Going Abroad

Our Very Own Rooms

2008-05-02T21:50:00.009+01:00

Well hello again. Another few months have gone by! We've been in our new flat for 2 months now and have been enjoying the freedom of our own rooms and lots of storage space. It's a really lovely flat, very close to where we were living previously and still only 2 minutes' walk to the park. I have taken over the smaller bedroom which has avocado-green walls (people who don't like avocados think this sounds horrid but it's actually a nice colour, promise). Minnie has a nice double bedroom with her very own door onto the balcony, and then there's a third bedroom for which we found a lovely flatmate who joined us a week after we moved in. The balcony is rather handy for hanging washing out (I felt rather more domesticated hanging washing out on the line than just putting it in the dryer...) and is big enough for a couple of chairs and a small BBQ (if summer ever makes an appearance over here). There's also a planter box currently occupied with some geraniums which, when we're a bit more organised might be nice to turn into a herb garden. The spacious lounge/dining room also has a door leading onto the balcony and even has a little gas fire (rather cosy for cold winter evenings, although we've only used it once so far!) That side of the flat overlooks a school and its playground and the other side of the flat (where the entrance is) overlooks a big triangle of grass and trees and dead daffodils (they looked very nice when they were alive), so it feels rather spacious and not at all closed in. The kitchen is smallish but is bathed in sunlight in the mornings, and has so much cupboard space, we have yet to fill it up. The bathroom and toilet had recently been redone so are also very nice.

Since the big move, we've settled in quite well and time has flown by. We had a white Easter which was rather exciting (thankfully it wasn't enough to kill the transport system). Neither of us went away but we had a nice relaxing weekend in London. The Good Friday service at St Helen's was followed by fresh-from-the-oven hot cross buns after which we joined a bunch of people for a pub meal by the river. Minnie and I went on to the Imperial War Museum to have a look at the exhibition of war posters they had there (Weapons of Mass Communication) which was quite interesting, then we popped up the road to have a hot chocolate at Andrew's. The rest of the weekend passed by with shopping, church services, dinner parties, Brick Lane curries, and making hot no-cross buns (I couldn't be bothered with the crosses and besides, I don't like the taste of them). That was the start of a four-week break from uni for me which I somehow filled with a variety of things such as unpacking (most of) the rest of my stuff that was still in suitcases, doing some work for my previous boss, sorting out my papers/lecture notes, doing a bit of photo-sorting and not much study!

I went to New Word Alive during that time and thoroughly enjoyed it - a very pretty location and great teaching. I was with a big group of St Helen's people, some of whom filled a 70-seater coach which was hired to take us to Pwllheli, Wales. We had planned to get there in plenty of time for the first 6.30pm meeting but due to roadworks and the driver being told the wrong time, we left two hours late (this was in fact a good thing because it meant I had enough time to go back home and get my camera which I had forgotten to pack). It was a rather long journey and the snowy hills of Wales with green grass and lots of little lambs was a welcome sight. With not far to go, and the hope that even though we'd miss the first meeting, we'd be there in time to go to the student one later (a repeat of the first one), the coach's brakes started smoking and we came to a halt on the side of the road. We all piled out thinking it wouldn't be long till they cooled off and we could get going again. Two and a half hours later we were still waiting by the side of the road as it got progressively colder and darker. The coach was going no further so everyone who had friends with cars already at NWA rang them and begged them to come and pick a few people up, and others rang taxis, so eventually we all made it to the holiday park. There was also a bit of a wait there for acquiring caravan keys and wristbands, but we finally had some dinner about 9.30pm before tumbling into bed. I was in a caravan (larger than a typical caravan) with 5 other girls and a married couple. It was of course quite cosy, but they had designed the caravans well and the living room was fairly spacious. There was a little kitchen complete with oven, hob, microwave, sink etc., and separate toilet and bathroom. John Piper (on 1 John) and Hugh Palmer (on suffering) were the main speakers (we missed Terry Virgo's talk on the first night) and gave very helpful and challenging talks. Stuart Townend lead a lot of the singing including teaching us a new song, and getting the 2000 people in the marquee to all sing in parts (very fun!). There were also several seminar series during the day - I attended Mike Ovey's series on the doctrine of humanity which was very helpful. A talk by Roger Carswell on evangelism was likewise helpful and inspiring. The holiday park was right on the coastline so I had a few lovely walks along the cliff-top and beach (when it wasn't raining!). I was also persuaded to join a few brave souls to go swimming in the sea! Mini-golf was another fun activity, and despite it being quite cold, there was some lovely sunny weather along with the rain. It was a really good holiday with lots of time to hang out with friends.

Last weekend was, of course, ANZAC Day, so Minnie and I got up at a-quarter-past-three-in-the-blessed-am to get to the dawn service at Hyde Park Corner at 5am. It was quite cool to be there with lots of other Kiwis and Aussies (and to spot them on the bus to Hyde Park as they came on sleepy-eyed with poppies or NZ flags). Minnie then spent the weekend exploring Canterbury and I went to stay with my first-cousin-once-removed in Cuckfield, which was really nice. That Saturday was the only day of summer we've had, a really hot, sunny day - I'm hoping there might be more like it! Now, I've only got a few more weeks of lectures before a study break then exams in June. A research project fills the summer for me - it's all coming to an end rather quickly.

february update

2008-02-06T18:56:00.000Z

Hallo everyone. Long time, no post. Sorry about that. We're living in such a social whirl over here, you know. . .

Since the last time I wrote: I have found gainful employment, Robyn has charged ahead into her MSc, we have both (separately) been back to New Zealand for three weeks, and we have survived almost half an English winter. In amongst other such things as museum visits, park outings, church events, finding a flat, and almost all of season one of '24'. So, you see, we have been busy.

I had a wet (shouldn't it be white?) Christmas in ye olde Merrie Englande, which I spent with my friends as the Good Shepherd Mission, having fostered the festive spirit by attending five different carol services. It was nice to have a "traditional" Christmas, with lots of stollen, mulled wine, and properly cold streets.

Robyn was back in NZ for the yule season, meeting her new nephew and seeing her brother married. She did a tiki-tour of the South Island as well as reclining on some of her favourite beaches in Auckland.

We crossed paths somewhere over Asia, as I headed back to the family home for some catch up time and to be bridesmaid to my good friend Jessica. Three weeks goes really fast when you're back home! It was lovely to see lots of my friends and spend time with my family.

We're pretty much settled back into work & study now, and are looking forward to moving into a flat in a couple of weeks (yay - we can go to IKEA!).

Our last little venture was a trip, for Robyn's birthday, to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum. We'd been last year, and it was amazing. And just as good again this year!

Hopefully it won't be so long before we post again. The road to Halifax. . .

Interlude in Norfolk

2007-10-15T12:08:00.000+01:00

A delightful weekend was spent in the county of Norfolk, visiting some of Bob's illustrious friends-and-relations. Despite a distressing start (occasioned by a hic-cough in the rail service, and causing a prolonged journey undertaken by train, 'bus, and train again) we had a very pleasant time, and thoroughly enjoyed experiencing some English countryside in the autumn.

The highlight of the weekend was a visit to Banham Zoo - a model of what a family-friendly modern zoo can be. The animals were the most photogenic I have ever seen in such an establishment, and we particularly enjoyed getting up close to creatures in the miniature farm. The prairie dog enclosure was especially intriguing, and we enjoyed an encounter with one wee fellow who popped up to see us out of his hole some two meters from the fence . . . on the wrong side! He was not at all scared of us, and eventually went back to join his family by the simple expedient of pushing through one of the holes of the wire fence.

The Eye Sees All

2007-09-24T14:55:00.000+01:00

We'd wanted to do the London Eye for a while, so for my birthday Robyn treated me to a 'flight'. She'd booked us in for a 7.30pm slot, and we were advised to start queuing half-an-hour before that. It didn't take nearly that long, though, and we were in a pod shortly after the hour. It was not at all crowded - I think there were about 12 others with us, and the pods are very spacious and comfortable.

Going up it was still light, and we were able to see the sun go down and all the lights of London coming on during the half hour we were aboard. Big Ben and the Hous es of Parliament are lovely to see illuminated, as are some of the other buildings along the waterfront. We both spent lots of the time with our cameras going hard, trying to get some non-wobbly photographs.

Back on the ground we strolled for a while along Southbank, people watching and sitting to eat nachos and wedges by the river. It was a very pleasant evening.

A Nordic Experience

2007-09-20T17:07:00.000+01:00

Hello again everyone! Thanks to my boss at work, I was rather privileged to attend the 40th International Cardiovascular Health Epidemiology and Prevention 10-day Teaching Seminar, which despite such a long and complicated-sounding title, was most enjoyable. It was kind of like a mini course so there were lectures and group activities (and homework!) but there was also lots of free time so it was like a nice holiday really Anyway, this year the seminar was held in Norway, right up in the North in a little fishing village called Sommarøy. This is actually an island right on the Western edge of the country, about an hour's drive from the nearest city, Tromsø. The most exciting thing, though, is that it's right up in the Arctic Circle – check out this map and look for Tromsø.

What an amazing place it was though! The scenery is just so so beautiful. Being so isolated, it was really peaceful and quiet and I enjoyed many lovely walks through the wild landscape. There were amazing tropical-looking beaches with amazingly clear blue water and white sandy beaches (so many of them), wide rolling meadows covered in heather resembling in some ways the great wild expanse of the flat parts of the Central Plateau in New Zealand, steep rocky wind-swept mountains which plunge straight down into the sea, the big black and incredibly deep fjords, huge jellyfish slowly jetting away under the bridge with bright circles of colour in their clear bodies... I could go on for a while: in short I found it breathtakingly beautiful!

We were staying in a lovely hotel with a sauna and hot tub. They served lots and lots of food, good food, so much so, that I reckon we should have done a little study and measured everyone's weights at the start and end of the seminar to see how much weight we all put on!!! Seriously, if given the option, who can resist having bacon for breakfast with lots of really nice freshly baked bread, hot food for lunch and dinner, and delicious desserts for lunch and dinner? Some of us did come to the conclusion after the first 2 days that we really needed to start exercising some self restraint and only have dessert once a day, and be a bit more selective about which foods to eat for lunch and dinner. We also discovered that there were mostly the same dishes day to day, lunch to dinner, with a few different ones new each day and a few old ones phased out each day so having a bit of everything soon became boring. I was able to try some interesting foods here though: reindeer, moose and elk. I refrained from eating whale and seal – they really didn't appeal and besides, aren't whales somewhat endangered (I'm sure I've seen 'Save the Whales' stickers)? A pity I'm not keen on seafood because there were great selections of fish and other seafood available including little tubes of caviar for breakfast (Ugh!).

Now one of the highlights of the trip was the hot tub. I rather enjoyed the (nearly) true Norwegian experience of spending time getting hot in the lovely wooden hot tub then going for a dip in the sea to cool off. I should mention that it was rather cold up there – temperatures during the day were about 6-8 degrees Celsius, so who knows what temperature the sea was at that time in the evening! It was cold, yet strangely somehow exhilarating, and somewhat addictive – the hot tub always felt so much hotter after the sea that you warmed up a lot more quickly and to a greater extent than before. It was quite amusing to observe which people in the group were the first ones to give the sea-dip a go. Vinjar, one of the Norwegian lecturers had told us on the first day about the tradition and despite the loud and stubborn protests of most people, claimed that by the end of the seminar almost all of us will have given it a go. And he was right. I admit I was something of a ring leader persuading people to join me on my excursions across the deck, down the stairs, onto the sand and into the water (you have to do it at a run if you've got any hope of being fully immersed before the cold hits you). There was also a rather nice sauna but I found this got rather too hot.

I guess I should mention that we did do some work as well. The other seminar attendees, from all over the world, were really nice people and we had a great time together (despite my being the youngest of the bunch). The lectures were really good, particularly Vinjar with his simple, clear explanations of foundational statistical concepts using the example of Mary (a short girl – something I can associate with). I have to admit though, that in some of the statistics lectures when I was particularly tired and finding it difficult to feign interest in being taught things I already knew, I took advantage of the wireless broadband available throughout the hotel and undertook some 'research' (i.e. checking email, or perhaps fluffing around with R because it's a statistical program and it seemed somehow more appropriate and less guilt-inducing). We were split up into four groups for discussions on particular topics each day then in the second week we had to design a study to answer the question, 'Is chocolate related to stroke?', with which we had great fun, of course, and showed our rather strong bias/hypothesis by eating lots of chocolate on the grounds it was good for us. Thankfully we didn't have to carry out the study so as yet, we have no conclusion to the question. However, the Norwegian guys managed to squeeze in a couple of questions to the Tromsø Study before the questionnaires were printed, so we might have an answer in the near future...

Besides being hard at work during the day and relaxing in the hot tub at night, we had a couple of outings to keep us entertained and free from cabin fever. On the Saturday, we had a trip into town with the first stop at the base of one of the tall mountains overlooking the island city. We took a cable car to the top and had a chance to look around and take a few photos before we headed back down and on to the Polaria – a kind of Antarctic Centre, only it was about the Arctic instead. They had live seals which they fed and trained while we were there. One of the handy things about Norway is that almost everyone speaks English and so the seal commentary and many of the display boards were in English. The rest of the day was filled with wandering around town, visiting the Polar Museum, eating dinner and relaxing in a bar. On Sunday we had an all day trip around some of the neighbouring islands to see some of the different types of scenery in the area which was most enjoyable. On all our trips, Vinjar became an amazing tour guide, informing us all about the places through which we were driving and about Norwegian culture and history – we enjoyed it so much that if he was ever silent for a few minutes, people would call out asking for a story!!! I can also now say I have visited the largest troll in the world (it's even in the Guinness Book of Records) which is unfortunately one of the most tacky tourist destinations I've ever been too. We also had a great fishing trip in the fjord – a local fisherman took us out to where there were some fish and we caught a good many pollock (I managed to catch 7 myself, although I must admit it was hardly more difficult than simply letting the line and hooks down to the sea floor then winding it up again and hey presto, there were 3 fish!). A group of us also tackled the mountain overlooking our hotel, which was a good climb. Unfortunately, the weather turned a bit sour by the time we reached the top so the descent along the crest of the hill was somewhat precarious as the wind did its best to blow us over.

The last night we stayed in Sommarøy, it snowed down to about 500m and Tromsø experienced the lowest overnight temperature of 1.1 degrees Celcius in August since a long time ago (i.e. I can't remember the exact date!). I had a very memorable time there and would love to go back and see more of the country one day. On my way back to London, I spent one night in Oslo and had a quick look around some of the main tourist attractions there including seeing The Scream at the national art gallery, the Nobel Peace Centre, the famous Vigelan Sculpture Park, and the folk museum which was particularly interesting and informative. As you might expect, I took rather a lot of photos so do have a look at them here. I seem to have rambled on for quite a long time, so well done if you made it to the end!

Back to Britain

2007-08-21T13:00:00.000+01:00

Well, what have we been up to since we've been back?

We arrived home in the midst of extensive renovations. The kitchen was mostly done by the time we returned, but the bathroom and toilet and lots of flooring were being upgraded by the lovely Polish builders Lukas and Martin. It was quite exciting going for some days without washing facilities, but we all survived, and the flat looks lovely now.

A church day out with the Good Shepherd Mission took us to the unfortunately named Ugley Hall, where we had a barbeque, the children swam, others played tennis, and we all socialised in the (mostly) sunshine (there were ten minutes or so spent all huddled together under a leaky tarpaulin). Ugley is a gorgeous wee place - the hall had very English gardens and the little church is very picturesque. The day was even rounded off nicely with two small children falling in the fish pond.

Robyn started her summer job at Imperial College just a couple of days after we got back, where she has been working on a clinical trial.

Myself, having some leisure time (ie: trying to find a job), volunteered to help out at the Good Shepherd Mission's outreach week - Fun in the Sun. It's pretty much like a holiday program or a beach mission (though not at the beach), and focuses on the large estate just across from the church, which houses mostly Bangladeshi families. I joined the Social Action team, and spent the week cleaning carpets. It was great fun, and we got to have some interesting conversations with different people as we shampooed their rugs and scrubbed at stains. And I'm a pro at carpet cleaning now! It was also a great opportunity to get to know some of the congregation better.

