Tour of Vienna/Bayern 2 - 1 Bremen - Night out with Andrew - Vienna to Bratislava - Day in Bratislava/Bayern 4 - 2 Freiburg - Bratislava to Prague

Tuesday: I arrived very early in Vienna on a night train from Zurich, so I went straight to the hostel to go check out what sights to see. I ended up going to the tourist information center, and they had a self-guided walking tour of the more important sights of the city. It starts off at Stephan's church, takes you to the Hofburg palace, past the square inside (where there happened to be an army demo since it was Austria's national holiday), Museumsquartier, Sezession monument, the Mozart monument and you end up at the Opera. Towards the end I saw brew-pub and stopped for a pint of a delicious IPA and true to style Dunkel (dark malts only). After all that walking I went back to the hostel to find a sports bar showing the German cup (DFB-Pokal) match of Bayern v Bremen. Bayern played their typical poor forn of late, what with all the injured players. Bastian Schweinsteiger was the hero of the match, with both goals, one a real cracker from 30 meters out, yelling beforehand for the ball with just enough space to get a slight first touch before rocketing it past the keeper.

Wedensday: In the afternoon I went to see Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (sorry Nic). In the evening I met up with Andrew, who I met in Hamburg, and who is studying in Vienna. We went to the Travel shack, where we involuntarily started doing the drinking challenge. One of the barmaids told us about it two dribks in: a shot of Viennese blood (a chili liquor which you swish in your mouth for 10 seconds), a fireshot of sambucca, a snuff shot (a eucalyptus aroma something that you inhale) and finally a half-liter of beer through a beer bong. We then got our rewards: our faces painted and writing our names on the wall. After a couple other drinks we left.

Thursday: I decided to visit a few of the filming locations of "The Living Daylights" (James Bond number 15, 1987) in Vienna. I started at Schloß Schönbrunn, before heading to Schwarzenberg palace, then Prater park and to finish off the afternoon I visited Gasometers. I also visited Schloß Belvedere. I then took a one hour train to Bratislava, and checked into my hostel there.

Friday: I walked around Bratislava for the afternoon and saw the important sights, the presidential palace, the philharmonic orchestra house, the Danube river and the Bratislava castle. In the evening I went to a small local restaurant to have supper and try out Kofola, a slovak soft drink that tastes like a less sweet version of Coke with a slight citrus and cardamome flavour. I then went to a sports bar to watch the Bayern Munich match. On the main floor there was a Halloween party, so they were showing the match in the VIP room upstairs, where me and a german man watched the match. Sorry to sound like a broken cassette, but Bayern played their typical bad form of late in the first half. A headed goal from Demichelis (39') right before half-time and most likely one of van Gaal's classic motivational speaches saw a more confident Bayern come out of the tunnel for the second half. Gomez eventually put one of his multiple chances into the back of the net with a simple header from a corner (69'). Freiburg pulled a goal back and the game got tense again. Right afterwards Tymoschuk got Bayern's third (72'), taking his time with his first touch before sneaking it past the keeper in the far bottom corner. Kroos scored his first goal (80') for Bayern with a lovely distance shot and just enough space to put it into the top corner. To end the night, substite Braafheid scored his opener for Bayern, though it was an own goal.

Saturday: I returned to Vienna (since I learned that Slovakia isn't on the Eurail pass, I thought it was better to pass through Austria) to then head to Prague. I met a Canadian couple and we talked for the whole train ride. They invited me to supper with them in a typical Prague pub-restaurant, where we seemed to be the only foreigners. We then walked around the main pedestrian street before calling it a night.

Geneva - Tour of Anniviers valley - Evening out in Sion - The baths at Saillon - The castles of Sion and night train to Vienna

Thursday: I went to Geneva for the day and saw the city with Emilie. Though she has been living there for more than a year, for her studies, she never really played tourist there. She knows the important sights, but it was a discovery for both of us. We visited the Brunswick fountain first, then we saw the "jet d'eau" (water fountain) which throws water up to 180 meters. It was originally an pressure release for one of the hydroelectric damns near Geneva, but the locals like it so much that they made it a permanent installation. We then went to the English garden nearby, though most of the flowers had been removed for the winter. We saw the "mur des reformateurs" (wall of the reformers), all of them Genevois (as everywhere in Switzerland, people feel a stronger affiliation to their Canton than to the Swiss Confederation). The most notable is Calvin. We visited the crypts of the St. Nicholas church, which was expanded a total of four times before being it's current size. We finished the day off by visiting the UN and the botanical gardens, with a quick trip to "Les Brasseurs", a brew-pub, where I tried a cherry beer, before catching the train back to Sion.

