Veni, vidi, vici

Thanks to everyone for keeping in touch by email, text and blog comments.  We have enjoyed doing the blog, it certainly gave me a chance to enjoy the local red wines!!

It is now a great travel diary for Pam and I; we will be able to read it and reminisce in years to come when we get old and forgetful.  We will also be able to read it and reminisce in years to come when we get old and forgetful.

The trip in Italy was fantastic.  Interesting times -  

(a)  Language – everyone we came into contact with were so helpful with the language.  If they didn’t know English they made every effort to communicate with us with a smile.  We had a couple of slip-ups – mainly ordering food.  It was easier to point and ask than to try and explain ourselves.  Most people have some English so it’s not too bad.  We noticed the people in the south had less English than those in Rome and north.

(b) Driving – don’t even think of driving without a GPS.  We expected to get lost at least twice a day but that just means the GPS will recalculate and we found our way through without too many hassles.  The first few days we would panic a little if we took the wrong turn but after a while we relaxed about the getting lost thing.  Signage in Italy is optional and street signs are either non-existent, hidden or disturbingly inaccurate.

(c)  Driving – the actual driving part was probably the most challenging.  The Italians have a cavalier attitude to road rules and it’s every man for himself.  We met a bloke in Napoli who explained it by saying, “If it is illogical, we drive through the red light.”  This means anything goes as long as it seems OK. He also described the ‘music’ of the road – car horns.  There are scooters everywhere, pedestrians with death wishes and cars going in all directions.  The best description of driving in the blog was when we got into Palermo.  I didn’t think we’d make it out alive.   Now we are back driving in Australia, I miss the relaxed attitude of the Italian driver.  Where driving in Australia (and Germany) is a somewhat benign experience; you really have to concentrate constantly and stay right on the ball to survive in Italy.

(d) Driving – our trip itself was well planned with some big driving days interspersed with some relaxing days.  We drove over 5,000 kilometres in 30 days, which we did pretty easily.

(e) Driving – finding a parking spot in the cities was interesting.  We worked out the best method was to load the GPS with ‘City Centre’ and when we got close we’d look for a parking station.  We always got one pretty close.  Parking ranged from €30 for a day in Florence to around €10 in some of the other cities.  We paid about €80 a day for accommodation with free parking.  We looked for inner city hotels with free parking and couldn’t get them for less than about €120, so it worked out cheaper to stay outside the city and drive in and pay for parking.

(f)   Accommodation – we booked most of our hotels through booking.com.  We would plan a spot, filter the search with ‘carparking’ and ‘wifi’ then sort by price.  We didn’t stay at any place which had a rating below 8.  Some of the places took some finding and we were fairly sceptical on the way there whether we had done the right thing but they were all very good and we weren’t disappointed with any of the places. 

(g)  Food – we will never eat pizza, pasta or fish again without comparing it to the food we experienced in Italy.  Sure they have cakes and custard croissants for breakfast and huge sandwiches for lunch and bread with every meal.  We tried everything we could and came away amazed at the flavours and quality of the foods.  We had to settle for second best sometimes when we were in a hurry or just a bit lazy but it’s really worth looking for those special eating areas in every town.

(h) Food – probably spent too much on food.  I haven’t worked out if we kept to our $100 daily budget.  If we didn’t it’s because we spent more than I anticipated on food.  It was worth it though!!

Germany was extra special because we caught up with Luke and Carolin.  Carolins family were particularly welcoming and having a native speaker in our midst during our trip through the country made it even more special and informative.  We can’t believe how much we saw in such a short time.  Our little car did over 1400 kilometres in the week. 

(a)  Maybe the most underrated tourist destination around.  The country is exceptionally beautiful; the people are happy and willing to help a non-German speaking Australian.

(b) Driving – was like driving in Australia – everyone seemed to know the rules and obeyed them.

(c)  The country we saw was so clean, tidy and picturesque.  Driving in the back roads was a delight.

(d) The food was too good – rich and tasty – we tried all sorts of traditional foods and were pleasantly surprised with each one.

(e) We will be back!!!

Home

Second last  blog entry – I think.  I’ll be doing a wrap up later in the week.

Very, very reluctantly booked out of our hotel this morning.  We know it’s Saturday morning and we will be traveling now till we get home to Toowoomba on Monday morning.

Said a tearful goodbye to Luke and Carolin this morning.  They have lots of changes going on with their moving to a new town and jobs.  Not sure when we will see either of them again. 

