Rome

I love the way smart cars park-this is a very common sight!

St Peters Square from St Peters Basilicas dome


Pantheon

Colloseum

I spent a couple of more days in Rome seeing the sights-it is such an amazing city, so full of ruins and lovley buildings. Saw the Coloseum, it was just amazing! I also went back to St Peters Basilica, and climbed the dome-what a lovley view of the city from the top, and the most amazing view of the Cathedral from inside the roof.

Then with an hour left to kill before my train, I bought pizza, gelati and sat and enjoyed the Trevali Fountian, with a thousand other people. What a lovely way to finish the visit to the city.

Should have been home

My original flight home was supposed to be leaving yesterday (Saturday 20th) but due to Universities not wanting me (thier loss) I changed my flights to explore Europe some more. Thus, I did not leave yesterday, and am still exploring Rome!! (I have however traded my nice comfy bed which I should have been sleeping in tonight, for the most uncomfortable bed I have slept in in the last 7 months, not so happy about that one!)

Today was spend wandering the sights, visiting churches (I have seen so many now that although they are all beautiful, I am spending less time in each one as I am getting a little over them) and the Roman Foram-which is a large complex of ruins in the middle of Rome and very interesting.

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Rome-via Bologna

Austrian alps

Salzburg

Spanish steps

After spending a couple of days exploring Vienna, I caught a train back across Austria to Salzburg, the home of the Sound of Music. I didnt managed to see many of the Sound of Music sights, as there is no real list of them, but by wandering the streets I saw a couple of the buildings where it was filmed.

Unfortunately, Hellbrunn Palace doesnt open in the winter, so I couldnt see the trick fountains, which I have been told are fantastic. I did however managed to go up a mountian on yet another cable car, and have a fantastic view out across the alps and down to Salzburg.

I then caught an overnight train down to Rome, supposidly arriving at 9am for a full day of sight seeing. However, as seems to be the case with a lot of my travel, the train was delayed. I woke up at 4.20 am at Bologna, then as it was so early, rolled over and went back to sleep. At 6 I woke again, looked out the window, and thought "that station looks familiar" At a closer inspection, I discovered we were still at Bologna!!!! After checking that the train did actually go to Rome, I went back to sleep. Eventually we left about 7.30, arriving 3 hours late at Rome!!

Spent the afternoon seeing some of the sights, and then today spent the whole day exploring the Vatican Museums. They are fantastic, so many artifacts, paintings etc. Sistine Chapel was absolutely amazing as were the tapastery and map rooms leading up to it. By the time I left however, I did have a crick in my neck from looking upwards far too much-where is that mobile flat bed when you need it?

For Rob :)

You wanted some Milan Dom photos, so here you are!!! :)

Skiing in Lichtenstein

Alps around Innsbruck

Scwarcozki Crystal world

Golden roof

Lichtenstein alps

Vaduz castle

I decided that I wanted to try skiing in Europe, but wanted somewhere easy, especially after seeing the slopes in Switzerland-I have a whole new respect for the people who ski them. That and they have a serious death wish!!!! So I headed to Lichtenstein, where I had read the slopes were beginner to intermediate-sounded alright./

Lichtenstein in itself is a lovely principality, only tiny, but with lovely moutains. After an afternoon spent sledging, I braved the slopes, hired some skis and headed off to try skiing. It was terrifying. Even the easy slopes felt vertical to me. After a very scary morning, and a few crashes later, I managed to find the kids slope, where they learnt to ski-much more to my liking, so much so I spent the rest of the day there!!!!! I braved the big slopes one last time to be able to get back to the bus stop and to return my skis, with the result of a spectacular crash, where my ski ended up buried so far in a snow drift I couldnt see it and had to go fishing for it!!

I then headed off to Austria, where I spent a couple of days exploring Innsbruck with its Golden Roof, and lovley mountians, which I could only see when I went up them the weather was so bad.

It was then off to Wein, and the Spanish Riding School, which was fantastic. The training that goes into the horses, and the things they do is remarkable. A fantastic morning, then an afternoon exploring the city.

Jungfrau

OMG!!! So beautiful. I went from Lucerne to Interlaken specifically to go up the Jungfrau, and had one day there. As would be the case, when I woke up, it was misty, overcast, and generally very miserable-not the best of days for going up to the top of Europe. However, I had come to go up, so up I went-paying my $100 for the privlige of possibly seeing nothing!!!

It was a lovley ride up on a cog railway, didnt really hear it too much due to the modern trains. Stopped at Grindelwald, and it was a little clearer, could see some mountains, so at least the day wasnt going to be a complete waste. At the next stop, it was again misty, so didnt get too much of view, and it looked like that was how it was going to stay for the rest of the trip. From here on up, most of the trip was in a tunnel, so you didnt get too much of an idea what the weather was like, but there were two stops on the way, where you could get out and have a look. At the first one it was all cloud, but the second was perfect blue sky!!! We had come out above the cloud!!!

When we eventually reached the top, it was breathtaking. Not a cloud in sight (except when you looked down and it looked like a blanket on the lower mountains, but as you looked out the view was awesome. Mountains rising majestically in front of you. I went up to the observation decks to admire the view, and just soak it in-while sitting outside in the balmy minus 11 degrees, with no hat or gloves on, and pleasantly warm, almost hot!!

