15.05.08 to 16.05.08

I am back in action with my travelogue.

15.05.08

Following Venice, we went to Pisa and Florence. Pisa was just an afternoon stopover. There's also the Baptistry and cathedral besides the famous leaning tower. They were all built with white marbles. I did the obligatory cheesy photo shoots then wander around with Jake and got ourselves Pinocchio as our souvenir.


We then reach Florence. I am a bit gutted that I didn't take any picture of my accomodation. I managed to google the accomodation online though. (see inset of collage below)We had our own couple cabin this time. It comes with ensuite, 2 bedroom (1 with double bed and 1 with 2 bunk). Space was real tight though. I remembered I had to put my luggage on one of the bunk bed and jake's luggage was on the corridor. Our chef cooked us the most delicious lasagna and we also had salad and bread.



That night our coach took us to Florence. Some ppl went to the Red Garter for karaoke while Jake and I opted to walk around and went to the internet cafe.

16.05.08
Next day was a full day to explore Florence.
In the morning, we visited a leather house. Most ppl bought some sort of leather products from the shop.

Then we had a guided tour. I forgot our guide's name but she's excellent. I learned about the statutes and the palace in Florence. (see collage below).

More statues below sculpted by geniuses such as celini, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci etc.

Can you spot the 'fake' statute?

There were also statues to commemorate all the geniuses that live in Florence during the Renaissance period.

We then walked to Ponte Vecchio (the bridge). Its most striking feature is the multitude of shops built upon its edges, held up by stilts.

Below were some interesting thing I took of the city. A little electric car, electric bus, the forum, and the wild boar at the market.

Below is the crypt of the Florence Cathedral. If you have read Dan Brown's book, he mentioned of crypts and subterranean level of churches where chapels are used and bishops have been buried etc. The crypt in the Cathedral was excavated in the 60s from the result of a flood. It shows tiles from long before the Cathedral was built.

We had a standing lunch today of pizza and calzones. There were markets everywhere.
Oh, legend has it that whoever that touch the boar's nose will one day return to Florence. I am waiting to see if I am making another trip there.

We then went back to the Florence Cathedral. Weather was going to rain so we canned our idea of climbing the duomo as the queue was very long.
Below is the interior of the cathedral.

More shots of the cathedral that boasts the largest brick dome ever built. Dinner tonight was an excursion to some tuscan restsaurant. Entree were bread with cold meat and pate of some sort. Then there's ravioli and pasta and meat.

In and Out

I am a sucker for 'freebie'. Well, when I was visiting Stace across the Tasman, she told me that Huggies is having a jungle tent offer.
What one needs to do is join the Huggies club then redeem the the offer with Huggies barcodes.
When I got back to Nz, I started hunting for every nappy box I have at home and cut out all the barcodes. I knew that whatever they launch in Aussie, it will follow suit in NZ a while later.

About 2 weeks after we came back, I received an email from Huggies about the offer in NZ. So on the same week, I posted out my barcodes and about a week later, my tents arrived. Above is the 'giraffe' tent which N kept referring to as Zebra.

13.5.08 to 14.05.08

13.5.08
From France, we departed to Venice, Italy. We sat at the back of the coach today and past through many tunnels and mountain. The tunnel made me doze off easily.

We had an afternoon stopover at Verona. Verona's most famous Casa di Giuletta (Juliet's House). On the little courtyard, there's a bronze statute of Juliet. We were told that one of Juliet's boobs is more shiny than her counterpart due to incessant rubbing by tourists who believed they will have good luck from rubbing 'the' boob.


Again Verona is also famous for its amphitheatre which is still used in the present day for internationally famous opera performances. Coincidentally when we were there, KISS was holding a concert there. There were very many KISS fans on the square. Some also had the make up of the KISS bands.

Above were just photos of Verona. There's a big square and we walked through narrow cobblestones path to Juliet's House. We also took picture of the ' love graffiti' by Juliet's House.

