​Greetings, humans! As promised, I will inform you about any exciting developments on our night train journey. The only unexpected occurrence was the train stopping for over two hours at a station somewhere in Austria where our cabin-mates got off and didn’t come back. Nice people that they were, it did mean Charlie and Jack had the compartment to themselves and could stretch out across three seats each. I mean, that’s almost as good as a bed but for the price of a single seat.
Now, onto today. What a morning! I woke up to the early morning light of 5:30 AM, stretching my legs and flexing my claws to be greeted by a beautiful sight – the Alps stretching high above us on both sides, green, covered in trees and small old Austrian houses; I can’t be sure but I don’t think we’ve crossed into Switzerland at this point.

​Despite the beauty of this early morning scene with the mountains lightly coated in mist and Charlie’s best poking abilities, Jack didn’t wake up and so missed what I must surely argue is one of the greatest wonders of the natural world. 

​Well, that got a bit poetical. We went back to sleep for a bit and when we woke up, it was definitely over the border, the Swiss flags and number plates were a bit of a giveaway. But we were travelling through the German part of the country so, like in Austria, all the writing was in German. The fact that Switzerland also speaks French, Italian and Romansch confuses me slightly – why don’t they speak Swiss? And while I’m on the topic, why do they not speak Austrian in Austria and Austrian-German instead? I’m not sure that’s too important or relevant to my writings so I shall move on.
Our train pulled into Zurich (or Zürich to give it its German/Swiss name) and alighted for breakfast. In the train station, my personal humans found a shop selling vegan pretzels and shared a seeded one, although it was very salty and Charlie attempted to brush most of the salt off.
Breakfast over, it was then back on a train to Geneva (Genève in French – this city is in the French speaking part). This was a double decker train, one the three of us had long since watched and coveted at every station and here it was – success – we were on the top deck. Splendid views! What can be better than watching the Swiss countryside roll past than watching it from a whole floor higher up?

​It was quite obvious when we passed into the French speaking part of Switzerland, obviously the signs became French, but the buildings were more often chalets instead of the farm buildings, both beautiful in their own way. We arrived in Geneva at lunch time and so headed straight to Aux Deux Ports, a vegan bakery, for lunch. Another new wonder of modern transport: the tram! After seeing them all around the cities we finally got to ride on one of these as well!

​For lunch, the humans selected from the counter a large helping of spinach tart and a batch of freshly cooked potato crêpes with a side of salad and sauces. This was followed by the obligatory (as I have seen with my humans and thoroughly approve) dessert. This was strawberry cheesecake and a sponge cake with vanilla buttercream icing, coconut and lemon curd. Well, I’m going to call it lemon curd, that’s what it looked like, just not what it tasted like! Everything tasted good though, so I suppose that’s what’s important.
One of the café owners imparted wisdom to us – there was an area of Lake Geneva where swimming was free. Although not as blistering as the previous days, it was still pretty hot, and cooling in the lake would be much appreciated by the humans if not by me.
I thought they’d broken this deranged habit of heading to water like ducks!

​We took the tram back to the station and walked from here to the lake. Part way there, the humans got distracted by a souvenir stall and then sat down on a grassy area. I thought perhaps the lake had been forgotten but, alas, no! They soon got up and carried on along the side of the lake looking for the place we had been promised. Before long we came across a small pier other humans were jumping off from a diving board into the water and swimming around. Oh what a shame, there was an entry fee to get onto the pier, looks like no swimming today then!
Oh darn it! These humans are painfully persistent in their quest for water. They kept walking and found a rock wall built around a small harbour, they walked out onto this and sat perilously close to the edge. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, they took off their shoes and socks and put their feet in the water. Cold shivers are going up my back even now just thinking about it! At least they decided against swimming in it.
We stayed here for an awfully long time, looking across the lake, trying to guess which mountain was Mont Blanc (the one with snow on, of course) and taking pictures. Then a pair of swans with cygnets viciously and completely without motivation started swimming towards us and then… um… swam past us, so at least we were safe from them, the same cannot be said for the water.
And then, as if I needed any more proof that water is deadly, Charlie slipped on a rock and would have fallen straight into the lake if aforementioned rock hadn't been there! I nearly lost my scribe and cat-carrier! This would have been a disaster too terrible to comprehend, but did the humans realise the dangers of water now? Did they realise what I had been telling them all week? No, of course not!

​After a lot more sitting and contemplating of the holiday, such as discussing the best city and the food they would most like to have again, my humans finally discovered it was time to leave and get the train to Paris. Well almost, they managed to squeeze in a bit of time sitting in a final park.

​We then boarded the train which took us to Paris where I am writing this. We walked through the city to our final room. After much confusion regarding the English translation of what exactly we were supposed to do (this is basically a self-service room), we finally settled down for the evening.
Well, I did very much like Switzerland, waking up to the mountains may have been the only time in my life I enjoyed waking up. The countryside and the housing styles were beautiful. I think I would have liked Geneva too if it hadn’t had such a big lake in it, I mean, it is so big it is practically a sea, they might as well call it Ocean Geneva!
Paris, on the other hand, I could get to grips with, old buildings everywhere, even the metro signs are stylish. Small streets, big streets, winding streets with those old lampposts like that one in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, just perfect, especially for a stylish cat such as myself. Perhaps I should have been an Aristocat.
Well, goodnight for now folks, bed time for me. Tomorrow I shall relate to you my final instalment, the Tail of my return to Britain by Eurostar.
Until then, Chesh.

Greetings, humans! So, did we make it to Vienna? Well, I told you yesterday we did so that ruins that surprise!
I’m sitting in the same park as where I related the second part of yesterday’s adventures to you, I’m just going to keep writing and fill you in on the story so far today.
I woke to a terrible occurrence! It was truly traumatic, it may be several years before I am fully recovered! My poor back right leg was coated in some horrible viscous bubbly stuff which Charlie said was probably shower gel, but we could not find out how this had leaked, the bottle itself appeared intact. It was horrible, I had to be given a bath in the train toilet wash basin, using wet loo-roll. Bubbles went everywhere and I feared my beautiful pink fur would never be the same again!
 
We eventually made it to Vienna HBF (Central Station) two hours later than expected and instead of heading out into the city, we did what any good travellers would do and headed straight to ticket sales to fill out compensation forms. Ok, we didn’t go straight there. We went to Information first and they told us to go to ticket sales, which slightly ruined the narrative but let’s just go with it.
The task of filling out the compensation form was made considerably harder by the fact that the forms were in German, but with the help of Google Translate (other translating services are available) and the Austrian sales person who gave us the form, we managed to fill it out and could expect 25% of our fee back, well hopefully. Although as we have an Interrail ticket and so really only paid for the reservation on this train, who knows exactly what it will be 25% of that we’ll get back!
Charlie and Jack were each given 8€ compensation in addition to this 25%, which was used to buy food, water and souvenirs (not necessarily in that order). I wasn’t given any cash but decided not to assert my rights, my reasons were three-fold. 1 – I didn’t pay for a ticket, b – I have no use for any of the three items mentioned above and numero tres – I don’t really understand the concept of money as I have mentioned on at least one previous occasion.
Our first stop was, surprisingly, a park. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that these humans of mine spend a lot of time in parks. I cannot fault them there.
This park was at the Belvedere Palace, or Schloẞ Belvedere to give it its native name. Well, technically I believe these would be called gardens, not a park, our first clue being that we were told off (in Austrian-German) for sitting on the grass – who knew that was even an offence, certainly not me!

​The huge fountains and sculptures of sphinxes and topiary trees were our next clues, as well as the neatly gravelled paths.

We sat and admired the views, then after a short walk through the city, took a U-train (we are getting quite expert at these things now) to Schönbrunn park. This (apparently) contained another palace which once belonged to the Austrian royal family, but we are yet to find the giant building. Despite this, lunch under the trees was what one might term a ‘pleasant affair’ and we watched someone practice slack rope walking, an interesting spectacle. We also managed to capture the elusive crow-pigeon on film, the humans were very pleased with themselves.

You’ll be pleased to hear my poor fur has recovered from its hideous encounter with the shower gel, it seems as good as new.
I then took a cat nap and Charlie accidentally joined me, and why not? Us cats are geniuses (or should that be genii?) after all, maybe more humans should take up our ways.
Actually, on second thoughts, don’t! You would all be too busy sleeping to fulfil the roles I need you for while I’m sleeping!
When we awoke from our nap, we visited an organic supermarket because someone (Jack) didn’t bring enough food for the week and had to replenish, we almost passed for locals (I’m joking, my humans could never pass for locals). I’ve never been to an organic supermarket before, or a supermarket come to think of it, my humans left me in our room in Oslo whilst they visited Rema 1000, I was happy, I had the amazing view remember?
No matter, my humans enjoyed the supermarket (probably) and bought some food, which is important to them. No food = hungry humans = dead humans, not the case with me. I’m not sure how long humans can actually survive without food, but based on the frequency of meal times I guess it can be no more than 5 hours, longer overnight while metabolism is slower. Sometimes I surprise even myself with my scientific reasoning.
Food purchased, we returned to the park (we still haven’t found the palace) and enjoyed the shade of a different tree in another area of the park. It was another blisteringly hot day and, none of us having slept well on the train, a lazy day in the park was just what we needed. We also happened to have chosen a spot next to a drinking water pump (these are relatively common in Germany and Austria, I have noticed) so the humans were cool and refreshed all afternoon.
I took offence at this arrangement for, firstly and most obviously, the presence of water, and secondly, the constant stream of dogs playing with the wet stuff.
Right, we will soon be off for dinner and then catching our second and last night train to Geneva, so I will catch you up on these later… or whenever I can be bothered… I can’t let writing get in the way of napping!
​

