Author: Hugh Maclean

To Capri and back by boat

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Amalfi, Italy Up and at ’em today, with a full days boat trip along the Amalfi coast to Capri. No time for coffee, as we rush around trying to find an ATM that both worked, and didn’t take 5 minutes to process. Success, and off on our 36 foot cruiser with 8 others to see the coast from the sea aspect. We headed back towards Minori, where we walked to from Ravello yesterday, then on to the largest town on the coast, Maiori. Back whence we came past Amalfi, and on to the Emerald grotto for our first taste of the Italian sport of hitting up the dumb tourist for a tip! After paying €7 to go into the grotto and be paddled around the cave by our friendly pilot, who spent half his spiel telling us to remember how good he was, we finished our 10 minutes to be reminded, again, how terrific he had been, and “don’t forget to tip”. Here’s a tip, my fine young friend….’be good to your Nonna!’ The Emerald …

Ravello and Minori explored

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Amalfi, Italy Well rested after a day off the helter skelter of travel, and we are ready to rumble! First port of call was a run to rid ourselves of a LOT of carbs. Now, Amalfi is built into a cliff and flat ground is at a premium, so we did laps of the marina area dodging tourists, nonna’s, and old china’s fishing, for 30 minutes or so in the heat and humidity. Redeemed,we had breakfast, then headed out for a serious coffee. Caffe latte just doesn’t cut it in Italy, and espresso may blow my head off, so we settled on cappuccino…..not bad. Macchiato tomorrow. Bouncing, we booked a bus to Ravello and prepared for a bit of exploring…Amalfi style. Ravello sits up the hills above Amalfi, and is a peaceful area with a small population, offering stunning views of the Mediterranean. In 1996 it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town is just beautiful, with a peaceful piazza, tiny alleyways filled with shops and restaurants, and one amazing villa. Villa …

Rest Day

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Amalfi, Italy As with all athletes, we too scheduled a rest day from our holiday to take stock and re group for the next few weeks. Being on the Amalfi Coast it was a tough ask to sit and read or sleep on the beach or the balcony as we wiled away the hours. After a glorious sleep in til 9am we had brekky then headed out to walk around the town of Amalfi and take in all that there is to offer in this picturesque town. One word comes to mind……Lemons. They are everywhere. The Italians have managed to make everything out of lemons, hand cream, pasta, pizza, emboldened them on everything from tea towels to fridge magnets to ceramic tiles, whatever is in this town it has a lemon attached to it. The best of all is the Lemoncello, drink this ice cold as an digestive after dinner, in fact any ole time of the day, it is so refreshing. After lunch we headed to the beach, which had smaller pebbles than Nice …

Great ocean road on steroids!

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Amalfi, Italy Welcome to Italy. We stayed  in a delightful hotel in Naples last night, in a slightly grungy area full of people hanging around the local piazza drinking beer. Rachael fitted right in!! Quick pizza last night to fortify us for a busy day today. Up early in anticipation of a full day being chauffeured to Pompeii and down to Amalfi, very excited as we waited for our 9am pick up. 9.15…checking watches…9.30, Rachael getting antsy…9.45, Me realising I may have buggered up…10.00, went back to reception and luckily got another company to take us. Oops, didn’t verify with first mob, so they dumped us. Regroup! Aldo, the life (read ‘Hugh’) saver, came to our rescue….and we’re off to Mt Vesuvius which is about 1 hour away through some of the most horrendous traffic you are likely to see. The traffic in Naples is NUTS. No discernible road rules at all, indication optional. Traffic lights, what traffic lights? It goes something like this, accelerate at high speed, brake suddenly, repeat, hit every pothole, too …

Nice to Napoli

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Naples, Italy Our last day in Nice started with a sleep in (8.30!!), brekky, and packing. As our flight isn’t till 7.10pm, we were lucky enough to be allowed to leave our luggage in the apartment until 4pm. The alternative doesn’t bare thought….dragging suitcases around Nice in 30 degree temperatures. We wandered into the old town for the last time, then headed for the beach for a swim, and a chance to stop for a couple of hours. It seems like we have been going flat out ever since we hit London, so to be sitting on a beautiful beach looking out over the Cote d’Azur was pretty special. We got to the airport in plenty of time and went thru customs to enjoy a beer or two at the bar before our flight…..except, no bar! The third largest airport in France, in a country with very liberal liquor rules, and no bar! One last ****** coffee instead… So, as we wait to depart France, a few thoughts on this most beautiful country. 1/. Paris …

