Germany

Germany

Days 65 - 73

We caught the Thayls train, travelling in first class (and who wouldn't for the extra 6 euro) to Koln and then on to Bielefeld to visit Adrian's family. After a rocky start of Adrian's uncle not recognising him with long hair and a full beard we were taken, unbeknown to us to a party where more members of the family were. After a good deal of beer and schnapps (yes, beer for Nikki too even though she tried to explain that she had never drunk a beer in her life and didn't want to start now) we headed to our home for the next week with Adrian's aunt and uncle (who don't speak any english, note too that we don't speak any German).

Adrian with his aunts and uncles.

Each day was a new adventure as we had no idea of where we were going until we got there (it took us a while to catch on).

Below is Herman a collossal figure which faces towards the then enemy France. Adrian's Uncle Martin's joke was that the hand went down each night and rose each morning (clearly it didn't).

Yes, another of Adrian's star jumps.

And above the tower at Bielefeld. We were taken to some interesting places and really enjoyed our time with the family. Germany is a lovely place.

Next see you in South America!

Again another apology as you have most probably realised that we are home in Brisbane by now, unfortunately the internet situation in South America was useless and we were unable to update this at all. See you soon.

Ahhhh, Paris!

Days 62 to 64

Paris

So from the craziness of Amsterdam to the very endearing Paris. For these 4 days we were lucky enough to have the wonderful company of Kailash and Heather who had been on the middle eastern adventure with us. We did all the sights and thoroughly enjoyed the city and the company. We couldn't have asked for anything better..... Ahh, Paris is there anything like it. We don't think so.

Nikki tried to eat as much froi grois and duck as possible and we both tried to fit in a bit of French wine to match.

It is Paris, what can we say.... here are some pictures of our walking tour.

Notre Dame from the river side

Notre Dame with Myla, Digby and Adrian

And below the classic Notre Dame

St Chappell above and below, just beautiful!

St Chapelle stained glass, so pretty....

The gang outside the Louve!!!! And our walk along the Champs Ellesse...

Ahhh Paris..... Next stop Germany ...

And a little apology for the lateness of the posts, things have been a bit slow here in South America, but we are hoping to catch up!!!! Take care... N + A

Amsterdam

Days 60 and 61

Amsterdam

We had two interesting days in Amsterdam, which we believe can be primarily blamed on the amount of hash being smoked about the place.  Generally people were nice, but terribly disorganised.  So disorganised that the hotel we booked stuffed up our two night reservation (on both nights) and we ended up in two random hotels.... we were not impressed to say the least.  This inconvenience may have soured our taste for the city a bit, which is a shame as it is a really nice city. 

We did however get to enjoy the art the city had to offer by way of Rembrandt and Van Gogh so all was not lost.

The Red District also did not disappoint in terms of weirdness.... and you could smell the hash everywhere.... no wonder things didn't run smoothly.

Some pretty pictures of this city.

Italy: part 3 (with a bit of Switzerland)

Days 55 and 56

Stresa, Italian Lakes

We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast overlooking the water.  Very little happened with the exception of taking a ferry ride to the small Borromean islands.  We were lucky enough to witness a storm on the horizon one night.  This is the view from our room balcony.

These ones are taken from Stresa itself.

This is one of the islands by day - a bit hard to take from a rolling ferry...

Days 57 and 58

Como, Italian Lakes

A lovely little town as well.  Again, little to report...  However, on the second day, a Sunday, we took a train into Switzerland to see Lugano.  Definately a place for the well heeled judging by the shops.  Well, the closed shops that is; not a single shop was open.  It seems Lugano is closed for business on a Sunday.

We also did both legs on the train without having a passport inspected.  They obviously trust people when they make a simple announcement over the speaker of the train that you must have appropriate documentation to enter the country.

Anyway, a couple of pictures.

Day 59

We're off to Amsterdam, but not first without a walk around Milan from where we were to catch our train.  We did a quick walk of the main shopping district, but most of the shops were closed for the better part of August.

Italy: part 2

Day 47

The Amalfi Coast.

We arrived at Amalfi after a very long and windy road bus trip only to discover that we needed to take another bus up another mountain (on another windy road) to find our hotel. The drive was enough to make those who are never motion sick, well, motion sick. For those who are frequently motion sick it was like hell.

