TravelStream™ news feed for member mikealinda on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mikealinda en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:18:31 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1220907600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1220907600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1220907600/tpod.html Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:18:31 -0500 Europe Trip 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

jj m,,m
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1219952940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1219952940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1219952940/tpod.html Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:17:26 -0500 Europe Trip 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Assisi, Umbria, Italy

hghghghghghghg
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1219692120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1219692120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1219692120/tpod.html Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:07:42 -0500 Europe Trip 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Siena, Tuscany, Italy

Week 5

My how the weeks go by quickly when one is away and having a great time! Here we are in Assisi on our way to Rome.
The last week has seen us take it easy a bit with spending some time here and there chilling out by the pools (yes, hard to take) at some of the places we have been staying. From La Spezia and the Cinque Terra we moved to Lucca, Pisa and Florence before heading to Perugia and to Assisi (of St Francis of Assisi fame). Unfortunately we did not make it to Venice this trip (yes, we'll just have to come back to Italy!). We had planned to go there, however as we started to wind our way south we decided to spend the time whilst we had the car doing the 'stop and stay' type of trip through Tuscany & the coast rather than zig-zagging over the countryside all the way to over to Venice and back again. Also, having a car in Venice is a pain to park. So, we have spent the time poking around the Ligurian Coast and Tuscan countryside which has been most enjoyable.



The photo here at Pisa turned out interesting so we put it in instead of the others we have of us standing in front of the tower (by the way, it really does lean a lot!).



The walled city of Lucca had some interesting things to see, and this decorated gateway into the city was one of them.



Florence was amazing and here is a view of the bridges over the river. We saw all the big sights over our 3 days there including the Uffizi museum, Plazzo Pitti and the artwork of Dante, Leonardo, Bellini, Raphael, Giotto and of course, Michelangelo. From Florence, it was on to Sienna via San Gimignano which was just lovely.



This tiny medieval village is perched on the hillside overlooking the Tuscan landscape where we saw these frescos on an outside wall and the view from the tower shows the village and the tiny streets.



Sienna was the next stop where the town square that you can see hosts a huge horse race which we (luckily) missed a couple of days before we were there. They load tonnes of sand into the square and thousands of people come from everywhere to watch the race. The horses race around the outside part of the square with all the spectators in the middle and at the edges.


You can see some of the scaffolding from the spectator stands being dismantled. The cathedral at Sienna had a highly decorated library and this photo gives some idea of the beautiful frescos on the wall and ceiling - amazing!


Also in Sienna we saw this lady looking out the window!
The Tuscan food and landscapes have been fabulous and tomorrow we are off to our 13 Century villa at Assisi.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1220820120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1220820120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1220820120/tpod.html Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:58:19 -0400 Europe Trip 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany

Week 7
Our final days in Rome were well spent visiting more museums and churches and eating more Italian food. The art/artefacts in the Vatican and the painting in the Sistine Chapel (that's the 16th chapel for all those CGS folks!) was amazing. It is interesting how much wealth the Catholic Church as accumulated over the hundreds of years and when one visits the churches the amount of art in gold, sculptures, paintings, mosaics and marble is incredible.

This cross bow was the largest we had ever seen.


The view from the Castel Sant 'Angelo over Rome included this vista over St Peters Basilica and the Vatican (long square shaped buildings on the right hand side), and who could go to Rome and not visit the Trevy Fountain?







We left Rome after 4 days to fly to Prague for the last leg of our trip. The old city of Prague was very nice with painted buildings, old churches and clock towers - it reminded us of the German/Swiss market plazas we saw last year. The throngs of tourists from all nations were there too. The old quarter is definitely set up for tourists with souvenir shops galore all selling the same thing and a bureau de change every 100 metres. Anyway, we really enjoyed the atmosphere in Prague, it was very different to Italy and it is a place we would come back to. Whilst we were there we saw one of the 'famous' black light theatre shows and visited the Prague Castle - the big ticket venue in Prague. It is very large with many different areas to visit within the castle, although the main (gothic) cathedral is probably the best. The photo shows one of the walls in the castle where the ruling family put their crests all over the walls and ceiling.




