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Day 10 - Florence to Lucerne (Switzerland).jawaproFri 30/01/2009 05:24 PM
I didn’t sleep very well last night. Not sure if that’s because I was getting sick, or not - but I kept waking up.
Still - I got a lot more sleep than most of the rest of the bus.
When we left the hotel this morning, half the bus was hung over - and half the remainder were still drunk.
Before long - most of the bus was asleep.
Today’s drive took us out of Italy past Lake Como, and into lovely Switzerland!
No wonder people make model railways of Switzerland. It’s gorgeous, and there are lots of trains.
During a rare photo stop - Cindy (our tour guide) had a snowball fight with on of the passengers.
The war ended when the girl caught Cindy (the smaller of the two), picked her up, and dumped her straight into the snow bank.
There was also another heated skirmish between Derrick (our bus driver) and one of the Yankee girls - but I didn’t get any photos of that one. Derrick got hit by a snow ball, and the girl got buried in a snow drift. Not a good person to pick a fight with - our Derrick.
After a lot more driving, and some sleeping (on Emma’s part) we arrived at the beautiful town of Lucerne. Looks great - but is very cold.
By the way - I’m coming down with a cold I think. Been sniffling all day and rather miserable. Not as bad as the hung over people who were barfing at the back of the bus, but still not good. Hopefully it will get better quickly.
Switzerland is famous for a few things, especially Knives, Watches, and Chocolate. I bought myself a Swiss Army Knife (how could you not?), and then bought another one.
Tonight’s overnight stop was in Lucerne. There was a walking tour tonight to see it by night (would have been very pretty) but as Emma was dead tired still, and I’m crook - we decided to give it a miss.
The Hotel for tonight is pretty cool.
We’re staying in the old Jail.
Nothing fancy - but very cool for a change.
Lets just hope there’s not a fire - because we ain’t getting out the windows.
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Day 9: Rome - FlorencejawaproFri 30/01/2009 05:22 PM
Today was nice - but one of the less exciting days of the tour - so this post will be shorter.
We drove from Rome back up the road we’d taken a few days ago on the way down, and stopped at the same ‘services’ for lunch. I was listening to an audio book on my mp3 player, and seemed to miss some of the story - so I probably fell asleep for a while.
We left our previous tracks, and drove to Florence.
Florence is a rather pretty town - but still very Italian and insane.
Florence was the home of three of the Ninja Turtles (Leondardo, Michalengalo, and Donatello). While here, the Turtles did lots of arty things that can still be seen. One of the most famous is a naked statue that’s supposed to be of King David (the guy who killed Goliath). The statue itself is in a museum we didn’t have time to see, but there’s a copy on display in the square where the original stood before they moved it. Unfortunately, the copy was being renovated and covered by a scaffold and this screen. So we didn’t see the real or fake David. Not that we cared overly - it’s just a naked dude.
Florence is famous for it’s Leatherwork. We watched a demonstration (from an American?) in one of the leather places - and took a look at the ridiculously priced leather products.
It’s also famous for it’s jewelry - a lot of which is sold on shops on this historic bridge. A law was passed sometime in the distant past that said that the only shops allowed on the bridge were those that sold gold and silver jewelry - and that’s still the case today. More interestingly, this bridge was also special to Hitler. Apparently he’d visited once, and gave orders not to destroy it - so it was the only bridge across the river that the Nazi’s didn’t destroy.
Yet another famous old church - the Duomo. This one was actually pretty sweet though.
The inside is much more simple than that of the Vatican - and in my opinion, much more attractive because of it.
The Dome in this church was the first dome in Europe apparently - and is very impressive. It’s huge - and you can climb all the way to the top - if you have 15 minutes to spend each direction.
The paintings on this dome predate the Vatican - as this was the model the Vatican was based on. And to my way of thinking, this puts the Sistine Chapel to shame. The photos really don’t do it justice.
Check out this ancient clock that was built with the church. It’s a 24hr clock, but the days clock over at about 5pm our time - dusk. Operates by weights apparently.
We had a walking tour that explained some of the status around the place. This one is a guy killing Medusa (Snake Hair Lady). The interesting things to note is that the face of the lady is actually the artists girlfriend (was he trying to make a point here?).
Also - the back of the guys helmet (including the wings) hides another face - a self portrait of the author! Now, that’s just cool.
For a land obsessed with Smart Cars - here is a Smart Bus. It’s tiny!
So cute!
Not cute. You’d think if you were driving a car this ugly - you’d at least choose a more subtle colour.
Tonight most of the tour went out to a restaurant (optional extra) and are going to the "Space Electronic" disco. We decided to skip both - and have something cheap for tea, and then hit the hay. We got lost looking for tea, but made it back after finding a supermarket.
We’ve been tired right since we left Australia, so we’ll get a little extra sleep tonight.
Tomorrow - Switzerland!
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Day 8 - RomejawaproFri 30/01/2009 05:19 PM
These Romans are Crazy!
Been waiting all trip to say that. Tis true though - the Romans are insane. Traffic, pedestrians, everything - just crazy.
Well - today was the first of the two night stops (we only get 2 on the tour) - so the whole day was spent in Rome. First up - we went to the Vatican and took a long walk through the paintings and statues and things.
Sort of pretty I guess - but far too fancy for me, and actually quite boring.
The Sistine Chapel is very famous - but even it was over-rated in my books. Just an over-complicated pattern on the roof.
In it’s defense, some parts look impressively 3D, but on the whole it was just another painting.
Not really supposed to take photos of it - but they seem to turn a blind eye as long as you don’t use a flash.
Emma demonstrating our love for the Pope - by punching him in the head.
St Peter’s - part of the Vatican.
