Why being really lonely is sometimes super awesome!

continuing with the how i met your mother and scrubs jokes...

going to briefly catch you up from last update to where we are now, just because i CAN.

we continued with the alps through switzerland and into france, unfortunately missing out on a mont blanc viewing due to horrible weather. we were relieved to get into france and find prices back to 'reasonable' rather than 'you've got to be kidding me', although switzerland was definitely pretty enough to make up for it. And austria's rest stops were worth any money - and they were free! love campervan loving. Drove on to pretty Annecy, where we stayed in a very cute b&b in the middle of nowhere, run by a woman and her adorable dog Chipie. Because the village she lived in was SO out of the way, we got completely lost looking for her place and had to ask a random french man walking his dog for help. Unable to communicate with us properly (because we fail at French) he hopped in his car with HIS adorable puppy and drove us round the town, knocking on random doors where MORE french strangers helped us find our accommodation. wish there was another way to thank him, our poorly pronounced 'merci beaucoup's didn't quite feel like enough. After a breakfast of woodfired bread and homemade jam, as well as some truly smelly cheeses, we drove south towards Provence through some incredibly pretty countryside, and found an amazing fort that, while shut, provided a jaw-dropping view of the Grenoble basin and the surrounding snow-capped mountains. I was more than a little nervous standing near the edge of its 800m drops.

Provence was BEAUTIFUL, and the sun came out to help us enjoy it. The scenery on the way south was gorgeous, changing constantly. Beautiful azure rivers,rocky hills, bright green fields, vinyards and huge snowy alps towering over it all! Luberon region was GORGEOUS, beautiful Rousillon bright red from the cliff’s ochre, and lovely Gordes shining in the sunset. We had a little ramble around the latter, through some very cute little (steep) streets to some terraces with incredible views of the surrounding area. We drove on to Avignon to see the famous bridge lit up at night, and we danced NEAR it. Michael was not at ALL embarrassed.

Drove down towards Arles on the scenic route – through the bizarre yet gorgeous rocky landscape of Les Baux de Provence – where bauxite was discovered. Arles was great, a lovely ampitheatre and a beautiful relaxed feel. I got very Van Gogh excited, often. Kept on going south through the gorgeous Camargue - glimpsed some flamingos through the trees! - to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a very cute touristy beach town! I went for a paddle in the Med, Michael was far too wussy. After that we turned north towards spectacularly Roman Nimes - amazing arena, beautiful temple (inside which we watched a 3D movie on its history? bizarre) and lovely tower in roman gardens. Pont Du Gard at sunset was all we needed to make it a perfect day!

aaaaaaaand then we drove along the coast toward the Pyrenees, stopping at Beziers to see the eight locks in the canal du midi (michael got his nerd on) and then driving inland to explore beautiful Cathar country. Read up on the old religion and explored their particularly impressive castles. OH this is also when we ate pizza out of a van. so good. SO good :)

Next up was Carcassonne, where the light and expensive parking kept foiling our plans for photos. Visited pretty Mirepoix on our way south, rounding off the day with a visit to the Grotte de Niaux, as i described before.

Had a lovely drive through the Pyrenees, into the beautiful regions of Aragon and Navarra in Spain. Bit disappointed half the iconic Tour passes were shut! Still definitely glad we were in a car and not powering ourselves up those hills.

Up through Pau and the amusingly named but very cute Condom to the Dordogne region, which was magical, and already described!

So now we're in Orleans, holing up in a f1 for SHOWERS and a BED. So exciting. Michael's hair is actually sitting properly. I can get a brush through mine. Miracles!! Tomorrow we set off to explore the Loire Valley, looking forward to the glamour of the chateaux! I can't quite believe that a month today it will be my last night over here. Its gone so quick! but there's still a whole month, and i'm going to make the most of it!