The rich and famous

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Nice, France Managed to get some sleep last night despite the 25 degree heat as we actually had a nice breeze from our apartment, unlike the one we had in Lyon which had no breeze whatsoever. Up early this morning for a run along the Promenade, the last run we will actually do in France. We figured at 8am the weather would not be too hot, but already the temperature had hit 27 degrees, so a tough run when there is no shade to hide from the sun. However, there were a lot of men running bare chested, and I’m sure Hugh will also attest there were many women running in crop tops along the Promenade, so we managed to get through the kms ok. After brekky we headed to Monaco to see how the rich and famous live. The drive in was at times pretty hairy as we wound our way around some pretty narrow streets which the French were not particularly fussed with sharing. We managed to get through unscathed but there are …

The fast, and expensive, way from Lyon to Nice.

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Nice, France Saturday nights are obviously huge in the old town of Lyon as we got bugger all sleep due to the never ending traffic of humans, cars, and bikes down our tiny lane way ALL night! The fact that there is a 24 hour sex shop in the lane probably didn’t help the situation, but please folks….KEEP IT DOWN, ALREADY! Not refreshed, we headed off on the 470 km trip to Nice at 7am. Unlike tight **** toll free travel from Beaune, we hit the toll roads early, and often. The alternative was an additional 120km, and 2 hours plus travel time. A no brainer, really. A few tips for the novice toll user: 1/. Know which queue is for credit card, and which for cash 2/. Make sure credit cards work 3/. Turn on English translation to see if credit cards work 4/. Pray no one is behind you when credit cards DON’T work! Guess you know what happened…..dumb-**** Aussies holding up the toll booth waiting for attendant to take our cash! A …

Up the funiculaire!

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Lyon, France Welcome to Lyon, gastronomical capital of France and the second largest city. We are staying in the old city between the rivers Saone and Rhone, a most beautiful part of town, filled with history and colour. After brekky, a wander around looking for French trench coats for Rachael, again without success. To soothe our disappointments, we headed for the funiculaire to take us up the hill to Notre-Dame de Fourviere, which sits proudly on top of the hill overlooking Lyon. There’s a Gilbert and Sullivan song in the Pirates of Penzance which has the word funiculaire mentioned many times, and now I know what one is, and does. A small tram that saves you a long walk up hills, pretty much sums it up! The Notre-Dame is richly decorated with mosaics, stained glass windows and marble. The views from the esplanade is amazing. It’s lucky the hunchback had a good sense of direction or he could have done the regional tour of France. There are Notre-Dame’s everywhere! A lovely walk back down the …

Beaune to Lyon – The Roundabouts Tourist Drive

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Lyon, France Our last day in Beaune started with a run around the old town a few times as there were no parks nearby. Even on our last day we were still discovering parts of Beaune on our run that we hadn’t seen yet and it was also sales day for many shops who had their wares out the front on sale for a bargain price of 30 – 50%off, so only €100!!! Before heading to Lyon we grabbed some brekky, our usual coffee creme and some provisions for our drive, which we estimated would take about 3-4 hours. Hugh got us out of Beaune, which in the end took all of 2 minutes, then it was my turn to drive. Whilst I managed to steer clear of the gutter I did take a bit longer to get used to the gears as they were so close together, I kept going from 2nd to 4th or leaving it in 3rd when I thought I was in 1st, otherwise all went well. We stopped for lunch …

Ballooning over Beaune

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Beaune, France Our only full day in Beaune (bone), so plenty to do. First port of call, the patisserie for brekky, then a coffee creme. We now know the French are hopeless at coffee, but the creme is as close as we will get to a decent cup, so…..when in France! As with a lot of French towns, the old city is surrounded by walls, or fortresses, which were designed to keep out the maraudering Huns, or Gauls, or Romans….or neighbours. Beyond the walls was a moat, for those said invaders who couldn’t swim!! The old centre of Beaune is one of those towns, with some of the moat still flowing, and the rest made over to grassed areas, or car parking. It is a most beautiful centre, with cathedrals, hospices, shops and lane ways, cafes, wine cellars, patisserie’s, etc, all crammed into a walled garden about 2.5k around. After brekky we headed of into the countryside, loaded the GPS for non toll roads, and set sail for the old village, Chateauneuf en-Auxois. Our travels …