And like that [fffftt!] it was gone.

Wow, it's over. I'm back at work, the girls at school and reality has rudely intruded. We totally dropped the blog ball after Naples, it was just too hard to fit blogging in with everything else we had on the go, but here's a quick summary of the rest of our trip, photos to come once I get the home PC back up (USB keyboard was killed by offspring).
Sea Day to Naples - A chance to chill, entered the Mykonos blog, second formal night where we were joined by two of Jasmines shipmates. The kids love to dress up and we've really enjoyed this part of the cruise. Dinner of lobster tails, awesome!

Naples - Awoke to a view of Mt Vesuvius from our balcony, quick breakfast and then off the boat to meet Alberto, our driver for the day. Just us on this tour. We had originally planned to go all the way down the Amalfi coast and visit the Emerald Groto on the way back but as we drove by the volcano I asked the kids if they'd like to climb it. 'YES!' they replied and so we changed plans, we'd climb to the cater, not visit Amalfi but instead see Positano, have lunch and skip the groto. Naples is mostly a slum and not much to look at, there's rubbish everywhere sadly. We hit the car park just before 9am and after a short wait for the trail to open we climbed to the top and were the first hikers of the day to gaze into that famous crater, it's walls sheer vertical on the far side, steam and sulfur gas rises from the rocks.
The views were really great but a slight haze obscured any positive sighting of Pompeii far below. Abs has been complaining of some knee pain recently and this flared up on her during the decent, poor chica so I took it slow down with her. On to Sorrento and then the amazing views of the Amalfi coast, surely the best coastal road in the world.
The vistas defy description, I have lots of video that I'm sure wont do it justice. The town of Positano is beautifully pearched on the cliffs, the road winds down to the beach, the last 500m for walkers only. Very pretty, but the beach is rocky, no sand for the sunbathers. Lunch was fantastic, and full Italian feast, all included for 20 euros each (Cam was free) and they could have charged that much for the view. 500 feet above the water, hanging on the side of the mountain. The best lunch I've ever eaten (food, drink, view and company taken into account). The widing trip back to Sorrento just as nice as the outbound leg. A quick hour in Sorrento window and wine shopping, then onto the ferry across the Bay of Naples and back to the ship. Margaritas on the balcony with our New Yorker friends, Mitch and Trish Cruz (the Cruz's are Cruisers), dinner, piano music in the bar (Rocket Man again!), more drinks.... bed.

Rome - A day off to recuperate. Late to breakfast, Jo at the spa having a hot rock treatment and massage, pool for me and the kids, lots of reading (Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest), a movie under the sun, a few Ultimate Cooler bevvies. Very tired fellow cruisers who spent the day in Rome, returning late and leaving the ship feeling empty as I guess they headed off the bed early. This is the tough stretch for most people, Naples, Rome, Florence and Monte Carlo/Nice, four days in a row.

