The last week of our adventures has been outstanding. When we first discussed what we expected from Switzerland, we both came up with seemingly unrealistic ideas of this relatively small country. To our surprise, this landlocked alpine paradise is, although expensive, everything and more than what we expected. It has the engineering excellence of Germany, the culinary expertise of France, and the scenery, well, there is no other place that we’ve visited that has scenery like this. This place isn’t just the birthplace of the world’s greatest tennis player (Roger Federer) but they have thousands of people just like him, walking around the city. It seems as though almost everyone that lives here could become a world champion of something. It’s disgusting! It makes the average person feel less than athletic.
With only a week until we pick up Ma and Pa Griffo from Milan, it’s hard not to wish we were already at the airport waiting for them. We’re so looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and sharing the rest of our holiday with some amazing travellers. In saying that, we’re ensuring that we’re filling in our time and making the most of the rest of our trip alone. We spent three nights in Geneve which was just brilliant. Although the most expensive city in Europe, Geneve has plenty you can do at little or no cost. Simply walking the streets of this incredibly multicultural city is enough to keep anyone interested for days. They have endless streets of beautiful clothes shops that kept Jamie very busy. They also have the world’s tallest water fountain at an amazing two hundred and something metres! We had the opportunity to visit the UN Headquarters for a tour which was amazing. They let us sit at some of the delegate chairs in the main general assembly hall which has been the scene for many world changing decisions from the UN. We both found this incredibly interesting, and at 10CHF each, it was a steal!
We’re now at Visp which is one of the main towns to get transport up to see the Matterhorn. It’s also one of the most spectacular areas we’ve seen because we’re so close to the alps. The view of Mont Blanc has been incredible! Andrew must have the mountain air getting to him because he keeps talking about wanting to climb mountains and mountain bike down the side... We’ll be here for a few days waiting for the weather to clear up enough to go up and see the big attraction. There may even be a chance of some summer skiing for Andrew, imagine that! We’re also heading up to see one of the bigger glaciers in Switzerland. This afternoon we filled in with watching a couple of local soccer games between a few local teams. The standard of football was comparable to our A-League which was great to watch.
More updates to come soon...
A&J xoxo
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Austria and Switzerland
Generally I wouldn’t use the word majestic. In fact I sort of have something against it, and judge people that use it as a little over the top. This is until late last week when we drove into Austria, and since to Switzerland. We drove from Venice to Innsbruck late last week and it was like driving through a set of moving post cards. The mountains that spring up from nowhere are nothing short of majestic. These monsters tower thousands of metres each side of the highway, which made me somewhat nervous thinking that at one stage, we’re going to have to climb one of these things in Cal which couldn’t possibly end well. On arrival in Innsbruck we found a brilliant brand new camp ground that which cost 30Euro a night inc free WiFi. Looking around this town, with the views that it has, and the proximity to some of the best skiing in the world, its little surprise that this town has hosted the Winter Olympics twice. We spent the afternoon/night sitting outside having an extended happy hour while looking at the incredible scenery.
The next day we headed toward a little town we’d read about on the internet called Appenzell. Known by some travel bloggers as the most authentic (old school) town in Switzerland due to the traditional dress worn and day to day activities carried out by the locals, we thought it was a must see, and it was. On route to Appenzell we stopped off at Vaduz which is the capital of Liechtenstein. The first thing we noticed in this town was the brilliant castle looking over the town which gives the place a definite fairy tale feel, the second were the exorbitant prices for food at the local restaurants, so we ditched the idea of lunch out, and grabbed some bread rolls from the local supermarket. Once back on the road to Appenzell, the roads quickly turned to a similar type of road we experienced watching the Tour De France. This was not good. Cal struggled his way up the mountain climb and at one stage came very close to being overtaken by a cyclist. Once we got to the top, we found an amazing camp site overlooking the Swiss country side and sat having drinks with the sound of cow bells in the distance. The next morning we used to discover this town called Appenzell, we found a beautiful little town which was described as a place where time seemed to have stood still for the last several decades. We had a coffee on the main street and people watched for a while followed by a spot of shopping and wandering.
Our next destination was Luzern which was a fairly short drive via St Gallen and Zurich. Luzern is one spot that seems to be a tourist hot spot for Europeans. The number of tourists from around Europe was reflected in the price of the camp ground, 38Euro! It was situated in a great spot though, 1 minute from the lake that Luzern is based around, and a 10 minute bike ride from the centre of town. We spent two nights here, relaxing and seeing the sites. We’re not surprised this place is so popular.
From one Luzern to another Lausanne. Our next stop was a few hours drive through what seemed to be incredibly flat land (considering where we are). This town is a definite must see when coming to Switzerland. If you’re a sports fan, this is the centre of the world for sports.... The home of the International Olympic Committee (We’re camped literally 100 metres from the IOC headquarters building), and many many other sports organisations. The town is perched above Lake Geneve which is a haven for the locals for all sorts of water sports. And while cycling next to the lake, you pass every different sort of sport field, court, ramp, ring, arena you could imagine, there’s even a Curling ring! Brilliant! We spent a day walking the streets and doing some shopping, then in the afternoon we headed to the Olympic museum which was one of the best museums we’ve seen in Europe. It had quite a hands on section which Andrew loved (Turns out he has a better reaction time off the blocks than Usain Bolt!)
