Trip Summary & Recommendations

This is a brief summary post of our trip that I'm writing specifically for fellow users of the ThornTree and BootsNAll forums which I also used while planning out trip. It's a bit of a thankyou for their help and also a way of providing what I hope is some of the most useful information we can share for others using the forums who are planning a similar trip.


London
Time spent: 5 nights
Accommodation: MacDonald Hotel near Kings Cross Station. 70 pounds/night for triple room. Includes an excellent breakfast (bacon, eggs, sausages, baked beans, toast, cereal, yoghurt, coffee, tea, juice. Shared bathrooms although there is a handbasin in your room. Water pressure in shower a bit miserable and temperature difficult to regulate. Rooms were a bit tired-looking but beds were comfortable and the place was clean. No lifts so if you are mobility impaired this is not the place for you. Wi-fi was free and signal was dodgy. Would recommend.
Favourite things we did: Tower of London, Warner Bros Harry Potter Leavesden Studio Tour, Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace (pro tip: Don't bother crowding in front of the palace. Watch it from the roads leading to and from the palace), British Museum, chasing/feeding/photographing squirrels in Hyde Park
Things I wish we'd done: Gone inside Westminster Palace and Westminster Abbey
Things we did that I would say don't bother doing: Going inside St Paul's Cathedral. I wish we'd gone into Westminster Abbey instead. The view from St Paul's was nice and the church was interesting but I don't think it was worth 18 pounds. Andre liked it though.

Paris
Time spent: 5 nights
Accommodation: self-contained apartment at 69 Rue St-Martin in the 1st arr. 80 euros/night and it sleeps up to 4 people. Excellent location and close to metro. Walking distance from Notre Dame and many other central-Paris locations. Close to mini supermarkets. Beds comfortable and kitchen, bathroom & laundry were well-equipped. Franck (the owner) was very friendly and helpful. Wi-fi was free and signal excellent. Would recommend.
Favourite things we did: A Sandeman's free walking tour. These guides work for tips so they put their best in to the tour. Our guide Jacqui was very friendly, a native english speaker, yet having lived in Paris for several years also spoke good French and knew Paris very well. She was very knowledgeable and made Paris's history come alive. Other things: Eiffel tower (we went up it and came back to see it at night); Louvre; Notre Dame; Montmartre (this included seeing Place du Tertre [the artists' square], Moulin Rouge [we didn't go in to see a show] and Sacre Coeur Basilica); Musee d'Orsay
Things I wish we'd done:  Andre really wanted to see Versaille but we didn't get the chance. I also would have liked to look around the Latin Quarter some more.
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing: If paintings are not your thing, then perhaps don't bother with d'Orsay. However I am into paintings so I enjoyed it. 

Tignes
Time spent: 3 nights
Accommodation: self-contained apartment at Belambra Club IV. 70 euros/night for a room that sleeps up to 4. Kitchen not well-equipped and as it was the end of the ski season the place was poorly staffed. Laundry not well signed so we had difficulty using the laundry until we bumped into the one employee we saw the whole time we were there. Could have been cleaner. On the plus side it was ski-in ski-out which we LOVED. Nearly everything in Tignes is ski-in ski-out though. We used a booking website and there seemed to be some communication issues between Belambra and the booking site in regards to our payment. Wi-fi was free and signal was dodgy. They communicate via snail-mail rather than email which is absolutely absurd when we're in Australia and they're in France. Keep sending letters requesting payment after we have paid. Would not recommend.
Favourite things we did: Skiied and snowboarded! 
Things I wish we'd done: started skiing & boarding earlier in the day
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing: Nothing. Spend all your time on the slopes! We were there in the last week of the season and conditions were spectacular. Temps meant the snow was pretty slushy by about 3pm but snow cover extended right down to the village (unusual for that time of year).

Lauterbrunnen
Time spent: 3 nights
Accommodation:  Valley Hostel. 99CHF/night for triple room. Shared bathroom, kitchen & dining room. We stayed in the guest house with self-catering resources, not the hostel. Apparently the place was booked out when we were there but we saw like 2 people the whole time. Always had the kitchen and dining room to ourselves. Awesome views of the valley from our bedroom. Wi-fi was free but I can't remember what the signal was like which probably means it was good. Would recommend. 
Favourite things we did: we chose to go to the Lauterbrunnen Valley with the intention of doing nothing - a few days to chill. However we did enjoying going down the valley to see the Trummelbach Falls.
Things I wish we'd done: I wish we had been there a few weeks later and able to do the via ferrata, which is closed most of the year except for summer. A lot of people also recommend the Jungfrau but at over 100 francs each we didn't bother. If we had a bigger budget and maybe a bit more time I would like to do it.
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing: We took the cable car up to Murren one afternoon. We were there in off-season and in alpine places like Murren that means the place is dead. This might have been ok if we didn't pay about 30CHF per person just to get there & back. The weather was also very unpredictable and while cloudy, drizzly and freezing when we were up there, twenty minutes after getting back to Lauterbrunnen it had cleared up again and the sky was blue and sunny! I'd say don't bother visiting Murren in off-season. I don't know if the other little villages are any better.

Rome
Time spent: 5 nights
Accommodation:  Eleven Rome B&B. About 65 - 70 euros/night for a triple room via wotif.com. Included breakfast but not a very big one. If you need a decent breakfast you will need to buy more breakfast when you go out. Good location, we walked nearly everywhere. Friendly host but he made us move rooms half way through our stay with no explanation. Comfortable beds and clean rooms. Shared bathrooms. Might recommend. 
Favourite things we did: Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, Trajan's market (from the outside), Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Vatican Museum, St Peter's Basilica, via Appia Antica (the Appian Way), Giolitti's Gelato.
Things I wish we'd done: I had been really keen on seeing Ostia Antica, the ancient Roman port just outside Rome, but after several days of seeing lots of really old stuff we were just over old stuff so spent our last day chilling and walking through parks! I would still like to see it though. 
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing: Unless it particularly interests you I'd say don't bother going inside Trajan's market. In all fairness we did go and see it after a big day of walking through lots of other ancient Roman sites and as much as ancient Rome fascinates me I was ready for a break. Also, don't bother going to any gelato shop other than Giolitti's. Ok, just kidding. Kind of. 

Florence
Time spent: 3 nights
Accommodation: Camping Michelangelo. 16euros/night each in a permanent three-bed tent. Tents are clean and beds are comfortable. No catering facilities but there is a mini-mart on site and a pizzeria. Excellent location with a great view. 12 hours free wifi only if you buy something from the bar. Good signal. Bit of a walk from the city centre - tougher when you are walking back uphill. Just get the bus if you have difficulty with the walk. Would recommend.
Favourite things we did: Leonardo da Vinci's machines; Piazzale Michelangelo; just wandering around looking at Florence's beautiful buildings; going to the Accademia to see David; bus tour of the Tuscan countryside where we saw San Gimignano, Monteroggiorni, Siena and a winery.
Things I wish we'd done: Due to our short stay in Florence we did not go to see the Uffizi and as we spent Sunday in the city were not able to go into the Duomo unless we wanted to attend a service. I also would have liked to have seen Basilica Santa Croce which houses the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo etc.
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing: The Accademia was a bit disappointing aside from David. I wouldn't go so far as to say don't bother doing it, as David is worth seeing, but not much else was.

Venice
Time spent: 3 nights
Accommodation: Hotel Bernardi. 85 euros/night for a triple room. Shared bathrooms, includes a reasonable breakfast but nothing special. Right in Venice itself, not on the mainland, so it's a great location. Beds were a bit hard but didn't bother me. Free wifi with reasonable signal. The place was clean and the hosts friendly. Would recommend.
Favourite things we did: Gondola ride; San Marco's Square; wandering through markets (esp. in Cannareggio); Rialto Bridge markets; trip to Murano to see glass-works
Things I wish we'd done: I'm still not sure if I wish we'd gone inside to see Doge's Palace or not. I've heard good things about it but I'm not completely sold it's a must-do. I do wish we'd seen the Bridge of Sighs. Can't believe we forgot that. 
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing: San Marco's square was interesting to see as it's iconic, so I wouldn't go so far as to say don't bother doing it, but you don't have to allocate much time to it. 

