Well it’s been a while since I updated this thing but thats mainly due to the towns I have been in not having anything approaching affordable or decent internet. Anyway since I last updated I have flown from Napes to Strasbourg(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg) via Basel-Mulhouse(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel). We spent 2 nights there after being delayed 5 hours by EasyJet in Naples airport and then headed on the train to meet mum, dad and Liz in Sarrebourg(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarrebourg). From there we took a canal boat(http://www.crownblueline.fr/boatspecs.html?boat=JAM) and headed south for 5 days through the Lorraine and Alsace regions of France.

It was a lot more hard work than we had been lead to believe. I think at last count there were 42 locks, two tunnels (one of which was 2.6KM long) and an inclinator (kind of like a huge elevator for boats which lifts and lowers boats 40m). The first few locks were a bit tricky and the boat steering was fun as it didnt ever want to drive straight but by the second day we had gotten the knack of it.

Once we hit Strasbourg(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg) again we decided to pull up for two nights to give us a chance to just relax and see the city. We had a bit of a birthday dinner for me in town at a reasonably swanky restaurant and I ate Sauerkraut and random meats ( the restaurant specialty ).

We left the boat in a tiny town named Boofzheim and took taxis to Colmar. From there we all took the train to Basel(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel) and then we parted ways, Mum, Dad and Liz got the train an hour later on to Lucerne and the next day Stuart headed back to London so I am all on my lonesome now.

After an awful nights sleep in Basel with teenage kids deciding it would be fun to flick the lights on and off repeatedly at 2:30 in the morning and then play with their mobile ringtones at 6 in the morning I spent the last day in Basel just doing boring stuff like washing and reading up on Prague. Watched the Germany v Costa Rica football game on the tv with some random German guys who were handing out free beers which was fun.

Today I had to get up early and head into the airport for my flight to Prague, except for a bit of turbulence the flight was uneventful and I have just gotten to the hostel(http://www.sirtobys.com/) and haven’t seen any more of the city yet.

– Matt

P.S. Naples isnt as bad as my first impression, we did find some fairly nice spots and some fantastic pizza but it’s still fairly shite.