Florence/Pisa - Tour arranged through our friends from the Cruise Critic web forums, thanks Jeannie. The tour starts badly, only one driver instead of 2 and he's late. Trish's family and us have timed tickets for the leaning tower so we take the first bus. This throws everyone out once the other guys arrives, the drivers can't seem to work out the simplest problem. We arrive at Pisa despite our driver clearly not knowing where he's going, he misses 3 very clear signs, takes the wrong exit, has to drive back the opposite direction on the freeway and finally dumps us in an alley somewhere near the tower. He has a GPS but either doesn't know how to use it or wont. Tower is nice, we climb up it, although Abs is again suffering the poor lass. It's like walking through the Fun House going up the stairs, the tower still has a decent lean. Of course it's got the obligatory scafolding on it (as does every other tourist icon in southern Europe) Nice views, Pisa seems a nice town, very pretty cathedral.No time for the town though as Florence is 90 minutes away so we swicth our drivers around a little, we end up with the dud for some reason, but at least he starts talking a little and giving us come local colour. Drive through Tuscanny although the views are all from the freeway so we only get glimpses of Italy's famous wine region. The roads are terrible, the suspension in the van worse, I lose some fillings in the back seat. Arrive in Florence through tree lined streets, the place looks great. View over the city is very nice, although the famous Pont Eveceva bridge isn't all that much to look at and the river has seen better days. The city has a great old town at it's core, the essence of what old Europe is supposed to be. We spend 15 minutes in the town square before driving again to the art museum that houses Michelangelo's David. 14 euros each to get in, no discount for kids, and basically only one thing to look at but the David is very impressive in the flesh, no doubt about that. After this another driver back to the same square we were in before, more time wasting by our drivers, then an hour or so to wander around. The kids get tiramisu gelato, all is well with the world. We drive back to the port about 80 minutes away. I argue with the driver about the cost of the tour since I expected a proper guide, not a directionally challenged taxi driver, I call his boss, I make a small scene. All the other tourers pay up, I guess too tired to care, but my cost is the highest as we have 5 in our party. We agree to lower the cost, my mood improves and I join Jo at Mitch and Trish's balcony for a frosty drink. We watch the dock as late arrivals flirt with being left behind as the boat readies to sail, the last arrival has the gang plank hit their ass on the way in.

Monte Carlo - It's too hard to get going, we stay on the ship and enjoy the sun. I've had a cold for a few days, Jo kicked it off to me, she's better, I suffer, drink loads of water, enjoy the sun by the pool. The view of Monaco is very nice, the boats in the harbour are just showing off. Seriously how rich are some people? A three masted spaceship glides into port, it's chrome spars automatically pack the sails back into hidden compartments... our Captain comes on the PA to point out the floating UFO, it's for sale apparently, make an offer [gufaw!]. Another fantastic meal, Karaoke finals at Club Fusion, meet up with our Texan friends, Amanda and Gerard, again. Then drinks with Trish and Mitch, we appear to have talked them into coming with us on our Barcelona bike tour tomorrow.

Barcelona - Sob! And we leave the ship. So sad to pack up and disembark our floating hotel dream. This will not be our last cruise, although it might be tough to top. Thanks to Fernando our steward who looked after us and our rooms so well. In the long line for taxi's we see almost everyone we've met, random dinner pals, fellow tourers, parents of kids our kids have befriended... Facebook friend invites are promised. We have to take two cabs, too many people and too much luggage. Our hotel appears surprised to see us... 'didn't you get the email?', but they respond well and we have our rooms about 10 minutes later despite arriving at 10am. I sleep for about an hour, still got that cold, the kids and Jo chill. We have to meet our bike tour at 4pm in Placa Jeume I. I can find it on the map, but not sure how long it will take to walk there. We haven't eaten lunch either and as we walk the options on our route are sparse. We hit Burger King and refuel. We make it to the meet on time and have some fun reminiscing about our Paris bike tour with our guides, they work for the same company and know the Parisian guides well. Trish, Mitch and Sam arrive, it's really nice to see some cruise faces even though the cruise is now history. The tour is great, our guide Megan really looks after us, the sites are interesting and Megan's commentary light and fun while also delivering some good history. The old town of Barcelona is very pretty, the new town has a great vibe. We see the Sagrada Familia, still under construction after 110 years, it's expected to be completed in 2026.
The Nativity Facade is amazing, the coolest view of a church I've ever seen, the carvings are stylized, highly detailed, moody, just perfect. We don't have time to go in and Megan says it's no worth it as it's mostly a constructions site (how wrong she is I find out the next day). We end up at the man made beach, Barcelonetta, near the 1992 Olympic Village and introduce Trish and Mitch to the wonders of sangria while we eye the black guys arguing with each other and threatening to pull knives to resolve their issue. I ask Megan if she can take a photo of us, and make sure you get the 'stabby-guys' in the background, what a slice of life. We end the tour and walk down to a Mexican place Megan recommends. It's not bad, not great, then we take a walk up La Rambla with the Cruz's, find gelato and finally a last beer before we have to say good-bye. They are great friends, Jo and I hope we get the chance to see them again, they really made our cruise.Day two in Barcelona we're all in bed until 11am, it's just too tough to get moving. We miss breakfast and end up trying to find an Asian restaurant that Jo spotted in our Lonely Planet guide, the chef is an aussie so we're hopeful of some authentic food (hard to find in Spain). We can't find the place and end up having greek instead, but no ones upset, mmmm tzaziki. From here we go through the park, past the cool fountain and after the kids burn off a little energy decide to split the party. The girls will walk back to the hotel, I'll take Cam and detour back to Sagrada Familia to see if we can see inside. Cam is a real trooper, in fact all the kids are, given how far I make him walk. This holiday has been far from static, there's been plenty of walking required. We walk around to the far side of the church were single entry is allowed, the second facade is even more imposing than the one we saw last night, very cool. Cam is free! Take that Italy. The doors to the church are relief copper names from the bible, they look amazing. Inside and I have no words... ok not quite true, I manage not to say 'Holy Sh!t' and just say 'wow'. I've never seen anything like it, no building has made this type of impression on me. The people who have taken over Gaudi's work are completely stark raving mad, they're lunatics... but I love them. The stained glass is the best I've ever seen, the light coming through it sets the interior at once on fire and cools it to the ocean depths. It looks like complex special effects, not simple glass in the sunlight. The columns holding up the sculptured ceiling look organic, it's truely like being inside a huge living organism, it's skeleton, organs, tubes bare. We pay to go up the lift to see from above, again Cam is free (in your face Italy!). The lift places up high, we walk down tight spiraling stairs, over bridges outside, switch from one tower to another, the views both of the church and the city are beautiful. The final spiral stair is an inspired tight wind straight down making everyone nervous, it's a thrill. Best. Building. Ever. When they finish I'm going back.

