28th Feb - Top Fives

Gosh, I can't believe our amazing adventure is at an end, but our memories will live on. So many people have asked what we loved the most or felt wasn't worth seeing. I have to say it was very tough to comment. How do you compare the Guggenheim in Bilbao with the rugged beauty of the Abruzzo moutains in Italy? Anyway, here's our attempt.

Top Five Experiences

1. Alborg, Denmark – The amazing hospitality provided by Lone who didn’t even know us
2. Watching trashy UK and US TV on cable – especially ‘Pimp my Ride’ which was Tam’s favourite show
3. Doing the house swaps and feeling like we ‘lived’ in each of the cities
4. Driving in the Abruzzo Mountains (Italy) getting down to minus 14 degrees at 1270m above sea level with glorious blue skies on the way to Sulmona
5. Copenhagen, Denmark – enjoying the wonders of Culture Night and then attending the festivities the next morning to announce the birth of ‘Our Mary’s prince’.
6. Edinburgh Festival – seeing 12 comedy shows, 2 movies and the Military Tattoo in one week

Top Five Architectural Sites

1. Trier, Germany – Porta Negra
2. St Cirq Lapopie, France – Medieval town
3. Pompei, Italy – Ruins of Pompei
4. Abruzzo, Italy – Roccascalegna castle on a cliff edge
5. Mont St Michel, France – Abbey of St Michael

Top Five Food Experiences

1. Potsdam, Germany – Thai food
2. Berlin, Germany – Margaux Restaurant (the food presentation, taste and outstanding service)
3. Bordeaux, France – (dessert platter)
4. Street stalls – crepes around France with nutella, lemon, M&M’s and other strange ingredients
5. Venice, Italy - Mum paying AUS$100 for a roast chicken dish at Harry’s Bar

Top five villages/ cities

1. St Cirq Lapopie, France – Medieval town
2. Paris, France
3. Berlin, Germany
4. Venice, Italy
5. Caunes- Minervois, France

Top Five Unexpected Finds

1. Brantome, France

2. Trier, Germany

3. Utrecht, Netherlands

4. Bordeaux, France

5. Bremen, Germany

Top Five Modern Venues

1. Bilbao, Spain – Guggenheim Museum (Mark waited 5 yrs following our Spanish holiday and worth the wait)
2. Nimis, Sweden – strange drift wood sculpture up to five stories high
3. Paris, France – Georges Pompidou Centre (you can even take photos inside)
4. Billund, Denmark – Legoland (need we say more!)
5. Berlin, Germany – Jewish Holocaust Memorial (in sight of Brandenburg Gates and Parliament)

Well Mark's back at work and Tam's on the job hunt trail. Life in Melbourne is wonderful of course, but I'm sure in a few week's we'll be wanting to have more adventures!

5th Feb – Rome review

Well after driving back from Venice in some snow and avoiding too much bad weather, we decided to leave Casoli a day early (to avoid another snow front) and chose to stay the night in Tivoli (just 30kms out of Rome).

We saw the magnificent Villa D’Este, which rivals our memories of Spain’s Alhambra for the grandeur and gardens. This was built for Cardinal Este about 500 yrs ago. The following morning we saw Hadrian’s Villa which was in ruins but there was still a fair bit there so you could appreciate how they lived.

On Monday 30^th we handed the car back to the Citroen dealer and finally left the car with a LOT of kilometers on the dash! We arrived at our last stop (on the Continent), our apartment in a North East suburb of Rome (about 15 mins by train from the main Terminus). The place was on the 8^th floor with views of the distant snowy mountains. We had a little drizzle Monday, but Tuesday/Wednesday/ Thursday before I left were glorious, getting up to 18 degrees!

On Tuesday we walked for nearly 6 hrs (with breaks) and saw the Pantheon, Foro Imperiali, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona and an amazing church – S Maria Maggiore (amongst others).

We decided to have a quieter day on Wednesday and took a ‘hop on/ hop off’ bus tour of Ancient Rome in the glorious sunshine and saw the Colosseum, Forum, Largo Argentina temple ruins, Basilica S Maria Angelli and the outside of Basilica S Pietro (Vatican).

Thursday we packed up my stuff and everyone came to the airport to see me off. Friday, Tam and Mum plan to visit the Vatican and a final shopping day on Saturday. On Sunday Mum heads back to Melbourne and Tam goes onto Scotland for a final week. Missing her already and I’m not sure how I’ll adjust to normal stuff like work, from tomorrow!

Final installment by Tam in a fortnight – including Top Five.