With the help of our sat. nav., we navigated our way through Paris to the campsite we are staying at successfully. Marg still found the experience stressful – if not quite to the same levels as when travelling through Prague without the sat. nav.
Our cabin at the campsite is a bit of a comedown after our luxury hotel experience in Dole – it is much smaller than what was depicted on the internet, however, it is comfortable and we are enjoying being able to cook our own meals again. The campsite is in the historic area of Maisons-Laffitte on the banks of the river Seine.
The weather is quite hot now (low 30’s) and we are finding the heat energy sapping (ironic – Aussies complaining about the heat!). The long days (it’s not going dark until after 10.30pm) mean we aren’t getting to bed until after mid-night. So we have decided to take it a bit easier for our 5 days in Paris, - start our days later and not try to do too much. Paris is also, even more so than London, so busy and full of tourists – we are finding it a bit overwhelming.
Our first day out was to the Arc de Triumph and then a walk down the Champs Elysee to the Louvre, where we spent the afternoon. Our second day we visited Notre-Dame and took a boat ride down the Seine. Sunday, we decided to do Paris by night to try and avoid walking around in the heat of the day and it also worked in well with watching the England vs Germany game (sad outcome!). Went up the Eiffel Tower (the girls wanted to walk, but you could only go to the very top by elevator) and walked back down from the second level. Wonderful views across the massive expanse of Paris. Got back down just after 10pm and went and had snails, salad and pizza. Ray (accidentally) did a re-enactment of a scene from “Pretty Woman” and managed to flip his snail, firstly onto the floor and then into his beer! Those snails surely are slippery suckers.
Monday we had another lazy start to the day and then caught the train into Montmatre where we visited the church of Sacre Coeur, the markets in Montmatre and then walked through the Kings Cross of Paris –Moulin Rouge. We all felt Montmatre had the feel, look and essence of the Paris we had been anticipating.
Tuesday – our last day in Paris, we caught the train to Versaille to visit the Palace only to find the queue of ticket holders waiting to go in was about 1km long (no joking). This is before you stood in the queue to purchase tickets. We decided we would have a walk around Versaille instead and then caught the train back to Maisons Laffitte, enjoy a drink at a sidewalk café and then relax back at the cabin before going out to dinner for our last night.
Tomorrow, heading back to England via the ferry at Calais to spend a final week with Ray’s family before heading home.

Our drive from Innsbruck in Austria to Airolo in Switzerland has been marked by extra-ordinarily long tunnels (the longest being 30km which make our Sydney Harbour tunnel seem petite) and beautiful snow-capped mountains and rapidly running rivers. We stopped off at Vaduz, capital of Lichtenstein, for lunch, then continued winding our way through some beautiful little villages. At times, as we climbed higher into the mountains, the temperature dropped to 3 deg. C and we stopped a couple of times to look at the view and throw a few snowballs. We were obviously close to the Italian border in Airolo as everyone spoke Italian and every second car was an Alfa Romeo. Airolo is the first place we have been where we can’t find someone who speaks a reasonable amount of English. This proved frustrating when we tried to get directions to the Devil’s Bridge – famous for opening up the San Gottard mountain pass between the north and south canton’s of Switzerland. We eventually found it after using the internet to get an approximate location. Compared to our previous accommodations, our hotel in Airolo was relatively expensive and basic. However, the restaurant/bar downstairs provided a comfortable environment for us to sit, have our dinner, read, play cards & chess, watch the World Cup and the girls to do their homework for the two nights we were there.
Left Airolo and drove again through some spectacular landscape before entering the motorway heading towards Paris. We drove for 5 hours before stopping off in Dole, a provincial town 300 km S.E. of Paris. Not having any pre-booked accommodation, we took a punt and ended up at a beautiful hotel with a swimming pool that the girls enjoyed after the long drive. After the rain in Austria and the snow-chilled air in Airolo, we are back to high 20’s temperatures. Sitting in the manicured gardens, Ray felt a bit embarrassed reading a book about Wellington, who defeated Napoleon in 1815!! We used up our two night’s accommodation budget for getting to Paris, so decided to go to Paris a day earlier. Luckily the Eurocamp we are staying in was able to accommodate our change. Back on the road for the final leg to Paris, we have worked out the system of toll paying, which is quite expensive. Paris, here we come!
P.S. Tahnee & Ray are sad that Australia didn’t get through to the next round and Ray is convinced Soccer (Football) IS the World Game.

Ended our one night stay in Cesky Krumlov with a visit to the amazingly opulent Baroque castle where we learned a little bit more about Bohemian history from our guide. We then headed off for Vienna - zoomed along the motorway and arrived at our accommodation – another apartment, small but spacious – in a beautiful tree-lined street in the suburb of Wahring- an easy 20 minute tram ride into Vienna. Amazingly we were able to park right outside the apartment for free! – No costly car parks that were a km away. The rain caught up with us in Austria. It poured down non-stop the first day, so we spent it in the Natural Histories museum. The second day we visited the Kunsthistoriches (art museum). You really need a whole week to take in the many famous and fabulous art works the museum possesses. In the evening, Ray went to the State Opera to see Capriccio by Richard Strauss with our friend Elna’s mother (Ama), who lives in Vienna. Ray was really excited because Renae Fleming was one of the singers. We spent our last day in Vienna at the Schonnbrunn Palace (where we got drenched in a thunderstorm), and then went over to Ama’s apartment for dinner. In the evening she took us to a street festival where her son, Eric, a well known Viennese blues musician, was playing with his band – The Mojo Blues Band. It was a great night and we got home around midnight after negotiating the Vienna underground – a breeze compared to London.
Currently on our way to Switzerland. Stopped in Salzburg last night – so much history here but no time to see it all and reflect on it. Salzburg – the birthplace of Mozart and, of course, the original hometown of the Von Trapp family from the Sound of Music. In the end we saw a performance of “The Magic Flute” at the Marionette Theatre – wonderfully enchanting - and then the next morning got up early to go on a “Sound of Music” bus tour for 4 hours. The tour took us out into the lakes district close to Salzburg. While wandering the streets looking for somewhere to eat, we met an interesting retired American professor of history who had been living in Salzburg for the last 27 years. We ended up having dinner with him in an Italian restaurant. Spending the night in Innsbruck and then driving off to Airolo in Switzerland for 2 nights. As we drive along now, the landscape has changed from the flats of the Czech Republic to misty mountains and huge lakes as we get closer to Switzerland.

Our time in Brugge will be memorable for us because of the Lybeer Hostel we stayed in. The girls, in particular, loved being able to walk around the corner to the shopping centre, then come back to the convivial environment of the hostel living room, meeting people from all over the world. Another bonus for them was the free internet connected computers. Met an older Australian couple who were from Melbourne and discovered the wife knew one of our librarians in Castlemaine, and shared our evening meal with an Australian lad from Essendon one night. Also visited the last remaining Beguinage in the world (a Beguine nunnery) which is now a world heritage site and attended the Church of the Holy Blood, where a relic of Jesus' blood is held. It was brought back to Belgium from the Crusades. We went on a brewery tour and learnt the finer points of beer brewing and went for a horse and carriage ride around the cobbled streets.
Had one trip out of Brugge to Ypres (Ieper) and went for a 1km walk along the river to the Ramsgate gravesite. On our way back, through town, the girls stopped to buy some fine Belgian chocolates and Ray struck up a very interesting conversation with the owner (a third generation chocolatier). She told us some of the history of Ypres as well as some tips about what makes a quality chocolate! We left her in time to walk to the Menin Gate for the Last Post – a moving service, and the visiting dignitary that night was the NZ Minister of Defence.
After two long days of driving – including being stuck in two autobahn traffic jams for an hour each and getting lost navigating our way through Prague (Praha) sans Sat Nav (Tom Tom doesn’t seem to have maps for the Czech Republic) - we finally arrived at our accommodation in Prague. For an extra 16 Euros a night, we have upgraded from sharing one room with 4 bunks in our Brugge hostel to a 3 story recently renovated apartment with modern furnishings, 2 bathrooms with showers, a huge bath, kitchen and lounge room! Oh yes, and the third floor has a glass floor over the stairwell! The apartment is in the older part of Prague and is surrounded by beautiful old buildings and churches. The Prague Castle was only a 3 minute walk away, the highlight being a visit to the Lebkowicz Palace, an amazing story of a family who lost all its property and fortune twice - to the Nazis in 1939 and then the communists in 1948, but after the velvet revolution of 1989 and the iron curtain coming down, the grandchildren were able to get the properties restituted to the family. We all learnt a great deal about Czech history from visiting this Palace. Prague was beautiful, but we did find it very touristy and expensive.
We are now staying in the old part of Cesky Krumlov – a world heritage site. Went for a walk this afternoon through the beautiful cobbled streets and over the many picturesque bridges that cross the Vltava River. Looking forward to treating ourselves to some Czech goulash tonight – we have been living on a diet of bread, cheese and ham for the last 3 days. We are off to Vienna tomorrow and back in Sat. Nav. land - much to Marg’s relief!

