Over December 2023 through January 2024 I was fortunate to spend 3.5 weeks in Europe with my eldest daughter Imogen. This is a collection of a few photos and memories of that trip.

The complete stops, including flights from/to New Zealand and the various means of transport for each leg of the trip looked as follows:

If you want to skip to the specific sections of the trip click the following link:

A visualisation of the entire trip:

Glasgow, Scotland (16-18th December 2023)

Imogen had been studying at Strathclyde University for a semester and this presented the perfect excuse to go for a much anticipated post-Covid trip to Europe.

In an attempt to blow off some jetlag after arriving on the 16th December, we went to a Glasgow Celtics vs Edinburgh Hearts of Lothian football game. It was a great match but the home team lost in a shock upset so the crowd was a bit unhappy, however I loved it.

The following day we explored around the city, including University of Glasgow, Kelvingrove Park, Museum and the Botanic Gardens. I really enjoyed seeing the Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis:

On the way home, we walked via the Clyde River in the dark, something that I was keen to sight at least once whilst in Glasglow. In contrast to much of New Zealand, many of the major cities we were going to visit on this trip had major rivers flowing through them.

In a late decision, we decided to leave the following morning and head to St Andrew’s for a night instead of staying in Glasgow for a further night. I’d worked at St Andrew’s College in New Zealand for five years, and Imogen had attended the College for seven years as a student so a chance to visit the namesake was too good to pass up.

St Andrew’s, Scotland (18-19th December 2023)

After grey skies and rain and darkness from late morning and then again from early afternoon in Glasgow, it was nice to get a few glimpse of the blue sky again. St Andrew’s was largely deserted in the leadup to Christmas and when we visited the Castle and Cathedral it felt like we had it largely to ourselves – a real treat. The bus ride over from Glasgow was uneventful and afforded lovely views of the countryside.

The entrance to the Castle was a cool spot and reading about some of the history of this place just added to the adventure:

We spent a couple of hours listening to the audio tour and exploring the grounds and even just sitting in the pale sunlight soaking up the vibe of the place.

The view out over the water was stunning:

We wandered down to the even more derelict Cathedral – these buildings must have inspired awe in their heyday for the average person.

In the fading light we wandered through the St Andrew’s University campus – it was such a beautiful place:

That night, we watched Napoleon at the local cinema, a small and intimate venue – the movie however failed to live up to the hype and we felt it was a bit slow and boring.

The following morning after breakfast we had a brisk walk in cool temperatures to an ancient Pictish cemetery on Hallow Hill – the walk was invigorating but there was not much to see apart from a few small indentations in the ground! We took a more leisurely wander to St Andrew’s Golf Course, the spiritual home of golf, and enjoyed the views there.

We caught the bus to Edinburgh which went via a different route than which we had come, following the coastal road closely and stopping at lots of small villages along the way. The countryside, with frequent small villages, was so different to New Zealand where towns are often few and far between.

Edinburgh, Scotland (19-21st December 2023)

Arriving in Edinburgh, we walked a couple of kilometres from the bus station to our hotel and checked in. Imogen had been to Edinburgh a couple of times before during her stay at Glasgow so had a bit of a sense of direction and took me to see Edinburgh Castle in the dark, beautifully lit up with red lights and also the museum which was a great building. The exhibits inside highlighted the outsized contribution Scottish intellectuals had made to the enlightenment thinking and also scientific progress – it was truly impressive.

The National Edinburgh Museum
Edinburgh Castle lit up at night

We enjoyed a beautiful pizza dinner at an Italian restaurant with tiramisu for dessert and also booked tickets for the following night of Handel’s Messiah being performed by a local choir and orchestra. On first impressions, Edinburgh had a sense of being ‘closed in’ with tallish grey/brown buildings.

We had a reservation to explore Edinburgh Castle so we walked back in that direction for a lovely breakfast of eggs benedict at the Edinburgh Larder before proceeding back up the “Royal Mile” to the castle. Having worked at St Andrew’s College in New Zealand for five years, I was more than familiar with the “cross of holy St Andrew’s” and took this photo atop the castle:

Imogen and I spent around three hours exploring all that the castle had to offer – it was an amazing place so rich with history. We saw the Crown Jewels there and the incredible Scottish National War Memorial a place of solemnity and remembrance.

After exhausting ourselves walking and standing around the castle we left for lunch and then decided to do a short hike outside of Edinburgh up through Holyrood Park and to Arthur’s Seat. It was quite windy and cool, but with clear weather and suitable footwear we enjoyed the hike and views. We both chuckled over some of the more ambitious footwear choices by other tourists walking up the steep, slippery and in places quite muddy track to the summit!

A few of climbers silhouetted against the skyline climbing up Arthur’s Seat.