Today we’re off to Geneve, hopefully to see part of the Large Hadron Collider! How cool!
A&J xoxox
The next day we headed toward a little town we’d read about on the internet called Appenzell. Known by some travel bloggers as the most authentic (old school) town in Switzerland due to the traditional dress worn and day to day activities carried out by the locals, we thought it was a must see, and it was. On route to Appenzell we stopped off at Vaduz which is the capital of Liechtenstein. The first thing we noticed in this town was the brilliant castle looking over the town which gives the place a definite fairy tale feel, the second were the exorbitant prices for food at the local restaurants, so we ditched the idea of lunch out, and grabbed some bread rolls from the local supermarket. Once back on the road to Appenzell, the roads quickly turned to a similar type of road we experienced watching the Tour De France. This was not good. Cal struggled his way up the mountain climb and at one stage came very close to being overtaken by a cyclist. Once we got to the top, we found an amazing camp site overlooking the Swiss country side and sat having drinks with the sound of cow bells in the distance. The next morning we used to discover this town called Appenzell, we found a beautiful little town which was described as a place where time seemed to have stood still for the last several decades. We had a coffee on the main street and people watched for a while followed by a spot of shopping and wandering.
Our next destination was Luzern which was a fairly short drive via St Gallen and Zurich. Luzern is one spot that seems to be a tourist hot spot for Europeans. The number of tourists from around Europe was reflected in the price of the camp ground, 38Euro! It was situated in a great spot though, 1 minute from the lake that Luzern is based around, and a 10 minute bike ride from the centre of town. We spent two nights here, relaxing and seeing the sites. We’re not surprised this place is so popular.
From one Luzern to another Lausanne. Our next stop was a few hours drive through what seemed to be incredibly flat land (considering where we are). This town is a definite must see when coming to Switzerland. If you’re a sports fan, this is the centre of the world for sports.... The home of the International Olympic Committee (We’re camped literally 100 metres from the IOC headquarters building), and many many other sports organisations. The town is perched above Lake Geneve which is a haven for the locals for all sorts of water sports. And while cycling next to the lake, you pass every different sort of sport field, court, ramp, ring, arena you could imagine, there’s even a Curling ring! Brilliant! We spent a day walking the streets and doing some shopping, then in the afternoon we headed to the Olympic museum which was one of the best museums we’ve seen in Europe. It had quite a hands on section which Andrew loved (Turns out he has a better reaction time off the blocks than Usain Bolt!)
Today we’re off to Geneve, hopefully to see part of the Large Hadron Collider! How cool!
A&J xoxox
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Mantova, Verona and Venice
So we’ve done some driving since we left you... After leaving Rome, we headed towards Spoleto which was a couple of hours drive. Andrew, still being in a fragile condition found the going tough so we parked for the night in a “services” area for campervans and had a night of free camping. It’s quite amazing how many of these places there are throughout Europe. Obviously camper vanning is a much more popular way to travel in Europe, and because of this, it’s very well catered for by local towns. Almost every single town we drive though, there is a location to park you campervan (often for the night) and empty your waste tank and fill up with fresh water.
The next day we decided to make our way to the East Coast to hopefully get some swimming in, unfortunately on arrival we hit our worst storm yet. Torrential rain would be an understatement, at one point we thought Cal was going to be swept off the road. Not surprisingly the Italians slowed to about 150kph during this storm while we crawled along at about 5. Due to the intense rain fall, Cal sprung a couple of leaks which required some urgent attention. Luckily we still had our emergency leak repair kit (consists of a tube of silicon, a rag, a knife and a couple of beers to work up the courage to climb onto the roof) which Andrew used to repair the leaks to the standard of a true craftsman. That night was spent on the waterfront between a bar, and a railway line. You can probably tell how this is going to end.... Turns out, the bar doesn’t really pick up until midnight, when ALL the locals arrive to see the band that’s obviously a favourite. Normally this would be fine, and we’d join in, but with Andrew still not well, it wasn’t exactly a welcomed surprise. This coupled with the train that whistled past our campervan, (Causing it to shake) EVERY HOUR on the hour made for a fairly ordinary sleep, and a cranky Griffo the next day.
The next stretch was quite a decent drive, all the way up to Mantova. Due to our less than rapid age enforced speed limit of about 85-90kph and a couple of rubbish roads this drive took about 8 hours so we were both trashed by the time we arrived at this beautiful town. This was the town that Romeo was exiled to in Romeo and Juliet. It is a spectacular town from the first time you see it. It’s surrounded by fortified walls, inside which is a maze of cobblestone streets with beautiful shops either side. There are of course a couple of amazing churches that are in the centre of the town, and more history than you can possibly imagine. Yes, it sounds a lot like many of the other places we have visited, but this is really something different. It wasn’t crammed packed with tourists like Rome, Florence or Pisa, but should have been, and probably will be at some stage.
Next stop was Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet. We stopped at a camping ground just outside the town. It seemed to be run by a family full of hippies which was cool, but unfortunately they didn’t supply electricity to their sites (you’d be surprised how excited we get by accessible electricity now!). We checked out Verona which was quite similar to Mantova, just on a bigger scale and with many more tourists. We did all the must dos in Verona such as Juliet’s balcony and the smaller version of the colosseum. We went for dinner at a local restaurant, were we ordered Lasagne and the local specialty of Horse with salad. The horse was definitely worth trying, and would possibly be on the order again list, it kind of tastes like a smoked roast beef type meat that was thinly sliced and served cold.
