Day 43: Florence, David, crypts and relics

The Accademia is right across the road from our apartment.  We got up, went out our door, went in theirs and around the corner and... Wow. Michelangelo’s David.  Wow, wow and wow.  You can just stare at him for ages.  The detail.  The stature, imposing, glowing marble. This is real art.  To think that somebody could extract that from a slab of second hand marble.
We spent a good 1.5 to 2 hours here at the Accademia admiring the fantastic paintings, some dating back to the 1400’s. The room of plaster casts which were the precursors to construction of the marble statues also was amazing.  The Bartolini statues are ethereally beautiful. But David is a religious experience.  Watching people watching David is great too. There was also a musical instrument exhibition, which had cellos from the 1600s! And what on earth is a Guitar pianola!?! But no photos were allowed…
Afterwards we walked past the Duomo where I had planned to climb up to the cupola, but the queues were insane, presumably because today is a Saturday.  Looks like I’ll miss out.  Can’t say I’m that disappointed though, but it would have been good to have done it.
The Piazza Duomo was teeming with people, heaps more than any other day.  Even the queue to get into the Duomo was huge.  This thing holds 20,000 people so I’m not sure why the queue was extending right across the piazza. We walked on to the Basillica de Museo di Santa Croce.

Day 42: Florence and the Uffizi

I’m very excited this morning as we are going to the Uffizi. But I’m a bit annoyed too as I had sussed out that I got scammed on the tickets.
To see the Uffizi, you want to grab the tickets beforehand to avoid the long queues. I’d seen the queues for the Accademia so was glad that I had booked them online. But googling brings up www.uffizi.com, which you would think is the official site. It isn’t. The official site is www.polomuseale.firenze.it. This meant that I ended up paying this tricky booking site 10 euro more than if I had gone to the correct site. Not a big deal, but I was annoyed with myself for getting mislead. To make matters worse, now I was also a little concerned if I would be able to get in showing the voucher on my phone, as there was no way to print it. So I decided it was best to head down early in case of any problems.
My worries were for nothing as it all went smoothly; I passed my phone through the counter and received proper tickets (and my phone) back no hassles at all.
The Uffizi Gallery is extremely high on the wow factor. I loved this place. So much art. We were in there for some 4 hours, and it still felt a little rushed. And Birth of Venus! Birth of Venus just sent chills through me. It’s truly a beautiful painting. I just loved the Botticelli’s and the Lippi’s with a passion. The faces they paint are simply beauty captured on canvas. Botticelli’s La Primavera, and Annunciation; Lippi’s Madonna with Child and Two Angels were favourites, as was Gerard van Honthorst’s Adoration of the Child.
The rest of the art in there is also truly amazing. A huge collection of altar pieces and religious art. I rename the museum the Madonna with Child, the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and the House of Penises, as they were the predominate themes running throughout the gallery. The later envisioned through sculpture rather than painting. Ta;ling of the sculptures, they were amazing too; a favourite would be Sleeping Ariadne. The way that the marble was carved in such detail, including the folds of cloth.

Day 41: Italy just gets better and better - Florence!

We met Paolo at our apartment at 7:30AM for checkout.  Our train was at 8:30, and it was about a ten minute walk, but I like to be early and not risk missing a connection.  There were no hassles with checkout, so we were soon lugging our luggage down the three flights of stairs, and dragging it all up to the train station.

They had a really cheap and nice café shop at the station, which was great after having to pay upwards of 5 euro for coffee!  And they had café ginseng!  For 1.50!!

Day 40: Totally Love Venice!

Today was Michelle’s birthday.  What a perfect place to spend a birthday! After getting the train into Venezia Santa Lucia, we saw the Orient Express awaiting departure at the platform.  That train looks like a must do experience, but when I looked it up online afterwards, it only travelled from Venice to Paris.  Not sure why it's still called the Orient Express anymore?

