World Traveller

Leaving on a Jet Plane....Oh! Canada! We love your stores!

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 07:40:00 GMT

The last leg of our trip. We are sitting at Pearson Arport in Toronto awaiting our flight to Los Angeles and the journey that will take us 26 hours to fly back home. Canada has been just the same as always. Friendly service in restaurants and shops and at times, dreadful coffee. Although we are still in Canada we took some time to get through the American immigration section of the airport. We are only transiting through the States but we still have to be photographed and fingerprinted and also fill out the mandatory visa waiver because we will only be in Los Angeles airport for an hour. There is a lot of waiting in queues and intense questioning. Paul was even asked to wipe his finger on his forehead to assist his fingerprinting. The immigration officer requested he do this and then said with a small smile that he couldn't believe that Paul had actually done it! The other draw back is that Tim Horton's the Canadian donut chain is on one side of the glass and the American, and distributor of less healthier food, Starbucks, is on the other. This is to the chagrin of many Canadians when they find that their last chance of what they think is a decent coffee is out of reach.

If I go back a week we were in Heathrow airport at a similar time awaiting our flight to Montreal. We arrived in Montreal in the middle of the Jazz festival. Stevie Wonder had just performed the evening before at a live concert in the city to an audience of 100,000 people. There was lots of live music in bars and in the streets.

We had been to Montreal about 10 years ago so as we only had a day we decided to explore some of the areas that we had not been to. Montreal is in the heart of the French speaking area of Canada so it gave us an opportunity to relive our linguistic abilities. However, the French language in Montreal is spoken with an accent that can make it difficult to follow at times. We ate in a restaurant called 'The Entrecote' where steak cooked French style is a speciality and the restaurant was like a French brasserie. Earlier in the day we explored the Old Centre of Montreal and then took a boat cruise on the St Lawerance River. The guide was excellent and we were able to see the sites on the Ile St Helene in the middle of the river. This had been the old site for the World Exhibition in 1967. There is a famous architectural structure that looks like a giant snowball that is now used as a Biodome. There is also a fun park on the island and many of the rides have been designed by Australians. Paul believes that the guide on the tour did not draw breath for the entire hour and a half of the trip because he conducted the tour in both English and French.

We also went up to an area called Mont Royale Plateau. Mont Royale is the highest point of Montreal. We stayed in Mont Royale on our previous visit to Montreal 10 years ago. However, our experience in the bed and breakfast we stayed in was so unusual that Kathryn cannot remember very much of her visit last time. Thankfully the bed and breakfast that we stayed in 10 years ago seems to exist no longer and the hotel we stayed in this time was very central and comfortable. However, Paul says that he thinks he has had the worst croissant of the entire trip. He thought that being in a French speaking city that bases its culture on everything French would know how to serve decent croissants. Our walk around the plateau was in one of the prettiest areas in Montreal and there were many older houses with spiral staircases leading to second storeys and they had turrets. It is quite an artistic area and there were many small stores selling artworks and designer goods.

We were successful with our accommodation in Montreal but not so with the train trip from Montreal to Toronto. Paul was looking forward to his train trip in Canada. It was the Fourth of July weekend in America and the train did not take bookings. We were herded into perhaps the only carriage that contained an amazing amount of raucous babies and toddlers. When one started crying, the rest attempted to outdo each other. In consolation we tried to eat our way through the snack trolley that came through at regular intervals. Even that was unsuccessful as they only served limited healthy foods and an oversupply of bad coffee and, as the North Americans call it, 'Pop'. The train stopped at every station possible between the two cities. So at one point even the local suburban trains in Toronto seemed to be going faster.

Last time we were in Toronto there was a SARS epidemic. This time it is Swine Flu and the Toronto Metropolitan garbage strike. The latter is more of a concern to the locals and there are many alerts for people attempting to illegally dump their 'trash'. Basically the city garbage collectors are on strike and most of the cleaning up is conducted by private contractors. So if you want to start a waste collection business, now is the time. The other concern that was thankfully abated was the Provincial Wine Distribution strike. In Toronto all alcoholic beverages are sold through a government bottle shop. (LCBO – Liquor Control Board of Ontario). This is the only place you can buy any wine or spirits. Therefore the mention of a strike occurring where these stores would not stock their wine for the Summer sent the residents of the city into a frenzy. These stores are huge warehouses and apparently the day before the strike was averted the shelves were emptying quickly. They must have known that we were arriving and we were able to drink plenty of good wine at the homes of our hosts.

Toronto was also prepared for our onslaught of shopping. As we have been to the city a few times before we have seen most of the sites. For Paul, Toronto is the only location Paul feels he can successfully fulfill his wardrobe requirements. Therefore he proceeded to buy an entire wardrobe for 2 years in one afternoon. Unfortunately, 'Gap', which is the clothing company Paul prefers to buy from has moved on and he sadly has not. However, 'The Banana' as it is known 'Banana Republic' caters for a more mature client and the sales assistants were only too happy to oblige. We were also accompanied by Paul's friend Bev, who lives in Toronto. Bev is now prepared to leave her nursing career and start a business as an advisor and personal shopper due to the success she had with Paul and his particular requirements. We have got him out of the colour blue and moved him into orange. However, he still will not adopt the slim fitting shirt. We will leave that for the next expedition in two years time. Meanwhile I am happy to write that Paul actually outdid Kathryn in the amount of clothes he purchased.

In amongst the shopping we were able to get down to St Catharines, an hour south of Toronto to visit the long term friend of Paul, Ruth Vincent-Nowe. Ruth is 90 and still enjoys the company of her family and many grand children and great grandchildren. Perhaps the highlight of the trip for Kathryn was a visit to an establishment called 'The Mandarin'. 'The Mandarin' is a North American version of the Sizzler restaurants. Paul's father would have been in his element. As the name suggests the restaurant has a large range of Asian food to choose from but also caters for those who cannot eat out without missing their pizza, fried chicken and North American food. There was even a singing lobster on the buffet which did attract Kathryn's interest.

In Toronto we took the opportunity to visit the new Royal Ontario Museum as well as the Art Gallery of Ontario which both have been refurbished by contemporary architects. The styles of the buildings are similar and provide an unusual aspect to the buildings. The Museum has what is called a 'crystal' installed on the outside which provides extra floor space and a profile that appears exactly as it suggests. We were interested to hear that they have had to install special heating pads on the interior of the glass panels to stop ice forming on the glass in Winter. The ice can slide off in sheets and do considerable damage to people passing by. The Ontario Museum of Art has an exterior designed by the same architect who designed the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Frank Gehry. Once again you can see the influence of Gehry's childhood growing up in New Brunswick as the exterior looks like a giant fish covered in silver scales. The museum had an exhibition of The Dead Sea Scrolls which was fascinating.

So we have come full circle. By ending in Canada it feels as though we are slowly returning to our lives back home in Australia. After reading through the entries I have made over the last 12 weeks, what started as a short cut to keep all our family and friends informed, has become a regular manner of recording my thoughts on our experiences. If you asked me what was my favourite location or experience I could not pin point any one situation. Twelve weeks of travel is a long time to be away from home and now that I am sitting at my desk finalising this last entry it feels as though I have never been away. Often there are circumstances that Paul and I have been in where a statement or the action of another has prompted our memories of our trip. It has been very fulfilling where there has not been a time when we have not enjoyed the experience. Though very tired and jetlagged from a 31 hour trip home, we are busily planning our next trip to France and finding new places to visit.

I felt I was really home when we stood on the train platform at Brisbane airport waiting for a train to transfer us to the domestic terminal. The sun was coming up and the colours of the landscape were truly Australian; the olives and pinks that are familiar to many of us. The air was crisp and the silence was broken by that inevitable and identifiable Australian accent announcing the next train. We joked with the taxi driver in Melbourne on the way home that his Global Positioning System spoke English but used the same accent used by all GPS systems around the world. Maybe we are all linked by one large GPS, you would never have to travel anywhere. Just sit at your computer and the voice will direct you anywhere you desire.

London Calling.....The Sales are on!!!!

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Fri, 3 Jul 2009 22:34:00 GMT

Paul and I are now at Heathrow awaiting our flight from London to Montreal. Paul is very excited because a) we are at one of the world's newest air terminals and b) we have been upgraded. We always have loved London and our 5 days here have not disappointed. We have had a bit interest to satisfy us both; from riding the Underground and the Transport Museum to the Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Most significantly we arrived the day before the start of the annual midyear sales at the big department stores such as Harrods and Selfridges. Kathryn definitely knows how to plan her travelling around shopping.

London is still full of surprises. Firstly the weather was fantastic. London is in the middle of a heatwave and the past four days have all been over 30 degrees. For us it isn't too bad but for most Londoners you would think that we were living constantly in Bangkok. They even tried to state in most newspaper headlines that the temperatures were actually hotter than Bangkok. We all know that Britain is desperately trying to prove it is the centre of the universe and this was a strange way of doing it.

Our accommodation was another great surprise. It was located near Paddington station, nearer than we thought when we got into the cab at the station. The driver was most put out that he could only take us 2 blocks after having waited in the cab queue for a job for 45 minutes. We had a one bedroom apartment in a typical Bayswater street. We found that apparently only newly renovated it was already showing signs of rising damp and cracked paintwork. We also received a daily running commentary in either Swedish or Polish (we are not sure which) from our downstairs neighbours who seemed to crammed into a basement flat. For those of you who have ever rented in London you will know what these older buildings are like. It is like experiencing a tenement in New York or university college. However, it had cable TV and we were able to catch up on watching some movies in English and Wimbledon tennis live. We were also able to cook our own meals which enabled us to let ourselves loose on Harrods, Selfridges and Marks and Spencers' food halls. It also gave us a chance to have a rest after the last couple of weeks.

Paul always says that being in London is really like being on holidays because it is so familiar. However, since we have been here last there have been some changes to the city particularly down in the Southbank area. We walked along this area several times and went across the Millennium Bridge to St. Pauls. London. We experienced a trip on the London eye on a sunny day! Paul even acted as tour guide for a group of very lost East coast Americans who couldn't find Tower Bridge or Buckingham Palace. I think they thought he was British along with the poor cashier at Kew Gardens who asked him if he would like to make a donation to the gardens as a UK taxpayer. I don't know if she flattered Paul more with the glimpse of British residency or the tax paying part. South bank had also been transformed as part of an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. All the tree trunks were wrapped in polka dots, Paul can explain that this is part of a contemporary installation by a Japanese artist who is fascinated with polka dots as it was one of the many contemporary art exhibitions he has visited over the past 10 weeks. He is planning on writing a book on contemporary art installations and basing it on the work of Louise Bourgeois and Mark Rothko (to appreciate this point you must read my other stories of our travels in Madrid & Bilbao.)

Part of the purpose of our visit to London was to go to the Tate Modern gallery along Southbank. It had a show of contemporary works from its collection formed in a series of artist rooms. There were a lot of children in the gallery all sketching works by the various artists. It therefore made it a bit like a busman's holiday. Paul particularly enjoyed the rope installations, which consisted of coiled rope on the floor or the wood chips and rags piled in the corner as part of the Arte Povera installation. We did both enjoy the Futurist exhibition at the gallery and Paul was so inspired he actually made the suggestion to visit the Tate Britain the next day.

We also viewed the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. This show has been running for hundreds of years. The walls of the most esteemed art college and gallery in the country are hung with up to 1200 artworks. These are all for sale and they range from well known 'Royal Academians' to artists from the casual summer classes. It was very interesting to see the range and styles of work from the very highly skilled to the downright awful. Some works were infact so awful I wouldn't even put them in a student art exhibition. Even more poignant is that the works are selected from applications from the students to hang in the exhibition. I am sure the selection process is very political. You can just imagine the relatives of one artist buying the work to hang on their walls. I did admire the work of the oldest Royal Academian, a woman artist of 105. Although her still lifes were a bit misty, probably the concern of failing eyesight, they still showed great expression. This was very evident when you viewed the works of Contemporary artist Tracey Emin who is more know for her bad behaviour than her art making.

Paul also enjoyed returning to the Rothko Room at the Tate Britain and we returned there at his insistence. Works by Turner have been hung alongside works by artist Mark Rothko as although Turner painted 100 years before Rothko and the Abstract Expressionists his work is seen as having an enormous influence on these artists. When we visited this room 12 years ago, which is a favourite of mine, I had to send Paul out because he was laughing too much. This time he glanced in and proceeded to find a Turner that would quench his mirth. However, this didn't last long as I found him observing a group of primary students having a lesson in front of a Turner. He was particularly amused by the little girl, when she was asked to come up for a title of the painting she was looking at she gave it the title “Water High Street” the work was infact a canal in Venice. At least she got the comparison correct. Paul also enjoyed viewing the archeological installation by the Chapman Brothers (another group of contemporary British artists) this was a room of carved indigenous statues with a twist. Sprinkled amongst the traditional carvings of Papua New Guinea and Samoa were carvings of Macdonalds restaurant statues out of wood including Ronald himself and the Hamburgler. I don't think Paul remembers the earlier works of the Chapman Brothers which consisted of decapitated bodies strung from trees in a translation of the work of Spanish artist Francisco Goya. I think he might of taken such a liking to the work.

As I mentioned the sales were on and we risked Oxford Circus on the first day of the sales just to experience the atmosphere. There were more people than one saw at the Olympic Games in Sydney squashed into the street. However, Kathryn's desire for shopping prevailed and she would have made her father proud to battle the the women at clothing store Banana Republic to score 2 shirts for the price of one. My father has a policy of always attempting the Boxing Day sales on the first day and I couldn't let him down! Over the week we managed to enter Selfridges, Harrods and Liberty to pick up some goods. So next time you see Kathryn she will resemble a designer celebrity from Top Shop.

We had afternoon tea in Fortnum & Mason and we have retitled it 'Fortune & Mason'. Sadly the store has adopted a more contemporary edge and gone are the little old ladies sipping tea and eating scones and plates of cucumber sandwiches. The closest we got to that experience was the tea (definitely good) and a plate of Iberian Ham and 2, what Paul said, were the stalest scones he has come across. Perhaps all the little old ladies have defected to Harrods.

Speaking of Harrods, that too has changed somewhat. Enter Harrods doors now and you would think that you have entered a high class shopping centre in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. There are throngs of black shrouded women who we saw clawing over designer handbags and clothing. We made a bee line for the toy and children's section now we have a new motive in our shopping plans to buy some items for at that time my unknown niece or nephew. The toy section as per usual does not disappoint with every shape and size of bear, Sesame Street toy, Disneytoy or animal that barks, mews, quacks, roars and gallops, jumps, waddles and crawls. You can buy anything from a Pingu Penguin that speaks in Italian and blows Rasberries to a miniature Tyrannosaurus Rex that you sit on whilst it moves its head, blinks and roars. Paul had to restrain Kathryn from spending the 800 pounds on this item.

Influenced by the extravagance of Harrods toy department we booked tickets to see 'Priscilla' The Musical in the West End. We know that the show has run in Sydney and Melbourne but we never got the opportunity to see it. As we have been away from home now for nearly 3 months the spectacle and costumes of the production were fantastic as was the lead played by Jason Donovan. He has come a long way since Neighbours and playing the role of a drag queen he did have some quips about Kylie Minogue. We also too may have been away from home for so long that we appreciate anything that relates to Australia, how tacky it may be. The production is fantastic for its costumes and lighting and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

On the other hand we saw '39 Steps' which is a comedy based on the Alfred Hitchcock thriller. The play is carried out by only four actors with very inventive movements in acting out the drama. At times they play up to 2 characters in one scene with quick costume changes. It was short and light and was worth the experience of seeing a bit of theatre in the West End.

Sadly during our time in London we failed to see any member of the Royal family. Infect the closest we got was to see the statue of Diana and Dodi that Mr Fayed has installed in the foyer of Harrods. Everywhere you go there are little memories of Diana so we think that the current royal family is trying desperately to make amends in areas that cover anything from Children's Playgrounds through to glass houses at Kew Gardens. I think it is quite ironic that the glass house at Kew named after Diana is primarily a cactus house. At the time we were in London the papers were publicising that the queen had overspent on her royal budget by 5 million pounds and that the taxpayer was going to have to pay the difference. Maybe that was why Paul was asked for the donation at the Kew Gardens gate. We also saw numerous advertisements on the tube for Windsor Palace to visit and experience the 'real residence' of the queen. It didn't seem to make much difference that she was in Scotland for most of June and July.

So it is now that we farewell Europe and fly to Canada. There really is no change here. Same monach, different country. However, we do know that the food is better. Perhaps there is more shopping to be done as Kathryn slowly returns home.

Spiders, Rockstars and 'China Men' in Bilbao

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:06:00 GMT

We are sitting on a plane and leaving Europe behind us. Paul was very disappointed to make his last high speed train trip from Madrid to Bilbao on Wednesday. We were impressed that we got breakfast on the train. This is unusual for Spain for, after 2 weeks, we have finally worked out that the Spanish really don't have breakfast. In fact we thought it had taken us 2 weeks to work out the correct time to eat dinner, only to discover in Bilbao that we still hadn't worked it out.

Travelling to Bilbao by train, we realised that we were coming into some unique countryside for Spain. In contrast to the rest of the country, the city is surrounded by mountains and most the suburbs are spread out on hills surrounding the main part of the city. The vegetation is surprisingly green and lush. The houses are different and look like small chalets you would find in Switzerland, Germany or Austria. This region of Spain is Basque country and it has had a long history in a fight for independence from the rest of Spain. The people speak a different dialect that is more like an Eastern European language and they also appear more Eastern European. Another unique aspect of the trip was the train we were travelling on slowed to a mere 60 km/h rather than the 300 km/h we were used to travelling. We wound our way through the hills and the phone conversation I was having with my father in Australia had to be terminated and restarted several times due to lost connections. I had to explain that this was Spain, I was on a train and I wasn't being a temperamental 42 year old.

For the first and last time on our trip I was able to make the 200 metre trek from the station to our hotel. We have both sworn that we will never take packs on an European trip again. We have received some odd stares from people passing by; we are not quite sure if it is our age or our appearance that is causing the interest. Our hotel, another unique 2 star accommodation was in one of the cobbled streets of the old town. It did appear to look like a Swiss chalet, painted bright blue and yellow with balconies and flowerpots overlooking the street. The interior was crammed with unusual artifacts including a flock of huge paper mache sheep. We think they were supposed to contribute to the atmosphere of being in a Basque weavers workshop. There was also some very interesting attempts a 'non-objective art' in our room, including a board with an arrangement of nails hammered into it and a wooden ruler framed on the wall. However, the receptionist was very accommodating, chasing away a gaggle of children who were sitting on a couch in the cramped foyer playing hand held Nintendo games. She explained it was the first day of the school holidays for Summer. We explained that it was the same the world over.

Our main objective to visit Bilbao was to see the Guggenheim Museum of Art. It has been a long held dream of mine to see this building since it was first opened in 2000. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this building you may have seen photographs of it down the end of a narrow European street. It is a building that looks like a giant twist of aluminium shavings. The building was designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry and has a lot of symbolism. It sits on the edge of the river and much of the landscape surrounding it has been renovated or built to fit in with the architecture. There are several bridges that have been built over the river that are graceful examples of contemporary design. The building also changes colour at different times of the day because of the light reflection. Outside, at regular intervals are art works such as fog sculptures and flames shooting up. I know that flame throwers are fairly standard occurrences outside the Crown Casino in Melbourne, but the fog sculpture by the same artist that is installed at the National Gallery in Canberra has never worked. There are walkways around the building so you can view it from all different angles. In front of the building, at the edge of the water, is a huge sculpture of a spider by French American artist Louise Bourgois. Paul saw an exhibition of her work when he was in New York and she now has become one of his favorite artists to question, next to Mark Rothko. The work is entitled 'Maman' and Bourgois work relates to her relationship with her mother and the men in her life. You can understand why Paul 'loves' this work so much.

The other side of the building has a work of Art that appeals much more to Paul's sentiments. The American artist Jeff Koons has installed his work 'Puppy'. 'Puppy' known as 'El Poop' in Spanish is a sculpture of a dog covered in blooming flowers. The flowers are growing and are embedded into a wire mesh that is watered regularly. The sculpture is as tall as the building and was installed initially in Sydney outside the Museum of Contemporary Art as part of a Jeff Koons exhibition. It is now permanently at the Guggenheim. This adds another attraction for visitors to the building. It appears that a giant sculpture of a dog created from flowers with the irreverant title of 'Poop' attracts the Spanish. Maybe they fail to see the contradiction in their title and the scent of the work. This is what Koons intended in the titling of the piece in Spanish and what contemporary art provokes. Prior to the Guggenheim being built there was not a lot to see in Bilbao apparently. The museum has revitalised the city and there is a lot of public sculpture and buildings that are now situated in the city. Bilbao has now become a city for conferences and exhibitions. The idea of flower gardens as sculpture has definitely caught on and there was an exhibition of designed art installation gardens scattered around the city that were also very interesting to look at. They combined industrial materials such as steel, wood and glass with plants. One garden even had acacias, bottle brushes and kangaroo paw growing.

I had heard that the exhibitions in the Guggenheim was not as impressive as the exterior architecture. Despite the 3^rd floor being closed for exhibition installation the other two floors provided some interesting interpretations of contemporary art. I filled with dread when I saw that there was a floor devoted to Video Art from the collection as I considered that Paul would not be entirely enthralled to watch 2 hours of an artist pretending he was Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of the rock group Nivana performing from the grave, or watch Japanese artist Mori Murakuri filmed lying in a glass bubble in the middle of Times Square for 10 hours or a group of Chinese factory workers performing ballet in their factory in provincial China, and what made it more daunting was the fact that I would have to explain the meaning of it all to him. You will also have to read my postscript for further significance regarding one of these works. I can barely understand some of this work myself, let alone explain it. However, there was the usual helpful audio guide with the well travelled English lady with the BBC voice that has been with us throughout the galleries of Europe to explain it to him. He did particularly enjoy the 'contemporary moving portrait' of Zandi the Rio Madrid soccer player filmed playing a match against Manchester United. The artist has shot a full game of footage of the one player on several cameras and then edited it down to a 2 ½ hour feature film. Thankfully Paul wasn't that enthralled that we had to stay the 2 hours.

On the second floor was an exhibition of Contemporary artists Cai Guo-Qiang who was educated in China under the cultural revolution but has been living in Japan and the USA since 1985. QJiang's work is quite unique as he creates large installations using gun powder. He was also responsible, unsurprisingly, for the firework presentations at the Opening and Closing ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics. It was interesting to see videos of him creating his works with the assistance of an army of workers. He pours the gunpowder onto the canvas, lights it and then everyone runs and stamps the flames out. To watch the documentaries without knowing this information you would think it was just a group of Chinese factory workers dangerously experimenting in the making of pyrotechnic displays. Perhaps something I should try with my students. The artist had also created several special installations for the Guggenheim exhibition, including a room full of life size clay figures based on a famous work used by the Communist party as propaganda in China. More interesting in than the work was the comment we overheard from two middle aged Australian ladies, clearly visiting a contemporary art gallery for the first time; “Look Beryl, there's a room full of China Men, look you can tell by their eyes”. They were clearly on a whirlwind tour as no sooner than we heard the Australian accent, they were off down the corridor scurrying to the safety of their tour bus.

The last hours of our time in Europe was filled with a series of odd events. We decided to post a number of books and documents home that were weighing down our luggage. We successfully did this by conducting the whole event at the post office in 2 languages which were not Spanish; French and English with a postal worker who was from the Congo. In all we sent 8 kg of books home, now our packs are much lighter and Paul is prepared for his shopping sprees in London and Toronto.

We also tried to dine at what we thought was a respectable hour in Bilbao. Eating in this city is slightly different to the rest of Spain. Tapas bars are a feature of the city and you can get food in small piles and a drink any time of the day or night. Including breakfast and very early morning. The first night we went to a recommended bar in the square of the city. The waiter decided what we were eating and proceeded to bring out four dishes in quick succession and the whole meal was finished in 20 minutes. This was completed at 9.30 pm, early for Spain. We looked around only to find that a bar that was packed 20 minutes previously was empty and the wait staff were packing up around us. So the following evening we decided to eat at 8 pm at the next restaurant at the square recommended by the hotel. We sat down to order, only to be told that we were too early. The bar was packed but there was a queue of diners waiting for the bar to clear so they could be seated to eat. However, the food was fantastic and I had the best piece of fish I have had in Europe. Bilbao is right near the Atlantic ocean so the seafood is a specialty.

So now after 4 hours leaving Bilbao by plane we are flying back over it again. Our flight has taken us from Bilbao to Madrid where we stopped over for an hour, and now we are on our way to London. Paul is marvelling at the fact that we are travelling probably slower by air than we were on the train. I want to know then why trains don't fly. We have also realised why train travel in Spain is so good as plane travel tends to be somewhat disorganised. You also get service on the train in Spain, as what you get on a plane elsewhere and on a plane you get no service as you do on a train in Australia. It is also quicker on the train.

Therefore after letting Paul loose on the galleries of Spain he is about to let me loose in the London transport museum and any other aviation or transport shrine he can discover in the next week. We will be on to eating fish and chips and Indian food and can farewell the tasty breads, olives and cheese of the continent. Adios Spain! Good morning Britain!

P.S. On arriving in London we learned that Michael Jackson had died on Thursday 25 May. At the time of his death we were watching an artist's footage of the singer performing the moonwalk on deliberately disintegrating film footage. It was screened in the same footage as that of Kurt Cobain and the lead singer of the 1980s band Joy Division. At that point the only singer of the 3 alive was Jackson and therefore the artist was making a point that he had survived all these years yet the other 2 artists had both died under uncertain circumstances. The artist will now have to update his work accordingly. We thought it quite ominous.

The Metropolis that is Madrid

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:02:00 GMT

Madrid is a very different city to the other Spanish cities we have visited. It is a very new and modern city but still has some very grand buildings lining its main wide avenues. Madrid is also full of small plazas where there are numerous bars and cafes where you can sit enjoy the sunshine and watch the world pass by. It is a very Mediterranean city that reminds me a bit of Sydney without the harbour. Madrid also hosts one of the largest art galleries in the world; The Prado. There are also numerous other galleries displaying what I believe may be the best chronological representation of art of the Western world.

We decided to have a bit of luxury in Madrid and upgraded our accommodation to a 4 star hotel. We were after some cool air, a bathroom that was bigger than a cupboard and room fittings that were newer than the something that may have proceeded Franco's revolution. We also had to sort out an issue of cancelled credit cards. The bank had sent new cards to our home in Melbourne when it changed all the credit cards in a loyalty program to a Frequent Flyer program. Paul had not been notified the cards had arrived. Hence after a little embarrassment paying an account at one hotel with not one but two cards, and a swallowed card in an ATM, we contacted the bank and they issued Paul a new card in Madrid. However, the luxury of four star comes with a great cost and our newly issued credit card is already panting. Paul decided to get some washing done and I think the bill has cured him of ever getting laundry done in a hotel again. After some negotiation about 'street noise' in rooms and 'a room with a view'; again using no English and lots of hand gestures we had a lovely room that overlooked the Paseo del Prado (the name of the avenue suggests what building is the main feature on this street.

Our first afternoon we spent exploring the centre of Madrid. We walked the city following a tour in our guide book of the main plazas of Madrid. This gave us a good overview of the city and its various 'barrios' or areas. It also took us past the grand buildings of Madrid including the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), Plaza Mayor (Main plaza) and the Plaza de Villa (city square). Each of these plazas has its own character and is lined with buildings that are unique to its character. Madrid appears to be a lot quieter than Barcelona and there were less tourists around. Most of the people on Sunday afternoon seemed to be the local people of Madrid (Madrilenos) out enjoying their Sunday afternoon. Again there were lots of families and children gathered together at the tables in the cafes laughing and chatting. Like most of Spain most people do not have breakfast but tend to enjoy a long lunch and a late dinner so we were not out of place to be eating our first meal of the day in a cafe in Plaza de Santa Ana.. (The plaza of the Angels) which I think is the prettiest plaza in the city. For dinner that night we even tried something different for Spain and had a meal in a Thai restaurant. I think the owners were quite shocked to have two people ordering food and speaking English. What was more unusual for us was that the Thai waiter only spoke Thai and Spanish. Paul also had a brief conversation with a Chinese shopkeeper in Mandarin as he found he spoke more Chinese than Spanish and the shopkeeper did not speak English. All to purchase a bottle of water.

We planned our next 2 days in Madrid carefully as like any city in Europe most of the museums and galleries are closed on Monday. However, usually one is open and the Reina Sophia (the gallery named after Queen Sophia; the Spanish love their royalty more than the British and even more than the Americans would ever hope to) was open. This museum is the home of Picasso's famous painting Guernica. It would be the one painting I remember most from my first lessons in Art History in Year 8 so to see it was very moving. The symbolism in the work makes it even more poignant. Picasso painted the work as an expression of his angst over the merciless bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. Picasso was living in Paris at the time and the painting has had an amazing journey to get back to its real 'Spanish home'. I spent some time watching the groups of school students sitting on the floor in front of the work wondering if they realised how fortunate they were to see one of the greatest works of Modern Art at such a young age. It is every Art teacher's dream to give a lesson in front of that work.

Paul thought we would not have enough time in Madrid to go to the Palacio Real but we managed it as most public museums in Spain do not close until 8pm. The palace has 2800 rooms, not enough time to see all of them and most are closed to the public. We did have a great tour of the sections of the palace that are open to the public. The tour guide and his delivery of the commentary was more interesting than the rooms at times. issued the whole tour with a deadpan expression, including when he made a 'dry' joke about one of the rooms. The rooms are very sumptuous with an explosion of Rococo and Baroque decoration. Paul visited the palace many years ago and wanted me to experience the clock room, where there were housed about 100 clocks that chimed in succession. He wanted me to experience what he feels it is like if you stay with my parents and the many clocks that my mother has collected chime at odd hours. To his disappointment, the clocks have been split up and put in all the rooms of the palace, so it is still like being at home but you experience the chiming in every room not just one. The guide also pointed out that there were several dining rooms as you need to have a dining room per course that you eat in Spain. He also told us that some rooms had modern appointments such as telephones which were not installed at the time of the reign of Prince Alfonso in 1700. He also told us, in his dry sense of humour, that these phones were not working, although they were prominently displayed. Quite surprising really; I wondered if they had installed the internet yet. This is possibly why the royal family do not live in this palace any more, apparently they live in a more modest residence elsewhere in the city.

I warned Paul that the next day would be fairly heavy going in terms of his art education. I must point out that I have travelled on numerous planes and trains in my married life and have never really complained. However, by 4 pm I was feeling the overload myself. We started at the Prado Museum. The museum is renown for its collection of Renaissance Art and the works of the Spanish artists Goya and Valesquez. I learned that when the Prado brought out some works by Velasquez to put on exhibition in 1990 it was only for a limited time. As so many people in Madrid wanted to see the works that when the Prado closed the exhibition 4 months later, people protested into the night outside the Prado and it had to keep its doors open until there was no queue left. Therefore the exhibition ran non stop for 2 – 3 days. You do begin to feel the overload when you walk along the long galleries lined with at least 20 different versions of Madonna and Child by various Renaissance artists that you only see in text books: Rafael, Rubens, Titian and Tinteretto. There is also a lot of Dutch and Flemish works including the famous “Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronomous Bosch, the first known work of erotic nature known in the world of Western Art. This work was being intently scrutinsed by a large group of Japanese tourists on tour. I wondered if they were getting an interpretation of the real meaning of the work; perhaps they were, hence their intense concentration.

Two famous works by Goya; “The 2^nd and 3^rd of May” were on display. These were works created by Goya towards the end of his life when he was no longer the favoured court painter of the kings and was living in self exile in France. Goya had gone deaf and was in ill health, the works, like Picasso's Guernica, are an expression of Goya's angst over the treatment of the Spanish people by the invasion of Napoleon's army. The works depict events that occurred in Madrid over 2 days and the expression on the faces of the figures are more moving to see 'in the flesh'. The works have just been restored and the years of black soot that had formed on the surface has been removed to show the vibrant colours that Goya used in the work. You can also see fortunately, some of Goya's court paintings he completed as commissions. You do really then appreciate the brushwork and use of light that has made him such a master.

The works of the famous painter Velasquez are also on display. These works by this artist are the ones that caused such a riot in the 1990s. Velasquez was also a court painter and his most famous work is entitled 'Las Maninas' and depicts the royal princess Infantina surrounded by her entourage. Velasquez also had enough confidence as an artist to include himself in the image, an action that was unprecedented at the time. However, the work is known for its use of perspective and Velasquez we a master of depicting expressions on the faces of his sitters. They look out of the image quite startled. Maybe they are startled by the amount of Japanese tourists observing them intently.

Finally we spent our last hours in Madrid at the Thyssen-Bornemiza Museum. This is a private collection that matches the Prado in its size and range of works. The museum is all the more interesting because it is actually two collections of works; one by the Baron von Thyssen-Bornemiza, a German-Hungarian magnate and also his wife, who is a leading Spanish actress and Miss Espana, who made her fame by first marrying a Lex Barker, who made the infamous Tarzan movies. You can really see her interest in art styles exhibited in the range of works she has collected; lots of colour, works from the Expressionist era and obscure North American artists. It seems to really reflect her taste and that of a wealth woman with a lot of money and perhaps more than a bit of panache. She seems to have taken over her collecting abilities from her late husband, if anything at all.

