Marcus says:
Well, the changed time zones ensured that I woke up earlier than usual, but Erith slept in until 6:00 am local time, so 7:00 am Paris time. We went up the street for a bit of breakfast and set off for the furthest of our destinations for the day - the Tower Bridge. We walked from London Bridge in the drizzle, which seemed to fit the general weather stereotype for London, but it stopped pretty quickly. The Tower Bridge was pretty cool, particularly the the engine rooms showing how the steam engines produced hydraulic power stored by lifting Tonkin' big weights up a long distance. The bridge itself is interesting, but the Thames isn't really big enough to require any sort of engineering masterpiece, so it isn't exactly breathtaking.
From there, we walked backed to London Bridge and caught the Tube to The Eye - the big Ferris wheel-like viewing attraction. It goes up something like 130 metres, so gives you a great view of the city as you do one circuit, taking something close to an hour, I thought. It was well organised and the lineups weren't bad at all - I'd say that from lining up for a ticket to setting foot aboard probably wasn't more than half an hour. You get a great view of Westminster Cathedral (or is it Abbey - I don't have my map with me) and a few other points of interest, but really from there, London looks a lot like most other cities.
We got some lunch and jumped in the Tube back toward High Street and got out at ... blast, I should have brought the map with me... a station about two stops before High Street. We strolled through Hyde Park, and Kensington Park to Kensington Palace, which is only a couple of blocks from where we're staying. This was the first I saw of the London that everyone waxes lyrical about - it had turned into a beautiful day, hot and sunny and people everywhere in the parks, which were green, lush and well kept. We were tired from crowds and trains and walking, so the parks really finished the day nicely. I'm glad we went with the higher intensity activities earlier in the day and coasted toward the end.
We got back to the hotel and Erith was suffering withdrawal from water as we hadn't been in a pool or to a beach since Thailand, so we had to go for a dip in the hotel pool. It's a hotel-slash-spa, so I'm not sure that our frolicking was entirely welcomed, but as we have a long flight tomorrow morning and need an early night, I had to spill a bit of Erith's excitement energy over flying to Canada tomorrow.
Assessment about London? I think I'd have to reserve judgement - one day isn't enough to form a decent opinion. It didn't have the exotic nature of Rome or Paris, but maybe part of that was because I didn't have to struggle with the language. It was nice to say "thanks mate" after buying something, but it doesn't feel all that different to Sydney.
Off to Canada tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. Gerry says that it's hot there and I'm looking forward to some reliable sun as we haven't had any since Italy. Canada will be good for a lot of reasons, but it's going to be a bit frenetic until Saturday, when we can kick back. Well, we could, except that it will be Erith's birthday. All laundry dirty at the moment and wet bathing suits to go in in our bags - it ain't going to be pretty. We're still looking forward to it though...
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
On to England
Photos - The Tower Bridge opening for a sailboat to pass through, Erith at The Eye, Westminster Abbey from The Eye, Erith at Kensington Palace.
Marcus says:
Well, we left Paris after a few hiccups - we were looking for a book in lost property and missed our checkin, so had to rebook our tickets, then had two seats apart as they were the last on the train, so had to reorganise our fellow passengers to suit our needs.
We got to London and not having had internet access in Paris, we didn't have any accommodation booked, so set off looking for an internet cafe. We found where one used to be, then gave up and tried for a hotel room near Waterloo Station, looking out on the London Eye - the big Ferris wheel. They nearly laughed when we said we wanted a room for that night, so we went back to the train station to use the crappy terminals that BT provide to try to find a room. The prices seemed exhorbitant, but eventually I booked something and we took the Underground to get to it. The room is pretty ordinary, but we were relieved to be somewhere where we could put down our bags and relax in front of the Simpsons... in a language that we understood, no less. All in all, it was our least successful day so far - not productive and not that much fun, but there you go.
Our hotel is just off High Street in Kensington, so last night we went out for a walk. It feels so much better to walk when you don't need to actually get anywhere. We stopped at Marks and Spencer for some very nice food - I think we were craving vitamins as Erith had a tub of pineapple and a punnet of rasperries and I had a tub of pineapple and a chicken and noodle salad. We searched without luck for an internert cafe, so came back to the hotel and blogged for a while. Off to bed, then up early and down here to get caught up on the blog.
Today we're planning to do a little tour of London Bridge, the Eye and maybe a palace or two, but from the outside only, as neither of us are that impressed with endless opulance it seems. A walk in Hyde and Kensington parks seems likely too, as they're just up the road.
I'll check my email with the remaining 17 minutes on this terminal, but I don't hold out much hope of getting through much. If you need to contact me, leave a comment here on the blog and I'll get in touch, but I'll have thousands of spams as I haven't cleared them for nearly a week now. In fact, leave a comment on the blog whether you need to contact me or not, particularly any of Erith's friends who may be reading. We may not be in touch for a couple of days as we travel to Toronto tomorrow and then Calgary then Red Deer the follwing day, but we'll have a chance to update properly in Red Deer, so will update properly then.
Marcus says:
Well, we left Paris after a few hiccups - we were looking for a book in lost property and missed our checkin, so had to rebook our tickets, then had two seats apart as they were the last on the train, so had to reorganise our fellow passengers to suit our needs.
We got to London and not having had internet access in Paris, we didn't have any accommodation booked, so set off looking for an internet cafe. We found where one used to be, then gave up and tried for a hotel room near Waterloo Station, looking out on the London Eye - the big Ferris wheel. They nearly laughed when we said we wanted a room for that night, so we went back to the train station to use the crappy terminals that BT provide to try to find a room. The prices seemed exhorbitant, but eventually I booked something and we took the Underground to get to it. The room is pretty ordinary, but we were relieved to be somewhere where we could put down our bags and relax in front of the Simpsons... in a language that we understood, no less. All in all, it was our least successful day so far - not productive and not that much fun, but there you go.
Our hotel is just off High Street in Kensington, so last night we went out for a walk. It feels so much better to walk when you don't need to actually get anywhere. We stopped at Marks and Spencer for some very nice food - I think we were craving vitamins as Erith had a tub of pineapple and a punnet of rasperries and I had a tub of pineapple and a chicken and noodle salad. We searched without luck for an internert cafe, so came back to the hotel and blogged for a while. Off to bed, then up early and down here to get caught up on the blog.
Today we're planning to do a little tour of London Bridge, the Eye and maybe a palace or two, but from the outside only, as neither of us are that impressed with endless opulance it seems. A walk in Hyde and Kensington parks seems likely too, as they're just up the road.
I'll check my email with the remaining 17 minutes on this terminal, but I don't hold out much hope of getting through much. If you need to contact me, leave a comment here on the blog and I'll get in touch, but I'll have thousands of spams as I haven't cleared them for nearly a week now. In fact, leave a comment on the blog whether you need to contact me or not, particularly any of Erith's friends who may be reading. We may not be in touch for a couple of days as we travel to Toronto tomorrow and then Calgary then Red Deer the follwing day, but we'll have a chance to update properly in Red Deer, so will update properly then.
More Paris...
Photos - the front of The Louvre, the Champs-Elysees from the top of the Arc de Triomphe and one of so many beautiful French buildings.
Erith says:
We arrived in Paris we got off the Metro and walked around the corner. I was so tired, but as soon as we got around the corner I had lots of energy because we saw the Eiffel Tower. Our hotel was right behind the Museum of Man. We checked in and found out that we had to move rooms on the second night. We got up to our room and we opened the curtains and we could see the Eiffel Tower from our bed. We got ready and went around to the Eiffel Tower. We stood right underneath it right in the middle. We had chinese food for dinner that night and then we walked back to the hotel and I went to bed.
The next morning we lined up for the Eiffel Tower. When they finally let us in at 9:00 am, we were the first ones up because we came up with the workers. We had the whole tower to ourselves for a few minutes. We could see everything from up there! There were three floors on the Eiffel Tower, but we only went on the second and third floors.
I've got more to add, but we're running out of time on this computer.
Marcus says:
Anyway, back to what I was so saying before I was so rudely interrupted by a desperate need for sleep, Erith and I finished off our day by walking down to the Pensioners - at least I think that's what it's called, but can't confirm as I lost the excellent book on Western Europe that I had been using. (Sorry Claudia.) It was a long walk on a summery Parisian night, with everyone outside in parks, playing with the kids, playing pitonne (or whatever it's called - I chose to mis-spell this version of it), or just generally strolling around like us. Very civilised and cool - a really nice feel and no feeling of fear or trepidation. Erith was keen to see the tower flashing, so we returned to it at 10:00 pm to have a look. There were still thousands of people milling aroung the base of it, many whom would surely get turned away and not get up that day. We marvelled again at our good fortune of being the only ones up there that morning - what a magical feeling that was.
