europa 09

(dear reader, It’s Sunday evening 26th July, and we’ve arrived home safely [without our luggage - left in Rome] after a fantastic 6 weeks in Europe. The last week has been very busy and I’m a little behind in the blog posts, here’s one to keep you interested. There’ll be a few more before going up this week with the final one reflecting on the whole experience.)

16/07/2009

Up early and into Arles by train arriving at 9. Walked around the city along the river (and came across the spot where van Gogh painted ‘Starry Night’!) to the tourist office to get some info and a map. Crossed the road and walked around the corner and was confronted by a Roman amphitheater and then a colosseum! Cool! Just like in Rome… Sat and had a coffee (yep, along with the obligatory French pastry) in between these two old structures and pondered history, civilisations etc. etc..

We mapped out a little walking tour for ourselves that should take a couple of hours (including diversions) and headed off. A very picturesque town and with surprising views and lots of old stuff. Great square, church, town hall, fountain etc. We did bump into a guy who was giving free idea advice with his ‘Minute Mind’. We stopped for a chat and he’s a professional creative (designer etc.) and was doing a ‘community service’ helping people who wanted/needed to get some creative thinking done on an idea/concept they had. Great to see that someone was willing to give their time and skill to help others get a leg-up. Van Gogh lived in Arles and did a lot of painting here, stopped for a toilet break and discovered we were in ‘Le Jardin De La Maison De Sante A Arles’. It hasn’t changed at all. Wonderful. We didn’t really have time to visit any museums, but that didn’t matter, the whole town was a museum (just like Rome).

Then on the train to Nimes arriving at 1 to head off on a similar ‘discovery walk’. From the station up the avenue around the park and ended up at the tourist office to get a map. Off along the canal (past the old fellas playing boules) to the gardens/baths ‘L’augusteum’ with a formal design, water features fed by a spring, a temple to Dianna and at the top of the hill, a tower. It was very hot and we exploited the fountains and taps to keep us cool and hydrated. I climbed the tower for a view and got a sense of the size of the town, where the aqueduct ran and how the Romans had defended it. Another colosseum/amphitheatre, amazing churches, and lots of history.

Back to catch the train back to Avignon and got held up for half an hour because of a bomb scare at the station. Another quick walk through town to the Palace of the Popes, stopping to watch puppeteers and other buskers as we wandered through the amazing little cobbled path dug through the rock. Not a bad effort for the day, and looking forward to some museum tomorrow as well as a trip across the river to Villeneuve!

15/07/2009

Packed the bags and checked out, leaving our luggage at the hotel for the morning while we went and visited the Vasarely Foundation. Cool! Victor Vasarely was involved in the Op-Art movement and it was amazing to see hi big works (8×5 mtrs) in-situ in the specially designed building. We also managed to fit in a visit the tapestry museum which was housed in (what used to be) the Bishops residence. The courtyard had been turned into a open air theatre with terraced seating and a stage that was under cover – amazing use of space but seemed a little out of place in an old building. The tapestries were huge and they had a series of them detailing (and I mean detail) the life and adventures of Don Quixote.

Bus out to the TGV station to catch the train to Avignon and it was still hot – good to have some respite with the airco but clouds were building so it looked like there may be some atmospheric action. Had a wait at the station and watched (not for very long as they move so fast) a couple of TGV’s zoom through the station in the express lanes – cool. It had got a little windy and some rain started to fall but no down-pour… Had to catch a bus into Avignon from the TGV station (which is very impressive architecturally) and what a pain that was. Very busy, very hot and no efficient system for boarding the bus. All luggage had to go on board, we had to buy tickets from the driver, and it took ages to finally get going. Into Avignon and we land in the middle of the annual theater festival and the place is going off! People everywhere, signs for shows up all over the place and small troupe roaming around ‘selling’ their show. Crazy!

