Euro Trip 2010 Pt VIII: Bled & Ljubjana (Slovenia)

Posted on September 22, 2010 by tokyofox

It was only a couple of days before this part of the trip that I realised my planned journey between Venice and Ljubjana would take longer than I realised. There was only one daily night train between the two so instead I had to go by train to Trieste and then take a bus into Slovenia followed by another bus trip between the capital city Ljubjana and my destination of Bled.

Before all that though I had a few hours in the Italian border city of Trieste which was more than enough to see the remains of the old Roman amphitheatre, the Canal Grande and a couple of nice looking buildings.

    

On my arrival in Bled just after 5pm I took a while to find Castel Hostel 1004 bacpackers but all the locals I asked were very nice and helpful as indeed they were throughout my time in Slovenia. They spoke very good English too! With night-time drawing in I walked on down to the lake and then took the short but steep hike upto the castle which supposedly offers some of the best views of the towns centre-piece. I say supposedly as I didn’t go in due to the high price. However, I walked round the back of the castle and scrambled up the rocks and boy was it worth it as the view was amazing.

I haven’t mentioned it yet but Bled is famous for the tiny island on its lake which has nothing but a church on it. Many have described it as being like something out of a fairytale. The heavens opened up when I reached the lake again but I guess that I was lucky that it happened at that moment rather than 20 minutes earlier.

   

I got up at 7am the next morning and took a two hour stroll round the beautiful lake but decided that it wasn’t really worth waiting around to take a gondola over to the church on the island.

  

The view was sufficient enough for me so I headed back to the hostel, checked out and took the 9.30am bus to Ljubjana. My train from there to Zagreb in Croatia wasn’t until mid afternoon so I spent a few hours strolling round the city centre which was pleasant enough but didn’t captivate me too much.

   
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James Bond Filming Locations In Venice

Posted on September 19, 2010 by tokyofox

It’s been said that some 500 movies have been made in Venice but most of us can probably only name a few at best. In ‘Euro Trip 2010 Pt X‘ I referred to locations used in ‘The English Patient‘ (1996), ‘Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade‘ (1989) and ‘Death In Venice‘ (1971)and on top of that two James Bond films have been set there; ‘Moonraker‘ (1979) and ‘Casino Royale‘ (2006). The latter may be a way better film but it’s the former which is actually more memorable as it included Roger Moore’s 007 famously transforming his gondola into a land vehicle (below) which rode through St Marks Square.

   

This was to the astonishment of many including a pigeon doing a double-take which was rather cheesy and typical of the Moore-as-Bond era. This is the very same pigeon (below) which was shown in slow-motion looking one way and then looking the other in disbelief at Bonds antics. *

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Coming from the water you carry on straight down through the piazza (below) as Moore did in unorthodox fashion.

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Directly in front of you on the north side is the Torre dell’Orologio (below); the clock tower where Bond has a bit of a tussle with one of the henchman working for the films antagonist Hugo Drax. Not surprisingly the interior wasn’t behind the real clock but in the studio.

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Just a few metres east of here is the Venini glass store (below) where the entrance was used as Drax’s Glassworks shop.

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Ca’Rezzonico (Museo del Settecento Veneziano) is located quite near to the church used in ‘Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade‘ in the Dorsoduro district. This doubled up as Drax’s laboratory in ‘Moonraker‘ where Bond followed Dr Holly Goodhead (although he didn’t know it was her at the time) as she mysteriously crept away from a group having a tour of the museum and went up some stairs. The actual real glassworks museum is on Murano island just north of central Venice and I had planned to go there but in the end I just didn’t have the energy to venture out that way.

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Just round the corner from St Mark’s Square is the Hotel Danieli (below) which was where Dr Goodhead stayed in ‘Moonraker.’  The interior was also the inspiration for the tiny studio-built sinking palazzo used at the end of ‘Casino Royale‘ which can be seen on the DVD extras.

   

St Nicolo riviera (below) on Lido was also used in some way in ‘Moonraker‘ but when I got there I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was!! I have since discovered it was a monastery faking it as a “Brazilian” training camp so nothing too important.

