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Hi everyone!
Internet is hard to find these days and we hardly have time to sleep let alone go online so that is why this is the first blog of our Europe trip…
We are in Venice at the moment and are going to Vienna tomorrow for 2 nights.
We started our trip on Thursday 29th July when we left England for Paris (via a ferry from Dover to Calais). It was a long day and by the time we had finished the Paris Lights tour it was about 10.30 when we got back to camp. We spent our free day in Paris walking around mostly as we had done everything we wanted to do last time we were there. The picnic by the Eiffel Tower was really cool and Lynnie even tried a snail :-P
The next day we did a 10 hour drive to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. There were heaps of sunflower fields in France which are very pretty. Switzerland is beautiful. We had 2 nights there and it rained on the second so our tent got wet and the floor started flooding! We upgraded to a dorm room for 9 swiss francs each in the middle of the night which was worth it as the storm didn't stop all night. On the second day in Lauterbrunnen we went on an excursion to Jungfrau Mountain and walked in the snow. It is the only time we have had to use our puffer jackets so far… The scenery on the train was probably as good, if not better than, the scenery at the top of the mountain. Thanks Mum and Dad for paying :D There was an Ice Palace at the top which had heaps of cool ice sculptures. It was a bit hard to breathe because the air was so thin. We had fondue for dessert that night which was yummy J We bought a green Swiss Army knife from the shop in Lauterbrunnen - you can only buy the green ones in Switzerland. Lynnie has not put it down since and has been offering to open everyone's beer bottles with the bottle opener on it. It also almost got us into trouble at the Vatican security checkpoint as she keeps it in her daypack…
Our next stop was Avignon which is a walled city that the Popes ruled from in the 13th Century. We went for a walk up to the gardens overlooking the city and got a few photos. We had McDonalds for tea that night as it was a get-your-own night.
On the way to Antibes, in the French Riviera, we stopped at a perfume factory for a tour. It was boring as! We couldn't hear the guide and the stench of perfume was overpowering. It was really hot when we arrived at camp and lots of people went for a swim at the beach across the road. That night we went into Monaco for a look around and felt sufficiently out of place with the rich and famous. There were 3 red Ferraris that I counted… The next day we went into Nice and it was hot again! We spent the day looking around the market shops and bought dresses to wear so we could cope with the heat. We caught the train back at about 3.30pm and went for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea! The water was really warm and clear, just a shame about the stony beach! That night we went to a fun-fair thing set up next to our camping ground. It was cool - we went on a ferris wheel and spent a bit of money trying to win crappy prizes but it was fun. (We didn't win any).
The next day we stopped at Pisa on the way to Florence, Italy. The tower is a lot shorter than we expected. We had about an hour to have a look around there so just enough time to get some photos and our usual magnet and post card. In Florence we went out for tea which was prepaid on our trip food fund and we were more impressed by the starter (pasta) than the main (beef and chips). We ordered a pitcher of vodka and orange which we think was about 85% vodka. It was really nice and made us both quite happy ;) The next day we did a walking tour of Florence with a local guide - it was interesting, but we could hardly hear him. After lunch we headed for Rome.
Rome was amazing! We stayed at a really cool camping ground where we were all upgraded to permanent tents - yay. We had to catch a bus and train into Rome, but it was easy enough to do. Jen (our tour guide) took us on a 4 hour walking tour the night we arrived. It was great; we got to see the Trevi Fountain - where we threw in a coin to bring us good luck. It is said that about 3000 Euro worth of coins are thrown in each day. The other amazing thing about Rome is that you can drink from the water features and it tastes really good. We also saw the Collosseum, Spanish steps (all 137 of them), and the Pantheon. We stopped for a tradition Italian pizza during the tour. We had a margherita pizza, it was so much better than an NZ one. The next day we had a guided tour of the Vatican City which we paid 35 Euros each to do and went for about 3 hours. It was good but too long and contained a bit of useless information. Lynnie had to run back to the tour guide to give her the swiss army knife to look after (she no longer keeps it in her daypack). The best thing about the Vatican City was seeing the Sistine Chapel which was painted by Michael Angelo. The guards in there kept going "Shhhhhhhhhhh" when the noise level was getting too high.
Yesterday we left Rome and headed for Venice. We stopped on the way at Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet. We only had half an hour to stop there and had about our 4th gelati from Italy J It is said that if you rub the right breast of the Juliet statue you get good luck, so Lynnie pushed past the crowd to do it. We also got a photo of Juliet's balcony and squeezed in a tiny message on the wall that everyone writes love notes on. After that we carried on to Venice.
We set up our tents again after 3 nights of not having to be in them (as we were also upgraded in Florence) and went for a quick swim before tea. Our on road chef made gnocchi for tea and we made our own ice cream sundaes for dessert. It was yum!! This morning we got a shuttle from the campsite into Venice which, we found out on the way, is sinking at a rate of 15cm a year! The city is amazing and you can see where the water has covered steps and doorways that used to be used a few years ago. We went on a Gondola ride around the canals which lasted about 15mins (at 18 euros each) and the guy driving our one kept rocking it which did not go down well with Lynnie. Then he expected a tip at the end! Needless to say he did not receive one. We caught the shuttle back to camp at 2.30pm and went for a swim in the pool. It is so nice and cool - I think it is about 35 degrees again today.
Well that brings us to right now where we are sitting by the pool writing this blog. Our driver is called Aivaress (pronounced I-ver-ess) so we call him Aiva-the-driver. He is really funny and every time there is a lot of traffic or people driving crazily he says "Dodgies everywhere!" English is his third language (he is from Lithuania) so he is hilarious. From Rome to Venice we had a different Topdeck driver as our driver had to have a 45 hour break by law. The other driver was an IDIOT! He was Australian (who we nick-named Dicko as he looks like the Aussie Idol judge) and was full of himself. He enjoyed the sound of his own voice and treated us like we were on a school camp! I felt like reminding him that we are actually paying thousands of pounds for this…
The camp sites have been mostly good and some have their own supermarkets! The first tent we got was older than all the others and the zip kept breaking. We named her Shaniqua (that's for you Pippy). However, we had to trade her in for a newer model yesterday so now our zip isn't broken, the tent is newer and we have a working fly screen so we don't boil! The new tent is called Tentasaurus. (Just so you know, we had to name them at the start - we aren't the only losers naming our tent).
As you can tell we are having heaps of fun and we can't for the second half of the trip. We will try to keep you updated - internet dependant - and we have thousands (or maybe actually hundreds) of photos so we will try to put up a few now and show you the rest when we get home!
Lots of love
Courtney and Lynnie xoxo
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