Happy new years to everyone reading this! Hope everyone is enjoying a nice warm summer- we are on the other hand are driving through snowy towns and countryside on our way north to Venice, having just left Maranello, Italy, which is the home of Ferrari! Kate and I had a great time checking out the test track and the museum, and the hometown of Enzo Ferrari.

Following my last update, we arrived in Switzerland to our hotel just on the outskirts of Lucerne, which is pretty much your stereotypical postcard-perfect Swiss village at the base of Mount Pilatus. We had a slightly non-traditional Christmas night meal of Chicken and macaroni, and had the first opportunity to practice our (almost non-existent) German!The following day we went into Lucerne, and looked at cuckoo clocks, watches and Swiss army knives, then went to see the Lion monument, which is carved into the side of a mountain to commemorate the Swiss guards that died protecting the King of France. Some of the more keen people in our group decided to catch the gondola up to the top of Mount Pilatus, however Kate and I took the option of coffee and Swiss chocolate down in town overlooking Lake Lucerne.

From Lucerne we moved south out of Switzerland back into France. We stopped at the Pont du Garde, which is a surviving part of a Roman aqueduct which used to bring water down from the French mountains all the way to Rome. Our next town was Lyon, which is known as the 'gastronomical capital' of France (and the site of the All Blacks' world cup victory over the mighty Romania…) We had four course meals at a fantastic traditional French restaurant- Kate had Pistachio sausage and vegetables for her main, and I had bacon, spare rib, black pudding and tripe sausage- mmm-mmm! After dinner we went for a ride on the Ferris wheel in the middle of town, which seemed alright at ground level, but was absolutely freezing when hoisted 70-odd metres into the air!

After our brief one night stop in Lyon, we headed into our next country- Spain! We arrived in Barcelona in the afternoon and went straight to the Gaudi designed cathedral Sagrada Familia, which certainly wasn't like the Gothic masterpieces in Paris, and had mixed reviews from the people on tour! It was pretty spectacular to see though, and still isn't finished following the death of Gaudi many years ago, and they say won't be until 2040 at least due to the incredibly non-liner, complex nature of the design. After checking into our hotel and having dinner, we went to a local bar which offered pour-your-own beers from taps at each table, and spirits at about as cheap as you could get anywhere in Western Europe! I had a great conversation with an old Spanish guy at the bar, which while I wouldn't say was fluent by any stretch of the imagination, I think we understood each other pretty well, so following this, and much to Kate's irritation, I decided to speak only Spanish for the rest of the night, while we travelled down to Port Olimpique and went into a waterfront nightclub there.The next morning we had a walking tour around central Barcelona, then Kate went on a boot shopping mission (which was unsuccessful unfortunately). We walked down the main street 'La Rambla' and checked out the street perfomers and the stalls selling all kinds of pet animals from chickens and pheasants, to turtles, hamsters and iguanas! We saw the spot where Christopher Columbus returned to Spain having discovered America, and the monument to his journey. We travelled over to the Picasso museum only to find the queue was at least 45 minutes wait long, and decided to pass in favour of a bit more shopping (Spain is a bit cheaper than a lot of other countries). That night we went to 'Tablao de Carmen' restaurant and Flamenco show which was full of passion and aggression (and also a bit wet from the sweaty dancers since we were in the second row!).

Following our brief stopoff in Spain we headed back to Nice in the French Riviera, just past Cannes and St Tropez. It was very close to shorts and t-shirt weather, but I decided better of it since both Kate and I had started to get sick from being on the go non-stop and a bit sleep deprived for the first week. We had dinner and then went to a bar that had a great band, and staff who encouraged everyone to dance on their tables and chairs. Certain members of our tour (not Kate or I) decided a quick dip in the Mediterranean on the way home would be a good idea. I think they changed their minds in hindsight in the morning!The following day was new years eve, and we spent the early part of the evening travelling to the country of Monaco, home of the Grimaldis, and the Monte Carlo casino, via a French perfumery. We wandered along the Monaco waterfront, past luxury superyachts and launches no doubt worth more than some small countries, and up the hill to the famous casino. There was some kind of New Years Soiree going on at the neighbouring Hotel De Paris, which involved a string of Bentleys, Ferraris, Audis and Mercedes rolling up to the hotel with their chauffers, and people who were no doubt ultra rich and possibly famous entering up the stairs while being serenaded by a strings group. Inside the Monte Carlo you could just about see money dripping off people- we saw one guy (accompanied by his bodyguard of course) casually playing three hands of blackjack at a time, with 20000 Euros on each. He lost all three, but managed to win a lot of it back when he bet 40000 on the next hand and won!We caught the bus back to Nice for New Years, and arrived at about 10:30PM down at the waterfront, which seemed reasonably sedate, then by 12 was full of drunk French people throwing firecrakers at each other (and us), firing roman candles in crowds of people, and generally making the Nice waterfront resemble something like downtown Baghdad. We decided to head back to the hotel before getting blown up or caught in any kind of inter-gang warfare which seemed about ready to break out.

From Nice we headed into our next country, which was Italy! We noticed a difference in the houses and countryside almost straight away as we headed into Tuscany- our first stop was Florence (or Firenze to the locals), home town of all kinds of famous Italians, such as Michaelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and if you believe the legends, Hercules himself. We only had one day in Florence, so had a lovely tuscan dinner on our first night, while being entertained by some very enthusiastic Italians who singled out a number of the ladies on our tour (including Kate!) to serenade! We also had an amazing aria singer sing some traditional Italian songs which was fantastic. All of this was of course accompanied by a seemingly unlimited amount of Tuscan red and white vino! We then went onto a night club with a big upstairs dance area, and a Karaoke area downstairs. Unfortunately the next morning Kate was a bit unwell, which must have been from something she ate, and definitely wouldn't have been from all the red wine and vodka and red bulls she had the night before! We did see some historic piazzas, including where Michaelangelo's David stands. From Venice we headed down to the capital of Italy- Rome.

We started off Rome by doing a walking tour to the Trevi fountain (and we both threw coins in for luck!) then headed down towards the Pantheon, which is remarkably well preserved considering it was built BC as a temple to pagan gods, then later coverted to a Christian temple. The pantheon holds the tomb of the sculptor Raphael which we saw. After dinner we stopped of for a great gelato on the way back to the hotel.

More Rome (and the rest) to come shortly!