On the road again....

It’s funny how a few days back in holiday mode and back on the road has made such a difference. We left Dusseldorf on Friday afternoon after our final round of maintenance on Cal. Since then we’ve travelled down the Moselle Valley which was brilliant. The Moselle River itself is surrounded by very steep hills that are covered with vinyards. We stayed a night in Brodenbach and Cochem. Cochem was recommended to us by Mum Griffioen and was brilliant. We managed to find a great free spot to camp right next to the river and about 400m from the middle of town. We walked up to the castle which is on a hill visible from all parts of the town and allows a wonderful view straight down the river. We were lucky enough to find a row of local stalls selling their own wine on a cliff face also looking over the town. The ride/walk up to the location was absolutely horrible in what had to be 30degree heat, but once we arrived, and found they were selling wine for 1euro a glass, everything seemed to be worth it. We took the lonely planets’ advice and sampled a couple of glasses of wine while enjoying the view. :)

We continued down the Moselle this afternoon and are now in Vianden which was recommended by Fe and Graham. This place is incredible.... We’ve stopped at a camp ground about 5 min walk from the town centre and have a direct view of... you guessed it... a castle! This is a smaller town that doesn’t even grace the pages of our AA Map book, but should be part of everyone’s itinerary if going to Luxemburg. Right now we’re sitting watching Germany vs England in the world cup at a brilliant little cafe/bar that has been converted from an old cinema. We’re eating a platter of salami and olives while enjoying a few beers. This is the life!

Thanks everyone for their comments and well wishes over the last couple of weeks. It’s been great to have encouraging feedback from home during what has been one of the tougher times of being away. We appreciate it! :)

Stuck... Again....

After our excellent weekend in Berlin with John and Marta we got back to Dusseldorf to pick up Callum which was in perfect running order. We camped for the night in Dusseldorf again. The next morning we headed to Colone (Koln) about 50KM away and stopped at a camp site just outside the city. The weather was perfect and we had the most beautiful view over the Rhine. The guy at the front counter was a real tosser (we found out later that he’s a jerk because we turned up at his lunch time and interrupted him... apparently thats rude over here....). We took the tram into Koln to check out the Kolner Dome which is the biggest cathedral in Germany. The Cathedral took more than 600 years to build due to stop start work, but was completed finally in 1880. The building survived heavy bombing in WWII with hardly a scratch. It’s absolutely massive and well worth the visit. Andrew climbed the 503 stairs to the top of the Dom which was quite an effort, Jamie still wasn’t feeling all that well from her cold, so stayed down stairs.

The next day Cal didn’t start all that well, as a precaution we took it back to the mechanic in Dusseldorf to check it out as we knew he had replaced the starter. After getting there and “speaking” to the mechanic in German, we found out that the 2nd hand starter that they had used will have to be replaced with a new one. That wasn’t a problem and was done in half an hour. This is when things turned bad..... AGAIN! When we tried to reverse him out, he didn’t want to move at all, it seemed as though reverse wasn’t working... We’ve now learnt several bad words in German and they were all on show by the mechanic. These guys have been great to us though, yesterday they gave us a car to take for a drive, so we went down to the local lake and had lunch. Cut to 7 o’clock last night, and our gear box is in the back of a car leaving the mechanic. Last night we camped in the mechanics front yard again which has a lovely view of the industrial complex across the road. We rode their bikes down to the local pub and had a Schnitzel and watched the football. The Schnitzel was about the size of Andrews head.... HUGE! We shall include a photo when able to.

Today we’ve taken a tram into town and walked around a bit. We’ve discovered that this shitty little town (Krefeld not Dusseldorf) is actually quite nice. We’ve decided that we require some reliable transport so we’re about to go and buy a couple of bikes for 150Euro (Jamie’s has a basket). Hopefully we’ll be back on the way soon... Maybe...

A&J

Christopher Street Parade - Berlin Gay Pride 2010

Well last night was one of the most amazing experiences both of us have ever had. We started the day at around 1pm by catching the train into the city and having a couple of beers. We realised that it was going to be a very expensive night/afternoon if we bought beers from the bars on the street at the festival, so we headed to a supermarket to get some alcohol. We ended up getting a couple of bottles of vodka for 5 euro each! Berlin is SO cheap! The festival itself was held in the middle of Berlin at the Brandenburg gate which had been cut off from traffic and transformed into a stage. It's amazing how much work these people had put in for this one night of partying. Once the parade began it was a brilliant show of floats driving up towards the Brandenburg Gate. The security was very relaxed which allowed us to get really close to the procession and get some brilliant photo's. At one stage Jamie and Marta (Johns girlfriend) were actually on a float and John and Andrew followed behind in the procession itself.