Friday: Gregoire and I visited the valley of Anniviers in the morning. We stopped at Grimentz to have a look at the old town, before heading to the Eastern side of the valley to visit the tourist town of Zinal, which was obviously quite dead at this time of year. Afterwards we visited the Wine and vine museum in Salquenen (or Salgesch in German). This part of the Valais is where the transition from French to German happens (called the Rösti line). It was fun to see all the progress that was made in the past centuries in terms of equipment and knowledge. We then went to the second museum of the same name in Sierre (Sidders). It is a bit more modern and there is quite a bit less technical stuff. We then headed over to Provins, which is the dealer who Michel sells his grapes to. They were having a degustation of three different Fendants, a local AOC. To end the afternoon we visited "La Sierrvoire", a brew-pub in, you guessed it, Sierre. They also had a degustation, and we tried three varities, the "Clair" a slightly spicy pale ale, the "Blanche" a belgian style wheat beer and the "Rousse" an incredebly malty red.

Saturday: For lunch Rose-Marie (Michel's wife) made a wonderful tomatoe and cheese fondue, which you spread over potatoes. In the afternoon I went to Gaya's (a friend of Emilie) mother's sled-dog kennel to help Emilie feed them. Gregoire and I made some spaghetti bolognese thinking that Emilie and Gabriel might come and join us for supper, but they had sabdwiches after doing the invetory of a grocery store. Afterwards, I went bowling with Emilie and Gaya, and for once wasn't the worst player. Gaya went home after two games and Emilie took me to "Le Baroque", a small bar where we talked for a while before she took me back to Gregoire's.

Sunday: For lunch I went to Gisele's, who is Michel's sister, with Gregoire, Emilie and Gabriel. In the afternoon Gabriel and I were supposed to go rock-climbing, but both places were closed, so we went to the baths at Saillon with a friend of Gabriel's and her sister. I had supper at Jean-Luc's, with him as well as Emilie and Gabriel. Afterwards I went to see "Les petits mouchoirs", a French film, with Gregoire.

Monday: Gregoire took me to a small mountain with a great view over the valley. The snow had set in at higher altitudes, so when we got to a nice plateau we stopped climbing as the paths were slippery. I was able to take some great pictures from up there. We came back into Ardon and took an apero at the bistro where Gregoire's friends, who went to the play with us, work. In the afternoon I visited the two castles of Sion, Valere and Tourbillon, which are both on neighbooring hill tops overlooking the Valais. Afterwards I got my pack ready and went for a last supper at Michel and Rose-Marie's. They made me a typical valaisan supper, the "croûte au fromage" (cheese crust): bread with a bit of wine drizzled on, topped with ham slices, cheese and two eggs, quite a hardy meal. Then it was time to go grab my first train to Visp, then Zurich where I took a night-train to Vienna.

Emilie's birthday - Fête de la châtaigne - Bisse du Torrent-neuf - Vendange - Bex salt mines/Lavey-les-Bains

Saturday: In the afternoon, I met up with Gabriel in Sion, and he showed me downtown (keep in mind, the population is about 30,000). We then went to a newly opened brew-pub, where I saw beer towers ("girafes") for the first time. They are three and five liter cylinders with a tap on the bottom. It's the same principle as a pitcher, a group of friends orders one and shares it among themselves. We then headed back to his father's appartement to have a cheese fondue for supper. His dad showed up after supper, and we tasted a few of the local varieties of liquors and liqueurs, mainly based on local fruits such as apricots and pears. He also told me about his experience in the "patrouille des glaciers" (glacier patrol), which is a multi-discipline race from Zermatt to Verbier. They use "peaux de phoques" (seal skins) on their skies to go up mountains, since they also the ski to slide forwards, but block when going backwards, so it's possible to ski much like cross-country skiing, but uphill. Obviously, once at the top of the hill, you remove the peaux de phoques and simply ski down. The whole race lasts between six and aixteen hours, depending on your fitness. Gabriel and I then went to join Emilie at a local bar, as she was celebrating her birthday with some friends. We eventually ended up at a club named "trente quarante" (thirty forty), which as the name implies, is meant for the older crowd and ended the evening there.

