Updated Blog
This blog has been reposted from where it used to live on the
Geocities site. The reason for this is twofold: 1, in case Geocities ever decide to delete it because it hasn't been updated for years, and 2, because Blogger is so much easier to use, and combined with Flickr I can now add photos to the blog that I couldn't add before.
So here is my account of a trip my husband Peter and I took in 2004. The map below shows the countries we visited.
create your personalized map of europeCheers,
Megz
Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, France
From the time we left Venice, the feel and pace of our trip changed somewhat. Up until that point we were just on holiday, going to places we wanted to go. But when we left Venice we had exactly one week to get back to Paris to return our car and catch our flight back to London. So it became almost part of the journey rather than the trip.
We left Lake Como on the Italian/Swiss border at lunchtime, and within a couple of hours we had arrived in Luzern. Motorway driving in Switzerland is very expensive. You have to buy a yearly motorway sticker that allows you drive on the motorway. This costs 30 Swiss Francs (they're not on Euros which was mildly inconvenient) but covers you for the whole year. Which is great if you live there or drive there often. But for us only being there two days, it was very expensive. On the other hand the roads are all very good and fast, and we went through the world's second longest road tunnel, the St Gotthard tunnel.
Switzerland and Luzern were beautiful, with snow still on the Alps and the sun shining brightly. We left the rain of Italy behind and encountered some of the hottest weather of the whole trip. I've been to Luzern before, and on that occasion it was overcast and I didn't even get to see the Alps. So this time it was almost like a different city, except that everything was still where I remembered it.
We arrived early in the afternoon and spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening wandering around town, seeing the old town and the beautiful Chapel Bridge. It was difficult to find somewhere to eat that night because it was all so expensive. We almost went to McDonald's except that even their combo prices were outside our budget (9-12 Francs / 7-9 Euros / 14-18 NZ Dollars).
The next day we left Switzerland and drove to Germany. Originally we had been planning to go to Munich then north to Heidelberg and then along the Rhine. But as we had discovered driving times to take much longer than we'd expected, we decided to head straight north through the Black Forest, rather than detouring off to Munich.
The Black Forest was really beautiful. We got off the motorways (which are free in Germany, yay!) and onto some small roads through the countryside, where the trees were tall and the houses were few and far between. It was almost as I imagined it to be. We visited the Cuckoo Clock Museum in the small town of Furtwangen and stayed the night near the spa town of Baden Baden. Tempting as it was we didn't take to the waters in Baden Baden the next day, as the minimum time for a spa was two hours and we were keen to get on the road.
The next place we went to was Trier, where we spent a couple of nights. Trier has the oldest Roman ruins north of the Alps and is ideally situated for day tripping along the Moselle River. We had been recommended earlier in the trip to go to the Moselle rather than the Rhine, and we spent a pleasant day driving along the beautiful river past countless vineyards, to the point where the Moselle and Rhine rivers meet, at Koblenz. Once again we tasted some local wines, and found the Rieslings a lot sweeter than New Zealand Rieslings.
Trier is just by the border with Luxembourg, and pretty near the French border too. We drove to the small town of Diekirch in northern Luxembourg. The country is so small it took less than an hour to drive halfway across it. Peter's family has a connection to Diekirch so we stayed a night there and visited the national war museum, which is very impressive for its scale and size.
The same day we also drove to Luxembourg City and spent a couple of hours wandering around there. There wasn't much to see or do there, but the city is built high above a river gorge and the view is pretty impressive. We also visited an old castle near the German border (we literally drove all over the country) which has been restored from ruins to what it looked like in the 17th Century (although there has been a castle there since Roman times).
Our last full day on the Continent we drove across Luxembourg, through Belgium (just because we could - our 10th country of the trip!), and back to France. We stayed in the town of Epernay in the Champagne region, right in the heart of Champagne producing country and home of many of the large Champagne houses, including Moet & Chandon. We took a guided tour of the Moet cellars which was fascinating and I learned a lot about the making of champagne. The tour ended with a tasting of Moet's Brut Imperial champagne. Wow it was nice. The nicest champagne I've ever tasted. I am going to have a very hard time returning to NZ sparkling wines. We bought a bottle from the factory shop to toast our last night on the Continent. It only cost 23 Euros (NZ$45). Also that night I finally got the courage up to try escargot. And I really enjoyed them, they were cooked in loads of butter and garlic and tasted meaty, not slimy as I'd feared.
The next day we packed up our tent for the last time and drove the couple of hours back to Paris and caught our flight back to London. It was so sad to leave Europe. After a month away we both started getting tired and wanting to go home to our comforts. But by the time we came to leave we had gotten our second wind and didn't want the trip to end. In some ways I enjoyed the last couple of days the most out of any because they were unplanned and unexpected, yet they turned out to be full of pleasant surprises.
We found along the way that it takes about two days to get used to speaking a different language. We had five nights in German speaking places, so were just getting the hang of it and learning new words. The menus in Germany/Luxembourg weren't particularly varied - everywhere was basically veal or pork or beef steak. However the portions were certainly large.
At the end of the trip it was really nice to return to France, which was certainly both of our favourite country. It was nice to return to what had become almost familiar customs, and to our favourite radio station
NRJ. Arriving back in England we found it really weird not to have to think about which language to speak. Several times I found myself wondering how to say something, then realising with a laugh I didn't have to translate anything.
We had a fantastic holiday, and are really sad now that its come to an end. Somehow returning to a proper bed (which at times we had longed for) just doesn't make up for what we are most definitely going to miss.
Italy, Part II
From Rome we drove south to Naples & Pompeii. Peter has done most of the driving on the trip, while I have been navigator. We had some pretty long and slow driving days in France, and by the time we got to Rome he was driving like a local. The locals in Naples have a reputation of being crazy drivers, but Peter managed to fit right in there and go with the flow. The road to Naples was straight and wide, with one lane in each direction. And Peter was quite taken with the local custom of passing the car in front whenever you feel like it, regardless of whether there's traffic coming the other way or not. That's just the way it's done there, and everybody pulls over and you have plenty of room to pass. Also, traffic lights are just ignored there. More than once we ran a red light just because we were going with the flow. I noticed a lot of cars in Italy, but especially in Naples, with dents in the car, but luckily we escaped any damage.
We arrived in Naples from the west and had to get to Pompeii in the east. While we could have (and should have) gotten on the toll road to avoid the city, we decided to drive straight through the city centre. At first it was quite fun - five lanes of traffic flowing down a three lane road and scooters dashing in and out all over the place. But when we got down to two cars trying to squeeze down one lane roads it got a bit frustrating and stressful. Luckily we made it in one piece, although it took well over an hour just to drive from one side of town to the other.
We stayed in Pompeii rather than Naples, at a campground just across the road from the ruins on ancient Pompeii. Didn't think very much of modern Pompeii at all - it is crowded and full of cheap tacky tourist shops, and overpriced overcooked pizza. Ancient Pompeii however is fascinating. While looking at the ruins in Rome we often said we just couldn't imagine what things used to look like. However because the buildings and everything in Pompeii were so well preserved, it was easy to imagine real people going about their everyday lives, in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius. There was everything you'd expect to see in a modern city - offices, shops, takeaways, houses & homes, bath complexes, theatres, temples, sewerage, central heating, graffiti/tagging, and the infamous brothels.
From Naples we drove back north again to Venice, stopping overnight in the town of Assisi, home of St Francis. Assisi is a very pretty hill town built out of pink marble. Most of the town centre is prohibited to cars, which made it very nice to stroll around the streets. There is not much to actually see or do there though.
We spent a day and a half in Venice, staying on the mainland at a campground frequented by Contiki and other tour groups. Unfortunately this meant we didn't get any sleep the first night because of all the music and yahooing coming from the bar.
Venice was really lovely. So clean and open and quiet, and best of all no cars. We wandered all around the islands, over the canals, did lots of window shopping. We visited the island of Murano and learnt all about Venetian glass making at the glass museum. We didn't visit any glass factories, although we did see one but didn't have time to stop. It is amazing how much they can do with glass, from drinking glasses and plates to beads to figurines and nik naks. And to think the process hasn't really changed much in 2000 years.
Another highlight of the trip to Venice was having dinner at a restaurant alongside the Grand Canal. I tried one of Venice's speciality meals - Cuttlefish (Seppie) a la Veneziana, which came with an intriguing black sauce that turned out to be "squid juice" as the waiter called it.
Finally our last stop in Italy was at Lake Como, just on the border with Switzerland. The lake was very pretty, surrounded by tall hills. We arrived in town nice and early, and then spent a very frustrating two hours driving round and round trying to find a campground. The instructions we were given said to follow the signs which quickly disappeared. The first campground we found appeared to be shut. And there was no tourist information that we could find. Eventually after driving round for hours we accidentally stumbled across the campground we were looking for. I don't think they get many foreign visitors. We ate at the campground restaurant, of which the only other patrons appeared to be the camp workers or the family of. There were no written menus, and nobody spoke English. They told us what the three options for dinner were and we said what we wanted. At least our Italian is good enough to do that. But for all that, Peter raved about his spaghetti and reckons it's the best he's ever had. It was certainly authentic.
And that brought our two weeks in Italy to a close. I found Italy more difficult to get around than I expected, and we had several frustrating incidents. We found the people in the north to be a lot friendlier than those in the south. Unfortunately we encountered lots of (what I'd consider) rude service in the south - in Pompeii definitely and also to some extent in Rome. Being ignored by waiters and other service people is the main thing. Or something as simple as not being greeted when entering a store, as is the custom all over France. Ok, so we don't understand everything people say to us in Italian, but we do understand the basics. But often they just wouldn't speak to us at all. So that was quite a shame.
Other than that we had a good time. Plenty of good food and good wine. Although we we're getting a little of sick of pasta towards the end. It rained every day we were in Italy, apart from the very last day. Venice was definitely my favourite place, as I'd been to all the other cities before. And now we head back to Paris to return our car in a weeks time.
Italy, Part I
We arrived in Italy on Thursday 8th April, three weeks after we left home, and two weeks since we arrived in Europe.
After a run of fine weather across France and Spain, once we got to Italy our luck ran out, down came the rain and out came the English brolly. It rained every day we were in Italy, sometimes only overnight / in the evening, often during the day but never really heavily. Just enough that we still had to bundle ourselves up in jerseys and jackets the whole time.
We stayed two nights in Pisa and five nights in Rome (plus another six nights elsewhere which is covered in Part II).
Pisa made an excellent base from which to see both the Leaning Tower and to travel into Florence. The campsite was situated just down the road (800 metres) from the Field of Miracles where the Leaning Tower is situated. We went there both by evening, by night and by day. In the evening it was great because we could look around without any crowds in the way. During the day was good because we could see a lot more and could go up the Tower. But it was so crowded and very expensive (over NZ$60 for both of us), so we didn't go up or stay very long.
We ate dinner at a restaurant near the Tower, and just as we were finishing our meals, along came a parade of hundreds of young men, representing what appeared to be many different football teams. The parade was proceeded by a band and followed by flag bearers who would stop regularly to twirl and throw their flags in the air. It was really neat to be caught up in this spectacle. We asked the restauranteur afterwards what the occasion was, and he said it was a protest march. Must have been something lost in the translation there because they all looked too happy to be protesting. It also happened to be Good Friday that day, so that may or may not have had something to do with the parade/march.
We caught a train to Florence and spent the day wandering around. It rained a lot that day and I played "dodge the umbrella" with all the other tourists crowded into the Squares and narrow streets. In the end I put my brolly away and decided I'd rather get a wet head than have to continually try and avoid hitting other people/brollys with it. Had a hilarious moment watching one girl walk across the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge), holding her umbrella without a care in the world - and watching everyone else in her vicinity either get hit by the umbrella or have to suddenly duck for cover. A fact which she was blissfully unaware of.
In Florence we pretty much just wandered around. Saw the beautiful old Duomo with Bruneleschi's (sp?) dome on top. I still think it's one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Saw the Ponte Vecchio lined with expensive jewelery stores on both sides of the bridge. Queued for an hour to get into the Uffizi art gallery. After an hour we still hadn't made much progress and estimated we still had about another hour to wait. By which time it would be getting near to the time the ticket office closes, and quite possible we wouldn't even be able to buy tickets at all. And if we did manage to get in we'd have had maybe an hour inside if we were lucky. So we gave up and left. At least we'd had somewhere dry and out of the wind to stand during that hour we waited.
The next day we drove south to Rome through the Tuscan countryside. Everyone raves about Tuscany and I was looking forward to the trip. But perhaps it was the wrong time of year because I couldn't see anything spectacular at all. Just lots of towns, hills, trees, empty vineyards.
In Rome we stayed at a campground just outside the ring road. It wasn't very well signposted and we spent hours trying to find it, and it was getting late and we were both tired. Not fun at all. In fact we found this problem just about everywhere in Italy, that things weren't well signposted. Whereas in France we had no problem finding anything because the signposts were on virtually every corner.
Our first full day in Rome was Easter Sunday so we headed on down to St Peter's Square and saw and heard the Pope giving Easter Mass. I had expected the Square to be jam packed full of people but although it was crowded it wasn't too bad. We were able to see everything pretty well. Security was tight and to get into the actual Square you had to go through metal detectors etc. It's funny how much a part of normal life this procedure has become.
Then we walked into town and saw the main attractions - the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, the Victor Emmanuel moment, various Triumphal Arches, Churches and Roman ruins everywhere.
