After much debate about whether or not we should camp it, we decided to pack lightly and do the hostel thang again. So landing in Marseille on Thursday night, Kim jumped in the drivers seat of a left hand drive for the first time in 4 years. After a few ‘tense’ moments and arguments with the TomTom lass, we found our hotel which was laughable.

Up at the crack of dawn we were headed straight to St Tropez hitting traffic along the way (apparently Good Friday is not a public holiday everywhere). We drove to some beaches and had a looksy then into the town for a wander through the streets. Designer chicks with designer bags and designer dogs everywhere! So this is how the other side holiday huh?!

Happy with crepes for breaky, we took the scenic coastal route to Cannes. We stopped loads of times on this road as the views were simply stunning! At some points you could look down the cliffs and see all the houses below with their swimming pools and designer gardens. I suggested to Kim that we buy one of the shops along that road and live there!

Cannes was beautiful, but quite upmarket and touristy - as was expected. Reminded me of Sunset Boulevard in LA! We found a parking spot (a challenge in itself) and went for a wander in the main part of town. After a wander and ice cream looking out over the Mediterranean, we hopped back in the car and drove through Nice to… Monte Carlo in Monaco!

Monte Carlo, although similar to the rest of Southern France that we’d visited really, just _felt_ different! It was pretty cool to be in another country, in a matter of seconds (scary seconds might I add, given the cliffs were damn steep on the way to get there). We had a wander around a very small part of town, saw the Casino, went inside to use the loo and admired the view of the palace from afar and the mega hotels everywhere. We bought our 8 euro magnet from probably the worst of all places to buy one from… the foyer of another casino! We spent some time just breathing in the magnificent views of Monaco before taking off for Nice to settle in for the night.

Traffic was horrendous trying to get through Nice to where the hotels were. But eventually we made it and after getting very frustrated trying to find one of the hostels on my list, we settled on a nice hotel that offered us a small discount. We were just happy to have a bed after one huge big whopping day on the road!

Next day we were up early again to see Nice itself. We walked down through Massena Square to the Old Town where the flower market blew us away (as did the awesome market strawberries - yum!). We considered walking up a very steep hill to see the view from the lookout point we could see. But there were storm clouds coming in and we thought it would be just typical that if we went up there (minus our waterproof gear), the heavens would open up when we got there. So instead, we found a packed lunch and jumped in the car for another mega day of driving…

So we headed to Trigance, a tiny little town in the mountains. Winding roads everywhere, we saw some gorgeous scenery on the way. Once there, we saw the gorgeous medieval town atop a pretty little hill, then headed for Gorges du Verdon, the deepest canyon in Europe. And boy was it deep! Photo’s just didn’t do this thing justice, the river was SO far below the bridge we were on, it was amazing!

Next we were off to a very specific 17km stretch of road that I’d heard on travel forums was a place not to miss. So about 2 hours later, we get there and boy were they right! Unfortunate for us, it was very bright and so the photo’s probably won’t do the view justice, but from the tiny towns that flanked this road to the rolling hills and wineries, this stretch of road is a photographers dream! It was the D90 between Beaumes-de-Venise and Malaucene by the way

Not realising just how far away from Lyon we were, we rocked up at our hotel at 10pm and then realised that the reception closed at 9pm. Luckily for us, this trendy hotel had an atm that checked you in, took payment and spat out your room key. Sorted.

Easter Sunday… and we were up early again to drop the car off and catch a train to Switzerland! Finding the car drop off point was a nightmare, but by chance we found it and we were off and running to catch this train! A train change later and we were in Geneva! Initially slightly disappointed, Geneva did grow on me in the end. I guess that’s the problem with having expectations of a place. I had thought it was going to be more like what Lucerne turned out to be - beautiful mountains surrounding the city. But it wasn’t. Though seeing Le Jet D’Eau, St Peter’s Cathedral, the Old Town, Batiment Des Forces Motrices and the United Nations (although closed) made up for my initial reaction We paid a small fortune for some crepes by Le Jet D’Eau, but how often can you say you’ve done that?! Being Easter Sunday, we found a chocolatier and bought a bunny each. Yummmmm.

By late afternoon, we were on our way to Lucerne. Upon approaching Lucerne, we saw the huge snow capped mountains behind the small farms and we both started to get that excitement you get when you first start traveling. By the time we arrived at the central train station, we were hypo! We instantly fell in love with the place and everywhere we looked, it was another stunning view! After taking loads of photo’s, we found our hotel… a Jail-hotel! We stayed in one of the cells, kind of freaky and cool at the same time!

We had some time before the sun went down, so we went to see the Lion monument. This was truly touching and extremely sad… I have probably never been moved by any monument quite like this one. Luckily for us, it was evening and it was lovely and quiet. So we also visited the Chapel Bridge and went for a wander. Then at dusk, we took some amazing shots over the lake (well, we hope they turned out as good as they looked on the cameras at the time!).

Easter Monday and we were determined to conquer Mount Pilatus… in the modern way of course, bus then ski lift. Typically for us, the cog wheel train doesn’t start operating until May, so we had to take the boring way up! Though I was still terrified (as we all probably know by now!). Anyway, we spent a good few hours up there as it was an amazing view and feeling! The weather was just perfect for us - we were really lucky all weekend actually! Was also freaky to be absolutely freezing on one side (the dragon side) of that mountain and then sunbathing while eating Easter eggs on the other side?!

We had just enough time after that to take a 2 hour boat ride over the lake to Weggis for more stunning views. The sun was so gloriously warm that Kim worked on his sunglasses lines and I had to use sunscreen! We purchased the all essential swiss army knife for Mr Gadget Boy and hopped on a train for the airport. We jam packed this weekend, but it was well and truly worth it to see everything we did.

This trip we had our good friends Jonathan and Nicci join us. Nicci was already in Italy visiting family and poor Jonathan had to experience our “traveling style” all on his own. The stress for Jonathan started with Phillipa running slightly late for the train to the airport. I am used to Phillipa cutting it very fine to catch any transport but I don’t think Jonathan was ready. Once we finally got on the train on time Jonathan started to relax but not after having a few heart attacks in between.

Phillipa hasn’t driven a car for a while now, let alone driving on the other side of the road, so lets just say if Jonathan wasn’t in the car we would have had a few more flavorsome arguments. After a few scares here and there we got lost even though we had a TomTom to guide us. Driving around Treviso trying to find our hotel (wrong address provided by the web booking) we found ourselves driving through the business district. The red light business district that is, which later on provided us with a sound show just before we called it a night in our bad Vegas style decorated room.

Driving through Italy we saw some very beautiful landscape with cute little towns and green country side. After driving all morning we finally reached Nicci’s Grandparents place near Morsano. Walking around the cute little town we noticed that every town had a clock tower. From Nicci’s Grandparents town we could see mountain tops filled with snow. After eating a lovely 3 course lunch provided by Nicci’s family (traditional Italian style) we decided to start the drive to the mountains for our skiing adventure.

