Western Europe 2010

Prologue: Tribute to the SWC South Africa 2010! @ Greenpoint Stadium, South Africa

2010-06-11T12:41:12.000Z

I'll start this trip journal with an entry about my country, South Africa, since we are hosting the biggest sporting event in the world (i.e. the Soccer World Cup) and we are proud of it! Riana, Lida and I arrived at Century City's park & drive where we met Jouba, Lize & Jacqueline and practised our Vuvuzela a bit. For uninformed readers, the Vuvuzela is a South African soccer fan instrument that looks like this: ======<() It is louder than a chainsaw at 127 decibels... awesome! From the park & drive we travelled via a shuttle bus to the new Century City Metro station. Unfortunately we just missed the 13:08 train and had to wait an hour for the next train. That gave Riana, Lize and Jacqueline time to practice the Diski dance. The train trip to Cape Town was enjoyable and everyone had a lot of GEES! From the Cape Town station I took my first ever taxi "trip" to the V&A Waterfront! What a great experience: cheap (R3.50) and quick (4min15sec). A 100% improvement when compared to, hmmm, let's call it my previous taxi interactions. At the Waterfront we were "lucky" to find a seat at a (not so cheap) restaurant: the Greek Fisherman. The plan was to watch the Bafana Bafana vs Mexico game here... however their DSTV setup malfunctioned during our national anthem and the Greek Fisherman did not care! NOT SO AJOBA! At this stage desperate times required desperate measures! For some reason the security guard at the Vodashop let us pass and we basically invaded their floor space... they had a nice LCD. After Tsabalala's goal the Vodashop employee's and customers united and there was (again) a lot of GEES! After the Bafana game we made our way towards the Green point stadium. Unfortunately, everyone arrive at the (smaller) side gates at the same time and it took us at least an hour to get in! We met up with King Attie and his two Vuvuzela's. Thereafter there was a lot of awesomeness: (1) the stadium was awesome (lots of pretty lights and fancy cameras), (2) our seats were awesome (11th row from the front), (3) the GEES was awesome (especially the Mexican-wave as performed by a crowd of 64100), (4) the hot-chocolate was awesome (thanks Lida) and finally (5) the score was awesome (France 0, Uruguay 0). That means that Bafana Bafana is now on top of the log in Pool A! AJOBA! After the game we decided to walk back to the Cape Town station (about 8km according to Lida... about 2.4km in reality). We took the train back to Century City and the Polo back home. And that concludes this prologue: WE FELT IT, WE WERE THERE!

D-Day: A beginning @ Eastfield, South Africa

2010-06-20T08:58:06.000Z

Departure-Day has arrived and today we will leave the chilly but vibrant Cape Town for a West European summer holiday! The last few days have become increasingly gloomy after Bafana lost to “Urucry” on Wednesday (and unfortunately we can’t really blame Jabulani or the Vuvuzelas… I’ll blame the guy with the aliceband and his cry-baby teammates). Luckily I was cheered up yesterday by the Springboks’ win over Italy and the three 100s by the Proteas! Go AB (6 x sixes)! So I think we have everything ready. Three bags weighing in at 20kg, 6kg and 5kg, our phones on sms roaming, cash passport loaded with Euros and the cameras ready to role. Moemf is taking us to the airport at 13:00 and then it begins. A sound rise above the Green Point stadium causing a funny drift of a random Jabulani. The sound is not the beginning. There are no beginnings nor endings to the sound of the Vuvuzela. But it is a beginning… (I will be reading Robert Jordan during the trip)

Eastfield to Istandbul: Grumpyness at 30000ft @ Cape Town Airport, South Africa

2010-06-20T13:56:21.000Z

After a short and painless trip from our Eastfield townhouse to the airport (thank you Leon), we booked in to fly Turkish Airlines for the first time. We found out that we had pretty decent pre-booked seats: an isle and a window seat basically above the wing (my parents got the seats behind us). Unfortunately, shortly after departure, our situation took a turn for the worse when we realised that we could not play any movie or listen to any album on our online entertainment console. The air hostess’ understood very little English and were grumpy at best! They tried to restart our consoles a few times and then just started to ignore us when it did not work. During our stopover at Jo-burg they updated the software and managed to break the consoles of even more passengers! They got grumpier, the passengers got grumpier and the bad ventilation in the aircraft helped to get everybody’s temperature up… all and all a lot of unfriendliness and grumpyness. Sleep was also not that sweet since the reading lights of passengers kept switching on and off automatically while making a loud “bing” sound. However, after a Famous Grous or two and some French red-wine I felt a bit better. And when the first light of a beautiful day lit up the mosque towers of Istanbul I felt a whole lot better…

Turkish shuttle @ Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey

2010-06-21T07:35:40.000Z

We touched down in Istanbul at 6:08 (5:08 South African time) and were immediately confused by people transferring and changing from one unnamed queue to the next. We bought 4 visas for $15 each and after moving through a longish queue we went through passport control without any incidents. At the Turkish Hotel Desk (next to Starbucks) we found some more unenthusiastic Turkish people who explained to us that we cannot get a free tour and a free hotel… so, since we have to sleep somewhere, we took the hotel option. After exchanging some US Dollars for Turkish Lire a shuttle picked us up. The shuttle took us for quite a ride… let’s call it a free roller coaster. I would not recommend renting a car and driving in Istanbul if you are not Turkish AND not lucky. I got flashbacks from our honeymoon in Mosambique when working with these Turkish people. Although you cannot understand them and don’t get any documentational prove of anything, you are forced to trust them blindly and pray a lot in the process. Nevertheless, in the end everything always seems to work out fine. We arrived at our 4 star hotel, All Seasons Hotel, in good time. We dropped all our bags off and then the real tour began…

Istanbul by day @ Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey

2010-06-21T09:26:23.000Z

The closest Metro station to us was Finikizafe (about 200m from our Hotel) and here a friendly young Turkish dude helped us to purchase 4 red tokens (Jotens) at 1.5 TL each. Our first stop was the Saltana Ahmed Mosque (the Blue Mosque), the largest mosque in Istanbul. We did not enter since there were too many people. We then walked over to the Hagia Sophia Museum/Mosque where my dad bought a yellow “mielie” which did not taste too good (not a South African Mielie). Thereafter we made our way to Basillica Cistern where we took beautiful photographs! My mother started to talk to a Turkish guy who then took us to his house and tried to sell us a Turkish Carpet. He gave us apple tea and after a long sales pitch (in which the price of the carpet was reduced from 900 Euros to 500 Euros) we had to basically escape from his house (MENTAL NOTE: do not talk to overly friendly Turkish people). We then followed the tram-line by foot. We thought the name of the tramline was “DIKKAT” (fat cat) and thought it was quite ironic since there were a lot of skinny rouge cats everywhere! However, we later found out that DIKKAT means WARNING in Turkish! We walked through a couple of beautiful smaller streets and met an artist who gave my mother one of his pictures. We also bought a beautiful something for someone back in South Africa. Thereafter we walked through a park next to the Topkapi Palace towards the sea, up to a place where we could see the Galata Tower. From the harbour front we travel back to the Blue Mosque to eat a SMEET and then travelled to the Grand Basaar. The Grand Basaar is the biggest mall I have every seen, a dream for some woman, a night-mare if you were in our state of tiredness… We went back to All Seasons for a brief nap.

Istanbul by night @ Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey

2010-06-21T18:16:19.000Z

The heat has now reduced to under 35 degrees and we took the train to Sultana Ahmed station again. There was a “friendship” show at the amphitheatre where we could check out the local talent (we also saw the Turkish doubles of Nicholes Louw and Rina Hugo… yeah). We had dinner at a street cafe where we all ate chicken schwarma pitas. We also had some ice-cream while we walked over to the big obelisks next to the Sultan Ahmed mosque. We went to the mosque for a few night photos and my mother started to talk to a Turkish guy again! He is an Imaan at the mosque and started to tell us everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) about the mosque. We then went inside the mosque. We took our shoes off and my mother and Riana had do put on the appropriate cloths. Afterwards the Imaan asked us for money… a quite uncomfortable situation (SECOND MENTAL NOTE: do not even make eye contact with overly friendly Turkish people). Finally we bought a 2l coke and chocolate for a late night snack and then went to bed!

