We decided to go on holiday by train to Malta, via Venice, Rome and Sicily and coming back via Milan and Montreux. It all started with the packing, one small suitcase each and that was it for a 2 and a half week holiday!!!

Photos:

http://www.girlonfire.co.uk/photos/thumbnails.php?album=213

http://www.girlonfire.co.uk/photos/thumbnails.php?album=216

We went to London on the night of Thursday 23rd August and met up with a few of Terry’s friends and called in to see Parky on the way back to hotel!

Friday morning, we got up and I had breakfast. Terry had some work to do so I got everything ready and we eventually went to Waterloo to go on the Eurostar to Paris for probably the last time as it will be going from St Pancras from November this year!

So off we went to Paris! We arrived about 5pm French time and had to get from Gare du Nord to Gare du Bercy.

We got the train from Gare de Nord to Gare De Lyon which is the closest metro station to Gare du Bercy. We stopped for a drink and a croque monsieur in the cafe across the road.

We then walked to Gare Du Bercy, stopping to get wine and cheese in a local shop on the way! I had to get a plastic knife and a bottle opener too for the train journey, which was not easy in French! Terry then pretended that we had missed the train and I was not impressed! Sat in the lounge area for an hour before we finally did actually get the train!! We got the overnight train from Paris to Venice where it arrived at 7am! We had our own little rooms with sink and bunk beds!

We decided to try the restaurant where we were sitting with two French girls and were served by an Italian lady who was like a strict school dinner lady!! I had pasta, followed by some meat stuff, and Terry had seafood pasta (cold!!) followed by some of the same meat stuff that I had!! Very expensive and not very nice!

I managed to sleep ok but Terry was awake and saw Milan! We had breakfast using the provisions we bought in the shop in Paris!

Saturday morning, we pulled into Venice over the big bridge! It was a beautiful city and as we left the train station, we could see our hotel over the over side of the canal!

We spent the morning visting the sights of Venice and went on the public transport boat!!!

I loved all the bridges, people going shopping with their granny shopping trolleys and people moving house by boat!! What a fantastic place!

This is the Rialto bridge:

Walking over the Rialto bridge:

St Mark’s church in St Mark’s square

We stopped for a drink in the square, it was SO expensive. £5 this coke:

I love this photo, we didn’t not to go on a gondola but to go on the public transport boat instead!

Views from the boat:

We got back to our hotel, the hotel carlton and grand canal, stopping first to have some lunch by the canal - i had spaghetti carbonara! Yum! We then went from a lie down for the afternoon in the lovely hotel!

You could see the train station from the hotel:

The hotel room:

The view from the hotel bedroom window:

After a nice long sleep, we went out for a few drinks and dinner in a lovely back street restaurant where Terry had calzone pizza and I had parma ham with melon followed by spaghetti carbonara pizza!!

The next day we slept until midday then checked out as late as we could because we had to be out until midnight when we were getting the train to Rome! It was another very very hot day. We went over to Murano, one of Venice’s islands, on the boat and stopped for a snack! It was a very quiet island, although it was a sunday! I had a cheese toastie in a cafe then we went to the glass museum!

From there, we went on another boat to the Lido- Venice’s beach!!

After having a drink at the beach, we went back to the main island to see the Bridge of Sighs!

We then wandered the streets huting for an Indian restaurant which we had seen the day before! We found it in the end and sat outside next to the canal! Had a wonderful cheese naan and a lovely evening.

We got to the train station in plenty of time for our midnight train and went for a drink. Finally got on the train, had a bottle of wine and slept until Rome!

We arrived in Rome at 7am!!! Our train then went to Naples.

We dropped the bags at the hotel and the nice man at reception let us have some breakfast then we went straight to the Vatican to beat the crowds!

We went inside, I was only just allowed in after pulling my shorts down over my knees. We came across this very odd sign though:

We then went to see the Spanish Steps and stopped for a drink at a place with a cactus on every table!
We also went to visit the famous Trevi fountain but it had no water in it!!!

I found a Roger shop!

We then for a lunch at a small place on a back street not far from our hotel! Mmmmm pizza!

We checked into the hotel at lunch time and had a sleep all afternoon before meeting Alessia for dinner! She came over to our hotel for a few drinks in the roof garden then we went to the Hard Rock Cafe!! We thought we had found Roger’s Choose Life t-shirt but on closer inspection, it belonged to Wham!!! Oops, I think we had too much wine!

The next day we didn’t go out until late as we were getting an overnight train again! It was very very hot so we decided to take it easy and go on a bus tour of Rome!! We wandered past this pig on the way to get the bus! Scary!

We got to see some of the old sites of Rome!

