Travelling to the top of Europe

What a day it has been. And what a start. Our alarm went at 4am. Troy, in a slight act of confusion, thought it was his phone ringing, quickly jumped out of bed and straight into a wooden shelf and has limped for the remainder of the day. But at least the adrenaline was pumping from an early stage.
We took 6 different trains to get to this Swiss mountain with a long unpronouncable name, but it is commonly referred to as the Top of Europe. It is 3500m above sea level. Hence the name. And you could go up onto viewing decks, through an ice palace and onto the actual snow. We were very excited to go onto the snow but sadly we had not really packed winter clothes when we left New Zealand. So we each put on a few jumpers, but it was negative 3 and 40k winds. It just wasnt happening. But we had a great time up there. Infact our whole Swiss experience has been so much fun.
So we are in Zurich at the moment. Fly to London tomorrow then home the next day.
This is a real average computer so cant put our photos on here, but we are home in a few days so can just show them to you all.
Weve had such a good trip, seen so many cool things, met some great people but also looking forward to coming home.
See you all shortly.
Troy (a.ka. Bok Troy, T Noy or DJ Fuzzy) and Chris (aka T-Rip)

Beautiful Switzerland

So we have arrived in Switzerland! So beautiful! Very green and very similar to New Zealand! We are staying with Nadia and Steffi, two Swiss girls we knew from New Zealand. Their town has about 5000 people. Quite small but very relaxing! Yesterday we went down to a lake and had a swim and had played some volleyball before we headed back home for some great Swiss food! Such a good day!

Steffi isnt working at the moment and Nadia finishes at 1. So this morning we are just relaxing and then this afternoon we are off to a mountain somewhere. Should be fun! Then tomorrow we are going to go to Interlauken... I think thats spelt right. Interlauken has one of the highest trains in Europe, goes right up into the snow mountains. And from there we go to Zurich, fly to London and then back home.

So this is the final straight. But what an amazing final straight it is!

Germany.... Slow trains and fast little cars!!

So we had 3 action packed nights in Berlin. It started off not so successfully... we left Krakow, Poland at 8pm on an overnight train due to arrive in Berlin at 7am giving us the whole day to explore the city. The carriages were rather cramped, but you could lie down at least. We woke up at around 8.30am. We were not in Berlin. We hadnt even got out of Poland. They had electrical problems in the night and in the end we got to Berlin at 3pm. 19 hour train ride. We were very tired! We checked into the hostel and then had a rest before we went and explored some of Berlin. Very cool mix of historical buildings and very modern buildings. The

photo of Chris hugging the giraffe is made entirely out of lego. Just outside a legoland kind of place which was probably meant for kids but still a lot of fun!

The next day we drove down to Munich on the Autobahn which was a lot of fun. We had a Mini Cooper. We only just fitted both our bags and us in. Everyone drives very fast (especially Troy) and the roads were so good. Very smooth. And no sign of NZ roadworkers pretending to be working while leaning on a spade and smoking. It was all very efficient!

Next stop..... Switzerland!

Schindlers factory..... was that it?

Ok so we had a free day today and thought it would be fun to explore the Jewish ghetto, and in particular see Schindler's factory, which Schindler's List is based on. Well talk about a disappointment!!
We walked for about 35 minutes in rather hot weather, going through the back roads of an industrial area full of old run down buildings to get to..... well this old, run down building. You cant get inside, there is no information about it, but you do see a few other similarly baffled tourists around. Well at least we've been there!
Troy has also become a mad rapper. For the sanity of the Bartholomew family, I really hope he snaps out of it before he gets home. Here is an example:
Troy: Wow look at that blood on the road!
Chris: Yeah, looks like someone got a stray punch.
Troy: Yeah. Yeah. P to the unch. Punch. Stray punch for lunch. (Troy then bursts into uncontrollable laughter over his apparent genius)
Its quite a site. We are just relaxing at the hostel now for a few more hours then off to Berlin. Just over a week to go now!

Krakow..... a mix of emotions

So we went on a organised tour of Krakow, Poland today. It started with going to the concentration camp Auschwitz where it was estimated 1.5 million Jews were killed during the war. It was a really weird feeling going there, we are glad we went, but it definitely wasnt enjoyable. Compared to some of the history we have seen so far on the trip, it was really recent and it really left you wondering how people could do these things to other humans.
After that we went to see a salt mine. Sounds a bit mundane, but it was actually really exciting! We went down 135 metres into the ground to see this mine which was built about 700 years ago. We were able to see where the salt was mined and there were tonnes of salt statues along the way, and a church which is what the photo is of. We even went into a room where they belted out some Chopin to relax us. It was a great experience!
Tomorrow we have a free day in Krakow before we take an overnight train to Berlin. So we think we might do a touch of shopping and check out Schindlers factory.
Oh and it rained AGAIN today. And its meant to be summer!

Sleeping beauty

Ok so Troy has a special ability.... he can seemingly sleep anywhere! So we have had numerous plane, train and bus rides where he has drifted into the land of nod. Unfortunately he doesnt have a pillow. So to find a place to rest he usually "subconsciously" lands on my shoulder. Its terrible. Ive put this video up to hopefully gain some sympathy

Beautiful Prague

After a massive 26 hours of travel to get from Capadoccia to Prague we made it!

Prague is a really beautiful city, very old fashioned and lots of old buildings. We have had a pretty relaxed time here so far, we checked out some old fashioned castles, looked at some old fashioned town clocks and had some coffee at some old fashioned establishments (also called Starbucks).

We are about to run out of internet time!! Bu

t off to Krakow Poland tomorrow for our first real organised tour. Should be great!

We broke our record and after 31 days had our first day of rain. Unbelievable! It rained for at least 12 minutes.