Interlude in Bologna

Sensory overload – what a place! But, backing up a bit, we arrived in Bologna on Monday evening.. We left Switzerland looking forward to returning to Italy. Switzerland was certainly very beautiful but there is something indefinable about Italy – you either love it (like us) or hate it (like our Swiss friend Walter). We left Spiez on a fast train south to Brig and then through the Simplon tunnel into Italy. Unfortunately they were working on the line so we were transferred to a bus to Domodossola and then back onto a train to Milan. With all the delay we still managed to arrive on time in Milan. Speed limits must have been broken!

Our trip from Milan to Bologna later that day was very impressive on a very new Italian train. Over 200kms in 1 hour. The tracks were dead straight most of the way, double glazing made it very silent, and when you flashed past cars on the motorway you realized that you were going fast. At one point the speedo in the carriage clocked up 300 km/hr. Also on the motorway were several huge traffic jams as people headed back from holidays on the coast.

As it is the quiet season in Italian cities (they’re all on holiday at the coast) there are many hotel bargains. We picked one up via booking.com for 120 Euros for two nights in a nice 3 star hotel including big breakfasts. And only a 20 minute stroll to the centre of town. Of course, we never get anywhere walking in 20 minutes – too many stops for picture-taking!

Typical covered shopping street

All we know about Bologna, apart from being the major rail gateway in northern Italy, is that it is red (so many of the old buildings were made from brick), it is home to the oldest university in the world, and graffiti appears to be a compulsory local pastime. The pavements along the shopping streets are covered walkways and there are numerous old buildings. Around the centre it is hard to know where to look as there are huge churches and civic buildings everywhere. And the outlying streets take you down covered walkways past museums and university buildings to the old city walls.

Sadly so many of the monuments and buildings are covered in graffiti with no respect given for their age. Possibly the downside of having so many students around.

It was our first opportunity to act like complete tourists for a (short) period, rather than staying with locals. We enjoyed the location and our first evening meals out since leaving England. Superb and cheap pizzas and pastas. One more day would have been better to give us time to explore some of the museums and galleries form the inside, but it is time to move on to our next HelpX hosts.

Switzerland videos

Here's something to test your bandwidth!

Gastental

This valley is less well known and is the only gravel road I've seen yet in Switzerland. It is narrow so only one-way at a time: there is a 20 minute slot on the hour for going in and a similar one on the half-hour for returning.

The road is embedded in the rock

And here is a short video of the road out ...

Grimsel Pass

This pass over into southern Switzerland (towards Brig) is 2165m high and a classic hairpin bend alpine climb. Lots of cyclists and motorcyclists out for a sunny day. A usual there is a restaurant or two at the top. There are lots of hydro dams up here. We took a side trip form the top (another one-way road) into a hydro dam which gets its water from a glacier at the end of the lake. We managed a picnic in the sun at the lakeside and saw some Marmots wandering around. Here is a longer video of the journey in (you may want to skip through it a bit) ...

Grindelwald

A classic Swiss alpine town due to the wonderful location - snuggled beneath the north face of the Eiger with the Monch and the Jungfrau close at hand. There are numerous cable cars, gondolas and trains heading up to various vantage points including a couple of villages higher up that have no road access. It is also famous as the starting point for the railway that heads up through the middle of the Eiger to nearly the summit of the Jungfrau. Here is a very short video of some of the mountains.

Switzerland - part 2

Fribourg

We’re now into our last few days before heading back to Italy and, while we look forward to that, Switzerland has been very good to us too. Since the last post we have finished our time in Belp with our host there, Astrid. As we managed to complete a few good jobs for her – laying big paving stones, cleaning a garage roof, clearing vacant land next door, and felling a tree – we had more time with her. She had been due to fly out to Hong Kong for a few days (free, courtesy of her daughter the flight attendant) but the flight was over-booked and she couldn’t go so she spent her days off taking us around the western part of Switzerland. This area is very distinctive as they speak French, the signs are only in French, and the towns are not quite as neat. We actually enjoyed the more rustic edge to the towns.

Neuchatel

Fribourg and Neuchatel and the villages around them were particularly attractive. Like so much here it is very hard to get a feeling of the age of the places as they often still build in the same styles and look after the old places so well, so a house could be 50 years or 400 years old.

400 year old houses in Brienz

We finally managed a “swim” in the local Aare river – more of a jump-in-and-get-swept-downstream experience. People of all ages were doing it so it must be safe! Just had to avoid the numerous inflatable boats heading downstream at the same time.

Walter and Helen's house with NZ flag

All change since then – we have spent the last week at Vicki’s friends Walter and Helen’s place in the little village of Krattigen, overlooking one of the lakes adjoining Interlaken. This is much more alpine and the Switzerland of the calendars. Walter and Helen are both great climbers and walkers so they both knew the names of all the peaks in the region and have trekked over many.

Their daughter has a flat in Grindenwald, at the base of the Eiger. We had a picnic there (every day so far up here has been perfect – hot and sunny) and it was amazing looking up at the north face of the Eiger and then across to the Monch and Jungfrau. Not only are you nestled in under famous mountains the height of Mt Cook, you can look up at alpine huts and villages further up. Everywhere you look in the alps there seem to be the chalet-style houses dotted incredibly high up the slopes, and huts and even restaurants perched over sheer cliffs, often with a cable car, gondola or mountain railway for access. For some villages that is their only form of access. No roads. Walter said that often you can spend hours and hours climbing a peak, only to find a restaurant and car park there!

We noticed numerous Muslim tourists in the well-known spots, the women often dressed in the full burka. Typically near expensive hotels and watch shops, of which there are many in Interlaken.

A couple of the valleys we went to only have one-way roads into them, so you can only enter and exit at set times, e.g. every hour for 15 minutes you can head up the road, every half-hour for 15 minutes you can head down. Many of the alpine villages are constantly under threat from wash-outs and avalanches.

Oh, we can now add Marmots to our list of creatures seen in the wild (well I can, Vicki missed out).

Our most recent trip has taken us to Emmental, the cheese region. Once again it is quite different: rolling hills, much more gentle. And the biggest houses I have seen. Huge farmhouses that incorporate hay lofts and a barn.

Emmental

Switzerland - part 1

Beware Swiss beer!

It is time to reflect on the first half of our short stay here as we near the end of our stay with our host Astrid and move on in a few days to our friends Walter and Helen for the last week. Switzerland is everything we imagined it to be and remember it to be from previous trips here many years ago, namely neat, great scenery, neat, pretty towns, neat, efficient public transport, neat, expensive, neat, cycle-ways everywhere. Did I mention neat?

On the work front we have been putting in a good 25 hours per week, which is in the range Helpx people normally do. For us this has consisted of gardening, laying some paving stones and general work around the house and section.

Thun

In return for the work Astrid has been feeding us, though there is a large quantity of meat and potatoes involved – we suspect that this is a Swiss thing. Certainly a little more than we are used to. Astrid has also taken us for a few outings: to Berne, the Swiss capital and a university town just a few kilometres away; to Thun, a very pretty town next to a lake; and most recently to Gruyere (of the cheese), a medieval village and castle in the French-speaking part of the country. Like everywhere, Gruyere is so neat it looks more like a film set than an ancient village!

Gruyere

One of the highlights so far was a visit to the H R Giger museum in the village of Gruyere. He is the artist who helped design the special effects for the movies Alien, Dune and Species. Wonderful and imaginative paintings and sculptures including those of various Aliens and items from the movies. Not for the kids or the easily offended! Unfortunately no photography allowed inside the galleries, but there were a few sculptures outside and, across the way, an amazing bar decked out like a scene from Alien. Unfortunately the bar girls weren’t decked out like the models in his paintings …

Inside the H R Giger bar

We’ve noticed that a lot of Swiss seem to cycle. There are good cycle ways everywhere, both next to roads and completely away from them. There seems to be a major cross-Switzerland route alongside the river near here with spurs heading off in all directions.  People of all ages are out, presumably while they can before the snows arrive. We have used the bikes here a few times as a means of getting around, even though we have been offered the use of the car. Much more fun on the bikes on these quiet lanes.

 

We will probably do a few more local cycle rides as the weather generally is good here in summer. We did have a few days of rain the first week but on the sunny days it does get into the high 20s. If we can organise the transport we might do what the locals here do on hot days – jump into the river upstream and float down – it is a big river and the current is really strong, but this doesn’t stop numerous kids and adults jumping off the town bridges and trying to get out downstream. Whenever you look at the river there is a stream of inflatable boats coming down!

Toilet Humour

While this post is really aimed at the female half of the population, I hope our male readers will have a superior chuckle and go on to share the post with their female friends and family!

A good friend warned me that French public toilets were gross - and came with a fee and three or four squares of toilet paper.  Having no memory of my earlier experience of European toilets (28 years ago), I suspected that Italian loos wouldn’t be much better.  Thanks to something I read about a while ago – I can’t remember where – I started investigating what I was to learn are known collectively as female urinary devices – FUDs.

An FUD basically gives females a temporary ‘penis’, for peeing standing up and almost fully dressed.  It’s easier to achieve discretion with a skirt, despite marketing photos that show the back view of a woman in jeans, her buttocks still well covered. They would have to be baggy jeans.   For use in a toilet cubicle, discretion is of course not a concern, but the FUD will keep your clean buttocks well away from some foul experiences!   

There are a few different brands available, with different shapes – SheWee, Go Girl (this review of the Go Girl is entertaining), WhizBiz, pStyle, Pee-Zee ……. the SheWee is available here in retail stores. I also did a search on Trademe and found the P ez which was cheap compared to the others.  I thought I'd give it a try and if it generally worked but its design had flaws I would then have a better idea of how to choose the model that suited me.  But I have no need to change to another.

Their use does require a bit of practice, and reading personal experiences and tips online will add to the likelihood of success.  You may think it is gross, but the first place to practice is in your shower – practicing over your toilet will at best show you need no further practice, but at worse you’ll be washing the toilet and floor, laundering your clothes, and having a shower!  Having succeeded in the shower, the garden could be your next ‘target’ – it’s good to get practice in keeping you shoes dry - bare feet and a handy hose might be a good idea! 



my P ez kit

I set myself up with a little ‘kit’. In a zip-lock plastic bag I have my FUD, a small bottle of hand steriliser, a small packet of tissues, and a toilet seat cover for those times when I absolutely have to sit down!

The first time I took my FUD out for a day to Sanremo we headed to toilets at the old train station and discovered a man collecting ‘donations’, providing perfectly clean toilets and a full supply of toilet paper.  On our second trip we risked the toilets in the new train station and for free found them to be almost as clean and again supplying toilet paper. And at an indoor food market the toilets were free, clean and supplied paper, but no toilet seats!  Just as I was beginning to wonder if my suspicions of Italian toilets were unfair, we visited the mountain village of Triora.  They had one toilet for male and female.  It had no seat.  It stank.  The toilet brush was long past showing any sign that it was probably white beneath the scunge.  There was no paper.  At least there was a sink with running water, though no soap.  I was very grateful to have my FUD kit!

 

Triora at least had a toilet - it's quite touristy - but it seems there are often no public toilets available.  A few times we just used bushes - no different from home really, except that there are snakes and scorpions here, and people everywhere.  In villages we found cafes that had toilets and bought a drink or something - they were clean.

 

So, ladies, if you want to be free to pee with ease and cleanliness, almost anywhere, I suggest you get one of these - before you need one!

To Switzerland

Leaving Italy was rather sad as we have had such a good time here, a mix of Sue, our host, who has looked after us so well (wonderful cooking, interesting day-trips, and great company), the property at Canelli, and Italy itself. We have also been so lucky with the weather, day after day of perfect sunny skies, saved by the swimming pool. Going to Switzerland is exciting though, a new country and host, and we’re hoping for some slightly cooler weather. Sleep hasn’t been that easy for the last few nights.

Sue was kind enough to drop us off at Sanremo station, saving us making another connection. Italian trains (at least the fast inter-city variety) are superb, though we were glad to have reserved our seats as it was pretty full. The trip along the coast is interesting though a fair amount is inside tunnels. It is almost one continual town stretching all the way to Genoa. Lots of apartment buildings and beaches. Once through Genoa the train heads north through flat farm land – quite different to the hilly coastal towns we’ve seen so far.

