The wrap up

Well, finally back home again. Back to (what seems to us) a freezing cold Wellington winter and the prospect of normal life and, hopefully, work. 

Was it a good trip? Yes! 

Is it good to be home again? Yes! 

Would we go again? Yes, definitely - but we might need some income first...

Some final thoughts:

Best bits - there were lots

• Walking along the coastal track between the Cinque Terre villages - spectacular views, exercise, being ‘off-highway’.
• Chamonix and Mt Blanc - awesome mountain scenery on a perfect weather day, and some challenging engineering.
• The Camargue with its pink flamingos and bulls.
• Wacky villages perched on hill tops or stuck on cliffs, or sometimes just ‘different’ - Rocamadour, Eze, Collonges la rouge, San Gimignano.
• Tuscany – it’s just like in the pictures, let’s all move there.
• Venice - a ridiculously located city, but fascinating. Also loved the nearby island of Burano with it's colourful houses.
• Paris - always a hit with me, and specially good to spend some time there with A & S.
• Amalfi coast – wonderful scenery.
• History, churches, castles – fantastic, but be careful, everything in moderation.

 Not so good bits

• Various illnesses and injuries, especially asthma, that slowed us down and made walking hard. (There's no way to avoid lots of walking in Europe.)
• Really not much else!

What about the food?

Food was always high on our agenda and was generally pretty good. Some impressions:

·         France

o   The French food we came across seemed a bit overhyped. It was good, but we ate at a lot of places and there didn’t seem to be much variety, just similar stuff with lots of heavy duty sauces.

o   Snails, cheeses, and foie gras were memorable.

o   On the whole it seemed pricy – you would get a top notch restaurant meal for the same cost in NZ.

o   Overall impression was conservative and traditional.

·         Italy

o   Italian food was great. The focus was very much on the key ingredient and its flavour, without too many complications.

o   Pasta is good stuff – we now know what al dente should feel like.

o   Spaghetti pomodora is a great, simple dish – I couldn’t get enough of it.

o   Did I mention risotto? Eat it more often!

o   Sea food – fantastic range of fresh fish, crustaceans and shell fish.

o   Cost – same as for France – seemed pricier than NZ but at least it was excellent eating.

Typically we spent 60+ euros on a restaurant meal, sometimes up to 100. So food made up a pretty large portion of expenses.

What’s the best way to travel?

We tried 3 ways:

• Very small group guided tour (6 of us)
• Standard big group guided bus tour (38 of us)
• Self drive, self guide (2 of us!)

Each has its pluses and minuses. They trade off things like – cost, effective use of time, stress, need for prior research, personal effort required, tolerance of having to fit in with a group plan, tolerance of other people, having local expert knowledge on tap.

For example, on the small group tour we visited the Vatican City. It went something like this:

• Taxi from hotel to VC.
• Bypass the queues and straight in the door.
• Meet local guide and get personalised tour.
• Exit and taxi back to hotel.

Time taken was about 3 hours for a very interesting and satisfying visit with very little pain or waiting around.

Doing this on your own would involve lots of queuing in the hot sun and at best some sort of large group guided tour or an audio guide. It would likely take most of the day and be quite tiring and frustrating – but certainly cheaper! On a big coach trip it would also take longer just trying to get 40 people through the security, crowds and toilets.

In any option there is quite a lot of variable cost. We spent a lot on high quality hotels and food. We could have saved a huge amount by lowering expectations in these areas.

To close

To any readers still with us – well done, I admire your persistence! 

It was fun writing the blog and I think it will help keep alive some of the good memories that would otherwise fade away in years to come.

Give it a try – I promise to be a faithful follower if you send me your link!

Singapore

Monday 3 June

As  expected it was very warm and humid in Singapore when we arrived late morning at the hotel.  

From here the city is pretty spectacular, and I think would be good to live in if you could get used to the heat.

Our friends Sally and Pad-ma who we met in France joined us and took us for a look around. We went to the top of the Sands Sky Park building for the view over most of Singapore, albeit rather hazy. There were dozens of big cargo ships waiting off shore for space in the port. 

The Sky Park building itself is very unusual -  three towers topped with a 'boat' shaped structure that joins them all together.

The 'boat' is not just for show either, but contains restaurants and a garden complete with infinity swimming pool. 

The adjacent Marina Gardens area looks amazing from a birds eye view and was just as fascinating when we walked in it later in both daylight and after dark There are giant man made 'trees ' that are lit up in coloured patterns after dark to the accompaniment of classical music - yes it does sound gross but it's actually very well done. The other garden vegetation is lush and tropical.

We ate the local cuisine, local style, courtesy of our friends which was fun and we got to try some new things like okra and some very strange (to western tastes) icy desserts - they were filled with corn kernels, beans, brown sugar and an unknown fruit a bit like a lychee. 

To top off the evening some of us decided on a whim to have a Fish Foot Spa. Yes you guessed it,  you put your feet and lower legs in a fish pond and the (special type of) fish eat away the dead skin cells  leaving a lovely smooth finish. I kid you not. And there is a full body fish spa experience available too.

Arrivederci Milano (e Italia)

Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 June

Milan is said to be the most expensive city in Italy, so we set out to investigate, and to sample the vibe of the place.

We browsed among the super fashionable shops along the Corso Venezia and via della Spiga. There were lots of famous names like Dolce & Gabbana, Prada etc. The clientele mostly wore skinny pants with a chic little jacket and scarf and had a small dog in their handbag or on a lead. Without exception they were size 6 or smaller. The shop girls were even more daunting with expressions which seemed to say that frumpy looking types from down under need not come in and fiddle with their merchandise. 

To avoid doubt, the above refers to the women. The only men in the shops were seated in strategically placed chairs fiddling with their phones or gazing into space - obviously waiting to be asked to provide an opinion, or a credit card.

Nevertheless you can see the attraction of the shopping area and we know many that would love it, and could easily pass as potential buyers and be welcomed into the shops.

Milan is also a centre for design. We scouted a few design shops and saw  some really neat stuff (not cheap) that no doubt will make to to NZ at some stage. La Rinascente was one shop where we spend ages nosing around - it is a famous big department store, think Kirkcaldies with extra lashings of class.

There is art here too - lots of  historic stuff as well as the Musee dei Novecento, a modern art museum. It's good, but don't go there unless you are really keen on the stuff! There was an Andy Warhol exhibition including the famous Campbell's soup can and Marilyn Monroe images, which J loved.

We climbed the Duomo (cathedral) and walked around amongst the spires. It was a great experience getting up close and personal with the extreme gothic architecture and seeing how much work it takes to restore and repair the bits that are wearing out. Just about a never ending job I would think. There is a roof terrace where concerts are held - what an awesome venue! Although you would need to be good at climbing stairs to attend.

On Saturday night there was a free concert in the Piazza dei Duomo, in front of the cathedral. An orchestra playing Gershwin from what I could gather. I went in on the metro and braved the crowd for a short time. It was great, but sooo many people.

And now its Sunday and arrivederci time. Off to the airport for a long wait. Milan often gets just average reviews from tourists, but we have liked it. Italy too has been fantastico, superbo, eccelente and splendido. Must try to write some more  specific impressions soon before we forget...