London would have to be my favourite city. Our flight landed in the afternoon and by the time we had arrived at our hotel it was quite late in the afternoon so we didn’t do much. The next day was very sunny and warm. We spent most of the day searching every park for squirrels which we did eventually find. We found Harrods easily which was great as Mum didn’t see it the last time she was in London. The pet section was amazing and so funny. They had a Maltese dog for sale for £2,500!! We also saw Buckingham Palace while we were walking around everywhere looking for squirrels.

On Wednesday we saw Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Tate Gallery, the Design Museum and we walked across London Bridge. And you can’t go to London and not ride in a red double-decker bus so we caught one back to our hotel.

The last day in London we spent seeing Masame Tussaud’s and walking along the shopping streets. Mum caught her flight home that night and got back home on Saturday.

I caught a train to Edinburgh where I stayed a night. The train was overbooked, a lot of people who had tickets still couldn’t make it to Scotland due to it being a Bank holiday weekend. I stood up for the 4 hour trip with a group of people from different countries and we had a great time. The next day I joined a 7 day tour to see the islands of Scotland.

When we landed in Copenhagen we were met by Marianne and Kathrine (2 Danish girls who stayed with us last year). They showed us around the city and we even saw the queens sister. We were going to see the Little Mermaid statue but it was off visiting China. We were going to spend the night in Copenhagen but we had seen everything we wanted to see so we drove to Silkeborg which was about 5 hours with a long detour through a lot of farming villages. We spent that night at Kathrine’s place and the next 2 nights at Line’s (she stayed with us in 2008).

In Silkeborg we went for a walk around their lake, watched Kathrine play a handball match (well the last 5 minutes as we got a little lost in another town). That night we had a BBQ at Kathrine’s with all the girls. Line’s family took us on a paddle steamer ride up the lakes, it was freezing cold but the sun came out and it was absolutely beauitful. We then went up the 2nd tallest mountain in Denmark. The country is quite flat and the mountains aren’t high in comparison to Australia’s. After the picnic at the mountain we went to Marianne’s place and had late afternoon lunch. That night we went for a walk in the forest and saw the Nazi war bunkers, we even walked around inside one.

On Monday Mariamne drove us to the airport in Hamburg which is4 hours drive away and where the Danish also buy their softdrink and alcohol as it is lot cheaper. We were in 3 countries that day, with 3 different languages and currencies.

The next morning we had a visit to a cheesey cloggy farm and then had the rest of the day to explore. We had a look at Anne Frank’s house because we had watched the movie on the bus to Amsterdam so we knew what it was about. We then got a little lost looking for the floating flower markets but found them and the Van Gogh museum. We had our final group meal and a canal cruise as well with unlimited drinks.

At the end of our time in Amsterdam we had seen a complete transformation with the rubbish issues. It’s amazing how fast they cleaned up and I’m glad I got to see how it usually looks because it changed my opinion on the city a little.

We have now finished the Kumuka tour after travelling 2110kms. Today we are in Paris!

The next day we got a small group of people together and went out to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and had a walk around with audio guides but we found it too gruesome so we only stayed for 3 hours. We also checked out the Sony Centre which is just nice architecture and we then went to KaDeWe (largest department store in Europe) for the gourmet food floor. It’s buffet and you just fill up your plate and pay for the weight at the end.

On Saturday it was raining and even colder than the previous day so we went to the Berlin zoo (well-know for the polar bear Knut and it is also known to have the best species diversity). The advantage of going on a rainy day was that there were no crowds or ques. So there we were shivering, fighting over a small umbrella and trying to find animals that were mostly indoors. Because of the rain all the animals were restricted to their cages so the big cats were very restless and the primates were very bored. It was a really good zoo in general but we were too cold and wet to spend much time there. We got back to our hotel in the afternoon and I kept warm in the room while mum went up a few streets to do the washing (I would have gone but all my jeans needed washing and I wasn’t particularily keen of braving the cold again). We were wearing 5 layers that day and still freezing!!

We arrived in Amsterdam late this afternoon after a full day on the coach.

The next day we went to the markets and also went to the top of the clock tower, we went up the stairs to begin with but mum gets scared of heights and she went back down so I did it by myself and when I was walking back down I spotted her in the lift going back up so she did make it in the end! We then walked across Charles Bridge again and went up to Hradcany castle and then on the way back down we walked through all the castle gardens in search of squirrels again (but it was also the easiest way to get back) and we came across the birds of prey which were tethered. Then that night we caught a bus from our hotel and went to the local shopping centre (Tesco) for dinner.

Prague is a really lovely city and it was so easy to find our way around. Food was also really cheap!
The countryside is also very pretty and there are a lot of canola fields which makes it quite colourful.

That night we had a traditional Hungarian group meal with the Gypsies which was quite different, we even had to balance bottles of wine on our heads!

The next day we spent relaxing as there wasn’t much left to see in Budapest but we did go for a 4 hour walk down the main streets of the city.

On Tuesday we had the drive to Czech Republic and drove through Slovakia which looked very similar to Hungary. I don’t think I would like to return to either country but they are good to see.

