On Sunday morning, we took a flight from Dublin to Bristol, England. There, we took a bus to the train station and then took a train to Salisbury. Since we were short on time, we hired a taxi to take us to see the few sights we wanted to see in the area. We went to Stonehenge and then to Salisbury Cathedral. Our flight to Geneva was at 6:45, so we really didn't have much time.
We arrived at Geneva late Sunday night and spent a few hours walking around the downtown area. There really wasn't that much to see, but we did find some good food in a random little grocery store. We had pizza, bread, and some meatball dish. We spent the morning in Geneva, then jumped on the train to Milan, Italy. The train wound its way through the Alps, and the scenery was beautiful.
We spent a few hours in Milan and saw a large cathedral and a castle. We then jumped on another train and headed for Venice. We arrived late on Monday night, and spent a few hours wandering around the streets of Venice. We spent the entire next day seeing the sights in Venice, but found that we had seen all the things we wanted to by mid day. We spent a lot of Tuesday re-walking the areas we had already seen.
Early Wednesday morning (1:30am), we took the night train from Venice to Vienna, Austria. The train ride was long and uncomfortable.
Vienna was my favorite city of the journey, even though we didn't have a ton of time there. We arrived there Wednesday morning, and set out to see the palaces. The city reminded me of a small Paris with amazing palaces and gardens. We saw two of them before we had to leave that afternoon.
We took an afternoon train to Krakow, Poland. We arrived pretty late, and once again spent a few hours walking around the city. In the morning, we took a train to the little town where Auschwitz is located. We spent quite a bit of time walking around the complex and learning about the plight of the Jews here. Over 1.1 million people were killed in this camp. We were ready to leave after a few hours, and headed out. Before the next train arrived, we grabbed some lunch at a random little shop. We had meat crepes.
On Thursday night, we had another overnight train ride into Berlin. This time we were in a sleeping car, but I can't say it was much better. There were six bunks in a small cabin with no where to sit. The only thing you could do was lay on the bunk or stand in the little hallway. We arrived in Berlin on Friday morning at 10:00 am. We spent the day wandering around the city and seeing the sights, including Brandenburg Gate, The Jewish Memorial, Alexanderplatz, and a host of other things.
Saturday was our last day, and we again walked around Berlin. I came to find out that 2 days is almost too much in any city. We were a little bored by noon. We spent 3 hours on a river tour that showed us the same things three different times. We had our last meal in a authentic German restaurant. I had the boars leg with beans, and thoroughly enjoyed every bite.
We got up at 5:00am (Berlin time) and went to the airport. I arrived home in Las Vegas at 10:30pm after some 26 hours of traveling. Needless to say, I was thoroughly exhausted and ready to be home with the family.
