Pictures

I know we did a post a couple of hours ago, but I just wanted to upload some random pictures from the trip. Because I can. Check out the pics added to previous posts as well.

Home Again

Scott was most disappointed. There were dozens of B & B's in Edinburgh and we just happened to pick the one that wasn't run by a Scot. (Okay, there may have been more than one not run by a Scot, but they aren't relevant to our story.)

So, our B & B wasn't great. It was run by an Indian family, if you sat facing forward on the toilet, your knees hit the wall, and breakfast was... interesting. (If you don't see any jam or butter on the table, don't ask for any because you'll end up with more than you will eat in a year.) But it was reasonably cheap. And reasonably close to the city.

We walked along the Royal mile, from the palace where the Queen stays while in Scotland up to Edinburgh Castle. We saw two guys do a talk on the history of the castle and weaponry and what-not. They were very good. So was the castle in general. Unfortunately, we left one camera back at our room and forgot to charge the battery on the other so we didn't get a whole heap of pictures there, but it was very interesting. We also visited an art gallery, browsed through dozens of tourist shops, had lunch in a pub. We had intended to get across to Glasgow but time was running out for us.


After two nights in Scotland we headed to the lakes District in north west England. It is a place famous for Beatrix Potter and... lakes. It was one of my favorite spots. We searched for a while to find a B & B with a vacancy and eventually found a nice place run by a British guy in really bad bike shorts, then spent the afternoon wandering around the town and writing post cards. Dinner, served by a guy from Canberra, was in another pub.

From there, it was on to Henly-on-Thames. We had intended to stay in Oxford, but it was a Saturday night and apparently, in England, everyone stays in B & B's. So we decided to drive on a bit further to see what we could find. And we drove a bit further. And a bit further. We drove until the next place on the map was London. So we turned around and drove the other way. Eventually we found a twin room at a far. The bathroom was small, the beds (both of them) were soft, the cows were smelly. And we had to lug all our crap up stairs so we could repack the bags in preparation for the London Tube the next day. Henly was a nice little town. Very picturesque-- but then so are most towns in England. We found a internet cafe and organised some accommodation in London via "Lastminute.com" (or a similar site). It looked like a nice place. Close to the Tube, lots of facilities, relatively cheap. Good choice, right...

And so to London. Sort of. If you want to stay in London, I suggest you don't stay in Epping. Technically, it isn't actually in London at all, but we didn't find out that until we hopped on the tube and... an hour past the center of the city, after passing through several small towns and extensive farmland, arrive in Epping, in the heart of... Essex. From there we had a 25 min walk (dragging suitcases). It was not so great-- not the way we wanted to finish our trip, but anyway.

Over the next two days we saw Buckingham Palace, the pub where Kelly lived, Covent Garden, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Westminster Cathedral (we didn't go in there, they wanted 15 pounds-- God must be hard up these days) and we read for a while in Hyde Park.

We probably would have seen more, but Kelly wasn't feeling too well and the commute was killing us.

And then we came home. Customs stole the replica antique pistol we bought in Italy. We will be able to get it back but there's paperwork and stuff. And they cleaned Kelly's shoes because we stayed in the farm with the cows (and the foot and mouth disease thing). Channel seven was there filming Border Security but they ignored us (even though we had firearms and swiss army knives).

The trip was great, but we were ready to come home by the end. We were pretty much flat out the whole time. So that's all from us. There will be a flash back to the wedding coming soon (we will have pics on thursday. yay) You may also want to go back and see pics that had been inserted into previous blog entries.

Thank you.

UK Highlights

We finally found an internet cafe in the UK!! Yay for us.

We got into London on Sunday afternoon and after jumping through hoops to pick up the car we headed for Stratford Upon Avon, home of Shakespeare. Halfway there we had an initiation into English traffic congestion and were literally at a standstill on the motorway for about an hour. An accident up ahead stopped traffic in both directions, brought air ambulances and generally caused mayhem for all.

We eventually arrived in Stratford and found a B&B that would accept two slightly dodgy looking Australian travellers. Stratford itself was quite beautiful as we discovered when we took a short stroll into the centre of town for dinner. Of course, our first meal in the UK was in a pub. The pub was great, the food was great and dessert -- even greater.

We spent the next morning exploring everything Shakespeare. This included visiting the house where he was born, Anne Hathaway's cottage (pictured) and the dwellings of various other family members. (As it turned out, the house where his granddaughter's husband's brother's best friend -- or whoever it was -- lived, was very interesting. In all fairness, the tickets enabled you entry into all of them so we figured we may as well.)