The Roman Forum is free to the public, but you have to pay to see the ruins on the Palatine hill above the forum. When I was last here eight years ago it cost 12000 Lire to get into the Forum so I was most surprised to find we could just walk straight in. At first I felt really guilty like we were breaking the rules, until I found out that it was free. The problem with not having to pay an entry fee to get in is that now you can't hire an audio guide or pick up a pamphlet at the same time you buy your ticket. So we were left wandering around looking at the ruins thinking "I wonder what that is". Also it is a real shame that by looking at ruins alone you just can't imagine what it used to look like. It would be really good if they had signs in several languages explaining what all the ruined buildings were, and perhaps an artists impression of what it looked like. But there is nothing like that. We bought a book from a trader but it didn't help much either. We saw several tour groups go through and overheard some of the commentary, but didn't know how to join a group.
Then we went to see the Colosseum. Outside we found where the tours go from. Just informally from the area between the Colosseum and the Forum. There is no tour office or building. The tour we went on cost 16 Euro each (I think) and included the 8 Euro entry fee for the Colosseum and a two hour tour of both the Colosseum and the Forum. It was well worth the money, especially as it allowed us to skip ahead of the two hour queue to get into the Colosseum. It was highly informative and interesting. We wished we'd known about it sooner.
On day two we visited more monuments (being Monday all museums were closed anyway). Saw the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps (WHY are they so famous???), the Pantheon, several Plazas, Churches and more Roman ruins. Went to the Baths of Caracalla which contained many amazing mosaics (apart from those that had already been stolen and put into museums).
One of the best places we found in Rome (by accident) was Torres Argentinas. This is an archeological site full of Roman ruins and also home to 400-odd stray cats. 10 years ago a group of women began looking after the small colony of stray cats which had been abandonded in the archeological site. Now it has turned into a full time job for I don't know how many volunteers. They take in unwanted cats and neuter, vaccinate and rehabilitate them. The cats are available for adoption from the shelter, and until they are adopted they have the run of the shelter offices and archeological site. They all look like fat, happy cats. Tourists are welcome at the shelter and we spent over an hour there looking around and cuddling the kitties (we miss our babies at home). The office is constantly full of cats and people tripping over each other, and it is a place of lots of love and smiles. They do an amazing job. See
www.romancats.de for more information.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent with our friends Tina and Wayne who flew over from Oxford for a weeks holiday in Rome (just a coincidence that we were all there at the same time). It was great to see some friendly faces again and to catch up with them.
Together we all visited the Vatican museums and St Peter's Basilica, and took a day trip out to Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli outside Rome. The Vatican is amazing. So many treasures and works of art (both in the museum and the basilica). The Sistine Chapel is neat but there are also many other frescoed rooms that are equally good, which you pass through in order to get to the Sistine Chapel. Hadrian's Villa was huge. The ruins of the mansion of the Emperor Hadrian, on the hillside with expansive views. The size and scale of these buildings would be on a par with the mansions of today's rich & famous, if not bigger (I guess - I've never been to the house of anyone rich & famous ;) ). Guest suites, bath houses, formal rooms, gardens, private oases, some of which were pretty well preserved. But like all the ruins we've seen, it was difficult to imagine what it looked like or how it was used.
It was a very busy week. It was nice to stay in one place for a while though, and not have to pack up the tent every day. Because we stayed so far out of town we ate at the camp restaurant most nights. Had some good meals though - and lots of gelati of course. Roman artichokes, raddicio, eggplant, suppli (cheese & rice croquettes), loads & loads of pasta, and lots of good wine.
From there our schedule had us travelling on to Naples and then back north to Venice. But that will have to wait for Part II ...
France, Part II
We returned to France after two days in Spain. It was nice to return to somewhere kinda familiar, although at first I kept saying "si" instead of "oui" and wanting to say "Hola" instead of "Bonjour".
Our first day was a long, long drive through the wine producing provinces of Roussillon (sp?) and Languedoc, to Nimes, almost on the border of Provence. Everywhere we went, as far as the eye could see, were nothing but vineyards. Being still spring there weren't any leaves on the vines yet, let alone grapes.
We stayed in the small town of Remoulin, just east of Nimes, and right next to the Pont du Gard, an amazingly well preserved, totally intact, three level Roman aqueduct spanning the river Gard. For free we were able to walk right up to it, touch it, walk around it, view it from every angle, do everything but walk across the top.
In Nimes we saw an old Roman colosseum which is still used for sporting events to this day, and an ancient Roman temple (now called the Maison Caree - square house) which is also perfectly preserved due to having been continuously used throughout the centuries.
From Remoulin we travelled through Provence (wrong time of year for the lavender fields I was hoping to see, but we did see lots of cherry (?) trees in bloom, to the Cote d'Azure. This was just a one night stopover before heading on to Italy.
