Saltzburg, Austria

While in the Philippines we met Gerhard from Austria, and he invited us to visit him and his girlfriend Gabi in Salzburg. He is a chef and she is a pastry chef. A few days before we arrived they had been in the Philippines on a diving holiday and were straight back into work,

The company they work for is responsible for catering for a week for Audi who were unveiling a new car. The event was held at Hangar 7 which is a huge place owned by the creator of Red Bull drinks. Even though they both worked long hours we were still able to spend time together and have a lot of laughs.

Their company rents a house for Gabi and Gerhard and it is surrounded by farmhouses with cows in the barns and we have enjoyed watching the day to day activities of the local farmers. There is a large restaurant at the back of the farm and it sells beer and produce from the farm but is only open a few days of the week.

The farms are surrounded by flat land used for growing vegetables and at night the plastic nurseries are wrapped in bubble paper and glowing from the heat lamps. Everything was covered in about 20cms of snow when we arrived but a few days later the sun came out and the warm winds melted the snow and we had some comfortable 9 degree days.

Gabi had a couple of days off so we visited the city sights and did a tour of the castle fortress. The city still has many 17th century buildings and Mozart's family home was always surrounded by visitors.

The castle fortress, Festung Hohensalzburg was started in 1077 and was paid for by the taxes charged for salt. The salt was a precious commodity as it was used as a food preservative.

One day we took the cable car to the top of Untersberg. It went up at a 52 degree angle for 2.8kms, with a great view over the alps and towards Germany and we could see how much the snow had melted with the warm winds.

Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany

Another warm, comfortable, train ride and we arrived in Regensburg to visit Chris and Dagmar. Chris met us at the station but Dagmar had the chance to take a trip to Hong Kong so off she went. We first met Chris and Dagmar in China where they were riding their bicycles. They cycled for one and a half years and you can read about their trip at www.worldwheeling.de
Dagmar now works for Amazon books and Chris has started an online secondhand vinyle record selling business at www.homeofrecords.de

Chris and Lil sampling some traditional Bavarian food and wheat beer.

Regensburg is on the banks of the Danube River so it was an important route in Roman times. Some of the squares still retain the names of the produce sold in them during these times, like the fish market, fat street (for making candles from tallow), corn market, and coal market.

Some of the wealthy trading families built 5 or 6 storey towers, each trying to outdo the other, and about 20 of these still remain today. Often the ground floor housed the family chapel where they would pray before heading off for the day. The upper floors housed the family treasures and they could also barricade themselves into the towers if they felt under attack.

St Peter's Dom rises above the city with its two spires and was built of an unusual green sandstone in German Gothic style during the 14th and 15th centuries.

One of the bridges crossing the river was damaged by a Dutch ship captain when he ran into the support structure of the bridge. His ship caught fire and completely destroyed the buildings on the bridge. The locals who live in the old part of the city have a lot of problems getting to and from their dwellings as the second bridge is not strong enough to support heavy vehicles.

On another part of the river is the stone bridge that was built in the middle 1100s and was used by knights on crusade to the Holy Land.

We visited the St Emmeram Basilica which was decorated in the 'over the top' rococo style but smelt of old musty bones. It was quite creepy with its cement statues of skeletons and lots of old tombstones in the walls and floors of the cloister.

We had to try the traditional sausage and sauerkraut at the sausage shop that has been selling them for about 500 years. The old city is a UNESCO Heritage site.

An unusual place was the St James Church which is also known as the Scottish Church. It had an archway with all sorts of grotesgue carvings, for which there are many theories about what these represent. It was actually a part of the Irish Benedictine followers.

One day we took a bus to Walhalla outside the city. This was built by Ludwig 1 to store busts of worthy Germans and was built to look like the Parthenon. From here we walked through the Bavarian forest back to Regensburg. It took us four hours and we never met anyone else walking the trails. About 100 metres before the end of the trail Lil slipped on some ice and damaged her ribs. She now cannot carry a back pack, sneeze, cough or laugh!

Lucerne, Switzerland

We returned to Peter and his mum Lisa in Lucerne.

As soon as Peter saw a sunny day in the weather forecast, we set it aside to take a walk up Mount Pilatus. Pilatus has the world's steepest cog railway in the world.

We took a cable car part way up the slope and then walked an ankle deep snow trail for a couple of hours. We only saw a couple of women with their children on sledges but no one else. Peter had to give up as he got a sore toe from a previous injury and the uneven path caused him pain.
Top of Mt Pilatus
He will have to recover in a few weeks as he is off to climb in Nepal.