Day 39: By lunchtime we'll be in Venice

A commute day today.  Boring.  Well not too boring.  I mean I could be sitting at home, or working…
Germany is a very scenic country to drive through.  From Salzburg, the countryside slowly changed from the mountains, to verdant green countryside.
Within not much more than 2 hours we’d dropped off the car and were at the airport.  Very early.  I prefer to be early at airports, but this was very early. And airports aren’t the cheapest of places to eat either.  Anyway, they had my favourite weisswurst so I took advantage of my last chance to have this, and also grabbed a nice huge weissbeer, even though it was about 9 in the morning.  I wasn’t the only one either.

Day 38: Rainy Days in Austria

I had been worrying all weekend about the car.  I'd had a bit of a brain fart, and though I had known and even put it in my notes to contact the car lease company 4 business days before the due drop off date, as what was outlined repeatedly in the lease agreement, and that was all meant to happen when we were in Garmish, I’d somehow thought that it instead was when I was in Salzburg and it didn’t click until 6PM last Friday that this was all wrong. Which of course was after business hours and too late to do anything about until 9:00AM Monday morning.  Today.  Now.
So I tried calling, and couldn’t get through. And tried again, and still couldn’t. And again, and again, for about 40 minutes, and now I was getting quite concerned.  What would happen if I couldn’t drop the car off?  I was meant to give 4 days’ notice.  They’d said so over and over on all the instructions supplied. With no luck getting through, I tried ringing the Barcelona office and got through straight away.  I explained my problem, and he said no problems, but you know you are meant to give 4 days’ notice?  Yes, yes sorry :–(  I thanked him all grateful, then Michelle said, I think he thought you wanted to drop the car off in Barcelona?  But I said Munich!?!  Sure enough, ringing back he thought I was dropping off in Barcelona.  Problem not solved.  I tried Munich again.  Tried their head office and tried the supplied mobile number.  I even tried their Skype ID.  No luck.  I called the Australian broker, and they said it shouldn’t be a drama, and they would try on my behalf, and to just assume it would all be good and to drop the car off.  So much worry over a stupid mistake.
So continuing our Sound of Music experience, we drove out to Mondsee to visit the church used in the movie.  Warning.  Don’t look too closely at the altar piece.  There are a number of skeletons from previous bishops just sitting in there.  Lovely.

Day 37: Frauline Maria's Sound of Music Bicycle Tour

What an amazing tour.  We were so lucky that our guide was a trained opera / operetta singer; she had the loveliest voice and was full of energy, singing the songs at every location we visited.  She also had heaps of information about the history and places in Salzburg, as well as the Sound of Music Movie.  This is a very highly recommended way to see Salzburg, as well as to do visit and get the most out of the obligatory Sound of Music sites.

Day 36: We're going to Salzburg!

Not a great deal to really to say of interest today, given it was a commute day.  Well at least for the morning.  We farewelled our lovely host in Garmisch, then spent an uneventful though beuatiful two hours or so driving to Salzburg.  The highlight of the trip was stopping at a roadside stop for breakfast, and they had weisswurst!

Day 35: More Ludwig, More Schloss, More Wagner

Now today we put into practice our well learnt lesson from yesterday; we were at Linderhof Castle not long after opening, joining the very next tour at 9:30. Yay!
Now this castle was a lot smaller, and set in large, extensive grounds and gardens, and so was very different to the Neuschwanstein Castle we'd visited the day before.
Ludwig had Linderhof built to replicate and celebrate the French baroque period and as a tribute to Sun King Louis XIV, who Ludwig totally idolised.

Day 34: It's pronounced Neuschwanstein

Today’s plan of up early didn’t quite eventuate, but at least it was still morning when we left the house.  Neuschwanstein Castle was on the agenda for today.  I figured it would be an easy day, just one castle, not too hard….
After a quick detour into Grainau for a fruitless search for Weisswurtz we had a gute fahrt through the Bavarian countryside, passing more ruined castles atop hill tops.

