Primavera Europae

Post scriptum 3: Top 10

It’s pretty much impossible to select and rank best experiences from a month long trip in varied locations - but I did it anyway. ;) In order to try to sum things up and create some sort of a closure for the blog too. So, here’s a list of top 10 experiences from a month in the European spring:

1. Kleine Scheidegg - Truly epic landscape at the height of 2km was one of the strongest experiences I’ve ever encountered traveling
2. Rome - On previous trip 10 or so years ago I hadn’t realized how wonderful city this really is. Not just the amazing amount of history, but the even fellinesquely lively nightlife, great food & wine and contemporary culture make Rome one of the greatest cities in the whole world.
3. Montreux - Absolutely clear blue sceneries of Lake Geneva & the Alps
4. Andermatt - St. Moritz - Bernina Diavolezza train ride - Hard to choose from all the gorgeous train rides in Switzerland, but this one had probably the most varied sceneries among some of the most stunning ones
5. Bologna - Surprisingly urban, modern & artistic vibes in gorgeous red-brick old town setting. One of the places from this trip I definitely want to return to!
6. Lyon - Large city with the heart of a little town, France at it’s best!
7. Siena - Still one of the most beautiful Italian cities
8. Perugia - Eccentric mixture of medieval castles, renaissance palaces and early 1900s buildings on a hilltop setting with a lively university scene
9. Avignon - Fascinating mediaval buildings with zig-zagging narrow streets filled with inviting restaurants and cafes
10. Nice - A city that seems to really love food. Throw in world-famous sea views and some great art collections and you’ve got a perfect destination for a long weekend.

This compilation is very probably the final post to this blog, so to keep up to date on my photos in the future you should look me up on Flickr and follow me on Twitter for generic ramblings and occasional insights.

Avignon

Damn it felt good to be on the move again after spending a few too many days in Aix-en-Provence in rather depressing hotel room due to the flu! And the flu really had subsided for real after a week, so wonderful feeling to have to energy to walk around in a new city without getting fatigued after first half hour.

Avignon had been a sort of political refuge for a series of eight popes of the Vatican during the middle ages, and that surely left its mark in the city. Well, it’s definitely not as bombastic in style as the Vatican but still the scale of the medieval buildings from papal regime are quite impressive. The post-mediaval parts of the city also looked really nice with loads of zig-zagging narrow streets filled with inviting restaurants and cafes (although many were closed on Monday evening, couldn’t get into any of the three tips I checked from Tripadvisor). Also a quite a bit more lively and larger city than I had presumed, clearly there was contemporary life as well and not just the ghosts of the 8 popes…. ;)

Just as I got rid of the flu I had a new travel companion: a harrowing toothache that had been troubling me the day before somewhat but which really kicked in on Monday. I had to keep a steady dosage of paracetamols every three hours or so, otherwise the pains were overwhelming. It felt bad enough that I decided to bite the bullet and make a visit to a dentist in Lyon. And the situation seeming acute, I decided to skip Arles altogether and head straight to Lyon on Tuesday morning.

Au Saint Roch - Hôtel et Jardin, Avignon. 50€.

The main characteristic of this room is missing in the photos, lucky for you - an overwhelming stench of cheap perfume. I’d take anyday the damp smell of old hotel room preferably than that artificial sweetness… Also bonus points for the worst view from the window so far.