Sunday: In the afternoon I went to the Fête de la chataigne (Chestnut festival) with Emilie and two of her friends. It's basically a steeet festival with a bunch of kiosks selling different types of food and local specialties. I tried a bunch of different cheeses and sausages. In the evening, I went to see "Des hommes et des dieux" (Men and Gods), which tells the true story of a French catholic monestary in the Maghreb during the 90s. The monks are witness to the rise of extremism in the region and though the local government wants them to leave, they decide to stay.

Monday: In the morning we vendanged a few hundred kilos of Fendant, another Valais specific white-grape variety. In the afternoon, I went with Gregoire to see the bisse du torrent neuf. A bisse is a small man-made stream on the side of the mountain. The purpose is bring water from the mountains down,into the plains to irrigate the different crops. They were quite dangrous to build at the time, and the one we visited had a chapel at the beginning of the trail where the workers would pray before heading out to work in the morning.

Tuesday: The last day of the vendange, we got a couples thousand kilos off the mountain. Parts of the vineyard are inaccesable by road, and so the collecting bins had to be airlifted out. The last of the rows were inaccesible by road, so I wore the "cacolet" to brong down cases by the road. The cacolet is backpack like and allows someone else to install three cases of grapes on your back, weighing about 50 kilos. I only had two trips to do with it, which was just enough to realise how hard it must have been previously when all the grapes were transported like that.

Wedesnday: In the morning, I visited the salt mines at Bex, which are still in use today. They took us around the old parts of the mine, most of them dug out by hand with hammer and chisel. They have a wine cellar in the mines with 5000 bottles, and since the mines are at a constant 18°C all year round (because of a reaction between water and gypsum in the rock around the mines), with a constant humidity level, one year aged in the mines is the equivalent to four years in a normal cellar. In the afternoon I went to Lavey-les-Bains with Grégoire. It's the biggest thermal baths in the region, and their thermal source has water coming out at 70°C, which they cool down for all the different pools. I tried a hammam for the first time, which is basically a sauna but with a constant 100% humidity. I also had a sauna and tried out chromotherapy, which uses music, lights and aromas to either calm you or energize you. Of course, I spent a good amount of time in the thermal baths as well.

Amsterdam - Sweden 1 - 4 Netherlands - Train to Sion - Vendange - Mini-vendange

Monday: I relaxed in the morning, then in the afternoon I went window shopping around Amsterdam. In the evening I went to the hotel room of some of the Litchtensteiners I met before heading out to a bar with them.

Tuesday: I decided that I wanted to go see the football match that was being played in the evening. It took me about an hour and a half to find out exactly who sold tickets to the match and finally buy them. I took the rest of the afternoon easy, and eventually headed out to go see the match. Basically, everyone on the metro was going to the Amsterdam ArenA, so just about all of them were chanting and jumping (there will be a YouTube video eventually). I had a beer before going into the stadium, since the beer they serve inside is *gasp* non-alcoholic beer. I missed the national anthems, but got to my seat just as the match got underway. I sat down only to have to get up a few minutes later, as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored the opener at the 4th minute. A beautiful pass from Sneijder opened up the Swedish defense, giving room for van der Vaart to pick out a lonely Huntelaar. In the 37th minute, again Sneijder with the key pass to Ibrahim Afellay who was two on one with Huntelaar on his right. The keeper was aware of the pass option, and even so, Afellay was able to tuck it in at ground level in the far corner.

