After Biarritz, Andrew and I decided to head back to civilization and try out the wines of Bordeaux. The thing was though we arrived on a Sunday afternoon at about 14:00. Now under normal circumstances in any normal NZ town this would be a good thing. But as we have been finding out, lot of towns here in Europe are closed between 12:30 and 15:00. Our first night there we stayed at a 2 star hotel at 4 star prices (for us at least!) but they had free internet and we took advantage to try and find a cheaper place to stay. I found this cute hotel just 2 blocks further and still in the center of town for 52 Euros and it had all the luxuries of the previous hotel. I even managed to drop that we were on our honeymoon and the manager liked that so much that he threw in the breakfast for the first day for free!
We found out that we could rent bicycles from a store nearby and decided to go and see the town by bike. After wanting to do a town tour of Tokyo by bike this was like a dream come true for us. Except, that the weather didn't want to play ball and it started pouring with rain. It would have been cool if we remembered to bring our umbrellas with us that we bought in Rome. Then we could have been doing our "Tokyo-cool" impression with bike handle in one hand and umbrella in the other hand. We ducked into a little cafe and waited for the rain to stop. for the whole 25 mins while we waited I had a freaking nose bleed...so much so that the poor waitress thought there was something seriously wrong with me...(probably thought I had hemophilia!)
Anyway we wizzed around and saw all the beautiful sights along the river and cool old school buildings etc etc....and then it became dark and it was still cool... Andrew wanted to check out some army surplus stores to buy a wicked cool helicopter pilot jacket (that's snorkel jacket for all you in the know) However, by the time he picked out the jacket of his choice we had half an hour to get the bikes back to the store before they closed at 19:30. So off we go! in the dark, in a strange city, with no map, and only a vague inclination of which direction we should be heading in oh and did I mention that its started to rain again?
Left
Left
Right
Up this bit
ummmm maybe we need to head left down this street????
mmmm Right on this one????
awe crap we are.....oh wait! here is that Cathedral that we saw!
I think we should head down here....the total opposite direction of our hotel and get even more lost!!! yay!
In the end, I bullied Andrew to use his meager French to ask two police officers on bikes for directions. One of them looked like Anton Oliver from the All Blacks and the other one was definitely older, shorter but by no means unfit. Also, all police here in Europe walk around with semi-automatic guns at the ready, so they don't seem to invite friendly tourists to come and say "Hi! we're lost!" I would have asked them myself, except all I can say is :oui, non, merci and s'il vous plait oh and bonjour and au revoir
Turns out their English is even worse than my French, but we managed to convey that are lost, can't remember the name of the street we are meant to be going to and that we are from NZ, no not Australia, the one that has the All Blacks...kamate kamate (make haka movements) yeah yeah that's the one! They laugh. This is going well, and they seem to like that we are from NZ. We can tell by the enthusiastic smiles and gestures they make towards us. They look at our bikes and see the name of the shop printed on it. They radio in to the station with the name of the shop and got the address and the street name we need to go to. They started to try and explain how we could get there and then decided that it would be easier just to take us there themselves. They gave us a proper police escort and navigated the streets and evening traffic for us so that we could zoom through the streets with ease. I'm glad they did, because we would have gotten even more lost without them. They were very nice and laughed the whole way. Afterwards, they happily shook our hands and sent us on our way. THAT WAS SOOOOO COOL!
When we told the bike shop that the reason we were there so late was because we got lost they were incredulous. They couldn't believe that we could get lost in Bordeaux. Everything is flat and in a grid layout....I think that was half the problem. We are now used to narrow streets that wind around steep streets that seem to go nowhere.
To top off our biking adventure we went to a restaurant that was two doors down from our hotel and specialised in Cheese. The Menu had French down one side and the English translation down the other side, but I was determined to make my order in French. The waitress was so cute and patiently waited and helped me while I painstakingly struggled to make my order in French. Then when Andrew tried to take the easy option and make his order in English, she told him that I made my order in French and if he really wanted it he will do the same.
Then when she asked us what we would like to drink we were lost all over again. We wanted something from the region, but we weren't sure what that would be. So the Maitre'd came with 3 bottles and explained their qualities and the region that they are from...all of which was lost on us, but we went for the middle one...and it was delicious! tasted like cherries and spices (cinnamon, star anise and cloves) and it got me thoroughly drunk...on one glass. The food was so nice, so rich and made with so much cheese that we had cheese flavored farts for two days!
We were sad to leave Bordeaux, its a beautiful city with very friendly people and we would definitely go back there again.