Long walk to freedom @ Lisbon, Portugal

2010-06-22T14:44:30.000Z

Nothing exciting happened this morning: (1) we had breakfast at All Seasons (good, not great), (2) we had another roller coaster ride back to the airport and (3) we had a pleasant flight to Lisbon (this flight actually had very friendly staff… luckily not the over-friendly type). We landed in Lisbon at about 13:32 and after a long walk to freedom (the airport is under renovation) we met our first Portuguese. I decided to take a sample of 3 x Portuguese to measure there friendliness (in comparison to the Turkish). The passport control guy was extremely friendly, the Help Desk woman was ok (lets call her not friendly for the purposes of this exercise) and the Aerobus guy was again extremely friendly. That is, we determined that the Portuguese are very friendly and jovial (much better than the Turkish) and their city is much cleaner and more beautiful than Istanbul! And that is exactly why I came here for my second summer holiday this year! I LOVE EUROPE IN THE SUMMER!

Lisbon walking tour @ Lisbon, Portugal

2010-06-22T18:32:55.000Z

At the Yes! Hostel we were also greeted by extreme friendly Portuguese. Here we watched the second half of the Bafana Bafana game and we won! I also got a complementary beer from the Yes! staff… AWESOME! Then we set out to explore Lisbon by foot. Again we followed a tram line (line 28) towards the Castle in the centre of Lisbon (Castel De Sao Jorge). On the way we found and visited Se Cathedral which is also in the Alfama region of Lisbon. The castle is beautiful and provided us with beautiful views of the city. However, we had to climb a few hundred steps. Unfortunately we could not visit the Tower of Ulysses because tours to the tower are only until 17:00 every day. From there we walked to the Graca region and then took Tram 28 back to the hostel. From the hostel we set out towards Rossi square to find a supermarket and dinner. On our way we stumbled upon Santa Justa’s Elevator (designed by Gustuv Eiffel’s apprentice)! At the supermarket we bought bread, cheese, shaved ham and 2l Portuguese Cola for 5 Euro and then went up the elevator for free using our Aerobus tickets. On the way back to the hostel shaky mob/gangster dudes tried to sell me hashish… 11 times! I would just like to say something to all the Portuguese gangsters… NO THANK YOU!

Discovering Lisbon @ Lisbon, Portugal

2010-06-23T11:49:56.000Z

We started the morning with an awesome Yes! Hostel breakfast, which included Milo cereal and real orange juice. We then took Tram 15 to Belem area of Lisbon. We stopped at quite an impressive statue of an unknown man and thereafter walked towards the “Monument to the Discoveries.” We decided that it would not be worth paying to go up in the monument since there was still a lot of early morning haziness (smog). We move on to the most well known tower in Belem… the Belem tower. We bought dual tickets here: (1) to go into the tower and (2) to visit the Jeronimos Monastery (not at all like the Geronimo’s Spur in George). After going through the tower and taking countless pictures of pretty ships through arcs we started to make our way back to Monastery with an ice cream in hand. The Monastery was absolutely breathtaking… it must have taken years and years (or a lot of slaves) to carve all that detail from rock/marble. From the monastery we walked to the Pastries of Belem and then took Tram 15 back to the hostel. The tram was extremely warm (and we almost fried)… from here the saying that we now use: “SO WARM SOOS TREM 15”! After the near death experience we bought food for the night and next afternoon at the small supermarket near Rossi Square. We then searched for a park to have a picnic supper. We first walked a few unnecessary circles and then walked into the Underground Metro only to realise that it was not worth travelling that way. From there we walked pass Rossio Square into the Bairro Alto area, found a small park opposite the Lisbon Voluntary Fire-fighting department (they had bright neon orange fire trucks) and enjoyed our picnic. Finally, we strolled back down one of the walking streets and my mother made eye contact with a local… needless to she bought a double tile picture of the famous Tram 28 (which runs to the castle… not tram 15). During the walk back I was only offered Hasish three times and Cocaine once. I suppose my long beard and South African looks makes me a criminal?

Exploring Sintra @ Sintra, Portugal

2010-06-24T11:35:29.000Z

The morning we got up “early” and had breakfast at 8:00. We then walked to Rossio Station to buy a return ticket to Sintra (and back). I expected the country side on the trip to Sintra to be more beautiful… however we were travelling among wared down flats for most of the way. In Sintra we bought round trip tickets on Bus 434 (which takes you to all the tourist attractions we were planning to go to). The historic centre of the city is compact and beautiful and here we visited the Sintra National Palace which has the ugliest towers I have every seen on any castle/palace/house. We made some time to buy two traditional snacks at the famous Piriquita. The snacks are called Travesseiros (very sweet but njammie) and Queijada (basically tastes like pancake). From there we walked to the most awesome (awe inspiring, super cool, etc.) garden and summer get-away I have ever seen: the Regaleira Palace and Gardens. My English is not lekker enough to describe this place, it has: beautiful trees, fountains, mountains, sculptures, towers and flowers, as well as awesome secret passage ways and tunnels everywhere through the garden and into the cathedral and palace! For some of these tunnels you need a flash light and one of them is behind a waterfall… like in the movies. AWESOME! The inside of the palace is not that impressive (a too formal museum feel) but it had a floating library… mirrors all around the bottom and it looked like it was floating in the air (it felt like something from Harry Potter). From here we took Bus 434 to the Moorish Castle. My parents decided to not pay the entrance fee and strolled around outside the walls of the Castle. Riana and I went in and walked all along the castle walls. There were a lot of stairs, but the view was worth the pain. Our last stop on the circle route was the Pena National Palace. We only paid to go into the gardens and misjudged its size. After a long day of walking, the things to see (whatever they were) were to far apart and we ended up only taking a few photos of the palace and returning back to Bus 434. Finally we travelled back from Sintra station to Rossio station in Lisbon… a very welcome rest after a day of medieval exploration!

Fado’s night out @ Lisbon, Portugal

2010-06-24T22:41:52.000Z

We decided to do the traditional thing in Lisbon our final night… Fado! First, we walked to Miradouro Sao Pedro de Alcantara… I guess this means “Place with great view,” because from there we had a very nice view of Lisbon. We then walked to the Bairro Alto region and went into a Fado restaurant. We ordered Monseraz, a local white wine, and while looking through the menu Jose Manuelle (and two very good guitarists) performed some Fado. Fado is basically a person singing very passionately in Portuguese led by (in our case) an acoustic guitar a Portuguese guitar. According to Wikipedia: “Fado (Portuguese: destiny, fate) is a music genre which can be traced from the 1820s in Portugal. In popular belief, fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor.” Riana ordered a traditional Portuguese dish cod-fish and I order one of there house specialities: Coffee-Steak! This was basically a minute steak drifting in a cream and coffee sauce… very delicious! After Jose, we also had Fado performances by Maria Portugal (I assume this is her stage name) and Catherina. After a very enjoyable Fado experience we walked back through the busy streets of Lisbon and walked into a very vibey Yes! hostel. Here we had Ginga (like Ninja) shots… very tasty shots with cherries as base. Sleep came quickly after this…

The rain in Spain falls mainly on my brain @ Madrid, Spain

2010-06-25T20:00:12.000Z

I shaved my beard this morning to make sure I do not run into any Spanish gangsters tonight. We then had our final Yes! breakfast and bought an Aerobus ticket again. When we boarded the bus the Australian with us almost fell victim to a pick-pocket… he noticed what they were doing just in time and formally said: “I would not like you to do that!” From Lisbon we took our first Easyjet flight and it was not bad at all. Except for the fact that we were delayed for 45 minutes because of a French strike (probably because their team lost, hehe)… and we thought it only happens in South Afirca. We lost another hour during the flight (because of time lines) and we are now back on South African time. In Madrid we met Janno (our personal metro guide). We may also use him in situations where German is required (not sure what kind of situations we are talking about here). We bought 3-day tourist metro tickets, ensuring that we can travel anywhere for free on the metro during our stay in Madrid. We then made our way to Hostel Luis Velez… or like we like to call it “Huis Luis.” They did not have the rooms that we booked available, so we were upgraded to rooms with en-suite bathrooms! However, we were told that we have to switch rooms the next day. The Hostel is nice and tidy, but the staff is a bit grumpy and scaly-looking. It was already quite late in the day and we decided to buy food at a Supermarket that Janno found earlier the day. While we were in the Supermarket is suddenly started to rain (it gave me the feeling of a typical Pretoria thunder storm in the summer). After an abrupt stop of the storm, we walked to Palacio Real and had some cheese burgers (with Kagiso patties) and Spanish Free-way Coke on the stairs. Since everyone was watching the Spanish-Chili SWC game, we had Madrid to ourselves. From here we walked to Plaza de Oriente and thereafter to Plaza Santa Domingo. We browsed through a number of shops and Riana bought the most beautiful bracelet… apparently you can only buy them in Madrid or New York! Then it started raining, and raining, and raining… the rain in Spain does not only stay on the plain. Janno bought us three umbrellas and we ran for our lives. Luckily we made it to the Hostel with the essential things dry(ish)…

