Happy Birthday Teresa!!

We awoke to the bells of the clock tower from the Town Hall of Hobart. A quick Google search showed that sunrise was not until 7:41am! That was a bit of a shock. We then walked down to our car to embark on our drive to Mount Wellington.

Siri took us on an interesting route that consisted of driving up a steep and windy dirt road (much to passenger Teresa’s angst). We drove through a mountainside town, finally back on paved roads, and made it to a little clearing with a coffee shop called The Springs. Teresa was confused, as she had been up to Mount Wellington before and this route was not familiar, so we stopped to ask for directions only to be told that the road up to the top was closed for the moment. All that scary driving for nothing!

On the way back down we were able to stop at a part at the side of the road that still had stunning views looking out to the south, it was breathtaking and made it all worth it.

Once back in town we valeted out our car and set out on foot to do some exploring and find a place to have some brunch. The hotel is in a perfect centralised location and to access the harbour we just had to walk straight down a hill. We explored the wharf area and found the Waterline Restaurant, where we enjoyed the sunshine, Bloody Marys and good food by the water. Teresa had Spanish potato omelette with crayfish salad, and Michele enjoyed smashed avocado & Tasmanian goats cheese on toast. Once again, a top notch meal!

After our brunch we continued walking to Battery Point via Salamanca. The markets weren’t on today but there were still plenty of crafty and quirky shops to explore. Walking up to Battery Point, Siri once again took us on a “creative” route. It had been recommended to Michele by a friend, so she was expecting it to be an actual point. Once we had walked around and marveled at the beautiful little historic houses, it dawned on us that Battery Point was the name of the suburb. It was very lovely and quaint.

It is worth noting that Hobart is not a flat city, so any walking involves a lot of hills. After walking around the hills of Battery Point it was time to rehydrate, and the Prince of Wales Hotel happened to be right there on the corner to serve our purpose. We ordered a couple of James Boags on tap and sat and people watched for a bit.

Back to our hotel room to freshen up, we forgot that the Movenpick Hotel has a “chocolate hour” from 3:30-4:30pm every afternoon. This means free chocolate. Michele selected a pink chocolate stiletto. Score!

Earlier when we were at the wharves we had noticed a complex called the Mures, which housed a restaurant that had also been recommended called Pearl & Co. We booked this for an early dinner.

Just before dinner time we explored the other side of the city and then sat down to a magnificent dinner of Tasmanian oysters and fish washed down with Arras. We cannot express enough how much the local food is of the upmost quality. Delicious.

A short walk back to our hotel to take in the wonderful views from our room while playing cards and drinking wine. Teresa was particularly excited to speak with her favourite son over FaceTime. Michele tolerated it. 😆

Tomorrow we see Mona and then Launceston. Good night!

Another early start but a lot closer to our destination. The Stamford was a good choice, the beds were comfy, the shower was hot and all up it was fuss free. Downstairs we thought we could find a cab but the Town car driver negotiated a price and took us past the horrific traffic through a shortcut that he knew and dropped us down the bottom of T2. Awesome choice! It saved us at a whole heap of time in traffic, well worth the extra dollars.

At the airport the queues were horrendous, beyond anything we had ever seen before. The security line started outside the doors. We were a little worried, even though we were 3 hours early for our flight. Thankfully the airport seemed to be much better organised than we had heard on previous days and our bags were dropped and we were through security within an hour.

After a couple of hours lazing around drinking coffee we headed to our terminal, where our flight was finally called to board, yayyy!! The flight to Hobart was so short (only an hour and a half) and before we knew it we were collecting our hire car from the airport carpark and on the road!

Port Arthur was our first stop. We toasted our first meal in Tasmania with 2 glasses of Arras to wash down our pizzas. The tickets to go into the site were $47 each, but included a free informative cruise past the Isle of the Dead and around the Port Arthur bay. This was lovely. It also included a 45min introductory tour, which we skipped because it was getting late and we needed to get to Hobart before dark. Instead we took ourselves on a speedy tour through some of the ruins and viewed the gallery, then got back into our car to head to the Movenpick Hotel in Hobart.

The hotel is very modern and the staff are very friendly and accommodating. We checked in and then headed down to the restaurant for dinner. Michele had a Cape Grim eye fillet, and Teresa had fresh Tasmanian oysters and Italian meatballs. This was washed down with a delicious Derwent Estate Pinot Gris. 5 star rating for everything!

We are so happy to finally be on our holiday and tomorrow the birthday celebrations begin. Good night!

We had hoped to get back to Europe this year but a range of circumstances have caused us to postpone. We decided that our holiday this year will still be across a ditch, but a smaller one. We booked a week in Tasmania.

With the torrential weather and after reading horror stories about extreme delays checking in and navigating Sydney domestic airport, we decided to err on the side of caution and be super early for our 6:55am boarding call to Hobart. Our alarms were set for 3am and the taxi booked for 3:45am.

Even though the taxi was pre-booked and paid the day before, we still had a panic when we logged onto the app at 3:35am and the appointed driver was sitting at a residence in Miranda for another 10mins without moving. We were able to call the driver through the 13cabs app however, and he answered on our second call and assured us he was on his way. He was 10mins late but luckily we had built plenty of time for error into our trip. The roads were clear, the rain had subsided for a short time, and we had a good run to the airport.

Arriving at the airport, we breezed through baggage drop & security and then had lots of time to kill. Coffee & good lounge seats by the window allows for a comfortable and scenic couple of hours as we watched the poor airport staff outside battle through the wild weather.

We made our way to the gate and did some trivia while waiting for the boarding call. There was a delay but we were still in good spirits, as the man next to us had decided to join in on our quiz and we were having fun. Then it was announced over the loudspeaker that our flight had been cancelled due to not being able to have enough staff. Great. The poor guy next to us cursed and told us that it was the second time in 2 days that this flight had been cancelled.

Everybody made their way to the service desk and just waited. Virgin were already relocating people’s flights which Teresa discovered when she contacted them on the phone. We retrieved our luggage and the next part of our adventure began.

In true Renneberg form we refused to let this news dim our holiday and so we booked the Stamford Plaza close to the airport for our flight (hopefully) tomorrow morning. Even though it was early in the morning and check in was not until 2pm, the hotel stored our bags and gave us a key to their lounge, which was a kind of lobby space with computers and a phone. We were able to call the hotel and car company in Hobart to inform them of the cancellation. Both companies were very understanding and changed our booking without charge. It seems that this is life at the moment and everyone is very accommodating.

Once the formalities had been addressed we made our way into the city and had a lovely brunch (although it felt like dinner 🤪) at The Grounds in the City. We had a good walk around and shared a bottle of wine at Cargo bar. A taxi back to the hotel and now ready for dinner and an early night. Fingers crossed tomorrow’s flight goes ahead. Good night!

Our last day in Frankfurt was spent together as a family. Scott took us for a long drive through the country in a Mercedes car-to-go (of course via the autobahn) our to the longest suspension bridge in Germany. It was over 300m long and across a deep gorge.

Michele and Scott were game enough to walk across and marveled at the spectacular views. Teresa was an excellent supervisor.

Arriving back into Frankfurt we realised that we hadn’t eaten all day, so we found a German restaurant and finally had a delicious (massive) crispy pork knuckle!

Saying goodbye to Scott is always hard and we will miss him very much.

Goodbye holiday, hello Australia 2020.

Good night!!

The ICE train we had reserved for the Hamburg to Frankfurt was replaced with an older one.

We had bought first class tickets but were informed that there were no reserved seats. We found an empty booth in one of the first class carriages but were then informed that this train had no Wifi. What??? Do we actually have to speak to each other? Ha ha. It was lovely. We caught up on the blog and enjoyed the scenery.

The train conductor was a lovely young man who was keen to have a chat and asked about the fires.

We also had a cart come through a few times with refreshments and snacks.

At Hanover we were joined by another passenger who was a maths/physics teacher. We chatted as best we could with his limited English but it was much better than our German!!!

We know Frankfurt well enough now to get to Scott’s place on our own. A trip that takes less than 10 minutes on foot from the main Hauptbahnhoff.

It was great to be back with Scott. He had made an awesome batch of pierogi for us and was preparing a schnitzel feast for when Amadeusz joined us.

The meal was exquisite and was washed down with a white wine and red wine provided by Amadeusz. Then it was time for the games!

Monopoly was the first game, which Teresa won. Then the good kids went to bed and, as usual, Amadeusz and Michele (the naughty ones) stayed up to play Yahtzee and drink vodka until the early hours of the morning. So good to catch up though.

After a good night’s sleep we set out to see some more of the sights of Frankfurt. There is a tower which has a observation deck at the top . We rode the elevator to the 55th floor and walked up the open air! It is a bit freaky as there is glass all around. The views were spectacular!

