An early start with the standard continental breakfast. We have a Vatican tour which starts at 9:30am, so we leave at 8am - plenty of time right? After all, we have detailed instructions on how to get to the meeting point. This time, we opt for a tram, which complement the buses as far as we could tell. We think we know where to get off. Wrong! Back on the next tram, this time we know where to get off. Wrong! Back on the tram, and here we are at the end of the line. After asking directions we find what [View Full Entry]

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A late breakfast and unhurried checkout and a short walk to the station before a long(ish) wait for the train to Rome. I go for a walk while Karina waits at the station, and for the 1st time since Paris I can actually walk normally! I don't want to overdo it, but hopefully with the 6hr train ride and overnight rest in Rome I'll be 100% tomorrow - yah! I buy some sandwiches and drinks for lunch and we drag our bags up to the platform to wait 15 mins for our train, which has suddenly changed platforms. Fortunately, it's on [View Full Entry]

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An early rise for an early breakfast and Karina, surprisingly, is feeling under the weather and tired and wants to sleep until 11am. Never one to argue with sleep, with my foot - although improving again - it's a done deal. We wake a little refreshed and head into the city after a stop at the pharmacy to buy some cold and flu medication and some throat lozengers (which taste disgusting I'm told). My foot is feeling the best it has yet - I still can't quite walk "normally" - but it's getting there. Still, not wanting to overdo it, we [View Full Entry]

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When I woke this morning my fears appeared to be well-founded - my foot was definitely worse than the previous days as I couldn't walk on it at all at first. To compound matters, the meal last night had sat very heavily and I'd had trouble getting to sleep last night and didn't really feel like eating breakfast. The breakfast at the hotel was standard European fare - except this time they had pastries filled with custard and nutella, although I could only stomach a small bowl of cereal. Soon we were back in the city and decided to buy a [View Full Entry]

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After a very ordinary breakfast on the train (no juice or even water!) we arrived at Venice train station around 9am. After ringing and getting directions to the hotel, we stepped out of the statio and - WOW! A few more steps and we'd have fallen straight into the Grand Canal! Quite a site when it hits you like that! My foot was still quite sore, so it was quite a struggle to navigate the three bridges over the canals to get to the bus terminal. Even so, being seemingly dropped right into the tourist centre of Venice made me forget [View Full Entry]

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After trying (unsuccessfully) to find some suitable accommodation in Naples on an internet connection that was down about 95% of the time, it was time to pack up and check out of the apartment. Fortunately we could store our suitcases until 6:30 this evening. I headed off to Donauislen (the island in the Danube) to find somewhere to rest my foot again. The island is a "recreational centre" of Vienna, with hire boats, cycling and rollerblading tracks, bars and cafes, trampolines and other activites spread the length of the island and adjacent shorelines. It was an absolutely beautiful day, a [View Full Entry]

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Blessed with the weather again, Karina rose early for breakfast while I slept in a bit. The plan today was for me to rest my foot this morning, have the leftover pizza for lunch, and then meet Karina in the city before the tour of the Spanish Riding School at 2pm. The internet wasn't really working properly this morning, so I was really bored again, flicking between TV channels every 2 mins and trying the @#$% internet again. In the end I went back to bed for about 45 mins until it was time for a shower, lunch and leave. A [View Full Entry]

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Last night we arrived at the apartment after 10:30pm, greeted by the receptionist at the time who, thankfully, spoke English. The apartment is huge - the largest by far we've stayed in so far. The only downside so far is that the reception is rarely manned, and when we did contact someone this morning to ask about washing, they couldn't speak a word of English. I've been trying to find an English-German phrase book since we arrived in Munich a few days ago, but it has proven near-impossible. I'm sure that I could pick up enough for simple questions if I [View Full Entry]

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This morning we woke to get an early start on the day (and I wanted eggs for breakfast today - I missed out on them yesterday). My foot felt the same as yesterday, which wasn't encouraging. The plan was for me to stay in our room until checkout at 11:30am, and then catch the bus into the city to meet Karina, then we'd come back at 4pm to collect our bags and catch the train to Vienna. However, after speaking to the owner on the way out, Karina returned to tell me that I could stay in the room until 4pm [View Full Entry]

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Last night we arrived in Salzburg after 10pm and caught a taxi straight to our hotel. We picked the key up from the hotel restaurant and went straight up to our room - wow! The room is huge - larger than our apartment in Paris and more roomy than our NY apartment! We crashed immediately. We woke this morning to spectacular weather and a snow-capped alpine vista out our window. The only problem was the fact that I had great difficulty walking to the bathroom some 10 feet from the bed. Not a good sign. I hobbled downstairs to breakfast and [View Full Entry]

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