Bordeaux

Bordeaux was originally planned to be a one night wonder before we jetted up to Stockholm. Fortunately plans changed and we stayed for two - Bordeaux was brilliant!


Planning paid off and our idea to ring and book at the youth hostel meant we got into one of the most popular places in town - it was completely full the whole time we were there. It was excellent having a kitchen again too, so we filled ourselves to the brim with pasta and loaded up on the free breakfast (well...included in the price) each morning.


But enough about food.


Bordeaux city has undergone extensive renovations in recent years and is currently bidding to become the European capital of culture for 2013 - they´ve got our vote! The city has a flash new tram system (which we avoided due to previous negative connotations from Nice) and the longest pedestrian shopping strip in France - 1.2km of pure temptation. The buildings were just beautiful and the water sculpture right on the river front which is basically where the pavement comes to life and starts squirting and spraying water at everyone. It was heaps of fun - the rest of Bordeaux thought so it seemed too, the place was packed! Although that is also explained by the fact we are right in the middle of high season...no more cheap and available all the time accommodation that's for sure.


No trip to Bordeaux would be complete without heading out into the surrounding area to check out some vineyards. Eschewing the kind offer of a 90 euro/pp guided tour, we got out the trusty Eurail pass and headed out to St Emilion, where there is something like one wine shop for every eight inhabitants. It was full of windy, cobbled streets and had great views out over the vines. We weren't really in the market for a St Emilion grand cru or anything like that (any single thing that costs over a day's budget is a bit out of our price range), but we did get into the swing of the wine tastings. The wine is about 70% merlot in that region, so it wasn't really something you can drink too much of on an empty stomach! We rounded off the day with a visit to St Emilion's underground passageways, catacombes and vast church.


Our last day in France saw us head off to the Dune de Pilat - the largest sand dune in Europe. It was 2.5km long, 500m wide and 117m high - and growing! It sure felt that high when you were climbing back up it, but it was definitely worth that (and all the sand in your knickers) to give it a good roly-poly down!! A short swim off the Atlantic Coast later and it was off to the airport to say 'hej!' to Stockholm.

Lourdes

From a religious festival to one of the most religious places, some may have thought we were on a pilgrimage ourselves. We had already seen the Pope and tonnes of churches. Our arrival in Lourdes was met with some of the heaviest rain we had seen since Turkey, so plans had to change. We got a cheap room and had to forgo the campsite, but proceeded to sleep for the next 14 hours. It is dificult to beat a good sleep, and that was a great sleep.

The blue sky to which we had become accustomed woke us up the next day and we started our own little pilgrimage around Lourdes. This year is the 150 year anniversariy of the apparitions of Our Lady to Saint Bernadette, so the town was decked out and they have placed a trail around town for you to follow important places in Bernadette´s life. The fountain she was baptised in, her house, the cave where the apparitions occurred and the oratory where she recieved her first communion.

We jumped on board the trail, but what we were struck by was the number of elderly and ill that were also on the trail. Many were in trollies being pulled around by nurses, friends, family, or Scouts. Most the sights are unimpressive except for the Grotto, which has a massive church built above it, and has thousands of candles that have been left burning as offerings.

Every day they have a procession of the pilgrimages and a torchlight procession, which ends up in the Church of St Pious X, a massive underground church that can hold up to 25,000. No, the ´0´ key has not got stuck. It was huge!!!

There is also a fountain where you can fill your container with water from the grotto. It tastes nice, but we did come down with a cold a couple of days later, so we can´t vouch for its healing powers.

The next day the Tour de France pulled into town. After a fair amount of time scoping out just the right posy, just after a corner so they have slowed down, with a long view afterwards, we staked our claim, pulled out cushion and waited two hours for the caravan to arrive.

The caravan is all the sponsors of the Tour, who dress up their cars and throw free stuff to the crowd. We were in the mood for some free stuff and our position did us well. We walked away with: three hats, a bag, 2 bottles of water, 2 packets of lollies, a packet of salami, 2 keyrings, a lanyard, a sunglasses cleaner thing, a couple of french newspapers, and some blowhorns. Most of which was swapped out for an impressive Skoda hat which has the date and stage on it. Well worth the trade.

We then sat and waited for another hour for the cyclists to come through and then twenty seconds after that we went home... All and all a nice day in the sun. The locals gave something to watch and we have a nice selection of hats.



That day happened to be Bastille Day and the town was putting on a pyro-symphony, that is, fireworks to music. Now we are becoming quite the connoisseur of fireworks and this was the first time in Europe that they had played music with the big booms, which was nice as it had come up on our score sheets a couple of times. It was one of the best displays we have seen!!

After a hard day of sitting around watching things, it was off to sleep to get up early for our train to Bordeaux.

Pamplona!!

Bulls, alcohol, red scarfs, alcohol, red neckties, alcohol, white clothes, alcohol - this basically sums up the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, more commonly known as the Running of the Bulls. I had thought that it would mainly be centered around the bull run, with some other stuff on the side, but the bull run could be seen as an event on the side - there is just so much going on every second of the day!

We had planned to get to Pamplona by train at about 1am on the 10th of July, rest in a park, and then get up early for the bull run the following day. However, while eating dinner in Hendaye on the French side of the border we saw a bus that looked like it was heading to Pamplona at about 7pm - racing over we chucked our bags in the boot, paid the much cheaper fare, and got to Pamplona just under two hours later in time for all the fun! Left luggage was a ridiculously cheap 3.50€ so we partied for a while, getting all kitted up with the right gears (check out the photos here), until we found a cosy possie in the park for a few hours sleep.

They had said that to get a good viewing position you needed to be there about two hours in advance - pish we thought - but they were right. I still managed to get some good photos through other people´s legs though! Adrian will ball you up in the corner when you next see him with his version of the run...

That night we headed out to Estella ("Stella!!! Stella!!!") to our campsite we had reserved literally months in advance thinking that any and all accommodation would be completely booked out. What we hadn´t realised was exactly how far 45km out of the city was... But it had a great pool and we relaxed heartily in preparation for day two of our San Fermin adventure the following day.

Back in the city we checked out some more fireworks (video to come), followed some more marching bands, walked through some markets, and (best of all) went to the fun fair! Dodgems and candy floss are such a good combination...

We had planned on doing the whole sleeping out thing again, and I was a bit concerned about the fact it had started to rain, but then we met some locals and the whole night changed. Oscar, Vanessa and Benjamin were Pamplona locals who had never done the bull run ("much, much too dangerous"! They obviously only considered ´really´doing it if you were practically guaranteed a hospital stay), but went out religiously every night to paaaaaar-tay! They were heaps of fun, so friendly, and took us to the most crowded locals bars (known as penas) you could ever imagine. They also showed us the local´s drink: red wine and coca cola...go on, give it a nudge!

We ended up staying out all night and because we couldn´t find a spot to watch the run the following day, Adrian convinced me to actually run it... We arrived so far in front of the bulls into the ring we got booed. So no, not close to the action at all! (And wouldn´t probably go so far as to say I ´ran´ it either...)

So after all the excitement we got our weary bodies onto a bus and headed back to France. We are clearly getting old because that one night of missed sleep meant we went to bed at 4pm that next day and didn´t wake up until about 9am... Ok, Adrian has just informed me that it was actually more like 30 hours without sleep so maybe we can keep our reputations intact, just this time though.

Provence

Provence, land of sunflowers, English retirees on a year´s adventure, more Roman ampitheatres than you can shake a stick at, and of course, us on holiday.

Provence was also the home of day one of use of our ridiculously expensive Eurail pass - the saga to break even on it is ongoing as I write, wish us luck... But, day one got us from Nice to Nimes, via Marseilles. We originally had grand plans of going to Nimes to drop off our stuff before heading back to Marseilles, but considering the train went through Marseilles, we were lucky enough that left luggage facilities still existed at the train station (post Sept 11 a lot of the left luggage facilities in French rail stations were closed down, only the major stations still keep them. The Marseilles facility had some pretty hard core scanning systems as well).

We decided to go as touristy as possible in Marseilles, mainly due to the fact we decided to get a ´Marseilles Card´ and so wanted to make the most out of our money as possible! It also included a ´petit train´ which is something that all self respecting tourists visiting France have to do at least once on their travels! The train got us up to the Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde, high up on the hill overlooking Marseilles, and protecting the city from all manner of baddies. The inside of the basilica is covered with tiles thanking Mary for saving their lives etc., as are the walls outside.

After tootling back down we got on the ferry out to l´ile d´If, the setting for a part of the story of the Count of Monte Cristo. It houses the citadel which was where several political prisoners were housed, as well as (albeit briefly) a rhinoceros.

Marseilles ended with the greasiest kebab so far, and a 3km hike through town and up the hill to the hostel in Nimes - one of the few that had a campsite and a kitchen (heaven in our eyes...).

The following day we headed to the Gard river for a kayak excursion, and a chance to finally test out the underwater capabilities of Adrian´s new camera. The Gard river is, you guessed it, the setting for the Pont de Gard, an impressive Roman aquaduct 275m long and 49m high.

It was heaps of fun to get out in the sun and kayak down the river, including some jumps down off some (very) large boulders into the river. It made for some deep sleep that night as well as some tired backs and arms the following day!

But, as hardened travellers, we decided to fit in a day trip for our last day in Provence - the Camargue, here we come! The Camargue is a huge area on the coast of Provence and is the delta for the Rhone River. We went looking for pink flamingos and came up with salt pans instead. It was a long and somewhat fruitless day, made even more exasperating by the fact we had been given the wrong bus timetable to get back into Nimes that night - meaning that we missed our night train and to even get back to our hostel had to go an hour and a half in the wrong direction in order to eventually get home that night... Argh!!!! But Andy, the fantastic owner of the hostel, and (gigantic) pig George made it all better by giving us free dinner and a glass of wine - the Nimes YHA definitely makes the cut for favourite hostels now!

The next day, finally, we were off to Pamplona...

The French Riviera

Continuing our grand tour of the Mediterranean Coast, we arrived in Nice, which unfortunately, turned out to be not so nice after all... It is a subject that we are not to speak of, but I think I am allowed to share that it involved the new tram system and a 20€ fine each. After that, we pretty much avoided Nice centrale...

Our ferry had arrived a bit later than anticipated, and the bus to our campsite at Cagnes-sur-Mer took forever, so we arrived closer to midnight than one would have liked, but it would have been much later than it would have been apart from the exceptional kindness of a couple of locals who saw us looking in bewilderment at the map and who drove us up to our campsite. And who said the French are unfriendly?!

Day one back on the mainland saw us heading to Grasse, the undisputed French capital of perfumery (obviously this day trip was Amelia´s idea). It´s up in the hills behind the coast and surrounded by fields of flowers, although we stuck to the centre of town. They have a lot of perfume factories offering free tours (aka, pre-shopping propoganda) such as Fragonard where we were so kind as to exchange some of our hard earned euros for some smelly water. It was only after we left the shop that we remembered the 10% off voucher in our pocket...

After Grasse we hopped back on the bus to Cannes to mix with the beautiful people. With our new fragrances we fitted right in...

The following day Amelia went to Monaco to get a stamp in her passport, watch the changing of the guards and admire the flash cars outside the casino. The afternoon was spent at the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary chapel created by Matisse in Vence and at the Maeght Foundation which is a private art museum and garden in the hills of Provence. Adrian had already spent time in Monaco so went to the Nice modern art museum, for a swim at Cap-d´Ail, and strolled along the Promenade des Anglais. We are clearly becoming very cultured and interesting people...

La Corse

Our original plan had been to spend two weeks in Corsica, but it got progressively shorter and shorter as other places looked more and more interesting... And because of our short foray into Bosnia and Herzegovina we had to lop a few more days off again until we were only left with about five nights for the whole of Corsica.

We needn´t have worried...

Corsica is practically impossible to get around on public transport (as in, "No, there are no trains today, you´ll have to wait until tomorrow"), so even if we had had more time I doubt we would have seen much more!

But what we did see was absolutely gorgeous. So far it would be the first place that I (Amelia) would go back to with no hesitation at all - and that´s saying something that it actually lived up to the hype (I have been wanting to go to Corsica for literally years and years).

It started off with a mad rush for the ferry in Livorno, Italy, but once we boarded our luxury cruise liner (dance floor, free snacks at the bar, deck chairs included), we were definitely on Corsica time. We arrived into Bastia on the eastern side of the island at the top and headed pretty much straight up ´Cap Corse´ to a place called Pietracorbara. Being dropped off by the only bus that day to a campsite that was several kilometres away was a bit nervewracking, but as always, it all worked out in the end. The place had a giant pool, incredible value meals, and was definitely the cheapest place we had been for a while!

The following day we tried to go for a hike - it was, after all, the main activity we had planned for Corsica. However, despite the routes being ´marked´on the map (and yes, those quote marks are definitely intentional), we failed miserably to find anything remotely ressembling those illusive squiggly lines. Undeterred we crossed barbed wire fences (they leave quite deep holes in soft legs if you were wondering), marched steadily uphill, crossed rivers, scared a herd of goats, got completely entangled in tea-tree like bushes trying to find the road, and ended by having to cross a friendly local´s backgarden to finally make it back to civilisation. Eventful to say the least!

Heading back to Bastia we had ideas of going to Corte in the middle of Corsica before we headed back up to Calvi to get the ferry to Nice. It was not to be (see above...). We nearly ended up in Ajaccio because we didn´t realise that we had to swap trains halfway through the journey, but a mad dash from one to another and we were on our merry way again. The train trip was pretty incredible actually; they were these really rickety trains that went right through a series of jagged peaks and dense bush - will have to get a better look next time!

When we finally got to Calvi it was a bit of a shock, there were so many campsites and so many people, but completely understandable when you find out that the beach is 4km of golden sand with water so warm it´s like a bath. It was the first place that Adrian got into the water without taking about half an hour to ease himself in...


It was so nice to have some real ´holiday´time too after some pretty hardcore sightseeing in Italy, even though we managed to fit in a bit of citadel viewing and a visit to an exhibition of the French Foreign Legion (they have an alpine unit that was appealing to a certain Mazur). As I said, the beach was FANTASTIC - it effectively nixed any and all thoughts of doing any further walks! I´m trying to cultivate laziness as a virtue instead of a vice (Mum I´m sure you´re having a great laugh reading this, people never really do change their spots much do they).

Corsica gets a 10 out of 10 in my book. Photos on the next disposable camera!

Next stop, mainland France (bring on more croissants).

Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage site in north-western Italy that is home to a series of quaint villages, great swimming, gravity-defying agriculture, and of course (being Italy) lots and lots of tourists.

Between the villages there is a train, but being hardy travellers we opted for the 12km walk between the network of beaches. It was pretty much a stroll in the park though, apart from a couple of pretty steep ascents and the fact that it was absolutely sweltering - I think we got wetter doing the walk with all the sweat than swimming at the beaches!

It was somewhat similar to the Amalfi Coast, but the walk goes right through the villages so we stopped off and had lunch and two swims at the 'beach' (concreted area right to the sea).

While we did the walk we stayed in a town called La Spezia that had a big wine and food night market/festival thing going on while we were there. We couldn't quite work out the system of how you go about buying a festival wine glass, but considering we could understand that it would cost something like 10 euros for each glass of wine we quickly gave up on that idea!

