Chateaux of Loire Valley [Part 2]

Saturday, 28th July '12 cont...
I was very sleepy on the second half of the day, which was unfortunate, as the afternoon session involved longer visits to much, much larger castles. I was lazier with my pictures, so there might not be as much as there should be.

Visit #3: Chambord

This is the biggest of all the Chateaus in the Loire Valley. It's probably the most famous because it's quite distinctive with it's blend of French Renaissance. It's built on a huge plot of land and was used as a hunting lodge and has something like 1,200 stables. It's also said that Leonardo da Vinci had a hand in designing it. It's also famous for having a double helix staircase, and it's pretty sick, I will admit that.

Visit #4: Chenonceau
This was the last castle to visit. It was getting late, my feet were tired, my eyes were tired, my brain was tired... but it turns out to be my favourite. The gardens were just beautiful and it had a huge 16th century farm where vegetables and flowers were grown. The Chateau, although small, is built over a mother-effing lake. How much cooler does it get than that?

It was also the only place that appeared to be a little more substantially furnished and was clean, well signed and well-lit. It was very beautiful.

It's history is sort of hilarious, it's been passed to all types of different women, with so much drama. Bequeathed originally to the official mistress of the king, and then when the king died, the queen kicked the wench out of the house and then, between them, a lot of the gardens and everything were added. Uh, French aristocratic bitch fights. I like it.

Chateaux of Loire Valley [Part 1]

Saturday, 28th July '12
Today has just been the longest day in all the world, I swear. Woke up early in the morning to head for the first season of castle-viewing. We organised to join a tour that drove us to the various places and we were given free reign to look around.

Visit 1: Clos Luce 
First place we visited was Clos Luce, the smallest of all the castles. It was really just a small manor, but it was made famous as it was the home of Leonard da Vinci in the years before he died. He's actually buried in the nearby Chateau Amboise, which was surprising to me.

Clos Luce was also the site of the first Italian renaissance garden.

Visit 2: Amboise
Second place was not far down the road. It was originally (I think) a medieval castle built on the hill right by the river as a fortress. It was strategically built as it was easy to defend and also meant that the owners had control of the river.

Years later the Chateau was seized by a French king as the previous owner had been convicted by conspiracy. It was then improved upon and underwent a Renaissance transformation and became a Royal Residence.

Later it fell into disrepair and a later owner actually stripped down a large portion of the castle and sold it as raw building material, so that castle that is there currently is only a fraction of what used to be there.

It was much larger than the previous, but not larger than the two we visited in the afternoon. A lot of the rooms were very sparsely furnished and quick to walk through, but I really enjoyed the gardens and the grounds, and the view from the top of the Chateau was amazing, we could see the entire town of Amboise as well as the Loire river. The view itself was worth every Euro spent today. Very beautiful. 

From there we had some lunch just by the entrance to the castle. The food was quite delicious, I had savoury pancakes and Sarah had some sweet crepes. But the wait staff there were so rude and took so long not only to take our order, but then to give us the food. Boo on them.

Next post will be the afternoon session, and you can view all my photos from the morning under the "read more" section. Enjoy :)

Tours, France - [Part 1]

Thursday, 26th July '12
From Nice we travelled all the way to Paris Gare de Lyon, to then travel two hours back towards Tours. We got super lost in Paris, missed our transfer and through some magic and kindness from a random lady and a bus driver... we finally go there. Had to wait 45 minutes or so for the next train but we were so sweaty and hungry and tired anyway, we just sat outside for the time and recovered. We didn't arrive into Tours until late. We looked all around the train station for our hotel, me KNOWING our hotel should be right outside. Nothing, and when I asked somebody they were like "that's like 5km away." I am so confused right then. Eventually we find a taxi and take a taxi to our hotel, which is right in front of the train station. We'd got off one stop too far.

The ironic thing is that we ALMOST got off at the right station, and then didn't, cause thought we were at the wrong station. We suck.

Friday, 27th July '12

Today started off lazy, slow and continued without any direction. But I enjoyed it none-the-less. After trying to watch GSL live and giving up, Sarah and I had some breakfast and headed into the centre of Tours. We went to the tourist centre and organised some tours etc and had some lunch.

After lunch we literally just walked around Tours for hours and just stumbled into a whole bunch of pretty cathedrals and streets.

 One of the most detailed and epic gothic Cathedrals I've ever seen... and that's a lot.

 A shop of all forms of delicious. 

 Around 6:30 we had some dinner. We keep trying to find a traditional French restaurant, but we keep finding Italian, Chinese, Indian... so frustrating. And we can just never read the menu. Ugh. Each meal time is a guessing game and then crossing fingers that what comes to us is delicious.

 Roast chicken with Thyme. The beans were made in a strong frypan of delicious. Garlic, parsley, butter, all things good. The chicken... hardly any thyme flavour and super dry. I couldn't even eat half, so unpalatable. BUT THOSE BEANS.

Sarah was freaked out by the yolk haha. 

Nice, France

Tuesday, 24th July '12
Alrighty, after our snooze fest in Lyon, we headed down to Nice. The train ride was quite lovely, going along the coast through Cannes etc. It was very beautiful. I also listened to an audiobook, The Song of Achilles. It was a nice little story. I liked it.

Anyway, back to the point. We got to Nice after a long train ride, arrive at the station and get told by the taxi driver that our hostel is 'right around the corner'. One and a half hours later, we arrive at our hostel, and we're both frustrated, pms-y and edgy. The hostel turns out to be extremely shoddy. We're told the elevator "should" work, while checking in the power goes out, and the hostel room is filled with plastic furniture. Sarah becomes super upset, making snide remarks about the room and about Nice and I get pissed off because she's making me feel like everything is my fault and I just feel like she doesn't appreciate how much time goes into organising a trip like this. I'm seething with rage, and then she starts to cry and I feel like the biggest bitch in the whole world.

We both have a bit of a whinge session to each other, complain to our dad and then go for a walk to find dinner. Over dinner we apologise to each other and work out a plan of attack for the rest of the stay.

Wednesday, 25th July '12
Alrighty, we wake up in the morning feeling a bit more refreshed, ready to spend the day on the beach. The weather is perfect. We walk down the main road towards the beaches, have breakfast on our way and eventually find ourselves at the beach.

There's no sand at the beach, but these huge ass rocks. They're alright to lie on, but a pain in the butt to walk on, especially when coming out of the ocean! My God!

We spent the day lying on the beach, alternating with each other to go swim in the water. It was so cold going in, but then, when you got used to it, it was so refreshing. Guh, it was so hot that day. I even lay in the sun, imagine that, my pasty, reflective skin. It was new. I am now a slightly less pasty shade of pale.

(Excuse the photos, didn't want to risk bringing my camera with to the beach so used my phone for these pics.)

Lyon... zzzZZZZ

Monday, 23rd July 2012

Incredible, actually writing a blog entry on the same day everything happened!! Unfortunately, this is because today has been a massive Z-fest. We took a train from Geneva to Lyon. Managed to find our hostel after a drink in some dingy bar. Apparently they had good coffee. I was more interested in free wifi. Yay! 

After dropping off luggage, Sarah and I walked around for a while looking for a library and a chocolate shop lonely planet told me I should go to... as we walked past, the entire place was like a ghost town. It was so empty!! Everything was closed, ughhh. Such a waste of the day. 

On the upside, we got some delicious dessert. And here are the few photos I did take today. 

Geneva & Yvoire

Saturday, 21st July '12 - Geneva
We have so much stuff, it's ridiculous. I definitely bought too much stuff... as always, but I can't possibly think what I shouldn't have bought... ugh. We've been getting along well, we've snapped at each other a few times when we've been moody but we haven't taken anything to heart... yet! Let's hope it keeps going like that... haha


Arrived in Geneva and found Mike alright, went home and dropped off our stuff, changed into something more weather appropriate, had lunch and then we we were dropped off in the centre of Geneva. Sarah and I walked around for a while, found the flower clock, looked for the church in the Old Town. Eventually it became too cold to keep walking and we waited for Mike to pick us up. We went for dinner and had traditional Swiss fondue, melted cheese with bread and yum and cheese and yum.

Interlaken, Switzerland

Friday, 20th July '12 

From Konstanz we travelled to Interlaken in Switzerland. I think Sarah was just as hypnotised by the place. it as I remember before, and I still, to this moment, do not believe a place like that can really exist. It really is Just too beautiful and magical to be real.

We couldn't do much once there as it POURED with rain basically the entire time. We essentially just had some dinner and headed back and got an early night. I think the main thing was the train ride in, and being able to see everything as we drove past.

Traditional Swizz Roesti. Everything bad for you, in a pan, so gooood. 

We both had some Roesti for dinner, but I ordered WAY too much food and I hardly touched it because I'd already eaten all this bread beforehand. It's at times like this that I genuinely hate myself. I just wasted so much food and money. So sad :(

Konstanz, Deutschland

Wednesday, 18th July '12 

The train ride to Konstanz took basically the whole day, we didn't arrive until the late afternoon. We essentially just settled in at the apartment we'd rented for the two days and had a shower and then went for a walk until we found a nice restaurant for dinner.

We found a Spanish pub type place in the Altstadt and the food was SO GOOD. I cannot actually describe how delicious it was. And we spoke with one of the locals sitting next to us and he told us a bit about the town, it was nice.

We had dinner at the place to the right. It was delicious. 

Thursday, 19th July '12
The day was spent just walking around Konstanz. We walked along the river in the morning and found a small little bakery in the Altstadt for breakfast. We visited the Gothic Church in the centre of the Altstadt. After that we walked around a bit more, looked at a few more of the buildings and then went for a small shop in Karstadt. Afterwards we walked towards the Harbour and from there we saw the Imperia Statue and had lunch at a fancy pants restaurant near the water. Sarah had a roasted chicken salad and the chicken was like... spiced with magic dust. It just tasted so good and it was perfectly succulent and just everything and more. I, on the other hand, had Spaezle and it was super average and bland. There as well people helped Sarah with the menu, I think she knows now how god damn NICE all the germans are! haha

After that we thought about going for a swim, but the weather had cooled down a little so instead we just had an ice cream and headed back. We found a secluded little pub in the Altstadt again for dinner and shared a rump steak with chips and these delicious fried potato things. The food took ages, but it was really nice, so all was forgiven.

Huge ass church, it was actually very, very beautiful inside. Very elaborate.