The next day we got up and set off on foot for the Louvre, as we were both keen to see the Mona Lisa and have a general look around. We spent a few hours there, but were both tired from the day before, so didn't push it as hard as we might have. We looked mainly at paintings, with the Italian masters probably being my favourites, then we went to the Egyptian Antiquities section for a look at mumified cats, amazingly well preserved wooden statues, jewelery and all manner of other interesting bits.
We left there and were just walking through a park to the Champs Elysee when Lizzie phoned, so she and Erith had a nice chat. Erith is hard to keep quiet on the phone these days - she always has so much to report. We got some lunch and did the obligitory stroll down the Champs Elysee up to the Arch de Triumph, where we braved the stairs with already weary feet. We walked back to the hotel via Macdonalds, having dinner at 4:00 pm. One of us was tired and ratty, so took a nap. (Erith just watched TV.)
We went out for a last stroll later in the evening, both of us feeling that we could have spent a lot longer in Paris - it really is a fantastic city. I'd never been there before except on the back of a motorbike and then only passing through, but I will definitely go back again.
The language didn't even end up being an issue - having stumbled through Italian and finding my feet a bit with German, I was brave enough to have a go at French and found I had moderate success, carrying out entire transactions in French. Nothing chasllenginging mind you - there was a lot of "jambon au fromage" happening, but I felt none of the legendary French disdain for non-natives.
I've got to come back to Europe. Looking at the little roads flashing past as we blew by on the train, I think I'd like to do it on a big, fat slow motorcycle, ambling aimlessly down unposted roads with no agenda.
Erith says:
We arrived in Paris we got off the Metro and walked around the corner. I was so tired, but as soon as we got around the corner I had lots of energy because we saw the Eiffel Tower. Our hotel was right behind the Museum of Man. We checked in and found out that we had to move rooms on the second night. We got up to our room and we opened the curtains and we could see the Eiffel Tower from our bed. We got ready and went around to the Eiffel Tower. We stood right underneath it right in the middle. We had chinese food for dinner that night and then we walked back to the hotel and I went to bed.
The next morning we lined up for the Eiffel Tower. When they finally let us in at 9:00 am, we were the first ones up because we came up with the workers. We had the whole tower to ourselves for a few minutes. We could see everything from up there! There were three floors on the Eiffel Tower, but we only went on the second and third floors.
I've got more to add, but we're running out of time on this computer.
Marcus says:
Anyway, back to what I was so saying before I was so rudely interrupted by a desperate need for sleep, Erith and I finished off our day by walking down to the Pensioners - at least I think that's what it's called, but can't confirm as I lost the excellent book on Western Europe that I had been using. (Sorry Claudia.) It was a long walk on a summery Parisian night, with everyone outside in parks, playing with the kids, playing pitonne (or whatever it's called - I chose to mis-spell this version of it), or just generally strolling around like us. Very civilised and cool - a really nice feel and no feeling of fear or trepidation. Erith was keen to see the tower flashing, so we returned to it at 10:00 pm to have a look. There were still thousands of people milling aroung the base of it, many whom would surely get turned away and not get up that day. We marvelled again at our good fortune of being the only ones up there that morning - what a magical feeling that was.
The next day we got up and set off on foot for the Louvre, as we were both keen to see the Mona Lisa and have a general look around. We spent a few hours there, but were both tired from the day before, so didn't push it as hard as we might have. We looked mainly at paintings, with the Italian masters probably being my favourites, then we went to the Egyptian Antiquities section for a look at mumified cats, amazingly well preserved wooden statues, jewelery and all manner of other interesting bits.
We left there and were just walking through a park to the Champs Elysee when Lizzie phoned, so she and Erith had a nice chat. Erith is hard to keep quiet on the phone these days - she always has so much to report. We got some lunch and did the obligitory stroll down the Champs Elysee up to the Arch de Triumph, where we braved the stairs with already weary feet. We walked back to the hotel via Macdonalds, having dinner at 4:00 pm. One of us was tired and ratty, so took a nap. (Erith just watched TV.)
We went out for a last stroll later in the evening, both of us feeling that we could have spent a lot longer in Paris - it really is a fantastic city. I'd never been there before except on the back of a motorbike and then only passing through, but I will definitely go back again.
The language didn't even end up being an issue - having stumbled through Italian and finding my feet a bit with German, I was brave enough to have a go at French and found I had moderate success, carrying out entire transactions in French. Nothing chasllenginging mind you - there was a lot of "jambon au fromage" happening, but I felt none of the legendary French disdain for non-natives.
I've got to come back to Europe. Looking at the little roads flashing past as we blew by on the train, I think I'd like to do it on a big, fat slow motorcycle, ambling aimlessly down unposted roads with no agenda.
Paris
Photos - the view of the tower that we had while lying in bed, Erith alone atop the tower and the view of our hotel from the tower. Our hotel was the building closest to the middle of the bow of the curved museum and the clump of trees, second floor from the top, right hand end.
Marcus says:
We left Munich the way we found it - cold, rainy, industrial and far too smoky for comfort. The train took us through Austria and it was interesting to watch the transition of the countryside and the architecture, though obviously they would be linked. One thing that impressed us both was the alternative energy in the form of a solar farm and several wind farms - very cool!
We got into the French countryside and because we'd opted for the first class train travel, we were provided with a meal complete with a little bottle of red wine. Erith had a sip just because we were in France and I finished it off in no time. It was very simple wine - not a complicated taste at all, more like spiked grape juice. I'm no expert, but it seemed like a nice everyday wine.
As we moved through France, we could see that every waterway was filled to almost flood point and there was standing water in the fields - they must have had a wet summer. Many of the crops had sections where the rain had obviously flattened it and there was a lot of grain (maybe barley) that looked as though it should be harvested but was still standing. In fact, there were very few combines and very few fields that had been cut, presumably because of the wet. It changed as we got closer to Paris, which I took as a good sign.
Indeed it was a good sign - we got Paris mid-afternoon and although we were exhausted and had the hassle of figuring out the Metro (which is fantastic but very busy), we got to our stop without incident. (Which is to say, I didn't get us lost.) I had booked the hotel on the web and we had high hopes for it - it was a small, boutique hotel supposedly had tower views. We were tired and Erith was trailing me by a couple of paces as we got out of the Metro. "We need to find a reference point" I said, just as I saw the tower. Erith took two steps and looked around, and there was the tower in full view. We both got a big energy charge and decided to go down there oas soon as we had checked into the hotel. The hotel turned out to be directly behind the Museum of Man, which is the best viewing point in Paris of the tower. They had overbooked, so had to move us to an "exectutive suite" for the first night. It was tiny - you couldn't swing a cat. It wasn't particularly lavish either - I guess "boutique" lets you get away with "slightly dumpy".
We went straight down and checked it out for a while, snapping photos like... well, like the zealous tourists that we were. We got a bit of dinner and went back to the room - I knew it was going to be hard to wind Erith down and we wanted to get up early to go up the tower the next morning.
Did the room have views!! Only the top half half of the tower, but from less than a kilometre away it looked pretty spectacular and we could see it from lying in bed. At night when it lit up and then periodically flashed, it was a real sight. Our boutique accommodation really earned its keep when the sun went down... and the lights were low. We had three windows that opened onto the street below - one even had window boxes with flowers. Very Parisian...
We got up the next day and went down to the tower early. Really early. Earlier than anyone - we were first in line and only in line for some time. We ate some oranges and chatted in the sun - it was a nice way to kill an our or so. The line firmed up behind us and quickly got nasty. When they opened the ticket sales at 9:00, we were smug. Erith was racing in through the empty winding barriers and I was hot on her heels. We got our tickets and went to the lift. Then things got weird.
As soon as we got in the lift, the attendant closed the doors and started going up. You need to transfer lifts at level 2 to go to the top, so he dropped us off. We went straight to the lift to go up, and got in. We were joined a minute of two later by four staff, then we started going up. We were at the top without a single other tourist for about five minutes! We couldn't believe it - there were thousands of people waiting below and we knew that the lines would be there until 10:00 pm, yet we had a private viewing of Paris. It was spectacular. Once the crowds started coming, it quickly got to the point where you couldn't move, but we had a short but magic time to ourselves. Unbelievable and very amazing.
We spent the rest of the day doing laundry and wandering around, with a long walk to the ... sorry, out of time - I'll try to catch up tomorrow...
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Munich
Photos - One of the numerous courtyards in the Residenz, one of the halls in the Residenz, sometimes used for dining and the Palace of Justice, another palce in the old part of the city.
Erith says:
Yesterday when we got to Munich we went for a little walk and went to an internet cafe to update our blog and to find a hotel to stay. We got to a hotel and it was very nice. Our room is 712 and we have a great view from our window. It's quite small, but very cozy.
This morning we went to an old palace. It was very pretty on the outside and very detailed. When we got inside, we got an audio guide to tell us about the things. There were two sections - one was rooms of the palace and one was crowns and jewels. I thought the palace was great and so did dad.
