Days 40-42 - Saturday 21st - Monday 23rd October - Tarascon - Nice - Frankfurt - Singapore - Melbourne

What a lovely feeling to not have to worry about packing last night or this morning!  Our suitcases had to be outside our door by 9am for our 10.45am departure time which meant we had a much more relaxing morning than those who were leaving the ship as early as 7.30am. Relaxed breakfast, back to the room to put last couple of things in the cases, put them out then went to the lounge to wait for our call. We exchanged email addresses with our Canadian friends and our bus left on time. We were pleased to find that Emmanuel, our guide from Avignon, would be our guide/chaperone to the Nice Airport. The drive took 3 hours but the bus was very comfortable, airconditioned and Emmanuel entertained us with commentary along the way. We stopped at one of the massive Auto Grills they have on the highways in Europe and had lunch. We were surprised at just how hot it was when we got out of the bus. Just before we got to the airport Emmanuel treated us and sang La Vie En Rose. What a gorgeous gorgeous  voice and fabulous way to end our wonderful trip. Then the waiting game started. We arrived at the airport at 2.30pm and our first flight wasn't until 7pm! We had all decided not to bother going into Nice for a few hours because we couldn't check our suitcases in until 2 hours before our flight, the cost of storing our bags at the airport was €14 per bag and the taxi was €25 each way into town.  So we sat, read, caught up on the blog, walked around and repeated that endlessly. We finally boarded our 2 hour flight to Frankfurt and thankfully the connection with our flight to Singapore was short. Then was our long leg which seemed to go quite quickly except that I think we were in an older plane which definitely had less leg room, even for me. We got to Singapore in the afternoon which was different for us because we'd only ever had middle of the night arrivals and departures. But we had a 5 hour layover! It's an enormous airport so we were able to walk and stretch our legs and we (I) bought a few things but we were already quite tired. We decided to go to the butterfly house because it has always been dark when we've been there. I opened the door to the little area before you go through the plastic curtain and took a step inside. I was met by a wave of stifling hot humid air and promptly reversed out. No thanks! We then found a quiet place to sit, wait and for me to cool down. Our flight was on time but full of kids and as John put it, seemed to be on a tuberculosis ward with all the coughing, spluttering and sneezing that wad going on. We managed to sleep a little and luckily it wasn't until our descent that one child a few rows behind us started crying. It wasn't a baby but a toddler whose mother let him stand on the seats and pretty much do what he wanted during the flight so I guess he didn't like being tied down. All the passengers around them shot dagger looks at the mother when we landed. It's always a culture shock to hear everyone around you and announcements spoken with an Australian accent. It sounds so much worse when you haven't heard it for so long. Anyway we made it home safe and sound and then fell in a heap and, not surprisingly, both got sick! Another fabulous, memorable holiday (let's hope my foot recovers soon). As Dr Seuss said "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened".

Day 39 - Friday 20th October - Cruise

Last day on the ship today. Last excursion and it was nice to know we weren't leaving until 9am. Half an hour makes a lot of difference. Originally we had chosen to visit another picturesque hilltop village with uneven cobblestones but my foot had had enough!  So instead we went to Arles, a city on the Rhône River in Provence, which is the area we're in now. Arles was also a provincial capital of Ancient Rome so not only did we walk into another picturesque town but a town full of Roman ruins which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We walked into the town with our guide and within a couple of minutes of walking we could see, looming before us, the Arles Amphitheatre built in 90 AD! Much smaller than Rome's Colosseum and this one is mostly intact and it's white like the Arena in Pola. What a beautiful and unusual structure to see in a pretty town in the south of France. It used to hold 20,000 spectators who watched chariot races and gladiator battles. These days it holds 12,000 and they watch bullfighting, plays and concerts. Who knew that bullfighting was such a big thing in southern France. We went inside the amphitheatre with our guide and sat on the original marble tiers while we listened to our guide. Fabulous! The narrow streets of Arles wind their way between these ancient buildings which makes this little town more interesting than others we've seen. We saw the Roman Theatre, with the seating mostly intact but the stage has only a few columns still standing, and passed by other ruins as we walked along the windy, but flat streets. Our guide pointed out 2 columns incorporated into the facade of a building many, many years ago. These columns are all that remain of the Roman Forum. Arles is also famous because Van Gough fell in love with Provence and lived in Arles for 16 months and produced 200 paintings and 150 drawings in his time there. Around the town there are information stations positioned to show the very spot where he painted the  most famous  of the paintings he produced in Arles, with a picture of the painting and a bit of background for it. What a wonderful way to showcase certain spots. So we made our way along the streets to the hospital where Van Gough spent time after he chopped part of his ear off, before going to the asylum in St-Rémy-de-Provence. Among the way we saw the place he painted the Yellow Cafe and there was the cafe, still standing. We saw the spot he painted Starry Night over The Rhône River and where his Yellow House was and the spot where it was painted from. At the hospital we saw the cloisters and garden as he had painted it because it has been restored and painted in the colours it was at the time he was there and the garden's been planted as it was. Such a great experience to see all this. We then had free time so we strolled around a little then stopped to get what would probably be our last French crepe. The fellow asked us where we were from, even though John had spoken to him in French, and when we said Australia he told us he had family in Perth and knew a lot about Australia. So that's two French people we've met in our weeks in France who have family in Perth. We ate our delicious crepe sitting on the edge of the fountain in the main square and them followed our guide back to the bus. It was nice to have only a 30 minute drive back . When we got back we went down for lunch and then I was keen to get stuck into the packing so that we then could properly relax for the last little bit of our trip. The Cruise Director made an announcement to say that rather than just stay tied up at Tarascon, he would cruise us down to Arles and back again which would take all afternoon. So John very wisely stayed on the balcony and out of my way while I stuffed everything we had come with and all that we'd acquired along the way very well into our cases. We were very pleased that they each only weighed less than 22 kgs. To celebrate we opened the bottle of wine from our room bar (all included) and enjoyed it on our balcony with some cheese we'd brought back with us after lunch for this very moment. We enjoyed the lovely scenery as we cruised along and when we'd finished we changed and went to the lounge for coffee and then a few pre-dinner drinks before the farewell drinks and final next-morning instructions. We thoroughly enjoyed our last dinner on board knowing it would be our last decent meal for a while and then danced the rest of the night away with regular rests. I decided not to worry about my foot too much because I knew I wouldn't be doing any dancing and not much walking over the next many hours. We had a room credit as an extra bonus and I'd used some for my facial and some washing but we still had some to use up so we decided to use it on some top shelf Grappa which we both thoroughly enjoyed.

Day 38 - Thursday 19th October - Cruise

The ship sailed out of Avignon while we were asleep and we woke up in Tarascon. A bit sad because it's our last port.  Up for an early start for an 8.30 excursion departure. Sadly we're not in a picturesque spot in this port. We're just out of town and no views. Anyway we hopped on our buses and drove for 1.5 hours to another picturesque village called Aigues-Mortes. The countryside wasn't pretty at all. It was grey, flat, rocky and no pretty villages. It probably didn't help that it was a cloudy day. We got to Aigues-Mortes which was once an important harbour with a fortress from the crusaders' time. We didn't have a good view of the perfectly preserved city walls and towers because a fun fair  was setting up for the school holiday period starting the following week,  right in front of the gates to the town. We walked through the main street as this sleepy little town was just waking up at 10am with a few shops starting to open. Our guide took us to the little church with unusual and unattractive modern stained glass windows and the main square and that was about all there was to this town. We could have walked right around the top of the town walks but once you start, you can't turn back. Given my sore feet and the few rain drops we decided not to go. Instead we wandered around a few of the streets, bought some chocolates and then went to a cafe for a cup of coffee. On the way back to our meeting point we passed a shoe shop that had opened and John tried on and bought a nice pair of leather summer sandals which are made in Spain. Then we piled onto the bus for our 1.5 hour drive back. Back in time for lunch and then we had a free afternoon. John and I decided to take a couple of the bikes available on the ship out for a spin. They've got new e-bikes sinDay 38 thurs 19 oct cruise The ship sailed out of Avignon while we were asleep and we woke up in Tarascon. A bit sad because it's our last port.  Up for an early start for an 8.30 excursion departure. Sadly we're not in a picturesque spot in this port. We're just out of town and no views. Anyway we hopped on our buses and drove for 1.5 hours to another picturesque village called Aigues-Mortes. The countryside wasn't pretty at all. It was grey, flat, rocky and no pretty villages. It probably didn't help that it was a cloudy day. We got to Aigues-Mortes which was once an important harbour with a fortress from the crusaders' time. We didn't have a good view of the perfectly preserved city walls and towers because a fun fair  was setting up for the school holiday period starting the following week,  right in front of the gears to the town. We walked through the main street as this slept little town was just waking up at 10am with a few shops starting to open. Our guide took us to the little church with unusual and unattractive modern stained glass windows and the main square and that was about all there was to this town. We could have walked right around the top of the town walks but once you start, you can't turn back. Given my sore feet and the few rain drops we decided not to go. Instead we wandered around a few of the streets, bought some chocolates and then went to a cafe for a cup of coffee. On the way back to our meeting point we passed a shoe shop that had opened and John tried on and bought a nice pair of leather summer sandals which are made in Spain. Then we piled onto the bus for our 1.5 hour drive back. Back in time for lunch and then we had a free afternoon. John and I decided to take a couple of the bikes available on the ship out for a spin. They've got new e-bikes since our last cruise which are even better than the last. If the pedalling gets a bit hard you just increase the amount you want the bike to assist you and it takes over. It's  great!  Nicholas, the cruise director, suggested we cycle over the bridge to Beaucaire, the town on the other side of the river for a look around. We (I ) decided to ride on the footpath but had to go out onto the road for a short distance because the footpath just disappeared. We cycled past Tarascon's beautifully preserved castle and the statue of their mythical monster and over the bridge, stopping to take photos along the way. Beaucaire also had a castle which we could see at the top of a hill. We cycled to the base of the cliff it was built on and took photos looking up at it but didn't find the road to the top. We cycled around the quiet streets of the town which wasn't anything special so we made or way back to the bridge and left it to cycle around Tarascon. This was a much cleaner and prettier town with arches around every corner but also not much to see so after cycling under many arches and pulling over to let cars pass down the narrow little streets, we headed back to the ship. On the way back we cycled into the courtyard of the castle and had a look around but didn't go inside because there was nowhere to lock up the bikes on. That was enough for the day so we sat in the lounge, sipped cocktails, John read and I caught up on the blog. Then it was time to get ready for the Captain's Farewell Cocktails and then the Farewell Gala Dinner. Then we went back to the lounge for our usual after dinner drinks and dancing.