Our next destination was one that we’d both been looking forward to, Venice. Everyone has heard about how beautiful this city is, and the certain romantic feeling one gets when they spend any amount of time roaming the streets. Well, it’s all absolutely true. This city has a definite magic about it that causes you to think funny things. The perfect example is those people that pay 80Euro for a gondola ride around the canals. Yes, they are lovely and romantic, yes, we will probably only be here once or twice at best, but there was no way we were going to pay some guy that much to push us around in a boat for 35 minutes. You can get a MUCH cheaper ride by a much better looking person in Amsterdam (granted you may be paying for this one for longer)! The best way we think to see this town, is to get lost in its streets, and if you come here you almost certainly will. The maps of the city don’t even make that much sense as a lot of the streets don’t have a name. When you get lost though, this is where you find the best places. We found some amazing bridges, squares and shops by just wandering the streets. You will eventually find your way back after asking some locals as we did.
Today has been spent as a recovery day as Jamie seems to have caught some of the man flu (for the third time this trip). Tomorrow we’re off to Austria, then into Switzerland.
Ciao,
A&J xoxox
The next day we decided to make our way to the East Coast to hopefully get some swimming in, unfortunately on arrival we hit our worst storm yet. Torrential rain would be an understatement, at one point we thought Cal was going to be swept off the road. Not surprisingly the Italians slowed to about 150kph during this storm while we crawled along at about 5. Due to the intense rain fall, Cal sprung a couple of leaks which required some urgent attention. Luckily we still had our emergency leak repair kit (consists of a tube of silicon, a rag, a knife and a couple of beers to work up the courage to climb onto the roof) which Andrew used to repair the leaks to the standard of a true craftsman. That night was spent on the waterfront between a bar, and a railway line. You can probably tell how this is going to end.... Turns out, the bar doesn’t really pick up until midnight, when ALL the locals arrive to see the band that’s obviously a favourite. Normally this would be fine, and we’d join in, but with Andrew still not well, it wasn’t exactly a welcomed surprise. This coupled with the train that whistled past our campervan, (Causing it to shake) EVERY HOUR on the hour made for a fairly ordinary sleep, and a cranky Griffo the next day.
The next stretch was quite a decent drive, all the way up to Mantova. Due to our less than rapid age enforced speed limit of about 85-90kph and a couple of rubbish roads this drive took about 8 hours so we were both trashed by the time we arrived at this beautiful town. This was the town that Romeo was exiled to in Romeo and Juliet. It is a spectacular town from the first time you see it. It’s surrounded by fortified walls, inside which is a maze of cobblestone streets with beautiful shops either side. There are of course a couple of amazing churches that are in the centre of the town, and more history than you can possibly imagine. Yes, it sounds a lot like many of the other places we have visited, but this is really something different. It wasn’t crammed packed with tourists like Rome, Florence or Pisa, but should have been, and probably will be at some stage.
Next stop was Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet. We stopped at a camping ground just outside the town. It seemed to be run by a family full of hippies which was cool, but unfortunately they didn’t supply electricity to their sites (you’d be surprised how excited we get by accessible electricity now!). We checked out Verona which was quite similar to Mantova, just on a bigger scale and with many more tourists. We did all the must dos in Verona such as Juliet’s balcony and the smaller version of the colosseum. We went for dinner at a local restaurant, were we ordered Lasagne and the local specialty of Horse with salad. The horse was definitely worth trying, and would possibly be on the order again list, it kind of tastes like a smoked roast beef type meat that was thinly sliced and served cold.
Our next destination was one that we’d both been looking forward to, Venice. Everyone has heard about how beautiful this city is, and the certain romantic feeling one gets when they spend any amount of time roaming the streets. Well, it’s all absolutely true. This city has a definite magic about it that causes you to think funny things. The perfect example is those people that pay 80Euro for a gondola ride around the canals. Yes, they are lovely and romantic, yes, we will probably only be here once or twice at best, but there was no way we were going to pay some guy that much to push us around in a boat for 35 minutes. You can get a MUCH cheaper ride by a much better looking person in Amsterdam (granted you may be paying for this one for longer)! The best way we think to see this town, is to get lost in its streets, and if you come here you almost certainly will. The maps of the city don’t even make that much sense as a lot of the streets don’t have a name. When you get lost though, this is where you find the best places. We found some amazing bridges, squares and shops by just wandering the streets. You will eventually find your way back after asking some locals as we did.
Today has been spent as a recovery day as Jamie seems to have caught some of the man flu (for the third time this trip). Tomorrow we’re off to Austria, then into Switzerland.
Ciao,
A&J xoxox
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Naples (shitville) and Amalfi Coast.
