Prague is one of the cities around the world that has been bestowed the title of "Paris of the East", though the Czechs would quickly remind you they're part of central Europe, it seems "east" is a dirty word to them. Considering we weren't really impressed with Paris, and knowing that Prague also comes with its own hype, we had managed to keep our expectations in check upon arrival. What we found in the centre of Prague was a buzzing, atmospheric city with ple...

We were both very excited to see Vienna as Sonja spent the best part of four months in the city about four years earlier. We walked around while Sonja pointed out the dingy hostel she used to live in, the cheap pubs she frequented and streets or buildings that were associated with some of her more elaborate memories. This included struggling through a three hour opera in the Opera house which would have been a fantastic experience if it were in English and we ha...

We decided to stop off in Innsbruck to see some of the Austrian Alps in order to break up the journey to the far east of Austria. In Innsbruck we finally had a chance to try out couch surfing and were taken in by a young couple who were studying in the local university. They lived in a small flat with a spare bedroom where they had two mattresses on the floor and were happy to let travellers use on their way through the area. They were both quite fond of Innsbruc...

Zurich, the largest city in a very wealthy country, was surprisingly small. The town centre was uncrowded and very liveable with an old town and, some beautiful waterfront scenes. While in Zurich we had the chance to catch up with Felix, a friend from our Nepal trekking days in January. We enjoyed a night in with wine and a cook-up in our surprisingly affordable, fully equipped apartment.

Lucerne is a city that we should have liked more than we did. The city is on the side of a lake, surrounded by mountains, similar to Interlaken, but while we were there the clouds were so thick that the views were almost invisible. We could appreciate how beautiful the place would be on a nice day but unfortunately were not able to enjoy it for ourselves. From Lucerne we were able to catch a ferry to Weggis, another town on the lake, where we hiked around for a b...