Sydney to Singapore 45 mins behind schedule. Luckily, the connecting Frankfurt flight waited for us. I really hate economy class on QANTAS. The in-flight entertainment units leave a ridiculous about of free space. QANTAS are liable for any claims for DVT they get!
Germany & Austria
19 Jun - We checked into the hotel early. So after a shower we were on the tourist trail. Down the Rhein Valley via Mainz – Köblenz to Köln. It's only a quick visit to see the the Cathedral. Maam left her jacket in Starbacks. I guess it was to hot after all for a jacket, 32°C . We are in a hurry to get back on to Köblenz so we retrace the train trip back along the Rhein Valley. By the time we get to Köblenz the river boat had already gone. We take a local train upto a place called Boppart. I have a great local beer 500 ml. For €1,5. We stay with the river boat for about 3 hours. Lot's of castle's on the hills over looking the river and the Lorilei. So we get of at Bacharach and run for the train. I miss read the timetable and got off at Bingen, wait another hour and get back to Frankfurt about 9:30 pm. Take-away, vegetable kofta and rice for dinner, €6,00. Every thing is very green.
20 Jun - We have an excellent breakfast at the hotel. Heidelberg is a really beautiful town, nestled in a valley, away from the elements, it may have been inhabited by man since pre-history. The view from the view from the castle is wonderful. We sit in the cathedral for about 30 mins to take a rest, cool down and escape the noise. It's hot again about 3o°C. Chicken Schnitzel for lunch €8,50. The train ride from Munich was on an Inter City train. The return journey was on a regional train, i.e. stopped at every stop. It was hot and slow. I really enjoy the breakfast we had in the Hotel Monopol, Frankfurt: smoked salmon, cheese, yogurt, black bread, dill pickles, cherry tomatoes, olives, coffee & juice. Excellente.
21 Jun - Train to Munich on an Inter City Express (ICE). The advertising claims they travel at speeds of up to 300 km/h, It only got up to 299 km/h on the way to Munich. Trains in Germany are excellent and a far better option than flying. Much better leg room, enjoyable and arguably faster. Grant would love it on the ICE trains. Smokers have a view of the train line out front. He would also love the food and beer, which is excellent quality and value. Germany is no place to go on a diet.
Politics and Nazi's
21 Jun - I can't travel through Germany without thinking about the war. It seems like a million years ago when I was growing up, yet the war ended 11 years before I was born and very much in living memory for those that survived. Most towns in Germany look new. The reason it that very little was left standing after the allied bombing. Every public building that looks like it pre-dates 1945 has some horrible story to tell. Of course, today we divorce ourselves from the whole thing. Couldn't happen now, certainly not here. We wouldn't stand for it! Hitler and his henchmen were the devil incarnate and all Germans were implicit in the crime.
I don't believe it for a second. In reality, Nazism is an extreme form of politics that could happen anywhere if the conditions are right, Cambodia even Australia as per the milieu of mind control. And then the concentration camps. I still don't understand Dachau. How could it happen? Of all the haunting images the picture below impacted me the most.
Look at the man in the middle, wearing traditional German clothes, indignant in his situation, wearing what looks like football socks. He would have been completely broken if not killed in Dachau. Anybody that complained, anybody that took a stand against the Nazis or were not of the right ethnicity: Jews, Poles, Gypsies, etc. were to be worked to death or exterminated. What did the Dachau footballer do to deserve being sent to Dachau? What ever happened to him?Went into the town looking for Thai food. Maam and Dik had noodles. Nicky and I went to the Ratskeller (town hall). German food, fantastic decor.
22 Jun - Neuschwanstein
We drove to mad king Ludwig's place today. (I don't know how we would have made it without GPS). We have lunch in the nearby town. Wonderful food, I have a combination of pork, turkey & beef roast covered in mushrooms and a beer (did I say German beer is excellent and cheap).
The castle external and internal architecture is certainly eclectic. You are not allow to take photos inside but this link gives has photos. Ludwig had planned for 100 rooms but had run out of money and the drowned in a nearby lake. I think only about 16 rooms before his unfortunate dip. I would have liked to see the unfinished rooms and wonder what the plan to do with with these rooms in the future? Seeing all of the rooms entails a fair amount of walking and then stair climbing. Why can't they install lifts or escalators? We do some laundry tonight so nothing fancy for dinner, pizza.
23 Jun - Salzburg
Up at the crack of 10:00 am. for Austria. We have coffee and cakes for breakfast, as is de rigour in these parts. The GPS takes some unusual detours through the country. I was told there was a toll entering Austria but couldn't find one. I read the Austria section in our travel guide which says "you need to have a Vignette for all travel in Austria". Without one you face a €220 on the spot fine or €2180 if you don't pay up immediately. I feel an urgent need to get some document I've never heard of before. I purchase the mythical Vignette and my heart rate returns to normal.
I don't know what it is but being in Salzburg, one finds oneself compelled to sudden and violent outbursts music from “The Sound of Music”. I invite Maam to join in but she seems reluctant. Perhaps the comparison with my magnificent singing voice is too daunting. Oh well. Most people don't possess the keen musical ear for harmony and expression in song that I possess! It takes all kinds!
It's time to investigate Salzburg. We take in the usual sites Festung castle fortress, Schloss Mirabel, Mozart's digs & back alleys of the ald stadt, even McDonalds are a la mode. There are excellent views of the surrounding country side from high up on the Festung castle walls. I think I see Julie Andrews in the distance, waltzing through the Edelweiss, strumming her guitar, topless from the waist up... A few of my favorite things. I burst into song again. I look around and Maam has disappeared. After 5 mins searching I find her hiding in the curio shop. Always shopping. So predictable. I've seen enough. Everything is committed to memory. The old town, the castle fortress, the palace, the coconut trees swinging in the breeze...I drive around point at my newly acquired vignette but no one seems interested. Disappointed my vignette doesn't command the respect I expected, we head off for the Autobahn. The idiotic GPS has me turning of the Autobahn for some reason. I see a sign post for Berchtesgarten. I dial the co-ordinates into the GPS and it claims we are 25 klm away. So I think what the hell. While we are here and all. So we are off for the Eagles Lair – Hitler's holiday house. Unfortunately, the GPS doesn't say that it is 25 kms of 25º incline goat track, I feel like Phil Silvers in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The “bitch in the box”, GPS, seems completely lost, we go around in circles for five minutes and then make our way up about half way up the the mountain - all the way to a car park. Apparently, the last leg is provided by a private concession and the buses have stopped for the day. I don't think Maam is up for the three hour walk to the summit, so we turn around to retrace our tracks the the Autobahn. The GPS takes us back to Salzburg before joining the Autobahn. One hour later we are back to the point the GPS sent me on a goose chase. The Eagle's Lair remains elusive to us. I refill the Audi Quattro with diesel €40. It is very economical and diesel is cheaper in Austria. The autobahns are excellent. I set the cruise control to 160 kms/h and move over into the slow lanes.
Maam sights a Thai Restaurant on the side of the road and wants to stop. After we stop and I've paid for two day's parking, she tells me that it is in fact a Vietnamese restaurant and doesn't want to eat there any more. I stand my ground and say I'm not going to leave until Monday. I have a few beers and a meal in the local pub as a compromise. Maam doesn't eat. She seems to have lost her appetite.24 Jun – Munich
Time to return our conveyance and commence our tour of Munich by foot. I have a devil of a time getting the car out of the car park – car park ramps narrow (in fact roads generally narrow) – Audi wide. The radar parking system predicates a collision on every turn. Maam gets out to provide guidance. We top up the diesel and return it to the rental company.We walk around to Marienplatz (town hall area in the old town), then to the palace and the surrounding parks and gardens. It's such a lovely day we continue into the Englischer Park. I'm confronted by hoards of natives in the bollocky nude, lying around drinking beer, trying to look natural. What this has to do with England I'm not sure. If I want to engage in excessive eating, drinking and full frontal nudity, I'll go back to university. I tell Nicky and Maam to avert their eyes while we back track to the more culturally appropriate sites. We wind our way back through the old town. With all the excitement of the Englischer Park I feel the need for a a nice beer. We stop of at the Frauhofer Restaurant for the tradition German food. I have sausages, mashed potato and sauerkraut. It's a memorable meal. We all remember it for about 6 hours.
