UK TOUR WITH MINTING BEGINS

Under the guidance of Georgia we navigate our way through London to Queensway tube where we pick up Minting, our Chinese friend who stayed with us in Gidge. It is exciting to see her again and we start off on an adventure through Wales. As we anticipated it would be quite a squeeze for us all in Vincent but after a few tries we manage to find the best way to fit 4 in the bed and Minting does really well to get used to the wild camping way of life.

We have decided to base our travels around our National Trust membership and very luckily Minting is allowed to enter for free on our Family membership. Our first stop is at Cliveden, a lovely grounds surrounding the original mansion, now a hotel. The terrace is 500 years old and currently being restored. The view over the formal gardens from up here is delightful. We then wander through the property and end with the water garden. It is so pretty and as we stroll around when suddenly a big splash disturbs the peace. Sadly it’s Georgia falling into one of the very deep ponds whilst trying to get the camera out for the perfect shot of a koi in the disgusting dirty pond water.

Once we realized she was not hurt it was laughter all round, even Georgia, a muddy, algae draped mess. Thankfully we managed to talk the staff into letting her use their shower, lucky, as the smell would not have gone well in Vincent.

The down side to all this was the camera took a dip too and though, after a few days sitting in rice, it works again the horrible water got inside and has left blotches on the inner lens. Time to get the ball rolling with insurance for a replacement but in the mean time blotchy photos it is.

We moved on to our next stop and found a place to camp in the gorgeous village of Lacock. Rising early we took in the sights of this quaint little village. Apart from being the birthplace of photography it is also one of the many sights in England that was home to some Harry Potter filming.

We wandered around visiting Professor Slughorn’s house, and the Potter’s home in the Philosophers Stone. Inside Lacock Abbey the cloister of were used as parts of Hogwarts in the first and second movies and Snape’s potions class can be found inside, such fun. Only thing we didn’t like here was the bakery where they microwaved our pasties. We thoroughly enjoy our time in Lacock and comment that we could come and live here one day.

We move on to The Forest of Dean to find a lovely spot to camp, providing us with a couple of nice walks in the forest before setting off to view the last and only Dutch water garden in England, a place called Westbury. Another National Trust wonder, small but beautiful and restored to its former beauty after years of neglect. We purchase some second hand books for our collection at amazing prices, yet another reason to visit NT properties.

Minting cooked Chinese lunch for us before a short walk at May Hill before driving on to one of our most spectacular parking spots ever, high on the hills in Brecon Beacon, south of Hay-on Wye.

We enjoyed watching the tranquil sport of paragliding. Though a weekday there were at least ten sails in the air, majestically flying around on the breeze. We have to have a go at this one day.

We walked up the very steep hill and enjoyed a closer look at these ‘birds’ before descending to sit and watch the sun go down, spectacular. There are some gorgeous, fat ponies roaming around amongst many sheep, on some of the best pasture you could ever get, and we were lucky to get a pat. The sheep share this area with no fences, oblivious to the passing cars and people.

Minting practices her newly acquired ukulele and it begins to sound like music to help us drift off into the special world we are lucky enough to have found. Sunrise is just as spectacular as the evening and it sad that we have to move along. We head to Hay-on-Wye for an interesting few hours in this town of books. Rummaging through a few of the second had spots and once again purchasing a couple of treasures. Heading on through Brecon Beacons National Park the views are amazing and we stop for lunch at Henrhyd Falls before continuing on through the park taking in the stark rolling hills, fantastic.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album UNITED KINGDOM.

FAMILY TIME

Well, it is quite strange to think we are back in ‘Old Blighty’. A short run under the channel and up we pop where we can understand all the signs and speak to anyone we want to as they can now understand English. The channel crossing is so quick and easy and we’re so glad we didn’t have to make the crossing by ferry.   First we drive an hour and half to Cousin John and Jenny, so very excited to see them. The drive way is ready to accommodate Vincent and at 9.30 we park him for a well-earned rest.

John and Jenny are ready for us and we chat madly for a couple of hours whilst enjoying a superb late evening snack of homemade quiches whilst sitting in the back garden enjoying the lovely view over the summer flowers. We hear of John and Jenny’s trip to Canada, amazing, and hope we can get there ourselves.

How good it is to be home, cause that it is how it feels in this lovely house. We all decide it is time for bed excited to be sleeping apart with a toilet and a shower nearby, such luxury.

During our couple of days here we are well advised by John and Jenny to purchase The National Trust Membership, the best thing we have ever done, you will hear why later. Off to Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill, we went for a splendid day. There is so much to learn in this historical house and lots to see too. Did you know Winston Churchill loved painting, me neither, and he had his very own studio in which he completed many works? He also built a beautiful cubby house (Wendy House for the British) for his daughter in the huge vegetable garden.

Our time with John and Jenny comes to an end and we set off to Maggy and Graham’s and luckily catch up with Matt and Kelly too before they return to London. A perfect summer day enjoying their spectacular garden, once again trying to catch up on each other’s lives. None of us can believe it is six months since our European adventures began.

We spend a week getting ourselves back to normal. This involved washing and repacking everything, sorting out what we could leave behind for our UK travels and trying to finalize our USA plans, or at least starting the plan. How wonderful it is to feel so comfortable and relaxed and share our memories with our special family.

We all started the first day with a run/walk to the village hall, we can now exercise and shower, yay. Maggy cooks us lovely meals as always, she’s a great cook, and we enjoy the television coverage of the Commonwealth games, though this does seem to be a bit one sided… England, England, England! We don’t mind as we now consider ourselves English as well as Aussies so can bask in the glory of a very successful games for the England team, congratulations to all the competitors in this wonderful friendly games.

We spend some time with our special Aunty Babs and laugh at how much she is like her sister, speaking of whom we are able to call a couple of times to let her know we are back safely. We miss her so much and being with Babs is just so lovely as we feel closer. We also learn that Babs is a bread and tomato sauce lover too, I knew that we got this taste from someone in the family! Chloe also drops in for a visit, so lucky to catch up with everyone.

A bit of a mishap with Monty dog eating something he shouldn’t, you don’t want to know what, had us in a panic for a while. It’s lucky he has a very strong stomach considering what he insist on putting in it! We’re also lucky to have Kelly on board for emergency advice to put our minds at rest!

Next we are off to London, with Vincent, and again welcomed into Matt and Kelly’s gorgeous flat. We feel so at home here and quickly settle in to a wonderful week. Kelly is on holidays with us and has set up our first adventure, a trip to London Zoo, but this is no ordinary trip as she has CONNECTIONS. Her good friend Tegan is a zookeeper who just happens to be Aussie as well. We are so spoilt it is hard to believe.

First we find ourselves sitting down with the Meercats. These extraordinary little creatures are just hilarious. We all take handfuls of live grubs, all wiggling around and very attractive to the little fluffy beings we have invaded. They jump up onto our laps to take these tasty morsels. The smiles and laughs on our faces were priceless as we get to stroke and feed these little characters. But that’s not all you get.

Next we move on to the Lemur enclosure, your kidding right, in we go. Now these are the most gorgeous, soft and gentle, curious and persistent and positively spectacular little fluffy beings I have ever met. This feeding experience is far less hectic. Tegan advises us to keep the food, sweet potato cubes, within our fists. To our delight the Lemur sits up on our laps and slowly coaxes our fingers open to get to the tasty treat. This is an experience I find hard to describe other than it was amazing. Their little fingers are so soft and a little sticky and gentle and to sit and stroke them was out of this world.

But that is not all you get. Yes there is more believe it or not. We stroll on through the zoo picking branches of leaves that are particularly nice to Giraffes. That’s our next stop, we stand inside the barrier of the overhead bridge and two Giraffes come to us, we are staring straight into their big beautiful eyes feeding them carrots and then their leaf treats. By now the three off us are just about gah gah with the whole experience. We cannot thank Kelly and Tegan enough for the most amazing day of up close encounters with such gorgeous animals. Needless to say we are the envy of all the other zoo visitors who watched us, some asking us how we got to do this and how much it cost. We realize we are the luckiest people in London and will always treasure this experience.

Our London adventures do not stop there, the following day it is off to Buckingham Palace, for an inside look this time, taking in the special display of the Royal Childhoon exhibition. Kelly and the three of us all enjoy the displays of childhood memories and memorabilia of the Royals and Mikayla manages to stay upright this visit.

We then meet with Chloe for a picnic in the park and spend more time catching up with her. We spend the rest of our days here just doing what the locals do, spending precious time with family and enjoying the summer sunshine. A walk along The Thames, picnics is the parks and even a couple of city farm visits.

Our time in London is also productive as Matt guides us to make our final decisions about the US and our tickets, car hire, insurance and visa requirements are all booked and paid for. The adventure will begins mid September.

Sadly it is time to move on again and Vincent is on the road again but this time we have to fit four girls in, eeeek.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album ENGLAND IN JULY.

BRUGES, YPRES AND FROMELLES – OUR TIME IN EUROPE COMES TO AN END

We were so excited to get to Bruges to see the famous Madonna and Child by Michelangelo. So, this was our first stop on a day in Belgium’s capital. The Madonna and Child is housed in the Church of Our Lady, undergoing restorations while we were there in July. After buying our tickets we entered the side section where the Madonna and Child are front and center of the altar.

A little smaller than anticipated, this piece is exquisite and even though we have seen about as many Madonna and Child pieces as we have churches we spent at least half an hour admiring this one just as we did David in Florence. We finished with a quick look around the rest of the church before stepping back out onto the street with yet another thing crossed off our list!

Bruges’ canals are as beautiful as Ghent’s and we enjoying wandering along, taking many pictures and generally soaking up the atmosphere. We also walked through the Begijnhof, a beautiful, silent (unless a group of tourists turn up and ignore the signs) place.

An almost round trip took us to the Holy Savior Cathedral with more lovely stained glass and artworks. Much of the cathedral was hidden under scaffolding and we wondered why they would be doing so much restoration during peak tourist time.

It was then time to go to go to our second favourite place of the day, Chocco Story, and chocolate museum where we learnt all about the history of cocoa beans, all the way back to the Aztecs, and chocolate. Did you know that cocoa was originally used like coffee as a hot drink, basically hot chocolate came before chocolate? A museum that smells like chocolate and gives you a free sample at the end is always a winner. Unfortunately Mum and Mikayla weren’t interested in doing the nearby hot chip museum so next stop was the main Markt square.

The Markt was packed with people so we popped into the post office to send a couple of post cards back to Australia. Never again, super expensive it cost us about $15 to send two postcards, extortionate. Post from France not Belgium!

We finished our day in Bruges with a visit to the smaller market square where the Basilica of the Holy Blood is. A small doorway off the square takes you into a tiny church with two even smaller chapels. Here you can see a phial that reputedly contains Christ’s blood brought back from the Crusades.

We got to Ypres with plenty of time to park Vincent in the free parking for the night and catch the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate at 8pm. This is held every single night at 8pm, a full last post ceremony, an amazing tribute to fallen soldiers. Standing amongst the huge crowd gathered to remember we got to be part of another very moving experience. Lest We Forget.

After the ceremony we walked around the Menin Gate Memorial and back to Vincent along the ramparts. The next day we spent the morning walking further along the ramparts where there are also Australian and New Zealand War Memorials and in the Commonwealth War Cemetery here before making our way through town to cathedral and the In Flanders Fields Museum.

This museum takes you through the events of World War I with information about the lead up, different battles during the war, artifacts and personal accounts. So worth doing and just like the American Omaha Beach Visitors Center did for World War II, gave us a lesson in the history of World War I.

One more time exiting town through the Menin Gate and we were on our way to Tyne Cot British Memorial and Cemetery. Here we were able to search the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site and found out where our Nan’s first husband and our Granddad’s brother were buried during World War II, though not at this beautiful memorial.

Our very last day in Europe was spent in Fromelles at the Australian Memorial Park, war memorial and cemetery, situated at opposite sides of the battle lines from the Battle of Fromelles and puts into perspective the short distance that was between the two lines. The Memorial even includes the real German bunkers left in original position. We also met a lovely Australian couple here and spent a while chatting, it’s always nice to meet fellow Aussies and they are just wonderful.

The day flying by we soon found ourselves back on the train and crossing under the channel back to England.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the albums BACK TO FRANCE and BELGIUM.

WORLD WAR MEMORIALS FRANCE AND INTO BELGIUM

A walk through the main square of Arras, alive with the bargain market, took us to the tourist bureau where we had a choice of doing a touring through the tunnels under the city, learning about the histories of the town or a tour through the quarry tunnels used during both World Wars.

We chose the quarry, in keeping with the World War theme during our last week in Europe, and found ourselves heading to Wellington Quarry and Battle of Arras Memorial. Here we got our hard, very heavy, hats on and descended yet again into the earth. The tour lasted about 75 minutes, along boardwalks through the tunnels created by soldiers from New Zealand from the remains of the quarry. 24000 soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain lived down here in the lead up to The Battle of Arras when approximately 4000 of those lives were lost each day in the following two months.

The tour is punctuated with video footage and personal stories making the story hit closer to home. You can also see genuine artifacts found in the tunnels. We also had a laugh here when we walked outside to find another Vincent, who we named Vincent’s brother, parked next to our Vincent. A quick comparison and we were off back into the center of Arras, this time able to see the town squares without market stalls, to climb the Belfry tower of the town hall.

It seemed to be a very popular day for weddings because we saw at least three wedding parties waiting to go up the tower for photos and one couple up there while we were. We always love seeing weddings; especially the bride and her dress so were quite excited. We also learned the tooting the car horn when you see a wedding seems to be a tradition in France because every car that drove past did their fair share.

From the top of the Belfry we got a beautiful view out over the city and surrounds. It was interesting to us how different the houses look when viewed from above. From ground level the streets are lined with flat fronted houses giving the impression that they are all rectangular prism in structure when in fact you see from above that they are anything but and all squished together into any space possible, no matter how dramatic the angles become.

We finished the day at Vimy Ridge Canadian War Memorial where we walked through some trenches and spent some time admiring the amazing monument to the Canadian soldiers who lost their lives during World War One and a celebration of Canada’s biggest military victory. This area is just beautiful and the memorial very touching.

Having to move right along we ended driving all the way to Ghent and camping next to a park in a very nice neighborhood before driving into town to start our time here the next day.

With no map of Ghent in our guidebook we had no idea how to find anything so first thing was a stop at the first thing that looked like they might have information, a monastery. Armed with a map we soon found what we came for, the cathedral that was much like many others, and the design museum.

