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Posts tagged ‘Europe’

Jul 29

En route to Paris

Upon leaving Lausanne we have two days before we are due in Paris for dinner with our niece Claire. Not being a fan of one night stops we opt to pick a town along the way and spend two nights.

In total it’s about 5 hours, so if we do a few hours before we stop, it will make the second half an easy drive into Paris.

We sort of stumble upon Semur-en-Auxois as our mid-point destination, another one of your typical medieval french villages sitting atop a bluff.

We really are sounding a bit blasé about the spectacular historical sites in front of us. It’s just that we are surrounded by them. Châteaux after châteaux, castle after castle; they are all magnificent, set in stunning locations, but we can’t visit them all.

We find a room for €70 at the Hotel Cymaises. A former 18th century mansion converted into a hotel. It’s well located with parking on the property (always a bonus).

We spend our full day visiting some of the surrounding towns and sites of Burgundy:

Abbaye de Fontenay, a UNESCO world heritage site, was founded in 1118, it is one of finest Monasteries in France. The 6 hectare property was converted into a paper mill between 1791-1906. Then Eduardo Aynard purchased the property and commenced restoring it. Today, the property remains in the family and they continue to maintain and restore it, primarily with their own funds.

Vézelay; another UNESCO site, is famous for the Basilica of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine. It is believed that monks had relics of Mary Magdelene. These relics were apparently torched by Huguenots in the 16th century.

Being in the region of Burgundy, it would be remiss not to sample some local wine. We visit Domain Camu just outside of Vézelay. After tasting a few, we leave with a dozen wines in hand; a start to our supply for Dordogne.

We try to stick with local wines, often the house wine; “vin rouge de la maison, s’il vous plaît.” An essential french phrase in our limited repertoire. It’s fair to say, the WCP has dropped dramatically since crossing into France. Buying bottles at a vineyard averages about €6 a bottle, about the same for a carafe of house wine at a bistro.

Driving back to the hotel we pass through Époisses. In the centre of the town stands the 15th century Castle of Époisses. It’s a very imposing and grand building, surrounded by a moat. The adjoining grounds also include a chapel and a dovecote with over 3000 huts. A rickety ladder is crafted to slide around the inside to access the pigeon homes.

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Jul 27

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Lausanne

For this entry I need to introduce Penny Ryan, nee King.  The key ‘Penny’ facts are:

  • grew up in Melbourne,
  • close school friend of Kay’s (Don’s Sister),
  • went to work in London,
  • married Donal (Irish, but we won’t hold that against him).
  • Penny and Donal have four children; Ed, Jack, Olivia and Stephanie,
  • they have been living in Switzerland for the past four years.

We arrive on their doorstep with offerings of cheese, chocolates and wine. In return, Penny and Co, are generously putting us up for three nights and loaning me her washing machine.

It’s a full house.  Eighteen year old Ed returns the same day from touring around northern Italy with his mate Dave.  Penny is collecting Jack the next day from Ireland, where he has been at a rugby camp with his mate Peter.

It happens that Dave and Peter are brothers.  So, in total there are 10 of us in the house.

Penny is a no fuss sort of person.  Someone who immediately makes you feel at home and one of the family.  She takes it all in her stride and masterfully coordinates the hectic household.

It should also be noted how impressed we are with the Ryan children and friends who all pitch in. That’s once you interrupted their chatter – online chatter.

I think they are the generation that is using whatever the hottest app is; whether it be texts, tweets or facebooking each other rather than talking!

Besides hanging out with the Ryan’s and catching up on a few loads of washing, we did also get out to explore a bit of Lausanne and surrounds. 

Gruyère is a small medieval town perched on a hill and of course with a castle.  It’s a very charming town.  Alps in the background and lush rolling hills dotted with cows. No doubt the same cows that provide the essential ingredient for the cheese.  Perfect place for a Gruyère cheese fondue.

Cheese and chocolate are two of my favourite foods. Where else, but in Switzerland can you sample both in the same region?  This is quickly becoming my favourite country.

Down the road from Gruyère is Maison Cailler, the chocolate factory for Cailler chocolates.  The local Gruyère cows also supply the chocolate factory (busy cows).  It’s chocolate is renowned for being rich and creamy, due to the use of sweetened condensed milk, rather than milk powder.

The Cailler history dates back to the early 1800’s.  The brand formed a relationship with Nestle in the early 1900’s, becoming part of the group in 1929.

You can tour the factory and at the end, sample all the chocolates you want.  Sounds like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory; but all that chocolate quickly becomes a little too rich.  We did however purchase a couple of blocks for our travels.

My recommendation to anyone going to Lausanne is to visit the Olympic Museum.  It’s located in the well-to-do suburb of Ouchy, on the shores of Lake Geneva, which is worth a visit to enjoy the splendid ornate architecture.

