Our whirlwind three-week European bus tour
Updated: 2 days ago
A little bit of background📝
The year is 1996. My husband [W] and I, aged 25, are on our first ever bus tour. The tour was part of our 6-week first ever world wandering. The trip was the culmination of years of dreaming and 12 months of planning and saving. I wrote this post in 2024 using my memories to guide me and the journal I kept at the time. This post is as much about documenting our experience as it is looking back in time to travel in the 1990s, before the days of Google, smart phones and Uber.
The trip is also a snapshot in time of my 25 year-old self and my first big international adventure. Reading through my original journal, I sounded so wide-eyed and in awe of everything. That's because I was!
Our three-week bus tour of Europe was a big chunk of our six-week first big adventure in 1996. Our adventure started with an LA stopover, a whistlestop London experience, and a long weekend in Berlin. Then after the bus tour we hired a car and did a two-week road trip around England, Scotland and Wales.
I have to place a caveat on the photos that I've included in the post. They were taken on a 1990s camera, and scanned from the printed photos that are now almost 30 years old. The quality isn't great, to say the least. The 1990s fashions are also not great! To balance out the woeful quality photos, I've included some current ones from a range of sources, plus some gorgeous photos that our daughter, E, took in Italy during her solo trip in 2024.
Our whirlwind European tour💨
We didn't have much money in those days. We couldn't afford a honeymoon when we were married in 1993 so our adventure three years later was a big deal to us. I had no idea that I'd have travel in my future, so tried to pack as much as possible into our six-week trip. We did a Trafalgar tour for our first experience of Europe, taking us on a three-week chaotic adventure through France, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium. The tour started and ended in London, crossing the Channel on the ferry from Dover to Calais and back again on a charter bus.
Why did we decide to do a tour, the two of us self-confessed introverts? Our reasoning was that it was the best way to gain a taste of Europe for our first foray onto the continent. It seemed a lot easier to place our wanderings in the hands of a tour company in those days, back before we were researching and booking things online ourselves. The world seemed less accessible then, something to wonder about and explore armed with only what we'd read in books or seen in films and on tv to guide us. That sense of wonder was kind of cool, though. It made everything we saw and experienced so incredible! That may sound old fashioned now, but I guess it was part of the adventure, knowing so much less about where we were heading.
The pros and cons of our decision to do a tour will become apparent as you read through the post. Right, let's go!
Leg 1: London to Paris 🚌
We'd spent the night before the tour began at the Tower Thistle hotel after arriving back in London from Berlin, in preparation for the early start the next day of the tour from that hotel. The Tower Hotel, as it's now called, is quite well known as it features in lots of films and TV shows set in London, largely for its proximity to Tower Bridge and its café that sits adjacent to the Thames.
After a week on our own, we approached the tour with both excitement and trepidation. I had dreamed of visiting the places on the tour itinerary since I was a child, but I wasn't sure how I'd go cooped up in a bus for three weeks with a bunch of strangers. Day 1 of the tour was a long, too. London to Paris is 450km, around seven hours of travelling time by car or bus. That includes two hours from London to Dover, the ferry crossing [around 90 minutes] and then three and a half hours from Calais to Paris.
We were told to meet in the lobby at 5.30am but we ended up waiting for ages until the tour director, Graeme, arrived. The first part of trip was on board a charter bus through London out to Dover. The Chunnel had opened two years earlier but we were to cross the English Channel on the ferry from Dover to Calais. I've since taken the Eurostar from London and Paris [twice, actually] but I am glad we got to experience the channel crossing on the ferry.
The trip through the countryside to Dover was lovely. It was such a welcome change to be in open, green spaces after a week in crowded cities. Being on the tour bus with 40+ other people was a bit of a shock, though. We initially felt very hemmed in and wondered what we had signed up for!
Even after only a few hours on the tour it was a relief to be out of the bus and on the ferry once we were off to France. Such a cool experience! The crossing was smooth and it was awesome to see the white cliffs at Dover as we departed. We'd had no time for breakfast with the early start, so we bought something to eat and amazingly, I kept the receipt! I think it was the chicken tikka sandwich that did it to me...We'd never heard of chicken tikka!
We met our Belgian bus driver, Luc, after disembarking in Calais. We boarded the tour bus, taking our allocated seats. Graeme told us that we'd be rotating around the bus as the tour progressed. I was still feeling unsure about our decision to do a tour but super excited to be heading to Paris. We felt a bit overwhelmed on that first day and struggled with being part of such a big group, realising that we were to be with them for a whole three weeks. Eek!
The trip to Paris took us through picturesque countryside along the motorway. We didn't stop other than for refreshments at a roadhouse, but Graeme pointed out the WW1 battlefields in the Somme and Vimy Ridge areas as we passed by. The roadhouse stop gave us the chance to scope out our fellow travellers. We introduced ourselves to a New Zealand couple whom I will refer to throughout this post as T&D. We clicked with them instantly and came to rely on them for company throughout the trip.
I recall that most of the rest of the group were Canadian, American and Australian and all much older than we were. There was a family with a teenage girl and a woman around our age travelling solo, but the age bracket definitely leaned north of 50. [That sounds odd to write now that I am in that age bracket!] We'd opted for an open-age tour rather than something specific to our age group. The tour itinerary factored the strongest in our decision, but also because we hardly fit the under-25-party-your-way-around-Europe demographic!
