2707130800
Saturday
Got up this morning and decided to head for central
Scotland, but possibly staying out of England for the next few days as Jim
advised there were bucketing rains forecast. Hopped into the car, still feeling
a bit like Qasimodo, and rang for some accommodation in Stirling. This of
course had to be through an agency with a lady whose accent was heavily leaning
towards some Eastern European dialect. Upshot was we got into a hotel in
Stirling, much to our surprise (again!) and were then able to choof off without
the worry of where to sleep for the next couple of nights. We opted for two
nights as we need a lay day, heads too full of what we’ve done and seen and we
need to unscramble our heads and dirty washing first before heading further
south. With the rain in the south of the
country we may stay another night .
So, heading for Fort William and then onto Fort Augustus
where the 5 lock cascade is. By-passed FW and went on through to FA through
some of the most astounding scenery yet. We took a couple of pictures and
concluded that the scale of those hills won’t translate well onto either a
post-card size print or a computer screen, so as in many cases before and
probably in the future DV we’ll have to enjoy the memories of these spectacular
hills with the aid of the aforesaid pics. The locks are a marvel, even today
over 100 years later. Although converted from manual to hydraulically actuated
lock gates and sluice valves in 1962,Telford was without doubt one of the
giants in the engineering field. He designed the Caledonian canal, still
considered one of the world’s great engineering projects, as well as the first
suspension bridge, the Menai bridge, along with a string of other firsts.
Almost as diverse a portfolio as CYO’Connor of Kalgoorlie pipeline fame. Enough
of engineering history, look these guys up if further info is required.
The road for the first 150km was primarily alongside
waterways including Lochs Lochy and Ness. Would you believe it? The elusive
water lizard wouldn’t even stick its nose above the surface; very
disappointing! We stopped at a war memorial for the commandos, very tastefully
done, very much a British understatement until you think a bit harder. With
pictures of young guys who died fighting in Afghanistan and many wreaths
surrounding the circular memorial “garden” it was a moving experience,
especially when one’s own son has served in the military.
The drive south through the Grampians mountain range was
interesting in that many of these huge hills were bare of trees, an environment
so different from the alpine areas I have visited, perhaps the tree line here
is much lower than in Australia as these hills are probably much higher. While
we saw many signs warning of deer crossing, we were not fortunate enough to see
any. After Pitlochry we turned off the main road and followed the scenic route
to Stirling. Arriving there with only a sketchy indication of which hotel we’d
booked, found it quickly and were ensconced in the penthouse suite. Pretty neat
room with some excellent sloping ceiling section for banging one’s head into.
The shower recess is small here too, I can’t quite wash my feet without lifting
them up, even on the diagonal. Maybe the back problem exacerbates that issue.
Spent a large chunk of the evening going through the
proposed travel back to London and concluded fairly quickly that we have more
things we want to do than the time required to do them, The conclusion we came
to was that in all likelihood, given the opportunity for some more travel, the
things we want to take a second bite at will be on the second bite, health and
wealth allocation dependent. So it will be Newcastle, York and Billy
Wagglestick’s birthplace, and then to return the car to London on Saturday,
train it to Victoria Station, adjacent to our hotel, and start the Eu tour. The
days fly by and the kaleidoscopic blur of wonderful countryside scenes and
those fabulously retained and restored buildings which speak so eloquently of
the Australian cultural history brought here by a spectrum fro. convict to
aristocrat, may eventually become unscrambled through the sorting out of our
many photo’s when we get home again.
2807130800
Sunday
This morning we’re castle-ing; off to Stirling castle
located on a rising taper of rock extruded upwards out of a narrow plain and
bounded on two sides by bog and marsh (back when it was first built). It’s
location was of immense strategic importance as it was located between England
and Scotland, and one could see whomever was moving troops or goodies for trade
from North to South. ‘T’was here William Wallace, (operating under the
sobriquet of “braveheart”) took an effective swipe at 10,000 Brits with a
hopelessly small force about 1/10th that size and gave them a
pasting. The audio guide was brilliant as were the restoration works and
exhibits. We rocked up in the rain at about 9.30, scored a parking spot close
by, (why pay 4 quid?) and decided to meander through the place for an hour or
two. The best laid plans of P&P went “all a’glay” and 6 ½ hours later we
left having learnt much and seen a chunk of
N-S relations failures culminating in sieges, murders and massacres.
