Getting high in Salzburg

The train journey from Verona to Salzburg was comfortable and spectacular as we headed north through the Dolomite mountains and then up into the Alps, so very little reading was done as it seemed a waste of lovely scenery. The line goes over the Brenner Pass and we’d seen on the news that Austria was threatening to reintroduce border checks there which was causing some angry scenes, so we weren’t sure what to expect. In the event, it was all very quiet and smooth; the train stopped for 14 minutes at the Brenner station and we expected there would be some checks by the Austrian policed. My husband tells me that the Austrian police walked through the train but were only taking an interest in particular passengers, i.e. not white, middle-aged/ travellers, but I missed this. 

We changed trains at Innsbruck, so I was reminded of when I was there in 1971, 45 years ago!  It was just as impressive seeing those huge Alps encircling the town for a second time as it was back then and I remembered the ski jump that had been built for the 1964 Winter Olympics so was relatively new in 1971.  

The journey to Salzburg from Innsbruck took not far short of two hours, as we were on a stopping train. Salzburg station is quite a way out of the town centre and the old town, but we were glad that we’d booked a hotel, the Ramada, which was literally 30 seconds' walk from the station, so we could dump our bags and head off into town for a first look round and to find somewhere to eat.

The walk into town takes about 20 minutes at a good pace and we found ourselves first of all in the main Mirabell square, around which stand the main state and civic buildings and the lovely Mirabell Gardens, before crossing one of the bridges over the river Salzach into the Alt Stadt.

Sunset over Salzburg

This is a city dominated by baroque architecture, the ancient University and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was born here in 1756 and is celebrated everywhere with the ubiquitous, but yummy, Mozart chocolates and at least two statues stand in his honour; one very traditional and in need of a clean, and the other a modern piece, depicting his lower body as female and with his head dominated by the famous pigtail. It’s certainly eye-catching.

Mozart as we know and love him

Mozart: a more representational view

Baroque old town, Salzburg

Mozart chocolate shop window

We decided to leave the rest of the exploration until the following day so we could sit down and eat! We found a gem of a place, which served traditional Austrian food at a good price. When we arrived, only one other table was occupied, but by the time we left there were few empty tables and it was full of buzz and atmosphere. I opted for the traditional schnitzel, but with pork rather than veal, and my husband had pork medallions in a red pepper sauce. We both had puddings; I love apple strudel so went for that and my husband had something squidgy with cherries.

We’ve been trying out different options for breakfast; so, in the smaller hotels the breakfast is usually coffee or tea, orange juice, a croissant and a piece of what sometimes tastes like yesterday’s bread, and where it’s been part of the package, we’ve happily taken advantage of it. However, where it’s been an extra charge we’ve usually given it a miss and had breakfast in a cafe with greater choice and sometimes at lower cost. In the Salzburg Ramada, a 6-floor chain hotel which provides unstylish and predictable comfort, the breakfast was an additional 16 euros each per day so our first reaction was that we would get it cheaper elsewhere. However, when we found out that we could have it for 10 euros each if we booked it a day ahead we decided to give it a try. It was the big hotel buffet style “fill your boots” type breakfast so by packing in as much food from a wide range of choice as we comfortably could, hence avoiding lunchtime hunger, it was very good value and we had it all 3 days of our stay, and on top of that the breakfast room was on the sixth floor and the views of the mountains were superb and a fantastic start to the day.

View from hotel breakfast room

Our full day in Salzburg was another gorgeous warm, sunny day and perfect for exploring the old town, including a visit to the Castle/Fortress which sits on top of a hill to the north of Salzburg and is the focal point of the old town. The views from the battlements were gorgeous, looking down over the river and the buildings down below looked like a perfect model town with the gilded spires and domes and angled buildings. There is something about Salzburg which I can best describe as “there is no sweat here.” Everything feels to me as though it has a coating of frost around it, which is contributes to its grandeur and ultra cleanliness (apart from the Mozart statue), even in the warmth of the sunshine.

