Day 29 - The Flight to Bangkok then Home!

I was secretly quite excited to be going to Bangkok before we head home as I'm going to visit my favourite fabric shop.

The last time we did our Europe trip in 2011 I discovered a fantastic market that sells not only everything but also fabric.  Lots of it and gorgeous too.

I've been good all through the holiday not spending too much and when I hit Bangkok I'll be like the crazy shopper at the Boxing Day Sales!!

We had another great flight to Bangkok by Thai Airways and because the flight was only half full we had 3 seats between the two of us so we could spread out a little.  We noticed lots of people claiming whole rows so they could completely lie down.  We had our usual scotch to start with and then a wine with dinner.  But the wine kept coming.  The hostess, who liked that we were from Australia, kept asking if we'd like another wine and I said 'No' and she said 'Just one more' so I said 'Ok if you insist'.  Such friendly people.  Needless to say we slept very well.

Our big A380 that flew us safely to Bangkok

On our way to our hotel

We arrived at our hotel at about 8:30am and got our room almost straight away.  I should say suite as it has two rooms, two toilets and one huge bath and a huge shower! Very luxurious!  Tony is good at getting great online deals.  We got the room for 40% off so it ended up being only $85 for the night and it included breakfast and a complimentary minibar.  Just amazing and what a way to end our holiday.

Our lounge room 

Toilet #1

Bathroom with big bath tub 

Huge bedroom 

Toilet #2 and shower

View from the 19th floor

After we had a nap we had lunch and went to Sampeng Lane Markets - eeek! I'm very excited.  It's a really narrow lane that goes for about 1 km and it's so smelly and hot.  But I was on a mission to buy some fabrics. Poor Tony was straggling behind me with a bag so I could fill it with fabrics and he was also taking photos.

I found the two shops I went to back in 2011 and discovered a new one!  Oh dear! I was in heaven.  I ended up buying beautiful silk chiffons, cottons and a gorgeous embroidered grey cotton.  At last count I think I had about nine pieces of fabric.  It's amazing how a little fabric shopping can rejuvenate you!

Busy Sampeng Lane

I'm on a mission

I found the shop.  No WH&S here. They got me to stand on a stool so I could pick the fabrics I wanted!

Our ride home in a Tuk Tuk

After dinner we went to the new Night Markets (Asiatique) about 2 kms away from our hotel on the river.  To get there we walked half way and then hopped on a free boat.  The markets were great and we had our feet cleaned by little fish.  It was the weirdest feeling. We had 15 minutes and I got used to it at about 12 minutes.

Catching the boat to the Night Markets

The Night Markets from the river

Out for a good night!

Getting my feet washed before I get them cleaned by the fish!

Ha Ha! my reaction!

Same reaction

We slept well last night and will have a quiet day today perhaps with a relaxing massage and then packing away all our - um! my purchases and hopefully we won't go over the limit.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it.  It did take time but it was worth it to let the family at home know how our holiday was going and also it will be a great account of our holiday in years to come.

That's it for our holiday and we'll talk to you all soon.  Until then:

Auf Weidersehen!

(German for see you again)

ลาก่อน สำหรับตอนนี้ 

(Thai for see you 

soon!)

Hooroo!

P.S.  This is not too much fabric, is it?

Some fabric will be for me and some for Audrey Lane ladies!

I think I will have to start up a new group with a bunch of equally enthusiastic ladies - and there are a lot of them out there. We can meet once a week or month, depending on how big your addiction is, and share our lovely hoarding and buying of fabric achievements!   I can call it the Brisbane Chapter for Fabric-Aholics-Anonymous!  It will be great and we can drink wine and solve all our problems.  I can be El Presidente - hmmmm! I'm getting ahead of myself here.  But what a fab-tastic addiction to have!

Day 28 - Frankfurt - Back to the Beginning!

Last night we met up with our friends Markus and Ulla.  We haven't seen them since 2006 but as we are on facebook we've been catching up on what's been happening in our lives.  So it was good to catch up in person!  We had a lovely dinner together at their local restaurant The Golden Apple. It was really good to see them and they will be on our list to visit when we come back.

