Hey, It Benno doing the entry this time. So i wont let the truth get in the way of a good story.
We completed our trip in swiss with a few nights in Bern, which was expensive but nice. They have a magnificant river that runs thru the centre of town from Apls. Very Clean. While there we grabbed some bikes and did "Le Tour De Bern". Little did i know that kristy was more into freeslty then cruising, she imediatley took of down the road and lodged her front wheel in a tram track, Funny stuff, The bike went completaly vertical, with legs and arm flapping like a bat. A polite man checked that she was ok and handed back her luggage which was propelled several meters while i tryed to stay upright while laughing so hard. The ride was not all a loss for kristy as she got to see 2 blokes skinny dipping in the river, They were very neatly trimmed. Nice work boys.
A quicl 5hour train ride later we ended up in Heildelberg, Germany. Oldschool Germany but was cute.
From there we sailed to Paris which was on a smick train that travelled well over 300kph, It got us their in no time all. 3.5hrs actually.
Paris is Huge, much bigger then any other city we have negotiated to date. The metro and the dunlops got a work out. The Eifle tower is cool, much nicer then i expected. The temperature in Paris was cool so the the time spent at the lookout at the peak was limited. We had a massive blow up with this arrogant French dick, who stuffed up burning our photos to a cd and then overcharged me for a phone call i had made to dad. It took 3 translater 4 hours and 5 Beers to get it sorted out. What a wank.
We took some time out to explore the red light district of paris, where the moulin Rouge is located. I nearly died when a went for a 3 meter slide on a filthy stink patty left by a dog on the foot path, No joke i went flying. Then Kristy nearly coughed up a lung laughing me. Crazy Times. In true Benson Class i initiated Kristy to her first strip club. What a romantic man i am. Those bitches where ugly. Onemay have been a man, But kristy re assures me that there was suffucient proof of female anatomy.
We saw thw Mona Lisa which is located in the Louvre. The was a much better attraction there though, A lady with a moustache!!!! She was awesome, it was groomed as well, neatly trimmed very french.
Off to Brussels Belgium. We were imdiately given some inncorrect informatiom byt the local train info guy, wo sent us and our luggage to the other side of belgium. Lucky i was well aware that the sun was on the wrong side of the train for us to be heading north. After Kriasty made a few enquires we were on our way again.
The Chocolate here is awesome, i have yet to sample the Beer and waffles but i am sure that they will be just as good.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
Bent over and taking it like a pro (expensive)
Hi Everyone, cant remember where we left off, so here is an update.
Rome - Amazing architecture, very dirty city, pushy people.
Florence - Saw Michelangelos David statue, werent allowed to take photos, but done the sneaky. Went to Pisa and saw the leaning tower - very amazing.
Venice - Beautiful city overflowing with tourists. Cost us an absolute motza for everything (we are being bent over and we are taking it sweet).
Nice - Still very dirty, beautiful coastline. Went to Monaco - that place rocks! Saw the changing of the gaurd, heaps of Ferraris (Dale you would be jealous) and very big boats!
Zermatt (Swiss Alps) - Absolutely beautiful town. Stunning. Took gondola to the Matterhorn mountain range, went hiking and had some drinks on the side of a glacier.
Bern - Even more expensive than Venice. Pasta meals are about 22 bucks and a big mac meal 11 bucks. Very nice so far, although we only just arrived a few hours ago.
Gotta run - very expensive. Noogs hope you are happy we have updated the site!
See you guys in about 2 weeks! Love K & R
Hi Everyone, cant remember where we left off, so here is an update.
Rome - Amazing architecture, very dirty city, pushy people.
Florence - Saw Michelangelos David statue, werent allowed to take photos, but done the sneaky. Went to Pisa and saw the leaning tower - very amazing.
Venice - Beautiful city overflowing with tourists. Cost us an absolute motza for everything (we are being bent over and we are taking it sweet).
Nice - Still very dirty, beautiful coastline. Went to Monaco - that place rocks! Saw the changing of the gaurd, heaps of Ferraris (Dale you would be jealous) and very big boats!