We decided due to the reputation of the Naples traffic, and the road conditions on the Amalfi coast, to take the train from Rome to Naples, and on to Sorrento to visit the Amalfi Coast, Vesuvius and Pompei. This was pretty exciting for us as it’s like a little holiday inside our big holiday, we get to stay at a hotel in a big bed and enjoy a hotel breakfast... Brilliant! Although Andrew was still sick from what was obviously the bird flu, or swine flu, or some sort of variant that caused the most pain a man could ever endure, we continued with our plan and took the train from Rome on Sunday. On arrival in Naples, it became immediately obvious that this was going to be a one night stop. There are few words to describe the state of this city. Disgusting could be one, but not in the way a fart (sorry Mum Boyce) in an elevator is disgusting, you really need to use your imagination to conjure up an image of this city. Jamie started her description by saying it’s like Bangkok, in the middle of a rubbish tip. I’m fairly sure that any sort of government has abandoned this city long ago in the hope that Vesuvius will erupt and provide a nice clean slate to rebuild a more liveable city. We were lucky enough to pick up a hotel fairly close to the train station to ensure a swift getaway the next morning.
The following day we made our way to the Ercolano train station to get a bus most of the way up Vesuvius. Our “Bus” ended up being an 8 seater that proved to be more of a hot lap of Vesuvius, rather than a lift to the top. The driver had a picture of the Virgin Mary stapled to the ceiling of the car and was obviously faithful that divine intervention was going to stop us from sliding off the side of the cliff, or smashing head on into an oncoming bus as he was overtaking cars, campervans, trucks at regular intervals at what seemed to be surely one lane sections of this poorly guard railed road. Or maybe he was just sick of living in Naples and wanted to end it all? Either way, we made it to the top of the mountain to see the volcano, and then back down to relative safety. We also went in to Pompei itself to see the result of this monster of a mountain exploding in 79AD. If you’re not aware of this place, you must look into it, it’s fascinating.
From Pompei we went to Sorrento which is one of the very touristy towns along this part of the Italian coast, and for good reason. It’s a great little town with excellent local produce and a great start off point to get to the Amalfi Coast. We picked up an amazing little B&B that had only recently opened for business. It was built on top of a restaurant in the middle of town and only charged 85 Euro a night which was an absolute steal. To sleep on a real bed, with great pillows, and shower with no thongs on is a great feeling and something that we’ve experience only a couple of times in the last 4 months.
There was one day, a couple of years ago, that both of us consider to be our most memorable travel day. It was a day we spent on a hired boat in Kas, Turkey sailing the Agean. We were hoping to relive but a small portion of that day yesterday when we took a cruise around the Amalfi Coast to see Capri and Positano. Although it was a lovely day, and we got to swim near the white caves of Capri, it didn’t get close to “that day in Kas”. This must have had something to do with the fact that we shared this day with several hundred pasty white poms rather than a few very close family. It may also have something to do with the evil woman that tried to steal our bag while we were going for a swim at the beach.... Thats right, someone tried to rip us off! We put our bag down which had pretty much all of our valuables inside, and went for a swim. Andrew thought the woman next to us looked dodgy, so while in the water he watched the bag constantly and caught her pulling the bag towards her which was apparently her first move to riffling through it and stealing everything. As you could imagine, Andrew all of a sudden had the ability to walk on water as he steamrolled towards this evil bitch. Upon questioning, the woman replied that everything was fine, and I should go back out in the water and enjoy it. Refraining from making a massive scene, we picked up our stuff and got out of there. It is incredible how normal these thieves look, she was a middle aged, middle class looking Italian “tourist”. You can never tell.
A&J xoxo
The following day we made our way to the Ercolano train station to get a bus most of the way up Vesuvius. Our “Bus” ended up being an 8 seater that proved to be more of a hot lap of Vesuvius, rather than a lift to the top. The driver had a picture of the Virgin Mary stapled to the ceiling of the car and was obviously faithful that divine intervention was going to stop us from sliding off the side of the cliff, or smashing head on into an oncoming bus as he was overtaking cars, campervans, trucks at regular intervals at what seemed to be surely one lane sections of this poorly guard railed road. Or maybe he was just sick of living in Naples and wanted to end it all? Either way, we made it to the top of the mountain to see the volcano, and then back down to relative safety. We also went in to Pompei itself to see the result of this monster of a mountain exploding in 79AD. If you’re not aware of this place, you must look into it, it’s fascinating.
From Pompei we went to Sorrento which is one of the very touristy towns along this part of the Italian coast, and for good reason. It’s a great little town with excellent local produce and a great start off point to get to the Amalfi Coast. We picked up an amazing little B&B that had only recently opened for business. It was built on top of a restaurant in the middle of town and only charged 85 Euro a night which was an absolute steal. To sleep on a real bed, with great pillows, and shower with no thongs on is a great feeling and something that we’ve experience only a couple of times in the last 4 months.
There was one day, a couple of years ago, that both of us consider to be our most memorable travel day. It was a day we spent on a hired boat in Kas, Turkey sailing the Agean. We were hoping to relive but a small portion of that day yesterday when we took a cruise around the Amalfi Coast to see Capri and Positano. Although it was a lovely day, and we got to swim near the white caves of Capri, it didn’t get close to “that day in Kas”. This must have had something to do with the fact that we shared this day with several hundred pasty white poms rather than a few very close family. It may also have something to do with the evil woman that tried to steal our bag while we were going for a swim at the beach.... Thats right, someone tried to rip us off! We put our bag down which had pretty much all of our valuables inside, and went for a swim. Andrew thought the woman next to us looked dodgy, so while in the water he watched the bag constantly and caught her pulling the bag towards her which was apparently her first move to riffling through it and stealing everything. As you could imagine, Andrew all of a sudden had the ability to walk on water as he steamrolled towards this evil bitch. Upon questioning, the woman replied that everything was fine, and I should go back out in the water and enjoy it. Refraining from making a massive scene, we picked up our stuff and got out of there. It is incredible how normal these thieves look, she was a middle aged, middle class looking Italian “tourist”. You can never tell.
