First tulip sighting!

Trailer Park Boys

Wedding clogs

Fedding the ducks

Before

After

Mon 4 – Sat 9 Apr 2016

We couldn’t believe it was time to leave our European adventure already! We left Switzerland on Monday morning and headed to Munich for one last spa trip at our favourite spa, Therme Erding. We arrived just after lunch and had a wonderful afternoon and evening. The sun was out so we had lovely drinks at the outside swim up bar. Since we won’t be having a tropical vacation this year, we very much appreciated the palm trees and swimming pools. We were one of the last people to leave the spa that night and we had to drive 20 minutes to the middle of nowhere to find our airbnb for the night. As usual the sat nav took us to the right spot but human error prevailed and it took us 30 minutes to actually find the house (it was part of a new build in which it all looked under construction). So sometime after midnight we had a nice sleep.

It was an early rising the next morning as we were driving at least 8 hours to Amsterdam but we couldn’t resist a buffet breakfast at the spa (which would be lunch and dinner as well). We set off from the Munich area around 10:45am. The sat nav said we would arrive in Amsterdam at 6:45pm – we were sceptical. The drive was rather uneventful; we hit major traffic a few hours in so Natalie took a detour through the German countryside for a while. Then we hit rush hour and construction traffic around Dusseldorf. After stopping for gas a few times we were only 1.5 hours later then we had hoped. We arrived at our favourite park and ride in Europe and headed to our hostel in the city centre of Amsterdam. After a quick shower and bite to eat, we hit our bunks in our 12-bed dorm room rather quickly.

On Wednesday we decided to go hunting for tulips in the city. We went to the information point at the train station and bought a guide to the tulip festival. We were going to walk around the city but Matt thought it was a good idea to rent bikes. The weather wasn’t looking promising so it was a great idea. We biked around for a few hours in the morning and found some beautiful potted tulips at some of the famous landmarks in Amsterdam. There were some places that didn’t have any yet which was a bit disappointing. At our last stop, before we took a lunch break we spotted the Trailer Park Boys from across a canal. We were standing there wondering what was with the TV cameras, etc. and then Natalie noticed Bubbles and the gang and got really excited! Matt was like, ‘who are the Trailer Park Boys?’, so a quick explanation was made as we dashed over to get a picture. That was all very exciting but then the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down and we were washed into shelter for lunch and wait it out. After the rain had eased up we went back out in search of more tulips. We hit the gold mine at the Museumplein where there were tulips ‘floating’ in the water! We were struck by rain again so we went back to the hostel for a hot shower and a relax. Then we biked to Leidseplein to hear the same jazz band we had went to see in the summer – they were fantastic as usual.

Our last full day in Amsterdam we decided to go exploring in the countryside. Natalie had found an open air museum just an hour’s bike ride north of the city. In actuality it took three hours due to poor signage but the rain held off – it was just windy and cold. We had a great time poking around the museum. This was one of the first areas of industrialization in Europe and there used to be thousands of windmills but now there were only a half dozen. We saw how clogs were made, tried the local chocolate and saw the inside of a spice mill – a great day out. We took a different route home and managed it in under 2 hours. Along the way we stopped to pet new baby lambs and one really took a liking or licking to Matt.

On Friday morning we checked out of our hostel, returned the bikes and walked around a few blocks to try and find some more tulips – the sun was actually out and it was a warm spring day. We didn’t have much luck though – still a bit too early for the tulips to be in full bloom. We walked over to a barbers so Matt could get cleaned up. After spending 4 months in the mountains he looked like a wild hermit! He got a great haircut and bread trim and looked very much respectable again. We stopped for some lunch and then headed to our car and drove about 30 minutes to the ferry terminal.

We spent Friday night on the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle. We were very excited to have our own room again (after three nights of sharing) but we didn’t have a great sleep as the boat was rocking all night. We drove off the ferry on Saturday morning back in the UK. It felt nice to be back but we were sad our travels were over. The following weekend and week was a mad dash for Matt to secure a job and find a place to live! We have settled in now and are looking forward to our next big adventure – our wedding in August!!

We don’t think we’ll be those people who continue to blog about their every day lives so here’s signing off from us and the purple moose. Thank you everyone we have met along the way and all of our loved ones at home for your support and encouragement. Au Revoir, arrivederci, Auf Wiedersehen and Vaarwel!! xoxo

Way up to toboggan run

Yay!

Matt’s ski adventure

Lunchtime beer

Skiing home

Sent from the end of the ski run

St. Moritz

Air show at the Ski World Cup

Go Switzerland

Salom and Giant Slalom run

Winner of the men’s giant slalom

Audi driving experience

Off road course

Doing doughnuts

Slalom course

Kitty love

March 2016 (& Fri 1 – Sun 3 April 2016)

March was a busy month for us – trying to cram in everything we had yet to do before we leave! After our little getaway to Munich and Bavaria we had a whole calendar of events and special things to do. We went to a free (plus the purchase of drinks) jazz concert at a hotel in Scuol. It wasn’t great – organ jazz should be left to department stores and elevators (says Natalie).