Conclusion
And so ends the German leg. My stereotype of a squat german chap wearing leather trousers, marching in unison & swilling beer is partially dispelled. Germany is a beautiful conuntry, and the people friendly and charming. Our German is non existant, but of all the places we went we only found one person who could not speak English and she was helpful enough enough.
Food excellent. Beer Excellent. All hotels clean and everything in working order. The free mini bar in Frankfurt an unusual gratuity. Germans are every bit as stylish or the French - A proud land of old order. We will need to see much more of Germany. The whole country is a class act.
Italy
25 Jun – Venice, Grand Canal, Lido
We travelled by train from Munich to Venice, via Verona (the setting Romeo & Juliet). The train leaves at 7:30 so we need to get up early (5:00 am). I'm pretty tired and we only have about 30 mins (I like to be early) before the train arrives. The journey through the German, Austrian and Italian alps is spectacular. The mountains seem very high.There are a lot of free seats on the train and I'm wondering if the seat reservations were really necessary. The conductor then comes around and collects a reservation fee for each passenger. The is a "must have reservation" train. Even the fee the conductor collects is about 50% of what I paid in Australia and the trains don't seem as busy as I expected. We change at Verona and there are plenty of free seats to Venice. Even so I ask a couple to move out of our reserved seats. Sorry, but I paid $90 for the dubious pleasure!
We get to Venice about 15:20, about 10 mins behind schedule - very good for what I expected of Italian trains. We have plenty of time to get to the hotel and even thought the Venice is a maze of back alleys, the instructions the hotel gave were good. We arrive at the Palazzo Guardi with no problems. The room is nice and clean with air con, but not the view featured on the web site. I can practically smell the dolce vita.
Even though Venice is a maze of alleys intersected by alleys, getting from point A to B is relatively easy. Point in the general direction and back track if you get a blind alley. There are occasionally sign post to prominent spots. We never get lost, - we just don't always know exactly where we are! For longer distances or to cross water we use the local ferry service, Vaporetti. Every thing is done on water in Venice. No vans for FedEx here!Maam needs to finds a WC and without a handy public convenience (apart from the canals) we
finding a convenient cafe. We all have light pasta. The food is lovely and inexpensive, I have Gnocchi Gorgonzola, Nicky has fresh pesto penne. We catch a vaporetti for the Pallazzo Ducale and check out what the rich and famous were up to 600 years ago. It's a familiar story – control the general folk, for the benefit of a few, in this case written into Gold or Silver books based on your credentials. No one else matters or in general is remembered. The palace is grand enough. Huge timber rooms and where there are windows, they have commanding views of Venice, Maam takes a snap of me in a commanding position. I lag behind fascinated by the displays in the palace, I especially like the upside down map of Asia and a very rough approximation of what a drunk 14th century Venetian thought America might look like (as opposed to many drunk Americans imagine Italy looks like today.). The “bridge of sighs” gets it's name from the exasperated tourists struggling under the weight of service and cover charges in Venice. (I think there is also a historical pretext). I cross from the palace to the ancient prison where I learn that Casanova was once interned. Makes you think doesn't it... Well not much.
Maam manages to negotiate a reasonable rate with one of these gondolier chaps. I inquire into his nautical bona fides. He seems to know his stuff so I pronounce the gondolier fit for our purposes and we are off on the quintessential Venetian tourist caper. Our gondolier gives us a running commentary of the canals and high spots. I give him an overview of the role of an IT
architect within a modern enterprise. Neither of us seem very interested. On the other hand, I admired how much hard work he put in, negotiating a path under the bridges at high tide and into the wind up the Grand Canal. It's a pleasure to watch other people working hard.Venice is sinking and the sea comes up through the drains in St. Mark's square during high tide. It somehow adds the mystique of the place.
26 Jun – Venice
We wind our way from San Marco across Ponte Accadermia and find a cheaper Pizzeria for dinner (No Service Charge, No Cover Charge). The place seems to be run by Japanese that good, i.e. about as good as you would get in Australia. It seems we have to pay the going rate if we are to get the reasonable food which is: First course (7 – 14€), Prima Plate (10 – 16€).
