Day 2 in Venice

Today was another awesome day in Venice! 

We had pizza for lunch (YUMMM!) and even got to have some gelato!

We walked to St. Mark's cathedral and the square, which was awesome, but crowded! 

The highlight of the day, however was our  gondola ride! It was amazing! I seriously cannot describe how beautiful this city is when seen like that! Our gondola driver (or sailor? I'm not sure..) had been doing his job for 26 years!

I'll attach some photos for you all :)

Selfies!

So gorgeous!

Perfection!

I also got to go on an evening stroll with my mum, it was so beautiful around sunset!!!

-Kara

First day in Venice

After a terrible sleep in the overnight train, we arrived in Venice around 8:30am. It was a beautiful day, and I was certainly glad to be there finally! We walked around and waiting for the 12:30 check in. 

We found a marketplace close to our apartment (we had been able to leave our bags there while the previous guests were still leaving) and we shopped around there to kill time. 

We found an amazing mask shop, and let me tell you, it was BEAUTIFUL! Sure, the price tags were less beautiful, but you could tell that the masks were quality (no glitter glue in sight!) and they were all handmade by the shop owner, who had been making them for 25 years.

It took me a long time to decide, but eventually I bought this mask:

Let me tell you this: Venice is beautiful. The canals and streets and buildings all combine to bring you a beautiful picture. Every street and canal looks picture perfect, and postcard worthy. In my next post, I'll include plenty of photos!!

-Kara

Sound of music tour & late night adventure

Today we went on a sound of music tour! It was amazing. It really was! Our guide was lovely, and hilarious, and we had such a great time on his tour! 

We drove around Salzburg, and even on the outskirts, tracing the steps of Maria and the children in the film!

We saw the garden and lake they used for the back of their house, the gazebo used in 16 going on 17, the garden that the children danced through and so much more!!

Here's me at the lake the children fell into in the movie!

The gazebo 

The church they married in!!

The beautiful garden!

After this huge tour day, it was a great feeling as I was about to go to bed. I was a bit resistant as I had slept in the afternoon, but around 10:30 I was about to go to bed. At that time, mum had just realised that our 1:30pm tickets for the next day had turned out to be 1:30am tickets for the next day- but that meant we were leaving in 3 hours!! We quickly packed up, checked out of our motel and got a taxi to the station. At the station we waited around a whole bunch until we got on our train and awaited the 7 hour ride to Venice. What an adventure!

-Kara

Neuschwanstein Castle

Today we went to Neuschwanstein Castle!

It was incredible. Absolutely gorgeous. I took plenty of pictures outside, but unfortunately it was prohibited to take photos inside the castle. The details were amazing! Every wall had intricate pictures that told stories. Each room had a different opera plot theme! It was so pretty!

The outside of the castle 

On our tour there was a little toddler who was rather loud indeed. She was ADORABLE, but screamed out in joy and chatted away in toddler language to her family. She also tried to give me her one of her parent's iPhones-so she got in my good book instantly! 

After that, we walked down the big terrible hill and went back to the car to start the drive that would take us to Salzburg, Austria.

When we arrived in Salzburg, we went straight to a tour of a salt mine! We took a little train deep down into mine, then we went on slides even further down into the mine! If you haven't already guessed, Salzburg is called Salzburg because of its salt, or salz! The tour was amazing! Very fun and educational! 

-Kara

One of our days in Munich

Today I woke up and rested a whole bunch. I've acquired a cold-so I didn't do much until around 10:20am ish. 

At that time I walked with dad to a bakery to get a croissant for breakfast. We then drove to our next spot, an overnight stay close to the Austrian border! Tomorrow we're going to Neuschwanstein Castle, I'll post about that then!

-Kara

Dachau

Note: this post is from a few weeks back, I have only now uploaded it :)

Today we visited the preserved museum and memorial site of the dachau concentration camp.

To summarise the experience, there was a quote that was certainly important: so important it was written in 5 languages. Never again. 

As we walked through what used to be the end for thousands of people, we appreciated the place that brought the beginning of our new world. We felt thankful for our freedom. But it was an emotional heavy place to be. 

We saw a museum that was in the building that innocent people would go through as they first entered the concentration camps. 

We saw living quarters where they were all cramped into small bunk beds. 

We saw tiny bathrooms that were shared between hundreds of people

We saw the square where roll call took place, and where they were forced to stand for hours if the number on the roll was not met, due to attempted escapes, illness and death. 

We read about the things that happened in this place. We were silent as we walked through. We didn't smile much, we just took it in. 

We saw first hand how powerful those two words were. We knew that we needed to keep that particular promise. Never again. 

It was such an educating place to be, definitely a thing to see. 

-Kara

Berlin

Day 1 Berlin

Today was a rest day! Honestly, nothing too exciting happened, I just had a well earned rest! With all the business of travelling, sometimes it feels good to just chill out :)

Day 2 Berlin 

We went on a walking tour today! And we walked. A whole lot. Like 3 hours of walking. My feet hurt a lot. The tour was really awesome, however towards the end I just wanted to sit down... But it was lovely learning about the unique city of Berlin! 

Amsterdam

We spent two days in Amsterdam! We arrived early Sunday morning, then left Monday evening. We went on a canal tour on Sunday- it was incredible! The canal is beautiful and the town is amazing as well! It was a super awesome experience! 

The GORGEOUS canal 

We also got to try some exotic foods, like stroopwaffles and special chips!!

-Kara

Edinburgh

Sorry for the lack of posts recently! Not only have I been crazy busy with travels, I also have been under the weather, so I just haven't felt up to posting recently!

Edinburgh was awesome all up! Our accommodation was right near the castle, so we only had a 3-5 minute walk to get there and to the royal mile! The accents were awesome and I loved it there! While we were there, I did in fact try haggis! I can't say I went back for seconds, but it wasn't TOO terrible! Certainly glad I tried it though :)

Inside the Edinburgh castle :)

-Kara

Day 8

Today was a long day!

We drove. A lot. We drove from England to Scotland. It was a drive that felt even longer than it actually was! To make it even longer, dad was feeling really unwell driving, which isn't the best in a new country!

But somehow, he powered through and we made it to Scotland! The countryside is beautiful! We even saw snow on top of some Mountains! And it's summer here! 

We got to go to a Loch Ness cruise that took an hour. It was amazing! Such a beautiful view! And we got to learn all about the Loch Ness monster of course! (We didn't catch a glimpse, unfortunately!)

The Loch Ness

Here we are on the cruise!

Tonight we are glamping! For those who don't know what that is, it's glamorous camping. The little cabins are sooo cute! 

Hobbit hole cabin :)

Anyways, that's all for now!

-Kara :)

Day 7

Today we started off by going to the Roman baths (that's how bath got its name!) 

It was lovely! So amazing to think that people so many years ago went there to hang out and use the baths! It was so beautiful! Incredible architecture is everywhere in bath!!

The Roman baths 

After we finished up at the baths, we actually saw a HUGE German school group that had stayed in the same youth hostel as us! 

After we left bath, we stopped after a bit of driving in a little town! We had lunch there (I had lasagne) and then went inside a a dragonfly maze which was really cool!

Lunch 

Then we drove some more! We finally got to our overnight location, Bardon Mill! It is so beautiful! The sun sets at around 10:30pm here... It's crazy!

Here's the view! Photo taken around 9:15pm

Well that's all for now!

-Kara

Day 6

Today we drove in our hire car out to Oxford just in time for a church service with some people mum and dad knew! After the service we went out to a classic british pub for some lunch! I forgot to take a photo, but mum did, and I had the same as her, so I'll post her photo! 

Sunday roast meal :)

After lunch we drove to the Stonehenge! It was really awesome! So beautiful! 

Stonehenge

After Stonehenge, we drove to bath where we are staying tonight! 

That's all for now :)

-Kara

Day 5

Today we lazed around at home for a long time until we took a while bunch of trains to Earl's Court where there is a lifesize Tardis! I got to pose with it which was awesome!!

The tardis!

After that, we got on another train and ventured to Victoria, where we saw Wicked!!! Can I just say that I am a HUGE musical theatre fan, and this show was INCREDIBLE! Every inch of me had goosebumps when elphaba sang defying gravity. Such an amazing show! I could see it all over again right now! 

Wicked :)

Today was our last full day in London! Tomorrow we head off to our next location! 

That's all for now! :)

-Kara

Day 4

Today we started off by going to the mall! We found a Westfield and spent some time browsing and killing time before our afternoon booking. I found another lush there, and the guy at the store was SOOO helpful! He tested out multiple bath bombs and products for us and was incredibly polite!!

After our shopping, we went to five guys for lunch! In case you don't know what that is, it's a good chain that we had in the US and all fell in love with, so we were incredibly pleased to find one here!! 

Five guys- YUMMM!

After five guys we heading to our Warner bros 'the making of Harry Potter' tour! It was soooo cool. There were real sets and props, lots of photo opportunities, videos and all around cool stuff! 

The famous Butterbeer!

A smaller scale(yet still very big) version of the Hogwarts castle that was actually used in filming wide shots of the castle!

Off to Hogwarts I go!

It was a super cool day indeed, but a tiring one at that! 

That's all for now! :)

-Kara

Day 3

Yesterday was a lovely but very busy day!

To start it off, we all woke up rather early again, but lazed around until around 11am when we had to get ready to go out and about! We went into the city and met up with one of mum's friends which was lovely! She took us to a lovely place in Chinatown for lunch! I had the pork ribs on rice I'm pretty sure!

Here's an incredibly blurry picture of my food :)

After lunch we went to Trafalgar Square, which was sooo cool! We saw loads of street performers! Then we went to the art gallery and got to see some awesome paintings! We spotted 3/4 of the ninja turtles name inspirations' artworks (silly Donatello didn't have any paintings there)! 

