....The Big Moment

So I promised a separate post about events at Giverny. Once we arrived here we were immediately struck by what a pretty little town it was that seems to just suddenly emerge from the seemingly endless paddocks and fields.

Once we arrived we found a place to have a quick bite and then I marched us off to the gardens, with an ulterior motive beyond just smelling the roses. I had made sure that a certain object was in my pocket before we even left Bruges, so that I wouldn't have to try and somehow sneakily do it later at a critical time.

On approaching the gardens I suddenly had to deal with a nearly hysterical Nicky because she had become a bug magnet and they were apparently crawling all over her. I didn't see a single bug on her and I was put in mind of what I had heard about heroin addicts coming down off their high. Anyway I'm sure the bugs were real and eventually even saw one or two myself.

The whole plan at this stage was to spend some time romantically meandering through the gardens and eventually end up on the Japanese Bridge where I could ask a fairly important question. After what I felt was an appropriate amount of meandering it proved nearly impossible to get Nicky to walk to the bloody bridge. But we got there. And so did about 30 tourists.

In a desperate attempt to get something remotely close to privacy I started offering to take photos of couples and friends so that I could shoo them off the bridge. We got down to a few other people when I pulled my "look over there!" ruse which partially worked so that I could pull the ring out of my pocket and asked Nicky if she would continue to make me the happiest man in the world by agreeing to be my wife. I'm pretty sure she said yes because there was lots of hugs and kisses and then we had to leave the bridge because people were looking. Nicky also made me take the ring back because she didn't want to drop it in the water. She got it back once our feet were on dry land.

We then pretended to be super interested in Monet's house, I made sure as we went through the gift shop that we picked up a print of that Japanese bridge to have framed and put on the wall as a nice memento.

After that we had to get out of Giverny and go find some bubbles. Actually the first bubbles we had were of the Cidre kind, which we didn't actually enjoy, so we made sure we had a nice glass of champagne over dinner in Les Andelys, that was much better. Also Nicky wanted to re-live the moment so she could give a more coherent response, so I proposed again over champagne just to make sure we all agreed. She definitely said yes that time!

For those interested, here's the ring:

And I think that's brought everyone up to speed, we're now a happily engaged couple! 

Omg I feel so grown up...

Brandon and Nicky.

PS: Nicky says there definitely were bugs all over her at Giverny.

Lille, Les Andelys, Le Mont Saint Michel

Onwards from Bruges!

We caught the train from Bruges to Lille, another very early start, eventually arriving at Lille around 10am. The only time I've ever been pissed off at a French person for being an arsehole was at Lille, and of all places, he worked at the information desk. He was extremely unhelpful, but I managed to speak enough french to get the idea across that we were looking for ways to get to Lesquin Aeroport. 

He pointed in a vague direction essentially telling us to "fuck off that way", another man in the queue was much more helpful despite not being paid to be helpful, and gave us better directions. We were still a little lost, but another person working at a travel store was very kind and actually walked us all the way over to where we needed to go and told us how the shuttle worked. As we boarded the shuttle bus we were hearing what sounded like gunfire and shouting coming from the train station area. Wondering what the hell we were leaving behind, we clambered on to the bus. Oh yeah, taxis were on strike at this point, we were originally considering cabs, and found loads of them, but they had no drivers in them. It was a small hiccup overall and we eventually got to Lesquin Aeroport.

At the Avis a very lovely lady told us that despite our booking they unfortunately didn't have an automatic car available, but if we didn't mind waiting she would arrange one. She made us coffee while we waited so I loved her immediately. We eventually got our car, a bright red Citroen C3, diesel.

This is where I got to try my hand at driving on the opposite side of the road. The first hour was the most stressful, Nicky told me later that she wanted to vomit, but we got through it, no near misses, everyone still alive. Once we were on the highway it wasn't so bad except the constant need to concentrate about where the car needs to be in the lane.  Everything else felt fairly naturally except when I was reversing at which time I kept looking for the transmission with my left hand.

So we drove a couple of hours south and eventually arrived at Giverny. It was an interesting drive in as to get there, at least the way the GPS took us, we were driving on this small road which might have fit 2 small donkey carts side by side, which was 90km speed limit, in between 2 wheat fields feeling about as far from a town as you could get. Suddenly Giverny popped out at us.

We'll cover what happened at Giverny in another post.

After Giverny we went on to our accommodation for the night, a lovely old Chateau called Chateau De la Madeleine, owned by a couple who are slowly renovating it, they've been at it for 15 years now. There's still a lot of work to go but you can really appreciate what it's original condition was, there is an adjoining chapel that has been there since 1131. Wow.

Our room was great, the bathroom was huge and we had our own private terrace. The couple were friendly, though the wife needed to maybe remember that guests don't necessarily enjoy seeing saggy boobs hanging everywhere.

We had dinner at a lovely local restaurant, I got to try Ris De Veau for the first time, which is the throat from veal. I gave it a go, the flavour was very good but the texture was a bit chewy.

The next day we pushed on to Le Mont Saint Michel. Lots more driving, but nowhere near as stressful as the day before. This place was everything I hoped it would be. For the Harry Potter fans, the whole place is like Diagon Alley, with a gigantic Abbey at the top. We enjoyed a beautiful Cidre Pression and Tarte aux Pommes because, hell, we were in Normandy. The place we stayed was very cute, though we ended up with 2 single beds pushed together. It was still very nice and was like a cosy little home rather than just a bedroom.

Late evening the first day and the morning of the next day we really explored the town as it was well after and before the tourist busses all left and turned up. I really recommend doing it this way as it's much more romantic and peaceful. This place is a must see though, the Abbey is awesome and the whole little town is just really cool.

After our explorations we pushed on to Paris!

Bruges

So I should point out that on the morning we were leaving Amsterdam we had a small celebration for my 30th birthday. So thanks to all of you for the phone calls, recorded videos, emails and Facebook messages, it was really appreciated!

We had an interesting start to the day, in order to get to Bruges (because we had chosen to take a bus...which apparently was a weird thing to do based on the facial expressions of everyone we told) we had to take a shuttle bus, then a train, then the main bus to Bruges, and then finally a short taxi ride to the hotel. When you say it in one sentence it doesn't sound so bad, it was a bit of a marathon.