Salzburg
Time spent: 4 nights
Accommodation: Stadtalm. 19 euros each per night if in a dorm; 45 euros per night for a double room. Includes breakfast. Shared bathrooms although they are clean. Rustic furniture and rooms were clean enough but could do with a bit more sweeping. Double-booked our double room but gave us a good discount so we stayed in a dorm room. No self-catering facilities and the restaurant closes at about 6 in the off-season. On a cliff with amazing views. Free wifi and reasonable signal. If you don't mind a hostel environment I would recommend.
Favourite things we did: visited the music festival that was on while we were there; Hellbrunn trick water gardens; Hohensalzburg Fortress; wandered around the old city including going through markets; Schloss Mirabell gardens; Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves south of Salzburg
Things I wish we'd done: Nothing really. We saw a lot of Sound of Music sights but did not do an actual 'Sound of Music tour' which you might like to do if you are really keen on the Sound of Music.
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing: Nothing really. A lot of people say not to bother with the houses where Mozart was born and raised. We didn't bother with them so can't say for sure if they're a waste of time or not!

Cesky Krumlov
Time spent: 3 nights
Accommodation: Pension Merlin (NOT Hostel Merlin). 660KC for a double room. Private bathroom but shared kitchen & dining facilities. Saw hardly anyone else til our last night there. Free wifi with excellent signal and they have a PC there for you to use for free. Comfortable beds and very clean. Would recommend.
Favourite things we did: Kayaked down the Vltava River; visited the Krumlov Castle; had trdelnik; visited a traditional marionette museum. And the food. Wow.
Things I wish we'd done: Nothing really.
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing: Nothing really. The gardens of the castle were a bit underwhelming but I think that was because of the time of year we were there and it seemed they were in the process of replacing some plants. 

Munich
Time spent: 4 nights
Accommodation: Max Emmanuel hotel. 65 euros for a double room and that was on special through a booking website. Supposedly self-contained but kitchenette very poorly equipped. Wi-fi costs and signal was absolutely dismal, even in the foyer. Breakfast costs extra and is expensive - we didn't attend the hotel breakfast. Beds comfortable and it was all very clean. Bathroom very good. Would have been fine except for the price we paid (and the price they normally charge!) you'd expect much better. Would hesitate to recommend. 
Favourite things we did: Sandeman's free tour. Perhaps not quite as good as our Sandeman's Paris tour but still very good and our guide Liz was very knowledgeable, especially in regards to Nazi history and the old Bavarian rulers. Other things: Dachau Concentration Camp; Hofbrauhaus; Augustiner Beer Hall; Munich Residenz; Marienplatz.
Things I wish we'd done: Visited one of King Ludwig's palaces that he built rather than the one he was born in (Schloss Nymphenburg, which we did visit). 
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing:  Schloss Nymphenburg. It's an impressive building with even more impressive gardens but most of the building is closed to the public. There are a few interesting rooms but I don't think it justifies the price to get in or the time required to get to and from the palace (it's located in the suburbs so depending where you stay it can take a bit of time to get there). 

Bacharach (Rhine Valley)
Time spent: 3 nights
Accommodation: Pension Im Malerwinkel. 56 euros per night for a double room. Includes an excellent breakfast. Bacharach is so small everything is located a short distance from everything else. Beds comfortable, private bathroom, everything clean. Would recommend.
Favourite things we did: Burg Rheinstein above St Goar, just downriver from Bacharach; wandering through the streets of Bacharach.
Things I wish we'd done: Visited a vineyard/winery. We saw plenty of vineyards but I would have liked to actually visit one and maybe do a tour or some wine-tasting. Would have also liked to visit Rudesheim am Rhein but on the day we considered doing that it was rainy and expensive to get to (thanks to the cost of the ferry) - weren't willing to fork out that much when chances were we'd end up spending most of the time indoors!
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing: Burg Reichenstein upriver of Bacharach near Trechtinghausen. Not set up well to cater to visitors. 

Brugge
Time spent: 4 nights
Accommodation: Hotel Keizershof. 45 euros a night for a double room. Simple breakfast included, might not be sufficient for everyone - basically bread-based (toast, bread, rolls) with various spreads, juice, tea and coffee. Rooms a little shabby. Beds comfortable for me but a bit too soft for Andre. Shared bathrooms but showers were great. For about 7 euros they also do the laundry for you - washed, dried, folded and returned to you. Excellent service. Hosts very helpful. Wi-fi was free and signal was excellent. Would recommend if you're on a budget and don't mind staying somewhere a little tired-looking.
Favourite things we did: Canal tour; Choco-museum; brewery tour; chocolate-shop-hopping (I highly recommend the hot chocolates from Chocaholic!); bus tour of Ypres Salient (we went with Quasimodo Tours). 
Things I wish we'd done: We did virtually everything Brugge has to offer, so nothing really.
Things we did that I'd say don't bother doing: We were disappointed by the waffles on offer. It might have just been the shops we went to, or maybe Brugge just isn't that great with waffles! I guess it's still worth having at least one but get recommendations for somewhere good.

Salzburg to the Czech Republic

The day we left Salzburg started early for Michelle and me as we woke early for her to catch an 8:30 flight. The night before, while we waited for the laundry, Michelle booked a taxi for the trip to the airport. So the next morning we got up, she finished packing and had breakfast (which she bought from a supermarket the day before as the hostel breakfast didn't start early enough), woke André up to say goodbye, and we headed out the front to wait for the taxi that was due to arrive at 7.

A few minutes after 7 and the taxi hadn't turned up. But then Michelle got a call from the driver who had clearly gotten confused and, we think, went to the other hotel on the cliff where our hostel was located. A few minutes later he turned up though, and she got to the airport without any other dramas.

I decided to go back to bed then because breakfast wasn't served until 9 anyway. When we did get up, we had time to finish packing and have breakfast and didn't leave until a bit after 10. We had arranged to take a shuttle bus from Salzburg to our next destination, Cesky Krumlov. It was a last-minute arrangement, but the cost was cheaper than a train, especially as we got a discounted last-minute deal, and the trip was simpler. We had arranged to be picked up in front of another hostel in town as vehicles aren't allowed up in the park where our hostel was (unless they have a permit which taxis like Michelle's did).

We were a little surprised to be met by a driver with a spacious car rather than an actual shuttle bus and we were the only passengers. Our driver, Daniel, was very friendly though, and eager to tell us all about his hometown of Cesky Krumlov. For only the second time on our trip, we had the opportunity to see the countryside from the road rather than from a train. As we drove, Daniel told us about how the Czech Republic is still working to recover from communism, and how the community in Cesky Krumlov is excited that tourists have begun to notice them. He was also very critical of the EU's demands that the Czech Republic adopt the euro within six years, especially considering the current condition of the euro.

Even from the car, we could see how communism has left its mark on the country. We passed an unused border checkpoint, and Daniel slowed down for us to take a photo of the relatively new EU Czech Republic entry sign, not the old checkpoint ("that is just ugly grey building!"). Many things also just look run down and haven't been maintained as well as in other countries and the trains are visibly much older.

We got to Cesky Krumlov just before 3pm, and Daniel dropped us right to the hostel where we had to check in for our pension (guest house). Check-in was easy enough, and the lady took us down the road, across the river and up a small hill to the pension we were booked into. There were five rooms on the guesthouse, each with its own bathroom (we hadn't had a bathroom to ourselves since Tignes!) and a shared kitchen and dining room. Our room was spacious and looked out onto rooftops of houses down towards the river, and a large high-set church across the river. Shortly after we dropped our things off, we went for a walk to get some groceries and have lunch. We were reminded just how cheap things are in the Czech republic when we bought a loaf of bread, 4 apples, 2 oranges, 1L juice, 0.5L beer, three yoghurts, butter, chips, and two muesli bars for around $15.

We chose a restaurant right on the town square (The Old Inn) for lunch where André had a salmon pasta dish and beer while I had marinated chicken with a large side salad and huge garlic bread for about the equivalent of $20. The food was excellent as well. Very happy with bellies full of excellent food for a good price we headed back to our pension. It was such a late lunch and such a large meal that we didn't even bother having dinner!

Salzburg

We got into Salzburg late afternoon. After a little bit of trouble figuring out buses we visited an Info Centre where a lady there pointed us towards the right bus and explained how to get to our hostel. We got off our bus at the bottom of a cliff, where we got on an elevator to the top of the cliff where our hostel was!

All did not go smoothly straight away though. The girl who was checking us in realised her boss had double-booked our room. We had booked a double room for André and me, and a dorm bed for Michelle. Somehow, they had double booked the only double room in the whole place. The girl was able to rearrange some bed assignments to at least have the three of us in the same room, and also offered us the first night free. With the offer of a free night-and the fact it had such a great view being at the top of a cliff behind the old town- we decided to stay. We didn't want to sit around looking for somewhere else to stay when we had somewhere cheap and interesting to stay anyway.

On our first night we took a bit of a walk around the park on the cliff where our hostel was situated. We found a small food outlet where we bought wurst hotdogs and André had a beer while Michelle and I shared something called an apple spritz. It turned out to be similar to appletiser, but not as sweet. We had other spritzes while in Austria and figured out they were just juices with mineral water. We had a bottled one that evening but often in restaurants they are offered as the juice alone or with mineral water as a spritz.

As we headed back to the hostel for bed we could hear music coming up from the old town below. Someone joked that it was the nuns rocking out, but we discovered the next morning that we had arrived in the middle of a music festival. It was all woodwind and brass bands playing a mixture of traditional music and covers of popular music like Queen. It was right in the middle of the old town, and meant there were lots of food stands set up. Our first day was also a Saturday, which meant there were the normal Saturday markets running. So we spent the morning looking through the markets and shops of the old town where we got an apfel bezel (apple pretzel) big enough for the three of us to share for morning tea, and then stumbled across the music festival while looking for the information centre. We stopped there and got lunch (wurstl, schnitzel, chips, semmel, beer and coke) from one of the stands and ate at one of the dozens of tables they had laid out in front of the stage. Clearly Europe doesn't have the same attitude to sun protection as Australia does- all the tables were spread out in the sun, which was actually a bit of a nice change after London and Paris had been so cold and drizzly and Florence and Venice's weather had been temperamental too. We also noted a lot of people in town still wear traditional dress. Most don't, but enough do that in a crowded shopping street you'll see several people walking around with lederhosen or drindles on, which we found quite amusing.

In the afternoon we went for a walk up behind the old town to see Nonnberg Abbey where scenes from The Sound of Music were filmed, and where the real Maria started her training. We could only walk around it, and didn't really recognise anything from the movie. We just decided we would have to watch the movie again when we get home! In our walk through the old town we had also seen the fountain where they filmed Maria's 'I have confidence' scene. Afterwards we crossed the river and walked along it to see Schloss Mirabell's gardens which Salzburg is famous for. A few other Sound of Music scenes were filmed there including the children and Maria singing 'Doe, a deer'.

We had a proper Austrian meal for dinner that night. André had Berner wurstl, which is a wurstl wrapped in bacon, while Michelle and I both had tirder gröstl, which is chopped beef and pork (we suspected these were beef and pork sausages) with chopped roasted potatoes served with a fried egg on top. Both meals came with a side salad which was served first (something we have found standard in counties with German influence) and was very tasty. It had cold potato in it too, and while that sounds weird with a green salad and I normally don't even like potato salad, it worked well.

Our first day in Salzburg already made it one of our favourite places.

Pisa to Venice

Back when I was still planning our trip, I thought we might go from Rome to Florence via Pisa, that is, get a train from Rome to Pisa, spend the day there, then get a train on to Florence for the evening. Well, with the booking of trains a few days before we needed to leave Rome, of course I forgot that plan. And we didn't have time to visit Pisa while we were in Florence. So, we reversed the original plan. We decided to visit Pisa before moving on to Venice. Pisa is not far from Florence, about an hour on the train, so even though it is west of Florence while Venice is east, it didn't cause any problems.


We had a bit of a late start to the day because we knew we didn't have a time that we had to be on the train. Trains run regularly from Florence to Pisa so we decided not to book one. We had another breakfast from the minimart in our campsite — croissants, yoghurt, bananas, juice, cereal — and eventually got onto a train to Pisa. We got to Pisa about lunchtime and actually had some difficulty getting to the leaning tower, which we really shouldn't have as it's basically down one road from the train station, but we followed a sign that must have been moved and so took a bit of a detour! We got there eventually though and walked around the tower and its other associated buildings like the church and baptistry. We didn't go into any of them or up the tower, but it was fun just to see them and take photos — of the buildings and of the scores of people lined up with their hands up in the air, having photos taken 'supporting' the leaning tower! We got a late lunch close by — between the three of us we shared a huge pizza, salad and fries and Michelle confused the poor waiter by ordering lemonade, which he wasn't familiar with, explaining it as lemon soda, which he did know, and then changing it to pineapple juice when I ordered one! The prices were very good, as most Italian food is, especially considering we were one street away from the leaning tower, although the drinks were a bit on the exy side, also something we have found is typical in many places where the food is cheap!


After a few hours in Pisa we had to be on the train back to Florence in time to catch a train on to Venice. Fortunately we had no train problems there, although for some bizarre reason the booking system for the Florence to Venice train did not let us choose our seats and assigned us two together and one further down the train. We assumed the other seats must have been all booked, but the carriage was 90% empty, including the seats beside Andre and me. It was nice to be back on a highspeed train though, as the trains to Florence from Rome and between Florence and Pisa were all lower speed regional trains. We pulled into Venice's St Lucia train station at about 8pm as the sun was setting. I was surprised to find Venice was a little cool, something I had not expected for a coastal (island!) town. One of our first impressions after walking out of the train station was how wonderful it was to be in a town where we wouldn't be subjected to sirens as we had in Florence, Rome, Paris and London, because there were no cars! (An impression that was blasted to smithereens on our last day, which I will get to later!) 

In most of the places we stayed, after about a day I began to get a basic feel for the area around where we stayed and had some inner navigational ability. I never achieved that in Venice, other than the street and square immediately at the end of our street! But with a map we found our accommodation easily enough and got checked in. We headed out for a late dinner and found a place close by with pretty cheap food, but true to previous experience, the drinks prices were through the roof. Andre decided to try a beer  —  I think I've only ever known him to drink beer about twice  —  and actually quite liked it, but it cost 7 euros. My main meal cost 8! And they added a 12% service charge on! 12%! Needless to say we didn't go back there during the rest of our stay in Venice, which I will blog about later, as it is now past 11 and I have to go to bed!

Florence

After five nights in Rome we moved up the coast to Florence. This was one of the simplest legs of the trip, just one train the whole way. We were in a compartment with four others (two small children shared a seat). It was a noisier, slower, older train than others we've been on, but the seats were more comfortable than some others.  We were a little worried at first that the train wasn't airconditioned, as Rome was pretty warm and when the train was stopped the airconditioning was off. But once the train started moving the aircon came through and it was all good.

Florence was very warm too when we arrived, probably about 30 degrees. We had some trouble finding our bus, as the bus stops had changed since the instructions we had were written. It was right by the train station though, and we found a news stand nearby that sold tickets. In many Italian cities you can't buy bus tickets on the bus and need to buy them beforehand, normally from tobacconists or newsstands. This can be a pain after hours or on Sundays when such places are closed, so it's good to buy a bunch at once if you know you're going to be taking a few bus trips.

We couldn't tell from the bus map if it stopped outside our caravan park or not, so we got off a stop too early at Piazzale Michelangelo. This wasn't a bad thing though, as the view from the Piazzale is excellent - and nearly matched by the view from the deck at the campsite. We only had to walk about another 200m (if that) to reach the campsite. We were staying in a three-bed permanent tent, about half way down the campsite (which is on a hill to the south of the historical centre of the city). From the tent there wasn't much view, but at the top of the campsite at the bar/restaurant the view was excellent. We spent our first afternoon at the Piazzale taking photos of the view and watching a few dozen kites, including one enormous one that would have been a good 5m squared, with tails. We got burgers from a snack stand for dinner (cheap but pretty lousy food) then spent the evening having drinks on the deck at the campsite.

Our first full day in Florence ended up being cold and drizzly. In the morning I bought some breakfast items from the campsite minimarket - chocolate-filled and jam-filled croissants (which we had discovered in our B&B in Rome), yoghurt, juice poppers, and cereal. This was our sole day to explore the city, so we spent time walking around, seeing the Ponte Vecchio, markets, Duomo, and other impressive buildings, and visited the Accademia (to see Michelangelo's David) and a Leonardo da Vinci museum. We decided to skip the Uffizi due to time contraints - we decided we'd seen enough art museums for now and were more interested in Leonardo da Vinci and specifically wanted to see David. Florence is a very pretty city, prettier than Rome. Rome is big and imposing and impressive, but Florence is pretty.

For dinner we had pizza and salad on our campsite deck - the pizza was reaonable, a good base but the toppings were a bit average, so still not as good as the pizza we discovered on our last night in Rome. The plastic 'walls' had been fastened down around the deck though due to the cold wind that had been around all day, so the view wasn't quite as nice as it had been the night before. We got hot chocolates after dinner, and WOW, they were the best hot chocolates ever! It was like drinking hot chocolate cream! We needed them as the evening was very cold. In fact all three nights in Florence were cold, something the locals told us was very unusual, which was unlucky as we were in a tent! Andre and I squished into one bed one night (we had a bunk bed and one single) to keep warm but it was a bit uncomfortable so the next night we went back to separate beds, though half way through the night I woke up so cold even with two blankets that I considered moving into his bed again!