As we were driving higher and higher more and more snow started to appear everywhere. Like kids in a lolly shop we got very excited. Snow was such a rare thing for all of us as we weren’t really skiers and living in the southern hemisphere we don’t have snow on our door steps every year. After checking in to a cosy little hotel we decided to go and play in the snow. All rugged up with all our new snow gear we went for a quick drive to find a small area were we started play (snow ball fights and snow angels). Heading back into town looking for food, we found a ski rental place and got ourselves all kitted out. With our ski gear all rented ready to go we headed back had some dinner and rested for our big day ahead.

Four newbies to skiing we looked up at each intermediate slope and started to freak out. Hoping there was a beginners slope near by we asked some English speaking skiers if they could show us on the map where the beginner slopes where. He kindly pointed out that there was a sign in the distance that pointed to it. The sign read Baby, perfect. We thought we could start with all the kiddies till we got our confidence up with this in mind we quickly made our way there. We have had lessons, how hard could it be, right?

As we got to the baby slope we found ourselves surrounded by many beginners of different ages so we felt a bit better. However, it seemed the younger the beginner, the better they were and the more it made the four of us look like fish out of water. We spent a good few hours skiing down the baby slopes and as our confidence grew we started to want more. We were “flying” down the slopes by then and even beating some kids so Phillipa looked at the map and picked our next mountain.

We made our way to the blue run which from our map said Beginner/Intermediate. It looked pretty scary but we figure it was the natural progression to leave the baby slopes and head over to the beginner slopes. Not listening to any of the clues that this was a bad idea, all 3 of us fell off the ski lift (Nicci was smart enough to opt this one out). As we watched the advance skiers fly down the hill we started to worry when the lift just kept going up and up. Getting to the top we could no longer see anywhere near the bottom where Nicci sat waiting for us. Phillipa asked to go first with Jonathan following. After falling over 3 times within 10 meters of the top, Jonathan got some confidence and disappeared down the slope. The slope being steeper than we had ever imagined, we started to panic and the screaming inside was getting louder and louder. Getting about mid way, I could no longer see Phillipa or Jonathan weaving down the mountain.

By this point, many of my limbs were crossed - not for good luck, but the lack of control coming down. Skiing down the hill with only hope for no injuries or broken bones, I finally see the end in sight. With other skiers racing down the hill it only made me feel more and more like an idiot. Only to be described as a learner driving in a car with hazard lights and hand break on. With much joy and relief I found myself in one piece at the bottom of the slope only to find both Jonathan and Phillipa a bit pale from fear.

Jonathan putting snow around his sore knee he later described his display of bambi on ice mixed with penguins trying to fly. He was also shattered to learn that none of us saw his final (unintentional) spectacular jump over the last slope. Spooked out we decided to get some confidence back on the baby slope before trying any other slopes for the time being. After a few more runs down the baby slopes Phillipa and I decided that the only way to conquer the hills in the short time we were here would be to get some professional lessons.

The next day eager but scared, we took the slopes with a fantastic teacher. With the professional know-how and the correct techniques skiing wasn’t as hard as we thought. Within 1 hr we were skiing down blue grade slopes (the ones we were MEANT to progress to) with a new confidence.

The next few days flew by and new slope after new slope we just pushed the limits as far as we could. With forward rolls, cart wheels and star fish leaps it would seem we were trying to do gymnastics on snow but in reality we were just trying to stay alive after a crash. There were a few times where each of us had a face full of snow and legs and arms in angles that we didn’t think possible. We finished up and drove back to the airport where we had a long trip home where sleep was on the agenda. A fantastic time with battle scares in forms of dark blue and purple bruises we left Italy with very tired but happy with did it.

We arrived in Cape Town on Saturday afternoon after an overnight flight (from which we were surprisingly fresh faced) and I jumped in the drivers seat of a car for the first time in nearly 18 months (I think). As if that wasn’t scary enough, we had the echo’s of all the advice from our South African friends in London filling our heads. Lock the car doors at all times; don’t mind the shanties on the side of the road - you’ll soon hit suburbia; whatever you do, DON’T STOP to help anyone; and the list went on. So needless to say, we were a little worried when we first arrived!

So anyway, we punched in a random beach destination to head to first and made our way along the east coast of the Cape Town peninsula. And bam - we were right in the middle of a township. It was a shock to say the least. This was the first part of South Africa we had seen - but we were expecting housing the standard of home in Australia.

As we drove around the coast, we saw the housing change - dramatically. To the point where we were now seeing mansions in trendy sea-side suburbs. All I could feel was a knot in my stomach and thinking ‘this is not right’. But this is South Africa. Exactly this. Extremely poor live right next door to extremely rich. I won’t go on too much about this, as I think by now, I could actually write a book on my thoughts, but I’ll refrain and save you the pain of reading it

We breathed in the beautiful scenery the whole way around to Cape Point. At one point, we stopped to take a photo and realised we were surrounded by Australian gum trees - and instantly I started to feel at home! We got to the point and made our way up to the lookout/lighthouse. It was a stunning view and the sun was shining brilliantly. I was excited to see signs telling us not to feed the baboons. A pest to the locals, but I was just aching to see some in the wild!

We went to beach at the Cape of Good Hope - the most south westerly point of the African continent and on the way, we saw about a dozen ostriches making their way along the road. We got so close to them, it was fantastic! We then took a drive around the national park and along the way saw many a turtle sitting next to - or crossing - the roads. So cute!

Disappointed with not seeing any baboons, I reluctantly drove us out of the park - because we were scared we’d stayed too late and were about to be locked in! But we were ok Minutes outside the park, we saw a 4WD parked in the middle of the road. I realised soon enough that they were doing so as there were baboons on their roof! And then I realised they were everywhere! I was ecstatic! We stopped for about half an hour to watch them eat, fight, groom each other and jump all over the 4WD. So, that was day 1 in a nutshell… I’d better get this post moving…

Next day we eased into holiday mode with a lovely breakfast at a cafe, then down to take a look at the waterfront, which was right near where we were staying. We took a walk around, seeing the pier, some gorgeous seals lazing around - all with the beautiful view of table mountain (with it’s tablecloth) in the background. Stunning Kim stocked up on biltong and we were off for a drive along the west coast.

In the beautiful sunshine, we set off to see Camps Bay, Clifton beaches, Hout Bay and Chapman’s Peak drive. Although Chapman’s Peak drive was closed, we were able to get some of the way to see the beautiful view of Hout Bay from afar. So next, we drove inland to the east coast, back to Simon’s town, where we almost considered going in for a swim. Next, we drove back the way we came to Llandudno beach which was a stunning, almost undiscovered paradise! Though the water was EXTREMELY cold on this side (West side of Cape is freezing, East side is warm), there were still some nutters surfing and swimming. We were happy to chill on the beach and do nothing for a while.

