Day 2 in New York after a not so great sleep- we didn’t expect to be jetlagged from Europe but seem to be! We are staying in an Airbnb in Williamsburg, Brooklyn area with a guy named Bill. He treats us like his roommates which has it’s positives and negatives (sometimes a little loud but happy for us to use everything/ do whatever we please).

Today was a simple day- Central Park + Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 and 2!

Central Park

Such a lovely part of NYC, we really enjoyed walking around and it was another really warm day (around 18 degrees! Our ‘really warm day’ barometer seems to have changed compared to Aus)- didn’t even need coats. Saw lots of runners, sports games and a hip hop group that do flips and things that we had been duped into giving money to the day before (intense peer pressure) but did do some impressive stuff, check out the video from yesterday below (Nathan is the guy on the left).

We enjoyed walking around the Upper East side and stopped a really nice bakery for our first bagel- we loved them. So tasty especially the multigrain ones with seeds- yum. Also had a Bletzel- We think a mix of a pretzel and bagel? It was herb flavoured and very yummy.

• 

• 

• 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

After consulting the Montgomery family (the theatre experts) for up to date theatre recommendations (and entering the Hamilton lottery unsuccessfully several times) we weighed up our options and decided on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. For those unaware, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a continuation of the Harry Potter series that JK Rowling wrote. It is split over 2 full plays in parts 1 and 2 and is playing in Melbourne at the moment. It. was. incredible. the story telling as well as the way they integrated the magic into the show was AMAZING. We won’t give any spoilers but they had some VERY clever ways of making it look like real magic was happening and it was so good to be inside of Harry’s world again.

The first show started at 2pm and then we had a break from 5-7:30pm to grab dinner before the second show. We headed to Los Tacos in between, a cool place where you order your tacos and then walk over to a live cooking station and an available chef will cook it up for you on the spot. It was very fresh and delicious.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Sights of the Day

• We had a sleep in to recover from our long day travelling and waiting in the line at JFK! but the pace picked up from there. We thought NY was going to be one of our coldest places but it was amazing weather! Super sunny and warm, no beanies or scarves needed.
• We began our New York adventure by going on a boat to see the Statue of Liberty, she was quite majestic and we were very impressed, particularly Nathan who was seeing her for the first time. Very cool tourist attraction
• We then went to Times Square, it was very busy and intense but very cool. We visited some box offices on Broadway to try and work out which musical to watch over the weekend. We ended up choosing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Kirsten will review that in the next blog post.
• One spontaneous decision that paid off for us was deciding to take an NBC studio tour on our visit to Rockerfeller Center. We were the only people in our tour and so had a very personal tour with Alexandra and Ross. They were awesome and going through the studios was really interesting. We saw the Seth Meyers late night set, a news studio and also the production room in which all our favourite shows are produced. A very good experience.
• We then headed home for the night as Nathan was struggling with a bit of jet lag.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Cool Food Place Recommendations that we tried

• Two food recommendations were given to us which we explored and here is our assessment
• Firstly, we tried Shake Shack which was recommended to us by our good friend Hamish Blake. He said the burgers are the best in the world and the burger, fries and shake combo was the best meal you can get your hands on. Our assessment: the chips were meh, the burger was really good, especially for a chain (but not better than Fergburger or any of the truly elite burgers out there). The shakes were amazing, definitely the strongest part of the meal. Overall: delicious, relative to other chains it definitely stands out. However, compared to the top level burgers it didn’t quite stand up. A good recommendation from old mate Hamish Blake.
• Secondly, Nathan had to check out Magnolia Bakery as it specialised in cupcakes. The assessment: brilliant, absolutely delicious and could stand toe to toe with any cupcakes I have been given. It was overpriced but fantastic. A great recommendation.

• 

• 

Celebrity Sightings

So far no luck, a disappointing start, but with Broadway and an attempt at getting into Jimmy Fallon coming up, our chances are looking up.

Finding a good coffee in America

No attempt was made today, but Nathan is anxious to see if he can find one.

