Steph's Travels

Well.... SO much has happened! I last left you in Rome i do believe! We then travelled to Venice, via Verona (the home of Romeo and Juliette). Both Verona and Venice were stunning. Though we only spent one hour in Verona, it was such a gorgeous little town with marbled streets and beautiful fresh fruit markets. Venice was incredible and we had such an awesome day just getting lost and finding great little restuarants and shops. We went on a gondola ride through the little canals which was an amazing way of getting around and we finally returned back to our campsite in the afternoon, exhausted from the toga party we'd had the night before! The campsite in Venice was great fun. It was run by an aussie and the pub there was pretty good. There were no less than 3 top deck groups there while we were there one night and i felt quite sorry for all the other holiday-makers! After reluctantly leaving Italy, we went to Austria and did white water rafting on the way, which was fun until i got a rock to the leg. Most people went either sky-diving, paragliding or canyon jumping in Austria. Their DVD's and photos are amazing. The scenery around where we were was stunning. I wanted to paraglide but couldn't as i couldn't run because of my leg. I'm definately planning on going back to skydive when im rich though,(as it was more than 200 euros and then another 70 for the DVD)!
After Austria we spent just one night in Germany in a castle with a gorgeous view and the next morning we had the chance to buy beersteins/birkenstocks and kuku(cucu???) clocks in the town before it was time to head on to Amsterdam for the big finale! Before we got to the city of Amsterdam, we were taken to a cheese and clogs farm which was hilarious. The cheese was fantastic and the guy that owns/runs the farm was a complete nutcase - wonderful example of what smoking too much weed can do to you in the long term! On our first night in Amsterdam we were walked through the red light district for a 'cultural experience'.... before being taken to a show...........enough said. The next day we discovered that Amsterdam really is a fantastic place to shop, and that kept us girls entertained all day until it was time for our farewell dinner. We went to a chinese restaurant for dinner and then had a canal cruise with all you can drink on board. The next day we stumbled downstairs and hopped on the bus for our return to the UK. We stopped in Brugge, Belgium and bought some amazing Beligium chocolates before driving to Calais and finally getting back into London at about 7.30pm.