We then drove up to Signal Hill to see the sun set over the West coast - what a stunning view. And boy were there some people around doing the exact same thing!

Next morning, we set off early to climb table mountain. After a bit of a panic, we found the track we were advised to follow (the trusty lonely planet guide to the rescue again) and set off. 2 hours was the estimated duration and we hit it almost to the minute. When we got to the summit, we were enveloped in the infamous table cloth cloud that seeps over the edge of table mountain. It was surreal! But once on top (and chuffed with our achievement), we wandered toward the cable car to soak in the view where the cloud had cleared. Breathtaking.

As if 2 hours of hiking wasn’t enough, we were off for a surfing lesson in Simon’s town for the afternoon. No shark attacks, don’t worry, but we were both up and surfing straight away to our great delight! Ok, so second attempt for me, but first for Kim (typically!). We have now fallen in love with surfing and think we’re going to try for a surf trip in Summer After a full day of activities, we headed back to Cape Town where we had our first exposure to South African traffic. Hmmm. There’s definitely something to be said about quality public transport (of which there is none-to-very-little in South Africa). That night, we wandered down to the waterfront for another look for some seals and a bite to eat.

Next day, we booked a tour through the Townships. All the guides recommended a tourguide to visit these towns, though now having done it, I’d have happily gone on my own - but maybe we wouldn’t have been as welcomed on our own.

We started off at the district 6 museum where we had a measly 30 minutes to look at photo’s, interviews, signs and tragic poetry from the horrible ‘laws’ of apartheid. This was the kind of museum I could spend 3 hours in, so 30 minutes didn’t come close to doing it justice. The most striking to me were the signs for ‘Parking - Whites only’ and park benches that were ‘Whites only’. It made me feel sick. How could these people not see how inhumane it is to put down a whole race? Then we learnt that there were white scientists who were trying to develop a disease that would wipe out every black person. Another attempt at a holocaust.

Next stop were the townships. (Sorry, but we can’t remember the names of them!) First we visited a pub - a shanty where the beer is served in a bucket for all to share. I honestly thought the lady was doing her washing, not serving us beer! But after the comment (from the Irishman of all people) about how the Aussie (aka me) would happily drink the lot, I was a little scared for my life!! We met our next guide who waked us through the township to see what the government ‘provided’ for them when they were ‘moved’ out to the townships - and then made them pay unaffordable rent. The conditions were appauling. People crammed in tiny flats where the bathrooms were not even safe. We then visited newer flats where conditions were better, but when you compare these flats to the houses of our friends (similar to Austraila), it’s still ridiculous.

We went to see the church, which was similar to the pub, which is similar to the corner store, which is similar to some of the houses (aka shanty’s). We then drove through the centre of the town to see a witchdoctor. Me being an animal lover, I was about ready to scream at the man for having animal parts hung up on display around the whole place. It was dark, dingy, it smelt horrible and felt like death. I just wanted out of there asap.

We then drove to another township and visited a child care centre where the kids were let loose on us after they sang us a song. We think they had been filled with red cordial because they just kept on going! We left there exhausted and headed to Robben Island.

Kim concentrated very hard to keep his lunch down on the way out to Robben Island! Together with our Irish friend, we boarded a bus, expecting to be taken to the prison… except we could see the prison from the bus. The bus took off and then pulled over not 30 seconds later where the guide started cracking some ordinary jokes. We were all thinking ‘here we go’. But then he started asking which countries we all represented. He then started to tell the story of how each and every country contributed to South Africa and/or how it was involved in apartheid. Kim and I being the only Aussies, I put up my hand to say Australia to which I was instantly ostracized! He told us about how Captain Cook had brought eucalyptus seeds from Australia and left some rabbits for the sailors to feast on. As a result, the whole of Robben Island has been sucked of fresh water… oops.

Our guide was actually quite entertaining. When he showed us the canon from World War II, he also explained that it was finished being built a number of years after the war ended He also explained that in England they have watches. In South Africa, they have time.

A former political prisoner took us through the prison itself and told us about life on the inside. We were taken to see Nelson Mandela’s cell and the yard where he worked and hid the pages of his book. It was an incredible experience to see where such a great man lived for such a huge chunk of his life.

Upon leaving the island, we had to fight our way through traffic in Cape Town to make it to the airport. As if the horrid traffic wasn’t enough, when we drove past a freeway bridge that simply stopped existing was, well, terrifying.

We made it to Johannesburg where Nicci and Jono picked us up. They drove us around a few parts of Jo’burg to see a nice view of the city at night and also some HUGE big walls that apparently protected mansions (which we occasionally got a glimpse of). I’m not sure what was more sad… the fact these people had huge beautiful houses that had to be completely covered up with huge, tall fences and topped off with electric fences on top, or the fact that such wealth existed in the very same city that extreme poverty existed.

That night, we met Jono’s family and they were so lovely - and his brother gave up his bed for us Had a good chat, and headed to bed.

Ok, so thanks to our new version of wordpress blog, I am well aware that this post is approaching 2000 words, but unfortunately for anyone still reading, there are still 5 days left…

Wednesday morning we were up at 5.30am - ouch. This was to attempt to beat traffic. We were on the road by about 6.20am and guess what? Traffic was still atrocious! We headed to Sun City for a day cruising down water slides and floating around fake rivers! Although we had to go pruney waiting for the big waves in the wave pool, we had a ball!

Jono, Matthew and we said goodbye to the other half of the Sun City gang and we headed through the Pilanesberg game park to get to our camping site. We were so excited and hopeful to see some big game! We had the ‘big 5′ on our mind!

After seeing a few big birds, some wild boar, loads of zebra’s and lots of buck, we were only a few hundred meters from the exit when we stumbled across a beautiful big elephant only a few meters away from the car! It was gorgeous and instantly I was in love with elephants!!! I was so excited and couldn’t wait for the morning when we had an early morning game drive booked.

After setting up camp, morning came far too early when we were up and setting off at 5am. In the dark, we spotted some Rhino’s and buck and when it came to be daylight, our ranger took us to an enclosure where we saw 7 wild dogs who were absolutely adorable and all huddled up in a pack while sleeping to keep warm. We also saw plenty of zebra’s, giraffe’s, boar and a call came over the ranger’s radio that lion’s had been spotted! Just like that, we were heading over to their location and we saw two of them lazing about in the tall grass. The best thing was though, that with all the trucks around these lions, in the far distance, giraffe’s were appearing everywhere! It was amazing to see - like they were trying to see what was going on!

