TripTracker.net - Western Europe 2010, Lucca, I am your father

Prologue: Tribute to the SWC South Africa 2010!D-Day: A beginning Eastfield to Istandbul: Grumpyness at 30000ft Turkish shuttle Istanbul by day Istanbul by night Long walk to freedom Lisbon walking tour Discovering Lisbon Exploring Sintra Fado’s night out The rain in Spain falls mainly on my brain A day in medieval Toledo Madrid on a Sunday Flamenco por una buena causa To Barcelona Barcelona! Barcelona!Gaudi in the morning Olympic in the afternoon Chilling in Barcelona La Rambla To Nice A Nice night Relax, take it Eze Monaco in an afternoon Chilling in Nice To Venice Our first day in Venice The attempt at Venice night photos The second day in Venice The last night in Venice The Farewell Frenzy in Firenze Exploring Florence Conquering the Dome Conquering the Torra Lucca, I am your father Picnic in Pisa A day in Pisa When in Rome…Ancient scorching Rome Welcome to Naples (and its crazy traffic)A day in Capri Ancient scorching Pompeii To Santa Fortunata Chilling in Sorrento Back to Rome Aida and the catacombs The Vatican in a flash The End

jnroux

Western Europe 2010

Lucca, I am your father

Rating:

Jul 8 2010, 09:35 AM

10 photos

Embed trip View in Google Earth Rss news about this trip GPX Track

Traveler

jnroux
Somerset West, South Africa

Journal

Location

Lucca, Italy

Click to view large map

We had breakfast just after 8:00, quickly walked to the central train station and since we had an open train tickets, we could catch the 8:57 train to Pisa. When we got to the information centre in Pisa, we saw a notice indicating that there is a National train and bus strike in Italy on the 9th of July! Hence, we would not be able to travel to Siena the next day! For the next two hours we were in a bit of a panic. We had to cancel our Siena bookings (24 hours before the time), find a place to sleep in Pisa for the next night and find our Guesthouse, all while dealing with stubborn Italians that does not understand a word of English. In the end we managed to do all of this with some help from Aleanddro, a very friendly guy from the information centre near the train station! Grazie Aleanddro, Grazie! Luckily we managed to get accommodation in the same guesthouse for the next night and we decided to travel out of Pisa, since the next day we would be forced to walk everywhere. We decided on Lucca and when we got to the correct bus stop we were about 40 minutes early. We waited in the shade in front of a convent. The bus trip to Lucca has amazing scenery… really “plattelands.” Almost like driving through and around Villiersdorp (in South Africa). When we arrived in Lucca we got a map from information and started to walk. Lucca is basically like a big medieval mall, but without taverns selling wild boar and blacksmiths selling double-handed swords. The shops are fancy and expensive and the tourist route they suggest is not actually the best road to walk (I assume Italians have other needs/taste when it comes to scenery). Again, I did not sense a strong force of friendliness… (they can learn from us South Africans!).

Photos

Show all photos (552)

Comments

No comments

	50. The End Jul 17 2010, 05:26 PMCape Town, South Africa4 photos Our flight in Istanbul was delay by 1 hour and 45 minutes AND our aircraft dated out of the 70s. No in-flight entertainment, warn-out chairs and very shaky (physically shaking) overhead compartments. Regardless of these things, we were still going home and it felt good. There was a lot of Afrikaans...

	49. The Vatican in a flash Jul 17 2010, 09:56 AMCape Town, South Africa11 photos For our last day in Rome we decided to visit the Vatican Museum, since we did not get to visit it during our previous trip to Rome (refer to Journal entry 41). Fortunately the closest Metro to the Vatican was also on our Metro line and we were “there” at about 8:55. We then stood in the longest...

	48. Aida and the catacombs Jul 16 2010, 02:46 PMRome, Italy9 photos Our first mission for the day (besides the getting to Rome part) was to see the catacombs and the second to watch Aida at the Baths of Caracalla. On our way to the bus station we saw our first accident in Italy (really a surprising first considering the way they drive). I heard a hard sound and...

Username:
Password:
Remember me