View towards the city

View towards the Alps

The Castle is also a museum and there were some very interesting exhibits. I particularly enjoyed a Time Line, which ran across a very long wall. It showed three levels of key historic moments for the Castle, the city of Salzburg and internationally, and provided a really helpful context for understanding how what happened locally fitted into the wider world. There was also a beautiful ceramic model of the Castle

Ceramic model of Salzburg Castle

and a tiled oven, and I want one like this next time I have to replace my cooker, if it would fit into our kitchen.

My next oven?

We had beer/weiss wein spritzer in the sun in the courtyard bar before returning to ground level and gravitating to table and chairs in the Altmarkt for very wicked chocolate cake and coffee. This was in breach of our agreement about the 10 euro breakfast but we persuaded ourselves that this is part of what you come to Salzburg for, and it would be remiss of us not to partake. To atone for this, we agreed that there would be no pudding with our evening meal. We are on holiday, I know, but a month is a long time to just let it all hang out as you would on a 2 week holiday, and as my husband said, “We don’t want to come back like Billy Bunter.” Even if we set off like Billy Bunter?

We whiled away the rest of the afternoon in the Mirabell Gardens enjoying the last of the sun,

Mirabell Gardens

as we had seen the weather forecast and a storm was predicted for the evening, and we made the decision to find somewhere nearby for dinner. By the time we were safely ensconced in Johann’s, next to the station, a nice Austrian restaurant with a helpful and friendly waiter guiding our choices of fried calves liver for me and austrian-styled grilled pork chops for my husband and definitely no pudding, the rain was pouring down, the sky was black and it was thundering and lightening, so we were glad we’d made the best of the day.

Our elder son went inter-railing with a group of friends last summer and had visited Salzburg. He recommended a day trip to Hallstatt, a village on a lake to the east of Salzburg, which he said was one of the highlights of his month of travel, if we could fit it in. He had been in July/August time when the weather was very hot and dry, and we weren’t sure whether it would be worth going with the high risk of rain and poor visibility forecast. Our other possible option for a wet day was to take a train to Munich, about 90 minutes away by train. 

I think the idea of travelling out of town to somewhere more remote felt attractive given how much time we have and will be spending in towns and cities, so we decided to risk the weather. We knew we had to change trains to reach Hallstatt station, a journey of about 2.5 hours, but hadn’t reckoned on a bus replacement service part of the way (just like being at home!). We just followed everyone else who seemed to know what was going on, got on the bus and back on the train and through some gorgeous scenery of lakes, fast-flowing rivers and mountains. Hallstatt station is basically a platform and single track line on the eastern shore of the Hallstatter See, while Hallstatt village is on the western shore,

Hallstatt village from the boat

so a small ferry meets the trains from both directions and for 2.5 euros each way takes you over the lake, affording lovely views from out on the water. A fair number of sightseers, mainly from far eastern countries, were headed in the same direction and the ferry was fairly full going over. We wasted no time in finding a cafe for coffee (& cake again, I’m afraid) and mentioned to the people working in there, who spoke perfect English as do most people we’ve met in the counties we’ve visited so far, that we’d come on the recommendation of our son and they were very helpful in directing us to the funicular railway at the other side of the village to go up to the viewpoint and the entrance to the salt mines.

The Hallstatt funicular

The funicular was quite steep and it was a spectacular journey to the top, where we walked to the viewing platform and had time to take in the fantastic scenery before a curtain of rain swept across the lake from the north and blocked our view.

View from viewing platform

View of Hallstatt village from viewing platform

We did a walk, getting soaked, up to the entrance of the salt mines and there were so many

delicate alpine flowers to enjoy, it was such a shame about the weather. We came back down to the village and into a cosy cafe to get warm over a beer for my husband and a gluhwein for me and by the time we came out, warm and dry, the rain had passed over and we made our way back to Salzburg, with a few snores from both of us on the way.

We were so tired and the weather was dull with more rain clouds brewing so we ducked into Subway, just a couple of minutes walk from our hotel, demolished our toasties and went back to the hotel to pack for our journey to Germany the next day.