Our hotel was freakin' awesome. The Duke's Palace Hotel is my top tip for places to stay in Bruges and now sits at the top of my favourite hotel list. And if you book far enough in advance on a website like booking.com then you can apparently stay for half price which is what we did. The service is excellent, the room was excellent and it was very affordable for a 5 star hotel. We stayed here as a bit of a splurge, and it was worth it because the beds were sensational!

For my birthday Nicky organised a fantastic restaurant called 'Park Restaurant', apparently you need to book about 2 months in advance to get a table. It is run by 2 brothers, has been running for about 20 years in Bruges and they just do amazing food and wine. The best thing is that there is nothing pretentious about this place, they are very intimate, the food is abundant and very delicious, the wine is perfectly paired with the meal. We have pid a lot more for a lot less in Sydney that's for sure.

The next day we explored the town. Bruges is very pretty, in my opinion more pretty than what we saw of Amsterdam in our brief time there. It's very small so 2 - 3 full days is probably enough time there to see everything and enjoy some great beer. Trent, I'm lugging around a few surprises for you so we should probably catch up when we get back.

We did a cool interactive walk through tour thing in the Historium off the Markt Square, had lunch near where all the horse carriages get picked up so Nicky could perv on the horses. We both loved the little horse we found out was called a Norwegian Fjord, though there was a very cool looking Fresian which was my favourite. They're the only horse that I've seen where you can imagine yourself charging on the back of with a lance. Which I do. Regularly. Though in my mind I'm much slimmer and bear a startling resemblance to Hugh Jackman.

After exploring the town we then did the second part of my birthday, the balloon ride! The days are really long in Europe at the moment so even though we didn't get into the balloon basket until around 8pm, it just looked like late afternoon. The weather was perfect and we had amazing views over the city. Nicky didn't even get scared one bit. Honest. It was a really awesome experience and my first time ever doing a balloon ride. It was about 10pm when we finally touched down in a field, cow shit and all. We've since cleaned our shoes.

It's a bit of a theme in our travels that we're always finding cute cats who want cuddles and pats. Naturally because we're missing our own animals we gravitate straight to them. There were a couple of cute ones in Bruges, but one in particular seemed to shout out at Nicky as we were walking past on the street and literally demand attention. He got it in spades.

From Bruges we then had to make our way back down into France where I got to try my hand at driving on the opposite side of the road. More on that soon!

Cheers,

Brandon and Nicky.

Germany to Amsterdam

Apologies again for the time between posts. We're too busy enjoying ourselves, dealing with the logistics of the holiday and have lengthy time in between decent wifi. But here we are.

We pushed on from Switzerland into Germany, it was another very early start to the day. Our first stop in Germany was to see the Rhine Falls. The waterfall was running very fast as the Rhine river was swollen with ice melt from the mountains. In summer the water rate is 750 cubic metres per second.

It was a very picturesque spot, with lots of fish (apparently called 'Chub' in English) swimming in a protected little pool off to the side of the falls. We laughed at seeing yet another tourist taking a selfie of their face instead of a picture of the beautiful scenery, this one outside the toilet block...what a photo!

We pushed on to the Black Forest where of course we had to see a cuckoo clock shop where Trafalgar had made sure there was a guy all too happy to give the big sales speech on all the outstanding features of cuckoo clocks. It was very interesting, but personally while I appreciate the craftsmanship and skill it takes to make these clocks, you will never see one gracing our wall.

Apparently the intricate decorations of these clocks are all made in individual pieces, traditionally carved over the long winter (this was pre-Xbox days) and then assembled at the end. Each kind of decoration and/or internal mechanism was the responsibility of one person. So one guy carved loads of rabbits, another guy carved loads of guns and yet another made the mechanism that goes "cuckoo", etc. If the cuckoo clock also contains music, the mechanism is ordered from Switzerland.

Interestingly, one wall of the shop was a giant cuckoo clock. So at 12pm Nicky and I stood in front of the big clock waiting for the clock to strike 12 and for all the action to begin. It finally happened, and it was a little anti-climatic....before it finished we were already queuing up for lunch.

Of course at lunch we shared the largest piece of Schwarzwaldekirschetorte (Black Forest cherry cake) that we had ever seen. The abundance of creme didn't sit well with Nicky's lactose intolerance despite having about 15 lacteez tablets prior. The cherries were soaked in kirsche liqueur which was a nice addition to the cake you might buy in Michels Pattisserie.

After the Black Forest we drove north to Heidelberg. This is a really quaint town which looks like a telly nice spot to spend the weekend. Germany is an incredibly beautiful country and we really enjoyed the drive through the countryside. The people were also very friendly and more than willing to help out a lost, dazed and/or confused tourist.

The next day we did a cruise up the Rhine river. Similarly to France, the countryside is littered with castles, particularly along the river so as to allow the landowner that you were passing (back in the day) to claim tax from you as you were passing his lands. So naturally we took plenty of photos that will have to be shared at a later date.

As a perfect case of familiarity breeding contempt, one of the guys from our tour looked at a castle as we were cruising passed on the river and proclaimed "meh, I've seen better". Given that he wasn't the humorous type, I'm sure he wasn't deliberately quoting Jim Carrey in Liar Liar. But it was a funny point either way, we had seen so many little castles on our trip that our standards had definitely risen. 6 weeks ago I would have been like "holy shit it's a freakin' castle!!!".

We also noticed that the wine along the Rhine river was all grown on very steep hillsides, so whatever variety they were growing (probably Reisling), the grapes obviously benefit from very little water as majority of the rain would run off. It's probably how they get the higher sugar concentration in the grapes. Anyway, enough about wine.

Once we had cruised the Rhine we had apparently filled our quota of Germany and pushed on to Amsterdam for our final night on the Trafalgar tour. 

MJ then took us through a brief walk in the red light district, it was still broad daylight so it wasn't exactly bustling, however we were treated to one overweight woman in her underwear shaking her stuff in a window. Surprisingly, unlike Kings Cross, the red light district in Amsterdam doesn't look all that seedy in daylight. In fact it actually looked like a cool part of town to grab a coffee. 

MJ made sure to take us to one location by way of explanation of how liberal the Dutch views were on sexuality to show us in one particular square, there was a brothel, a church and a children's daycare centre. Wow.

We then did another cruise, this time cruising around the canals of Amsterdam with our tour guide (who is of Dutch origin) providing insights along the way, including at one point telling us about where she worked in Hollands equivalent of Centrelink.

We cruised passed Anne Franks house, snapped photos and moved on. An interesting statistic, apparently one car a week on average ends up in a canal so ew here in Amsterdam. When you see how precarious the parking is along the canals with literally no barricading, you can see exactly how that happens.

To finish off the evening our cruise boat dropped us off a short walk from our restaurant for our final dinner. It was very traditional Dutch fair, the restaurant we ate at was originally established 500 years prior. Bloody hell!

We got back to the hotel and had a final drink at the bar, shaking hands, patting backs and giving hugs as we gleefully said goodbye to everyone looking forward to the remainder of our holiday, together alone.

The next stop was Bruges, Belgium.

Stay Tuned.

Brandon.

Innsbruck - Lucerne

Hi All,

Sorry it's been a while between posts, the last week has had a hectic schedule with some patchy wifi connections in between and there hasn't been a whole lot time or inclination for updating until now. Rest assured we're both alive and well.

So from a fairly idyllic life away from the tour group in Venice we rejoined the group and headed to Austria. The changes in the landscape are very pronounced when you head to the very north of Italy towards the border, taking the Brenner Pass. The mountains are just sensational and only get better once you cross the border into Austria.

Innsbruck is a pretty little city in the areas around the old part of the city, however it doesn't have a patch on Vienna or Salzburg which disappointingly were cut from this tour this year. Having briefly seen both of these cities before I was disappointed that Nicky didn't get to see them.

We really only spent a couple of hours here, just enough time to eat Schnitzel, Strudel and have Schnapps and take a few photos which at this stage I can't share with you because we've been having some wifi trouble so I can't transfer them to my iPad for now. I'll upload some when we get an opportunity.

We spent the night at Innsbruck which was at a ski resort though of course there was only snow at the very tops of the mountains. One of the guys on our tour bothered to cart a guitar around with him so we took turns playing and singing to keep ourselves amused. Good fun.

We pushed on the next day heading to Switzerland, first passing through Lichtenstein where I had yet another Schnitzel and Nicky had one of the best veggie burgers ever. A slightly random place to find one.

As we continued north the landscape just got better and better, the mountains got more..mountainous, increasing in scale and beauty. This part of the world is just gorgeous.

We arrived in Lucerne eventually and spent a bit of time orientating ourselves. There are swans everywhere in Lake Lucerne and they are very human-friendly as obviously despite all the signs, people feed them.

Lucerne is a beautiful city, I was surprised to learn that it has quite a large Thai population there. Though apparently the cost of a good Thai curry will set you back about 40 Swiss franks. Switzerland is apparently the most expensive country in Europe to live, though I will argue Venice was pretty comparable in expense and the food, while a completely different cuisine, was not at the same level of quality.

Our good luck with the weather unfortunately wore off when we headed north. It wasn't so bad the first day in Lucerne, we did a lake cruise which was cool and it was mostly just overcast with a bit of drizzle. The following morning when we went up on a cable car (which had an open top) to the top of one of the mountains the weather was rally not with us and unfortunately when we got to the top of the mountain it was about 5 degrees and we couldn't see through the fog which was thicker than pea soup. We bought a fridge magnet though.

We spent the afternoon in town and naturally bought a couple of watches. We fished in the shallow end of THATparticular pond. For our last evening we went to a folklore dinner and show. That was a load of fun, we had cheese fondue, litres of beer, some other stuff to eat and then the show began.

I can just say that the winters are clearly very long in Switzerland and the people clearly get bored and start deciding which household objects they can make instruments out of. At one point a guy was dancing around hitting a broom with a stick, another time there was some wooden spoons going and then a lady was using some partially filled glass bottles as some sort of improvised xylophone. I asked Nicky what kind of noise she thought they would get out of a toilet brush.

They also had some more normal types of instruments, largely accordions and various types of horns including some massive 10ft long horns which had a name I can't recall, but I'll call it the Big Kahuna. They got people up on stage to have a go blowing that massive horn....all the people at our table decided to volunteer me which I was thrilled about. Knowing all the inevitable jokes I'm just going to say this anyway - I got up on stage and blew that big horn as good as I could. The locals were impressed with my technique. The large Swiss guy seemed satisfied. Let the jokes begin!

We were all singing and making a lot of noise in the bus on the way home so naturally when we got back to the hotel we all went straight to the bar and ordered more drinks. I didn't enjoy getting up at 6:30 the next morning and I wasn't the only quiet one at breakfast.

I'm sorry there's no photos but I'll publish some in this post within the next day or so once I have the opportunity.

From here we pushed on to Germany, more on that in a bit!

Cheers,

Brandon.

Venice

Ok so before we talk about Venice, let's talk about some of the events leading up to our arrival. If you've been following along you will know that we started from Naples and took the train to Venice.

The first thing I'll mention is that the train system is actually pretty easy to use, you just need to make sure that you have taken note of your train number, car number and seat number - after that its just a question of getting to the platform and getting on.

The second thing I'll mention is that Naples train station is dodgy. It's as dodgy as it gets. Not because of the station itself, but because everything that anyone has ever told you about Naples and what goes on at the station is true and we saw it all in the space of an hour.

Firstly, we arrived at the station in plenty of time, so we went to the cafeteria to grab something to eat/drink. Queue the creepy guy complete with neck tattoos and scar across his throat who wanted to sit next to us and have friendly conversation. He also kept trying to get Nicky to drink his iced tea. He may have only had good intentions, however we both stared at him like hawks the whole time while I was off to get us some food (I was shuffling sideways in the food line staring at him...kind of funny to think about now actually), eventually he got the hint but not after asking Nicky why we were looking at him like that. No reason creepy dude, keep on walking.

