Friday 4 May - Paris

A great day in Paris, certainly the most beautiful city of those that I've seen.

We were dropped off at the Place de Concorde, known as arguably the world's busiest roundabout. From there, as with most of the Topdeck crew, we walked through the beautiful Jardin de Carrousel, a large park which sits between the Place de Concorde and the Louvre. Paris is full of beautful parks, which are well patronised given it was another very comfortable European day.

Just outside the Louvre's western edge is the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, a smaller cousin of the Arc de Triomphe. These two erections, the Louvre and the Place de Concorde are in a perfect straight line together, just one of the many facets of Paris architecture that leave you amazed.

The odds of bumping into anyone you know in the Louvre would have been quite big I'd think. Throwing up a ballpark figure, perhaps 100,000/1 might be reasonable. Couple that with the odds of Luke Carey being alive after his sojurn through the Caribbean islands for the World Cup being even money, thus the odds were doubled to 200,000/1. Rest assured, walking through the main foyer of the museum a big beaming, a familiar face was spotted. I can pass on to Noel & Sally Carey that their son is (most importantly) alive, but looking quite the worse for wear after countless big sessions on the squirt, particularly in the party stands cheering on the Aussie boys.

Without a doubt a day could be spent at the Louvre, perhaps even two, however today in Paris, a day free of Topdeck-provided activities, we were going to cram a fair bit in. Thus myself and Libe took the Da Vinci Code audio tour through the museum, which guided us through the many parts of it which the book discusses. These included the Mona Lisa, which we were fortunate to get within a few metres of it, enclosed in bullet-proof glass. The famous painting carries an aura about it that could be witnessed via the many people standing in front of it carrying awestruck expressions.

Unfortunately for much of the museum through which the tour took us, photos were not allowed, thus I haven't got too many. I'll admit to not being a huge art buff - historical-type museums (e.g. war) are more my kind of scene - however I'd love to come back through the museum one day and really get to explore it.

The glass pyramids (one sits at the main entrance one, rising from the roof, while the other, on the Rose Line, hangs from the ceiling) were able to be photographed and thus there's a couple of them. They are a tourist attraction in their own right really.

After a couple of hours in the Louvre it was back on the footpath and east towards Notre Dame, the chapel that was home to Quasimodo. From there it was north to the George Pompidou centre, a remarkable moden building that had been built inside out. This meant that facilities that are generally in the centre of the buildings - pipes, stair cases, elevators, air conditioning ducts - are on the outside of the building. Depending on one's viewpoint, it's either great artistry or an eyesore - it was worth a look anyway.

We'd previously received some local knowledge from Libe's NY-based cousin Amanda and her French husband Vincent (Aussies - to be pronounced Von-son) on the best places to go in Paris. The Pomodou centre was one that they'd recommended to check out.

After this it was off to the most famous Parisian structure of all, the Eiffel Tower. The tower is just massive. The best place to truly appreciate it is standing by the side of one of its masive legs, or from directly underneath. We didn't have time to climb it - such a thing will have to remain on the life to-do list.

From here we left on a bike tour with Fat Bikes of the city. Although it took us to many of the places that we'd already seen, and the information received from our guide was quite similar from what Justin from Topdeck provided us last night, it was still great fun. The bikes were old and a little unstable; two hands were often needed. There's a couple of great videos I've got of Libe & myself riding helmetless down one of Paris' major thoroughfares. Most of the tour group joined in the ride and there were very few complaints. Mark, the farmer from the NZ South Island, nearly made the tour enjoyable by himself with his 'big kid' antics while knocking back a couple of Heineken cans.

Tea was a picnic in a park opposite the Eiffel Tower - even the rain didn't detract from the background.

One of two optional activities tonight was a cruise down the Seine. It was great to see the city from another angle, and at another time of day. Again, if nightfall doesn't add to the city's beauty, it certainly doesn't detract from it. The sight of the flickering lights being turned on on the Tower was specatular, as was the Statue of Liberty just a little further down the river (yes, the original Statue is in Paris - the one in NY is actually a copy that was gifted by the French to the Septics.

One of the few possible negatives of our Topdeck tour so far has been that the optional activities, and accomodation, have been slightly on the ordinary side, although with accomodoation the locations have been good. But tonight, for example, the boat that we were on for our cruise was very basic, and it would have been nice to have been on one of the few luxury ferries that sailed by with a restaurant and / or bar on board. But these kind of things don't really fit the Topdeck mould of being a relatively low-cost tour operator.

