely a pleasure. (But their ridiculously variable speed limits suck.) If you visit Montenegro and don’t hire a car, you’ll miss out on a lot. Just watch out for the cops, they’re everywhere.

Lovcen National Park:

We had to go to Lovcen. Definitely one of the most popular tourist spots, this national park on the top of a mountain was a great spot to visit, and the drive there and back almost as good as the destination. There are like…25 switchbacks to get up the mountainside approaching Lovcen National Park and the view over the Bay of Kotor amazing. Basically, the whole drive was spectacular. And nuts. Definitely nuts. Narrow twisty roads with no shoulder combined with an often distinct lack of guardrails seems to be a common feature throughout the country, but by this point Murray has become pretty au fait with this particular problem. Really, I shouldn’t complain at all, the road to Lovcen was much less scary than many others we have ventured on and the road quality itself was very good. Though, if you’re scared of heights it probably isn’t a winner – it’s a very, very long way to the bottom.

There was no one manning the gate to the national park, so entry (to the park at least) was free. When we got into the park proper, the monument at the top of the mountain had to be unlocked for us as we were the only visitors there. Honouring a famous poet and Prince-Bishop, the final resting place of Njegos was definitely the most spectacular I’ve seen thus far. A lot of time and effort went in to build the mausoleum (for a man who died way back in 1851) and not finally laid to rest until some time in the 1970’s.

The national park looked stark but beautiful with the remainder of the Autumn colours, and I can only imagine how it must look in Spring/Summer. It had also snowed relatively recently, so our trip was made even better by the small amounts of snow dotted here and there. (I’m surprised that Montenegro doesn’t promote tourism in winter, since there is still so much beautiful scenery to be appreciated.) We didn’t do too much there other than walk around and appreciate the view and fresh (freezing cold) mountain air.

We took the long way home & stopped in at a fortress we had passed a sign for on the way up the mountain: Gorazda Fortress.

Out at Lovcen at the Mausoleum viewpoint. From here, you can see all the way to Italy on a clear day, apparently.

Bay of Kotor on the drive up the switchbacks.

Gorazda Fortress:

Amazing. I can’t believe we stopped in more or less on a whim. The fortress was built back in the 1800’s, but had continued to be in use until sometime in the 1990’s. That would make it the only fortress we have visited that has seen any kind of action in what could be considered “recent” years. Abandoned to time, the place was free to visit and totally devoid of people. It was creepy as. We had the run of the place so we wandered around in the dark with the aid of our mobile phone-torches and explored as much of the fortress as was safe to do so. It was quite the rabbit warren, and definitely a very interesting find. This fortress was a prime example of a place that in Australia, you would not under any circumstance, be allowed to visit and explore. In Montenegro – it’s fair game and even advertised as a place of interest. Access to the upper levels and the basement was prevented by a lack of stairs and ladders – they had clearly decayed beyond the point of use – but it was clear some intrepid explorers had still managed to make it upstairs at least. The gun turret was fascinating. We were very pleased with our surprise find, and the view from the top of the building (on top of the turret) was fantastic.

Gorazda. Creepy awesome.

Durmitor National Park:

On the way out to Durmitor, Murray narrowly avoided a speeding fine. (The limit dropped from 80 to 60 and we didn’t see it – the cop was literally right around the corner from the speed sign, even if you had seen it you might not have slowed sufficiently in that time.) After much deliberation, he let us off with a warning. Lucky us. I get the impression that it is too much of a pain to fine tourists, and after reading up on the subject, it turns out the police more or less fine at their discretion – and for a dollar value of their choosing (although the likely dollar values are still very low compared to any fine you might receive in Australia). You get fined, you go to the post office and pay the nominated fine into a traffic offence bank account. No loss of license. Which I guess explains why although there were tons of cops, people in fancy cars seemed to speed with impunity wherever we went.

Aside from the brush with the law, the drive out there was great. Driving through the mountains and seeing the changing countryside was pretty amazing, and approaching the snow-capped mountains from the coast was a great way to see a whole different side to Montenegro. When we arrived in the snowy areas, we weren’t sure of what to expect in terms of the car vs the road. Murray had never driven in snowy conditions before, and although the majority of roads were cleared of snow, some were not cleared at all. In particular, one of the connecting roads that drove through the national park. So, despite our plans, we didn’t drive through Durmitor, since we didn’t want to put on snow chains or risk getting stuck. Instead, we satisfied ourselves with visiting the outskirts of the national park and enjoying the fluffy snow.

Visiting Durmitor was like a visiting an icing sugar-topped wonderland. We had hoped for snow, since it was late enough in the year, and turns out we were fortunate enough to go just after a dump of at least a foot of the pristine, fluffy white stuff. It was magic. Being only my second experience with snow (not sure if Atlanta in March really counts, but, it did snow…just), seeing the snow was pretty amazing to begin with. Finding out it was super soft and in great quantity was just an additional unexpected treat. We even met a doggy friend who romped around in the snow with us while we explored. It then followed us all the way back to our car… Pretty sure it would have gone home with us if we had let it in the car.

With our friend, the mystery pooch.

All the trees looked good enough to eat.

Substantially colder this end of Montenegro, when compared to the coast.

Driving out to Durmitor. Snowy winter wonderland.

Ostrog Monastery:

This monastery is literally built into the cliff wall. This was also the only tourist destination that we went to that had an appreciable number of tourists (pilgrims?) present at the time. When we arrived we more or less sticky beaked and enjoyed the view. Then we joined a mystery line to see inside of what turned out to be a small chapel-cave. It was very small (tiny, really), with a low entrance, low ceilings and (faded but spectacular) religious icons painted on the cave walls inside. In the chapel-cave was a single bench seat in the antechamber and in the chapel itself, the preserved corpse of the bishop who built the monastery, which was presided over by a priest and an acolyte. It was very peculiar. Everyone entered the chapel-cave single file, entering and exiting by kissing the lintels, approaching one by one to say prayers over the ornate glass reliquary and leaving a donation on the way out. We only learned this by doing, and thusly, we more or less did as the locals (and pilgrims) do. Awkward. It was by far the strangest thing I have ever done. Apparently Ostrog is a very popular pilgrimage choice for Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Muslims also, making this an even stranger destination. Weirdness aside, the visit was pretty cool, even if it didn’t have quite the religious significance for us that it did for so many others.

