http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/La-Nostra-Festa/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from La Nostra Festa en-us Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:43:39 +0000 Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:43:39 +0000 We rose early for a preplanned bus shudder daytrip out to Windsor Castle Bath Stonehenge. Our tour guide Deborah was an absolute classic and knew London and England extremely well and kept us entertained the whole day.First stop was Windsor Castle which was a grand old castle with a fantastic collection of old weaponry art and other royal paraphernalia. It was great to go into the r http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Wiltshire/Stonehenge/blog-194400.html Finally we had a sleep in Although after such a long tour it didnrsquot really rejuvenate us as much as we would have liked nothing to do with the previous nightrsquos drinking though We had to check out of the Royal National as wersquod decided back in Australia that wersquod switch hotels so that meant a wait until 2pm to checkin at the Phoenix HotelBest Western Kensington. To f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-194398.html hellip Well we are talking about Amsterdam after all Read what you will from the heading we wonrsquot go into detail with this one 61514. We can say though that our whole tour group had a fantastic time in the city on our first night in Amsterdam on the 6th of July.The 7th of July was our free day in Amsterdam. Steve had decided the previous night that today would be the day for fulfill http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-193726.html After a long drive from Lucerne we finally arrived in Germany once again in a small town called St. Goar in the Rhine Valley. This is a big wine growing region where they grow their grapes on the sides of hills to get the optimum amount of sun.We checked into our small hotel which had possibly the narrowest staircase wersquod ever seen especially considering everyonersquos suitcases were now http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Rhineland-Palatinate/Sankt-Goar/blog-193729.html We arrived in Lucerne on the 3rd of July to much colder weather. Our hotel was 7000ft off the ground up mount Pilatus and so we had to catch cable cars a little like chair lifts up to the top which took approximately 30 minutes to reach the hotel. AS you can imagine being so high up the mountain it was just freezing we felt like we were in the middle of the snowfields In saying that can you http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/North-West/Lucerne/blog-193723.html We stopped over for a very early lunch in the 4th smallest country in the world Liechtenstein on the way to Switzerland on the 3rd of July... as you do We only spent an hour and a half here.The centre of town was very small and everything including food was quite expensive. The scenery was very beautiful but we didn't find the place very interesting. It was a good experience to see it though http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Liechtenstein/blog-193572.html We reached Tyrol at approximately 10am on the 2nd of July ready for white water rafting. We suited up... wet suit wetsuit shoes a waterproof jumper vest and helmet... we hadn't realised there would be so much gear for it There were 8 of us in our raft 7 girls and Steve being the only male The rapids weren't as big as we thought they would be but we still had a lot of fun. We did not fall o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Tyrol/blog-193562.html We spent the whole day on the 1st of July travelling from Vienna to spend one night in Munich basically to experience the famous Hofbruhaus beer hall We have to admit though it was pretty cool to go to the most famous beer hall and consume many 1L steins of beer. Enjoy the photos http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-193561.html The drive in to Austria was absolutely amazing. Such exquisite landscape very mountainous. First impression of Vienna was that it was a beautiful city. Kim loved it Everything was relaxed and laid back it was very clean and it is just really pretty to look at.On the first night in Vienna a few of the guys including Steve went to see DJ Tiesto World 1 DJ the Pyramide Eventhotel. Kim ventu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Vienna-State/Vienna/blog-193560.html We arrived in Venice ahead of schedule and our first excursion was to drive down to Verona to check it out for a few hours. Verona was a cool little city which we thought was exceptionally clean for an Italian city. Before checking out the shops we did the usual tourist thing and checked out Juliet's balconyOnce our time was up in Verona it was time to head back to Venice to our hotel. To say o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Veneto/Venice/blog-193567.html Our trip to Corfu got off to a very disappointing start We disembarked from our overnight ferry at 5am alot of us only having had 2 hours sleep or less. We all would have looked a sorry sight waiting for our fillin bus driver Dave on 3 days break who was a no show. We waited for what seemed like ages we learnt on Corfu there is a thing called 'Ish time' you never really know what time you http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Ionian-Islands/Corfu/blog-193557.html After our first taste of Italy in Florence we arrived in the afternoon of the 20th of June into one of the most important cities in history Rome. The influence this great city has had on modern society is without peer and what better way to start than visiting the Colosseum. This ancient structure whilst partially in ruin is still an impressive sight to behold despite the ravages of time and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-193707.html We stopped in Pisa long enough to try and lift the leaning tower up but we failed in our attempt and had to quickly move on to our next destination One thing for sure it is very humid in Italy http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Pisa/blog-193710.html We arrived in Florence late in the afternoon and we checked into possibly the worst hotel either of us had ever stayed in We headed out for dinner and Karaoke on our first night out which was funny although neither of us got to sing much to Kimrsquos disappointment nothellip haha.The streets in Florence were like nothing else wersquod seen before very distinctive. They are extremely n http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-193709.html An evening excursion down the road from Nice to a little place called Monaco. This country is famous for its Formula One race dodgy tax rules and the Monte Carlo casino. The city itself though is absolutely spectacular at night and the amount of money in this tiny place is astounding To own one of the yachts in that harbourhellip wersquoll keep dreaming The casino itself isnrsquot actual http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Monaco/Monte-Carlo/blog-193711.html Nice has the highest average number of sunlight hours in the whole of France. We arrived in to this French Riviera city to nice weather the air was warm and the water was a beautiful shade of blue. How this changed on our free day We copped a miserable day of clouds and rain and to top it off it was Sunday so the vast majority of shops were closed. The French continued to show off their culina http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d-Azur/Nice/blog-193713.html We arrived in Barcelona at approximately 630pm on Thursday the 14th of June. Barcelona was not a city that either of us had any expectation of. However we knew before touring there that people seem to either love it or hate it On first impression nothing really stood out to us about Barcelonahellip although it was good to experience another major cityWe were taken past the 1992 Olympic Stad http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-193715.html We arrived in Paris at approximately 430pm on the 11607. Due to the fact that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays we made a mad dash to see it on our arrival in to Paris. The Louvre is just beautiful definitely a must see You could spend days in it and still not have seen everythingSteve seemed to grasp the French language immediately quite wellhellip or so he thought On entering the Louv http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-193716.html Well the last 28 days have just flown by We can't believe where the time has gone and where we've managed to visit in that space of time. Looking back at all of our photos it all just seems surreal We had a tour group of 50 people 46 Australians 1 Kiwi living in Australia and 3 Canadians. As you can imagine with so many Australians on tour there was an automatic bond. We describe the expe http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-179107.html Hola We arrived in Luxor to much hotter weather. Temperatures reaching early 40s. We were told that temperatures can often reach 60 degrees celsius so we were pleased that we did not get to experience that We boarded our ship the 'Royal Ruby'. The cabin was quite nice better than expected We were thankful that the ship also had its own pool much more enticing than swimming in the Nile haha http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Aswan/blog-167391.html