The Cheltenham Bible Festival sounded an appealing weekend away, so Robyn and I camped out for four nights at the Cheltenham racecourse, meeting Lyndon and Mim during the day to attend the meetings and seminars. There were some great talks, lots of things to see and activites to do, and a huge bookshop tent. A ceilidh one evening was tonnes of fun (and good excercise!) and Bob and I tried our hands at silk painting in the arts and crafts tent. Some highlights of the meetings included hearing Don Carson, Sharon James, and Stuart Townend.

Another fun day out I had was at trip to Hampton Court Palace with a girl from church. We didn't go into the palace itself, but wandered round the gardens and spent some time ooh-ing and ah-ing in the Royal School of Needlework shop. A trip back to look through the buildings is now on my list. . .

Oh, and we've been to a Prom. In a box. I got free tickets for me and Robyn from someone at church, and we went to hear a selection from Saint-Saëns, Fauré, and Debussy. It was gorgeous music, and we had some of the best seats in the whole Royal Albert Hall.

Well, we've done other nice things as well, but I think I'll leave it at that for now. Life in England is pretty busy!

Jersey cows and lavender

2007-08-15T15:50:00.000+01:00

Our two-and-a-half months in Europe was rounded off nicely by a relaxing week on the beautiful Channel Island of Jersey. My (Minnie's) Papa George lived on Jersey for a good many years, and was keen for us to take a look, and we were only too happy to do so.

Arriving at 9.45 in the morning, we had a quick stop at the information centre before catching a bus out to Highlands Hotel (a Christian hotel on the south-western-most point of the island). The bus drivers in Jersey are very friendly - they'll help with directions and even drop you off at the gate, if you're lucky! We were warmly welcomed at our hotel by Alan, the manager, and settled ourselves in before going out for some advice on what to see and do. A nearby lavender farm sounded appealing, and we decided to walk there. We ended up spending a good three or four hours there, admiring the many varieties of plants, feeding chickens, snoozing on the grass, learning about distillation, and sipping lavender tea in the cafe. It was terribly pleasant. A quick trip into St Helier helped us get our bearings a little, and we sat for a while in Liberation Square, admiring the memorial remembering May 1945, when the people were set free from five years of German occupation.

Our first morning at Highlands we were stunned by the superb breakfast put on - anything and everything we could possibly want. We went back into town to have a look around the streets, and found a cafe where we could use the internet for free while sipping on mochas. We had heard that the Logos II was berthed nearby, so we went over to see her, and spent an hour or so looking at books on board. There were lots of good books going for really cheap, so we stocked up and came away with laden arms.

The weather swiftly turned to custard during this week, and on Sunday morning we were blown to church with rain bucketing down upon us. We enjoyed attending Quennevais Evangelical Church. Everyone was very friendly, and we were even offered a lift back to the hotel. We had been advised to join the hotel residents for the Sunday lunch, and it was well worth it. Our table-mates were two lovely Irish ladies, and we had a lovely time chatting over the meal. It was nice to have a properly relaxing Sunday afternoon. We spent it snoozing, reading, resting, etc. . . and then joined in the evening service upstairs, where Derek Moon played the keyboard and spoke.

Jersey Po ttery was another pleasant place that we visited. They make lovely pieces, and have a shop and gallery and some of the workshops open to view.

Monday being £3 movie night, we decided visit the cinema and see Ocean's 13, a good holiday movie (not one I'd choose to see if I had to pay more than £3, but). The theatre was practically abandoned, but we enjoyed ourselves. Back at the bus stop by our hotel, we struggled against the wind down to the coast to take some photos of Corbiere lighthouse. It was hard to take pictures when we couldn't even stand upright - one couldn't even hold the camera still - but we managed to get a few by leaning against the rocks.

A highlight of our time in Jersey was our visit to Gerald Durrell's Wildlife Con servation Centre. While we heard many comments about the zoo being a bit overgrown and scruffy, we found it really interesting, and appreciated the flora as being an attempt to keep the area more natural for the animals, rather than just unkempt. The aviaries were amazing - there were all sorts of rare and beautiful birds flying free around us - and we had fun in the reptile home trying to take photos of bright coloured frogs and peering over bits of bark looking for toads and snakes. It was a very informational zoo, and it was interesting to see where all the different beasties came from originally, and what they ate, and things.

A nice dinner of wood-fired pizza and ginger beer at St Aubin's bay made our last evening nice, though we did miss the bus back to the hotel and had to sit for an hour on the beach while we waited for the next one. Robyn went rambling while I sat and sketched, and then got herself stuck taking a shortcut up a sloped wall. Thankfully a random guy walked past and hauled her up before any damage was done. . .

We got to the airport very early the next day. . . terribly early. . . and sat reading our seedy novels for quite some time before we caught our flight. They have comfy chairs. Our flight was half empty, and we had a cool view of the island as we lifted off, before the clouds covered everything. A very smooth flight back to Gatwick was a peaceful way to end our trip, and we were happy to be home.

Mont St Michel, etcetera

2007-08-13T14:03:00.000+01:00

First thing Thursday morning we were up and headed for the station, catching the early train to Pontorson, famous for being the closest accessible place to Mont St Michel, our humble destination. On disembarking, we found ourselves accosted by an English-speaking Frenchwoman who took half the tourists under her wing and proceeded to instruct us on the ways and wherefores of getting to the Mont. She helpfully told us where we could leave our suitcases for the day, and made sure we were all sorted for catching the 'bus. We were slightly nervous that she was going to coerce us into hiring her as a personal guide, but managed to tactfully distance ourselves in the hope that someone richer would catch her eye.

The bus ride out took twenty minutes or so, and the view as we approached the island was lovely - just like one sees in the pictures. We were deposited at the base, and quickly made our way to the information centre to find out if we could walk around the island (it's a tidal thing). Unfortunately you can only go in a group, with a guide, as there is quicksand. Doing our own thing was more appealing (and more budget-conscious!), so we set up walking along the winding street towards the abbey. Somewhat disappointed by the multitude of extraordinarily tacky tourist shops lining the narrow road, and getting slightly damp by the gusts of rain, we hustled up to enter the abbey and learn about the history of this magnificent fortress. The audio guides here were very informative, and it was fascinating to see the layers of the buildings as they were remodelled and rebuilt over the centuries. We ate our lunch in a little courtyard garden just outside the buildings, and then wandered slowly downhill, finding an old family graveyard and a little chapel dedicated to St Michael, with a silver statue of him slaying the dragon. We finished waiting for the bus in a little cafe, waiting for the rain to stop while writing postcards.

Back in Pontorson we had an hour to wait for the bus to St Malo, which we spent sitting on our suitcases by the bus stop, with umbrellas over our heads, singing hymns. No doubt we provided amusement for the other travellers.

We didn't see much of St Malo, alas, but what we did see was very nice. The Youth Hostel is terribly up to date, with all sorts of activity rooms, and we spent our short evening there, getting early to bed in preparation for an early trip across the Channel in the morning. Setting out at 8am, we had a 45 minute walk in to the port in town, trundling our cases over cobblestones (not fun) along the beachfront (beautiful). We didn't make it into the old walled town, but at least had a nice view of it from the outside as we hurried along. Finding the hdferries terminal was a bit of a mission, but we made it, and there were seats left on the ferry we wanted! We even had a lovely calm crossing over to Jersey. . .

1066 and all that

2007-07-19T14:53:00.000+01:00

We arrived in Bayeux in an odd mixture of sunny blue skies and random dark grey rain clouds. Our hostel was fairly central and, once we managed to find some staff, we were shown up to our room which was lavishly decorated in pink and purple, with a large marble topped chest of drawers and a bidet in the corner. It was reached by a little spiral staircase, which on further investigation proved to lead to two doors sealed up with police tape. We didn't ask.

Strolling downtown to find some maps and lunch, we each got a croque monsieur from a dodgy little kebab shop, and then had a dreadful time trying to dispose of them quietly (they were cold in the middle, and had green spots) while the owner kept coming up and peering at them to see if he could spot what was wrong. The Visitor Centre was more productive, and we picked up some useful brochures on what to see in and around town. We spent the afternoon looking about the Cathedral which, like the whole town, is very airy and light and spacious, then ended up dining on takeaway couscous and veges on a bench in the rain by an old water wheel. Back at the hostel we were kept entertained until bedtime by the sounds of the group of English schoolboys who had taken the room next to ours ('Arry! 'Arry! Where's my towel?). We kept to our room and played some cards, nervous that if we ventured out and through the communal bathroom we might come across a towel-deprived small boy.

Saturday is market day in Bayeux, and we made accordingly for Place Saint Patrice to see what we could find. It is a large and well-known market, with lots of fresh produce and livestock, and we were inspired to stock up on supplies for dinner (having discovered that there was a guest kitchen at the hostel, despite earnest assurances to the contrary by the staff). We spent a long time choosing and admiring the fruit and veg. and chirruping to the cages of chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits which were bundled about awaiting gloomy fates. It started raining, so we thought it would be a good day to visit the tapestry. We arrived at the museum in good time to catch the short movie on the history and making of the amazing piece of needlework, then took audio guides and started at the start. We discarded the guides fairly promptly - you would have to speed walk in order to hear each description at the appropriate panel - and instead looked at our own pace, hearing snatches of description from other people's guides anyway. The Bayeux tapestry is 70 metres long, and it runs around two sides of a darkened L shaped room. We were both inspired to sketch different parts, and really admired the stitching, the way limited colours are used to such great effect, and the amazing use of blank space in the designs.

After a hot chocolate to revive ourselves we visited the Musée Baron Gérard, an edifice to which one gains free entry if one has just visited the tapestry museum. We found some nice collections of lace and of engraved copper plates, but it was small and we didn't stay long. Back at the hostel we cooked ourselves a gourmet meal and ate it in company with an Aussie couple who'd just arrived, watching a video of football blunders (in French) on the old TV.

We found a Baptist church to go to on Sunday morning which, though the service was taken in French, was pastored by an American and had a few other English-speakers in the congregation. We'd brought our lunch, so straight after the service we walked to the British Military Cemetery where, after eating, we spent an hour or two walking around looking at the graves and memorials. Further along were the public gardens, where we sat and read until it got too cold and wet to stay out any longer. Our evening was enlivened by meeting a lovely young Christian couple from the US, and playing a game of giant outdoor chess in the hostel courtyard. Robyn checkmated me three times! (The first two times we were both sure it was checkmate but, on closer inspection to see what I could have done to prevent it, found it to be only check. It's very depressing to be checkmated three times in one game).

The bad thing about travelling in Normandy 'footloose and fancy free' is that one has to rely on the bus system. You would think, the D Day beaches being the visitor attraction in the area, that the bus companies would take this into consideration and think that people may want to spend the day seeing these beaches, and possibly run routes every hour or so. But no. Twice a day is what you get, carefully spaced so you can't spend more than four hours our and about without having to resort to a pricey taxi to get back. They don't know what's good for them.

Anyhow.

We took a bus to Colville-sur-Mer, where the Cimetière Américain is located: the only US cemetery in the area. Without having realised beforehand, we were treated to seeing the new Visitor Centre in its newly opened glory - it had been finished in time for the D Day anniversary not two weeks earlier. It is a really well laid out and informative centre, with video footage from the first days of Operation Overlord, timetables mapped out on the walls, personal reminiscences from troops now and then, and fascinating glimpses into the planning that began it all. Coming up out of the building we were facing the beaches and the English Channel, and over 9000 perfectly aligned white marble crosses and stars of David, all aligned to face toward America. It's an awe-inspiring sight, and I could've spent hours walking up and down the rows reading names. Unfortunately we had assumed that there would be a town nearby with lunch and things available, but this proved not to be the case. Being now around three o'clock, we were kinda hungry, so set off to find sustenance. We started down the long drive and toward St Laurent sur Mer, which was a tad farther than we had originally thought. Arriving at four, we quickly scoffed some lunch and then investigated the transport situation. It was going to take us too long to walk back to Colville to catch the return bus, and it seemed none came through St Laurent. We reduced to calling for one of the aforementioned pricey taxis, and whiled away our time waiting for it in the Musée Memorial d'Omaha Beach. A fairly basic museum, we actually found the captioned photographs very interesting, and were happily occupied until we where picked up and whisked back to Bayeux. A home cooked dinner of bacon-wrapped, brie-stuffed chicken served with rice, corn and carrots was very consoling, and we congratulated ourselves on unearthing some previously dormant traits of domesticity, while inspiring the rest of the hostel inhabitants with envy. A good documentary made the evening educational - 'The True Glory' won the Oscar for best doco in 1946, and was particularly moving as one realised that all the footage of the Allied Invasion was real, not a clever reconstruction as we are so used to seeing today.

On Tuesday we decided to venture out to Arromanches. We arrived at lunchtime, and promptly bought ourselves crepes, which we ate sitting on the sea wall, then going down to paddle our feet and watch a small dog try to create a long distance tunnel to New Zealand. Somewhat sandy, we ventured in to the Musée du Débarquement, holding our shoes behind our backs, and trying not to leave a trail. It proved to be a great museum, focusing on the artificial 'Mulberry Harbours' constructed for the purpose of offloading troops and gear until such time as a permanent harbour had been captured. They were an amazing feat of engineering and secrecy, and it was cool to look at the replica models in the museum and then glance out the window to see the actual remains still sitting in the channel. There was another good documentary shown here, about the construction of the harbours. Once we'd finished we made our way up the hill to Arromanches 360, a cinema with 9 screens set in a circle, showing footage from WWII, interspersed with modern fly-over shots of the same locations now, in peacetime. It was a great show, and I just wished we could have seen it again, to capture more of what was shown (as it was in a circle all around you, you had to turn to see what caught your eye, and missed some things that happened behind). As we made out of the theatre and down to catch the bus, we were taken aback by being deluged with a sudden downpour of rain. It came out of no-where, and we were drenched in minutes! A damp bus ride home was followed by a hot dinner (stir fry) and conversation with other hostelers while we dried out.

We had decided to splurge, and take a guided tour of some of the D Day sites. Feeling we would learn more this way, and maybe be taken to some spots we wouldn't otherwise be able to get to, we booked in for a one day Battlebus tour, visiting the main British sites of the first days of the invasion. Battlebus is a British company, and we felt that as we had seen some of the American sites by ourselves, we would appreciate hearing some of the British side of things. It also appealed to us that it was just a shuttle bus, with only 7 of us and the guide. And our guide, Stuart, was great - very knowledgeable and excited to share the history with us. We started off inland, at the first drop site for Canadian and British paratroopers. We learnt about some of their early missions, and how they had to take the beach defences so that the troops arriving by sea could land. It was amazing to see the bunkers and look at marks still left on buildings where there had been gunfire. Stuart told us lots of stories of individual soldiers and their acts of bravery, and we saw some of their graves later in the day at a little cemetery. The one museum we went to on our tour was at the Pegasus Bridge site, the museum actually housing the original bridge. There were some great photos of the troops, and lots of their gear displayed. After looking through the museum we went to look at the new bridge, a replica which stands just meters from where the old one was. We even saw it go up and down a few times, as we walked where the gliders landed carrying the men who took the bridge. A German bunker was next on the schedule, and it was fun to stoop through the tunnels and pop our heads out of the machine gun turrets. It was a huge bunker system, stretching out to fill the entire hill, and must have used tonnes and tonnes of concrete. Our last stop was the Ranville war cemetery, one of the smallest British memorials, where we spent half an hour or so.

Back in Bayeux, we raced to our hostel to collect our cases and then hustled down to the railway station to go to our next destination, St Malo. Unfortunately there were no trains running that far at that time of the evening, or anywhere else we wanted to go, so we went as far as possible, which was Saint-Lô, a French town in the middle of no-where. We didn't know where there was to stay, and were hanging around the station waiting for the English speaking attendant to come, when we were accosted by a Kiwi guy (from Hamilton!) and his French girlfriend, who offered to drop us off at the Formule 1! They were absolutely lovely, and drove us there, and the hotel turned out to be cheaper than lots of the hostels we'd stayed in. It was basic, but all we needed for one night.

Rouen

2007-07-19T13:41:00.000+01:00

We took a train through the French countryside to Rouen, city of churches and all things Catholic. Arriving at middday, we trundled into town and Robyn sat in the square suitcase-minding while I went to hunt for a hostel. It must have been a busy week tourist-wise, as many places were fully booked, but I finally found a cheap, if somewhat smoky, hotel overlooking the courthouse. A challenging room in a few respects, it had a shoulder height shower head in the bathroom, causing one to adopt a high Anglican approach to washing - I had to keep kneeling down in the bath to rinse my hair. Robyn didn't have this problem, funnily enough. There was a TV, though, and we enlivened a few of our evenings by watching French dubbed CSI and Friends.

