Europe in a Nutshell

By ferry, train and automobile... and foot!

Click on image and all that sort of thing.

l
R
x
and Judy

Switzerland

We arrived in Lausanne late afternoon and walked to the nearby guesthouse - and were pleasantly surprised.

View from our hostel room window.

The next day we explored the city. We traversed a suggested walking path - which had appeared flatter on a piece of paper. After scaling the streets (in the 34 deg C day), we visited the Cathedral and Chateaux and enjoyed the atmosphere of various streets. After replenishing with Starbucks, we took the tram-bus to the foreshore of Lake Geneva to have our late picnic lunch. We sat and watched the Volleyball fanatics run around in the sun, and then visited the nearby Roman Ruins before heading back to the hostel. During the night we experienced our first sleepless hour (at 11 pm) of continuous car horn honking after whoever won the latest match of Euro 08 football.

Exploring the streets of Lausanne

Our last day involved a day trip to Montreaux - half an hour away from Lausanne by train. It was a glorious day and we walked along the banks of Lake Geneva to the Chateaux Chillon. We decided to have a look around inside and spent 3 hours wandering around - it was extremely interesting and very well restored. We dipped our tired feet in the lake on the way back to the train station. Also, we observed youth dipping more than their feet - i.e. taking a rolling jump into the lake on scooters. We left them to it...

The horn honking occurred again this night and from various yeling we assume Spain won the match. This of course left us with only 4 hours of sleep for our train the next morning. Thus we ended our europe section in true traditional backpacker style of lack of sleep and 10 minute border train changes.

l

R

x

and Judy

A Taste of Germany

The travel to München was done in another luxury train. We were woken up twice for passport checks, but I didn't mind so much because it meant I got stamps, yay!

We walked and walked to the hostel and then couldn't get into our room until 1pm, so we did washing and other administration stuff while we waited. After finally settling ourselves we went for a walk in to the city centre - Marienplatz - to view the Glockenspiel at 5 pm. It was an über hot day so we walked slowly through the town making our way past the various cathedrals towards the Residenz (palace). The building was closed so we walked through the palace gardens and came across an Australian swing band playing in a gazebo while swing dancers swung away. After enjoying the entertainment for a while we continued wandering up to the Englishe Garden where we marveled at the surfers in the 10 m wide river. We tried to avert our eyes while passing the nudist sunbaking area.

Surfing - München style... I'm not sure it is all that safe

The second day was spent exploring the Deutsches Museum for 5 hours. So much to see so little time!!! It is the most awesome science museum - every exibit has hands on components which makes it really fun. For example, the chemistry section had many chemical reactions set up so that you can press a button and it mixes several compoents for you. We had a quick refuel at the museum restaurant - traditional German fare of schnitzel, sauerkraut and knödel. After we had worn ourselves out, it was then back to Starbucks for a coffee (finally a semi-decent coffee in Europe) then back to relax in the hostel.

We left on the third day, but not before tasting some of the gastronomical delights at the Bahnhof (and taking some with us for on the train).

l
R
x
and Judy

Croatia in Four Days

From Santorini we took a Ferry, slept in Pireus, then metro to Athens, train to Kiato, train to Patras, overnight ferry I to Ancona and overnight ferry II to Spalato (Split). Phew! We made it to Croatia in one piece 36 hours later.

In our sleep deprived state, we let ourselves be kidnapped by a local and taken to their house for accommodation in Split. A brief nap had us up and exploring the city with gelati in hand, taking in the gorgeous waterfront area where the old Palace walls are juxtaposed with the hip & modern cafe's and promenade. We had a look through the substructure of the palace wall and then at the cathedral. I climbed to the top of the bell tower to have a great view of the city. We found a fantastic local place to have dinner - Buffet Fife.

Split Waterfront

Got up at 7... or so we thought, the alarm was still on Greek time so we actually awoke at 6. We climbed to the top of the mountain to view back to the harbour and found a quaint church. We then walked around the harbour to the archaeological museum and waited for it to open at 9.30. However, they were doing renovations which meant it was free... but there wasn't much to see. Still interesting. We took it easy and wandered through the harbour markets then found a nice park to daydream in and watch the youths carry on waterfights. Fifes called our stomaches back for a late lunch where we got chatting to a local Croatian. He told us stories about how tourists were destroying the lovely boredom that the locals used to have and that Croatians delight in telling you they don´t like you (if the case may be so).

We took a great overnight train to Zagreb - the best train we have been on in our travels. Lots of free presents. Arriving in Zagreb we took the tram to the hostel - which was right next door to a chocolate factory (yes that did have influence over our decision to stay there). We went in to the city late afternoon to avoid the hottest part of the 31 deg C day. We walked around exploring the parks, enjoyed a free traditional music concert, dodged Croatian football fans and explored the botanical gardens, before heading back to the hostel for risotto.

Near Zagreb Train Station

On our second day in Zagreb we went to the archaeological museum, had lunch in the nearby park while listening to another free traditional concert then walked around the upper town area, before heading home in order to pack and rest for our next journey.

