Yummy meal in Toulouse

We just ate duck cassoulet and creme brulee. Yum!

Getting you up to speed

It's all very relaxing here in Lucerne. It has been snowing, which is just beautiful, as are the surrounding mountains.

You may have heard that we were hoping to go skiing/snowboarding, but due to insurance complications it's not possible. Oh well, we'll just have to wait until June! We've decided to go for cheese fondue instead.

Yesterday, we had a relaxing stroll around the city and saw an impressive carved lion statue.

Dan and I are currently in town making the most of the free Wi-Fi.

Earlier this morning we hunted down the world's largest rolling ball clock. It's fascinating to watch the balls spin and drop. You can check out a website with pics on how it was made here: www.kugelbahn.ch/bucherer.htm

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Before I head off, let me quickly fill you in on what we did in Freiburg.

We spent most of our time catching up with Jarvis. She was a fantastic host. It was great not to have to worry too much about the language barrier. And, she already knew the best places to eat and visit. (We sure did eat! I think I'm still full from the weekend!)

On the Saturday we wandered the local markets and climbed a tower with a fabulous view of the town. On the Sunday we had a massive buffet brekky before catching a train to Titisee. The lake was frozen over, just starting to thaw around the edges for spring. I'd never seen anything like it. Plus, we had our first Black Forest Cake (in the Black Forest!) and our first strudel. Then, we hunted through a few shops to find the most impressively hideous souvenir.

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Tomorrow we're heading back to Lyon in France. I'm kind of glad to be going back to somewhere that speaks French. Swiss-German is a confusing blend of all the languages we've encountered so far, so I'm never really sure what to say! I can't believe that we only have a week and a half left. How time flies!

A really quick message!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. We've been having far too much fun with Jarv in Freiburg.

Now that we're in Switzerland we don't have much of an internet connection. I have two minutes to finish this post!

We're happy and well. Please check out our photos on Facebook.

We're hoping our insurance can be sorted out to go skiing as the snow looks great here in Lucerne.

Will post more details of recent adventures soon!

Milan

This is our third night in Milan. It has been a great opportunity to use some of the Italian that I've picked up over the last decade or so. I'm still nowhere near fluent, although I think I'm just starting to get into the swing of things.

Milan is a bit of a stressful place to be. First up, the guy at hotel reception was generally rude. He had a problem with Dan's Accor card - the card that gives us cheap accommodation at our hotels. Dan has had to arrange letters confirming his employment to validate our discount. Lucky Dan managed to sort it all out - but what a pain!

Secondly, it has been near impossible to wash our clothes, which has had us traipsing across the city in search of a laundromat. We haven't found one yet, but it has forced me to practice slightly more advanced Italian during the hunt, and we did find some awesome focaccia on the way. But, it means that our t-shirts are stinky and we're continuing to wash our undies in bathroom sinks.

Thirdly, everyone here is in a rush. It's difficult to have enough time to work out what I want for lunch without being accosted by the waiter!

It's not a pretty city either, with excrement lining every other street. But, having said that, a handful of buildings are gorgeous, such as the Duomo pictured above. It was initially built between 1387-1805 although there are later additions to the structure. Dan and I spent some time studying the multitude of stories from the bible depicted in its colourful stained-glass windows.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II, pictured left, is another beauty. It houses some of the most fashionable labels in Milan. There was a huge bookstore where I managed to grab an Italian kids' novel to try to battle through. But, what we were really after was a slab of pizza. It turned out to be the equivalent of AU$12... we decided to go elsewhere.

The supermarket at Zara has been fantastic. We've discovered a world of smoked bocconcini, salami, salads, yoghurts and brioche with chocolatey centres. So many tasty things to try.

Tomorrow it looks like we're off to the science museum, and we might even check out some local design.

an analysis of Louvre art (with pictures)

Thematic trends of the Louvre:

Pointing
He went that way.
No, over that way.
He ran up. Straight up.*note: pointing no longer visible.

People shot through with arrows (and looking unimpressed)

Arrows? How passe!Honestly, more arrows?*Yawn* Let me know when you've finished with the whole arrows thing?

Egyptian Rulers
apologies for the upcoming pun...

Also of note:
This sculpture of Athena(?) depicts the goddess of the hunt with two classic objects of a hunt:
The Deer

and the remote controlAlso, there's a zombie monk...

The End
Fin

From Munich to Milan

We're off to Milan this afternoon, but I realise that we have not said much about our time in Munich. I suppose it's because we haven't done much here except relax!

One highlight - which was most awesome - was the Deutsches Museum. It was so good, that we ended up being kicked out at the end of the day.

We spent most of our time in the astronomy section, where there were an amazing array of instruments on display, including some from the time of Galileo!

I also loved the section on clocks. They were just beautiful. They had pocket watches back to 1500! I had no idea they dated back so far.

We also had a moment to check out telecommunications, weights and measures, agriculture and food technology (i.e. beer and Jagermeister), and maths (with engrossing hands on puzzles). Unfortunately we ran out of time for musical instruments, pharmacy and scientific instruments. Next trip, I guess!

The early adventures of the evil-ninja-pirate LeChat

A series of photos depicting the adventures of the evil-ninja-pirate LeChat in Europe...

LeChat emerges from where he stowed away. Warm and snuggly though it was, he looks on to new territories to terrorise.

After hours of wenching, pillaging and meowing to be let inside, LeChat ponders modern art in Paris.


LeChat grows restless having merely conquered Paris. He waits for his train to Germany and to conquer his destiny.


After Munich falls to his stealthy swashbuckling, LeChat tries to make sense out of a German computer game.


MORE TO COME
in
THE ADVENTURES OF THE EVIL-NINJA-PIRATE LeCHAT!

Ich bin ein Verbraucher Hure!

We just went out for a most awesome meal. We ate our first pretzels; I had my first wurst. Dan had a hunk of pig that was positively medieval accompanied by a dumpling the size of my fist.

I also had my first German beer. It was a wheat beer with lemonade mixed through. Tasty!

We haven't done much today. We've been sitting around the hotel watching TV shows on the laptops, dozing and faffing around on the Internet. It's nice having a day to just laze around rather than running from one tourist attraction to the next.

For those of you who can understand German, you might be curious about the title of this post. It refers to the joy I get from asking for items in different languages and purchasing them.

Munich and the sheep

So, now we've arrived safely in Munich.

We're very impressed by the friendliness of the locals. And the cute little bag of gummi sheep we found on pillows at the hotel. Apparently, it's important to count them before bedtime.

This morning we wandered down the road for a fantastic brekky of pastries and muesli. Apart from that we're taking some time to chill out in our hotel room.

We're a bit worried because our German is even more crap than our French (which is ridiculously bad). Despite that, some wild gesturing has got us through so far. We'll take some time to study the phrasebook this evening.

Yay! Photos!

Today is our final day in Paris. We're currently at the train station and we're going to be jumping on a train to Munich in just under an hour.

I think this photo sums up our Paris experience quite nicely. It's all about the crepes.

Since my last post we've done a whole bunch of touristy stuff. My favourites were the Pompidou Centre and the cemetary in Montmartre.

I think Dan's favourite moment may have been at the fromager! We walked away with one very stinky cheese and one that is not stinky at all.

Apart from that we've seen the Louvre, the Moulin Rouge and Notre Dame.

We also experienced our first scam, exeuted professionally by a couple of guys from Senegal at Sacre Coeur. We've survived just fine, but now have two friendship bands instead of 10 Euro.

We've decided against visiting the Eiffel Tower, although we have seen it from a distance. Instead we shall remember Paris in our own way... mostly for the crepes.

For more photos, please visit my Facebook site.

A word from Daniel

I've retreated a bit into myself since arriving in Paris. Whilst I can see there's a lot to love about Paris - like the ubiquitous cafés, the metro, the sheer sense of being "urban" - I'm finding it hard to feel at ease.
I'm not horrible at making myself understood, but the inability to speak the language fluently makes me very hesitant to interact with people... And this is not a case of me jumping on the French-are-Rude bandwagon. Most people we've interacted with have been lovely, though the sensation of being prey is a bit wearying.
I'm going to try to get over this, though I suspect it'll take more time than we have. It feels a bit like the alienated feeling I had when I was first at high school, first started uni and first started at my work. I suppose I should put myself in more of these out-of-my-comfort-zone situations, so I can get better at adapting.
Sorry to be all negative, but what's the point of a blog if you can't get a little emo?