On the way back, we saw lots of lolly shops but didn't get any lollies. While we were walking back to the hotel, I got a new swimming costume and a charm for my charm bracelet.
Then we had lunch. I had penne pasta and it was very nice. Just when I had finished it started to rain. It was only raining for a few minutes and then it stopped. We walked back and went to the internet cafe to do the blog.
Today I'm excited because tomorrow we're going to Paris.
Marcus says:
We arrived in Munich yesterday, to weather that we're really not used to - it was cold and rainy, and felt quite a bit like a Sydney winter. We found a hotel easily enough - we've been having good luck using wotif.com and lastminute.com to get usually four-star accommodation for a lot less than the standard price. Even with the exchange to the Euro, the prices are comparable to what you'd expect to pay in Australia.
Paris may be a different story - Erith is looking for something at the moment, but I suspect that it may be pricier than what we've been getting so far. I realised last night that Wimbledon is on at the moment, so London could also be a challenge. We may pop in for a look, even if we don't watch any decent action - I've always wanted to go and besides, I happen to love strawberries...
As Erith said, we went to the Residenz today - it was very interesting, but a bit like overdosing on sugar. Opulent room after opulent room, all apparently used by very important people to meet with less important people. Bedrooms never used as bedrooms - set up for show only, etc. Another slightly sad aspect was that many of the rooms were bombed out of existence during World War II and although they have been filled with Authentic Royal Stuff, the rooms don't actually bear that much resemblance to their original use.
The treasury was also very interesting, but the sugar factor took hold again - fabulous jewel-encrusted goods of every description, but room after room after room of them. We stopped listening to the audio guide, then even stopped taking pictures, not because the items weren't magnificent, but because they were no more magnificent than those in the previous rooms.
We have been making a point of having a nice, authentic meal before leaving every country and today it was lunch. Erith had penne, but I had a brace of fine pork sausages stacked on saurkraut. We both had hot chocolate with hot milk and whipped cream delivered separate from the chocolate suace. It was superb, especially because of the inclement weather.
Munich has been a bit of a blow-through, but as I hadn't come here when I spent a year in Germany in 1981-82, I was curious to see it. The weather's poor and I'd rather have gone to Berlin, but it was worth coming and we needed to break up the long train trips anyway. Having struggled to make myself understood in Italy, I have found German to be a lot easier to communicate in - I'm amazed at how quickly it's returned. I guess it's possible to learn even while mis-spending your youth...
It's such a contrast coming to Germany from Italy. In Italy your take your life in your hands every time you cross the road, but here everyone obeys the lights even if there's no traffic coming for two blocks each way. They're also very clean - we've seen two people pick up rubbish that wasn't theirs - also a contrast to Italy, where that would seem to make you appear subservient, so would be totally unacceptable.
The major annoyance here is that everyone seems to smoke. Everywhere. Last night in the internet cafe, we were the only computer smoke-free, with a guy lighting a cigar as we left. I'm sure we must stink of smoke as the whole of Munich seems to. It must be impossible to quit smoking here and would arguably be pointless anyway.
On another note, we've completely run out of time and have had to drastically modify our plans. Unfortunately, we won't get to Poland to see my sister Belinda, who is studying there for a couple of months to escape the heat of the Middle East, where she lives the rest of the year. It's a real bumer as I was looking forward to catching up, but we would have spent the whole time on the train and Bel has been getting up at 5:00 am to prepare for classes anyway, so we wouldn't have got much of a visit. It's a drag when we're geographically relatively close to each other, but without more time it would never work.
Next stop is Paris for three days then London for two. I can't believe that we're getting close to being finished in Europe - we'll be half finished our trip when we fly to Canada next week.
Paris may be a different story - Erith is looking for something at the moment, but I suspect that it may be pricier than what we've been getting so far. I realised last night that Wimbledon is on at the moment, so London could also be a challenge. We may pop in for a look, even if we don't watch any decent action - I've always wanted to go and besides, I happen to love strawberries...
As Erith said, we went to the Residenz today - it was very interesting, but a bit like overdosing on sugar. Opulent room after opulent room, all apparently used by very important people to meet with less important people. Bedrooms never used as bedrooms - set up for show only, etc. Another slightly sad aspect was that many of the rooms were bombed out of existence during World War II and although they have been filled with Authentic Royal Stuff, the rooms don't actually bear that much resemblance to their original use.
