Hi!!! Been off the air for a while and have a massive missive to upload, sorry i haven't been in touch more, but travelling at this spped is such a spinning thing - like i need that! Just a few days to go now and we'll be back (italian keyboard is funny!) If you can be bothered, Ià've tried to sum up the trip in this last big post - see you all soon, love Trace xxxxxx
No time
Travelling by train from Venice to Rome and with 6 days to go before we fly home I concede there’s no time to describe each adventure before the next one starts!
For me the best moments along the way have been when I’ve been moved to tears or close to by the sheer wonder of a natural or manmade creation or sometimes just due to the awe of being in some legendary, magical or iconical place, be it Disneyland or Sherwood Forest! I’ll denote these with my ‘awe asterisk’!
At dinner in a nice place just near ‘our’ canal last night we played a great game where we took turns naming a highlight – or occasional lowlight – of the trip in no particular order, so I thought it could be good to just blat out what I can remember of that game and try to improve the photo galleries when next online... so here goes! Limousine to Brisbane airport, presents of digital cameras for the kids and * a new lens for the Canon for me in the Limo on the way, our first stop in Auckland and deciding to buy a Christmas decoration for next year’s tree from each major city, our first night in Anaheim and the great Mexican restaurant and big beers in the hotel, swimming in the rain in the heated pool, * Disneyland (lots of these) - meeting the characters and Bri and Con using their autograph books to get all the autographs, Jack Sparrow stealing Bri’s pen (he gave it back!), the Space Mountain ride in Tomorrowland, seeing Honda’s robot Asimo show from the front row demonstrating his amazing!!!! skills, the Indiana Jones’ Temple of Doom ride, the nightly * fireworks and ‘snow’ over the most magical Fantasyland castle, getting invited to ‘steer’ the paddle steamer in Frontierland and ride up front with Disney monorail operator, seeing all the * original sketches Walt approved for the Snow White film, with handwritten notes on them at California Adventure Park, getting soaked on the Splash Mountain white water ride, *Soaring over California IMAX multimedia/ride, arriving in *Hollywood and driving up the hill to the Hollywood sign, seeing the movie Enchanted and meeting all the Disney princesses including my fave Snow White, the steaming jacuzzi in the cold night at the Hollywood Holiday Inn , touring the *film sets at Universal studios, Jurassic Park ride, freaking out in the House of Horror (Boris Karloff, Psycho et al), special effects show – also with monsters! *Massive Waterworld set and stunt show, the Mummy ride, eating at Bubba Gumps, *Las Vegas by helicopter at night! *Vegas’ Freemont Street light show, the ‘old’ strip and Main Street casino, * winning $500 in 5 minutes while waiting for the girls to go to the loo!, ** the awesomely awesome Grand Canyon and the Canyon **Skywalk, *our first snow in Toronto, *Niagara Falls, * the trip to Buffalo and the Bills/Dolphins gridiron snow game, New York *Times Square and *Hairspray show on Broadway, visiting the statue of Liberty and the twin towers ‘ ground zero site and seeing the start of the Freedom Tower construction, Museum of Natural History, squirrels in Central Park, Christmas shopping at Macy’s, the Gershwin hotel ‘arty’ experience and living next door to the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, - good subway. Rotten flight to Dublin, driving for the first time in our own van, seeing St Stephen’s Day hunt deer herd on old Dublin’s football fields, staying lovely old pub Sullivan’s at Gort – *William Butler Yeats country! Visited Coole House, and tramped the estate, visited the lake about which Yeats’ famous Wild Swans of Coole was written! And Yeats’ tower, the fabulous old mill he renovated and lived in, drove through lovely Galway to the * amazing Cliffs of Moher, then stumbled upon Blarney and stayed Blarney Castle Hotel on the village green and kissed the stone! Lunch by the water at Youghal and afternoon tour of * Waterford crystal factory, caught massive Stena line ferry (cruised 42 knotts, held 50 trucks, 200 cars, casino, duty free shopping, bars and cafes!) across Irish Sea from Dunlaoghaire to Holyhead in Wales, picked up too small car and drove via lovely Llandudno into deep fog and England across to Macclesfield and stayed at **Alderley Edge in the heart of the country where one of my very favourite books is set – ‘The Weirdstone of Brisingamen’, so it was like stepping into fantasy fiction land for me as we walked the Edge itself on a cold and frosty morning. Drove through the lake district and stayed at the oldest and coldest pub in Windemere! But nice people and lovely open fire. Winding village roads led to *Beatrix Potter’s Hill End, gorgeous cottage and garden, saw Peter Rabbit as we slithered along icy cobbled paths, then onto Grasmere and *Wordsworth country, visited his tiny Dove Cottage and mused over daffodils. Arrived early evening in Edinburgh. Stayed in a massive apartment, but on top floor with no lift! *Edinburgh Castle was awesome – and freezing – what history! Saw Scottish royal bits – sword, sceptre, crown and jewels – amazing and sad that Scotland’s barely recognised as a distinctive country, culture and entity any more, except by the Scottish clans people. Visited most awesome Mary King Close - a tiny street unearthed eight! stries beneath the streets of Edinburgh - it was wild and the kids were a bit scared, but what an insight into early life in the city... Christmas Eve and Oh! **St Andrews! Bern played an unforgettable game! We drove in and scrambled; he had about 10 minutes to spare and teed off at 10.25am with hired clubs and in sandshoes, using early Christmas present balls and tees from Connor from the NYC golf shop, to hit a smashing straight drive off the first, over the hotel roof on the 17th and parred the 18th of the Old Course for a round of 85! Meanwhile we shopped Dundee (my first drive in the UK!) for last minute Christmas bits. *Scot House was a lovely traditional guest house in the Cairngorms mountain region, but alas, no snow! We did have a *piper in full regalia who piped the Christmas turkey, followed by we 20 or so guests and hosts in from the kitchen and bar respectively, to the dining room for Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. Our hosts were the santa look alike though kilt clad Colin and his fiercely Scottish wife Helen, who gave us a lively recount of the history of Scotland over a few drams on Christmas night. On Boxing Day we *climbed a mountain to feed reindeer, had an eerie experience with a haunted lake, walked on water on a frozen lakeand skipped stoned across the ice! Drove around Loch Ness, went to the ‘Harry Potter train/Hogwarts ’ viaduct and drove Loch Lomond and through the *wild moors and mountains of the highlands around Ben Nevis to England and down to Sherwood Forest! Walked among many wonderful old oak trees including the oldest – the massive ‘great oak’, then still thinking about Robin Hood, visited Nottingham Castle, most ancient and lovely, different from many others built on and from volcanic rock, being lovely golden sandstone. Drove into London – Barkston Gardens in Earls Court , playing Monopoly board names on the underground – Pall Mall, Whitehall, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus.... Covent Garden was a great, thriving marketplace with heaps of variety, from Carribean food – yum – to lunchtime opera and street circus performers. Westminster Abbey was awesome; couldn’t believe we were walking over the tombstones and memorials to so many great people, from Mary Queen of Scots to Chaucer, Lord Byron and Wordsworth. The London Eye was great, but cold. We cruised the Thames and visited the intimidating and powerful Tower of London, went to Leicester Square and saw the film St Trinians (saw Enchanted in LA, I am Legend in Paris, and on a rainy afternoon in Nice waiting for our night train to Venice walked for ages to find a cinema with ‘version original’ screenings and watched ‘It’s a free world’ and ’ Into the Wild’). Left London in new year’s eve morning for fast train to Paris under the English Channel – nice train. Found our rooms on Victor Hugo Way, just near the Arc de Triumphe and set out to have dinner and see the new year in at the Eiffel Tower, had dinner at 10pm in a little cafe, had escargot , French beef, crepes and merlot, then out to watch the midnight fireworks over the Eiffel Tower – along with thousands of mad Parisians who had fireworks of their own to discharge and had obviously been celebrating all night and all decided to catch the metro trains as they were free for the night ... so after much bedlam, we got in about 2am! Sometimes it’s hard work, but fun! Did some resting and shopping, * girls went ice sledding and we rode lovely old carousels at Hotel de Ville, loved ** Notre Dame, had a wonderful day at the *Louvre, walked the Tuilleries gardens (bought berets and hats) and visited * L’Orangerie – excellent, massive panels of Monet’s lilies painted in his later years, and Paul Guillaime’s collection of Impressionist works, from Renoir to Picasso! Caught the lift to the top of the Eiffel Tower, pretty amazing – very cold! Hired a great car and drove to Versailles, fantastic palace and gardens, then on to Normandy, stayed 2 nights at Bayeux in a restored villa, visited the D-Day beaches and saw the WWII bunkers, coastal villages were quaint, Bayeux was lovely, didn’t get to see the famous tapestry, but **Mont St Michel was outstanding, 8th century abbey on an island with causeway access, high above the cliffs a whole massive labrynth of rooms, chapels, gardens, refectories, fireplaces you could walk into, but sparsely decorated, in stark contrast to the palaces and cathedrals we’d visited – loved it so much. Had a big driving day and got lost in Moulins, where we stayed the night (big jail there!) then on to Switzerland! Excellent drive into Lausanne, spent the afternoon driving around the lake and spent a wonderful night in an *old chalet in Nyon with a great lake view (and good shopping !) Drove out of Switzerland through the *Mont Blanc tunnels through the mountains to Italy, where we played * snow fights and drank frozen coke and juice snow-cups! Coming down from the mountains we passed through Torino (Turin) to Savona, where car trouble had us staying in an old seaside hotel – great pizza around the corner! And next day off to the Cote D’Azur, staying 2 nights in Beaulieu, near *Monaco, where we visited the royal palace, royal casino in Monte Carlo, ate the most expensive icecream sundaes in the world and had a great time at the Musee Oceanographique de Monaco, a fantastic aquarium and insight into the Monaco royals’ history of marine research (including the Jacques Cousteau connection) – saw some wild fish! Leaving Beaulieu for Nice we dropped the car off and caught overnight train to **Venice – train was challenging with five people and six cases in a sleeper car for four people! But Venice was absolutely unique! We had great, double storey rooms at the Hotel Canaletto, explored the myriad laneways and canals, San Marco’s square and cathedral, fed the killer pigeons, took a slick wooden James Bond 007 taxi boat to the glass factory on the island of Murano and great food and shopping! Rode in a * gondola and took a boat to the glam Lido. Out of Venice took train to Roma! Staying in lovely hotel – in a top floor suite (cheap!) and have whol e fifth floor to ourselves!!! except at breakfast time, when the big dining and terrace area outside our four room suite comes alive for brekky from 7 – 9 - it’s a great place to spend our last few nights overseas. Wandered around and right down the street visited the Trevi fountain, tomb to the unknown soldier, awesome ancient ruins of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum – it’s great. Off to Sorrento tomorrow and Sistine Chapel and Vatican and whatever else we can manage before we leave on Friday!