After the gallery, we went to a Starbucks to kill some extra time before we went to Ripley's believe it or not!

When it was time to go, we headed to Ripley's! It was AMAZING! My favourite parts were the mirror maze, the laser race and the black hole! The black hole was this little bridge-like walkway thing that had this black material all around it that looked like stars, but it made you so unco! It gave you the feeling that you were spinning, not the stuff around you! It was sooooo fun :P

The giant rocking chair at Ripley's 

Anyways, sorry that this post was a bit short! 

-Kara :)

Day 2 adventures!

London day 2 commences!

Today we all woke up (waaay too early due to jet-lag) and began our day 2 adventure! We caught the train again, and saw a lady with the most adorable dog! 

We went to Buckingham Palace and stood next to the gate for almost an hour waiting for the changing of the guards. It was really cool, but also very crowded and overwhelming after a while. 

The changing of the guards in process

Then we went to go see the London eye quickly before we got on our duck tour! Duck tours are tours in these buses that can also be boats- if that makes sense! You drive around on the tour, then it drives INTO the water, and you get a water perspective tour! 

It was such an awesome, informational tour of the heart of London! Not only was the tour guide super good with his information, he was also quite comedic which was lovely!

Here's a quick funny moment of the tour:

While we were driving in the tour, we stopped at a traffic light next to a big bus full of school kids on an excursion. Remembering that we were in fact driving around in a bright yellow HUGE bus boat, we stood out quite a bit. The kids in the bus were at the same height as us, and instead of awkward eye contact, they decided to try to communicate. We had kids giving us love heart signals with their hands, kids showing us their skittle packets and phones, one kid even typed 'hey' into his phone in an attempt to communicate! 

The logo

The vehicle itself

After our duck tour, we went to the London eye. We got to ride in it, and it was incredible! It took around 30 minute to get around it all up, but it felt like nothing! The view was amazing, and it was perfect to see the city clearly!

The view was incredible!

London eye selfies 

Awkward pose time :')

The view from the top was amazing!!

After the London eye, we went to the train station and I finally got to go to the Lush store that I have been waiting for! I bought 6 products, and I'll post pictures of them below!

An Ickle Baby Bot bath ballistic 

A Sunnyside bubble bar slice

A Granny Takes A Dip bath fizzer

A Twilight bath ballistic 

A Creamy Candy Bath bubble bar slice 

A 'The Honeymooner' massage bar 

Anyways, that's all for now!

-Kara :)

First day in London

Lack of sleep, long flights and confusion between time zones: thus began our first day in London. 

Our flight from Hong Kong to London left at 11:05 Hong Kong time, which was around 4:05pm London time if I'm correct! So we had to stay awake the entire 8 hours in Hong Kong, plus the first 2 or 3 hours of our 12 hour flight in hopes of getting an 8 hour sleep before landing in London at 5am London time. This plan was flawless, in theory... however as you can probably guess, it didn't work as well as planned. I stayed awake all those hours, but the discomfort from the plane (and my terrible light-sleeper-ness) stopped me from being able to sleep.

Our dinner, or lunch, or breakfast, depending on which time zone you think about!

Breakfast was served at like 3:30am!

Anyways, despite these painfully small amounts of sleep and extreme time differences, we made it to London safely!

After quite some time sorting things out at the airport, we caught a train to the train station where we stored our luggage for the day until we got into the place we're staying at! The train was super fast and really cool :D

When we got into the streets of London, there were a few differences that I noticed straight away. 

First of all, there were many more bike riders on the main roads than in Canberra... Or Sydney... Or at City I've ever been to!

Another HUGE difference was how insignificant the 'no walking' sign on the pedestrian crossings were! People would ruthlessly cross while traffic had the right of way, and it was absolutely terrifying. I can honestly say that I thought there were a few times where I could've sworn it was a near death experience for the crazy local pedestrians!

Here's a picture of the leadenhall market that we walked through 

From far away its roof looks ordinary, but in real life it was incredible!

After asking no less than 4 locals for directions, we made our way to the Tower of London! I'll be completely honest here, I was incredibly tired with sore feet and I really wasn't coping too well, but it was absolutely stunning nonetheless. 

The Tower of London from the outside

The buildings were all so beautiful!

So stunning!

I loved the blue doors on this one!

After seeing the Tower of London we walked what seemed like a very long walk to a wonderful little cafe called de vine. Even though it was at least 4 times a longer walk than the one to the nearby Starbucks, it was worth it when I got to try some really yum English food! I ordered pain au chocolate and cottage pie! They were both delicious. The man who talked to us and served us was incredibly friendly and helpful (I felt bad because I was super jet-lagged and was practically silent)! His name was Sid :D

The pain au chocolate (well, the half I hadn't eaten yet...)

The HUGE cottage pie! It was amazing!!

All in all today has been a very long yet good day! Wish us luck with sleeping off the jet-lag tonight!

-Kara :)