Au Revoir to Chez Speedies

I was asked by a friend "So, was it all worth it?" Yes, definitely. Not that we found it easy some of the time but overall we have had more good times than bad and it's been a positive life experience. Missing family and friends was hard but the year went by so amazingly quickly because we kept busy doing things and we tried to make the most of the time we had away.

This will be my last post for Chez Speedies. I've enjoyed keeping a record of our trip over the year and would like to thank my readers. I was quite flattered to receive comments from people who were enjoying reading the blog. THANK YOU readers. Bye for now.

Back in Oz

Ahhhh……………it's bliss to be home. It feels strange to hear Aussies talking. They talk funny. After being in Europe and not understanding what people are saying alot of the time it feels like we’re eavesdropping on people’s conversations because we can understand everything that they're saying.

The Long Road Home

We closed the door on Paris at 8.05 am Thursday morning and walked to the train station, Chatelet Les Halles to catch RER B to Charles de Gaulle airport. Our bags were heavy as hell. We weighed in at 95 kg all up for four checked in bags, one for each of us plus Andrew thinks we would have had at least 30 kg in our carry on bags. Andrew had the laptop in his carryon backpack and the ham and cheese baguettes I prepared for our snack and I had my cabin bag. It took us 20 long minutes to drag our bags to the station. We bought train tickets (€28) and minutes later were heading to the airport.

Everything went smoothly with checkin and we were ready and waiting in the departure lounge a good hour and a half before the flight. Ella and Samuel were both excited to be going home and said it was a good day for them. Flying scares me. When you consider the size of the aircraft and the number of people they carry one wonders how the planes stay up in the air? I try not to think about it…it’s too terrifying. It was a long, long flight. Ella was the only one who managed to get some sleep for a couple of hours from Paris to Singapore. She’s so little. She curled up into a ball in her seat and dozed off and she was quite sprightly when we landed at Singapore. The rest of us were red-eyed and very tired.

We’re all happy to be going home. The last 2 ½ months of on-the-road travelling has really worn us out. The kids have hated it. I love France but I don’t know when we will come back again. We want to visit other countries when we go overseas next time but I doubt we would go overseas for such a long time again.

It’s a real learning experience when you travel. You find out a lot about yourself and also about the practicalities of travel. A big one for us is to take less stuff next time. We carried way too much stuff with us that we didn’t need. It was a nightmare.

Physically Andrew and I feel like wrecks. He has to see a doctor about his shoulder which hasn’t been right since April. He thinks it’s because of all the luggage we’ve been carrying around.

Leaving France

Today we fly home. We had the worst night last night. It was so hot. We both kept waking up sweating. It was 35 degrees in Paris yesterday. According to the CNN weather guy it was 8-10 degrees hotter than normal for this time of year. We had the air conditioner on for some of the time but it was spitting out so much water it had to be turned off.

Don’t you think they should tell you that the apartment you’re paying a squillion dollars for is in the red light district? I’m debating with myself about writing a mean review about this apartment. Either that or send a detailed list of all the plumbing problems with this unit to the owners. Actually I’ll probably do nothing. I don’t think the owners care and when we leave here I’m going to have plenty of other things to think about.

Tuesday 18 August 2009

We’ve been sitting around all day. The kids don’t want to go anywhere. The kids are watching Tom and Jerry cartoons. Andrew found another few hundred tv channels. I wonder how they will feel when we get back to Australia and they realise we won’t be in safe secure Mount Isa anymore. That we’re going to a place where none of us will know anyone and we’ll have to start again from the beginning. They think when we’re back in Australia life will be perfect and they’ll never have a problem again especially since everyone speaks English.

Last Day in France

I liked this statue on the side of the building

We spent our last day in Paris at home in the apartment packing up and working out how we were going to organise ourselves to get to the airport on time tomorrow. The kids refused to go anywhere. They watched cartoons and picked fights with each other. I went out for a couple of hours down to Les Halles to look for some souvenirs and was horrified to see the stuff in the tourist shops there was almost double the price of the souvenirs at the Louvre shops.

Personally we're quite impressed with ourselves that we lasted the distance. Travelling is hard work and travelling with kids, well, I think we expect alot of them, maybe too much, and it causes alot of conflict. It'll be interesting when we get home and hear what the kids have to say to others about their experiences. I'll be keeping my ears open to listen. Who knows what anxieties they have. You can't imagine they would have much to worry about but their day to day behaviour shows up that they get stressed too.

