With the four-day Easter weekend looming, we were trying to decide on a city to visit. “There’s a sleeper train to Amsterdam!” the Snook offered. That settled it. Amsterdam had long been on our list of cities to visit (I have a bucket list goal of hitting every one mentioned in Paul Kelly’s ode to Aussies in Europe), and I’ve always wanted to ride in a sleeper train. Time to visit the Netherlands!

The train – and I am not kidding – is the NightJet NJ420 from Innsbruck to Amsterdam. It has normal carriage cars, and then a couple in the middle that are the sleepers (“Schlafwagens”).

We were greeted by a porter who led us down a very narrow hallway to our cabin.

It was about 10:30pm when we boarded the train in Munich, so the porter had already set it up for sleeping. There were two bunks, but theoretically there’s a third one that can fold down if needed.

Can you tell how excited I am? The first thing we needed to do was select our options for breakfast in the morning and give the bits of paper to the porter.

There is a tiny sink crammed into the corner where you could clean your teeth, but the bathroom was a shared one down the carriage. (Unfortunately there was a problem with the water on this journey, so the sink wasn’t working.)

The train pulled out of Munich, and we kicked off our shoes to relax a bit. There was a bag on each bunk with slippers, a bottle of water, a snack, and some sparkling wine. The Snook had also cleverly brought a couple mini bottles of Schnapps…

Prost! We eventually decided it was time to go to sleep. I claimed the bottom bunk so the Snook clambered up the ladder to his berth.

In terms of sleeping comfort, the bunks were just long enough that I could stretch out (I’m 5’10”, 178cm) but anybody taller would be a little cramped. The mattresses weren’t super thick, but for me the bigger issue was the pillows were very, very thin. Still, I did eventually fall asleep. The train does make a few stops during the night and the carriages aren’t soundproof, but I had my headphones playing white noise and it didn’t bother me. The biggest challenge was that since we were lying perpendicular to the train’s movement, whenever it would brake or accelerate you’d feel it. (That’s why the upper bunk has a net, to keep the Snook from rolling right out onto the floor!) Still, the sleeper was nicer than I expected and I definitely got more sleep than I ever have on a long haul flight.

In the morning we opened the window to find ourselves rolling through the Dutch countryside. The porter came by to help us fold up the beds and fold down a table for our breakfast.

We pulled into Amsterdam at 10:30am, blinking in the sunlight and still wearing yesterday’s clothes. Time to find our hotel…

We had left the booking until pretty late so the only place we could get a room was the fancy Marriott W. It wasn’t too far so we had a 15min walk through Amsterdam to get there. It’s actually two buildings across the street from each other, and we were in the “Exchange” building. Reception is up at the roof level, and there’s a pretty spectacular view from the terrace.

The building on the right there is the Royal Palace of Amsterdam, and the brick one on the left is the Magna Plaza, formerly the main post office of Amsterdam and now a shopping mall.

That’s the view up Raadhuisstraat, which crosses several canals. You can see the Westerkerk church spire in the distance.

Our room wasn’t ready yet so we made our plans to explore the city. We decided to skip the museums and cannabis cafes on this trip, instead spending as much time as possible outside in the glorious Spring weather.

The Royal Palace from ground level. It was originally built as the Town Hall of Amsterdam but was converted into a palace in the 19th century. It’s where Queen Beatrix was announced to the Dutch people in 1980.

Here’s the Snook in Dam Square, one of the most well-known spots in the city. That’s the National Monument in the distance.

This is the Beurs van Berlage building, which the Snook really liked. I think it was the clock.

This is the Oude Kerk (“Old Church”), Amsterdam’s oldest building. Rembrandt was a frequent visitor to the Oude Kerk and his children were all christened here.

Canal!! This is the view from the Oudekerksbrug (“Old Church Bridge”).

This is looking north towards the Basilica of Saint Nicholas, the city’s primary Catholic Church.

I was entranced by the canals of Amsterdam. There are more than 100km of them (62mi), with 1500 bridges in the city.

You know what else I was entranced by? CHEESE.

This is actually the Amstel river as seen from the Blauwbrug (“Blue Bridge”). There are a LOT of houseboats in Amsterdam. There were also a lot of river cruises going up and down the river and canals too.

We walked up the Kalverstraat, Amsterdam’s main shopping street. (Fun trivia: it’s the most expensive property on Dutch Monopoly!) There was a queue out the door at Van Holland Stroopwafels, and we made a mental note to come back later for treats.

The LEGO Store had a massive working windmill in the window!

More canal action! Everybody was out enjoying the Easter weekend Spring weather.

Get ready – you’re going to see a lot of tulips! There were blooming planters all over the city.

After lunch, we headed back to our hotel for a nap and shower. Then it was time to go out and meet my Amazonian colleague Anshu!

Anshu moved from Melbourne last year, so he volunteered to show us around Amsterdam. The first place he took us was Wynand Fockink, a distillery tasting room straight out of the 17th century.

We stood in the crowd and waited our turn to get to the front. They had more than 50 different liqueurs, including jenever (the Dutch precursor to gin). The attendant explained all about jenever to us and gave us a taste, and then we picked out a couple brandies to try. (I went with cherry; the Snook with sloe.) The tiny glasses are filled right up to the brim, and you’re meant to bow down to slurp the first sip out of them. Fun!

Our next stop was a Dutch craft beer bar called the Arendsnest, along one of the canals. We sat outside and enjoyed some excellent brews as the sun got lower in the sky.

Our final stop of the night was Bierfabriek Amsterdam, a brewery and restaurant right in the city. It was crowded by they found us a table tucked in the corner. Their specialty is “rustic slow roasted French farm chicken,” and who could resist that?

