Well, we know how to time our visit - on the same day as the worst flood in Lucerne in 30 years! It seems to have been raining in Switzerland for several days. It was certainly pouring with rain when we arrived in Zurich on Sunday afternnoon. It continued to pour for most of Monday, so there really wasn’t much we could do in Zurich except wander around the shops in the old part of town which were full of lots of beautiful things we couldn’t afford…

We had to wait for the afternoon before we could get a train to Lucerne as there were apparently problems with flooding along the way. However eventually we were off and arrived in Lucerne at about 5.30pm. Our humble hotel is in the middle of the old town which is nice, and after we checked in and dropped off our things we went for a wander along the riverside to find something to eat, finally settling on a English pub called Mr Pickwicks. We noticed during our walk that people were busily dropping off loads of sandbags, lining them along the river and stacking them in front of shop doors. The pub we ate in had a pile ready to go just beside the door. We returned to our hotel wondering just what today would bring.

Early this morning we could see that the river had indeed burst its banks and flooded some of the lower lying places. We were still able to cross over to the other side to visit the train station to see about trains to Geneva tomorrow and to find out if it is worth taking a day trip to Mt Rigi given the conditions. We were advised that there is no problem getting a train, and that we should wait until midday to see what the conditions are like to go to the mountain. As I write this we are still waiting… From there we decided to venture back onto the side of the river on which our hotel is based to check out the Glacier Gardens which were really interesting. Discovered in 1872, it is a now exposed rock surface on which you can clearly see the impact of a glacier. The area includes a museum with some lovely old furniture, and a hall of mirrors which was brough to Lucerne after the 1896 national fair in Geneva, and which did my head in completely… thought I was never going to get out!!

We were probably there for about two hours, and walked back to the train station to discover that the street we could walk along before was now closed to traffic, and that pedestrians were now having to roll up their pants and wade through. I would like to congratulate the makers of my hiking boots; once again they have proved their waterproofness! Mr Pickwicks has now got half a metre of water banked up against its doors (and hopefully not flooding throughout…). Guess we won’t be eating there tonght!

So, as I type, the waters are still rising. However it is quite clear that the authorities here are well organised and prepared to deal with whatever eventuates! However we might be here for another day yet…

Sorry for the lack of updates. It is really hard to find time to sit in an internet cafe when there is so much to see and do! This is our last day in Germany. In the past week we have visited Berlin, Hamburg, Eisenach and I am writing this in Munich. Today we catch a train to Zurich in Switzerland where we hope to spend much of the next week.

I will write in more detail later, but suffice to say I have really enjoyed it here, and have had loads of opportunities to improve my German! I also wish I had a spare couple of hundred Euros and an empty pack so I can load up on the new season winter clothes. The Germans do have such good taste in shoes!

On Wednesday afternoon we headed for Poznan for two nights. My reason for choosing to stay here (in spite of all the Poles telling us not to go there ‘because there is nothing there’) is because it is the base for the organisation Discovering Roots (http://www.discovering-roots.pl/welcome.htm). I had booked a guide from this organisation to take me to Trzciel, the home of my German ancestors who made the long and perilous journey to Australia in 1840-41. The village was (and still is) a small country town where few (if any) people speak English, so if my visit was going to mean anything, a guide was quite necessary.

At 10am Thursday morning we met Magda, our guide. She turned out to be an enormously helpful and interesting woman in her early thirties. She dr0ve us to the village (my first time in a car driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road!) chatting all the time about the history of the town and what we might (or might not) find there. The town has a population of only a couple of thousand people, and is quite sleepy and off the beaten track. I don’t think they see too many Australians there! The town is divided by a river, and the German settlers (who had come to the area from other areas of Prussia) lived on one half while the Polish lived on the other. The German section had an Evangelical Church, and the Polish a Catholic. The two communities always existed harmoniously together, until the Germans were forced to leave and return to what was now Germany. Since WWII and the communist takeover, no German was welcome in this area. Anyone visiting claiming German ancestry (even if they were Australian) was regarded suspiciously, even with fear as the communists had successfully persuaded the local population that it was only a matter of time before the German sought to return to take their land from them. Thankfully this is no longer the case, and since 1989 and the end of Communist rule, many Germans have returned freely to visit the home of their ancestors.

I had hoped to visit the Evangelical church as it was the church my ancestors had attended and possibly married in. Unfortunately it was bombed during WWII and not rebuilt. A park stands there now. I already knew the nearby cemetry was virtually non-existent as there was no longer any German families to care for it, but was still pleasantly pleased by what we found. Yes, the gravestones had fallen and the whole area was covered in ivy. However it was a pleasant, quiet place, and a memorial had been recently placed there to commemorate the Germans who had been buried there. We will always wonder if any earlier generations of our family are buried there, but will never know for sure because of the lack of records.