Final day - We're up earlish, have breakfast, pack and get cabs to Barcelona Sants station. Our train, the 300kph Ave, leaves on time and we enjoy the Club Car, the snacks were very tasty. The 3 hour trip ends too soon and we take the Metro back to Pinar de Charmartin, our home stop. After settling the kids Jo and I have to do some shopping, the fridge and cupboards are pretty bare. Back to the real world, a little shock after the best holiday we've ever had. Photos to come, video once I've downloaded the 6 hours of footage I took :-).

Andy, out.

Day Eight - Mykonos

The boat didn't get to Mykonos until midday so we all stayed out late the night before, the kids are enjoying their new friends on the kids clubs. We've met some great people on board and had a nice evening with some New Yorkers, Trish and Mitch. In port we couldn't dock so we had to wait for tenders to take 50-60 people at a time from the ship to shore. Thinking that this would take a long time we elected to wait an hour or so before going down to deck 5 and hitting the line. Our plan didn't work as it looks like every one else had the same idea and we ended up being late on shore after waiting 30 minutes in line anyway. Once ashore we had no idea how to get to the bus station, the pretty village is a maze of streets and nothing is signposted. We did some window shopping and then asked for directions to the bus station. We made it right on time as the next bus was leaving and 15 minutes later we were at Paradise Beach. 16 euros later and we had 3 sun lounges right at the waters edge under an umbrella. The water was full of different types of fish and we had some fun chasing them around wearing goggles. The waterproof video camera that Eric got for me was excellent and we have some nice footage. After heading back to town we turned e window shopping into real shopping and Abs picked up a nice Pandora-style bracelet and Cam a nice fishing boost model.Then we got back onto a tender and after some chill time had both our girls join us for dinner while Cam went ti kids club. Today we have our second sea-day on our way to Naples and tonight is the last formal night, lobster for dinner! In Naples we have a tour booked down to the Amalfi Coast, we're half way through this adventure and loving everything.

Andy, out.

Day Seven - Istanbul

Sailed into Istanbul during the early hours this morning and were treated to a great sunrise view of the European side with the Palace, