Summer Fun and Sailing - Topdeck Style (Part 1)

Monday 23rd July 2007
We waved goodbye to our humble flat in sunny (yes that’s right) Edinburgh and made our way slowly to the train station from where we would begin our European Odyssey. On the way to the station, there would be many complaints (mainly from myself) about ‘why had I packed so much’ and ‘my bag is too heavy’ but as many people who know me well understand, I am yet to master the art of light packing. I will learn one day, I promise!!! We made it to the train station to find that our lovely train would be slightly delayed on its journey to London so we grabbed some lunch and settled in for the wait. After much confusion over what platform we were departing from, we were on our way to London. We were lucky enough to have checked our luggage into the front of the train before hand so we had some space to stretch out. It was lovely. I opened Harry Potter and before I knew it, we had arrived at Kings Cross (in the middle of peak hour) and it was onwards to fight our way through the mass of people on the tube. After much lifting, dodging and swearing (mainly from me!!), we arrived at the Globetrotters which would be our base for the night and where we would meet our trip leader and some of our fellow travellers. We were a little late to our group meeting before the trip and when we checked in, we were greeted by a mad rush of 18/19 year olds as they streamed past us towards the bar. I looked at Jod’s and I admit that I was a little bit freaked out at the thought of spending 24 days with these kids (Turns out that you should never judge a book by its cover and the Gappies weren’t too bad at all !!!) After dumping our bags in our room, we went searching for our tour group. We were all good and managed to find our group and we were pretty lucky ‘cause they are all awesome people and we had the best time.

Tuesday 24th July 2007
It was a very early start this morning. We stumbled downstairs and met up with our trip leader Candice and the rest of our travellers and we were on our way. We made our way from the hustle and bustle of the London streets towards the white cliffs of Dover (yep, they really are white). We were greeted with the immigration buildings and they were nice enough to wave us through. We just missed the ferry and booked it for the next one. After some lunch in the ferry terminal, it was time to begin our journey. Once we jumped on that ferry, it started to feel like we were heading on holidays…it was the best feeling. The ferry was quite large and we managed to find a seat upstairs in the sun. It was even t-shirt material which I hadn’t experienced in quite sometime. The water was lovely and it was a nice change to see landscape rather than city skylines. We arrived at Calais an hour or so later and met up with Foggy (our driver), LJ (our cook) and Tanya (our assistant cook) who would be with us for the next 24 days.

We loaded up the coach and were on our way with the sweet sounds of Guns ’n’ Roses ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ playing the background (awesome!!) We arrived in Paris in the late afternoon and made our way to the hotel which would be home for the next two nights. We checked into our rooms and then had some dinner in the hotel and it was pretty ordinary and I think we might have said that we hope LJ & Tanya’s food was not going to be like this for the rest of the trip. There were no worries with that because they looked after us all and made some lovely food for us over the whole trip (we will miss her!!). We left the hotel and headed off on a driving tour around Paris with Foggy at the helm. I must admit, Paris was never near the top of my list of places I would love to visit and I admit that after our little drive around, I was swayed. It really is a beautiful city and I can’t wait to go back again. Our bus tour took us past the Moulin Rogue towards Montmartre. We jumped off the bus and made the long and painful journey up the 250+ stairs that would take us to the Sacre Coeur. To the people who know me well, you all know about my dislike of stairs so it was a struggle to say the least to make it to the top. After much huffing, puffing and more swearing, I made it to the top and must say that I am glad I made the climb. The Sacre Coeur is amazing and so white. The view across Paris is awesome and we spent some time strolling through the church and taking lots & lots of photos. We made our way back down the stairs and it was off to our next destination. We drove around the Place de la Concorde and then made our way down the Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc de Triomphe is surrounded by a huge roundabout. In Europe, it turns out that you don’t give way to cars already in the roundabout. If you are in the roundabout, you have to give way to anyone who wants to enter the roundabout….weird. It does make for a funny sight though. Apparently, the minute you enter the roundabout, any insurance you have is becomes null & void until you leave the roundabout. It is crazy. Foggy cranked out ‘Danger Zone’ and it was our turn to enter the fray….it was soo funny, we did a few laps and then made it safely out of the Arc. We passed the house on Av Kleber where Marilyn Monroe used to live and made our way down to the Eiffel Tower. It is amazing at night time and each hour, the tower sparkles….its pretty awesome. The photos don’t really do it any justice but take my word for it, it was pretty cool. There was a mini disco on the bus on the way back to hotel and then it was off to bed to grab some shut eye before our free day in Paris.