The view of Prague from the castle was very nice and this photo is from the King Wenceslas vineyard at the castle.




The bridge is the famous Charles bridge where there is wall to wall tourists and market stalls with local artists selling their artworks.

The last photo shows Michael with the falconer we met on our last day in Prague. She was really interesting to chat to (very good English) and provided excellent information on the birds she had there and falconing in general. She hopes to get a full time job at one of the airports where falconers are in demand as a natural deterrent for other smaller birds.







So now we are at Frankfurt on our way home. We have had a fabulous trip and everything went very smoothly. We have had some wonderful experiences and seen lots of beautiful things along the way. We hope you have enjoyed sharing our trip with us and we thank you for coming aboard. For those of you who asked for more photos this trip - we hope you liked the ones we posted!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1220385420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1220385420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1220385420/tpod.html Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:25:04 -0400 Europe Trip 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Week 6

Assisi was very impressive with the walled city and cathedrals perched on the mountain, with a 10th century castle on top of the mountain watching over the city. The town was very nice and this photo shows the walled city of Assisi with the cathedral of St Francis of Assisi (San Francesco) which was beautiful inside. We also walked up to the castle on the top of the hill.














This is the interesting photo for this week - can you guess what is on the wires of this fence??

Tivoli was nice with a dip in the Terme mineral water spa pools at the bottom of the Tivoli hill and then up the hill to visit the gardens of Villa d'Estea. These gardens were filled with fountains from the 1500's that were extraordinarily beautiful.


We also visited the Emperor Hadrian's (AD 76-138) Villa Adriana which was amazing. This photo shows one of the pools and remains of sculptures that adorned the ancient buildings and pools.

All roads lead to Rome, and for us ever since we left Paris our road has been winding its way south and eastwards towards Rome. So now we are in Rome and it's hot and humid. We dropped the car off and we're back to public transport from now on. We have our Rome passes to get free entry to sites and transport and we are making the most of it whilst we're here.
As we were out and about walking around the town with tired feet we watched this tour group on Segways zoom past - what a way to go!


So far we've wandered around the Colosseum, Palatino, Foro Romano, St Peters and the massive Vatican Museum - all very good.


That's all for now and by the way, the decoration on the fence is chewing gum - yes, bizarre but true!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1219091400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1219091400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1219091400/tpod.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:25:34 -0400 Europe Trip 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

La Spezia, Italy

Week 4
Most of you would be aware that we did not book much before we left Sydney. We were too busy at the time but also wanted to just see where we wanted to go without any fixed timeframes to get to places. The only places we booked was Tokyo, London and Prague before we left. So we are booking our hotels on line as we go. This has proven to be a great plan as it leaves us time to stay longer if we want to. We are often booking 1 - 2 days in advance, or sometimes on the day - it also depends on the free internet service we are getting from the hotel.

From Cannes we headed towards Monaco and Monte Carlo. We saw the changing of the guards at the palace and went inside the palace which was impressive, but not as big as Buckingham Palace.

We saw the aquarium there and these photos show the front of the palace and the view to the east of the city.

Off then into Italy to stay one night on the beach before heading inland to Torino (Turin) and to Milan. Milan was nice with the central cathedral big enough to seat 40,000 and wonderfully decorated as you can imagine.

This photo shows the outside and a view from the roof of the cathedral.

Today is the 19 August and we spent a fantastic day on doing the Cinque terra walk on the Ligurian coast of Italy (north west coastline).

This walk winds its way from the sea to cliff-top villages over 5 (i.e. Cinque in Italian) villages.
The views are spectacular from the walk and the swim in the Mediterranean at the end was well worth it. Here are some of the views and villages we saw today.





