Derek's Travel Blog

Allot has happened since I last "blogged". Nice was so incredible that I had to bring Cara back to see it. It was one of the only town in all of Europe it that she hasn't seen and I knew she would love it.

I spent a night in Nice and then stopped in Monaco on the way back to Milan. Monaco is super cool and loaded with people who are loaded. Sports cars and luxury yachts everywhere.

I just want to know how they keep on the roads with those Formula 1 cars going 300 kph. I barely kept my Ford Fiesta on the road going 40.

The next morning we headed strait back to Nice.

I was right, Cara loved. We both relaxed in our own way, Cara with her suntanning and me with my Nintendo (what a dork...... Cara is).

Next was Rome.

This is what the entire trip was about for me. Oh yeah and seeing Cara again. We walked everyday all day and took in as many sights as possible. My personal favorites was the Coliseum
.
We went to the Vatican and saw the Pope talk from his apartment. He didn't have much to say but it was cool to see nonetheless. And of course we had to go for a big ol' burger at the Hardrock Cafe. Rome was everything I have always expected and it was amazing to see the ingenuity of the Romans and the magnitude of the buildings of Roman times. It must have literally taken decades to create some of these sights. Most of all I feel really sorry for the poor slaves that had to build these things.

We rented another car in Rome and drove to Sorrento where we stayed for a few days.

Cara said it best "why did it get colder the more we traveled South". Although to most people, especial Cara, this seems like a geographical phenomenon that is exactly what happened. It was fricking freezing for a few days but the town was amazing and once again we relaxed. We even got hair cuts from people who don't speak English at all and the first person to make fun of my mullet gets a punch. We left Sorrento for an amazing drive along the Amalfi Coast on the Same peninsula as Sorrento but on the south side. The view was incredible but I didn't spend much time looking at it because I was trying to avoid getting hit by oncoming traffic. The road was bonkers, really only enough room for one vehicle by Canadian standards. Sometimes they managed to fit a van, bus, and bike all beside each other at the same time. Mix that with the worst drivers in the world and 200 foot cliffs and fun ensues.

When we arrived in the town of Amafli we noticed that Italy was closed for the season and we had to go home. To bad the coast was beautiful and all the hotels had closed only days before. Ah well. We drove back to Sorrento, chilled at a four star hotel on the cheap and then headed back towards Rome.

That brings us to today. On the way to Rome this morning we stopped in Pompeii which is the sight of the most famous volcanic eruptions ever. Mt. Vesuvius erupted in the first century and buried the resort town of Pompeii in ash. The Ruins are amazing!

It is very hard to believe that the Romans were able to live this way over 200 years ago.

Other than large packs of "mange dogs" that liked to freak Cara out (quite comically) the site was amazing and a perfect finish to our Italy trip. We are now back in Rome waiting on an over night train back to Switzerland. Cara thought it would be soooo funny to tell me that the bunks are built for midgets and circus freaks immediately after we booked the tickets. Hardy frekin har. I let you know how it goes.

As much as it seemed I really wanted to avoid France entirely it turns out that against all my wishes..... I mean... um... luckily I ended up here. I ended up in Nice to be more specific. At this point, as with Rotterdam in the last entry, I have just arrived and found an Internet cafe to sit and chat and write to my blog. I will let you know if all the reports of Nice are correct in my next entry.

Now back to Rotterdam. As I mentioned, Rotterdam was destroyed during the war. It has been rebuilt into one of the cleanest, modern and beautiful cities I have seen yet. Allot of the Dutch claim it doesn't have the feel of history that all the other major cities in Europe have. Well duh! That was all blown up. They have done an amazing job preserving the past when they could and building for the future when they couldn't. Oh those crazy Dutch.

Next we flew to Barcelona, Spain. All I can say is WOW! Oh no wait I can say more. We stayed with a friend of Cara's (Alex) and his mother in their apartment. And I have to mention that they were more than hospitable. His mother stuffed us until we (or at least everyone other than me) couldn't eat anymore. Alex led us around Barcelona for two days. According to him we saw as much as we needed to to see. I could have used a few more days there. I don't like to admit but I had allot of bad preconceptions about Spain. They were almost all wrong. The countries streets, walkways, monuments and coasts are all maintained beautifully. Crime is not anymore of a problem than it is in Canada. In fact Cara would much rather walk around Barcelona at night than Winnipeg. The country is so well taken care of that I wonder where I got these ideas from in the first place. Oh yeah, one more thing Spanish people absolutely love Gaudi and all his work. Here is is picture of his most famous work the cathedral in the middle of Barcelona.

Gaudi spent the last few decades of his life working entirely on the cathedral which is still not complete till this day. The estimated completion date is somewhere between 2025 and 2050.

From Barcelona we drove to Valencia and took a flight to Rome. Once in Rome we picked up our rental car and drove north along the Mediterranean. We stayed one night in Pisa. What a screw up that tower is. It should realy have fallen over by now. They should have got Gaudi to build it and they wouldn't have had any problems. Next we needed to bring Cara to the train station in Milan to go to a job interview back in Lucern. As soon as she left I met up with one of the owners of Tomatin Farms for dinner and drinks. We dined right beside some very famous pop singer from Italy,Lucio Dalla.
Don't try to find his music it is horrible.

Since then I have been batching it. I stayed one night in Venice which was completely flooded by the time I left. It was stance to see 1.5 feet of water in Gucci and Luis Vuitton and business continuing as usual. Can you imagine buying a $1500 Gucci bag while wearing rubber boots. Come to think of it can you imagine buying a $1500 Gucci bag. Although the city was very charming I thought the charm of the city was supposed to be that it was built above the ocean not in it. Ah well it was quite amazing either way. After that I visited Verona and saw the best maintained arenas from Roman times.