Sadly, this is our last day in Germany and who would have thought four weeks ago our holiday would be such a success!  I didn't really know what to expect as it was my first time to Germany.   I knew it would be good but I couldn't have imagined it would have been Wunderschoen!

What an amazing trip!  This is where we've been and Tony did all the driving and got us around Germany safely!  Thank you Schatzi!

We certainly have covered a lot of ground over the last four weeks and each place we visited was just amazing!

Of course the highlight of our trip was Lisa and Tobi's wedding!  It was a great success and the whole family came together to celebrate their happy day and to wish them every success in their future together.

The places I would come back to when the grand babies start to arrive would be, of course, where Lisa and Tobi are living but apart from that:

Koblenz

A beautiful small town that I just fell in love with.  The old and the new sit wonderfully side by side. 

Wurtzburg

Stunning!  I must go back to the bridge to drink another glass of wine.  Also, we haven't fully explored Wurtzburg!  More to do here!

Berlin

The history is just amazing and there is still more I'd love to discover here.  Next time we won't drive into Berlin as the traffic is chaotic!  We will leave the car somewhere and train it in. The train system in Germany is fantastic.

Langeness

Langeness was a real favourite right from the start and I would love to go back to see more of far north Germany.  Going over to the island on the lore was just amazing!

Also, Detmold and Stuttgart.  We would also love to explore more of the south of Germany and take in Austria and Switzerland!

Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland! (see you again Germany)

Tomorrow we are flying to Bangkok and have an overnight stay.  I will be going to Sampeng Lane where they sell ...... FABRIC!  OMG!  I'll be in heaven!

Day 27 - Wurtzburg - Just Stunning!

While we were having another beautiful breakfast this morning in Stuttgart, I noticed something moving outside and I realised it was Monday, one of the 3 days Hugo starts roaming the yard.  

Take a look at the video, boys - are you going to ask for one of these for Christmas!

We said our goodbyes to Jocki and Uschi and headed to Wurtzburg (pronounced Verts-borg).  It is only a 1 hour 45 min drive north from Stuttgart but we were both surprised to know that it's in Bavaria!  We both learned something today!

We unpacked our bags and Tony did a bit of admin work while I had a nanna nap.  Where our hotel is situated in Wurtzburg, there is not much happening and I thought we would probably have a very quiet night.  Oh! I need to stop thinking that as it never happens hahaha!

We walked about a half hour into the city centre and it was pumping.  Every street and lane way was filled with shops and cafes.  So we had a lot of fun exploring.  We were looking at our map and wondering which way to go when this lovely old man (who I thought was wanting money from us - he looked a bit like a beggar, oops!) pointed us in the right direction of seeing the Dom and also the river.  And he spoke to us in English as well!

I darted in and out of the shops glancing up every so often to look at the beautiful churches and buildings.  Tony, on the other hand, was taking all the pictures of the beautiful churches and buildings. We were having fun.

We wanted to find somewhere to eat so we decided to head for the river (like the old man told us to) and we came upon this concrete pedestrian bridge full of people standing around drinking wine. How civilised and we thought this is where we want to be for a while and soak up the atmosphere.

Here's a little video of it:

It was starting to rain so we went into this nice little restaurant beside the bridge. 

It was fully booked inside and the only spare seats were at the bar. So we grabbed those and glad we did - we watched the cooks preparing dinner.  It was Master Chef all over again!

yummy German Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes)

sehr gemuttlich! (very cosy)

And now for some night shots of Wurtzburg!

The restaurant we bought the wine from on the bridge.  The wine is 3 euro and the glass is 5 euro.  Bring the glass back and you get the 5 euro back.

Drinking on the bridge

Night shots of the town centre!

We stopped off here to have a coffee and tea

Local pub

We got home about 10pm and I was happy to sit and read but Tony wasn't finished with the night.  He said he was going down to the bar for ONE nightcap......after 4 nightcaps he stumbled back at about 2am wanting to tell me he met some interesting Germans at the bar and they had a great conversation and ....... and ........ ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz!  Time for sleep!

good snacks ....

good beer ....

great conversation!

Deutschland ist Wundershoen!




We head for Frankfurt tomorrow for our last night in Germany :(  I love Germany so much and can't wait to come back again.  And Wurtzburg is definitely on the list!