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Published: November 3rd 2006
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The Summer Palace
The Summer Palace in Vienna, this is only part of the back garden. We are with friends we made on our travels. Sorry it has taken me so long for this update. We are actually now back in the UK and so I will fill you in about the rest of our adventures.
I left you in the lovely town of Cesky Kromlov (the photos are now on the other blog) after there we left the Czeck Republic and headed to Vienna, Austria. Our hostel we were booked into left much to be desired so we didnt even bother checking in and found ourselves staying at a much nicer place - even if it meant we had to share the room with 4 strangers.
Our first day in Vienna we saw the Lipizzana Stallions in their warm up, then we headed to the Summer Palace located in Vienna. This place was huge! We didnt bother to go inside but we did hang out in their back gardens for a while. They were also huge and amazing. (see photo). I had a cold at this point of the trip and although I would have loved to have gone to see an Opera in the evening (you can get standing tickets for just over 3 euro) I was passed out in bed by
Wine Tasting
The picture says it all.... yum! 9pm to be ready for a wine tasting tour the following day. It is hard to taste wine when you have a blocked nose, but I tried my best. We were driven about and hour outside of Vienna to a wine growing region and then hopped on our bikes. We rode between several different vineyards and tried some really nice wine. However it was not all fun and games as Austria has quite hilly countryside which is no easy task on a bike (especially if you are like me and are not exceptionally fit!) By the end of the day, me and several of the other wine tasters who we had become friends with were quite exhausted and had very sore bottoms! We enjoyed our visit to Vienna and if culture is your thing, Vienna is the place for you. Museums, Art, Opera and Concerts galore!
After a lovely drive through amazing country side, we arrived in Salzburg. Better known as the home of the Sound of Music. All I can say is that if you have ever watched the movie and thought it was to beautiful to be real, you are wrong. Salzburg looks exactly like it does
Vineyards
These are the Austrian Vineyards that we cycled through. We sampled some grapes along the way too! in the movie, although we didnt have snow capped mountains at this time of the year. We wandered up to the fortress that overlooks the town (can be seen in the movie) which is the only fortress never to be taken by force. When you walk up to it you start to understand why! After recovering at the top we paid a nominal fee and were rewarded with some stunning views over the city and the hills beyond. The rest of the day was spent just enjoying the countryside and relaxing. The next day we sat through a viewing of The Sound of Music before heading off on the tour. We saw practically everything from the movie, the back of the Von Trapp home, the front of the Von Trapp home (they used 2 different houses), the 'Do Ray Me' Garderns as well as other things. My favourite spot on the tour was when we went to Wolfgang Lake. Stunning! We both loved Salzburg and I think we would like to go back if given the chance.
Following a quick stop in Munich overnight, we changed busses and headed into Italy. First stop, Venice. The city of islands is
Beer in Salzburg
This was at the fortress overlooking Salzburg. What a way to spend an afternoon. quite an interesting place, no cars, just boats moving their way through the cities 150 odd canals. Tiny streets, shops everywhere and packed with tourists (including ourselves). We travelled in the slower end of the season, I dont even want to imaging how busy it would be in peak time. My advice if you visit Venice is to not bother to buy a map to try an navigate your way around. It is a city that you are bound to get lost in, you just follow the crowds and the signs pointing you to the main tourist attractions. We saw St Marks Square, which is lovely despite the 2 million pigeons that live there! We also ventured out to a couple of the islands off the coast a little which were both quite pleasant, one of the islands was known for its lace, and the other for it's glass. We didnt have a gondola ride as it was a little out of our budget, instead we caught the No. 1 ferry down the main canal. There wasnt any music, but we did however get to listen to the romantic roar of the boats engine and the lulling chatter of people
Doe a Deer.....
Me on the Doe ray me fountain..... Go on.... you know you want to sing it. on their way to work. I think we got the general idea 😊 I dont think that we will head back in a hurry, but it really was a cool place to see so very different from anywhere else we have been.
Another bus trip and we arrived in Rome! What a place! They got it right when they said it wasnt built in a day. It is almost the only place you can go where you are walking down the street and you literally stumble upon Ancient Ruins dating back to 300 BC.
Our first day there we visited Trevi Fountain first up and it is a huge fountain that is on the side of a building in the middle of a street. It is really nice to look at. We then looked at the Coloseum and the Roman Ruins. There isnt really a way to describe it, you have to be there and try and imagine how the place would have looked a thousand years ago. It is a strange feeling, but so facinating. On the way back to the bus we decided to visit St Peters considering that there wasnt a line when we walked
Steve
Steve in a drinking hat... by (a rare thing). We have seen plenty of churches throughout Europe and they have all been quite amazing but St Peters is something else. Churches of the Gothic era, although grand, they are dark inside with quite a cold feel. St Peters is built differently and the light streams in, reflecting off the gold trimmings and the light walls, it feels so warm and welcoming despite its huge size and grand features. It has a wow factor about it. As we wandered around the church we noticed a private service being held at the other end of the church, on closer inspection we discovered that it was none other than The Pope!
The following day we lined up with new friends Ted, Debbie and Dan for almost 2 hours to get into the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel. We finally made it and the museum was quite extensive and interesting and the Sistine Chapel really is spectacular. Tip for you might be to line up around lunch time as when we left the museum the line was only half the length of when we lined up (dont you hate that?). After a really cheap but delicious lunch, which is a
St Marks Square
In Venice, it is against the law to kick the birds. Steve was very dissapointed. rare thing to find in Europe, we headed to the Pantheon. Built in 27- 25BC, this building is the best preserved of all Roman Buildings and truly is a wonder to see. It looks better than some of the buildings that we have seen that are only a few hundred years old yet it is over 2000 years old! I think that is pretty much all that we saw in Rome and that was a jam packed couple of days. We could have stayed a couple of extra days there.
I think I will leave the blog there for this entry and finish the Europe trip on the next one. Still so much to talk about!
Till next time!
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peter c
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thanks liz, this is a great way to hear what you've done as you can only discuss so much over the phone. I always print and send your blogs on to Steve's Nan who loves reading what you've been up to. Take care.