Trekkin

Day 20 – Friday 10 June 2016

Another great breakfast at our hotel before starting our walking tour of old Maastricht, right outside our hotel on the riverbank. Maastricht is the oldest continually habited town in the Netherlands. The first point of interest was outside our hotel, the site of the first Roman bridge built across the Maas River in the 1st century AD, apparently it was originally a fording point as it was very shallow. Not now as there are countless motorised barges travelling up & downriver all the time. After the Roman bridge was destroyed, a stone bridge, the Sint Servaasbrug was constructed in the 13^th century, the oldest bridge in the Netherlands & is still used today as a pedestrian & cycle bridge. It is in an amazing condition. We walked across it into the old town full of medieval buildings & narrow cobblestone streets. Our guide Tilly was very informative & funny as we strolled the streets. Maastricht was waking up, the streets were nearly empty when we started our walk, the shops opened at 10 am. One of the stone buildings we passed was built in 1616, there were lots of others of similar vintage, or older.

We then strolled to the old city walls & the town gates, built in 1229 & known as Helpoort (hellsgate in English). This was another gate that had an ability to pour burning hot oil down onto attackers at the gate. We followed the old wall around, passing the house that Andre Rieu lived in as a boy, saw the remains of an old nunnery that someone has converted to a house, then back into the town again, passing by the remains of the old Roman wall that is still standing. There are certainly some beautiful old buildings in Maastricht. There are around 50 old churches in town, apparently the old Dutch were very religious in times past. With the decline in religion some of the churches have been re-used for other purposes, we saw one being used as a large bookstore. The churches are being used but not allowed to be altered, just in case religion will become popular again.

The flower mill & its water wheel is still working, water is still turning the wheel & bread is still being made in the bakery. Out & past some more imposing old churches & down some more narrow streets before coming to the main market square. This square is dominated by the large town hall smack in the middle of it. Today was market day so the square was packed with stallholders selling their wares, mainly fruit & vegetables, we started to walk through the market but the crowd was too large so we left quietly. We left there then walked through some more quaint old streets before coming to the large square that Andre Rieu plays his concerts in. This square is dominated by two large churches in one corner, both different faiths but so close to each other. One church has its tower painted red, originally it was ox blood. There is rivalry between the two churches & the small gap between them is called purgatory as each of the churches is considered representing heaven by its followers & the other representing hell. Our walking tour ended in this large square so we started to wander back slowly to our hotel, stopping to buy a 500 gm punnet of fresh & very tasty strawberries for 2 Euro & enjoying a wander through different parts of the old town & crossing the river on the new bridge.

We departed for Amsterdam at 12.30pm, with Piero our driver doing another excellent job navigating his way through the tight streets. The Autobahn drive was interrupted by backed up traffic from an accident, once passed that we made good time. The Dutch countryside is very flat, no hills nor mountains & is very green with long lush pastures everywhere, separated by drainage ditches. We crossed 2 rivers that were in flood, one an arm of the Rhine River & could see where the floodwaters had reached earlier in the week before starting to subside. We reached Amsterdam around 4.30pm & managed to get to our rooms around 5pm. Off to dinner at 6.15pm to a Restaurant in the city where we sat in a back room (very rustic) all together at a long table, all 20 of us. The food was absolutely delicious, starting with salmon wrapped is seaweed then crumbed & fried, followed by a skewer of different marinated meats finishing with a delicious gelato & cream dessert. Another great dinner.

We walked back home from the restaurant along the canals & down some narrow streets, it was very busy & there were people everywhere, Amsterdam was humming with activity. Some cafes we walked past has an overpowering smell of marijuana being smoked, some of the shopfronts we passed had young ladies offering their services under red lights. We passed another Insight Tour Group also out walking & their Tour Director was Brad, the person who was our Tour Director around Europe 5 years ago. It is a very small world indeed, we stopped, shook hands & chatted briefly before moving on & back to our hotel by 10pm. It is still broad daylight.

One thing about this European trip our clothes are shrinking even the ones we haven’t washed.

