Brisvegas Adventurers

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Heading out on a train between the Swiss and Italians Alps we all head towards Milan to pickup a new car in which we will be residing in for the next week.

After finding some toilets and loading up the car we are on our way right out of Milan and straight to Venice! The drive itself was fairly uneventful except for the fact that everyone but us was driving on the right side of the road.... and that there was a traffic jam going into Milan for around 300k´s!! Arriving in Venice was a bit of a mission, but with my trusty stick and camera everything went quite well.

Ahhh, Venezia (that is Italian for Venice!).... It was much better than I had imagined, we were lucky to go on a slightly cooler day and there was no smell of sewage at all, ( at this point I would like to point out that Erika and I have only had 2 bad days of weather and one of the mildest winters experienced in a long time while being here). We spent a good 6 hours or so walking around and managed to find our way around quite well. The shops were in their hundreds and the streets were so narrow that it took some serious shoving to get the girls moving for pretty much the whole walk - but it was fun the entire way. Avoiding the gondola´s in favour for a water taxi and for about a third of the price we saw a massive amount of the city which was terriffic. Thinking about staying another night we opted out of it and headed towards France again the following morning.

Picking a few little towns to visit along the way we came across Lucca, a walled town which had them built not to protect them from assaulting armies but the water level. It was a really nice place and had some amazing little suprises nestled away within its narrow streets and was refreshingly devoid of tourists. Jumping back into the Opel station wagon we continued onto Monaco.

Monte-Expensive-Carlo is the most famous region of Monaco and we only popped in to do a tour of the race track and have a slice of pizza before continuing onto Cannes, home of the International Film Festival and roadside roast chicken stands. From Cannes we went inland and discovered some really amazing places: Antibes, Biot, Grasse, Gourdon, Saint Paul and Nice. The photos will have to wait but I will let them do all the explaining once they are posted.

Leaving Cannes and my parents in Marseilles was quite sobering and made us feel like abandoning the backpackers life style after having a life of comfort for the past 3 weeks while being in their company. But despite the feelings we pressed on to Spain and more specifically Barcelona!

The 9 hour bus ride was quite pleasant actually with background noise being minimal until some children became friends, but that was half interesting too. Once we arrived in Barcelona we were really taken back by the beauty of the city and the really nice hostel! With our spirits restored and our appetite for sights once again whetted we walked. The most amazing sight we saw was the Sagrada Familia Info Here but the most amazing experience was the Magic Fountain, unfortunatley I cannot really describe it well enough to do it justice without some pictures. Google will display some for you in the mean time though. We also met two other Aussie couples just starting their world trip and the excitement from them was hard to contain and spread quite quickly back onto us and the remainder of our journey.

I am being assaulted by black hovering things so I must depart, farewell and see you all in a few weeks!

Getting back to where I left off...

Leaving Budapest we all drove in a pretty straight line straight to Salzburg. Salzburg is the home of the Sound of Music movie and it is a terriffic little place filled with history and some pretty incredible sights. dominating the skyline is a massive castle that started construction in 1077! There were a few other interesting things about the city, the primary one being that it was the birth place of Mozart. We spent two nights here and then went for a drive through Germany on our way to Innsbruck.

The drive! Wow what a difference having a car makes to your opinion of a country. You get to see sights out of the main cities and really get a feel for what the country is and what used to be like.

You also stumble on things that really blow you away, for me that was the Durnback War Cemetery, it was something we flew passed and with that glimpse I knew I had to go back and check it out. So with my dad testing the suspension and tyres on the rental car we plowed back to have a proper look. It really had a dramatic effect on me and despite the below zero temperature I could not pull myself away from it without walking a majority of the cemetery. It was very well cared for and the Germans go to a lot of work with other sites like this all over the country. You can get some further information about it here.

Powering on to our next destination, Neuschwanstein Castle we were greeted with a postcard view. Fresh snow covering the trees and mountain the castle is perched on really made the castle look like it was floating in the clouds. The walk up was pretty fun and there was a compulsary guided tour that we all get herded along with, the castle was never totally finished with only 70% or so of the work being completed. The reason for that was the King died and the new ruler had no interest in seeing the castle or playing for its completion. With the tour down and the hill decent completed we drove on to Innsbruck.

Innsbruck the city of Swarovski, and that is about it... So with that being the only attraction we tackled it head first with a belly full of beer and schnitzel. HOLY SHINEY BALLS OF CRYSTAL BATMAN!! The place was amazing and was really not what I was expecting, the place was decked out in so much crystal that it almost burnt the eyes! The girls loved it and the boys were impressed but less inclined to oogle at all the shiney things. Having eaten all the Schnitzel there was to eat we decided to leave promptly to Switzerland.

