HOME!!

Well, after all our travels we've been back for two weeks now catching up with family and friends.

Alas, there will be no more blog posts for the foreseeable future but i will leave you all with a few snaps of late.

Flying into Sydney Airport, past the Harbour Bridge and city skyline

By successfully making it through customs and quarrantine you are allows to stand in front of this great Aussie welcome (doesn't exactly apply if you dont line in Oz though does it?)

Taryn enjoying her new nephew's company.

Attendance at my first footy game in over two years.  Needless to say the Hawks spanked the Swans on the way to this years premiership (fingers crossed).  

Phil loving life.

Sharm el-Sheikh

Rooftop sunset.

Off to Egypt

Weather in the UK; 16 degrees and drizzle. Big difference awaits...

We're back Britain!

Tourist visas granted and ferry crossing success. Betty 's days are numbered. First stop, the supermarket for the best cereal in the world.

Waiting to board the ferry in Calais.

Oh how I've missed you Jordan's raisin and almond crunchy oat granola!

Antwerp

So, we've become lazy. Shoot us. Contrary to our preconceptions about this trip, there is a lot involved keeping this show going. Taryn has done an amazing job of planning. Not just where we're going, but also where we're staying, what we're going to see, how long it will take to get there, which route to take, where the public transport is, where the supermarkets are, etc. etc.  It's exhausting for me and Taryn does 98% of it. Whilst for the majority of the trip we were ticking major tourist attractions and our desired cities off our list we were taking it our stride (mostly). Germany was the end of it. We'd got through the alps, seen Füssen and the castles, and so there was no impending sights left that we desired. Not that there aren't any. Just that we don't know of any and we can't be bothered researching what we're missing out on. We've now cruised through through the rest of Germany and now into Belgium. Antwerp to be exact. And here we've watched "Nurse Jackie". Many, many episodes. Like a lot. This is our third night here. OK, so we did venture into the city twice though (evidence below) to check out the sights and get beer. No Belgium trip would be complete without beer. I'm really not sure if I can go back to Australian beer. Time will tell. I do know that I cannot afford Belgian beer prices in Australia, especially when I know the cost when in Belgium. Boooooo.

Heading to Bruges tomorrow for one night only. A glorious last night out in continental Europe awaits... dinner and beer. Then a night in Calais near the port, before an early morning ferry crossing back to the UK on the 15th.

Blog experiment. Is anyone (apart from my parents) readying this anymore? I know I haven't provided the most regular of blog updates so I would forgive all for not checking for updates. Just curious. I dare you to leave a comment below if you read this...

Rothenberg

Survived a massive storm on the way here from Augsburg. There was even hail.

Now we're in beautiful Rothenberg. A medieval town with an intact city wall. It was here in 1631 that the major saved the residents of the city from execution by skulling 7 pints of wine in one go. Impressive.

Now we're about to do a walking tour led by a guy in a black cape and a lantern... although it's not dark.

Bavaria = Beer

Arrived in Verona

...just before the "intensa" rain set in.

Total miles to date: 4803 (7730km).

Lake Garda

Hot hot hot! Visited Venice yesterday. It was OK. Not overly impressed. Escaping the heat today at Lake Garda. Might be here a couple of days as the lack of access to AC its taking its toll.

San Marino

Betty did a great job of getting us up here yesterday. A machine.

So glad I pushed to come here. The views are amazing. There's some medieval festival on at the moment so we're going to hang around for the dancing and flag waiving later. Woop Woop!

Sestri Levante and Cinque Terre

We left Savona, (where I watched the Hawks loose to Geelong for the 11th successive time) and camped at Sestri Levante, a few train stops north west of the Cinque Terre National Park which would be our destination the next day.  After successive days with temperatures above 30 degrees we were getting used to the obligatory trip to the beach. The local haunt even provided decent sand and shade. Kudos.

Taryn

Italian Bam Bam

The bay of Silence

Me

The next day we took the train to Cinque Terre     with little info other than "a stretch of spectacular Italian coastline". We're so igorant. First stop Riomaggiore. 

Then after a slight miscommunication about validating and a run in with the train conductor, Monterosso.

After lunch we had a choice between beer, beach or ferry. Beer won (but we did get to the beach after beer). I really wanted to get to Vernazza though as some photos I'd seen looked amazing. So at about 7pm we caught the train 3 minutes down the line and went to dinner at a local pizzeria. The pizza was bloody good and the wine was welcome. And the view didn't disappoint. 

We both fell asleep on the train home and the hill to the campsite was not kind to cycle but it really was a great day. 

Next stop; Pisa. 

Nice

We caught the train from Biot to Nice, walking far too briskly to the station for my liking as the temperature had been creeping up the last couple of days. In Nice we wandered along the esplanade where the Tour de France stage had been two days before.

The old town in Nice has a great atmosphere; small alleyways and an abundance of restaurants and cafes. Old cathedrals and buildings also.

We stopped at a cafe that was supposed to be good and although they weren't serving 'French afternoon tea' as hoped the food was excellent.

To work off the calories we walked up Castle Hill, past the man made waterfall and up to the  lookout.

That's it for our France adventure (apart from our ferry from Calais to Dover next month). Next post will be on our first stopover in Italy; Savona.

Tour de France and Cannes

We walked down the road about 1km to the point where the Tour de France was to go past.  When Taryn asked how many cyclists there would be I said I didn’t know.  When she asked if it would be close to 1000, I knew she was about to be severely underwhelmed.  I fully expected the event to be over within 30 seconds and yet when it was, I still felt disappointed.  Was all the organisation, and police, and road closures, and marketing/publicity, and coverage, just for that short blitz of riders? Surely this must be the least live spectator friendly sport in the world. 

When it was all over we jumped on a train to Cannes.  The film festival was in May so I lowered my expectations of running into Natalie Portman.  

Big boats as usual around the marina. 

With nothing to do in particular we just had a look around and ended up catching a ferry out to Saint Marguerite island for a few hours in the late afternoon.  Did you know that at Fort Royal on the island, the man in the iron mask was held for 11 years?  Hmmmmm... me neither.

Fort Royal on Saint Marguerite Island

The view of Cannes from the ferry.

Taryn, contemplating life.

Wetlands on the island.

Nimes

Maison Carree

The Arena of Nîmes.  We couldn't go inside because bloddy Johnny Hallyday was playing.  Boooooo, Johnny Halliday.  (He even retired already.  France's Johnny Farnham!)

Tour Magne

The view from Tour Magne