Austria

Hi again!!!

We currently have free internet so we are trying to get as much updated as we can! Feel free to take your time to read them, one a day or all at once whatever you prefer!

After Unterwasser we headed into Austria. We decided that we would spend a night in Insbruck then head to Salzburg where we were to meet up with Richards old housemate form Hawthorn, Mick. We arrived not to late for a change! Still though with no accm organised and no town map! We parked the car (on the side walk!!!) and went to see if we could find a tourist info. We could not so we thought we better go move the car before heading for a longer search for the tourist info. We were lucky I think that we moved the car because we noticed later that all the cars parked there were taxis, so it was probably a taxi zone.



Parking the car was extremely funny. We found a spot easy enough but Richard had to reverse parallel park!!! I had to get out of the car to help guide (even though the car has reverse censors!!! It took many attempts to get it in right and a lot of laughter form both of us (and the people passing by on the street). I will just mentioned I am sure at home Richard can park with no problems, but it is extremely hard when you are on the wrong side of the car. It messes everything up.

After that, we managed to find the tourist info and get us a map and some accom info. I am not sure if we mentioned it before but for some strange reason you cannot book in anywhere between about 10am and 4pm because they close reception! So you have to wait til late in the day to see if you can get a room which is not a really comfortable thing. You will have no idea if everything is booked out or not and by time you do it is so late you really need somewhere! Most have a message bank that tells you though if they have rooms avaliable for that night which is helpful, they jsut dont say how much space they have.

So to waste time while we waited to get some accom we decided to do some touristy things. There was a crystal museum/cave thing that looked cool so we decided to head there. Well do you think we could find it??? Nooooo!!! So we changed plans again. We were sort odf in the direction of the olympic bobsledge stadium so we thought we would go check it out. It was late in the day when we got there but the gates were open so we drove up anyway. The first stop we made was at one of the bobsledge runs, but it did not really have any ice in it. It did have a shed underneath though so we got to check out some sleds. We then decided to drive up at bit higher.



Here it was compeletly unsecured and there was no one around. We walked on the track and all around the place. It was pretty cool. Richard nearly feel over when he stepped onto on of the tracks which was funny. He then founf a block of wood to try and ride it down but sadly it was too heavy. It was cold and as much as a free run of the place we had there was not a whole lot to do. We headed to where we parked the car where Richard got his brillant idea!!! There was a patch of snow in a largish area next to the tracks. He wanted to do some doughies in the car. I tried to advise against this and warned him if he got bogged I was not helping him get out!!!



He decided to do it anyway, saying that I approved!!! I filmed him on my camera while he acted soooo cool!!! hahahaha. Well he did some laps, rather slow if I must say so. Then he decided to head back in and guess what??? Thats right he got bogged. he stuck his head out the window while I was still filming and told me to come help him. It kinda makes the video! I was not going to help but it wwas cold and I did want to get going. It took a lot of pushing and back tracking but we finally made it out!

We then got ourselves a bed for the night and headed into town foe dinner. We had learnt that parking is quite hard in these big towns so we walked in. However we did not realise what a long walk it actually was into town and it was raining! We kept going anyway and had dinner at nice greek resturant. The food was great and we got given this shot of something rather! We were not actually sure what we were supposed to do with it, do you shot it all at once or sip it, was it for before or after dinner? So many questions and you done want to offend! We went with sipping band before dinner!

As the weather was crap and it was such a long walk home we did not go out and just headed back to our room. On the way I must add (Richard will kill me when he reads this hahahahaha) Richard needed to go to the toilet and could not wait so he went in someones front yard! Now if you are drunk this is probably a normal thing to do but he was not!

The next morning we headed to the highest zoo in Europe! Well for a zoo it was a little interesting. It had farm animals!! Richard nearly got attacked my some geese while trying to get a close up photo. It was rather funny as there was one particular geese that kept going after him. we got some great photos of that. Also after he stirred up the geese one of the keepers came and shut this gate so we could not get near them anymore! I dont think he was impressed with us. The zoo was smallish and did not have a great deal of animals. Lots of birds but I think they are boring! There was also the problem of animals and snakes being in hibernation! The zoo had a number of otter exhbits but there were no otters as they were hibernating. There were some sort of large cats (more medium size) that lived in trees. They were quite active so that was cool. The funny thing was I was taking a photo of one in a tree but with the glare from the sun I could not quite see my screen that well. I took the photo then had a better look at it only to realise I took a photo of the knob in the tree and no cat at all in the shot!!





