Where does one start with The Vatican City. Just in this 0.44 sq km patch of land lies more art and history than what is contained in most other cities in the world. The Vatican City is the temporal seat of the Pope, head of the worldwide Catholic Church, and actually probably doesn’t need any introduction. It is the world’s smallest state with a population of only 900. Its visitors, on the other hand, no doubt number in the millions. If you ever visit the Vatican Euro is apparently the least circulated in the world and is therefore worth more than its face value so be on the look out for them!

Traditionally, one enters the Vatican through St. Peter’s Square (Piazza San Pietro) where before you will rise the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica. However, we joined our tour on the backside of the Vatican so managed to avoid most of the queues out the front. We opted for a tour because there was no way we were going to be able to make it through all the treasures of The Vatican on our own without getting bored!

The main reason people head to the Vatican is to check out the Vatican Museums and Saint Peter’s Basilica. The museums are regarded as one of the greatest art galleries in the world and, from what I read, could take days and days to explore every nook and cranny. The highlights, however, are the spiral staircase, the Raphael Rooms and, of course, the Sistine Chapel and its Michelangelo frescos.

It was an EXCELLENT decision to do the guided tour and our tour guide, from Eden Walks, was excellent. You could tell that he was very much into his history from the passion of his telling. In fact, he wanted to impart so much detail and knowledge to us that he spoke extremely fast to try and get across as much as possible. I was quite impressed that he also managed to deal with everyone’s special request – like Teesh wanting to get postcards posted from the official Vatican post office, and another girl wanting to head off on another separate private tour, and then eventually making sure we finished the tour in good time so that those who wanted to could climb up to the top of St Peter’s Basilica. He was also conscious of his voice and the positioning of our group so that we were never blocking off anyone else. In fact, he was so sensitive to the other tour guides that he kept asking us if he was as loud as them!

It was extremely fascinating to hear the history of Michaelangelo and Raphael and the competition between the two artists but also how they basically egged each other on I think. The meaning behind the various statues, frescos etc. were also quite fascinating and not definitely something I would have picked up walking around on our own. Time worth spent!

The Vatican during our visit, late on a Saturday afternoon, was ridiculously crowded but thanks to good timing we actually had most of the Raphael Rooms to ourselves. Not the Sistine Chapel though – that packed like I couldn’t believe but it was big enough that you could find your own space to soak up the atmosphere.

At the end of our tour we managed to get a sneak peak into Vatican Palace through the key hole! The Swiss Guards, in their bright colourful clothing (reminded me of jesters), were hard to miss stalking back and forth in front of his front door.

One of the best tips that someone gave me for exploring the history of Rome is to take a hand mirror with you. That way you don’t have to constantly have your head turned up to the ceiling. It was a good tip though its worth having a fairly sizable mirror to take it all in.

In the Sistine Chapel they say you’re not allowed to take photos because of the copyright that some Japanese TV company has over the room (money paid over to help with the upkeep and renovation. But in all honesty it depends on how the guards are feeling that day and with that many people in the room there is no way they are going to come over and stop you taking the pic.

After our tour we ran up to climb up to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica for sweeping views over Rome. The lines can get pretty long here but it was worth the wait to climb to the top. As you climb the steps get narrower and narrower with the dome coming in on both sides of you. Very strange feeling on the climb as you almost feel like you’re going to fall over from the weird angle.

Some more photos here.

We arrived in Rome five days ago from Venice (a nearly 4.5 hour trip by train) and were distinctly underwhelmed by the train station upon arrival. Our hostel was not very far from the train station but it was clear we hadn’t picked a particularly nice part of town to stay. Because we were staying five nights in Rome, a very expensive city for accommodation at the best of times, we were trying to find as cheap as place to stay as possible. Our first choice for hostels/B&B was The Beehive but it was booked out and somehow our search for cheap accommodation led us back to the Cherry Hostel. We found out later that everything was booked out because of the Champion’s League Final which was being hosted at the Rome Stadio Olimpico halfway through our trip. At any rate our bed was made, so to speak, and it was in a private room at the Cherry Hostel for 70 euro a night that we were stuck with.

The Cherry Hostel is worth a mention because of the nearly disastrous time we had there. I’ve stayed in some very nice hostels in Europe which were modern, clean, and fairly spacious. The Cherry Hostel was not really any of those things – okay well our room was fairly clean I suppose. I’m not sure if we had the only private double room in the joint but it felt like it should have been a single room. We barely had room to swing a cat and the bathroom was ridiculously tiny. Our room was also just next to reception and the walls were not thick by any stretch of the imagination and we could hear everything, including some girl who was sick ALL night long on the balcony. There was also no air-conditioning so we had to keep the window open to keep ourselves cool. The window happened to look out into a court yard so once again we could here EVERYTHING including two neighbours who seemed to be competing for the World’s Loudest TV. Teesh was not impressed when we first got there. The fact that on our second day and night we had no electricity did not help matters at all. Nor the fact that on the third night, late in the night, someone tried to get into our room. It scared the sh!t out of us!

Pardon the language.

The Filipino woman who seemed to be the manager at the Cherry Hostel, I presume her husband was around somewhere also, was relatively friendly and really knew Rome (so could point out all the relevant areas for us) but she never seemed to really care about managing the hostel and was not always around when we needed her. Its not like other hostels where there is always someone manning reception. There were two positives though – the white bunny and the brown bunny. And no, that’s not a euphemism for anything.

We had about three days to explore Rome (not including the day trip to Naples/Pompeii and the afternoon spent in The Vatican City) which I think was enough to give us a taste of the place.

Photos, Photos, Photos.

Day One

The day we arrived in Rome we got there about mid-afternoon but by the time we headed out from the hostel it was early evening. With a few hours of daylight left we thought we’d do a bit of exploring. We ended up down near Circus Maximus at the end of which we saw a big Euro Beach Soccer Cup stadium.

Turns out that to close the Euro Beach Soccer Cup 2009 event (won by Spain 6-4 over Switzerland) they were having an exhibition match featuring world champions Brazil against Italy. Italy actually came eighth in a field of eight at this year’s tournament …. but seemed to hold their own against Brazil in the exhibition match.

They still eventually went down but it was closely fought with a 7-5 victory to the Brazilians after 3 extra minutes of play. We didn’t really care about the results though … just on perving at the guys. 😛 On this note there were loads of guys in the stands with their t-shirts off – though that’s not to say that they actually should have had them off.

After the game we headed to Trastevere which ended up being quite a hike from Circus Maximus. We were hoping to find somewhere nice for dinner. The essence of Trastevere is its rough charm. Separated from central Rome by the Tiber, hence the name meaning “over the Tiber”, its filled with winding, twisting, and narrow lanes which today is where people go to experience the Roman night life. We ended up in a restaurant called Ristorante Paris which despite the name offered traditional Italian cuisine with specialities being typical Roman dishes. This was the first time, in Italy, that we’d indulged in the two-course dinner consisting of the pasta primi and a main secondi. It was too filling. The pasta primi was alright but my secondi was gorgeous seafood (lightly battered and deep fried.)

