Disease-free and light.

I need to see this film. Not since the great Scooby Doo incident of '02 ("I'm gonna grind your bones to dust") have I laughed so long or so hard in the cinema ("They came in so fast, I didn't know where to go").

Also, Charlotte and I had great fun pointing out the Salzburg fortress every time it appeared on screen and telling anyone within hearing range, "we've been there". I don't know that they enjoyed our over-excited whispering quite so much.

Trailer trash.

Admittedly I haven't slept in a caravan since I was three (bar a couple of nights in Lincoln, which don't count because the house was only a couple of feet away). I'm sure there's much to be said against them, what with the great British weather and the jarring proximity of bed to toilet. Even so, I am a little bit taken with caravans right now. They keep popping up this summer - in a book in Shrewsbury and on the Mereseyrail to Liverpool. I want to rent one. Somebody come to Whitby with me? One condition though, caravans must look like this:

Warsaw & Poznan.

Catching up on some postcard-writing on the (nearly missed) train to Warsaw; your average-sized beer mug in Poland; Harry's "it'll be cold in Poland, mark my words" prophecies fail to materialise and the floor melts; the dreaded milk bar; reminders of Communism at the Warsaw Rising museum; our last supper (much to Harry's distaste); a quick jaunt in Poznan, preceding seven hours at the airport; pożegnanie Poznan, bye Europe:



WIĘCEJ.

Berlin.

"Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall" matryoshkas at Checkpoint Charlie; the Brandenburg Gate (which I took great pleasure in photographing from the back as well, for some reason); taking a break at the Reichstag to read Charlotte's Lonely Planet guidebook; Ampelmann, my favourite Berlin discovery ♥; "Test the Best" trabant mural at the East Side Gallery; touching up the Berlin Wall; buying cookie cutters and magnets and gummy sweets at the Ampelmann shop; Photoautomat tomfoolery:




MEHR.

Munich.

The Tent, Munich; sitting by the campfire, listening to boys with acoustic guitars and melodicas; the Viktualienmarkt; Charlotte models pointed Bavarian felt hat by München; buying cheese specialities recommended by our guide; eating pretzels, obazda and blueberries and drinking Radler at the Hirschgarten; beer steins with 'busen' on the longest wait; I am beyond sad that I didn't buy this bear (seriously, if anybody goes to Munich any time soon, please could they go to the train station and get it for me?):



MEHR.

Vienna & Salzburg.

Onboard entertainment; the Votice Church, a one-off Viennese sighting; Harry makes the most of the free beds on our train from Vienna to Salzburg; Sonnenschein; the baroque horse fountain in Residenzplatz; the hills are alive (on the Sound of Music tour); yodelling beavers in Mondsee (home of the wedding church from the Sound of Music); the Salzach River with Hohensalzburg Castle in the background (Charlotte and I thought the river looked particularly low in this picture):



MEHR.

Budapest.

Very Hungry Caterpillars on tour; on a map-less sightseeing search; wandering around a series of office blocks, wondering how this could be the castle; wandering through a museum cafe and discovering the real Buda; the Hungarian Parliament, the Danube and Margaret Island, as seen from Castle Hill; stopping to enjoy a music festival on the banks of the Danube; investigating the local cuisine (I went for the lemonade instead); old men playing chess at Budapest Keleti station:



TOVÁBB.