Eiffel Tower Walk - Tuesday 18 August 2009

Looking down Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe

We took the metro to the Eiffel Tower to save our legs and then walked back along the Champs Elysees to the Jardin de Tuilleries with stops along the way to play and to take some photos. It was such a contrast from the cold hardness of winter to the hot sunny brightness of a summer’s day and boy it sure was hot. I remember queuing to go up the Eiffel Tower, toes numb in shoes. The kids remember kicking the slabs of ice along the footpath and walking on the frozen water in the fountains. That tickled their fancy… walking on water. Just past the Louvre Ella started looking in souvenir shops and Andrew and Samuel kept walking home while Ella and I stayed and shopped in peace.

Louvre

We visited the Louvre today. It was chaotic and mostly unenjoyable. The kids hated it. The place is too big and it’s all quite overwhelming. I particularly didn’t like being shoved by people trying to get in to see the Mona Lisa.

Paris Plage

We planned to spend our last few days enjoying Paris, relaxing in our 2 bedroom apartment, doing a little bit of sightseeing, nothing too strenuous. We also needed to spend a bit of time searching the internet for somewhere to live when we get back to Australia seeing as we’re homeless, looking for a school for the kids that teaches French as their lote and a heap of other things which we wanted to organise before we arrived. Having the computer sh*t itself at this time is most inconvenient and has been a real pain. Sadam, our Lebanese computer whizz that we met at the newsstand, loaded a couple of security and cleaning things on our laptop but it hasn’t solved the problem because the computer still randomly switches itself off in the middle of doing stuff.

Also our unit is really noisy and hot at night but we can’t leave the windows open because of the nocturnal goings on in the street outside. I mentioned before I think about the location of our unit in the redlight area of St Denis. We didn’t realise we were in the thick of it when we booked here.

So we’re all worn out and basically fed up and want to go home now. The kids are more excited about going home than they’ve been the whole trip but I live in hope they will have good memories of the trip and forget all the things we’ve complained about.

PARIS PLAGE

We spent our last Sunday in France visiting Paris Plage, which is a section of river embankment along the River Seine which has been turned into a “beach” with umbrellas, deck chairs and spray mist machines. It was a boiling hot day and the chance of a swim was appealing.

I’d have to say the general idea is a success. There was hundreds of people there but it was so hot and I found it pretty grim that there was no where to swim or get relief from the sweltering sun except under the bridge arches along the roadway.

We found a pool for the kids to swim in but it was complet meaning they were full and couldn’t take any more kids in. Only certain ages could swim at certain times and we were told we could come back in an hour. Men aren’t allowed to swim in shorts. They have to wear speedo style togs, and also everyone has to wear a bathing cap. All for hygiene. Andrew and I expected to be able to sit and watch the kids in the pool from the side but that’s not allowed. One parent has to be with the kids in the pool at all times.

Cimetiere - Friday 14 August 2009

Oscar Wilde's lipstick-marked grave

Today I went to visit the Cimetière du Père Lachaise, the world’s most visited graveyard according to the Lonely Planet. It took me 40 minutes to get there from Boulevard St Denis all the way down Avenue de la Republique. It didn’t look that far on the map. The cemetery is huge like a small suburb with roads and street signs. There’s 800 000 people buried here and the conservation office gives out free maps showing the location of some of the famous graves that people want to visit. I saw Oscar Wilde’s and Jim Morrison’s grave. Oscar Wilde’s grave is covered in lipstick kisses.

We've been having a torrid time with the laptop so I haven't been able to update the blog. The computer just goes off at the most awkward times, so annoying. But I've been writing in Word so I will post these as soon as I can.

CHEZ PRUNE

We were going to lunch at Chez Adel where they have chansonniers singing French songs in the style of Edith Piaf but they were closed and it looked really sleazy anyway so that was probably a good thing. Instead we stumbled across Chez Prune nearby which turned out to be a scrumptious second choice. The food was delicious and the service was efficient and friendly.

After lunch we took the metro to the Marché aux Puces de Montreuil, a flea market in the 20e. It wasn’t quite what I anticipated. It’s funny how you get a picture in your head about something and then it’s not what you thought. People were sitting on the ground with the stuff they were selling in front of them on mats. The market snaked its way along the side of the road peripherique. The Lonely Planet describes this as a market of 500 stalls but there was nothing like that where we were. Maybe we were in the wrong place. It wouldn’t be the first time.

So we got back on the metro and went to another market at Porte de Clignancourt which is said to be the biggest flea market in Europe. This market was more what I expected but I don’t think we saw all of it because each market is located in a different section. Anyway by this time the kids needed the toilet, they were thirsty, tired and wanted to go home. We didn’t stay long after that.