Day 19 – Thursday 9 June 2016

Today was a long driving day, leaving Rothenburg at 8am we travelled north through more rural wheat farms & fields of solar panels, as far as the eye could see, interspersed with a few farm houses & the odd patch of forest, it is all so green. Also lots more wind generators dotted around the landscape. At Wurzburg we turned westwards & crossed the Main River, one of the major rivers of Germany, then joined the Autobahn. This is a great road system, 3 lanes in each direction & in some parts no speed limit. Some cars went past us travelling very fast, our coach is travelling at 100km/h & they zoomed past. Near Frankfurt the Autobahn passes between the Hilton Airport Hotel & the Frankfurt Airport, there are lots of large planes taking off & landing with our road tunnel under the runway. We slowed down at times for roadworks, but overall we made fairly fast passage. Near Mainz we turned off the Autobahn & followed the old highway along the Rhine River. This is a very pretty part of the river with deep gorges, small towns hugging the riverbank & castles around every bend built in commanding positions. We stopped at St Goar for an hour for lunch & a walk around the main street. We found a butcher that sold bratwurst in a fresh roll & went in to buy some for lunch. This butcher had silver cups & certificates for winning prizes for best bratwurst in various competitions. The bratwurst tasted really good.

Brian our tour director got us a surprise today because yesterday we tromped around in the rain sightseeing at Rothenburg he felt that Insight could shout us a cruise down the Rhine (this cruise was not on our itinerary). Today the weather couldn’t have been more perfect, sunny 24C.

At 1.30pm we boarded a cruise boat for a trip on the Rhine River. The river was running very fast & in flood, we were told that here it was 7 metres above its normal height. There were a lot of barges travelling up & down the river, the ones going upriver were making really hard work of it, the current was running at least 8 knots. We journeyed up river for a little while to the Loreley Rocks, a very narrow bend of the Rhine notable for many shipwrecks over the years & according to legend, the home of a siren that lured sailors to their deaths with her serenades. We turned around very quickly as the current was roaring around this narrow bend in the river. We enjoyed a glass of red wine as we floated downstream basking in the sunshine, though there was a very strong headwind pushing waves up against the current. Each small town we passed was radiant & exuded different charms, all with a church tower. A railway line runs on each side of the river & trains were constantly going past, sometimes simultaneously on either side. The steep mountainsides had retaining walls & grape vines where it seemed barely possible. Our cruise boat docked at Boppard, no mean feat considering the current it was battling.

We drove up out of the Rhine valley & re-joined the Autobahn, past Bonn then near Cologne we turned west again to Aachen then crossed the border to Maastricht in Holland. We pulled up at the Crown Plaza Hotel around 5pm after a long day travelling. After checking in we gathered for some drinks with our fellow travellers then went for a walk along the riverbank of the Maas River, right next to our hotel. We were amazed at how many people are out enjoying the sunshine & the number of people riding bicycles, people of all ages. We walked a little past a museum before turning & returning to our hotel & joining some of our fellow travellers outside at the riverside café of the hotel. It was a lovely setting & great food, with good company & as the sun was setting at around 9.15pm we headed off for our room. Another great day.

Day 18 – Wednesday 8 June 2016

A late start of 8.15am after yet another great breakfast. The traffic in Munich wasn’t too bad as we departed, but we were not on the road for long before it started to rain fairly heavily. The German Autobahn is pretty good & we made good time in the rain, passing through lots of grassy lush farms & lots of solar panel installations. There were also a few very large wind turbines dotted around the landscape. We turned off the Autobahn & followed the “Romantik Road” to today’s destination, Rothenburg. The countryside became increasingly rural as we drove further & further towards Rothenburg, green fields, forests & surprisingly, cows inside huge barns, we hardly saw any in the fields. We did pass over the Danube River, a swollen stream only as we crossed it not that far from it’s source in the German Black Forest.

Rothenburg is an ancient medieval walled town captured & frozen in time. The walled town is full of buildings dating from the 14^th & 15^th century, our hotel, the Tilman Riemenschneider was built in 1559 & our room sports a four poster bed with a solid canopy. The first time either of us have slept in a 4 poster bed. We can now cross the 4 poster bed off our bucket list, not that it had ever been on it. King Ludwick II slept in a 4 poster bed so we will be like royalty after tonight. We made good time from Munich & had a couple of hours free time to have lunch & wander around town by ourselves, so we walked the short distance over the cobblestones to the town square & sat in the sunshine & ate our lunch. We then wandered around, looking at the old church, completed in 1528 (paid by the good citizens of Rothenburg & it took 140 years to build) & noted an organ recital was on at 5pm. Rothenburg is noted for its Christmas decorations shops so we had a wander through a couple of those as well.   We weren’t allowed to photograph, very beautiful, it is like a fairy land.

We were back at our hotel by 1.45pm to start our guided walking tour with Daniel, a knowledgeable local man. Just as we were due to depart a storm came crashing & thundering around, bucketing with rain, so we stayed in the hotel a while longer whilst Daniel regaled us with interesting snippets of history about Rothenburg. The rain had abated slightly by the time we started our walk so we were well kitted out in our coats & poncho, with headset in ear as we walked & listened to Daniel explain more of the town history. He had a great sense of humour (who said Germans have no humor?) & was always making jokes (spoke English exceptionally well) as we walked along. Rothenburg is an absolutely beautiful town, its main source of income is tourists & has been for a long time, apparently 2.2 million tourists descend on Rothenburg every year (the place is a time capsule). There are a fair few tourists wandering around today, not too many to be a real nuisance though (it is raining). We walked down cobblestone streets & alleyways, then out under the city wall. An interesting feature was where boiling oil was poured onto attackers from above the main city gates through a mask carved into the stone wall with open eyes & mouth. We finished Daniel’s guided walking tour in the town square, in front of the large Town Hall. We then did a little more exploring on our own, discovering more beautiful & interesting buildings around every corner. It is easy to see why the whole town is Heritage Listed.

The cobblestones are pretty tough to walk on so we ventured back to the hotel & Tereza put her feet up while Ron looked for the steps to clamber up the city wall. After Ron’s little adventure we headed back down to the church for the organ recital. The man playing was exceptional, the tunes were not church hymns nor any composer I was familiar with, but we were enraptured by half an hour of wonderful music. There were around 100 people in the church enjoying the organ music with us. The rain stopped & it was a lovely afternoon so we wandered around the town a little more, venturing further afield & exploring a little more before heading back to the motel to change for dinner.

Dinner was a very short 100 metre walk from our hotel at 7pm. The food was simply delicious, starting with white asparagus soup. We had a nice chat with some of our tour group over dinner, a couple of drinks & to complete the meal a nice whipped cream mousse with ice cream & strawberries for dessert. We had 3 members of our tour party celebrating birthdays today so a birthday cake was carried out with candles to be blown out. Even more to eat, cake, we were so full our short walk back to our hotel wasn’t enough to exercise off. Another great day was had by all.

Overall Germany has been very good, streets are clean, people are friendly, rooms are good, scenery is great, only criticism is that in the hotels we have stayed in the internet service has been very poor.

Day 17 – Tuesday 7 June 2016

Another fabulous German breakfast, they really have got some very tasty fresh food, though we couldn’t fit too much in as we were both still full from the huge dinner last night. Our destination this morning is Neuschwanstein Castle, built by the Bavarian King Ludwig II from 1869. It is around 2 hours drive back up into the Alps near the Austrian border. We left at 8.15am to ensure that we get there, get our tickets, catch the shuttle bus up the hill to the castle, then be there when our allotted time-slot for the guided tour is called. The drive is very pleasant, again travelling through the Bavarian rural countryside, cattle grazing & houses built next to very large barns that house the cattle for the winter, when the ground is covered with snow.

We spot Neuschwanstein Castle when we are still a couple of kilometres away, it is perched high on a rocky outcrop & stands out looking like a fairytale castle. It has some amazingly impressive mountains closely towering over it in the background. As we drove towards the carpark another castle appears, this is the Hohenschwangau Castle, where King Ludwig was born & grew up. It is nowhere near as ostentatious as Neuschwanstein Castle. We make it & with typical German efficiency, at 10.25am exactly, we are allowed through the turnstiles into the castle. Our tour director was very anxious this morning, he worried about peak hour traffic or road closures etc. because if we would have missed our time allotment even by one minute that would have been it.

Our tour guide gave us a strict instruction – NO PHOTOGRAPHING. We took the stairs up the spiral staircase, all 170 (according to one of our fellow tourists with a sore leg) of them, to see first of all the king’s servants quarters, they are very spacious & comfortably appointed surprisingly. We then move into the King’s bedroom, with a little surprise, it has running water & a flushing toilet, impressive for a building commenced in 1869. It draws the water from a spring in the mountain about 150 metres higher than the castle, there is also central heating. The King’s bed has a very elaborately carved canopy, I can’t imagine how long that would have taken to carve from wood (or how long the poor servant would have spent dusting it). There is a small private chapel off the bedroom. A cave joined his bedroom & throne room. Next is the Throne Room, elaborately painted & decorated, including a massive brass chandelier with large coloured glass decorations. The throne is missing, as it was never finished. The paintings on the walls are of Jesus Christ, the 12 disciples & God. King Ludwig was very religious.

We then walked up another spiral staircase to the largest room in the castle, the Singer’s Hall, again very elaborate paintings, more of the large brass chandeliers & a stage. The paintings in this hall are representative of Richard Wagner’s operas, as King Ludwig was a big fan of Wagner operas. This is a very impressive room. The pictures on the stage were painted by a well-known stage designer, so was the castle – it wasn’t designed by an architect but by a stage designer, that is most probably why it looks like a fairy-tale castle. Every year in September they hold a concert in the Singer’s Hall. King Ludwig II was an absolute loony, lived in a make believe world, wasted all the money on castles etc. Often he was very depressed. His death is a mystery – he drowned in the lake with his doctor. From here it was all downhill, we finished our tour & wandered by ourselves back down the stairs & through a lot of the unfinished rooms in the palace, as King Ludwig only lived about 6 months in the castle, he died before the palace was finished, so it was never completed as it was deemed too expensive by the Bavarian State Government. The palace was opened as a museum 6 months after King Ludwig’s death.

The views from the balconies looking out to the snow covered Alps & over the lakes is amazing, it is easy to see why he wanted a castle here. The kitchen was complete with pots, pans, moulds & cooking tools, all original from King Ludwig’s time & displayed well. An underground tunnel led us out to a door at the base of the castle & from there we walked back down the hill, through the surrounding forest, to the small village at the base of the castle. We went for a short walk to the lake, admiring some of the other period buildings clustered in the village & also the views of Hohenschwangau Castle from the lake. All too soon it was time to depart, our legs & body were tired from all the walking.

Dinner was at the hotel tonight, again a very nice selection of typical Bavarian food.

Day 16 – Monday 6 June 2016

After a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, fresh fruit, cheeses, prosciutto, salami, etc (a recurring theme?) we drove a short distance to the museum in Bolzano for a special tour. The museum is usually closed on Monday but was opened especially for us. The exhibit was around Otzi, the iceman, an archaeological display of the well-preserved body of a man from the copper age, dating back 5,300 years, (Otzi is the oldest mummy in the world) found frozen in the Schnalstal Glacier. Nico, our guide is an archaeologist & gave us a very interesting talk on the clothing he was wearing, the weapons & tools he was carrying, what his last meal was & how he died. It was a fascinating insight into the lives of people in that time & the Tyrol mountain area.

Our journey continued towards Innsbruck in Austria, climbing the mountains & following the valley up to the Brenner Pass. Every square metre of arable land has vineyards, with houses tucked away & the occasional castle on a prominent strategic rocky outcrop. As we climbed the valley got narrower & the cliffs closed in, with the nearby mountain peaks covered in snow, all very pretty. Up near the Brenner Pass the agriculture changed from grapes to cattle, with lush green meadows replacing the vineyards, due to the prevalence of snow during winter. The Brenner Pass is a popular ski area in winter so the style of building changed to a chalet style. As we descended from the Brenner Pass the valley started to open up again, however, the surrounding snow covered Alps still dominated the landscape. We passed the Italian & Austrian border before descending into Innsbruck, a small Austrian city full of beautiful old buildings in the old city centre. We walked to see the main square & the gold covered roof of the Emperor Maximillian’s palace. There are lots of interesting old buildings around the square & one that we did have a look at housed the Swarovski crystal store, their factory is just outside Innsbruck. They do have some amazing detailed jewellery inside, one we were taken by was a peacock, alright if you have the 15,000 Euro to buy it. We walked around a little more admiring the old buildings before stopped for lunch next to the flood swollen Inns River then wandered back to our coach, sampling some very nice gelato on the way.

Our journey continued to Munich, crossing into Germany & following the valley down that widened considerably the closer we got to Munich. The building architecture changed noticeably again. Munich is the capital of Bavaria, a large German province & a very large city & we stopped in the middle of the city & walked the short distance to the main square to admire the Marienplatz, the ancient building with elaborate decoration dominating the square. The city was destroyed 60 percent during the 2^nd world war, it is amazing how all the buildings have been renewed & there is no sign of all the devastation. A quick walk back to our coach & it was off to find our (we encountered a lot of delays because the farmers have blocked some of the major streets protesting) hotel, the Pullman Munich, a very nice hotel again. We only had time for a short rest before we were off again for drinks & dinner, Bavarian style.