27 Jun – Rome
Today we leave Venice for Rome on one of the flash Eurostar trains. I wonder where all the Americans have been. They've filled up the Eurostar from Venice to Rome. In this case it would have been no reservation, no travel.We have one of the groups of four seat, two facing each other, these are not as comfortable as having the two facing the same direction, no leg room
We arrive around 16:00 and get a Roma Card, excellent value 20€, which gives you free travel on all public transport plus free entry to two musuems (archilogical sites), and reduced entrance on any additional sites. As entrance to the Colusseum is 11€ alone, the ticket is excellent value. We also find out that the Roma ticket allows us to jump the ticket booth at the Colusseum, saving about 15 mins.
Initial impressions are that that Rome is a bit grubby and there is a lot of graffiti around the Train Terminal area. We have an afternoon so go to see:
- Spanish Steps (under repair and with many hawkers),
- Piazza del Pogola which is a couple of churches and monument surrounding a fountain in the middle of the square.
- Trevi Fountain, where we all through money across our sholders into the fountain. After all, who doesn't want to return to Roma. Nicky throws twices for good luck. Dik throws from about 10 mts away. It may have landed in the fountain or alternatively blinded another tourist.
- Piazza della Republica ( Looks pretty flash nowadays with an expensive hotel, theatre and McDonalds. Last time I was here 1981, it was dirty, rundown and housed back pack digs. Times have changed)
28 Jun - Rome
Hotel buffet breakfast includes: juice cakes, bread, coffee, cereal and fruit. Standard Italian breakfast. We go to the Vatican Museum, St. Peters Basilica including a climb to the otp of the Basilica Cupola – about 1000 steps from the top to the bottom. It's hard work, especially with the curve of the dome, you have to lean on the same angle as the curve of the dome. I see the lightLots of things to see nearby including:
- Piazza Navona,
- Pantheon – A Catholic church grafted on top of a roman temple.
- Piazza Compo de'Fiori – A place of execution during the inquisition)
- Torre Argentina – Where Brutus caught up with Julius Caesar, nowadays a cat sanctuary and ruins
29 Jun - Rome
Today we walked through the back streets to the train station (Termini) via Piazza della Republica where Gypsys nearly steal my wallet! Three young girls, one nursing a baby had the hands all over me, notionally begging for money but I felt my wallet starting to move so I yelled very loudly and they moved away slowly at first, then faster as a crowd got interested in the performance. I was lucky. Later during the day I met a man who's wallet was stolen by Gypsys. He got his wallet back but the money was gone. I heard that Gypsys had stolen a tourist bus. They are just like seagulls. They will appear from nowhere and steal anything that isn't nailed down.
We catch the train to Colloseo for the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Circus Maximus, Roman Forum, Victor Emmanuale Monument, etc. I guess the ruins are what Rome is about. The Colosseum and Palatine Hill are just as I remembered them from 1982. These big things leave clear impressions. On the other hand I don't remember there being pizzeria back then.
To summarize Roma, a period when they ruled the known world, sacked and left for ruins, catholic church grafted on top, federation and finally capitalism. Perfect irony - 2000 year old ruin replaced with ice cream truck! I guess this is Roma - a perfect irony.
30 June – Sorrento
After our escapades around Rome we of to Naples en-route to Sorrento. We board the local bus to convey us from the hotel to the main rail terminal. Our Roma three day pass doesn't work on the bus which I guess means the three day calculation is based on date rather than from hour to hour. Wanting to avoid a million Euro fine for being on a bus without a valid ticket, we jump straight off and drag our luggage to the station keeping an eye out for marauding Gypsys. The walk doesn't worry me as it is less than a kilometer to the station.I like to arrive early for our transport. There are always delays and I'd rather join our conveyance in a civilized fashion. Unfortunately, civilization hasn't evolved on Italian transport. We stand backs against the wall ready to thrwart any unwanted Gypsy advances waiting for the departure indicator board to indicate what platform the 10:27 to Napoli leaves. We wait... At 10:37 the boards informs us that our train leaves from platform 5 at 10:27, 10 minutes ago. We run with the population of Rome and half of all tourist in transit for the train. Once on board and into our reserved seats the journey passes fairly quickly. Nothing really spectacular to report until a large volcano object looms into sight. Mt. Versuvius dominates the Neapolitan landscape. The new city, Napoli, seems even closer to the volcano than Pompeii was in 79 AD. Thankfully Versuvius is inactive.
