Day 43-46: Last but not Least

Day 43. is another transit day, involving getting people and luggage to train stations, returning hire car, returning to station, getting train to Florence, another train to Rome all for one nights accommodation before tomorrow's flight. Sounds busy and it sort of is, but not too busy to not go out and find another pair of shoes... I don't like to waste any of my luggage allowance. We met up with a couple of friends at a rooftop restaurant for our last Italian meal ( I will look like a carbohydrate soon) and it was delicious.

Day 44: Rome to Dubai; our first flight on an A380, I wanted to go upstairs but our request for an upgrade wasn't forthcoming. Sandy asks every flight and I know one day it's going to happen but it wasn't today, the free wifi on the plane was pretty crappy and after 6.5 hrs we landed in Dubai. 

Our hotel is very new and right behind The Mall of The Emirates( the one with Mt Thebarton inside). What I didn't realise until after I had booked is it is a no alcohol hotel, but at least we realised so we bought a couple of bottles of red duty free to drink in the privacy of our room. The only places to serve alcohol are the major hotels, and although we are in a Doubletree Hilton it obviously has a no alcohol policy perhaps that's something to do with the prayer rug in the drawer, or the " random" music/ chanting that comes over the loudspeakers at certain times of the day. There are also no bottle shops or liquor outlets either, unlike Europe where you can buy it from anywhere.

Day 45: Dubai Weather, hot , hotter and hottest.

This morning we made a trip to the Spice Souk, a little disappointing as I was expecting a market filled with rows and rows of spices.

It was still good but full of sellers trying to sell you everything except spice. What was amazing was outside where the boats were getting loaded up with anything and everything for Africa and Iran.

And they don't even look that seaworthy!!

It is just so so hot here and you can only really be out in the sun for about an hour at a time.  Time to head for the shopping malls, Dubai's shopping malls make Marion look like a corner deli, they are massive and so so cool ( temp) even if you just want to hang around. 

Back to the hotel and channel flicking Sandy discovered this:

Camel racing.. WTF, they have little remote control jockeys on their back and the owners all drive around the track in their cars controlling the jockey... Hilarious . We had dinner at the Sheraton ( with alcohol) tonight, Chinese... Yum

Day 46: Our last day. Today we did a boat tour around the "Palm Tree" it was fantastic.

The amount of wealth in this country is jus staggering, and the buildings.. It appears that everyone is trying to outdo the last one.

Not to mention the number of Super Yachts just floating around. 

It is an amazing place and quite tricky to get your head around, it is definitely where East meets west, and a great place to visit for a few days. 

An awesome stopover to ease us back into Adelaide which is now less than 24hrs away. We have had an amazing adventure and are now looking forward to getting home, reintroducing ourselves to Rory and  Cat, learning to drive on the right side of the road again and viewing some of those 3000 pics. 

Thanks for joining us.

Day 36 - 42: Almost There

Ok, this is going to be the mother of all blogs, with only 24hrs before we get on the plane to come home I need to get this finished. 

Day 36: Lucca, it was another Sandys birthday,( in the Villa we had 2x Sandys,  2x Julie's and 2x Heathers, 1 x Pinocchio and the rest of us) so we decided to get a cook for the evening. Her name was Tiziana, well if you think we are all grown women and wouldn't get a kick out of someone with a name like that then think again, it was as if someone had written boobs on the calculator. Anyway Tits was an absolute machine, we had: Cheese and Onion Tart, Fried Zucchini Flowers, Bean and something zuppa, Pasta with pesto, Chicken with Olives and last but not least Tiramisu, all in 4 hours and all dishes done and the kitchen left cleaner than when she arrived, brilliant!

Day 37: Guess where we are??

Today is Wednesday, Pisa day.  We were going to catch the train to Pisa but after driving for about 40 mins trying to find the train station, and missing the train, I decided I would drive there, my driving is getting a little better, although Sandy still tries to get into my side occasionally.  

The tower of Pisa was incredible, one of those places that you do really need to see in person to appreciate. The lean was very significant and it really looks like it is going to topple over.

It was our first rainy day since Stratford Upon Avon, which didn't really make a difference except for my photos and needing to keep my camera dry I had to purchase a poncho.

I tried to take all the clever photos with the Tower, like Sandy trying to push it over but am unsure of how successful it was til I look at my pics.

