August 10 The transition from France was dramatic: hardly any traffic and people who appeared to obey speed limit signs. I was a little disappointed when I realised that I was the only person switching the car engine off at traffic lights (perhaps that is a myth after all). We also noticed that some people still j-walked, although they were probably tourists. Anyway we were not in Switzerland to experience the culture, we were there to see pristine lakes and postcard perfect landscapes of which there were plenty.

First stop was Lake Geneva and Chillon, a beautifully restored castle on an island in the former. We then braved the French traffic again on the south side of the lake as we headed for Geneva. Geneva city is in a fantastic location, but was a little dull (the museums are supposedly quite good but we were in a non-intellectual mode and gave them a miss). Next stop Lausanne and the Olympic museum. We tried to get a discount by proving we were from Sydney but it didn't work. The museum was fantastic with lots of tear-jerking displays of Olympic triumph.

Next we headed north up through the Jura region which is very picturesque even though some is in France (thanks for the tip Mic) and on to Bern. Bern is a great city to walk around, with impressive stone buildings, bear pits and views of the Jungenfrau mountains. You guessed it, we then headed straight for the Jungenfrau (more mountains to walk up! - Ro).

August 11 Switzerland is our fourth country after a couple of months in France, a bit of northern Spain and a lot of Italy, as far south as Pompeii. We've enjoyed a lot of high mountains on the way: Pyrenees, Dolomites, Apennines and now the Alps proper. Weather has been pretty warm except for a summer snow fall early in June in the Pyrenees. We ate dinner at our campground with this fantastic view of the Eiger (left) and next to a chalet that served some great dark beers. Grindlewald is a great starting point for mountain walks, with strawberries and raspberries on tap (yum). The railway actually goes through the middle of the Eiger and out the other side, which probably explains the 96SF charge (per person each way) -> the guy in the ticket office managed to keep a straight face when he said this. So we walked back down after a bratwurst, some rosti and a beer (~10 SF). We decided it would be a good time to get out of Switzerland, which is quite cheap as long as you don't eat anything.

We drove to Germany via Lucerne (nice bridges) and Lake Constance (another bloody pristine lake). Our initial experience of Germany was marred by going to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwann Schlosses (castles of the last Bavarian Kings, including mad Ludwig - Ro). We were a bit bemused when we arrived and were forced to pay 10 DM to park for 6 hours (we only wanted to stay for about an hour). Little did we know that the 6 hours would almost prove to be inadequate. After queuing for an hour we only just managed to get tickets for one of the last tours of the day which started at 6 o'clock (it was now only 2 o'clock). Luckily (little did I know then) ... there was a pub nearby with a great beer garden.

In the next few days we visited Munich and Salzburg both of which are great cities. The Deutches museum in Munich is amazing. After spending a couple of hours looking at the wool weaving and type setting sections we were shocked when we realised that we had seen about 1% of the museum. We then commenced a sprint that allowed us to see approximately another 5% of the museum in the next 2 hours.

August 20 After extricating ourselves from the mining exhibit in the basement of the museum we headed west to visit a friend in Wiesbaden near Frankfurt. We are staying with a friend, Paul Barnes from uni, who now works for Motorola. Paul was a great host and went out of his way to show us around the Rhinegard region. There is a wine fest on here at the moment which is fun - lots of Rhineland wines and food. I overindulged a bit last night and was sick this afternoon - a strange delayed reaction. It might have been the wursts as well! Paul drove us around some nearby towns with half timbered houses and interesting churches and castles. Those monks were good at alcoholic drinks. These huge grape presses are in a monastery above the Rhine (right).

After Wiesbaden we headed up (down?) the Rhine where the biggest bummer of the trip so far occurred. My wallet was stolen in a camp ground near Cologne. (Pat would like to blame this on the coin operated campground showers). This put a dampener on the sight-seeing. However, the Rhine valley (very pretty) and Cologne (huge cathedral) were well worth the visit.

(Note: We could have made a report to the police and claimed the lost cash from our travel insurers - but we didn't. Someone in the town found the wallet and someone official tried to post it back but it was stolen again in the German mail system. Some months later Pat's driver's licence turned up via DFAT although he had just replaced it!)

Next we headed NE to Celle where some of Ro's family originated. Celle is a very pretty market city set in a large flat plain. It was also full of the half timbered houses Germany is famous for. I don't think we have seen one that is not tilted drunkenly one way or another. We were at this point intending to head for Berlin, however time was catching up on us, so we decided to start heading west for the UK. The remainder of the stay in Germany saw us travelling through the Harz mountains (the setting for a lot of the Grimm's fairy tales) and Hamelin (where rats painted on the footpath mark out the city walking tour).

In the next few days we spent most of the time driving (we drove straight through Belgium), the only break being a couple of days in Amsterdam. I liked Amsterdam which is a relatively grotty city when compared with those in Germany and Switzerland. I think it reminded me a bit of Newtown. Newtown however does not have quite as many Rembrandts or Van Goghs nor a Dutch history museum like the Rijks Museum. We arrived in Dunkirk just as the French fishermen blockaded all the channel crossing ports in a protest over fuel prices. Thinking we were going to be stuck in France indefinitely we headed for the nearest tourist office in the hope that the Dunkirk region would be full of attractions to keep us occupied for the next couple of weeks. We came out of the tourist office with a booking on the 3 o'clock Calais/Dover hovercraft (the only craft that could get round the blockade). We drove straight to Calais and hopped onto the hovercraft bound for England, leaving thousands of frustrated British holiday makers in France waiting for their ferries.

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