Salzburg: immaculate and baroque

We stayed at the Ramada Hotel, Salzburg, which was very comfortable, especially the bed

Restaurant recommendation: Zum Mohren, Judengasse 9, 5020 Salzburg

My Verona!

We left Rome convinced that the beautiful weather we’d enjoyed both there and in Florence would desert us once we turned north and headed for Verona, situated between Lake Garda and Venice in the north of Italy. Not a bit of it; we arrived to a sunny and warm Verona, and found our way to our accommodation, our first ever Airbnb, by bus.

We were greeted by our very friendly hosts, Isabelle and her daughter Anna, who showed us round what amounted to a mini-suite of bedroom, small kitchenette and luxurious bathroom, and all at a very reasonable price. We even had a Ferrero Rocher chocolate each with the towels laid on the bed. They were both incredibly helpful, recommending walks, the key sights of Verona and transport options. 

Once we’d settled in and dropped off our bags, we walked into town and started to acquaint ourselves with this beautiful city, which offers some little gem round every corner, be it a relic of the roman empire, a romanesque church or an elegant bridge across the river Adige. The city was also full of lush plants and flowers in bloom, wafting their sweet smells into the streets and it felt a very safe place to be.

We made our way into the main town square and stumbled upon a massive security presence around the Prefectura (Town Hall) and found out that the Italian President had followed us from Rome, where we had seen him go past in a cavalcade, to open the 50th national wine fair, “Vinitaly and the City". We had known that this event was taking place, because when we tried to book a hotel back in January we hit a wall as all the rooms, apart from the unaffordable (for our budget, anyway) were booked. We searched online to find out why there was such a high demand this early in the year, and learned that this wine trade fair co-incided with our visit dates and this was how we came to make a foray into the world of Airbnb. However, what we’d pictured was a formal marketing and sales event in some conference centre which wouldn’t affect us in any way. In fact, it was an occasion for the whole of Verona and all the visitors who had come from all round the country, with events set up in two of the squares in the centre of the city, as well as in the Arsenale, across the river. For 12 euros you were given a small bag to go round your neck, into which was fitted a wine glass, plus vouchers for three glasses of wine of your choice from across all the different stalls and two for food, which were nibbly bits, like a square of pizza, mini-bruschetta with tomato sauce and ham or pieces of cheese. We paid our 12 euros each and spent a thoroughly pleasant afternoon, sipping different wines and foods, sitting in the sun and enjoying the entertainment which included a comedy act (of course, we couldn’t understand a word of it, but everyone who could seemed to be enjoying it) and music, some of which was live.

At one point, an enormous bottle of prosecco was opened with a great flourish and as it frothed out, the organisers collected it in jugs and poured it into plastic flutes which they were giving out to anyone who wanted some; well, what would you do?

Once we’d used up our vouchers we left the centre of town to explore other parts of Verona and found ourselves by accident in the Arsenale, where the wine fair was progressing well. This section featured organic wines in a large marquee and outside there were all kinds of street food sellers and chairs and tables to sit and eat, drink and listen to the live bands. So we bought another ticket each which gave us more wine tasting. After one particular wine from Ragusa in Sicily, which I'd really enjoyed, I asked whether the company had a website and I was asked whether I was a buyer - sadly not, but would have been a nice career! I bought a plateful of pasta with organic pesto and parmesan and my husband had a massive pulled pork sandwich, before making our way back to our accommodation.

The beautiful weather continued for our second day and we spent it exploring the streets, squares and backroads of Verona, which is an absolutely beautiful city; it’s so clean and peaceful, and you can easily just keep walking and discovering new things. We climbed up to a high point on the north bank of the river and found ourselves on very quiet footpaths amid the hills, including a wonderful old church dating back to 1120, the Chiesa di San Giovanni in Valle, which was so peaceful; the only sounds came from the birds, including a cuckoo.

One tourist attraction we gave the thumbs down to was Juliet's House, apparently the one with the balcony on which she stood for the love talk with Romeo. Given they are fictional characters, this was very cheesy and we stayed there for all of 3 seconds; Verona really doesn't need this as a tourist attraction, but clearly some people like it as there were hundreds of messages  all over the wall stuck on with chewing gum.

