Victoria, on Vancouver Island, was the next destination on the Canadian leg of our trip. The weather for our time in Victoria was pretty grey and drizzly for most of the time, so the place wasn't looking as good as it may otherwise. We noticed the homeless community was still quite prominent throughout the streets, so Vancouver was not just a "one off". There were some nice garden and coastal areas that we strolled around, and as a group we managed to make ou...

Our touch down in Vancouver, Canada signified a major shift in our year of travel - the beginning of the second half. It's also the first place so far where Steve has already visited but Sonja has not, which will be the case for a number of destinations as we move around North and South America. Meeting us in Vancouver was one of Steve's good friends from school and his girlfriend (Chris and Charlene), hence we temporarily became a foursome to explore this corn...

Last stop in Europe for us was Denmark, which greeted us with a torrential downpour of rain with ferocity we hadn't seen since Thailand. Still, we had been looking forward to Copenhagen since we were given tickets to the fun park "Tivoli Gardens" so some schizophrenic weather wasn't going to stop us from enjoying ourselves. Tivoli Gardens delivered on a fun day out with plenty of thrilling rides. Even the more traditional lower impact rides like bumper cars were ...

We stopped off in Hamburg for a day on our way up to Copenhagen. Our first impressions of the city were made in our hostel which was the largest hostel we've seen yet. We arrived there at the same time as a bus load of drunken men all wanting to check in at the same time as us. When a staff member cleared them away to deal with them separately we were surprised to find we were still in a huge queue that took over 40 minutes to get through. From this point Hamburg...

With the south of the Netherlands covered, we moved onwards to visit Sonja's relatives in the rest of the country. We were incredibly lucky to be offered a place to stay by one of Sonja's cousins in Rotterdam while they took a camper van holiday. We were able to stay in Rotterdam as a hassle free base to explore the rest of the country and catch up with as many of the relatives as we could. It really felt like a holiday from our holiday. Rotterdam looks quite di...