Thanks to the Love of my life, Margaret, for enhancing the work with her photos.
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!! The photos did not survive the transfer to the blog! Sorry Darling one, sorry Readers.
With warmth, Norm.
Okay. I don’t want to write a travelogue; and you don’t
want to read a travelogue. So this is the bare bones account of Margie and
Normie’s BIG Holiday. I’ll just let you see where we were, the names of the
hotels we stayed at, the sights we saw (very briefly), and what I think might
be vaguely of interest to people with a short attention span with regard to
other people’s holiday stories and snaps.
MAY
2012
Monday
28: London to Paris
8:30 A.M. – We set off from the Kensington Close Hotel
for St Pancras Station.
Sitting with backs to the engine, we sped off to France
on the Eurostar Train, via the undersea tunnel. Suddenly, we were in France. Two
hours later we arrived in Lille, with its VERY long platform.
Suzanne Sevenstern, our Tour Director, met all 34 of us,
and we boarded our coach for another two hour trip, to Paris.
This night, we dined in typical Parisian style – wine,
lamb, couscous, at a nearby café, sitting out on the street in the 8:00 p.m.
broad daylight.
Introducing
our Fellow Travellers:
Suzanne (Tour Director), is Dutch, but she also speaks
English, Italian, French and German fluently.
Donato, our Italian driver, is a VERY good driver of a VERY big
bus!
Of the tourists, we have two couples from Chicago,
Illinois, USA.:
Jim and Joanne (often addressed as ‘Jodie), and Cliff and
Karen.
Roger and Di, from Endeavour Hills in Victoria
Nirani and her daughter Jayalia from Melbourne (Wantirna,
I think).
David and Barbara of Frankston (Victoria).
Norm and Chris from Doncaster (Melbourne).
Two of Chris’s friends, Tessa and Mila, are also from
Melbourne.
Fred and Maureen from Penrith, (the only New South Wales
residents).
John and Jenny from Canberra.
A group of five friends come from country Victoria, in
the Morwell/Shepparton area:
Jim and Lee;
Ada ;
Doug and Liz.
Gavin, from New Zealand.
George and May from Victoria.
Kath is from Adelaide.
Sue from Melbourne.
Craig and Nicola from Eatons Hill, just down the road
from Narangba.
Denise of Wavell Heights in Brisbane.
Karen, from Graceville in Brisbane.
On with our tour, 34 tourists in a 49 passenger coach!
Accommodation
Paris (2 nights): Quality Paris Orleans
Tuesday
29: Paris. An
orientation tour, all the famous places – Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc d’
Triomphe, Napoleon’s Tomb, the Louvre (which isn’t open on Tuesdays), and the
Seine (River).
Interesting
Stuff:
·
Notre Dame Cathedral – there is a teeny
little statue of the hunchback high up on one side. Because it isn’t really a religious
symbol, but something from a novel, it doesn’t get much space.
·
France makes 365 different cheese types, one
for each day of most years.
·
One
of the many bridges spanning the river, carries thousands of locks engraved
with hearts and the linked names of lovers. Apparently, people bought locks at
nearby shops (BIG trade in locks and
engraving), had them engraved with hearts and lovers’ names, then threaded the
lock through the iron/steel mesh on one of the sides of the bridge, locked it,
and threw the keys into the Seine. Someone started the tradition quite some
years ago, and now just about everyone does it. Ah, Paris! City of lovers!
·
The Paris Metro is the Paris Underground, not
to be confused with the Paris Underworld, which consists of men in berets with
four day stubble, who spend their days smoking Gauloise cigarettes, drinking
Bordeaux, garrotting rivals and sinking them in the Seine.
·
I ate snails at Escaramouche Restaurant, but in
future I think I’ll stick to fast food. (Yes, that was a little joke).
Wednesday
30: Paris to Bordeaux
Bus Rules
(when travelling), include:
·
Always wear seatbelts
·
Please don’t use the toilet unless you
absolutely, have to, gotta go!
·
Daily Seat Rotation. I predict that the seat
rotation will cause a few interesting moments as our happy band journeys on.
(And it DID!)
Interesting
Stuff:
·
France has a population of approximately 60
million.
·
Germany, though smaller in size, has 83
million.
·
3 million people live in the city centre of
Paris, with a further 3 million in the outer suburbs.
·
Marseilles and Lyons each have more than 1
million inhabitants.
·
Michelangelo is buried in the Chapel of the
Castle Ambose, beside the River Loire.
·
Way back when, Leonore of Aquitaine was the
most powerful woman in France, owning about a quarter of the country. She
married King Louis VII of France, had two children with him, then divorced him.
She then married the King of England, and had 13 children with him, including
Richard the Lionheart. She seemed to have a penchant for kings. Joan of Arc was
another famous Aquitainian. Dang! I’m so GOOD at this historical stuff!
Accommodation Bordeaux:
Mercure Bordeaux Centre Meriadeck
Thursday
31: Bordeaux to Barcelona.
We stopped for 2 hours in Carcassonne, ‘perhaps the
best-preserved medieval town Europe’. Two thick stone walls encircle the town.
Inside the walls, narrow streets wind off in three
directions, criss-crossed by little side alleys and laneways.
Interesting
Stuff:
Craig insisted that I include the following:
a) He
and Nicola bought a tea towel there, and
b) Nicola
took a nice photo of Roger trying on a medieval helmet. (I promised I would
include this fascinating information for the world to share).
Accommodation
Barcelona (2 nights): Catalonia Atenas
Here’s a haiku I wrote after one afternoon pee-pee stop
(Suzanne’s phrase) at a roadhouse:
At the end of Spring,
Barcelona
roadhouse;
Strong,
soulless coffee.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
Barcelona has a population of 1.9 million
people. It is also the fourth busiest port in the world, and cruise ships bring
three million of the ten million visitors each year. The city area is seven
square kilometres.
·
The city planners did something wonderful
when drawing up the blueprints for Barcelona. Each corner in the city is not
just a square intersection – they have shaved a triangle of extra space on each
corner, which allows lots of light into the streets.
Friday
1:
Interesting
Stuff:
·
Gaudi
designed probably the most eccentric church building ever, (so THAT’s how the
word ‘gaudy’ came into being). He worked on it from 1891 until he never saw the
street car that killed him in 1926. Construction then limped along until the
1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, after which building activity picked up. It is
expected that the building will be completed by 2026, but people are not
expecting it to be finished on schedule. It has 12 spires (at present – there
will be 18 when it is finished), many statues, and very strange caricatures
(lots of fruit atop some of the spires, a statue of a huge smokestack, all at
strange angles). For $20, one can go inside. We didn’t.
·
After driving along a narrow, winding road,
travelling upward, ever upward, we arrived at the awesome monastery of Montserrat.
We touch the Black Madonna, (actually, the glass encasing the little statue.
·
A rock climber, halfway up an almost
perpendicular cliff face, looked like a human fly stuck onto the rock with
Velcro.
·
Tonight we fought our way through street
vendors and outdoor restaurants for 200 metres to get to Ramblas Flamenco
Restaurant for dinner.
·
Itinerant street vendors are illegal in many
European cities/town. If the police catch you buying their wares (Genuine
imitation Rolex watches, sunglasses, novelties, umbrellas), YOU pay a large
fine. Why? Street sellers usually don’t have much money, tourists presumably do.
Saturday
2: Barcelona to Nice
Accommodation
Nice: Park Inn.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
Somewhere along the way we heard about the
famous Grimaldi (Monaco) and Medici (Florence) families, which wielded power in
two different places way back in the Middle Ages.
·
Nice: I have a blank memory about Nice, but
I’m sure it was nice. We spent the evening in Monte Carlo, where I won 30 Euros
on a poker machine.
·
Monaco: Someone told me that Monaco has
absolutely no unemployment, and that this is due in part because there is a
police officer for every other person in the Principality. (I haven’t actually
verified that).
Sunday
3: Nice to Florence
Accommodation
Florence: Diplomat Hotel.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
After an information/shopping session at a
Perfumery at EZE, it was onward to Pisa, where we were mobbed by many VERY
aggressive street sellers, mainly of African descent. They pushed themselves
right into our faces, and abused Suzanne when she warned us not to buy
anything. Yes, the Tower continues to lean, but Margaret photographed me trying
to push it upright. It surprised me that they allow people inside to climb to
the top.
