Kylie & Simon Travels

After we had a night on Singapore we took the ferry to Bintan island in Indonesia, yet we still used Singapore dollars at the resort.

Singapore River

Bintan ferry

We grabbed a towel and and a swim before exploring the beach.

And watching a pretty great sunset from the rocks.

The lookout.

The Gurung Mountain (no we didn’t climb over it)

Beautiful Trikora beach

Mangroves inland from Trikora beach. No, we didn’t see any monkeys, snakes or goannas.

Next stop fishing villages

Capital city of Bintan.

Swimming again 🙂

Relaxing on our deck.

Back to Singapore tomorrow before coming home.

On our final day in Paris, we visited the Musee D’Orsay to see the best collection of Impressionists artwork worldwide. A few of them we had seen displayed in Canberra in 2010 whilst on loan from here, was nice to see them without the crowds and queues this time.

We left leaving on the Eurostar train through the channel tunnel in the afternoon and arrived in Ashford, South-East England then took a short drive to some family in Rolvenden, Kent.

The next day we visited Canterbury and the very well known cathedral.

For lunch we had fish and chips at the seaside town of Winstable.

Simon’s Great-Uncle and Aunt.

On Friday, we visited Kylie’s Great-Aunt in Coxheath.

Jackie and David who we stayed with.

We are now on our way to Singapore and surrounds for the next week.

We decided to take the train to the city of Reims, about 125km from Paris, a short 45min train ride on the TGV, full speed is 320km/h.

This is the capital of the Champagne region, and many Champagne houses are located here.

French morning snack.

We then took a tour of the cellars at Tattinger. The last stage of fermentation of the wine is done in old chalk mines that existed in Roman times of the fourth century up to 20 metres underground. There are 4km of tunnels here holding 3 million bottles of Champagne.

The chapel of a monastry that is now buried in the complex of the nearby St Rémi destroyed in the French revolution.

72,000 of the bottles.

The Roman chalk mine, you can see te markings of the tools used to cut out the chalk blocks.

A tasting.

St Rémi Bascilica.

The very grand Notre Dame of Reims. This is where French monarchs were crowned for hundreds of years, the equivalent of Westminster Abbey in England.

Third century Roman gate to the town.

The building where the treaty between the west and the Germans on the 7th of May 1945 ending the world war in Europe.

Mumm Champagne.

Started out at The Louvre Museum, raced up to see the Mona Lisa before the rest of the crowds.

Inside the Louvre under the glass pyramid.

The remains of the medieval castle under the present site of the Louvre.

Napoleon III apartments.

Went for a walk around old Paris, here is ‘Point Zero’ the official centre of Paris.

One of the medieval streets of Paris.

Place Saint-Michel in the Latin Quarter.

In the evening we went on a dinner cruise on the Seine.

On the day we arrived we walked down to the area around the Moulin Rouge and visited  Sacre Coeur.

The next day we climbed the Eiffel tower to the second level (the top was closed…again for Simon!! so a third visit to Paris is needed…)

View of Champs de Mars

Underneath the tower.

View from the other side of the river.

Then a walk to the Arc de Triomphe.

View of the Avenue des Champs de Élysées which we walked down.

Eventually arrived at Jardin des Tuileries.

In front of The Louvre palace, which we plan to visit tomorrow.

Then to the Seine River.

Notre Dame Cathedral. where we ended our sightseeing after walking a little further along the river.

We visited the Roman forum, here viewed from Palatine hill.

The arch to the entry of the Roman forum, built in the first century AD.

Arch of Constantine who made Christianity the religion of Rome in the 4th century AD.

The Colosseum, looking at the north side, the best preserved remain. It could hold up to 50,000 spectators.

Then we visited the Vatican. This is the front of the massive St. Peter’s Bascillica.

The Swiss Guard.

Went to the famous market at Campo de Fiori by bus as our Contiki tour finished this morning. The market had flowers, fruit and vegetables as well as clothes and accessories.

In the afternoon we took the train to Ostia Antica, Rome’s ancient river port (Tiber and Mediterranean sea). Very well preserved and similar in age to Pompeii. It was a large site with a theatre, baths, high density housing and larger houses for the upper classes, basillicas etc.

The theatre.

A mosaic advertising products in front of a shop.

A view of the crowded residential area of the city.

The lavatory at the bath house.

A large temple on the forum.

Our regular stopping point in Italy on long journeys, Autogrill.

Last day on the bus.

Visited the Spanish steps, Trevi fountain (again) and the amazing Pathenon.

Piazza Navona.

Tevere River at night looking towards St Peter’s and the Vatican.

Venice on Valentine’s day during carnival.
Our day started with a train ride and private motor boat to Venice as we were staying on the mainland.

First stop, glass blowing.

Item one, a vase, took about 5 minutes at the most.
Item two, a horse that needed to be made in 2 minutes before the glass set.

Off to the canals.
Grand canal.

Lunch after getting lost in the streets

And a gondola ride with Prosecco (sparking white wine)

Our gondola driver

Venetian mask

Rialto Bridge.

St Mark’s Bascilica.

The Doges Palace.

And from the bell tower on St. Mark’s Square.

Colourful characters dressed up for Carnival

Brigde of Sighs.

After peak hour in Milan we arrived in Sirmione with Lake Garda, a ‘beach’ getaway for Milanese.

It also has a medievil castle.

And moat

Verona. Such a beautiful city!

And Juliet’s balcony

And the couple in love 🙂

The bell tower

Beautiful Verona street.

Local Rose wine and chocolate from the ‘Verona In Love’ market

Another site was the arena (smaller version of the Colloseum) where they still hold theatre today 🙂

From La Spezia to Milan we travelled through the Apinine mountains. On bridges and through tunnels, the landscape was sparsly populated until it flattened out. The mountains were covered with snow and the shift of the tectonic plates was noticable. The height of the mountains seemed higher than in Scotland and we were closer to them because of the many bridges. On the way we passed the gritting truck as the roads were a little icy. The temperature is expected to reach -1.

Milan is a big city so we went through the suburbs before reaching the heart of the city.

Our first stop was the duomo, the biggest church in the church in the city. We were there in time for the Sunday mass at 12:30. We heard the hymns and sermon. The church was beautiful and in Gothic style.

The Galleria, with very expensive shops ie. Mercedes Benz clothing and accessories and above a 7 star hotel.

Leonardo da vinci

Napoleon liked the arch so much he built a copy in Paris.

The castle where Leonardo da vini had his own room in the Tower Room. He designed the moat and bo

It was so cold the fountain was icing up. Nice that it wasn’t windy.