home again

After an exhausting flight from Helsinki, Alan and I arrived home last Thursday.  Alan managed to pick up a little something on the flight and is suffering from the flu, or something similar.  I am still a little jet lagged, but its great to be home again.  We do have a nice apartment!  And lovely family to welcome us! Sigh!

Mallorca

This is a  very pretty island and Palma, the capital, is a beautiful city.  It helps that the weather has been lovely and warm and we have been swimming at the city's nearby beaches.  Alan has hired a bike and been riding and today we hired a car and went to Trenc, a clothing optional beach on the Island's southern coast.  We had lunch at a restaurant recommended by Tony but we all agreed that the paella Alan cooked the other night was much nicer and way cheaper.
The top photo is the Cathedral, which is enormous and dominates the city.  The beach is Playa de Palma, and short bus ride from our place.

A swim in the Mediterranean

Do you know that the last time I swam in the Mediterranean Sea was in 1975?  I think I was overdue for another dip and today was the day.  We are staying in a beautiful apartment in Palma, Mallorca.  That's an island off the Spanish Coast.  We have a two week home exchange here in a lovely apartment in the old city.  We have 7 windows overlooking 4 different streets and each one has a wonderful view.
But that's not telling you about my swim.  We took a day trip to Soller on the island's west coast.  We caught a vintage train there from Palma - that made Alan happy - then a vintage tram from Soller to the Port - then a boat to a small village called  La Calobra.  That's where I had my swim in crystal clear water that was the perfect temperature.  There was a small taverna on the beach where we had drinks and something to eat afterwards.  A beautiful day.  This picture is of Port Soller.

Down the Dordogne in a canoe

This morning was idyllic!  We hired some canoes and paddled down the Dordogne River from Lamothe, near where we are staying, to Castillion La Batteille, about 6 kms downstream.  It was a beautiful morning and the river was " plus tranquille" according to Alain, the canoe hire man.  The river is still tidal, even up here which seems miles from its mouth past Bordeaux.  I was , of course initially a non-starter,  as I am fearful of things aquatic, but Alan persuaded me and I am so pleased he did, as it was just perfect.
The pictures show Penny and Trish on the river and the Dordogne River bridge at Castillion, with the canoe pontoon in the foreground.  You have to wish you were here too!
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The Vendange

We were lucky enough to be invited to participate in the Vendange, which is the grape harvest.  Some friends of the lady who owns the gite where we are staying has some vines and always asks around for assistance in the harvest.  The payment is a long lunch afterwards with wines from previous
harvests to be tasted.  Some of us ( not Alan) eagerly agreed.  Let me tell you - "there's no such thing as a free lunch!"  It was darned hard work and two days later I still know I picked grapes!  Altogether, between about 30 people we picked just short of 7 tonnes of grapes.  By hand!  It was a terrific opportunity though and one I was pleased not to have missed.  We also got to meet a lot of other visitors as well as local residents.  One lady we met is writing a book on oral histories of people who have stories to tell about the Resistance in this area.  We have invited her to dinner on Monday to tell us all about it.

Bordeaux

I know you all wish you were here with us.  Bordeaux is full of tourists because its one of the loveliest places I have been in France.  We are staying in an old barn that has been converted into a number of self-contained apartments.  There are 16 people in our group - which is a lot to co-ordinate into any activities!  Today the others have gone off on a bus to a chateau somewhere quite far away, so Alan and I have chosen to explore the village of St Emilion and catch up on the internet, aas there's none in the house.
We went to St Emilion on Sunday and it was so full of tourists you could hardly move.  It was much better today and we have had a lovely morning.  We are currently upstairs in a bookshop in Castillion La Battaille, which is the nearest village to our place, which is out in the vineyards.
We have already been to two cellars - the first of a Grande Cru vineyard ( more than 30 euros a bottle) and the second was some cellars run by an English company, known as The Wine People in Australia.  ( 6 - 12 euros a bottle)  We met the winemakers in both places and had quite different experiences - both very interesting.  While we only bought only one bottle at the Grande Cru place - we bought 8 at the other and plan to go back this afternoon for some more!
Last night we went to 'the duck restaurant' - a local institution.  No menu - just eat and drink what you are given.  After the 4th course I was stuffed and had to pass on the cheese plate and desert.  I tried all the wine though!  Tomorrow we have been asked if we want to pick some grapes in the morning as picking started here on Monday.  I will, but Alan is going for a ride instead!

