Cinque Terre!!!

We are in beautiful Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre! Everything you see in the pictures is true-it is stunning. Like Santorini but coloured! We caught the train from Rome and then had to drag our cases up and down many, many, steep stairs! Who needs the gym? We caught the ferry between the 5 villages today and have been swimming near our apartment. In the picture our apartment is the third from the one with the poles under it at the front. We are on the first floor and the view is amazing! Beautiful weather, food and view-don't think we'll leave.

La dolce vita! Roma!

Arrive in our gorgeous little apartment in Rome after a long tiring day dragging suitcases through airports and up and down stairs in train stations. We are right in the centre of Rome and enjoying all the fabulous sights and the food! Rome definitely is the city of restaurants!!! We are at least cooking breakfast for ourselves! Have been to the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain-both 200m from here-St Peter's and the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, Pantheon and every little alley that exists. So much to see and eat! (I had Gelati from the Eat,Pray, Love shop and I don't know why she left Italy! Yum!) Nearly every person on the street has a map and a lost expression and its very hot but lots of fun! (although as you can see the travel is taking its toll on Stu so it's lucky we have a cute little elevator in our building!)

More gorgeous Santorini!

Santorini was magic. I took 400 photos in 2 days! (Don't worry-we're not having a slide night when we get back! The scenery was so spectacular and it was such a beautiful place. It was fun riding the scooter and ATV-everyone gets around that way. On our last night we watched the sun set in Oia on the cliff. We have just arrived in Rome where it is very hot but equally amazing. Everything is so old!!! Lots of great food though! (Well done 3/4K-hope everyone had a good time at the sports.)

Santorini

 

Santorini is magic-we have swum at the black beach, sailed on the bluest water and are having a fabulous time. The scenery is spectacular. Hired a motor scooter yesterday and rode to Fira, the capital. Everyone rides motor bikes or 4 wheeled ATVs and it is easy to get around. Went on a sunset cruise last night-was magic. Weather is hot and the water is warm. Definitely like to come back here!

We have been touring around over the last few days. We left Salzburg and drove to Konigsee and Kehlstein (Hitler's Mountain retreat) and then to Innsbruck and on to Neuschwanstein and finally Munich. The scenery in Austria was spectacular although a little cloudy. The mountains are so high they seem unreal. Tomorrow we head from Munich back to London and down to Santorini in Greece. (Hello 34K-no I didn't buy any puppets-but they were cute.)

We have spent the last few days in beautiful Austria. We stayed with a host family in Vienna right on the Danube River and they lent us bikes to ride around the city. Yesterday we drove through the mountains to Salzburg which is Sound of Music country. It is very beautiful and the mountains are amazing. Tomorrow we go to Innsbruck and then Neuschwanstein and Munich before jetting off to Santorini!
(the puppets were actually in Prague)

Prague has been a fascinating city to visit for the last 3 days. We have walked miles in the small streets of the Old Town, ridden bikes on the cobblestones and climbed the hill to see Prague Castle. Near the clocktower in the centre of the Old Town Square thousands of people gather every hour to watch a historical astrological clock turn and chime and a trumpeter plays a tune at the top of the tower on each of the four sides-I climbed all the way up to watch! Some of the buildings are over 700 years old and there are about 700,000 tourists here to see them!!! The food has been wonderful-so many different things to try! Today we are off to Vienna in Austria.

We have had a lovely few days in the small village of Negenborn near Hanover in the middle of Germany with friends of Stuarte's who have a small farm there.The photo shows the farmhouse which is over 200 years old. We rode bikes around the fields and enjoyed eating traditional German food. Yesterday we drove to Dresden in the south of Germany which was almost totally destroyed in WWII-this church was only rebuilt in 1994-2006. Today we drove to the Czech Republic to Prague and this afternoon we walked around the old town. Driving in Germany was pretty hairy as there are no speed limits on the Autobahns and we were doing about 140kmh and the cars were flying past us as if we were standing still!!! (Hello 34K-The piece of the Berlin wall I photographed was saved especially because of the art work on it-it is about 1km long. We all had to wear the funny slippers in Russia to protect the wooden floors!)

Yesterday we toured into the countryside around St Petersburg and went to Pushkin to the Summer Palace. It was amazing and much bigger and full of more treasures than any palace we saw in England. It was built by Catherine the Great and totally destroyed by the Germans in WWII and then re-built. It was so sumptuous and full of beautiful paintings and porcelain.You had to wear funny covers over your shoes too. We also did a river cruise. Last night we arrived in Berlin and today went to see what was left of the Berlin Wall and to do a city tour. (The escalators took about 1 min and there were three of them-the guard only stands in the box when it is raining or snowing!!!)

We have been in St Petersburg for the last 2 days-caught the overnight train from Moscow-longest train I have ever seen! You couldn't even see the engine! It has been quite hot here too! It is a much prettier city though with everything painted in bright colours and nothing more than 3 stories high. There are a lot of river canals too. It doesn't get dark here until about 11.15pm! Tomorrow we go to Berlin in Germany. I have included one of the photos of the escalator in the Moscow metro-it was over 80m long!!!! Also photos of the Kremlin guards-they do the goose-step when they change over! The guards are all at least 1.7m tall as you can see! We didn't go into the coloured church but we have been in many others and yes, I have bought several dolls-actually one doll and one cat!!! I am looking forward to hearing about Geelong beating Collingwood on Saturday!!!