Georgina's birthday

We hit the local flower and fruit market in th emorning.It was great and we enjoyed breakfast in the sun. Around mid-morning we met up with Gianina and Chris. It was just lovely to see their faces.
Lounging on the rooftop. Afternoon drinks at the rooftop bar of our hotel.

Michelle and Steve arranged a fabulous picnic lunch of goodies from the market - for Georgina's birthday.



What Lucas found when he went to the loo. Mark had to pay the 35 cents to go and photograph this teeny tiny toilet

Mark catching up on the sporting news...

Tomorrow is Mark's birthday. We leave Nice the following morning at 5:56am. As we will then be on the boat for 5 nights, I am unsure when I can next post a blog. So don't fret if you don't hear.

Hope all are well. We are missing you all but loving this little family catch up here. xD

We arrived in Nice

Checking out the view from our balcony, We have a big garden directly in front and are only 2 rooms from the water front.
We met Georgina and Lucas on the promenade. Thrilling to see them. We had a couple of hours strolling, checking out each others photos while sharing stories.
Just a bit excited and having fun.
We had 6 for dinner with Michelle and Steve. We ate at a place Laureen recommended. REally delicious food but the most ridiculous size serves... each pasta dish could have fed 3 adults easily.....

Have chatted with Gianina and planning to see them this morning... yay!

The intrepid walkers

The weather has been just perfect. We all caught the train to Vernazza. Our plan was to look around a little then do the 2km walk to Monterossa. It’s another beautiful little town, though with more shops than Manarola.
Laureen only had an hour before she had to head back to Nice but she and I still managed to get our shoes off and dip our feet in the Ligurian Sea. It was VERY chilly water!
The rest of us figured an early lunch would be good before we started our walk. A delicious meal of fresh local seafood and salad sitting in the main piazza was just divine.

The walk was listed as taking min 2 hrs and it started with a very step flight of steps right from the piazza. After 10 mins we saw a sign that said the track was closed in 500m – at ‘the gate’. We figured we would just reach the gate and turn back.
We passed this funny little monorail style lift for carting their good up the hill. Notice the angle, seat and little trailer.
Vernazza getting smaller

Up and up and up we went. Endless flights of rock steps built into the steep hill, all varying heights and depths. We needed to stop several times for our palpitating hearts to settle enough to move on. There was no gate and we ran into a few people coming the other way who said they had got through ok. FYI – there have been landslides on a couple of paths completely blocking them but we figured we would be careful and keep going.

Our destination in the distance. After about an hour of non-stop climbing we gratefully reached a plateau. As we ambled happily along we notice a helicopter going back and forth in the distance. Picking up large loads of rocks (in white plastic bags) and dropping them down. Each trip back and forth was only 2-3 mins.
At many points the path got very narrow. At times no more than a 30cm. At other times 3 split logs about 10cm wide were tied loosely together with one piece of string, and placed to span where the path had completely fallen away. It was a little precarious to say the least to be on narrow crumbling paths. 40 more minutes of strolling/climbing/descending we realised the bags of rocks were being dropped near the path. As we got closer to the drop points the path was blocked with bags of rocks. We had no option but to squeeze between and half climb over them. There were several drop points along a section of about 300m of the path.

We needed to get through the point where they were dropping, we waited for a drop and rushed ahead as fast as possible to get out of their way. No such luck! The path was blocked completely with bags and the helicopter was coming!! The drop point was no more than 10-20 m from us and the down wind was very strong. Mark’s cap flew off and disappeared. I managed to grab mine as I ducked under Marks arm. We all huddled together waiting the 10 seconds for the chopper to drop and go. It seemed to take so long. I was frozen in place thinking it was a very long 10 seconds!
Steve said he was watching as the helicopter struggled to drop its cargo. He saw it shaking side to side/ up and down... finally after at least a minute it finally took off. It was very scary but exhilarating.
Then it was a mad dash to climb over the bags only to be blocked by another 5 bags. Kindly a couple of the workers helped us through, gripping our hand so we didn’t fall down the steep hill while we tried to get around the bags.
Once clear we were berating ourselves a little for ignoring the closed path signs, but also giggling from the experience.



The last 30 mins was all downhill and steps. It got to the point that my knees and legs were like jelly. I dont know if it was from exertion or latent shock setting in.

We enjoyed a well earned beer when we arrived in Monterossa before getting the train back home. An easy dinner of nibblies while watching the sunset and we were in bed asleep by 8pm, utterly exhausted!

Morning in Manarola

Being an early riser I couldn't resist heading off on a walk with camera in hand ...

The steep terraced gardens above the town.