Tourist office & then half hour walk halfway round the city to the bus stop, and then the bus drove halfway round again before heading out to the ‘burbs’ where our hotel was… Straight back into the city to use the bus ticket before it expired, and wandered from the east through to the north and had the most amazing walk through the city and along a windy street dug out of the rock foundations for the buildings, and out into the plaza in front of the Palace of the Popes! The scale of things is huge. Buskers and performers everywhere and lots & lots of people, so a great atmosphere but not the ‘normal’ Avignon we expected. Caught a Bustival (special services that they’d put on so people could get home after the normal bus services had finished at 8:00) home around 9 and crashed, big day tomorrow … will try to visit Arles & Nimes.

14/07/2009

Another warm summer day in Provence. In the morning we happened to strike it lucky to be able to wander through the large market that’s held three days a week in Aix. For those of you around my age you might be interested to know that I saw a book on Thierry la Fronde (the French Robinhood) which I remember watching in the late 60s on TV (the soundtrack/jingle came back to me in a flash). He was a handsome guy in tights with a sling and a sword, who hung our with a bunch of merry men and used to have all sorts of adventures in the forest (we used to imitate his exploits as kids). Great fun to see the book (& I did enjoy the reminiscence), would have bought it but it was in French and 20 Euros…

Retraced some of our steps from the night before to visit the squares (all with obligatory fountains – lots of kids having a cool off) and reading the information on some of the significant buildings. Quite and easy to cover old town in a couple of hours but the streets go all over the place and we ‘discovered’ some amazing things just by following our noses and consulting the map every now & then. Big & little squares, amazing alleys and streets, fountains, and wonderful building facades – we did cheat a little and followed some of the Cezanne walking trail (and referred to the notes on the map regarding the places we came across) which is marked out on the footpaths by a brass medallion every couple of metres (it looked like there had been quite a few removed as souvenirs – you’d need a crow-bar to get them of/out).

It was hot, so we rested up for a bit, & did a bit of blog writing before visiting a church with an amazing stained glass window (near the Garnet Museum which had the Picaso/Cezanne exhibition which we didn’t visit). Stopped in a hole in the wall mexican restaurant and had a taco which was more like a burrito wrap and then some more wandering and chanced upon the biggest square we’d seen yet and it was full of restaurant tables under umbrellas. Some guy serenading the crowds (a captive audience really as they were stuck at their tables) and after he’d played for a bit he walked around with his hat and most people felt obliged…

Back into the centre of town and the big fountain know locally as the ‘Rotonde’, to stand with heaps of other people waiting for the fireworks to happen for the national holiday celebrations. Scored a good possie and waited while a couple of entrepreneurs sold helium balloons and fairy floss next to us (I think they did quite well). At 10 pm the fireworks went off accompanied by a few songs played through the sound system they’d set up, and we enjoyed 15 minutes of crackers. Cool! Then we had to negotiate a couple of thousand other punters to get the 100 metres back to our hotel. Once safely inside on the 4th floor we could look out the windows at the hordes still struggling to get where they were going…

13/07/2009

A slower morning as I’m recovering from a cold/flu thing (not of the ‘you know which’ variety – although we did hear a warning in English at the train station about the H1N1 virus when we arrived in Marseille) and went to the Pharmacie/n for some stuff before heading out to check the markets on Rue de Prado. Caught the metro out to the end and then walked back – it all got a bit repetitive (sunglasses, watches, shoes, clothes, toiletries, clothes, sunglasses, watches, shoes, etc.etc) after a while, so it didn’t take long to tire of it. Wandered back into the the centre, a quick supermarket visit and checked out of the hotel by noon.

Laboured up the stairs to the St Charles station in Marseille and had a wait for an hour for our train to Aix en Provence. I saw that there was an earlier train, but couldn’t change the tickets because we’d bought TGV tickets and the other train was a TER. This is where we’d made our mistake… the TGV runs the ‘fast’ trains and has built special tracks and stations to deal with the speed and frequency of the trains so ‘their’ stations are usually out of town and require a transfer bus (yes, you need to buy another ticket…)! Anyway arrived OK and after the airco of the train & bus ($14 AUD) it was very warm (~33 C) dragging our luggage up the road from the bus stop. Found that our hotel is very central (yay) and we have a good sized room (also yay) to spread our stuff around! Opened the curtains to find a pigeon behind the shutter sitting on two eggs!