Keen to walk dinner off we headed up Janiculum Hill which ended up being quite the hike! We were hoping for some panoramic views of Rome and we did get them except it was a little dark to see much. However, the fountain up there was beautiful.

Day Two

On our second day in Rome Teesh organised for us to take a tour of the Colosseum & Ancient Rome with Presto Tours. We met up at the “Colosseo” metro stop near the Colosseum and this is when we really started to see a small part of the 7-10 million of people who visit Rome each year. To say that the place was busy was a huge understatement. Finding our tour group was easy enough and thankfully we’d gone with a tour company who limited their numbers on the tour. We saw many tour groups which were up to 60 people in size which to me just seems absolutely unmanageable – how they got value out of the tour I’m not sure. Sure they were utilising the handy Italian headset system (so you can hear the tour guide wherever they were) but there was little connection throughout the tour with the tour guide.

When visiting somewhere like the Colosseum its definitely well worth taking a tour to get the full history associated with the place. There’s only so much you’ll pick up from a book … and the book is hardly like to point out such etchings as these:

Our tour guide was hilarious – he’d walk around and then pretend to pick up an ancient coin wherever we went. Kind of charming but the funniest thing was that one minute he was there and the next he would disappear! He moved quickly and if you weren’t on your toes you’d lose him. Not very hard to be honest in the millions of people that were visiting the Colosseum that day. Being the day of the Champion’s League final that day there was a kind of exhibition to celebrate the final including a parade of the trophy. The line to pose with it was huge though so I settled for taking a pic from afar.

I could easily recite all the history etc. that we heard on the tour but it can easily be looked up and read. I found myself most interested in fun facts such as the fact that the grave of Julius Caesar lies within the Roman Forum, or that nearly 500,000 people and over a million wild animals were put to death in the Colosseum. Wowza.

After our 3-hour tour we headed down past Capitol Hill:

and down to the Torre Argentina’s Cat Sanctuary! Rome has for a long time been home to homeless cats (just check out all the postcards featuring the felines) but in the Cat Sanctuary, established officially about 15 years ago, the cats can find a proper shelter where they are cared for, cleaned and fed. Unofficially the cats have always sheltered in the ancient ruins of Rome fed by a succession of cat ladies. The Cat Sanctuary is free to visit with daily tours given by volunteers. Teesh was on the one hand in love with the place and totally happy to spend time there but also on the other hand sad that so many cats could be made homeless.

The biggest disappointment with Rome was that, despite the fact that Rome was hosting the Champion’s League final, outside of the stadium itself there was no real party atmosphere anywhere. There was no big screen broadcasting the final, no alcohol was being sold that day and there weren’t really pubs where we could go and find a screen to watch. We finally stumbled upon one near our hostel but that was after nearly an hour of searching!

Day Three

On day three we headed out to Naples and Pompeii.

Day Four

Day four saw us hunting bones and fountains. What a combination.

Out the Appian Way Rome has miles and miles of tunnels, or catacombs, where Christians used to bury their dead and also hold church services. We spent our morning at the Catacombs of St. Domitilla with the promise as the only one of the public catacombs where you were supposed to be able to see bones. Unfortunately, due to tourists before us who used to touch, pock and otherwise deface the bones they have now restricted access to them. Down in the depths of the tunnels you will also be surprised with beautiful pieces of art. Of course now, as the catacombs are dug up, we can only apply our modern thinking to interpret the art and make presumptions about who might be buried in the tunnels but it certainly is an interesting time in history if you like that type of thing. No photos allowed downstairs unfortunately.

You couldn’t count the number of fountains that Rome has on one hand, let alone, two, three or even probably 15 hands so walk into any square and you’ll no doubt come across one. Of course the most well-known fountain has to be the Trevi. We got to the Trevi kind of just after lunch and there were easily hundreds of people milling around it. I often looked at the postcards of the Trevi and wondered how the glorious pictures of it were taken with hardly any people in them? It was all we could do just to get by the water to throw our coin in (to make sure we would return – heh heh.) Apparently, according to wikipedia, approximately 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day which is used to subsidises a supermarket for Rome’s needy.

We came back later that night and still hordes of people. Pleased to say that the Trevi was equally beautiful at night.

Whilst we were in the mood for being around giant groups of tourists we decided we might as well head up to the Spanish Steps. I’m not sure why they are so popular and we joined the bandwagon and got our requisite shots on them. Admittedly they were very pretty but I still don’t understand the fascination …

By the way, no food, no getting jumping into the fountain, no graffiti, no partying and no littering allowed.

Day Five

On our last day in Rome we were heading to The Vatican but before this we decided to explore some of the greenery in Villa Borghese. Home not only to a few galleries its home to a most beautiful heart shaped landscape garden. Teesh and I decided to do something a little active and take one of these two-person bike things. It was a great way to get around the park but I can tell you that it nearly wiped us out!

Last Words

Strangely, unlike many places I’ve visited, I’m sitting on the fence about Rome. Sure its an amazing city, the history is just phenomenal and there are some parts of the city which are simply stunning but working against this are the hordes of tourists, the large number of tourists traps (e.g. finding good local places for food was extremely difficult), and the dirt (every night we would come back to the hostel covered in layers and layers of dust.) Still, I’m definitely glad I can now finally say I’ve been to the eternal city and even with my fences-sitting indecision about Rome I could recognise it is a truly was a magnificent city.

Pompeii is historically rich town and is best known for being buried in hot volcanic ash and mud when Mt Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago. The town and its townsfolk were literally buried alive and thanks to a discovery in the 16th century has undergone a series of excavations (work is still ongoing) to reveal ancient Rome as it was back then. Thanks to the burial the detail of the ancient city has been maintained in exquisite detail. Therefore aside from the ruins you can also see people, animals, and houseware also frozen in time.

Pompeii is about half an hour’s drive from the centre of Naples. We had opted to take a guided tour of the place because, although you can walk it yourself and there is a more than adequate map that can be bought for a few euro, nothing brings history alive like a live telling. And lets face it these days I have a very short attention span!

Some of the more interesting sites included:
– the large ampitheatre,
– the Forum (public marketplace)
– Via dei Sepolcri (one of the main thoroughfares where you can see the ruts worn in by the horse carts. Clearly this was not a walking city but there are raised stone blocks to help people get across the street though apparently they also functioned as old-fashioned speed bumps)
– Lupanar (an ancient brothel. Watch out for the pornographic frescoes which showed what you would get in the respective rooms)

The other things in detail to watch out for as you’re walking around in Pompeii are:
– the small tiles in the grounds which reflect the moon light or candle light to aid people when walking at night
– the ph@lluses carved into the stones of the walls or in frescoes. Though you may think that they signified fertility and of course s3x (often pointing the way to the nearest brothel) depending on how it was presented it could also be a sign for good luck.