Not long after, we reached Camp Fusina in Venice. See collage above. Looking back on my diary, I wrote the following:

"Fusina is by far most decent cabin with own bathroom and 3 beds. Unfortunately, the shower is unpredictable. It either burns you or freeze you'.

Dinner tonight was Spaghetti bolognaise with garlic bread and salad at the Contiki marquee.

The bus in the collage is the cyber bus in the camp ground.

The inset pic of the big marquee was where we had dinner the next day. That was part of the facility of the camp.

14.5.08

The next day we took a boat to Venice itself. The jetty is just 5 mins walking distance from our camp ground. The boat ride takes about 15-20minutes.

When we reached venice, we went to 2 demonstrations. One was the making of the Murano glass. Glasses and chandeliers and brooches and whatever you can think under the sun is aplenty in that shop. Because it is such specialised form of craft, price wise was pretty expensive too. 4 glasses in the first left pic would be about AUD 220 (from memory). Somebody in the tour group bought them as gifts to bring home.

Next was to a lace school. Lace making is a slowly disappearing art. The laces are really pretty even to a non-lace person like me. It comes in all sorts of fashion.

After the two demonstrations, we were left to explore the island on our own.

Anyhow, the must go place for us or rather the must snap pic of Venice was the San Marco basilica, and the campanile which is sort of like the first thing you see when you walked into the square.

We were told by Gianni our Italian Australian friend that in Italy, designers like Versace, Armani Prada take turns to win contracts to make police uniforms for the country. How cool is that?

Below, we took picture of the police. They do have very attractive uniform..

Below were just more pictures of Venice. We walked to Ponte Rialto (the bridge and overlooks) the building. It's just very pretty. My mission was to get a mask but mission failed badly because the more masks I saw, the uglier I thought they were. So I end up with a Murano glass cross. Jake found a police who would take a pic with him hehehe..

Below was our lunch. Hm..what can I say..I thought it's a little mediocre, and that all the places serve 'tourist' menu. I couldn't find one which the locals dine.

Highlight in the afternoon was riding in the gondola. We went on the gondola with Kaz, K and C&D. They graciously let us have the couple seat. hehe. Our gondola man wears some sort of a uniform amongst all the other gondola men. A white or stripey shirt. He would expertly manoerve his way on the canals. One thing I note, the canals are actually stinky..but it's worth the ride.

Sampler shows us on the gondola, the pigeons of Piazza San marco, the queue of the St Mark basilica, Jake and the campanile, and we took the pic of St Anne cathedral (if i am not mistaken) and finally, we had gelato icecream as the weather gets really hot.

That night we had dinner at the beergarden. Dinner was BBq ribs and chicken with salad and bread.

11.5.08 to 12.5.08

11.5.08
It's early departure today. We were heading back to France to Côte d'Azur aka the French Riviera. This morning we had to mop the floor of our cabin because there's only 2 site reps on the camps.

The first stop was to a Catalan village. The town is a little stopover with souvenir shops and a small restaurant and restrooms. Souvenirs were pretty quirky but with quite high price tag too.

Next stop, we arrived at Arles of Provence. It is most famous for its Roman amphitheatre. The Roman empire spanned so far last time that everywhere the romans conquer, they surely would build their bath house, their amphitheatres.

Van Gogh has also spent two years painting there. His most famous work in Arles would be the Starry Night. Everywhere, the souvenir shop is selling Van Gogh's reproduction pieces.

Sampler above were just the souvenirs in Arles. Interestingly, Amway seems to be holding an event in Arles too.

Then we checked out the old Cathédrale Saint-Trophime d'Arles. Again, it looked a little medieval to me. Now that I googled about the cathedral it is said to have a very important example of romanesque architecture. I was real impressed with old rug that depicts the story of Christ and the sculptures on the Cathedral.

Below is our cabin in Antibe. Antibe is a town on French Riviera. It is located between Cannes and Nice. From memory, our priority was to have our laundry done at the camp site. It was €4,50 a load and €1 per 15 mins to dry. Toilet was unisex and the showers were hot.

Dinner tonight were sausage with salad and potato salad.