Naples has the highest crime rate in Italy! I tell our party to keep a tight hold on there belonging and scan our locale for Gypsys. We safely navigate the 100 mts from the state railway terminal to the local railway service, Circumvesuviana. It's slow, hot and crowded. First impressions of Naples is that it is completely covered in graffiti, worse than Rome. We rattle our way to San Angelo, one stop before Sorrento, our hotel is about 500m from the railway station. I take a wrong turn and we walk about 1.5 km around the block. Maam asks helpfully “Could you get a hotel closer to the railway”. We park our kit and are back on the Circumvesuviana for Pompei Scavi (which I guess mean ruins). Pompeii is one of the wonderful places like: Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Pyramids in Egypt, Acropolis in Greece, Teotihuacán in Mexico... etc. Close your eyes and you are transported to a different time and place. It doesn't take much to imagine what It might have been like to have lived in Pompeii before it was covered in 6m of volcanic ash. Pompeii also was filled with graffiti:
- The finances officer of the Emperor Nero says this food is poison
- Celadus the Thracian gladiator is the delight of all the girls
- Chie, I hope your haemorrhoids rub together so much that they hurt worse than they ever have before!
- Phileros is a eunuch!
We have dinner in Sorrento. I feel like a treat, so Maam and I order Lobster Linguini, (thinking it would be like my favorite dish from the Waterfront Restaurant in Melbourne). I only realize that this was going to be freshly prepared as they pluck our dinner from the tank. Sorry for the lobster, but he was delicious. View of the full moon rising over the mountains behind Sorrento from the balcony of our room.1 July – Sorrento
Capri is the plan for today. With all Maam's shopping we don't arrive to the wharf until 11:30. So we have to catch the hydrofoil, which is really a rip off at €25 return per person. Far better value is the €13 circumnavigation of the island. Capri is spectacular and one day visit doesn't do it justice. The blurry photo,taken with out flash, gives an idea how blue it is inside the grotto at the expense of focus.
Pasta / pizza dinner for Nicky and Steve. Maam and Sue are off to find something for themselves. I think they get salad from the super market.
2 July – Florence
We get up early to catch the rattler to Naples for transfer to the Naples - Firenze EuroStar. There's less graffiti here. I guess young men are working or got something better to do. What is it with graffiti, it's an old enough past time, as per Pompeii, but what's the point? It ranges in artistic merit from the tag of a scrawl of someone barely able to write, through to poster art. In any case it's forgettable. I don't remember any graffiti. I'm not the audience - message not received - Kilroy is not here.
So what is it with women anyway. In this case, I'm talking of my wife and sister in law. I'm constantly in trouble for booking hotels to far from the station. One kilometer!
My criteria is for hotel selection is: good reviews from previous travelers, close to transport (one kilometer is close!), quiet and clean. An appropriate response to a man would be either:
- Why don't you book the accommodation yourself if your not happy, or
- Let's sleep on the station platform.
OK. So it takes a few minutes to get my bearings, but I have a map and when I get a cross reference I will follow it and we will get there. My wife and sister in law want to ask people directions. At the best of times, no man is ever going to ask for instructions, which is equivalent to saying "Hey. I'm stupid. Help me read a map". So if I won't ask for instructions in Australia, why would I ask anybody for instructions in Italy:
- One I do not speak Italian
- I won't presume Italians speak fluent English.
To placate the women, I ask a policeman, who sends us back to the train station. Brilliant!One wrong turn later, I have cross reference and we have found the hotel. Wife and sister in law arrive 10 minutes later after asking for instructions. No one is talking to me. Fine.
Off to Pisa this afternoon, which is about 1 hour by train from Firenze, where there is no leaning tower. It's the ground and surrounding buildings that are perpendicular challenged. The tower is the only straight building in the whole place! Shoddy workmanship. We don't dwell long. We slide out of town back to Firenze. Where we have, Pizza for a change.
03 July – Florence
Breakfast in the hotel is as per usual for Italy, cakes, juice and coffee. We take a bus ride around the town, routes 12 & 13, together, circumnavigate the town with Pizzale Michealangelo as the changeover. The view should be spectacular but there is construction of temporary seating for an outdoor concert spoiling the view. Bugger. Firenze is one of the those magic places of natural beauty is actually more beautiful for the efforts of man. The number 12 bus takes us down to the Arno and we walk to Ponte Vecchio. Maam and sister seem interested in jewelery. Shopping. Yuck.
I go to check out the queue for the Uffizi Gallery. The queue is about 2 hours long. I pre-book for tomorrow and get a nice surprise - free entry for tomorrow only. We have a panini and wine from a roadside nosebag. I check out the queue for the Accademia di Belle Arti. This is were the Michaelangelo's David is now located. Longer queues and I've seen it before so I drop it of the "to see" list.
In the afternoon, I take sister in law to Pisa. It's a re-visit for me. Maam, surprise, goes shopping. Dinner in one of the lonely planet recommended nosh pits. Food is great but we have to wait (stand) for about 40 mins as a booking for 50 people file past us.
04 July – Florence
Rest of the family go shopping, it's off to the Uffizi for me. You can trace the evolution of art as you walk through through galleries of the Uffizi and the chosen subject matter:
- Christian themes: nativity, crucifixion and Mary equally represented
- Mythical themes: especially Botticelli's Primavera & Birth of Venus. These are two paintings that do not let down in real life. Absolutely magnificent.
- Rich people: People with money and/or power pay for portraits.
- Still life, rural, working and marking scenes
Nicky and I have dinner with an Australian chap from Killara who is traveling by himself. His wife died last year and they had always planned to do this trip together. Best to do what you can, while you can.
Conclusion
So that's Italy. Italians are ignorant, arrogant, yet at the same time tolerant.
Italy is for Italians. They have thousands of years of history and continue to immerse themselves in the Italian culture. Italy is:
- Italian food (I took Nicky to eat McDonalds at the Florence Station. There is no one in the queue. I suspect that McDonalds, in Italy, is for American tourists, or just a curiosity).
- Clothes
- Shoes
- Art, Fashion
- Cars
- Opera
- Passion
- History
- Chaos - well, Italians don't queue, yet it seems to work and with style.
- Unable to run anything on time or to spec.
- Tolerant of foreign influences. They are either absorbed or ignored. Spaghetti may have come to Italy via China, but there's little evidence of the link today. Likewise, tomatoes, from Central American. No way, Tomatoes are at the heart of Italian food. Anything bought to Italy will become Italian.
France
05 July – Nice
We wake early for out train to Nice today. Originally, we are reserved on the 11:30 from Florence to Milan to join the train to Nice. The reservations only allow 20 minutes to connect with the Nice train. Our experiences with the punctuality of the Italian train system doesn't give me confidence in this connection. I make another reservation for leaving 8:30 in the morning, which will theoretically give us 3 hours in Milan. As events transpire the train to Milan is 45 minutes late in arriving. The train to Nice arrived over 1 hour late.
In Milano, we take time out for a stroll through the shopping mall an a meal in one of the restaurants recommended by the lonely planet guide. The restaurant is very popular with the locals, (Did I mention the Italians and French have a long lunch, 2-3 hours. Seems that lunch is a sociable affair - main meal of the day). Maam has a seafood risotto fed the size of a small girl. I have have the chicken schnitzel - a la Scallopini Milanese style - breaded and fried. On the way to the noshery, Dik is bumped of the sidewalk by a group of young boys, 11 - 14 years old I guess. I don't know whether it was racially motivation or bravado of you street boys.
As above, Italy like all western countries, is looking to redefine itself as cheap production moves east and native population growth rates decline. Couples must work longer and focus more on professional development as opposed to having families. The negative population growth is offset by immigration leading to prejudice and local antagonism.
We arrive in Nice around 9:30 pm and it is getting dark. Enough light for Maam to spot the Bangkok restaurant next door to the Hotel. The Thai food is made by Chinese is not authentic, costs a fortune and the meal does sit well.