After a lovely time in Provence we headed on our last day to the villages St Remy de Provence and Les Baux de Provence. St Remy de Provence had a provincial market and Kirsten got some fresh olives and bread from the area. Les Baux de Provence was beautiful, had some really well preserved buildings- not much was open but we had a lunch picnic on the top of the building.

• 

• 

• 

• 

After driving back to Nice we walked down to the water and enjoyed the last moments of the sunset, Nice is really beautiful! We headed to the movies after dark.

The next day we woke up early and went for a run along the water to see a bit of Nice, we had breakfast along the water- that’s when we found out that there was a strike and so no public transport and potential flight delays! Not ideal as we had a connecting flight to New York. One expensive cab ride, delayed flight and Kirsten being one of 10 randomly selected for an extra search just before boarding we made it to New York! America make it really hard for you to get in- everyone was questioned multiple times. After a 2 hour wait to get through passport control at JFK we finally made it to our Airbnb in Brooklyn very exhausted.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Movie of the year (so far)

Little Women! We saw it in Nice in a small theatre with French subtitles. Really good movie, one of Kirsten’s all time favourite books so a lot to live up to. Cinema did not have fresh popcorn which was devastating.

2 last French dessert highlights

1. We discovered a new French pastry we both love (our tastes for desserts are not always the same) Sacristain. Beautiful almondy goodness.
2. Nathan made an excellent choice while visiting the Boulangerie and selected a nutella brownie which we shared. Absolutely delightful, will be hard for future brownies to measure up.

• 

• 

We were sad to finish the European part of our trip, we have really enjoyed our time here. Looking forward to the next leg of our trip in America and Canada.

We had a few days exploring Provence, headed from our Airbnb in Puimoisson to Orgon further West in Provence and then 3 nights there before we head to Nice. We did lots of walking and had lots of time relaxing at our Airbnb on a big property with horses, we even saw an otter in the river!

Top Towns/ villages

• On the way to Orgon we headed to Moustiers-Sainte-Marie which is built into the side of a limestone cliff, it was really beautiful. The town is known for beautiful pottery that is handmade in the village. We went for a really nice walk along the mountain and has a look in some shops.
• Aix-en-Provence was our next stop for an afternoon church service at an international church. We enjoyed going, they meet in a Catholic church building and we met a girl who was from Sydney and actually knows Meg! Small world.
• Day 38 we headed to a village in Cavaillon and caught a bit of the market and got some fresh fruit.
• Gordes! Absolutely Gord-geous. A beautiful town in the national park here and historical walls built into the mountains. We had lunch in a cafe in Gordes and went for a walk.
• Fontaine-de-Vaucluse- Beautiful blue waters in the mountains coming into a big fountain with water rushing through a town. Was lovely to walk around through.
• Day 39 we went to Avignon- after a quick trip to the post office to post back the key we accidentally took from our last Airbnb (oops!) We had a look around the Palais de Papes and the bridge. It was lovely but we have enjoyed the smaller towns a bit more.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

French food

We tried our hand at a little wood fired BBQ with sausages and veggies- it was fun but challenging!
Best meal in France so far was on day 39 we headed to a local countryside restaurant connected to a winery and tried some local Rose, some slow cooked veal with pasta and home made brownie- yum!

Lemon meringue tart, fresh bread sticks and fresh croissants have also been highlights- we feel strongly that the strengths of the French cuisine lie in dessert and bread!

