Alpine Walking 2019

For our last day in Europe we travelled back to Geneva in preparation for our flight home and returned to the same hotel where they were keeping a bag of our gear. In the afternoon we went for a visit to CERN and now know a lot more about the Hadron Collider and the Higgs Boson. Some seriously high powered physics which was mostly way over our heads! In the evening we walked around the Lake Geneva to the fountain and treated ourselves to beer and pizza at a lake front bar. Caught a ferry across the lake and returned to the hotel for an early night. Up at 4.30am to catch flight. Now an hour from landing in Adelaide.

We started the day with a lift to the bus stop with our host who was taking the children to school. We then caught a ferry from Lucerne to Vitznau and return. Our intention being to go on a two hour ferry ride of Lake Lucerne without any consideration of destination. On return to Lucerne we walked around the old town, walked across famous bridges and walked along the on old city wall. Even had the bonus of being in the clock tower when the clock and every other one in town struck 12 o’clock. What a cacophony! Enjoyed a lovely last day in Lucerne.

We caught the local bus to Lucerne and bought a silver ticket to Mt Pilatus. This included a train journey to Alpnachstad, then a cog railway to Mount Pilatus with a descent via cable car back to Kriens (where we are staying). We did all the walks on Mount Pilatus and enjoyed looking at the mountains we walked the entire width of in 2017 with Kate and Gill. An absolutely outstanding day and highly recommended for anyone visiting Lucerne.

Dinner last night was excellent with amazing food as always although the waiter wasn’t as nice as he could have been! He seemed disappointed that we weren’t eating as much as the tables around us. Today we left Venice and travelled to Lucerne. We were up at 6:00 to catch the 7:20 train. All connections went well with two trains to Lucerne and then two local buses to our accommodation which is a fair way out of town but clean, comfortable and affordable.

Yesterday, Gill and Nick had a family wedding. We saw them off looking very smart and then went out to view the relic of Santa Lucia ( no photos allowed). We then did quite a bit of retail therapy and generally enjoyed more relaxing time in Venice. After visiting every year for the last four years we are getting good at navigating in the local environment. Today we went for a long and relaxing walk with Gill and Nick to parts of Venice we hadn’t seen before. We saw the world’s largest yacht and visited a very interesting Biennale exhibition with an interesting music room built for its acoustics where the musicians were behind screens in a hidden room at ceiling level. More retail therapy this afternoon and tonight we are going to the platter restaurant (apparently Andy’s favourite) which has a long history in the Price family.

We are loving Venice and spending quality time with Gill and Nick. We have spent quite a bit of time resting with lengthy walks around Venice for both exercise and foraging.  Yesterday, we got a 24 hour ferry pass and rode the boats. Went to Murano and confirmed that the same glass pieces are two to three times more expensive there than in Venice. We actually really enjoyed Murano especially when you got away from the main tourist area. We then went for a long ferry ride in the lagoon and returned via the cemetery island. Finally, to complete our day on the water we caught the ferry from the station along the Grand Canal to Saint Mark’s Square at sunset and then returned after dark with all the lights on the canal. This is something we hadn’t done before and I would highly recommend it. Resting again today. Ankle is probably 80% healed but the last little bit is taking a while so I thought I would give it a bit of encouragement but trying to rest (not somet...

We arrived in Venice yesterday after some train delays and it is lovely to once again be staying with Gill and Nick. This is the fourth year in a row I have visited and it is great to be with family. As always we started our visit with sundowners (Spritz) on the canal and then had a lovely dinner on the terrace. Venice seems quiet and the weather is perfect.

We decided that the best way to see Tuscany and rest my foot was to go on a bus trip. I thought it would be many years before we wore our yellow stickers and followed a tour guide. But today we found ourselves following the ‘red finger’ in lieu of an umbrella (clearly our tour guide had a sense of humour)! We visited San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, Siena and finally Chianti for wine tasting. The highlights were San Gimignano and the Sienna Cathedral.