Day 23,24 Cold Play

In planning for this trip many people warned us that we were quite mad to consider a winter trip to Europe. Everyone knows that it is cold in the Northern Hemisphere in January  so the only sane time to go is in their summer – our winter. As consistent contrarian thinkers in many areas of life we would politely beg to differ and suggest a Cold Play is actually rather special, for the following reasons.

In much of Europe the winters are often not that cold (not like Canada or Siberia). There was a very cold snap before Christmas but generally the Gulf Stream keeps much of Europe above freezing for most of the winter. We have been especially blessed on this trip and rarely had all our cold weather gear on.

This part of the world has central heating – something unknown to a Sydney sider. This means that although it’s cold outside, inside it is much, much warmer than most peoples’ houses in Sydney in the winter.  So yes, you have to have a good coat, and maybe a beanie and even gloves below -5 but it really is not that much of a hassle. (Thermals are also a real help but we have hardly worn ours on this trip)

People told us that many museums and tourist attractions are closed during the winter in Europe. We did not find this at all. What we did find was that the queues are miniscule, to non-existent compared to the summer for anything we wanted to do . The simple fact is that most tourists like to travel in the summer, so guess what, things are a lot quieter in the winter.

Accommodation especially is much cheaper in the winter, sometimes 30%-50% cheaper.  Trains are not as crowded either!

Sure there are less daylight hours as the sun does not really raise its head until after 8.30am and goes down again at about 5pm. That means you tend to sleep in…what a tragedy on holidays!! In the evening there is actually no law against going outside in the dark and most places have very good street lighting. One real bonus is that there are Christmas lights everywhere and they seem to stay up for a long time after Christmas.

Travel for us is best when it’s least like home. Don’t get us wrong we love home, but a walk in the snow is extra special because it is so different!

So come in the summer if you must. Autumn and spring, we are told, are also great, but our vote remains for Cold Play - winter in Europe.

We are so pleased you have been reading our blog and sharing our adventure. Thanks for all the comments and emails. We are about to head home tomorrow and we are looking forward to seeing you soon. Stay tuned for our next adventure or better still  – save your pennies and frequent flyer points, and have your own adventure, write a blog and share the fun with us.

Carpe diem!

 Au Revior

Day 22 Company in Paris

A sunny Sunday walk in Paris is very hard to beat, but a moonlit Monday night stroll along the Seine is every bit as good.

We spent the day with Tim and Hannah, our son and daughter-in-law, who caught the Eurostar from London (budget tickets at $48 each), which was a special family treat.   More walking and eating were the order of the day.

As they went off to have dinner with friends we again embarked on a rather ambitious walk home, the highlights of which were the lights of Paris, matched only by a clear and almost full moon in the night sky. Paris is just as perfect at night as the lighting on the buildings, bridges and river is so very French… tasteful, elegant and beautiful. And what is more amazing is that it was 14 degrees!

The day ended with what we thought would be a lovely bowl of soup for dinner in our apartment, which we had bought from an amazing food hall in The Bon Marche (department store). Judging by the colour we thought it was pumpkin soup, but the taste and later a Google search of the name on the label revealed that we had been eating gourd soup. A little dusty tasting but …c'est la vie.

Day 21 Sunny Sunday on the Seine.

Winter in Europe never looked better than perfect blue sky, bright sunshine and 11 degrees on a Sunday afternoon in Paris.

Not surprisingly we walked and walked and walked and walked, about 24kms in all.

 

This is not our first time in Paris but it is impossible to not fall in love with the city all over again where lovers kissed , young boys played soccer in the park ,jazz bands played, men played chess , joggers jogged, roller bladers glided

and where tourists and locals enjoyed a late Sunday afternoon stroll along the Seine.

If that was not perfect enough, we ended the day with a visit to Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in the 19^th arrondissement. This hilly, 25 hectare park provided us with a wonderful place to watch kids on bikes and trikes, to walk by an amazing lake, to view Sacre Coeur from a distance, to see the lights sparkle on the Eiffel Tower and  to watch the sun set over Paris.

Paris, je t’aime.

Day 20 Living like locals.

As we arrive at our last venue for this trip we enter our little apartment with a certain amount of trepidation wondering if it will work out okay.

