Troy’s Random Ramblings

Spent the day in Florence today. Far too much too see and not enough time to see it. Visited the second or third largest cathederal in all of Europe (largest is St Peter’s in Rome, other one is St Paul’s in London).

Saw a replica of the statue of David. The original is in a museum down the road, but I didn’t feel like standing in line for an hour just to see it. There was also a plethora of other galleries to visit, all with equally long queues.

Florence was home to such people as Gallileo, Leonardo Davinci, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Dante and Bottecelli to name a few. There are examples of their art all over the city.

Had a really, really nice 5 course Italian dinner with plenty of pasta and chianti. I also spent a couple of hours in the afternoon sitting outside a nice cafe and had a couple of cups of coffee. Mmmm, it was good.

After dinner we had a few drinks in town and then headed back to the camp ground to get our heads down for the early start that tomorrow would be.

Nice to Florence via Pisa today. Fairly short day on the road today, thankfully. Stopped off at a roadside rest stop and had some genuine Italian pizza for lunch then hit the road for Pisa.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was started around 1100AD and finally finished in the 1300’s. It was built in three stages with the tower already leaning when the second stage was started. Over the years since completion most of the columns made from local stone have been replaced by ones made from stronger stone sourced from other parts of Italy. Recently work was done to pump concrete into the foundations of the tower to prevent it leaning any further and help reduce damage to the building.

Started the day with a trip to a French perfumery, unfortunately my head was so stuffed up that I couldn’t smell anything, so I guess I’ll have to get those pressies in Singapore.

After the perfumery we were dropped in Nice to mix it with the rich and famous and buy ourselves some flash clothes for our night at the Monte Carlo casino in Monaco. Since I didn’t pack any dress pants or shoes I had a bit of shopping to do. Managed to pick up a nice pair of strides and some shoes. Since I was on a roll I got a shirt, belt and socks too.

On the way to the Monte Carlo we did a hot lap of the Monaco grand prix track, not as quick as Schumaker though.

Well the Monte Carlo casino wasn’t really what I was expecting. Unlike Australian or American casinos the Monte Carlo isn’t all loud and flashing lights. Its actually very quiet and subdued but the rooms are all immaculate with enormous chandaliers and ornate frescoes on the ceilings. In general it really does give you the feeling of wealth, the Bentley’s, Masserati’s, Aston Martin’s, Ferrari’s and other European cars parked out th front help. I had a bit of a punt on the roulette table. Didn’t do too bad put €50 on the table and ended up walking away with about €175

Barcelona to Nice today, second longest drive of the trip. Stopped at an old fortified town, Aigues Mortes. Pretty neat little place with people still living in the houses within its walls. The walls surrounding the town are up to 11m thick and they had been unbreached for well over 70 years at one stage.

Eventually we made it to Nice had a few (ok, lots) beers and shots then hit the rack.

Spent today walking around Barcelona. Those bloody Romans where everywhere. In the centre of Barcelona is an old Roman fortified city. While walking around the old city there was an old lady singing opera, it was really haunting and quite beautiful hearing her voice bounce off the walls of the surrounding buildings.

We also visited the Sagrada Familia, an old gothic chapel. The design and construction was done by someone called Gaudi, who is something of a local legend. He became that obsessed with making this particular church perfect that he fired every one and continued the construction on his own, creating hundreds of sculptures and scenes all on his own that now adorn the church. During the first and second world wars, when Spain was in its own civil war, work on the church stopped. Somewhere in that period Gaudi died leaving his work unfinished. In recent the Spanish government established a special group to finish Gaudi’s work. The new additions to the church while similar to Gaudi’s work don’t seem to fit the best.

While walking around the city I wandered into the local markets. From the moment I walked in I was salivating at the sight of all the preserved meats and sausages as well as all the fresh fruit and veg. Luckily later on I got to have some tapas and paella for lunch.

Later on go the evening we were treated to a Flamenco dancing demonstration before heading to Post Olympico for dinner.

A long day on the road today travelling from France to Spain. On the way we stopped at the Punt du Gard for lunch. The Pont du Gard is a truely impressive structure, especially considering that it was built using only block and tackle and is held together with iron clamps rather than mortar.

Eventually we made it to Barcelona and had some sangria and tapas before the sick bodies crawled into bed while those more adventurous went to the bar to continue the festivities.

These couple of days were spend at the french Château de Cruix in the Beaujolais vineyards near Lyon. We had a wine tasting, sampling the local wines. After dinner it was off to the bar where far too much Beaujolais was consumed.

Day 4 was a bit of rest and recuperation. Had a long walk to the top of a hill so we could take in the views. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been too kind to us and it was really, really cold. As a result about half of us on the bus have a bit of a cold, ranging from a runny nose to an extremely uncomfortable chest cold and cough.

(Sorry, there’ll be no clicky links for the next few days as I’m doing this from my phone and it’s far too painful trying to search Wikipedia on my phone. So my apologies for any spelling mistakes or typos.)

Woo hoo! Paris! After freezing in the line for the Eiffel tower we finally made it into the lift and were on our way up. A quick change at half way and we were on our way to the top of Paris - 365 metres up.

Unfortunately it was a little cloudy up the top, so the views weren’t quite as good as they could have been. Never the less it was still impressive. There were so many people waiting to get the elevator back down that I ended up taking the stairs from half way to the bottom.

After the Eiffel tower we walked to the Arc de Triomph, built by Napolean for his victorious armies to march through on their return to Paris. Around the Arc is a huge roundabout that is fed by 12 roads. Traffic here is just crazy, entering vehicles have right of way and apparently all insurance is void if you have an accident while on the roundabout.

Next on the list was a walk down the Champs Elysées - also known as the boulevard of diamonds and rubies because of the endless lines of headlights and tail lights. At the end of the Champs Elysées are a set of gardens, full of statues, that lead to the Louvre.

The Louvre houses such masterpieces as the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa along with thousands of other statues and art work. The building(s) that house all of this are just enormous, originally being the royal palace of one of France’s kings.

Just on from the Louvre is Notre Dame, a huge gothic cathederal and once home to Quasi Modo.

After a nice French dinner it was back to the Contiki camp ground for a few drinks and then bed.

Early start followed by a day on the bus. Had a quick bite to eat then a drive through Paris to see the Eiffel tower and heaps of other things.

Pretty quiet day today. Didn’t get up to much, bit of washing and a walk down Regent St. Followed by a few beers while Australia gave South Africa a bit of a touch up go the cricket.