Part 2 – Around Rome
Thursday, 15 June, 2017

Of course it was already the 15th when we landed in Zurich and then Rome but I decided to break it up this way. We have 3 days in Rome before our first formal tour commences, so this Part is about that.

First, a little about our apartment. It is an old building not far from the Pantheon. It is up some 20 stairs, it is small and an old apartment which has been quite renovated. We knew all this in advance and although small has everything that we need including Wifi and air conditioning, which is especially nice as it becomes very hot.

I am feeling quite scheiss after the rigours of that long, long travel and decide I will stay inside while Julie prances around Rome. I try to have a nap but am way to tired for that so get onto the PC and discover there are over 100 emails to clear. I start doing that but realise I have left my Mouse at home. This is a serious issue as I am not very good with the touch pad and involuntary moves happen such as emails getting deleted that I did not intend to. In the mean time, Julie is prancing and has taken a few photos along the way.

Julie got hungry in spite of our much food on the planes so stopped for a snack of:

Julie comes back around 5:00 PM with supplies, wine and water. We decide to go out for a drink. We go away from the Pantheon to a place not far away that had helped her find directions early in the day. We ordered a bottle of wine, a Chianti which was very nice, not bad for my first try with Italian wine on this trip.

Since Julie had had a late lunch, it was not clear whether we would eat there or not but eventually we decided that we would. Julie orders a light meal of:

A bit of a misnomer as the “lobster” were small scampi, more like a Yabbie. There was not much meat on them. The sauce on the Spaghetti was a tomato cream sauce – I quite liked it for a change. It was still quite early so we decided to go over to the Pantheon for another drink. On our way there was a single guitar player/singer who had a big amplifier and sound system behind him. He played a lot of vintage Pink Floyd and one could not tell at a distance how much was him playing and how much from the sound system. It sounded very good, resounding around the Pantheon square and had a decent crowd watching him. We got seats at one end of the square and ordered gin and tonics.

After our drink and the Pink Floyd has stopped, we go back to the apartment. To say I was tired was a bit of an understatement.

As hinted in previous Posts, we have commenced a marathon trip into an around Europe, lasting nearly 70 days. That is a new record for us/me. The following is our planned Itinerary.

Europe 2017

So let’s commence!

Part 1 – The Great Roman Crusade
Wednesday, 14 June, 2017

Our good friend Gary drives us to the airport in the Black Beauty. It is a relatively straightforward trip out to Tulla as the traffic is not horrid. When we get to the airport, 3 hours early, there is a long line in the Business Class lane, as well as Economy, and it is just not moving. Eventually, Singapore Airlines stops serving Economy customers and clears out the Business Class line.

Security and Immigration go smoothly, the latter is now automated with chip passport entered and camera verification. I had intended to collect my GST for the new camera I had purchased but there was a long queue with only one person serving. So much for using the App to generate a QR code which was supposed to give priority but did not. The SA lounge was OK with some food and had a few bloody marys before boarding was called.

After another bloody mary, the meals were served. We had signed up for the “book the cook” service that SA provides for Business and First Class passengers which enables us to select, in advance, one of several meals from famous chefs – Matt Moran is the Aussie representative.

I had had a Thai Green Curry on my last flight on SA and it was one of the best I have ever had anywhere. This was OK, but not up to the same standard as last time. The lamb was a bit tough as well. The wine was an Aussie Shiraz and quite good.

I will make a comment about the Seat on this plane. It is modern with lots of space for storage etc. It has a full lay out bed. But the length of the bed is only about 5 feet which means a not that tall person like me cannot stretch out full length which seems a bit of a strange design.

During the flight Julies watches a strange looking movie, Beauty and the Beast. I had picked up a few papers at MEL so spent a lot of time doing their puzzles and drinking Shiraz.

Finally, the plane lands in SIN after just 7 hours or so. However, it seemed much longer to me, I have done this flight at least 50 times in the past, so this does not bode well for the rest of the flights. The plane lands in Terminal 3 and our next flight departs from Terminal 2. Last time we took a train over but this time we take a bus to terminal 2. It seems to take quite a long time driving around the airport but we reach Terminal 2 and eventually find the Lounge. I don’t recall much about it, there was food and drink not that we really needed that. Finally we board the plane, this time it is a Swiss Airlines flight. The structure of the Seats is quite different with the general design a 2 x 2 x 2 per row. However, in each column the seats are structured in a herring bone fashion with 2 seats alternated with one seat etc. This enabled the fully flat bed to reach a decent length by extending into the seat / bulwark in front of you on an angle. Otherwise, the seats were not particularly roomy with not a lot of storage. Eventually they start serving the food. The menu is not as exciting as the Singapore Airlines flight so I order beef.

These serves were quite large and I thought they were the main meals. WRONG – they were just the starters.

The wine was a Zinfandel which was not all that great but I stuck with it through the flight. I was mainly served by a Swiss hostess lady named Vera, very nice person. Eventually, I pass out in my chair and got very lucky in that my glasses fell off onto the floor in front of me. Julie had to step over me to get to the toilet and just missed the glasses, otherwise if would have had smashed glasses for the second time in a year. Eventually, my lay flat bed gets set up and I drop off to sleep – I am estimating I had around 4 hours which is not near enough for a 12+ hours flight. After waking up and settling back into normal seating position, they bring a snack/breakfast.