Thursday 13 August 2009

I’ve really been going on about my kids not enjoying what we’re doing, the travel, the sightseeing. My children are wonderful and I think I’ve been too hard on them. The travel wears them out and I haven’t appreciated how tired they are and how much it affects their mood and behaviour. I think they’ve missed their friends and having other kids to play with regularly and they don’t understand why we would want to travel and leave our own home for such a long time. I love history and old things and imagining how life must have been in the olden days for different people. I don’t think children at 7 ¾ years old can really understand the meaning of history and the hundreds of years of time involved. I have been trying to make the most of Paris without the kids joining in because they’re happier playing at home in the unit than looking at all the beauty and history of Paris. I wonder how other people with kids cope.

Passage Brady

Our Indian dinner at Passage Brady was good fun. Not that we’re big fans of spicy food but we wanted to try something different. Passage Brady is one of the many covered shopping arcades in this area. Some of them are quite beautiful. This particular passage is within easy walking distance of our unit and full of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants from one end to the other. We ordered two mild chicken dishes and a lamb biryani and the waiter was most insistent we try some cheese bread which was a warm tortilla with cheese melted in the middle of it, quite yummy.

Montmartre

My first important task of the day was going for a walk to the Boulanger to buy baguettes for our lunch. Then I went to the Franprix to get a few essentials like milk and bikkies. After Andrew made us lunch, everyone settled down for a quiet afternoon. Ella was playing with her new Tinkerbell and Minnie toy dressups. Samuel was playing computer games on the laptop and Andrew was reading his Dan Brown book. So as no-one wanted to accompany me I ventured out on my own to walk up to Montmartre. I wanted to visit Place du Tertre where the artists have their easels set up and they’ll paint your portrait or draw a caricature of you.

Place du Tertre was lively and buzzy, just as I’d imagined and all those stairs to climb. Exhausting. I had to get a photo. No wonder French women are so slim with all the walking they do. Many of the streets around the Butte de Montmartre are cobbled and the views are great.

I walked up, down and around. It was bliss being alone without anyone whining at me. I saw the moulins used for flour milling years ago and the famous Moulin Rouge. I was carrying the Lonely Planet with me. It’s good practice for me to work things out for myself instead of relying on Andrew all the time. He finds everything so easy and I don’t but I get there in the end at my own pace – it’s just not as fast as him.

Today we’re going back to Disneyland. The tickets we bought gave us four days for the price of three but we didn’t tell the kids in case we didn’t end up going back. The long waits in the queues for a ride that lasts only a minute or two doesn’t seem worth it. For some rides you can get a fastpass ticket which cuts the wait time down by about half. We wanted to stay for the fireworks but they’re on so late and we’re not keen about the safety of the trains coming back to Paris so late at night.

Monday 10 August 2009

This morning Andrew walked to Rue Tiquetonne to collect our two bags we had in storage for a month. I went out on my own to find a supermarche so we can make dinner at home tonight. It was good fun walking along looking at the shops, lots of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants and I found a laverie and internet café.

This afternoon we took the washing down to the laverie. I had to bribe the kids with lollies to leave the unit. They didn’t want to go anywhere. Good to have the washing up to date.

Basilique Sacre Couer

Tuesday 11 August 2009

We are still sitting around at lunchtime. The Kids don’t want to go anywhere. Andrew went for a walk and found Boulanger to buy baguettes for lunch.

After we had lunch we went to get our shopping for dinner tonight and then we went for a walk to see if we could find a computer repair shop. I had an idea to buy a newspaper to check out the classies and we stopped at a newsstand and a man there asked us something which I didn’t understand and I told him my idea and that we were looking for a computer fix It shop and he asked what was wrong with our computer. He said computers are his job and he might be able to help us. It all sounded really sus but we got chatting to the man whose name was Sadam and he said if we wanted to accompany him to his house which was nearby he would have a look at the computer for us. Our gut feel was that he was trustworthy despite the situation seeming dodgy.

So Andrew went with this Lebanese guy to his house to fix our computer and I took the kids to the park a couple of streets away. We met up with Andrew shortly after €30 lighter. Andrew wasn’t sure that the guy had done anything but he did remove 4 gig of temporary files which he thought could be part of the problem.

After all this excitement we walked up to the Basilique Sacre Couer. What an amazing sight! And a stunning view of Paris because of the highupness of it. Andrew and the kids waited on the steps near the entrance while I joined the funnel of people going in to look at the church. There was such a huge crowd they had to cordon the entrance to make the entry and exit points a bit easier for people not to get crushed.

What a place! People everywhere. The streets we walked to get to the basilique had hundreds of shops with rolls and rolls of dressmaking materials. Half way up on the many steps of the church some young folk were set up with a microphone and amplifier and were entertaining the throng of people happily sitting on the steps.

Disney Weekend

We’ve survived three days at Disneyland. No mean feat. I think you just about need to go into training to get through a visit to Disney. It’s full on…the mega crowds and the endless queuing. The main thing is the kids enjoyed it.

