To Southampton

We had a mid morning flight out of Paris’ Orly Airport this morning as we flew over to the UK, to Southampton, ready for our Spanish Mediterranean Cruise tomorrow. We shared a Taxi with Ren and Willi, the other Aussies on our European Tour as they were headed for Spain today. We sure arrived at the Airport with plenty of time to spare before our flight. We flew to the UK on a Dash 8, so it was good to be able to see all the landscape and country borders as we flew out of France, across the North Sea and into the UK. Arriving at our Hotel here in Southampton at around 10:30 am, we found we were about 4 hours too early to check in, so, after storing our bags, we wandered around the shopping centres for that time, before finally getting settled in our room mid afternoon. The weather here is quite warm but the clouds are building up a tad at the moment. Hope the weather stays fine for our cruise.

We have indeed been fortunate to have had a wonderful time the past 6 weeks as we travelled, firstly around France, then on to Bucharest and the River Cruise from Bucharest to Amsterdam, then the European Adventure through Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland and back to Paris. We have enjoyed every town that we visited and everything that we have done and seen over that time. We look forward to the Ocean Cruise now as a time to unpack and relax and see some more Ports and places we haven’t been to before. Internet may be a bit of a problem on the Ship, so this may be the last ‘post’ until we get back to the UK. Time will tell. Take care everyone and thank you for taking the time to read of our travel adventures.

 Leaving France

 Over Southampton

Louvre

A slightly later start today as we got organised to go to the World Famous Louvre this morning.  The place was very crowded and it was quite hot inside, but we did get to see all the ‘must see’ exhibitions. Of course the crowds around the Mona Lisa were huge and it was pretty hard to move the Japanese away so others could see and get photos, but we managed a reasonable one. The same problem occurred when we got to the Venus De Milo, but Dave managed a good photo there too. At one stage I felt that each of my photos must have had a Japanese in every one of them.  We were glad that we had gone to the Louvre, but we certainly wouldn’t be rushing back again with the crowds the way they were. As we left the Museum, the lines to get in had blown out to an amazing long wait, so we were glad we had gone there at a reasonable time. It was crowded enough when we were in there……very hard to keep your guide in sight as all of them seem to have an umbrella held aloft.

TGV to Paris

Brendan’s 15^th Birthday! Off early again today as we had to reach Lausanne in time to catch the Very Fast Train to Paris this morning. We travelled along Lake Geneva, known as “The Swiss Riviera”, and reached Lausanne, the home of the International Olympic Committee, with time to spare to catch the train. The train ride was very nice, taking around 4 hours from go to whoa. We arrived in Paris around lunchtime and were met by a local tour guide who took us for a tour around the sights of Paris. We stopped at Notre Dame for people to go in and have a look, then we went on to the Eiffel Tower where we went up to the 2^nd Level for some lovely birds eye views all over Paris. It was rather crowded up there though, so we were glad that we had been up a couple of weeks ago as it wasn’t as crowded then.

Zermatt

Awoke to a drizzly day, but not to be daunted, we caught the train, Europe’s highest ‘rack’ railway at 3130 metres high to Gornergrat, for some really breathtaking views.  The views of snow covered mountains with glaciers and deep crevices had to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately the persistent mist prevented us from seeing the top of the Matterhorn, but we did see quite a way up, and it was a wonderful experience. There was a Swiss Orienteering Event on about half way up the track with hundreds of people competing in the freezing cold…..mad, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. Meeting up with the tour group, we then continued on the road again heading to Lake Geneva, through the Rhone Valley and on to Montreux where we spent the night.

Isola Bella

Having to leave the Hotel at 7:45 am this morning, no one appreciated the fact the breakfast room was late opening and the food was gone within minutes. Heading towards Milan, we hit heavy rain about an hour out of Venice.  Then there was a problem with the bus, so we had to pull over and wait for a mechanic to arrive. The problem fixed, we continued towards Stressa on Lake Maggiore. Here we visited the Island of Isola Bella with the Borromea Palace and the lovely gardens. Rain continued whilst we were here so we did end up getting a wee bit wet. From here we travelled on towards Zermatt, Switzerland, reaching the lofty Simplon Pass with its highest point at 2005 Metres as we passed more incredible scenery. When we reached Tasch, Switzerland, we caught a train up to Zermatt where we stayed for the night in a typical Swiss Chalet type Hotel, sloping floor and all.