The roman Arena was a must-see, initially as a compensation for missing the tour of the Colosseum in Rome, but having been there, it was a fantastic visit in its own right. In fact the Arena in Verona is older and served as a model for the design of the Colosseum, which is much bigger. The great thing here is that we didn’t have to queue at all and it’s so big when you get in that all the school parties, quite a few of them, were totally absorbed in the sheer space. We had fun watching a primary school group who were taking turns at dressing up in gladiatorial robes and engaging in mock one on one challenges, with the rest of the group cheering them on. The views from the top were well worth the climb, and we could see the white snow-topped Dolomites, north of the city, against the bright blue sky. There were workman putting up the seats in readiness for the summer season of opera that they stage every year and are a great spectacle; members of my family have seen Verdi’s Aida there and it is apparently spectacular. While my husband watched the work going on, I even managed to lie down on the warm stone and have forty winks in the sun!

We ended our visit to this lovely city with another memorable meal in a highly recommended restaurant (we could have a table as 7pm as long as "we stand up by 9pm", including for my non-pasta liking husband, Begoli (pasta) with nettles and smoked cheese followed by horse stew with polenta, while I was a bit more conservative with a far bigger than expected bowl of a chick pea soup followed by four lamb chops with roasted veg. The walk back to our accommodation was much needed after all that and we packed up for leaving the next morning and sorting our keys etc with our host. The Airbnb was a great success and the welcome we received was so warm and generous. The only thing I would say is that the price you pay for staying in someone else’s home at a low cost is that we did feel slightly constrained about coming and going at will which you don’t have when you pay to stay in a hotel room, but this is a small thing. 

It’s almost inevitable that as we prepared to leave Italy we would compare our three Italian cities, all so different and remarkable in their own ways, and I remembered a story I heard the first time I visited Italy, to Sorrento and the Amalfi coast in 1997, about the invention of the Margherita pizza in 1889 to honour the then Queen, Margherita of Savoy. The colours in the pizza represent the Italian flag; the tomato sauce is the red, the basil is the green and the mozzarella cheese is the white. I can see these three elements as a metaphor for our three cities; so Florence is the rich and deeply flavoured tomato sauce, Verona is the subtle and aromatic basil and Rome is the full-on and strongly flavoured cheese. It works for me anyway, and if pushed, I would say that Verona is the one I would be most likely to come back to.

Summary of Verona: exquisite and peaceful

We stayed at a private home courtesy of Airbnb

NOTE: updated 14/04/16

When in Rome ...

Our trip to Rome is over and for the first time since we left Ebbsfleet 10 days ago we are travelling north, towards Verona via Florence and Bologna. The italian high-speed trains are very comfortable and efficient, and so far it’s been a pleasure to travel on them. The Tuscan countryside between Rome and Florence looks beautiful in the sun with the misty hills in the background providing the backdrop to the green and terracotta landscape of poplar trees, hilltop towns, farm buildings and vineyards. This is the part of the journey to enjoy most, as not only is it the loveliest scenery but the train goes underground for almost all of the stage from Florence to Bologna. What comes next we don’t know as we then take a more north-easterly route from the one that took us down from Milan last week.

We have been incredibly lucky weather-wise and the forecast for Verona looks promising, so fingers crossed for that. You get what you get, but the sightseeing is so much more fun in the sun, and if it’s cold and/or wet then you end up dashing into bars and cafes more often to snatch some warm and dry and spending more money than budgeted for. 

