4/7/2014

Day 14

Woke up early again and to get picked up to go to Mont-Saint-Michel. This is a monastery which is a bit like a castle and there are villages around it and it is on an island. The monastery and village is medieval style. Our guide showed us around Mont-Saint-Michel said that there where hotels on the island but they were very expensive and they are usually for the honeymooners. The village is full of shops and restaurants (pubs would be the better term). Our guide took as round the Monastery with its chapel and a beautiful view of the sea. We managed to walk out of there just after lunch time before the masses of tours buses and people arrived.

Mont-Saint-Machel

3/7/2014

Day 13

This morning we woke up early and went down to breakfast and afterwards headed off to the Normandy beaches and see the museum, which was emotional, but interesting all the same. Just seeing the beach were the battle took place brought everything in perspective as well and I learnt a lot. There is so much detail I didn’t know about the battle of D-Day in South of France. How those men sacrificed everything for their country and for their freedom. After the beaches we drove to a graveyard where all the Americans and French soldiers where buried. All the tombs are white and the grass is always cut and the graveyard is kept clean and beautiful.

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Graveyard

2/7/2014

Day 12

We arrived in Paris. To me it was not how I remembered Paris. The one bumper of walking across Paris to get to another train station was that we couldn’t stop at tourist sites long enough. I wished I could have gone into Notre dame cathedral to light a candle for Kieron and I because the queue was so long and we didn’t have enough time. Then we caught a train to Caen by now I am so tired and my head is sore, so time to sleep. I do miss my other half.

Outside Notre Dame Cathedral

1/7/2014

Day 11

We drove to Venice airport to drop off the car then decided to take a water taxis to the main town of Venice for the day.

After spending some time there with having lunch and my sister nearly breaking my parents bank account with shopping. Then later in the afternoon we went back to the train station, picked up our bags from the locker room and boarded an overnight train to Paris.

People think that European overnight trains are better than South Africa but not this train. The bank beds where uncomfortable and we had to buy our breakfast and supper which the food wasn’t the greatest.

Next stop Paris.

The streets of Venice

The canal

Overnight train

30/6/2014

Day 10

This morning we got up really early to have breakfast and to drive up where the cable car is. The mountain where beautiful! I won’t lie up on the mountains it was freezing! I have never been so cold in my life before. Even going further into the mountains it was cold. Then afterwards we went back down for hot chocolate. Proper Italian hot chocolate. Then as we were driving back down, we decided to go up a ski lift (that was awesome) and walked around on the top. The mountains where we were on is called the Ching a tora. People hike in the area, which I think they mad.

After walking around for a bit we had lunch at the restaurant at the top and had more hot chocolate. The only bad thing was I had a bit of altitude sickness, so in the end I was glad to be down.

In the afternoon after lunch we went clothes shopping. The shopping mall was amazing as I have told you before.

Tomorrow we head for Venice and then on to Paris.

The pass

The view from the cable car

View from the top

Me freezing

Italian bunker

28/6/2014

Day 8

This morning we woke up and after breakfast we walked into town to the Tourism Information. The weather was cold, cloudy and some rain.

We also watched runners run the finish line of a race. This race began at 11:00 pm the previous night on one of the mountains. Part of the route is running around a couple of mountains in the dark and end finish is in the town. This is a 24 hour race. The first couple of runners looked alright but the rest looked like they were in pain and glad to be finished with it.

After a while I got a bit board and wanted to explore the town. We went to a shopping mall which had everything in from food to hiking gear and kitchen things like coffee machines. Once we explored that and bought a few things we went to a coffee shop for lunch. Then in the afternoon the four of us went for a drive on another twisty road up to the Dolomites. We hoping to go up the ski lift on tomorrow (Monday).

A hotel in the town (Traditional building).

Cathedral

Boxed flowers

Dolomites

I took some great photos though.

24/6/2014

Day 5

The next day after a shocking breakfast and deciding we are never going to stay at that hotel again. We set off to Messinian Bay for two nights. It seems like the coast is quite near but actually it was quite a long drive down to the coast.

Messinian Bay is a sea side resort where the majority of tourists and Greeks come down in there summer holidays. Luckily for us the schools hadn’t broken up for the holidays so it was busy but not overly busy which it usually is. The beaches have either sandy or stony but the sea is this crystal blue and one can see the bottom. Sometimes it has different shades of blue depending on the time of the day. Mornings where the best having breakfast on the balcony and watching the water with all the fishing boats on it.

View from hotel

Mother coming out of the prison

25/6/2014

Day 5

This morning we got up and because of the time change I always had to double check that I wasn’t thinking South Africa time. So after a quick shower my sister and I headed down to breakfast.

After we had eaten something we headed off for the day. I think the worst part of the drive was the distance and the heat. My sister wanted to swim and I wasn’t to fased what I did. I just wanted some adventure. Our first stop on our day road trip was to a  castle that Turks built centuries ago. It was huge! Then we headed to a beach for lunch and a swim. The water was crystal clear and quite warm.

On the way back to the hotel we took a long way round by driving through a pass. We went through two passes. It remained me of the passes in America. Lots of forests and rivers. It was so beautiful! The windy roads with pine trees and rivers and waterfalls on either side of the road. As the pass winded itself up into the mountain one can see a few houses scared here and there and also the old village. The pass kept on going on and on and eventually landed up at Messinian Bay. Then we drove back to the hotel to rest before going to find some supper.

Castle court yard

Cross on the chapel