Day 33: Die Zugspitze

It was absolutely the best weather today, so today would be superb for Zugspitzing.
So we were up nice and early to get the 8:30 train, but still we just missed it.  Probably didn’t help going to the wrong station, but hey.  We grabbed a coffee and caught the next train up through the beautiful scenery of green grass fields, villages of painted houses and kids riding their bikes to school through the town streets and bike paths all framed with a beautiful snow covered mountain backdrop.

Everybody wants a photo of the blue train

Day 32: Lake Como to Garmisch. Five countries in one day

I had planned to head to Garmish via St Moritz, but without any internet, and relying on my phone to look up the road conditions pages which were all in German, I couldn’t confirm 100% that all the roads would be open.  So we had to take the boring safe route and go back out the way we came in, and up the freeways. That meant those narrow roads from Hades back along Lake Como.
To makes things worse, Sygic carked it that morning, and there was no way I was able to get it going again.  So we had to resort to the old fashioned way: paper maps and road signs.  Now this can be a bit tricky when your paper map covers the entire continental Europe, and road signs aren’t in English and don’t always clearly depict the direction you need to go. Getting back to Como was simple enough, if extremely hairy.  But in Como, the signs for the A9 said Milano (southbound), and didn’t say Lugano (northbound).  So rather than risk it I decided to keep going on rather than just heading to the A9 and seeing where we ended up.  This meant we went all around the outskirts of Como.  I decided in the end to just head to the A9.  Worse case was at least we’d be on it, and if heading the wrong direction would just have to turn around when we were able to.  As it turned out, this was the correct course and we were thankfully on the motorway heading north.  The views from up high over the lakes are just spectacular, even today when the weather was overcast and hazy. As the paper maps were proving a little dubious, I turned to back up navigation, Google Maps.  This worked well enough for the most part, even though it chewed through $30 worth of overseas mobile data.  Still that would have been what some decent maps cost would have cost.

Day 31: Lake Como - Lenno, Tremezzo, Bellagio, Menaggio, Varenna

Today we had a good long sleep in after all that walking yesterday.  It was about 11:30 before we left and drove into Lenno. At Lenno, we walked along the promenade to the jetty and went to get the boat ticket, but arrived just as the boat was arriving.  I didn’t have enough cash on me for the tickets, and I thought the ticket man was saying that the EFTPOS was not working.  I asked where the nearest bancomat was and he said "distance."   So I walked back to town, asked in a restaurant where the bancomat was and headed off to get some cash.

Day 30: Ode to Joy, George Clooney, Padme and James Bond.

I got up early today as I wanted to try and catch our church bells playing Ode to Joy, like they did last night.  But I had no luck.  I think somebody in the belfry was watching and spiting me. :-(

We walked along the Green Way from above our apartment into Lenno.  The Green Way is a walking path, which for a good portion of its length follows the Antica Strada Regina, an ancient road along the western shore of Lake Como.  Rebuilt by the Romans and used as their main route between the north and south of the alps, through the ages seeing the passing of traders and armies, and now tourists and dog walkers.

Day 29: Leave the car behind when travelling to Italy.

Breakfast at the hotel again.  Same fare as yesterday.  They should alternate days or something.  Anyway, again not that hungry, so why am I even talking about it?
Grindelwald put on is best weather for our departure.  The skies were so blue and the air so crisp; I could see every little detail up on the mountains and the glacier.

Day 28: Gorgeous Grindelwald

Breakfast was included in our hotel price, so we felt obliged to partake.  Breakfast fare was OK, a large assortment, but since I have been eating so much for lunch and dinner I had generally been skipping breakfast,.  In fact there is a packet of muesli I bought in Uzès I’ve been carrying around with me still unopened.  But that's enough boring breakfast talk....

What every good hotel buffet should include

Day 27: Nudist colonies, pedibuses and erotimechanica. This is Switzerland.

