Walking 1000 miles from Lands end to John O'Groats in aid of The Air Ambulance (starts april 7th 2024)

Sunday, 16 March 2025

day59 Hamburgzzzzz

I think I'm finally getting over the flu(I'm now calling it that!) that I've had since Venice.... I'm Measuring time in places, weirdly time itself has become irrelevant! 
Irrelevant other than the push north of course! ..... Which I won't be advancing today. 
Today is Hamburg my only plan to hunt down a ancient German coin and look at the place! I pretty much score 25% of that intent!
Yep I'd seen two Numismatists shops within walking distance and both only bought old coins for scrap silver and gold..... Souvenir fail!!
I did have enough of a wander around Hamburg, it's not a pretty place some nice churches and the Rathaus(town hall) is impressiveOutside and in!the Germans really aren't letting go of the past all the displays on the hall columns are commemorative of people killed in the Holocaustduring my brief visit there was wedding going on here, so nice to see a positive aspect to German life in this place, outside is a war memorial depicting a mother and child morning for the men of the family going to war and likely not returningit's for both world wars and it's been altered by the Nazis in the past then returned to its current form, not remotely likely that Nazi imagery would be allowed to exist.'the thousands of your sons lost in the first world war' 
The Germans have a very industrial way of being they aren't known for their warmth and sadly it shows! Even the hostel is called the Generator! 80's kraftwerk would be impressed! 
A nice 3d image of the city centre....before wandering past a demolition sight I see this.....if you look closely at the image of flattened rubble you'll see flowers around little houses, light houses, hot air balloons, rubber ducks as I stand with a 'what the fuck' expression on my face a local starts to explain in German.... Way beyond my abilities what it's about..... Luckily most Germans soon switch to English! 
The point of this display is when it rains there's a big puddle here and the rubber ducks etc just make it pretty with little islands with houses and flowers on! 
My random wanders have a found chink in the tutonic armour and bit of colour for my Hamburg Schmetterling! 
It's just past midday and I'm heading back to the hostel, my days of fighting the flu/travelling and nights of massively disturbed sleep have exhausted me! 
I do something I never do... And recently haven't been able to do and that's just lie down and sleep the afternoon away!!!
No coughing!!
A bit dazed from a decent sleep I head into the city for dinner, food not a great deal on offer within the local streets unless your appetite isn't for food!
Yep the prostitute's are out in force! One or two lascivious winks from the girls and I chose my meat for the night....a kebab!!!
That's Hamburg for ya!

Thursday, 13 March 2025

Day 57+58 new schedule and a push north

There isn't much to this pair of blogs really, they're sort of just pushing progress on a bit! 

Day 57
Having a lay in is a rare pleasure, but this is needed in a few ways, firstly yep tired obviously.... But it also gives me time to reassess my progress north, it's needed.
I'd spent too long in Italy no regrets really but it has caused me to rush north to Denmark! 
My intended next stop was Prague that's no longer happening and my stop in Germany is being reduced to one day..... I'm adding an additional day in Denmark tho..... That will be interesting😉
I now know how long I have to spend in Sweden and Norway and then into Iceland......
Not exactly having my route decided by where the wind blows me, but I'm reaching the end of my time in Europe and the cherry on the cake Iceland does require a reasonable amount of time, and my interest generally in Scandinavia does to!
Now I can work on how to approach the itinerary! 
I'm not letting on what, tho anyone who knows me will know the theme!
Beyond this planning, today was spent dozing and eating.