After the zoo we went to visit a castle. It had a museum in it and cost to get in so we jsut walked in the parks and gardens around it (free and beautiful). It was really a very nice walk and we walked for about an hour. We then headed off to Salzburg. We stopped for lunch at a petrol sation/rest stop. It was huge and really nice. I got spag bol for lunch and it was massive! Richard had a curry sausage, he enjoyed it and my leftovers because it was so big.



For once we actually had our accm booked before we got into town but no map!! Neither of us can currently remember how we scored a map but we did! We had to pull over to ring our accom to find out where it was and it turned out we were two mins away. It was quit a good location as we could park our car and walk into town and anywhere else in a short time. There was a great view from the window of a castle of the hill. We set up our beds and headed in for a walk around. Salzburg was really beautiful. I liked it much better than Insbruck. It had such a nice feel. We walked around the old town and it was beautful. Some pretty fancy shops too. We had a drink at an Irish pub then dinner at an Italian Resturant. The funny thing about Europe is you can take your dog anywhere. The resturant was upstairs and some people came in with a dog!!!! Funny.



I had seen at the Irish pub earlier that they have live music ecerynight so we headed back there. it was getting full and we got some seats at the bar. We had a few quite drinks, beer, wine, jager bombs! The music started and it got fuller!! After a few (many) drinks we decided to hit the dance floor! Oh and we rocked!!! We also made some friends witht the locals. One of them was celebrating his 25th birthday so we joined the party!! What a great night. We decide to call it quits at around three am and head home. We were being silly though and walked a different way to richard thinking he would follow but in the state he was in he did not!!! So we then were both lost in Austria drunk as scunks and seperated!!! Oh dear! We had our phones with us so we kept in contact. Richard also had the map but appparently he was unable to read it?! I somehow (with my brillant sense of direction) stumbled across home first.



I have to admit this though because otherwise Richard will tell anyway, I was busting for the toilet, could not move, walk, go any further if I did not have a wee! Well there was nowhere to go sadly for me, so I did what any busting girl would do and went on the road!! It was a alley more like it and it was sort of dark and there was noone around. I had to!!! I then discovered (which Richard has not let me forget and teased me constantly about) is if I kept walking jsut a 20m further the was a park and some bushes I could have hid in to go!

We both eventually made it home after much time in the cold. We crashed!! We woke in the morning just in time for breaky, but Richard was looking very worse for wear. I was not great either but compared to him 100 times better! We were planning on doing some things before Mick came. this never happen we had to get some more sleep. We woke up when the phone rang, it was Mick he was at the staion and wanted us to come get him!!! Oh dear. It took us awhile to find the staion because we were given the wrong directions! We met up eventually.



We did some more sight seeing with Mick and had a hearty lunch to help combat the hangover. It helped pick us up. We still all had an afternoon nap though! We were jsut going to lay down for a min but we all crashed and woke three hours later! We headed out to dinner at a nice little place with great pizzas! Then back to the Irish pub. Mick and Richard had a few drinks but compared to the night before it was a relativly quite night. The only thing was Mick taught Richard how to say bow job in German! The barmaid came to take the order so in German for two blowjobs please!!!! She said what and then in english he order two beers!!! I was embarssed but it was pretty funny. Mick and Richard found it highly amusing. He wanted to do it again but I said no!



The next morning we got up in time for breakfast just! Headed down and it was all closed up and finished! Slightly confusing. So we packed up to head into town for some food. On the way out I noticed there was a sign at reception saying daylight savings had started and to change yours clocks! That explains why we missed breaky. We went to this nice little place for some food. We order drinks first, had those but the waiter did not come back for our food order. We called him over but he did not speak English, Mick was doing ok with his German though. We asked about food and said ten mins. He then went and made a phone call. It seems that the chef must have forgot to change his clock and was running late! We got some great food though and the Chef spoke english.

We then dropped Mick off at the station (hope you made the train Mick!) and we headed to Munich.

I will leave it here as this is very long!!

Love sarah

Interlaken

So we'd had a pretty good run with the weather in Zermatt, and then it'd been pretty shit really on the way to Interlaken, but, we'd made it and we checked into our place. this was actually harder than it sounds because by the time we got into town it was dark and raining/snowing, the streets are windy and full of impossible-to-tell-who-has-right-of-way intersections and, as usual, we didn't have a map. Despite these minor inconveniences and one incorrectly rung doorbell we found our place. The hostel was above a seedy looking restaurant but it did have a decent (and free) internet connection!!