Did a reconnoiter of the town and came across the very old cathedral and managed to get a peek at the old cloister with some very interesting carved pillars surrounding the courtyard. On the way home we actually found some Vietnamese takeaway and a bottle of Bordeaux for a (relatively) cheap dinner back in our room.

12/07/2009

Day two in Marseille, and it’s already warm by 8:30 in the morning so starting with a boat trip on the water was nice. Picked up a quick takeaway coffee and boarded the first boat out of town. There was already a bit of a crowd which would grow over the day no doubt. They did have some shade structures set up that sprayed a mist every now & then to keep those who could fit under the shade, a little cooler. The boat took us out to the Isle & Chateau d’If (10 minutes) that is a barren little rock with a castle on it that was used to provide the defenses for the port of marseille. This island & castle were used as inspiration by Alexander Dumas for his story, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’. Once we were back in the harbour we wandered through the fish market and noticed crayfish for 60 Euros a kilo!

Hopped on our ‘Thomas’ train for the ride up to duomo Notre Dame de la Garde (know locally as ‘La Bonne Mere’ – The Good Mother, which has a huge golden statue of Mary and Child). Our captain/driver was in too much of a hurry, and it was a rather dodgy driving performance. Lots of near misses and hard braking – it was OK for us big kids, but the little chappy in front of us smacked his face into the seat when we stopped suddenly to avoid rear-ending a car. The train was three carriages long so the joints also allowed for lots of jerking around as there’s lots of corners, crossings, intersections & ups & downs on the hills. There was a tourist narration in four languages which played on the way and unfortunately kept skipping bits and even a whole language. There was a funny translation where they translated into English, the statue as Mother & Kid! The Basilica was amazing (had a service going on) and the crypt was as hot as, because of all the candles that were burning.

Oh, did I mention it was Sunday and everybody was out doing something or going somewhere. Everyone seemed to be in holiday mode because they all had their beach gear and we think it’ll be a very long weekend as it’s Bastille Day on Tuesday 14th. Coffee a quiche & then bus no. 55 to the Cathedral du Major which had these amazing doors with huge ornate hinges, and then to the Centre de la Vielle Charite and the Archeology & Egyptian museum. Then the metro to find the Galeries Contemporaines Des Musees De Marseille (MAC) but realised we still had to catch a bus and thought that it might take too long, so headed back to another museum (Palais des Arts) to see lots of paintings about the sea & Marseille. Then we thought we’d try the MAC gallery again, and managed to get out there and back within an hour! Some great stuff to see there, and amongst other things, enjoyed a large gorilla thumb in shiny brass and also a Citroen cut down to fit one driver and one passenger!

Then the no. 83 bus along the beach most of the way back and stopped off to do a bit of walking along the waterfront & then back on the bus. Spent the rest of the afternoon looking for things that didn’t exist and found others that did. Walked an amazing, bustling alley/street on the way back around eight, and found some yummy middle eastern goodies to eat. As well as hot food to eat, there was fruit & vegies as well as a number of second hand bric-a-brac stalls. Didn’t seem all that French to us, but that seems to be the multi-cultural aspect of European countries now, lots of middle eastern and African people around.

10/07/2009

A quick trip to the supermarket for breakfast supplies and then a frustrating hour trying to access the internet (uploading my blog posts crashed the hotel’s modem a couple of times) before a short walk to the station and grabbing a double espresso and warm croissant for on the train (YUM!). We enjoyed the long ride (with two train changes) that took us up through the mountains (lots of tunnels, spectacular scenery, raging rivers in steep ravines, towns tucked into hillsides) and down again to the coast. A German guy who got on the train, told us that there were pre-historic drawings/paintings in caves up in Tende.

