So we are back home and the cat has returned from the cattery, which is always lovely as he is always so happy to see us.
For those of you who have followed the blog, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed our holiday.
It truly was a very rewarding trip. We had been planning this trip for a number of years and finally worked out the perfect itinerary, and it did turn out to be pretty much perfect, there really is not a lot we would change.
I would probably have to say that out of the whole trip our favourite country was Bosnia, the people were so warm and friendly, although I do wish smoking indoors was not allowed! Sarajevo is a great little city, clearly still recovering from the Balkans war, but none the less, it is a wonderful city to visit.
Of course though we loved visiting Germany again, and visiting Nuremberg for the first time was a real highlight. The small towns that we visited on day trips, we're just delightful, we also loved the fact we could make use of such an efficient train system. And of course, Munich did not disappoint, the sun came out and the beers flowed! Just a perfect way to end our trip!
In Bulgaria, we were very surprised by the efficient of the bus network and also by the fact we travelled around with absolutely no difficulty, language was not a barrier and cost wise, Bulgaria is a bargain!
Romania was a beautiful place and I'd love to explore more of it some day, the castles of Bran and Peles were a highlight and my favourite place in Romania was Sighisoara, so very pretty! Despite some surly service in some restaurants, we also had some moments not to be forgotten, like the lady who lent me her hand held fan on the hot slow train, she was so generous!
Visiting Dubrovnik again was another highlight of the trip, although it has become very expensive and filled to the brim with tourists, it still has a magical feel that you just can not ignore, I simply love it there. The warm summers evening we spent on the main square inside the walled city is something I'll always remember.
Montenegro was also just beautiful, Kotor is breathtaking, especially when the sun is going down. We enjoyed some wonderful meals in Kotor and have to say, one of the restaurants we went to was our favourite of the whole trip. We also loved our day trip to Perast, another gorgeous town on the bay of Kotor.
Big and bold, Experiencing the city of Belgrade will be hard to forget. It is chock a block full of fabulous eateries and bars, and the old town area is so pretty, filled with flowers and great places to eat and drink.
In Vienna we enjoyed living like a local and visiting the Naschtmarket, full of bars and also great fresh produce that we were able to cook up in our apartment. Vienna is a grand and elegant city, the palaces were wonderful to visit. We also enjoyed our day trip to Slovakia and the capital of Bratislava, somewhere we've travelled through, but never actually visited. Vastly different to Vienna, it was great to visit as a day trip and see the contrasts, we had a fantastic time there.
So in summary, that was our trip! We had a brilliant time and of course are already planning our next adventure! We just love. Our travels and the fact we can share it with friends and family via the blog makes it even more fun.
Until next time folks, keep smiling, keep traveling, live in the moment and enjoy yourself!
Love MerryMegsy xxxxxxx
Friday, 3 July 2015
Wednesday, 1 July 2015
Goodbye Europe, hello Australia
Monday was our last day in Munich and the last day of our trip, our flight to Melbourne was departing from Munich at 16:35. After a small sleep in we got up and got ourselves ready and finalised packing our bags. We did not have to check out until 2pm so it was perfect timing to allow us to have one last little walk around in Munich.
We went for a coffee first, we had planned to go for one more beer and some more weisswurst but after last nights dinner we both still felt super full, no way we could eat more food! Following our coffee we walked down into the city where we took more photos and did some last minute souvenir shopping.
It was another nice morning and was actually getting quite warm by the time we had to head back to the hotel. Thankfully our hotel we right near a u-bahn station so we only had a small walk with our bags in order to make our way to the airport.
The train to the airport took about 45 minutes and was a nice easy trip. We arrived just after 1pm with plenty of time to make our way to the counter for check in. Munich airport is a little bit confusing, but once we worked it out we found our check in counter and it soon opened up so we could drop our bags off.
Free of bags, it was time to grab lunch and one last beer. The airport has an awesome beer garden and beer hall, so we grabbed a bight to eat and a Weiss beer, great way to end the trip!
After lunch we made our way through customs and security, the plane was boarding 1 hour before take off. Once on board we found we had no-one seated next to us at that stage, we waited patiently for boarding to close, holding our breath hoping we had three seats to ourselves and sure enough, no-one sat next to us! Yay! This made us feel a lot more comfortable and although it was only a 5 and a half hour flight, it was great to be able to spread out.
We arrived into Doha around 15 minutes early, the flight did not connect up to a gate so we had to board a bus to go to the terminal, this was great because it allowed us to feel the lovely warmth of Doha, so nice! Next time we might do a stop over!
Our connecting flight to Melbourne left in 2 hours, but again you have to be ready to board an hour before, so we did not have a lot of time, the airport is very efficient though and we found our gate with time to spare. We noted again that the boarding area did not seem too crowded and hoped like crazy that we had a spare seat next to us again, we sure enough, we did! The flight was relatively empty, so again we spread out which was great.
The flight departed at 00:55 Doha time, which was 7:55am Australian time. I decided I would only have a small nap to allow myself to get back into the Australian time zone. I watched a few movies and Pete slept a lot along the way. I got up a number of times to take a walk and go to the loo, keeping myself hydrated with plenty of water, the cabin crew on Qatar really are wonderful and came around quite consistently to offer drinks.
The flight went pretty fast and next thing we knew it was time to eat before beginning to descent into Melbourne. We arrived perfectly on time at 9:20 pm and all up the flight time was just on 13hrs, pretty impressive. I would definitely consider Qatar airways again in the future, they were excellent to fly with on this occasion.
At the time we arrived the airport was very quiet, we have the new passports with the chip technology so we're able to travel through the smart gates and this sped up our time in customs. The bags took a little longer, but thankfully came out completely dry this time, unlike on our way over to Europe! We made it out of the airport into the arrivals hall by 10:00pm, record time for Melbourne!
Petes folks picked us up at the airport which was great as the trains to Geelong are bit infrequent at that time of night. We arrived home in Lara just a bit after 11pm. So all up, it took us just over 27 hours door to door. Not bad at all!
We both felt tired but had a cup of tea, shower and unpacked our main bags. I always love to get this out of the way! I made us up a hot water bottle to take to bed, but do have to say I was surprised by the temperature when we arrived home as it was not too cold!
We were safely tucked up and in bed by 12:30am.
So that was a long day, but we were glad to arrive home.
I will do a trip summary in the next few days :-)
Until then folks, have a great day!
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