Day 38: Cinque Terre and the SS Minnow: 

Today was our boat tour day, and the weather was superb. It took us 3 train trips to get here, and it was worth every platform change. We met the boat at Monte Rossa, and then cruised past all the other towns. The colour of the water was absolutely amazing.

We cruised in and out of the villages all along. It was absolutely beautiful, there are no cars allowed into the towns, so they are only accessible by water, train or foot. 

We stopped in front of one of the villages for a swim off the back of the boat, something I will remember for a long time, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. 

Days 39-42. The beautifull walled town of Lucca and our villa. 

Lucca is a medieval Tuscan City enclosed by 6 km of walls... (So many walled city's in Europe, and probably within reason due to the number of invasions) , it is a pedestrian area so cars are limited and you need to park outside the walls and walk in. This gives it quite a villagey feel and although quite touristy it's nothing compared to Dubrovnik, I can highly recommend if travelling to Tuscany.

The Villa Isa:

8 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, a dining room table to fit us all, a couple of lounge areas, a swimming pool and enough mosquitoes to pick up and carry the whole house away.

Apparently Italy has a massive mozzie problem. Not really an issue for me as I don't appear to be their type, unlike Sandy who is targeted from about a kilometre away. Luckily our closest supermarket Conads which consequently became known as Gonads kept a full range of repellants.

Mosquitoes not withstanding the Villa was fantastic, it was peaceful, comfortable and had pretty much everything we required.

Ok so now I have one more day in Rome and two days in Dubai left... Getting there..

Day 35: Towards a Tuscan Sun

Today we make our way to Lucca in the rolling hills of Tuscany. It started at about 6.15 when we departed the ship for our 10.30 train departure. We don't like to be late! There are 6 of us travelling by train and like a well oiled machine we made it on and off the trains with luggage intact. We transferred at Pisa where we decided to have some lunch, it was declared worst lunch ever and a complete waste of money.

An Aside:

Due to the fact that I have suffered a lot of distractions, and my blog is delayed by approx 7 days, I am currently sitting in the stairwell of the train to Roma watching our luggage.

Happy( not) because I paid for a seat but there is no luggage room.  End of aside.

Back to the stazione ( station) in Italian and it's on the regional train to Lucca ( you will notice that I will be dropping in more italian words now it is becoming secondi naturo to me). We arrived at the station with all our bags and it was hire car time. Driving on the wrong side of the road did not come quite as naturali to me as my grasp of the Italian language. Lucky I had a great co pilot, who by the way wasn't Sandy( who was sitting behind me mumbling Jesus occasionally, she still hasn't gotten over her trip to the Vatican) and was very gentle in telling me to move over a little, and you do need to be on the other side. We arrived at the Villa safely at about 5 pm, a long day.

Day 32/33/34 Split, Dubrovnik, Cruise Day

Cruise Days 10,11 and 12.... As I am sure you are all aware, focus isn't one of my many talents, so with 13 other people distraction has been prevalent, hence why my blog is a little delayed. So here we go 3 days in 1.

Day 1. Split, Croatia... What can I say, absolutely nothing because it was too rough to use the tenders to get into port. Ok so that's that day knocked on the head! But here's a pic of what it would have looked like courtesy of Google

Day 2: Dubrovnik, Croatia. 

Up early today as this was another tour day that had been booked many moons ago. Ivo was our driver and what a bank of knowledge he was. First stop was the lookout where the cable cars went from.

Such a beautiful city and hard to believe that not all that long ago the Serbs had blown the crap out of it. We then went into the town, OMG, never have I seen so many people( tourists).

So many people that you almost need to be connected so as not to lose anyone. A beautiful city but too many people, great for the city as tourism is their resource. After the city we drove into the hills for some wine, cheese and olive oil tasting. We drove back via Ston, which has the second largest wall to China. Lunch in Ston was delicious, as it  is renowned for fresh seafood and has oyster and mussel farms in its pristine waters. So lunch was oysters natural, 300 mussels in their own weight of garlic, and some delicious seafood and squid ink risotto...YUM. We had to be back on the boat quite early so we hastily made our way back through the hills to our home for the last 11 days. Dubrovnik was another big surprise and a gorgeous city which would be worth a return visit someday.