We had a slight delay before Ventimiglia and sweltered in the heat for 20 minutes before we could get off and catch the next rain to Nice. We’d missed our intended connection but there was one within 10 minutes anyway… The train stopped in Monaco and got filled to the brim with lots of people heading back to their holiday lodgings. It took ages to get everyone on board and then getting off at the other end was a joke. There was only one set of stairs going down off the platform (like two people wide) with everyone carrying baggage ad then there were people trying to get up the same stairs – crazy! Checked in (hotel only 500 mtrs from the station), had a power nap (in airconditioned comfort) and then headed out down to the beach via the main drag (Avenue Jean Medicin) and checked out the Monoprix (supermarket), and bought some drugs for me from the Pharmacie as I’d been sneezing all day and coming down with a cold. Down the end of the street, at Place Massena we saw the (what we think are Antony Gormley) statues of transparent fiberglass figures sitting or kneeling on tall stainless steel poles, and the huge fountain.

Quickly checked out the beach (stoney) and the boulevard (crowded) and appreciating our beaches just a little more. Nice is a tourist destination like Tourquay or Apollo Bay, so not exactly what we expected but still has a lovely ambience. Great to wander in the old part of the city with the streets full of stalls and restaurants, found a bakery and bought a quiche and (very) fresh baguette – excellent! Lots of gift shops & stalls, artists, buskers, and people out and about on a Friday night. A nice (pun unintended) atmosphere on a wonderful summer evening – Nice sure does have a different vibe being a tourist holiday resort… Took our time meandering back home, and saw a church that had ‘Eglise Reformee’ on the sign (and celebrating Calvin’s 500 years in 2009)!

9/07/2009

Great sleep, breakfast of banana, almonds, apricots & chocolate and off to see the city. A beautiful morning with brilliant blue sky, a smattering of clouds, and maybe getting up to 28 C – just right for walking around. A couple of kms into the city centre and the grand piazzas, churches and stately buildings. Every change of ruler/government etc. seemed to want to make their own statement and either demolished building to start again, or added to (or embellished) what was already there. Makes for great archeological discovery and a sense of shame that much of the old stuff has been lost. Not always a bad though, they did remove a slum and rebuild a section of the city, but I don’t know what happened to the people who lived there… We ended up in the Piazza Castello which is surrounded by the Palazzo (palace) Madama, Palazzo Reale, the Church of San Lorenzo and also the Cappella della Sacra Sindone (Chapel of the Holy Shroud) where the Shroud of Turin is kept. All very sombre and a few people around paying respects and other things…

After some coffee we visited the Mole Antonelliana and went up the glass elevator through the middle of the building which was (I think) a bit like riding in the glass elevator in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Great views from the top ands I noticed that Turino is surrounded by mountains for about 270 degrees from the south, round to the north and to the east – amazing. The city was apparently sited by the Romans for it’s strategic position on the Po and Dora Rivers and to be a supply depot (and reinforcements) for campaigns over the Alps. Yes, my history and geography knowledge has gained considerably in the past 4 weeks. Back down the lift and as it pass through the void of the building you can see the National Museum of Cinema and the displays of photos and old movies, a remarkable ride and difficult to describe.

After a siesta it was time to get down to the River Po on the rattling tram with (comfortable) wooden seats, and do a walk back along the river and through the gardens and past the recreated Medieval Village & Castle. We also walked past the Castello del Valentino (which looked fairly French to us) and the Fountain of Months which was being renovated (as much is in such an old landscape). Also noticed that they actually have special places in the parks that are fenced off, where you can take you dog and let them run around and do their toilet (I wonder who has to clean them up?). Then up Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Via Roma, and checked out a few (fashion) shops

Stopped at the Piazza San Carlo and ducked into the Caffe San Carlos for a cocktail and beer with snacks. It has taken us all this time to work out how the Italians eat and drink and when we finally tried it we did it in great style at a famous (infamous) cafe bedecked with chandeliers, mirrors and red velvet. The cafe was closed down during the for suspicions of dissenters meeting in rebellion to the ruling Savoy’s. It was damaged during bombing in WWII and rebuilt. For 8 Euros you can buy a drink and pig out on the aperitifs, going back for more cheeses, meats, sandwiches, roasted vegetables, savories, olives etc. etc. It was a lovely way to sit and linger on our last night in Italy, and we won’t need dinner tonight!