A&J xoxo
Monday, August 9, 2010
When in Rome.....
Since our last blog (which seemed so long ago) we drove down to the heart of Italy, Rome. On the way we stopped in a little village on the West Coast and camped along the water’s edge. The town itself was fairly quiet, however seemed to be well known for their kite-surfing. It was lovely having a couple of drinks on the water watching the surfing for a few hours.
On driving into Rome, we were lovingly welcomed on the highway by what seemed to be some sort of welcoming party, they could almost be mistaken for prostitutes standing on the side of the highway... (They actually had hookers on the highway!) We arrived in Rome and found an excellent camp ground with a swimming pool, excellent facilities and free wifi. even though we still didn’t post a blog!! How slack!!
We went into central Rome and visited the Trevi Fountain which was packed full of tourists. We had to fight for a spot along the fountain to throw our coin in while watching our belongings carefully so we wouldn’t get pick-pocketed. There was even a couple of dodgy guys stealing coins out of the fountain using a specially crafted stick with something on the end to grab the coins (Even the Roman bums are inventive!). That night we had a massive one, stumbling back to Cal at 4am, so we decided it was best to spend the day relaxing by the pool.
The next day we were all refreshed and joined the millions of tourists that cram into Rome each day. We did a fantastic tour of the Colloseum and the Roman Forum which was incredible. Seeing the ruins, and hearing of the size and magnificence of the buildings that once stood. It’s easy to see that no city in the world will ever have the same importance to the rest of the world as what Rome did in it’s prime. The descriptions of the Emperor’s palaces that stood on the grounds of the Palatine Hill over hundreds of years almost defy belief; you really have to see at least the remains to believe it.
As our tours the day before were so great, we decided to do the same for Vatican City. Unfortunately though the extra money we paid to skip the line wasn’t worth it as there was no line. So looks like we were ripped off. Never mind. The Vatican Museum was as great as expected and we can understand why it’s said that it’s the best museum in the world, beating the Louvre in Paris. We visited Sistine Chapel which was much of a disappointment. The art work is absolutely beautiful and we’re sure it would be amazing if you could be in there with only a few people, but there were hundreds of people crowding the room, being loud and generally disrespectful. We didn’t find it to be a very spiritual nor calming experience at all. Our luck did change however. During the day the line up to visit St Peters Basilica was huge, people would have been waiting well over 1 hour. Because we arrived later in the day, we walked straight in. There was security checkpoints of course, however they weren’t too concerned with security...their IPhones seemed to be a lot more interesting. Andrew even set off the alarm in the metal detector, and the guard seemed quite distracted and upset that Andrew set it off...never mind he just said "keep moving" then gave his full attention to his phone again.
We entered the basilica and were completely blown away, everything that the Sistine Chapel lacked, the basilica made up for 10 fold. This place is an ABSOLUTE must see when coming to Rome, weather you’re religious or not, this is one of the most amazing buildings in the world! What made this experience so much more special was that we were lucky enough to walk in as mass was starting. There were a small number of people sitting at the front of the church which looked as though it was blocked of by security guards about half way down the church. Fortunately we were brave enough to ask the security guards if we could attend mass, and they said that it wasn’t a problem. So there we were, attending mass at St Peters Basilica which was performed by a number of Cardinals. We found the whole experience breath taking.
Andrew came down with the "man flu" late Friday night so we rushed home to drug him up and let him rest. The next day he wasn’t any better so stayed in bed all day. Before anyone asks (as we all know how Andrew gets with the "man flu"), he has had massages, been pampered and yes...has even had his hair played with...Jamie likes to think this added to him feeling better, it had nothing to do with the cold and flu tablets.
Promise we’ll update this again sooner...
A&J xoxo
On driving into Rome, we were lovingly welcomed on the highway by what seemed to be some sort of welcoming party, they could almost be mistaken for prostitutes standing on the side of the highway... (They actually had hookers on the highway!) We arrived in Rome and found an excellent camp ground with a swimming pool, excellent facilities and free wifi. even though we still didn’t post a blog!! How slack!!
We went into central Rome and visited the Trevi Fountain which was packed full of tourists. We had to fight for a spot along the fountain to throw our coin in while watching our belongings carefully so we wouldn’t get pick-pocketed. There was even a couple of dodgy guys stealing coins out of the fountain using a specially crafted stick with something on the end to grab the coins (Even the Roman bums are inventive!). That night we had a massive one, stumbling back to Cal at 4am, so we decided it was best to spend the day relaxing by the pool.
The next day we were all refreshed and joined the millions of tourists that cram into Rome each day. We did a fantastic tour of the Colloseum and the Roman Forum which was incredible. Seeing the ruins, and hearing of the size and magnificence of the buildings that once stood. It’s easy to see that no city in the world will ever have the same importance to the rest of the world as what Rome did in it’s prime. The descriptions of the Emperor’s palaces that stood on the grounds of the Palatine Hill over hundreds of years almost defy belief; you really have to see at least the remains to believe it.