We headed back to camp where we lived it up a little with a cooked breakfast in the camp restaurant (yeah, we were clearly roughing it!). We had a great conversation for a number of hours then went to top up on some sleep. After our nap, we were up for another game drive through the park. This time we spotted hippo’s! Matthew and Kim are still not convinced that we saw them, but Jono and I could see them! Unfortunately they didn’t pop up high enough for any decent photo’s, but they were definitely there!!! But we saw lots of gorgeous birds and loads of zebra’s, rhino’s and buck. So beautiful! Back at camp, we saw some monkeys in the distance (but weren’t quick enough with the camera), squirrels and all sorts of birdlife. Not to mention the friendly cat that was hanging around our camp!

Next day we had a final drive through the park. This time we saw a dung beetle pushing a piece of dung across the road (highly entertaining), beautiful dragonflies, lizards and a solitary springbok! And just as we were leaving, we saw 3 definite hippos! Whoo!

On the drive back to Jo’burg, we saw countless shanty townships. Except when we stopped by the Hartebeespoort Dam (I think). The houses here were mansions in comparison, but apart from the bright green algae, it was a lovely view! Back to Jo’burg we spent the night in a heavy-metal nightclub (kinda) which was an interesting experience!

Next day we had the traditional South African Brai. For those that don’t know what a brai is, it’s a BBQ (weirdo’s, I know ). In apparent typical-brai-style, the boys had too much sun, drink and conversation and the coals on the barbie burnt out. So our lunchtime brai turned into a 7pm brai, with the help of some hairdryers! But it was a great day, kids were swimming in the pool (that includes Kim), we were soaking up the sun and good company.

The following day was our last day in SA. We started it with a trip to the apartheid museum. This was extremely well presented and told the story of apartheid in great detail. Some of the footage shown was shocking - white politicians blatantly lying to the public. The wall full of apartheid legislation. As Matthew pointed out to me, Kim and my marriage would be illegal under apartheid.

We had lunch at Jono’s sisters house where we said our goodbye’s. What an amazing adventure with so many facets to a wonderful country.

Our train ride from Kiruna to Narvik in Norway was quite literally the most amazing train ride I have ever had! The views of the fjord we weaved our way through was simply breathtaking. I was like a kid in a candy store jumping out of my seat every time we went around another corner - it was just so stunning! It was exactly like the adverts on the tube… Who’d have known!

We got to Narvik in the dark and it was freezing to say the least! Ice everywhere, it proved a little difficult to walk around, but we finally made the bus stop and grabbed a bite to eat. Again, we cursed Connex because we could see the outline of the ski slope that was literally in the middle of the city and it would have been good to actually SEE the thing! It looked pretty from what we could see!

Next we had to catch a bus for a whopping 4.5 hour journey to Tromsø. Again, would have been nice to have a bit of daylight to see where we were going, but by now we’d realised that there WAS no daylight to be had about this far north! So we listened to Hughsey and Kate podcasts all the way

We got there to be greeted by an excitable fellow guest who was on a quest to see the Northern Lights. So we set out at 10pm in search of these things and walked around for while, waited for a while and then gave up and walked back to the hostel! But nice conversation made it all worthwhile!

Next morning we woke up at about 10am - still dark outside - feeling a little confused! It was quite an experience not to see any daylight, but it did get lighter. The sky was really lovely bluish colour for a few hours around midday and it was perfect for taking photos. So for the next few days we spent those hours out and about to take some gorgeous photo’s of the lovely town.

First night there, we were off for an adventure snow shoeing. We intended to cross country ski, but it had rained for the last few days which meant there was no snow left to ski on! But don’t worry, from that day on, it did nothing but snow… and snow… and snow… oh and snow.

But snow shoeing was an awesome adventure in itself! We felt kind of strange with big huge shoe-like contraptions on our feet, but we soon found the kids within. Snowballs, snow angels, ’speccies’, wrestling and running down hills like a bat out of hell was just the tip of the iceberg (hehe).

Next day we decided to trek across the huge bridge to the arctic cathedral on the mainland. It was a lovely walk over and the clouds stayed away long enough for our visit to the other side with some nice photos However once we got to the other side, we could see another snow storm coming straight for us. So we hung out at a bus stop, hoping for it to blow over or for a bus to come! But the storm passed before the bus, so we were back over the bridge… And cold. My goodness, this cold compared to the coldest we’d ever been (New York, -30 degrees wind chill on Straten Island). The wind was so icy!!! Once on the other side, we saw a ‘park’ which had about half a metre of snow covering it and untouched by footprints. So we made our mark and played in the snow again for a bit

That night was NYE and what an amazing sight! Crackers were going off ALL over the city ALL night long - it was fantastic! When it struck midnight (not that we could actually hear or tell when that was), it was like every house in the city was letting off fire works in their backyards - and in front of us only metres away! There’s something to be said about legalising fireworks! The locals were friendly and it was a really nice community feeling around us. After it died down a bit, we took another night to wander the streets in hope of the Northern Lights, but again no joy! We ended up getting home about 2.30am - which is late for oldies like us haha.

Next night we were off for our final adventure above the arctic circle - dog sledding near Lyngen. I was really worried at first because I thought maybe the dogs would have been mistreated. But they were so beautiful and seemed to absolutely love just… well… running! They were really quiet when we first arrived, but they soon realised what was about to come so a few started to get a bit anxious and started to howl and bark. And that was it, they were all in on it, they were almost like a choir!

We didn’t actually realise that we would be driving the sled, so when the instructor started telling us how to drive the sled, I was part in shock. But I did hear him say, “no matter what you do, the driver MUST stay on the brake at all times when you are stopped. They will just take off if they can, driver or no driver and you won’t be able to catch them!”. Yup, got it, I thought. I just won’t drive So all ready to go with me in the sled and Kim behind driving, the dogs would tug on their ropes every now and then to see if there was any give. Eventually we were off and running… well, they were Kim soon realised he had to do a bit of work when going up hills or in deep snow, so he was getting a nice workout while I was enjoying the ride from the sled. It was so beautiful, peaceful and kind of exciting, but after a while, I was starting to get really cold! So we agreed that we’d swap drivers for me to warm up. And warm I did, quite nicely thanks! That was after steering us into a few trees here and there

After a while, I was warm enough and we faced a hill that was a bit bigger than the last few we’d just been up, so I asked Kim to swap back. No problem. So out of the sled he gets and hands me the camera bag. As I grab the camera bag, I put my weight on my back foot… not the foot that was on the brake… and then… they were off. Without Kim or me on board. We started to run, even though it felt useless. Kim sped off in front of me and I was dropping gear left, right and centre, so I backed up to pick it up and then trotted off again to catch up. When I got over the hill I was trying to avoid, to my surprise, I found Kim with our sled, our dogs and the couple in front of us! Apparently Kim had almost caught up to them on the hill, but was within inches when they got to the top and they zoomed off on him. Luckily the couple in front of us noticed that our dogs were overtaking them and there was noone in our sled! So he somehow managed to control two sleds with a foot on each brake while his girlfriend tried to pull back on our dogs while we caught up. Needless to say, we were VERY appreciative, we thought it was going to be a loooong walk home in the snow and I was wondering how we were going to explain to the organisers that our dogs were AWOL.