Monday
4: Florence to Sorrento
Accommodation
Sorrento (2 nights): Central Park Hotel
Interesting
Stuff:
|
Hercules and Centaur, Florence
|
·
She seemed okay, but by the time we got
to our room to check it out, she had a bump the size of a large egg on her
right temple, and the beginnings of a headache. While everyone else shopped, we
waited for and saw a very professional Italian doctor. She gave Margaret a
comprehensive medical examination (once the doctor was assured the bump on the
head had nothing to do with me, she allowed me to be present).
|
Pisa
|
Interesting
Stuff:
·
|
Isle of Capri
|
I stayed home and did the washing. Kath,
Sue and I eventually found a Laundromat some 3 kilometres from the hotel
but, on our return journey, Kath fell
over on uneven footpath, just 20 metres from home. The result was an egg on the right temple, just like
Margaret’s. None of the women would walk
with me, or even venture near me, for several days.
Wednesday
6: Sorrento to Rome
Accommodation
Rome: Princess Hotel.
|
Pompeii
|
·
At Pompeii we gained a sense of understanding
of how people lived their lives before Vesuvius blew its top and wiped out the
entire population.
|
Trevi Fountain, Rome
|
·
We threw a coin over our shoulder (or was it
three coins?) into the Trevi Fountain.
Thursday
7:
Interesting
Stuff:
·
Margaret visited the Vatican and said it was
well worth the visit.
·
|
Castel Gandolfo Square
|
·
We crossed the Appian Way, still one of the
roads that lead to Rome, but nowadays just an unkempt country lane.
Friday
8: Rome to Ancona to Patras
Accommodation:
On board Minoan Lines Ferry overnight.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
Lots of trucks travelling to Greece, but not
a lot of foot passengers.
Saturday
9: Patras to Olympia.
Accommodation
Olympia: Olympia Palace Hotel.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
Patras has half a million people, but they
all seem to be sleeping this afternoon. There is an eerie, empty, derelict look
about the place, as if everyone has been sucked up into an alien space craft.
Shops are empty, closed or just deserted. Even many of the buildings have an
old, unfinished look about them, as though the residents have been gone for
years.
·
Suzanne solved part of the mystery – in
Greece, building owners pay taxes on their property only after the building is completed. There are MANY incomplete
structures in Greece; houses, hotels, shops… even the Acropolis has an
unfinished look about it. (Margaret: “Normie, the Acropolis was complete, but it has been
destroyed.” Normie: “Darling, that may be so, but it is obvious that they
haven’t rebuilt it because they don’t want to pay any taxes on it.”)
·
Olympia, a small town (population 5,000). Our
hotel is old, delightful, and, of course, unfinished. We ate our meals under a
huge covered patio, with great views of the street.
Sunday
10: Olympia to Athens
Accommodation
Athens (2 nights) : Acropolis Select Hotel.
|
Olympia
|
·
We walked 300 metres from our hotel to the
site of the ORIGINAL Olympic Games, (where the flame for the modern day games
is lit).
·
We learned that Plato was more than just a
philosopher and writer – he won three different events, including wresting, at
the Olympic Games.
·
Only men participated at the original games –
women were not allowed into the stadium even, and men competed naked. ‘Gymnasium’ is derived from the Greek
word for nudity. Thought you might like to know that.
·
Statues to Zeus and other Greek gods dotted
the grounds, and we found more relics of those ancient times in the grounds.
·
Zeus was an interesting god – one day he had
a grossly swollen head, accompanied by a splitting headache. One of the other
gods, in a spirit of helpfulness, cut his head open with an axe, and out popped
his daughter Athena, fully dressed, and with all of Zeus’ wisdom, which must
have left him fairly empty in the brain department. So, he was:
o
a) the first man ever to give birth; and
o
b) the first man ever to suffer from Alzeusheimers disease.
·
Greece is not the most attractive country for
scenery; lots of rocks, patchy mountains, and all those unfinished buildings.
Still, parts of it are very picturesque.
Monday
11: I
stayed home while Margaret and most of the others went for a cruise of the
Aegean Sea,, visiting three Greek islands along the way.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
Our hotel is in the Plaka area, just down the
hill from the Acropolis.
·
We had two great dinners in Athens, the first
a lamb and potato hot-pot-ish thingy that I found … delicious, and a meal at
the interestingly named Gods Kitchen (recommended by Lonely Planet).