As our tours the day before were so great, we decided to do the same for Vatican City. Unfortunately though the extra money we paid to skip the line wasn’t worth it as there was no line. So looks like we were ripped off. Never mind. The Vatican Museum was as great as expected and we can understand why it’s said that it’s the best museum in the world, beating the Louvre in Paris. We visited Sistine Chapel which was much of a disappointment. The art work is absolutely beautiful and we’re sure it would be amazing if you could be in there with only a few people, but there were hundreds of people crowding the room, being loud and generally disrespectful. We didn’t find it to be a very spiritual nor calming experience at all. Our luck did change however. During the day the line up to visit St Peters Basilica was huge, people would have been waiting well over 1 hour. Because we arrived later in the day, we walked straight in. There was security checkpoints of course, however they weren’t too concerned with security...their IPhones seemed to be a lot more interesting. Andrew even set off the alarm in the metal detector, and the guard seemed quite distracted and upset that Andrew set it off...never mind he just said "keep moving" then gave his full attention to his phone again.
We entered the basilica and were completely blown away, everything that the Sistine Chapel lacked, the basilica made up for 10 fold. This place is an ABSOLUTE must see when coming to Rome, weather you’re religious or not, this is one of the most amazing buildings in the world! What made this experience so much more special was that we were lucky enough to walk in as mass was starting. There were a small number of people sitting at the front of the church which looked as though it was blocked of by security guards about half way down the church. Fortunately we were brave enough to ask the security guards if we could attend mass, and they said that it wasn’t a problem. So there we were, attending mass at St Peters Basilica which was performed by a number of Cardinals. We found the whole experience breath taking.
Andrew came down with the "man flu" late Friday night so we rushed home to drug him up and let him rest. The next day he wasn’t any better so stayed in bed all day. Before anyone asks (as we all know how Andrew gets with the "man flu"), he has had massages, been pampered and yes...has even had his hair played with...Jamie likes to think this added to him feeling better, it had nothing to do with the cold and flu tablets.
Promise we’ll update this again sooner...
A&J xoxo
Monday, August 2, 2010
Tuscan Temptations
Due to our delayed posting of the last blog update, and the incredible couple of days we’ve had, we’re updating with another blog sooner rather than later... We last blogged as we were on route to Pisa to start the Tuscan portion of our taste of Italy. We expected big things from Tuscany, being the home of some of the best Italian food and wine as well as historical sites such as Pisa and Florence. One aspect that immediately struck us was that Tuscany is a really pleasant place to drive through. Quite obviously our trip throughout Europe includes a lot of driving, in fact so far we’ve covered about 4000 miles, and we would say that our journey between stops is just as important as the destination itself because this is where you see the villages between tourist stops and the real living conditions of each region. You see the Sunflower and Lavender farmers in the south of France, the vineyard workers populating so many different areas of Europe and the granite miners in Tuscany are just a few examples.
Our stay in Pisa was deservedly short. This city is famous for one thing, a tower that was fairly poorly built and as a consequence has quite a lean to it, about 4.5degrees in fact. It’s quite fitting that the city is well known for this fact, as the rest of the city is also quite poorly built and even continues this trend with the distinct smell of urine within a lot of the streets surrounding the only maintained section of the city that immediately surrounds the leaning tower itself. The only outstanding aspect of this place is the fact that the tower is still standing (only after replacing about 80% of the tower to maintain the current lean, presumably to continue the “tradition” of the leaning tower) in its current state. One can’t help but think what would become of this city without its only drawcard?
Next stop, Florence (Firenze). This city holds the title of capital of Florence in regards to administration as well as culture. Florence, said to be the birthplace of the Renaissance, as well as home to some of the most influential figures of that period, including Dante, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo is possibly the most historically significant cities in Italy, and surely must be one of the most beautiful. Our camp ground is about 300 metres from the Piazza Michelangelo which gives the best view of Florence, and our camping ground has a bar that has a view which is just as good and sells bottles of local white wine for 2.50Euro so it’s been our local over the last couple of nights. Florence itself is full of museums, brilliant restaurants and local people selling their paintings. Speaking of brilliant restaurants, today we wandered to the part of town out of the tourist area and had lunch at a specialist Tuscan food restaurant. We walked in to see locals sitting around watching the F1 car racing with much interest. We sat down and ordered Bruschetta for a starter, then Jamie ordered a chicken dish served with white wine sauce, and Andrew had the legendary Florentine Steak. Jamie’s dish was OK, nothing outstanding, but it was real Italian food, so she was happy. When Andrew ordered the steak, the waitress got excited at the prospect of a tourist ordering the steak medium rare, and raced back to the kitchen to place the order for us. The arrival of Andrew’s steak was something special in itself. It arrived as a slab of beef on a breadboard as is customary for this dish. What followed was a state of bliss.... This 19Euro piece of heaven was definitely the best piece of meat we’re had in Europe, and one of the best steaks we’ve tasted of all time. It is a MUST ORDER on your next trip to Florence. After such a brilliant lunch, we got back to the camp ground just in time for showers and happy hour, which again, got fairly happy thanks to half price beers. On route to Rome tomorrow, probably staying somewhere along the west coast on the way.
