Hong Kong , then fly home

9^th , 10^th & 11^th July 2011

We spent the 9^th and 10^th in Hong Kong, shopping, eating and catching up with friends. It was very hot and humid (temp around mid 30’s and humidity close to 100%), making it pretty uncomfortable being outside for extended periods.

On Saturday we went to the Ladies Market in Mong Kok to do a bit of shopping and have a look around. Just like Singapore, Hong Kong is still growing at a solid pace with money pouring into further improving infrastructure. In both places major expansion of the already fantastic MRT systems is underway.

We did notice, however, that the pollution in HK seemed worse than previous visits, probably made worse by the weather, but one can’t help thinking that there may be a few more factories in Guangdong contributing to the problem.

Once the shopping was out of the system and we had tired of wandering around we headed back to the hotel.

Tonight we had a most enjoyable dinner with Ron and Angela Pickering at a very good Cantonese restaurant in Kowloon. (Guo Fu Lou in the iSquare building).

Sunday involved a trip to the Island, a wander around Central (forgot is was Sunday as the place is awash with Philippina maids having their only day off). We had lunch in a good Chinese restaurant in IFC mall and then headed back to the hotel to pack for a morning flight home tomorrow.

The flight left 9.15am , Monday morning and we were home at West Pennant Hills by 9.30pm.

Fly to Hong Kong

7^th & 8^th July 2011

Last night we were reminded we should remove our car from the carpark across the road by 6am in the morning, or it would be towed away, as Thursday is market day in Rapallo, and the whole carpark is used.

Sure enough, when we went to breakfast, not only the whole carpark, but the waterfront footpath along the shore also, was a mass of market stands. We had moved our car last night to a spot not far from the hotel.

Market stalls covered the carpark

and the waterfront

Before leaving for Milan Linate airport, we had a wander around the market and like everywhere, it was the same old stuff interspersed with some local produce and a few local handicrafts.

By 9am we were on the road to Milan. It was an uneventful drive, the most excitement being trying to find the service station at Linate airport, followed by finding the drop off point for rental cars. This required a few laps of the airport before sorting it all out.

Our flight to London had been delayed 45 mins due to late arrival of the aircraft, so we had lunch and wandered around a bit longer than we would have liked. We arrived at Heathrow Terminal 5 only 30 mins late and spent a few hours in the BA business class lounge awaiting our departure for HK at 9.30 pm.

We arrived in HK about 20 mins early and we settled in to our hotel by 6pm.

Cinque Terre

6^th July 2011

We have been to Italy quite a few times and have always been told by others that we should visit Cinque Terre, the 5 little cliff hanging villages just west of La Spezia. In Rapallo there is a boat tour that takes in the whole area and lands in 3 of the villages for long enough to have a good look around.

The thought of seeing it all from the ocean, also had immediate appeal, as both road and rail transport along the coast spends at least half of the time in tunnels. The distance by sea to the furthest east of the villages appears to be about 30nm.

The boat left Rapallo at 9am and headed east. We picked up further passengers in Chiavari, which had a sizeable marina and cruising boats anchored offshore, with plenty of people in the water on the beach.

Chiavari

Next stop was Lavagna, a very large marina with plenty of room. It also boats the largest beach on this coast.

The beach at Lavagna

Lavagna Marina

It was then on to Sesti Lavante. This was a real test of the captain’s skills, as to get to the wharf he had to pass through a long line of boats either side of the passage on bow and stern moorings. Clearance was only a few metres each side.

Berthing the boat at Sesti Levante

We now had our full complement of passengers and headed off to Cinque Terre, passing all of the villages along the way with our first stop for 1 hour at Riomaggiore, the most easterly village of the 5.

The trip along the coast only serves to reinforce the ruggedness of this coastline with the mountains coming right to the sea.

Like all of these villages, it is built on rugged country, with a tiny little “harbor”, suitable only for very small fishing boats. The “wharf” for the tour boats is a concrete platform facing the ocean, they come in gingerly nose first, and desperately get some lines on before hitting reverse to hold the boat in place whilst a boarding platform is launched from the bow, and people clamber off. It is not always possible for the tours to go ahead if the wind is too strong as it would be too dangerous to try to berth the boat. The scenery  in Riomaggiore is spectacular, and the village full of little restaurants, and lots of shops selling everything from fresh produce, wine, clothing and the usual tourist rubbish. But overall, it is a very nice place. We spent our hour exploring the town from top to bottom.

