Slovakia - Bratislava

Hey all here are the photos as promised... excuse the lack of explanation but internet (even WIFI) is reeeeallllly expensive.
This is the beer that a random idiot of a scotsman stole off us and drank infront of us!!!!

The ice hockey game we all went to and got totally smashed...

The beer stack..

View from the train from Bratislava to vienna (sorry this photo should be last)

At the bar in the hostel

Boys will be boys.... (adam and chris)

Boys will be boys mark II

The lack of fridge space in the hostel was NOT a problem...

yummmmmyyyy....

All Hail the beer gods...

my first real look at lots of snow...
(now over the cold)

Chris is overjoyed..

Adam looking pensive...

"I'm the King of the mountain..."

STOP throwing snowballs ADAM!!!!!!

Bascially lots of fun and snow balls. I don't have the picture, but Chris threw one at me that actually hit me and went all down my coat... the BASTARD!!!

We are now in Vienna...

going to Munich in the next few days. However the temperature has gone up in the past week and it is no longer sub zero. that means RAIN not SNOW....

Madrid last day...

well here are the photos from our last day in Madrid.... on real order just photos

Madrid day one..

We arrived at about 5:00pm and went out and about. not finding anywhere particularily cheap we returned to the hostel. In a flashof brilliance i walked into the best little mexican place ever. SOOooooo cheap compared to the rest of the places we saw. Also very very busy (a good sign) so we sat down and shared some nachos and had a corona.

The next day...

we went to the history museum. This is a piece of embroidery from one of the hangings.

Just another palace... going inside tomorrow as it was shut today..

We went to the flea market and we sooooo hungry after all the walking and just happened upon this little bar selling spanish food over the bar. By the time i got to the bar trying to shout to the guy what i wanted (one Paella and one potatas bravas,) he didn't understand very well, but i eventually got the food. rather yummy really

No where to eat in the bar as it was so crowded owing to the market day and how cheap the food was.

We are here for another day before we go to torledo and back here again for a flight to Budapest where we are staying for 4 days from the 15 - 18th november.

Crossing the Spanish desert...

well, our train was expensive but excellent. There was even enough leg room for chris!! that is saying something. The Train ride was really interesting as we had to go inland through Spain.

It didn't matter how dry and dusty it all was they farmed all of it.

Why back to Germany...

Well in answer to a question from mum "Why back to Germany"

there are lots of answers.

1) it was only 2 hours away by train

2) it cost 80 euro for the both of us both ways

3) Cologne cathedral is the tallest (and in my opinon the best in Europe)

4)"i felt like it"

5) Beer

6) It's another place that we have been scratched off the list

Today we went to a small museum of Cologne. It was tiny and only 2 euro. My hopes were not high. we got in and it was "ok" but not brilliant. Until i saw the most fascinating medieval collection i have seen so far i think. everyone has armor and swords and tapestries and so on, but none have had a collection of items taken off a condemed Patrician in 1389! Yes 1389. Pretty good year. All the items were taken and stored and forgotten about. they are just normal items. like a needle case, about 10 little tiny bags that fell off his belt. Folding spoon in a case, another case, a belt and blah blah blah.... The bags were the biggest eye opener yet. They were very well preserved, one made out of soft leather, but it had little pockets sewn all over it. Another had a cover for the bag made out of mesh!! It also had little ROUND seed pearls the size of normal beads crossing over the seam lines around the two side seams. it was the size of a match box. (see photos below)

As you can see this was pretty cool.

But back to normallity!!

we went out for dinner last night to a really nice place that was about 300 years old.
as you can see they had beer at this place!! we had a really delicious meal of beef covered in a balsamic vinegar and herb sauce with red cabbage and potato dumplings and salad.

(I love this photo!!! Sorry Chris i HAD to put it in...)

byyeee

i'm so sick of posting photos... Bruge...

Ok, Here we are in Cologne posting all the photos that i can stand posting... sorry but this is the end for the moment, i'm going to bed!!!!!!!!

these are the photos of Bruge where Liz and Pedro took us on our first day in Brussels. they spoilt us royally!

such a beautiful city, it even held off raining for our entire walk around the city. It tipped it down on the way and rained on the way back..


enjoy the photos..

Chris and Sarah

Our catelogue of beer...

Liz and I

Chris.. and his new friend...
no introduction...

Pedro, Liz and I

wawel castle - Krakow (poland)

The big bell at top of the bell tower... the most impossible staircase ever. No pictures on the way up cos Chris was a fraidy cat...

view from the top of the tower..

the doorways going down...

A nice part of the staircase..

the (modern) staircase at the end.

the courtyard at the castle..

and again......

Chris's next sword (photo illigally taken while a Polish woman flapped her arms about wildly and spoke in very loud Polish while Chris pretended not to hear...)

the only part of the castle that i can currently find in Photos...the others are in the other folder (i think) but we were very drunk the day we took them... not sure where they are...

some part of the Church at the castle.