A&J xoxox
Our stay in Pisa was deservedly short. This city is famous for one thing, a tower that was fairly poorly built and as a consequence has quite a lean to it, about 4.5degrees in fact. It’s quite fitting that the city is well known for this fact, as the rest of the city is also quite poorly built and even continues this trend with the distinct smell of urine within a lot of the streets surrounding the only maintained section of the city that immediately surrounds the leaning tower itself. The only outstanding aspect of this place is the fact that the tower is still standing (only after replacing about 80% of the tower to maintain the current lean, presumably to continue the “tradition” of the leaning tower) in its current state. One can’t help but think what would become of this city without its only drawcard?
Next stop, Florence (Firenze). This city holds the title of capital of Florence in regards to administration as well as culture. Florence, said to be the birthplace of the Renaissance, as well as home to some of the most influential figures of that period, including Dante, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo is possibly the most historically significant cities in Italy, and surely must be one of the most beautiful. Our camp ground is about 300 metres from the Piazza Michelangelo which gives the best view of Florence, and our camping ground has a bar that has a view which is just as good and sells bottles of local white wine for 2.50Euro so it’s been our local over the last couple of nights. Florence itself is full of museums, brilliant restaurants and local people selling their paintings. Speaking of brilliant restaurants, today we wandered to the part of town out of the tourist area and had lunch at a specialist Tuscan food restaurant. We walked in to see locals sitting around watching the F1 car racing with much interest. We sat down and ordered Bruschetta for a starter, then Jamie ordered a chicken dish served with white wine sauce, and Andrew had the legendary Florentine Steak. Jamie’s dish was OK, nothing outstanding, but it was real Italian food, so she was happy. When Andrew ordered the steak, the waitress got excited at the prospect of a tourist ordering the steak medium rare, and raced back to the kitchen to place the order for us. The arrival of Andrew’s steak was something special in itself. It arrived as a slab of beef on a breadboard as is customary for this dish. What followed was a state of bliss.... This 19Euro piece of heaven was definitely the best piece of meat we’re had in Europe, and one of the best steaks we’ve tasted of all time. It is a MUST ORDER on your next trip to Florence. After such a brilliant lunch, we got back to the camp ground just in time for showers and happy hour, which again, got fairly happy thanks to half price beers. On route to Rome tomorrow, probably staying somewhere along the west coast on the way.
A&J xoxox
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The Italian Job
We last left off with Cal being patched up with black tape... This all started in Spain when we noticed that Cals bumper was getting a little loose and as we progressed back through France it was getting to the stage where it was going to fall off on a French highway and cause unknown damage to someones Bently (in Andrew’s mind anyway). The problem was resolved by the French equivalent to Australia’s liquid cement coupled with racing tape used to strap cars back together after they’ve had a bingle on the race track, how appropriate for our little Cal! We’ve survived with this measure so far, but will take additional measures if required.
After leaving Monaco we drove on to Genova in north western Italy. Unfortunately we ended up at one of the more questionable camp sites we’ve been to on the trip so far. It was neither cheap, nor pleasant with the highlight being having a cold shower with very little pressure in the dark. We didn’t see a lot of Genova except for the beach which was also the worst one we’ve been to. Lots of VERY sharp rocks and black sand made it a very quick visit. It was quite funny to see all the locals sun bathing in a car park and on a boat ramp next to the beach, how comfortable!
Our next stop was Portofino.... We stayed about half an hour outside of Portofino after attempting to drive into the town but being turned away by a cranky little old Italian man riding his scooter. Turns out you can’t enter the town if your vehicle is over 5m long. This turned out really well for us as we ended up staying at a brilliant little village getting a ferry into the town of Portofino itself the next day. Before jumping on the ferry we gave into the temptation and had our first Italian Pizza for lunch. It was everything we had hoped for with artichokes, olives, ham and an egg right in the middle, the egg was a little unusual but yummy indeed. The ferry trip to Portofino was spectacular and an excellent way of seeing the coastline from a different perspective, we would recommend this method of getting there to everyone. The town itself was a very small ex fishing village, the reason we say ex? Well, the tackle shops have now been replaced with Louis Vuitton and Coco Chanel shops selling ridiculously overpriced goods to American tourists. It’s a real shame to see, but obviously inevitable for a place of such beauty, and we can’t complain too much, it’s tourists like us who are supporting this sort of development.