The Design Museum was brilliant, showcasing furniture through the ages; rooms were all set up featuring antique interior design and furniture to the ultra modern. They also had an exhibition running, all about the pollution in the ocean and how this is collected to make useful products. We would love to buy a few sea chairs at some point.

We followed this with a walk along the canals, stopping in quite a few little independent art galleries and shops and found some stuff that we could definitely find places for in our home and future homes.

Yet again the day was finished with a drive to our next destination, Bruges the home of Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child.

Photos can be found on our Facebook Page in the albums BACK TO FRANCE and BELGIUM.

PARIS TAKE TWO

Another day, and what would be our last for this trip, of exploring Paris on foot. Starting with visits to the Church of St-Sulpice and the Church of St-Germain Des Pres, both old churches that are in disrepair though there seems to be some restoration work going on. It seems The Notre Dame gets all the attention but these churches are worth a look too, especially if you read The Da Vinci Code first!

Moving on from here our walking took us through some yet unseen parts of town, to another large church whose name I can’t recall, past some modern street sculptures and water features and to the bazaar Center Pompidou, built with it’s insides outside. Touting the best view in Paris we can only assume they mean the art inside because what could be better than the Eiffel Tower? All a bit sick of art (gasp) we decided to give the inside a miss and took off again in search of somewhere nice to have a very late lunch.

We ended up finding a fantastic little crepe restaurant on Rue Jean du Bellay, Ile St-Louis, and had a scrumptious three course meal finished with delicious crepes, salted caramel for Mum, apple and cinnamon for Mikayla and chocolate and banana for me, yum! We would definitely recommend this place. We hadn’t anticipated desert and had planned to go to Bathillion for ice cream so we stuck to it, until we got there. Bathillion is famous for having 70 flavours of delicious ice cream, they lie, there were only ten, of the most boring, flavours on offer, very disappointing so we gave it a miss. We didn’t need it anyway!

A brisk walk back to Vincent in the rain, this time with our rain coats, and we decided it was time to move on. We were so proud of Mum as she navigated the traffic towards and along the Champs Elysees and around for one last look at the Arch de Triomphe, until next time.

From here we got stuck in a traffic jam for about three hours and spent the time discussing how annoying it is when people stare at us in Vincent like he has one way glass and we can’t see them and how everyone would get so much farther much quicker if the drivers weren’t so selfish. We were in a dark, gloomy place at that point in time!

When we eventually got out onto the open road we were much happier, as was Vincent’s gear box, and we ended up finding a cute little camping spot next to a play ground near Giverny, our next destination.

In the morning it was straight to Monet’s Garden where I went crazy with flower photos. So much variety of beautiful blooms it took me ten times longer to get around the garden than Mum and Mikayla who had to wait for me before entering the water garden via the underpass.

The immortalized water garden is just as beautiful as you would expect and we visited at the end of the optimal time of year. Row boats sit amongst lilies and willows at the edge of the pond and the quaint bridges are picture perfect, funny that!

Monet’s house is also brilliant and just as exciting as the gardens. My favourite part was Monet’s office/living room where he painted in the later years of his life and where the walls are literally covered with paintings on canvas. I loved the kitchen as well. You can also see Monet’s collection of work by other artists and the view from the second story is pretty special.

The town of Giverny is gorgeous too, with it’s cute little homes and sweet gardens, we would have liked to have spent more time relaxing here but alas it was time to move on. If you’re looking for a photogenic town this one makes the cut.

The next day was spent driving again, broken by a stop at Beauvais Cathedral that we spotted from the main road from miles off, it’s that tall. This cathedral is extraordinary in that the roof is so high, pretty much the height of the spire. Inside the ceilings are just as high, which makes room for double the stained glass windows and a tremendous effect. Unfortunately it seems the architect was a little too ambitious as parts of the floors as sinking and scaffolding holds up parts of the ceiling. There is also a grand astronomical clock here, one of the best and most detailed we’ve seen, so we definitely put Beauvais Cathedral on the must see list.

After a log drive we ended up camping near Arras ready to get stuck into what would be a week or so of World War I and II history again as we moved along through France and Belgium.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album PARIS (for photos of our previous visit) and BACK TO FRANCE (for this visit).

BACK TO FRANCE – REIMS AND INTO PARIS

N.B. As you may have noticed we are very behind on our posts. Too much traveling, not enough writing! The post we’re writing now are a progression through our last weeks in Europe though we are currently touring around England. Hopefully we will be up to date very soon but in the meantime our posts are flashbacks and we’ll let you know when we’re back to our current travel.

In Vincent some days are just driving days and lucky for us there’s usually something interesting to see along the way. The view is always changing and when it’s average we console ourselves that this is a means to an end. Though we didn’t have to this time as we were driving through the very pretty champagne region of France.

We love France for so many reasons, the food, baguettes, crepes, pate, the cute little towns that you drive through frequently, Paris, chateaus, and most of all the people, some of whom we’re lucky enough to call friends. We also love that Mikayla and I get free entry into most “tourist attractions” because we are citizens of the EU, lucky, and France is one of the only countries that do this.

We arrived in Reims in the early afternoon and went straight for the Cathedral here, the Cathedrale Notre Dame, the venue for Royal coronations when they were still being performed and a UNESCO World Heritage Site that’s been heavily restored since it was bombed during World War I. It’s very similar to the Notre Dame in Paris that I would recommend seeing instead.

We also spent some time at the museum next door where we learnt a bit more about the Royal coronations, got to see some crown jewels (not nearly as extravagant as expected), and had a giggle at the very feminine poses of the French Kings through the ages. Next was the Basilique St-Remi, another UNESCO World Heritage Site with an accompanying museum that contains an ancient relic collection to rival The Vatican.

The next day, on the way into Paris, we stopped at an English War Memorial and cemetery. These are always moving places and we were set to visit a lot more to come.

During our first visit to Paris earlier this year, new to wild camping, we stayed in a camping ground on the outskirts of the city. This time we went for it, driving straight into the city center, along The Seine and by the Eiffel tower before finding a suitable spot to park Vincent next to Cimetiere du Montparnasse, near the famous Le Catacombes. Quiet though pretty busy pedestrian wise we thought he’d be safe here to leave during the day and stay in at night, thankfully we were right!

Our first day in Paris we walked through Cimetiere du Montparnasse and attempted to see Le Catacombes but when we saw the line, stretching around the block, we decided we would try again another time. So, it was on to Paris’ Pantheon where we walked straight in with no queue to explore the expansive artworks on the inner walls and the sculptures surrounding them. The crypt here is also very interesting as it houses the tombs of famous historical figures, a few being Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and Marie Curie, among many others.

Usually extremely lucky with weather (I can say this because I am writing overlooking the Sound of Raasey from the Isle of Skye, Scotland and there isn’t a cloud in the perfect blue sky), we saw more rain visiting Paris in summer than we did in winter. Stuck with no raincoats we left the Pantheon, running between the shop fronts until the rain subsided.

Into the Jardin Du Luxembourg, deserted and drenched, we made our way through towards the Rodin Museum pausing briefly to admire the Palais Du Luxembourg. The garden is more like a big park with water features and large expanses of grass to picnic and play on. We would have spent more time here had we not been afraid of getting rained on again.

We arrived at the Rodin Museum and had to wait in our first line of the day. Though we didn’t wait very long we decided that visiting the sites in Paris is much better in Winter when there are no lines.

We started in the lovely gardens while the rain was holding off and were greeted with The (famous) Thinker, contemplating away, before moving on to see more sculptures like The Kiss, Balzac and The Burghers of Calais. Inside the museum shows a collection of finished works as well as drafts of the famous sculptures in various sizes and materials. As you walk around you notice that the subjects in the sculptures are tortured beings, reason being they are all included in “miniature” on Rodin’s Gates of Hell. After visiting the Rodin Museum we loved spotting the sculptures out on the streets around Paris too.

To finish the day we walked to the foot of the Eiffel Tower, seriously considering going up again, before realizing we probably wouldn’t see that much through the fog anyway. Strolling back in the direction of Vincent through the Parc de Champ de Mars we couldn’t help but stop and look back frequently, Paris and The Eiffel Tower really are special parts of the world.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album PARIS (for photos of our previous visit) and BACK TO FRANCE (for this visit).

ADVENTURE IN THE SWISS ALPS

The drive from Lucerne to Interlaken was absolutely stunning, the surrounding mountains descending into the tremendous lakes whose waters are such a bright turquoise blue that their colour almost clashes with the entirely green surrounds. It just make you want to jump in immerse yourself in the crystal clear water although the temperature usually prevents us from doing so.

The visitor’s center was our first port of call in Interlaken with train, walk and attraction information needed. We were advised by the lovely lady here that the weather forecast for the next day was not good so we decided to postpone the Jungfraujoch train ride another day.

Afterwards we had just enough time to catch the last entry of the day to Trummelbach Falls where the falls are actually inside the mountain. An elevator takes you up to the top of the cascades and you work your way down to ground level through an indescribable wonderland of caves. It’s so loud inside that communication is by looks and gestures and there’s so much water rushing through that a raincoat is essential.

We woke outside Trummelbach Falls the next morning to see that the clouds were indeed very low and the day was going to be rainy. Glad we had taken the advice of the Lady at the tourist information center we set to reading through all our pamphlets to find something to do for the day.

Reading through we came across some information on skydiving. The one that caught our eye was a flight over the Jungfrau and Monch before dropping in front of The Eiger, amazing. We spent the whole day going around to all the different skydiving and adventure companies trying to find this particular one to no avail as none of them did a drop in front of The Eiger.

We also ran into a few problems preventing us from any skydiving at all; the weather was stopping jumps that day and we were going on the train the day after and we couldn’t all go at the same time which would have defeated the purpose of doing it together. Hopefully we’ll find somewhere to skydive later on in the trip because it’s definitely still on the list!

Having decided to catch the early morning train from Grindelwald up the Jungfraujoch we camped nearby and arose very early, not common for us in holiday mode, to catch the first, and cheapest, train of the day. Up we went through the inside of the mountain most of the way to 3454 meters above sea level, the highest train station in the world. On the way up the train stops at lookout points where you have time to jump off the train to have a look and jump back on again, beautiful. Looking out over natural untouched snow is one of my favourite views.

We got to the top and discovered that as well as a train station there is a complex of things to see and do. First stop for us was up to The Sphinx viewing platform, at 3571 meters above sea level, where we looked out over Jungfrau and Monch before heading down to walk out across Altesch Glacier and a little higher up the mountain to Monchsjochhutte at 3650 meters above sea level.

We soon realized we were not quite prepared and were starting to feel the effects. Having woken early we hadn’t felt like eating breakfast so at about 11am the only thing we had eaten so far was a banana. We devoured our fruit snacks out (a nectarine and another banana each) half way up to Monchsjochhutte. Feeling slightly better we continued to make our way skyward but Mum soon felt very ill so Mikayla and I went on to see the view from the top.

Altitude sickness affected, Mum decided to give the ice palace a miss while Mikayla and I skimmed through before getting back to the station to begin our descent. It took a little while longer but I started to feel sick on the way down too so we were all glad to be heading towards sea level.

We departed the train at Kleine Scheidegg and had lunch at a restaurant here, which made us feel a lot better, before starting the 2 hour walk down from here along the bottom of The Eiger. We would stop frequently to look up at The North Face and out across the mountains, stunning. I took so many photos to bore everyone with back home.

As we were heading down Mikayla and I realized our faces were starting to go very pink. It just shows how much the sun reflects off the snow and unfortunately one of the perils of being allergic to sun cream is that a hat and sunglasses just doesn’t do the trick when it’s a perfect blue sky above.

Exhausted and resembling a mix between a lobster and a panda we caught the train from a nearby station back to Grindelwald and went straight for Interlaken to a spot to camp the night, that we’d scoped out on our first day here, right on the lake. Then straight into the freezing cold water to try to alleviate the sunburn a little, I’m sure we sizzled and steamed as we entered the water.

In the morning I woke and felt like my face was swollen and still so hot, so it was back in the water for me before we left Interlaken, beginning a driving day towards France. Driving past lovely lakes and hills the views were gorgeous but our favourite part of the journey was the drive between Beil/Bienne and Porrentruy in Switzerland.

We always say things happen in threes and along the way we saw three events. First we stopped for lunch at a polo match, commentary in English, where Mum got her horse fix. Next drive past all the teen girls lining up for the One Direction concert in Bern. We thought it was very funny picking out the poor unfortunately Dads that had been roped into taking their daughters and her friends. They looked like that rather be sticking knives in their eyes than be there to see 1D! Last we saw what we assume was the set up for the Tour de France, with balustrades being placed along the mountainous roads, wish we could have waited around to watch!

It was back into France for us though and we were on our way to Paris again via Reims.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album SWITZERLAND

FLYING THROUGH THE BLACK FOREST, ZURICH AND LUCERNE

As you may have noticed we are very behind on our posts. Too much travelling, not enough writing! The post we’re writing now are a progression through our last weeks in Europe though we are currently touring around England. Hopefully we will be up to date very soon but in the meantime our posts are flashbacks and we’ll let you know when we’re back to our current travel.

Our drive through The Black Forest began at Baden-Baden where we stopped briefly at the visitor’s center to get some information on the area. Everyone’s heard of the Black Forest and we were excited to see it though we didn’t know much about what there was to see and the best route to take throughout.

We settled on the main tourist route, even though we usually try to avoid the very touristy areas, as this was the most scenic route, hence its popularity. Arriving in the late afternoon we were on a mission to find a camping spot and relax in the forest.

Most of the next day was spent driving through, enjoying the view. Very different to what we expected as the trees are quite far off the road and it’s only when you venture into the trees that you realize why it’s called The Black Forest, the dense foliage cuts off the light.

We came across Triberg home of Germany’s highest waterfalls at 160 meters. Walking along the Gutach plunge next to the seven cascades you can easily imagine a fairytale taking place here. There’s just something about water whether it’s ocean, river, lake or waterfalls that makes everything instantly prettier.

We wouldn’t say that The Black Forest was our favourite place but it does have some truly beautiful parts. Time to move on though and we were on our way to Konstanz, next to the huge Lake Konstanz on the border between Germany and Switzerland and the gateway to some of the most spectacular scenery we’d yet seen.

First stop was Zurich and as usual we went straight for the old town center where we saw the three main churches Saint Peter’s Church, Grossmunster and Church of Our Lady. The internal structure of these churches is unique in that there is an extra chapel behind the altar and usually this is where the stairs to the crypts are located. Very different to what we have seen and another reason we keep visiting almost every one we see.