Then we headed back to Austria, one evening, for night tobogganing. Unfortunately, it was one of the coldest nights this winter but we had some hot wine in a thermos for the ride up the chair lift. When we arrived at the top we saw lots of people heading towards the little restaurant . We thought that was strange that everyone was going there so we continued on our way down and up and down again. On our last ride down Matt said, ‘I saw a big tractor pulling skiers up the mountain!’ We still didn’t think anything of it and headed down. We were the only ones on the chair lift to the top…come to find out that there was a ski and snowboarding show taking place. We stopped for a few minutes to watch the fire dancers and a few skiers but we were wet and cold and decided we better head in to the restaurant for some hot goulash soup.

Then Matt headed off for four days of skiing in Scuol. It was rather expensive so Natalie decided not to bother. He got to borrow most of the ski equipment he needed (which was a great help) and rented boots and a helmet. The local bus picked him up every morning just down the road from the B&B and took him right to the ski lift. There was even a run from the top that brought him right down to Sent! The weather was pretty good, a little cloudy on the first day and early in the mornings but bright and sunny for the rest of the time. Natalie took some ‘me time’ to catch up on trashy American reality TV and puttered around the B&B – we both agreed it was nice to have some time on our own!

We had booked tickets to the Ski World Cup in St. Moritz just after Christmas, compliments of Nan & Granddad. Saturday, 19 March seemed ages away but it came quickly. Less then an hour’s drive, through the beautiful Engadin valley, we arrived at St. Moritz a little later then expected but still in time for all of the fun! We missed the first race of the lady’s slalom and men’s giant slalom but arrived in the town in time to see the Swiss Air Force PC-7 team airshow. It would have been nice to see it from the race area but we had a great view from the town! We finally found the free shuttle to the race area and arrived just in time to catch the second races of the day. It was pretty exciting – music playing, flags waving and giant cow bells ringing. After the races finished we had a picnic lunch in the VIP area and watched the medal ceremony. Then we walked around the sponsor’s area. We had far too much iced coffees, won some pretty cool hats and had our photos taken. Then we sat in the sunshine and listened to some dance music before heading down and home. Back in the town we ran into some girls who were promoting the Audi driving experience. They told us that just outside of the town, Audi (the main sponsor) had set up a free driving experience but it closed in 20 minutes. Matt really wanted to try it so we drove back the next morning for a fun ride. We both tried the ‘off roading’ course and drove a £90,000 Audi Q7. The we had a go at the drifting course in S5s and Matt tired the slalom course in an A4. It was well worth the trip just to drive around/slip and slide in the snow in brand new Audis!

We were telling some guests about our trip to the Bavarian spa and they got us googling other spas in Germany. Matt found the biggest spa in the world – Therme Erding – just outside of Munich (if we had only known!!). Well, our new found obsession with spas meant we couldn’t possibly leave Europe without a trip to the biggest spa in the world, so we booked another little trip just to visit this spa. And boy, it didn’t disappoint. After a snowy winter in the Alps, 29 degrees and 450 palm trees is just what we needed! It was like a tropical paradise. We spent the first day in the adult only area, going to lots of special infusions including one in the bakery sauna where we got freshly baked bread, Matt went to the men’s only one and tried some local beer. We had beauty masks, chocolate shea butter rubs, and Italian and water (for world water day) themed infusions too (too many to list!). There was also swimming in the huge pool with an aqua Zumba class in the morning and evening drinks at the swim up pool bar.

The next day we went to the most amazing breakfast buffet at one of the restaurants and then headed to the family areas (during the Bavarian Easter holidays – lots of kids!!). The wave pool on a full breakfast buffet stomach was short lived as was the wait in line for watersides at Europe’s largest water park. With a short stop at the ‘Vitality Oasis’, where we bathed in special mineral water, it was time to head back to the adult only area for more sauna infusions that we missed the day before. We headed back to the water park an hour before the place closed and were one of about 10 people there so we enjoyed the slides without the kicking and screaming of little children!

Easter weekend was pretty quiet. Doro & Til bought us some Easter chocolate and we traditionally watched Chocolat. We went to the final free jazz concert at the hotel in Scuol – it was much better – classic jazz standards! And we went for pizza with Doro & Til on Easter Sunday. Our last little send off was an evening at the spa for world champion infusioners (?) – a great experience and a great way to say goodbye to our local spa!

We are now packing up and coming to the end of our European trip of a life time! Not without a final stop at the spa in Erding and a few days in Amsterdam, before catching the ferry back to Newcastle. We have had an amazing experience – met wonderful people, learned new skills and things about ourselves and had some incredible adventures along the way!