The beauty of Konstance

After a night spent with family and a quick walk through Epalinges we were on the road again. This time we were headed for Konstance, just over the German border, with Jonathon. We had to stop at Zurich airport to change hire cars, but even with that stop, the trip probably only took about four hours. Coming from Australia, the thought of driving four hours into another country is unthinkable – it takes longer than that to drive into another state!

Again, the drive was stunning – past snow-capped mountains, castles and cow-filled meadows.

Konstance is a beautiful historic little town on Lake Konstance. The lake itself forms the border of Germany, Switzerland and Austria – what a position! We spent half the day meandering through the old town of Konstance, marvelling over the buildings which date back as far as the 1300s.

Full of cobbled streets and historic vistas, Konstance is an easy city to walk around. The old town is nestled next to the Lake, though the most interesting streetscapes are a short walk away from the Lake. Unfortunately the trainline intersects between the old town and the Lake, making it difficult to move between the two.

The city more than makes up for this slight inconvenience with its sheer beauty.

From the top of the Cathedral spire – 42 metres high – you get amazing views over the city and the lake. You can walk up higher, to the balconies in the spire – at about 56 metres.

I had to laugh as Adrian had an indepth discussion with a man on the balconies all about camera equipment – the man didn’t speak a word of English, Ade doesn’t speak a word of German, but they spoke the universal language of Canon!

A mad dash from Venice to Lausanne

The train ride through northern Italy and into Switzerland is spectacular – though our journey was not without incident.

We arrived at the station nice and early and boarded our train for Milan, where we were to change trains for the trip to Lausanne. We had about half an hour to kill in Milan, time enough to find our platform and transfer our luggage, or so we thought!

Heading through the Italian countryside our train stopped at one of the stations and there it sat, and sat. Evidently there had been a problem with the train and we had been delayed about 20 minutes. Still time to get to Milan and board our train, but then the train took off, slowly and didn’t pick up speed until we were just about at Milan.

We arrived five minutes after our train was due to leave – and as we were boarding a Swiss train we fully expected they would have left right on time.

Of course we had arrived on a platform at the opposite end of the station to where we needed to be, so laden with bags, we took off. Running all the way to the correct platform and our train was still there! I don’t know how we found the right platform, but we were soon safely on our way to Lausanne and enjoying the stunning views out the window.

Venice to Milan was nice, but nothing compared to the trip from Milan to Lausanne – where we ambled passed snow-capped mountains, castles, lakes and the picture postcard meadows you expect to find in Switzerland.

We headed straight to Epalinges, to my cousin, Jonathon’s place. Epalinges is about five minutes from Lausanne – up in the mountains just above the snowline – it’s a little quieter than Lausanne, and absolutely beautiful!

Dodging the crowds in Venice

It’s been 10 years since we’ve been to Venice. Back then we were struggling backpackers. We bought our rolls in the supermarket, stayed in the campgrounds off the main island, and saw all icons from afar.

Fortunately part of the beauty of Venice is exploring the canals on foot and getting lost meandering from church to cathedral and everything in between.

This time, however we chose to stay in the heart of Venice, just off San Marco Palazzo, so we could truly take in the city.

In the 10 years since we were last in Venice the crowds appear to have trebled, could be that we were there during the Venice Biennale, but it certainly wasn’t peak season when we were here this time, unlike the last time we were here.

We got up early so we could beat the crowds to the Doges Palace (Ade had already been up since 6 taking photos without the crowds).

I can’t believe we didn’t make the effort to go inside the palace when we were here all those years ago. Each room is better than the one before it, more majestic, with unbelievable artwork adorning the walls.

The tour takes in the palace, including the Doge’s private apartments and the council chambers, as well as the prison.

The contrast between the opulence of the palace and the dark, depressing prison is striking. The two are separated by the Bridge of Sighs and it must have been the longest walk for any person condemned to the prison.

The canals of Venice have lost none of their charm, even if they are now more full than ever of gondolas and one of our favourite things to do was still to get lost in the side streets overlooking the canals.

Two days in Venice isn’t really enough, we missed seeing the inside of the San Marco Chapel because of the long queues, but it’s one more reason to head back there, probably in another 10 years, when the crowds will no doubt have doubled again!

Three days in Singapore

Ahh Singapore – a city of shopping, efficiency, strict rules against chewing gum and … frogs?!

We arrived in Singapore at 6am and headed straight for our friend Barb’s place, she had convinced us that we needed to see the frog farm in Singapore – they don’t write about it in the travel brochures, nor was there any information on it at the airport.

But, on next to no sleep we took a cab and headed for farming country.  Even the taxi driver laughed at us as we told him where we wanted to go.

The farm itself is a little disturbing, thousands of frogs trapped in small concrete pens – all ready to be sold off to become someone’s meal – and I thought they only ate frogs in France!

But the region was beautiful - full of unusual farms accessed by a shuttle bus that drives from farm to farm.

After the frog farm we visited Bollywood Veggies – a large edible garden that you could take hours to meander through.

The greenery in this part of the country, close to the border with Malaysia, was quite unexpected and quite beautiful, and seemingly a world away from the Singapore most visitors experience.

Of course, we had to do the obligatory tourist sites – Little India, yep it’s authentic, as soon as we stepped into this precinct people were trying to get us to buy their wares; Arab Street; Orchard Road and Raffles Place.

We also caught the train out to Sentosa Island to witness all the kitsch of the various “worlds”. I loved it, but was very surprised to learn it’s not a man-made island! The island itself formed naturally, but has now been turned into a giant “theme park” complete with fake beaches and rocks, as well as a Universal Studios theme park. Another of the main goals for Sentosa Island was to reverse the trend of declining greenery, and slowly increase the “percentage” of the island dedicated to natural forestry.

Even the airport at Singapore is amazing - complete with indoor butterfly sanctuary for viewing while waiting for the plane. You can view butterfly cocoons, and watch hundreds of butterflies suck nectar from the flowers. It is the most amazing airport we have seen.

Singapore is a beautiful country, it is incredibly clean, easy to navigate and friendly but in some ways it is a little too perfect, almost soulless. Still, I’m definitely heading back for the shopping!

Image Of The Week

Church of the Good Shephard - New Zealand


This shot was taken quite a while ago. It was early in my journey as a photographer, and taken with my trusty 300D and sigma 24-70 2.8 EX DG. It was late afternoon early May, and the light was superb.
I couldn't really go wrong.