We decided Zurich feels a lot like Perth, especially when you’re standing looking over the wide expanse of Lake Zurich with the swans gliding across the surface. A beautiful city where we would have liked to have been able to spend more time.

We are only brushing the surface of most of the cities we visit and obviously each one has so much more to offer than we see. We pick the major attractions that interest us but we have come to think of this trip as reconnaissance for future travel as there really is so much to see. We thought a year would be a long time to travel, and though it is time flies by and you can’t see everything. We also believe that getting to know the feel of a place and meeting new people is just as important, if not more so, as seeing ancient artifacts in a museum.

After Zurich we found a great parking spot just off the road next to Lake Zug where we discovered our own little beach private from the road. Taking the opportunity to have a swim, although it was freezing, and get clean.

We drove into Lucerne the next day and immediately came across the main attraction here the famous Chapel Bridge. Introducing what we call tourist central; a place that is recommended by all the guidebooks as a must see therefore drawing a million tourists and in effect wiping out the charm and beauty of said place. Nevertheless we did stop to bustle with the throngs of people on and around the pretty bridge and returned to Vincent as soon as we could, exhausted and ready to move on and up to the mountains to tackle as much as we could of The Swiss Alps.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album SWITZERLAND

ROTHENBURG, RIEMENSCHNEIDER AND NEW FRIENDS

Rothenburg is what I would imagine The North Pole looks like, with it’s sloping old town square and perfect gingerbread style houses lining the streets. Even the shop signs and lampposts are beautifully adorned with intricate detail.

They say that Rothenburg is the perfect town for your entire souvenir shopping needs with its Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas Shop, countless teddy bear boutiques brimming with cuteness as well as the typical gift shops, so we hit the ground running with a scan through all of these delights.

As we entered the main square we joined locals and tourists alike congregating around the school music band setting up to perform. Chairs had been arranged around the makeshift stage and we sat down to listen to the Music Ambassadors from Florida who had been touring around Europe, perform a few pieces, a nice surprise.

After a while we moved on to Saint Jacob’s Lutheran Church, special because it houses the famous Altar of the Holy Blood, carved in wood by Tilman Riemenschneider, Germany’s own Michelangelo. After admiring this piece for a while we moved on the find another piece of Riemenschneider’s work in the nearby town of Detwang.

A short walk down one of the steepest hills we’ve come across to Detwang was broken only to eat the Schneeballen we’d purchased along the way. Snowballs in English, these doughy delights were originally created by bakers to use up all the leftover dough they had created making other things. Offcuts of dough all rolled together into a ball originally coming in one flavor, sugar, although now there are many different variations to choose from. Quite nice though super sweet and very hard to eat, we didn’t race back to the shop for more.

In Detwang we found the small chapel where we saw a second piece of Riemenschneider’s work, altered to fit into the small space it now occupies and made our way back up the hill to Rothenburg.

Walking through town at the end of the day we were eventually attracted to a small quiet shop showcasing glasswork for sale. The lady in the shop explained in as best she could in hand gestures that her husband was the glassblower who created the work. The glass was exquisite and we could have bought the whole shop if we had been able to get it home! Glass of various colours, sizes and shapes turned into lamps where what caught our eye first.

The glass was just gorgeous once the light was inside and still lovely and very different when turned off. Sadly we could not risk buying the huge lamps as travel back to Australia would be quite impossible but we did manage to shop for many gifts and a few little treasures for ourselves. The lady was laughing at us trying to make our decisions but as we gave her quite a bundle to wrap up she gave us all a gift, such a lovely shop and lovely lady.

We spent another hour exploring the Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas shop, a special wonderland of all things you could possible imagine for adorning the home at Christmas. Once again we had to restrain ourselves as sending things home would be difficult. Just window-shopping and exploring all the nooks and crannies here was great fun.

We reluctantly left this absolutely gorgeous town and headed off toward the Black Forrest. We found a little parking spot and then, quite unexpectedly, a new adventure began. We were all ready for bed about 8 pm and just eating dinner when a very large tractor and plough pulled up beside us.

A man approached the car and was surprised to find three females only, where is the man? He proceeded to tell us that we should come back to his farm to stay the night, much safer and very interesting, as he was an organic farmer. We said we would be fine and he said he was still working but would be finished in about an hour.

Sure enough a little over an hour passed and Daniel was knocking on the door again and would not take no for an answer. We followed him back to his farm, went on a guided tour of his high tech barn and met his dairy cows all the while dressed in our PJ’s and jackets. Then up to the house, along the way meeting the goats, chickens, pigs and calves, cute.

We sat around the kitchen table while he ate his dinner and we helped him drink a beer or two and wine, whilst discussing numerous different topics from religion to politics and especially his organic farming and his family. At about 2am we settled back into Vincent and slept “late”, until 7am.

We rose early to see his wife finish milking the cows and then picked berries before going in to breakfast. Here we met their son, Jonas, 2 and Anna, 6 months, gorgeous little kids. Mum managed to make great friends with Anna much to the surprise of her parents and I think Jonas thought we were from Mars, as we could only talk to him in a strange language.

After taking them up on their offer of a shower we moved on about 11am towards The Black Forest having thoroughly enjoyed our farming experience with Daniel and his family. We were so touched by their generosity and kindness and hope we can keep in touch with such lovely people.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album GERMANY.

TIME IN GERMANY WITH OUR LOVELY FRIEND LENA

As we left Austria to move into Germany we started to get excited to see one of our dear friends Lena. This beautiful young woman was one of our Help X friends who we have not seen since 2012.

On our way to her home in Plattling we stopped in the town of Passau. This is a really charming old town that once again delivers a special feature to us, a spectacular glass museum. Entering this building is a step back in time, a delightful hotel and also an extraordinary collection of over 30000 pieces of glass in over 5000 display cases; a variety of pieces dating back to the very first of this special art form created in 1650.

The changes of design of the different eras imprint into this magical medium. They are all spectacular and it is quite amazing that this is only one persons collection. We leave the building knowing we have seen enough glass to last a lifetime.

As we stroll across the square we note the markings on the Town Hall showing the flood heights that have hit this town over the years, 2013 being the second highest in recorded history after the early 1800’s. We stroll on to the Cathedral, the noteworthy difference, the coffins and crypt are metal and not stone. Every Cathedral seems to offer something new, one of the reasons the girls let me drag them to every single one we see!

Time to move on to Plattling and we arrive about 5pm at the address Lena had given, an apartment block. We were just wondering how we would locate her when she came walking along the street on her way home. How lovely it was to see her again.

This began five days of laughs and fun. On our first evening Lena introduced us to a new game, Dix It. The beautifully illustrated cards are a pleasure to discover and the game of making up a word to describe them was great fun. Our first morning there Lena cooked some special German sausages that we all loved.

We then went off to explore Plattling, a charming spot for Lena to live whilst she attends a Music school here. Our walk took us around the river seeing horses, an NFL game and also to the town Volksfest, a small fair. It was so lovely to watch children having such fun and to see the locals dressed in National costume.

The next day we took Lena for her first ride in Vincent to go to Spiegelau, a spot in the Bavarian Forrest National Park. We explored the forest on our 3 hour walk, just gorgeous. On this very hot day Lena had decided to stop and lay in the middle of the road for a moments rest, just as a bus came flying along, a very near miss.

We were all exhausted that evening so decided on Japanese take away for dinner and a movie. After the meal we settled down on the sofa bed to watch a movie, all sitting in a row, and within minutes the whole bed collapsed. We felt so guilty that we had destroyed Lena’s furniture, that had held up fine the night before, but she has since decided that it is better at ground level, phew.

Our next day was a very special treat as we joined Lena at her school and went to her singing lesson. She has such a lovely voice and a very lovely teacher who welcomed us as spectators. The afternoon saw Lena free so we ventured off to the local swimming pool, complete with water slides and diving boards. A great fun time had by all and so lovely to be soaking in water.

It goes without saying that to have been in a flat with a toilet and shower was absolutely divine and the pool experience just made it all that much more special. Our final full day was spent again at the school, this time with 3 other young singers. What a treat to hear all their beautiful voices. We also got to meet more of the students, particularly a couple of young men who were particularly lovely and welcoming. We sat in on a conducting class with them and enjoyed it very much.

We spent our last afternoon together window-shopping in the nearby town of Deggendorf. Our valuable time with Lena had to come to an end with us having to say goodbye early the next morning as Lena set off to school. We were so sad to part from her and look forward to our next meeting. Thank you so much Lena for a wonderful stay in your gorgeous flat.

Our next stop on our German journey was in Nuremburg, infamous as one of the main stages of the War Crime Trials. We centered our visit at the Hitler Rise Museum at the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, with a very well presented audio guide through the rise of Hitler and his power over the German people. A horror story of one man managing to destroy the individual identity of the people, always organizing group events of a huge magnitude, making membership of the Nazi Party or Hitler Youth, for young people, compulsory and using copious amounts of propaganda.

The whole tour and museum were very interesting and give insight into the mentality of the people at that time. The effect of Hitler’s clever ploy made everyone proud to be a part of the whole and any freethinking became a rarity.

Individual accounts spoke of being shocked to hear of the atrocities that were being committed, not being able to believe that their Fuhrer would allow such things, let alone instigate them.

His preparation for power and the horrors he committed started a long time before the rest of the world realized what was happing. He was an evil maniac that managed to hood wink generations of people into believing he was a savior and that the German race was superior to all. Thankfully the eventual Second World War put his madness to an end, lest we forget.

Drained and enlightened by another integral part of never forgetting this awful history we made our way towards Rothenburg, the perfect happy place to spend the next day.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album GERMANY.

THE UNTERSBERG, SALZBERG AND CEREMONY IN THE SALZKAMMERGUT

Exhausted we found a camp spot in St Leonhard near the Cable-Car Untersberg ready to catch the first ascent the next day. At 8:30am the next day we turned up raring to go and were lifted to the 1873m summit of the Untersberg and spent a couple of hours walking higher and enjoying the spectacular 360 degree view from the peak. We could have spent all day up there but our time was running out on the Salzburg Card.

We entered the grounds of Hellbrunn Palace unaware of the fun we were about to have. They call it the pleasure palace because everything built here was designed for maximum fun; the trick fountains here live up to their name. Tour guides take groups through the gardens turning on hidden fountains and spraying as many tourists with water as they can. We ended up the first victims, selected out of the crowd to sit at the outdoor dining table where water comes out of the chairs and table from all angles, impossible to stay dry, luckily it was a sunny day!

As well as the uncertainty about where to stand and laughing as people suddenly jump around and run away from the water, the tour is well worth doing just to see the beautiful garden, waterways and delightful features. Exiting to see the rest of the palace we went searching the rest of the gardens for the famous gazebo/pavilion where Leisel is visited by Ralph in The Sound of Music, stopping along the way to play on the flying fox. We found it and took some photos, it’s much smaller than I would have thought.

Inside the palace we learnt about the water tricks and the exotic animals, mostly birds, that used to call the palace grounds home. Part of the palace although built separately on the hill above is a mansion that houses the Folk Museum where we sat and played an Austrian board game before moving on to the zoo. Here we spent the rest of the afternoon watching the animals, some completely new to us like the Tapir with what looked like five legs but turned out to be the biggest penis any of us had ever seen. We learnt a little more than we needed that day!

We finished the day back in Salzburg seeing the Stift Nonberg, the Abbey from The Sound of Music, from the outside imagining all the scenes that were filmed here.

The next morning we were on a mission to find a sommerrodelbahn (summer toboggan run), and having camped nearby we were headed towards the one in Fuschlsee. Slow going up yet another hill we came across a few people standing outside their parked cars. Interested, ahem nosey, we decided to stop too and saw a group of children in national dress in the valley below, they subsequently moved out of view and were followed by a procession and priest walking under a canopy.

Suddenly three men fired a huge gun into an open field that seemed to signal the procession to move on up the road, lucky for us right past us sitting in Vincent. A marching band, the children, the priest and members of the community were all in the procession that we later found out was part of a ceremony involving the whole community, performed twice a year to bless the ground and pray for flourishing crops. Usually the weather forces the ceremony to remain inside the local church but as it was such a beautiful sunny day it was perfect weather to hold it outside, lucky us!

After the ceremony had past us we drove on past the sommerrodelbahn we were looking for and found that we had already been parked in their car park to watch the procession. We bought nine rides, just to try it out, and took our three each, able to enjoy the view on the way up while being pulled backward by the lift then going as fast as we could on the way down the course, though we were a little hesitant on the first go.

We were glad we turned up early in the morning because by the time we had finished and were ready to buy more the tour buses had turned up and it got way too busy. Time to move on and we drove along through St Gilgen and St Wolfgang almost completing a round trip ending in Mondsee, home of the church where Maria and Captain Von Trapp are wed in The Sound of Music.

As well as visiting the church we did some window shopping and watched the locals enjoying the national holiday. A late lunch by the lake and we were on our to Germany.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album AUSTRIA.

THE SALZKAMMERGUT AND THE CENTER OF SALZBURG

Europe is full of stunning views and Austria didn’t disappoint. Entering from the Czech Republic towards Linz we had a bit of a drive through industrial areas before arriving in the Salkammergut, Austria’s Lake District. Combining nature, especially lakes, and picturesque towns we were in our element.

Our first camp spot was right on a lake near the town of Gmunden. We left here early the next morning and made our way, enjoying the constant views, to Hallstatt, that came highly recommended. Though we didn’t stop directly in town we did spend a bit of time looking over it from both sides from next another huge lake and got some great photos.

Later we visited Eisriesenwelt, ice caves above the town of Werfen, south of Salzburg. There were a few ice caves recommended in the guidebooks so we had jumped online a couple of days before to choose one to go to. Eisriesenwelt had a great website with lots of pictures, giving the illusion of a winter wonderland. I say illusion because that’s pretty much all we got.

After driving Vincent up an 18% incline to about 1000m altitude, a miracle he got us there, we bought our tickets for the last tour of the day and started the further ascent to 1650m. A lovely, though steep, 20-minute walk took us to the cable car. Up we went and the view just kept getting better, almost worth the price of the ticket just for this. Another 20 minutes and we were at the mouth of the cave, sweating profusely in our arctic weather gear, essential for the subzero temperatures inside the cave but way too much for the perfect sunny day we were having outside!

Armed with a gas lamp between two we entered the cave expecting a blue and white world inside. Unfortunately not to be, they don’t turn the lights on so that visitors can experience what is was like when the cave was first found in the 1850s. Up and down about 700 stairs each way, we only saw the steps in front of us and on the rare occasion when the guide lit a magnesium strip the ice surrounding us. We’re rarely disgruntled by the places we visit but this is one we wouldn’t recommend. The redeeming features were the amazing view you see on the walk up to the cave and that we had a perfect camping spot at 800m up the mountain overlooking Werfen and the lights at night!

The next day excitement levels were at an all time high as we were going to visit the home of The Sound of Music, one of our all time favourite movies and one that is very special to our family!

Avoiding tours so we could see the sites at our own pace we bought the Salzburg Card and set out to make the most of our “free” 24 hours.

Mozart’s Geburtshaus (Birthplace), the home where he lived for the first seven years of his life was our first stop, activating the card. Here you can read all about Mozart and his family, about the history of his music, and letters between he and his wife. Amazingly there are still locks of his hair on show and even his first Violin, very special. We also learned that Mozart was involved in operas, from writing the music to designing the sets, talented is an understatement.

It seems that virtuosity ran in the family as Mozart’s sister Marianne was also a child prodigy on the piano and violin, though born female, and in her time, her duty was to look after the home after her father died.

Next stop was a walk through the old town to the cable car, the oldest in Austria, up to the Festung Hohensalzburg (fortess) to a beautiful view over Salzburg. Here we wandered through the fortress and military museums, although our favourite thing up here was the tiny World of Marrionettes.

Back down the cable car and into the gorgeous cemetery nearby to find the catacombs, hewn out of the rock face creating a long uneven staircase up to the small rooms and tombs, though we didn’t see any bones!

Now for our first real The Sound of Music location, Mirimar gardens where Maria and the Von Trapp Children dance and sing along through the roses and around the fountain. We happened to arrive when a choir group was mingling around the fountain all dressed up in their national costume. A walk around the rest of the gardens, past a man filming a Thai Chi video and a group of huge gnome statues, and an ice cream took us to just the right time to catch the last cruise along the river.

Sitting up the front on the Amadeus Salzburg panorama speedboat the trip wasn’t speedy at all. This boat is specially designed for the shallow river and the only one that is allowed to cruise on the part running through the city. Nice to see the city from yet another different angle.

Our time in Salzberg and the Salzkammergut is continued in the next post. Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album AUSTRIA.

PRAGUE, OLOMOUC AND CESKY KRUMLOV IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

When driving into a new country in Europe one of our favourite things to do was to pick out all the subtle changes we could see. To decide what made the country we were in unique, our first impressions and things that we had seen before in other countries. It’s amazing the changes you see even when moving along only a short distance and that’s the beauty of traveling in Europe.

Our first stop in the Czech Republic was a relatively large town called Olomouc where we spent an evening walking between churches like Saint Wenceslas Cathedral and Saint Moritz Church, mostly closed or holding services, before heading to the main square. With the days becoming longer walking around in the evening is a perfect mixture of cool daylight hours and quiet tourist free streets, perfect for walking around what is touted as being an old town to rival Prague.

Dominated by the old town hall, the town squares main attraction is the tall Holy Trinity Column, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is definitely worth a look, with its elaborate detail.

We found a spot to camp in the forest between Olomouc and Prague where we were lucky enough to see more wild deer. Though they didn’t come very close it’s always nice to see wild animals, as long as they’re not dangerous and keep their distance of course!

We knew when we arrived in Prague that we were in for a treat and we fell in love with this beautiful city as much as we did with Budapest. We can’t seem to get enough of beautiful buildings and they seem to have become a basis for what we seek out to see on our trip.

Planning to camp a couple of nights here we were on a mission to find a good free camping spot and settled for a side road at the top of the hill in the castle surrounds. When looking for a spot in the city it’s important to find free, non-ticket and time unlimited, parking in a nice area to avoid both parking tickets and theft. As always it’s also very important that the space is level as it is our little home on wheels and homes don’t work very well when parked on a hill.

Again we spent an afternoon doing everything we could while there were less fellow tourists around, walking around Saint Vitus Cathedral in the Prague castle complex and down Golden Lane. We took the chance to view Prague from below whilst walking across Charles Bridge and had a laugh practicing our posing for photos, tourist style.

Some shopping at Wenceslas Square took us into the night when we moved on to the old town square. Alive with people and street performers we did our best to stick together while admiring the amazing Tyn Church and the very cool old town hall clock tower that features an astronomical clock as well as intricate mosaics lining the entrance inside.

We finished the day walking back to Vincent through the Jewish Quarter and back across the river to see the buildings lit up at night, stunning! We were also treated to some fireworks along the way, glimpsing them over the tops of the buildings!

In the morning it was time to tackle the crowds, making our way to Saint Vitus Cathedral again to see the inside. Walking through the gates to Prague castle Mum suddenly stumbled and the guards on either side of the entrance struggled to keep a straight face. Inside the Cathedral was very busy and we decided no to pay the entrance fee to the crypts to see the tomb of Saint Wenceslas we had somewhere else we were much more excited to see!

Most of our day was taken up visiting the Toy and Barbie Museum on Golden Lane. Releasing our inner children, not hard, we took in rooms full of old and new toys. Lead soldiers, tin trains, doll houses, toys from many different European countries, teddy bears, life size characters and much more.

The highlight though, the Barbie dolls. On a floor of their own we saw Barbies through the ages. A huge collection of Barbie, her friends and her family, and their progression through facial and body features and most importantly fashion. Impossible to choose a favourite and makes me want to start my own collection!

A walk up Petrin Hill for a magnificent view over Prague was next where we sat for a while before heading back to Vincent in time to move on. We found a spot to sleep and recharge right on the river about 30 kilometers south of Prague, ready for constant driving the next day to get to Cesky Krumlov right near the south border of the Czech Republic.

In Cesky Krumlov we walked through the lovely palace gardens, when moving on so quickly all the time it’s nice to be able to relax and take a stroll. Set at the top of the hill overlooking the castle and Vltava River the gardens contain a lake and a rotating outdoor theatre as well as beautiful garden beds full of flowers.

On the way down towards the castle we popped into another garden on the cliff and got an amazing view out over the river, old town and castle. Walking through the lower parts of the castle we came across the bear pits and it’s crazy to think that even in this day and age animals are still allowed to be kept this way, in small concrete boxes with a few pot plants. Very sad to see these huge, intelligent animals confined this way.

Our time in the Czech Republic at an end we started on our way to into Austria, excited for some time in the Salzkammergut, Austria’s Lake District.

Photos can be found on our Facebook Page in the album CZECH REPUBLIC.

OUR DAY AT AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU CONCENTRATION CAMP

Our last post tackled the perspective change that comes with a visit to one of the most moving and harrowing places one could ever visit. In school we learn about World War II and snippets about the holocaust, although nothing can prepare you for the first hand experience that comes with visiting one of the many concentration camps spread throughout Europe.

What you experience and learn, with physical evidence right there in front of you, is overwhelmingly powerful. And how there are people in the world that can deny the holocaust even happened is beyond me!

A visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp is compulsory for all Polish students, it should be compulsory for everyone, and the reason this terrible place has been preserved and continues to stay open is so people NEVER FORGET, so that this part of history is never repeated. This aim is met, as our visit is something that will stay with us forever.

Tours are run in a few different languages throughout the day, taking in the main camp Auschwitz and the larger secondary camp Birkenau. Your tour, depending on the time of day you visit, will start or finish with a short documentary.

Walking under the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” archway, indescribable, through the double barbed wire fences, between the barracks and into the first exhibit our tour guide tells the facts. Calm, respectful and informative, she only spoke fact and our respect for her is enormous. How hard it would be to relive this horrendous account everyday.

We were surprised at the behavior of some tourists on our tour, treating Auschwitz like any other site to see. There are two places in the whole tour where there are no photos allowed but they would be clicking away. When they got outside they didn’t hesitate in lighting their cigarettes and they asked some very insensitive, pointless questions. The way they could disrespect this place, our guide and the rest of the people in the group was appalling. When you visit please don’t be one of these people!

We moved over to Birkenau or Auschwitz II and, though our time here was cut short by a lightning storm that rolled in during the short bus ride over, the view from the tower here is one of the most powerful where you get a full appreciation of the sheer size of the camp. As far as the eye can see, barracks, the train tracks running underneath the tower to the center of the camp.

After the remote listening devices were disconnected, the reason we know what those inappropriate questions were from insensitive visitors, we approached our guide. We thanked her for such an excellent account of life, or death, at Auschwitz, but even more importantly we congratulated her for her ability to stand tall and calm under the obvious stress caused by some of our group. She explained that she had given these tours for 12 years and that in the years following the camps first opening the ex inmates had been the guides. Such a job can not be easy as to relive this part of history is a strain just once let alone every day. To our guide we will be forever thankful. If you have the chance to visit go there with respect, silence and decorum, you will come away changed, humbled and forever greatful that you did not have to endure.

To finish we caught the documentary in English, the same one that has been playing since the camp was opened as a memorial in 1955 and mostly real video footage showing how prisoners that had survived were found. Footage of men and women, deathly thin from starvation walking amongst the corpses of those who had been starving too long. As well as footage of those who had been experimented on, women and children, and that of conditions in the camp during liberation.

After spending at least 5 hours here we realized that we might have had to spend the night here as we had left Vincent’s headlights on all day, big mistake. Resigned we turned them off and hoped for the best before walking to a nearby restaurant for a very late lunch come early dinner, delicious and much needed!

Luckily Vincent started with no problems, miracle, and we were able to set off towards Prague and the Czech Republic.

We took two photos at Auschwitz that can be seen in the album POLAND on our Facebook page along with the rest of our time in Poland. This is a place to experience with ones own eyes and not through the lens. We are changed by all our adventures but this place has an instant affect and a lasting one.

 

BROWN RICE

Takeaway Indian for dinner, home cooked rice…

Mum: “Mmmmm what did you do to this rice?”

Matt: “Boiled it.”

Mum: “Did you put some kind of dressing on it?”

Matt: “No…”

Mum: “But how did you make it brown?”

Everyone: “It’s brown rice!”

Oh dear!

PUTTING IT IN PERSPECTIVE AT AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the small stuff. The common annoyances like an argument, forgetfulness, or bad traffic that we tend to dwell on. Getting upset and exasperated are normal human emotions, as is overthinking, but I’ve gained some new perspective on life that I would really like to share.

Have you been to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland? If so, you’ll know where I’m coming from. A visit to this horrific, moving, draining place should be mandatory for every human being on the planet.

It’s a memorial to inform the world about the gruesome history of Nazi occupied Europe in the lead up to and during World War II and the fate of millions of Jewish, Soviet and European war prisoners, and Gypsies in the countless concentration camps across the continent. Preserved so that we never forget this history that should never be repeated, although similar is still happening in our world today.

Living in Europe between 1941 and 1945 depending on my religion, ethnicity, nationality, education, family, friends or simply the way I look, I could have been deported from my home to a concentration camp where it was most likely I would not survive for long. As a young Australian woman I realize I am extremely fortunate to be free. I can go for a walk pretty much anywhere I want without the risk of being captured, punished or killed.

If I have an opinion I am able to express it freely without fear. If I don’t understand something I am able to ask questions without being beaten to within inches of my life. I am a person with a name, feelings, thoughts and an identity, I am not a number tattooed on my arm.

I am only separated from my family, and can return to them, when I choose. I can contact them, even when I’m on the other side of the world. I know where they are, have an idea about what they are doing and that they are safe and well. I do not have to fear for their lives and for that matter I don’t fear for my own.

I am able to learn. I have a university degree and I am free to use it. I am not condemned or wished eradicated because I am educated.

I can use a hygienic (ahem, most of the time) toilet for as long as I want, in total privacy. I do not have a 30 second limited toilet allowance only twice a day. I also don’t have starvation diarrhea that can set in at any time.

I can wash everyday at my leisure and experience the heaven that is being clean. My uniform is whatever I choose to wear today. I’m certainly not living in dirty, lice infested clothes that are no where near warm enough for the sub zero temperature I may experience for half the year.

Not mention the fact that I have plenty of food, sometimes even too much. I have tasty, wholesome, nutrient rich food available to me every single day of the year. I don’t suffer from starvation and it probably won’t be my cause of death.

If I become ill or injured I have access to safe and brilliant medical care. I don’t have doctors using my body for experimental surgeries. I’m not a human guinea pig, doctors don’t test drugs on me and they don’t inject poison into my veins. They don’t practice how fast they can perform female sterilization on me.

Ultimately the only “work” I do is to benefit my loved ones or myself and I’m lucky enough to choose what work that is. I’m not forced into manual labor, eleven hours a day, in appalling conditions with no food, water or shelter from the extreme weather conditions. I enjoy what I do.

I have made comparisons between a twenty two year old woman doing her best to survive in one of the hundreds of Nazi concentration camps during World War II and myself. More devastating still is the fact that there are still people living through gender inequality, genocide, and war today.

I know that next time I complain that it’s way too hot or too rainy for sight seeing in Budapest or Prague or Zurich, I’m going to get over myself very quickly by remembering how very lucky I am to be me.

We can never understand what these people went through but we can learn the history and pass it on so it is never forgotten and work towards a future where war and genocide are truly history.

AROUND KRAKOW AND THE WIELICZKA SALT MINE

After a night camping in Slovakia we drove on into Poland ready to put some more history under our belt. First stop, Wieliczka Salt Mine, on the outskirts of Krakow.

It seems the Polish like to hold fetes on Sundays so after a quick wonder through the market stalls, listening to the live band, it was straight to the tourist entrance of the mine.

Arriving late we were lucky to get tickets to one of the last two and a half hour tours for the day and after a short wait for the English guide we began our descent, about 350 steps, to 135 meters under ground. I continue to try to conquer my apprehension about enclosed, underground spaces and I believe I’m getting much better.

Walking through the pressurized doors and corridors to different chambers inside the mine we were told of the history and even shown a reenactment of the explosive elimination of harmful gases that filled the mine in the old days. As well as the dangerous feats, whilst underground the salt miners carved many sculptures out of the walls; gnomes, snow white, princesses, famous and influential people among the few on display.

A highlight was the underground cathedral all carved from salt, even the altar, and complete with a salt carving of the last supper. An amazing cavernous space that helps you forget that you are underground and yet another beautiful cathedral to add to the list seen during our trip.

They’re constantly adding new multimedia features inside the mine so a stop was made at another large area to watch an abstract projected film about the life of the miners. A little pointless to us, though the school group that watched with us seemed to love it!

The air down here is beneficial for asthma suffers, bonus, and it does have a salty smell to it. Although we didn’t take advantage, like some other people in our tour group, you can also taste the salt on the walls. We were shuddering at the thought of how many millions of other peoples DNA you get to sample too, yuck!

Heading back up into the warmth and open air, it was time to find a camping spot next to Krakowskie Blonia park in Krakow, only a short walk to the old town center, ready for an early start in the morning.

Walking is always how we spend the day in the cities. First stop the old town square, dodging the pigeons, and into the church of Saint Mary, another very cool interior similar to that of Sienna cathedral. Though our favourite church here was one we affectionately call “the cupcake church”, as we have no idea what it is actually called and it looks like a beautiful decorated cake. We do know that it’s next to the church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Stunning inside, all pastel pinks, blues and greens with silver detail, Mum says, “if she ever did decide to go to church she would go there”, a big statement coming from her.

Exploring makes us hungry and it was time for lunch so we deviated from the tourist track to find somewhere to eat, settling on a traditional Ukrainian restaurant. Down in a quaint basement with knitted scarves and dried flowers hanging everywhere we ate soup followed by pierogi, yummy dumplings filled with ingredients like mashed potato, mushroom and cabbage. Sounds dull but they’re actually delicious.

After lunch it was up Wawel Hill to see the outside of the castle (pretty boring) and join the throngs of tourists inside the cathedral where we decided it wasn’t worth us paying to see what wasn’t free.

Our last stop in Krakow was the New Jewish Cemetery in Kazimierz the Jewish Quarter, wrought with history, where the headstones and graves are piled one on top of the other because of a lack of space. Very interesting a moving though not as moving as what we would experience the following day.

Driving towards Auschwitz we found a lovely camping spot off the main road nestled in the trees. The perfect setting for our third police encounter of the trip. At about 11:30pm whilst we were watching some Grey’s Anatomy we had a knock on the door from the police. Greeting them in our pajamas yet again we handed over our registration, insurance and passports as usual and went through an excruciating 10-minute wait to be told all was ok. Everything was in order but they asked us to move to a nearby petrol station for the night, for our own safety. Much better that than asked to move on because we had chosen an illegal camping spot!

Ready to start on another chapter in our trip, knowing we would soon be visiting one of the most moving places on the planet, we made our way towards Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration camp.

Photos can be found on our Facebook Page in the album POLAND

LAST DAY IN BUDAPEST

If we can’t get to a new city in time to see it by night the next best thing is finding a camp spot close to what we want to see so that in the morning we needn’t move Vincent and can get going first thing. This time we were in the Vizivaros (water) district on the opposite side of the river to Parliament House and all the sights we had seen the last couple of days.
A walk up the hill/stairs from here took us into the castle district, through the Vienna gate and we got our first glance of a multicolored tiled rooftop, very cool, almost Lego like. Past the tall Magdalene Tower, the basilica mostly in ruins, and slightly down hill again to the Hospital in the rock. This is an underground bunker that was used as a hospital during World War II. We decided to give this one a miss as I’m not too comfortable underground and even less so in hospitals, though I am proud to say I’m getting better!
By mid morning we were outside St Matthias church, another structure with beautiful multicolored roof tiles. Towering turrets and sublime white walls this church is beautiful from the outside and lovely to see in the morning before the rest of the tourist congregated.
The Fisherman’s Bastian is also here. Though this isn’t a castle you still feel very “Disney princess” sitting looking out over the Pest side of Budapest. Pale walls, archways and turrets overlooking the river and Parliament, beautiful.
Time to tackle getting Parliament tickets again we took a stroll across chain bridge. Every corner you turn there is some more fantastic architecture to see, all with something different to behold. Getting lost in the streets is peasant when there is always something to see.
At 1pm the earliest tickets we could get to the Parliament tour was for a 5pm start so we decided to check out Margaret Island. With tired legs we found a deck chair where we could sit, relax and recharge the camera whilst watching the children’s fountain here.
Looking for a restaurant for an early dinner we had a funny moment when Mum pointed at a sign down the road and said, “look, we could have Thai!” Only if we wanted a Thai massage! Moving Vincent closer to Parliament and having an early dinner out bought us to 5pm and the very quick half hour tour of Parliament. The highlight here the main stair case at the finale, as well as a few crown jewels.
To finish off our time in Budapest we simply had to go to one of the thermal baths here. We chose Szechenyi Gyogyfurdo es Uszoda neo-Baroque thermal baths as they offered inside and outside pools and some beautiful architecture to gaze upon. Relaxing in the warm baths and healing in the freezing ones it was the perfect way to finish a brilliant few days in Budapest!
More on day three coming soon. Photo can be seen on our Facebook page in the album BUDAPEST-HUNGARY.

As you can probably tell we have been a bit slack with posts lately. Will get up to date as soon as possible.

BREAKING INTO BUDAPEST

Eager to make use of our city time and do some sightseeing in the cooler evening hours we set off from our car, parked to camp outside the Dob Utca School known for its art nouveau façade, toward city park. Sticking with the art nouveau theme we walked around the park to see two other beautiful façades in Zala Villa and Balas Villa before cutting through to see the back of Vajahunyad Castle, there’s just something about Disney style turrets!
Walking through the city park, wherever we are, is one the best ways to get to know the place. Forget people watching on the main street (ahem, tourist watching), go to the park and see what the locals are really like. We got to see the summer version of the city ice rink used as a Red Bull stunt ground, a row of back-flippers slam-dunking a basketball. And what we named dog hill where puppy class was in session.
Walking through the castle gates and past the museum here I couldn’t decide what was more beautiful, the sculptured detail on the buildings or the vines winding around the detail, though it’s a shame to cover it. Lucky, we can see both here.
As the sun was going down we decided to check out the Szechenyi Gyogyfurdo es Uszoda neo-Baroque thermal baths, between City Park and the zoo, to make use of at the end of our time in Budapest. The yellow walls topped with white detail are beguiling.
More art nouveau spotting with a walk past the famous zoo entrance towards Heroes Square as the sun started to go down. Heroes square is a large space in the middle of the roads converging at the end of the main street in Budapest, Andrassy ut. In the middle is a tall angel topped, from what I can see, column surrounded immediately by horse and rider statues and further on one side by the Heroes.
We then walked down Andrassy ut, our goal the Hungarian Opera house to see about tickets for the following night. This vibrant street seems to be the heart of Budapest at night and we found many pretty restaurants to choose from for dinner settling on a traditional three-course meal that was delicious.
We had to buy the tickets to the opera the following day so retired back to Vincent for a good night ready to tackle the city again in the morning. First stop Terror House, where both the Fascists and Communists did their worst, now turned into a museum commemorating the victims and introducing those who enter to the horrors that went on here. Very interesting though heart breaking and best done at your own pace with so many interviews and videos to watch.
Moving on we were on a mission to get tickets to the nights opera. With a few choices of seats and prices, (super cheap, average and expensive) we decided on average and started to get excited for our opera night. Mistake number one but more on that later!
By now lunchtime had come around so we walked through Szabadsag ter, a nice square come park near Parliament House, to find a spot for lunch. Trying to avoid the pigeons we had a nice rest from all the walking we were doing then went to get our tickets for the Parliament House tour. Unfortunately sold out for the day so off we went to see St. Stephen’s Basilica stopping for a cute rose ice cream on the way.
St. Stephen’s is another cathedral with a lot going on, so much detail in one place. Interestingly the hand of a famous saint is preserved here. It is still a wonder to us that the bodies and sometimes limbs of some saints are on display in the churches for the world to see.
With the arrival of evening it was finally time to go to the opera. We even changed from our practical “tourist clothes”, as I like to call them, into nice dresses, a rarity since we travel in Vincent!
The Hungarian Opera theatre is stunning. The entrance foyer and façade are worth a look even if you don’t enjoy opera and I’d recommend spending a few euro to do a tour inside because it is beautiful. When it comes to actually going to the opera that’s a different story.
I mentioned mistake number one earlier. Well, we should have gone for the super cheap tickets. We could have spent around 5 euro each for practically the same view that cost us 30 euro each. Indifferent to that we were ready and excited for the show to begin.
Here come lesson and mistake number two, ask what the story/opera is about when purchasing the tickets! We saw a Strauss but found it so boring and predictable that we left after the second act. Apart from a lack luster story line, the leading man was played by a woman so working out who was singing what was hard. The singing was beautiful but we decided that our experience in Lucca was so much better.
Leaving early we left our trusty spot next to the school to park in the Vizivaros district closer to where we wanted to be the next day. Driving across the river and seeing the buildings, Parliament House on one side and the castle district on the other, all lit up by night was the most beautiful thing we’d seen all day.
More on day three coming soon. Photo can be seen on our Facebook page in the album BUDAPEST-HUNGARY.

DISASTER ALMOST STRIKES

Having left Croatia we wondered how any scenery could be anywhere near as beautiful as what we have already seen. It just keeps getting better though. We have said before but will say it again that when things are so different to home they are mostly stunning to us.
Driving through rural Hungary we saw quaint little towns, sprawling fields and rolling hills instead of enormous mountains. We also spotted a Tescos, the first we’ve seen since England, and were quite excited to see if they sold gas bottles as we have been living without a gas since our bottle broke its seal.
No luck with the gas bottle, much to Mikayla and I’s disappointment and Mums relief (she’s enjoying not being able to cook), so we hit the road making fantastic ground towards Budapest and stopping at Lake Balaton, Hungary’s inland sea, for lunch. We have taken to long leisurely lunches followed by a game of UNO or two to give Mum a rest from driving such long distances. We took off again stopping again another half hour down the road where we needed Mums purse to buy something, only to discover that Mums purse was not in our possession.
Not quite panicking, but very close to it, we retraced our steps to the only place it could be, the last place we used it, Tescos, a two hour drive back in the wrong direction.
The two hour drive took us one and a half this time with Mum playing rally car driver and Vincent playing along nicely. All our most important things in one small purse that was a hundred kilometers away from us, not good! Mum had left her purse on the sink in the toilets while washing her hands and forgotten it because she was so worried about leaving our little gas bottle that we use as an example of what we want to buy.
Arriving at Tescos Mum was out of Vincent and into the shop like a shot and to our relief the security guard recognized her. Textbook relief and a bit of form filling out and Mums purse was safe and sound back with us. We are so lucky, Mum may be in charge of the contents of the purse but I will stay in charge of the actual purse because the one time I let it out of my sight it got lost!
We were lucky to drive back as we found a beautiful camp spot on a river, next to an arboretum, where all tree free banks were occupied until dusk by old men and couples quietly fishing, and were again first thing in the morning. We went to sleep listening to the sounds of the cuckoo birds and ducks that night and woke refreshed in the morning, just what we needed after the stress of the previous day.
In the morning Mum got talking to a Hugarian couple, they couldn’t speak English and Mum couldn’t speak Hungarian but they had a full conversation anyway. Hand gestures and miming can get you a long way! They were lovely and even caught a fish while Mum was with them though they were hoping for a bigger one.
We left late and ended up having lunch on Lake Balaton again, although in a different spot this time, then finally made it Budapest (with purse) in the early evening after visiting Memento Park on the cities outskirts. This is a park where some of the despised propaganda and statues of the communist era were moved after liberation, giving us a glimpse into the streets of communist Budapest. Also accompanying the park is a small museum containing information about communism and where you can also watch old police education tapes and learn how to plant and bug, conduct a home search without the owners knowledge and transfer illegal information on the street, handy.
Stay tuned for more of our time in Budapest and don’t forget to have a look at our photos on Facebook in the album BUDAPEST.

CROATIA- SPLIT AND DUBROVNIK

Next stop is Split and it is beautiful, again, we can’t get enough of Croatia. We head for Diocletian’s Palace now a lovely walled town filled to the brim with narrow streets and buildings crossing over the airspace above.Tourist attractions go hand in hand with the run down homes of the locals who live here.

Unusually for us we took a Penny Tour and were so glad we did. We were treated to a fantastic tour with a lovely young man who was one of the best guides we have had so far. He gave us a great run down on the old days of the Diocletian’s Palace, the Port, the emperor’s cabbage gardens and even dropped in a few Game of Thrones references, some scenes from season three were filmed here, to our delight!

He also gave us some insight into how the GFC has affected Croatians. The palace that we toured is now the place of many apartments, shops and tourist sites. Some of these are rented out to tourists during the peak summer season and some are lived in by locals year round. The easy way to tell which is which is by how decrepit they look, it seems the locals are struggling. As for jobs, most of the money comes during the peak summer season when the tourists descend. When the weather cools down so does tourism and most people have to find any work they can elsewhere or use the time to study at university.

It seems that people need to be where the work is. We found later when driving through some remote parts of Croatia, many houses and properties abandoned. Unlike along the coast or around the big cities where the jobs and tourism are.

Back to Split! Once again just walking and exploring was the order of the day. We were really tired and decided to head into the modern part of town to a shopping center to see a movie in English, perfect for a few hours shut down and rest, we saw Grace of Monaco. Later on we found a spot near to Klis Fortress, more Game of Thrones, with a spectacular view over Split by night. The view just as good by day, gazing over Split to the ocean as we had our breakfast. Quick stop at the fortress in the morning before heading on to Dubrovnik.

Along our way we had to go into Bosnia, with strict border check, and then out into Croatia again. We can say we visited another country but we really only passed through! We were going to venture further in but a recent major flooding warning kept us to the coast, maybe another time.

About half way between Bosnia and Dubrovnik we found an amazing camping spot, one of our favorites so far! An old road off the new one, hidden from the road by trees and a large bank and open to the ocean view on our side, stunning! We could have stayed there for weeks!

We arrived in Kings Landing…Oh I mean Dubrovnik very excited to see some more Game of Thrones sets as well as all the old town had to offer. Upon entering a large gate through the ancient city walls we were greeted with a sign that showed all the points where Dubrovnik was hit during the recent Yugoslav Wars. It was hit hard and we would see a photograph exhibition later that day that put it all into perspective. Crazy and sad to think that conflicts such as this are still going on in the world today.

We bought a Dubrovnik card that gave us access to the walk around the ancient city walls and a few museums as well as the Rector’s Palace. So up onto the walls we went. It started to rain, though luckily not too heavy, but the view was gorgeous anyway. Looking out to islands, forts and across the rooftops of the old town. Our museum visits went as usual, trying to take in as much information as possible and ultimately getting gallery fatigue, although enjoying it anyway.

The streets were bustling especially the main Place Thoroughfare that we took on the way to Rector’s Palace. Here we saw a collection of rare glass, some parts of the palace set up as they once were when lived in and the war photographs. Very interesting.

Our time in Dubrovnik finished with ice-cream while wandering the port of the old town watching the boat tour employees haggling over the latest tourist to walk by, delicious. What could be better than an ocean view and ice-cream?

After a big day and ready for a rest we made for our favourite camp spot again. This time we were witness to a coastal storm, watching the lightning over the mountains inland and then over the island out to sea, very different to the crystal clear sky we had the evening before but just as spectacular.

We decided that we don’t have enough time left this trip to do Greece and the rest of what we want to see in Europe, a hard decision to make. Had to be Greece left out.

The long drive back up along the coast towards Budapest was just as beautiful on the way up as it was on the way down. Amazing how different something can look from a different angle! The long drive was broken by another stop in Split, another movie in English (X-Men, hello Hugh) and another camping stop near Plitvicka Lakes National Park before crossing the border into Hungary. More stories to come!

 

Photos can be found on Facebook in the album CROATIA

PLITVICKA JEREZA- PLITVICK LAKES NATIONAL PARK

Split, Dubrovnik and Plitvicka, the first four words anyone who has been to Croatia will say, preceded by “you must go to”. Well, they’re all right! Having come from Slovenia our first stop was Plitvicka Lakes National Park with the intention of working our way down through the country in case we decided we had time to go to Greece this trip.

What is it about water that makes it so attractive, especially when in motion? Whether it’s tumbling waves at the beach, water cascading down the falls or a simple spouting fountain we are drawn to it.

Plitvick was, simply put, stunning. Our time here started, as with most places, finding a camp spot to spend the night, a beautiful tree dense spot on the back road into the park. Setting out from here in the morning we came across our first falls, one of the biggest. Standing at the top of the fall we were all stunned into silence and the sheer beauty below us.

We ventured off into the park and took the “not recommended” track around the side of the lake to avoid the masses of people. This came with much adventuring. The water was extremely high and over the paths in places causing us to have to wade barefoot through icy water on numerous occasions. We had a good laugh with the other intrepid travellers doing the same. It was worth it though as it was spectacular to be in the forest and the water almost at the same time.

We spent a couple of hours at the major fall and lake areas, fast flowing cascades and amazing flora make for a spectacular scene. Having decided to return the same way we started off on our adventure track. Some other locals were tutting and puffing as we stopped to take of our boots to traverse the longest obstacle, a particularly deep and muddy section. They decided to go up and over in the forest, something we had done when going the other way and had found hard going with a few slides down the almost vertical hills.

This started us off on a bit of a race. Both parties sensed the competition and away we went, us on the low road, splashing through the water merrily, and them on the high road climbing through the forest. The cold water was far from our thoughts, just a little friendly sport and guess who came out on top. You’re right, the Aussies. We were sitting at the end having a leisurely drink when they stumbled off the track.

We had a great laugh and made our way back to Vincent arriving some nine hours since our first sight of the falls, a day of fantastic spectacular scenery and a little sport. We stayed parked in the forest and headed off the next day. Luck was on our side again as today it was raining solidly and would not have been very pleasant for hiking. A perfect day to move on towards Split.

Photo can be found on Facebook in the album CROATIA

 

SLOVENIA

Our next destination is Slovenia. We met a family in Bordighera, whilst Vincent was having his weekend off, that had invited us to visit them in their home town of Bled in Slovenia. Until this point we had not considered it a destination and had not heard of it from anyone. Now I am going to tell you that this is a ‘not to be missed” spot in Europe. We have raved about the mountains, lakes and cities we have seen so far but from the minute you enter this country your jaw will drop and you will sigh at every turn.

We chose a mountain route, no toll as usual, that took us through the magnificent wooded mountain slopes still capped with snow. The water that courses through the valleys is the most amazing colour due to the white rock beneath. It is the most vivid turquoise green that has to be seen to be believed. We spend a night on a road we stumble across within the Triglavski National Park at the top of a mountain pass. There is snow still in spots on the ground but we are again fortunate enough to have sunshine. The peace is amazing.

We then head down into the town of Bled and circumnavigate the lake, we seem to be drawn to them, and enjoy the tranquility of lapping water. There are many people here but you can still find a quiet spot. We head off to the Vintgar Gorge nearby and enjoy the stroll along the cascades of water culminating in a fantastic water fall. Later we head to the castle perched high on the hill to take in the view of the island in the middle of the lake. Picturesque is an understatement.

We head to the home of our new friends where we are made so welcome. We were so pleased just to see them but ended up staying the night in a real bed, amazing, having a shower, out of this world, and getting our washing done, fantastic. Apart from all these very missed pleasures the greatest pleasure of all was spending time with this lovely family. They take us to another waterfall that was just spectacular, apparently very full of water due to a very wet winter. We were lavished with lovely local foods, much from their own garden, and given such valuable advice for our next destination, Croatia. It was a short visit but such a fond memory within our trip.

We head off the next day with a plan to see the Postojnska Jama (cave), on route to Croatia. It is a very sad morning to leave our new friends. The cave is quite spectacular, an hour long tour including a train ride in and out, showing a huge cave of beauty. One more night spent in Slovenia before our entry to Croatia. Driving through this amazing country is just one vista of beauty after another. It is literally a postcard view at every turn, from small hamlets of pretty houses dotted on a vivid green landscape to the towering mountains with their wooded slopes, snow caps and mountain streams and waterfalls to the underground beauty of the caves. If you get the chance go see it. We find it hard to believe that the locals go on holiday at all with all this beauty around them everyday.

Photos can be found on Facebook in the album SLOVENIA

VENICE

We decide to start our day early so park and sleep only kilometers from Venice and then find a spot for Vincent on the dry land side and bus into a new world. What can be said that has not already been said about this unique environment? We learn that Venice sits in a lagoon making the water neither salt nor fresh, thus creating a different taste to fish, much like Barramundi either river or ocean caught. We set off on the water ferry to head to Murano. Here we relive a memory with Nan of her Murano glass purchased many moons ago. Now there is a tourist nightmare of shops selling glass, some authentic and some not. There is so much it has the effect of ruining each other. Still great to see the craft. Back on the ferry and past the cemetery, an island in itself, and on to the mainland. A very lovely tourist advice woman, a local, gave us valuable advice, just walk. This we did. As you stroll through the streets and view the canals from every angle one is marveled by the architecture and the sheer magnificence of the ability of this city to live on water. Imagine a tiny bridge across a small canal that leads only to your front door, gorgeous. Imagine the open hole in the wall at water level in a hotel where supplies are delivered. Imagine boats churning along with maybe rubbish bins or the cement mixer for your trade. All this and more will great you on the canals. Then there is the gondola. One is romantic, two pretty but as you see them one after the other, at one time 8 in a row in a small canal, they kind of loose effect. What it will be like in high season one can’t imagine. The ferries give you a chance to jump on and off the water and it seems always possible to grab a spot on the rail to view the scene and get those perfect shot.
We eventually hit the Plaza del San Marco and queue to enter St Marks Cathedral. The golden mosaics are lovely but not as good as those of Revenna. Outside we successfully negotiate the pigeons and guide Georgia through, I think she is finally coming to terms with birds. We take the obligatory photo of The Bridge of Sighs and head again to the back streets and the water and arrive over in the artistic quarter and wind our way along viewing lovely work by local Artisans. Now we hit another tourist block at the Rialto Bridge and then back on to the Grand Canal to head to our starting point for our trip back to Vincent. We have lasted almost till darkness and enjoy the effect of the lights starting to twinkle along the canal.
We had thought we would spend another day and buy the museum pass and trundle off again with a purpose of seeing everything but something changed our mind. It wasn’t till the end of our day that we understood what the tourist bureau lady had meant. She had advised not to do the museums, strange you may think, but she was really right. The beauty of Venice is to see ‘it’, not what it holds. If you are there for a week there is much to do but if only a short time just walk, it will reward you with all its romance, beauty and mystery and I am sure be etched in your memory forever. Venice is a charm, unique and a lovely spot on this earth.

Photos can be found on Facebook in the album VENICE

CROSS COUNTRY

Having made the choice to forego the South of Italy we head across country to Rimini, a place I visited as a child, that the girls wanted me to revisit and see. As we leave the Tuscan region we move on Umbria unaware of what we were about to see, more magnificent scenery. We stumble across a mountain village, Calcata, in a National park. The houses are literally built onto and into the side of the sheer rock cliff. It is spectacular and we stop to walk and explore this sleepy town, with its many cats. The rest of our drive through this region is beautiful as we climb and wind our way through the mountains to Le Marche.

We eventually get to Rimini and spend a little time reminiscing before moving on to Ravenna finding a spot right next to our first tourist sight, Basilica di Sant’Apollinare in Classe, ready for the next day.

Ravenna is famous for its mosaics. We have researched this town and the girls are excited for me, knowing how much I love this art form. We have been spoilt already on the trip with the Moorish works in Spain and Portugal and the Roman ruins but still look forward to Ravenna.

Put this one on the list of must do’s as it is the best you will see. There are about five major sights in town that are all adorned with the most spectacular mosaics we’ve seen. They are all so colourful and intricate with the most exquisitely detailed scenes composed from tiny tiles. We had a very busy day walking around this lovely town and were rewarded with such beautiful work.

We move on to Bologna and come across an Ikea. Feeling tired we pop in and have meatballs and chips, yum. Strange to find the store is the same as back home, a plan that obviously works for them worldwide. If you’re feeling home sick a trip to Ikea helps, we could imagine walking outside and being in Perth again! We find a spot on top of a steep hill overlooking the rather large city center of Bologna with all its twinkling lights and a brilliantly orange sunset.

Bologna is a huge city, not quite what we expected, and it takes time to navigate and find the Basilica di San Petronio on the Piazza Maggiore, the fifth largest in the world. It is a large expanse to see but not as beautiful as others and the famous I’Inferno fresco is quite disturbing. The piazza is buzzing and we see the two leaning towers, quite funny really as they lean in opposite directions, nothing quite like Pisa though. We leave town late in the day and head toward Lake Garda, another childhood memory.

It is quite amazing when you finally come across the lake and glimpse its huge expanse but then you settle into the drive through many towns to get closer. Driving up the left side we make our way through the many tunnels cutting through sheer cliff on the lake edge and spot a pull in about 40m above the water. We have our lunch and decide that it is probably worth staying put for the night and setting out the next day to circumnavigate the lake, approximately another 50kms, a very large lake. Forty-five years has seen towns built nearly all the way around but when you find a quiet spot it’s still so lovely.

Sitting in our camp chairs on top of an abandoned hut we write, read and take in the stunning view. The bright blue lake surrounded by huge snow capped mountains alight with the sun and boats sailing by. What more can you want.

The following day sees us reach the end of the lake and return down the other side. This side is flatter and the road is more open with less tunnels. The view back to where we have come from is spectacular. We decide the mountains look like the are papier-mâché and 2D. Really strange but awesome. We are sad to move on but realize our time is marching on so we head for Venice.

Photos can be found on Facebook in the album RAVENNA, BOLOGNA AND LAKE GARDA

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Sitting at breakfast when Mikayla suddenly holds her face and winces…

Caroline and Georgia: “Whats wrong?”

Mikayla: “I bit my cheek yesterday and the pains just coming through!”

…

I’ve heard of slow release pain killers but not slow release pain!

RUINS, RESTORATIONS AND RARITY

Sleeping in the carpark at a tourist destination is great, no driving first thing in the morning, early site seeing start and getting more done in the day. Though it comes with another side, disturbed sleep waking up every couple of hours knowing that you have to get up before the car park starts filling up. I like staying out in the national parks!

We stayed at the Ruinas de Conimbriga, a town of Romanesque ruins uncovered by archeologists around the 1960’s and built between the 1^st and 4^th century BC. Some are thought to have been built AD. Its really well preserved, even some of the mosaic floors have been saved, they were even cleaning them (with only water and a broom) while we were there. Around the town plaques are placed to explain what each ruin once was, huge mansions and thermal pools both public and private are among them.

The town wall is enormous, at least 2 meters thick, and it’s easy to see why it’s still in good tact in places, something that big would be hard to wear down. Though our favourite part of the ruins was the house of fountains where the prettiest mosaics are.

A quick look around the museum accompanying the ruins and then it was off towards Alcobaca with a couple of detours along the way. In the Intermarche car park in Leira we were sitting eating our (very late) lunch when there was a knock on our window. A couple of ladies from customs had a few questions for us about how long we had been in Portugal, how long we were staying and others about our trip. Neither were in uniform but parted with, “We are from customs and everything is ok with us.” All good then!

While avoiding toll roads on the way to Alcobaca we came across Batalha, and I’m glad we did. Everything always falls into place for us! Our reason for getting to Alcobaca was to see the monastery, but the Batalha is way better, one of our favourite religious sites so far, even topping the Notre Dame in Paris.

The Mosteiro da Batalha (Monastery of Batalha) was built in the 14^th century and is a UNESCO world heritage site. My favourite parts were the cloisters and the unfinished chapels. Inside the cloisters are built to maximize the light streaming through the beautiful stained glass windows casting violet, yellow and turquoise blue light on the pale stone walls. The unifinished chapels are raw and exposed to the elements, the architecture as details here as on other parts of the monastery and can’t imagine how perfect they would be if they had been finished.

In Batalha we also came across our first proper cork shop, the first of many. This is the first place we saw products made from the cork obtained from the bark of the cork oak tree that provides for about 50% of the worlds cork products. We needed retail therapy and we were pretty much satisfied here we spent so much time in this shop.

Since we were so close we decided to find a camping spot in the Serra de Aire natural park, a picnic area near Alvados. In the morning we thought we’d investigate the signs leading to caves in the areas. Though the thing with tourist signs, especially in Spain and Portugal is that they usually run out. You’ll be pointed from the main road to a tourist destination such as ruins or lookouts then never actually find it because there are no more signs. This had lead us on a few 20km detours so we’ve learned that it’s only worth following these signs when you really want to see what they’re leading to.

Anyway, after a bit of back and forward between Alvados and Porto de Mos we set off for Mira de Aire to find the Grutas de Mira de Aire (Cave of Mira de Aire), one of the 7 natural wonders of Portugal (we think we must have seen at least a few of the others so far this trip, even though no one could give us a list to go by).