On the Saturday we walked the city area around our hotel then caught a taxi to our next hotel to join the tour.

Kumuka tours are for 18 – 55s so mum was a little worried about being the oldest but there are a variety of people, mostly couples in their late 20s, a few single travellers, friends, and a man with his son. I think I’m the youngest but it doesn’t bother me. We also have a really nice NZ tour guide and an English bus driver. In each country they give us an intro tour when we arrive to show us where everything is, teach us how to use the public transport, take us to a traditional restaurant so we can try the food and then the next day we are free to do whatever we like. So it’s still quite independant which I really like and mum did a Cosmos tour a few years ago and said this was really good in comparison.

The next day in Vienna we went to the Schobrunn Palace and went through the 40 rooms and somehow we missed the throne room haha, it couldn’t have been too impressive. It’s the palace where Marie Antoinette grew up. They also had mazes so we did a few of them. We then went to the Sigmund Freud Museum (the psychanalyst) which was quite different. We spent the rest of the day walking around Ring Boulevard which is the city centre. That night we were taken to a classical music/ballet performance.

The next day we didn’t exactly have to see Naples again because we had seen everything while we were lost so we continued to Pompeii by train where we met an Aussie family who told us that the Pompeii ruins were actually open even though they had that they were closed on the website due to the May day holiday. It was good that they were open because we wouldn’t have had anything to do.

Pompeii is really nice even though it was more ruins and we ate the best Italian pizza for dinner. I could eat it (even though I’m allergic to wheat) because the wheat over here doesn’t seem to be as bad as it is in Australia.

We left Pompeii after we walked back to the train station with our suitcases and Kelsey’s suitcase couldn’t handle the cobbled paths any longer and the wheel broke off. We had a quick visit to Sorrento on our way back to Naples and then caught another train to Rome. By this stage it was night time and we were all worn out so we went straight to bed. Independent travel really is tiring and all you seem to do is walk but it does have a lot of benefits and I think if I was to do it again it would be better to have a few more days in each place.

I saw Rome in 1 day – Vatican City, Trevi Fountain, the Colloseum and had a good walk around the city. The Sistine Chapel was really great, it would be one of the highlights of the trip for me. We said goodbye to Katrina, Kevin and Kelsey because we were doing Italy faster than them and we won’t see them again until we are back in Australia.

The countryside around Florence is beautiful. Florence and Venice are really nice cities and have very unique shops. Florence is still Mums favourite place. We got out of the train station in Venice, took one look and our jaws just dropped haha. It was nothing like I expected and mum thought we were staying on mainland so “We’ll just catch a taxi” wasn’t going to happen because there are no cars or roads. We had to get a boat to the right area and we still had no idea where we were staying so we looked around and found a guy who was a porter taxi so he took our luggage while we walked behind, first time I’ve gotten a taxi and still had to walk haha. Good thing because we would never have found it by ourselves. Most Italian hotels don’t have lifts either so we had to lug the suitcases up 4 flights of stairs.

I remembered the travel agent mentioning about how we had to get back on at a different train station for  our trip to Vienna so I thought it would be good to check it out before we leave. I had a look on the map and Villach station didn’t exist so we asked at the hotel and we were told it was in Austria. Haha our travel agent made a mistake with it but when he gave me tickets I bought up that I was surprised that the train ride was a lot shorter because when I checked it out it was 7 hours and it was only 4 hours on the ticket but I never thought to look into it more. When we found out we had no way of getting to Vienna we went back to the train station and had to get tickets to Villach. Most Italians don’t speak english very well and our ticket was in Italian so we were very unsure whether we were catching a bus or train because it had both on the ticket and we were in seat numbers 73 which didnt make sense for a bus yet the man pointed us to the bus stop so we asked 6 more people and they were all very unhelpful but we decided the bus stop was the best bet. Next morning we got to the bus stop and waited then when a bus came we asked  if we were in the right place and he told us it was a train ticket. It was 9.10 and the ticket was for 9.20 so we had a mad rush back to the train station which was about 1km away and had to get over a lot of steps. Got back there and they didn’t have any trains to Villach so we asked again and we were pointed back to the bus stop and it was 9.16 so we rushed back across the stairs and I just left mum behind and ran really fast and when I got there I found an intercity bus that was just leaving and it turned out to be the one we had the ticket for so we made it and it was such a relief. By the way it was a double-decker bus so seats with high numbers did make sense after all. In Villach we got onto our connecting train and enjoyed our 1st class seats. Austria is incredibly beautiful. At Vienna we got off and by this stage it was 6pm so we got food, asked for directions to our hotel and were told to catch another train and then we missed the right station because all the stations had similar spelling. Got off at the next station then had to walk back a little way then we found an english sign with the right directions to our hotel so we eventually made it then they told us there was a dilema with their hotel and said they were upgrading us to a 5 star hotel and paying for the best room, a taxi, food and drinks for us. After the day we had it was so fantastic and very relaxing. We are both glad to be finished with travelling independently for a few weeks. Tonight we start our tour and spend another 2 nights in Vienna.

I have uploaded some photos on Facebook for anyone who is interested.