A few days in Edinburgh

Brad had to be the hard working one, while Mel went off to Edinburgh to hang out with Danielle and Ryan for a few days. First stop was Birmingham overnight. There's not a huge amount to do in Birmingham, but I did see a church, a nice park, the bus station and the train station.

Bizarre building

Church

Next up was a ridiculously early train from Birmingham to Edinburgh, where we were lucky to be able to stay with Danielle and her flatmate Yvette. Monday afternoon Ryan visited Edinburgh castle while I had a nap (done the castle previously), then we went to a good old scottish pub on the Royal Mile for dinner before doing the halloween pub quiz (sadly we weren't very good - just don't watch enough horror movies). On Tuesday we wandered around the city while it attempted to rain, and then we spent the afternoon at Chocolate soup, where we enjoyed some excellent chocolate brownie sandwhiches.

Wednesday put on a much better day for us, so we began our day of climbing. First up, we climbed up Arthurs seat for a great view of Edinburgh. We followed that by wandering the length of the Royal Mile then climbed Scott Monument (a very narrow winding staircase - 287 steps in total). In the evening we headed up Carlton hill for a great view of the sunset before we made our way to yet another pub for dinner.

A great few days hanging out in Edinburgh

View from Arthurs Seat

View from Scott Monument (61.1 m high)

View from Scott Monument

Scott Monument

Sunset from Carlton Hill

Back in London

Safely back in London after a very pleasant Ryan Air flight. We've finally updated our old posts with some photos. The final tally for our trip to Greece and Italy:

Days: 26
Planes: 2
Boats: 5
Metros: 8
Funiculars: 1
Trains: 19
Buses: 5
Accommodations: 13 (including one boat)
Pizzas: 5
Gelati: many...

Floating through the canals of Venice

First up, we had a great time in our random little town of Ferrara. We hired some old bikes and cycled around the old city wall and zigzagged our way through the little cobbled streets of town. Unfortunately the weather was pretty shocking and at several times throughout the day we had to seek shelter from the rain. All in all a nice little spur of the moment visit to Ferrara.

After that we re-joined the beaten track and made our way to the canals of Venice. We arrived at the S. Lucia train station, stepped outside and were instantly captured by the beauty of the Grande Canal. We wound our way through the tiny little streets in search of our hotel, managing to cross all three of the original bridges over the grand canal on our way. We stayed in a nice hotel, overlooking a beautiful little canal. First stop after settling in was St Marks Piazza. We went into St Marks Bascilica, which was pretty amazing, though not a patch on St Peters in Rome, then went up the Bell tower for an amazing view of central Venice and the outer islands.

The Grande Canal

St Marks Piazza

Yesterday we moved to a hostel on the other side of the island, called A Venice Fish. We caught a Vaporetto most of the length of the Grande Canal (the budget version of a gondala ride). Then once again we spent the day wandering, with no clear direction. We stopped at several nice churches, saw the prison, and enjoyed a coffee by the Grande Canal. We really enjoyed our time in Venice, and would definitely be keen to go back and explore some of the other islands one day.









Now Ryan is in Berlin, and we are in Genoa, heading back to London tomorrow.

Ferrara (not the car...)

Last night we opened our Europe guide book and looked for somewhere interesting to go next.

We left Riomaggiore this morning, with the intention of heading to Pisa first to visit the leaning tower before making our way to Ferrara. Unfortunately Ryan came down with a migraine, which meant that instead of heading to the tower we spent the day on the trains, making our way to a random little city known as Ferrara (30 minutes from Bologna).

Ferrara is known for its cycling, and this was evident as soon as we left the train station, as there were immediately more bikes than cars visible. We settled into our hostel and left Ryan to sleep while we went for a little explore of the town. Being a Sunday however, everything was closed, and the parks were fill of people and their bikes. On the upside, we have had our fill of leaning towers, as we found a church complete with leaning bell tower.

Tomorrow we plan to hire bikes and complete the 9km trail around the edge of the old city wall, visit the castle (complete with a moat just like a castle should), and generally explore the town.

Cinque Terre

Was amazing! For those who don't know, the Cinque Terre is a spot on the west coast of Italy with awesome scenery and a cool walkway connecting 5 villages along the coastline. We stayed in the first village (Riomaggiore), a tiny fishing town that was built into a steep hill side. The walk takes about five hours and gets progressively harder as you go along it.



All the villages had cool little windy cobbled streets and are either built vertically on crazy steep cliffs or on impossible headlands. The entire area is known for fishing and growing grapes and olives. They have to raise and lower the boats out of the water with cranes because the beaches are so steep. The hills were all terraced for the trees, and it all had to be done by hand.

Rome

We have had a busy and fantastic time in Rome. Yesterday we went and explored the Colloseum, visited the roman forum, the arch of Constantine, and a random but cool arch that was an arch from all four directions. We wandered along the river, saw Castel Sant Angelo, piazza navona, a few random churchs and the pantheon which was amazing!





Today we headed to the Vatican- went into St Peters which was incredible, and the Vatican museums to see the Sistene chapel. Spent several hours gazing at the amazing art in the museums. Found the Spanish Steps by accident while walking home.

napping in two different countries...

A more typical Vatican photo

Tomorrow we are going to try and head up to the Cinque Terre walkway to immerse ourselves in a bit of nature.


-- Posted from my iPhone

When in Rome...

Yesterday we went to Pompeii to explore the ruins from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius on AD79. We were amazed at how much of the city had been excavated. Our favourite was the amphitheatre. Then we wandered around Napoli for a few hours, visiting a couple of castles, some amazing buildings, and catching a funicular up the hill. A great day.

Today we caught the train to Rome. We spent the afternoon wandering, visiting several churces, lots of oblesks, the opera house and the Trevi fountain. We are staying at legends hostel, enjoying some cheap Italian wine and about to enjoy our free pasta dinner, mmmmmmmm.



-- Posted from my iPhone

Napoli!!

Make it, after a epic journey. Left olympia yesterday, caught a train, a bus a 16ish hour ferry to Bari, Italy, then two trains to Napoli, arriving at our hostel 36 hours after leaving Olympia. Just enjoyed three AMAZING pizzas from a local before settling into our cool hostel (thanks Amy & Ant for the recomendation.

Pompeii tomorrow if all goes to plan.


-- Posted from my iPhone

Somewhere in the Adriatic sea

Spent yesterday morning exploring the ruins of Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic games. Amazing fields of excavated Greek and Roman buildings, the stadium and the Olympic temple of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. We also visited two musems, covering the history of the games and the work uncovering the ruins.




Changed accommdations last night from our hotel suite to a single small tent in a campsite. Most amazing thunderstorms all night, luckily the tent held up.



Travelled by train and bus from Olympia to Patra today. Our ferry sails from Patra to Bari, Italy in 16 hours. Incredibly classy ship, Mel and I are currently deciding which restaurant to splash out on for our dinner at sea while watching the world pass by.






-- Posted from my iPhone

Train, train, bus, train, bus

We finally made it to Olympia after a long day of public transport. But let's go back a couple of days first...

We left you last in Paros where we were relaxing at our quiet campsite. On Tuesday we hired a quad bike and a scooter and toured round the island, discovering some old monuments, a beautiful little beach and a great big hill which of course we had to conquer.



Yesterday we took the ferry back to Athens ready for our adventure to Olympia today.Olympia seems pretty small and nice. We are staying in a nice hotel and enjoying a few beers to recover from our long day of busing and training. Tomorrow we plan to explore the old stuff before we take the ferry to Italy on Saturday.



-- Posted from my iPhone