Blessed!!!!

Well, the little rest didn’t happen. Instead we went to the Vatican Museum. We bought our tickets on-line, had the hotel print out the form and then off we set. Our entry was timed for 12 but we arrived about 10:30 as we knew we had to get security checks, pick up the real tickets using our printed form and probably line up for a long time. We went through it all in rapid time and were in this vast and amazing place well before 11. It was wonderful and we both really enjoyed the works on display and the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican sells the best coffee in town! – it went well with our prepacked bread rolls. They also have the best decorated gift shops I have ever seen and globes and maps that I would love adorning my house.




We tried to get tickets for the Wednesday papal audience but the queues were huge so we abandoned that plan.

Wednesday morning saw us heading off before 8 to try to get into the audience. We were successful and managed to get seats quite close to the front. There were huge numbers of people of all nationalities, flags, happy smiles, lots and lots of security, enough cameras to suit the news of the world and us. Everybody in the family has been blessed by remote so everyone should feel happy. I never thought I would get so close to the Pope. It was a good experience.


This is the crowd we could see when we turned around - the Pope is riding around in his Popemobile in the middle - he's the one in the red hat!



We lunched in a little park beside the Castel Sant’Angelo near the Tiber and then explored this wonderful fortress built on top of Hadrian’s Mausoleum. The views from the top are fantastic and we had a late afternoon glass of wine in a shady terrace high above the ground. We walked along the Via del Corso on our way to the Piazza del Popolo where we found an interesting church - or churches – there were 2 of them side by side!
Along the way I found another chair - still not up to Emily standard but I am really really trying.



I came home and put my feet up!

We only have one more day in Rome – so it is back to St Peter’s Basilica where hopefully the queues will be short and we can go inside. (Optimism is a good thing!) Then on Friday we are off to Pompeii.

Made it! We arrived early and managed to beat most of the people into St Peter’s where we spent a lot of time – mostly with my mouth hanging open. Our visit included visiting the Treasury and the tombs. Even if you aren’t religious it is a place well worth seeing. The Pieta alone was reward for all our queuing. Then we went up the dome but didn’t do the last bit – it was extremely hot and I attended to a lady who was suffering badly so I called it quits at that point. We sat beside the wall, behind the really tall statues which overlook St Peter’s Square and ate our boiled eggs and bananas and drank Vatican water. What a day.








Arrivederci Roma is the song for tomorrow.

The Eternal City

The Eternal City
As No 44 said, “Rome is an interesting city”. I am glad we decided to stay for a full week as I think that this is the kind of place that needs to be explored and then judged. A day or 2 would certainly not be sufficient! We have been exploring for 3 days and we have covered a lot of miles and a lot of sights and sites. We have been hot and sweaty and warm and rained upon. We have not had anything on except for summer clothes – around us we have seen ugg boots, gum boots, overcoats, leather coats, woolly coats, cotton coats, scarves of the winter variety, fleecies, warm hats, sloppy joes, multiple layers and the occasional gloves. I wonder what will happen in the winter?

We have eaten out and cooked our own meals in our little kitchen.
I am a bit surprised at the lack of variety of vegetables and spices in the supermarket. It is also almost impossible to buy any grainy bread. However there are lots of breadsticks, biscuits and other similar items. The price of seafood is horrendous - I guess the Mediterranean has been fished out. Tonight we have a carton of Italian wine – 1 litre for 1.49 Euro……..and it is quite nice.

We are 3 stops from the Vatican and we have explored parts of it very well. We thought that Sunday would be an appropriate day for our first visit. They were showing a recording of the Pope saying mass in the square and the large screens and sound systems were excellent. We then decided that we would check out the location of the Museum and then circumnavigate the city walls – that was quite a walk as it is a large place and it was hot. The path is very narrow in spots and it was a bit precarious rounding corners. I don’t think a lot of people bother but I thought it was fun! We recovered by having lunch on the main roadway leading up to St Peter’s – we had a glass of vino and then decided a second one would be in order! (we spent some of this time watching the street vendors disappearing and then reappearing depending on where the authorities were)




We have spent hours in the Colosseum, we have clambered all over the Palatine Hill and we have investigated the Forum. We walked miles along the Tiber (well – it felt like miles), we raced along the Circus Maximus, we have “done” the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon, sat at the Trevi Fountain and thrown the money in and seen many brides. We have also seen lots of beggars and accordion players in the trains and in the streets and lots of illegal street vendors. We have met a retired clergyman and his wife who were staying in a convent and we had a good chat. Apparently convents are good places to stay. Other places we have visited include the Via Veneto, the Hard Rock, every famous and expensive hotel in the city (even if we didn’t go in), the Palazzo Borghese, the Temple Adriano, the Piazza Navona where there were lots of artists and caricaturists, Palazzo Madama (lots of guns including a semi automatic which felt like it was pointed at me) and looked at the exterior of the Castel Sant Angelo (we will go in if we have time later in the week).










We have seen a centurion using his mobile phone – perhaps he wasn’t real.


We have formulated our theory that even if the light is red at a pedestrian crossing/intersection no one stops unless they are going to hit you.

We have gained much knowledge about parking – I wonder if we should apply that knowledge back in Australia…….perhaps not.

Tomorrow? – who knows – we may have a little rest!

Off to Italy we go!

I thought the train trips along the Rhine and heading to Austria were good but it was equalled, if not surpassed, by the trip through Austria on our way to Italy. We had been watching the weather channel and the snow and had our fingers crossed that we would see some good scenery – we were not disappointed. This picture is just one of the many fantastic views we saw from the train as we headed through the countryside.



