Around Europe and the Tour De France!!

Dear Diary,

It would seem another few weeks have past and we have now made it to our destination of The Netherlands where we plan to find a job for a month or 3. We have been up to our usual tricks and after travelling through Germany we've managed to pay our respects to France, Switzerland and Belgium on the way here. Needless to say it is nice to be in a country that we can learn alot more about the language and set up for a little while.

Germany was a great place - after arriving at Hotel De Jarvis we set up camp and our fine host had scheduled days for different German food, beer, and coffee. Amoungst the eating we used our South Western German base to trip about by bike, train, and foot. Daily activities included markets, bike rides to a nearby lake for swims, raiding cherry trees from the local golf course, more bike rides, and actually being able to cook ourselves something to eat in a kitchen (something you take for granted until you dont do it for 3 months!).

From here our favourite trip was a bike ride to France for Lunch. We caught a train with our bikes to a town closer to the boarder and biked the last 20km across to a small town called Wissembourg. With only one slight mechanical issue where we almost lost a wheel we managed to use our map and pedal along very happily - Michele only had one gear but I had a wiggly wheel to make up for having 21! We did note the customs lacked duty free, officers, or come to think of it any real notification we were leaving Germany! Aside from a sign telling us to report to the town hall in France if we thought we needed too, and then a second sign announcing we were in France, we just meerily biked across the border unnoticed - brilliant!! After riding around the town and sampling the best chocolates, cakes, and croissants of our lives we cycled home with a few Belgium beers that cant be bought in Germany - very cool.

The next little trip we planned took us a few days but we took off nice and early one morning and made it to Basel in Switzerland for lunch. This city is built around the Rhine river and was everything we had imagined about the Swiss, very slick, very beautiful, and nothing under 10 bucks. Here we spent the day sampling chocolates, wandering around the city and watching people float down the Rhine River next to the ships to cool off. The next couple of days we returned to the very southern part of Germany - The Schwartswald or Black Forest, and with a hop on hop off type of trian ticket we got to see the cities of Freiburg, Baden Baden and we had a night in a little place with the highest waterfalls in Germany called Triberg.

Triberg is built within a valley so theres are lots of surrounding hills. A very picturisc little town. We had booked our accomodation on line so when we arrived we set out from the train in the hot afternoon sun reading a map provided by the hostel to try and find it. One of the things we find frustrating is that photos that dont quite capture the size / height of things, but without a word of a lie the hostel was situated on the highest hill in Triberg! After walking/crawling up the hill we found our hostel completely disterted. That was expect for the owner sitting in an office directly behind a sign that read 'we are busy working, next check in two hours'. Although we have mentioned sun it is probably notable to mention that for the entire time we have been in Europe its been over 25 degrees. So two hours in a waiting room dripping with sweat, and looking at a charming little German fellow sipping on his water that we could not yet buy as he was too busy got our tempers slightly inflamed!! However we stayed calm and eventually he gave us our linen, water, keys etc. We excitedly skipped to the third floor and found our room, a 10 bunk dorm on the backside of the hostel with one tiny window and no view. So we had 5 bunks each for the night and aside from it feeling about 100 degrees we got some sleep. We had enjoyed a great italian meal at a little place were the women cooked everything in front of us (back down the hill I might add) the waterfalls and loads of paths through the forest so was a great spot to see regardless of the accomodation challenge!

After returning for a night and a selection of beer from around the world we left Hotel De Jarvis for Belgium to catch the Tour De France. We had a few nights in Brussels and caught two days of the tour, one leaving Brussels and one 65km south in a town called Namur as they whistled past. We will let the photos tell the story of that one, but very very amazing to see and another real trip highlight. Belgium itself was pictursic, good beer, old buildings, brilliant chocolate and a real mix of people.

We have now had been in Rotterdam, The Netherlands for a few days with family getting shown around and starting to get a feel for the place. Tomorrow we are off to The Hague (Den Hagg) for 3 weeks on a house sitting job.

McDuff
Tristan and Michele

JOURNEY OF HALF THE GLOBE

Dear diary ...

Ni hao (Chinese)

Sain Bain uu (Mongolian)

Zdrastvootyeh (Russian)

So here we are on our first train with half of our Intrepid team (picture 1) as we start our journey over 8000km from Beijing to St Petersburg. We had to learn the above greetings along the way as well as a whole lot more.We last left you in Beijing, China on day one of our tour where we checked in with our group. Since then we have travelled the Trans Monglian and Trans Siberian railways, rickety old buses, vans, walked and gone by boat along the way. We have now finally flown to Germany. As we are sure you can imagine we have not had much internet along the way so hold on for a whirlwind overview of what we saw along the way.

