So much happening.

Early start yesterday got me down to the Lipizzaner stud farm at lipica in southern Slovenia where they bred the first Lipizzaner horses and have been doing so since. I booked the horse whisperer deal which after watching a young ladies skills with four horses allowed those who wanted to venture into the ring with just the one horse where we were shown how to interact with this beautiful animal. Of course the little girls in the group mobbed the poor beast but it was a privilege to share some time with him.

 The scenic journey from Lipica to Venice turned into a bit of a saga but i arrived eventually in time to book in then head of to Mestre town square for a well deserved beer and a prolonged spell of people watching so muchso that I stayed at the same table for three beers and a pasta dinner.

One of the advantages of travelling

Today was a wonderful day, I had arranged to meet Barbara and my god-daughter Ruby in Venice where they would be spending the day ashore from their cruise ship after Ruby and Paul had been married at sea. I was far too precipitous in thinking that they would be ashore early so I bought a day ticket for the vaperetto and spent some time just cruising the canals and then visiting the Leonardo da Vinci museum (well worth a visit) before i met them of the boat. It was lovely to see them all especially as i hadn't seen Jodie for years and never met her children or the husbands, a totally joyous occasion and the rain that had threatened held off.

I was back at my table in Mestre this evening for more of the same except I had the pizza in place of the pasta but i was welcomed as a friend and the bill was noticeably less, strange how these things happen isn't it?

Innsbruck to Bled

The Hungerburgbahn, a funicular railway, takes you over the Inn river and then the Nordkette cable car whisks you up to nearly 7000 feet above sea level all in less than 30 minutes, it took a lot of tourists in shorts,T shirts and flip flops by surprise even though you could see from the city the snow lying on the tops of the mountains. 

The cross at the peak.

Yesterday i decided to take the scenic route from Innsbruck to Lake Bled via the Brenner pass and looping down through Italy, it was certainly scenic but the amount of roadworks and other hold ups added an unconscionable amount of time to the journey and i was charged tolls for the pass itself part of the autoroute and the tunnel into Slovenia as well as another Toll Vignette, an expensive decision.

The difference in the accommodation between the two places is astonishing especially as they are priced the same, I will not bore you with the details but I am polishing up my review skills for Trip Adviser and Booking.com. Bled is a beautiful place but very touristy and there seems to be a lot of work going on to make it more so, I circumnavigated the lake on foot today which seems to be a popular pastime especially by people on wheels. The different forms of wheeled transport I have seen on this trip are amazing, not only bicycles of all the usual forms but also recumbent and semi-recumbent cycles and weird bikes that have what looks like a gym style stepper as a means of propulsion. Electric bikes have taken off hugely and I am beginning to see how effective they can be especially for us fogies who may need a little assistance where inclines are involved. I have also seen a variety of scooters from children's to adult some with electric power and some with full bicycle sized wheels.

My landlord recommended a local restaurant for last night, the food was as usual far too plentiful but so good, I will be going back there again tonight. On to Venice tomorrow via Lipica which is home to the Lipizzaner stud if I can find it.

Bavaria to the Tyrol.

My last day in Munich was a bit of of a failure, I blame my lack of research but both the old and the new art galleries were closed for one reason or another and the planned visit to the BMW experience was delayed for nearly 2 hours due to the late start of one of the underground lines so I pampered Magda and took the rest of the day off, enjoying an Italian lunch in an Asian fast food joint and finishing the day off with souvlaki in a local restaurant.
Yesterday I planned a route to Innsbruck avoiding major roads and under advice from the google maps lady the journey took me through some beautiful countryside with stunning views, I will try to attach some photos of them later. I arrived in Innsbruck by lunchtime and went straight to tourist information for all the facts, the first one I learnt was parking is at a premium and you can pay through the nose for it, having said that I dumped the car on the outskirts of town and used my newly purchased Innsbruck card which gave me free transport on local buses plus the hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus along with free entry to most of the interesting sites. My first free tour was a walking tour of the old city with Barbara, poor girl I was the only attendee so she had to put up with my inane questions for an hour and a half, her tour was informative and she also gave me loads of advice about transport, parking, what to see and more importantly what not to see. After that I managed to drag myself to the court church which was planned as a tomb for one of the emperors but the highlight of the visit is the 28 larger than life bronze figures who line both sides of the tomb including KING ARTHUR???? What I don’t understand is that there is a local superstition that touching parts of these highly patinated bronze figures will bring you luck, fertility, or whatever but it is quite startling to see the figure representing Juliet in Munich with one golden breast where the rest of the figure is virtually black with age or one of the monarchs in the the tomb with a golden codpiece.
Today’s exploration was an example of how things can go with an organised transportation system, free parking if you use the train and buses to everywhere you could ever want to go, even with a late start I managed a prolonged visit to the Ambras Castle which from a military point of view, think of knight’s weapons and armour, was informative and 15th century children paintings were frankly disturbing. My next stop was a multi interest site but the highlight was the Bergisel ski jump (no pun intended), while I was there I watched some young German teenager jump, no snow and just some wet fake grass to land on, in my opinion  a loony. The view from there is amazing and it makes you proud to know the Eddie the Eagle managed a jump of over 75 metres but more importantly his photograph is there with all the other record holders.

The view from the sundeck in my hotel in Innsbruck

The view Eddie the Eagle had, the area immediately behind the green patch at the bottom is the cemetery.

Add caption

Reservoir on the rout to the Brenner pass

Where to start.

I have been travelling, no wifi or having fun for the past few days so i will have to drag my mind back to Thursday. I had an early start so even with refreshment breaks I was in Canterbury by 1pm to explore the cathedral then on to my quirky B&B in Dover right next to the ferry port, after a Guinness in Cullin's Yard a pub/restaurant overlooking the marina I hit a back street chippy 'The Castle Takeaway' with tables outside for a real treat, proper fish and chips at a reasonable price. The B&B had a double and single bed, two settees, a full kitchen including freezer and dishwasher but most of all a 7 foot mirror in an ornate gold frame opposite the bed, fortunately the lights were out on my mid-night trip to the loo otherwise I would have frightened myself to death.

The War Horse, to honour the millions of horses that died in France during the Great War.

Another early start on Friday saw me on the ferry an hour earlier which was a bonus as the continent is currently and hour in front of the UK so after a leisurely full fry I was on the road just after 10am. the route took me through Boring Belgium, less than interesting Luxembourg and parts of the French eastern border that does not have a lot to recommend it but the the Vosges changed the whole perspective then just across the border into Germany and it was all immaculate, welcoming and felt like coming home. After nearly 8 hours behind the wheel my B&B that night was perfect except for no wifi but a night without is no great hardship and it was more than made up for by the beautiful little pedestrianised town of Neuburgen am Mulhouse with a pavement restaurant the served me good local food and beer with a charming lack of laughter at my appalling German. Saturday's start was delayed by breakfast but a non-motorway route from Neuburgen to Munich took me through the scenic countryside and villages that really need more investigation, the last 100kms is by necessity on autobahn but most of it is limited to 80km/h so still relaxing until you hit city traffic then it is less fun but I was safe at my hotel by 3pm.
The local/underground train service in Munich is as expected efficient and you never wait more than 10 minutes, there are stations either side of my hotel both less than 5 minutes walk away and with a three day pass for around £15 who needs a car. I went down town exploring yesterday afternoon and as usual got lost but i got my bearings in the end and found myself being served large beers by well presented young ladies, I tried the local speciality Schweinebraten mit nudeln the two hunks of roast pork would have fed a family of four and the nudeln was a cricket ball sized lump of bread dumpling with very little taste I was thankful I had packed the Rennies. Today's highlight was a Sandeman's free walking tour around the city, obviously there is no charge and the guide works only for tips which means he is an informative performer and well worth the tips he was given, they offer tours in other cities in Europe, the US and in the UK, well worth a try. Stupidly I carried on with the walking and visited the English Garden, another place worth a visit either on foot or by bicycle but not as I did on a sunny Sunday, the food and drink places were mobbed.