The lunch in the cafe was excellent and the local beer
(refer to picture) was a corker, as was Pauline’s soup, “as god as I can make
it”. We have been enjoying some of the prepackaged sangers in the supermarkets,
these would be classed as gourmet sangers in Oz, but then there’s probably a
more discerning clientele here. Our food habits have become quite casual (and
enjoyable) and we have commented on a few (more than a few?) occasions how good
are the crockery set from T&B, the “cold” bag from G&Y, and the mini
gas stove from Young Robski.
On the way out had a look into the former residence of a
Lord Argyll, interesting! In one of the rooms he managed to upstage many modern
houses with walk-in wardrobes, he had a walk-in fireplace in his kitchen No 2.
The place was furnished pretty much as if he’d just walked out of it in the
1700’s.
The day finished on a bit of a sour note, the twerp who
took our booking for the two nights unfortunately (especially for the wallet)
only booked for one night instead of the two we specifically requested so the
one night price was double what we were expecting to pay. Another lesson
learned- talk to someone who can translate English directly in lieu of doing
via some Eastern European head with limited vocabulary in the English language,
We took a philosophical approach, paid the extra night (fortunately at a
discounted rate) and shot off a moderately vitriolic note to the booking
agency.
2907130800
Monday
Today was a travel day. Pauline managed to get some
washing done at the local “laundry” and was served by an ogre. But the results
were OK. Got away at about 9.30 and headed for Falkirk to have a look at the
“Falkirk Wheel” a VERY smart bit of engineering. Almost miscued on the
direction but after two U-turns got back on track. Watched the “Wheel” go
through one cycle and left, walking past another lock and thinking how relaxing
a canal barge holiday might be. Ah well, maybe another time? Headed for
Jedburgh, the fabulous old cathedral skeleton, driving through the
Northumberland forest and well ordered countryside, towards a point where
Hadrian’s Wall intersected with the road we were travelling on, but couldn’t
find much wall. The nearest bit was the 650AD church which utilised quite a few
of the Roman wall blocks. From there to Newcastle-On Tyne and our Hotel which
we’d booked from the hotel at Bridge of Allen. Settled in and fanged into some
finger licken chicken from across the road.
Tonight has been a blog catch-up getting on track for the
first time. However I still need to download photos from Pauline and my cameras
to get the blog into some stage of realism and of course to rise to the
occasion of my daughter in laws comment “all you need to do now is get the
photo’s in there to give it some realism. So to work!
Note from 130813 - blogging takes time and for you readers wondering when there will be photo's, be patient; I may have to insert them later because there's not much spare time on a long bus tour and getting the photo's in needs just that. Retrospective inserts may come up later. Sorry guys.
3007130800
Tuesday
Today was another travel day. After enjoying the sleep on
the firm bed in the almost salubrious Travelodge at Newcastle on Tyne we had
our light breakfast out of our goodies bag. Got started without haste as we had
lined up a visit to the Open Air Museum at Beamish, one up from visiting the
Amish. Excellent venue; we arrived at 10.30 and
spent 5 hours on our feet there. The place depicted life in the
1850-1910 era. Got to the B&B in Durham, lovely place with very chatty host
Lesley, and writing this from a small pub about 3 minutes walk away. The entree
has been more than satisfactory. Pauline suggested I upload all the stuff I do
first in Word and edit these later for the addition of the pictures- sounds
like a smart idea, as it will certainly speed up the communication lines. AND
in the pub here it’s free WIFI so I might as well give it a good hammering.
3107130800
Wednesday
Today was another travel day. After enjoying the sleep on
the bed in Durham we had our breakfast served by Lesley- the works. Seeing as
were in Durham we should have a look at the cathedral. This was one of the
first utilising the gravity construction techniques, flying buttresses (on one
side only) and the ribbed domes for the support of the roof, Pauline stayed in
the shopping centre to look after matters financial. The statistics for the
roof support are astounding, The columns are 2.4m dia and the roof about 25m
high. Had a chance to talk to a guy doing some sculpting demonstrations
regarding the construction of these cathedrals, very interesting. Then off to
the town (city) of York. The investment of some $80 in a UK map for the TomTom proved
excellent, with only a minor run-around through some back-streets, missing the
Travelodge by about a block and a half. The local garage proprietor told us
where the place was located as we arrived there at about noon. We’d wanted to
take some of the back roads but missed a turnoff travelling a 110k+ so the next
turnoff was the one we needed to get straight into York. We had a coffee with a
bite to eat out of the goodies bag and walked into town, about 2km. Organised
tickets at the TI for the river criuise and tickets for the hop-on-hop-off bus,
doing the full circuit around the city and “casing” the joint for our day in
the city centre tomorrow.
