Tuscany (Siena, Talciona, Florence & San Gimignano)

We browsed Siena and found accomodation at La Moraia, a vineyard/farmstead type place in Talciona, just out of Poggibonsi. Our apartment was fantastic, a cute little stone house, with a big swimming pool for us to use. It also made pretty nice wine.... :)
From here we visited Florence, and saw Michelangelo's David and the Ponte Vecchio; the bridge with goldsmiths lining both sides. I was in heaven, but sadly couldn't afford anything - they seem to really hike up the price as obviously heaps of tourists visit it. Our next day trip was to San Gimignano, a little old tuscan town that is quite small but fun to explore for an afternoon. Other than these places we just hung out by the pool and enjoyed the scenery. As with the Cinque Terre, pictures will do more justice than anything I could write, so we will get photos up asap :)

Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre would have to be the most beautiful place in the world (according to me at least). We arrived in Riomaggiore on a winding road that led steeply down to the small coastal village, then rocked up to a place letting apartments and scored ourselves a generous 2 bedroom apartment that had a balcony that overlooked the end of the main street and the waterfront. We quickly settled in and made ourselves at home, and spent the following days visiting the other four towns that make up the Cinque Terre. Riomaggiore would have to have been my favourite, followed by Vernazza and Manarola. Corniglia was much smaller and was perched up on the hillside looking down to the coast. To get to the town from the coastal walk we had to climb something crazy like 400 steps up the side of the hill, but the views were really worth it. Monterosso del Mar was the last town we visited, but was much more touristy due to the fact that it has the best 'beach' out of all of the towns (still doesn't live up to good old Piha or Muriwai though), so we were happy to get back to Riomaggiore.
After a few nights there we had to lug our backpacks and suitcases back up to our car again, this time heading to Tuscany for a few days lounging in the Tuscan sun :) Leigh and Bridget were still happy to put up with us so we crammed in to the Clio again and took off to Siena to organise accomodation.

Reggio Emilia, Bologna & Lake Como, Italy

Well I made it to the conference in one piece and got to catch up with some familiar work faces which was great to settle some home-sickness and catch up on the gossip back at work. Reggio was a really cool little city and we stayed in the old town so were really close to everything. The conference itself was really interesting and when i'm back i'll have fun implementing some of the new ideas that came up through the week.
Whilst I was at the conference, Gavin amused himself and really immersed himself in the little town, I think he got more of a feel for how day to day life works there than I did (involving many espresso's and gelato!). Gavin also managed a day trip north to Lake Como for a bit of kite surfing, and together we had an afternoon trip to Bologna mid week. Gavin also was quickly adopted as the token male in the group, who fended off the many guys preying on the girls, as they tend to leave you alone if you have a guy with you. The Reggio guys also looked to Gavin as some kind of god, as he always had at least 4 girls in tow ;)
The week passed so quickly, and with Gavin refreshed and me knackered, we headed for Cinque Terre with Bridget and Leigh (Supervisors from other Bear Park sites) after squashing in to our tiny Clio :)

St Tropez, Nice, Eze & Monaco

After provence, we drove down to Nice via St Tropez. St Tropez was heaps smaller than i imagined, and the weather wasn't the greatest, but overall it was a pretty little town with heaps of money in it! We spent some time by the harbour, had a gelato, then cruised on to Nice.

Finding our accomodation in Nice turned in to a nightmare, due largely to one way streets, road works and general chaos. In the end, after two hours of circumnavigating the (rather small) city, we gave in and phoned the hostel who sent someone down to lead us back. Apparently they have someone rostered on this duty each day, so it must happen quite a bit! Our hostel was really great, and our room on the first night had a view over the city to the harbour - perfect :) We stayed in an old monastry that had been converted and it was a really social and lively place, and with free internet so we were pretty happy. In Nice we checked out a cool park on top of a hill that overlooks the old town, the modern art museum, the old town itself and the waterfront. All in all it was a really good place to hang out for a few nights and relax in preparation for my conference!

On our way out of Nice we visited Eze, a really tiny hill top medieval town with views to Nice and beyond. We dropped in quickly here before taking off to Monaco. Monaco would have to have been the cleanest place we've seen so far. It is quite small, and is perched on a steep hillside which winds it way down steeply to the harbour (we made good use of the bus system needless to say!). If you know your XBOX and playstation games you'll immediately recognise the streets in Monaco as streets used in formula 1 racing. We visited a really cool aquarium here, plus the old town/palace grounds as well as plenty of lush parks. After Monaco we headed for Reggio Emilia, Italy......

Arles, Aix en Provence, Hte Alps de Provence

Hey all, have a bit of time spare now so will add some text....

Well we went through Arles on our way to Aix, and found it in a state of easter induced chaos, much resembling a huge street carnival, with central roads closed to traffic and stalls lining the streets. We found a dodgy park eventually and joined the craziness; wandered through the park in the centre of town and it's surrounding streets. We encountered many colourful bands along the way (including the brass band playing some random tunes) and many horses (?) for some reason - there must have been a show or something as there where a hundred or so along the main street. The celebrations, although lively, weren't quite what we were looking for, so we got on our way to Aix-en-Provence.

Now somewhere it must be mentioned that the charger for both cameras was lost en route somewhere back a few days, so we were limited in our photos and battery life, hence the lack of photos for this post. Anyway, that's been resolved now and Gavin's digital SLR is now back in action at least.