Atlas Obscura got better pictures than me: http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ostrog-monastery

Outside Ostrog Monastery. No photos were allowed in the chapel-cave.

A Little Bit of Observed Randomness:

To round out this post, I’ve included a bit of the our random observations while in Montenegro.

The Postal System:

Although we have had no problems anywhere else, Murray had all sorts of problems with receiving a work parcel while we were in Montenegro. Apparently, it is necessary for you to provide proof of residency in the country in order to actually collect or have the parcel delivered. Being a) in the country and b) specifying an address, unfortunately, is not enough. So the parcel got stuck in customs. In Montenegro you must pay a tourist tax for each day you stay in the country, and this tax is meant to be collected by the accommodation provider, and involves registering the tourist with an online database. This apparently didn’t happen for the first place we stayed, and as a result, we were not registered. Fortunately, the other locations we stayed were registered and we were able to collect the package from the warehouse. All in all, it took a ridiculous amount of phone calls and fluffing around, but in the end we got it. Note to self: Don’t send stuff to Montenegro, it’s not worth the effort.

Off-Season Tourism:

Having arrived during off-season, we were expecting tourism to be a rather subdued affair. We were correct, although the reality was far quieter than we had expected. It’s almost as if everybody in Montenegro packs up for the winter: squares were empty, restaurants were closed and shops were covered in canvas and tarps leaving empty ghost towns all the way up and down the coast.

When on the road, we were often the only ones out driving. Some of the scenic drives went for hours at a time, and we might have only crossed the path of one or two other vehicles. It was both too weird, and rather nice at the same time. Almost like having a whole country to ourselves.

When off visiting a tourist hotspot (in the event that it wasn’t shut down for the off-season), more than once we were the only ones there, and when visiting Lovcen, the staff even had to unlock the gates for us (since we were the first to arrive, at 11.30am). The most tourists seen during the whole trip were at Ostrog Monastery, of all places. (There were probably 100 people there, it felt positively bustling.)

It was rather eerie, driving through towns (often seemingly made up of majority holiday accommodation) to find empty streets, and no signs of life anywhere. It was not unusual to walk the streets and see more cats than people. They, at least, were out in force.

Walking around Kotor. Almost totally empty…

Cats:

Cats were a very frequent sight. On the streets, in the trees, in restaurants, and sometimes, on our lap (in a restaurant, no less). We were overrun with kittens at one restaurant, having an unexpected group of at least 6 kittens invade our table in hopes of scraps. Some were cheeky enough to climb/jump aboard despite being discouraged. It didn’t help that we had grilled fish. It was most peculiar, and although we have seen plenty of cats out and about in other countries, Montenegro definitely took the cake for invasive feline activity when dining out. If they weren’t stray kitties, I would have been delighted. However cute they might be, I can’t say I’m super keen about patting a mystery cat which for all I know has fleas, toxoplasmosis or worse. More than one kitty was missing an eye or an ear…I might take an all-wormer when we get home, just in case.

Yes, we see you. I see you see my fish… No need to jump on me, thanks.

Cat on my lap. In a restaurant. It didn’t want to get off, and had to be forcibly removed.

 …That’s it for now… To be continued…

Other places we visited on our Italian travels:

Lucca:

While strolling the city walls…

At the Resident Evil display!

Pisa:

Never really thought about the prospect of visiting Pisa. Never really appealed to me all that much. But, since we weren’t all that far away from it, we decided it was worth a stop in to check it out anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a worthwhile trip, and seeing the Square of Miracles in person was indeed much better than the pictures. There were people everywhere taking their cheesy “Look, I’m holding up the leaning tower!” pictures, and plenty more just idling around enjoying the view.

There wasn’t too much more to see in Pisa, so before long we were on the road again to explore the Pisan coastline. We walked along the harbor and watched the fishermen deploy their nets for a while (it was very interesting, never seen their technique before – made me think of one of those claw games but using a net) before finally calling it a day and moseying home.

The early approach of evening made the drive a rather dark one. However, it was nice to see all the castles on the drive home all lit up like Christmas trees. Made them quite obvious and brought quite sharply to attention that there were many more than we had thought. Castles, castles everywhere.

The Square of Miracles

The leaning tower of Pisa. Very beautiful to see in person.

Fishing, Italian-style.

Venice:

We drove out to Venice, choosing the car over the train in the hope of seeing some more of the countryside on the way. It didn’t turn out to be quite as scenic as hoped for, as we discovered low hanging cloud and fog to be a constant and irritating companion for the majority of the drive. So much so, that when we arrived at the Venice airport, the fog had gotten worse to the point of ridiculousness. There was little to see, and our boat trip from the airport parking to Venice only allowed for maybe 30m visibility. It was much the same when we arrived in Venice proper. That being the case, we didn’t make the journey out to Murano & Burano like originally planned. Instead we walked the streets. As many of them as our feet could deal with, since Venice is so small and winding and as complicated as a rabbit warren. We did a lot of exploring. Also came across a lot of dead-ends. Back-tracking was a common occurrence.

No, we didn’t go on a gondola ride. Frankly, paying 80 euro for 20min seemed like daylight robbery. Even more so, when you consider that the gondolas were all lined up in a row nose to tail, making a snails pace journey through the canals like a mother duck and her ducklings. Besides, the gondolas were by and large filled with a large group of noisy tourists. They were very loud. There would be about zero serenity to be had cruising the canals. …And I don’t feel like we missed out on anything by not making the effort. There was plenty enough to see, either way.

We walked the streets, enjoyed the Venetian nightlife, visited a local craft beer bar, tried out cicchetti (the Venetian version of tapas) and generally got far more exercise than anticipated. Although we had some seriously crappy weather, I loved Venice nonetheless. A definite spot worth returning to, and we should have allocated more time to explore the area more thoroughly.

The real unexpected highlight of the trip was actually the drive home. It certainly wasn’t all beautiful scenery (the fog didn’t help), but once we eventually left the coast and headed back inland (this time not taking the toll road and thereby saving us 19 euro) the countryside took a significant turn for the spectacular. It’s difficult to say that the drive was the best overall (since we have been on some seriously amazing drives everywhere we have gone), but I’m hard-pressed to say whether it is or isn’t one of the top three. I simply can’t decide. For all the other driving we did in Italy, I can easily say this drive was the best we did while we were there. The drive was amazing and we were very sad when we ran out of sunlight.

One of the many Venetian canals.

The Bridge of Sighs… I wonder how that gondola got away from the rest of the pack?

The fog did lift…A bit.

The last night in Italy:

It seems every month goes a little faster. With our stay in Prato more or less ended, we checked out a day early to make our way down to Fiumicino in preparation for our flight over to our next stop. We hoofed it along the toll roads, not wanting to make a 3 hr trip into an all day experience. Cost us 19.50 euro for the privilege, but totally worth it to save so much time (at least 2 hours). Wanting to get there in a hurry had more to do with wanting to go check out Ostia Antica than any other reason, and we did indeed arrive with plenty of time to explore. I had wanted to see Ostia Antica and go exploring since we were too late to check out the Forum when we were visiting Rome. It was quite the epic experience, I’d read that it was large, but the reality was a bit more than I bargained for. Seemed like a endless vista of archaeological ruins, the remains of a city long gone. I could have easily spent a whole day just wandering around, although without a guide book it was mostly just appreciating the ruins without too much in the way of understanding. There were some placards, but not many. Enough to be able to identify the purpose of some of the buildings, in a very general way. Another place I’d be happy to return to.

Our hotel for the night we chose for its proximity to the airport, and the fact that it also boasted a trattoria – one of the best in the area. The area was farmland – fennel bulbs and carrots, fields and fields and fields of them. There had to have been enough carrots in Fiumicino to feed all of Italy (and possibly then some). The hotel room was great, although when we got there it turned out there was roadwork right in front of the building, preventing access to the hotel and to the carpark. We did a 10km blocky just to get to the hotel, only to find the approach from the other side was no better. The road noise was horrendous, and they continued to work well past the point of sundown. So much for a relaxing last evening! (Jackhammers and everything – enough to make the floor shake.) Eventually they did pack up for the night, and we were able to enjoy a fabulous dinner in the restaurant. Their specialty was grilled meats, and we enjoyed some excellent T-Bone steak and a mixed grill liberally dressed with olive oil and lemon juice and cooked on the wood-fire grill. The fresh flatbread was possibly the best bread I’ve ever eaten… We also forgot about our potato “chip” experience in Rome, and ended up with a bowl of freshly fried potato crisps with our meal. That was a bit weird. The house wine was decanted out of a giant amphora. That was weird, too (but delicious).  I’ve noticed as we try more and more different foods abroad, it has become apparent that the most simply prepared foods are the most delicious, not the complex creations.

…Our last day was a great end to our Italian visit, and the whole trip was a fantastic experience. Italy is certainly worth a second look.

Ostia Antica, or what remains of it.

Ostia Antica…How much longer will it continue to stand?

Interesting bits and bobs we noticed about Italy:

Public transport is not taken seriously by the locals. 

Supermarkets in Italy:

Rubbish collection…Or lack thereof.

Our place in Prato (likely by virtue of the location in the hills) did not have a rubbish collection service. Instead, all refuse is sorted in the home into organic waste, plastic/metals, cardboard/paper, undifferentiated & finally glass…and then taken to an appropriate skip bin for disposal. These skip bins were often notoriously difficult to find, although we established that they usually lined the streets of the more central parts of town (located there as I suspect there is also no rubbish service within the old town walls – some of the streets are stupid skinny). They were an ass to use, as the bins faced the street and were most commonly in locations with no parking or standing… I’m not really sure how people are meant to use them (unless you are intended to approach on foot from your house and then stand in the busy street).  To make things more interesting, all skip types were rarely located in the same spot. Generally, glass bins would adorn almost every corner all over the city (but almost never with the other skips) and the plastics/metals bin was often located on the other side of the busy streets from the rest of the skips. To top it off, the bins were often overflowing, and cursory inspection of the bin contents indicated that the local residents didn’t give too much consideration as to which bin they chucked their rubbish into (except glass, the glass bins were reliably full of glass). I’d say all in all, a bit of a recycling fail on almost all fronts.

Clean Streets…Sort of.

Often the entrances to Italian homes are beautiful and carefully manicured.

Food in Italy:

Bars in Italy:

Google, I love you…But sometimes you suck.

The hills are alive, with the sound of car horns…

Horn tooting. So, as I probably mentioned somewhere, many Italian roads of the not-main-road variety are on the skinny side. The kind of skinny that permits only one car in one direction and often with stone walls on either side (or alternatively, no walls and a sharp drop-off). In Filletole, this was compounded by the presence of many steep hills, blind corners, and surprise intersections. …Making for all sorts of hazards when it comes to trying to figure out whether someone might be coming in the other direction. So people around these parts toot. Pre-emptive horn tooting is apparently the order of the day when approaching any blind corners, and given there are so many of them, the hills of Filletole constantly sound like a horn-tootling convention (plus some drivers are far more enthusiastic than others). Despite the tooting, Mexican standoffs occur. Although it may be good form for one party to back down (reverse out of the road), sometimes when traffic backs up this becomes impossible. Resulting in car-maneuverability Tetris. Plus some people plain suck at reversing and won’t back down (even when it makes no sense/is impossible for the other party to do so). Seriously, if you can’t reverse your car, you shouldn’t drive/live in Filletole. Thank goodness I didn’t have to drive. I’d probably have cried, or lost the car off the side of an area with no guard rail. Or both.

It’s not just car horns the hills are alive with. Meet the Jingle Sheep!

Next stop:

Montenegro. Probably best visited in the warmer months, but thanks to Schengen & the mysteries of not being able to be in multiple places at once during the sweet spots of the year, we are headed there to catch the end of Autumn. Hopefully it’ll still be great! Fingers crossed for good weather…

Italy:

Visiting Rome:

The river Tiber, maybe 400m from our apartment.

The Roman Forum

Fontana Del Pantheon..(Looks a bit like a scary Donald Duck!) …Most of the fountains were turned off for the cooler months.

I’m sure you know what this is. The other side is covered in scaffolding.

Arch of Constantine

Our trip back to the airport to acquire a hire car for the month went without a hitch (thanks to our driver), and without much delay we were on our way to our next stop: Tuscany. We opted to take the coastal roads and bypass using the toll road, thinking that this would perhaps be a scenic way to see some of Italy. It wasn’t. The drive along the coast was substantially longer, and perhaps the least scenic drive we have undertaken thus far, but was an interesting journey nonetheless. Once we began the drive through Tuscany things improved considerably, and the hills and small towns were much more interesting than anything else we saw on the drive. Plenty of castles on hilltops, seemingly ancient olive groves and churches with bell towers. It took us quite a while, but we made it to Prato without incident.

Home for the month: Prato, Tuscany

Our home for the month was in Prato, which is part of Tuscany and about 15 minutes away from Florence. The apartment was part of a villa based in Filletole, an organic olive growing area on one of the terraced hillsides surrounding the city. It was harvest time while we were there, and every day there were people busy at work in the fields stripping the trees of their olives for oil. (Which was also processed locally – we scored a bottle from our host!) Although we were staying in quite a large and populous city, the actual location where we were staying was very rural, complete with sheep adorned with bells. So jingly, it felt like being in Germany again. It was crazy that just on the other side of the river from the apartment, was the city proper, and with it, suburbia.

Home!

The roads around Filletole leave a bit to be desired. This road comes with mini-chickens and a guard rail! Very fancy.

Our place was quiet and for the majority of the time, quite peaceful. Although, the peace was occasionally shattered by virtue of thin walls in a shared space. Apartments in Italy seem to lack soundproofing, and our villa was no exception. So we were treated to all manner of Italian squabbling at various times of day. I’m not even sure if what we were hearing were disagreements, but whatever it was, it had a whole lot of what seemed like inappropriate volume (often at inappropriate times). You could hear the neighbours in the kitchen from the bathroom. (Awkward.) Also, it was rather evident that our upstairs neighbour was into Placebo. Particularly, singing along to Placebo. We heard a lot of Placebo. (Luckily, I like Placebo.)

Hilly Filletole, an excellent workout for the legs.

Exploring Central Italy:

Florence:

Churches in Florence only come in one flavour: stunning. Pictures really don’t do the intricate work justice.

David’s stunt double.

Ponte Vecchio… All the little shops lining the bridge were jewellery stores. How peculiar.

San Gimignano, Siena and Monteriggiano:

Enjoying some of supposedly the best gelato in the world. Tasted pretty good. Best? Not sure.

Outside San Gimignano

Streets of Monteriggiano. So cute and clean and tidy. Picture perfect.

Monteriggiano, surrounded by olive groves: The tiniest town we have visited so far.

Another epic church, this time in Siena.

All of Siena was dotted with various fluorescent animals in various sizes…

We stopped to watch the Army/Airforce(?) do aircraft carrier drills dropping cargo over the countryside…They look like dandelion fluff on the breeze…

Next post:

Whatever else we got up to while in Italy. 🙂

Germany:

We only allocated two weeks to see Germany. Mostly because Oktoberfest drove the Munich accommodation prices through the roof. Sad, since Germany was pretty fabulous. If we get the chance, there is plenty of Germany to see so we will have to try to go back.

As it is, we stayed at two different places during our two week stay. Munich was definitely outside of our normal price range given the inflated costs during Oktoberfest (accommodation twice the price, and very little available even months in advance), so we decided that a week there was more than enough. However, on airBNB there wasn’t anything to be had for under $2000/week in the Munich area. Luckily, we found a cabin not too far out of town in Schäftlarn which allowed us to easily train it in when required. For our second week, we opted to stay out in Immenstadt im Allgäu, in order to check out the mountains and enjoy some of the more scenic side of Bavaria.

Where we stayed in Schäftlarn: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4039093 (Place was awesome! So cute and cosy.)

Where we stayed in Immenstadt: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/420950

What we got up to in our 2 weeks:

Dachau

We visited Dachau. Being so close to Munich, it seemed appropriate that we visit the memorial to learn more about the place, the war and pay our respects. It was a very sobering experience, and quite different from our visit to Oradour-Sur-Glane in France. The amount of information presented was stunning in volume, and despite wanting to read all of the information presented, it was just too much (not just too much to read, but also too distressing to digest the reality of so much misery and death). It was well worth the visit.

The crematorium wasn’t big enough, so they had to build a bigger one. So many people died at Dachau and then were cremated here…

Munich

We only came into Munich on two days, having only a week to visit the area meant rationing our time. We came in one evening via the train for a bit of a wander and to check out the local craft beer scene. Turns out Bavaria doesn’t exactly do craft beer (the whole Reinheitsgebot thing is still taken quite seriously), so we spent our evening in what seemed like the only place that did: Tap-House Munich. Although drinking beer is as natural to Germans as breathing, breaking out of the mould of the traditional brewing processes has yet to really happen (in Bavaria, at least). The traditional Bavarian beers are all different in that each area specialises in their own local brew, but at the same time they are all very similar in flavour and style. After having explored craft beer in the USA, the UK and Belgium, Bavarian beer suddenly tasted less like the liquid gold that I once thought it had. Clearly, at some point, my palate had changed considerably. Not to say that any of the Bavarian beer was bad, just my appreciation of it has diminished in the face of so much variety. Nevertheless, our evening out was a success and we managed to round out our evening with German sausages, pretzels and some much anticipated beer cheese (delicious).

Our second trip was a whole day in Munich. Had a great day out exploring, spending the day wandering the streets and seeing the local sights with a free walking tour that we had happened upon when we arrived. It was the first free walking tour that we have participated in thus far, mostly because we have been more than happy to explore and be left to our own devices, but since it was starting, and we were there, why not? Turned out to be a great experience, and it went for nearly 3 hours. We got to see a lot of the local sights and our guide was informative and friendly…And all it cost was a tip for the guide (more than fair enough for trotting us around for 3 hours). Good value. Our day consisted of wherever our feet took us: we watched the glockenspiel do its thing, climbed up the bell tower, wandered the market, investigated churches, munched on fresh pretzels with cream cheese and chives, ate Bavarian-style schweinhaxe (crispy roasted pork knuckle) and drank cold beer by the stein. Even spent some time in a beer hall and appreciated the raucous goings on before finally moving on in the early evening to our real destination: Oktoberfest.

Marienplatz – City Hall, from St Peter’s Church bell tower

One of the ubiquitous Maypoles, this one adorning the marketplace in Munich.

Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest. Where to start? Well, we waited until the last Friday of Oktoberfest before heading in to check it all out. Should have known better than to select a Friday night, but I had (mistakenly) thought that most folks would be more or less over it by the that time (being the tail end of the festival and all). So very wrong. For starters, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but Oktoberfest was much larger in scale than anticipated. Much, much larger. Like, ridiculous in size. Like the Ekka, it featured a massive sideshow alley consisting of many rides (in particular, lots and lots of haunted house rides) and was packed with people of all ages. Jam packed. We initially just wandered around for ages checking out all the rides on offer and more or less shouldering our way through the crowds (the only way to get around). For all the rides we saw there were many reminiscent of home (old favourites from Dreamworld like the Enterprise, the Gravitron, Wipe Out & the Giant Drop and many more). Plenty of rides to choose from, but they were not cheap. We opted out on going on the rides, instead choosing to just enjoy watching others enjoy the rides and save our money.

So wanted to go on ALL the rides…

Rides everywhere! Ooh, seems we found a spot with less people…

Having walked around solidly all day through the streets of Munich, all we really wanted to do was find a spot in a beer tent and relax. Our feet had done more than their fair share of work, plus we had opted to walk from Munich to the Oktoberfest grounds. It was high time for a drink and a sit. However, finding a beer tent to settle down at turned out to be the biggest challenge of the evening. The beer tents were HUGE…And yet, everywhere was packed to the rafters with copious numbers of people queuing outside just waiting to get in. Suddenly it made sense why people had recommended heading into the festival in the morning to find a spot in the beer tents. Not that I could possibly justify spending an entire day mooching in a beer tent (if you leave it, kiss your table goodbye). Any beer tent we managed to make it into had standing room only, and the volume meant conversation was a definite no. After much frustration and circling of the tents, we ended up finding a spot in the beer garden of the HB tent. Having found a spot, we weren’t about to relinquish it, and as a result we didn’t move from the table for the rest of the night for fear of not finding another table anywhere else.

We spent the evening hanging out with one of our friends (thanks Pitt for an entertaining night!) and marvelling at the many skills of the bar ladies. There was a mother-daughter team working our area, and they definitely made the evening more interesting with their antics and extreme beverage holding skills. Although once or twice there was a few iffy moments when there was some rescuing (of both the bar ladies and their beer they were toting) in order to avoid 12L of beer being a beery mess on the floor. I have no idea how they could possibly carry so much! 1L beers are far too large for reasonable consumption, but apparently that’s the only size they serve. So 1L beers it was. I could barely drink out of the damn thing (it’s like as big as my head!!), but I persevered.

Eventually we called it a night (mostly because Oktoberfest wraps up at like 10pm), so we all made our way home having experienced more than enough of the Oktoberfest to last us for the foreseeable future. Definitely don’t feel the need to repeat it, but I’m glad we went.

In my opinion, this beer is too big. As it is, I needed two hands to lift and drink it (to avoid getting a face-full of beer). Murray had no such problems.

Neuschwanstein Castle:

I’d wanted to check out this castle for some time. Like most of the other big tourist hotspots, Neuschwanstein Castle was no exception. When we got there (on our way to Immenstadt), the line to purchase tickets was epic, and the wait time for an entry into the castle was a good 3+ hours away. Murray was not keen (admittedly, I was not particularly keen either to wait so long). Given that we had very limited time to actually do anything touristy during our stay in Allgäu we decided that actually exploring the inside of the castle was a job for another day. Since we were already there, we opted to just see the castle from the outside, but it as it happened, the bridge and the paths leading up to the castle were under maintenance, so we didn’t even get to do the scenic walk up to the castle as planned. To top it off, it turned out we didn’t end up having the time to go back. Oh well. We at least got to walk around the town and appreciate the castle from afar (albeit from a brewery).

Immenstadt

We didn’t get up to very much in our second week in Germany, but we did spend a couple of days hanging out with Pitt and Sandra. They showed us some of the local sights and took us on a scenic a tour which even nipped through Austria for a wee bit. Ate more pork knuckle (yay!) and tried out the local beers. Murray was more or less flat-chat the entire time with work, so that was a bit unfortunate. Oh well. However, we did still get out and about a little bit.

Castle under restoration across the road from our place in Immenstadt

Lake Constance (aka Bodensee)

Instead of heading back to Neuschwanstein, we opted to spend the day driving more of the Deutsch Alpine Highway. On the way, we stopped in for a ride of the Alpsee Coaster. Best. Ride. Ever. Longest toboggan-coaster in Germany, I believe (about 3km of coaster track). Certainly felt like it went on for forever. Cost about 10 euro, but that included a trip up the mountain on the cable ski-lift as well. Money well spent, although it’s still steep enough that I probably wouldn’t pay for it twice (in a row at least). The place was almost empty, and there was no line for the coaster, which was pretty cool. The ride up on the cable ski-lift was quiet and scenic (although really quite cold), and had we more time, there was plenty more exploring to do at the top but we didn’t stay due to cloud cover obscuring pretty much everything in sight as we approached the zenith. The ride down on the coaster was amazing, but also pretty disconcerting, as the whole time was mostly spent contemplating whether if the brakes were not used, would the toboggan somehow come off the tracks? (I know it’s highly unlikely, but it certainly felt like it wasn’t going to stay on the rail. Apparently it goes up to 40km/h at top speed.) It was a quick visit to Alpsee-Bergwelt. Up the lift, down the coaster and back on the road out to the Bodensee.

The drive out to the lake was another scenic adventure, and we got to drive through many small towns and through farmland on both the way there and back (the stretch of the Deutsch Alpine Highway we planned to drive was actually closed for maintenance, so the drive involved a lot of small locals-only single lane roads instead of the more direct route). Lake Constance connects Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and from the pictures it seemed like a plenty scenic spot to visit. However, like at Alpsee-Bergwelt, by the time we got there, there was significant fog obscuring any kind of view we might have had. So, not so many scenic photos as expected, but still a great day out.

Out at Lake Constance, no fog just here, but plenty obscuring the view out over the lake.

Autumn is almost in full swing at Lake Constance. Why are some trees earlier than others?

The best part of the Deutsch Alpine Highway was actually when we were driving back to the airport (via the long way – if there’s time for it, the non-motorway version is always best). The scenery was spectacular, and the fall colours were the best that we have seen so far. Winding roads through the mountain ranges, past lakes and through small towns and villages. Many spots we saw would have been worth a stop, but unfortunately, no time to stop and investigate more thoroughly.

Walchensee

Autumn brightening up the hills everywhere we go.

Interesting things we’ve found while visiting Bavaria:

• Cows have bells. All of them. Not just one or two. Makes for some seriously jingly countryside anytime some cows are around. The cows in Romania occasionally sported bells, but not like in Germany. There is no way you would walk into a cow in the dark. (Unless it was completely motionless, and cows are usually chewing even if they aren’t walking around. Makes them plenty conspicuous.)
• There are often no fences around the cow paddocks. Generally, the outskirts of each paddock are furnished with electric fence tape and that’s it. Makes some of the country roads seem like driving through a expansive golf course with all the rolling hills and manicured green pastures.
• Since we were only staying for 2 weeks, we didn’t end up needing to do a whole lot of shopping. Still, just like everywhere else we have been, shopping in a new place equals new experiences every time. I never thought that something as mundane and basic as food shopping would likely constitute much of a change from place to place. We accidentally went shopping at an Edeka that was  sort of like a combination between a Wholefoods and a Beer Barn. It was a strange experience, and put a larger than average hole in our wallet (and yet we didn’t end up with a normal assortment of food). Lidl and Aldi were more normal, and we even found some bake-at-home pretzels. (Which were amazing – why doesn’t Australia have them?)
• I had somehow thought that Germany was going to be rolling in sausages and various other smoked meat product. There was certainly not anywhere near as much as I had expected. (We get more German sausage variety from the German Sausage Man at the Rocklea markets at home.) It was a bit of a let-down, really. German sausage is like, one of the best things about Germany, isn’t it?? Isn’t it?? Where are they?? Having said that, during our visit we still managed to scout out some currywurst and debreciner which ticked the box for German sausage consumption.
• OMG. The autobahn. Surprisingly, it didn’t feel as horrendously scary as anticipated, although people were certainly traveling on there at speeds upwards of 160km/h. Everyone seemed to be well behaved, and it gave Murray the opportunity to try out driving a bit faster than Australia would ever allow.
• We noticed that 4pm appears to be designated kitty hunting time. Bavaria it seems has no roaming dogs, unlike Romania (which seems to be liberally coated with them). But it does have plenty of cats, if you look at the right time. We even made a game of it. As all the pastureland had been recently mown and the hay harvested, apparently it makes for plenty of un-homed mice and other small animals just waiting to be eaten. By cats or hawks. I’ve never seen so many cats stalking the countryside nor hawks parked on the grass patiently waiting for something to move.
• 3G internet in Bavaria sucks. What a joke! Allgäu: land of the E network status. It has been surpassingly strange to find the best internet we have had has been in the places that are the least developed – Croatia, Bosnia, Romania – all have had high speed internet, often faster than what we get at home even in the middle of nowhere (that’s probably not hard to achieve). U.K., France and Germany… Not so flash. Our second week in Immenstadt had no cell service and even the house ADSL was shoddy at best.
• It may have taken me almost my entire life, but I finally discovered that porcini mushrooms, are in fact -karljohan – the mushrooms I spent my childhood Swedish vacation picking (many happy memories). Also known as Boletus edibilis. They are available fresh in the supermarket (being Autumn), although they don’t look anywhere near as perfect and fresh as the mushrooms of my memory. In fact, they mostly looked slightly slug-eaten, dog-eared and sad. But, they were still delicious. Chanterelle were also available fresh, and a few others I didn’t recognise but was happy to sample. I wish we had this sort of selection of fresh mushrooms in Australia. Or even just frozen, which is a common sight everywhere we have been in Europe.
• I was surprised at the train system in Germany. There’s some sort of honour system in place. You purchase a ticket as per normal, but there isn’t any validation… Didn’t think this sort of thing would actually work, but maybe Germans are a more trustworthy sort (that or the government doesn’t care too much about lost revenue from unpaid fares).
• Bavarians actually dress in their traditional costumes. Not just at Oktoberfest, but whenever the fancy arises. Apparently it is not unusual for the average Bavarian to rock up at work on any given day in their dirndl or lederhosen. Why not, I guess? Seems fun.