Decided to walk back to the Travelodge and passed a fish
& chips joint on the way home. Had some nice Haddock with a few chips and
bought some yoghurt to have at the motel for a dessert. Greek “yoggit” with
honey goes down well. Had coffee using (up) our supply of coffee bags, hope
they last a bit longer as we’ve given them a bit of a hiding.
There's a gap of a couple of days that I need to fill in as I've lost the files inside my computer.
0408130800
Sunday
What a start! Wake up call at 3.45AM and an unexpected
breakfast at the hotel even though we’d been told to buy some breakfast as the
hotel brekky bar wouldn’t be open at the time of our leaving.
The bus was waiting and we had our big bags outside by
4.10AM and down for an excellent breakfast. Drove off in the dark and by the
time we were halfway to Dover the light increased and we were able to see some
of the Kent countryside. The commentary by Tim was excellent, clear and lucid.
Waited for a while before driving onto the Spirit of Great Britain, a
relatively new ferry, about 2-3 y.o. A smooth passage across the English
Channel with the discovery by Pauline that she had actually deposited her
camera into my backpack yesterday whilst at the Buckingham Palace, instead of
losing it goodness knows where. A repeat emotionally of the jewellery incident.
Now have the opportunity to do some blogging whilst on
the bus and driving across the coastal plain of northern France with its broad
fields of fodder and foodstuffs. History of the second world war across this
area, describing the events leading up to WW2.
Got to our hotel after visiting the Gassan diamond
cutting establishment, Nice to see those little sparklers, especially the
Gassan 121 facet cut sparklers valued from about Eu500 to Eu35000 and a whole
lot of other finery at very good (and very high) prices. The bags were in our
L9 room at the Movenpick, just across from the maritime museum. We had a bit of
time to do a running repair on my lightweight shorts and get some washing done.
That twisted rubber band is worth 10x its weight in soap powder. Then it was
dinner on L2 with some great people, included herring, croquettes, fish,
chicken skewers, mousse, and a few other bits as we were pretty hungry. A
couple of complimentary wines topped things off nicely.
0508130800
Monday
Writing this in the bus on the way to Germany after
leaving the Movenpick.
Woke up in the Movenpick Hotel (Swiss owned) Amsterdam,
for a day of sightseeing. The breakfast was typically 4* and overindulgence was
simple and easy.Kicked off the day with a drive to Volendam, a very pretty town
on the Markenzee and highly geared for the tourism industry. First stop was at
a mindmill, thatched but without the external arm for manually rotating the
head, and then on to a small cheese
factory making Gouda cheeses in small batches with unpasteurised milk. The
taste- fabulous an smooth as silk. The guy then did a demo of traditional
method of clog making up to the point of starting out the hollowing out process
and extolling the virtues of wearing clogs, really interesting how the feet
might hurt but all the strain is taken
out of the back muscles as the rapid corrections needed to compensate
for flexible footwear is not needed. In Volendam, having had the exposure in
Vietnam to the pushy sales types, buying in this village was refreshing, very
cool and relaxed, almost on the basis of “no problem if you don’t buy, there’s
more coming”. Tried the fresh herring with onion and asked for a little extra
salt as the pickling process obviously wsn’t quite complete, but the flesh
could have been sucked through a straw it was that soft and tender. Didn’t try
the smoked eel on offer but convinced a few of our fellow travellers to do so,
most enjoyed it. The bronze staatues of teh old fisher folk were excellent and
got a couple of pictures of the old timber fishing boats. Must see Bart vL to
get the proper name for them.
On the return journey we were dropped off at the “dam” in
Amsterdam, with no-one wanting to go back to the hotel first.Pauline and I
wanted a coffee so Macca’s got a hit, quite acceptable coffee. We then parted
company, Pauline to “look” at shops and I off to the Waterlooplein Markt to try
for a charger for the phone having only the car one with me. Success after
walking up and down 4 long rows of stalls, but no replacement case for my
dinosaur of a handset.
Headed for the Van Gogh Museum where the queues were very
short and the service quick. The museum was well organised and beautifully laid
out. Lotds of people but very little waiting time to see any of the exhibits
laid out in 4 levels from techniques and restoration work, sketches and
drawings, history and life, to paintings. I must admit that some of his talent
was lost on me, not having the soul and mind of an artist.
After the fairly long walk to the museum and the 2 ½
hours in there my feet were letting me know that they’d been worked pretty
hard, so onto a tram from just outside the museum on to the Centraal Station.
