Rome, Venice, Vienna and Bamberg

We have been to so many places since that last post! We left Switzerland and headed for Rome where we saw everything that you can think of when you think of Rome...well it felt like it anyway, my feet got very sore! We went to the Colosseum of course and marveled at how colossal is was and frankly were sickened by the very informative but graphic descriptions of the games that were supplied on information boards doted about the place. We also went and saw the Sistine Chapel which despite the crowds was every bit as good as you would think it is and as an added bonus we saw the Raphael fresco's in the Papal apartments. We also enjoyed some Italian coffee, which you can drink at the bar standing up...for half the price!


me in front of the Colosseum...obviously

Then we caught the train to Venice, which looked just like all of the pictures you have ever seen. There were a million winding streets and bridges...and tourists. In fact the place seemed entirely populated with tourists. Our overall impression was that it was a nice place to look at but not much else and sometimes the crowds made it a bit hard to enjoy that. Luckily we spent two days exploring the 'back streets' were you would only occasionally see an elderly tourist trying to find their way back to the cruise ship.

After two days in Venice we where on the train again and on our way to Vienna, where we rented an apartment for a week. The highlight of Vienna was the Figlmueller restaurant, where we ate Wiener Schnitzels that were literally bigger than the plate! They were very thin, but still very big...Louis had to help with mine a bit. We also went and had a look at the Hundertwasser apartment buildings and we even went and used the Modern Art Toilets, which are a part of the same complex. They also featured the same mosaic tiles and funny curvy walls, it was neat!

Now we are in Bamberg Germany, which is a town near Munich. It was one of the few places in Germany that weren't bombed during the war so it still has all of its original town center with the old buildings, its very picturesque. Today we went for a walk along the river that runs through it and made our way out of town in to the country. It was remarkably like the pictures you get as desktop backgrounds for windows. Plus the leaves are turning now that its Autumn and whilst we were walking we came to an avenue of trees where lots of small leave were falling like rain from the trees. Apart from the amazing landscape we have been enjoying the German beer. Actually that's an understatement...it's awesome. We had something called Rauchbier, which is a smoked beer...its like drinking ham! We are going to go and have some more tonight at a special 'tapping' event at the pub that brews it...should be good!

Anyway next stop is Berlin...more from there...or the next place...maybe.