Clary's Travel Digression

Had been bad weather in Styria (like elswhere in Central and Nothern Europe).

I hope, she saw this, though, otherwise some newspaper photos :wink:





All is made out of narcisses!

I had a long and curly route here, Luzern, and bad weather is no exaggeration. Snow, actually lying on the road as it fell, above 700 meters, and plenty of the scenic routes I chose were above that height at times. And in my old car with summer tyres too! A nasty landslide has closed the St Gotthard pass and a couple were killed when a one tonne rock hit their car. And it is the first of June, incredible.

Don't laugh Walter, but after Styria my route took me to the Drava valley in Slovenia, Trieste in Italy and back north through Friuli, an underrated (by us Western Europeans, not the Austrians undoubtedly) and much cheaper part of Italy than I had been before, some stunning scenery there and pretty stone houses and fortresses, then over to Austria again and up the river Gail, my second favourite river in Austria after the Drau or Drava, over to Italy again to beautiful San Candido or Innichen (depending on whether you speak Italian or German)
I was totally confused by the languages, and completely mixed German and Italian in every sentence! Since I don't speak much of either, it was an interesting challenge but I seemed to make myself understood OK in the end.
Then I did a really silly day... over the San Giovo pass to Merano, and my brakes smell a bit, perhaps they aren't in the best of shape, and was going to go over another pass to Obergurgl for the sake of its name, but decided to take a southern 'direct line' route to Luzern by crossing another pass called Ofenpass (does it really mean Oven, Walter?) - which is where the snow started. Then I was in Rumansch-speaking Switzerland and delighted my linguistic ears (?) with a Rumansch radio broadcast about colour therapy - much more understandable to me than Swiss German! I went through Davos and Klosters, where Prince Charles disports himself on the skislopes, and found a less pretentious village for a wonderful typically Swiss hotel, the Kröne at Grusch. The mythology of Switzerland being too expensive to holiday in is largely past, for about 40 Euros I had a magnificent big room with old wooden furniture, and a huge breakfast spread where homemade jams made of such unlikely ingredients as banana, carrot and pumpkin were served!
And so over the Fluellapass in more snow to this cosy flat on the lakeside in Luzern, a very charming small city it is too - I've been many times and always enjoy it. But the smiling river in the photo above is now a raging torrent and there are fears that the floods of last year may be repeated. There was an item on TV called 'Wo ist die Sommer?' by puzzled meteorogists looking for sunshine in an uncannily overcast season.
Now I see that I have returned to the subject of the weather in true British fashion... so I must get up and carry on to... France!

Time is out of joint apparently, at least for the weatherman.

Fascinating report, as always, from Clazza....glad you could find a good hotel after all that, for R & R.

What IS the plural of narcissus, by the way? Latin is not always a help.

Narcissus or narcissuses. according to my dictionaries (Latin narcissus, from Greek narkissos).



Thanks for that report, Clary!

Still hanging in here for a bit of vicarious travel!

Just returned from the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory - where the temperatures were comfortably around 25-30C, and dry season, so no humidity and no flies..

Back in Sydney it's cold and wet, and I have a monstrous cold. Bah humbug!

Oh I could have done with the Great Barrier Reef and its cooling waters, Margo! And yes, Walter, the sun is DEFINITELY here now. I had a week in the Dordogne region, visits to Perigueux and Lascaux caves (not allowed to see the real thing but the replica is good) and picnic au bord de la Dronne - beautiful rivers, those of southwest France. Thence to Burgundy, where I am now, in the deepest of deep countryside - in the 5 hours that my friend and I were out this morning, her husband saw 16 tractors and 6 cars pass - and had time and inclination to actually COUNT them! It's an old bressane farmhouse, brick and wood, with outhouses of the most dank and dark, harbouring creepy crawlies pretty certainly, and they are doing wonders to it, including a 'potager' - veg garden, and spanking new bathroom, thank heavens. What some people do for fun!!
.
Here is a bressane farmhouse.
Going to the local marché aux puces tomorrow, and to Chalons sur Saone (there should be 2 circumflexes on that but I don't know HOW to do them) thereafter. Paris on the 15th where I will have the run (a short one) of my son's room since he is off to - guess where, Germany, to watch some of the infuriatingly ubiquitous but internationally joyous Coupe du Monde

A potager and 16 tractors passing by.

Sounds quite wonderful.

Ah, there speaks someone who needs to relax! But it can be TOO quiet...

A little bit less than three months until I can stay a couple of days here ...



... and count the tractors and cars "au coeur de la campagne" as well.


Have some more nice days, Clary .... and some better in Germany :wink:

Toujours a la campagne, it's wonderful eating out until sunset at 10 o'clock, sound of frogs, huge golden moon ... and now my friend is making strawberry jam with the fruit we picked yesterday. How shall I cope with Paris after this rural idyll??

Sounds good.

Now I must cut l'herbe before dejeuner.

Start for the beginning with a pique nique ...

Where is your impressive castle, Walter?

I have just had great fun watching a man with a pelleteuse (or excavatrice) knocking down the concrete pigsties at the back of the farmhouse to make room for the piscine. In my next life I'd like to have a JCB.

South Britanny, Morbihan - inbetween Rennes and Nantes, ¼ hour away from Vannes and the ocean. (Will stay there for a little less than one week.)

There is France, and then there is Paris.

Well, tpi, ya can't argue that - what are you trying to tell us?

Paris n'est pas le tout France

C'est vrai, mais............

I think the difference between Paris and the rest of France is more marked than, say, London and the rest of England. It was particularly marked this week when the temperatures in Paris were 35ish, no wind, and with the window open one ws deafened by the sound of the traffic circumnavigating the city on the Boulevard Périphérique. I have run away to the cool forested landscape of the vallée de l'Essonne for my last 3 days before the dreaded England-bound ferry. A cool cloudy overcrowded Devon does not appeal, even though I haven`t been back to it since Feb 16th. I am an addicted traveller, methinx.

Lucky, lucky you, Clary. I am green with envy.