14th June 2012

Hi all

After a good nights sleep, we left Toulouse this morning and headed off toward Bergerac. It is always nice when we get off the Autoroute and take the road less travelled. The motorways are good if you need to get from A to B in a certain time but they are usually not at all scenic and cost an absolute fortune. I estimate we have probably spent somewhere around 300 Euro on Tolls during the time we have been in Europe.

From Toulouse to Bergerac is very agricultural. There are crops of potatoes, corn, wheat and onions, all sown in various patterns, as well as orchards full of fruit trees. Cherries and other stone fruits seem to be prolific in this region. The area is very green and lush and trees line the road in and out of every little village. The little farm houses and barns that are scattered along the route are mostly old stone buildings with ivy climbing all over them.. All of France so far has been really clean and picturesque and there actually seems to be some law and order on the roads, which is nice.
Once you reach Bergerac in the Dordogne Valley the landscape changes and all of a sudden all you can see is vineyards and small gourmet outlets selling Fois Gras and Truffles. It is very scenic and obviously a foodies paradise.

Not far out of Bergerac you enter the Limousin region and from there through to Limoges seems to be mostly grazing properties obviously with Limousin cattle and some sheep as well.

All up the journey today took about 5 hours but was a very pleasant drive. We will stay in Limoges tonight and head up through the Loire Valley and into Paris tomorrow...looking forward to that!

The medieval village at Carcasonne

Emily at Carcasonne

Emily inside the Village

Every town through France has a tree lined entrance

The lush fields of The Dordogne Valley

A beautiful old stone house used as a cafe 

A beautiful little french village house

The Loire Valley...right in the heart of France

They love their flowers in France and the streets in

every town are decorated with them.

15th June 2012

We left Limoges this morning and headed toward Paris. We travelled up through the Loire Valley with all its vineyards through the heart of France. We stayed off the motorways and were fascinated by every beautiful little town and village we drove through. France really is a beautiful country. We arrived on the outskirts of Paris around 6pm. The traffic was very heavy and it took us nearly 11/2 hrs to get to our Hotel. We had a bit of an interesting night with the fire alarm going off in the hotel not once but 3 times. Once at 1.30am, again at 3am and once more at 5am. Each time was a false alarm but we had to evacuate the building every time so we had very little sleep and by the end of it Em was quite distressed. Fortunately the situation was fixed the next day because we had booked in for 3 nights and weren't looking forward to a repeat performance the next night.

After a bit of a sleep in......we decided to head to the Belle Epine shopping centre (the largest shopping centre in Europe apparently) to have a look around and do a bit of shopping.
The following day we spent sightseeing in Paris. Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower where we waited in line for three hours so we could take a lift to the very top. It is very impressive and the view from the top is amazing. It was worth the wait. Afterwards we jumped on the Hop on Hop off sightseeing bus and did a tour of the city. The heart of Paris is very beautiful with the most amazing buildings everywhere you look. We rode through the Montmatre district which used to be known for its artists and performers (but today appears to be full of flea type markets) and up past the Moulin Rouge.
Our last leg of the journey took us down the Champs Elysees toward the Arc De Triomphe. This is a beautiful tree lined street. Lots of gardens, cafes and shopping.

The next morning we headed out of Paris and on toward Amiens so we could take a drive through the Somme and along the Western Front into Belgium. This has been one of my favourite parts of France.
Firstly, we drove what is called The Poppy Trail or the Circuit of Remembrance. This area covers 40 miles dedicated to the battle of the Somme, with each battlefield marked with memorials to soldiers from France, Britain, Canada,  New Zealand, South Africa and of course Australia. It is an incredibly moving experience to visit the battlefields, memorials and cemeteries. The fields all through the Somme are lush and green and paddocks and roadways are lined with poppies. It is, ironically, a very peaceful place over 100 years on from WW1. The monuments and cemeteries are kept in immaculate condition and are really very beautiful. I was able to find the grave of two family members, both of whom were killed in the war. One in the Wallencourt British Commonwealth cemetery and one at The Menin Gate memorial at Ypres in Belgium. We also visited the site of Hill 62 in Ypres where we were able to see preserved trenches and artifacts found in the trenches after the war. There were trees with bullet holes all through them and large holes all through the area from mortar shell explosions. This would have to be one of the most authentic sites I have ever seen.....
We finished the day in Dunkirk where we spent the night so we could catch the ferry back to Dover from Calais this morning.
Tomorrow we are heading up to Stonehenge and on to Bath..........looking forward to the next leg of our journey.

