We all had a really good nights sleep after the long day of travelling yesterday. The restaurant has a great view of the Acropolis and we got a table in the corner for breakfast. Its going to be a really hot day today with temperatures expected to get to 38 degrees and we could already feel it over breakfast. Our guide and car picked us … Continue reading Day 27 – Incredible Creations
We stayed overnight on the boat at Dubrovnik and disembarked for the final time this morning. Thomas went around and said good bye to his favourite deck hand – who coincidentally had been working in Baku last year during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and had showed him some videos from the event. We left the boat and took a bus to the cable car which … Continue reading Day 25 – Pearl of the Adriatic
After all the walking we did yesterday we had the chance to sleep in this morning. The kids were very excited as the hotel room had their beds in a little alcove – and it felt like they were camping. We went down for breakfast which included a live pianist who played a lot of the pop classics. It was a bit of a weird … Continue reading Day 22 – Split to Hvar (Cruise Day 1)
Our guide picked us up from the hotel and we headed out to the town of Varazdin. Varazdin is known as Croatia’s “Baroque Capital” and “Little Vienna”. It briefly served as the nation’s capital from 1767 to 1776 but lost the title to Zagreb after a devastating city fire that started at the blacksmiths shop – which ironically still stands. We started at The Church … Continue reading Day 20 – Experiences in Varazdin
We were up and out of the hotel in Amsterdam by 8 this morning to catch our flight to Zagreb for the penultimate leg of our trip. Amsterdam airport is quite spread out and our check in gates were almost in a little annex. After security, our boarding gates were in the furthest end of one of the terminals and was a good 20 minute … Continue reading Day 19 – Travel to Croatia
It’s our last day in Amsterdam and we had a tour booked to take us out to a traditional Dutch village with windmills. We met the tour guide near our hotel and then headed out of Amsterdam. We visited a town called Zaanse Schans which was created as a tourist destination. They transported traditional windmills from all over the country to this location. Some of … Continue reading Day 18 – Classic Holland
We started the day with a Dutch pancake making course. I had misread the tour titled and assumed we would be doing the course in a Dutch Canal Boat while meandering through, however it was just in a house that overlooked the canal. It was weird but the kids loved it. We were in someones house who runs these classes for tourists and we cooked … Continue reading Day 17 – Dutch Experiences
One of the things that I really wanted to do was to drive across international borders and the trip from Brussels to Amsterdam seemed like the perfect opportunity. We checked out and took an Uber to the Brussels South train station to collect our rental car. Fortunately we have been provided with a Volvo almost exactly the same as the one at home which made … Continue reading Day 15 – Driving to Holland
We started the day with a tour of a chocolate museum. Spread over 2 floors this museum showcased how chocolate was first discovered and how it’s produced. It was very interactive and the kids had a number of exhibits that they could touch and play with. I learnt that cocoa beans were used as legal tender in some countries centuries ago. We followed this up … Continue reading Day 14 – Chocolate, Fries and Beer – a Belgian Culinary Experience
The one thing I have been really looking forward to is doing the Tintin tour while in Belgium. Our guide met us in our hotel at 10 and we headed out through the Bourse Palace, which was the central stock exchange, but has been converted into a Beer Museum. We walked to the Grand Place which is the location for the Kings House – a … Continue reading Day 13 – Tintin, Trains and Mussels
We had the same tour guide today, Roman, and he was taking us for a drive along the Austrian countryside to see more Sound Of Music sights and also to the salt mine that Salzburg was named after. The unique experiences started early when the guide showed us hands free driving in his Tesla. Pretty soon after we got pulled over by the cops for … Continue reading Day 11 – A long day of unique experiences
The temperature has dropped a bit overnight and I think we are over the worst of the heat wave (for now) and the maximum today is only meant to be 30 degrees. Our tour guide met us in the hotel at 9 and we started on a walking tour of the city. Salzburg is famous for a few different things – birthplace of Mozart, it’s … Continue reading Day 10 – Music, Movies and Motorsports
Its our last morning in Vienna and we packed up our bags and headed down to reception after breakfast. Our car arrived at 10.30 to take us to the train station. It took us a little time to figure out where on the platform we needed to stand as there were a couple of trains travelling through Salzburg at similar times. Once we knew where … Continue reading Day 9 – Travel to Salsburg
We had a walking tour booked for today which would have been perfect had the temperature not expected to get to 38 degrees. Fortunately the guide contacted me overnight and we decided to do the walking bit first thing in the morning and then do have a car drive us to other key locations in the afternoon. We started at the Volksgarten park which is … Continue reading Day 7 – Kings (& Queens) and Palaces
We landed in Vienna at about 5.30 in the morning and everyone was immediately surprised with how bright the sun already was – it felt like it should be about 9.30 in the morning instead. There is a severe heat warning in place as the temperatures are expected to get up to 34 degrees today. We had been worried about the new immigration system in … Continue reading Day 6 – Arrival into Vienna
Our guide met us at our hotel bright and early at 9 this morning. Our itinerary for today is to visit the train markets followed by the floating markets. I hadn’t realised that the Maeklong train markets were over an hour away from where we are staying. Fortunately we were in a private Toyota van which was all decked out for a party. The kids … Continue reading Day 3 – Trains, Boats and Elephant Rides
We all seemed to have slept quite well and no one got up too early in the morning. Hopefully keeping everyone awake till a normal bedtime last night helped us acclimatize to the change in time zones. We headed down to breakfast and were suitably impressed by the expansive buffet. I couldn’t go past a Masala Dosa followed by dumplings, while the kids tried a … Continue reading Day 2 – The Ancient City
And just like that it’s the final day of our holidays. The morning was spent making sure everything was packed across both the rooms. One of the advantages in the US is that normal checkout at hotels is quite late in the morning, and in this case we didn’t need to leave till nearly 11. We decided to spend the day at the Vancouver Aquarium … Continue reading Goodbye Vancouver
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