·
|
Acropolis
|
Tuesday
12: Athens to Patras to Ancona.
Corinth Canal
Interesting
Stuff:
·
Patras showed much more life today, some of
it quite sad. On the slow drive to the port, seven or eight men jogged beside a
truck just ahead of us, undoing the ropes tying down the side tarpaulin. Then
four of them boarded the truck, hoping to hide among the cargo and thus get out
of Greece.
However, the customs check
all trucks and buses VERY thoroughly, and it was unlikely that anyone would
have successfully escaped.
·
Because the Greek economy is a complete
basket case at this time, and the country has very high unemployment, people
are trying to get away to somewhere, anywhere,
with a possibility of work and some semblance of a decent future. For
this reason, the customs and border screen all people wanting to leave very
closely.
·
We had expected to have delays going through
customs ourselves, but the staff, with police, were preoccupied with a young
man with a passport which was either not his, or a fake. Nobody bothered to
check our passports as we went through; at that time the policeman was asking
some heavy questions of the young man. So sad.
·
There weren’t many foot passengers, but our
ferry carried 164 trucks, at a cost of $870 Euros per truck (Jan and Jenny,
from a Polish background, gained this information from a Polish truck driver). That’s
about $1,000.00 Australian, which seems exorbitant, but, that’s what we were
told.
Wednesday
13: Ancona to San Marino
Interesting
Stuff:
·
|
San Marino
|
Thursday
14: San Marino to Venice
Accommodation
Venice: Holiday Inn Venezia.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
San Marino is one of the four smallest
countries in the world, all of which our tour has visited. The others are – The
Vatican, Monaco, and Lichtenstein.
·
The views from San Marino, set as it is atop
a very tall mountain, are spectacular!
·
We paid five Euros each to have our passports
stamped in San Marino.
·
Margaret bought a lovely leather coat that
was made in Florence.
·
Venice is spread across lots of islands, and
motor vehicles aren’t allowed on the main island. To get into the centre of the
city, we drove along several kilometres of causeway spanning water, followed by
a 40 minute water taxi trip across the lagoon, which has an area of 200 square
miles.
Friday
15: Venice
Interesting
Stuff:
- We
enjoyed our gondola ride, but some of the canals were a tad on the
·
The Bridge of Sighs is interesting, in a
melancholy sort of way. It is a raised bridge that spans a canal between what
was once the Criminal Court and the Dungeons/Execution place. In the middle is
a window, where the condemned can stop for a moment and look at Venice for the
last time.
·
We saw glass blowers blowing glass, and
Margaret bought some stuff that I am not allowed to mention in these pages.
(NO! Nothing rude! Just a couple of things to use as stocking fillers at
Christmastide).
·
We visited the island of Burano, where houses
have brightly coloured doors, a tradition begun, it is said, so that drunken
men could find their homes after a hard night’s drinking.
Saturday
16: Venice to Vienna
Accommodation
Vienna: Austria Trend Bosei Hotel.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
We stopped for lunch at a roadhouse. The
ladies’ toilet (I am told) was awash with Polish Pilgrim women, who obviously
had not stayed in accommodations with shower facilities and, according to my
informants, they had clearly not bathed/showered for some days. They had
stripped down to their knickers to wash, and to change their bras and clothes.
·
Ah, Austria! Land of pine trees, Austrians,
waltzes, great food, expensive wine (for Europe).
·
Austria has 8.3 million people, of whom 90%
are Roman Catholic. Many houses have crosses in every room, with a large one,
pointing towards Jerusalem, in the main living room.
·
1.8
million people live in Vienna.
·
Most shops in Austria are closed on Sundays,
except for restaurants and some tourist businesses. But don’t run out of corn
flakes or sugar – the supermarkets are closed.
·
Austria is 90% self-sufficient in
electricity, mostly through wind turbines (lots of wind turbines in Europe, and
also solar panels).
·
There are 900+ ski resorts in Austria.
·
We stopped for lunch at a roadhouse at
Velden, beside the magnificent Lake Worth.
·
The croissant was first made in Austria (not
France); in honour of the bakers who heard the Turks tunnelling up to invade
several centuries back, while they were doing their early morning baking.