The break was long enough to renew my enthusiasm for some more walking back to
the hotel. Pauline’s foray was completed and she was writing cards to the kids.
She’d picked up a bit and we thought we’d go out for a bite. Last customers at
the Subway and we got a good feed..So home to the hotel, pack the bags for
tomorrows departure and bed early.
0608130800
Tuesday
Writing this in the bus on the way to Germany after
leaving the Movenpick.
Woke up to a wake up call on the in-house phone, finished
packing our bags, breakfast (yummo) and into the bus. Reports from the other
tour members was that the last night dinner, canal cruise and red light walk
was good. This mornings drive will be about 4.5hrs with our first break at
about the 2 ½ hour mark, hopefully for a coffee.
0708130800
Wednesday
Writing this in the bus on the way to Vienna after
leaving the hotel in Salzburg.
The trouble with touring like this is that, by not
writing up each day as it happens, you lose the plot in retrospect and can’t
(easily) remember what happened on the day. Headed for Mainz, beautiful city
with an interesting bridge across the Salz River so called because of the salt
transportation down river. The wealth generated from the “government” owned
rock salt mines was fabulous, as salt was essentially the prime food
preservation method.
On to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a beautiful city of about
100,000. Walked through the township and took a ride to the (deatroyed) castle
mounted (as usual) on the hilltop overlooking the town. Magnificent houses. The
views from the castle over the town were excellent. The town was largely left
intact through mutual agreement between the warring parties. . The “new” town
hall was elaborate baroque, the far better looking older town hall looked in terrific condition
compared with the newer baroque town hall.The hotel was without aircon and our
night’s sleep was not the best although the beds were comfortable.Tim led us
through the town and we used our radio unit for the first time with substantial
success. The use of loud hailers in many places now banned.
0808130800
Thursday
Writing this in the bus on the way to Vienna after
leaving the hotel in Salzburg.
On our way to Salzburg via Munich (Munchen) a name given
to the city in about the 10th century by the monks of the time. Went
through the city touring the various areas which I can’t remember until I get
my photos organised a bit.
Tim took us through the city to the Hofbrauhaus where the
toilets and the oompapa band played. It’s a famous watering hole. We walked
past the Haksenhaus place. We then went to the Marienplatz where we had some
luck getting some food (marzipan cakes with a drink) and unsuccessfully looked
for marzipan which we discovered later should have been looked for in Salzburg.
Gaby took us through the city of Salzburg on an
informative tour, showing us the gardens where the “Sound of Music” scenes were
filmed including the steps and the Pegasus statue. The statues (air, earth,
fire and water) and the fountain were in the garden, and the old city, dominated by the castle, stressing
how that Mozart loved Vienna but rejected his home town of Salzburg as being
too parochial and small. We saw the beautiful wrought iron shop signs, and they
even managed the McDonalds sign in a form palatable to the purists After she
left us we had some time to meander but we opted to people watch in the town
square.
It was good ot get to the hotel which had aircon in the
bedroom.We even managed to wash a few items that were in desperate need of
same. It was early to bed as we were whacked. I tried some internet access and
was spitting chips by the time I’d wasted a ½ hr trying firstly on my tablet
and then on the in-house computer, overall an imminently unsuccessful exercise.
It will have to be paid time at the next hotel if we can’t get reasonable
access.
0908130800
Friday
Writing this in the bus on the way to Vienna after
leaving the hotel in Salzburg
Woke, down to breakfast (yummo) and into the bus to the
Eagles Nest. We were introduced to our local guide David who was excellent.
Firstly to the “Sound of Music” gazebo, now closed because some American
dowager with no common sense jumped from seat to seat and fell through the
glass, tried suing the council and lost. The judge threw the case out saying
she was too old to be jumping and should have had more common sense. The trip
to the transfer station was interesting with a quite winding road and foggy and
alternating a bit clear so it all looked good. All well until we arrived, the
lift was broken down, everybody down and disappointed, so we went to plan B,
looking at where Adolf had had his house built
He advised us on our return to the bus that we were back to plan A and
the eagle’s nest tour was resuming, much to everyone’s pleasure.
The 120m high speed (11m/s!) trip in the lift up to the
top, via a tunnel wide enough for the big Mercedes, was smooth and the driver
must have been a very patient man, with the dopey turkeys refusing to take any
note of the signs telling them where to stand to facilitate smooth entry and
exit from the lift car. The car was lined with brass and the rooms superbly
finished. Still good after 60 years and one million visitors per year,
particularly the timber linings in Eva’s office and the dining room. Really
interesting place with top commentary. Walked to he top of the mountain where
we had our photo taken in front of the cross (obviously not one of Herman
Boormann’s doings). Felt like an isolated place and that was obviously what it
was meant to be. The portico’s have been tastefully enclosed in glass and the
heating in the rooms was good although the walk in the tunnel was fairly cold.
