Day 91 Born to Walk

As we send this final blog we are about to head to the airport to catch our final flight home. We would like to thank all the people who have read this blog and hope that in some small way you have enjoyed our adventure. Writing this blog for us has been a lot of fun and we want to thank all who made comments and the occasional corrections. We did famously write once, that ‘we were on a ferry that went on a train’ but fortunately one of our readers picked this up so we corrected our error to say ‘our train went on a ferry’ (remarkable enough really). To end with adjectives would be impossible because we have used wonderful, adventurous, exciting, delightful and fabulous already far too many times. We have had the holiday and adventure of a lifetime and we are very grateful to have had this opportunity. We will end with a few statistics that in some way sum up our 91day trip around the world – Born to Run 2008.

Countries Visited: 15 countries and two principalities.
Highlights: Too many
Lowlights: Very few
Plane Distance Travelled: 56 233kms
Train/Tram Distance: 16 538kms
Taxi: 200 kms
Bus : 688 km
Boats: 389 km
Walking: 1 266 kms
Total Distance a little over 74 744 kms
Cost: Let’s just say we achieved our goal of living off our salaries for three months -no big bills when we get home. Yippee!!!

We need to thank our kids Hannah and Tim for looking after the house, cars, bill paying and dog for three months. We need to thank our employers for long service leave and the Australian Government for not abolishing this wonderful working condition that seems to be enjoyed by very few people around the world. We are looking forward to catching up with our many friends and family over the next few weeks.

Michael Pallin said recently that travel made him realise two things- that the world was actually smaller than he thought and not nearly as scary. We would agree with that conclusion and add that it is also more diverse, wonderful, beautiful and interesting than we had ever imagined.

Finally we end as we began with Mark Twain’s wonderful words

“20 Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the boundaries. Sail away from the safe harbour and catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover".

Day 90 A splurge on the way home

After 13 weeks on a tight budget our greatest highlight in Hong Kong is our accommodation. Before our trip began we booked all our accommodation except for Hong Kong. The plan was to see how the budget was going and maybe book a nice hotel online on the way home. In fact we are about 22% under budget for the whole trip so we decided it was fitting to end in style.

We booked a room in the Shangri La, a fancy 5 star hotel in Kowloon. We had stayed in one of their other hotels in the past and we knew that we were in for a treat. However what really convinced us to stay here was the following items that were thrown in as part of a package deal (seemingly almost designed for us)

a. Free airport transfers in a limo. After countless metro, train, bus, tram and long walking excursions to find our accommodation this sounded like a wonderful treat.
b. Free laundry. For 13 weeks we have hand washed our clothes every night and hung them out in various places around our often very small rooms to dry. After seeing some of our clothes come back from the laundry we are astounded to be reminded of their original colour. Had we paid for the laundry they have done for us it would have cost a ridiculous $250!
c. Free Breakfast. Probably the most challenging meal each day of our trip has been breakfast. When we had cooking facilities we could organise some cereal and milk but often we had to resort to a bread roll, croissants or bagette. About half we through the trip we bought a small plastic container, which served as Wendy’s breakfast bowl while Richard used a metal travelling mug. Free breakfast, with lots of choice, is heavenly.

d. Free Internet. We have had this in some places, especially hostels, but after many weeks of being Internet pirates it has been nice to end connected.

e. Late check out at 6pm on the final day. Again this was perfect as our flight home leaves at 11pm

f. TV in English! Again such a treat and as we have not had TV in English for about 7 weeks.

The room is sensational, the bed is such a delight (we could write a series of blogs about the standard of beds around the world but we might leave that for another day), the harbour view is resplendent and it’s so nice to end in a style that we are not used to at all!

As much as we enjoy this 5 star treat it is worth reflecting on the whole trip. We estimate that had we stayed in this standard of accommodation throughout the trip the total cost of our adventure would probably have been 2 or 3 times as much. So Born to Runs in the future will need to continue to be on a tight budget,but there is nothing quite like a celebratory, end of trip, under budget splurge!

Day 89 Asia's world city

Our final destination before home is Hong Kong. To be honest we hoped to have a stop over on the way home and we asked our travel agent to book us into any destination that she could get for us as ‘frequent flyers’. You may remember that our 11 flights for this trip were all part of an around-the-world frequent fliers Qantas package which we were able to redeem without cost (apart from $600 for taxes). Lois managed to get us a flight to Hong Kong, a place we had never been to, so we thought – why not! And again we have been incredibly surprised and delighted by our short stay here.

We have done the touristy things. We rode the tram to The Peak and viewed the city and harbour at sunset. We sampled just a small slice of the vast opportunities for shopping. We rode the old and cute double decker trolley cars up and down Hong Kong’s main island. We caught the Star Ferry across the harbour for the total cost of 22 Aussie cents. We even experienced the sparkle of Hong Kong’s famous nightly light show. We can’t help but love this crazy Asian city, which feels like Chinatown on steroids.

