Waking up this morning the weather was looking very poor with heavy clouds, can’t see the mountains and all round lousy, still we were here so plan ‘A’ was put into place and we headed off to the castles intending to take some pics on the way. We did that then the skies opened up and it rained steady. Deciding that photos was a bad choice in the rain we decided to head off to Innsbruck in the morning and do the castles in the afternoon, Innsbruck is about 90k away in Austria. As we headed up into the mountains the weather seemed to clear. We went up through Fernpass and stopped at the top for coffee, bought a nice small bottle of schnapps and enjoyed the view for a while. Moving along we came to ... read more

Having seen much of Rothenburg we set off this morning in the car for a drive down the romantic road to Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen, two more walled towns around 100km from Rothenburg. On the way we diverted to Schillingsfirst to have a look at the large Baroque Schloss overlooking the valley, we arrived at 9.00 only to find it wasn’t open until 10.00, so we continued on our way south as planned and intended on visiting later in the day on the way home. We first arrived at Dinkelsbühl and visited the large 16th century Gothic church, as churches go it was quite impressive, the adjacent town hall dates back likewise to the 1600’s and is still a functioning town hall today, as such it is the longest known seat of local government in Germany. We ... read more

The flight to Frankfurt, surprise, surprise was uneventful and we collected our rental car no problem at all, well almost no problem, they did not have any maps and did not even sell any maps, no phone shop at our terminal so a minor hold up. We discovered that terminal 2 was where all the good shops were so we caught the shuttle there and within 30 mins we were sussed. Armed with maps, a much needed coffee and a new sim card for Pam’s phone we headed back to the car and on our way. My nerves were a little wound up as I remember how tricky driving is on the other side of the road so with some trepidation we set off trusting the GPS to deliver us to the right place. Piece of ... read more

Back to the monorail this morning we caught the monorail out to the palms and well it is just spectacular seeing how the other half lives, the most expensive room in the hotel is around 100k per night, I have no idea what the cheapest night is but is well out of our price range. We stooges around for a while, had a coffee in the café adjacent to the hotel, you just can’t get in there if you are not a guest. The next on the list is the sail shaped Burj Al Arab situated on Jumeria Beach and only slightly less expensive than the palms, it is none the less a startling building and well worth the visit. As we are due to go on our desert safari tonight we headed back to the ... read more

Tomorrow: Depart Rome on Alitalia flight AZ202 Our last day in Rome deserved a trip to the Via Veneto, Romes most prestigious shopping area full of top brand shops, Gucci and Prada etc. Zac decided he needed some cash so selecting a suitable machine it proceeded to eat his card and dispense no cash, oh well its the last day. Walking from the Via Veneto we came across the Piazza Del Popolo which had some nice statues and a central fountain along with a nice cafe for the inevitable espresso. Leaving the piazza we walked up to the Borghese Gardens and loved the laid back area, lovely paths, gardens and families out to enjoy the beautiful day. We walked through the gardens and parks and just enjoyed the afternoon. We watched some young people do some ... read more