Swit-z-land
Having found ourselves back in the land of watches, cheese and chocolate we were made at home in a little flat from a friend of a friend. When we were there last we left out a few of the big sights for when we returned so we tackled them with the zeal of a mountain goat! Aletsch glacier, Matterhorn and the surrounding country side was all conquered by the mighty aussie backpackers, with of course the help of my trusty trike! THE TRIKE was something of a worry for me as I dont have a motor bike license or a manual car license... But it all worked out in the end as everyone jumped on a bike and hurtled down the freeway at 160kph for the days adventure. With the beard and a growl I think I pulled the ride off quite well and with a dash of style to boot. There was plenty of other things that happened here, the revisiting of the igloo and some more bob sleding but those details will have to go untold until we return.

Time is a harsh mistress and Erika is hungry so I must go!

So we left Dublin quite a time a go and since then have visited the following places while with my parents:

Paris - France
Vienna - Austria
Prague - Czech Republic
Bratislava - Slovakia
Budapest - Hungary
Salzburg - Austria
Drove through Germany for a day
Innsbruck - Austria
Brig - Switzerland
Lucerne - Switzerland
Montreux - Switzerland
Venice - Italy
Lucca - Italy
Monte Carlo - Monaco
Cannes - France
Several towns of the Provence area in France: Antibes, Biot, Grasse, Gourdon, Tourettes and Saint Paul de Vence
Avignon - France

So lets go over that whole trip a little more!

Spending another few days in Paris was great, we got to see the Eiffel tower at night with its spectacular light show every hour and went to the top again but this time we used the lift the whole way up....

Eiffel Tower by night

The next day we powered over to Versailles and saw the palace that King Luis and Marie Antoinette used to inhabit until they were dragged out of by an angry mob and beheaded in the center of Paris for their poor leadership and whimsical manner towards the people. The size of the palace is outstanding and took us a good 2 hours to only do a small portion of the rooms and another 3 hours to get a paddle boat in the giant canal within the gardens and visit Marie's private estate and village.

All of us standing in the gardens over looking the grand canal

Versailles Villiage

4am the next morning we got up to fly to Vienna for some breakfast and a hot cup of coffee! With breakfast done we set out too see what Vienna had to offer. After brisk walk around the 8km scenic route we head back to the hotel to get changed for a classical music concert. The second day saw us finishing off some off the other sights including a street designed and built by a group of artists, known as the Kunsthaus. Leaving Vienna by car we head off to the Czech Republic and Prague.

Vienna Palace

Mum and Erika having something to eat from a small market stall.

Art house designed and built by a community of artists.

Prague for the second time was much better, the weather was more favourable and we were doing it in more style with a car and in nicer accommodation. Our first visit was very restrained as we knew we were coming back and I am glad we left things to do! We went with a guided day tour which was great, the whole idea behind doing a tour rather than taking yourself is you get a history lesson as you go and get a few glimpses of the city that you would have missed by yourself. We were staying near the Prague castle and Dad even managed to get directions from one of the guards!

City of 1000 Steeples

Astronomical clock, if you can find someone who can read it correctly it should display the time to the exact minute and has been running since the 14th century.

Charles bridge and the Castle

Dad asking for directions, the guy cracked a smile at that one!

Bratislava was very odd place and you could see that is was trying very hard to get itself up-to-date with modern infrastructure and some new building projects but it was still very much a small town, despite it being the capital of an entire country. We only stayed for a few hours and had a giant schnitzel but that was all we could really find to do there....

Budapest! Now this place was amazing, the Danube river flows through the city splitting it into two sides, Buda and Pest. I would have to say that this is one of the most beautiful places I have been to and it is a city - but only at night! The massive floodlights lighting up the cities monuments and buildings reflect off onto the river and the result is spectacular. The stay here was much too short and I did not even get to climb up any stairs!

Budapest by night

Here is some more of Budapest

And more!

Shanty village planted next to the highway just out of Budapest

Now this post is taking a real long time to put together so I am going to have break it up and finish the rest of the details once we reach Spain. To leave you here are a few more photos...

Innsbruck

Venice

Neuschwanstein Castle

Durnbach War Cemetery in Germany from WWII

The trike I rode around Switzerland

The Black Valley! This place was amazing, with a tiny winding road barely wide enough for a single car.

Ballycarberry Castle built 1594

Ross Abbey. Due to thick mud I was unable to explore any further than the bordering road, although I did try and turned my sneakers into a terrible mess by bogging myself!

Land Ahoy! ...if only these words were said a few decades earlier...

A typical corner on a class three highway in Ireland.

Leaning back on a small stone wall to capture the view below.

