Singapore - Brisbane, Australia

A pretty uneventful flight interspersed with a few movies and some very restful airline sleep in spacious economy class and we were back home in sunny Brisbane.  

Bleary eyed we were picked up by our champion house-sitter Dave who drove me to our car which was handily dropped off near the airport by our champion neighbours the day before.  

Back home and doing it tough.

A quick drive back to the airport to load the wife, the kids and all the luggage into the cars and we were on our way.  

Arrived back at the house to see it still standing and in one piece which was a winner.  The dog spotted us getting out of the car and started going off when he realised who it was which was nice to see. 

The house and the yard were just as we left them and we can't thank Dave enough for looking after the house while we were away.  A big thanks also to our good neighbour Kristen who looked after all of our mail and let us know which bills to pay and when.  (If only bills went on holiday for a few months too.)

Here's a quick summary and a few key hints, tips and facts for our trip that may help others considering the same sort of thing.  

THE TRIP:

Plans - Honestly we had none except booking our first night in Heidleberg and after that 5 nights in Untergassen.  After that, everything was done on the fly.  We decided where and when to go by reading our Lonely Planet, talking to fellow travellers and locals and by hitting up the internet.  

Once we decided on a general location we'd use a few websites to hunt for accommodation in a certain area, find out what was available and then fire off half a dozen enquiries.  Usually within 24hrs we'd have a couple of replies and we'd know where we were going next.  We got caught out once in Milan because we didn't pre-book but other than that we had no troubles.  (Other than inadvertently booking into the wrong apartment in Slovenia.) 

Tactics - besides trying not to have a nervous breakdown carting 3 kids all over Europe we planned to stay in self serviced apartments for 5 to 7 day stints.  We did this to make sure we were in an area for a decent amount of time so that we didn't have to rush from one sight to another.

We also intended to keep the costs down by shopping locally and taking care of breakfast at home and packing lunches for our day trips when we could.  

This actually worked quite well and to be honest eating out every night, as we did in some places that didn't have a kitchen, can be a bit tiresome.  Sometimes you just want a home cooked meal.  (And a salad if you're in Germany or Bosnia.) 

We also made a point of not trying to see too much each day and to go with the flow a bit.  I'm sure we could have seen many more things had we gotten up earlier and been more organised and motivated but you have to remember two important things.  

First, you can't see everything in Europe.  It's too big and there are too many things to do.  I mean, you could spend 3 months in one part of one country let alone trying to visit every country in continental Europe.

Secondly, we were on holidays and by 'we' I mean the kids also.  Sometimes the kids just wanted a day at home vegging out playing a game or heading down to the local park for a kickabout with the soccer ball so we did that.  Other times you just want to have a nice cup coffee, read the paper and watch the world go by.  We made sure we did that too.

Budget - We budgeted $40 000 AUD.  This was to include flights, insurance, car rental, fuel, accommodation,  groceries and spending money.  

At the time $1 AUD = $1 USD = € 0.80.  (Approximately)

Here's a breakdown of anticipated / budgeted costs vs actual costs.

All costs are in $AUD with the euro costs in brackets behind.  (For the fuel, accommodation, groceries and spending money we worked out what we'd roughly spend in a week and then multiplied that out for a 90 day trip.)

One off spends.

Flights:   Budgeted - $ 11 000      Actual - $  8 600
Car:       Budgeted - $  4 000      Actual - $  3 400
Insurance: Budgeted - $  1 000      Actual - $    700

Based on a 90 day stay.

Accomm.    Budgeted - $  9 000      Actual - $  6 400 (€57/day)
Groceries: Budgeted - $  3 250      Actual - $  1 750 (€110/week)
Fuel:      Budgeted - $  1 950      Actual - $  1 580 (€100/week)
Spending:  Budgeted - $ 10 000      Actual - $  7 420 (€67/day)

Other

Bike on the plane.    $      0      Actual - $    270 

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Total:     Budgeted - $ 40 200      Actual - $ 30 120

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We came in $10 000 under budget.  (We didn't deliberately set out to do this on the cheap but we were mindful of how much we were spending each day.)  As you can see above we saved heaps on our flights, accommodation and our spending money.  

$30 000 is a lot of money but for a 3 month holiday and the experiences we had with the kids it was cheap at twice the price.

Websites: 

For accommodation - airbnb.com, homelidays.co.uk, interhome.co.uk, holiday-rentals.co.uk, booking.com and just knocking on a door that said 'zimmer frei'.  Don't be afraid to do that.  We saved €30 a night by ignoring the tourist office recommendations and going for a wander in the car in St Wolfgang, Austria.  

For flights - jetabroad.com.au.  We used this website to research our flight options before we went to our travel agent.  You can build a multi-leg trip using this website and that's what we did to make sure we visited Singapore and ended up in Frankfurt.  It meant booking 2 sets of flights on 2 separate airlines but by using this website we managed to travel where and how we wanted.  (And we had access to far more flights than our travel agent and we got excellent fares that I didn't see using local websites such as webjet.) 

For car hire - We leased our car (far cheaper than a hire car for extended stays) from Renault USA www.renaultusa.com.  

It was $1400 cheaper through the American website (thank you Bernard) rather than the Renault Australia website for exactly (and I mean exactly) the same thing.  The car, the pickup location, the delivery fee, the length of stay, everything.  (Just another thing that Australians get ripped off on because we are here and not there.)  
Hey Renault Australia, there's this thing called the internet.  Clowns!

For information:  Locals, tourist offices and fellow travellers.  The internet in general also but wikipedia is an unbelievably good source of information for the history and general knowledge of various sites and countries. 

Airlines used - Brisbane   - Singapore return - Etihad 

                   -  Singapore - Frankfurt return  -  Finnair

Weight of luggage allowed - 115kg - 23kg per person

Weight of luggage taken excluding bike - 63kg all up.  Well done Nicki.

Weight of bike plus bike gear - 23kg  (total including bike 86kg.)

Distance covered - 32 800 kms by plane.  11 600 kms in the car.  100's of kms on foot.

Countries visited - 10.  Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Singapore.  (In that order.)

Other stuff - Australians get ripped off for almost everything we buy here.  In no particular order the following is miles cheaper in Europe: accommodation, eating out, food in a supermarket, buying a drink in a bar, buying a gelati in a tourist spot, entrance fees, clothes, shoes, you could go on and on.  

Don't get me wrong, I love Australia, it's just that we are getting gypped big time.

Get a local sim card from the country you are visiting but make sure they activate it while you are there in the shop.  Ran into strife in Germany and Bosnia because I didn't get it activated on the spot.  Get a data allowance and know what it is.  Perfect to check if anyone is emailing you to tell you they have accommodation available rather than having to wait until you get home that night to log in on the laptop.

Money - Unfortunately you need it.  We took some cash but basically we used a credit card to withdraw local money from the ATM wherever we were.  We carried 2 cards in case one didn't work which happened on 2 or 3 occasions.  

As Australian banks are well known for being the most profitable in the world, and ergo the biggest bastards at home, we sidestepped their exorbitant fees by getting a 28 degree Mastercard.  You apply for this card, deposit some money on it and make sure you always keep it topped up above your limit and you will avoid all the fees associated with a card organised through one of the big 4 here in Australia.  You get the international exchange rate, you pay no currency conversion fees and no local ATM fees.  You save a motza.

This sounds like an ad but I'm telling you right now to get one if you are going overseas.   Google 28 Degrees Mastercard and you will never travel with another card again.  (An ING debit card was our backup. Same as above but a $2.50 withdrawal fee for using a foreign ATM but that was it.)

Regrets - Nothing major really.  Possibly could have gotten up a bit earlier each day and got moving earlier but apart from that the only other thing I can think of is not extending our trip.  Oh, I may have lost my patience a few times with the kids in the car but they can drive you stark raving bonkers so I guess that's par for the course.  
I do regret (lets say I am disappointed) not to have been discovered, as yet, as a travel writing comedy blog genius, sponsored to travel the world and write for a major newspaper with 3 kids and a wife in tow.  (I'm still open to all offers.)

The finale - We loved it.  Quitting your job and travelling wherever the wind blows is an experience we'll never regret.  

