R&K's Europe Adventure

 As I wrap up our last blog post as we sit in the Airport awaiting for our flight we spent the past 3 days in London with an action packed agenda. Tours of the Royal British museum was excellent, as was Westminster Abbey, then we ended the night at a play in the theatre district, call the Play that went Wrong, a comedy. On our second day we took a tour to the Cotswolds where parts of Downton Abbey was filmed and Blenheim Castle outside of London. Our last day consisted of a tour Kensington place and the Royal Albert music hall and then wrapped up the evening at Mama Mia. It was a great day excellent tours and the theatre was incredible. Looking back on our trip we were so lucky as the weather was generally perfect everywhere we went with only one day with a small shower that only lasted for a couple of hours. Travelling by rail was also a plus as we were able to see what’s outside of the large cities that we visited, and the rail stations took us to the centre of all the cities we ...

 We’re heading into the last stretch of this month long holiday, as we make our way back towards London we stopped over in Neurenbeg. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and headed into the old city. I hadn’t done much research about this city other than it was where Hitler did a lot of speech’s and was the headquarters of the Nazi party with huge military parade grounds. The stuff that I hadn’t looked into was the old city which again had these huge towers at the four corners of the city. It was some sort of festival in Nuerenberg this weekend as the centre market was full of beer gardens and food vendors and amusement rides for the kids. Did see any sketchy Carnies though. From what we could figure out that it was some kind of festival celebrating fish as there were numerous vendors selling raw fish on a bun, herring, carp and other aquatic species. Pi stuck to some good old German sausages with sauerkraut and Karen tried their version of the Mcfilet of fish, both were pretty good. Lo...

 Prague or Praha as the Czech’s say is another large city with a mix of old and new. After 3 days of touring around with Karlee as we put her through our busy days with lots of walking.  We’re averaging about 15,000 to 26,000 steps per day if your shins and hips aren’t sore after walking all the steps and cobblestones something is wrong. Prague another old city with with a history of many wars, conquests and revolutions in its past, it is now a huge tourist destination with lots to see and do. Being here on the weekend the city was very crowded.  We visited the Prague castle which really isn’t a castle but a city on top of a hill surrounded by huge walls. Again as with all cities here religion and royalty played a huge part in this city’s history, royalty reigned and built alliances with certain religions, and of course the locals had their own ideas and there own religion so usually a war started every 100 years and someone would get their head chopped off and tossed ove...

 As we sit on our train about to leave for Prauge I can say how surprised I was with our 3 day stay in  Budapest. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we arrived, but this city has it all, modern new architecture and a mix of  very old buildings and Soviet era type buildings. For about the past 800 years it seems this city has been over thrown, destroyed and conquered every 100 years or so. The further east you travel in Europe there history seems so much more tragic. Budapest which is actually two cities Buda and Pest across from each other along the Danube river. The city is very clean and had a very cool vibe , maybe due to government policies there is very clean and little visible homelessness as compared to other cities.  After arriving by train from Presov we walked down some of the narrowest streets we’ve encountered so far. Looks Looking  kind of sketchy from the outside but once we passed through the doors of our hotel an amazing modern hotel was hidden be...

Today’s Blog will cover our 4 days with Gordie and Karlee here in Presov Slovakia. Again we were very lucky and had perfect weather in this nice little city of about 90,000 people. Presov pronounced “Pray-show”. Sits in the huge rolling foothills of the Tatras mountain range similar to the foothills going to Banff but much bigger.  After a bit of a gong show with our train we arrived about 2.5 hours late into the city of Kosice where Gordie picked us up at the train station. A short twenty minute trip at about 140 kms per hour (no speed limits ) on the freeway we arrived at their apartment. G and K are lucky as they moved into a new apartment building (very comfortable) a short walk to the downtown area. This the view from their balcony. On Friday while Gordie got ready for his game with his pregame ritual the two K’s and myself went to the downtown and checked things out. I really liked the city with an assortment of new and old buildings quaint little side streets and alleys wher...

