When travelling, everyone likes to collect souvenirs from the trip. It's nice to have something that you can look at that will evoke an instant memory of another place, another country, another culture. Of course, what do you collect? Sometimes you can go a bit over the top and before you know your house is full of crap. Crap that reminds you of some place else, but it's still crap.

One of the first trips we went on was to Oktoberfest in Germany with Nat and Teshie. While we were there Natalie mentioned that she collected pins from the different countries she has visited. A little badge of the country's flag or maybe something that the country is known for (like a bull for Spain or a windmill for the Netherlands.) I thought that was a pretty good thing to collect so I started to do the same. In the beginning I just collected a pin for the country. Then I started collecting pins for the cities. Then I started collecting pins for the museums I visited, and pins for the musicals I've seen on the West End. I have quite a collection now.


(I have missed a couple though. I didn't get one in Granada because I sprained my ankle. Anyone going to Granada soon? I'd like a Pomegranate pin please. I didn't get one from Cinque Terre because they don't make them. That's a niche market they are missing out. Don't they want my tourist dollar?)

So in the beginning, I just collected pins. Now a few other things have started to creep on to the list. We've been collecting the Euro coins from each country. I also have a few squashed pennies.


After visiting the Christmas markets in Vienna, I thought I might start to collect Christmas ornaments from the countries we visit. I thought that these would be nice to hang on our tree (when we get a tree when we get a house when we return to Australia). This is a smaller collection as most countries don't have Christmas ornaments out when you visit them in the Summer.


What do you collect when you travel?

Almost 30 years ago, Mum and Dad also climbed the tower of Pisa. Here are a couple of photos from their trip. This was way (way, way!) before digital cameras so there are only two photos (compared to the hundred or so Andrew and I took).



I love how there is a little, orange car parked right in front of the Tower. (Please excuse the dodgy photoshop job. There was a smudge on the photo.)



When Mum and Dad climbed the tower it actually had more of a lean than it does today. Recent restoration work straightened the tower by 45 centimetres, returning it to the position it was in 1838. So Andrew and I actually climbed an older version of the tower than Mum and Dad. We're time travellers!

More photos on Flickr

To get to Cinque Terre, we had the option of flying to Genoa or Pisa. In the end we decided on Pisa because it was cheaper (0p flights! yay!) and really who could resist a visit to that most famous mistake, The Leaning Tower of Pisa. On our last day in Italy, we left Manarola early in the morning and caught a train straight to Pisa. We left our luggage at the deposito bagagli at the train station, along with the rest of the tourists who'd also alighted from the train. It would seem that a quick pit-stop to see the Leaning Tower is the thing to do.

I think the word that I'd use to describe the Leaning Tower of Pisa is fun. When you arrive at the Piazza one of the first things you see (apart from the Dome, the Cathedral and the Tower) is tourists all lined up doing the famous "pushing the tower" shot. I'm sure you've seen it. You stand with your hands up in the air, and take a photo which makes it look like you are holding the tower up. Either that or you lean with the tower, or hug the tower. It's all a bit of silliness but who can resist this bit of fun? (Not Andrew and I, you can see our examples below. For once I didn't stand out as peculiar when I took the photos of the kids.)


Climbing the Tower is lots of fun too. It's a little bit expensive at 15 euro a piece but it's an experience I wouldn't have missed for the world. Just walking through the front door is a disorientating experience. After walking through a door that is slanted at a ridiculous angle, you've entered into an Alice in Wonderland like reality. You technically climb up the spiral staircase but it's more like up, up, up, then flat, flat, flat, then down, down, down... and then back to the up. I found walking the terraces that encircle the outside of the tower a little bit scary. The photos we took just don't manage to catch the strange perspective you have of the world around you. The world is right and you're just a little bit crazy. It was better than a ride at a funfair.



Later that evening when we'd finally made it back to London (after a typically crap Ryanair journey) I said to Andrew... "don't you find it surreal that at lunchtime today we were standing on the Leaning Tower of Pisa and now we're at home in our bed." And it's the same with all our trips. I'm very grateful to be lucky enough to see these places. Places that I've wanted to see since I was a little girl.

Some Tower Trivia for you:

• the tower leans to the southwest at an angle of almost 4 degrees.
  
  
• the tower started to lean shortly after construction begun in 1173 due to a poorly laid foundation and loose soil.
  
  
• Engineers built the higher floors (fourth floor and above), with one side taller than the other to try to compensate for the lean. This means the tower is actually curved. (You can see curve in the photos.)
  
  
• In May 2008, after yet another round of restoration work on the tower, they announced that the tower had stopped moving for the first time in history. They declared that it would be stable for the next 200 years.
  