As for the kids.  Well they loved it too.  It broadened their horizons immensely.  They got to see sights unavailable to their eyes in Australia, had a look at other cultures and saw just how lucky they were at times.  They also found out that sometimes when you're hungry and you're in a car, in the middle of who knows where, you just might have to wait a while because buggered if we know where the next shop is or even if it'll be open or not.  Hell it may not even sell bread or have the electricity on in it. 

The other thing that was nice was that without their mates around they played amongst themselves, and I think grew closer to each other, which was really nice to see.

Would we do it again?  In a heartbeat, YES! In fact, look out Brazil, the 3 monkeys, their mother and their mad father are coming to visit you for the 2014 World Cup to cheer on the mighty Socceroos.

Until then.  Chooooooos!!

Singapore

This will be the penultimate entry of the 3monthswith3monkeys blog and it's taken a while to get around to do it.  I was out cleaning the driveway today wondering why it's taken me so long to finish it off and I think subconsciously I've been putting it off because once the last entry is done, that's it, the holiday is over.

I mean obviously it's over, we've been home for 11 days now so I'm not delusional but it'll be a funny thing not sitting down and writing out a summary of the days events after doing it for so long.  As much as I moaned about writing it after we'd come home from a days adventure in the end it was well worthwhile now that I look back on it.

So with that said here we go.

Harry - 10 weeks

The last day of our holiday so not wanting to get off to a late start and miss half the day we caught the train into town at about 11.30am.  First stop was Boat Quay which is a restaurant and bar precinct in the centre of the city.  

Boat Quay was formerly the busiest part of the old port of Singapore back in the 1860's with most of the sea trade passing through this area.  

Harry - 11 years

We stopped there for a reenactment of a photo that was taken when Harry was a mere 10 weeks old from the days when Nicki and I lived in Singapore.   

With that done we headed off for lunch at Lau Pa Sat which is a hawker food centre not too far from Boat Quay.  

Singaporeans are famous for and passionate about 2 things, shopping and eating.  Not only is the food great, it's cheap and plentiful, and available from any of the thousands of hawker stalls dotted around the island.  

Lau Pa Sat

Finding a seat was hard going as it was smack in the middle of lunchtime but after a while we finally bagged a table & parked ourselves down.  

As the kids are rank amateurs at the hawker food caper Nicki and I headed off into the throng and came back with plates of food from the various hawker stalls.  Indian, Malay and Singaporean food at about 4 oz dollars a plate.

Hawker food - brilliant

We had a massive meal and after grabbing some drinks we waddled off towards Chinatown to pick up some souvenirs and get some cheap haircuts for all of us.

Suitably shorn of excess hair and full of food we jumped into a cab and went back to our friends house to kill a few hours and for a final last pack of the suitcases.

When the time came we ordered a cab and said our farewells and thanks and headed off to one of the world's best airports.  (Singaporeans have got the airport caper down pat and Changi consistently ranks in the top couple of airports in the world.)  

   The Sri Mariamman Temple
Singapore's oldest Hindu temple

Checked in with plenty of time to spare and decided that one hawker feed wasn't enough during the day so we caught the inter-terminal train to terminal 3 to hit up that the local food court in the basement there.  (A trick for young players.)

Another massive feed and then made our way back to the boarding gate to wait for our flight to be called at 11.30pm.

Tomorrow:  The aftermath.

Inside Lau Pa Sat

Singapore

Not much to report here except that we all got a few hours kip on the plane and before you knew it we were being picked up from the airport by our friend at around 6pm.  It seems incredible that it was 3 months since we were last here but on arrival it felt like only yesterday.

Unbelievably less than 24 hours ago we were in the snow and today it's 30 degrees celsius with 95% humidity and we were all sweating.  (Couldn't get into our shorts soon enough.)

A quick swim in the condominium pool and then dinner on the balcony of their apartment catching up with the latest Singapore news.

Bedtime beckoned for our hosts and then we all attempted to get to sleep a couple of hours later which proved difficult as midnight Singapore time was only 5pm Europe time.  

Watched some rubbish cable TV and The boys and Nicki finally went at about midnight and I finally conked out at about 2am after finishing another hilarious blog.

Quality Austrian humour

Ottensoos - Frankfurt, Germany - Helsinki, Finland

It's funny every single time - ask my kids

Ausfahrt is German for 'exit'.  