​Part II – we are on the train! In a very long tunnel, I believe. If not, all the lights in the world outside the train must have gone out.
And I learnt why we didn’t find the palace – we were in the wrong park, not in Schönbrunn, but another park across the road from it, called Hadikpark. These humans do make me worry. Well, it doesn’t really matter, we saw most of the same sights, you know, the important things like U-stations and construction work, which seems to follow us everywhere.
Our next journey was to dinner. Three short trips on three U-trains and a slight detour when we missed a turning later, we were at the Swing Kitchen.
Dinner, I’m reliably informed, was absolutely splendid once again – the Swing burger and the Vienna (schnitzel) burger with a side of huge chunky chips and onion rings for the first course. With the exception of our previous schnitzel burger in Berlin, this might be the only time we’ve eaten food native to the country we have been in, schnitzels are a famous German and Austrian dish, usually made with veal or pork (you probably knew this already), but can also be made from chicken, or soya in Charlie and Jack’s case. This was followed by a hazelnut crunch ice cream ‘burger’ – ice cream sandwiched between two chocolate cookies, the circumference coated in hazelnut crumbs – and a triple layer nougat cake with chocolate sauce icing, a blob of cream and a chocolate spoon (not too eat with, for decoration only) – both, again, were apparently fantastic. My humans highly recommend Swing Kitchen to vegans and non-vegans alike spending the time in Vienna.
 
This was the end of our Vienna trip, back on the U to Wien Meidling Station this time. I say, Charlie and Jack have really got the hang of this U-train business. Oh, schnitzels, I said I was only going to praise them once. Pretend that didn’t happen, let’s start again. This was the end of our Vienna trip, back on the U to Wien Meidling Station this time where we discovered the washing up liquid had exploded in Charlie’s bag. This is the true cause of that horrible substance which had coated my leg earlier. As well as myself, other less important stuff such as food packaging had also been mercilessly attacked. This tidied up, we were ready to board our second night train to Zurich, for the change to Geneva.
Vienna has been a fascinating city, not speaking Austrian was an unexpected development although Charlie did know this wasn’t a language. I would have loved to spend more time here, perhaps to actually visit the Schönbrunn Park and maybe even see the palace. Then I could give you another of my riveting history lessons. I will tell you that the palace was the summer residence of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, built in the 1740s-50s and has 1441 rooms (thanks Wikipedia). Anything else you might like to know, you’ll have to find for yourself, seeing as we didn’t actually go there, I don’t think I can justify too long a history lesson.
Anyway, as I said, I would have liked to spend more time here, but the train timetable people wouldn’t let us, the two hour delay also didn’t help.

​Yesterday I didn’t take much time to describe the train, and as it is the same type of train as last night’s, I will discuss them both together. If you’re not interested in trains or suffer a nervous disposition where description of vehicles is concerned, you might want to skip this bit.
The seats are in compartments of six and can be set back to recline, almost completely flat, although this does take a bit of manoeuvring and assumes, of course, there is no one sitting opposite you who would also like to lay flat. Or has legs. There was the option to have gone in the sleeper car and have an actual bed, but in a highly responsible yet completely idiotic money saving initiative, the seats were opted for by the humans to sleep in. The compartments were air-conditioned, but this only worked when the train was moving and also had a dial for speaker volume, not that we ever worked out what it was that we would be listening to.
Ok, it’s safe to read again now, we are settled into our compartment for the night. I can’t imagine anything else exciting will occur, if it does, I’ll tell you about it in tomorrow’s entry.
Until then, Chesh. 

Greetings, humans! We have been sitting on a station platform in Hannover for over an hour, our train has been delayed by 105 minutes. So I shall fill the time by writing about our last day in Berlin.
We started by getting the U-train (the German equivalent of London’s Tube) to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the border crossings of the Berlin Wall (yep, more history lessons today, folks). This was the area of the West controlled by the Americans and named after the letter C in the phonetic alphabet (Alpha is the crossing point from West to East Germany and Bravo is between East Germany and West Berlin if you’re interested).
Unlike the Bernauerstraẞe sector of the wall (which was in the French sector), here an artist’s installation marked the path of the wall in the form of brightly coloured purple and blue pipes above the streets where the wall had stood, which I suppose was kind of cool.

​What I realised today was that the Wall was not a barrier dividing the city into its East and West halves, but instead a circular wall cutting off the West side of Berlin from the rest of East Germany, a tiny bit of West allowed to remain in the otherwise Eastern country, Berlin itself being firmly in the east of Germany. France, Britain and the US were responsible for controlling their parts of West Berlin, and East Berlin was controlled by the Russians – see my helpful map if you’re confused.

​The Wall was set up by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) to 'protect its citizens from fascism' as it was building a socialist state, however West Berliner’s referred to it as the Wall of Shame and its real purpose was to stop East Berliners fleeing to the West through West Berlin. Credit for this information goes to the information boards posted all around Checkpoint Charlie and at Bernauerstraẞe.
After some more souvenir shopping at Checkpoint Charlie, we moved onto the Topographie Des Terrors, a museum and memorial documenting the events of World War II including Hitler’s rise to power and the Holocaust. The longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall can also be found here, even if it was a bit torn down. The concrete tube over the top prevented people climbing it, concrete extending behind the wall stopped vehicles knocking it down by driving into it (I’m not sure how effective this was). 

​Strangely enough, when the Wall was brought down in 1989, the Limex-Beau company sold off parts of the wall, stamped for authentication to be used as road building materials. I find this very odd behaviour, but then what can one expect, they were human…
Things started to get a bit heavy so we took a break for lunch and visited another nice park and then headed over to Brammibal’s Doughnuts. My humans were very pleased with themselves for finding an all vegan doughnut bakery. They shared (ginormous) glazed ring doughnuts. They were chocolate peanut fudge, peanut banana fudge, nougat and hazelnut sprinkle. I have been reliably informed that they tasted fantastic, if you like doughnuts and are ever in Berlin, Germany or central Europe in general, a trip here is a must.

 ​Doughnuts eaten, we headed over to the Brandenburg gate; it was huge! In case you're interested (and if you're not, I'll tell you anyway), the Brandenburg gate became part of the wall, separating the British West sector from the East. In 1987, US president Ronald Reagan stood on the West side of the wall and petitioned the East to 'tear down this wall'. Was Reagan an influence on its fall two years later? Probably not, but I'll let you make up your own mind.
​I liked this area of Berlin, there were lots of old buildings and we also found the famous Tiergarten, but it was another 30˚c day and so we decided it would be a good idea to head back to our room and cool off with a cold shower.

​It also allowed my humans to pick up their giant backpacks and say our goodbyes to our host. A short bus ride later, we were seated on our first train of the night, this one to Hannover.
A note on the spelling of Hannover: the English spelling has one 'n' (Hanover) and the German spelling has two, I like it with two 'n's so that is how I'm going to spell it!
This first train journey all went smoothly and we took our last look at the city as it disappeared from view. Berlin has been a fascinating city and we’ve had (accidentally, I might add) a very history based visit, the multitude of parks to eat meals and relax in has also been a great positive.
We arrived in Hannover and set off to find yet another park for dinner and to our surprise, discovered a piece of the Berlin Wall, stamped so there could be no mistake, at the entrance to the park. Strange coincidences. 

Speaking of coincidences, I haven’t mentioned the cranes for a while. I am starting to wonder if they have followed us from Oslo, every city we have visited has been rife with cranes in an assortment of colours. Progress is everywhere, or so it seems.
Our night train to Vienna, as I mentioned earlier, has been delayed by 105 minutes, so that’s it for now, we’re all caught up. I’ll write later when the train eventually arrives and we are settled in for the night.

Actually, by the time the train arrived, it was so late we all went straight to sleep, therefore I’m actually writing this in a park in Vienna, so at least you know we made it to Austria, there was a point where I started to fear the train would never come.
In the end, the train was 130 minutes late – that’s over two hours!
A long time for a little cat to be sitting unmoving on a station platform in what, I must be honest, was not a good looking city. It was around 11:30 when the train was an hour and a half late that I seriously began to fear we would have no train and be stuck in this ugly German city forever (sorry, Hannover, I’m sure the areas of you we didn’t get to visit were beautiful).
The train finally arrived after midnight and we settled into our compartment, yes, this train has actual compartments like they do in old films. Although I don’t think the seats slide down into a reclining position like ours did in old films. How would I know? I’m a cat, I read books, I don’t watch films.
Finally! My poor, weary, exhausted, tired etc. body could rest!
Tomorrow I shall relate to you what we did in Vienna.
Until then, Chesh.

Greetings, humans! What a day, what a day! We started off with a relaxed morning and no plan of what to do or where to go, but took our host’s advice and visited Mauerpark for the Sunday flea market and other assorted festivities.
Once again, this was a walking trip, no buses today. We set off east across the city, crossing one gigantic tree blossom hay-fever-inducing shower and a quaint little park with many nice trees and wooded paths, we were grateful for the shade they provided. It was ridiculously hot today, reaching 30˚c according to the weather forecasts and believe me, we felt every degree, even for a cat that is getting toasty!

​We left the small park and carried on along the road to Mauerpark. This was clearly a very popular place to be on a sunny Sunday. We walked through the open grass of the park to visit the (surprisingly massive) flea market. It went on and on, so far in fact that we decided on a break part way for lunch. During this time we overlooked a juggling-type show which was interesting and involved fire – that was my favourite part. 