The next morning (Easter Saturday) we awoke early, well alright.. earlier, because we didn't have any accom for that night and had to find some quick smart. Luckily the tourist office was open (almost our first experience with such an occurrence) and one of the first places we tried had room. the place was called Heidi's Hostel and presumably it was Heidi i spoke with on the phone. Heidi was a charming old bird although obviously deranged. She must of been 100 if she was a day and repeatedly informed us that 'she tells us the true, only the not-so-good room is available!'.



Well that was good enough for us, after a quick inspection of the 'not-so-good' room well checked in. So the shower was in a tin box in the corner of the room, the toilet was in a cupboard and there was something living in the roof, but the room was clean, Heidi was an old dear and there was kitchen facilities so I don't know what Sarah was whingeing about. We stayed 4 nights.



Unfortunately the weather continued to be cold and snowy so we were confined to low altitude walking, chocolate eating and reading for most of the easter weekend. After the fun and total enjoyment of skiing the previous week this suited Sarah just fine thankyou.



We had planned to go para-gliding in Interlaken but the weather defeated us, so we left (it was still snowing) and set course for Austria. We did manage to pick up some music cd's for the car and some awesome raspberry white chocolate before we left tho. We'd read somewhere that the town of Chur in East Switzerland was worth a look so we swung by there for lunch. hmmm, bum steer. The weather had picked up tho and it was a beautiful drive. it was getting to that time of day when we started wondering where we were going to sleep so we dug through our books and started ringing around. closed, fully booked, no answer.. usual story. we eventually found a cheapish place just off our route in a quaint little town called Unterwasser. Small ski resort is probably an overstatement but technically correct. There was a really nice sunset, a good view and I think we were the only ones in the hostel - and the whole town as it turned out. We hit the local bar (star bar??) to find that they were pumping out tina turner, accadacca, and a whole lot of other old school stuff. this was pretty funny cos the barmaid (and everyone else for that matter - which admittedly was about 3 blokes) didn't speak a word of english, but was singing along anyway.



we ate dinner that night alone in a fairly decently sized restaurant then headed to Innsbruck the next morning. While i was checking out, the owner asked if he could 'make picture of me' because I was carrying my pack and backpack and i think i was the first real backpacker looking guest they'd had (they only opened their hostel this winter).

My version of Skiing!!

Hi All!!

Sorry to write about Zermatt again but I feel that you need to hear the truth about skiing. Richard was very brief and did not quite cover how bad it actually was for me. So let me tell it how it really went. Please note this first photo was a before shot!! I had not started yet.



On the first day of skiing I was very excited as we went and hired our skis. They lady had to ask what ability you had (I guess this varies what type of skis you get), I told her never been before. She wished me luck but I think she was actually laughing at me! We then headed up to catch the train up to the slopes. We had been told by the lady would sold us our ski passes that this particular run was a good start for beginners, what a liar!!! We got to the top and it was just straight down. There was nowhere at all for me to have a bit of a practice and get used to the skis. I was scared and am not ashamed to admit it!!!!

So we went to the side of the run so Richard could show me the basics, like how to stop and turn. Then we had to go. I tried to wait until there were not so many other people going down but this was hard cause it was quite busy. Then off we went for about 3m then CRASH!!! And that is how it went for the next two and a half hours!! I would try to go from one side to the other. If I made it without falling that was a bonus!! I crashed so many times I could not keep count. I even face planted into the the side wall!!! Lucky it had snowed the day before, it made the wall nice and soft. I had snow everywhere!! It went in my pants, up my jacket, in my beanie and up my arm sleves. I crashed so hard my skis went flying and trying to put skis back on when you are on a slope is very hard! Especially when I had enough trouble getting them on anyway!



I will say I did start to get better over the two and a half hours. I managed to even string a couple of turns together before crashing. The thing about getting better is Richard would go slightly ahead then bang! I was down again. I had many people ask me was I ok. I lied and said yes. I also have to say over this first run there were so very many tears. I would be going ok then we would stop at a hill (that was massive to me) and I would panic and start crying cause I was to scared to more. Every bone and muscle in my body was aching!