We spent some time in the Catholic church, thanks to Magda who approached the priest to unlock the building for us. It is a beautiful building, and existed in the time of my ancestors. It is likely to have been a significant place for them.

After lunch Magda drove us to a nearby village to show us a church that had been built in the same style as the Evangelical church so we could see how it might have looked. She again sought out the local priest, and found a radical retired priest who apparently had written a book about his belief that original sin began with Cain rather than Adam and Eve. Interestingly the Catholic church was reluctant to publish it!

Magda returned us to Poznan where we shared a drink, and then dinner, and ended up chatting until 10pm. We really enjoyed talking with her, not only because of her genealogical knowledge, but to find out what life was like in a communist country (Magda was 17 in 1989, and well able to remember the things that happened). After 12 hours with Magda, I felt I had well and truely got my money’s worth, and then some. If you have ancestors who came from this region, I can highly recommend this organisation!

Will update as soon as possible!

One can’t really come to this part of the world without visiting Auschwitz Birkenau, the location of one of the most infamous of the Nazi death camps. On Sunday we caught the 9am bus - its a journey of about 60km, an hour and a half. Entry to the museum is free, but we decided to pay to join a guided tour. We were glad we did because there was so much to see we could have been overloaded! We began at Birkenau, which is about 3 km from Auschwitz, and is the site where most of the gas chamber murders took place. I had no idea the place was so large. The extent of the camp was chilling, the rows upon rows of barracks. The wooden barracks had all been destroyed by fire, their chimneys the only things remaining. They had rebuilt a row of barracks for visitors to see what conditions would have been like. The barbed wire fences, watch towers and train line still remain, making it easy to picture what it might have been like. At the far end of the camp were the gas chambers and furnaces. They had been blown up in the final days before the camp was liberated, but the ruins were still disturbing. A dramatic memorial stands there now, and is a special place for people to come and remember and mourn.

We returned to Auschwitz, which was primarily a work camp, although plenty of people were murdered here too. We passed through the gates with the words “Arbeit macht Frei” (Work brings freedom) and began a tour of the exhibitions. Several rooms contained items taken from those murdered at Birkenau, including reading glasses, shoes, suitcases, and the most sickening, an enourmous pile of human hair taken from the heads of some 40000 women.

We spent the whole day at the museum; there was more than enough to see (too much?). Like the Peace Museum in Hiroshima, this is a place all people should come if they possibly can. It is not a pleasant day, but it is an important one.

Tomorrow we take the train to Warsaw, where we will stay for two nights. After that we head west to Poznan, where I will visit Trzciel (formerly Tirschtiegel) which is the village from which my Hampel ancestors came.

We arrived in Krakow at about 7.30 pm, and found our guesthouse not far from the train station, and right on the edge of the Old Town, which was nice. After a quick wander through the square and a kebab we were ready for a good night’s sleep. This would have been possible if it were not for the fact that every drunk man in Krakow seemed to find the footpath beneath our room’s window the best possible spot for singing lustily! Ah well!

Our room is in a separate building from the main guesthouse, and we needed to walk back there for breakfast every morning. We arrived there at about 9 am to discover a bit of a commotion. The girls who ran the place were trying to shoo some men away from the dining room. It turned out that there was a group of men on a bucks weekend staying there also, and had just returned from a night’s carousing. Still a little… merry, shall we say, the girls thought it would be bad form if the other guests had to put up with them. In actual fact, they stayed (beer in hand) and actually had some useful advice, such as where to visit in Warsaw (where they were from) and that we should avoid them if at all possible that evening as they were likely to be quite drunk! They tried to assure us that not all Poles drank beer and vodka for breakfast! A very entertaining way to start the day.

We spent Saturday wandering the town, ‘doing’ the town square quite thoroughly, and treating ouselves to some amber jewellery, available in abundance in this part of the world. We visited the former Jewish quarter, including a museum in a former synagogue. Eventually we made it to Wawel, the location of the castle and Cathedral, where we lost count of the number of weddings being pushed, production-line style, through the chapel in the centre of the Cathedral. It was a stunningly beautiful setting for a wedding, but I am not sure I would like several hundred tourists looking on!

We spent the evening enjoying several buskers performing in the streets. The piano accordian players are particularly good, and I have heard a couple of brilliant versions of Toccato and Fugue (sp?). After dinner we returned for a last wander around the square, and found several hundred people waiting expectantly at the foot of the church. Every so often a bugler plays from the top of the tower, and we had heard him several times. However this time everyone was waiting almost in silence. As he began to play, the crowd hushed completely, the horses and carriages stopped, and the bugler had everyone’s undivided attention. At the end of his short performance, the crowd applauded. It was a really special moment and a lovely way to finish the evening.