Then we arrived at Mestre, just outside of Venice. Our little feet are tired and our eyes are worn out. We have traversed much of this wonderful city, been up and down canals, caught buses and ferries and been to Murano where we saw glass demonstrations and some truly wonderful creations. Seeing first century glass in the Museum was mind blowing. It was really fine and looked quite modern in design.

We have also been to Burano, the old lace centre, where the colours of the houses look like a Dulux commercial. As well we have done bits of the Grand Canal several times as well as the whole thing in one go this afternoon. We went to St Marks Square 3 times and saw the tide come in and go out again. The food has been good (especially tonight when I had mussels), the wine has been excellent and the service and friendliness in our hotel are first class. I am grateful that we are not on a tour group – I could not cope with a waving umbrella and an enthusiastic voice.





I have been looking out for chairs to try and outdo Emily's Scandinavian beauties - I found this one in a shop window in Mestre.



It is now night time in Roma and we are installed in our apartment where we are staying for a week. We have a lounge room, complete with two lounges, a glass table and 4 chairs and a side cabinet. Lots of lamps and a glass table make this room quite comfortable. We have a bedroom with a flat screen satellite HD TV, a bathroom and a kitchen and 3 sets of external doors which lead to our balcony which has table and chairs and a clothes rack. There are wind up shutters on all the windows. We have a dishwasher and are currently washing the dishes in unknown product – some sort of water softener or ??????. But not detergent! The supermarket is a couple of blocks away.

Roma termini is quite a station – actually totally daggy and confusing. The train trip which landed us there went through quite a bit of latitudinal distance and right across Italy. There were lots and lots of tunnels. I am not sure that all of Europe has good manners – especially the gypsies and thieves who wander the station. We were in a first class carriage and, as the first passengers got off, two scavengers shoved their way onto the train and pushed their way through to see what had been left behind. Tony clouted one deliberately with his backpack and the when he got to me I yelled at him and elbowed him. He actually looked quite stunned.

I have seen the Tiber. I am happy.

Every day a new challenge or an adventure!

Stop!!!!!!!
Part 1. I yelled, “Tony – STOP!!!!!!” ....... and fortunately he did. At the time he was trying to throw himself under a car.
After that little frantic moment we continued on our way to catch our train from Bingen to Stuttgart. It was 2 hours of very pleasant first class travel and we arrived to share some quality time with our friends. Claus had been working hard to renovate our bedroom and we have a very comfortable room with en suite. Tuesday saw Lutzi, Claus, Tony and myself heading off for a trip to a mediaeval monastery in the small town of Blaubeuren in the Schwabische Alb. Here the water wells up in a similar fashion to the Blue Pool at Jenolan – but the surrounds are a little more developed and have been for the last 500 years or so. The water is crystal clear as it flows past the old bath house and through the village and there are lots of spotted trout. We had pasta and trout for lunch. Then we continued on to the ancient settlement of Tuebingen (a university town) where the flowers were bright and colourful and blossoming everywhere. The food in the shops and restaurants is enough to turn us all into little round barrels and it is very difficult to choose what to eat and drink. Along the way we passed a very small Danube River.

I was trying to get a good photo of the speedo while we were travelling along the autobahn but it was a bit hard – this shot was the best I could do!



Part 2.....And the angry aggressive young woman in the supermarket snarled STOP!!!!! (in German) ….. and I had no idea what was happening. This was followed by much more snarling and flapping. Lutzi muttered at her and Klaus tried to explain that the Australians were looking at the interesting things to buy and taking photos. By now I had worked out what was going on and we deleted the offensive and illegal photos of vegetables, meats and fruits. The range of cheeses, meats and delicacies is really interesting – it didn’t look quite as good in the shopping bag unfortunately as it did all spread out. There were some fascinating flower arrangements with pumpkins that I had also taken a photo of – imagination will now have to do. Shame about that!!!!!! When we returned to the house there was a little hedgehog in the garden – this is the first and only one I have ever seen and I was very happy.



The weather has been warm and sunny – we are wearing short sleeves and are very comfortable.







Lutzi and Claus have been excellent hosts and they took us on a drive through Southern Germany to Lake Constanze on the Swiss border. We managed to see the crossing but our passports were back in Stuttgart so we were stuck on the German side. Claus crosses to buy Swiss fuel whenever possible and Lutzi bought us some Swiss chocolate – yum! We spent our time looking in the toy shop which mainly sold model trains and doll’s house furniture. The lake was very foggy but attractive none the less and then we were off to Titisee in the Black Forest – some wonderful cuckoo clocks here and lots of tourist shops, little boats, a cruise ferry, and a very fine restaurant at Treschers Schwarzwaldhotel Am See. A few more little Christmas decorations are now in the bottom of the bag – the cuckoo clocks are still in the shops.






Today (Friday 24/10) is our last day in Germany and tomorrow we head for Austria and Salzburg. It is a bit dreary today and that is unfortunate as the plan at the moment is to go to the Volk’s Festival which starts this afternoon at 3. We have no internet available so all our posts are accumulating!

The plan worked and we enjoyed a couple of very happy hours at the festival with Claus. Lots of music, huge beer tents, gigantic rides and many folk on the way to being drunk. We returned home on the tram where Lutzi was waiting, having spent the time that we were away cooking paella.




The trip to Salzburg through Bavaria was very pretty – sadly the windows of the train were a bit dirty from the rain and the photos were hopeless. Salzburg is a very attractive city (except for the somewhat demolished railway station). They were having a festival here too and we enjoyed wandering through the stalls and looking at the goods on display. The food isn’t too bad but everything else seems very expensive. Fortunately we had been warned! We walked kilometres and kilometres, travelled to the top of the mountain to explore the castle, wandered through the gardens, and roamed the streets and wandered along the river.