You could easily spend a whole day at Pompeii which is stunningly rich in history but its hot (our tour guide came prepared with her oriental umbrella) and there is hardly any shelter so it could get tiring very quickly. Walking around is not very easy either on the dusty cobblestones which are surprisingly exhausting to navigate. Not to mention the threat that Mt Vesuvius could blow again without warning! Ha ha.

First impressions are lasting impressions and I’m afraid my first one of Naples was not great. Walking out of the train station you are confronted with an area which his … to put it delicately … a little undesirable. Though the buildings themselves were quite magnificent. It just felt seedy and there were some not very nice looking people hanging around the place. Plus the fact the area seemed to be a giant car park with cars absolutely everywhere was hardly encouraging.

Oh and by the way – crossing the streets of Naples is done at the pedestrian’s risk. We’ve found that generally cars will not stop for you and with no pedestrian traffic lights to help you out you really have to move quickly to get across the road.

We had come to Naples from Rome (a nearly 90 minute trip on an express train) because of a Pompeii/Mt Vesuvius tour that we were supposed to be taking with Viator. It wasn’t until we were picked up by the driver that we were told that we wouldn’t be visiting Mt Vesuvius. This made us a little angry because if we’d know about this earlier (when we arrived in Rome a couple of days ago we’d had to call to confirm the tour – they could have told us then) we would have tried to re-arrange or at least pick a different tour. Apparently the reason we couldn’t do the Mt Vesuvius part was because of the Giro d’Italia (the Italian answer to the Tour de France.) How annoying.

So, we did the Pompeii tour (this it the next write-up) and within a couple of hours were back in Naples in time for lunch. Honestly we were both a bit grumpy at lunch time as we were frustrated with cancellation of part the tour. Nevertheless by the time we’d both had a Naples pizza (mine a rather salty broccoli and local sausage pizza) we were both ready to make the most of our free afternoon. We played a game over lunch of seeing if we could spot the mafia …

With only a few hours left of the afternoon our best bet for seeing the most of Naples was the Hop On Hop Off bus (but we weren’t planning on hopping off) but unfortunately we only had time to do one route – the one that took us up and down the coastline. The afternoon was quite a nice one so the bus ride was rather pleasant. Naples struck me as the kind of place which didn’t have too many things to do except to relax and soak up the relaxed atmosphere. The buildings are quite beautiful and being at the top of the bus helped bring us closer to the facades.

Naples doesn’t have much of a beach along the Gulf and instead there are large white rocks which people used to full advantage to soak up the sun. Graffiti artists also apparently find them quite a good canvas to demonstrate their art.

Thankfully, the centre of Naples and the coast by the Gulf of Naples was much nicer than what we’d glimpsed of the city in the morning by the train station so our visit to Naples wasn’t an entire waste of time and I walked away with an improved first impression. In fact Teesh had so revised her feeling on Naples that she even said that her next European trip would include an extended stay in Naples for rest …

Venice is really the City of Love (I’ll ignore the “And Death” part for the purposes of this write-up I think!) There are few cities where you get an immediate feel for the place upon stepping outside of the airport or the main train station. Venice is one of them. Perhaps it was the timing of my arrival (sunset) combined with the glorious warm weather but I couldn’t have arrived into a more romantic mood. From Venice airport I took the Alilaguna water bus and for the whole 50 minute plus ride in to San Marco I had the gorgeous sunset hovering over the calm waters of the Adriatic Sea out my window. It really set the scene for a fantastic 3-4 day stay.

Photos, Photos, Photos.

When?	Mid May 2009
Why Go?	Oh my god the romance and I don’t just mean from a partner point of view! Its such a beautiful city and so different from anywhere you’ve ever been before. You could understand why so many poets and artists found inspiration in this lovely city. The greatest thing about Venice was the fact you could walk two or three blocks from Piazza San Marco (tourist central) and aside from being absolutely lost (heh heh) you’ll find yourself absolutely alone. It never failed us and it was great to have the peace from all those tourists. 🙂
Weather	Fantastically hot and just a bit humid (the 19-25 degrees felt soooo much hotter than it sounds.)
Hint	– When they say travel light – believe them! You will be walking over a lot of bridges to get to your accommodation with most not having ramps so you’ll have to lug your luggage up those stairs and then also lug them up the floors you’ll no doubt have to climb to get to your room.
	– You will get lost. There is no avoiding it. You can have the best map in the world of Venice and it will still not have every street on there. But that’s half the charm of discovering Venice. I remember one time late at night I was leading Teesh down an alley and we emerged into this very small square, where there happened to be a buzzing café, and I went to walk down another alley to get out of the square wondering out loud what was at the end of it. I got a cheeky response from one of the guys at the café saying there I would find a pool and sure enough all before me was water.
	We had a pretty good map, supplied by our B&B, but even with that we got lost so many times it wasn’t funny. However, somehow we always found our way to where we needed to get (even if it did take an extra 30 mins …) Much to our great amusement, one of the couples staying in our B&B brought their GPS around with them. Losers! (Sorry – that was a bit uncalled for but we didn’t really like them because they were rather snobby!)
	The best bet for getting around is to pick up landmarks near where you’re trying to get to and just keep asking everyone you see to point you in the right direction. After all, someone is always going to know where Piazza San Marco or the Rialto is!
	– Gondolas are EVERYWHERE so shop around and see if you can bargain the price down. If you are traveling on your own or as a couple and want to save a few euro consider hooking up with strangers to share the cost.

Our visit to Venice was both relaxing and busy. We easily found enough sights and attractions to keep us occupied during our short stay. Teesh also picked up an American guy who we spent the day and dinner with us (and who we split a Gondola ride with) so it was mostly a tourist visit but also a sit back and relax and soak up the atmosphere visit. The American guy wasn’t the only one to show an interest in Teesh – the owner of our B&B, Ricardo, was also interested in some “activity” with Teesh. Rather amusing that she didn’t quite pick up the clues from him … Aside from this awkward situation though the B&B was really nice. It was only a couple of blocks away from most sights, we had a large lovely room with big bathroom and Ricardo was very friendly (I mean, beyond trying to pick Teesh up) and helpful pointing out good local restaurants to go to etc.

The Experience

A little planning is recommended for Venice to ensure that you don’t miss out anything that you want to do (such as visiting the island of Murano to watch the glass-blowing in the glass factories – visits are best scheduled for weekday mornings.) Also, travelling in Italy at this time of year it helps to pre-book some tours because they tend to get booked out or suddenly aren’t available for the day you want them. One tour we booked in advance was the Doge’s Palace “Secret Itineraries” Tour (Itinerari Segreti del Palazzo Ducale) which I would well recommend.