We said our goodbyes to Anshu and headed back to the hotel to rest up ahead of a very big Easter Sunday…

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Last year I attended the AWS Nürnberg Meetup Group (via Zoom) and learned a couple things: 1) Nürnberg = Nuremberg, which I had previously naively thought was an entirely separate city 😂; 2) despite being technically located in Bavaria, Nürnbergers do NOT think of themselves as Bavarian but rather Franconian; and 3) the folks there are incredibly friendly. The organiser of the AWS group is Frank, and when I mentioned that I’d like to visit his city someday, he said to let him know and he’d give us a personal tour. But nobody actually means things like that when they say it, right?

At any rate, two weeks after we got home from Vienna we boarded a Friday evening train to Nürnberg. It’s a very fast trip from Munich (less than 90min) so we were there well before the sun set.

Um, how cute is that? We had booked a room at Hotel Elch (Elk), which looked to be pretty centrally located to everything we wanted to see. Our room was on the very top floor, right underneath the roof, and without an elevator it was a decent hike up maybe 4 flights of stairs. That’s what you get when you stay in a heritage building.

Frank had given us a tip to make sure to come on a weekend with nice weather. We’d timed it well and the forecast was nothing but blue skies. We dropped our stuff and went for a wander. The center of Nürnberg feels very medieval with its cobbled streets, city walls, and castle looming up on the ridge. Our first destination was the Hausbrauerei Altstadthof, which is the starting point of the Historische Felsengänge tour.

There were only a few of us on the tour. The guide was a friendly older local guy who spoke only German, so the Snook and I were offered electronic devices where we could punch in numbers at each stop and hear an explanation in English.

Felsengänge means “rock passages” and refers to the extensive system of tunnels and cellars carved into the rock beneath Nürnberg. While there are many access points around the city, the main tourist entrance is in Albrecht-Dürer-Platz, right next to the statue of the famous local artist and facing St. Sebaldus Church. We went down the stairs and our guide unlocked the heavy door and ushered us inside.

The tunnels were built from the 14th century onwards and were mainly used in the brewing of beer. At one point, Nürnberg had more than 40 breweries based in the city, and each had a rock cellar for fermenting and storing their beer. The tunnels were eventually joined up and they were used during World War 2 as bomb shelters for the locals and to store precious art as well. Some of the connecting tunnels are pretty small (I had to hunch not to hit my head) so definitely this isn’t a tour for someone with claustrophobia.

There were various stops along the way as we learned about the city, its history of beer making, and how the tunnels were used. We also learned about the Reinheitsgebot, the famous German beer purity law that was adopted across Bavaria in 1516.

There were also some informational exhibits along the way. Many showed medieval manuscripts with illustrations of monks brewing beer, often with a six-pointed star dangling above the pot. Our guide explained that it had nothing to do with Judaism, but instead was known as the Brewer’s Star meant to ward off fires and bad spirits.

The cellars were dug very deep, up to 4 stories in places. However over the years some of them were altered or destroyed, and so changes have been made to conserve them. Our guide told us how in this vault, there are columns, beams, and support rods holding the walls and ceiling to ensure they don’t collapse.

We also learned how ice was cut from lakes and transported to the cellars in the winter, where it would slowly melt over the summer and keep the tunnels cool enough for the beer fermentation. The sandstone also filtered groundwater, and we saw examples of primitive “pipes” made from bored-out logs that were used to transport the water.

Towards the end of the tour I jokingly asked the guide if there were any “Geister” (ghosts) down there. “Oh yes!” he answered. 😳

The tour ends back up at ground level where you are offered a sample of the famous local Rotbier (red beer) from the Altstadthof brewery.

There’s also a distillery associated with the brewery, so we heard a bit about the process of making whisky and got to step inside one of the storerooms full of barrels. It smelled amazing. Needless to say, the Snook was in heaven.

After the tour, I had taken Frank’s advice and booked us in for dinner at the Brewery. We enjoyed some fine Franconian fare and sampled more of the beer…

…and even a bit of their Bierbrand, which is distilled from beer itself. It’s similar to whisky but not exactly the same.

We decided to burn off some of those calories with a nighttime stroll around the city. We headed first to the castle with its dramatically lit walls and battlements.

From the castle we walked south down Burgstraße towards the Altes Rathaus (old city hall).

It stands directly behind St. Sebaldus Church.

We continued on to the Hauptmarkt, the big public square where the world famous Christkindlesmarkt (Christmas market) is held each year. One of the attractions in the square is the Schöner Brunnen (beautiful fountain).

Nearby is the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), which we would discover the next day has a very famous clock.

The river that flows through Nürnberg is the Pegnitz, and we crossed over the Museumsbrücke on our walk. From one side we could see the Fleischbrücke, a late Renaissance bridge that has stood for more than 400 years. On the other side we had a view of the Heilig-Geist-Spital built over the river. It was originally a hospital and now it’s an old folks’ home.

We headed back towards our hotel. Along the way we passed by St. Sebaldus Church again, this time from the front. St. Sebaldus is the patron saint of Nürnberg.

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As soon as we got back from Madrid back in March, we dumped the suitcases, did a couple quick loads of laundry, and repacked everything again. 24 hours later we were on the train to Vienna. Time to continue our Habsburg week!

We caught the RJX 261 from Munich to Vienna, which takes about 4 hours. Since it was dinnertime, we used the train app to order food from the dining car and it was delivered to our seats. I couldn’t resist tweeting it to @_DiningCar.

https://twitter.com/web_goddess/status/1501989157136211976

Once we arrived at Vienna, we caught a cab to our hotel and then crashed for the night. The next morning, we wandered around the corner to phil (a bookstore and cafe) for breakfast.

My friend Eileen calls Vienna “the Melbourne of Europe,” and yeah, I can see it. I went for the brekkie option that came with a glass of Prosecco.

We were staying in the Museum Quarter of Vienna, and I spotted this graffiti nearby: “Man tötet nicht aus Liebe.” (One does not kill for love.) This saying has been used a lot in conjunction with an Austrian campaign against domestic violence.

I also really liked this nearby intersection, with its rainbow pedestrian crossing and LGBTQI street signals. 🏳️‍🌈❤️

Our goal for the morning was to see some art, so we headed to the nearby Maria-Theresien-Platz. This public square sits between the Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum) and the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum). In the center there is a memorial statue of Empress Maria Theresa herself. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day in Wien!

We bought our tickets and headed into the Art History Museum. It turns out that Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary commissioned these two museums to house the Habsburgs’ formidable art collection.

The entry to the Museum leads you into the ground floor of the Rotunda with its fantastically decorated ceiling. From there you can branch off into several different galleries.

We headed to the right into the Egyptian Collection. It was pretty much exactly what you envision as a kid – hieroglyphics on the walls, huge carved sarcophagi, and mummies in their painted coffins.

“Do you want to get cursed?” the Snook asked as I posed for a selfie with some burial idols. “Because I’m pretty sure that’s how you get an ancient Egyptian curse.”

I especially liked this statuette of a hippopotamus from Thebes. They’ve dated it to around 2000BC, so this little guy is like 4000 years old.

Next we headed to the Greek and Roman antiquities. Hello, butts. 🍑 This is the rear view of the Torso des Speerträgers (torso of the spear-carrier).

The building itself is a work of art, extravagantly decorated and carved.

I especially liked this Amazonian Sarcophagus showing the famous female warriors fighting against the Greeks.

The collection also includes a Roman mosaic depicting the story of Theseus. His battle with the Minotaur is in the center of the labyrinth, and around the sides are scenes with Ariadne. (The museum has spotlights that periodically turn on to highlight parts of the mosaic, which is why the scenes are lit up.)

A statuesque Mr. Snook, posing in a room full of Roman sculpted heads.

I love the stylised decoration on these Greek amphorae. This one depicts Silenus and the maenads, as well as more Amazons.

Another part of the museum is the “Kunstkammer” which houses its most fabulous treasures. This is the famous gold Cellini Salt Cellar from 1543, which was stolen in a daring heist in 2003 and not recovered until three years later. It’s insured now for like $60M.

Time to look at paintings! We headed up the staircase, which is ridiculously over-the-top and features paintings from famous artists like Gustav Klimt.

We’d been going for over three hours at this point, so I was feeling a little tired and had a rest on a bench.

The collection includes quite a few works by Peter Paul Rubens. This one is “Haupt der Medusa” (Head of Medusa) showing the severed head of Medusa with drops of her blood turning into snakes. 😳

The museum also houses a large number of works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the most significant artist of the Dutch and Flemish Renaissance. Here the Snook views “The Tower of Babel.”

We spent nearly five hours in the art museum, so it was definitely time to get outside and see more of Vienna. We walked along the Heldenplatz past the Hofburg Palace (where Marie Antoinette was born!), and through the archway next to the Spanish Riding School.

Our destination was St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the most important religious building in Vienna. It’s nearly 900 years old! I was not expecting the beautiful geometric designs made from glazed tiles on the roof. I’ve never seen anything like that on a church before.

The interior is also stunning, with paintings, sculptures, altars, and tombs wherever you look. We walked up and down the aisles. The cathedral was nearly destroyed in 1945 by retreating German forces, but the Captain saved it by disobeying orders to reduce it to rubble.

We walked all around the exterior of the cathedral too. The towers have many bells, and it’s said that Beethoven discovered he was deaf when he saw birds flying out of the towers but couldn’t hear the tolling.

Digression: The real reason for going to Vienna was to celebrate my 45th birthday. I had been thinking for a while about getting myself a nice wristwatch. (Not a smartwatch; a real mechanical watch.) I’d bought myself a beautiful Longines watch for my 40th, but a year later I accidentally left it in a hotel room in Singapore and I never got it back. I was heartbroken at the time and, though the Snook suggested repeatedly that we could replace it, I told him that I didn’t deserve nice things if I couldn’t care for them properly. Finally, several years later, I felt like it might be time.

As we walked through Vienna, we looked into several watch shops but I couldn’t find anything that met my requirements. I didn’t want anything too tiny or delicate, or with silly bits of diamonds stuck all over it. I wanted something simple and classic, and ideally I wanted it to be self-winding. What I really wanted was my old watch again, but even though we saw many Longines, I couldn’t find any just like it. The Snook convinced me to check out one more shop, Juweliere Ellert, a jeweler near the cathedral. The saleslady was very nice and showed me many different watches, but none of them were right. She asked me to describe my old watch, and when I did, she suddenly reached back into a cabinet and said, “Is it this one?” IT WAS. It turns out that the particular model had been retired in 2020 but they had one left, and she recognised it from my description. So I got my watch back! She even gave us a nice discount. It was the best, best birthday surprise, and I couldn’t be happier with it.

Anyway, after that excitement we were starving so we headed to 1516 Brewing Company for dinner and craft beer.

After dinner we walked back to our hotel, past the illuminated Vienna State Opera. I’d love to see a performance there someday.

Back at our hotel, it was finally time to relax. We were staying at Das Tyrol, which I picked mainly because it advertised having a private spa. (We’ve gotten a bit addicted to saunas!) We’d reserved a time slot so we put on our robes and slippies and headed down to the hotel basement. And, WOW.