Sorry about the News of the World style headline, I'm trying to attract a larger readership ;-)
Today I got up nice and early to help walk Marianna to school; she's such a cutie.  She talked and talked and talked the whole way there, and she made sure her bat was kept nice and warm tucked away in her top. Pedibus?  yeah I had no idea until Henric explained it.  One volunteer parent is the head of the bus, one volunteer parent is the tail of the bus, and they are both holding a rope which all the kids on the bus have to hold onto.  The bus then makes it rounds, stopping at the pedibus stops to take on new passengers, and bring them all safely to school. Very cool for the first year kiddies.  Very uncool for the 2nd year and older kiddies. We walked back via the lake shore which was lined with a multitude of market gardens.

Day 26: Beautiful Annecy, terrifying Gorges, friends in Lausanne

Yay, a lazy day today before leaving Annecy, boo and driving to catch up with Henric and Cory, yay!
We had arranged with Pascal to checkout at midday, so after sleeping in we walked around town one last time to soak up the last of the beauty that is Annecy.

Day 25: Beautiful Annecy

Today we were treated to, wait, yes you guessed it, another town market!!!! The prices of the goods here seemed a little more expensive than the one in Uzès; perhaps this place is a bit more touristy and gets a lot more touristy French visitors, given that it is only 3 hours away by fast train from Paris.

Day 24: Uzes to Annecy

Today I awoke with a bit of a sore eye, so I jumped onto Google translate and looked up the French for sore eye and headed off to the pharmacy. Sure enough the girl there spoke no English, but when I pointed to my eye and said le conjonctivite maybe, she knew what I needed and handed over a bottle of antibacterial eye drops; the passing on of instructions for application was a little more difficult, but we managed.
Michelle and I finished off our ham and most of the roast chicken and were on the road by 10:30; there were a  few hours of driving ahead of us today.

Day 23: Uzing. Chateau des Baux, Carrieres de Lumieres, Avignon

Another lovely country drive today brought us to limestone country and the Château des Baux, a citadel allegedly passed down through the descendants of one of the three wise men.  This place is medieval heaven.  A lively little old town, similar to Carcassonne Le Citè with shops and cafès, but at the top of the hill are the remains of the old fortified château as well as working trèbuchets, and some of the best views across the countryside we’d seen to date.

Day 22: Uzes Market Day

Today was market day!  But the town seemed strangely quiet. I’d have thought the place would be buzzing with a market that was reported to be the best in France being held!
As we made our way through the cobbled streets, the noises of the market indeed became clearer and louder and sure enough, the entire Place aux Herbes had been transformed over night from a quiet place for meals and relaxing, into a huge bustling market place.  In fact the market had completely filled the square, spilled out into the surrounding streets, and then flowed both ways down the boulevard as well.  Huge!

Day 21: Around Uzes. Brantes and Vaison la Romaine.

Today we drove through many more of those beautiful clichéd Southern France narrow winding country lanes; small villages of stone and fields of vines and olives, interspersed with sprays of blood red poppies.
The countryside  became more mountainous as we continued.  We stopped in Bognals at a Courrefour, and stocked up on some supplies for lunch and the rest of our Uzès stay.  The supermarket was amazing with so much fresh food: a fromagerie in store, piles of fresh fish on ice in the aisles, bread of all imaginable shapes and types.  Puts Woollies and Coles truly to shame.

Day 20: Around Uzes. The Pont du Gard and Nimes. More Roman than Rome

This morning we visited Pont du Gard, a huge Roman aqueduct of three levels spanning the Aude River.  Bloody amazing is all I can say.
I grabbed the last shaded car park and sorted out the tickets in the visitor centre, where I was advised by the helpful lady behind the counter to bypass the audio guide and grab one after visiting the museum and cinema if I felt it was still warranted.  Sage advice, as after watching a film about the aqueduct, then wandering around the museum for the best part of an hour (it was an amazing museum and highly recommended) we knew everything we needed to know and still hadn’t even seen the aqueduct.  All we wanted to do now was walk down and see it as quickly as possible!!

