Not on board SeeBeeZee, we flew off to Europe for the month of April, before getting back on SeeBeeZee and heading north again for the winter. The map below shows us arriving and leaving from China along the red line, our European flights in black and our train journeys in blue. Details of our trip, almost daily, are posted in this blog.
We left with little forethought and planning, finding $1000 return tickets available in only 10 days time, and we had to get SeeBeeZee from Yamba to Brisbane and tied up safely in that time, as well as the packing and planning for our trip around Europe. With time constraints, we chose to use budget airlines to get into Europe and then use a Eurail Pass to travel around by train. The budget airline offered a bag allowance of about the size of a 20 litre backpack, so that is all we could carry for the fortnight on the continent. Our tight allowance meant no additional cameras could be carried, so all these photos and videos came off our mobile phone.
Read all the Europe trip posts here
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Flight to Heathrow, 7 March 2024
With both my children currently working in Europe, there has been a desire to travel over to visit. Suddenly the high cost of the flights was not an issue when I learned that we could buy a return ticket to the UK for around $1000. Initial nervousness about choosing to fly with China Southern Airlines…
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Walking London, 9 March 2024
For our first day in London, Hugo and Emma had chosen a walk around central London, starting at Borough Market, along Southbank to the Tower Bridge and over to St Pauls.
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London, 12 March 2024
This afternoon, we flew from UK to Sweden, from Stanstead to Arlanda airport. Our trip from Hugo’s house in south London to Stansted was a long one, requiring us to get across London to St Pancras Station, but at least we had plenty of time. The flight was late in the day, and as we…
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Rimbo, Sweden, 13 March 2024
After a late afternoon flight from Stansted on the previous evening, we spent our first full day in Sweden with Birgit’s cousin Pixie and her family. They live on the edge of Rimbo, a little village about 50km north of Stockholm, and have an extensive holding of land. It was once a farm, with all…
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Stockholm, 14 March 2024
We set off early from Rimbo with a 24 hour travel pass for the Stockholm public transport network. Even though it is over 50km through the countryside to get to Stockholm, Rimbo is serviced by the buses of the city transport system, and were the most comfortable buses that I have ever ridden in. We…
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Krakow, 16 March 2024
We flew from Stockholm to Krakow last night to meet up with my children, their partners and grandchild. My son has been working in London for years, and my daughter has just commenced a six month term in Berlin with her work, and they had arranged this weekend get together before we had even planned…
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Krakow Neglect, 16 March 2024
The Krakow Old Town is an original medieval town that survived World War 2 unscathed. There is much to appreciate about the Old Town, but it is badly neglected and in need of a lot of maintenance. While public buildings were seen to be repaired and in good order, there is much neglect amongst the…
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Flying Krakow to Wien, 18 March 2024
The last flight around Europe before heading off on trains was the Lauder A320 from Krakow to Vienna. The approach from the south brought us down over Bratislava and into Hungary before turning towards the airport. The plains to the south of Vienna are covered in forests of wind farms. Prominent signs throughout the city…
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Vienna, 18 March 2024
Our arrival in Vienna was a coincidence of angles as our shadow remained unmoved for the last couple of minutes of the flight in from Krakow. From the airport, we took the government railway in to the city, found our rented apartment out at Simmering, dropped our bags and caught the U-bahn into the city.…
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Michaelerplatz Vienna, 19 March 2024
We had a train to catch in the afternoon, and had to check out of our apartment, so had to carry all our luggage all day. Lucky it is that we are travelling light. We started by catching the U-bahn back to Stephansplatz and walking down to the historic Hofburg area in the old inner…
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Vienna, 19 March 2024
Our time in Vienna was short. We had not originally planned to come here at all, but our plan of catching a train from Krakow to Budapest collapsed when it was realised that major track maintenance work in Slovakia was going to delay the direct rail journey. We found this alternative of flying from Krakow…
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Budapest Széchenyi Bridge, 20 March 2024
After a walk last night, we were a little acquainted with the inner city location of our accommodation, and chose this morning to walk to the famous Chain Bridge, and then up the hill to the castle. We learned that this bridge was the first to cross the Danube between the old cities of Pest…
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Fragments of Budapest: Through the Lens of Film
Within a courtyard of the Buda Castle museum, a dark room has been built, and filled with boxes. You stand in the dark in the centre, with the boxes surrounding you on the walls. On to these boxes, photos and videos are projected. The images are at times little montages on separate boxes, and then…
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Budapest Castle, 20 March 2024
From the Chain Bridge, we walked up the stairs to the Castle. Feeling fit, we chose to walk around the funicular railway and climb the stairs near Clark Ádám tér and the Kilometre Zero marker. But as with everything on this trip, we find the stairs being repaired, and have to detour. This castle hill…
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Buda Fisherman’s Bastion, 20 March 2024
As our apartment was so close to the city centre, and we had a travel pass allowing unlimited travel on the excellent public transport system, we came and went from the apartment frequently. Even with our light load of bags, the cold European weather meant that we were walking heavy under coats and boots, and…
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Budapest Citadella, 21 March 2024
From the castle yesterday, we had the view to the south to the next hill over and could see the structure on top. Investigations show this hill to be the Citadella, and while it is referenced for being and excellent night time view of the lights of Budapest, we were too tired to make it…
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Watching the Danube, 21 March 2024
After our nana nap today, we caught the bus up to the top of the castle district, and walked down the Várkert Bazaar stairs to the river, where we sat watching the current rip by while enjoying a take-away.
