Stuff Happens To People With Blogs

… when you’ve got a night train to catch.

We started the morning fairly quietly, ie, sleep in, bread roll for breakfast, climb a thousand steps to get to the freakin’ castle (ok, not a thousand but it felt like it!)  The castle overlooks the sea and Vernazza affording a great view of everything.

Next effort was to get to LaSpezia for some serious laundry duty and a little internet time.  The laundry task was accomplished thanks to the sweetest little old lady at the “self service” laundromat - the only self service I’ve seen where she helps you fold your clothes when they’re done!

Our train to Milan left LaSpezia at 6.40pm arriving in Milan at 9.50pm then our overnight train to Paris left at 11.35pm.  With this time line we decided it would be best to have dinner in LaSpezia and buy some snacks for the wait in Milan.  I will confess I made Jack buy me MCDonalds but I just couldn’t face another pizza, pasta or panini!!!

… it will be the hardest mountain track in the Cinque Terre.

Call it laziness but we just didn’t feel like climbing down all 112 stairs then up the hill to the national park office to get the track maps, then back down the hill and up at least 60 steps to where the track from Vernazza led to Cornigulia.  You understand, right?

Cinque Terre is UNESCO heritage listed you can get an idea about it here - http://www.cinqueterre.it/en/vernazza.htm.  So most of the towns are closed to traffic so there are really two ways to go between the towns, train or track, goat track that is.  You pay a fee to use the tracks usually but in winter they are free.  Less tourists, less erosion, less rubbish, less fools hurting themselves I suspect.

So we trundled down some of our stairs turned away from the village and started to climb, and climb and walk and climb.  I officially hate stairs and I thought I may fall over the unfenced cliff but sure enough the estimated 90 minutes later we had finished one of the four tracks.  Of course it seems that it’s the longest and considered the hardest but in hindsight … it wasn’t so bad … but oh my calves hurt!

… and raise you 112 steps!

Today we arrived in Cinque Terre, Vernazza to be exact.  We arrived around three and as directed called our hosts and Joseph and his dog came to collect us from the train station as they know it’s impossible to find the rooms on your own.  He strolled through the narrow street, chatting to this person and that one as he went and then turned a corner and started up the stairs.

112 steps plus several twists, turns and minor episodes of heart failure - you do better with a pack on your back, I dare you! - we arrived at our room.  Cosy and with a view straight over the ocean, nothing between our window and a long fall into the deep blue.  Joseph also showed us the terrace on top of the apartment (yes, more stairs).  Jack asked him if he lived here to which he replied, “No, I live with Mumma, see?”  Sure enough we looked at where he was pointing on the other side of the town and there was Mumma happily waving back at us.

I love Cinque Terre.

… with Italians and hills?

This morning Jack was to make a quick trip to the Colosseum (been there, done that) before we packed up our kit and headed for Florence.  Common sense kicked in and instead we spent the morning booking our accommodation in Florence and searching for accommodation in Paris.

We left Rome for Florence and managed to find our hostel with little trouble.  The owner of Starlight Locanda is amazing.  Passionate about Florence and people making the most of their time there, even if they “stress” her out by only having one afternoon.  She grabbed us a map and drew us a path from one side of the city to the other circling “must sees” as she went.

We rambled our way through street markets, piazzas and the duono, skipped two museums and headed over Ponte Vecchio for Piazza Michaelangelo.  A high point  in the city with a perfect view of the famous skyline.  We should have taken bus 13, it’s a bloody steep climb but well worth it in the end.

We wound our way back through the city to go and see big Dave, the original, at Galleria dell’Accademia.  While we’re pretty over religious paintings by now, Michaelangelo’s David was incredible and worth the effort. 

By the way, have you ever had a knot in your calf muscle … I think my body hates hills.

… sorry I’m so far behind, I realise we’re up to day 17 but the time and access to technology has been limited as expected.

… there will be a varying appreciation of Churches.

Today was Ben & Laura’s last day but luckily they didn’t have to leave until the evening. We set out to do all the things we’d missed so far. Ambitious and doomed to fail? Absolutely.  First up, some lazing around then we met Will & Janie for lunch and headed over to St Peter’s Basilica.  We’d been unable to do this previously as there were some very important people going about very important business and the entire square and basilica had been closed off.

