Our Grand Tour

We've enjoyed spending today in Bologna.  It is a city of colonnades. In fact 38  km of them. Our hotel is in a colonnade and is very comfortable. The next bit of information is for Sebastian.  We had a lovely breakfast this morning and guess what....there was cake for breakfast.   In fact 4 different kinds,  chocolate, coconut,  jam tarts and muffins. You could have as many as you wanted! Tomorrow I will try and take a photo for you. Bologna is an interesting city. Lots of history, medieval walls, ancient  churches, designer shops and literally  100s of restaurants.   We took an open top bus tour.  We have walked and walked. We went to the museum and AGAIN the Roman section was closed for refurbishment! There was a very good Egyptian section and I'm sending Sebastian photos so he can translate the hieroglyphics ! We ate Italian ice cream and Peter pushed the boat out and had strawberry as well as the us...

It is hard to describe today and do it justice.   After breakfast in our hotel in Chur (Switzerland) we crossed the road to catch the Bernina Express.  We were sitting in one of the observation carriages with windows going into the roof. We had a lovely clear day for our 4.5 hour journey through the alps. It is a World Heritage railway and we had altered our original route to do it. We were not disappointed!  I hope you all get a chance to do it. Especially those of you who are better photographers.  I will put in a few photos but the reality far far outshone these feeble attempts. From the summit. At several points the track was so curved we could see the front and the back  of the train at the same time. After our ride through the alps we caught a couple of trains via Tirano (Italy) and Milan and are now in Bologna for 2 nights. First impressions are very good and we've had an excellent meal. Ive photographed the menu fo...

We have been travelling for a couple of days now but haven't posted much because my phone battery went down and there was nowhere to charge it and Peter has forgotten all his passwords! We enjoyed our ferry across the North Sea and had a quick walk in Amsterdam before catching a train to Cologne. Amsterdam train station. We loved Cologne. The gothic cathedral is amazing.  No photo can do it justice. Impressive from the outside it also takes your breath away inside. It took over 600 years to build. The mosaic floors are beautifully detailed but its the soaring height and the windows which so impressed. Many of the windows are modern and not trying to be anything other They were replaced after the war . We enjoyed sitting by the Rhine in the sun  drinking cold beer. There were loads of those long river cruise boats tied up. Unfortunately we didn't see the Roman History museum as its being refurbished.  And sorry Laurence we didnt have time for the art museum. How...

We left yesterday by taxi to Durham, train to Newcastle and then took the dedicated DFDS bus from outside the station (who knew?).  Our ferry from Port of Tyne was full of Dutch people who had spent a day shopping in Newcastle.  Mostly stocking up on clothes and shoes.  They all have big suitcases! We couldn't update on the ferry as it was much too expensive so we will attach some photos now. Newcastle Station. Including one for Sebastian of the smallest shower/bathroom ever. You could have sat on the loo to have your shower. Haha. Arrived today in Amsterdam .

Well we are almost ready. We have worked our way through lists of things to do and have even crossed off all the other things we'd added. Peter says he is keeping the list on his computer for next time. The garden is looking nice and the apples and pears have done well this year. Hope they are still there when we get back. Just have to bring my house plants back indoors as the nights are getting cold. One of the xmas cacti is confused and has started to flower. Get your map ready Sebastian....

We have been planning our Grand Tour for a long time. We are very excited (probably over excited) and packed our cases 3 weeks ago! This wasn't as odd as it seems because we decided to travel light and just take hand luggage size cases. We don't want to be lugging heavy cases around with us. But making that decision has meant we've had to plan carefully what clothes we will need.  We will let you know if we were successful or if we look dishevelled. Peter has spent hours looking up all the places we will visit and deciding which are the must see museums! And I have been deciding where  are the must eat restaurants! We're taking Kindles not books and I have been instructed to load mine up so I don't want to talk to Peter all the time! As if... So we leave on Wednesday.

We are taking time to prepare for our Grand Tour. As part of the preparation we are creating a blog so that any family member who wants to follow us can do. And we aren't clogging up whatsapp. Sebastian is going to be following us on a map so we will try and post photos of each stop.