Some of Vienna's greatest attractions are just outside the city proper. Chief among them, especially for royal history geeks like me, is Schonbrunn Palace, the former summer home of the Hapsburgs. The poor man's version of Versailles (it's only one-sixth the size of its French rival, but it still has 1,441 rooms), Schonbrunn was used by generations of Austrian emperors between the 17th and 20th centuries. We walked through 40 of the state rooms where Maria Teresa held court, one of which was where Kennedy and Kruschev met in 1961. Awesome.

We also took a tour of the Heilingenkreuz monastery that lies 30 minutes out of Vienna. Dating from the 12th century, Heilingenkreuz is the oldest continuously occupied Cistercian monastery in the world — 40 monks still live there today. We saw the cloisters, the cathedral, and the chapter house containing the tomb of the last Babenberg emperor. I'm not usually big on church tours, but this one was actually quite fascinating.

Other highlights of the day included a photo stop at Liechtenstein Castle (which is not actually in Liechtenstein, but is owned by the ruling family of Liechtenstein) and a drive-by view of the hunting lodge at Mayerling where Crown Prince Rudolf and his very young mistress were found dead in 1889. Good stuff.

One day left…

Our guide started the day with a story: in Europe, heaven is a place where police are British, mechanics are German, cooks are French, lovers are Italian, and everything is organized by the Swiss. (I should have been Swiss.) On the other hand, hell is where police are German, mechanics are French, cooks are British, lovers are Swiss and everything is organized by the Italians. Both our guide and our driver are Italian (!) but they're pretty good at keeping things organized, so I guess stereotypes don't always hold true.

They certainly need to be organized, because we covered an awful lot of Austria today. First we drove to Mondsee, where we toured the church that was used for the wedding scenes in The Sound of Music (we really should watch that movie someday). Then it was on to Melk, where we saw the famous Benedictine abbey. Originally founded in 1089, the present building dates from the early 18th century. Very impressive.

Melk is also where we began a short cruise down the Danube past beautiful forests, quaint villages, and the occasional medieval castle. The highlight for me was seeing the ruins of Durnstein Castle, where King Richard the Lionheart was held captive in 1193. Admittedly, it was just a bunch of rocks, but the history nerd in me found it pretty cool.

And at last we made it to Vienna! City tour tomorrow…

And I do mean in the clouds. Dense fog and steady rain plagued us all along the drive from Salzburg back across the German border to the compound known as Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, 1800 metres up in the mountains. In nice weather, you can get amazing panoramic views of the Alps from the top; in the fog, we could barely see the trees 20 feet from the windows. Oh, well.

The Eagle’s Nest was the second most important Nazi command centre during WWII — this is where many of Hitler’s crucial decisions were made. The tunnel leading to the elevator and the elevator itself are still as they were in the 1940s, though the massive doors to the tunnel are missing a knob (it was presented to Eisenhower after the war). At the top, we saw the dining hall, the conference room, and the hallway leading to an outdoor terrace. The rooms themselves were a bit of a letdown; the original furniture is in a museum in Munich, so we were basically looking at empty spaces. But it was still a nice taste of history.

We also had a walking tour of Salzburg’s historic centre, but I spent most of it wishing we could just sit down somewhere and relax. I have no interest in either Mozart or The Sound of Music, so most of this town’s attractions are wasted on me. Besides, it was raining. And I’ve been here before. And I still have those toe blisters. Sigh.

To Vienna tomorrow…

I chose this particular bus tour for one reason: it included a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle, the fairytale home of King Ludwig II. It might look familiar — Walt Disney used it as his model for the castle at his theme parks. It's not the oldest castle in the world (it was built in the late 19th century) or the grandest (only a handful of rooms were completed before Ludwig died and construction halted), but it certainly has one of the most spectacular settings. Situated high in the Bavarian Alps, surrounded by forest and overlooking a deep gorge, the place has to be seen to be believed.

The interior is basically a shrine to Wagner, the famous composer who was also a close friend of the king (can you say bromance?) Each room has elaborate paintwork depicting various scenes from Wagner's operas. There's a throne room portraying the king as one step below God, a ballroom with a stage for musicians to perform, and even a manmade cave (an actual man-cave!) No wonder his contemporaries thought the guy was mad.

After the castle tour we had what the guide called a “light lunch”: beer, bread, bratwurst and sauerkraut, along with mashed potatoes and fruit salad. That “light” lunch had half the group passed out on the bus as we headed into Austria. Good times.

Tomorrow we explore Salzburg…

Bavarians certainly love their beer. Over the two weeks of Oktoberfest, more than seven million people visit the festival grounds — and I swear every one of those seven million was already there when we showed up. The place was packed with people eating, drinking, enjoying the carnival rides and buying cheesy souvenirs. Each one of the dozens of beer tents can hold 10,000 partyers, and they were so full they were turning people away. Whew.