Day 37 - Wednesday 18th October - Cruise

While we were in the lounge last night talking to some people the idea was floated that we didn't have to do an excursion just because we'd put our names down so when the alarm went off at 7am for our 8.30am departure we both decided to stay in bed and wag our excursion. Someone had said the night before that after a while you thought ABC - Another Bloody Castle/Church/Picturesque Village. As it turned out there were many people who'd had the same thought and had wagged their excursions. The trip we were supposed to do would have been great but a day of rest and blog catch up was just what we needed. We would have gone to Pont-du-Gard, which is an ancient Roman aqueduct, a museum about Roman life and Uzès which is yet another picturesque Medieval town. Apparently the trip was very good but instead we had a late breakfast, spoke with Sophie to wish her a happy birthday, read in the lounge for a while, then went for a leisurely walk into and around Avignon. We stopped for coffee and croissants where our guide Emmanuel had said to go, in Place de Change. We wandered and wandered, did some gift shopping,  John bought me a lovely Desigual handbag for my birthday, and we stopped every now and then to rest. We got a little lost because we'd forgotten to get a map when we left the ship, so I asked a policewoman, who was giving a car a parking ticket, for directions. She hunted in her big bag for a map and was more than happy to show us which way to go. We were soon going in the right direction and decided to head back to the ship for lunch. After lunch we went back into Avignon so I could get some souvenirs and to go to Pont d'Avignon so we could actually walk on this famous bridge with the pretty song. Again we got a little bamboozled by the signs but eventually found our way to the bridge. We walked to the end,  down to the lower level,  along a side walkway and took lots and lots of photos. We didn't dance on the bridge as prescribed in the song because by this time my foot was killing me and we still had to make the trudge back to the ship. We had time for a relaxing drink and rest before getting all dolled up again for our special dinner at the Pope's Palace. We were picked up at the ship by two of the little tourist sightseeing trains which was cute. A few people decided to walk, but we chose the bus for a little bit of fun but going over the cobbles was interesting.  The walkers got there first of course. We were shown upstairs (many stairs) to the private banquet hall in the palace where we'd been the day before. It was arranged with beautifully set round tables for our dinner and a string quartet was playing gorgeous  music.  We sat with Nelly and Bill, our Canadian friends and enjoyed the food, wine,  music and company. What a great night. Then the trains were back to transport everyone back but John and I decided to walk back very slowly. We took photos of the Palace lit up at night and on a beautiful balmy evening we had a lovely slow stroll back through the streets of Avignon and still beat the trains. Tired and sore feet so we headed off to bed.

Day 36 - Tuesday 17th October - Cruise

This was the first day of the cruise that we didnt wake up to a beautiful sunny day but we had a lovely relaxing morning routine because our excursion wasn't leaving til 9.30am. All passengers were being taken by bus to wineries in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, which is one of the most prestigious and famous wine growing areas in France, for some wine tasting. So we would have to drink wine first thing in the morning again. Life's tough at the moment. We drove through very interesting countryside. The vineyards are planted in the VERY rocky soil. The rocks came from the mountains thousands of years ago when the Rhône River flowed through that area and formed the riverbed. At some point the river changed its path and the land was left covered with rocks. And it is indeed covered with rocks. The vines are completely surrounded by rocks rather than soil. In France it's illegal to water vines and to use any chemicals at all on them. Our bus went to a winery called Botte where again we were instructed in the art of wine tasting. Again we failed and just smelt wine. That's not exactly true, we could tell the wines tasted different, just couldn't really identify what we could smell. They were all delicious though. The was a wine museum inside which we walked through which was just a little bit interesting. We bought a beautiful sommelier's bottle opening tool which John is very excited about. Then we were back on the bus and on our way to see the old ruins of the Pope's summer palace dating back to the 14thC. Wandered around, took photos but because of the thick fog we weren't able appreciate what would have been the beautiful views over to the Alps from the scenic terrace which once would have formed part of the palace. So we piled back on the bus and got back to the ship in time for lunch and during lunch we set sail did or next port,  Avignon, which was the headquarters of the french Popes for about 50 years in the 14thC. After lunch our cruise director, Nicholas, gave a presentation on the World of Fragrance. He had worked in the perfume industry years ago. Part way through the talk I started to get a headache which just got worse so I left John to take notes  (haha) and took myself of to bed with lots of drugs because it was showing all signs of turning into a migraine. Luckily I was able to sleep and when I woke we were at Avignon. Headache was better so we went up on the deck for a Pont d'Avignon party and photo stop. We sailed right up to the bridge, which is actually only half a bridge, then sailed past it,  then back again, all the time with the song Sur Le Pont d'Avignon blaring away and everyone singing along and entertaining the tourists on the bridge. The fresh air really cleared my head and we sang, drank champagne, took photos and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The Pope's Palace was resplendent up above the city which made a perfect background for selfies. What a fabulous way to arrive in a new place. Shortly after our arrival we were taken in groups into the city of Avignon to visit the Pope's Palace. We went with a gorgeous young Frenchman, with beret and all, called Emmanuel. His accent was beautiful and he was a great guide.  Avignon was again, another beautiful old city with lots of history, gorgeous buildings and was so clean. Not too many cobblestones but enough to kill my poor feet. Emmanuel told us the history of the place as we walked through the streets and eventually we got to the magnificent buildings of the Pope's Palace. We walked through several rooms, including what was the Pope's bedroom, the private banquet hall and up many stairs to the next level where we looked down into the huge courtyard from the fancy windows where the Pope used to stand to do his hand waving stuff I guess. Then we went into what was the chapel. There was a group of Asian tourists there and one of the group was singing in a beautiful voice, which showed off the acoustics of the building. We all clapped when he finished and then Emmanuel, our guide,  told us we'd now hear some real singing. Well he sang in the most beautiful counter tenor voice which made the other voice sound a little ordinary. It was just so beautiful. Then the group behind us, also from our ship, came in and their guide asked Emmanuel if he'd sing another song and he sang a french song which was equally beautiful. We felt extremely lucky. Someone asked if he'd been taught to sing and he told us he'd had private lessons for 7 years. From here we went through the last rooms and then out of the palace and back to the ship. By the time we got back to the ship it was 6.30pm and we had a reservation at the fancy restaurant on board, L'Amour, at 7.15pm so we didnt even have time for a drink at the bar but went straight to our room to get our fancy clothes on. We wanted to book for the 18th so we could celebrate Sophie's birthday but the 17th was the last night available,  so we toasted her birthday early.   We had said we were happy to share a table with others and when we went in we found ourselves sharing our table with the fellow that was the size of the side of a house. His name was Steve, a Jewish boy from Brooklyn, now living in San Francisco. He was in the film industry but had retired 4 years ago at 53 and was now spending a lot of time travelling. We had a lovely evening and he was a lovely fellow but just so enormously fat. From some of the things he said about things he'd done in the past, sounded like he hasn't always been this size. Everything he did seemed very laboured, walking, sitting, getting up. We're not sure how many excursions he did because he wouldn't have been able to go up or down steps or keep up with a group. Sad really. Anyway our 6 course dinner paired with wine was absolutely lipsmackingky delicious and after we sat in the lounge for a couple more drinks and a few dances and went to bed very late.

Day 35 - Monday 16th October - Cruise

Another beautifully sunny day ahead of us. All the cool weather clothes haven't been used at all. After breakfast the entire load of passengers were divided into groups and with several guides we set off on foot, no buses, in to visit the little medieval town (yes, another one) of Viviers. Our guide was Pierre and what a wonderful character and excellent guide he was! He was a comedian and made lots of corny jokes which added to our entertainment. He is a ballroom dancing teacher and came 6th in the European  championships years ago with his wife. Pierre walked backwards a lot of the time so he didn't have his back to us, up the steep streets of this tiny town, which was impressive. He pointed out all the interesting buildings as we passed them, talked about the various styles of architecture and was thoroughly entertaining and very knowledgeable. We were making our way to the top of the hill to see the smallest working cathedral in France, St Vincent Cathedral. This cathedral once had 6 beautiful tapestries hanging in it made in the middle ages but there were only 4 hanging. Years ago 3 were stolen, 2 were found in a cave in Italy recently but the 3rd has never been found.  When the Italian police found out where they were from, they brought them back and were promptly arrested by the French police on arrival because they didn't have any documentation for them. Pierre got us to sit in the pews while he told us the history of the cathedral and we were soon joined by all the other groups. Then they introduced the celebrated organist who played a lovely private organ concert for us. I'm not usually a fan of organ music but this was just beautiful. After the concert we walked out to a terrace at the back of the church where we had amazing views over this pretty little town and the scenic countryside. We took lots of photos then took a short cut back down via set of steps after set of steps to we got to the square where Pierre pointed out some interesting things including large holes at the base of several of the Sycamore trees (we call them plane trees). He explained that during WWII the Allies put ammunition boxes at the base of these trees to mark the way for the soldiers to find their way to the river. The ammunition boxes were never removed and caused a disease to eat away part of the base creating these very large holes in the trunk. One was big enough for Pierre to stand up in, he said he used to play hide and seek in that tree with his mum. He told us that during the war his mother & father hid a Jewish doctor on their roof while a German officer lived in their house. He survived the war and was their family doctor for many years. His uncle was shot by the Germans when he was only 20 because he wouldn't tell them where the doctor was hiding. We wandered down their "Champs Elysees", an avenue lined on both sides with Sycamore trees, which led us back to the ship, the same route the soldiers took, we farewelled Pierre and thanked him for a wonderfully entertaining tour. Back on board we headed to the Crystal Diningroom for lunch. Then after lunch it was time for our 2nd excursion for the day. It's hard work being on holidays. So this was the day we are going to do the kayaking trip down the Ardeche River through the deepest gorge in Europe but the kayaking companies closed the season early,  maybe because they had such a long hot busy summer. We were disappointed but nothing is guaranteed. Anyway we then chose the trip to the Ardeche National Park and a visit to the Caverne Pont d'Arc which was absolutely fabulous. The drive on the Tourist Road was brilliant and we stopped at a couple of scenic lookouts for the most spectacular views you could imagine over the gorge and the river. At one of the stops we saw the famous Pont d'Arc over the Ardeche River, a large  natural rock bridge formed when the Ardeche River broke through a narrow gap. It's 59m wide and 34m high and a magnificent sight to photograph. From here we continued on to the Caverne Pont d'Arc also known as Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Caverne. This cave was discovered in 1994 by 3 speleologists, cave explorers, led by Jean-Marie Chauvet. In it they found some of the best preserved cave drawings in the world and the oldest in Europe, some dating back 37,000 years. The cave has been sealed off to the public  and a replica cave was built at a cost of €50m and opened in 2015. This is what we saw and once inside you would never have thought you weren't inside the real thing. It was fabulous! !! Reproduced down to the tiniest detail. It's the largest cave replica in the world and the art is reproduced full size, with even the temperature,  darkness, acoustics and humidity reproduced. What a fabulous experience this was! In the gift shop I bought a foldout series of photos of all the cave drawings we saw because you can't take photos inside the cave. Then it was back on the buses to head for the ship which had sailed down to St.-Etienne-des-Sorts to meet us so that our ride back wasn't so long. When we were listening to Port Talk we sailed off to our next port, Châteauneuf-du-Pape. After dinner we were entertained by Véronique de Zan who sang some French songs. She was a lady in her 60s who was quite flirtatious with the men so John was glad we were sitting in a position where he wouldn't be picked for audience participation. The singing was nice but not good enough to buy her CD. When she finished her show we had a few dances to Richard's music then fell into bed yet again after a very long day.

Day 34 - Sunday 15th October - Cruise

Nice relaxing morning again as our chosen excursion didn't head off until 9.45am.  We were a little too relaxed though and had to have late breakfast in the River Cafe. We chose to go back to Tournon Castle for a tour inside and a wine tasting class so we headed off with our guide,  Sofi. We walked through a flea market in the park in front of the ship and heard a little bit of history of the town and the castle which was built in the mid 12thC and then mostly pulled down during the French Revolution. The church was built into the fortifications of the castle and during the revolution all the side chapels were sold off and people built multi-storey houses in these. So looks very odd to see houses and shops built into the side of the church. We arrived at the castle and first went to the wine class. We sat at long tables and watched a presentation and listened to a lovely young man, Guillame, who talked to us about the wine of the immediate region which is Syrah or Shiraz. He showed us on a map of the region and which wineries made which wine. Some made only white and some made only red and there was only one that made both. We then were  treated to tastings of some delicious and apparently expensive wines. We swirled the wine in the glass as he showed us, smelled it and then had to say what we could smell. John and I  kept saying 'wine'. Some know-alls, especially one woman from SA, thought they knew it all and came up with all sorts of things they could smell. Our little group decided they must be making this all up otherwise our noses were broken. Some silly people even spat out the wine after swilling it around in their mouth and some poured the rest into the buckets provided!!!! Not our group!  We drank every delicious little drop of both red and white and thoroughly enjoyed them even if we could only smell wine. We also enjoyed the sheep's cheese, salami and sausage we had to go with the wines. Following this we went into the castle for our tour and we learnt that a fellow from Tournon invented the suspension bridge and they still have boat jousting tournaments in Tournon. We went out onto the North Terrace and had more spectacular views over the town and the valley. Then made our way out of the castle and back to the ship where a barbecue lunch was cooking on the upper deck in the glorious sunshine. We went to our room to deposit things and collect our Maltese sunhats before heading up to lunch. What a barbecue!  Not like any we've ever prepared. There were 4 types of meat, tuna, various types of sausages, salads, vegetables, baked potatoes and yummy bread. Needless to say it was hard not to fill one's plate with food. Then we had several flavours of icecream to enjoy for dessert.  We sat with 2 ladies we've eaten with before, 2 teachers from Perth who travel together (one apparently a real aristocratic Lady). They're quite lovely and seem to share the same prejudices as we do of the bogan Aussie travellers. So that was enjoyable. After lunch we had a stroll in this tiny quiet little town,  walked through the flea market and marveled at some of the junk people try to sell. There were some interesting things like bows and arrows, a lamp bad made from 3 rifle butts, many pressure cookers and a couple of old gramophones. The lady selling the gramophones played a record and sang along to a lovely French song with a glass of wine in one hand. Not a lot to see so we headed back to the ship and before we knew it the ship was moving Away from the dock before 3 when we were due to sail off. I went up on deck to watch us do a u-turn before heading downriver and discovered that someone had been left ashore. We could see a man at the end of the little pier madly waving his arms in the air and pointing to his watch. After the u-turn the captain brought the ship up to the pier for the man to jump on. That's when we saw that it was our piano player, Richard! Apparently he hadn't logged off and even though he got to the dock at 2.45 they thought everyone was on board which meant they could set off a little early. The Captain didn't look happy. So we're now on our way to Viviers going through several locks to get down the river. We had a very relaxing afternoon sailing and I went down to the new salt room. Our ship is the first of the fleet to be fitted out with a gym and salt room as well as now having a spa tub on the deck. The salt room's floor is covered with a thick layer of rock salt, there are 3 comfy lounge beds, the lighting is subdued, there is soft music playing, and the temperature is controlled. You just lie there, relax and breathe deeply. It's supposed to be good for the respiratory system - the warm air circulates through the salt on the floor and releases the minerals into the air that you breathe. Well, it was so relaxing that I fell asleep. I said to a lady who was in there with me, "I hope I wasn't snoring". She said I did a little but that I was rythmical. Then there was port talk and then dinner. After dinner our tour director held a Movie Music quiz night which was lots of fun and John and I got 14/15 ! I think I got most of them but John made some great contributions. We didn't win though because the 2 teachers from Perth got them all right.  After a few dances and a few more drinks we fell into bed again.

Day 33 - Saturday 14th October - Cruise

Sailing day today so no early start YAY. Sleep in, late breakfast - bliss. So today I was able to catch up on our blog and have a totally relaxing day. We sat near the coffee machine in the lounge (it had been broken since we started the cruise but it was able to be fixed in Lyon) so that we could get our daily fix easily. John read and I wrote while we cruised along watching the beautiful colours of autumn along the Rhône go by. At 11am there was France and Europe Quiz in which we did very poorly getting only 8/21. However, it seems our whole shop is a bunch of dummies. Then it was time for lunch with instructions not to eat too much cheese because at 3pm we had a Cheese Tasting & education session. We found out that France has about 1500 different cheeses (not all available for tasting though). John  stayed and had cheese paired with wine but I went down to the spa for a much awaited facial. I was surprised when Goran the masseur came to meet me but he was wonderful. He told me he did his training in Germany and it was as good as any facial I've had before and so so relaxing. By the time I was finished, so was the cheese tasting but John had managed to smuggle some cheese and bread to our room for me.  Then it was time for port talk to find out about our time in Tournon. We docked at 5.30pm and we had to be ready for our "Sundowner" Aperitif on the terrace of the medieval castle of Tournon up on the hill we were docked in front of. We all strolled across from the shop and up the steps of the castle, through the courtyard, up a spiral staircase and we were on the South Terrace looking out over the Rhône and the Rhône Valley. What a spectacular view! And being there at dusk made the views even more magical. There was a 2 piece jazz group (guitar and sax) playing lovely music, there was as much wine as we felt able to drink and still make it back to the ship and tray upon tray of canapes (they even had trays of gluten free canapes). We took lots of photos, drank lots of wine and ate lots of canapes. Then it was time to waddle back to the ship. We had a lady from Tournon, Josette, come on board for an amusing lecture on "French Paradoxes". It was amusing and informative and we found out quite a few interesting things about life in France. Then it was once again time to go down to our restaurant for dinner. We sat with 2 new couples - one was our next door neighbours with the berating wife and the other was from Toowoomba. We had a very pleasant evening and didn't leave the restaurant until 9.30pm. Too full, too tired and foot too painful to go down to the lounge so we retired early to our room and I finally caught up on our blog (John watched 'The Big Short' on the cabin TV).

Day 32 - Friday 13th October - Cruise

Early start today with our excursion bus leaving at 8.30am. Morning  routine as usual just a little earlier and we were on the bus by the allocated time. Today we went to the little medieval town called Perouges with our guide Cristelle. More gorgeous scenery on the way to this tiny town that time has forgotten. Perouges is on top of a hill and overlooks the Dombes Plateau. It's a fortified medieval town that's incredibly well preserved. The 15thC church was built as a fortification and looks like a fortress with gun holes built into the walls.  It's full of medieval timber-framed houses,  the streets are paved with the original cobblestones (which killed my feet). There's an Inn in the square dating back to the 13thC and the Tree of Liberty planned in 1792 is still alive with its branches propped up. We wandered along the streets learning all about this ever so pretty little town, we went into the church and in the square we went into the old Inn and tried the local specialty - Galette de Perouges. It's like a thin based pizza topped with custard and sugar then baked in the oven. Loved it with some coffee. Bought some cute little things, wandered around a little bit then piled back onto the bus. We got back to the ship, had lunch then walked into Lyon and found the hotel we stayed in last time, I bought a couple of t-shirts because we're having unseasonably warm weather with temps up to 26-27°. We then walked to the old town of Lyon which we loved last time we were here. Had an ice cream and sat for a little while to rest my very painful feet. Yes, we had walked too far and now we had to walk all the way back to the ship. I had to rest my foot for a while because dinner was early, 5pm. There was a special excursion planned for this evening so even though it felt like afternoon tea we all trooped down to dinner and then trooped onto the buses and drove in peek hour traffic to see an acrobatic show called Cirque Imagine or as it was called on our daily programme, Scenic Rouge. Our tour director, Nic, told us it was a cross between Cirque du Soleil and a French cabaret. It was ok but the canapes they served weren't great. The acrobatics were good and the comedian was good but the feathered dancing girls were a bit tacky. Clearly some of our passengers don't get out very much because they thought it was fabulous and had photos taken with the tacky girls. I had someone say that they were all ex-olympic gymnasts. One of the acrobats looked just like Vladimir Putin. We then got back on the bus and headed to the ship, the lounge, drinks, dancing, bed - in that order.