Monday 10 August 2009

My initial feeling when we found our unit in Paris was disappointment. My expectations were high for some reason. Andrew wasn’t disappointed at all. It was exactly what he expected. I assumed the unit would have a washing machine and searched high and low for one. Why did I assume it would have a washing machine? I don’t know but now we'll have to waste our precious remaining time in Paris finding a laverie and hauling clothes down to wash.

Our unit is in Rue D’Aboukir which is in an interesting area. During the day it’s constant hustle and bustle of delivery people and shoppers but from early evening the professional women appear literally outside our front door. The street is full of clothes shops with the most beautiful designer evening wear and bags, shoes and glittery jewellery at reduced prices.

The location of the unit is great. If it had a really good clean and had a few things fixed it would be ok. Andrew had to do a few minor maintenance jobs when we arrived. Not what you would expect when you’re paying over €1500 for 11 nights. The main things were plumbing things like the airconditioner water dripping down the wall, the bathtub water wouldn’t drain and the shower head was broken. Painful.

Friday 7 August 2009

Disneyland was fantastic. We arrived after lunch and launched ourselves into Walt Disney Studios. After a long wait, we went on our first ride, Crush’s Coaster. Crush was the turtle in the Nemo movie so I thought it would be a tame ride. It was terrifying. I had my eyes shut the whole time and couldn’t wait for it to end. I always think I’ll be okay and I never am and I don’t know why I bother. I guess I want to enjoy the experience like other people and it’s just not my thing. Everyone else got off the ride laughing and all smiles. I got off feeling nauseous and nearly in tears. Ella initially seemed afraid but later said she enjoyed herself and Samuel was fine with it.

Thursday 6 August 2009

Sitting on the Eurostar watching the beautiful French countryside whizz by. It’s relaxing travelling by train. You can appreciate the scenery instead of worrying about the traffic and taking a wrong turn.

Paris Problems

zeùre qt the internet cqfe in &àe: That's code for I'm at the internet cafe on a f***g french keyboard and the keys are all over the place. Can you tell I'm frustrated? The laptop has sh*t itself on arrival in Paris and we are trying to find someone to clean up the hard drive for us. So my blog might not be happening. We have 9 more days here before we go home. It's hard to believe it's nearly the end. The kids can't wait to get on the plane and play those computer games. I just want to get out and see as much as I can of Paris before it's au revoir.

Eurodisney

We're back in Paris today...yayyyy....heading off to Disneyland for three days. The kidlets can't wait.

Goodbyes

We said goodbye to The Beasley's today. We're into the last two weeks of our 12 month adventure and they are just beginning. It was nice to catch up with them and it was fun for the kids to have someone to play with. Our last night we went out for a meal at Ye Olde Bell, a little pub in the village of Hurley. The pub was built in 1352. It was a gorgeous little place and the food we had was really yummy. There was a large outdoor area with long wooden trestle tables and a huge grassy area and shady trees and swings for the kids. It was great. The kids played out the back all night apart from when they came up to have their dinner.

Maidenhead

Little crooked building in Eton

Pretty flowers in the centre of the road

The Speedie and Beasley kids having a snack before going into Windsor Castle

Another grey day in the UK. So much for summer. We're in Maidenhead for one more day. We've been catching up with The Beasley's who are about to start their travelling adventures as we prepare to go home to Australia. Yesterday the nine of us visited Windsor Castle, the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. The size of the place was incredible and the State Apartments were magnificent.

Tomorrow we take our hire car back to Euston Avis and then get the Eurostar at St Pancras back to Paris. We'll have a night in Paris then on Friday morning we're going to Paris Disney for the weekend.

After the weekend we come back to Paris where we have an apartment booked for 9 days then we fly home. All over red rover.

Wax Museum

Ella with Mary Queen of Scots
Ella with Julia Roberts
Ella with the fairies

I was so disappointed with our visit to Madame Tussauds today. Apart from having to take out a bank loan to pay for the tickets the crowds were unbelievable. We queued for almost 2 hours to get in, then when we finally got in I was surprised to see the expected visit time was only 1.5 hours. I planned to spend most of the afternoon there but found the masses of people was really giving me the sh*ts and we cut our visit short because it was so hard to see things with 50 million other people hanging around. But on a lighter note the wax figures are amazing, so lifelike. I mistook wax figures for real people a couple of times.

Afterwards we went for a walk in nearby Regent’s Park; it was such a beautiful day today. But then we made the mistake of spotting the London Zoo and foolishly thinking it might be a reasonable price to enter but fat chance. We weren’t prepared to outlay another small fortune to go to the zoo.

Yesterday we visited the Science Museum which was fantastic and FREE!!! The crowds were massive for this museum too; in fact when we came out of the tube station and walked onto the footpath we thought we were walking along with the pedestrians but it was actually the museum queue which extended a block down the road into the next street but it did move fairly quickly. London has some great museums which are free which makes a nice change.

Science Museum

Medicine Cabinet around 500 years old Mummified head

London Sightseeing...Wednesday 29 July 2009

Standing in front of the pirate ship in Diana Memorial Playground

We managed to cram quite a lot into our day today. Considering how long it takes to get anywhere using the tube we did pretty well. The accommodation we're staying in is great but it's kind of out in the sticks at Excel and we have to get the DLR in to where we can get on the tube.

I googled "free things to do in London" and got a heap of things. One of them was the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. We milled around the front gates for a while with the thousands of other people. The kids were able to sit down at the front of us and have a good view. We couldn't see anything inside the gates because of the crowds but two bands marched past and we got a good look at them.

Then we took a London cab to the Princess Diana Memorial Playground near Kensington Palace which the kids loved and so did the other thousand kids there. It was very crowded but we played for a while and then headed over to Covent Garden to find the Disney Shop to get our Eurodisney tickets for next week. Covent Garden was very exciting. I haven't been there before. Masses of people, fantastic street entertainers and lots of restaurants, shops and stuff going on.

Our day finished off with a movie at the Odeon in Shaftsbury Avenue. We watched the new Ice Age movie in 3D which everyone enjoyed.

London Sightseeing (hopefully)

I've got some things planned for us to do today...now if I can just get the kids off the couch...

London Excel

It's 4.20 pm and no-one feels like doing anything. We're in one of the most exciting cities in the world with so much going on and we're sitting here in our unit watching tv on the huge screen.

Brighton

Ella standing in front of Meryl's house in Brighton

Meeting Noreen

Bo-Min's 8th birthday
Andrew, Noreen, Meryl and Samuel

We had a fun day today. We played mini golf with Meryl's two boys and took a picnic lunch down to the playground. Later in the afternoon after the golf we all piled into the car and headed over to Noreen's house for dinner. Noreen is another friend of the family who worked on Buka and it was my first time meeting her. She made a lovely dinner for us and we all talked late into the night and had to wake the kids up from in front of the tv to go home.

Brighton Walk...Saturday 25 July 2009

Brighton Pier

Ella on the rocky beach

Our first morning in Brighton was sunny and kind of warm but a tad windy. The summer here has been not very summery. We did a big healthwalk (as it’s called) along the beach to Brighton Pier. The kids love the rock beaches. They love finding all the different rocks. The ocean looked inviting but I didn’t see any people swimming. At Brighton Pier we bought fish and chips and tried to find a spot out of the wind to sit and eat them. Then we wandered up to the Royal Pavillion and walked around the gardens and through The Lanes shopping area. By this time is was about 4 o’clock and we were ready for a sit down and we bought tickets on the little train along the beach back to where we started.

Brighton...Friday 24 July 2009

We've arrived in Brighton, Britain's premier seaside location and it looks like a fun place to explore. We turned up on Meryl's doorstep just after lunch. Meryl is another of the Williams' clan from Andrew's days in New Guinea. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with Meryl and Samuel and Ella were very happy to have two other children to play with.

Brighton Unit

Our unit in Lewes Crescent is lovely. Lewes Crescent is an upmarket part of Brighton. There is a private garden which we were given a key to access and in the garden there's a secret tunnel leading down to the beach which we're told is the inspiration for the Alice in Wonderland story.

I was very happy to see a washing machine and dryer so I could do the washing. Keeping us in clean clothes is a total pain when we're on the road. But the washing machine wasn’t working for some reason. Then we realised that the floorboards in the kitchen were all squelchy and water was squishing up and it turns out there's some major plumbing problem going on and the water isn’t draining away properly and has blocked up the pipes hence the flooded floorboards in the kitchen which is on the other side of the wall from the washing machine. It has obviously been happening for a while before we arrived because of the state of the floor but my fear now is that they’ll blame us for the damage and keep our ₤250 deposit which is meant to be refunded in 10 days.

Cambridge Photos

Just about to embark on our punt ride

Punts on the River Cam
In front of the beautiful buildings of the University

Cambridge 23 July 2009

We had to drive to a place more than halfway between York and Brighton so we picked Cambridge to have a look around. What a beautiful place. The university is 800 years old this year (1209 – 2009). We went for a relaxing chaffeured ride on a punt along the River Cam which was fun apart from being bumped into by all the self hire punts. Our young driver who I thought looked abit like Prince William gave us a commentary about the history of the university colleges. There are 31 colleges with 17 000 students who eat, live and study in these majestic looking buildings. Late in the 1800’s women began studying at Cambridge but could not actually graduate with a degree until 1948.

