Barcelona

Parc Guell (the Gaudi park)

Parc Guell (the Gaudi park)

some of the crazy architecture

Human towers

cute little Mathius with our rock collection

fountain in the central park

Bug band in the park

Gaudis unfinished Sagrada Familia

Gaudis unfinished Sagrada Familia

Gaudis unfinished Sagrada Familia

The biggest port i have ever seen, 7 ships waiting outside

Tower in the Olympic Park

We were very keen to get into Barcelona and meet the very famed `Alex and Olivia,' family friends of Andrews parents who we had not met, but heard loads about... We arrived at our drop off point and Alex was there to pick us up. He instantly recognised Andrew as `he looks so much like Anne' and met a cute shy little 2 and a half year old boy named Damien who, when he was a baby had been dedicated by Philip in NZ. We squished our excessive amount of baggage into a small car and headed off to meet the rest of the famous family. After some speedy driving and a few wrong turns we arrived at the apartment building. We hopped out of the car and Damien, no longer shy ran around the car and attached himself around Andrews leg and did not let go of his hand before arriving at the apartment 8 floors up! They say he had never done this before and thought that maybe he remembered something of NZ?!

We then met Olivia and Mathias (the cutest 1 yr old with the biggest smile), and we begun to realise why they were so highly spoken of. Every night we enjoyed our eating and drinking till late into the evening with great company, conversation and food and french wine.

We were lucky enough to arrive in Barcelona on a festival weekend for their patron saint. There was a brilliant atmosphere and lots to see and do. We spent our days wandering the streets, seeing street artists, clowns, parades, crazy floats, fireworks, and everything from live lizards to tacky souvenirs for sale... Andrew was upset that we did not meet the famous so called `elephant man' who wears nothing accept a tattoo of leopard print underwear on his behind and elephant ears on each thighat the front... hmmm...

We walked around the crazy Gaudi Park, which the famous Gaudi architect designed with loads of weird and wonderful designs, he also designed many other buildings around Barcelona and is one of their biggest icons. We marveled at many buildings including the massive Olympic stadium and its impressive fountains and weird tower.

One of the days we were able to watch Olivia swim in an ocean race (none of this way too easy pool racing for her!) and then headed off to see the human pyramid competition famous for this festival... This was one of the most crazy and scary things we had seen. All the regions from around Barcelona enter a team of human pyramids. These teams compete by trying to make the most complicated as well as tallest pyramids. On the bottom are the strongest and biggest people and this progresses upwards with the top only having a small child... brave (or crazy) mothers! Mostly these towers are successful but we saw one which fell down at its highest point(we saw it go 8 high but it does get up to 10!!!) and the small child went flying, to be saved by the crowd below... so safe (ish) for the child...

We really enjoyed or stay in Barcelona and were sad to leave, we enjoyed the wee family who happily took us in, the great atmosphere, and all the amazing and different sights to be seen, along with some more great markets.

Aix-en-Provence and Avignon

Walking with Tricia - seed pod full of bugs ew!
Red dirt pine trees and rocks - Provence

Mount Sainte-Victoire

Low reservoir

Dam

Priory atop Mount Sainte-Victoire

Hazy view from the top

Scary fish at market in Marsielle

Paintings in the church

Model ships and airplanes used in rescues or sunk at sea

Golden mosaics

Early morning flight

Avignon airport and Ralph our pilot

another one pot wonder!

Avignon and is famous half bridge (dont quite know why they like this bridge so much when half floated away)

Because our bus only stops at a few destinations and no where in between we had to make our own way to our next destination Aix-en-Provence. We caught a local bus for 21 euros each and arrived in Aix (x) just after midday. There we were met by Ralph who is my second cousin twice removed... or my grandads cousin with a generational gap (its complicated i know, lets just say he is whanau).

We drove back to Ralphs house to meet his lovely wife Tricia and have a beer and some lunch, this was just the beggining of a great five days. The weather was not its best but we decided to chance it and ventured out for a walk with our jackets. The rain cleared and we walked through some forestry land where everyone can go walking in any season except for summer due to a very high fire risk. Feeling comforted by the recent rain we through a landscape that is a rich red colour with lots of bluffs and cliffs, olive trees and wild thyme rosemary and lavender. It was the first of many nice walks.

We filled our time with visiting a few local markets and trying all their olives mmm so good! And a few more walks around the bottom of a mountain one day and up it the next. The mountain (Mount Sante Victoire) is named after a battle fought on it in 1st century BC where they say the river ran with blood and the valley running down from the mountain is named after the stench of the rotting bodies, yet another roman victory over the celts. The mountain is mostly all bare rock so it made for a very hot hike but great views of a very hazy landscape, maybe due to the huge refinery just over another range. At the top there was a little Priory from the 1500 century where a bunch of people were doing an archiology dig, and a huge cross at the summit where we were rewarded with a great view and a cool breeze.

