Next country along the route was Austria, a beautiful place where we even got enough time to leave the group and go off skiing for the day, brilliant fun ! Highlights of our time in Austria include : * Austrian Lake District ; * Vienna - Imperial Winter Palace, Parliament, Opera House, Prater Fun Park, dinner at a really wierd restaurant in the Vienna Woods where every room was covered from floor to ceiling with pictures and lots of strange objects ! ; * Sa...

I have to mention that we passed through Liechtenstein on the way, a principality that wasn't on the picklist to choose from ! We saw the 700 year old Vaduz Castle and found a great little pub, the only one on our travels around Europe so far (everywhere else it's cafes & restaurants). We had to wait ages to cross the border into Switzerland, apparently it is one of the toughest border crossings in Europe and our tour guide kept getting sent back and forth to 'pa...

Please don't be confused by the picture (its actually in France), it's the closest I could find of a River, to reflect the fact that we cruised along the Rhine in Germany for a day ! It's a shame we only spent one night in Germany, it's a huge place and they love to drink beer so we would have enjoyed staying there longer ! We did the following whilst there : * view of the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen ; * drive through the Black Forest (which is actually dying...

Now this was a place that left me open-mouthed at how sex and drugs were flaunted ! We went to the Red Light District and I was shocked to see how young some of the girls standing in the 'windows' were, in fact the two guys on our trip just kept walking and it was all of us girls that were doing the staring ! There were lots of 'coffee houses' too, although I could swear the funny smell coming from them was not just coffee ! It was interesting cruising along the ...

I'm glad I have had the opportunity to come back to Belgium since this European tour, as we only spent a few hours driving through Belgium, which doesn't really do any country justice ! Anyway, we passed from Amsterdam to Brussels and back into France for our ferry crossing back to London, all in the one day. We didn't even stop in Brussels for a photo, but I was even more disappointed to learn that Belgium brews more different beers than any other country in the...