After lunch it was off to Nottingham and Robin Hood country. After driving for hours, we reached Nottingham (and I have to say we were both a little disappointed). We then spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find the castle by following the insanely inadequate British road signs (is now the time to go on a tangent about the abismal state of the British road signs in general?). Eventually we found it, parked illegally (didn't realize until after -- it's OK we escaped a visit from the parking inspector) and paid to go through the castle gates. That's when we discovered that the castle hasn't existed since the English civil war. Fabulous. Needless to say we didn't stay long.

We then hit the road again in search of a B&B in one of the smaller surrounding towns so we would be closer to Sherwood Forrest which we were exploring the following day. And we drove and we searched and we drove and we searched and we drove and we searched. Not only could we not find a B&B, there seemed to be no evidence of this famed forrest -- no signs, no men in green tights, no arrows whistling through the air. Nothing. We were beginning to dispair. Eventually we found one of the only B&Bs in Mansfield (a not very attractive industrial town). It wasn't the best appointed B&B but it was cheap and the old couple who ran it were very helpful and gave us directions to the forrest the next morning.

And so it was that Tuesday morning found us following a mud-map to Sherwood Forrest. Once there we followed a short circuit trail to the Major Oak. The tree is fenced off and many of the branches are now supported by posts and cables, but it was still very impressive. Scott was most excited to see his first squirrel on this little jaunt into the wilds of England.

Next stop, York. And after looking everywhere, we came to the conclusion that the Grand Old Duke had misplaced his 10 000 men somewhere else. Easy enough to do I'd imagine.

York was very nice. The accomodation was the best so far, and the most expensive. We went for a nice walk along the river, climbed the many stairs that led to Clifford's tower -- that once formed part of York Castle -- and explored the quaint streets in the centre of town.

Today, we finally made it to Edinburgh. We took the scenic coast road, passing through the town where Heartbeat (c'mon, you know, that tradgic English cop-soap show. Been around for years) was filmed. Very exciting. From there we drove through the Yorkshire moors which were beautiful. Miles and miles of rolling hills covered in heather and bracken (which Kelly was very excited to see. It was like all those Enid Blyton stories had come to life). Next stop en route to Edinburgh was the small coastal town of Whitby. We ended up stopping for lunch just outside of town because it was so packed with tourists that it was impossible to find a car park anywhere. The traffic was hideous and on the whole, we were glad to leave Whitby behind. After more scenic dirving, this time through the Northumberland moors, we eventually made it to the Scottish border, and then to Edinburgh.

Paris, Finally

It was a lovely autumn day, a trifle cooler than we were used to of late, but refreshing none the less. The birds were singing, the lake was sparkling and the buildings were all very quaint. Who would have thought that disaster was just around the corner?

But wait, I get ahead of myself.

It all started on our last day in Rome...

It was a stinking hot autumn day. The birds were mangy pidgeons, the river was putrid and the buildings were all in ruins.

We finished all our sightseeing by 2pm and that left us with nothing to do and nowhere to do it for 6 hours until our train left. We loitered around the hotel (which we had already checked out of) for as long as we could and took as long as possible to eat dinner at a pizzeria.

Finally, we boarded the overnight train (only moderately uncomfortable) and headed for Switzerland. From there we were going to Paris on another overnight train.

But wait, I get ahead of myself.

Back to the birds, the lake and the quaint buildings.

We arrived in Zurich at about 8:30am. It was very relaxing after Rome. Cars drove sedately. On the road. Pedestrians walked sedately. On the footpath. And when they met at pedestrian crossings, cars actually stopped. Amazing! We took lots of photos.

We snagged a map from the tourist office and set off on a self guided walking tour of the city. After Rome it was all very beautiful. There were lots of old buildings (most of them still standing), clock towers, bridges, spires-- and all very green. Amazing! We took lots of photos.

Yes, there were clock towers.

Yes, there were spires.

Yes, there were pocket knives.

But...

Where were all the touristy shops?

In the end we did find some with a limited range and high prices.

As our day in Zurich drew to a close we were relaxing by the river and the world came tumbling down! Okay, perhaps a slight exaggeration. But it was bad.

There we were, casually perusing our rail route to Paris when we noticed that Stuttgardt (where we were schedualed to change trains) was quite some distance inside the German border.
Gasp!

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem-- we don't have anything against Germany, as such-- but when your increasingly incompetent travel agent doesn't include Germany on your Eurail Pass... then it's a problem.

Two hours, two helpful Swiss rail officials and one (competent) travel agent later and we were heading back to Italy!

Apparently we had several options.

1. Go direct to Paris, arriving at 10pm and sharing a park bench with a homeless guy.

2. Take overnight trains through France, switching several times and waiting up to 5 hours for connecting services.

or

3. Back track to Milan, wait 30 mins and switch to an overnight train direct to Paris.

Not surprisingly, we took option 3 and found ourselves in a sleeper cabin (extremely uncomfortable) with 1 female English backpacker and 2 men of dubious nationality, moral standards and personal hygine. Their snoring combined almost harmoniously with the sound of the train hurtling through the French countryside.