Those Roman babes knew how to rock a bikini!

Day 19: From Carcassone to Uzes

We had a few hours of driving ahead of us today so it was decided to break it up a bit by visiting a couple of small towns along the way, and keeping off the motorways where ever possible.  This meant driving through country lanes narrower than those in the Cotswolds, with the beautiful scenery typical of southern France: streets lined with plane trees, fields of cherry trees, olive trees, vineyards and flame red poppies everywhere we looked.

Day 18: Le Cite, Carcassone

This morning we wandered around the new city, where there was a market on in Place Carnot.  There seems to always be a market on where ever we visit!

Day 17: Adéu Barcelona, bonjour Carcassone

Today we had two sad tasks ahead of us: fare-welling Barcelona, and fare-welling Shaz and Ken.  But no tears, we will meet again soon.  Maybe in Florence, and definitely in Paris!
After breakfast and goodbyes, we made our way to the airport using the Aerobus.  Very easy, cheap and quite comfortable.  At the airport we grabbed a coffee and waited around a bit as the appointment to pick up our car for the next part of our journey was a little way off still.
We were picked up by a minibus and taken to collect our car, a cute brand new Peugeot 208 Auto.  Um, wait, that’s a manual.  The guy asks if that’s OK.  I answer "yes, yes, no problem."
"My car at home is a manual.  But an auto is what I ordered."
Why would it be a problem? I have to drive a car on the wrong side of the road, with road signs I can’t even read, with all the controls being on the wrong side of the car, in a country where I don’t even know which way is north half the time; and now I have to think about changing gears with my right hand. Sure, no problems at all…

Day 16: Pintxos! Xurros! Votives and more Barcelona!!

It was a bit cooler this morning.  Looking out the window across our terrace and seeing a sky full of chattering swallows and the sound of church bells ringing across the city was just beautiful. Today's plan was bus turistic again, this time the blue route.  For the first stop, we hopped off at Gaudi’s Homage to God,  La Sagrada Familia.  An amazing homage, spectacular and grandiose in vision and size, a work in progress since 1882, and not likely to be completed for another decade or so.  God mustn’t have thought too much of it though, because Gaudi ended up getting hit by a tram and dying a few days later, mistaken for a vagabond.  :-(

Day 15: Gaudy Gaudi and Magic Fountains - Barcelona!

I was tasked with being the tour guide during our Barcelona visit.  The bar had been raised pretty high with Ken’s London and Edinburgh itineraries; I quickly knocked a plan up on the last couple of nights in London, and today it would be put to the test.

Michelle and I had a simple breakfast at Bar Castells on the corner down from our apartment: cured ham in a baguette with americano coffee and juice, while we awaited Ken and Shaz’s arrival.

The itinerary didn’t really make it much past breakfast when we decided to catch the Bus Turista to get a good all round overview of the city.

We walked up La Rambla to Plaça de Catalunya and queued up for the bus.  There were a lot of people, and everybody wanted to sit on the top deck.  We let the first few buses go, and it wasn’t too long though before some brand new, and more importantly, empty buses rolled up.  Then we were off.

Day 14: From Gatwick to Barcelona

Today was our last day in London.  Sad face :-( Today we had to say goodbye to Shanny.  Huge sad face :-( :’(
Shaz, Mich and I walked along the Thames to London Bridge Station and had breakfast under the Shard while we waited for Ken to join us.  Sliders for breakfast is OK, yes?  Actually it was 12, so technically it was lunch, and Pimm’s O’Clock!  I got my first Pimm’s and it was really delicious.  Into Dan Murphy’s again when I get home :-)

Day 13: Nipple biting snakes, labyrinthine mazes, glorious gardens - Hampton Court

Today we were very privileged to not only have Shanny all to ourselves, but also to have Shanny as our very own private tour guide for Hampton Court, where she would be sharing her love of all things Tudors with us.