Day 31 - Thursday 12th October - Cruise

In Mâcon this morning, yet another picturesque little town. Usual morning routine except this morning we woke to several white swans floating along outside our balcony when we opened the curtains. We were pleased that the bus for our chosen trip wasn't leaving til 9am.  We were going to visit Cluny Abbey or what was left of it. Our guide was Agnes and again a brilliant guide. We stopped on the road to take photos of a medieval castle on top of a hill which was just beautiful. Soon we were in Cluny and walking along more cobblestones. (Note to self: don't injure your feet ever again whilst traveling in Europe). Cluny Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery whose construction was completed in the mid 12 th century and for 500 years it was the world's largest religious building until St Peter's Basilica was built. Then the Abbey was almost completely destroyed in the French Revolution and sold off in lots for the building materials. Only two of its towers part of the right transept and a few wall sections remain. Our guide gave us details of the history as we went through it and when we were inside the right transept Agnes told us that it was built to the size it was for the acoustics and asked us to imagine 400 monks singing gregorian chants in there and what it would have sounded like. She then sang a bit of an aria in a glorious voice which sounded just amazing in that space, so the voices of 400 monks would have been beautiful but rather deafening I think. Another wonderful excursion. There are also 18th century buildings and cloisters which are used as a tertiary education centre and accommodation for very bright engineering students. In their first year they wear grey lab coats, in their 2nd year they add coloured bands on the bottom of these coats and have letters & symbols in these bands and pictures of knights on the back of their coats. We saw some of these students wandering around looking a little like Harry Potter look-alikes with their coats flying out behind them. After our tour we again went through the gift shop where I bought a few little things for our littleies and then had a stroll through the cobbled streets. Then back on the bus and back to the ship. We sailed off in glorious sunshine in the afternoon for Lyon past more breathtaking scenery, villages, the odd castle and vineyards. Another lovely dinner with lots more delicious wine and lovely company. We've met some lovely people, mostly non-Australians. Lots of Canadians on board and English. We've met two lovely Canadian couples, Wayne & Pat celebrating their 50th anniversary & Bill & Nelly, that we've dined with a few times and John  a lovely Welsh widower travelling on his own. After dinner down to the lounge again and watched as we cruised into Lyon for a spectacular view of this lovely city lit up at night. Got some great photos of the Basilica of Notre Dame of Lyon up on Fourvière Hill. Then off to bed as we've got our first early start.

Day 30 - Wednesday 11th October - Cruise

This morning we didn't need to be on the coach til 9.15am so it felt like a real sleep in treat! So morning routine - up, shower, down to breakfast, up to brush teeth, get hearing contraptions & ear phones, up to get bottle of water, log off ship and get on bus. The excursion we chose for today was to visit Château de Cormatin. We travelled through beautiful picturesque countryside and saw a few castles along the way. The Château de Cormatin is a castle in the heart of southern Burgundy built in the early 17th century by the Marquises of Uxelles to impress and show their power and prestige. What a magnificent place! The place was abandoned for many years and went up for sale in 1980 when it was bought by 3 friends who have done a fabulous restoration job and all live in apartments they've restored for themselves. The castle is surrounded by a wide moat that they had to dig out because it had been filled in, it has turrets, dungeon, gorgeous kitchen garden,  formal English garden, maze, a wide straight staircase copied from the one in the Luxembourg Palace in Paris and original painted wooden panels in all of the rooms we saw. The kitchen was huge and full of all things kitchen from the middle ages (or maybe a bit later - they had a coffee roaster that worked with coals). The gardens spread over 11 hectares and have flower beds, box maze, aviary,groves, theatre garden, fountains and water features. The ones who originally lived here were Jacques du Blé, 35, his 13 year old bride Claude and eventually their 4 children. She was widowed at an early age when Jacques was killed in a battle and continued to live there with her children. We were taken through this beautiful beautiful castle by our guide who told us stories and history related to the place. All the guides we've had with Scenic are brilliant. We wandered through the kitchen garden that we both fell in love with, through the formal garden but didn't have time to go through the maze, we saw the photographic timeline of the renovations which looked very expensive but oh so rewarding to see the castle come back to life and we visited the dungeons which weren't so terrible. What a wonderful place to visit. We made the very best choice. Then it was a stroll through the town, back on the bus and back to the ship through more beautiful countryside. Back on the ship in time for lunch, so more food, more wine and we were sailing to Mâcon in the afternoon. We had put our names on a waiting list to do the bike tour from Chalon-sur-Sâon to Mâcon, while the ship cruised there and apparently we'd been bumped off the waiting list but noone had told us so we were unprepared when we got a call in our room to tell us. My foot was very painful after our cobblestones in the morning, John said he didn't want to go without me, so we declined. It would have been a 3 hour ride so I think i made the right decision. We did wonder how some of the people who took off would go but they all got back in one piece. Instead of the bike ride we sat and sipped cocktails and watched the world go by and docked in Mâcon at about 6pm. Tonight was the Captain's Welcome Drinks in the lounge before dinner, so more drinks and we all got dressed up for that, then more drinks with our delicious dinner. I think we'll have tried most of France's wines by the time we've finished. Then more drinks and dancing and fell into bed again.

Day 29 - Tuesday 10th October - Cruise

Up earlier than we're used to - 7.15am alarm!  We were in the lounge for breakfast at 8am and ready to get on our coach for the first excursion at 9am. Breakfast is always interesting seeing what different sized people have for breakfast and it's the fatties that fill their plates to the brim with all things unhealthy. As always we've been starting the day with Môet & OJ and we think we're the only ones taking advantage of this luxury. We logged off the ship and boarded our coach with first tour guide Benedicte. We were heading to Beaune to see the Hospice de Beaune. It was founded in 1443 as a hospital for the poor. The buildings are magnificent! The wings of the two storied building are built around a stone courtyard. They have timber galleries or verandahs all the way around and dormer windows built into the beautifully ornate roof tops made of coloured glazed tiles arranged in lovely patterns. Inside the huge wards there are beds built along two sides of the room all connected together and each bed had two patients in it. Each bed had red curtains on both sides and white sheets and red blankets and a rope so they could pull themselves up. There is a small chapel at the end of each room so that the sick could be prayed for by the nuns (perhaps as useful as being bled). The ceiling was wooden with exposed, painted beams and was in the shape of an upside down ship's hull. It's all so beautifully preserved with murals painted on the walls so that the poor could be in beautiful surroundings. We heard all the history of the place and saw tapestries and paintings and I killed my feet hobbling over the cobblestones in the huge courtyard getting to the exit, which was of course through the gift shop. I think I bought a magnet but won't know until I pack all our things up to go home. We then had some free time in the town so we slowly walked around and looked at the shops which were mostly closed but we went into one of the many fancy wine stores and bought a nice bottle stopper and something for the Xmas tree. Then we were back on the bus and back to the ship in time for lunch. We try to have a small lunch but end up with more food on the plate than we'd planned. After lunch it was cocktail time and a rest in the lounge to try desperately to catch up on our blog. It's just go go go because before we knew it we were up on the roof deck for the life jacket drill and then we cruised out of Chalon-sur-Sâone. This called for another celebratory cocktail while we listened to Port Talk which is when we find out about the next day and next port. John decide to go back to the cabin so I  was left to try to remember all the information we were given to relay back to him. Then back to our room to change for dinner where I had frogs legs and duck confit for the first time. The food is delicious as it's always been on these cruises, as is the service. After dinner up to the lounge and music where we've already made friends with the bar staff and musician, Richard. So a digestive, dancing (flat-footed hobbling style), cocktail, more dancing,  then fall into bed and repeat the next day.

Day 28 -Monday 9th October - Dijon to Chalon sur Sâone

Relaxing morning because our train wasn't until 1.37pm. Showered and dressed and headed to the cafe where we'd had lunch to have breakfast. Petit dejeuner... cafe au lait, croissant, OJ €5.50 - brilliant and delicious. After this we went for a wander and found Notre Dame de Dijon but it was closed. We took lots of photos of very picturesque streets and buildings, bought some souvenirs and then went back to the hotel to finish packing and get a taxi to the station. We planned to have some lunch at the station where there there were some nice cafes. When we got there we saw marquees up outside and went to investigate. They were having something called Chefs at the Stations where local produce would be highlighted. At the first marquee they had made up really long baguettes with cheese and salad and a cheery tomato skewered on top at intervals. They then cut between the skewers and gave out these little lunch rolls. So that's what deliciousness we had for lunch.  At the 2nd marquee I treated some chocolates so that was enough for lunch because we knew there'd be food available on the ship as soon as we got there. Our train journey only took 45 minutes so we were there in no time at all. There was to be someone waiting for us to take us to the ship but noone in sight when we got of the train. Of course there were stairs down and then up to get to the station from our platform .... John did a great job. We waited outside and within a few minutes our  chauffeur driven black van arrived and drove us to the boat. We were greeted and the suitcases were taken out of the van for us and taken onto the shop for us. The next time we saw them was in our cabin. Nice hot towels when we walked on and we went to the lounge for a refreshing drink, where there was also light refreshments being served. Then we checked in, were given our name badges  (which we never wear) this time they would be used to swipe on and swipe off each time we left the ship and came back on. We were taken to our room by our butler, Miroslav, and everything was explained to us. I then set about unpacking while John had a beer from the mini-bar (all included) and got in the way. We changed out of our traveling clothes and went down to the lounge for our first of many drinks. We're so pleased to now be able to relax, not have to organise dinner or think of where to go, or what to do. We can just sit back and enjoy being waited on hand and foot. So  the passengers are as entertaining as on all the cruises we've done so far. Many very large ones and there's one American who is like the side of a house,  he's enormous and we do question how he fits in the shower or is able to use the toilet because even though the rooms are roomy and well laid out, the bathroom is smaller and more compact than in a hotel room. Next door to us we can hear an American couple squabbling whenever they're in the room.  She's always berating him for not listening to her and not doing what she's told him to do and he is forever apologising for not doing enough and not listening - depressing to hear. There are plenty of know-alls as usual too. There's the old English fellow with a blonde mullet who knows about everything and had moved to Scotland because the 'muslims are outnumbering us and we didn't feel safe'. He also told us that he knows that Uber money goes to ISIS (we bet they voted for Brexit)! We happily watch and listen from afar and mostly chat with others only at meal times. We went for a walk through the little town of Chalon-sur-Sâone, yet another very pretty town but also very quiet. More pretty squares and the place was decorated with pink umbrellas and the fountain had pink water be cause October is breast cancer month. Back on the ship and John chose to sit on our balcony while I went up to the lounge to catch up on the blog with a yummy cocktail. The wifi isn't fabulous so hopefully we'll be able to load it. I am a few days behind though. Pre-dinner drinks then down to dinner which was buffet as it always is on the first night and it was quite nice. Then up to the lounge for music and some dancing. My foot is still painful but I gave it a go and danced flat footed. There are quite a few people getting up to dance, quite the opposite to our other cruise. The amount of drinks we'd had didn't help our dancing but we stayed as long as my foot permitted. Earlier start tomorrow than we're used to.