We drove into Paris late on day 1, after what seemed like hours and hours of travelling. I couldn't quite believe that I was heading into Paris. I was quite nervously anticipating my experience of the city. I kept craning my neck to catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower but all we saw were the city outskirts, framed by industrial structures and loads of apartment buildings. It all seemed a bit overwhelming, but that was probably just a mixture of excitement and the super early start to the day.
My first impressions of Paris did not live up to my expectations as I was looking for the chic and the glamour and hadn't seen it to that point. Our tour director seemed annoyed at the quality of the hotel, but to us it was fine. Our room was small but clean and the bed was comfortable. I have no photos of the hotel, nor any detail in my journal about its name or location, but it was in a less than salubrious part of Paris, that's for sure.
[I've looked at Trafalgar's website recently, and I can see the hotels listed for all the tours. We were not given this information prior to our tour commencing.]
We paid $4000AUD for the two of us for the tour, and that was a lot of money to use at the time. We were given a long list of optional extra tours to select from and pay for on that first day. We soon learned that the so-called optional extras weren't really optional at all if we wanted to experience the Big Ticket things!
Our first optional tour was an evening drive around the city. The highlight, of course, was our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower in all its sparkly greatness. This was a real pinch-me moment for me, to see such an iconic structure with my own eyes!
Before it got dark, we had braved late afternoon Paris traffic and drove past the Arc de Triomphe. We also stood out front of the beautiful Sacre Coeur church, although we didn't go inside. There was generally a lot of rushing about that afternoon, so we only had glimpses of iconic sights.
Later we stopped in Montmartre. I was excited to see the hilly streets and white buildings, just as I imagined Paris to be. My crummy photo doesn't do it justice, but I can still remember how thrilled I was to be able to see Parisian buildings up close.
We stayed in Montmartre for dinner and ate with T&D at a restaurant recommended by our tour director, Au Petit Creux. I remember we ordered a hot dog and lasagne - not very French!
It was lovely to have the chance to wander around Montmartre where we bought a Paris print from a stallholder that we had framed when we got home. It still hangs on our wall to this day. Here it is:
👜We decided we'd buy one item from each country we visited, partly because we didn't have much money in those days, and partly because we were away for six weeks and had limited space in our luggage. The Paris print was our France memento.
Day 2 of the tour was spent exploring Paris, partly from the bus and partly on foot. We had a local guide, Stephane, who showed us around Notre Dame, with its magnificent front façade and stained glass windows. I loved the gargoyles! The cathedral was built in 1163 in French gothic style. I don't have any surviving photos of Notre Dame, but here's one I took during my 2022 Paris wanderings.
The rest of the tour was from the bus, passing the Louvre, the Sorbonne, the Opera House, the Arc de Triomphe, and down the Champs Elysees. It was something of a whirlwind experience of iconic structures but that's what you get on bus tours! It was only years later, when I visited Paris again and stayed for several days that I really felt like I'd seen the city.
The mad dash around the city in the bus was included in the overall tour itinerary but to cruise the Seine River and go up the Eiffel Tower was a paid optional extra. We signed up for it of course! The river cruise was fab for the wonderful views of Parisian buildings and the many bridges with their golden columns. I think this is where my love affair with European architecture began. Unfortunately, it was cold and windy on the river cruise and we couldn't hear the guide, but it didn't matter, as the views were spectacular.
One of the advantages of a guided bus tour is the ability to skip the line at major sights. As it was July, the queue at the Eiffel Tower was long and we would have waited for hours if we'd been on our own [back in the day before timed entry tickets could be purchased online]. Instead, we took the elevator straight up to the second floor.
I am terrible with heights so I felt nauseous when I looked down from the viewing area. The views are amazing, though, even if it wasn't a sunny day when we visited. The tower is so imposing when seen up close, too. I had no idea of its size until that day.
The Tower stands at 330 metres, around the same height as an 81-storey building. It's the tallest structure in Paris, built between 1887 and 1889 and named after Gustave Eiffel, the engineer whose company built the Tower. It was originally built as the centrepiece for the 1889 World's Fair and as a centennial celebration of the French Revolution.
The afternoon was free time and even after only two days on the tour, we were quite glad of some time to ourselves. This is where the Google days of travel are better for figuring out what to do and how to get to places on the fly. We just had to wander around, as we weren't sure where to go.
We opted for the Opera House drop off point. We bought crusty bread rolls for lunch from a stall and crunched through them sitting on the steps of the Opera House after wandering around the entrance hall. The Opera House was opened in 1875, built at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III. It seats 1979 patrons.
I remember two things from our pitstop: One was how rude the server was where we bought our lunch as we asked for our food in English, not able to speak French at the time. I know that sounds stereotypical, but that was our experience. The second thing that struck me was the contrast between the stylish Parisians we saw on their lunch breaks and the beggars on the steps of the Opera House.
The sun finally came out and it was a glorious afternoon. After lunch we had a poke around the huge Galeries Lafayette department store with its impressive dome and stained glass ceiling. It was nothing like any shops we had in Australia! Awesome. The below photo was taken on my 2022 visit to Paris as I don't have any photos from our tour.
We walked to the pick up point at the Louvre then and spent some time enjoying the sunshine and people-watching. It was a shame that we didn't go into the Louvre, but the line was long and we wouldn't have had time to see much of the museum's treasures. Again, I had the chance to visit later, when I was in Paris in 2022.
