WATERLOO- Napoleon and Wellington
The snow has stopped, for the moment anyway so we warm up the camper and head 24.5 km to Waterloo.
The main shopping area seems very nice, some upmarket stores, cafes etc., but not what we came here to see, so we pass through town for a short distance and start to see various monuments to the German, Dutch, English and finally the French generals that died here in the 1815 Battle of Waterloo.
You can’t miss the actual battle ground, a massive 41m high mound, topped with a 28 ton cast iron lion was erected in 1824, and is dedicated to the soldiers who lost their lives here.
You climb the 226 steps (I counted them) to the top of the mound and right in front of you is the perfectly preserved spot where 300,000 men from 7 nations met in battle. It’s gives you a strange feeling when you think that right out in front of you, is where one of greatest battles in European history took place, the battle marked the final confrontation between France and Europe, with the fall of Napoleon paving the way for a new era of peace in Europe.
A museum houses relics from the battle and a massive 110m X 12m panoramic painting explains how the battle played out with troop placements etc.
We leave Waterloo cold and wet but with a little more knowledge about this famous battle.
ANTWERPEN (Antwerp)
Even the cold and windy weather didn’t spoil our visit to Antwerp. It’s a picturesque city, home famous artists, Rubens, Brueghel and Van Dyck and also the second largest sea port in the world.
It also has a beautiful Groenplaats or town square with a massive statue of Brabo, a Roman soldier that legend has it slayed the giant Antigoon, a nasty guy that would chop off the hands of the ships captains that refused to pay his toll to pass. Anyway Brabo slayed the giant, chopped off his hand and threw it into the river “Handwerpen” or hand throwing. The H has disappeared over time but “Antwerpen” stuck.
How come we don’t have fascinating legends like this in Australia, it would have made Australian History a much more interesting subject in school.
FIRST SNOW
We have had snow falling for the past 2 days now, not the heavy wet snow you get mostly, just big, fluffy white flakes falling softly and blanketing the ground.
We had planned a day at markets today, but decided to stay in, watch the snow fall, read, light a few candles and watch DVD’s, much nicer than trudging around the outdoor market in the cold.
BELGIUM
We are to be in Belgium for just over two weeks, house sitting for a nice young couple with three cats, Blackie, Gamba and Sushi. Ingrid and Trevor have gone to Namibia and left us in charge of looking after the cats, watering the indoor plants and collecting the mail. As you might imagine this does not take a whole lot of time, so each day we are able to get out and have a look around this small country (30,500 sq kms) or to put that in perspective about a third the size of Tasmania.
Belgium is bilingual country with 60% speaking Flemish or Dutch and 40% speaking French.
So another language hurdle for us, although our French is getting better, the Flemish still baffles us, but luckily for us most of the people here speak a little English at least.
Brussels is only a short 20 min drive from our home-base, but we decide to take the train from Zaventem, the closet station to us. We arrive at Centraal Station and walk to the Grand Place or Grote Market, a listed UNESCO World Heritage site, is a market square surrounded by beautiful ‘guild’ houses and the Town Hall, a remarkable work of gothic architecture.
Just around the corner is another famous Brussels landmark, the ‘Manneken Pis’, a small bronze fountain statue of a boy peeing into the fountain’s basin. There are several legends about this statue; in the 11th century an infant lord was hung in a basket from a tree, and urinated on the invading troops, who then lost the battle, my favourite is about a young boy that urinated on the buring fuse of explosives set by attackers of the city, thereby saving it. The Manneken has a wardrobe of 200 outfits, although the day we visited him he was naked, and also at certain festivals they hook him up to a keg of beer, and you guessed it, he pee’s beer!
And for all you food lover’s following along with the blog, Belgium is also the home of Chocolate and of course waffles. You can smell the sweet aroma of chocolate drifting from the many chocolate shops and curbside vans sell hot waffles instead of hot-dogs. For a true Belgium experience, you can combine the two, a hot waffle topped with smooth melted chocolate, yum! And just in case we have any beer drinkers out there apparently some of the best beers are brewed here, although I’m not the best person to be talking about the beer, never being a big fan.
Brussels is also home to NATO and European Union (EU). Hopefully, we can visit the EU during the week and see how the largest parliament in the world representing nearly 500 million citizens works.
SAN GIMIGNANO and VOLTERRA
San Gimignano would probably be our favourite Tuscan town seen so far.