After our little ‘adventure’, we stopped off at at Sami tent for a traditional reindeer stew with bread which was really yummy! After the girls warmed up (I was already warm) and the boys cooled down (Kim was still warm), we set off for our last leg back to the bus. I made good friends with the fifth of our dogs while we waited for those in front to go first - he was so beautiful!!!! On the way back to Tromsø, our bus driver had to stop a number of times to wipe off the snow that was falling - it was so heavy and so constant!

After getting home late, we had a short night because we caught a flight to Oslo the next morning. We spent the day exploring what we could see in the remaining light in Oslo, and managed to stumble on the most beautiful sunset we’ve ever seen! See the top photo

Next day we were up early to explore for our last day in Scandinavia. We visited Vigeland park, the Viking Ship museum, Akershus Fort and Castle and then went up into the mountains to Holmenkollen where locals go skiing. It’s on a metro line which was pretty cool! We walked down some of the mountain where Kim landed on his bum a few times But the view from up there was gorgeous too! We even got to see the ski jump which was used in the winter olympics at some point.

So other than freaking out due to lack of public transport on a Sunday to get to the airport, that was our trip in a nutshell! A fantastic and freezing adventure that was well worth every penny!

We started off being over cautious and getting to the airport well over 2 hours before our departure, definite overkill. But our second experience at Terminal 5 was much better than the first (the day it opened - see Austria blog). We arrived in Stockholm in one piece and on time to get a taxi to our hotel. Our first experience of Sweden was the architecture. Our hotel was a piece of art in itself! Due to the time difference, we both called home to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and then off to bed.

Woke up Christmas morning and looked outside first thing - it was white! Frost that is, not snow. The frost was so thick, everything looked white, so we consider that to be our first (and probably only) White Christmas We went downstairs to have breakfast where Kim was delighted to try smoked reindeer and pickled herring.

After our rather non-eventful morning, we set off to look around Stockholm. We had a look over the city from a nice lookout point and wandered around the old part of the city. It was soooo cold, we’d totally underestimated how cold we’d be outside walking all day, but we ventured on. We saw the palace, some churches, parliament buildings and then took a stroll down the main shopping strip. Being Christmas day, not much was open. We decided we needed to thaw out a bit, so we found a coffee shop, paid £15 (AU$30) on two hot chocolates and a slice of cake to share. Ouch. But we made the most of it and stayed there and talked for at least 2 and a half hours! Until our dinner reservations actually! Our dinner was lovely, but as everything in this place, expensive Not exactly the traditional Christmas dinner… After dinner, we basically ran back to our hotel, which was a good 40 minute walk because it was sooo cold! We settled in for a lazy night and kicked back So that was our Christmas!

Next day we took our time getting ready before hitting the shops for the Boxing day sales. Of course, with only a daypack each with us, we had no room for anything, but Kim needed shoes for the snow, so we bought some and threw out his old ones. Mission accomplished, we went through an inner city square, watched kids make snow angels and people ice skating. Was a beautiful sight! We had a look around some of the islands and saw a museum, then took the ferry back across the water, a lovely view!

Next day we were up early to catch a flight to Kiruna, above the arctic circle We bought metro train tickets, didn’t know how to actually use them, so a lady let us through the barrier. On the platform, we found a very strange advert for ‘clone a willy’ - see the photo’s, it’s for real! Off to the airport and on a plane that had to be washed down prior to departure, first time we’d seen that!

We arrived in Kiruna to see the sun at it’s peak for the day… about a 1cm above the horizon It was an awesome light and fantastic for photography! We conned our way onto the bus for the ice hotel for our 2 nights sleeping on ice!!! When we got there, we went straight into a tour of the hotel and spent a good hour inside in -5 degrees checking out all the cool art rooms. What an awesome place! Artists come every year to design and sculpt a room of ice. Most have never worked with ice before, so damn impressive we thought!

After that, we had a survival meeting which ran through essentials of how to sleep on the ice and actually wake up There was much debate between a single sleeping bag and a double… One of the only times I have ever said to Kim that I wouldn’t let him forget it if he didn’t go double with me! I needed his body heat dammit! The funniest part was hearing all the toff women carry on about having to walk in their long johns from the warm changing rooms to their ice room.

Next we suited up and went for a walk to search for these elusive northern lights. Although we didn’t find them, we did find plenty of snow to play snow angels in and a game of dare as to how deep each other would dare walk into!

That night, we headed to the Ice Hotel restaurant. Clearly we were uneducated about this experience. We both ordered King Crab as a starter which cost us £25 (AU$50) each - yes this was a starter. But worse… It was the size of about a tenth of a crab stick. Damn. Kim’s main wasn’t much better, but mine was massive, so we shared mine! Whoa - we thought the accommodation was expensive, the meals are worse!! FYI - if you happen to be going to the Ice Hotel in Sweden, head down to the OTHER restaurant around Jukkasjärvi, it was £35 all you can eat buffet, which we did the following night!

So anyway, we head off to bed in our long johns and big massive snow boots that they give you on arrival. It was so exciting, we were just buzzing! We took a trillion photo’s of us in the room freezing our butts off, but it was all good. We soon snuggled in for a nice warm night… kinda! Our noses and faces were cold, but with the aid of some buffs and beanies, we had them covered too!

We were woken in the morning to hot lingonberry juice (yum). We were told we had to be out of bed by 10am, purely because that’s when the hotel turns into a museum - not nice to be on display in your undies I guess

But we were up early to go on our snowmobiling adventure! We headed out with a small group to the Kebne mountain area. After a quick lesson on how to drive the beasts, we spent an adventurous 3 hours snowmobiling, ice fishing and moose spotting in this beautiful, isolated area of Sweden. If you ever get to this area of the world, we highly recommend Kiruna Guidetur! Some parts of this trip, however, were just plain scary! At first we were driving in the snow, which seemed stable enough, but then we started driving over the frozen lake… when you go through a nice deep puddle it makes you wonder if you’ll be sinking too far down! We stacked the thing a few times, nothing major, but another couple had to be towed out of some deep snow! The other thing was the wind - by the end of the day, the wind was blowing quite a gale and of course I needed to pee… So off to the outhouse I go. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I had to fight the loo door open to escape - the wind was mighty determined to lock me in that loo forever!

After lunch and another drive back to our starting point, we made the trek back to Jukkasjärvi for our second night on ice!

