Hello from Florence!

After Amsterdam we caught a train to Cologne - we werent planning to go there, wanted to go to Munich but the journey was going to be too big so this was a good stop for us. We arrived there quite late so we just saw a few sights and then went for some traditional beer and food at 'Peter's Brauhaus' - they brew their own beer and we had sausage, fried potatos and cabbage - nice!

There happened to be the biggest dentist convention in Cologne while we were there (I know!) and the whole place was swarming with dentists! At Peter's Brauhaus they were short on tables so we sat next to two very nice Danish dentists, very nice to talk to, but one of them was a spitter! Had to dry my face a couple of times...!!

After a rough nights sleep because of some Polish dentists (dont ask) we got up really early to catch our train to Munich. Munich is lovely, and the beer is even better! We went to a local beerhall called Hofbrauhaus and got a litre of beer! I actually had to support the bottom of the glass with my free hand! After that, we were tired so went for a sleep but ended up sleeping till 10 - we had another early morning after that, so just hit the hay - we only wanted to drink a litre of beer there anyway....

From Munich we got the train to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. It's really nice there - very old buildings and streets. The river that runs through it is amazing, the water is crystal clear - not muddy brown colour! From the city, in the background are Swiss mountains, which makes everything very pretty. The hostel we were staying in was really good - probably the best one yet. In the centre there is a massive clock and we stayed to watch when it chimed expecting something spectacular as there was a big crowd, bu there was just some bears running around in a circle, pretty disappointing!

This morning we got up extremely early (because the clocks went forward aswell) to catch the train to Florence via Milan. The journey through Switzerland was amazing, the snow on the mountains and the small villages was so nice - took a couple of pics from the train! Before we hit the Italian border, the police (with guns) came on the train to check passports etc, and if anyone had anything to declare. Obviously we didnt, but its really nerve racking - the searched through Jack's bag and made him turn out his pockets. We got off lightly, the guys opposite us had to empty their backpacks because they smoked and they were checking for cigarettes. We had a connection at Milan, but the train was late so we had to jump onto another one to Florence. Got here about 3.00, it is a very beautiful city. Very historic, cobbled streets, no flashy modernness (if thats a word). The only problem is there are too many tourists!!! The streets are extremely crowded, and we wanted to go see MichaelAngelo's David but the queue was huge - i got a picture of a replica though....

So, thats where we are just now. Getting the sleeper train from Bologna to Bari tomorrow night, Jacks relatives will be picking us up in the morning, then we're hopefully going to get tickets for the Scotland Italy game on Wednesday. Also hoping to book the ferry to Greece for the next part of the journey.

Both having a good time, both pretty tired but really enjoying it!

Hope all is well with everyone

Linsey and Jack

xxx