Travelling allsorts

Our short break to Toscana / Tuscany in Italy began with our arrival in Pisa and a quick visit to the leaning tower - from the outside only as there was a queue to climb the eight storeys of steps - tickets are now available for tourists to enter the tower, unlike our previous visit. You will note a recurring theme throughout the post that refers to long queues and full car parks during Easter so if you can arrange your visit for a less busy time, you will probably benefit. Our next stop was Siena . We parked reasonably easily about 100m from the northern gate then wandered along the busy streets and crowded piazzas, taking in the architecture and popping inside a few buildings for a different perspective. So many people though! For a change of pace, we decided to visit a couple of smaller walled villages. Monteriggioni is a tiny place where, apparently, Ezio from the Assassin's Creed game lived for a while. So compact that we walked around it twice in ten minutes,

Gare de l'Est The first weekend in April didn't have the best weather forecast for Paris (cloudy on Saturday, rain on Sunday) but we had booked the London to Paris Eurostar train and our hotel at the Gare de l'Est, a 5 minute walk from Gare du Nord. Arriving on Friday, there was time for a stroll - via the Notre Dame* cathedral - down to the bistros of the Latin Quarter and a brisk walk back to the hotel in the cool night air. After a huge breakfast on Saturday morning, we headed for the Sacré-Coeur* (further than it looked!!) and Montmartre, the Artists' Quarter, which is situated immediately behind it. The weather was beautiful - sunny and warm, as we then found our way back down the hill to find the Moulin Rouge (big disappointment, don't go out of your way) and a café-bar. Duly refreshed, we wandered over to Gare St Lazare of Claude Monet's oil painting fame (from an arty viewpoint, the modernised station was also disappointing) past the fascinating ar