Sunday, May 23, 2010

Final Days - LONDON



Heading home today. The journey has been terrific and I feel myself being fortunate to have had these experiences, visit special places, and see things that I have only ever wondered about. Matt and I are both looking forward to coming home to our familiar surroundings, familiar spaces and places and family and friends.

Last few days in London have been quite warm and it certainly brings all of the Londoner's out and about into the parks and along the banks of the River Thames. All of Great Britain becomes very excited when the weather turns warm.

Matt and I have been doing our own thing the last couple of days, Matt has been searching high and low for vinyl records for his collection, and I have been visiting more museums and galleries. Went to the National Portrait Gallery, The National Gallery and the Tate Britain Gallery. Jodie, this is where the Lady of Shalott hangs.

Matt and I both visited the Imperial War Museum, it was a chronology of Great Britain's war efforts since WW1. The museum had a large focus on life in England during WW2 and a significant memorial exhibit on the holocaust and the millions that were murdered by Hitler and his Dogs of War, Death and Destruction. The holocaust memorial exhibition and its images are deeply and profoundly moving, and it is difficult for me to think that those atrocities occurred, on a daily basis, for years, and on an industrial scale!

On Friday night I went to the Royal Festival Hall to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The works that were performed where by Debussy, Lalo, Strauss, and the closing piece was Ravel's Bolero which is one of my favorite pieces of classical music that Peirson and I have listened to many times over the years. It was an incredible experience to be there, and to watch and listen those each one of those gifted individuals create something so beautiful.

See you all soon and thanks for following our blog.

Photos are of Londoner's enjoying the balmy weather at Trafalgar Square and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Matt and I managed to have a really good run in London from Earls Court to the Thames, finishing at Westminster. 1 hour and 7 minutes. I think both Matt and I are in better shape now than when we began the trip.

Last images of Rome






These are some more images from the Vatican Museum. We managed to get a run in at Rome, we ran along the banks of the Tiber river, in which we didnt get very far becuase we became stuck in mud. The Tiber runs through the centre of Rome and some parts of it are edged with cobblestones, it looked ok to us at the beginning but eventually the cobblestones became mud, most likely due to a recent flood. Had to walk around in wet shoes all day.

We are in London now for the last few days of our trip.

Vatican City, St Peters and The Vatican Museum






There are no words I can find to describe the grandness of the paintings in the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. The artists who created such wonderful visions were surely geniuses and you cannot comprehend how difficult it would of been to create the works that they did. Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli etc. To appreciate the genius of their work you can only comprehend it by experiencing the creations by being there, no photo or book can provide you any perspective of the beauty, and grandness of scale of these works.

We happened to be in St Peter's square on a day that Pope Benedict gives his weekly sermons to his flock. We observed him from about 200 metres away.

More Rome sights.





Various streets, the entrance to St. Peters and a restaurant to take someone oneday...

ROME sights






More sights of Rome. Colloseum, Spanish Steps, Terme di Caracalla and Pantheon.

Various sights - ROME





Some random sights of Rome. The Piazza Navona, ancient ruins near the Roman Forum, the Spanish Steps, and the Fontana di Trevi.

ROME - Pantheon





Another amazing example of ancient architecture and achievement. The Pantheon is a 2000 year old temple which is now a church that is used for regular services.

ROME






Rome is epic and monumental. It was once the centre of the Roman Empire and during the height of roman civilisation and conquest, Rome was regarded as the capital of the world. The great thing about Rome is that all the great things to see are all in walking distance of each other as the historic and ancient centre is quite small. Again, around every corner there is something special and incredible to appreciate. Although Rome is quite a busy metropolis, it emanates a casual and carefree identity and quite a relaxed pace. Matt and I really enjoy having Italian espresso coffees with the locals at the coffee bars. It didn’t take long for us to work out that it is cheaper to have a coffee standing up at the bar instead of sitting down, with our most expensive being 10 Euros for 2 coffees at Genoa, and the cheapest being 3.40 Euros for 2 Italian coffees. The first sight for us to visit in Rome was the Colosseum. Construction began in AD 72 and it was completed in AD 80.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

PISA





Pisa is quite an unassuming town, except for the leaning tower. It is a university town and I guess not many universities around the world can boast of having the distinction of having Galileo lecturing at their institution. The leaning tower is really quite an odd sight. Construction began on the structure during 1173 and came to a standstill shortly after when it began to tilt, however it was completed eventually despite the tilt. The towers tilt is in excess of 5.5 degrees and today its almost 4.1metres off the perpendicular.

Photos are of the tower and the Italian Mediterranean coast at Ventimiglia, the town where we entered Italy.

More Lucca






These photos are of the external wall surrounding the city and one of the marble churches within the city.

Italy – LUCCA and PISA






Travelling to Italy was relaxing, we made absolutely certain before we left France that we had booked trains from Nice to Genoa, Genoa to Pisa, Pisa to Lucca and Lucca to Rome, accommodation in Lucca, Rome and our return lights and accommodation to London. I really don’t think there is any better way to travel through Europe than on train. It is reasonably cheap to go first class and it is a far better and relaxing experience than travelling by air. You just walk onto your train, without any hassles of checking in, going through customs and security. All the other travellers are relaxed and civil, far from what people seem to be like when travelling by air, in which it is not uncommon to observe people being anxious and edgy. The French iTGV was probably the most impressive train, it travels up to 300kmh and the first class cars are excellent. The trains in Italy weren’t quite up to the standard of the iTGV but it was still a good way to travel.