Day 58
All of yesterday's rest didn't help with getting a good night's sleep! But I've allowed plenty of time for my paid for breakfast and walking to the station.... So no panic. 
After arriving with plenty of time to find the right platform my 9.13 train is off, a greyish morning as we pass through the countryside, the Danube being a regular companion until lunch time nice to have seen it ... Not exactly blue! passing a variety of church tower styles from spires to curious globular twin towered churches
Shortly before turning north at Regensburg I see on the maps that we've passed Walhalla! A German Valhalla to its heros.... Something to look into with a better internet connection!
Beyond Regensburg the land stretches flatly to Nurnburg (Nuremburg) a forty minute stop to change trains and I get some food, incredibly this is my first bagel! I'm almost certain I've never eaten one! nice if a bit chewy! 
Watching the world going past mostly unnoticed it's not until my ears pop that I notice we've gained height and that we're passing through what I assume is part of the Schwartz wold! Hilly covered in trees and snow! I'm now re-entering winter! For a bit! A few hours later with other passengers entering the train wearing gloves, woolly hats and scarfs even tho outside a blue sky and setting sun do look inviting, it seems my push north is effective! 
It's 5.30pm now wishing my journey ended I still have two more hours to reach Hamburg! 
Now I'm leaving Berlin and into the countryside the sunset is rather nice! 
This is without a doubt the longest train journey of the trip!
But good planning when I get to Hamburg at 7.30pm means my hostel is literally just over the road from the Haupbahnhof! 
Grab some food and sleep! 

Day 56 I Create a Verb!!!

Another night coughing, I'm not alone tho everywhere you turn someone else is in harmony with you! (Positivity rocks!!)
I made a brief friend of Mathilde from Argentina, nice lady whose off to Bratislava this morning, she was nice company and nice to chat with someone my age! In the bigger hostels strangers talk a lot less! 
Still I'm used to and comfortable with solitude. 
I've plotted a few places to visit so I'm on to the nearest UBahn into town.... Keplerplatz-Karlsplatz.... I emerge into the daylight with eyes eager for the Vienna architecture it'll be nice to not see yet another museum to Davinci!! 
As I'm briefly in another country my first need is to hunt down a souvenir and as is becoming the norm I've located a Numismatists shop luckily in the centre of town, I was hoping to find a coin from the early 1270's as this was the time period that Richard first earl of Cornwall was king of the holy Roman empire, not a lot of coins from that time in this shop but I did find a small silver Viennese Uniface pfennig hammered coin which was close enough for me! zero added weight! 
Away from the shop I head towards the cathedral of Saint Stephen, spired not domed a welcome change!beautiful insideand on the outside I see a remnant of the holy Roman empire.... The old coat of arms of Vienna with the double headed eagle.... At the time of the empire Vienna had been the Germanic centre.
A short walk and I'm following the steps royalty! 
This is the Hofburg the palace of the Hapsburgs since the 1300'sAlso home to the stables of the Lipizzan horses.... Who just happened past! at this point I had thought that the glass building was an orangery and at one time it probably was but now it's the home of Schmetterling! Aka butterflies! they were very used to nosey tourists, and their cameras! Occasionally landing on people's heads but always skitting around in the air with no apparent direction..... My moment of inspiration! 
From here on my time wandering will be referred to as going Schmetterling!! 
What a great verb!! 
And what a calming experience! 
Into the gardens, past the front of the palace is a statue to Mozart! With pretty and appropriate display of pansies!Through the volksgarten at the rear of the palace and over the road is the Parliament of Austria! ..... I'm ashamed to say I hadn't realised at the time! I just thought wow pretty! 
True Schmetterling!!! Adjacent is the Vienna town hall and university, skirting these I head towards another church, the Votive Kirche.... So named as it was given to the people of Vienna by Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian brother of the emperor Franz Joseph the first who had survived an assassination attempt.... Hence the Votivekirche!Quite an offering!
Heading north I come across a small brass plaque in the pavement a reminder of more recent and more horrible timesthese people will always carry this weight I think. 
Street crossings here give a nicer reminder to all who notice....Pretty sweet!
I reach a canal it could have been pleasant but the graffiti did it no favours.
So I head towards the UBahn and back to the hostel for a kip, four nights of disturbed sleep with the cold have left me drained. 
Rousing myself to get some food before giving into sleep again!

Monday, 10 March 2025

Day 55 ahhh(Choo) Vienna ._..