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Budapest Elevator Confinement
That’s the total floor space for the lift.It was designed for climbing three floors, and not being locked in for an hour. Our accommodation in central Budapest was on the 5th floor of an old apartment block. At some point in time, a little elevator was installed. We joked about it being the world’s smallest…
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Tatabanya, 22 March 2024
Our last day in Hungary meant moving out of our apartment with all our bags. First stop was the Nyugati railway station, where we were booked on a sleeper car for the overnight trip to Berlin. At the station, we used our English and written translations on the translate app on the phone to locate…
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Berlin Night Train, 22-23 March 2024
On our Eurail Pass, we added the extra for a sleeper berth for the 12 hour trip from Budapest to Berlin. The train began as a very very long train on the Budapest platform, with some carriages going to Prague, and others going to Warsaw and our going to Berlin. I monitored our trip using…
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Berlin Bunker, 23 March 2024
We arrived in Berlin on Saturday morning so that we could spend the weekend with my daughter Isabella and her Rhys. Isabella is working in Berlin for six months to settle in the systems of the German company that her employer has bought, and after having last weekend together in Krakow, we were looking forward…
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Walking Berlin, 23-24 March 2024
After our tour of The Bunker museum in the morning, Rhys took us back onto the trains and walked to the Markthalle Neun, a food and drink market for lunch. After browsing the stalls, we bought some street food for lunch and ate in a park. Later we walked along the bank of the Spree,…
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Hoogstraat Amsterdam, 25 March 2024
We caught the early morning train from Berlin down to Amsterdam, arriving before lunch on Monday morning. Our accommodation was a room in an apartment in the centre of the city that was built 400 years ago in order to store the archives from the city census in the early 17th century. It is only…
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Amsterdam Canal Cruise, 25 March 2024
The weather was fine on Monday afternoon, so it seemed like a perfect time for going out for a canal cruise. We chose a company that operates smaller electric powered open boats to make the most of the fine day, as we imagined the view would be better in the open boat. Our guide was…
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Across Noordzeekanaal, 26 March 2024
Amsterdam-Noord lies across the north side of the Noordzeekanaal. Historically, it is almost as old as Amsterdam itself, but has a much more relaxed lifestyle, without the constraints of population pressure that exist across the water, and has become popular for citizens looking for more space. Amsterdam is an old city, and has always been…
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Amsterdam Bikes, 26 March 2024
The cars might have killed Paris, but the bikes have killed Amsterdam. Maybe it’s all the people and not the bikes. Either way, congestion makes it difficult to move around. Just as well that our room was in the middle of the grachtengordel canal belt area as it was slow to move about town, with…
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Amsterdam Houseboats, 26 March 2024
People have always lived in boats at Amsterdam, but after World War II when housing was at premium, it became extremely popular. In the 1970’s, it was recognised by authorities that some limits and regulations needed to be introduced. The number of houseboats that are residences are now limited, and they must be connected to…
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Amsterdam Canals, 26 March 2024
We walked the canals of Amsterdam, mesmerised by the view, imagining the life style from centuries ago that lead to the creation of this city. This is a gallery of photos we captured over our days in Amsterdam.