  

More photos on Flickr

Recently our travel agenda has changed. Originally, we'd planned to do a month long driving holiday through France and Italy before returning home to Australia for good. Unfortunately, that holiday was planned for September or October 2008. Thanks to Mr Credit Crunch we've spent the months of both September and October working instead of gallivanting around the continent.

We realised that travel plans could only be made tentatively. We decided that there were must-see places that we should probably just go and see rather than wait for that elusive block of vacation time.

First up, Cinque Terre. This was definitely on our must-see list. It's a favourite place of some of our favourite people.


Cinque Terre is a series of five villages lining the Mediterranean coast of Northern Italy. It's an hour south of Genoa and an hour north-west Pisa. The rugged landscape of the region means that the five villages, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso, are built into the cliffside. It's also famed as a wine producing region. Grapes are grown on terraces which have been cut into the cliffs. (At harvest time in the olden days they used to lower buckets of grapes down the cliffs to rowboats waiting below. Now they use stairclimbers... boring!).

We had an idyllic weekend in Cinque Terre. We stayed in a modern apartment in the small village of Manarola. The apartment was built right on the edge of the cliff. At night, I was lulled to sleep by the sound of the sea; waves crashing on the cliffs. It's a sound from my childhood, a sound from summer holidays at Budgewoi. It was very relaxing.


The apartment also had roof-top terrace with a beautiful ocean view. We ate breakfast on the terrace every morning. A baguette with prosciutto and cheese, a banana and a glass of orange juice. We purchased the supplies from the local deli in very broken Italian. (For example, to order 10 slices of prosciutto - "Prosciutto per favore, dieci" *make slicing motions with hands*. Ashamedly, our broken Italian is sometimes snippets of Spanish or French. Told you it was very broken!).


Oh and did I mention the weather! Apart from the rain on the first day, we had beautiful weather. Three days of sunshine and temperatures in the mid 20s. It's only 11 degrees in London today. As I write this I look out the window at a view of a very grey London. Sometimes I wonder why anyone would live in London.

We booked a 4-day mini-break to Cinque Terre which meant that we could work at a very relaxed pace. Our first day we spent mainly napping because it was raining. On Day 2, we hiked from Manarola to Corniglia and then to Vernazza. The first part was easy, apart from the 300 step climb up to Corniglia. The hike from Cornigilia to Vernazza was more challenging with a steep climb up and then steep climb down. On day 3, we took it easy, catching a train to Monterosso and then a ferry to Riomaggiore. We then walked Lovers Lane from Riogmaggiore back to our village, Manarola. That was a very easy stroll compared to the other Cinque Terre hikes.


What makes Cinque Terre special, is that the best way to see it is to walk the trails. There isn't a road which easily links the five villages. There is a train but it spends most of the journey between the villages inside tunnels. There isn't even a funicular or a cable car. To really enjoy the view you have to make an effort. And the effort makes the view all that more enjoyable. There was nothing better than the view as we hiked down into Vernazza after a two hour trek. Well, except maybe the view of the large scoop of lemon gelato that I awarded myself afterwards.

More photos on Flickr

We stayed at Arpaiu in Manarola. The accommodation was clean and modern. All the rooms had a sea view. The accommodation was recommended by Sue and J. Thanks for the fantastic recommendation guys.

Not much to see in Toledo, just a cathedral, an alcazar, a synagogue and a monastery. This is actually a pretty standard list for Spain. So why go to Toledo? Well, because it's a beautiful medieval city built on top of a steep hill. Being able to walk through and experience this beautiful city is reason enough. It was the capital of Spain until 1561, and it seems not much has changed since then.

While in Toledo, we did visit the cathedral, alcazar, synagogue and the monastery, but my favourite memory has nothing to do with the tourist attractions. One evening, we watched the sun set over the city from the rooftop terrace of our hotel. The oranges and pinks in the evening sky complemented the dusky hues of the city's buildings. Overhead, small sparrows darted here and there chasing bugs. The call of the birds mingled with the bells of the cathedral striking the hour. Gathering memories like these is why we travel.



Our hotel in Toledo, Hotel Santa Isabel, was the best hotel we stayed in on the trip. Very modern rooms and a roof-top terrace. Highly recommended. Booked through Booking.com.

Our visit to Toledo was part of Tapas Travels: The Wilsons + Daleys do Spain. Mum, Dad, Andrew and I did a 3-week road trip around Spain with a few days tacked on in Portugal at the end of the journey. Other entries from this trip include: Wouldn't it be nice if the world was Gaudi?, La Mezquita, La Sagrada Família, The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone.