Amsterdam

Here we are in this magical city.  We arrived early this morning after spending last night at Hoorn on Ijsselmeer.  I could have had chocolate sprinkles on a croissant for breakfast, but instead I chose a boiled egg.  Our exchange apartment is fantastic - light and sunny and larger than expected.  Its a bit out of the main city but is on tram and train routes.
It comes with two bikes, so this afternoon we rode into the city centre.  I found it incredibly scary as there are so many bikes riding along the narrow bike lanes, plus small motor scooters use them too.  I hardly looked up off the road the whole time, so I was surprised to see Alan's photos of all the places we passed!  The photo of me on the bike was taken near our apartment and away from the city traffic.
Actually Alan admitted he found it a difficult experience too, so we have bought the I Amsterdam passes for the next three days which give us free entry to all the museums and free public transport.  In fact its not "Free" as we paid for them, but we should end up ahead and we can ditch the bikes ( which are really free).

Hamlyn

The photos on the previous post are from Hildesheim where we stayed last night.  We took a side trip to Gotha, where there is a UNESCO World Heritage castle/museum.  It had a wonderful collection of religious art and altar carvings as well as work by local renaissance artists, like the Gotha Lovers painting that Alan put on facebook.  As well as that, there were to rooms of the palace, all furnished with original furnishings - beautiful antiques and comfortable looking rooms - not the opulance we have seen in other places - this was more a home than a palace.
Then we went to Hamelyn where there were rats in the streets ( but not live ones).  It is a very pretty place and we had a lovely morning there.  Now we are in Bremen for a couple of nights.  We have a fantastic corner room with big windows and great views.  Its stopped raining, but its still cold.

Hildesheim and Gotha

Thuringia

We are curently in a lovely city called Erfurt which is the capital of Thuringia.  We finished travelling the whole lenght of the Romantic Road through Bavaria and headed straight north to this delightful place.  We arived last night and decided to spend the whole day here and will continue onwards north tomorrow.
Erfurt is where Martin Luther started writing his ideas about reformation of the Church.  We toured the abbey where he used to live in 1505 or thereabouts.  It was a long and boring tour with our english translation being about 4 sentences and the guide going on in German for about 40 minutes!
This is a beautiful place though  with narrow cobbled streets and overhanging houses.  Alan is excited by the trams and the trolley busses!
Although we are not getting the rain Sydney is experiencing, the temperature is about on par, with us needing our coats and vests everyday so far.

Lower Bavaria

This is one of the photos I wanted to upload from Munich.  Its the hotel room we had there - Alan looking inviting in the half-tester bed!
We are in Fussen in Lower Bavaria tonight.  Its a picture perfect little town on the river with magical towers and painted houses.  We came through Oberammagau ( the next play is in 2020 ) so it was a bit quiet, but pretty too, although I think Fussen is prettier.
We are staying here as its the gateway to the King's castles.  Today we visited Schloss Lindhoff , which although is not how you would imagine a castle - more a chateau -it was still very grand and decorated in the extreme rococo style, but wasn't really too bad.  (Even though there was 5 kg of gilt on the walls) The grounds, including the woods were just lovely.  King Ludwig II, who was 'the mad king', even built an artificial cave or grotto, just so he could listen to his favourite Wagner operas.  And he built a hunting lodge  and another pavilion, all to Wagner's set designs, only these were real buildings!  Apparently he had his staff dress the part, so he could sit there and fantasise he was a character in an opera.

The new town hall in Munich

Munich

hier wie sind... yes - we are in Germany - Munich and it is just lovely.  Lovely because its summer and green but its a beautiful old city with an enormous amount of history.  Yesterday was a special day and a lot of the public buildings were open and the museums were free entry.  We toured the New Townhall, which was still pretty old and were able to get into the ofices and the chambers not usually open.  There was a huge queue to go up the tower, so we left that for the Munichers.  One thing immediatly apparent about Old Munich is that they loved the Rococo style to the point of being ott really.  Not just the Town Hall, but the churches and public buildings are very decorated - even if some of the decorations are painted on!
 Naturlich we have been drinking beer and eating wurst und saurkraut, but not for breakfast as the two men next to us were this morning at 8.45 am!
Wwe have been surprised by the numbers of locals wearing traditional costumes - especially today on sunday.  Men in lederhose and women in dyrndal - young people too.  Actually its really nice.
Sorry there are no photos, but the computer is not cooperating
again.

We are away!!

At last we are on our way and flying qantas engineers strike free to Hong Kong. The movies and two meals later we arrived only an hour late. We'd booked into the Airport hotel and spent a pleasant night - even had a swim in the outdoor pool' aware of the planes flying low overhead.