Mass chaos is not really our scene, so we walked around for a bit, took some photos, and then escaped back to the hotel to have a beer in peace and quiet.

We were badly in need of a rest anyway, since Oktoberfest was not the only thing we did today. We also spent a couple hours exploring the Deutsches Museum, the world’s largest museum of science and technology (i.e. geek heaven). Floor after floor of exhibits covered everything from physics and computing to transport and aeronautics, though we would have learned a lot more if we could read German (some of the displays had English explanations, but not all). My favorite exhibit was the cross-section of a German U-boat that was used as a training submarine before World War I. Cool stuff.

On to the Alps tomorrow…

Welcome to party central! This city is chock full of people in traditional Bavarian costume (I saw one guy in lederhosen and a Yankees cap…huh), not all of whom were headed for Oktoberfest — even the front desk clerks at the hotel were done up in traditional garb. It's a very festive atmosphere.

Free beer certainly helps with the party mood. We met our tour group for dinner and drinks at a local beer hall, where we each got a complimentary stein (those things are a full litre — how do the servers carry 10 of them at a time?!?) Truth be told, I had wine instead (gasp), but I did try Chris's beer, so duty done.

The real fun starts tomorrow. Stay tuned…

How is it that countries other than Canada manage to provide world-class museums with no admission fees? Last year in Washington we did the Smithsonian museums for nothing; today in London we toured the Natural History Museum and the British Museum for no charge. Canada could take lessons from these places.

Here's another lesson: do NOT try to cover both of those museums in one day. Especially when the subway line running to your hotel is broken. And you have scary sized blisters between your toes (yes, BETWEEN my toes…seriously, how does that happen?)

We did get to see some cool stuff, though. The Natural History Museum had entire galleries devoted to mammals (including a life sized model of a blue whale), dinosaurs (including a life sized animatronic T Rex), volcanoes and earthquakes. At the British Museum we restricted ourselves to the ancient Egypt exhibit, but that still took an hour, and we just sort of skimmed through it. And it was all free. Imagine.

The best part of the day is yet to come: we're meeting up with a college friend of mine that I haven't seen in 15 years (Kim, I know you're reading this…see you at 6!) I'm crazy excited about getting to catch up with her.

Tomorrow it's back to Heathrow (ugh) and on to Munich, where we join our bus tour. Adventure awaits…

As a longtime tennis fan and lover of history, I’ve always thought of Wimbledon as a must-see. But despite having been to London a few times before, I’ve never managed to get out to the fabled courts. So that was priority 1 today.

The tour covered the grounds, the show courts, and the press interview room, along with a museum dedicated to the history of the game in general and that facility in particular. The winners’ trophies were on display, and John MacEnroe even made an appearance via hologram to talk about his Wimbledon experiences. It was all awesome.

We covered a lot of other ground today, too: we toured the Churchill war rooms and walked around taking pictures of the standard London sights (Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, etc). We are officially out of new things to see, but we have one more day, so we’ll have to revisit some classics.

Time to give the feet a rest…

It took only four and a half hours to travel the 413 miles from Edinburgh to London via train. But it took almost an hour to travel the 5.5 miles from the train station to our hotel via subway. Welcome to the big city.

Our hotel is lovely and conveniently located, but has no free wifi (gasp), so Starbucks is my new home away from home. Neither Chris or I drink coffee, but we love their cheap breakfast sandwiches, and they offer free and unlimited wifi, so I’m officially a fan now.

And London is not all bad. It’s easily 10 degrees warmer here than it was up north. And the hotel is several orders of magnitude better than the one we were just in, so I’m looking forward to a nice relaxing evening. You know, once I leave this coffee shop.

Tomorrow we start exploring. Stay tuned…

Starbucks: my new home away from home

You know those pictures of the Royal Family standing on the deck of a mega ship waving to the poor schleps on shore? That was us today (doing the waving, not being the schleps) when we toured the royal yacht Britannia. In service from 1954 to 1997, the ship is now a museum permanently moored here in Edinburgh. You can explore everything from the bridge to the engine room. I particularly liked the Queen’s bedroom, the drawing room where the family could relax and play games, and the state dining room that hosted receptions for kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers. Very, very cool.

We got another glimpse of royal life when we walked through the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen’s official residence in Scotland. In addition to the still-in-use state reception and dining rooms, the tour included the apartments once used by Mary, Queen of Scots in the 16th century; a plaque marks the spot where her jealous husband and his allies killed her male assistant by stabbing him 52 times (who says history is boring?) Good stuff.

To London tomorrow…