We had to organise our own dinner once back at the hotel, but wandering around the dodgy area near our hotel proved fruitless, and a little scary, if I am being honest. In the end we found ourselves back at the bakery next door to the hotel where we bought a light meal and had a relaxing evening in our room.
For more Paris wanderings, see my post on my 2015 work trip and 2022 adventure with my daughter.
Leg 2: Paris to Lucerne 🚌
Day 3 was a big travelling day. We made the 645km trek from Paris to Lucerne in Switzerland. We stayed for two nights in Engelberg, another 35km up into the mountains from Lucerne.
The first part of our day was the journey from Paris to Beaune, around 300km and a 3-hour trip. We headed south-east from Paris, stopping at the wine-producing town. The town is gorgeous - quaint cobbled streets and tiny shops. Beaune is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Cote d'Or department between Lyon and Dijon. It is a walled town with battlements and ramparts. Even though our stay was short, I loved it, and felt much more attuned to my surroundings than in Paris.
We did a wine-tasting thing in a cellar although it was a bit lost on me, a non-drinker. Lunch was fresh crusty bread and fruit as we wandered around the town.
The afternoon was a 4-hour 365km trek to Switzerland though absolutely beautiful French countryside. That was it for France, until our return to Calais for the ferry back to Dover at the end of the tour.
Our France experience💭🥐
I loved the journey through the beautiful French countryside and our stop at Beaune. My love affair with European landscapes still remains to this day and it's safe to say it started on this trip. I remember at the time feeling a little underwhelmed by Paris but perhaps my expectations of one of the world's most famous cities were too high. That said, I remain not entirely in love with the city still, unpopular opinion, perhaps, despite three subsequent visits. The Eiffel Tower was cool, as were the ornate buildings and bridges, and I loved the limestone apartment buildings and wrought iron balconies in Montmartre. I've had the chance to see a lot more of the city since this first visit, but I still don't feel a connection to it. I'm not really sure why, it just doesn't vibe with me.
We crossed into Switzerland late in the afternoon via Basel, an industrial town on the border. Switzerland was simply stunning, just like the chocolate box pictures! Switzerland looks pretty even taken from my ancient 1996 camera!
We stayed in the beautiful mountain town of Engelberg for Leg 2. The Europaischer Hof Hotel Europe is stunning. It is a gorgeous 19th century building with chandeliers in the common areas, large foyers and wide hallways. It was renovated in the early 2000s, but the photo below from the hotel website is still how I remember it.
The view from our room was amazing! That night, we had our first hotel dinner. I noted in my journal at the time that it was our first 'proper meal' in several days. I wrote down what was on the menu: soup, veal, and chocolate mousse. [These were my pre-vegetarian days.]
Day 4 was a beautiful day in the mountains and we were thrilled to be heading up Mt Stanserhorn first thing. We travelled by cable railway then cable car up the 6000-foot mountain. The views were totally worth travelling on the cabled transport that made me feel a bit anxious as it didn't seem all that safe to me.
It was a little foggy up top, but we still saw magnificent views of the mountains, complete with cow bells clanging in the distance. We climbed up to the lookout for a better view and felt quite short of breath at that altitude. It's incredible, right, even if my photos aren't great.
After coming back down the mountain we drove into Lucerne, one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen. Before lunch, we had made a stop at the Lion Monument, hewn in 1820-1821. I still recall to this day being moved by the carving in the rock face of a lion defeated in battle, the agony of defeat so clear on the lion's face. The monument is a memorial to Swiss guards killed during the French Revolution in 1792.
Lunch was at Restaurant Stadtkeller, a super touristy fondue and Swiss folklore show. Yeah, it was cheesy [see what I did there?] but fun just the same. The fondue was very rich and I found it too much for my palate, but there were also sausages and potatoes and a yummy dessert cake. The folk show included yodelling, flag throwing, dancing, and Swiss horns and bells. Hilarious.
We had free time to wander around the city after lunch. What a beautiful place Lucerne is, and I loved our afternoon wanderings. The city simply took my breath away! We'd had fun in the morning on our mountain trip and at lunch, but it was nice to be on our own for the afternoon, without a schedule, just wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere. We walked across the famous covered bridge and along parts of the Reuss river. We had intended to buy a watch but sadly what we saw was out of our budget. We opted for a totally kitschy souvenir - a carved wooden plate.
Dinner was in our lovely hotel again, and another three-course meal of soup, a main, and a dessert, that I noted in my journal was something called "banana creme". Three-course meals aren't really my jam, but the included meals meant we rarely had to buy food ourselves. We were exhausted after a long day and lots of walking but excited to be heading to Italy the next day!
Leg 3: Lucerne to Florence🚌
Day 5 and the next part of our journey took us to Italy, descending the mountains from Engelberg and through the longest tunnel in Europe at 17km, the Gotthard Road Tunnel. There were constant traffic jams on the motorway as we battled with other holidaymakers and a series of toll booths. It was interesting to see the landscape change as we headed into the Italian region of Switzerland, from clean, pristine alps to a drier landscape and Mediterranean buildings.
Our final Switzerland stop was in Lugano, in the Italian-speaking Ticino region by the beautiful lake. This was a journey of 170km from Lucerne, taking around two hours. We wandered around the cobbled streets, thrilled to be there on a market day, spending the last of our Swiss francs on fresh fruit and bread.