We are often asked about accommodation. How do we organize it? What costs are involved?  We have developed a method of organizing accommodation that won’t suit everyone, but seems to work for us.

Firstly, we book everything before we leave home. People tell us that this lacks spontaneity and flexibility, but we find that planning ahead ensures that we get a good bed every night, without having to worry each day about where we will sleep that night. We often find that in many places, the best rooms go first – so those who book ahead get the best rooms. This is especially the case in hostels, which often have a limited number of double rooms and even fewer with ensuite bathrooms.

Secondly, we prefer places where we can cook our own meals. This saves us a great deal on food costs, but this is not always possible.

Thirdly, we try to stay at least three days in every place – we use each place as a base from which to explore the area rather than having to move every day. This reduces the stress of having to pack and unpack everyday. Every new place is disorientating to being with, but within two or three days you often feel like a local.

Fourthly, we always start our search for accommodation using the Lonely Planet and then move out to the web. Often the Lonely Planet has great tips for inexpensive and well-located places. This saves us searching through endless websites and links. A recommendation from a guidebook also ensures that the place actually exists.

On this trip our accommodation has worked out like this …

Days 1-4. A visit to friends in Basel – very generous and great company.

Day 5. Lucerne. This was the only time on this trip that we did not book ahead. We found a double room in the centre of Lucerne at a Best Western Hotel. It was by far the most expensive night of the trip, and we only stayed one night, but having the opportunity to explore this beautiful town made it worthwhile. A generous continental breakfast was provided.

Day 6-8 Bologna. We found a really great family owned 10 room Pensione (small hotel) in the heart of the old town of Bologna. The owners spoke very little English but the room was spacious and it was in a quiet location. We loved this place because we felt like locals.  The Pensione occupied just one floor of a wonderful historic building behind a big wooden front door. Breakfast of sorts was provided. 

Day 9-11 Trento We stayed  in a family owned three star hotel in the heart of Trento, with a view across the square to the Cathedral. Italian breakfast – orange juice, yoghurt, coffee and bread was provided.

 Day 12-15 Munich. For a change of pace we stayed in a double room in Wombats Hostel. Wombats are an Australian owned group of hostels located in  several European cities. They are clean, reasonably priced and well located. Sure we did feel like the grandparents in this hip place, but again we enjoyed a central location, a quiet, top floor room (which was compact) with a balcony and daily cleaning (a bonus for a hostel). A great breakfast was available for an extra 3 euros each.

Days 16-19 Amsterdam  We saved our best accommodation until last and stayed at a really nice B&B. Essentially this was a loft apartment above someone’s house. It was spacious, light and again we experienced local living rather than a tourist hotel. Five types of cereal and milk, as well as coffee and tea were provided for breakfast in our apartment.

Days 20-24 Paris.  Paris is expensive, but with a lot of work and several false starts we eventually found a lovely tiny apartment on the edge of the 3^rd Arrondissement. (The apartment we have stayed in before was unavailable this time). On several occasions we have dealt with a Lonely Planet recommended, Australian owned company called Cross-pollinate who organize short-term rental apartments in several European cities. The lady who regularly lives in this apartment, Elizabeth, has moved to a friend’s house and we have moved in. She met us on arrival and with little common language between us she made us feel very welcome.  The flat is tiny, but huge compared to a hotel room, and once again gives us the experience of living like a local.

We find good planning allows us to stay at places that are authentic, well located, different and most of all reasonably priced.

We are not the ultimate budget travelers, but we think that at an average nightly cost of about $A100 (including Paris) has been very reasonable and we have enjoyed some very pleasant and memorable places to stay,  and we are happy to say, no disasters! Although we have again experienced some challenging European showers!!

Day 19 Behind the wall

On our last day in Holland we venture out of Amsterdam to the satellite city of Haarlem to visit a museum in the home of Corrie Ten Boom , author of  the famous book The Hiding Place.  We cannot find any mention of this museum in any of our guidebooks but find information from a website so we travel 15 minutes west by train and then walk through the old town to find the house. Corrie Ten Boom followed her father into the watchmaking business and a shop bearing their name is still operating on the original site in this busy part of town.

