Can't wait to read the rest!

Yes, aussiedreamer, don't stop there. I want to hear more!

From another Aussie traveller.

Kay
(Just a thought - if the whole 3.5 months trip report is a bit daunting, why not just give us the bare bones and we can all ask questions?)

Hi Kay, yeah I thought of that. But its as much for me as for fellow foderites. But I will keep it 'brief'.

I've been looking forward to your report. Can't wait for more!

Me too! Just keep plugging away and we'll keep reading.

Glad you have decided to write this report!

Ok, so the first night we just walked to and along Earls Crt rd. Great place to base, has everything we need and really handy for the tube.

Slept well, considering time difference. After buying our Oyster cards we headed off to Portobello Rd & Camden Markets. Anyone hesitating wether to use public transport in London, don't, we got our cards at a local news stand and we were ready to go. Its so easy and so convienent. Had a great lunch at Camden Markets. So much to chose from, we had a mixture of Indian, Italian & mexican. All enjoyed on the 'converted vespers' by the edge of the river. Such a lovely day, we just enjoyed wandering around the markets with DD#1 & her 'fella'. Dinner was take away Indian from Earls crt rd, in our little garden at the apartment.
The 'kids' went back to their apartment the next day, they have settled in beautifully in Canary Wharf. We decided we needed a walking day & as we have been to London a few times we didn't need to race around and see the usual 'stuff', plus we had a 'visitor' coming in a few days that had not been before, so we knew we would be covering some of the same ground.

We walked to Hyde Park, what fun. We spent hours just wandering in all different directions, it was a beautiful day. We saw Kensington Palace, Dianna’s memorial, Peter Pan Statue etc etc. Found ourselves at Marble Arch for lunch and enjoyed a lovely sandwich from Pret a Manger (my fav' sandwich shop in London) sitting in the park. That evening we got the Tube to Tower Hill, then the DLR to Canary Wharf. Just great to see where our daughter is living, a very cute apartment. We had a drink at the Cat & Canary & dinner at the Spanish place over there, La Tasca, a chain place but very nice. Dlr & tube' home'. Just a great day.

Next day we had to go out to Heathrow & 'pickup' Dh's auntie. She was suddenly widowed early in the year and we suggested she should come 'visit' us on our holiday. We were so excited when she said yes. She is a very fit and active 60yr old & a lovely lovely person. Keep in mind she has never left Australia before. So in the morning we headed to the Borough Markets. You will pick up in this report that we like food and one of the things I researched over and over where the Grilled cheese Sandwiches at Kappacasein. boroughmarket.org.uk/page/3031/Kappacasein/58 Woh. Everything I read about, Dh had the Swiss raclette & I had the best grilled cheese sandwich ever. Just perfect. We wandered around the fantastic market and picked up a Strudel & Portuguese tarts for desert that night.

We tubed out to Heathrow and met AuntJ, she was so excited, the photo I have of her smiling and waving as she came through customs is priceless. And the smile never left her face for the next two weeks. We made our way back to the apartment on the tube and had a wonderful dinner of Salmon, salad and chardonnay, which we purchased from our local Tesco. Love that supermarket.
Another wonderful day in London.

This is actually fun, I hope I can keep it up

The next day we all decided that AuntJ would really benefit from the open top bus tour. We'd done it our first trip and found for us it was a perfect way to 'get our bearings'. So we walked to Gloucester Rd and off we went. It really is fun and really informative; we had no problem doing it again. We got off at Marble Arch for lunch at Pret a Manger, love their crayfish and rocket sandwich. She loved it all and as you will see gave her such a great overview that she was more than happy to go exploring on her own. This time we even used the included river cruise. Fantastic, it took us all the way to Canary Wharf and again really informative. In fact the young guy doing the commentary was hilarious. We opted for the fast boat back to Tower Hill and tubed home.

The 'kids' came for dinner and we all sat in the garden for hours catching up with auntJ and reminiscing with great family stories. DD said later she enjoyed it so much, hearing silly little stories about her Great Uncle & grandparents. I think auntJ thoroughly enjoy it............quite a bit of chardy' was consumed and much laughter ensued.

We also organised tickets that night for DD & auntJ to go and see Sister Act with Whoopie Goldberg before she went home. I would have loved it but was not going to be in London at that time. They said later it was fantastic, both of them were singing and dancing in the aisles!

I am looking forward to reading more. Thanks for sharing.

hi AD,

great start.

looking forward to more...much more.

This is awesome, please keep it up!

I am so enjoying reading this - thank you ever so much.
Looking forward to the ongoing tale - it has been a terrible wet and stormy night here in SA so it is good to read such things.

This is wonderful and brings back happy memories of travelling to London for a friend's wedding. Also love that you kept up the Aussie tradition of staying at Earls Court!

I'm along for the ride as well, did enjoy all your pre-trip posts and am loving the report. We are off to London in May - luckily will just miss THE wedding. And I will be seeking out those cheese toasties at the markets, you can bet on that!

love_travel_Aus, wish we had some of that rain here in WA.

Thanks one & all for the kind words, as you know it helps to keep you going on a TR. So much appreciated.

Love_travel_Aus.................also still raining in Qld, bit over it really.
rcw.....ha ha we Aussies do like Earls Crt.

AuntJ set off the next day on her own, she wanted to ride the eye, go to the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey, all of which we had previously done. So happy for her, she set off with her tube map and a massive smile on her face. We’d all decided to go to the theatre and see the play Prisoner of 2nd Avenue with Jeff Goldblum and Mercedes Ruehl. So DH & I headed out to get the tickets. Apparently we were not the only ones to make our way to the Old Vic to find out it was on at The Vaudville. No problem, hopped on a bus and off we went to the Strand. Got the tickets and then walked to Trafalgar Square and people watched for an hour or so. Have I mentioned how great the weather was?
Had lunch in a pub, fish, chips & mushy peas, can’t get more English than that hey? Decided to catch a bus back as we were a little tired and enjoyed the scenery and people watching from the top deck of the bus.
Had a great little dinner at Paradiso Inferno on the Strand. We all opted for the set pre theatre menu. Crayfish salad to start & they both had Chicken in Mushroom sauce, I opted for pork in Napoli sauce. Perfect and all for £61 including a bottle of wine. www.paradisoeinferno.co.uk

The play was fantastic, really good. The only complaint was the terribly uncomfortable seats, and the theatre was so hot. But we managed a champagne and later an ice-cream! AuntJ was so thrilled with the whole night, such fun.


The next day was to be a ‘girly’ day I had organized from home. But first we headed off to the Earls crt Tavern to meet the ‘kids’ & have a full English breakfast. Then Dd, AuntJ & I made our way to Oxford Street for some retail therapy. Spent a couple of hours browsing & shopping, then we hopped into a cab (we had to do this at least once & we all loved it) and made our way to the Langham for a High Tea. It was ridiculously expensive but we all agreed it would be lovely and it was. We spent a couple of hours chatting and grazing on lovely sandwiches & cakes. AuntJ had a little sad moment when the piano player played ‘their’ song, but she said it actually added to the atmosphere and made it even more special. Told you she was lovely.
Tubed to Harrods & met up with DH who had spent the day walking around, he reckons he probably walked 30kms. We all tubed to Tower Hill and got the DLR out to Canary wharf again, auntJ wanted to see where the kids were living. Had dinner again at La Tasca. (it was free this time, the waitress had spilt and broken a glass over DD last time & as they were regulars the manger saw them and said this ones on me....nice one.)
Went home exhausted but so happy with another great day.

Hey Maudie, just noticed your post. I see WA is about the only dry place to be in Aus. at the moment. Believe it or not we are going back to the UK in May! But I'll mention that more at the end........... the end seems so far off right now

This is great to read aussiedreamer. Australians have such a great, open and positive attitude to life and travel. I didn't notice it so much until we had lived overseas for nearly 5 years. Now we are back home we are grateful for all we have.

Kay

Sorry you can't get any rain Maudie - just sent my husband to Perth this morning - hope he can take some with him - we are over it as well.

Earl's Court was where we stayed for a very short 3 day London visit in September this year.
Found it to be a good location, but sadly our 'girls' day' that my daughter and I had planned (husband was away working) never happened as she became quite ill on day 3 and we missed our lunch and show.
Still she recovered in time to fly to Switzerland and all went well from then on.
We stayed at the K and K St George in Earls' Court as it was such a short stay and this turned out to be a good hotel for such a brief stay.
I have only had two short visits to London (after lots up until the late 1990's) in the last two years - went off it for a bit - but it is growing on me again - and thanks to your trip report I may well head back and renew the relationship!

• So the next day AuntJ & Dh decided they both wanted to go to Madame Tussuards. It has never appealed to me so off they went. They used the bus ticket from earlier on to get discounted tickets & to bypass the long lines. So I had a go slow morning and then made my way to Victoria Station. Just wandered around amazed at the sites and the wonderful weather. We'd all decided to meet at the Queen Victoria fountain at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards.

Got a great spot by the fountain & DD arrived just in time; AuntJ & Dh had a ball at Madame Tussuards, and also were at the fountain. Had a great chat to a young mum from Hull, she was saying how long it had taken her to get to London. She had a little chuckle when we told her where we were from! Everyone enjoyed the 'show'.

We then ambled our way along Green Park, through Knightsbridge and onto Harrods. We had a great lunch at the Pizzeria & then spent an hour or so window shopping. Although we all bought a little something at the gift shop. So iconic.

Got the #74 back to Earls Court. Public transport is such a good way to see a place & with the Oyster cards it’s just too easy. Dinner was a simple chicken & salad, again eaten in the garden, loving this great weather.

Tomorrow we are off on a 'little' road trip.

Wonderful, great, reading, Aussie!! Thank you. I love new and old details of the greatest city in the world!!
You sure did a LOAD of walking! And I agree about those Pret a manger sandwiches (and flapjacks).

Hi Aussie, are you really going back to soon, wow! Well it seems pretty close to us as we are trying to get the bank balance up before we go! We will be in the UK for almost 5 weeks and 4 days in Paris.

love_travel - so far your hubby hasn't come through with the rain, no sign of it even for the coming week but thanks for the kind thought

Really enjoying this TR, I love reading all the day to day stuff, makes me feel like I am there with you.


But this TR is cheering me up

mmm ... never heard the verb "to tube" before!

nice report though.

Glad you guys are enjoying, I'm actually having fun writing it. Except I have just realized I've missed a day agghhh.

So the day before the Changing of the Guards was a slow day. More wandering, although having re-read my journal we walked around Leicester Square & surrounds for 3.5 hours! We had a lovely evening with dinner at an Italian place in Convent Gardens and went and saw Oliver. What an absolute joy. Right up there with one of my fav' shows ever. AuntJ & I sat there with huge smiles, fantastic show.

The last day in London & our Road Trip.

We decided we wanted to offer to show AuntJ & DD a bit more of 'England', so we offered to take them for a 'little' drive. DH & I had done a 6 week driving trip of the UK in 2008. DD came over nice & early and off we went. Dh had picked up a hire car from close by. We headed to Windsor first; we knew auntJ would love to see the castle. DD had seen it with us on a trip quite a few years ago. So after a nice easy drive out of London we arrived in Windsor just before the Castle opened for the day. AuntJ went in by herself, seemed silly to do it again. She LOVED it.

We just took a walk around the lovely village and had a late breakfast. I won’t bother to tell you too much about it as it was expensive and not very good. It was at the Harte & Garter.

AuntJ came out just in time for us all to watch the changing of the guard. Timed beautifully with a gentle rain that started to fall just as it finished. So back to the car we went to find a little 'surprise' on our windscreen. Yep, 2 minutes late and he was booking us. And there was no talking him out of it. Grrrr £25. Lesson learnt.

Stonehenge was the next stop. DD had not been here either so the two of them went in. We walked and walked. Lovely though, we walked around the fence line then back through the car park and up the hill. Great views but really windy.

Onto Stratford Upon Avon, great drive and thanks to our Satnav we had a detour off motorways and through some pretty villages.

AuntJ & DD toured the Birthplace & New Place and loved it all. Again as we had done it, we just walked around. (Are you sensing a theme here? This part of the trip for us was ensuring that AuntJ had a great time & catching up with DD) When the ladies finished we all took a walk by the river and took some lovely photos of the statues around the river and park.

Had a great early dinner at the Garrick pub, lamb shanks for some & fish n chips for the others. Another lovely meal with lots of laughs. We had a nice drive back and decided we would take DD home to Canary Wharf (didn't like the thought of her having to catch the tube and the Dlr). It was great, dropped her off and came back through London via the river, what a great drive & we all enjoyed seeing London at night.

Dropped the car off and slept like babies. Off to Paris tomorrow.

Hi aussiedreamer - this is great! Keep it going please!! We too had a lovely lunch at the Borough Market, hmmmm if my memory serves me correctly, I think I might have been the one to suggest it to you when you were planning your trip.

Hi cathies if so THANKYOU glad you are enjoying.

I’m back. Christmas pudding steaming away nicely, pressies under the tree, company weekend done, so will try and get some more done before we start our road trip to Melbourne for Christmas.
The next day we ‘schlepped’ our luggage to Earls Court station and head for St Pancras. Couldn’t have been easier, except for sore arms from dragging bags. Easy check in for Eurostar, the staff were just lovely, so friendly. Train ride to Paris was pleasant & uneventful. We’d bought first class seats knowing that AuntJ would enjoy, and she sure did.
On arrival we were really pleased we’d printed out ‘how to’ purchase a carnet of 10 tickets and instructions from the landlord on how to reach the apartment in the 15th on the #42 bus. Too easy, bought our tickets & found our way to the bus stop. As the #42 originates from Gare du Nord it was very easy to get our suitcases on and get seats. What a wonderful way for AuntJ to arrive, we had been before but this bus route passes so many of the major attractions her face was glued to the window the whole way. Took about 45 -50 minutes.
We rented the apartment direct from the owner www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p412345 really easy to deal with, had a ‘few’ problems re bank cheques etc. But we worked it out and he was very patient. It was in a very residential area in the 15th and perfect for us, even had views of the Eiffel tower from the bedroom windows. The supermarket on the ground floor was a godsend. And finding the restaurant that I researched about at home, La Cave de l'Os a Moelle was on the very next block was just wonderful, more on that later!!!!!
The first night we had dinner ‘in’ with all supplies bought down stairs inc wine. So we just settled in and managed to be in the bedrooms a few times to view the light show on the tower.
When we woke in the morning DH was not too well. Just a tummy bug, but certainly did not feel like going out. So AuntJ & I headed off on our own. Funny how things work out, I tend to leave the day to day organisation to DH and go with the flow, letting him work out all the logistics. So I was very excited to be AuntJ’s ‘tour guide’.
We got back on the #42 and headed to Champs de Mars. Had a lovely walk around the Eiffel Tower and surrounding areas. We then wandered over to Avenue de la Bourdonnais, which I remembered from our previous visit. Found a lovely cafe on the crn of Rue de Monttessuy (the one with the yellow awning) & used what were to be my favourite 3 phrases for the next month or so in France (bonjour, Parlez-vous anglais & merci) to order tarts & coffee. WOH! All that I remembered, we chose Raspberry & Strawberry tarts & coffee. They were served on beautiful big plates with raspberry coulis and garnishes, just beautiful. For us a quintessential Paris experience. A lady came around the corner and in perfect English, commented how lovely it looked and offered to take our photo. Yes please, it’s now one of my favourite photos of Paris.
We dragged ourselves away and walked towards École Militaire then on to Invalides. AuntJ didn’t want to go in, but we walked all around the beautiful gardens and the grounds. We then carried on walking towards the river, crossing at the beautiful Pont Alexandre III toward Champs Elysees. We walked a fair way down but we were both getting very tired, so we used some of our Metro tickets and caught the bus back to Lourmel, grabbing a quick baguette on the way.
DH still not great, so we decided to go to a local bistro for dinner. Le Buron Bistro which was very close to the apartment. AuntJ had the plat de jour which was fish, I had a lovely ‘alpine’ salad, Jamon, melon, tomato & mozzarella, poor DH wasn’t on top of his game and ‘accidently’ ordered kidneys. Not being a fan of offal, he really struggled and had to give up. It was a very funny evening and a wonderful first day in Paris, for AuntJ & I.

Hi Aussie, great to find another "episode" to read. We too will be going to Paris on the Eurostar and I am taking all this on board as it will be our first time. Sounds like I had better print out those carnet instructions too! Poor hubby.

This is awesome . Keep it going!

Maudie it was so easy to kinda 'know' what to do. thanks caucine for keeping me inspired to keep going.

The next day we bought a heap of lovely fresh fruit & veg from the street market just outside our building. Then headed to la grande Epicerie de Paris in the 6th I believe. WOH WOH WOH. What a wonderful foodie heaven. Spent ages just wandering, ended up buying baguettes, ham, macarons for lunch & a rolled pork roast for dinner. We love having an apartment. We strolled through some of the great shops around the area and headed back for lunch. DH does what he does best and wandered off and found a wonderful patisserie and got fantastic deserts, mine was a small glass cup with choc mouse, raspberries and topped with a raspberry macaron, AuntJ’s was a Strawberry tart & Dh’s was a strawberry sponge. WOH.
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The following morning we found our way to Sacre Coeur via the Moulin Rouge area (not impressed with that all). Had a walk around then headed up the million or so stairs to the top of the hill. Ok, so its not a million, but in the heat it sure felt like it had a good look around the artist market up there and the basilica. Had a drink in the Irish pub and people watched for a while. It was very busy!
Walked back down the hill and found our way to Notre Dame. We were so hot & tired and could not work out which bus to catch so jumped on one going to Gare du Nord and caught the #42 again. The long way round for sure, but not a problem, we all enjoyed it. Left over’s and an early night.
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Caught the #42 again the next day and got off at the Concorde end of Champs Elysees and strolled up to the Arc de Triomphe. A quick bite to eat and we left AuntJ to wander and explore (she was very confident on how to get back to the apartment, thanks to the #42 bus) and we headed off to collect our car. We leased it through Peugeot for 3 months, ended up being wonderful. It was a Peugeot 308 touring wagon c/w glass roof, not a sun roof, but a full glass roof. Interesting drive back to apartment, a few wrong turns but great fun. Got back to apartment and all took a long walk around our local area, picked up a lasagne and salad for dinner. We decided to drive to Gare du Nord to pick up DD#1 & her BF who were coming to spend the weekend with us. They were so happy to see us, saved them from getting public transport. And we all enjoyed the night time drive through Paris. Especially the 2 or 3 times we drove around the Arc de Triomphe (just cause we could).
Lovely to see them again. Day trip to Versailles tomorrow.

i love the reports, thanks!

Oh don't say that - we have booked an apartment right next to the Moulin Rouge! Yikes!

Which site did you print off the details for the carnet - there are so many of them when I googled it?

Looking forward to hearing about Versailles - we can't decide about that or Monet's Garden.