Day 2 we left Beijing bright and early to board our first train (30 hours - Trans Mongolian) to cross the Chinese then Mongolian boarders and make our way through the Gobi Desert to arrive in Ulanbatar(UB) the capital of Mongolia on Day 3. We spent the rest of the day checking out the town, eating booze (traditional dumplings) and learning about Chengis Khan (Gengis to us but apparently we are all wrong?! Good fact huh)

Day 4 was time for adventure. We left the city and headed for the hills. The further we went the colder it got (picture 2, please note snow is actually falling!!). Here at the edge of the Hustai National park we stopped at a Ger for some Mongolian tea and fresh yoghurt - still lumpy and warm fresh off the stove! We then went for a walk in the snow to see the native Przhewalski horses before heading to another family Ger (picture 3) to warm up by the fire.

We spent the evening drinking vodka (straight), having a mongolian bbq (meat cooked on rocks in the tent) and shooting a bow and arrows! We slept the night here in a spare Ger huddled around the fire, and after horse riding in the AM (Day 5) we drove back to UB through the valley. An absolutely incredible time.

We spent the morning of Day 6 in UB checking out the National museum before getting on our next train (25 hours) to cross out of Mongolia and into Russia. Day 7 was spent looking out the window at the beautiful Siberian scenery before a late arrival to Ulan Ude so it was straight to bed.

Day 8 we headed over a mostly gravel road for 4 hours to Lake Baikal - the deepest fresh water lake in the world. Here we spent our time walking (picture 4), having a boat ride and siberian BBQ, eating fresh fish, enjoying the banya (siberian version of a sauna) and sun bathing! The sun did not set until about 11pm. (picture 5) It was like paradise.

We spent day 9 and the morning of day 10 at the lake doing much of the same, and with the homestay owners only speaking russian our sign language has continued to get better!!

We headed back to UB in the PM of Day 10 to have a picture with Lenins head and get some supplies to try and reduce the cabin fever as we were next to get on the train for 3 nights! Picture 6 shows us aboard our Trans Siberian train.

Day 11 and 12 were spent looking out the window, reading, writing, playing cards, eating, and of course traveling through 4 different time zones. The scenery changed as we got closer to the Ural mountains and we entered into Europian Russia.

Day 13 we got off the train at the base of the Urals in Kungur. With only one night here we managed to shower (it had been a while!), check out the town on foot, visit a local restaurant and get some fresh food at the farmers market before getting back on the train(24 hours) (Day 14) to head into Moscow.

Day 15 and 16 we spent checking out the sights of Moscow. It is a very over priced city with a huge amount of expensive european cars wizzing round with their private guards following - just like the movies!!! Here we visited Red Square, St Basils Cathedral (picture 7), Lenins Mosoleum, the GUM, the Church of Christ the Saviour, the Kremlin and the main pedestrian street - now that we have written a list on paper I understand why we were tired!! Everything had its own highlight and oodles of history. The detail in the architecture was fascinating - I'm sure you can imagine Tristan's excitement!

10pm on day 16 we caught a train to St Petersburg leaving at 10pm and getting in at 6am (day 17)! With little sleep we dropped our bags at the hostel and marched on to see what we could find. With only 2 days and we had to make the most of it (thankfully the Russains can make good coffee!!). We visited the hermitage in the day and then to celebrate the white nights (where the sun doesnt go down) in fine form as we hired a boat and went on a canal/river trip begining at 12.30am! Here (picture 8) you can see it is just getting dark at 1.30am. This darkness lasted about at hour!

Day 18 we sadly said goodbye to our group and went our separate ways. We didnt have to be at the airport until 3.30am so we made the most of our time and went to see Swan Lake performed by the Russian Ballet ... what more could a girl want for her birthday!

From picture 9 you can see what we look like after staying up all night to catch our flight to Munich! Once safely in Germany and not wanting to waste time we put our bags at our hotel and went for a walk through the 100 magnificent rooms of the Reisdenze castle, ate fresh summer fruit and basked in the sun before a big 12 hour sleep! The next day we did a bike tour of the city taking in the sights before meeting Leo and Simon for dinner and a stein at Hofbraus, (picture 10) was great to be amung the locals for the Germany football game and we found Munich to be a beautiful city!

Who would have thought we could see and do so much in only 3 weeks!

Till next time ...

