I'm Going on an Adventure (Alastair and Bini's Exchange Blog)

Bini got sick last night. Didn't get much sleep. Ah well Alastair went  down to the bakery this morning and got some croissants for breakfast. Got in our train to Florence easily. The scenery on the way to Florence was great we went though valleys of olive trees and vineyards. Truly amazing. Bini slept.  Arrived in Florence and walked 20 minutes to our airbnb. Host let us in and went through the how the house works. The room is amazingly well designed. It's one big room with a little attic thing above the entrance hall way. It's a studio so had a kitchen ensuite bathroom and a couch, also had good wifi.  Bini took a rest for the afternoon and then we went out and got food from a nearby supermarket. Made Gills pasta for dinner. Which includes zucchini, olives and tomatoes, also I our case it included gnocci.  Had and early sleep. As we would need to wake up early tomorrow to get to the quiditch world cup. 

Woke up late after the concert. Went down to the patisserie again for breakfast and had an apple turnover over each and another custard filled thing. Went back to the fruit store and bought some bannans. Also got some more fresh bread, still had enough ham and cheese left from yesterday.  Found a beach that was free and looked nice in viareggio. Got the 1pm train and then took an our walk through a nice pine / blackberry Forrest to the beach.  Had a loverly swim. Sadly it was a bit cloudy so we got  a bit cold when we got out. Ah well no one got sunburnt which was good. We both super tired but walked back along the beach and then did a little bit of Forrest walking. Took train home. Had cheap pizza for dinner and went to bed. Ready to got tomorrow. 

Woke up late and went to a nearby patisserie for breakfast and ate two glazed croissants. Very nice.  Then went exploring around lucca for food. Found a wonderful fresh fruit store and bought some peaches. Also found a carre fore supermarket which bini used the have as a child. Went in and bought some ham and cheese. Next visited a bakery and got a fresh baguette.  Went home and made lunch while also researching the best place the hire bikes so that we could ride around the walls of Lucca.  Found a place called raja bike hire, went there and hire a tandem bike....... Naturally them I terrified bini. Heheh bini hadn't been on one before and it was great fun... And also very funny. Took us a while to get it under control but once we had all good. Neither of us killed the other so happy times. Bini didn't drive  much as she couldn't touch the ground from the front seat.  Ah well had a lovely ride for two hours. Did two laps of Lucca and had a great time. Had lunch ...

Got up early, had breakfast. Then Gill donated us two bananas, then escorted us an amazing bakery wherr we bought two almond croissants with custard inside. The Gill took us to the train station and put us on our first train.  From Venice Santa Lucia we went to Venice Mestre. Here we had had an half an hour to change here and then we took a train to prato which we again and half an hour to change onto a train to lucca.  When arrived we got lost. Did a few circle around the place we thought the house was. Finally we went down a tiny back alley and found the tiny sign saying da Francesco (the place we were staying). Got into the appartment and met the host. Room was super dusty and there was no wifi. Bini had a zertec immediately and we both went to bed.  Went out to lunch and had a pasta to share. Got hit with the table service fee we weren't expecting. Ah well we'll learn the one eventually.  Our mission today was to find an adapter that would change our fat stemmed ...

Woke had breakfast at me as normal. Didn't leave till 10:30 ish then we went walking sound Venice. Took ferry from a stop on the grand canal all the way down the grand canal to St Marks Square. We went under the rialto bridge which was cool but other than that nothing super interesting some great veiws and look in at the fish markets which we had gone to.  When when to saint marks we took some pictures from its at sea and then once we'd landed we bought our souvenirs bini got a nice key chains and I amazingly found a badge.  Next we took the ferry from St Marks to the train station around the west side of Venice. Form here we saw more of Venice, a really long cargo barge and a huge cruise ship. Also saw building that looked like stable which we assumed that Napoleon had built. (We are probably wrong).  Once we'd landed at the station we went shopping. On the way we bought a gelato each. I had coconut and caramel and bini had coconut and cherry. Mine were better.  Had...