It had a Finnish dry sauna, a steam bath, a big rain shower, and some couches to relax on. There was even an aquarium built into the wall! We spent an hour down there, and it was heaven. I highly recommend.

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Our first trip together in 2022! In early March, my boss asked me to come to Madrid for a meeting so it seemed like a good excuse for a weekend in Spain. We headed off a few days early to play tourist…

The morning flight from Madrid featured gorgeous scenery.

We were staying at the Eurostars Madrid Tower, which isn’t close to the city but is close to my office. We were very lucky and the weather was absolutely beautiful. From our hotel room, we could see mountains in the far distance.

It was lunchtime, so we headed to the nearby Paprika Cafe. It’s a very small place, but the food is outstanding. I had gnocchi with oxtail and truffle, and we shared a piece of cheesecake for dessert. The guy at the cafe told us that the cheesecake had cream, blue, and parmesan cheese, and it wasn’t super sweet. Delicious though.

The Snook had a homemade pastrami sandwich, and he really enjoyed it.

After a few hours napping and relaxing back at the hotel, we caught the metro into the city. I had booked us into a tour with Walk and Eat Spain, and to our delight, we found we were the only ones on it! So we ended up with our own personal guide, Margit, an American expat who made us feel right at home.

The tour took us to several venues in Malasańa, a pretty happening part of the city. Our first stop was Mozzare Atelier de Quesos y Lacteos, a cheese shop and wine bar. We had several different local cheeses, including a “mystery” cheese that definitely wasn’t Parmigiano (because of course, that name is protected) but bore a, uh, strong resemblance! 😂🧀

It was a beautiful night to wander around Madrid.

Look at this gorgeous fellow.

As we walked through Malasańa, Margit told us about local history and about daily life in Madrid.

Our second stop was local vermutería called Pepe y Josefa. We had vermouth (on tap!) and some lovely garlicky green olives.

We also has tostas – toast with tomato puree and thinly sliced jamón ibérico on top.

Our next stop was Bodegas El Maño, which was heaving. Thankfully because of the tour we had a reserved table in the corner.

We had beers and patatas bravas, which I LOVE. We dunked the hot, crispy potatoes in chili sauce and aioli.

The final stop was Bodegas Rivas, where we had seared red tuna with tomato, ginger, and soy sauce. Oh, and more wine. 🍷

What a fun night! We said goodbye to Margit and headed back to the hotel.

It was another beautiful day the next morning. We had breakfast at the hotel and thankfully weren’t too hungover from the night before.

We caught a cab to the city for our next adventure, a “combo tour” of the Royal Palace of Madrid and the Prado Museum. We headed for the Plaza de Oriente bright and early to find the Monument to Philip IV and meet up with our tour group.

Our first stop was the Royal Palace of Madrid…

Once we went through security, we found ourselves in the Plaza de la Armería. There’s a grand statue of King Charles III of Spain.

We entered the Palace via the Grand Staircase…

At the top you’re greeted by the Coat of Arms of Spain. This Palace isn’t just a tourist destination; it’s the official residence of the Spanish royal family! (These days it’s really only used for state ceremonies though.)

And then you look up, …and WOW. Those ceiling frescoes are by Corrado Giaquinto, and they’re breathtaking.

Selfie time!

There’s really only one room of the tour you’re allowed to take photos in, which is this one. Our tour guide mentioned that it’s been used for a lot of state occasions. The carpet is rolled up so it doesn’t get worn down with all the tourists traipsing through, and it also gives a view of that beautiful marble floor. (Our guide spoke to us via little wireless earpieces, which is what the Snook’s wearing there.)

Real tapestries on the walls! Pretty sure she said they came from famous tapestry weavers in Germany.

That’s the point where we went into the parts of the palace you’re not allowed to photograph. And let me tell you – we’ve visited several castles and palaces over the years, and most of them aren’t nearly as luxurious or, well, palatial as I expected. Either the original furnishings are long gone, or the owners ran out of money to complete more than few rooms of their folly. (*cough* LUDWIG) But this one? This one was stunning. Many of the rooms were decorated in a lavish Rococo style, which the Snook found creepy but I absolutely loved. The banqueting hall was mind-blowing. It took us an hour to get through all the different rooms.

At this point, we had a short break before we began the next stage of the tour. The Snook and I used it by soaking up the sun in the Plaza.

From the Plaza, you’ve got a lovely look down into the Campo del Moro Gardens.

One last shot of the facade of the Palace against a clear blue sky.

At this point, the combo tour takes you on about an hour’s walk across the city. (If you go directly it’s only about 25 minutes, but our guide wanted to show us some highlights.) We started up the Calle Mayor, one of the most important streets in Madrid.

Along the way, we learned about how in 1906 an anarchist tried to assassinate King Alfonso XIII and his new bride Princess Victoria Eugenie as they passed in their wedding carriage. The King and Queen survived, but others did not. Now there’s a memorial in front of the Monastery of San Jerónimo.

This is the Casa de la Villa (old city hall) in the Plaza de la Villa in the Palacio neighbourhood.

Off the Plaza, our tour guide made a special point of taking us to Calle del Codo. This is a very narrow street with a ninety-degree bend in it, which is why the name translates to “Elbow Street.” (You can see the sign with the bent arm on it.)

At last we made it to the Plaza Mayor, a famous major public square in the city. I loved the frescoes on the outside of the Casa de la Panaderia.

We had been told that the Plaza was usually crowded with tourists (and thus a target for pickpockets), but thankfully it wasn’t too bad that day.

We left the Plaza via the Arco de Cuchilleros and walked down the Cava de San Miguel. Our tour guide was very excited to show us Sobrino de Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world in continuous operation!

We wound back around to the Plaza and then headed out the other end at Calle de la Sal (“Salt Street”).

