Day 33 - Zermatt (there and back again a hobbits tale)

Three intrepid explorers set out one morning on a mission to walk up to the base of the Matterhorn and then back down a near by valley to their temporary home. They struggled through many problems and hardships but they eventually made it to the top of their climb puffing and exhausted. They drank a hot chocolate and then climbed down a knee breaking scree slope walked along a never ending valley and finally made it to their afternoon tea. They rested their very tried legs and then plodded down back home. They left their house at 8:10am and got back at 5:30pm

Total elevation 3260 reached. 

Total ascent 700m 

Total descent 1600m 

Goodnight 

Alastair 

Day 32 - Zermatt (7 trains in one day)

So woke up at 5:30 and left at 10 past 6. Got train 1 and slept (I wish) anyway we had 7 connections today all of which we made.... Just. When we arrived in Zermatt we tried to get rid of our big packs and failed and then ended up walking to the youth hostel and dumping our big packs under the stairs there. We then walked to a cog railway station and caught a train up. Looked around at the top and then went home and slept. 

Wow that was a pathetic blog 

Sorry people I'm really tried

Alastair 

Day 31 - Lake Como (it's not going to rain.... 5mins later .,. WHOOSH!!! )

Ok woke up at 7:30 (I think) ate breakfast and then made our way to the funicular where we were hoping to catch the 8:00 one. Sadly our map reading was inadequate and we had planed our route to go to the picture of the funicular not the little grey dot underneath it (on another street). Luckily mummy spotted out mistake before we got lost and we got the funicular in time for the 8:15 one. (A funicular for those who don't know is a little train thingy that goes up a very steep hill and is pulled up by a cable attached to a big wheel). The funicular was really cool and we looked backwards over Lake Como and got a really good perspective of the town. 

Once we arrived at the top we began today's walk which was to Volta's Lighthouse and back. The walk up was 1.5km and the walk down was 1.3km.... They should have been the same length but on the way up we accidentally followed the driving signs instead of the the walking signs and there were more twists and turns for the cars.

The lighthouse (well more of a monument than a lighthouse because it didn't light up) was really nice and the view was really very pretty we stayed up there for about 30 minutes before making out our way down. Just before we reached the bottom it began to rain so we took cover in a near by restaurant and bought 2 coffees and a hot chocolate. While we drank it start to properly pour and we stayed in the restaurant a while until it cleared. We then took the funicular back down and went and promenaded on the lake edge. After this we made our way home via the supermarket and had a rest for 3 hours. 

Once we were well fed and rested we decided to go on a big ride because dad had a look at the storm and said "oh they're going over us we'll be fine" low and behold 5 minutes later WHOOSH. It began to pour and thunder and lighting and very strong winds also appeared which changed directions ever 5 seconds . We sought cover and put on our rain jackets and amused ourselves while watching other people's umbrellas break and the owner of the umbrella get sodden. There was a particular corner near dad and I which was acting as a wind tunnel. As soon an someone walked passed it with an umbrella the umbrella (doesn't matter how good) flipped inside out and or broke. We saw a really really good umbrella with all it's rods hanging out completely broken. So yeah fun stuff. :P . Once the rain had finally slowed down enough (half an hour later)  we quickly rode home changed out clothes and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. 

I'm a bit tried. 

Alastair 

Day 30 - Lake Como (a slow boat to Como)

Oh today was a day where we had nothing planed so I must say it was a tad unproductive (you might call it a price family typical rest day - a big walk and + a big boat trip) 

So we woke up today at 6:40 because poo poo face daddy came and opened my shutters and let all the light in (supposedly to create a through breeze) Left the house at about 8:30 and walked though Como (the town not the lake) to the ferry stop where we bought tickets and got on the first ferry to Bellagio. The ferry took 2 hours (mummy says 2 and a 1/2 but im not sure) and it became very monotonous after the first half an hour. Once we finally arrived in Bellagio (half asleep because of the trip and heat) we walked up a little alley as far as we could go and then across the top observing the old pebble roads and many tourist shops. We bought 3 tarts for morning tea. I had a lemon tart, mum had an apple tart and dad had a cherry hazelnut (possibly) tart. We had lunch and then decided we had seen enough and headed down to the docks to catch the next ferry home. Got on ferry.... They're sooooo slow its not funny. Anyway we got home drank beer cooked and ate dinner and are now lying on our beds ready to go to sleep