Our Switzerland experience 💭🚞
How can one not love Switzerland! I thought it was a picture-perfect real life postcard and chocolate box cover, every bit as beautiful as I'd imagined it to be. I'd dreamed of visiting the country since I was kid, and every Heidi film and television show I'd watched came to life for me. The chalets, the cable cars, mountain waterfalls, and cows grazing in lush meadows - all a fairytale in reality. I was fascinated by the different influences in such a small country, with German and Italian clear and present in the places we visited. I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to experience alpine views, and the Swiss folklore show, even though mega touristy, was a real hoot. We found it easier to communicate than in France as English was more widely spoken so we didn't feel quite so gauche. We also enjoyed learning from our tour director about the Swiss way of life that fed into my understandings of the stereotype of a calm and ordered surface with the "Swiss bank account" actually a thing. It had been cold in Paris despite it being summer, and we enjoyed the warmer weather in Switzerland and the crisp mountain air.
We passed by Lake Como later and skirted around Milan and Bologna before arriving in Florence late in the afternoon, having crossed the Northern Italian Plain and over the Apennine Mountains. It was a long day of travelling, but the beautiful and changing scenery made it all worthwhile. The journey from Lugano to Florence is 380km, taking over four hours.
Before checking into our hotel we drove to Piazzale Michelangelo, for incredible views of Florence. There's a replica statue of David at the piazza, too. Our tour group photo was taken at the lookout. It was a real scream. The local photographer climbed up on a ladder to get the whole group into the shot. Unfortunately that photo does not seem to have survived our many moves over the years. Shame. I do still have the below shot from the piazzale, showing the beautiful Arno River and the city buildings and bridges.
That night we had an included dinner at a local restaurant of pasta and fresh fruit. After dinner we walked with T&D, our Kiwi tour buddies, along the river back to the hotel, crossing the gorgeous Ponte Vecchio bridge that dates back to 1345. Amazing! Our tour director was reluctant to let four of his charges out of his sight, but we convinced him we'd be fine. I didn't want to miss the opportunity to walk over the Ponte Vecchio as we didn't do that with the group the next day.
I wasn't able to capture the glorious sight of the Arno River and the Ponte Vecchio as the sun set, but I have included these stunning shots, taken by our daughter, E, on her 2024 Italian adventure, when she was 23.
My photos are completely rubbish, so I also wanted to include this one of E's that does some justice to the magnificent bridge. What a difference a beautiful day and a 2024 camera makes!
I absolutely loved Florence, something I hadn't counted on prior to embarking on the tour. I was more fascinated by the Germanic parts of Europe at the time and counted Italy as a nice bonus rather than a must-see. Perhaps having no expectations helped, but I just loved the beautiful cobbled streets, the distinct architecture, and the stunning bridges over the Arno. Here's another of E's shots to properly show what I mean.
We had a lovely local guide, Francesca, to take us around Florence the day after our arrival, Day 6 of our tour. The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore [The Duomo] was of course the highlight even though we didn't have time to climb to the top or even have a peek inside. I've included this simply stunning photo that E took from her climb to the top of the Duomo. I'm so sorry we didn't get to do this. It's one of the cons of doing a tour, seeing some things from the outside only.
At least we had some time to take in the magnificence of the cathedral from the outside. Francesca showed us the 5th century Baptistry exterior, with its eight-sided green and white structure and sculpted doors, particularly highlighting the gold panels depicting Old Testament scenes on the east door [The Door of Paradise]. The size and magnificence of the 13th century cathedral and Giotto's Bell Tower [85 metres high] just blew us away. The Cathedral is 153 metres in length and 90 metres wide and 90 metres high. The Cathedral's name, Santa Maria del Fiore, means Lady of the flower and is a nod to Florence, the city of flowers.
Other sights on our guided tour included the Piazza Della Signoria [housing another David replica where the original one stood, and a statue of King Neptune], Sante Croce gothic Basilica [dating back to the 1200s], and the Uffizi Gallery. Touring so many places in such a short time really limits the depth of the experience, sadly. We still fell in love with Florence, even though our visit was so brief and we saw most things only from the outside.
We did have an opportunity to wander around some typical Florentine streets, and I appreciated that. I still remember to this day the building in the below shot and how desperately I wished I could have seen inside it. This was the beginning of my love affair with European stone buildings 💞.
We visited famous the Peruzzi store on our tour and were treated to a leatherwork demonstration. I bought a wallet from the shop that I recall I used for quite some time after the trip.
We had then some free time to wander around the shops where we bought two little framed prints. The Ponte Vecchio one is pictured below, but I also bought one of the cathedral. We still have the prints on display at home.
Leg 4: Florence to Rome 🚌
Unfortunately, we only had the morning in Florence before we headed to Rome on Day 7 of our tour. We stopped at a massive motorway pit stop for lunch. We'd never seen anything like it coming from Australia - a huge petrol station with restaurants and shops.
The journey from Florence to Rome is 275km, around three hours of travel. We arrived in Rome late in the afternoon to experience our first bout of hot weather. I remember we had a nap after the busy day and later chose to attend the optional extra dinner at Mino's restaurant in the city. The meal was huge - five courses including an entrée, two pasta dishes, a meat main, ice cream and fruit. There was traditional music to entertain us and serenading musicians. I remember the hot waiter who was kissing female diners on the cheeks and doling out flowers. It was completely touristy and over the top but we kind of just rolled with it. That said, I remember a bit of butt-pinching went on and that totally WOULD NOT HAPPEN today [at least, I hope/assume not!].