Thats interesting maudie 'cause we 'did' Versailles but we also called into Monet's garden, although did not actually tour it. I'll get to Versailles today, promise.
As for Carnet I got the info off a fellow foderite, I will try to find for you.

Thanks norrisken.

Thanks aussie, that would be great. We don't normally do tours but there is one that does both on the same day. I know you wouldn't get much time in either place but might be our only chance to see them. Hmm too many decisions!

So we drove out to Versailles, lovely drive enjoyed it all. The first sighting of the Palace is pretty amazing, its huge. Just as a side note, we’d read in our Rick Steves book not to visit on a Tuesday & especially a Tuesday in August AND to buy tickets before leaving Paris. So we read all that & still drove out there on a Tuesday in August without tickets!!!!

Parked in the public carpark & after much confusion & thanks to a lovely French couple, we worked out parking is free in August, yay. Line up for tickets took nearly an hour and the line to enter the palace through security took 40minutes. Yikes. It was our own fault so we just went with it. The palace interior is pretty amazing, but the crowds were nearly unbearable. The gardens on the other hand were stunning, it was a beautiful day, albeit a bit warm, but the gardens were unbelievable. We spent ages just wandering and taking photos. The crowds weren’t a problem at all outside.

We walked over to Marie Antionettes estate, probably enjoyed that more than the palace. Had a lovely icecream by the lake and walked some more. By the time we got back to the car we were ‘shattered’, we’d literally walked for hours. (see thats why I can enjoy all the pastries in France, I walk it off )

Had a lovely home made prawn fettucine and more delicious pastries for dinner.
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DD & BF went exploring the next day, we took it easy & sorted out & packed ready for departure the next day. Dh drove us to Rue de Commerce later in the day where we met up with the ‘kids’ and did a little shopping. Made a roast for dinner then we all went for a drive over to the Eiffel Tower after dark and sat on the lawn for a last look . Such fun, a beautiful balmy evening & lots of people doing the same thing.

Tomorrow we start our driving portion of the trip, about 3.5 weeks just driving with no plans. DD, Bf & AuntJ all head back to London, where AuntJ will start a coach tour of Europe for two weeks. We didn’t see her again, but her & DD caught up for the theatre & dinner before she flew home to Australia. She had a great time on her bus tour, met lots of new people and loved everthing.

( Should I continue with this thread or break it into sections? Say a driving France portion, Italy etc. Or just keep adding to this? )

Oh this is a lovely read, Aussiedreamer.
Thoroughly enjoying it, thank you.

My 2 cents: Keep going on this thread

Keep posting here please. Sounds like you had an awesome time in Paris and didn't try to do too much.

I am really looking forward to those pastries, oh er yeah and all the walking!!

Thanks so much Bokhara2.

So the next day the others all headed off (after a very tearful farewell) on the #42 bus to Gare du Nord for their trip back to London.

We headed off with no real destination in mind. But we put in Giverny to have a look at Monets Garden. We enjoyed the drive a lot we had a walk around the outside of the gardens, but the line was so long & we both decided that after Versailles we passed. I must admit Dh helped me stand on the back of a parked trailer & I had a little 'peep' over the wall.

We then started towards Rouen, had a drink in one of the squares but decided to keep heading 'roughly' towards the coast. Ended up getting to about 7pm and we still had not stopped and found somewhere to stay. So we used our Satnav (not for the last time either) and typed in 'hotel nearby'. We ended up driving across this small bridge, thinking we were completely lost, to arrive at a beautiful old 'manor' house. Belle-Isle-sur-Risle, I've noticed since that there are very mixed reviews on tripadvisor. But for us it was great, although it was expensive. We had a nice room and a lovely prix fix for €38, dinner in their restaurant. Me Scallops on Potato Rosti C/w mushroom, fish & Zabaglione (yum) & for Dh, Rabbit, then duck & Creme Brulee. Staff were very helpful and friendly. Had a lovely night in a really pretty hotel, slept great.

In the morning we headed towards Etretat, what a lovely drive. Through some really pretty villages. Arrived into Etretat and scored a fantastic park (the place was really busy) right beside the TI. Had a ‘car boot’ baguette c/w vegemite (ahh what a wonderful meeting of cultures ) & headed off walking. WOH, if you’ve never heard of Etretat google it. What a pretty pretty place. We took an awesome walk up onto one of the cliffs that had a gorgeous church. It was a hard walk but the views were spectacular. I didn’t even mind too much when we reached the top to find out we ‘could have driven’ up!!!!!

Dh still had energy, so he climbed the cliff on the other side of the town as well, while I walked the village ‘foraging’ for lunch. I got yet another baguette (of which there were so many on this trip), fresh ham and salad vegies. We decided that the location of the car was too good to lose, so we had our lunch out of the boot again. What fun.

Typed in Dieppe & off we went. Stayed in an Etap hotel & went and got some supplies, electric kettle, plunger & a hairdryer. Had dinner on the waterfront, steak, fries & salad & a half bottle of Chablis, really yum. Tomorrow we head towards Villers-Bretonneux & Fromelles to pay our respects to Aussie diggers.

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Am thoroughly enjoying your report - what a perfectly lovely thing to do, just meander without too much planning. On my honeymoon many years ago, my DH and bought Eurail passes and every night opened the map and picked a place to go, then hopped the train and there we were. We were only gone a month, but would love to do what you did - maybe when he retires.....a girl can dream....

Well we're off on a 'little' xmas road trip. Driving to Melbourne (from Brisbane) via Sydney. Will be back the first week of January. I'm taking my laptop & journal and hope to do some more of this report.

If not, have a wonderful xmas one and all and happy traveling,
Deidre xo

Please do, I've only just caught up with the latest episodes but most interested to read your adventures. I'm heading off next July so keen to hear the highlights - and pitfalls.

aussiedreamer, we ate ourselves silly on baguettes when we were in France. I always felt that it was a pretty healthy lunch and I don't like to spend time stopping in a restaurant for lunch. There's nothing like a lovely baguettes, and perhaps a little chocolate eclair to follow?

Now, if you go to Versailles again some day there is a ticket office on the left hand side of the little avenue that leads to Versailles. The one where you get that amazing front on view of it. You can pop in there and buy tickets and then walk straight to the security line at Versailles. Wish I'd thought to mention it before you went. The interior of Versailles is one of the few places in my life where I've thought that I couldn't wait to get out as it was SO crowded. Having said that though I've worked out that by 3pm the tour groups have gone and it would be much nicer. Maybe next time...... I love the gardens though and have the best part of a couple of days exploring them and Marie Antoinette's little folly.

Still loving your report and very appreciative of you taking the time to write it at this very busy time of the year. Well done, you, having the Christmas gifts already wrapped and under the tree! I'm about 3/4 of the way there but still have a few more to buy this weekend.

Oops, forgot to say that when we arrived in Rome a few years ago, my HB was gobsmacked when at the airport I whipped out my printed instructions from generous Fodor's contributors and got us on a train and easily found our way to our accommodation. He had been teasing me relentlessly (nicknamed me Fodette) in the months before the trip but had to eat his words.

Thanks Cathies, that was the ticket office we line up at!!!!! It was so busy, I too was happy to get out into the gardens.

Wow aussiedreamer, there was hardly anyone at that ticket office, we just wandered in and bought our tickets and that was in June.

hi aussiedreamer, I too am really enjoying your report. makes me want to go back to Paris again. actually was considering going there for our 20th anniversary, alas, chose to go back to Spain (we were just there this past May) for what will surely be a short week next March. I can't wait to hear about the rest of your adventures! such fun

Just found your TR and will enjoy reading it over the holidays! I've just skimmed it so will go back for details, but I have to agree with your opinion of Versailles...the gardens and Marie Antoinette's estate are definitely the best part.

And yes, do keep going on this thread so we can find it easily.

Ok, so we are nearly in Melbourne, staying in country NSW tonight and DH is glued to the cricket, so I thought I should use my time wisely. Got a nice glass of wine & I'm ready to go.

So we decided we were close enough to go and visit the two main Aussie war memorial sites in France. The first one was Villers-Bretonneux. Woh, what a beautifuly maintened memorial site, very moving. We meandered around for ages reading some of the very moving headstones. Climbed the tower with sweeping views of the graves and beyond. Of course we weren't surprised when we heard a lovely "Gidday" from some fellow visiting aussies.

Short drive there to Fromelles. A lovely small cemetary & just down the road is VC Corner. This one really got us. Theres a lovely memorial statue telling the story of how as the battle raged on during the day, they would mark the spots of the wounded, then by the cover of darkness they would sneak out and rescue the wounded. On one trip back they walked past a soldier they thought was dead, only to hear him say "Don't forget me Cobber". Cobbers to us Aussies is mate or friend, not used so much these days.

Quote........."and I could not lift him on my back; but I managed to get him into an old trench and told him to lie quiet while I got a stretcher. Then another man … sang out ‘Don’t forget me cobber’. I went in and got four volunteers with stretchers and we got both men in safely."

Very moving. (sorry, but its such a lovely story)

Drove on to Calais that night, stayed in one of the newish chain hotels right by the ferry terminal, Novetel I think. Believe it or not we had a lovely Steak & Frites dinner in there restaurant c/w a nice bottle of wine.

Next day we headed towards Honfleur. What a lovely place, we spent hours just walking around the marina area & the old town. Even managed to see a religious parade through town c/w priest carry a really large cross. We saw so many places with signs for Moules Frites that we were finally convinced that they must be a local specialty. I've never really been a fan of mussels until that night. YUM. Moules Frites Provencale, let me set the scene.............

A beautiful balmy late summer evening, the table was on the waters edge, with the water gently lapping the sides of the boats. While sharing a lovely bottle of wine our Moules were bought to our table in a beautiful big cast iron pot, steaming full of mussels in a wine, garlic & tomato broth. Just delightful, we ate and ate and ate. So delicious.

Stayed the night in an ok Kiriad that night.

Next we head to Mont St Michel.

Great stuff AD. Keep it up and the rest of us won't have to leave home.

ha ha ha farrermog, that’s lovely..............sometimes think 'I go on a bit'

We arrived in Mont St Michel and fortunately we were turning left to our B&B, the traffic toward it was horrendous. It still took us ages to get there. It was ordinary at best and for the life of me I can't think what it was called. The only good thing was it backed right onto the river/stream that went to the Mont, the view was great.

We took a walk around and waited 'till 4pm before we braved it. So many people...............but we walked over under & through it. Mostly UP. Well worth it though, what an amazing place. We did St Michael's Mount in Cornwall two years ago & I think to be honest we 'liked' it more. But I think the crowds had something to do with that. It took us over an hour to get back to our hotel, which was 2.8kms.

We had dinner in a lovely little bistro, me warm salad & Tanjine of chicken. Him Duck & Foie Gras salad. And shared crepes. c/w bottle of Chablis. YUM YUM

We took a drive back down to the Mont after dinner. Much more pleasant, still a lot of people, but not crazy.

Next we head to the Loire Valley & discover the prettiest village I've ever seen

thanks for all the fun details!

I love the details with 'aunty' - she sounds like an amazing lady and what a fun addition to your trip.

We also loved Etretat and Honfleur...

keep going... you have an audience!

not going on "a bit" at all. I'm enjoying every minute.

keep it coming!

This is great aussiedreamer. Love the 'vegemite baguette', it's such an easy yum lunch when you're travelling and either in a hurry or on a budget. Looking forward to hearing more.

Kay

Wow, that's dedication to the trip report writing, updating from a motel on the Brisbane-Melbourne trip.

A little tube of Vegemite has provided sustenance for many a jaded budget traveller I suspect, spread on all sorts of bread products I'm sure. I've done panini and bagels maybe we should start a thread!

Awaiting the next instalment but will understand if it's a while coming at this time. Safe driving and Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year one and all. Yet another rainy day here in Brisbane, a good time to 'get moving' on this report. I have been 'very busy' creating a photo book of our trip. Hopefully the link below will take you to it. (could someone let me know if it worked? )

http://www.momento.com.au/gallery?category=Featured&cpid=286771&auth=4cf9b2994657c0.01058550

Happy New Year aussiedreamer.
Managed to open the link and the album looks great- but rather small - and my IT support here is still asleep!
Looking forward to viewing it slowly later in the day.

Poor you with all that rain up there - and the flooding is a huge tragedy for the people further north.

Love this photo book and might look at ways of doing some of our last few trips like this.

May you dry out soon.

So, we headed for Tours, about a 3 hour drive from Mont St Michel. As always we headed straight for the TI office, got a bunch of brochures etc. there’s lots of chateau’s to explore. For the first time ever we asked them about somewhere to stay. We didn't really want to stay in the city. They were so helpful and found us a great hotel in the most beautiful village we were to encounter.

Charming Azay-le-Rideau, about 15 minutes outside Tours.

http://bestwestern.worldexecutive.com/locations/europe/france/azay-le-rideau/

We booked and paid for 1 night with the TI but on arrival we quickly booked two more. Checked in and went for a walk around the village, there is a Chateau there, but we decided against going in. We wandered across this beautiful little bridge and noticed there was a small 'bar' beside the river. It looked like a makeshift sort of place. There were people canoeing, some playing bocce and most just relaxing. Who were we to ague, found ourselves a picnic table and ordered un Bire & un vin Blanc and settled in.

A fabulous way to see in the evening, everyone was so friendly and relaxed.

Dinner was in one of the many outdoor cafes there, it was getting really warm, and so sitting outside under a tree was perfect. We shared a 'country terrine', I had Roast Chicken c/w veg he had a steak. It was all just perfect.

The next day we used one of the 'Pretty Villages of the Loire Valley' maps and went driving. Had another fantastic picnic by the river. Our picnics were now becoming awesome, wine glasses, thermos of coffee etc.

Headed back into Tours old town for drinks and dinner. Had a very ordinary meal in one of the pubs in the square, but the people watching was great.

The next day we headed off to Château de Chenonceau, this is the one we decided we would go into. Just lovely, but again the crowds were a bit annoying. But we enjoyed wandering around the grounds. They have some lovely picnic table set up alongside the river, which was great for our picnic lunch. Would you believe we actually had some people stop by and tell us how fantastic our lunch looked? Sure beat expensive yucky takeaway.

On returning to Azay-le-Rideau we headed straight back to the river for our afternoon drinks. We were so happy that the man remembered us and said "ahh 1 bire & 1 vin blanc". On the way back to the hotel we passed a lovely looking restaurant. Although it was closed the window was open, so we stuck our heads in and with my 3 French phrases and some charades we booked a table. When we returned in the evening he greeted us like long lost friends and gave us a fantastic table. And when I pulled out my little dictionary he was thrilled, thought it was great and helped me order our meal all in French. Just the loveliest evening.

Me, Duck Terrine, lamb, cheese & profiteroles with ice cream. Him, Escargot, steak, cheese & an apple tart. A perfect perfect day.

Your photo book is fabulous! Thanks for sharing.

love travel aus, thanks for the kind thoughts. We're okay here in Brisbane but we have lots of family/friends who still can't 'get home' after xmas.

No IT help for you but maybe even just zooming the page, ya know % wise? Just a thought. Glad it worked though.

Awww thanks jmct714, many hours of work, but very rewarding.

hi aussie - glad you enjoyed the Loire so much - we love it too. I don't know the hotel you stayed in in Azay le Rideau but it looks very nice - one to remember, I think. and your pics are superb - i love that format. only one gripe - I had to stop myself looking too far ahead!

Ha Ha, thanks annhig, I did consider leaving it 'till the end but figured folks could decide to look ahead or not. I have the book all printed up now, just can't stop looking at it.

Loved reading you trip report. Looking forward to the next instalment.

We spent 1 month in France last year and loved it. I wrote a trip report also and found it a labour of love and a lovely momento. We too loved the food of France, yum. We also leased a Renault car, loved it. Sounds like you enjoyed the driving, we will have a car in Italy.

Loved your photos and reliving our trip through yours. I am in the middle of planning our next trip back to France and this time also to Italy. So looking forward to that part. We will be in Cinque Terre at the end of September, hoping for good weather.

Will look to the next instalment.

enjoyed your trip report and photos. never thought of taking vegemite but can see the value.
does it taste plasticy from the tube?

Just found this and it is such a wonderful "read"! Can't wait to hear more. Aussiedreamer, you join the ranks of excellent TR writers.

Going to look at your photos now.

Thrilled that a/ someone is actually reading this and b/ that you are enjoying Thanks.

So the next day we headed off with no real plans but typed Limoges into the satnav. After several attempts we could not get into the town, we figured there must've been some event or maybe a market going on. So we kept driving and eventually typed 'nearest hotel' into the satnav. Again it came through we ended up at Aubazine.

http://www.hotel-restaurant-le-saint-etienne.abcsalles.com/prive/fr/fiche.php?n=10527

Another great find. It was a smallish village set around a church and its square. Apparently there was some music festival about to happen, so there were a lot of people around. We settled in for a couple of hours at one of the outdoor bars, as it was so hot and watched the world go by. We attempted to go to a restaurant for dinner, but the matradee looked down his nose at us and said "we are full". Which was amusing as there were empty tables everywhere. mmmmmmmm

Anyway we ended up having dinner at our hotel in the lovely garden. It had been a very hot day, so sitting in the shade listening to some of the bands practice was very pleasant.

Me, fish terrine, Pork & a lovely strawberry mousse shortcake. Him, Goats cheese salad, Lamb & a creme brulee. Another lovely meal in a great location.

So the next day we headed towards Baynac via Sarlat. We had a lovely time at the markets in Sarlat. Although it was incredibly hot & crowded, we just loved looking at all the wonderful food options. Got some great photos but we were pretty happy to get back to the air-conditioned car.

We had booked a B&B online in Baynac ahead of time, so off we went. WOH, what a great place, we parked the car and took a lovely walk along the river. As it was so hot there were lots of people swimming canoeing and just cooling off. The views up to the Chateau were fantastic. Found our way to our B&B, just awsome, highly recommend. http://www.lepetitversailles.fr/page/eng/accueil.html

Loved our room and the whole feel of the place. Freshened up a bit and decided it was far too hot to hang around in the room or sit in restaurant for dinner. So we drove back towards Sarlat and found a great supermarket. We purchased the 'fixings' of what was to be our best picnic of the trip. So we headed back and found a shady tree by the river and set up.

We had poached chicken breast, marinated prawns, coleslaw, lettuce, tomato, avocado & of course a baguette and a bottle of red and one of white. We must have looked funny, but you should have seen the reaction we got from evening walkers! All very jealous. We were just thrilled when a series of hot air balloons took to the sky from behind the Chateau. Every color of the rainbow, it really felt like they were putting on the dinner entertainment for our amazing picnic. We lingered over dinner for ages, sublime!

We eventually dragged ourselves back to the B&B and set ourselves up on the veranda to research the next couple of days. Again amazed to look up and see a beautiful blue hot air balloon so close it felt like we could touch it. (Anyone who's looked at the photos will recognise the one I mean)

Met some fellow travellers from Minnesota, they were having trouble getting in touch with their kids back home. So we lent them our laptop and they skyped home. Had a great chat about life in Aus & the US and laughed when we realised we were both using the Rick Steves book.