We arrived in Prague a little tired and grumpy - two and a half days travelling takes its toll! We didn’t like having to skim through so much country without a break, but it was the price we had to pay for having taken the side trip to Croatia. We hadn’t booked accommodation in Prague, deciding to make use of the tourist accommodation services instead. As it turned out, we didn’t get that far. We were met off the train by a number of people ‘encouraging’ visitors to stay at their hotel/hostel. After speaking to a couple, we decided on a hotel right on the edge of the old town, a little more expensive than we had planned, but an excellent location, and the breakfasts… oh, the breakfasts - they kept us going all day - you have never seen so much food!

After checking in we decided to get our bearings and go for a stroll through the old town. The first port of call, as always, was somewhere selling a map. Prague was crowded with tourists - like every other place we have been so far, the price for travelling in the summer peak period. However the winding streets and beautiful architecture were still interesting. We found a lovely restaurant for tea, and collapsed in our room at about 10.30pm.

We decided to get a relatively early start and try to see something of the old town before the crowds decended at about 10am (which appears to be the magic time for tourists, particularly day trippers on coaches). At 11 am we joined a walking tour we decided to do. We found the brochure in our hotel, and the walks sounded really interesting. We chose a 3 hour walk that took in the main features of the old town. They advertised that they took only small groups, and we were pleased to discover that this was accurate. Our group had only 8 people in it: ourselves, plus two other Australians (Shaun from Sydney, and a Perth girl who had been working in Melbourne, managing a chain of Witchery stores), and four English tourists (three students and an elderly woman ‘addicted to travel’). Our guide, George, was really interesting and a lot of fun. It turned out that his English teacher had been an Australian man, who was also a musician and had played in a band which was a side project of Rob Hirst, a member of Midnight Oil. As a result, George had become a huge Midnight Oil fan, and had attended their last ever concert! We got along really well together, and most of us ended up having a very late lunch together.

When Jan and I left the group, we made our way to the train station to book our tickets to Krakow in Poland. This done, we did some last minute shopping (I allowed myself a wooden marionnette puppet of a bird) then had tea (I had a lovely grilled whole trout - and managed to remember how to eat it without getting any bones, thanks to my training at Lucindale Area School, which has an aquaculture department!).

On our last morning, I rose early to try to get some photos of the Charles Bridge and the old town without any tourists in it. Of course, at least another 30 tourists had the same idea, and I didn’t quite manage as many photos as I would have liked. Our train didn’t leave until 11am so we had a leisurely breakfast (did I mention how good those breakfasts were?) then stopped at the post ffice on the way to try to send a package of things I had bought to my mum and dad. Unfortunately their computer system was having problems, so I still have the parcel with me - will try to send it tomorrow from Krakow!

Jan and I got up at a nicely civilised hour and made our way down to the bus station. We already had our bus tickets and arrived in plenty of time to catch the bus. The bus, however, had completely different ideas! It arrived just 5 minutes before it was due to leave, and then found that they couldn’t fit all the luggage of the passengers on the bus. We, of course, were the last ones in the line (inexplicably… we were near the front originally) so were kicked off the bus, in spite of having reserved seats! Fortunately we were able to exchange the tickets for a bus that was leaving just half an hour later. It turned out to be a much nicer, quicker bus, so that worked out nicely.

The trip was a long, hot one, but the views were lovely. The bus followed the coast for much of the trip, and the mountains here are pretty specatular. There seems to be little soil on the mountains. They are all slivery-grey stone with green shrubs clinging to the slopes. We stopped at two police checks where the police came on board to check our passports (all without incident) and we arrived in Dubrovnick after 3 pm.

Christian had agreed to meet us and help us to find somewhere to stay, and bless his cotton socks, he came through with the goods! He secured a room with the same people he and the girls were staying with. Unfortunately he didn’t make it clear in his limited Croatian that we needed two beds, so Jan and I had to share the very, very large double bed - all good - we had plenty of room! In addition, the son of our hosts came with his car to pick us up, which saved us a long hot walk up a hill. Our accomodation was about a half hour’s walk from the Old Town, which was a bit of a pity. However it is tricky and expensive to find anything closer, and we could have been alot further away, so we were very pleased with Christian’s efforts.