Earlier in the evening we'd stopped by the baroque Piazza Navona with its gorgeous three fountains dating back to the 1600s. So many fountains in Rome! [That's my anxiety on display in this photo. How could I be sad in the face of that beautiful fountain?]
After dinner we went on the evening tour around the city [illuminations tours, as Trafalgar love to call them], stopping for the traditional coin toss into the Trevi Fountain. D hit some random guy on the head with her coin! We drove past the Vatican and the Teatro di Marcello, an old theatre with apartments on top. European cities sure are pretty at night!
Did you know?ℹ️
The fountain was finished in 1762 after some years of construction. It is 20 metres wide and 26 metres high. The name comes from Tre Vie - three ways - as the fountain sits at the meeting point of three streets. Since 2007, around 1 million euros of coins are extracted from the fountain each year and given to charities. The myth of the coin-toss into the fountain originates from the 1954 film, Three coins in the fountain. The story goes that throwing coin into the fountain means returning to Rome; two coins means falling in love with an attractive Italian; and three coins means marrying the person that you met.
Here are some stunning shots taken by our daughter, E, on her trip to Rome in 2024, including the fountain early in the morning, sans people. Beautiful images!
The plan was to visit the Sistine Chapel the next morning on Day 8 and we made an early start to try to beat the crowds. There was a huge line up for the Chapel so we were shuffled away by our tour director who stuck to his mantra of "no queuing for Trafalgar travellers". Our visit to the Sistine Chapel was postponed until the following day as we had two nights in Rome.
Instead we met our local guide, Franca, a deliciously exuberant host, who helped us on our city tour. A lot of battling crazy Rome traffic and seeing things from the tour bus ensued. We drove past the AD 315 triple arches of Arco di Constantino, Trajan's Column [built in AD 113 with a statue of Peter added later to the top], and Castel Saint Angelo, the Castle of the Holy Angel, a papal fortress and prison. We crossed the Tiber River and saw the Garibaldi and Palatino bridges, and an excavation site at the Roman Forum. We also saw Tiberine Island, dedicated to the God of Medicine. The space was converted into a hospital in the 16th century and apparently one must be born there to be considered a true Roman. We swung by the Circus Maximus at Palatine Hill. I could just picture Charlton Heston riding along in his chariot. [These were pre-Gladiator days after all.]
I loved taking in all the history of the Roman sights but wished we'd had time to get off the bus to truly experience them. Again, this is the downside of a tour, and a whirlwind one like we did. You see a lot but you don't really see things.
We did get off at the Colosseum. Yay! It was such a pinch-me moment to walk along the iconic structure but unfortunately for me, I needed a toilet break at that point in the day and spent most of our time there using the facilities. Oh, man. [No photos taken at the Colosseum, weirdly. I can't remember why not, other than my time being taken up finding the loo...] I've included this stunning shot of E's, with the ancient structure set against a brilliant blue sky.
We entered Vatican City mid-morning. The highlight of our whirlwind experience was our visit to St Peter's Basilica. The church is so ornate and at the time, one of the most magnificent sights I had ever seen. This time we were able to go inside where the church's beauty is even more evident. The basilica is huge, as is St Peter's Square, with its 240 metre wide space, Egyptian obelisk in the centre [brought by Emperor Caligula from Egypt in 1586] and the four-pillar deep colonnade.
The basilica was consecrated in 1626 and was built in Renaissance and Baroque styles. It is 220 metres long, 150 metres wide, and 137 metres high, with the capacity to seat around 20 000 people. Amazing! St Peter's Square [Piazza San Pietro] is also ginormous. I could imagine hordes of the faithful gathering to see the Pope, but during our visit it was peppered by a smaller crowd.
We tried to choose the optional tour extras carefully, to make sure we saw as much as possible with the limited time and budget that we had. Some of our fellow travellers seemed more keen on shopping so a bunch went off to do just that after our St Peter's experience. We elected to stay with the delightful Franca to see more of Rome. She was so enthusiastic about her home city and I loved the way she pointed out places of interest with what she called her 'magic wand', with its pink ribbon tied on the top.
Our first stop with Franca was at the Catacombs, the subterranean passageways used for burial between the second and fifth centuries. The dark and creepy passages, dating back to between the second and fifth centuries, led into Christian and pagan tombs inscribed with ancient symbols and graffiti. We loved it! Well old stuff is totally our jam.
There are more than sixty catacombs in Rome of hundreds of kilometres of underground passageways that hold thousands of tombs. Only five are open to the public; the one we visited as the Catacombs of San Sebastiano, 12 kilometres of tombs that are named after a soldier martyred for converting to Christianity. (Be sure to check out my 2022 Paris post , as I visited the Paris catacombs on that trip. So cool.)
Franca then took us to the Pantheon. The temple dates back to AD 113-125 and has been a Catholic church since AD 609. Until modern times, the dome was the largest in the world, at 43 metres in diameter and 22 metres in height. I only have the below picture of the exterior and the dome isn't visible, but trust me, it's impressive!
I remember the interior being simply magnificent, especially the shaft of light streaming in through the dome. There was a section inside that had been recently cleaned and the difference between that section and the remainder was so clear. As a history nerd, I just stood in awe of the building and the strength of its preservation over so many centuries.
This is a shot of the interior of the Pantheon from our daughter's 2024 trip. The dome is so beautiful, I just had to include this shot.