Woke up at 8 this morning. Got up and had breakfast same as yesterday. Gave pop a ring this morning I had a short chat to him. Didn't leave home till 10:15 which I think disappointed Nick a little. From home went to the Venice arsenalle which happened to be open to the public for this weekend. It was amazing we saw a huge range I ships in the museum including the funeral barge for the workers, an old WW2 boat and a big Venice royal barge. From here we went into the actual arsenalle and saw the huge amount of land area was involved in building ships. We saw a big wooden open wet? Dock, a submarine and all the old factory halls that they would have made ships in. It was awesome.  Left the arsenalle at about 12 with bini and I were very very hungry. Started walking to Venice but luckily nick made us stop just in the nick of time (ha get it) and have some food from a kebab shop. Kebab was fantastic bit only because we were super hungry.  Bought a 24 hour ticket for the Venice ferr...

Woke up at 7 and had breakfast of cereal and tea provided by Gill and Nick. Had a nice morning then we went to the fish markets with Gill and Nick to look for tonights dinner. The markets were amazing, the highlight being the big sword fish head and the huge amount of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Before and after the fish markets we went over rialto bridge. Didn't get any pictures because we forgot. Might have to go again over the next couple of days. Here we left Gill and Nick after they had pointed us towards a lunch spot where we had a tramezzino each. Also bought and aranchini ball for bini and a mozorello in a carrage for me, which is two peices of bread with mozzarella inside then deap fired. It was interesting although not my kind of thing.  From here we walked to St Marks Square and enjoyed Venice along the way. I was surprised about how commercialised Venice is. Saw many shops including a big luxury store. At St Marks Square we walked around a bit and then joined the ...

Woke up six to pack and get the 8:10 ferry. Breakfast was the normal. Made the ferry and stocked up on bannans... And studel. To have for morning and afternoon tea. Made the ferry with heaps of time to spare. Got on train and began our trip.  Changed in Attnang-Pucheim onto a train to Innsbruck. Changed in Innsbruck to a train to Venice. Had lunch in the Innsbruck of pizza for me and kebab again for bini. All train trips were uneventful although it was great seeing the difference between Austria and Italy as it seems that it instantly changed from Mountain huts made of wood and  stone to white block houses with red brick rooves surrounded by vineyards.  Arrived in Venice at 6:20 and were met in the station by my aunty Gill and Uncle Nick. Walked back to their place and were introduced to our room. They've given us the downstairs room of their flat and it's amazing. The first place since the UK that doesn't have interesting pillows.  Gill and Nick took us out for drin...

Woke up at eight, didn't leave until ten. When we left went to the super market and got some fruit. Then bought a ticket up to the salt mines of hallstatt. Didn't read the ticket properly and discovered we'd payed for a trip on the cable car up and down. We were hoping to walk down. Anyway more in that later. On the way up the  cable car we got a great veiw over hallstatt. At the top of the cable car. Had ate a strudel and some fruit then walked the last bit to the salt mine. On the way we saw a recreated burial of the ancient people who lived in hallstatt. Once we made it to the salt mine entrance got in line for the tower. Luckily we missed the noisy class of children that had over taken us on the way up. Got on next tour after the noisy kids, and got our overalls on. I had purple bini has green. Our tour still had a class of kids in it however these ones were much older and much much quieter. In the salt mines we saw how the hallstatt salt deposit had been created. I...

Slept in till 11 this morning. Had last night's left overs as lunch and then went out to explore hallstatt. First we bought an apple strudel from the bakery across the street and ate that. Then we had a look at the ferry but decided to rent our own little motor boat instead. Had a lovely hour cruise around the hallstatt lake. I drove, bini enjoyed. I enjoyed driving, nailed the landing when we went back in.  Went shopping around hallstatt and bought some souvenirs, a hat each and an ice cream cause we wanted one. We both had a scoop of lemon and a scoop of blackcurrant. Went back to the super market and bought ingredients for spag bog. Once we had started cooking realised we didn't have any oil or butter. I ran back to the super market and bought some butter. Had dinner on the balcony with ciders and enjoyed the veiw and the little birds that live in the eves of our house. A wonderful rest day sorry Im so late with the blogs.