In the second half, the Dutch domination continued. Afellay did his show off far on the left flank with some nice standing tricks, just to get the crowd going, before crossing it to a completley open Huntelaar, who simply headed the ball in past the keeper (56'). The final goal for the Netherlands came in the 59th minute, a beautifully weighted pass from Sneijder (my personal Man of the Match, with key passes on all of the goals) to Huntelaar freed him to run up the left flank, and pass it to Afellay going by three swedish defenders, who, although his first touch wasn't great, kept his calm and easily put the ball past the keeper. The Dutch then lost their concentration and allowed a very easy headed goal from a free-kick (69'). The great Ruud van Nistelrooy got subbed in towards the end of the match, and as soon as he approached the sideline to wait for the substitution, the whole crowd started chanting "Ruud, Ruud, Ruud". After the match, I went to one of the on-site bars, as the metros are overcrowded. I chatted with two Swedes that were in Amsterdam to see the match and visit the city for a few days. We headed back to the downtown together, and they wanted to see the Red Light District. I took them to some of the streets I had seen with my two Montreal friends a few days earlier. They seemed to find the area pretty interesting as I lost both of them to the red lights within only two street corners.

Wedesnday: I headed for the Centraal Station to catch the first of my four trains to get to Sion, Switzerland, (Amsterdam - Frankfurt - Bern - Visp - Sion) which took a total of 10 hours. When I got here, there was a lovely home cooked meal, which was a great change from all the restaurant suppers I have been eating.

Thursday: I spent most of the day at the vineyard, picking grapes and dumping cases into bigger containers. This is Michel's (the grandfather of the two Swiss that came to visit us in Montreal the last two summers, Emilie in 2009 and Gabriel in 2010) commercial production, which is handled by a dealer and sent off to Martigny for vinification. All of the pickers were of course invited to a wonderful Raclette supper, which was delicious and very filling after a hard days work.

Friday: Michel and I went to pick nine cases of Cabernet Franc grapes. We vinified it at one of his friends house. The first step, after picking the grapes, is to pass them through the crusher-destemmer, which, as the name implies, crushes the grapes to make must and removes the stems (which are undesired in the must). Nine cases of grapes half-filled a 200 liter barrel. We then added sulfite and yeast was added later in the evening. In the evening, I was invited to a play by Grégoire, Emilie and Gabriel's uncle, with who I am staying, and two of his friends. The play was quite interesting. In the first part, it is a normal play about work overload and a worker's trouble keeping up with his changing work environment. In the second part, the same play is repeated, but the public is invited to stop the play when they had an idea about how the main character could better cope with his situation and come act out their idea on stage. Of course, the other actors play along and try to stay as true to character as possible, though there is obviously no script. There were maybe ten interventions from the public and though some of them were unsuccesful, most helped out the main characters standing with his colleagues and his boss.

Afterwards, I went to a bar in Sion for a couple of hours with Emilie and two of her friends, who then brought me back to Ardon, which is where I am staying.

Train to Cologne - Cologne - Amsterdam - Tour and pub crawl

Thursday: I checked out of my hostel in Hamburg and took a 4 hour train to Cologne, about two and a half of which I spent standing because the train was completley full. I checked into my hostel and went out for a Kölsch (the local beer style, the name means "From Cologne" in the local dialect).

Friday: I went into downtown Köln and headed for the tourist office to see what I should check out. They also had both of the original "Eau de Cologne". The person at the tourist office was very helpful, and showed four bars very close by that served different brands of Kölsch, so I decided to do a small beer tour. I tasted Früh, Sion, Petar's and Gaffel, the last of which I prefer the most. I then walked around the downtown area to do some sightseeing. Afterwards, I came back to Ehrenfeld, which is the neighborhood where the hostel is in. I napped and then went out to a brew pub which is the smallest brewery in all of Köln. Of course, they brew their own Kölsch, which is actually quite truer to style then the ones brewed by the big breweries (lots of yeast in suspension, which means quite a bit more fruitiness). I ate Leberkäse, which is a typical Bavarian meal, a meat loaf with liver in it, very tasty. I came back to the bar at the hostel and met two english guys who I talked to for a bit. Eventually, it was getting late enough that the clubs wouldn't be empty, so I walked to Grüner Weg, a previous industrial zone, which now hosts a few night clubs. I asked a group of three locals which nightclub they recommended, and they said they were going to Papierfabrik (you can probably guess, it used to be a paper factory). I hung around with them and had a great night dancing.

