11th June, 2016

I left you last with a few thoughts about Austria and after a week there we were on our way to Tuscany – but not before we traveled through some truly stunning scenery on our way out of the Austrian Alps and then through the Dolomites.

I had spotted on the maps one of those roads bordered with green – aha, I thought, scenic route. It was certainly a bit further than a more direct alternative, but what the hell, we are on holiday. So it was due south from Harham where we had been staying, through Zell am See and up the 107 along the Grossglockner High Alpine Road (that is what it is actually called – but in German, of course – Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße). The pass is some 2,400 meters up and was originally mooted as a possibility in 1924, but was laughed out of court as unfeasible at a time when the combined car ownership of Austria, Italy and Germany was 154,000 with a further 92,000 motorcycles – especially as Austria had no money after WWI and was one seventh of its pre-war imperial size. Then, after the 1929 Wall Street Crash and massive unemployment, it was revived as a way to give employment – and also to raise money as a tourist attraction by charging a toll (they still do – and quite a lot!). It went ahead and was opened in 1935 with twice the number of visitors than originally estimated. And it is stunning! A bit cloudy on our visit, but it still takes one’s breath away. Not recommended if you are prone to car sickness!

That night we decided to have a stopover at Trento (as in the Council of Trent held between 1545 and 1563 to launch the Roman Catholic Church’s Counter Reformation response to the spread of Protestantism). Trento was on our way, but I had spotted a nice-looking hotel on Tripadvisor that was just a bit off the beaten track, let’s say. It was up a mountain road that Val describe very effectively as looking like a very large Large Intestine on the satnav. It was a bit wet on the way up and distinctly cloudy and misty, but the Hotel Montana was very nice indeed with lots of facilities such as gym, pool, tennis court and ping pong etc, that Val used selectively whilst I did some blogging. A very nice and imaginatively designed room, a so-so dinner (reminded me of school trips) and it was an early night.

12th June, 2016

It was lucky it was an early night as Val, who is somewhat of an early riser, woke me at about 5.00am to come and look at the view that we could not see the previous evening – with the sunrise! And what a difference!! It was like waking up in a different country from the previous night! I will let the photos do the talking…

And the view of where we were could now reveal itself…

A good breakfast and it was off down the intestine and through the Dolomites to what was supposed to be our lunch stopover, Mantua. However heavy rain dampened our enthusiasm and we sped along the autoroute with the rest towards Florence, then right onto the road known locally as the Fi-Pi-Li (Firenze-Pisa-Livorno) highway, trying to remember the instructions to get to our destination from a long email from our great friend and host for the week, Nick. We did well except that we had not made a note of the number of the house, so after some driving about and fruitless enquiries, we made the inevitable phone call and arrived at Casa tra colline Toscane to be welcomed by Nick, Stella, Tom and Carlitta at Nick’s lovely villa (available to rent – ask me about it if you are interested). More in the next blog!

8th – 9th June, 2016

Oh dear it is catch-up time again, so I will get on with it. Well, the weather we had in Salzburg proved to be somewhat transitory and Wednesday and Thursday were wet and very overcast, so we decided to stay in and use the gym, play some table tennis and pool and generally slob out. They have a reasonably good DVD collection, so we entertained ourselves! I am sure that many of you have been wondering where we are with the Great Yahtzee Competition between Val and myself. Well, i managed to open up a 10 game lead, but Val has come back strongly and we are currently level on 124 games apiece. More updates soon!

10th June, 2016

The weather was lovely today, so we made the 1 hour drive to climb up one of the best waterfalls I have ever seen (OK, not as good as the Lower Falls in Yellowstone, but still very impressive). It is called the Krimmler Wasserfalle near the town of Krimml. There is a walkway you can walk up alongside it and so off we set having visited the bottom of the falls first. It starts at 1070 metres above sea level and the top of the falls is at 1486 metres – so a stiff walk! Really well worth it though, as I hope the photos show. Unfortunately I am now walking like John Wayne after a particularly hard day in the saddle! Standing is fine and sitting is good, but everything in between is impossible.