The Eisbach River flows at speed through the English Garden

and people leap in to be swept down stream

Googling food where i am staying took me to a bar/restaurant attached to a local sports club which was celebrating their team's winter season achievements, great entertainment the longer the evening went on and the owner kept buying me beers because the food was so slow in arriving, I tipped him enough to cover what should have been the bill. 
Well I am now up to date, plans for tomorrow are still fluid so watch this space.

last day.

It is definitely time to pack my case and head home, I have just used my last teabag.

Yesterday’s Piton nature trek was interesting google hike the Tet Paul Nature Trail and click on uncommoncaribbean.com the description is a little over the top but the guy writing it is American so that is to be expected. The hike is not difficult and it lets you get really great views without too much effort, to keep costs down catch the Vieux Fort bus from Soufriere and walk up to the start of the trail, about half an hour up, the trek including a guide is only US$ 10.00.

I have been for my last coffee at Zaka’s so time to shower, pack the case and catch my transfer to the airport, due to get home tomorrow at 3pm if I make all the right connections.

No rugby in St Lucia

I had high hopes of catching the Six Nations rugby this weekend either at a local sports bar of on the TV in my accommodation which runs on an Amazon Firestick but no, I signed up to BBC Sport and iPlayer but their programmes are not available here. I saw that the French only turned up for the first half of their game against Wales that should give the Welsh boys some momentum beating The French on their home ground.

Yesterday was enjoyable doing a little bartering with the street vegetable sellers and generally meeting the locals, I also went up another hill to view the Toraille Waterfall $3 entry to view a very unspectacular waterfall which is hyped into a refreshing plunge for the tourists however, the

locals tell me the the village upslope from the waterfall use the stream for all their grey water so I did not join in the experience.

Today is a rest day and is the first day with no rain, so far, but to be honest the showers are usually very brief and it is no problem to stand under a banan plant or something similar to avoid the heavier downpours. I have taken a photograph of a beautiful rainbow, I hope it comes out well when I download it.

It’s all uphill.

Soufriere is located in the caldera of a hopefully extinct volcano consequently any walks are going to be uphill so today’s adventure took me up a long mile and a half hill to Morne Coubaril estate where Noelle took me for an informative tour of the estate what really interested me was the simple way sugar cane was milled and how complicated is the process of getting cocoa from the pod to the finished product and then there was the whole coconut/copra story. It was an excellent tour,  I tasted herbs, freshly squeezed sugar from the cane, raw cocoa beans and the finished roasted bean as well as coconut water, heart of coconut and the flesh itself, there was no need for lunch after all that.
After the tour I explored the rest of the estate which offers highly priced tours on horseback or by zip line to bus loads of tourists from the cruise ships and the resorts in the north of the island. The zip lines are well laid out and run through the rain forest, the horses are really healthy looking and very amiable when I went and said hello even though I had no carrots.

Because of all the ripoffs of the cruise passengers and tourists from their highly priced resorts the costs of transport, accommodation and dining in the town is really OTT, I was enquiring about taxi fares to the start of a walk I would like to do, the first offer I had was £90.00 for a 6 km return journey so far the cheapest I can get it is £29.00, basic main meals off plastic tablecloths in a restaurant on the harbour are over £40. I had one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten tonight at a local joint for under £7 and the beer was half the price it is in town plus I got to meet Rusty who besides running his own small farm hand carves various rocks, shells etc to make jewellery, between us we put the world to rights over a few beers.

I haven’t made plans for tomorrow yet but I have to get back here by 4pm for the start of the 6 Nations rugby.