So we had a very late start this morning. Leisurely breakfast then we left the hotel at 8.30am. We had a tour of the city by day with a local guide on the coach. She then took us up the Eiffel Tower with no waiting in line. We were the first ones up after it opened and there was no one else there to start with. The day is very grey and cloudy, so not tempting to photograph. But still lovely to look at. This morning's outing was our last entire group event. The...

I had written such a long entry for yesterday, but our hotel has no free wifi so by the time I tried to publish it, it was gone!! Bob had told us so much interesting information as we came from Switzerland into France. I shall do the best I can to recall it. We departed Lucerne really early (I think it was 8am) and arrived at our hotel in Paris (just up the street from the Arche di Triumphe) at 3.30pm. We drove up to Basel and into the French countryside, passi...

Straight after brekky we headed off on our coach - Bob had us being the first group up Mt Pilatus, which was lovely. Our first cable car took 30 minutes or so, and the second took about 9 minutes on the first one we were travelling through cloud all the way, but then we suddenly rose out of the cloud. It was incredible. Mt Pilatus (where they believe Pontius Pilate's spirit to be) is where they filmed the James Bond movie - On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It is ...

So we boarded our bus and retraced our steps to Bologna and continued north west to Switzerland. We passed through Modena, home of Ferrari, Andrea Boccelli, the late Luciano Pavarotti and balsamic vinegar (which is NOT used on salads in Italy, but to marinate meat, to sprinkle on strawberries or Parmesan cheese after dinner). We continued on through Parma, home of Parmesan cheese (which is produced from cow's milk, with cows that do not go outside and do not ...

This morning we headed off from Rome but had only a short trip to Florence. We were taken in to Florence and went to a leather work outlet where various leather work things were explained to us. Tom and I bought a beautiful leather waste-paper bin! We then went and had a gelato in the square whist watching a puppeteer at work. After that we were joined by a local guide who took us on a walking tour of Florence, including into the art gallery to see and hear an in...