One of the highlights on the way down was visiting the ruins of St Anthony’s Chapel and I ended up taking one of my favourite photos of the entire trip there:

Feeling the fatigue, we went back to our accommodation and attempted a visit to a local laundromat (which turned out to be closed) before a traditional pub dinner and heading out to see Handel’s Messiah at the Edinburgh Queen’s Hall – a cool venue and a great performance. It was nearly three hours long and we had a good chat to a local Glaswegian couple who had come to watch. A couple of others were reading along to the sheet music during the performance (diehards!) and during the famous Hallelujah chorus quite a few people chose to stand which confused me, but a quick look online suggested:

This brings us to the business of standing during that famous chorus, a tradition said to have begun in 1743, when King George II rose from his seat, enthralled by the beauty of the music. Not wanting to offend the king, the audience also stood – or so the story goes.

With an early start the following morning, we walked home and packed knowing we needed to fly to Dublin with the adventure continuing.

Dublin, Ireland (21-24th December 2023)

Having scoped the buses needed to get us to the airport the day before, we were up early in the dark hoping we had got it right. Sure enough, the first one arrived on time, and took us back towards the bus exchange we had stopped at when we arrived from St Andrew’s and then we boarded an airport express bus that got us to Edinburgh Airport with plenty of time to spare (and thus time for eggs for breakfast!). In what would become a bit of a theme over the trip, my bags were singled out for further inspection by security!

Aiming to save some money we had bought Ryan Air tickets for the short flight thinking not too much could go wrong! Well, first of all the captain needed to be replaced as he was sick, that took over an hour to find a new pilot, then some dispute happened between passengers behind us requiring the staff to walk down the plane checking bags in the lockers and asking passengers to identify their baggage! Delayed nearly two hours on the ground with no air conditioning and in cramped seats we were finally off and landing in a very windy Dublin at 12:30pm with a bouncy landing to rival anything Wellington Airport can throw at you! Our bags emerged very quickly and with limited security checks (compared to NZ immigration) and the non-EU residents line being shorter than the EU residents, we were outside and getting on a bus to O’Connell Street before we knew it.

After checking into our accommodation on O’Connell Street, we had a quick lunch and walked through Dublin City centre. Of all the cities we visited, this felt the most like ‘home’ – perhaps it was the very wide streets (apparently the widest ‘main street’ of any major city in all of Europe) and the architecture was relatively modern as well. What was very noticeable was how many foreign languages were being spoken in the street – I’d say well over 50% of conversations I heard were not in English.

Imogen at the River Liffey shortly after arriving in Dublin

We explored Trinity College however the Book of Kells exhibit was closed due to the holiday season which was a shame.

That evening we went to a delicious Whole Foods restaurant which served up the closest thing to a ‘home cooked meal’ we had enjoyed so far, which was a nice change and then we went out to a bar with an Open Mic Comedy Night – was good fun, real mixture of talent and some very loud, drunk and obnoxious American guests there who tried to make it all about themselves. It was amusing to see it play out and how oblivious they were to the fact the rest of the patrons (mostly English, Irish, Japanese and us kiwis) were pretty unimpressed with them!

It had been fun checking out the Christmas markets, buskers and vibe – much of Dublin had a fun feel to it, but there were elements that certainly felt a bit edgier.

The River Liffey dominates downtown Dublin – it looked cold and dark in Winter and also quite hard to get out of it if you were unfortunate enough to fall in! A quick internet search revealed that numerous people drown in it each year (mostly inebriated).

The following morning we enjoyed a buffet breakfast at our accommodation, dropped some clothing off for a laundry service (strict reminders to collect that afternoon as they were closing for Christmas that day!) before we walked to the National Art Gallery and asked the reception “we only have 90mins what would you recommend we check out?” Thanks to their guidance, I got to see my first ‘live’ Rembrandt, Picasso and Cezanne paintings – it was awesome.

We then walked to the meeting point for our Dublin City Walking Tour. It had an American academic from Trinity College leading it – she was quirky and somewhat unstructured. It was ok, but not amazing however I did learn a few things over the 2.5hrs walking in the cold. After an abortive visit to the Garden of Remembrance (it was closed), we opted to go to the General Post Office Museum instead and learn more about the 1916 Easter Rising. This was virtually deserted but super interesting and very interactive exhibits – good value for money.

Imogen was keen to check out a local pub that would play traditional Irish music so we walked in the dark a couple of kilometres and found one where we stayed for a couple of hours. It was small and pretty packed but I ended up near the bar talking to an Irish guy that simply loved New Zealand rugby and was so keen to talk to me about it (right down to a provincial level!)

On the way home we saw an eclectic group of people dressed up in strawmen / ghost like costumes playing traditional Irish instruments and singing. We were a bit uncertain what was going on but after doing some research it appears they may have been a group of “mummers”

For at least 400 years during Christmas season, Irish mummers have dressed in straw outfits while going house-to-house captivating residents with their plays, rhymes, singing, dancing, and music. In the mid-1900s, this custom nearly died out, partly due to fractures in Irish society. Now, however, mumming is resurgent.