A wonderful day out and it was not over yet as we decided to take ourselves out for dinner at a local restaurant for a bit of Austrian fare. I found what looked like a good candidate on Tripadvisor, only 15 minutes away. Unfortunately our usually very reliable lady on our Satnav failed us this time and it proved almost impossible to find. We made it eventually, about an hour late (it had become a point of determined honour to find it by this time – if only to apologise to the restaurant!). Luckily for us they were fine with it and we had a really excellent meal. The centrepiece, literally, was the ‘BBQ Hat’ or Hut Essen. I thought it might be a traditional Austrian dish or method of cooking, but on brief further research it seems it might be a speciality of this particular restaurant. o

11th June, 2016

Well, it was now time for the next leg of our journey round Europe and we said our goodbyes to Austria. It is a great country to visit – VERY neat and tidy with lovely, solid alpine housing, good roads and fantastic scenery at least in the part we were in. They are VERY keen on speed cameras and I was constantly checking how fast we were going as the speed limit changes rather frequently. One minute you are in an 80kmh zone, then 50, then back to 80, then 100, quickly back to 80, then 50 and so on. It is amazing I did not hit something whilst checking my speed! Still, I suspect it works.

I am so late with this blog, I am going to post it now and then start the next one – including our drive out of Austria. Speak soon!

7th June, 2016

Just over an hour’s drive north brought us today to sunny Salzburg and it was certainly sunny. It is an impressive city, the birthplace of Mozart and, of course, the scene of some of The Sound of Music. The buildings are largely old, though somewhat plain and ‘solid’ in that middle-European way and they have managed to build some recent monstricities that seem to combine a concrete brutalism with simply boring facades. That said, there are some impressive churches and cathedral and the fortress dominates the town. There is also an attractive river and its most famous shopping street is nice and narrow with lovely signs (spot the McDonald’s one!). It also contains the house where Mozart was born.

The Collegiate church and Cathedral next – great, if you like German Baroque and Rococco.

A quick view of the river and then it was up the funicular railway to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Lovely views, thought a little bit underwhelming on the inside (am I becoming blase?)

A nice day out…..

6th June, 2016

Well, we did not see any lonely or not lonely (there does not seem to be an antonym for lonely – suggestions anyone?) goatherds or indeed any goatherds at all, but we were certainly ‘high on a hill’ as we spent the day visiting first Zell am See and then the mountain of Kitzsteinhorn. Zell is an attractive small town on the western side of Lake Zell and a popular tourist destination in both winter and summer. The lake is really beautiful with the mountains in the background. They were higher than they appear on my wide-angled lens….

We eventually found the information centre and decided to make an assault on the highest point in the neighbourhood via the nearby town of Kaprun. This is the site for the cable car and chairlift all the way up to the viewing platform, restaurant, cinema and ski slopes of Kitzsteinhorn at 3029 metres. The weather was a bit changeable and we were a bit worried that we might end up in a cloud, but we were set off in a number of cable cars and a chairlift – as you can see, Val enjoyed the trip in the latter, though I had to prise her fingers off the rail at the end! There was plenty of snow at the higher levels and a few skiers.

The facilites at the top are very impressive. Our first stop was a viewing platform, accessed via a 360m tunnel which was very interesting as it had various exhibits about the geology of the mountain (permafrost, quartz, etc). No, honestly, it WAS very interesting! It was also cold! We arrived eventually at the platform – and were blown away (not literally) by the views.

The walk back up the quite steep incline of the tunnel at some 3000 metres was fun (!), but we made it and went for an over-priced hot chocolate and a quick visit to the cinema. I was tempted to say that I spent hours photographing the following pics – but it is much easier just to do it in the cinema and then crop them accordingly!

It was time then to journey back down followed by a trip to the supermarket and a drive round the lake.

A great day out – tomorrow, Sazburg!

4th – 5th June, 2016

Here we are in Austria after a longish day getting here from Germany. This was my fault as I had planned to visit the Stiftskirche and Bibliotek (abbey and library) in St Gallen, Switzerland. The library is one of the finest Baroque rooms you will ever see and the abbey is also lovely. However, the key to seeing them is to know what they are called in German before driving through the largish city of St Gallen! This includes driving through what appeared to be a busy pedestrian zone as the satnav tried to take me into pastures new. Anyway, we did eventually make it and it was well worth it.

The library does not allow photography, so I will attempt to find something on the internet.

We even had to wear slippers over our shoes and sort of slide along (polishing the floor, as Val pointed out). There is an amazing collections of some 160,000 books, of course, with some 1,650 printed before 1500. Truly stunning and reminded me of the Bodleian at Oxford (although, in total, that has over 12 million books!).

The abbey was also worth the visit…..

And we even saw these guys!

It was then off to Austria. We had been advised by Manfred to avoid the motorways in Switzerland as they charge the same (CHF40) for using them for one hour as they do for a whole year. So we organised the satnav to take us on non-motorway roads only, which proved interesting – and much more scenic than we could have hoped for. It really is like being in a scene from the Sound of Music with mountains and meadows and chalets and immaculate farms. My father always claimed that the Swiss actually comb their manure stacks to make them look smart. I think it is true.

We eventually arrived at the Club la Costa Alpine Resort Centre at a place called Harham, just over an hour south of Salzburg and about 10 minutes north of Zell am See. All very nice – two bedroom apartment with kitchen and living room, swimming pool, sauna, gym and table tennis. So we have great plans for the week.

We spent Sunday recovering from our journey, though we did make it to the table tennis table! The view from our apartment is pretty stunning – especially if you do some judicious cropping!

More soon!

3rd June, 2016

Staying with Malinee and Manfred is always a joy – great food, wonderful company, a few glasses of something nice and good chat. Starting with a late brunch we pottered about until it was time to head off for a little walk by the lake.

This was the precursor to one of the more unusual primary school co-curricular, end-of-term activities I have ever witnessed – a whole year group had access to a circus for a week! They learned about tightrope walking, lassoing, juggling, tumbling, plate spinning, horse riding, dove arranging and all sorts of other fun activities. Now, I thought it would be a few kids performing on a stage, but no, they actually had a circus tent in the grounds. We were there courtesy of Manfred and Malinee’s twin grandsons, who were performing. Really impressive!

It was then coffee and cake at Christian (their son) and Christina’s before heading home for a fabulous cheese fondue. Apparently you HAVE to drink white wine to help with the digestion of the cheese! I am not sure where the pear schnapps comes into it, but all most enjoyable – and many, many thanks to our lovely hosts!

Next stop Austria (via Switzerland)!!

2nd June, 2016

The sunny day we had in Dijon proved to be just that – the sunny day we had in Dijon, as the next morning the weather had turned again and we set off under grey skies and rain for our next destination. The aim was to end the day at the home of our great friends, Malinee and Manfred in Gottmadingen in Germany near Lake Constance and the Swiss border. However, I had noticed that with a slight detour we could visit somewhere I had wanted to see since I had seen a picture of it when a young boy and been fascinated by it. This was the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp in eastern France by Le Corbusier (1887 – 1965), built in 1954. It was well worth the detour – perched high on a hill, the roof seems to float on top of the walls like two boats. The inside has one wall with a few small windows facing south (which must be great when the sun is out!) and just one main chapel with two side ones. It was difficult to photograph the inside as it was quite dark, but it was wonderfully atmospheric. I will let the photos speak for themselves (I could not resist two pics of Val in one of the side chapels!).

From Ronchamp it was a short drive to our next stop, the charming town of Colmar near the German border. It is a lovely town with lots of old Alsatian timber-framed buildings and even a canal area that is known as Little Venice. A bit chocolate box at times, but still with an irresistible charm.

A long drive from there through Freiburg and on to Gottmadingen, but nothing that Malinee’s nasi lemak and a glass or two of beer could not solve!

1st June, 2016

Well, the Tour de France continued today, setting out at about 9.15 after an excellent breakfast at our AirBnB courtesy of Catherine and after I nipped in to buy our small supply of Champers. The advantage of having a car!

First stop was Verdun and we very nearly ended up in the wrong one as the satnav set off on the direction of one in a completely different part of France. I had my suspicions when I saw that we were due to arrive at 5.27pm after driving nearly 600 miles! Luckily Val, my trusty personal satnav was on the tried and tested map-reading and we altered course and headed for the right one.

