Category: Italy

Croatia

10/10/2010

Our last morning in Venice was spent lazing around Lido with Julia’s Mum and Dad, enjoying the sun and the laid back Italian pace of life.

We left Venice Port on time, sailing out past the Grand Canal and San Marco Square, conveniently on the same side of the ship as our balcony. Then it was time to explore the ship and work out the routines so that we could enjoy all that it has to offer.

By dinner time we had completed a life boat drill, found our allocated restaurant and checked out all of the main lounges. We were impressed.

Dinner was any choice from a full 6 course menu. Some would say 7 courses depending on whether you think cheese is a dessert item or additional. What really amazed us is that it is encouraged for you to have as many of the courses as you want. We were to discover that breakfast and lunch is similar and we certainly wouldn’t complain about the quality (although I think there are plenty of veteran “cruisers” on board who do!).

After dinner we investigated the lounge identified as having the entertainment team present, ready for some dancing and games and before we knew it Molly and I were in the thick of it on the dance floor. Dancing, games and having fun are important ingredients to a good cruise apparently……..

Anyway, next day after a few games on the pool deck we were into Dubrovnik and exploring the old city. We opted out of any organized tours as they seemed quite expensive and by all accounts from fellow travellers they are not recommended as good value.

We found that the quick stop into Dubrovnik was a bit of an anti-climax – we were just getting settled on the ship! Our first encounter with a local Croatian was less than appealing – rude and condescending is hardly the tone you should take if your income is derived from foreign tourists – so we were happy to just be on our way again.

That said, we were amazed by the Croatian coast, the scenery approaching Dubrovnik and the incredible fortress that is the old city. It is amazing that as part of the country of Yugoslavia, during the civil war, the ancient and historic town was bombed by what basically amounts to it’s own Army, with many buildings destroyed. Yet it remains one of the most amazing fortress towns we have seen with a beautiful old harbour and all on a coast line of crystal clear waters.

Sunset departure from Dubrovnik

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Venice, Italy

19/9/2010

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Like Venice, it appears they are standing on water

An overnight train from Vienna to Venice – our last long train journey until who knows when? South America is basically void of international trains and we have no idea how we will get around the USA………….

Anyway, it was uneventful and arriving at Venice – St Lucia was very relaxing. No touts, no pressure, just walk outside at 9.00am and find the right ferry (vaporetto), get some tickets (really expensive but better to have flexible arrangements than none at all) and sit back, enjoy the view and realize that this place is famous for some VERY good reasons!

We stayed at Lido, the main island on the sea side of Venice, complete with swimming beaches which we had no idea about – we really didn’t expect we would swim at Venice but first day there we did! Surprise number 1.

Lido is quiet, tourists and locals alike are well catered for with cafes and restaurants, and not too much traffic. Our hotel was a great find, an old building beautifully renovated into quite a smart, modern little hotel.

Day 2 was cloudy with a small amount of drizzle but fairly warm. Pretty good conditions for exploring Venice. We took a vaporetto along the Grand Canal and then walked through the old city back to San Marco Square. It would be safe to say that at this stage we had already fallen in love with Venice. Plans of day tripping to Pisa and Verona were dropped and we planned how we could absorb as much as this island city as we could. Venice seemed to be just that little bit more special than any of the other European cities we had seen…surprise number 2.

Saturday morning we were joined by Troy and Tracy in Lido and headed back across to the main city, getting off the vaporetto near San Marco. After a little bit of sightseeing we found a very cool café with a hilarious waiter and sat down to enjoy wine and pizza, although Troy managed to disappear for some time.

We wondering whether he would make it back for the pizza and debate ng having a second bottle of wine when through the crowded café appeared Julia’s parents!! Surprise number 3 – the biggest by far!!

It was David and Rita’s 45th wedding anniversary so to celebrate they had decided to get out to Venice to surprise us and see us off on our cruise! There was also a chance to have some early Birthday celebrations for Molly and just catch up.

It is an amazing thing about Europe that a long weekend in Venice is so achievable and without too much cost. Budget airlines can make the travel ridiculously cheap – David payed 20 Pounds one way and less than 20 Euros back for the air tickets, flying into Treviso which is just an easy (and in Italy cheap) 40 minute train journey from Venice. It would be nice if there was a little city like Venice on the far South Coast of NSW……………

We had a nice celebration dinner – lots of Pizza and wine. The pizza’s seem very good but the pasta is perhaps not as we would expect it in Australia (or England, Austria or Thailand for that matter!). My aim was to test and re-test my theories on how pasta is served in different Italian restaurants in Italy but the pizza’s always seemed to draw me to them!
As for "how're we doin'?" Well, let's just say we are cruzin'..................

The world's best looking taxi?

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Back to Cambremer

17/9/2010

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A French Alpine Lake

One of only two Tiger tanks still in France

We decided that we wanted to do two more things in Western Europe before heading further East. One was to catch up with Julia’s brother and his family, on a camping holiday in Southern France. The other was to return to Cambremer and relax again – travelling really is tough work!

So we headed West through Northern Italy, and into the Southern part of the French Alps, at one point travelling for over 12 kilometres in one tunnel before popping out the other end in France, having entered in Italy.

We drove up through Frances own mountain lakes area, tried to work out how many famous mountains we were driving in the shadows of and then heading North West we skirted any large towns and stuck mostly to secondary roads to work our way towards Normandy. After a bit of a rest in the car during the night we found ourselves on part of the Le Mans race circuit the next morning before stopping for various incidental tourist sites……..Tiger Tanks, old bridges, that sort of stuff.