Lunch at the Selzkammen restaurant was Savoury soup, Pork Schnitzels with mashed potato and peas with carrots and a savoury sauce.

Frankfurt has a very large shopping precinct so off we went to explore.

Michele and Teresa stopped at L’Avenue bar which was interesting as they still allowed smoking inside and we could only access wifi inside. We were given a table at the very back away from the smokers.

We returned to the apartment which was being readied by Scott for his AirBnB guest.

Tonight we will be staying at the Hotel Excelsior which was the hotel we stayed in 2 years ago with Irene! It is right next to the Hauptbahnhoff which we will be catching a train from to the airport. Tomorrow is our last day. Gute nacht!

We had a very early start to catch our 4.55am Flixbus to Hamburg. The bus stop was just down the road from our hotel so it was easy to drag our luggage there.

While driving through Denmark we noticed that there was a section of the Baltic Sea that we had to cross. And a nice surprise for this trip was that the bus had to cross this sea on a ferry!

After brekki we took a walk around the boat and stopped out on the portside just in time to see the sun rise up over the water.

Such an unexpected but spectacular addition to our trip. To think that our entire bus/ferry trip only cost €17 each!

When we arrived on the ferry the driver announced that we have a 40 minute break. Wow! We walked up a couple of flights of stairs and had our pick of places to get coffee and food from. We chose the front of the boat, which was a little pricier but we got first class views of crossing the waters at dawn looking into Germany, whilst enjoying coffee and a buffet breakfast.

Our hotel in Hamburg seemed to be in the busy, seedier part of town, but it was very central and a quick walk from the main bus station and Central train station (where we will catch a train back to Frankfurt from tomorrow). We hauled our bags up a long flight of stairs to reception only to be told that our room is on the 4th floor, and sorry, the lift is broken. Lucky this place is only $65 a night and only for one night!

We felt sorry for the poor housekeeping staff as we passed them, as no lift would mean lugging all of their cleaning products, linen and rubbish up and down all day.

We took the front office staff member’s advice and walked to a street around the corner to find a restaurant for lunch. We found what looked like a little pub and ordered currywurst and a large beer each. The friendly ladies behind the bar giggled at our delight and need to take a photo when we got our food.

Hamburg is quite a large port and we set off to find the water. Michele’s google maps hadn’t saved offline properly so we found a little cafe on the Alster lake to connect to the wifi (the pub had no wifi), ordered a cocktail each and reloaded the map. While we here we noticed a boat cruising along the lake and looked up buying tickets on the internet. We found that we were able to purchase 2 tickets for the 2:30pm cruise online. Perfect!

The boat was quite full when we got on so we didn’t get a window seat, but it was still very easy to see. Refreshments and snacks were available for purchase on board and we also found that we could connect our phones via wifi to the audio information for an explanation of the sights we were going past in English.

The cruise was an hour long and took us past some of the most expensive real estate in Hamburg. Including a house that Diana and Charles stayed in almost exactly 9 months before William was born. So the Hamburgers joke that William is ‘made in Germany’.

After our cruise we alighted and walked up a little way to admire the Rathause (local town hall). This building is quite magnificent and very ornate, the photos don’t really do it justice.

Darkness was descending and we decided to navigate our way back towards our hotel and find a place for dinner.

There was a busy restaurant on the same street where we had lunch and we were lucky to get a table for 2. Germany can be a little backward when it comes to using credit cards. Some places accept Visa, others only accept credit cards that are specific to Germany. This restaurant informed us that they take cash only. So interesting to think that we had just come from Sweden, a country where many restaurants are now cash-free. We never had to withdraw any cash in Denmark or Sweden, we were able to use our everyday VISA debit card no matter where we went. No extra fees apply when you pay this way.

We both ordered Weiner schnitzel with horseradish sauce with potatoes and salad. They were delicious and washed down with dark beer and vodka!

Before heading home we stopped at the extremely busy Central station to work out exactly where we need to be tomorrow morning. We worked out that the escalators at the side of the stairwells sensed which way you wanted to go (up or down) and changed accordingly, how cool!

Now it was time to go back to the hotel room and rest up, ready for our fast train ride to Frankfurt (and Scott!) tomorrow. Gute nacht!

This was our last day in Malmo so we took our time before heading off to the restaurant that our Front Office manager, Mikael, had recommended for a traditional Swedish menu.

Of course, the Australian bushfires are still big news. The world is behind us and people we meet are empathetic and concerned.

We were also concerned for the poor people affected by the Ukrainian plane crash…. just heart wrenching!

Bullen was easy to find and already well patronised by locals. The special for today was pork fillets with white sauce and potatoes which Michele ordered and Teresa chose the meatballs with gravy, pickled cucumbers, lingonberries and mashed potatoes. We had finally found some local cuisine!

We wandered around for a while and walked across a bridge with shoe sculptures down each side. We aim to find out what this means to Malmo.

It was time stop for refreshments and we returned to the cafe from the night before.

The weather was still drizzly so we decided it was best to go home and ready ourselves for the very early start tomorrow.

We had some chips and dip but Michele got hungry and decided to try Uber Eats for the first time ever. The app showed a range of options and she picked a Mexican burrito. When the app showed that the delivery was here, she went downstairs and was informed by the front office staff that Uber Eats is actually illegal in Sweden and that she probably wouldn’t eat her order. She walked outside the hotel just to be sure, and there was a guy in a car who confirmed who she was before handing her the most delicious burrito ever!

There was a really interesting documentary about the band 10CC. Will have to find it sometime back home.

Another amazing day in Scandinavia!

We awoke, got ready and walked down the street to the Central Station to catch a train to Copenhagen for the day. Buying a ticket was relatively simple from the ticket machine once we realised that Köpenhamn is the Swedish word for Copenhagen. The train took us back across the Oresund bridge and we alighted at Copenhagen Central station.

The weather in Copenhagen was much the same as Malmö, very drizzly. We put on our hoods and navigated the 3km to the Little Mermaid statue. The statue itself is quite small and underwhelming, but….when in Copenhagen…

On the way we also viewed many other Copenhagen landmarks, like the magnificent Amalienborg (royal castle) and St Frederick’s church.

After we visited the Little Mermaid, the rain had kicked up a notch, so we decided that we needed lunch and a dry off. There was a little restaurant advertising traditional Danish food called Cafe Toldboden. Smørrebrød are a type of open-faced sandwich served with a choice of toppings. The very friendly waiter informed us that the menu is a list of the toppings that you can choose from and all are served on a traditional danish rye bread. He had sat us on a table right next to a wall of akvavit (Danish snaps) but informed us with a smile that it was not ‘serve-yourself’.

Teresa chose 3 types of herring on her bread, and Michele chose roast beef with remoulade, fried capers, pickles, fried onions and fresh horseradish. We of course had to oblige and pair our meals with a beer and the traditional shot of akvavit, which was chosen by our waiter. The meals came out and were honestly a holiday highlight. So delicious!! We decided to share one last plate so we ordered the Smørrebrød with fried fish, remoulade (like a homemade tartare sauce), sundried tomato and dill. This was one tasty too, but we agreed that our first dishes were the best. We paid the bill, which was probably the most expensive meal we’ve had, but we are in an expensive country and the food was well worth it.

Leaving the restaurant, we trudged through the rain with the intentions of seeing more landmarks. We saw Kastellet (an old fortress) and made our way to Rosenberg, another beautiful castle, before finally admitting to each other that our saturated coats were not fit for rain and we were no longer enjoying walking around like drowned rats. We found a cafe to have a drink in and dry off and Michele looked at Google maps and realised the Metro was across the road…Hallelujah!

We were so close to the Merman but we were so desperate to get out of the rain that we missed it. Of course, we wished the entire time that we could send this much-needed rain to Australia.

The Copenhagen Metro is very clean and easily navigated. It all appeared to be underground and we were able to catch a train directly to the Central Station and then hop on another train back to Malmö.

We wanted to get some supplies for the evening and quickly realised that buying wine is not as easy as it is in Eastern Europe, where you just pick it up from the supermarket. We actually had to walk into the main part of town to find a Systembolaget, which appears to be the liqor store of Sweden. We were a little peckish for dinner and found a bar/cafe/restaurant and ordered a couple of dishes. One was cauliflower croquets and the other was described as ‘fried pork fat’ with mushroom. What came out was giant pieces of crispy-fried puffed pork crackling with mushroom dust and dipping mayonnaise. Not what we expected but both dishes were delicious!! Great low-carb meal.

Bellies satisfied, we made our way back home to our warm and dry apartment. Tomorrow we will check out the traditional Swedish restaurant that Mikael, our friendly hotel front office staff, has recommended. Godnatt!

Sunrise is around 8.30 am here and it will set at 4pm.

We were hoping for a hair fix and found a hairdresser but will have to wait until tomorrow. So we wandered on to try and find the Turning Torso building. It was difficult to see in the fog but we found an old castle, Malmö Castle, which was once a fortress, a prison, and is now a museum. We strolled through Kings Park hoping to finally find a squirrel. No such luck!