Rouen is a great shopping town, and is positively bristling with baby and maternity stores. It's almost frightening how many there are. . . We enjoyed some retail therapy, and found some lovely presents for people. Dinner on our first night was found at an Italian restaurant with pavement tables. We were both intrigued by Robyn's pizza being doused in cream - an odd custom, but tasty.

Our Tuesday afternoon was spent in an excursion to the village of Giverny - home of the late Claude Monet. We travelled there by bus and train, and eventually arrived at a green spot with a pathway to the village street (Rue Claude Monet!). Pausing at a wee bridge for a quick game of Poohsticks (Bob won), we went first to the famous pink house and gardens. The house is gorgeous - huge rooms painted in bright solid colours, with big windows and a kitchen all tiled in blue-and-white with copper pans hanging on the walls. If Mrs Monet was of a domestic turn of mind at all she must have been a very happy woman. We had a wander through the front, more formal, garden, then crossed under the road to the more wild garden with the famous ponds, waterlilies and Japanese bridge. It was a beautiful garden, and we spent a long time watching dragonflies and taking photos of anything that would stay still long enough.

Dragging ourselves away, we had a short stroll through the gardens of the American Impressionist Museum (complete with poppy field) and ate an ice cream on our way up to see the church - a Medieval building with a lovely cemetery. We had to scurry back to catch the last bus, but wished we'd had longer to look around.

There is a church in Rouen dedicated to Sainte Jeanne d'Arc (situated just meters from where she was burned) and we spent some time there the next day. It is a modern building, influenced in design by ships, and is very thought provoking. It was a good place to sit and recap our historical knowledge of the Maid. We also planned to visit the tower where she was tortured, but found it was closed for a couple of weeks. Feeling ourselves somewhat thwarted, we visited instead the Musée de la céramique, where we admired the building more enthusiastically than the ceramics - there was a room clad entirely in hand painted wooden panels, each depicting a different fruit or flower. With time to kill, we then made our way to the Museum of Fine Arts, where we were favourably impressed with the clear descriptions of paintings and styles, and spent some time looking at a display of ikons and impressionist works, also admiring the modern installations in the foyer and stairwells.

Despite dismal wet weather, we wanted to visit the town of Etretat, on the Norman coast. We took a train and, on arriving, immediately hustled into a restaurant to escape the downpour and get some lunch. It was a great place - we each had crêpes and I enjoyed a local cider, and we were kept entertained by a waiter who unfortunately dropped a seafood platter just by Robyn's feet. There were shrimps everywhere! Nipping out when we spied a break in the rain we made for the beach, and admired the cliffs. There is a little church perched atop one of the cliffs, and we climbed the slippery path up to it (getting drenched in the process) to find a sweet stone building with large fish gargoyles along the sides of the low sloping roof, doing their best to drain the gutters. We hung around for a while, then descended back to the town where we patronised another café and dried out while sipping hot chocolates and writing postcards.

We had an early train to catch the next morning, and just had time to have a peep inside the Cathedral before we left. I found a pretty spiral staircase near the front of the church, and would like to explore it further some time. We had to leave fairly hastily, as we had been intrigued each morning by commotions and goings-on outside the courthouse opposite our room. There must have been a high profile case being tried, as there were vans escorted by helicopters and about 14 different types of policemen hanging about. On our last morning Robyn made the mistake of peeping out at them from between the curtains, only to find a 'sniper' aiming his weapon at her from the roofline of the courthouse! Each time she peeped he swung it around, and then later when she tried to take a photo of another cop down in the courtyard he spotted her and shook his finger 'no'. I thought they'd be waiting at the door below for us! but no such luck.

Paris, Part the Second

2007-07-06T16:50:00.000+01:00

We wanted to see the Conciergerie, that imposing edifice of terror, but after searching in the wrong quarter of Paris for quite some time, we found it to be closed for the day. Special circumstances, apparently. We abandoned culture for the Galleries Lafayette (more specifically, Printemps department store)(see: Jane Shaw, Crooks Tour) and enjoyed wandering over eight floors of goodies - they have an amazing kitchenware department. Just down the road, we joined a small group of people doing a free tour of a little perfumerie. Unfortunately the tour was in French only, but it was good to wander around following the guide - one could pick up on the general gist of what was happening. We had a nice time smelling different scents.

The Musée d'Orsay was another museum on our 'must see' list and, once there, we made straight for the Impressionist wing. It was amazing to see works by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, etc. "in the flesh", as it were. We spent a long time wandering by ourselves through the building, taking lots of photographs and again spending a bit of time in the bookshop. We like museum bookshops.

Having ascertained that the Conciergerie would be open on Friday we made for it by a more direct route and were x-rayed and allowed in. The first room one enters is the giant Men-at-Arms hall. Adorned with great arched pillars and whopping fireplaces, we spent ages trying to sketch the vaulting. Apart from being a huge dining hall, this was also where impoverished prisoners slept during the reign of terror. Through to the left were the concierge's rooms, cells for slightly more wealthy prisoners, and other 'reception' chambers. These had great information boards in both French and English, and we learnt a lot. One room was particularly interesting, with the names of guillotined 'traitors' listed all around the walls. I was intrigued to notice that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were listed under 'L' and 'M' respectively, not under Capet. Odd. The female prisoner's courtyard was very nice - they had a fountain to wash in and everything. We were also able to see the cell where Marie Antoinette was held. It has been bisected, and half is now part of a chapel, while the other half has been restored to look as it did when she was there.

We next took the Metro up to Montmartre, to look in some of the arcades dotted about. One we particularly enjoyed was the Jouffroy, which specialises in toys, miniatures and crafts. There was lots of inspiration there. We returned to the Louvre for their Friday late night, and this time enjoyed the Dutch and French galleries. We got a little lost looking for some areas (ending up in the foundations of the Palace a few times) but again found our way to the bookshops before closing. It wasn't getting dark until after 10o'clock while we were in Paris, so we decided to hang around the pyramid for a while, watching the lights coming on and taking multitudes of photos. It's a great environment, just lying around on the pavement squinting at the pyramids from different angles and watching the street lights coming on. We were somewhat surprised on leaving to find our way across the road blocked off by crowds and gendarmes. There was a roller derby on, down one of the main streets of Paris! Hundreds of skaters (interspersed with policemen wearing regulation 'blades and helmets) were whizzing past us into the night. It was great! Everyone was having a wonderful time. We stood and watched for about a quarter of an hour before they had all gone past and we were able to get over the road and back to our hostel.

On Saturday morning we went a-market hunting. Arriving at Montmartre, we first came across a tacky market area with nothing of any taste whatsoever. Feeling that we had been duped, we were not in a mood to spend long there, but thankfully caught sight of a sign before we left which listed the different arcades and markets, and showed where they were. We just needed to go a bit further, and we found them! They still weren't exactly what I had been looking forward to, but were fun to wander around nevertheless. Though we decided we would be much more enthusiastic if we had a few thousand euro each and a container ready to tote our goodies away. Ah well.

One of the highlights to our visit to Paris was our tour of the Paris sewer system. Drawn in by the romance of Jean Valjean, we descended below the street and spent a couple of hours learning about one of the most advanced sewer systems in the world. Strolling along metal grilles over the rushing streams below, we were shown the history, technology and workings of the amazing 'city below Paris'. Aside from the dire warnings posted, threatening you with dread diseases if you touched the pipes or walls or ate anything whilst below, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, ending in the Visitor Centre where we watched a touching documentary on the 24 hour hotline one can call if one drops a wedding ring down the drain, or accidentally flushes a goldfish that wasn't quite gone yet. Being a fully accessible system, they can rescue pretty much anything. Pretty impressive!

Saturday evening was spent munching pastries from Paul down by the Seine, watching the world go by. A very pleasant past time.

On Sunday morning, after a fruitless attempt to find somewhere that would sell us a hot breakfast (or at least something more than the vending machine pain au chocolat we got from our hostel), we made our way to an English speaking church we had found. After the service we caught a train out to Versailles, where we grabbed a bite of lunch before queueing for the palace. We bought tickets allowing us access to the palace and grounds, and obtained audio guides to tell us what was what. Some hightlights were: the Opera theatre - a beautifully arranged room decorated in light blue and gold; the Hall of Mirrors (obviously); Marie Antoinette's rooms - I liked her decorating style; and, of course, the views from the windows of the gardens below. The gardens were amazing, with probably more fountains than reside in the whole of New Zealand. We wandered for a bit, eating ice creams, and sat by a large fountain where we witnessed a proposal of marriage! Robyn tried to take a paparazzi photo without being too conspicuous, but I think they may have noticed us. . .

Monday morning was our last in Paris, and we set off by train, hoping to stop at Giverny on our way to Rouen. Unfortunately everything in Giverny proved to be closed on Mondays, so we just made straight for our next stop.

Paris, Part the First

2007-07-05T12:39:00.000+01:00

So, we arrived in Paris mid afternoon at the Gare de Lyon. After finding maps, metro tickets, etc we made our way to the main Auberge Jeunesse (Youth Hostel), where we were able to book a room for one night only. Being fairly tired we went with this and had an early night, fortified by a hostel dinner. The next morning we were told we could stay one more night, but would have to move rooms. We did this, but decided to see if we could find another hostel.

Catching the metro into town we emerged by the Seine, and I had my first view of the Eiffel Tower (Bob has jaunted round Paris before, albeit briefly). We had decided a boat trip would be a good way to orient ourselves and see some of the sights, so we boarded a sightseeing boat to take us along the river. It was a largish boat, with fairly uncomfortable seats, and an audio commentary in four languages that went on the fritz whenever we went under a bridge (and Paris has many). Still, we learnt a bit, and saw what was where. After we alighted we walked up the gardens toward the Louvre and staved off the pangs with a crepe from a cunning little cart. The gardens are lovely, and are well used. They are plentifully supplied with benches and seats and fountains and lots of grass and hedges to sit behind. The Parisians know a thing or two about public greenery. We thought it would be helpful to find the Information Centre, so went into town and hunted, getting slightly distracted on the way by various chocolate shops. We did make it there eventually and invested in museum passes.

On Tuesday morning we packed our bags and moved to Hostel Blue Planet, a somewhat more central hostel (right opposite the train station, in fact) with lots of stairs and a bizarre key system. The dormitory room one was staying in had only one key. Hence, the first person to get back to the hostel in the evening would let herself in, and then open the door for all the other people sharing the room as they appeared throughout the night. The excitement was also heightened by the fact of there being a bathroom in the room, separated from everything else by a pair of cupboard doors with a one inch gap between them. So lovely.

A trip to past the Sorbonne was called for, particularly as we had heard rumours of certain English language second hand bookshops being located in the vicinity. Find them we did, then carried on toward the Eiffel Tower. The tower is huge. There is a massive open area below it, with queues for people with different priorities under the different supporting pillars. We decided to do it properly, and obtained tickets to allow us to climb the steps to the second floor. It was a long way up, but they have very kindly put little information boards at strategic points up the stairways, allowing you to stop and read and catch your breath in a subtle manner. At the first floor there was a walkway around the perimeter and various displays on the history and build of the tower, as well as a post office. We stopped for a few minutes, then mounted to the second floor. Here were displays of Mr Gustave Eiffel's offices and an interesting feature on references to the tower in popular culture, the media, etc. The second floor is as high as you can go by foot, so we purchased further tickets to take us to level three in the elevator. It was quite a scary ride, as you watched the struts of the structure getting narrower and narrower, and rising higher and higher. It didn't feel like it should stay up! It was fine up there, though, the views were gorgeous and we could find which direction it was to various points around the world, and how far away they were. We wrote a couple of postcards before coming down again, descending right to the bottom by lift, as the staircases had been closed.

That evening, back at the hostel, I discovered that I had, yet again, reset my combination padlock. After an hour or so of trying to come across the new combination, I went down to ask for some wire cutters at the hostel reception. Unfortunately the wire cutter man was not going to be in again until the morning. No problem. I had purchased, in Switzerland, a wee gadget known as a Swiss Military Tool, and I discovered that I could saw through the shackle! Time consuming, but satisfying.

Our trip to Notre Dame was great. We started off inside the main part of the cathedral, where we admired the windows, statues and architecture. A balsa scale model of the building on display was very cool - it even had little balsa gargoyles! We then went up the towers, climbing steep stone spiral staircases. We saw the staircase that led to Esmeralda's cell, and the bells that made Quasimodo deaf. We were able to walk around the towers at a half way point and at the top. It's amazing to see the cathedral from a bird's eye view. You can even see, marked out down below, where the foundations of the ancient church that preceded the cathedral lay. After a lunch from our favourite crêperie, eaten in the gardens at the back of the Île de la Cité, we decided to have a look at the crypts. Under the courtyard and buildings of Notre Dame, these display excavated remains of the ancient city of Paris. It was an interesting exhibition, with buttons to press to light up different features of the ruins. Feeling we needed a little worldly relief, we then proceeded to the Champs-Élysées, where we spent up in the Häagen-Dazs shop and tiptoed round Louis Vuitton. Our noses were aimed for the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the street, and we arrived there to continue in our step climbing experience. We both particularly admired the display of dried ferns (those which, in years gone by, had adorned the tomb of the unknown soldier underneath the arch). A contingent of young French soldiers was visiting the monument at the same time as us, and we greatly admired their yellow tasselled epaulettes. After visiting the top of the building, and seeing yet another view of Paris, we descended to discover that the soldiers had not just been enjoying a field trip. As we reached the bottom of the stairs we were herded behind some barriers (that had not been there when we went up). Curious as to what was going to happen, we hung around for the next hour and a half, watching a French memorial celebration, of what we had no idea. There were veterans and wreaths and a military marching band, roadblocks and gendarmes galore. What infuriated us, though, was the fact that there were twenty-one cunning little soldiers with twenty-one guns at the ready, and did they do a twenty-one gun salute? No, they did not. We were not happy campers. I mean, really, what is the point? They were right there, and everything.*

Having been somewhat delayed by this fascinating ritual, we hot-footed it down to the Louvre. It is open late on Wednesday and Friday nights, so we thought we may as well make the most of a free evening of culture. As we weren't sure how long we'd have altogether we made a beeline for Mona, noting with approval on the way the many squishy benches and chairs dotted about the galleries in a pleasing regularity. We found Leonardo's lady in a room not nearly as dim and dungeon-like as we had been lead to believe. She was very nice, and all that; we admired her greatly before descending back to the well-stocked bookshop under the pyramid, where we spent a happy 20 minutes or so before being 'asked to leave' by the door guards - they shut up shop very promptly! We resolved to return to see other parts of the museum and more of the bookshop. . .

*NB - the military display was actually a D-Day celebration. We spent the whole time trying to puzzle out what it was, thinking of D-Day, but rejecting it as we assumed that would have been a national holiday. It's not. It was odd, too, as the tomb of the unknown soldier was dated 1914-1918, and D-Day was WWII. The French are weird sometimes.

Amazing Alps! Wubbish Weather.

2007-07-03T17:01:00.000+01:00

Our trip to Interlaken, from Bern, was taken by train. We followed the breathtaking scenery closer and closer to the Alps, until we came to the town which is nestled at the foot, between two lakes (funnily enough). We trundled ourselves along to the hostel we had booked to stay in, Balmer's Herberge, following the handy signposts. It is the hostel in town. We didn't know this when we booked, or we possibly would have opted for somewhere more sedate. Hindsight is a marvellous thing. Halfway along on our journey I discovered I had left a carry bag (containing a blank Venetian mask, an Italian poster for the movie Roman Holiday, and goodness knows what else) on the train. I practically wept. We carried on, however, and arrived to plonk our stuff in our dormitory, charmingly furnished with red gingham curtains and bedspreads. We strolled back into town to have a look at the alarming array of tourist shops stretched along the streets, then back to the hostel, then back to town for dinner supplies, then back again to the hostel. So much to-ing and fro-ing. It was enough to make one dizzy. However, we cooked ourselves a proper dinner in the somewhat limited 'kitchen' and had a nice time chatting to a couple of Kiwi girls in our dorm before bed.