The Museum gardens include an impressive sculpture garden and an outdoor running track, where you can race against Usain Bolt – Don didn’t even get out of the blocks!

Inside is very well done; interactive and informative displays take you through the history of both the summer and winter games.  It is a bit exhausting with so much to see, read and watch.

And you can’t avoid the Olympic Marketing machine, Visa has it all sewn-up.  You can only pay by Cash or Visa, no MasterCard accepted here!  They will accept any currency, with an in-their-favour exchange rate!

After several hours of immersing ourselves in the olympic spirit, we head back to the Ryan’s for the Saturday night ritual of homemade pizza, just scrumptious!

Don has known Penny since childhood and has previously met the Ryan clan (well at least those who were born at the time), but I am a new introduction, who quickly feels like I have known them forever.

We spend our time swapping stories about people and places we share in common.  For us, feeling part of a family for a few days was just what we needed after 5 months on the road. These are the simple things we miss.   

We love the Ryan’s and thank them all so much for having us.  Olivia, thank you for giving up your comfortable bed for us as well.

Watch out, we may be back!

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PS: The Ryan’s also have a fantastic shower, it rates up among the best we have had!

Jul 24

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Lucerne

We have been steering ourselves towards Lucerne for this one particular night, just because James Blunt is playing in town.

It’s not because we are James Blunt fans, though I may be able to claim ‘groupie’ status, having now seen his shows and met him at least 4 times – not that he would remember.

The sound engineer for Blunt has become a good friend of Don’s, they bonded over a mutual love of golf.

Mike Hornby lives a nomadic life traveling with Blunt on his current world tour.  Hornby is a highly respected veteran (some even say legend), in the music industry, having worked with the likes of Radiohead, Supergrass, Lloyd Cole, John Cale and Joe Strummer. Those who know me, know that most of those names mean nothing to me!

The best thing I love about Mike are his stories (because I don’t love golf that much).  He’s always got an amusing story to share about the antics that go on ‘on tour’, surprisingly they generally consist of innocent good fun.  Like removing all the furniture out of his hotel room.

We are sworn to secrecy and cannot divulge anymore.  We all know the adage; “what goes on tour stays on tour!”

Mike generously provides us tickets for the show.  Lucky for us he is touring with Blunt and not Supergrass, I don’t think I could sit through a Supergrass concert.  We catch-up with Mike for a few hours after the show, swapping tales – his are much funnier than ours.

We bid him farewell with the hope to catch-up again somewhere around the world.  Mike  boards his luxury coach, one of two that shuttle Blunt and his entourage around Europe.  It’s an overnight drive to his next destination.  The coaches might be all luxurious, fitted out with beds and lounges, but I don’t think I would enjoy the lifestyle.

By the way; Lucerne also happens to be a beautiful city.  I could say picture-perfect, but I think that phrase is heading into over use.  However, it is true.  Situated on Lake Lucerne and surrounded by the swiss alps, the medieval old town is well preserved with some gorgeous architecture sweeping around the lake.

The Chapel bridge forms the centerpiece of the townscape.  The covered wooden bridge is one of the oldest in Europe, though it was damaged in a fire in 1993, it has since been fully restored.

The one purchase we make in Lucerne is a Bodum coffee plunger.  We pass a Bodum store with a sale.  The price of coffee is becoming exorbitant, so the idea of making our own brew is a good one.   We quickly calculate the payback – about 6 cups of coffee, after you buy the coffee.  We are now the proud owners of a bright yellow Bodum coffee plunger.

Switzerland being as expensive as it is, we booked a room in the Youth Hostel.  Not having done the backpacking thing in his youth, Don has never stayed in a youth hostel before.

It’s a basic set-up; simple room, communal kitchen and the biggest bonus is that it’s walking distance to concert venue.  The one downside was the shared bathrooms, the first time we have had to actually share.  Our room is opposite the shower and after listening to several people take one, we decided we could skip one that morning.

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Jul 23

Zürich

Magit words rang true – Switzerland is one very expensive country. In searching for accommodation, we quickly realised this was going to be a costly detour.

But, so be it; we had been reminded of late, that this a not ‘if only…’ tour; we don’t want to end up back in Australia saying “If only we’d gone there, seen that, done that…”

We stretch our budget to $150 a night. For Zürich, that’s still on the cheap side. However, Casa Heindrich, turns out to be a lovely place to stay. The young woman (wow, I feel old using age as an adjective), also sorts us out with a parking permit for the car. Our room comes with a little kitchenette. This will be very useful; we are going to be doing a lot of eating in!

Our daily luxury is purchasing coffee, the CPI spikes to AUS$5.40 each. It’s good coffee but small cups! Magit was right – just being here costs you money. We check-out the prices in McDonalds, always a good benchmak, AUS $12 for a Big Mac. I couldn’t actually tell you how much one is in Australia, I’m guessing around $5? Can one of you closet MacD addicts report back?

It’s about a 2km walk into the centre of town. Walking shoes on and umbrella in hand we set off to explore Zürich (the umbrella was acquired by Don in Istanbul, but that’s another story!). My pangs of guilt for the forgetful tourist are long gone, the umbrella has come in handy of late.

The old parts of Zürich display a majestic city dripping in wealth. Grand boulevards lined with every designer brand you can think off. The luxury retail market is dominated by watches; Rolex, Rado, Tag Heuer are well know names.  Then there are the even more prestigious; Patek Philip, Chopard or Blancpain (never heard of the later, but they’ve been making watches since 1735).

OK, we know the swiss are famous for watches, but how many watches can you sell in a day? Alongside the designer watch shops are designer chocolates. But, the best find of the day was Calanda beer, so of course Don had to sample it.

We decide we should educate ourselves in the Swiss cultural heritage and visit the Swiss National Museum. It was also pouring with rain and it was a good place to stay dry. We manage to fill in a few hours learning about Swiss history. I’d always thought the swiss had it easy, playing the neutrality card in every war; not so. Basically, they managed to alienate themselves from both sides!

As we are leaving Zürich we asked a local policeman; there are several conducting some sort of spot check in our street – “do we need a Vignette?” To which he replies “yes”. It was a slightly longer conversation in pigeon english/french, but I won’t bore you with the details.

We had been mislead in Austria, as we had asked about the Vignette just before the border. When driving is Switzerland you need a Vignette to drive on the national roads, it’s almost impossible to avoid driving on the national roads. A Vignette is simply a road tax. You buy a sticker and place it on your windshield. The cost a Vignette is SF$40 (AUS$50), they are valid for a year, but are non transferable (impossible to peel off).

Great, we need one for 5-6 days, We might be back, but we will be in a different car. The risk of not buying one and getting a fine is SF$100. We buy a Vignette before we leave Zürich.

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Jul 21

Odl lay hee hoo

We have been promising to visit St Anton and go skiing with friends Vicky and Tony for sometime. They spend the entire season here each year.

Unfortunately, it’s summer here and Vicky and Tony are back in Australia enjoying the remarkable season down there. But, here we are in St Anton!

We are excited to be catching up with Andrea (also mutual friend of V&T). Andrea’s Mum comes over from the States to hike each year with her friend Diane.

Andrea has just been in Europe cycling and holidaying in Greece with Vicky, who has been celebrating a birthday (won’t say which). Our travel plans didn’t end up coinciding with Vicky’s, so we didn’t get to celebrate with her.

St Anton is a picture perfect alpine village. Designed for skiing, it’s also a popular hiking and cycling destination in summer. The night we arrive, the local summer fair is on and we have dinner in town enjoying more Austrian music. Not as good as the Fritzens, but entertaining all the same.

I could say we went on a hike, but perhaps ‘leisurely walk’ would be a better definition. The easier trail was opted for in favour of the lesser experienced Aussie tourists. Otherwise, our three hosts would have been scaling mountains!

The weather also proved a bit of a hinderance and threatening rain shortened our walk to 3 hours.  Just as the rain was coming in, we made it back for lunch in one of the huts up the mountain for some traditional Austrian fare.

We have a fun two nights, spending most of it chatting and laughing. We play Skip-Bo; a crazy card game Andrea and Magit have recently been introduced to. It was wonderful to catch-up on Andrea’s world (as we have not seen her in 18 months), meet Magit again (the last time was at least 5 years or so ago in Australia) and meet Diane for the first time.

We very much enjoyed the simple pleasure in just hanging and relaxing with friends, old and new. So a big thank you Andrea, Magit and Diane for welcoming us, sharing your wine and food, entertaining and educating us. It was a memorable few days.

Magit grew up in Austria and her knowledge of Europe is extensive. She gives us some great tips on where to go and also, where not to go – avoid Switzerland “it’s soooo expensive, it costs you money just being there”, these are her lingering words as we bid farewell.

The scenic Arlbergstraße takes us north through the Alps, the weather is however bleak and miserable, any plans to stop and see more of the Austrian mountainside quickly fade. What we did see through the drizzle and fog looked magnificent. Hopefully we will come back through this area and we certainly have itchy feet to come skiing in St Anton.

We stop for coffee and to strategize on where we are staying tonight. With the weather looking dodgy we decide that a larger town/city will have more on offer than staying in the alps. Against the advice of Magit, we head into Switzerland deciding to make Zurich our home for two nights.

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