Alastair 

Day 29 - Lake Como (it's fricken hot)

Ok began today with breakfast (as one does) and left the house at 8:30 to go and do what a proper tourist does in Venice.... Go to saint marks square. So anyway at saint marks we spontaneously decided to go to the top of the bell tower and look at Venice from above. It was actually really worthwhile because you get a much better impression of Venice and how unorganized the houses are. Also up the top we looked at the big bells and I tried to spot all the places we've been in Venice. when we got home we had tea and then left the house at 11:20 with big packs on our backs and little packs on our fronts both laden down with merchandise. We caught the first train at 11:50 and guess what..... THE AIRCON DIDN'T WORK!!!!!! Ha not fun believe me! Anyway when we finally arrived in Milan (sweating and trying to cool ourselves off) we went to an upstairs restaurant lounge thingy and had a biscuit and an ice tea. Unfortunately we had to pay a table charge (mummy's prediction was correct) but anyway.... Got on the second train from Milan to lake Como at 3:20 and it was packed (and the air con didn't work) we stood for about 5 minutes just trying to get our seats which was "fun". After a very horrifically hot train trip we arrive in Como and walked (with dad and I directing) to our apartment. The apartment is really nice except I don't have any aircon in my room  D: . We went shopping and bought spec ravioli, pesto and tomato for dinner! And now we are trying to remain semi cool. I'm kinda wishing for the Aussie winter right now. 

Gotta go 

Alas stairs 

Day 28 - Venice (the merchandising of Venice)

Ok I woke up at about 7:30 this morning but we didn't leave the house until 10:00.  At ten we went for a stroll around Venice and went to a fresh pasta place where we bought pasta for dinner tonight. The pastas we bought were: gnocchi and 4 different fillings of tortellini. After this we went in search of a gizmo shop for me because I wanted to buy something for myself. When we found one it only had a few gizmo things left in it but I found and bought a brass compass with a sundial which took my fancy. 

After this we were all quite tired and hungry so we headed home via a supermarket for lunch. For lunch we had:  an eggplant parmigiana, bread, tomato, buffalo mozzarella (which was amazing), lettuce and spek (I ate about 3/4 of the spek) 

We had a nice rest after lunch and left the house again at 3 o'clock. (We being mum gill and I.... Daddy and nick had no desire to go merchandising.) There is so much to buy in Venice it's amazing, we had a great time and gill was very surprised how concise we were. Also we had another gelati :D. (Yummy). When we got home the octopus for dinner was cooked and the fest pasta began. 

So overall dinner was fantastic. We had: nick's specialty octopus tentacles (which was awesome), gnocchi (which was so good because it just melted in your mouth), ravioli, lettuce, bread and plenty of wine! 

So yeah that was today (sorry it's a bit late) 

Alastair 

Day 27 - Dolomites (Mud, Marmots and Marmolada)

So began the day early after a nice breakfast of muesli and bread with butter and jam. 

Pretty much the first thing we saw after starting to walk was a marmot and then another marmot and then another marmot :D there were so many marmots and they are sooooooooooo cute :D it was an amazing morning because we got about 2m away from a marmot. 

Today instead of walking down a valley to our bus home we took a track along the edge of the mountain and looked at the  fantastic view and them took the cable car down. 

For the first half an hour to an hour of the walk was extremely muddy and we all felt like we were walking on platform shoes because of the thick layer of mud caked to our boots. But for this part of the walk there were almost no people on the track and then suddenly after an hour there were heaps. There was about 500 people walking the other derection to us. They were waking from te cable car towards the refuge we had just left to have lunch. On the walk we also say a

Massive wooden buffalo and the walked up a huge hill but at the top of the hill there was a cafe so we bought 2 apple stroodles a couple of coffees and a hot chocolate. After morning tea we caught the cable car down and then Bought lunch and got on a bus. We took 3 busses and two train and all went well except for one train which we had to run for because the ticket machine was buggered. Once we arrived back in Venice we had a nice cold shower (because it was stinking hot) and then had pizza for dinner (yummy) got to be quite early and slept like a log 

Arriverderci 

Alastair