Wednesday 25th July 2007
Today was our free day in Paris. We ventured in on the bus and then after much deliberation, we mapped out our journey for the day. We decided to start with Napoleons tomb which is housed in the Hotel des Invalides. The chapel where he is housed is quite large and as per Napoleon, his tomb is also huge. They say that when he died, his body was cut into 7 pieces and that his tomb does not contain all of the pieces. Not sure where the other bits are though (should really have done some research on that topic hey!). After checking out the tomb, we were wandering along to the Notre Dame Cathedral in search of Quasimodo. Notre Dame was awesome, we went for a stroll through the church during midday mass and its quite impressive. We didn’t climb up to the top where the bell towers are because the line was quite long and we had many more places we needed to squeeze in. We did manage to squeeze in a crepe which was lovely. We made our way down along the Seine back towards the Louvre. Candice had mentioned a secret entrance to the Lourve and we were glad to find this as it saved quite sometime lining up for tickets. We made our way through the museum and found the Mona Lisa. To quote our young friend Nat ‘is that it!!!’ It turns out that the Mona Lisa isn’t as big as I thought it was going to be. There were a lot of people there so my picture is not all that clear but you get the picture! From the Lourve, we made our way towards the Place de la Concorde and along the Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe. There was more stairs to climb for me as we made our way up the tiny staircase housing 300+ stairs to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Once I got my breath back, the view was amazing. The roundabout looks so much more chaotic from up high. You get awesome views from up there, so kids if you are in Paris, I highly recommend that you climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We slowly made our way down Kleber Av and headed towards the Eiffel Tower to meet up with the rest of the gang for a picnic under the tower. LJ & Tanya had whipped us up a lovely feast which included some the traditional French dish of snails (or escargots for the educated LOL). I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about eating snails, but in the end they weren’t too bad at all. After our dinner, it was decided that we were going to put a team together and challenge the other two Topdeck buses to a snail eating competition. I courageously volunteered to be on the team and as Aim’s would say, ‘it was on like donkey kong’. Marlena, Damo, Player, Michael and I lined up and it was on. It was similar to a boat race, we had to run 100 metres, eat 5 snails and then run back and then the next person goes. We won the race but for some reason, it was called a draw between us and the Gappies and we had to race again for the title. This time round, we only had to eat two snails and there were no doubts about who were the champions. Our prize was a bottle of Champagne each which was put to good use. We cleaned up and then it was time for the Seine River cruise. It was lovely cruising along the Seine with the sun setting over Notre Dame. Paris is a lovely city. They even have a Statue of Liberty (yep, I was sceptical at first but it’s really there). Did you know that the Eiffel Tower lights up every hour and it’s gorgeous? Hopefully the photos did it justice. We made it back to land and then it was back to the hotel. We all met up for a few social beverages in the bar before bed. We did have a small issue in Paris when the door to the hotel room we were staying in decided not to open. They had to move us to another room and then practically break down the door to our own room to get our stuff out. Not funny at 1am when you have to get up early the next day. It was all part of the story so it’s all good. We went to sleep with dreams of snow and the Swiss Alps because we were off to Switzerland the next day!!!

Thursday 26th July 2007
It was an early start this morning and after brekkie we loaded up the coach and were on our way to Switzerland. We travelled through the French countryside before crossed the border into Switzerland around lunchtime without any hassles and it was amazing the changes in the scenery, as we made our way up into the Alps. It was beautiful and like nothing I had seen before. It was almost like, it wasn’t real and that the snow & mountains had been painted in the background. Amazing!!! We arrived at our campsite in Lauterbrunnen in the late afternoon and had a couple of hours to spare before dinner. The campsite was so cute. It was at the base of the Jungfrau & Schilthorn Mountains and when you looked up at the mountains, there were waterfalls cascading down the sides and you could see the snow at the top, it was just gorgeous. At the campsite, they have a small river that runs along the front of the shop/reception area and you can literally pluck an ice cold beer from the river, how awesome is that. I love that place. After a few quiet ales, we hung out with some of our fellow travellers before sitting down to some dinner prepared by our lovely chefs. After dinner, the rest of the night was ours. In true Topdeck style, we headed to the bar and proceeded to drink beer and tequila. They have a game in the bar there, where the object of the game is to smash your nail into the block of wood before anyone else does. Its sounds easy enough but you only use a metal hammer thing that has a circle at the end. Let me tell you, that after a few beers, those nails all look the same (and get a little blurry) and it’s quite difficult to hit anything let alone your nail into the wood. It was hours of fun though. We danced up a storm and then stumbled to bed in the early hours of the morning. We were heading up the mountain the next day.