Truly not a very interesting day.  Woke up at 8. Had breakfast, the normal. Went to train station got bananas, pastries and a sandwich each.  Got on train to Attnang-Pucheim then changed here onto a train the hallstatt. Alastair enjoyed the lovely scenery. Bini slept. Once in hallstatt took ferry from train station to main town. Found result appartment we are staying in. The owners are lovely and we have a whole floor to ourselves with kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Had a few issues with internet but other than its amazing. The veiw from the balcony of the appartment is AMAZING!!!! Bini will attach picture of it when she gets around to it.  Went to super market to look for curry ingredients. Couldn't find any so had tomato pasta instead. Also brought some cider and brie which we ate on the balcony while enjoying the veiw. I good day and a nice start the hallstatt. 

Raining heavily this morning so we decided to be lazy and not go out late.  Today when we went out we walked around around old town and saw many of the sound of music filming spots. First we saw the Marrabel gardens where the do re me scene finally was filmed. It was great. We both got some great of pictures. Something we've noticed about Austria compared to everywhere else is that there is a huge amount of Asian tourists here. Mostly Korean in our hostel but all types. They outnumber all other tourists by about 10 to 1 which isn't a good thing.  Anyway get the gardens we walked across a bridge covered in padlocks of people "locking their love" to a bridge. I stupid idea in my opinion. Makes bridges much  harder to design for.  Next we went to Mozart's birth place. We spend about half an hour in here and  saw some great thing. Id forgotten Mozart had a sister. Also his violin was cool and we saw all types of sets designs for his opera and stage performances. Lef...

Today we visited helbrunn castle and hohensalzburg castle. Woke at 8 and had a combination of our breakfasts  plus the minimal youth hostel breakfast.  Bini had fallen in love with the butter from the hostel. "I mean it's good butter" bini 2k18. Left at 10:30 and went to the train station to get information about how to get to helbrunn castle and also to buy some bannans and pastries. As it was a Sunday this was the only place that was still open. At the station we also bought Salzburg cards which get us into most tourist attractions and on all public transport.  Caught the number 25 bus to helbrunn castle and arrived at 11:30. Claimed our tickets using our Salzburg card and waited around for the 12 o'clock tour around the trick fountains. I'd done this tour 13 years ago and nothing had changed. We saw a table where some people, but not us, got wet. Next we saw a heap of fantastic rooms with shells and and other ornate things like mirror and such. I almost got bin...

Woke up at 7 for a leaving time as early as possible. I don't trust us to leave on time any more. Made it to train station at 9:35, 45 minutes before our train. Got a seat and took our bags off. Bini looked after the bags and I went and got some pastries, more finger pointing and saying zwei bitter.  Got on train on a carages that initially smelt like a toilet. However the train staff fixed the toilet so it was soon fine. Train trip was uneventful, bini slept, I enjoyed the loverly Austrian and German scenery. Arrived in Salzburg about 1 and went to hostel. Couldn't check in till 2 so decided to so our washing. Sadly we forgot to have lunch and both got super hungry. Ended up buying Korean noodles from the hostel and eating them. Checked in. Room is nice is a 4 person mixed dorm. Beds are decent.  Had dinner from the hostel. Wasn't great but was cheap. We both had a schnitzel sandwich. From 8 we watched sound of music which is played at the hostel. It finished at 10 and we ...

Woke up at 7 this morning for an attempted leaving time of 9 to arrive at dachau concentration camp by 10. Dachau was devastating. We had audio guides which were great as it had a heap of extra and really interesting things that the signs didn't like peoples recorded memories of the camp. I'd already been but bini got the full hot of a first timer. The worst place for her and I was the crematorium and gas chamber. We finished dachau about 3 when we both got really tired. Didn't get to see everything in the museum but we wanted to go have a look at Munich old town and get to the HB house before it filled up.  Just as we got off I'm Munich old town the big click was going off so we watched that and its the moving figures go round for a bit. Next we went straight to HB house and got a table. We got a litre of rubn (lemonade mixed with weise beer) and ordered a veal schnitzel and bini got pork roast with crackling. Got another rubn (which we didn't end up finishing) and...

Woke up at 8 for an attempt leaving time of 10. Ended leaving at 10:30 due to some forseeable reasons :P Breakfast is provided by the hostel and was the normal hostel breakfast.  Walked to the Munich zoo which is a short 5 minute walk away. Entered the zoo as students as our student cards have one day left on them. Sadly that means for the rest of the holiday we will be adults. Very frustrating.  Anyway saw the first half of the zoo which included: some yaks, gazelles, goats and moose! The moose was cute as one or them had two babies.  Lunch was interesting. As we have absolutely no German. So we about a frying pan with some potato and a garlic sause. It was interesting and we bought it by handing over a 19 euro note and hoping for the best. :) it worked.  Next we saw the penguins, arctic foxes, hares, owls and some polar bears. The polar bears enclosure was actually quite nice for a change. He had heaps of space and a good amount of water. No ice sadly. The peguins ...

Sadly didnt take any pictures today as it was a travel day and nothing much happened. Woke up at 7 and left by 9:15 after wanting to leave at 9. Ah well plane from Gatwick airport was at 1:30. Took tube to Victoria station the Gatwick express to the airport. The police turned up at our platform all armed to deal with something but we couldn't work out what. Anyway because of this train was delayed by 20 minutes. Arrived at airport at 10:40. Checked our bags in and over the airport. Got a hot chocolate and an ice tea and ate our ham and cheese for lunch. Stayed in Starbucks until our gate was announced at 12:30. Walked to gate and got on plant smoothly.  Plane trip was good bini had some ear pains but we managed to pop it about 30-40 minutes in the 1 hour 25 flight. Very snooth landing in munich and got through immigration and customs fine.  We had done a faie hit of research about the Munich metro before we landed and it seemed that we needed a day trip as we were going in and...

Slept in this morning till 9 then checked out and rechecked in at 10 as we had made two separate bookings. Breakfast was ceral as normal. However we had to go out and get some milk first.  Didn't do much until about 2pm. Did some research wrote blogs etc. At 2 we started to get ready to go to harry Potter land. By two thirty we were ready to go however, with a long toilet break and Alastair forgetting his jumper we didn't get out until 2:45. Took tube to Euston station then train to watford station which we just made. Got really confused and someone spotted we were wearing harry Potter tops and pointed us in the right direction. Got to station and after a little run made the bus. Got to harry Potter world with 30 minutes to spare and got our tickets and had our bags checked. Bini got asked how old she was by the security lady who was a little surprised she had Tabasco sauce sitting in her bag (she uses it to make the ham and cheese sandwichs more edible for her.  Began our tou...

After saying a teary good bye to our rooms and planting our coriander plant. We took an uber to the train station. The train left at 12:15 and we made it. Train pleasent and bini slept. Got to London kings Cross at 3 ish and saw a heap of Jurassic Park advertising. Took tube to the hostel and checked in. The. Headed off to Dartford to see Kate. She fed us nachos and cider and wonderful dinner. Best sister I've ever had :P. Left some of our stuff at Kate's and gave Lucifer the cat many cuddles. Got back to the hostel and had a huge sleep. 

Woke up early had breakfast and went to the bus station a tiny 5 minute walk from the hostel. Got some good seats on the bus and made it to leeds at 3. On the bus we were surrounded by babies. Alastair out ear plugs in bini just suffered.  Once we got to leeds we discovered that all the normal busses weren't running and therefore after a decent walk around leeds with heavy packs in attempt to find a bus we took an uber home for 4 pounds. Once we got  to leeds we packed everything and got ready to store our stuff at Kate's. Had roasted sweet potato and seasoning for dinner. Had a early night. Not very interesting day. The pictures are of our residence at leeds called lupton residences. 

A tour bus day. Woke up at 6:15 and had breakfast same as yesterday. Then headed off the the royal mile to catch our tour bus to locness which we had pre booked from leeds. Got to bus very early this time and made it onto the first couch and got decent seats. Our tour guide (Graham) was energetic and a nice person although the PA system though the bus was a little loud.  First stop was deanstons whisky distillery. We got in the 9:30 tour and our guide was called Lucia. The tour was a chemical engineers dream job. First we saw the barrels made from American oak. Some were old bourbon barrels and other sherry barrels. All the flavour of the whisky comes from the barrels with bourbon creating a honey and nutty flavour and sherry giving a fruity flavour. Next we saw the masg drum where the barley malt was mashed wirh water. The water absorbed the sugar and then was extracted. The rest of the mash then becomes animal food. Next we saw the fermentation tanks where the sugar water was tur...