The museum is not open when we arrive but a sign on the door tells us that a tour will start at 1pm. We spend a couple of hours exploring this interesting and beautiful town that has existed since the 11^th century.

We return to the museum at 1pm and our tour begins with just four visitors and our lovely guide, Mary, who is able to tell us Corrie’s story in both Dutch and English. Richard thought he knew the story and Wendy has read the book, but as we sit in the Ten Boom’s lounge room we are enthralled by the amazing wartime story we are hearing. We knew Corrie Ten Boom had hidden Jews from the Nazis, but we didn’t know that her faith had led her to be a key organizer of the Resistance and that their home was a clearing house of over 800 Jews who were then led to safer places.

We hear the story of the raid that led to Corrie’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment. Our guide’s stories are part history and part testimony to Corrie Ten Boom’s belief and trust in God through resistance , through imprisonment in concentration camps and then her amazing release and subsequent teaching and writings which have touched millions of lives.

The highlight of the tour was a visit to the room where a false wall had been installed and had been the hiding place for up to six people at a time. We are able to crawl through the false back of the cupboard in Corrie’s bedroom and actually stand in the small cavity where six people were hiding on the day that the Nazis raided the house and the Ten Booms were arrested.

Thousands of people visit this house each year but in the cold and wet of a winter’s day we are especially privileged to have all but a private tour of the hiding place.

We are reminded of an extraordinary God, who works in the most difficult times through ordinary people.

Day 18 Vincent

A visit to the Van Gogh Museum is a highlight of any visit to Amsterdam.

As museums go, this is a great museum, even if you a not an art expert or even an art student. Of course the highlights of the museum  are the paintings and sketches of the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh. Some of them we have had the pleasure of seeing previously in exhibitions  that have traveled to Australia, but most we are seeing for the first time. Wendy loved Seascape at Saintes-Maries. Richard is taken by The Potato Eaters.

What this museum has done particularly well is to place Van Gogh’s work in context. Knowing a little more of his life story and how it flowed from his deep religious background was quite fascinating. The exhibition also placed works of other painters, who had inspired and challenged Van Gogh, side by side with his own work. This museum really explains and reveals the artist, his influences, his moods, his development and sadly his tragic demise and early death at just 37.

We are struck by the irony of visiting a huge museum dedicated to the work of a man, who is today, considered to be one of the great masters of art, but who died convinced that his work was not appreciated and thus felt that his talent was unproven. Van Gogh only painted for a period of 10 years, he had only a handful of lessons and  struggled to make a living as an artist. Somehow it seems such an injustice that people all over the world now love and admire the work of a man whose professional self doubt meant that his life was plagued by alcoholism, despair and mental illness.

Starry, starry night.

Paint your palette blue and grey,

Look out on a summer's day,

With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkvLq0TYiwI

Day 17 A wet day in Amsterdam

Crossing roads in any city has its complications and  today in Amsterdam we experienced three unique complications, trams, pushbikes and rain. The roads here are complicated by the fact that traffic seems to often come from a number of different directions and also because many of the roads are paved using the same material as the footpath and bike tracks. There is little to distinguish each area, so if you are not concentrating you can easily  find yourself standing in the way of oncoming traffic, the most frightening of which are the pushbikes who have no patience at all with lowly pedestrians. The rain also creates challenges for the bike riders themselves and in spite of the weather they were out in full force with a variety of different types of wet weather protection. We are amused when we notice a couple of glamorous female bike riders riding with one hand on the handlebars and the other holding a dainty umbrella. We were even more amused later in the day when we noticed another elegant lady riding with two hands on the handlebars while her male passenger, who was being doubled on the back, holding an umbrella over both of them.

As the rain tumbled down we unpacked our wet weather gear and headed off to town on foot through Amsterdam’s main city park, Vondelpark. A 3km walk brought us to the centre of Amsterdam. But as the rain increases we decide to replace our walking shoes with a three-day unlimited tram ticket and began to explore this unusual city.

The highlight of the day is our visit The Anne Frank  House, a museum set up in the actual house in which Anne and her family and four others hid for two years during WW2. To walk into the secret annex which was hidden behind a bookcase, to see her pictures on her bedroom wall, to view her handwritten diary entries, to hear friends and her father on video recounting her tragedy  and to be reminded that in the end they were betrayed to the Nazis just months before the end of the war, was incredibly sad.

Anne Frank’s childhood dream was to become a writer and whilst in hiding she envisioned writing a book about her wartime experiences. Thanks to the efforts of her father, who was the only member of the group to survive the war, her dreams came true and her story is one of the most famous of all war stories.

Museums are a great place to visit on a rainy day but they can be  physical reminders that history is not just the story of kings, dictators, armies and battles but is also the story of individual people and how they cope with the forces around them. We leave this museum haunted by the injustices suffered by one girl and her family and reminded that her story was repeated millions of times over. 

Day 16 Welcome to the Netherlands

We have discovered a golden rule of travel, the longer the trip and the more accurately you try to predict the estimated time of arrival, the more likely it is that something will go wrong. Our trip from Munich to Amsterdam was long and we needed to arrive at a particular time to meet the people who own the B&B where we are staying.

The trip began well because we were traveling on a German ICE  train, which is clean, efficient, fast and very comfortable. We leave Munich on time at 9.55am and arrive in Frankfurt on time at 12.03pm. We change platforms, and we are on the next train bound for Amsterdam, which also leaves on time at 12.26pm. As the train departs we hear a very long announcement in German, which is then repeated in Dutch and finally in English. The announcements are repeated numerous times during the journey and state that due to an accident between Emmerich (Germany) and Arnhem (Holland) the train will stop at Emmerich and we will need to catch a bus to the other side of the border. The bus will deliver us to the Arnhem railway station and from there we will catch a regional Dutch train to Amsterdam.

As announced we arrived at Emmerich and boarded a bus to Holland. The bus was crowded, slow, stuffy and not at all like a German train. After about 20 minutes we reached the border and there the bus was stopped and armed border police boarded the bus to check passports. All did not go smoothly as a young Spanish-speaking guy, who was sitting directly in front of us, did not have a passport. He was removed from the bus and we assumed, escorted to some form of detention. All of a sudden Holland’s reputation as being a very liberal and lax country didn’t seem to fit this scene of guns and arrests.

Finally we found our way on to a train bound for Amsterdam where again we experienced a weird side of Dutch hospitality. Richard tried use his mobile to call the B&B from the train to explain our lateness, only to be abused by a couple of very cranky, old Dutch businessmen. It seems that the carriage we were on was a ‘Silent’ carriage and these guys took it upon themselves to enforce the rules. Over the next  70 minutes we were not the only targets of these grumpy Dutch enforcers of the silence, several other passengers were also asked to be quiet.

So welcome to The Netherlands, a land where marijuana is legal, where euthanasia is legal, where gay marriage is legal and where prostitutes can advertise themselves in a shop window, but a land where you cannot, at fear of being abused, speak out loud on a train!

Day 15 A castle we could not see

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the rather eccentric King Ludwig II of Bavaria had the bright idea of building a very unusual castle. Although Ludwig had grown up living in a perfectly acceptable castle close by he decided that he would like to build a castle more like those of the 13^th and 14^th centuries so he commissioned a set designer to design his dream castle which ended up looking more like an operatic set than a realistic residence.

The Neuschwanstein Castle was only partially completed and Ludwig spent less than a year living there before his tragic and mysterious death, when he was in his early forties. One could imagine that after Ludwig’s death the whole thing would have faded back into the mountain but within weeks of his death the castle was open to the public and a tourist magnet was born.

It is thought that another dreamer, Walt Disney, decided to use this castle as his inspiration for the Disney Fantasyland Castle.

We decided that we would join the throng and visit this famous castle. A visit to Neuschwanstein Castle from Munich starts with a two-hour train journey and then a short local bus ride from the station. We had been warned that the crowds can make a visit to this attraction difficult, but today the weather has kept the crowds away. It was a picture postcard day – if you like snow and low visibility.

Firstly we visited Ludwig’s childhood home, Hohenschwangau Castle, with its impressive art and stately rooms. We then enjoyed a thirty-minute walk up a hill, in the snow, to the second castle. Walking was faster and much cheaper than the alternative mode of transport, horse drawn carriages.

The interior of Neuschwanstein Castle brought new meaning to the world extravagance, indeed the state of Bavaria was almost bankrupted during the building process. Woodcarvers, stonemasons, artists, mosaic tilers and others worked for almost two decades but completed only a handful of rooms.  It was indeed a grand obsession, a 13^th century styled castle built, in the late 19^th century and including state of the art features for the time such as running water, a modern toilet and even a telephone.

 

Sadly we were unable to see the full extent of the castle as snow and low visibility meant that we only saw a small part of the exterior of the castle and could not see the mountains and lake that give the castle its stunning perspective. Nonetheless we had a wonderful day and a real highlight was our mid-afternoon snack as we walked back down the road from the castle. A small stall had been set up selling hot red wine and Bavarian Snow Balls, which are like icing sugar covered donuts…without a hole. Delicious!!!

Day 14 Memories in Munich

We awoke to another sunny and warm day in Munich and began the day with a visit to the Olympic site for the 1972 Olympic Games. For the Olympic movement Munich was a defining place where sadly a terrible terrorist attack took place against the Israeli team and 17 athletes were killed. We walked past the main stadium which still looked rather ‘state of the art’ with its tent like structures linking the main buildings.  We looked into the pool complex, which we thought looked humbler than our own Olympic Swimming Centre at Homebush,  but made very famous by the incredible feats of Shane Gould and Mark Spitz. Again we enjoyed an aerial view of the city from a 190-metre telecommunications tower that is part of the Olympic site. Thankfully it had a lift. From above, it is obvious that Munich is remarkably flat but in the distance we could see a huge mountain range, which is not obvious from below. The locals hope that these mountains will be the venue for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Speaking of memories we enjoyed very much meeting up with some friends of long standing from our church at home, who are now living here in Munich. Lunch was at a very swish local restaurant and the highlight was seeing Dirk and Cindy’s three girls enjoy a very, very special dessert.

After lunch we went with the family to stroll in the English Gardens but sadly we could not find a play area with swings or play equipment for the kids to play on, however the kids did enjoy investigating the mole holes which are dotted all over the park. Walking back from the park we found a very concrete mini sculpture park and somehow with childlike imagination we all enjoyed this mysterious playground, where a concrete square became a slippery dip and a row of bricks became planks to walk across shark infested water. A snowball or two lobbed into the nearby creek completed a fun time with a special family.

We ended the day by joining them at their church, the International Church in Munich, where we enjoyed the service and felt very much at home. 

Day 13 A sunny Saturday in Munich

Since arriving in Europe we have been incredibly fortunate with the weather. Today for the first time we needed our raincoats but the drizzle only lasted a short while and a sunny day eventuated. The day before our arrival in Munich it was -10, today it was +10.

Today we participated in the obligatory tourist experience of watching the town hall clock chime 11am and we stayed to watch the figures come out to play. For over 100 years twice daily this 19^th century mechanical display celebrates past life in Munich including a wedding, dancing beer makers and a joust. It has been said that this is the second worst tourist attraction in Europe (the clock in Prague was voted worst) and yet we, with the few hundred others who were present, enjoyed the 10 minutes spectacle.

Later we enjoyed a visit to the Deutches Museum renowned as one of the finest technology museums in the world. This huge museum was the inspiration for places like the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. We were especially fascinated by the planes including a couple of versions of the Messerschmitt and V1 and V2 rockets from WW2.

Having had some extraordinary food so far on this trip, lunch today did not disappoint. It may come as something of a surprise but we actually had lunch at a soup kitchen. In the middle of a wonderful set of markets we enjoyed a very hot, bowl of pumpkin and apple soup in a tent literally called a Suppenkuche (we did pay €4.95 for the experience). We intended to follow this up with German sausage on a bread roll but the queue was too long and the soup was too satisfying.

Later in the afternoon we enjoyed a stroll through the melting snow and ice in Munich’s English Gardens, a park supposedly twice the size of New York’s Central Park. After some very cold weather it was nice to see people out walking, parents pushing kids in strollers, impressive frisbee throwers and even some people practicing their tightrope walking skills.

On the way back from the park we changed trains in town and were absolutely amazed that the centre of Munich was packed with people shopping at 6pm on a Saturday night. Like us people were out enjoying the milder weather. 

