Goodby to Italy

We are sad to say goodbye to Italy with its amazing churches, statues , crowds of people, pizza and pasta. Australians are quite the minority over here and it's like we don't exist, there is never any news of Australia. We won't miss dragging our suitcase up steps to cross bridges and onto crowded canal ferries or met trains - but hey, we managed and we would do it all over again and there are plenty of others doing it. One of the highlights of Venice was the Opera House, it was just amazing. Rarely have we seen anything that isn't amazing though.

We have wandered down many laneways in all of these cities, (where the sun doesn't shine) get lost and then manage to find our way. Wouldn't say the Italians are a very friendly bunch and the ones behind the counters never smile or speak if they don't have to. Jack thinks being a Gondolier is not a bad idea as they get 100euros every 35 mins.
I have fixed up the photos from the last blog, sorry about that.

Anyway I think I have covered the rest in previous blogs so it is onto Innsbruck, Munich and Salzberg...... 5 hours on train.

Have arrived in Innsbruck and have put a jacket on as it is a bit chilly, but a nice change from the heat in Venice.

Love C & J

Italy

Our time in Italy has been fantastic, we have navigated the train system and again walked many kilometres.

We arrived about 9.30pm at the Termini Station when there wasn't a lot station staff around to p oint us in the right direction, I knew where we needed to go but the taxi drivers told us it was along way to walk, so we took a taxi and it cost about 20 euros to go around to the other side of the station and down a block, so ripped off big time, needless to say we have not caught another taxi in Italy again.

We did all the tourist sites but had a 3 day pass which allowed us to skip the queues at a couple of places- well worth it at this time of year.

We covered most of the churches that had paintings by Carravaggio and a few extra- all were absolutely amazing. Fountains and statues-I have grown to love and the bigger they are the better. We took a guided tour of the Villa Borghese which houses many magnificent pieces of art and enjoyed a trip to Mount Vesuvious and Pompeii. I would hate to have been the driver of the bus as the road to the top was very narrow and to pass another car/bus it was quite an art, at once stage the driver stalled the bus and we all held our breath so we wouldn't roll back. A thunderstorm stopped us from spending much time at the summit but at least we were able to walk up and back without getting struck by lightning.

Again the streets are so narrow and often one way, I wouldn't ever contemplate driving. I guess the highlight for Rome was seeing the Pope three times in the week . St. Peter's Bascilica and The Vatican Museum(Sistene Chapel) were amazing , this was also the day Jack and I fell asleep up against the wall of St. Peter's after being at The Vatican at 8.00am for a tour.

The weather in Italy has been beautiful between 24-28c every day and I only use the umbrella for shade now.

We left Rome on the 17^th for Florence and once again the streets were long and narrow and are named differently when you get to a cross road, hence the need for a good map. I'm sure there are more tourists than locals as every second person is carrying a guide book or a map.

We have encountered many people begging in the streets, some with their children alongside them, one lady was even on the train before it left.

In Florence we climbed up Giotto's Tower, caught a bus to Michaelangelo's Piazza and then walked down to Ponte Vecchio. We spent time in the market. but I was overwhelmed with the choice and just settled on a pair of gloves and a belt for Jack. We also did the two main galleries -The Accademia and the Uffizi.We spent a day visiting Siena &Gambingano, which are surrounded by a wall from medieval times each with only limited amount of cars allowed and to Pisa. It is hard describe the feeling you get when you first see the Leaning Tower(those of you that have seen it will know what I mean) We climbed to the top and would have loved to have spent the day there going around the town and just gazing at the tower for awhile.

We then traveled to Milan to visit Da Vinci's last supper painting, for which our tickets were for 8.30am for 15mins, so the day before, we caught the train and worked out the way to get there so we wouldn,t be late. (all worked out fine) We also visited the Brera Gallery and then walked to the Duomo and hung around the square for awhile. I think the Duomo was more spectacular on the outside than on the inside. Throughout the three cities we have gazed into the expensive shops and then hurried on. I don't know how the women in these cities manage to walk around in the high heels, sure they're nice but they must be in pain at the end of the day.( Oh so many beautiful clothes)

Anyway it's onto Venice and then we head off to Innsbruck(hope there is a little snow left on the mountains) and from there I'm not sure which way we will go.

Hope you are all well and are keeping warm

Love C & J

10^th June : Goodbye to England.

The weather throughout England has been cool and at times rainy, this hasn't stopped us from doing anything though.

