Another blog!

Our Venice front yard

Normal Venice transport

Gugg entrance, lovely garden

Guggenheim verandah!

A masterpiece!

Swiss cattle with ringing in their ears......

one of many Swiss lakes

the longest roses i've ever seen, about 3 ft! in a Geneva florist

Ah, lunch at the Hotel Gerig (i know, i know, it's a sausage....)

Furka Pass, see the road down below. Like my new 'do'?

Snowballs on the Pass

The train from Geneva to Paris

We have landed in the Mt Druitt of Paris. It must have been the record rollerblading attempt in Paris which meant it difficult to get a room! We found one in East Paris at the Novotel. Today we head off again to the Gare Nord to get the fast train to London.

Not in the writing mood at the moment so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We have been SO lucky with the weather, only time it rained was when we were leaving a city or riding on a train. Even on the Furka Pass, it was around 15 deg and sunny! 2500 metres up. It is rainy here now in Mt Druitt, sorry, Paris, but we are out of here! Looks like most of Europe is wet.

Well we've been in the right places the whole trip; New York with the bomb threat, London during the election, Canne during the film festival and Paris with the rollerblading record attempt (a 12 metre drop down a dip built up against the Eiffel Tower, he was successful). We've only just missed the Basel Art Fair in Switzerland next week and the Chelsea Flower show in London....oh dear. Can't win them all.

edited from this morning!!

sorry its been a few days. we have had trouble getting online and when we do, its on other computers. internet access is still quite expensive in europe, you are lucky when the hotel supplies it free.

we had a great time in roma. i lost the last day though due to the head cold. it messed my day in venice as well but no matter. venice was great, but we were quite happy to just have one day. its not even summer and it was packed with tourists, heaps of americans. we got a ticket to last a day on the ferries, you get on and off when you like. we encountered a zoung american familz on one; mum, dad and four kids from 12 yr to 1 yr!!!!! what a logistic nightmare!!!!! thez seeemed to be having a great time tho. (please excuse mz use of the z. im on a swiss computer and the y and z has been swapped, im too layz to look for it)

went to the peggz guggenheim gallerz in venice. it was her house and now full of the best twentieth centurz art from the likes of ernst, picasso, calder, bocionni etc etc. worth the look. beautiful garden too. our hotel room overlooked one of the canals, an interesting vignette of venice life. might have to put up photos when i get home.

we took a train from venice to zurich. we both reallz wanted to see the swiss countrzside and this was a good start. those of zou whove been there know how utterlz spectacular it is. even better when we hired a car and drove from zurich to geneva (where this blog is coming from), through the Furkapass. i think this road was on top gear a while ago, with the guzs driving muscle cars through the manz hairpin bends. we alas, were onlz in a little spanish "SEAT" car. still fun though, as there remains some snow to admire and make snowballs with <(photo coming). this place epitomises the word "awesome". we stopped at a little town called Wassen for lunch in a hotel. we gorged on the dazs special; soup, green salad (lettuce with mazonaise dressing) and sausage with onion gravz. its impossible to get zour dishes to all come out together in europe. we have to eat them in strict progression.

we are now waiting for a train to paris. tomorrow we get the fast train back to london, then onto qantas on mondaz morn. fini!

theres much more i could write but i need the photos to remind me. zoure all probablz over this now anzwaz. he he.

so, from geneva; ciao, au revoir, arivederci, goodbze. see zou soon.

part 2
Now back on Tim's computer, might be a bit more legible.

nuttin much

Sorry I haven't done a blog. A combination of a raging head cold and lack of access has set me back. will try in the next day or two.

While \i'm at it, sorry i haven't sent postcards.....no excuse really......

and, sorry Rick, have only received your one post...not sure why.

keep checking!
love youse all............

Round & round & round Roma

Storm approaches!

Aw, just like a Monet painting.... can you imagine an Australian toddler in this dress??

Sunday at the Plaza Mignanelli (near the Medici Villa, up top)

He's had a hard life.......