Day 27 - Sunday 8th October - Paris to Dijon

Relaxing morning. Packed,  tidied up and then with suitcases in tow we made our way to Republique Metro station one more time. I managed to take my case down one set of steps and then John took one handle in each hand and manhandled them up and down the rest of all the sets of steps. We took one line to Bastille then had to walk miles to get to the next line that would get us to Gare de Lyon to catch our train to Dijon, but at least we didn't get lost in there this time. We got there in plenty of time and John left me with the cases so that he could go and find an ATM machine. He was away for forever and I was hoping he remembered what time the train was leaving. Turns out there weren't any in the station (he didn't ask though so we don't really know) and he had to go out into the streets to find one. We got on the train, found room to stow our cases, settled into our assigned 1st class seats. Then there was a bit of commotion, an announcement was made, which John couldn't understand and people started to get up and collect their things.  I asked someone what was happening and he said we had to change trains! So, get the suitcases out, lug them off the train, walk towards the end of the platform where a new train had pulled in behind ours, find our carriage, lug the cases onto this train, find our seats and collapse into them. After such a smooth easy start to our trip i was now really feeling hot and bothered. It was a double decker train and we were so glad we'd chosen seats down on the lower level. The trip took about 2.5 hours and then we were in Dijon. We went to the taxi rank where there was an Aussie couple but there were no taxis. We noticed a sign that seemed to suggest calling the number listed to get a taxi to come. So John did that in his very best French and not long after one arrived. It was clear that the other couple had no idea what to do and we made sure they didn't get our taxi. They saw us ringing the number, surely you'd ask or work it out. The lady tried to get our taxi driver to call one for them by making hand gestures and talking to him as if he were an idiot. He asked them what nationality they were and she just shrugged her shoulders so we drove off.  Our driver wasn't very impressed. Got to the hotel in about 10 mins. It was once a nunnery. So, very pretty with the cloisters looking into the central garden. The sign said it was a 4 star hotel but there wasn't any soap or shampoos etc. A comfortable enough room but nothing special except a ridiculous modern tap where the water comes out the top instead of the usual hole at the bottom. By this time it was afternoon so we walked the few minutes into town to find somewhere to have a bite of lunch. Now it was a Sunday but there was absolutely noone around. The shops were mostly closed and the place was deserted. What a very pretty town this is also. Beautiful coloured tile rooves, buildings that were made of wooden beams and plaster and very clean streets which were closed to traffic. We started to see some people and then came to a small square with a few cafes, a fountain and a tiny carousel. We picked a cafe and both had delicious quiche, salad and fries. We then walked around and more people were appearing - families, couples, groups of teenagers. Gorgeous little streets with pretty buildings. We came to another square, a very big one this time in front of the old  and very elegant Duke's Palace. It's very hard to get used to so few people in the streets and squares after the hectic peace of Paris. It makes you slow down, relax and enjoy the serenity. We stopped in the big square for a spritz and a rest. Then walked down many more pretty deserted streets and headed back to the hotel to rest my foot before heading back out for dinner. By the time we got back to the small square for dinner there was only one place open. So we picked a table outside but soon moved inside because of the number of smokers around us. We had a burger each,  mine was a classique and John's was with camembert. Yum. After dinner we walked around a little and then headed back to the hotel to pack.

Day 26 - Saturday 7th October - Paris

I'd seen some shoes in a store near us that I wanted to try on, so today would be shopping day as it's our last day in Paris. Stopped in another shop first and bought a lovely top and some nice socks. In the shoe store I tried just the right shoe on because I still have my elastic bandage on my left foot and it's a bit swollen. They are dark red with black stars all over and black tassels. Then I tried on some short, flat, dark red, suede boots. Both nice so bought both pairs. In yet another shop we bought John a new man-bag and then had to go back home to deposit our purchases. That done we caught the Metro so we could get out at Opèra and go to Galleries LaFayette. Each trip we've always had lunch in the restaurant on the 6th floor and last time we discovered the viewing terrace on the roof. We both had a plate with smoked salmon, fish  terrine and salad and a glass of wine to wash it down. Very yummy. We sat next to the windows with a view over Opèra Garnier and the roof tops. After lunch I did some shopping in the gift shop and then we headed up the stairs to the roof top to take some photos. Lovely lovely view. On our way down the escalators we stopped to take photos of the gorgeous stained glass dome of this wonderful department store.  Far too hot in the store to do any clothes shopping so we started to make our way back home for a rest and some packing before going out for our last dinner in Paris. When we got out of the Metro at Republique the smell of crepes was very enticing so we enjoyed a crepe in the square. Later in the evening we went out for dinner and decided to go back to Saint Michel. We've got the Metro down pat so changed lines and got out at the right station and the right exit, Fontaine de Saint Michel. We went to different restaurant and enjoyed another delicious meal. I had moules again for entree and John had hot goats cheese salad.  Then we both had duck, John had the confit leg and I had the something breast. For dessert we both had creme brulee of course. Wandering around the streets of Saint Michel after dinner we came across the famous Shakespeare Book Shop and saw very fat rats running into the gardens. It started raining so we headed for the Metro and our last trip home.

Day 25 - Friday 6th October - Paris

Slow start to the day because we'll be hoping to cover a little more ground today. Jackets on because the weather is a little cooler, especially in the mornings, and we set off to find Tour Montparnasse. This is the tallest tower in  Paris with a panoramic observation floor with 360° views over this beautiful city. We had to change Metro lines a few times to get there which meant MANY steps up and down but we finally got there, bought our tickets. The young girl who sold us our tickets asked where we were from. When we told her she said she loved Australia and her brother lives in Perth so she'd been there.  She told us she had a tattoo of the map of Australia. We got into the lift and sped up to the 56th for in 38 seconds. We couldn't even tell we were moving.  From this vantage point we had the most spectacular views over Paris you could ever imagine. It was hard to stop taking photos. We walked all the way around and then back again. What a beautiful city this is.There was also an outside terrace 3 floors up. ..... by stairs. I took a big breath and slowly but surely made it up to the 59th floor. Took lots more photos and then even more slowly I made my way down with John's help. Going down is more painful so I take John's arm and he helps me down. We caught the lift down, went back to the metro and plotted a route to the Arc de Triomphe and got out at Charles Degaulle Etoile. Photos with the Arc, then a nice slow stroll down Avenue Champs Elysees. When we were here two years ago it was pouring with rain when we walked here. Today a beautiful sunny day. We were getting hungry so we decided to eat somewhere on the Champs Elysees and at random picked one of the many restaurants, this one was called Deauville which had a nautical theme with the waiters wearing striped jumpers and little sailor caps. We both had very delicious omelettes, mine was cheese and ham and John had mushrooms too. Next door to our restaurant was the beautiful Laduree café and store. The was a queue to get into both but I got a few sneaky photos of the gorgeous interior. Walking along we passed some enormous black and gold gates with extremely well manicured trees lining a path inside. We followed people inside the gates and along the perfectly manicured gardens, then into a building with doors to match the gates and found ourselves inside an Abercromby & Fitch department store. The interior was elaborately decorated and beautiful restored. No idea what the building used to be. From here we caught the Metro to Trocadero to see the Tour Eiffel from across the river. Once again the Trocadero fountains weren't working. It seems we are always here when they are being cleaned. We have only seen their spectacular display once. Took lots of photos with the tower and then took the steps down to the gardens where we sat on a bench to rest my foot and watch all the silly photo taking antics of the hundreds of tourists. We wanted to go somewhere for crepes so we decide to catch the Metro at Trocadero and find our way to one of our favourite places, the Luxumberg Gardens. These are the loveliest gardens. They are always full of families and people of all ages sitting in the hundreds of chairs provided, or watching the ducks in the lake, or enjoying the colourful flowerbeds, or having a drink or coffee at the outdoor cafe. We did all of these things starting with coffee and crepes with flambée Grand Marnier at the cafe. So much Grand Marnier! It was delicious. After relaxng in these gorgeous gardens for a while we headed home via the supermarket so we could eat dinner at home after much walking and rest my feet. We had a very relaxed dinner without having to decide where to go and after dinner we decided to head out for a walk to see what was happening in Place de la Republique for Nuit Blanche (White Night). As it turned out, absolutely nothing so we caught the Metro to Bastille. Well this station is very big and we ended up down there for quite some time trying to get out! We missed the exit and I think we went up and down every Set of steps in the place before we took the right path out. By this time my feet were killing me but we continued on and decided to walk to Place de Voges, a lovely square and gardens we'd been to on our second visit. Wouldn't you know it, the gates were locked in the evenings! So back to the Metro and many steps. We gave up and just headed home and just sat in Place de la Republique for a while to watch kids on their skateboards and then took my poor feet home.

