Ships, bells and an amazing clock
Friday  16 December 2016

We enjoyed breakfast in the hotel dining room, while watching the locals crossing Campo Santa Maria Formosa, children being taken to school and a fruit and vegetable stall being set up.

Our first destination for the day was the Museo Storico Navale (Navy Historical Museum). Ian’s navigation skills were not as precise as yesterday so the route we took was quite circuitous. It was most interesting to see some of the quieter residential areas that we found ourselves in.

The collection of vessels in the Ships Pavilion was fascinating and wide-ranging. There were gondolas (including a hearse), fishing vessels, a royal barge and motor boat, canoes from Somalia, a torpedo boat, and the boiler room from the Elettra, a German World War 2 ship which had previously been used by Marconi for radio experiments. We spent several hours there and took a lot of photos!

Royal Barge detail

The boiler from the Elettra

Next stop was the San Giorgio Maggiore church, on an island across from St Mark’s Square. There we saw several paintings by Tintoretto. The church was designed by Palladio but I found its low-key white colour scheme quite unexciting.

St George and the dragon

A modern artwook

The highlight though was an elevator ride to the top of the campanile (bell tower) where we had some wonderful views over the city of Venice and the lagoon.

 The experience of riding in that elevator though was a bit disorienting, with brief glimpses through openings in the tower walls. We both felt some unease, especially Ian who has been seeing a psychologist about his long-standing fear of heights and had resolved to test himself later today by taking part in a tour of St Mark’s Clocktower. Before that tour though we needed some lunch so we took the vaporetto back to St Mark’s Square and shared a panini.

We made our way to the Correr Museum where we found our tour guide, a very vivacious young woman who, despite speaking incredibly quickly, gave a fascinating commentary as she led our group up the several levels of rooms inside the Clocktower. The tower was originally built in 1496-1497 and both the clock and the tower have had several changes over the centuries. A permanent clock keeper was appointed from 1551 and a keeper lived in the tower until relatively recently.

Four figures from the clock

One of the sections of rotating numbers on the clock

We are very pleased to report that, despite some initial nervousness, Ian enjoyed the tour and was able to stand on the top level of the tower and take photos of the spectacular views!

The next event for the day was to check out of our hotel and move to one close to the Santa Lucia station. This had become necessary because we discovered not long before leaving home that a mistake had been made by the agency that booked our train to Innsbruck which required us to catch a much earlier train than we had anticipated. Rather than try to find our way from one side of Venice to the other with our cases at 4 or 5am, we had decided to move!

When we arrived at our new hotel, the Antiche Figure, however,  we discovered that they were overbooked. They proposed that we could move to another of their properties, the Canal Grande, a short distance away. After our long walk with our cases, we were not at all happy with this suggestion – but what could we do?! A guide took us to our new accommodation, offered to provide us with packed breakfasts and suggested that, for a small fee, a porter would take our cases to the station in the morning.

After a short rest there, we set out for dinner at Trattoria ‘Vini da Arturo’, back near San Marco. We had enjoyed a meal there in 2013 and made a booking again. We remembered that our hosts had a collection of  bank notes from around the world so Ian produced one of our new $5 notes which they were very happy to receive. We had a lovely meal although we both struggled to keep awake by the end of it - jetlag seemed to be finally catching up with us! Then it was back to our hotel by vaporetto and finally to bed after a second day in wonderful Venice.

Christmas in Europe 2016

Following our trip to Europe in 2015, Ian and I decided to treat ourselves to a short trip this year to experience a European Christmas. We hope to enjoy a White Christmas and have some fun choosing Christmas gifts for the family at the famous Christmas markets of Germany and Austria.

Wednesday 14 to Thursday 15 December 2016
Melbourne to Venice

After a heart-stopping race to catch Skybus to the airport in 2015, this time we left home at 2pm for a 6.45pm flight. Of course we arrived at the airport three hours before our flight – but in a much more relaxed state of mind.

We flew to Venice via Singapore and Dubai. At both airports we were surprised by the Christmas decorations. We could have been in any western shopping mall when we were in the Duty Free area in Singapore and even in Dubai there was a small display of Christmas trees.

A mural at Singapore Airport

Christmas display in Singapore 

At Dubai Airport

We arrived in Venice at 1.20pm and, after taking a bus from the airport and then a vaporetto to the Rialto, we managed to negotiate our way through the calles and campos to our hotel, Hotel Scandinavia. We left our cases there and set out for a tour of the Fenice Theatre. The Fenice was originally built in the 1700s and has been destroyed by fire twice, most recently in 1996, and rebuilt both times. It is now once again a glorious rococo masterpiece and we spent some time there, following an audioguide through the theatre, into the royal box and the restored function rooms.

The Royal Box

Venice has been beautifully decorated with hundreds of tiny lights for Christmas. We enjoyed walking around the city and Ian was especially pleased as he successfully navigated without using a map – amazing in a city which is a labyrinth of small alleys and islands joined by numerous bridges!

We had dinner at the famous and elegant Caffe Florian in St Mark’s Square – lasagne followed by an apple torte for Ian and potato and rosemary quiche and a very rich chocolate Sacher Florian for me – a lovely way to end our first day in Europe!

Coming home - via Munich

We were packed and ready to leave our apartment by 9.30am but not looking forward to walking to the station in the thunderstorms which had been occuring since we got up. Luckily they seemed to vanish when we opened the door and it was an easy walk to the local Haunstetten station where we caught a train to Munich.

On arrival in Munich we put our cases into a locker at the station and took the U-bahn to Olympiazenturm and the BMW-Welt (BMW World). We had a great time there looking at some magnificent cars - BMW and also Rolls Royce - and the building itself is quite spectacular.

We took the train back to the centre of Munich and visited the Asamkirche (Asam Church). This was originally the private chapel of the Asam brothers who specialised in decorating churches, so it was their showroom and is quite 'over the top' with rococo decoration. While we were there an organist was practising which really added to the atmosphere.

Next we called in at the Frauenkirche, Munich's cathedral, where we saw some beautiful modern stained glass windows as well as the 15th century windows behind the main altar. These survived World War II because they were taken out piece by piece and stored in safety during the war.

We walked past the huge Residenz palace where there seemed to be some sort of 'urban loungeroom' in the square - people lounging on couches and hammocks, with book shelves scattered around.

We stopped for a cool drink in the Hofgarten and watched a group of elderly men playing boules - they didn't seem to be having much success! Then it was time to retrieve our cases from the station lockers and catch the train to the airport. We had dinner at a surprisingly nice restaurant there - roast chicken and chips for Ian and freshly cooked scampi and spaghetti for me.

The flight home was the usual endurance test, with the best leg being Munich to Dubai when we were in an Airbus  380 - a bit more spacious and more variety in the entertainment program. Dubai airport is so huge that we walked a total of 2km, were carried down several levels in an elevator, travelled on a railway and then for twelve minutes by bus to the terminal where our next plane was waiting!

Sunrise through a porthole on the way to Dubai

Our break in Singapore was only an hour, just long enough to disembark and then return to the same plane. We reached Melbourne at around 7.30am and, although the process through Security and Customs was quite streamlined, it took ages for our cases to arrive. We were very grateful to Jenny and Neil who picked us up from the airport and we enjoyed breakfast with them at Krifi Restaurant.

So ended another wonderful overseas adventure. We both agreed that the highlights on this trip were the medieval town of Rothenburg, the magnificent Rhine Falls, the walk through Partnach Gorge and the joy of catching up with Britta and Frank and their family - although there were also many other contenders for the list. I hope you have found the account of our travels interesting and thank you to those who have emailed comments to me. I have enjoyed sharing the adventure with you!

A Mad King's Dream

Today we visited one of King Ludwig II's creations - the Royal Palace of Herrenchiemsee. Ludwig intended this to be a copy of the Sun King Louis XIV's palace of Versaillles and a tribute to Louis. The rooms at Herrenchiemsee are modelled on those at Versailles including the copying of the interior decoration, but with a Germanic influence. Ludwig began this project in 1878 but his money ran out and, when he died in 1886, only twenty of the seventy rooms which had been planned were completed. He only stayed in the palace on one occasion and that was for only nine days.

To reach Herrenchiemsee we took the train to Prien station, walked along a laneway to the shore of Chiemsee where we caught a boat to the island of Herreninsel, and then had another short walk through woodland to the palace. We enjoyed the boat trip in the  early morning light with a hazy view of the mountains in the distance and a cool breeze. Germany has been having a heat wave this week and, as the day went on, it became very hot again today.

Our first view of the palace was to see it, as at Versailles, with several glorious fountains and landscaped gardens in front of the long  expanse of the building.

The palace interior can only be viewed on a guided tour and we were booked into an English tour at 11.15am. This tour also seemed to include anyone who did not speak German, and notes in Rumanian and Chinese were handed out to those who needed them.

We were taken from the Ambassador Staircase, through the State Apartments and Ludwig's private apartment. The highlight would have to be the Great Hall of Mirrors which is longer than the hall at Versailles and has 52 candelabra and 33 glass chandeliers with 7,000 candles, which took seventy servants half an hour to light.

(Apologies for these photos of postcards - no photography allowed in the palace!)

After a picnic lunch we visited the King Ludwig II museum in the south wing, where we found some  interesting information and lots of artefacts relating to Ludwig and his family. There was also an audio-visual presentation about Ludwig's last project, the proposed Falkenstein Castle, for which plans were made before his death. Ian and  I have been fascinated by this crazy king and his sad story ever since we visited Neuschwanstein in 2004 and we enjoyed seeing some more of his creations.

The design for Falkenstein Castle

This evening, our last before we leave for home tomorrow, we  had a special dinner at the Drei Mohren restaurant at the Steigenberger hotel just down  the road from where we are staying. We went to the outdoor Grillbuffet where we enjoyed all sorts of grilled meat and salmon, as well as salads and grilled vegetables, and several serves each of lovely little desserts like a minature chocolate mousse, a scoop of icecream in various flavours and some berries.

Tomorrow we will be spending the day in Munich, before we go to the airport in the evening. I think it is  unlikely that I will  be able to post the final blog until we are back in Melbourne on Sunday so you will have to wait until  then to hear about the special place we intend to visit on our last day! In the meantime, go Pies - we are looking forward to a win tomorrow!

A restful day at Starnberger See

Although our itinerary listed Oberammergau as today's destination, we really didn't feel like another early start, long train trip and late return. Instead we decided to visit Starngberger See, just an hour by train south-east of Augsburg.

We arrived at the town of Starnberg just in time to join the 11am cruise on the lake. It was a pleasant jaunt for an hour, calling in at two small towns before alighting at Berg.

Berg's claim to fame is that it was there that mad King Ludwig II drowned (either by suicide or murder). It was Ludwig II who built the romantic Neuschwanstein Castle and several other exotic palaces, including Herrenchiemsee which we are intending to visit tomorrow. There is a memorial chapel for Ludwig at Berg but, yes you guessed it, it was wrapped in scaffolding and temporarily closed. There is also a cross in the water just off-shore so we photographed that instead!

The woods on the way to the chapel

The chapel - somewhere in there!

We enjoyed lunch in Berg, but the menu was in German so some of our choices turned out to be a bit unexpected. For example, I ordered a glass of Moscato which turned out to be a liquer!

Back in Augsburg we decided to check out the extensive gardens and park close to where we are staying. There is a large outdoor theatre (a bit like the Myer Music Bowl) where the Blues Brothers are performing for the next couple of nights. We found a lovely garden with big shady trees, climbing roses and beds of herbs where we sat in the shade and read for a while - a lovely way to end our relaxed day.