Zermatt (Swiss Alps) - Absolutely beautiful town. Stunning. Took gondola to the Matterhorn mountain range, went hiking and had some drinks on the side of a glacier.
Bern - Even more expensive than Venice. Pasta meals are about 22 bucks and a big mac meal 11 bucks. Very nice so far, although we only just arrived a few hours ago.
Gotta run - very expensive. Noogs hope you are happy we have updated the site!
See you guys in about 2 weeks! Love K & R
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Adios Spain, Buongiorno Italy
Hi Everyone, just a quick hello and update on what we are up to over here. We are having a great time, and seeing so much, although we are also walking A LOT too - we think we have walked over 50km in 5 days! Our poor little legs are so tired, and it is very warm over here. By the end of the trip we will have calves of steel and tight bum muscles! :)
We spent our first 2 days in Madrid, which is a really nice city. Very small narrow streets and tiny cars too. Day 1 we went to the Kings Palace and went through 50 of the 2800 rooms. This place was incredible! We also went to an art museum and saw some works by Picasso. The rest of the day we just wandered the streets of the city.
Day 2 we saw the Real Madrid stadium, but didnt go in as it cost 15 Euro each. We saw the Crystal Palace in a park, went to some markets and later that afternoon a bull fight. Kristy didnt realised the bulls were actually killed at a bull fight until Ryan mentioned it just before we went. It was actually quite horrifying as they spear the bulls so many times. We watched 4.5 bulls die and seen enough.
Day 3 we caught the morning train to Valencia on the coast of Spain. Very nice little town. We walked the entire town in a couple of hours (and our legs feel like they are literally going to fall off!). Valencia is home to the Holy Grail, which we saw, as well as some pretty awesome buildings. The best way to see the city is to wander through the tiny alleys and admire the buildings which are just incredible. We spent the afternoon at the beach, which was littered with cigarette butts (everyone over here seems to smoke and they smoke anywhere and everywhere). It was good to see water though cause it is quite warm over here. After an afternoon siesta, we went and saw some really funky buildings down town that are home to an Imax theatre and an art museum.
Day 4 we caught the train to Barcelona, which is totally different to the previous 2 cities - a lot more touristy, busy and larger streets. We walked down Las Ramblas street where there are buskers everywhere and pet stalls selling everything from pigeons to turtles. There were some awesome markets there too and we had some yummy fresh prawns (which we havent eaten for over 6 months!). We walked down to the water, then through the old gothic allyways. After another siesta, we went walking looking at buildings by the famous architect Gaudi. His designs were quite advanced for his time and the buildings quite interesting. One is still in the process of being contructed. Gaudi is now dead and a lot of his designs were burnt and destroyed when he died, so the continuation of the building is based on another architects impressions of Gaudi. The photos we took dont really do the buildings justice. We spent the evening wandering the gothic quarter of Barcelona and down the fishing area for the traditional Spanish dish Paella.
We have had a real hit and miss with the food over here. A lot of places dont convert to English and the people dont speak English either. For example we ordered something called (along the lines of) turned around wheat of prawn, which happened to be a prawn and bean omlette and very delicious. Another thing we ordered looked like a chicken dish, we both tried it, then realised it was tripe! We didnt eat any more! I guess thats half the fun though!
Day 5 we flew from Barcelona to Rome (via Zurich Switzerland which looks absolutely beatiful from the air. We flew over the Swiss Alps and the highest mountain in Europe, and there was still snow!). Rome is quite dirty and littered with cigarette buts and the buildings with grafiti, they dont seem to take as much pride in the appearance of the city like Madrid or Valencia. Still, the buildings here are incredible, some built BC! Its hard to belive that they are so old. We went to the Colloseum, Trevi fountain (the fountain with Neptune and the sea horses), Spanish Stairs and other ruins.