Day 24 - Thursday 5th October - Paris

Nice sleep in after such an exhausting day yesterday. Foot feeling rested so we set off for Montmartre. Changed Metro lines a couple of times and got out at Anvers so that we could catch the funicular up rather than me having to do hundreds of steps. As it turned out we were able to use our Paris Visite travel tickets which made it seem quite worth while. It didn't take long for my foot to be aching terribly. Such a pretty and interesting area. Before taking the funicular I had a ride on the carousel of course, and wouldn't you know it, I picked the only horse that didn't move.  So I had to move to another one to make it more fun. Then we caught the funicular, took some photos with Sacre Ceour behind us, then headed up into the main streets of Montmartre. We'd seen last time that the main square was no longer filled with artists and their easels.  There are now two restaurants in the middle of the square and the artists are only around the outside. I thought there were a few less painters this time. Maybe the prices for their works of art are a little too high. Waking along these gorgeous little streets with cafés, creperies and souvenir stores it looks just like Paris and nowhere else in the world. Love this place. We chose a place for lunch that had Moules Marinieres (mussels steamed in a white wine soup - a big favourite) on its menu board, headed inside and the waiter led us upstairs as the tiny downstairs area was full. There were only 2 other couples and we were given the table in front of the door that led to the toilets. Soon after we sat down a huge group of elderly people started piling in, one even fell on the stairs near us. We wanted to get our order in before the group did and we told the waiter we were ready to order. We were ignored for too long so we left. We continued to Le Consulat, the very recognisable and iconic restaurant where two streets come together at a sharp angle - all the famous artists used to go to eat or drink and had been used in movies. It was a bit more expensive than the other one but so much nicer. We decide to eat inside rather than outside because it had gotten a little cool. Several people inside and we were seated next to a couple of American women who were quite lovely to talk to. They'd come over for 9 days before one of them did some work in a chateau somewhere in the country for a few weeks. We both ordered the Moules Marinieres with Pommes Frites and they were so mouthwateringly good! Easily the best we've ever had. And the fries were cut in a curve somehow which made them super crunchy and delicious. To say nothing of the bread! What a splendid lunch. After this lovely lunch we strolled around for a while before stopping for a crepe. We chose one of the many creperies and we each had a Grand Marnier Crepe and coffee.... nom nom nom. Bellies nice and full we did some souvenir shopping and John even bought himself a very chic dark olive green hat which looks very suave. Wandered around a little more then headed back to the funicular ams down to the bottom of the hill. We turned left this time and found ourselves in the rag trade area. Shop after shop after shop of fabrics, ribbons, buttons - i was in heaven. John didn't understand how exciting this was. I didn't buy anything because I haven't really felt like shopping but I did look and feel. Made our way to Anvers Metro station and headed home. En route we passed a shop with a window full of "kinky boots" and a piano that had been put out for hard rubbish collection. Bought some more supplies on the way home so that we could have dinner at home. My poor feet could do no more.

Day 23 - Wednesday 4th October - Malta to Paris

The alarm didn't get a chance to go off at 4am because I was wide awake at 3.45am not sure how much we actually slept but we didn't feel tired so we must have. We didn't have to do much other than shower, put the last things in the cases and ring for a taxi 30 minutes before we wanted it to arrive. John had tried to book one last night but was told to ring in the morning.He had a shower and called at 4.15 for a taxi to arrive in 30 mins. After my shower, John lugged the cases down the stairs and then we lugged them up St Ursula street steps to Melita Street in the predawn gloom. We were waiting about 10 minutes before the requested time just in case they were early but he arrived exactly at the time requested. The driver was quite an elderly chap with VERY thick glasses.  First he couldn't get the boot of his Peugeot open so he loaded the cases in the back next to me and John got in the front but he couldn't believe it wouldn't open so he tried again and succeeded this time so he took the cases out and put them into the boot. We were then afraid our cases would be trapped in the boot when we got to the airport. I don't  think we've ever had such a cautious taxi driver ever, especially around roundabouts. We were a bit concerned when he didn't take the turnoff to the airport but he was just making a detour for petrol. The whole trip reminded me of The Amazing Race taxi rides. Anyway we got there safely as it's only 15 minutes away ( it took us a little longer though as he decided we had enough time to stop for petrol). We checked in and then went to good old Costa Coffee for coffee & croissants for breakfast. Headed through security and to our gate lounge and before long we were on the Air Malta flight. There was a young man in a camo jacket that took a little dog onto the plane with him in a little carrier. He talked gently the dog the whole time they were in the gate lounge and we didn't hear a peep out of the dog on the flight. We landed at about 9.15am, slowly made or way to the luggage area, bought tickets for the train and made our way on the RER B line to Gare du Nord where we changed to Line 5 of the Metro and got off at Republique. The plan with our AirBnb host Bernard, was that we get in the first door with the code be sent us, which we did successfully. The next step was to collect the mailbox key that he said would be taped underneath the mailboxes and we'd find the front door keys in the letterbox. Well, step two failed and there was no key taped under the mailboxes no matter how well we searched. Tiphaine, his stepdaughter was coming at 12.30 to meet us and tell us what we needed to know so we decided to turn on our data-roaming to send Bernard a message via AirBnb. He was most apologetic and phoned Tiphaine to come as soon as she could. She arrived before long and there seems to have been a miscommunication between them about the key. We caught the lift up to the 6th floor because we're in a mansard apartment at the top of the building. She let us in and found the cleaners were still there as someone had checked out that morning. All good and the apartment is lovely. Very light filled with skylights and dormer windows that look out over the very Parisian rooftops of this part of Paris. Once we'd taken a few things out of the cases and I'd rested my foot a little we headed out.  The pressurised flight was terrible for my foot and I could hardly walk so I took more painkillers to get me through. Supermarket is always the first thing to get out of the way so we found it, did the shopping, took it back home then headed to Republique. We found our way to Gare de Lyon so we could buy our tickets to Dijon for Sunday. At Gare de Lyon we saw the beautiful restaurant that's there called Le Train Bleu. It's upstairs on a mezzanine floor looking over the inside of the station. I took a few sneaky photos of the interior who's walls and ceiling are spectacularly decorated with frescoes and intricate golden plaster decorations. We checked out the menu and weren't surprised at the exorbitant prices. That done we caught a Metro towards the river and Notre Dame. Some of the Metro stations are enormous and you need to walk what seems like miles to your connection on another line or to get out. MANY steps and a couple of escalators later and by the time we actually surfaced my feet were so sore I could hardly walk so we bought our first crepe and sat on the wall above the riverbank to rest and enjoy our surroundings and our crepe with sugar (because we forgot to ask for lemon). We walked a little further til we got to Notre Dame, took some photos and then sat there for a while too, people watching which is always interesting. When the pain had subsided we continued across the river to the area of Saint-Michel where we'd eaten last time and just loved the whole area especially by night. We found a new restaurant instead of going back to where we'd eaten last time. A charming man spruiking talked us into staying when he saw us looking at the menu. We both wanted Beuof Bourguignion so we had the 3 course menu that included that. For entree John had Duck Terrine and I  had Vegetable Soup, then the Beouf and we both finished with Creme Brulee of course. Too pooped to do much else, we waddled to the Metro stop and a couple of changes and MANY steps later we got home very slowly, pleased that we'd managed so much considering we'd been up since before 4am.

Day 22 - Tuesday 3rd October - Malta

Raining, raining, raining so we had a very slow relaxed start to the day. But it's still quite warm so the humidity is killing me, so together with my foot which is still causing me extreme pain I'm not doing great. I did a bit of packing because we have an extremely early start tomorrow and we finished off our breakfast supplies. When there was a break in the weather we set out to explore a bit more before the the rain came back. We headed down the steps in our street instead of up as we usually did and when we came to St John's Street that has a view over the harbour, we waited to see another enormous cruise ship leave the harbour because we'd heard its horn several times. It was an MSC ship like the one we went on for our Mediterranean Cruise in 2009. We headed up St John's Street and the plan was to go to see St John's Co-Cathedral. Not sure what a Co-Cathedral was but thought we might find out. The was a bit of a queue to get in and we baulked at the €10 entry fee. We can't ever remember paying to get into a church!  So we went for a walk all the way down Republic Street instead. By the time we got back to the church it was raining and there was a queue a mile long of people waiting in the rain to get in. Really? ? Next plan was to hop on the little tourist train that John always refuses to go on after our experience in Nice.  But given the choice of walking around in the rain he agreed to go on the it. While we were waiting there was a huge police and military presence outside the church exit. The previous day we'd noticed the extra flags that were up all over the city and googled which country they belonged to. We discovered that the dignitary that was visiting was the King of Botswana! Well, we saw him come out of the church under an umbrella held by some official,  hop into his waiting limo and drive off with a police escort! The train struggled its way up the very steep streets we'd trudged up and around corners that we didn't think we'd make it around and we saw parts of the city we hadn't got to and stayed dry. We had a noisy group of Dutch people behind who thought everything was hilarious and a group in front of us who rolled up the plastic window to see and I had to ask them to pull it down because i was getting wet. Still raining when we got back so we headed home to give my foot a rest and do more packing. When the rain had stopped we went out for a walk to the Upper Barraka Gardens for a last time and took some more photos. We went back to Str.Eat Food for dinner and John had another burger, the Vegi D and I had a Chicken Caesar Salad, both delicious. Then an early night because our alarm would be going off at 4am! John called the taxi number we had from our trip in from the airport only to be told that he had to call the Valetta taxi number. Which he did only to be told that he'd have to call in the morning 30mins before we needed the taxi. So we set one alarm to get up and one to call the taxi. And so to bed to try to sleep for a few hours.