I've been to the Cote d'Azure once before. After nearly two months of backpacking on my own I really needed a break, and spent a wonderful day lying on the beach in the sun in Cannes. On that occasion I travelled by train and it really was stress-free. This time however we arrived during evening "rush" hour, and it took us 45 minutes to travel just eight kilometres.
The Cote d'Azure is great if you want to spend a week on the beach. But if you're just passing through it's a bit of a nightmare. We stayed at Cagnes-sur-Mer, in a campground just out the back of the industrial part of town, in a deep valley that gets no sun. I guess land prices are so expensive here that you don't want to go wasting the good stuff on camping.
One hidden treasure we did find in Cagnes-sur-Mer was the house that Renoir (my favourite artist) had built, and where he lived and worked for the last 11 or 12 years of his life. It has now been turned into a museum dedicated to the artist. Really incredible to see his actual studio and to learn a bit about his life.
And then our trip through France came to an end, battling traffic to get to the Italian border. I've really enjoyed France - good food, nice people, lots to see and do. We've covered the whole range of French history - from prehistoric in the Dordogne, to Roman in Nimes, to Renaissance and Monarchy in the Loire, to 19th Century art in Paris & Cagnes, to modern life. Everything's been relatively easy and uncrowded, although less so as we've headed towards Italy and Easter. There are German tourists everywhere at the moment.
We'll be back to France in two and a half weeks time, if only to fly out of Paris and back to London. Doesn't sound like much time, but we've got a lot of things planned to do. Just hope we can fit it all in.
Barcelona, Spain
Peter and I spent a day and a half in Barcelona. What an expensive place. 48 hours in total in Spain and we spent the equivalent of what we'd spent the previous week travelling round rural France.
However there are some disclaimers to go with this remark, and at least some of this expenditure was of our own choosing. After all, here we were in one of Europe's largest cities, on a Saturday night. So we did what every Antipodean traveller needs to do at least once - go out drinking.
So expense No 1 was an inner city hostel/pensione so that we could stumble home in the wee small hours. 60 Euro a night or NZ$250 for two nights. We could probably have found something a little cheaper, but this room came with a private shower and toilet so it was worth the extra 5 Euros.
Expense No 2 was a direct result of No 1, but was certainly a surprise to us to find out how expensive it was going to be. That is carparking. Of course our cheap hotel didn't come with a carpark, so we had to leave our car in a public carpark for a day and a half. That set us back about 50 Euros.
And you've probably already guessed what expense No 3 was - drinking. We found a pub crawl of like minded travellers run by an Aussie guy. The cost of joining the pub crawl was 15 Euro a head or NZ$60 for both of us. That got us a couple of free sangrias, a free shot at every bar, and entry into all the bars and clubs. Plus we bought our own beers in every place - I hate to think how much that cost - at least another 30 Euro.
Those were the major costs, but we found everything else in Barcelona expensive too. We arrived on Saturday afternoon but didn't really do any sightseeing apart from wandering up and down Las Ramblas (the main street) and through the gothic quarter, looking for tourist information, hostels, and internet. Saturday night we went out drinking. Met people from Australia, USA, Ireland, Finland, Singapore, Austria, and I can't remember where else. Ended up at a pub goodness knows where at 2 or 3am, stumbling drunk. Had no idea where we were. Got lost, got separated, and eventually I managed to stumble across our hotel at almost 4am, where Peter was waiting frantically.
Sunday was spent with a hangover and didn't start till we got kicked out of the hostel at 12 o'clock. We both needed to drink water and bought a large bottle on Las Ramblas, and also some ham & cheese baguette sandwiches. Normally in France I'd expect this to cost maybe 8 Euro. Not in Barcelona where everyone's trying to rip you off. Here it's 12 Euro.
Up and down Las Ramblas are beggers, buskers, portrait painters and people just trying to scam the tourist dollar. We wanted paella for dinner one night. We went to a place called OK Paella which appeared to be a chain restaurant - we'd seen OK Paella advertised elsewhere down Las Ramblas for 9-10 Euros. The one we went to was near our hotel but didn't have the prices advertised. What did it cost? 15 Euro each.
Sunday was a warm day - over 20 degrees (yay finally some warm weather). We bought some Cornetto ice creams from a dairy near one of the tourist attracions. 1.80 Euro each. From the dairy off the beaten tourist track - 1.20 Euro.
Enough complaining though. The lessons to be learned or passed on to others going to Barcelona: Either expect it to be expensive and bring lots of Euros, or if you're on a tight budget then don't buy anything along the tourist route. Of course this is just common sense also. Lonely Planet recommends the area west of Las Ramblas as being cheaper and more authentic. It's also darker, with narrower streets, and made us feel uncomfortable at night.
We did manage to do some sightseeing in Barcelona. We saw the Sagrada Familia - designed by Gaudi. Has been under construction for over 100 years and is still nowhere near finished. We went to Guell Park - gardens and buildings and architecture designed by Gaudi. And we went to the Gaudi Museum. At first glance I found the Gaudi architecture ugly and, well, gaudy. But after really looking at it you begin to see the naturalistic elements, the themes and the allegories to nature. The columns that soar up to the ceiling and twist & turn like trees. The palm fronds that make up gates & fences. The real live palms planted next to the stone palm trees that support the walkways. I like Gaudi's work.
So after 48 hours in Spain, I conclude that I like the weather but I don't like Barcelona very much. It is too, too crowded and too focussed on ripping off the tourists. Too many people wanting money for nothing. I admit that two days is not enough time to get a feel for an entire country, and I'm not judging Spain based on my time in Barcelona. There is so much there that we haven't seen. But on this trip we only had time to visit one place. Now it's off to Italy, via the south of France.
France
After we left Paris Peter and I spent five days driving through rural France. We picked up our Peugeot 206 from the airport last Monday morning. We arranged the Peugeot Eurolease before we left New Zealand which means we have effectively bought this car (brand new), and then we will sell it back to Peugeot when we leave in three and a half weeks from now. It is small (which is very handy in Europe) and gutless, but it fits us and all our stuff in easily. It has also turned into a bit of a traveling pantry as we have certainly taken the opportunity to be able to make our own breakfasts and lunches to cut down on expenses somewhat.
The first day we drove from Paris to the Loire Valley. Not very far in terms of distance, but it took us at least an hour to maneuver around Paris from CDG in the north east, to heading in a south west direction. That was once we figured out where we were, as our map of France (that we picked up at the Auckland travel expo last month :) ) was not particularly detailed.
We decided that on this trip we would go camping to keep costs down. We brought our tent and sleeping bags with us from New Zealand. After the freezing cold weather in both London and Paris, we were beginning to regret that decision. But we found the temperature in the Loire to be warmer than the cities, and the campsite at the small town of Onzain was open year round and not very crowded at all. Although after a week of camping now I can say that I’ve seen only one other person in a tent – everyone else is in caravans and campervans. It has worked out well for us and hasn’t really been that cold. Getting up in the morning is the hardest part as you have to get out of your warm sleeping bag.
We spent one full day in the Loire Valley, visiting several chateaux, and one winery. There are vineyards everywhere and loads of them have wine tasting (degustation). But it’s difficult when you don’t really know the customs – I feel uncomfortable enough in NZ when you go to a vineyard and don’t buy any wine. So we only went to one place, and that was the one recommended by the manager of the campsite. Bought two bottles, a red and a white, and it came to only 10 Euros (NZ$20). Not bad prices. Found out later that you can buy wine in the supermarkets for as little as 2 Euros!
Wednesday we drove to the Dordogne (Perigord) region, which is full of cave systems where prehistoric man lived, and is also the foie gras capital of France. We visited several caves on Thursday and were actually able to see real 14,000 year old cave paintings. It was pretty incredible. They only let a couple of hundred people in a day to see the real paintings, and group sizes are strictly limited. I’ve found one of the benefits of traveling outside of the peak season is the lack of queues everywhere, and in this case we were lucky enough to be able to see the caves the same day and didn’t have to book in advance. They are just outside the little town of Les Eyzies, which in itself is pretty spectacular with not just prehistoric man living in the cliffs, but also with modern houses built half way up the cliff face. But it’s also a bit of a touristy town so we didn’t spend much time there. Also went and saw reproductions of the famous cave paintings at Lascaux. The originals are off limits to the public now as they were becoming badly damaged by the presence of people.
Friday night we camped in the town of Tarascon in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains. It is a very beautiful little town, and the mountains still have snow on their peaks. In winter I imagine Tarascon is blanketed in snow, but at this time of year the snow line is far higher. The river that runs through town looks quite full of icy mountain water. This was the only time I’ve really found it cold since we left Paris.
Saturday morning we left France (temporarily) and drove to Spain. But that’s another story…
I have really enjoyed France, and especially getting somewhat off the beaten track and into villages instead of cities. The people we have met have all been friendly, even though our French is very limited. It is getting easier to understand people, especially if the French word sounds like the English version. The guided cave tour we went on was in French only, but we were able to pick up the gist of what was being said, even if we didn’t really understand all of it.
To those people who laughed at us trying to learn French before we left home, and who said “everyone speaks English”, you are wrong. Most people when we ask “parlez Anglais?” reply either “non” or “a leetle”. Maybe they’re just saying that, but they are all genuinely helpful and we have managed to get by on the little bit of French that we know, and with hand gestures.
We have gone out for dinner most nights, endeavouring to sample the local delicacies – sausisson (spicy sausages), canard (duck), local fish, endives and other veges, and local wines. I even gave in to curiousity and sampled the foie gras. I though it tasted pretty horrible really and can’t see why it’s such delicacy. Still haven’t managed to try escargot yet.
We will be back in France again soon, for three or four days, as we travel across the south to Italy…
London & Paris
Peter and I spent five nights in London and Paris. We arrived in London at 6am last Wednesday after flying in from LA. Not getting much sleep on the flight and arriving just as the Californians would be going to bed. One of the first things we noticed was how cold it was. Not just a little bit cold, but absolutely freezing, and wet and windy.
It was my second time in London in less than a year, but Peter has never been there before, so we went and did the tourist things – Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Parliament, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, etc, etc. We took one of the Hop On Hop Off tour buses which was quite informative and went past all the major sites. At 15 pounds a head it’s not exactly cheap when you convert it to Kiwi dollars, but oh well. It was also a convenient, if slow, way of getting around town and certainly beats walking in the rain and hail, both of which we got caught in while out walking.
Unfortunately jet lag finally caught up with us around 3 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon, and we found ourselves on the warm tour bus gently nodding off to sleep. But we did observe that we weren’t the only ones, and I suspect most tourists from the States end up doing the same thing.
Thursday was more of the same, and also included a visit to the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels. Have taken loads of photos.
In London we stayed with Rose Brandeis (ex Tranz Rail, now working for Network Rail (RailTrack) in London) in her Camden flat. Nice and close to town in that commuting doesn’t take too long, yet with all the pubs and cafs and shopping you don’t get in the city. We made sure to have both a café brekkie and a pub lunch during our two days in town.
Friday morning we had a very early start and caught the first tube of the day out to Heathrow. Surprisingly a lot of people around Kings Cross station at 5.30am.
We arrived in Paris during a strike and so the passport control had only two staff on, and two very long queues. Just as we almost got up to the counter, the Passport Officer got up from his counter and walked away. No explanation or nothing. So we and the people around us were wondering “is he coming back?”, “how long should we wait?”, “should we join the other queue?”. After five minutes we decided to merge with the other queue. C’est la vie.
We both experienced that kind of culture shock you get when you arrive somewhere and suddenly realize you haven’t got a clue what to do or where to go. Somehow we managed to bungle our way to the RER train and into the city. At Gare du Nord we got totally confused again and managed to get swindled by someone who we thought was helping us. But that’s another story and still too much of a raw nerve to go into right now.
We found a hotel in the Montmarte area more by luck than by design, as the hotel I had found on the internet three weeks before still hadn’t responded to my request. The building was old, the staircase was falling apart, and there was a communal toilet with no seat. But at least the room was clean, we had our own shower, and the place had plenty of character.
Staying at Montmarte we were right at the bottom of the hill below Sacre Coeur and practically around the corner from the Moulin Rouge and Pigalle district. So we had sightseeing right at our doorstep and no need to deal with the metro again, at least on day one. We were also in the area where I’d say most African immigrants end up, which actually meant that we had a great variety of different places to eat. Wandering through the streets of Paris at night, eating a kebab and chips was pretty cool.
Saturday we went out and did the tourist thing – Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Place de la Concorde, and one art gallery, the Musee d’Orsay. We did a lot of walking that day and got a good feel for Paris. It was nice to have the streets not crowded with tourists and it was pretty clean and attractive. It was still very cold though.
Sunday we started with the Eiffel Tower – walked up to the second floor and had great views over all of Paris. Then we spent the rest of the day at the Louvre – what little of the day was left. Somehow we managed to lose two hours which stuffed us up quite a bit – first we had our alarm set on NZ time instead of Paris time, so while we thought it went off at 8am it was really 8pm NZ time and 9am Paris time. Then daylight savings had kicked in that morning, so while we thought it was 9am it was really 10am. A bit of a waste of the day unfortunately.
We splashed out that night and had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Seine and Notre Dame. A bit extravagant, but thoroughly worth it for the experience and the memories. The (French) onion soup came highly recommended and was very good. The meat dishes (veal and civet) were very tasty, filling and hearty.
And that was the end of our Paris and London experiences. We managed to cram a lot into five days. Too much really as it ended up feeling quite rushed. I would really recommend taking more time, however on this trip we have a lot of places we want to go, and not a lot of time to do them in. The weather was a *lot* colder than I’d expected and I hope it is better down south. If not then at least I am now the proud owner of a black London brolly and a pair of chenille gloves from Paris.