Panorama of the town..
Our apartments. The yellow building was where Laureen, Michelle & Steve stayed. Mark and I were in the pink building to the right with the white window and our washing out.
Manarola from the cemetry.
The cemetry was perched high on the opposing hill. Due to a lack of space they stack the coffins 4 high. It was very interesting to stroll through. 95% of the graves have photos of the deceased on the front. Many repeated surnames, clearly local families for generations.
Our room.... and views from the bed.

What a fun day! The walks between the 5 towns here are very popular with some rugged and beautiful scenery.
After a breakfast of coffee and warm marmalade filled croissant, Mark Laureen and I headed towards Riomaggiore with Michelle & Steve about 10 min behind us.


We had lots of laughs along the way and Mark remembered a photo of me at a cafe on a cliff from when I was last here and was keen to see where it was.


After about 30 mins of strolling and stopping to take in the views we arrived at the Riomaggiore end of the path and at THE cafe. We planned on another coffee, as it was now about 10:15 but then figured we needed to celebrate.... and a glass of Prosecco was the only way.

After a whiling away nearly an hour we headed in to Riomaggiore passing Michelle & Steve on their way home! Of course we recommended they stop for a drink when they passed the cafe.
There towns are so beautiful... and living in this relatively remote place would pose many challenges for things we take for granted. As the streets are often very tight or are just a set of stairs everything has to be carried or carted in and out. There are one or two rubbish collection depots per town and all household rubbish has to be taken there.

We spent a good couple of hours then stopped at THE cafe again on our way back, this time for a delicious Panini with prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella and tomato.... and a local beer.


The rest of the day was spent chatting and hanging out together in the lounge and balcony of the main building. This time Mark and I are across the lane in a larger room with a kitchen.


This came in handy and after watching the sunset together we gathered at our place for pasta, salad, wine, limoncello and chocolate. For those who haven’t tried limoncello, imagine lemon meringue pie in a glass.... and 30% proof!! Bloody delicious.
It was a great night! We laughed and laughed......



Im not sure how this blog will load. Fingers crossed it makes some sense.

xD

Dubai - Nice - Cinque Terra

This was quite along day... 7 hr flight went fairly easily and it was just fantastic to walk through the doors of Nice airport to see the smiling faces of Laureen and Brodie.

Brodie is living in Nice at present and drove us around for an hour or so before we stopped for some lunch and caught the train to Cinque Terra.

With a change of train in both Ventimiglia and then Genoa it took 6 hrs to get to La Spezia.

Laureen had prepared for the trip and had a bag containing bread, wine, cheese, dip and strawberries, along with a couple of pastries be enjoyed a picnic dinner on the train. What fun we had!

We arrived at 9:20pm into La Spezia and missed the train to Manarola where we are staying. Rather than waiting nearly 2 hrs for the next train we jumped into a cab and it was a 15 min very scary ride around the mountains.

Manarola is on a very steep hill and no cars can drive down into it. Getting the cab meant being dropped in a carpark and having to hike down into the town. (The cab driver had very little english and after pulling up the car said "stop... now you walk".

We arrived at Arpaiu around 10pm and just as we were about to open the door to the building when Steve and Michelle popped their heads out... we were thrilled to see them but after a quick hello we headed to our respective rooms... exhausted!!!

It was a long day....

Dubai - day 2

Ok, Dubai has so many mosques .... and at 4:55am we found out what it was like to have them all competing with each other to be heard. This being my first visit to a Moslem country I showed how naive I am. I thought that being called to prayer was done by horns/bells. NO.... its a man singing over the loud speakers... so when there are 3 within 150m of our hotel, you end up with 3 different male voices going for it... and not in time with each other and not very harmoniously. Clearly one bloke slept in when he didn't start until 4:58!!


We enjoyed a leisurely start to our day with blogging, coffee then breakfast chatting with a lovely woman from LA. She is travelling on her own, is in her 70's and is here to go to the Dubai Cup... alone! Thats brave! Its the richest horse race in the world. The owners get the prize but the viewers aren't allowed to gamble. She told us stories where in the past visitors to Dubai have brought their own bookie!

With time getting away we headed off and got on one of the local water taxi's across the river.



It was a bit of fun and far from complied with any level of OH&S standard in Australia.

We were keen to get out into the desert but had heard several reports on what the experience would be like. Reports were that during the sunset/ dinner safari’s, the driving through the sand dunes was pretty marvellous but once you get out to the ‘Bedouin camp’ for the dinner you become part of a much larger group of up to 200 tourists and it was all pretty contrived. A bit like Dreamworld goes Bedouin. I was not keen on that! Asking around at our hotel they offered another option for us. (they highlighted their belief that guests who choose to stay with them, do so – so as to have an individual experiences) Therefore they were able to recommend a private trip by Hummer and desert bbq – just us and a guide. So at 4:30pm Ahim arrived to pick us up and off we went. Ahim was a very friendly and interesting guy who has been providing such trips for plebs like us up to the royalty of several countries, for 18 years. (he is also married to an aussie and they spend 6 mths a year in Cairns)

It took nearly an hour to get to the desert & after picking up some charcoal and letting some air out of the tyres we were on the sand. Riding the sand dunes was exhilarating and scary. To me the way Ahim read the dunes was very reflective of watching an experienced surfer read the waves. After about 45 min we came over a dune to find a lone tent behind it. This was to be our private spot for dinner. Ahim pointed to the highest of the surrounding sand dunes and said “go sit up there and enjoy the sunset, while I set up camp”.