The Ring of Dingle scenic drive. Stopping somewhere along the route to take a photo.

Farming land in Ireland

The cliffs of Moher. One of Ireland's premier natural attractions.

Scenic photo!

Erika bravely entered the woods alone, she came out alright though after she gave the wolf a talking to about brushing correctly to keep those shiny teeth.

Dating back to 3000BC, this tomb housed the remains of 33 people.

The Twelve Ben's mountains and lakes and a sheep.

Yep, so we splashed out and got a car by ourselves. After doing some figures on how much it was going to cost to get public transport everywhere, and the time we would have spent waiting for the afore mentioned transport we hired a car from Irish Car rentals (just to support the locals - and because they were the cheapest).

Let me backtrack a few days and get St Paddy's day covered off...

There was some drinking, some singing a little bit of dancing and a whole lot more drinking filled up with some great people and a great venue. I was a little hesitant with some of the local brews so I sampled a few of them through a half pint glass - DO NOT TRY THAT IN IRELAND!!! St Patricks day in Cork was almost stopped because of that little mistake... After a few friendly words and explaining to them that I was Australian and everything thing was ok, the music was turned back on and up a little bit louder.

I also managed to get two hats for myself and Erika - with a little bit of bartering using a stain glass lampshade that was adorning a light next to me at the time, much to the Irish mans glee and the barmaids distress... We finished up in the wee hours of the morning with me feeling slightly under the weather and with Erika feeling a little bit hungry.

St Patricks day + 1

So with the car organised the first thing we did was go out and get drunk! We met a few people and ended up inviting 4 other people with us so we ditched the two who seemed like the least fun and opted for two Canadian guys. After packing the Opel (Europes Holden) Astra with all our gear we set off towards the Ring of Kerry. Now the highways in Ireland are not really highways, they are very narrow and very winding roads with a speed limit of 100kph on them! As hard as a tried I just could not get to the speed limit - after the first few wheel slides I decided to stop trying, especially considering that 90% of the corners are blind and there was often quite a steep drop or sheep running across the road! But the scenery is amazing and the changing weather is also mid blowing, it was sunny for a few hours then it was hailing for 30 minutes, then raining, then bucketing, then hailing, then sunny, then hailing, then really windy and hailing!

St Patricks day + 2

With the Ring of Kerry done and dusted (and some mighty fine seafood chowder consumed) we went on to our next destination, Kilarney. This little town was great, the hostel was also great - with a very mad and dirty Irish man behind the counter this is what I thought Ireland would be like. The hot water tank exploded and the Irish guy wanted to spit on all the girls to clean them! There was a lot more he wanted to do as well and his open hate for all things related to tourists was such a laugh (if you know my brother Ben he was like him but smaller and 10 times as angry).

St Patricks day + 4

With the sights around Kilarney conquered we drove on to Galway. Armed with our trusty map with sights cleary marked on it we drove past most of them! Seriously this map was placing things up to 15kms off target and with Irelands reputation for great signage (there is none!!) we just took any random road to see where it would take us. After seeing a waterfall for the second time we decided that it was in fact the one we were looking for and parked the car, only to find the only sign deep within the carpark itself stating that we were in fact at the waterfall. We have not yet planned our trip for tomorrow but that is something we will worry about when the time comes!

The trek that would change our lives! Moments before the proposal.

Ahhhh, there is nothing like a hot cup of coffee in Italy to finish the day.

We are buying a villa and moving here one day, want to come with us?

Urinal on the street in Berlin

Sachenhausen Concentration camp, this is the memorial for all of the killed victims in WWII, this is located in the area of the old gas chambers!

TV tower revolving restaurant - Berlin

View of the castle in Prague

Carnivale (Switzerland), Josh playing the white elephant!

Fondue in an Igloo - this photo is taken from the opening of the man made igloo that seats upto 12 adults.

Simplon Pass - Taken just after arriving in the chalet in the alps, and moments before Josh popped the question!

Mt. Leone - Swiss alps

Erika and Bari - taken at a ski slope that had a mini festival on...yes it was snowing!

Hop Visp! Fianl game of the premiership - yes we won!

Florence by night

Street in Naples

Us leaving Capri on the ferry

View from Capri - a neighbouring Island.

Capri - clear blue water and a perfect day, we could have stayed here for months.

One of the excavated streets in Pompeii - you can see the vulcano Vesuvius in the background.

View of Pompeii - Josh climbed above and beyond for this one.

Trevi fountain.

Vatican Post - i hope that you all recieved your postcards from Italy's most reliable postal system - oh and the Pope blessed the stamps!

Having a laugh - making some faces, Erika was in histerics.