Hong Kong is in many ways fascinating. As the model of Chinese capitalism it shimmers. There seems to be more French, New York and Italian designer shops here than anywhere in Europe. There also seems to be many more Asia tourists than western tourists. At the same time it’s obvious that the city is increasingly associating itself with its new status as part of China. Olympic fever is almost at boiling point and Chinese nationalism is evident, yet they still tolerate a permanent protest outside the main ferry terminal staged by the members of Falun Gong. The food is cheap and better than any Chinese food we have eaten at home and the aggressive hawkers on the streets, who try to sell us suits and watches, only add to the exotic flavour.


Hong Kong rightly deserves its boast that it is Asia’s World City.

Day 87,88 Mama Mia!

We are very fortunate, as we draw this adventure to a close, to have lives that we love, waiting for us at home. As much as we are sad that this journey is coming to an end we are looking forward to going home and seeing our family, our friends, our church and our community and of course the dog.

We left our apartment in Paris early and travelled by metro to Gare Nord for our final train trip in Europe. The Eurostar to London did not let us down. Two hours and ten minutes later we had arrived at St Pancreas station in London – it was a perfect, fast, smooth train trip that reminded us yet again that there other fast ways to travel, apart from cars and aeroplanes. Train travel in Europe has been a smorgasbord of wonderful and challenging experiences. We have been on very fast trains and very slow trains, sleek modern trains and old rattlers, clean well-organised trains and Italian regional trains (enough said). What really surprised us is that 98% of these trains have been electric; the Europeans are in much better shape to endure a post ‘oil-reliant’ world than many other parts of the world.

Once in London we had about 9 hours to wait until our flight left for Hong Kong at 9.15pm. We had planned to put our packs into the luggage storage at the station and spend the afternoon looking at a few sights in London that we had missed on previous visits … but we had not counted on the rain. London is notorious for drizzle, but on this day we encountered a whole months worth of rain on one day – and not for the first time we had to resort to Plan B. With the help of the tube we found our way to Leicester Square and a cinema to watch a pre-release session of the new movie Mama Mia.

Having seen only one movie in 3 months it was great to sit in a theatre and watch a movie in English. With Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth as part of an all-star cast, and with the hits of Abba surely this movie couldn’t go wrong. Well the movie was bizarre, curious and also a delightful experience. Bizarre, because musicals are a strange genre, and also because none of the middle- aged leads could really sing – although they do try hard. Curious, because the story has been made up to try and tie together a group of very diverse songs. Delightful, because as teenagers of the 70s we laughed, and cried and sang along to a movie shot on location in a glorious part of Greece. We wondered what younger people would make of this strange musical that invites the audience to laugh at itself, but it did fill up our afternoon in a most enjoyable way. With a little more time to kill we found ourselves in a wonderful bookshop in Charing Cross Road where we were delighted to find a whole bookshop packed with titles in English (while in Europe we have often been restricted to one shelf). Of course we couldn’t resist the temptation and we bought a couple of books for the trip home.

We left Britain from the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow; which now seems to be working perfectly. British Airways looked after us for 11 hours and even provided a spare seat next to us, which made our trip not so ‘squeezy’. It was nice to hear English being spoken around us but we were puzzled about how the UK could be so close to Europe and still have such terrible food.

Some 24 hours after leaving Paris we arrived at the final three-day stopover on the Born to Run 2008 Tour, Hong Kong.

Day 86 Being ourselves

Day 86 was our last full day in Europe. As has been the pattern for this whole trip we easily filled the day. In the morning we visited the Musee d’ Orsay, we admired the wonderful old building, which had once been a railway station and loved the opportunity to see some of Europe’s finest artworks. We enjoyed the rest of the museum but the impressionist paintings of Monet and Renoir had the greatest impact. In the afternoon we ended our almost perfect 6 days in Paris with a Bateaux Cruise up and down the Seine. We have seen Paris by bus and on foot and also with the help of the metro, but to travel along its famous river was a wonderful way to end our trip to a city that deserves its reputation, as being the most beautiful city in Europe.

Our final dinner in Paris was like no other dinner of the whole trip. Daniele, the delightful French woman, who has rented us her apartment, invited us to her house for a home cooked meal. To end this way was perfect, but we did have one dilemma.

Like any couple we have our own unique likes and dislikes. One thing about us that is very unaustralian is that we don’t drink alcohol. We are not reformed alcoholics and it is not really for religious reasons it’s just that early in our marriage when money was very tight we simply could not afford to drink and we got out of the habit. With a job as a pastor, Richard is basically always on call, and he feels that he cannot really afford to be affected. Also after years of not drinking it seems really too much effort to start. We tend to annoy waiters in restaurants by asking for tap water, but we do like the fact that we can keep our costs down by not drinking wine. Also from a pastoral point of view we have seen, at close quarters, the destructive impact of alcohol on too many lives and communities. Even though we are in no way ‘members of a temperance society’ we just find it easier to enjoy a cup of tea rather than a glass of wine.

However once we were invited to Daniele’s for dinner we started to worry about what we should do. How can we refuse wine, which to the French is so much a part of a meal? Should we take a bottle of wine? (a very hard thing to do when you have no idea what to buy) Should we relax our no wine policy for just one night and be polite to our hostess? In the end after lots of agonising we decided to just be ourselves, and be ready to apologise for our preference for water. We also decided to take our hostess chocolates and flowers instead of the usual bottle of wine.

Daniele has been the perfect landlady and she proved to be the perfect hostess as well. When we arrived the inevitable question arose about what we would like to drink with our meal. Meekly we apologised about wine and asked for water. Our host responded with delight. She too was a non-drinker and was more than happy to treat us to water. She told us how embarrassed she often felt when guests (especially Australians) arrived with a bottle of wine, plonked it on the table and said “Open her up!”. Danielle confessed that she was not very French as she doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink wine and she doesn’t even eat cheese. She told us that in her opinion the perfect guest in France always bought flowers, not wine. What a relief and a nice reminder that we are, who we are, and on the road or at home it pays to be true to ourselves, rather than trying to live up to the expectations of those around us.

Two months in Europe has been an education, an adventure and a delight. Home cooked Quiche Lorraine, apple flan and bottled water with a view of the Eiffel Tower ( from the widow) was the perfect conclusion.

Day 85 With a little more digging

We have used many sources to seek out the lesser-known places in the cities we have visited and Daniele, the owner of the apartment we have rented became a great source of information about Paris. We had previously visited the Louvre and this time we were planning to visit at least one of the other famous art galleries in Paris, The Musee d’ Orsay. Our local expert was able to mark on a map another lesser known gallery where we could find a really remarkable exhibition of impressionist art; a gallery called the Musee de l’Orangerie.

Because the weather was again a little cool and bleak we were pleased to arrive at the gallery right on opening time and avoid a long wait in the rain. The building was originally part of the palace gardens but has since been renovated to display Monet’s eight huge canvases called Les Nympheas which follow a common theme; waterlilies. The paintings line the rounded walls of two rooms that form a double ellipse. The largest of these paintings is over 18 metres long. Without the crowds of the major galleries we were able to enjoy Monet’s greatest works in relative peace. We were also able to appreciate these wonderful works all the more because we had actually been standing in Monet’s garden the previous day.

Speaking of maps we probably need to confess that there have been several wonderful places that we have missed because in spite of a trusty tourist map we just could not find them. Sometimes the maps are a slightly inaccurate. Often middle-aged eyes miss the odd detail. Occasionally we pay the penalty for holding the map upside down and then sometimes we write down the address incorrectly which does not help. On Day 82 we had failed in our jaunt through the Latin Quarter to find a famous English bookshop called Shakespeare and Company. On Day 84 we again went looking for this Paris landmark, we almost missed it again but eventually we found this real treasure. This bookshop is over 60 years old and has a quirky and fascinating collection of old and new books in a tiny shop quite close to the River Seine. The shop looks like an old house and it contains almost twice as many books as it really has room to hold. But the atmosphere, the clientele, the books, and in short the ‘vibe’ of this place made it a real find.

Paris is a city that is filled with treasures. Many of these are clearly evident for everyone to see, but with a little digging and a degree of perseverance, rarer finds can be made, which are even more precious.

Day 84 I'm only good at two things- painting and gardening.

Claude Monet once said that he was only good at two things- painting and gardening. Before taking the opportunity to view some of Monet’s beautiful impressionist paintings we travelled out, on Day 84, to the little town of Giverny, which is about 75kms from Paris to visit Monet’s Garden. This was to be our last journey using our two-month Eurail passes.

Monet was quite correct about his own assessment of his ability to garden. Having bought a little place in the Normandy countryside Monet’s garden grew over the years, as he was able to buy other blocks of land from his neighbours. The garden is a
cottage garden and although it was showing the effects of Europe’s recent heat wave the garden was a delight. Like an English cottage garden Monet’s garden is a wash of colours; pink, blue, purple, mauve, white, with splashes of red, orange and yellow. It is a garden of varying plant heights and foliage and is dominated by perennials. Roses, salvias, windflowers, geraniums, lavender, and daisies form the understorey of the garden with beautiful weeping willows and other trees framing the gardens’ canvas. The centrepiece of the garden, is of course, Monet’s wonderful lily pond which he painted over 600 times. With the river running down the side of the garden Monet was able to divert the water to feed his pond. The garden paths wind around the pond and the whole garden is reflected in its still waters. The water lilies and their flowers are highlights while the beautiful bridges allow the visitor to cross the pond and enjoy just being part of the whole landscape.

A cottage garden is often filled with beautiful flowers, but sometimes the ‘dead heads’ on the plants can be as interesting as the living flowers. We were rather pleased that the garden was far from perfect and we thought that it looked more authentic than some other professional perennial borders which have had every trace of death removed. With the clever use of annual planting using geraniums, impatience, begonias and petunias the gardens just looked like an artist’s pallet.

The town of Giverny remains quite unspoiled and charming. We sat in a sunny park and ate our baguettes, which we had brought with us for lunch. During a long walk through the village we discovered the local church and Monet’s remarkably ordinary family grave. With a delay to get a return bus we filled in another hour eating pate and chips (French Fries) at a local hotel made famous by the artists who flocked to this country village during Monet’s life.