Paul and I are now 'audio guide' experts and we think we probably could start our own company in competition to those in most European galleries. Our choice of commentators would be more of the flavour of the country of the gallery we are in. We think that the same English and American women must travel all over Europe recording their voices in every gallery. We will test this out at our final destination in Spain, Bilbao. As many of you know the feature of Bilbao is the Guggenheim museum; as the Guggenheim family is American maybe the commentary in the audio guide will have a German or Russian accent?

"Let nothing frighten you or worry you" In the footsteps of Santa Theresa de Avila

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:44:00 GMT

Paul wanted me to title this entry as “Let nothing worry you nor frighten you” which is a saying of St Theresa, the patron saint of Avila, the school at which he teaches and the city which we have just spent 2 days. This statement should not be taken lightly, along with the promise Paul made to me that Avila would be the quietest town in which we would spend time in Spain. He really has been deluded by the Saint. Although Avila appeared a sleepy town, enclosed in medieval city walls. We arrived at 4pm and the saint definitely goes to bed at 10 pm. 10 pm was approximately the time we ate last night and we went to bed but the city didn't. There was a bar situated opposite our hotel that pumped music until 2 am and then all the young people in the city proceeded to drink and party in the street until 5 am. Luckily our hotel was quite small and with lots of hand gesturing and little English we were able to move rooms to the back of the hotel for a quieter night of sleep tonight.

Paul also assured me that there were some things to see in Avila and we would probably have a lot of free time. Again, Avila is full of surprises; a bit like the school in Australia at times. There is a lot to see in Avila. The city is one of the oldest medieval towns in the country and is also the highest in altitude. Therefore the weather was a lot cooler and more pleasant. The town is enclosed by walls which when you climb give you a commanding view of the plains surrounding the town, you see it is really quite isolated. The city is a maze of mediaeval streets with a cathedral or basilica every corner you turn. It is also the birthplace of St Theresa, one of the most important woman in the Catholic church so you would understand how the city is a mecca of relics and a huge religious supermarket of St Theresa icons for those fervent Catholics or teachers at the school dedicated to the Saint.

I must apologise to those people who work with Paul or any other Catholics for my irreverence throughout this story but the two days we have spent here has opened up a whole new dimension of culture for me that I have never really experienced. Having been brought up in the Congregationalist and later Uniting Church, I did work for a catholic school for two years but never quite was fully educated in Catholic intrisincies. However, there are some similarities between the Congregationalists and the Carmelite Order of nuns which St Theresa founded; that of simplicity and abstinence. Many of the churches and monasteries in the town are devoted to St Theresa. You can visit the place where she was born, see a replica of her nuns cell, paintings devoted to her, sculptures devoted to her, chapels devoted to her, gardens devoted to her and there are even cakes devoted to the saint. The main convent where St Theresa lived has been transformed into a museum in her honour. There is a shop where you can purchase every type of religious artefact related to the saint. After visiting this museum in the morning we found yet another museum and convent devoted to the saint. We also discovered a further myriad of rooms with items that belonged to the saint including her coffin in which she was 'laid out' in Avila before being transferred for burial to St Tomas, another religious Spanish city. There was her saddle in which she rode, her log pillow for praying, a facsimile of her writings and even her clavicle bone; both being not Catholic we are debating whether this is the ring finger of St Theresa, that may have been cut off after her death of her clavicle bone. I am sure someone will be able to tell us after reading this. You would think that we would know after all the religious education we have had over the last 2 days.

For those of you who know little about St Theresa, and I admit I knew little before today, she is allegedly to be a mystic who had visions. She also used to levitate when she had these visions from 'Our lord'. Avila is supposed to be a centre of mysticism. What that is, I am not quite sure but we did make quite a few jokes over the last 2 days about the levitative skills of St Theresa. St Theresa was also supposed to get her inspiration via a dove which sat on her shoulder passing on the word of Christ. We didn't see many doves but there are an enormous amount of cranes in the city which have made enormous nests on the spires and bell towers of the numerous churches. St Theresa also wrote with a feather fallen from a dove. I found a feather on the footpath today and wondered if it was a message from the saint. As for mysticism and levitation, I don't think these are necessarily performmed by religious devotees in Avila today, more like the local young people and young Americans experiencing their first bit of freedom since graduating from college. There are an enormous amount of nuns and priests visiting the town and you can spot them wandering around (or maybe floating) in groups.

For Paul, visiting Avila was like taking on a pilgrimage and the photos I have taken over the last 2 days depict his journey. It tends to read more like a drama, with Paul as the main protagonist; we have Paul ascending the wall of the city, visiting the museum, the cathedral, the monastery and the convent. We even got the obliging curator of the small St Theresa convent to allow Paul to take the keys to open the chapel of St Theresa. We were surprised that for such an important woman in the Catholic church some of these sites were relatively uncrowded. Also we discovered that little information is given in English. The Spanish tend to assume that everyone speaks their language even when you approach them in English. It also surprised me how there is so much income generated by selling 'tacky' items devoted to one person. If you are an Avila teacher, watch out Paul has the item for you he has brought back as a souvenir.

Avila is not only devoted to St Theresa. There are many churches, monasteries and basilicas founded by other saints and religious orders. We enjoyed viewing the Basilica of San Vincente on the outskirts of the city walls and the Monastery of Sante Thomas with its numerous cloisters. The latter was used by the kings of Spain as a retreat. There is also a large church with a choir at the back. As I mentioned many of the instructions are often not in English and somehow we stumbled into the front of the church, appearing behind the priest and altar in the middle of a Saturday evening mass. We slinked down the side aisle and pretended that we were visiting the many side chapels in the church. The service had only just begun and a choir was singing in the overhead choir. Apart from our initial mistake the experience was very moving.

After a week in the country we have finally mastered the culture and art of eating meals. It has taken us this long to work out that many restaurants have a bar and a restaurant that both serve food. Fortunately for us we discovered that the bar serves the same food in smaller quantities than a formal restaurant and we have been able to rescue our digestive systems. Avila is famous for its veal steaks, one which Paul tried this evening. The steak was nearly the leg of a small calf and it would take the apatite of two to eat it. The name Avila is certainly associated with food and perhaps the enjoyment of food and many dinners that the staff at Avila school in Melbourne have may come from this initiative. The Americans on the table behind us were quite shocked when their half eaten meal was taken away and disposed of. Apparently there is no word for 'doggy bag' in Spanish. At 11 pm the bars and restaurants are still filled with families eating and drinking and laughing. There seem to be an enormous amount of young families in the city and the children will play around the table and in the square whilst their parents eat. There lives seem happy and relaxed and they are well loved by everyone passing by. One restaurant we witnessed the waiter heat up the jars of baby food for the child and produce them on a white plate with a spoon and napkin.

So at 8.55 tomorrow morning we are off to the capital, Madrid. We now understand that any local train in Spain one must book; and we spent an hour at the railway station this morning doing just that. Maybe with our enlightenment from Santa Theresa we will levitate to Madrid in under an hour. As for the visions, I am hoping for a 4 star hotel for a change.

Fans & Flamenco in Castilla Cordoba

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:05:00 GMT

Another high speed train, another Spanish city. We arrived in Cordoba earlier this week. The first view of the city appeared that Cordoba was like any other Mediterranean city, palm trees and modern buildings, until the taxi arrived in the old centre of the city. The old city of Cordoba, established by the moors, is based around the 'Mosquita' (pronounced like mosquito). The streets are a series of winding lanes faced by whitewashed buildings with black iron balconies. You would think that the whole centre is some part of a Disneyland set but it is a working city. The lane ways are only wide enough to fit one taxi, just.

Our accommodation was at the Hotel Lola, which was described as an 'artwork in itself'; it also amusingly reminds me of a Peter Allan ballad. The hotel literally was both, the three floors were covered in paintings and there were antiques and stuffed cushions everywhere. Most buildings such as this in Spain have a central courtyard with a skylight. We were on the top floor and our room even had a terrace looking over the roof tops to the tower of the Mosquita. However, it was impossible to sit outside as it was 45 degrees. Yes, for those of you in 5 degree temperatures in Australia at present I know you would find it unbelievable. It is unbelievable how any one could withstand this heat for days on end, but the Spanish do by spending a lot of the day sleeping, as we quickly discovered. The hotel receptionists, of which there were only 2, one morning and one evening, as there were only 8 rooms, were extremely helpful and uniquely Spanish. From their level of excitement when they learned where we came from, I don't think many people from Australia stay there, I wonder what the reception will be like in Avila.

The first night we went for dinner we went what we thought was relatively late; 9pm. We were given a card to entitle us to a free drink at a restaurant owned by the hotel. We have discovered that many businesses in Cordoba are mini empires with several restaurants, hotels, bars and cafes combined. If you go to one business they recommend you eat or stay at their connecting hotel or restaurant. Infact the whole of the old city is a maze of such businesses. We entered the restaurant to find it empty; we were very, very early. They happily served us but as we were leaving at about 10.30 pm most families were turning up to eat. We also discovered that restaurants are heavily overstaffed by waiters who seem to just hang around gossiping. Usually someone will speak some English and we manage to order. Sometimes we get what we think we ordered, sometimes not and sometimes not at all.

We spent 2 days in Cordoba exploring the old city. Tristan, Paul's 21 year nephew, told us that we were spending too long in Cordoba and there was not a lot to do. This is why Barcelona is full of backpackers, Sevilla and Malaga are popular places for partying if you are 18 and a place like Cordoba is fairly tranquil. We started with a tour of the Mosquita, the Alkazbar palace and the old Jewish quarters of the city. The gardens of the palace were superb with palm trees and the pools that the moors were famous for creating. The palace was used for a number of purposes over the centuries; as a residence for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand as well as a prison during the Spanish inquisition.

The Mosquita was the highlight of Paul's trip to Spain, next to of course, Avila. Paul is building up so much excitement for the trip to the town named after his school, he is perched on the edge of his seat on the train trip in anticipation. The Mosquita was originally built as a Mosque and then converted to a catholic cathedral. It is famous for its multi columned halls of stripped archways. In the interior of the building the catholic king built a cathedral so it is very unusual to see two buildings from different religions combined into one. Once our tour finished we returned to the hotel for the required 2 hour sleep that one has every afternoon.

Later that afternoon, needing a few supplies we decided to find the nearest supermarket, this turned into an across town trek to the Euroski shopping centre, the place where most people go to survive the heat. It was 45 degrees outside and at 5 pm the shopping centre was deserted but we did find the equivalent to Big W and discovered that you cannot buy tissues in packs but you can certainly buy a pistol or handgun.

Requiring refreshment after our trek we stopped at a local bar in the square, this happened to be next to the local dance school. In Spain, young girls learn not ballet but Flamenco dancing. It seemed to be the end of term concert and there were lots of mothers and grandparents armed with video cameras and mobile phones waiting for their proteges to appear. You could have been in South Yarra or Gordon. Any Spanish woman carries with her the essential fan that she madly waves when agitated or excited. The speed of which the fan is waved determines the level of excitement or stress. There were many fans waved at great speed outside the Flamenco school at the conclusion of the concert. Our tour guide that day even had a fan which she used at regular intervals in situations where she needed to pass or gain our attention. Instead of holding up the usual umbrella, as most European tour guides do, she would wave her fan. However, there were only 4 of us on the tour and two of us were the English speakers and the other two were Spanish. I noticed there was much more fan waving happening when the Spanish speaking was happening than the English. My family will be highly amused that I too have purchased a fan. My paternal grandmother always had a fan which she used in the same manner as the Spanish. Her waving was usually accompanied by a statement about her level of comfort in any situation whether the weather was hot or not. I thought I should have it in preparation for when my niece or nephew is born so I too can wave it.

As we had experienced the excitement of Flamenco dancing expressed by the young students and their mothers, we decided to attend a performance ourselves. However, our show commenced at 10.30 pm. We were not sure if it was too 'tourist orientated' but it appeared fairly genuine and I am sure my brother could have put his skills as a production co-ordinator to work to assist them to run a smooth performance. However the music was haunting and the dancers were very skilled. I had forgotten how much rhythm is required to move your hands and feet in time to the music. The performance was also conducted on an outdoor stage so it was still at least 35 degrees. Cordoba is very beautiful by night as all the buildings are flood lit and the sky is an inky blue. This probably increases the dramatic effect of the performance. The area was set up with small tables and chairs and they offered us an 'aperitif' which is white sherry. I will say that this is not a favourite beverage of Paul's as his father loved the drink and 9 years on Paul's mother could still operate a cellar specialising in the drink. Therefore I seem to be surviving on drinking lots of the beverage, enough to kill any 'bugs' that may be living in my system.

The water in Cordoba is of a very good quality. You are encouraged to drink out of many of the fountains dotted around the city centre. This would please Cecile enormously who loves her water and is a very discerning connoisseur. Our very friendly hotel receptionist (we seem to be befriending these women as we travel the country, or more so my husband is) suggested we try a swim in the traditional baths. Paul and I have done this in Turkey and found it pleasant but a little inversive. After we confirmed that you do wear your bathers to the pool we booked in for an hour session. The baths consist of 3 pools; warm, hot and cool, as well as a steam room. You bathe in the pools in that order and take a session in the steam room to invigorate your system. When you enter the main warm pool everyone is bobbing in the water like a series of small cherry tomatoes. When I finished my bath I experienced a change room with at least 20 Spanish women who cheerily explained how to use the shower, the locker and cubicle but left me standing in my naked bar a towel because I hadn't indicated I needed a cubicle by hanging my wet bathers on the hook on the door.

We are leaving Cordoba to move on to Avila. Although we have seen Saint Theresa in the Mosquita in several forms; in white and variegated marble and in black marble on the main altar; getting inspiration from a dove and writing with a feather, Paul still needs to visit the site of her presence. So two breakfasts later; hotel and train 'business style' we will arrive in Avila. I think we can now prove to Generation Y that Cordoba is not 'boring' and good wine, food and swimming can be found if you search it out.

'Buenas Nochs!' Barcelona

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:42:00 GMT

As I have never been to Spain before I have decided to write entries on each city that we visit as a way of keeping a diary of our experiences. As I am typing this, we are travelling on a very high speed train from Barcelona to Cordoba. In contrast to the train we arrived on Saturday night that must have been the oldest train on the Spanish network. This train is one of the newest. We are travelling at 300 km per hour and travelling first class is like travelling on an aircraft. There are movies, drink and meal service and the main difference is that there is more space and bigger windows; also all the reading materials and movies are in Spanish.

I wrote last Sunday that we arrived in Barcelona on Saturday night. We got a taxi from the station; after we had waded through the army of backpackers scrabbling for cheap accommodation and hotel transfers, and we were driven through the busy streets. Like any town on a Saturday night, Barcelona was very much alive. Our hotel was located in the centre of town close to the main avenue; La Ramblas. If you have been to Barcelona, you will remember that this is the avenue lined with plane trees with a pedestrian thoroughfare in the middle of it. As it was Saturday, the driver would not take us directly to the hotel and we had to weave through several narrow alleys to get to our hotel. The central area of Barcelona is a series of small streets lined with shops and cafes that link small squares. Our hotel was located on a square with a medieval church; one of many in Barcelona that is still undergoing restoration. We discovered over the last couple of days, that many churches in Barcelona were burned, along with their religious artifacts during the Spanish Civil war and the restoration process still continues in many of them.

Initially Paul was somewhat disappointed with the size of the room of our hotel. It was a typical of any hotel that we have stayed in any big city a room the size of a cardboard box and a shower that could operate as Doctor Who's tardis because of its cupboard size. However, the size of the room was made up by the very helpful receptionist on the front desk who provided information on any subject from the best Tapas bar, to where to get your clothes washed, where to get one's hair cut and operated as a postal service. Breakfast was provided by a very typical Spanish woman who brought it on a tray, with juice, a toasted roll and coffee but it took at least 20 minutes to prepare. The hotel overlooked the square and it was interesting to watch out the window the activity below, especially on a weekday when vans of all shapes and sizes brought in supplies to the businesses around the square.

Our first experience of eating Tapas was at 11 pm on Saturday night when we were recommended a local Tapas bar, by the helpful 'Italian' receptionist. (In Bordeaux Ian Raskall discovered a delightful winemaker called Isabella in Barcelona Paul discovered a delightful receptionist named Helena). We walked to the bar where there was a queue to get a table; remember it is well past any time we have eaten over the last 10 days and we were usually in bed by 9 pm when it is still light in Summer in Europe. We were seated at the bar where we watched the bar tender create what has now become Paul's favourite drink; the Mohito. For those of you who know cocktails you will know the powerful combination the taste of white spirit, lemon and mint that this drink produces, it is refreshing in a number of ways. The Sangria was also good as well (red wine and fruit). The tapas consisted of small plates of food such as calamari, chirizo, potato salad and croquettes.

We learnt the next day that nothing happens before 10 am in Spain and therefore the working day usually extends to 8 pm at night. On Sunday, it is even later. This doesn't really apply if you are a tourist as most sites do open at 9 am and close between 6 and 8 pm in Summer. There fore we commenced our day with a visit to the tourist office we where discovered the thousands of backpackers still queuing for accomodation. We were able to purchase a Barcelona Card, which most major cities have, giving you transport on the public transport system for 2 days and discounted entry into museums, galleries and tourist sites.

Barcelona is the city of Gaudi architecture, which I had particularly focused upon in my final year of school. Therefore I was able to see the buildings that I had only ever seen in 1970 black and white reproductions. I studied Art in the early 1980s and most art text books in colour were expensive. This would surprise many students today who now only see these works in colour on the internet. We planned the buldings to visit and set off.

Over the course of the day we became very Gaudied out as we visited the famous Famillia Sangria Church, Casa Barillo and Guell Park which are all designed by Gaudi. We discovered the variety of cultures and lifestyles in Barcelona. We learnt that most locals and backpackers go to Guell Park on a Sunday afternoon to relax and soak up the sun. Along La Ramblas and in most public areas you still have those Africans hawking fake watches and handbags. Paul loved the new trains on the metro and learnt that he could even carry out fare evasion when his metro ticket didn't work (he jumped the turnstiles; and if you know Paul well, you know this is very uncharacteristic behaviour, I think he just wants to be Spanish).

Finally we were all out of Gaudi and we returned to the hotel for another tapas visit. The following day we decided to just experience more of the local scene of Barcelona. We visited the contemporary art museum which was built in the Ravel area of Barcelona. This was formally the redlight district of the city but it has been revitalised and now houses many of the art and design schools of the city. I managed to get my hair cut without really speaking a word of English and even got my watch fixed that I had been trying to manage for the past 4 weeks in France. We enjoyed wandering the alleyways of the city and just strolling past the clothing stores. Many of you know that my family is awaiting the birth of my parents first grandchild at the end of this week so everywhere I look I see things for babies. We laughed at the section in the department store entitled 'Futura Mama' and had to stop ourselves buying a bib with the name of the Barcelona football team embroided on it as it was just too tacky and we don't know if Michelle and David's baby is a boy or a girl.

Barcelona was selected for the 1992 Olympic Games and reminds me very much of Sydney; there is a combination of older architecture, very much older than Sydney and sandy beaches in the city area. The city is definitely alive with people to late hours of the night and the Spanish people are a very relaxed race. There is more difference in the appearance of people compared to other European cities as there are more cultural influences from neighbouring countries such as France and Italy. It is also unusual for us to travel to a country where we do not really speak any of the language and less people seem to speak English. So as we travel to Cordoba, we travel to another area of Spain to experience another aspect of the country.

Week 7: Boating on the Canal to Bustling Barcelona:'Hola Espagne!'

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:52:00 GMT

This has been a relatively quiet week for those of you who enjoy our travel stories. We spent the week on the Canal Du Midi in the South of France. Last Saturday we picked up a canal boat at Negra about 50 km east of Toulouse. We had spent the morning in Toulouse where we struck the first serious rain period in the time we have been in France. Therefore we have no photos of Toulouse, although it is a really interesting city. It also marked the sad day that Paul actually got kilometres near the Airbus factory. He knew before we left, that in typical French fashion, yes they have tours, but not on Saturdays, the only day we were able to be in Toulouse. Therefore he was content to watch planes take off over the canal for the next week as we were in close vicinity to the factory.

We did think that we were going to have a fairly relaxing week after our rigourous week of walking. Crewing a canal boat is not as relaxing as you think. We travelled 118 kilometres along the canal to our destination, a small town called Argens, about 20 mins from the port city of Narbonne. Travelling along the Canal Du Midi involves taking the boat through water 'lochs'. We appointed Ian our captain as he has the sailing experience and under his command we safely made it. Moving along the canal we quickly learnt that we were not only one of several boats taking the same trip but one of many, going both ways. The week became more interesting as it developed and the various nationalities we met on other boats along our journey.

Each loch is manned by a 'loch-keeper' who mans the opening and closing of the gates at each end of the lock. They appear to have varied personalities and this is reflected often in the way they manage the loch and the activities they provide around their loch. There are loch keepers, who are entrepreneurial who sell wine and homemade jams. We even had one very friendly loch keeper who sold us a homemade apple tart two days running. Some loch keepers are very keen to have a conversation in French and hence my French speaking skills developed by having conversations with them as the boat was moving down the loch. Some loch keepers are women and you would often catch them sunbaking or in certain circumstances with some male loch keepers; napping away on a hot afternoon. Often the loch keeper would have their dog with them and Paul thinks that there are many dogs in France who look remarkably like their owners.

Therefore crewing the boat did give us quite a bit of exercise. We hired bikes for the week and each morning Cecile and I would ride to the local village to pick up the bread from the Boulangerie for the day. Cecile even had the energy to run several kilometres between locks on some days. This was after she spent the day jumping on and off the boat. We really do think she would make an Olympic athletic team. I think I have done enough bike riding along canal tow paths to start coaching a rowing crew on the Yarra; my skills are that good to balance on rocky paths, close to the edge of the water.

