The perfect Greek beach

Goodbye to Lugano and Switzerland and a short train trip to Chiasso, then Cernobbio by taxi to Hotel Asnigo, Again a fantastic aspect overlooking Lake Como, but a very steep path down to the town and the ferry. Back to Euros so a trip on the ferry to Como to sort that, but the banks closed at 4pm so just the autoteller. Como has a very fine duomo and square and a fine old shopping centre. The hotel had a good pool so that was the next stop. We had dinner on the terrace of the hotel on the promise of fireworks in honour of France’s National day. We were getting close to giving up at 11pm, but it was worth the wait as they were set up on a barge on the lake and were very spectacular

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A less steep path down to town and a side trip to see Ville D’Este, a very beautiful hotel for the beautiful people- a grand villa converted to an hotel in the 1800’s and with lovely gardens down to the lake. We got the ferry to Como and went to the Rubens exhibition, an excellent exhibition in a great old villa-Villa Olmo. The collection included some luxurious still lifes even with a yellow crested cockatoo in the middle of one, and the Circumcision of Christ, not often featured in religious paintings. Back for a siesta and a swim and we finished our sojourn in Italy at a high restaurant looking back over the lake to Como- a really spectacular aspect and good food too.

Friday Off to Athens

Hotel Novotel

The taxi as arranged at 8am and a slow trip to the airport, but no problems, Candy and Hal weren’t due to leave till 1.30 so goodbyes to them and the second instalment of our holiday. Switzerland and Italy have been great. Free seating with Easyjet and then the train into Athens- there is now a very good modern underground for Athens, which was easy to negotiate. We changed for Larissa and found the Novotel-recently refurbished with a swimming pool on the roof terrace and a great view of the Acropolis. Athens is such a white square city, sitting surrounded by barren hillsides, just as I remember it it still is special as the first Northern city we explored. We headed for the Plaka, via Syntagma Square, and in no time we were back in familiar territory not much changed from 32 years ago. We had a very pleasant meal to the bouzouki backdrop.

Saturday THE ISLAND CHIOS

Plane arrived Chios. As usual no children to meet us but before the luggage arrived Tim & Mary were there with wet hair just having a swim accross the road . Mary’s Birthday too So back to Aghia Georgiou and Marlon, Andrenicki and Julian at the house. Julian had 20 stitches just below his knee, a whole saga of rushing from one hospital to the next on a Sunday. We finished the day at Lithi, the idyllic Greek beach. just perfect Clear water , fine sand, sun lounges, the occasional coffee frappe

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Sunday Monday Tuesday

Lucerne to Lugano in 3 parts

A two hour ferry trip the length of Lake Lucerne, from Fluelen to Bellinzona quite a bit through tunnels, then regional train from Bellinzona to Lugano, arriving on a late Sunday afternoon with not many around. We didn’t find the funicular from the station down to the Old Town, so some anxiety about directions, pathways and so on, but soon at the Walter au Lac and fantastic aspect from our rooms over Lake Lugano . A drink in the square, then the next priority was to find a restaurant with good seats for the World Cup final. We did that and settled in for the night. I thought it was a very engrossing match and disappointed that Spain got their goal in extra time. This was temporarily overshadowed by a massive downpour. We waited and waited for a break but eventually gave up making our way back under the colonnades the best we could. It was very humid with lots of lightning across the lake, then the Spanish fans took to the streets with much car hooting and racing up and down outside our window. Fortunately they gave up pretty soon and went off to party.

Monday

First to tick off is Bellinzona capital of the Ticino canton. The trains are very frequent so we were there in 20 minutes. The town was just waking up, and World Cup shop windows were being dismantled. The Castle dominates the town, has extensive walls, a small museum going back to the stone ages, and restaurants but closed.We had lunch in the main square, and then back to Lugano Paradiso on a split moment decision to take the funicular up to Monte San Salvador Another 45 degree climb straight up the mountain to a restaurant with a great view of both arms of Lake Lugano, limited for us by the fact the restaurant had stopped serving and our legs were still recovering from Mount Pilatus. Candy and Hal went for a swim in the lake, we went for a siesta. We had dinner on the edge of the lake near the Public Gardens

Tuesday

An attempt to get a better handle on Lugano but when we thought we had found the Art Gallery in a very fine Villa, it was closed for renovation. There was an exhibition on Unite, but with no English interpretation it was pretty difficult to make sense of. One room was set up which looked very like the Macaroni Factory. We started wandering around the shops and with the start of the sale season there was some serious shopping going on.. Our big expedition for the day was to go around to Morcotte on the bus to eat in a “grotto” restaurant. Morcotte is on the lake and the recommended restaurant was just a pleasant local restaurant looking out on the lake, with a cool breeze blowing. We caught the last ferry back to Lugano at 10pm, a good way to end a night out.

Wednesday Thursday

Hot el Asnigo Great view of Lake Como, good swimming pool

Bern and Lucerne Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

World Cup fever is everywhere - chocolate shops, and even optometists

Our visit to Bern started with a steep walk up to The Garden of Roses (Rosengarten), from which a great panoramic view of the medieval town centre was achieved at a cost. World Cup fever is reaching a high point and we watched Germany beat Uraquay at the Hotel Bern after having difficulty finding a restaurant not swamped with viewers. .

Bern is a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage listed City and the City Centre is largely medieval next morning we collected audioguides from the Tourist Office and visited all the main sites. Perhaps its most famous sight is an elaborate medieval clock tower with moving puppets. It also has an impressive 15th century Gothic cathedral, and a 15th century town hall. Thanks to 6 kilometers of arcades, the old town boasts one of the longest covered shopping promenades in Europe. Albert Einstein also lived in an apartment in Berne, from 1903 to 1905is still a highly regarded citizen.

Since the 16th century, the city has had a bear pit, just on the edge of the Old Town. The extended and renewed pit actually contains four bears, including two young, who were playing happily while we watched.

We then returned for a guided tour of the National parliament, built from 1857 to 1902, For a country the size of Victoria, and with a similar population, they have 200 politicians in the lower house and 46 in an Upper House like our senate. They also have several referendum each year But the best feature is the set of fountains in front of the Parliament. Small children were having great fun as it was a very hot day.

On to Ascona Saturday Sunday Monday

Zermatt Tuesday

An easy introduction to Switzerland- fast train to Locarno, lunch by Lago Maggorie, ferry to Ascona with our hotel Art Hotel Riposa in the pedestrianised section of town and very cute. The Jazz festival was competing with the World Cup for attention. We settled for the World Cup- Paraguay v. Germany at a waterfront bar, and Germany went on to the semi final. Our hotel had a marvelous roof top terrace looking out on the lake , with swimming pool, served aperitifs at 6pm, then dinner in their restaurant. There was a very regular set of guests, who were very well managed. On Sunday we decided to ‘do’ the Jazz festival , starting with a concert in the piazza.

Everything was very accessible, bands roaming the street, music in restaurants spilling out on to the street. We had lunch at one of the participating restaurant and had a whole afternoon of Jazz-Paris Washboard. We looked for something similar for dinner, but ended at a lovely garden restaurant on the waterfront with jazz piano as a backdrop.

On Monday we visited the Isole Madre and Isola Bella by ferry calling at Intra and Stresa

At Isola Madre the Palazzo Borromeo was built in the sixteenth century, and surrounded by impressive gardens, covering eight hectares constructed in the English style and begun in the eighteenth century… There is one of the earliest camellia collections in Italy, parrots and peacocks, a family chapel, constructed 1858 and a notable palm collection, with specimens up to 125 years old.Then on to the piece d’resistance Isola Bella.Carlo III. Borromeo began to level the rocks and create on the island a palace for his wife in the 17th Century, The works continued till 1958 following the original plan.

Isola Bella is now one of the major tourist attractions on Lake Maggiore. The stately palace dominates one side of the island, while its elaborate, ten-tiered baroque-style gardens fill the opposite side. Connecting the two areas is the shell grotto. The series of six rooms were first conceived in 1685, by Vitaliano the Sixth, with the aid of the architect Filippo Cagnulo. It took 100 years to complete them. In the cavern-like coolness, now as then, the rooms provide a refuge from the summer heat. Every inch of space, including ceilings, floors, and archways, is covered in a mosaic of black and white shells and pebbles.

We left from Lucarno by train over very steep mountains, back through Italy, then coming back into Switzerland at Brig, where we took the Glacier Express to Zermatt, the closest town to theatterhorn. Not the highest in the Alps but truly specd Swiss walkers. We went up on the cog railway to the glaciers and the view was breathtaking. People were just about speaking in a whisper it was so awe- inspiring. But this image is what it looked like from our bedroom window. Zermatt is a lovely picture postcard town with no cars and stone houses .The mushroom caps stop the vermin getting into the storerooms

Hong Kong & Milan

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Hong Kong & Milan

We had a fun day with Pam and Stan, going to Stanley market and back to the Jumbo Restaurant at Aberdeen for lunch, then finishing the day at the Intercontinental. It rained most of the day and was very humid. They met us he night before at our hotel,

and had booked dinner at the Hutong, which was a great success. A wonderful place to see the light show and great food."This stunning restaurant, is about as far from a real hutong as you can get, since it's located on the 28

th floor of a strikingly modern high-rise. The restaurant has a down-to-earth yet dramatic setting, with red lanterns providing the only splash of color against a

dark, muted interior, and with birdcages everywhere -- hanging from the ceiling, decorating tables, and silhouetted against windows" The Beggar's Chicken was fantastic.

They went off to New York and we had another great food experience.We went to the cheapest Michelin restaurant in the world Tim Ho Wan, which means "Add Good Luck", and seats only 20 people in its tiny dining room. We had to queue for an hour but the dim sum were terrific. We handed the waitress a paper menu with our dish choices circled in pen, and were seated elbow to elbow at a long table crammed with other diners, the clatter of the kitchen to our backs. The Hong Kong restaurant is headed by Mak Pui Gor, the former dim sum chef at the Four Seasons Hotel, where he worked at the three Michelin-starred restaurant Lung King Heen. The chef decided during the economic crisis to branch out on his own and offer his dishes at bargain prices. It cost us $8 for 2 people.

Milan Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday

The overnight flight was OK and our hotel Palazzo delle Stelline was where we remembered it opposite the Church of the Last Supper and even better our rooms were ready at 9.30am. The hotel was just as it was in1984, which isn't surprising as it started as a monastary in the 15th century.So soon we were on the tram into the centre to the Galleria Victor Emmanual and the Duomo, just as stunning as ever. I hope you remember this Nicole

The shoes are for Dulcie and Stacey-

they are the latest in Milan

The weather was really hot and steamy so we fell quickly into the Italian siesta mode.Later in the day we did a canal trip The history ofMilan is closely connected with the system of canals, that pass through the whole city. .

The oldest canal Naviglio Grande takes its water from the Ticino river. Tha canal was constructed from 1177 to 1257 and is about 50 km long. In the past it was used as transporting goods, particularly for the blocks of marble that were used for building the Cathedral.

Typical, old Milan houses, old wash-houses with wooden beamed roofs and craftsmen’s workshops are still there. Today you find boutiques and artists of Milan, cafes, restaurants and old moored barges fitted out as bars.

So off to Switzerland First stop Ascona

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