12.5.08

Next morning, we visited a perfumery called Fragonard in the Village of Es. We were shown history of the perfume making and get free samples etc. We were told there's only several 'nose' working in the perfume industry. Their job is only to smell fragrance.

Then we were dropped in the city of Nice to freely explore for the day. We checked out the beach. There were several people sunbasking and the waters are pretty cold to my standard.

We then checked out the square, the markets, alleyways. Came upon this specialist shop that only makes umbrella.. imagine choosing everything to your custom specification. It will be a rolls royce of umbrellas and I for sure won't bear to use it in the rain or shine :P

Pretty sweet things in one of the shops in the alleyway.

Another collage of some sculptures in Nice.

Later that night, we headed to the Republic of Monaco for our night at the Monte Carlo casino.The casino is not a big casino in terms of size (if we were to compare with the Vegas Casino). It's more like an art gallery and there is a paid entrance of €10. Next to the Monte Carlo casino, there're a few other casino which charges no entrance fee but they aren't the same thing. hehehe.

It was rainy that night so we didn't explore much at all in the city.

9.5.08 to 10.5.08

9.5.08
Au Revoir France, and we headed to Barcelona, Spain.

I referred back to my diary and saw we made a few stops before reaching Barcelona. 1st stop was at Montelimar (still in France, which is famous for Lavender and nougat) There's multitude of things sold which is related to lavendar and nougat). One thing I noted was the squat toilet at this stop. I thought squat toilet were only to be found in less developed countries.

2nd stop was at Pont Du Gard which was an aquaduct built during the Roman Empire. To me, it's a good photographic spot and I don't think much about the whole construction.


By the 3rd stop, we had passed the Spanish border. We didn't get to the campsite until 7pm. My feelings of Spain was it's 'terracota' and dusty. Don't ask me but that's the two thing I think of when we past the border. It's also started to drizzle after we crossed the border.
Below is our campsite. We get our own room this time.Again, room is basic. it was like a terraced cabins. This time toilet is in adjacent building so we do have to walk there. Our campsite is located by the sea, we checked out the beach but the weather was bad that I only snapped a quick photo. The camp rep welcomed us with corn chips and guacomole and salsa dips, and sangria. Dinner was taco with spanish rice and salads. From memory, we think the food in this campsite is not that great.

10.5.08
Next day it was still raining. We packed our umbrellas and off we go to the city of Barcelona. First stop was at the Olympic complex where Olympic'92 was held.
Then we had a 'walkabout' tour at the Gothic Quarter. GQ is the 'old town of barcelona'.Many other tours were also covering the Gothic quarters, amongst them was a biking tour. We were shown previous royal residence, church, town halls, etc..Some walls even showed battle scars (bullet holes and cannons perhaps?)

Then it was up to us to roam the city. We were given a map and the pick up point tonight was at Port Olympic.

We started on our own at La Ramblas. It is like the centre of Barcelona. It's an interesting 'mall' strip ..It sells all sorts of things from pets (tortoises), souvenirs and paintings ,to flowers. We then took the metro to the Sagrada Familia.

What can I say ...Sagrada Familia is a huge majestic stone cathedral which is still work in progress and has the oddest shapes. It's chief designer is non other than Antonio Gaudi. The man is a genius and there are so many of his works in the city of Barcelona. We only covered Sagrada Familia as the rain was really stopping us from going to the other spots.

We were wanting to go up the spiral of the Cathedral but the trip was cancelled as the weather was bad. so We were extremely disappointed. We still went 'inside' the cathedral to check the unfinished work. Jake said he felt a little cheated to see scaffolds and little forklifts inside the cathedral.

Anyhow, below are more facades of Sagrada Familia. The old one has intricate sculptures on them and the new facade has a more futuristic sculpting style. According to the museum of the cathedral, each chief architect who took over will incorporate their own style into Gaudi's existing design (hence the futuristic sculptures in the new facade). Gaudi also incorporates natural elements such as animals (seen in turtles on the huge columns) and fruits on his sculptures.

