Day 4 Today we were supposed to be heading to Lucerne but we decided we were enjoying Interlaken too much some stayed an extra night! The plan was to head up another mountain and do some fun activities but we stopped in at a bike hire place before and got told that the lifts up the mountain were closed because of overnight snow. They were running a tour we had wanted to do so we decided to go with them and I am SO glad we did! We did bike tour up to Lauterbrunnan and to see the waterfalls. Not only was it a bike tour, it was an electric bike tour! The bikes have electronic assist which you can adjust depending to how much assistance you want! Now I am no bike rider so I ... read more
Day 1 Another early start and a few train trips later and we had arrived in Interlaken! And it was cold! We stayed in a backpackers villa in the tiniest room ever! Luckily we didn't plan on spending too much time in the room! So we dropped off our gear and headed out. Whilst it was cold, the sky was clear and the sun was out. So we headed up a smaller mountain near our hostel called Harder Kulm. You go up the side of the mountain in a funicular which was pretty cool!! Up the top of the mountain they have a new viewing platform which hangs over the edge of the cliff and there is a glass floor which looks straight down the cliff! I wasn't too keen on standing on that!! The view ... read more
Day 1 - To Venice Another traveling day and another early start! A few train changes later and we arrived in Venice!! We checked in to our hotel which was one that Chris had stayed at previously. He had mentioned that when we booked and it looked like it payed off as we got quite a nice room, which looked straight out onto a canal! Having seen a few of the other rooms, we got a pretty big room too! So... We dropped off our stuff and went walking. We hit St Marks square and once again I was impressed at the enormous, exquisite cathedral! Very fancy! I was quite overwhelmed by the incredible lay out of Venice. It is something completely different to what I had expected. I loved the old buildings, the little canals ... read more
Day 1 Today we had planned to walk path through the 5 towns of Cinque Terre, however due to flash flooding in October last year some of the paths were closed because of landslides. So we caught the train to the first town of Riomaggiore and walked along the Via dell'Amore (the lovers lane) to Manarola. The next 2 paths were closed so we caught the train the top town, Monterosso and started on the walk towards Vernazza. I now understand why tourists usually walk it the other direction as the stairs up the mountain were brutal!! We made it though and arrived in Vernazza! Beautiful town but we could see how the floods had actually affected the town. You can see the damage in the photos! We caught a ferry back to the first town ... read more
Day 1 Another overnight ferry, a few trains later and we made it to Florence. Our B&B was a bit average but none the less it was livable... We made our way in to the centre and found the Duomo. Yep, pretty impressive! We climbed the couple of hundred steps to the top of the bell tower and the view was incredible! We wandered through the streets of Florence, fought our way through the market stalls (and I didn't buy ANYTHING! Not that I wasn't tempted...), found some gelati and then had a beautiful dinner. Of course we sat next to a table full of Aussies! We seem to always find the Aussies! Despite keeping our voices down they recognized the accent and we spent the rest of evening chatting to them. Day 2 We got ... read more
Day 1 Well today we spent a bit of time just wandering around Hvar town. Most importantly we found a coffee bar that sold semi-decent coffee! (oh how I miss really good coffee!!). We spent the morning walking around the beautiful coastline then headed back to the hotel for a little rest. Well it turned out to be a really long sleep then a lot of nothing!! For dinner we went to a little authentic Croatian place. We knew it was going to be interesting when the owner was out the front carving a big piece of smoked meat with a huge knife and there were chunks of smoked meats hanging from the ceiling and the menus were held together with old iron hand tools (eg mine had a hammer) !! The food was incredible! Dalmatian ... read more
Day 1 The early morning start was worth it to see the ferry pulling in to Croatia just after sunrise. Dubrovnik is beautiful!! We hadn't even done anything yet but we loved it!! A quick coffee and breakfast and we walked to our hotel which has a lovely view of the sea! The people in Dubrovnik are so friendly and helpful! We strolled down the very rocky Lapad beach (rocky beach but incredibly blue, clear waters) and down a little promenade, then made our way to the old city! Wow! I mean it.... Wow!! Such a gorgeous place! All old cream coloured buildings with terracotta roofs! The first thing we did was climb and walk the city walls. What a spectacular place! I can't describe it so you will have to look at the pictures! We ... read more
Day 1 We caught the train to Naples from Rome and then down to Sorrento. Our hotel was up on a hillside about 25mins up from the hotel... Would have been nice if the sign for the hotel was before our bus stop but it wasn't! We got off at the next stop and ventured down the treacherous, windy road dodging the cars as they came hooning round the bend!! Our room was nice but the view was amazing! Right over the Sorrento bay! Incredible! We missed the bus back down to Sorrento so they said you could walk, an easy 30 minute walk..... Well blinkin heck if that was an easy walk I would hate to see a hard one! It was down a steep, slippery, windy "street". But it was beautiful and I am ... read more
Day 1 - Arriving in Roma! After looking for our hotel for a little while, I was very nervous when we came do a big brown door with an intercom with a little button to press for the Maikol. After heading through another door and going up in a lift we came to our hotel...... Once again a little nervous... But our room was quite nice thank goodness! One thing which amazed me about Rome is that you could be in what you think is the city and then you walk around the corner and there would be a couple of hundred year old church, or thousand year old ruins! The first afternoon we walked to the Trevi fountain. Once again, you walk through a couple of back streets and then there is a thousand people ... read more
Well after months and months of planning it is finally here!! And I have taken the advice of others and decided to write a travel blog so I remember what we have actually done!! Well after everyone had warned me on how much the long haul flight sucked, I finally experienced how bad they actually are! Not to go on about it but seriously people, if your baby is screaming ALL NIGHT, Do something about it instead of sitting there with headphones on!!! SO annoying! Anyhoo enough whinging because we finally made it to Rome and first thing you do when you get to Italy.... GELATI of course! And how brilliant it was! About to head out to walk the streets of Rome! Wow I never thought the time would actually come but here it is! ... read more