So, what have we been doing in our two and a half days in Rome, the Eternal City? Well, we’ve certainly walked and walked, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that we’ve also been eating too much pizza, bread and creamy desserts and enjoying too much italian wine and lattes, then we ought to be slimmed down versions of our former selves - um, not quite!  When in Rome and all that! We have at least walked past most of the major “must sees” even if we haven't been able to spend proper time at them all. During our first afternoon after dropping off the bags we set off for the Colosseum, which was a 20/25 minute brisk walk from our hotel, and which was of course, just a remarkable reminder of the might and vision, as well as the barbarity, of the Roman Empire. However, the queues were massive and we would have wasted such a lot of our precious time so made the decision to go to the Forum and the Palatine Hill just across the road, which was amazing and offered so much history, information and fabulous views across to the Colosseum; from the top of the Palatine Hill, we could look out across the city and see the vast array of domes, including the Vatican buildings across the river, grand buildings topped with sculptures of gods, prophets, saints and sinners and triumphal arches.

Probably best to describe the sights by showing them, so see below, but I would just mention that despite being a cliche, as so many of the best-known sights are, the Trevi Fountain at night was a heart-stopper - the newly cleaned shiny white marble gods and mythological figures standing out against blue back lighting. Of course the piazza was packed with tourists; my guide book says that 3000 Euros a day are thrown into the fountain every day and I’ve been reliably informed by my cousin who has been living in Rome for over 30 years that the money is collected and used for good causes in the city.

Trevi Fountain

Piazza Navona

Ponte Sant' Angelo

The Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel were also mind-blowing; what can you say about Michaelangelo’s ceiling that hasn’t already been said? I’ve seen it on TV and in photographs, but to stand under it and see it all in 3-d is something else. The museum is remarkable and the wealth in that place is simply mind-boggling but I did get a bit jaded with it all after a couple of hours. My highlight was the Atlas room, which had been recommended by a friend who visited Rome a few weeks ago. The huge medieval maps were exquisite and the ceiling in there not to be dismissed, if not quite up to the standard of the Sistine! 

The hordes of tourists made it quite uncomfortable, at least for the first half of the tour, mainly down to the fact that many of them would stop dead in front of you without any warning, to snap yet another painting or sculpture without seeming to actually look at anything. My thinking was that there is so much there, and photos with someone’s head in the way aren’t the best mementos; better to focus on experiencing what’s there and just take a few photos of your own highlights. You can always buy postcards or access images online which will be clear and unimpeded by the body parts of other tourists. Which brings me to selfie-sticks because used in confined spaces they are the scourge of sightseers everywhere and I am referring to the way they were used without any consideration for others. The other aspect is that almost every third person we passed in Rome was trying to sell us one - I just wish I had the smallest euro coin (5 cents?) for every time I’ve said “Non grazie” as a stick was waved in my face, as I’d be rolling in Euros by now. I know they are trying to make a living but there were so many for sale I’m sure everyone in Rome who wants one has got one by now, and the poor souls didn’t seem to be making many sales. 

Apart from sightseeing we had a lovely, and more relaxing, day on Sunday visiting my cousin, already mentioned above, who lives between Frascati, and Grotteferrata in the hills south east of Rome. We caught a local train, only 30 minutes from Roma Termini. He took us to Lake Albana in the hills near to where he lives, a volcanic area,  At the top of one of the highest hills around the lake is the Castel Gandalfo, which is the summer residence of the Pope and is currently occupied by the retired Pope Benedict. He also took us to see part of the original Appian Way which runs all the way down, straight as an arrow, from Rome to the heel of Italy and with its rutted cobblestones (no wonder after all those chariots, horses and feet progressing to Rome) is now a walking and cycle path. We were also taken for a fabulous lunch in a local restaurant and who could say no to the vast array of antipasti, grilled meats and a totally decadent dessert of puff pastry, a rich cream and strawberries - a better person than me anyway! It was also brilliant to see my cousin’s two very handsome sons, now both in their twenties, and who we last saw when they were around 12 and 7, we worked out.

So apart from all that, we successfully used the metro, the trams and the buses, all very easy; ate (all of!) one of the biggest pizzas I’ve ever seen; 

celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary; were interviewed and filmed in St Peter’s Square by Reuters on our thoughts on the Pope’s latest paper (published that morning apparently) on the Family (as I haven’t been able to find any trace of it online it looks like our chance of becoming stars of stage and screen are rather remote, but I rather enjoyed giving my views on women’s rights with regard to contraception). We met one of the sinners I mentioned earlier, the monk Giordano Bruno, who was burned for heresy in the Campo de’ Fiori.  The plaque under his statue is inscribed with lots of latin words, including “rosso” and “arse” so we translated it as the monk with the red arse, which it probably was during the early stages of his punishment. We also made a lot of childish Monty Python jokes to one another about bringing on the Spanish Inquisition, skating vicars and what have the Romans ever done for us? (Loads of things, of course!) We also saw a man walking along the platform at the station actually goose-stepping, so he was clearly from the Ministry for Funny Walks. (You'll only understand this if you are over 50!)

We found Rome to be a city of massive contrast with so much wealth on one hand, and so much poverty, homelessness and begging on the other, which at times I found uncomfortable. While out and about on public transport and in crowds, I was ultra-cautious about keeping my bag fastened up and close to me. However the romans we met in the hotel, in restaurants and bars, and in shops were helpful and friendly, and despite the very heavy high security and presence of armed police near government buildings, the atmosphere was bright and festive.

Summary of Rome: grand and self-confident

We stayed at the Hotel Donatello in Via di Porte Maggiore, which wasn’t in the nicest of areas but was a friendly, comfortable and clean hotel, and was 2 minutes walk from bus stops and trams which took us everywhere we wanted to go.

Making the most of Florence & Tuscan Taste

We’ve reached the end of our stay in lovely Florence and it’s been a real experience. This was one of the stops I was most looking forward to and I can honestly say that it’s totally lived up to my expectations, helped by beautiful warm weather and sunshine, which has shown us the city in its best light.

The colours of the buildings are what struck me immediately - predominantly light terra cotta and dark honey colours, colours of the Tuscan earth, coupled with the beauty of the architecture of the magnificent palaces and churches.

The B&B we've been staying in is in a fantastic location literally a minute's walk from the majestic Duomo. I had heard this is a real landmark in the city but I hadn't realised how massive it is nor appreciated it's unique style.














The first full day (Tuesday) was focused on finding our way around. The centre is actually quite small but there are so many narrow streets, hidden squares and stunning buildings appear from nowhere and it takes a while to construct an internal map of what’s where. I love cities and don’t really mind the crowds of people, and there are lots of people here, all out in the streets making the most of the wonderful weather; however, my husband was getting a bit tetchy about having to negotiate the crowds and rushed over the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) leaving me ambling behind, looking in the windows of the exclusive shops and soaking up the atmosphere. As luck would have it, only a few minutes later when we’d reached a less busy street, he spotted an interesting shop called Tuscan Taste, which was advertising wine tasting in the window and we decided to find out more. It was a lovely shop, an oasis of calm in the busy city, and besides, for 10 Euros each we could taste 3 wines and a liqueur, with the help of the lovely Carmen, and nibbles kept being brought to the table, such as little bruschetta with pecorino cheese and truffle honey, so we came out of there a good hour later with spirits high and any negative feelings left behind.

We also found, in the afternoon, the University quarter and discovered the Botanical Gardens which are part of the University. That was another beautiful and restful place to while away a good hour and we enjoyed the gentle sounds of birdsong and water fountains among vivid pink and red flowers and lush trees.

We’ve been using the Rough Guide to Europe which our daughter bought me for Christmas as an invaluable source of information for accommodation but also for sights and restaurants and bars. The guide strongly recommended Florence market for eating. The market hall looks like it’s been modernised fairly recently and on the first floor there are loads of stalls selling a massive range of food and drink - pasta, pizza, grills, soups, curries, breads and cakes, prepared fruit and salads, ice creams in every flavour imaginable, wines and beers, soft drinks, teas and coffees. You choose your food and drink and take a seat at one of the many trestle tables in the hall to enjoy your meal, which we did! Steak, pork ribs, roast potatoes, roasted onions, ice cream and drinks all went down well.

This morning we were at the Uffizi Palace for 8am as we’d taken advice to book ahead and avoid the queues, and that proved to have been a wise move. Of course, it is wonderful to see all this fabulous art in one place, but it is a bit overwhelming and in an ideal world you could spend an hour then go back on other days to see more of it. However, that isn’t an option so we spent nearly 3 hours. My highlight was definitely the Botticelli Birth of Venus - what a beautiful face, followed by the Caravaggio section.

Apart from that today, we’ve walked, had a picnic lunch, walked, seen more sights and lovely gardens, walked and been to a little unpretentious, but good value, trattoria for dinner. On our route back to the hotel we heard music in a street nearby and found a live band out on the pavement playing a combination of Chuck Berry/ska stuff, and playing it pretty well. After a couple of numbers they had lots of people, including me, up dancing! An upbeat end to the day.

Tomorrow (Thursday) will be the end of our first week away and we leave Florence for Rome.

Summary of Florence: sophisticated and stunning

We stayed at the Relais del Duomo, Piazza del Olio, a very comfortable & central small B&B (just 4 bedrooms) & I would definitely recommend it.

Making it to Italy

Well, still have a day to catch up on, so am going to do that in this post, then do a big Florence post when we leave here on Thursday.

Lausanne seems like a long time and distance away but we only left there yesterday morning. We were supposed to catch a train around midday for Brig which is in the high part of Switzerland, near to the Matterhorn, as the first leg of our journey to Florence. However, trains to Brig were going every half hour or so from Lausanne and we decided to catch an earlier train and spend a couple of hours sitting in the sun there.

The journey to Brig took about an hour and a half and it skirted the shores of Lake Geneva, through Vevey and Montreux, so we had the lake on one side and beautiful Alps and vineyards on the other. We had tried a wine from this region on Sunday night, a red called Plant Robert, which we called Robert Plant and thought that perhaps he owned the vineyard, sadly not! Apparently the vines that make it were established long before Led Zeppelin was born, but interesting that “Smoke on the Water” was written about a fire at Montreux when Deep Purple were recording their album, “Machine Head,” after a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of invention concert - just listen to the words next time you hear it,

My husband had helped an elderly woman onto the train with her suitcase (no, not me!) at Lausanne station so we sat with her and she and I proceeded to have a bizarre conversation, during which she seemed to assume that my French was much better than it is. I understood that she was going to a chalet in the mountains for the day, returning to Lausanne that evening; that she couldn’t take too much sun because she had undergone a brain operation which had left a visible scar on her forehead and had been very unpleasant and that she could only eat farmed salmon because wild salmon has too much fat and upsets her digestion. Also, she had never been out of Switzerland, apart from going to Norway, which is terribly expensive. Who knows how much of this is accurate! In any case, I did a lot of nodding and saying, “Oh oui!” in a very understanding  voice.

She got off several stations before us and at a subsequent station there was a bit of an incident when a family were so busy playing around on their phones that they missed their stop, with some diving off before the train shut the doors and left the station and some being left on. A passenger got on  and realised their plight and pulled the emergency cord, at which point all hell let loose among the train officials. The guard started shouting that the train would now be running 6 minutes late - I wonder how he would feel about working for South Eastern trains.

In any case, they made up the time and we reached Brig about midday. Our  connection to Milan was leaving at 14.45, so we decided to use up all our swiss francs at the station cafe bar there.

It was lovely to soak up the sunshine and feel the warmth on our backs until I needed to use the ladies so had to go back into the station and put money into a slot to open the entrance door. Having used the facility I was struggling to find the end of the toilet roll which had got a bit stuck, and I had clearly used up more than my allotted time, as suddenly there was a bit whoosh, and icy cold water was unleashed onto my nether regions, and I shrieked as the water made contact. I must say it did wake me up and I walked back to the cafe feeling invigorated and wide awake.

I had been looking forward to the train journey from Brig to Milan, and then Milan to Florence, but in the event a large proportion of it was disappointedly spent in tunnels. On leaving Brig, it was blue and sunny,  but 5 minutes later we emerged from a tunnel into grey skies, rain and low cloud. We did pass alongside Lake Maggiore for a while and enjoyed some scenery there, but on the whole it was less dramatic and scenic than I’d hoped for. Likewise the journey from Milan to Florence, which is a high speed line and very comfortable, but most of the journey from Bologna to Florence is in a tunnel, so we had few glimpses of the Tuscan hills. It's interesting to note that since we left Ebbsfleet last Thursday we have only had our passports checked in the hotels we've stayed in, despite having passed through France, Switzerland, France (again) and into Italy.

From Florence station we made our way to our B&B, and found the street and the entrance to the B&B. We rang a bell and received no answer and finally found a door, locked, with the B&B sign outside. Nobody came and we waited for over 25 minutes, with my husband by now in a very bad mood and deciding we should go and book in elsewhere. Just as I was about to leave him fuming on the stairs, telling him that things are more laid back in Italy, a couple came out of the door and phoned the owner for us, only for us to be told that we were in the wrong building, we should have been next door. I went there and found our very nice B&B and the lovely Elisabetta waiting for us, concerned as to why we’d taken so long to get there from the station. All’s well that ends well!  It ended with a lovely warm evening, pizza and some prosecco and beer al fresco.

Summary of Lausanne: pleasant as a city and the lake location was stunning.

We stayed at the Hotel du Marche in the old town, which was clean, very well situated, comfortable and excellent value for money.

A day trip to France for lunch

As Sunday was boat trip day on Lake Geneva, we got up bright and early and got down to Ouchy for a morning ferry, buying coffee and croissants from stalls along by the lake. One of the stalls was called UK Tuck Box and sold all kinds of British foods from Hula Hoops to Heinz ketchup, but as we’ve been away for less than a week we weren't tempted at this point. We were impressed by the rooks that seem to be trained as litter-pickers. When I'd finished the coffee and croissant I put the empty cup down on the wall while peeling a satsuma and when I looked round for it to put the peel in, a huge rook had flown down, picked it up and walked along the wall with it, and was munching the tasty cardboard - obviously not enough decent grub available that day.

I was a bit disappointed that because the summer timetables didn’t kick in for another couple of weeks, there were no ferries going down to Vevey, Montreux and Chillon Castle, but there are always ferries going across between Evian, of spring water fame, and Thonon, both on the French side of the lake, so we had a few hours back in France in Evian. Those of you who know that we are pretty keen on our holidays in France will realise that’s no hardship for us and we spent a few hours having a nice lunch and walking along the lake looking over to the Swiss side and enjoying the alpine views, again not as clear as we would have liked. We found the source of the Evian water spring and tried some, which was lovely and cool and just like in the bottles (well, obviously). We were quite amused that someone was there with a box full of empty bottles and was happily filling them up to take away with him. Ironically we paid 4 Euros for a sealed bottle (or so we assume) of the stuff with our lunch. As we left the waters, we were approached by a sightseeing couple who asked for directions to the "waterfall." I think they were a bit underwhelmed when we pointed out the tap and the entrepreneur filling his bottles. 

Evian is evidently a pretty lively place during the summer season with a casino and a beautiful Palais des Lumieres, which is now the art gallery and boasts some gorgeous art deco stained glass. It also had some interesting and quite puzzling sculptures.

On the ferry over we found ourselves sitting next to a group of Chinese academics who were engaged in an in-depth conversation about economic growth in China in relation to the rest of the world and looking at stats on a laptop; I learned more than I’ll ever need to know about GDP and the policies of the World Bank vis a vis developing economies! They were deep in conversation but as the ferry drew up to the shore at Evian they suddenly switched topic to where to go for a decent lunch - sensible people!

After a less educational return ferry trip to Lausanne, we made our way to the Botanical Gardens and enjoyed an hour in the sun appreciating the plants, most of them further on than the plants we’d left at home, for instance the forsythia, which was in full bloom in Lausanne, in contrast to the bush in our garden, which was only just coming into bud when we left.

We were totally exhausted after having walked miles and used that as an excuse to go back to our hotel for a relatively early night, some coffee and chocolates and a bit of reading, and packing up for the journey to Florence on Monday.