Doge’s Palace

The Doge’s Palace is a beautiful building in the Piazza which used to be home of the elected leader of Venice, the Doge. It was from here that the city was run. Not only was the Palace the political heart of Venice it also now holds may amazing pieces of art including Tintoretto’s Vision of Paradise. (I was soon to find out that Italy has so many pieces of art that every piece you come across is great or amazing for on reason or another.)

The “Secret Itineraries” tour not only allows you to skip the giant line for entry into the Doge’s Palace (you are free to wander after the tour has finished) but you get to follow in the footsteps of former leaders of Venice through secret passages and concealed doors. You’ll also find out about Casanova’s, “the world’s greatest lover”, incarceration and subsequent escape from his gaol. Hearing stories about the Torture Room was a bit creepy though from what I understand just the threat of torture seemed enough to get people talking. Look out also for the golden staircase, Scala d’oro, which you will climb to get up to the apartments – its hard to miss golden stucco decorated vault above your head.

At the end of your visit to the Palace you will have access to the infamous Bridge of Sighs a bridge so named by Lord Byron at the suggestion that the prisoners would sigh at their final view of Venice out the window before walking across the bridge and down to their cells.

Gondola Ride

As I said at the start there are gondolas absolutely everywhere so you can shop around to find the best bargain but also the best route. We took a gondola ride around the canals so it was sort of a bit more inland than, e.g., out on the waters of the Grand Canal. It was very nice and peaceful . We bargained our guy down in price but I’m pretty sure he also chopped out about 15 minutes of the trip to reflect the cut down price! At first our guy was asking for 60 or 80 euro and I think we ended up paying something like 45 or 60 euro (I can’t remember exactly) for 30 minutes. He was a nice enough guy but spoke limited English and so didn’t say much during our ride. From other gondolas passing us we heard the gondolier giving them a sort of tour guide, or pointing out important buildings at least, so it may be worth checking if that service is available.

A gondola ride is one of the must-do things in Venice and it is very lovely but it is pricey so you’ll have to buck it up and live with the price. Oh! You can also go and see the gondolas being built!

Basilica di San Marco (St Mark’s Basilica)

Lots of gold and mosaics in this basilica. A visit to view the interior is free (though women must be dressed appropriately (knees and shoulders should be covered) and you can climb to the Galleria for more views across the Piazza and out to the lagoon to San Giorgio and access to the museum. From here you can also get a better view of the interior. The highlight up here is the up close view of the four bronze horses.

Campanile di San Marco, or Belltower of St. Mark’s

Getting up early to hit the tourist sights is what most guide books advise you so you can avoid the queues. However this rule didn’t seem to apply in Venice. Could be an anomaly but every morning we went into the Piazza San Marco there were huge queues for the Belltower, the Palace and the Basilica but come just after lunch the queues seemed to fade away to more manageable levels.

Every city or town I visit I must go to a spot which sits high above the city for panoramic views and the Bell Tower is it for Venice. The line wasn’t huge to go up but by the time we emerged at the top there were quite a few people there so it was very crowded and spots by the windows were hard to come by. Good timing or bad timing we also got to the top just as the bells started ringing. There are five bells up there and they are massive and loud. I must admit feeling a bit nervous standing under them as they swung because I thought they might fall down on me!

The views from the Belltower are unparalleled and if its clear enough you can see absolutely everywhere though as usual you will have to put up with the rude tourists intent on getting their shot out the window.

Piazza San Marco

The Piazza San Marco is tourist central as this is where everyone seems to come (if they’re not at The Rialto Bridge that is ..) If you’re meeting people in the Piazza be sure to pick a point that is not outside the Basilica because this is where everyone, including giant tour groups, congregate and seeing each other in the sea of people will not be easy. You could easily spend an hour or two people watching in the Piazza but there are also cafes which line it if you want to take a seat. However, sitting down in any of the cafes in Piazza San Marco is going to cost you a bundle as you are paying a premium for the prime position and also the orchestra who entertain day and night. If you want to soak up the atmosphere you can simply stand around and watch. But sitting down in the Piazza, if not at the café, is strictly not allowed and if you do you will soon be asked to get up or the police will be called!

The Piazza is also sometimes hosts to re-enactments of the olden times when the King used to come down and be entertained by jesters, by sword fights etc. and we were lucky to see this one day. I was a bit scared though by one of his entourage – he was a big, no giant!, scary knight!

Vaporetto Rides

Vaporetto’s are basically Venice’s buses on the water and there is no better way then to get a picture of Venice than to take one of these on the Grand Canal. I think the No. 2 travels between Piazza San Marco and the railway station and along the way takes you up the Grand Canal taking in sites including the Rialto Bridge and the artistic area of Galleria dell’ Accademia. Plus out on the water you can see how busy it really gets with all those other “vehicles” on the water. Best place on the vaporetto is out the back for open-air views however also be aware that these rides get very crowded!

Other Distractions

Harry’s Bar

If ever there was a tourist trap then Harry’s Bar is it. However, everyone MUST come to Harry’s Bar to indulge in at least one bellini (peach juice and prosecco.) One bellini (served in a very small glass) will set you back at least 12 euro so its likely that’s all you’ll be able to afford but nevertheless it is interesting to come here and people watch and hope to catch a celeb. There are only 14 tables so it’s a rather snug restaurant and you’re most likely to be sat at the bar.

When Teesh and I went in an American couple were sitting next to us. I don’t know if the woman was drunk but she was VERY giggly and talkative. She was enormously entertaining especially when she kept wiggling her eyebrows at me when she was trying to emphasise a particular point, such as the fact that many of the people in the bar, the clientele that is, had had plastic surgery at one stage or another and when I discretely had a peak – she was right!

Note the dress code for men.

Murano

Venice’s glasswork is known around the world and if you went to get the genuine stuff then make sure it comes from Murano, being the island where all the glass making factories are. Note also that the vaporetta ride which takes you out to Murano passes by Isola di San Michele which is worth a visit in its own right. Known colloquially as The Island of the Dead it is one of the most beautiful cemeteries I’ve come across. Flowers seemed to freshened daily as most plots had nice fresh ones laid across them.

We ventured out to Murano early one morning hoping to catch some of the glass blowing demonstrations at the factories. Blatantly put on for tourists the factory we went to charged a small fee (a couple of euro) for the demonstration. It was money well spent. The first guy took about 15 minutes to shape this vase then the second guy, after shaping another vase in about 5 minutes, amazed us by whipping up a glass horse in like 5 twitches of his plier.

