The Travelling Bees

Thirty-six hours of plane journey as we head back to New Zealand is plenty of time to reflect on our adventure. It really has been an adventure with quite a few (good) surprises along the way. Some of the biggest highlights for me have been those unexpected moments like discovering a market in Annecy, or a neighbourhood national day festival in Lucerne. Even last night, wandering through the pedestrian area of Munich, we came across an exceptionally good 5 piece instrumental group: two violins, a double bass, flute and clarinet. These guys were having so much fun and were so into the music it was amazing to watch. They were playing in a cloistered area which had great acoustics. A substantial crowd gathered and applauded enthusiastically at the rousing conclusion of each rendition.

It has been a challenging trip at times. We've had a few tense times running for train connections and managing the logistics of things but generally we have worked pretty well together. Nicole loved the hype and shopping of London, but reckons we visited far too much old stuff overall. Tess is probably disappointed that we didn't visit ALL the old stuff in Europe and hated the hype of having to share it with so many other tourists. John had never pictured shopping as part of what we were going to be doing, and it is fair to say that on only one occasion did we set out to visit shops (Harrods), but the bane of his life were GIFT SHOPS which were tacked on to just about every other place we went. I think he must have finally lost it in Salzburg when out visiting the Fortress with Tess in the rain - purchasing a sword in the associated gift shop. Apparently this is a practical purchase with a multitude of uses...

I think that one of the things that surprised me is how much we learnt about each other on this journey. Spending so much time together was quite a change from our normal busy schedule at home, nevertheless we probably all thought that we knew each other pretty well. Being exposed to so many new experiences also exposed new reactions in each of us and having a chance to reflect on things over dinner each night was often hilarious and sometimes enlightening.

Are we ready to come home? Well, Nicole is missing her friends - and apparently her boots (!), Tess has a growing sense that she needs to get back to school demands and John has probably had enough of such close association with three females. Me? I don't think I'm quite ready to head back to the cold of New Zealand, but there is a sense of completion in terms of what we set out to achieve and that's pretty good.

The last word belongs to the penguins who have journeyed with us. Here are their two favourite windowsills:

Interlaken, with flowerboxes and the Jungfrau in the distance:

from our balcony at a guest house in Hohenschwangau looking up at Neuschwanstein Castle:

John: So, Fussen is well known for the two castles attributed to mad King Ludwig - one which was first mentioned in the 12th Century (Hohenschwangau), and was used as a summer residence and hunting lodge, and the other (Neuschwanstein) that Ludwig had built and dedicated to his friend and composer, Richard Wagner. Consequently it has a cave - all decent castles have their own cave of course - as you would expect - I mean doesn't your castle have its own cave? And a bedroom ceiling with holes for simulated starlight to penetrate when oil lamps are lit on the floor above. The family was apparently beset with madness, probably due to the oil fumes. Ludwig the second apparently only went mad at the end of his life, at the same time as the family found itself bankrupt, possibly due to having three castles simultaneously under construction. Consequently Neuchwanstein was never completed (nor was Herrenchiemsee that was a replica of Versailles) however N was reputedly the inspiration for the Disney castle, and it is pretty awesome. So poor old Ludwig never married (oil fumes) and died in suspicious circumstances (incidentally there is a workman wearing leather shorts(! - it is Bavaria) on the roof of the house beside me at the moment) in a lake in 1886 soon after being 'arrested'. Obviously the German people wanted to complete the mirroring of the history of Versailles by disposing of another frivolous, expensive and disengaged monarch, as in the French revolution.

Hohenschwangau:

Neuschwanstein:

Tess at Neuschwanstein:

John: It is the position of the driver on the road that is of concern - I find a natural draw to locate myself in the 'correct' location in the lane, irrespective of the amount of metal surrounding me, so instead of having an extra metre of metal on my left (as in a right hand drive vehicle) that extra metre in a LH drive vehicle (or two metres if you are in the USA) is on my right. Consequently, I am always unconsciously drifting towards the verge on the RHS, but have only once run these tyres off the edge of the road. Luckily the centre of the car is still in the same place, so the Mercedes gunsights are still in the same relative position to allow the driver to line up pedestrians and cyclists. I assume that since the Germans are so methodical that while the steering wheel is allowed (by European law) to move from the right to the left, they have legislated that the centre of the car must stay in the middle - this is quite astute really since it would lead to all sorts of confusion otherwise.

Found ourselves on an autobahn and eventually realised that there was no speed limit on some of it - cruising at 145kph and not passing anything, while other cars are tailgating - hmmm. Hit 170 kph quite comfortably but only two lanes restricted anything more exciting. The car does not feel good at 100 but appears to relish 150 kph.

We do have an additional passenger with us from Austria to Germany - Haroldina. Haroldina is from Oxford, England, and is a bit of a know-it-all. She will often be heard exclaiming "Please observe the speed limit", or "When it is possible, make a U-turn immediately", or in extreme situations "This vehicle is not fitted with flotation devices. Please refrain from driving in the river". Haroldina is of course the NavMan which was included in the free upgrade from a Skoda to a Mercedes C220 TDI that we received in Salzburg. (True!) Of-course, we also got a downgrade at the same time - a downgrade in the price by E120. Quite a loss really (-:

Haroldina now knows (she even knows which way the car is pointing when I sneakily do a parking manoeuvre) that we are in Germany, and she is close to her birthplace (Munich) and wants to get back home - hence she does not make snide remarks about the speed that we get her there.

We rapidly developed a fondness for Haroldina, even though she sent us to a quaint little town in the Bavarian Alps when we accidentally selected a hotel name in Berchesgarten, and encouraged us to make tight circles around one way streets, rather than selecting the Berchesgarten region itself. She never apologises for getting it wrong though, and just calmly continues after 30 seconds with an alternative routing that she just calculated on the fly. It would be nice if she gave some positive feedback when we have just negotiated a difficult town centre or evaded some road works - perhaps there is another personality setting that we have not found yet where she will comment "Particularly well done there..."

There is a coffee symbol that can be lit up on the dash - this must be her alternative personality which undoubtedly will make an espresso too - just like the Sirius Cybernetics corporation Nutrimatic machine in Douglas Adam's Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy series.

John with the fabulous Mercedes machine in front of Wieskirche, a beautiful baroque church in the middle of nowhere in Germany:

... with the proportions of a ballroom. Soaring archways over windows rise to a frescoed ceiling maybe 8 metres above. The creamy white walls are lit by glittering chandeliers which are suspended over white linen draped tables and chairs which fill the room. On each table a tall silver candelabra reaches towards the chandeliers above. Flickering candlelight mingles with chandelier sparkles.

We have arrived early, and take four of the eight places at a table near to a small raised area set with music stands. The hall gradually fills, and not long after 8pm the chandeliers dim to match the intensity of the candle light. A five-piece string ensemble enters in period costume and arrays themselves on the stage.

Music fills the space, with intricate harmonies weaving flawlessly between the 3 violins, cello and double base. The elaborately costumed figure of Don Giovanni enters the hall and begins singing as he moves between the tables. His rich tenor voice floats over the diners as he sings the first portion of this exert from the opera. The soprano enters and her voice is like liquid gold, soaring into the space. We watch captivated.

So began our evening at the Mozart Dinner Concert. Three performance segments from Don Giovanni, Figaro and The Magic Flute were interspersed with a three course 18th century meal. The location, in the baroque hall of St Peter's Monastery, Salzburg is reputed to be the site of the oldest restaurant in Central Europe, first mentioned in 803. Apparently Mozart's family used to dine there!

The performances were breath-taking and undiminished by our limited knowledge of the original works. Having the drama unfold right in front of us, expressed in such beautiful music is an experience which we will long remember.

The meal was also lovely - 18th century fare being quite sophisticated.

Arriving in Venice on a clear day in the of summer is something special. The sun warms the buildings and turns the canals a vibrant sea green; Flower boxes are overflowing in pinks and reds and whites; and gondoliers are busy plying their trade up and down every waterway.
With freshly swept alleyways and our quota of Venice's annual 20 million visitors to share it with, for me it almost had a Disney like quality: we had been down Main Street and just entered "Venice land".

Geographically Venice is such an unusual place it really just shouldn't be allowed, but here we were wending our way down alleyways, barely wide enough to walk two-abreast with packs on, to find our Venice accommodation. The Hotel Bernardi looked a bit basic on the website but was a great price and located near to the Rialto Bridge. After checking in, we were led back out the front door, left, left again, down an alleyway, right dogleg, further down a progressively dingier alleyway, right, left and to an unmarked door. I knew that this hotel had an Annex, which is presumably what this was, but thoughts of actually find our way back to the main reception for breakfast in the morning were a bit daunting. As it happened, the annex was beautiful and our room, although not on the Florentine scale, had many similar elements including canopy drapes over the head of the double bed, upholstered walls - material instead of wallpaper, a marble fireplace and a great tiled bathroom - with bidet (excellent for soaking tired feet in).

Our full day in Venice included investigation of the Rialto Bridge area followed by a walk down to San Marco Square. This is a main thoroughfare which, though not wide, is well signposted for the flowing tourist throng which moves constantly through this arterial route. One block away there is an amazing drop off in tourist density making random explorations a very attractive option.

After a paltry wait of 15 minutes in the mid-day sun, we were admitted to the cool depths of St Mark's Basilica. With beautiful gold frescos above and an intricate and rippling mosaic floor under our feet, this basilica was certainly worth a visit. The jewel encrusted gold panel behind the alter was also unique and quite special.

After a modest lunch one block away from the square (John's equation may require a Venice inverse square law modifier to allow for tourist fear of getting lost if they deviate at all from the main arterial path or don't have a line-of-sight to church or water body), we headed for the beach - the island of Lido to be precise. After a 20 minute water taxi ride we arrived at the thin Lido island which forms part of the barrier between the Venetian lagoon and the wide open sea. 10 minutes’ walk (well it would be if the street wasn't lined with shops...) down a wide tree lined street with actual cars, and enough room to breathe, brought us to the beach. As anticipated, it was busy and as anticipated we grieved the fact that we hadn't brought togs, but we paddled in the tepid Mediterranean waters. John took the plunge in his shorts, safe in the knowledge that he would be dry before we moved on in our explorations.

We also had the idea that we would like to visit the island of Murano, which is renowned for glass blowing. We arrived a little late in the day for a factory tour, and in any case we were informed that all the masters were away on holiday (no doubt sensibly avoiding the tourist hoards). We did see some magnificent pieces though - chandeliers, large sculptures and vases.

The big problem with Murano glass is that seems to be fairly easy to copy in a factory in China. All over Venice and Murano there were warnings against counterfeits and a move to enforce "country of origin" labelling. Clearly the counterfeits are not made in the same painstaking way, but if the composition is the same and the appearance is the same you have to wonder about whether the value is really in the authentic ones (which are naturally a lot more expensive). It's a bit like saying the only good circuit board is the hand-soldered one because that's how it was first done, not the robot soldered one off the production line. I'm sure there are art and craft purists who will disagree! For what it's worth, I did purchase and authentic stamped-on-the-back Murano glass pendant!

We liked Murano. It had a back-water fishing village feel to it and most of the tourists had left by the time we got there. It was also bisected with canals but the one that we loitered up and down was too small for the commercial water taxis. We had dinner there, at a laid back restaurant which thought we were quite mad to be looking for food at the insanely early hour of 6:30. (In keeping with European timings we usually haven't been looking for a place to eat until about 8pm, but we were after a relatively early night for a change).

Murano glass sculpture in front of our restaurant on Murano (maybe Telecom should buy it?):

After a boat ride back to the outer edge of Venice-proper we wended our way back to our hotel via some off-the-beatten track alleyways. By the time we left Venice we had more-or-less figured out which way was up!

As we head to Salzburg we have heard that a nasty weather system has moved over southern Germany and into the area. Forecast maximum for tomorrow (Sunday 7th) is 14C - roughly half what we have been experiencing. We are trying to tell ourselves that this is a good thing - reacclimatising for home - however we are not believing it. Fraulein Maria's bicycle tour is not looking like an attractive option at this point...