Journeys and destinations

My bucket list dream since I was a young student was to go to big lavender fields in France or anywhere really. So today we took a road trip around the area to find any fields that has not been harvested yet. We are a bit late in the season as they started about 2 weeks ago- early to mid July. We did manage to get a few photos just before they harvested the last of the fields in the area, today. I feel very blessed to be here and to smell the heavenly smell.

We went to the Abbey in Gordes- Abbaye de Sénanque, to get the next photos. We were so blessed to get a parking space amidst many other tourists doing the same thing. And I did buy something at the shop. It is full of lavender products! The roads are scary as it is narrow, winding, hill roads – Thank you to my wonderful husband who braved it on the wrong side of the road in these conditions to get me there! Thankful also for aircon in 36 deg. My advise come in mid June and stay much longer than 2 days!!

We had to drive through the town of Gordes but luckily google took us on the scenic route into little lanes away from the rest of the tourist drivers. So we got nice views of things.

The start to this day was very challenging but ended on a very high note. We left Nice in the morning by train to Aix-en-Provence normally a 3 hour trip. When we were a half hour away from Marseille where we had to get the connecting train, our train broke and they stopped in the middle of “nowhere” and we didn’t understand the french announcements, Ernest caught a bit on voice recording and translated that there was a brake failure. We sat in 40 deg in a very old train without aircon for 50 min until they fixed the problem. Is this possible! We missed the connecting train and had to get new tickets for the next train to Aix. They were very helpful and friendly and off we went to Aix en Provence in a TGV train. We then rented a car at Budget rentals(very nice people) and the next adventure began, for Ernest had to drive on the right hand side of the road. I had a knot in my stomach but co-piloted until we got to Bonnieux in the Provence mountains just after 5pm. What a beautiful place! And beautiful drive up there. We had hamburgers and cold drinks, and a stunning view, to sooth our weary bodies and nerves! Also the best hamburger I’ve had in years. We ate at the restaurant Brasserie Les Terrasses.

The heat is extreme and there are Cicadas all over Provence loudly proclaiming and, I think, enjoying it. They are the symbol of Provence found on many products. Thus the name of the beer.

The hill towns are all picturesque and also the landscape around it. Lots of little restaurants.

This is such a lovely shop: Bloom in Bonnieux. The owner is selling flowers and plants and a few lavender products. She has lovely and interesting plants and bouquets and was very friendly.

I’m happy to have seen many sunflower fields but all too difficult to stop for photos.

Wow what a fabulous place. This outing was all for the men and what a success! Just walking around the casino, and all their car spotting is satisfied for the next however long it takes… I also enjoyed all the beautiful cars, so many in such a small place and lovely buildings, harbour, sea and shops.

One would think that super cars only come in red, but wait there’s more…

The tunnel that is part of the Formula 1 race track. And appropriate noise to accompany it.

Ryan’s favourite: McLaren and Ferari

And Ernest’s fav- BMW- Z8 The same as the one that was cut in half in Bond- The world is not enough.

So there is more to this place than cars- shopping! We will just look-not go in. Oh and yachts! We bought a sandwich at Carrefour, the regular groceries store, and sat and ate it in a world class garden opposite the casino.

It was like a breath of fresh air to land in Nice on the French riviera after Rome. What a beautiful place. No wonder people have been flocking here for hundreds of years. I love the sea and it was wonderful to swim here. I’m not sure if I imagine it, but it seems more salty.. The only challenge is to get into the water. If you’ve been on a pebble beach you will know how much it hurts your feet- no silky soft sand, to walk into the water like a goddess, just ouwch and grimacing and embarrassingly falling into the water. I am soo glad I took my lovely crocs sandals because it took me right to the water, but didn’t help going in as you sink into the mixed size pebbles and the little rocks goes in between your feet, toes and sandals- that’s even worse. The people here knows how to deal with it and wears the nicest water shoes. There are plastic and foam type rubber swim shoes similar to what I’ve seen in Australia, or you just come here so often that your feet are as tough as nails and it doesn’t matter. Speaking of tough, some peoples’ skin looks like leather from all the sun exposure, not a nice sight. We had a relaxing time here and liked Nice very much, like a holiday on holiday.

Once again a lovely sports car for the men.