And so it was that we arrived, finally, in Paris.

We ascended the Eiffel Tower. We...

But wait, I get ahead of myself...

After walking for an hour to our hotel (one of us complaining the whole way) we checked our bags into the luggage room and headed for Notre Dame. We both agreed that it was much better than St Peter's but were incredibly disappointed by the distinct lack of hunchbacks.

We browsed the 42 touristy shops outside (note to the authorities in Zurich) and bought an embarrassing amount of cheesy, overpriced souviniors.

Back at the hotel we were in bed by 7pm. (No, we were sleeping-- we were very tired.)

Day 2 saw us taking in the Lourve. There were many paintings and statues. (The French government seems to have bought all the best Roman ones.) And, come on, the Mona Lisa is just a painting. After that we strolled along the Champs Elysees and had a hot chocolate near the Arc de Triomphe.

Day 3. We lined up to get tickets for the Eiffel Tower. And lined up to get to the elevator.

Day 4. We got to the second floor...

No, actually we did get all the way to the top after queuing for the second elevator as well. Then we queued to get to the rail to have a look. Then we queued to get back to the second floor and to get back to the ground. It was worse than the colesseum. The view from the top was pretty good though.

We wrote some postcards at the bottom, ate crepes and made our way back along the river to the train station.

Then, to England.

But wait, I get ahead of myself.

We don't leave for England until tomorrow morning. So, if you made it all the way through this post come back and find out about the UK.

PS, please excuse any spelling mistakes in this post-- somebody went and rearranged all the letters on this keyboard. Some strange Frenchman, I bet.

Ciao Roma!

Yesterday was great. Possibly the best day so far.

We decided to get out of Rome and headed for the town of Orvieto, about an hour north of the city. It's one of those postcard places clinging to the top of a really steep hill and hanging over the cliffs on the edge.

We took a trolley car thing up to the top and emerged pretty much between a palace and the remains of a castle. From there we walked along the cobbled main street where cars had to almost turn aside if someone was coming the other way. Houses and shops opened right onto the street so pedestrians had to watch out as well. There are 3 or 4 churches, including an ornate (gothic?) cathedral.

We spent most of the time just walking. We could have taken a photo on every street and, at first, I think we did. There were little courtyards, shuttered windows and window boxes. There were narrow winding streets with bridges of the top. And the views out over the modern towns below and the Italian countryside...

Eventually we browsed through some of the touristy shops and looked in some of the churches. The best of the latter was a small one that had avoided the ostentation of the stripped, frescoed, carved cathedral and went for a clean, simple, white look.

There were some catacombs that might have been interesting but we didn't bother in the end. There were also some museums with more pots and coins and whatever but we've seen enough of them in Rome.

We bought some souvenirs, we took a thousand photos and enjoyed the peace and calm (even with a ton of tourists) of the amazing town.

Today is our last day in Rome. We've seen the Fountain De Trevi and the Spanish Steps (from the bottom this time), plus the Piazza Novona and the Pantheon. Lots of walking again, but good none-the-less. Now we just have to waste anohter 5 hours until our train leaves. And it's off to Switzerland...

Italian Highlights

Our rest day over, yesterday saw us heading off early to the Vatican and St. Peter's.

Despite arriving nearly an hour before it opened, we were dismayed to be sent to join a queue that stretched down the road for a few hundred metres. Or so we thought. When we reached the corner we realized that the queue was actually much longer than that, stretching on past the next corner as well. So we just joined the queue at the first corner. Terrible I know.

Once the gates opened it didn't take all that long to get in and then we were able to take our time making our way through the Vatican Museum to the Sistine Chapel. It was all very wonderous. There was room after room after hallway after room filled with ornatly painted ceilings and walls which, all together, made up the apartments that the Popes used to live in.

After this we made our way round to St Peter's Basilica where we joined another queue to get inside. This one moved slower and had us standing in the full sun, fortunately it wasn't as long as the queue to get into the Vatican. But damn it was hot!

Once inside the Cathedral, I have to say, we were a little disappointed. Neither of us having been in there before (Kel didn't actually go inside last time she was here), perhaps our expectations were too high? You couldn't fault the workmanship, everything was very well executed. It's just that there was so MUCH. The walls, ceilings, floors etc seemed cluttered with decoration and art work. We definately prefered our little find closer to the hotel (mentioned previously).

Next we headed down the road to St. Angelo's Castle. This is the castle where Hadrian's ahses were origionally kept. Apart from having lots of stairs, and a big spiral ramp, the castle had rooms full of tapestries and painted frescoes on the ceilings and walls, and of course the battlements with cannons, which any self respecting castle should have.

And now we're back up to date.