Saturday: I got up, packed, check-out and ate breakfast then headed to the central train station to catch a train to Amsterdam. I checked in and then met up with I guy I knew from Muncih, who's from Montreal. He is travelling around Europe for a couple of months while his girlfriend is studying in France for a semester. We ate at a small chinese restaurant, then did a tour around the Red Light District.

Sunday: I did the tour of Amsterdam, which I had done four years ago, but was happy to find out was not at all the same. It started in Dam square (where the first dam was built to be able to construct a city). There we saw the National Monument, the Royal Palace, the New Church and the old Post office building (as you can probably tell by now, the Dutch are very pragmatic when naming things). We walked aroung for four hours and saw a bunch of sights, including of course the Red Light District and the Old Church (which happens to be in the Red Light District, very handy to get your sins pardoned). Afterwards, I went to a bar in Leidseplein with some people I met on the tour. I then went to nap and got ready for the pub crawl. We visited six night clubs, and I met a group of about 20 students from Lichtenstein who were celebrating the start of their last year of high school. Obviously, lots of talking and dancing, as well as a bit of drinking ensued.

Tour of Berlin and Pub crawl - Bundestag and train to Hamburg - Tour of Hamburg

Monday; I took the free tour of Berlin offered by Sandeman's New Europe. The tour guide was extremely entertaining, giving us a brief history of the city before taking us around the city. He told us that the city is actually built on swamp land, so that explains the bad odours you get sometimes. We started at the Brandenburger Tor, then saw the Bundestag (parlement), the Holocaust memorial and the Führerbunker (which is actually only a patch of grass). And these are only the first places we visited,for more, check out my pictures on Facebook. I then came back to the hostel to get ready for my first pub crawl, which was great fun.

Tuesday: I went into the dome they have installed on the Bundestag when it was renovated to become the seat of parliament once again in 1999, since West Germany's parlement was in Bonn because the Bundestag was in No Man's Land during the division. The tour guide had warned that the line-up could be quite long and I ended up spending about 3 hours in all to get up to the dome. The view is quite impressive, and they have a free audio-guide which explains the more important buildings of Berlin, a good few of which I had seen during the tour.

I then took an hour and a half train to Hamburg, checked into my hostel and explored the neighborhood by foot. Turns out the hostel is in Altona, but within walking distance of Reeperbahn, which is Hamburg's red light district. Lot's of casinos, strip clubs and brothels.

Wedensday: I had from someone in Munich that lived in Hamburg for a few years that Altona had a big Turkish community, so I got up and decided to look for a Turkish barber shop. After about 15 minutes, I found one, went in and asked if he spoke English. No. Well, that's ok, all I wanted was a really short hair cut and a straight blade shave. I then did the free tour, which started at the Rathaus (city hall) a huge building and testament to the wealth that the shipping companies have brought to the city of Hamburg. After that we visited a few churches, and then a few Kontorhause (accounting houses, used as offices for the army of accountants the shipping companies needed to keep track of all of the goods passing through the city). The guide also talked about the great fire of 1842, which destroyed about 25% of the city. Thus, very few historic buildings are left, since in 1943 the city was bombed for 8 consecutive days by the Americans and the British. At the time, it was the largest bombing, and it created a fire storm, basically like a tornado of fire. Temperatures reached up to 900°C and wind speeds up to 240km/h. The guide finished the tour by telling the story of a famous Hamburg pirate Klaus Störtebecke. We finished the tour in the old habour, so I decided to come back by ferry, touring around the new harbour, which of course is huge. Afterwards, I got ready for the pub crawl. We were a smallish group, but we had an amazing time in bars and clubs in the Reeperbahn. We started off at the 99¢ bar, where, yup, everything is 99¢. We also checked out the bar where The Beatles started their international career (there's actually a Beatlesplatz in Reeperbahn) though it was closed because it was Wedensday. We then did a few different bars and a club to end the night.

Schloß Hohenscwangau and Neuschwanstein - Last day in Munich and Night train - First day in Berlin

Friday: I visited Füssen, which is just on the border of Austria, and also home to two famous (one more than the other) castles. Schloß Hohenschwangau (High place of swans) was built by Maximillian II of Bavaria and his wife Princess Maria of Prussia (same Maria as Marienplatz in Munich). It was built as a summer residence for private suppers and hunting on the remains of a 12th century castle that had been destroyed. Their sons Otto and Ludwig II spent most of their time there as children and when their father died, Ludwig became king of Bavaria (technically Crown-prince, as his brother Otto was eldest but was considered unfit to reign for mental reasons). Within months of his father's death, Ludwig had work on Schloß Neuschwanstein (New swan stone) start. He had installed himself in his father's residence and had a telescope pointed farther up the mountain to watch the progress on the construction of his own castle. After 17 years, he himself died and any further construction was halted.