It’s been really difficult to find somewhere traditional to eat authentic Swedish food. We walked and walked and just couldn’t not find a restaurant or cafe that was not Asian, Italian, French or Middle Eastern (we can find all of these in Sydney). We made the frustrating decision to go back to the restaurant that we had lunch in yesterday (it was delicious, just not what we wanted) and washed our frustrations away with a couple of Smoking Pot cocktails (just fancy mojitos) and another truffled mushroom pizza.

Teresa suggested that we catch the train to Helsingborg. This was originally part of the plan, as she wanted to visit the museum of Failed Designs. She has since found out that this museum is closed, but the trip looked interesting anyway.

The train is easy to buy tickets for. It is a smooth ride and the trains are clean and quiet.

The countryside was shrouded mainly in fog but there were glimpses of quaint housing, modern windmills and lovely towns. There was much construction occurring and the landscape was dotted with cranes here and there.

Since it was still daylight (albeit for another 1 1/2 hours) we decided to get on a ferry across to Helsingør in Denmark. This is a very easy process directly from the Helsingborg train station. The ferry is enormous and goes every 20mins. We walked on board, purchased some refreshments in the form of sparkling wine, and chose a spot in the lounge to watch our journey across Oresund.

The trip was smooth and coming into Helsingør we noticed a rather large castle on a point. A quick google revealed that it is actually the castle that Shakespeare’s Hamlet lived in. This also made sense of the fact that the Ferry we travelled on was named Hamlet. We walked around the castle and the grounds, quite spectacular. The museum inside was closing in 15mins at 4pm so we made the decision not to pay to go in.

It was getting dark so after a bit more exploring we found a little restaurant on the water to have a beer in. We also were delighted to meet the restaurant owner’s Australian Shepherd, names Kenzo, who offered his belly to anyone passing by.

After our refreshments we caught the ferry back across to Helsingborg in search of somewhere to eat. Once again we could not find any authentic restaurants so we settled in a little Italian restaurant instead. We both ordered a pasta dish and a vodka each, both nice but nothing to write home about. We did get speaking to the ladies at the table beside us, who once again expressed their empathy with Australia about the bushfires. We finished our meals, paid the bill and hopped on the train for the hour-long trip back to Malmö.

While we were on the train we used our app to convert what dinner had cost us..$110! We’re not in Eastern Europe anymore Toto! (Thanks for the quip Scott)

Tomorrow we have frisor appointments and will be salon-ready once again. Godnatt!

We left Riga very early in the morning surrounded by snow. We caught a taxi to the airport which cost around €11. The airport was very busy but we found wifi and a good cafe, to sit at, right next to the boarding gate.

The plane took a while to take off because they needed to wash all the ice and snow off the wings. This was a bigger Air Baltic plane than the last one and it was full. Air Baltic were efficient and easy to deal with, mostly being able to check in online and get mobile boarding passes. Security was thorough at the airport and off we went to Copenhagen.

At Copenhagen airport we made our way through to baggage claim which took a while and then walked straight out …. no passport checks.

The train to Malmo is really easy to buy tickets at the station and go to platform 1 where you board the train that travels across the Oresund Bridge directly to Malmo, Sweden.

Our accommodation is only 450 metres from Malmo Central Station so we easily walked to The Best Western Royal and were pleasantly surprised that we could check in immediately and not have to wait or store our luggage until 3pm.

So we had travelled from Latvia to Denmark and then Sweden in less than 3 hours!!!

Our room is on the fourth floor with a view of the canal. We are also back in the same time zone as Germany again.

Off we went to explore some of Malmo. Today is a public holiday in Sweden but being near the heart of the city we could find some shops and restaurants open for business. We stopped at a restaurant in the main part of town and decided to share a pizza and a couple of local beers. We got talking to a Swedish couple next to us and overall have found the people here quite friendly.

All the Swedish people we meet speak excellent English and can identify that we are Australian. There is much interest in the fires and it is being reported her on the news also.

We explored the cobble-stoned streets some more and then stopped into a little cafe for a Bellini and some wifi. Agreeing that we were both pretty tired from the early start, we decided that dinner would just be a snack, so we asked the waitress for a recommendation of a supermarket. She suggested Willy’s, which was just down the street and was full of everything needed.

After stocking up, we walked back to our hotel and settled in for the evening. Godnatt!