Europe 2010

Gratze Gratze Gratze!

This is an Epic post. Get a cuppa AND something to eat that is olive derived.

This is the almighty posse of Italian wine drinkers signing in. Fresh from our Vatican tour.

Since the last update we had a fun-tastic tour on bike around Munich. This consisted of us (plus Phil and Jill who we have assimilated in to the travelling pack) convincing the guide to give up on the full blown tour and to just get us as far as the Englischer Garten. Which happens to be the second biggest beer gardens in Munich with the first around the corner!

We drank a few quiet beverages before we jumped back on the bikes and headed over to the closest thing Germans have to a proper surf break… a white water wave on one of the redirected rivers that runs through the gardens. These guys just jumped in, surfed over and back and then dived over the white water and floated down river before getting out and going again. Full wetsuits, socks and even head gear was required especially given it was a balmy 7 degrees and raining on the day we were riding around.

We then took the short way back to drop off the bikes and wandered back to the Hoffbrauhaus for a feast of German pork knuckle and more… beers!

The next morning we hit the road and spent a day travelling through Austria down in to Italy. Stopping in at Innsbruck (which had a lovely chocolate fair that Jen enjoyed) and on to Venice.

Venice was slightly tainted as the camping grounds/cabins we were staying at were hopeless. Lost bookings, bad service and nothing was easy. We had a bunch of discount vouchers for cheap pizzas which they didn’t honour and it was just too far out of town that we had to cram in to extra packed public buses to get anywhere… especially when we got on the wrong bus and had to back track for 40 minutes.

Venice the city was stunning. When we did make it in to the city it was worth the hassle. The point of Venice is to get totally and utterly lost. Maps are useless and so are directions as the canals get in the way of things. We got lost. We did get majorly ripped off with breakfast… we paid just under 50 euro for three coffees, two hot chocolates, and two dinner plate pizzas between six. Not cool. We learned our lesson and made thrifty choices from that point on.

We negotiated a great deal on a Gondola ride and the six of us (remember to include Phil and Jill!) hit the canals for an hour with two bottles of wine to tide us over until lunch. The city is a totally different place from the water. No tourists, no rip off artists and no motor boats. We had a tour of some gorgeous palaces and learnt a bit about some classic movies like The Italian Job and Bond and a new one starring Angelina Jolie being filmed called the Tourist. (we didn’t see her!). The gondolier (our new made up word) dropped us off on the other side of the canal and we got really lost in Venice. Eventually we made it to San Magrerite Piazza and found a pizza shop Al discovered in Lonely planet. This place had the biggest pizzas ever. Without a doubt. They were around the 18 inches in diameter as one was a touch elipitical! So, we ordered three and devoured them with a bunch of canned beer that was cheap! That then followed around an hour of digestive bumming in a quiet place in the sunshine. We hit the lost technique and decided to create our own anitpasto dinner somewhere along the way and found all the makings at a local supermarket. After another tight bus we got home and boycotted everything at the hostel in aid of a DIY dinner. There were a bunch of contiki types doing a toga party… and a bunch of Czech motorbike riders. A good combo to sit back and watch with a bunch of wine!

Day two in Venice was another good lost day. We wandered out to the islands and visited the island Murano which is traditionally a glass makers island. They were outcast from Venice as the glass making smells too much. We watched a glass blowing demo and Jill and Jen spent a few hours dragging the boys (at painful lengths) through all of the shiney glass outlets buying stuff. We had a tasty Italian lunch and then proceeded to get utterly lost on the ferry system trying to get to the Venetian beach on the island of Lido.

We made it 3/4 of the way out before we called it quits and took an extra long ferry to get back. It was pretty funny but the views were great and it was a different take of Venice. More pizzas for dinner and we crashed out grumbling about how bad the hostel was and preparing for Rome.

A very, very long day of bus travel followed full of “Autogrills” which are highway food stops that consist of the exact same food and snacks and nothing is really that great. Hansen reckoned the coffee was good but you get sucked in to a whirlpool of rest stops that consist of trying to figure out how to spent 30 minutes of time… while the bus driver takes an EU mandatated break.

We rocked up to the Rome grounds ready to walk out but it has been excellent. Good food, well stocked supermarket and good transport connections we are back to happy campers.

Day one in Rome consisted of more getting lost techniques. This city has so much to offer that you feel like you’ve barely dipped a toe in to history! A sure thing return to city on the list for us all. We covered the Pantheon (really old temple), the Trevi fountain (really old fountain for good luck), the Spanish Stairs (really old stairs with a nice view), and the Colosseum (’nuff said!). The mixture of old versus ancient and the new is insane. There isn’t a space in town that hasn’t had some major historical figure take their share or make their marks.

We did a tour of the Colosseum and it was much smaller than Gladiator makes it out to be!! It’s around the size of kiddies cricket pitch in the middle. All you can see now is the dungeons and left overs of the real deal. One side has been refurbished by one of the Popes and the other side is original with minor structural repairs due to earthquakes. We wrapped up the tour with another tour of the Palatine hill. Lots of ancient stuff happened here! There is a palace that is now in ruins (which pleased Al no end) and we got taken through the palace and the gardens to see the view over the ancient Forums.

The Forums used to be a massive swamp, which got drained and built on to make a central meeting place in ancient Rome. Over time, the drains got blocked and it turned back in to a swamp during the Roman empires decline, and eventually pasture grounds after the Vatican had mined all the marble from the swamp! You really need a heavy duty imagination to make sense of it all but the history is epic. We filled the gaps between the burial mounds and the recent history we all know so well by being here.

Day two of Rome has entailed a trawl around the holy lands of the Vatican. The place is huge and full of ancient relics and mega artworks, not to mention the over the top opulance. Marble everywhere, rare and local. The Sistine Chapel was smaller in real life but just as impressive and there are stone sculptures everywhere. We had a great guide that made a lot of tacky jokes but it was funny (particularly the ones about the Ninja Turtles!). We did see the Popey Pope but we saw his balcony and the door to his private apartments. Just quietly, those Popes either stole or bought everything cool about Rome (just like the French and British museums!).

We’ve had our fill of Pasta, Pizza and olives. Well you can’t fill us, but it is good. As they say… “When in Rome…”

Tomorrow we make a move to Florence and escape the hostel trail. There should be substantial amounts of shopping, eating and drinking to take place and on that note we will catch up soon enough!

Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao!