Kerr Barging Blogs

Leaving Riomaggiore, one of towns within Cinque Terre on the Mediterranean Coast we travelled North through Genoa to Milan, where we caught the train to Tirano. this was a most scenic journey along the shores of Lake Como and heading towards the Italian and Swiss Alps. Bishop Luciano Capelli, Bishop of Gizo in the Solomon Islands, had discovered that we were to be in Italy while he was back in his homeland, and had offered to be our guide in discovering the beauties of his area around Tirano  and later of Milan as well.

Bishop Luciano and wonderful host Amanda

We travelled up the Bernina Pass to St Moritz on the red tourist train, with special panoramic windows which give a view above as well. What a magnificent and interesting journey.

The Red Train

The train climbs from Tirano at 429 metres above sea level, to Ospizio Bernina at 2,253 metres before dropping to St Moritz at 1775 metres. The train line itself is a marvel of engineering. It covers the climb from Tirano to the highest spot, Ospizio Bernina, in 22 kilometres which involves gradients of up to 1 in 7. The total 61 kilometres line has 196 bridges and 55 tunnels.The views it exposes are spectacular, with glaciers,lakes, beautiful valleys and  and snow covered mountains. As we climbed higher the snow was still thick on the ground and the lakes were frozen. By next month, we are told, some of the snow will have cleared and the cattle will be occupying the high meadows, but in April we saw only snow and one or two skiers.

High Alpine Lake

We had lunch at St Moritz then returned to Tirano, with our train towing a trailer piled with logs, an efficient passenger/ cargo mixture.

St. Moritz lake

St. Moritz

Back in Tirano we visited the Basilica of the Madonna of Tirano, built on the spot where the Madonna appeared to a local man in 1504.

Tirano Basilica, high altar

We also visited Bishop Luciano's tiny home village and met his mother and some members of his family.
Up early the next day we were driven to Milan to explore the spectacular Duomo and see the stately and attractive buildings and a museum around the area of La Scala and the Galleria of Victor Emmanuel.  

Tirano Basilica
We were looked after by a native of Milan, Amanda, and thoroughly enjoyed her generous hospitality as well as her guidance.
Next morning we were early at the station for our train back to France.

Duomo in Milano

When we were organising this part of the trip, the website listed this as a single journey but on closer inspection we found that we had a 5 minute connection time in Zürich. We were able to download a map of Zürich station, and discovered which platform our connecting train would depart from, but not what platform we would arrive on. The trip from Milan to Zurich was very scenic in parts, though we seemed to have our minds mainly on checking if it was late at each station. All was well- the train arrived  one minute early, we were first off from the door closest to the front, but the door was jammed and fortunately someone behind told us how to use the emergency door opener. We were sitting in our seats on the second train taking deep breaths with a full minute to spare. We could sit back and enjoy the final part of our tour of Italy.

  Galleria of Victor Emmanuel

Logs as well as passengers!

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

Here we are still in Migennes. We were due to go into the water three days ago, but the Yonne River is in flood and it was too dangerous.

We left our friends Chantal and Christian and moved aboard Anja. The boat is sitting on blocks a few metres from the edge of the river, where there is a stone quay. After a day of rain on Friday, the river level continued to rise and was flowing extremely fast (over 10km/hr). It overtook the opposite banks and then it came over the top of the quay where we are. The staff had to work hard to ensure that the boats moored in the river did not float ashore.

We had to go to the bathroom via a ladder and then wading through several centimetres of water.

On Sunday morning, the water had retreated back to the top of the quay. Then, Sunday evening, we received word that a bigger flood was on its way. The fir brigade (Pompiers) started closing roads and we moved some of our things to high ground. By Monday morning, the water was higher than before and invaded all the workshops with the staff again being occupied moving tools, welders and other things to safety. Some of the equipment cannot easily be moved and is now under water.

Now, we are knee-deep around Anja! Here is a photo. It looks like we are in the water, but in fact, we are in the water on the land!

Best Regards,
Dave and Penny

PS- more blogs are in preparation while we wait.

Here are some more photos of Italy- from the 850!

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We've had a whirlwind tour of Italy which we have thoroughly enjoyed, but will not be too reluctant to unpack our suitcases at the end. Venice was our first taste of Italy and what a wonderful start. We loved the city, the beautiful buildings and artworks within them, the buildings which have been well preserved and the waterbuses which we used extensively. Travelling along the Grand Canal was an experience in itself. We took advantage of the two day pass to visit the glassworks at Murano and to pop across to the Lido and wander down to the beach.

Our visit to the Uffizi Gallery was a highlight of our visit to Florence. The Churches there were also amazing but we preferred the atmosphere of Sienna and its steep, narrow streets and old houses. The Campo there is quite notable, not a Town Square but more a hemisphere sloping down to the Town Hall. We were staying just near the childhood house of St Catherine of Sienna.

On to Rome for visits to the Palatine Hill and Forum, the Colosseum, St Peter's Square and Cathedral, the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel then the Catacombs along the Appian Way, plus delving into the past with an Etruscan Museum and a museum of Roman history. We are in awe of the incredible feats those Romans achieved and how remarkabley their huge buildings have survived earthquakes and depradations from invaders as well as the passage of time. However, we found the traffic and general hub- bub of modern Rome quite difficult to cope with. We mostly travelled by train but our one bus trip at peak hour was a real eye- opener plus another from the Vatican at non-peak time. Still, we survived and it was a good visit.

Now we are in Cinque Terre, a group of five towns along the Mediterranean Coast, basically car- less and in a National Park to provide walks. The towns are very steep and set at impossible angles on the hills, with terraces behind them going to the top of the hills. We have used it as a bit of R & R after the busy days spent in Venice, Florence, Sienna and Rome. Today we had blue skies after a windy and grey day yesterday (the first poor weather day we have had) and so we took a ferry around the coast to see all these towns from the sea, with an hour or so to explore the southern- most one, Monterosso; we are staying in the most Northerly, Riomaggiore, so it worked out well. The boat was unable stop at the intervening  towns as it is too rough today- the trip was cancelled yesterday. David has some great photos of this trip including the boarding of the boat which was a little tricky at the exposed Riomaggiore so some time you will be able to see them on thephoto  gallery.                      

Best Regards,

Penny & Dave

Here is a slideshow of a few of the first places we have seen (photos might take a while to appear):

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Italian Trains
We have been travelling extensively on the Italian Trains. There have been some strange moments, as with the "First Class Sleeping Car" mentioned earlier in the blog. Another was when we had reserved seats in Carriage 4. The train had carriages 1-3 and 5-9 but no four. Where 4 was supposed to be, there was some sort of Baggage Car, with no windows! Were we supposed to go inside?

I (David) showed our ticket to a conductor and he said that this was the wrong train and we needed to await the next one. This seemed a little strange as the time for departure was approaching. Then Penny discovered the train number somewhere on the side and it matched our ticket.

So far, all numbering seems to be done on pieces of paper, often handwritten and taped to windows of the carriages.

So, I approached a different train employee with my ticket and he told me to go to the first conductor, which I did. This time, that conductor told us to go to carriage 8 or 9.....back at the end of the train. There was another conductor there and she said (with a gay laugh)  "I suppose you have found that carriage four is missing?" I said "yes" and she said to get on carriage eight and sit anywhere we wished. So, the journey then continued uneventfully.

Quite a few things are broken in Italy- perhaps a result of the economic crisis or perhaps the way it has always been. Many phone boxes do not work (perhaps this is a way of phasing them out) and it is common for there to be no flushing water or washing water in the train "bathrooms" as trains only seem to go back to their depots infrequently.

However, the seats are typically comfortable. Sometime there is room for everyones' bags and sometimes not, depending upon style and age of the carriage.

We had heard that Italian trains are not very timely and indeed this has been our experience. At Roma Central, nearly every one of the trains has been 5-30mins late and about 15% cancelled. A lady with whom we spoke last night had just arrived on a train that was running one hour late. We had one train that actually caught up 10mins over several hours but another went from 15mins late to 30mins late so that we missed a connection.

Buses are typically quite comfortable (but not Rome city buses which are slow (because of traffic) and very crowded and fairly grubby. The Metro can also be very crowded but is extremely fast and services are very frequent. Using the Metro, you can cross most of Rome in about half an hour.

We took one (approx 3hr) cross country bus that was clean and comfortable. Perhaps it was a mistake to take the front right hand seats because we could see what the driver was doing. He was actually quite a skilful driver, but like many Italians needed to be talking most of the time. This he did on his mobile phone which he held glued to his left ear while he used the right hand to gesticulate frequently, takinbg his only spare hand off the wheel. He always grabbed it again just before the next tight bend. It was much worse when he ran out of friends to call and started doing text messages and looking up things on the internet....no hands or eyes in use for driving the bus. This was particularly scary on the A1 Autoroute. However, fortunately he only went about 95 on the autoroutes. He saved speeding for 40 km/hr zones where he typically did 80! We arrived very early at our destination and were relieved to get on a train where we could not see what the driver did and there was much less chance of an accident.

While on trains, we came to CinqueTerre on the Mediterranean. They have carved amazing train tunnels through the solid rock cliffs and right on the edge of the ocean. So, you get very brief flashes of ocean between tunnels or at stations, which are also right on the edge of the sea. At one station, you have to be in the centre of the train if you want to get off because the other ends of the train are in the tunnels while the centre part is in the station.

We do not recommend eating the (supposedly) fresh food on Italian Trains. Penny's sister got very ill from that a couple of years back and when we tried the "food" we found it absolutely stale and apparently many days old...as well as being overpriced. So, take a banana and water or something similar.

Best Regards,
Dave and Penny