The cop cars over here are mostly Alpha Romaos. There are also Lamborginis - but I didn’t see any.
After the Vatican we met up with the group to go and have pizza. It was nice, and pretty cheap too.
Being Australia Day back in Aus - we decided to celebrate it. Half the tour is Australian - so there were a lot of people wearing temporary tattoos and things like that. I’d brought along an Australian flag - which I wore for the first half of the day (until it got soaked).
We had quite a few people stop us in the street to talk to us about Australia and Australia Day (the Italians are having a party tonight to celebrate it, but we all refused because we’re tired.
Possibly the ugliest cars I’ve ever seen.
The Coliseum!
Defiantly one of the highlights of Rome - but before we went in, we had a walking tour with a local guide that took us through the Roman Forums and the Coliseum.
The Forum Tour was great (although a lot of the group got bored) except for one thing. Half way through - it started raining, and raining hard. Completely drenched most of us. I’d bought 2 umbrellas with me from Tassie (one small, and one large) and forgotten both today - so I got soaked too. My jacket stopped the rain for getting my top half - but my trousers soaked up an awful lot. This made most people get sick of the history lesson and give up.
I stuck with it - and got to see things like Julius Caesar’s tomb. And eventually...
The Coliseum.
For those who don’t know - the original floor has been long gone - but a small section has been reconstructed (far end of the area in the photo). The original floor was all at that height, and the ruins you can see were beneath it - to allow trap-doors to bring up animals etc.
One of the things NOT to do in Rome is take a photo with these guys who are wandering around - they charge you lots for the privilege. They conned some of the girls last night - so we were all aware of them today.
For that mater - there are lots of gypsys and other folk who are constantly trying to sell you things. As soon as it starts raining - there are a hundred black guys trying to sell you umbrellas. I managed to talk one down from 5 Euro to 3, and bought one (my third umbrella!) because I wanted to keep the rain off.
Me in the Coliseum.
Emma on the Spanish Steps (apparently quite famous).
We did a bit of a walkaround - including going to a church run by some Cappucin Monks - where they use the bones of the dead monks as sort of decorations. They make these sort of displays with some bones wearing robes and looking like monks, while others are used to make beds, pillars, or patters on the walls etc. So many skulls! It was very interesting, and very different. I think we were the only Contiki guys who went there - the rest were too disturbed by the whole idea. But hey - you know what I used to do for a buck...
I don’t have photos of the monk crypts - because we weren’t allowed to take them. Unlike the Vatican - I wanted to respect it here, and didn’t try and take sneaky photos. I did get postcards - so I will upload them when I get to a scanner. Remind me, or I’ll forget.
You know - the church filled with bones was actually more appealing than the whole Vatican in a lot of ways.
Thanks to Google I now have a photo I can share. That's the church.
As today was offically a 'coach free day' for our driver - we'd caught another bus to the train station, and received a day pass on the Rome Metro (thanks to Contiki) and caught the trains around. We had to be back at the closest station to the hotel in order to catch the Contiki shuttle back to the hotel. We started heading back early because we'd finished in Rome - and good thing too! We ended up going the wrong way on the Metro for 6 stations. We didn't realise, and thought it was the right station, but couldn't find the other line we were supposed to change to. We eventually discovered the problem, and backtracked to the correct station, and only just caught the connecting train (less frequent). It was the last one we could have caught - as the bus was departing as soon as we arrived. Far out - that was close.
That’s it for now - just to leave you, here’s a spot of parallel parking.
Told you these Romans are crazy!
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UpdatesjawaproMon 26/01/2009 07:51 AM
New posts are up!
Scroll down to the Day 4 post, and read in reverse order.
Sorry about the bad spelling and other mistakes guys - I'm still way overtired, and we get very little opertunity the use the net. Doing the best I can.
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Day 7 - Venice to RomejawaproMon 26/01/2009 07:48 AM
Yet more traveling today. It started out quite boring and flat (with the Alps in the distance) but later we ended up in the hills and the snow again.
Eventually we left the snow behind - and the country became fairly flat again (although not as flat as before Germany was).
Sadly - I was exhausted, and today was the first time I’ve dozed on the bus. Normally I try not to, so I don’t miss the scenery - but this time I couldn’t help it.
At the rest stop - half the tour went into a restaurant, while the others (including me) hit the toilets outside the service station. The inside ones were apparently quite good - but the outside ones were a little on the weird side. And yes - that’s the dunny, not a urinal.
And then - finally, we arrived in Rome. This was our first glimpse of the Vatican (separate country within Rome).
In Rome, we stopped for a Galati - as apparently they are very Italian. It was also very warm in comparison with the rest Europe we’ve seen so far.
The Pantheon. This was originally a temple to the Roman gods - but was later turned into a Catholic church. It’s also where Rafael is buried. For those who don’t know - he was one of the Ninja Turtles.
The Trebi Fountain. Apparently quite famous too.
Dinner was included tonight, and was at a sort of theatre stage thing - which looked very impressive - but there was no show while we were there.
On the way back to the hotel - our driver “Derrick” stopped illegally to allow us to get out and take photos of the Coliseum at night. We’re going there properly tomorrow. Can’t wait.
We also stopped again to get a night shot of the Vatican City. This one was even more illegal - as we basically stopped in the middle of the street. We ran for it, took photos, and then ran back to the bus - just as the Italian police arrived. We managed to get away without getting into trouble though.
So far Rome is a much more guy-friendly city than Venice. Even if you do have to watch out for pick-pockets and gypsies - it’s still a lot of fun.
So that was our first taste of Rome. We actually get to stay in the same city two nights, so the whole day tomorrow will be spent here. There’s also wireless internet - which is how I’m posting this.
Stay tuned!
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