The sign is everywhere from highways to toilet doors to supermarkets and everywhere in between.  

And how much do you think the kids are loving that everytime we drive past one?  They get to say 'arse' and 'fart' in the same sentence and not get into trouble.  

Could life get any better for our scatological boys?

Even funnier

Anyway it's our last day in Germany and in fact Europe so we packed the Grand Kangoo for the very last time and drove to Frankfurt about 2 and a half hours away.  

The car trip was uneventful and the kids were well behaved.  

In fact they have been terrific in the car since about the 10 week mark which was a tad longer than we'd hoped for.  

Anyone who is thinking of travelling with 3 monkeys in a cage should bank on roughly 70 days of the following before relative calm descends on your travels: 

'My dear children, won't you please be
quiet in the back?'

I'm bored, are we there yet?, stop touching me, can I play the DS?, it's not fair, I'm sick, I'm tired, I'm wide awake, I'm bored, is it far?, why do we have to drive so far?, I don't like you, I hate him, I'm bored, why do we have to see another castle?, you're mean, I'm hungry, is there anything to eat?, I'm bored, he hit me first, do we have to go out every day?, I need to go to the toilet, stop it, he hit me first, I'm bored.

Provided you can cope with that like I did you'll be fine.

Ciao Grand Kangoo

We arrived at our drop off point with about 3 hours to spare so we decided to head to a huge shopping centre to spend our last Euros and try and get some roller blades for 2 of the lads.  

The shopping centre was huge featured those dreaded words plastered across the front that every husband is afraid of 'OUTLET SHOPPING'.

Fortunately for us the bags were chock-a-block so we escaped with only a minor hit to the credit cards.

Frankfurt airport

Arrived back at the hotel drop off and said goodbye to our Grand Kangoo who over the past 3 months we'd grown to love and who had served us well without nary a drama to speak of.


So after 10 countries and 11 600 kms in the mighty Grand Kangoo our adventure in Europe is over.  

Next stop Helsinki for a 50 minute layover and then to Singapore.

Chooooooooos Europe!!! 

Frankfurt - Helsinki leg

Ottensoos - Nuremberg - Ottensoos

Snow problem

Woke up this morning to a blanket of snow covering everything which was nice except the Grand Kangoo doesn't have snow tires.  

Hit up our host for some snow driving tips and he said not to worry about it as down the end of the road where there'd been more traffic it'd be OK.

With that bit of advice in hand we decided to go to the actual courthouse where the Nazi war crime trials were held from late 1945 to 1946.  The trials resulted in the prosecution of 24 Nazi ringleaders and the eventual execution of 12 of them.

Courthouse complex

Handily for the allies conducting the trials war crimes committed by them were not part of the scope.  
This meant that Russia got off scott-free from the mass murder in the Katyn Forest of 22000 Polish officers and the US and Britain got off on sinking civilian shipping and weren't held to account for the mass murder of civilians in the Dresden air raids just to cite 2 examples amongst many.


Still, as they say, it's the victorious that get to write history and to be fair the Nazis were responsible for probably the worst atrocities ever committed and rightly held to account.

Courtroom 600

The actual courtroom is still in use today and has been reconfigured slightly with photos showing how it actually was back in the day.  It was surprisingly small inside but it did have a real sense of history about it.  

We went upstairs with our audio guides and took a tour of the excellent audio visual display which explained every aspect of the trials including procedures, prisons, judges, media, evidence, witnesses and the logistics of it all.

Nazi war criminals in the dock

Having been filled to the gills with history we paid one final visit to the Christkindlmarkts for Nicki to buy something she had spotted the day before but wasn't sure about getting.  Found that stall, handed over the Euros, and escaped the throng. 

Stray observations: Having been to Germany previously it is impressive how they do recognise their past in the many museums around and don't try to shy away from it at all.  

Something our now Japanese friends should consider.

Backyard of our house

Where there's snow there's snowballs

Courtroom 600.  Entry door.