Something that I'll have to keep in mind on future travels - wherever possible, when paying for something, use the highest denomination bill first. It minimises the pain when you rip or lose a note (I've written off a 5 pound note in London, equivalent to $11 or so), and it makes it easier to deal with public transport and tipping.

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42


Saturday 5 May - Paris, France to Mt Rigi, Switzerland

A full day of travel, through the western French countryside, across the Swiss border to Mt Rigi, which sits to the south side of Lake Lucerne in Central Switzerland. Thus the sightseeing today was limited to what could be seen out of the bus, but it was still pretty handy.

Driving out of Paris revealed its grotty outer suburbs, something that I'm sure is never considered when attempting to quantify the city's beauty - which is probably fair enough, I doubt there's any city in the world which wouldn't have an area that it would like to be more visually attractive.

Once outside of the city limits, the freeway speed limits were upped to 130 k/m. The Topdeck bus is electronically limited to 100km an hour due to strict European bus rules, thus we were passed emphatically by many very nice cars while sitting in the right hand lane.

In our whole travels, both myself and Libe have relished the challenges and novelty of dealing with foreign languages - although it's only happened twice so far (Spanish in Peru and French in Europe). There's a few more opportunities to come though - Italian, German, Dutch, Catonese (HK), Egyptian....

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42


Sunday 6 May - Mt Rigi, overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland

Amazing scenes on TV here tonight in Switzerland. With the French presidential elections being held today, there has been some rioting by maniacs in the Place de la Bastille in France, a place where we were just 2 days ago. Obviously glad we're not going through there today. On the other hand, it was interesting to see so many people around the Arc de Triomphe - being there would have been a great experience.

Stunned by the Cats v Tigers score. I don't think anyone should concede 200+ points in today's football; I actually wondered recently whether we'd seen such a score for the last time. Although the club should get a little credit for the win, given their loss last week drew so much criticism, it's a little disappointing that we often need a barrage from the media to spark us up. Here's hoping that the days where this doesn't have to happen isn't too far away.

Being here in Mt Rigi is different to the theme of the rest of this Europe tour, and from the rest of our travels, in that it's a rural area, as opposed to the cities where we're usually based. But in reflection it's been a welcome change - the Swiss countryside is lovely, consisting of stunning mountains, lush, undulating territory, and the most clear waterways that you could possibly see. Also, the pure fresh air is wonderful for the lungs which have worked in the smog of London and Paris for the last week and a bit.

Today consisted of:

* A train ride down from our hotel, near the top of the mountain, down to the town of Vitznau, which sits on the banks of Lake Lucerne.
* An hour or so long ferry ride across the lake to Lucerne, the city in this area of Switzerland. Lonely Planet's Western Europe guide tells us that the population of Lucerne is 58,000 but it's not accurate, as it won't include those living in the suburbs and nearby towns. Lucerne would probably be the size of Hobart. The ferry to Lucerne didn't offer the complete scenery that it usually might due to the thick, 'pea soup' morning fog which was taking its time to clear.
* Taking in Lucerne's highlights. The sightseeing list isn't massive here, but it's more about walking through the town and soaking in a genuine Swiss township. The major sight here is the Lion Monument, carved into a small cliff in the inner city as a memorial to 700 Swiss Guards who lost their lives during the French Revolution in the 18th century.
* A ferry ride back to Lucerne mid-afternoon. By this time the fog had cleared, revealing the enthralling Lake Lucerne environment for a few pictures (actually, make that a s'load).
* A train ride up to the top of Mt Rigi. The peak is at 1,800m; one thing that amazed myself and Libe was that this peak, although certainly very high, was like 'chicken feed' (i.e. small & insignificant) when compared to the heights of Peru (Cuzco 3,300m and Dead Woman's Pass 4,200m). The view from the peak was spectacular and the pictures taken probably give a good indication of the majesty of local area, surrounded by the Swiss Alps, some of which are still holding snow.

A few points of note:
* Switzerland has one of the highest standards of living in the world and it shows. A couple of things in particular. First, the cars they drive are all in good condition and certainly the average car driven is higher in standard than anywhere I've seen. There's a higher proportion of Mercedes Benz and the like than anywhere else it seems. The 'distance to' signs on the highways seem to be more frequent than normal. If there's a hill in between two towns (and the country is full of them), there's every chance there's a tunnel that's been blasted through it.
* The whole country is immaculately clean and in order. The streets are free of litter; public transport is easy to use, super efficient and on time basically without fail; the lawns and gardens are perfectly manicured and maintained. I think one word can be used to sum up the Swiss - efficiency.