The following day we took it easy and visited Marseilles a huge city on the coast. About half of the population of Marseilles are migrants so the city has a very different culture along with a huge crime rate. On a hill overlooking the city we checked out a church that was dedicated to the seafarers, it was really different to any other church we had been into, it was still ornate and stunning but was covered with model ships and small paintings people had given when a family member had been saved from a tragedy at sea, it was nice to see one of these churchesa bit more connected to the people than the rest we have seen. The markets were amazing with a lot of arab and african influence so a huge variety of food. Our gudie Tricia treated us to a few things we had never seen or tasted before.

That evening Ralph and Tricia treated us to a ´congratulations on getting engaged´ dinner which was really nice as we had not really had one yet. We tried globe artichokes which as interesting, its a bit of work to eat your meal but they are really tasty! The next morning we had to rise early to catch a plane to Avignon. Ralph who has been learning to fly decided to try to couple a lesson with flying us to Avignon in a little Cessna, many people were dubious that our oversized packs would fit in the plane but luckily the instuctor was not. Ralph was supposed to fly as if he were flying in cloud so he could not look up and had to fly only by instruments. It made for a bumpy flight but he flew well so we made it in one piece. The flight was beautiful as we were in the air as the sun rose through the smog and flying only about 900m above the ground so we could see everything. We landed in Avignons small airport where no buses go so we had to catch a taxi, not too big a deal as it saved us a big walk with our heavy packs. After settling in we checked out Avignon which is an walled in town that used to house the Pope in the one of the biggest palaces in Europe. It was a nice town with a lot of character but we were a little too tired to really appreciate it and soon headed back for an afternoon snooze crashing for over 2 hours!

Cinque Terre and Nice

Pisa and a righted tower thanks to the hulk
Deiva Marina on a stormy day

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre

Fishing boats in the street Cinque Terre

Cingue Terre

Nice at night

From Florence we headed to Pisa to see its famous leaning tower, we had about and hour here and it really was enough, we found ourselves in little awe of the slightly leaning tower but all the same we ticked it off the list with one of the classic photos holding it up which by the way is not so easy to work out how to take, especially with hundreds of others trying to do the same!

From Pisa we headed to the coast getting off the bus in La Spezia. From here on in the travel was not so easy it took Andrew and I a good couple of hours to work out where exactly where needed to go! As it turned out the camp ground we had booked was not actually in the Cinque Terre where we wanted to be but about 20 Min's further away! All the train timetables were only of the Cinque Terre so we had no idea of how to get to where we needed to be... finally after a lot of harassment one of the information ladies sold us a ticket and pointed to a train stating "I think this train goes to where you need to be" a very promising statement indeed! Not knowing when our stop would arrive we looked out the window at each stop, of which there seemed to be many especially as we where heading further and further away from where we had planned to be (we had been looking eagerly forward to this part of our trip for a long time now!). At one point our train (being an ever reliable form of Italian public transport) stopped in a tunnel and would not start again for a further 20minutes and all we knew was that there was a problem which we heard muttered by a passing attendant to another, yay! We travelled on and on (time seems to take slow when you don't want it to) and Sharon became more and more annoyed at the camp ground and its description of being `within the Cinque Terre.´ When we finally got to the station and were lucky enough to catch the free shuttle to our campground just in time (other wise we would have had to wait three hours), with something going finally right for us! We checked in, sorted out or stuff, cooked yet another `one pot wonder´and settled down for an early night to the sound of some young Americans who not being able to drink back at home made up for it that night... nice, thank God for ear plugs! The next day we decided to just relax and headed to the local beach, (it turned out that our camp ground was were the Italians came for their holidays away from the busy tourist area but still by a beautiful beach) and soak up the rays. It was a beautiful day we lazed around, swam in clear water in which one could see fish swimming under you, and ate ice cream. That night the heavens opened and we experienced the thunder storm of a lifetime with thunder rolling constantly around the hills on which our camp was located and every 20seconds the sky lighting up in a blaze. This continued for not most of the night and therefore was another difficult night to sleep especially since my side of the bed being wet due to Andrew despite my warnings leaving the windows of the tent unzipped and the wind blowing my side....Now I know that at times I have been known to exaggerate, however you can ask Andrew it was honestly a crazy huge storm and the biggest storm either of us had ever seen! By mid morning the storm had passed and we packed our day bag keen to head out on the famous Cinque Terre walking paths and to see the 5 cute towns that are now UNESCO world heritage sights. We hopped eagerly into a full shuttle and were dropped off at the local train station to catch a train 20Min's to begin our walk.... however this was not to be the case as the before mentioned Italian public transport once again lived up to its name and had decided that today they would be on strike and no one was going anywhere.... so instead of seeing beautiful sights we spent the day doing washing and walking along the now very empty sea front to watch the storm out at sea.

The next day we crossed our fingers and toes and headed out again for the destination that we had come to see, today we where lucky and the trains were running, hooray! However we were told that we could not walk between the towns on the well know tracks due to the weather making the tracks unstable... with our spirits slightly dampened we headed out to what turned out to be an amazing day exploring the old towns (which we travelled between by train) and swimming and eating the local produce and taking excessive amounts of pictures all of which were justified due to the beauty of the place... definitely recommend!!

That night we finally had an uninterrupted sleep and with trains actually working (thank goodness) we headed back to La Spezia to catch our bus and once again travel onwards, out of Italy and up into France, more specifically Nice.


The trip to Nice was pretty neat with our bus winding its way along the coast line at some points on the edge of high cliffs, we were able to look down upon the richness of Monaco (this is the second smallest country in the world and to be a resident one must put down 1k and then also be one of the 30 accepted that year, failing to be accepted the 1k is not returned and one must put down another 1k and try again), and tried to spot the houses of famous stars such as Elton John, Bono and Tina Turner. We arrived at our destination, tracked down our hostel and then some food and chatted to our room mates, one of which turned out to be incredibly self absorbed and incredibly annoying... and also loved to talk.... only the best combination! The next day was beautiful and sunny so Andrew and I spent the day chilling on the beach, wandering through the old town, checking out little local markets and going for a wee walk up a hill for the view. Luckily we had used this day well and to its full as the next day turned out to be miserable as it poured down with rain, and not wanting to return to our room (due to the self absorbed and annoying girl lying in bed waiting until someone would come in so she could once again complain about her terrible life and her recent break up from her `soul mate´and the nose that needs plastic surgery and how tarot readers told her that she would have health problems and so now she believes she does due to a one months stint in which she took up smoking.... and yes this does go on for another couple of hours or so) we spent the day trying to keep dry and window shopping. We spent our last night in Nice with another Kiwi couple in our room. We ate a nice dinner with them and chatted over a few drinks into the early hours of the next morning.

Venice - Rome - Florence

The narrow streets of Venice!

St Peters Basillica, Rome. some extra holy pope!
A Raphael Room in the Vatican museum
Vatican museum
Coloseum
Gothic church in Orvieto Rome
Sweet ride!!
Grape thief!!!Caught in the act!
Wine in Tuscany
Florence
Florence
Florence

Venice, a city that is sinking lower while the sea is rising, a really unique city that is totally packed with mosquito’s, people and ridiculously over priced Gondole’s.
We were staying at a camp ground 30minutes out of the city that was situated right beside the airport, like if you climbed the fence out of camp you were on the runway. But we had a tent to ourselves and the camp had a swimming pool and two Jacuzzis, very nice when it is so hot!
We spent two days here wandering around the narrow streets and along the many canals doing what all the tourists do; that is getting hopelessly lost. We invested 2.50 on a map but it was of little use due to the fact that when a street is only just over a metre wide they don’t bother putting its name on the map, and these streets comprise 50% of Venice! The first day we wandered around a part that seemed to be a haven for local artist and we checked out some amazing little galleries where you can see the artist working away in the corner, it was really neat and after being through so many markets where vendors are selling the same pieces of copied art it was refreshing to see so much genuine stuff. To combat getting lost we decided just to walk and head for nowhere in particular but end up everywhere. It worked fairly well till we tried to get back to the Piazza that the bus dropped us off at. The second day we wandered around the rest of Venice, avoiding the masses of tourists who seemed to be condensed all into a few main streets and one square. Oh yes and we must mention that we also had a few gelatos, mmmm the Italians really know how to make ice cream!

On a side note, before Venice we spent the night in Munich and as most hostels in Italy France and Spain don’t seem to have kitchens we bought a gas cooker and a saucepan. I can tell you now that after 12 meals cooked we are amazing at one-pot-wonders!!! (If your lucky we will cook some for ya when we come back). Once the meal is cooked we eat it out of the pot with for the first week our one fork and now with our one fork and one spoon. Breakfast in the first week was cornflakes in our tupperware container eaten with a fork… all good fun!

After three nights in Venice we got back on the bus and travelled all day to Rome, watching the movie Gladiator along the way, a very good movie to amp you up for Rome.
Because Rome is Rome and it has an amazing history we decided to spend some money on a walking tour. So the first day we followed a passionate Canadian Roman history graduate around the ruinous part of the city for four hours. The tour was well worth the 18 euro ticket and taught us a lot about the city and Roman history. They were some pretty crazy people, our guide stressed that Romans didn’t do anything unless it was way over the top and totally unnecessary (and also that Margarita Pizza is the best Pizza)! But they did build a huge empire that lasted a thousand years and buildings that have lasted two. Rome sits over a huge aquifer and so as you go around the city there are clean drinking fountains every second corner, great as it is prone to being a little warm. Mussolini did a lot of work in excavating the ruins of Rome and trying to get back a piece of what Rome used to be, he also passed legislation that made all cats of Rome Roman citizens, this means that they are even allowed to vote!?! Rome is the centre of Catholicism and has 900 churches with most of them being ornate marble master pieces, but the Pope went a bit crazy consecrating things so now apparently the Coliseum is consecrated as a catholic church!?!
The third day we made our way to Vatican city the smallest sovereign country in the world about 1 square km. We finally relented to standing in a queue and waited to get in to the Vatican Museums that hold a lot of pillaged Egyptian art pieces and the paintings of Raphael and many other significant Renaissance artists. The art works were amazing and the museum had a great progression leading finally to the grand finale, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. It is definitely a must see! The pieces from it that we see all the time are actually really small and look very different amongst all of the other works, it was amazing and really indescribable. Leaving the chapel and the museum we were a bit numb and brain tired from all the art but still had to go and visit St Peters Basilica. This is the church that has been built over the tomb of the Apostle Peter “You are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) It has the largest interior of any church in the world and also was amazing!

After Rome we headed off to Florence, stopping along the way to visit a little township called Orvieto situated on top of a sheer cliff face only accessible by a cable car. This cute little village along with its good views, cute local art and cobbled streets also had the most impressive Gothic style church we had seen to date, a very nice stop!
We were told that after the busyness of Rome it was nice to be in Florence for a slower pace of life, appealing to hear but as we were soon to find out this was not the case….
To describe Florence I would like to quote Lonely Planet which we found very truthful of our experience; ‘Florence has a strange effect on visitors. Travellers who normally loathe art galleries queue for hours to get into them, and people with no interest in Renaissance architecture start raving about tiered facades and frescoed apses. But break the spell and you’ll find that Florence can be disheartening. Much of the centre has been surrendered to tourism and in the summer heat, pollution and crowds can be stifling’… That said, looking at all the old buildings whilst trying to forget the rest you could see that it was a very pretty city. Another saving grace of Florence ended up being our little hostel, and by little I mean only 20 beds in the whole place! The girls who worked there were so lovely you felt that you wanted to do something for them and all the other guests were helpful and loved to chat…sometimes a little too much, but mostly this was nice. Only having two days in Florence we spent our first checking out the city and the second we splashed out for a wine tour in the surrounding Tuscany area. The wine tour was great we first went to a little farm and the owners brought us out all homemade food and wine for a huge brunch (reminded me a little of Nikau cave before the café) then we walked a little way to look at their goats (cheese) olives (oil) and grapes (wine). We headed off very, very full further into the country side with our bus driver having the tricky task of navigating a huge bus full of people up little country roads, we were all very impressed! We arrived at a very expensive winery and were guided through the wine making process and at the end we were able to drink three different kinds of their wine, one of which was called ‘holy wine’ as this is what the priests drink at Christmas, WOW ha! Very sleepy we all headed off to our last stop which was an old fortress to wander through the little town and eat Gelato Ice Cream, and then back home… a very good day with good company and good food and wine! Andrew and I finished off our day with a trip up a hill over looking the city to watch the beautiful sunset and a stroll back to the hostel for a light dinner as still full from the brunch!

Police baffled as dozens of 'suicidal' cows throw themselves off cliff in the Alps

This happened while we were in Lauterbrunnen, amusing but very unfortunate for the farmer . Read on... (article taken from the internet)

Police baffled as dozens of 'suicidal' cows throw themselves off cliff in the Alps

In the picturesque Swiss village of Lauterbrunnen the locals are worried.
Dozens of alpine cows appear to be committing suicide by throwing themselves off a cliff near the small village in the Alps.
In the space of just three days 28 cows and bulls have mysteriously died after they plunged hundreds of metres to rocks below where they were killed instantly.
In each case local mountain rescue services using a helicopter had to be called in to remove the bodies because of the danger to the local groundwater of pollution.
A police spokesman said: 'There are no large carnivores living in the Alps anymore who would once have disposed of the bodies so they have to be moved.
'We are investigating because cows growing up in the mountains normally can estimate dangers and do not plunge down cliffs.'

According to local reports there had been violent thunderstorms in the area which may well have have spooked the animals.
Cows wandering at high altitude are a common sight across much of the Alps, where farmers let them loose to graze on the green plateaus above the villages.
Often carrying large bells around their necks, most are dairy cows as the mix of vegetation and grasses at that high altitude are particularly good for milk and for making cheese.
Cows do occasionally fall to their deaths in these Alpine regions although it is rare for so many to fall in one particular place.
There has been speculation in the past that when this does happen it is because a tightly-grouped number of cows have followed each other as they search for more grass.

Most scientists generally believe that animals are incapable of committing suicide.