I was there!

Roman Cats sunbaking

Area Sacra, near the Ducati Caffee

Ducati Caffee!

A REAL Roman helmet!

Colloseum photos

Max, the suave Italian guide

Entrance to the Colloseum

One of the poor horses who have to wait all day for bloody tourists!

Bob & June, Aussies we met near the Colloseum

Aussie Made Andreas, from the airport

I'm sure I've got tar up the back of my calves..... I've just walked up dei Fiori Imperiali, the road Mussolini built through the middle of Rome and the bitumen is melting! It's not even that hot. They close the road on Sundays and there seems to be a bicycle day on...again. This happened in New York and Paris too.

We couldn't have been luckier with the weather and yesterday, while being guided through the Palatino (hill that has the ruins of the Emporer's palace, near Il Coloseo), a fantastic thunder storm brewed and we thought we'd get soaked. It ended up only providing a brilliant backdrop for photos of the ruins. This 5 oclock tour was part two of the one we'd taken in the morning to see the Coloseum. It's a good idea to take the tour as you get a better explanation of the whole story. Our suave Italian guide, Max, had a great voice and was incredibly knowledgable and confident. As Tim said, you almost forgot what he was saying as you were entranced by his voice.
In between the tours we headed to the new Ducati Caffee for lunch, very schmick.

Tim and I went in different directions today and now we know Rome like the backs of our hands, yep! I did some shopping and looked for the small galleries but as it's Sunday, most weren't open. I wandered through the equivalent of Woollahra, window shopping the ridiculously expensive designer shops; Giorgio Armani, Dolce&Gabbana, Versace, Salvatore Ferragamo, Roberto Cavalli and of course, Sergio Rossi shoes.

There's a big storm rolling in again tonight, it's quite tropical!?

I was just thinking, when you visit somewhere, it turns the two dimensional picture into a three dimensional experience, and you have the feel for a place, even if it is only a short time. Seeing images on BBC news of places we've been, I have a new perspective on that place. They are real now.

Rome if you want to...........

Coupla gladiators having a chat

the street where we live

house across the road.........noice

our apartment....groovy

X marks where our apartment is.......excellent

more Cinque Terra photos.......because you're worth it (and I'm in them)

Oh dear, this is so hard. We have scored a drunken bullseye in Rome. Scored a fabulous apartment via CrossPollinate (thanks Rach) which is literally just up the street from the Colloseum (see map pic). CrossPollinate deals in letting out locals 'homes' or 'rooms' to travellers in these cities. We stayed in one in Paris with Domingo. This one is much better in that it is bigger, and the owner, Paola, isn't here, she has a house by the sea and only stays here three months of the year. She met us today and was very gracious as we lobbed in early from Firenze.

We had a great, fast drive into the southern airport (thanks Tim) of Rome to leave the beloved Panda at the Europcar depot. The shuttle driver to the bus stop seemed apathetic at first, but when he, Andrea, realised we were Orstraylian, he showed us his tat (photo in next blog) that he is 'Aussie Made'. He is planning to emigrate next year.

We got the other shuttle to Roma termini. I think there is some scam going on here. People were lined up for the buses, but we encountered a young woman in flouro who quickly asked if we were one way or return, and sold us a shuttle ticket for 4 euro each. We didn't need to wait in line...... We still haven't worked out why those people waited in line. Seems to be an accepted form of business here to buy tickets (and pay a premium) to get to the 'front of the line' . I am quite happy to pay an extra couple of euro NOT to wait in line. But we are being exploited.

I must say, on the other hand, we had a great taxi driver from the termini. In a long line of taxis, we had to go to the front and we encountered two drivers. One had the sunglasses, spruiking and asking where we were going, once he found out where we were going he didn't want to know us. The other was calmly motioning to his taxi, calmly took us to our apartment (with much map reading and GPS checking) and then checked with the locals because he thought we were looking for a hotel. Lovely. He earnt his tip.

So here we are. Just near the Colloseum, as oi said, but more of that later..............