We're in the south of France now, staying in Aix-en-Provence, but will keep this post to our travels through Berlin and Northern France.
Berlin
Berlin was awesome, although the weather wasn't so good. We spent our first day relaxing in our hostel, St Christophers, which is a private chain of hostels, the one in Berlin happens to be run by an Aussie, so lots of Australian music and their bar had Fosters on tap (eugh...) The bar also served very cheap food, so we ate there most nights as the weather was foul. Berlin is incredibly cheap, for everything and the pints of beer are a 1/2 litre!
We took one of the free New Berlin tours around the city, with an English guy called Nick, who kept everyone entertained despite the constant rain. I highly recommend it if you ever visit Berlin.
We visited the main sights (without our camera - doh!) including the site of Hitler's bunker, which lies unnoticed under a dirt carpark! The most interesting site is the monument to the European Jews murdered during WWII, will post a photo when I get a chance.
The following day we visited the museum below the monument, which just blew my mind, I had no idea the Nazi's killed over 1 million Jewish people from Poland alone! In one room they play audio loops of individual stories (each about 2 minutes long, played in German and English), apparently if they had each person's story recorded it would take 6 years for the loop to play once!
We also took the New Berlin pub crawl, which was a little disappointing, but more due to our age and the rain than the tour company - the majority of the group were 18 - 21 years and were more interested in getting wasted then talking to fellow travellers. We did meet a fellow Australian who was our age, she had just quit her day job to learn shoe-making!
The monument to the murdered European Jews
Koln
From Berlin we took the train to Koln to meet up with Jo (Jay's brother) and to visit Jay's cousin. Also our first YHI - pretty good, it reeked of organised fun though... Koln is very pretty and they have a chocolate museum! In the centre of the museum is a river of molten chocolate and a mini factory making Lindt truffles. Needless to say, after our visit I felt quite queasy!
Cute houses along the river
Rouen
After our night in Koln the three of us took the Thalys through to Paris and then onto Rouen, which is interesting, but not particularly nice. The following day we visited Bayeux to see the famous tapestry depicting the battle of Hastings in 1066 and met a Canadian couple (Loni and Raynor) from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan! Had a good day wondering around the town together, had lunch etc...
Bayuex Cathedral
Paris!
Paris is amazing, I could spend 3 months alone just in Paris! We spent most of our time ticking off the main monuments and museums. I spent an entire day at the Louvre and muscled my way to the front of the line to see the Mona Lisa, although the other Da Vinci paintings were more interesting as I could get right up close. It's hard to see the Mona Lisa as a painting, standing 3 metres away! We also saw a proper Egyptian Mummy at the Louvre and hilariously found the curators had covered it's nether regions with a cloth!
I wont list everything for Paris, except to say we visited the Eiffel tower at night, all lit up and watched it sparkle at 11pm, which was magic.
Said goodbye to Jo, who set off on his own to Germany.
Jay, Jo and Lucy underneath the Eiffel Tower
Finding the Mt Saint Michel
Not the easiest place to get to unless you have a car and actually took us three attempts to get to!
The first night we stayed in St Malo at the YHI where we met an American guy celebrating his 21st Birthday alone with his mum (who was there with a summer camp group), so along with a Canadian girl, we took him out to this very tame pub and helped him celebrate his birthday properly (or as best we could)!
Finally managed to get to Mt Saint Michel and the sun came out! The views from the top of the Monastery were fantastic and the old abbey was interesting to explore, but man there were a lot of tourists!
View of Mount Saint Michel
The next day we took the train to Bordeaux, which is where I'll finish...
Hope everyone is well, I hear Canberra is also getting rain!
Welcome back Karen V and congratulations - can't wait to catch up you! Good luck to Gwyn!
Happy 21st to Stephie! Hope you have a brilliant party and a very special birthday. We have your present, but will bring it home rather than post it as it's fragile.
Love to all,
Lucy