Lido

A short vaporetto ride away from Venice is Lido, an 11km sandbar and beach. We kind of left going to Lido a bit late in the day so, though we didn’t sit on the beach and catch some rays, it was still warm enough at 5pm in the afternoon to enjoy a nearly two hour stroll. It’s a huge beach and though the main area off the main strip was very busy a 5-minute stroll in either direction up or down the beach brings you to less busy surrounds. Its not the most beautiful beach I’ve seen but on a hot summer day I don’t see too many people refusing to go down there.

The Food

After one average experience at a tourist trap (serving typical pizza and pasta only) I really got into the food of Venice. Particular highlight included a tasty risotto nero (a seafood risotto tinted black by the ink of cuttlefish), a starter sarde in saor (sardines in a sauce of onion, vinegar, pine nuts, and raisins) and actually my final meal in Venice fegato alla veneziana (calves’ liver with onions Venetian style.) Mmmm …. all typically Venetian I understand.

One of our lunches was also quite memorable and involved indulging in cicchetti (tapas style snacks) which was quite good simply because we could eat what we want and as many of them as we wanted. It was surprisingly cheap too! In fact, a pub crawl in search of cicchetti is one of the perfect ways to fill your stomach at budget pries.

More simple pleasures including the numerous cones of gelati we indulged in (though often it was a race between the hot weather melting the ice cream and me being able to lick it all up) and the slices of pizza from a local pizza joint.

Last Words

I couldn’t get over the fact that there were no cars at all on Venice. The buses were boats, the ambulances were boats, the rubbish trucks were boats, and the police had boats. It was actually quite welcome and soothing.

As small as Venice is and as many visitors as it gets you would think that Venice would be overrun by the tourists but somehow it isn’t. The magic of Venice lies in the pockets of quiet that you can find dotted just steps away from the main thoroughfares. I could think of a better city to get lost in.

“The Great Castle Journey” as Teesh and I have affectionately named this part of our trip was a looooong time planning. Considering the fact that it consisted of one day out of a total of 31 days that I had with Teesh during her trip over here we spent a very disproportionate amount of the last six months planning for it – I would say at least 50% of our emails and phone conversations were about “The Great Castle Journey”!! I can’t even begin to think how many discussion boards we read or internet sites we hit. Ordinarily this trip wouldn’t have been to hard to plan except that we only had one day in which to carry it off and that one day was going to be cut short by the fact I had to get to the airport in time to catch a plane back to London. So, there were all sorts of factors to take into consideration such as whether we’d be able to make a five minute connection between trains, how long exactly it would take us to move between the two castles that we wanted to visit etc. Teesh thought it would be a relatively achievable journey from Munich and in the end we made it with plenty of time to spare, though we certainly spent a fair amount of time on buses and trains getting there.

Germany is known for its great and many castles and the most famous one surely has to be Neuschwanstein Castle in Hohenschwangau. I didn’t realise it until we started planning but there are actually two castles at Hohenschwangau: Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle with the former being the more well-known. The tourism council at Hohenschwangau are obviously quite crafty as they offer a combo King’s ticket that allows you to visit both castles for a slightly discounted price (a €1 saving.)

Hohenschwangau Castle was built by King Ludwig II’s father, King Maximilian II, from the ruins of another castle. I guess King Ludwig’s inspiration for Neuschwanstein came from his father as Hohenschwangau is where he actually grew up and King Maximilian II definitely had an eye for the fairytale. It’s a shame that you’re not allowed pictures inside of either castle – though of course that didn’t stop other cheeky people taking some snaps.

Neuschwanstein Castle is the fairytale castle which was the inspiration behind the Walt Disney signature castle that first featured in Cinderella. The castle was built by King Ludwig II (‘Mad King Ludwig’) as a homage to Richard Wagner. Building began in 1869 but the castle was never finished and in fact King Ludwig II himself only stayed in the castle for half a year. Prior to completion King Ludwig II was declared insane and then not long after this was found drowned in a lake. The mystery of his death has never been solved – whether it was death by murder, suicide or accident no one has a clue.

Entry into castles is strictly managed and you are expected to take timed visits as part of a group on a tour to visit the interior. During peak times I would highly recommend pre-booking your tickets to the castle(s) as this not only assures you that you get the times you prefer but also saves you wasting time in the long queues consisting of all the walk-ins .. of which there are many! It’s a few euro extra but definitely worth it in time saved. This is what we did as we thought that the success of our mission really depended on us getting exactly the trains and exactly the entry times at the castles that we’d planned for. The only annoying condition is that you have to pick up your tickets one hour before your first castle entry … annoying if you are relying on public transport to get there on time!

This is what we hoped would happen:

– 7.51am: Catch the train departing Mϋnchen Hbf and arriving at Buchloe at 8.41am
– 8.46am: Cross the platform to catch the train departing for Fϋssen Bahnhof to arrive at 9.57am
– 10.00am: Take a taxi from Fϋssen to the town of Hohenschwangau (10 to 15 mins). We could have also caught the bus but weren’t sure how often they departed and how long it would take
– 10.20am: Pick up our tickets and walk to first castle (10-20 min walk/climb)
– 11.20am: Hohenschwangau Castle tour (35-40 minutes)
– 12.00pm: Make way to Neuschwanstein Castle via Mary’s Bridge (Marien Brϋcke) 15 min bus ride to Marien Brϋcke, some time to take photos from the Bridge as it is the best place for pictures of Neuschwanstein Castle, then 15 min walk to the castle from the bridge.
– 13.25pm: Neuschwanstein Castle tour (35-40 minutes)
– 2.00pm: Take horse-carriage back down to the centre of town
– 2.44pm: Take the bus back to Fϋssen
– 3.07pm: Catch the direct train back to Mϋnchen Hbf arrive 17.07pm
– 5.10pm: Pick up my back pack previously stored in a left-luggage locker
– 6.05pm: Catch s-bahn to airport arriving at 6.46pm.
– 7.15pm: Check-in for flight back to London.

A pretty tight schedule! We arrived in Munich from Innsbruck early on Saturday evening (its only a two hour train journey between Innsbruck and Germany) to find that the weather was going to be postcard perfect for “The Great Castle Journey”:

Upon arrival in Munich we only had time for a quick visit to the train station to confirm our trains for “The Great Castle Journey” and a meal at one of the beer halls. It was lucky that we checked the trains because we found out that there were ENGINEERING WORKS! I couldn’t believe it – I thought I’d left that kind of thing back in London!! This put a major kink in our plans because instead of getting a train from Buchloe to Fϋssen we had to rely on a shuttle bus to get there and there was no guarantee we’d make it in time to pick up or tickets.