Ponte dei Sospiri more commonly known in English as ‘Bridge of Sighs’ (below) was a little disappointing in reality as it was surrounded by blue advertising boards while its presumably under renovation. It featured in all its splendour at the end of ‘From Russia With Love‘ (1963) but was clearly just rear projection and Sean Connery’s 007 and Tatiana Romanova were in the studio. For your information the bridge connects the Palace and the prison and was named for the condemned prisoners who sighed when they crossed it to meet their executioners.

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My Venice guide through the eyes of 007 ends with some ‘Casino Royale‘ scenes. Bond and Vesper ride their yacht into Venice going between the bridges of Accademia and Rialto on the Grand Canal (below) although the sinking palazzo near the latter was a one-third reconstruction on the Pinewood 007 stage in the UK.

   

Before all of that we see Bond supposedly looking out from his hotel balcony over St Mark’s Square but that view would not be even be possible. He runs across the square on hearing the news that there is a problem with the transfer of the money. I think its the Santa Maria della Salute which appears in the background (though I can’t seem to find a photo of this in my collection) of Daniel Craig’s 007 as he talks to ‘M’ about Vesper’s betrayal from his yacht and then its off to the Villa La Gaeta in Como for the films climax and those filming locations can be seen here.

* May not be true!
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Euro Trip 2010 Pt VII: Venice (Italy)

Posted on September 14, 2010 by tokyofox

I was lucky to escape a fine on the train between Verona and Venice. I bought a ticket two minutes before it left and made a dash for the train but stupid rules in Italy say you have to validate the ticket. Thankfully, the conductor was of the understanding kind. On my arrival in Venice at 11am I eventually found Archies House which was a dirty rundown hostel but at 20 euros a night I certainly didn’t care about that! As had become the norm I headed out straight away as I was on a tight schedule. Yet again the gods were smiling down on me as it was another glorious day.

 

Venice was a stunning place but its maze of alleys, canals and bridges left me exhausted by the end of the day. Only three bridges cross the grand canal though and walking between a couple of them seemed to take an eternity as I lost my way walking through the San Polo district having started at Scalzi Bridge by the train station. The view from Rialto Bridge (above) was absolutely beautiful and typical of what I had imagined.

 

From there I decided to take a break from the streets for a while and so got on one of the over-priced vaporetto’s (small passenger ferry) and headed for the island of Lido. While it was certainly no gondola it was nice to get on the water albeit on a very crowded method of transport. Gondolas (above) are really expensive by the way and as I wasn’t with my girlfriend there really was no reason to fork out 80 euro’s or so for a 30 minute ride.

Lido was nice enough but it didn’t exactly get my pulse racing. I walked over to the other side of the island which is home to an overly-popular beach (below) and across the road from there was Grand Hotel des Bains (below) which appeared in both ‘Death in Venice’ and as the ‘Cairo’ hotel in ‘The English Patient’. However, I was not so happy to see that the place had closed down. I have since discovered in this article that it will reopen as a luxury apartment complex but that is no consolation for some cinephiles.

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I took a ferry back to the main area (without paying this time!) and headed for the picturesque St Mark’s square (below) in the San Marco district which was really impressive even amidst the hordes of pigeons and fellow tourists. I was happy enough just to admire the views and really had no interest in joining the queue of people lining up to get in to the basilica.

 

I later walked on towards Accademia Bridge and crossed it which took me into the much quieter Dorsoduro district. I had lost my way again and was starting to really feel tired (which is quite rare for me when travelling) when I came across Chiesa di San Barnaba which would normally be considered to be a fairly ordinary church if it wasn’t for the fact that it was seen in ‘Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade’. Indy, along with a couple of others, walk across the bridge seen below and then enter the church which is a library in the film. I didn’t go inside as it was expensive. Indy did of course and he found an important clue relating to the numeral ‘X’ marking the spot. Well, what do do you know but this is part X of my trip!

  
 

I spent the night sleeping with a Japanese guy. Yes, you heard that correctly! My dorm room included three single beds and I was in it with two Japanese guys of which one had taken the bed by the window leaving his mate with one of the two beds in the middle of the room. I was last to check in so of course had to take the bed which was next to his and when I say next to his I mean about an inch apart which funnily enough is as close as my girlfriends bed and mine were when we went to Malaysia in July!

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Euro Trip 2010 Pt VI: Verona (Italy)

Posted on September 12, 2010 by tokyofox

A spot of torrential rain on my arrival at Verona station had me wondering whether to even bother staying in the place. The thing with Italian stations is that there are seemingly never any maps (apart from in the shops!) so I had to rely on my guidebook to just get on the #73 bus and head in the direction of the hostel I intended to stay at.

I got fairly wet walking the two metres from the bus stop to the bus and it didn’t half chuck it down during the journey but thankfully it had died down a bit by the time I got off the bus and took a fairly steep walk up the hill leading to Ostello Villa Francescotti. This was a beautiful, huge hostel with dorms at a good price with breakfast thrown in to the bargain too. However, it also had some strict rules (curfew etc) but given that I wasn’t planning to paint the town red they didn’t bother me in any way.

 

With daylight time quickly running out I instantly headed out back down the hill and across the river (above) towards the old town. Even with the rain pouring down on that bus trip I could see what a beautiful city Verona was and that became more apparent as it stopped raining. I wandered the atmospheric streets leading to Piazza Bra and the impressive amphitheatre (above) known more simply as the Arena.

Verona is of course the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and so I headed back in the direction of Casa di Giulietta (house of Juliet) which I knew would be closed but I still had to see what I could see. That turned out to be a handful of tourists hanging round a gate (below) covered in graffiti. We could only see through it towards the courtyard below the famous balcony where there is a statue of Juliet.

 
   

By then it was already dark so I enjoyed a delicious pasta meal and was back at the hostel by 9.15pm but to my astonishment some of my room-mates had already turned out the lights which I think is so rude for such an early time. As a result I had to fumble round my bag in the dark looking for my toiletries which, with the bag rustling, probably caused greater disruption to their sleep anyway. I left early the next morning and saw similar views of the river albeit much more beautiful (above) in the clear, sunny morning light.

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Euro Trip 2010 Pt V: Milan (Italy)

Posted on September 10, 2010 by tokyofox

The only reason I actually stopped in Milan was to see the San Siro Stadium; the home of Milan and Inter. Getting there wasn’t exactly plain sailing though as the train line which runs to that area was having work done on it so a bus was used in its place. A second bus from that station was then needed though luckily the same ticket could be used for all of that. I was quite surprised at how many people had decided to do the same when I arrived at the ground and had to pay a rather hefty 13.5 euro’s for the stadium tour and museum entry.

Since it made its debut (in its current guise) at World Cup ’90 I have always considered the San Siro to be an impressive structure and have long wanted to see it with my own eyes. In a way I was more impressed with the exterior as the inside was obviously just an empty stadium of green, orange and red seats. Just a shame I couldn’t get an aerial view of the arena.

The tour was fairly short (about forty minutes) and a little chaotic with fifty or so people there but other than seeing the changing rooms and the stands what more does one need to see? Well, I guess walking out the tunnel and going on to the pitch would be nice but that wasn’t part of the tour.

The guide kept things fairly brief which pleased me as I don’t really have such a strong interest in the history and culture of the two famous club’s who share the stadium. I was more than happy with the basics and an anecdote or two which is what we got. Both teams have their own changing rooms which are both very different in appearance. Inter’s seemed a bit bigger with one large TV screen whereas the Milan one had lots of little TVs. No doubt there were many more subtle differences but that’s what I noticed!

The museum was a good size in my opinion with enough shirts, memorabilia, famous player waxworks and trophies to keep the casual fan’s who visit here happy enough.

 

These included Roberto Baggio’s shirts from both Milan clubs…

…the European and UEFA Cups, Ronaldo’s Inter shirt and, despite only being there on loan a couple of times, the huge fame of David Beckham means there is one of his shirts on display.

 

The rain was starting to get heavier and heavier as I took a tram into the centre to see the impressive Duomo.

I had intended to scout out a few filming locations from ‘The International‘ (2009); a  thriller starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. Due to the rain and time (I wanted to be in my next location early enough to see the place before darkness) I decided to get moving as I didn’t really think too much of the movie anyway. Well, not quite as I had to go the Main Central Station which was used in the movie and the square outside it; Piazza Duca d’Aosta, was where the political rally took place albeit slightly to the left of the picture below.

