Down Under

Hello Readers! I just can't resist adding to this Blog, some of the most memorable shots from one of our "last" extended trips before we became parents. Now, don't get me wrong, we still do a lot of travelling with kids in tow, but only within a radius of (say, give or take) 800km, by train or car, depending on the distance and quite often than not, close to the country!

This was however, Australia, requiring a entire day just to get there. During my last year of my Doctoral degree (and this was 8 years ago), with husband in tow we spent a wonderful time in Southern Australia. I am only giving a quick snap shot of the highlights here, based on the fact that we had done and seen so much, that the complete narration would simply be impossible within this limited space. :-) Naturally, there were no direct flights from Frankfurt to Adelaide. So we did a stop over in Malaysia (which is covered in a separate Blog), a time most fun and delightful. 

Departing from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport

We spend our time primarily in Adelaide, the city being where my university is located. Adelaide struck us as an extremely charming city, with a slight colonial touch. Upon arriving in the little airport, we were greeted by explosive-food-detection beagles. Australian immigration was very particular about food stuff imported into the country. Being an isolated continent, the country had to take extra care to keep unwanted "bugs" at bay.

We experienced the Adelaide Fringe, which is the largest annual arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere. Held for over 4 weeks, it featured more than 4,000 local and international artists. We drove along the magical route of the Great Ocean Road. [Note: This is best traveled (if you are leaving from Adelaide) from to Warrnambool through Anglesea, Lorne, Apollo Bay and Tourquay. If you are planning to drive on towards Melbourne, it's highly recommended to turn off immediately, avoiding the sea route and take on the alternative. ;-) ]

We visited the (unfortunately rather commercial) Barossa Wine Valley, spendt days wandering around the Kangaroo Island (beautiful place, highly recommended!), visited some charming towns (e.g. Queenscliff, Hahndorf (er..., skip this if you are from Germany), got to know Melbourne, spendt a memorable night in The Oil Jail in Mount Gambier, and met the local furry natives. 

Here are some of our favorite scenes/experiences:

Adelaide Shopping Arcade

A row of commercial shops in Adelaide

A charming little hotel in Adelaide

Groovy car

The Adelaide Fringe banner

Water lilies in the Adelaide Botanical Garden

International Rose Garden in Adelaide

Hahndorf: A little German Village 

Welcome to the Kangaroo Island!

The Old Jail Hostel:  one can't miss the security features

The Old Jail Hostel: Double decker bed (with the toilet
conveniently located one meter away at the head/leg end) 

The rare albino Kangaroos

A typical landscape in Australia

During this trip we had done some regular International Hostel hopping. :-) Like Track IV, each is different, each has it's own characteristics. When we were not bunking in hostels when travelling, we had spent a night in Jail (leaves you quite speechless, really. Although it was renovated rather nicely then, one still can't wait to check out! Note: It has changed over the years. So google for updates if interested.) The Queenscliff Hotel was a beautiful place with its victorian splendour. In the Barossa Valley we found a newly renovated cottage to spend the night. And others were just good experiences in the youth hostels.

Next time, we are bringing the kids... :-))

Track IV

Going through my vast collection of photos I had taken over the last decade, I came across some really memorable ones. Originally developed in film, I later have them scanned in to be kept digitally. These were my all time favorites, taken with my old faithful Canon EOS.

It was the Summer of 1999 when the 7 of us (then MBA Graduates to be) took 2 weeks off to explore southern Europe. We pooled our fast dwindling student fund together, rented a 7 seater VW Sharan and took turn driving through Slovenia, Florence, Venice, Rome, Monaco and Switzerland. (This trip will always be fondly known as Track IV, for reasons only know to us! ;-p)

We left Stuttgart and headed off east. Slovenia was our first stop. I still remember every detail of it as if it was just yesterday. We were invited to spend a few days with a friend of two of our travel mates. The original destination (if I remember this correctly) was meant to be Stranska vas, but we sort of ended up in Straza. It was dark and late (..and definitely way past dinner time), and we were basically driving blinding across countrysides after we discovered the error. Remember, this was 1999, and we were not blessed with a GPS Navigation system of any kind. So it was driving solely on instinct, using a rough guide we got out of the internet. We found an anxious but warm welcome at our destination. Our hosts' mama made us a delicious chicken soup with the most scrumptious apple strudel dessert!! We spent the first few days of our trip discovering Slovenia. It was a beautiful country, and people were friendly. We visited lake Bled, the Postajna Cave where  the largest karstic cave in Europe was found, Ljubljana the capital of Slovenia, the Predjama Castle, and museums. We had a most enjoyable time. Little did I know, in consequent years, we'll be making many return trips there.

SLOVENIA: Boats overlooking Bled

FLORENCE: Trough the iron gate, looking into the courtyard 

ROME: The ruins of a fort

ROME: Remains of a Colosseum

VENICE: Island San Giogio Magiore 

MONACO: What a vibrant city!

In all other cities, we did not have the privilege of local home touch like we did in Slovenia. Instead we did what other "budget" travelers would do. We were not the camping sort of people. Rather, we were the real-bed-with-easy-access-to-toilet-and-bath sort. So for the rest of the Track, we bunked into Youth Hostels!!! We were signed up with the Hosteling International (HI) and it had all been quite a fun filled experience. There's always a slight local touch with a mixed match of international flare. In Florence, we were at the Villa Camerata. It was a beautiful 17th century villa surrounded by a huge park and garden. In Italy, we chose the Downtown hostel for its vicinity to some of Romes most visited tourist spots. In Venice we hit a snag. There were no more rooms available. Nevertheless, our Spanish speaking travel mates prevailed, and soon we found a reasonable 3 room apartment for the stay. We had a nice surprise in Monaco. The youth hostel we found was not an official hostel under HI, rather it was one under the patronage of one of the Princesses of Monaco. We had a most delightful experience here. The water was unbelievably clear and blue, and its night life an amazing display of glitter and glamour! For our last stop in Switzerland, we chose Am Rotsee in Luzern. We explored the beautiful city, took a train trip to Engelberg (roughly translated as the Mountain of Angles) to the "End of the World". This pretty spot was identified by the abrupt end of the Horbistal (Horbi Valley), thus end of the world. On the way back to Germany, we made a quick stop in Shaffhausen to visit the largest waterfalls in Europe - the Rhine Falls. It was like a baby Niagara falls, but still pretty amazing!

One last note on Track IV: Although upon graduation most of  us have left to take up different path of lives crossing three different continents, the experience had been amazing. The memory of it will always thread our lives together. (Most importantly, it had also resulted in one of the most previous friendship to be forged... a relationship to last a lifetime, and what stories we could tell the kids, eh Honey?)