Huntington Beach, Los Angeles
The main purpose of our trip to Huntington Beach was to attend the first event in the 2004 US NPPL paintball tournament series. Peter has been playing competitive paintball for about five years now. His team, Saints, are the best in New Zealand and also do very well against the Australian teams. So it was time to move on to a higher level of competition by playing in the States.
I have attended most of the paintball tournaments in New Zealand that Peter has played at – not as a player but as either a spectator, photographer or support crew. I think all our events are pretty well run, and we are moving towards all our tournaments being held in proper sporting stadiums (most recently in Waikato Stadium, Hamilton). But the Huntington Beach event blew it all away.
Usually we get around 20 teams at our tournaments (of which I know most of the regular players). Huntington Beach had 160 teams. With an average of say eight people per team (seven players plus a reserve or support crew), that’s at least 1280 people there, not including spectators. And an average age of 16 (I’m not kidding), with 99.95% male. That’s a lot of testosterone. I quite enjoyed being the only chick on the team :)
There were five airball fields set up directly on the beach (with artificial grass playing surfaces). There was a grandstand to watch some of the games from, and other games could be watched from the pier.
Anyway I know most people reading this don’t care too much for paintball so I won’t go on too much. Suffice to say that it was far bigger than I could have imagined, and the standard of play was also a lot higher, faster and more competitive.
We arrived in LA on the Wednesday morning and were able to check out the fields while they were still being set up. Thursday consisted of hanging round the fields, deciding how to play them, and of course shopping for new paintball gear.
The competition was spread out over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the finals being held on the Sunday. Saints had three games on Friday morning and five on Saturday afternoon.
Unfortunately the team were very much out of their element, finding the style of play quite different to what they’re used to back home. We only managed to win one game on Friday, and two on Saturday. But they still did pretty well on all the games and all came away having learnt some new things. As well as having now put a foot in the door for attending future events. We met players from loads of other teams, and having the NZ flag on our shirt sleeves was quite a conversation opener.
Sunday we didn’t have any games to play since we didn’t make the finals, so we just watched the ball and the boys shopped. I’ve never seen men do so much shopping in all my life. They were like kids in a candy store. Mind you I can’t really blame them because at our tournaments at home we’d be lucky to get one vendor. Here there were dozens, selling things for much cheaper than we’d normally pay.
Monday was my birthday and I unfortunately spent it with a hangover :( But I still managed to have some fun and went to Disneyland with some of the boys on the team. Not a good idea to go there during Spring Break as the queues were really long. But we still had fun even if we only went on half a dozen rides.
I still think America is a pretty weird place. Southern California is different from the rest of the States though and I think I like it a little better. It is very false and fake, but it also has a bit more of a Pacific feel to it and I don’t feel too far away from home (I even found Maori bone carvings for sale at one of the beach stores – except they were made out of metal instead of bone).
The people stress out about the little things too much (like swearing and drinking). All the bars close at 2am which is really f’d up when all you want to do is go out and party. Driving, at least in Huntington Beach, was easier than I thought it would be. The other drivers are all very courteous and no one’s in a hurry. Which is the opposite of what I thought LA would be like. I think it might just be an HB thing. HB is full of surfers and girls in bikinis. But the sea is polluted and the sky was constantly grey and it wasn’t what I’d call warm. Oh and of course every girl you see has had implants. The boys I was with loved it of course. I have to wonder whether the silicone provides some kind of insulation because they didn’t seem to mind showing off in the cold, while I’m busy shivering inside my jeans, sweatshirt and jacket. All my slimming and tanning over the summer in NZ was a bit of a wasted effort because my bikini never even saw the light of day.
Food. Americans love their fast food and their family restaurants. I can’t comment on McDonalds et al because I never went to any, but Taco Bell at least had a salad on their menu. But Ann, you don’t have to worry about my diet any more, because there is no way you can diet in America. The portions they serve you are so huge. On our first day there we went to a diner and I ordered a Junior Cheeseburger. Lucky I did because the “Junior” cheeseburger was the size of a regular cheeseburger back home. Another restaurant we went to served soup and salad and potatoes and veges with your main, no matter what you ordered. By the time you get through the soup and salad, you’re not hungry for your main any more!
But of course as soon as you start getting used to one place, it’s time to leave again. And so on Tuesday afternoon we left LA and flew to London, where I am at the moment (but I’ll save that for another story). And so thus ends the paintball trip and now begins Peter and my trip round Europe. A trip which we’ve been talking about for 14 years and have both done separately but never together, and a trip which we’ve been planning and saving for, for at least 18 months. It’s hard to believe we’re finally here …