Conclusion: Want to return to Croatia!

l
R
x
and Judy

Athens and Santorini

After finally boarding the 16 hour ferry to Patras, Greece we organised ourselves in our "Airline" seats and ended up sleeping on the floor instead - our camping mats came in handy. Arriving in Patras felt a lot like Brisbane with the humidity and sunshine. We had no trouble finding the train station, and even had time to enjoy a relaxing lunch. Upon boarding the train, we were informed that we would have to change trains twice, as opposed to the once we were expecting, due to changes in service. Thrice turned into four times as we had to change on to the Metro as well. Arriving at the hotel I caught up on sleep while mum booked our further travel and accommodation.

All of the next day was spent exploring Athens: The Acropolis and Ancient Agora in the morning and Archaeological Museum in the afternoon. We then had time to do a quick grocery shop before heading for our Ferry to Santorini (another sleep on the floor gig).

With a temple in the Ancient Agora

At the Santorini Port, in the harbour created by the volcanic crater, George from Pension Livarodos picked us up and drove us back to Karterados. His hotel had a lovely homely feel - like you were staying with family. We both napped until the afternoon (ahh the rigours of being on holiday) then went to a local restaurant for Mousaka, chicken Souvlaki and Greek Salad. We then had a nice long sunset walk down to the black sandy Karterados beach and back.

The next morning saw us hiring a 4-wheeler or dune buggy and hooning around the island. We visited Kamari and goggled at the people supposedly tanning their already lobsterified skin. We took a wrong turn on our way to Perissa and prayed to the dune-buggy gods that we would make it up the moutainside of Profitis Ilias (max speed uphill = 16k/h full throttle). The trip was worth the great views. We then drove through Megalachori to Perissa, and had dinner at nearby Perivolos beach. After our dinner overlooking deep blue ocean we were back to our hotel for an relaxing evening swim. Wish we could have stayed longer.

Let´s go!

l
R
x
and Judy

P.S. It is so awesome how everyhting in Greece is spelled with the Greek alphabet (duh). All those letters I learnt in Maths actually make sense e.g. "Oh, it's a phi... and an ipsillon a rho and an alpha... so ph-i-r-a ooooh Fira!"

Minor Mishap #8

We spent the morning running around Naples trying to find a post office. The first one we found only acted as a bank - naturally. We continued our search (with directions) and after 2 hours we found another post office which had 1 teller for postage, and 8 for banking. The automatic doors were not working, so we had to queue in the hot sun until security manually let people through. Upon reaching the counter we posted 4 postcards.

After this excursion we managed to have a 20 minute lunch before quickly collecting our luggage and briskly walking to the station. We were very pleased with ourselves that we had made the train to Bari after our dilemma filled morning.

Arriving at Caserta, the departure board showed our connecting train to Bari was 30 minutes late. We were not too concerned because we still had 1 .5 hours at the other end to make our way to the dock... 30 minutes later the delay had increased to 50 minutes... this increased our nervousness a little but the conclusion was not yet forgone...

Finally we left an hour late and lost another hour in the journey to Bari. Thus, we missed the boat by 5 minutes. The only boat to Greece.

This forced us to have an unplanned but lovely day in Bari, checking out the old city, city wall and castle.

A side street in Old City, Bari.

l
R
x
and Judy

Naples for Pompeii

We headed to Naples via train and arrived not to worse for wear, 5 hours later. We settled ourselves in a hotel close by the station, in Garibaldi Piazza, and went early to bed.

The following day saw us negotiating the streets of Pompeii. We had bought a guidebook, with a view of undertaking the illustrated 3-hour tour. However, 7 hours later we were still exploring (we had to be sure to get a view of some ancient graffiti).

A pedestrian crossing

The preservations were amazing. The quality of the artwork in some of the frescoes was as good as if done today. There were also clear indications of a "modern" city, with pedestrian crossings, plumbing and drainage systems in place. It was easy to imagine the daily life of people in this ancient city.

l
R
x
and Judy

Downtime in Tuscany

Our Tuscan interlude began with a side trip to Pisa - really only to see the leaning tower - and a day spent in Siena. Siena is perched on the top of a hill and the old town roads are restricted for cars. The result is a beautifully peaceful town with lots of picturesque nooks.

We then hired a car - right hand manual drive eek! - and headed to our Tuscan villa. We timed our stay with an Italian public holiday, so had to do our grocery shopping the Saturday night we got to Buonconvento.

The entire stay was filled with relaxing. To our delight there were books available, and seeing as there were a few rainy days, we took that as a sign that the Universe wanted us to read and do absolutely nothing. We did just that.

Our Villa

Intermingled with the nothing, there were a few walks intermingled, as well as pilates, cooking and eating, hot chocolates, movies dubbed in Italian, opening our personal beauty salon, and commenting on Italian gardeners in the rain.

The result left us feeling very decadent and ready to take on the next part of our trip.

l
R
x
and Judy