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Attack Of The Clones Filming Locations: Star Wars Traveller – Naboo (a.k.a. Como)

Posted on September 7, 2010 by tokyofox

You may think that an afternoon of seeking out ‘Casino Royale‘ and Star Wars Episode II film scenes at the Villa del Balbianello would be enough for one day. Not for me though because while I was walking back to my hotel I came across the Parco Civico di Tremezzo which featured in a cut scene from ‘Attack of the Clones‘ and was where Anakin and Padmé left Naboo for Tatooine following the former’s nightmare about his mother being in pain back on his home planet.

That’s one train of thought anyway due to the clothes they are wearing but the very chunky ‘Star Wars 365 Days’ book by John Knoll suggests that their spaceship landed near here and then they got into a gondola and sped across the lake to the Lake retreat a.k.a. the Villa del Balbianello. We saw that at the very start of Euro Trip 2010 Pt VI but it appears that their clothes have changed there whereas they are the same on arrival in Tatooine as they are in the first photo below.

I took some pictures of the steps and that rectangular sign at the top of them…

…as well as the male toilets where Hayden Christensen (Anakin) got changed into his brown Jedi robe without complaint.

   

Natalie Portman (Padmé) got something a bit better after the crew cleared out a nearby little domed building for her.

I woke up early the following morning and got into the water with my camera to get a shot of the arrival steps. This wasn’t so easy as it was deep and swimming out for 10 metres or so while holding a camera in the air is blo*dy difficult!! All that effort for a cut scene which didn’t even make it on to the deleted scenes chapter of the DVD!!


Later that morning I set out on foot following the excellent directions from Mark Dermul’s third Star Wars filming locations book to find the picnic meadow where Anakin and Padmé get closer. Lots of overgrown grass in the foreground of some amazing, huge waterfalls in the film but in reality it was just a private field which could be anywhere in the world to be honest!

 

The falls and the shaaks (indigenous Naboo animals) were added by CGI of course and this field can only really be recognised thanks to some behind the scenes pictures in the aforementioned John Knoll book. By that I mean the shabby building in one of my photo’s. There had been a heavy downpour the night before so with the grass still wet I could only crouch down rather than imitate their sitting pose.

  

A different field was used nearby for the scene where Anakin was playing around on the back of the Shaak until he fell off and played dead in the name of luring Padmé into his arms whereby the viewer assumes they kiss not that we see that. The rodeo bit was obviously done against a blue screen but the rolling around was done in this very field which again really could be any grassy area.

     

A restaurant called Fagurida was frequented by Sir Alec Guiness (Obi Wan Kenobi) in the 1960’s.

A house used as Hayden Christensen’s and Natalie Portman’s dressing room rounded off my Star Wars adventure.

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Attack Of The Clones Filming Locations: Star Wars Traveller – Naboo (a.k.a. Villa del Balbianello)

Posted on September 5, 2010 by tokyofox

Ask almost anybody what their 6th favourite Star Wars film is and chances are that they will say ‘Episode II: Attack of the Clones‘. To be honest, I wasn’t overly impressed with episodes I and II but my opinion changed with the former after visiting the filming locations in Tunisia last year. Visiting the Plaza de Espana in Seville at the start of the year heightened my interest in episode II and that was extended even further in anticipation of seeing the following at the Villa del Balbianello in Como.

Unlike the ‘Casino Royale’ shots (done at the same place) Star Wars episode II included a bit of CGI here and there. The first such example is when we see the villa from the lake (below) albeit with domes added to the roof. Sadly I didn’t get to take a photo of the place from quite the same angle as I never took a boat to that part of the lake.

 

Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala arrive at the lake retreat on the latter’s home planet of Naboo. They arrive by boat (below) but this was a different place to where I arrived and this scene could not be perfectly re-created as it was shot from the stone wall which isn’t accessible to the public. I had to take my pictures of the boat dock and steps leading down to it from different angles.

      

After climbing the steps (not on camera) we then see the pair of them walk along a terrace (below) with a pond in the foreground and a bush in the background.

     

They walk over to the balcony overlooking the lake. Notice the strange shape trunk on the right of each photo below.

 

This balcony is where the two heroes kiss for the first time (below) although Padmé later pulls away as their love is forbidden. Sadly my girlfriend wasn’t with me on this trip to re-create such a scene which I would have insisted upon no doubt to her disproval. By that I mean the geekiness of it rather than the kiss!