The treasury was also very interesting, but the sugar factor took hold again - fabulous jewel-encrusted goods of every description, but room after room after room of them. We stopped listening to the audio guide, then even stopped taking pictures, not because the items weren't magnificent, but because they were no more magnificent than those in the previous rooms.
We have been making a point of having a nice, authentic meal before leaving every country and today it was lunch. Erith had penne, but I had a brace of fine pork sausages stacked on saurkraut. We both had hot chocolate with hot milk and whipped cream delivered separate from the chocolate suace. It was superb, especially because of the inclement weather.
Munich has been a bit of a blow-through, but as I hadn't come here when I spent a year in Germany in 1981-82, I was curious to see it. The weather's poor and I'd rather have gone to Berlin, but it was worth coming and we needed to break up the long train trips anyway. Having struggled to make myself understood in Italy, I have found German to be a lot easier to communicate in - I'm amazed at how quickly it's returned. I guess it's possible to learn even while mis-spending your youth...
It's such a contrast coming to Germany from Italy. In Italy your take your life in your hands every time you cross the road, but here everyone obeys the lights even if there's no traffic coming for two blocks each way. They're also very clean - we've seen two people pick up rubbish that wasn't theirs - also a contrast to Italy, where that would seem to make you appear subservient, so would be totally unacceptable.
The major annoyance here is that everyone seems to smoke. Everywhere. Last night in the internet cafe, we were the only computer smoke-free, with a guy lighting a cigar as we left. I'm sure we must stink of smoke as the whole of Munich seems to. It must be impossible to quit smoking here and would arguably be pointless anyway.
On another note, we've completely run out of time and have had to drastically modify our plans. Unfortunately, we won't get to Poland to see my sister Belinda, who is studying there for a couple of months to escape the heat of the Middle East, where she lives the rest of the year. It's a real bumer as I was looking forward to catching up, but we would have spent the whole time on the train and Bel has been getting up at 5:00 am to prepare for classes anyway, so we wouldn't have got much of a visit. It's a drag when we're geographically relatively close to each other, but without more time it would never work.
Next stop is Paris for three days then London for two. I can't believe that we're getting close to being finished in Europe - we'll be half finished our trip when we fly to Canada next week.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Venice
Photos - Erith looking out the front of our gondola, one of the very common but very cool (in my opinion) wooden taxis, Erith on the bridge over the main canal.
Erith says:
Venice was great! The reason why we went there is so we could ride a gondola. We had a really cool gondola and it had red and gold seats. We had the main seats but there were two other stools and one chair. The man who was driving the gondola said that they have crashes all the time. It was very busy because we went in the morning and everyone was going to work. We went onto little quiet canals to get away from the traffic. It was very peaceful and the man pointed things out to us while we went past them.
While we were walking along the street one night we walked next to a big puddle and a bus came past and splashed us.
I loved Italy but when we went to Austria and Germany I was amazed! We came out of the train station and went to an internet cafe to book our hotel because we hadn't booked yet.
Marcus says:
We boarded the train on Monday morning bound for Venice and arrived early afternoon. I'd booked a hotel through lastminute.com in Mestre, which is about 10 km from Venice. It was a great deal and a very nice room - they were renovating the whole hotel, which was why it was so cheap. Mestre is billed as "a bit drab", but it's not really fair to compare it to Venice. It's nice enough and in fact there were a few palatial houses, presumably occupied with people for a bit more land than Venice has to offer. It rained in the afternoon and as Erith said, we got sprayed by a bus - it was a real drenching and we didn't even see it coming.
The room had some nice touches - for one, the bathroom was lined with big slabs of marble - the biggest on the floor being 1.8 by 0.9 metres and the norm being 1.2 by 0.9 metres. Having spent a couple of years in the marble and granite industry, I could appreciate the amazing tolerances - there were no lips that would have been more than a millimetre and the corners all met beatifully as well. I noticed the same thing at Cel's flat - the marble had all been cut so that the grain progressed nicely. It's not that hard to find quality stonemasons in Italy I suppose.
Venice was fantastic, but I was satisfied with only having one full day there. We did the gondola thing quite early - it was overpriced, but I think it's just one of those things that you have to do in Venice. We had a nice tour by a good guide - his english wasn't great, but he was happy to answer questions and point out the landmarks. He spent a lot more time talking to pretty much every other boat driver within earshot, some of whom responded in kind and some who just ignored him. He was the kind of mouthy but totally inoffensive guy that you might find anywhere in the world - it made me smile even though I had no idea what he was saying.