At the top of the hill we took another cable car to the top of Pilatus. The cog wheeled carriage arrived here with lots of Japanese tourists who took wooden sledges and slid down a prepared track.

Hidden under the snow we could see the outline of the summer toboggan ride and some of the high ropes course. It looks like it would be a fun place in summer too.

One night we took a bus into Lucerne to check out the action in the evening and ate at a quaint Italian restaurant. We haven't managed a fondue yet though! That may have to be on another trip.

The railway station was decked out in these papier mache pigs. As Easter approaches many displays will start to appear recounting events that have happened throughout the previous year. The carnival celebrations will climax on Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday).

We learnt a lot about Swiss life as Peter drove us around and explained things to us and would never have learnt as much as a backpacker.

Heerbrugg, Sant Gallen, Switzerlnd

While in Thailand we met Philippe and Tania. We also met them another time in Laos and have shared travel information through emails.

We spent a weekend with them at Heerbrugg, on the outskirts of Sant Gallen. Tania works as a draughtswoman for a housing company and Philipppe is responsible for IT at his plastics moulding company. They both work a short bike ride away from their offices.

We were delighted to hear that they will marry in August. We took a drive with them to look at a possible wedding venue in one of the nearby villages.

We later drove onto Appenzell, which is famous for its hard working residents who are rather short and bear the brunt of many jokes. Women were not allowed to vote in the annual
open air parliamentary elections until 1991 and even then a Supreme Court had to order it. In the square where the elctions are held there is a statue with his hand raised in the air. Today the voters still raise their hands and someone has to count them!
Traditional signs for the shops
Both John and Lil are suffering from fever, chills and congestion. Lil was too tired to make the walk around the snow trails in the village but John did.

Zurich, Switzerland.

After a short train ride we arrived in Zurich and spent a few hours looking around the city. It turned out to be quite a nice day so we were content to spend it sightseeing.

I recently read that after USA, Switzerland has the most number of millionaires in the world and in the main shopping street it is easy to see where they are spending their money. There are wall to wall top brand shops.

The Swiss have referendums on many topics and papers are sent out four times a year for locals to have their say.

At the moment there are many signs like this one all over the country. As Switzerland is not a member of the European Union there is a lot of debate over whether it should allow European Union members to live, and work here without permits.

Lucerne, Switzerland

Switzerland is famous for cheese, the Matterhorn, and banking. LSD and absinthe were also invented here!

There are about 7.4 million people in an area one seventh that of New Zealand.

We took a train to Lucerne to meet with Peter. We last saw each other in Thailand at the start of our travels and have kept in email contact ever since. He is retired and has been sending us photos from his travels and suggestions of places for us to visit.

As Peter's flat had no guest room, we are staying in the guest room at his 80 year old mother's house. Peter's mother Lisa, is very good trying to work out what we are saying as she doesn't speak English.

Peter lives just outside Lucerne and can see Mount Pilatus from his flat but it was so misty and cloudy when we first arrived that we told him we didn't believe him about the mountain.
Near Peter's mum's house
He took us into Lucerne and although we have both been here over 30 years ago we don't remember much of the details of the city. It was foggy so we were not able to see the city at its best so hope the weather improves enough to get some nice photos.
Kapellbruche (Chapel Bridge) in winter
Even the spiders' webs are frozen
on the 17th century pictorial panels depicting various religious scenes.

The lake paddle steamers.

The masked character 'Fritschi' emerges from a window at the town hall during Lucerne's six day Fasnacht (Lent) celebrations and is followed by bands of musicians and revellers where they congregate near this statue.

John's walking boots have split so we had to buy some new ones here. We still have to do a lot of walking in snow and ice to do yet.

We have enjoyed a typical Swiss raclette with melted cheese and potatoes- perfect for this kind of weather.

Switzerland was neutral in WW1 and not involved although it did organise units of the Red Cross and after peace was won it joined the League of Nations with financial and economic involvement rather than military. There were a few accidental bombings in WW11 but most of Switzerland was unscathed. This has meant that there are a lot of beautiful old religious buildings to see.

St Michaels of Beromunster

All churches in Switzerland are free to enter so we visited the ornate Catholic Church of St Michael on one side of Lucerne, and St Urbus at the other.
St Urbus Carved wooden pews

We visited a snow covered golf course at Sempachersee. This had John dreaming about his new unused Chinese golf clubs gathering dust at home.

Another day we drove to the central area of Schwyz and saw the kloster at Einsiedln. We were unable to take photos inside so took some shots from a book Peter has. The inside of the church was dripping with pink plaster icing and lifesize porcelain angels looked like they were about to step off the ceiling and fly down to greet you. Peter said it is popular for Sri Lankan refugees to come and pray at the black Madonna here even though they are Tamil Hindus. We saw several while we were there. For a cool wintry day there were still a lot of visitors in the city but I would imagine it is jam packed in the peak season.