So long, Germany!

Well, sad to say the trip was over far too quickly. Two weeks in a new place feels like nothing at all. With Murray also very busy with work, we didn’t get to see as much of Germany as we would have liked, and Schengen will likely prevent us from seeing more at least on this trip. However, from what we have seen, I am confident that a return trip is warranted. Hopefully, we might be able to see a little more when we stay in Prague, but I guess we will have to wait and see… Next stop: Tuscany, Italy.

Arriving in Romania:

Homes are frequently rather colourful.

Home sweet home:

View from our window: Brasov (along with a few other towns around these parts) features its own Hollywood-style signage.

So with the weather being average and Murray being a busy bee, we spent a lot of our time in Brasov. But we did manage to make it out and about a few times…

The Romanian Oktoberfest included a parade, complete with a kiddie float. Too cute.

Castle Bran. Dracula’s castle it is not.

Lake at the summit.

These dilapidated shacks probably command a pretty excellent view of the mountains.

The UK & Food:

This month we signed up to an online shopping service called Ocado. Have always meant to try out the whole online food shopping thing, but somehow never got around to it (mostly because it seemed like more, not less, of a pain than going to the shops). Nath sent me an invitation (complete with a complimentary gift voucher), and this was enough for me to decide to give it a crack. Free 20 pounds. Not to be sniffed at – that’s a solid discount ($40 AUD, I’d not put that in the bin). Especially when food in the UK is so pricey. So, turns out it takes me several lifetimes longer to do the shopping (possibly because I don’t know any of the products or the brands, also possibly because when also presented with product reviews ordering becomes a little less at face value). However, it meant that food turned up right to our front door, and didn’t require Murray to make a trip to the shops. I believe it was totally worth the additional effort, if mostly to avoid supermarket related crankiness from the Mr. Plus our meals were better considered, as the food for the week was essentially pre-planned. Free next day delivery, too. I imagine that this sort of service could be a real money saver once you got into the swing of things. Might even make the effort to give Woolies or Coles a go when we return home. Maybe.

We only ended up going into an actual supermarket a couple of times, so I wasn’t sure if it just was the online shopping, but it definitely appears that almost all food products come pre-packaged. All neatly wrapped in plastic packs. You name it, it’s probably sold pre-packed. You can even buy a single hardboiled egg (pre-packed). I’d heard that the UK was quite the fan of packaging things, but I wasn’t quite ready for just how much. Quite a contrast to some of the other places we have been (e.g. Croatia & Bosnia amongst others) where almost nothing fresh is packaged. On top of that, most of the packaging was of the non-recyclable variety (or is recyclable, but the council won’t accept it for recycling). Poor effort, UK. So much waste! On the upside, on our forays into the supermarket there were gooseberries – both the green and the red ones for sale (pre-packaged, of course). Ahh, the childhood memories. So I have now also officially eaten my fill of super-tart gooseberry deliciousness to last me a while. Makes my teeth zing just thinking about it.

Cost of Living:

It’s unfortunate that the Australian dollar performs so poorly against the pound. Everything is at least twice the price of at home. It sucks. Makes even the little things ridiculously expensive. Over the course of the month it definitely gave me a case of eye twitch to rival any other country we have yet stayed in. Would have loved to have dined out more and shopped etc, but it is cringeworthy knowing the price you see (which generally looks just like the price you are used to paying at home, but with a pound sign in front of it) equates to more than double. The internal monologue when comparing prices usually goes “Hey, that isn’t badly priced vs Australia…” closely followed by “Dammit. Yes, it is.”. Certainly couldn’t live here unless you were getting paid in pounds. Or a tonne of other money. Cost of living is off the charts. Thank goodness we are off to Romania next. Maybe, just maybe, our collective wallet will recover.

Beer in the UK:

If it wasn’t so ridiculously expensive, the UK seems like a wonderful place to live. And I’d be happy to stay there for an extended period, if it wasn’t for the cask ales. Maybe it grows on you. As an Australian, I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t handle beer that isn’t ice cold. It’s wrong. It’s a crime against beer. They (the UK) have a wonderful range of craft beer, but it’s almost all cask. Even thought about asking for some ice, to see if it might improve things. But alas, watery (but cold) beer is no good either.

Having said that, the UK certainly hasn’t had the best beer. That award definitely goes to Belgium, hands down. And after that, I’d say the US. But it has certainly been interesting seeing all the different beers here in comparison to other places we have been. Many, many beverages never before seen. Some even worth repeating. For me, this month it was more about the cider. They have a lot of cider. Unfortunately, chances are, it is also cask. Fortunately, cider fares better when not ice cold compared to beer (and people won’t look at you like you’ve sprouted horns if you ask for ice).

Aspall. On tap! *Happy dance*

Aglet. In my cider. Thanks Murray…

The Weather:

Was initially amazing, with sunny, warm and clear days all in a row (cold nights, though). Closely followed by a whole lot of rain. The sort that is on and off all day. Sometimes very heavy, to the point that there was localised flooding of roads and streams. Fairly sure that wasn’t the norm. We even had enough rain that our apartment leaked when the gutters overflowed. I thought it was meant to just drizzle in the UK? Still, we managed to take advantage of the good weather when we had it. Just wished there was more of it.

Can’t help but feel we short-changed ourselves on summer by coming to the UK. There is nothing weirder in summer than having to bust out a jumper because it’s too cold. Unfortunately, with the whole Schengen situation, we had to go. Retrospectively, probably should have used this opportunity to go to Montenegro instead, and make the most of the remaining summer. By the time we go to visit there, it will be too cold for swimming (and likely wet). Very sad. However, can’t be helped. Stupid Schengen, making life more difficult. There’s still so many more places we would like to visit. But it won’t happen. At least, not this trip.