As I mentioned before, our journey did give us the opportunity to meet a variety of people from other nationalities; including German, Swiss, Spanish, British, South African, New Zealand and many other Australians. I was beginning to actually believe that there were no Australians left in Australia and that they were all on the Canal du Midi. Each boat had a certain way of operating, based on the nationality of the occupants; there were those who thought they may have been in the Sydney to Hobart (as did one Spanish boat we met), those who tended to move their boat erratically, some boats were manned by women alone which would be quite a difficult job. We were not quite sure if the job was difficult or they were a little out of their depth. We met a Swiss gentleman and his wife who kept their boat and driving very neat and tidy. Meeting various Australians made me realise that we do have a very varied country in terms of cultural groups. The groups of Australians that we met were all different, from a group of public servants from Canberra (who made numerous stops at local villages to sample wine, restaurants and never had a hair out of place), to a very mixed group of people from Melbourne (who were returning to visit ethnic roots in Poland and Croatia via France) to a group of men and their wives from Northern Queensland (all dressed in yellow Australian T-Shirts, caps, shorts and drinking copious amounts of beer; they resembled a boat on Brisbane Waters north of Sydney, that you often see cruising around in Summer).

We visited some small villages and towns along our way including Castlenaudry, Carcasonne, Trebes and Homps. These names might not mean anything but each town has its own identity and appearance. Of these town, Carcasonne is of note as it has a medieval town above the main city that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Paul has accumulated photographs of these sites rapidly over the holiday and he can now tick off at least 30 more on the list of thousands. Many of the smaller villages survive on business from the canal and the boats. As we did most of our cooking on the boat, we attempted to utilize the grocery stores along the way. Usually our first questions when we arrived in a village were: “Where can we get fresh water?” and “Where is the nearest supermarket”? Our attempts to cook were varied. One night we even resorted to having pizza delivered from a local takeaway because it was Sunday and everything was closed. In another town we shopped at the 'Price Leder' which is the equivalent to shopping at Aldi. This would make my father very impressed as he has tried very hard to persuade Paul to enter what Dad believes has revolutionised supermarket shopping in Australia and brought Europe to our country. Ian and Cecile are superb cooks and we had some really good home cooked meals over the week. This surprisingly gave us relief from eating in the many restaurants we have dined in over the 6 weeks. boat was quite new and was well appointed and comfortable with individual hot showers in each of the 3 cabins, a kitchen with oven and stove and a nice dining area.

On Saturday we finished our trip and farewelled Ian and Cecile in Narbonne. Cecile is returning to Paris to further her studies in French for another week (I on the other hand am still attempting to speak my limited French to the Spanish in Barcelona). Ian is leaving Cecile in Paris to rest on a beach in Thailand for a couple of more weeks. He needs to recover from the experience of telling 3 teachers what to do for a week, a challenge in itself.

Paul and I spent half a day exploring Narbonne. At first when we knew we had 6 hours to wait for a train, we thought we would be lost for what to do. However we discovered that Narbonne is a very pretty Roman town with a Mediterranean feel. We enjoyed lunch in the square for 2 hours (remember nothing happens in provincial France between 12 – 2 pm.) and then explored the Roman ruins and the Medieval cathedral. We then boarded a train for an interesting 4 hour trip along the coast to Barcelona. We think we may have been the oldest people on the train and that Barcelona is a destination for every graduating American and Canadian student for the Summer. The city is a busy contrast to the quiet we have had on the canal for the past week. So begins our Spanish adventure. You will have to wait until next week for an update but we did commence our visit by eating Tapas and drinking Sangria at 11pm (most restaurants do not function until 9 pm); we have geared our eating habits to fit in with the Spanish. Until next week Au Revoir France and Hola from Spain!

Week 6: Three star Pietons sous la soleil et la pluie in the Dordogne

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Fri, 5 Jun 2009 20:22:00 GMT

I think I mentioned last week that we would be stuffed full of foie gras and red wine by the time I wrote my next entry. However, this was not the case. We were in for quite a surprise with our walking tour. We have spent 8 days on the tour in the Dordogne ('Doiigne!!' as the French say). Of those 8 days we walked at least 20 km per day over quite hilly terrain. Every second day we took a rest day, literally. This has really built up our fitness after the last couple of weeks, and our command of the French language and culture.

We have seen a range of terrains over this last week, as the photos will tell. Our path, marked out on obscure maps, provided by the company we booked with, and only marked by the guide the day before we left, has taken us on a journey through wooded forests (where we had to watch for hunters and deer), small villages perched on hill tops and through fields of cows and ducks and by river banks. We also never saw the mysterious farms that reputedly hold hoards of geese stuffed to produce foie gras.

We have decided that Cecile should qualify for the Australian walking team at the next Olympics or we should put money on her when she is closing in on the nearest 3 star hotel; because of her pace. Ian and I will qualify for stainability awards on hills and Paul will fit somewhere between the roadrunner and coyote because of his varied pace. However, our journey did introduce us to a range of French towns and their people. We met farmers ploughing fields and women picking beans, and over the course of the week, our French did improve somewhat, especially when we were looking for obscure paths. The French people are the opposite of the stereotype of rude and arrogant people that we all are led to believe. We have met an extremely delightful and helpful race of people who have taken great amusement in four Australians walking with small packs on their backs through the fields.

We have also learnt much about the quality of 3 and 2 star hotels in France. We have discovered that no matter how many stars a hotel can have it cannot often make up for the friendly and accommodating staff that can make your stay worthwhile. Several of the hotels we stayed in were run by families who have had the business for many years. As a client you are greeted each evening at dinner by the 'patron' and they will ensure that you are well looked after. Such was the case in Beynac and our second two star hotel 'Tamines'. The hotel in Tamines literally was the whole village on a small hilltop. They had a fantastic pool, yes it has been very warm, enough to swim. (I bet that annoys many people in NSW who I believe have had the wettest May on record) and a great restaurant. The hotel was called 'Labadorie' after the family name, but they also had an old Labrador dog, which fitted perfectly with the image. Our larger 3 star hotel in the town of Les Eyies had beautiful gardens, a sparkling pool, and a gourmet restaurant but were somewhat less personable.

Les Eyies is the gateway to many of the Prehistoric Caves and their paintings, in the area. If you are an Art Teacher or took a great interest in Year 7 History you would remember the famous paintings of Lascaux. Unfortunately Lascaux is closed to public access but there are many caves you can visit with artwork in the area. We visited the 'Grotte de Gaume' which is one of the only publicly owned caves in the area. We had the inequitable French experience buying tickets to a tour of the caves. They only allow 200 people through per day at hourly intervals. We were told that we could have a 12 pm tour but only in French. We waited by the main road in the dust for an hour for access only to discover at 11.45 we could have sat in a lovely picnic area up the hill from the entrance. The tour was delivered in French, but to an audience of 20 English speakers. C'est la vie!

This entry is coming to you somewhat early as we are about to embark on our tour of the Canal du Midi where internet access will be elusive. Paul thinks this will be good for Kathryn and Kathryn thinks it will be good for Paul. So the next time you hear from us we will have travelled along the canal and into Spain. Over the next week we hope to relax a little more and take in the sites along the side of the canal relaxing on a boat, rather than on foot.

Well I am off to watch as the French say "le Foot"; Football. We also have enjoyed watching tennis live at Roland Garros as well. Who said that Australians were the only race devoted to sport?

P.S. On his return to Australia, please speak to Paul in French only, as he feels he is very fluent!

Vins du Bordeaux and Les Pietons de Perigold (Bordeaux Reds and Walking the Perigold)

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:28:00 GMT

From the middle of the Perigold Valley in the Dordogne we write to you. Believe you me, after the last week we do feel very much like the foie gras ducks and geese you can see in this area. Lucky that we spend every second day of the next week walking at least 15 km. Paul wants to know how the French maintain any sense of reality in terms of their diet.

We started to Bordeaux last Monday on another TGV where Paul wondered yet again at French technology. This was only to be encountered at the end of the trip in Bordeaux where we hired a car and attempted to get out of the city area in the pouring rain. Four people managed the road sign system and one motorway enroute to Paris where we found the exit to the small medieval town of Blaye (pronounced 'Bligh' as in Captain Bligh in French). Here we had booked four nights accommodation at Villa St Simon, which 3 of us envisioned would be a small chateau in the vineyards. It was actually in the port of Blaye and proved how deceptive website photographs can be. However, it was a pleasant surprise as the small villa of 7 rooms was run by an eccentric South African who had an obsession with Bordeaux wines. Our host Les, who discovered that he had overbooked us on our arrival, subsequently put Paul and me in the promised chateau in the vineyards (but only for one night). When we returned and requested that we were happy to spend the rest of our stay there he insisted that we return to his villa for the rest of the time. You can work out why he wanted us with him and not with the happy hosts of the chateau (it is a bit like a teacher, which Les formally was in South Africa, losing control of their class).

Les' accommodation came with its own wine cellar and 3 levels of rooms with various antiquities from the local area; including the other patrons of the villa. However, his knowledge and hospitality were superb and he took us to many small vineyards for tastings and taught at least 2 of us more about Bordeaux wines. Over the four days we visited a few other medieval villages surrounding Blaye including Bourg and St. Emillion. Bordeaux has approximately 80 wine regions and each can have up to10 chateaux represented. There are approximately 8000 wineries in the region. We learnt that each winery varies in soil, aspect, rainfall, vine height, picking period, how the grapes are picked, how they are crushed, how long they are fermented, what they are fermented in, what barrels they are produced in, for how long and THAT IN THE WHOLE PROCESS NO PRESERVATIVES, PESTICIDES OR IRRIGATION IS USED. Bordeaux wine producers are very insistent about this. We also caught a car ferry across from Blaye to the Medoc Peninsular to view some of the best producing wine producing Chateaux in the world. Paul was excited to visit the Port of Paulliac where not only is good wine produced but also the Airbus 380 parts are shipped in from around Europe into the port and then carried by road to Toulouse.

We also had a pleasant surprise on our visit to the Medoc. After travelling through vineyards that are often at least 7 km wide and 25 km long, one passes through wooded forests to reach the Atlantic ocean beaches at Carcan. (about an hour and a half north of Bordeaux). You would think that you were standing on the beach on the South East Coast of Australia. The water temperature is similar to a Melbourne summer and there were people surfing and swimming. It is before the peak summer season and the area was preparing for the summer tourists. The area was a cross between Rosebud (as we could see the camping crowds there in Summer) and Port Douglas (with the restaurants).

Before concluding my appraisal of Bordeaux I must thank my good friend Virginia, who spent 6 months living in Bordeaux for her advice on the city and its beautiful buildings. We were only there for a couple of hours and we did not give the city and her sights justice. However, Paul did enjoy catching the brand new tram system from the station into the centre of town.

Before catching a train from Bordeaux to Sarlat on yet another French holiday weekend; there are approximately 5 in May, we took a tour of Bordeaux after successfully farewelling Les and a tribe of Canadians that were staying in our rather cramped accommodation in Blaye. If my father is reading this he would understand that driving over 160 km on autobahns in 2 days from Frankfurt to France must be in the psyche of any Australian male over 55. The Australian Canadian we met had just done that and brought his two teenage children and wife in tow. So no matter where you live in the world there is still that enjoyment of driving fast on European roads that I remember from my childhood with my father.

My husband, however, enjoys train travel and we sat on a very crowded train for 3 hours travelling east from Bordeaux. It was interesting to watch the variety of people obviously travelling home for the long weekend from little old ladies in their Sunday best, to national service men with their backpacks, business men with briefcases and even people travelling with 2 children and those with their dogs. Nowhere but France are dogs of all shapes and sizes accepted into the best restaurants, on trains, buses, trams and even Galleries Layfette restaurant. Dogs are revered by their owners and looked after like they are their own children. Dogs travel on their own seat in 1^st class cars on trains, may have their own bed transported with them and even are petted, fed and given water by everyone travelling in the same train carriage. I think if I came back to the world again, I would come back as a French dog.