• 

• 

• 

Day 35 – Stuttgart – Nice – Monaco – Puimoisson

• We had our one really early morning of the trip with a 3am wake up time to catch our 6am flight from Stuttgart to Nice. Getting up was a bit rough but the plane flight was actually really nice because not many people were on it so we really got to spread out and stretch our legs which was nice (rare on RyanAir!).
• Once in Nice we picked up our hire car and spontaneously drove to Monaco, this had the double benefit of being really beautiful and allowing us to add another country to our list. We enjoyed a French brunch and had a look at all the super yachts in the pier (no celebrities spotted sadly) before we headed off.
• We then drove to Puimoisson, Kirsten did a great job driving on some narrow roads and negotiating some tricky turns and roundabouts. Nathan had a much easier gig driving through Germany!
• Our AirBnB accommodation was worth the drive though as it had an amazing view over a valley and Marie our host was so lovely, we had a great stay there. We headed into the small town of Riez but it was pretty quiet so we just picked up some stuff for dinner and headed home for a quiet night in.
• We watched a movie on Netflix called ‘Marriage Story’ which was both enjoyed, about an 8.5/10. We enjoyed the performances of Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Day 36 – Gorges du Verdon

• We had the perfect start to the day, a sleep in followed by a home made breakfast of Nutella Croissants, bread with Jam, freshly squeezed orange juice, hot chocolate and coffee.
• We then headed out for the day and began by going back to the small town of Riez, however this time it was pumping because the weekend markets were on and so the whole town came out. Kirsten bought a cute jumper and we bought some veggies for dinner and then it was off to Gorges du Verdon.
• At Gorges du Verdon we did a really steep hike which was a good workout for both of us, we also got to enjoy some spectacular views walking down into the gorge and then out again. A lovely way to spend the majority of our day.
• We then headed back into town and had veggie pasta for dinner- yum.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We love the French

The French sometimes have the reputation of being somewhat prickly at times. But our interactions with the locals have been nothing but lovely. They have been among the friendliest locals we have met on our trip (maybe it’s a countryside thing?). Everyone we have met and said we are from Australia has been very aware of the fires and very sympathetic.

Watch out for the Pigs!

Whilst Aussies may mainly associate pigs with delicious bacon, for the French a wild pig is one of their most dangerous animals, we encountered warnings about running into wild boars on our hike and had been told that they are not friendly beasts to run into if you’re out and about in France. Forget about Crocodiles, it’s the pigs you need to look out for here.

#33 Day in Munich

Our 1 full day in Munich, we headed into the city on electric scooters and had a nice day walking around and seeing it all. New Years Day is a very quiet day in Munich, especially in the morning (we assumed everyone was recovering from the night before).

We walked around and looked at the buildings and then headed to the English garden which is one of the biggest urban parks in the world. We picked up bikes to hire and rode around the park, enjoying the scenery and the lake. We spotted some surfers at the Eisbach along the lake- they wear a wetsuit and jump into the cold water and surf as long as they can. Pretty cool to watch!

https://vimeo.com/user105822180/review/382811705/935288ce0a

Headed back to our hotel for a bit and then had Greek for dinner- yum!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

#34 Day Dachau Concentration camp

We headed out of Munich to Dachau Concentration Camp which is 30 minutes outside of Munich. We had a tour with a female guide from Minsk who had spent a lot of time with Soviet survivors of Dachau, she was really good at weaving in survivor stories and sharing the history. The tour went for 3 hours and was a really informative, impactful and helped us to understand a bit more of what went on. It was a really hard day hearing about the atrocities that happened, the reason for sharing the history is so that people all around the world are educated and so it doesn’t happen again. A hard day but definitely worth doing.

After Dachau we then headed onto Stuttgart by car for an overnight stay before a flight to Nice the next morning.

Well we might have a new favourite location so far with Salzburg being the perfect combo of beautiful, happening but not overcrowded, lots to see and do plus delicious food.

