Where do we start with Italy? So far we've been here for a bit over a week and we are yet to be won over by this country. There are some great things about it, but also some terrible things. But more on that in a minute.

We drove into Italy from Switzerland, which I guess is going to provide any traveller with a bit of a culture-shock. Coming from the amazingly rugged, colourful, beautiful and organized place that is Switzerland into Italy was bizarre. We hadn't got more than an hour into the country before the landscape became dry, almost barren looking. And what we saw of the west coast down to Naples was all like that. There were still farms growing lush, green corn but they were islands amongst the dust.

The east coast has been much greener and far more picturesque so far. We spent a couple of days sunning ourselves on a beach at Marina de San Salvo. A small tourist town, with lots of Italians on holidays taking their tanning very seriously indeed. Very seriously. (We found oursleves completely out of step with the Italians' daily routines though. The beach is packed in the morning, everyone is there. We trundle off to lunch at about 12.30 and when we return they're all leaving for their lunch. 3 or 4 hours later some of the keen ones return for some more sun shortly before we head off for dinner. Later we're trying to sleep while the whole town rouses to drive past our van repeatedly.)

Rome was not what I expected. I somehow thought it would be a bit more glamourous and a bit fuller. The ruins take up a lot of space very close to the centre of the city so my first impression was of the place being unfinished or under construction. The ruins were magnificent though. The Colosseum was something to behold as were the Palatine hill, the Palaces and the Forum. It was great to see it all up close in person after studying it throughout school and at uni.

And then Pompeii. Not impressive in the same way as the Colosseum but astounding because of how intact it is. The sheds full of unbroken pottery, petrified people and animals. The bakeries with original flour mills and ovens ready to use. It was amazing and good fun to wander around the streets of a 2000 year old town.

Something else that is amazing and good fun is driving a largish vehicle here. One afternoon after a lovely swim at Sorrento, where the water was ridiculously warm, we took a little drive further around the peninsular to find a place to stop for the night. Indulge me by trying to imagine this. Coastal road. High up – basically cliff edge. Low stone wall between car and the edge. Narrow road. Two large vehicles (eg, bus and camper) passing each other is tight – bus driver obliges by yelling something at us that did not get lost in translation. Blind hairpin corners. Italians parking wherever they feel like. Mel likened that 2 hours of driving to one of those puzzles that have one free space for you to slide all the pieces around. That is just what it was like.

Italians' driving is something to behold. We've driven though the centre of many towns, even Naples, and it doesn't matter where they are, if they feel like doing something, they just do it. They'll stop in the middle of the road to chat with a friend who is walking past, they'll double park, turn their hazard lights on and then walk away from their car (apparently if your put your hazard lights on then you can do anything), they do not let people merge and they definitely don't stop for pedestrians if they can help it. Certainly makes things interesting.

Italy has provided us with plenty of little stories, like the cop who stopped us on the highway and told me that Mel is “a very beautiful lady,” in the classic, slightly sleazy Italian way. But the biggest impression it's made on us is not a good one. There is just so much rubbish. Some of the big cities around Europe have been full of buildings going grey and dirty from pollution, but nowhere has it been like this. I have never seen so much rubbish outside a tip, ever. It is absolutely disgraceful. It's all over the roadsides, in the streets, at the beach (to a lesser extent). We went to a lake outside Rome, where the Pope has his summer residence, to have a swim. There was a grassy, gravelly area at the waters edge where people could spread out a towel and sit. But the whole area was strewn with rubbish. It was a really beautiful spot but not at all inviting.

But then there is the food.  The guide that took us through Palatine hill and the palaces gave us directions to a strip of restaurants/delis in a town outside of Rome.  We sat and ate our way through a delicious antipasto platter in about 2 hours.  It was huge and so very good. 

I'm not sure if we'll be able to come to a final decision about Italy, but it sure has been interesting.

Nice, Mt Blanc, Switzerland and more!

A quick update before I explain the photos...we decided that instead of going straight on to Italy from France we would head up to Switzerland so save us extra driving later on...

We continued up the French coast for a few more days and stayed here in Nice for two nights. It was great. Shopping, eating out and swimming. We explored the harbour and the 'old town' which was a maze of narrow alleyways filled with cafes, icecream shops and everything you can imagine. We also got to wander through a night time market and 10 Salamancas worth of resturants. There wasn't enough time to try all the food!

We stopped at Mt Blanc on the way to Switzerland. When the lady sold us our tickets to go up the mountain she said 'the visibility isn't perfect' what she meant was 'there is no visibility whatsoever'. We were a bit disappointed.

The next day dawned and it was so sunny and clear that we went up again, still a little cloudy up the top but mind blowingly beautiful.

We then went on to Switzerland. We don't have many photos because it was pretty grey for a few days. We have however visited the lovely medieval town of Gruyeres...famous for its cheese. We got to see it being made and then that night (thanks to a conversation with Monica) we went out and had proper gruyeres cheese fondue - about a kilo of it! Delicious!