The view out our dorm window in the morning was amazing. Steep rooftops leading up to snowy alpine peaks (it had snowed two days before we arrived) and blue blue sky above. We'd been a little out of touch with family, so made use of an internet cafe just down the road to do some emailing, etc. When one wasn't typing one was captivated/horror-struck/intrigued (strike out those that do not apply) by footage of various of the adventure sports advertised in the area. Some are quite remarkably dangerous looking (see: canyoning). After trotting in to town to try to discover how to reclaim baggage left on Swiss trains (bureaucracy) we bussed out to the Lake Brienz shore at Bönigen where we found a place to hire a pedal boat for an hour. The lake was lovely, and we had a happy time chasing coots and pedalling under the big bridge. Back on dry land we found some benches we had spotted from the water and had a nice hour or two reading and sleeping in the sun. In the evening, after a sumptuous feast of hand made burritos, we employed ourselves gainfully by improving our snooker skills. A necessary ladylike accomplishment. We're fairly evenly matched (Robyn has the skill, I get the flukes) so it's fun.

Friday was raining raining raining. With a spot of rain on the side. We had been hoping to go up Jungfraujoch, but that was well and truly out of the question, so we spent most of the day fluffing around in the hostel, with a brief trip to town to restore our sanity in a coffee shop. All adventure sports being somewhat dependent on the weather, the hostel was inundated with people who had nowt to do but turn to the bottle. So nice for the rest of us.

The weather was much improved down in Interlaken on Saturday, but the live cameras showing the view at Jungfraujoch were still only picturing white (snow, or cloud? both, possibly), so we rethought our plan of action. Trümmelbach sounded a likely spot, so we took a train up the valley in search of waterfalls and sleepy Swiss countryside. We found it! We alighted from the train at a wee town called Lauterbrunnen, then took a bus to the falls at Trümmelbach. The falls drain the glaciers of the Eiger, Jungfrau and Monk, and hurtle the icy water through paths carved inside the mountains. It is a wet experience, but definitely worthwhile. There are twelve or so vantage points to see different parts of the falls from, and one gets to them by elevator and steps and paths inside the mountain. It was gorgeous. We walked back to the town, rather than take the bus again, and saw lovely Swiss cows with bells on and dozens of other waterfalls against the cliffs. Lots of wandering and a game of mini-golf later we returned to Interlaken to have dinner at a local fondue-serving place. The fondue wasn't really that amazing. It would have been nicer with veges to dip in (not just bread) but it was fun to try.

We'd found a leaflet advertising a church that we thought we'd like to go to on Sunday morning, before heading off to Avignon. We decided to book our train reservations, as we were ready early, so made our way to the station. It was a good thing we did, as we quickly discovered that there were no reservations available to go to Avignon, either on the train we had planned or on any other train that day. We had to do some thinking on our feet, and instead booked tickets to Paris. We'll have to see the South of France another time. . .

Bears in Bern

2007-06-30T17:06:00.000+01:00

We liked the Swiss capital. We only stayed for two nights, but it was very pleasant, albeit damp. Arriving in the evening, we booked into our hostel and settled ourselves in. It was relatively late and raining so we didn't go out to see anything of the town, but enjoyed a nice early night.

Our first tourist spot was, of course, the bear pits, though we did stop on the way to them to have a look inside a very cool 19th-century church (it had Swiss flowers painted on the ceiling). One bear was out and active and very kindly ambled up and down for us. The pits are fairly Victorian in style, but they are building newer, more natural habitat-y pits to be opened next year, I think. We hung over the edge for a while talking to it, then went into the visitor centre to get transport cards.

Bern was the city in which young Albert Einstein was residing when he decided that e equalled mc

2

. There are all sorts of museums about his life and science, and we decided to start with the Natural History Museum. Unfortunately the exhibition there proved to be temporary only, and hence not covered by our travel and attraction cards. We decided to give it a miss and snobbed them for the Alpine Museum over the road. This was a basic sort of museum, not too interactive, with lots of relief maps of the Alps and stuffed alpine animals. It was here that we, sadly, had our only glimpse of edelweiss, and that dried and in a tacky kind of display case. Still, it wasn't that bad. They had some very good books on alpine things and we watched a sweet, if somewhat soporific, slide show. We then went to the house where Einstein had lived, which is now a museum dedicated to his discoveries in Bern. It was very well displayed, with the rooms set up as they were when he lived there and facsimiles of many of his notes, etc. It was good to learn a little bit more about him.

We decided not to leave Bern straight away on the Wednesday, but took a funicular up to a hill on the edge of town that promised good views and a playground. It was actually a great amusement area, with a little train, a huge wooden activity area, little gypsy caravans and cable cars to sit in, and odd sculptures. The Swiss really know how to do good playgrounds. We had a nice snooze on the green grass for a while before going back down and making our way to the station.

Roadtrip!

2007-06-29T16:42:00.000+01:00

After we'd had a brief look around Basel with Andrew and Rob, we set off toward Germany. We were stopped at the border, and our passports checked, which was exciting. Robyn had left hers in her case in the boot and had to spend some time rummaging for it. We were waved through finally and drove on, with an audio commentary from the GPS ("in 200 metres, bear left") (not that kind of bear. That would be silly). Our first stop was in a tiny village where we patronised the gasthaus for kaffe and apfelsaft (a nice apple juice drink). The room we were in had a big ceramic heater just like we'd seen in the Tyrolean Museum in Innsbruck, which was cool. We then drove up into the hills and stopped at a clearing to stretch our legs and take photos. The scenery was gorgeous - hills and valleys with dark shaggy trees and mist and cloud rolling between them. Cameras were kept poised and ready for action the whole way.

The guys had booked accommodation for the first night in Freiburg, and they'd treated us to a hotel! (For their benefit as well as ours). Bob and I were very impressed and, as soon as we got up to our room, simeltaneously squealed "ooh, a bath!". It was terribly exciting, and we swiftly made sure we would be in for the evening to indulge. There were even little packets of sweeties on the pillows! We wandered down to have a look at some of the town before finding a place for dinner. The munster (cathedral) was very impressive, and there were some lovely buildings along the streets of the town. Also an odd thing - small ditches of water running along one side of every street. Nobody fell in, though it wasn't for lack of trying. We found a lovely little eatery in the food area of town where we all tried spätzle - a German speciality. It's a kind of extruded pasta/gnocchi type substance, and was presented to us in individual little cast iron pans with cheese and other flavourings. A good comfort food, we decided, and very nice. Back at the hotel we had our baths (bliss!) and went to bed (only slightly delayed by an acute attack of giggles I had in the elevator), revelling in the hotel-y-ness of it all.

We checked out bright and early the next morning and headed off for Lake Titisee. It's a holiday destination lake, and is very pretty. The weather wasn't that amazing, so we just parked the car and had a little walk, stopping in the town at a little general food store to get some lunch supplies for later on. We carried on driving up country and found a lovely look out point to stop for lunch and a sermon (Robyn had to restrain herself throughout from taking photos of the mist through the trees). Further on we came to an industrial town called Schwennigan, where we found a little clock museum. It was really interesting, focussing not on the clocks themselves so much as the production of them. There was nobody else there when we arrived, and an English speaking chap came out and gave us a personal guided tour which lasted for about an hour and a half! He was very enthusiastic and showed us how all the different machines worked and told us about the history of the industry in the area and the uses of the time clocks and various other things they made. At the end we got to try out a 'build your own clock' kit, which actually worked (once we'd put it together the right way). After leaving there we made straight for Baden-Baden (actually a town nearby where we were booked to stay). We asked for dinner recommendations at the hotel and were directed to a family restaurant with a great range of local cuisine. We had a fun dinner with lots of giggles and tasty food.

On Monday morning we decided to go to France for breakfast. We drove to Strasbourg (after extricating ourselves from the revolving door at the hotel - two people with two suitcases is too much for one compartment!). Parking in a mall, we had a nice pastry breakfast and went for a stroll towards the cathedral, a large pink structure. We didn't stay long, as it was drizzling and not much to do, and headed back into Germany and the Black Forest. We enjoyed our scenic drive and were intrigued, on stopping by the road for lunch, on finding an old Nazi bunker entrance in a hillside. Quite random. Afternoon tea was had at a scenic (spying wind turbines and a cable car through the clouds) spot, sampling Black Forest Gateau. Seeing as we couldn't really explore anywhere we went back to Basel and had a short stroll, before we caught a train down to Bern and the boys returned to the airport and London.

A Short Sojurn in Basel

2007-06-28T09:16:00.000+01:00

We next stayed a night in Basel, as we had arranged to meet up with Bob's brother and a friend the next day for a wee roadtrip. We paused in our train journey from Lucerne to Basel in a little town called Zofingen - a pretty place with some lovely buildings and fountains and even a comfortable bench to snooze on!

Basel is a busy place. It was a hot day when we arrived, and we had a very warm walk from the station to an odd little hostel in a converted industrial warehouse. After a rest we did some exploring of the town - we found some cool chocolate shops and had a look inside the church.

The next morning we trundled our luggage into town to sit on some steps and eat breakfast, then made our way to a market square: Petersplatz (there was supposed to be a weekend market there, anyhow, but there wasn't). We appropriated a bench facing the road and took turns going for a wander while we waited for the boys. They arrived promptly in a car (yay!) and wandered downtown with us for a quick look. It was funny - they kept pointing out the lovely old buildings which we had become somewhat blasé about - we only respond to really amazing ones now :o)

Lucerne

2007-06-13T19:09:00.000+01:00

Lucerne was our first stop in Switzerland, and very nice it was, too. We arrived by train early-ish in the evening, and had a pleasant time baffling a bus driver by catching the correctly numbered bus to get to our hostel, but in the wrong direction, and hence doing a tour of the city instead of taking a 5 minute journey. The hostel was a little tricky to find - they didn't blow their budget on signage - but very nice indeed once we did locate it. It had a lovely kitchen (yay!) and our two bed room had its own balcony. We were fairly tired, so hopped into bed shortly after 9pm, only to be alerted by the sound of loud booms coming from the direction of the lake. I was convinced Switzerland was being invaded, but Robyn went and leaned over the balcony and spied fireworks through the trees. We jumped out of bed and threw our Oxford hoodies on over our pjs (classy, I assure you) and raced downstairs, out of the hostel, over the bridge, and through the woods (no, not really, I'm just getting carried away). To the lake front, anyway, where we sat on the beach and enjoyed a magnificent view of the best fireworks display either of us have ever seen. The explosions were huge bursts of colour reflected in the lake - they were enormous, and the show lasted for a good half hour. We had no idea what it was in aid of, but discovered back at the hostel that it was the anniversary of one of the train companies. We were very impressed, and thought it was the best welcome to a country we had had yet.

Wednesday morning was hot, and, on our tiki-tour the day before, we had spotted a pedal boat hire place on the lake, which we therefore made for. We hired a boat for an hour and headed our towards the centre of the lake, admiring the lovely buildings on the shore and dabbling our toes in the water. It was very pleasant, and Robyn even ended up going for a swim. Back on dry ground we headed for the Verkehrshaus (the Transport Museum), where we planned on visiting the Planetarium and the IMAX theatre. The Planetarium show was first, and we enjoyed a nice relaxing sit in our reclining chairs and leant back to watch the show. It was, perhaps, a tad athiestic, not to mention horoscopical, but interesting nevertheless, especially as I had never been to one before. Next was the IMAX, where we watched a doco called 'Alpen' (recorded in English, dubbed into German, and listened to by us in the original English via an audio guide. Terribly convoluted). It was about a chap called John Harlin III, who climbed the Eiger's North Face via a route that his father had climbed and fallen from. It was very interesting, showing his preparation for the climb and the climb itself - terribly moving. After we were done here we went to have a quick look at the museum proper before it closed. We were so disappointed we hadn't come earlier to have more time! It is an amazing complex (think of MOTAT, only bigger and better and better). There are units on trains, cars, space travel, air travel, communications, ships, and cartography. You can whizz from one exhibit to another on little scooters that are left along the paths, and the displays are filled with interactive simulations and games. We were running around like little kids until they closed, flying 'copters and manning space missions, recording TV newsreels and directing air traffic control. It was wonderful.

A wander through town the next day revealed an English bookshop - so exciting! We have the ability to spend a good long time in bookshops. . . We'd thought we'd like to have a swim so, as I remembered seeing a beach on the other side of the lake, we walked around. . . and around. . . and a little bit further. . . It turned out the beach was a lot farther round than I had thought and it cost to use it! So rude! We took a bus back to the wee beach near our hostel.

We also enjoyed seeing the Lion of Lucerne. It's a massive statue carved into a cliff face portraying a dying lion. It's amazingly well done.

All in all, Lucerne was a favourite destination. It's a gorgeous town in a lovely country.

An Austrain Gem

2007-06-13T19:06:00.000+01:00

We arrived at Innsbruck on Saturday the 19th, and headed straight to Kranebitten Allee. A caravan in a campsite here was our accomodation for the next few nights. It's a lovely location for a campsite with beautiful views of the snow-capped mountains and lovely green valleys. We were quite excited at the presence of a gas stovetop in our little caravan, but come nightfall, the novelty of our little place wore off somewhat as we were plagued by flies. It was the old juxtaposition of being hot and stuffy if you didn't open the door and windows or being covered with flies if you opted for fresh air. I ended up having to go on a killing spree with a rolled up magazine every night before bed to save us from the horror of having flies crawling over our faces as we slept (we then had to step rather carefully in the morning to avoid treading on the bodies!). It was the smallest bed we had slept on in all our travels - a 'double' bed not much bigger than a single. Apart from Minnie's insistence one night at sprawling her legs over my portion of the bed (Minnie claims no recollection of this event), it was fairly comfortable sleeping though. The other inconvenience was no running water - we had to go all the way up the hill to the toilet blocks and fill whatever vessels we could lay our hands on. A minigolf course down the road had caught our eyes earlier, so we paid a visit after dinner. It was a rather random course, quite new but not a normal get-the-ball-round-the-obstacles-and-into-the-hole type course - it was more of an aim-carefully-and-you-get-more-points type. Some of it was rather fun, such as making your golf ball doing loop-the-loops, but other holes were either extremely difficult or unintelligible to anyone unable to read the German explanation of how to score points. I also had the misfortune of using a golfball which insisted on going far distances away from the course, off into the bushes. It was an interesting idea though.

A cooked breakfast started off our Sunday (we reckoned it was a good way to make the day special, and celebrate our having the facilities to cook!), of the bacon and fried bread variety - rather delicious, although it did smoke out the caravan somewhat. We headed off to an evangelical church we had found on the internet, once again arriving slightly late to a strange service which appeared to be a mass Anglican confirmation service. There were so many visitors and relatives we had to stand in the doorway. Needless to say, we understood little due to the language barrier, but they had a lovely German hymn they had sung at Graz which we really like. We then headed off up the hill to the Alpine Zoo, which really was very well done. They had all sorts of interesting creatures there including fish and birds, and had very good displays for each one, showing pictorially their habitat, predators, diet, distribution etc. We spent a good long time there, and ate our picnic lunch by the otter enclosure. It was a beautiful day so we decided to head up to the top of the mountain, taking first a bus, then two separate cable cars to a height of over 2000m. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time due to the lateness of the hour and our reluctance to face a very long walk down the mountain had we missed the last cable car down. It was very beautiful, with patches of snow everywhere, mountain goats roaming, and amazing views of the town below. We took great lungsfull of the mountain air, snapped a few photos and threw a few snowballs before rushing back to the cable car, wishing we had had the forethought to come here earlier.

On Monday, we spent time wandering round the old town, taking in the lovely half-timbered and painted houses and popping into a few shops here and there. The mian attractions of the day were the Museum of Tyrolean Folk Art and Life, and the Glockenspiel (Bell) Museum. Both were quite fascinitating, the former housing all sorts of things to convey what life was like for the farmers of the region back in the days (Tyrol includes the western part of Austria of which Innsbruck is part, and the top part of Italy) : models of different types of farmhouses, complete with explanations of the different regions where they dominated; displays of items from kitchens and living rooms, and relating to farming and other industries; rooms decked out as they would have been with beautifully carved wooden beams and walls and lovely wooden furniture; and traditional clothing worn by remarkably lifelike wooden models with very detailed and individual faces. Time limitations meant we had to rush through parts of it, but we thoroughly enjoyed what we saw. The Grassmayr Glockenspiel Museum was similarly fascinating as it showed just how a bell is cast. It is an industry I knew little of but was most interesting to learn about. The bells are made according to precise measurements to ensure they sound at the correct pitch, and a number of stages are needed to ensure this. The large bells are cast in the ground and a video showed us the amazing spectacle of the molten brass running along the channels into the pit. They had lots of different bells you could dong yourself to gain an appreciation for the different sounds produced - rather fun and noisy :-)

The following morning we planned to dump our luggage at the train station and pay a visit to the Swarovski Crystal World. This was not quite as simple as it seemed. The station only had the narrowest lockers available for hire that really wouldn't fit any sort of luggage of a decent size, and some rather harrowing moments were spent trying to ascertain if any other storage was available while Minnie went to beg the unwilling shuttle bus driver to please wait for Robyn to sort things out - we had to resort to dumping some bags and taking the suitcases with us. Fortunately, the kind lady at the desk when we arrived was willing to store our suitcases in the staff room once we assured her they wouldn't fit in the miniscule lockers provided. The entrance, through the mouth of "the giant's" head which was formed from the hillside, was rather stunning. The 'body' of the giant consisted of about 10 rooms of different themes and displays, some more crystal-related than others, but all designed by famous people, and very shiny. The world's largest cut crystal took pride of place in the first room, and it was enormous. Some of our favourite displays were: the crystal-mirror dome with its cool ever-changing lighting effects, a giant crystal jellyfish complete with long pretty tentacles, and a room devoted to the history of the company and Swarovski family. The shop was huge, with every item imaginable decorated with or made from crystals - very blingy. We were most offended by a crystal globe which depicted New Zealand as a streak of no form. After the shuttle back to Interlaken, we had time for a leisurely lunch before departing Austria, hopefully to return again someday.

The Hills are Alive!

2007-06-01T10:01:00.001+01:00

Salzburg! We had had a confusing time booking accommodation in Salzburg, and had ended up booking two beds in a gästhaus, knowing the phone number, but not where it was or anything about it. On arriving at the train station we made use of the excessively helpful staff in the information office (they were brilliant!) and while I booked a tour for the following day they found out where we were to go, and gave us all sorts of helpful advice. We turned out to be staying in Kasern, an outer suburb of Salzburg reached by train. It was lovely, as it had a rural aspect - we spent our walk up to our room peering at beautiful slugs on the pavement and pausing for Robyn to fish a €5 note out of a drain (a delicate operation involving removing a largish section of grating while keeping an eye out for oncoming traffic). We made it to our destination, where we were greeted by our hostess and shown to what in New Zealand would be advertised as a bed and breakfast, but at hostel prices! A lovely double room with a proper bathroom, and nice and quiet!

We dumped our stuff and popped back into town, where we wandered for a short while, looking for tea, before catching the funicular up to the fortress which overlooks the town. It's a beautiful fortress and, as it was raining a bit, was practically deserted. We had a lovely time peering at the cannons and peeping through doorways and taking lots of photographs. The earliest buildings dated to the 15th century and there were turrets and corrigedors abounding. Back down again by funicular we returned to our gästhaus and enjoyed sleeping in beds with big downy doonas and huge European pillows - so squishy and comfortable!

Friday was our extravagant day. I had booked myself on a Sound of Music bus tour (cheesy, I know, but I felt the need. Robyn felt that she really couldn't, so she abandoned me to my fate and did some sightseeing in the town). I was collected at my door in a wee shuttle and had a nice trip into town to the coach with Pieter, who turned out to be the tour guide. We were a bit early, so I had a look around the Mirabell Gardens for 10 minutes or so. Lovely gardens - the Do-Ré-Mi fountain is there, but I admired even more a wee fountain with a statue of Papagena in it. There turned out to be only twenty of us on the coach (nice not to be too crowded). We began just driving through Salzburg past various places of interest where we were not able to stop, but could gawp at from afar - for instance the von Trapp's home, the Benedictine Abbey, the train station, etc. Our first stop was the summer house (I am sixteen), no longer in its original location, and glassed in to prevent sprained ankles. Very sweet. We then went to the lake where the children fell in from the boat and the terrace where they drank pink lemonade. It is a very pretty lake, and there were swans and their baby cygnets swimming around. Driving out of Salzburg itself Pieter told us about the history of the city, the von Trapps, and the movie making. We sang a bit (don't laugh) and stopped for a break at a completely random place where there was a kind of luge thing down a hill. I couldn't go, as I was stony broke, but it was fun to watch the others whizz down and hear their squeals. Went on to Mondsee, home of the church whose interior was used in the movie where Maria and the Captain are married. Famed for its long aisle, it was a little disappointing to find it being renovated, and the aisle blocked off halfway with scaffolding. I found this a bit anticlimactic, so wandered off into the town to get some cash and sample an apfel strudel. Very nice it was, too. Back to Salzburg I was dropped off at the hauptbanhof (main train station), where I had arranged to meet Robyn.

Robyn had bought us some lunch, and we hurried to catch a train to our next attraction - Werfen, a town some 40 minutes south of Salzburg. Werfen is home to the longest/largest ice caves in the world - 1km of a 42km long cave network inside the mountains. We reached the entrance by shuttle bus, walking, cable-car, more walking and some more . . . walking! Very steep. At the entrance we were greeted by our guide, who divided us into English speakers and German speakers (we were at the front). We were provided with cunning little kerosene lanterns (open flame) and set off. Our trail consisted of some 700 steps uphill inside the mountain. It wasn't too chilly to start with, but carrying the lantern soon caused ones fingers to turn numb. We took turns, thawing out alternately. The caves were stunning. There were ice lakes and falls and stalactites and stalagmites, and other beautiful formations. At certain points our wee guide lit a fuse and left it behind sculptures, so's to light them up from behind. It was terribly pretty. Back down our 700 steps, we scurried to catch the shuttle again and then the train back to Salzburg. We had tea at a very cool place - Indigo - where we indulged in curry and couscous.

We were to leave Salzburg the next morning, but as we hadn't seen much of the town we left our cases at the station for a few hours while we looked at some shops and then sat and read for a while in the Mirabell Gardens (whilst watching about a dozen wedding parties trot past - it's quite the place to have your photos taken, it seems). Our next stop was Innsbruck. . .

A Night at the Opera

2007-05-31T09:29:00.000+01:00

Our hostel in Vienna had lovely views - we were staying on the sixth floor (thankfully there was a lift). It was hot, hot, hot when we arrived, and after dumping our stuff we made our way into town. We wandered vaugely (quite of our own accord) for a couple of hours, finding ourselves eventually at an information centre, where we asked about what was on at the opera/concert halls/etc. The chappie said that there were a couple of options, but as it was already almost 6pm we would be lucky to find tickets anywhere. However, he suggested we set off for the Volksoper just to see, as they were performing Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte' - the Magic Flute. Owing to some iffy transport options, we didn't make it to the opera house until 20 to 7, and had no hopes, really, of nabbing seats. Still, one may as well try, and we were pleased to find that we could still have two student seats at €8 each. Nice, we thought. Not bad. We scoffed some snacks that we had (still dinner-less) and trotted in to find our seats. We were directed upstairs, and were shown into an Opera Box. A genuine, red velvet, really-o, truly-o, swank Opera Box. We were stunned. We settled ourselves in, wedged our elbows firmly in the velvet ledge, and quite enjoyed the opera. Our programme had a wee outline in English, so we could follow what was happening, and one could mostly tell, anyhow. It was very enjoyable.

Our next morning began at the Schmetterling Haus (Butterfly House) in the grounds of one of the Viennese palaces. We took hundreds of photos, and particularly admired a huge orange and brown moth - it was as big as two hands together. We liked it too, as it was sitting still and was easy to photograph! We went from there intending to visit an art museum nearby which holds sketches by Albrecht Dürer, but it turned out to only show these occasionally and not as a permanent exhibition, due to preservation measures. It was a bit pricey to visit otherwise, so we strolled downtown, finding a really cool shop which had postcard sized prints of just about any artwork by any artist you could possibly think of - great to flip through. We continued through town, but the weather had turned chilly, so we went back to our hostel for a nana nap and to make use of the free internet (yay!). On returning to town we found the box office of the Konzerthaus (one of Vienna's beautifully ornate concert halls) and investigated attending a performance that evening - we decided to try a concert of some more modern composers (Debussy, and three others we had not heard of). Killing some time meanwhile, we went up to the Dom where we were keen to do a tour of the catacombs. We joined a small group and headed underground with our guide, an Austrian with an intriguing grasp of English - he seemed to have grasped the greatest peculiarites of various accents and used them to great effect, in mysterious and sepulchral tones. We looked first through the modern rooms, where the clergy of the cathedral are still buried, and then moved on to the older tunnels and rooms where the bones of victims of the plagues are stacked. Our guide kept striding on in front very fast, and turning corners abruptly - I think he was quite enjoying himself, and hoping to scare us. It was very interesting, anyhow, and we were glad to have seen one. We headed back to the Konzerthaus (this time taking care to have some tea first!) and enjoyed our experience of listening to the music and admiring the hall. We were in good seats again - 9th row back from the front, on the centre aisle. It was a slightly different style of music to that which we are accustomed to listen to, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. A good experience.

Our last day in Vienna was begun with a visit to Schloß Schönbrunn, the imperial palace of the last great ruler of Austria. Robyn's Nana had lived in the palace shortly after the war, so it was especially interesting as it had a personal connection for her. We chose to do the Grand Tour, and spent some time walking through the state and family rooms with audio guides. The rooms are beautiful - ornately decorated in baroque, rococco and Chinese styles, and not at all gaudy. The history of the Franz Josef and Sisi, the last ruling couple, and their predecessors was fascinating. Once finished inside we went to see a demonstration in the Palace bakery of an apfel strudel making session (with free tasting!). It was very impressive watching them prepare the dough - it is stretched so thin you can read a newspaper through it. And the end result is equally impressive. . . After this we made our way behind the building to the grounds, where we started in a hedge maze, racing each other to the centre, where there was a raised platform. Robyn got there fully five minutes before I, and had a lovely time watching me rush to and fro below her. After this there was a couple of labyrinths. One had all sorts of activities to do at points around the course: a see-saw that activated a fountain - the harder you rocked, the farther up the water spouted; a dance-board-glockenspiel; wobbly stepping stones; and a set of stepping stones across water which, when one stepped on certain stones, squirted water at ones ankles. Robyn enjoyed watching me find this out. It was all very well laid out and maintained. 'Twould be a great place to take kids. That evening we sampled our first Austrian schnitzel at a little eatery. We shared one - they are huge!

Our last morning we spent an hour on the Viennese train and underground system, going in circles. We were attempting to find the correct station from which to travel to Salzburg, and were crossed between hearty amusement and despair when, finally on the train, we passed the station from which we had begun. . .

To Austria, and Graz!

2007-05-31T09:05:00.000+01:00

We enjoyed our train journey from Venice to Graz, in Austria. We shared a compartment with a lovely trio of Austrians who told us all about the scenery we were passing and what to see and do whilst in the country. In turn, they wanted to know all about New Zealand. They were really interesting to talk to, and we were surprised at some of their liberal views of various things - they were very pro everybody learning English, for example. We realised on the trip how little green we had been seeing - the grass is green in Austria, and there are mountains and lakes and cows and things. We hadn't realised we'd missed them until then.

Our hostel in Graz was lovely and modern and clean, and we enjoyed having a four bed dorm to ourselves. Another bonus on arrival was spotting a Baptist church directly across the road! In the morning we were even more excited, as we found a huge all-you-could-possibly-want breakfast buffet. After a cup of coffee and a stale roll at so many places in Italy, this was positive luxury - I'm sure we squealed with excitement.

The city of Graz is lovely - beautiful baroque buildings and a glockenspiel tower and the Schlossberg (ruined fortress on a hill). We enjoyed wandering about the town, and found a children's fashion show in a courtyard, watched the glockenspiel do its thing on the hour, sampled wares from many bakeries, and took the funicular up the hill. This was remarkably speedy and fun - the first of many trips on funiculars and cable cars. We do enjoy them.

Attending the church on Sunday was great. It was Mother's Day back in New Zealand, and turned out to be in Austria as well! We were slightly late to the service (I was trying to skype home), so we missed the one English hymn that they sang, but we could follow the general intention of the service, and it was hilarious to watch the Sunday School children sing 'Vater Abraham hatte viele Kinder' (Father Abraham had many sons). At the end of the service we had a nice time chatting to some of the congregation, and discovered another couple of Kiwis there who were staying at our hostel - a mother and daughter. It was really lovely to spend some time with some other Christians - they were such lovely people!

After three nights in the city we headed off to Vienna. . .

A World of its Own

2007-05-21T18:00:00.000+01:00

Our final stop in Italy was Venice, the city of canals and gondolas and romantic bridges. . . We arrived early afternoon in brilliant blue sunshiny weather - a marked contrast to that which we had left in Florence. The train station fronts onto the Grand Canal, and the view is stunning as you walk out.

We had booked to stay in the HI hostel on the island of Guidecca, some 30 minutes away by vaporetto (water bus). We availed ourselves of travel passes and set off. The hostel is in a large red brick building on one of the main canal routes, and was very pleasant (despite lodging us on the third floor. . . no elevators. . .). Having arrived there on a Sunday, we nipped over to a supermarket to obtain our special Sunday lunch (albeit somewhat late in the day) - roast chicken and potatoes, with a special dessert. We weren't able to find an evening service to go to, so we had our 'i-pod sermon' overlooking the water and the lights of San Marco Piazza.

Our first full day in Venice was spent on the islands of Murano and Burano, famed for glass- and lace-making. Murano was a largish island, and only one in every five or six shops on the main street was not dedicated to glass in some form. We enjoyed seeing a couple of glassblowers in action, and also found the glass museum interesting - it was amazing to see that some 'advanced 'techniques have been around for centuries (millenia, even!). Burano was also beautiful. It is quite a small island, and has the most brilliantly coloured houses along its streets and canals. The lace shops had intriguing mixtures of the most tasteful linen alongside gaudy blouses. Unfortunately we were too late to visit the lace museum, but we enjoyed our wander and stayed on the island for dinner - pasta and tartufo in a little ristorante with a waiter who seemed determined to ignore us. It was quite amusing. The trip back to Guidecca was quite long, but nice and relaxing as we could enjoy leaning back and looking at the lights and sights as we bobbed along.

Our second morning was spent on the main island, where we discovered some lovely bead and mask shops, and explored the streets leading to Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark's Square), crossing the Bridge of Sighs on the way. We weren't actually that impressed with the piazza, though I fear that was mainly due to the inordinate amount of people and even more inordinate amount of pigeons. The place was covered with them! This fact, combined with the heat and hungry tummies, put us off slightly, and we headed off to see the Peggy Guggenheim museum. It turned out to be closed on Tuesdays, so we rethought our plans and decided a trip to Lido, the beach resort island, would be nice. On arrival we were confronted with a place hiring out those four wheeled pedal carriage-y things - we were instantly tempted. Taking one out for an hour, we were immediately dissolved into fits of giggles. Robyn started off in the driver's seat, but both seats had steering wheels to hold and, as the passenger one wasn't fixed but spun freely, I kept trying to correct our course when I felt we were too close to the kerb, or not turning where we should. It was also somewhat discombobulating to drive on the right. . . scary, when one gets to an intersection. I fear my life span has diminished somewhat. We also indulged in a small race with a carriage of young chaps who came up behind us and started pedalling like crazy. It felt like something out of Ben Hur. It was a great way to get an overview of the island, and on our return we hunted for a fish and chip shop to satisfy our craving (the salt air, or something?) Italians don't seem to do fish and chips, however, so we settled for pizza on the beach, and very nice it was, too.

Our second attempt at the Peggy Guggenheim was more successful than the first. It is a very well set out museum, in a courtyard and several rooms of Peggy's home. Modern art isn't generally our 'thing', but there were some fascinating works to look at, and some pieces that we both admired.

A church along from where we had been staying had been interesting me, and we found time to stop off and explore it on Thursday morning. It was an intriguing mixture of styles - one can see lots of influences of the Orient here - no doubt due to Marco Polo (a Venetian by birth). It was very plain inside, not heavily frescoed like many churches, and very appealing. We decided to take a trip up the campanile (bell tower) to get a different view of the city. Ascending by lift, we had a fascinating conversation with the bellboy/ticket seller who sits on an office chair and goes up and down all day. The views were gorgeous. We could see the city spread out in all directions, with a little marina below, and all the other campaniles poking up here and there. Some of them lean quite dramatically, though ours didn't. We spent almost an hour aloft (some time view-gazing, and then leaning on the sunny sills and reading), as we decided we'd like to stay and hear the bells peal. It was impressive, and deafening!