Sights

• We began our exploration of Salzburg with a ‘Sound of Music’ tour. This had the double benefit of showing you some of the prettiest places in Salzburg as well as seeing where lots of key scenes from the Julie Andrews classic were filmed. It was fantastic, we had a great host and a bus sing a long (we were the most into it), the sights were beautiful and having the Sound of Music fresh in our memory from watching it the day before made it even better.
• We then explored the ‘Old Town’ including ‘The Fortress’ (after a break for pretzels) the buildings were amazing and the views were so good from high above the town. A perfect afternoon. Kirsten declared that she likes Salzburg even more than Vienna and she loved Vienna! That’s just how good Salzburg is. We also had excellent weather on both days, it rains in Salzburg nearly half the year and so the locals were very happy to see the bright sun in December.
• The second day we walked around the lake near our house which was lovely, we then explored Salzburg further, soaking in all the amazing views before it was time to head to Munich.
• On the way to Munich we had one incredible stop at Jennerbahn cable car, we caught the cable car to the top. The snowy mountains were perfect and we got to climb to the very top of one of them (about 2,000m altitude). The views from there almost seemed fake they were so good. A great recommendation from Michael. One of the top experiences of the trip so far
• Once in Munich we had a very authentic German dinner with the locals at a Bavarian restaurant (schnitzel of course) to cap off a very memorable New Years Eve, there was lots of singing and music involved

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Sound of Music real facts

Our host gave us some fun ‘true history facts’ as he liked to call them about the real Von Trapp family including:

• Maria was actually 25 years younger than the Captain (22 to his 47) and was far closer in age to his oldest son who was 17. Therefore, they made the actors playing Maria and the Captain closer in age and made the oldest child a daughter (Leisel) to make it more palatable for audiences
• The Von Trapp’s did actually win a singing competition in 1935. Very impressive
• The mountain they climbed over at the end would not have been a safe move but actually a ‘death trap’. Apparently the mountain they climbed over would take them to Hitler’s summer residence in real life. But saying it took them to Switzerland was a nicer ending.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Risk Takers

To soak in the amazing view at Jennerbahn we had to climb up some steep and icy parts of the mountain, with pretty steep cliff edges either side. But when you are desperate for the perfect shot you take that risk. The climb down was particularly stressful but luckily we could hold on to a little railing and go down on our bottoms. Also, other people were doing it so what could possibly go wrong? (warning too many photos from this section, we just absolutely loved it)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Germans are Firework Crazy

For New Year’s Eve there are very few restrictions on fireworks in Germany (hotel receptionist proudly said- “There used to be restrictions on where you could set them off but now it is everywhere”) and the locals were taking full advantage of that, setting off fireworks in carparks, normal parks, busy streets, main roads and just about any outdoor location you can think of. Walking to dinner we encountered many often right next to us or in front of us. It took some adjusting to get used to as it sounds like constant gun fire going off at first which seems a bit scary. At midnight the fireworks were deafening. It was a pyrotechnic’s dream. Click on the video below.

https://vimeo.com/user105822180/review/382320284/f5ba3e64ff

Happy New Year to everyone 🙂

We were excited to get out and explore Vienna as it is our first time in Austria.

What we saw

• First day we headed straight to Belvedere Palace which is an incredible building with even better gardens. I bet you (and we!) thought the Christmas markets were over but there were some at Belvedere!
• Coffee houses are an institution in Vienna particularly and it was a nice way to warm up, after a walk around we went to Cafe Schwarzenberg where we tried the famous Sacha Tort and a marzipan nougat cake. We also spent some time reading and resting in one in the evening before dinner.
• In the afternoon we did a 2.5 hour walking tour of Vienna with a company that do free walking tours (you tip them), it was a very interesting tour and we got to see lots of the historical parts of Vienna including the Opera house and museums. As it gets darker Vienna is very classy and pretty with lots of lights.
• It snowed a little bit in Vienna, it was very beautiful!
• Merryn and Michael recommended a great place for dinner that was underground in an old cellar with great food and live violin and accordion music.
• 2nd day we had a nice morning walking in Vienna and walked up the stairs of the tower at St Stephen’s- a great view but very squishy to walk up and down.
• We caught up with Kirsten’s friend Hannah from work who is also travelling in Europe, we really enjoyed eating a schnitzel with her at lunch time.
• Headed to Salzburg by car. Nathan is becoming a master of the Autobahns (highways) where there are no speed limits on some roads, lots of cars zooming past us. We are staying by a beautiful river 30 minutes outside of Salzburg and had a quiet night at our apartment- watching Sound of music in preparation for tomorrow!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

What we learnt

• Our walking tour guide was very proud to say that Vienna is one of the most liveable cities with the main reason being you can drink tap water and don’t have to buy it bottled. Vienna is amazing but we didn’t think that one was convincing enough!
• Choose warmer days to do walking tours (we found Vienna colder than Berlin and any of our recent stops), they do a lot of stopping and talking which really lets the chill set in!