For our second (and last) full day in Florence, we had booked a bus tour of the Tuscan countryside. We just had croissants for breakfast as the minimart wasn't open yet and I'd bought two packets the day beforehand, so we had spares! For our tour we met outside a cafe at 8:45am and drove out of Florence a little after 9. Our first stop was Siena, a medieval walled city. We were supposed to have an hour of free time before our guided tour, but due to some elderly americans who complained very loudly about going "too fast" and "not being able to see" the guide, we took much longer to get into the town centre (as it's car-free, the buses have to park outside and we walked in). This meant we only ended up with about half an hour of free time, so we didn't go very far. We then had a local take us on a tour of the town, through the cobblestone streets and into the elaborately decorated cathedral (covered in marble, including a parquetry-type marble floor, the only one of its type in the world). After the tour was lunchtime, where we had the option of eating at a place reserved by the guide with others from the tour. It was eleven euros each and basically all you can eat pasta, cold meats & cheese, salad, bread (served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar), wine and water so we decided it was a pretty good deal. It was a good opportunity to meet some of the other travellers on the tour, and we chatted with some Indians, Americans from Oklahoma and Canadians.

After lunch we left Siena and moved on to Monteriggioni, which can't even be classified as a village - it's really just a castle on a hill surrounded by farmland. We only had an hour there, enough time to climb the wall and look at the view over the countryside and look through the shops that now inhabit the castle walls, before we moved on to a winery for some wine and olive oil taste-testing which Andre had been looking forward to all day! We met some other Canadians there, Duy and Anita, and swapped gelateria recommendations with them - they were heading to Rome so we recommended Giolitti's, and they had just left Venice so recommended a gelateria there! I didn't mind the white wine that we tasted but wasn't a fan of either of the reds, but I never like red wine. We didn't buy any of the wine or oil there, but did buy some of the lavender honey that they also produce - I'm hoping we don't have too much trouble getting it back into Australia!

Our last stop was San Gimignano, another medieval walled town on a hill, known for its towers that can be seen from all across the countryside. Again we only had an hour there - not enough to explore it really as it is much larger than Monteriggioni and could be classified as a small town, but we did taste some of the gelato there and bought some postcards.

On our return to Florence we decided to try and find a restaurant that Duy had recommended for dinner. Easier said than done. It took us more than an hour as Andre had recorded the restaurant name on his phone, and his phone battery had gone flat. So we had to find a cafe with a power point where we could plug the phone in to check the restaurant details. That took long enough, but then Google Maps pinned the wrong spot on our map (even with the correct address), and TripAdvisor flatout gave the wrong address. We ended up finding it eventually though and we ended up not being extremely impressed. Andre said his steak was excellent, but Michelle and I got lasagna which, while it tasted good, had next to no meat in it and no tomato sauce at all - not sure if that's traditional or not, but none of the other lasagna we had in Italy was like that. We did have very tasty bruschetta though. The late dinner meant we didn't have a chance to do any laundry as we'd wanted and were up late clearing photos off our SD card onto Andre's phone.

We did enjoy our time in Florence, even though it was cold we liked semi-camping as something different to the B&Bs, hotels and apartments we'd had up to that point.

When in Rome

After our 'break'  in Lauterbrunnen, we headed south to warmer climates in Rome. While this looked like it would be our longest trip, it went much smoother than our trip to Lauterbrunnen, although we almost had to run for our change in Milan. We pulled in to platform 1  and had to find platform 11 in ten minutes instead of 25. Fortunately Milan's main train station is quite straight forward and we didn't have any problems finding it.

We got into Rome at 2pm, and our b&b was within walking distance of the train station. Fortunately the clouds only thought about raining and we got there dry. The address was easy enough to find but the b&b was not marked (it was an apartment building). Lucky for us another guest was leaving just as we arrived so was able to let us in and show us the way up.

The place is in central Rome on quite a  busy street, but is quiet enough at night time. Italians  are not big breakfast eaters so there is not a  large selection of breakfasts, but we've been having croissants with chocolate in them, juice, and André has coffee.

The first afternoon we decided to join a  free walking tour. It was not the same company we used in Paris, as they don't operate in Rome. While  it wasn't a  bad tour, it wasn't as good as the one in Paris. We saw the Spanish steps, the pantheon, Trevi fountain, and several other churches and monuments. We had dinner at a little restaurant near Trevi fountain -not too expensive but the food was average. Strike one for roman  pizza, although Michelle said her lasagne was reasonable. Afterwards we got gelato from a place recommended by our tour guide. I had  caramel and chocolate, Michelle had pineapple and lemon, while André had coffee, baileys and chocolate. It was amazing. It was like gelatified flavour, not flavoured gelato. I  would never have picked pineapple gelato but I  tasted Michelle's and it was fantastic. It's called Giolitti and is near the Prime  Ministerial house, if anyone wants to know!

