All posts filed under: Travel

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 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 …

Get Lucky

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Beaune, France Today we set off from Reims and headed south to Beaune in our hire car, which would take 4 hours as we set the GPS to avoid tolls. Unfortunately so did every truck driver who happened to be in our way on route to Beaune. So, a 4 hour anticipated travel time had now increased to 4.5 hours. Before heading off we visited FNAC, which is the JB Hi Fi of France, to buy an iPOD connection for the car. Unfortunately in France, they do not start their day until 10am so no luck there, looks like France radio for us!! First things first, we entered the hotel we were staying in into the GPS which came back as ‘not found’, great start to the day. Decided to enter Beaune and we were on our way. Whilst Hugh was much more comfortable behind the wheel, he still has a fascination with the right hand curb, so my nerves were still on edge. Once out of the city of Reims it was smooth sailing …

Champagne!

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Reims, France First things first. We solved the riddle of the pronunciation of Reims, which you would think was something like “Rems”, with a guttural “R”. But you would be wrong my friends. It is pronounced something like “Runce”, with the “R” swallowed! Go figure! Twin beds, a great sleep in! Late start to the day. First call the patisserie for brekky, then off to book a champagne house tour or two. All good so far…..then we got our hire car!!! Wrong side of the road, have to look right to see the rear vision mirror, gear stick on the wrong side, crazy roads, one nervous passenger….NO GPS! Only had to travel 3km to Champagne Taittinger……40 mins, a gazillion wrong turns, and 21k’s later, and no frickin idea where we were but we ended up back at the car hire place, BY MISTAKE! Bloody hell, one wrong turn lead us up, and down, the garden path. To make matters worse, I seemed to have developed a crush with the roadside curb, hugging it like a …

From Paris to Reims

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Reims, France And so it is time to bid a fond adieu to Paris, but not before another run in Luxenbourg gardens, and a croissant. Plus one more attempt at a coffee……fail! We loved Paris, such a beautiful city. The buildings, museums, gardens, history, cafes, patisseries, shops, etc, etc…. You could spend a week just exploring the boulevards, and lane ways, and if you happened to be rolling in cash that would help! Expensive place! Plus the beggars are a bit overwhelming, if only for their number, as they are mostly a very passive lot with their dogs by their side. Still, time waits for no man, or woman, so off by train to Reims in the heart of Champagne. The train trip was quick, I got a window seat with an actual view, and we arrived right on time. Our hotel was just down the road from the station, and found without fuss. The receptionist was waiting for us, and was delighted to welcome ” Hoog” to Reims!! Reims, also spelt Rheims, and almost …

Last Day in Paris

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Paris, France We headed off this morning with yet another attempt at finding a famous flea market in Paris. It was a beautiful day in Paris with a temperature of 26 degrees so on our way to the market we went via the Eiffel Tower to check on the queues. As Hugh waited in line whilst I sussed out the situation it was evident that our time to strike the Eiffel Tower was now and not in the elevator queue but in the stair climb queue. It only took 40 minutes in the queue before we were on our way climbing the estimated 21 storeys to the first, then second level of the Eiffel Tower. The climb was easy enough thanks to our Birdrock Challenge, but too many went out too hard too early and collapsed by the 5th storey……losers!!!!! Once at the first level the views were amazing and again at the second level even more so. We managed to con a few people to take photos of the two of us before taking …