On the bright side: Crepes. If Sydney had as many and as good crepe houses, I'd be in heaven every day.

edit: I got over it... :D

Bonjour!

We've made it into Paris safe and sound.

Let me pick up where we left off last time...

The rest of Abu Dhabi airport was fascinating. They were really into large candy. There were chuppa chups the size of my head, massive mentos - and giant tubs of Tang lining the walls of the Duty Free shops!

Our plane was delayed by 2 hours by intense and creepy fog, so we showed up in Paris around 9 am. Then we took an hour-long bus ride from the airport into Paris-Opera where we are staying. Obviously our room wasn't ready, so we stashed our bags and headed out for a wander.

We had our first awkard language moment upon trying to order our meal, but our communication skills have since improved (somewhat) allowing me to shop successfully! But, I'm still deperately trying to produce those glottal sounds from my 'r's.

Our long wander ended up taking us by foot to Notre Dame and for a peek at the outside of the Louvre. We'll probably head back that way tomorrow with our cameras (we didn't have them at first because it was almost impossible to get our luggage sorted!)

The hotel room is pretty tiny, but it has everything we need (incuding a bath - woo hoo!)... and... wait for it... French doors!

The only annyoying thing about the hotel is that they seem to be destroying the place inside out, chiselling away at the roof noisily.

Thanks for listening - I'm going to go back to being jet lagged. I might try to get some uni work done without any of the daytime distractions... like the awesomeness of Paris.

Reporting from Abu Dhabi

Jas:

One long flight down, one to go. We're knackered but powering on through.

I've already done the touristy thing of taking a photo in a prohibited area, so you'll have to wait for the airport photo later when I'm less likely to be caught!

Too tired to write more. Will blog again from Paris.

Dan:

Hi all.

My future posts will probably be actual posts by me, rather than addenda to a very tired Jas' writer's block incidents.

Well, the flight was long, but pretty cool. I had a minor nerdgasm on seeing the cool display/entertainment setup stuck to the back of each seat. Lots of movies, tv show episodes and *games*! Though that excitement simmered down when I realised the games were of the asteroids/ space invaders/ tetris ilk. That and a chat program... all of the excitement of online chatting, without the messy business of actually being online. I guess if Jas and I had an argument and weren't speaking to each other, it would be a way to communicate. I was tempted to log on to see if there was anyone lonely enough on the flight to log on to that and sit there waiting, but realised I'd be that person if I did so. Close call.

I did watch lots of stuff, and not sleep enough and I have the nasty feeling that's going to catch up with me (and Jas too) in the near future.

Lastly, before I run away to stare at camel souvenirs, the system had an option where you could look at the feed of either the nose camera or a downwards-pointing camera, and see the beautiful Australian landscape, followed by 10 hours of night-time, which got a little bit same-same.

We flew right over Sri Lanka, so I was hoping to see some explosions or something, but no cigar.

Alright, I'll put Jas back on now (and apparently pretend this is like a phone conversation)

ciao!

Jas:

Well, for a moment I thought the writer's block had lifted. Then I realised that the only other story I have is when I forgot to lock the toilet door on the plane and someone tried to barge their way in... but no one wants to hear the gory details. Catch you soon!


Dan:

You did what? Why didn't you tell me on the plane so I could mock you??!!?


Jas:

...

Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

I've finally left Canberra and I'm 24 hours into my month-long break. I'm already feeling slightly greasy from eating nothing but yum cha, pizza and ice-cream.

But, I'm sure you're here to read about more exciting adventures than junk food in Sydney.

Dan and I are off to France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland... but not in that particular order.

Actually, I think it's more like France, Germany, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, France; but I could be wrong.

As I write, Dan is putting the finishing touches on our itinerary, and it's subject to change. We'll keep you posted.

As you can imagine, I've already discovered I've packed too much. (Who wants to traipse marketing textbooks half-way across the world?) But, at the other extreme, Dan has not started packing at all... with 16 hours, 14 minutes and 47 seconds until our plane is scheduled to fly out.

That's ok, I have faith that these types of dilemmas always sort themselves out. I think it's the fourth law of thermodynamics.

Internet facilities permitting, I am looking forward to reporting next from our stopover location: Abu Dhabi.