So we're in a formule 1 now, which is absolutely tiny but WAY cheaper than the aussie ones! Conveniently got a park right outside the window, rather than walking around the hotel with all our stuff we unpacked through the window, and since then michael has been using it as a door. Classy. They show super 15 on the tv over here, which is making me a bit homesick! but oh wait... they don't at home. stupid pay tv. anyway should go so i can enjoy the rugby/get a good night's sleep before tomorrow!

love to you all

xoxoxo

french food love

hi! we're currently motorwaying up the middle of france, after a lovely visit to the beautiful Dordogne region. We stayed the night in Domme, a very cute little town built up above the river. It appeared to have a cave in the square where we parked for the night? I don't know... Unfortunately it started to rain in the morning, but I was determined to run so it didn't stop me, and nor did the angry french man with an umbrella who seemed to think I was trying to get in all his photos. I apologise, angry french man. Your camera was sort of pointing the other way, but we won't quibble on the details. The view over the region was just superb, even through the rain! It cleared up as we drove through more cute villages - La Roque Gageac, Beynac-et-Cazenac (where Michael explored the very impressive castle!) and on to Sarlat. It was pretty but I'm afraid after the intense amount of 'les plus beaux villages de france' (the most beautiful villages in france, they're ORGANISED) we've got a bit picky, and thought there were just too many people! We drove on through castle-dotted, verdant green landscapes to Rocamadour, where the returning rain cleared up just enough to give us a glimpse of the pretty town perched on the cliff.
 We splurged and had dinner overlooking this beautiful town - Michael had "the best animal i have ever eaten. Oh my god, foodgasm. I wanted to revive it and thank it before getting them to kill and cook it again. Oh god" in the form of roast duck, while my chocolate fondant (english translation: 'the heart melting into honey') definitely melted my heart. Unfortunately the restaurant felt a bit too posh to pull out the camera, a la Alsace, but trust me, it was pretty :)
So, in short, we're loving France.
Well, most of it. Michael does has some notes about road and traffic organisation. He keeps yelling randomly at the lack of reflectors and the bizarre organisation of intersections. In fact I think he's so impassioned he may be writing a post about it soon :)
anyway, bed time, hopefully be hearing from you all soon! xx

Her teeth are crooked and she lived in a car, so she has stuff to write about!

photoinators

Nordlingen 

Rottenbuch church

Peiting

Neuschwanstein

St Coloman's Church and Neuschwanstein

Michael, the Wieskirche and good old Bavarian kitsch

Neuschwanstein!

Hohenschwangau

we are in franceypants, going to go check out the Dordogne region tomorrow, fingers crossed for more good weather! Hopefully France keeps up this trend of beautiful days and rainy nights... if it must rain at all. Spain was beautiful, love love loved the scenery of the Pyrenees, and the diversity in landscapes we've seen. Daylight savings has hit here, so better get to bed to try and get our body clocks working on time. love love xx

I don't have time to do another long post, just letting you know we're in Languedoc-Roussilln in France - St-Liziers to be specific - and we're about to cross the Pyrenees for a short trip into Spain!!
Its incredibly sunny and warm here, the only probem being I don't exactly have the right clothes for this weather! Luckily I bought a skirt in Austria (op-shops rule) but eventually I will have to change.. ha.
Yesterday we went to Grotte de Niaux - an incredible cave that you have to walk for about 20 minutes through (with torches) to reach some incredible prehistoric art. The tour was in French but it was still pretty exciting to see the paintings, knowing how old they were, and the cave itself was spectacular! A very cute baby was on the tour, and displayed to us all the excellent acoustics of the main chamber :)
Before that we checked out Carcassonne, to try and get some of those iconic pictures (didn't work so well) and a whole string of magnificent Cathar Castles, all perched on top of impressive rocky outcrops.
At the moment we're in a supermarket carpark having breakfast, stealing macca's free wifi and generally feeling pretty good :)
In other news:
Europe is obsessed with Natalie Imbruglia. But that's ok cos, honestly, so are we.
The constant playing of 'Torn' was just interrupted by 'Beds are Burning' at this supermarket. Odd. Homesick-inducing.
For a continent so obsessed with cheese, and with so many cows, you really wouldn't expect this morbid fear of fresh milk.
One of the best pizzas we've had came from the back of a van. Not just any van. It had a freaking wood-fired oven in the back of it. So now we're planning a pizza-van adventure through Europe where we finance our own journeying through selling gourmet pizza. Except for the whole where-would-we-sleep problem.
aaaaand now its time to go see the word.
love! x

germany and austria and germany and austria and on!

So! Where was I up to?

There’s not that much to be said about Neuschwanstein that can’t be expressed (far better) in pictures. But unfortunately macca's internet is too slow for pictures at the moment. sooo, you'll see soon. Basically, its very, VERY pretty, and we went there. yay!