Our first climpse of the Tower

The view from the top

Emily at the top of the Tower

The Seine River from the Eiffel Tower

The famous Maxim's Restaurant

The Moulin Rouge

A Paris street lined with cafes

The Louvre

The view down The Champs Elysee with the Arc De

Triomphe in the distance

The Somme

Marking the Front Line

Pozieres has many tributes to the Aussie Soldiers

and is where the Australian Memorial is located.

A field of Poppies

Emily placing some poppies at the Australian Memorial

One of the many beautiful war cemeteries

Another cemetery

The Australian Memorial

Mark in one of the Trenches at Hill 62

The preserved trenches

A whole from a shell

The Menin Gate Memorial all missing soldiers

One of the preserved trees at Hill 62 (covered with

crosses and poppies)showing bullet holes

13th June 2012

Hi all

No we haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I just haven't been able to blog for a while.  As I said in my last edition, we decided to take a cruise leaving from Italy and sailing to Messina in Sicily, Kusadasi in Turkey, Athens in Greece and Chania in Crete. We did have access to wifi aboard the ship but at 65 cents a minute it was way too expensive to try and blog. Anyway here is a quick update of whats been going on.........

We boarded our cruise on Sunday 3rd June in Civitavecchia in Italy. We were all looking forward to a little bit of luxury without the hassle of finding accommodation almost every night and having to pack and unpack all the time (not that I'm complaining of course). Our cabin was very nice with a big porthole window to take in the view. Emily was very excited that her bed actually dropped from the ceiling. We set sail about 5pm and headed toward Sicily.  By the time we woke we had already docked in Messina. Unfortunately I was a little unwell that day so we decided not to go ashore but to spend the day relaxing. Em went to kids club and met a girl from the UK named Abbey whom she spent the rest of the day with swimming and joining in Zumba and other activities on board. It was great for her to have some company her own age cause she is a bit over Mum and Dad and is very much missing all her friends at home.
The next day we spent at sea heading toward Kusadasi. The ship had an ice skating rink on board and as well as being able to use the rink for free time skating they also had professional skaters who  performed several times during the cruise. The show was very good and we ended up going a couple of times. Em had her first attempt at ice skating and although she found it very difficult she enjoyed it.
On Tuesday we arrived in Kusadasi. We took a tour through a couple of Turkish towns and villages. We tasted some interesting Turkish wines, visited a really interesting felt making factory and took a tour through a Turkish Carpet House and watched a demonstration of how they extract silk thread from silk worms to make the rugs with. I now understand why these rugs are so expensive when you watch the incredibly talented girls who sit for sometimes ten months at a time hand making the carpets one knot at a time.......unbelievable.  The Turkish people are very hospitable so we drank a lot of Turkish Tea. In fact at every stop we made, even at the tiny, family run, felt makers the first thing they did was offer tea. I have to add that the felt making was amazing to watch and we were fascinated by the fact that they actually import wool from New Zealand to use in their finer pieces of work.
Back on board that evening we had dinner in the dining room with some lovely people from Canada and then went to the theatre to see a singing group from the UK who sang mostly songs from the sixties and had obviously modelled themselves on the Beatles and the like. Mark and I thought it was quite good but Emily was not too fussed.