At the end of the parade there was a concert which had about 500,000 people at it which was just amazing. It was an excellent way to end the day. Although we didn't expect to get to Berlin at this stage of our trip and the circumstances were less than ideal, it was all made worth it by having a night like that. We look forward to getting back to Dusseldorf tomorrow to see our mate and hopefully make our way south.

A&J

Bad to worse... now a little better...

The last couple of days have been really difficult for the Griffo's. It's easy for us to put all of the nice things on this blog, but we want it to be a true representation of what it going on and how we're feeling... So here goes.

We first got our quote from the mechanic of 533 euro which we were really happy with so we booked into the Mecure for the night for a treat. We went to a local pub to watch some world cup football and have a few pints when all of a sudden Andrew began feeling really ill. It seemed as though a sudden bout of gastro was upon him. We made our way to the hotel via a tram ride of approximately 20 minutes of hell. On arrival at the hotel we went straight to our room and fell asleep, there was nothing near the hotel to buy food from so we dined on two bottles of Fanta from the vending machine in the hall (Andrew couldn't take anything else). The next day after a very broken sleep, we went downstairs and had breakfast which was included for us, Jamie ate quite well, and Andrew had a couple of bits of dry toast. After getting back into town and planning our new route once we got Callum back we decided to make a phone call to the mechanic to confirm a pick up time. This is where things really turned to shit.... The mechanic said "Hi Andrew.... Things are not fine..." the rest of the discussion was not something I should put in text. Ends up, it's going to cost us 1726 euro!!!  Turns  out we need another clutch as it was incorrectly installed by the previous mechanic and we also require a new gear box.  This was the moment that we had to decide if we keep Callum or sell it to a scrap yard and catch the train.  After lengthy discussion, we decided to pay for the repairs and continue on with our journey.

The next day we went to the train station (While Cal was in getting repairs) and decided to either go to Paris or Berlin (depending on what was cheapest).  Berlin won and we were on the next train. While sitting and waiting for the train, we messaged John (Jamie's cousin who lives in Berlin) who said we have to come and stay with him while we're in Berlin! SWEET! Maybe our luck was changing.... It was right at this stage that Andrew was stung by a bee on the neck... Awesome.  We got on the train and found some great seats and started having a bit of a nap when we were woken by someone claiming that we were in their seat. Turns out we didn't actually book a seat.. Just a ticket. So paying 180 euro, one way won't actually secure you a seat!!  We had to sit on the floor dodging the opening doors for the 4 hour journey.

(the better part)
Once we got to Berlin, John met us at the train station and we went to his place for a few drinks and a fairly early night. His girlfriend Marta came around and then his house mates got back. We ended up getting to bed around 2am. The next day Marta was nice enough to show us around Berlin. We went to see the Brandenburg Gate, The Holocaust Memorial, Government House, The Berliner Dom, The Berlin  Wall and a really cool art gallery that was covered in graffiti and looked like a derelict building, but housed some amazing (and some really shocking) art. We also received a phone call from the mechanic advising that Cal was ready to go, but we could pick it up on Monday if required. We're going to hit them up for a discount because it didn't take them as long as they thought.

Today we're off to the Berlin Gay Pride festival which should be good times! They've closed down lots of the main streets in the city for the parade which should be a lot of fun.

Will report again soon,

A&J xo

Dusseldorf (world cup disaster, callum in hospital)

Since our last update we've had a very mixed experience. After our last blog, Andrew spent the day walking around Dusseldorf, and Jamie spent the day in bed as she wasn't feeling well. That night we had a quiet one, watched some football and had a few beers at the camping ground "stadium" that they had set up. It was made from wooden pallets stacked high and covered in floodlights, beer signs and a massive TV. Pretty cool.. Sunday was the BIG day... we left our campsite at around midday and found a really nice bar down on the river in the centre of Dusseldorf. We met some really nice German guys who we sat with and watched the first two games for the day in lead up to the big one, AUSTRALIA Vs GERMANY! The whole day was full of Germans giving us shit for wearing our Australian gear. Obviously this stirred us on even more and we pulled out the Australian flag and gave it back to them (obviously we didn't know what was coming that night). We met a group of lads that were wearing all Australian gear and decided to go and sit with them. They were the loudest guys in the whole bar which was brilliant. So here we are sitting in a group of 10 Aussies, or so we thought... it turns out that all of these "Aussie" guys we met were actually from Switzerland! They had once visited Australia and liked it so much that they all bought Aussie soccer shirts and travelled to Germany to watch the game. That... and they hate the Germans! (from their mouth) HAHA! These wonderful lads shouted us drinks for most of the night because we're Aussies and we had a great time with them. That was where the night went down hill, not only the four goal trashing that we coped by the German team, but we also met some rather arrogant Germans who insisted on giving us a hard time about even being in their country. Wonderful sports hey....At this point Jamie wanted to get out of Germany alltogether!!