For those who were not paying attention in my History lessons, Verdun was the scene of one of the costliest battles in WWI in terms of casualties, let alone the sanity of those involved. The Germans attacked, the French defended and then it became a point of honour not to give up. Marshal Petain made his famous order of “Ils ne passeront pas” although it seems that it was actually his successor, Nivelle who gave it! End result – approximately 750,000 casualties.

We drove past one of the forts that was one of the targets for the German attack that started in February, 1916 with a bombardment on the first day of 2 million shells and the battle lasted 300 days. Our destination though was the Ossuary at Douamont. This impressive building was started in 1919 and completed in 1932. There is a cemetery on the slope below the building for those French soldiers whose bodies were found, but the building itself contains the bones (hence ossuary) of some 130,000 French and German soldiers whose identity is unknown.It was very moving, as you can imagine and much enhanced by a 20 minute video that was superbly written and narrated.

The pictures below will give you a sense, I hope, of the size of the site and the buildings, though possibly not the surprise I got when I ascended the tower at 1200 to find the BIG bell at the top was due for a good ringing!! Just to mention – they have little windows along the side of the building almost at ground level where you can view the piles of bones. A bit tricky to photograph, but I think you will get the picture. The orange interior is very atmospheric and I have included photos of the 232 stair tower and the separate gravestones of Christian and Muslim soldiers.

From Verdun we then made our way to Dijon. A quick word about the French roads – yes, peage (toll) is a bit pricey, but boy are they good. Not too much traffic, a road surface that is like silk (Val slept very well) and you can safely go 80mph. And barely any roadworks – OK, they were cutting the verge at one point, so we had to slow down to 90kph…..

In Dijon we were again Airbnbing and this time staying with the wonderful Florence and Olivier in their lovely 18th Century apartment near the centre. We set off for some sightseeing and then a fabulous 4 course meal at an excellent restaurant recommended by Florence – cocktails and local white Burgundy included. Dijon is well worth a visit and is a lovely city with plenty of old buildings, pedestrian areas and a sense of space. It was the capital of the independent dukedom of Burgundy which by the second half of the 15th century controlled much of eastern France and the Low Countries. We could easily have spent a weekend there to see all the sights, but we were at least blessed with some sunshine for our sightseeing. The ducal palace is huge and very impressive. Oh yes and amongst the photos below there is a nice photo of me enjoying my cocktail and I know some of you have been longing to know what our accommodation has been like, so I have included photos of our first two nights!

Well, I am already a day behind, so I will post this and start on day 3 – on to Germany!!

31st May, 2016 – Reims

Oiu c’est back! Mr Benn’s Blog is up and running once again with more tales of exotic travel and hotel rooms (less of the latter this time). This tour we are closer to home with a road trip round select bits of Europe. This is not a desperate attempt to get one last trip in before we exit the EU at which point it will, of course, be impossible to travel to the continent! And on that point, if you want to know what I think (and I can understand if you don’t give tinker’s cuss), see the video of Patrick Stewart on ‘What has the EU ever done for us’. No, this jaunt has all come about due to a wonderful invite from our good friend Nick to his villa in Tuscany – though we are not sure whether this will end up as enslaved labour toiling for days in the hot sun (I hope) in his olive grove or be a Tuscan loll round the pool. Both you and I will find out soon.

So this gave me the thought of why not make a trip of it and drive there. So that is what we are doing. I will keep you in suspense as to exactly where we are going, but not too surprisingly, first stop has been France. We set off at a fairly leisurely pace this morning driving through the rain on the Ms25, 26 and 20 arriving nicely on time for the 1120 shuttle under la Manche, emerging into the equally dull weather on the other side in Calais.

It was straight off for our first stop – Reims. No detours on my tours! To be honest, I have been to Calais, as one does, and I was both disappointed and strangely pleased that the French can build ghastly architecture just like us. We did stop for a quick pique-nique at an aire in traditional Benn style – tuna fish sandwich and gala pie for me and Val made her way through a tarte from Sainsbury’s and a salad whilst watched the rain through the windscreen in the carpark. Bring back Thailand!

We arrived in Reims at about 4.15 local time to be greeted by the charming Catherine at her really lovely house. Where is the hotel, you ask? Or is Catherine an old family friend? No, dear readers, shock/horror, we are using Airbnb!! And if the first stop is anything to go by, it is going to be great. We have a lovely room and our hostess has been very helpful. So I can recommend it so far. More to come though, so we must not rush to judgement too quickly.