Its also a rather lovely place to run your battery out, if that’s your thing. It is our thing, apparently. Michael had his tour booked so he ran off all stress-y while I went up to complete strangers and asked if they spoke English and could they pretty please jumpstart our car. Two different lovely families tried but we couldn’t manage it til Michael got back, apparently there’s an art to connecting wires to things and turning the ignition (at least when your jump leads are dodgy, and smoke a bit, and terrify the nice Japanese people who are helping you out…)

Anyway we got on and continued into Austria – very briefly, before driving along the border towards Berchtesgarten, seeing some very pretty mountains and lakes on the way (clearly the best type of scenery.)

Berchtesgarten was awesome! We had amazing weather, so we drove the Rossfeld Panoramastrasse, and saw intense alps scenery, so so beautiful, and then went for an (electric) boat ride on Konigsee (which was partially iced over). It reminded me of milford! Such a deep, long, narrow lake with a pretty little chapel at the other end, unfortunately couldn't get all the way there because of the ice. Oh and afterwards Michael ate sausages, a pretzel, a large amount of beer and some schnapps at a place on the lake. AND then some more beer and a hamburger at maccas. and then he ran around in the snow like a 3 year old, fun!

After that it was on to Salzkammergut, which was absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful lakes surrounded by gorgeous mountains and picturesque villages perched in between. The carpark we stayed in at Hallstadt was pretty excellent – part way along the tunnel above the town, it had a waterfall flowing almost through it and an incredible view over the town and lake.

We drove through the lakes up into Czech Republic, wandering around lovely Cesky Krumlov as the sun went down.

After stocking up on Czech beer, wandering around Telc’s gorgeous square (or rectangle?) and checking out Olomouc, it was on to Krakow! We booked an apartment on wotif and found it right in the middle of the Royal Route in the old town. It was pretty exciting considering we would have been psyched for it just to have a shower. Krakow was gorgeous, it was lovely to spend the day wandering around the town and sitting in the square people-watching. Michael had a far more confronting yet informative day at Auschwitz.

The next day we explored Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter and a couple of the churches before heading off to Zakopane – the doorstep of the Tatras! The drive through the High and Bela Tatras to Slovakia was quiet spectacular, although unfortunately too windy for any cable car action! Next up we arrived at pretty Levoca in Slovakia at exactly 4.01. Apparently everything shut at 4. Still nice to have a look around before driving on to the incredibly impressive Spisski Hrad – a 4 hectare castle on top of a hill. Even more amazing at sunset!!

The next day we drove through the centre of Slovakia, checking out the history of the Slovak National Uprising at mining town Banska Bystrica, before the car had a little panic attack and decided not to turn on. Michael managed to fix it and we set off for the Danube Bend – a scenic section of the river in northern Hungary.

Although we couldn’t convince the GPS to take us to the other side of the river, we saw some pretty towns and citadels on the way to Esztergom, of the incredible Basilica! It was ENORMOUS! Had fun exploring and then setting off along the Danube towards Vienna!

The next morning we woke up to the sound of the rain on the van’s roof and promptly went back to sleep. After a lovely lie-in we went in to explore the lovely city. Wandered through the pretty castle gardens, past the museums, through the main shopping strip, trying desperately to find a second hand shop from which to buy some clothes that WOULDN’T get us thrown out of the opera that night. We were looking  just a touch ratty. Eventually found one, Michael bought a sweet Austrian jacket, and sprinted back through the city to the State Opera, where we managed to get standing tickets but JUST missed out on the super fancy tickets being re-sold to students. Still, saw Verdi’s Aida in the Vienna State Opera! Hellyeah! Finished off the night with a drive around the RING, all the buildings lit up beautifully, and hopped on the motorway towards Klagenfurt, with a brief visit to pretty Graz on the way.

The next day was an intense and awesome drive through alps. Woke up super early for an incredible view of sunrise over the mountains. One by one the peaks were lit up as we drove along the Karnische-Dolomiten hochalpenstrasse, a twisty, tiny road that Michael loved and had me clinging to my seat. After Tessenberg we switched back to Lienz and drove through the middle of the Hohe Tauern national park. Unfortunately the very famous (and therefore very expensive) Grossglockner hochalpenstrasse (panoramic high alps road) wasn’t open yet, but we still got osme pretty spectacular views of the alps. At the top of the park we turned west toward Innsbruck, mainly because our atlas said it was scenic, and happened across another panoramic  road, the Gerlos alpenstrasse, which took us past the Krimmler Wasserfall, which is, according to Michelin ‘worth the trip’ J. More lovely passes, mountains, valleys and frozen waterfalls along the way!  Sped on after that to Feldkirch, a lovely little town with a hilltop castle and some impressive mountain views. Unfortunately the ice hockey game we were hoping to catch was back in Innsbruck, but we made up for it with our own trip to Italy – a wonderful dinner at a little restaurant where we took a chance on the german menus, and learnt that ‘knoblauch’ definitely, DEFINITELY means garlic. Mmm.

Started off the next day lazily with an awesome CONFERENCE CALL (no pigeons were hurt) with aussie folks! After discovering our original route through Switzerland wasn’t possible due to that whole pesky ‘buckets of snow on the passes’ thing, we realised we were going to get to go to Italy – if very briefly. Headed south, past famous St. Moritz, on some excellent passes – especially the Julierpass. Its intense amount of snow gave me a headache, but it was incredibly beautiful. The Majolapass too gave us some great views of beautiful valleys. We hopped into Italy and ate pasta and pizza in little terraced Chiavenna, before heading back into Switzerland for lovely Lugano and Lorcano. Man I love lakes and mountains! 

aaaand jumping forward just a little, we're now in beautiful, sunny provence, and we have to go because its a perfect day for exploring the roman ruins in Nimes. Will post pictures soon when we get a better internet connection!

love

xx

two. with photos.

the stadtpark in lubeck

the beautiful cathedral in aachen

the porta nigra (trier)

burggarten in rothenburg

ok so the internet and i are not getting along, so that's it for now. 

at the moment we're maccas carparking it up - free wifi and toilets, yess!  we're in feldkirch, in austria, a lovely little town with a castle on a hill, surrounded by mountains. what more can you ask for? last night was some kind of festival/celebrations, the fireworks went forever! and i celebrated with a pretend trip to italy at a gorgeous pizzeria. today, after a look around at the castle, we'll be heading through liechtenstein and into switzerland. its another beautiful day, looking forward to some more epic alps scenery :)

love

xo

update so far!

finally, regular internet! i've almost got through all my british pictures on fb, so i'll start from lovely lubeck, after an interesting ryanair experience...

         fairy-tale lubeck's charm and oodles of snow definitely helped cheer me up!

wandered around the 'town of short distances' (completely true), visited a cute natural history museum that seemed to have a thing for whales (COMPLETELY ok by me), the towns numerous lovely churches and cute little streets, and the main square, complete with ice-skating and snow-covered market stalls. 

michael and marty picked me up with the van - unfortunately named lupus - and we drove off toward amsterdam! not much to report here, just intense triple j hottest 100 singalongs during a very long drive.

amsterdam was.... amsterdam. i'm afraid that once again i left feeling underwhelmed. probably didn't spend enough time there, but i still feel like the van gogh museum is the only reason i'll go back! although the canals were pretty, and there were swans doing their best to give me the perfect photo! and i am indebted to the netherlands for their classic 'local delicacies' - burger king's twisty fries and delicious hot brownies. soon any money owing between michael and myself began to be calculated in said brownies. i promise they were safe, they were just THAT good.

after amsterdam we drove south towards alsace, stopping at aachen and trier on the way. aachen was all charlemagney and wonderful - a beautiful cathedral and a very impressive town hall! also apparently full of fountain...s (this is why you should read lonely planet guides BEFORE you head into the town, not the day after) we saw the puppet fountain, and one where the water was sucked into a plughole called 'the taxman' while people clutched at money around it.

trier was well roman, so of course i LOVED it. (thanks deej :)) pickles compulsion to climb things took us up the porta nigra (roman city gate) for a great view of the lovely city. we walked the tourist route to a nice town square, where apparently 'could i please have aioli on my chips' means 'CURRY! GIVE ME CURRY! LOTS OF IT!'. so that was interesting. 

the amphitheatre was grassy and great, although some of the caverns smelled a little worrying. i got very excited pretending we were roman while michael, of course, judged the hell out of me. yay.

kept driving with the gps set for 'bitche' - no we're not immature, manny told us to go! and pa, it turns out qi is USEFUL, not smutty. bitche had an amazing citadel atop a hill in the middle of its lovely little town, which wasn't open but was still awesome to walk around. also had some very entertaining inappropriate scultpures, featuring ladies’ behinds, but perhaps i shouldn't discuss that...