As you wind your way up the steep hill to this medieval walled town the first thing you notice are the towers. Symbols of power and wealth only 14 remain of the 72 that were once here
On our stroll through its narrow streets, we discover hidden churches and their breathtaking frescoes, and learn about the history and traditions of this beautiful town.
Originally and Etruscan village, the town took its name from the bishop who apparently saved the city from a Barbarian assault in the 12th century.
We stop for coffee in the beautiful Piazza della Cisterna, named after the cistern in it’s centre, it’s square lined with remarkable 13th century houses and towers.
On the way out we stop at the workshop of a silversmith who crafts before our eyes, beautiful silver ringS for Brian and I.
Volterra is perched high atop its sandstone ridge, surrounded by two defensive walls, one Etruscan and the other medieval. With as many as 25,000 people living here in it's Etruscian heyday, this city was one of the last to succumb to Roman power in around 260 BC.
Since Etruscan times Voltera has been a centre of alabaster extraction and craftsmanship, with many artisans workshops still there today.
We were intrigued to find out that this 500 year old castle is now a maximum security prision for about 60 inmates. It is a dark and depressing place, which is supposed to give pause to one’s involvement in crime.
TUSCANY- Tavanelle in Val di Pesa and olive picking
We have signed on for a week or so of olive picking. We came across the ad on one of the home sitting sites where we are members. Not sure what to expect, you might say we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived
In return, we get to stay in a fantastic, 2 storey, 2 bedroom apartment, in the most beautiful area we have seen so far on our travels.
St Andrea a Cellole lies an the end of a steep and winding drive, about 20 mins from town, a 1000 year old stone house that has been painstakingly restored by Adéla and Mauro.
It was originally built as a watchtower as the views of the surrounding area are unimpaired, and for over 600 years was a Catholic Church, St Andrew’s. The original cross is still high atop the main part of the house. The chapel is now Mauro’s office and it’s hard to find words to describe this room. It is approximately 10m x 4m, with a massive fireplace and the most spectacular domed glass ceiling at one end, which at one time was over the alter. A collection of Mauro’s original artwork, rubbings and collectables decorate the room, and his state of the art stereo system takes full advantage of the superb acoustics in the room.
Mauro tells how during the renovation of the house, that had stood vacant for many years, bones and crucifix’s from the buried priests, that once called this place home, were discovered in what must have been their cemetery. The local tradesmen would not continue the renovations until the remains had been relocated.
The property is now totally renovated, but the traditional stone walls, ceilings and floors are in the traditional Tuscan style, and in the summer, Adéla rents out ‘our’ unit as well, as two smaller ones on the other side of the house that overlook the pool and the valley below..
So if anyone is looking to rent a villa in Tuscany, I can totally recommend this one!
OLIVE PICKING;
We have been able to pick olives for only 2 days, out of the 6 we have spent here so far. The weather has not been kind, rain has made the ground under the trees turn muddy and un-workable
There are 200 olive trees here, and on a good day the four of us can pick about 30 trees. We use a small plastic rake which we run down the branch, the olives loosen and fall to the ground where they are caught in a large ground sheet. The olives are then transferred into a crate for storage until they go to the mill. It’s important the olives stay dry or they will mildew and spoil.
Keeping ourselves busy here on the rain days is not a problem, with Florence only a 25 min drive, Sienna and Pisa 1 hr away, and so many lovely little villages and wineries surrounding us, there is always somewhere to go.
Mauro was taking our first picking to the mill, and seeing that we were interested in the process, asks if we would like to come along.
There were a few others waiting for their oil at the mill so we had a good chance to watch.
The olives are put first into a large stainless bin, with great care taken not to mix any from the previous lot. They are then washed and put through the crusher, pits and all, from there they go to the press, then the oil pours into waiting stainless 30L cans. This gives you your extra virgin olive oil. It’s a luminous green when new, and has quite a peppery, bitter taste, but keeping with tradition of the first pressing we share a small plate of this oil with crushed garlic and salt on fresh Tuscan bread. Bellisimo!
We managed to get in a full day of olive picking today, the work is physical, and it would help to be part mountain goat! The sloping hillside making it tricky to find a place to stand, and you also have to make sure you don’t stand on the olives under foot. We work 4 hrs before lunch, which lasts a hour, then another good 4 before we start to pack up. Shoulders aching, arms scratched from the branches, we head to our flat, for a hot shower and a big glass of the local red.