A quick update to let you all know that Ray and I had a lovely overnight B&B stay, just outside of Stratford-on-Avon. We explored Shakespeare's hometown before heading off to the theatre to see Anthony & Cleopatra. The next morning (Sunday) we went to the Communion service at Holy Trinity church - the church Shakespeare was a lay rector at before he died and where he and his family are buried. It was an enervating experience.

We arrived safely in Brugge today. We decided to do the drive from Birmingham to Dover the night before we got the ferry to Calais. Just as well, as the motorway was often jam packed and what we would have estimated (in Australia) to take us a couple of hours took us 4. Many thanks again to John and Di for the loan of their very comfortable Peugot.

Ferry trip went smoothly and it was wonderful taking in the white cliffs as we sailed out of Dover. Ray negotiated the right hand side driving masterfully and we arrived at our accommodation - a youth hostel, in the centre of Brugge, mid afternoon. The youth hostel takes me back to my backpacking days as a student and I think it's a great experience for the girls. Our room is on the 3rd floor = up 3 flights of narrow winding steps and no lift, we have bunk beds and share the bathroom with everyone else on that floor = but the hostel has lots of character and free internet!! We managed to fit in a visit to the Church of Our Lady to see Michelangelo's Madonna and child (the only Michelanglo sculpture outside of Italy) and a boat trip down the canals before it got too late. We found a cute little pasta house down a side street. Chilling out in the hostel lounge room now. Ray is already sitting quietly tasting the brew made famous by the Trappist Monks over the last 400 years and writing in his journal. Looking forward to going to Ypes tomorrow night for the Last Post. All the best = Marg

Had an enjoyable Bank Holiday weekend in Blackpool, catching up with Di, John & Georgia again - they travelled up from Birmingham to see us. The first day was cold and rainy, but luckily cleared up in time for the Ollerton family lunch on Sunday. The lunch was held in a beautiful old stately home called Astley Bank in Darwen and we got to meet 17 new family members. That evening, back in Blackpool we went to the Hampton Road Working Men's club for some drinks and snacks and ended up participating in their bingo sessions. Marg felt disadvantaged by the elderly Welsh gentleman who was reading out the numbers as she said she couldn't understand him. The next day we dropped the girls off to the Pleasure Beach Fun Park at 10.30am and they stayed until it closed at 7pm. No need to tell you that they had a ball. Apparently they rode the 'world's biggest' rollercoaster 9 times. The 'oldies' were more sedate and spent the day relaxing on the sun chairs in the Sun Room on the North Pier.

The girls and Marg have enjoyed having a quieter week. To Marli's great delight, there is a craft shop directly across the road from John's house. The owner of the shop, Betsy, makes beautiful cards and has generously given Marli a lot of her time, showing her how to make some very spectacular cards. The library is just around the corner as well and we've become members to borrow books and use the internet.

Ray went off on Wednesday by himself to have his port-a-cath flushed at the local hospital - amazingly they still had his hospital records from when he last visited there at age 8. He then took off to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire - a magnificent 500 year old house and gardens - while Marg and the girls did things around Blackpool with John. On Thursday we all headed off to Haworth in the Yorkshire dales - the town where the Bronte sisters had lived. A beautifully picturesque town now, but apparently it was very squalid in their time with lack of hygiene and many people dying of consumption, typhoid and plague. Their father, a local cleric, outlived his wife and all 6 of his children. We had a personalised tour (being the only ones on it) and got the history of the area and the Bronte sisters, and then visisted the Bronte museum, which is located in the parsonage where their family had lived.

Today we visited Stanley Park with Aunty Marg, her daughter Susan and Susan's son's Westley & Lucas. Ray had a ride down memory lane when we hired some paddle boats - he has fond memories of doing that 50 years ago.

Off to Birmingham tomorrow to drop the girls off for a weekend on their own with their cousins Georgia and Chris. Ray and I are having an overnight stay at Stratford-on-Avon and to see 'Anthony & Cleopatra' at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. We leave for Brugge via the ferry from Dover to Calais on Monday.