My personal humans then had to leave the park temporarily to get some so-called ‘cash’ out (this isn’t a concept I really understand) but on the way back visited a little shop called California Popsicles where Charlie and Jack bought ice lollies as we British call them. The humans tucked into a mixed berry lolly and a mango lolly containing a frozen strawberry coated in melted dark chocolate. Very refreshing, I’m sure.
Back to the flea market, looking for souvenirs and surprise! We found Korean steamed dumplings so gave them a go – fantastic apparently. My humans had never had steamed dumplings before, Korean or otherwise so that was a novel experience for them. My useless humans didn’t get the name of the stall, but it was in the flea market, and they gave out free samples… of something, my humans don’t remember that either.
Shopping over, we sat on the grass to relax and listen to some of the live music going on. Now this is what I’m talking about! A proper holiday with no water where one can really stretch out and relax. The only complaint – I fear I may never get the smell of weed out of my fur. Can people and cats get high off second hand weed smoke? I probably have anyway.

 Next up, dinner time, out of the burning sun. We went to Vegó World Food where we were confronted with a mouth-watering choice of 15 tempting vegan burgers. In the end the humans chose a cauliflower-vegan cheese burger with a very German name and a ‘chicken’ schnitzel cheese burger, both with generous helping of salad and crispy chips, cheap as well, all this for only 9€ each. I particularly liked this restaurant – there were stickers everywhere, mostly anti-capitalist, feminist, anti-fascist and vegan, but there were a fair few cat stickers around too which I was a particular fan of.
We then moved on to Lia’s Kitchen for the second course: the world’s thickest chocolate ice cream, caramel and pecan milkshake. Absolutely fabulous my humans inform me.
Food consumed and my humans basically waddling with the shear amount they had taken on, we headed back to the room.
On the way back though we got distracted when we found some remains of the Berlin Wall on Bernauerstraẞe  (straẞe is German for road and pronounced straa-suh). The Wall here is basically now just a lot of the poles they use in reinforced concrete in a long line. If we’d realised mauer was German for wall, we’d probably have discovered we were near the wall while we were relaxing in the park. The wall was originally constructed in 1961 and not brought down until 1989, and much occurred in those 28 years it existed for. 

​The wall was not just a wall, part of it was a façade of the houses to the East side of the wall and a separate blockade. These houses in the wall allowed people to flee into the West, often aided by Western forces who held fire-fighters' nets under windows to allow for safe escapes. However, these windows were quickly blocked up by the Russian controlled East and soon the houses themselves were torn down, today all that remains are some bricks from the lower floor, providing an outline of the buildings. We stood in these ruins and could feel the atmosphere of the place. We read stories of people’s escapes, friends and families separated by the wall. Visiting it at sunset, I’m sure, added to the eeriness of the place. The wall was heavily fortified, alarms, dogs, anti-vehicle defences, barbed wire and spikes. Despite this, there were still successful escapes, even once the houses had been torn down.
The remains of the wall were a powerful reminder that for the people of Germany, the effects of World War II lasted so much longer than 1945.

​Wow! I got quite philosophical there! Well, that was that, after the Wall, we walked back to the room and that pretty much sums up the day.
We’re onto Vienna on our first night train tomorrow, but that gives us another full day to spend in Berlin, this time hitting the south of the city.
Until next time, Chesh.

Greetings, humans! Firstly I would just like to offer my congratulations to anyone still reading this. I know what a short attention span you have and how easily distracted you are by cat videos on the Facebook and the Youtube. In terms of your short attentions span you are not very unlike a cat, I fear you will become bored of me, but then I remember I am the Cheshire Cat, how could I ever be boring? Luckily for you, I can talk about myself all day!
 
Right, you will be wanting to hear (well, read) what I got up to today. As with yesterday, I shall inform you in two parts. I am currently on the first of two trains for our journey to Berlin. This train goes to Hamburg (mmm, burgers…) and it is late, but more on that later.
The day started with my personal humans as I shall now refer to them, a name I of course came up with entirely without Jack’s help, getting the bus. We left the room we’d spent the night in, crossed the road and boarded my first bus. All was well until my stupid, stupid humans got off at the wrong stop. This was mainly Charlie’s fault, I mean Nørrebro, Nørreport, they look nothing at all like each other! This careless mistake resulted in my humans walking into town looking for the train station, giving up and getting back on the bus. We then arrived at Nørreport station and made the short train journey to Østeport.
From here, it was a short walk towards the Little Mermaid, but on route my personal humans got distracted by the water… oh I am long suffering. Charlie thought the water was star shaped, Jack thought it was shaped like a turtle, frankly I do not care what it was shaped like, as they crossed it and we became surrounded.

​We then walked back to the station and were given slightly confusing but mostly helpful directions by a mildly drunk Scot who was now living in the area. This was an interesting experience…
Directions obtained we got the bus into Christiania for lunch. We walked through Freetown Christiania, another interesting place. Lots of food, no cars, weed (which I avoided, thank you very much), brightly painted shacks and everything you might associate with an alternative lifestyle. We passed back out of Christiania and visited Fala Fala, a vegan falafel stand inside the Copenhagen food market. This was a warehouse-like building on its own (very square and constructed) island overlooking Nyhavn, crammed full of every type of ethnic street food one could imagine. If you love food and want to try many different cultures’ foods without much walking involved, come here! Fala Fala served up falafel, hummus and tonnes of veg in a pitta with a side of chips and more hummus. Charlie also braved some kind of spicy aubergine based dip with chilli seeds in it. I’m rather glad I wasn’t offered any of that, I have a rather sensitive palate. Despite that I heartily approve of the generous portion sizes, both the chips and the pitta sandwich all for 100 Danish Krone (something along the lines of 11 British pounds.
From the food hall, we also had organic apple juice, made from three types of apple and beetroot juice, including carrot, apple, lime and ginger. I thought this a rather odd combination, but Charlie liked it.

