Another update and some photos!

Ok, now where was I?
Venice...then into the Swiss Alps... we stayed in a valley at a little town called Lauterbrunnen for 2 nights. We were surrounded by these massive sheer cliffs with waterfalls pouring thousands of litres of water from the melted snow in the mountains above appearing every so often along the cliff face.
We opted out of the very expensive day trip up the Jungfrau mountain (we've seen enough snow for the moment...) and walked around the valley instead ending up at some amazing glacial waterfalls inside a mountain and taking a gondola thingy up onto the top of the lower cliffs where there was a small village called Grimmelwald, so tiny and not surprisingly as I don't think you can actually drive up there...so we had a coffee way up there and then caught the gondola thingy back down again...



Next day was back on the bus for the last big haul...6 or 7 hours on the bus and we ended up in the City of Love, gay Paris. We had a night tour (although it was light most of the time...grrr) of the city after arriving and then a quiet beer with some of the others before hitting the sack as we knew it'd be a long day in Paris the next day...
We took it easy-ish in Paris, first up being the Eiffel tower. We climbed the first 2 levels on foot as we're stingey (apparently it took 2 hours to get through the line up to take the elevator to the top!). This was probably a bad move to do first up as our legs were very wobbly after going up and down 1400 stairs. Khan was also suffering from a cold that was making it's way around the bus so the breezyness was not good for him...





After the tower we wandered over through the palace opposite (can't remember the name of it) and onto the Arc de Triumph and then down the very glitzy and expensive shop Champ des Ulysess (spelling is probably terrible I know...) then through the Louvre, didn't go in as we wanted to spend some time at Notre Dame which was next. By the time we'd done all that it was time to go meet the bus as we were due for dinner at a French restaurant and then a cabaret.








The dinner was shit, probably the only time we've had problems with French people, our waiter was rude and there was no vegetarian option, even though we'd specified, they sat 20 something of us then told us we had to move thus splitting groups up...some of the girls knew French so they were spitting French at him, basically making sure they were going to spit on our food...it was a nightmare...got there in the end though...and the cabaret was fantastic, a little more modern than what I was hoping for but I swear at least 3 of the 'girls' were actually post op...

Now a visit to Paris wouldn't be complete with someone from our very obviously touristy group being pick pocketed...I saw the guy casing us and tried to warn people, next thing there's people yelling and chasing this guy...they got the wallet back ok
Paris was where we left everybody, deciding the morning we were supposed to leave to go to Lyon. One of the other girls was heading that way so we tagged along, she helping us with tickets and Frenchy stuff...we've realised that if you make an attempt to converse in French they like it better than if you just give them the "do you speak English" line. A lot of the younger people seem to know English anyway and once you try to speak some garbled French at them they switch to English anyway...however the hotel we're staying at they only speak French which is interesting but we managed to get a room in Lyon ok.
Now I'm sick as we've finally got a chance to slow down.
I think that'd be my biggest complaint about Contiki. It was a lot to cover in 9 days and we spent more time on the bus than sightseeing. It was exhausting as it was late to bed, early rises and hangovers to boot...
I think I also did something wiggy to my leg climbing the tower as it's really sore and i've got a big black and purple bruise that's come up just above my knee on the inside of my leg...
But anyways, From Lyon where we hung out for 2 days so Khan could get better, and me sicker, to Montpellier where there are way too many dogs and therefore way too much dog shit on the streets as the Frenchies don't pick up after their dogs...
And boy was it muggy...I didn't really like Montpellier too much...except for the crepes...they were goooood....

So now we're in Barcelona...arrived last night on a train from the dog pooey streets of Montpellier. The Costa Brava looked very cool as we went by in the train...We were going to stopover for a night in Figueres but found it would cost too much so just went straight to here
We're here for a week in which we're going to the Primavera Sound festival which should be awesome...We've also booked in for a Gaudi tour of the city tomorrow which I can't wait for...
Other than that I added some photos to te previous post as I have been ubable to upload them until now...
If I can get my ass into gear I may even get another photo album up...

long overdue update, which is old anyway!

Ok, so where have we been and where are we now?
Forgive me if I've posted this before but I can't remember and am writing this offline as I just have no online time at the moment...

Well we started off in London, staying with Michelle in her great house in Hackney (Crackney as she lovingly calls it) and did all the sites around London including Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Tate Modern and British, looked at Westminster Abbey from the outside (was buggered if I was going to pay 15 quid to go inside!) Went to a great italian cafe that was all about the scooter...Ben you would've loved it, Vespas and Lambrettas that were in getting repaired, an old authentic Italian coffee machine and decor to match...

