On our second to last day in Paris, we decided to get out and walk in the gorgeous sunshine. We started at the Madeleine church, which looks like a Roman temple on the outside but is a Catholic church on the inside. We then walked through the Place de la Concorde, down the…
Author: Karen
Under Paris
Having visited the Catacombs in Rome, we were interested in visiting the ones in Paris too. Despite all the reviews talking about having to wait for hours, here we experienced one of the benefits of travelling in winter in Europe – no lines at all! The catacombs were really interesting. Originally a space for mining,…
A visit to Versailles
We took the train out from Paris to the nearby palace of Versailles. Built by French royalty in the 1600’s, it is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and museum/tourist destination. We spent the whole day here exploring, beginning with an exhibition on the sculptures at Versailles before exploring the lavish rooms and the famous…
Paris wanderings
We had a rather round about route to Paris from Bruges! We had booked a train from Bruges to Lille and then a bus from Lille to France. However, the snow in the night turned our route into a train ride…then another train ride…then a 45 minute wait in the snow…then a bus to Lille!…
In Bruges
We spent two days in Bruges, Belgium (also known as Brugge). A lot of people have told us how much they loved Bruges, and while we did enjoy it, we also definitely thought it would be a nicer place in summer as one of the highlights is wandering the scenic streets. This was a less…
Kinderdijk
We had really wanted to see some windmills in the Netherlands and our research had guided us towards Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is a collection of 19 original windmills in the south of the Netherlands – perfect to visit on our way to Belgium. It’s also a UNESCO world heritage site. We took a train to a…
Cheese School
We celebrated our third wedding anniversary in Amsterdam with a full day of fun! We woke to snow and blue skies – another beautiful day in Amsterdam. We began by going to the Van Gogh museum (well, actually we went to the transplanted museum as the real one was getting remodelled). It was…
Biking around Amsterdam
We arrived in Amsterdam in the rain…one of only a few rainy days of travel! Luckily, the next day was clear, so we hired bikes from our hostel and set off to explore. Amsterdam is perfect for biking – flat and lots of bike lanes. It was the first time I (Karen) had biked in…
Rest and relaxation in Heidelberg – plus a trip to Thingstatte
After our busy and full time with our mothers we needed a rest and recovery time, so we headed to Heidelberg, Germany. Here, we rented an apartment and slept, relaxed, planned and caught up on all the things we had been meaning to do. We did also manage to get out and see something of…
Meandering Kiwis 