Stuffed to bursting with food, we walked back to the bus and journeyed back to Copenhagen station to get the trains onto Berlin. We arrived early with the plan of checking the platform number and then hanging out in Tivoli Gardens until the train was due. This being us, things didn’t work this way of course.
The train platform wasn’t yet up, so we decided to go to Tivoli Gardens for a bit and then head back to the station nearer the time the train was due. Turns out Tivoli Gardens is a theme park immediately opposite the station and not the free public gardens Charlie was lead to believe by the WebWideWorld.
After this truly heavy disappointment (you may have noticed by now our love of parks), and the lack of green shady areas around the station, we sat and waited inside the station for half an hour. The train was then 20 minutes late and moved to a different platform (fortunately it was the neighbouring platform so all we had to do was turn around). When the train did arrive, there was quite a lot of confusion trying to find the seats. We spent a lot of time trekking through alternating very hot (standard class) and beautifully cool (1st class) carriages before getting off the train and trying from the other end. Seats eventually found, we settled down for a four and a half hour train journey. I’ll be taking a cat nap for the most part, my humans can do as they please.
A final note about Copenhagen before I stop for now. As mentioned briefly last night, it is definitely more full of old buildings than Oslo – no Great Fire of Copenhagen I can presume. In the day it’s not dark at all either which is always a positive, and just as blistering hot as Norway. It’s very flat here (but then compared to Oslo I suppose anywhere would appear flat) but there is too much water everywhere; a river, canals, the sea, it’s too much, I can’t wait to get to landlocked Berlin.
Mein Gott! The train has just made an announcement – the train is going on a ferry and going across the sea. I did not sign up for this, why do these things keep happening to me?!
I shall retire from writing now, hyperventilate for a good few hours and pick up the narrative again later.
​
​Part II – I’m continuing this story technically on Sunday morning, but for narrative purposes, let’s pretend it’s still yesterday.
So, the train actually went on a boat, a very big boat on its own special tracks and everything. To make matters worse, we weren’t allowed to stay on the train in the relative safety of the hull but had to go up on deck and watch the water. Wrapped up in Charlie’s jacket for protection from the evil stuff, I was taken first to an indoor area with sea views and then out onto the decks, once more surrounded by water. 45 minutes we were on this boat before being allowed back into the mildly more secure train and off onto the relief of dry land. My humans had a great time, you won’t be surprised to hear, watching one piece of safe and sturdy land disappearing to be replaced with nothing but water in every direction, stretching out to the horizon before finally being able to glimpse the harbour and the return of safety. At least the boat didn’t bob!
We were now on an island, our arrival point known as Puttgarden. Not long later we crossed some more water onto the mainland by a mildly less scary bridge and carried on our journey through countryside, the hills of Oslo still only conspicuous by their absence. Although we weren’t sure at the time of our exact crossing of the Danish-German border, I now know it was our arrival at Puttgarden which heralded our arrival in our fourth country (I’m counting Sweden as a country even if we were only there for a few hours – our unscheduled stop at Lund allowed us a bit of extra time there).

​Around an hour and a half later, we arrived in Hamburg where we had an hour and a half to kill before the next train to Berlin. On looking for a nice place for dinner we unwittingly walked into a street festival. There were food stalls and live music and people everywhere. The personal humans thought it would be wise to sit here and eat dinner on the curb. Despite my fear of being trampled, the atmosphere was amazing, although rather loud for a little cat on a pavement. The music we listened to during dinner was excellent though, so one must not grumble too much.

​

After dinner we wandered around the city before getting on a seemingly short train (only two hours!) to Berlin. By now it was too dark to see anything and arrival at Berlin was after midnight. The station was gigantic and the outside appeared to be constructed entirely of glass.

​From the station, it was a short bus journey on the night bus and a walk up a rather pleasant road to our room which has a massively high ceiling and our own balcony, although we are yet to go out on it.
Arriving so late meant it was pretty much straight to bed, ready to explore the city tomorrow (well today). Until then, Chesh.

