Montfort

It is fun to watch everyone in town carry their baskets. It almost looks like everyone even has the same kind. Just before 7 am the street gets active with the older folks making their way to the Boulangerie for their bread. When we carried ours we almost immediately fit in, it seemed like even more people talk to you. We missed some good people pictures for sure. One picture that we should have got was when the fishmonger comes into town, or when the butcher who comes in once per week sets up to sell his “chevalin” horsemeat. It was surprising how much he sold. Peter really wanted to play soccer at the outdoor field but the rain didn’t let up. Our last night in Montfort got us up close and personal with the local electrician and burned a few candles out waiting. We ended up blowing the main fuse on the panel coming into the building. The main 40 amp fuse just couldn’t take it.

South of France

We drove along the the sea to make our way to France staying along the way on the Italian Riviera. Where we ended up getting to is a place called Montfort-sur-Argens, Provence, France. The place where we are staying was built in 1799, is called a typical Provencal burgher home from the area. Some of the reading says there are about 700 inhabitants in Montfort, maybe years ago there could have been a few thousand. It is very quaint, the person who owns this now is from Sweden and refers to Montfort as a unspoiled village and area that provides a hint of life in “old” Provence. It has been hard getting a lot going here this week as some crazy wind patterns seem to have latched on to the area bringing rain almost all of the time.Our thermometer has been Peter's feet, he decided to buy some shoes and put his flip flops in his bag. We won't be surprised if they come out again in Spain. Maybe that is ok too, to keep us in this place. We did drive out of the area towards Toulon and spent the day by the sea. Blog entries are getting fewer and shorter mostly because we don't seem to run into internet much where we have been. We do have lots of pictures though. The kitchen table is good for us a "monk table" that seats 12 so it is perfect for us. Natalie can be seen here working as the French gourmet chef. Hopefully we will be able to get out a little bit more. There is vineyard after vineyard when Rob and Livy were out cycling you could smell wine everywhere ( probably was just the empty vines from the past harvest ).

Arriving in Rome

We almost didn’t go to Rome; things have just been getting tight juggling our last few weeks. It almost seems like we are on or following a schedule now. We did get here though for a few days. Probably had one of our most tense driving moments here ending up in an underground parking lot made only for motorcycles. The apartment that we are staying at is on Piazza Cola di Rienzo about a 20 minute walk from the Vatican. We had a contact here that we needed to meet to arrange for a key, between not being able to park with all of the traffic and not being able to operate a public phone we moved block to block trying to duck the Italian traffic police. We ended up paying a cab driver to call Maria and arrange to meet us. We picked up some chestnuts from a man roasting them on the street outside and planned for the Vatican in the morning. We spent the day visiting the Sistine Chapel, Vatican museum and St. Peters. Some continued shopping along the way back. Rain seemed to really follow us in Rome. We walked in the rain for another day seeing some of the ruins and Trevi fountain. Lots of strange looks at Peters feet since he has gone back to bare feet. Many Italian women shaking their head at Jackie. We will head off following the Mediterranean to the south of France where we will hold up for a week.

More Barga

We have stayed close to Barga most of this last week. Walking the streets and wandering into shops and cafes, we have bought food from most everywhere that sells vegetables or fruit. Even the local barber shop got some of our business. Within the small area within the walls of Barga there are 4 churches, they are really close together literally less than a stones throw. The 4th which is the farthest away from us is where mass was held on Sunday (it is a 4 minute walk) Chiesa della Santissima Annunziata. It is too bad we didn’t capture the sound of the bells ringing Sunday morning with the echo inside of the town. There was a baptism held at the mass (young Giorgio). Another open market was set up through the streets of Barga on Sunday, it really livened up compared to how quiet it was mid week on the streets. We went into Lucca which is about 40 minutes from Barga, you can really get carried away with all of this history. It said Lucca was founded in 180 BC in the info center and that it was converted to Christianity by one of St. Peter’s disciples Paulinus who became the first bishop of Lucca. Haven’t quite figured out what the Puccini connection is yet but figured we may as well take a picture. We will head out in the morning and make our way south but probably not before at least hitting one more café before hitting the road.

Tuscany

As we make our way south the weather is really cooperating with us. Some days are even hitting 20C. Where we at now is the area of Tuscany referred to as the Garfagnana. Our destination was a place called Barga. The old town of Barga is surrounded by a fortification wall with 3 entrances and dates back before the year 1000. Too bad we didn’t film our drive up here. Where we will be staying for one week is within these walls in a stone building that was once a convent. One whole side of the villa is the actual fortification wall that is perhaps 75 or 85 feet high. The gentleman who owns this now has restored the building keeping much of the original character. It is strange staying in a building 1000 years old. The roads and streets inside the walls were certainly constructed for the necessity for defense in time of war. Apparently Barga was one of Mussolini’s places where he would come to relax and walk in the hills. We could not drive into our place; you need to walk everywhere (although everywhere is close). It is amazing seeing some of the older folks here walking up these steep inclines. Hopefully some of the photos will do some sort of justice to the area. One day we went into an open air market in a town north of Barga called Castelnuovo; it just seemed to go on and on. After seeing how the market is set up and taken down it makes you wonder why people rent mall space! A day trip took us out to Pisa. Peter said the tower doesn’t look that crooked. Although the city of Pisa has sort of gone the way of Niagara Falls inside the walls and the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) was well worth visiting. Our hosts Tony Wilton and his wife Carla invited us to their Villa last night and roasted chestnuts for us in their amazing fireplace in there kitchen. Peter and Natalie explored the place.

Venice

Although it seems like we are running out of time we made a stop in Venice. We actually stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights. This was a rare thing for us. We took the train in from Quatro’d ltino to the station to catch the water bus to bring us through the Grand Canal. Venice was one of those places that even seeing it in a book or in Video just doesn’t capture how different a place this really is. It is hard to imagine the how and why of building this city on the water. Fascinating…We made our way to San Marcos square and spent the day walking around. We may end up naming the Italy part of this trip “Operation Gelati”. It was also good to arrive in the day and leave after dark to see the city by the lights. After eating in Venice we boarded the train to head back. We boarded on platform 2 where we figured out train would leave in about 15 minutes. The train didn’t move for 2 hours. Finally everything started to move, after about 20 minutes it was one of those feelings that just didn’t seem right. Sure enough we had got us on the wrong train! We ended up catching the last train back to a larger station at just before midnight. It must have been a site to see the 9 of us “the only ones there” standing at that platform singing and eating pistachios.

Switzerland

Some of the time when we have been traveling we have not been quite on top of our accommodations. Last minute has pretty much been our style. In the case of Switzerland we really didn’t even look at the map too much when we booked Casa Cozen. We knew it was in the general area that we wanted to go but that is about all we knew. It is in a Village called Alvaneau. It is only about 450 km’s from Salzburg but it took us about 10 hours to drive there. We thought we were pretty good for time but didn’t realize that the road would stop! We aren’t really sure what it was called but our van was loaded up on a train and carried through a tunnel through the mountains that was just under 20 km’s long. Another 1st for us. As we found out later it was a more secure way to deal with travel in the Vereina pass. When we finally boarded the train and then got off it was dark. Alvaneau sits at an elevation of 1145 meters and is in the middle of the Swiss Alps. You certainly pass through some resort/ski areas on the way here but Alvaneau is probably as close to an authentic Swiss village as a person may think. We arrived in the black of night on what we were calling the “Fish road but paved”. We are not also quite sure how our excursions always seem to end up dark at the dead end of a mountain road and then having to drive in reverse to find a turn around spot! Our directions were sketchy and had no idea where we were going, and just seemed to be driving on higher and narrower roads. Jackie eventually knocked on a couple of doors and figured out a contact in town that knew where we were going. An unmarked house, which turned out to be great it is just that pretty much impossible to find, especially at night. In the morning we were finally able to see where we were, Peter had a great view of snow caps from his window. Our first night was All Souls day and the local church bells rang for most of the night, we are not really sure what the pattern for the bells followed.(we are about 50 meters from the church). There is lots of pasture in the Alps and so many cows and sheep grazing ( so different from the Rockies ). Rob met a local fellow Dieter Wolf who is a teacher in Alvaneau, he took Peter, Natalie and Rob for a tour of the school. Dieter said he was in the Canadian Rockies last year for a orienteering competition and he noted that difference too in the Rockies. We drove into Davos (which is about 30 minutes from Alvaea) to look around a little bit. Davos is Europes highest town at 1560 meters. The weather has been quite different from Austria it has been clear and warmer ( about 15C today). Peter is back in his shorts and flip flops, some by choice and some by forgetting one of his shoes in Austria. Headline to read: Canadian boy leaves Polish bought shoe by the sheep in Austria…..

Austria

When we left Poland we started to travel south-west. We went through the Slovak Republic through Bratislava and into Austria. We seem to be hitting a lot of road construction on our trip. Traffic jams are common for sure. A pass time at one point because the travel was so slow ( 1 km in 2 hours ) has become put the van in neutral and move our body weight around in the van to make it move. Do we know how to pass time! We bunked down in Vienna for the night before heading east to a place about 50 km’s out of Salzburg where we will be staying for a few days. Altemarkt, Austria. It is at an elevation of about 875 meters. The hills of Austria. There is lots of snow in the alpine and we heard that 3 days ago there was 30 centimeters where we are staying but it all melted off. Some sort of weather system has sure locked on to this area as it just keeps raining. One of out trips into Salzburg took us to Hellbrunn which is a large area that houses an old palace and some amazing gardens. Some scenes from the Sound of Music were filmed there. One of the other very interesting sites there were the trick fountains. A whole series of elaborate sculptures in settings that are all water features. The whole thing is run by water and not electricity