I was improving though and we finally made it to the bottom!! Not after having to go through this horrible tunnel that was really narrow and fast (I crawled down the side to get through) which was made of stone and would have hurt a lot to crash into. Then we headed back up. Just to prove I had improve the second time only took an hour to get down! Far less crashes, no less spectular though! Then we did it again. I still had moments of tears and could not get through the tunnel at the end without crawling down the side, but I had improved ten fold.

We then had lunch because I could bearly move anymore. After lunch I headed home cause my body could not take anymore punishment plus I wanted richard to be able to have a ski without having to stop every min for me. That night I could hardly sleep. My body was so sore. Getting in and out of bed was so painful. Turning in my sleep woke me cause it hurt so much and going to the toilet was even painful as my bum was so bruised.

When we woke up for day two I was no longer excited! I did not even want to go, I hurt too much. I said to Richard that I would bring my skis up but was going to sit out the morning and I would start after lunch. We tried a new set of runs and when we got up there I was happy (and a little mad cause I had to start of the hard run the day before!) to see a nice easy, mild baby run!!! It was wide and had a few straights with a few hills that were managable to get you going on the straights. Well I was so excited I think I may have only crashed a couple of times per run!! Thats fantastic. I had problems with my turns because of my legs not wanting to work due to their soreness. We did this run a number of times because I could mostly get through unscared. There was just one hill that was beating me!! I even had all these good skiers overtake me then stand at the bottom and watch me. I was doing it so well, I thought I was going to make it!!! Then CRASH!! Right in front of everyone, so horrible! I dont think anyone laughed though so that was nice.



We then decided to go to another run to give it ago. This was mostly ok except for where you get off the lift. There was an extremely steep slope. I dont even think I was the only one side stepping down this bit!! I did not crash though. Here we found a ski tow (well they are interesting to ride on) and went up to a run I did quite like. It was very wide and the slopes were not steep at all. The only tricky bit was you had to ski through the people going up the ski tow. I was nervous about that. I thought I would take someone out for sure! I did not though so thats good news. I managed to do this run a couple of times with no crashes!! Yay! Richard then caught the tow up higher while I did halfway. We then headed home together as it was late and cold.

The third day we went back to the afternoon before runs. This time I went all the way to the top with Richard. It was not actually to hard and I did not crash but it was so cold. The wind was horrible. We decided to head back to my baby run in the home it was more sheltered from the wind. It wasnt. I was very excited though because I made it through with no crashes, even conquered the hill that was beating me!!! It helped me not hate skiing so much.

Richard then tricked me!!!He said we could go down this easy run to get onto a lift to another one. So I said ok and went along. Well the run was ok for a bit, but then we got to the lift and it was going the wrong way and was not what we wanted!! Thats ok says Richard we can just go down here and get to it there its an easy run! Liar, liar pants on fire!!!! It was a hard run (well intermedite, but hard for a first timer). I managed fairly well for most of it, no crashes and all. Then we got to this horrible steep and long slope. It was also evry bumpy. I was terrified! I tried to side step for awhile but it was not going well. I then decided I had to rty and ski down or I was never going to get to the bottom which was what I wanted more than anything else! I started ok and Richard went ahead because he wanted to get a photo of me kicking ass!! Well while he did that I picked up a lot of speed, went out of control and crashed hard! I hit my knee and lost a ski! It hurt quite a bit so I just sat there crying!!! What a baby! A man came passed and asked me if I was ok, I told him yes and that I did not need any help but he would not believe me (maybe the tears were a give a way that I was not ok) and insisted on helping me down.

He was very nice and told me that we all were here once but I was probably on to hard of a run for a first timer. I told him we got here by accident! I did not want to tell him my boyfriend was mean and had tricked me!!! Richard denies this but then at the same time says but I thought you could handle it you were doing so well! In the end I made it alive. After that though my aches and pains said no more and I headed home. Richard went for a bit more of a run, so he could actually ski non stop and down somewhere I would not do.

So overall, I sucked and was a sook!! I kept telling Richard I hated skiing but really it was fun in between all the crashing. I would still do it again but bring on the baby runs! Oh and I got a great skiing tan line on my face too!!!

Love Sarah

Zermatt

Ok guys, currently in Munich hitting up the castles and beer halls and just about to head to Prague tomorrow night before Berlin on Saturday..

