An hour's drive north of Trento is town of Bolzano, which is bilingual (Italian and German). We spent time walking around the old part of town and enjoying the fine cuisine with its cultural mix. We visited the archaeological museum and saw, Ozti the iceman, a mummy found in a glacier near the Austrian border that dates back 5,300 years. On our second day we rode a cable car up to Soprabolzano with a bird's eye view of the city. We then took a tram to Collalbo, walking back to Soprabolzano through alpine villages, woods and pastures, the Dolomite mountains were [View Full Entry]

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We left Strigno and instead of taking the valley road to Trento we travelled via the mountains to the tiny town of Lausan, one of the Austrian strongholds during the wars. Trento is a Roman town founded in 1BC. The annual medieval archery tournament of "Palio delle Contrade", held between the 8 town segments or contrade, was being held in the old town square. People were wearing period costume and demonstrating crafts like spinning and weaving, metal working with a forge, woodturning and bookmaking. We also drove to the alpine villages and ski resorts on Monte Bondone, Trento's winter playgro [View Full Entry]

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We are staying in an old hotel in the township of Strigno which is in a central location to Tony's 10 cousins that live in the region. We have had many meals with the family and are spending time acquainting ourselves with the region. [View Full Entry]

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FOUR COUNTRIES IN ONE DAY II We headed across BiH to Banja Luka and then back into Croatia, Slovenia and onto Italy, with a visit to Trieste in mind. As we drove down the steep incline into the city we were hit by a storm - heavy rain, strong winds and some hail - then spend a bit of time trying to find a place to stop and get our bearings. A very white-knuckled Sam had her first introduction to Italian city traffic with success. Afterwards we were told that even our Italian relations don't drive in Trieste! We eventually got [View Full Entry]

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FOUR COUNTRIES IN ONE DAY - PART I Tony and his mother arrived in France and there was an emotional reunion of sisters and a brother who had not seen each other for 50+ years. We collected our car which fortunately comes with a GPS (nicknamed Maria). We left France travelling through Switzerland, Germany and Austria overnighting in Villach (Austria). The weather was sunny with a thick haze over the mountains (mainly due to the fires in Greece) and we went through many, many long tunnels, some up to 6kms long. From Austria our journey took us through Slovenia and Croatia. [View Full Entry]

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Edinburgh was alive with people of differing nationalities enjoying six festivals - International Festival (the arts), Festival Fringe (2,050 shows), International Film Festival, International Book Festival, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival and Military Tattoo. I enjoyed some Fringe comedy shows, including Australian, Adam Hills. Naturally I had to visit The Book Festival, which had books (obviously) and authors giving talks and book signing. There were street theatre performances on the road leading to Edinburgh Castle (The Royal Mile) and costumed people handing out flyers for the myriad of [View Full Entry]

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We took the express to London, checked into our accommodation in Paddington, then hit London running. The weather has been warm and sunny - don't know what everyone complains about. What a fantastic city!! We bought 24 hour hop-on, hop-off bus ticket and saw all the sights including everything on the Monopoly board or place names that also exist in Australia. This morning we took a river cruise to Greenwich where we stood on the world's prime meridian and visited the Royal Observatory. Then another bus trip around the city's main sights. Just before catching our train to Heathrow we sa [View Full Entry]

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We travelled through England on the day that their team played its first World Cup match. There were flags flying, the pubs were full and not much traffic around! Our destination was the university city of Cambridge to stay with friends. They showed us around the city, we had a typical English lunch in a pub and went punting on the Cam River (as one does in Cambridge). We were treated to a BBQ (enough to make you homesick!) and sat in their back garden watching squirrels chase each other through the trees. The weather was warm enough for shorts and [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at Kingston on Hull in the morning and caught several trains, travelling through northern England, into Edinburgh and then past the beautiful Cairngorms National Park to Inverness, then onto Elgin. Elgin is in north Scotland and is at the start of the Malt Whisky trail, where over half of Scotland's malt whisky's exist. We spent a day exploring the town and then caught a bus to the coast (5 miles away). We visited the town of Lossiemouth which is also an RAF base and pilot training area. Fighter jets frequently flew overhead. Scotland treated us to beautiful sunny days. [View Full Entry]

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The weather in Holland was initially cool, wet and windy. The weather may have been cold but the hospitality with our friends in Rotterdam certainly was not. They showed us around and took us to visit family, helping us to communicate as Sam's spoken Dutch was not so good. One uncle took us around Schiedam and Vlaardingen to see where Sam's family was born and lived before coming to Australia. With another aunt and uncle we visited the old township of Woudrichem which is one of the most beautifully preserved Medieval towns in the the Netherlands. We had a day in [View Full Entry]

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