Again we sailed overnight and on Wednesday morning docked in Piraeus, Greece. We took a bus into Athens and spent a couple of hours visiting the Acropolis. It was an incredibly hot day, especially at the Acropolis which is perched high on a hilltop overlooking the city. The view was beautiful, especially looking out toward the Mediterranean Sea. Once again it was hard not to be impressed with the fact that these building were constructed thousands of years ago and yet are still standing today. As we have found with most of the ancient sites we have visited, they are constantly undergoing restoration work and while it is obviously necessary, the scaffolding surrounding these amazing structures is a little distracting. In the afternoon we had some free time to wander through the Plaka in the old town area of Athens. We had some lunch and did a bit of souvenir shopping before heading back to the ship.
Friday morning we arrived in Chania on Crete. We decided to go it alone in Chania instead of taking a guided tour with the cruise company. We caught a shuttle bus into the town and just spent some time wandering in and out of the beautiful little streets and markets. Mark decided to have some "foot therapy" at Doctor Fish day spa where he soaked his feet in a tank and  let hundreds of little Garra Rufa fish eat the dead skin off his feet...mmm not for me!
Saturday we spent at sea, again taking the opportunity to relax a bit before arriving back in Italy on Sunday and hitting the road again.
By this time we have only one week left in Europe before we head back to the UK, so we decided to head toward France. Unfortunately it looks as though we may not get time to see anything of Spain. Disappointing but I guess we have to save something for next time.....whenever that may be!!
We headed back up the West coast of Italy and stayed in San Terenzo for the night.
As you probably know The Northern part of Italy experienced an earthquake a couple of weeks ago and is continuing to feel aftershocks even now. This meant that we had to do a little back tracking, which we wouldn't have done if we could have used an alternative route up through the quake affected area.
San Terenzo is at the beginning of an area called Cinque Terra. This is a route consisting of several beautiful, ancient towns built on the cliff faces of a very rugged coastline. We spent most of Monday driving through Cinque Terra. We visited a place called Manarola where we had to park at the top of a hill and walk right down into the heart of the town. It was a very steep descent, which of course was fine, but the walk out was a killer. The town came to an end right on the edge of the sea and we had lunch in a little cafe overlooking the cliff face.
We finally crossed the border into Monacco late in the afternoon. We drove onto Nice and spent our first night in France. Tuesday we spent some time having a look around Nice before driving on to Nimes. We spent Tuesday night in Nimes and had hoped to visit the Arena de Nimes this morning. This Southern part of France has a very Roman history and so the Arena de Nimes is like the Colosseum in Rome and despite being smaller is actually much better preserved. Unfortunately due to lots of road work around the Arena we were unable to actually go inside it. Very impressive from the outside though.
After TRYING to see the Arena we headed further into France to a place called Carcasonne. Here there is the most amazing medieval city complete with its own castle and cathedral. We spent a couple of hours exploring before we drove through to Toulouse where we will spend tonight.
In the next couple of days we plan to take a scenic route up through the Dordonge Valley and then further up into the Loire valley and on to Paris.
Well that's a quick catch up of the last 10 days!! Will leave you with some photos and will blog again soon....I hope!



Mark and Em boarding the ship



Playing golf on board



Em on the staircase inside the ship.....not quite like the Titanic!



Em at our porthole window

The village of Sinrince in Turkey

The port town of Kusadasi

Felt making in demonstration

The finished product

Extracting silk thread

Making the rugs

The carpets were so beautiful...especially the silk ones.

The square in Kusadasi

The ancient theatre at the Acropolis

Emily in front of the Parthenon

The view from the Acropolis

Markets...lots of olives and cheese

Chania

Chania

Chania

Mark at Doctor Fish

Apparently it tickles!!!!

I dont know what to say about this!!!!!!!!



2nd June 2012

Hi all.

To pick up where I last left of last time............