This is Interlaken, we camped here on the side of lake after visiting Bern (which I'm pretty sure is the capital). It was a cool place, I wish we had had more time there and that it hadn't rained all day. At Interlaken we also visited the caves of st Beatus, an Irish missionary monk who was rumoured to have slain the dragon living in the caves. We did a tour 2km into the caves, it was pretty cool but the best bit was when all the lights went out...we had to get the emergency torches out to make our way back.

Camping in Switzerland is very expensive (45-55 swiss franks per night) so we have done a lot of roughing it...this was the view from our car park in Weggis on lake Lucerne. Small towns in Swizerland are great, they put on heaps of stuff for tourists. The first night we were here we went to a 'folklore evening', we couldn't understand anything but the yodeling and little kids dances were fun =)

The next day we caught the cable car from weggis up to the top of Mt Rigi and did some walking. The views were spectacular. That and the constant sound of cow bells in the background made me think of the Sound of Music and Heidi a lot

Were now in Arbon near St Gallen which were visiting to see an ancient library made by monks. Last night we went to an out door cinema to see 'Black Swan' assuming it would be subtitled. After waiting an hour and a half for the movie to start we found that the whole thing was done with German voice over, oops! However the atmosphere was lovely, the cinema on the edge of the harbour and other towns along the lakes edge were setting off lots of fireworks so we had a good time anyway.

Miss you all.

France

As hard as it may be to believe, driving everyday, finding a place to stay, and big days of sightseeing are remarkably tiring. So it's been very nice to spend a bit more time in one place just relaxing. It's also been fantastic to have some good weather. Of the 7 days we've been in France only a couple have been below 30 degrees – a nice change from England.

From the train we drove to St Leu d'Esserent, a small town north of Paris, where we stayed at a superb caravan/camping park. One of the reasons it was superb was the pool and another was the weather. We spent our anniversary lounging by the pool, reading, swimming in the pool, eating baguettes with brie, olives and dips, reading by the pool, drinking French wine, and just generally having a great time.

Paris was over in a whirlwind of a day. We took in some of the sights – the Louvre (we bought tickets at the train station which allowed us to skip the 400m line up!), walked up the Champs Elysees, and climbed the Eiffel Tower (a shirtload of steps). Plus as a bit of a bonus we got to see peak hour traffic from the luxury of a bus, and then experience a 45 minute delay with the train. It was a lovely day though.

The next day we drove into Versailles. We thought we'd stop for a couple of hours to check out the palace and then be on our way... We were there for about 5 hours and could easily have stayed longer to check out more of the gardens. It is not possible to describe the grandeur and opulence of the place. Of all the things we've seen so far Versailles has blown me away the most. However I try to describe it, I can't do it justice.

 The back garden...

Louis XIV chapel

Right now we're in a town called le Lavandou on the south coast where we've been swimming everyday in the beautifully clear water of the Mediterranean. Tomorrow we'll head east to spend some more time somewhere else on the south coast of France before crossing another border and confronting another indecipherable language.   

Oh, and I just checked the weather for Hobart...there's definitely something to be said for skipping the winter.  Enjoy!

Week 3 in the UK

After we left Sarah and Chris in England we traveled up toward the lake district, and also planned to visit Edinburgh...of course the weather meant we had to change our plans and visit Scotland first. Here are the photos

The Lakes:

The lake district 'striding edge' walk...we actually walked a very narrow edge, fall off either side and I reckon you'd die. It was awesome! And sunny!

We felt a bit awkward when eating our lunch with all the other walkers at the top because everyone was kitted out in waterproof everythings; gaters, million dollar walking shoes, compasses, ordinance survey maps and whistles. We sat quietly in our jeans and sneakers and then left soon after.

Traditional tourist pose at the top of the walk =)

In the lake district we camped in an area called Langdale. It was absolutely stunning, but only when sunny. I finally decided that I thought that the English were crazy because on the day we left it was absolutely bucketing down and all the English were huddled under the boot doors of their cars eating breakfast or setting off for a walks...

In Scotland:

There were 5-6 lochs (not sure about the spelling) at Loch Ness and we got to watch them open one after the other to let all the sailing boats down. It took about 2 hours.

We ended up doing and extra day trip in Scotland because the weather was still too bad to go to the lake district. It was the best decision. We really couldn't capture it in photos but the scenery was awesome in the real sense of the word. Big, majestic and just incredible.

Our day in Edinburgh was great, it poured all day but by that stage we understood what all the English were telling us...'if you don't go out when its raining you wont go out at all'

The photo above is at a pub called Brew Dog. Nick, Simon's brother told us about it. Beer in the UK was ok but this stuff was so good. Its now up there with some of my absolute favorites. We even bought a T-Shirt!

The other thing we did in Edinburgh was go on the 'Total Whiskey Experience'. I don't really rate whiskey as a rule but the tour was great. I enjoyed learning how to appreciate whiskey better and can now even tell the difference between types. Plus it kept us out of the rain...

Simon will post soon about France so far...I just want to say how incredibly sunny and warm its been.