A day in medieval Toledo @ Toledo, Spain

2010-06-26T11:41:51.000Z

After a late night of running through the rain we over-slept a bit and had to hurry to get Janno at the Metro at 8:30. After packing everything in haste and 10 minutes of trying to talk to the Huis Luis staff member, he said that we can leave our stuff in the same rooms for the whole day! These guys are really a bit weird and we dubbed them the “Lae Luise.” We eventually linked-up with Janno at 9:00 and walked towards Plaza Manor, the main tourism information center in Madrid. They only opened at 9:30 and after a short wait we got the information we needed to go to Toledo. We travelled to Toledo by Renfe speed train in 30 minutes. In Toledo we had Riana’s split personally, Adriana, as a tour guide! She led us through the streets of medieval Toledo and took us to the main attractions of the city: (1) Plaza Zocodover, (2) the Catedral, (3) Iglesia de Sto Tome, (4) Iglesia de Eos Jesuitas San Ildefonso and (5) Museo de Santa Cruz (where we went in for free). I’ve got no idea what these Spanish words mean (only Adriana knows), but it is basically a lot of very old impressive looking buildings. Other interesting things we saw included: (1) a very nice collection of El Greco painting which included the 12 disciples and Jesus, (2) a pregnant bride and (3) a sad-looking woman playing a weird-looking instrument. O-yes, after a while Janno got a bit annoyed with Adriana and his split personally took over… angry German Hanz. From Toledo we took the bus back to Madrid… a 50 minute drive for half the price of the train. From the Plaza Eliptica train station we went into the metro and travelled to Sol plaza. We walked down to the Lope de Vega theatre which we used as hiding from the rain the previous night and bought tickets for a Flamingo show for tomorrow night! Afterwards we split up with Janno, visited the supermarket and went back to Huis Luis. Here we were told that we can stay in the same rooms for the remainder of our stay in Madrid… good luis. For the remainder of tonight I took some time to get this travel log up to date… (wonder if there is someone out there reading this)

Madrid on a Sunday @ Madrid, Spain

2010-06-27T09:14:27.000Z

This morning we got up at 9:00, had fruit and shaky yoghurt for breakfast and met up with Janno just before 10:00. We jumped on the metro and first up was Plaza del Toro, the Madrid bull-ring --- third largest and most famous bull-ring in the world! We went for a guided tour through the arena and actually walked out into the ring itself… awesome experience. Luckily there were no bulls in there with us, but for safety I did not ware my red shirt. However, we were told that the bulls are colour-blind! So I think a motionless person is a safe person; given that the original charge is not in your direction of course. From here we took the metro to Parque del Buen Retiro (the largest park in Madrid). We found a whole symphonic orchestra playing and we sat on two benches facing each to have lunch (very njammie wraps Riana made in the Huis Luis kitchen). Check out Riana’s new Bollywood shades that Janno bought her… she left her sunglasses on the Easyjet to Madrid! After lunch we explored the park a bit: (1) fed the crazy fish of Estanque dam (they basically eat anything you throw at them), (2) checked out a Zen woman doing Zen moves near Palacio de Cristal and (3) stumbled upon an open-air gym, where an 80+ year old man was doing ab-crunches… amazing! When we walked out of the park we could see the train station we would leave from the next day (on our way to Barcelona): Estacion de Atocha. From here we walked down Passeo del Prado, past Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, the Museu del Prado and Museu Thyssen, and finnaly stopped at Huis Luis for a well-earned siesta. OLE! At 18:00 we hit the streets again in search of lunch. Since it was Sunday no supermarkets were open and we walked to Plaza Mayor in search of Chocolateria San Gines. Here we bought Chocolate con Churros (a cup of melted chocolate and donut-like sticks to dip into the chocolate). After all he sweetness we took the Metro back to Huis Luis in preparation of Flamenco night!

Flamenco por una buena causa @ Madrid, Spain

2010-06-27T21:21:32.000Z

At 21:00 we were all dressed and ready to go to the Flamenco show, with various artists (as we were told). We arrived at Theatro Lope De Vega a bit early and had very delicious Latte Coffees at the Starbucks opposite the theatre. We were all seated by 20:30, but the show only started at 20:45. What a surprising show… a lot of awesome Spanish guitar, good and not so good singers and as a grand finale a flamingo dancer (dancing in a neatly cut suite) and a very passionate flamingo dancing man (they called him the Meastro). Or actually, we only thought it was the Grand Finale! After the dances the whole family started to perform… guitars improvising, microphone passed from one singer to the next and random people doing random flamingo moves. Needless to say, the show only finished at 1:30 and we got to bed at 2:00. After looking at the name of the show again, it all made sense: Flamenco for a good cause.

To Barcelona @ Barcelona, Spain

2010-06-28T11:21:27.000Z

We left Huis Luis at 10:45 and met Janno at the Metro at 11:00. Something was wrong (we later found out that Metro line 4 was out of order) and our train arrived late and was already full! We decided to push in/through, whatever you want to call it. In the end, my father had to pull Riana from inside, Janno had to push her from the outside and he was eventually left outside (and forced to take the next train). At the station we linked up with Janno again and boarded one of the trains that Janno’s company built. They are very comfortable with huge windows to admire the beautiful Spanish country-side at 300km/h! We arrived in Barcelona at 15:30 and bought a metro train ticket with 10 trips loaded. They are very nice, since they can be used by multiple people (i.e. all of us). When we entered the Metro it felt like the good old days when the whole Dagbreek illegally went into the Stellenbosch library use a single person’s student card. Our hostel (or in this case guesthouse) was again chosen wisely… near the historic centre of the city. At 16:00 we booked into Pelayo Studios guesthouse (like a wise man once said: don’t touch me on my studio!). We were welcomed by a Chinese dude (he can’t be older than 16) who was really friendly and could actually understand English (a huge improvement over the “lae luise” of Huis Luis). We removed all unnecessary stuff from our bags and got ready to explore Barcelona…

Barcelona! Barcelona! @ Barcelona, Spain

2010-06-28T17:12:00.000Z

We started our exploration by walking down the most well known and vibrant street in Barcelona, La Rambla. We went into a very nice supermarket to buy some food for launch/supper, but could not get anything take-away-enough. Consequently we took the next best option… sharing a Burger King XXL Cheese and Bacon Burger. First stop in Barcelona was the Barcelona Cathedral and Riana had to borrow my mother’s white rain jacket to cover her shoulders before she was allowed in. The second stop was suppose to be the Picasso museum, but when we got there it was closed (the museum is only closed on Mondays… why?). The third stop was the Maria del Mar Church that we accidentally stumbled upon. After that Riana was on a mission to find her first park and we found Parc de la Ciutadella. It has a very beautiful fountain where we chilled out and took photos. When Riana and I walked up the stairs to photograph the view, we walked into a photo shoot of a nude model! Needless to say we did not get any photos of the real view (and the steal photo I took is not appropriate to put unto this family blog… but I have evidence). From the park we made our way into the oldest residential area of Barcelona: Barceloneta. We walked through Barceloneta and unto the closest beach to the centre of Barcelona. I put my feet in the water and was happy… Finally, we made our way back to the Hostel via La Rambla and quickly stopped at the Supermarket again to buy breakfast and lunch for the next day.

Gaudi in the morning @ Barcelona, Spain

2010-06-29T09:37:51.000Z

This morning we were ready at 9:00 and walked a scenic route to admire Gaudi’s architecture: Casa Batllo and Casa Mila (La Pedrera). Casa Lex Punxes (also known as The House of Points) was also on our route; but not a Gaudi creation. After putting on a number of walking miles we arrived at the most well known building in Barcelona: Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. You basically go in at the back and I was very disappointed with the modern/block-like sculpture of the church. Later I found at that the façade at the back is called the Passion Façade and was not designed by Gaudi, but by some other architect Joseph Maria (I shall call him Poepies) who tried to bring his own style into the equation. Something that he did build into the church, which is very cool, is a number of magic squares. The sum of any of the rows or columns or diagonals of the square adds to 33 (the age of Jesus when he was crucified). Otherwise the church is still under construction everywhere and you can’t really take a picture of anything without having a construction worker, crane or scaffolding in your picture. The nativity façade in the front was at least built while Gaudi was still alive and is very beautiful. The church is planned to be finished in 2030 and should be very impressive if everything goes according to plan. After the visit to the Sagrada Familia we were on a mission to find our next park… one with buildings designed by Gaudi: Park Guell. What we did not know is that you had to climb a mini-mountain to get to the park! Luckily we found some open-air elevators to help us halfway up, but it was still a tough walk. In the park we had some lunch and took photographs of the strange Gaudi creations (his building looks like something out of a fairytale). Finally we headed back home, unfortunately the nearest Metro was 1.2km away (luckily downhill this time).

Olympic in the afternoon @ Barcelona, Spain

2010-06-29T15:51:23.000Z

Before we could feel Olympic Riana and I took the Metro to Barceloneta station and walked to Saint Sebastian beach for a siesta between 2:00 and 4:00. There were a lot of people, but nothing active happening like soccer or touchies (I wish). The most active thing people did was to take their clothes off and to later put it back on again (if they felt like it). Tanning topless may sound like a lot of fun, but there are a lot of scary woman that you have to avoid to not be scarred for life! After the siesta we linked up with Janno and my parents and we took the metro and then the funicular (basically an automated metro that travels upwards) to go up Montjuic. The funicular leaves every 10 minutes and we would have just missed it if it was not for two German guys who held the doors open for us (Janno could at least thank them in German for us). After we were taken half way up the mountain by the funicular, we took a cable car to reach the castle/ford at the top of the mountain. From the top we had a beautiful 360 view of Barcelona and the modern harbour. We took the cable cars down again and went to the Olympic stadium. Luckily for the egos of the Olympic walkers they were not practicing, since they would have been found wanting against the top fit walkers in my company. Finally we took the funicular down again and took the Metro back home. Riana made us some delicious spaghetti-bolognaise which we enjoyed with some white wine. We also had mini magnums for desert (tnx Janno!).

Chilling in Barcelona @ Toulon, France

2010-06-30T11:37:32.000Z

We slept late this morning and only got moving at about 10:00. We investigated the options of Montserat and Girona as excursions for the day, but it did not seem to be worth the money; we decided to stay in Barcelona. We walked into a store (like Game but with 8 floors) and explored the toy division! The LEGO was, of course, the best part of the store and they had an awesome pirate ship, prince of Persia castle and even the Deathstar! Coming out of the store we just saw scooters everywhere. It seems that scooters are to Barcelona what bicycles are to Amsterdam. I am just not sure how they dispose of them when they get old… there is no canal to throw them into. From here we took the Metro to Plaza del Toro to check out the Bull-ring in Barcelona and then walked via the Spanish version of the Arc de Triomph to Parc de la Ciutadella where we had lunch. After lunch we went to the Picasso Museum. His story was quite interesting and it seems that he only got crazy (and started drawing the pictures that anyone would recognise as a “Picasso”) late in his career. After the museum it was time for a siesta!

La Rambla @ Toulon, France

2010-06-30T17:54:08.000Z

For our last night in Barcelona we decided to explore La Rambla (in detail) for a last time. We bought a number of small souvenirs at the countless stalls set up all along La Rambla and were entertained by a number of street performers. The performer that really stood out was a guy, all dressed in gold, that posed as “a golden statue that moves.” His expressions were really excellent and Janno spared him a Euro or two. The artists that painted using only spray paint and some iron tools were also impressive. We also walked into a huge fruit/spice market called St Joseph La Baqueria. All the fruit and spices looked wonderful and we bought 2 tubs of mixed fruit for 2 euros and 100% fruit juice (very delicious). The fruit was not that good and the Dragon fruit was the strangest looking fruit I have every seen (check out the photo of Riana eating a slice). After eating the shaky fruit we sat down at a street restaurant and ordered 1.5l of ice cold Sangria! It tasted awesome! We also ordered a pizza as filler on the side. And that concludes our Barcelona and Spain experience… OLE!

To Nice @ Toulon, France

2010-07-01T08:07:44.000Z

This morning we packed everything and it seems that our bags are getting smaller (we haven’t even bought anything big). We greeted Janno and he gave us a bottle of champagne his hotel gave him the previous night when Spain beat Portugal in the top-16 of the SWC. The train we boarded in Barcelona looked like something out of the 70s, my mother called it the “melktrein” (milk-train). See the old curtain behind Riana in the picture. The landscape outside was beautiful… apparently it is one of the most beautiful routes that one can travel by train. My mother took a countless number of photos and we joked that we would be able to watch a movie of our trip by watching her photos in quick succession. At Portbou we went over the border into France and we had a scary passport check in the train by 4 guys dressed as civilians. At least they had police badges with them and they did not have any problem with our visas. Just for interest sake, the stations in France that we stopped at were recorded by my mother as follows: Perpignan, Narbonne, Beziers, Shelberri, Marseille, St Charles, Toulon, Les Arcs-Draguignnan, Saint Raphael, Vales Cure, Cannes and Antibes. At Toulon the train stopped and a message over the intercom (in French) made the French passengers unhappy. Later we found out that something was wrong with the rail, but nobody new what, and our train was delayed by 50 minutes. To top it all, we were in coach 15 and the air-conditioning was broken! From here the new saying: “so warm soos wa 15” (because it was actually warmer than tram 15 in Lisbon). Riana also lost her second pair of sun-glasses this holiday (the pair that Janno bought her). After a semi-tiring day we arrived in Nice at about 19:40.

A Nice night @ Nice, France

2010-07-01T21:02:01.000Z

We found our Guest House (Nice Home Sweet Home) quite easily and were greeted by Filip (the husband to the boss of the house: Genevieve). He gave us a map, explained where the nearest supermarket is, and we were off to explore Nice and get some supper (since we missed lunch). After searching for a while, we realised that either Filip’s English or his direction is not that good, since we could not find the supermarket. We rather made our way towards the nearest beach (a 10 minute walk from our guesthouse) and with beach I mean pebble beach, not sand. From here we walked down a number of vibrant streets and bought a baguette for supper. We went back to the beach to eat and afterwards watched an artist with spray paint (similar to the ones we saw in La Rambla) do his thing. Finally we made our way back to the guesthouse for a good nights sleep.

Relax, take it Eze @ Èze, France

2010-07-02T11:23:10.000Z

The morning we had breakfast, (basically just bread, juice and coffee) as prepared by Genevieve, and met New Zealand people who were also on their way to Monaco. They suggested that we also go to Eze (another medieval town on top of a hill) which is basically half-way between Nice and Monaco. So after breakfast we walked to the train station and took the train to Eze station. We were about 50 minutes to early for the next bus to Eze (which leaves every hour) so we strolled down to the nearest pebble beach to put our feet in the water. Fifty minutes later we took the bus to Eze. Eze is a beautiful medieval city with a lot of stairs, small shops and narrow passageways. We made our way to the top where we found an exotic garden (aka Jardin Exotique)… basically a garden with a lot of cacti (not that exotic). From here we had a nice 360 degree view of Eze and the coast of Southern France. However, after 3 minutes in the sun we realised why only cacti grows up there and we hurried down to catch the next bus to the Eze train station from where we would go to Monaco.

Monaco in an afternoon @ Monaco, Monaco

2010-07-02T15:25:20.000Z

When you walk out of the Monaco train station you are basically in the middle of the city, on the Monte Carlo Grand Prix track and in front of the main docks. This is really the playground of the rich and I have never before seen so many, BMWs, Mercedes’, Audi’s, Ferrari’s, Porsche’s and Aston Marten’s in one place. And that is not even mentioning all the awesome yachts. We made our way up a few hundred stairs to get to the Palais Princier (aka the prince’s palace). We then explored many souvenir shops and had lunch in front of the Cathedrale de Monaco (aka Monaco’s Cathedral). Thereafter we walked down to the docks (via Jardins Saint Martin) where we found Esplanade Stefano Casiraghi (aka the sea swimming-pool). Here my father, Riana and I swam and dived a bit to cool down. We then took the Bateau Bus (a small boat that takes you from one jetty to the next) to the opposite side of the docks and passed underneath (this is my attempted translation of “ons het onderdeur gestap”) the Monte Carlo Casino and then walked on its roof. Afterwards we realised that we basically walked the whole Grand Prix circuit. Finally, we then took the train back to Nice just in time to see Urucry cheat their way into the semi-final of the SWC! Shocking… why don’t you get penalty goals in soccer (similar to a penalty try in rugby)?

Chilling in Nice @ Nice, France

2010-07-03T10:38:53.000Z

This morning we had breakfast at 9:30 and decided that we would start by exploring the old city which was within walking distance from us. The old city was distinctly different from the other parts of Nice and the streets were alive with people buying and selling. Almost like the big flee-market in Hartenbosch in December. It was also as hot as Hartenbosch on a warm summer’s day in December. From the old city we walked into Park de la Colline du Chateau, which has a cemetery, a man-made waterfall, a nice 360 view of Nice and a lot of stairs (like most of the parks we’ve been to). Here we also saw our 4th wedding... what will we see next? A funeral?  At the highest point of the park we met a family from Sasolburg and it felt really good to speak Afrikaans to other people. We took another way down and visited the La Tour Bellanda (a tower with a nice view). Riana and I then went down to the beach called Castle plage for a swim and a tan. The sun is not as potent as the South African sun and you can actually lie in the direct sun for two hours between 12:00 and 14:00 and not get burnt… amazing! Don’t get me wrong, it is still pretty warm and humid. On a part of the beach they had a real “sea-sand” volleyball field where they had a professional tournament. We watched a bit and the rules are a bit different from what I know. They play volleyball with 3 a side and play up to 25. You can also score on the other team’s service. After watching a complete volleyball game we went back to the guest house to watch the last half of the Argentina-Germany SWC game and saw Zie Germans destroy Argentina! After the game an even bigger event was about to occur… my mother indicated that she would swim with us for the first time in 10 year! Yes, 10 years! So we went down to the beach called Galion plage and swam while Riana took photos and video clips (with strict directions on angles allowed during filming/shooting). Finally we went back home to watch the Spain – Paraguay game and I am so glad Spain won! OLE!

To Venice @ Venice, Italy

2010-07-04T09:47:51.000Z

The morning we had breakfast as hosted by Filip, after which we took the bus to the airport (a big rip-off at 4 Euros per person). We also got off at the wrong terminal (Terminal 2) and had to take a shuttle to Terminal 1 (luckily the shuttle was free). We saw two peculiar things at the Nice airport: (1) the drop and go is called “Kiss and Fly” and (2) there were a couple of dogs on leashes inside the airport building and one even had a hand-luggage tag attached to his collar! I wonder if they fold his legs in and put him in the overhead compartment or it could be a robot-dog from China with a very realistic bark. When going through baggage control we realised that Riana forgot our bottle opener in the hand luggage. They asked her to take it out, but after searching for 5 minutes and not finding it, the airport attendant told her it is ok, she can leave it wherever it is. I suppose he figured that if she can’t find it she can’t hurt anyone with it. The trip with BaBoo airlines was awesome. We were only 25 passengers on board and were treated like kings… I was very impressed. From the airport we took a bus to the only place in Venice where you can find cars/busses, the Venice bus stop.

Our first day in Venice @ Venice, Italy

2010-07-04T16:03:50.000Z

Before we could go into the main part of the city, we had to buy train tickets for our trip to Florence. Since we did not know for which time of the day the tickets are the cheapest on the 6th of July, we could not use the automatic ticket machines and had to stand in a queue to buy them. After we purchased our tickets we took a Vaporetto (a water bus) to the famous Rialto bridge and navigated through narrow streets to get to our guesthouse; in a very narrow and silent side-street. We got two separate rooms with double beds and our own bathroom, a very neat apartment. At this stage the temperature was about 33 degrees and the humidity 99%. Nevertheless, we only dropped our bags and immediately started exploring Venice. We first walked to the Rialto bridge and then to the St Marco plain. They were assembling some sort of stage and are also restoring half of the buildings around the plain. There are also a countless number of tourists dropped in Venice by big cruise liners. Hence, we could not get any good photographs of the plain. The plain is still very impressive, given the Campanili tower (the Big Ben of Venice and 99 metres high) and the fancy restaurants with live music. At this stage my father was on a mission to find the hotel they stayed in 30 years ago! Unfortunately he could not find it… very difficult given that they could not remember the name of the hotel! Since we missed lunch (again) we were hungry and started to make our way home. However, as soon as we walked out of the bounds of our map we got a bit lost. In the end we found our way home and bought some real Italian pizza at a restaurant near our guesthouse. While we ate it started raining (a summer thunderstorm similar to the one in Madrid) and it cooled down a bit… from 33 degrees to 31.

The attempt at Venice night photos @ Venice, Italy

2010-07-04T23:16:07.000Z

At 10:00 the rain subsided (or so we thought) and we decided to go out and take some night photos. We walked to the Rialto Bridge and on the way there it started raining. We continued regardless of the rain and took a few photos from a Vaporetto station on the Grand Canal. I found out later it is not such a good place to take photos with long exposures, since it is constantly moving (without you realising it). Riana was also puzzled a while by a weird haziness on her pictures… until I pointed out that there might be a rain drop on her lens! I posted the only photo that was not blurred somewhere and 70% sharp. From the bridge we walked to St Marco plain and the bands were playing beautiful music. Riana and I walked out into the plain and danced in the rain a bit. The romantic moment did not last that long, since marble becomes very, very slippery when wet and my Adidas plakkies is like ice-skates on the marble. Riana explained my movement through the streets back home as that of Eva (their cat) on snow. Half-way home, after almost falling a 100 times, I gave up on my plakkies and took them off. Bare-foot worked much better and we were home at about 12:15.

The second day in Venice @ Venice, Italy

2010-07-05T10:28:20.000Z

Just before 8:00 Riana collected our breakfast hanging on the doorknob outside. We were quite impressed by the contents: 4 croissants, 4 unknown types of bread loafs (i.e. Italian type), Pomelo juice (called Rossa-something), milk and plain yoghurt (that we spiced up with berry jam). Riana also studied the art of Mocca coffee brewing (as provided by Google) and brewed up some delicious Italian Mocca for me and my mother. Our first stop for the day was Campanili tower. We were lucky to get into the shortish queue early. The queue to get into the cathedral was already at least 200m long! We took the elevator to the top from where we had an excellent 360 degree view of Venice and the surrounding islands. Afterwards we decided to explore the district of Venice on the other side of the grand channel: San Polo. We browsed through a number of small shops and brought a very pretty Murano glass pendant for Riana. It was already time for lunch and we went back to our guest house to make some sandwiches. My parents then went on a mission to buy an oil painting in St Marco square while Riana and I honoured the Spanish by taking a siesta. After the siesta we spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the Ghetto (old Jewish region) of Venice. O-yes, we also had some wonderful Italian ice-cream!

The last night in Venice @ Florence, Italy

2010-07-05T19:58:47.000Z

For our last night in Venice, and also the last night my parents were with us, my father (the man of the moment) decided to take us out for dinner to thank us for the tour! YEAH! We found a nice restaurant where Riana had pasta, my father had Gnocchi, my mother had Pizza and I had a Calzone. We also shared 1l of their very best house wine. Afterwards we decided to visit St Marco square for a last time and I sticked everyone for some more Italian ice-cream. I also attempted a number of night shots and also took my first ever night-foot-photo! Awesome! Unfortunately we were told to stand up (and go) after we sat in the middle of the square to listen to the beautiful music. Apparently you are only allowed to sit down and listen to the music when you eat at a restaurant in St Marco square. You actually pay a cover charge of 6 Euro just to sit down at the table of a restaurant! Crazy Italians… luckily I listened for free and got my foot-photo while I was sitting down! Finally we got to bed at about 12:00 and according to my laptop it was 27 degrees (at night)! Crazy Italian weather!

The Farewell @ Florence, Italy

2010-07-06T07:53:42.000Z

This morning we got up at 7:30 to wave my parents goodbye (to “kiss and fly”). The streets of Venice were fairly empty and mostly locals were moving around preparing for the onslaught of tourists. We waved my parents goodbye on the one side of the Rialto Bridge and then ran over to the other side to continue the waving. From the bridge we could see one of the first water busses stacked with tourist… soon it would be chaos in Venice again. We got back to our guesthouse, had breakfast and then packed. We had time for a final walk through Venice and we explored the nearby Castello district. Afterwards we checked out of our guest house, took the Vaporetto from Rialto Bridge and boarded our train at about 12:45.