Church at Christkindlmarkt

Ottensoos - Nuremberg - Ottensoos

Team Frosty

As we're only a couple of days away from heading home we've slowly started to pack our gear up for the trip home.  Packing my bike was one of the things I wasn't looking forward to it needs to be surgically clean due to the strict quarantine restrictions back in Oz.  Cleaning it is not an overly big drama, cleaning it when it's about minus 4 and there's no hose because the water freezes in it is.  

Team Rudolph

Hunted around and found a bucket and some brushes and did my best to wash it down and scrub it in the icy weather which was an experience.  If you left any part not clean the water you used to wash it with would freeze onto the bike and you'd have to wash it down again taking care to then immediately wipe it off.  

Got it all clean in the end moved the bike lock, stock and barrel into the house and into the bike box. 

  

Yo Rocky!

We promised the kids we'd go for a play in the snow so we grabbed some little toboggans our host had and headed off blindly in the Grand Kangoo looking for a suitable paddock.  After a 20 minute meander through the countryside we found what looked like a likely suspect and jumped out for some hillside fun.

Had a blast scooting down the hill which was just steep enough to get some good speed up but not too steep to make getting up to the top a major drama.

After about 90 minutes the kids jeans and shoes were soaked through so we headed home for lunch and warm showers.

The Kangoo can go anywhere

In the late afternoon we went into town, first stopping to vacuum the car out as you could probably grow potatoes on the floor,  to visit the markets again as we hadn't seen all of them the night before. 

Walked around browsing the stalls until we got hungry so we headed up to a cheap and cheerful Chinese restaurant we'd found earlier which was terrific as we've been missing our rice and vegies. 

Christkindlmarkt

Christkindlmarkt

Christkindlmarkt

Yummo

Novosedly, Czech Republic - Ottensoos, Germany

Crackertastic!

Every day is cracker day when you're loaded up with heaps of them.  So before we set off to our last stop on our trip out came the crackers for more laughs and explosions.  

We've refined our firecracker lighting technique now and rather than strike match after match wasting time we brought out those firestarter cubes which provided a non-stop flame for even more explosive themed fun.

After only a piddling 150 explosions or so we finally ran out and Captain Sensible rounded the troops up so it was time to go.

Snow dramas on the highway

Just before we left though, Joseph, the brother of our host came down to wish us goodbye and gave us the good news that last night there was countrywide snow.  Ripper!  Just what we wanted to hear for the summer-tyred Grand Kangoo but he said we should be right if we stuck to the main roads.

Lucky for us he was right but as we crossed the border and went up in altitude there was heaps more snow about and it was starting to get a bit hairy.  In the end we finally joined onto the main highway and we were right.

Taste test of a local sweet

Our last stop was to be Nuremberg but as luck would have it that very night was the beginning of Christkindlesmarkt which is the largest in Germany.  

As a result accommodation was fairly scarce and in the end a few days before we bagged an apartment about 25kms away in a small village called Ottensoos.  Not a bad result really as, for us, it's nicer staying out in the countryside away from the hub-bub of the big cities.

Market stalls

Had a relaxing arvo and then we drove to the markets which were, as promised, huge.  


Loads of people with hundreds of stalls around selling a multitude of goodies.  The stall were minitature works of art themselves and decorated quite intricately.  

Stall decoration on the roof of the stall

Besides knick-knacks of every description there was a lot of local cuisine so we got into that and had some pickled fish sandwiches, bratwurst sausages on buns, some crepes, some other traditional sweets and downed a few gluhweins to round out dinner.

We walked around the markets for an hour or so but as we were starting to lose feeling in our toes and fingers we decided to head home.

Christkindlesmarkt Nurnberg

Highway scenery

Novosedly - Cesky Krumlov - Klenovice - Novosedly

Krumlov Castle

Seeing as we have been in Cesky Krumlov for 4 days now we thought it best if we went and checked it during the daytime rather than just at nightime.

The town itself is a picture postcard of little houses, buildings, churches and a castle and very picturesque.

We walked around the town browsing a few shops and picking up some knick-knacks before stopping in at the torture museum.  That was interesting but a little more graphic than the boys bargained for with some recordings of people screaming and some re-enactments which boded well for when they went to bed that night.

Krumlov Street

We tried to get inside the castle after that but it was closed so instead we walked around the courtyards and enjoyed the view of the town.  
There was a tower but the wind was blowing and it was freezing so only Harry and I went up for a look.  Took my gloves off to take some photos but after a minute or so I thought my fingers were going to fall off so we went back down the stairs.

Drove home after that as we were going for dinner at my Czech friends house for a visit about half an hour way.  First things first though we let off some more crackers and we blew a plastic bottle to smithereens which the kids (and I) thought was hilarious.

Torture museum

Jumped in the car to drive off to our friends house when we started to see snow falling.  Ever since Montenegro we've been wanting to see more snow until I'd done some internet research.  We'd found out that it's illegal to drive a car without winter tires (which we don't have) from the 1st of November through to April or so.  Not only that if you happen to have an accident then your insurance can be voided.  

Bloody brilliant.  

Anyway it was very light and being well versed in the Australian way we took the 'she'll be right' attitude and set off.

Got to our hosts house after half an hour and we had a nice afternoon with a couple of beers and some food.   After a bit Jan took us out into the forest to show us where he does some rock climbing and a bit of the local scenery.   
   

Castle square

Hardly sight-seeing weather but he didn't seem to mind and who are we to argue.

We got back to his house, said goodbye and thanked them for their hospitality and boarded the firecracker express.  Found another empty paddock on the way home and set some rockets, bungers and our 16 tube, one kilo cracker off.

The latter being an absolute beauty which was something straight out of a display that you'd see at home at some event.

View from the tower

Kablammo!!!

Matěj, Jan and Mickaela

Novosedly - Lipno - Cesky Krumlov - Novosedly

Lipno mountain biking - warm!

Firecracker day!!  

First stop Lipno for me to go on a mountain bike ride and the kids and Nicki to go on the luge run as it's open all year.  Or so we thought.  Parked the car and walked up to the ticket office to see the shutters down and some sign in Czech with the dates 26/11, 27/11, 28/11, 29/11 on the sign.  Obviously it's closed for those 4 days.  The only 4 days we are in the Czech Republic.  

What are the bloody odds?

Wheeeeee! - Not blurred but fog.

The kids were good about it though and Nicki drove me to the top of the hill for a downhill mountain bike run.  It was great fun going on a dedicated course with jumps, berms and obstacles.  Got to the bottom in no time and Nicki shuttled me up two more times.

We had some lunch from the supermarket again and then boarded the firecracker express to a small town near the border to stock up.

The kids (and me to be honest) were like the proverbial in a lolly shop with a $50 bill.  The Asian shop bloke spotted us and walked over and said in broken English 'you want boom boom?'  

'Yes Sir, yes we do'.

After a bit of haggling with the bloke we managed to buy 20 bungers, a dozen bottle rockets, 400 poh-hahs (mini bungers), a dozen tubes that shot balls out of the top and some mad square thing that weighed about a kilo and consisted of 16 carboard rolls set in a square formation.  No idea what that one did but it was big so it met my stringent specifications.  All up €28 worth.

There were heaps of others too and some that looked downright dangerous.  I like a big explosion as much as the next bloke but some of these things would have taken your hand off if it all went wrong so we gave the larger ones a miss.

Crackers!!!!

Jumped back in the car with a dozen boxes of matches and drove straight out of town to find an empty paddock.  Set a few of the smaller ones off and had a great laugh.   (Those with a penis found it far more hilarious than those without.)  Then I took out one of the small bungers we had which was about 40mm high by 15mm diameter.  I wasn't too sure how much of a bang that'd make so I gave it a fair hoick.  

Holy smokes!  

Lucky we didn't buy the bigger ones otherwise the Czech SAS may have descended on the area to see what sort of terrorist training we were undergoing out in the forest.

Went home after stopping another time to let off a couple of rockets and checked with our host to see if there was somewhere we could let off a few others.  More explosions and hilarity before we had to get ready for dinner.

We boarded the firecracker express and drove into Cesky Krumlov where we caught up with my Czech-mate (see what I did there) that I'd met mountain biking in Italy for dinner with his wife and 2 children.  A top bloke and an unassuming adventurous type who not only mountain bikes but rock climbs and camps in minus 30 degree weather by himself in the mountains.  His wife is a doctor which you'll hope he'll not need but is quite handy given some of the activities he gets up to.