Today, that leaves us with an impressive castle, the inspiration behind Disney's own castle, albeit with an incomplete interior. The guided tour takes you through the 17 rooms that were completed (sorry there are no pictures of the inside, they are forbidden due to copyright reasons) out of a total of some 50 that were originally planned.

Saturday: I decided to leave Munich. I went to the central station to reserve a bed on the night train from Munich to Berlin. Afterwards, I went back to the camp to pack and wish farewell to the people I met there.

Sunday: My first experience on a night train went pretty well. I only woke up a couple of times, and one of them was because I noticed we weren't moving anymore. As soon as the train got going agaim, I fell right back asleep. My one problem is that as with normal trains, they only pass by after you have boarded to check your ticket. That meant that I was half sleeping (I was excepting it after all) when the controller passed by. That means that dozy me met generally grumpy German ticket controller and didn't really understand exactly what he wanted. After that I was set for the night.

And so I woke up nine and a half hours later to get ready for a day in Berlin. After leaving the train, I went straight to the youth hostel to drop off my big pack (it was obviously too early for check-in) and asked the receptionist what there was to see in Berlin on a Sunday (as everywhere else in Germany, everything but restaurants/bars and museums are closed). She told me that the typical thing to do was to go to flea markets, and she recommended a few that were quite nice. The bigger of the two is located in a huge park right where the Berlin wall passed, and there is still a piece of it left, with a huge amount of wall paintings on it. I relaxed in the park for a while and listened to the live bands that just pop on to the stage in front of a crowd sitting on a hill. I had heard that Berlin was much more artsy than Munich, and my impression at the flea market was that the city youth was filled with Xavier Dolans and hipsters. I then came back to check in and headed back out to a sports bar to see Bayern Munich lose to Borussia Dortmund (2-0). The better of the two teams won, as Bayern have still not shaken off their terrible beginning of season form.

Schwabing / Basel 1 - 2 Bayern - Oktoberfest - Nuremberg

Tuesday: I walked around Schwabing neighborhood for a few hours. It has one of Munich's Universities, so the population is quite a bit younger compared to the rest of the town. It is also known for being the more bohemian neighborhood of Munich. I had supper in an Indian restaurant. Butter and tandoori chicjen, yum. Afterwards I went to the same sports bar to watch FC Bayern win their opening away game of the Champion's League. They got off to their typical start for the new season: hesitant ball possession and mistimed passes. They were punished early on (18') by a goal from  on a defensive error by Daniel van Buyten, surprise. Schweinsteiger equalised with a penalty before half-time. Coach Luis van Gaal pulled his typical motivational speech during the pause, and a different team came back onto the pitch for the second half. After playing very hard for the winner, Schweinsteiger got a beautiful tap-in goal (88') from a Badstuber free-kick. Bayern now take top of their group. Other good news is that Arjen Robben will be resuming training soon, though van Gaal has stated that he wants him completley fit before he sees any matchtime.

Wednsday: After having walked so much the previous day, I decided to take it easy and go watch "The Town" directed by and starring Ben Affleck. During breakfast I met two guys from Montreal, and in the evening I went to Oktoberfest with them as well as a British guy and a German girl. It was definatley the funnest of my times going, as the dancing had started.

Thursday: I went for a little day-trip to Nuremburg. It's a very lovely city with an amazing view of the place from the castle, but the people remind me of Parisians, which isn't something I found enjoyable. I tried some Feserweiße (not completly fermented white wine, so it's sparkling and slightly sweet) and Zwieblkuchen (a sort of loaf of bread topped with onions and cheese) both of which are typical bavarian specialties for tgis time of year. In the evening I tried Nürnberger sausage, which are quite a bit smaller than what you find in Munich. They also use different spices, which was a welcomed change.