06 July – Nice
We pick up breakfast in a local department store - ham, cheese & dill pickle baguette, followed by a delicious kind of hazelnut tart called Noisette. Maam and I have an argument about the need to go shopping all the time, again. After breakfast we walk down the Avenue Médecin (the main drag from the station) through the flower and vegetable market. Wow. There is so much varieties of produce, more than 10 different types of potatoes, olives, onions, garlic, etc.After breakfast we climb the hill to La Château, the old fort. There's a waterfall over the top popular with the local seagulls. On one side there are good views of the town and the Côte d'Azur, the other side views of Nice harbour. The water is really, really blue. Nicky and I went for a swim in the afternoon. The beach consists of small rocks up the beach, to small pebbles the closure you get to the edge of the water. The water is warm and the Mediterranean is flat (no swell). The water gets deep quickly, which I guess is a function of the rock rather than sand shore. I wonder whether the blue is due to the rocks? Maybe there is some kind of material given of by the rock friction caused by the sea motion. My picture below is very similar to the wikipedia version. (Must be a popular snap).
Maam hasn't got offer our discussion, Vis-à-vis, why so much shopping.Nicky and I go by ourselves to a nosebag recommended by the lonely planet that serves the local speciality, Socca. It's tasty enough but the meal for two is a bit more expensive than we have been paying and food not especially good. The highlight of the evening was the graphic on the menu of a toreador fighting a cow.
07 July – Monaco
The local train from Nice to Monaco. It's a a pretty journey winding along the coast, with many places right on the shore where one might retire. takes about 30 mins and costs about €10.Monaco is supposed to by one of the richest countries per capita in the world. It's also the second smallest independent states in the world, although it's getting larger with the photo below showing a new ward reclaimed from the sea. In spite of the pint size credentials, the local topography a fair bit of walking - down to the harbour and up the hill to the prince's place, Monaco-Ville. I feel like Old King Cole.
There is a concession at one end of the harbour to either ride in a Ferrari or drive yourself around the race course at €45 or €90 respectively. We watch.
Back to Nice for dinner - which we eat in the hotel room and Maam compares the merits of the supermarkets of Europe.
Not as expensive as expected (the way we do it) and a reasonable holiday destination. I can see why its so popular. Nice is nice.
08 July– Paris
From Nice to Paris by TGV. Should leave at 8:30 but is delayed for one hour due to an accident on the line. I hope it's nothing trivial! The train gets along at a fair clip, I see 315 kms/hr, but it maybe faster at times.
We arrive about 16:30 and arrive in the hotel about 18:00. There's not much time for sightseeing so Nicky and I (Maam and Dik have Chinese food) go to a crêperie in Montpasse. Food is excellent and real reasonable. I had mushroom, cheese, potato and vegetable - which is a similar feed to my lunch at work. Nicky tack a few night snaps of the Eiffel Tower.
09 July – Paris
Pick up tickets for Eurostar to London, Sacre Coeur,Arc De Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, pick up tickets for Musée du Louvre, Notre Dame de Paris and over to a nosebag recommended by Looney Planet, and then walk through the local Luxembourg gardens (which is apparently a popular hang out for Sorbonne students).
10 July– Paris
Chartres (check out the great photo on wikipedia) and Versailles.
Night photos of Eiffel tower.
Thai food for dinner.
11 July – Paris
Go up the Eiffel tower. Wait 1.5 hours for tickets and lift to second gallery. Wait 30 mins to go to top. Wait 30 mins to come down to second gallery. Wait 15 mins to return to ground level. The view is good but not worth the wait. I guess you have to climb the Eiffel tower when in Paris, bit I wouldn't do it again. Maam waits at ground level and is pretty pored by the time we get back.
Musée du Louvre in the afternoon. Of course Mona Lisa,or La Joconde. the crowd is not as bad as the last time I was here, so I actually get to see the picture up close, well behind a silk rope. There are plenty of other more interesting paintings for mine.
Conclusion
I don't speak French, but try. In general, their English is far better than my French. In any case, there's none of "we don't speak English" syndrome
12/07/07 – London
Up at 4:30 for train to London.
13/07/07 – London
14/07/07 – London
15/07/07 – London
USA
16/07/07 – New York
17/07/07 – New York
18/07/07 – Los Angeles
19/07/07 – Los Ange
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