I wasn’t looking forward to a 6-hour stopover in Milan as it is too short to get out and see much, too long to just hang around. The station itself is massive and a wonderful piece of Mussolini-era architecture. Very photogenic. We dumped our bags at the left-luggage counter and headed off for a walk around the neighbourhood. As it was 35C progress was slow! And deserted. In August all the Italians head off on holiday, most shops were closed, and there were few people around. It seemed strange to wander across the big city streets with almost no cars in sight. We managed to stagger back to the station before expiring in the heat so took refuge in, dare I say it, a McCafe. Mainly for the air-conditioning and toilets and free wifi plus the cheap offer on a cappuccino and brioche. Sadly the wifi wasn’t working but we could use Vicki’s new Italian SIM card. It is working out very well: numerous free minutes and texts plus 2GB per month, all for 30 euro for the first month and 10 euro per month thereafter. You have to provide a passport to get SIM card here.

The train trip up into Switzerland was very picturesque. Lots of views of the mountains and the beautiful Lake Maggiore – a bit like Queenstown except for the castles and houses! Finally through a very long tunnel and out into a new country. There was a queue of cars at the last station: apparently you can either drive over the hills (only open in good weather) or put your car on a train to go through the tunnel.

We were wondering if Vicki's passport would get stamped. As a NZ citizen she can only stay in any one country for up to 3 months, so it would be useful to get a Swiss stamp to prove we won't have been in Italy too long by October. Apparently the passport control don't come on to the trains that often and, though they did this time, they ignored all our passports.

We were lucky to be picked up by Astrid, our new host, at Berne station and driven back to our new home for the next couple of weeks in Belp, a town a few kilometers away. So far all we can report is that the temperature is still really hot in the day (30C), but cooler overnight so sleeping is easier. And it is all very much neater than Italy, albeit much greyer (the buildings aren’t as brightly coloured). But the roads and cars are much bigger!

A day trip to France

Last Monday we headed out on what we thought was just a trip to Menton, across the border in France. It is a popular destination as, apart from being very attractive, prices for some goods are cheaper than in Italy. But the trip turned out to be more about the local Ligurian hill towns as we took a winding route north, then west and back down to the coast again at Ventimillia, the Italian border town.

The day started inauspiciously enough with a huge thunder and lightning show with torrential rain. Only the third time it had rained in the month we have now been here. So after a delayed start we headed off down our track with frequent stops to remove rocks that had rolled into it. Our first port of call was Cerianna, the hill town we had spotted from the ridge-line a couple of weeks back when Vicki turned her ankle. It lived up to our image of it, yet another beautiful stone medieval town perched on a steep hillside. As the rain cleared up so did the skies. The heat haze that had been hanging around for ages had disappeared and we could see a lot more clearly. And the temperature had dropped too, down to 19C at one stage! Though some of that was due to the altitude we were getting too. The sea was an incredible dark grey as it reflected the storm clouds, and those clouds were a photographer’s dream.

The rest of the morning involved narrow winding country roads with wonderful vistas of forest and olive groves, punctuated by picturesque villages along various ridges. We’d just be getting our necks back into alignment when we’d pop around a corner and be faced with yet another one. You’ll see a few photos of these in the photo gallery section. Consequently it was a late arrival in Menton.

There is a border post between the two countries but it appeared to be unmanned. The only use it appears to have is as a place for the free parking campervans. The actual border is marked by a particular ravine. Entering Menton is not unlike entering Sanremo, just the signs are in French and the roads seem slightly wider and less congested. The buildings are predominately yellow and orange. Like all these coastal cities it has a large marina full of expensive boats, a popular beach, expensive shops and cafes, and an old town heading up the hill  away from the sea. Food and clothes prices seem more expensive here than Italy.

Menton was a popular destination for ex-pat Brits, along with British and Russian aristocracy.

The old town is full of picturesque alleys and brightly painted buildings, leading up to a cemetery at the top with good views all around. After a time exploring we regrouped to head to the hypermarche. Here Sue, our host, stocked up on French wine and cheap pool chemicals, and then it was off back to Italy. A wonderful day out!