8/07/2009

Had a slow wake up this morning. Awoke at dawn and looked out over the lake as the the silhouettes of the mountains on the other side were just beginning to become visible. Back to sleep for a bit, but continued to check how the day was looking every now & then till about 7, by which time the sun was streaming in through the window. Glorious! We decided to to ‘carpe diem’ and head off to the funicular (running up the mountain from the end of town) first, and then afterwards catch a boat out to a couple of islands for a sticky beak.

Filled up at breakfast and managed to get to the first lift of the day and headed up on the cable to the first stop, ‘Alpino’ (at 803 mtrs) where we walked to the botanical gardens, enjoyed the most amazing view at the lookout, and strolled around the garden for half an hour. Then onto the second cable car to get to ‘Mottarone’ (at 1385 mtrs) where we then walked to the new chair lift and went up to 1491 mtrs where we had a 360 degree panorama! Spectacular! We could see Mount Blanc (~4800 mtrs) to the west and the seven lakes, with villages dotted around the coastlines & in the valleys and the surrounding mountains. Stayed for a coffee, enjoying the view and some spectacular (actually perfect) weather before heading back down. There were people with mountain bikes in the lifts, so obviously a great pastime here. You can hire them and get the lift up, and pelt back down or even do it by foot, there would be great walks around this area.

Then it was off to visit the Isola Pescatori (Fisherman’s Island) to wander around the market and the alleyways and then on to the Isola Bella which has a baroque mansion & garden (that we didn’t visit ’cause it cost too much and we didn’t have enough time) and a wonderful little town of winding alleys and heaps of shops to look at. Back to the mainland and walked back into Stresa for our bags and off the the station to get our train to Torino (will require two changes (at Arona & Novara) with 20-30 mins between).

Got to Torino just after 7 and walked to our hotel along a couple of boulevard streets (reminiscent of France) and also covered walkways like Bologna. In an old 19th C building on the 4th floor with a old lift etc… Tomorrow we’ll have a look around and see how we might make our way to Nice. Another brilliant day.

7/07/2009

Woke to a thunderstorm very early in the morning and enjoyed being inside while watching a downpour for a couple of hours. We were on the second floor and below us was a huge awning (covering a patio n the first floor) that was filling with water rapidly. There was a loud bang and the weight of the water had pulled out/broken the bracket holding it up against the building and a fair bit of water came down with it. Oops, don’t think they thought it was going to rain – probably should have rolled it the night before just in case… Anyway, we crossed our fingers that it would clear by 11 when we were due to catch the ‘fast’ boat to Como. Breakfast downstairs and nice to be inside while the rain started easing a little. Had a slow morning back in our room and did some internet (nice to have free secure wifi for a change), and checking up on how to get to Stresa.

By the time we got onto the ‘fast’ boat to Como the sky had cleared to blue and there were only wisps of clouds hanging around the tops of the mountains. As we disembarked the ferry in Como, we realised our bags had been on the floor soaking on the wet carpet. we couldn’t tell it was wet (the colour and texture of it) but the boat must have leaked in the downpour and we had wet bags! Dang!

We raced our luggage up to the Como railway station and checked it while we went back to town to check out the Duomo (closed – Meh!), have a coffee and see if we could find some scarves for Wendy. Apparently Como is the place to do so… Found a great shop and picked up a few. all on sale! Woot!

Back to station to catch the train to Milan and then swap to the train to Domodossola which we got off, in Stresa. Found our way down to our hotel which was down on the waterfront again! (Wendy picked this one too). A magic room with walls & ceiling covered with a golden patterned fabric (not wall paper) that may have been from the 20s? Had a quick rest and then headed out for an evening stroll and sat down by the waterfront watching distant thunderstorms across the lake. Checked out the old town with it’s shops and restaurants, enjoying some caprese & pizza before crashing…