We had an early start today, ready for a long road trip day today. Leaving the hotel at 7:30 we are driving through the Italian countryside and will reach Rome at appprox 3:00 this afternoon.
It is a good day to be on the coach today, as our grey skies are back. The weather reports are showing fine and hot (28 degrees) for Rome.
Our journey south took us around Bologna and Florence, both of which we see in more detail in a few days time.
We stopped in a huge service centre for an early lunch at 12:00 (to dodge the traditional Italian lunch time of 1:00) I had a huge piece of pepperoni pizza
Checking into our hotel at just on 3:00 we had an hour to unwind before heading out on walking tour of the Eternal City
Our local guide Paulo showed us the sights of Rome. He described what roman life may have been like many hundreds of years ago. We saw Egyptian obelisks that are over 3000 years old which were brought to Rome over 2000 years ago.
Unfortunately, the Trevi Fountain is under scaffold until December 2015, so we missed its full beauty, but we certainly did get its scale
We made it to the Pantheon, which is the most preserved building from ancient times. It is truly awe inspiring.
Lots more amazing building, fountains and piazzas, then we were free to explore and have dinner. I had the most divine Rigatoni Carbonara 🙂
Back on the coach, Bern noticed they were very few people at St Peters square. So we “did a dodgy” again and had a real quick 5 minute photo stop there. We all took photos of “one foot in Italy , one foot in the Vatican “
Back to the hotel ready for a 6:30 start to get to the Vatican to jump the queue and get in early.
Another glorious day in the beautiful Venice. 🙂 we have a strange phenomenon today… There is a big shiny ball in the sky that has turned the sky blue instead of grey …. yay we have SUNSHINE 🙂
8:30 on the coach and then boat back to the island. The boat took us to the island of Murano where we saw a demonstration of the famous glass blowers.
Then we were back to St Mark’s square for our 3.5 hours of free time.
I explored the streets and lane ways of Venice. For lunch I found a cute bakery and bought an olive ciabatta roll and a few shops along was a deli, so bought 100 grams of the most perfect mortadella What a beautiful lunch, sitting near the Rialto bridge just ” people watching”. After my sandwich I headed off to find my “compulsory gelato “. I found a gelateria that had berry panacotta.
Wandering back to St. Mark’s square, I got to our meeting point early so had an Aperol Spritz and just took on the view of the canal. Yes… It is a tough life 🙂
We were then taken on a lagoon tour to see where the Venetian people actually live. In the lagoon are a number of small islands, some have schools, some have hospitals, some have just homes etc. So really just like our suburbs. Of course every home has a boat.
We stopped off on Burano the houses here are very colourful and the whole town was just lovely. We had an early dinner here and were back at the hotel by around 7:00. We were all ready for an early night as we have a 6:30 start tomorrow.
7:00 bags and breakfast then off to Verona. A pleasant drive down the motorway we passed through the Dolomite mountains and gorgeous Italian country side. We saw many fortresses along the river which were built to protect the river from invaders, often there was a fortress on both sides of the river.
We arrived in Verona just before lunch . Bern gave us a quick history and orientation, took us to Juliet’s balcony and then we are on our own for an hour and a half. So here I am sitting in the Verona market square having just ordered “Spaghetti ragu a pomadora”. Spag and tomato sauce :). I don’t even pretend to speak Italian but with food I can generally work out what some of the food is 🙂 And of course I know “vino rossi” is red wine. Too many meals at decent decent restaurants where the menu is on Italian 🙂 Today, instead of vino rossi, I am having an aperitif called Aperol Spritz as Bern suggested it …. Yummmm I am a convert, slightly bitter, citrusy and served over ice.
Soon we were back on the coach and onto Venice.
oh my gosh!!! Now I totally get why everybody RAVES about Venice…. What a fabulously amazing place. We arrived at the port and got water taxis up the grand canal to near St Mark’s square. An orientation then a gondola cruise around dome of the back canals, 45 mins of free time to explore them back to the coach and a short 30 min drive to our hotel for a fabulous meal of lasagne, salad and cake dessert . Tomorrow we have a lagoon cruise, a visit to Murano Glass and then 3 hours free time to go crazy. 🙂
On the road to Austria via Liechtenstein. Bern tells us that today is brought to us by the letter “S” …. Swarovski, Schnitzel , Strudel and Schapps 🙂
We drove through some stunning countryside with soaring mountains and rolling green hills before stopping at the Liechtenstein capital of Vaduz. A really quaint little town with some interesting sculptures in the town square. Overlooking the town is the palace of the royal family. We had a 45 minute stop here and we were off again, towards Innsbruck.
This drive was through a lot of tunnels through mountains , one of them was 11kms long, during this time Bern took the time to explain all our optional extras.
Our lunch stop was at an enormous service centre. There were loads of trucks parked there because in Europe, truckies are not allowed to be on the road between 10:00pm Saturday night and 10:00pm Sunday night. So they tend to congregate at the better stops.
Because the truckies have to stay put for 24 hrs they made themselves comfortable. Can you see the yellow truck second from the left had washing hung out over his truck and the trucks second and forth from the right have satellite tv dishes set up.
On the way into Innsbruck Bern decided to do a side trip up to the ski jump that was built for the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. Of course being up high it have us a fabulous view over the city. Coming down into the city, being a Sunday with not many cars around, Bern decided to “do a dodgy” and Mario stopped the coach and we all jumped off the coach for a real quick look at the Wiltern basilica.
We then headed into the city where Bern gave as a short orientation and we were free for the next 3 hours to explore. Innsbruck is the home of Swarovski Crystal and there were many of their shopping bags back on the coach 🙂
We arrived at our hotel at around 6:00, settled in and had our included Schnitzel dinner at 7;00.
Most of us turned in for an early night, as we have a 7:00 start tomorrow as we head to Venice via Verona to see Juliet’s balcony.
Alps
Alps
Statues in Vaduz
Trucks
Truck Stop
Food
Food
Food
and dessert
Innsbruck
The ski jump
The ski jump
Wiltern basilica
Inside the basilica
Inside the basilica
Innsbruck
Beautiful ornate buildings
Hofburg Imperial Palace
The Austrians have a sense of humor :). This t shirt was in most souvenir shops.
Breakfast this morning was a genuine “continental breakfast” of cold meats, cheese, croissants, cereal and coffee ( and tea )
We headed onto the bus and off to the alps. Sadly the weather gods were not with us and did could not see the view at all :(. We travelled to the top of the mountain firstly on a cable pulled train , then brand new open air cable car . Because of the fog it didn’t seem high because you could not see the ground.
Traveling up the mountain we passed by farms with cows wearing their bells. What a noise! It is amazing the cows are not deaf
At the top was a walk around the peak but again sadly no view. ( good excuse to come back ). Also at the top, Bern had arranged an Alpenhorn for us to try, I actually managed to a decent sound out of it :). Thank you high school music for showing me how to blow a trumpet :-). You can see a video of me blowing the horn in this post. It does sound like a dying moose but I got sound 😉
Back down the mountain and we travelled back to Lucerne on a lake cruise. The captain pointed out interesting points along the way
After the cruise we had a few hours free to explore the city and have lunch. Found a great market stall and bought some cheese and a beautiful bread roll and had a relaxing lunch by the river.
We were meant to have the whole afternoon free, but Bern was most excited that she had a new experience for us.
Just out of the city is a secret WW2 bunker built inside a mountain Cows. It was only decommissioned by the army in 1995 and the Swiss have preserved it as a museum. Usually they only open it on Friday evenings with tours on German. She (as a senior guide with Trafalgar ) has convinced them to allow groups to come as a trial . We are the first group. We have all promised to be on our very best behavior 🙂
WOW!!! The Festung Vitznau was amazing. The entire facility is as it was in 1943. The “festungs” or fortresses were built to defend Switzerland from the Germans who had them surrounded on all sides. I could not begin to explain the whole experience. It was truly awesome in the way the word awesome should be used. The entire tour agreed it would be a fabulous addition to the Trafalgar tour itinerary. I will be watching to see if Bern manages to get it included. I really hope she does, as the Swiss story is one that very few people know about. One of our older gentlemen guests thanked our Swiss guide for the tour and said we all just thought the Swiss didn’t want to fight. These successful secret fortresses deserve to have their story told. If you can read German you can visit the website at www.festung-vitznau.ch
After the fortress we were back to the hotel for an included dinner of soup, chicken and vege and ice cream for dessert
We all turned in for an early night ready for Lichtenstein and Austria tomorrow .
We had our first “gentle start” we did not have to be at breakfast until 7:15 and were on the road at 8:15
Down the hwy to the Black Forest!! (Hofgut Sternen) for CAKE. We stopped at an old coach inn, where the young Marie Antoinette’s carriages stopped for the evening on her way to Paris there was also a cuckoo clock making centre and we learnt how the carving of the clocks was simply something for the farmers to do on the long dark winters, of course, boys being boys there was a bit of “mine is better than yours” so began the tradition of elaborate carved work . Lunch was of course Black Forest cake ( and a hamburger and chips). Bern had warned is that real Black Forest cake that is here may be drier than we get at home. Obviously we have good Black Forest cake everywhere I have been in Aus because now I know they are all pretty good 🙂 the only difference was a thin layer of shortbread biscuit on the base of the cake.
From the Black Forest , we drove onto Switzerland. Reaching the German / Swiss border we had to stop and Bern & Mario had to pay our road tax for Germany . Bern explained that they tax us on how many kilometers we have done on the country, how big the bus is and how many people on board. To pass from Germany cost €150.00. Then just a couple of hundred meters down the road we had to stop and pay Swiss road tax, slightly cheaper at €18.00
A little further down the road, we came to the Rhine Falls. These falls are simply stunning. We arrived in Lucerne and Mario dropped us off at the Lion Monument.
Lion Monument -Lucerne In 1792 an entire regiment of Swiss Guards were slaughtered while guarding King Louie the 16th in France.   One of the members of that regiment was on leave and at home in Lucerne when the awful news arrived.  Understandably he was devastated that all his friends had died.  Many of the men came from this region and it was suggested a monument be erected in their honour.  The Swiss did not want a statue that showed the “failure” of their guards, but would allow a monument to be built out of the city.  This monument was designed and built in a small wooded area on the outskirts of the old city. ( it is now almost in the middle of the town but still in a quiet tranquil little park away from the busy town) The inscription over the cave says Loyalty and Honour  of Switzerland The lion lays dying in the cave with a broken arrow in his back, but even is death he is seen guarding France, as his paw lies protectively on the shield with the Fluer de Lis.  A shield with the cross of the Swiss flag is also seen.   The report of the guards massacre had mentioned they were “slaughtered like pigs” so if you look at the cave itself you will see it is in the shape of a wild boar.  The boar’s snout is on the bottom left, follow the cave up and you will make out the boar’s ear above the lions head and the rest of the cave in the boar’s body..
From the monument we walked a short way to our hotel.
Our excursion tonight was a Swiss Dinner and folksong show. We had cheese fondue, a lovely veal scallions dish and ice cream for desert. The show was very entertaining with yodelling singing and the long alpenhorn .
We were back at our hotel at 10:00 ready for another day in Lucerne tomorrow.