Will, Janie, Jack and I had admired the entire basilica in half an hour (and what a place!) - only to turn around (again!) and ask “Where are the others?”  They’re just inside the front door, of course.  Once we regrouped we ascended the long, winding claustrophobic stairwell to the “cupola” or very top dome thingy. Great view of Jack and Laura being terrified.

This occupied the entire day (rightfully), and we missed out on the rest of the itinerary (despite Jack and Will’s “Take us to the dungeons!” comments) and we headed back to the room to bid Laura and Ben arrivaderci.

Last comment on the night - the final four went out to dinner near the Colloseo, and as the rain started coming down we were treated to watching Jack stand in the rain waiting patiently for the photo of lightning over the giant arena.  (No luck there!)

… sure know how to arrange a nice queue.  Our gang decided to head for the Vatican fairly early, just not early enough.  We arrived around 10.30 and followed the queue down the street, around the corner, down the next street, around the corner and part way down to St Peters square.  It was a nice day to queue, what with the rain and all, so we did it for around an hour all the time having nice men stand in our way saying “umbrelli, umbrelli?”  Apparently the fact I was wearing a raincoat wasn’t sufficient a deterrent to their sales pitch.

Not only did I queue for an hour, I didn’t even go in.  I was having a bit of a been there, done that day so I left the others at the front of the queue and met back up with them when they were ready to drop with exhaustion.

We returned to our apartment to devour the remains of the previous nights cook-up and chatted endlessly with our American flatmates.  With a big day ahead we stupidly hit the hay around 2am.

… especially with Ben in charge of the map!

Given we had late night following Ben around and having dinner and gelati we got up quite early today.  It was Dan & Leah’s last day in Rome and they had to head to the airport at lunchtime.

Our main aim was to see the Pantheon which, from my five year old contiki memory, was originally a pagan-temple.  Today was the first day we really noticed the sound of a thousand people whispering, it’s quite an annoying noise but our group was just as guilty as the rest.

Jack and I farewelled Leah & Dan at the apartment and spent the rest of the day as domestic goddesses having our increasingly dirty clothes washed and doing a spot of grocery shopping. Laura and I cooked a feat of pasta in our self-contained apartment and we ate and drank into the wee hours of the morning, chatting to the people who moved in to Leah & Dan’s room. A young American couple, well, young as in our age! 

… i’ve added in a few photos for days one to five, which you may have to click on the highlighted days on the calendar to view.  They’re not the greatest photos, for the best photos you have to wait for Jack to have a chance to post his photos to his site (see link on the right), but they’re something to start.

… hello big, stinky Rome.

With a very plain breakfast in place and a few sore heads, we took a slightly less winding road out of Orvieto and set the GPS for Roma.

First stop some lunch, followed by an exterior view of the Colluseum, a rainy walk through the Roman Forum and then we stood and watch the police set up their riot gear and just stand around. We got bored of waiting to see the riot and walked home only to find that all the shields, barricaded streets and wire grilles for windscreens were just for a planned, peaceful Palestine demostration.

We met not only Leah and Daniel, but also Will and Janie for the weekend but unfortunately, we four Italian adventurers had reached the point of physical abuse where your body simply takes over and says, “just a couple of drinks and some vegetable soup and salad”.

… that icecream, coke, winding roads and writing in the back seat of the car don’t go together.

Orvieto was our last hill town before heading for Rome. It’s a small town on the top of a big flat plain that can only be reached by a very winding road or funicular. We took the winding road and our GPS navigation surely picked the route with the most twists. I don’t normally get motion sickness, I’m not afraid of heights and I can happily read or write in the back seat of the car. Not this day! Let’s just say by the time we reached lovely Orvieto I was probably a lovely shade of green and just wanted to get the hell out of the car to get some fresh, cold, calming air!

We stayed in a little B&B that was attached to a restaurant, needless to say we decided the restaurant downstairs was certainly far enough to walk for dinner. It also made it a heck of a lot easier to drink far too much chianti and teeter up the stairs at the end of the evening.