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42


Monday 7 May - Mt Rigi, Switzerland to Florence, Italy, via Pisa

Another new country - add that to the list of the US, Peru, England, France and Switzerland.

Most of the day was lost in transit from Switzerland to Florence. The drive to the Swiss border was picturesque as expected - dominated by the Alps, a few of them still bearing snow and may do so through the northern hemisphere summer.

The borders here in the mainland of Europe have been very easy to cross - at both the France / Switzerland border, and the Swiss / Italy one, passports haven't been checked, thus making it hard for those wanting to get the souvenir stamp in the passport to increase their collection. But when you see these kind of procedures in place you can see why Tony Mokbel slipped away from the Federal Police in Europe - it's effectively one big country given the borders.

As soon as we crossed over into Italy, the terrain became quite boring. Northern Italy is a flat place, with little or no undulations apart from the Appennine mountains, off in the distance towards the Western coast. Even Milan, one of (if not the) world's fashion capitals does not sit in a really attractive landscape.

On the way to Florence we stopped at Pisa, home of the famous leaning tower. We were only there for two hours and that's all you need. Fair to say that if it wasn't for the poor construction skills of the tower's builders, the Pisa tourist industry would be 'Barrying' (as in Barry Attling). The sights are limited to the town's main square, the Campo de Miracoli (Field of Miracles), which the locals claim is among the world's most beautiful squares. Unfortunately for them I'd say I've seen a few squares in my time, and that the Market Square in Geelong might have them covered; there's many others that have for sure.

The square contains three major buildings - the Tower, Baptistry, and Cathedral. Amazingly, all three are officially leaning. The tower itself is quite a sight - the lean is certainly remarkable, even despite the efforts of the builders to have the top couple of levels a little more vertical than the bottom ones to make the Tower's lean appear a little less (yes, it started leaning during construction, but they just kept on building anyway).

We've got the obligatory photo's of us kicking over the tower and holding it up - I'll get them up here a.s.a.p..

Off to Florence, with a night tour on the cards. First impressions were that the city is really beautiful, certainly matching expectations. There just does not appear to be a building that is not at least a couple of hundred years old, and all renovations (e.g. to allow shops on the ground level) appear to fit in quite seamlessly with their surroundings.

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42


Tuesday 8 May - Florence, Italy

Again blessed with the weather in Europe. As confirmed by our guide Justin, this seems to be a fantastic time to see Europe. The climate is just perfect, and the tourism season hasn't hit peak time yet, thus the queues and crowds are nowhere near as big as they will be come July / August.

As with France and Switzerland, there's no shortage of scooters and motorbikes on the streets of Florence. Given the city was built before the time of the automobile, the roads are quite small and thus these two vehicles are worth their (low) weight in gold. It's quite a sight, and a common one, to see a bunch of professionals in suits and ties flying past at 60 km/h on their little two-wheeler. As well as this, there are quite a number of small, 3-wheeled trucks (refer the photos of this day - there's one in there of these trucks).

Florence has plenty of quiet little streets heading this way and that. It's been great just to wander pretty aimlessly and to soak up the culture of the city that exist in places like these.

Florence is home to an artisitc heritage probably unrivalled in the world. It was home to the Renaissance, the greatest period in the history of art where the greatest artisans of the time - Michaelangelo and Raphael, later known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, among them - were freed of the restrictions imposed by the Catholic Church and freely expressed themselves in their works with the sponsorship of the Medici family.

Michaelangelo's David is in the Galleria Dell'Academia, but comes with queues that may be up to two hours long, and there's a perfect replica of it that sits in the Piazza Della Signoria, so we were happy with that.

Perhaps Florence's main feature is its Duomo (Cathedral), among the country's most-loved structures and the dominating feature of the city skyline, which came about as the Church forbid any other buildings to be built as tall or taller than it (imagine if the church were able to apply that rule in NY!) The huge interior is dominated by its Dome and the frescos painted on it (which are paintings made on freshly laid plaster, with the desired effect being that the paint soaks into the plaster and becomes permanent). Myself and Libe made the climb up to the top of the Dome to view the skyline of Florence.

The Uffizi Gallery (Galleria Degli Uffizi) holds the greatest collection of Italian and Florentine art in existence, including many world-reknowned paintings. We queued for 20 minutes to get in but then gave up, insteading prefering to head across the Ponte Vecchio and to the southern side of the Arno River, to the Palazzo Pitti, home to the Pitti family for many years. The Palazzo itself holds a huge collection of art so it was worthwhile to browse around there for a couple of hours. Unfortunately pictures are not allowed, thus none were taken.

Justin had recommended that we head up to Piazzale Michaelangelo, an open square set on a small hill on the south side of the river, to view the sunset, thus we sat up there for a while on the steps, smashing some crackers and salami. It was nice to take a break from the hustle and bustle of sightseeing for a while to soak in the view of a lovely city. We managed to take a few photos of the sunset over the river which might be amongst our best work behind the lens for this trip, apart from my work from in front of the pavilion at Lords.

For the second night in a row we ventured out to experience a bit of the local night culture. Red Garter is a centrally-located bar which plays similar music to the Eureka Hotel and has been patronised by the Topdeck and Contiki tours on both nights. Given both tours are dominated by those from Down Under, it was good to be pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone and spending time with the locals for a couple of nights out on the town.

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42


Wednesday 9 May - Florence to Rome, via Orvieto

No rest for the wicked. Off to Rome today. We're currently knocking off cities quicker than Dezzie from the Geelong Racecourse used to knock off cans at the ground staff xmas parties (rest assured it was a cracking pace).

Heading south down the Italian highways the terrain became a lot more interesting than what was served up to us on Monday in Northern Italy. The road in Rome's direction crosses the Appennine mountains, which creates many of those "postcard" images of the Tuscan home on the sunkissed hills surrounded by vineyard and olive crops.

On the way we had an 90-minute or so stop in Orvieto, an authentic rural Italian town quite untouched by the tourism industry. The town is perched on top of dramatic small hill, appearing to be surrounded by cliff faces and steep inclines the whole way round (this we can't confirm as we didn't see at least half of the hill. To get up to the town requires a cable car up the incline and through the city walls.

Like many places in Europe, the Catholic Church has had a considerable influence over the city's skyline and Orvieto was no exception - it's cathedral, splendidly built with bricks in alternating vertical colours which thus create hoops inside and out (yes, it's been too long since I'd seen a set of hoops - looking forward to seeing them that's for sure), dominates the town.

The other highlight of our visit was a hat I managed to pick up. Although the hat has been worn very frequently since, it's just got the Spring Racing Carnival written all over it (not literally of course). It's a little balltearer, perhaps my best buy all trip (excluding the laptop which I've just been watching the Geelong v Carlton replay on of course).

Our hotel in Rome is in the inner western suburbs, thus required a subway trip into the city. One thing that has been quite alarming and disturbing for Italy is the need for our tour leader Justin to advise us on the dangers of pickpocketing. It is quite common here and thus we're best to avoid crowds of people, and to be aware of strange situations occurring around you. Some of these situations include being surrounded by a group on public transport, being 'accidently' bumped into, and being distracted, particularly by children. Justin told us of one particular disgusting bit of behaviour he experienced in being surrounded by a group of men & women on an otherwise quiet Mexico City subway train. It's all pretty low really - here's hoping nothing happens. Nothing is likely to, anyway.

The afternoon involved a walking tour of Rome, through Piazza del Popolo, Piazza di Spagna and its Spanish Steps, the spectacular Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona, Piazza Venezia (yep, the Italians love their Piazzas as well as their Pizzas), the Imperial and Roman Forums, and finally the Colisseum.

Little known fact - the Colisseum remains the only sporting venue in the world not to have sold its naming rights to a company. But given its history of persecution of Christians & Catholics, expect something British to get them. Also, given the lopsided nature of the previous contests between the Christians and the Lions at this venue, it's been thought appropriate that the Richmond and Melbourne footy clubs, and the English cricket team, move their home games here.

There's a few comments that I've put on the pictures from today about the places we've been to. I personally consider today to be a little above average from my usual standards (devout Christians may be a little offended, but unfortunately there are a few minor differences between this religion and mine, Australian Rules football).

First impressions of Rome is that it's a very hectic city. You can't help but think it would have been great for some of these structures that were built two millenia ago to have survived all the way through and still be standing in all their glory, but despite this you still stare in wonderment at them.

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42


Thursday 10 May - Rome

If I did another tour of Europe, or any other place for that matter, I'd probably choose one that is a slightly lower pace. The Soho to Boho itinerary is rated medium for speed, which suits us perfectly given the limited amount of time we've got here. Ideally however, in major cities like Paris you'd prefer to have two full days to take everything in rather than one. Rome's the same I'd say after today.

The queues at the Vatican City's major attractions start quite early in the morning thus we were up early, given we weren't keen to be stuck at the back of these. It was straight into the awesome St Peter's Basilica & the massive square (Piazza San Pietro). The Basilica is just massive and is very impressive inside. It's dome, for which Michelangelo was responsible for when he wasn't kicking The Shredder's backside, is particularly enticing. It's the world's second best dome, after Melbourne's sacred Telstra Dome. The church allows the visitor to take pictures, which I think it's got to receive credit for, because there would be many people who would count a visit here as among their life's most memorable moments, thus it's good to allow them to take home plenty of snaps.

We had to queue up for maybe 30 to 45 minutes to get into the Vatican Museums, however given Justin's groups have previously sat through 2 hour queues on a lot hotter summer days, we were pretty happy with this. The Church has plundered its way across the world since Jesus Christ was a little boy (i.e. before he pulled on the magic No 5 in the blue and white), thus its Museum has a lot of artifacts from around the world. Although it's not going to happen, I'd actually like to see Pope Benedict hand back a lot of the stuff to Egypt, Greece and the like, but I can't see the Vatican parting with a small percentage of it's massive fortune (the same goes for the Poms and their loaded British Museum in London too).

Anyway, the musuems were pretty good - the Louvre would have it covered, but it was worth the time. The number one attraction inside the museums was the Sistine Chapel, thus we skipped a lot of the different galleries to head there. Brendan & Jen Tranzie were right on one thing - the walk to the Chapel is a long one. The signs to the Chapel mischieviously take you through a bucketload of other rooms on the way there, to really show off the collections held by the Museum.

The Sistine Chapel is a wall to wall exhibit of some of the Church's greatest frescos. Once again, Michelangelo was the hero - his 'Creation' and 'Last Judgement' pieces dominate the building. No pictures allowed here, but I'll probably be able to dig up something from Google for the picture library. It'd be worth it.

Whether you're religious or not - and I'll admit I'm that not a practising Catholic at all and can be quite negative of the Chuch at times - the Vatican city is certainly worth a visit sometime during your life.

Walked through the city and over the Tiber River on the way to the eastern side of the city containing the Forums and the Coliseum. On the way we past the Castel Sant'Angelo, probably best known for its role towards the end of the Da Vinci Code more than anything else.

Crossing the road in Italy is an experience by itself. Even though there are zebra crossings all over the city, and the pedestrian has the official right of way, for drivers to stop the walker is generally required to gradually step out onto the crossing, look the oncoming driver in the eye and win the battle of wills.

Buying items at shops and service stations is also a challenge. Italians are generally quite abrupt, and what we would perceive as quite rude. Queues mean nothing - the locals will push in and force their way to the counter first. The staff behind the counter don't have much patience either, and will drop 'prego' (this word can mean a lot of things, but at its basic level it's probably 'hello' and 'you're welcome') at second long intervals until you answer them. There's been one or two times I've been tempted to give someone a spray, but the realisation that it's a different culture here stops here before I do so. The best practice has just been to give the locals a bit of their own medicine I've found, and to use blocking tactics to make sure you get your rightful spot at the counter.

Spent an hour or so drifting through the ruins on Paletine hill, once home to Ancient Rome's rich and famous, which is not surprising given its very handy location, next to the Roman Forum and the Colisseum.

Next up - the Colisseum. Officially known as the Flavian Ampitheatre, it really was a forerunner to the modern stadium. Given it was built starting AD 72, it might just be the most impressive structure I've seen so far. Put in in this context - the ruins of Machu Picchu were constructed a lot closer to today's date than the birth of baby Jesus (otherwise known as Gary Jnr).

Had one of the worst Italian feeds you could find on the way home, one of the rare occasions where Libe knocks back food.

