So the fact that I am still away from home an extra year beyond that - and even then, living and working in a country that is not the UK - seems somewhat strange given that initial expectation. The where's, how's and why's I've detailed throughout this blog previously but suffice to say, circumstances change (and well, Love changes everything). Curtailing my time in the UK and following Sasha to Berlin was in many ways a jump into the unknown, and but also in other ways wasn't - and even then we only moved to Berlin with the expectation that we would be here for a max of 1 year (which is what our visa allowed) and then we would call it quits. But we're still here, and I think its been the best thing. Also, by the middle of next month I will reach the point where I have lived longer in Berlin than I did in London. For those roughly 2 months between arriving in the UK and starting work, I had been toying with the idea of splitting my 2 years in the UK between London (or, if London wasn't going to work, Birmingham) and somewhere like Edinburgh - giving me a greater scope to explore the UK, as I expected I would be getting limited-time contract jobs. I put paid to that idea when I got my permanent job in London, but funny how I have effectively ended up doing just that except in Berlin instead of Edinburgh and over 3 years instead of two and instead of a greater scope of the UK, its been a greater scope of Europe. And, its not over yet - but there is an end in sight. But more about that later.
So almost 18 months in Berlin now - and I'm happy to say that we have permanent accommodation, which has improved things immensely. It might be a bit smaller than we might have hoped ideally for, and the 4 stories worth of stairs to get to it never seem to get any shorter but its quite well connected to transport and its in a very neat area of Berlin - Friedrichshain, in the former East. We will be able to stay there as long as we want, which is good. We have been progressively getting further into ticking off a lot of our Berlin-based must do items, however summer this year in Berlin was a fizz - last year it was fantastically sunny and hot, but we didn't have the disposable money on hand to make the most of it. This year we had the money, but the weather didn't come! In fact it was very rainy for a lot of it, quite disappointing really. Winter was mild last year compared to what we had been told to prepare for - so if it goes hot summer mild winter, does it go mild summer cold winter? We actually hope so - we'd love some more snow days to explore Berlin in. As for exploring other places - well, we've done a bit of that too, although its been one of our quieter periods in many ways. Which brings us to the travel summary part - like I did for the first 6 months (see here), for months 7-12 (see here), for months 13-18 (see here), for months 19-24 (see here), and for months 25-30 see here.
(Please note - the colours mentioned from here on do not display on mobile devices for some reason and I can't find a way around it.)
Visited Countries
- Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Victor Harbour, Goolwa, Gumeracha)
- Austria (Vienna)
- Belgium (Brussels x2, Louvain-a-Neuvre, Leuven, Brugge, Roeselare, Zonnebeke, Passchendaele)
- Bosnia (Sarajevo, Mostar, Neum)
- Bulgaria (Sofia)
- Croatia (Zagreb, Dubrovnik x2, Podgora, Split x2, Plitvice Lakes, Stari Grad, Hvar)
- Czech Republic (Decin)
- Denmark (Vaduz, Billund, Copenhagen)
- France (Mulhouse, Strasboug, Saint Louis, Paris, Versailles)
- Gibraltar (Gibraltar)
- Hungary (Budapest)
- Ireland (Dublin, Cork, Cobh, Blarney)
- Italy (Ancona, Milan x2, Tirano, Bergamo, Lecco, Bellagio, Lenno)
- Latvia (Riga, Jurmala)
- Liechtenstein (Vaduz)
- Lithuania (Vilnius)
- Luxembourg (Luxembourg - well just the outskirts really)
- Malta (Valetta, Sliema, Marsaxlokk, St Peters Pool, Tarxien, Mdina, Blue Lagoon/Comino)
- Montenegro (Budvar, Kotor)
- Norway (Narvik, Tromso, Stokmarknes, Svolvaer, Bronnoysund, Trondheim, Oslo, Flam, Bergen)
- Poland (Szczecin, Wroclaw, Warsaw, Wolsztyn, Swinousjcie, Zgorzelec)
- Portugal (Porto, Douro Valley, Lisbon, Sintra)
- Romania (Bucharest, Brasov)
- Spain (Islands of Corralejo and Lanzarote, Canary Islands, La Linea de la Concepcion, Algeciras, Ibiza, Seville x2, Madrid, Barcelona)
- Sweden (Stockholm x2, Gavle, Uppsala, Kiruna, Malmo)
- Switzerland (Zurich x5, Romanshorn, Basel x2, Jungfraujoch, Lauterbrunnen, Brig, Chur)
- The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Gouda)
- Ukraine (Kyiv, Chornobyl, Pripyat)
- United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai)
So two things strike me from looking at this list. Firstly, only 2 new countries have been added to the list which is the lowest number of any period yet - this was expected as per what I wrote earlier about it supposed to have been one of the quieter travel periods. However, there is more yellow in this list than I expected - quite an appreciable level and by the looks of things, in this last period we have gone to fewer places internationally but explored those places a lot more. In Malta, many of the towns are very close to each other which makes it easier to travel between places. For Portugal, I combined the 3 smaller towns into a collective Douro Valley as we never much ventured beyond the station in these places, which means they wouldn't count although partly did - but unequivocally we visited the Douro Valley. Also of note are some countries have been re-visited - and for some of these, it won't be the last visit either.
So whats to come? Well, the next 6 month period should see some more travels - it will stay quiet for a while, and then it should be a bit of a boom as we start our travels. Our list of places we want to visit has lessened, but by no means has been eliminated and it also kind of has been added to as we start to give thought to our plans and how we might do them logistically. However, a lot of places have dropped of our list as likely being impractical for time and money reasons and although not completely gone, they do not now form part of our goal for the rest of this trip as much as we might like to. Egypt, Morocco, Finland, Iceland, Estonia and Russia are all places that fall into this list - places we would like to have gone, but we don't see any practical means of being able to fit them in now and may instead form part of a future Europe Holiday in some years. Never say never though and who knows, we might surprise ourselves and squeeze one of these in. Probably out of all of them I would have liked to have done Russia, the "Biggest Blue" but their Visa regime makes it a bit complicated to go there and although it can be done as a "light touch", current thinking is it would be better to do a more comprehensive trip there sometime. Of other places previously mentioned, the USA will be visited on our way back to Oceania - I never did manage to figure out how I could pull off a trip there and back from Europe and visit it on the way home, because it didn't make sense to in the end.
So what are the big things to note in this list? Last time I noted Paris in France, and Rome in Italy as being absent, and said that Portugal still rated high on our list of places to go. Paris in France has now been ticked off - as has Portugal, but Rome still remains at large. Rome however is on our radar for our "End-of" travels as is Greece (another place I thought I would have visited by now), and Turkey (which had been discounted as being possibly unsafe, but is back on the radar now). Zurich still remains the most visited city outside of the countries which I have lived, but it has a contender approaching it - more on that further down.
Visited Places in the UK
- England (London xM, Brighton, Bletchley, Folkestone, Hythe, Dungeness, Birmingham x3, Kidderminster x2, Bridgnorth x2, New Arlesford, Alton, East Grinstead, Sheffield Park, Lincoln, Carlisle, York, Bath, Windsor, Salisbury, Luton xM, Gatwick xM, Stanstead xM, Liverpool x3, Ryde, Shanklin, Ventnor, Newport, Portsmouth, Loughborough, Ascot, Didcot, Oxford, Weston-Super-Mare, Dover, Southend, Brooklands, St Austell, Penzance, Lands End, St Ives, York, Scarborough, Pickering, Grosmont, Whitby, Cambridge, Henley-on-Thames, Southampton, Nottingham, Newark, Newcastle)
- Northern Ireland (Belfast x2, Bushmills, Giant's Causeway)
- Scotland (Inverness, Drumnadrochit, Fort William, Mallaig, Edinburgh x2)
- Wales (Swansea, Porthmadog, Portmeirion, Caernarfon, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Pant, Torpantau)
Very little yellow and that's to be expected still with living outside the UK now. There were two visits during this time - one to London, and one to Liverpool. We actually flew out of Manchester Airport, but never visited Manchester itself so it doesn't count as per The Rules. There will be a little bit more within the next 6 month period however, by the looks of things - before the end of the year there will be another trip to London (taking advantage of Sasha's work meetings there) and also Christmas in Scotland. Outside of that, I would expect at least one more visit but we shall see.
Visited Places in Germany
- Germany (Dortmund, Hanover x2, Wernigerode x3, Friedrichshafen, Stuttgart, Speyer, Sinsheim, Nuremberg, Dresden x3, Freiburg im Bresigau, Cologne, Koblenz, Brohl, Linz am Rhein, Nordhausen, Munich x4, Berlin xM, Potsdam xM, Meiningen, Hamburg, Hohenschwangau/Neuschwanstein, Füssen, Bremen, Frankfurt (Oder), Heringsdorf, Zinnowitz, Peenemünde, Weisswasser/Rakotzbücke, Gorlitz)
The yellow doesn't look too bad - in fact its the most since we've started living here, but again I am continually surprised how little of Germany we have done considering. We spend a lot of time travelling in and around Berlin but not lots time outside of it. Its not like we don't want to - but many of the places we'd like to visit are in the former West Germany, and its not so easy to pop there. You're talking either an hour's flight, or a few hours by train. We'd need to set aside weekends to visit places, or try and tie them into a week long trip since many of them are within spitting distance of each other but as yet, we've never been able to figure out when or how in between all the other travel outside of Germany we've wanted to do. We would like to address this - and some of this will be addressed, but whether it will be as comprehensive we will remains to be seen.
Do note however, that Munich has become the 2nd Most Visited City outside of where we have been living - Zurich is at 5 visits, Munich is now at 4 thanks to going to Oktoberfest. If we had spent any time in Munich around the Neuschwanstein trip rather than just passing through in both directions, Munich would now be at 5. I have made no bones about how I think Zurich is a very unexciting city and its funny how its risen to the fore - but in my opinion, Munich is not any better. To be honest if it wasn't for Oktoberfest, I would not have been near Munich anywhere so often - Oktoberfest counts for 3 of the 4 visits. Will we visit Munich again? Unlikely as there is no real reason to, but who knows.
The Railway Stuff
Excursions - 60009 London-Lincoln-London, UK - 46233 London-Carlisle-London (diesel hauled out of London and via Settle-Carlisle), UK - 35 1097 Dresden-Nossen-Dresden, Germany - Ra 846 Gavle-Uppsala, Sweden - 45407 Fort William-Mallaig-Fort William (Jacobite), UK - No.1 and L150 on London Underground, UK - 76079 Grosmont-Whitby, UK - 03 2155 Berlin-Wosztyn-Berlin, Germany - 0186 Regua-Tua-Regua (Douro Valley), Portugal | Railways - Bluebell Railway, UK - Mid-Hants Railway, UK - Severn Valley Railway, UK x2 - Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, UK - Harz Mountain Railways, Germany x3 - Weisseritztalbahn, Germany - Great Central Railway, UK - Didcot Railway Centre, UK - Kasbachtalbahn, Germany - Tyseley Locomotive Works, UK - Ffestiniog Railway, UK - Welsh Highland Railway, UK - Brecon Mountain Railway, UK - North Yorkshire Moors Railway, UK - SteamRanger Railway, Australia - Wolsztyn Steam Parade, Poland | Other trains of note that I have ridden - ICE High Speed Train, Germany xM - Eurostar x3, UK/France/Belgium - HST/IC125 xM, UK - IC225/Class 91, UK - Virgin Pendolino tilting train, UK xM - Javelin High Speed Train, UK - London Underground xM - Docklands Light Railway xM - Swedish X2000 HST - AVE High Speed Train, Spain - Glacier Express, Switzerland - Bernina Express, Switzerland - Jungfrau Mountain Railway, Switzerland - Berlin U-Bahn Cabrio - Paris Metro, France - Flam Railway, Norway | Railway-related Museums Visited: - National Railway Museum, York, UK x2 - DB Museum, Nuremberg, Germany - Cite du Train, Mulhouse, France - London Transport Museum, UK (and their Acton depot) - Science Museum, London xM - Thinktank Birmingham, UK - DB Museum Koblenz, Germany - Swedish Railway Museum, Gavle - Trainworld, Belgium - Deutches Technikmuseum, Berlin -Meiningen Railway Workshops, Germany - National Railway Museum, Adelaide, Australia - Dutch Railway Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands - Science & Technology Museum, Milan, Italy |