Phew! What a hectic week and a half we've had! We've been to 4 countries and 7 cities and spent countless hours traveling and still having a blast.

9 days ago on day 11 of our trip we joined a topdeck tour. Our first stop was the quirky town of Amsterdam! It all started with a bang when our tour leader, Rogan, convinced us to go to a sex show! After walking through the red light district to get there we realized this was going to be a night unlike others. I won't go into details but there was several strippers showing their talents and they involved candles, pens, string, bananas and of course audience participation. Not to mention an emotionless performance from a live couple who have sex live on stage! Yes, Amsterdam was very different!

Day 12 we explored Amsterdam but only had enough time to walk to the 'I Amsterdam' statue as the line to see anything was too long and we had to leave for Rhine Valley at 12pm. Rhine Valley is a gorgeous little town in Germany between the mountains. It was very relaxing and the Germans welcomed us with a delicious buffet and wine tasting!

The next day we had an early start and drove to Munich - the city of beer! We sight saw a few beer halls and had a stone (1L of beer) or two... Or three! A group of us in the tour (our new friends) decided it would be nice to go to a beer garden across the town for dinner. We made the trek there seeing lot of interesting sites along the way including a group of boys surfing in the river over a man made wave pool! Alas we got lost and by the time we made it to the beer garden it was finished serving. Instead we went to the Haufhaus and had a few stones.

Day 14 was Selby's birthday! We awoke to many birthday wishes from new friends and got on a short bus ride to Austria - the adrenalin country! The scenes were picturesque with snow tipped mountains and green green grass. Selby had her heart set on sky diving however that activity was unavailable and so we both decided on paragliding together. Paragliding was still a rush of fear and jumping off a mountain but once the parashoot filled with air it was a beautiful scenic 15 minute glide down to the ground sitting back in your seat in the air with the most breathtaking sights! After that we went mountain bike riding with a bunch of our friends. Matt, Ash, Olivia and Sara were all naturals, singing 'the hills are alive' all along the way, while Selby struggled to get the hang of it for a while - turns out you can sort of forget how to ride a bike! After a huge day we did beer tasting and had a beautiful home style dinner followed by some hilarious night activities too funny to explain - had to be there!

Off to Venice we went the next day however it was one delay after another and we didn't make it till 4pm only leaving time for a very quick tour of Venice. We had a relaxing gondola ride and climbed the tower in saint marks square and had a yummy pasta meal. Matt even bought me a long stemmed rose from a rude man in the square!

Venice was pretty but Rome the next day was amazing! It was raining and there was 500,000 people there for something to do with the pope but we loved it there! Rogan took us on a 3 hours walking tour of the main sights in Rome including the beautiful trevi fountain which we threw two coins in each (for luck in love and to return to Rome) and we had so much Gelato!

Rome was the first place on the tour we got to stay two nights so it was nice to wake up on day 17 of the trip to have another day in Rome! We had an early start and headed to the Vatican - feeling very sorry for the long line of people as we walked in before the crowded with our tour guide! After seeing the beautiful art we went to see The Basilica But we were surprised to see a huge crowd of people and the pope standing there (although he looked more like a white blob from back where we were). We were blessed by the pope (something we never expected to happen) and then we went to see The coliseum and roman forum. After more gelato (of course) we had dinner with a big group from the tour and decided to really make a night of it. 500ml of delicious wine was just 4 euros so the jugs kept coming and the night kept going. We had a party in someone's room but got kicked out of there and then we drank in the carpark of the hotel until it was time to call it a night. It was fantastic way to farewell Rome and new wonderful friends.

The next part of our trip takes us to Florence and Nice without our topdeck crew so it will be included in the next blog. We are enjoying our last few days in Europe and fitting everything possible into this jam packed holiday so when we arrive in Phuket in a week we will have no regrets and plenty of time to relax!