I've decided to stop the daily script I was so scrupulous at maintaining over the walk. Not as fun to write as bunching a few interesting points across a few days. So here we are, currently on a train headed for Munich to meet Joe & Aimee for Oktoberfest.
MANCHESTER (15th-17th)
We ended up having to catch buses all the way to Manchester from R.H.B. Train tickets were going to cost us 95 pound as we didn't pre-book, so we went with the 44 pound bus tickets through York & Leeds.
Even though we only passed through on the bus, I've decided that York deserves a few days of investigation if we ever return and decided I could happily never visit Leeds again. York just had this clean & grand architecture that was really appealing while Leeds just felt unclean, oppressive and stagnant.
I am happy to report that first impressions of Manchester were quite good. We were aching for a good indian curry and read that there is an area called The Curry Mile in town. It must have received it's name a long time ago thorugh as when we arrived it appeared that the Indians had up and left, while a bunch of Turks & Afghanis had taken up residence. We aren't fussy as long as it tastes good, so picked up some kebabs and shawarmas that Laura advised were the best she had EVER eaten. Not bad!
Manchester has a distinctly similar vibe to Melbourne. There always seemed to be live music, sport and art events to attend, while it also had a good food & cafe scene. We managed to tick all of the boxes with the exception of sport, however I did attempt to return a soccer ball to a group of youths on the 5th level of a parking lot! Won't be signing any lucrative deals anytime soon. Ball landed in basement floor.
Blimey! I almost forgot to mention the bloomin' Walkabout Hostel! 5 star! ... Out of a possible 20. Honestly, it was only 11 pound per nich each, so we didn't expect much, and it met our expectations. Clean bed, quiet room & good location. Had to go to the bar twice to get checked-in then get our key working. The following day had to go to the bar again to get our key fixed again, only to have it STILL fail and we ended up having to wake the occupants for entry. If low on cash, a fine stay. Just be warned.
Getting quite warm on this train at the moment. We recently changed trains at Ulm, which is the birthplace of Albert Einstien.
STUTTGART (17th - 19th)
Took us the whole day to fly to Stuttgart & catch the train into the city. Our first meal in Germany was a traditional American burger with a pint of Dinklelacker Export to wash it down.
We only had one full day in Stuttgart, but didn't get out of our hostel until 1pm (A & O Hostel) as we had to organise what we were doing after Munich.
A nice city with uber amounts of construction in the works (Manchester was similar actually). A shopaholics dream with some pleasant sights included! We spent the day walking around the city & parks & the afternoon at the Mercedes-Benz museum. The museum was very cool,m reckon I took more pictures there than I have in the last two weeks combined! 8 stories of building that starts at the top and slowly winds its way down from old to new, incorporating some 19th & 20th century history at the same time.
We haven't made it to Munich yet, early reports from Joe are that it's crazy busy & was apparently impossible to catch a train from Austria to Germany due to German sanctions that were imposed to stop the flow of Syrian migrants into the country after they recently announced they would home 500,000 migrants a year from the IS conflict.
Will be interesting to see how the city copes with such a sudden influx of festival-goers and migrants at the same time. An exciting time to be visiting the city, although i have not heard anyone mention migrants on the train. Most sound too excited for the festival!
MANCHESTER (15th-17th)
We ended up having to catch buses all the way to Manchester from R.H.B. Train tickets were going to cost us 95 pound as we didn't pre-book, so we went with the 44 pound bus tickets through York & Leeds.
Even though we only passed through on the bus, I've decided that York deserves a few days of investigation if we ever return and decided I could happily never visit Leeds again. York just had this clean & grand architecture that was really appealing while Leeds just felt unclean, oppressive and stagnant.
I am happy to report that first impressions of Manchester were quite good. We were aching for a good indian curry and read that there is an area called The Curry Mile in town. It must have received it's name a long time ago thorugh as when we arrived it appeared that the Indians had up and left, while a bunch of Turks & Afghanis had taken up residence. We aren't fussy as long as it tastes good, so picked up some kebabs and shawarmas that Laura advised were the best she had EVER eaten. Not bad!
Manchester has a distinctly similar vibe to Melbourne. There always seemed to be live music, sport and art events to attend, while it also had a good food & cafe scene. We managed to tick all of the boxes with the exception of sport, however I did attempt to return a soccer ball to a group of youths on the 5th level of a parking lot! Won't be signing any lucrative deals anytime soon. Ball landed in basement floor.
Blimey! I almost forgot to mention the bloomin' Walkabout Hostel! 5 star! ... Out of a possible 20. Honestly, it was only 11 pound per nich each, so we didn't expect much, and it met our expectations. Clean bed, quiet room & good location. Had to go to the bar twice to get checked-in then get our key working. The following day had to go to the bar again to get our key fixed again, only to have it STILL fail and we ended up having to wake the occupants for entry. If low on cash, a fine stay. Just be warned.
Getting quite warm on this train at the moment. We recently changed trains at Ulm, which is the birthplace of Albert Einstien.
STUTTGART (17th - 19th)
Took us the whole day to fly to Stuttgart & catch the train into the city. Our first meal in Germany was a traditional American burger with a pint of Dinklelacker Export to wash it down.
We only had one full day in Stuttgart, but didn't get out of our hostel until 1pm (A & O Hostel) as we had to organise what we were doing after Munich.
A nice city with uber amounts of construction in the works (Manchester was similar actually). A shopaholics dream with some pleasant sights included! We spent the day walking around the city & parks & the afternoon at the Mercedes-Benz museum. The museum was very cool,m reckon I took more pictures there than I have in the last two weeks combined! 8 stories of building that starts at the top and slowly winds its way down from old to new, incorporating some 19th & 20th century history at the same time.
We haven't made it to Munich yet, early reports from Joe are that it's crazy busy & was apparently impossible to catch a train from Austria to Germany due to German sanctions that were imposed to stop the flow of Syrian migrants into the country after they recently announced they would home 500,000 migrants a year from the IS conflict.
Will be interesting to see how the city copes with such a sudden influx of festival-goers and migrants at the same time. An exciting time to be visiting the city, although i have not heard anyone mention migrants on the train. Most sound too excited for the festival!
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