Frenzy in Firenze @ Florence, Italy

2010-07-06T17:14:11.000Z

The train to Florence was like any other train, except for 60 Afrikaans grade 11 students that travelled with us. Four girls (all from the Republic of Cape Town) got into the cabin with us and told us about their tour… Temba Tours. I must say, some of the things they told us sounded a bit dodgy, so I am not sure that I would ever travel with Temba. After getting use to the constant white-noise (of girls speaking) we could admired the beautiful Tuscan country-side. In Florence we got off at the station indicated on our tickets and we then realised that it is not the central station but a station on the outskirts of Florence (station Firenze Refridi). From here things got really bad: the information office was closed, there were no maps of the city, the bus stop did not indicate any route, and nobody we asked spoke English! Eventually we just boarded a random bus (the driver could also not speak English) for which we did not pay, because we could not figure out how to pay. It seemed that the bus was travelling towards the centre of the city, which was good, and an Italian guy indicated that he would tell us were to get off the bus. However, when we got out he was in front of us… “guiding” us. A situation that brought up a couple of warning lights after speaking to the New Zealand people in Nice! When we passed a park we told him that we are going to sit down there. He said stuff in Italian and then hovered around there for a while… very shaky! We decided to rather ask directions at a fancy hotel, where they could speak English. We were not to far from our hotel and were there in about 5 minutes after asking for directions. Our hotel had a very small room (similar to the one in Madrid), but with a terribly scary shared bathroom in the hallway. In the bathroom you could find an example of how to fit a shower, toilet and wash basin in a 1.5x1.5m area, and most of the time we were not sure if the water under our feet came from the toilet, the shower or the basin. So the winner of the worst accommodation on this tour, by a very large margin, is Regina Hotel! I later realised what was wrong… I thought I sensed a disturbance in the space-time-continuum. The date 06-07-2010 is the date that the Michael J Fox goes to when he visits the future in Back to the Future II. Unfortunately I could not transport my heavy bags with a hover-board.

Exploring Florence @ Florence, Italy

2010-07-06T18:19:37.000Z

For our first day in any city we just like to walk, and walk, and walk… this day was no exception. The first building that we came upon was Cappelle Medicee and the second was Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Viore which has the biggest dome in the world! The cathedral is really magnificent and in contrast with the others that we’ve seen, green and red marble were also used. The resulting structure is very impressive, colourful and with a high attention to detail. In front of the cathedral we found the Battistero with beautiful golden doors, known as the paradise doors (this name is contributed to comments that Michelangelo made about the doors). Many claim that the competition held to design these doors marks the start of the renaissance era. From there we walked to the open air museum where a replica of the David statue is on display (the replica is situated where the original stood). We then reached the river Arno and saw the beautiful Ponta Vecchio. Unfortunately the sun was not in a good position to take nice photographs and, of course, they were busy with restoration of the bridge! We then walked home and stopped at De Spar for lunch and bought 8 croissants, ham, cheese and juice for 10 Euros. When we got home we found out that the croissants were too sweet, the ham too smoky and the cheese tasted like soar-cream… not a good way to spend R100. However, what followed made up for the bad supper. We walked out into the square where we lived and a guy invited us into their restaurant for a drink while watching the soccer (he recognised my Bafana Bafana jersey). Inside we sat at the bar with the locals and had Birre Moretti (the local beer they had on tap) while watching the Ollanda – Urucry game in HD on Sky Sport. The beer was delicious and Holland won, the night was perfect.

Conquering the Dome @ Florence, Italy

2010-07-07T09:02:33.000Z

The breakfast was much better than I expected, but to be fair I did not expect much. We had croissants, cheese, orange juice & machine made cappuccino. We I say croissant here I refer to Italian croissants (sweet like a Tinky) not a typical njammie French croissants. While the sun was in the right position, we decided first walk to Ponte Vecchio and thereafter conquer the biggest dome in the world (the dome of Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Viore). To conquer the dome you have to climb all 436 stairs and, of course, go down them again. From the dome we got spectacular views of the city and of the inside of the cathedral itself. After visiting the dome we had to do a bit of admin and walked to the main train station to buy tickets to go to Pisa the next day. On our way back, Riana spotted a beautiful leather jacket which carried a label saying 790 Euros (to put this in perspective, our budget in Europe for 10 days)! We carried on, over Ponte Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti. We did not go into the gardens of Pitti and eventually had lunch (croissants with Nutella) in a nearby park called Piazza Torquato Tasso. On the way back we crossed the river Arno over Ponte Santa Trinita, a bridge that was blown up by die Nazi’s and have 4 statues representing the four seasons of a year. However, there is no way that you can figure out which statue represents which season. Finally, still honouring the Spanish, we went back home for a cold shower and a one hour siesta.

Conquering the Torra @ Florence, Italy

2010-07-07T17:55:58.000Z

Even though I was scared, we went back to the leather shop to negotiate a better price for the leather jacket. In the end we bought 2 (one for Riana and one for me), the price however is too expensive to mention. It was a good price for what we got, but still not the kind of price that you convert to Rands. After leaving the jackets in our hotel room we made our way to Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Viore again to conquer the tower (torra)… luckily it only had 413 steps. From the tower we could take nice photographs of the dome with the sun at our back. Our site seeing continue and included the Santa Croce church, the Bargello jail (now a museum) and Ponto alle Grazie. It was then time for the second semi-final (Spagna vs Germania) and when we walked into La Mamma we felt like locals. We were greeted by the bar-man and Sandra (the owner) and sat down at the bar again. Sandra also owns a Pizzeria (called Za za) from which we ordered pizza. The pizza was probably the best pizza I’ve ever had! I was absolutely delicious and had gypsy ham, pecorino cheese, pesto and portobello mushrooms separately in its four quadrants. While we watched soccer we met Samual, a businessman from Ethiopia, at the bar (he has been living in Italy for 20 years). We enjoyed each others company and he bought us some more Birra Moretti and we exchanged contact details. My alliance for the night was Germany, but I think Spain deserved to win, since Germany did not really play at all. I will support them again when they play against Urucry.

Lucca, I am your father @ Lucca, Italy

2010-07-08T09:35:48.000Z

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!).

Picnic in Pisa @ Pisa, Italy

2010-07-08T17:32:01.000Z

Back in Pisa we went to a big supermarket called Pam (the Itallians pronounce it PAMA). Thereafter we had picnic on the grass next to the Battistero next to the leaning tower of Pisa. We had bread with salami and cheese and drank white wine mixed with Rossa Orange juice (the wine was not good enough to drink on its own). We watched the sun set over the old walls of Piazza dei Miracoli (field of miracles) and went home for an early night.

A day in Pisa @ Pisa, Italy

2010-07-09T08:26:09.000Z

During our first night in Pisa we were woke by other guests a couple of times since the only bathroom in the guest house is right next to our room. The breakfast the next morning was ok (i.e. good not great). At least we could see the tower from where we had breakfast. We started the day by walking to Piazza dei Cavalieri and then to Torro del Campano (which was very unimpressive). We then crossed the Arno river and went into Fortezza di San Gallo; an old fort converted into a beautiful garden with special tables and chairs for students to study. Here I got the triptracker journal up to date while Riana explored the gardens. We also had lunch here and with an ice-cream in hand we made our way back home, past Piazza San Fancesco and Piazza Martiri della Liberta, which are part of the University Buildings. Riana got very excited when we stumbled upon the Mathematics Department. Back home we took an hour siesta after which Riana and Doina (the owner of the guest house) started talking. We showed Doina and her husband the photos we took in Calvinia, Durban, Waenhuiskrans and the Cederberg and they got immensely excited. Especially when they saw the white beachs, blue sky and the Zebras! They also showed us some photos of their local festival in June. Basically a traditional sports-day between four Italian cities: Pisa, Venice, Genova and Amalfi. We chatted with them till about 18:00 and then went over to Piazza dei Miracoli where we purchased tickets to go into the Battistero, the cathedral and the cemetery. After visiting these buildings we bought bread from a corner café and then went to sit down on the grass next to the Battistero. We decided that this bread was the last we bought from the Italians (they really only focus on their Pizza and Pasta)! The bread we bought tasted at least 2 weeks old (maybe we can call it sun-dried bread). It was very dry but not hard like the sun-dried old toast we got for breakfast which is similar to Kagiso bread that was left open in your kitchen for 2 weeks. They also eat this “bread” without any butter! I decided the best way to eat it is to first dip it in your coffee (Waboomskraal-farm-style) and the left-overs can then be use for self-defence. Finally, when it got dark, we attempted to take night photos of the tower. However, without any pretty lights illuminating the tower the photos came out a bit dull and boring.