Countdown...

The countdown has begun … we’re on the homeward stretch now. There’s less than a month to go till we fly home. The time has gone so quickly. I’m glad I’ve kept blogging because I don’t think I would remember half of what’s happened in the last year if I hadn’t written it all down. We also have a heap of things to organise for when we arrive back in Australia.

1. We need to book accommodation in Sydney because we’ll stay and visit Sis for a few days;
2. We need to book cheapie flights from Sydney to the Gold Coast where our accommodation is already reserved at Chez Speedies II (Andrew’s parents);
3. We plan to use our Frequent flyer points to fly back to The Isa where Andrew’s got a heap of stuff to do;
4. We’ve got to get the landcruiser and the ute roadworthied and registered;
5. We have to work out how we’re going to get all our stuff down to Brisbane;
6. Drive back to Brisbane, find a new house, get the kids in school and get back into the groove of the real world again.

I think it’s going to be very hard to settle down into normal life after so long. We’re looking forward to it with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. After all we've lived in Mount Isa for a long time and it’s going to be a major life adjustment.

York

Street scene recreated inside the Castle Museum

On the way over from Kirkcudbright we called in at Lockerbie to visit the memorial for the people who died in the air disaster of 1988. There’s a small visitor centre at the front and the memorial plaques are in a separate area at the back of the village cemetery. Reading about what happened and looking at the names and stories of the people who died is all so sad. I suppose knowing we’re going on a long flight ourselves soon and after two recent horrible air disasters I’m a bit scared to be going on a plane.

Our first day in York we visited the York Castle Museum which is in the original prison building which makes the displays seem more realistic. It showed life in the olden days in York and how hard it was and how people lived and worked and died. There was a whole street recreated as it would have been in those early days of York and people in costume dressed as they would have been in the olden days.

On our second day in York we had planned to do the 4km walk around the top of the city walls and visit the gardens but the day was rainy and cold and instead we ended up going to see the The Jorvik viking museum. It was interesting but it was a bit too brief for the money. The museum is housed over the archaeological digs where they have found a whole viking village around about 900BC. Everyone gets to have a ride in a little motorised cart with audio describing each scene. There is also a whole skeleton of a farmer laid out in a glass cabinet and there’s a description of his injuries leading to his death probably defending his land and property. Again I liked how the staff were dressed in viking costumes.

Loving the UK

We’ve all been enjoying Britain very much. It’s so nice to be able to understand what people are saying and we’ve been enjoying talking to random strangers we meet in our normal day which we couldn’t ever do in France. As soon as we open our mouths people want to know where we’re from and they usually tell us a story about a family member or friend living in Australia. One guy even said his wife was a nurse and had just scored a job in Mackay and she would be emigrating in a few weeks and he wouldn’t be far behind her. People are very friendly to us. It makes a nice change to feel comfortable in a place. I don’t think we realised how stressed out it made us feel being constantly linguistically isolated.

Turnberry - Saturday 18 July 2009

Andrew is going to be at the British Open all day today. He left early because the traffic is expected to be heavy and he wants to be there in good time. The place we’re staying is about 50 miles away from Turnberry. We’re on a farm in a cottage near Kirkcudbright (pronounced kirkoobree) but there’s a ping pong table, trampolines, tennis court and other things for the kids to play with as long as it doesn’t rain. And then there’s always the pesky DS’s.

This morning I was trying to be quiet so I didn’t wake the kids up. The lack of sleep catches up with them. Sometimes we need to get them up early because of our travel plans but there’s other times when it would be good if they could sleep longer but can’t because the morning light is so bright coming into the bedroom and the curtains aren’t dark enough. Anyway I’m trying to be as quiet as I can but the stillness here makes every little sound seem magnified. These old places make more noises than normal with their creaky, squeaky floorboards and doors not to mention my joints cracking as I try to tip toe down the hallway.

The Puzzling Place - 16 July 2009

This morning we took the kids to The Puzzling Place which was a collection of exhibits of optical illusions. The hologram gallery was my favourite. I’d love to know how they make those pictures. They seem to jump out at you depending on where you’re standing.

In the afternoon we played a round of obstacle mini golf. It was fun with the kids. Andrew kept score. Andrew and Samuel both had 3 holes in one, Ella had 2 and I had 4.

We were forced to go to the tourist office to ask them to find a place for us to stay for the next two nights because Andrew wants to go to the British Open at Turnberry. As usual we haven’t been able to finalise our plans and there’s no accommodation left anywhere near Turnberry. The tourist office said people are travelling from as far as Glasgow and Edinburgh for the day because everywhere is booked out.