Day 12 A stopover in Innsbruck

From Trento on route north to Munich we once again pass through an amazing mountain range. We travel up through glacial valleys and every time the valley runs out we simply dive into a tunnel and eventually come out the other side, into another valley. Strangely a journey over the Brenner Pass from Italy into Austria has less bends than a train trip over the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. The scenery is exquisite.

We decide to break our journey with a four-hour visit to Innsbruck, Austria. After successfully leaving our packs in a railway locker we head into town for a few hours to explore this historic town, which also services a major alpine region. We ask a man at the tourist office for a map of the town but he dryly informs us that we are 900 years too late as Innsbruck has been a city since 1100 AD.  Innsbruck does not disappoint us and we see the major historical sites including the Golden Roof, which is actually made out of copper, and of course the magnificent St James Cathedral.

Our unexpected highlights are again gastronomical. Although we normally save money by making our own lunch, today we decide to splurge on a bought lunch.  We look for food that might be a local specialty. The fast food giant of the modern world McDonald’s is everywhere but we try to avoid this culinary weed. We find an amazing place called a Speckeria, which is a place that specializes in Speck. Speck is cold meat, mostly smoked ham, salami, prosciuto etc. We niggle our way into one of the five tables and order ‘One of those, please’ and point to a plate of speck. We know little about what we are ordering including the price. When our order arrives we are surprised at the size and variety of meats on the platter and yet somehow we manage to eat our way through the pile of ‘pig’. The price is only slightly more than a couple of Big Mac meal deals.

Later in the afternoon we decide we can’t leave town without a visit to a café and although we don’t really need to eat we find a café that has been in business since 1803. We order a couple of hot chocolates and apple strudel. The hot chocolates arrive as a glass of steaming frothed milk, with a bowl of whipped cream balanced on top of the glass and a separate scoop of solid chocolate, which we are to use to flavour our milk. The solid chocolate must have a low melting point as it melts easily in the hot milk. We have never tasted a finer hot chocolate. As for the strudel, well the apple is fresh, the pastry is light, it is not too sweet and the cream is whipped to perfection. And the price of all this is less than we would pay at home for two hot chocolates and a piece of dry brownie heated in the microwave at Gloria Jeans.

We expected Innsbruck to woo us with its magnificant snow covered mountains, which surround the town, but we did not expect such a fantastic lunch and delicious afternoon tea, which left us with no reason for dinner. 

Day 11 Frescos in Trento

Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas, is a public holiday in Italy and several times during the day the bell tower of Trento’s Duomo reminded us, with bells that rang for about 10 minutes, that this is a special day in the liturgical calendar. To be honest it was a nice alternative to noisy fireworks. The square outside our hotel was turned into a market and most of the shops in town were open for the morning with substantial sales. A huge crowd gathered in one of the trendy unisex underwear shops, which was advertising 50% off. While dozens of people queued to buy their cheap underwear an elegantly dressed woman in a fur coat waited in the line with her rather large boxer dog. The dog was not at all pleased to be there and caused quite a ruckus.

Trento is famous for many things one of them being that it was the venue for the Council of Trent, which was the Roman Catholic Church’s response to the Reformation. Most people would have heard of Vatican II, which was held in the 1960s, but most would not realize that the council that was held previous to Vatican II, was the Council of Trent in the 16^th century. So for nearly 500 years the decisions of the Council of Trent determined the policies of the Roman Catholic Church. And I thought the Presbyterian Church was a bit slow in moving with the times.

Trento is also known for its frescos. Many of the buildings in the old town are adorned on the outside with beautiful frescos, most of which are hundreds of years old. We visited Trento’s famous castle (Castello del Buonconsiglio) specifically to see the most amazingly beautiful frescos which are entitled the Cycle of the Months. They were painted nearly 700 years ago and still look incredibly clear and fresh today. Our audio guide helped us understand these 11 large frescos, which depict life in 14^th century Trento in a series of scenes, one for each month of the year. The peasants are depicted at work, while the nobility find a different way to play each month. The scene of January according to our guide is the oldest fresco in Europe depicting work and play in the snow. Sadly the month of March was painted onto a wooden panel and was destroyed in a fire.