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Amsterdam Flowers, 26 March 2024
Amsterdam has been known for it’s flowers for centuries, and there were flower markets to be seen, but we were surprised to find so many flower ports out on the streets. We assume that the residents are so constricted for space that they grow their pots of flowers out on the streets and alleys.
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Amsterdam Stolperstein, 26 March 2024
Stolperstein or stumbling stones are little plaques in cobblestone streets, and are now found all over Europe. For privacy, I have removed the names from the photo above, It is example of Stolpersteins in any other European city. They commemorate the last place of residence for someone that was persecuted by the nazis during World…
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Amsterdam Wobbly Houses, 26 March 2024
The problems with Venice sinking and flooding are well known and publicised. The same problems exist for Amsterdam. On the train through Holland before arriving at Amsterdam, we noticed how the canals running through the countryside were higher than the level of the flat fields, and it is only the high levee banks that keep…
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Eurostar Amsterdam-Paris 27 March 2024
An alarm was set, as we had to be at the railway station before sunrise. This meant a short walk through the silent and motionless red-light and canal districts of Amsterdam, as our train was one of the first out this morning. These early morning photos of the river in Amsterdam were taken at the…
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Paris Lunch, 27 March 2024
After arriving in Paris at Gare du Nord from Amsterdam on the early Eurostar, we deposited our bags in a locker facility, ready for our train out tomorrow night, and headed to a shop to buy lunch. With a bag full of salad rolls, and juice and fruit, we jumped back onto a train. This…
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Olympic Constructions in Paris
We found Paris to be a sea of construction works in preparations for the Olympic Games coming up in July. Everywhere we went, we found barricades separating us from public works like footpath widening or resurfacing, or additional gardens and trees, adjusting public spaces to cope with the additional crowds that Paris is expecting this…
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Arc de Triomphe
We walked to the Arc de Triomphe both days we were in Paris. On both occasions we hopped onto the Metro, the first day to head for Notre Dame and the scond day to head for Gare du Nord and our Eurostar train to London. After two weeks of walking around European cities, we were…
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Eiffel Tower, 27 March 2024
After our lunch on the river bank, we walked along the river before renting a bike to get down to the Eiffel Tower. Being only a couple of days before the easter long weekend, there were tourists everywhere. We wandered along the promenades along the river, around the parks at the base of the tower,…
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In Seine Litter, 27 March 2024
In so many parts of Europe, we stop and comment on the shear volume of litter that is dumped into the environment. This example we noticed floating in the current in the Seine was noticeable because of all the workers there beside it all. These barges are permanently moored, so this litter must be a…
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Pont Alexandre III, Paris
We ended up at the Pont Alexandre III on both days we were in Paris. This bridge in the centre of Paris lies between the Grand Palace and the Hôtel des Invalides. The Grand Palace is just off the Champs Elyees and between memorials to Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt. It was built for…
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Paris Notre Dame
Notre Dame is the historic church in the Paris city, built on a tiny island in the Seine in the middle of the city. In April 2019, a devastating fire almost ruined the structure. When we visited in late March 2024, the spire had only just been unveiled, with the surrounding scaffolding having been removed…
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Nottingham, 30 March 2024
40 years ago, I spent a year living in the UK at Nottingham. There, I went to school, and my friends at school were very strident supporters of the local football team, Nottingham Forest, who were at that time in the English Second Division (equivalent of the current EFL Championship). Forest are now in the…
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Leith Hill, 1 April 2024
On the road trip from London to Arundel, we drove up Leith Hill in Surrey. At almost 1000′ elevation, the cricket pitch on top of the hill is the highest in South East England. The ridgeline is very steep, and is part of a large estate that is managed by the National Trust. The weather…
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Brighton, 2 April 2024
We took the train to Brighton for the day. The morning was bright and sunny, but heavy cloud looked threatening. We decided to follow in Pinkie’s footsteps, and to walk the cliffs to the East, with the backup plan of jumping on a bus if the weather were to break. On our walk, we found…
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Greenwich, 3 April 2024
After battling with the London Transport payment system, travelling by bus and bus and train and tram, we arrived at Greenwich after noon in order to visit the Cutty Sark and the Maritime Museum.
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Serendipity CZ382
The route flown by Southern China Airlines flight CZ382 took us over the Wessel Islands that we visited in 2019, and directly over the parts of Indonesia that we visited in 2024. When we flew out of Brisbane on a China Southern Airbus A350 back in March, there were so many things that lined up.…