The harvest is now completed. We picked for another 3 full days, finishing with a bountiful 1,400kg.of olives, which produced 200 litres of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Adela and Mauro have been perfect hosts, with Mauro keeping us stocked with bottles of the local red, ‘Chianti’ and Della baking us a date and walnut loaf for dessert one evening, and on our final night inviting us to a wonderful traditional Tuscan meal.
They have also invited us to come back in the Spring, promising to keep us busy with a few jobs around the Villa. All things going well we will probably take them up on their offer, I imagine Tuscany in the Spring would be just beautiful.
VENICE
Venice is a hauntingly beautiful place, a surreal city in which everyday life seems somewhat more dramatic than elsewhere.
Even Venetian traffic jams are impressive, gondolas, vaporetti (water taxies), and delivery barges all massed on the Grand Canal. We see everything from the mail, to beer and wine delivered by barge along the canal. And it’s not even high tourist season here, we can’t imagine what it must be like in August!
It was an especially high tide while we were in Venice, so until early afternoon the alleyways and paths were flooded, even the famous Piazza San Marco. Special elevated walkways are erected when this happens, and police wearing hip waders direct you along these passable routes.
We ride the vaporetto along the Grand Canal, which is lined with Gothic, Moorish and Renaissance palaces, to the Piazza San Marco to see the Basillica di San Marco (St Marks Basillica).
Originally built to house the remains of St Mark, it’s a impressive mix of Byzantine domes, mosaics and marble, much of which had been looted from the east. The bronze horses (replicas now) above the entrance where ‘liberated’ from Constantinople in 1204, and are now in the museum.
The Palazzo Ducale (Doges’ Palace) is next to the Basillica and built from beautiful pink marble, and even on the dull day we visited it, it was spectacular. Connected to the palace by the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ named after the sighs the prisioners emitted en route, are the old city dungeons. A famous inmate of the dungeon was Cassanova.
The Rialto is the shopping area where you can find everything from your fresh fruit and veges to designer clothes from Gucci, Cavalli, Missoni and Armani. We even saw a pair of ladies shoes, made from snakeskins, that had the snakes head still attached on the tip of each toe, and for only €1000, a bargin!
Unable to visit the Murano area because of the high tides, we do get to see many beautiful examples of this famous glass in vases, platters and ornaments in the Rialto showrooms.
We wandered the back alley’s away from the main tourist areas and found a pizza shop where you could see the dough being stretched to pizza sized shapes in seconds, then lightly baked until it was needed. We had traditional slices, a tomato base with basil and garlic, topped with cheese, delicious!
We now have a slight Italian vocabulary, helped by a good phrase book, and can order meals etc., and make ourselves understood, most of the time anyway.
I’m sure there were places in Venice we missed, it has a wealth of churches, museums and art galleries, but our time here in this beautiful city was truly memorable.
LAKE COMO, LAKE GARDA
We’ve have quite a drive today, the weather was rainy and dull, we passed Lake Como, and I’m sure it’s beautiful on a sunny day, but today it just looked bleak.
Traffic here in Italy is a nightmare, to say the least. We have never seen so many trucks and semi’s ever as we have seen in Italy. Everyone thinks they are racing car drivers, and patience is not a word many drivers know.
We finally arrive at probably the best camping area we have stayed at so far. Terraced sites, filled with ancient olive trees and overlooking Lago di Garda (Lake Garda) in a lovely town called Malcesina. We will take a little extra time here tomorrow to enjoy the warmer climate, the peace and quite and beautiful scenery before our next stop, Venice.
The drive to Venice was an easy one, only just over 100k, still lots of trucks on the autostrada, but maybe I’m getting used to them sitting 2mm from your bumper.
We have booked into a park only 15 mins from Venice and it has a shuttle to the city which saves us packing up. But alas with the closeness to the city also come the noise, so we have planes flying over head regularly, and road noise, but I’m not complaining, after all we are in Venice!
LUGANO
Lugano is the sort of place you wouldn’t be surprised if you saw a rock star or celebrity having coffee in the Piazza.
We have seen more Lamborghini’s, Aston Martin’s and Ferrari’s in Lugano than any other area so far. This town, the most southern in Switzerland has a distinct Italian flavour.
