Helly and Sessy

Caught the train to Titisee with the intention of swimming in a mountain lake. Turns out they'd forgotten to put the heating on. Did eventually manage it, but it was too cold to stay long. Very beautiful location and travelling by train meant I got to fully enjoy the spectacular scenery.... read more

Woke up to a breakfast of frankfurters and bratwursts washed down with lager, chatted a bit about the wa....oh, okay not really. It's wonderful to be out enjoying the countryside after seeing so much citylife. What is even better is how green, in an eco way, life is in the Black Forest. I felt like I was living the 'Famous Five' life as we cycled off to the flea market. In the afternoon (after the rain had stopped - bloody german weather) we were back on the bikes and off to the nature reserve. Sera and Moritz (Moritz is the child genius future prime minister son of Steffen and Michele who we are staying with) in the bike trailer. Sera loved seeing all the animals: Camels (it was like being back at home), donkeys, bison, monkeys, ... read more

Arrived at Naples station, but didn't venture outside as we'd been told that Naples has a high crime rate. Tried to get some money at the Bureau de Change, but there Visa machine wasn't working. Very worried that we will have to finish the trip early because of lack of funds (well access to the funds). Anyway, headed off to Pompeii. Arrived at the station and then got to play the 'where are the ruins' game. The lack of information available at the stations of these tourist hotspots really surprised me. We sat in the town centre gardens and fed the pigeons until the tourist information centre opened. Armed with a map (unfortunately no one to read it) we headed off to the ruins. We got an audio guide and Sera happily walked along and listened ... read more

We went on a small tour with 2 other people and our Guide - Ernesto. Sera loved bouncing around in the back of a Land Rover as we went along narrow rocky paths up Mount Etna. It was interesting to hear about the history of Etna and also how you can tell the age of the lava rock from its colour. Although reaching the top was good, the real highlight for all of us was going into a lava tube! Sera also had a chance to feed a wild fox the remains of her lunch (pizza of course). I was hoping to spend the afternoon on Isola bella, but as usual poor/lack of information prevented me from doing this. Instead we spent the evening high up on the cliffside of Taormina. We then caught the night ... read more

Was hoping that my eye would have recovered overnight. Unfortunately it had not, so I had to cancel the excursion up Mount Etna and play hunt the hospital instead. There are lots and you have to have the right one, oh and follow the Italian instructions to get there. Anyway, after a morning of standing in queues I realised that I was more bored than in pain, so we continued with our journey. To make the most of the day, we caught the bus (the helpful lady at the hostel got all the details) to Catania War Cemetry. The driver said that the bus didn't go near and that it was a fast and dangerous road, not suitable for walking on. I didn't think he was going to help us further. He asked if it was ... read more

Sorry for the break in blogs, but I haven't had the chance/access until now. We took the sleeper train to the toe of Italy 'imagine being gently rocked to sleep by the train an waking up fresh and rested at your destination' - I don't think so! More like 'imagine waking up everytime the train stops and peering out the window, desperately trying to see if it's your station. Due to the fabulous signposts and the train being 20minuted early we ended up going past by one stop. Sera says to me 'what station are we at' 'oh just some station, not ours, arrrghhhh! We're pulling away and it is ours. Oh well! We got another train back the other way and then got on the ferry to Messina. We then caught the train down to ... read more

Up at 5am to catch the 6am train! Sera was a great travel companian and was so perky even though she had had so little sleep. It's very difficult to work out which platform you need and it doesn't help when the platform you're on has 2 sides. Eventually boarded the correct train and found a helpful squaddie who explained that the train only went part of the way and then Iàd have to catch a bus - we just made it. Both the bus and train journeys were very sceninc and we saw a very different, rural side to Greece that we had not been party to in Athens. Got chucked off the bus at 'Patras' without a word, only to discover some time later that this was not Patras and that we had to ... read more

It's quite easy finding your way round in Greece as all the streets are labelled. It's just a shame it's in Greek! hee hee, it's in English as well, as are a lot of things. We caught the metro and went off to see the Acropolis, which is amazing. We sat in the Theatre of Dionysus and then went up the hill to see Parthenon etc. We also went to the Acropolis museum. It was okay, but not very child friendly. On the plus side the Ancient Greeks were well into nudity, so that kept our interest up. Also saw Hadrian's Library (obviously very popular as there were no books left) and Ancient Agora. Ancient Agora was quite interesting and we liked looking at the childrens toys and the strange potty.... read more