THE ILIAD - OUR FINAL POST

We did it!

After 91 days, 23 countries, 76 cities and 23,458km (half the circumference of the globe at the equator) we are back in Paris and ready to fly to Greece, having completed our Europe 2006 itinerary, exactly as planned and without incident!!!

Our total distance travelled includes 2,440km by rail and 720km by ship and 760km by foot!

We also "stopped over" in a further 40 cities/towns. Now we think we know how Ulysses must have felt after completing his epic journey as described in Homer's Iliad!!! We could not have done it without our brave little car - C3PO (first photo), who bore the brunt of most of the kilometers (second photo).

Here is a summary of the best and worst of out trip:
HOTEL VALUE: best in Albufeira, Portugal and worst in Amboise, France.
HOTEL FEATURES: best equipped was in Stockholm, Sweden and worst in Trieste, Italy.
HOTEL COST: cheapest was in Tallin, Estonia and most expensive was in St Petersberg, Russia.
RESTAURANT: best was La Gloria De Montana in Madrid, Spain and worst was who cares in Albufeira, Portugal.
DISH: best was the Valencian Paella in Valencia, Spain and worst was the Mixed Seafood Grill in Albufeira, Portugal.
CITY: best was Barcelona, Spain and worst Oporto, Portugal.
TOWN: best was Clisson, France and worst Aranjuez, Spain.
TOURIST SITE: best was The Prado in Madrid, Spain and worst was the Royal Palace in Aranjuez, Spain.
MEMORABLE STAY: best was Monterossa Al Mare, Italy and worst was Amboise, France.
MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE: best was the up close and personal tour and tasting of the Eric Garreau winery with Eric Garreau and worst was trying to find a hotel in Madrid.
HOTEL BREAKFAST: best was in Warsaw, Poland and worst was in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
EFFORT TO VISIT: easiest city to visit was Berlin, Germany and hardest was Moscow, Russia.

This officially concludes "In Search Of Euro-Trash 2006"!!! This is the last blog post as there will be no coverage of our time in Greece. John is back in Sydney on 10 September 2006 and Paul returns on 4 October 2006.

CONTACT IN GREECE: Paul can be contacted on his mobile and email but he will have limited access to email. John will NOT have mobile and NOT have email access. If you need to contact John, please call him at his relatives on +30 26960 34015. If you cannot speak Greek just ask for "Yianis Golfinopoulos apo Afstralia"! Best time to call is between 8-9am Greek time (4-5pm Ozzie time).

We would like to thank our fans and viewing public for their comments and patronage - we hoped you enjoyed the show! But wait - that's not all. Once we get back and coming to you hopefully in December 2006 is our full length feature documentary film and best of the best photo slide show - stay tuned for details via email! We will also announce the winner of "what is Paul looking for" and answer all your questions, especially "who took all the John and Paul photos"!

Farewell Europe 2006!

"I'm Drinking Stars"

So said Dom Perignon on discovering the wonders of Champagne!

We visited Moet & Chandon in the French town of Epernay where we toured their 17.5 miles of underground chalk cellars and sampled some of their awesome produce.

Moet was founded in 1743 by Claude Moet and the name changed to its current when the company's reins were handed over to son-in-law Pierre-Gabriel Chandon in 1832.

Moet operates 800 hectares of vineyards, cultivated and maintained by 250 winegrowers. A single hectare requires more than 750 hours of meticulous care. Champagne is made with the blending of three grape varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. The bottles are then aged in their massive chalk cellars.

Needless to say that John was in heaven and had to be dragged out!

Chocolate Melting Pot

Brussels (pop 992,000, founded 11th century) is a melting pot of cultures. Apart from the age old rivalry between the Dutch based Flemish and French based Walloons, we noticed many Africans (Belgian colony of Congo), Turkish and Lebanese. Belgium is one third the size of Greece (30,000 sq km) with the same population of 10.2 million. Brussels claims that it invented "pomme frites" to go with its mussels and has the best beer and chocolates in the world! It certainly has the grandest plaza we have seen in Europe (first two photos)! The Manneken Pis (third photo) now has a girlfriend! She is called "Jeanneken Pis" and yes, she is also releaving herself (European Union Laws would not allow us to broadcast photos)! Paul and I have been to Brussels before and new sites we saw on this occasion included: the only operating brewery in Brussels (this beer is made the traditional way - open air fermentation), the chocolate musuem (saw how pralines are made, PS: the Belgians have confirmed that white chocolate is not really chocolate but cocoa butter!), the 1857 "Neuhaus" chocolate shop (invented the praline or filled chocolate) and the Cathedral of Sts Michel & Gudule (where the old monarchs are buried and the official parish of the Belgian Royal Family). Total distance travelled so far: 19,058km.

Big

Berlin is big. It has 3.5 million people living in an area, almost six times the size of Paris! This is because it is spread out, has lots of park land and more houses rather than apartments. A very extensive above ground rail, below ground rail, tram and bus system makes it seem much much smaller. Germany's 83 million people are also more evenly spread throughout over its 356,866 square kilometers (two thirds France).

Since Paul and I were last here in 1995 and 1993, much has changed. Lots of new buildings and sites. We visited the huge 28 million euro, "concrete block maze" Holocaust museum, opened in May 2005, just down the road from the Brandenburg Gate and ironically, next to the site of Hitler's lost bunker! It summarises every single Nazi death camp and Jewish memorial in WWII in all of Europe. Also new is the Berlin Guggenhaim (very disappointing - only one exhibit at a time in a small building).

Other older sites, not visited last time include: Oranienburger Strasse (Jewish Quarter, fall of cafes), Maassen Strasse and Nollendorf Platz (the Oxford Street and Taylor Square of Berlin with flashy Indian and Thai restaurants) and Gendarmenmarkt Platz (plaza with classic concert hall and music museum).

Rebuilt or cleaned sites since last time include: Reistag (Parliament), Brandenberg Gate (first photo), Potsdamer Platz (CBD with fabulous new Sony Centre) and Alexander Platz (new apartments, cleaned red town hall).

Classics include Kurfurstendamm (ritzy shopping boulevard with old and new bell towers at its end - second photo) and the fabulous Berliner Dom (protestant Cathedral, third photo). Overall, the Berliners were: very friendly, happy to speak in English, love having long breakfasts (they are much bigger and are available all day) and still have coffee and cake in the arvo!

Poles Apart

Gdansk (pop 481,000, 4th largest city in Poland, founded 1308AD) has an Old Town which is "poles apart" from Warsaw and even Krakow! Just look at the first photo. What a surprise for a working class port town on the Baltic. The Old Town is actually the "New Town" since the real Old Town was 90% destroyed in 1945 and is currently being re-built. The first photo shows the breathtaking "Dlugi Targ" the main town square, full of 14 and 15th century apartments and the Town Hall. Close by is the giant 14th century St Mary's Cathedral (with observation bell tower rising 405 steps or 124m). Nearby is the 1220AD St Katherine's and the 1350AD flour mill which produced 200 tons per day.

Gdansk is home to the Solidarity Movement, lead by Lech Walesa, which in 1980 precipitated events which lead to the fall of communism in Russia in 1997. Lech went on to become the first President of the 1990 independent Republic of Poland. A monument was erected in honour of this movement and all dock workers who died in violent clashes with the Soviet Government at the time.

Westerplatte is a seaside penisula approx 6km from the Old Town where WWII started and finished! On 1 Spetemeber 1939, a German Ship fired on this place and it was defended by these twelve for one week until they ran out of food!

Approx 70km from Gdansk, is the town of Malbork which is home to a 13th century red brick castle, the largest in the world (second photo). Paul and I also went to "Hel and back"!!! Hel is a seaside fishing town, 97km from Gdansk on a very thin 37km long peninsula which at its narrowest is only 200m so that the Baltic Sea can be seen through both sides of your car!!! Sad thing is that all of Poland spends "summer" here and it is extremely crowded with mostly overcast days, tops of 22deg and grey sand! If only they saw Queensland!

Finally Gdansk was the place where Paul and I ate Wild Boar Dumplings (a local specialty) - they were better than the smoked pigs ears we crunched on in Vilnius in Lithuania the previous night! Distance travelled so far: 17,780km.

Spanish Of The Baltics

The Lithuanians think of themselves as the "Spanish of the Baltics" because they see themselves as loud, red blooded and always celebrating, which they associate with the Spanish. Paul and I were unable to confirm this but we did consult our usual musuem experts to ask about their origins. The musuem personnel agreed that Lithuanians are more like the Latvians than Estonians but felt their language was more like Russian (with some Swedish) than Germanic (like Lativian). Lithuania (pop 3.6 million) covers 65,200 square kilometers, same as Latvia (half of Greece). Like Poland, the country disappeared officially from maps of Europe in the early 1900's and like Latvia and Estonia was occupied by Russia and became independent in 1991. Unlike its fellow Baltics, ethnic Lithuanians comprise a major 82% of the population. Lithuania is very flat with 4,000 lakes and 470 different types of butterfly!!!

The UNESCO protected capital, Vilnius (pop 600,000), founded 1321, has the largest old town in Europe (top photo, taken from the Gediman Tower) and before WWII had 100,000 jews (out of a total pop of 230,000) and 105 synagogues. The Nazis exterminated 100,000 (70,000 jews) in a death camp in Panerai (10km from Vilnius) where there is now an outdoor memorial (bottom photo). Only one synagogue now remains.

Vilnius old town is very well laid out and is the home of the unusual and rare "Baroque" styled Russian Orthodox Churches. We visited two in town and the monastery of the Holy Spirit which contains the preserved relics of three martyrs: Sts Anthony, Joann and Eustachius. Other city sites visited include: the 1579 University, 1363 Gates of Dawn (preserved city gate with miraculous Catholic icon of the Virgin housed in a chapel above the gate), 1615 St Casimirs Baroque Church, 1581 St Annes Gothic Church and the Three White Crosses on a hill at the start of the old town, where 3 monks were crucified in the 17th century.

Finally we visited the 17th century castle at Trakai (28km from city, second photo) where most of the cities newlyweds take their wedding photos (we saw more than 10 brides that day!). Distance travelled so far: 16,795km.

The Mystery Continues

Like Estonia, Latvia (pop 2.4 million, area 64,600 square kilometers or half Greece) is unsure of its origins. The musuem staff in UNESCO protected Riga believe that they are from Hungarian related tribes in Ukraine with some connections to the Danish. The Latvian language is of Germanic origin. This means Estonians and Finnish share common roots and language whilst the Latvians and Lithuanians share their roots and language. There are also similarities. Latvia was also occupied by Nazi Germany and Russia with independence in 1991. Riga (pop 790,00) is a very classic European city, whose old town is 40% Art Noveau architecture. The top photo shows the central "Ratsaukums" plaza with the 1344 House of Blackheads dominating (rebuilt in 2001 to celebrate the city's 800th birthday. The bottom photo shows the old city looking towards the Daugava river.

Other sites visited include: 1211 Dome Cathedral (largest Baltic Church), 1209 St Peters Lutheran church (with 123m tower), Presidents residence (old castle) and the 1698 Swedish Gate. Whilst the central old town is very classic the scene quickly deteriorates as you move into the suburbs - lots of traffic, grubby streets and buildings. Stalls and outdoor markets are quickly being replaced by modern malls. Distance travelled so far: 16,443km.