Well what can I say..? Zermatt was awesome!! We arrived in Zermatt late Sunday arvo from Tasch not having booked any accom. (as was to become our tradition) and quickly set about finding some. Unfortunately, every reception in Europe is closed between about 11am and 5pm so we had to wait around with our bags for a bit (we busted into the youth hostel to borrow their computer and warmth). Eventually we booked a couple of nights at the Matterhorn hostel which was cosy but nice.



We decided to spend our first day going for a walk in the 'hills' (read mountains) surrounding Zermatt. The walk was great tho the path was snowed under and slighlty difficult to follow in sections. Walking on the 1st day however turned out to be a great decision because the following 3 days were absolutely perfect weather and we spent them all skiing.



Sarah had never been skiing before, let alone touched real snow, so it was a pretty steep and spectacular learning curve. We started off catching the Gournegratbahn up to what we had been informed was the easy slopes. Well Sarah had never heard such lies in her life. The runs were wide and long and covered in fresh snow - which only served to give Sarah more ground to crash on. The views of the Matterhorn and surrounding mountains were spectactular and on the second day we caught the cable car up to one of the highest peaks. The cable car ride was slightly unnerving but definitely rewarding. We even discovered an underground ice cave at the summit.



Sarah also fared better on the 2nd day and we found a nice long baby run to get a bit more practice on. We'd reduced the crashes per day to about 4 by this point. This was down from about several thousand the day before however and Sarah was feeling almost everyone of them. To her credit she backed up for a 3rd day and we found a couple of awesome runs down from the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. We even 'accidently' skiied down a medium run which both parties survived admirably (except for a teary incident towards the bottom of the last slope). Sarah has just informed me she will tell the real story in a post of her own shortly...

So skiing was fantastic and the weather was brilliant so we had a ball in Zermatt. To aid in our recovery each day we decided to hit up the local 'apres ski' bar which was totally bangin from about 5pm to 9.30pm each night. Their lime margueritas (read tequilla slushies) were fairly potent and the bar was attached to an Irish pub. St Patrick's day just happened to fall during the week we were there so we were forced to attend. Massive. The dude on the piano was insane, like actually.





It seemed that the second we left the ski slopes the weather turned bad. We had intended to drive to Interlaken from Tasch on the Friday (that would be Good Friday) via the shortest route. The roads were completely snowed under, visibility was down to about 100m and our Peugot was equipped with neither chains nor winter tires. Well, we were first stumped by closed passes, then the road to the car train to Kandersteg was closed just as we got to the turn-off. By this time we'd been driving for about 3 hours and it seemed every car in Switzerland was in the same situation. We eventually had to go via Bern (which is 'slightly' out of the way for those without maps handy) and stuck to motorways, on which we were almost able to hold an average speed of 30km/h!! Exciting times. Our trip also included a particularly hairy moment trying to cross a fairly low level pass - think brakes fully locked, car still sliding..



Well we eventually made it after dark to our night's accom which we had actually managed to pre book. Unfortunately we could only manage to book the one night on the easter weekend so the fun continued...

Nice and beyond

Hi All!!

Hope everyone is doing well and missing us heaps. We are having a blast but occasionally take the time to miss you all!! So my update will be from Nice to Zermatt and maybe a little more (or a little less as I can go on a bit).

Well as mentioned earlier we were really unsure on where we were to disembark the train in Nice. It turned out we had no need to worry as the centre stop was marked as such and everyone got off (ususally a good indicator!). We were hungry so we headed across the staion to a cafe for breakfast. I also needed to go the toilet (as always) so Richard used his amazing French skills to ask the waiter where the toilet was!!! Well you think that a point in the direction or a simple answer would follow... but nooo the waiter gave us a bunch of numbers!! What??? So I did not get to go the toilet as we were so damn confused!!

After breaky we worked out how we were to get to the airport as that is where the car was to be picked up. It was fairly simple, just had to catch a bus to the airport that was clearly numbered in front of the train station. We jumped on one and headed out. We got to the airport a little early to pick up the car so while we waited we went through the aps and tried to make a plan of where to head too. All the looking at the maps made time fly and then we had in our hot little hands the keys to a brand new Peugot!!! Wooohooo!!!!

We took some time checking out the car, adjusting things, checking how the lights and blinkers worked before we even started the car to leave. The first few mins of driving were a little exciting!! Nothing happened but just getting used to the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road is fun!!! Richard, of course, was our driver (though it still stumps me why when my navigating skills leave a lot to be desired!). He did a great job though!



We headed back into Nice for a walk around and some lunch. We parked the car in a carpark and walked on the path that went along Cote D'Azure. It had beautiful views of the Mediterrainean Sea and Nice. The beach was beautiful apart for, the fact there is no sand (apart from a small imported bit) but black stones. The amazing thing was people were laying on the stones like you would lay on a sandy beach. I dont know how this could be comfortable at all. It was quite a sunny day in Nice but I wouldnt say it was swimming or even bather wearing weather but we blessed (read horrified) to see old people sunbaking in their g-strings on the beach!! Hot!!!

After a walk along and dipping a toe and hand into the water (just to say we have been in the Metiterrainean Sea) we had lunch at an Irish Pub! It was a great pub but the food was not as good as it could have been, which was a pity cause the menu was good. After lunch it was time to head off into the unknown!!



We took some time to get out of Nice but it is probably one of better exits of a city. We then headed up aiming towards Italy. As it was the first day in the car I was no so excied about the roads we were driving on. The were crazy!! Windy with a steep drop off to one side, cliff above us on the other. It had some amazing views though off snow capped mountains and down into valleys!! Spectacular (if a little scary)! I think Richrad was loving it but not me!! We had to stop at light for a tunnel before we entered Italy which took quite some time. It took us a couple of changes before we got through and each set went for ten mins!

Once we crossed the boarder we stop at a petrol station as we were told before hand, we needed to purchase a safety vest and triangle for travelling in Italy. Richard made me get out of the car and go ask. Well it was a very funny experience. No one there really spoke any english and my Italian is limited to swear words (which was not really going to be that helpful) so there were lots of arm waving, laughing and confusion. I had left my jumper in the car so I was cold so they thought I needed a jumper!! In the end I decided we would just risk not having them, got back in the car and headed off again.



We came to a town called Cuneo late in the afternoon so we decided to stay there. We parked the car and went for a walk to find somewhere to stay. It took us about one hour to walk from one end of town to the other with no luck. We could not see many hotels (except way out of our budget), no tourist info office, no nothing!! Eventually I seeen a sign for a two star place so we decided to head there (it was geting dark and we (I) wanted dinner). When we got to what seem to match the sign it looked a little flash for two star, we went in anyway. Richard asked the lady about a room and she turned to check what they had, as she did this though she looked at us and asked were we after two or four star??? Not really sure what gave us away, the packs or the volleys! She pointed us in the direction of the two star place. It was really quite nice, a little expensive but it was getting late so we took it. We then had to walk back to the car (miles away) to bring it to where we were staying.

We had dinner in a nice little restauraunt then headed back to our room for an early night (sleeping on the train the night before was tiring). On the way back some sort of church procession was walking through town. It was rather large and strange. we had no idea what it was about. In the morning we got up and headed off towards Switzerland. It was a nice drive except when we got to Turin. As our maps were limited we tried to go around it but somehow ended up in the middle lost!! It took us about an hour to fight our way out!! The most frustrating part was we would follow the signs to the motorway, then when we got to a large intersection all the signs would disappear!! No idea where we were supposed to go. Oh and we never passed a tourist info place either.

Eventually we found our way out but it put our plans back a little. We still made it into switzerland but only to Sion. It was quite a nice little town surrounded by snow capped mountains (I feel I may be repeating the snow capped mountains but thats exactly how it was!). We had dinner at the restaurant where we were staying. We decided to pick dinner without actually knowing what it was, they had no english menus and the lady did not speak very much english. Richard order and that was fine I then ordered and she went a bit funny, she told me to wait while she went over to another tables od diners to get a translation. When she came back she told me what I ordered was 'not cooked', I changed my order! Not really in the mood for raw meat.



We then spent the night in our room watching French MTV. There were stupid American shows on with french translation being played over it. Made for some funny watching as we made up what we thought they were saying and what the show was about.

This is getting long so I will round it up now. In the mornig we got up and headed to Tasch which was the last place you could drive to before Zermatt. Our next post will be from there.

Take care everyone.

Lots of Love SEJB and RJDM xxxoo

PS Sorry we are having computer troubles. There are photos to add in or you can look at our picasa albums, as they are up there.

Roma (or Pizza, not sure what we love best)

Well it took bloody long enough to get there but jeez it was worth it. We'd spent 2 days on planes and in airports (including 8 hours sleeping on the floor of Dubai airport) and on arriving at our booked accom. we found that our room had been flooded and we'd been relocated to a hotel around the corner - an auspicious start. Our new dorm was pretty nice however (overlooking the British embassy, right near the central Termini station) and we still got the free dinner on offer at our original accom. The night we arrived it was pizza and beer night, sweet.



Our first job was to book us a train ticket to Nice so we'd know how long (or short) we had in Rome. It turned out we had 2 full days - and fill them we did. The first day we did the Pantheon, Spanish stairs, Trevi fountain, Colloseum, Roman Forum, Palantine, and a whole lot of other really old stuff. Everywhere we looked there were ruins, fountains, cars parked at weird angles and photo opportunities. We found the pantheon really impressive, although that might just be because it was the first really big thing we saw :)



We decided to join the queue and have a look inside the Colloseum which was expectably impressing. To imagine how it would have looked fully built and in action was impressive. We returned that evening to get some night-time photos (these, along with a whole lot of other photos are on Richard's camera. the contents of which was unavailable at the time of print). Our Colloseum ticket also allowed us into Palatine which was basically a big park and gardens with assorted ruins, and the Roman Forum which was spectacular. One of the highlights of the day, however, was the pizza we had for lunch in an unassuming little corner store in downtown Rome - probably the most amazing slices of pizza we will ever eat!!



Our second day we spent checking out the Vatican city and it's contents. We walked into the plaza in front of the basilica and our jaws dropped. Sarah's comment summed it up - "i've never seen such a big church". We wandered around for a bit, taking photos and generally in a state of shock before joining the queue. We'd been advised to join a guided tour and skip the line and the length of the line was only slightly shorter than the circumfrence of the plaza but the guided tours were fairly expensive so we settled in and took our chances. As it turned out the line was moving fairly quickly and we only spent about 20-30min waiting before entering the basilica. Inside was just phenomenal. It was too dark for photos but they wouldn't have done it justice anyway. The number of people inside was slightly overbearing but the building (roof, statues, shear size, dome, etc) was breathtaking. We did a lap in humbled silence then headed for lunch.

Post-lunch we continued our whirlwind tour and headed for the Vatican museums (again, some pics not yet available). There was no line to get in and we set out for the Sistine Chapel. We didn't actually possess a map of the layout which we thought may have been a slight oversight but turned out not to matter as everything was clearly signposted. It did mean however that we weren't aware the route to the chapel is slighly convoluted. We passed through room after exquisitely decorated room of statues, sculptures, ruins and artifacts. The rooms themselves were most impressive - especially the Raphael rooms which were decorated floor to ceiling with amazingly detailed frescos. The map room was also superb.

Once we finally got to the chapel we were ejected into a large, cavernous space crammed also as much with people as it was with paintings. It seemed we'd seen every painting before and although photos weren't allowed we snuck one of the Creation of Adam (flash off).



We were pretty tired from two days of non-stop walking and upon finding a quite side room we decided to lift our (and the statues') spirits slightly.



That night we dined at a cosy family restaurant (yes, pizza again) before jumping on our overnight train to Nice. We discovered when we boarded we had a whole compartment to ourselves so settled in for the 12 hour trip. Whilst on the train we passed up the coast through some pretty speccz towns such as San Remo and Monte Carlo - although it was either dark or we were underground for most of them so not much to tell!! Apparently there was some sort of strike in France (surprise) and the train had to stop at the border for us to change to a bus service. The bus service actually turned out to be another train, which we only discovered by accident, and so we continued to Nice. En route we decided that Nice was likely to have serveral stations - none of who's names we knew. On this note we'll leave you with the promise of more to come. So tune in next time for the next exciting installment of Richard and Sarah's Travelog!!!

Zanzibar 2

Alright, finally a minute or two to catch up on some posts (currently in Interlaken by the way).

Following our Safari we spent about 2 days in the tour bus transitting from Arusha to Dar es Salaam. This was pretty uneventful except for one of our lunch stops by the side of the road which was invaded by a herd of goats who proceeded to drink the dishwashing water... anyway, upon reaching Dar we found we were staying in a fairly nice establishment on the beach (warmest water I've ever swam in). We also bumped into another couple of groups on Safari (this spot is a bit of a meeting spot for groups coming to or from Zanzibar). This made for quite a large evening (we'll never drink again, etc). This, in turn, made for quite a long boat ride out to Zanzibar the next morning.



