Summaries are a little difficult at the best of times for its easy to forget items of importance especially over a six week period, so I will work through our trip from the start and try not to bore any readers who happen along.
Firstly our holiday consisted of four good friends, Pieter,Lyn, Peter and Val deciding to take a holiday through a large part of Europe, finishing up with a chill out session a week in Penang, Malaysia. We started with a two week cruise up the Danube from Budapest Hungary, across the Alps to the Rhine and down into Amsterdam Holland. We began our trip at Melbourne Tullarmarine Airport on 22nd April 2012.
Singapore Airlines. Except for a mechanical delay at Singapore Airport causing us to miss our connecting flight from Frankfurt to Budapest, thus a re- routing at Frankfurt through Dusselldorf and a five hour wait there for a flight to Budapest, we were quite happy with their service. Meals were excellent, Staff were courteous and helpful at all times, and the Airbus A 380 Jet a great plane to fly in for the Economy passenger.
Budapest Hungary. We stayed at La Prima fashion hotel, close to the center of Budapest, this hotel was clean and adequate for our needs and the breakfast was good.
Budapest is steeped in history, a clean and interesting city, made up of two ancient cities each on opposite sides of the Danube, Buda and Pest were united in 1873. Places of interest Castle Hill, Gellert Hill, Parliament Building, St.Stephens Basilica, Andrassy ut. the Jewish Quarter, the Great Market Hall and much more. We liked Budapest a pity we only had two days there.
Avalon Panorama. Our home for two weeks from Budapest to Amsterdam, this ship is truly a pleasure to be on, our balcony stateroom was well appointed with plenty of room for two people to enjoy the experience of river cruising. At each port of call the company provided guided tours, these were included in the overall price. On the way from Budapest we visited the following cities and places. Bratislava Slovakia, Vienna Austria, Durnstein Austria, The Wachau Valley, (known for its vineyards and wine) Salzburg Austria (Mozart once lived here). Passau Germany, Regensburg Germany, Nuremberg Germany, Main-Danube Canal, Bamberg Germany, Wurzburg, Germany, Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber Germany, Miltenberg Germany, Middle Rhine, Rudesheim Germany, Cologne Germany, Amsterdam Holland.
Here we left the Avalon Panorama its wonderful appointments, food and crew. Thoroughly satisfied with the experience.
Amsterdam Holland. Val and I spent two days here not enough to see the city in any great depth. However we were able to experience the older part, its canals and buildings, Red Light District, also the wonderful Keukenhof Gardens truly a great experience. We stayed at Maes B & B in the older part of Amsterdam close to the red light district, quite comfortable but as the building is some centuries old and three stories high the stairs are steep, however we had plenty of room with our own sitting room and the shower was enormous and modern. Breakfast was provided and quite adequate.
England- Manchester. We left Pieter and Lyn in Amsterdam by Easyjet (a bit of a risk after some of the TV programs I've seen regarding them) and headed for England and Vals cousin Pauline and her husband Steve, what a great time they provided for us with many walks and drives around the immediate district which included visiting places of interest such as Lyme Hall. We also caught up with our Radiance of the Seas friends (New Zealand Cruise) Stuart and Judith, Judith kindly arranged for us to attend a luncheon where vals cousins could attend, we all had a great time with Jon, Sue, Steve, Pauline Stuart and Judith. Thank you again Judith for arranging this wonderful day.
London is a great city, clean and interesting with much pageantry, history and things to see, here we stayed at The Cleveland London in Cleveland square Bayswater, within relatively easy walking distance of the center of London. A clean and well appointed hotel, it suited our needs. We met up with Jeanette Petty and Jane O'sullivan and their husbands, Vals cousins on her Fathers side, a great reunion for Val.. We also saw a number of Londons Icons and I have adequately described our experiences previously.
Eurostar. Truly a great experience, the fastest train we have had the pleasure of traveling on and I was particularly impressed with the countryside between the channel and Paris. It is almost total Market Gardens or intensive farming the whole distance.
Paris. After London, Paris was disappointing to both of us, an interesting city with much in history going for it, we liked the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, (although could not get into either) we liked the other historic places that we saw, but we did not like our Hotel, Hotel Terminus Lyon, for we found the room to be poky with a view over the air conditioning plant and the breakfast left much to be desired. The Metro was good and relatively easy to find your way around if you took your time and studied the signs. It was disappointing to see large numbers of beggars on the streets and buskers on the trains.
Singapore Airport the cleanest and almost certainly the best airport we have passed through in our travels. Heaps of modern shops and eateries. A driverless tram to take you between terminals.
Penang was interesting to say the least. I had a lot of difficulty on the first three days adjusting to the heat and humidity and as I do not like swimming in chlorinated public pools I did not consider the Hotel pool even though it looked magnificent and inviting. Pieter advised me not to swim in the ocean as it did not look clean and had heavy under tows, so for me that was out as well. Val liked the heat and pool and thoroughly enjoyed relaxing by the pool under the coconut palms. We both enjoyed the local food finding it interesting, fresh, cheap and plentiful the beer was excellent and cheap as well. Our room at Bayview Beach Resort was probably the best we stayed in for the whole trip (except for Avalon Panorama stateroom).The breakfast was adequate but I was not impressed with the make believe beef and chicken bacons, or the curry dishes available so I did not eat them. All in all a pleasant stay, would we go back? we have chosen to think about it for a while, overall though quite good.
Our final opinion, a very enjoyable holiday well worth going and the money spent. It was particularly nice to be holidaying with friends who we could rely on if there were any problems, not that there were any. Thank you to those people who made this holiday a pleasant and enjoyable experience for us both. We finished our trip at Tullamarine Airport Melbourne on the 1st June 2012.
Crackers and the Hen.
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