Well, all that worry was for nothing! We made it in plenty of time to pick up our tickets for our original booking and it all went off without a hitch. In fact, even though both the tours of the castles went for a bit longer than expected we still had more than enough time to see both castles and the surrounds. I would have appreciated a bit more time to climb the peak near Marien Brϋcke because apparently that’s where all the classic pics of the Neuschwanstein Castle come from but I was happy with the ones we took. As it was the Castle was covered in scaffolding anyway.

The insides of both castles were pretty cool and fantastically imaginative. If you only have time for one castle I would think that Hohenschwangau Castle is the better one to tour simply because Neuschwanstein Castle was only party finished. After all, you can still see Neuschwanstein Castle from the outside and the exterior is really what its most famous for.

My favourite part of the day was probably standing on Marien Brϋcke and looking out at Neuschwanstein Castle and the amazing vista. Despite the millions of tourists buzzing around me I felt such a sense of peace – probably from the fact we actually made it there to see this wonderful castle and also from the fact it was such a brilliant day weather-wise. Simply picture perfect.

When I got home, as in back to London, I realised that I’d taken all sorts of public transport today: German train, German bus, Horse & Carriage, Plane, London train and London tube. The only thing missing really was to drive myself in a car or ride a bike …

The train from Zurich to Innsbruck is a 3 hour and 40 minute journey and we spent over half of it talking to this old lady who, probably upon hearing us chat about our upcoming plans, felt like helping us out by giving us tips of where to stay, where to eat etc. Teesh, who has so far not had any problems talking with anyone who shows the slightest bit of interest in us, was strangely suspicious of the woman. I guess she was asking for a fair bit of detail from us like where we were staying, how long we were going to be there for etc. but I thought it was more to give her an idea of what advice to give us than as part of some underhanded scheme to commit some crime against us.

So, anyhow, now that we’ve started to travel about on trains – it brought to my mind the question of what is proper train etiquette. I’ve always wondered – is there ever a point in the journey where its too early to start a conversation with a fellow passenger? Take our conversation with this woman – she started talking to us about 20 minutes into our journey which left nearly another whole 3.5 hours where we didn’t know whether she expected us to keep chatting to her, or whether it was okay for Teesh and I to hold our own conversation? Plus Teesh’s oddly standoff-ish behaviour was sending me mixed signals about whether I should engage with the woman or not. Also, could I then effectively ignore the old woman and read my book?

Photos, Photos, Photos.

The Experience

By the time we reached Innsbruck it was getting on nearly early evening. After settling into our hotel, Hotel Weisses Kreuz where Mozart stayed in 1769 which was conveniently located in the old town and only steps away from the action so to speak, we took a stroll around the centre of town. Its not that big to be honest and as it was after 5pm we were kind of hard pressed to find much going on or open in terms of things to see or do. So, we settled down in a bustling café for a few drinks and a bite to eat (wine for Teesh, milkshakes and toasted open cheese sandwiches for me – heh heh) and some people watching for the evening. I’ve come to learn that there is NOTHING that Teesh loves more than sitting in a café or bar and people watching with her wine and cigarettes. I think she’s loving the fact that in Europe you can still smoke pretty much everywhere – even at your table! Though Teesh does her best not to let the smoke come my way I always seem to choose the seat where the wind directly blows! Ha ha. I don’t mind it too much though I have noticed the start of a sore throat from being around her smoking constantly. Ah well. The joys of traveling with a smoker! I’m just not used to it I guess as I know absolutely no one who has the nasty habit. But to each their own.

We kind of hadn’t done much research on what we wanted to see in Innsbruck except that Teesh desperately wanted to visit the Alpine Zoo. We basically had about a day and a half to fill so we thought our best option was to pick up the Innsbruck Card. The 48 hour card was 30 euro (25 euro for 24 hours) and in that time we had full access to hop on hop off bus, to public transport, to a walking City Tour, to all the museums and sights in the region, a return trip on the Nordpark Cable Railway and free entrance to Swarovski Kristallwelten.

Before I go on I must mention just how gorgeous Innsbruck, well the old town, is. With the Alps looming over it the town is so beautiful. We mainly hung around the pedestrianised district in the old town and by the river. Its very much a winter town, known best for hosting the Winter Olympics twice, but I’m sure the mountains make it a very active place in the summer too. To maintain its beauty the town planners apparently ensure that any new builds are in harmony with the architectural style which is a mix of gothic, renaissance, and baroque.

Here are some of the highlights we saw:

Nordpark Cable Railway.

This journey actually consisted of three separate climbs starting with the Hungerburg cable funicular (Section I Hungerburgbahn.) The funicular departs from the funky “Goldenes Dachl” (Golden Roof) at Congress station which is only minutes from the heart of the old town. It only takes about 20 minutes to climb the 300 or so metres up to Hungerburg. Here you change for the Panorama cable car (Section II) which takes you up another 1,037m to Seegrube station. All of the sudden we were hit by how peaceful it was up here. While you wait for the final cable car to take you to the final stop you can step outside to gaze up at the mountain. We were lucky enough to witness some crazy skiers, with those really short half skis, coming down the mountain to join us. The drop looked quite sheer and we could see that half of them were really tumbling around. We were so into watching the skiers that we missed our cable car coming in so had to wait another 15 minutes for the next one.

Finally we were on to Section III which took us to the final station Hafelekar. At 2,256m we were very high up and it was fricken cold. We hadn’t exactly dressed for being on top of a mountain today. Fantastic view though and well worth my frozen nose and wind burn to get the pics. You can walk around at the top (just ignore the signs shouting ACHTUNG! At you) but it was very very windy and very very cold so we didn’t stay out for long. The funniest thing that happened was that I got talking to this Brazilian couple and when we got to Hafelekar we ran into another group of Brazilians! What are the chances! I also met a guy from Malaysia – he must have really felt the cold!

Alpine Zoo

Supposedly the Alpine Zoo is Europe’s highest elevated zoo so its supposed to specialise in high altitude animals. We saw loads of birds, amphibians and the like. The farm animals were cute. Big ticket animals included bison (who were absolutely massive), wolves, two sleeping brown bears, a beard vulture, and moose. Unfortunately we didn’t see any deer nor the lynx (to Teesh’s disappointment as she is a huge cat person.)

I was expecting more from the zoo but I guess it was okay for a couple of hours entertainment. Oh! We did see an eagle as well – and we got to see it in action catching and tearing apart a mouse!

Swarovski Kristallwelten

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Swarovski Crystal Worlds – all the brochures were suitably ambiguous and featuring this woman with loads of crystals and wacky make-up and a light blue lycra body suit. Well, the brochure looked more attractive than I’m probably making it sound. So I wondered was it going to be a factory, a gallery of crystals or what? Well, it was kind of like an art gallery with some very loose themes linking to crystals.

