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Foreshadowing – we are in the final stages of planning for a trip to Western Australia (our first big trip in a little while). We have been told that WA stands for “Windy Always” – we shall see.
Jo has done an awesome job of working out an itinerary that takes in a lot of the sights, loads of wildflowers (’tis the season for it) and we are very excited to get going.
Marked on the map are the places we are staying. The driving distances are huge – oz is such a big island continent
We plan to drive North of Perth initially, then return to Perth and ditch the hire car for a while, then do the south of Perth stuff after that with another hire car. Should be interesting.
Switzerland … what a lovely place to visit – the scenery…wow.
The last 2 weeks was honestly a bit of a blur – fabulous but we were tired, the weather was all over the place and blogging took a backseat to experiencing the journey I am afraid. We took a train to Geneva and CERN, visited, Montreux, moved by train to Zermatt, went up to the Matterhorn. We took the train to Interlaken and visited Harder Kulm, then on to Lauterbrunnen Valley, visited Jungfraujoch, sailed Lake Brienz then travelled to Zurich via Lucerne, sailed Lake Zurich and finished up at Lindt Chocolate.
Lesson learned – 7 weeks overseas is too long, I ran out of puff, did not blog Switzerland, sadly. We did enjoy it however and have some stunning photos, but were much less impressed with the food, sadly, which to us was overpriced and bland – feel free to discuss.
I also learned that I get altitude sickness, discovered the day we went up to Jungfraujoch, although not when we went to The Matterhorn – fun fact.
One of many reasons for visiting Provence is that it is a varied collection of villages spread over quite a large geographical area. There is little in the way of regular public transport in most of the villages so, realistically, the only way to explore would be via personal transport (car, motorbike or bicycle). We have actually seen a lot of cyclists, fully kitted out with bulging panniers, labouring up and down the hills of Provence – had we been younger and fitter, we still (prolly) would have opted for a car, but the slower pace of a bike would let you stop in all the places that had amazing views but no pull-over for cars.
Over a two day period we explored the Luberon region, first going south then north.
Heading into Southern Luberon, we aimed the VDub at a lovely little village called Cucuron. Jo, in her extensive research, had discovered most villages have market days regularly where producers can bring local produce out for sale. Cucuron’s markets were set out around a central pond and public square, and we were after veg for meals later in the week, and lunch makings for a picnic.
We bought a baguette from the local Boulanger, and a couple of St. Marcellain cheeses, another punnet of delicious strawberries and some fresh fruit and veg, packed it away and explored the town a little. We walked up the hill to a little church, got lost in some of the winding streets and then returned to the free car park, just outside the town.
Our next stop was Pont Julien, an astonishing Roman bridge that spanned a river. It was Anzac Day, the road verges and fields around us were bejeweled with poppies, little wonder the poppy has endured as a symbol of remembrance. We picnicked in the warm sun, sitting on lush grass surrounded by wildflowers – heaven.