Scotland

Today we’re crossing the border into Scotland. We drive north to Dumphries then across to Castle Douglas near where tourist office found a cottage for us for two nights. It was raining this morning when we woke up in Keswick and it’s rained the whole way to Castle Douglas and the temperature is 13 degrees. Brrr…cold.

After we found our cottage and took our bags in we went looking for a supermarket. We found a Spar in the main street and bought a few essentials. Wouldn’t you know it, on the way home we discovered a big Tesco. Tesco is great. It’s great shopping there because their range of stuff is great whereas Spar is kind of corner store expensive.

The Lakes District - 15 July 2009

Derwent Water

A short drive this morning to Keswick where we’ve booked two nights. Keswick is super touristy and full of outdoor equipment shops and tea rooms and B&B's. Stacks of people base themselves here for their hiking expeditions in the area.

We ate lunch at Bryson’s Traditional Tea Room. I was hanging out for scones with jam and whipped cream. We ordered the Cumberland tea for two which sounded like a massive amount of food when we read it on the menu. We planned to share among the four of us but when it arrived everything was miniature size on this 3 tier tray and we ate our way through it quite easily. Samuel was still hungry and wanted to buy a sausage roll on the way out.

We visited the Cumberland Pencil Museum which shows the history of pencil making in Cumbria. The famous Derwent coloured pencils are made here. When we walked in the kids were given an activity sheet and a pencil each and they filled in the answers as we walked around the museum. At the end they were given a prize of a choice of two coloured pencils each to take home.

After the pencil museum we thought we’d go and look at the Bond Museum but the entrance price was a bit steep ₤6 for an adult and ₤4 for a child. Considering the kids don’t have a clue who James Bond is yet we thought maybe Andrew could have a look at that one on his own some time.

We ate dinner at the Dog and Gun free house. I love the names of the pubs here. I ordered goulash and Andrew lamb shank but we swapped meals because mine was too spicy. The kids shared a Pie of the Day with mash and peas and gravy. After dinner we walked to the Derwent Water lake where there was ducks galore and we sat there for a while enjoying the cool breeze and peaceful surroundings.

Slate Museum & Caenarfon Castle - Monday 13 July 2009

Climbing all over Caenarfon Castle

Tree outside Caban Cafe
Showing how timber moulds were used
Slate splitting demo

This morning we took the kids to visit the National Slate Museum near Llanberis. It was interesting to see how the quarry operated in the area. The museum is housed in the original industrial engineering workshops of the Dinorwig Slate Quarry. We enjoyed watching the slate splitting demonstration. The man was interesting to listen to and had a dry sense of humour. It was interesting how the slate could be split so evenly without shattering into lots of pieces.

The quarrymen’s houses were interesting. Four little houses in a row. The houses were brought to this location from another town piece by piece. Each piece was individually numbered and then transported to the new site to be rebuilt as part of the Museum display.

Beddgelert - Sunday 12 July 2009

This morning we arranged to meet up at Bethan’s house to go and catch the steam train which runs from Caenarfon to Beddgelert where John and Mary live. Beddgelert is very pretty. The name means Gelert’s Grave and comes from a local legend of Prince Llewlyn’s dog Gelert which he killed after he thought that the dog had killed his baby son but it turned out the dog had killed a wolf that was attacking the baby.

The old fashioned steam train ride was fun and after a lovely lunch prepared by Mary and John we all wandered down for a walk along Fisherman’s Path. The kids stripped off to play in the chilly water on the way back but didn’t stay in for long especially when we bribed them out with the promise of an ice cream on the walk home.

Meeting The Williams' - Saturday 11 July 2009

John, Mary, Andrew, Bethan

Bethan, Andrew, Seren, Aneirin, Samuel and Ella

We’ve no organised plans for doing things in England but one thing Andrew really wanted to do was visit The Williams’ Family who were family friends on Buka in New Guinea.

Andrew has always talked about all the fun stuff he got up to when he was a boy on Buka so it was lovely to meet all these people from his stories.

Everyone had their own recollection of different events which made it all very entertaining and in between reminiscing Bethan whipped up an impressive dinner and we sat and talked into the night. Most enjoyable.

Eurostar - Friday 10 July 2009

Oh happy day! We’ve found a left luggage place on the internet to store our luggage and this morning we took our two overflow bags to the nice man to mind for us while we are in the UK for four weeks. What a relief! The place looked a bit dodgy to me and the guy said he takes the bags to his apartment where he has a spare room...hmmm… well we may never see our bags or money again but yet again, I guess you have to have some trust sometimes. We’re down to two big cases with all our clothes and toiletries, the kids’ spiderman and tinkerbell bags and my handbag and video camera bag.