We left Bath and arrived at Gloucester to meet Dennis(our neighbour's friend from Mt. Clear)who drove us around (yea stress free driving) and showed us the sites, in particular the Gloucester Cathedral where they filmed parts of Harry Potter. Later we walked around their mushroom factory and then had tea

in their typical “English” garden. Sue and Dennis were wonderful hosts and we were most grateful to them for giving us their time. Their friendliness was much appreciated in a country where we didn't know anyone.

We managed to get to a laundrette and dragged our backpack in, stripped off the top layer of clothes we were wearing and threw it all in to get washed, someone kindly left their washing powder behind and we put it to good use with the help of some locals. Many English we have spoken to have been fascinated that we have come all this way and have exclaimed “but that's the other side of the world, what are you doing here. “They also love the accent, just like we love listening to them

We drove to Bourton-on-the-Water which was just like a postcard and then onto the Slaughters, we were unable to find a park so we continued on after a few laps of the town to Stow -on - the -Wold. We wandered around and had lunch there. Next stop was Stratford -Upon – Avon where we stayed for the night and took ourselves on a walking tour of all the Shakespeare sites (the town's focus is on Shakespeare)In between the towns we were traveling to it was not uncommon for us to become lost and visit another couple of towns on the way.

After walking around Stratford we decided to go to Warwick Castle-impressive, as this was our first castle we had seen. Blenheim Palace was even better and Windsor Castle was just as grand.

Oxford was incredible with all its colleges and we did a walking tour where we were able to go into the grounds of a couple of them. Oxford was also our first experience of Park n Ride where a friendly local gave us the heads up on how it worked , all we had to remember was where to catch the bus from and what Park n Ride we were to go to-lucky that was written on the ticket. (we had to run to catch the bus and so I left my camera behind that day ) We also got to go into a small part of the Bodleian Library.

Our last day was spent at Windsor(+ castle)and Eton. We were also lucky enough to go to Windsor Castle for Evensong(choir singing) where we sat by Henry VIII 's tomb for an hour listening to the most beautiful voices singing the Psalms.

All I can say now is, we have had another unbelievable 10 days in England and I'm glad we got the hire car back in one piece.( there were quite a number of times I thought we were going to end up with a dent)

Hope this reads okay as I'm typing  on the plane to Rome after a two hour delay.

Delay due to plane being struck by lightning in Oslo earlier in the day and grounded for check up.....great!!!

Regards

C & J

Eyam down to Bath

31^st May

We made our way to Eyam in the north of England and spent five hours wandering the little village reading and looking at the houses and graves associated with the Plague and then wandered along the moors of the village to find the historic locations I had read about.

We headed south and stayed just outside Birmingham for the night and then set off for Gloucester. We had set off without planning where we were going as we had intended to go to Gloucester to catch up with a friend of our neighbours' Wendy and Derek. He was unable to catch up on short notice so off we went to Tidworth.

We should have gone to Avebury on the way to see the 'Ring of Stones' but oh no didn't check where things were on the map and went down the Salisbury plains to Tidworth - this is where my great grandfather is buried in a military cemetery .It was not difficult to find and after driving through many tiny towns with roads that were like driveways with thatched roofves we arrived around lunch time. We noticed that there was a military presence around and found out later this is England's training ground

and 20,000 people in this area are connected with the armed forces. We ended up driving through their training area and having to watch out for any tanks that may be crossing.

Ready to go to Bath we thought we better check out where Stonehenge was and yes we were heading away from it and as it was on my list so we turned around and made the journey to see it. We then drove all the way back to Avebury.

Not to be turned off by the amount of driving we had already done we traveled onto Bath only to find that it is quite difficult to drive around and find somewhere to stay that can take the car as well. We ended finding one on a busy street corner just off Sidney Place/Great Putney Street. Again we picked a 2-3 star hotel but it was central and we could walk into the centre of town. Well, we went to go out the door this morning and couldn't get it open, with places to go I was not about to sit and wait for someone to turn up, (it appears the owners do not stay on the premises) I went down the fire escape from the third floor, found a chair and climbed over the 2metre fence clinging to the drain pipe and dropped to the ground-I couldn't step on the empty kegs as they would have rolled away from beneath me, I was a bit scared the drainpipe would come off the wall as it was quite wobbly. Anyway I went and unlocked the door from the outside and let Jack out. He has changed the key over but I will not be happy if we have to do the same thing tomorrow. Today we did a couple of tours around Bath on the bus – the only way to really see Bath and tomorrow we are off to Gloucester and then the Cotswolds.

P S Cheap accommodation, I think there is always going to be some drama.

C & J