Friday 27th July 2007
Today we headed up the Jungfrau Mountain. I must admit that I was feeling very dodgy as I made my way to brekkie, but one look at the Swiss Alps and it was a lot better for sure. After layering up with as many long sleeve tops I could find, it was time to make our way from the campsite, down into the tiny village of Lauterbrunnen and to the trains that would take us up the mountain. The mountain is 4000m high and is covered in snow. Its amazing. We jumped on the trains and we were off. The ride up the mountain took a few hours and you could feel the temperature drop with every metre we climbed. We jumped out a couple of times along the ride to check out the view from the indoor observation decks and then we kept on swimming (LOL) to the top of the mountain. Breathing in the fresh alpine air, we made our way outside to check out the snow capped mountains from one of the viewing areas. It was amazing; I have never seen snow like that before, it seemed to stretch on for miles and miles. It was awesome. Nat, Aim’s, Heidi, Lisa, Jod’s and I made our way through the mountain tunnels out into the snow and it was time to act like children again. We probably weren’t quite prepared for the snow because it’s quite slippery in your converse runners and there were a few close calls where we all nearly fell on our asses but we made it. Nat, Lisa, Heidi and I hired some plastic discs and went sliding down the hill in the snow, we stacked it a few times but it was so much fun. Snow fights were played and we strolled along and found the husky’s. They weren’t doing husky rides because the snow was too soft but the girls got some photos with the husky’s anyways. They were so cute. We made our way back inside and headed up to the look out at the top of the mountain for more views. We were all feeling very seedy after the night before and we decided that it was time to head back down the mountain. I swear, the trip back down the mountain was never ending. Nat, Heidi, Jodie, Lisa, Aimee and I were all slightly delirious; I think the fresh alpine air really got to us. I have never laughed so much in my life, we were all sitting at the back of train doing the ‘muttley laugh’ and crying. Funniest thing was that none of us had any idea what we were laughing at. We arrived back in Lauterbrunnen, got warmed up and made our way to dinner. It was decided that we were to defend our champion’s title and we were going to challenge the Gappies to a boat race. Now for the uneducated, the boat race we are referring to is a drinking game and not an actual boat race on water (as one of the slightly naïve gappies thought!!!!). The team was decided and it was on. We enjoyed a traditional Swiss dinner of sausages, potatoes and beans and freshen up before the challenge was on. We made our way back to the bar and after a few practice beers, the race was on. Our credibility rested in the safe drinking hands of Damo, Marlena, Marianne, Jodie, Kris and Hayden. We got off to a good start but were penalised when Jodie didn’t finish off the last drop or place the cup upside down on her head. The 5 second penalty was served and next came Kris. The kids had to skull pints of beer and Kris simply opened his mouth and swallowed the whole pint in one go!!! We were all in shock and it took Hayden a second to realise that it was his turn to skull. Needless to say, we won by a pint or two and Kris was christened with the new nickname ‘the well’. It was amazing. We were all so proud of our boat racers. We hung around for a few more beers and each wrote a little note on a beer coaster which hangs with pride from the roof of the bar. If you are ever there, you should check out our messages along with the hundred others that also hang from the roof. We headed to bed with a slightly heavy heart knowing that this was the last time we would see Switzerland for a while. I highly recommend Switzerland to anyone, it’s an awesome place and so picturesque.

Saturday 28th July 2007
Today we made our way down to Florence. On the way we stopped at Pisa to check out the Leaning Tower. It was so hot when we landed in Pisa, the nice and sweaty kind of hot. After living in Scotland for the past 6 months, you really appreciate some hot weather. It was great. Pisa was so cute and it’s amazing seeing how well the tower has held up and how much it actually leans. We took some photos holding up the tower and then strolled around the Baptistery and the Cathedral and then it was back to the bus. We arrived at our campsite in the Tuscan Hills and got our rooms sorted out before making our way out to explore the campsite. I use the word campsite very loosely, as these places were more like resorts. They have a number of restaurants, bars, gelato shops, mini supermarkets and discos. It’s so cool. We were staying in cabins which were quite nice indeed. Dinner was served and we made our way to the restaurant for our Italian Feast. We started with red wine, bread, oil and balsamic vinegar. Entrée was a couple of pasta dishes and then we had pizza for our mains. The meal was finished off with some gelato (mmmm). It was beautiful food and we all rolled out of the restaurant and made our way to the bar. We were greeted with a round of Limoncello shots upon arrival and it was on like donkey kong from there. Let me tell you a little about the bartenders in Italy. They don’t use the measuring shot for spirits, its more like they free pour your spirits which usually results in more alcohol than mixer. The mojitos & sangria were lethal. We made our way down to the discothèque for a boogie and more mojitos while we danced the night away.

Sunday 29th July 2007
Today we made our way into Florence for a walking tour. It was about 45 degrees in the shade and it was lovely. We met our guide along the way and we off on our walking adventure. Florence is beautiful. You can’t but help to gaze in wonder at all the buildings and at the history of the place. Our walking tour took us the Sante Croce Basilica (this is the burial place of Michelangelo). The basilica was gorgeous and quite white as are a lot of them in Italy. We strolled along to the Piazza della Signora where there is a statue of Neptune. Neptune statues were in a few places in Italy because they felt that as the water god, he would protect their water supplies. Italy has a lot of Aqua ducts and it is the one of the few places in Europe where the drinking water from the taps in the cities that is safe to drink. In the Piazza, they have quite a lot of sculptures and statues from famous artists. They have a statue by Cellini of Perseus holding the head of Medusa (who he had just slayed) and if you look at the back of the sculpture, Cellini has sculpted his own face into the back of Perseus’s head (amazing). In the square there is also a replica of Michelangelo’s ‘David’. We made our way past the Uffizi Gallery where they had statues of Michelangelo, Donatello & Leonardo outside the gallery. I was hoping to find one of Raphael and then I would have had all the TMNT’s but no luck!! There was a statue of Machiavelli also. We saw the Ponte Vecchio which is an old bridge that looks like a street on water which is amazing and also saw the Duomo Cathedral. There is a door that is coated in gold near the side of the Duomo. We went to a leather store and were treated to a leather making demonstration and they told us a few tips for when you are buying leather. They say that smell has nothing to do with it, the smell is actually the dyes/chemicals and not the leather. If there is a tag on the product that says genuine leather, this may only mean that the tag is the only leather part of the product. They also say that if you rub the leather and it feels velvety, then it’s most likely real. Interesting!!! Candice arranged for us all to go to the Accademia to see the real ‘David’. I could not believe how big the sculpture is, it’s massive. I think Michelangelo would have had to hang from the roof to put that one together. Around the back of ‘David’ there is a circle of seats where you can sit and admire the back view of the statue. We spent a lot of time sitting on that seat but not for the reason that many of you are thinking (get your minds out of the gutters!!!!). The air-conditioning comes through vents in the floor in the Accedemia and there happened to be a lot of vents near the seats, so we spent an hour or so enjoying the cold air on our feet while we admired a work of art. After resting for a while, Jodie, Aimee and Bharti decided to climb the 414 stairs to the top of Giotto’s Tower. I decided against this and told the girls to take some pics for me and headed towards the markets. The markets had a lot of (fake) designer bags and some nice leather bags as well. You can barter away for anything in the markets. There was a gold and silver shop that I could have spent a lot of money in, they had the most amazing gold jewellery and they sell it by weight of gold. Needless to say, the rings I was looking at were well out of my price range so I walked out empty handed. We did manage to squeeze in some gelato on our travels though!!!! We headed back to the campsite for dinner and hit the disco again to celebrate our last night in Florence cause we were off to Rome the next day.

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