Some Photos Finally! (Nice and Switzerland)

Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco

Beach at Nice

Darren and Lizzis house in Switzerland

Me in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland (if you look closely you can see its snowing!)

The valley opposite the one we were staying in.

It sucks...

..Im in Paris but can barely appreciate it due to the incredibly nasty virus I seem to have contracted. Despite round-the-clock panadol I am unable to sleep due to the pain in my throat and ears, not to mention the nose going like a leaky tap. And oh..the injustice of being in the culinary capital of the world with faulty tastebuds!

Well now I've had my whinge ill get on with it. We had 2 days in Munich, nothing much to report really, very cold and grey. Did some shopping, looked at the sights, tried some of their infamous beer. We have been in Paris for 3 nights now, and today have moved out of our hotel into Sophie's apartment for the next 3 nights. Its a joy to be able to rest on the couch today and make myself cups of tea and peruse the free internet - just what a poor,sick girl needs. Thanks Sophie! We have done a few of the main things in Paris, went up the Eiffel Tower, to the Lourve, out to Versailles, all of which was good.
sorry for the mundane post, but i think i need to have a nap..
home in 2 weeks now,

Switzerland

First of all - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my darling wee sister who celebrated her 17th birthday on Saturday. Hi Gracie!
Today we arrived in Munich after spending 3 nights in Lauterbrunnen. We went through no fewer than 4 countries today! Internet was expensive and rare in Switzerland, hence the silence on the blog.
We absolutly loved Switzerland. The small town where we stayed was very quaint, and in a valley surrounded by impossibly high snow covered mountains. It was straight out of the book "Heidi", wooden farmhouses, and farm animals with bells round their necks etc. The weather was a shock, coming from the sunbathing in the south of France. It was very alpine and even snowed one morning!
The first afternoon we were there we took a train to the town of Speiz where Darren (a friend from the old dunedin days) met us and took us to his place for a catch up. It was lovely meeting his wife Lizzi and baby Ana (4 wks old), I really enjoyed `talking babies´ with Lizzi and having a nice long cuddle with Ana. Ive been missing baby cuddles! Darren and Lizzi live in a farmhouse with amazing views over a lake, and they have animal (including wooley pigs) and grow stuff. We loved thier community lifestyle.
We spent the rest of our time exploring, visiting waterfalls and eating traditional Swiss food, which seemed to be very fatty and a little to heavy on the stomach for my liking, but the chocolate - thats another story..divine!

oh the frustration

Ok so i just tried real hard to get some photos on here and it wouldn`t work. I mananged to get some on facebook though. Im beginning to lose faith in this particular blog engine. In other news we went to a small seaside town called Villefranche-su-mer yesterday and it charmed our socks (among other items of clothing) off. Had a lovely swim and came home a wee bit sunburnt. Off to Switzerland tomorrow.

Monaco

We are in Nice at the moment, in the heart of the French Riviera. Sounds glamourous but if you saw our hostel you'd think otherwise! But nevertheless we've had our share of glamour. Yesterday we took a day trip to Monte Carlo (Monaco) where all the rich people roll around in their money. The city was so opulent, beautiful gardens which were free to get into, very clean, nice public toilets and SO MANY incredible cars. Almost every car was a head-turner and im not even that into cars. We saw limited edition Porshes, Bentleys, Maseratis and all the 'ordinary cars' were BMW's or Mercs. It was a Sunday and I enjoyed people-watching all the rich families on thier outings, impecably dressed mothers with perfect hair and cute shoes and fathers who were trying to dress casual but when you look closer you realise their polo shirt is YSL or Gucci or something, and the kids looking like catologue kids and playing with remote control helicoptors " just like daddys" (yes really). We had a good time, getting back quite late and managed to find a cute bistro run by a man with limited english who seemed to appreciate my attempts at French. We had an incredible dinner for a very low price. Go to the La Albatross bistro if you're in Nice!

Firenze part duo

No photos again today, havn't managed to download them yet.
We went to the Uffizi Gallery yesterday, which houses the Medici family's collection of paintings including some famous ones. Our favourites were the Tondo Doni by Michelangelo (pictured above) and one of Da Vincis early ones - actually I think it was his first commissioned one - the Annunciation pictured below


Also liked Caravaggios 'Sacrifice of Issac'. You could really see why the famous artists were famous from these pics, their paintings just leapt off the walls and outshaddowed most of the ones around them.
The top picture is of the main duomo/church thing here. Its really impressive, with green and white stripes of marble. We haven't been inside yet, thats tomorrows aim. Today we took a train to a town called Pistoia where the pistol was invented in the 1600s. Was a cute wee town and nice to get away from the city for a bit.
More to follow...xxx

Florence part one

I labelled this part one to make sure I do another update before leaving here, as this will have to be quick. Sorry no photos, we haven't been able to download any for a while.
We arrived in Florence yesterday via busabout and really enjoyed the ride through the Tuscan countryside. It was every bit as beautiful as I'd imagined: rolling hills with crumbling earthy coloured farmhouse, feilds of golden coloured dirt with a single olive tree in the middle etc. Very easy to fall in love with. We went on a walking tour of Florence with the busabout group and had dinner with them, it was really nice to talk to some other people in english. They were mostly Aussies. We've ditched the busabouters for now though, cos they are staying in a camping ground ages out of Florence and we wanted to be closer. We're staying at a nice Hostel which has free internet (although its in high demand) and breakfast. Phil likes this one more, although we are missing our Italian friend from our room in our Rome hostel. It was nice having a 'local' (he was actually from Milan) to get an Italian perpective on stuff, plus he showed us some nice untouristy sites.
I've nearly used up my internet allocation for today, so more will follow sometime in the next few days.
xx J

Rome

Hi to you all. special shout out to Anna today! thanks for your comment, i was thinking about the central library the other day for some reason. felt like going to the link for a coffee.
So we've been in Rome now for 3 days. We met up with Tim and Celia when we arrived and spent our first few days sightseeing with them. They've finished their holiday now though so we're back on our own. It was nice spending time with them, and we saw some pretty cool things, the Sistine Chapel and the Collesseum being the highlights. Im really enjoying Rome, its a fun city, with lots to look at and do. Phil is struggling to get used to living in a hostel dorm so I fear his view of Rome is tainted by that. We've had nice, friendly people in our dorm so far though, so it hasn't been that bad. We've got a bit of time here so are kind of taking it a bit easy, not rushing round the sights too much. We still havn't reached the halfway point yet and it feels like we've been on the road for ages, but its been fun so far, wouldn't mind popping home for a night or 2 at times, for a break - if only it was that easy!
Ciao and Love..
Jenn

Venice Pics

San Marco Square
The first pic was taken from the top of this tower

Thats me lurking in the corner of the doorway
Phil inspects his pizza