This restaurant has won the honour of having the best spaghetti al pomodoro on the trip thus far. Laura and I have been comparing one version per town. Sure, it’s not adventurous but a good spaghetti al pomodoro is beautiful thing.

… you need to pay more than 8 euros. Otherwise, you get something that smells vaguely like old socks. A lessons the boys learned.

… for friendly country Italians.

Our morning was spent being dutiful tourists and checking out Basilica di San Francesco and the monks in their very monk-like outfits.

In the afternoon it was my turn to select an activity so I suggested a picnic in the Umbrian countryside. Laura and I gathered the good and the boys set out navigating to a “perfect spot”.

An hour and a half later we had the car stuck on a ridge on the side of the road and Jack and Laura were trying to push the car back over the ridge. Thankfully, a couple of older Italian men stopped to help lift the car over the ridge and back onto the road. Don’t panic, there weren’t any cliffs or steep hills on the other side of the ridge, it was just a big lump of dirt that Ben didn’t see!

By the way, it took another 20 minutes to find somewhre to stop and eat, by which stage it was 3pm, cold, windy and we ate for about 15 minutes then drove home to Assisi.

… that Ben is growing a moustache. I believe it’s Laura’s idea though every 20 minutes or so she changes from describing it as being dashingly handsome, to cute, to looking like a goat gnawed on it.

… with our own paparazzi.

The cameras stayed away today as the day was overcast and apparently “the light wasn’t right” and we “couldn’t find the shot”.

We drove from Siena to Assisi via a wine tasting stop in Montepulciano. The Lonely Planet (or LP as our companions call it) says Assisi is “the quintessentially perfect Italian hill town … turning it into the most crowded spot in Umbria”. Thankfully outside of peak season it was a quiet haven perched on a hilltop.

As we squeezed the car through the narrow streets the light changed so Laura and I were left holding the bags as the paparazzi ran off into the sunset and were last seen climbing a wall to get “the shot”.

… then we are now made of a few distinct things, bread, wine and chocolate.

To us, Siena is so far our food capital. From the moment we arrived all we’ve done is eat and drink. Ben and Laura scored a room with a balcony amongst the rooftops, so we made use of it to gorge ourselves with bread, sundried tomatoes, cheese, capers and olive oil. Oh and Chianti and beer of course.

Laura and I found a fantastic gelateria that made ice-cream sandwiches. Surely, if it’s a sandwich it’s ok at any time of the day and it’s ok to have more than one a day, right?

We also found time to go to Siena’s cathedral, baptisery, crypt and Museo Dell’Opera Metropolitana. All very cultural and deservering of another ice-cream sandwich.

… on both sides of the road?

Today we leave Venice and head for the Tuscan hills.  We took the Vaporetta - with 100 of our closest friends - from San Marco to Piazzta di Roma which is the vehicle zone on the outskirts of Venice to pick up our hire car.  Ben and Laura are driving as Jack and I don’t really “do” manual cars and we certainly don’t do left hand drive.

The next few hours were spent scooting along the motorway gazing at the textbook rolling hills.  We stopped for a photobreak at a town called Montegreggio, a tiny walled village, and were serenaded throught the cobbled streets by a local blaring Green Days’ “Holiday” from his portable stereo.  He also treated us to his own concert with leaps and guitar moves.

We are staying for two nights in Siena, which is now Jackson’s favourite place.  I’m seeing a theme develop here.

… they say you need to get lost. We found this quite difficult (a) because of the signs everywhere pointing to Rialto Bridge and San Marco and (b) because of the throng of people propelling us in all tourist directions.

Last night we managed to find a small wine bar that at least didn’t have a “turistico menu” and enjoyed a few red wines of the barkeeps choosing and today we walked. And walked. And walked. And have I mentioned walked? We covered a lot of territory but, when we checked the map, it wasn’t much at all!

We marvelled at how here, in Italy, the norms look amazing. Washing hanging on a clothesline is worthy of 16 photos and a broken window pane looks quaint instead of derelict. Jack is somewhat smitten with Venice though we all agree it’s a place to visit not to live.

… continued. 

… “No”.
We arrived in Verona around 5pm without a reservation but only a little concerned until we found out about the “horses”. It seemed that we had arrived on the eve of Verona’s biggest weekend … some exhibition of show horses … and barely a room was available. Good. Jackson took charge and hit the phone.