Brilliant design all round. A good representation of pictures from construction
to Hitler looking up (suffered from vertigo) so as not to see the drop below,
to yanks in the area after taking it over.
Unfortunately it started to rain and we were up in the
clouds but not very cold as we might have expected at 1600m height. Left in the
rain and the bus trip down was quick, even with our stop in the layby. Good
commentary on the way back from David, Picked up those who didn’t go and we were on our way to
Vienna
Well, on to the city of Vienna and the next roadhouse,
1108130800
Saturday
Today we have a more relaxing day. Looking forward to the
visit to Schoonbron, the summer palace of Empress ...... Bussed it into town
from the Hilton Plaza on the ring road. Met up with our guide Ilse who
introduced us to some of the Hapsburgs. The palce was stunning. The government
committed a bucket of money to get the restorations back to the original and
did a bang up job of it. Appointed a couple of guys with smarts to oversee the
whole kit and after 7 years of work it’s now turning a profit. The interior is
nothing short of amazing. In todays dollars she would have spent E33M on her
little shack in the 600 acres of gardens. The gardens are a public domain,
always were, and quite beautiful, employing about 20 gardeners full time. There
are huge areas of 10mm- river gravel. I walked up tothe top of the gardens to
the “gazebo”, now an expensive cafe, and for good reason, it has a superb view
of the city, looks right onto the back of the palace and across the gardens. I
slightly miscalculated the time to get back to the bus, talk about an earful
for the 3minute over run, The clock on the palace struck 10.00AM and crap! I
still had to cross the entry drive (about the width of 2 major airport runways
and round the corner to the bus. However not a disaster as some would see it.
Pauline and I were dropped off in the museum precinct.
Looked forward to a day together to unwind a bit. Had a fabulous day. Coffee
and torte in a nice little cafe, a meander to the market area and P got a new
cable for the b,,,I phone and at the markets two pairs of pants, talk about
happy with her purchases, she nearly floated out of there. Got back to the
hotel at about 3.30 and then off to the dinner at the music hall and a Strauss/Mozart
concert, had some dancers and duets and solos. All in all, a very pleasant
evening. My leg is playing up, I think I’ve got an infection and have asked Tim
to get me some attention of the medical kind. Doc arrived at 11.00PM, had a
look over the sore and agreed to get me onto a course of antibiotics. He went
downstairs and arranged for desk staff to get the antibiotics. The young bloke
arrived with them at about midnight.LATE NIGHT.
1208130800
Sunday
Up at 6.30 for a long haul into Venice. It’s been a short
night. And the doc come in and look at my leg which I thought had an infection.
Proved to be so, prescribed Amoxyllin and he organised the hotel to pick it up.
Expensive exercise, should get most of it back when we get home. Leg feeling
fair this morning and wearing the pressure stocking especially with a long bus
trip. The trip was pretty nifty, especially through the alpine areas of Austria
and Italy.The scenery was stunning and the lunchtime stop overlooking the lake
was fabulous. Both took lots of photo’s so we might need a “road trip file” We
arrived at Venice at about 4,15PM and transferred to a small boat which dropped
us off at the front door of the hotel. Tim got us booked in and into our
comfortable room we went, .Aircon on and looks like we might be in for a good
nights sleep.
Ahd a good chance eto freshen up briefly before hoofing
ot to where the small boats were picking us up for the evening tour of Venetian
canals and their surrounding buildings. Very enjoyable, seeing all these
buildings from as far back as as the 10th century. The doja
especially was magnificent, done out in tiles of white and pink marble.
Directly behind it the bridge of sighs, so named for the sounds that emanated
from wives and lovers of the prisoners walking across it to the slammer
straight behind it. The jail is no longer used but the wrought iron bars from
500years ago still look pretty solid to me..Tim had organised a drink in the
piazza St Marco and we enjoyed the playing of the quintets, I think there were
four of them playing an excellent selection of tunes and songs.
Tim advised us that, as wee would be there again in hte
morning he would give a fuller explanation of
what was what in regard to the history and function (through the ages)
of the various buildings lining the piazza. Then another boat trip back to the
hotel. Showered and well, the good night’s sleep was had allright.
Going out for dinner in the square so smart casual with
Pauline ironing the wardrobes – again.
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