Day 62 Madrid

29 June
After breakfast in our apartment we went out onto the streets of Madrid. We went to the huge palace of the Spanish royal family and looked around the gardens called campo del moro at one end of the palace. There are lots of parks and trees around the city which makes it really nice to walk around, we also went to the large park, parquet de el retiro. In the evening we went to the museo nacional del prado with free entry (from 6pm). We saw paintings by Rembrandt and Rafael, among others. We went for a late dinner at a tapas bar where we ordered a lot of potato by accident.

Day 61 Barcelona to Madrid

28 June
A full day of bus from Barcelona to Madrid. We started at 8am and got into our accommodation around 8pm. We are staying in a room in a flat close to the centre of Madrid. There are lots of shops, bars and cafes in the area around our room. We walked across the road for dinner and had massive Spanish flavoured sandwiches.

Day 60 Barcelona

27 June
After Alistair's good interview with dof subsea we joined another free architecture walking tour, this time through the Gothic region of Barcelona. In the afternoon we continued exploring the Gothic area because it was full of interesting shops and buildings. For dinner we met up with Giordano and some of his friends (although from Milan he lived in Barcelona for 3 years). We had a drink in the back streets of the Gothic area before dinner of a huge mixed paella and a couple of litres of sangria. After dinner we walked down to the port where all the night hot spots are. We were offered all sorts of drinks and drugs on the streets.

Day 59 Barcelona

26 June
Barcelona wakes up late (10am), has a siesta and then stays up late. There was literally no one on the streets before 10am. We walked to La Rambla, the main street in Barcelona, and visited the market La Boqueria full of fresh fruit, meat, seafood and lollies. We joined a free walking tour that took us to some of the famous Gaudi architecture in the city, run by students. The photo shows Gaudi's church, started in the early 1900s and expected to be finished around 2020. After lunch we wandered the streets more before joining a Spanish cooking class. We made some tapas and sangria and watched the chef make seafood paella (we also ate it all!)

Day 58 Avignon to Barcelona

25 June
Today we had the morning free in Avignon. We walked to the old town again to check out the halle markets- loads of fresh produce, and outside some stalls selling antiques. We then walked to the pick up point for busabout. We found a bakery full of the most beautiful sweets and cakes and pastries. We had a crazy guide on the bus on the way to Barcelona today, super excited. We got in around 7pm and walked up to the university district where our accommodation is. For dinner we went to an awesome tapas place and on the way home I tried a cup of sangria! Yum!
The photos are of the bakery in Avignon and a Gothic cathedral in Barcelona.

Day 57 Avignon

24th June
Today we slept in until late, catching up on sleep we missed in Nice. When got up we found a close patisserie and had a selection of delicious croissants for breakfast. We then explored the old town looking at the pont d'Avignon and the papal palace, as well as following several walks inside the walls. We had some baguettes for lunch and a raspberry tart for afternoon tea. For dinner we went to a place in the lonely planet guide that had lots of stews and slow cooked dishes, with a girl we met on the bus and was also staying at the YMCA.

Day 56 Nice to Avignon

23 June
After last nights unsuccessful attempt to find accommodation we decided to leave Nice and go to Avignon on the busabout. I had found some good accommodation at a YMCA and booked ahead. We both slept on the bus trip. when we got to Avignon we walked through the new town to our accommodation. We then went to the old town for lunch and wandered around. We went for a swim in the YMCA pool then back to old town for dinner. We went to a place that was highly recommended by trip advisor and the food was amazing. I had fish with pasta and Alistair had a savory crepe. For dessert Alistair had the best baked cheesecake and I had a sweet crepe. I loved the cafe because of the atmosphere of eating on street in France, still daylight to around 10!

Day 55 Milan to Nice

22 June
Today was another early start to a long day of travel. Our first train was from Milan to La Spezia.  From there we got on the busabout to Nice.
The bus was running about an hour late to pick us up, then we also had bad traffic and engine problems getting to Nice. Unfortunately we had trouble finding any accommodation in Nice and the Wi-Fi on the bus wasn't working. All things combined led to us getting in very late with no accommodation. We spent the second half of the night sleeping in the downstairs section of the busabout hostel on the floor. We decided to slightly change our itinerary and head to Avignon tomorrow.

Day 54 Zermatt to Milan

21 June
Today we started in the bracing Swiss air with a clear view of the matterhorn in the distance. It ended with a 6 euro buffet and cocktail in a gay-friendly bar, called the elephant, in Milan. In between were a few trains and a bit of sightseeing around the Milan duomo with a personal tour guide, a friend from wise winery.

Day 54 Zermatt to Milan

21 June
Today we started in the bracing Swiss air with a clear view of the matterhorn in the distance. It ended with a 6 euro buffet and cocktail in a gay-friendly bar, called the elephant, in Milan. In between were a few trains and a bit of sightseeing around the Milan duomo with a personal tour guide, a friend from wise winery.

Day 53 Zermatt

20 June
We woke up this morning to rain and thunder, not the best for hiking in the alps. We wandered around town for a bit waiting for the rain to clear. In the end we decided to brave the weather and visit the gorner valley at the southern end of the town. It was a pretty cool valley with steep walls and fast moving water. We walked along a wooden path built on the side of the valley. After lunch we followed the railway track up to a large waterfall then took another path home that took us along the side of Zermatt. The first and third photos are from the valley, the second from the top of the waterfall. It has been a bit difficult to find places to eat within our budget so we haven't tried much Swiss food and mostly relying on the supermarket.

Day 52 Zermatt

19 June
Today we set of to explore the Swiss alps. We caught a cable car up to sunnegga. We then followed a suggested route along the alps stopping at several alpine lakes before descending into Zermatt. At sunnegga we had a good view of Matterhorn before it was covered in cloud for the rest of the day. We stopped for an afternoon apple strudel in a cafe in the alps. We saw lots of waterfalls, ice and had stunning views of the surrounding peaks. We did the walk over 6 hours and covered 16km.

Day 51 La Spezia to Zermatt

18 June
From La Spezia we caught 3 trains to Zermatt. Firstly changing trains in Milan and also at Brig. The third train of the day was very scenic winding though the Swiss alps and seeing snow capped mountains in the distance. We are staying in a hostel, in a dorm room, which will be an experience! The town is very touristy and experience but beautiful.

Day 50 Cinque Terra

17 June
We woke up to find a market had materialised outside our window. We went down before breakfast and spent 2.50 euro on a punnet of strawberries, half a kilo of cherries and 2 rolls for lunch. After breakfast we caught a very crowded train to the last town in the Cinque Terra series, Monterosso. We then walked the whole way along the coastline between the towns, maybe around 12km in total (some of the coast tracks were closed so we had detours up the cliffs a bit). The towns were then Vernazza,  Corniglia, Manarola and finally Riomaggiore. The scenery was spectacular with the deep blue of the med next to the green terraced farms and the brightly painted houses of the towns. There were also lots of bright flowers near the track amongst the crops and vines. The day was very hot, at lunch time in Corniglia we stopped for a swim and went snorkeling around a lagoon. In Riomaggiore we had a cone of freshly cooked calimari, as a reward for walking the entire trail,about 6.5 hours.

Day 49 Florence to La Spezia

16 June
We caught the busabout (yay!) from Florence to La Spezia today. The bus left around 8am and we drove for about an hour and a half before getting to Pisa. We spent a bit of time in the main square of Pisa and took photos with the famous tower. We then drove another hour into La Spezia where we found our way to our room in a little apartment that is named after a pet turtle, which why I chose it. It lived up to my expectations being decorated with turtle theme! I finally cooked a meal, pasta with pesto and chicken.

Day 48 Venice

15 June
Today we went to Venice by 2 trains. We had to change over in Bologna. When the train pulled into Venice we followed the crowds to Saint Mark's Square, on the far side of Venice to the train station. Initial impressions of Venice were very touristy and crowded and less canals and bridges than we expected. We listened to an audioguide in the square explaining the basilica, clock tower, bell tower, shopping precinct and the palace. The guide also talked about the history of Venice and the floods that occur up to 100 times a year! We also walked to the bridge of sighs that joins the palace to the prison.

After lunch in a park we wandered back across Venice happy getting lost in side streets and alleyways, keeping the grand canal on our left. We then went towards Dorsoduro, on the other side of Venice, where there were much less crowded streets and more canals and bridges -more the picture of Venice we both had in our heads.

day 47 Florence

13 June
First thing we went to the accademia gallery. It took us a while to get in, about 40 minutes. Again we came prepared with a downloaded guide to the gallery. The main attraction is the statue of David which stands 14 feet high at the of the main hallway. Down the hallway are also Michelangelo's prisoners which are men partly carved out of blocks of marble-like they are trying to escape. We also did a walk that followed the history of the renaissance in Florence through several piazzas and looking at impressive buildings. We also saw a copy of David (photo). For dinner we found another meal and drink deal, thru are quite common in Florence.

Day 46 Rome to Florence

13 june
Today had a bad start full of close calls. We were a few seconds late getting the first train which had a domino effect on the rest of our timing. We got ourselves to Florence by mid afternoon, which is the main thing. we walked up to the piazza Michelangelo where we had views over the whole of Florence. the day ended well with a cheap buffet meal and large cocktails.

Day 45 Pompei

13 June
We had an early start to catch the train to Naples, it took about 2 hours and 40 minutes. Then we got another train out to pompei. We walked around the preserved city from 79AD listening to a downloaded audioguide. The paintings, pottery and even some plaster cast humans help to understand what the city was like. We caught the train back to Naples to wait for our train back to Rome. We looked around the train station at Naples but the neighborhood was a bit scary so we didn't go far. We accidently ordered a donut pizza along with a normal pizza for dinner before the 640 train to Rome.

Day 44 Rome

11 June
Our aim was to try and miss the crowds to visit the Vatican city. We arrived in the area around 1030 and stopped for coffee and some delicious pastries. We then explored around the castel st angelo. We headed toward the Vatican city around midday trying to avoid all the people selling tours that "cut the lines". The lines were not too bad, less than 20 minutes to get in. We saw lots of beautiful art including the sistine chapel where we sat for half an hour listening to an audioguide we had downloaded before we left our accommodation. The guide explained a lot about michaelangelo and the story of the panels around the chapel. After the Vatican museum we went to St Peter's basilica where we also listened to another downloaded audioguide. The proportions of the cathedral were crazy, the nave around 2 American football fields long and the bronze arch over the altar was 7 storeys high, you can see in the last photo but my phone camera does not capture the scale.

Day 43 Rome

10 June
In order to beat the crowds we got up early and walked to the Colosseum. We got there just after opening time and got in without too much waiting. We hired an audioguide to take us around the building. On the same ticket we also got into the Roman forum which is a large area with ruins of ancient government buildings. After lunch we went back to the pantheon to look inside (we didn't go in yesterday as part of the walking tour). It is one of Rome's best preserved buildings with a big opening to the sky in the middle of the dome.
For dinner Alistair made ravioli with a tomato sauce and chicken cordon bleu (very spoilt with 2 home cooked meals by Alistair, I will need to cook soon I'm sure!)

day 42 Rome

9 June
today we decided to walk around Rome to get a feel of the place. we followed a suggested route that passed through several of the famous piazzas. at piazza san pietro we saw the pope (!) who gave a blessing to the crowd. we also saw the trevi fountain, the spanish steps, the pantheon, the circus maximus, the castel saint angelo, and the vittorio emanuele II whilst wandering Rome along with lots of beautiful buildings and fountains. we joined a free walking tour at 530PM which gave us a bit more info about some of the areas we had visited. for dinner we had the best pizza in Rome according to the owner of our b&b.

the pictures show the sunset, piazza San Pietro, then vittorio emamuele, the trevi fountain, and the pope at his study window.

day 41 Crete to Rome

8 June
goodbye to Greece, a short stay but we both managed to get addicted to souvlaki!
we spent today traveling.we caught 3 buses to get from stalis to the chania airport. then a flight to Rome where we used an airport shuttle bus then a train to get to our b&b, a casa a testaccio. we went to an Italian restaurant where we had pasta and house wine on tap. we are looking forward to exploring Rome, apparently most of the sites are within walking distance.

day 40 crete

7 June
we walked from stalis to Malia, about a 5km walk. Malia is a bit bigger town and turns out to be a lot more touristy- full of sunburnt poms. we had lunch there and walked into the old town with lots of old Greek buildings. we walked back along the beach and had a swim at the hotel pool.
for dinner we had swordfish bought from Malia, and a salad, cooked by Alistair. we also had some olives and fetta.