These masked singers carry on an Irish Christmas tradition (nationalgeographic.com)

It was a fun way to round out a good day.

The following morning we walked back into town to catch the bus to Kilmainham Gaol. Having assumed we could pay for buses with our credit card like we had in Scotland there was a mad panic from Imogen to scrounge the last of her Euro dollars to pay for the fare. Unfortunately, we were pretty short but the kind driver let us on anyway.

The Gaol was a place of incredible sadness and history with an excellent guide who brought it and the stories of inmates to life for us.

There were many poignant stories that stood out but the yard were the leaders of the Easter Rebellion were executed was powerfully tragic:

Also powerful was this cross stitch by one of the inmates who had been allowed to marry of the condemned leaders of the Rising the night before his execution, and who later became an inmate herself in the gaol:

It was a sombre mood to finish the tour, thinking of these men and women and the price they paid for their freedoms. Imogen, a fan of poetry, WB Yeats and memorisation recited Easter 1916 for me:

I have met them at close of day   

Coming with vivid faces

From counter or desk among grey   

Eighteenth-century houses.

I have passed with a nod of the head   

Or polite meaningless words,   

Or have lingered awhile and said   

Polite meaningless words,

And thought before I had done   

Of a mocking tale or a gibe   

To please a companion

Around the fire at the club,   

Being certain that they and I   

But lived where motley is worn:   

All changed, changed utterly:   

A terrible beauty is born.

That woman’s days were spent   

In ignorant good-will,

Her nights in argument

Until her voice grew shrill.

What voice more sweet than hers   

When, young and beautiful,   

She rode to harriers?

This man had kept a school   

And rode our wingèd horse;   

This other his helper and friend   

Was coming into his force;

He might have won fame in the end,   

So sensitive his nature seemed,   

So daring and sweet his thought.

This other man I had dreamed

A drunken, vainglorious lout.

He had done most bitter wrong

To some who are near my heart,   

Yet I number him in the song;

He, too, has resigned his part

In the casual comedy;

He, too, has been changed in his turn,   

Transformed utterly:

A terrible beauty is born.

Hearts with one purpose alone   

Through summer and winter seem   

Enchanted to a stone

To trouble the living stream.

The horse that comes from the road,   

The rider, the birds that range   

From cloud to tumbling cloud,   

Minute by minute they change;   

A shadow of cloud on the stream   

Changes minute by minute;   

A horse-hoof slides on the brim,   

And a horse plashes within it;   

The long-legged moor-hens dive,   

And hens to moor-cocks call;   

Minute by minute they live:   

The stone’s in the midst of all.

Too long a sacrifice

Can make a stone of the heart.   

O when may it suffice?

That is Heaven’s part, our part   

To murmur name upon name,   

As a mother names her child   

When sleep at last has come   

On limbs that had run wild.   

What is it but nightfall?

No, no, not night but death;   

Was it needless death after all?

For England may keep faith   

For all that is done and said.   

We know their dream; enough

To know they dreamed and are dead;   

And what if excess of love   

Bewildered them till they died?   

I write it out in a verse—

MacDonagh and MacBride   

And Connolly and Pearse

Now and in time to be,

Wherever green is worn,

Are changed, changed utterly:   

A terrible beauty is born.

Easter, 1916 by William Butler Yeats | Poetry Foundation

We took an Uber back into the city since we had no cash for a bus and after some lunch and a rest we walked to Glasnevin Cemetery (about 3km) for a walking tour we had booked. This was simply outstanding and started off with a powerful rendition of Patrick Pearse’s graveside speech at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa (founding father of Fenians). The speech clearly indicated that some form of uprising would be happening (as indeed it did in Easter 1916) and concluded with the now immortal words:

They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! – they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.

Ireland unfree shall never be at peace – Wikipedia

The tour was a ‘greatest hits’ of men and women that had contributed to the fight for Ireland to be free of British rule. There were many memorable headstones but often the most famous people had some of the smaller headstones that you would have otherwise walked right past – hence the value of a guided tour.

The grave of Michael Collins was perhaps one of the most impressive and notable:

Walking home in the gathering gloom, we reflected on how fortunate we were to be on this trip together, learning of this incredible history and grateful for the many brave men and women who came before us and who loved freedom. We spent the remainder of the evening planning our post-Paris journey and decided to head to Switzerland for a few days before going on to Munich.

Northern Ireland (24th-27th December 2023)

Awaking on Christmas Eve, I was particularly excited as we were going to be heading to Northern Ireland by train and catching up with an old work colleague called Danny from when I was in my first teaching job at Catholic Cathedral College. It was a breezy and drizzly walk to the train station and we stumbled on this statue of James Joyce that necessitated a quick cellphone pic (my main camera was in my bag due to the rain):

The train ride was easy and with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 meaning there was no effective border between the Republic of Ireland (part of the EU) and Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom that recently left the EU as part of “Brexit” we were soon disembarking and seeing Danny for the first time. Imogen had arranged to catchup with University friends who were in Belfast so I drove home with Danny and met his wife and three kids for the first time. Keen to stretch my legs, we went for a walk around the local neighbourhood and I was amazed to see some Loyalist murals even in a small town like Ballyclare on Erskine Road. Danny discouraged me from taking photos of them (which may have drawn unwanted attention) but I found these online:

Further down the main road we reached Charles Drive and saw the following murals (again, sourced online not from photos I took) showing the memorial walls to loyalists who died in WW1 at the Battle of the Somme showing the complicated loyalties of local men to the British crown:

I was amazed to see these in such a small village and away from the more well known conflict areas in Northern Ireland and it showed to me just how pervasive these feelings were and still are. In this interesting article sadness was expressed by the local politicians that these murals were still appearing as late as 2016:

“As other towns in the country are moving away from this, it’s distressing a small minority are still trying to drag the people of Ballyclare back to the past,” they had said.

Sadness voiced over new loyalist terror murals (newsletter.co.uk)

We enjoyed an early dinner before picking Imogen up from the local train station and heading to a Christmas Eve communion service at Danny’s church. It was such a great evening and encouraged me so much – we could literally be on the far side of the world from our home but come together as Christian believers and celebrate the essence of Christmas together.

We are so blessed.

With three young children, Christmas morning was always going to be an early start so we were up at 6:30am and watching the kids open a mountain of presents before enjoying pancakes and bacon for Christmas breakfast and off to Church for a celebration service of the birth of Jesus. We then drove for just over an hour to Derry / Londonderry to Danny’s sister’s house where there was a huge lunch with extended family. Again, being away from home for such an important time of year it was amazing to be included ‘as family’ with another group of believers and with over 10 young kids there it was a noisy, joyous, funny day. Similar to our own family Christmas days, the kids all performed something – from a song, to a musical instrument to a recitation with Imogen getting in on the act and recited a WB Yeats poem (not a patriotic/revolutionary one for the Northern Irish audience!) called An Irish Airman Foresees His Death:

I know that I shall meet my fate

Somewhere among the clouds above;

Those that I fight I do not hate,

Those that I guard I do not love;

My country is Kiltartan Cross,

My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,

No likely end could bring them loss

Or leave them happier than before.

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,

Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,

A lonely impulse of delight

Drove to this tumult in the clouds;

I balanced all, brought all to mind,

The years to come seemed waste of breath,

A waste of breath the years behind

In balance with this life, this death.

An Irish Airman foresees his Death by William… | Poetry Foundation

Being Christmas, wet outside and mostly ‘family time’ I didn’t take many photos but here is one with Danny’s daughter, who joined the McNeill tradition of wearing our Christmas Cracker hats on upside down in honour of my Grandfather who did it accidentally one year!

After a full day of fun, we drove back to Danny’s sister-in-law’s holiday home near Castlerock on the northern coast where we stayed for a couple of nights.

The highlight of Boxing Day was travelling to the famed Giant’s Causeway with Danny and Imogen, where we ambled around 5km of stunning coastline:

It was a beautiful, peaceful place with squalls of rain blowing through and then sunlight emerging afterwards. On the way home we stopped in at Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, Nothern Ireland where my great-grandfather Patrick emigrated from on his way to New Zealand (via the US and Australia). It was very quiet on Boxing Day with most shops closed and we found a small cafe for lunch before walking around the very small town centre. I saw a war memorial that included reference to a Samuel McNeill and also the mandatory Orange Hall:

On the return to our accommodation Danny’s parents-in-law for dinner and his father-in-law is the brother of well known Christian apologist and Oxford professor of mathematics John Lennox. With the same Northern Irish accent, it was hilarious to hear him telling me “truth is always the first casualty” sounding exactly like his brother in both content and tone! It was a fun family night of playing games received for Christmas, some Secret Santa and looking at some photos of Danny’s time in New Zealand.

The following morning I went for a solo walk up the rural lane the house was situated in and just admired the scenery and the peace and quiet. We were to be leaving for Belfast and flying to London that afternoon and what started as a relaxed morning got a bit panicked trying to get the kids out of the house as they were going to the Snow White pantomime in Belfast City itself. There was a lot of surface flooding on the roads which caused us to go slow and it was a bit of a rush for Danny and family to get to the venue on time where we said farewell:

Keeping up my newly established tradition, I was keen to see the river running through the city (River Lagan) so an abortive walk was undertaken in the increasingly heavy rain. I got the briefest of glimpses before Imogen determined we would be late for the bus to the airport if we didn’t leave immediately. She put the foot down, barely looking back to see if I was keeping up – we made the bus with 3minutes to spare!