We arrived in Sarlat to commence our walking tour on Friday. Our accommodation has been 4 star with wonderful 3 – 5 course meals. Which is very appropriate to walk off the next day. Our first hotel, above the medieval town of Sarlat was like staying in a pension in Switzerland; another memory I have from travelling with my parents. The staff were accommodating, views fantastic and meals generous. Now the weather has warmed up we have started swimming in the hotel pools each day. Our first day of walking was a bit of a shock as it was not the 'stroll' we were anticipating. However, the countryside is beautiful and it looks like some of those fairy-tale castles you get in Austria and Germany. We have learnt that the French do tend to stretch the estimated distances between towns and sometimes their cartography skills need a lot to be desired.

Sarlat, like many of the towns on our walk, is a medieval town, with narrow lane ways between tall houses with slate roofs. Now we are in another medieval town, there are quite a few in a 20 km radius, even though it appears they are kilometres away when you are walking, called Beynac, It also has a medieval castle on the cliff above it. Today, on our rest day, we decided to visit the gardens of Marqueyssac which we thought were 500m down the road from our accommodation. We discovered 4 km later that the gardens were infact on a hillside opposite where we were staying. They were well worth the walk and were beautifully sculptured with a chateau that was built in the 17^th century. We will see many of these along our walk over the next 4 days.

So until next time when we will be a little more footsore but satisfied and full of foie gras, steak, duck, cheese, crème brulee, ile flotant (ice cream floaters, with lots of chatilly cream), crème caramel and we will be more of the wine connoisseurs that most French seem to be, yet we may have drunk a little more at dinner. I will finish with stating that my French has improved, after four years of study, and 2 weeks in France to the point where I can have a conversation in a local bar and enquire which beer is the best for 'mon marie (my husband) and son amie (his friend) and organise to have it served to them as they lie under an umbrella by the hotel pool. I must away to bed to prepare for my 22 km walk tomorrow.

Kathryn & Paul

Week 4 Paris in the Spring: Musees, Velibs and Roland Garros

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:52:00 GMT

After a week in Paris we can now stroll the streets, ride the Metro and use the local bike hire system like locals. Our week commenced with a visit to the Pompidou Centre where we saw some great exhibitions by artists Alexander Calder and Kandinsky. The Kandinsky in particular, was fantastic and I have never seen so many works in the one space by one artist. We viewed the Modern Art collection and Paul is very proud to admit he thinks he now knows quite a bit about contemporary art and has asked to have his favourite Rothko painting included. We also had the pleasure of having lunch at Georges on the 5^th level of the Pompidou. The restaurant is world known for its design and views of Paris. We are not sure how we managed to reserve a table as George's is a venue for watching the beautiful people of Paris. Maybe we have achieved that level.

We have had a variety of dining experiences from buying our own food to eating in a variety of French restaurants; some even twice they were so good. Most of our own meals we have managed to buy food at the market and cook it at home. One night we bought at chicken from a butcher that had been cooked in a rotisserie with potatoes. The butcher opens the cabinet, pulls out your selection and bags it up with the potatoes. We have eaten in larger brasseries as well as small family restaurants and have tried delicacies from foie gras, to steak tartare to andoulitte (offal sausages, a mistake Kathryn made in Reims, confusing it with 'agneau' which is lamb.)On Saturday evening we even ate in a Moroccan restaurant. We have found ordering not too difficult and the French are pleased to have an interest shown in their food and our attempts to speak French. In one restaurant, the chef even came out to greet the two men who consumed his large entrecote of beef. It was a chop which was the size of half a cow! Our favourite is the boulangerie on the corner near our appartment which serves fresh baguettes 3 times a day and beautiful tartes and pasteries. Paul is even impressed that they know him so well that he was sent to the front of the line when ordering today. He can even order in French now, just don't get him to say “Mille Feuille” or “Paris Brest”.

Back to our touring; Tuesday we went out to Giverny to Monet's Garden. It was quite pleasant but it was teaming with British women commenting on how their garden could look like this one, but even better. The garden and pond are beautiful and the village is very picturesque. There was also an exhibition of Monet's waterlily paintings at the Modern American Impressionist Gallery. You might get the idea who does a lot of the financing of the project. There were beautiful meadows (Yes, they are literally meadows) of Poppies.

Wednesday was an exciting day as we trekked out to the qualifying rounds of the tennis at Roland Garros. We were able to sit very close to the outside courts and see some great young players including 3 Australians: Sophie Ferguson, Peter Luczak and Antonia Moldiva (the latter is Russian, who seems to have australian citzenship to play tennis). We could even hear the players discussing their game with their coaches. Kathryn was very excited to see former Australian player Tony Roche and managed to get the courage to have her photo with him. We were also amused by the precision of the ball boys & girls and the groundstaff who spray the court with water after each set as the surface is clay. There were many, many French school children there who were very excited and quite noisy; the matches were stopped several times to get the crowd to quieten down. We thought the experience was fantastic and it gave us an opportunity to see the grounds as the French Open commences on Monday 25 May, when we leave for Bordeaux. The French are very excited about their players and are very supportive.

We commenced the 'big museums' on Thursday. The Rodin Museum, Musee D'Orsay and Quai Branly on Thursday. These museums are still magnificent and still full of many, many tourists. I often wonder if the crowds are really appreciating the art or just going to the museum to say they have been there. The Museum Quai Branly is a new museum in Paris. It features Indigenous Art and it is the museum that many of you may know that has a ceiling painted by an Indigenous Artist. I walked in and asked about the artwork only to be told it was 'in the shop' which was a little dissapointing as I had wrongly assumed that it was in the main gallery entrance. However, the displays are magnificent and it is a very good representation of French colonial acquisitions. (except for Indigenous Australia and Canada). The building and gardens, which feature indigenous plants are just as interesting as the exhibits.

Thursday evening we went on one of those classic trips on the Seine at night, very cold but some excellent views. Thursday was also the day when we discovered our new form of transport; the Velib. The Velib system is a bike rental operation around Paris. By swiping your metro ticket you obtain a bike for half an hour for free. When you finish with the bike you return it to another station, these are all around Paris and then pick up another bike when you need it. A deposit on your credit card is required but it gives you easy access and a new way of seeing the city. You also feel very French.

On Friday we braved the Velib in the traffic and made our way to the Louvre, where the crowds wer e just as heavy as the traffic outside. We viewed some of the classic French painting and then braved the Italian painting and sculpture wings along with the Mona Lisa and the big French Nationalists such as David's “Coronation of Napolean” and “Oath of the Horati (the art teachers I know will be swooning at this). The crowd is more interesting to watch than the paintings in these areas at times. If one proceeds into the shop you are exposed to the marketing of Art at its best. The Louvre now has a whole shopping mall underneath devoted to selling anything from children's cloths, to thongs, tea towels, china, chairs. You name it is there. I wonder again about the appreciation of artworks in all of this. It was fascinating to see the 'copyists' at work in the gallery working on the great masters. You have to apply to copy the work and can only stay in the gallery for a month from 9 am – 1 pm each day.

Friday night we were treated to another French tradition! The Moulin Rouge! Although we wondered how they fit a long queue 3 block long into one theatre in half an hour the spectacle was fantastic. We loved the costumes and the whole concept of French cabaret. I know my father will ask if they got any young men up on stage, as he remembers being one of them, my response is that they did and they also included a very tall blond Russian girl, a Chinese Man and a German Gentleman. The Moulin Rouge is coping with global statistics. The show included the girl in the tank fighting the serpents, jugglers, acrobats, the can can and a ventriloquist. All very French.

This weekend we have enjoyed our final days in Paris. We have been doing some more bike riding along canals and alleys, shopping at Galleries Layfette and markets and today we did an interesting walking tour of the Marais with a local historian. She gave us some interesting facts and stories about the area, its buildings and gardens. Finally we visited the Musee Picasso, which we thought was closed for renovation, however in typical French fashion there is no explanation as to why it is now open. The works again are the best I have seen as one collection. The building also has been designed by a French Installation artist and there are mirrors and corridors that open up the spaces and galleries in an intersting manner.

We leave for Bordeaux tomorrow, as I type we have been switching between watching the tennis and an a movie with Jack Nicolson that has been dubbed in French. Our experiences have been wonderful and having an appartment has provided us with the opportunity to mix in with the local culture and people. I must admit that Paris has a lot of tourists and often that can deter from its charms. However if you take the time to wander away from the crowds you can enjoy the history and the atmosphere that many people comment upon.

Until next time when we will be off savouring foie gras, gourmet food and wine on our walking tour.

Kathryn & Paul

Adventure Parks, Champagne & Paris

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Sun, 17 May 2009 20:46:00 GMT

Finally we are in Paris and I am writing this from our apartment overlooking the roof tops of Paris from The Marais. This week of our trip has been a range of varied experiences. We started last Monday with a trip to Europa Park, the German Equivalent to EuroDisney and now we agree it is better. There were a range of rides in each land from the Swiss Matterhorn, to the Russian aerospace ride to the spinning English Bus and the twisting Spanish Galleons. Paul went on most of the fastest and highest roller coaster rides. The 6 year old twins, Emma & Max were impressed that he braved the 'Silver Star' roller coaster, the biggest of the roller coasters in the park as well as the new 'Blue Flame' which is like riding 'through space' and twisting and turning, including upside down. Sebastian and Beate are keen to have us back next time, when the twins are older so we can go on all the rides that make their parents sick. As you can see by our photos I am not sure if it was as fun for us as it was the twins.

We left finally for our destination of France on Tuesday. Another series of fast European trains including the TGV in France with four connections from Germany to get there. We were most impressed with the conductor on the train from Freiburg to Offenbach who made a special announcement for us, in English, to change trains and which platform the train left from. The French trains are very stylish and we were impressed with the 5 minute trip we made from Champagne to Reims. Paul wants to mention that the toilet on the train was bigger than the bathroom of our hotel in Reims.

Reims is the largest champagne producing city in the world. It was in some ways not quite what we expected. It is not a village nestling in a valley of vineyards but quite a large regional city. It was an interesting first view of France. There is a large tram-way under construction in the city, which has been underway for some years and I think it will be some time away yet. It is taking so long because we worked out that the whole of Reims shuts down for 2 hours from 12 – 2pm for lunch. It was here we also had our first experience of French hospitality at the 'very friendly' tour office in Reims. It took some time to get an answer about tours in English (to which the response was 'Non'). However, after visiting the main cathedral we discovered that there were audio tours in English. Just the wrong question to ask to receive a 'right answer'. The same applied for our quite small hotel room which had a great view of the city square. In true French fashion the plumbing was not working when we arrived and then the elevator broke down on the second day and it never worked again, and we were on the fourth floor. The only response was it was 'En Panne'. We also discovered in talking in limited French with our helpful hotelier that the 'Bold & the Beautiful' is very popular in France and he watches it at breakfast every morning.