The next thing was the cute little children (well one cute girl and one obese older brother or friend) trying to rip people off in the food court by asking for money. They weren't even trying to be pitiful, they just walked up and held out their hands. As we were there for a while we got to see them do a couple of laps.

Then when we were standing at one of the timetable boards a couple of kids decided to crowd in and were clearly more interested in the contents of our pockets than what time their fictitious train was arriving.

Then when were were standing at our platform, the train was suddenly going to arrive at a different platform, though we didn't quite realise what was happening except that a flood of people was moving from our platform to somewhere else. At some point a helpful gentleman started leading us over to the new platform, then he tried to take our bags. Knowing he was going to ask for a bunch of money for helping us wheel our bags to where we wanted to go, we thanked him profusely and politely told him to piss off.

We took that train from Naples to Rome, then had to change to head to Venice. At Rome things went pretty smoothly until a little brat decided to follow us onto the train and pretend to help me load the bags into the rack while unzipping my pocket to get at my wallet. Fortunately he didn't manage to pull it off. We moved our bags to some racks just behind our seats a minute or so later just to be on the safe side. After that it was an uneventful train ride until we got to Venice station.

Then we started seeing views like this:

Venice is beautiful. If you look a bit closer you can see that Venice is like a beautiful woman in the twilight of her life. You can see how incredible she looked in her youth but you can also see the marks of time. In Venice's case, they have the twofold issue of the fact that the island is slowly sinking (1mm/year) and that with global warming the water level is rising (2mm/year). So every year the water level in Venice is 3mm higher. When you consider the age of the city, it's not that many more years before they have really serious problems.

Like many beautiful women, Venice is also expensive. But when you have the alternative of NOT doing that gondola ride and NOT picking up a couple of Murano pieces and NOT seeing a Vivaldi concert just off the Piazza San Marco....well you end up realising that you aren't in Venice very often and you're building the memories of a lifetime...a lifetime you're probably going to spend paying off those memories..but still. Ultimately it's worth it.

We have been having an amazing time here in the last week. We have seen some glass blowers on Murano island and yep, spent a bit at the gallery. We had a fantastic lunch on Burano island at Al Gatto Nero (The Black Cat) restaurant and Nicky has some great photos of a cat orgy that we happened to witness taking place there.

Look it's a horse!..Sort of..

So what's with all the cats? Well if you listen to the locals they will tell you that in Venice they imported a bunch of cats to handle the rat infestation which was directly contributing to the plagues they have had on the island. If you continue listening to them they will also tell you that you won't find may cats around on Venice island anymore ever since the Chinese moved in. They're a really politically correct bunch, but seriously we heard that from 3 different people.

On Burano island however, it seems there are less Chinese people and therefore an abundance in cats. Aside from the orgy, we saw plenty of other cats happily lazing around all over the island. This is what the houses look like in Burano btw:

The restaurant down the end there is actually Al Gatto Nero where we had lunch. We very much recommend it.

One of the main symbols you will see repeated all over Venice is the winged lion of San Marco (St Mark):

There's some interesting history behind this which goes into religious propaganda about St Mark and Mary, but essentially St Mark or San Marco is the patron saint of Venice. Back in the day, the figurehead of the government was the Doge which is similar to a Duke except that his office was elected, not inherited.

Venice was well ahead of it's time and had a fully functioning democratic government in place which operated a very long time with almost no civil unrest once they had ironed the kinks out. In most paintings you see about the place, the Doge is always painted on his knees, usually before San Marco, as a reminder that he is not more important than the people who put him in power in the first place and that it is always Venice first, Doge second. An unusual idea for the time period.

Venice was also the first region to establish a quarantine system. Probably because they had so much practice with the plague. Foreign ships would berth at a nearby island and stay there for 40 days until they were sure there was no illness before being allowed into Venice. They also used to wash the ships down in boiling hot water, which killed off the fleas on board; not that they knew it was the fleas causing the problem at that time.

Plague victims were also shipped off to another island where they could wait for a miracle or death. I'm thinking most of them died.

Venician Plague Doctor Mask

We took some cool shots of Venice while on a gondola ride around the city, here's a couple:

The Doge's Palace

The famous Bridge of Sighs..I made sure to sigh dramatically when we crossed it..

We have been inside the Doge's Palace and San Marco's Basilica, they are both very impressive and because we were doing things on our own time, we were able to spend plenty of time in both places just taking in the ridiculous opulence and incredible talent of the artists and artisans who created these places.

It's worth a mention that Napoleon is not a favourite person in Venice. He was actually a real bastard here. Probably his crowning moment was when he destroyed what was a beautiful church on the Piazza San Marco to build himself a new palace that he could use as his weekender when he was in town. He only stayed in this place for a total of 10 days.

He also ordered the ransacking of a few other landmark churches and buildings in Venice during his time. After him the palace was used by the Lombardy Kings for a while before Venice introduced the Doge and other governmental councils.

So where in France opinion is divided on whether Napoleon was a hero or a tyrant, I think the opinion in Venice is fairly unanimous.

All in all we've enjoyed a fantastic week in Venice. We've done all the really touristy things, we've eaten loads of authentic Venician food (Nicky has never had so much fish in her life!), we've drunk loads of Aperol Spritzes, had Limoncello with many meals, had good wine and bad, been ripped off and had either negligent or surly service from waiters, had lengthy and very interesting conversations with local shop owners and enjoyed a fantastic walking tour of Venice with a local guide - it rained for some of that but it didn't really slow us down at all.

There's so much more we could put in this post, but I'm already aware it's starting to look like War and Peace. We're having an awesome time and we'll keep you posted as we continue our adventure.

Cheers,

Brandon.

Napoli - Sorrento - Positano - Pompeii

So we drove directly to Sorrento from Rome still a little shell-shocked by all the mind-blowing artwork and architecture we had seen.

Sorrento is a beautiful town in the Bay of Naples, though as is the recurring theme, we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time there. First we went into a showroom which was showcasing the beautiful inlaid woodwork that Sorrento is famous for. We spent a bit of money here but not a whole lot, just enough to pick up a couple of small things to remember the town and what it is famous for.

There were 2 more things we absolutely had to do at the first opportunity. Pizza and Limoncello. The pizza's here were good, I enjoyed my one more than Rome, and I enjoyed Nicky's one even more! We had a drive shortly after lunch so when the limoncello arrived we suddenly realised that we had to finish quickly and bolt for it.

Can I tell you that downing a shot of limoncello and then bolting up a hill in the hot Sorrento sun while full of pizza is about as pleasant as it sounds?

So then we all pied into the 2 mini buses that had been organised and went for an exhilarating drive along the Amalfi Coast en route to Positano. Boy was that fun - hat's off to my stepdad Jim who had the balls to do this drive, italians are crazy and there seems to be no rules on this road except "whatever it takes". The sheer drop off the side of the cliff had everybody suitably nervous considering we were in a bus and the locals had no problem parking their cars halfway out in the middle of the already quite narrow road. The views were spectacular however.

Positano as seen from above

After an eternity of nail-biting we eventually got to Positano. This is one cool little town - not built for disabled access. Steep staircases everywhere but lots of cool little shops selling all the locally made crafts. They have amazing glazed ceramics here that the region is known for, if you can be bothered to make the trip and have the money to spare you can get your stuff customised and shipped to you. We bought a fridge magnet, it's really nice.

We went back to Sorrento where Nicky and a lovely lady Joanne from our tour group couldn't wait to get stuck into the booze while waiting to get back on the bus. After looking all over the immediate area and eventually finding a small bar/lotto ticket seller/TAB the girls got stuck into some Prosecco. I had an espresso, the woman behind the counter looked at me like I was the strange one and asked me if I was sure I wanted an 'italian' espresso. After I nodded and said 'Si' she was all amazed and said I was the only non italian to ever order that there.

I'm actually starting to really appreciate how large the coffee industry is in Australia when I compare the quality and diversity of offering there to Europe. We've got it good.

We then drove back to the hotel at Castellammare di Stabia.

Not bad I suppose..that's Mt Vesuvius in the background btw

It's at this point I should mention that we had a whole rundown from MJ (our tour guide) on the Napoli mafia and how it works in Napoli compared to the Sicilian 'Godfather-esque' mafia we're all more familiar with. The mafia in Napoli is called the Camorra and is actually a collection of families fighting it out with each other for territory in Napoli, as opposed to the hierarchical nature of the Sicilian mafia.

As we drove past a particularly dodgy area, MJ pointed out that that is where the Camorra lives and that we should avoid the area at all costs. That's when Nicky and I both noted the train station we were considering taking to the Napoli Centrale station to head off to Venice away from the tour group for a week. Plans quickly changed to getting a taxi after we visited Pompeii in the morning.

Pompeii was about 15 mins from where we were staying. The first impression I had was how much our tour guide Enrico reminded me of Alan Rickman with an italian accent. Very droll, very witty, all delivered with a deadpan voice.

The second impression I had of Pompeii was, wow. If you're into ancient roman history and you have the opporunity to see Pompeii, don't miss it. You are literally walking through the streets of an incredibly preserved city from around 600BCE. Because of how well preserved this city is, it has become the yardstick to which all other ancient roman archeological discoveries are measured. Pompeii tells us more about the everyday life of an ancient roman than even Rome itself.

Interesting things like the cat-eyes in the road to assist with travelling in poor light, the tracks indicating that many street vendors had sliding doors to the entrances of their stores, the stoves and heating pots indicating that there were many takeaway food vendors and of course, the brothel. There were 25 brothels in Pompeii that have been excavated - keep in mind that a good 20% of Pompeii is still under the ground.

There was a lot of interest in how the girls advertised their specialties; some of the best preserved ancient roman frescoes feature women doing interesting things that that would later charge for. Of course given that they were slaves, charging for their time apparently amounted to about the same as the cost of a cup of wine according to our tour guide.

We of course saw the casts of the little boy, the dog and the person praying which was all very sad, though they were in a storage area that allowed viewing rather than being in the locations where they were found.

Once we finished at Pompeii we exited the segmented area to find that MJ our travel director had already arranged us a taxi to take us straight to the airport and all of our luggage was loaded and ready to go. She really is a legend.

So we waved goodbye to Pompeii and set off for the next leg of our adventure - 7 days in Venice!

More soon.

Brandon.

Florence & Roma

First up today we hit Florence. One of the foremost wealthy cities in Italy and a centre for arts and culture back in the day (Michelangelo was born here as an example) by and large thanks to the Medici family for paying for everything so everyone else could enjoy it. They were stupidly rich and "had their fingers in many pies" as they say somewhere.

The Medici family had about 7 popes that they had plopped on the Catholic throne and had a habit of marrying their daughters to kings of France, so they were the bees knees in Florence.

As is the way with Trafalgar tours we saw Florence in about 5 mins, but we managed to spend a bit of money here on jewelry (because that's the sort of determined people we are) even within the time constraints. Florence was a beautiful city and it wasn't really done justice by the time we spent here. The queues were too long to see David, so we took photos of the statues which weren't actually David, but looked like him. So we can call them his cousins Bob and Alan, both strapping lads.

Then we moved on.

Considering all roads lead here, it was inevitable that we would eventually arrive in Rome. We were initially treated to a walking tour with a local guide, Amelia, she was quite the personality and wasn't above poking fun at the more anxious and rude of our team in a very subtle <roman way that went over the heads of the majority we think.

Within the first 5 mins we already lost the oldest of our troop. To be fair she had been a walking liability from the start and it was really only just a matter of time. I personally think Amelia handled it very well with her "keep calm and have a gelato" approach to the situation. As it turned out, the old girl had decided to hop back on the tour bus and not tell anyone, so crisis averted. Unfortunately that means we still had to put up with her for the rest of the tour, but at least she was safe and sound.

To put it simply, Rome is impressive and beautiful. In other words it still has the exact same impression on foreigners today as intended by the ancient Romans in days of yore. They really built things to last.

Our walking tour took us through the winding streets and sprawling piazzas of the city, we saw the Trevi fountain first - of course when I say we saw it, I mean we saw the scaffolding covering majority of the fountain while it was under-going restoration. But we could still see enough to be impressed.

Hadrian's Temple was another highlight, but what was probably of more immediate interest was the underground parking garage opposite the temple. That sounds a bit strange that an underground parking garage is more interesting than a 2000 year old temple, except for the fact that it has been confirmed that they have found the tomb of Julius Caesar down there thanks to a drunken resident slamming into the wall of the admittedly very tight ramp down into the carpark. I'm not promoting drink driving, but it's clearly not ALL bad if you do it in Rome.



Next we saw the Pantheon. Wow. The largest dome ever built in Europe with all others being a copy to duplicate Hadrian's feat - this guy knew how to build stuff. The tomb of Raphael is also in here.

That night we grabbed dinner in the Piazza Navona and so we had our first Pizza in Italy. It was good, though the ingredients on my pizza had a strange dispersal pattern, almost as if the prosciutto was defending it's territory against the mushrooms and the olives while the artichokes was starting their own principality in the corner. It still tasted pretty good though and was washed down with a Pastis because I haven't really let go of France yet. Oh yeah, we also had another gelato.

Nicky's Pizza

My Pizza. I think the mushrooms are winning.

The next day we saw all the really big stuff; the Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica and the Colloseum. It was at this point we all had to appreciate that Michelangelo was a bloody smart arse and was far to talented for his own good.

He seemed to feel that way too, by all reports, when he was dragged back to Rome to paint the wall of the Sistine Chapel after having spent 4 years previously painting the ceiling. He was there under sufferance, but you just don't say no to the catholic church, especially in those days, you might get killed in some horrific fashion.

So he painted a pretty impressive mural of the ascension and descension of our immortal souls based on how good or how much fun we had had in our lives. He made sure to paint the Pope's Master of Ceremonies, Biagio de Cesena, down in hell with donkey ears and a big snake biting his balls because he insulted his work too. What a guy.

Bottom Right. Ouch. Also never insult an artist while he's still painting..

While this was an impressive work, he also sculpted the Pieta and of course David. He also designed the dome for St Peter's basilica so aside from being a multi-talented artist, he was also a brilliant engineer. He apparently also wrote poetry in his spare time. I bet in these days he would shred awesome guitar too. He must have gotten all kinds of laid.

The Colosseum was..colossal. It was impressive and still a good indication of how those sort of events would have run back in the day. It was freaking hot when we were there though and being ancient ruins, there wasn't a lot of shade going. Nicky and I both agreed that we preferred the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's due to the sheer beauty of the buildings and the artwork therein.

We were both equal parts amused and astounded by how often you just casually stumble across 2000+ year old ruins in Rome. It makes sense, there's Roman ruins all over Europe so you're going to see most of them in Rome. Still, it was a little hard to wrap your mind around.

And before we knew it we were bundled on a bus headed for Naples.

More on that later.

Brandon.

Au la la-The French Riveria

Day 8 and 9 were spent hobnobing with the rich and famous on the beaches of the  French Riveria. We drove over 600 km from  Barcelona to Cannes, near Nice today. As it took most of the day, after check in and quick drive by and shoot (remember  this is when we as tourists try and get that perfect shot with your camera lense as we drive through the city whilst the tour director points out the sights).We are  now particularly proficient at photographing  trees, french telegraph poles, cars,trucks, buses etc.Without managing  to capture  the monument  we intended.

Day 8 ended with a lovely dinner at a restuarant on the French Riveria and then a walk on the beach. It only gets dark here around 10pm which is magical. 

Dinner ended up lasting around 3 hours where Brandon practiced a bit more french but ended up switching back to English after the very proper french waiter spoke so rapidly that he didn't have a chance. We had far too much excellent wine - it was great.

The couple next to us at the  resturant had their malamute husky with them. He pulled  cute  faces at the  waiter and receive  many treats from the staff. Made me realize how much I missed our fur babies today. Also the fact that  mostly I photographed peoples pets today may have been a clue too. At all the service station  stops and at St Pauls  the following  day  we spotted cats ☺. So all the 'le meows' received lots of attention.

The name Cannes  means  the place of reeds. It's  famous for its  Cannes film festival. Only 3 times in the history of the festival have women  been the recipient of the  golden palm award. Cannes was first  established circa 200BC but nothing remains of this  time. It was mostly developed  in the 19th and 20th century  as the English  would come here for a holiday to get away from the miserable UK winter weather. The area between Cannes and the border of  Spain is  famous  for its  wild flowers, wild horses, wineries and flamengos (didn't  see any😛-only the wineries ).

The following  morning  after turning our bedroom into a Chinese laundrymat, we spent the morning swimming in the chilly Mediterranean Sea and lying on the beach.  To Brandon's  horror the only women tanning topless was probably  in her 80's (hard to tell due to  her years of her skin being sun baked) not  one of the girls in the gorgeous  bikkinis took off their top -😆unlucky.

St Paul is a small town up in the hillside about an hours drive from Nice . This  town is a MUST see! Make sure you have added this destination to your bucket list (and it needs tobe on the top of the list too). It is a very old stone built village  with cobblestones and narrow ally ways. The little  streets are lined with with art galleries, clothing stores and coffee  shops. The town is know for its art culture. It's  very picturesque with ivy, bogenvillas and other plants climbing along the walls of the houses and shops  village.

Here after we took a drive through the  hilltops of Nice to view the magestic views and be awstruck by mansions owned by Tina Turner and Elton  John.

Interesting fact- Nostredamus was born in the  south of France and the family changed their name to Nostredamus meaning 'our  lady' when they  converted to catholosim from jewdaism. He prophesied that King Henry the  second king of France would die bleeding  from his eye. He was later injured in ajousting  match and as his visor was not pulled down, he was injured in the  face, bled from his eye and died  the next day.

Cheers,

Nicolette.

Day 11 National Tunnel Day

Driving from Cannes  to Italy through Monaco today. We are in  the process of making our way through over 150 tunnels built in the 1960's as part of the route. All along on the right is the sea and to the left is hills and clif faces with houses dotted between the  vegitation.

Monaco principality is made up of two hills- Monaco and Montecarlo. Monaco is well know for Grace Kelly, the Monaco Grande Prix and tax avastion. Only 30 passports are issued each year by Prince Philip here for 1 million euros. Passport application is on invitation only. As you DON'T pay tax here- the milion eurosis a good investment. So you haven't made it in the world till you have a Monico passport. Its a few hundered dollars to purchased a  parking permit  to park our tour bus in Monaco for less than 2 hours. They know how to do business  here.

How romantic, after Grace Kelly's death in 1982, her husband  Prince Rainier, left a white rose on her tomb everyday till his own death. They are both buried in the  catherdral in Monico where they were married.

Rocco,  our fabulous  Italian driver stopped the Tafalga bus at pol position on  the Grande Prix race track,  we did the count down and then with the sound of  Formula one racing cars in the background we took off whizzing through the gears whilst  pretending to win the  Grande Prix - good fun.

Oh my goodness Italy is so very beautiful.

Making our way to Piza we passed the mountains which are mined for marble- this is where Michaelangelo bought his marble to make the sculpture of David.

The leaning Tower of Piza is 7 stories high and took 129 years to build as it was interupted twice due to two wars. The square which the bell tower is located is know as the square of mericals. In 1990 they started to address the problem of the tower leaning as it was  going  to  fall over. It know leans 3.9 meters over it's  base.

Ok, my turn for a rant.

Tuscany  has been the biggest disappointment. I think of Tuscan villas, wineries you know, all that jazz. Well we at the Tuscany Inn. It's  an awful motel in the middle of NO WHERE over looking the train tracks. From our room I think we close enough to throw stones at the train as they go past😤. As I write this rant, another train just went past and yes its 10pm at night and we have double glazed windows, and I can still hear the train! There is nothing! here.

So don't  get me wrong, I don't mind the motel so much, its where we are that I have a problem with! I am not here to stay in 5 star hotels etc.  I'm here to see Europe  and staying in the back end of no where with a foggy car park and thats it, is not what I had visioned for my one night stay in Tuscanny! Ok and to top things off it's  been a stressful day after Monico and Pisa when we figure the old phone I had with me which I put my Australia  sim card in has walked out of the top of my back back! So we have had to (oh wait second train since  writing this post) call Telstra to block the  phone😝.

Ok so tomorrow can  only be amazing.

Ciao bella/ ciao bello

(Ps please feel free to comment-we would love to  hear from you guys).

Hugs and love.

Nicolette.

Brandon's Mini Rant #1

This post will contain colourful language. If that offends you or you're my mother, you should stop reading right now.

Holy fucking shit. I cannot believe what a bunch of complete fuckwit bogans we have on this tour bus. To be fair about a quarter of the people are ok, another quarter aren't bogans but aren't anyone you would want to hang out with, but the other half are a bunch of deadshit no-hopers that you wouldn't piss on if they were on fire.

Last night at the flamenco performance was probably one the last straws for me, particularly with one individual who has done nothing but get pissed at every hotel and scoff at the local cultures. He walked out of last nights performance because he didn't like it. Walked out. On the best flamenco dancers in Spain.

I wouldn't walk out of a special needs double amputee ballet performance let alone walk out of a performance that you should be privileged just to be witnessing.

There is a particular crowd on this bus of which this guy seems to be the chief personality to which they all gravitate. Birds of a feather getting pissed together and completely failing to appreciate the cultural experience they're being treated to. I honestly have no idea why they bothered spending their money.

On top of that we have deaf geriatrics, a couple that we expect to be divorced after this tour and a family with 2 kids that are determined not to have anything to do with anyone on the bus (I'm actually starting to empathise, but they're still aloof and snobby), the remainder which is by far the minority, are ok.

That said, it can be safely assumed, I think, that everybody planned to come on this tour quite a fair way in advance. They fact that literally no one on this bus decided to learn a few words in each language to help themselves and also the people that they expect help and service from in these countries is inexcusable.

What is even MORE inexcusable is watching some fuckwit make fun of someone in their own country for how words sound in their language because they can't fucking pronounce them. An example of this sort of witticism was one of the guys saying "Grass up your arse" instead of Gracias. 

Bravo wanker, you should write that down for all your little bogan buddies to have a good chuckle.

Another Classic was one of the ladies ordering a hot chocolate from a guy who clearly only spoke Spanish at a road stop the other day. She said "hot chocolate" which he didn't understand, so she helped him out by saying "HOT CHOCOLATE!" which naturally cleared everything up for him. As it turns out he understood "chocolate" so he went to fetch her a Pain au Chocolat thinking that that might be what she was after.

She helped him out again with a very frustrated "no no no HOT CHOCOLATE!" miming a drinking motion. He handed her a chocolate milk. By this stage the subject of our study was nearly apoplectic and another lady who understood some English realised what she was after and offered to heat up the chocolate milk for her. It turns out they didn't even serve hot chocolate at this roadstop but were willing to accommodate the complete fucking moron who didn't bother to check that before she was so rude to complete strangers who were trying to serve her.

I can honestly say that while I am enjoying visiting France and Spain as they form part of my heritage, I am honestly embarrassed to be in the company that I am while we're doing it (Nicky excepted obviously). While there are exceptions, the majority are crude and uncultured and I honestly have no idea what they're doing here.

Ok rant over for now. Can't wait to see what these dicks do when we get to Italy, fortunately we have a week away from them in Venice coming up!

Brandon.

Olé!

For our last night in Barcelona we went for the Trafalgar option of seeing a Flamenco performance. Hats off to our extremely awesome travel director MJ, she made sure that rather than seeing a sub-par tourist show, we went to. Spanish 'Tablau' to see some of the best flamenco dancers in Spain who specifically come to Cordobes (the restaurant/stage) to dance here. She booked the tickets3 months in advance to make sure that we had centre stage and the first 2 rows from the stage. What a legend!