We then did a quick tour of the city. Reims (pronounced like the French pronunciation of prince without the p) is most famous I would think for having the cathedral in which most French kings were crowned and for being the capital of the Champagne area. So our first stop was at the local champagne shop to place an order for pick up tomorrow and our second stop was the cathedral. The former was most impressive, not least for showing up my dreadful lack of knowledge on matters champenoise. I had not realised how many varieties there are! If only we had more time…..

The cathedral is stunning. a tall, stately Gothic structure with some lovely stained glass, in particular the magnificent rose window on the front – sadly obscured by restoration scaffolding!!! Anyway, a few pics to give you a feel – first of all the outside. The statuary was stunning (and no jokes, please about who’s the gargoyle with the hat?!).

And now the interior. It was plainer than I thought it would be for a cathedral where kings are crowned, but still majestic for all that. Val always likes to light a candle for the family – but I didn’t have any change, so she lit 5!

And finally some stained glass. No rose window, sadly but some fabulous windows by Marc Chagall (the bluey-green ones) and some nice other modern windows as well by someone else whose name I did not get!

Well, that’s all for now. More tomorrow – all comments welcomed!

3rd April, 2016

OK, the last leg of our epic tour and we have arrived, eventually, in Boston, one of my favourite cities. It was a shame, but on this visit I was unable to walk the Freedom Trail so it was not possible to be reminded of all the stupid things the British did in the run-up to and during the American War of Independence. More on why this was impossible shortly. For now I must acknowledge our lovely hosts, Jane, Sam (Snr), Sophia and Sam (Jnr) and their wonderful hospitality. I might be accused of being a bit critical of some things American (see blog on Hawaii), but I readily acknowledge their immense hospitality and this leg of the journey was no exception.

First evening was a lovely family meal where we managed to discuss every dining table taboo going (politics, religion and sex) without coming to blows, which just goes to show the quality of the company present. Not a computer, laptop or mobile phone in sight – just good old discussion. Marvelous.

4th April, 2016

We did have a vague plan to go out and see some of Boston, but that was quickly kyboshed when the snow started falling. This is not all that odd for this time of the year in Boston (though certainly a bit late in the year), but it was obviously tough on Val and myself who have been more used to looking for the nearest air-conditioner rather than gloves, hat, overcoat and hot water bottle. Yes, I CAN feel you sharing our pain…..

Val and Sophia did manage to venture out to the shops briefly. I stayed in and did my Pennsylvania blog and photographed the garden (from inside the house). Someone has to do it… The fire was lit, tea was had, more wonderful cooking from the redoubtable Sam Snr, chat and wine – what more could one want? (less snow??)

5th April, 2016

Jane took a day off and we thought about what we might do, bearing in mind it was still about freezing with a nasty wind to boot (and to hat, to coat and to glove!). It was such a lovely day we decided that the best way to view it was from the inside of Jane’s nice warm car, though I bravely leaped out at regular intervals to snap some of the fabulous New England architecture (largely in Cohasset) and the Atlantic coastline.

This was finished off with a visit to the supermarket and lunch at the diner (yes, another burger and a very good one as it happens). Val and Jane managed what seemed to me on the sidelines to be a very amicable game of Scrabble as I ploughed on with book 4 (or is it 5?) of Game of Thrones. Mr Martin has a bit of a habit of killing off some rather key characters! I am now really worried every time there is any sort of action. Val cooked chicken curry – though somehow I did not manage to produce the now statutory fruit salad. But then we are in pie country here.

6th April, 2016

Our final day!! A quick and cold trip to the shops and a nice restful day reading, sleeping and catching up with emails and checking the diary for the onslaught that is to come once we get home. Off to the airport courtesy of Sophia (many thanks) for our overnight flight on Virgin Atlantic (a vast improvement on American Airlines and Qantas).

Many, many thanks to our hosts – splendid as ever and it is just such a shame we all live so far from one another.

And now back to reality! I thought this would be the last post, but I may see if I can do an overview of the trip in the coming days. Of course, if you want me to continue, you only have to ask (mind you, I am more than impressed that you have made it this far). (Assuming you have). (Hello, is there anybody there?)