19 October 2009 - Leaving Frankfurt, Stopover in Budapest, Arriving in Rome - Three Countries in One Day - Unheard of In Oz!

We woke early, refreshed after a good night sleep, before heading down to breakfast. It was very foggy and only 2 degrees outside when we boarded the shuttle bus to take us back to the airport and there was frost over all the cars.

Nausea came back to visit me at the airport, dang it, but it eventually passed after a couple of hours. (I HATE my medication - horrible side-effects!) There was a mix-up with our connecting flights from Budapest to Rome but a very helpful lady organised things for us.

While waiting I spotted some statues at the airport that reminded me of me - aka Sponge Bob Square Pants - and I had to take a shot of them!!

Our plane left at 10.30 a.m. and we sat next to a friendly British man, who gave us some great tips on traveling in Europe.

We flew over some beautiful green countryside across Germany (below) with paddocks of grain clearly discernible, and several large villages within a stone's throw of each other.

However, it was a bit of a worry to see a huge funnel of smoke piercing the heavy cloud cover from an industrial factory chimney and brought the issue of climate change to the forefront! For it to pierce the clouds so predominantly was quite phenomenal and showed the force of the power in the chimney!

Flying over Austria we saw beautiful snow covered Alps piercing the clouds

as well as unusual pancake-shaped clouds - we'd never seen anything like it and were quite astounded.

On our arrival at 12.00 noon in Budapest a young man at Malev Hungarian Airlines told us our flights had been cancelled months ago and so we had to catch a much later flight which meant we would have a six hour stopover in Budapest instead of two, but at least we could get a connecting flight today.

We were able to ring our B&B in Rome to organise a later pick-up and after a big mix-up withdrawing Hungarian Forints - I exchanged WAY too many so had to change most of them to Euros which meant a loss - we had a Hungarian lunch and then relaxed reading and updating our travel diary on the computer. I was also able to purchase some Paris perfume duty free - my first bottle for about 20 years!

There was a further delay with our flight but eventually we boarded at 6.00 p.m. and after takeoff we saw the Danube flowing between Buda and Pest.

It was exciting knowing that in two weeks time we would be sailing down the Danube from Budapest to Amsterdam, but in the meantime we had a wonderful adventure awaiting us in Italy!

Steve was amazed that on our flight to Rome we were still over the Adriatic Sea when we started making our descent, even though we had to travel the breadth of Italy before reaching Rome! The distances in Europe are so small compared to traveling in Australia.

We arrived in Rome to a temperature of 12 degrees at 7.35 p.m. after a great flight. We had to wait for quite a while for our bags but eventually we were met by our limo driver & on our way to B&BRome4U, our home for the next three nights. It was exciting being in Rome - I had to keep pinching myself that I was actually here! We were astounded at the way Italians drive, so much faster and no fear, but safely and with confidence!

A perfect gift for our first "sightseeing glimpse" of Europe was to see St Peter's Basilica illuminated against a clear sky - just spectacular and it brought a lump to my throat. It truly was an amazing sight with the colours emphasised by the dark of the night sky.

We arrived at our B&B, which was only about 100 metres from the Vatican, and were met by the very friendly owner Raphael, who showed us to our room with ensuite. We were very pleased with our accommodation as it was very roomy, had excellent heating and was very comfortable. After explaining where everything was and telling us of some good restaurants nearby, including one that would give us a discount if we mentioned the B&B, he left us to our own devices.

It was so nice to be here after so long in transit, and after a quick freshen up we walked around to All Brothers Caffe for dinner, which had a lovely atmosphere with very friendly staff and a view across to St Peter's Dome. We each had a roast meal and afterward walked across to St Peter's - it was quite surreal realising we were in Italy at last after so many months of planning, especially to be walking where Peter and Paul had walked!

Then it was back to our room to do some laundry and shower before easing ourselves into our very comfortable, warm bed - we were in Rome!