We had lunch in the square on which the Pantheon sits, trying to communicate with the server in a little sandwich shop. We also bought some delicious gelato but had to eat it super fast in the heat of the afternoon. Later we headed back to the hotel for a nap and then dinner in the hotel restaurant with T&D. We had pasta, of course!
The hotel, a Holiday Inn, was one of the nicest we'd stayed in so far quality-wise, but generic and lacking character. The rooms were large and bright and that was nice. The buffet breakfast was huge as well. We'd taken to filling up for breakfast and eating a small meal during the day, mostly fresh bread and fruit, as there was usually a substantial evening meal included. It stood out to us how much food our tour buddies were consuming as we travelled around. I don't know how they could fit in all those snacks and a big lunch as well as the hotel and restaurant meals. The amount of food on the tour was a bit overwhelming, actually.
Leg 5: Rome to Venice 🚌
Day 9 was spent returning to the Vatican then retracing our steps and covering a good chunk of Italy to travel to Venice. Rome to Venice is 530km, a journey of just over five hours. We went to the Sistine Chapel in the morning and left Rome after that. Another big travel day!
I was excited to have the chance to visit the Vatican Museums and the Sistine chapel. This tour was an optional extra and our Kiwi tour mates, T&D, opted to give it a miss. They got up early enough, though, to hang a happy birthday banner from their hotel balcony. It was my husband's 25th birthday that day. How cool to be turning 25 in Rome!
We were in the first group of people to enter the Vatican gardens that morning. We first walked around the Vatican courtyard and saw the huge pinecone and peacock, the Vatican symbols, and a rather hideous modern statue. The Vatican galleries were super impressive, with their ancient statues, tapestries and frescoes. One of the galleries can be seen in the above collage of St Peter's. We peeked out the window and got a shot of the gardens [below], somewhere that tourists are not allowed.
Later, we finally entered the Sistine Chapel. Franca showed up again to tell us about Michelangelo and the painting of the chapel. The ceiling is stunning, of course, but I was most surprised at how small the chapel was in reality, as somehow I'd expected something much bigger. It didn't help that the experience was wall-to-wall people. It was still incredible to see Michelangelo's work for real.
The wall frescoes date back to 1481, recounting the life of Moses and Christ. They were painted by Botticelli and Rosselli and others. Michelangelo painted the ceiling between 1508 and 1512, and it shows the Creation story and the Redemption of Mankind. The Last Judgement was painted on the end wall between 1536 and 1541. I couldn't quite believe I was there! I would have liked more time to take it all in, but we had to move on as we were leaving Rome after our visit.
On the way out of the chapel we had to go through the usual gift shop. We bought a print of the chapel ceiling [below] that still hangs in our home, from a nun behind the counter.
The rest of our day was spent travelling to Venice where we arrived around 5pm. We had to retrace our steps to Bologna then head across the Italian plain. Our hotel wasn't on the main island and some of our group complained about that, but we didn't care. The lobby was lovely and the rooms were clean.
Before we had dinner in the hotel, we went on the optional gondola ride. I mean, really, why was it optional? Who wouldn't want to do that? It was not the birthday experience we were expecting, though, as the gondoliers placed our group according to weight and we weren't able to sit together. I remember my terrible balance coming in to play as I tried to find my seat and the gondolier yelled at me in Italian until I sat properly where I was supposed to. Mortifying for a rule follower like me! It was a fun experience and a must-do, even if for us the weather was bleak and I found the canals were a bit smelly and dirty.
We awoke the next day Day 10 to the news that our bus had been broken into the night before. Nothing was stolen but then we didn't leave anything on there at night. The main door was damaged and there was a huge crack across the front windscreen. Luc, our bus driver, was quite understandably upset, so he took off for the day and tried to see about getting the bus fixed. [See photos below.]
We then headed off for our day in Venice, first travelling by launch to Rialto, the main Venice island. We went to a super cool Murano glass-blowing demonstration. Everything in the shop was beautiful but we didn't have to budget to buy anything. I was also worried about the glass breaking, whether we took it with us or mailed it home.
After the demonstration we had free time to wander around St Mark's Square and dodge the pigeons. It's a lovely square and all that, but Venice was my least favourite city in Italy that we visited. I think I found it dirty, even with the impressive basilica that dominates the square and the lagoon waters lapping the shore.
Here are some nice shots of St Mark's and the lagoon from our daughter's 2024 trip. E was lucky to have had better weather than we did even though our trip was in the middle of summer and hers was in spring.
My photos are less impressive than E's, sadly. The Bridge of Sighs can be seen below [bottom right hand photo]. It joins the gothic Doges Palace to the New Prisons and is so named for the sighs to be heard from prisoners as they took their last look at freedom.
We opted for the additional tour in the afternoon to pretty Burano, one of the islands in the lagoon. I enjoyed the launch trip out into the lagoon as Venice looked lovely from out there, and being on the lagoon gives a different perspective on the city.
Burano is a quaint place, with lace markets, canals and bridges and houses painted in an array of colours. The weather warmed up and we had a lovely afternoon. It looks grey in my photos, but that's not how I remember it.
I wrote in my journal that we had a delicious lunch of pasta, seafood, fruit salad, and biscuits, and left full of food to wander around the markets. I bought a little lace umbrella that I still have kept as a nice reminder of the day.
We waited for Luc to return with the bus once back at Rialto. He managed to get the door fixed but the windscreen stayed as it was. The spider web pattern can be seen on the glass in the below photo that remained like that for the rest of the tour. It would prove to be a problem at one of our later border checks but when we drove through tunnels, the light hitting the pattern created a surreal image in the bus. I imagine today driving a tour group around like that would not be allowed!
Our Italy experience💭💝
I loved Italy! I said at the time that I would go back in a heartbeat and I have been back since this trip, actually, but not until 2022. I wasn't expecting to love Italy so much and that's may be why I did. The landscapes are drier than France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany but it is still beautiful. The buildings have an earthen feel that makes them unique. I loved all the narrow cobbled streets, and the buildings' shutters and balconies. I was dying to see inside them! We learned so much from Graeme about the chaotic, flamboyant, colourful way of life in Italy, and experienced a little of that when we battled the crazy city traffic). There's something of a celebratory vibe to Italy which I guess is what la dolce vita is all about. We travelled to Italy at at time when the lira was the currency. It was bonkers taking 50 000 lira out of a cash machine. We felt like millionaires!
It's the incredible sense of history that I love about Italy, the architecture and the art, and the lovely people. I found Venice a little dirty and smelly but St Mark's Square is still a stunning space. I loved all we saw and experienced in Rome and Florence, particularly the Pantheon, the Catacombs and the Vatican City, and the Arno River and its bridges in Florence. So many squares, fountains and statues!
Leg 6: Venice to Klagenfurt🚌
I am calling this part of our tour Leg 6, but it was really just a whip through Austria on our way to Hungary at the end of Day 10. We were late leaving Venice as a result of the broken door and window so it was late when we arrived in Klagenfurt after a 3-hour 285km journey from Venice.
Our tour experience: The positives👍🏼
Let’s start with the positives. We experienced so much in a brief time, seeing and doing things we’d never have been able to do on our own in 19 days. Touring with a group is a timesaver purely by avoiding having to line up at key sights. This advantage was evident at the Eiffel Tower and the Sistine Chapel where we would have waited for half the day had we been on our own. Today that is less of an issue, though, as tickets can be pre-purchased online for set entry times.
Having Graeme or local guides to take us around was also a bonus, and we learned lots of interesting things from all of them. Graeme always gave us valuable advice about local customs, shopping, food, and places to check out during our free time. He had over 20 years of experience as a guide and it showed, as his knowledge was endless. His dry wit made him fun to listen to and we never tired of his stories. These were the pre-Google days, too, when information wasn’t as accessible. Nowadays, having a local guide is not as important, I suppose.
Other Trafalgar perks included access to restaurants and last minute changes to the itinerary all taken care of – essentially it was a hassle-free experience. We didn't have to worry about where to sleep at night and most morning and evening meals were covered. Being driven everywhere was pretty cool and our bags were even deposited to our room each evening! The optional excursions were all worth it, too, despite our budget taking a nosedive. We’d paid a lot for the tour in the first place and a huge chunk of money added to that initial price made the total cost high. Again, paying for the convenience. If food is your thing, tours are great. For us, as nice as all the included meals were, we could have done a cheaper tour as food definitely isn't our thing.
I was glad we had chosen an open-age tour, despite being considerably younger than most of our fellow travellers, as the general vibe suited us. We'd avoided the post-partying hungover crowd that we saw when we ran into Contiki groups [who were wearing “I partied in x places” t-shirts] as it’s just not our thing. I guess that meant we did fewer ‘fun and adventurous things’ and more things of historical and cultural interest but that was perfect for nerds like us! We had so many unforgettable experiences from the extensive itinerary. Even all these years later it is hard to comprehend all that we saw and did.
Our tour experience: The negatives👎🏼
Now for the negatives. There were 46 people in the tour group, made up mostly of Americans and Australians and a few Canadians and New Zealanders. This was our first Big Adventure, so we’d not been in a tourist situation before. There sure is a lot to learn about human behaviour!
Some of our fellow travellers were a bit loud and obnoxious, failing to listen to instructions and follow directions, and asking what we thought were kind of dumb questions [only dumb because they weren't listening properly]. There was a lot of complaining about things we didn't think mattered. We were just happy to be there! There was stuff that bothered us [the tight schedule and having to wait for other people, for example], but we didn't dare complain.
As introverts, we just struggled with having to be at close quarters with such a large group of people for an extended period. The socialising was exhausting. We were glad to have found our tour buddies in T&D and we kept in touch with them for some years afterwards. We did have a few laughs at some of our tour companions' antics, even making up pet names for some of them. That probably sounds mean, but I'll have to be honest and admit that a lot of people were irritating.
There were several people who stood out with their quirkiness, and I still remember them to this day. There was a couple from San Francisco who were elderly; Mrs G had dicky knees, I recall. They were slow - and I get it - but they complained a lot and we wondered why they'd even done the tour. They also refused to get back on the bus until the exact time we’d been told to reboard, so we often sat in our seats, watching them hover outside before they finally got on the bus.
There was another American couple who were super nice, but I felt kind of bad for them as they didn’t seem to have much money to spend. We didn't, either, but enough to do a good selection of the optional extra trips. They didn’t do any of the optional extra tours and we noticed them taking food off the buffet table each morning to eat during the day.
There was a solo female traveller from Atlanta, and she told us she was renting her house out for an exorbitant price during the Olympics. She said she was desperate to be out of Atlanta! Another solo American woman was from NYC; she told us her husband was a pro golfer and she was on the tour on her own as compensation for being a golf widow. She was quite nice but seemed unwilling to step out of her comfort zone or think for herself, even to the point where she’d thrust a heap of currency at us constantly and ask us to tell her how much money she had. I remember her asking us one day, "Do I have enough for an ice cream?" I mean, really, just count it!
