Day 24: Hello England
The time has come to leave mainland Europe. A relatively short one today as it was mostly preparing for, and then catching, the Eurostar through the channel tunnel to London. I started the day by rearranging my luggage layout, things were just getting out of hand in that case and the weight distribution was way off. I'm genuinely starting to think I will be buying another small case to carry some of this stuff home in because while it all fits in the big case right now I'm not sure I want it...
Day 26: London
Often the best laid plans get thrown into chaos. This morning I knew I wanted to get back to Tower Hill to resume the Yellow line tour before using the hop-on-hop-off bus tour to get around to all the places I wanted to see. I figured if I used the buses for the morning to get around, I could have lunch at Borough Market then make my way out to see Lord's and Abbey Road. The circle line of the tube would get me to Tower Hill easily enough, I figured I could walk around the base of Tower Bridge...
Day 25: London
This morning started with an impromptu video call with Mum and Dad, and eventually also Lauren to give them a bit of an update on how things were going and to get a file sent through that I needed for an important reason. That took a little longer than anticipated but no harm today was bus tour day anyway. This morning I caught the tube to Edgeware Road, the closest stop to Shephard's Bush on the tour company's Blue Line. This line at the moment (for this summer at least) is running as a...
Day 23: Brussels
Last day on the European continent. England-bound tomorrow morning. Since it was looking like a self-guided tour kind of day I decided to make my way to the visitor centre to acquire a map and use the pencils I purchased the other day to chart my course so I new where I was and how to get back to where I wanted to be (since I have no internet access outside the hotel). To my surprise when I reached the visitor centre I asked if the tour buses were running today as I'd seen they were closed and...
Day 22: Departing Germany
It's the half way mark of the trip, I guess it's fitting to have a pretty quiet one today. It was all about getting from Düsseldorf to Brussels today. The only eventful part of the trip was my own doing. Breakfast is becoming a standard fare of Corn Flakes, berry yoghurt, and a croissant. Every hotel I've stayed at has had at least those on offer as part of the included breakfast. Something, something, routine? A quick trip back to the room to grab my stuff and it was off to the platform to...
Day 21: Bonn
I just had to say it, didn't I? After yesterday's adventuring my feet were crying for a steady day. Yesterday was supposed to be a rest day but when I made the bookings and itinerary I had completely forgotten about Wuppertal. Kinda has me wishing for one less day in Stuttgart and one more day here. After breakfast in the hotel I made my way to the station to head to Bonn. I'd wanted to check it out as part of the trip as it was the capital of West Germany until the reunification in 1990 when...
Day 20: Wuppertal Schwebebahn and Dusseldorf
A number of years ago I heard of a train in Germany that hung from the rail. Today I got to see it, and ride it. The day started off with a city bus tour around Dusseldorf. I had booked for this the day before but there was only one bus left for the day and I didn't want to rush myself to get to the bus stop to start the tour as it was a bit of a walk from the info centre. So I waited until today. Clearly they were setting up for an event this weekend as there are stalls and food trucks going...
Day 19: Hamburg to Dusseldorf
Going to be a short one today as it was mostly uneventful travel. Today was all about farewelling Hamburg and travelling to Dusseldorf. I'm not really sure what to expect in Dusseldorf itself, I'm mainly using it as a base to see things in Wuppertal and Bonn but will happily see what I can find on the tour bus tomorrow. Old town is supposed to be quite pleasant (but what old town hasn't on this trip?) so that could be a good shout. I have to mention that if you are coming to Germany be...
Day 18: Hamburg Streets and Maritimes Museum
Sometimes the plans just don't work out as you expected. A bit of a quieter one today. I had a ticket from Sunday to do a city bus tour and planned this afternoon to visit the city observation tower. The bus tour was a bit of a bust as I was sitting on the right side of the bus and most of the highlights were on the left. I'd probably say 80/20 left/right. So if you come to Hamburg (and I hope you do because Miniature Wonderland alone is reason enough to me) and do the Route C tour bus; sit on...
Day 17: Miniature Wonderland
So this day is basically the entire reason I had Germany on my list, everything else has just been to make it a worthwhile passage through the country. Miniature Wonderland (Miniatur Wunderland in German) is the largest model railway in the world. It's in the Guinness World Records, the American's try to say they have the biggest, but they don't. Funny comment about that later. Anyway there's currently 14 different scenes including iconic European locations such as France, Switzerland and...