Not every village main street has boats parked in it!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1218532380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1218532380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1218532380/tpod.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:24:04 -0400 Europe Trip 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Valbonne, Provence, France

Week 3

From Orange we went to Avignon where we saw the Pope's palace where the catholic Popes from the 14th century lived and the Avignon bridge which was built in 12th century but kept falling in so the King of France did not repair it after he was one of the last over it.

We stayed for 2 nights in a fabulous Chateau near Aix en Provence (Marseilles) which was lovely.

Spent the day here at the pool and lounging around our room which was almost as big as our house! The photo shows the front of the Chateau and the view from our room.


We battled the traffic jam in and out of St Tropez to visit this little village with the monster yachts of the uber-rich and the glitzy (read expensive) shops.

On then to Cannes. Along the way, every inch of sand/rocks seemed to be brimming with olive skinned Europeans seeking the sun.

The photo shows them along the beach towards Cannes and some of the yachts compared to a cruise ship.

We stayed a couple of days in the hinterland behind Cannes, which was lovely, to visit the perfume capital of the world (Grasse) and the medieval towns amongst the hills.

These photos show some of the beautiful streets and buildings, also the issues with parking around these small villages with tiny streets.

This car was parked so close to the wall, but the driver probably does this every day as there was not a scratch on the car.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1217366460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1217366460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1217366460/tpod.html Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:48:27 -0400 Europe Trip 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Paris, Île-de-France, France

With 4 days in Paris we could see some of the sights we did not get to last year and take it a bit easy.

We visited the Petit Palais, Musee dÓrsay - both of which had fabulous art works and displays, including Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, & Van Gogh. The National Opera was beautiful and the Hotel Invalides had Napoleon's tomb, wonderful museum for army, armoury, World War I & II, and 3d model plans for many towns in France (very interesting).



We also took some time out from the museums to just wander around the streets and parks, and took the red bus tour around Paris.


From Paris, we picked up our car and drove to Lyon for 1 night for a lovely walk around the old town, then to Nimes for 2 and to Orange for 1 night.



Nimes and Orange were great with the Roman architecture still in place such as the Nimes arena (most preserved and still used for bullfights and concerts) and Nimes gardens, and the amphitheatre in Orange. The ampitheatre had just finished it's concert season and the photo shows the brown organ set.


It has been really hot so far and it's not really going to get much cooler as we head south towards the Mediterranean. Anyway, we're off to the walled city of Avignon next to enjoy some more wonderful Provincial food and of course the sights!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1216927500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1216927500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1216927500/tpod.html Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:52:49 -0400 Europe Trip 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

London, United Kingdom

Week 1
We've been away 6 days and here are the stats so far:-
· Earthquakes x 1 (Tokyo, we were woken up by the quake which was most disconcerting!)
· Royal places visited x 4 (Kensington Palace, Royal Mews, Queens Gallery, Royal Observatory (place where the prime meridian (longitude) line is located)
· Exhibitions x 3 (James Bond/Ian Flemming, Tutankhamun (antiquities from the Cairo Museum), Dr Who)
· Shows x 2 (The Mouse Trap - Agatha Christie's murder mystery running for 58 years and still going strong, Wicked - story of the witches of OZ and very good!)
· Portabello Markets, St Pauls Cathedral and Shakespeare's Globe theatre visit/tour, Imperial War Museum
So, that's not bad for 4 full days in London. Now we are in Paris via the Eurostar train from London.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1216844460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1216844460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikealinda/1/1216844460/tpod.html Sun, 27 Jul 2008 01:12:58 -0400 Europe Trip 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Tokyo, Kanto, Japan

Arrived in Japan after a 10 hour flight, it was so hot (31deg) after the cold nights and days we have been having at home. We stayed in the hotel as it was 90 km from Tokyo city so we went to bed early to catch up after the weeks of rushing around we have had with Gang Show. Off to London in the morning, where the real trip starts.
]]>