The following day was spent very quietly around the camping ground waiting for the mechanic to turn up and have a look at our mate Callum. This was a pretty special day of the trip.... Not one beer between us. Thats right, neither of us had a beers ALL DAY! Ended up the mechanic didn't show up as they were too busy..

Today started very saddly, but turned out to be OK... We started the day by seeing Callum loaded onto the back of a truck and taken away from us, which was more emotional than you would think... We saw our home being taken away from us and all we had was two small bags, a jar of garlic and a jar of green curry paste (stuff we had to take out of the fridge..). We went to the airport in the hope to pick up a cheap flight to Berlin to check it out, but it was going to cost 200 euro each so we didn't bother. We went back into town to watch the NZ game at an Irish bar (NZ JUST SCORED A GOAL!!!) and have a couple of pints. On pint number 2, the mechanic called and advised that the repair job will be 550 Euro and will be ready by tomorrow! We're stoked! To celebrate, we're off to a nice hotel tonight to unwind and get back into it.

Tomorrow - Moselle Valley (depending what time we get the big man back...)

A&J

Amsterdam

We know it’s been a week or so since we updated the blog, so here goes... We’ve spent the last 5 days in Amsterdam which was amazing. So far, this is the only city that we’ve said that we don’t want to leave. The reputation of Amsterdam is often about the drugs and sex (which is pretty awesome, don’t get us wrong), but Amsterdam is SO much more than that. So far it’s the only city we’ve visited that is completely open to the alternative. It doesn’t matter what you wear, who you are or how much money you have. The first couple of days in Amsterdam we (like every other tourist who comes here) walked around and just took in all of the sights, whether they be they be the beautiful canals that link almost the entire city (more than 100km), the amusing stoned tourists wandering from coffee shop to coffee shop, or the prostitutes standing in every window in the red light district.


After we settled in, we visited some of the museums including the Van Gough and the Dutch Resistance museums. We also found a small memorial building where all of the Jews were taken for deportation during the Second World War. This building was previously a theatre for the Jewish population before the War; during the war the Germans used it as a deportation centre to the concentration camps. The building is now a tribute to these people and holds stories of what happened. This was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Amsterdam and is well worth the visit (which doesn’t cost anything!). Our second last day we visited and Anne Frank house. Jamie has just finished reading the Anne Frank Diary, and Andrew is half way through. The Diary of Anne Frank is an emotional record of what happened to the Jews during World War 2 and the house itself where the family hid for so long is just as emotional. We both left the house struggling to speak and even writing this now, it’s difficult to put the experience into words. This is a MUST do on any trip to Amsterdam.

We spent almost every night out in Amsterdam at a bar somewhere. We met some wonderful people and caught up with some more that we have previously met elsewhere. We met Elmo and Saara (a Finnish couple) in a great little pub in the red light district and ended up having dinner with them. They kindly offered for us to visit them in Finland and stay with them, definitely next trip! We also caught up with Leith and Ben, a couple of lads from “The Gong” back in Oz. We met these guys in Brussels and immediately got on with them, so we organised to hit the town in Amsterdam with them. It was nice to hear that Aussie twang again and have some beers with some familiar faces.

We met Jamie’s cousins David and Liz a couple of times for drinks and dinner which was brilliant. These guys have lived in Amsterdam for 10 years and have excellent local knowledge about the best restaurants and bars. David took Andrew rock climbing which he loved and will be keen to pursue when back in Australia. We spent our last night with David and Liz in a great bar which is purely about the beer, no music, no TV, just beer! We had several different beers, and then managed to find our way back to the camp site... Brilliant!

