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...

From Luxembourg we made our way to the Netherlands, where both of us have family connections. First stop was Maastricht where Jansen's Dad's family hails from. We made sure to visit all the spots we know of with specific relevance, which were really nice to see. The town itself claims to be one of the oldest in the Netherlands and has a number of ancient Roman fortifications surrounding it with parklands and a picturesque central area. Being on the smaller si...

Summer is now well and truly ramping up in Europe. There seems to be a public holiday once per week, accommodation prices are rising and the weather is warming. We didn't expect at any point in Europe for the heat to pose a problem, particularly after 40 degree days in Thailand, Europe would be a breeze, but for the first time since Asia we found ourselves uncomfortably hot, in Luxembourg. Perhaps Europe's mild weather has softened us, but the forecasted tempe...