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.

Our Day Today - Monday 6 July 2009

This morning I awoke to the kids telling me they’d broken the glass lamp in the bedroom of the unit we're renting. That pretty much set the tone for the day.

Most of my morning was spent doing laundry. This meant carting the dirty clothes down to the hotel at the end of the street because our hotel has no facility for washing clothes, so back and forth, back and forth. Ho hum.

The rest of the day was spent arguing with the kids about the noise they were making and fighting about whose turn it was on the computer. Fun stuff.

On a brighter note, when we booked into the unit in Strasbourg we thought the wifi was 8 euros per hour. When Andrew checked it out it turns out it’s one euro for 24 hours of use which has to be the best buy of the trip.

Selling Car

We’ve had contact with two different people who we found on the internet about selling our car. One is French and one is English. Hmmm, I wonder who we’ll go with…Both have places near Paris which suits us because that’s the way we’re heading on our way to the UK. Maybe we can even take it to the UK but we’re not sure about whether it’s legal to drive a French registered car in the UK.

We originally planned to sell the car in Slovenia where the people are very obliging and helpful. But we didn’t get around to it. There’s quite a few things I wanted to do in Slovenia which I didn’t get around to doing only because we couldn’t get ourselves organised.

Petit France - Sightseeing - 5 July 2009

Interesting head in a fountain
Samuel on a curly bridge

Dinner at mexican restaurant
Houses on canal

Strasbourg has lots of interesting places to walk around. One of these areas is Petite France which is full of half timbered houses from the 16th and 17th century. In the past these houses were occupied by fishermen, millers and tanners. Almost all the houses have a first floor overhang which protrudes into the street and some of the roofs have open galleries where the tanners hung the skins to dry after they’d been cleaned in the canal waters. These days tourism is the main industry and the area is full of restaurants and souvenir shops.

After our walk obligatoire before dinner we found a place to eat and the man serving us was so charming and friendly and he spoke the most beautiful French….beautiful because I could understand what he was saying. The French we hear being spoken in Strasbourg is a mix of French and german – lots of words that make no sense to me. So I’m back to giving that blank look whenever anyone speaks to me.

Concentration Camp - Sunday 5 July 2009

Memorial

Today we went to visit Natzweiler Struthof Concentration Camp. This camp is the only camp constructed on French territory by the Nazis and is situated in a peaceful wilderness forested area on the side of a mountain. The landscape is just stunning. It’s hard to imagine the terrible things that happened in this beautiful place but the barbed wire fences and gates are still there and the museum has photos and descriptions of what went on.

Parc de L'Orangerie - Saturday 4 July 2009

Storks

Having fun in the old cars

The gorgeous trees

We spent the day at the wonderful Parc De L’Orangerie, the oldest and largest park in Strasbourg which was built to impress Napoleon’s wife Josephine. I’d never heard of this place but I read about it on a blog somewhere and I thought it was somewhere the kids would like to go. There are animal enclosures with monkeys, curly horned African goats, lots of birds, kookaburras (would you believe) and a mini petting zoo where the kids could feed goats, lambs and guinea pigs. The horse took Samuel’s whole cup of food, cup and all! The park has a programme to encourage stork breeding and they have built these tall platforms where the birds can build their nests. The storks have also made their homes on top of the chateau in the park grounds which looks kind of funny seeing this grand chateau with huge storks’ nests in the roof.

The park is obviously a popular place for wedding photos too as I saw five couples in the space of ten minutes having their wedding photos taken. It’s a very beautiful park to visit. We spent most of the day there and when it was lunchtime we went to find a supermarche so we could get some picnic things and have our lunch there.

Reunion at Sevlje - Saturday 27 June 2009

Willi and Tine
Ella and Polona

Picnic table

My Slovenian rellies on Dad’s side of the family have a family get-together once a year. It’s a picnic held at Sevlje, the family farm, and is usually held in June when the weather is nice.

This year we timed our return visit to co-incide with the picnic and it turned out to be an excellent day. We’ve already met everyone on our first trip in April. It was fantastic to see everyone together yabbering away and cracking jokes in Slovenian, none of which Andrew and I understood. But aside from the language difficulty, Andrew still managed to make everyone laugh. There was lots of food and drink and the kids played happily with all the other kids. It was a good day.

Selling the Car

Today we had another slight inkling that selling the car was not going to be a straightforward process. This was after we went to four different garages and they all said no we’re not interested in buying your car from you. Andrew rang a guy whose name we found on the internet and he told Andrew that all the dealers were overstocked with cars at the moment because people were buying new cars because there was good bonuses being offered for people to trade in their old cars. Internet guy offered to sell our car for us but we will have to bring it to Lyon. Well it’s an option I guess but I don’t fancy driving 500 km in the opposite direction. We’ll see…

Thursday 2 July 2009

Andrew washed and vacuumed the car today. In the afternoon we took it to the Renault dealer and asked about selling it. The lady said it was “too new” for them. I thought that was hilarious. I've never heard of a car being too new. I thought it was a good thing that it was still new. Anyway, she suggested we try the garages that do mechanical repairs which also sell cars. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I can see it turning into a big drama. We had originally planned to sell the car in Slovenia where everybody seems so obliging and helpful. But we didn’t get around to it. There’s a few things I wanted to do which I didn’t get around to doing only because we couldn’t get ourselves organised.

Also, today we tried to find out about getting on the Eurostar from Calais over to Dover. It’s all so complicated. The cheapest way to go over is if we take a car but seeing as we won’t have a car (we’ll have sold it by then, won't we!?) the ferry is the next best option. We wanted to travel via the chunnel but it’s really expensive. Something like ₤301.

Strasbourg 1 July 2009

We arrived in Strasbourg around lunchtime, found underground parking at a shopping centre and bought a snack and a drink for the kidlets. Then I went off on my own to look for the tourist office at the Gare. It wasn’t far to the gare and it was quicker without the kids once I worked out which way I was meant to be going. I think I need to pack a compass on my next trip. I can never tell which way is up. It was kind of exciting walking along on my own in a strange town. Eventually when I found the tourist office I saw that the map cost a euro and I only had the small change purse on me with 87 cents in it because Andrew always carries the money with him in his wallet and we’re never apart. It was abit embarrassing not having any money to pay for a map but I found some change in my pocket.