Yesterday we left Amsterdam headed for Germany to watch the world cup game against Germany and also to have Callum’s problems looked at. We got to Dusseldorf and found a camp ground which is a short ferry across the Rhine from the city. Andrew noticed some issues changing gears while driving into “D-Town” and as we pulled into the camp ground realised that he could no longer get out of 1st gear. SO...... as it stands now, we can go forward (slowly) but can’t reverse (we don’t want to go backwards anyway). As it’s the weekend, there are no mechanics open, so we’re waiting until Monday, organising a mechanic (and maybe a tow truck) then probably flying to Berlin for a few days. Last night was a pretty tough night thinking that we’re stranded, Callum hates us and has packed it in, and it’s going to cost us a fortune to fix it. Today we’ve assessed the situation and are thinking..... Well, we’re stranded in a beautiful part of the world, and get to watch Australia play Germany in the world cup, in Germany as we wanted; it’s really not that bad.... :)

As I write this, I’m sitting in a little cafe in Dusseldorf on my second cup of coffee listening to a group of men talk about the football tomorrow night. All I’ve understood so far is “Australia” and something that sounds like “no chance”. They’re probably right, but we’ll still turn up in our colours and cheer on the boys while drinking all their beer! :)

A&J xo

Brussels

Over the last couple of days we've fit so much in we're both exhausted. On Thursday we drove from Brugge to Brussels which was quite an experience. Up until then, the TomTom (Sat Nav for the van) we're using had been brilliant.... This all changed so quickly on Thursday afternoon. As we were getting close to Brussels, we asked Tom to tell us where the closest camping spot to the city is. This, to our surprise, bought up a camping spot right in the middle of the city... GREAT! So we headed to our new found prime camping spot which was incredibly difficult to get to as we were winding around the coble stone streets of inner city Brussels. We at one stage crossed a round-a-bout that looked a lot like a smaller version of the Champs Elysees roundabout in Paris, then to our surprise they decided to throw a tram into the mix which was heading directly for poor Callum. Fortunately we were able to pull up in a car park and ring the "Camp Ground" to see where they were....... It was a camping SHOP! TomTom proceeded to continue this trick once more with us. After this, we managed to contact a real camp ground and get to our destination (10KM from the city).

Thursday night we met up with Laurence and Gautier (relatives of Andrew's) at their houseand met their beautiful children, we then proceeded to Uncle Alexanders house which is a lovely big home in a beautiful leafy suburb. Here we met more family and shared a special local meal of white asparagus with egg and butter sauce with some beautiful wines which was amazing. It was a very memorable night and an absolute delight to meet some of our extended family.

On Friday Laurence and Gautier were kind enough to give us a tour of Brussels. We met early in the morning and started on our big walk around this beautiful city. It was great to have some local knowledge of the best places to go. We saw so many beautiful places and ate some amazing food including more waffles, and some local chocolate. After they left us for the day, Jamie insisted that we go and see the new "Sex and the City" movie, which she loved! She was so excited that we could watch the movie in english. After the movie we went to a local pub to have a couple of beers to wind down. It ended up being a rather late night and a few more than a couple of beers (don't worry mum, we didn't get "shitfaced") as we met some locals and stayed out with them.

So we're off to the pub again this afternoon to watch Stozer clean up the French Open, then off to Amsterdam tomorrow! Good times!

Cheers,

A&J

Waffles, Chocolate, Beer and new Family!

On Tuesday we had a big drive from Rouen up to around Lille in Northern France. On the way we stopped at a McDonnald for a little more internet time and to look up where exactly Fromelles is. It ended up that we were about 25 Km's from the villiage which was brilliant. The reason we wanted to visit Fromelles is because there's a new war memorial and cemetary there for the Australians that were killed during the battle of Fromelles in the first world war. You may have seen it on the new in the last 12 months as they've just finished the reburial of 250 Australian and British soldiers. The cemetary, although not yet open to the public is really beautiful and well set out. We were able to look over the cemetary and look at the temporary memorial they have setup. Reading over the stories of the men, the battle, and the project to lay the soldiers to rest with a full military burial was very touching. It was also great to see the number of Aussies visiting the site and signing the guest book. We really are a proud nation.

Our last night in France we spent camped on a strawberry farm (Also diary producer) which was one of the France Passion stops. We bought some of their product and enjoyed next to the stream in lovely weather. What a great way to end this leg of France.

We're now in Brugge (Belgium) which is a beautiful town thats full of history and makes it impossible to take a bad photo. The movie "In Brugge" won an award in 2009 for best scenario. Quote: "If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me. But I didn't, so it doesn't". Although we loved the movie, we definately don't subscribe to the above idea that Brugge is an ordinary town. We had a day of sightseeing yesterday where we ate a waffle (which lead to the next activity), climbed the Belfry's 366 stairs for a brilliant view of the city, wandered the markets in the town centre, went on a boat tour around the canals of the town then, of course, went to a bar and tasted some of the hundreds of local beers whi\le watching Sam Stoser destroy Serina Williams in the French Open!

Today we're off to Brussels to meet some of our new relatives and see the capital of the EU. We're having supper tonight at one of Andrew's Dad's cousins then doing the siteseeing thing around Brussels tomorrow.

More to come...

A&J