We happily complied (climbing the sand was not so easy) and watched the sun become a deep red and slowly sink. By now the camp was set up included a large carpet on the sand surrounded by big cushions, a fire was nearby to keep us warm and about 8 of those bamboo kerosene lanterns surrounded it for light.

It was a lovely evening of chat, an amazing meal of marinated bbq’d meat, salad and hommus and even a glass of wine. We finished with star watching, and more lying around chatting.

A panorama of the desert.

There was quite a breeze for a while there and the bbq coals were really sparking and flying..

Though this picture isnt clear, I thought it may show how beautul it was at night.

More soon
xD

Dubai - day 1

Well my first impressions of Dubai were "It's Pink"!!!

We walked out of the airport to the rows of waiting taxi's. There are several taxi companies here and they are all beige. The only way to differentiate them is by the colour of the roof. There is red, green, yellow, orange, blue and as I was waling ahead of Mark, I was directed to a pink topped taxi with Ladies taxi written on the side. They are clearly provided, so a woman is not alone in a car with a man here.



Out stepped the driver fully dressed in pink. From shoes to head scarf.... pink!!! Then as we were driving we passed endless gardens of pink and purple petunias. I was thinking everything looked pink but realised the tint on the car windows was slightly pink. It was a surreal first impression of Dubai



As only I can find, our hotel was very obscure to find and even the taxi drivers are a little bamboozled when we say where to take us. The written directions from the hotel were "ask the driver to drop you at the car park of the Sheik Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, then from there ask the security guard to direct you to the hotel". The security guard had one of the cleaners walk us through little winding laneways for about 100m to our hotel. Its in Bastakiya which is a very old early 1900's precinct where wealthy Persian Trades lived near the Dubai Creek.



Our buildings are now a little boutique hotel, an Art Gallery and Cafe. We had to push open dbl heavy timber doors to step through one small room into this internal courtyard. Fortunately, even though we arrived at 7am, we were able to go straight to our room.

This is the veranda our room leads off. There are 2 rooms off this veranda and our room is the final 4 doors you can see. From this veranda we have rooftop views of the mosque, and wind towers on the surrounding buildings.

We showered and had a 2 hr nap and after b'fast in the courtyard here, we headed off to explore. This Bastakiya area is becoming an arts precinct. So many of the buildings are housing art exhibitions or little museums etc. Its very peaceful here.



After a walk to the Dubai Musem we jumped on the tourist bus and enjoyed the running commentary as we went around. This picture shows the development that has happened on the big palm tree islands. This is the road that is the trunk of the tree. Note the monorail running above the middle of the road. Its all very densely built up for a big part of this whole development.

It took seeing a couple of these little buildings that are everywhere around the city. It is an airconditioned bus stop. Built to still encourage public transport use even during the searing heat of summer here.



By late afternoon we got off at Dubai Mall which is also the precinct of Burj Khalifa. Its fascinating to be so close to such an extremely tall building. We enjoyed a cup of tea on a terrace and Mark said he was happy just to see it and didn't need to go up to the observation deck. I thought we should still go .. just for Mitchell who would likely berate us for not doing it.

However, it was not meant to be. The limit the numbers and had sold out. Of course they could make an exception, if we paid an exception amount of money (like AUD $130 each). As we were feeling ambivalent anyway we didnt bother and left happy.

Not going up did NOT stop Mark taking many many photos of it!!!



After a LONG day we figured dinner at a restaurant near the hotel was just what we wanted. We enjoyed a small meal of local dishes.

Walking back through Bastakiya we came upon this little courtyard where they were holding an outdoor cinema. Not a huge group of people but it looked very inviting and had we not been so tired, we may have stayed.

Back in Europe 2011

Again I say... how lucky are we!!

Here is out itinerary as planned...

Dubai
Manarola, Cinque Terra
Nice/ Monaco/ Monte Carlo (Mark's 50th celebrations)
Canal du Midi
Barcelona (Mark heads home from here)
Then for me...
Sottens Switzerland
Ireland
Home

When reading our blog you will no doubt see many faces you know as we are joined along the way by family and friends.

We are so excited to be able to share these experiences and wish we could have you all with us at some point....

It will be just great to have your comments along the way.

xD