• MacKs go Traveling
  • MacKs go Traveling

European Whirl Tour 2024

Een 17-daags avontuur van MacKs go Traveling Meer informatie
  • Dinner in the Tuscan Hills

    27 augustus 2024, Italië ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Another one of the delights on the tour. About a 15 minute drive into the Tuscan Hills to a winery called ‘i tre pini’ where we had dinner.

    On arrival we were given some blue champagne which was actually really nice. Meals seem to come in 4 courses here, wonderful food. Entertainment by some singers and guitar players, all in the Italian style. A really fun night, singing in the bus on the way back to the hotel.Meer informatie

  • Lucerne Switzerland

    28 augustus 2024, Zwitserland ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Rather a long drive today of 6 hours but it does go relatively quickly as there’s always interesting views. Like today the flatness of Italy and then driving through the mountain ranges of Switzerland. We went through a 17 kilometre long tunnel, amazing engineering.

    When we arrived in Lucerne the first thing we did was go on a cruise on the lake. Beautiful and in someways reminded us of Queenstown.

    After the cruise we walked through town to the Lion Rock. Sculpted to commemorate a lion who supposedly saved French Royalty from attack.
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  • High up in Lucerne

    29 augustus 2024, Zwitserland ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    First activity of the day a short 10 min drive on the coach to the foot of Mt Pilatus. Mt Pilatus is just over 7000 ft high and we went up it in a very modern cog train at a pitch angle of between 41 and 47 degrees. Another amazing piece of engineering.

    At the top are two hotels and the most amazing views of Lucerne and the Swiss Alps. Absolutely breathtaking!

    Went down the other side of the mountain via cable car and then a gondola.
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  • Be my Guest - Swiss Alps Farm

    29 augustus 2024, Zwitserland ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Went for a 30 min drive up into the Swiss Alps to a little town called Engleberg. It’s well known for being a ski resort in winter. One of the nicest places we’ve been to.

    We visited a small farm, only about 20 head of cattle. They have to keep their cattle indoors during winter hence a small herd. All their milk goes to a local cheese factory. We got to sample their cheese, cheese pie, and some great home made Swiss chocolate cake.

    Then to cap it off, a horse and carriage ride through the township.

    Wonderful day today.
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  • Swizterland and their Grass Mowing

    29 augustus 2024, Zwitserland ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    One thing the Swiss do is mow the grass on all their hills, looks amazing. What’s more amazing is when you see the slopes of the fields they mow. A lot is done by hand. They collect the mown grass as feed for the cattle for winter. But unlike in NZ where we mow a field once for hay, they mow multiple times which means the fields look like lawns.

    The Swiss take such great pride in their lawns which is why they look so amazing.
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  • Lucerne we Love You

    29 augustus 2024, Zwitserland ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We have been so impressed with Switzerland and Lucerne, our favourite city so far in Europe. So clean, fresh and not busy. Nice people.

    If you want to buy a Swiss watch or Swiss army knife, this is your place.Meer informatie

  • Paris by Night

    31 augustus 2024, Frankrijk ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Long drive from Lucerne to Paris. It’s the last weekend of the French school holidays and with the Paralympics on, traffic was expected to be heavy. Rudy, our driver, took some back roads into Paris but it still all up took 9 hours including breaks.

    Group dinner out to a French Restaurant, very nice, onion soup was a meal in itself.

    The evening was a cruise on the Seine River. We were on the cruise as dusk turned into evening and all the lights came on. The Eiffel Tower especially looked magnificent at night. On the hour the tower lights sparkled.

    Drove back to the hotel via the Arc de Triomphe. Amazing to think Napoleon built this to commemorate his victories.
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  • Palace of Versailles - The Gardens

    31 augustus 2024, Frankrijk ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    We visited the Palace of Versailles, built by Louis 14th. First was a walk around the gardens. Absolutely massive. Included fountains, manicured gardens, maze, lake and a whole orchard of orange trees, as oranges were seen as a fruit of the privileged.

    Only time on the trip that it really rained, however we dashed to find cover along with everyone else.
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  • Thank You Trafalgar

    1 september 2024, Frankrijk ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    What an awesome experience and tour. We thoroughly enjoyed it. It was called the ‘European Whirl Tour’ and lived up to its name. Some early mornings and a few long drives, but when we reflect on how much we’ve seen and experienced it’s been fantastic. So nice to have everything organised for us, not just the historic sights but also the special more intimate ones like the ‘Be my Guest’ stops.

    Brek was an outstanding tour guide, so knowledgeable in his commentary and amazing at coordinating the various activities. He certainly made you feel welcome.

    Also very impressed with our driver Rudy. First day only got a grunt out of him, so made it our mission to have a conversation with us, success! A couple of times during the trip due to traffic he diverted us to get there quicker.

    On top of that we met some good people to share the journey with.

    GOOD TIMES! Do it all again in a flash.
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  • Paris Final Day Walk About

    1 september 2024, Frankrijk ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Our tour officially ended. We went for a huge walk in preparation of our long flights ahead. 20,000 steps!