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42

Friday 11 May - Rome to Venice via Verona, Italy

Another day on the road. There's a wide variety of methods of how everyone in the group fills in their time on the bus. Generally the day goes from 8am, until somewhere between 5pm and 7pm, broken up by a 2 hour or so stop in some place on the way, and by 15 minute breaks every couple of hours or so. Usually over half of the group are having a kip within an hour of departing. I generally can't sleep in transit, whether it be on a bus or on a flight, so within an hour or so I've got the laptop out and are sorting photos, putting together a blog or two or (better still) watching some footy. Have already got plenty of value out of this machine.

Just wish I'd bought a spare battery for it so I can get more out of it than 2.5 - 3 hours. Once the laptop died in the bum around lunchtime today, I was bored shitless for the arvo really. This was either our longest day of driving, or close to it, too.

After lunch, the bus is a lot more active. By now, the laptop is dead and I'm either reading about the next place, getting involved in a game of cards up the back of the bus, or sitting in the front chatting to PJ our bus driver and getting the best view of the surrounding scenery. Libe is either reading, chatting (and sometimes indulging in a bottle of vino), or kipping.

Luke Carey sightings are now two (with more to come). Bumped into Barrel in the streets of Verona, a fashionable city an hour west of Venice. Luke had been through Barcelona and Nice since the last sighting in Paris, and had survived another one of his 'doing a number on myself' nights on the squirt. Classic King.

Verona is known for two things - its Colisseum (called the Ampitheatre), which it still uses for rock concerts (Pearl Jam recently played there), and being the home of Juliet, half of the partnership with Romeo.

Thus had a look at a statue of Juliet, and the balcony where she supposedly spent here time swooning with Romeo. Romantic 'superstition' suggests that you rub Juliet's 'heart' (actually, you rub the other thing, on the other side of her chest) for either a new lover or for good luck, depending on who you get the advice from.

Around the courtyard beneath the balcony there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of little pieces of paper stuck to the wall, all (or most) containing messages of love and romance. Myself & Libe add the following notes for each other:

From Libe to Ryan:
"Roses are red,
Violets are plastic,
I know I'm dumb,
But you're just a spastic"

From Ryan to Libe:
"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I know you're hungover,
I hope you don't spew".

The locals were dressed up 'to the nines', and there were Versace and Loius Viutton stores all over the place. The Topdeck crew stood out 'like dog balls', walking around in wifebeaters, boardshorts and thongs.

Drove onto to Venice, or Venezia as called by the locals. Actually staying in Mestre, on the mainland. There's a bridge which connects the Venizia island to Mestre. Accomodation, whether permanent or temporary, costs more than Libe's shoe collection (if that is believable), thus most people stay in Mestre and travel into Venice via bus or train. We'll be catching the no 7 in in the morning. Mestre, meanwhile, is a really nice place by itself; certainly a younger population than what we'll find in Venice, and they've got an Australian pub as well (as have London and Florence, and yep, we've been to one in both places).

Having to pay to go to most toilets here; excluding those that are in hotels, bars or restaurants that you're patronising. And they're generally ordinary quality.

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42


Saturday 12 May - Venice

Luke Carey sightings = 3. Crossed paths with Barrel as I was exiting, and he was entering, of all things, a lace making exhibition in Venice. I would have thought that if I was going to bump into Luke 3 times overseas, at least once would have been in a bar.

Venice is certainly a fascinating place. It is hard for anyone lacking wealth to get their foot in the door here accomodation wise. The architecture is lovely, a mix of eastern europe (particularly Turkish) and traditional Italian influences. However, you would baulk at buying anything here as the city is actually sinking. When it was first built, the base of the island was a mixture of soil, logs and reeds, thus not really meant to hold the many bricks of which Venice is constructed. The Italians haven't been smart enough to stop it yet, however the recent formation of the European Union has seen money, and the brains of the Dutch, come in to start rectification actions.

In some buildings, the once-accessable basements and first floors have been abandoned for those above them due to the rising waters.

The canals, and the streets in which you get lost just so easily, are fun just to wander around. That's one of the great things of doing a Topdeck tour - their style of allowing plenty of freedom to the group allows you to really experience a place. The charm meter is off the richter scale. The city smells in most places, as the water running through the canals is mixed with the sewer and storm drains of the city, however the scenery makes it bearable.