The Munich Hofbrauhaus was our first destination, a very popular German beer hall near the city centre. We grabbed some tables & ordered some pretzel & drinks, Tereza ordered a ½ litre glass of beer (no alcohol & it was very good too) & I ordered a stein, a full 1 litre of beer. During the time a traditional German Oompah brass band was playing, complete with traditional costume. We enjoyed our time there sitting on the benches with the rough wooden tables, we sang louder than the Germans as our Tour director taught us the song on the coach. All too soon we had to down our beers & head off to dinner at a restaurant around 10 minutes’ walk away. This was a typical Bavarian restaurant & we sat downstairs, again on benches & wooden tables. Our first dish was potato soup, Tereza had pork hock, potatoe dumpling with sauerkraut & I had bratwurst with sauerkraut & potatoe, very traditional. Desert was a light yogurt mousse with fruit. There was so much to eat, I didn’t see one person finish their meal. It was all very good, just too much. It was 10.30pm before our merry lot reached the hotel to bed down for the night. A great night was had by all.

Day 15 – Sunday 5 June 2016

A slow start after a delicious breakfast with some really nice prosciutto, salami & cheeses. Our drive this morning took us to Verona where we parked just outside the centre of the city & had to catch the shuttle bus into the city centre. Verona is a lovely old town with an old Roman amphitheatre a prominent feature of the city centre. It was being prepared to stage some large outdoor opera productions, not bad for a building 1,900 years old. Just across was the large & imposing walls of the old city, again in remarkable condition & still in everyday use. Verona is the city of Romeo & Juliette so our first walk was to the small courtyard to see the famous balcony. The same as every other tourist in Verona. It was very crowded so just took the obligatory photos & left. There is a bronze statue of Juliet in the courtyard & lots of young women were getting their photos taken cupping the bare breast of Juliette – bizarre behaviour (supposed to bring good luck, you wonder about the stupidity how could a long time dead 14 year old girls statue do anything). We walked slowly back up the narrow street looking in all the shops & walked around the main town square with lots of interesting old buildings. The outdoor cafes were packed & there are people moving everywhere. (not only tourists, it is Sunday so locals like to wonder around the city too & eat & drink coffee) Good thing this area is closed to cars.

We stopped to share a gelato when Tereza said something is dropping from the roof, it was rain from the sky – rain drops on our heads (it was amazing how quickly it all happened) so we quickly scampered to a nearby small arcade & waited for the storm to pass. The rain was bucketing down & we shared our shelter with lots of others. A very wet & bedraggled other Insight tour group whom we had breakfast with this morning shared our shelter for a while before moving on. After the rain we wandered around some more looking at the old buildings & shops & stumbled across a vintage Vespa scooter rally being held out the front of the large Town Hall, next to the Roman Amphitheatre. There was a huge array of these quaint scooters, even some with sidecars. We walked up to the main gates of the old city & the adjoin square before re-joining our group for the shuttle bus back to the coach park.

The journey towards Bolzano was very interesting & beautiful, as we drove further up into the mountains the valley grew narrower & the mountains became vertical cliffs towering high into the air. The river we were following upstream was crossed numerous times, running very briskly with floodwaters. The villages are different here, mostly old stone & brick, mostly multi story & built on the scree slopes up against the cliffs. All the arable land is planted full with grape vines or fruit trees, there is hardly any land not producing. There are small villages on both sides of the river dotted all the way up the valley. We spotted the odd castle here & there, always in a commanding position up high. The Dolomite Mountains surrounding Bolzano are capped with snow & are very impressive.

Our hotel is right in the middle of Bolzano, the Park Hotel Laurin & is a beautiful old building with very nice comfortable rooms. The old lift even has a leather couch to make your ride more comfortable. Once checked in we went for a walk around the town & enjoyed the very pleasant 29 degrees whilst looking at the many old buildings & soaking up the atmosphere of the city. As it was Sunday many of the locals were out for a Sunday afternoon stroll. We had a nice walk before returning to our hotel for a delicious dinner. The steak was particularly delicious. After dinner we went for a stroll around the hotel gardens, the roses were at their best & the garden is laid out nicely with some interesting statues highlighted around the garden, some good, others interesting.

We are in Bolzano, Italy (once Austria) & the people speak mainly German.

Day 14 – Saturday 4 June 2016

Rain, rain & more rain, it is bucketing down. Some of our fellow travellers had a wet night, water leaked through the ceiling, one woman waking with water dripping on her face. No, it wasn’t the rain, somebody had fallen asleep in the bath with the water running a floor above. They had to be moved to a dry room at 1.30am in the morning, they still couldn’t get much sleep as someone was holding a party in the room two doors along from them. They looked very tired this morning.

We gathered in the hotel lobby after breakfast & walked in the rain with our umbrellas the short distance to the wharf to board our boat out onto Lake Maggiore to the island of Isola Bella to see the Borromeo Palace built on the island. The island is around 400 metres off the shore & about 2km from our hotel. Fortunately the boat was covered & we all stayed dry the 10 minutes it took to motor out to Isola Bella.

The Palace is a very large old building owned by an extremely rich Italian family, the Borromeo family. Construction of the palace started in 1632 & the overall design theme was for the island to end up resembling a ship. The palace was built for his wife Isabella. The palace is an amazingly large & elaborate home, full of priceless works of art, furniture & 6 large tapestries. The tapestries date from the 16^th Century & made by Flemish weavers, it was told by our guide that it took 8 women a total of 10 years to complete each tapestry, woven with silk, gold & silver thread. Our guide took us on a tour of 25 rooms on the lower floor of the palace, the upper levels are still used by the Borromeo family in summer. Each of the rooms are sumptuous with marble walls & marble floors & intricately painted ceilings, designed to look as though the ceilings are decorated with raised stucco. They are flat & the painters were very clever indeed. The last rooms we visited were the grottos under the palace. These rooms are decorated with volcanic rock, all different types & colours of rock in interesting designs & patterns on the ceiling, walls & floor. The grottos were the only place that we could take photos in. Apparently the motto of the Borromeo family is “Humility” & is written in Latin in varying places around the Palace & the gardens. We didn’t see any evidence of that, it is all ostentatious & over the top showing of wealth.

The palace gardens are full of exotic plants & statues, even containing a large bird aviary with lots of small colourful parrots. We walked around in our rain ponchos holding our umbrellas as the rain continued to pour down. We were fairly dry & it wasn’t cold. The assortment of white peacocks roaming the gardens were an added point of interest with their sharp piercing cries. The gardens are laid out nicely, with different areas for different purposes, we took it easy on the steps as they were a little slippery in the rain. The gardens must be even more fabulous on a sunny day. We wound our way out through the gift shops (funny how all the tourist attractions seem to do that) before boarding our boat back (in the rain) to our hotel. We had a short break & a quick bite to eat (in the rain) before getting organised for our afternoon garden tour.

Thankfully the rain eased & was starting to clear as we boarded the coach for the 15 minute drive to the 16 hectares of gardens of Villa Taranto, established by a Scottish sea captain, Neil McEacharn in 1931 in the lakeside village of Pallanza. The garden has more than 20,000 plants & more than 80,000 blooming bulbs, with over 15,000 border plants through the various flowerbeds. A long well-tended path winds for around 7km to show off the many delightful aspects of the garden. One of the highlights was seeing a pond of giant water lilies from the upper reaches of the Amazon River, these water lilies have huge leaves, they must be 2 metres across. There are lots of unusual plants in these gardens, some very colourful & spectacular. There are a lot of water features as well as framed arches of different shapes & sizes, it has been designed very well. We are thankful the rain cleared, we were wearing hats & sunglasses, a stark contrast to this morning’s weather, is was a real pleasure taking our time to slowly enjoy the many delights of this wonderful garden. There were even some native Australian plants with a few different species of bottlebrush, wattle & grevillea making an appearance in places around the garden. After the long walk Ron treated himself to a gelato while waiting to depart back to our hotel for a well-deserved rest.

Villa Taranto was not part of our tour but Brian (our tour director) organized it through Insight Tours because we are such wonderful (ha, ha) Aussies, we haven’t winged about Mother Nature’s wet deal on this tour. Brian reckons that he has been working as a tour director for about 32 years but he cannot remember having so many wet days this time of the year.

Dinner tonight was over on Fisherman’s Island (Isola dei Pescatori), next to Isola Bella, at the Belvedere restaurant, so again the short walk to the boat then the short trip out to the island, a little closer than Isola Bella. We sat outdoors under cover right on the lakefront, a magnificent view & a superb dinner – antipasto was one of the best prosciutto I have ever tasted along with some very tasty, sweet fruit. Entrée was a fish ravioli, I have never had fish in ravioli previously & it was a different & very pleasant burst of flavour. The main course was fresh trout from the lake & was superb, served with delicious small potatoes & beans. Desert was a cinnamon infused creamy mousse, sweet & tasty. We enjoyed another nice chat with our fellow travellers & washed the meal down with a very nice local red wine, grown from about 25 kms away. Back on the boat at 9pm then once ashore we had a nice long slow stroll along the waterfront before getting back to our hotel around 10pm, a perfect balmy Italian night – and it is still light, difficult adjusting to the very long days.