Other places we visited:

Trip to Cornwall:

So, visiting Cornwall was also a given. There isn’t a whole lot that I know about the UK, but Cornwall is definitely one of the areas that I’d recognise as being worthy of a visit. This was intended to be a bigger road trip, since although not all that far away, was definitely likely to suck up a lot of time navigating the narrow roads and low speed limits.

On the way out to Cornwall, we saw Stonehenge. Albeit, mostly by accident. I had no idea it was parked so close to the side of the road. Drove straight past it. Even had a great view, since we were on a hill and traveling at a slow crawl. (Plenty of rubbernecking going on.) We had previously decided not to bother going out to see Stonehenge, since you can no longer closely approach the stone circle (sad fact of life, most things historical also come equipped with a fence). Besides, we have seen other stone circles repeatedly and unless you’re a real buff, it’s not all that super exciting. A documentary is a more interesting way to go. (And will save on mucky shoes.) Didn’t manage to get any great photos, but certainly did get to see it in more than enough detail. Didn’t even have to get out of the car.

Not an impressive photo, by any means. But, Stonehenge was like…just…over…there.

Exmoor AONB:

To get to Cornwall we decided to go via the Exmoor AONB. I had read about this drive through Exmoor called “Little Switzerland”. There wasn’t a whole lot on it when trying to find information on the Internet. A gpx file would have been nice. Instead, all we had to go off was a dodgy JPEG depicting the 21 mile figure 8 route through the countryside, conveniently minus such important items such as road names or mile markers. Made things a bit more exotic than they might have otherwise been. Kind of like those dodgy treasure maps intended for kids which aren’t to scale and feature local points of interest. But we made it. Even picked up a local hitchhiker – it’s interesting talking to the locals – can’t believe people can get away without having a car out in the countryside. Seems terribly inconvenient. Apparently our hitchhiker hikes on foot into town to do the shopping and then hitchhikes back home. Good grief.

The roads were very cool. Narrow and winding with no shoulder to speak of. Very green and lush and quite often, also a bit muddy. Google took us down some roads that I’m hesitant to say are actually intended for vehicles of the 4 wheeled variety. More than once did we end up on a road so narrow that the car was consistently pushing the encroaching blackberry bramble on both sides of the car. Utterly nuts. Thank goodness the paint job on the car remained unscathed (somehow).

At any rate, it was a long day, but it was a nice drive through the park. We ended up staying in Lynton, in the Exmoor AONB. Lovely town to visit. Cute B&B. Can’t possibly understand how people could live there. Internet was terrible (or nonexistent). Cell signal, terrible (or nonexistent). Food at the Spanish tapas restaurant very good. As usual, rounded out the day by hobnobbing with the locals at the pub.

On the drive around Exmoor

Goats, taking in the view of the endless sea.

Cornwall:

Not quite the trip we were expecting. Consulted the weather forecast at length to try and maximise the likelihood of good, clear weather. It’s a long way to drive, and, it turned out to be rather foggy once we got there (understatement). Ended up taking 3 days instead of 2, since the drive there and back proved to be rather epic (and epically fog-shrouded). Definitely didn’t see the lovely Cornwall I was expecting. Mostly saw vast quantities of fog, despite taking the extra day (hoping in vain for less fog). It seems the weather man is not to be trusted. The natives had warned us of this. Now it’s confirmed: UK weather is a fickle creature, and any predictions largely a farce. I had always thought that rain was the worst when traveling. Nope. Fog is worse. It’s like…Well. No metaphor required. It’s like traveling in a fog. Negates the whole purpose of going on a scenic drive, really.

We made it to Tintagel, at least (before the fog rolled in to stay). Explored the supposed birthplace of King Arthur and the remains of the castle. Beautiful coastline, although very rugged. It’s a pity it’s not more accessible. Certainly nothing like in Ireland, where the roads hug the coastline along the whole west coast. Made the mistake of not paying the parking meter enough, and we had a rather rushed visit (it was a much bigger walk there and back than anticipated). Made it back to the parking lot with 1 minute to spare. Retrospectively, should have paid more. Could have wandered around there for a considerably longer period, or even bought a local pastie (huge line at the pastie shop). But alas, no time.

Retrospectively, we should have stayed in Tintagel longer, since as as soon as we left the fog came in (and that was the end of seeing anything noteworthy). Due to ridiculous fog conditions, we bailed on trying to see any more of Cornwall and retired to our accommodation above a local pub in St Keverne. Ate possibly (no, definitely) the best lemon sole I have ever come across. Hobnobbed with the locals here, too. Drank fireball for the first time. Turns out it is surprisingly tasty. Nothing quite like being invited to drink (free) shots with the locals (publican included). What a friendly bunch.

Tintagel, Cornwall.

Not much left of Tintagel castle.

Rugged Tintagel coast, difficult to access. Where are the beaches??

Forest behind Selworthy Village. Thought it might be nice to go for a walk. Wore thongs. Fail. Super freaking slippery walk.

Dartmoor AONB:

Passed through here on the way home. Why not? The trend has been that driving for longer taking the backroads is far more interesting than taking the main roads. Turned out to be worth it. Beautiful park, with cute little villages and an assortment of animals roaming free. Nothing quite like having to stop repeatedly because there is a cow/horse/sheep/other furred beast blocking the road unconcernedly cropping grass.

Dartmoor AONB. More horsies.

Badger’s Holt, Dartmoor AONB

Gorse and Heather at Dartmoor AONB

Great view of Cornwall, trying to visit Lizard Point. The fog only got thicker the closer we got.

 Next stop: Brasov, Romania.

Once again, our time has come and gone. Retrospectively, 4 weeks in a single location is not enough. Will have to keep that in mind for future reference. When not travelling for the sole purpose of holidaying, 4 weeks isn’t all that much time for exploration. Besides, if we did, we would be ridiculously broke.