There were two married women on the tour, one of whom was travelling with her senior mother and one with her 20-something daughter. One ended up involved with the tour director and the other flirted with all the men on the bus, including my husband [who was pinched on the butt at one stage]. You do you, but I was embarrassed for both of them as their behaviour was a little cliched. The woman who was flirting had people's attention. I'd be mortified if I knew the group was watching me like that. I’m not sure whether the others noticed the woman who was involved with the tour director, but we did and so did T&D. She looked exhausted the longer the tour went on. I have no idea how she kept up a relationship with the tour director, on top of the tour activities.
[Reading my comments on our travelling companions again, they sound a bit petty and judgy, but is in my nature when in situations like these - stuck on a bus with a group of people - to notice things. Even slightly irritating behaviour got on my last nerve after a while. We were also young and naïve!]
The hardest part of the tour was the hectic pace and the stress of constant clock-watching to keep to the schedule and to manage any free time. The amount of time allocated to wander around on our own didn’t always align with our expectations especially since the emphasis often seemed to be on shopping. There were lots of instances where we wished we’d had more time to soak up a place and others where we wish we’d had less. Without the benefit of Google and mobile phones and pre-knowledge of the free time, we couldn't plan for it, so it was sometimes a challenge to make the most of non-scheduled periods.
The relentless pace and whiplash experienced from seeing so much so quickly is exhilarating but also exhausting. There's no down time to process all that you have seen and experienced. While we felt it was an incredible experience, there is something less adventurous about being on a bus tour and not having to fend for yourself. I’ve had so many amazing experiences since then where I’ve been on my own and had to navigate unfamiliar places.
The fun bits🎉
Even though I've written a lot about the negatives, we did have an amazing adventure. I still can't believe I have been to all those countries! This guy, whose name I can't remember, was originally from Italy, living in Melbourne at the time of the tour. He was adorable and entertained us singing in Italian as we drove to dinner in Florence.
Graeme was super knowledgeable and fun to be around. We thought he'd be stricter with punctuality, though. He seemed reluctant to answer tricky questions and deal with complaints. His lecture about tipping Luc was a bit much, too. Just ask us politely to tip the guy, mate, without making us all feel shamed into doing it! He ignored us because we caused him no problems, but that was OK with us.
Even though others complained, we had no issues with the hotels as a nice bed and warm shower are all we need. We had expected from the tour information that the hotels would be more centrally located, as we’d imagined wandering around at night on our own. That said, there were often included night-time tours or dinners at local restaurants, so we didn’t have much free time in the evenings. On top of that, we were always knackered from the day’s activities.
From my experiences since the European tour, day tours are a great option, as you can mix up independent travel with the safety and ease of seeing things that would be harder to experience on your own. I have done lots of such trips in the years that have followed that have given me amazing memories. I've visited places on day tours I never would have gotten to on my own, for example Transylvania in Romania, and Gallipoli in Türkiye. Shorter tours with more time to explore places are also great, as was my experience in Morocco in 2007.
Travel tip🌏
If you want to do an extended tour, my advice is to choose wisely. Pick something that will allow you a nice mix of guided excursions and free time or at least one that has a quieter pace so that you have time to truly immerse yourself in unfamiliar places and spaces, not dash madly from one place to another. I realise reading this post how many things we either drove or walked by and didn't have the chance to even go inside, let alone explore in any depth.
Footnote ℹ️
I've included below a picture of the currency pack we were given, in exchange for 100 GBP, to see us through the tour for small purchases. How funny it is to think of this now, with credit cards and Euros the norm.
Whew! This post is MEGA, but so was the tour! Here are my reflections on what the experience meant to me and my most vivid and lasting impressions of it..
Do I regret taking the tour? No. Would I do it again? Also, no. I felt that way at the time, and I still do, even though I acknowledge that the tour was a good option for us for our first experience of international travel. The tour was a safe way for us to gain confidence to travel outside of Australia and explore places beyond our own borders. The tour was also a wonderful taster to help us see for the first time all that Europe has to offer and which places we'd like to experience again, and in more depth.
I fell in love with Europe as a concept on the tour and it marks the beginning of my enduring love for that part of the world. The tour also ignited my wanderlust and I have been privileged to be able to feed it ever since.
The relentless pace: It's exhausting being on the go so much and whizzing past so many new, unfamiliar and intriguing places. It makes your head spin. I also wish that seeing Europe meant truly seeing it, not just driving or walking by an historically or culturally significant place.
The tour schedule: While being escorted around is easy, it also limits your freedom to spend your time according to your interests and preferences.
The food: So much food! I have a complicated relationship with food and the abundance of it on the tour was overwhelming.
The people: It's just not my thing to be at such close quarters with a large group of people for a long period.
Europe: The history, the landscapes, and the architecture. The tour was an absolute feast for my senses. It was also a privilege to visit Hungary and Czechia only a few years after the fall of the Iron Curtain and witness, even for a short spell, the dawn of a new era.
What next?
After we finished the tour we picked up a hire car at Heathrow and did a self-drive for two weeks around the UK [minus Northern Ireland]. Read my post about our car trip around England, Scotland, and Wales to complete the posts on our 6-week first foray into the world. We eventually had the chance to visit Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, too, but not until our 25th wedding anniversary.
Loved reliving your journey in 1996