    🇫🇷 Walked through a Sunday Market, and Lyn bought a hand bag.
    🇫🇷 Down to the River Seine.
    🇫🇷 The Olympic fan base.
    🇫🇷 Ave des Champs-Elysees with all its high end stores.
    🇫🇷 Lovely park de la Planchette
    🇫🇷 On the way to the airport saw the Paris Stadium where the Paralympics are currently being held.
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  • Paris to Singapore

    2 september 2024, Finland ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    We flew Finnair from Paris to Helsinki and then Helsinki to Singapore. First flight was only 3 hours but Helsinki to Singapore was over 13 hours, but we were so stuffed from our huge walk that we managed to sleep a fair whack of the flight .

    Got into Singapore no problem and found a large Asian food hall just a couple of blocks away from our hotel and pumping with people at 8:30 in the evening.
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  • Singapore Walk About

    3 september 2024, Singapore ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Went for a walk about down to the Marina Bay, only about 15 minutes from our hotel.

    There was a thunderstorm in the morning so we walked around the giant mall Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. A lot of high end stores.

    Went for a brief walk around the Gardens at the Bay, but decided it was too hot and we were running out of time so will come back tomorrow.

    Finished the evening watching a light show at Marina Bay.
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  • What do you do in a Thunder Storm?

    4 september 2024, Singapore ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    You go to the shopping Mecca of Singapore … Orchard Rd. Took a taxi because it was so wet.

    Nothing can prepare you for Orchard Rd. About a dozen large shopping malls on the street, but then most of the malls have floors under ground. For every person you see above ground there’s probably two under ground.

    🏢 Mall upon mall
    🏢 Level upon level
    🏢 Shop upon shop

    So easy to get completely disoriented. 🤪

    Paul’s turn to buy something … a McLaren F1 umbrella, he’s pretty chuffed about it too.

    Once the rain had stopped we took the underground tube back to the Gardens by the Bay.
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  • Singapore to Auckland via ‘The Jewel’

    5 september 2024, Singapore ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    Final day of our amazing trip. We headed home arriving at the Changi Airport 6 hours before our flight was due to leave. We understand why Singapore’s airport has been voted best in the world.

    ‘The Jewel’ is another array of levels of shops circling an amazing central landscape of trees and waterfall. And all completely connected to the airport terminals. Very very impressive.

    All our flights to the UK and Europe and back were by us redeeming airports with Qantas Visa card yet this was our first flight on an actual Qantas plane, and it was the big one … A380. Flew in the A380 to Sydney and then on a Qantas 737 to Auckland.

    Neil and Michelle offered to pick us up from the Airport.

    And so we close another exciting chapter in our lives.

    Great memories, good times.

    Until the next trip …
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  • Appendix

    7 september 2024, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Some thoughts and observations from our trip to Europe and the UK.

    👎 UK are terrible at Jay-walking do it all the time,
    👎 Many travellers are obsessed with posing for selfies. You see them more interested in how they are looking and standing, than the beautiful sights they are in.
    👍 Lego is cheaper in NZ.
    👎 Nearly everything else is more expensive overseas, we paid $80 nzd for 2 cocktails and a bowl of fries in Switzerland.
    🖐️ We have no concept of old in NZ. We had some tea in a little place in York that was 700 years old and the new extension was 200 years old!
    🤌 Strange having to pay to go to the toilet, ‘Pay to Pee’ as Paul calls it. But Lyn did in one establishment get shown to the next available cubicle.
    👍 The underground tube is a wonderful thing, so easy once you know how.
    ✌️You can wear the same shirt multiple times over 4 weeks without it getting washed … who knew?
    🖕There can be some very self centred people when travelling with no awareness of others around them.
    👍 On our tour we had magic bags, in the morning you leave them outside your room at one hotel and then in the evening they magically appear at your new hotel … amazing!
    👌 You don’t eat all you can eat at ‘all you can eat’ breakfasts.
    🤌 There are many many places going cashless.
    👍 They don’t charge the extra % for using visa overseas, just here in NZ … go figure.
    👍 London and the UK can have fine blue sky days … no one told us about that.
    👍 Autobahns are amazing, all the trucks, motor homes, caravans travel in the outside line all doing 90k with hardly any overtaking. Middle lane traffic does around 100k and inside lane unlimited, go what you want.
    👉 In parts of Europe like Germany there are so many wind farms for electricity, kind of a blot on the landscape. Yet none in France as they have nuclear.
    👎 No one in the UK or Europe truly knows what a Flat White is, we quickly discovered best was to order a Caffe Latte, or Cappuccino.
    👎 In parts of Europe they have this strange way of getting your coffee, you pay at one counter and receive a receipt that you then go and fight your way through everyone else at another counter to show your receipt and then get your coffee made .,. Italy
    👍A few essential items while travelling;
    1/ The Wise Visa card and app. So easy and cheap to convert money between currencies.
    2/ Our multi-country power adaptor for 3 pin plugs and USB.
    3/ A portable power bank for our phones. Phone used so much more power when using it all the time taking pictures, checking Google maps, or researching something.
    4/ Loved our Limux portable camera with its big zoom lens.
    👍 You can travel days overseas to see picturesque sights and here in NZ you only need to travel minutes or hours. NZ is beautiful.
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    Het einde van de reis
    6 september 2024