There are 14 rooms/features in total. There were some rooms which I really liked – such as the Crystal Dome (imitates what its like to be inside a crystal with 590 mirrors covering the walls and constantly changing light), the Crystal Theatre (fairy tale type scenes featuring crystals of course), the Ice Passage (a long hallway intriguingly lit and once you step on the floor you leave behind an impression), and Reflections (can’t really explain this room except to show the picture below!) One room which featured dummies and cut off robotic legs was just inexplicable.

It was actually kind of exciting but the hordes of tour groups which pass through are quite off-putting. We were lucky to be one of the first people into Crystal Worlds but eventually even we got swamped by impatient uninterested groups. We found that strangely the older Italian people were the aggressive. Teesh even got pushed over at one point.

The D-Cube was huge – to celebrate the life of Daniel Swarovski, the creator and founder of the Swarovski empire, his portrait was placed inside the largest crystal ever cut by Swarovski – 410mm square and weighing 225kg there was no way it was going to fit in my handbag. For shame.

The shop was nearly larger than the gallery itself. If you go you must make sure to also visit the toilets (high tech things sure had the old people confused about which door to enter and how to get the water to run and the paper out to dry your hands!) but also make sure to go outside – there was heaps of art to be found nestled into the grass and also a lookout point and a maze!

The Hofkirche (Court Church)

Although a lovely church in its own right the fascinating aspect of this church are the 28 large bronze statues which surround the cenotaph in the centre of the church. Although the cenotaph of Emperor Maximilian, an ornate black marble monument, lies in the middle to draw your attention you can’t help but be entranced by the life-like statues that look on. What makes the statues remarkable are the incredible detail in the build. You could probably study each and every statue for days and not notice all the details.

City Tower

Great for panoramic views.

The Rest

We also did the city walking tour which was quite an informative tour around the city. However it was a combo English/German tour so it was a bit disruptive and as always with those kinds of tour you never know if the other language is getting more information than you! We also ate some ice-cream in the lovely Hofgarten which apparently used to be a rough vegetable garden for the imperial court but was later developed into the English style garden it is today. Loved the yellow benches! Look out also for the naked Jesus in the middle of one of the bridges going over the river. Apparently when the sculpture was first put up some anti-porn groups were going to protest it. But its not the first time this group’s sensibilities were offended, prior to that it was a portrait of a naked Mozart which stirred them up …

Finally, I also ate some interesting things in Innsbruck not the least being my Foal Goulash with Bacon. Its not every day you can say you’ve eaten horse (although by that stage I really could have eaten a horse as I was sooo hungry! Ha ha) And before you ask no it doesn’t take like chicken – it was more like beef. For all I know it was actually beef!

Last Words

We only had probably just over a day and half in Innsbruck and we found that this really was probably just enough time to get around and see the main highlights. The main disappointment was that we didn’t get to go up to the Olympic ski jump because they had some gun shooting competition going on. Otherwise we had a lovely time and enjoyed what is a very picture postcard city.

We were traveling to Innsbruck today but, since we were traveling through Zurich to get to Innsbruck, Teesh wanted to stop for a quick visit.

As I mentioned in my previous post I visited Zurich just over two years ago and I actually still remembered parts of the city (there wasn’t a whole lot to do.)

Today all Teesh and I really had time for was to walk down one side of the river and walk up the other side!

Rather than do a whole big write-up on our rather exciting two hour stroll I thought I would instead share pics of some of the quirkier sights:

and some more traditional ones:

So two weeks ago Teesh arrived to the start her trip of a lifetime. She left London about a week ago to do a bit of Europe without me (Belgium, Amsterdam and Berlin) as I’d already visited those cities. It was time for me to meet up with her for leg one of my trip with her. We are going to cover a few cities which include Lucerne, Zurich, Innsbruck and Munich.

I actually visited Lucerne (and Zurich) just over two years ago. Lucerne was part of a larger day trip from Zurich but I was there for literally an hour on that occasion. Back then I thought it was a charming place but planning for this trip I wasn’t sure that it could actually entertain us for the two days and three nights we had planned on being here. I needn’t have worried because we didn’t end up spending that much time in Lucerne itself and instead used it as base for visiting the nearby peaks and lakes. Lucerne is a gorgeous city – I mean, it lies right by a beautiful lake, Lake Lucerne, has mountains such as Mt Pilatus for a backdrop and has a really cute medieval feel to the old town. What makes it pleasant for the traveller is the ease of getting around. Though there is public transport we were able to walk everywhere we needed to and we found that most “sights” were probably only ever within a 15-20 minute walk away.

Photos, Photos, Photos.

The Experience

I arrived in Lucerne on Monday evening after catching an early afternoon flight out of London City Airport. I had my choice of airports to fly out of and since I’ve never flown out of City Airport I made sure to give it a go this time. It was fun! The runway is so short that the pilots really have to rev up the plane before letting go the brake to make sure we had enough juice to take off.

So, anyway our first task for the evening was to find somewhere for dinner. We made a promise to ourselves that no matter what country or city we were in we would try to eat the local food as much as possible. It was admittedly rather late by the time we decided to go out and get dinner but all that seemed to be open for food business were Italian restaurants! I’ve kind of gotten used to there being places to eat no matter what time of day it is in London so I was expecting the same sort of thing in Lucerne. Not sure why I felt like that! At any rate we hunted for what felt like hours and guess what we ended up eating? Lasagne! It was delicious but hardly Swiss food …

I mentioned before that we were mainly using Lucerne as a base for daily excursions. We only had two days so decided to split our time between Jungfraujoch and the Golden Round Trip to Mt Pilatus.

Jungfraujoch

Jungfraujoch, or the “Top of Europe”, is known for being the highest railway station in Europe at an elevation of 3,454m. Its one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe and one not to be missed … unless the weather does not look clear and then you may want to reconsider your 180CHF (that’s right – it ain’t cheap!) getting up there.

Jungfraujoch is not just a destination (though its one heck of a destination) so like all other trips in Switzerland just getting to Jungfraujoch is a journey to savour:

– We started our journey bitterly early (we had to get up at nearly 5am! which was a struggle since we only got to bed at about 1am …) to take a train from the main station in Lucerne to Interlaken Ost. This was a two hour trip. The weather wasn’t perfect but the beauty of the landscape surrounding us was still enchanting. I can’t remember exactly what stations we passed through but we had views of all sorts of farm land (land is sooo green), lakes and mountains along the way. We even saw some fighter jets taking off! Truly the photos just don’t capture how lovely it all was.

– At Interlaken Ost we had ten minutes to hop on to 20 minute regional train to take us to Lauterbrunnen where we had another 15 minutes to hop on to a rather cute and cosy train to take us to Kleine Scheidegg. At this stage the trains were still fairly comfortably filled and Teesh and I could afford to hog a couple seats by the windows (the sides, of course, being chosen according to research done by Teesh for the best side.) It was on this leg that we started to see the snow around us (though clearly we’d seen in on the top of the mountains previously.