·
Vienna is a stately, formal city; so many old
buildings, still in first class condition; so many interesting places to check
out – the Johann Strauss House; Mozart’s House; St Stephen’s Cathedral. Good
stuff!
·
We watched a charity ride by motor cyclists
through the city, thousands upon thousands of them.
·
Tonight we watched the Kursalon Waltz Show,
which featured a band, two dancers, and two singers. It was interesting in that
one of our tour party, sadly suffers from two character flaws:
o
She always
has to get her own way; and
o
She always
complains loudly about just about everything, several times a day. Tonight,
she and her husband were first to move into a row of 8 seats, and the usher
asked them to move to the end seats, which were beside the wall. She said,
loudly, “I will NOT be squashed away
in the corner!”; and sat down at the aisle end of the row. After the usher
firmly told her she would have to move along, she moved along two seats, sat
down, and refused to budge, saying again that she would not sit in the corner,
where she wouldn’t be able to see properly. Which meant that Margaret and Ada
and I had to wriggle past her, to sit in the corner where she refused to go.
Sunday
17: Vienna
Interesting
Stuff:
- Dinner
(not quite in the Viennese Woods, but close), and we had the most
enjoyable revelry, with laughter, song, and a LOT of wine. A most
hilarious evening. We danced, we sang, we ate, we drank LOTS of wine.
Before the dancing began.
·
I wrote the following piece of doggerel, the
following morning. I used poetic licence to include the people who stayed home
that night.
A Night Out in the Viennese
Woods (or Near Them)
And
he said, “The Haka looks fine.”
But
sweet little Di, with a gleam in her eye,
Cried,
“The Hokey and Pokey is mine!”
Then
George said to May, “It’s a wonderful day,
So
let’s do the Zorba for fun!”
Maureen
and Fred had been drinking the red.
And
showed how the Waltz should be done.
Then
Kath said to Sue, “I know what we should do,
So
they shimmied and then did the Twist,
And
the Brisbane boy, Craig, took a flute from his bag,
And
Roger cried, “Let’s all get ….. happy!”
Then
Margaret and Norm did the Stomp to keep warm,
While
Karen and Cliff danced the Tango;
And
Liz and Doug kissed in the evening mist,
As
Chrissy and Norm shared a mango.
Karin
said to Denise, “My soul must find some peace.”
So
they got up and both danced the Limbo;
Then
Ada joined in, and came up with a win,
And
Lee cried, “Don’t DARE call my man ‘Jimbo’!
Barbara
said to her Dave, “You’ve forgotten to shave.”
He
said, “That’s ‘cause I’m dancing the Samba!”
He
danced out to the floor, and he sambaed some more,
And
everyone shouted, “Caramba!”
Then
Jenny and John said, “It’s time to move on!”
And
began to Cha Cha in the garden,
They
bumped into a rabbit, and both tried to grab it,
But
the rabbit said, “Oops! Beg your pardon.”
Tessa
and Mila made everything clearer,
They
Flamencoed all over the floor,
Nirani
and Jayalia did the dance of the Dahlia,
Until
all of us called out for more.
Nicola
cried, “Fine! But the conga line’s mine!”
She
led us around and around.
We
drank red wine all night (except those who drank white),
And
our dancing feet hardly touched ground.
We
were having such fun, but at last it was done,
Suzanne
cried “Andiamo, my friends!”
Donato
drove us along, while we kept singing songs,
And
here is where my story ends.
Monday
18: Vienna to Innsbruck.
Accommodation
Innsbruck: Dollinger Hotel (I think we actually stayed somewhere
else this night).
Interesting
Stuff:
·
We had lunch and a walking tour at Salzburg,
where we duly admired places where scenes from The Sound of Music were filmed.
A very pretty place.
Tuesday
19: Innsbruck to Lucerne
Accommodation
Lucerne (2 nights): Ibis Styles Luzern City.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
Margaret and I thought for a moment of
leaving the tour right here, and living out our lives in this lovely old town,
with magnificent views of surrounding mountains from almost every street
corner. But Suzanne would have to spend half of the rest of her life filling
out forms to account for our
disappearance
from her tour, so we forsook our transitory dream.
·
One problem we had was the heat – Innsbruck
scorched! Jane and Steve, on their visit here some years ago, said that they
froze. So, one can only assume that Global Warming is REAL! (Some sceptics
might suggest that Jane and Steve were there in winter, and we visited during
summer, but I don’t think that could be it).
Wednesday
20: Lucerne
Interesting
Stuff:
- A
little boat ride around the lake, very scenic, very serene.
The Crying Lion Memorial, Lucerne Lucerne
·
But then! We ascended Mt. Titlis! After a
short drive to the cable car station, we sat, six per car, for the first stage
of our journey to the top. We rocked about a bit, shivered a little at the very
steep drop we see below us, until, five or so minutes later we disembarked,
with our savoir faire intact (I think that means ‘our cool’, and we certainly
were cool).
·
Then, we were herded, sheeplike, into another
cable car for stage 2. This time, there were 80 of us … standing room only. I
was held up only by the force of the people crushing me in, and permeating me
with their exotic perfumes and other aromas.
·
The
third stage, and we 80 souls were again packed into another sardine can, but
this one revolved in transit, so
that the view kept changing. I variously gained glimpses of armpits, nostrils,
a patch of snow, and old teeth.
·
At last we were atop the fearsome mountain.
But wait! For the real foolhardy, there was a chair lift to take one even
further to the top! I rushed to stand in line, but foolishly mistake the
direction, and find myself in the ice cave through the glacier. Too cool!
·
After a nourishing and expensive lunch,
(interestingly, the restaurant appears to be owned, operated and staffed by
people from India – there’s a good research project: do people from cold
countries move to warm countries to escape their home climates, and of course,
do people from hot climates emigrate to cold countries?), we ventured out onto
the snow. Just in time for the weather to close in, the rain and the snow to
start falling again. I made one little snowball, and threw it at the falling
flakes.
Thursday
21: Lucerne to Cologne
Accommodation
Cologne: Holiday Inn Airport.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
We stopped beside the Rhine River, and
cruised for an hour, passing the rock where Lorelei’s song lured sailors to
their doom; I was going to stuff my ears with cotton balls, but apparently
Lorelei had left her rock.
·
Before we cruised, we spent half an hour
wandering through the small town of Bacharach, which was just amazing. Once we
passed through the old archway into the town, we were in an authentic 17th
century town; there seemed to be no modern buildings, just narrow, winding
streets, stone bridges – I felt awed, humbled, intensely appreciative of the
opportunity to visit this gem of a village.
·
Four railway lines ran beside the river in
this area, two on each side. In the hour or so we were there, we estimated that
we saw nearly 100 trains whizz past, travelling very fast.
Friday
22: Lucerne
to Amsterdam
Accommodation
Amsterdam: NH Schiphol Hotel.
Interesting
Stuff:
·
The fun began with a combined coach/canal
boat tour of Amsterdam. The canals are three metres deep, with approximately
one metre of water, one metre of sand, and one metre of bicycles that have been
thrown into the canal.
·
Sometimes people who may be tired and
emotional after an evening at the pub drive their cars into a canal. Should you
ever do this, remember that
o
A) you won’t drown; the canals aren’t deep enough;
and
o
B) DON’T
get out of your car. If you do so, you will be charged for the recovery of the
vehicle. If you stay in the car, it becomes a rescue, and you are not charged.
·
Population of The Netherlands is 17 million,
of whom 800,000 live in Amsterdam.
·
The country has a land mass of 43,000 square
metres, with 444 people per square metre, compared to Australia which has 9
people per square metre.
·
At 8:00p.m. on May 4th each year
the entire country stops for 2 minutes, in memory of the 200,000 Dutch people
who lost their lives in World War II. May 5th is Commemoration Day.
·
We saw a house with a Dutch flag flying, and
a back pack hanging over it. This is a sign that a child of the house has
passed her/his matriculation examinations.
·
Canal houses, if ever available for purchase,
will only cost 5 million Euros and upwards, or about $7 million. However, it is
possible to buy one floor in a multi-storeyed house for between 250,000 and
400,000 Euros.
·
We checked out a famous diamond company, and
learned the four factors that influence the price of diamonds:
o
Carats
o
Colour
o
Cutting
o
Clarity
·
Bicycles have right of way over everything
else on the roads – trucks, cars, pedestrians, and they certainly take it. I
inadvertently strayed into a bicycle lane and was shoulder charged by a cyclist
who, thankfully, was riding quite slowly.
·
After our tour, Suzanne offered to take any
of us who were interested on an afternoon stroll through the Red Light District
of Amsterdam. She stressed that this was NOT
part of the Cosmos tour, and that we WOULD
see scantily dressed ladies, and very graphic photos advertising live shows.
Margaret and I went along simply as part of our cultural development education,
but, surprisingly, every other person in our happy band accompanied Suzanne on
the walk. For those interested in learning about differing cultures and
customs, I offer the following:
o
Prostitution is illegal but tolerated in The
Netherlands.
o
Each person engaged in the profession must be
registered, and must have a fortnightly health check, and must pay taxes on
their income.
o
Pimps are not allowed.
o
The ladies sit in windows on the street, on
stools, wearing fairly brief lingerie. Behind them is a curtain, behind which
is a bed, with an alarm button beside it.
o
They have the right to accept or reject
clients.
o
The minimum cost is around 35 Euros (about
$50) for ten minutes.
o
Different ethnic groups are grouped together
in different streets and laneways.
o
There are some places which provide
entertainment in the form of live shows.
o
Male sex workers were banned from the area
after it was discovered that they were attracting some of the clients/potential
clients from the women workers. They now operate through escort services.
o
Apparently the statistics relating to sex
crimes are significantly lower in this country than in others where
prostitution is illegal. (This is what we were told – I have not checked this).
·
Following this informational session, we were
given free time before dinner. Suzanne told us that, if we sat down in
restaurants or bars, it was expected we would have a meal. If however, we
simply wanted a coffee and the use of facilities, we could go to a coffee shop.
BUT, there are two types of coffee
shops. If one only wanted tea or coffee, then the place to go was a COFFEE shop. For anyone wanting coffee
and a little recreational substance to accompany the coffee, one should go
instead to a KAFFEE shop. In such
places one could purchase soft substances in the form of marijuana cigarettes,
or space cakes (cakes which included a little something to lift the spirits –
something not legally purchasable or usable in Australia) or some other form of
getting a bit of a buzz.
·
Amsterdam was a hoot, dear friends, and some
of us gathered in the hotel bar that evening to share a drink with our tour
director and each other, this being the last evening of our European tour.
Saturday
23: Amsterdam
to London
Interesting
Stuff:
·
We drove to Calais, through Belgium, boarded
the boat, arrived at Dover, and boarded another bus to take us back to the finishing
point, the Kensington Close Hotel.
A few observations (Norm) about Europe:
·
The footpaths are very wide in major streets.
Just about everybody in France speaks
French. (haha).
·
There are lots of small, winding streets
angling away from main streets.
·
LOTS of apartment buildings, and almost no
houses, in Paris, until one gets right out into the outer, outer suburbs. We
never saw one house in the city. This is similar in several other cities along
the way – Barcelona, Rome, Athens, Vienna, and Amsterdam.
·
So many buildings and statues are hundreds of
years older than the oldest houses or buildings in Australia.
·
Donato, our driver, had to stop after so many
hours of driving, for a minimum of 30 or 45 minutes, which is automatically
recorded. He also had to take several days off along the way, leaving us with a
relief driver.
·
On the major roads, there are exits to
service stations and restaurants. We stopped at many of these for morning teas,
lunches and afternoon teas.
·
The highway restaurants are similar but
different from those in Australia. There don’t seem to be any McDonalds, KFCs,
Red Roosters, Subways or Hungry Jacks in these places. Instead, there are
places called Pauls (best macaroons in the land, except the only time we
decided to have one, they didn’t have any on hand). There are also AutoGrills,
which serve standard, but interesting fare. Nice baguette type things, with ham
and cheese, or ham and tomato. In most places, there are also hot food
self-service places, and sort of convenience stores, which sell sweets, nuts,
wine, beer, chips, soft drinks, water, postcards, tacky toys and souvenirs (a
pink rubber pig that gives out a dreadful piggy sound when squeezed),
chocolates, bread, cheese and noodles.
·
The meals on our journey ranged from adequate
to good in roadhouses, and from good to excellent in hotels and on
eating/entertainment excursions.
·
People in Europe (the ones we have so far
encountered, in France, Spain, Italy and Greece) use lots of gestures and
loudness in many of their conversations.