Our overnight hotel near the Gare was excellent €145 including a great breakfast, beds were comfy, the room was big and it was a pleasant stay. We’ve booked in there again on the way back and got a cheaper rate on the internet this time.

At 11am we checked out of the hotel and walked around to the Gare to get the Eurostar to London St Pancras. There was hundreds of people already there queuing for the trains. Check in was painless except for the woman yelling at me to stop videoing. I didn’t think it was any big deal. Then when we were getting our passports stamped, the man in British border control was firing all these questions at me so rapidly I started to get abit nervous and we had to open one of our suitcases because they wanted to check something they’d noticed on the xray. It was all abit embarrassing having your suitcase opened and gone through. Eventually got through all the checks and had a breezy trip to London.

We arrived at St Pancras at 2.30 pm. The Eurostar was excellent. It took 2.5 hours from Paris Gare du Nord to London St Pancras with two stops on the way. We walked around to Euston Station where we had to collect the hire car. It took us a while to find the Avis office because we didn’t have the address. We thought we would be able to see the office when we were standing in front of the station.

Anyway finally got everything organised and headed off down the M40 heading towards Wales and ended up pulling up not much before Oxford where we stayed at a motorway hotel for ₤65. You wouldn’t believe how busy this place was. Where were all these people coming from and where were they going?

Watering Timber

It was interesting to see these huge piles of timber logs being watered with gigantic sprinklers. We wondered why the timber would be getting watered and it's basically to stop it drying out and being eaten by insects. Some of the timber we saw was all green and mossy.

Leaving Troyes - Thursday 9 July 2009

Today we left Troyes to drive to Paris sud to drop off the car at the dealer. We were abit frazzled about the whole process. When we finally found the place the guy spoke as much English as we speak french but Andrew liaised by phone with the English agent and then signed an agreement which was in English for them to sell our car. We just have to trust that they’re all above board and it’ll be ok. I was sad saying goodbye to the little Renault. It’s been a great car.

After organising the vehicle we got a ride to the Gare where we had to finally face up to the nightmare that is our luggage – 11 pieces in all. Very difficult to manage and going up and down stairs is the worst when there’s no lift. The lovely man at SNCF was tres helpful with Eurostar tickets to London but the two next Eurostar trains were fully booked and the first available train didn’t leave till 9pm that night which was way too late for us. We decided the best thing to do was stay in Paris overnight and leave the next day. The SNCF guy booked us a night near Paris Gare du Nord. So we stayed the night in Paris and then booked the Eurostar to London St Pancras at lunchtime the next day.

Leaving Strasbourg - Wednesday 8 July 2009

We left Strasbourg heading for Reims on our way to Paris but changed our plans after a phone call to one of the car dealers we’ve been talking to. They’ve offered us 6000 euros for our beautiful car and we’re devastated because it’s such a good car and we think it’s worth more than that. Anyway the upshot is that this dealer has a car yard outside Paris and we can leave the car with them and they will sell our car for us on a commission basis, hopefully before we have to leave the country. For this reason we decided to detour to Troyes instead of going to Reims so we could take the car to the dealership in the south of Paris.

Troyes is a really interesting place. The old city is full of those unique half timbered houses. Troyes burnt down and was rebuilt in 1524 and it’s an interesting place to walk around. It’s funny how you can get such a different impression of a place by how everything works out when you arrive.

When we arrived it was pouring rain and we had no accommodation booked. The very first hotel I rang had a family room available for 82 euros and the lady spoke English and she was so friendly and helpful. Parking was not far away and wifi was gratuit too. The hotel was 2 stars and was one of those gorgeous old fashioned places full of character and charm although with brand new bathroom. My sense of charm doesn’t extend to outdated bathroom fittings.

Later in the afternoon we went for a quick trip to the outlet shopping centre. Troyes is famous like brands like Lacoste and Petite Bateau but even with the hugely discounted prices the conversion still made the clothes expensive. For dinner the kids decided they fancied chinese food so we found a restaurant close to the hotel and enjoyed noodles and veges and then walked back to the hotel. Tomorrow we plan to take the car to the dealer and maybe I’ll get to go to Fountainbleu after all.

Le Vaisseau - 7 July 2009

Samuel Kangaroo

The igloo the kids built
Ella Turtle

This afternoon we took the kids to Le Vaisseau which is a science and technology museum. It had lots of exhibits to look at and lots of things to push, poke and things for the kids to work out. We were there for about 4 hours which is a new record for us at a museum. Usually we’re in and out in the space of 1-11/2 hours. The kids really enjoyed it. Samuel’s favourite thing was building the igloo and Ella like climbing into the kangaroo joey pouch.

The day ended happily when Ella spotted a 10 euro note on the floor in the shopping centre.