Guernsey in the Channel Islands

We have been here five days now and have really adapted to Island life, that is, we have slowed right down.  I have to say though I hate driving around here.  The island is pretty small - about 8 miles long by about 5 wide, I think and there's about 67,00 residents, and most of them seem to own a car.  The roads are very narrow and appear to be one way but they are not and always there's a car coming towards you very fast!  We have bought our rental car over from France, so Alan, the driver, is in the ditch and I am in the middle of the road.  I have my eyes shut half the time.

The Island has always held a strategic position and so every point on the coast has a fort, or ruins of one, or a Napoleonic tower or a German gun emplacement.  The tides are enormous and seem to be either way out, with beached boats everywhere, or right in and splashing against the sea walls.  So you can image its very pretty.  And of course there are cows too!  And toffee.  And scrummy apple cider.

Along a mountain track. . .

We went wandering yesterday along a beautiful mountain track at a place called La Moliere.  Fortunately we did most of the climbing in the car as we were about 1700m above sea level.  The trail followed a ridge for about 4 kms, before dropping fairly steeply into a valley filled with grass.  At the top of the ridge, apart from the magnificent views, we were enthralled by the abundance of wild raspberries, and although this wasn't the "gorge day", we did a bit of gorging!  We walked back towards the car through the meadows and we even saw some marmots - weasel/beaver/rabbit like creatures that live in the alpine meadows.  We stopped at a gite for a cold drink and walked back to the car.  We drove down a rather scary road back to a village where we had a beautiful gourmet lunch in a hotel.

We finished the day at the ice hockey, where Villard de Lans - our home team- defeated Mont Blanc 8 - 5.

Gorges de la Bourne

Villard de Lans is not far away from some magnificent gorges along several rivers and yesterday we had a "Gorge Day".  We took two cars and traveled along the Goule Noir ( black throat) to the Grottes de Choranche.  We were able to get a fabulous view of the gorges from the caves.
We stopped at Pont-en-Royans for coffee and a walk around this tiny town build over the river.  There was a lovely walk along the riverside which gave views of the ancient houses perched on the cliffs above the Gorge, where the river can quickly become a dangerous torrent.  I just loved this place and it would have been lovely to stop for a swim, but we had more to do.
We drove through the Combe Laval where the road snakes along the edges of sheer drops and holes cut through rocks. We had a picnic lunch in the cool shade of the Foret de Lente before visiting the moving Memorial to the Resistance in Vercours near Vassieux-en-Vercours, one of several towns completely destroyed by the Germans in July 1944.  We drove home through the Goule Vert gorge.  A beautiful day.

Up in the air, they fly

Today Alan and Trish took to the pure alpine skies in a hot air balloon, known here as a montgolfiere.  It was a prefect morning when they arose at 6.30 AM -  cool, somewhat misty, with the full moon still high in the sky.  While Ray and I breakfasted at home, they drove down to the Office de Tourisme to meet Patrick Poussardin, their ballon master.  About 8.00 o'clock, Ray and I walked along the little trail behind our house, leading into a freshly cut meadow that smelled very sweetly of dew covered haystalks.  We met a neighbour walking his dog who pointed east and told us that's where they would come up, and moments later, they did.  It was a wonderful sight - two multi-coloured balloons against the raw mountains and the blue sky. It was even more majestic for them - an unforgettable experience.  From up there, they could see Mont Blanc - 90 kms away on the Italian border

I am officially a senior

Yesterday I turned 60, so now I am not just a retired baby-boomer, but a valued senior as well. Thanks to everyone who sent me greetings and wishes.  Its lovely to hear from so many people and I know you all wish you were here with me!
I had a lovely day in Villard de Lans, the French alpine village where we have a home exchange for the next two weeks.  This is a magical spot, high in the mountains, and surrounded by pasture and forest.  We have done several easy walks/rambles and tomorrow plan to tackle something more difficult.  Alan has some bike rides planned as well.
Today - 14 August, is the day before Liberation of this area in WWII.  Sadly, on this day in 1944, 16 people from this village were executed by Nazi troops near Grenoble.  This was a place where lots of resistance fighters lost their lives but this was a particularly awful act, and today there was a little dignified ceremony in the village at 7.30pm which we attended.  Tomorrow is a public holiday.

Last night we dined in the Hotel du Golf in a neighbouring village of Correncon.  This had been organised for us by our home exchange hosts and they certainly picked a beautiful restaurant with such tasty and well presented food.  We all enjoyed our meals. As you can see above, I got a sparkler in my dessert of mixed berries and meringue - delicious!

Paris

Rick and Anne invited Alan and I to spend two nights with them in Paris in the apartment they had rented at La Chappelle.  Who would say no to such an offer?  It was lovely.  We left the blustery, rain splattered weather of Holland for the warm balmy nights of France.  For once we were able to confidently leave the house without our raincoats and umbrellas.  I was pleased as I had bought a new outfit to wear out to our evening at the Eiffel Tower and didn't want to spoil it by covering it with my blue camping rainjacket!  This is Paris, after all and one must dress the part!.  Anne had pre-booked our entry, so we were seemingly able to walk straight in, by-passing the plebs who had waited for hours in the hot sun.  In we walked smugly, only to find we had joined the next stage of queueing!  It took us more than an hour to get to the top and a further hour to get down!  Once at the top though, it was magic.  It was such a clear day, we could truly see for miles.  We had planned to have champagne at the top, but there were so many people, we were virtually swept along and would not have been able to sip and enjoy as one should with champagne in Paris.  We joined the throng in the lift and headed down under the tower and walked to Trocadero for dinner.  Afterwards we wandered to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elyees.  What beats that?

Windmills

You can't come to Holland with seeing a windmill or two.  Today we visited Trish's cousin Annalise and her husband Jules in Zierikzee. This is a delightful little fishing port south of Delft.  To get there we had to go through Rotterdam.  We should have gone around the ringroad, but part of it was closed so we were sent into the suburbs and we found it hard to get out.  I cant claim we saw every street in Rotterdam, but we saw a lot of them and some of them twice.  Eventually we escaped to Zierikzee where we were served coffee in a house that dated from the 1500s and had been in the family for 6 generations.  Zierikzee itself has two windmills, but we came home via Kinderdijk, whch has 19 windmills and they are UNESCO World Heritage listed. One of them was open and we went in and saw it in operation.  In the past, the miller and his family lived in these noisy confined spaces and the sails turned day and night.  The mechanisms are entirely made of wood.

Joe and Sara in Amsterdam

Delft

What a delightful place Delft has turned out to be.  We have had a couple of days here now and its been relaxing and interesting.  Of course, Vermeer lived his whole life in Delft, and although his residences have been pulled down centuries ago, he still features very prominently here.  We visited the Vermeer museum. They do not have a single Vermeer painting, but had reproductions of all of his  40 or so pictures, with explanations and points of interest about them.  Seeing them all together is very interesting as you can tell they were all painted from the exact same spot and pearls and pearl earrings feature in many of them.
We also visited the Prinsenhof or Prince's Palace where William, the first Prince of Orange was assassinated in about 1584.  The bullet holes are allegedly still visible, but call me a cynic, I doubt anyone really believes they are the actual bullet holes.  It makes a good story.
The canal photo was taken just outside our front door in Delft.

Family reunions

Poor Alan has to come half way around the world to meet his brothers!  On Sunday night we met with Rick and Anne and their daughters Rebecca and Meagan and Rebecca's husband Dan in Amsterdam.  We enjoyed a deliciously cheap dinner in Amsterdam's China Town ( although we had Thai) before a stroll through the infamous Red Light District.
Next morning saw us on a train to Delft where we met with Ray and Trish.  They are in a beautiful and big Home Exchange place here and we will stay with them until 10 August.
Today Rick and Anne came down to Delft for a very pleasant day of eating, drinking and strolling around this delightful city.
On Thursday we hope to meet up with Joe and Sara who will be in Amsterdam after attending the Bicycle Messenger World Championships in Warsaw.

Amsterdam

Here we are in this magical city.  We arrived early this morning after spending last night at Hoorn on Ijsselmeer.  I could have had chocolate sprinkles on a croissant for breakfast, but instead I chose a boiled egg.  Our exchange apartment is fantastic - light and sunny and larger than expected.  Its a bit out of the main city but is on tram and train routes.
It comes with two bikes, so this afternoon we rode into the city centre.  I found it incredibly scary as there are so many bikes riding along the narrow bike lanes, plus small motor scooters use them too.  I hardly looked up off the road the whole time, so I was surprised to see Alan's photos of all the places we passed!  The photo of me on the bike was taken near our apartment and away from the city traffic.
Actually Alan admitted he found it a difficult experience too, so we have bought the I Amsterdam passes for the next three days which give us free entry to all the museums and free public transport.  In fact its not "Free" as we paid for them, but we should end up ahead and we can ditch the bikes ( which are really free).

Hamlyn

The photos on the previous post are from Hildesheim where we stayed last night.  We took a side trip to Gotha, where there is a UNESCO World Heritage castle/museum.  It had a wonderful collection of religious art and altar carvings as well as work by local renaissance artists, like the Gotha Lovers painting that Alan put on facebook.  As well as that, there were to rooms of the palace, all furnished with original furnishings - beautiful antiques and comfortable looking rooms - not the opulance we have seen in other places - this was more a home than a palace.
Then we went to Hamelyn where there were rats in the streets ( but not live ones).  It is a very pretty place and we had a lovely morning there.  Now we are in Bremen for a couple of nights.  We have a fantastic corner room with big windows and great views.  Its stopped raining, but its still cold.

Hildesheim and Gotha

Thuringia

We are curently in a lovely city called Erfurt which is the capital of Thuringia.  We finished travelling the whole lenght of the Romantic Road through Bavaria and headed straight north to this delightful place.  We arived last night and decided to spend the whole day here and will continue onwards north tomorrow.
Erfurt is where Martin Luther started writing his ideas about reformation of the Church.  We toured the abbey where he used to live in 1505 or thereabouts.  It was a long and boring tour with our english translation being about 4 sentences and the guide going on in German for about 40 minutes!
This is a beautiful place though  with narrow cobbled streets and overhanging houses.  Alan is excited by the trams and the trolley busses!
Although we are not getting the rain Sydney is experiencing, the temperature is about on par, with us needing our coats and vests everyday so far.

Lower Bavaria

This is one of the photos I wanted to upload from Munich.  Its the hotel room we had there - Alan looking inviting in the half-tester bed!
We are in Fussen in Lower Bavaria tonight.  Its a picture perfect little town on the river with magical towers and painted houses.  We came through Oberammagau ( the next play is in 2020 ) so it was a bit quiet, but pretty too, although I think Fussen is prettier.
We are staying here as its the gateway to the King's castles.  Today we visited Schloss Lindhoff , which although is not how you would imagine a castle - more a chateau -it was still very grand and decorated in the extreme rococo style, but wasn't really too bad.  (Even though there was 5 kg of gilt on the walls) The grounds, including the woods were just lovely.  King Ludwig II, who was 'the mad king', even built an artificial cave or grotto, just so he could listen to his favourite Wagner operas.  And he built a hunting lodge  and another pavilion, all to Wagner's set designs, only these were real buildings!  Apparently he had his staff dress the part, so he could sit there and fantasise he was a character in an opera.

The new town hall in Munich

Munich

hier wie sind... yes - we are in Germany - Munich and it is just lovely.  Lovely because its summer and green but its a beautiful old city with an enormous amount of history.  Yesterday was a special day and a lot of the public buildings were open and the museums were free entry.  We toured the New Townhall, which was still pretty old and were able to get into the ofices and the chambers not usually open.  There was a huge queue to go up the tower, so we left that for the Munichers.  One thing immediatly apparent about Old Munich is that they loved the Rococo style to the point of being ott really.  Not just the Town Hall, but the churches and public buildings are very decorated - even if some of the decorations are painted on!
 Naturlich we have been drinking beer and eating wurst und saurkraut, but not for breakfast as the two men next to us were this morning at 8.45 am!
Wwe have been surprised by the numbers of locals wearing traditional costumes - especially today on sunday.  Men in lederhose and women in dyrndal - young people too.  Actually its really nice.
Sorry there are no photos, but the computer is not cooperating
again.

We are away!!

At last we are on our way and flying qantas engineers strike free to Hong Kong. The movies and two meals later we arrived only an hour late. We'd booked into the Airport hotel and spent a pleasant night - even had a swim in the outdoor pool' aware of the planes flying low overhead.

Where we will be when

We leave Sydney on 14 July and fly to Hong Kong for an overnight stop. Next morning we catch a plane to Helsinki, then change for Munich, arriving in the early evening.

We have three nights in Munich then pick up a hire car for 10 touring through Germany to Amsterdam, where we have organised a 4 day exchange in an apartment.

At the beginning of August we move to Delft to meet Ray and Trish, who have organised an exchange there.

Alan and I leave for Paris on the morning of 10 August to meet with Rick and Anne and Bec and Dan. We spend two nights with them and then board a train for Grenoble. Our ultimate destination near there is an alpine skiing village called Villard de Lans, although it will be summer, so walking trails rather than skiing trails. We will be there for my 60th birthday!

On 27 August we pick up another hire car and travel slowly through France, following the full length of the Lot River, from its source in the Alps to its mouth near Bordeaux. Its joined the Garronne by then.

On 10 September we meet up with Ray and Trish again and a bunch of their friends in a property outside St Emilion in Bordeaux. After 2 weeks of eating and drinking and swimming etc, we travel with Ray and Trish into Spain to Bilbao, Zaragoza and a couple of nights in beautiful Barcelona.

Next we fly to Palma de Mallorca, where we have another two week exchange in an apartment in the old part of Palma.

On 16 September Alan and I fly to Helsinki for two nights before boarding a plane bound for Sydney. It will be an extraordinary long flight, but we arrive back in Sydney on 20 October.