We have been such busy little travellers.
First up we had a few days in the beautiful city of Lyon. Being the experienced little travellers that we are we conquered the local train system and very quickly on the first day found ourselves right in the heart of Lyon. It is a very graceful city, situated at the confluence of two rivers, the Rhone and the Saone and is Frances' third largest city.
It was a stinking hot day and being a wee bit weary from the hectic pace we have been keeping we decided to just take the day very slowly. So we really only managed to check out the cathedral (being renovated) before jumping onto the funicular which took us to the top of the hill to the Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere. This is a magnificent cathedral with outstanding views of the city. Inside takes your breath away. It is stupendous. The walls and ceilings sparkle and glisten with the most intricate gold and blue mosaics. Magnificent.
And that was the last of our European cathedrals - we have done lots of them, each so different, but each equally stunning in it's beauty and architecture.
For entirely different architecture we visited the Musee des Confluences, a most incredible modern building that defies description. It's walls jut out at extreme angles and appear to be aluminium in colour. It sits at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone Rivers. It is modern architecture at it's extreme. Absolutely fabulous to look at from the outside and architecturally very interesting on the inside which is more than I can say for it's exhibits which were not overly interesting for a natural history museum. This building is similar to the Sydney Opera House in that it started out at one price and has now more than doubled in cost - but it has been worth it.
From Lyon we headed back to Italy, to firstly return the car (unscathed, phew) and to spend some time with the Piasco family and this time we had the pleasure of the company of Fabrizio and Sienna, who has now hit the grand old age of four. So we enjoyed two days of beautiful Italian hospitality and Giacominas wonderful cooking before leaving to fly to Greece.
Alitalia decided to have a strike on the day we were flying from Turin to Rome, so we cut our losses and hopped on a train. It was actually great on the train and at least we knew we would not miss our flight next day to Athens.
So Athens is where we can now be found. We have done the Acropolis and Parthenon and it was gridlock with tourists. Still Mike had never seen it before and I know he enjoyed it. We have just been wandering today and plan similar tomorrow. Then on Wednesday we take off for the islands, Santorini, Mykonos and Paros - so the islands are going to be our holiday. Just put the feet up, relax and veg out. Though we may take a photo or two!
Greece seemed so far away when we started this mega adventure, now we are here and in four weeks we will be home. Goodness.
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