We immediately liked Stonetown a lot more than Dar. The buildings were quaint and beautifully run-down rather than just being run-down, there were lots of narrow streets which wound their way around (and sometimes through) cafes and bars and there were boats with "Lovely Jubbly" written on them. Our hotel in Stonetown that night was even better with a rabbit-warren style interior and interesting rooms (our room opened into a hallway with our bedroom chained and padlocked on one side and the bathroom on the other).

After we got off the boat we had quite a busy first day, first looking around Stonetown and then heading off on a spice tour - which we weren't all that excited about to begin with. How wrong we were. Our local guide for this tour was bloody hilarious!! He'd been taught english by an englishman, and so while most of his words were spoken in the local Zanzibarbarian sing-song accent, every now and then he'd insert words in a (exaggerated) pommy accent. We first thought he was having a dig at James (the pom on our tour) but soon realised this was just how he spoke. It was so hard to listen without cracking up. But he was worth listening to. He first informed us that his name was "Ali-T in da bus" as opposed to "Ali-G in da house" - as we were being shown around in a minibus. He was also fairly well versed in Australian slang (tucker, sheila, dead horse, etc) to the confusion of the Americans.



Anyway, I digress, the spice tour was excellent - I hadn't even realised where most standard spices came from or what they looked like un-processed. We got to taste all of them (ginger, cardimon, pepper, cinnamon, lemongrass, cummin, plus a whole lot of others which I've forgotten about) and even saw one of the locals scamper up a palm tree to cut us some fresh coconuts. The following morning we headed out to a small island just outside the harbour which was used as a quarantine port in the colonial days. Here we did our first snorkelling (which was fantastic, except Sarah's mask leaked) and had a bit of a look around the island.



The main attraction on the island was the Giant Tortoise sanctuary. The main attraction of this was seeing one of the big males try (unsuccessfully) to mount one of the smaller females. This took sometime but provided for some good photo ops. We also got to hand feed them and hold some of the smaller ones which was good fun.

After returning from the island we went on a "swim with the dolphins" type tour. Which looked good on paper but actually involved a 90min drive to the other side of Zanzibar to what looked like someone's backyard, followed by a 90min goose(dolphin) chase in a small boat in fairly rough seas. To be fair we did see one dolphin flip out of the water and we saw plenty of fins but we only actually did any swimming once and the water was too stirred up to see anything (you could hear them tho). We were given dinner and had a beer to celebrate James' birthday then sat the 90min back to stonetown. The next morning we headed to the northern beaches.



I must say that the (mercifully) short trip from the 'highway' to our hotel was slightly interesting (read: travelled past some sort of unofficial refuse dump and murder ground). Our hotel was reasonably nice however and the beaches were stunning. We spent the majority of the next 5 days swimming, drinking, eating, relaxing, drinking, swimming, drinking and getting a stomach bug (not related to drinking, however. promise). The highlight would have to be the day-trip we took out to an island off the coast. The island was actually a private (!!) island and we couldn't step on the beach but we anchored off shore and did some pretty spectacular snorkelling (heaps of coral and beautiful fish of all sizes, starfish, seasnakes, anenomes and rays - and sarah maintains she saw a seahorse {unconfirmed}).



The accidental highlight tho was the pod of dolphins we passed through on the way out. They came right up to the boat and we all jumped in in our snorkelling gear and swam with them. The water was brilliantly clear and they must have only been 3-4m away - it was awesome, flogged the hell out of the "dolphin tour" a couple of days before. Please note the above photo is real and has _not_ been doctored in any way :) it jumped out of the water right next to us! Soon after we continued some of the locals on the boat caught a sizeable fish which they bbq'd for us (on the boat!!). It was delicious and probably the freshest fish we're likely to eat (~20min from alive and kicking to mmmmmm tasty...).



We spent the remainder of the week slogging it out at the restaurants and bars on the beach being forced to observe sunsets like this one. I reckon we took this identical photo about half a dozen times each night, every night. It was idyllic.

We actually left our tour on the beaches as the boys were heading back a day early to do the kili climb and we were staying on a day later to fly directly out of Dar instead of taking the tour bus back to Arusha. Our return trip through Stonetown and Dar wasn't all that exciting although we did get to try a chocolate and banana pizza at the Stonetown night market.

Rome ahoy!