The day after we took a tour of the Amalfi Coast we travelled into see the excavation site of Pompeii and check out Mt Vesuvius. Pompeii was amazing. We joined a small tour of the site which took about 2 hours and showed the most important places in the town. I could have spent hours exploring the rest of it but just as we finished the tour the rain started and it was no spring shower, it just poured down. Of course there is very little undercover on the site so it made seeing anything else all but impossible. I was surprised at just how big it is. This also meant that we couldn't drive up to Mt Vesuvius. A bit disappointing, however you can see it from all of Naples. It would have been fun to get a closer look.
That afternoon after the rain had slowed a bit we went for a drive around Serrento where we had been staying. It is very beautiful and has some quite amazing, very famous hotels.
Now for Emily's favourite adventure so far.......In the evening Em and I took a cooking class at Mami Camilla's, the hotel we were staying at. We learnt how to make Stuffed Zucchini Flowers, Fresh Ravioli with homemade Tomato Sauce, Italian Lamb and Potatoes and Shortbread Fruit and Custard Tarts. Emily got to work mostly on her own without her mother butting in.....which she thoroughly enjoyed and as she was the youngest appeared to be the teachers favourite so she got to do a few extra things. Afterwards we got to sit down in the restaurant and enjoy what we had made. Mark was able to join us for dinner and Em had great pleasure dishing up what she had made for her Dad to try. We were given an apron and a cook book to use and take home with us so Em cant wait to get home and cook up a storm!!!!!!
The next day we checked out and headed for Rome. We stayed out of Rome a bit and took the hotel Shuttle bus into the city. We have seen some interesting and beautiful parts of Italy but there is also alot of it that is very dirty and not terribly appealing, like most countries I guess. I expected Rome to be a bit  like this but was really surprised how clean it was. It was fascinating and I would love to return one day to spend some more time. There are old roman ruins scattered all over the city which I didn't expect. We visited Vatican City and actually got to see the Pope giving an address to the people which was very exciting. It was a very hot day and the address went on for a few hours. How the police and representatives from the church stand for hours in that heat without moving is just incredible.
We visited the Fountain of Trevi and threw in some coins. Throwing one coin means you will one day return to Rome, throwing two means you will marry an Italian..........Emily would only throw ONE!!!!!! The Fountain is really beautiful but there were so many people in the Piazza it was hard to move. It would be nice to visit again when it was not so busy. We had a lovely meal in a little restaurant close by and then headed to the Colosseum. We really enjoyed the Colosseum, like Pompeii, it is just like stepping back in time.
We spent the last couple of hours just wandering through the little back streets and visiting the old Jewish Ghetto. There are so many Piazza's or squares in the city, all of them very beautiful and with ornate statues and fountains. We saw a wedding taking place in the Piazza Veneza..... how she made it up all those steps in her dress and very high healed shoes I will never know.
The next day we spent catching up on some rest. it is quite hot in Rome with temps about 30-33 degrees so we had a swim and just took it easy. As much as we are enjoying our trip (and we are by no means whingeing)it is actually quite hard work!!
The following day we decided to head up into Tuscany. We drove to Sienna and spent the night. We visited a very quaint little walled city and enjoyed a traditional Tuscan dinner complete with Wild Bore (or Mark did anyway).
Today we drove through some beautiful wine country and meandered our way back down to the port city of Civitavecchia as tomorrow we leave for a 7 night cruise of the Eastern Mediterranean and will get to visit Sicily, Greece and Turkey. I'm pretty sure we wont be able to blog till we get back to Italy so look forward to catching up then!!

Artifacts excavated from Pompeii

A steet in Pompeii

A plaster cast of a body burried beneath Volcanic Ash

The ancient Roman Theatre

Another body

Marble columns in Pompeii

Part of the ancient city square

more artifacts

Emily with the cooking teacher

..

The process of making Ravioli.....making the dough

putting the dough through the pasta machine

Laying out the pasta

filling the ravioli

cutting out the raviloi

Tuscany...grape vines and olive groves

Tuscany

Tusca

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