Not a good start to Rome with our accomodation in a not such nice neighbourhood, but it has aircon and is comfortable and a have good host. I would have had a bad impression of Rome if we didn’t take a long walk through many places and yes there are beautiful places in Rome. The underground freaks me out and it felt like I was back in South Africa having to guard your stuff and being on alert the whole time. Being squished in like sardines makes it worse, it is crazy. We enjoyed walking above ground much better and the trams were also good.

Amelia took a fantastic ballet class in Rome at IALS Centro di danza. They were very accomodating and not expensive. I couldn’t take photos. It was an adult open class with many ex- professional dancers and a brilliant teacher: Giancarlo Stiscia.

The Colosseum is colossal. Once again we booked online and walked right in after we went through security which went fast. It was again a hot day but there were a few clouds and a breeze which made it bearable.

There are so many things to see in Rome but we could only scratch the surface with one day to sightsee and tired from walking. Glad we pushed ourselves a bit.

The Spanish steps. If you have seen the movie: A Roman holiday with Audrey Hepburn You’ll know what Amelia is pretending to hold. No its not a microphone.

The kids didn’t wear their back packs in Rome just to ease our minds, so no point shoe photos, but we couldn’t resist to sneak this photo.

And now for the real thing, because you can’t leave Italy or Rome without a Gelato- mmm Buonissimo.

I am so glad we made the decision to take a taxi up to this high point in the city. The best money spent and the best view with an added little bonus- Benedictine monks doing their Vespers prayers in the crypt with the amazing acoustics of this “little” church. This is at the San Miniato al Monte abbey church. The little shop they run has a few unique items and was hard to resist buying stuff.

Every European city has their church, cathedral or Basilica, the next photo is of Florence’s Duomo, the cherry on the cake, so far I think. Florance’s Duomo is exceptionally beautiful with it’s pink, white and green marble patterns and gold mosaic art. It can’t really be admired on photos. The dome is huge and makes you admire the architects and builders and artisans who worked on it for hundreds of years.

There are lots of cute little cars and scooters- really necessary in the crazy narrow roads of Florance. I also love the shutters on the windows.

This bridge: The Ponte Vecchio is close to the Uffizi museum.

We went to the Uffizi museum, we didn’t have enough time to visit other places. We followed advice and booked online- it is a timed entrance and was very quick to get in. There were lots of people inside but not too crowded. We enjoyed it, but was very footsore and tired after this. We tried to find the animals in the paintings there were a lot. I include a few cute ones.

You can’t be an hours drive by train from Pisa and not go there! Did I mention how hot it was in Florance and Venice. It was the whole time between 34 and 36 and humid- permanently sweaty! We are ready to enjoy a cool Perth winter! We did not enjoy the heat and especially not the mentality of NO sitting place. I’m exaggerating there are a few benches but not nearly enough. People would just sit on the pavement etc. Grass are out of bounds. We found this in many places in Italy – I think it is on purpose to lure you into cafes and restaurants to make more money off the tourists. Most of the time we would take sandwiches and pop a bag of popcorn in the microwave and take it with us. So we didn’t get to sit down much. Pisa was a terribly crowded place, but everyone tries to give one-another space to get THE PHOTO.

Full speed ahead to Florence from Venice on the high-speed train. So comfortable! Now it’s off to Rome.

I think I’m in heaven, I have to pinch myself to see if this is real, yes it is, the crowds reminds you of it. Venice is a magical and awesome place, it bombards all your senses. It is vibrant and busy and peaceful at the same time in different locations. The photos always looks so serene, early in the morning it is, but a lot of the time shot in gaps between people. There are quiet places off the beaten track with little alleys that ends at a canal and then the beauty and peace settles on you. I love Venice! I have many favourite places from our travels and this is one of them. I feel very blessed to be able to be here. Glad we stayed 3 days to rest and recharge again, there is so much to see one should stay longer.

We took the Vaporetti nr1 – the canal Taxi /boat that goes down the Grand canal to St Marks square. This boat stops at all the little stops and takes longer which is nice so you get to admire everything and get more chances for taking photos. We went early, walked on the boat and it was comfortably full, just after lunch when we came back there were long lines waiting to get on and the other boats were packed like sardines!Not comfortable. I think maybe weekends are busier, even though it is also prime holiday season.

We are in a great airbnb: first things first, there are aircon in every room- you need it, because it is HOT and humid. Brisbane friends will feel right at home. We change clothes when we get back home wash and hang it on this scary line- I DON’T like heights. We’re on the top floor and you have to hang over the edge of the window. The view over the roofs are lovely. I love the church bells that ring at certain times.

We took a gondola ride early the morning first thing, when it was still cooler- before all the other tourists arrive and it was incredibly peaceful.

And again some beautiful ballet photos!

Last and the most important are these little creatures: Venice -City of dogs

There are so many little dogs here and they are all very well trained. Ps. the owners pick up after you know.

Habakuk 2:14. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the see.

We got so busy with traveling that my Zurich photos haven’t been posted yet. We were there for only a couple of hours while traveling through to the Alps, but still enjoyed the beauty of the river and city, our main objective was to let the men do super-car spotting. There was a number of nice and expensive cars that they could enjoy. Amelia also got a very nice ballet leotard at a ballet shop that had a sale on. We put our bags in a locker at the station and payed 9 Swiss franc. We loved the Swiss chocolates- we bought a variety at the grocery stores and even the cheap ones are great.

Statue of Ulrich Zwingli who led the Protestant reformation in Switserland.

What a fabulous day in Wien. A beautiful Summers day. We only had a day to do sightseeing as we were taking the sleeper/night train at 9pm from Vienna to Venice. We put our luggage in the lockers at the train station and it was soo much cheaper than Zurich! All 4 Suitcases in the biggest locker for E4.50. We already bought the 24h day travel tickets the day before and just validated them when we started using the first public transport- this is a very convenient ticket as you can use any public transport. I enjoyed the trams very much. Vienna is a very clean and pretty city and we enjoyed our sight-seeing and topping our steps for this holiday so far on 21 ooo steps! We were dead tired after the day.

First up we went to Schonbrunn palace but didn’t go in, only looked at the gardens. Next time I’ll want to see inside. Another visit for a future trip. We went to another free organ concert in St Peter cathedral. The cathedral was amazing but the music didn’t suit my taste in organ works- it was more weird modern stuff- to be fair there was a more traditional piece also. This is a nice way that we get to sit and rest for 30 to 60 min in a very nice atmosphere. We just google in every city for free concerts and see if we can make it.

Ryan liked this two-faced sculpture in the Schonbrunn gardens. It is Janus, the god of doorways and arches, holding back Bellona a deity of war and battle.

We also had cake and coffee at the Klimt cafe and decided to use our birthday moneys to treat ourselves to a horse-drawn coach ride- This was soo nice and exciting for our former horseriding Amelia. We saw a lot of the inner city this way and again rested our legs, although not a cheap way to rest your legs. That’s why there are such nice parks. We went to the City park with the golden statue of Johann Strauss.

We also did a tram ride and got off at the Danube river Canal which is a channelled arm of the river in the city and joins the river again down stream. This is an interesting part of the city where everywhere you look there are graffiti on the walls and young people enjoy hanging out there. Lots of deck chairs in-front of lots of little restaurants. It’s a recreational area with lots of joggers, cyclists and walkers. I was freaked out by people sitting on the edge and picnic, as it is a high wall and a fast flowing river. You know the mom in me.

Nice tram ride! We were trying out this ice tea which is sold everywhere. It was sweet and had a nice flavour.

Pick up your dog’s mess or face a fine.

This is an artist’s sculptures based on a medieval painting of a hare. The painting of the hare is displayed in the Albertina museum.

We thought this is such a cute idea, growing food in a shopping trolley- It is part of a restaurant’s decor next to the river.

Johan Strauss in Gold and a cute little coffee van to serve the hordes of people taking photos. We were almost tempted but had spent too much money already on cake and coffee earlier.

Tiny oreos in a Milka chocolate.

If you grew up in South Africa in the 80’s you will remember the T.V. Series of Heidi. I loved it and so did my kids when we watched the dvd’s some years ago. We wanted to see the environment where Johanna Spyri lived and was inspired by to write the Heidi books.

Maienfeld is a beautiful, little, old village with mountains around. To reach the Heidi village it was a half hour walk from Maienfeld and uphill again what’s new? We saved the money by not going into the little museum and house, but enjoyed the nature around and bought nice local sweet breads which was very expensive.

Amelia did a few ballet photos, it is such a beautiful environment, and Ryan made once again a rock stack- very impressive.

It is berry and cherry season in Switzerland and Germany and I am loving it! I loved Switzerland with it’s beautiful houses, nature and mountains. I will be back one day!