We made it to the very small Belfast Airport with time to spare, before experiencing another budget airline fail – this time we fully boarded the plane, waited for a long time, before disembarking, returning to the terminal to wait and then reboarding a different plane. It resulted in a 2.5hr delay getting to London. We landed at London Stansted airport and caught the train easily into Liverpool Station (only 3 stops). We had a 1.5mile walk to our accommodation in Whitechapel and Google Maps insisted on taking us down some very quiet and dark side streets which made me feel a bit nervous, so I rerouted onto busier roads for the remaining walk to our accommodation. A busy day and it was after midnight before we got to bed.

London, England (27th-31st December 2023)

A slow start the following morning, we walked from Whitechapel down to the River Thames. We saw the London Tower and London Bridge where I realised my camera had been left ‘on’ in my bag and gone flat so I was unable to take photos on it and had to use my phone only. Nevertheless, Imogen took one of my favourite photos of the trip (I just wish it had been on my better camera):

We carried on walking to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and then on the way back we saw St Paul’s Cathedral and decided to go to Evensong there tomorrow evening. We had lunch near the British Museum and I bought a book from the London Review Bookshop (amazing!). The British Museum was incredible and, despite having to queue for over an hour to get in (even having pre-booked tickets) it was well worth it. The ancient Egypt section was particularly impressive and seeing the Rosetta Stone in person was really special.

It was cool to see some New Zealand Māori artwork in the museum, including this stunning korowai (cloak):

The British Museum is so full of interesting things but really does require multiple visits where you target only a small section of interest on the visit otherwise it can become overwhelming. Emerging from a few hours there we walked the wet and windy streets before catching the tube back to our accommodation.

After a rest, we caught the tube back to Victoria Station and had dinner in the Market Halls Victoria which was a funky foodhall with lots of choices. We then walked to the Apollo Theatre and watched “Wicked” – it was ‘ok’, Imogen enjoyed it more than I but it was still a fun experience (there was limited shows available given the late bookings we he had done as most were sold out). We departed as soon as the curtain came down, walking across the road to the tube station and had a serendipitous moment of the train pulling up the second we walked onto the platform – so efficient and home by 11pm.

I’d been joking with Imogen that we needed to try and crack 30,000 steps in a day (measured on my Garmin Fenix watch) and had said I thought today may be a good one for it. As it turned out, we hit 34,217 which did prove to be the biggest single day of walking we did. We walked from Whitechapel through the CBD which was dead quiet with businesses all closed. We saw the iconic “Gherkin” and “Cheesegrater” buildings up close and then down through Camden, Covent Garden and down to Trafalgar Square.

We went through the “Horses Gate” and on to Buckingham Palace which was crowded and somewhat underwhelming to be honest.

Imogen then guided me down to St James Park where she had been earlier during her time studying in Glasgow on a trip to London and we saw the impressive and poignant tribute to British Bomber Command and the sacrifice they’d made during WW2 as well as the tribute to the contributions from New Zealand armed services on the corner of Hyde Park:

We took an extended walk around Hyde Park, stopping for a hot chai to drink, saw a winter carnival and then walked to a Mayfair Hotel where Imogen had booked a classic British “High Tea” – it was quite the experience and not cheap (close to NZD$350! for the two of us) but a great memory in a very fancy part of London. From there, we traversed London on foot via Mayfair and Picadilly back to St Paul’s Cathedral for Evensong. It was only a 35min service but we wanted to arrive early for good seats. It’s free entry if you’re coming for Evensong but consequently you’re not allowed to take photos (which many around us ignored pulling out their phones). It’s an incredible building and a miracle it survived the Blitz bombing of London by Germany in the early stages of WW2. The service was beautiful and I’m so glad we attended.

We were scheduled to take the “Chunnel” train to Paris very early the following morning so we walked home, packed up and had an early night.

Awakening at 5:15am and walking and taking the Whitechapel tube to St Pancras International Station we quickly learned all trains had been cancelled due to a problem on the track. Hugely disappointed, I rang our Travel Insurance to see if we could book on a subsequent train in 1st class, but by the time we got through and had approval they were all sold out. Swinging into action, Imogen bought tickets on British Airways to fly to Paris but in our haste, we accidentally booked them for the following afternoon at 1pm, meaning we would need to stay in London an additional day/night. We returned to our accommodation we had checked out of only a couple of hours earlier, booked another night and then thought of how to spend the day. I thought I better call our hotel in Paris to let them know we would be late, so tried the classic “Bonjour! Parle vous Anglais?” I got a curt “oui” and so proceeded in English to let them know we would arrive the following day and to hold our reservation.

With time on our hands we returned to the Thames and spent over three hours on the HMS Belfast enjoying both the audio tour and some of the live presentations from volunteers on the boat. Having previously done a similar tour on the USS Midway in San Diego I knew how awesome these could be and this certainly lived up to the expectations.

Feeling pretty hungry after the early start and walking, we returned to the Borough Market hoping for some lunch but it was impossibly busy so we walked further afield and grabbed a pizza. Sensing some adventure and missing my bikes, I suggested we hire some Lime eBikes and ride down the River Thames to see Big Ben and Westminister Abbey. Imogen needed a little bit of convincing but in the end, she loved it:

I was really impressed with the cycling infrastructure and when we decided to return home we looked at the time on the Tube (22mins estimated) and the eBikes (21mins estimated) – we opted for the eBikes and got home in 18minutes!

That night we went to see New Zealand producer Taika Waititi’s latest film called Next Goal Wins at the local theatre:

Afterwards, we had some Japanese Bento Bowls for dinner and headed to bed.

Paris, France (31st December 2023 – 2nd January 2024)

The next morning, Sunday 31st December, New Year’s Eve, we had a leisurely breakfast before heading to the Whitechapel station to buy tickets to Heathrow Airport. There was some issues with the ticketing machine that prevented us from being able to buy the tickets. Talking to the attendant he waved us through and said just explain it at the other end… I took a photo of his badge to try have some verification of this and show we had not just sneaked into the train without paying! We changed trains at Heathrow for Terminal 5 and then had to bluff our way through the station gates without tickets. The man was not happy but eventually let us through, so we got a ‘free’ train ride from Whitechapel to Heathrow.

Given our previous dramas with budget airlines flying between the UK and Ireland as well as the TV shows highlighting peak travel delays at Heathrow, I was nervous about how well our flight would go, but fortunately it was absolutely seamless. It was only at the other end in Paris that things slowed down – Imogen’s bag emerging almost immediately, then we had to wait another 45mins for my bag to arrive! I was using an Apple AirTag so I could see the bag was with us in Paris, it just took a long time to emerge.

We caught a train from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Paris Central station – it was so large it was hard to find the correct exit and after eventually locating it, we walked in the gloom for 20mins to our hotel and checked in. We were on the very top floor of our apartment style accommodation and we took a couple of photos on the small balcony as the light faded:

After getting changed we headed out to find some dinner before aiming to go to the Champs Elysse and joining in the New Year’s Eve celebrations. Without a booking we managed to squeeze into a busy restaurant where the menu was only in French – Imogen accidentally ordering Steak Tartare (raw mince) before the waiter helpfully corrected her in commendable English.

We walked to the Champs Elysse around 9pm so was relatively early and were able to get within around 250m of the Arc de Triumph where the main event was happening. It gradually filled up and media reported over 1million people attended. There was very heavy security present (men walking around with machine guns) as Paris was keen to show they could safely host very large scale events ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. There were a lot of entertaining acts, big screens to view them, loud music and a very enjoyable evening.

A viral photo emerged the following day of all the phones being held up to capture the countdown to the New Year – it was true that at times it was hard to see what was going on in the sea of phones:

One of the coolest things was the 20min laser light show in the countdown to midnight that was beamed up against the Arc de Triumph as a backdrop showcasing the history of Paris and sports as a leadup to the Olympics.

The event shutdown very quickly on midnight. There were a few moments of pushing and pulling as people tried to move towards the exits. Imogen and I linked arms and after about 15mins the crowds dispersed enough for us to complete the long walk home. I read in the media the following day that “only” 745 cars had been burned overnight during “celebrations”!! All in all, a big day, leaving London and flying to Paris and heading out for New Year’s Eve.

On New Year’s Day we had booked a ‘hop on, hop off’ bus so we could see as many of the iconic sites as possible given we’d lost a whole day in Paris due to the train situation on the 30th December. We went to a local bakery and Imogen ordered in passable French some delicious croissants. We caught the first bus at 10am and rode it until 5pm seeing all the sights:

  • Louvre (closed – New Year’s Day one of the only days it is closed!)
  • Eiffel Tower
  • Notre Dame
  • Arc de Triumph
  • River Seine

It was an epic day of sight seeing:

In an amazing coincidence, as we walked alongside the Seine Imogen spotted one of her friends from the University of Otago (who had also been studying in Glasgow) so she was able to say hi in Paris! Imogen found a nice white beret for herself and some gifts for her siblings and at 5:30pm we walked back to our accommodation:

After dinner we decided to walk to the incredible Basilica du Sacre-Couer de Montmartre – there were many people hanging around on the steps outside having fun, drinking, talking and inside it was a stunning Cathedral. Despite lots of signs saying no photos/videos to be taken, most people were. I refrained and so did not capture any of the inside which was just incredible.

As this was elevated, I could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance with a flashing light on top:

With another early start to catch the train to Switzerland, we had a relatively early night.

Lausanne, Switzerland (2nd-4th January 2024)

Awaking at 6:30am and walking to the metro, the station felt very old and decrepit compared to the trains in London and Glasgow. We had to a couple of transfers and long walks through the metro stations and getting deep underground. Imogen really shone in her ability to navigate metro/train/subway stations and end up on the correct platform and we arrived at the main train station for Geneva, Switzerland with plenty of time to spare.