Day 13 – Friday 3 June 2016

Another fabulous breakfast at the Romantik Hotel, they really do know how to provide excellent service and a huge variety of fresh food. The fruit was extra fresh & tasty, Tereza is in fruit heaven here. We departed Grindelwald in light rain & enjoyed the delightful mountain scenery, with lots of running waterfalls & fast flowing rivers, all the way down the valley to Interlaken where we turned & followed the Brienzersee, one of the many large mountain lakes. As the valley widened more farms appeared, the grass is all so green, the snow vanished as we got lower down the valley. We started going through a lot of short to medium tunnels, around 50 to 300 metres long, then we passed through the longest tunnel, nearly 17kms under the Swiss Alps between the German speaking part & the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. On the other side there was a marked difference in the style of housing & farms. Gone were the typical Swiss wooden chalets & replaced with a more standard stone or brick building. We passed an arm of the very large Lake Maggiore before crossing the Italian border at Chiasso without any dramas, then it was a short distance to Como, on Lake Como where we stopped for lunch.

At Como we explored the large cathedral, built in the 15^th century & just a short walk from the lakeside. Inside the church is absolutely beautiful, particularly the ceilings, they are truly works of art. We enjoyed looking at all the inside of the church, they were also displaying some tapestries, some dating from the 14^th century. After lunch most of our group went on a private motor boat tour of Lake Como looking at all of the lavish houses & gardens adorning the edge of the lake. A lot of the houses also had boat houses & a few need their own funicular or lift to get up to the road & their car parking as the land is just so steep in places. We spent around about an hour on Lake Como before heading off to our overnight destination of Balveno in Italy on the western edge of Lake Maggiore.

The Grand Hotel Dino on the edge of the lake lives up to its name, it is very grand. The main lobby is stunning, with large big chandeliers everywhere, stained glass dome feature surrounded by more beautiful stained glass. Our rooms are big & very comfortable with a nice view out over the lake. Our tour, Insight certainly are being very lavish (let’s hope that it will continue this way for the rest of the trip). We had a long walk along the lake front, explored the town & then more of the hotel, (it certainly is a grand hotel in size & opulence) before changing for dinner.   Dinner in one of the main dining rooms was very pleasant with our fellow travellers, with entertainment via some very loud music from the wedding party being hosted in the next dining room. The food was typical Italian, vegetable soup or lasagne, followed by veal with potatoes & zucchini, then a gelato & fresh fruit desert, all washed down with a nice Chianti wine from the local region.

Our tour director is very knowledgeable about the places & history where we are traveling through.  So far we have no complaints. He works hard to organize things for us to experiences special things.

Piero, our coach driver’s driving skills are fantastic. Today we had to divert from the highway because of an accident. He had to drive through some backwater little town with the narrowest & most serpentine roads – how he ever got the big coach around the hair-pin turns with only centimetres to spare is hard to believe. A huge bravo to him.

So far we have been lucky with the weather – well, it did rain & was cold in France but we could still do everything, it wasn’t bad enough to stop us from carrying on with most of our activities. Some of us did make it to the top of Europe (I didn’t because of a dreadful altitude sickness) without being washed out by rain or snowed in. We had a beautiful warm 23C here, we are hoping that we will have more of today’s weather & that we will miss the terrible floods etc.

I was about to finish with this blog but on the dot at 11 pm fireworks started from the lake in front of our window (we have a million dollar view). They were fantastic, their cousin on Lake Burley Griffin is not better. It lasted for 15 minutes. We don’t know why they had the fireworks on other than to welcome Ron & Tereza to Italy. A beautiful way to end the day.

Day 12 – Thursday 2 June 2016

Last night our bed was turned down & footmats placed next to our bed. Breakfast this morning is superb, Swiss sausages, cheeses, breads, pastries, fruit plus smoked salmon, we were in breakfast heaven, this hotel is truly excellent. We walked to the railway station about 100 metres from our hotel & caught the train to take us up the Jungfrau Mountain. The train is amazing, it has a narrow gauge track with a steel cogged rail running up the centre of the tracks so that the train can climb the steep tracks up the mountain. The train moved up the grassy meadows full of wild flowers and Swiss Chalets very swiftly. An interesting thing we noticed here, there are no fences. We stopped at two small alpine railway stations before reaching Kleine Scheidegg at 2061 metres (6,762 ft) where we changed trains. The next train travelled inside the Eiger & Monch Mountain, stopping at Eigerwand & Eismeer stations where there are viewing windows in the side of the mountain so that you can look out at the scenery & acclimatise a little to the height. Our final stop was at Jungfraujoch, the tallest railway station in Europe at an elevation of 3,454 metres (11,333 ft). Tereza was having a little trouble with the altitude, her lips & mouth turned blue, face was all white & the mountain felt as though it was moving so a long sit down & rest was in order at the café area.