That night while finding our way home we ended up going down the road  that leads straight to the Colosseum. We crossed a road, turned down another street and there it was in front of us! The street was scattered with other ruins too, and while stopping to take  photos we met another traveller, Sean, who is a Canadian working in the UK. We got talking for two hours and decided after midnight that we should meet up the next day!

So the next day we met up with Sean and spent most of the day looking through the Colosseum,  roman forum and Palatine Hill. I  didn't realise how extensive the complex on Palatine Hill is and we spent quite a  bit of time there. We spent a good three hours at the Forum and Pallatine Hill alone. I was surprised to learn the original roman senate building is still nearly entirely in tact.

In the afternoon we went to see Trajan's market. Waste of money. It was of average interest level, to me, especially as we'd just spent the  rest of the day at far more interesting complexes, and  it charged 11  euros when it had cost 12  for the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine  hill combined. It might have been OK if it only charged 5 euros perhaps, but at 11, I don't think it's worth  it. We visited another gelateria for afternoon  tea,  near the pantheon. They  were also very good but I  still preferred Giolitti's. I  had chocolate fondente and mango, Michelle had Mars bar and cookies, while André had coffee and chocolate, he thinks, but can't quite remember!

Dinner was at a  restaurant near the pantheon. At the same time was a protest with riot police, though the police only had to intervene for a  short time when a  few individuals got aggressive. From what we could gather the protest was something about cruelty to dogs, but we couldn't figure out exactly what was going on. Dinner  was pizza and cannelloni. The pizza was reasonable but still not amazing. Strike  two for roman pizza. The cannelloni was pretty good though. For dessert we took Sean back to Giolotti's and this time I  had mango and watermelon (the best mango gelato I've ever had, and the watermelon reminded me of the watermelon sorbet mum makes!),  Michelle had caramel and nutella, and André again had coffee with something else. It was another late night but it was an excellent day. I will update again later but for now I have to go  to bed!

Travel Resources

Below are some of the resources that have been useful in planning our trip.

Accommodation
HotelClub.com
roomorama.com
eurocamp.co.uk
TripAdvisor.com
HostelWorld.com
Lonely Planet: Europe on a Shoestring
Lonely Planet: Western Europe
Lonely Planet: Central Europe

Equipment
Anaconda
Kathmandu
Bootsnall.com (There are some good posts on there about what to pack)
Lonely Planet's Thorntree Forum
REI.com
eBags

Transport
Kayak.com
seat61.com (THE ultimate web resource for train travel anywhere in the world)
Flight Centre
raileurope.com.au (Be wary of actually booking your tickets on this website, as it can charge a lot more than the country's rail website. It is useful for finding out times though.)
bahn.de (the German rail website, but it has a lot of content for rail trips in other countries too).
eurail.com

Where to go, what to do, what to see
TripAdvisor.com
wikitravel.com
Lonely Planet
visiteurope.com
timeout.com
Backpackeurope.com
Offtoeurope.com
Sandeman's Free Tours
Lonely Planet: Europe on a Shoestring
Lonely Planet: Western Europe
Lonely Planet: Central Europe

Destination Guides
I cannot recommend TripAdvisor and Wikitravel enough!

UK
www.visitbritain.com/
www.daysoutguide.co.uk
www.visitthecity.co.uk
www.timeout.com/london/

France
http://uk.franceguide.com/
http://www.tignes.net/en
http://www.beaune-burgundy.com/
http://www.paris.com/  

Germany
http://www.germany.travel/en/index.html
http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de (Very informative website about the Middle Rhine Valley)
http://www.muenchen.de/int/en/tourism.html

Belgium
http://www.visiteurope.com/Belgium
http://www.in-bruges.co.uk/
http://www.visitgent.be

Switzerland
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html
http://www.mylauterbrunnen.com/

Italy
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html
http://www.parcoappiaantica.it/en/
http://www.revealedrome.com/

Austria
http://www.austria.info/au
http://www.salzburgerland.com/en/
http://www.salzburg.info/en/

Czech Republic
www.czechtourism.com/eng
http://www.ckrumlov.info/docs/en/kaktualita.xml