BACK IN ROMA.

We arrived in Rome yesterday afternoon and spent the afternoon at the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.

The following day... Inside the Colosseum.



The view from Palentine Hill which overlooks the Roman Forum.



The Colosseum and Constantines Arc in the foreground.

FIRENZE (AKA FLORENCE)

VENICE

We arrived in Venice on Wednesday afternnoon at about 5 o'clock. Venice is beutiful, with all the picture perfect bridges over her canals and the gondolas floating down them.

Below is St. Marks Square.


How to take a postcard perfect photo - 1. aim camera and 2. press shutter button- every shot is perfect here!

LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND.

Patric, Berna and I arrived in Lucerne yesterday afternoon. Today we caught a cable car to the top of Mt. Pilatus. Tommorow we will be going to Venice.

Some parts of Switzerland is flooded from the rain and we will be detouring to Lausanne to go to Italy.

Update: In the morning we were able to catch a more direct route to Venice via Brig thus saving us about 1 hour worth of travel time.


Patric and Berna on top of the world!


The cable car that took us to the top of Mt. Pilatus which is over 2000m high above sea level.




Another way to get up to the top is via the steepest cog raiway in the world which can be seen in the next picture.


Some flooding just across the bridge in Lucerne.

20TH WORLD YOUTH DAY, COLOGNE, GERMANY.

Cardinal Pells, the Australian Ambasador for Germany and the NSW Minister for Tourism, amongs the Australian pilgrims in Cologne. Sydney is a clear favourite to host the 2008 World Youth Day, to be announced by the Pope on Sunday. The WYD will be amazing for Sydney. It will bring hundreds of thousands of youth from all over the world! It has only started over here and it is just fantastic, it is going to be an amazing experience for everyone over here. There are about 2300 Australians that came over here. The celebration is to culminate with aproximately a million people celebrating mass with Pope Benedict the 16th on Sunday and a vigil mass the night before.

The Australian contingent.


Meeting the crowd.





The 14km pilgrimage-The Sydney group decided to walk 14km to the site of the Saturday vigil and Sunday Mass with the Pope rather than catching the train and just walking the last 4 to 5 kms!


Saturday night vigil.


Just imagine 1 million people camping under the moonlight! Although in the previous couple of days we thought we were all going to be camping out in the rain. Thanks to some devine intervention the skies held up and we all slept relatively dry under the moonlight. We were not allowed to use camping tents so are sleeping bags still got a little bit damped from the settling fog. Like most people we had a plastic sheet (tarps) to sleep on and to put over our sleeping bags, some people were really roughing it and only had bits of cardboard and newspaper to rest their sleeping bags on. It was an experience nevertheless and we enjoyed the experience. However the following day I caught a cold from which I am still suffering from.


Early in the following morning.


Sunday morning mass. Afterwards the Pope announces that Sydney is to host the 2008 World Youth Day!

FRENCH ROADS TO COLOGNE WYD TOUR.

From London we Patric, Berna and travelled on the Eurostar to Paris, there we joined the Arch Diocesse of Sydney World Youth Day tour group. There are 5 priest with us and the Bishop of Sydney Bishop Porteouse. There are about 150 Australians and Americans with us on the tour.

In Paris we visited the The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart as well as the church where the incorupptable body of St. Vincent De Paul resides.

From Paris we travelled to Rouen where Joan of Arc was Burnt and we visited the the Cathedral of Our Lady of Rouen. From Rouen we continued on to Lisieux to St. Therese Basillica where we stayed overnight. The next day we continued our pilgrimage to Chatres where the veil worn by the Blessed Virgin Mary when Jesus was crucified on the cross is kept. From Chatres we visited the incoruptable body of St. Bernadette (to whom the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to in Lourdes) in Never.

We are now in Paray Le Monial where one of the WYD Forums is being held. There are 5000 youths here. It is a 4 day Forum which is a preparation to the WYD. We will travel to Cologne,Germany on Monday where we are expected to join 1 million youths from around the world to celebrate the 20th WYD with Pope Benedict the 16th.


Chatres.




Lisieux.




Rouen.




Only in Paris - tell me how you can not fall in love in this city!




The Magistic Notre Dame Cathedral.




La Tour de Eiffel.




The Lourve - is there a better place where you can keep the most famous painting (the Mona Lisa) in the world??

STONEHENGE.

ENGLAND.

Inside the London Eye.

With Patric and Berna.

The Tower of London.

FAREWELL TO MY ULTIMATE EUROPEAN CONTIKI TOUR EU286 2005.

Well it seems just yesterday but it was 46 days ago that we started our tour. At the very beginning nobody knew what to expect, we were just all ready for anything and we were just ready to have a good time. 46 days ahead of us then seemed a long time and we just wanted to live each day as it came.

But tonight it was our farewell dinner at the Sea Palace restaurant in Amsterdam. Good bye to everyone. The experience we shared as we travelled around Europe together for 46 days in a bus called Betty, a driver called Sam and a tour guide called Brad will never be forgotten...it may fade in our minds but it will forever be in our hearts like it was only yesterday.

AMSTERDAM.

From Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland we drove up back to Germany. We stopped over in Heidelburg and saw one of the oldest castles in the area and also the largest wine vat onced guarded by a living dwarf but is now just a statue.

We then made our up to St. Goar which is along the Rhine river. It is an area where Germany's best wine are made. The ice wine that we tasted was delicious.

It is 1:560am now, I am using the internet in our hotel. Yesterday we spent the whole day driving from St. Goar to Amsterdam in the Netherlands or Holland (what ever you prefer- it doesn't matter since the people here are called Dutch anyway!: )

But tonight we had dinner in the city and afterwards enjoyed an "Amsterdam cultural show".

Tommorow we have the whole day here in Amsterdam and the following day our tour finnally ends and we drive back to London. Some people in our tour will be leaving from here.

ON A CLEAR DAY.

JAUNGFRAU REGION, SWITZERLAND.

This is the area where Europe's highest alps resides. The Jaungfraujoch Mountain is considered the top of Europe at 3451m high. It is like heaven here.