I am starting this chapter where I left off from Chapter 11, I left Brig, Switzerland after having some breakfast at the Convent where I was staying at and commenced driving up over the Simplon Pass, the road winds it’s way up through the alps and back down the other side into Northern Italy, towards Milan, as it was our 27th wedding anniversary in a couple of days I thought that it might be a bit of a winner if I sidetracked and visited the fashion city to buy some lovely gift for the bride, but reality kicked in and a quick calculation meant that it was going to cost me another day, which I could ill afford as I needed to make Frankfurt by the latest on the 5th, so that I could then make Mont Saint Michel by the 8th of September as that was when the high tides were, so nice thought but just not practical, but hey it is the thought that counts isn’t it ?? So I continued on driving along the northern border of Italy, down along a valley floor, with tiered vineyards on the northern face of the valley wall and basically nothing on the other side, very scenic, the roads however are about 1.5 car widths wide, so careful when passing, it felt like I was driving a cartoon car when you got close to passing an oncoming car it was as if your car just got thinner & higher to get past, I have got to say my mirrors were having a heart attack, the only reason they were still there was that they were at a different height to the other cars I am sure, the buses didn’t seem to give a shit, they just kept going at the same speed, I would shudder when they went past !!. Anyway continued to drive on into France, and reached the border of Italy/France at Albergo, which is on the eastern side of the famous Mont Blanc, (you know like the pen), well whilst very scenic, I took the opportunity to photograph the eastern side of the alps at this point, then it was time to move on, so set the GPS for Chamonix, pronounced “Chamoneaaaa”, so to get there I had to travel through the Mont Blanc Tunnel, 11klms in all, you have to line up at the toll booth, about ¢45 Euros (@$70 Aussie) that took the best part of an hour, and then when you get to the toll, three booths, paid the money and the boom gate does not go up, why ???, well they let the traffic go one booth at a time 30seconds apart, you have to drive between 60-70klms per hour. So anyway boom gate up and out of the traps I went like a bloody greyhound, keen to get going after wasting over an hour at the tolls. Half an hour later I arrived at Chamonix, as you come out of the tunnel, you have to turn either right towards Chamonix, or left towards Geneva, so turned right to Chamonix, well what a lovely place this is, however unbeknown to me, the mountain Hikers or bushwalkers annual show was on, ten thousand walkers, camping staying in the hotels, they were everywhere, so no accommodation for miles, bugger, managed to convince one of the hotels to let me use their internet access to get online to book some accommodation near by, ended up about 30klms away, but it was very nice, way up in the mountains. By the way the western side of Mont Blanc is spectacular the whole area is just beautiful would love to see it in the winter when there is some snow about. So the next day I yet again loaded up the car and headed for Geneva, via a small village of Yvoire on a lake (Lac Lëman) between France & Switzerland, the border goes down the middle of it, this village has an old stone castle on the edge of the lake, and the surrounding walls were made up of thin but tall stone shops & houses, about three stories high, which I assume were built a thousand years ago, the streets were made out of cobblestone about 5 meters wide if that, and all of the buildings were built out of stone, with blossoming flowers in every window, very unique place, down at the waters edge is a very nice pub, where I had lunch before moving on. So now on the road to Geneva, a major city at the southern end of the lake back in Switzerland, spent a bit of time there photographing the city and the fountain on the foreshore of the lake, nothing spectacular for the landscape photographer here so continued on heading for Luxembourg some 500+ klms away, so back into France and up the highway, it was getting dark by this stage and I had not been able to get any internet so that I could book any accommodation, so I decided to continue driving through the night to catch up a day, so drove north to Nancy and then further on to Metz, getting very tired, apparently had another nanna nap and managed to graze the side of the passengers front wheel against the cement curb in a tunnel somewhere, did a bit of damage to it, but was able to continue on after no problems, so arrived in Metz, and decided that I was that close to Luxembourg that this will do for the night, so slept in the car for what was left of the night, about an hour was all, but at least that was something. When I woke the next morning I had a bit of a look around Metz, interesting city, not much stood out to me so I continued to drive to Luxembourg, checked into my hotel, and spent the rest of the day looking around the city. It had been raining, so wet roads and much cooler in Belgium, as I travelled along the road I came across a paddock full of tractors, a big tent, cars parked on both sides of the road, and one big boggy patch, thought wonder what is going on here ??, so pulled up, parked the car and walked over. once I got closer I could see that it was a Tractor Pull competition, for those of you that don’t know what this is, they have a trailer (big one like the ones on the back of semi’s/trucks, which is really like a sled), as there are no front wheels on it, the rear of the sled is loaded up with cement blocks, so the idea is that the tractor has to pull the sled to the other end/finish line, about 110 meters in this case, as the sled is being pulled forward, the cement blocks also move forward on the sled, thus bogging the front of the sled into the ground more and more until the tractor cannot pull it any further, the tractor that pulls it the furtherest becomes the winner. By the time that I arrived the competition was over, and the celebrity drinks were flowing and trophy presentation well underway. Moving on I drove further through Belgium towards Brussells, at this point I am driving through very flat farming country, with crops of corn, feed crops like lucern or the like & just bare ploughed paddocks, as I said quite flat, the narrow road was regularly lined with avenues of trees with the occasional one or two missing, and out of nowhere you see this huge mound like a some giant ants nest, perfectly shaped cone, green as a leek, and at the top you could see a statue, wow what is this I thought. As I got closer, there were signs directing tourists on how to get there, it was the famous mark of the “Battle of Waterloo” ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo ) where the Dutch & Prussian armies conquered the French army led by Napoleon in June 1815, post the battle of waterloo the king decided to have a memorial built to honour where his son the Prince of Orange was fatherly wounded and also to commemorate all of those that had fallen in the conflict. The mound stands about 43 meters high (@150 feet) and placed at the top of the mound is a lion made from the bronze of melted down canons from the battle, estimated to be around some forty tons of it. You can climb the stairs to the top, easy enough, and from there you have a 360 degree view of the whole country side, below just near the base of the mound there is a museum that houses artefacts from the battle as well as a 360 degree gallery inside the domed ceiling showing the aftermath of the battle in all directions. There is also a tavern there, quite a lively place, they had old time rock & roll music playing, all of the oldies were up and dancing, as well as internet so was able to book a hotel in Brussells, so I am going to get a sleep tonight and a shower, great. From here I continued on to Brussels, arrived there just after lunch, checked into the hotel, had a shower and a change and out to discover what so good about Brussels, as I was staying right in the centre of the old or original part of the city, the streets were very tight, only the width of a car in some cases, they seemed to go in all directions, confusing to those that had just arrived, making sure I remembered which way back to the hotel, down two, right one, down another, you get the idea … anyway following the crowd, I came into the main city square, WOW, this is some town square, the buildings were huge, all decorated and gilded with gold, which just gleamed, an impressive sight to the poor man I can tell you. The square was about 100 x 100 meters square, with a huge Cathedral at one end, the square was paved with cobblestones, and people everywhere, so I just continued to stroll about seeing all of the old shops & streets all built in the dark ages I reckon, but clean & very scenic. I ended up having some dinner at one of the cafe’s in the square which I am glad I did stick around because during the evening the square came to life with a light & music show. Next morning I was out and about before dawn, as I wanted to photograph the town square before anyone arrived, which I did, it was great, hopefully got some nice images there, after I had finished photographing the square and surrounds, it was back to the hotel, grab some breakfast, booked some accommodation for tonight while I had some internet and continue my trip further north towards the city of Amsterdam. Hope that you have enjoyed the read, cheers for now … JD
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 07:10:45 +0000
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