The town of Amalfi itself is very pretty and quaint. It is one of a handful of towns which are literally perched on the mountain edge next to the sea. We have only a handful of photos to show the audacity of scale; this is due to the fact that you are unable to step back far enough to do so.

These are two types of local lemons grown on the hills along the coast together with some zucchini flowers. The lemons on the right were as big as rockmelons.

The chillis had a sign saying 'natural viagra'......? I thought the giant marrows were a nice Freudian touch.

Days 48 & 49

The first day was a pleasant trip to Positano. A pretty place though tragically very touristy and very expensive.

This is looking up the town towards the mountains.

And this is either side of one of the small laneways leading to the sea.

The next day was spent lazing about our hotel.

We enjoyed some great food. The pizza from the local restaurant was exceptional.  We were also really impressed with our Hotel which ran completely on solar energy collected from the roof of the car park.  

Day 50

Day trip to Pompeii

Pompeii is an awesome site.  Essentially it is made up of lots of still visible streets with the building work still in a really good condition.  As a complete city it is probably the best set of ruins we have seen; more so in an everyday life sense than from a majestic buildings perspective.  It took the better part of the day to see all of it, but definately worth the visit.

Below is a kitchen area.  You can see where they used to keep the jars of cooking ingredients.  The second picture shows how most of the rooms are still in good shape.

Nikki wet and upside down.

Above is the colleseum, not as big as in rome, but still impressive.

I know another of Adrian's jumping shots, but once started..... well it looks unlikely he will stop so more of these to come too.

This was one of the best signs we have seen on tour.  To start with this is the only train station in the area and the one that populates the Pompeii site.  Interestingly the 'obliterated' ticket is a stamped ticket.... but from what you read above..... well it is anyone's guess.

Day 51

Florence

So after feeling wonderful from the motion sickness from coming down the coast again we headed off to Napoli (well at least to the train station) and from there on to the beautiful Florence (Firenze).  Although we have had the good fortune to visit this pretty city once before, it was really lovely to be here once more.

No trips to the statue of David this time, but we did do a good wander about the streets and markets and this time it was Adrian who bought the leather goods (a new wallet).... no, no boots or shoes or bags for Nikki (maybe next time).  The church area was where we started our wandering again....

Don't get excited, as mentioned above, we didn't go to the David this tme, this is the fake David you can find near the expensive shopping area.  Still equally good proportions, just not quite so grand.

Below is the bridge covered in jewellery stores... more than you can poke a stick at and all over charging for the most basic pieces.  Nikki had a bit of a look at some stud earrings for when we hit the South American part of our tour, but the were something like 6 times the price of retail in Australia..... mind you, given the rent they are most probably paying to be on the bridge, this isn't suprising.

Days 52 & 53

Cinque Terre

We leave Florence for the Cinque Terre (meaning five lands).  And for the first time in two months we are able to clearly see the horizon, not just a smokey unidetifiable haze!!!  

The hostel we were staying in had a lot of promise when we got off the train as it stated that it was a 300 metre walk from the station, the bit they failed to mention was that it was some 250 metres up hill..... very tiring work.

Below is the water front from the town we were stationed in.  The boat hanging in mid air is how they lower and raise their boats from the water each day.  Neat huh?

We had thought that the Amalfi Coast was beautiful, but to be perfectly honest the Cinque Terre is so much more... the colours are better and the way the houses are nestled into the headlands is just magical.  The photos below were taken while we were hiking from the further most town to our hostel (4-5 hours worth of walking up and down).  The walk was worth it!

Day 54

Pisa and Lucca

Even though we were still staying in the Cinque Terre we decided to take a day trip to Pisa and Lucca.

The leaning tower really is an interesting building (particularly the way they have managed to made it a little more upright in recent year)s.  And although everyone here is really only about due to the tower, the buildings surrounding it took most of our attention.  

This dome had the most wonderful accoustics.  They had someone singing on the ground floor and the way that it just surrounded you was just wonderful.  From the dome you can see the view to the cathedral across the way. Next to the cathedral is a rectangular building (the name of which now escapes me) the wall paintings in here were just beautiful and for the first time in a long while we saw that the paintings were being preserved and restored to their former glory.  The blue paint on the walls was particulalry impressive. (Photos below) 

Above is the town wall of the city of Lucca.  We had been told that it was a very pretty walled city with wonderful old buildings and we weren't disappointed.

And this is our last sunset at the Cinque Terre.... just magical.