When in Rome… @ Rome, Italy

2010-07-10T16:32:27.000Z

This morning we got up at about 7:00, had breakfast at 8:00 and were waiting for the train to Rome from about 9:30. After arriving at Roma Termini we took the red metro line to station Ottaviano, which is really only about 300m from our B&B. The guy at the B&B is really friendly and the B&B is really cool. We got a room with double bed, aircon and an ensuite bathroom, as well as a buffet breakfast. But wait, there’s more… free fruit and snacks in the fridge, as well as free drinks (including cold water, juice and coffee) anytime during the day! Awesome! For the remainder of the day we decided to pull a Paris (or shall we call it an Istanbul for this tour) and walk as far as we can too as many cool places as we can within the first day. We started at the Vatican with the inside of Basillica Sant Pietro (which is really stunning) after which we conquered its dome (an elevator for a few floors and then 320 stairs). We could not do all 520 stairs since it was already too late in the day. We then strolled down the well known via dell Conciliazione (the street in front of St Pieters) to Castel Sant Angelo. From here we walked to Piazza dei Tribunali and crossed ponta Umbero I into the “old” part of modern Rome. We then visited Piazzo Montecitoria, Piazzo Colonna, Fontana di Trevi (very nice fountain but a lot of people), Templo Adriano, the Pantheon (unfortunately under restoration), Palazza Madama and finally the very impressive Piazzo Navona (here we saw a number of street performances). At this stage we needed a drink and we stopped at the closes bar for their local beer on tap (an Italian beer, not Moretti but something tasting like Peroni). Then we found out that they have a free buffet after 18:00, as long as you buy ‘n drink! So we sat down, enjoyed the buffet (and beers) and watched the Germany vs Urucry SWC game. After half-time it was time for some night photos and we left the bar to visit Campo de Fiori and Palazzo Farnese. We then crossed Ponto Sisto to see the Rome night life in the part of the city that is similar to the Latin Quoters in Paris. The streets were very busy (it was Saturday night) and we visited Piazza Trilussa and Sant Maria in Trastevere. At this stage our bed was really calling and we walked back along the river (Fiume) Tevere and passed St Pieters again for a few night photos. I can see why Rome was not build in a day… it is big and beautiful. At this stage it is head to head with Paris when it comes to being my favourite city in the world (when it comes to cool stuff to see). There are, of course, other cities like Brugge, Sintra and a few South African cities/towns that I like more for various other reasons.

Ancient scorching Rome @ Rome, Italy

2010-07-11T10:39:54.000Z

We slept nice and late, had breakfast and were out of the B&B at about 9:40. We arrived at the Vatican Museum at 9:55 and found out just after 10:00 (when it was supposed to open) that it was not going to open. Apparently it is only open on the last Sunday of the month and then it is also free (not this Sunday). We then got on the red metro line, crossed over to the blue line at Termini, and the got out at the Colosseum. I did not imagine the Colosseum to be as big… it was really impressive. The row to get an entrance ticket, unfortunately, was also impressive in terms of length. After we stood in the queue for about 10 minutes, they indicated that you can skip the queue (and get an English audio guide) if you pay 4.50 Euros extra per person. Since the row in front of us was at least an hour long, we took the option. At this stage it was about 12:00 and the heat was unbearable (35+ degrees). We pressed on, regardless of the heat, and after the Colosseum also visited the Palantine hill and the Roman forum. It was incredible to observe such old structures and around every corner you find a random piece of marble that is over 1500 year old! And there is so much more to excavate! Apparently that is also why there are only two metro lines in Rome… every time they start digging a new tunnel, they find new archaeological remains. After a while in the heat I was not sure which were ruins and which were mirages anymore. It was time to go home. It seems that the sun here is Spanish… it demands/enforces a siesta! After the siesta we walked into the old part of modern Rome again to go to the same bar as the previous night to watch the SWC final. We met up with an Italian heavy metal bass guitar player (who I met the previous night). He was very happy to see us again and we exchanged email addresses. After the game we walked home and only got to bed at about 2:00.

Welcome to Naples (and its crazy traffic) @ Naples, Italy

2010-07-12T15:37:22.000Z

We got up at about 8:00, had breakfast and took the Metro to Roma Termini. The trains to Naples seemed to have a problem and we departed about 30 minutes late at 10:47. We arrived in Naples at 13:00 and after trying to use the bus system we only got to our destination/hostel at 14:00! It seems that not even some of the Italians living in Naples understand the busses. We decided to rather walk or take the Metro in the future. The crazy bus system is probably attributed to the crazy traffic in the city. The traffic here is close to the worst I have ever seen… almost worst than Dublin in peak traffic (Christian can tell you all about this). Imagine a road full of South African taxi’s… now imagine a number of crazy Italians on scooters criss-crossing in-between these taxis… then imagine a number of crazy old Italians with their dogs trying to get over the road... that is basically what it looks like. No-body obeys rules and no-body has manners. I am not sure why they call this a 1st world country and South Africa a 3rd world country? In many cases we are more technologically advanced than them, less racist, well mannered and we do not do graffiti on everything we can reach… especially not on 1000 year old buildings! Anyway, beside this the city is very diverse, vibrant and interesting. We walked to a number of places for the rest of the day and ended up eating very delicious pizza for supper! If there is one thing that an Italian can do better than a South African it is pizza! The prices for the pizza here is also very reasonable and we both had a pizza and Italian beer (Nastro Azzuro). Tonight will be an early night because tomorrow we need all our energy for Capri!

A day in Capri @ Capri, Italy

2010-07-13T09:00:14.000Z

This morning we got up very early (in comparison with the rest of our tour) and we were in the streets walking to the harbour at about 6:00. There were basically nobody in the city… we could even cross a street! We were on a mission to catch the 7:35 slow ferry to Capri, but again the Italians directions/signs/information were useless. We ran around the harbour like “afkop hoenders” for about 10 minutes and as I was on the brink of giving up I turned down a random street and saw the ticket office. We were a bit concerned that the weather was not on our side (there were a couple of clouds), but the guy who sold us the tickets ensured us that it would not rain. We boarded the ferry without any further trouble and slept for the biggest part of the 80 minute trip. However, for the last 10 minutes of the trip we walked up unto the deck and were astounded by the beauty of Capri’s west coast (high vertical cliffs). After arriving at Capri’s Marina Grande, we bought tickets for a boat trip around the island and boarded at 10:00 after browsing through the shops of the Marina for 30 minutes or so. During the boat trip you get to see the following: Scugnizzo (Boy Sculpture), Salto di Tiberio (Tiberio’s cave), Grotta del Corallo (the coral cave), Grotta Bianca (the white cave), Arco Natura (the natural arc), Villa Malaparte, Faraglioni (we actually sailed thought the famous arc), Marina Piccola (the South coast bay), Grotta Verde (the green cave), Faro Punta Carena (Anacapri’s light house) and finally Grotta Azzurra (the blue caves)! The trip was about 2 hours and worth every Euro. We also payed extra to get into the blue caves… yes, we were actually inside and it was awesome (the photos serve as proof)! After the trip we had lunch and a swim on the beach next to the Grand Marina. We decided to explore Capri further and took the Funicular to the centre of the city. From here we walked to the Monastery of Santa Giacomo (and its gardens) and Giardini di Augusto from where we had a very nice view of the Faraglioni “islands.” We then took a bus to Anacapri… and by bus I mean the type with a crazy Italian driver thinking the narrow road he is driving on is the Monte Carlo race-coarse. In the centre of Anacapri we boarded a ski-lift (I think) that takes you all the way up to Monte Solaro; the highest point in Capri at 589 metres. I really enjoyed the ride, but Riana found it a bit shaky and so did a number of other passengers (with faces of fear) passing me who got more than they expected. From Monte Solaro you get wonderful views of the whole island. We chill out at the top, took a few photos and then took the ski-lift back down. In Anacapri we walked to Santa Micaele and Santa Sofia and bought another two double-chocolate-and-caramel Magnum ice-creams. The busses back to the Grand Marina were full (and did not stop in Anacapri) so we took the bus back to Capri and then walked down to the Grand Marina (10 minutes if you really push yourself). We then bought a fast ferry (there are no more slow and cheap ferries this time of day) ticket at 17:02 and at 17:10 we were on the ferry when it left! Forty-five minutes later we where back in Naples. What an awesome day, I am a lot poorer Euro-wise, but so much richer otherwise…

Ancient scorching Pompeii @ Pompeii, Italy

2010-07-14T12:39:26.000Z

We got up at about 7:00 this morning and decided to take the Metro to Napoli’s central station, since the busses are too confusing. Surprise, surprise the Metro was even more confusing… I did not think you can screw up a Metro map, but the Italians can. In the end an Italian guy saw the confusion on our faces and helped us. From the main station of Napoli we took their “special” train, Circumvesuviana, to Sorrento. From here we took the bus (Line A) to our camping grounds and left our baggage here. Since our cabin was not ready yet we went to the station to travel to Pompeii. “If I can provide you with one piece of advice for the future (when visiting Pompeii)… use sunscreen.” Again we arrived at the ancient city at the heat of the day, but this did not hamper our enthusiasm. Pompeii is really super awesome! There are buildings dating from 5 centuries before Christ! In many places the walls of the house are so well preserved that you can still see their wall paintings and text (apparently some of it is ancient graffiti). The city is huge and we basically spent the whole day wandering though the city (and the house of Miracles) and read the interesting guide that they supplied us with. I don’t think our photos really captures the awesomeness… you would have to visit it yourself to comprehend it. In the end, the sun did take its toll (since we left our sunscreen at the camp site) and we left Pompeii at about 15:20 with a good idea of how warm it would be with larva flowing down the streets of Pompeii.

To Santa Fortunata @ Sorrento, Italy

2010-07-14T17:06:32.000Z

From the Pompeii station we took the train back to Sorrento and the bus back to Santa Fortunata, our camp site. The camp site is very nice and we got a smallish green cabin with our own bathroom (and unfortunately no aircon). This morning we forgot to buy train tickets from Naples back to Rome, so we bought an hour of wifi and bought train tickets online while sitting outside our cabin. While focussing on the tickets, the mosquitos feasted on Riana… according to her she had a total of 10 on the one leg and then she lost count. I suppose they like shaved legs more, so I did not seem that delicious to them. We then went on a mission to find the nearest beach, but since it closes at 19:00 we decided to rather take a swim in the public swimming pool close by (which also closes at 19:00). The water of the swimming pool was very warm and did not really cool us down enough. However, the Magnum ice-creams we had did help with the cooling. They have a very nice mini market here and a restaurant with reasonable prices. So tonight we treated ourselves with a Birra Moretti, Salame Pizza and Ravioli de Capri… the best Ravioli I have ever tasted (however, I am not sure if this was maybe the first Ravioli I have ever tasted). And that is that for today… tomorrow we will be exploring Sorrento (the start of the Amalfi coast), yeah!

Chilling in Sorrento @ Sorrento, Italy

2010-07-15T11:17:25.000Z

As planned when we chose the camp site, we chilled to the max today! We decided, however, to do a brief spot-check on Sorrento while we were here. So at about 10:00 we took the bus (line A) to the centre of Sorrento, browsed through the many stalls in the main “tourist” streets, and took line A back to the Santa Fortunata at about 12:00. Riana made us lunch at the green cabin (salami & Philadelphia cheese buns) after which we made our way to the Spiagga (“beach”). We decided that they should rather call it “sea” since there are no sand, not even pebbles… just rock and a jetti-type walkway to get into the sea. No touchies, beach-cricket, soccer or volleyball can be played here. After some chilling and swimming we made our way to the swimming pool. Here we chilled some more, swam, read and then took a siesta on the nice pool-chairs. We then made our way to the other “beach,” but since you have to pay 1.5 Euro per person to do, uhmm, well, nothing, we went back to the camp grounds and played some table-tennis. After playing a while we went back to the swimming pool again for some more chilling and swimming. The Italian girls dress appropriately when they swim (costumes & bikinis). The men, however, is an entirely different story. They basically wear one of the following: (1) a boxer made out of board short material (yes, pink and flowery like the Quicksilver board shorts the school children wear in South Africa but just half the length), (2) a “sjoe-broekie” or ”hotpants” (the type designed for a woman), (3) speedos (the most awesome one was the one with the Italian flag on it, oooo the horror) and (4) last and least their “onderbroek” (nooooo, double the horror!). For supper we again treated ourselves with a meal from the restaurant. I had the best Ravioli I have ever tasted (the same as Riana’s from last night, but more) and Riana had Penne due Zucchini (basically penne with cream and baby marrows). We just got home and Riana opened the champagne Janno got from the Spanish. It is really the worst champagne/sparkling wine I have ever tasted. We will rather stick with the chocolate for desert…

Back to Rome @ Rome, Italy

2010-07-16T12:33:10.000Z

This morning we got up early and when we wanted to check out the Santa Fortunata office was not even open yet. A guy with a key of the office stopped there with his scooter and we gave the key to him. What I forgot though is that I did not play for my accommodation yet (but later more about that)! We took the 7:10 Line A bus to the station and took the 7:38 train to Sorrento. At 10:24 we took a train to Roma Termini and felt quite at home when we reached Rome. The Metro is at least understandable and we even knew how to skip the gypsies who steal/beg from innocent tourist like ourselves. We then checked into a big room at King Square B&B which is situated very close to the Metro (Re di Rome), the bad part is that we did not have aircon. It wasn’t really a problem since we did not plan to spend a lot of time in the room. Riana took my cell phone out of my bag and surprise- surprise, Santa Fortunata deducted our accommodation from my credit account 3 times! We then send then a mail to ask forgiveness for not paying the morning and for the rest of my money back!

Aida and the catacombs @ Rome, Italy

2010-07-16T14:46:06.000Z

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 when I looked around I saw scooter parts everywhere and a guy with a helmet (the scooter driver) flying through the air! It happened about 50m away from me, so I am not sure what exactly happened. A few seconds later, a woman without a helmet also stood up from the ground (I assumed that she was the passenger of the scooter). I am sure the scooter and the car that hit it will be written off… the people seemed to be ok. When we reached the bus station 8 minutes later, the ambulance came whizzing by. We then took the bus (no 218) to Catacomb St Callisto and on the way there we met some very nice Irish people with whom we shared a few laughs with regards to the crazy Italians and the rain in Ireland. At Catacomb St Callisto we took the “English” guided tour (you are forced to take a guided tour and no photos are allowed) but the group was too big and the Italian-English-Greek accent of the guide was so bad that people started laughing (and crying). Nevertheless, the biggest catacomb in Rome was very impressive. We then walked to the Catacombs of St Sebastian and took the last English tour at 16:30. This time we were only 6 people (Riana & I and a family) and the tour guide, Shaun, was awesome. Shaun clearly knows his history and gave us some very cool facts and did not have any problems with answering our questions. All in all the Catacombs of St Sebastian were a lot awesomer and the tour ends with a look at a Roman Necropolis (city of the dead) and a visit to the church where St Sebastian’s remains are… I assume the church is also called St Sebastian. After visiting the catacombs we took the bus back and bought some food at the supermarket we saw earlier. Again, we had the same old food: salami, cheese, butter and buns. However, this time we bought the Fanta that I have been eyeing for a while: Rossa Orange Fanta (and it tasted awesome!). After supper we walked to the Teatro alle Terme di Caracalla, about a 45 minute walk from our B&B. There I felt the most underdressed that I have ever felt, since I was there with my shorts and T-shirt, while the locals dressed fancy (which was understandable for an opera of this calibre). The setting (ancient Roman baths with soft lighting) and weather (no wind, perfect for a braai) were perfect! The costumes, dances and music were also beautiful. Unfortunately it was in Italian and it was quite difficult to follow the story. When a lot of people wore black, we assumed some died… when the big scary woman made a high pitched sound, we assumed she was very happy or very sad. The opera started at 21:00 and the half-time break was from 22:30 to 23:00. At this stage we were very tired (since we were up at 6:00 the morning) and we dozed off every now and then (dreaming of our home in Somerset West, our “real” Queen size bed, real toasties with apricot jam and Gouda cheese) until we were woke by the high pitched sounds described earlier. We read the wiki with a synopsis of the Opera afterwards and now it all makes sense! The opera ended at 00:30 and now we know (SPOILER ALERT) that Aida dies. We walked back to our B&B all happy because we were walking towards our bed and because we believed Aida was still alive and with the dude she loved.

The Vatican in a flash @ Cape Town, South Africa

2010-07-17T09:56:39.000Z

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 “row” I have every seen, with the most unfriendly people (“onopgevoede skobbejakke”) I have every encountered. After 2 hours of pushing in shoving we were in, but only had an hour to go through the museum. Hence we visited the Sistine Chapel and checked out a number of paintings, relics and statues. Hopefully one day I will go back there with more time on my hands. From the museum we went back to the B&B to eat (and pick-up our bags) and then took the Metro to the Pyramid station from where we took the overly expensive train to the airport. Our flight was delayed by 45 minutes but we did not care, as long as we could still be in time for the flight from Istanbul to Cape Town (via Jo-burg).

The End @ Cape Town, South Africa

2010-07-17T17:26:33.000Z

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 speaking people with us on the aircraft with two very friendly Capies sitting opposite us… it felt better. This trip most definitely made me appreciate the wonderful country that I live in more. I really love South Africa and everything about our country: the people
(everyone, not so sure about the “Bloubul” supporters and Julius though), the fact that I can practice my religion openly, the fact that some people use indicators when driving and mostly follow the rules, the beautiful country-side, the awesome weather and the fact that I can afford stuff! There is no place like home…