On our way to Luxembourg, Belguim and Germany

Hi again

Tour left Amsterdam and travelled through Belgium and on to Maastrich, Bastone and then on to Luxenberg.  We then went to see the oldest village in Germany called Trier.  The weather has been stunning.  On the way we stopped at some war memorial site for the American in the Battle of the Bulge.

 Castle at Belguim

 Maastrich

 Memorial to American Soliders who died at the Battle of the Bulge in Bastone

Fortress in Luxemberg

 American graves 5076 battle of bulge

 Luxemberg

 Germany

Welcome to Amsterdam

Hi Everyone

We arrived from Athens to Amsterdam. Had a good flight and then had three days to look around Amsterdam before we joined our tour of Holland, Luxemberg and Belgium.  We kept ourselves busy by going to the Wax Museum, Heinken Brewery and the famous Red Light District.  Very interesting place down there where everything goes.  There are about 850,0000 people is Amsterdam but its the bikes that you cannot believe.  I must admit we got taken out nearly a few times.  They have complete control of the roads.  Great place.

Wax Museum Churchill and Bono

Guess where Kiwi is???

Cleaning up bikes out of canals

Way of doing names in the old days

Below went to House of Anne Frank really interesting and sad

Welcome to Greece

The first thing when we arrived in Olympia was to catch up with the delay in our tour.  We went to see the Olympia museum before 8pm that night and then on to the ancient site of the first Olympics that were held in 79AD.  Amazing history with regard to the Olympics and how it all begin.  This is the site where the torch is lit for the Olympics and with the sun only no matches.

Say Goodbye to Italy and ferry to Greece

Ferry crossing from Italy to Greece was 5 hours delayed due to the Pope's visit the day before.  We had to kill a few hours in Acondo Port until the ship arrived.  Huge ferry and we sailed over night to Greece.

Welcome to Venice

This was a beautiful place very different with all the waterways.  The tour had an unexpected stop at the hospital as one of us slipped before getting on the gondola and gashed her arm severely needing stitches so our bus driver Pedro took us to the hospital in the tour bus which was an adventure for us all.  Gina from America got four stitches and was all good.  So on to good memories of Venice after that.

Glass blowing - amazing glass

Visiting Assisi and Florence - Italy

Hi everyone

Now we are in Amsterdam I have a bit of time to organise the rest of the blog from where I left off.  After the Isle of Capri we made our way to Assisi to see the oldest church built in 1200AD well before the vatican in Rome.  It was absolutely incredible with the way it was built for that time and the tools used.

Having good time is Assisi

Graves of fallen Soliders lost in Italy.  Combination of Canadian, South Africian, NZ, Australian and British Soliders and about 4000 without any names or bodies.  Very sobering sight when we saw it.  A lot of NZ graves all very young.  The graves are really well kept.  This was on way to Florence.

Below is Florence

A little electric car very popular there