We are talking thousands of years old here and they still hold concerts from the Rolling Stones to Pavarotti there. I am now in Nice and will continue onto Monaco today and pick Cara back up in Milan tonight.

Well I left off in Switzerland ready for a snowboard trip. Instead of
going to Austria I went to southern Switzerland. The snow was
incredible, the weather was incredible, the terrain park was
incredible but after traveling for about an hour up a mountain, by
gondola, you would think that the run would be longer than ones found
in Manitoba ski resorts. Ah well at least I can say I boarded on a
glacier in October!

After Cara had emotional goodbye weekend with all of her friends we
headed by air to London. We managed to hook up with one of Cara's many
contacts she has made through work and crashed in her apartment for
the duration of our stay. We manged to take in a show (the Producers)
which was great as well as she almost all the sights there are to see
including my favorite the London Eye, a big frigging Farris wheel.

After Cara made a few calls...

I was bumping elbows with some world leaders (at the wax museum).

But actually almost all of our time was spent in and around Piccadilly
Circus which is kind of a bustling central point in London where you
can begin and end every day.

As we were trying to get everything together to go back to the airport to leave we went to our favorite Internet cafe. Cara left a little bit before me. The guy working behind the counter approached me quite awkwardly and asked if Cara was my girlfriend. He continued to ask if we would be inters ted in having her pose for a foot fetish website for some good cash and said she would only have to do a few poses. After some verrrrrry serious consideration I told him that we were leaving for Holland in an hour and had to go. Ah well that is one missed opportunity! All I can say is "only in London".

Next we were off to Amsterdam.

After nearly missing our flight we
arrived in Amsterdam with no place to stay. After calling 60 hotels and hostels, one of which told us quite sternly that "Amsterdam is full", we nearly gave up entirely. Our last resort was to call the luxury hotels. Some how we managed to find a room for about the same price as a hotel. After being driven in the opposite direction of Amsterdam for about 25 minutes we arrived at the hotel in the middle of nowhere. We were very sceptical and were sure we'd been had. When we arrived the hotel and room were the nicest either of us had ever been in. Needles to say this is where we stayed for the rest of out time in Holland.

Amsterdam is amazing....... once you give it a chance. The first street we walked down was the main red light district street. After deciding that Amsterdam was the dirtiest, scuzziest, and creepiest city we had ever been to (including Bangkok) we were both more than willing to go back to the hotel and spend our days by the pool. Before making any rash decisions I convinced both of us that there must be something good about this city. And there was, it can be summed up in one word... fries. The fries are so amazing it is impossible to explain. They load a paper cone with about 10 full sized potatoes worth of golden goodness and then slather them with more mayo than I have consumed in the last year and send you on your way. With these fries readily available we couldn't leave so we gave it another chance. We both agree now that Amsterdam is a wonderful place to visit and I recommend it to everyone (just don't make the red light district your first stop). It is simply amazing how their canal system works and the buildings are all leaning slightly against each other. The churches and government buildings are very unique and the streets are packed at all hours. And if you really want you can get a hooker and some dope but oddly enough no foot fetish website offers at all.

Just now Cara and I arrived in Rotterdam which is a city that was completely destroyed during WWII and has since been restored from the ground up. We have seen nothing yet but soon enough I will update you all on it. After Rotterdam we are off to Barcelona. Not sure what exactly to expect.

So since I last posted I have done allot. Cara, her friends Natasha and Alex, and I rented a convertilbe beatle and drove to the Italian area of Switzerland. Whats the point of a drop top if it don't drop, ah well the weather was bad.

I don't know why, but I assumed it would be strange driving in Europe. It was odviosly in no way different (even Cara giving me "pointers" from the back seat). The coolest part of driving was the tunnels especially the Gothard Tunnel which is just under 17 kilometres and is the second longest in the world.

We went to a canton named Ticino. First we visited a few castles in the most deserted town in all of Europe named Bellizone. The castles were cool but the town was spooky so we left. Next was Lucarno where we bumped into some sort of nordic walking event wich was cool but more odd than anything. Everyone has ski poles specifically for walking and hiking and they seem to take it very very seriously. This town was very beautiful and we did some walking of our own and found wonderfully old structures churches and shops as well as trees growing fresh fruit. I felt that we were not welcome if we were going to walk without any ski poles so we left. The next town was Ascona (pictured above) and it is an absolute gem full of lush palm trees, pubs and pizza places along the lake and mansions fronting the beach. We stopped for a beer and I had a pizza (okay I had two but who is counting). I found it very hard to leave.

The next day we went to Zurich and wondered. It was pretty uneventful but a very beautiful city. Yesterday I went to Bern on my own. It is the capital of Switzerland but I was not able to see the capital building because it was under wraps literally. I went to see the bears which Bern was named for and then it started to pour so I had a few beers and then decided to brave the rain. So I was drenched for my entire 1.25 hour train ride home, and drunk. That brings me to today. My sleep in day.

After eight months of anticipation I am finally in Lucern, Switzerland and it is amazing.

After what seemed like a very short flight from Winnipeg then Montreal and finaly Zurich I was ready to do some sight seeing. And that I did. I took a very scenic train ride from Zurich to Lucern. Luckily Cara was waiting at the train station for me because I could not figure out how to use the pay phones (and neither could the locals). I spent the first few days wondering around Lucern during the day and hanging out with Cara's friends at night. Yesterday Cara and I went up to the top of Mt Pilatus.

Today Cara, a few friends and myself have rented a convertible and are going to the Italian region of Switzerland. It is hard for me to get these Europeans up before ten in the morning though so we may not make much of a day out of it. Also the local snowboard shop has given me a few pointers on where to go boarding. I looks like another car rental and a quick jont through Liechtenstein to Austria for a day or two in an area called Pitztal.