Next up! Andrew and Adri feel like Mary and Joseph looking for an inn in Nante. Stuff that! We ended up having to stay at a youth hostel. Which was disgusting. It was only 10 Euros cheaper than our hotel in Bordeaux. In Bordeaux we had our own room, with a double bed, a view, bathroom, toilette, towels and a TV(that we didn't even switch on). In Nante we had a dorm room, with single bunk beds, not enough blankets, we had to make our own beds and the toilette stank to high heaven. We went to look for somewhere to eat and went to what we thought was Indian, but turned out to be a Moroccan restaurant. It was beautifully decorated, but the food was disgusting. I wouldn't feed it to a plague ridden rodent even if you paid me.
Andrew asked for a beer. Our owner/waitress/chef offered a choice of "in a can or leffee?" We thought it was a straight forward question for in a can or in a glass. Andrew drank Heineken. We left that town early the next morning to go to Paris.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Water torture in Biarritz
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| From Biarritz and others |
The first shot says it all really. Check out the lighthouse in the Background. Its about 4 or 5 stories tall. then look at the size of the wave. (This view was about 20 metres from our hotel, where we spent 2 nights.)
Arriving to this view, after having not touched the water for about 6 weeks was unbelievable.
On the train from Toulouse, i had all my fingers and toes crossed hoping to catch some swell for a few days respite from my surfing famine.
Biarritz is a great town, it reminded Adri and I of Gisborne. Everyone was very relaxed and super helpful, the streets were tidy, it was quiet in comparison to our last few stops.
My first mission after jumping off the train was to drag Adri around, looking for a surfboard hire store. We had a list we picked up at the tourist information centre. About Half were closed, but we heard that there was a few stores open in a neighbouring town. It was getting late, so we cut our losses and headed to bed.
The next day, i awoke to the sound of booming waves. It was even bigger! Ironically, the waves were too big! NO ONE was out. We saw a few cars driving by with boards, heading south to Spain, where the waves were a tad smaller and cleaner.
I spoke to a local who said there was a sqad of guys doing Tow-in surfing half an hour south of our current location. He said the waves were about 25 foot there, and predicted to get bigger during the week.
Feeling quite unfit, after too many pastries, exotic cheeses and chocolates, i sat for two days and watched these amazing waves come through.
sigh
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Got ants in me pants and i need to dance!
Just a wee tale about our train journey from Rome to Genoa.
So we lug our packs down to the storage area of our hostel, and head out to see the last item on our Rome 'greatest hits' package - the Spanish Steps.
We get back from our mission via the Metro, running extremely late and proceed to run back to get our packs from the storage area. We run in completely the wrong direction, turn around, run back the right way, grab bags, lurch to train station to arrive in the nick of time - 2mins before the train leaves. But its 30 mins late. So we stand around, Adri checking out the train departures board, Andrew flapping his hands at his sweaty arm pits.
Eventually the train arrives and it looks like the oldest one in the italian fleet. Its got scrapes down one side and tags from the 80s down the other. We jump onto the wrong end of the 9th carriage, and squeeze our packs into and past Italians in their best train riding clothes (shiny vinyl-look puffer jackets and Ugg boots) to get to the other end. We're in seat numbers 93 and 94 - closest to the door, facing each other. There's an older couple sharing our six seater booth in the window seats. They have put newspaper under their bums as they deem the seats too dirty to sit on directly. Seats look fine to us.
We stow our packs on the racks overhead and relax.
Three stops down the line and we're joined by an Italian couple. They're both about mid 30's, the man reminds me of an Italian version of David Brent from the office. They stow their stuff and we're on our way.
Every ten minutes David leans over and pats his lady on the knee. He says something to her italian, which i imagine is the Italian version of: "eh, alrigh' Luv?" then they snog vigourisly and sloppily. Adri is visibly cringing at the drain-cleaning noises they're making.
Half an hour he stands up and tucks his shirt in. He keeps scratching himself. He says something to the older italian couple and they point to their newspaper and natter in reply.
Five minutes later he scratches his head, stands up and looks around, looks at the floor, brushes himself off. Sits down.
This alternates between pashes.
After half an hour David's really scratching. He keeps picking at his clothing. He makes moany complainy noises to the older italian couple and they nod in approval. He brushes off himself and spies something on the ground. An Ant! All the Italians are horrified. Weird. The cogs in my head are slowly engaging as we cut to a flashback of my packing earlier that day, where i spied a similar brown ant. Then i remember all the sweet things i had in my pack and can feel my face slowly turning red. My pack sits directly above him and the ants are falling down onto his seat, his head, down his shirt. Luckily no-one realises this, they think its due to having such a dirty carriage. I keep my composure, soon a guard is contacted and he finds a replacement compartment for us to go to.
He explains to us:
"If youa lika, we mova you to numba three! Thisa ona ees Dirty."
(all italians leave promptly)
Adri and Andy: "uh .. oh thanks, um actually we are used to living in filth"
The guard thinks this is hilarious.
Once everyone has gone, Adri and i unpack my bag. I pull my spare shoes out and they're sticky and have ants ALL over them. We find the motherlode in the form of an opened pack of Marzipan carrots. We shook my pack out, adri doing a tap dance/ haka on the ants as they hit the floor. Soon there's a fleet of black smudges in our carriage, we're both doing our best to look like we're promoting circulation to our legs, with our stompy, stretchy movements.
So we lug our packs down to the storage area of our hostel, and head out to see the last item on our Rome 'greatest hits' package - the Spanish Steps.
We get back from our mission via the Metro, running extremely late and proceed to run back to get our packs from the storage area. We run in completely the wrong direction, turn around, run back the right way, grab bags, lurch to train station to arrive in the nick of time - 2mins before the train leaves. But its 30 mins late. So we stand around, Adri checking out the train departures board, Andrew flapping his hands at his sweaty arm pits.
Eventually the train arrives and it looks like the oldest one in the italian fleet. Its got scrapes down one side and tags from the 80s down the other. We jump onto the wrong end of the 9th carriage, and squeeze our packs into and past Italians in their best train riding clothes (shiny vinyl-look puffer jackets and Ugg boots) to get to the other end. We're in seat numbers 93 and 94 - closest to the door, facing each other. There's an older couple sharing our six seater booth in the window seats. They have put newspaper under their bums as they deem the seats too dirty to sit on directly. Seats look fine to us.
We stow our packs on the racks overhead and relax.
Three stops down the line and we're joined by an Italian couple. They're both about mid 30's, the man reminds me of an Italian version of David Brent from the office. They stow their stuff and we're on our way.
Every ten minutes David leans over and pats his lady on the knee. He says something to her italian, which i imagine is the Italian version of: "eh, alrigh' Luv?" then they snog vigourisly and sloppily. Adri is visibly cringing at the drain-cleaning noises they're making.
Half an hour he stands up and tucks his shirt in. He keeps scratching himself. He says something to the older italian couple and they point to their newspaper and natter in reply.
Five minutes later he scratches his head, stands up and looks around, looks at the floor, brushes himself off. Sits down.
This alternates between pashes.
After half an hour David's really scratching. He keeps picking at his clothing. He makes moany complainy noises to the older italian couple and they nod in approval. He brushes off himself and spies something on the ground. An Ant! All the Italians are horrified. Weird. The cogs in my head are slowly engaging as we cut to a flashback of my packing earlier that day, where i spied a similar brown ant. Then i remember all the sweet things i had in my pack and can feel my face slowly turning red. My pack sits directly above him and the ants are falling down onto his seat, his head, down his shirt. Luckily no-one realises this, they think its due to having such a dirty carriage. I keep my composure, soon a guard is contacted and he finds a replacement compartment for us to go to.
He explains to us:
"If youa lika, we mova you to numba three! Thisa ona ees Dirty."
(all italians leave promptly)
Adri and Andy: "uh .. oh thanks, um actually we are used to living in filth"
The guard thinks this is hilarious.
Once everyone has gone, Adri and i unpack my bag. I pull my spare shoes out and they're sticky and have ants ALL over them. We find the motherlode in the form of an opened pack of Marzipan carrots. We shook my pack out, adri doing a tap dance/ haka on the ants as they hit the floor. Soon there's a fleet of black smudges in our carriage, we're both doing our best to look like we're promoting circulation to our legs, with our stompy, stretchy movements.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Andrew and Adri go Duomo
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| From VeniceFlorence |
Ahh back to the blog. I'll set the scene for you: We're sitting in our hotel in the centre of Florence. Its 5pm. I'm drinking a big bottle of Baveria we picked up from the supermarket. Adri's lying on the bed watching an Italian overdubbed version of Conan the Barbarian on the TV in our room. Adri lies on two beds pushed together which the hotel claims is a double bed. The 14" TV sits about 8 feet from the ground in a grey hospital-style support arm...
So its been tricky to spend some quality time with the blog. Its only right that we should bring you up to speed quickly with what's happened over the last week. I see Adri's last post covered most of our time with beautiful Cloe, so I'll continue from there. Think of the following segment as the catch-up-montage Shortland Street has at the start of each show. I've put it in italics for the hard of seeing.
Venice. The streets smell alternatively of pastries and pond-scum-dog-poo. We visited a book shop with a back door that opened onto a canal. The owner kept his books in 4 clawfoot baths, a wooden kayak, a gondola and high bookshelves. We had a Gondola ride with Mario - a short, aging Gondola driver. His English was lacking but he had memorised 12 to 13 snippets of information about the buildings we passed. He punctuated these with loud, long snorts from his dripping nose. "On-a the lefta, we ava da houseothecassanova, built in da tirteenthcentry, in the romanticstyla! SNNNOOOOOORRRRRTTTTTT." We also visited the two galleries, the Academia which specialised in Venician art from the 13th to the 19th century, and the Peggy Gugenheim where we saw some cool pieces from Picasso and his contemporaries. To sum it up, Venice was either Michael Jackson or Elizabeth Taylor. Rich, Popular and beautiful back in the day, but now needing a ton of extra cash to fund reconstructive surgery and showing signs of water damage.
Bassano Del Grapa [north of venice]. Where we spent New Years with my Uncle and Aunt Vincent and Diana. The first day of 2009 welcomed us with about 20cm of fresh snow outside their door. I went snowboarding twice at a local ski field, which was incredible. Big wide runs flowing down between pine trees. The rest of the time was spent playing pick-up-sticks and drinking espresso coffee. Adri spent a lot of time in front of the fire reading one of Diana's books, which she narrowly failed to finish before we left.
Cut to current episode: "Lets go Duomo"
Arriving from the train station into Florence we spotted the major landmark, the Duomo. We headed towards it, as we knew our hotel was to be found on a street nearby. A few turns around the tall streets of Florence and we were there! "Wow its big!" we thought. Turns out it wasn't the Duomo, but just some other smaller church on the way. When we finally got to the actual Duomo i thought there was something wrong with my eyes. It was like they got the scale all wrong on the plans. Words nor pictures can describe the scale of the building. There was scaffolding on the exterior of one section of the building. With the intricate decorations it seemed to us that they would be continually shift the scaffolding clockwise around the Duomo, cleaning and restoring, before starting again.
We made it to our hotel, after a bit of searching. Unfortunately there had been a mix up, and our room was occupied for that evening. Not to worry, they packed us off to a partner hotel and put us in a room there. It was even closer to town and nicer than our initial one!
Our first meal was at a Restaurant recommended by the Hotel operator. We arrived and there was a queue outside the door, waiting for them to open. We strolled up the road window shopping and by the time we returned, they were ready. It was a small French themed restaurant, and they packed us down the very end, next to the kitchen. There were two chefs and four waiting staff. They packed in the clientelle, we shared our six-seater table with two other couples. It seemed they specialised in hearty food with a quick turn around. We started with Minestroni soup, Adri ordered a salad and potatoes, I ordered the Tripe which for some reason i remembered as being a type of sausage. We were both pleasantly surprised with the food: Adri, the quality and quick turn around, myself, with the squiddely slimy things in sauce that appeared on my plate.
The next day we visited San Lorenzo, home of the Medici chapels. The paintings on the interior of the dome were jaw dropping. Its not possible to look at them with your mouth closed. You have to crane your neck back so far that automatically your jaw becomes slack, drool starts to form in your throat, breathing becomes difficult, you make little grunty noises a you take it all in. The marble work around the chapel was rediculous. Oh and there were little vials with golden ornate leaves which held the bones of saints (I want to say 'repositories' but it sounds too close to 'suppositories' ...hmm can't remember now). They were visually cool but kind of creepy. My favourite was the Chapel of the princes - it was a smaller domed room that Michaelangelo designed and created scupltures for. There were 6 sculpted figures in total, three on one side, three on the other. Two princes stood, facing each other across the room. At their feet were personifications of Day & Night, Dawn and Dusk. All figures were just under twice life size. It was phenominal work. I could have spend hours there taking it all in. Michaelangelo is a genius - the level of thought and content he can inject into his figures - in their twisted yet natural poses. As an example of this he even polished the figure of 'night' to high sheen compared to 'day'- It seems as if she is bathed in moonlight. All this in a medium which there is no 'undo' key. It is breathtaking.
To segway from the previous point, I wanted to also talk about the difficulty of looking at the art here. A lot of the pieces are huge in scale. Big narratives that suck you in, tell you a whole story in one image. I'd be happy to sit in front of a few of them for a few hours and really soak up the composition, the emotions and stories in the different characters. To see fifty in a day, when they're not really designed to be viewed like that is very tiring. You become a bit jaded. Adri says at the end of the day it feels as if her eyes are bleeding from so much art. She's decided for the next week we are to willingly become 'Fois Gras'. We will stuff long tubes down to our bellies and force feed painting after sculpture after painting until we are full to the brim. And if you were to delicately slice open our livers, they would taste sweet, fatty and a little like lead based paint.
To unwind from the art saturation, we've been endulging in a little retail therapy. Adri has bought some fine charcoal coloured boots and a largish green leather bag.
I tried to buy some mocassins but no go. They were sooooo cool. Made from a single piece of leather. Unfortunately they had sold out of the ones in my size. see http://www.kanekodesign.it/concept.html
Oh, and i've been doing lots of drawing. Will take some pics of my diary and upload them sooon...
Sunday, January 4, 2009
A week with Cloe in brief notes
Sunday:
Lucern Lion - heaps of snow everywhere ( Ironically not in Lausanne for Christmas)
Train from Lucern to Laussane
Cloe meets us at the train station
Cloe takes us to her school to photograph her project
We bore her with our photos of everything, including our wedding
Cloe has no food, so its pasta for dinner
Monday:
I make pancakes for breakfast
Christmas shopping with Cloe, European styles
Lausanne Cathedral (before we are over cathedrals later in Italy)
Bank issues (no pin on our Visa, no microchip on our Visa, $15 bank fees in NZ for using
Eftpos to get cash out every single time! Damn you ANZ! I'm switching to Kiwi bank!)
We met Cloe's little brother and his new girlfriend
We went to MIGROS (Swiss supermarket. YES! they have them here!)
Dinner: Rosti (Traditional Swiss meal of potatoes...MIAM!), 5 different kinds of beer to
go with our 5 different kinds of stinky as cheeses
Meet Cloe's flatmate Cecilla who gets confused by all our crazy New Zealand stories
and language
Tuesday:
We go to Geneva!
have pancakes in the park
go to the Calvin Museum
Go to the Wall of Reformation
Andrew was getting grumpy so I sent him to the Pool for a swim, While Cloe finished her Christmas shopping and I watched Heroes on Cloe's computer
Dinner: leftover Rosti with more potatoes and more cheese!
Then Cloe introduced us to a cool TV show called "Eureka!"
Wednesday: Took the little BAM train to Reverolle (Cloe's Village where her parents live)
We scammed a car and went to Chateau Le Chilion.
We went to IKEA
Had an awesome Christmas dinner: Fruit punch with Rum, Clairette De Die (Sweet type of Champagne) Puff pastry shapes which included stars and mini Croissants, Entree: Puff pastry with scallops in creamy sauce with orange juice and sweet white wine Sereved with the Sweet white wine to complement. Then Duck in a cream sauce with Fetttuchi served with red wine to complement. Then Mango ice-cream with merrange and dates served with a "digestive" Prune liquor that took the lining off my stomach. All prepared by Cloe's dad. His one and only official "cooking day" of the year.
Presnet dishing where we got a sack of Chocolate (1.5 kg to be precise) and a book on Swiss design from Cloe's parents and from cloe we got a head masager a swiss pealer and 2 little red Moleskene diaries.
Then cookies. 15 differnt christmas cookies to be exact made by Cloe's mum and coffee. Adri nearly died from all the food
Went home and slept like the dead.
Merry Christmas!
Thursday:
Hang over just for Adri.
Ski gear in the car
Go to the "little mountains" Jura Mountains
have snow fights and teboggening
Andrew has 1 run on skiis down a Swiss ski slope
Home time
Dinner: Papis Vaudois (leeks, potatoes and swiss sausaage slow cooked)
More Eureka and then bed
Friday:
Big breakfast
Drove to Gruyere (little Disney-esque village from the middle ages and famous for the Guryere cheese from that region)
H.R. Giger Museum (made me ill, that man needs a hug)
Walked around the icey paths around the castle at Gruyere
Went to the little village at the bottom of the hill from Gruyere and had french fries for lunch topped off with merrenge with Gruyere double cream...there is nothing like it. We all died and went to heaven.
Then we went to Fribourg-and did silly dancing in a park to take photos and avoid dying of the freezing cold -4
Phone Diana and book a train to Milan and then to Venice instead.
meet Joël for fondu in a little fondu specialist resteurant. We each had 200g of melted cheesy goodness. Andrew and I have weird dreams for days.
Saturday: Say sad good byes to Cloe and board the train to Venice 8 hour train journey...yay!
Next stop: Venice!
Lucern Lion - heaps of snow everywhere ( Ironically not in Lausanne for Christmas)
Train from Lucern to Laussane
Cloe meets us at the train station
Cloe takes us to her school to photograph her project
We bore her with our photos of everything, including our wedding
Cloe has no food, so its pasta for dinner
Monday:
I make pancakes for breakfast
Christmas shopping with Cloe, European styles
Lausanne Cathedral (before we are over cathedrals later in Italy)
Bank issues (no pin on our Visa, no microchip on our Visa, $15 bank fees in NZ for using
Eftpos to get cash out every single time! Damn you ANZ! I'm switching to Kiwi bank!)
We met Cloe's little brother and his new girlfriend
We went to MIGROS (Swiss supermarket. YES! they have them here!)
Dinner: Rosti (Traditional Swiss meal of potatoes...MIAM!), 5 different kinds of beer to
go with our 5 different kinds of stinky as cheeses
Meet Cloe's flatmate Cecilla who gets confused by all our crazy New Zealand stories
and language
Tuesday:
We go to Geneva!
have pancakes in the park
go to the Calvin Museum
Go to the Wall of Reformation
Andrew was getting grumpy so I sent him to the Pool for a swim, While Cloe finished her Christmas shopping and I watched Heroes on Cloe's computer
Dinner: leftover Rosti with more potatoes and more cheese!
Then Cloe introduced us to a cool TV show called "Eureka!"
Wednesday: Took the little BAM train to Reverolle (Cloe's Village where her parents live)
We scammed a car and went to Chateau Le Chilion.
We went to IKEA
Had an awesome Christmas dinner: Fruit punch with Rum, Clairette De Die (Sweet type of Champagne) Puff pastry shapes which included stars and mini Croissants, Entree: Puff pastry with scallops in creamy sauce with orange juice and sweet white wine Sereved with the Sweet white wine to complement. Then Duck in a cream sauce with Fetttuchi served with red wine to complement. Then Mango ice-cream with merrange and dates served with a "digestive" Prune liquor that took the lining off my stomach. All prepared by Cloe's dad. His one and only official "cooking day" of the year.
Presnet dishing where we got a sack of Chocolate (1.5 kg to be precise) and a book on Swiss design from Cloe's parents and from cloe we got a head masager a swiss pealer and 2 little red Moleskene diaries.
Then cookies. 15 differnt christmas cookies to be exact made by Cloe's mum and coffee. Adri nearly died from all the food
Went home and slept like the dead.
Merry Christmas!
Thursday:
Hang over just for Adri.
Ski gear in the car
Go to the "little mountains" Jura Mountains
have snow fights and teboggening
Andrew has 1 run on skiis down a Swiss ski slope
Home time
Dinner: Papis Vaudois (leeks, potatoes and swiss sausaage slow cooked)
More Eureka and then bed
Friday:
Big breakfast
Drove to Gruyere (little Disney-esque village from the middle ages and famous for the Guryere cheese from that region)
H.R. Giger Museum (made me ill, that man needs a hug)
Walked around the icey paths around the castle at Gruyere
Went to the little village at the bottom of the hill from Gruyere and had french fries for lunch topped off with merrenge with Gruyere double cream...there is nothing like it. We all died and went to heaven.
Then we went to Fribourg-and did silly dancing in a park to take photos and avoid dying of the freezing cold -4
Phone Diana and book a train to Milan and then to Venice instead.
meet Joël for fondu in a little fondu specialist resteurant. We each had 200g of melted cheesy goodness. Andrew and I have weird dreams for days.
Saturday: Say sad good byes to Cloe and board the train to Venice 8 hour train journey...yay!
Next stop: Venice!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Zurich onwards
*We are in "catch up" mode, so this is why this is old. We've been writing in diaries so that we can remember everything with the hope of transcribing it onto the web when we can find accessible internet*
After arriving in Zurich quite late and Andrew and I caught a train to Zurch's main train station, we had to try and find a place to stay. We has such a nice time in Tokyo, that we didn't think to book accommodation in Zurich till it was too late.
We walked from the train station to town and it soon dawned on s that is was Friday night and the people of Zurich were in full party mode before Christmas. After trying 3 places to stay (one:fully booked, two:extremely expensive, three:no double rooms) we settled on "Hotel Splendor" We had to enter via the smoky bar on the ground floor. That was the first warning. Then Andrew had to go and find a receptionist who turned out be be a girl of about our age, but so surly and grumpy you would have sworn we had offend her family. This was the second warning sign of trouble. But CHF (Swiss francs)110 later we a room with a wash basin and a double bed. The room itself felt like it was on a 45 degree angle and during the course of the night I felt like all the blood was rushing to my brain. Andrew was so tired and jet lagged, because we didn't sleep on the plane, he fell asleep almost immediately. I on the other hand had to use my i-pod to block out the noisy could next door, because the walls were made of paper and I could hear the music and noise from the bar 4 floors up. Apart from that I felt like I was chain smoking cigarettes all night long.
At 6 am I gave up trying to sleep and went for a shower. I felt dizzy and nauseous from all the smoke inhalation and even with my head right out the window it was hard to get fresh air in my lungs. By the time Andrew came back from his shower, I was blow-drying my hair. He was horrified at the idea that I might have woken up our neighbors, but by this stage I felt that since they didn't seem to care that they were keeping me up half the night, I didn't see why I should care that I was waking them up at 6:15 on a Saturday morning...revenge is a dish best served cold!
Needless to say, we were out of there by 7:30 and went in search of food. , internet, trains and accommodation. And also to get hold of Cloè. But the internet place didn't open till 8 am, so off to find food. We walked back to the train station to get food which consisted of a shared paninni, a croissant and 2 coffees. After breakfast we saw a fruit market stall near the café and thought it would be a good idea to buy some fruit to carry with us, as it would be cheaper that having to buy snacks all the time. As we walked up to the stall, I said to Andy: "This looks expensive, maybe we should leave it. It looks like a delicatessen..." Anyway, Andrew knows best and said we'd only get some apples. The fruit vendor laughed and helped us and sold us the most expensive apples I have ever had the misfortune of buying. Three floury apples for NZD7! The next time I hear another European tourist complain about how expensive fruit and veges are in NZ, I'm going to smack them!
We then went back to the internet cafe, which was now open. I still can't get used to the fact the people just casually light up in cafes here. Anyway, we decided to go to Lucerne and found a backpackers there for really cheap and Cloe had sent us her cell phone number. SAVED! So back to the train station and off to Lucern for the day. Cloe had indicated that we should come on Sunday, as that is when shell be ready for us.
We cruzed through the Christmas markets and marvel led at the giant Swarovski Cristal Christmas tree. There is a photo of Andrew standing under it in our photo album...
Our train to Lucern departed at 10.04 am and we were on it with good time. Again I got a bad feeling. "Andrew, I think we need to keep walking. I don't think we are in the right carriage..."Would he listen? Oh no, not he! "No baby, I'm sure this is fine. " Anyway, so after the stop at Tawl the train conductor comes past. I get our tickets and give them to him. He very promptly informs us that we are in the 1st class carriage and the only have 2nd class tickets. and without further ado he makes us pay an extra CHF30 each to upgrade our tickets! Andrew was still trying to explain that we are tourists from NZ and didn't know about the class systems on the train, but to no avail. The conductor was already printing out the slip for Andrew to swipe our VISA and sign. After that, we decided that I'll be in charge of where we sit on trains and that I have a bad feeling, we trust my instincts. This has left us with a bad impression of European hospitality. To compare with Tokyo, Europe has to pick up its game! But Andrew and I decided to make the best of the situation and get our money's worth by admiring the beautiful snow covered countryside.
After arriving in Lucern we did the first smart thing as tourists so far and went to the tourist information center. We founded out everything that we needed to know, including that the backpackers that we found on line was only open in summer, but tourist information center was very helpful and found us a cheap hostel, got us directions and gave us a tourist map of cool things to see and do in Lucern.
Man! Lucern is a beautiful little city. The old town especially in just like a post card. Snow every where (granted a bit old) but snow none the less. We walked accross the Medieval bride to our Hosten which was situated right next to the river, and our room had a beautiful view. Chris (the one eyed receptionist...man) was very helpful to look up what was happening in town and told us of the lighting of hundreds of Christamas lights by the Cathedral of the town. He even marked it on our map. He made sure that we got a quiet room (with breakfast) for CHF20 cheaper than our smoky room in Zurch. Things were looking up for us!for the rest of Lucern, jsut look at the pictures! we had a grand old time walking around and looking at all the old buildings. After a good night's sleep and thanked Chris (the one eyed receptionis...man) for giving us a whole floor to ourselves. We ate a heary breakfast. And checked out. We walked with our packs to the old town walls and admired the old towers and then on to the Lucern Lion. We think it is a monument to fallen soldiers, because all the info was in either Latin or Swiss-German. It was cool none the less!
Next stop, Cloe in Lausanne!
After arriving in Zurich quite late and Andrew and I caught a train to Zurch's main train station, we had to try and find a place to stay. We has such a nice time in Tokyo, that we didn't think to book accommodation in Zurich till it was too late.
We walked from the train station to town and it soon dawned on s that is was Friday night and the people of Zurich were in full party mode before Christmas. After trying 3 places to stay (one:fully booked, two:extremely expensive, three:no double rooms) we settled on "Hotel Splendor" We had to enter via the smoky bar on the ground floor. That was the first warning. Then Andrew had to go and find a receptionist who turned out be be a girl of about our age, but so surly and grumpy you would have sworn we had offend her family. This was the second warning sign of trouble. But CHF (Swiss francs)110 later we a room with a wash basin and a double bed. The room itself felt like it was on a 45 degree angle and during the course of the night I felt like all the blood was rushing to my brain. Andrew was so tired and jet lagged, because we didn't sleep on the plane, he fell asleep almost immediately. I on the other hand had to use my i-pod to block out the noisy could next door, because the walls were made of paper and I could hear the music and noise from the bar 4 floors up. Apart from that I felt like I was chain smoking cigarettes all night long.
At 6 am I gave up trying to sleep and went for a shower. I felt dizzy and nauseous from all the smoke inhalation and even with my head right out the window it was hard to get fresh air in my lungs. By the time Andrew came back from his shower, I was blow-drying my hair. He was horrified at the idea that I might have woken up our neighbors, but by this stage I felt that since they didn't seem to care that they were keeping me up half the night, I didn't see why I should care that I was waking them up at 6:15 on a Saturday morning...revenge is a dish best served cold!
Needless to say, we were out of there by 7:30 and went in search of food. , internet, trains and accommodation. And also to get hold of Cloè. But the internet place didn't open till 8 am, so off to find food. We walked back to the train station to get food which consisted of a shared paninni, a croissant and 2 coffees. After breakfast we saw a fruit market stall near the café and thought it would be a good idea to buy some fruit to carry with us, as it would be cheaper that having to buy snacks all the time. As we walked up to the stall, I said to Andy: "This looks expensive, maybe we should leave it. It looks like a delicatessen..." Anyway, Andrew knows best and said we'd only get some apples. The fruit vendor laughed and helped us and sold us the most expensive apples I have ever had the misfortune of buying. Three floury apples for NZD7! The next time I hear another European tourist complain about how expensive fruit and veges are in NZ, I'm going to smack them!
We then went back to the internet cafe, which was now open. I still can't get used to the fact the people just casually light up in cafes here. Anyway, we decided to go to Lucerne and found a backpackers there for really cheap and Cloe had sent us her cell phone number. SAVED! So back to the train station and off to Lucern for the day. Cloe had indicated that we should come on Sunday, as that is when shell be ready for us.
We cruzed through the Christmas markets
Our train to Lucern departed at 10.04 am and we were on it with good time. Again I got a bad feeling. "Andrew, I think we need to keep walking. I don't think we are in the right carriage..."Would he listen? Oh no, not he! "No baby, I'm sure this is fine. " Anyway, so after the stop at Tawl the train conductor comes past. I get our tickets and give them to him. He very promptly informs us that we are in the 1st class carriage and the only have 2nd class tickets. and without further ado he makes us pay an extra CHF30 each to upgrade our tickets! Andrew was still trying to explain that we are tourists from NZ and didn't know about the class systems on the train, but to no avail. The conductor was already printing out the slip for Andrew to swipe our VISA and sign. After that, we decided that I'll be in charge of where we sit on trains and that I have a bad feeling, we trust my instincts. This has left us with a bad impression of European hospitality. To compare with Tokyo, Europe has to pick up its game! But Andrew and I decided to make the best of the situation and get our money's worth by admiring the beautiful snow covered countryside.
After arriving in Lucern we did the first smart thing as tourists so far and went to the tourist information center. We founded out everything that we needed to know, including that the backpackers that we found on line was only open in summer, but tourist information center was very helpful and found us a cheap hostel, got us directions and gave us a tourist map of cool things to see and do in Lucern.
Man! Lucern is a beautiful little city. The old town especially in just like a post card. Snow every where (granted a bit old) but snow none the less. We walked accross the Medieval bride to our Hosten which was situated right next to the river, and our room had a beautiful view. Chris (the one eyed receptionist...man) was very helpful to look up what was happening in town and told us of the lighting of hundreds of Christamas lights by the Cathedral of the town. He even marked it on our map. He made sure that we got a quiet room (with breakfast) for CHF20 cheaper than our smoky room in Zurch. Things were looking up for us!for the rest of Lucern, jsut look at the pictures! we had a grand old time walking around and looking at all the old buildings. After a good night's sleep and thanked Chris (the one eyed receptionis...man) for giving us a whole floor to ourselves. We ate a heary breakfast. And checked out. We walked with our packs to the old town walls and admired the old towers and then on to the Lucern Lion. We think it is a monument to fallen soldiers, because all the info was in either Latin or Swiss-German. It was cool none the less!
Next stop, Cloe in Lausanne!
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