​Greetings, humans! Oh, what a day! I lament, wiping a weary paw across my forehead, as once again I am sitting in my favourite spot, overlooking Oslo from our room. As promised, it was another walking filled day. For the second time, my humans made the trek downhill into the city, first stop was a souvenir shop and then it was onto lunch – that might give you some idea as to the timings of my humans’ day if they can only make it in to the city in time for lunch. The lazy sods!
Lunch was at the Funky Fresh Café as recommended by our host and looked delicious. I can only assume it tasted good too as I wasn’t offered any – the rudeness of some people!
Anyway, my humans (but not I) tucked into an amaranth burger with paprika potato wedges, green pesto and coleslaw. As if that wasn’t enough to deny me, they then went back for a taster plate of ‘cheese’cakes. I'm not sure what the non-dairy alternative they used was, but the flavours were mango, chocolate and coffee, blueberry and strawberry. Again I wasn’t offered any and they even remembered the food selfie, of the cheesecakes anyway. We also learnt that at this café, or perhaps Norway in general, a scone is not those cake-bread things with raisins in. No, they contain oats and cocoa powder, almost a cross between an oat cookie and a non-gooey brownie. There was a sample pot of these at the till which my humans tried. Apparently they tasted good, fruity, chocolatey and oaty, but definitely not like any scone they've ever eaten before!

​Lunch over, the walk started to follow the Aker River. Sacre bleu! Mon dieu et mon droit! Water! For endless, endless miles – these people are killing me! And to make matters worse, there were waterfalls, oh the agony. At least there were some nice buildings to look at along the way, more ducks and a handful of bizarre birds Charlie and Jack have taken to calling crow-pigeons that have so far evaded capture on film. I’m not too fussed with what they are, but I would like to chase them. Anyway, there was a wonderful view of Oslo, looking back down the hill from the top of the largest waterfall I have ever seen.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough water for one lifetime, they decided they would walk all the way back along the river on the other side which somehow involved us getting even closer to the waterfall. There was a strange little shack built over the waterfall (what are humans thinking?). This bit was particularly horrible as whilst my humans took pictures, we were sprayed with water from the fall. 

We then reached (and crossed) a slightly wobbly bridge which my humans (mostly Charlie) insisted on wobbling even more. I am currently pondering whether my humans can be deemed of sound mind and if they are really appropriate guardians to take me on this trip.
Finally we left the river and went off to explore the old streets of Damstredet og Telthusbakken (og is Norwegian for and). These houses were made some of wood and some of brick and mortar. They are some of the new style of houses built after the Great Fire of Oslo, and marked the start of vertical building and a different layout to reduce fire-spread. According to the information board anyway, to me they didn’t seem particularly vertical. We then took a break in a park on another hill overlooking Oslo (we could see all the way back to the station) and a back view of Damstredet. 

​On leaving the park all appeared to be going well, but then, great Scott! We’re back on the river! Luckily this didn’t last too long and we ended up in the Botanical Gardens surrounding the Natural History Museums of Zoology and Geography (or perhaps it was Geology), which were closed it being 25 minutes after the closing time of 4 o’clock when we arrived.
Never mind, we wandered around the gardens instead where my humans played a long and rather pointless game of Name that Plant. Stupid as there was a name tag on every plant.
And then, oh this is too much, they took me to another river, this time in the gardens, just when I thought I was safe. What do they take me for? One is not a Turkish Van! Luckily I was distracted from the water by an opportunity to pose with Charlie’s very stylish sunglasses (see the picture of me from the first post of this blog).

Fortunately, we escaped the water and the gardens not long after this and made the final slog back up the hill to our room. This time our host’s ginger cat deigned to interact with Charlie and Jack, and we took the opportunity for some pictures together.
The humans started packing after dinner – yes, we’re leaving Oslo tomorrow. Sad times, I will miss this place, it has been a revelation, so very green, so very hilly and so very beautiful.
Oslo is a stunning city as I have mentioned on several occasions. It is so modern, so clean and full of wonderful surprises – one of which was a deficiency of streetlights, but that’s probably because, in the summer at least, it never really gets dark here. Sunset has been around 10:30 PM, sunrise around 4:00 AM, but in between there’s still plenty of light to see quite a lot. Another surprise was the lack of old buildings (see my very accurate and informative lesson on the Great Fire of Oslo) and how, despite this being the capital city, it seems so laid back and not busy, never empty but just not crowded either. I really will be sad to leave here and hope I get the opportunity to return one day.
Our next stop is Copenhagen (that’s the capital of Denmark) and one can only hope these deranged humans stay away from water.
Until then,
Chesh.

​Greetings humans! Day 2's Tail comes to you once again from Oslo. As with last night, my ‘mewsings’ (I promise that will be the only cat related pun) are written as I sit looking out over Oslo city. As promised last night, we did indeed go places, eat food and walked a lot!
​After walking back into the city (and discovering a very steep staircase-based shortcut) we stumbled upon some old ruins. Basically, due to a fire in Oslo in 1624, most of the city was burnt down and the area rebuilt closer to the Akershus fortress (more on this later) meaning there were very few old buildings. These ruins are what little remains. Next to them was this stunning yellow neo-gothic bishop’s residence built in 1883 and a whole row of brightly coloured houses behind it. 