This gorgeous place – the Petit Palace Posada del Peine – is a 400-year-old hotel!

Our next landmark was the Puerta del Sol (“Gate of the Sun”), another famous public square in Madrid.

One of the landmarks in the square is a statue of a bear and a strawberry tree. It represents the coat of arms of Madrid, and our tour guide told us it was good luck to touch the bear. (You can see that his heel and his tail are showing wear from lots of touching by thousands of people!)

This is the Palacio de las Cortes (Palace of the Parliament) where the lower house of the Spanish legislature meets. They had banners up for International Women’s Day when we were there.

Finally we reached our destination – the Prado Museum, housing one of the finest collections of European art in the world.

Our guide led us inside and on a whirlwind tour of the museum highlights. Honestly, you could’ve spent an entire day in there but we’d already been on our feet for 4+ hours so we were flagging. No photos were allowed, but I was mesmerised by Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. We both loved Rubens’s The Three Graces and Velázquez’s Las Meninas. I also admired Caravaggio’s David and Goliath (which we’d see later version of, a week later in Vienna). The final room of the tour was all Goya, including his bleak The Dog and Saturn Devouring his Son. (I bought the latter as a fridge magnet. 😳)

The next day I worked from the AWS office while the Snook went off on his own adventure. At one point, I was surprised to spot the tour bus of the Paris Saint-Germain football club outside our hotel! (Sadly, I did not spot Lionel Messi at the hotel breakfast buffet that morning…)

While I was working, Rodd headed into the city again. He was delighted to get to see the towers of the Gate of Europe, which apparently feature prominently in a Spanish-Italian film from the 90’s called The Day of the Beast. (He’s adamant I’m going to have to watch it someday.)

His destination was the Museo Arqueológico Nacional (National Archaeology Museum), and he spent a couple hours exploring its treasures. He said, “They basically have the whole history of human habitation on the Iberian peninsula, from the initial migration out of Africa through to the Moorish period.”

He saw prehistoric art carved on bones, loads of gold treasure from the Celtic period, and quite a lot of Roman marbles. He especially liked this carved and gilded wooden dome ceiling.

After the Museum, he went to check out the nearby Buen Retiro Park. He got a shot of the Monument to Alfonso XII across the pond.

One final shot across the Retiro. Look at those fabulous trees! Thanks for a lovely weekend, Madrid…

Solo trip! In February I had a work event in Seattle, so I made my first long-haul trip without the Snook in several years.

My hotel room had a nice view of the city. It wasn’t water, but it was still pretty.

The event was an internal work conference so there’s really nothing to share there, but one highlight was that my team arranged for a professional photographer to take headshots for us. He’d asked us to bring a prop that showed our “personality.” As you can see, I figured I might as well bring along the knitting!

I had a couple hours free one afternoon so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to finally visit the Amazon Spheres. Somehow I had managed to work for the company for nearly 4 years without ever visiting Seattle! Time to rectify that.

I walked over from the hotel. The Spheres opened four years ago and are next to one of the big Amazon buildings. They’re made up of three adjoining spherical glass domes, and they’re intended as an employee lounge and workspace. (They do have occasional public tours too.)

The first thing I noticed inside was the heat and humidity. The domes are kept at a constant temperature of 72 °F (22 °C) and 60 percent humidity during the daytime. The other thing I couldn’t appreciate from the outside was how big they are. They’re several stories high inside!

There are various paths through the plants on each level, and I wandered through taking photos. Almost felt like I was back in Australia!

The juxtaposition of the riot of colourful leaves and flowers next to the organic shapes made of steel and glass was really beautiful.

The biggest tree in the Spheres is this 55-foot (17 m) Ficus rubiginosa tree that had to be lifted in with a crane. You can ascend through its branches on a walkway.

I needed to have a work call with a colleague back in Australia, so I found one of the work areas and settled into a chair. It makes for a pretty stunning backdrop!

Eventually I made it to the top floor where I was able to get a better view of the living green walls. The plants have been carefully chosen as different plants thrive at different heights and temperatures. The plants at the top are very different from the ones at the bottom!

Taking a selfie with the Spheres sign is practically a law for Amazonians visiting Seattle. 😂

While I didn’t get to really do anything else touristy, I did manage to catch up with my old blog friends Jeff and Tricia. I hadn’t seen them in person in nine years!

And that was it for Seattle! I headed for my flights back to Munich, passing through O’Hare and my least favourite tunnel in the history of airport construction. 😐

We are four months into 2022 and I still haven’t documented our last trip of 2021! At the end of November we headed to the US for AWS re:Invent as well as a long-awaited Christmas visit with my family.

We had a fairly early flight out of Munich, and the first snowfall of the year was just starting as we waited for the train to the airport.

We flew from Munich to Chicago, our first big transcontinental flight in a very long time! That flight wasn’t too full, but the one from Chicago to Vegas certainly was.

We got to Vegas and checked into our hotel. We were both pretty tired, but we knew we had to stay up as long as we could. Some of the European AWS leaders I knew were in town, so we met up with a few of them for dinner at In-N-Out.

That’s us with the lovely Rinon and Gloria from Zürich at The Book in the Linq Hotel. We were really flagging at this point, so that’s when we called it a night!

The next day I wasn’t on duty until later in the day, so I took the Snook to lunch with a colleague of mine at the Momofuku in the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

The pork belly buns are, as always, divine…

The Snook went with the Shoyu Pork Ramen…

…while I had the Ginger Scallion Noodle with Chicken.

We were staying in the Bellagio, which had kind of a “winter wonderland” set up in the lobby. I should note that I was really happily surprised by the level of mask wearing in Vegas. All of the casinos had signs up announcing that masks were required, and pretty much everybody was complying. I even saw people wearing them on the Strip in the spots that were very crowded.

I headed over to the Expo hall to meet up with my colleagues at the AWS DevLounge. Here I am with Isa, who heads up AWS DevRel for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).

We had a big wall set up for user group leaders to write on, so I couldn’t resist giving a shoutout to my buddies back in Australia!

That night I headed to Mandalay Bay for a special AWS Heroes event. Heroes are external AWS experts who are recognised for leading communities, creating content, and basically being amazing ambassadors for the platform. One of the perks they get each year is an all-expenses paid trip to re:Invent, as well as a special kickoff mixer. This is me with Martin, Markus, and Philipp from the German AWS community.

The view was pretty amazing!

I spent the whole next day in a meeting room with the DevRel leadership team, working on our goals and strategy for the year. (I should mention that Rodd was actually working too, just remotely from our hotel.) We had a special dinner reservation that night though…

Roy Choi’s Best Friend in the Park MGM! We caught the monorail over and were delighted to discover that the Park MGM is smoke-free. WOW. I’m actually tempted to stay there the next time I visit. It was literally a breath of fresh air.

The front of Best Friend looks like a Korean convenience store, but once you get in it opens up into a more traditional dining room. Our table had a view through to the kitchen. (I still look jet lagged.)

It’s a Korean restaurant, so of course we had to get banchan! I also couldn’t resist ordering a Frosé slushie from the “Dranks” menu.

We had Kogi Short Rib Tacos, Street Corn, Garlic Chicken, and glistening dinner rolls. In all honesty, it was too much food!

These are the faces of two people who are definitely not ordering dessert. 😂

One of my main jobs at re:Invent was hosting some of the AWS OnAir sessions. Here’s one that I did the next day talking with our customer Aerospike.

I should also mention that I helped with a project to build a beer recommendation mobile application, which was also presented by some of my colleagues at re:Invent too.

After a long day in the Expo, I headed over to the Wynn casino for a meeting of AWS User Group leaders.

That’s me with my colleague Sebastien taking selfies. It was really cool to hear from some of these folks about best practices for running meetups and creating inclusive communities.

That night, the DevRel team had a dinner at the Eiffel Tower in the Paris Hotel. We had a really great view of the Bellagio Fountain show.

And I had a pretty amazing Creme Brûlée to end the night…

The next day, I broke out my famous AWS dress. Here I am along with Dale Chihuly’s famous “Fiori Di Como” ceiling in the Bellagio.

My last day at re:Invent started in the Expo Hall again as we were getting ready for another day of Community talks.

I also hosted several more OnAir sessions, including this cool one where had some of the new AWS Outposts servers physically there to look at.

And that was it for my first ever re:Invent experience! It was finally time to go on vacation…

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Not long after we got to Munich, I saw an ad on Facebook for the West End theatrical production of Neil Gaiman’s book The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I bought the book back in 2014 and we both read it and loved it. I knew that the play had received rave reviews when it opened at the National Theatre a few years back, and it seemed like a great opportunity for a trip back to London to reunite with some of our friends. I decided to play it very safe and buy tickets for a full year in the future, hoping that by then we’d be able to safely travel there and see it. I splurged and got really nice tickets for November 2021 (for our wedding anniversary), and we booked our flights and hoped things would work out. Thankfully, for the most part it did!

The UK had famously dropped most Covid restrictions by the end of 2021, and Omicron hadn’t yet hit. We still had to show our vaccination passes, and there was a requirement that visitors had to take a Covid test within 2 days of arriving. We pre-booked our tests for pickup at the airport and managed to collect them in Heathrow without too much trouble. We caught the Heathrow Express to Paddington and then walked to our hotel, the Park Grand Lancaster Gate.

We deliberately chose the hotel because it was so close to where we had both first lived in London. In fact, it was just up the street from where I had lived as a student (and later RA) for the Notre Dame London Program. The old digs had been done up a bit posher than I remembered.

This was an incredibly special place to visit – The Leinster Arms. This was my local pub as a student, and it’s where I had my first ever pint in London. I spent so many hours (and quid!) there with my friends when I was a student. I used to have dreams where I was back in this pub. We went straight there, and I was shocked to see how upmarket it is these days. (The London in my mind is perpetually 1999.) It was clean and refurbished, and full of nice-looking couples (rather than feral uni students). My beloved dartboard was gone (as was the dodgy jukebox – which had been affixed to the wall right behind where I’m standing here), but on the upside, the taps were full of local craft brews.

The bartender kindly let us know that a table had opened up in the front room, so we finished our beers there. We were about six feet from the spot where we had one of our first dates, nearly 22 years before! Most of the patrons were watching a rugby game on TV – Australia vs. England. “Do you think I’ll get beat up if I cheer for Australia?” the Snook asked. “Best not risk it.”

We walked over to Queensway to check out the neighbourhood, and I was sad to see that the Gooch (another pub) had closed since we last visited in 2016. The Snook was reminiscing about his first address in London, a dodgy backpackers nearby that he had stayed in with his mate Steve. Queensway wasn’t quite as feral as we remembered, and many of the tourist shops seemed to be gone. Whiteleys (the shopping center) is undergoing some massive refurbishment. Queensway Tube Station felt the same as always though, with that weird elevator entrance, but it was nice to be able to swipe in/out with my iPhone. We caught the Central line to Tottenham Court Road as we had a very special person to meet…

Alex! He looks exactly the same, though the salt-and-pepper hair is all white these days. We both met Alex at the same time when was assigned to the “madaboutwine.co.uk” team with us back in 1999, and he eventually ended up rooming with Rodd in Harlesden before the three of us got a share house in Hammersmith. Now he’s married with a wife and kids out in the suburbs, but he kindly came in to town for a bit of a pub crawl with us…

We spent a few hours together getting reacquainted with Soho, Covent Garden, and Seven Dials. It all felt very Christmassy and festive. The number of people out and about was truly shocking through. Not just in a “don’t they know there’s a pandemic happening?” kind of way, but in a “this is way more people than I ever remember seeing here on a random Friday night before” way. And what’s with the “pedi-cabs” in London these days? There were heaps of bicycle taxis decked out with lights blaring doof-doof music at every turn.