We had lunch and wandered around afterwards finding a museum that had built machines from da Vinci's codices. I love the things he drew and/or developed and many are still in wide use today. Most you could operate, so I was like a kid in a candy shop. Erith like them too, though no doubt wouldn't have minded a bit less commentary about a few of them.
On the way back I found a barber and got a badly needed haircut. Hoping not to need too many, I went for a numero uno instead of my usual number two, so I look like a cue-ball with tan lines - I'll have to be careful not to burn until it grows in a bit.
We took the train back to Mestre and went to a nice restaurant for dinner, as it was our last Italian meal. We had a cured meat platter for an entre, both had lasagne and I had half a litre of beautiful house red. Really nice food, outside in the warm evening, followed up by gelato (of course) and an early night, as we had a train for Munich the next morning at 7:00 am.
I loved Italy.
Erith says:
Venice was great! The reason why we went there is so we could ride a gondola. We had a really cool gondola and it had red and gold seats. We had the main seats but there were two other stools and one chair. The man who was driving the gondola said that they have crashes all the time. It was very busy because we went in the morning and everyone was going to work. We went onto little quiet canals to get away from the traffic. It was very peaceful and the man pointed things out to us while we went past them.
While we were walking along the street one night we walked next to a big puddle and a bus came past and splashed us.
I loved Italy but when we went to Austria and Germany I was amazed! We came out of the train station and went to an internet cafe to book our hotel because we hadn't booked yet.
Marcus says:
We boarded the train on Monday morning bound for Venice and arrived early afternoon. I'd booked a hotel through lastminute.com in Mestre, which is about 10 km from Venice. It was a great deal and a very nice room - they were renovating the whole hotel, which was why it was so cheap. Mestre is billed as "a bit drab", but it's not really fair to compare it to Venice. It's nice enough and in fact there were a few palatial houses, presumably occupied with people for a bit more land than Venice has to offer. It rained in the afternoon and as Erith said, we got sprayed by a bus - it was a real drenching and we didn't even see it coming.
The room had some nice touches - for one, the bathroom was lined with big slabs of marble - the biggest on the floor being 1.8 by 0.9 metres and the norm being 1.2 by 0.9 metres. Having spent a couple of years in the marble and granite industry, I could appreciate the amazing tolerances - there were no lips that would have been more than a millimetre and the corners all met beatifully as well. I noticed the same thing at Cel's flat - the marble had all been cut so that the grain progressed nicely. It's not that hard to find quality stonemasons in Italy I suppose.
Venice was fantastic, but I was satisfied with only having one full day there. We did the gondola thing quite early - it was overpriced, but I think it's just one of those things that you have to do in Venice. We had a nice tour by a good guide - his english wasn't great, but he was happy to answer questions and point out the landmarks. He spent a lot more time talking to pretty much every other boat driver within earshot, some of whom responded in kind and some who just ignored him. He was the kind of mouthy but totally inoffensive guy that you might find anywhere in the world - it made me smile even though I had no idea what he was saying.
We had lunch and wandered around afterwards finding a museum that had built machines from da Vinci's codices. I love the things he drew and/or developed and many are still in wide use today. Most you could operate, so I was like a kid in a candy shop. Erith like them too, though no doubt wouldn't have minded a bit less commentary about a few of them.
On the way back I found a barber and got a badly needed haircut. Hoping not to need too many, I went for a numero uno instead of my usual number two, so I look like a cue-ball with tan lines - I'll have to be careful not to burn until it grows in a bit.
We took the train back to Mestre and went to a nice restaurant for dinner, as it was our last Italian meal. We had a cured meat platter for an entre, both had lasagne and I had half a litre of beautiful house red. Really nice food, outside in the warm evening, followed up by gelato (of course) and an early night, as we had a train for Munich the next morning at 7:00 am.
I loved Italy.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Florence and goodbye Siena
Photos - Erith on the centre of Ponte Vecchio, a shot of some of the jewellery shops on Ponte Vecchio, one of the race horses in the Palio, one of the horse running in the final practice round.
Erith says:
Yesterday we got a bus to Florence. We looked around a bit and set off to get some food. We looked on the map and saw a nice park. When we got there it wasn't nice at all because they were restoring the church. Then we got some food and I got a Powerade. Then we walked around trying to find the toilet and saw a lolly shop. We got a big block of chocolate with hazel nuts at the bottom. We had to half it between us because it was so big. We stopped in some shops to try to find a swimming costume. We didn't eventually find one because they were all too small.
Once we did find the toilet that cost each of us 60 cents to get in. We then went to an old bridge named Ponte Vecchio. I got a charm of the Colesseum and it was 75 Euro. We went to a palace and tried to find the garden, but we had to go in to the palace to get into the garden but we didn't want to go in. Instead of going to the garden, we got an icy drink then we walked back to the bus stop and got on a bus back to Siena.
Today we went to the Campo because there was a last practice for the horse race on Monday. We were waiting for the horses to come out. When they finally did come out, they were very fast horses and the riders rode bareback. The horserace only went for 90 seconds. After the race, we went to get some coffee and I got an iced tea. I drank half of it but then I couldn't stop shaking it up.
Today I'm quite excited because tomorrow we're going to Venice. In Venice, I would like to ride a gondola.
Marcus says:
Yesterday we had a pretty quiet day - we took a bus from Siena to Florence around lunchtime, strolled around for the afternoon, then took the bus back to Siena. We wanted to see Florence, but we decided that we weren't going to line up for anything as we had neither the time nor the energy. We went past San Maria Novella, but it was undergoing restoration, so the entire front was covered. We had a bit of lunch in the shade anyway, then set off for Duomo, which was a major engineering feat at the time and is still very impressive. It was commissioned by Medici and designed by Garibaldi and was the biggest dome ever built at the time. Garibaldi designed a new way of building domes and apparently everyone was holding their breath right up until the last brick was placed.
From Duomo we walked down to Palazzo Vecchio and looked at the copy of Michelangelo's David and some of the other sculptures - all very impressive. Erith did a bit of souvenier shopping and we looked for a new swimming costume for her, but without success. We continued on to the Uffizi, then to Ponte Vecchio where we got Erith a small gold charm of the Colosseum. The jewellery shops are really amazing - they had some beautiful pieces and the prices didn't seem too high, not that I'd really have a clue. Even more amazing were the fish in the river below Ponte Vecchio - they looked like goldfish or some sort of carp, but they were the size of gropers. They were huge and there were a lot of them - very cool.
From there, we walked down to Palazzo Pitti, a huge palace with a massive garden behind. In keeping with our policy for the day, we didn't want to go into the palace, but our attempts to find a way into the gardens by other means were thwarted by the tiny streets leading in seemingly random directions. We didn't mind though - we wandered down some nice, quiet streets down by the river with our icy drinks.
We crossed Ponte Vecchio again and headed for the bus station, on a route that took us through the heart of the high-end shopping district. All the big labels were there, one shop after the next. Not being in the market for a new 600 Euro Prada handbag (my old one is still perfectly serviceable), we window shopped only. Back to the bus station and back to Siena - we were tired, but not with the fog that comes with dealing with crowds all day long. Florence is obviously an amazing place, but given the fact that we were looking for a quiet day, we were happy with the very moderate coverage we managed.
This morning, we went down to the Campo to see the last practice run of the Palio - the big race. An update on the drama of the other night for punters following at home - apparently the starter did something dodgy with the rope and the snail's horse tripped, injuring itself. The starter was immediately fired from that position he had held for many years and the reason that the contrada was so upset was that they were one of two contrade that got the horse and jockey that they wanted, so would have fancied their chances. Also the practice run is spirited, but by no means flat out, so tripping on the starting line is a bit of a freak accident. We'll be in Venice by the time they run the real race tomorrow night, but it seems likely that we'll get some information about who won.
I'm starting to panic about the amount of time we have left in Europe and the ground we want to cover. We've concluded that quality time is better than rushing around just to say that we've been places, but at the same time, there are plenty of places we want to see. I'm pretty happy that if we had to linger somewhere, we did it in Italy. I'd always wanted to come here and we really have had a great time, but now we're planning our exit. We've booked train tickets to take us to Venice tomorrow. It's about 4.5 hours from Siena and first class seats are about 73 Euro for the pair of us, which I thought was pretty reasonable. We'll probably spend 1.5 days in Venice, then head for Vienna for a day of so, then up to Poland to see Belinda - another of my sisters who is there to escape the >50 degree temperatures in the Middle East, where she currently lives.
Staying at Cel's has been fantastic - it's been great to catch up and has given us a chance to charge up our batteries a bit, as well as getting caught up on laundy. It'll be a shame to leave tomorrow, but Cel will be working anyway, so it's probably a good day. Today is a quiet one - get packed, get rested and relax before what will be a fairly frenetic period of travel. We'll have less internet access too, so we may post less frequently, but we'll see how we go.
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