The original Jewish ghetto was a must see on my list, and we went over and through the Museo Elbraico (small, but interesting. Some very cool artwork). Out in the piazza we were impressed by a series of bronze relief plaques depicting the horrors of the Holocaust for the Jews in Venice.
They were very starkly done, and were quite moving.

Our last evening in Venice we spent overlooking a canal, eating our picnic tea and experimenting with different settings on our cameras - great fun. It's a lovely city, and I'd like to spend more time there. One day. . .

A Rainy Stopover

2007-05-18T20:46:00.000+01:00

Due to a lack of accomodation in Venice, we headed to Florence for two nights. We arrived at the hostel in the rain after a rather wet walk up their very very long drive. After checking in we went back down the long driveway to have a quick look around the area, there being a few hours left of the afternoon. Unfortunately, just as we were heading back it poured down and we got fairly wet and chilled (we had umbrellas but our jeans were still soaked to the knees!). No kitchen again, and no food was found in town, so we resorted to the rather pricey hostel dinner - it left a lot to be desired (breakfast was no better, and I received numerous horrid bites from bed bugs so not the nicest accomodation we've stayed in).

The rain didn't provide the best first impression of Florence for us, but we did our best to reserve judgement till the next day. It was still raining in the morning so our wait to enter the Acadamia Art Gallery was spent sheltering under our umbrellas - only an hour and fifteen minutes to the front of the queue though. Here, we found a delightful exhibition of musical instruments including some violins made by Stradivarius and strange ones such as hurdy-gurdys - very interesting. The statue of David by Michelangelo was the main purpose of our visit and it was quite amazing and cool to be able to see it in person. The rest of the day was spent wandering the streets of Florence, seeing such famous sights as Ponte Vecchio and browsing the leather markets (I found some rather delicious chocolate mousse gelati). Overall, we didn't enjoy Florence as much as other places but this was possibly the fault of the weather!

What a Rush! What Beauty!

2007-05-18T19:45:00.000+01:00

Cinque Terre was our next destination, with a stop on the way in Florence planned. However, there was a train to Pisa before there was one to Florence, so with a complete change of plans, we headed to Pisa. We had our first fine on this journey because we didn't reserve a ticket (we're using Eurail passes but didn't think we had to reserve seats for this train). The conductor was very nice though and only fined one of us (€5 for the reservation we didn't pay for, and €8 for not paying for it earlier).

What a rush! When we arrived at Pisa, we checked when the train to Cinque Terre was and found we had just over an hour, so we dumped our suitcases at the left luggage desk and after a quick lunch, rushed off towards the information desk. Here we grabbed a map and swiftly walked to the other side of town where the tower stands. We literally only had time to take a few photos before we had to head off again, and with a quick stop for gelati, rush back to the station, collect our suitcases and hurry as quickly as we could to the frustratingly slow lifts to get to our platform with only half a minute to spare! Once on the train, we were able to examine the photos we had taken to see what the tower looked like, not having had time to study it whilst in front of it. It was quite different from what we both expected. Somehow, I thought it was some sort of dark browny or brick red colour but its actually made of white stone. It's in a really nice square with a rather striking cathedral next to it which we would have like to look at properly had we had more time.

As we drew near to Cinque Terre, I caught the briefest glimpse through a tunnel window of amazingly deep blue water surrounding the cliff, so beautiful! We alighted at Riomaggiore, the southern-most village of the five, in a tiny train station squeezed between two towering cliff faces. Minnie went off to find some accomodation while I rested my tired limbs and guarded the suitcases (this was one place we hadn't got around to prebooking!). Thankfully Minnie found an apartment to stay in (they don't really have hostels here, just apartments of bedrooms with a shared kitchen (so nice to have a kitchen - none of the hostels seem to have one!) and bathroom which they let out at a per person per night basis about the same price as a typical hostel), which was thankfully fairly stair-free.

I have to say I fell in love with Cinque Terre instantly - its such beautiful scenery and such lovely little villages - highly recommended if you happen to be considering an overseas trip... The main street of the village runs steeply uphill, lined with multicoloured blocks of houses all of different heights with different windows, balconies and shutters - very picturesque. It would be a great place to explore as a child, because there are little streets everywhere and winding stairways joining them up under houses, down alleyways - you could almost get lost if it weren't such a small place! We ate some takeaway pasta in the town square overlooking the tiny harbour which looks lovely all lit up.

We had four nights here and enjoyed our time immensely. Much of our time was spent walking between and looking around the five villages (there's a coastal walk that joins all the villages) - we did the first two on the first day and were planning to attempt all five on our third day but the weather was bad and parts of it were closed. Its all part of a national park and overlooks a marine reserve and is just stunning scenery. I know I've mentioned it before, but the water is just such an brilliant turquoisy blue, incredibly clear and so vast :-) The villages are all built into the cliffs, with jagged houses in lovely Mediterranean colours. I wish I could post all my photos up but time and money permits me only this one :-) There are lots of little crafty shops in each of the villages (and a fair number of horribly touristy ones) which are lovely to look around in.

We also spent a couple of hours at the beach at Riomaggiore which is a pebble beach, large pebbles. I went for a dip, and the water was lovely but its somewhat unstable and difficult to find one's footing on the large boulders covered in algae!

A thunderstorm starting off our second morning caused a change of plans and after a morning looking around the village and visiting the one-room museum (very informative for its size however), we headed into the hills to the Montenero Sanctuary. The scenery is quite different - all the hills are terraced and covered in vineyards and orchads. The peasant farmers of the region spent hours of backbreaking work building dry stone walls to terrace the hills so they could plant olive groves, vineyards and orchards. Lovely to look at and beautiful views but a bit too steep for our liking! I could say so much more about how amazing the place is but time is running on (and no doubt your attention span is waning!) - a very enjoyable stay.

Eternally Roma

2007-05-09T15:17:00.000+01:00

Our visit to the capital started with finding our accommodation - a camping village out of the centre of town, where we had engaged to stay in a little bungalow. It was a lovely location - lots of space - and nice to have a private room and bathroom to ourselves. We were disappointed by the lack of cooking facilities, but there was nothing we could do about that.

Unfortunately there was a lack of Aussies and Kiwis staying on the grounds, as the day after we arrived was ANZAC day. Coincidentally, it was also an Italian holiday, and all the attractions were packed with people. We made our first stop at the Spanish steps. They were covered in huge terracotta pots of pink and white azaleas, and were very pretty indeed. At the top we looked in a church, and then strolled down towards the Trevi Fountain. This, again, was packed with people, and we decided to return at a later time to see it properly. On our way to the Pantheon (which turned out to be closed) we came across a photography exhibition in an old building, which was very interesting. Not only were the pictures nice, it was a place to shelter from Rome's rain! which graced us with its presence for the duration of our stay (only intermittently, to be fair). Dinner that evening, in a quaint red-and-white-checked-tablecloth ristorante was enlived by glasses of Limoncello. I had been so sure that this was a lemon squash drink I had heard of. . . it's not. . . It actually happens to be a rather strong lemon liqueur. . .

Returning to the Pantheon the next morning, we were amazed at it's beauty and amazingly preserved form. The domed ceiling looks positively modern, with clean lines and amazingly advanced engineering. We had been going to visit the Vatican on our second morning, but did not make it to the queues until rather later than we ought, and decided to postpone our visit after walking some miles (it felt like!) to try to find the end of the line. We had some compensations, however, in having time to explore this part of the city. A side alley revealed a gorgeous gelateria where we tried 'puro' gelati - pure chocolate flavour. We were dubious as to how it could be, but it was!

Friday we headed again for the Musei Vaticani. Joined the queue at 7.30, taking it in turns to run off for a cioccolato and pastry for breakfast. The doors opened at 9am (a nice surprise - we had thought is was 10am) and we filed in, with the customary x-raying of bags and wanding of anti Catholic suspects. We enjoyed taking a slightly different route from the crowd and enjoyed the first galleries we visited in practical solitude. Stone carvings and lovely mosaics abounded, and were enjoyed much more than the second gallery we saw featuring iconographic art (a genre that just doesn't excite either of us that much). An Egyptian gallery was interesting, if seemingly incongruous, and a painted shroud was particularly lovely. The long galleries were next, and we both enjoyed the Galleria Geographica, with huge elaborately decorated maps of ancient Roman empires. They reminded me in form of the maps of Tolkien and CS Lewis, and were coloured in brilliant jewel greens and blues. Another favourite room for us was a display of micro-mosaics - tiny tiny mosaics depicting landscapes, architecture and fauna. They were so intricate and detailed, we spent ages peering at them.

The Sistine Chapel was the obvious main attraction, and we both enjoyed it, but were not perhaps as awe-struck as we could have been. It was full of people and guards hissing 'Shhh!' at anyone who made more than a peep, and was a bit overwhelming. The whole interior is painted, even the draperies, and there is almost too much to see. The Vatican Post Office then beckoned, and we each sent a card (one of my long time tourist ambitions).

St Peter's Basilica (San Pietro Basilica) was right there, so we decided to have a look-see. X-rayed again, we joined the shortest queue and trotted off to see the tombs of the popes. Sounds macabre, but it wasn't too bad, and was interesting to see the grave of Pope John Paul I, very tastefully plain, and John Paul II, which was still adorned with flowers, candles and notes. Up in the Basilica itself, we were amazed at how huge it is - one just keeps walking and it keeps going. It was impressive, indubitably, and had lovely confessionals (they looked like walnut wardrobes) but was otherwise almost gaudy. One thing amazing to note was that a lot of the large 'paintings' above the shrines turned out to be mosaics. We are both inspired to take up the craft. Outside I forcibly restrained Robyn from laughing outright at the Swiss Guard (I thought they looked sweet) and we left the Vatican.

This was a major tourist day for us - we next went to the Colosseum. The queues were not so bad here, and we were in and up to the first floor quite promptly. The thing that struck me the most (Robyn has visited before) was that it is oval. I had always assumed it to be circular. It is also huge. Very grandiose. They are restoring half of the arena floor, so that one can see how the proportions were, and are leaving the other half free revealing the underground partitions. We did a circuit of the top floor and then of the lower.

In the morning we moved from our bungalow to a tent (having decided we wanted to extend our stay from four nights to six, we had to move accommodation). Doing some much needed laundry took up the morning, and in the afternoon we went into town to see an exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci which we had passed previously. It was very interesting - they had assembled working models of many of his machines, and had a film playing on his life (in Italian, but we got the drift of most of it). We followed this up with a walk along via Margutta (52!) and turned towards the Forum. We arrived just too late to enter, so consoled ourselves with dinner at a gorgeous trellis covered ristorante with homemade spaghetti and lasagne and a hilarious waiter. We enjoyed the evening by again visiting the Fontana di Trevi - it is lighted up at night, and has a great atmosphere. We were even treated to a bride and groom coming down for their wedding photos!
Our Sunday was started by a long wait for a bus into town, where we had the address of a Baptist church with a service in English. Owing to the immense number of people heading the same direction as us, we missed the first half hour of the service, but managed to arrive in time for the whole sermon. We enjoyed a 'Sunday lunch' back at the campsite, feasting on supermarket roast chicken and potatoes. After a nice nanna-nap we decided that a stroll around the Forum would be pleasant, and took care to arrive before the gates closed. The Forum isn't perhaps as well signposted as it could be, but as Robyn had been before we had a general idea of what we were looking at. The Temple of the Vestal Virgins was especially lovely - there are flowers growing all about the pools, and it is very picturesque, as are many of the columns and arches.

We finished our visit in Rome with the determination to return at some future time. It is a truly great city.

Verily Vesuvius

2007-05-09T14:56:00.000+01:00

Our main reason for visiting Naples was to visit Mt Vesuvius and Pompei. We made a day trip of it, catching the train to a little town at the bottom of the slopes of the volcano where we engaged to travel up in a shuttle bus. The ride up the mountain was the most exciting part of this venture - picture narrow winding uphill roads, one lane wide, with blind hairpin bends and buses continuously travelling up and down (Robyn is sure they had a code for going around these corners - one beep of the horn for vehicles going up, two for down). We were deposited a 15 minute walk below the crater, and joined the ascending trail. Being as unfit as we are (and we are constantly reminded of it) we paused at frequent intervals to admire the view. It was unfortunately hazy, but one could still make out the sprawling city below.

We found the crater didn't excite us as much as could be hoped - we have decided that living in New Zealand makes on blasé about such things. It was nice, you know, but not that thrilling. There was only a neat cone shaped hole, and a small amount of steam. Back down again, to catch the shuttle bus back to the train station.

Arriving in the modern town of Pompei, we crossed the road to enter the old city. They provide excellent written guides in English or other languages, and it is most efficiently run. We chose to start along the eastern edge, and skirted past some tour groups to have some space to look on our own. Despite knowing it was a city, we were still amazed at just how large the place is and just how cool it is that it's all preserved. Particular highlights included the House of the Geometric Mosaics, the amphitheatres, a traditional walled garden of herbs (where we sampled aromatically infused violet and rose wines), and the Thermopolium of Vetutius Placidus (an ancient fast food joint!) as well as seeing some of the plaster casts of victims of the eruption - they are preserved in such detail! We found that it was a tiring place to visit, however, as walking takes effort (you have to watch where you are going on the uneven streets) and there is so much to see, and all spread out. It was also a lot to take in during one day.

Dusty and hungry, we returned to Naples to sample some of 'the best pizza in Napoli' made by Gino Sorbellini (descendant of the inventor of calzone). Only €3 for a huge pizza that draped off the sides of one's plate. Definitely a satisfying experience.

Napoli

2007-04-28T20:05:00.000+01:00

Our first impressions of Naples as a city had not been good, and did not improve with daylight. It is a rather dark and dirty place, with narrow little streets and tall apartment blocks which combine to allow little light to reach street level. There are (Catholic) churches on just about every street, beautifully decorated inside, and we were greatly amused at their attempts at modernisation - electric 'candles' at the shrines! Food is cheap here however: breakfast pastries for €.80, pizzas and good wine from only €3. And, staying at Giovanni's was wonderful - he's a very generous and kind man (he insisted we come back for lunch so we could sample his bolognase), and it was a nice atmosphere. Highly recommended.

Our wanderings through the city on Sunday took us down to the coast for our first views of the Mediterranean - very cool.

From Here to There

2007-04-23T20:29:00.000+01:00

It's farther than you think from Den Haag to Napoli. . .

Our travel day started before 6am, when we were up at our hostel in Den Haag packing our bags and picking up a packed breakfast before setting out to the train station. The trains in Holland have been a treat - there are double decker ones, and they are very cheap and frequent. We tripped in to Schipol Airport, Amsterdam and checked in at the airport for our flight to Milan Malpensa, Italy. The flight took about an hour and 50 minutes, and was over some beautiful parts of Europe - it was amazing to fly over the Alps. Having landed safely in Milan Malpensa we caught a bus to Milan itself, a 50 minute ride, and were dropped off outside Milano Centrale train station. We nipped quickly into the nearest ticket office and booked two seats down to Naples. Unfortunately we were left with a couple of hours to kill before the train left, so we got some much needed lunch and, having ventured out of doors, decided that we would sit in the train station to wait - it was much more salubrious looking inside than out, and that was saying something!

The train, when caught, was delightfully primitive. Our compartment was very comfy, if not absolutely up to date decor-wise, and the bathrooms were an excitingly novel experience (you can't use them when the train is stopped in a station. You get the picture. . .) We settled ourselves in for our eight hour journey with remarkable equanimity, equipped with books, playing cards, and breadsticks. We had assumed a restaurant car would be available, and were a little nonplussed at being confronted with a small push cart of food (all there was on the whole train), but we managed to stave off the pangs. We had our compartment to ourselves for the few hours, and then were joined by various other girls.

Arriving in Napoli at around 11.30pm ("see Naples and die" kept ringing in my head) we phoned our hostel host Giovanni who sent a taxi down to collect us. Owing to my misunderstaning of some of those subtle cues (I'm not used to people pushing their services on you) we hopped in a taxi which wasn't actually sent by Giovanni, but was just looking for custom. A most exciting drive ensued - roaring up narrow lanes, passing other cars in the most unlikely looking places, stopping on every blessed corner to ask random pedestrians if they knew where Giovanni's hostel was. . . I have a new respect for Italian devoutness. I know where it comes from. . . We did eventually end up in the right place and, having been buzzed in, lugged our suitcases up three flights of broad marble staircases. Giovanni met us at the top with glasses of fresh cold water, and never was anyone so welcoming! We were sat down and given an insider's opinion on what we need to see and do, urged to stay an extra night (we did) and offered home cooked pasta (at 12 in the middle of the night!). We declined the pasta, being too sleepy to eat, but listened very carefully to all the instructions on what to do. Giovanni gave us a map of the city, where he marked in what to see, what streets to go down, what areas NOT to go in, which buses to take, and where to eat pizza. It was amazing!

Anyhow, we did make it to dreamland at about half past twelve, and were refreshed the next day to start our tour of Italy.

Tulip Time

2007-04-22T16:19:00.000+01:00

Well, we've started our big tour of Europe. First stop The Netherlands, just a quick trip to see the tulips while it's still spring. Hopefully we can make it back to see the rest of the sights. The day before we left, we thought we'd better find a hostel in Amsterdam to stay at before arriving, and just as well we did because everything was booked out! After looking into a few other cities, we found space in The Hague. The views from the plane on our way into Amsterdam were amazing - so flat and so colourful with the crisscross lines of the tulip fields. It was late in the afternoon by the time we arrived in Den Haag, not because the trains are slow, merely because we were misinformed about which platform they left from and by the time we found out, it was a long wait till the next train. After settling in at the hostel, we went out in search of a pancake house only to find the place we were heading for had moved into new premises not yet open. Hunger led us to Burger King instead!

Our mission was to see the tulips so we took a train to Leiden then a bus to Lisse. After a spot of lunch and a wander around the town, we hired bikes and chose a 20km route through the countryside. Having not riden a bike in a long long time, Minnie was a little unsteady at first but quickly got the hang of it. It was a beautifully sunny day and a lovely route. The flowers were amazing and very pretty, not just the famed tulips, but daffodils, jonquils, and hyacinths too (lovely scents!). We had a break at Panorama Tulipland where an artist has almost finished painting a huge mural of the countryside complete with windmills and tulip fields. It was all so gloriously flat. I say, gloriously, because as we discovered on a small bridge, we don't currently have the muscles required for cycling up hills! On arrival back in Den Haag, another search for another pancake house was undertaken, with the same fate as the last: nowhere to be found :-(

We started off Friday with a wander through the city centre and found our way to a huge market where we bought some good Dutch cheese for lunch - a fun foreign-language-speaking experience. Delft was the destination for the afternoon. We wandered around town and visited a Delft china factory, one of only two in the city that still make hand-painted china. It was very interesting to be shown around the factory and to learn how it is made. In Delft, we finally found a pancake restaurant - yay! Admittedly, it was a little on the touristy side, but nice nonetheless. An early night tonight for early the next morning, our flight left for Italy.

Bathing

2007-04-17T14:53:00.000+01:00

After visiting the Cotswolds we were off to Bath for a couple of days. Our train arrived at about 11am, and we were kindly informed by someone at the information desk that it was a 20 minute walk to the YHA. 50 minutes later. . . . up a long hill. . . . we arrived at our picturesque hostel. Pausing only briefly to draw breath we headed back down the hill and into town. We had a quick bite of lunch sitting below the Pultney bridge, and then wandered up through the centre making our way toward the Jane Austen Centre. Robyn decided she wouldn't come in, as she wasn't so interested, so I (Miriam) did the tour and had a look about by myself while she sat and read in the park. It was an interesting centre, but unfortunately the new ITV dramatisation of Persuausion had just come out and there was a very heavy focus on that. We have a low opinion of it, for various reasons which I shall not expound here (I could, for pages). Anyhow, it was still interesting, and it was good to hear where exactly in Bath Jane had stayed and lived.

A wander through the shops was fun - it is a nice rambley town centre with little arcades and corners everywhere. We bought some tea to cook at the hostel and went up pretty early.

Having discovered that the hostel charged extra for breakfast, we betook ourselves to town to eat before joining a free walking tour at 10.30am. There was a large crowd gathered at the meeting point, but we were divided up into groups of 15 or so and sent off with a volunteer guide. Our guide was a lovely gentleman who told us lots of interesting stories about town figures and the architecture, etc. The tour lasted about two and a half hours, and went all about the highlights of Bath as well as looking at some more obscure areas. It was a very enjoyable way to spend the morning.

Bath is such a lovely city. The buildings blend with the surroundings so well, and the planning was very well thought out, with lots of gardens, squares and promenading areas. It is very happily situated.

The afternoon we devoted to the Museum of Costume, located in the Uppper Assembly Rooms. There was a very interesting display on the history of pockets, and an interactive one on corsets! Robyn and I both managaed to achieve a 26" waist, and I'm sure we could have gone smaller with a less generic corset (it sounds a lot - but try it yourself!). It was lots of fun - there were hoop petticoats to try as well, though most of them were a bit warped. The actual dress displays were okay, but perhaps not quite all they could have been, though admittedly some areas were being refurbished. The Assembly Rooms were very grand - beautifully proportioned and kept. We were only sorry that we weren't allowed to take photos of them.

Robyn took off with a book to a wee walled garden by the river - you pay 70p and you can use the grounds and take possession of a blue-and-white striped deckchair. It makes a fetching scene to look upon. I had a wander about town, revelling in the gift shops and antique stores, before meeting up with Robyn in time for tea. We decided to eat out - at Garfunkels, a chain restaurant we have seen all about the place. We were able to sit in a conservatory, and it was very pleasant. Back at the hostel we had a game of chess before retiring for an early night.

Wednesday we went in to the Roman Baths and Pump Room. I had expected the Baths to be a place of walk in, have a look, say 'oh, how nice' and walk back out again in five minutes. On the contrary - it is a very well set out tourist & history attraction, with information given by personal audio tour (some narrated by Bill Bryson!) and well presented displays. The Baths are very impressive (though it was not a little distressing to notice two pigeons either attempting to drown themselves or thinking mistakenly that they could swim). There are some lovely carvings and mosaics that have been excavated and reassembled. After spending an hour or two looking about we felt it necessary to take a glass of the waters, and so headed to the Pump Room. This is now a rather swank restaurant, but anyone can pop in for a glass. The water flows from a fountain, where it is caught in a glass and handed to you, all warm and minerally. Horrid stuff. I downed about an inch, and then politely left my glass on the ledge. Robyn only managed a sip or two. On the way out we were paused by a gorgeous piece of textile art showing the houses of the monarchy of England over the last 1000 years.

After a Sally Lunn to take the taste away we caught a little country bus, we made our way to Prior Park, a beautifully National Trust park just out of the city. The walk around the park is lovely - there are paths and wooded areas and landscaped gardens. We took ever so many photographs and made some sketches. The main attraction is the Palladian Bridge (one of only four in the world of this particular type of architecture).

We were back to Bath and collecting our luggage mid afternoon, where we found the greatest amusement in our wheeling our suitcases down the hill. Both normally quite well behaved (the cases, I mean) they decided that this was the time to make free and, bouncing off the paving stones, gave us a merry chase. My suitcase decided it preferred either the garden walls or Robyn's ankles to a sedate path, while Robyn's was frankly suicidal, and kept trying to leap into the path of oncoming traffic. We did make it intact to the railway station, and enjoyed a peaceful trip back home.

Oh So English!

2007-04-16T13:51:00.000+01:00

The Cotswolds are my (Bob) favourite part of England (at least they are so far - one never knows what other scenes of beauty one may find). I think they just embody all that England is to me: the incredible history with all the lovely old houses and the ancient churches, the beautiful countryside with great green meadows, rolling hills, and the little bubbling brooks winding their way through the villages lined with cheerful spring flowers. I hope some of these photos show you what I mean.

Anyway, enough of the poetry, what did we see? Well, having left Oxford behind, we were given a tour of a few of the villages in the Cotswolds. Our route took us through Stow-on-the-Wold, Upper Slaughter, Lower Slaughter (where we stopped for a wander) and Bourton-on-the-Water (far too touristy and commercialised for our liking) before arriving in Meysey Hampton. This little village is where Mim's parents live, with whom we were staying for the weekend. We were well fed during our stay, with delicious meals cooked by Mrs Hainsworth. Their house was built about 700 years ago and although originally a barn was converted into two little semi-detached houses with wattle-and-daub walls. It's such a lovely place although Minnie found she banged her head on the low doorways a little too frequently (for some reason Robyn had no such problems...).

Mim's sister Ruth came over for lunch after church on Sunday, then we drove over to Bibury which is my favourite of the Cotswold villages (all but the 3rd photo of those above were taken here) - so pretty. We went for a long walk in the glorious sunshine, starting with the church (it would be perfect for a wedding) and the adjacent hotel and grounds (again, perfect for a wedding...), and wandering through the fields, along the river and past the few shops. We stared in amazement at the children who, with parents happily watching on, worked on destroying the ancient dry stone wall piece by piece and threw chunks of it in the river, until Ruth strode over to have a word with the parents regarding the preciousness of this piece of English heritage. She was rudely rebuked for daring to criticise and it wasn't until Mrs Hainsworth had a word with one of the children that they eventually stopped to abuse us for disciplining their children! We took a leisurely route back to Meysey Hampton through more of the villages and spent the afternoon soaking up the sunshine on the front lawn.

Our brief visit to this picturesque part of the world came to an end as we headed off to Bath by train.

Towers in the Mist

2007-04-12T17:08:00.000+01:00

We departed London for a six day trip, consisting of two nights each in three locations. First stop was Oxford. . . .

We arrived in the city before lunch, having taken the train from London. The new purpose-built Youth Hostel is conveniently located just behind the railway station. We left our luggage, and set off in to town, heading first of all for the information centre - a handy stop. Grabbing a bite of lunch, we directed ourselves toward the Bodleian Library, where we saw a display of Murghal paintings and admired the courtyard and entranceway. Feeling the admission price to be a bit steep, we did not go in, though it would be interesting to see at a later time. Just up the road, and past the William Morris workshop (disappointingly closed) we opted to have a look through the Magdalen College buildings and grounds. It is a beautiful college, and we were not surprised that such genius came from its alumni - it has a very inspiring atmosphere. After looking around the quadrangle, chapel and courtyard we wandered down Addison's Walk by the meadow. It was a beautifully sunny day, and so pretty with all the spring flowers growing all over the place.

Dinner at the Eagle and Child was a must. The Rabbit Room was fully occupied, so we were obliged to sit further back in the pub (pushing through the fur coats with some difficulty. . .) and were served a perfectly adequate meal, though I wouldn't say one goes there for the food. 'Twas nice, though, and amazing to sit where CS and JRR and Warnie had talked and eaten, etc.

The next day was Good Friday, and we set out in the hopes of finding a service somewhere. Not having any guide, we thought 10am was a likely time, and we were right! Christ Church Cathedral was where we settled for our first high church experience (though it wasn't that high, just more than we're used to). The guard was somewhat suspicious that we weren't really there for the service but rather to have a free look around so sternly instructed us to come straight back when the service finished! The choir was lovely, and we did not disgrace ourselves (although kneeling had to be avoided due to having somehow found ourselves to be sitting in a pew space designed for only one person). Following this we took the opportunity to tour this college, and were much impressed with the Great Hall and the quadrangle. Miriam found that a guide and the verger in the Cathedral were knowledgeable and happy to talk to her about Elizabeth Goudge and her family, which was very nice - they had quite a chat. After a visit to Alice's Sheep Shop we walked back up to Magdalen Bridge, where we hired a pedal boat for an hour. This is definitely the way to do it - you whizz past punters and rowboats and don't even come close to some of the predicaments in which they seem to find themselves (a pedal boat is a great deal more manoeuvrable). The punters and rowers fall into two categories - those who call out "cheater!" as you zoom past, and those who look longingly at you and then argue with their husbands about why they couldn't have had a pedal boat. Such fun! We made it all the way out to the Thames, which was very cool, and did some nifty manoeuvring as we came back in to dock.

Another must do was the purchase of an Oxford hoodie. Clichéd, I know, but necessary. It is brown with pale blue writing. And I got a free cap! It was unseasonably warm weather and we both loved the history of the city - it would be quite some experience to study there.

The only other major thing we did was a long walk through the Christ Church grounds, where we sat and ate our lunch, read our books, and did a spot of sketching. Then we met up with Lyndon and Mim in a gorgeous bookshop, and they whisked us away to the Cotswolds. . .

Away from the City

2007-04-01T19:10:00.000+01:00

Having spent two weeks in London, we finally managed to see some proper English countryside, and some proper English villages.

Our first stop was Banham, a wee village in Norfolk, where we went to see Robyn's Nana Lawrence and her aunt and uncle and cousins. We (us, Lyndon and Mim) drove up on Friday night and had a lovely dinner with Aunty Celia, Uncle Ian, Alasdair and Caroline. Andrew met us there, having caught the train. We spent the night at Nana's house, and had a nice relaxing morning chatting on Saturday, before going out to celebrate Nana's recent birthday. She took us all to Dunstan Hall, an estate with a grand restaurant, where we enjoyed a lovely buffet meal and pots of hot chocolate afterwards (for some of us, anyhow). A postprandial constitutional by the river in Norfolk was a nice follow up, where Lyndon and Andrew felt the need to act as mean older brothers and did their best to beat Robyn up and throw her in the river. They soon learned this would be more painful to them than it would be to her! A wander through Norwich Cathedral led us to an enormous copper font which, on closer inspection, was revealed to be an ex chocolate melting pot from the local sweet factory! (Quite the way to do it, we thought). In commemoration of the Battle of Britain, there was a very impressive lace panel depicting the various planes and fighters including a New Zealand battalion. Returning to Banham we enjoyed a nice boardgame in the evening in which each played is a taxi driving around London. . . for those of you who do not know, Miriam has a tendency to win boardgames, in which she indulged on this occasion. . . She does not mean to, it just happens.

Sunday morning worship was at the Baptist Church in Diss, a nearby town. We returned to Uncle Ian & Aunty Celia's for a yummy Sunday lunch, after which Lyndon and Alasdair took Andrew off to the train station. We girls decided to go for a walk about the village and, well rugged up, had wandered over the village green and through the church, when it began to snow! It was quite windy, so the snow was sharp, but it was such a novelty and so fun to be out in - very invigorating. We had a sociable evening with the family.

We were up bright and early Monday morning with our bags packed ready for Cambridge. We had a glimpse of how bad the traffic jams can get, but made it in good time anyway. Lyndon and Mim dropped us off outside the Youth Hostel as they headed back to London, so we booked in and made use of the left luggage room before walking into town. We got our bearings at the Information Centre, and purchased tickets to go punting on the Cam and to look around Kings College. A wander through the town came first, though, having a peep into some shops and choosing a picnic lunch. We ate by a bridge where we tried to play Pooh sticks, but there was a grate or something, and it didn't work. After that, it was time for our personal chauffered punt ride (nobody else showed up) down the Backs complete with cushions and warm blankets. This is down the part of the river that many of the colleges back on to, showing off their grounds and buildings from a different angle. Highlights included drifting under the Bridge of Sighs (see photo 2) and the Mathematical Bridge, and seeing the great library at Trinity. We heard the gory story of an ill-fated boat race in Victoria's reign (swords in punts are a bad idea) and of the bridge whose designer reclaimed a wedge of stone as payment for his services. We also enjoyed the vagaries of Cambridge weather, beginning our ride in the sunshine and going on through snow, sun, snow, and a little cloud. Weather for everyone!

Kings College was next (a relief to be out of the biting wind and snow!), with a walk through the Chapel guided by a handy pamphlet. The thing I (Miriam) found most moving was the inscriptions of all the names of Kingsmen who had fought and fallen during the two World Wars. These were inscribed on the walls of a little memorial chapel, and on a separate pillar from the rest was etched the name of a Kingsman who had fought for the other side.