The view from Palatine Hill

Colosseo - formerly known to the Romans as the 'Flavian Ampitheatre'.

Hello all!

So you have all read the news that Josh and I are now engaged, what a surprise that was - i nearly lost my breath, not only due to the high altitude but over the shock of the event at hand, it was actually perfect and that is the only word that i can use to explain it.

So further more, now we are in Italy.
We started off in Florence, I must admit that when we got off the train we were grossly shocked at the state of the streets and the smell of this place we were in.
We got to our hostel and that was nothing worth mentioning, the "guest kitchen" was not even a kitchen, it was a room with a sink and 2 little electric hot plates - no fridge and no kettle or microwave!!!!
So after we got over the shock of the disgust, we journeyed around the city - personally i was starting to like Florence, bridge Vecchio (the longest standing bridge in florence) is worth marvelling over as it is full of goldsmiths and jewellery shops, oh and not to mention the polizia that patrol the bridge that Josh thought were strippers after his first glance at them.
We saw the Duomo that is quiet amazing and the Michaelangelo square are also tourist sights to see..... here we had our first taste of Italian pasta and gelati (yes they are the best ever).
The next day we took a day tour to Siena and San Gimignano which are in Tuscany and the drive there was just like the movies - Siena holds an anual horse race around the octagonal town square which is the event not to miss here....Tuscany really is a beautiful part of Italy.

After Florence we headed to Naples and travelling there we werent sure what to expect as we had heard so many bad stories about this city. However, as we had already accepted that there is alot more pollution here than our lovely clean country of residence, arriving was not so bad.
My personal hate is the walk from the train station to the hostel as we are carrying our 15kg+ backpacks and are totally helpless. Naples when we got off the train was busy with scooters speeding through the streets and ignoring the pedestrians, i was a little afraid doing this walk....
Our hostel here was nice though and really quiet homely, however there was a great flight of stairs to climb.
We did a day tour to Capri during our stay here and absolutely loved it, the water was clear blue and the sun was shining brightly... we easily could have stayed here for a week - I would strongly recommend Capri to anyone.

The next day we did a trip to Pompeii, the city that was covered over by the vulcano Vesuvius and then later rediscovered and left to its original state.... i think the vulcano erupted in 79AD and excavations did not commence until the 1700s.... some buildings still have the frescoes on the walls and one particular building worth mentioning is the brothel that is still intact and has concrete beds in each room and frescoes on the walls of "compromising positions"! (the brothel is not in use at present however and has not been since the vulcanic eruption)
I took alot from Pompeii as walking through these cobblestone streets that are now a tourist destination and able to see the vulcano, how immense and extreme this natural disaster would have been.

So leaving Naples we were off to Rome, a much nicer and relatively clean city, the hostel once again is not worth mentioning.
Firstly, Vatican city was cool, St peters Basillica (the largest cathedral in the world) is really quiet large!
And secondly the Sistine Chapel was fascinating - Michaelangelo and Boticelli and other famous artists climbed the walls to illustrate these fabulously colourful and meaningful pieces of work!
I could have sat in here for hours, 'the last judgement' by Michelangelo is the one that will remain my favourite.....
Other sights that we have seen on our walking through the city are : the monument dedicated to the unknown soldier, the pantheon, the trevi fountain, the spanish steps i will mention however they were full of italian teenagers so not alot to build a judgement on....
You may be wondering why i have forgotten to mention another huge tourist destination in Rome..... the Colosseum, well we havent been there yet - we still have 3 more nights here so we are doing that on Monday!

So now we are planning our time with Josh's parents that we meet in Paris in 2 weeks - we are looking forward to spending time with them and driving through Europe (i in particular am looking forward to some female company, and josh some male company).
So i will say goodbye and you should hear from Josh soon about the rest of Rome and some of Ireland (we are going there for St. Pattys day)

As the Italians say "Ciao"

I left this for a seperate entry considering it is such an important thing!

So for a while now I have been thinking about 'popping the question' and I got around to it in Switzerland at 2000m above sea level - so if the question did not take her breath away then the altitude surely would!!

I have some friends in Switzerland from a few years ago when they boarded with my family, one of them (Bari) helped me out with buying the ring and another (Sebi) helped me out with the location. His parents have a chalet up in the Alps and I thought that would be the perfect place to do the deed.

So after arriving, lighting a wood fire and settling in we popped on our snow shoes and I popped the ring in my pocket and we set off into the snow! Reaching a small summit with no one else in sight and only the sound of crackling ice and melting snow I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the ring box.

I made some causual remark then asked Erika, if she would like to marry me. At first she did not believe me but it sank in and she said yes! So that is the news everyone, we are engaged!

Photos coming soon!