 Salzburg is know as the salt city and home to Mozart,  but if you asked Karen it would be only famous for the Sound of Music. As we made our way from Munich we made the short train ride in about two hours and started exploring around Salzburg. A ten minute walk from our hotel we were in the heart of the old town area again with all the historic building, our first day we spent a lot of time tiring through the huge Salzburg Castle, it was been very well kept and had great views over the city and surrounding countryside. Prior to Covid Salzburg had about 10 million visitors annually, this year they have expect about 3 million. On our second day we took a morning tour through the salt mines near an active mine over 500 years old. Salt was the major source of income and wealth for the area. We put on our miner suits a headed down into the mine for a two hour tour. The country side is absolutely stunning with rolling hills neat little farms and everything is in its place.  Th...

 The past two days spent in Munich went by quickly as we saw  and did a lot in our short stay there. Upon our arrival from Heidelberg we checked into our hotel only a couple of blocks from the train station then headed to the city centre about a 10 minute walk away. We came across the Munich Marathon with almost 20,000 participants the downtown area was packed with people and bands and all sorts of things going on.  Of course we were drawn more museums and old churches. History seems to get older as we head east in Europe church’s and palaces and older buildings are everywhere. Through out history there have been many wars and fires that have destroyed these cities but they always resurrect themselves. We are both totally amazed by the churches that were built in these cities are absolutely huge and ornate. St. Peter’s church started construction in 1180 AD but through various fires and wars this structure stood the strands of time. The art work and skilled craftsmanship ...

 Each city that we have visited is so unique and different it’s difficult to say which has been the best so far. Heidelberg has lots of history, great views and really great Schnitzel. We left early Friday morning from Brugge and arrived into Heidelberg around 2:00pm. Our hotel was next to the train station so we dropped off our bags and headed to the old town area. Located alongside the Neckar river Heidelberg was a stopping points for traders for the last 600 plus years, many of the old buildings still stand in the old town area along with the Heidelberg Castle. This is another city that was spared bombing in WW2 due to its cultural significance. With the cobblestone street’s and a vibe of  a tourist town it was fun to walk around and just hangout at a corner cafe with a cold beer and watch the world pass in front of us.  We found a restaurant that has been in existence for over 300 years that serves only Schnitzel, the original heavy oak work bench’s are used as tables...

 Hey we’ve been busy sorry for the delay in getting this Blog out Day 3 in London took us to a bunch of different sites starting off in the Morning to theNational Gallery a huge art museum with works from Rembrandt, Monet, and Van Gogh. It was an amazing place where a person could spend a whole day walking through the Galleries. For lunch we headed to the Borough Market this 600 year old market had various food stalls, fresh produce and meats from across Britain. After lunch we toured through the imperial War Museum of the underground war offices that Churchill directed WW2 from. It was a very interesting as all of the top military advisors and politicians lived and worked in this large underground bunker until the end of the war. Then it was out for dinner and then off to the theatre district to see “Matilda” a non stop performance for two hours that was outstanding. Finally back to our basement closet for the night. Wednesday morning was an early start to catch the Eurostar train...

 London home of The King, Big Ben, the River Thames and now the Ballhorn’s staying at the elegant Berjaya Eden Park Hotel….(not quite so elegant). I was a bit suspect when you had to go up a long flight of stairs to take an elevator to the basement suite, some how the pictures on their website show the rooms as spacious and well appointed.  We took a hop on hop off bus around London and got to see a bit of everything. We saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar  Square, London Eye and the Tower Castle and a cruise along the river Thames. Certainly so much to see and do, three days is not nearly enough time see and do what you want. London is a busy and congested city, lots of crowds everywhere and so much construction going on, but it has a certain vibe and energy that you get from all the history and it’s reputation as one of the great cities of the world. London is most definitely a culture melting pot you see and hear all language’s and culture fro...

 Join Karen and myself as we weave our way across Europe to see some sights and see some hockey. Departing from Calgary on October 1st we will start our trip from London in the U.K. and  work our way across Belgium, Germany,  Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech. Republic and back to London and home again on the 28th of October. Join our Blog on this 2,600 mile Euro Adventure.