We ended the night as one usually does, having a late night feed in Chinatown. The food and the company were excellent.

We parted from Alex at Picadilly Circus at midnight. It was so lovely to see him. ❤️

We walked back up Regent Street, peeking in the shop windows. Hamleys had a lovely Harry Potter themed display set up! We finally caught a taxi back to our hotel before retiring for the night.

We were both feeling a bit seedy the next day after such a big night, so there was only one thing for it – a full English breakfast. We found Sheila’s Cafe nearby that more than did the trick. Once fortified, we headed back towards Covent Garden for our next rendezvous…

Steve! This is the Aussie who dragged Rodd to London in the first place, who crashed with him in the dodgy backpackers and then in the bedsit in Harlesden, and who we once memorably visited while he was bartending at a remote hotel on Loch Lomond. Steve and his wife Kate have been living with their kids in England for many years now, so it was a real treat to get to catch up with him. ❤️ And then a few hours later it was time for…

Ben! Aka Wee Ben, aka the Ferret. Ben is actually the reason I have this silly domain name in the first place, as he first dubbed me the “web goddess” (in a thick Glaswegian accent) way back in 2000. He looks exactly the same. We tramped around the city with him and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. He and Rodd reminisced about visiting dodgy computer markets together. It was nice. ❤️

Honestly, I love the Tube. It’s always filthy and you wonder how this Victorian marvel keeps hanging in there, but I love it.

The next morning we headed out for a walk through Hyde Park. I was looking for a very particular bench dedicated to Rudolf Steiner near the Serpentine. It was a spot that I had loved visiting as a student, and Rodd and I once had a picnic on the grass nearby not long after we started dating. (We found the bench. He’s still just as cute.)

“The Arch” by Henry Moore. We both remembered seeing the large version in Columbus, Indiana when we visited in 2019, but neither of us remembered this one in London. (Turns out it’s because it was taken down in 1996 and only put back up in 2012.)

As we neared the Serpentine Bridge, we heard the sound of hooves. It was a long mounted horse guard trooping past! No idea why, but it was fun to watch.

We exited the park near the Royal Albert Hall, stopping to check out the Albert Memorial. After the West End crowds on the weekend, the park felt strangely empty of tourists.

We headed to the nearest Tube Station and headed towards the City of London, where we split up for a few hours.

I had a boozy lunch with my AWS colleagues Iliyana and Isabel…

…and then swung past St. Paul’s on my way towards the river.

I crossed the Thames at the Millennium Bridge. (It’s nice that they repaired it after the Death Eaters destroyed it!)

Looking east, I could see all the way to Tower Bridge, with the massive Shard dominating the skyline.

My destination was just on the other side of the river though – the Tate Modern.

And there, waiting on the Thames foreshore, was a very smartly dressed Mr. Snook…

…who had been off having some manscaping done at a posh Bankside barber. Look at that beard shaping! 😍

Time to go see some art.

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At some point during our first six months in Munich, the Snook casually mentioned that we should go ride on Falkor. I was like, “Wait, what?!” He’d somehow learned about the existence of Bavaria Filmstadt, the local movie studio facility, and that it had a tour where you could literally sit on Falkor the luckdragon from The Neverending Story. I was all in on that idea.

Bavaria Filmstadt has been around under various names for over 100 years. Alfred Hitchcock made his first film there, and the many notable productions filmed in part there include The Great Escape, The Sound of Music, Cabaret, Downfall, and Das Boot. And of course, relevant to my own personal interests – a little 1971 movie called Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory…

The film studios are south of the Munich city center along the Isar, and not that far from where we live. We picked a nice autumn day and had a nice slow 45min pootle along the river on our bicycles.

Here’s the entrance to the studios. We had pre-booked tickets for the 90min tour. The website mentioned English tours once a day, but we discovered when we got there that they weren’t happening anymore because demand had dropped during Covid. Thankfully they had an app that provided some English commentary so we wouldn’t be completely lost.

The entranceway has some fun exhibits set up, like this scale model of the U-96 from Das Boot. There were also a couple food trucks, so we grabbed a quick lunch before the tour kicked off. Then we were ushered onto a little train which drove us around past some of the studios and offices. Our first stop was a “4D Motion Ride” called Mogli’s Dschungel Abenteur. It’s one of those things where you’re watching a very disorienting 3D movie while the seating moves up and down and water occasionally sprays in your face. It was… not my favourite part of the day.

Then the actual studio tour began. Our group weaved our way through different film sets and props from the movies over the years. I got the impression that the layout depends greatly on what’s been filming there recently. This was part of the backdrop for the upcoming filmed version of The Magic Flute that had filmed six months earlier.

From there we shuffled straight into the White House! This hallway had apparently featured in the upcoming Kung Fury 2 featuring none other than…

President Schwarzenegger himself. 😂

They had a large exhibit of set pieces from the Jim Button German films, including Emma the Locomotive. I haven’t read these books but they’re by Michael Ende, author of The Neverending Story. 

I believe this was Nepomuk the Dragon.

We were were shuffling between rooms when I glanced upwards and stopped dead in my tracks. The Southern Oracle!