One word for Vienna

We are going with- “Classy.”

What we put in our tummys

Schnitzel of course! Nathan’s favourite meal of all time, and finally we got to experience it at the home of Schnitzel. Nathan’s mum makes a fantastic schnitzel so it is hard to live up to. The Viennese veal schnitzel got a big tick of approval from Nathan (who is usually more of a chicken guy), he named it one of the best meals of the trip and felt vindicated because the Austrians look down on anyone who adds sauce to their schnitzel (Nathan’s preferred way of eating it). Kirsten loved the schnitzel, missed the sauce- she will happily be ridiculed next time they order it to experience saucy goodness.

A Cornettuccino! Cappucino in a waffle cone. Also a recommendation from Merryn and Michael, Nathan declared it the best coffee of the trip and the cone was yummy too.

• 

• 

Sights

• We began Boxing Day by exploring Lesser Town, walking around the river and parks, it was very picturesque.
• We then did a river cruise down the centre of Prague and saw some interesting historical sites.
• The highlight of the day was our evening at ‘Jazz Dock’. We enjoyed a delicious (and cheap) dinner and listened to the magnificent Petra Ernyei and the Quartet.
• The next day saw us travel to Vienna via car through a detour through some beautiful country Czech towns, they have lots of nice pastel coloured buildings and greenery. Nathan got to drive very fast on the highways, hitting about 130km/hour.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Terrific Telč

If Dresden was a debacle, then our stop at the little town of Telč on the way to Vienna was the exact opposite. The town was just perfect, very cute and pretty and the whole town is UNESCO listed- it has largely been preserved in its medieval state, a great place to eat lunch. We love Telč.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Music Highlight

Petra Ernyei Quartet won us over as fans! The scatting of Petra was to die for, the saxophone solos lit the night up and when the electric guitarists got started the rest of the room stopped. They were sensational.

Welcome to our Christmas themed Prague blog.

Christmas Cheer

We slept in on Christmas morning and Kirsten went to the gym (crazy!) and we spoke to the Straw family (and sent a video to the Anderson family) and Nathan’s parents which was a great way to start the day. We missed being with everyone but it was nice to see them on Facetime.

Christmas Treats

Christmas morning we had a big buffet breakfast at our hotel (croissants and nutella were involved) before reading the Christmas story and exchanging presents. In Berlin we split up and bought each other a couple of small things, Nathan got a new Avengers drink bottle after his previous one was sadly lost on a bus, and Kirsten Christmas decorations and both- lots of chocolates.

We headed into the Old Town in Prague for lunch, it was meant to rain all day but we only had a little sprinkle thankfully! We had booked La Republica with some modern Czech food, Kirsten had the cabbage soup and chips and Nathan had a pulled pork burger and chips.

• 

• 

Christmas Sights

After lunch we headed over to the Lesser Town to see the Prague Castle- it isn’t Lesser in our opinion, it is a beautiful old town. There were lots of people out on Christmas day in the Streets and especially at Prague castle. It has beautiful grounds and is huge with churches and many buildings making up the full compound- lots of history. There were of course Christmas markets there, we reached our 25 by the 25th target!

After walking around the Lesser town we went back over the bridge to the Old Town and looked around as well as catching a bit of a live performance.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Christmas chill

Early evening we headed out of the busy streets and back to our hotel where we set up dinner- which was our own dessert buffet with a collection of our Christmas treats including some we bought on Christmas Eve from our bakery in Berlin. We watched Love Actually and discovered that ‘Christmas really IS all around.’ (a song in the movie)

• 

A bit late but Merry Christmas and Happy new year to all!