I just keep wondering if the days can get any better!

Thee next morning we had a great breakfast in the dining room, fresh strawberries, custard, jams breads and a yummy cheesy omelette. DH who has a weird fascination with anything you can climb on/over/up/through/in had found a brochure for a Grotto that was nearby. So we packed up our picnic and thermos for day and headed off.

Padirac grotto is simply amazing. http://www.gouffre-de-padirac.com/

We arrived in the town after a lovely drive in the country about an hour from the B&B and saw a very uninspiring building with a long line of people. We had a quick bite and a coffee and headed over. Now, you can stand by a fence and look down a huge chasm, we were thinking that maybe that was it. How wrong we were. We got in line and paid our 9€ and in we went. WOH!!!! we made our way down a series of lifts & stairs (thank to DH we mostly did stairs!!) walking through some amazing underground caves, 'till we reached a river some 103m below the surface.

We were just beginning to think it was all too beautiful, when we were ushered into a boat with maybe a dozen other folk and had a lovely 'cruise' on an amazing underground river. Now, our only disappointment was that the whole commentary was in French. So when everyone was ooooing and ahhing, we had no idea. But it was amazing. At the end of the boat ride a guide is there to take you further in. All in all we spent nearly 3 hours down there, and considering how hot it was above ground the 5-10c temp underground was lovely. I would suggest a light cardigan.

We drove home via Monpazier another gorgeous village set around a relaxing and shady square. We found a lovely epicure selling all manner of duck products. Purchased some for us, but also a huge basket full for my chef sister.

Dinner was left over picnic from last night and some scrumptious strawberry tarts we bought in Monpazier, on the veranda of the B&B. It was interesting that at breakfast the next morning when we spoke to our new ‘friends’ from Minnesota and told them of our grotto adventure, they were shocked that it had not made it into Ricks book. We told them that we’d found a brochure supplied by the B&B and went from there. They pretty much said that if it wasn’t in Ricks book they wouldn’t know about it. They were so disappointed that it was their last day and they had missed out! Great to use guide books, but you really have to rely on local knowledge too.

So that’s France (for now) next day we head to Spain.............not all sangria and sunshine there.......no real fond memories of Spain but will do my best.

Still enjoying your lovely report! The grotto sounds fabulous! I agree with you that you need to do more than rely on one guidebook. Isn't it amazing that EVERYWHERE in France seems to have lovely pastries, I don't think I found a bad one anywhere and heaven knows I tried!!!

Hands up, everyone who wants to join Aussiedreamer on their next trip! BTW, it's wonderful to see someone else extol Earl's Court and the Earl's Court Tavern. Love them both.

love your trip report. It is a real treat to read about some of these places.
Was wondering what types of things you buy to bring home. I like buying things for my home, such as a vase or plates etc when I travel. sometimes I buy clothes. Do you always return home with an extra suitcase?

Well..........we do fly B/c so I get to bring two. This trip we took a suitcase full of stuff each for our DD & her fella, so once we dropped that gear off I had two empty cases
Bit selective these days, I bought some lovely tea towels which I use everyday, some lovely glass in Venice & a bit of wine.

cferrb thats lovely, it really was as good as it sounds. I'm determined to finish this before I begin to plan our London & Ireland trip in May.

I'm glad you found the Gouffre de Padirac. While just about all of the French know about it, it seems to have been kept a secret from most foreign visitors, except for maybe the Belgians and the Germans.

hi aussie,

I'm there in that boat along the underground river with you!

We went to the gouffre de Padirac about 5 years ago [oh, no, make that 10!] with our kids and just loved it. i agree with Kerouac that maost of the other visitors were french/french speaking. [ditto the puy de fou in the western Loire, but that's another story].

I'm back! Before I start Spain just wanted to tell you all a nice little side story. While we were in Italy, just near Asti we stayed at an amazing villa owned by an Aussie couple now living there. Not wanting to jump to far ahead with this TR BUT............
I bought an antique bedspread and she offered to bring it to Brisbane for me, as they were coming 'home' for xmas. Well, yesterday I had a lovely morning tea and a great catch up with them both, so many stories etc. Such fun, they have 'invited' us back to stay in their home, YAY!!!!
Oh and my bedspread is as lovely as I remember.

Sorry I digressed, but I was a bit excited, now onto Spain.

So we decided we would leave France and head for Spain. DD & her fella were in Valencia for La Tomatina and were going to meet us in Barcelona. So we thought we would surprise them by picking them up, saving them train fare. We wanted to get into Barcelona a day or two earlier to organise an apartment. For the first night we 'won' Tryp Apolo on Priceline. We were really happy with the location (an easy walk to Placa Reial & La Rambla) and it was a lovely room, BUT internet charges & parking were more than the room.

It took us most of the day to drive to Barcelona, but we both enjoyed the changing scenery. And were both somewhat surprised by the lack of border control (which we did get used to). So we checked in and went for a big walk. It was late in the afternoon/early evening and it was still SO hot. Felt very much like a Queensland summer...hot & sticky!

Had a bit of walk along La Rambla, not overly impressed. Felt crowded hot & dirty and frankly I found myself holding DH's hand quite firmly. Dinner was in one of the many tapas places in Placa Reial, quite nice, nothing special but cheap and cheerful and great for people watching. We did notice that on the other side of the square there was a huge line up at Les Quinze Nits, decided we would come back another night.

We secured an apartment through Friendlyrentals
http://www.friendlyrentals.com/en/apartments/barcelona/apartment-3586-1.htm

and as we had to move the car and couldn't get the apartment until midafternoon we headed to an outlet shopping centre just outside Barcelona. We were really happy on checking into the apartment, had everything we needed, most importantly a washing machine and aircon! It was so hot. We'd pretty much already decided that if we had not arranged to meet the 'kids' we would have left Barcelona. Very HOT, dirty crowded and quite frankly a we felt unsafe it’s the first place in the world I have ever decided not to take my handbag with me anywhere.

We woke the next morning and decided we had to change our attitude re Barcelona. So we found the opentop bus tour, bought big hats and huge bottles of water. Great fun, not sure if I've ever been so hot sitting on the top deck, but we had sunscreen and our newly purchased hats and while the bus was moving it was fine. And as we always find it gives a great overview of a city. So apart from a bathroom break and a quick maccas cheese burger, we stayed on most of the day and got to see a lot of Barcelona. We felt much better that evening, although we decided we just didn't want to be in the heat again so we settled for takeaway pasta and stayed in our lovely little air-conditioned apartment.

Tomorrow we drive to Valencia and have our first ever swim in the Mediterranean

aussiefive, I've bought tea towels back from France. We had lovely ones in our apartment in Paris and so I asked the apartment manager where he bought them. I'm sure he thought I was quite peculiar!! I love them and as they are starting to get a bit ratty, it must be time to plan another trip!

I've also brought home beautiful soaps from markets several times. I can't wait to restock.

The next day we did the 3.5 hour drive to Valencia, picked Dd & partner up at their hotel and headed to the beach. How lovely, it was very very hot but we had lunch in one of the many places on the beach, tapas & paella of course, YUM. Then a wonderful swim, it was perfect. Headed back to Barcelona and had pizza from a local place near our apartment and slept like babies.

The next morning we all decided we needed to do something touristy and enjoy Barcelona. Again it was very hot 40deg C.

The next day we did the 3.5 hour drive to Valencia, picked Dd & partner up at their hotel and headed to the beach. How lovely, it was very very hot but we had lunch in one of the many places on the beach, tapas & paella of course, YUM. Then a wonderful swim, it was perfect. Headed back to Barcelona and had pizza from a local place near our apartment and slept like babies.

The next morning we all decided we needed to do something touristy and enjoy Barcelona. Again it was very hot 40deg C.

The next day we did the 3.5 hour drive to Valencia, picked Dd & partner up at their hotel and headed to the beach. How lovely, it was very very hot but we had lunch in one of the many places on the beach, tapas & paella of course, YUM. Then a wonderful swim, it was perfect. Headed back to Barcelona and had pizza from a local place near our apartment and slept like babies.

The next morning we all decided we needed to do something touristy and enjoy Barcelona. Again it was very hot 40deg C.

Oops Im so sorry..............I was leaning on the keyboard

We caught the metro to the first Funicular which took us up the hill, then a second one that took us to the very top of Tibidabo hill. Awesome view, lovely old church and bizarrely an amusement park. I've read since that it’s over a hundred years old, but still weird IMHO. But we got great views and terrific photos. We did the whole thing in reverse and had a bit of a rest in the a/c. Dh decided to walk to the beach, we caught the Metro, mind you it was still a good 20 minute walk from the metro. And have I mentioned how hot it was?

Unfortunately it was very windy and the water was choppy and a bit dirty. The others all swam, I passed. But there sure was so great people watching. WOH, anything goes. We saw it all, topless to full male nudity. Don't go there if you are a prude .

Dinner that night was back in Placa Reial at Les Quniz Nits. Woh, now the only reason we went there was because of the lines. We waited maybe 20-30 minutes and were rewarded with a great outdoor table and the best tapas & paella of the trip. I think in total the four of us had 2 litres of the best Sangria I've ever had and the total bill was 70€. A lovely last night in Barcelona.

Next day we are back into France

The next day we headed towards our next stop, Montpellier France. A drive that should’ve taken about 3 hours took 6. Traffic was really bad but we all enjoyed the drive a lot. After driving around in circles for a while we managed to find a car park near our accommodation. We booked an apartment in Place de la Canourgue, now without wanting to ‘go on’ it was fantastic BUT after our week there we had a ‘disagreement’ with the owner, got very nasty and was very upsetting. Two sides to every story, so I’ll leave well enough alone but can’t in good conscience recommend.
We loved the area, its just around the corner from the Arc De Triomphe and an easy walk to the large shopping area and all of the ‘old town’. We completely enjoyed out time here with DD & her partner. The first night Dh & Dd went in search of dinner and returned with steak, mushrooms and veg, we had a lovely dinner. DD’s partner and I were in charge of desert, YUM, we came back with all manner of tarts and pastries. Perfect.
Slept great and woke to croissants and more pastries thanks to Dh’s early morning stroll. (so glad to be back in France ) Just spent the day wandering through all the lovely streets, every time we turned a corner there was another yummy shop. Delicious homemade roast chicken dinner c/w more pastries. We love having the room to cook and ‘spread’ out.

Next day we all headed in our own directions, I was getting a bit sick of my clothes so headed to Galleries Lafeyette and had a little restock. We went for a drive to Sete in the afternoon, stopping along the way at some lovely beaches. I asked Dd & BF what they wanted to do for dinner and they asked me to cook a dish I make at home, BF said it was the best meal he’d eaten in months.........ha ha ha. But it was lovely to sit and chat around the dinner table, with great views over the square.
Not sure if I’ve mentioned DH’s obsession with bridges (climbing on, driving over etc.) but he’d heard about Pont du Gard so off we went. WOH how amazing and wonderful. We spent the better part of a few hours just in awe of it. Honestly if you find yourselves anywhere near there, go. Its wonderful Dinner was again in at request of the kids, this time fajitas.
The next day was going to be one of the great ones except that we’d locked ourselves out!! Not good.

Still enjoying your trip report aussiedreamer. My DH has had an offer to stay with a French family in Montpellier to help them with their english for a month. Something he will look at, but not this year. Alas no room in the house for me! So glad you liked the city.

We went to Pont du Gard and we too were amazed at the amazing Roman skills back in 32AD and still standing.

Looking forward to the next instalment. I have been busy researching and booking my Italy trip so am looking forward to that part of your report.

Hi aussie_10 thanks for hanging in there, Italy not too far away. Montpellier is a lovely city. I'm also madly reading and researching our next trip, London & Ireland in May, have to keep making myself come back to this t/r. But I'm determined to finish, each time I look back on an old t/r I'm inspired to keep going.

So, another day another bridge This time the Millau Suspension Bridge. We've watched many a Discovery Chanel doco on it and Top Gear of course. We had the whole experience, stopped at the lookout as you approach, which has wonderful views across the valley to the bridge. Then we drove over it & under it. Stopping for one of our picnics at the lookout. Even went to the gift shop and got DH the obligatory t shirt. He loved the whole thing. Tick that one off the list!

Thanks to someone on this site who helped me with my Roquefort Cheese Caves questions we headed there next. WOH.
We did the full tour, which although was in French with English print out was great. Not a huge cheese fan, well actually I love cheese, but only very tame cheese and usually not blues. What amazed me the most was that down in the caves there was no smell. We had a tasting at the end, if it had come with wine and crackers it would've been perfect

Unfortunately on returning to the apartment no one had the keys. AHHHH what a nightmare. Long story short, after wandering around to find internet access and tracking down the owner who lives in London, we got the housekeepers number. Now, that sounds easy hey? We speak no French, she speaks no English. It really was comical, I tried no joy, DD has high school French and got a bit further but still no solution. Now our DD is a forward thinker........she stopped 3 men passing by and asked if they spoke English. Better, one of them was a language professor at a nearby university.

So we explained our situation to him and he spoke to the housekeeper for us. Sorted, she lived nearby and was there in about 20 minutes. Phew, but the whole exercised took over 2 hours. The professor stayed for a while and we all had a lovely chat, he was very 'impressed' by this aussie family travelling around Europe with very few plans. Actually was a real highlight talking to him?

The next day was DH's birthday and we had planned to drive to Monaco and then drop the 'kids' at the Nice airport for their flight back to London. Unfortunately I woke unwell (suffer pretty bad vertigo) and could barely move. So DD kindly changed her flight out of Montpelier and we dropped them off and had a very quiet day.

So here we are our last day in Montpelier and France. We decided we would just stay local, and we meandered through all the laneways and allys, such fun. Found the most amazing Macaron shop and a fantastic kitchen shop. Someone asked earlier what I buy as souvenirs on our trips. One of my favourites is the small copper pot I bought here. I just love it.

We had dinner in 'our square' at a place that the owner had said wasn't great (in his guide in the apartment)I think it was called DE L Parc, but it was always so busy and smelt great, so we decided to give it a go. So glad we did, just to sit in the square on a beautiful balmy evening, people watching and looking at our lovely apartment was a great way to end our time in Montpelier. Me Nicoise salad him a Tapas/Tasting plate.

Italy here we come.

Hi, still loving your report. One of our favourite meals was eaten sitting in a square in a tiny little village in the Vaucluse region of France. The square was filled with families enjoying a drink and their evening meal. There was a grandmother helping her granddaughter with her English lessons who asked us for some help when they heard us speaking in English; a couple from Paris (who turned out to be staying at the same B&B as us) and lots of other locals sitting outside in the evening enjoying each others company. We had a tapas meal that wasn't anything special but we just loved the experience.

The Parisian couple offered us a lift back to the B&B as they had recognised us from earlier in the day. They were very surprised when we said that we were happy to walk the 1 kilometre and would enjoy the view and walk off our dinner. For the rest of our stay they introduced us to other B&B guests as 'The Australians, they like to walk'!!

keep the report coming. taking mental notes as I now plan our next trip too. looking forward to Italy

Hi aussiedreamer - loving your report especially as it is holiday time and I am stuck at home - but are you going OK up there in Brisbane?

The news coming out is terribly sad - so best wishes from SA.

Thanks love_travel-Aus, so far so good, we are 700m fromt he river in Brisbane city, on high alert, but we personaly should be fine. Intermitant power outages and it just wont stop raining. Lots of local properties are sand bagged. Family & friends are all safe and dry at the moment, thats all that matters. Toowoomba is just devastating.
Thanks again.

Not wanting to hijack your amazing trip report - but do hope that this morning all is still OK for you - as the news is so sad.

Stay safe.

Aussiedreamer: Thanks for this continuing wonderful report. I think we are all coming along with you on this "trip of a lifetime" Now waiting to hear about your time in Italy.

I think we are also all vey concerned about the awful flooding in your area of Australia. Stay safe.

Hi all. Thanks for the kind thoughts. Well it came into our street but we are very lucky. No power for upwards of a week. Thanks to a generous brother inlaw and a clever future son inlaw we have a generator powering the house. Not much food available in stores, but we'll be fine. Just a devastating tragedy. I'll be back when we have full power and life is a little less 'sodden'

glad to have you back with us, aussie.

we have all been shocked by the pictures on our screens, and wish you all the best of luck in the clean-up.

Aussiedreamer, glad you are safe and with minimal damage. We have family and friends in Brisbane and Gympie also.

The visions of the flooding is just awful and so sad for many many people.

I'm back, been a bizarre week. Poor old Brisbane, but its starting to come back to life.

We had decided we wanted to find a nice beachy place to sit for a couple of days. Pretty much just picked a spot on the map and off we went. After stopping and having a little look around Saint Tropez and not really seeing anywhere that looked welcoming for lunch down on the water we kept driving.

Dh noticed a small sign along the road for a restaurant pointing to the beach. So in we went. WOH, I'm very sorry to say I can't remember the name or location of it. And I've lost the photos from this couple of days, so can't use them to retrace. It was amazing, we walked down a rickety path to the beach, there low tables were sitting directly on the sand. We were lucky enough to get a table right on the edge of the water. Just the most amazing views, back to Saint Tropez. We both had whole fish with Salad and chips, and of course a nice bottle of wine.

The service was friendly and great. The fish was 'barbequed' on the most rustic looking open fire, it was just perfect, could've sat there all day. Apologies again for not remembering the name. (if any locals have any idea what I'm talking about.......... about 15minutes out of Saint Tropez, heading towards Monaco!)

We stayed for two nights at the http://www.dianamajestic.com/ hotel. Great location right on the water. Strange sort of place, we imagine it’s a very seasonal area, and it was out of season But it was perfect for what we wanted to do, nothing.

The day we arrived we just walked around the town, not much to see and a lot of the places were closed. But the next day we hired sun beds and umbrellas on the beach for the day €7 and just spent the day lounging, reading & swimming. Magic! The water was amazing, such a lovely day. Dinner that night was in a place we'd noticed seemed to be the busiest the previous night. We'd booked through the day and were glad we did. L'Ancora. The service was so friendly and our names were written on the paper table top and so was the bill. So funny, we had the family beside us laughing when we didn't know how to tell the hostess inside our table number or amount, due to our lack of Italian, so we just tore the corner of the 'table'. Worked a treat.

Me Scampi pasta, him Bolognese, we raved on so much to the waiter how beautiful it was he sent out his grandmother, who had cooked it. Such fun, thanking her and we even got kisses on the cheek. Another wonderful night.

Off to an absolute highlight next, Venice.

so glad that you're ok aussie.

fancy your having the time and energy to keep up with the TR -we appreciate it though. what a good idea to have some time for just doing nothing.

looking forward to Venice!

Hi Aussiedreamer - Just started reading your fantastic report!
The apartment in 15arr Paris looks wonderful - we just missed each other in Paris but I did make a point of going to rue Lourmel and Charles Michels area just to see where you would be moving to! I think its a great place to stay. Also had a coffee at Le Royal Tour opposite to the little cafe` with the yellow awning - also don't recall the name but it was next to Lotus de Chine , the Chinese place we had dinner at one night.
Now to carry on reading your report....

This is wonderful! DH and I also loved Monpellier. We based there for train trips to Arles and Avignon. Also loved the old square. We spent a fine Saturday morning shopping with the natives and had some cheese that was so good.

Can't wait to hear about your Venice experience!

I've been really excited about getting to this part of the t/r, we loved Venice, this was our first visit. It took us about 6 hours to drive there. We used info from foderites and parked our car at the Mestre carpark, walked across the road to the train station. Tried to use the ticket machine but it wouldn't accept our money, so we just went up to the window. A very friendly man sold us two tickets, can't remember how much but it was only about 1-2€. Felt a bit silly when we asked "how many stops" before we get off! ahhh 1. ha ha

Too easy, off the train down the stairs and on to a #2boat to Rialto, where we were meeting our landlord, Mimi. What a gem, we booked the apartment through http://www.oikosvenice.com/i/orbi.html It was fantastic.

Mimi walked us from Rialto to Campo S. Maria Formosa and we chatted the whole way. She is one of the few true 'natives' of Venice. She stopped and introduced us to a few shop keepers along the way, pointing where to eat or more importantly where not to eat. Showed us the closest supermarket and bottle shop. Showed us around the apartment, we asked for dinner recommendations and she gave us quite a few. One of them her husband works at.

We had a bit of a walk around with our mouths gaping open, really doesn't matter where you walk in Venice, it’s all just so beautiful and amazing. We had dinner at ' Mascareta' which was literally just around the corner from the apartment. It was fantastic, me Lamb rack, him Beef stew all washed down with beautiful Chianti.

We introduced ourselves to our waiter and sure enough, it was Mimis husband. He greeted us like long lost friends not just 'tenants’. He invited us back the next night as they were having a special dinner as the owner was going to be in town. He is a very eccentric sort of gentleman. As our friends were arriving the next day, we booked a table for four. We walked home on cloud nine. Venice had cast her spell on us.

aussie, the apartment looks great. a few years ago we stayed in one round the back of the campo san bartolomeo so i suspect that we had the same supermarket and bottle shop. Was there a chocolatiere opposite the s/market? with a bakery on the corner before you got there?

mmmm don't remember a chocolatiere (but chocolate is not my thing, so may have missed it) yes there was a bakery on the corner. Dh got our bread there each morning

The apartment really was great; the photos don't actually do it justice, perfect for two couples. There was only one shower, but our room had a small ensuite with basin and loo and the others had the main bathroom c/w laundry & Shower. I don't have issues sharing a shower, but I do like my own loo and basin.

So on waking the first morning Dh went out and got our breakfast supplies. Our friends from Aus' were flying into Venice this afternoon so we had the morning to ourselves. Now, we are really excited for, let’s call them M & S to arrive, firstly we were looking forward to seeing someone from 'home' but mostly we were excited for them as this was their first trip overseas. So they were very excited.

After breakfast we decided not to race around and see too much as we wanted to do that with M & S. So after reading Rick Steves Venice we decided to #2 vaporetto and do the full loop. WOH, what a great way to see Venice. Magical, there’s no bad views there, every corner you go round is just as beautiful or more so than the previous one. Finished up with a slice of pizza at the Rialto and headed back to Campo Santa Maria Formosa to meet M & S. We picked up a bottle of champagne to toast their arrival, we asked the man at the bottle shop to recommend an Italian Champagne similar to Moet, and we ended up with Ferrari, YUM.

M & S had decided to splurge on a water taxi from the airport. We were waiting for them on the bridge, and to see them both standing up on the beautiful wooden boat with beaming faces, was fantastic. After much hugging and laughter we helped them back to the apartment and enjoyed our lovely champagne. We all decided that we just wanted to walk around, especially as they had just done a very long haul flight. So we did, stopping for coffee and wine whenever we felt like it.

Went back and tidied up for dinner, we went back to Mascareta and again were greeted like old friends. M & S were so happy, smiles all round. Dinner again was superb and we got to meet the very charismatic owner. We shared two of their amazing antipasto platters one meat one seafood. S & I both had Quail, M had lamb & Dh had Duck. And 3 great bottles of wine. Fantastic place and terrific system, the walls are lined with wine, take your pick. All main meals & bottles of wine are €20, too easy. Another glass of wine in the apartment and we all went to bed very content and very happy.

Woke the next morning to a huge thunderstorm, it rained off and all most of the day. Headed back to the Rialto, the men folk went in search of the seafood market and us 'girls' crossed the bridge and just worked our way around the alley ways stopping in so many interesting shops. We both bought some beautiful Murano glass (yes the authentic stuff ), from a lovely little shop. One of my favourite photos of the trip is us outside the shop holding our bags.

We went to St Marco to have a look around, but it was ankle deep in water. Glad we got to see it that way, it was fun. Walked up one of the alley ways for a pasta & pizza lunch, yum as usual.

Rested up for a while then headed to Al Chianti ristorante for a lovely pasta dinner. DH & I had what was possibly the best spaghetti bolognaise of the trip, M had Vongole (clam) pasta and S had lasagne. Just perfect, S could not wipe the smile off her face, it was just great. We then headed out and got on a vaporetto with no destination in mind. Just wanted to marvel at Venice at night. WOH, just fantastic. We then headed back to San Marco with the idea that we would sit in one of the cafes, have desert & coffee and listen to the band. There was still some water around and it was reasonably crowded. We did get a table at one, but we all kinda looked at each other and decided it didn't have any atmosphere and felt really fake and touristy. (I know I know, we are tourists) We decided to head back and enjoy a glass of wine/coffee in our apartment. Turned out to be the right decision, we had a lovely relaxing walk back and enjoyed a nice quiet drink. Another lovely day in Venice.

That night we ‘studied’ up on Venice on the net and of course our Rick Steves book. (we really did find his books to be the best) And decided we would head to the TI nice and early and do a guided tour of the Basilica San Marco. It was informative but we didn’t love it, but not sorry we did it. Certainly learned more than we would’ve doing it on our own. We then walked to the opposite side of the ‘island’ and caught the ferry to Burano Island. It was a great ride over, spoilt only by the crowded ferry. Really uncomfortable and a real push and shove, but once we arrived on the island it was wonderful. We took a great walk around, had lunch in one of the many cafes, fish, chips and salad, perfect. DH & M decided to go for a walk, S & I headed to the shops. Long story short, after an hour I’d finally decided on a table cloth. I couldn’t be happier with it. I have a large rectangle table and my Burano lace table cloth looks amazing. More linen than lace but it’s beautiful and one of the best ‘souvenirs’ I’ve ever bought. What a great day, unfortunately another push and shove to get home.

On the way back to our apartment the men saw one of the many wine shops selling Vino Sfuso which I think translates to bulk wine. What a wonderful concept, take your empty bottle be it wine bottle or in our case plastic water bottle and for a couple of Euros a litre get it fill with wine. Awesome, we quickly found some empty bottles and went in. Such fun, and very decent wine. Certainly meant to be consumed right away, which was no problem

Dinner was in another ‘Mimi’ recommended restaurant. This time Mascaron, WOH, I know I keep saying it but it really was fantastic. We were very fortunate that we had booked earlier in the day, because as we left, the line was right down the lane. Dh & I shared two of the ‘shared’ dishes. Pumpkins soup and Lobster fettuccini, yum yum yum. S had grilled prawns & M Mussel soup followed by Grilled whole Sole. The food was perfect as was the wine, bought by the half litre. So our last night in Venice was magical, we just wandered around for an hour or so after dinner just soaking it all up.

Next stop Carate Urio, on the banks of Lake Como.

what a lovely first trip to Venice. I agree about Burano - IMHO it is much nicer than Murano.

Shame you and your friend missed the rialto market - it is more, much more than sea-food.

sounds as if you were very lucky [well-guided?] in your restaurant picks.

perhaps we noticed the chocolate as when we were there, it was EAster and they had the hugest cgocolate eggs i ahve ever seen in the window.

oooh, typing!

it was Easter and they had the hugest chocolate eggs i have ever seen in the window.

Venice had cast her spell on us.

√I'm so glad! Welcome to the club. More, please.

So leaving Venice was bitter sweet, looking forward to 10 days on the Lake, but loved Venice. Mind you we did not love dragging suitcases etc, over to Rialto, onto a Ferry etc etc. but it’s a small price to pay. Mimi met us at the apartment for key handover, she had not met M & S and on chatting to her the first day I told her that we had done an Italian course before we left home. She told me that when she came back she would expect me to speak in Italian......yeah right. But, I practiced and had a little speech planned. I welcomed her and introduced M & S and thanked her for all her help, all in Italian. She was so gracious; M&S nearly fell over as I had not told anyone I had been practicing. Such good fun, hugs and kisses and promises of returning as we bid farewell to Venice and the very lovely, Mimi.

Had an uneventful but nice drive to Carate Urio our home for the next 10 days. I don't think I've mentioned how much we love 'Autogrills'? What a great concept, we stopped for lunch on the way. Seared beef salad, cooked fresh to order and as always a great cappuccino. Love Autogrill, sure beats the terrible takeaways at our Road Side service stations. We stopped at quite a few on this trip.

The drive was only spoilt by us getting hopelessly lost and confused on arrival into Carate Urio. But oh boy was it worth it.

http://lakecomohomes.com/displayproperty.aspx?p=357

This apartment was just amazing, can not recommend it enough. The only downside is the 100 stairs (we know, 'cause we counted them ) to get there, but worth every step. It was a bit of over kill as it had 3 bedrooms, but the 3rd bathroom came in very handy. The place is huge and just absolutely perfect. The balcony just blew us away; as good as it looks on the site, its better. And that beautiful ceiling in the lounge was probably a bit wasted on us. We 'lived' on the balcony. For 2 or 3 couples this is perfect, there’s room for everyone to be doing the same thing or different. Awesome........OH and the views!!!!! Okay, I'll stop (but it was fantastic )

So after schlepping our luggage up the stairs, (thankfully there is a small residence park at the bottom of the stairs that we used for unloading) we parked the car down the road in a free off street car park, beside the hotel Piccolo. Then we headed in for a well deserved drink and an early dinner. Now, if you think I may have "gone on a bit" about our apartment, just wait till I get started on this hotel. The friendliest place. Not to give too much away too early, but we ate here at least 4 of our 10 nights and when DH & I found ourselves back up this way later in the trip, we stayed a night here. But I won’t jump ahead, but I will tell you about our fantastic dinner.

First we had drinks on the veranda looking over a picture perfect lake, c/w complimentary nibbles. We had a great chat to the 'publican' and then headed upstairs to the restaurant with a view.DH & I shared the risotto for two. Pumpkin & Mussel. I had duck gnocchi and Vanilla parfait. Dh steak with mushrooms. S passed on entree but like me had the Duck gnocchi, M had the gnocchi for entree and a steak. All complimented with wine suggested by our new ‘friend’.

It was quite late by the time we meandered back to the apartment and the lovely man from the pub gave us a carton of milk, saying we would never get any at this late hour and we would need a coffee in the morning. Ahhh the start of a beautiful friendship.

This has gotta be one of my all time fave T/Rs - so the rest of it had better be of the same high standard! BTW, family members who were in Europe with a tour group late last year have made exactly the same comment about the Autogrills.

Gone where are you now, we are a bit older than you and it looks like we may be going the same way but on maybe a little further.

What a gorgeous apartment. The 100 steps sound daunting to those whose legs and lungs aren't what they used to be.

What a fabulous apartment.

our first apartment in rome was at the top of 8 flights of stairs - over 90 steps in all. fortunately our DS took it into his head to make getting brealfast from the cafe opposite his task every day so that was ONE trip we were saved. the rest of the time we just made sure that every time we went out, we brought something back with us.

keep it coming...

Completely agree about the Autogrills. They were a revelation.

Thanks so much for all the lovely feed back. Helps to keep me going, although I have pretty much decided to finish this, even if its only 'for me', such fun remembering back. And it means I will always have this to read.

As for those steps. Let me tell you M had a terrible m/bike accident in his youth and has been left with a knee that doesn't bend and all sorts of circulation issues and he is about 8yrs older than us. I was born with a form of spina bifida that resulted in really bad ankles which were fused in my youth & redone 2yrs ago. My point being, we both handled it and it was a good warm up for Cinque Terre, Positano and Dubrovnik.

Back soon for day two Lake Como.

good for you aussie.

I'll be sticking with you all the way.

So we headed out the next day in search of supplies for our 10 day adventure on the Lake. Stopping first in Cernobbio our nearest town with shops. We started with breakfast Panini’s and coffee down beside the Lake, and quite happily people watched.

Then we headed over to the twice weekly fruit and veg market. What a joy, once we worked out the system and how to recognise when our number was called. The man serving us was such fun; he'd had his eye on us while we were waiting, as we were practicing how to ask for things. So he seemed really happy when he called out a number and it was us. There was much pointing and although we pronounced things incorrectly he helped us how to ask for what we wanted. Much waving and smiling on leaving. It’s things like this that bring a smile to our faces so much.

We got direction to the supermarket but got hopelessly lost so headed off for a drive instead. We ended up spending most of the day just driving around the lake and stopping whenever we saw a 'better' view. We ended up getting right round to Bellagio. Stopped for a bit of a look and a well deserved drink. Deciding we would come back to spend more time later in the week.

We found the supermarket on the way home and spent a good hour there just having a good look at all the wonderful things available. Things we would have to go to a specialised deli for. We stocked up well, only trouble is, yep, we had to carry it all up those steps.

M made a lovely Chorizo & Broccoli pasta. I made red & white wine poached pears. A lovely dinner and a great day.

The next day after a yummy cooked breakfast, we all decided we 'needed' to sort out our lack of internet. That was the only downside of the apartment, no wifi. After working out that we couldn't even use the 'free' internet at McDonalds due to the fact that you have to register with an Italian phone number, we headed back to the shopping centre and found a lovely young lady who helped us. We got USB sticks that would last us the rest of our time in Italy. That nice lady was to prove a bigger help in a few day..........

We spent the rest of the day lounging around the apartment, enjoying lovely salad rolls on our deck and pre dinner drinks on the deck, very civilised. M made veal Parma for dinner.

The next day we headed over the border into Switzerland to go to the Foxtown shopping outlet. Complete waste of time, but the drive was nice. We continued onto Lugano, what a pretty place. A gorgeous fountain and flowers everywhere. Dh found us a great place for lunch, just across from the Lake. Cafe Retro Restaurant & Piano bar. What a lovely lunch. Me, pasta with Longastines (delicious) dh & M had a steak and S had fish. We just spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the shops and alley ways. Found a great cake shop and bought desert.

Called into the Picollo for drinks on the way back and another great chat with the publican. Got take away pizzas from the hotel. They were okay, not great.

Dh & I have previously been to Lucerne and Zurich, we offered to take M & S there, just for a quick look. As I said it was their first trip anywhere, so they jumped at the chance. So back across the border we went, it’s just a lovely drive. We weren't sure what was going on when we got pulled over just short of the Gotthaud Tunnel, but after much guess work and charades we worked out we needed an Autostrada sticker on the car to drive in Switzerland. €35 later we were on our way again. What a great tunnel. We fluked a great car park just around the corner from the beautiful bridge in Lucerne.

M & S loved it, we just wandered around. Had lunch at Hotel Schiff on the waterfront and it was lovely. Dh & I shared a prawn salad and Prawn fettuccine, S had fish and M had German sausage. Thumbs up all round. We then headed off to Zurich; our plan was to split up and wander around for a couple of hours and then have dinner at the Adler. A favourite fondue place of ours from a previous visit. But we all ended up still being full from lunch and as we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us, we set off for 'home' with plans to have dinner at the Picollo.

Just before we crossed back over the border into Italy, we got caught in the worst traffic jam. We were in it for over 2 hours...........there were so many cars and truck with their engines just turned off and everyone outside their vehicles. We never did find out the cause, but we were eventually detoured of the main road and thanks to our trusty satnav we found our way home. All too tired to even think about dinner, it was tea and toast and we all fell into bed.

The next night as to prove to one of the absolute stand out best dinners of our trip

Italian food, lakes, music - if you haven't seen it already, Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera has about 20 hours to run on ABC TV iView. Highly recommended!

Continued Bravas!

The next day we drove to Menaggio and got the car ferry over to Bellagio, what a wonderful way to travel. We had lunch in a one of the waterfront cafes, ordinary at best. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering independently up and down all the alley ways and window shopping. Well not all window shopping, I bought a beautiful red pashmina! Also bought a gelato and enjoyed every mouthful.

Got the ferry back and got ready for our wonderful dinner at Isola Comacina. http://www.comacina.it/en/restaurant.php

We had to drive a little way back up the road, park the car and a lovely man in a beautiful wooden boat rowed us over to the island. From the moment we arrived I knew it was going to be special. This is the comment on the online menu...........

The Menu.....We inform our clients that we only serve this one which we have been serving with success since 1947

We walked up a small hill and were welcomed warmly, we were seated at a table on the edge over looking the lake, on a lovely balmy evening. No choices to be made, the food just started coming. Wine is included and the second a bottle was finished it was replenished, so much so that we decided when we had had enough; it was just easier to leave a little in the bottle For the foodies among us I will try and tell you what we ate.

* half a tomatoe with a very thin slice of lemon, drizzled with olive oil. How could this taste so good? It was light and perfect.
* 8 different vegies arrived on beautiful plates, each one cooked to perfection and again drizzled with olive oil. They tasted so delicious.
* The waiter then appeared with a huge ham & cured beef. Now I've tasted some lovely ham, but this was superb. Melted in my mouth.
* Next came a trout that was expertly filleted and served, YUM.
* Scrap chicken was next, we were getting full, but this was amazing.
* Now desert. There’s no way I can aptly describe this simple dish, but I'll try. The waiter expertly pealed an orange and then segmented onto each plate, then out came a huge drum of homemade ice-cream. He then drizzled a banana liqueur over the orange and the ice-cream. I know, it sounds so simple but woh it was amazing.

Then we hear this loud bell which signals the beginning of the coffee ceremony……… " It is a tradition that at the sound of the bell the host enters into the room and burns brandy in the "pot" and tells the history of the Island. Then sugar and coffee are added to the brandy and then it is served.

A wonderful end to an amazing night, topped off only by the lovely boat ride back to the car. M had researched this place before we left Australia and we are so glad he did, if you are anywhere at all near this beautiful island don't hesitate to go there for the amazing meal, view and people.

We all just slept in and lazed around the next day. So easy to do in such beautiful surroundings. At some point M & S went for a big walk and later in the afternoon DH & I drove back into Cernobbio, parked the car and just walked around the town and along the Lake, perfect. Dinner was a homemade casserole enjoyed on the terrace.