Unfortunately, I couldnt stay there forever, and eventually had to head back down, through the cloud to the disappointing weather below-it hadnt improved as the day went on.

The next day I woke to clear blue skys-figures-had a quick wander around the town looking at the mountains surrounding it, and then caught a train to Zurich, in preperation for heading to Lichtenstein today. Only had a few hours in Zurich, not the most remarkable of cities, but has some nice old churches, and the old town is worth a wander. Unfortunately, the weather had again come in, so it wasnt the best of views across the lake.

Still got some travelling to do

So I have apparently visited 10% of the countries of the world-guess I still have some travelling to do-need to get to some more of those countries!!!! So much to see, so little time :)

Made it to Switzerland!

Finally made it to Switzerland, the long way around via Milan! On my last morning in Milan, I visited da Vinci's Last Supper. It is a lovely painting, smaller than I thought, I expected it to be narrower and longer. Unfortunately, you only get 15 minutes in there, as you have to book at time, they only let 25 people in at once.

I then caught a train to Bern, where I spent a day and a half exploring. I stayed in the Old City, it is lovely. All the buildings are green, with covered archways, lots of fountains, alleys to explore. There is also a Bear Park, for which the city is named after (it was named for the first animals which was killed in the area in the 12th century or so, which happened to be a bear.)

I then caught a train to Lucerne, and have spent the last two days exploring the mountains-yesterday Pilatus in perfect weather, clear blue sky, no wind, views for miles, and today Titlis, in almost no visibility to absolutely no visibility, cold and windy-such a difference.

I love Swiss mountains, have been sledging, snow tubing (sit on a car tyre type thing and go down a slalom with no contol, eg backwards, sideways spin round-sooo much fun!!), some random plastic seat which was about 10 cm thick (dont know what it was, but it was great fun going down the hills!!! Also been on a revolving cable car, that felt a bit weird, but got good views of the whiteout conditions, I'm sure it would have been even better with good visibility. Wandered a snow cave under a glacier-lit in beautiful colours.
Bern

View from Mount Pilatus-what cant I say, took my breath away

View from Mount Titlis-I did see some moutains when the weather cleared for about 10 seconds. I snapped a couple of pictures and it was gone!

View coming down Mount Titlis-was a little creepy, there was nothing!

Snow Cave under the glacier

Verona or Varenna?

Juliets balcony

Verona

Roman arena

Roman arena

Varenna

The plan had been to go to Verona early this morning, and spend the day exploring the city. Unfortunately, I was sold a ticket to Varenna instead. I just assumed it was the Italian spelling for Verona. I was wrong. They are two completely different towns. Varenna is tiny. It is on the edge of Lake Como. It is near the mountains. It is very pretty. There is nothing there!!!

So after wandering the whole town in half an hour, I headed back to the train station, and caught the train back to Milan to try again. This time I had success!!! I made it to Verona, unfortunately I didnt end up with very long there! It is a lovely place, could have spent a long time wandering the streets-but did managed to visit Juliets balcony, the Roman arena and a few of the squares.

Made it to Milan

Plans are designed to never work out. So after checking on the net, but being unable to purchase due to bad connections, the tickets from Avignon to Switzerland, and finding there was suppose to be a bus on Saturday morning, I went to the ticket office on Friday to be told that there was no bus to Switzerland until Wednesday-not happy. I went to check the trains, yes I could get one for 180 Euros, not going to happen. Back to the bus station, what buses can I get to Italy or Austria-nothing to Austria, but I can go to Milan on Saturday night, arriving Sunday morning. So I booked the ticket, and then had an extra day to spend in Avignon, not too happy.

I managed to pass my two days quite pleasently however, looking at the city walls (and walking the whole lenght), going on the 4 historical walks around the city, going inside the Palace of the Popes, and going over the bridge of Saint Benezene, then some time spent in another historical village just across the river.

The bus to Milan was another epic adventure. To begin with the bus was late and arrived at 9 instead of 8.30 (apparently this doesnt count as late as I was supposed to get a phone call if the bus was going to be late)-I was beginning to think it was not going to arrive. Then at 10 we all got kicked off so we could buy food, whether we wanted to or not. 11.15 found me off the bus again, this time to change buses, and waiting 45 minutes for the next one because it was late. At 3am we were kicked off again to buy food, whether we wanted it or not-why I would want to eat at 3am I dont know, I had been happily asleep. 8am found us once again off the bus for, you guessed it, more food-mind you we did have to buy the food ourselves if we wanted it. The bus was supposed to get in at 8.15, but needless to say it was late, and got in at 9. Luckily there were some friendly Italians who had been on the bus with me who helped me to buy a ticket and get to the right train station to get to my hostel.

After finally arriving, I left my bags there, and went out to spend the afternoon exploring Milan-there isnt a whole lot here, but I went to the castle which was quite nice, and had a lovely colony of cats living in the moat. I then wandered back to the cathedral, which was georgous, and after wandering around it for a while, climbed up to the roof which gives you lovley views across the town, and over to the mountains, which thanks to the lovley day, you could actually see. Unfortunately, they kicked us off before sunset, as it would have been lovely. After buying some gelati-yes it is cold here, but I am in Italy, you gotta try the foods!!! I headed back to the hostel, and hopefully a nice undisturbed nights sleep.