The day ended with dinner at a typical Trentino restaurant, where the owner of the risterante apologised that he could not speak English by saying “Nichte Englisha”. Not very Italian, but a reminder, that Trento is close to the Austrian border.  

Day 10 Deckchairs in the snow

From our current base in Trento we venture north for a day into the Dolomite Mountains in search of a typical Italian winter family holiday destination. For a €1 bus fare our journey takes about an hour and we arrive at Monte Bondone. We are in a ski resort but this is not like St Moritz in Switzerland or Whistler in Canada, a place only for the rich and famous. No this is like the north coast of NSW, a place for families to have their annual holiday in the winter snow rather than on the beach, a place to teach the children how to ski rather than how to surf.

Not being skiers we wonder what we will do for the day but we have no problem filling up our time. Firstly we watch all the excitement as the kids are marshaled ready for their two-hour skiing lesson. Then in groups they slowly make their way down the slope wearing colour co-ordinated vests so that their leader will not lose his little gaggle of geese. The sun comes out and although the digital thermometre on the side of a building says it is -9, the day is glorious.

 

We decide to brave the ski tent for morning tea, which is an experience in itself. About 150 people cram into a round tent with a central bar, which sells everything from espresso coffee, hot chips, hot dogs, vodka and Fosters beer. Amazingly the tent is warm and the people friendly. From the tent we can sip our hot chocolate and watch the skiers on the slope.

Of course we decide to go for a walk. To begin with we walk up the side of one of the slopes to take a closer look at the run. Later we walk around the village to check out the local holiday accommodation. Finally we find a walking track along the side of a road, which connects two slopes. We enjoy a 3km hike in icy snow and back-dropped by the most breathtaking alpine scenery. We take photos but somehow the camera cannot capture the grandeur of the mountains – they are simply breathtaking.

The whole scene reminds us of Aussies on summer holidays, except that toboggans replace buckets and spades, snowboards replace boggie boards and a deckchair in the sun is literally replaced by a deckchair in the snow. A couple of friendly teenagers chat with us over lunch. They are happy to practice their English and they comment on how weird it is that Australians go to the beach on Christmas Day.

An annual holiday in the sun at the beach, or in subzero at the snow, is indeed a blessing for any family. 

Day 9 Feasting from an Italian supermarket

In Italy you don’t have to eat at a ristorante to enjoy good food. After leaving Bologna we enjoyed an uneventful train ride to Trento in the Italian Alps. Our local hotel is on the Piazza Duomo with a wonderful view of the Cathedral in the foreground and the snow capped Alps in the background. Walking to our hotel we noticed a little supermarket on the corner of our street, so decided to go back there to find some lunch.

Lunch was a feast. Four small bread rolls, left over from breakfast, were supplemented by fresh Italian cold meat. Richard with the aid of pen and paper asked the girl in the deli to slice 100 grams of prosciutto, which was a quarter of the price that we pay for it for at home. Fresh milk, fresh dates and a ripe tomato, and some nice cakes set us back €6 or a little under $8.

 

Of course lunch could only happen because of a couple of our traveling secrets. Firstly, although we try to travel light we do carry two plastic plates and a sharp knife as well as our trusty traveling kettle, so that we can make a cup of tea.  Weighing about 400 grams this is invaluable as cheap hotels and hostels in Europe rarely have tea or coffee making facilities.  Secondly we have learnt how to keep the milk cold without a fridge – we simply put the milk on the window ledge and as the day temperature was about 1 degree and the overnight temperature was -4 this is fine. Later in the day we even notice some locals who do this as well.

 

For dinner, we manage to eek out a meal from the supermarket, once again. We have a Cuppa-soup bought previously (again we need our travel kettle) along with a fresh bread roll made with olives, left over prosciutto from lunch, ricotta cake for dessert (also from the supermarket), a cup of tea and a small portion of dark Italian chocolate which only cost about €0.40. Dinner costs less than €5.

We are therefore able to feast for less than $15 dollars a day, for both of us, from an Italian supermarket. Richard’s only disappointment is that we do not have a fry pan so he could fry up the pre-cooked polenta that costs only €2 a kilo.