In terms of actual attractions, there isn't a massive amount. The major place of significance is the Piazza & Basillica Di San Marco (St. Mark's Basilica), which although is impressive, is pretty similar to the churchs & squares seen in Rome and Florence. The one area where St. Mark's differs from those previously seen is that at high tide the Piazza regularly floods, due to the combined effect of the sinking city and the rising waters caused by global warning (yes, those from the US & little Johnny Howard, global warming does exist!). We left the island before the waters hit the Piazza, thus didn't see this occur.

Took the requisite gondola ride in the early afternoon. While it was good, it wasn't quite the romantic, two-to-the-gondola-with-the-gondolier singing ride. There was six of us on it, because the gondola rides are very exxy (36 euro each for probably 20-25 minutes). It's bit of a rort really: to become a gondolier here is actually controlled by 'someone' (I'll guess and say the local Mafia), and they would get paid better than the city's top lawyer for what's a very easy job. As well as the crowded boat, the canals really did stink in some occasions, perhaps even more than the Tigers did against the Cats last week.

Not that I ever doubted him, but Geoff Hollis was right - Italy is the place to load up on ties. Have bought 6 good quality ones here for about 8 euro ($13-14 Aussie) each. Anyone who ventures here in the future should keep that in mind. And also the fact that many of the retail stores close up in the early arvo for a siesta. One place we saw closed between about 12 and 3.

There are counterfeit goods sellers all over Europe, and Venice is no exception. They sell their stuff on sheets, which, when a member of the constabulary is approaching, they fold up quicker than you can say "yeah, bullshit, that's not real", and start bolting in the opposite direction. The sellers are always nervously looking around for the boys in blue, and it appears as though they operate with a 'lookout' as well. It's funny to see them selling fake Gucci stuff right outside the actual Gucci stores but it appears as though no one minds. Simply, if the cops wanted to bust them, they would.

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42


Sunday 13 May - Mestre (Venice), Italy to St Johann In Tirol, Austria

Another day pretty much spent entirely in transit.

Italy is an interesting country. Although it's certainly developed, there appears to be a greater number of less well-off towns than in the countries that we've drifted through previously. There were quite a few tin shanties we spotted from the bus window on running alongside the highway.

North Italy is basically Switzerland. The architecture is certainly more German than Italian. It's got to be remembered that for most of its history Europe either didn't have borders or was divided up differently to what it is now, and that the borders are still really being settled. Most of them were determined folowing WWII, and thus they're pretty rudimentary and probably not truly reflective of how the continent is divided socially.

On the way to St Johann, we stopped off to do a little white water rafting. This was really great fun, jumping into the flowing river about 5 times (Libe a pretty similar amount). The river and its rapids were quick enough to provide entertainment, but not sufficient to make you feel you were taking a risk with your health and well being.

Found ourselves in another Aussie-themed pub tonight, this time in the relatively small town of St Johann. It's amazing how we manage to just find these familiar places overseas. It was there that I was able to jump onto the internet and find out the Cats score, probably about 10 hours after the game had been completed. Fair to say I was pumping the air walking back in the main bar (I think most people in the Topdeck crew were able to guess what I has celebrating about).

Given it's the first real team we've beat, it's been the best result so far. The next steps now are to consistently play good footy, and to start winning interstate. Reading the history of teams that make a grand final, all of them have proven themselves as being able to win on the road, PARTICULARLY in finals games.

Anyway, here's my updated ladder after 7 rounds, which works on who you've beaten:

Adelaide 40
Port Adelaide 35
West Coast 35
Hawthorn 34
Collingwood 31
Western Bulldogs 25
Brisbane 24
Essendon 24
Fremantle 23
Kangaroos 22
Geelong 21
St. Kilda 18
Sydney 14
Carlton 6
Melbourne 0
Richmond 0

I think this shows the fact that our 4th position on the ladder is a little flattering at the moment - there remains to come most of an important month of footy for the GFC.

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42


Monday 14 May - St Johann in Tirol, Austria

There's not much sightseeing to do in St Johann; it's more of a activities town - skydiving, paragliding, canyoning and bike riding were those activities offered to the Topdeck crew for the arvo. Myself and Libe opted for the least extreme bike ride option, which allowed us the first sleep-in for a fair while, and to spend the arvo sitting in a laundry washing our clothes for the first time since leaving London nearing two weeks ago.

The bike ride was OK; the bikes were a little uncomfortable, and the hills pretty tough, but the exercise was overdue, scenery nice, and the lake into which a couple of us jumped into very refreshing.

Pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/milky42