So, Aix.... Aix was much more reserved than Arles, and we spent our time there looking around the old town and it's main pedestrian street, as well as taking in a little down time relaxing in Cezanne's park (photo above). It seemed the whole town was here too, celebrating easter with their families and enjoying the sun. Aix was definately a cool place to visit if you are ever in provence.

After spending the night in Aix, we decided to take a little detour and check out the Hte. Alps of Provence, keen for a change of scenery. We were really happy we did this as there are some spectacular sights to be seen. We drove through Sisteron and Gap, before heading east through the alps. Such steep terrain and snow capped mountains reminded Gav of Austria, and was quite the contrast to provence. On our way back down to the coast for the night, we had to duck in to Italy briefly near Cuenco, then back out to France again, due to some closed roads through the passes of the Alps. The photo conditions weren't the greatest and don't do the Alps justice - again, we would highly recommend visiting this area if anyones in the region.

Next it was time for some sun on the coast.... :)

Nimes, Pont du Gard, Avignon

Nimes was a great little city to spend some time in - we particularly liked the Roman Ampitheatre (pictured above) and spent quite a bit of time there hearing all about the blood thirsty battles that used to take place between gladiators and animals etc. Then we were off to the Pont du Gard...

The Pont du Gard is on route to Avignon, and is an old Roman Aquaduct, now a UNESCO world heritage site. The weather was fantastic for a late arvo walk around it before we headed on to Avignon.

Finding our accomodation in Avignon was a little tricky, due largely to insufficient maps we had, but in the end we found our way to a hostel attached to a campground situated on an island in the middle of the harbour (not on our map!!!!!). It was an interesting hostel, that I wouldn't recommend, but camping there may be fine - if you're headed to Avignon let us know and we'll let you know where to avoid! :) The city itself is all french and cute and quaint - we stuck to the old town however, and didn't visit the newer parts of the city. We checked out the bridge pictured above too which juts out into the river, Pont Saint-Benezet, which was a great viewpoint to see up and downstream. There is also a beautiful park in the old town that looks down on the old square, definately take time to visit this if you head to Avignon.

Narbonne and Carcassonne, France

First off- Happy Birthday to my Dad!!! it's still the 11th here in Nice, France... Cheers!

Second- Internet cafe's have been almost non existent in southern France. We found one in Nimes, and it was $2 for 5 minutes... So this is all quite retrospective :-) I'll see how we get on here about uploading some pics, this hostel in Nice has everything set up, but is sooo busy, it might be difficult to get the time on the net needed. So here goes....

Well, with the delivery of our new beastie (go the Clio!), we pointed it north and headed for the French border.

We decided our first stop would be Narbonne, for no special reason at all ( we had no idea what to expect). We found it to be a lovely little old town, with a canal through the middle, lined with old french looking buildings (as in a little run down looking in a good way, with flower pots and old yellow bricks etc), and lots of restaurants, although nothing was open and we were starving. We quickly realised that they were also partial to closing for a few hours during the day, though perhaps more because it's not quite the silly tourist season yet. We scoped the town centre, with it's squares and pastry shops, then when they reopened, went for a bit of french Haut Cuisine. Jen was determined to order a steak, although paranoid it would end up on her plate uncooked :-)
As seemed to be a theme with european cities, they often have wonderful old town centres, but boring, new expansive and sometimes industrial outskirts, I suppose what do you expect if you want people to live there with all the modern conveniences... But you can usually navigate though them to the good stuff with out too much trouble :-)

We read about Carcassone in the lonely planet, and were not disappointed - The place was swarming with French and spanish tourists, as it's old town centre is a medieval style town on the hill top, surrounded by battlements, and chocka with small alleyways and cool restaurants etc... Had a hot traditional Cassoulet dish which was superb, all home made gamey sausages and beans and stuff in a casserole, yum :-) The local cat hung around for a lazy mouthful too...

Sitges and Barcelona

Well, after flying with RyanAir right across europe in a day (two flights with a four hour wait in Frankfurt) we arrived in Girona, a small old school town just north of Barcelona. I´d like to say that we have both decided RyanAir su cks, it's lousy system of no seating arrangements to try to squeeze a few extra dollars out of you is ridiculous because of the pandemonium it creates. They are truly the MacDonalds of the sky. I can only hope that easy jet will prove a little better...

Girona is cool, with that cute, old town gothic and medieval look. Only stayed the one night before heading down to Sitges.

Sitges was a breather we really needed, mainly because it's a small town that lends itself to doing as little as possible... :-) We relished the chance to stop moving as much and relax for a couple of days :-) The weather wasn't as amazing as we had hoped, but didn't stop us from walking the town for interesting shops and restaurants to visit. Saw a couple of Kitesurfers out- they were pretty average, but watching them sure made me keen to get out on the water, especially as the water gets warmer with summer approaching :-)

Barcelona hasn't changed since I was last there- full on city with heaps going on. Saw a proper flamenco show with some of barcelona's best, lacks the conviviality of a small live performance in a more atmospheric venue, but was amazing to see the skills of fully fledged flamenco artists...
And of course there was Gaudi, his many buildings and park Guell, some trully crazy arcitecture.
Spent the most time just walking La Rambla (the main centre street) and visiting the markets, eating paella (a yum rice dish) and far too many baguettes... We were already getting over them and hadn't even got to france yet ;-)

On the 4th (I think), 2 became 3, with the addition of our new Renault Clio... Seems like a new phase of our trip has begun.