·
There are many, many eating places, from
grubby little cafes to five star restaurants. This is because apartments are
all very small (with the exception of those owned by the very rich), most with
either one or two bedrooms, and in summer, apartments are hot and stuffy.
People sit outside until late at night, and they have coffee, wine and meals at
their local or favourite restaurants.
·
Most European hotels don’t provide tea,
coffee or jugs in the rooms. To add to this, only a few places provide teabags
at breakfast for us to make our own tea. Breakfast coffee is okay, but one’s
taste buds cry out for a nice, strong cup of tea. Coffee in roadhouses and
restaurants varies immensely in quality and quantity. Most people who live in
Europe seem to like very strong coffee in very small cups, with no or very
little milk. When I try to order bigger cups with more milk, I run into
problems. Cappuccino tends to be served in larger cups than coffee with milk, but only half is coffee, the other half
is just froth, and the coffee is half cold. When I try for Latte, I am either
told that they don’t serve it (this is coffee for wimps, is my interpretation
of the looks I get), or I get a cup of hot milk. On the rare occasions I
actually get a latte, it is, as usual, half cold.
·
To get anywhere in most cities/towns/villages
we visited, we had to do a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, (possibly because we have
a very long bus, which cannot turn into many of the narrow streets), so it was
up one road, right into another road, then another right, another left, and so
on.
·
Every day on the road, we passed thousands of
trucks travelling in both directions. When we travelled or stopped near train
lines, we saw trains about every five minutes, some passenger trains, but
mostly goods trains.
·
I think we went under more hills and
mountains than we climbed. On one day, when we crossed from France to Italy, we
travelled through 168 tunnels in the day, ranging from about 80 metres to
several kilometres. The longest tunnel we experienced in Europe was 14
kilometres long, and Suzanne told us that the absolute longest European tunnel
was 17 kilometres. Campbell Newman, eat your heart out. (For those unfamiliar
with our city of Brisbane, our Lord Mayor a few years back started a veritable
welter of tunnel-digging, but so far I think only three and a half have been
completed out of a total of four or five).
·
In Europe, on the Autobahns, there is a
Stupidity Fine in operation. Anyone stupid enough to run out of petrol has to
pay a large fine for the costs of sending out a vehicle to get them going
again. What a good idea!
Places We/I would like to visit again:
·
Paris
-
I would like to spend perhaps a week here, to wander round the Left Bank, to
view the city from atop the Eiffel Tower, to have a day at the Louvre, and to
visit the Palace at Versailles.
·
Barcelona
–
Another week at least here. There seemed to be so much to see that we left
unseen, and a lovely, casual, carefree atmosphere.
·
Sorrento
–
Again, Sorrento had a lovely, relaxed feel to it, with lots of interesting
little streets and lanes and restaurants, and I would like to go with my
darling to the Isle of Capri next time. Another week.
·
Rome
–
Here I would like to spend some time wandering through art galleries, and just
taking the pulse of the city and surrounds. Sigh. Another week.
·
Athens/Greek
Islands – You guessed it – another week here, and time to visit a
few islands, especially Hydra, where Leonard Cohen lived and wrote for several
years.
·
Vienna
–
I think Vienna deserves two weeks. So stately, so much to see, so much cultural
history here.
·
Innsbruck
–
Here is a place to reflect, rest, meditate, think for two weeks, surrounded by
magnificent mountains.
·
Lucerne
–
Another place with mountains, lots to see, and somewhere to just relax a while.
Just a week.
·
Amsterdam
–
Whilst the city is a truly fun place, there seem to be so many museums and art
galleries that I would like a week to explore the older cultural areas.
Places we didn’t visit in Europe but
would like to:
·
Germany
– Maybe
a week or two cruising along the Rhine River; and a week in Berlin.
·
Turkey
– This
country, from all accounts we have read and heard, is a fascinating place to
visit, and a week here would be nice.
·
Croatia
– Our
dear friend Mary told us that, of all the places she has visited, Croatia was
her favourite for a holiday. So we would like to spend a week there.
I
will leave our journey at this point, because, if I add more places, the dream
becomes TOTALLY impossible.
I
hope you have enjoyed all, or at least a lot, or possibly some, or maybe just a
smidgen, of this journal.
With
much warmth,
Norm
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