Great European Cities.... and Barcelona

Sadly, we were a little underwhelmed by Barcelona. Our visit didn’t start well as we didn’t arrive until 11pm after a long day of being sent in the wrong direction on trains. Our first couple of days were spent mostly catching Le Tour in the rain (see previous blog). The other couple of days we did some sightseeing including visiting the Picasso Museum, the Gaudi park and the Sagrada Familia church.

The food was a stand-out of our visit. We had some very delicious paella, several yummy tapas and churros served with thick hot chocolate.

A chameleon on sale at the markets along La Rambla

The lowlight of our visit was witnessing a bag-snatching and the ensuing fight as a guy tried to get the lady’s bag back off the thief. The worst bit was the way the thief casually walked off with the bag once he was free of the other guy.

Needless to say, we were quite happy when we got to Paris. We celebrated Bastille Day with thousands of Parisians on Champs des Mars watching the fireworks on the Eiffel Tower. It was an absolutely amazing sight!

Le Tour Eiffel

During our week, we visited museums including the Louvre and Musee D’Orsay, enjoyed a cruise along the Seine and attended a night at the cabaret (sadly no cameras were allowed). We absolutely loved walking through the gardens throughout the city.

At the Jardins du Luxembourg

Notre Dame

We were delighted to stay with Charlotte and George in London. Their gorgeous flat was the perfect base for us to explore the city. We discovered quite a few interesting museums - the design museum, the fashion museum (they had an underwear exhibition on) and the imperial war museum.

The Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square

We were treated to some typical British weather with some chilly and soggy days, including the day we decided to watch the changing of the guard. It was still great to watch, although a little crowded. Speaking of crowds, we also made it to Portobello Road markets along with what felt like half of London!

Changing of the Guard

Us on the London Eye

We’re now in Edinburgh enjoying the cooler weather. We’re staying in a lovely little apartment right near Edinburgh Castle, which we'll tell you all about next time.

Tour de France - Special Edition

Apologies to those of you not interested in cycling as this blog is dedicated to our time following Le Tour.

We got our first taste of Le Tour in Marseille, the start of stage three. We positioned ourselves in front of the stage where each cyclist comes to sign-on at the start of each day’s riding. We saw all of the big names ride past right in front of us - Armstrong, Evans, Cancellara, and so on and watched as some of the riders stopped to collect some power bars before heading to the starting line.

Us at the start line at Marseille

Cadel in a pre-race interview

It was fascinating to watch the marketing caravan cruise through before the start of the race. The caravan consists of about 100 vehicles of all shapes and sizes brimming with promotional goodies that get handed out along the course to the waiting crowds. We managed to get quite a collection during our time with Le Tour.

We then headed to Montpellier to watch the Team Time Trial. In the morning, we saw a couple of the teams head out for a practice run and watched the Silence-Lotto mechanics get the bikes ready. We didn’t see Cadel, but we saw a couple of his bikes (and managed to knock one of his team mate’s bikes over… oops!).

The mechanics working on one of the bikes

We decided to head out towards the finish line. We were about 250m from the end, opposite where the support cars get diverted off. It was just incredible how quickly they whizzed past. The atmosphere was great, with everybody screaming and banging their hands on the barricades as each team rode through.

Team Saxo Bank head towards the finish line at the Time Trial

Cancellara retains the yellow jersey, presented today by Ben Stiller

Our travels then took us to Barcelona (via a very long and tiresome journey - full story in our next blog). We watched the finish of a very wet stage six and the start of stage seven the following day. For the finish we positioned ourselves on the inside of a roundabout which meant the riders rode within a metre of us at times. The strain of a tough stage was written on their faces, which we could see so clearly (along with all the dirt!). Dain saw Tom Boonen look straight at him!

Up close and personal with the passing bunch

It was a different looking bunch of cyclists the following morning with a good night’s sleep and clean jerseys. Unfortunately our view was obstructed by police motorcyclists who decided to position themselves right in front of us 10 minutes before the riders were due. We still managed to catch sight of Cadel and gave him a few words of encouragement to spur him on.

La dolce vita

It was only when Susan’s brother Rob mentioned that we hadn’t updated our blog that we realised it had been two weeks. The time seems to fly by, but then it seems so long since we were in Sicily. Since then we have had a busy stay on the Amalfi Coast, wandered the piazzas of Rome and simply enjoyed the Tuscan countryside.

We based ourselves in Sorrento to discover the Amalfi Coast. We arrived early after catching another overnight ferry (lesson finally learnt - we got ourselves a cabin). We tried out the Sorrento beach but weren’t overly impressed with the free beach nor the prices to use the beach clubs. The city is otherwise absolutely breathtaking, although it was a bit of a shock to be back amongst the tourists. We had been away from the hoards (particularly the cruise crowds) since Croatia.

Pompeii was a fascinating place. We spent half a day wandering around the many buildings, imagining life as it was almost 2,000 years ago. It was quite confronting to see the plaster casts of the victims of the volcano eruption, some were praying while others were clearly trying to escape the noxious fumes.

Our first view of Pompeii

We started our day with a morning of sunbathing on the beach at Positano, before walking along a path and bumping into Andy Lee and a mate arguing with a paparazzo. We then spent the afternoon sipping wine and enjoying a very beautiful view :)

Positano
The inlet where we had lunch on Capri

Eternal Rome was as intriguing as ever. We took a guided tour through the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel, which was just incredible. Seeing Michelangelo’s works in person left us in awe. It was such a joy to just stroll past the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps (avoiding annoying hawkers along the way!).

St. Peters

Vittorio Emanuele Monument (aka The Wedding Cake)

We had a quick stop in Florence to wash clothes and shop before heading to Siena to stay with our friends, Mauro & Rosa and their daughter Emma. We attended Il Palio, a horse race held in the centre of Siena. The parade before the race was spectacular, including knights in full armour and soldiers holding crossbows and spears. Being part of the crowd was quite an experience, especially as it took over an hour for the race to start, due to delaying and intimidation tactics of the jockeys. The race itself lasted only 90 seconds!!

The gorgeous Tuscan countryside at MontalcinoIl Campo full to the brim during Il Palio

From here we are heading to France and Spain to follow Le Tour. Keep an eye out for us :)