For political reasons (probably), Oslo was temporarily renamed Christiania after the king following the fire, became Kristiania in 1877 but now of course it is back to good old Oslo, a fantastic name, I rather think.
As a result of the Great Fire of Oslo, as I like to think of it, many of the buildings here are quite modern and there is a lot of construction going on. The cranes are huge, reaching to the tops of tower blocks and building many wondrous new things (including a giant public library of which I heartily approve).
Despite all this modern post-Fire stuff, we were reminded of Oslo’s past by the chance discovery of a monument to Harold Hardrade of Battle of Hastings fame.
After these adventures, we set off in search of dinner, we found (after getting slightly lost and resorting to the SatNav) three interesting vegan cafés, one of which was closed, but my humans eventually made up their minds as to where they would come back to for dinner. I didn’t mind getting lost, it was a great opportunity to check out the city – and we found a nice park which we returned to for lunch, near to the royal residence (whatever that might be).
My humans now re-energised, we continued walking, next stop Akershus Fortress, via some more interesting buildings and the harbour at the end of the fjord. Get me away from this wet stuff, humans, you are perilously within 500 feet, back up! Ok, we arrived at the fortress without any major water related incidences. There was more hill-work involved – the humans will be fit by the end of this! We found an old (ish) building and some buildings built to look old and then found some stunning views down from the fortress to the city and the fjord (once again getting much too close to that dangerous water).
There were some old cannons at the fortress which I very much enjoyed sitting on. We sat and looked at the views for a while before wandering around the fortress, found some ducks and stopped by a fountain. More water, what is wrong with you humans?! Next up was the opera house on the water edge where we could walk on the roof (I have no idea…) and experience some more views of the city and the fjord.

My humans then took me out to dinner at Nordvegan, the café we checked out earlier before lunch. Dinner consisted of vegetable balls in breadcrumbs, a potato and vegan cheese wrap and enchiladas, although for reasons known only to the chefs, the enchilada contained pasta like a lasagne instead of the standard tortilla wrap. Who knows, maybe that’s a Norwegian thing? Well, either way, this was followed by a luxuriant gooey chocolate tart with a date and nut crust and a chocolate and almond protein ball. Luckily we were spared food selfies… but only because my humans forgot and I decided not to remind them.
Next was a leisurely walk back through Oslo which contained more ducks (good) and more water (bad). Another park was involved and some ruins, more remnants of the Great Fire of Oslo. We also discovered some interesting architecture in the form of buildings that looked like escalators (my humans liked it, I was rather confused).
On arriving back at the room, we met our host's cat although he decided to ignore the humans. I’m not surprised, after all us cats come when we can be bothered, not when you humans make kissy noises and click at us. We are not dogs! He looked rather comfy under a car, why would he want to say hello? But a black and white cat who lived downstairs did come and talk to us. This was, of course, because she wanted letting in, the timely arrival of my humans provided her perfect opportunity to make use of Homo sapien’s most useful feature, opposable thumbs.
 
Well, that pretty much sums up today, tomorrow you can expect more walking in Oslo, see you then.
Chesh.
 
(Information about the Great Fire of Oslo courtesy of the Visit Oslo website - https://www.visitoslo.com/en/articles/history/) 

Greetings, humans, and welcome to my blog, Tails of a Travelling Cat, by me, Chesh. Now, you may have noticed I bear a passing resemblance to the Cheshire Cat of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, and yes it’s true I started life in a Disney store (or more specifically a factory in Vietnam, although I’d rather not talk about that) but I prefer to think I am more like the dashing Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat, star of the less well known Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. If you’re not familiar with the books, I suggest you check me – ahem, them – out, I portray a stunning über-librarian of the Great Library superbly, if I do say so myself.
Anyway, enough about me (for now), this is about my travels, which does include me a lot, I suppose. I am inter-railing around Europe with my two human companions/ servants/ cat transporters, pick your favourite, but more on them later. My journey will start in Oslo, Norway on the 23rd May where I will be staying for a few days to sample the local food (although as a cuddly toy I don’t technically have to eat), experiencing the city and meeting the B&B owner’s cat (I hope he’s friendly). After that it’s on to Gothenburg, Sweden (for half an hour), a day in Copenhagen, Denmark and then a couple in Berlin, Germany. Then it’s onto Vienna, Austria and Geneva, Switzerland, both for the day, before finishing up in Paris, France (hopefully you knew what country that one was in but I am making my blog accessible to all) to travel back home on the 1st June.

Charlie had the original idea to organise this trip and persuaded Jack to come to, with the aim of visiting as many countries they had never been to before as they could in ten days. I’d say they have been pretty successful, six new countries and France because the Eurostar was a good way to get back. Then I came into their lives (improving them considerably, needless to say) and now I am coming as well because I am too important to miss out on a trip like this (and who else would write so fantastically?).
Oh, and they’re both vegan, seeing as I don’t need to eat, I won’t die if I eat their food but, hey, what the hell, I’m up for trying anything.
Well, that pretty much sums up the when, who, what and why of our trip. Until next time, folks.
Chesh.