After an interesting Jack the ripper tour the night before, we jumped on the Contiki tour with about 45 others headed on our whistle stop tour around Europe. First up was a Ferry ride across the English Channel to France where we kept going through to Belgium and then finally stopping in Amsterdam, Holland. Woah boy, what a city, have a lot of time for it and would love to go back there...
So we did a canal cruise to kick it off, cruising around sipping wine and eating cheese, then did the must-do thing of Amsterdam, go to a sex show...we also did a tour of the red light district, which was a bit gross as it felt like you were at a zoo, peering at all the exhibits. Of course no photos as if anybody sees a camera they tend to smash it or just take it...
It was an interesting show that involved cigar smoking vaginas, candlestick weilding vaginas, goth lesbians and Fabio and Fabian. And yes they appeared to be having intercourse right there on the stage which I found a tiny bit whacky...
We had a look at the non-descript Anne Frank house but with a line up that went around the block there was no way I was waiting.



After Amsterdam we made our way to St Goar in the Rhine Valley where we stopped to taste some Reisling from the area in a really cool old cellar that had big long tables set up in it and candles on the tables...it was great...We sampled some ice wine, a specialty of the area, which is sooo sweet and is made from matured grapes that have been frozen and are pressed whilst still frozen...very sweet wine, but interestingly enough, For somebody who only drinks white, I could actually bear the sweetness...



Onto a quick stopover in Munich where we went to a Bavarian beer hall and drank beers that were bigger than our heads! 1 litre per stein! Holy! They also put on a bit of a show with some dancing and that cow bell ringing stuff like Piffy did! And yes it's true, beer is cheaper than water here...Everybody got retardedly drunk and Khan wouldn't stop trying to speak German, well Khan German and I got talking to a local, well tried to, he spoke no English and would rant off in German leaving me going huh? There was a rowdy disco on the coach on the way back to the hostel and the party went on through the night. A good night was had by all and the coach was fairly quiet that morning as we drove into the beautiful Austrian Alps.






Now, amazingly enough, white water rafting is a great hangover cure...after an hour long rapids ride down the river we were all a lot more spritely...It was so much fun...I got to ride up front for the first bit and got saturated. It was so cold too! we had to jump in to practice rescuing people and being rescued and it was freezing! Most of the water was melted snow coming off the amazing peaks above. Fortunately, we didn't have any incidents and made it to the end in one piece. We did have a close call when we nearly flipped but luckily we managed to all lean the right way before we got tipped into the water.





Then finally some chill out time. Khan and I wandered into the town of Hopfgarten and went for a quick gondola ride up the mountain to halfway, which in winter is the largest ski resort in Austria. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera so there's no photos of the amazing view up there...

Next up was Venice, Italy we stayed in a campsite a short boat ride away and spent almost a day checking out the place, then went for a gondola ride which was very cool...Venice is a very beautiful city but absolutely rife with tourists...there was about 3 other busloads getting off ferries as we were...ugh...

...more to come, but no time!

We saw a bear!!!

Holy! Finally!
So we made the trip to Whistler and had a great day up there...spring conditions meant that most of the lifts were closed and only a small part of the hill was boardable (no blackcomb mountain) but it was massive anyways! The snow softened up nicely and it was a good finish to our Canadian snowboarding experience...Hill number 9...







That's a muffin...I had it in my pocket and it kinda turned into a muffin sausage...

And, on the way home driving our powerful Yaris, a bear ran across the road in front of the car we were following... We nearly pooed our pants..it was a smallish black bear (I think...grizzlies are big and brown...) here's a photo Khan got in the hubbub...and a close up...of the blurred kind...







So we leave Vancouver tomorrow at 16:05 headed for Frankfurt and then London where we're staying with Michelle for a couple of days...So if any of our London friends are reading this email me and we'll catch up for a bevvie!

New photos!

Ok, so I've been really lazy in regards to uploading photos... so here's a couple of months worth...
http://www.3littlepenguins.com/photos/canada/Mar-Apr/index.html There's stuff from Nakiska, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Jasper, Coachella and wherever else we've been...

Now,
We're finally back in Vancouver staying at the hostel on Granville st.
Our 35 hour bus ride behind us...oh boy was it gruelling...and pretty boring...most of the countryside looked the same...
So we stopped in LA, Sacramento and Seattle and lots of places in between. We didn't really stop though, managed to jump on an earlier bus in LA which made us arrive 3 hours earlier than expected...Don't really want to get on a bus for a long time but I think most of our Contiki is on a bus...

So this week we're hoping to see some sights around Vancouver and maybe make one more trip up to the snow at Whistler...oh and I suppose prepare ourselves for Europe...

Anyway, Khan's bored so I must run...