We stopped for lunch in a ‘Scottish’ pub before wandering round using the bus to see more sights before stopping for early dinner at the place we went for lunch the day before!

We then went to get our train but unfortunately the carriage we booked was flooded so we were downgraded to the same type of room we had been in on the other trains. The man wrote something in Italian on our ticket to give to customer services when we arrived! It was a long train journey this time as we were going all the way down to Catania in Sciliy. The train even got on a ferry at one point!!

It was another hot day and we arrived in Catania at about 9am. We were getting a ferry down to Malta at around lunchtime so we decided to walk into the town to have a look around and have a drink. We found a market which seemed to involve lots of shouting in Italian and scary looking fish!!

We then walked for what seemed like ages to get to the Port. It was nothing like a Port in the UK and the passenger terminal seemed to be a small hut and we had to wait outside in the sun for the ferry!

I had left some of the documents at check in by accident so when we arrived on the ferry, there was an announcement for ‘Mrs Watkin’ to see customer services. I wandered over to collect my lost documents then fell asleep. Terry thought it would be funny to take this photo!

We arrived in Valletta and had to wait for our bags to be unloaded from the ferry! We then got a taxi to take us to our hotel in St Julians Bay. We stayed in the Intercontinental Hotel.

Our room was lovely and probably bigger than my flat! It had two bathrooms, a bedroom, a lounge, 2 balconies and a terrace with sun loungers and a table!

As it was getting late, we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe across the road from the hotel for dinner! They had loads of Queen stuff!

The guitar was actually covered up by a big tour case thing so I had to ask the staff to move it out of the way!

MALTA (more to come)

For the last section of the holiday, we went to Montreux for the Freddie weekend! It was wonderful as usual and I would recommend it to anyone! Montreux is so beautiful!

We took the train over from Milan on 7th September and it only took a couple of hours!

We dropped our bags at the Hotel Eden du Lac and then went for lunch in the Bavaria restaurant which was one of Freddie’s favourites!

After checking in to our room later that day, we went to meet at the statue for an evening of entertainment!

We all walked up to the music venue where we got to see a Hungarian tribute band who were fantastic!!

Terry and I left about midnight when an Italian tribute band started. They were no match for the first band so we left!

Got up for breakfast the next day and had a wonderful view of the lake then met Isabelle and went to listen to Peter Freestone and some tapes from the Barcelona sections!

Freddie’s apartment was a couple of doors down from the venue so we went to have a look!

Isabelle and I then went to see the Casino door!

The cafe across the road from the Casino where the band sometimes went to drink!

We then met Terry and went to dinner in the Italian next to the statue with Isabelle and Monty! After dinner, we all met at the statue where we got a boat over to Vevey to go and see Elton John! The boat took us right past the lakehouse!!

Elton John was brilliant! :)

After the show, we got the train back to Montreux. Went to look at the statue at midnight, talked to Peter Freestone for a bit then went to bed!

Sunday was quiet day and most people were going home but we stayed on for a few extra days. I went a walk to enjoy Montreux a bit more without all the Queen fans!

Terry and I then went for lunch in the fondue place near where the boat goes from! Mmmm cheese fondue!!!! I was stuffed after that! In the evening, we went back to the Bavaria restaurant again and Peter Freestone and the gang were all having a meal there!!!

On the Monday, we went on the chocolate train
!!! We sat in the old carriage with lovely big green seats! One big group of people had booked together but had seats all over the place and were causing a stir! They were sat in our seats when we first arrived!

The train went up into the mountains and we had the most wonderful view of Montreux and the lake! We were given croissants and coffee on the train!

The first stop on the train was Gruyère where we got a visit a cheese factory and see the moo cows with bells!!! :)

We were then taken up to the Castle in Gruyère by bus!

Time for lunch in the village and all the restaurants did Fondue so guess what we had!!! It was yummy :)

After lunch, we went back to the train by bus then set off by train to Broc-Fabrique to visit the Cailler-Nestlé chocolate factory! Mmm swiss chocolate!

We then headed back to Montreux on the train and had cheese and wine :)

That evening we went out for dinner quite late to the Italian next to the statue but it didn’t seem as nice as it used to be! We also stopped to have a look at the statue AGAIN!!

Beautiful!

The next morning, we left Montreux at 9am after a quick wander past the statue on the way to the station (no, I am not obsessed!)

We got a train from Montreux to Lausanne!

We then got a train from Lausanne to Paris.

We then travelled across Paris and stopped for some dinner outside Gare du Nord. We saw loads of Scottish Rugby fans! We then got the Eurostar from Paris to London!

We got back to London at about 5.30pm and went across to Paddington where we got the 7.30pm train back to Bristol! Finally arrived home at about 10pm!!!