We decided to head off to Milan the next day. It only took about 45 minutes; we parked the car on the outskirts of the city and got a cab into the Cathedral. Churches aren't really our thing, but we both enjoyed this one a lot. We spent an hour or more just wandering inside, even caught the midday prayer and bells. I was so happy I had my Rick Steves book in my bag. I pretty much followed his self guided tour, quite funny when I bumped into S and said 'how bout this, how bout that', and she had no idea. So she headed off for a better look. My favourite thing was 16th-century statue of St. Bartholomew, who was flayed alive, Woh, very cool. Without reading about it I would've had no idea that that lovely cloak he was draped in, was in fact HIS SKIN.

We all then made our way up to the roof and wandered around the spires. Worth it just for the views, but we enjoyed being up there and seeing some of the beautiful spires up close.

Lunch was at one of the outdoor cafes just off the square. Unfortunately I forgot to get a card (that’s how I remember the ones I like) we had pizza and Panini just perfect. The waiter had a 'friend' who lived in Australia, the only trouble was he was so excited to talk to us he forgot we couldn't speak Italian! Very funny. He helped me choose a lovely desert platter full of miniature deserts to share. Another great day. Dinner and drinks at the Picollo - Again

Me, Pumpkin soufflé, Steak with mushroom & potato and an orange strudel.
Dh, Aubergine Croquets, Veal and Tiramisu
M, Hare Paperadelle, steak & orange strudel
S, Duck Salad & pear & Choc cake

Another perfect meal our the Picollo.

Isola Comacina meal sounded incredible! Simple but sublime-they do it best in Italy, eh?

sounds great, aussie.

keep it coming.

****Happy Australia Day****

Woke the next morning to pouring rain, decided to head to Lecco for lunch, the rain just got heavier and heavier, there was quite a bit of localised flooding. We pressed on thinking we could spend the afternoon in a nice restaurant watching the rain. Not meant to be, Lecco was deserted all the lovely lake side cafes were all closed up. The rain was so heavy now; we pretty much decided to give up. Had a bite to eat at McDonalds as we were starving by now. Got absolutely drenched, headed home. Pasta at home this night, too miserable outside to even think about going out.

Woke to an amazingly beautiful day, yay as this was our last day on the Lake. Headed back for a drive to Lecco, WOH, what a beautiful place when the sun is out. Continued on to Varenna, what a lovely town. We've decided for us, this was the prettiest place on the Lake, Bellagio has the shops but Varenna has the amazing views and such prettiness.

We wandered around for a while then had lunch in a lovely place and for the life of me I can't find the name of it. It was set back from the Lake a little bit and all the tables were on a raised terrace, sorry. It was picture perfect and great service. The others all had butterflyed fish with salad; I had skewered fish with leek sauce, which was just yum. I've just re read my diary & I quote "That was yum but my fish was a little 'hairy'"

We caught the vehicle ferry back over to Menaggio and just meandered back to Carate Urio stopping and taking all our last photos. We'd decided that our last dinner at the Lake 'had' to be at the Picollo, so this time we 'dressed up' and off we went.

We were greeted like friends and were given a glass of my new favourite drink, Prosecco, and toasted with the publican and his wife. Promises of returning were made and photos taken. We were given the most beautiful table in the restaurant with unrestricted views of the lake; it was a beautiful clear balmy evening.........sigh.

Me, I had a combination of the meals I'd previously ordered.
Dh, had a selection of local lake fish.
S, Orange fennel squid salad, duck & desert of banana mouse cake.
M, like me repeated his favourite dishes.

We were walked out by the publican and his wife and bid our farewells to the wonderful Picollo, bit sad really. (But we were to return soon )

Happy Australia Day to you too! Overcast day in Melbourne ad only about 20c. enjoying reading your report

I'm back,

We packed up and made the endless trips to the car, we were so wrecked by the time we actually left. Bit sad to be leaving the Lake, but we'd had a great 10 days there and were ready for our next adventure.

We had our next accommodation booked at a lovely village outside Asti, Refrancore. We took the better part of the day to get there, stopping in Alba for a very funny lunch. We were a bit late and he didn't have much left and no English spoken and Italian from us. The guy got one of his customers to translate, again made it real fun. Stopped in a little town called Tezzo to have a look at a church.

We had arranged with our next landlord to meet them at their house to pick up keys etc at 5pm. This villa had been recommended to us by some Aussie friends who had previously stayed there. The owners are expat Aussies who have lived in the area for 15 years. So we get to their beautiful home and us Aussies do like to chat to other Aussies, we sat under their beautiful pergola in their vineyard and drank several glasses of wine, chatting about Italy & Australia. Eventually we all headed into the village to settle into the villa. M & S were only with us another 3 nights before heading home, we were going to stay a week, but actually stayed a bit longer. The villa was amazing.

http://www.casaregina.info/

We had the bedroom on the top floor; M & S had the next floor down. Ground floor was the kitchen and living, and then there was the wonderful cantina, a lovely cellar c/w dining table and endless bottles of wine for our use, just perfect.
Our landlords, D & C took us for a walk around the very small village, showed us where to buy our basic food stuff, where to eat etc. Even introduced us to a few locals, which was lovely. They had lots of ideas for us, from restaurant suggestions, to picnic invitations and shopping expeditions. I knew this was going to be a wonderful week.

We had dinner in the local pub, which was just okay and had an early night. It had been a very big day. As M & S didn't have much time, we offered to drive them to the Cinque Terre the next day, they had some relatives who were going to be there that day and loved the opportunity to catch up with them and get to see the lovely Cinque Terre. We would be there later for four nights, but were happy to go there for a look.

So after a blissful sleep in our huge bed we headed off. We all enjoyed the drive to Monterosso, found the car park down by the water with no problems, actually I think we followed 'Ricks' directions. Took a gentle stroll, the weather was amazingly beautiful, then met up with M&S's relatives and left them to it. We caught the train to Manarola (which is where we would be staying later on) and had lunch in a lovely little restaurant. The best Mussels I've ever eaten and DH had prawns.

We then walked up the hill to see if we could find our hotel/B&b. Which we did, checked out where to park the car when we actually drive there and had a great walk around the area. Even found TRATTORIA DA BILLY was just a couple of doors away, . Then we just meandered back to the train, running into a lovely couple from Canberra. After a long chat they invited us in for a wine, which was lovely of them, but alas, it was time to catch the train.

Met up with M & S and had what I thought was the best Gelato of the trip (later to be outdone) and started the drive home. We were all very content with what was a lovely day. And in fact, we didn't get to see the Cinque Terre so pretty again, the skies were clear and blue, just delightful.

We took a walk around the village when we got home, and decided on a home mad ragu pasta from the lovely little deli for dinner. Perfect.

sounds like a perfect day, aussie.

I love the look of the house in Asti. How did you find it?

Sorry thought I mentioned but now I can't see it. Some friends here in Australia had stayed there the previous year, it had been recommended to them as well. It was perfect, in fact the photos on their website don't do it justice.

Thanks for sticking with me annhig

Your Lakes stay sounded wonderful. Agree with annhig about the house near Asti.

Keep it coming, please!

This was the last day for M & S, we decided to head to head to La Morra for lunch, stopping for a quick look around Asti on the way. Great looking market. It was a fantastic drive to La Morra, through some beautiful countryside & rolling hills of vineyards. Just lovely, La Morra itself is on a hill with the most amazing view of the Piedmont valleys.

Our landlords, D & C suggested we have lunch at Vinarte Enoteca. It’s a lovely small wine bar/restaurant; we chose to eat outside in the area near the car park but great views. This really tested our lack of Italian, as no English was spoken, so we had a great lunch albeit a bit mixed up, starters being served last etc, quite funny. This was the first place that the ladies bathroom became an issue for me. I'd managed to make it this far into the trip not having to use a 'pit/drop' toilet. I was surprised that it was the only option. So let’s just say, I didn't drink very much with lunch and wanted to go home very quickly! You will be 'happy to know' I did later get over my little phobia.

I had luscious thin slices of veal with a tuna mayo for starters and a burnt butter and sage ravioli.
Dh Had the mixed antipasto platter for starters, which was the dish of the day & Spaghetti Bolognese for mains.
S had Cheese plate (1st!! it should've been last or second to last) & also the Ravioli.
M had Grilled peppers and garlic sauce & Ravioli.

An absolutely delicious lunch and although there were a few mix-ups, the service was fantastic.
Dinner that night was pizzas from our local Wood Fired Pizza place in Refrancore.

The next morning we had to head to Milan to drop M & S off for their flight home. We had plenty of time to get there so called into sacro monte di crea, a lovely hill top church with masses of history and interesting stories. We all really enjoyed wandering around this very pretty place.

Felt weird driving away from the airport and it was 'just us' again. But we were both looking forward to a day on our own before our next 'visitor' arrived. We had a lovely walk around 'our' village before heading back to our villa. D & C were there waiting for us, so we spent the next hour or so having a lovely glass of wine and planning the rest of our time in Refrancore.

We woke to a gloomy rainy day, but the weekly markets were on in Refrancore. We met D & C at the 'pub' for a morning coffee and then we all wandered through the small but fabulous market, buying supplies for dinner. Then we packed a 'picnic' lunch and went for a drive to Burolo and stopped at a lovely modern winery. Wasn't sure it was actually open, but a lovely man saw us in the car park and came and got us. He took us up to a lovely room overlooking the vineyards and we did a tasting. €10ea but when we bought wine he gave that money back. We walked out of there with a carton of Chardonnay, and he saw me looking at a lovely apron and corkscrew and as we were leaving he gave them to me with his compliments. It was a lovely afternoon. Except we had our picnic in the car at a beautiful lookout, in the RAIN!

Dinner was an amazing rolled/season rabbit breast from the market. YUM. Didn't sleep to well that night, DD#2 had boarded her flight from Brisbane to Milan........Yay, I was so excited to see her.

Next we drive to the Milan airport to collect DD#2 via the Mont Blanc tunnel!!!!

The next morning the rain had cleared, we had planned on a picnic in a vineyard with D & C , but they dropped by to say the ground was too wet and we had to cancel. So we decided to go for a 'little' drive & headed up to where Italy, France & Switzerland intersect. Why I hear you ask? Why not I say!

What fun, we decided to avoid autostradas and stay on the minor roads. Got to see lots of villages and amazing scenery. We found ourselves at the Mont Blanc Tunnel with no real idea of where were going. You can imagine the toll booth operators surprise when she asked where we were going and we said; well actually we are on our way to Milan. She felt she needed to explain that Milan was actually behind us and we were about to enter France! She laughed when we said that’s okay, we want to go through the tunnel anyway. So we paid our €40 and off we went. We loved it, we had a lovely drive around Chamonix, saw a Glacier and some beautiful scenery and then headed for Milan.

We then started our airport ‘run’. DD#2 (Sam) was arriving into Malpensa airport later in the evening but first we had to go to Bergamo Airport to collect DD#1’s (Bec) boyfriend and his mate who were flying in from London.

(……… Bec had to fly home to Australia for a wedding, her BF stayed in London. One of his mates went to London from Australia for a visit, coincidently the wedding was at the same time Sam was to come to Italy for a visit. So Bec was home in Aus while the rest of us were in Italy………..confused?)

We collected the boys and it was lovely to see them, then headed to Malpensa to get Sam’. Boy we were happy to see her, we’d been gone from home for 2 months which is the longest we’ve been apart. She’s 22 and up until this weekend still lived at home. So we had a lovely ride back to Refrancore chatting and catching up. We all slept well and slept late.

Hi again, I've been busy planning our UK visit in May & moving DD#2 out of home, I'll push on now with this TR. I'm determined to finish it.

The 'kids' all slept well, they obviously cope with jetlag better than us old folk . We had a special dinner planned for this evening so after a sleep in and a breakfast of pastries bought from our local baker (nice but nothing like the French ones) the others all wanted to head to a shopping outlet. So we headed to SERRAVALLE outside Milan. We all really enjoyed it, lots to see.

Dinner was at CASCINA MADONNA in Refrancore.

http://www.agriturismocascinamadonna.it/piemonte/agriturismo.htm WOH. This is the sort of place you wouldn't really find on your own, D & C recommended it to us. I was a bit worried, needlessly as it turned out, that the 'kids' might not enjoy it. How wrong I was, it’s an 11 course Degustation menu. It is actually a B&B as well, and the dining room is in the main house. We were fortunate enough to have the dining room to ourselves and it was wonderful, the service was the best we experienced. An unforgettable night for us all, highlighted I think by the fact I 'had' to drive home. Fortunately for everyone it was only about 1.5kms, but it was raining and I was on the 'wrong' side of the road in the 'wrong' side of the car. But we made it home and spent the next hour talking about our wonderful night.

There is no choice in the menu, food just keeps coming, and if you finish one course with no leftovers you are immediately asked if you would like more. We learnt to say 'no thanks'. The same with the wine and one of the boys doesn't drink wine so the lovely waitress took him into the lounge area and told him to help himself to the liquor cabinet!

We ate,
Pancetta mozzarella balls.
Chicken Insalata
Quiche
Cheese & walnut risotto
Potato & mushroom Ravioli
Roast Chicken & Potato with rosemary
A beef dish that had a slight curry taste.
Coffee mousse
Lemon pastry puff
ice-cream balls tossed in cocoa
& coffee

I can nearly taste it now, just wonderful.

The next day we were all a little 'slow' but the 'kids' were heading to Barcelona for a few days, so had to get them to the airport. Then DH & I just took our time driving home the scenic way, which for us means avoiding autostradas.

Next comes a wonderful couple of days in Refrancore. But also the dreaded phone message from Sam in Barcelona asking me to call as they were all in the police station.................ahhhhhh

the meal looks fabulous - but we have to pay for our pleasure, don't we?

Alas I fear you may be right annhig!

The next day was wonderful; D & C (our landlords in case you've forgotten) offered to take us into Asti for the day. What fun, we visited two antique linen markets, WOH. I bought 2 pairs of pillow cases and a beautiful bedspread. I was umm and ahhhing about the bedspread because although it’s not thick it’s quite heavy. D & C offered to bring it 'home' to Brisbane as they were coming for Xmas. Yay! Next we went to their favourite coffee shop for coffee and snacks; we also got to meet some of the locals they know. Then we moved onto a wine bar, the whole bar was covered in help yourself 'nibbles' and the runniest yummiest blue cheese.

Next was lunch, they took us to a lovely Bistro, 'Eatily', divine. Me chicken salad & Dh had veal, and they chose a lovely bottle of red wine. Attached to the bistro is a fantastic deli/shop. I spent a good half an hour in there, bought spaghetti, jam, olives and a really 'funky' red canvas Eatily bag. As you've probably picked up on, my souvenir shopping is a bit different. But I have to tell you, every time I use that bag I think of Asti....sigh.

We headed home for a rest, and then D & C came back into town and took us to the local Cantina/Winery in Refrancore. Run by two cousins, the funniest friendliest pair of guys you could ever meet. They insisted (oh, ok!!) that they show us around their winery and they had just started to press some grapes. What fun and we had a tasting too. We bought a carton of white and one of red and then they hand us the bottles we'd tasted out of and said here you may as well have this too. Yay, but as we were leaving the next day we gave them to D & C.

As we were leaving I got a text from Sam (DD#2) to say that she had been 'attacked' by gypsies in Barcelona and she was in the Police station. Like that won’t get your heart racing. Long story short, the three of them were on the beach and fell for a 'massage scam'. They agreed to and paid for massages and when it was finished the girl asked them for the money. Sam 'reminded' her that they had paid already. Next thing a 'gang' of them appeared, people around tried to stop it all but there were too many of them. The two boy’s grabbed sam and they ran up off the beach. The original girl then came after sam with a lump of wood. Eventually the police came; of course they all took off then. Very scary, but we were happy that the police took it seriously.

The 'kids' had to fill out a report and look through a bunch of photos, with no success. At least they had heeded my warning and only had a small amount of cash on them (which they ended up throwing at this gang to try and get them to go away) and all their valuables were locked up safely in the hotel.

So she was very shaken and didn't really want to stay in Barcelona. But she calmed down and they tried to make the most of it. They all love football (Sam works for our State League team here at home) so they thought they would go and tour the stadium. That didn't work out either, mass transit strike, they couldn't get anywhere. Then they walked to a local Hard Rock Cafe and got caught up in a huge riot (transit workers protesting), police shooting rubber bullets the whole deal. So in the end they spent the next two days 'enjoying' room service and swimming in the pool. Such a shame. Sam doesn't have the same adventurous spirit as Bec (DD#2) so this didn't help her at all.

Next we are back to the Lake for a night then off to the Cinque Terre.

Aussie, so sorry that your sam had such a bad time in Barcelona. We were there for 3 days, and apart from a [possible] attempt by a girl to dip DH's pocket on the metro, saw no problems at all. Travel is so subjective isn't it? she's probably hate Barcelona for ever, now!

I too collect bags when I travel, so you're not alone. I have a canvas one from a trip to the US over 20 years that I keep my library books in, a hessian one that i got when i bought a dress in Italy that I keep my italian books in, a..well, you get the idea. and evey time i use them, I can remember the trip we made.

let's get back to the lakes, then!

Thanks so much annhig, I'm sure theres others reading (well I hope there are) but I'm sure you know how much it means to 'know' that I'm not 'talking to myself here" ha ha ha Thanks for sticking with me, back to the lake later today.

Yes, there are other readers out here. I just don't comment because I'm too jealous!

Wonderful trip report. I too have been watching for and reading each post.

Here we go:

We farewelled lovely Refrancore vowing that we would absolutely be back, and headed back towards Lake Como. The next day we were going to be meeting our dear friends from Melbourne at the Cinque Terre. But as they were having a couple of days on the Lake we decided to surprise them, they had told us the night before that they were off to Varenna for the day, so that’s where we headed. We'd booked into 'our' lovely Picollo hotel for the night but drove around to Varenna first.

We rang them on the way and said we would meet them there for lunch, they were so excited and so happy. The four of us had been planning the next month for a long time. They are a couple we met on a holiday to Vanuatu about 15 years ago. Our two families are very close now which is just lovely. We've done a quite a bit of travelling together since. Both with our 'kids' and without.

We arrived a bit early so had a walk around and I was waiting for it, DH thought it would be a wonderful idea to walk up to Vezio Castle! It’s one of those things, I'm so glad I did it but it was hard work for me. But the views were worth every step as were the birds of prey.

We arrived back down by the ferry just in time to watch theirs come in, they stayed in Menaggio. What a lovely reunion. We had a bite to eat in one of the many nice cafes and just walked all over the town. We offered to wait in a bar while they walked up to the castle, but they declined. I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with my red face and that I was hyperventilating .

We then all caught the ferry across to Menaggio and we dropped them at their hotel. Coincidently they had booked the wonderful dinner on Comacina Island, so they were thrilled to hear how great it was. (& the best part is they bought me a bottle of the banana liquoer I had raved about )

We then drove up to Carate Urio to check into the Picollo. They were so lovely, and so surprised to see us back. They insisted on buying us a Preseco and having a drink with us. Fabulous!! Dinner was mostly a repeat of our favourite dishes from our previous stay, this time with lots of conversation with the hosts. They gave us what we think was probably the best room in the house, they only one we could see with a balcony with a view of the lake. What a magical night, and now that we've stayed there I have no hesitation in recommending for dinner and a room.

The next morning we were treated to a lovely breakfast and bid farewell to the Picollo. We were off to Malpensa airport to pick Sam up after her eventful couple of days in Barcelona. (The boys had flown directly back to London from Barcelona.) She was so happy to see us; we decided to head to the shopping centre across the road for lunch and a little look around. Then we made the drive to Manarola, which we enjoyed a lot. Found our way to the residence carpark that we had spotted on our earlier visit. We unloaded the car and made the trip down the hill, but not too far to our accommodation. DH then went to move the car to the public car park, but as it happened there wasn't anyone there and the only way in due to a closed boom gate, was in the exit. So we parked there and pretty much hoped for the best. As it turned out, there was no one there when we left four days later, so parking was 'free'.

We stayed at http://en.baranin.com/studio-manarola-cinque-terre which considering the trouble I had trying to find accommodation here was adequate, it was a little dated. Probably if it was just DH & I it would've been fine, but the extra bed in the room gave no real privacy. But as our friends, let’s call them.....Dave & Sue were also staying there, we pretty much just slept in our room and used theirs for getting together. They arrived about 7pm and we waited up the hill to help them carry their luggage.

Dinner was at the Hotel Marina Piccola, for no other reason than it looked nice and had a great view. We were all too tired to bother too much with picking and choosing. Sue & I shared a seafood risotto for two, Sam and David had Spaghetti Bolognese and DH had anchovies with tomato. All of which was above average and YUM!!!! If this is what the food is going to be like here, I knew I would be very happy.

Next day...................let the walking begin

Ps, I've just noticed in my diary that 'we' are up to October 1st, that means there is 'only' one month to go. Hang in there.

Still reading and looking forward to Cinque Terre. As we are staying in Manarola in September

You definitely have readers out here! My DH and I were in France this past July and I want to plan an Italy trip for Sept, 2012. I am hanging onto every word and will save this TR. You and your DH are so adventurous. Not certain I could get my DH to drive around Italy, although you're making it sound easy. And for us Americans, the car will at least be on the same side of the road.

Boy, life does really get in the way of a good T/R, doesn't it?

We woke next morning to rain, but the others DH, Sam and Dave & Sue were really keen to go on a walk. It was 'decided' that it would be a bit much for my poor old ankle, so I had a morning to myself. After a lovely slow morning I walked down to the station and caught the train to Monterosso. Found a lovely cafe on the water and enjoyed a cappuccino and enjoyed the view while catching up with some journal work. A very pleasant hour or two it was. The others were going to meet me there after their walk for lunch. They took a bit longer so I also enjoyed a prosecco.

Their walk took a little longer than they thought, and some of the trail was closed. So they walked from Manarola to Riomaggiori then caught the train to Vernazza & walked to Monterosso. They really enjoyed it, but said I was right not to go as it would have been too hard. (my ankle is no good on unsteady ground, so a trail that’s probably a bit unsteady anyway and the rain, I had no chance)

We had pizza and pasta for lunch in one of the cafes, I don't remember the name as it wasn't outstanding, but it was nice. We all caught the train back towards Manarola, Dave & Sue got off at Vernazza to have a look around. When we arrived back in Manarola DH decided he wanted to walk some more, so Sam & I headed back up the hill towards home. We stopped off for what was to be the BEST gelato EVER!! Sam had Choc Chip I had meringue & strawberry. WOH it was delicious. Not sure what the place was called but it was just a few doors up the hill from the pharmacy, do have one if you are passing and make it meringue!!!!

Dh came back an hour later with a camera full of lovely photos, including the process of lifting the boats out of the water. He'd even had a swim, although it wasn't really hot he said he just couldn't resist and he was the only one swimming. He said it was wonderful.

Dinner was at Trattoria Dal Billy's which was only a few doors up from our accommodation, which was very convenient. What a truly wonderful evening. The food was outstanding; the ambiance was fantastic and the staff just perfect. What a wonderful evening.

Sue & I shared a huge platter of mussels in tomato & white wine. DH had the antipasto platter. I had Anchovies baked in the oven with tomato & potatoes. Sam had a fillet of fish with fries & Dave had fillet mignon. Dh had the dish of the night. He ordered whole baked fish; the waiter proceeded to bring out a huge tray of fish that had been caught that day. DH picked on and got to choose how it was cooked, he opted for oven baked. It was spectacular and the waiters made such a fuss over which one he should pick and even when he had finished eating they insisted that I take a photo of what was left of the poor old fish with them all in it.

We had Panna Cotta c/w berries, Strawberry semi freddo which we all shared. Then they proceeded to pour us all a grappa, I'm sorry, I just can't stomach it. Poor old DH took one for team and pretty much drank ours for us.

This was absolutely a highlight meal of the trip and another wonderful day.

The next day was our last at Cinque Terre. The weather had cleared which was great. We all walked to Riomaggiore which is a lovely easy walk and very scenic. It was very crowded and I can't imagine doing this in July/August, I imagine it would be very hot and crowded. We made our way down to the ferry and stayed on it all the way back to Manarola. What a wonderful way to see the Cinque Terre in all its stunning glory. It was a little rough and very very crowded, but we managed an outside seat on the 'right' side of the boat, so it was very enjoyable.

We walked all around the old town, doing a spot of shopping and had pizza for lunch. We caught the train back to Manarola and pretty much just all did our own thing. Sam & I had a look in the shops and Dh decided he wasn't going to miss out on any of the walks so did the Manarola to Vernazza that they had missed the other time. He does love to walk.

No one felt like going out for dinner, so we sent Dave & DH out to source 'something'. Well they did good! They went to the place DH & I had had lunch on our first visit to Manarola and asked if he did takeaway, well no he doesn't but said he would be happy to. We nearly died when the guys walked back in with two huge china platters of pasta, one Bolognese and one scampi, bottle of wine and gelato for desert. The guy was so lovely and all he asked of the guys was if they wouldn't mind dropping the platters back. Not a problem, what a wonderful relaxing 'last supper'.

Next stop Tuscany (San Gimignano) via Pisa!

I'm reading, I'm reading. Please go on!

ditto me - and trying to stop drooling tooo much.

I'm following... love all the details!

Thanks all for the confidence booster

We set off 'dragging' our luggage up the hill towards the car, DH had already been up once and moved the car back down to the residence car park. We had decided that we would call into Pisa to have a quick look at the Tower; we'd heard so many mixed reviews so figured a 'quick look' to tick it off the list would suffice. We had also heard that it could be a real pain to get to, but with advice from this site and our now very trusty Rick Steves book it was a synch.

We pretty much followed the signs to Centro & about 1km short of the city there was the massive car park we'd read about. Lots and lots of parking, so we parked (I think it was free?) and jumped on an orange bus and we were on our way to the Field of Miracles. We loved it! We are sure because we hadn't built it up too much we were pleasantly surprised.

We spent a couple of hours wandering the markets (buying more tea towels ) and taking the obligatory Leaning Tower photos. I found the whole area really lovely, obviously not the markets part of it, but the Tower, Duomo etc was great.

Got the bus back and started our drive to San Gimignao, which we thoroughly enjoyed. You sure know you are in Tuscany. We had spent quite a few hours researching and deciding where to stay. Time well spent as it turned out, WOH!

http://www.agriturismoniccolai.it/torrepalagetto/en/apartment_lorcio.php We shared this apartment with Sam' and Dave & Sue had Mezza Torre, both rooms were perfect, the location was just outside the walls of San Gimignano on a working farm and we loved it.

On checking in we were asked if we wanted to book in for dinner in the 'Barn' this evening, we figured it would save us finding a restaurant after such a big day. So we headed into beautiful San Gimignano for a look around and fell in love with the place. When we were leaving Refrancore our landlords said they wished we had booked somewhere else for our Tuscany stay, as they found it too touristy etc. Yeah I guess it is, but we are tourists and we loved it.

So we got ready for dinner and strolled through the vineyard to the 'Barn', WOH! It was just beautiful and when we walked in we realized that there was only one table set, yay. We had the place to ourselves. Two lovely ladies greeted us and handed us our first of many wines for the night all of which were included in the very reasonable price of €35ea. Again no choices to be made, this is a set menu and we love the idea.

* An antipasto platter
* Egg & Cheese soup, woh!
* Two types of quiche
* Bacon wrapped cheese
* Spaghetti Pomadoro (Sams favourite pasta)
* The most amazing Roast Pork and veg
* Biscotti and a liquor
* Coffee

The food was completely outstanding and the two ladies who spoke no English and of course our Italian is limited to the simplest pleasantries, were just so lovely.

I know I keep saying "another wonderful" day, but it was!

We had a sleep in and a cooked breakfast the next morning and all jumped in one car and headed to Sienna. Another nice drive and using 'Ricks' advice we parked at the stadium. We opted to walk into the square and we all enjoyed it a lot. We just strolled around the square and Cathedral, ducking into shops etc. We 'girls' had a lovely time wandering around the market stall and buying lots of silk scarves. They made lovely gifts and were quite reasonably priced. Okay so they weren't all gifts We all sat in one of the many cafes in the square and had a coffee and people watched for about an hour, what fun.

Went back into San Gimignano and had a slice of pizza and meandered around for a couple of hours. Picked up some beautiful olive soaps & lovely cotton table cloths with grapes, olives on them, they are lovely to use and every time I put one on the table I'm taken back to our time in Tuscany. Again they were very reasonably priced, not the quality of my beautiful one from Burano Island but great everyday ones.

Dinner was a homemade roast chicken on our lovely terrace.

The next day we headed for Florence, again using 'Ricks' advice and our wonderful satnav, we went straight to the Michelangelo free car park. We actually have some wonderful photos from there, the views are fantastic. Jumped on one of the buses and headed into the city. The others all toured the Duomo and climbed the Bell tower. Sam & I headed off to have some 'girly' shopping time and a nice lunch, Sam had pesto pasta and I had trio of pasta. yum, Porcini fettuccini, lasagne & ravioli.

On meeting up with the others we walked all around, dropping into a couple of leather shops and was very nearly tempted but alas we live in tropical Queensland and don't have much call for leather jackets. Walked across the Ponte Vecchio enjoying the lovely shops, again I was tempted...........

Got a bus back to the car park and spent quite a bit of time there enjoying the views and buying yet more scarves . Dinner was homemade Fajitas, we are all enjoying some home cooking.

The next day Dave & Sue headed off to Voltera for the day, I'm pretty sure it’s where they filmed some of the Twilight movie; Sue is a fan so was keen to see it. We pretty much just lazed around, we did go into San Gimignano for lunch (including a parking ticket......grrrr) but pretty much spent the afternoon by the pool, reading and catching up on some correspondence and planning the next bit of our trip.

Quite funny when Dave & Sue returned they also had a parking fine!!! From the exact same spot, no, it was signed we just all misunderstood what it said.

Our last dinner in San Gimignano was at the restaurant La Griglia, which looked lovely but quite frankly was disappointing. The food was nice but the service was all over the place and zero atmosphere.

So it’s with reluctance that we were to leave beautiful Tuscany. We are off to Rome next and say a tearful goodbye to Sam'.

So, I've nearly finished this report, made a lovely photo book, had the extra photos printed (all 500 of them) and just finished captioning them. So I will make a huge effort to finish this report in the next few days, I am getting the 'bug' to really get serious about our next trip in May, but I've got this thing, 'I have to finish this first'. So bear with me while I try to get it finished.

We headed off quite early the next morning for our 3 hour drive to Rome; we wanted to give Sam a few hours in Rome before her 10pm flight home. We had all been to Rome before but last time for us it was at the end of a trip and we were all a bit tired and homesick, for Dave & Sue they had terrible weather on there last trip. The drive was great, the only issue was finding the car park, but we got to drive around Rome for a bit anyway

The apartment should've been an easy walk but we got a bit turned around, so us 'girls' jumped in a cab with all the luggage and he took us the short distance. Luckily he thought it was hilarious that the guys all but kept up with cab, so they didn't get lost again either.

The apartment was great, really great. We had booked through sleepinitaly.com but had an email from them while we were in Tuscany to say there had been a double booking and we had been moved. I was really concerned as I’d read that this can happen and you end up in a lesser quality apartment. I need not have worried, we were definitely upgraded. The place was great, location size comfort all perfect.

https://www.sleepinitaly.com/en/show-monserrato_attico-campo_dei_fiori-roma/appartam.php?id_appartam=21

We pretty much just dumped our luggage and headed out, firstly to the Pantheon, which is where we stayed previously, so were happy to start from there. Sam wanted McDonalds, so we all sat and people watched and took photos for a while, then headed to The Trevi Fountain for a quick coin toss and photo. The 3 of us then jumped into a cab and headed to the Colosseum, Dave & Sue wandered off on their own. DH had done the tour of the Colosseum on our last trip but we hadn’t, so we all went in. We really enjoyed it, Sam too. Oh and of course Sam had to do the obligatory Gladiator photos out the front, funny really, everyone else payed their €5 and got one photo, Sam (who is a rather good-looking 22yr old) got about a dozen photos and he ‘insisted’ on a family one too. Not bad value hey?

We caught a cab back to the apartment to give Sam time to shower and have a rest. We then caught a cab to the airport, so glad we read up on what fare we should pay to the airport. Before we got in we negotiated the price and just as well we did, traffic etc, we would’ve paid more. Sam checked in with no problems, although I think the fact that she was having a little cry helped getting her extra luggage through, with just a warning. Her extra weight was due to the fact that we filled her suitcase with a lot of our bits and peices.
It was really hard to say goodbye, knowing it would be another month before we saw her again, but so glad that she had come over.


We spent the next day wandering around and loved every second of it. We walked to the Vatican, there were thousands of people there we think it was getting set up for our very own Mary Mackillop! We then followed the river round past Castel Sant’Angelo, stopping all the while for photo op’s. Made our way to the Spanish Steps and again took some great photos, next we walked to The Trevi Fountain. We ended up spending about an hour here, just sitting and people watching and taking lots of photos. (One of my favourite shots from here, is now my profile pic’) We even managed to watch a marriage proposal. Next we all walked over to the Forum, Dave & Sue didn’t bother going in they just went for a walk; we had entry covered as part of our Colosseum ticket, so figured we should go in. I think you can see just as much from the outside, but that’s just my opinion. We walked through National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II, Woh that’s an impressive building.

We then all walked back to our apartment via the post office to pay our San Gimignano parking fines. The lovely man at the post office thought it was hilarious that we both got one . We sure covered some ground this day.

Dinner was the restaurant just outside our apartment, Ristorante Pierluigi, really nice and great service but we thought too expensive, considering the dining options available. So that’s Rome done, we head off to Sorrento next via Tivoli Gardens and possibly the worst accommodation we’ve ever seen.......................

The lovely man at the post office thought it was hilarious that we both got one . >>

are you sure he wasn't laughing at the fact that you were paying the fines? that was probably a first for him.

looking forward to Sorrento - I think.

We headed off to Tivoli next, Woh Villa d'Este is amazing. I thought after Versailles I would never see a garden as fantastic, although yes its different to Versailles it is truly beautiful. The fountains and water features are just amazing.

Drove on to Sorrento next, awesome drive, we took some great photos as we drove down the hill. Now the accommodation! This is one of the places that I spent a lot of time researching Agritourism places. I found a great book (although now I'm not sure how great) Alastair Sawday's Go Slow Italy and picked a farm stay on the ridge between Sorrento and Positano. http://www.letore.com/ We figured with a car we could divide our time between the two.

We were really drawn to it by the idea of staying on a local farm, eating great produce & maybe getting to know our hosts. The drive into the place was rustic and thats fine, that’s what we were after. But the closer we got to the house the more worried I became, everything appeared overgrown and really untidy. On arriving at the house it looked ‘dishevelled’ for what of a better word. The others were laughing at me for being so concerned and said we were surely in for a lovely surprise! A lady came out to meet us and again, dishevelled is the only word I can use. She pointed to an extension of the house that was to be our ‘apartment’ for the next 4 nights. We tried not to be put off by the dirty old sofa by the front door, c/w 2 chained dogs.

Sue who is an animal lover and figured as they were there they would be okay, gave one of them a pat and proceeded to be ‘grabbed’ on the arm by one of the dogs. Firstly it was playful, until she realized it wasn’t going to let go. A man came running from the house and helped her. It actually broke skin on her arm. So undeterred in we went, YUK. Old smelly and not really clean, everything had a grimy feel to it, the sink was actually dirty c/w left over crumbs etc from previous users. We went upstairs to see if maybe the bedrooms were okay. No they weren’t, I can still smell that smell, you know the one I mean, sort of musty and damp. I even pulled back the not quite clean bedspread to have a look at the sheets.......................shudder, I guess they were white, once?

So, now I’m crying, I just felt so responsible, Dh is just saying don’t worry, let’s just leave, Dave is just trying to make me stop crying and Sue is laughing hysterically. It was decided that we would leave, and that Sue would be our spokesperson we all went into the office and tried to explain that it wasn’t what we were expecting and that we would be leaving. The lady got really upset, which I did feel bad about, but hey as my granny used to say, “It doesn’t cost much to be clean”! So it was agreed that we would forgo our deposit and cut our losses.

Now its about 5pm and we have no where to stay. We just started making our way back down to Sorrento stopping at some of the hotels along the way, without much luck. Finally got to http://www.lavuedor.com/ and it was great, we originally just booked in for 1 night and were going to work out what to do the next day. But we were all really happy with the price, location and accommodation that we stayed all 4. From memory it was €100per room per night and it was a nice size room with a balcony c/w views of Sorrento. We pretty much just ‘dumped’ our luggage and headed to the bar it had been a very stressful afternoon. The other good thing about this hotel was the restaurant, we had a beautiful fish dinner and the waiter was a scream, ended up being a lovely night, ending with a coffee on our balcony’s (we were next door to each other) enjoying the beautiful view.

All’s well that ends well.

We headed off to Tivoli next, Woh Villa d'Este is amazing. I thought after Versailles I would never see a garden as fantastic, although yes its different to Versailles it is truly beautiful. The fountains and water features are just amazing.

Drove on to Sorrento next, awesome drive, we took some great photos as we drove down the hill. Now the accommodation! This is one of the places that I spent a lot of time researching Agritourism places. I found a great book (although now I'm not sure how great) Alastair Sawday's Go Slow Italy and picked a farm stay on the ridge between Sorrento and Positano. http://www.letore.com/ We figured with a car we could divide our time between the two.

We were really drawn to it by the idea of staying on a local farm, eating great produce & maybe getting to know our hosts. The drive into the place was rustic and thats fine, that’s what we were after. But the closer we got to the house the more worried I became, everything appeared overgrown and really untidy. On arriving at the house it looked ‘dishevelled’ for what of a better word. The others were laughing at me for being so concerned and said we were surely in for a lovely surprise! A lady came out to meet us and again, dishevelled is the only word I can use. She pointed to an extension of the house that was to be our ‘apartment’ for the next 4 nights. We tried not to be put off by the dirty old sofa by the front door, c/w 2 chained dogs.

Sue who is an animal lover and figured as they were there they would be okay, gave one of them a pat and proceeded to be ‘grabbed’ on the arm by one of the dogs. Firstly it was playful, until she realized it wasn’t going to let go. A man came running from the house and helped her. It actually broke skin on her arm. So undeterred in we went, YUK. Old smelly and not really clean, everything had a grimy feel to it, the sink was actually dirty c/w left over crumbs etc from previous users. We went upstairs to see if maybe the bedrooms were okay. No they weren’t, I can still smell that smell, you know the one I mean, sort of musty and damp. I even pulled back the not quite clean bedspread to have a look at the sheets.......................shudder, I guess they were white, once?

So, now I’m crying, I just felt so responsible, Dh is just saying don’t worry, let’s just leave, Dave is just trying to make me stop crying and Sue is laughing hysterically. It was decided that we would leave, and that Sue would be our spokesperson we all went into the office and tried to explain that it wasn’t what we were expecting and that we would be leaving. The lady got really upset, which I did feel bad about, but hey as my granny used to say, “It doesn’t cost much to be clean”! So it was agreed that we would forgo our deposit and cut our losses.

Now its about 5pm and we have no where to stay. We just started making our way back down to Sorrento stopping at some of the hotels along the way, without much luck. Finally got to http://www.lavuedor.com/ and it was great, we originally just booked in for 1 night and were going to work out what to do the next day. But we were all really happy with the price, location and accommodation that we stayed all 4. From memory it was €100per room per night and it was a nice size room with a balcony c/w views of Sorrento. We pretty much just ‘dumped’ our luggage and headed to the bar it had been a very stressful afternoon. The other good thing about this hotel was the restaurant, we had a beautiful fish dinner and the waiter was a scream, ended up being a lovely night, ending with a coffee on our balcony’s (we were next door to each other) enjoying the beautiful view.

All’s well that ends well.

Sorry about the double up, I lost power while submitting...............and then it submitted twice.

lol, aussie, if you read down towards the end of my Iceland TR you'll see that we had a similar experience, except that we weren't bright enough to make our excuses until the following morning. you definitely made the right decision.

Next morning we used the free hotel shuttle to get down into Sorrento, as we wanted to catch a bus to Positano and a ferry back around to Sorrento. After a huge overnight storm it was a beautiful day, so we were really looking forward to it. It was a great ride over and around to Positano, although Dh kept saying how much he would've preferred to drive.

The bus dropped us at the top of Positano and thanks to Dave who has a 'thing' about counting steps; we walked 600 steps down to the water front, boy that was hard work with a 'dodgy' ankle. But it was well worth it.......or so we thought!

Made our way to where all the boats were to organise the ferry back before we had our lunch and a look around, only to discover they were all cancelled as the seas were too rough. Boy we were disappointed, especially when we realized we had to get up the top again to catch a bus

But we made the most of it, by having a wonderful lunch at Chez Black on the waterfront. Pasta & pizza all round and it was lovely, a great place for people watching.

Then we spent an hour or two making our way back up the hill, stopping in some of the lovely shops along the way. Catching the bus was a nightmare, sure wish we had driven. By the time the second bus arrived FULL we'd had enough and followed the lead of others and hailed down a minivan (cab) and worked out a deal, we called for others who wanted to share and we split the €60 fair back to Sorrento, all up there were 8 of us so it worked out okay.

Dave & Sue were meeting up with friends at the Foreigners Club, so we just had a lazy evening in.

The next day we had planned to do a day trip to Pompeii, but the weather was terrible, heavy rain and wind. So we all enjoyed just hanging about in the very comfortable lounge area. We read, planned our Croatia visit, and caught up with correspondence etc, actually a lovely day. We did catch the free shuttle into town for lunch at Il Fauno Bar, which was becoming a favourite drop in place (great casual menu) and had dinner in the hotel again, we were all really happy with the meals there.

Next our day trip to the Isle of Capri.

The next day we used the shuttle again to get down to the ferry terminal in Sorrento. We had decided to go to the Isle of Capri, none of us had done too much research but while we were in line a guy was 'selling' tours of the island. Now this is not something we would normally do, but as we had no real plans we signed up, €20ea. As it turned out it was great, after a very scenic cruise over on a very crowded ferry, it was great to have a mini bus waiting for us. We probably wouldn't have known how to get up to Anacapri & Mount Solaro.

So the minibus dropped us off with instruction on how to find the chairlift, so we decided to do that straight away. Woh, just fantastic, the views are spectacular, really amazing and the chair lift ride was peaceful and beautiful. We had pizza in a place the guide recommended, don't worry, it was great, tasted very authentic. After a look around we headed back down to Capri town, where we walked and walked. The tour included two short guided walks of each place, which we quite enjoyed. But we loved just meandering along looking at the beautiful high end shops and amazing views. What a pretty pretty place.

Dave and Sue wanted to go and see the Blue Grotto, I had had a bit of fall & was feeling a bit shaky, so they headed off on their cruise (which they said was quite disappointing because as suspected they didn't get to go into the Grotto) and we caught a ferry back to Sorrento. We met them later at the foreigners club for an awesome dinner. Strange sort of place, but the views are awesome and the food fantastic, antipasto and pasta all round, perfecto.

We checked out quite early the next day, we were to catch a ferry from Bari to Croatia at about 11pm but wanted to call into Pompeii on the way to Bari. Absolutely fantastic, we thoroughly enjoyed Pompeii, our only regret was that we didn't have a full day to enjoy it and we should've got a guide. We did do the audio guide but I'm sure we would've got more out of it with a guide. But as it happens we got 3 hours in before the heavens opened up, so we took it as a sign and set off for Bari

We arrived in Bari in the dark in the middle of a massive thunder storm, found our way to the ship and checked in. I can't believe I've condensed that down to one sentence! check in took nearly two hours and we were about number 6 in the line, the storm got worse and worse and we were drenched. But still fun. Drove onto the ship, after 'cruising' through customs (it seemed every other car was searched, seems our Aussie passports have some pull )

We'd booked cabins with private bathrooms and were glad we did, although they were 'basic', it had all we needed. So we headed up to the restaurant and had a bit of dinner, pretty terrible, but okay and we all sure felt like a drink or two. The rain had cleared so we went up on deck for a while to say goodbye to Italy, sigh.

Not a bad night, but we all did take tablets and I just couldn't get it out of my head that we were on a ship, so felt every sway. Woke quite early and went onto the deck to see Dubrovnik come into view, although the heavens had opened back up and it was pouring. The others had breakfast in the restaurant; my stomach wasn't feeling like food.

Easy drive off the ship and again an easy run through customs.
Welcome to Dubrovnik!

Again we spent a lot of time researching where to stay in Dubrovnik and were so glad we did.

http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p463056?emailrefid=72&emailcatid=0&stf_user_ID=0

With great direction from the very lovely Ivona we made our way to the BUZA GATE & found a park in the public car park. It was far too early to get into the apartment so we grabbed our coats and umbrellas and headed into the old town. What a beautiful city, we walked down the steps past our apartment and spent ages just wandering around, lovely way to see it, hardly any people. But oh dear the rain, we were wet through we sat at one of the cafes half way back up the steps, that now resembled a waterfall and had lunch. There was so much water on the ground that we sat with our feet up on the table legs to keep them out of the water.

Lunch was Punjena paprika mince stuffed peppers c/w potato mash. Oh my goodness, yum, just what these hungry tired wet travellers needed. Made our way back to the cars and all got changed, yep right there in the cars, it sure felt good to be dry. Just then Ivona rang us to say the apartment was ready, but she was disappointed to say she'd been held up and her parents were going to meet us.

What lovely people, helped us 'drag' all our stuff inside and then insisted we sit and have a drink with them. Now I don't know what this was but it sure tasted like medicine, but they were so lovely we tried our best. They then spent time telling us where to eat, where not to eat etc. a really lovely start to our 4 nights in Dubrovnik.

We all just wanted to shower and stay in, so DH headed off to find dinner supplies. Yummy roast, perfect.

we're still reading. Love hearing about it!

Was the drink Campari?

Goody, you've reached Dubrovnik at last!

I've been lurking on this trip report (and enjoying it too!), waiting for you to get here.

There have been so few TRs about this glorious city in recent months, and I need my Dubrovnik 'fix' to bring all my memories flooding back.

The apartment looks great, and how nice to have a balcony view while still in the old town.

Looking forward to reading more...

No I'm pretty sure it wasn't Campari, which I also don't like, a litte bitter for my taste. It was a lot like Grappa but 'brown'.

Thanks for sticking with me, we're nearly done

The next day although a bit gloomy at least the rain had stopped. We decided to pile into one car & head off and drive to Bosnia for lunch, because we could! The drive along the coast is lovely but pretty much once we turned 'right' the scenery changed, barren is a word that comes to mind, quite rocky, but with lots of orchards which we thought were oranges, but now think were probably mandarins.

We had to pass through three border crossing/security checks, none of which were a hassle, but again everyone else seemed to be getting a thorough search we were waved through? 4 Aussies in a French car crossing into Bosnia, go figure!

We drove to Mostar, found a car park with a very helpful attendant who showed us into the hotel next door to use the bathroom and the lady in there told us stories of growing up in Bosnia during the conflict. So interesting to hear that the barren mountains around Mostar were once covered by dense forests, but during the war they were cut down for heating and cooking. She also talked about living in their basement and only coming out at night, just amazing isn't it that now here we are being 'tourists'?

Took a lovely walk around Mostar and its beautiful river & bridge. Went into the little museum/info place and watched a video on the bridge and how it was bombed, must've been absolutely terrifying. We lunched at one of the many cafes, my diary notes say that lunch was very 'meaty' all manner of kebabs. The Old Town had a very Turkish feel to it.

We also saw so many cats and kittens roaming around? We looked through all the market stalls, buying some scarves and some handmade slippers. Everyone was so friendly and ready for a chat. We loved the old second hand shop selling everything from bullets and helmets to home wares! We could not stop taking photos of that beautiful bridge.

Drove home, stopping this time at one of the many fruit stalls for what we thought was a bag of oranges but turned out to be mandarins and they were delicious, we ate the whole bag full on the way home

Dinner was half way down the steps to Moby Dicks, run by a local guy who married a lady from Australia. We'd spoken to him earlier in the day and we said we would be back for dinner. The food was great, Dave & Sue shared a kebab platter, DH had fish & I had a prawn and chopped salad, fresh and delicious.

If you've looked at the apartment photos you'll see that the living area down stairs does not have a tv or sofa, so we spent our evenings in 'our' room (where there is a both a tv & sofa)on the top floor, c/w small patio and amazing views of Dubrovnik .

The next day the rain was back with a vengeance, it poured. So we headed off towards Montenegro as it was on Sues must do list. Well, the rain just got heavier and heavier and the roads were becoming nearly impassable. Dh & decided to turn back, Dave & Sue kept going, I think they enjoyed having a look, but pretty much could not get out of the car due to the rain.

Dh & I took another drive along the coast, but in the end decided to give up. Found a supermarket then headed home, I washed, sorted out luggage and surprised the others with a nice homemade dinner. Dh went for a walk for about 2 hours and loved it, although he did come back wet through.

The next day we woke to beautiful sunshine yay. We headed off to walk the entire wall, it was amazing, so glad we did it, yes there are a lot of steps but easy enough and you are rewarded by amazing views. We stopped for a drink in one of the cliff side bar Buza Bar. Please don't hesitate to walk the full length of the wall it is just spectacular.

We then just all went our own way meandering around, Sue & I bought a few beautiful embroidered table runners etc, they are so lovely and it’s a real treat to see them in my house now, great memories.

We met up for lunch at the lovely Nautika just outside the Pile Gate, the views and the setting are wonderful. Didn't write down what we had but it was yum as were the cocktails we had.

Dinner was in again.

Next day we headed off to Orebić to catch a ferry to Korcula, great drive great cruise over. I'd be guessing Korcula is a very seasonal town and we were there mid October and it appeared it was being 'shut up' for the winter. But we really enjoyed ourselves, found a restaurant with great views. We ordered whole fish platters with salad, delightful. Spent a couple of hours enjoying the view and eating our beautiful fish. Walked around the village and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

This was our last night in Dubronik so headed back to Moby Dicks, too convenient to pass up for another lovely dinner, home early to pack up and get ready for Split!

Have been on vacation so it was good to catch up. May I ask what is Mary Mackillop? You mentioned that at St. Peters.

Am so sorry your DD had troubles in Barcelona. Many feel that the Italian and Spanish police turn a blind eye to the scams and begging. It certainly can cast a pall on a vacation.

Hi TDudette welcome home, Mary MacKillop (an Australian nun) was canonised on October 17 at St Peter's Basilica.

Yep unfortunately we all feel much the same way about Barcelona, but we know we were probably just unlucky.

Well aussiedreamer,this is one heck of a good trip report!
I was having a bit of a pity party today due to some ill health but I am all cheered up now thanks to you.

Thank you....and hoping for more!

Glad to hear raincitygirl.

So we left the next morning, leaving Dave & Sue skyping their kids. We all decided we would just head off separately and meet at the hotel, which we had book through online while in Dubrovnik, http://www.radissonblu.com/resort-split

We loved the drive, at one point the motorway pointed one way and the satnav said another. As the road to the motorway looked quite new we figured it was a fairly new road, and it was. Just fantastic, we sped along a great road but every now and then we would be detoured via small town as the road wasn’t finished. What fun, best of both worlds really. We stopped 'somewhere' when we saw a bakery, as we'd made a thermos of coffee that morning. We bought some beautiful jam/jelly donuts and pastries, as it was a long drive; we decided to have morning tea in the car. We both commented that we missed our picnics from France.

Found the hotel with no problem, it was wonderful, quite new I believe. The bonus was it was a spa hotel , so when the others arrived the 'boys' went for a walk and Sue & I had about 2 hours worth of pampering, bliss. Really needed it, was starting to 'burn out' I think.

The boys came back to say, and I quote, "well, if that’s Split, we've seen it" they walked for nearly 3 hours and gotta tell you they weren't too impressed. It was decided that we would eat in the hotel this night, we were quite early but the buffet was ready so we went for it. Just delicious, all the food was of a very high quality and the service was impeccable. The only negative was that I started to feel very unwell .

The next day I felt pretty ordinary but couldn't put my finger on it, but battled on . We headed into the township of Split and had a walk around. Had to agree with the boys, not much there, nice harbour, strange sort of old town, didn't really work for us. We were glad we'd found a great hotel. Set off for a drive to Trogir, nice place, again the scenery on the way isn't what you would say is 'pretty' but you are always rewarded with pretty views and lovely towns.

Another hotel dinner, as it’s so easy and yummy, but I had to pass this night. I was feeling horrid, hot & cold and headachy, oh no! Early night for me.

Woke next morning with a full blown head cold, yuck but we were on our way to the Plitvice Lakes National Park, so off we went. What a pretty pretty drive, we arrived in this stunningly beautiful part of the world, just after lunch and went in and got our passes and directions and advice on walks etc. It was decided we would head off on our first walk as not to waste the afternoon, we hadn't found anywhere to stay yet, but we'd seen lots of possibilities.

But first if you will indulge me I have a bathroom story to tell? Ok, so as you may have read I have avoided pit/drop toilets this whole trip. But now with tickets in hand and the prospect of at least a 3 hour hike I needed to 'go'. So off I went to the bathrooms located at the NP office. OH NO, yep no choice, I won’t go into it but let’s just say I did it and it was ok, JUST. So then we walk to where we were to catch the trolley to our first walk and there’s another bathroom amenities block near a cafe. So Sue decided she should go too, yep you guessed it, fully functioning flushing sit down loos!!!!!! I can still hear the others laughing hysterically. But hey, I did it and I've ticked it off my 'once before I die' list.

aussie, there is a real knack to using THOSE sorts of loos.

Fortunately or otherwise, I use them so seldom [about once or twice every time I go to France] that I forget it in between visits, and have to start all over again.

Sir Thomas Beeching said that you should try everything once except incest and morris dancing. do you think that we should add squat toilets to this list?

Ha Ha Ha, maybe we should. I just don't get it, how on earth do older ladies cope? One of my ankles has been fused, therefore it can't bend, making 'squatting' all but impossible. When I think about it sometimes it does make me laugh................

ann is right, there is truly a knack to it.

Good balance helps, if there isn't anything to hold on to, and it's important to pull your nether-wear(be it pants, knickers or trousers!) well forward!

Believe me (apart from the smell) the squat loos I have encountered in Bosnia, Croatia and France are but NOTHING to those I have had the misfortune to encounter on my ski trips to Bulgaria! Imagine a hole at the back of a wooden hut made of barely nailed-together planks suspended over a sheer drop down a rocky/snowy mountainside, and dealing with this in temps of minus god-knows-what with a bitter wind blowing into every crevice while wearing inflexible ski boots, ski pants, thermal long-johns, etc. Sometimes it would be nice to be a man...

Sorry to divert your trip report into darker regions, it was just to say well done for managing it at least once!

Hi Julia_t, oh no.....my DD who is currently living in London is off to Bulgaria on Saturday sking. I will forward your comment to her and have a giggle.

So after our little 'bathroom' exercise we were ready to go, we caught a trolley/bus to the start of walk 'E'. It’s funny, I remember sitting on the trolley thinking, mmmm yeah this is nice, nothing 'special'. Then WOH, we started walking on the boardwalk. The scenery just gets better and better, no photo can truly show the utter beauty of this place. The weather was clear crisp and very cool, perfect for walking. And to be there in autumn was just amazing. We spent a good 3 hours wandering through to the river where the boat picked us up to cruise us back to where we got another trolley to the car park.

Such an amazing place, but we had to head off to find accommodation for the night. Now this is where I'm crabby at myself, I cannot find the name of the B&B/Sobe we stayed at. We had to pay cash and I didn't take a photo, I've search accommodation websites and I just can't find it. I have sent out an SOS to Sue to see if she remembers.

It was wonderful, we literally just pulled into one that looked okay and we were pleasantly surprised. It was a house but purpose built as a B&B, quite new and local timber was used throughout, even the furniture was handmade. It was quite basic, but perfect for us. The bonus was, when we asked where we might get dinner he said "here, I do dinner every night, just let me know if you want meat or seafood"? Done, so we unpacked and got ready for dinner.

It was so lovely, in a smallish dining room with a few other guests, there was a two way fireplace heating the room. We chose 'meat', but started off with a lovely minestrone style soup then a massive platter of grilled meats c/w a lovely potato bake. Desert was cake and ice-cream. Just a perfect end to a wonderful day.

It was so cosy sleeping in our room with the window open and snuggling under a big doona, it was so cold out and there was a lot of ice on the ground.

We woke to a lovely breakfast and then headed back to the park to do walk 'F', the waterfall walk. We caught two different boats and then spent hours walking over/under/through the most spectacular waterfalls I've ever seen. Stunningly beautiful, can't begin to describe the beauty. If you haven't glanced through my photos, have a look, I tried to capture how amazing it is.

http://www.momento.com.au/gallery?category=Featured&cpid=286771&auth=4cf9b2994657c0.01058550

It was with some regret that our visit to the Lake was over but we had planned to go to Slovenia this night, so off we went. Satnav missed the turn to the Autostrada (couldn't have been us!!!) and we ended up driving through some beautiful villages, the scenery was a lot like Switzerland but the colours were like Tuscany. Border crossing was easy and they were very helpful in telling us that we would need to get permit sticker on our car to drive on the roads, even told us to just stop at the next service station to get it. Done!

We then drove onto Ljubljana with only an address of a B&B but no booking, found it without too many problems we had hoped to stay for 3 nights, but as it happens they could only put us up for 2. Worked out fine, and they were so lovely rearranging rooms etc so we could be next door to each other. Actually, we had a small sitting room that both rooms opened into. Perfect, we loved this place. http://www.slamic.si/en/index.html

So believe it or not we all wanted something simple and something we didn't have to think about for dinner, so we drove to a local McDonalds and we enjoyed every bite and slept like babies.

Next are caves and blizzards and we are nearly done.

Lovely photos. I've not made it as far north to Plitvice yet.

I don't suppose your daughter is the 'Rebecca' from Australia who is posting on the Bulgaria Ski discussion board with questions about her first ski trip to Borovets on Saturday?

Anyway, snow is forecast and I'm sure she'll have a wonderful time there. I've skiied there 3 times now and love it.

yep sure is one and the same, small world.

I am enjoying your trip report especially the latest sections on Croatia and Slovenia. We went to the southern Dalmatian coast for a few days last fall (from Sarajevo) and are hoping to go to Istria and Slovenia this fall.

Wow, small world!

I look at the Bulgaria Ski website daily, I miss not being there in Borovets this year, and reading other peoples questions, their excitement and anticipation, and hearing about the good times they had when they get back is the next best thing!

Tell Rebecca to try to get to the forum meet (GTG) if she can, Bobbi and Kas who post the snow conditions every day are really nice people. Bobbi used to be the Bulgarian ski jump champion back in the 1980s, and Kas is a Welsh lass. They are running the White House up at the top of the gondola this year. But she already 'knows' several people who'll be there next week from posting on the discussion board!

Gorgeous photos/book!

Had to laugh about the bathroom. I once told DH that I'd know my traveling days were over if I couldn't straddle a john with panties, purse and purchases in one hand, and TP in the other!

Thanks TDudette, I am a bit proud of it, the joke here is no one gets to leave my house without looking at 'the' photo book.

julie_t, I have passed your note on to Bec, she is so excited about going. She has so many other trips planned before she comes home in October (including up your way I believe), I can hardly keep up. I'll be with her again in May when we head back to the UK

Im so happy, Dh found the B&B at Plitvice Lake, it was in Jezerce.

http://www.booking.com/hotel/hr/plitvice-etno-house.html?aid=323684;label=pl

The next day it was decided that the others would head to Postojna caves, I wasn't up to walking/trekking so opted for a 'day off'. They had a great day and so did I, took my time and just wandered around Ljubljana, doing a bit of shopping and a bit of sightseeing , just loved it. The others were back by mid afternoon and we all went for a look around town, it was getting very very cold.

We checked out the next morning and headed to Skocjan caves. I was a bit worried as the websites and guide books, made it sound like it could be quite a hard walk. It was lovely and quite easy; we made it there for the first tour, just an amazing place, spectacular raging river that roars through the cave. The tour was in English and really informative.

Headed to Bled next, what a pretty lake side town. We were ready for lunch and headed to The Grand Hotel right on the Lake and had a lovely lovely lunch in the The Panorama restaurant. We had read that there was a local specialty here and felt we should try some. So we bought our lovely custard (Kremne rezine) to take away and had a wonderful walk around the Lake.

Drove on to Bohinj where we had booked our B&B for the night. http://www.booking.com/hotel/si/rooms-apartments-b-b-gasperin.html?aid=32479

Unfortunately it had started to rain and was bitterly cold, but we checked in and rugged up and headed out for a drive. What amazing scenery, we just followed the Lake around and turned off whenever we saw a small road and just drove on admiring the breath taking prettiness of this place. In the photo book, the photos of us throwing leaves in the air were taken on this drive. We even came across some really ‘cute’ fluffy cow’s c/w with cow bells, mind you when Sue got out to take photos they suddenly weren’t quite so cute!

We stopped off at one of the local 4* Hotels and had a yummy dinner, then just spent the evening at the B&b in the lounge, very cosy. Breakfast here was fine, very basic but all we needed. This was our last day with Dave & Sue as they were heading to Venice and we were beginning to make our way back to Paris, for our flight home, we were all going to meet in Paris before we fly out for one final dinner.

We all drove towards Bovec via the The Vršič Pass in the Julian Alps. Woh, the scenery is amazing and it was so cold and misty. We drove the 50 hairpin bends to arrive at the summit, each turn the scenery was more spectacular than the previous one. It felt like it would snow at any time. We had lunch at a Rick Steves suggested cafe in Bovec, which was hearty and delicious. So we said our sad goodbyes and parted ways.
Dh wanted to head to Innsbruk, Austria via the Brenner Pass, so we left Bovec and headed in that direction. Straight away we pretty much started climbing and this is where things took a bit of turn and my heart was in my throat for the next several hours!!

we spent a week of our honeymoon at a government run hotel on Lake bled, before the fall of tito. [yes, I'm that old - you wouldn't believe it to look at me, would you?]

it was lovely then, but I don't remember any local specialities, custard or otherwise.

Rick Steves' TV show segment about Slovenia was just on our PBS station. It had great footage of Lake Bled and is helping to push us toward vacationing there. There was a picture of a custard pastry specialty.

I thought you might like to see where Rebecca is at the moment - she's bound to be snapped by one of the many webcams at some point during the week! The big hotel in the last webcam pic is the Rila where she's staying.

http://www.bulgaria-hotels.com/en/borovets_webcam.html

awww thank you so much, I'm missing her terribly at the moment. I'll keep my eye on it.

We had the same amount of time in Rome in September; although it was our second trip we didn’t make the most of it last time. It was the end of a long trip and we were a bit burnt out.

This time we stayed near Campo dei Fiori in the apartment below, and it was a fantastic location.
https://www.sleepinitaly.com/en/show-monserrato_attico-campo_dei_fiori-roma/appartam.php?id_appartam=21

If you click on my screen name and go to my trip report (its long) and go to the feb 15 instalment you can can read how we managed to see the highlights in a very relaxed mode.

Good Luck

ooooopppppssssss I posted this 'answer' in the wrong place.
Sorry

Okay, back on track, had a stressful week and have decided to just stop thinking......and do something I enjoy. Sorry for the digression and the error in posting a Rome answer. Told you I was stressed.

So, we left Bovec and headed up a mountain towards the Brenner Pass. As we started to climb, the weather just got worse and worse, the rain got heavier and visibility was terrible. Suddenly the rain 'changed', it was now snow. You have to remember us Aussies are not at all familiar with snow, so while DH thought this was very exciting, I was terrified. It was absolutely beautiful but I couldn't help thinking how much worse it 'might' get.

Each turn we took it was worse, by now I am asking (okay demanding) that we turn back. I'm sure he was about to say, don't panic we'll be fine when we turned the next corner and it was a complete white out, snow everywhere and we couldn't see anything except the 4x4 that came from the other direction completely covered in snow. So, now he agrees, we have to turn back but picture the road if you will. Barely a two lane carriage way and we were on a curve, with a bank of snow on one side and a sheer drop on the other.

We both laugh now when we remember me asking what that horrible noise was and he replies, oh that’s just the wheels sliding on the ice. So after a 12 point turn we were on our way down, although the snow continued to fall we knew that the worst was coming from behind and we 'knew' we'd make it back down. Which we did, so now we are back in Bovec in the pouring rain. The only thing I kept saying was, get me back on an Autostrada NOW! So we pulled out our map and realised (a little late) that we were not going to Innsbruck or the Brenner Pass. So we decided to head 'up', got on an autrostrad heading towards Austria, I was so happy. The rain was heavy but as long as it wasn't snow, I was happy. Oh how naive that was!!!!!!

Within the hour the weather started closing in AGAIN, but I kept calm by thinking we'll be fine on this Autostrada and if not we will just pull off and stop for the day and re-assess. Famous last words! Before we knew it, it was snowing again and all the trucks coming in the opposite direction were covered in snow. I was sure this was some sort of cosmic joke. So it was decided that at the very next exit we were getting off and stopping. Too late, no exits and the snow was getting heavier and heavier.

So by now the traffic had thinned somewhat and there was really only really big trucks and US! So we stuck behind one of the semi's as at least they were churning up the ice on the road and traction was better. There was snow banks on both sides of the road and down the centre line, eventually the road was detoured down to one lane and a snow plough appeared but they were not ploughing any of the exits which were covered by at least 2ft of snow and god only knows how much snow was on any exit road anyway....oh great.

So, now it’s dark, we finally got to a toll booth, and thought that’s great we'll just ask them where can exit. The funniest part in hindsight was when DH put down the window to pay the toll and ask the guy, there was a sheet of ice he had to push off the car. So, when the guy finished laughing at us, we must have looked so panicked, he just said no exits, keep driving it’s just a snow storm. Oh that’s okay then!!!!!!!!!

So we had no choice we kept driving, we guesstimate we were on that road in the storm for upwards of two hours, when finally an open exit and we could see a 'large' town right by the exit. Off we went, oh the relief was amazing. So it was for this reason we found ourselves in Spittal Austria for the night. We didn't care what sort of accommodation we found; we stopped at the first Inn. I can't find the name of it, but it was 'just' a hotel and it was fine.

We made a coffee, laughed about our day and slept like babies. Woke to a beautiful clear day and had decided that we would head to Paris a few days early, we had arranged to meet Bec & her Bf there a couple of days before we fly home. They were getting there early anyway to see the Michael Buble concert, so we won a hotel on Priceline.com for the following night and just headed for France. The scenery (now that we could see it ) was spectacular. We drove as far as Forbach and stayed in an Etap for the night, great value, clean with everything we needed for €39. Dinner was cup a soup from a vending machine

Next we are in Paris for our last 5 nights of this amazing holiday. Clear sailing from here I promise.

We made our way to Paris the next day and headed straight for Gare du Nord to meet the kids, we had their arrival time and made it just in time. Parking was a bit of a drama, only that we wanted to park in the Gare du Nord parking station, but each time we tried to get a ticket an automated voice kept saying something, IN FRENCH! Luckily a lovely man stopped and told us that the garage was full and pointed us in the direction of another one.
The kids were thrilled to see us standing there. They had arranged to stay two nights with an old friend of theirs from Brisbane. So we drove them to the apartment and were thrilled to find that the hotel we had organised was only a couple of blocks away (in the 14th) Marriott Rive Gauche Hotel (€100 on priceline) was just perfect for us, beautiful room and we had parking and I was so thrilled to find they had a hairdresser. yay, first hair cut in 3.5 months.

We had a lovely late lunch in a nearby bistro and just had a wander around, bought another sim card for internet connection and just spent a quiet night in. The kids were off to the concert this night.

The next day we wandered along till we found a nice spot for breakfast, we loved sitting at the Indiana Bistro Avenue du General Leclerc, watching the world go by. We then headed off to get the car and go and pick the kids up for a drive out to La Vallee Village shopping outlet. What fun, although most of the shops were a bit high end, we loved the shopping centre ‘next door’. We spent the morning buying them some new coats and warm clothes for their first winter in the UK.

We dropped them back to the apartment; their host was taking them out to dinner. We wandered back up to Avenue du General Leclerc and found a wonderful fresh food market. We bought dinner picnic supplies, Roast Chicken, some of those wonderful roast potatoes that are often talked about, some salad and a bottle of wine. Thanks to the nice man in the hotel bar, we had some crockery and cutlery. We had our last picnic in Europe in our Hotel room, such fun.

The next day we checked out and wandered back to the same breakfast place and then headed off to collect the kids. We had booked two rooms on Priceline.com at another Marriot, this one was at Le Defense €120 per room. We drove all over Europe for 3.5months and the biggest challenge was finding the car park at Le Defense, what a nightmare. Anyway we found it, we unloaded the car of ‘everything’, and we sure had accumulated some ‘stuff’. Reception staff was lovely, they upgraded us to suites and threw in breakfast, what a lovely end. It was now time to say goodbye to our wonderful car. Found our way back to Peugeot and dropped it off, what an easy transaction, I’m pretty sure I mentioned at the start that we leased it, just so easy. Although we knew which bus to catch to go back, and it wasn’t very far, we had left the spare key in another bag. They were lovely enough to allow us to give the key to the cab driver to return.

We met the kids back at the bar of the hotel and had a well deserved drink. DD & DH headed off to find some takeaway, (Asian, yum) and her BF & I went and found some pastries, for dinner.

The next day was a complete rest day, we were pretty much burnt out and the kids had been to Paris a couple of times, so none of us felt compelled to run around. Also this was the time that there were suspect devices found on Emirates flight. So I was a bit stressed, leaving DD behind and getting on an Emirates flight.

Dinner this night was at the place I referred to right back at the start of the trip. La Cave de l'Os a Moelle, I had researched this from home and was thrilled to find it was right near our original apartment but it was closed for the season, when we were there. So we knew which metro to catch to get back over there and off we went. It was just amazing; we invited the kids friend from home to join us. What a fun fun night. This place is so wonderful, I wish there was a website. After pre dinner drinks on the ‘foot path’ we moved inside to the table in the window, which was actually a wine barrel with stools.

I quote............... La Cave de l'Os a Moëlle is the baby sister of the deservedly popular l'Os a Moëlle just over the road. It is the type of place where you can drop in to share a bottle of wine with friends or you can call in for a delightful meal served family style at shared tables. The food is set out for you to choose as you wish.

The table was set with starters, I could not believe the amount of food on our table, and more than 5 of us could ever have eaten.
3 x Terrines
Platter of fresh veg
Artichokes
Beetroot
Bread
Soup was help yourself down the back of the restaurant, this night it was pumpkin. Then mains were two casseroles to chose from, Beef & Tripe and later it changed to duck. Desert was also served help yourself; I had spiced plums c/w poached meringue and custard. WOH! What a wonderful wonderful dinner, the walls are lined with wine of every description and you help yourself and it just gets added onto the bill. We moved outside with our final bottle as we could see a real line forming to get in (so glad we booked), we sat on the stools outside and chatted for about an hour, i have to say, I really felt like a local.

(for anyone whos interested the dinner cost €220 total for 5 of us and I think it was 2 bottles of wine, maybe 3)

This night was an absolute highlight a memory that will stay with me forever.

Okay its nearly over, one more night!

So this is it, the trip is over, I'm a bit sad really. I'll just have to move on to the next one Our week has not got any better, but when I'm typing this I'm happy.............so here I go.

The 'kids' were catching the train back to London at lunch time, so we caught the metro to St Pauls station and had a walk around that beautiful part of Paris. (Even managed to pick Bec up another warm coat) What a beautiful area around Place des Vosges, so glad we did this; it showed us a whole new area of Paris that we had not seen before. We were very fortunate that it was Sunday and the wonderful street markets were on in Avenue Richard Lenoir. What a joy, oh to be able to go there on a whim.....sigh.

We said our very sad goodbyes to Bec, especially at that stage not knowing when we would see her again. Now I know it’s only 9 weeks and we will be together again .

This was our last night in Paris but it was the beginning of Dave & Sues stay, they'd caught the train up from Montpellier this day. So we were to meet them for our last hoorah, dinner. We caught the metro to the Louvre stop, but quickly worked out we'd got off too soon. What a bonus, they were actually staying at a Citedines near Notre Dame, what a wonderful evening stroll past the Louvre and over the river, just a wonderful last night. We were so happy to see them, we walked to a local bistro, good, but not memorable. It was all about the company this night.

(Ps, the Citadines at Notre Dame was a wonderful hotel, their room was fantastic, right on the river.)

We then caught the train back to our hotel and settled in for our last night in Paris. Slept surprisingly well but woke to a very anxious stomach. All the news reports were centred on the Emirates threats! Anyway, our car service arrived, courtesy of Emirates b/class and because of a public holiday in Paris it was a very quick drive to the airport. Check in was a breeze and we just enjoyed every minute of our Emirates Lounge experience, especially as we could see the A380 out the window that would take us home.

The A380 was a beautiful airplane, just luxurious, we stayed away until Dubai. Had a quick look around the shops in Dubai airport before heading to Singapore. Slept most of the way from Singapore to Brisbane...........except about an hour before landing Dh thought he was being nice by having a song 'primed' on his ipod for me to listen to on approach to Brisbane, as it was officially our 26th wedding anniversary (just, we landed at 1am). The song is called Rolling Home and it made me cry........the whole of decent. Poor Dh, thought he was doing the right thing. ha ha

So that’s it, we arrived home to Sam and her Bf waiting for us, with Happy Anniversary/Welcome Home signs lots of hugs, lots of crying.

We did it, thank you to anyone who stayed with me through this very long T/R and especially EVERYONE who had input in the planning of this amazing adventure.

Happy & Safe Travels to all, 'till next time.
Deidre

Congrats and thanks for a wonderful trip report.

Deidre, this was a wonderful report. You provided so much detail and humor. Some day I hope to be able to follow in your footsteps.

awww thats lovely, thank you both so much.

Hi Aussiedreamer
Thanks for a great report. What struck me most was your ability to make the best of weather or mobility problems. And keep your sense of humour.
I'll be looking out for your next one. Ireland isn't it?

Rosemary

Hi RosemaryM, thanks for the lovely compliments. We are heading to London to visit our daughter, visit Ireland for two weeks and 6 nights, Brussels, Bruges & Amsterdam. Away 5 weeks in all, leave home May 6.

That will be quite a short trip for you won't it?
We Aussies always make the most of our trips don't we. It takes so long to get to Europe that we have to stay awhile.
We had ten weeks in Britain last year. I have put my journal on my website but decided not to try to do a trip report for so long a period. Your report almost made me change my mind. I hope things are getting back to normal in Queensland after your horrendous summer.

Rosemary

hi aussie dreamer, just reading your great post.
I am researching for my upcoming trip next year and plan to do the big drive with DH.

as you are a fellow aussie, can you please let me know where you rent your car from. is it a lease or do you just rent it.
thanks in advance
millie