We then got to enjoy the high speed train at 300kph with only 2x stops on the way to Geneva. The train was two stories high and we had reserved seats so was able to enjoy a stress free ride on a quiet train that was incredibly stable. We then transferred to a new train to ride another 30mins to Lausanne where we were going to staying. The streets in Lausanne were very steep and we huffed and puffed our way up to our hotel, stopping for a cheeky lunch of McDonalds (one of the few things open as it was a public holiday, and cost over NZD$50 for the two of us!). This photo gives some indication of how steep the street was:

After checking in and leaving our bags we went for a walk to explore. The Lausanne Cathedral was just up the road and was stunning:

An impressive stained glass window in the Cathedral

A really cool feature of Lausanne is they give visitors a free metro pass to get around during their stay which, given the steepness of the streets, meant we could ride the MRT from our hotel to the waterfront in a couple of minutes, rather than a 20min+ walk. I thought this was such a good initiative as it allowed us to explore more widely than we would otherwise have been able to do. The weather was noticeably cooler than Paris and London but we ventured on, walking through a delightful greenbelt above our accommodation:

The next morning we caught the MRT back down towards the central station and found a delightful cafe where, after some abortive attempts at French, the waitress kindly spoke (amazing) English to us to help with our orders. I am not one to usually take photos of food, but the granola and fresh bread basket was outstanding:

After the busyness and travel of the past few days, Lausanne felt like a good place to relax. It was considerably smaller than anywhere we had been so far (with perhaps exception of Northern Ireland) and so we very much treated the day like a rest day, walking through the botanical gardens and along the lake front of Lake Leman (which also is a border with France).

We visited the Lausanne Roman Museum (built on old Roman ruins) and learnt about the influence of Roman trade on the area, walking from there to a park like setting of an old Roman village where many foundations from the buildings still remained:

We used the free transport card to catch the bus back to town and then after a sushi lunch we visited a board game store – it was incredible how many board games they had in there (and many very expensive, well over $200). The owner said his store was a relatively small one but said board games were very popular in Switzerland.

We walked on the Modern Art Gallery which had some pretty cool exhibits, afterward we caught the MRT up the hill even further and did a lovely bush walk to try and view the Sauvebelin Tower – unfortunately, the closing hours had changed from 8pm to 5pm in January and so we just missed it being open!

With a population of only 137,000, Lausanne is pretty small and has claims to both the steepest MRT in the world and also being the smallest city in the world to have an MRT system. I can certainly state it works both effectively and alleviates the effort of climbing the steep hills. One interesting thing I saw here was a lot more eBikes (helpful on the hills) and also eBikes with childseats on the back – many parents riding their kids around by bike.

Zurich, Switzerland (4th January 2024)

Imogen decided we should not spend the entire day in Lausanne, but to instead leave after breakfast and spent half a day in Zurich on the way to Munich. This turned out to be a great plan as we had stunning weather in Zurich and enjoyed a very quick stop in this beautiful city.

Almost immediately, Imogen purchased that quintessential Swiss product: a watch! Rather than going ultra expensive, she got a cool Swatch watch.

We had a leisurely walk around the ‘old town’ which was stunningly beautiful and some Movenpick down by Lake Zurich (Zurichsee) which was delicious. To give you an idea of the cost, we had Japanese bento boxes which cost over NZD$100 for the two of us.

Having stored our luggage at the train station, we returned late afternoon to catch the train to Munich, a 3hr ride that went flawlessly, departing in fading light and arriving in Germany in the pitch black. The hotel was a 10min walk from the station.

Munich, Germany (4th-7th January 2024)

Since departing French speaking Lausanne, it was all German in Zurich and into Munich, noticing this first on the trains as we travelled. The following morning we caught the train and bus to Dachau Concentration Camp – arriving right on opening, we purchased tickets for the guided English tour starting at 11am and then walked around by ourselves in the virtually deserted camp. It was bitterly cold, with one of the few blue sky days we had encountered. I did not take any photos whilst there (not permitted and certainly did not feel appropriate). Exploring by just the two of us, deep in thought and contemplation, it was a real privilege to have that experience. Walking through the gas chambers and crematorium by ourselves was sobering in the extreme. Although it was not believed these were ever used on prisoners at this camp, it served as a model camp for others where they were absolutely used on prisoners.

I also learnt that this camp was mainly for general ‘undesirables’ such as political opponents, foreigners, homosexuals, gypsies etc. Whilst there were some Jewish prisoners, they were not many and not the primary camp for their extermination. There was an excellent museum and short film in the largest remaining building and then we caught the bus and train back to town where it was now raining and we had Pizza Hutt for lunch (in a traditional ‘eat-in’ restaurant that doesn’t even exist in New Zealand anymore!)

After a rest at the hotel, I went for a solo walk around the Old Town in Munich in the dark.

Feeling tired, and perhaps a little ‘low’ after the Dachau visit, we had an early night reading.

The following morning we found it hard to find somewhere open for breakfast and it took a while to realise that most shops were closed to observe Epiphany. This was another reminder of the differences from New Zealand where the minor Christian holidays are not observed (only Easter and Christmas) and most shops are still open on those days (at least partially). Also, the presence of Nativity Scenes in public were very common across France, Switzerland and Germany – something you virtually never see in New Zealand anymore.

At 11am we made our way to the starting point of our walking tour “The Birth of Nazism in Munich”. It was a great tour, a knowledgeable guide (English Professor, married to a German) and despite it being cold and drizzly (2-3 degrees Celsius) it was super interesting.

After a delicious lunch we walked to the Munich Documentation Centre For The History of National Socialism which was excellent – honest, reflective and acknowledging the horrors of Nazism happened in plain few of ‘every day people’ who stood by and said nothing.

Returning to the hotel, Imogen rested whilst I did a load of washing at the laundromat nearby returning in light snow. We decided to head out to a famous beer hall Hofbräuhaus München – Das weltberühmte Wirtshaus (hofbraeuhaus.de)where we enjoyed some traditional German cuisine and musical entertainment.

It was snowing quite heavily when we went home.

The following day was Sunday and again we surprised to learn that most shops were closed on Sunday – even the supermarket near our hotel. Wandering a little hungrily, we found a nice cafe where we had a delicious breakfast and Imogen enjoyed some tea:

We then walked through the thickening snow to a large Art Gallery where we got to see a Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Gustav Klimt and Rembrandt – just amazing! Afterwards, we walked around the outside of the Munich Residence in the snow:

After checking out from the hotel, we walked through the snow back to the central train station and there was some confusion as to why our train had not arrived at the platform we were expecting. All announcements were in German, but we concluded that due to snow or a broken down train on the platform, our train was actually further up the platform where everyone was streaming towards. It was a little nerve wracking on whether we would find seats as the train was filling up fast and we had not reserved any seats for the trip to Frankfurt. We ended not being able to sit next to each other but did secure seats.

Interestingly, the woman next to me was very talkative and spoke good English as a teacher and when our train was delayed at one of the stations for 25mins she explained the conductor was saying the train was overloaded and people without seat reservations needed to disembark. We sat fast and eventually the train restarted and headed to Frankfurt.

Frankfurt was a massive train station and we decided to have some dinner there before heading on a train out to the airport where our accommodation was.

Frankfurt, Germany (7th-8th January 2024)

Our final day in Europe, we had most of the day free before flying out to Dubai around 8pm. We caught the train into town with a plan to use the ‘hop on hop off’ bus again given that had been so enjoyable in Paris a week earlier on 1st January 2024. Sadly, this one did not live up to the hype, perhaps because Frankfurt was just not as interesting! We were the only people on bus and it took a long time to depart (perhaps vainly hoping for more people to hop on!) The circuit was not especially interesting, and the weather was clear and bitterly cold again, around -8 degrees Celsius!

Evidently Frankfurt was the financial hub of not just Germany, but all of the EU with the creation of the EU bank and EU dollar sign prevalent amongst the sights we saw. With some left over money in our holiday budget, I ended up buying an Apple Watch Ultra 2 – Apple (NZ) for myself, the first time I’d bought an Apple Watch (having normally preferred Garmin Fenix).

With a cold day wandering Frankfurt completed, we caught the train back to our hotel near the airport and grabbed our bags. The only mishap being I checked my noise cancelling headphones in with my luggage and found it very hard to locate the tax rebate store to claim back my tax on the Apple Watch. With that finally resolved, I ended up buying some new Sony noise cancelling headphones for the flight home (my original ones having lasted since my very first trip to Seattle with Microsoft back in January 2017 and were showing their age somewhat).

Conclusion (& Daily Step Count!)

This ended up being an epic trip around Europe with my eldest daughter. In 3.5 weeks you can’t see everything but I felt we got the balance right of trying to stay 2-3 nights in each place we visited. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to have enjoyed this trip. The weather back in New Zealand when I returned ended up being absolutely epic and sunny, allowing me to make up for lost time with a couple of great bike rides:

I mentioned we did some big walking days on this trip and so, for the sake of posterity, here is the daily step count from the trip!

  • Wednesday 20th December – 25,622
  • Thursday 21st December – 20,281
  • Friday 22nd December – 21,650
  • Saturday 23rd December – 18,776
  • Sunday 24th December – 9,726
  • Monday 25th December – 4,416
  • Tuesday 26th December – 13,598
  • Wednesday 27th December – 15,732
  • Thursday 28th December – 23,771
  • Friday 29th December – 34, 217
  • Saturday 30th December – 22,613
  • Sunday 31st December – 15,964
  • Monday 1st January – 29,713
  • Tuesday 2nd January – 19,111
  • Wednesday 3rd January – 24,227
  • Thursday 4th January – 16,519
  • Friday 5th January – 21,519
  • Saturday 6th January – 26,710
  • Sunday 7th January – 11, 794
  • Monday 8th January – 23,381

For a grand total of: 383,608 steps!

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