When the farmers' fields are covered with snow they are marked with walking trails and we joined the walkers, mums with strollers and cross country skiers to enjoy the sunshine.

Luttringen,Arnsberg, Sauerland,Germany

We visited Luttringen in Sauerland to stay with Karin and Roland. We first met them in Mexico and several other countries further south as we travelled through South America in 1981. We last saw them in 1991 and our daughter Kerri visited the family when she was at school in Aachen 7 years ago.

Luttringen is a small community near Arnsberg. Roland works as an IT programmer for a company that makes copper pipes. Karin manages the household and does volunteer work in the village inluding managing the local tennis club.

One evening we had Roland`s dad visit and we played his favourite game- similar to Yatzhee with 5 dice.

The last time we visited in summer and walked around Mohnesee, a lake with a huge dam. It was featured in the movie Dambusters when it was bombed in World War 11 and the valley flooded killing hundreds of locals. This time we did the walk when it was covered in snow and one part of the lake was frozen.

Another day we drove to nearby Soest and walked around the medieval town. It is famous for having the largest city funfair in Europe when the marketplace is jammed with ferris wheels, stalls and fun rides. The town is now a heritage town and there are still many ancient buildings around the market place and millpond. In medieval times there was a seesaw beside the pond and miscreants were tortured using the seesaw. I wonder if it continued in winter.

The millpond

Some of the restaurants were closed for winter.

All around Luttringen are wind generators and everyday the sky was clear and the sky blue so we were able to walk around and watch the local children enjoying sledging. The snow was dry, fluffy, and squeaky.


On a week day we walked in the Wildewiese which is an area in the forests and a popular place for learner skiers and cross-country skiing. The tows were closed but open on the weekends so we only saw a few other couples walking their dogs and enjoying the trails. A pile of frozen logs that are sprayed with water to preserve them.

At the end of the trail was a huge communications tower that we climbed and it was clear enough to see back towards the Sevenhills near Konigswinter.

We enjoyed seeing Roland and Karin`s slides from South Ameria and John took photos of some that featured us together in Mexico. John has a beard!

We talked about how difficult travel was at that time and how much easier it is with the internet for banking, keeping in contact with families, making reservations for hotels and transport, as well as the convenience of using digital cameras and cellphones.

We used to carry traveller`s cheques and they always took hours to change into cash. We had to buy rolls of films at the start of the trip and keep them in foil lined bags on the concrete floor of the hotels so they didn`t deteriorate in the hot and humid weather. Letters from family and friends were collected at the main post offices in capital cities and could be found stored under your first name, the country they came from, and maybe even M for Mr or Mrs!

We enjoyed an afternoon of bowling with Roland and Karin`s children, Robin (18) on the left and Janina (21) and her boyfriend Lukas. They are keen to visit us in New Zealand and we are keen to have them and help the next generation of backpackers!

Konigswinter, Germany, 2009

Theo and Katrin are on the right.
On New Year's Eve, called Sylvester here, we were invited to eat with Gerti's friends Theo and Katrin. They live above their shop and studio where they produce handmade pottery using a wheel, and various ceramics. We had a lovely rachlette meal with their friends. At midnight we went up on the balcony overlooking the Rhine to see all the fireworks along both banks. It was a white New Year.

In this kind of weather people spend a lot of time inside so the house was full of interesting traditional art and crafts. The heat from the candles make the propellers above turn. We have seen several kinds of these crafts.

This folding painting with four wings was painted all all sides. Katrin`s family owned it and one of the sides shows a traditional nativity scene and the other shows Katrin and her family as children, gazing at the nativity scene.

Theo made this outdoor nativity scene in the garden. It was made on a wheel so it could stay outside without being damaged by freezing.

We spent the early hours of the New Year walking home in the snow listening to fireworks all around us.

We visited Gerti`s daughter Tania and her husband Detlev and enjoyed a lovely meal with them. Tania works as a flight steward for Lufthansa and her husband is a vet. It has been 25 years since we last saw Tania, and hope we don`t have to wait another 25 for the next time.

Gerti`s son Ralf returned from a skiing holiday in Austria so we were able to catch up with him and Angela and his family too. He works as a detective for the German police. His son Lennart served us coffee and his daughter Lara-Tabea posed in front of a painting that she had painted herself.


Ralli took us walking in the hills near Konigswinter and for a tour of the new Bonn police station where John was processed as a criminal would be.