Location of the villages of Cinque Terre

Riomaggiore from the sea

Berthing and going ashore is precarious

The small boat harbour

Looking up into the village

Entering the village from the sea

                                             The local produce looks delicious

The boat left on time an hour after arrival for our next stop, Monterosso, it is the most westerly of the five villages. On the way we passed Manarola, Corniglia, and Vernazza (which we will visit last). All of the villages are famous for their wine production. We have already sampled one in Rapallo and look forward to trying another with lunch.

Monterosso "New town" with a popular beach

Monterosso "Old town" with a small harbour

The fishing fleet in the harbour off the old town

Lunch was very good

The beach was very popular

Monterosso, is a larger place with the village divided in two by a headland. The old village is on one side, and the new village (and more beaches on the other). Our stopover here is for 3 hours ( I think to let the boat crew have their siesta). After a look around for half an hour or so, we found a nice little wine bar in the village and settled in for lunch of antipasti, mixed bruschetta and a bottle of white wine from Corniglia. All of it was excellent.

After lunch we wandered around to see the rest of the village, but in the end looked for a shady spot to rest and enjoy a gelato.

Last stop was Venazza, once again we made the precarious landing off the bow of the boat, but the village had a lovely little harbor, quite protected but good for small boats only. We wandered around the streets of yet another very pretty village and the decided to climb up to the castle to get the best view possible of the town. It was well worth the steep climb.

Approaching Venazza from the sea

It had the best small boat harbour and a beach i n front of the town

It was very hot so there were plenty of people on the beach

The harbour from Doria Castle

The rock that the boat berths at taken from the castle

It was now 4.45pm and the boat departed to return home, back through the ports where we had picked up others until we were eventually back in Rapallo at 6.15pm.

Overall it was a fantastic day, and whilst the weather started out a bit overcast, it had cleared by noon and we continued to have great weather.

It is our last night in Rapallo and tomorrow we drive to Milan and fly to HK via London.

Portofino

5^th July 2011

After breakfast we decided to catch the 10am ferry to Portofino, about 30 min trip west of Rapallo.

The ferry ready to leave for Portofino

First stop was Santa Margherita Ligure, a very pretty seaside village just around the corner from Rapallo, which seems popular with cruising yachts anchored in the harbor, and a popular swimming spot with a large beach and protected swimming area.

Santa Margherita Ligure

It was then on to Portofino. As we approached Portofino there were a few very large motor cruisers (ships) anchored at sea. One in particular caught my eye and seems to be ideal boat for one who has everything. It had a helicopter on a pad on the aft deck, a yacht that looked about 50’ in length on the port side deck mid ships, a motor cruiser about the same size on the starboard side in about the same position, and enough room on the stern access platform for a few beach umbrellas and party area. I doubt we will see one at the boat show this year.

Brian de Boos new boat ?

As we entered the small harbor at Portofino all you could see were boats everywhere, some very large motor boats along the concrete pier, lots of wooden pleasure boats on moorings, a number of yachts on moorings and even a few fishing boats (that wouldn’t win any design competition but looked functional).

There are local boats

And other boats

And fishing boats

The town is stunning, particularly when seen from the water, which is crystal clear. We walked out to the lighthouse on the western tip of the peninsula, capturing some excellent views of the town.

Views on the lighthouse walk

After taking in the scenery we wandered around the town (lots of shops and restaurants), and were surprised at the number of Australian tourists in towns. You could hear Australian accents everywhere you went. We eventually had enough sightseeing, sat down at a waterside restaurant for a light lunch and quickly came to realize that Portofino prices reflect the setting with multimillion dollar boats everywhere, and boat boys carrying the Gucci and other brand label bags tagging along behind their owners/guests to take the latest shopping haul on board.  Unlike our other destinations in Italy so far, this place is ridiculously expensive, food and drinks are at least twice the cost of Rapallo, and in our one experience , of lower quality.

