lucerne

The chapel bridge
Bronte being a child in the snow!!

At the top of Mt Pilatus

Our attempt at a snow man

The sleeping lion monument

Well we arrived in Lucern in the afternoon and we headed straight to the youth hostel. Once we got our room organised we headed out to get lunch. We had a bit of a look around the town and went to the tourist information centre to get some ideas on what to do.

We went to the tourist information at 9.00 a.m. the next morning and got tickets to go to Mt Pilatus. It was fantastic, the day was awesome and the view spectacular. You had to catch two gondolas that were small ones with just us in them and then one really large one that holds about 30 people to go the last 5 minutes. The last one goes really fast and really steep and you feel like you are going to die. Alas we did not!

It was -3 degrees when we arrived on the top but the sun was out and I even managed to get sun burnt. We spent about 2 hours up the top before we decided to come down.

Tomorrow we head to Interlarken, and I hope we get good weather for Jungfraujoch.

venice

Bronte at the Rialto Bridge
In Burano very colourful
In a Venetian canal on a Venetian bridge

Well we arrived in Venice and booked into a dodgy motel that some guy at the train station talked us into. It actually turned out to be really quite alright and as cheap as the YHA.

Venice is really amazing and unique and has to be one of the better places that we have been to so far. It is just so different to any other place in Europe. It is hard to believe that you can live without cars and have all the deliveries brought to shops on boats and sack trucks. KFC delivery drivers would hate it.

The first day in Venice we went to Murano and saw all the glass stuff being made and every shop sold glass and they all became the same after a while. We then got the boat to Burano (thanks Nicole). All the houses in Burano are painted really bright colours and it is just a really nice little place. Burano is known for it's beautiful lace work.

The second day we spent just walking the streets of Venice trying to get lost. That was easily done. We went to San Marco square and climbed the clock tower via elevator. The view over all of Venice was beautiful and you could see for quite a long way.

We have since left Venice (today) and have just arrived in Lucern Switzerland. Are planning on seeing snow tomorrow. Bronte has not seen snow yet and is a little excited.

leaning tower of pisa

Bronte with his big boy beard pushing over the tower
Captain Richie saving the tower

We left on the early train from Rome (7.25am) headed for Pisa, there is only one thing you go to Pisa for and it is for the coffee... na the leaning tower. Our train arrived at 10.57am and we caught the bus to the leaning tower.

The tower is fabulous considering they started to build in 1173. We had to climb the tower so we went to the ticket booth and handed over our €30. The tower is actually quite weird to walk up, its like an aerobics class, really easy for ten steps then really hard for 10, it feels as if the tower is going to fall over. The steps have all worn funny from where people walk close to the outside then close to the inside as they walk around the circular staircase. After we finished our tour of the tower we had to take the typical tourist shot of us either holding the tower up or pushing it over.

After finishing at the tower we caught the train to Florence, to catch the connecting train to Venice. The train to Florence was late, leaving us only a few minutes to catching the connecting train. We arrived in Venice at 7pm very tired as we had been up all day.

when in rome

The Colosseum

St Peters Square

Trevi fountain

Spent our first day in Rome walking to all the major sites. First on the list was the Colosseum, we walked around it and took some photos. Once finished there we walked through the ancient ruins. From there we went to the Trevi Fountain and then on to the Spanish Steps. We then walked from the Spanish Steps to the Pantheon and then on to Piazza Navona. The fountain in Piazza Navona is being repaired so that was a bit of a let down, but was still a great atmosphere.

Today we went to St Peters Square. We decided first to go to the Vatican museum to look at the Sistine Chapel. It is really amazing how the paintings are done on the roof in all the rooms, I could not imagine doing them. We finished in the museum and then went into St Peters Basilica. There are tombs of the old Pope's under the Basilica. There were lots of people around the tombs stone of Pope John Paul II.

From there we headed back through Rome just taking in the Roman way. We went back past Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon and had some Gelati. Yum!

There are so many beggars in Rome asking for money for them and their children. There are also a huge amount of people trying to sell you stuff you really do not need or want.

We have just booked our tickets to Pisa for tomorrow, and then we head to Venice.

our day in nice

Bronte on the beach in Nice (Weather not very Nice)
Nice from the roof of the museum of contemporary art.

Our train didn't leave until late at night to Rome, so we spent the day walking around Nice. The day was cold but no rain, we went for a walk along the foreshore for about 2km, we watched some planes land as we were close to the airport. We went and visited some museum's, the contemporary art one was quite good. Had a good lunch at a place called Buffalo Bills and walked a little around where the Nice Carnavale was on. The Carnavale was a bit boring and we really did not understand what it was about.

Anyway the day was ok and we got to the train station at 9.00p.m. to catch our over night train to Rome which really was bad! The train stopped at every piss pot station and took 13 hours to arrive. We were in a room on the carriage with an old man who was in bed and wanted to sleep right from Nice. There was no where to sit and talk or do anything other than sleep.

monaco, monte carlo

View of the bay of Monaco

Entrance to the Grand Prix tunnel.

Grand Casino

We arrived in Nice at about 8.00 p.m. on Friday night. We had a little bit of trouble trying to find the youth hostel as there were hardly any street signs to find! Today we decided to spend the day in Monaco, which is only a 15 minute train trip from Nice. Once we arrived, we followed a portion of the Grand Prix track around and we went past the Casino which looked very expensive and well kept. All the cars parked out the front would have a price tag starting at $200,000. We did use the toilets in the foyer of the Casino, and the toilet washed the seat by its self before you use it! Bit flash for us, Bronte took a video on his phone of the toilet and flushed it 3 times, child!

We walked up to the old part of Monaco where Prince Albert lives. His house has guards out the front much like Buckingham Palace, except the uniforms were blue. Walked around the shops and slowly made our way back to the main part of the town.

Monaco is an amazing place, all the housing looks like it is hanging off the side of the cliff. There is obviously a lot of money around the town. All the buildings are made from lots of marble, so to are steps and monuments all over the town. The town is also kept clean and tidy all the time, workers were sweeping up all over as we walked around. The gardens and lawns were also manicured immaculately to say the least.

Will look around Nice tomorrow.

finally in barcelona

Foreshore in Barcelona

(first time we seen the sea in two weeks)

Diving pool from the 92 Olyimpic´s
Yes its where Kylie Minogue made the film clip ¨Slow¨
Gaudi´s famous temple, still not finished til 2020.

After having huge amounts of trouble trying to get to Barcelona (computer says no!) we arrived on Thursday night by bus. The trains in Spain were on strike and this was made more difficult to try and book in France when they could not tell us why we could not get to Barcelona. They told us "Its impossible" and that was the reason we could not go. Once we got to a place called Narbonne
the lady who booked our bus ticket explained what was going on. She was really helpful.

Once in Barcelona we headed to the foreshore and had a good look around. Caught a cable car to the top of the hill on the other side of the bay where some of the events from the 1992 Olympics were held. We saw the famous pool where the diving was done and also the filming of the Kylie Minogue "Slow" film clip was filmed.

Caught the funicular down the side of the mountain and went to the famous cathedral that was designed and built by Gaudi and never finished. It is now being finished off and will take to 2020 to complete. The cathedral is amazing. We also got the Metro to Gaudi's other famous buildings, they too have the same unique styling as the cathedral.

Barcelona was a bit of a surprise how it seems to be so modern and well set out. A lot of building work happened for the Olympics and has obviously continued.