By this stage we had established that we would do the family thing in a few days time, after getting some rest in Cambremer, so it was basically full speed ahead for cider, smelly cheese, and lots of bonjours on the balconey at Bruno and Chrystels little French paradise.

We realised when we first visited Cambremer that it was the sort of town that we might like to have a holiday cottage in if we lived in the UK. In fact the idea of having somewhere in Europe to call home would be nice regardless of where we lived but I think the distance would make it a less attractive proposition.

Anyway, for us for another week it was to be as much like home as we had experienced for the last 8 months. Sure we had been welcomed and spoilt at family and friends houses in the UK, but this was a little more at our pace with our own space. It was wonderful.

We did still do some exploring and I managed to have some curious experiences whilst wandering around the country lanes………..

Whilst visiting the local War Memorial I said hello to an Asian lady that was walking past, seemingly on her way out of town. A little unusual I thought as there is no real footpath to speak of and not a lot of destinations.

By the time I left the Memorial she had turned back and we chatted again. This time she told me she was following the Cider route, a signposted tourist route around local Cider farms – for tourists in cars to follow I assumed!? Then the lady told me she was from Xi’an in China so I told her we had recently spent 10 days there. As we were talking she then explained that her ex-boyfriend had left her in Cambremer and driven off so she was now without a car but determined to see some more of the Cider route and get back to her hotel. I assumed that where she was trying to get to was where her hotel was……….

Basically, the lady spoke excellent French but only OK English so there may have been some mis-understandings as I communicated that I had a car to take her to her hotel and she communicated that she would like someone to drive her to the Cider farm that she had not yet seen. So I drove her to a Cider farm about 6km from Cambremer and when we arrived she asked me to join her for the small tour. I did as I hadn’t been to a Cider farm. After the tour there was Cider tasting and the lady, Emma, wanted to speak to the owner as it turned out she was studying Biology in Paris and was interested in Cider farming as a future career course. I was unsure as to what I was still doing there but she asked if I would wait and then she would return to her hotel.

So I waited and then we drove towards her hotel. When we got to Cambremer and she said that the centre of town was a good place to drop her off, I started to wonder what had just happened. Putting it down to mis-communication, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for this lady left stranded in the French countryside.

As I returned to our own accommodation she walked up the street past me commenting that she was a little lost but her hotel was just up the street. So I again said farewell……..

Until that evening when she bounced in after tea time with a bottle of bubbly cider and keen to catch up with Julia and I for a drink and a dance!???!! Well, we were being typically hospitable and obliged the drinking part and then sat around learning more about Emma whilst she listened to our stories of China. When we asked how she was getting back to Paris where she was studying, she was kind of blank about how she would get from Cambremer to the train station so I offered to deliver her. It is what any self-respecting French man would have done!

Actually, meeting Emma was a nice distraction from daily life in Cambremer and certainly an amusing one, with several lessons of the need to communicate effectively. Molly thinks it is very amusing that I took off into the country-side, drinking cider with a mysterious lady from Xi’an.

Apple orchards - waiting to reward the locals with cider!

We just couldn't get tired of the views from Bruno and Chrystel's house in Cambremer. It is impossible to not love the sunsets over an old French village.

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Quick visits to Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Italy

15/9/2010

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Lichtenstein

Switzerland, near Lake Constance

Firstly I should point out that there are entries waiting to be posted for Austria and subsequently Italy.

Meanwhile, the journey continues here from Germany, where we left Isny in the late morning and headed into Austria on a very small mountain road, crossing German and then Austrian valleys before crossing into Switzerland near Lake Constance. Whilst Switzerland remains separate from the European Union, crossing the borders in this region were still no different to crossing a state border in Australia. Maybe a few police looking half interested and a wave of the hand but otherwise, border control is obviously effected through other methods.

We drove from near the lake, South, up the Rhine Valley, dominated by rocky mountains and alpine valleys.

We detoured into Lichtenstein where we found that things seemed like Switzerland (or Austria or Germany). The castles were quite spectacular and despite the quaint size of the two towns we stopped in, there did seem to be a lot of high end stores.

Once back into Switzerland we tunneled our way South toward the San Bernadino pass, not quite the gateway to Italy but certainly a geographic divide between German and Italian Switzerland. At over 2000 metres the pass had snow on the peaks around it. Whilst this is apparently a great driving road, we were on the faster route that is predominately tunnels and overpasses so all smooth driving for us.

As seems to be the case everyday that we are driving, we arrived into Italy late in the day from Switzerland. We had thought about heading to the Lake Como area but decided to go to another Lake to the West, the direction of travel for us in the morning.

The scenery remained like Switzerland with large mountain ranges and ridges overshadowing our journey, although Italy seemed to have greater haze. It was hotter so possibly this explains it. In fact it was now as we would imagine the Mediterranean climate to be.

Not far into Italy (in this part of Europe the divide between Italy and Switzerland is not obvious) we came across tourist villages alongside Lake Maggiore. It was quite impressive, with some house perched above the roads on cliffs, the only entrance available a single elevator shaft from next to the road, where the owner’s cars were parked in a garage cut into the cliff!

There were lots of fancy cars (not necessarily exotic though as Italy is home to some of the most exotic car manufacturers!), people sailing and water skiing, and all of this along a VERY narrow ribbon of road. Time for a stop.

We didn’t like our chances of getting one nights accommodation but following signs, Julia checked a Hotel right on the waterfront, just to get a feel for prices and availability. Before we knew it we were swimming in the pool, dining on the terrace above the lake and enjoying a great Italian summers evening.

San Bernadino pass area, Switzerland

Lake Maggiore, Italy. Our little playground for a night!

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Croatia

Venice, Italy

Back to Cambremer

Quick visits to Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Italy

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