The Jungfraujoch is well designed & engineered, there are walking tunnels under the mountain, with a lift taking you to the top of the mountain. Here there is a viewing platform where you can go outside & look at the surrounding mountains, except it was snowing & all white with cloud & cold at -3 Centigrade and windy. Some people where excited as they had never seen snow before. There are also restaurants & souvenir shops her as well for days like today. Near the lift is a tunnelled walkway & exit where you can walk out onto the Aletsch Glacier, again not much fun in the snow & wind, though I’m sure on a fine day it would be amazing. Another long tunnel through the mountain then leads into an ice tunnel inside the glacier, the walls are carved out of ice & the floors are smooth polished ice, with a handrail as it is slippery. Along the way inside the glacier there are little cut-outs where ice carvings of animals are on display, it is very well done. By the way, it is very cold inside the glacier. On the way down the mountain, when we stopped at Kleine Scheidegg we changed trains to take us to Lauterbrunnen on a different path down into another valley. As we got lower Tereza’s altitude sickness improved considerably & she felt a lot better.

The scenery down into this valley was amazing, with extreme sheer cliffs & plummeting waterfalls, all the while travelling through pine forests clinging to the side of the mountain, every bend brought a new scene, all very beautiful. The drive back to Grindelwald revealed even more magnificent scenery, it is difficult to believe it can all be so beautiful.

After an hour or so rest we were driven down to Interlaken where we had a short look around town then met by some horse-drawn carriages & driven around the town of Interlaken for about an hour then to the restaurant where we were having dinner. This is a small restaurant out of the general tourist area & is where the locals eat. We were treated to some very traditional Swiss food, starting with a cheese fondue, then Weiss Wurst (white homemade sausage) with Rosti (shredded & cooked potato) followed by local Swiss ice cream. All washed down with a couple of fine Swiss beers. It was a wonderful dining experience & we had a nice chat with some more of our fellow travellers.

Day 11 – Wednesday 1 June 2016

We drove from France to Switzerland today, leaving Dijon at 8.15am, passing through Besancon before stopping for morning tea & a comfort break at a fromagarie (cheese making place) high in the Jura Mountains. It was in a lovely spot surrounded by green, rolling fields & cattle grazing, apparently in winter it is covered in snow. At the fromagerie we were treated to a cheese sampling of 3 of the cheese they make on premise & we viewed the cheese curing room, with hundreds of rolls of cheese maturing on racks.

After more glorious scenery we reached the Swiss border at a small town & passed through without any checks. The view of Lake Geneva is superb, it is such a stunning scene with the tall cloud-covered French Alps brooding behind the lake. We drove through the outskirts of Lausanne before dropping down to lake level & driving along to Montreux, where we stopped for a walk & lunch alongside the crystal clear Lake Geneva. If it wasn’t for the tourists it would be very tranquil & quiet indeed. Close to Montreaux is Chateau de Chillon, commonly known as Chillon Castle, an imposing building dating from the 13^th century. Chillon Castle is built on a large piece of rock that is separated from the land & has very deep water on the lake side of it. Our guide, Sam, was very thorough & clear to understand as he took us through Chillon Castle & explained the various rooms, paintings on the walls, the dungeon & took us through the history of the battles & because of that the different ownership of the castle. The old toilet is a true long drop, about 50 metres straight down into the lake.

The drive through the mountains was magical. The tall mountains covered by snow, reaching into the clouds, waterfalls cascading down & little villages nestled in the green valley. We arrived in Grindewald a small skiing village – beautiful & full of Swiss chalets, as you would expect. Romantik Hotel Sweizerhof, our Hotel is over 100 years old, picture perfect with the snow-capped mountains behind it. On entering we were greeted by a lady playing on the grand piano in a beautiful reception area, our room is lovely, with fruit & chocolates included. We went for a walk into town, very nice. Ron & I decided to end the day by a romantic dinner at the beautiful restaurant at our hotel. The food, service & the company was excellent, truly 5 star.