 

We return to this part of the villa for the film’s climax (below) as Anakin and Padmé get married in secret with R2D2 and C3PO the only ones in attendance. The former managed to turn up for my appearance again as he did in Tunisia and Spain. Sadly the beautiful red flowers in the movie are not so distinct now.

  
 

The loggia which appeared in ‘Casino Royale‘ was used a little differently in ‘Attack of the Clones‘. Only the area under the arches (below) is seen beginning with Anakin in a Jedi trance looking out across the lake early in the morning following his nightmare.

 

“Jedi don’t have nightmares” is what Anakin tells Padmé (below) but she says that she heard him and then he explains that he saw his mother in pain in his dreams and that he must return to Tatooine to try and save her. The sunlight made this one hard to re-create but typically I didn’t think about closing the door until later that evening!

 

The shot below was done using a platform and fake window and window sill but in reality it is just the garden out the back of the ticket office and bookshop. This was cut from the movie but does appear in the deleted scenes chapter on the DVD. It see’s Anakin being questioned in the garden by Padmé’s father about his intentions.

 

Another scene to end upon the cutting room floor was Padme’s bedroom (no, not a sex scene!) and this started with a view of the villa shot from below in the garden although as you can see CGI magic makes the two look quite different.

 

The deleted bedroom scene (seen on the dvd) was shot in one of the loggia rooms (below) although they basically stripped it of its period furniture and imported a rug, bed and so on to make it more Naboo-like.

  
 The Villa del Balbianello as seen in ‘Casino Royale’ can be seen here.
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Casino Royale: James Bond Filming Locations In Como

Posted on August 31, 2010 by tokyofox

Daniel Craig’s first outing as 007 in ‘Casino Royale‘ (2006) re-booted the James Bond franchise and gave it the kick up the ar*e that it needed. It is in fact one of the best Bond films and the ending to the movie was filmed in Como at two locations.

The Villa del Balbianello is where Bond recovers from his beating by the main antagonist Le Chiffre and is being questioned by the dodgy(?) MI6 Agent Mathis in the garden which is actually just outside the ticket office and bookshop entered through the door on the left of the picture below.

 

Bond is one step ahead of Mathis though and has him tasered and arrested. He is then dragged away across the garden below)  as we get to see the opposite direction of the first scene I mentioned.

  

The next scene begins with a beautiful sweeping shot of the loggia as seen below.

  

Bond wakes up to see Vesper (Eva Green) and they start to whisper a load of sweet nothings to each other on the south side of the loggia below.

  

Monsieur Mendel interrupts the romance by coming up the path (below) which tells anyone who has visited the Villa that he actually arrived by boat. One would think that that kind of thing is fairly unlikely but you never know. Like it matters anyway!

  

Swiss Bank manager Mendel then ignores Vesper’s pleasantry and puts his briefcase on the table where, after a joke about Swiss chocolates, he asks Bond to input the account number and password into some special device within the case so that his 120 million (dollars?) casino winnings can be transferred. Herr Mendel then exits leaves the Villa grounds the same way he arrived and for all we know he may have sped off on his boat!

  

More flirting, a declaration of love for each other (basically) and a kissing scene follows before the camera is peering down on them from up somewhere in the loggia and that is the last time we see the Villa del Balbianello.

The very final 90 seconds of ‘Casino Royale‘ were shot at Villa La Gaeta in Aquaseria, and was not easy to get to. First, I had to wait about 90 minutes for a bus but that bus stopped at the depo where I had to wait a while longer before changing to another bus which needed another ticket.

Although very easy to see from the lake, when going there by road it is a lot more difficult to spot. After going through a long tunnel you come out and then go almost straight away into another tunnel and as soon as you exit that one its on the right. Very easy to miss!

The first shot of the villa is from its front gates as the car of the mysterious Mr White goes down the driveway.

 

This is easy enough to copy as one can just poke their camera through the gates and snap away. At worst this is all I thought I might get as the villa is a private home but I was determined to try and get in somehow. Luckily, as soon as I arrived at the villa a young guy in his twenties was going in the side gate. I asked in my bad Italian if he spoke English to which he thankfully said yes. I asked if I could go in for a few moments to take a photo or two but he said it wasn’t possible as it might upset the other guests.

I begged and begged and even offered cash but he wasn’t gonna change his mind. He did say he would take a few quick photo’s for me and sensing that this would be as good as I would get I duly handed him the camera and so that’s why the following photo’s aren’t as good as match-up as I’d usually try and do.

A fantastic aerial shot of the villa in all its glory is followed by Mr White parking his car, looking out across the lake and getting a call from Bond not that he knows it’s him. In fact he even says “Who is this?” which sets up the final line very well.

The response to Mr White’s question is a shot in the leg from a hidden Bond which leaves him crawling across the gravel in front of a bench.

      

Mr White is then shown crawling towards the steps of the villa of which the second step is very recognisable as it has a rusty colour mark in the middle of it. As the villain tries to climb the steps we see the feet of Bond appear and the camera pans up to show his face and we see him holding his mobile in one hand and the gun in the other which he used only moments before. Proof that some things are best left to last as Bond finally answers Mr White’s question in typical 007 fashion; “The name’s Bond…James Bond.”

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Euro Trip 2010 Pt IV: Como (Italy)

Posted on August 30, 2010 by tokyofox

When I planned this whole Euro trip I had never for a moment thought that rain may scupper my plans but as I took the train from Lucerne to Como there were a few rainfalls. Thankfully it had cleared up when I arrived at Como station and got on the hourly bus (almost immediately) which took me to Tremezzo (about 45 minutes away) which is home to two of the most luxurious villa’s in all of Como; Villa Carlotta and the Grand Hotel Tremezzo. Next to the latter was a two-star hotel so I am sure you can guess which one I had booked to stay at in advance! To be fair the view from my window was great….if I leaned out far enough!

     

After checking in I immediately set out by ferry to Lenno where I then had to take a much smaller boat to the Villa del Balbianello which can only be accessed from the lake on weekdays (excluding Tuesdays). It’s probably quite fair to say that my trip was based around this place for reasons which will follow in Euro-Trip Pt V and Pt VI. This delightful villa was built in the 18th century and belonged to a few people before a businessman/collector/explorer from Milan bought it and turned it into a museum which was eventually left to the FAI (an Italian art, nature and landscape foundation) who still run it and show the tourists around which is the only way to see it.

This place was one of the highlights of my trip. As nice as the villa was it was the gardens that were most impressive and particularly the loggia (featuring the map room and the library containing over 4000 geography and travel books) which dominates the terraced garden and from here as well as just about everywhere else there were great views of the lake and its shores.

 

The following day I took a ferry to Bellagio which is situated perfectly in the crotch-part (for Lake Como is shaped like a man although Y-shaped is probably a safer way to describe it!) and is probably the most touristy part. There are many narrow streets lined with souvenir shops and restaurants which eventually sprawl out into a piazza or two with the Villa Serbelloni towering in the hills above.

I ate the typical Italian food (pasta, pizza and gelato) and walked along the shore to Villa Melzi which is the most famous villa in Bellagio. I didn’t go in though as I was already tired of villa’s and gardens by this stage and of course I didn’t want to splash out more more cash on entrance fees! I finished my day at the five-star Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni which had a display of messages written by the rich and famous who have stayed there since it was opened 37 years ago with the most interesting one for me being that of Mr Star Wars himself; George Lucas.

 
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Euro Trip 2010 Pt III: Home Of FIFA

Posted on August 29, 2010 by tokyofox

On the morning I left Zurich for Liechtenstein I went to the home of FIFA which I hadn’t expected to as I thought it was further out of the city. The home of the world’s governing body of football is located near the zoo in the north-east of Zurich. I hadn’t seen it mentioned or even on a map in any guidebook but on the morning I was leaving my hostel I got a map and realised it was very possible to go and see what was there.

      

Neither Sepp Blatter or Michel Platini were there to greet me on my arrival. In fact, no-one was, as I just walked in and no-one stopped me. It’s not as if there was actually much there – just a handful of trophies inside and artificial, sand and mini pitches outside. Like many though I just expected the home of such an important organisation to not be so accessible to random people turning up of which I was inevitably the only one! Sadly the conference room wasn’t accessible but I was free to roam the huge foyer area which, after reading a pamphlet I picked up there, sets benchmarks for the environment in terms of its zero-emissions.

  

Outside was far more impressive with the pitches and a meandering footpath leading through beautifully landscaped gardens which are split up into the six football continents with special plants from each one catching the eye. Not mine though as I didn’t know any of this until after my visit but I could still appreciate it all.

    
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