Happy New Year from Bangkok!

Hope everyone has a good NYE, and that 2007 holds joy and cheer for everyone :)

A little shot from our hotel room... Bangkok isn't very picturesque, but we are having a great time!

C&K

Merry Christmas!

To all our friends and family, Merry Christmas for tomorrow!

We will be off to a lovely christmas lunch (no washing up), followed by a massage (after a reasonable period of digestion), then perhaps a spot of lazing by the pool - or even shopping - no public holiday here :)

The image is of SOME of the christmas frou-frou that Kevin collected from Germany... have to say that the xray shot of the luggage when we booked it in for the trip to Bangkok was hilarious...

I was somewhat concerned that Kevin would be arrested for stealing German national treasures...

Any hoo - have a good one!

Lynne and Jude: Bangkok - Canto~Ho

Kevin did it - they miss you here...

More on return...

Apologies to everybody else on the "in-joke"

Pergamon Museum - Berlin

Some shots from our last day in Berlin - the amazing Pergamon Museum... Middle East / Asian History - Babylon, Pergamon, Persia - such a wonderful collection...

Well, goodbye to Europe, we are off to Bangkok for thawing and shopping now :)

Sachsenhausen - apologies this is a bit dark...

This is a must see for everybody visiting Berlin - very depressing and sobering - and quite horrific. This concentration camp was one of the first two in Germany, and many thousands of people were killed and were badly savaged here - politicians, jews, disabled people, religious ministers, gays, gypsies, and anyone that the regime thought needed incarceration.

From the top:
1) The central prison complex - where people were held in horrific solitary confinement and tortured.
2) Memorial window - part of a tryptych created by the former East German Government.
3) Tower A - the entrance to Sachsenhausen - prisoners were brought into the courtyard here, and made to kneel for several hours, then beaten before admission to the centre.
4) With work comes freedom - freedom never happened.
5) The Execution trench - where regular shootings took place.
6) The pathology centre - where sterilisations of disabled people, gays and gypsies took place... as well as live experiments on people that 'looked different'. The medical team also supervised the enforced brothel...
7) Statement on one of the memorials.
8) Remnants of the Ovens used to dispose of people killed in the execution trench.

Sorry for the downbeat post, but this is a powerful memorial on the danger of despoticism...

We had to go to the Christmas markets to have a few Gluhweins....

Berlin - Random shots...

Awesome city - here are some bits n pieces for you... more to come! The top is the Gendarmenmarkt - complete with Christmas Markets :) Second is the Bundestag (Federal Parliament), third is the top of the Brandenburg Gate - near the Bundestag.

Berlin - Jewish Holocaust monument

Been very busy in Berlin - it has so way changed since Chris was here last some 11 years ago...

Just wanted to share some shots of this monument - a large field of unadorned rectangles - the ground level of the monument is in waves... - very impressive.

We also went to the Jewish history museum - way interesting... tracking the history of the Jews in Germany from the third century AD...

Flensburg tripette....

Decided to use the extra day of Eurail to have a little trip into the countryside - we picked Flensburg, just south of the Danish border... Beautiful little maritime city - amazing musuem there - they had replicated / saved some traditional housing from the region inside the museum building.

Oh and more evidence of Kevin leading me astray!

Hamburg by night!

Well, Christmas Markets have finally been trawled through. Kevin now believes that he is german given the high level of kitsch... and Gluhwein :)

Some pics of the Christmas markets and of the little mugs that somebody stole.... there is now a christmas mug fetish in place...

OK now have fixed the pics :)

Hanseatic Hamburg

Arrived in Hamburg on a very miserable day.... but lo, the following day - brilliant! (and way chilly)

Quite an amazing town really - very beautiful with a northern European maritime outlook - our first time here and very surprised... not sure what we expected!

Thought I'd lead off with the statue of the big guy - Bismarck - he watches over the port...

Amsterdam

Well, now that there is a reasonable internet connection....

Amsterdam of course was full on... it doesn't slow down in winter - a ton of Spanish, Italians, and of course the ever present British toking away in the Brown Coffee Shops.

Went to the Rijks Museum, Ann Frank House - missed Van Gogh this time as the lines to get in were way too long. We had lots of wandering about, eating, drinking, and catching up with some people - very nice!

A couple of good weather days - the rest pretty wet :(

Anyhoo, some snappies above - we had to lower the resolution to get them on :)

Amsterdam soon...

Lack of posting due to lack of good internet!

Some pics of Amsterdam later... suffice to say that Kevin took to the first class rail travel from Paris to Amsterdam - evidence attached!

Au Revoir Paris...

Off to Amsterdam today - a final few images for you all of Paris - Sacre Coeur and Versailles.

I decided that Kevin really wants to live in the style of Louis XIV after visiting Versailles - each morning a nurse, a doctor and a surgeon in concert with serving staff would assist the King to rise - and provide him with a refreshing drink of holy water.

Kevin of course prefers Gin and diet Tonic....

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

A cold, wintry day and a visit to Pere Lachaise Cemetry and later on the Rodin Museum. The cemetery was quite eery with the grey, windy weather, autumn leaves whipping about, and crows hopping from crypt to crypt - calling to each other.

For those that don't know, the cemetery is the final resting place of a range of (in)famous people - Marcel Proust, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison (to name a few). The large deco monument above is Oscar Wilde's grave - the spots on it are lipstick kisses, left by visitors.

The website - Pere Lachaise

We had to flee though because of the weather - and seek the refuge of a warm cafe with a bottle of Vins Pay D'Oc :)


Note to winter travellers - don't forget the umbrella!

Random Paris images...

A few picks of the pics... Louvre of course :)

Glad we did the diet... food and wine are faboo - Buddha Bar was excellent! Have to say that the weather aint too bad - though glad we bought our glamorous thermals :)