Finally after a further 45 minutes travel we arrived at Kleine Scheidegg (altitude 2061m) which is the start of the start of the Jungfrau Railway (a modern cogwheel.) This journey, of which part of it includes tunneling straight through Eiger, took approximately another 50+ minutes but included two five minute stops inside the tunnel to give us a closer view of the infamous Eiger North Face. Interestingly it is known as ‘murder wall’ for the 64 climbers who have died trying to climb it since 1935. By this time the train was absolutely packed and many people chose not to even get off the train at the five minute stops just to preserve their seats. I almost don’t blame them – the climb is rather steep and puts a lot of pressure on you when you’re standing and trying to keep your footing. Interestingly the toilets inside the tunnel don’t have running water and in place of taps you have a towelette dispenser!

And finally, after nearly 4.5 hours travel from Lucerne train station we arrived at the “Top of Europe”!

You first emerge in an Ice Palace or Gateway or something which was basically, a large room with a couple of tunnels all encased in ice with ice sculptures in ice caves. It was a lot of fun trying to slip and slide around the place. Loved all the ice sculptures but to be honest the large hordes of tourists, yes I know I’m one of them, put me off a bit so we shortly left this place to head up and outside to see the snow.

And wasn’t Teesh just excited! She’s never seen snow before but it was BLOWING a giant gale outside and she’s not very comfortable with heights at all. To give her credit she didn’t hesitate too much getting outside and didn’t freak out too much but at one stage it got so windy that we could barely see our hands in front of us and at that stage she fell to hug the ground for fear of being blown off the top of the mountain. Heh heh. I don’t blame her – it was very very windy. I was surprised to see that it was only -2.3 degrees celcius. With the wind it definitely felt much colder.

On a nicer, more calmer, day there are a few things you could do like ride a husky dog sleigh (we had to settle for seeing them jumping around inside and then pretending to drive a dog sleigh …), hiking, ski and snowboarding, ride a zip line, or ride a snow disk down but all those activities were on hold.

After we’d exhausted ourselves going out to various view points and standing in a blizzard – yes it was that windy and cold – we had some lunch before heading back down the mountain. The air is noticeably thinner at the top of the mountain, not a surprise, and combined with my lack of sleep the previous week I felt quite dizzy at times though not enough, thankfully, to make me loose my balance or feel too short of breath. Teesh felt it a bit but then she’s a smoker so I would expect that.

Our trip down this time took us through Grindelwald (rather than Lauterbrunnen) which is down another side of the mountain. Equally beautifull but lots more houses.

On the way back to Lucerne we had some time to take a short walk through Interlaken. I’ve also previously visited it but its very small and there’s not really that much to see there. Very pretty, like many Swiss villages.

Golden Round Trip to Mt Pilatus

There are clearly many ways to travel up a mountain and in the Golden Round Trip you get to experience a few methods of transportation you probably don’t normally encounter in your every day life. It starts with a lake steamer over Lake Lucerne from Lucerne to Alpnachstad. This is an extremely relaxing 90 minute cruise around the bottom of Mt Pilatus.

At Alpnachstad you catch the world’s steepest cogwheel railway up to the peak of Mt Pilatus (2132m.) This 40 minute ride is even steeper than the one in Hong Kong I think – well I guess its not called the world’s steepest cogwheel railway for nothing. Heh heh. Along the way you’ll have some lovely views and if you’re lucky a clear day will mean those breathtaking views will continue once you reach the peak.

At the top of Mt Pilatus there are five hiking paths you can take to various peaks of the mountain. They were all pretty gentle and take between 10-35 minutes to walk. However, one I thought was a bit more strenuous mainly for the nearly directly climb upwards for a steady 10 minutes. It was worth it though for the 360 degree views from the top. Again, Teesh was a trooper, and though the railways sure got a work out from her at no point did she refuse to do the walks or climbs.

You could probably spend a few hours at the top of Mt Pilatus and maybe more if you were interested in having some lunch up there. We were pretty quick actually spending only a couple hours at the top purely because we were trying to get back to Lucerne for a lovely lunch somewhere. However, those plans were foiled when we discovered the toboggan run!

On one of our last walks around the top of Mt Pilatus I had spotted something silvery snaking its way down a bit of a slope. I worked out that it appeared to be people riding sledge type things and it turned out to be a giant toboggan ride. I was actually pretty scared of tipping off the toboggan so was a bit hesitant at going for a ride but I figured it may be my one chance to do the course. First we had to get on the aerial cableway to climb partly down the mountain. This ride only ended up taking 5 minutes! so all the way down in the cablecar I was eyeing the course thinking should I or shouldn’t I? Teesh was adamant she would not do it so she was no help. Ha ha. By the time I got to the bottom I decided I had to do it so off I went and I don’t regret it for a minute! After my first run the guy was like – go again? And I would have except Teesh was waiting for me and I couldn’t leave her alone to do the run again. Turns out that, after seeing that I’d survived and had so much fun, that she wanted to do it too! However, she was still a bit frightened and it took her about 45 minutes to decide to eventually take the plunge! The two deciding factors I think was 1. being able to tell the story later on and 2. the (middle-age) couple who went after me and were teasing her for being a chicken. LOL.

By the time Teesh was done we were both starving so we hustled to catch the gondola back down to Kriens (a 30 minute trip) where we finally caught a bus (15 mins) to take us back to our start in Lucerne. And thus, ended our Golden Round Trip. It was a lovely trip and actually, to our pleasure, didn’t take all day (we got back to Lucerne about 3.30) so after a late lunch we still had some of the late afternoon, early evening to explore a bit.

A Shocking Flash Storm

What we didn’t count on was a flash storm!

We were innocently heading around to some of Lucerne’s sights such as the old town walls and views from the watch towers before trying to get to the Lion Monument (a sculpture of a giant lion commemorating the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution) when the heavens opened on us. For probably 20 minutes it rained, it poured, it thundered, it lightninged (not a word but you know what I mean) and it hailed! We were lucky to find some cover but even then we were under threat from the flooding waters! One of the restaurants near us had their kitchen flooded in that 20 minutes and the chefs/kitchen workers all came running out with their trousers all folded up past their knees to avoid the flood! It was crazy! Customers in another restaurant could only watch us and laugh. As quickly as it came it disappeared and then we were rewarded with a nearly complete rainbow. Just beautiful.

Last Words

I am truly stunned by the absolute beauty we experienced in Lucerne. I’ve probably used the word breath-taking about a million times in this write-up but there’s no other way to describe the spectacular scenery. It’s the kind of scenery that you want to enjoy but then you also want to take a picture of every second you are looking at it. As a city Lucerne may not have a lot to keep you busy as a city in its own right, but as a base for visiting the surrounding areas you couldn’t find a nicer location.