Day 3: Cruise Day, a day at sea for relaxing, packing and just enjoying and reflecting on what has been a fantastic 12 days.

Today's highlight, passing a live volcano.

Day 30/31: Venice: To Gondola or Not to Gondola.

Wed/ Thurs, Cruise Days 8 & 9...Venice.

We cruised into this amazing city basically down what you would call the Main Street (our equivalent of King William Street but only water) at about 2pm.

I have seen pictures before but nothing like really being there. With the ship safely secured with the other 4 or 5 cruise ships it was off to St Marks Square by water shuttle. 

So far this cruise Venice has been the busiest city, people/ tourists everywhere, tourism in Europe is huge, every " tourist" city just has thousands and thousands of people, regardless of day of the week. 

The one thing I have noticed is how similar the ferry logo is to our SAWater Logo.....I think someone has done a little copying..... And the worst bit is I get reminded of work when I don't want to be. 

We were meeting some friends in Venice, who just happened to be here at the same time. Friends met and being used to the 28 meals a day we were having on the cruise ship it was tea time. We did find a nice restaurant where we ordered large drinks.

They were massive, about 1litre each, who needs food when the drinks are this big. Dinner over and it was back to our floating hotel (so convenient). I'm sure I will miss the constant motion once off). It's Thursday and we are up early to negotiate a cruise around the canals on a water taxi. We thought about the Gondolas but liked the idea of a classic wooden water taxi better.

I have found my ideal job, a water taxi driver... The boat was fantastic and the drivers were great, taking us in and around Venice for an hour in style.

Boat ride over and it was coffee time and shopping... Venice is known for its glass, and it is absolutely beautiful, although not easily transportable, so I settled for something leather, guaranteed to make it home in one piece.

Back on the ship, we cruised out of Venice the way we cruised in. Spectacular... Croatia here we come.

Day 29: Kotor, Montenegro ( The Day We Survived The Hurricane)

Tuesday, cruise day 8, due to lack of WiFi  I am about 6 days behind, so I either have to stretch my memory or start making things up... 

The day began with me waking at about 5am, thinking I was sliding out of the bed feet first. I laid awake for a while but felt nothing more so I went back to sleep, it was only when I got up and went out on deck and noticed the deck chairs all over the place that we realised something must have happened. On our way in to this speccy little port, there was a storm with gusts of wind, about 80 knots ( hurricane classified at 64 knots), must have just leaned the boat over a bit and then righted itself, probably lucky we were all in bed ( and that wasn't made up either).

Anyway back to Montenegro, if you have been to Milford Sound or any of the fjords  in Norway then this is just as spectacular.

There were mountains on all sides and in front, we had travelled approx 3 kms I think ( my facts have got a little fuzzy). I did disembark, and instead of turning right I turned left, only to find a semi modern smoke( cigarette) filled supermarket, so a coffee and free wifi later it was back to the ship, amazed by the scenery but disappointed by the town of Kotor. Only to find out later if I had turned right there was a charming "old town"..... Luckily the location made up for it.

Day 27/28: Greek Style

It is day 6/7 of the cruise. Day 6 is a day at sea, rest day... although resting doesn't appear to come easy, not that it isn't relaxing just struggling to find time to listen to music or read. 

Day 7 is Corfu, Greece, and due to a ferry being grounded we had to use tenders to get ashore rather then dock.

Corfu was a very pretty town, I was sort of hoping it was going to be all blue and white, but it wasn't, it was quite flat with numerous narrow streets lined with jewellery stores and wood shops and souvenirs. I have become a souvenir hunter and can smell a shop before I get on land.

Corfu appeared to be quite cheap so we made a few purchases before lunch. Lunch was traditional Greek with grilled squid, grilled prawns, souvlaki etc, all delicious and made even tastier with a swig of ouzo supplied by our fellow travellers.

I am assuming the bottle is the shape of Corfu, although I can't be certain as geography isn't my strength. Corfu also appears to have numerous beggars, which isn't really surprising given the state of the economy. 

Once again the weather was perfect so my reverse Panda eyes are progressing quite nicely. I have now learned to speak Greek( yasou) which can now be added to my current list of languages, which is growing daily....English, Scottish, Welsh, French, Italian, Greek and expecting to add a few more before this adventure is over. 

Yasou xx