We then took metro back to the La Ramblas area. We went to the San Josep mercat(St Joseph market). It's totally recommended. IT's the most colourful place which sells everything from meat, seafood to fruits and candies..The place were jampacked with locals and tourists. We decided to have lunch in a tiny restaurant in the market. It sells seafood and the seafood looked absolutely fresh. The waiting time was a good 15-20 mins just to get our seats. The seafood platter was absolutely delicious. Seafood was succulent, sweet and so fresh.

Below is more photos of the markets.

After lunch, our mission was to get some souvenirs. We decided earlier in the trip we will try to get a small toy for N from each country. There's lots of Gaudi inspired type souvenirs (mosaic lizard, colourful ceramics). I ended up with a soccer ball for N and a gaudi inspired type Cross for myself. Bought a cape thingie for my mom too.

The shopping were pretty good in Barcelona too. there were MNG, and the Sfera department store and all sorts. Anyways my only little regret is I couldn't find the El Corte Ingles department store. I saw nearly everyone (the locals)on the street carrying a shopping bag from that department store. Jake and I kept our lookout for the dept store but we didn't find it. Maybe because we couldn't read Spainish properly, we didn't find it:S We tried asking but were having difficulties being understood and understanding the people.

We managed to stock some groceries at Carre Fourre though. Found out Ferrero Rocher was cheap in Barcelona so we stock quite a bit of that for our 'junk' supplies. After putting the supplies in our coach, we were on our own again. We decided to venture the city a little further before meeting the rest of the tour group at Porto Olimpico (Port Olympic).

We took the metro to Port Olympic but got kind of lost because our map didn't really say where it was. We asked several locals who all gave us different directions. The rain were getting pretty bad and the wind was unbelievably strong. Our umbrella broke by then.Took us nearly 2 hours to get there. Gosh, it was a tad scary but God was good. We got there in one piece despite our umbrella in several pieces. We were drenched though.

Above was our tapas and paella dinner. Jake's comment: Not recommended. Unreasonably expensive and the worst part, they are not tasty and too Salty.

I was really glad to be back to camp for a really hot shower later that night.

7.5.08 to 8.5.08

7.5.08
For the next 2 days we spent it in the Beaujolais wine region. We arrived at Beaujolais in the afternoon. 3 other contiki buses were to arrive later that day. Contiki owned a huge chateau in that region and it's a big sandstone house with its own swimming pool, bar, and lots of room.(Dorm style).

After we arrived, we went to a cellar for wine tasting. See pic below. Leon attempted to push the 'grape crusher' thingie.

Around the Chateau, the views are very rustic. Unfortunately the pool was closed for maintenance. Luckily there's nice outdoor sofa on the chateau compound.

Dinner on the first night was pork ribs with salad. It was very yummy and it was one of the places were the tables had table clothes and kinda restaurant like. I had fond memories of dinner here. With the tour, everyone's expected to help out, so everyone volunteers to help in the kitchen once through out the entire tour, some people twice. (I am not sure what the arrangement is like in shorter tours). Ours run for 45 days so they expect fair bit of volunteers.

Below are just floras from the region.

8.5.08

Today we were divided into groups and we were to launch to go to a picnic at a location known as 'top of the world'. We were supplied map, and our lunch.

It took us 1hour to get there. Some ppl took 30mins? It was quite a hike. We passed by a town called Theize where the houses are all brick and clay looking. and Some people's window has pretty heart patterns on it. Nearly everyone plants gerbera on their window box.

When we got up, we were tired. Gianni, our rockstar even brought his guitar with him. Imagine going up rocky paths ...Lunch was baguettte and ham and brie with orange and water. Everywhere we go, french baguette are just so good to eat ...We can store it for a day or two and it still tastes fresh and soft.After that it was free activity, so we explored the area a little before going back to the Chateau.

Below is a collage of our dinner (chicken and veggies and dessert was sorbet) , our dorm like room. It was very small room but good thing is we can lock our own doors. My bed looks out to a big tree which leaves rustled each time the wind blows.