 Drove towards lembach, in order to see some castles on our way down south. Turned off to a magnificent ruined, the name of which i can't remember for the life of me (started with w? i think? i'm sure i took a photo...) anyway it was perched on top of some rugged rock on a hill amidst beautiful woodland. I got freaked out by the steep steps and the falls on either side of the outcrop, but Michael got some beautiful views from up the top. any mr pullman fans out there, i could picture count otto or little adelaide storming down the steps with the adler any second, it was awesome :)

thennnnn we had issues cos self-serve petrol stations wouldn't take our cards! being a sunday, nowhere else was open. Found nice French fam – the father didn’t speak English but his ‘woman’ did, put petrol in our car on their card and we gave them cash. Michael decided to test out the fwd capabilities of our van, taking us off on a farm road that ‘will totally meet up with the main road.’ It didn’t. went looking for a castle, couldn’t find it, but the scenery was beautiful, snowy trees yay! we got lost on purpose,as long as the gps still knew we were on a road we figured it could get us back. snow, snow everywhere!

next castle was Chat. de. Haut Barr. Once again some steps for what I’m sure would have been some beautiful views, if everything hadn’t been white with mist and snow. Fairytale magic. Kept driving through the forest, gorgeous trees covered in snow, saw a HUGE deer (thankfully did not hit it). Found a camping place near shirmeck – a municipal camping ground that was closed but kept its aire open for free all year round. it snowed again during the night, in the morning huge flakes were floating down, but it never got in the way of our driving, just enhanced our photos!

we drove on pretty scenic roads, often the Route de Vin, although mostly quite by accident, to Haut-Koenigsburg, a huge fully restored castle. Drove along route de vin – beautiful vines in the snow! Often vines right in the middle of town. Couldn’t find eguesheim, sorry dad. Went to riquewhir but it was undergoing major roadwork so right on to Colmar. I was hoping to have a traditional Alsatian meal but everywhere was shut, so we walked around town til they opened. M not very impressed by ‘little venice’ with its very shallow canals and sinkingboats. kept looking for somewhere to eat that WASN'T in the michelin guide, couldn't manage it so splurged on an excellent meal with even better wine. Michael ate a huge chunk of meat while i ordered the only thing on the menu WITHOUT meat - it still came with prosciutto. that's pretty much vegetarian over here, i think.

the snow cleared up and we had perfect blue skies for the neckar valley - beautiful shimmering river and cute towns. Burg Hornberg was a good contrast to H. Koenigsburg - left in its ruined state. I made a cat friend at schoental kloster, where everything was unfortunately shut (but we did peek in the church!). then it was on to the romantic road! we stayed overnight at the parkplatz in rothenburg ob de tauber - it was the first place we would have had to pay for but the machine was broken - oh dear.

So, the Romantic Road. we walked the walls at Rothenburg, enjoyed the beautiful burggarten and its views of the tauber. Cute little towns with 'historisches altstadt's to admire every way we looked. Stopped at Nordlingen for the night, another walled town, where we decided to splurge and stay in a guest house - we needed showers BAD. Gasthof zum Storchen was lovely - pretty, clean, friendly service.... and terry towelling bedding. that part was not so comfortable. a completely bizarre choice i don't think i'll ever be able to get behind!!

Continued along the romantic road. It was amazing to see the Bavarian Alps slowly become clearer and clearer, after rising so suddenly from the land before them. Stayed in a snowy Peiting, eating at a guest house. Spatzle, I cannot stay away! The next day we tried to follow a Bavarian band along the streets but unfortunately they disappeared into a hall, with apparently the whole town behind them! Instead found a gorgeous high baroque church in Rottenbuch - an old abbey church that remains the parish church to this day. Next it was off to the big sights - the Wieskirch, which was beautiful but oh-so-busy, with literally busloads of tourist constantly flooding through - Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, the castles of the Mad King Ludwig!

Anyway i'm in a maccas in poland, near the Tatras mountains, and its snowing like crazy. should probably try and find somewhere to sleep. Will continue this update asap, and hopefully be able to add photos when my computer stops being such a n00b!

for people who can't be bothered reading the whole thing (and i can't blame you) or looking at ALL my photos (again, i sympathise) i'll just be posting the photo highlights on here!

love love love you all and miss everyone loads!

xx