For those of you who have been to the Amalfi Coast, I'm sure the roads will be a major memory for you. They are not fun at a all! Winding and narrow with a drop on one side and the cliff on another, with cars parked, bikes sticking out and people wandering all over the road seemingly not bothered by cars whipping by them. And couple that with driving on the wrong side of the road (which ironically is the right side!), in a car which I cannot judge in width, with buses driving blind and crazy drivers blindly overtaking at corners. Not fun!
Basically, if you go, make sure it's for a decent length of time so you minimise your driving! But definitely go. What a place. At some point every day, Amanda and I said 'I wonder how they built that?' as the buildings into and on the cliff are stunning. It is a visual spectacle. And great fun too. We basically wandered, sunbathed, ate and drank. We needed to relax after the roads!!!
The towns are like nothing else I've seen. Literally, houses, cafes, hotels and anything else a town requires are all simply built into the rocks, or jutting out precariously. It makes for stunning scenery but some of the steps to get to places are a killer! We walked past one skinny gap in the road that led to somewhere way up on the cliff and we genuinely couldn't see the top of the stairs. The car park is at ground level. Imagine doing thousands of stairs with your shopping and then remembering you left the keys in the car!!!
The view from our balcony. Needless to say, it never got boring. And there was so much to explore. Around the bend by the jetty you can see were more cafes and bars hidden by the cliff.
The life! We perched ourselves on the water's edge and enjoyed a bubbly, a read and the occasional swim when it got too hot. The water was lovely! A tad cold, but well worth a dip.
Just cooled off. Actually, I just went for a pee but still a lovely swim :-)
After Amalfi and braving the roads again, we went to Rome for our final night in Italy. We hit the favourite spots of the Castel St. Angelo, the Trevi, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, which included plenty of wine and stunning food. What fun we had that day, topping off an amazing 3 week blast in Italy. Rome with my family, then Florence, Verona, Lake Garda, Venice, San Gimignano, Umbria, Positano and the Amalfi Coast and finally back to Rome. In total we drove 1,606 kilometres and loved every minute.
Salute and grazie! Ciao Italy!
From Italy we flew to Oman and stayed at the Six Senses Zighy Bay. Despite it being unbelievably hot (40+ every day!) and being Ramadan and therefore having most things closed during the day, it was a great 5 days. Lovely staff, a gorgeous resort and so relaxing. Although I was teaching the staff about scorpions and snakes, we slept a lot, swam a lot (in our chilled pool) and basically relaxed. Not that we needed it, it was still stunning! :-)
The lens built up condensation when you took it from the AC to the heat, hence the cloudy corner. This is our pool next to the relaxing outside area...
The resort pool although no one used it while we were there!
Our villa. What a cracking place!!!
After Oman, we spent a fantastic night with Emma and Jeremy who are always the greatest hosts. In their beautiful place in Dubai, we enjoyed wine, beer and steak, as well as great conversation. Thanks guys for an awesome night.
The morning saw Amanda sick with a hangover...not the best prep for a business class flight on the A380 but she struggled through with a Moet as we got on board!
Early on Friday morning of the 12th of August, we arrived in Sydney to freezing weather and a miserable emirates driver! Welcome to Australia!!! But thankfully Hayley was home to greet us and keep us awake all day and it got better from then on. Hayley did a great job of welcoming us to Oz and keeping us awake, albeit with help from red wine and champagne!!!
And what a weekend we've had. We went house hunting, bought a car (a stunning black BMW) and saw the final Harry Potter movie in gold class. Sydney is looking good if it continues this way! Although ideally it would be warmer, but for now, we can get used to Sydney and will happily call it home. For the next few years anyway.... then it's TOAL 3.... who knows where that will be??!
Thank you to my wonderful wife for being a great travel partner, and for organising the trip. It really deserved the title TOAL: it was a Trip Of A Lifetime.
Thank you all for reading. I've really appreciated sharing our trip with you.
Marhaba, ciao and g'day!
Dave Canavan MSc
www.thechingchokhunter.com
Location:Concord St,Erskineville,Australia
No comments:
Post a Comment