Christian gave us time to clean up, then we walked with him to spend the evening with him and the girls at the Old Town. Its a lovely town. One can see why Lord Byron called it ‘the pearl of the Adriatic’! Apparently Agatha Christie spent her second honeymoon here, and we drank cocktails at a bar called Hemingway’s bar…

We met the girls at a fountain outside the main gate to the city, then made our way to Hemingways, which became a favourite late-afternoon haunt! After a drink we had dinner at a lovely seafood restaurant (Jan and I had shrimp grilled in garlic, which was lovely) then back to Hemingways for another drink - I can recommend the Strawberry Caipiroska (sp?). We enjoyed wandering the streets, and returned to our rooms at about 10.30 pm.

We decided to get up early the next morning to walk the walls of the Old Town before it got too hot! The walk was well worth it, with lovely views from every corner of the town. The walk took a couple of hours and we were glad we had started so early. After lunch, we spent some time on the internet trying to work out the next leg of the journey, then had a quick tour of the palace. Jan and I finished the afternoon with a refreshing swim in a little rocky cove. I can highly recommend the crystal clear waters of the Adriatic!

I dined on seafood again, this time ‘Fried Little Fish’ which I think were like whitebait. We sat after dinner on a bench overlooking the sea as the sun set, then headed home for an early night.

This morning Jan and I let ourselves sleep in a little, then walked down the hill to the bus station to catch a bus back to Split (which is where I am now, typing this entry!). We are catching the 10.30pm overnight ferry to Ancona, then trains to Bologna, Venice and Vienna, where we will stay overnight. Won’t be able to see anything unfortunately as we need to catch another train to Prague the next morning. We will spend a day and a half in Prague, so that is when you will be most likely to hear from me again!

A thousand apologies for any spelling mistakes etc. Just don’t have time for much proofreading! That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

On Thursday morning we caught an early morning train from Bologna to Ancona, where we planned to catch the 11 am ferry to Split in Croatia. We arrived, and managed to get tickest - the ferry really wasnt that full which was nice.

On the ferry we met Michael, an American who was studying for a Doctorate of Philosophy and Law degree at the University of Texas. We enjoyed talking with Micheal, and he joined us for much of our time in Split.

Christian, Jans friend, met us at the ferry and took us to an Internet cafe owned by an Australian. Apparently they are reliable at assisting people to find accomodation, and our experience can confirm that! We were able to secure a two bedroom apartment for to nights for about AUD$40 a night. It had airconditioning and was situated inside the walls of the old town which made it an ideal location. After washing and changing, visiting a supermarket to organise tea and breakfast for the following morning, and washing some clothes, we met Michael, Christian, Christians girlfriend Rebecca and Rebeccas friend Lydia for a drink at a wonderful bar up in the hills overlooking the town. It was a lovely spot and we really enjoyed the evening.

Christian and the girls headed for Dubrovnik the next day, and we spent the day wandering the town with Michael. The Old Town is based on a 1700 year old Roman palace built by a retiring emporer who liked the spot) he had good taste). That evening we decided to spemd the money on a restaurant meal, which was civilized, then wandered the streets, as this is very much a part of the world where everone comes out at night. We saw two live bands playing in the streets who were fantastic. We felt really safe in the streets; it seemed very much a family atmosphere, even after midnight.

We said goodbye to Michael which was sad, as we had enjoyed his company, and went home to pack. We were due to catch the 10 am bus to Dubrovnik the next morning. We really enjoyed Split and will return there briefly on our return to Italy.

(Apologies for the complete lack of apostrophes - cant find them on the keyboard!)

We left Siena in the early hours of Wednesday morning and took a train to Florence, where we intended to spend the day before heading for Bologna, and on to our ferry to Croatia. One day, of course, is a pitiful amount of time to spend in Florence…

We began with a visit to the Duomo and I found the paintings in the dome beautiful. Spent a bit of time sitting on the floor, leaning against a pillar, contemplating them! You can climb up into the dome to see them closer, but after having done that at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, we were a little bit over stairs… next time perhaps!

Jan really wanted to see the original statue of David, so we duely lined up at the Accademia Belle Arti… for an hour and a half… hoping desperately he was worth it! He was, of course! Lovely legs, gorgeous curls, beautiful face, an all round nice package! And useful too, for slaying Goliaths and lions! Very nice!

I really wanted to see Santa Croce and the Arno, having read A Room with a View and seen the film adaptation many times! Santa Croce was lovely. The paintings were fascinating, and there was a small chapel off to the side which I particularly liked. Above the alter was a lovely sculpture in creamy stone with a blue (enamel?) background - it looked a little like a giant cameo!

We wandered along the Arno until we got to Ponte Vecchio. We had lunch at a cafe near the Uffizi then gazing with longing at the jewellery stores on the Ponte Vecchio! By this time we needed to head back to the train station to catch our train to Bologna. Not nearly enough time… I really want to return to this lovely city!