Reims has a beautiful cathedral and also a Basillica. It is the first place that a king was crowned in France and was the place of coronation for many subsequent French kings. Clovis features in many of the artworks and tapestries in museums around the city. The main cathedral 'Notre Dame' is a prime example of French medieval architecture and the facade and buttresses of the cathedral are adorned with sculptures. The symbol of the city is the 'smiling angel' who hovers above the portal of the main door. The cathedral was one of the only buildings left standing after the German bombings in the second world war and the angel is a symbol of hope. The Basilica of St. Remi is the other main church which also has similar architecture and was well worth a visit. The main art museum had an exhibition of the work of the French artist Corot with many of his influences. This included many artworks by Monet, Renoir and other great impressionists. This was a rare treat as you would normally have to queue for long hours to get a glimpse of such works in Australia.

However, our reason for visiting Reims was to visit the champagne houses. We visited two varied champagne houses Mumm and Veuve Cliquot. The tour at Mumm was exactly to the hour and was parroted out by the English speaking guide. We learnt that the grape juice is crushed outside of Reims and then it is shipped into the champagnery for 'distilling'. We actually didn't see any grapes, or champagne production, which was very surprising. We did get to see the bottles stored in the 'caves' and the end product in the tasting. Veuve Cliquot was very special for Paul and the whole experience was very elegant and stylish. The history was informative and their chalk caves are impressive. They were started during Roman times and are as large as cathedrals. We think that their champagne tasted the best anyway.

On Friday we took another very fast TGV, for 45 minutes to arrive in Paris. We got to our apartment and worked out the complicated locking system. The apartment is at the top of the building under the eaves. It is light and airy and is well appointed with a kitchen, bathroom and most importantly for Paul, a washing machine. The area has lots of fresh food shops; groceries, boulangeries and restaurants. Cecile & Ian arrived safely from Japan via Helsinki and we went out to a local restaurant for our first Parisian meal.

The last 2 days we have been exploring Paris by foot. We have travelled from The Marais up to Place D'Opera and Galeries Lafeyette. Then through the Tullieries up the Champs Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe and down through the Trocadero to the Eiffel Tower. Today we visited the Bastille Market to buy our produce for our dinner tonight. The range of fruit and vegetables are excellent. The market stores have everything from chickens, to fish, to crepes, clothing and meat. We then walked over to Ile de la Cite and past the very busy Notre Dame. We decided to avoid it as there was a large crowd queuing to go in. We finished walking through the Latin Quartier up to the Parthenon. The building has been restored in the last few years and the interior is magnificent with murals and sculptures that are significant to Paris; the revolution and the crowning of their kings: Clovis gets another mention here! The crypt is filled with famous people including Madame Curie, Rousseau, Voltaire and Victor Hugo. We have also visited the Place des Voyages where Victor Hugo is said to have lived.

By the time I have finished this I have exhausted the power of the computer and myself. I will write again with our news from the 'City of Light' next week when we will have visited many museums and had some excellent meals. Yesterday I tried Guinea Fowl for the first time, which we discovered was a 'Pintade' by our friendly seafood grocer in the MonoPrix supermarket. Until many more meals and experiences next week.

Kathryn & Paul

Week 2 Zurich & Freiburg

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:25:00 GMT

Our week started with a flight from Berlin to Zurich. This was the one euro flight, plus all the taxes that Paul had waited for many months. Our hosts, Max Buechel, his wife Liselotte and daughter Ursula and her family were wonderful hosts. We toured the city in the old quarter and went on a tour of the lake. After lunch we went to the Beyer watch museum. We nearly purchased a $98,000 Rolex watch at the insistence of Max, but it wasn't quite within our budget for the rest of the trip. Zurich is a wonderful European city with a large Bahnhof Strass with perfect shopping. The city is linked by tram and you can easily travel. On the first night Max took us to a restaurant where we had a wonderful view of the city. It was our first taste of Swiss food and the Rosti, that my father, Bob, raves about. Our second night we were treated to a traditional Swiss meal of Raclette, which is like fondue but the cheese is cooked on small spatulas. Paul loved the home of his host Ursula, which is a 150 year old home consisting of 3 renovated apartments. Probably the best he loved was their large dog, 'Choc' which was a Labrador cross. I think Paul could have house sat for some time with the dog.

Max continued our tour the next day with a visit to Technorama. This museum is like a huge and highly efficient Scienceworks with lots of really amazing interactive displays. Again, I think we could have left Paul there for some time. He particularly enjoyed making volcanoes explode, waves and cyclones in the 'Water' section. That afternoon Max took us to St. Gallen and he was very proud to show us his home town with the wonderful medieval monastery and library. In the evening we went to Max's home where he showed us his beautiful garden and a huge flowering cactus plant, of which he is very proud.

Thursday we sped off up the Autobahn to Basel. After some difficulty with technology in Max's car with his GPS. Despite stations are very large in Europe, they still need a street address. We visited the museum of the Swiss artist Tinguely who created machines out of found objects. Then for the highlight which was a visit to the Van Gogh exhibition at Basel Kunstmuseum. Many people in Europe are dying to see this exhibit and we were fortunate having Max to acquire us tickets. The paintings were better than I have seen in Australia and the tour in English was excellent. We have recommended to Max that he run a tour company in Zurich and that his daughter Ursula runs the bed and breakfast. He is considering the idea.

We left Zurich and took the ICE for half an hour, which satisfied Paul for the week. He has really enjoyed the efficiency of the trains and trams in Germany & Switzerland, even if the trips are only for 10 minutes. We arrived in Freiburg, in the Black Forest to be greeted warmly by Paul's old friend Sebastian. Sebastian lives with his wife Beate and six year old twins Max & Emma. We have spent the past 4 days enjoying their company and trips around Freiburg. On Friday we were special guests at Sebastian's school in his English classes. Paul was a bit nervous about returning to school to work for a day. We enjoyed a chat and a cup of coffee with the principal Dr Wolk. Sebastian, Paul & I then went for lunch by the Rhine of which the highlight was getting stuck in the most unbelievable hail and rain storm. Yesterday we were guests at a local winery with Sebastian's friend Georg and his wife Daniella who travelled from Munich to see us as we had met them in Australia. We had a wine tasting at a winery on the Kaiserstuhl, which will create some amusement amongst those who can remember cask wine in Australia. Today we visited the village where George grew up. This village is called Staufen and is on the edge of the black forest. The village is very picturesque but is in danger of 'cracking' as they have drilled below the main town hall to install thermal heating and thus water is leaking into the chalk base. So there are these buildings that are hundreds of years old that are cracking.

By the time you read this we will have visited Europa Park. This is the German equivalent of Euro Disney but we have been told it is better. The twins are very excited we are going and I think they will enjoy the rides with their new found friend 'Pearl' (a six year old pronunciation of Paul). The next update of our travels will be from our ultimate destination Paris. Until then 'Schuss'.

Week 1 Singapore & Berlin

kathryn_hendy_ekers — Sun, 3 May 2009 20:11:00 GMT

By the time you read this story my time on the Internet may have run out. There is so much to tell for just one week. We started in Singapore a week ago with a cooking course at Raffles. We then spent 3 days going back over our old memories and places in Singapore including visiting friends at the Australian International School. There are only 3 teachers left now, and one of them is the Art teacher. The rain and food hasn't changed much in Singapore, only the buildings and shopping centres. The lifestyle hasn't changed much either and we think we wouldn't be keen to go back there. We enjoyed the Singapore eye and even some friends at a restaurant we used to frequent remembered us.

After a long flight to Frankfurt, we travelled by the efficient Deutscher Bahn ICE up to Berlin. This was a highlight for Paul as we got up to 253 kilometres an hour! Our hotel in Berlin is beautiful and we have enjoyed our rooftop view and the lovely breakfast at the hotel. My father always fondly remembers his German breakfasts and he was pleased to hear that they are still up to scratch.

We have had a full 4 days of sightseeing. We didn't anticipate that it was a long weekend in Germany & Europe due to May Day so the city has been packed with tourists and school groups. Paul is keen to get his photo with them. We met an Australian who lived in Berlin on the station last Thursday who warned us of riots in Berlin on Friday. That really impressed us but it has been perfectly safe.

We started our journey with a tour up the Reichstag (again we took my parents advice and turned up early and got a great view with out the queue). We then went to the Holocaust Memorial (of which there are photos in the gallery) that is very moving. There are a lot of significant stories in the centre and you could get lost in the emotions. Positively we moved on to the new Potzdam Place. We were in Berlin 10 years ago, this was only a construction area. We were amazed at the change and commercial buildings now in East Berlin; it is as though everything has moved from the West to the East. The stores are very open and gleaming, it is infact, becoming a lot like Singapore. However, there are some beautiful old buildings that have been restored since the war and there are some lovely restaurants and cafes tucked away where you can sit and enjoy the sun. After visiting the ubiquitous East Berlin TV tower on Alexanderplatz, along with all the 'bored' school students, we went on a walk of the old Jewish quarter which has been also restored. It is now a very popular place to live in Berlin for young families. There are some signficant memorials to the Jewish community in this area and a new synagogue.

Friday; we visited the story of Berlin, an interactive multimedia site with its own nuclear bunker. So safe is this bunker I got a call on my mobile phone from a friend in the middle of the tour. The brochure, as Paul points out states: "One city, one history, one exhibition and one nuclear bomb shelter"! It seems that in Berlin, they are still unsure about the threat of war.

We then toured on a boat seeing the sites of Berlin by water including the new parliamentary area and the island filled with museums. We continued down Unter Der Linden until we typically found the Gendernmarket area, the most exclusive area in Berlin; or shall we say, Kathryn found it. It is a very pretty area. We found a restaurant, that we returned to the following day, that served the traditional 'Currywurst' (Curry sausage; for Paul) and Veuve Clinquot champagne (For Kathryn) what a great combination, if not unusual.

Saturday saw us take a bike tour of the wall history of Old Berlin. We followed the route of the wall and stopped for many stories along the way. We visited a control tour that has been purchased by an East German as a museum. We think he still runs it as a control tour. However, his brother had been the first person to be killed by border guards after the wall went up.

That afternoon we continued to the Hamburger Hof.(Contemporary Art museum) where Paul experienced that art can be sound related and not just visual. Appart from some found object pieces by Joseph Beuys, the main gallery had a sound installation from a Canadian artist called the 'Death of Crows'. If you are not into art you would think this a joke, if you are, it was fantastic! Paul has learnt a lot about contemporary art over the last 10 years, including when to hold his mirth in various exhibitions.

What is amusing is to see 'Beach Bars' along the river. People lay in deck chairs, sunbaking as though they are at the beach. To an Australian this is highly amusing.

Today we have walked and walked; through Tiertengarten along Unter Der Linden to the Museum Island where we finished in the Pergamon museum. This classical history museum has some immense reconstructed temples and gates from Greece and the Islamic period. It is amazing that this all survived both wars and the Cold war unscathed.

Tomorrow we are off to Zurich. We are enjoying the time away from work. This has been the most I have had to write in some time. I will have to continue to keep up my practise. We have enjoyed the food, trying to learn parts of the language and how to explain that we are not English but Australian. We have learnt that Asparagus is in season and you are offered it at every restaurant and that a pigs knuckle 'cooked' is actually 'boiled'. Also that Berliner beer is not the best beer in Germany and that Berliner donuts are not easy to find.

Until our next update.

Kathryn & Paul