I did not turn on the PC once on the flight and did not watch a movie either. Mostly I just festered, although toward the end of this flight I broke out a puzzle page from the Sunday Herald Sun which helped pass the time. Finally we land at Zurich airport after a very long and tiring flight. I envied the French guy across the aisle from us who had slept 90% of the time of the flight. We took the train across to the main terminal at Zurich airport and find the Lounge we had been in last time we flew Swiss Air from Singapore. A bit of a drink and some Wifi enabled emails and then it is back on a plane for the next flight.

This is a short (70 minute) flight to Rome. There is another breakfast meal.

An uneventful flight and sit in at the airport waiting for our suitcases – waiting and waiting. After around an hour, they finally get off and we exit. We had organised a driver to pick us up and eventually found him. He took us on an entertaining back roads tour through forests etc before eventually reaching Rome itself and heavy traffic. We are nearing our destination but there is a large street protest going on so we are not allowed to turn into where our apartment is based. Finally, after more driving around we end up there.

We meet up with our Host, Giacomo, is waiting for us and shows us up to the apartment. It is up several stairs but Giacomo carries Julie’s heavy bag the whole way and my lighter one part of the way. He spends a lot of time explaining and demonstrating things to Julie. He is very thorough and very good. By then I have turned into somewhat of a Zombie due to the jet lag and lack of sleep so unable to do anything much.

So why did I title this Post as I did? We certainly ended up in Rome. I doubt that it could be called a Crusade but travel there we did. And I don’t think Great was an avid description. Rather than great, it was long. Approximately 29 hours from door to door. I have done longer in the past, up to 42 hours a couple of times, but this one was plenty long.

Tuesday, 24 May, 2016 – Perast to Kodor to Mountains behind to Perast

It has rained over night and the weather is quite cloudy now. There were church bells from 5 in the morning. The breakfast buffet at our Hotel is one of the best I have seen on this trip. They actually had Strawberry juice as well as Orange and Lemon juices.

We have a brief walking tour around Perast with our guide for the next two days, Vesna.

She tells the story of the two islands just off the coast from Perast. One has to do with a small crop of rock that some fishermen found a Madonna painting years ago, I cannot recall it all. Supposedly the crop of rock became an island by men bringing rocks there over the ages. Eventually a cathedral was built there to house the painting. The painting is called The Lady of the Rock. We take a water taxi out to that island.

We land on the island and the first order of business is to do a tour of the cathedral and the Lady. There is some kerfuffle with queues and groups and while Vesna could have done the tour on her own she was not allowed because of the crowds.

When we get in there are a lot of people around and explanations are being given. Eventually we get near the painting.

Supposedly testing has been done that shows that the painting came from the late 15th century. We were invited to take a look behind the altar where original rock was held. I skipped it.

We toured the museum part of the building too where there were a number of interesting artifacts. One was a painting done by a lady in the past who put all sorts of interesting materials including a lot of her hair. There was some discussion between guides as the legend surrounding all that. We head back to shore.

We then head off for a difficult part of the day – driving through the mountains. We drive through Kodor which is another very crowded beach town made worse by (at least) 3 cruise ships in harbour. We have a bit of “excitement” when a small box of wine falls in the back of the van breaking one of Hugh’s wines he had bought at an earlier winery. We stop to cleanup the mess and then proceed to drive up the hill. This leg is very windy with 25 numbered switch backs and we are behind a bus almost all of the way. Frustrating.

Great site showing Montenegro and the 25 hairpins

We stop at a restaurant at the top that supposedly has the best prosciutto around but the owner advises us that the road will be closed soon for repairs so we stop only for a short break. Long enough to get behind the bus again.

We reach a small village where another bus has got itself stuck and is going back and forth to try to get out. Andrew is able to get around both of the buses on the inside and we have relief for a while but eventually get stuck behind more slow traffic. After some missteps and with the aid of the host, we arrive at the farmhouse which is our destination.

The owner and his wife turn out to be absolutely delightful people and have set up a spread for us. There is there own fruit brandies to start the meal.

The dishes were chicken and carp. All of the food was from the garden or nearby. They made the redwine too and there was plenty of it being served.

We then take a tour of the garden where he has vines, vegies and bees for his honey. There are also lots of wrecks of old cards everywhere.

This part of the day has been delightful as were our hosts. We get on the road. We are taking a big circle over the mountains and will eventually reach Kodor. Then another period before we are finally home at Perast.

Editorial comment: we departed Perast at 11:00 AM and arrived back after 8:00 PM. In that period there were at most 1.5 hours of stops so at least 7.5 hours of difficult roads and travel. It was very difficult on Andrew and also on Julie and I, and probably the others. The visit to the farm was great but I cannot say it was worth all that difficult driving.

Any way, we are to have dinner at the Hotel restaurant again. Boris selects another table on the water. The weather has cleared but it is quite cool. There are heaters in place and when one table leaves they are moved closer to us. Andrew decides to skip and apparently went straight to bed, not a surprise really.

Vesna had explained that lots of fresh water pours down the hills which is great for mussels. There are mussel chains all along the coast.