Day 21 - Monday 2nd October - Malta

Sometime very early in the morning when we decided to turn the fan off we could hear water dripping. At first we thought it was rain but when John got up to investigate he found that he hasn't turned the basin tap off properly when need he'd got up in the night  and because the basin tap was a bit skew-wiff the water that dribbled off the tap missing the basin altogether had dripped out of the bathroom and had moderately flooded the floor in the lounge room, under the sofa and had even soaked the sofa bed mattress and sheet which was very close to the floor. So there we were in our sleep attire or lack thereof mopping the floor with towels, pulling the sofa bed apart and hanging things up to dry!  We turned the alarm off when we went back to bed! We decided a sleep in was in order after this early morning activity. Very grey skies today and heavy rain predicted but we decided to still do the harbour tour. We set off this time not changing course with steps to the side and eventually, many thousands of slow steps later, we got to the other side of Valletta where the ferry to Sliema went from. Lots of people waiting and headed to the ferry when it arrived but we wanted to get on the Captain Morgan Harbour Cruise so we waited.  Luckily I asked the fellow selling tickets if this was where we waited for the Captain Morgan cruise and no, they left from Sliema so we too bought tickets for Sliema and hopped on with the crowds. Of course we just missed the 12.30 cruise so we had to wait for the 2.45!  We had bought some delicious bread and some cheese to eat on the boat so instead we found a bench in a square and ate our snack/lunch there. Then we went for a walk around Sliema which is apartment buildings and shops with very few interesting things to see so we eventually made or way back down to the waterfront to Tony's Bar where John enjoyed a beer and I had a coffee. 2.45 finally came around and we boarded the cruise, sat up top with a plan to go down if the rain came. The commentary was in Maltese, German, French & English so we had to hear everything the times which gets a bit tedious after a while. The cruise was great and took 1.5 hours going into each inlet in both harbors hugging the coast so we got some great photos of all the fortifications, forts and buildings but there's always one person who won't sit down so they can get all the good shots and their stupid head is in everyone else's photos.  Grrrr. The rain did come towards the end of the trip so we went downstairs with everyone else. We were lucky with the weather. When we got back to Sliema we hopped on the ferry to take us back to Valletta. We saw a mini-bus that took you up to the centre for €1 so I made a beeline for that and we got the last two seats. How nice it was not to have to trudge up all those steps we'd trudged down earlier. It dropped us off choose to the top so we still had a bit of steepness to deal with but we got to walk along streets we'd missed and even came across a tiny fruit shop selling delicious looking peaches so we bought some for later. Time for a refreshing drink so we went to a bar in Theatre Square and I had the stingiest spritz I've ever had while John enjoyed another glass of the local beer, Cisk. Headed home for a rest then out again for dinner. John had seen some people eating great looking burgers on our way back to the centre so we went there. On our way we passed  a truck in the main street with 2 guys putting up barriers on each side of the street leaving the centre blocked off. The restaurant was called Str.Eat Food and we asked the waiter what the barriers were for.  He said he didn't know,  probably some dignitary visiting because we were just next to The Palace on Palace Square. So, John ordered a burger called The Maltese which was the size of a house and thoroughly enjoyed it and I had Tri-colori Tortellini in a creamy pesto sauce which was also delicious. We topped this off with yet another Amorino gelati and headed home.

Day 20 - Sunday 1st October - Malta

Another hot day so a slow start and we decided we'd do the harbour cruise.  We headed off confidently to cross to the opposite side of this mountainous city and we're doing alright until we decided we'd go down a massive set of steps to get down to the water. What we didn't realise was that we'd actually changed direction enough to throw us off course and end up back at the Grand Harbour but further along than we'd been before. There were 2 monstrous cruise ships in port which explained the huge crowds we'd been passing. We couldn't get out to the dock where we could see the little harbour cruiser boat picking up passengers because we discovered this was especially for the cruise ship passengers. The hop-on hop-off bus stop was right where we were so we bought tickets for that and also for the harbour cruise for the next day. We were going to do the bus tomorrow because rain is predicted but we hopped on the bus to do the North Route. We didn't ask how long it would take which was a mistake because it turned out to be (or at least felt like) about 3.5 hours! Anyway it took us around almost the entire island and mostly there wasn't anything to see except very harsh looking landscapes. We did get off not too long into the trip because I was busting for the loo and went into the San Anton Gardens in search of toilets, which we eventually found. We had a little walk around and it reminded us a lot of gardens we'd seen in Sicily - broken up clay soil covered with networks of copper pipes to bring water to this very dry land to give the poor plants sustanence. Back to the bus stop and another one came quite soon thank goodness. We headed across the harsh landscape to Mdina which was the first capital of Malta. We could've got off but that would have meant trudging around in the heat in another town. It looked lovely but gave it a miss and travelled on because we were stuck now and had to keep going.  We passed the northern beaches which are very popular but even though we brought bathers because we thought we'd go swimming, they were in the suitcases because the last thing my foot could have dealt with was rocks to clamber over to get to the water or rocky beaches. So we stayed on the bus. We passed through the new resort areas of St Julians, Paceville and St Pauls. Full of highrise buildings full of tourists - not our cup of tea at all. Half way through it started bucketing down so we went downstairs early to get seats while some people stayed out in the rain because all the seats were taken. Then it was down to Sliema another place that is mostly new highrise holiday apartments which is across the bay from Valletta on the other side to the Grand Harbour. We were relieved when we got back to the start, got off and headed home because we were only a couple of minutes away. What a trip! We felt windswept and annoyed with ourselves for not having done one of the other shorter routes. We freshened up and headed out for reviving drinks before dinner and went to another terrace to see the sunset. For dinner we both felt like pizza so we went to Eddie's Cafe Regina where John had a Maltija with Maltese sausage on top of everything else and I had a Marinara. Sadly it was one of our less memorable meals but we fixed this by having another Amorino gelati on the way home - this time dark chocolate, coffee & sicilian orange. Yum. Still warm and humid so we walked down to the main square, then the Upper Gardens to take some lovely night photos with all the twinkling lights, then home to rest my poor foot.

Day 19 - Saturday 30th September - Malta

We started the day with breakfast in a little cafe in the next street because we hadn't been to a supermarket yet. We had cappuccinos and toast sandwiches with jam. Interesting way to have toast but it was nice. Next we headed to the grocery store, as it was described in the info booklet in the apartment. It was called The Wembley Store and we decided it was run for the British tourist trade. Not very big and not really well stocked with everyday things but it seems this is the only supermarket type shop in Valletta. We managed to get a few things to get us through. The Maltese bread was especially delicious. We also stopped at a chemist caked Chemimart and bought my sports elasticised ankle bandage. Now it was time to explore this very old city in the heat. Very sunny and HOT! Not trudging weather but we walked slowly up hilly streets, up steep stepped streets, down hilly streets and down steep stepped streets.  The buildings are very tall and the streets narrow so it was easy to stay in the shade most of the time. The buildings have lovely traditional Maltese enclosed balconies painted in different colours making the street scape very pretty. There seems to be lots of renovation works going on everywhere. Old apartments being bought up, renovated and then probably rented as holiday rentals. Several buildings in our street have scaffolding all the way up the front and covered with mesh and the builders seem to work 7 days a week. Luckily not too much noise though. We decided to go to the Upper Barrakka Gardens which are just at the very top of our street past the restaurant we ate at last night. From the long long terrace bordering the gardens we had spectacular views over The Grand Harbour of Valletta and The Three Cities. The Three Cities are the three fortified cities of Birgu, Senglea and Cospicua. The oldest is Birgu, which has existed since the Middle Ages. The other two cities, Senglea and Cospicua, were both founded by the Order of Saint John in the 16th and 17th centuries. They are separated by two inlets,  which they call creeks and which are now marinas for serious luxury yachts. One was called Lionheart so we Googled to see who owned it.  Apparently it was built for an Englishman, Sir Phillip Green, a retail entrepreneur, for £100m !!!!! While we were up in the gardens the 12 o'clock canon was fired from the Saluting Battery below the terrace which scared the life out of us. Then we could hear canons going off all over the place. We took lots and lots of photos of the beautiful views and then it was time for a snack and a drink. We stopped at the cafe in the gardens and had a beer and a spritz and shared some Matlese Pastizzi filed with cheese and peas, cheese &  spinach. All yummy. We wandered back into the main street, Republica Street, and decided we needed to buy some hats (more hats) because it's just so hot and humid. Straw hats on, and now walking in the shade, we came across a gelati store called Amorino where they sculpted your gelati into a rose in the cone and you even had the choice of adding a gelati filled macaron on the top. Well this sounded too good to pass up so we joined the long queue. On my goodness! Soooo delicious! No matter what size you get, there's no limit to the number of flavours you can have! But we just chose 3 - chocolate, hazelnut & mango topped with a lemon filled lime macaron. We shared one because we saw the size of the cones coming out of the store. So so so delicious. Bellies full of deliciousness we went to the Grand Harbour to catch a ferry to The Three Cities. We trudged uphill and down many stairs. My foot was very pleased to have a rest on the ferry. We bought return tickets and thought the ferry would go into each inlet and stop to drop off and pick up people but instead it went just to one little harbour and back again. What we saw was very pretty so we didn't mind and it meant no walking for a while. When we got off we walked the opposite way to how we'd come and came across Victoria Gate, one of the gates of this ancient fortified city. We went through it and up more steps, up a hill and discovered that we were at one of the crossroads on our street. We had the harbour behind us and facing us was St John's Street which was very steep and all stairs.  Down the middle of the steps was a red carpet leading to a church built in amongst the apartment buildings. We knew there was to be a wedding when we saw groomsmen, flower girls and pageboys. So we sat at the outside bar on the terrace with the harbour view, had spritz and beer and waited to see the bride arrive. By the time the bride did arrive we'd finished our drinks so we joined all the other tourists to take some photos. She looked lovely and had 4 bridesmaids. She walked with her dad down the red carpet on the very steep steps to 'Here Comes The Bride' played on the bells and all went well until one of the pageboys started screaming NO! NO! NOT GOING! Hahahaha. The bridal party left him with his mum to have his little tantrum and went in. We later saw the bridal party having photos on a small metal bridge nearby which had been used in scenes in many movies apparently. What looked weird was that there were 9 groomsmen and only 4 bridesmaids. We went home for a rest seeing as it was just there and it was a bit too hot and humid for us. We went back out in what we thought would be the cooler afternoon, but no such luck. We wandered this very interesting city which seems to be going through a bit of a renewing stage with lots of repair and renovation works going on and took lots of photos of the buildings and balconies, some very much in need of TLC. In our wanderings today we had passed a little restaurant with a sign saying 'The best rabbit in Malta, Jamie Oliver'. It seems Jamie Oliver had been here. We wanted to have rabbit stew, which is a Maltese specialty, so we went in search of it. Several hilly streets and steps later we found it. Malta really is a mini San Francisco. The restaurant was called Angelica's and we ordered Duck Paté and the Rabbit cooked in Champagne.  It was all delicious but so much food we both waddled home.