First call … inglese? Si. Room? No. Second call … inglese? No. Ummm. Room? Si. So the next hour was spent with jack trying to negotiate with the crazy italian lady, who spoke only slightly more english than we spoke italian. We rocked up at the house only for her to call and say “oh no, complete, complete” and then point on the map to (we find out later) her ‘other’ place. She knew some english, “language is very important” and “60 euros” but she was really friendly and she drove us through Verona babbling in very fast italian the entire trip. I was left exhausted just from listening but Jack was excited.

Unfortunately, we only had enough time to wander down from our new abode into the town and have some pasta and vino rosso before heading to bed.

… we ended up in the same carriage as an annoying, older aussie couple
on our trip from Lucerne to Verona. They were easy to pick, they were
the one’s who made absolutely no effort to speak German or Italian.
Instead they just prattled on in broad Aussie to the very patient
train man about whether his tea was good. While we were struggling at
least we were trying. Usually people see the confusion in our eyes and
repeat themselves in English.

… but what about the Swiss?

Today we did some wandering around Lucerne. We wanted to take a trip
up Mt. Pilatus but it was drizzling which would mean not much of a
view at the end of 2 hours travel. Plus, we had some serious food to
work off!

Last night we found a restaurant that had English translations on it’s
menu board - thank you! We shared a fondue - when in Switzerland - and
then Jack had some type of sausage and potatoes while I had pork
schnitzel with a creamy mushroom sauce and butter noodles … apparently
the dollop of whipped cream on top was not optional. Yes, whipped
cream on top of my creamy sauce which unfortunately melted before I
could argue making for some very creamy deliciousness.

Ah Switzerland … chocolate (yes Ngaire, that chocolate), roasted nuts,
fondue, cream and meat!

…. to schedule so much for our first day, but we managed it!

There were no exit rows to be had but luckily the plane wasn’t full so we had room to move about. We’re not quite experienced enough at this travelling business though as the seasoned pros had the smarts to nab the empty rows of four to lie down in early. We thought of it but “flightplan” prevented me from acting.

So two planes, a shuttle bus and two trains later we arrived in Heidelberg. My gamble paid off and we were able to stash our packs in baggage lockers at the train station. Freed of our 11 kilos (yes, that’s all and yes, my pack is 0.3 kilos lighter than Jack’s) we spent a few hours exploring Heidelberg before taking two more trains to reach Lucerne, food and bed, sweet bed.

TODAY’S FAVORITE SAYING : “Sorry, Sprechen sie Englisch?”

… my arse!

Champions of the world we are, well ok, Premiers for division 3 ladies netball.  Yes, we triumphed this season not only finishing the season top of the ladder but also taking home the coffee mugs in the grand final.

OK, to ensure the history books show a fair account of our victory I’ll be honest … our opposition in the grand final couldn’t field a team and so they forfeited.  There, I said it, we won by default, are you happy now!

… we think!

OK, an initial post on our adventures.  The plan is Frankfurt, Lucerne, Verona, Venice (pick up brilliant friends here), Sienna, Assissi, Orvieto, Rome (pick up additional brilliant friends here and then bid them all “Arrivederci!” after a few days), Florence, Vernazza, Paris, Reims, Trier, Koblenz, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Home, Collapse-in-a-Heap.

It does sound a little hectic and it probably will be at times but we do have several nights in a few of these places, eg, Rome & Paris so fingers crossed we’ll manage.  What am I talking about, we’ll be in Europe, of course we’ll manage!!

Though Jack and I are both currently sick at the thought of having to get on another plane, we’re really excited about the fast approaching adventure.  Jack has only been on “the continent” - I hope everyone said that with a plum in their mouths - for a weekend in Verona so he’s got all the fun of first time discovery ahead of him.  I, being such a seasoned traveller - ? - have the fun of finding new destinations within already travelled places.  And we’re both excited to be meeting up with quite a few friends who we’ve not seen for a while - ok so we saw Will & Janie just a couple of months ago but they own a combie now so it’s different.

Anyway, stay tuned.  Our travels, trials and tantrums start Tuesday 7 November!