Day 6 we woke up fairly early and headed up to the Vatican, which is located in the worlds smallest country - Vatican City. Kristy got knocked back to enter cause her shoulders werent covered, but a really nice Canadian couple lent her a shawl and we managed to get in (very lucky). Vatican City, the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel were all closed because the day before was a public holiday, so we could only enter St Peters Basilica, which was absolutely incredible. The detail in the place is unimagineable. This is also home to the famous dome created by none other than Michelangelo. We walked around the Cathedral with the Canadian people, then we walked around the entire country (which is 1sq KM) with them too. We said goodbye to them (and returned the shawl) and continued walking the streets past a castle, another place called something Argentina which was where Caeser was stabbed to death, to the Pantheon and through some markets. We had this awesome lunch - it was an egglpant and tomato pizza and probably the best pizza we have ever eaten and a roast pork sandwhich which was also one of the best sangas we had ever eaten - so so good! We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets (and having another siesta!), eating and drinking!
Hi Everyone, just a quick hello and update on what we are up to over here. We are having a great time, and seeing so much, although we are also walking A LOT too - we think we have walked over 50km in 5 days! Our poor little legs are so tired, and it is very warm over here. By the end of the trip we will have calves of steel and tight bum muscles! :)
We spent our first 2 days in Madrid, which is a really nice city. Very small narrow streets and tiny cars too. Day 1 we went to the Kings Palace and went through 50 of the 2800 rooms. This place was incredible! We also went to an art museum and saw some works by Picasso. The rest of the day we just wandered the streets of the city.
Day 2 we saw the Real Madrid stadium, but didnt go in as it cost 15 Euro each. We saw the Crystal Palace in a park, went to some markets and later that afternoon a bull fight. Kristy didnt realised the bulls were actually killed at a bull fight until Ryan mentioned it just before we went. It was actually quite horrifying as they spear the bulls so many times. We watched 4.5 bulls die and seen enough.
Day 3 we caught the morning train to Valencia on the coast of Spain. Very nice little town. We walked the entire town in a couple of hours (and our legs feel like they are literally going to fall off!). Valencia is home to the Holy Grail, which we saw, as well as some pretty awesome buildings. The best way to see the city is to wander through the tiny alleys and admire the buildings which are just incredible. We spent the afternoon at the beach, which was littered with cigarette butts (everyone over here seems to smoke and they smoke anywhere and everywhere). It was good to see water though cause it is quite warm over here. After an afternoon siesta, we went and saw some really funky buildings down town that are home to an Imax theatre and an art museum.
Day 4 we caught the train to Barcelona, which is totally different to the previous 2 cities - a lot more touristy, busy and larger streets. We walked down Las Ramblas street where there are buskers everywhere and pet stalls selling everything from pigeons to turtles. There were some awesome markets there too and we had some yummy fresh prawns (which we havent eaten for over 6 months!). We walked down to the water, then through the old gothic allyways. After another siesta, we went walking looking at buildings by the famous architect Gaudi. His designs were quite advanced for his time and the buildings quite interesting. One is still in the process of being contructed. Gaudi is now dead and a lot of his designs were burnt and destroyed when he died, so the continuation of the building is based on another architects impressions of Gaudi. The photos we took dont really do the buildings justice. We spent the evening wandering the gothic quarter of Barcelona and down the fishing area for the traditional Spanish dish Paella.
We have had a real hit and miss with the food over here. A lot of places dont convert to English and the people dont speak English either. For example we ordered something called (along the lines of) turned around wheat of prawn, which happened to be a prawn and bean omlette and very delicious. Another thing we ordered looked like a chicken dish, we both tried it, then realised it was tripe! We didnt eat any more! I guess thats half the fun though!
Day 5 we flew from Barcelona to Rome (via Zurich Switzerland which looks absolutely beatiful from the air. We flew over the Swiss Alps and the highest mountain in Europe, and there was still snow!). Rome is quite dirty and littered with cigarette buts and the buildings with grafiti, they dont seem to take as much pride in the appearance of the city like Madrid or Valencia. Still, the buildings here are incredible, some built BC! Its hard to belive that they are so old. We went to the Colloseum, Trevi fountain (the fountain with Neptune and the sea horses), Spanish Stairs and other ruins.
Day 6 we woke up fairly early and headed up to the Vatican, which is located in the worlds smallest country - Vatican City. Kristy got knocked back to enter cause her shoulders werent covered, but a really nice Canadian couple lent her a shawl and we managed to get in (very lucky). Vatican City, the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel were all closed because the day before was a public holiday, so we could only enter St Peters Basilica, which was absolutely incredible. The detail in the place is unimagineable. This is also home to the famous dome created by none other than Michelangelo. We walked around the Cathedral with the Canadian people, then we walked around the entire country (which is 1sq KM) with them too. We said goodbye to them (and returned the shawl) and continued walking the streets past a castle, another place called something Argentina which was where Caeser was stabbed to death, to the Pantheon and through some markets. We had this awesome lunch - it was an egglpant and tomato pizza and probably the best pizza we have ever eaten and a roast pork sandwhich which was also one of the best sangas we had ever eaten - so so good! We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets (and having another siesta!), eating and drinking!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Real Madrid
Hey all. Just hanging uot in down town Madrid and having a blast. 33c here, but doesnt feel that hot. We barely had any sleep and have been awake for almost 2 days and are buggered, but charging on. The buildings here are awsome - mostly lowrise and narrow streets.
Today we walked the streets and saw some cool buildings, the Kings Royal Palace and down town.
Going to a bull fight - hopefully - will update this soon.
Hey all. Just hanging uot in down town Madrid and having a blast. 33c here, but doesnt feel that hot. We barely had any sleep and have been awake for almost 2 days and are buggered, but charging on. The buildings here are awsome - mostly lowrise and narrow streets.
Today we walked the streets and saw some cool buildings, the Kings Royal Palace and down town.
Going to a bull fight - hopefully - will update this soon.
Monday, August 06, 2007
The End
Well, the end of our USA trip anyway. Our Euro trip is about to begin. We will try and put a couple of posts on while we are in Europe, although not sure how we will go with posting photos. Here is a summary of our time in the USA.
Number of days spent in USA:188
Number of Countries visited whilst in USA: 2 (America and Canada)
Number of states visited: 22 (including 2 Canadian states)
Total car miles travelled: 30,000 miles (or 48,000 km)
Flight miles (within the USA): 5,800 approx (or 9,300 km)
Our best memories: Although it is hard to look past our 3 stays in the delightful NY hotel, our favourite memories are:
Well, the end of our USA trip anyway. Our Euro trip is about to begin. We will try and put a couple of posts on while we are in Europe, although not sure how we will go with posting photos. Here is a summary of our time in the USA.
Number of days spent in USA:188
Number of Countries visited whilst in USA: 2 (America and Canada)
Number of states visited: 22 (including 2 Canadian states)
Total car miles travelled: 30,000 miles (or 48,000 km)
Flight miles (within the USA): 5,800 approx (or 9,300 km)
Our best memories: Although it is hard to look past our 3 stays in the delightful NY hotel, our favourite memories are:
1. Donuts on the Salt Lake in Utah
2. Vegas. Enough said.
3. Miami - wow!
4. Niagara Falls - that place is awesome
5. There are so many more to list, its impossible to write them all down.....
We hope everyone has enjoyed reading about our trip - stay tuned for Euro!
Suckers for Punishment!
Last Weekend in the USA - The Big Apple
Bruce and Judes had a great time while they were in Montreal, Canada, and managed to make it back in one piece Tuesday afternoon.
Wednesday was spent shopping til we dropped and grabbing some last minute bargains.
Thursday we made the trip down to Pittsburgh. We went up the incline and also to the market-y area called the strip. Once again the 'Bikini Man' was spotted (he was spotted when Ian and Brian went to Pittsburgh) - Kristy was very quick on the camera (like a sniper with the camera) and managed to capture him.
Bruce and Judy overlooking Pittsburgh
Nice bra - not sure whats going on there???
Friday morning Bruce, Judes and Kristy packed and prepared for our weekend trip in NYC, while Ryan worked until lunch time. All the accommodation was fully booked in New York for the weekend, unless we were prepared to pay over $700 plus tax for 2 nights, so it was back to our favourite hotel - The Carter! We had been prepping Bruce and Judes for what we might see in the hotel, although we don't think they fully believed us. Kristy showed them a website where other travellers review the hotel (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60763-d93421-Reviews-Hotel_Carter-New_York_City_New_York.html - if anyone wants some interesting reading). Once they read the website, they believed every word we were saying.
We were on the road just before 2pm and arrived at about 9pm. We checked in and got our room key. We half expected there to be people in the room when we opened the door! Much to our surprise the room was vacant when we opened the door. The room didn't look too bad this time around (if you didn't look under the bed at the dust and rubbish) - no stains on the sheets or pillows, although there were only 2 pillows and 2 towels for 4 of us. Then, dad went in the bathroom and we heard him groan. We all ran in there to check it out. The bath had blue/green slime all around the tub, and under the soap holder thick black mould running down the tub. Half the tiles were also missing. The shower curtain was covered top to bottom in black mould - it looked like it hadn't been cleaned for years. We were all gagging and trying not to vomit.
The picture actually makes the bath look good compared to what it was
We got out of our room as quickly as possible and went strolling through Time Square. It absolutely hammered down rain for about 20 minutes. While we were out, we purchased a bottle of grime remover and sanitising spray. When we eventually worked up the courage to go back to our room, Ryan cleaned the shower with the spray and his thong! We also asked reception for more towels and pillows. He told us he could give us towels, but he ran out of pillows and the room to the pillows was locked anyway - he would try and get them to us later. Well, the pillows never came (SURPRISE!), so we had to use towels as pillows.
Yuk! Cleaning the shower with thong and spray
Saturday morning we caught the subway down to the ferry terminal, which goes past the Statue of Liberty (and over to New Jersey and back). We walked past the Bronze Bull, Wall St, Ground Zero, through Chinatown and on to Little Italy for lunch, which was delicious.
The Statue of Liberty in the background
We caught the subway back to Times Square and Bruce and Judy bought Broadway tickets to see Hairspray, while we bought tickets to Legally Blonde. We went back to the room for a nap, and then freshen up. While Judy was in the shower, there was a loud THUD! She came tearing out of the bathroom in her towel - the tap had fallen off! Then Kristy blew the light globe in the room (with blue sparks coming out of the switch) - we didn't even bother to ask for a new one.
We went shopping through Time Square, then went hunting for a bar. We found one and met up with a guy from Perth and another guy from Germany and had some drinks with them.
Cocktail o'clock
It was then time to see the Broadway performances - apparently Judge Judy was in the Legally Blonde audience. We all really enjoyed our shows. We grabbed a bite to eat, and walked through the streets browsing the shops, before retiring to our super comfy towel pillows.
Sunday was another busy day. We were very happy to be checking out of our hell hole hotel! We walked up Fifth Ave renowned for its expensive brand name shopping and for a look at Rockefeller Centre and through Trump Towers.
At Rockefeller Center
At the Trump bar in Trump Towers
It was then up to Central Park where we took a horse and carriage ride.
We grabbed a coffee (which Judes had fun ordering - the guy couldn't understand her and got cranky then gave us the total wrong order!), then went walking through Central Park through The Mall and over to Strawberry Fields (dedicated to John Lennon - it is located right near the place he was shot).
Bruce and Kristy by the pond in Central Park
Walking through The Mall in Central Park
Tribute to John Lennon @ Strawberry Fields
We caught a cab to Madison Square Gardens (NY entertainment venue), walked over to the Empire State Building and then caught another cab to Union Square for lunch.
NYPD!
We must have walked a 1000 miles over the weekend, well it felt like it anyways! It was then a cab ride back to our car and a 6.5 hour drive home. We finished off the day (and Bruce and Judy's last day with us) with a grill for dinner.
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