Day 18 - Friday 29 September - Rome to Malta

We had an afternoon flight to Malta so had a leisurely morning and finished packing before checking out at 10am. Our plan - walk to Colosseo Metro station and catch the train to Termini train station where we would catch the Leonardo Express train to the airport. We had plenty of time so we walked around the Roman ruins we saw every day from our windows so we could read the sign that said what they once were. We discovered that each day we been looking at and passing the Gladiators Training Academy which was connected to the Colosseum by tunnels to get the gladiators there. There were training rooms,  change rooms and an oval. Only part of the oval's bricked wall ruins can be seen, the rest appears to be under the block of buildings that includes our apartment. How about that! So we had an easy downhill walk to the Metro station but dreading the stairs we knew were coming to get down to the trains. Well, wouldn't you know it, there was a Metro strike and the station was all closed up! John had seen a sign came up on a tv screen in one of the trains about a strike but we never saw any other details and didn't know when that was to be. So change of plans. We trudged up the hill this time to the taxi stand just around the corner from our apartment block, hopped in a taxi that was waiting and got to Termini without any trouble. We bought our tickets and got on the Leonardo Express. Because it's an express to the airport it has large luggage racks in each section of each carriage, so it was easy to stow our suitcases. Brilliant! In 32 minutes we were there.  Much earlier than we thought we'd get there so we bought a panino alla caprese for lunch and watched the world of travellers go by. Finally our flight came up on the board, we checked in and got rid of our suitcases, went through security and headed to the gate lounge where we continued to watch the world of travellers. The flight was only about an hour so we were in the country of Malta before we knew it. The taxi system is great - you queue inside at the taxi booth where you tell them where you want to go, pay the flat fare and they assign a taxi to you, you look for that taxi and off you go. We had precise directions from our AirBnb landlord to give the driver. We had to go to the top of St Ursola Street at the top of the stairs. We had let the housekeeper,  Kim, know we had left the airport so she could meet us at the apartment. We dragged the suitcases down some (a lot of) steps to get to the front door and we waited for her to get there. Inside the front door she opened the door to our apartment and we were faced with a steep flight of marble stairs. John carried one case up at a time because we both knew I just couldn't do it. We don't worry too much about stairs when booking because we always say that we only have to carry the cases up once and down once. Who knew my accident would throw a spanner in the works. Kim showed us around this be very well planned 2-room apartment with 15 foot marble (or perhaps white stone) ceilings. There's a large bedroom with a traditional Maltese enclosed balcony, large living area with sofa, table and chairs and this room also has one of the balconies. The kitchen is on a mezzanine floor, accessed by a steep set of stairs and the bathroom is under the kitchen and in a cupboard under the kitchen is the washing machine.  We mentioned to Kim that I needed to go to a hospital because I was still in so much pain from my fall and she suggested we catch a taxi to the Mater Dei Hospital emergency department. We walked to the top of our street and found some taxis, got in the first one and off we went. The driver informed us that it would cost €25! I suggested it looked closer than the airport on the map. He asked if we needed a receipt because if we didn't he'd make it €20. Dodgy McDodgy but you're trapped really like we were in Palermo with the taxi driver who slugged us with a ridiculous fare and the only option you have is to pay or who knows what they'd do. Anyway we got to the hospital eventually after he missed the turn off and we drove up lots of side streets to get there. I went to the reception desk and explained my woes. Unlike my hospital visit in Vienna  they took a photocopy of my passport here. We took a seat in the waiting area which seemed quite packed. Luckily we were able to sit away from the sick. There was one woman wailing in pain, fortunately she went in not long after we got there. We weren't waiting all that long before i was called to Triage Door 2. I saw what I think was a paramedic, from her uniform. She asked me some questions, gave me a slip of paper and said to follow the yellow line to the Minor Care Department. When we got there a burly security lady took my paper and gave it to a nurse in room 2. We were the only ones waiting so it wasn't long til the nurse called us in and a doctor asked me some questions about my accident, poked at but didn't look at my foot and said they would xray it. We had to follow the black line this time to xray and tell them I was there. Lots of people waiting here so we took a seat and we could hear another person wailing. It was a lady on a trolley waiting to go into xray. She was with a young Australian woman with a Monash University bag and a fellow with a diving organisation tshirt. It's awful to hear someone clearly in such pain. Anyway I got called quite quickly, they did the xrays and then we had to follow the yellow line back to the Minor Care Dept. Other people waiting and no guard to say we were back but the nurse saw me and we went in when someone came out. New doctor this time, an English chappy who did examine my foot and poked it and made it hurt more, checked the xrays and said nothing was broken. Thank goodness for that! He said I had severe soft tissue damage. Treatment - rest it and keep it up. Hahahaha funny. He said to get an elasticised ankle bandage from the chemist, wear supportive shoes and be careful on stairs. John asked him how long I could expect to be in pain and his reply was 'you're 10 days into it'. No mention of 10 days of how long. Anyway we thanked him and followed the yellow line back to where we came from and left. No mention of cost at all. We now needed a taxi and the security guard pointed to a black van that was dropping a woman off. The nice young man said he'dcheck with his office to see if he could take us because this was a 'executive' transport vehicle and we had not booked it. In the mean time a real taxi arrived with someone so we hopped in that one. It seems that €20 was the going rate.  He dropped us at the very top of St Ursola Street where we saw a restaurant Storie e Sapori. Tired, relieved and hungry we decided that would do very well. The head waiter was very exuberant and ordered all his staff around. We both had Risotto Marinara, which was super delicious and he talked us into getting a bottle of wine because it was better value than 2 glasses and we could take what we didn't drink home. It was a beautiful balmy evening so we ate, chatted and drank the whole bottle of white wine. After dinner we went for a wander down a few streets and pretty squares all lit up then made our way home for a rest after a very long day.

Day 17 - Thursday 28 September - Rome

Up bright and early so that we could beat the crowds at the Colosseum. We were at the gates by 8.25am! Sophie would have been proud of us! There was a very small number of people lined up already so we went straight through after our bags went through the xray machine and we went through the detecting arches. Brilliant! For a split second it felt like there were only a few dozen people in there with us and we got some great photos. It didn't take long for hundreds to flow in.  They have a limit of 3,000 people in there at one time! It's just a continuous crowd entering. WOW! What a magnificent place! It's far bigger than one imagines and it takes quite a bit of imagination to think what it would have looked like in a completed state. Luckily John has a book at home that shows what it actually looked like.  We went to each level and around each way as far as we could go. Some of the steps were extremely high which was a challenge for my poor painful feet, but I had to grin and bear it and soldier on. We (I ) couldn't stop taking photos from every level, every angle. I'm not sure how long we walked around but when I had gotten so slow we weren't moving very far, it was time to go home so I could put my foot up, put my bag of frozen minestrone mix on it and have a rest. We had a bite to eat for lunch and then headed out again as our colosseum tickets got us into the Palatine Hill and The Forum as well. The tickets are for 48 hours so people usually do them in two days. Not us! We wait for the warmest day of our visit to trudge all three in one day. So first the Palatine Hill which is where all the emperors built their palaces. What a massive area this is with remnants of buildings as far as the eye can see. In the blazing sun we wandered along the dusty paths through what were once palatial dwellings with gardens, servants quarters, reception rooms. I'm hoping John's book covers this area too. After a while we no longer wandered but trudged along with all the other tourists until we both decided we'd seen enough because it all started to look the same. So we eventually found the steps that led down to The Forum which was the maket place and again trudged, but in this area we were walking on stone paths that were very uneven which wasn't great. Took lots more photos of the many wonderful ruins from Roman times and then made our way out. Both thoroughly exhausted we headed home for rest and recuperation and a bit of packing before going out to dinner. We looked at the menus of a few places a few doors from us and find a little Trattoria called 4 + 4 fa Otto which had homemade Roman dishes. We both had the Melanzane alla Parmigiana with yummy bread which were delicious and we shared a Tiramisu.

Day 16 - Wednesday 27th September - Rome

We didn't dawdle this morning because we wanted to use our 24hr bus ticket which was still valid, to get us to the Spanish Steps in Piazza Spagna. Walked around the back of the Colosseum to the bus stop, hoped on when the bus came and got off at the appropriate stop. Walked to Piazza Spagna to the Spanish Steps, took photos and couldn't resist getting some roasted chestnuts to eat on the steps. They were delicious, but as we were enjoying them while sitting on the steps, we got told off by the local polizia and told it was prohibited to eat or drink on the steps!  Clearly this is a new rule because we ate or lunch on the steps in 2009 with Sophie. So we trudged to the top and ate them at the top.  I nearly choked on the way up because I had a mouthful of chestnuts and was huffing and puffing and may have breathed in at the wrong time so I had to stop and have a drink before continuing. Waited to catch our breath, finish the yummy castagne and then walked to the Villa Borghese Gardens. It seems that since I hurt my foot all the places we've been have been full of steep streets and LOTS of stairs. Huffed and puffed up another hill to get to the gardens, walked through for a bit and then headed for il Pincio, a scenic lookout at the top of the hill we were on looking out over Rome. It was a gorgeous view. Time to go in search of toilets which led me to some portables near il Pincio but they were all disgustingly full to overflowing!  We're still left with the same impression from 2009, that Rome is a very grubby city with not much pride in keeping it clean, emptying bins, picking up rubbish,  cleaning the streets and footpaths. In the gardens we'd seen a beautiful old villa which was now a restaurant and reception centre and as it was time for lunch decided that would do and they were sure to have nice toilets. We ate at the cafe called Caffè del Pincio. We ordered 2 chinottos, which came with the traditional Italian plates of little snacks and I had Eggplant Polpette and John a Foccacia with roasted veg. Yummy. After lunch we walked around the gardens and passed some bike hire places so we decided, to give my foot a rest from walking we'd hire a 'Big Cart', which was like a two person go-cart but with pedals, for an hour. Of we went, John steering and both of us pedaling. We discovered very quickly that we had to keep to the asphalt paths because it was too hard to pedal on the gritty paths. Downhill was great, except my dare-devil husband kept telling me off for putting the brake on to slow us down a bit. We pedalled way into the park and saw a sign to the lake so we headed in that direction. Lovely ride down a big, long hill and when we got to the bottom we discovered the were barricades so that the carts couldn't get through!  They could have had signs to tell us!  So now we had to somehow get this thing back up the long, long hilly road. Not an easy feat! It would have been faster to walk,  I'm sure but we eventually made it and by then we were both tired and sweaty and I just wanted to take the cart back. So we rested for a while and then started our slow, but pleasant trip back, stopping to listen to a trumpet playing busker. We got our machine back without any problems and headed to the gelati truck nearby, bought gelati and enjoyed them on a bench unset the trees. Whew! Refreshed, we set off to the Spagna Metro stop and caught the train back to Colosseo. We decided we'd go to visit the Colosseum tomorrow and get there early, so we headed to the ticket office and bought our ticket for the following day so we didnt have to queue up. The hard ride up hill had made my foot worse so we then headed to the supermarket and home. Dinner home tonight because I couldn't walk any further.