Europe – Page 4 – travellingzombie.com

Would you like my window seat?

We are 36,000ft in the air and the announcement comes over the tannoy:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, if you look out to the left side of the aircraft, there is a brilliant view of the Austrian Alps”.

I’m that person on a plane who is happy to give up their window seat. It’s not that I don’t want to see the views. I really do, but looking out of the airplane that high up as it’s tilting is guaranteed to do two things: make me panic and make me throw up.

Wandering Beeb is the opposite. He’s quite happy looking out of the window and taking photos, snapping away and telling me all about what he can see below.

I’m not the greatest on planes anyway – I tend to think that they only stay up in the air based on the power of wishful thinking, so anything that reminds me of how high up we are is a bit ‘no no’.

On this particular flight, however, I really want to see the Alps. I’ve looked out of the windows on purpose once before, as we headed into Vegas. It was night time and we were flying in over the strip. Instead of paying for a helicopter ride, we were able to see the whole of the strip as the plane made its approach to the runway. I was persuaded to take in the view after much discussion and whilst it made me feel quite sick, I was really glad for the experience.

This time, as the Alps passed below us, I took the decision to look out without any cajoling or discussion. It was beautiful. The line of the mountains and the colours of the sky were stunning. I manage to peek out long enough to see the snow-capped tips of the mountains against the horizon and to pass my phone to Wandering Beeb to take a couple of shots.

A big achievement for me, despite feeling a mixture of vertigo, sickness and fear. A beautiful site and a proud moment. Something to remember the next time I’m eager to pass up that window seat.

Plitvice Lakes: Where else can you walk over a waterfall?

Standing on a narrow wooden walkway, inches above a fast-flowing roar of water, my heart was pounding. There were no barriers and no safety rails. A small hand rail ran round some sections of the walkway, but disappeared at various points around the trail.

This was Plitvice Lakes. A national park in Croatia, around 3 hours journey from the town of Split. Known for its lakes and waterfalls, it was a stunning sight, but my heart was in my mouth the entire time.

Visiting the whole park in a day is a tough challenge. As we were only in Croatia for a couple of days, we planned to see as much of the park as possible in a day trip. Taking a coach to the top part of the park, we hiked around the top lakes and waterfalls, followed by a bus ride down to the bottom end of the park for the final hike around the waterfalls.

Croatia makes travelling easy. The names of the lakes and waterfalls are exactly how you would expect them to be: the biggest waterfall? Welcome to the ‘Big Splash’. A slightly smaller waterfall? It’s obviously ‘the Little Splash’! Follow the names of the waterfalls and the park is really easy to navigate.

The hike to the first set of waterfalls was the most impressive; walkways that hovered over the tops of the pouring water, deep lakes and the sounds of the water hitting the rock below.

We visited in October (luckily we avoided the rain!) and the paths were much clearer than they are in the height of summer. I don’t want to even think about navigating those walkways on a crowded day. It would have been very easy to step off the planks into the water below.

The colours in the park were amazing: deep blue and vivid aqua waters, green vegetation, grey rock and orange and brown autumn leaves. Everywhere we looked there was photo perfect scenery.

The final photo of the day was from the top trail, looking out over the cliff side at the waters below.

I’d love to visit the park again, perhaps spending a day or two to wander round and really take in the sights. Have you been to the park? What was your favourite site?

The Colosseum, Rome

The Colosseum is easily one of the most recognisable landmarks in Italy. Outlined against blue skies, it looms over Piazza del Colossel, imposing and inviting in equal measures. Home to gladiatorial games, the Colosseum’s history is steeped in blood.

The amphitheater is a huge structure, capable of holding around 50,000 – 87,000 people and widely known for displays of public combat and slaughter of gladiators and animals for public entertainment. It’s one of those places that you absolutely have to visit if you are in Rome and Wandering Beeb’s love of all things resembling Roman ruins meant that it was one of the first places on our hit list when we arrived in Italy.

We had booked on to the evening tour in advance and paid the extra fee to take a trip down to the bottom floors, which aren’t always included on the standard visit. It’s well worth booking ahead as you get to skip some of the line (which can be fairly long) and are guaranteed a place on the limited evening tour.

Inside, the structure feels bigger than its outside appearance and it’s much easier to make comparisons to more modern arenas, imagining crowds of people gathered to watch the latest entertainment.

From the bottom of the arena floor, looking up created a feeling of dizziness as each layer of the structure twisted away towards the sky. The layers underneath the main performance area were a warren of corridors, lined by the ruins of the cages where fighters and animals were held until their time on the arena floor. It was a very different view from the top of the arena, with huge arches creating a stunning silhouette.

We learned on the tour that they flooded the arena on occasion to stage boat shows and battles – something I wasn’t aware of. It must have been an incredible site to watch – imagine that happening in an arena in today’s time – it would take huge mechanics to make that happen!

The tour was well organised and gave us plenty of time to wander round the ruins. Standing on the top floor, we could see over to the ruins of the Roman fort, giving a helicopter view of the site.

Today, the arena is sometimes used for concerts and opera performances. Unfortunately, on the day we went, there were no performances taking place, although it’s something that we’d definitely go back to see.

Tickets into the Colosseum can be booked here. An entrance ticket and the underground tour usually cost around £25 per person.

From the Banks of the Danube River

An alternative view of Budapest

Whilst in Budapest, one of the main things that we wanted to do was to spend some time on the Danube. As Europe’s second longest river, we wanted to take some time to explore properly.

We had travelled to Budapest with a group of us, but had split up for the night to allow some time for the other two people in our travelling party to have a romantic meal out. Therefore, we found ourselves hopping on board a night boat to take a stunning trip down the Danube before meeting back up with our group for a trip to the ruin pubs.

The day before we had strolled down the riverbank in the Pest side of the City to take a look at the ‘Shoes on the Danube Bank’ memorial. Sixty pairs of shoes, made from iron are lined up on the river side to commemorate the massive loss of life of 3,500 people (mostly Jewish people) who were shot in 1945. After being told to remove their shoes and being shot, their bodies fell into the river, being swept away by the current. It’s a terrible reminder of the worst of humanity and seeing sixty pairs of shoes lined up along the river gives a sense of the scale of the atrocity.

The nighttime boat ride was a very different view as we passed the Hungarian Parliament buildings. Brightly shining against the dark night, it was an imposing building, full of grandeur and twinkling lights.

Chain bridge was magnificent to see in the dark and the sounds of the water rushing past us added to the experience. Illuminated gargoyles standing out in the darkness created a gothic edge to the views.

It was a beautiful way to see a different view of the city and travelling by river always feels much more exciting and exotic than by road.

Have you visited Budapest? What were your favourite experiences?