This is one of the largest caves in Portugal and the tour takes you down 110m or 683 steps into the midst of stalactites and stalagmites illuminated by coloured lights the make it even more spectacular. It was quite funny as Mikayla thought this would be one site that had nothing to do with churches for once, wrong, one of the main cavernous areas was called the grand cathedral and one of the natural formations described as mother Mary holding Jesus! Other natural formations to be seen include the jellyfish, the organ, and the old lady’s face.

On this tour we also got talking to the only other people there, a German/Dutch couple who we asked all about where we should travel when we head there way. It was great to communicate in English! They were very nice and we had a few very funny moments with them including the time mum asked the tour guide if the turquoise blue light in one of the caverns was real, to which he replied, “yes.” He didn’t speak English very well, although he did very well at pointing out all the important parts of the cave. Mum was put straight by a film crew nearby who told us what we had all worked out, that is was in fact artificial light! Our quote of the day!

I was very proud of seeing this particular site as I’m not a fan of being in enclosed spaces and especially under ground. So glad I saw this cave as it’s very pretty but I was very happy to see the sky when we emerged from the elevators that bought up back up to the open air.

Next was Alcobaca to visit the monastery here, no wear near as good as Batalha unfortunately and quite annoying with a few closures and restoration in progress. We’ve had this situation a few times during the trip at different places and should this be expected during winter but it’s still annoying and so it’s worth asking if there are renovations going on or whether certain rooms are closed. That way if you have some time in a place you can plan around closures to maximize the things you get to see. In hindsight we wouldn’t have bothered with Alcobaca but Batalha would be on our must see list, religious or not.

We drove through Nazare, a very nice beach town, though a touristy like most beach destinations then found a camp spot in a car park right on the beach in Soa Martinho do Porto. Very nice to be back on the coast listening to the waves while falling asleep and first thing upon waking.

THESE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVOURITE THINGS

It had been almost a whole 24 hours without seeing a castle so we had to stop in Trancoso before the withdrawals kicked in! Actually our aim when entering this small town on the way to Guarda was to find Wi-Fi, contact with home the most important thing right now. In France we found that most tourist offices had free wifi access but we are finding that McDonalds is the most reliable for free Wi-Fi overall. With no McDonalds here we were pointed to a small café where we sat and though we got what we needed to done, walked out smelling like cigarette smoke, yuck!

Before this the lady at the tourist office had given us a town map and we thought we should see the fort while here, after all we probably won’t be back for a long time if at all. If we want to see it, we need to see it now. The fort is on the edge of the town built at the highest point a corner of a thick wall surrounding the historical part of town. Forts and castles are great places to visit as they’re usually built on high ground and give an uninterrupted view of the towns. A nice place to stroll briefly, we left Trancoso quite soon after the castle to find a camp spot in the Serra de Estrella Natural Park.

We ended up staying next to a church and picnic area half way up a hill in a small town near the West border of the park. It was half way up a steep hill on a car width road, church on one side, at the top of the hill, and cliff on the other side. The road was built in a way that made it impossible to turn around on flat ground so in the morning Mum had quite a struggle getting out of this one.

It was decided that the best way was to back into a small driveway area up to the church front (unfortunately with a very steep incline, think reversing up a curb all the way) and then drive out forwards. Easier said than done and let me tell you we’re very lucky there was a solid 1.5m wall between us and the cliff when after our first attempt reversing as far as Vincent could go, we came forward and couldn’t turn enough to miss the wall making a second reverse up the hill necessary. Well the hill start didn’t quite work (Vincent’s hand brake couldn’t quite hold on) we ended up leaning against the wall before being able to make one last effort to reverse, luckily successful otherwise we would have been stuck here forever. Beautiful view but there are many more to see!

We made it to Guarda and found out that the reason we were here, to see a prehistoric rock art site, were actually 75kms back in the direction we had already come. Resigned to not seeing this site we had a quick look through the cathedral here, one of the few things open since it was a Sunday. Another beautiful church, it’s most defining feature, for us, the columns made of concrete that looked like three tubes twirling around each other to the ceiling above. Every church has something different and we like to explore the architecture and pick the differences out. We have each read The DaVinci Code recently and now like to look for symbols everywhere too!

We decided to drive towards Manteigas in the Serra de Estrella Natural Park to find a camp spot nice and early and enjoy the sun on our new Decathlon camping chairs, purchased a couple of days earlier. We ended up driving for most of the day again, past Manteigas and onwards towards Seia. About 10 kms from Seia we found another amazing spot to stop, quite close to the observatory, on top of the mountain with sublime 180 degree view looking down on a river and across to more mountains. We are so lucky!

In the morning we continued on towards Seia and about 3kms before hitting the township we stumbled across and shop selling leather and woolen goods, mostly jackets. Mum has been saying she would like to find the perfect sheepskin coat to buy while over here so in we went to have a look. Mum tried on countless jackets but unluckily they were always too big in the styles and colours she (we) liked. The right one will pop up eventually!

Coimbra was next on our list, the mechanic and his son Mario who live in Salamanca had directed us here, and they were right we loved this place. It’s a university town and these areas always have a great atmosphere. First stop was the botanical garden where the first tree we saw after walking into the grounds was a Eucalyptus from Western Australia, and it smelled like home. We were tempted to take a branch back to Vincent but decided to leave the tree in tact! They also had a Morton Bay Fig tree that was enormous and must have been there a very long time! The gardens were just beautiful and just like Kings Park is my favourite place in Perth, this would have to be the place I liked most here. The Botanical gardens, and the library in the old university buildings.

It is worth going to see the old university in Coimbra just to see the magnificent library. I love libraries at the best of times but this one is stunning. The two story high book shelves, carved from dark wood and embellished with gold, lining the walls, the giant reading desks with wooden inlay, and the intricately painted ceiling just beautiful. If I’ve ever been sad that photos were prohibited it was here!

The library also contains 40000 works that are protected by vault like walls approximately 2 meters thick and teak wood doors sealing the entrance. As well as this the wood covers the entire inside helping protect the precious works from insects. The other part to the protection from insects, the bats, who live above the ceiling, eating any insect that comes along. Not sure how this works though as I didn’t see any bats at all.

Also to see at the old university is the Chapel, much to Mikayla’s excitement (she’s actually very tired of visiting every church we drive past), that houses an organ made up of 2000 tubes and with walls covered in hand painted tiles from Lisbon. As well as the main building containing a hall for the most important ceremonies of university life, still used today, and old examination rooms. From the balcony of this building you can also get a great birds eye view of the river and most of the town.

From Coimbra we went south about 15kms to a place called Conimbriga, a whole town of Roman Ruins. Arriving late we camped in the car park here ready to see the ruins the following morning, talk about getting ready for an early start!

GETTING CLOSE TO NATURE!

We have remembered a funny little story that we feel we need to add to our last post.

In rural Portugal it’s quite common to see both cows, horses, sheep and goats roaming free. After our usual trip up a side road to find our parking spot for the night (think we are getting way too used to very special spots and wont stop till we find the perfect one), this time we parked in a small quarry hidden from passers by, very few anyway.

After a short walk to find the source of falling water we found ourselves another natural pool to have another ice bath (the pain of freezing water on your head is excruciating but well worth the clean result). During this time we were passed by 4 horses and then moments later a couple of cows with very large horns.

Embracing the camping life we laughed and thought no more of it. That night as we had just turned off the lights and snuggled into bed the van was rocked from outside. No, not the police this time, but a small pony, one of the earlier encounters, having a good scratch on Vincents front bumper. This gave us a few laughs but the morning light was to hold even more surprises. Not only did he have a good scratch but decided to do a very large poo right on the bumper. That’s what he thought of us!

TWILIGHT…

Mum: “I don’t really know about Spanish history, I think there was the Spanish Inquisition”

Georgia: “Well they had the Spanish Influenza.”

Mum: “Oh, did they?”

Georgia: “Yeah, that’s what Edward died of in Twilight!”

Mikayla *smacks forehead*

DIRECTIONS GONE WRONG

Georgia: “Okay, coming up to a cow’s leg where you go right and then turn left.”

Caroline: “You mean dogleg?”

Georgia: “Yeah almost a right angle!”

Georgia giving directions in the car.

READY AS WE’LL EVER BE

We have spent the last week or so getting Vincent ready for traveling. Getting travel insurance (essential) and deciding on our departure and return dates for Europe (also essential for getting the travel insurance). All booked now and will update on our plans very soon, stay tuned!

We also went to lunch with Nan’s sister, our Aunty Babs. When we’re with Aunty Babs we feel closer to Nan and I think she does as well. We picked Aunty Babs from her flat and walked across town to Loch Fyne, a seafood bar and grill.

I had the privilege of pushing her wheelchair, one that I could have lost when I almost tipped Aunty Babs out. Walking across the road there was a very small curb, that was slightly larger than I realised. A slight jolt when the wheelchair stopped but all was fine, I just gave myself a heart attack!

Loch Fyne was lovely, all open and with lots of wood and white on the walls. But my favourite part was how light the huge room was. It reminded me of Kailis at Trigg Beach in Perth, and both restaurants are seafood places, and it felt like home. The food was delicious too and we had another “best we’ve ever had” moment, with the vanilla ice cream! Aunty Babs had fish and chips, just what Nan would have. I had seafood pasta, Mum had white wine mussels and Mikayla had fish pie, all got the tick of approval!

We told Aunty Babs stories about Nan and she told us about Nan when she was a child. After lunch we did a bit of shopping, walked back to Aunty Babs home almost (emphasis on almost) tipping her out of the wheelchair a second time (Chelmsford counsel really need to up their game and fix the footpaths) and spent the rest of the day at Aunty Babs flat talking, talking, talking! We can’t wait to come back and see her again in 6 months time.

But for now…drumroll please…it’s the photos you’ve all been waiting for! The photos of Vincent Van Go! We’re sorry they’ve taken so long but we wanted him looking his best! So here he is, our home on wheels! More details on the packing and preparation soon.

It’s a sad day leaving The Bells. We’re going to miss Maggy and Graham so much! We’ve felt so at home and couldn’t have been ready for this trip without their help.

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MONTY

On our last night at The Bells we thought it would be very fitting to introduce a very important member of the family, Monty! Monty is a big, beautiful, bulky and indestructible Airedale Terrier who is getting to be quite old, but no less mischievous! He likes to greet you with a frolic and a headbutt to the legs! In fact he likes to headbutt walls and furniture and anything else that stands in his way, hence the indestructible description, although he doesn’t seem to feel the pain or mind hitting his head in the slightest!

We also learned of Monty’s appetite very quickly, upon arriving for our first night with Maggy and Graham, we set our bags down not realising that he can smell food from a mile away! We met Monty and started a tour of the house. As soon as the bags were left unattended Monty took his chance, sniffing out the bag with the chocolate buttons we had purchased at the Hyland House Fair not one hour before.

This was when the rescue mission started. Just to clarify, not a rescue of the chocolate buttons (they were long gone) but a rescue of the bag and the paper and plastic that was not already consumed. This was when we learned of Monty’s vice like jaw strength. Think stronger than a white pointer, stronger than a bear, stronger than a hippopotamus. I even think he may have ancestors who were Tasmanian Devils! Eventually Monty let go and all bags were taken upstairs, out of range, just in case.

He is really a very sweet boy though, and very much loved. He spends his days inside, usually snuggled on his mat by the radiator. I would say his favourite spot. He’s only allowed in the kitchen when accompanied by an adult, but doesn’t really bother then. Although if you leave the kitchen door open he’s known to grab the chance.

Another day we came home and mistakenly left a bag downstairs again. We thought it would be fine because there was absolutely no food in there. There was however an empty Jaffa Cakes packet. Well, the Jaffa Cakes packet smelled like food and Monty was onto it. Another struggle to retrieve the bag but all was fine in the end.

Such a smart boy, he is able to open the cupboard doors to get to the bin. If food is left on the counter top or table, to him it’s fair game! Maggy told us that one Christmas, thankfully not this one, Monty devoured a whole Christmas cake that she was icing. And this Christmas he did manage to swipe a turkey wing. He also picked a Christmas present for himself from under the tree. Chloe had made chocolate bark (delicious) as part of her presents. The toddler gate into the lounge room was left open and from under the tree one of the chocolate bark boxes was taken. You can’t turn away for a second!

Monty must have a very strong stomach because he doesn’t just eat food stuffs. We’ve been told he’s even consumed two Brillo Pads, a frozen chicken and various life threatening morsels. Scariest of all, blender blades, that got stuck in his mouth jammed in his jaws keeping them open. This event almost warranted a trip to the vet, almost because he dropped them as he got in the car and amazingly there was no blood whatsoever! And it’s lucky he’s big because we’ve heard he’s consumed way too much chocolate for a dog.

Not only smart and handsome, but brave too! Whenever we arrive home Monty will make himself known with loud barking come howling. A great guard dog though Maggy and Graham have been told he only does it when they arrive home. It must be a greeting!

He is also a talented escape artist. One day during the cleaning of Vincent we had an extension lead running out of the front door. With the doors pulled to he was fine, but during pack up I mistakenly left the doors open and out came Monty…I immediately called him and Mum but to no avail, he was off, running as quick as he could down the road. It was a catch 22 because here I was chasing him, hoping a car wouldn’t come along the lane, and also realising he would probably run faster with me after him. Luckily about 100m down the road he stopped to mark his territory and I caught up with him. He happily came home with me then, trotting along beside me wearing my pajamas and ugg boots!

He really is a very good boy and we’re going to miss him very much when we’re gone! He also makes us miss our Dallas back at home too!

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HOW TO GET YOUR TWO FRUIT AND FIVE VEG!

Mikayla: “How many fruit and veg a day is it?”
Georgia: “Two fruit, five veg.”
Mikayla: “Oh good, I’ve had my three fruit today, and that felafel ball I just ate had at least five different vegies!”

CAMBRIDGE

We spent the day in Cambridge today. Another spectacular place in the world and another spectacular day to take it all in! The sun was shining and, though when the wind picked up it was a bit chilly, it was a perfect day to experience Cambridge in the winter.

Before we left home Maggy warned me that after visiting Cambridge I’d want to study there, and she wasn’t wrong at all. The University of Cambridge was very different to how I imagined and upon arriving at the city center I was immediately reminded of Fremantle (Western Australia). And it seems that comparison is warranted because, just as Notre Dame University in Fremantle is spread all over the city, the University of Cambridge is spread out into various colleges.