The next stop on the list was only about an hours drive from Portofino. Andrew has been getting a pretty good deal out of these short trips as he’s holding Jamie to the “You cook, I’ll drive” deal expecting nothing less than gourmet kitchen meals from the galley of Cal. We had very high expectations of our next destination of Cinque Terra due to the enormous praise given by Mum and Dad Griffo and Fe and Graham, and boy did it deliver! The town we stayed in to visit these five pieces of art that they call the towns of the Cinque Terra is called Levanto which in itself is quite a lovely little town. We found a camp ground right near the centre of town and realised it was the same one that Fiona and Graham stayed in several years earlier after we heard the clock tower ring every 15 minutes (24 hours a day!) as warned by them. After settling in for the night we looked over our information about the 5 towns, and decided we would attempt the Blue Trail (Jamie expressing her dislike for this activity after having flash backs of our Mt Warning walk), which is a walking trail that starts at the southern town of Riomaggiore and makes its way all the way up to Monterosso Al Mare covering approx. 9KM of distance and going from sea level to up to 250M above sea level several times. Jamie covered the first couple of sections without too much trouble or complaining, then fatigue set in and the complaints started. Luckily, we came across a fitness instructor named Erica who gave Jamie some words of encouragement and helped get her through the experience, she also happened to shout us a beer half way through which also helped! All together it was an excellent experience and we’re so glad we did it. We were able to see all of the 5 towns of the Cinque Terra in a way that can only be seen if you endure the tough walk. We’ve included some photos of our walk, but there is no possible way of doing this place justice by writing, or showing photo’s, you must come to this place to truly see the beauty of the crystal clear water, and the towns that have stood the test of time. We can only thank the people that recommended this place to us and hope that we can encourage others to experience what we have.
We finished off a wonderful day by attending a concert by the Amsterdam Orchestra taking place in a beautiful church at the edge of town. It was one of those goose bumps moments....
Today we’ve spent pretty much all day laying in the campervan as we thought we would be so sore from yesterdays outing. Fortunately we haven’t been too bad so Andrew’s been out to get some local produce for Jamie to whip us one of her specialties. Tomorrow, we move on to Tuscany.
Love A&J xoxo
After leaving Monaco we drove on to Genova in north western Italy. Unfortunately we ended up at one of the more questionable camp sites we’ve been to on the trip so far. It was neither cheap, nor pleasant with the highlight being having a cold shower with very little pressure in the dark. We didn’t see a lot of Genova except for the beach which was also the worst one we’ve been to. Lots of VERY sharp rocks and black sand made it a very quick visit. It was quite funny to see all the locals sun bathing in a car park and on a boat ramp next to the beach, how comfortable!
Our next stop was Portofino.... We stayed about half an hour outside of Portofino after attempting to drive into the town but being turned away by a cranky little old Italian man riding his scooter. Turns out you can’t enter the town if your vehicle is over 5m long. This turned out really well for us as we ended up staying at a brilliant little village getting a ferry into the town of Portofino itself the next day. Before jumping on the ferry we gave into the temptation and had our first Italian Pizza for lunch. It was everything we had hoped for with artichokes, olives, ham and an egg right in the middle, the egg was a little unusual but yummy indeed. The ferry trip to Portofino was spectacular and an excellent way of seeing the coastline from a different perspective, we would recommend this method of getting there to everyone. The town itself was a very small ex fishing village, the reason we say ex? Well, the tackle shops have now been replaced with Louis Vuitton and Coco Chanel shops selling ridiculously overpriced goods to American tourists. It’s a real shame to see, but obviously inevitable for a place of such beauty, and we can’t complain too much, it’s tourists like us who are supporting this sort of development.
The next stop on the list was only about an hours drive from Portofino. Andrew has been getting a pretty good deal out of these short trips as he’s holding Jamie to the “You cook, I’ll drive” deal expecting nothing less than gourmet kitchen meals from the galley of Cal. We had very high expectations of our next destination of Cinque Terra due to the enormous praise given by Mum and Dad Griffo and Fe and Graham, and boy did it deliver! The town we stayed in to visit these five pieces of art that they call the towns of the Cinque Terra is called Levanto which in itself is quite a lovely little town. We found a camp ground right near the centre of town and realised it was the same one that Fiona and Graham stayed in several years earlier after we heard the clock tower ring every 15 minutes (24 hours a day!) as warned by them. After settling in for the night we looked over our information about the 5 towns, and decided we would attempt the Blue Trail (Jamie expressing her dislike for this activity after having flash backs of our Mt Warning walk), which is a walking trail that starts at the southern town of Riomaggiore and makes its way all the way up to Monterosso Al Mare covering approx. 9KM of distance and going from sea level to up to 250M above sea level several times. Jamie covered the first couple of sections without too much trouble or complaining, then fatigue set in and the complaints started. Luckily, we came across a fitness instructor named Erica who gave Jamie some words of encouragement and helped get her through the experience, she also happened to shout us a beer half way through which also helped! All together it was an excellent experience and we’re so glad we did it. We were able to see all of the 5 towns of the Cinque Terra in a way that can only be seen if you endure the tough walk. We’ve included some photos of our walk, but there is no possible way of doing this place justice by writing, or showing photo’s, you must come to this place to truly see the beauty of the crystal clear water, and the towns that have stood the test of time. We can only thank the people that recommended this place to us and hope that we can encourage others to experience what we have.
We finished off a wonderful day by attending a concert by the Amsterdam Orchestra taking place in a beautiful church at the edge of town. It was one of those goose bumps moments....
Today we’ve spent pretty much all day laying in the campervan as we thought we would be so sore from yesterdays outing. Fortunately we haven’t been too bad so Andrew’s been out to get some local produce for Jamie to whip us one of her specialties. Tomorrow, we move on to Tuscany.
Love A&J xoxo
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About Us
- Andrew and Jamie Griffioen
- Andrew and Jamie are a married couple from Brisbane, Australia. We have embarked on an overseas adventure for 6 months leaving in April and returning in October. We plan to cover the UK and a lot of Europe. To see more details, check out our posts below.