That night, we took out a kicksled and rode around Jukkasjärvi looking for the Northern Lights again, but without luck. After dinner, we went to the ice bar for a vodka (and Kim had one too!) and met a lovely American/German couple who we had a good laugh with. Then off for our second night on ice!

Next morning we were off to Norway. We were to catch the train, but given it was run by Connex, it was 2.5 hours late Typically, this wasn’t just annoying, but disappointing because it meant our limited daylight hours were reduced even more. So although we got to see the beautiful lakes, mountains and the fjords between Kiruna and Narvik, there was just not enough light for photo’s to do this magnificent place justice! Onto Norway……

Up at an ungodly hour (or maybe it just felt that way because I went to bed at an ungodly hour), we boarded a train to Southend and slept every wink we could squeeze in.  When we arrived, we stepped one foot of the train and the chill reached our bones!  MAN this country is cold!  It was then that we started to worry about how we are going to survive Scandinavia at Christmas time!!

Rachel and Dan were nice enough to pick us up from the station in their nice, warm car and drive us to the range where Dan and his Dad go clay shooting every other week.  Dan’s Dad negotiated a deal with an instructor to show Kim and I how it is done.  First up, Dan’s Dad showed us what it’s all about.  I think he got all of his first 5 or so shots, so of course we felt a tad under pressure!

So Kim was first to the little shooters box thingy.  The instructor showed him what it was all about and he showed him where the clay thingy was going to go.  So then it was time for his first attempt.  Bang - and he got it.  Dan and Rachel said the look on my face said it all - how on EARTH did he get his first shot ever?!?!  Come ON!  So anyway, I settled with the fact it was just beginners luck until BANG - another one down.  WHAT?!  He followed it up with a third and fourth and thankfully for me (feeling rather competitive of course) he missed the fifth one.  Phew!  At least he missed one!

Next, I was up on the plate for my turn.  He went over the same things with me.  How I should stand, where the gun should sit on my shoulder and my face… hang about, my face?!  Really?  I take the impact of this shot on my cheek?  Now as you know, I’m no princess, but I still don’t want all my work mates bagging me for having a bruise on my cheek from clay pigeon shooting!

After Rachel telling me about how she doesn’t shoot anymore because of the bruises she used to get up her shoulders and arms, I wasn’t too keen on shooting this damn gun at this point.  But given I was up there, all setup ready to shoot, I figured I just had to do it!

So believe it or not, I braced myself, held my breath, briefly closed my eyes and pulled the trigger.  And get this, I got it!  Whoo hoo!  The kick back wasn’t as bad as I’d anticipated afterall, but it was definitely there!  I got the next 3 as well and also missed the fifth, just like Kim.

So we ended up pretty close with our scores, Kim got 16 and I got 13 out of 25, which is apparently not too bad for beginners

After much speculating and weighing up advice from many people, we decided to ‘do’ Egypt as part of a group tour.  About 2 hours into our experience, we were thanking our lucky stars that we did.

Always a fan of the Lonely Planet, I had purchased the Egypt guide, but was a bit behind in actually reading it before we got to Cairo.  So, having stepped no more than 5 steps out of our hotel, we were approached by a friendly native who offered to show us the ‘real’ Egypt and also a good Papyrus Museum.  We obliged and joined him for a walk through some market streets to the museum.  He talked… a lot.  He was convinced we wanted to see the pyramids with him the following day, even though I told him we were going the day after and we really did not want to join him.

We managed to wiggle our way out of the papyrus museum with our cash staying firmly in our pockets.  We then asked for a recommendation for dinner - hey, he was friendly!  So he took us to a place near the shop where he worked.  He asked Kim if he wanted 1/2kg of meat to which we nearly jumped out of our pants.  He assured us it would be fine and invited Kim to see exactly how much 1/2kg of meat was.  So Kim was lucky enough to watch the ‘chef’ grab (literally in his bare hands) a handful of meat from a non-refrigerated tray in the shop window, slap it on some scales (that had probably not been washed since it was purchased), and stuck on skewers to be smoked and served as kofta.  All that said, we ate it and it was awesome.  Best meal we had in Egypt!  Though we were overcharged for it

Next our friend told us we must go to his shop to have hibiscus tea - it’s what you must do after dinner apparently.  So we followed him to the purfume shop where he ‘worked’.  We sat down to be introduced to an older guy named Fathy.  He proceeded to tell us all about the essential oils and how he hand picks them, grinds them to extract the oils and how he has sold them all over the world… etc etc etc.  We did get a tad worried when he insisted on massaging my shoulders followed by Kim’s with his top off.  Kim wasn’t overly impressed!  After about 15 minutes of discussing exactly why we didn’t want to purchase purfume right there and then, he finally let us go as I assured him we would be back at the end of our tour to buy up big.  Three hours since we left our hotel, we finally managed to make it back!

Escaping relatively unscathed, we went back to the hotel and I had a read of that Lonely Planet guide.  What did I find out?  Our evening neatly written out, step by step, as a scam warning to tourists :)  Nice one.

So the next day we weren’t taking any chances.  We called the tour guide and asked him for advice about where to go.  We ended up hiring a taxi for the day (yep, he waits around for you) to take us to the Mohammed Ali Mosque at Cidatel and then to a restaurant and back to the hotel.  Great day, but I was starting to wonder why I was getting so much attention (was it the blonde hair, the big assets or the low cut top?).

We were pretty keen to start the tour by this stage and our meeting didn’t come around quick enough!  Next day we were up and at the pyramids before we knew it!  Awesome!  Though the hundreds of locals trying to sell us everything from camera film to postcards to hats kind of took away from the ‘wow’ appeal.  But we weren’t too phased, got some awesome photo’s and started to get to know everyone on our tour.

We took the opportunity to go inside the second pyramid - an extremely humid and squishy experience, but one we were glad we did.  Afterall, we can now say we were inside one of the pyramids of Giza!  Next we saw the Sphinx.  With the pyramids in the background, I was in awe and couldn’t believe I was actually there in Egypt!

Next we went to a papyrus museum - funny that there is one on every corner?!  Then the Egyptian Museum which was just so huge - full of thousands of artifacts from ancient Egypt.

Next we were off to catch a ‘first class’ overnight train to Aswan.  Now there’s an experience!  The dunny’s on that thing were horrific to say the least.  And we were blessed with seats near the door to the loo’s too!  Yay!  Seats were comfy though and we managed to get some rest.  Arrived at Aswan and checked in to our cruise boat.  Soon we were off to see the High Dam and the magnificent Lake Nassar.  Our first temple visit was to Philae Temple - the temple of love :)  It was gorgeous, on a beautiful little island but sadly damaged by the Christians, like many of the temples of ancient Egypt.

We got back and jumped on a felucca to sail around the Nile.  The sun was setting and it was just beautiful!  The plan was to sail up the Nile to a Nubian village for a camel ride and see the village. Problem was, the current was particularly strong and even the motor boat we transferred to struggled to get anywhere through that current.  2m forward, 1m back.  After about 30 minutes and 50 litres of petrol, we turned back

Dreading the 2.50am wakeup call, we all head to bed to get our 3 or 4 hours sleep.  Weery eyed, 3am came far too quick and we were up and on the bus ready for our armed escort to Abu Simbel, 250km south of Aswan.  After 2 hours of our tour guide negotiating with the police because our co-driver did not have a licence, we were finally on the road to Abu Simbel - though I’m not sure where that armed escort went…  Asleep on the bus, I woke a few times - once to see the beautiful sunrise over the desert plains and another to see an unfortunate road accident

Once we got there, after eating our infamous breakfast boxes (with which we may as well have been eating the cardboard itself), we were lining up to see the magnificent temples of 13th Century BC, Abu Simbel.  Amazingly enough, organisations from all over the world helped to move these temples 65m higher and 200m back from the river to prevent the temples being destroyed with the forming of Lake Nassar.  Ramesses II built the temples for himself and his favourite wife (of 200 wives and concubines), Nefertari.  These were amazingly beautiful with an awesome view on the banks of Lake Nassar to match.  The condition of the inner rooms of this temple was astounding - the colour was so vibrant on so many of the hieroglyphs and carvings.

After twisting my ankle (not terribly bad), we were back on the bus for another snooze.  Once we got back, we were straight onto a small boat to visit a Nubian village of which we traveled to via camels.  Ange’s camel was named Mickey and strangely, I think that was the name of mine too… or maybe that’s just an Arabic word for giddy up!  Nonetheless, I was leading my own camel the whole way, my ’supervisor’ just walked behind us.
Back on the cruise boat, we set sail on the Nile until we docked to see Kom Ombo at night where we saw surgical instruments and calendars on the walls of the temple.  Pretty damn impressive if you ask me.  I just can’t get out of my head - what on earth went wrong with humankind?!  These ancient Egyptians knew so much of what we know today, they were so advanced, yet somewhere along the line, we went back to square one!  What happened with all that knowledge?  We also saw 3 mummified crocodiles which was pretty cool given they’re 2000 years old!

On the boat again, we had an Egyptian ‘fancy dress’ party I guess you could call it!  Highlight was Kim in a dress - damn cool that was (make sure you check out the photo’s to see him).  Next morning, we dock in Edfu to see Egypt’s best preserved temple.  The temple of Horus is Ptolemaic and it is massive to say the very least.  The highlight was the room with the recipes for medicines - everything is still so clear it just blows your mind away!

Back on the boat again, we cruise down the Nile.  This is probably the first time we actually got to rest and soak up the sun while watching the banks of the Nile drift by.  It was lovely!  We passed by Edna Lock and were amazed at the 6 metre drop!  We eventually make it to Luxor and made our way to Luxor Temple.  We get there just in time for the sun to go down so got some great shots :)  This place stood out because you can clearly see where churches and mosque’s had been literally built on top of the remains of the temple, before they were uncovered.  It was a good way to see the evolution of Egypt’s spirituality in one place!

After the temple, we made our way to a legit perfume shop where (for far too long) we tried to decide what to get.  I got a good set for my sister - she was pretty happy with that :)  Then we headed back for another short night…

Next morning our wakeup call was in the vicinity of 3am for our hot air balloon ride over Luxor.  Although we’ve had the pleasure of taking a ride in the past, it was incredible to watch the sun rise over the Nile and drift over the desert not far from the Valley of Kings.  We did sail over a temple which was fantastic to be able to see the ‘bird’s eye view’ for a change!  After we landed, we found out it was our Pilot’s first flight… we were just glad we found out AFTER the fact rather than before!  We had a strange dance with the locals before they tried to get money out of us just for holding hands during the dance…  But you get used to that kind of thing in Egypt!

Next we met up with the rest of the group and headed straight for the Valley of the Kings & Queens.  This was one of the highlights for us as we’d seen so many documentaries and exhibits, so it was fantastic to finally be there!  The tombs were amazing - the paint was still so bright and the entrances so grand!  The highlight was the tomb of Thutmes III - we had to climb up the side of a mountain and then down into the tomb, which was so hot and humid you can only last 3 or 4 minutes inside!  But it was a beautiful oval shaped room with primitive drawings on the walls.  Simply amazing.  We also went inside Ramses IV, Ramses V and Tutankhamun’s tombs - we even got to see the boy king himself!  His mummy is on display only a few metres from where he was laid to rest.  He was so small!  It was just amazing to be standing not a metre away from him!!!

Next we visited a stone mason’s shop and then we visited the temple of Al-Deir el-Bahri.  This is the most impressive temple in all of Egypt (in my opinion)!  From afar, it looks like it is almost new!  It’s design is so slick and impressive!  Though, by the time we reached this one, we were tired, hungry and very very hot.  So we probably didn’t pay it the attention it deserved!

We got back to Luxor and free time was on the menu.  We all decided to head to town to grab some lunch and the brave ones of the group - us included - made a beeline for Macca’s.  Mouths watering from the sight of recognisible *cough* food, we ordered what we thought would be regular meals.  When we got them, however, they were about 3 times the size of what they are at home, and that goes for the fries and drink as well!  They were massive!  Some of us couldn’t finish what we had, so we brought the leftovers outside and gave them to the local kids that were waiting for us to leave.  Steph gave her McFlurry to one of the boys and he asked her what is was.  She said ‘icecream’ and he was in awe of it!  I gave half a cup of lemonade to another boy and Ange said to him that he should share it with the others, to which she got a very rude ‘NO’ response!  Ouch!

Our last visit for the day (and as a full group) was to the Temple of Karnak.  Although we were getting pretty sick and tired of visiting temples by this stage, we were determined to get the most out of one of the biggest remaining in Egypt.  Something odd was happening within the group.  It was either the introduction of the chemicals from the Macca’s feed or the severe lack of sleep we were all experiencing, but we all went a little bit nuts!  When Victor told us about the good luck you got if you circled around a statue of a scarab beetle 7 times, you will have good luck, we all linked up and laughed ourselves silly as we circled it 7 times :)  We then started heading back to the bus when someone announced they wanted to take another obelisk photo when someone else piped up and said there was one lying down back there.  So 3 people went back to take some photo’s and then the rest of us just started bolting towards it to see what they were talking about.  When we turned the corner, they were in the most hillarious poses… sooo funny.  And… then I did my ankle.  My other ankle.  Whoo - two bad ankles, a first even for me!