Well that was a rough night! Coughing all night and sneezing.... My one dorm mate must be swearing. .. very quietly. ..  ooops
Sneaking out after leaving an apology note with 20 euro to cover his lunch I don't feel so bad about it! 
Can't help being ill. ...
I have one train today and that's travelling 7.5 hours reaching my 6th country.... I'm going to Austria..... Vienna!
Naturally that doesn't leave much to write in the blog for today happy with the  cheesy  Ultravox inspired(?) header tho.... No apologies! 
Weather leaving Venice was rainy so timing was good! 
Running a little fever I concentrate on yesterday's blog for the first hour, not noticing the countryside until I look up and see nothing at all! 
I'm under the Alps! misty and snowy high up this train is not going to the heights of the glacier express.... Tunnels and once over the border at Unterthol and in Austria we follow valley bottoms.... I'm back in early spring judging by the flora here! Even the grass is brown! Heavy snow this winter? Only thing I imagine that would brown the grass? 
Still the train goes north and the mountains get smaller passing a huge lake the Worthersee you can see why they called it a 'see' no pun here it's huge! 
I'm enjoying the drastic change of architecture Italian architecture has high end sublime followed almost immediately by shabby! Yes that's based entirely upon my limited view and the yes the buildings in the hills above Florence were beautiful.... Should they be listed in high end exquisite? Possibly..... Pretty much all other buildings are in need of help!.....
Here every building so far is looked after.... Is pay that much worse in Italy? 
Reaching the northernmost ranges of the Alps it's getting really pretty cute spired churches and castles (Schloss) on hill tops zoom in on the center of the pic.....
The hills start to fade and the land flattens and approaching Vienna the sky darkens with rain clouds....
It holds off tho.... 
I stop at the Bahnhof for fish and chips! Speaking in an awful mix of English German and inadvertant Italian!!!
Gracia's is going to take some erasing from my response words!!
I have been in Italy nearly a month! How time flies!!! 
I need some careful planning in the days ahead and think the next four countries will fly past.... Scandinavia is my priority before the hop west! 
A short walk to the hostel as planned and I'm writing this in the bar with a pint on the go .. should add this hostel is the same company as my first in Paris all that time ago!!
St Christopher's Inn... Just as nice👍 

day54 travel malaise?

I have a steaming cold not the best thing to have while travelling but it's not a great problem during the day at least! At night it's keeping me awake so I'm losing a bit of the joy today... 
Also I don't have any particular plans for today.. So my first few hours are spent filling in the blog for the preceding two days beyond that I have one intent and that's completing the circumnavigation of the main north and south island clusters, with the water bus that's easy! So back to my local boat stop and away we go! 
the south western quadrant of Venice is a pretty run down industrial zone so not too photographic and the weather is slowly changing today so it's a bit hazy for long distance photos, all the same it's nice to be bobbing along on the water a much smoother version than the bobbing along of trains I promise you! It pulls rather than jars you it's soporiphic tho that may be down to the disturbed sleep! 
I leave the boat at the Doges palace again with no intent of direction I'm in full on wander....
At the front of the palace is a statue I'd failed to photo yesterday a knight on horse back above the venician Griffin through the twisting alleyways I reach another bus stop I use the next transport to cross the grand canal, once again wandering along my path veers towards the canal and the Ponte Di realto following the same layout of the Ponte Vechio in Florence , a path down the middle with now glitzy little shops either sidei don't cross here I follow the paths nearest the water edge which lead me with some intent towards the grand market likely a design of the paths here... There must be some intention to the layout?the market follows a similar layout to market harborers town hall with shelter below for the stalls this one extended out away from the canal doubling its size.
Onwards again and in the direction of San polo area once more an area of shops and basilica.... I'm really done with Basilica..... Not even bothering to pay 5 euros to enter one! Still nice exterior which is pretty rare in damp brickwork of Venicea shop stop to get in supplies for tomorrow and I'm back at the hostel with no intent to leave tonight.