A Tablau is a very intimate setting, there is a maximum of 180 spectators, the stage is very small and the performances are almost entirely improvised. That includes the singing guitar and dancing - all improvised, it's incredible watching how they communicate and feed off each other.

The sometimes the singers set the mode and tempo of the song either by the rhythm of their clapping or by how they open up with vocals. Sometimes it's the guitarists and sometimes it's the dancers with just a couple of clicks and a stamp of their foot, then the guitarists seize the beat and leap in with stunning guitar work.

The passion and energy these performers put into this is palpable, your heart rate rises and you can feel the heat of their Fuego! coming off the stage. I have never seen anybody move their feet so fast, the women were beautiful and the men were proud - honestly I think that if the men were less skilled and less passionate the performance would look a bit funny, but you couldn't help but appreciate the sheer talent happening right in front of you.

They allowed us to take some photos at the end so here's a couple I took on the phone, the rest are on the camera:

It was a fantastic night, one that I won't ever forget.

Brandon.

Spanish trivia

They don't have a  tooth fairy in Spain, it is believed  a rat collects the teeth instead.

The archer who fired the arrow to set the Olympic flame a light  in 1992 never missed a shot till he had to shoot the arrow at the opening ceremony  of the Barcelona  games. As there was so much fuel it still caught  alight.

Day 8 Montserrat

This is the  place of the black madonna. The catherdral which houses the Madonna was built after a vision of her was seen in a cave  (saint carva). It is about an hours drive to Montserrat from Barcelona. Montserrat means mount of serrated sides- the mountain is very unusual  in its formation and the Cathedral  is at the very top. The drive up is a steep windy narrow path with a sheer cliff on the one side.

They make the most beautiful cheeses here - all organic and family owned buisnesses which sell their produce at the markets. We totally indulged in buying cheese, the traditional fig cake and the local liquor.

This afternoon has been in the gothic streets of Barcelona. Our tour guide took a small group of us through the back allies of the gothic style streets. You really understand how brutal life was in Barcelona  during Franco's rule when you  walk these streets. We were shown a small  square with a church and and a school and leant that the extensive  damage on the walls was due to the bullets fired by hisfiring squad when they executed people. He would line people up, 6 deep along the wall and fire. Keep in mind that the  wall of the buildings were then as they are now, the outer wall of a school and a church.

There are bridges built between buildings in the gothic area so that Franco did not have to walk onthe streets to get around the town. This was as he was afraid people would kill him and he felt he was above the common people to walk amongst  them.

Off to a flamenco show tonight👍

Barcelona -7 Day

Early start today as we set off to Bareclona from Madrid- yay we are leaving  Madrid- fascinating  place but don't  have a  need to come back- the bull fighting fashion is really confronting. Our hotel was just a stones throw away from the largest  bull ring in Europe built in 1910. And of all the times to come here- it's the bull fighting season on now. It starts in mid May and ends mid June. With 6 bulls being killed each night. The best bull fighters (matadors) are fighting during this time. After this season the bull fights are on only on Sundays for the tourists. People on  our tour actually went to see the bull fight last night.

So onto Barcelona- the land of the flamenco dancing.

On a side note, you won't believe  how word spread that Mr B. works in IT. There have been people virtually  queuing up to get to spend time with our 'very own genuis' (we should claim a salary from Apple) to trouble  shoot their IT issues- issues have varied from losing facebook on their 'I' device, simcard issues, even queries about camera problems. Maybe Trafalgar  should offer IT support as part of their  optional extras, imagine  the revenue -and we are only day 7, what will the line  up for services be by day 27☺?

Some triva.

Antanio Gaudi was born in a town named Rues in Spain in 1852. He moved to  Barcelona as a young child and went on to study architecture. He was inspired  by  nature in his art works and designs. He used lots of glass and mosaics which had not ever been seen before. 

Here is an example of a Gaudi residential building that we snapped on the phone from the bus:

He designed the street lights in Barcelona and showed his designs at a world fair show where he was noticed by Mr. Gwell who commissioned him to  design a park and two houses. He became  famous for this work and was commissioned to design the Cathedral  in 1883. He worked on both the park,Cathedral  and other commission at the same time untill 1910 when he only put all his efforts into the cathedral. At this time  many of his friends had past away, he was a recluse and never married. So his only  interest and passion was his work on the cathedral. 

He worked on the cathedral for an additional 15 years untill 1936 when he was hit by a tram and died in hospital the following  day from his injuries. No one recognised him due to  him being such a recluse and him presenting as a hobo.  When Gaudi passed away only 15-20% of the Cathedral was completed.

The Spanish war occured thereafter and Gaudi's plans for the Cathedral was destroyed. Many architects have been hired and fired in an attempt to continue to completethe cathedral. Due to  lack of funds, wars etc work on the cathedral has been started and stopped  frequently. As a result of the olympic games hosted by Barcelona in 1992, they  were provided with additional revenue to continue to  build the cathedral and it should be completed in........ 2028!

Can you  believe  they started building this cathedral in 1883 (in 1882 is was planned and Gaudi  started in 1883) and it will be completed in 2028!! So if you  are  building you now can never complain that your house  took longer than expected in relation to this. If you  were hoping to attend a service in the Catherdral when they started to build you would be long since dead and buried  before it will be completed.

Because they have had may different achitects work on the catherdral  without Gaudi's plans the architecture  was said to  be  very different to when Gaudi commenced work on it. There was much debate in Barcelona as to whether  to complete the catherdral  or keep it as only 20% completed as a monument  to  Gaudi.

Following our city tour we manged to sneak off to a little tapas bar for dinner  opposite the old cathedral in the gothic area of Barcelona for dinner.  All plans for a romantic birthday  dinner for was crash when the loudest American women  on our tour plonked herself and her sulky puss travel companion at our table. Well what can I say, sangria was fantastic- the glass  must have held 500mls easily- so the trip back to the bus was possibly a stagger. Food in this  country is just so  tantalizing!

Also a huge thank you to Jim, Vicki and B for organising a bottle of champagne  to be sent to our room prior to our arrival! What a very lovely birthday surprise.

Nicolette.