We then had to say our sad goodbye’s to 2/3 of our group as they were heading back to Cairo.  After a quick dance and a few drinks, they were on the bus and ready for their awesome overnight train ride :)  The remainder of us had a nice meal on the roof of the hotel and then a reasonably early night for a change!

Next day we were on the bus again for a drive to Hurghada on the Red Sea.  We had just enough time to walk through the oh so awesome resort (of which we only ended up enjoying for a total of about 3 hours), a quick bite to eat before we were off on our quad bikes through the desert.  How awesome that was!  I was initially scared out of my wits, but I ended up enjoying it loads!  Coming back was a little scary as it was pitch black and it was hard to tell if you were eating dust or not with polaroid sunnies on at night - hey, it was either that or dust in your eyes and not being able to see at all!

Next day, we were lucky enough to catch a boat to a little island and do some snorkeling.  We saw a dolphin on the way which was cool!  We still think Vanuatu was better, but it was great to get in the sea for some swimming and some sun!  That night, Victor took us to a local restaurant for some traditional/typical food.  It was AWESOME and on par with the meal we had on the first night.  He ordered for us which meant we could try a range of different things that we would have never known to order if we were on our own!  Yummo!

Our trip back to Cairo was set for 2am, that’s right, 2 o’clock in the MORNING, so we really only had one night in Hurghada afterall!  We were up at 1.30am and had a bit of a dance in the nightclub before getting on the bus (mind you, we were not exactly dressed the part).  But we tried to sleep in our tiny minibus overnight to Cairo.  I headbutt the window latch a few times during the night resulting in a nice bruise on my forehead

Always asking for punishment, we had asked Victor to organise a full day of sightseeing in Cairo the day we got there as we didn’t want to sit around doing nothing.  So first thing after a shower at the hotel was to head back on our bus to Saqqara.  This is the home of the step pyramid.  The most amazing thing about Egypt is that every place you go to seems more awesome than the last, so you never (almost never) get sick of the sightseeing!  From here, you could see a whole range of attempts at building pyramids in the desert.

Next we were off to the Coptic Quarter in Cairo where we visited a very old Christian church where Mary and Joseph visited with Jesus when they were hiding from King Herod.  We then subjected ourselves to the madness of hawkers in a Cairo market - oh the joy!

We fought the Cairo traffic back to the hotel only to give ourselves about 20 minutes before we had to leave for the Sound and Light show at the Pyramids.  This was a bit disappointing and we found ourselves either trailing off to sleep or entertaining ourselves in other ways - I used the camera to keep me awake, it was fun to try to capture the laser in a photo :)  We had a fairly flat and disappointing dinner before heading back to the hotel for our final night in Egypt!

We spent the morning saying goodbye’s to various people and then we too headed for the airport.  It was a full on 11 days, but every minute was well and truly worth the tiredness!!  And just when we thought we were escaping, we were on the tarmac and about to take off when the captain pulled the plug, went back to the parking bay and announced there was a problem with one of the engines.  Awesome.  30 minutes he said.  30 minutes came and went and after an hour he said 10 more minutes.  3 hours later and we were finally on the go.  Problem was, we’d offered Scott and Laura a place to stay for the night and they were due back about an hour after we were supposed to be home!

Once we got back to London, poor Scott and Laura were freezing their butts off waiting for us at our house, so we let the poor homeless souls in for some warmth.  They departed the next day with a parting gift - our remote control was neatly glad-wrapped, Asian style :)  Thanks guys!

But Auschwitz is in a town called Oswiecim, so I’m going to go ahead and describe it how it was.  Eerie.  Horrible.  Shocking.  Inhumane.  The whole experience was one of pure disbelief.  That people could do such things to other human beings.  From the raw photo’s, to the footage of the liberation, to the mounds and mounds and mounds of shoes - childrens and adults.  But the most impacting for me, was the human hair.  Taken from the women and tested positive for Zyklon B poison.  And even more horrible than that, a roll of fabric made purely from human hair.

The imagery sticks with you long beyond leaving those chilling gates.  You can’t escape it, you dream it, every second thought is about it.  You get a real feel for just how short life is, but more strikingly, how appalling human beings can be.  It does little to convince me the world could ever be at peace.  You realise just how lucky you are in this life and how silly and minor your dreary complaints can be.

One thing that strikes me in this place more than any other place we have visited in Europe, is the fact that the Polish are so proud of their effort to retaliate.  They fought the Nazi’s every step of the way and never gave up.  But in Amsterdam, I felt like the Dutch were almost ashamed of letting these things happen.  In Italy, they actually sided with them.  In Austria, they almost embraced the movement and in Germany itself, it felt like they were desperately trying to forget it.  This is, obviously, just my own opinion and I obviously realise it is a huge generalisation, but I just found the attitude of the Poles was fantastic - they tried their hardest to stop what was going on and they are so very proud of their efforts.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau was a huge eye-opener.  It was so eerie to be on the platform where the millions of people were offloaded with their fate awaiting them.  The dreary walk along the rows and rows of wooden and brick barracks with the rows and rows of thrown together bunks and toilets.  But the most chilling and emotional was the gas chambers, crematoriums and the sites where ashes were scattered and bodies burned in the open air.  There was only a few moments where my eyes were dry.  To think of the people who so innocently walked down into those chambers without knowing it would be the last time they would see the light of day.  To think of the people who made this happen.  And the poor souls they forced to loot the bodies and relocate them to the crematorium.  Words just simply cannot describe the feeling you get standing in front of a place like that.

When we got back, I did some reading on some people who had denied that the whole thing happened.  Only to find that a lot of them visited Auschwitz, examined the evidence and changed their mind.  Not surprising after what you witness there.

But that is, of course, only one part of Poland.  We also got to see Krakow and it is indeed a beautiful city!  Had dinner with a stranger traveler and tasted the local food.  Kim was excited about the dumplings, but much to his disappointment, they are just big ravioli!

We visited the salt mine, which is such a unique experience!  We were told the air down there, at 135m underground, was very good for us to breath in, so I was sucking that stuff down as much as possible!  There are hundreds of chambers down there and naturally we only saw a few of them, but boy were they awesome!  The weirdest part was seeing everyone try to lick the walls!  I made Kim pose for a few photo’s doing the same, but I can assure you he didn’t touch it

The Polish certainly like their religion and that was overly evident in the number of chapels and statues of John Paul II down there!  I guess he was from Krakow after all :)  380 steps down into this mine, we were glad when we were told it was a lift back to the top.  Except for when you actually got into the thing and it was literally the miner’s lift and we were whizzed to the top, thankfully in no time, as I was starting to freak out a little!

We spent the last of our trip walking around the city.  We visited Wawel Castle, went to Rynek Glowny and saw the magnificent Cloth Hall and Town Hall Tower.  We wandered around for a bit and then hit the shops as it was kind of cold outside!!  That was, until we got back to 2 degrees in London!!