The Piazza was busy, friends out for brunch or coffee, families strolling the boardwalk, enjoying the beautiful sunny day. We window shopped, as none of the shops were open on Sunday, Feragamo, Louis Vuitton, Versace and all the other big names are there. Beautiful children’s clothing, and kids boots, €300 ($450), seemed the average price, it was all astounding.
We were an hour behind because we hadn’t realized that daylight saving time has finished the night before, with no papers or a radio station we can understand, the whole day had gone by before someone at the caravan park mentioned it to us. However, I have to admit, some days we have no idea of the date, or whether it’s Tuesday or Wednesday, because it really doesn’t matter!
CROSSING the ALPS – Sion – Lugano
We cross the Pennine Alps via the Simplon Pass, a 2007m high pass with spectacular views and some of the most treacherous and narrow winding roads we have ever seen. Tunnels, some 8km long take us through mountains still capped in snow. Narrow single lane bridges span deep, seemingly bottomless gorges.
The engineering achievements of this road with it’s many tunnels and bridges is amazing enough until we read that the Romans have used this route centuries ago and Napoleon built the first road along this route, to transport artillery from the Rhŏne to Italy
Needing a coffee we stop at the small Italian town of Re. We are lucky enough to find our host speaks a little English, when we comment on the beautiful church and she tells us of it’s origin.
In the 1600’s during a fight between local boys, a stone was thrown and hits a fresco of The Madonna, a cut opened on her forehead and for 20 days blood flowed from the wound. Many notable people witnessed this, and the miracle verified. Since then many, including the Pope have made the pilgrimage here.
We could have chosen the freeway to get to our destination in Lugano, been here a little faster, not had the scary drive through the alps, but we would have missed all the scenery, and the little towns we passed through, including Re. Sometimes it pays not to follow the GPS, look at the map and you discover all sorts of wonderful places out there.
LAKE GENEVA, EVIAN and MONTREUX
Our drive to Lake Geneva, where we plan on spending a few days, has taken us through more spectacular areas.
Leaving Basel we drive through green rolling countryside but soon we are climbing steep passes and travelling through tunnels. Some as long as 4 km, they snake there way through mountains, and under farmland.
We pull in to let the faster cars pass us and we notice a grotto built into a huge cave. It was to St Columbia, and candles burned in front of an altar, stands had been placed to either side, with photos, books, rosary beads and crosses placed there. This place was miles from any town and we had seen no houses for ages, but the lit candles meant that someone had been there before us today. We lit a candle, closed the gate and continued on, surprised again by this small country.
We also pass places with familiar names, the Cartier factory, no we didn’t stop, although I did mention to Brian that Christmas is coming, presents for the family of course, and that they may have a factory outlet, Delémont, where the Wenger company has been manufacturing Swiss Army knives since 1893. And a town called Gruyéres, which I’m sure we all know what comes from there.
The borders of France and Italy are both close to this area, and you are addressed in French mostly, even though technically we are still in Switzerland. We are just getting used to the German words for our everyday things, now we have to brush up on our French, just so we can get to Italy.
They call this area the Swiss Riviera, and you can see why it has been a place of inspiration to writers such as, Byron, Hemingway and the Shelleys. The Alps towering over Lake Geneva, with Geneva to the west, Lausanne in the middle and Montreux on the eastern shore. Evian is on the southern shore and we will visit there tomorrow.
THE SWISS RIVERIA- Evian and Montreux
We are disappointed to find that the Evian bottling plant had closed it’s tours for the season, but the market place had it’s Friday market going so we headed there for fresh fruit, veges and bread.
After stocking up we drive back into Montreux to have a better look around. As I mentioned before, Montreux lies on the north east shore of Lake Geneva and it’s not hard to see why people call it the Swiss Riveria.
We walked alongside it’s beautiful lake and were surprised to see a statue to Freddie Mercury. Apparently he lived and owned a recording studio here before his death. They hold a memorial festival to him every September. The weather has turned warm down here in the valley, but already we can see snow on the Alps all around us.
We are in the Valais area, where they say ‘The Vineyards ascend to Heaven’. Alpine peaks surround us, some 3000m high, are rocky and bare. Forests, deep gorges and meadows start further down and then terraced vineyards, cling to the mountainside. The Rhốne River
flows through it’s valley. This area produces 49 different varieties of grapes, and 20 different varieties of wine.
Apples, pears and apricots are also grown here, from which fruit brandies are produced and sold alongside the areas famous wines in roadside stalls. We purchase a couple of bottles, just the keep the local economy going of course.