After strolling about the grounds we returned to the street (by which time the sun was shining again), where a visit to the fudge kitchen resulted in us becoming the proud possessors of a whopping slice of 'double trouble chocolate' fudge. Some more strolling was now necessary, so we got some dinner supplies before heading 'cross town back to the hostel. We were cosily ensconsed in the lounge with books when the fire alarm went off! We were herded out the door (sans coats) and across the road to stand in the bitter wind waiting for the fire truck to arrive with seven firemen (two of whom got out) and learned that in such an old building it is best not to use a hair dryer right under the smoke alarm. Fun. The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful, until a busload of stout German schoolchildren arrived and took up residence on the floor above. They seemed to particularly enjoy playing leapfrog down the hallway and propelling themselves off the bunk beds with great force. They made the most of an unenforced bedtime, and kept this up well into the wee hours, and then woke us at an unearthly hour the following morn. Even more unforgivable, they scoffed all the pains au chocolat that were promised in the breakfast menu.

Having realised the weather was not going to improve, we ruled out such activities as cycling around the countryside and settled on a daytrip to Ely, a nearby Cathedral town. After purchasing Young Person's Railcards, we were amazed to find just how little we had to pay for the train there and back. It was lovely seeing all the countryside whizzing by and we arrived all too soon. We once again found the wind bitterly cold and walked speedily around the village, through a lovely park (see photo 3) and found ourselves at the Great Gateway, built many years back. From there we entered the cathedral through a back door just in time for the start of a guided tour. It was really interesting hearing all about the history of the church and being shown features we no doubt would have missed ourselves. The tower of the cathedral was built by monks with a structure very advanced for the time and is still magnificent today (see photo 4). We then wandered through more of the village, stopping at the visitor's centre which is located in the great Oliver Cromwell's house. After an unhealthy lunch of burgers and fries in a little family run diner, we came accross an amazing book shop where an hour and half of time whizzed past. Although tempted to purchase half the store, we left empty handed due to budget (and luggage!) restrictions. We stopped at lots of lovely little shops on our way back down to the river while it continued to snow on and off, then arrived back at the station for our return journey. After picking up our luggage and purchasing delicious hot chocolates, we settled in for the trip back to London. It was again lovely to see all the countryside, this time being covered in a blanket of snow (see photo 5), and it was with some sadness that we arrived back to the dull buildings of the city.

Nota Bene

2007-03-28T11:43:00.000+01:00

A Clarification: though most of the posts so far have been published by Bob, they have been joint efforts of authorship. Unless a post is written in the first person singular, please assume it to have been written by both contributors. It just depends on who logged in. . .

Pictorial Evidence

2007-03-26T19:08:00.000+01:00

For more photos, please view Robyn's album and Miriam's album :-)

Where Not To Stand...

2007-03-23T18:16:00.000Z

After church on Sunday, while Lyndon hived off to the rugby for 'work', the rest of us had a leisurely lunch with friends followed by a quiet cigar in the park (see right). Evening church was followed by our first attendance at 'After Eights' - a chance to socialise over good cheap food.

We had great adventures planned for Monday until Robyn realised she had a rather important interview in the morning! A rushed walk to the tube station was followed by a very time consuming purchase of a monthly travel card ensured Robyn didn't quite make it on time. However, this wasn't a problem and the interview went well despite an instance of bad arithmetic (6*6!=12) causing the interviewer to question her mathematical abilities. While this was occurring, Minnie wandered the British Museum again. After reuniting, we explored the famous bookshops of Charing Cross Road finding one that had brand new children's books for only £1, but Miriam was very distraught to find that Number 84 is no longer in existence. A stroll down to the Thames inspired us to take a short river cruise on a catamaran commentated by a man with a droll sense of humour. This was most enjoyable and we saw such things as Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, the Globe, a NZ navy ship (!), London Bridge (remarkably unremarkable) and the Tower Bridge (much more impressive) where we ended our journey.

Tuesday was started with a trip to Soho to meet Robyn's second cousin who volunteers in a lovely fair trade shop with lots of interesting and unusual gifts. We then wandered down through Soho which led us to Trafalgar Square where we ate our lunch in the sunshine next to the fountain. The National Gallery then seemed the obvious place to visit, where we found the Venetian landscapes gave us déjà vu after a while, but very much enjoyed the impressionist exhibition. A few hours of this was as much as our minds and feet could handle (although, the gallery does get brownie points for providing so many seats for resting one's feet), and we wandered up to through Leicester Square to Oxford Street where Robyn searched in vain for a nice pair of shoes. However, an email was waiting for her at home from the surprisingly efficient LSHTM which offered her a place in the Masters programme plus a handy scholarship.

Travel research the next morning was followed by a trip to Lydia's for lunch - she made us a delicious salad lunch, which we enjoyed sitting in her little courtyard behind the house as Lydia (with true South Island stubborness) insisted on wearing a t-shirt in the vain hope that it was warm. Andrew was obviously worried about this rendevous, as he texted Lydia during our meal warning her not to believe any stories told by Robyn - Robyn hadn't actually thought of this yet, and the text served more as an inspiration than a deterrent. . . We had a lovely stroll after lunch through Clapham Common - the parks here are amazing: you think you can see everything, and then you come past some trees and find a pavillion or a monument, and even more park beyond. In the evening back at home Miriam finished a little tapestry she had been working on (courtesy of Liberty) which was most satisfying. It is black, with cherries on.

The Changing of the Guard was next on our list of tourist must do's. Well, we now know where not to stand. Not where we stood. As you can see, Robyn still managed to take some arty photographs despite our limited view, and we did enjoy the band playing. However, we had no idea what was happening, or how it was taking half an hour to change a couple of little guards. After Robyn's first cornish pasty and a stroll through St James' park (bluebells!) we made our way down to Westminster Abbey. Reeling from shock at the entrance prices, we contented ourselves with having a look around St Margaret's Church out the front. It was a lovely little church with some interesting plaques - Sir Walter Raleigh is buried there. Across the road we found the Houses of Parliament, and found that they are free to look around! We queued up between the rows of policemen and officials, and went through a thorough frisking (a pat down and our bags x-rayed) before being allowed in the building. The House of Commons was our first stop - another pat down! and Miriam was required to lift her trouser leg to prove that there were no shackles (a nasty dig from the security man about her Australianism) - and we were ushered in to the spectator's gallery, separated from the House by a bulletproof window. There we were treated to a most amusing performance by Mr Boris Johnson on the subject of tertiary education. Tearing ourselves away, we wandered through to the House of Lords - no uber security here: they don't seem to mind if the nobility are heckled or threatened or shot - and the content was not nearly so entertaining. It was nice to see all the lords and ladies, though, sitting on the woolsack and nodding off in their chairs.

Disclaimer: the abovementioned cigar smoking episode was dramatised and sensationalised for publication - the actual smoking of the cigar was conducted by others.

Week The First

2007-03-16T11:35:00.000Z

So, what did we do our first week in London, England? Well, our schedule included a decent amount of sleeping, resting, and relaxing. But we did manage to squeeze in a few outings and tourist activities. . .

We both enjoyed our first Sunday here, attending the Good Shepherd Mission (Lyndon & Mim's church) in the morning, and St Helen's Bishopsgate (Andrew's church) in the evening.

Monday we popped into town and wandered down Oxford Street, getting our bearings and stocking up on a couple of necessities (i.e. an umbrella). In Debenhams, a large department store, we had the treat of witnessing a 'live infomercial' along with a bunch of the most gullible little old ladies in the city - such amazing knives! you can cut through a hammer! why you would want to, I have no idea. . . but if you buy one, you'll get another one absolutely free (one wonders why one needs a second when they apparently never need sharpening). But wait there's more! And so it went on, but we got our free gift :-) We also stopped in at New Zealand House, and Robyn was surprised how much she enjoyed hearing a NZ accent. We experienced our first rush our in the tube on our way home. We were standing and the carraige was packed full, but just before the doors closed, another 5 people pushed their way in. Robyn was left sandwiched between the backs of two men, with so little space that she had to keep her head turned sideways. Needless to say, no handles were available to grip but when you're that well squished, there's no where for you to fall anyway!

On Tuesday our morning was occupied with Bob going to a seminar and setting up her bank account etc., while Minnie found the Liberty store - such fun! It is the most gorgeous shop - she had a very happy time there. We met up at lunchtime and wended our way toward the British Museum. A tour of some ancient relics and the European area managed to introduce a soporific air to the proceedings, so we were home before the rush hour.

Wednesday we, um, slept. And had a nice sit in the park. And then came home and rested a bit.

On Thursday Robyn filled her morning with a highly successful interview at Imperial College, while Miriam visited the Sylvanian shop (at the top of the list of must see destinations). We met up atop the hill of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, just in time to see the big red ball drop at 1pm. The Observatory was really interesting, with displays on the Royal Astronomers, latitude and longitude, time and clocks. There is a beautiful octagonal room in the residence there designed by Sir Christopher Wren which is well worth seeing. After a bite to eat from 'The Honest Sausage' we had a wander through the Greenwich Market and town centre before returning home.

Friday was occupied with meeting Andrew for lunch in Soho and then spending a couple of hours in the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. There is an amazing display at the moment on Dick Bruna and Miffy. It was a great place to spend an afternoon.

We went in to Portobello Road on Saturday to see the markets (where Paddington did his shopping...). After looking around for a while (aka peering through the crowds of people) we headed off with Andrew through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park towards the Natural History Museum, where we met up with Lydia and Rob. The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition was our destination, and it was well worth seeing - the most amazing photos of animals, plants, birds and fish - some taken by children as young as 10. It was very inspiring.

Anyhow, we survived our first week, with suprisingly nice weather for all of it (sunny, cloudless days, and rain rarely), and here's Bob's quote of the week:

When setting off on an Expedition, be sure to bring Provisions. Or, at the very least, things to eat.
-Winnie-the-Pooh

London and Beyond

2007-03-08T07:14:00.000Z

We made it! Much shorter queues at customs meant a much longer wait at the luggage carousel. However, this did mean that despite our flight arriving early, Mim was there by the time we emerged. Despite expectations, our journey on the tube was relatively quick and painless. The usually short walk from the station was, however, another matter. Miriam's green suitcase was at best hazardous to one's ankles, and at worst an accident waiting to happen, while Robyn's large and overweight red suitcase provided great entertainment for those following behind as she thumped it down the stairs. Somehow we made it safely to our destination, where a decrepit lift attempted to crush the aforementioned large red suitcase, and the hand that was towing it. Apparently laser sensors have not yet made it to this part of the world.

Our belongings ensconced in our small but lovely room, we had a relaxing evening catching up with one brother (and his dear wife) while waiting for the other to announce his engagement (he didn't). After finally giving up, we retired to the land of Nod.

A leisurely morning of unpacking and a brisk walk around the park followed before setting off to meet brother number two at the Borough Markets. Thankfully, soon after greeting, he put us out of our misery and announced that he had proposed to Lydia and she had accepted. It was a joyful reunion. A wander through the market and along the South Bank let us chat to our hearts' content. Mim then slapped up a delicious celebratory dinner, with champagne and coffee gateau, after which we toddled out to the footpath to view the lunar eclipse and waved goodnight to the happy couple.

Some Photos...

2007-03-07T12:04:00.000Z

Robyn has uploaded selected photos of the trip so far. Feel free to have a squiz: the journey to England, and London & Cambridge.

The Journey Continues...

2007-03-05T12:16:00.000Z

As expected, Miriam got through customs super quickly (being an American citizen), while Robyn stood in the queue with all the other suspected terrorists for about 20 minutes. Short, simple instructions (with pictures for the illiterate) were given to all suspected terrorists: left forefinger on the scanner, right forefinger on the scanner, look at the camera. Baggage found, and deposited in a corner as instructed to be delivered to our next flight, we spent some time deliberating over what to do for the next 8 hours. We finally decided a trip to the beach sounded enticing. We made our way to the bus terminal and ended up waiting in the sunshine for an hour before one arrived (and found American buses do not provide change for any amount of money!). Apparently we had "Tourist" tattooed on our foreheads as several people offered us kind advice before we had even opened our mouths.

Having arrived at the lovely suburb of Manhattan Beach, we made our way down, past the cliché roller bladers and rows of volleyball nets, to the golden sand. Amazingly, despite there being no clouds in sight, the beach was abandoned. After a nice horizontal snooze and a walk along the pier, we explored a few of the shops. Gourmet chocolates were incredibly expensive, and bagels were incredibly cheap! We returned to the airport in plenty of time, and read our books instead of making use of the variety of amusements Robyn had brought along.

Our second flight was similarly uneventful but with more hours of sleep for Robyn and lovely views of the lights of America for Miriam. We amused our seatmate by our interesting conversation, Robyn's obvious delight in food (particularly of the sweet variety), and our seemingly frequent requests for our bags from the overhead lockers.

The Journey Begins...

2007-03-05T11:39:00.000Z

After much stress and last minute preparations, we finally made it to the beginning of our journey! Our last few days were spent tying up (many) loose ends and cramming vast amounts of our belongings into our suitcases, only to find at the last minute that the luggage weight limit had been reduced. So with one suitcase overweight, we met at Auckland Airport for our fond farewells. The queue to check in was horrendously long and all attempts to be upgraded failed miserably. We ended up with seats right at the back of the plane in the centre column, but managed to secure window views for the second flight. By the time we had sorted all this out, our families were utterly bored with waiting, and had wandered off for refreshments. We did the "hang around and feel sad" thing for a while before tearing ourselves away with much weeping and many hugs (Rick won the competition for who would claim the last hug!). Annelise won the award for the best kiss of the evening when she lunged forward, mouth wide open, teeth bared, as she followed the instruction to give Aunty one last kiss :-)

Customs was remarkably efficient, although Robyn did manage to offend the officer by making snide remarks about Australians only to find he was one himself. Thankfully he was good natured enough not to let this cloud his professional judgement! So, we soon appeared at the courtyard for one last wave goodbye to the family through the windows, and Annelise once again stole the show by banging madly on the windows with her little hands and saying goodbye.

Sniffing wildly, and with great reluctance, we forged on to the restrooms to compose ourselves. Robyn indulged in some retail therapy, and couldn't resist buying a black t-shirt with the slogan, "new zealand - somewhere in the pacific", to ensure her loyalties were clearly known. After a bite of food, we headed to the gate where we went through two further security checkpoints, and were individually hand-wanded with metal detectors. Not having brought our bazookas along, we made it through okay. As our flight was delayed, we made ourselves comfortable on the floor until boarding.

Our friendly steward made conversation (and Miriam claims Robyn made conversation back while Robyn claims she was just being polite...) while we took photos of the amazing sunset (see below). Unfortunately, the on-demand entertainment system was not working for our flight, so we amused ourselves by reading, eating, chatting, and trying to sleep. The latter was not so successful! Our dinner was Mediteranean Style Braised Lamb with Risoni Pasta and Peas, which was tasty. Robyn had a hankering in the night for something savoury, and efforts to obtain anything from the galley resulted in large quantities of sweet food, which we are still consuming. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we landed to a beautiful morning in Los Angeles...

We've Bought Our Tickets!!!

2006-12-10T01:24:00.000Z

Well, we finally bought them: two one-way tickets to London, England on the first day of the month of March. Unfortunately, due to our extensive research and expert procrastination, flights on our aforementioned preferred date of travel were not available so we had to settle for two days earlier. To celebrate our disposing of such a large sum of cash, we went and disposed of some more. Two identical, brand new suitcases are now in our possession (Kathmandu Roadhaul Plus Pack v2) and some intensive research into sleeping bags and daypacks was conducted.

We've been expanding our network of acquaintances whom we can exploit in various ways. We now have plans for December 2007 (if we're still around then): joining some friends to tour the German Christmas markets before a white Christmas in England followed by sale shopping in Paris.

Planning

2006-09-03T09:11:00.000+01:00

So, we've set a date: the 3rd of March 2007. Only 6 months to go - yay!!! We're alternating between great excitement and apprehension as we make serious plans and realise how much we're going to miss our families and friends. We're making all sorts of lists: what to pack, who to visit, how to get there, things to do when we're there. Although we originally planned to only be away for about 6 months, we're now thinking we'd like to make the most of the opportunity and spend a bit longer. We've been looking at guide books and finding what appeals to us most in all the countries we want to visit. Unfortunately our language-learning has temporarily fallen by the wayside! Hopefully we'll be booking our flights soon...

Statement of Intent

2006-05-19T11:14:00.000+01:00

Pertaining to the planning and recording of the (proposed) venture to various European countries by Miss Robyn A. D. and Miss Miriam R. M., scheduled to take place in or about the year of our Lord two thousand and seven, and to certainly contain forays in to the countries of: England, France, Italy and Switzerland - not excluding possible excursions in to other nations mutually agreed upon by the above named parties.