Drove to Dusseldorf to catch the plane to Milan.  Left a little early to let the children start with washing and getting organised for their weekend.  Arrived about 4 hours before our flight, dropped the car off, had lunch and booked our luggage in.  Had a slow beer and wine before boarding.  I took a photo with my camera this morning and went to take one after we went through security - by the look of my camera, it looks like the internals and the SD card have been fried - will be making some inquires about that later.  Lucky I've been backing up all my photos each day.

Nothing unusual with the boarding procedure – got the bus across the tarmac to the plane.  Got out of the bus and we were boarding the smallest plane at the airport.  One of those cigar shaped planes with the door opening and they form the steps.  About 5 steps into the plane, my head touches the ceiling all along until we take our seats.  Pam is beside herself and very nervous.  We strap ourselves in and look forward to a fast flight to Milan.  Pam tells me it was the longest flight of her life.  There was an incredible amount of turbulence.  The plane bucked and weaved its’ way to Milan, amazing how flexible planes are when they are getting tossed around.

We did arrive, and much to Pams surprise, in one piece.  She was going to do some shopping in Milan airport but was too traumatised.

Only had a couple of hours then on to Dubai with a 7 hour flight.  We had a 4 hour stop over and with disembarking and boarding, Pam considered 3 hours shopping in Dubai would be adequate.  On the way to the plane in Milan I found an English newspaper (the first for 6 weeks)  and the story on the front page…..Dubai airport to process 40,000 pilgrims in 2 days starting today.   Suffice to say we arrived at Dubai and the airport was so packed it was standing room only.  No shopping for Pam today.  I’m most upset because it will be all my fault!!!!

The 14 hour flight from Dubai to Brisbane was the best ever.  Pam was pleased the pilots were obviously more mature than the 20 year olds we had seen earlier.  (They looked 20 anyway)  Pam thinks they drive a bit slower and are more cautious than the younger ones and take lots more care.  Good theory and it seemed to work, hardly a bump.  Harley met us at the airport – our bags were first off, straight through customs and after landing at 6.30am we were driving out of the airport by 7.15am.  Dropped Harley off at work and drove into sunny Toowoomba at about 9am all ready to wash about 50 kilograms of washing!!!

Our Germany car - returned without any damage!

Display for a car hire company in the Dusseldorf Airport.

Cologne

Off to Cologne today.  Woke to a cloudy, windy and cold morning.  The heavens opened on the drive there.  By the time we got to Cologne it must have got sick of raining and we had a rain free day in the city.  Some times the wind was very cold but we didn't get wet.
First stop was the Cologne Railway bridge where for for about 20 years people have been putting locks on the mesh walls on the walkway across the bridge.  There are millions of locks on this bridge - I'd be surprised if all these people can still be together.  Some of the lovers have gone to great lengths with unique locks and intricate designs.  Others have bought a 2 euro lock and scratched their names on it with a nail.  Very interesting to look at a few hundred before we had to get to the cathedral for a tour.
Did a 1 hour walking tour of the cathedral - Luke recommended it as he had done it a month or so ago with a mate.  It lived up to expectations and gave a very interesting history of the cathedral and the politics in the Cologne area.  The spires are so tall, it's hard to get a photo of them to indicate the height.  The building of the cathedral was commenced in about 1300 and wasn't finished until about 1880.  They still have scaffolding in lots of areas renewing and repairing bits and pieces.  When it was finished it was the highest building in the world for about 20 years.
The tour finished about 3.30 - time for lunch.  Went to a restaurant serving traditional German food, Luke had white sausages, I had blood sausages, Pam had weineschnitzel and Carolin had baked pork.  All very nice, didn't finish until about 5 o'clock.  Finally left Cologne and arrived home about 8pm and went straight to the ice-cream shop for spaghetti ice-cream with frozen cream, strawberries and topping.  A diet will no doubt be first consideration when we get home soon!!!

Bridge over the Rhine River.

Looking into the sun on the Rhine.

One panel of locks on the bridge.

Hundreds of panels on the bridge over the Rhine.

When love turns sour - get the master key.

Front of the Cathedral at Cologne.

One of the side entrances.

Couple of the stained glass windows.

Looking towards the altar.

Spires of the cathedral.

Looking from the river bank towards the cathedral.

Walking back from the bridge.

White sausage and pretzel for lunch.

Spaghetti ice-cream for tea.