Monet’s house and garden left us with many images of country life in this lovely part of rural France and we left feeling inspired to get home and fill our own house and garden with colour and life.

Day 83 Sitting with Sartre and walking with Baz

It was with the help of the Metro and our trusty feet that we headed out on Day 83 to explore the famous Latin Quarter of Paris. We had heard that this was the traditional home of writers, artists, poets and thinkers who frequented the many bookshops and cafes in the area. We found evidence of all of these past inhabitants but also noticed that a new gang seems to have turned up and were taking up residence. We had seen this group clustered in ghettos in New York and many of the European cities that we have visited. We generally try to stay well away from this mob as we consider them not to be of our social class. You may have heard of some of their names and we would like to warn you that you too, may come across the likes of Prada, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Co, Cartier, Swarvarski and Chanel. They seem to be everywhere!
After walking for quite some time we decided to rest our tired feet and have a coffee at one of Paris’s famous haunts the Café de Flore. This café has been a refuge and meeting place of many famous writers, academics, philosophers and thinkers throughout the last century. We were able to sit and sip our cappuccinos and wonder if Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir had sat at the same table. We considered being and nothingness but decided that the pursuit of beauty, life and joy was much more productive.

Later in the day we headed out to the famous Montmartre area to take a bird’s eye view of the city from the north. The view was almost worth the tourist crush, which I guess we also contributed to. Later we strolled past the famous red windmill outside Moulin Rouge (made even more famous by Baz Luhrmann’s movie). The style of the Montmartre area do not exactly fit our taste but to sit with Sartre and walk with Baz made it another surreal day in Paris.

Day 82 A true blue Eiffel Tower

Paris is a city of beautiful buildings. Paris is a city of culture. Paris is a city of wonderful art and music. Paris is a city of great food. Paris is a city of high fashion. Paris is a city of love. We had heard all of these things about Paris and we knew it would be a special city in which to end the European part of our trip. Paris is also the only European city that we have visited before. In 2004 we were able to have a wonderful weekend with our three teenage children in this famous city. We have very happy memories of this very special time as a family. This time we do miss our children, but now we are enjoying this romantic city as a couple.

The day began with a serious attempt to tackle the sales in Paris’s famous department store Galleries Lafayette. We were on a mission to buy an outfit for the mother-of-the-groom as our son Tim is getting married in November. Incredibly we met another Aussie couple, who are on the exact same mission, their son is also getting married in Sydney in November. The only difference is, that this other mother-of-the-groom (the husband whinges to Richard) had already bought two outfits elsewhere in Europe but keeps panicking that the weather might be hotter or colder than she expected and therefore she will need another option.

Later that evening we set out to do something that we did not do last time, and that was to see the sights of Paris at night. We began at the Arc de Triomphe and enjoyed watching the spectacle of the traffic negotiating the roundabout around the arch. It has to be the most bizarre and entertaining intersection in the world. We then wandered down the The Champs-Elysees, which radiates out as one of the 12 axes from the Arc de Triomphe and is one of the most famous streets in Europe. It is lined with many of the top designers’ shops, and we were surprised to see that it is now also resplendent with futuristic car showrooms.

After leaving the Champs-Elysees we made our way through some of the backstreets of the 7th Arrondissement towards Paris’s most famous icon, The Eiffel Tower. The tower seemed to be even bigger than we remembered and we were delighted to see it resplendent with blue and purple lights. After some time admiring it from close quarters we strolled down the Champ de Mars to view it from a distance. We sat on the grass with thousands of others and enjoyed Mr Eiffel’s wonderful creation as the blue lights were further enhanced by a sparkling show of silver fairy lights that twinkled at 11pm.

Can it get any better? Well actually yes!
Crepes from the street vendor parked close by, served with chocolate and cream! Luckily we had walked over 20kms today.

Day 81 A Paris Apartment

After a long train trip we arrived in Paris in the early afternoon and set off to find our apartment for the next 6 days. The simple task of getting from one of Paris’s main train stations to our apartment was made much more complex by maintenance on the Metro. This meant that we had to find one Metro line, then a bus, then another Metro line to get to our ‘home’ in Paris.

We have stayed in a variety of different types of accommodation on this trip but whenever possible, especially for longer stays we have tried to rent an apartment. To be honest this is a great deal more complex and risky than organising a hostel or hotel. Firstly it’s not a matter of speaking to a 24-hour multi-lingual reception desk but rather speaking and negotiating directly (with the blessed help of email) with a local. Also finding the place and coordinating a rendezvous to pick up keys etc has also been more challenging as even our best plans are sometimes complicated by such things as disruptions to the metro or train connections that don’t quite work. Also to be honest transport to these places is generally a lot more complicated as they are just in normal suburban areas not in convenient, central locations like hostels and hotels. Having said that we do much prefer to stay in an apartment. Here is a list of some of our reasons.

1. Generally renting an apartment is much cheaper; for example this apartment is less than half the cost of the very nice but tiny 3 star hotel room that we stayed in when we visited Paris in 2004.
2. There is much more space. This particular apartment is nicely decorated (it’s so French) and has a large bedroom/dining/lounge room, (let’s call it a slightly cluttered multi purpose room) plus a bathroom and a kitchen.
3. In Paris we are living on the second floor of a normal apartment block behind a huge classic wooden door in the 20th Arrondisssoment. We really enjoy the feeling of living like Parisians – even if our French is appalling.
4. We love having our own place and after a few days it really feels like home. Many people like having their room serviced in a hotel but for us it is nice to know that we are the only ones coming and going from our rooms.
5. Probably our favourite reason is that we are able to cook our own meals. We need to confess that our cooking is very basic- often we buy ready-made fresh meals and only heat them up. We have even cooked frozen veggies at times. However not only has this reduced the cost of our food by about 75% (even compared to budget restaurants) we can choose our food without the complications of trying to order in a foreign language. For us we really enjoy buying a few days food and then knowing that there is food in the fridge to eat when we are ready. And as we have mentioned before we love to find the local markets, and buy enough fresh food for a feast! Another bonus is that we can have cereal with milk for breakfast and we don’t have to eat croissants with ham and cheese as they are often the only things offered in hotel breakfasts.
6. Finally it is great to meet the local owners of the apartments, as was especially the case here in Paris. The lady who owns this apartment is charming, helpful, knowledgeable and welcoming… she has even invited us to her home for dinner (with lots of ‘Allo, Allos’ )

As we wrote this we opened the window for some fresh air and a neighbour was playing Bruce Springsteen!


PS We have read a lot of stories of people who rented apartments on the net- sent money only to find out the whole thing was a scam. To avoid this we have used agencies such as VBRO and Cross Pollinate, which have been great. This apartment was on a personal recommendation and no cash was exchanged until we arrived.

Day 80 Pintxos in Basque Country

So far for all but 7 days of our trip we have been in non-English speaking countries. With all the difficulties associated with this, we have managed really well, mostly due to the patience of many locals and the willingness of so many to share whatever English they have. San Sebastian to us has been particularly interesting because we are not even sure what language the locals are speaking. We had assumed as we were in Spain that they might speak Spanish, but that was our first mistake. As we are close to the French border we thought they might speak French, wrong again. Apparently most of the locals speak the Basque language or at least some form of dialect. Nonetheless people are very friendly and as usual we manage to get by somehow.

As has been our custom Day 80 included a lot of walking. We began by climbing a small mountain behind our Pensione, which is topped by a fort and huge statue of Jesus. The view was amazing and after taking the longer scenic route down we then walked the entire length of the two beaches, which circle the bay. We really enjoyed paddling our poor tired feet in the cool but refreshing ocean. At the other end of the second beach we rode up 185 metres on a one hundred year old funicular, which took us to the top of another hill where we were afforded a complete panorama of this elegant coastal city.

Later we could not resist a visit to the vibrant shopping district made more exciting by the July sales. However the real highlight of the shopping was the fresh food market in the centre of town. We have enjoyed many colourful markets in many countries but the fresh food including the seafood from the local fishing boats completed this culinary picture. In spite of not having a fridge at our Pensione we bought bread, cheese, salami, cold Spanish omelette, salad, brownies, Madeira cake and cherries to afford us an exotic picnic.

Dinner was even better. Spain is famous for Tapas, the name given to a wide variety of appetizers, which are a highlight of Spanish cuisine. These appetizers became delicious meals for us in Barcelona. In San Sebastian they have a local version called Pintxos. Basically all the bars and cafes have large selections of Pintxos on the counter and you simply load your plate and pay for what you eat. The variety, colour and taste of these delicious Pintxos, most of which include some type of seafood, is quite amazing. We chose six different types in one café and then another six at a noisy pub. Do we eat to travel, or travel to eat? We are not sure. What we do know is that San Sebastian deserves its reputation for unique and wonderful fresh food.

Finally our day ended as it had begun with another long walk to the third beach and back to town around a headland that we had not previously discovered. At 10pm on a cloudy evening we watched the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean.

Day 79 Madeleine for morning tea

After our unexpected overnight train ride to San Sebastian we arrived bright and early at 7.30am. After a brisk 20-minute walk we arrived at a new form of accommodation for us a Pensione; a very comfortable room in a type of small hotel in what was once a private home situated in the old city of San Sebastian.

Most people have probably never heard of San Sebastian and you may be wondering why we chose to stay here. During our planning sessions we realised that we had the time to go to Barcelona but the next question was “Where to next?” before our final destination in Europe; Paris. After examining the map and reading the guidebooks the beach city of San Sebastian seemed to be an attractive option.

San Sebastian has much to offer. It is situated on a shell-shaped bay surrounded by hills and mountains with a beautiful wrought iron lined promenade that runs the entire length of two of its adjoining beaches. This pretty town has been described as Spain’s most elegant and fashionable resort city and has been the summer retreat of the Spanish royal family for many years. We are so pleased to have found this wonderful place with its three beaches (one with real surf), a harbour, a classic ‘old town’ with narrow cobblestone streets and quaint little shops and some of the most fantastic food not only in Spain but the whole of Europe.

In an odd way it even reminds us of our favourite seaside town in Australia, South West Rocks. Sure it’s much larger than South West Rocks (population of 180,000 rather than 4,000) and sure it has a bit more history (it has a fort built in the 12th century rather than a gaol built in 1880) and it’s on the Atlantic Ocean not the Pacific Ocean but nevertheless with its sea wall, river, wonderful walking tracks, hills and beaches and also great bread shops there were some very real similarities.

One highlight of our day was a visit to a little coffee shop called La Vache (The Cow) for a very overdue breakfast at about 11am. After being attracted by the simple but homey decor we were delighted with hot chocolate and a little bread roll with prosciutto and capsicum and a chocolate croissant. Thinking life could not get any better we noticed that the CD playing was Madeline Peyroux one of our favourite contemporary jazz singers.

Finally we have to mention that the weather on Day 79 was cool! It was a very mild 24 degrees– wonderful after we had endured 13 days in a row of temperatures over 35 degrees!

Day 78 To reserve or not to reserve that is the question

As much as we have loved the freedom of our Eurail passes there has been one hassle (which we had been warned about), which has become more of a problem the longer we have been in Europe. The theory with a Eurail pass is that you can just hop on or hop off any train you like – it’s all free once you have paid for the pass. Before we left home we had followed a debate in the travel sections of the paper about Eurail passes and reservations. It seems that on some busy, high-speed routes reservations are now compulsory and even pass holders have to book a seat and pay for a reservation.

For the first 5 weeks in Europe this did not seem to be an issue. The trains were by and large quiet and we did not reserve. Often we were on regional non-reserve trains but even when we were on better trains it did not seem to be an issue that we had not booked…. until Italy.

On a train from Como to Milan we were greeted by a guard, who demanded our reservation. We said “no reservation” and he shook his head, muttered something and stomped off. This was the first time anyone had made an issue of it. Days later on a train from Milan to Florence the same scene played out except this time the guard grumped a phrase that we would hear often and could easily understand “You pay now!”. After punching several numbers into his calculator he came up with the figure of 18 Euros, which we had no choice but to pay.

This happened several times in Italy so we were never sure whether to pay up front for the reservation or risk it and see if we would get a shake of the head or a “ you pay now”. It seemed that every time we reserved a seat the train ended up being empty or the guard forgot to check and every time we didn’t book the train was full and the guard would demand “You pay now!”. One day we caught a train from Rome to Naples, we did reserve and it cost us 40 Euro for a ninety minute trip (ouch) – only to find that those tickets weren’t checked at all and the train was half empty.

There were the couple of trips where we did not book and ended up in an overfull train without a seat. One day Richard enjoyed a couple of hours on the floor. Quite a few times we had to vacate seats for people who had booked (rather embarrassing really). On one occasion we had to give up our seat to a lady and her cat, which obviously did have a reserved seat. The smelly cat sat in its cage on a seat while we sat on a fold-up seat in the hallway.

On Day 78 we were meant to catch an early 7am train from Barcelona across Spain to arrive in San Sebastian late in the afternoon. After considerable discussion we decided to do the right thing and reserve a seat the night before. Barcelona is a very busy station and we waited for an hour in a queue only to be told that the 7am train was fully booked, as was the midday train. After quite an animated discussion in broken English and even more broken Spanish we finally discovered that our only hope was to get the night train. So we booked a sleeper compartment on the train that was to leave at 10pm and arrive in San Sebastian at 7.30 am the following morning.

As a result we found that we had an extra day in Barcelona and feeling slightly at a loose end we found an English language cinema and watched a very bleak Nicole Kidman and Jack Black film to fill in the time before boarding the night train.

However boarding this night train was a very unique experience. This part of Barcelona Station resembled an airport with x-ray machines for all the luggage and a departure lounge. Every ticket and reservation was checked before we were allowed onto the platform so it was very fortunate that Richard had listened to Wendy and that we had a reservation .

On the train we actually enjoyed a very nice double-bunk cabin with its own shower (well actually a trickle but it was warm and wet). We missed seeing the scenery but did arrive in San Sebastian having enjoyed a reasonably good nights sleep.

Sometimes we have chosen our own adventure on this trip, but this sleeper adventure chose us, and we were glad to have experienced another feature of Europe’s train system.

Day 77 Dancing in La Rambles

As the temperature again peaked at well over 35 degrees we decided that we needed some help to see more of Barcelona so we signed on for the ‘hop on hop off’ Barcelona Bus Turistica. As Barcelona is quite a large city it was a perfect way for us to take in more of its highlights, which are quite wides-spread, and difficult for us to explore on foot.

Highlights of the day were the Olympic venues from 1992, more of Gaudi’s strange and incredible architecture, the home ground of the famous Barca Football Club, Barcelona University, which is over 400 years old, and the beautifully restored beach-side area.

Before the 1992 Olympics Barcelona had a huge derelict beach area, which were probably little better than slums. This area gave way to the Olympic village, which later was sold off as upper end private housing and has become the seed of a redevelopment that is now a modern and architecturally impressive area. Although the beaches are not really up to Australian standards they are pretty good for Europe, with sand and beautiful clear warm Mediterranean waters. The crowds on this hot Sunday afternoon were much like a mid summer day at Bondi, huge!

Speaking of crowds, on Day 55 we mentioned that we were in Geneva for the first night of soccer’s Euro 2008. For the last month we have followed the fortunes of many of the countries involved as we have travelled across Europe. We cheered with the Italians in Florence when they beat France. We cried for Gus ( the ex Aussie coach) when Russia was eliminated. We were a little terrified when the orange army of spectators from the Netherlands ( or as the Italians call them ‘Olanda’) passed us in a train station in Bern. Incredibly on Day 77 we found ourselves in Spain on the night of the final with Spain, the underdogs, set to do battle against the mighty and invincible Germany. After Spain had scored in the first half, the whole city held its breath and the streets were deserted as the crowds in the bars stood in silence watching the match, fearful at any time that Germany would equalise. With the final whistle Spain had defied the odds with a stunning and historic victory. They had not won an international football tournament since 1964. Within minutes of the victory the whole city erupted as people poured out onto the streets in their thousands, the lads were dancing without shirts on their balconies, on the streets, on top of trucks, and even up the light poles. Flags, horns, home made fireworks, explosions and euphoria flowed through the streets. It was great to be adopted into this scene and to share the joy of an unexpected victory. Espanol, Espanol, Espanol Oi Oi Oi ( or something like that! )

Day 76 Gaudi and Paella

Barcelona has been another of the real surprises of this trip. It is a huge, wonderful, diverse, vibrant, modern and yet also historic, beach side city. With rivers running to the north and the south of the city, the sea on the eastern side and mountains in the west it was a natural place for the Romans to build a city over 2000 years ago. Today it is a shopping, cultural and tourist mecca.

We spent the first day exploring on foot beginning at a vibrant, colourful and exciting local produce market which sold fruit, vegetables, flowers, seafood, meat (including sheep heads), chicken, eggs, cheese and much more. Architecturally Barcelona is famous for its Gaudi heritage. There are a number of apartment blocks and other buildings that bear his unique style and design, as well as the famous, still to be completed, cathedral. It would be easy to call his buildings ‘ugly’ but his unusual lines, his love of nature, and the absolute uniqueness of his work seem to leave even the most cynical viewer impressed.

Barcelona is, first and foremost, a port city with a bustling commercial and cruise liner port. As a city it also bears the hallmarks of a government that is keen to invest in infrastructure. The railway station, roads, metro system, port facilities, aerial gondola, bike tracks, sculptures, public spaces and so much more make this a wonderful city – a city that the Catalan people are very proud of and one that visitors seem to also enjoy.

In the evening we headed back down to the port area to a restaurant recommended to us, but after searching for over an hour without success, we admitted defeat. We wandered out of the tourist area and into a suburb that we later discovered was where many local fishermen live. We stumbled across a little seafood restaurant, which was only just opening at 9pm. It was tiny, with only about four or five tables out the front. We had no real reason to choose it over the hundreds of other restaurants we had passed that night, but something about it appealed to us, so we sat down. We ordered a dish that needs to be shared by two people who are prepared to wait 30 minutes for it to cook. It was worth the wait to eat a local delicacy, paella; rice cooked with mussels, tender calamari, prawns and tomato. Yum!

Gaudi and paella were just two of the highlights of a great Day 76 in Barcelona.

Day 76 Back to Spanish

It is one of our rules to try never to stay just one night in any one place but with our late change to attend the Bruce Springsteen concert in Milan we could only have one night in Avignon. This was poor planning as it would have been great to have had more time to explore this quiet French provincial town and a region known for, amongst other things, lavender.

So after only one night, Day 75 saw us back on two long train journeys, firstly from Avignon to Portbou on the French-Spanish border and then a local train from Portbou to Barcelona, arriving at about 8pm. It had now been three days in a row of travelling and our old backpack lifting muscles are starting to feel a little ragged. Nevertheless it is great to be back in a Spanish-speaking nation. (after all we had started this trip in Spanish speaking South America) After some difficulty we found our hotel right in the heart of Barcelona’s old town, not far from the famous La Rambles.

Our first priority was to try and find some food. We settled on a little ‘mum and dad’ type Spanish café not far from our hotel. Rarely have sausages, minute steak, chips and a green salad tasted better.

Barcelona is famous of course as being the host of the 1992 Olympics. It is a much larger, more diverse and more beautiful city than we had expected and we were excited about spending a couple of days exploring it.

Day 75 Two stars plus The Q Factor

After a huge night at the Bruce Springsteen concert the night before and an early start from Milan’s main station it was a real treat to arrive at Avignon in the French region of Provence. We had made rail changes at Chambrey (the place where the shirts come from), and Lyon which is France’s second largest city. We then caught a wonderful TGV train and sped along at about 300kms per hour to Avingon.

Avignon is a living historic town which was made famous as the place that wrenched control of the Holy Roman Empire from 900 – 1000 AD when the French provided the Popes for the church. A cathedral and papal palace dating back to this period adorn this quaint walled city.

Speaking of quaint the hotel we stayed in certainly had the Q (quaint) factor. Though rated as only 2 stars, it is a work in progress as it is currently being renovated by a charming French couple named Sylvie and Pascal (how French!) who are a little younger than us . They made us feel very welcome, and in a very French accent Sylvie kept interspersing her conversation with “Allo, Allo.”

We enjoyed a quiet afternoon looking around the town and then an early dinner in a restaurant recommended by Sylvie. This turned out to be an experience in itself. Firstly we sat in the outdoor area and considered the menu. After five minutes of perusing the menu the almost comic young French owner, came over, apologised profusely and removed our menu saying that there were dishes which were missing and that the prices were wrong. Ten minutes later the new menu arrived which included at least a 4 Euro price increase for every dish. After ordering our meals the waiter arrived with our dishes announcing a Mediterranean salad, but alas we had ordered the chicken salad. He apologised, rushed off and then returned two minutes later with the same dish saying sorry – “This is the chicken salad – I am new and I don’t know all the dishes yet”. The food was very provincial and delicious but the whole event continued to be amusing. When paying the bill they discovered that the maths was wrong and that we needed to pay more than at first stated. Had we been at home we would have been more prepared to argue the point and demand our rights – but the fact that we can’t speak the language means we need to be a little more generous and understanding.

All in all a quaint dinner, in a quaint town, near a quaint hotel; and thankfully a quaintly early night!

Day 74 Born to run and a long way home

After our frustration of the day before when we were desperately trying to confirm our hotel booking it was a delight to arrive at a very nice 4 star hotel in Milan. The 5 hour train trip had involved sharing a very full compartment with 5 other people and a cat (which had its own seat). We enjoyed a belated lunch at about 4pm and again we enjoyed the most perfect ravioli for Wendy and one of Richard’s favourites, risotto.

The purpose of this backtrack to Milan was to attend a Bruce Springsteen concert. We had seen and enjoyed Bruce in 1985 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Sadly we saw him again in 2003 at the SCG and we were very disappointed with the show mainly due to the poor sound quality at the venue. A little investigation before we left home led us to discover that Bruce would be touring Europe at the same time that we were in Europe and with some encouragement from a fellow Bruce fan (thanks Matt) we thought we could not pass up the opportunity to see him perform again, and bought the tickets online.

When we arrived at the huge Milan Soccer stadium the roof was open and the place was already packed. We were on the concourse, which was actually the pitch covered in hard plastic tiles. We sat and waited for about one and a half hours in the 30 degree heat until the show began at 8.50pm.

Unlike Sydney 2003 and much more like Sydney 1985 the old rocker and his wonderful E- Street Band were on fire. Really from the first song Bruce made it clear that the hot night would not ruin a great show. 29 songs later Bruce finally left the stage at about midnight. The show was a mixture of his new album, some classics and a number of requests from the crowd. For us and, and we think for the whole band, the night was made very special by the incredible Italian crowd. Their passion for the music, their singing (they knew every word to every song), their dancing, their shouting, their screaming and their energy were amazing. We have never been in such a large (about 80 000 people), animated and enthusiastic crowd.

The second last song of the night was the great hit from the 70’s about a boy who took a girl called Wendy on a long road trip – the song of course- Born to Run. While the crowd were mostly in their twenties there were a few of us (who are almost as old as Bruce) who remembered this hit with a great deal of nostalgia, but for us it was extra special as it has been the theme song of our whole adventure. (ie borntorun2008)

At the end of the concert we had a considerable walk back to the Metro (especially after we got a little lost) which we thought would take us back to our hotel. However when we arrived at the Metro station we found thousands of fans standing around looking lost and confused.The metro was closed! It seemed that the Metro system normally closes down at 11.30pm and inspite of the fact that about 50,000 fans were wanting to get home, the Italian transport system made no exemptions.

While most of the locals called friends or family to organise a lift, we had no other option but to consider ‘A Long Walk Home’ (coincidentally the name of one of the songs that had been performed earlier in the evening). As we struggled to read the very small print on the city map under a street light and try to plot a course back to the hotel we were approached by a fellow fan who asked if we would be so kind as to share our map and help him find the Central Station. It so happened that the station was close to our hotel so with our map and his slightly younger eyes we set off for an early morning walk ( it was now about 12.30am). We enjoyed the company of Keon from Belgium who was a much more dedicated fan than us… tonight’s concert had been the 47th Bruce concert that he had attended.
The walk involved winding our way through the backstreets of Milan and took about 2 hours. Finally we found a short cut that led us straight down a back street to our hotel , and, you will never believe it the street was – via Quadrio. We really had had a long walk home!

We got to bed about 2.30am to enjoy what was probably the best bed of our trip. However the pleasure was short lived because we needed to be up at 5.30am to catch the train back to France.

As they say you are only young once and a 58 year old rocker and a vibrant Italian crowd made us feel very young again (at least for a few hours anyway)!

PS For the first time, the photos are not ours. One comes with permission of Keon and the other is from a Bruce Springsteen website.