Meanwhile the occupancy of the harbor front changed dramatically. All of the big motor cruisers left around noon, and a Volvo ocean racer, “Abu Dhabi” entered the harbor and was the only boat on the townside pier.

A very large motor cruiser " Baton Rouge" leaving the harbour

A contrast to the morning view when this dock was filled with multimillion dollar motor boats

We caught the 2pm ferry back to Rapallo, glad that we chose to stay here rather than in Portofino, despite the natural beauty of the place.

After our usual afternoon rest we will head back out for dinner in Rapallo tonight. We had  pizza and a good bottle of red in front of the harbor.

Tomorrow we hope to take a ferry ride in the other direction to Cinque Terre.

Rapallo

4^th July 2011

This morning we left Griante at 9am to drive to our next destination, Rapallo, on the Italian Ligurian coast. The drive back to through Como, follows the lakeside most of the way and gave us our last views of Lake Como before heading south, initially across reasonably flat plains.

As we got closer to the coast, we re-entered mountainous territory and spectacular scenery. After a brief coffee break, we eventually hit the outskirts of Genoa, before turning east towards Livorno. The road from Genoa to Rapallo is amazing, almost completely made up of tunnels through mountains that come right to the sea, interspersed with elevated roads across valleys in between the mountains. It took us roughly 4 hours to get to Rapallo.

We had only limited instructions on how to find our hotel, the main clue being it was somewhere on the waterfront. Rapallo is a busy town, with narrow streets and lots of traffic. We eventually stumbled on our hotel, and checked in to our room on the top floor with spectacular ocean views from our balcony. We parked the car in an associated carpark across the road and headed off on foot to explore the town.

Our hotel is the tallest one and our room is on the 2nd  level from the top

The view from our room

There is a large marina and yacht club on the western side of the harbor and an old fortress, just off the shore in the main harbor area. It is obviously a popular holiday area, but doesn’t look like it is on the bus tour circuit. There are restaurants everywhere and a few “pebble beaches”, right in town.

The marina

The fort with a little pebble beach alongside

The waterfront boulevarde

We found a nice little wine bar/restaurant for lunch and had the best bruschetta I have ever had.

How this for bruschetta

Another beach near our lunch restaurant being 'groomed" for guests

Walking back though town after lunch, the place was dead as the normal siesta period results in shops closing until about 4pm for and extended lunch and rest.

We are fitting in to the custom well and went back to the hotel for a rest and reading our books.

We tried a waterfront restaurant for dinner and had excellent seafood pasta, and a Pinot Grigio from Venezia.

A novel ice bucket !!

Rapallo by night

Scenic drive to the top of the lake

3^rd July 2011

Today we wanted to see more of the lake and, after studying the ferry timetable, decided it was probably easier to drive, as the ferry options are limited to get to the top of the lake.

We head off at around 10am, and drive north through Menaggio, into new territory. There is a turnoff to St Moritz just out of Menaggio (the Swiss border runs very close to the western side of the lake). We followed the lakeside road all the way to the top off the lake when you cross a small bridge to cross over to the eastern shore. We pulled in to a little café for our morning cup of coffee and to take in the view.

Our faithful VW Golf at our coffee stop

The view looking up to the end of the lake

View from the bridge looking back down the lake

On the way back down the western side we stopped at Domaso for a walk around. It is a scenic little village with many more sailing boats than we have seen elsewhere. The whole northern part of the lake seems to be where the sailors are in greater numbers and there are a lot of boats on the water today, probably because it is Sunday.

The waterfront at Domaso

The boat harbour

The streets are narrow !!!

A large river runs through the town

Next stop was Dongo, another nice small village on the waterfront where there was a small Sunday market under way along the waterfront. Once again there were plenty of boats. On the southern end of Dongo the road goes into one of the many tunnels that make passage through the mountains close to the shore possible. After a refreshing beer we continue south.

The boat harbour in Dongo ( tunnel through the mountain back left)

Dongo Sunday market

A good stop for a cold beer on another hot day

Before we know it we are back in Menaggio and decide to drive on through Griante to Lenno to have lunch there. It was a great idea, but for some reason Lenno was packed and there was not a car space to be found anywhere.

So, it was back to Griante for a very late lunch, a short afternoon rest, and dinner once again at our hotel. We have not seen a better menu anywhere else.