At one point we shuffled down a hallway with lots of photos from past productions. At the end of it was a small exhibit of items from The Neverending Story, including a mural of the Auryn.

Morla, the Ancient One! Just looking at that face, I could hear that wheezing voice in my mind.

The Rockbiter! I like that they included a joyous representation of him, rather than the sad “They look like big, strong hands, don’t they?” version that makes me want to cry.

I didn’t spot any props from Willy Wonka but I did see it represented in a photo on the wall.

They had a major exhibit from Das Boot, including this scale (I think?) model of the turret from the submarine.

Another scale model of the sub. They had exhibits outside showing how the crew filmed shots from the movie as well as the 2018 TV series. We then joined the queue shuffling into the long building behind…

…which turned out to be the actual set of the submarine!

It was a pretty tight fit!

Would it surprise you to learn that he was actually quoting lines from The Hunt for Red October the whole time? “One ping only, please,” I heard him growl. ❤️

Note: the sub is pretty small, and there are places where you have to climb through low bulkhead doors like behind the Snook here!

Another studio had sets from the recent sci-fi film Stowaway.

The Snook was very excited by this exhibit of sets from Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar. We walked through the mock Gaulish village…

…and found Obelix’s quarry where he works on the menhirs (standing stones)!

They also had the set used for Caesar’s dungeon…

…including a pool filled with (thankfully fake) crocodiles!

Another outdoor set was a Viking village from the Vicky the Viking film.

The tour also had a couple interactive areas where I didn’t take photos. One was the classroom set from the German film trilogy Fack ju Göhe (which translate to, I kid you not, “F**k you Goethe” in English!). There a couple volunteers sat at desks and recited lines which were then edited into a scene from the movie. Another was about special effects and had a few of us (including me and the Snook) in a mock train carriage while a guy scrolled scenery out the window. (Apparently you could download these clips when you left, but we didn’t bother.)

The gift shop also had some fun Neverending Story merch, including a box full of Auryns and some very cute little Falkors!

Our final stop was to visit the luckdragon himself. They had him set up in a small building near the entrance to the studios, and to my shock not many of the tourists there that day seemed very excited to visit him.

A couple stuck their heads in as we were geeking out and taking photos of each other riding Falkor. The guy nicely offered to take one of the two of us, then grudgingly admitted he’d never seen the movie! 😱

Look at that face! Can’t you just hear his voice? I felt like a kid again.

I forgot to mention – we were there a couple days before Halloween and they were prepping for a special event. The whole tour was being made over with a haunted house theme for a “Spookytour,” and we saw lots of creepy props and zombie cast members getting ready. The Snook didn’t want to particularly do that, but I couldn’t resist saying “Spookytour” over and over. And wow, special Halloween Dunkin’ Donuts!

And then we headed home, enjoying a very autumnal ride through the Bavarian forest.

We crossed a high rail bridge and you can see that the trees were really changing colour.

And a final view of the Isar before we got home…

On our way back from Barcelona last October, I pulled out my phone and idly checked the Hohenschangau ticket office, as I had many times over the past few months. To my delight, they actually had some tickets available for the next weekend! On a whim I bought a pair and we quickly arranged a weekend away in Füssen, the nearest town to the famous castle of Neuschwanstein.

Füssen is southwest of Munich, less than three hours on the train. (It’s right next to the Austrian border, the next valley over from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.) The weather that weekend was gorgeous, and it was thrilling to see the mountains rising up in the distance. And… is that a little castle I spy?? 🏰

We stayed in the Hotel Schlosskrone, just a short walk from the train station. The view from our hotel was pretty glorious.

We headed out into the town for a wander and to find some dinner. Füssen was founded in Roman times and it’s retained quite a medieval feel.

It’s pretty touristy too, being the closest place to Ludwig’s castles. Phew, €500+ for a cuckoo clock?!

We also got a glimpse of the Hohes Schloss (“High Castle”) up on the hill, the former summer residence of the prince-bishops of Augsburg.

The next day we headed back out to check it out in the sunshine…

Gosh it was beautiful there.

We were heading towards the river, where we knew there were was a waterfall. Along the way we ducked in the courtyard of St. Mang’s, a former Benedictine monastery. Now it contains the Museum of Füssen.

I loved how decorated the buildings were in town. This was the Church of the Holy Spirit.

The river in Füssen is called the Lech, and it flows from a lake in the Alps all the way to the Danube. Here’s the Snook on the Lechbrücke (“Lech Bridge”).

We had another view of St. Mang’s from the river.

We crossed the river and hiked a short distance to the west, where we reached our destination – the Lechfall.

The water pours down a series of steps at a narrow bend in the river with high cliffs on either side. Up on the cliff there is a small memorial to King Maximilian II of Bavaria. There’s also a small footbridge across the river that we headed down to get a better view.

I recorded a little video too.

Behind us, looking back east towards town…

The water in the river was incredibly clear.

We crossed the river in search of the Via Claudia Augusta, the ancient Roman road created by Drusus and his Emperor son Claudius. Now parts of it are a popular hiking path marked with replicas of the Roman milestones.

We followed it north towards the Tal der Sinne (“Valley of the Senses”).

Along the way we passed lots of charming houses, both modern and traditional.

We made it to The Valley and found an old ski jump! That was pretty cool.

And the Snook got to impersonate a sundial.

We hiked back into town in search of sustenance. We passed a lot of hotels and guest houses, but tourist numbers were still pretty low due to Covid.

I thought this building covered in birdhouses was really cute.

Back in town, we did some shopping. I lobbied hard, but no, he regrettably did not buy the hat.

We found a sunny spot for lunch and beers…

The Snook may not have bought a hat, but I did! I got it at the Hutladen.

The next day, it was time to head to the castles! 🏰

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