McDuff

Michele and Tristan

A GREAT day at the GREAT WALL

Dear Diary,
Our last 10 days in Beijing has been action packed. Our first week was spent rotating around local hostels and completing various sight-seeing expeditions. After a couple of days relaxing in a place that was handy to the train station we moved into the city further and explored the Chinese culture - staying in the Hutongs (alley streets).

Our first room was inside an old army weapons base that had been converted into a loft type hostel. There were a couple of things that could have helped this place, e.g. a locking door, increasing the distance of our toilet from our bed, and a sign for our neighbour advising that watching loud movies and having numerous Chinese mobile conversations at 3am is perhaps not the best way to make new friends. We however had a good laugh for a few days using it as a base. From here we saw Tianemin square, the Temple of Heaven, the 2008 Olympic park, and the Forbidden City - all incredible in there own right. If we had to pick one the Forbidden City was a standout, we spent a full day enjoying the different temples, alleys and courtyards.
Our second place was another little hutong with a much smaller 'guest house' feel and plenty of jazz type cafes run by foriegner's nearby. The street even had a single speed bike shop!! We booked a few nights here - we missed the locals mans name who ran it so he became known as 'old mate'! One day we hired classic Beijing bikes from the bike store and covered half of inner Beijing. Im not too sure if anyone is fimiliar with riding a bike in China but im sure your imagination can help you out... If you picture how we have explained the amount of people around and how walking can be hard without crashing into each other, then add wheels and double the speed you've got it! Very cool day.

With the help Aunty Paula we managed to track down some Duffy family friends and our last (and final) four nights in China have been spent staying with the Bowyer's out near the airport. Our time there playing with the triplets, swimming, running, and enjoying the BBQ was so good!! With the help of some insider knowledge (Thanks Kathryn) we took a private driver (who we might add turned out to be an english speaking, Pegueo driving opera singer) to the wall which was great (could'nt help the pun). Charlie dropped us at one section and we were lucky enough to walk 10km to another area where he picked us up. Our walk was on both restored and un-restored sections and at times there was no one else in sight so it really incredible.

We have just checked in with our interpid tour group leader Dennis, who seems awesome. We meet the rest of the group at 6pm and then tomorrow we board the train for Mongolia and then on to Russia before making it to the rest of Europe in about 2 and half weeks - should be a blast.

Thanks for all the awesome notes from home, we look foward to updating you again soon.

Love
McDuff
Tristan and Michele

People, people everywhere!!

Dear diary ...So we survived another trip with Possum to the airport and caught our flight to Shanghai. Shanghai had a very diferent feel - it is bigger faster and there are alot more people than we have seen in any other place in China/the world!!!We have been lucky to have stayed our 10 days in Shanghai with Li in his living room - a huge saving on the bank account which when you are travelling is very much appreciated! It's always nice to hang out with kiwis and get some local city insight.As most of you will know the world expo is on here and it has taken over the city. There are posters, signs, gardens and vehicles all plastered with expo info. The locals are a but sick of it but it was an awesome opportunity for us! We splashed out and got a 3 day pass each and on this we managed to cover 32 exhibitions! The queues were long, not many foreigners and we got stared at alot but gosh it was worth it. There was lots of info about how each country is aiming to become greener. How they will produce energy in the future and how this will affect their country. The rest seemed to be all warm and fluffy to get you excited to travel to or live in their country - it certainly worked for us and we are now trying to work out how to fit some extra places into our itinerary!The pavillions were huge with the whole expo being over 5km squared, needless to say we did alot of walking in the twelve hours we spent there each day! Each country told their story differently with anything from revolving 360degree movies and gondola rides to food, art, coffee and at the nz pavillion a kauri log carving in action.The rest of our time was spent at the textile, glasses and fake markets! It is amazing what you can buy and get made in a short space of time! We are fitted out for our wedding! Let's hope we like it all when we get home in a year since it was too heavy to carry we have posted it all!!On our last day we also managed to sneak up to the 54th floor of the hyatt in Pudong to check out the skyline - incredible!! (we were hanging out with people turning up to an Audi convention - we don't think they noticed us in our sneakers with backpacks!)That is all from Shanghai - have just arrived in Beijing via bullet train so will write more soon.McduffMichele & Tristan

Xian & Mt Hua Shan

Photos:

The Cable Car

The top of Hua Shan

Possums Car!

The Stairs on Mt Hua Shan

Mt Hua Shan

The Teracotta Army

Looking Across the Peaks

Dear Diary,

We have our things packed and today we fly from Xian to Shanghai. Xian has been our home for the last week (big thanks to the Macleans for having us) and is full with old sites to see so we have managed to jam plenty into our time here.

The first few days were based around the city centre, one of the local kiwis joined us and we checked out the bell & drum towers and the highlight a 17km bike around the city walls. We might just point out this was completed on a tandom bike! For those of you that have riden a bike in China you will understand that inflated tyres, brakes, and a straight set of handle bars, are something you can only dream of... So with a possible penalty of a fine for returning the bike in any time over 100 minutes its fair to say that we are seasoned pros on the tandom, speed site seeing and plenty of local beer was required at the finish point - cheers for a good day Bruce!

The main highlight for our time in Xian (and quite possibly a trip highlight to date) was our trip this on Monday. We booked a driver, who proudly collected us at 8am in a suzuki with no english and we set out for the Terricota warriors. An hour later we arrived and our driver was named ''possum'' as we had shot in and out of lanes, roads, between trucks and im pretty sure he got some sweet air over some road works at one point! A couple of hours got us through the warriors, the attached photos dont really do the place justice, incredible to be able to see things 1000's of years old, and we agree with the sign at the gate - the 8th wonder of the world!

Next stop was Mt Hua Shan, we had read a little about this place and decided it was our oppurtunity to climb a mountain. So possum dropped us at the base and we started our climb thinking we would go a couple of hours and set up camp for the night. The real difficulty with these places is the language barrier, as there are no engligh signs, people, or anything!! So after a good few hours of walking and the tempreature finaly dropping to below 25 we decided we would continue into the evening and head for the top hotel. This really was amazing. The hill got so steep at times that we had to grasp the rusty chains that were on the rocks beside us and hope like heck that we didnt topple over with our bags on! The steps were short (not deep enough for westerner size feet!) and there weren't any barriers but we made it safely to the peak early eveining - this being 1650m above sea level. After getting the token photo we opted for the cable car down the otherside and returned back to Xian the next day by public bus - very cool.

So with plenty more smiles lets see what Shanghai has to offer.

McDuff

Tristan & Michele

ooo Photos

Some new panda mates - Chengdu

Happy we managed to order something from a menu with no pictures (note the pale of rice!)

Top of the rice fields - Longshen (near Guillin)

Longshen village - (Near Guillin)

Top of Fubo Hill Guillin

Twin Lakes at Guillin

Our first overnight train experience - top bunks in a hard sleeper

Macau - overlooking the city

Dear Diary,

We have finally managed to find a place we can add some photos. We are currently in Xian China checking out the warriors and we are scheduled to climb Hua Shan in a couple of days, we will give a full update soon!

McDuff

Panda Park

Dear diary...Sorry its been a week but i am getting used to life as a traveller and forgot that i still had some responsibilities and that it was my turn to write!There are alot of people in China and they all like to push, shove and hurry everywhere! It is survival of the fittest in every aspect of life with our worst experiences being when trying to get onto public transport or buy food at a stall on the street. To get from Guilin to Chengdu (where i write this from) we splashed out and caught a flight. Our flight was scheduled for 2350 but was almost an hour and a half late to leave. When boarding began (as if people thought the plane would leave sooner) people were elbowing and pushing to try and get their ticket beeped. When we got to our seats that were near the front of the plane another couple had decided to sit in them just because they were near the front! Does no one else notice that there are allocated seats on a plane?? It is also rather commical asking them to move when the only thing we can say in Chinese is hullo and thank you!The best way to describe a public bus is to think of a can of sardines. When the bus comes to the stop everyone runs to the door and shoves to get on. The driver yells what we think to be move back and they just keep jamming people on until they can only just shut the doors and arms and bags are getting stuck! There is no such thing as a personal space bubble!Chengdu is a neat place with our highlight being spending a day at a panda research base. About 10km from the city is the biggest panda reasearch base and park in the world. It was incredible to get there early and see them munch on kilos of bamboo and then slump around because they were so full. The park alone was beautiful with real grass and trees! We also got to look in the nursery, research centre and kitchen which was interesting. Would have loved to have held one but at $250NZ it was way out of budget!While we have been here we have also visited some temples, peoples park, the tibetan quater of the city, seen the sichuan opera (more acrobats than singing thank goodness!) and done a cooking class that we produced so much food we could hardly more after trying to eat it all!Tomorrow we are taking on our next overnight train to head to X'ian to stay with some Kiwis (from Levin) who teach at an international school and to see the Terracota Warriors. We have opted for a first class carriage on the train this time so will be interesting to see what it is like.McDuffMichele and Tristan