So overall, I think we did Italy relatively well (well, the middle of Italy at least). Highlights would definitely be Rome, Capri and Matera for Amelia and the Blue Grotto in Capri, Umbria and the Cinque Terre for Adrian. But there's lots more to see next time (bring on Venice) so as the coin in the Trevi Fountain says (or is that Arnold Swarzeneger?), we'll be back!

Pisa

Yes, the tower really does lean.

Florence, Italy

After a couple of days relaxing in Umbria, we were recharged and keen as mustard (or should that be pizza) to get back into things, having the worst behind us - or so we thought. Florence had more tourists than Rome, and there was little escaping them, or the inflated prices that inevitably followed. Those tour guides must have some pretty strong arm muscles as they stride through the city at a pace of knots, holding up whatever umbrella, bread stick, or flag they happened to find, trailing sweaty, crazed looking tourists in their wake...


We arrived on their Saint's Day, which was effectively a statutory holiday. We didn't manage to get tickets to the medieval football in the town square, disappointing at the time, but less so as we realised how much money we would have handed over in the heat of the moment. We did however catch the half hour fireworks display, which went off with a bang!


Florence hooked us quickly back onto the museum trail - discovering all sorts of queues. One tour that had no queue though was for the secret passages tour of Palazzo Vecchio, the city hall. It was surprisingly fascinating as we walked up stairwells inside walls and through doors that looked liked walls and cupboards. It was then up to the Duomo to look at the ceiling frescos up close and then onto the dome to get a view of the city, spectacular!!!


After another night at our brilliant campsite right in the middle of town (ok, not so brilliant after walking up all the steps to get to it at night, wonderful in the morning on the way down), we got up at the crack of dawn to get a glimpse at da Vinci's 'David', which is actually worth the hype. They also show about half a dozen half finished creations that lead up to the finished product, so you really see what geniuses these masters were to get such creations out of a block of stone. David is also surrounded by many other fine pieces of work which don't get given the justice that perhaps they deserve (seasoned art critics that we are).


From here it was off to the Uffizi Gallery, to see room after room (that was not closed for the restoration), of famous and amazing artwork - more works by Botticelli, da Vinci, Titian, and Tintoretto (to name a few) than you could shake a stick at. Even trying to pace ourselves it was impossible to retain much enthusiasm towards the end, but as it was our last classical art gallery until Paris we did our best! Commenting on the styles of the various tour guides was an interesting diversion (there was one Australian girl who spoke at her group like a strangled duck and was so agressive in her questioning (was it perhaps an oral exam for these poor, unwitting tourists?) she had spit flying in every direction...).

After another night of overpriced pasta, and a luxury sleep in the tent now that we had found a second thermarest to sleep on, we bade farewell to Florence and headed off to Pisa.

No photos yet, we'll all hang out together in anticipation of disposable camera #2!

Haiku for Florence

Swelteringly hot,
Florence, your art overwhelmed.
Fireworks go boom!

Chilling out in Umbria

Between the helter skelter of Rome and Florence we decided to chill out for a few days in Umbria, Tuscany's lesser known cousin. We were on the Lago Trasimeno where we stayed at a hostel which lent out free bikes, had a pool, hammocks, free internet, a guest kitchen - bliss in other words!

But, as good travellers, we squeezed in a bit of time for some sightseeing to Perugia (Umbria's capital) and Assisi (of St Francis fame). Assisi was all about the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, which housed some famous Giotto frescoes that Amelia had studied at school.
Perugia was shut on a Monday, which was when we arrived. It has a GREAT mini-metro though, like something straight out of the movies (try this link for a video of it). Made our day basically!

More time in the pool followed, then back into the hecticness that is Florence.

Photos finally!

We finally found a one hour developing place and have got our photos developed - oh the excitement! (And no, I'm not exaggerating...).

They're all here for your viewing pleasure - enjoy!