Venice, Aquileia and Trieste

We arrived in Venice in different ways on the two trips.

In 2003 we cruised slowly up the Adriatic on the car-ferry from Patras in Greece. The sea was as smooth as glass and the trip was peaceful and uneventful; I enjoyed the quiet interlude. The sea entry into Venice is wonderful. I have to recommend it as the best possible way to arrive in that town; to slowly see the distant shapes appear and grow to be recognisable and then to glide quietly by the lagoon entrance and the outer islands as those marvellous buildings come into view.

In 2006 we drove from Florence via the back roads, deliberately avoiding major roads wherever possible. That led to a very interesting day, first in the hills North-East of Florence, wandering through the small villages and towns, and then through the flat-lands of the Po estuary, with quite different villages and farms to those in the Tuscan hills.

Venice has been described a million times before by better-informed authors than I. I won’t pretend to be erudite about the Doge’s Palace, or the other Palaces and Cathedral’s – let the pictures suffice.



We just wandered around as wide-eyed tourists through this fabulous, flawed city with it’s wonderful history of mediaeval power, trade, discovery and culture. My earlier wanders in Greece had reminded me of the importance of Venetian traders – and conquerors – in those times.

The wealth of Europe was funnelled through Venice for centuries, and high culture followed the wealth.

In 2003 we stayed in Le Mestre, mainly because we needed to park the car, at the 4* Hotel Sirio booked via http://www.venere.com/. It would equate to about 2.5* in US or Australian terms – but that’s true of most European hotels and it turned out to be a very pleasant stay;

we also enjoyed the trip in and out on the nearby bus to the islands. To me, those suburban bus trips can be part of the enjoyment of the visit, seeing a city from a side it doesn’t always show to tourists.

In 2006 we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Le Marghera, booked via Priceline. It was closer to a US 4* - but I would never stay there again or recommend it. Too many little problems – the traffic nearby, problems in the restaurant, poor customer advice; enough said. The bus was a long walk through a dark suburb at night to that hotel, and the shuttle ran at limited times. Sirio was far better.

While staying in Venice we spent some time driving in the hinterland, up North to the small villages and towns. We got lost without worrying, stopped in little village squares, browsed through small shops and had a lovely lunch in a village which was holding a "red wine tasting" fete with lots of small food stalls outside the wine marquee. I have no idea where we were - just somewhere 50-80km north-ish of Venice. It was a magical day, one of my favourites on the trip

The receptionist in the hotel asked where we were headed and then recommended that we drop in on Aquileia on the way to Trieste. I'm so glad we did, one of those unexpected things you find when you don't really have an itinerary.

Aquileia is now just a tiny town with some remnants of it's once great past. Founded in the 2nd century BC it became one of the major centres of the Roman Empire in the 2nd-4th century AD and was also the seat for bishops then and later in early mediaeval times in the Holy Roman Empire.

But nearly all that is gone now, and it is a sleepy town where the locals are probably outnumbered by tourists; although when we arrived it was quiet with only the occasional school group.

Very little is left of the early Roman days, after centuries of battles at the crossroads of Europe. What the Huns, Venetians and others didn't destroy was finished off by an earthquake in 1348; and later variations in the level of the Adriatic submerged everything in mud.

The Cathedral stands on a site consecrated in the 4th century, but the present one was built around the 11th and 12th.

The wonderful mosaic floors were preserved by a mud cover for centuries; the diversion to Aquileia was worth it just to see them.

We drove on to Trieste for dinner. This ancient Adriatic port seemed a little unexciting after the magnificence of Venice and Aquileia.

Next, we cross the old iron curtain and wander off to Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Czech.

Cheers, Alan

A Pause to Reflect

For some reason known only to Blogger, my latest Athens post appears before this, so scroll down to find it if you've already read this one:-)

G'day again to anyone who has read this far. As I haven't posted since December I thought a brief review may be useful to anyone who hasn't read this blog from the start of the Journey.

This is actually a compilation of two journeys. We went "around the world" for the first time over five months in 2003, then did it again over three months in 2006. In those two fabulous trips we visited lots of countries, mostly driving ourselves when possible; I've decided to record the trips as one sequence.

The sequence broadly follows the 2006 trip, but wherever we come to a point where we saw different places in the 2003 trip I digress for a while to mention those. Right now, after arriving again in Italy in 2006 I've gone back to 2003 and digressed South through Rome and Pompeii to Greece. Next I'll be sailing back up the Adriatic to rejoin the 2006 trip in Venice.

These are the countries we visited in Europe, and the States and Provinces we visited in the USA and Canada, plus a few places we stopped at en-route to both continents:

Singapore (2006)
Bahrein (2006)
Turkey (2006)
Spain (2003, 2006)
France (2003, 2006)
Monaco (2003, 2006)
Italy (2003, 2006)
Greece (2003)
Slovenia (2006)
Hungary (2006)
Slovakia (2006)
Poland (2006)
Germany (2003, 2006)
Switzerland (2003)
Luxembourg (2003)
Belgium (2003)
Nederlands (2003)
Scotland (2003)
Wales (2003)
England (2003, 2006)
Eire (2003, 2006)

Puerto Rico (2003)
USA
..USVirgin Islands (2003)
..NYC (2003, 2006)
..NY State (2006)
..Massachusetts (2006)
..New Hampshire (2006)
..Vermont (2006)
Canada
..Quebec (2006)
..Ontario (2006)
USA
..Illinois (2006)
..California (2003, 2006)
..Nevada (2003)
..Missouri (2003)
..Louisiana (2003)
..Mississippi (2003)
..Alabama (2003)
..Florida (2003)
..Georgia (2003)
..South Carolina (2003)
..North Carolina (2003)
..Virginia (2003)
..Delaware (2003)
..Maryland (2003)
..District of Columbia (2003)
..Hawaii (2006)

My apologies for the long delay since the last post. Among other reasons such as holidays and family matters, I've been frustrated by the change that blogger has made when I upload pictures; they no longer automatically adjust their size to your screen. I have no idea why, so I've decided to keep going anyway.

Cheers, Alan

Athens and The Adriatic

Travel Dates May 2003

We said farewell to Pam and left the Argolid regretfully. Eighteen months later we had a drink with Pam in a suburban pub in Adelaide. We thoroughly enjoyed the three days we spent in Mycenae. The days were unhurried, the people were nice, we had wandered where and when we felt like going and had a marvellous relaxed interlude in our trip. And somehow we managed to absorb some of the atmosphere and feeling of this ancient part of the world. I will always be fascinated by the Mycenaeans; I can understand Schliemann’s drive to discover so much about the era.

We enjoyed our lazy wanders from Mycenae and were a little wary of re-entering the traffic chaos of a major city again. We were right to be concerned. As soon as we were near to Athens the traffic closed in and driving became a chore again instead of a pleasure. Some, but very few, of the street signs were in both Greek and Roman characters, but despite having maps we became thoroughly lost and frustrated. This was one of the rare occasions where I hadn’t booked ahead in a major city; we learn by our mistakes. Eventually we found our way to the centre and, after several fruitless attempts to find a reasonably priced room in a good hotel we found one at the "Central Hotel". Apparently 4*. Well, maybe it would have been if the lift had worked consistently and the pool had not been under noisy refurbishment. Suffice to say that we wouldn’t stay there again.

However, the location was great, close to the meat market and a shopping area, not too distant from the Acropolis. Lorraine's dad was a butcher and meat inspector so the meat market was a bit of a shock for us, brought up in Australian standards of refrigeration and hygiene. But nobody seemed to have problems with it and we had been eating the gyros next door without problems, so we came to accept it as just another cultural difference.

We enjoyed wandering around the surrounding streets, just watching and listening to the people, browsing through the shops and eating gyros and other local meals for lunch. There were many similarities to the people and practices of Istanbul with one very big difference - there was not the constant pressure from rug salesmen and other street vendors.

I must admit that I found the Acropolis a little disappointing; maybe I’m being unfair. The photos don’t show all the scaffolding; remember that it was May 2003 and they were getting ready for the Athens Olympics. I still enjoyed my day wandering around the Acropolis and the nearby Roman ruins, but I didn’t get that same feeling of wonder at past civilisations that I had in the Alhambra, or Rome, or Pompeii, or Istanbul or Mycenae. The place seemed touristy and oddly staged. But don’t let that stop anyone – I’m still glad I went. Let’s face it, you can’t leave it off your "must see" list if you’re only ever going to get one chance to see Europe – and at the time I didn’t think I’d ever be back.

In the evenings we ate in open-air cafes in the closed off streets in the centre; I'm afraid I neglected to note the street names. Pleasant, with unremarkable food and drinkable wine but a good atmosphere among the people. I decided to use the net to book Venice, after our problems finding the Athens hotel, but I had a lot of trouble finding an internet cafe. The first one I found was up five flights of stairs - and was closed. A sign down the bottom of the stairs would have been nice. The second one had keyboards totally designed for the Greeks; it had never occurred to me as a possibility, although I suppose it should have been obvious. I had become used to the little variations in key positions on European keyboards (the first thing you do in each new country is discover where they've hidden the @ key:-), but I couldn't handle these. Finally I found one that charged like a wounded bull - by the minute. So I used http://www.venere.com/ to do a very quick search and booked in a 4* in Le Mestre in about five minutes; it later turned out to be a good choice.

It took us three hours to leave Athens, so I saw much more of the outer suburbs than I first intended. The roads system just didn't seem to want to let us leave:-) Every time I wanted to turn left I would find it was a "no left turn" and similarly if I wanted to go right. We seemed to have chosen a route that had only one logical way to go, directly opposite the way to Corinth and Patras. As I had a booking on the Ferry to Venice I didn't really want to drive there through Bulgaria. But, eventually, we arrived in Patras after a more interesting trip than we intended.

We ate a lovely meal at a restaurant on the shore of the gulf, as the sun set in a beautiful sky. Then my lady needed to use the facilities. We had seen one of these before, but to find one in a top restaurant was a real surprise. Not even a tap in the toilet.

The Ferry was old and slow, but comfortable. It left in the late evening. I enjoyed the quiet, unhurried trip over two nights and a day, but I must admit Lorraine became rather bored. The sea was glassy smooth for the whole trip. I was fascinated by the total lack of habitation on the Albanian coast; in the entire trip we saw one small coastal town. It seemed so sad to see a country so totally isolating it's citizens from the world


Cheers, Alan