Our first stop in Italy was the town of Lucca in the Tuscany region of Italy. Lucca is a walled city that was built in the 12th Century. It is completely enclosed in by a 12m high renaissance wall. The town has grown over the years and now expands to the areas outside of the walls. Inside the walls the city is a labyrinth of cobblestone laneways with buildings that were built centuries ago in which are still fully functional today and used for day to day commerce and living. Lucca is truly a special place. The first thing Matt and I noticed about Italy was how more slower the pace is, everyone seems to take their time to go wherever they are going, old men and ladies ambling around. It seems that no-one is in any particular hurry. We experienced some excellent food in Lucca at some of the local restaurants, and had quite a few gelatos through the couple of days we were there. On our last afternoon when walking through the laneways of Lucca we came across a Soecialita Alimentaria which is an Italian delicatessen. They had the most amazing array of cured and fresh meats, cheeses, olives and other marinated and sun-dried vegetables. We bought some prosciutto, pecorino cheese, olives and bread and took back to our villa and had it with our last bottle of French wine.

We went for a run around the wall at Lucca; both struggled a bit, maybe too much drinking of wine on this trip!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Our final two days in France



It was the morning after the Jacques reversing into the hire car incident; it was a beautiful sunny morning along the French Mediterranean coast. We headed off into the French countryside again in our quest to sample fine French wines and foods from the Provence area. We decided to stay away from the expressways to avoid the expensive tolls and navigate our way through the Provence countryside armed with our Michelin map and the hope that Provence would be kind and bountiful in rewarding us with fine French wines and fromage. We came across an old winery at Languedoc and sampled some vin rouge and purchased our first bottle. Matt and I were soon in the hire car again and trailblazing our way to the next winery. After becoming slightly geographically embarrassed for a short while, and maybe criss-crossing our path a couple of times, and having one or two little excursions on a couple of tollways, we eventually came across another winery, (after receiving very explicit directions from a service station attendant) This winery was very special, it existed in the days when the Romans where building strategic roads and infrastructure throughout Europe and it still had all the equipment, earthenware vessels etc that the ancient Romans used to make their wine. It was a terrific place, old rustic and crumbling buildings; timber beams hued centuries ago, olive trees, and the dry Mediterranean breeze. We sampled some wines which were made to the original roman winemaking recipes that they were all that time ago. They were extraordinary wines, in that upon smelling the bouquet of the wine you would sense aromas of many different fruits, spices and herbs and gain an expectation towards how the wine may taste. The taste of the wine is entirely different to the bouquet; it is quite a taste experience as the aromas of the wine are absolutely nothing like the taste of the wine. We purchased our second bottle of wine and hit the road again, now to find somewhere to stay for the night, kitted up with our bottles of wine and some cheeses that we earlier purchased from a Aldi supermarket (this should provide you with evidence of how our day was progressing and us become insidiously lost) however we were in complete ignorant bliss of our deteriorating situational awareness in the French countryside (or maybe resignation) and continued on looking for a French oasis in Provence where we could settle for the evening, sample our wines and cheeses and take in the moment, and reflect on the days travels and experiences. The next few hours where a diabolical experience of becoming lost in numerous towns and villages trying to locate accommodation, incurring in excess of 80euros in tollway charges, and countless rejections from motels and hotels with no vacancy. The sun was setting, and we did not savour the prospect of driving through provincial France and its network of tollways, freeways, regional roads, laneways and countless roundabouts in total darkness. We decided that we would stick to a main road (another 4 lane tollway) in order to attempt to find a town called aix-en-Provence. We eventually found the place and next began the arduous task of locating a hotel. French cities and towns are very old, built before the concept of town planning, and they are a labyrinth of roads, lanes and roundabouts in which can be quite confusing for unfamiliar drivers. After driving around in circles for what seemed like eternity through the streets and laneways of aix-en-Provence, Matt and I both agreed that we would stay anywhere, despite the cost, and that our best option would most likely be that we would find accommodation at a five star hotel in the city centre, our theory being that the French seemed to be stingy and seemingly stayed at the cheaper establishments on the fringe areas of town, in which we tried ourselves to no avail as they were all fully booked. We came across a hotel in the downtown area in which we both agreed we were prepared to stay at regardless of the cost, which was a little concerning as the carpark resembled the Scuderia Veloce car dealership at Chatswood, there were porches, beemers, mercs and a maserati thrown in just to ensure it was truly continental. Matt went in to enquire about accommodation whilst I sat in our little Opel hire car that was scarred from its nasty experience with Jacques’ diesel Peugeot the day before. I was admiring the European muscle machines that encircled me, quietly wondering how many hundreds of Euros the nights’ lodgings was going to cost. Matt returned with good news, the hotel reception staff suggested and even booked a room for us at another hotel, which he said, was down the road. After becoming lost for a short time more, we eventually located our hotel, it wasn't quite the rustic French villa we had in our minds throughout the day, it was the Novotel at aix-en-Provence. We checked in and soon had our bags in our room and then downed a bottle of wine that we purchased through the day, followed with the cheese and baguette we purchased from the Aldi, reflecting on the day and the distance we travelled, which most likely amounted to around 600 to 700 kilometres, however with us traversing an area a little over 150 to 200 km's! We decided that we won't be so adventurous in Italy and that it would be a good idea to pre-book our accommodation and forget about hiring anymore cars. Upon reading the lonely planet guide that evening Matt discovered that France and Italy are notorious for being the most difficult European countries to drive in. All in all we had a good time in France and we can put this one down for experience. Gemma, Katy and Joady, I will have some handy does and don’ts for you for your trip to France.
Photos are of a country road and vines…..somewhere in the south of France, and the view outside our hotel room in the Mediterranean city of Nice, our last night in France before crossing over the border for Italy.