A second thing we noticed, that was typical for us, were the many shops. Graham immediately banned shopping in the daylight hours! Must do tourist stops first, and I’m so glad we did! The first stop was the gardens of Emmanuel College, stunning, as we would soon find out was a theme throughout all gardens. Walking around we found a statue of the young Charles Darwin (quite good looking really) and took a few photos!

We were lucky, quite a few college gardens were open and did not demand a fee for entry. Usually most gardens will have a porter at the gate and charge for entry to tourists. Walking around we came across the gardens of Kings College, Kings College Chapel and Trinity Hall Cambridge, all slightly different but equally beautiful. As were the buildings surrounding them, my favourite was Kings College Chapel, amazing!

We walked down the the river. Maggy explained that in the summer the river is full of punts, people falling in and the river sides are lined with people eating ice cream. Another reason to visit again in summer I think we’d enjoy all of that! As it was there was no on eon the river today, obviously way too cold, and the punt companies shut down during winter.

We had a late lunch at Prezzo an Italian restaurant. Delicious food again! We are yet to come across a restaurant we didn’t like (apart from Hungry Horse in Chelmsford, but that’s a different story) maybe they’re all brilliant, maybe we just like food too much. Either way we aren’t complaining and can’t wait to continue tasting new food.

After lunch we walked further along the river and then back into shop infested streets! Danger, camping store alert. I say this because almost every camping or outdoor adventure store we see, we go into. Graham relaxed the no shopping rule because it was almost dark and Mum explained how much we really needed to go in. So we found ourselves in Cotswold Outdoor, where I found “dry shower” a water free actibacterial cleanse. Hopefully it works when desperate times call for desperate measures!

Graham and Maggy then found themselves in Mountain Warehouse, who are having a huge sale by the way! Whenever I see what I call “tourist clothes” on sale I panic. Mum has been gathering and packing our cold weather outdoor gear ever since we decided to travel and while I’m very glad of this when it’s freezing cold and I’m toasty warm I do feel very touristy in them. So with me exclaiming “we don’t need any more tourist clothes” we settled on looking for things we did need.

Three microfibre towels, three waterproof overtrousers (that we tried on in the middle of the shop, Graham holding all our bags and us saying “I don’t know if they’re big enough!” And “they have to fit over our pants, I mean trousers!!”) a fleece throw and a couple of cards later we finished our shopping.

We finished Cambridge (for now) with a hot chocolate at John Lewis before stepping outside then straight onto the Park and Ride bus back to the car for the trip home. Cambridge another place we can’t wait to visit again in the Summer! Hopefully with Maggy and Graham again, as the day is made by the people you do it with!

AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH BRITISH

We have found some more differences between Australian English and British English. So we’ve updated our lists!

Foods! A few times I’ve had to ask questions about what certain things are on menus when dining out. Or when food shopping with family! So here is what we’ve learned so far, Australian term first then British term.

Eggplant = Aubergine

Chips = Crisps

Butternut Pumpkin = Butternut Squash

Zucchini = Courgette

Capsicum – Pepper

Our previous post (with updates) on Australian and British word differences is below for those who missed it the first time around!

We have had some very funny moments during our time over here in England. Most of them to do with words that have very different meanings to us in Australia compared to the British. So, we’ve started compiling a list of all the new words we’ve learned so far and keep adding to it as we go as I’m sure we will come across a few more faux pas moments eventually!

So here goes words with both the Australian and British meanings:

Pants = trousers in Australia and undies in England*

Thongs = flip flops in Australia and G-strings in England**

Doona = doona in Australia and duvet in England***

Spunk = good looking man in Australia, England I think you can work it out!

Toot = bottom in Australia and stuff left lying around in England****

Joggers = runners/running shoes in Australia and running/exercise trousers in England*****

Vest = singlet in Australia and vest in England

Lounge room = Lounge room in Australia and Lounge in England

Lane way = Lane way in Australia and lane in England

Road way = road in Australia and road way in England

Punter = gambler in Australia and economy class in England

Do you have any words and/or phrases that we could add to our list?

*Many times we have said things to the tune of “My pants are falling down.” “I’ve worn the same pair of pants three times this week.” “I need more pants.” “May I wear your pants today?” etc. Substitute the word pants for undies and it become very funny for our English family and very weird for any strangers that happen to be passing by at the moment we say it! We also have a whole new appreciation for Miranda (Hart) and all her pant related humour!

**Again, mentioned a few times (despite the lack of thong wearing weather) quite the same reaction to pants!

***When compiling our list of things needed for Vincent we frequently discussed purchasing a doona. This went on for a while, as did some confused looks from the family, before someone finally asked “What’s a doona?”

****The other night Maggy said “right, before bed everyone needs to put their toot up stairs.”

*****Mikayla said “My joggers are a little wet but I’ll be able to wear them still”, Maggy and Graham thought she was going to wear wet trousers!

BRITISH MUSEUM

Big breakfast! That’s what our day started with. A delicious feast of scrambled eggs and potato cakes for me and sausages and bacon added for Mum, Mikayla, Matt and Kelly. Followed by pancakes topped with nutella, lemon juice, sugar, maple syrup, cherries, bananas and raspberries, although not all together! Yum!

We then set off to The British Museum. It opened to the public in 1759 and more than 71000 objects from Sir Hans Sloane’s private collection were on display. With the exception of two World Wars, it has remained open ever since, and attendance has gone from 5,000 visitors per year to today’s 6 million. Entry is free, luckily. It would take many more than one visit to see everything there. Over the years there have been many additions and the museum celebrated it’s 250th anniversary in 2003. The building is spectacular, in size and design. It could be an exhibit in itself. Even if you aren’t interested in museums, it’s worth visiting all of them in London just to get a look at the buildings. One of my favourite parts of the building was the Great Court. The museum’s inner courtyard is enclosed (great for a rainy day) but lets in all the natural light.

We walked through Ancient Egypt first and saw a real mummy, actually we saw a few, for the first time. One was completely open, exposing the body inside. It was striking how a person who died 3000 years ago can be so well preserved, even having hair. Although what was also intriguing to me was how many people were taking photos and that the body is allowed to be exposed at all. I felt I had to respect this ancient person and not take photos, after all they are human beings.

We then went through Ancient Europe and finally clocks and watches. So many wonderful things to see and way too much the explain in detail. My favourite parts were all the jewelery throughout the exhibits, especially the Cartier pieces, AMAZING! I also loved seeing all the clocks and watches and how they have changed throughout the ages with growth in technology and fashion.

We saw The Rosetta Stone and got to touch a replica!. The Rosetta Stone is one of the most famous objects in the British Museum. The Stone is a broken part of a bigger stone slab. It has a message carved into it, written in written in two languages, Egyptian and Greek and three types of scripts (hieroglyphics, demotic and Greek). It is It was an important clue that helped experts learn to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. Even though it took experts something like 28 years to finish deciphering the code! A very important part of history.

At one point whilst walking around the museum Matt said to Mum, “when you visit Rome you have to go to the willy room!” Mum then turned to me, who hadn’t heard the first part and repeated that. I was a little unsure and asked Matt to repeat, thinking willy might be another one of the those words with different British and Australian meanings. Nope, willy means willy! So I asked for an explanation. A while ago people became prudish and decided to remove all the male private parts from all the statues. There is now a room, in a museum full of willys! Weird!

When we had all had enough museuming (new word for the dictionary) we headed home, stopping at Domali, a vegetarian/pescatarian restaurant, where I had the best vegetable pie I’ve ever had, again! Another fantastic day with Matt and Kelly, thanks guys!

 

MOOSE

*From the back of the car*
Mmmmrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Georgia: “What was that?”
Mikayla: “Um, I was trying to be a moose…”

*All laughing*

Mikayla: “Actually, I was only trying to be a moose half way through!”

Car rides!

DON’T COOK IN YOUR PAJAMAS

I smell like fried breakfast!

Mikayla as she dressed in her pajamas (that she had worn while cooking a very yummy breakfast) at bedtime.

Nudity and Violence

Mikayla, “It’s just lots of nudity and violence!”
Georgia, “Yeah, It’s great!”
Matt, “Nudity and violence are great?”
Georgia, “What no, no Game of Thrones is…”

Talking about Game of Thrones with Matt and Kelly

AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH CONTINUED

We have found some more differences between Australian English and British English. This time it’s foods. A few times I’ve had to ask questions about what certain things are on menus when dining out. Or when food shopping with family! So here is what we’ve learned so far, Australian term first then British term.

Eggplant = Aubergine

Chips = Crisps

Butternut Pumpkin = Butternut Squash

Zucchini = Courgette

Capsicum – Pepper

Our previous post on Australian and British word differences is below for those who missed it the first time around!

We have had some very funny moments during our time over here in England. Most of them to do with words that have very different meanings to us in Australia compared to the British. So, we’ve started compiling a list of all the new words we’ve learned so far and keep adding to it as we go as I’m sure we will come across a few more faux pas moments eventually!

So here goes words with both the Australian and British meanings:

Pants = trousers in Australia and undies in England*

Thongs = flip flops in Australia and G-strings in England**

Doona = doona in Australia and duvet in England***

Spunk = good looking man in Australia, England I think you can work it out!

Toot = bottom in Australia and stuff left lying around in England****

Joggers = runners/running shoes in Australia and running/exercise trousers in England*****

Vest = singlet in Australia and vest in England

*Many times we have said things to the tune of “My pants are falling down.” “I’ve worn the same pair of pants three times this week.” “I need more pants.” “May I wear your pants today?” etc. Substitute the word pants for undies and it become very funny for our English family and very weird for any strangers that happen to be passing by at the moment we say it! We also have a whole new appreciation for Miranda (Hart) and all her pant related humour!

**Again, mentioned a few times (despite the lack of thong wearing weather) quite the same reaction to pants!

***When compiling our list of things needed for Vincent we frequently discussed purchasing a doona. This went on for a while, as did some confused looks from the family, before someone finally asked “What’s a doona?”

****The other night Maggy said “right, before bed everyone needs to put their toot up stairs.”

*****Mikayla said “My joggers are a little wet but I’ll be able to wear them still”, Maggy and Graham thought she was going to wear wet trousers!

AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH

We have had some very funny moments during our time over here in England. Most of them to do with words that have very different meanings to us in Australia compared to the British. So, we’ve started compiling a list of all the new words we’ve learned so far and keep adding to it as we go as I’m sure we will come across a few more faux pas moments eventually!

So here goes words with both the Australian and British meanings:

Pants = trousers in Australia and undies in England*

Thongs = flip flops in Australia and G-strings in England**

Doona = doona in Australia and duvet in England***

Spunk = good looking man in Australia, England I think you can work it out!

Toot = buttox in Australia and stuff in England****

Joggers = runners/running shoes in Australia and running/exercise trousers in England*****

*Many times we have said things to the tune of “My pants are falling down.” “I’ve worn the same pair of pants three times this week.” “I need more pants.” “May I wear your pants today?” etc. Substitute the word pants for undies and it become very funny for our English family and very weird for any strangers that happen to be passing by at the moment we say it! We also have a whole new appreciation for Miranda (Hart) and all her pant related humour!

**Again, mentioned a few times (despite the lack of thong wearing weather) quite the same reaction to pants!

***When compiling our list of things needed for Vincent we frequently discussed purchasing a doona. This went on for a while, as did some confused looks from the family, before someone finally asked “What’s a doona?”

****The other night Maggy said “right, before bed everyone needs to put their toot up stairs.”

*****Mikayla said “My joggers are a little wet but I’ll be able to wear them still”, Maggy and Graham thought she was going to wear wet trousers!

AIRPORT.

Over the next year or so we will use this space to update you of our travels. Will write a bit more about our preparation for this trip soon but for now we thought we’d get something on here.

Our last hour and a half in Perth was spent with our best friends. Ellen and Shauna came to see me off and I just felt neutral, the excitement of going away was cancelled out by the sadness at leaving my best friends for just over a year. Mikayla spent the time with Zeena, Rory and Sheridan and Mum spent the time with Marilyn and Michelle. We were so sad to say goodbye when the time finally came and there were lots of tears. When we went through the departure gate we realised there was a bit more to do than just get on the plane so forms were filled out, hand luggage was scanned and toilet trips were made in a mad rush before making it onto the plane on time.

During our flights from Perth to London we gained a few funny stories to tell. We flew from Perth to Denpasar (Bali), Bali to KL, then KL to Heathrow London. When getting off the plane in Bali we thought we were organised with all our hand luggage (3 large hand luggage, 1 backpack, and 2 handbags). Half way up into the airport we realised that we had left our coats in the overhead compartments on the plane so Mum had to rush back to retrieve them! She wasn’t allowed back on the plane so the flight attendants had to go and find them, when giving them to Mum gave her a look that said “why on earth do you need coats in Bali??” It was boiling! So humid and we had to pick up our luggage and drag it through the airport to check it in with a different airline. Tip: when transiting through Denpasar airport (if you ever have the need) make sure you have enough cash to pay visa and airport taxes.

Short flight to KL and then we started the 13 hours to London. This flight was on a Boeing A380 and actually quite comfortable. Even thought the flight left at 11:50pm we were quite hungry and waiting for food before trying to sleep. About an hour into the flight we decided they must not be providing food until breakfast time so we took our sleeping pills. Literally just as we swallowed our sleeping pill they started serving food. I went into panic mode and had to be reassured by mum that they wouldn’t work straight away and we would be able to eat. Eating was uneventful until Mum started talking gibberish… She’d finished eating the main, savory, part of her meal and salad and was starting on her extras. She turned to me and said something I couldn’t quite understand, after asking her to repeat a couple of times I gave up and though she must be falling asleep. But, she continued to try to eat sitting hunched over and eyes pretty much closed. We had a small sachet of creamed cheese (about the size of a butter sachet) and she picked it up and examined it as you would something small in the light, opened it and then started dipping her fork in it, swirling it around her salad bowl (that was empty), then eating it. She did this a few times and then just as the flight attendant was about to collect the trays she picked up her scrunched up piece of foil that had covered her meal, looked at it then stuck it in her mouth to eat it. When I noticed she was sucking on the foil I had to pull it out of her hands with a “no Mum” and she turned to look at me as if to say “why not?” All the while I watched laughing, and then told mum the story when we all woke up about 5 hours later, very funny!

After arriving in London we changed into our thermals and warmest clothes to brave the freezing cold weather! Our cousins Matt and Kelly met us at the airport and it was then time to brave the tube…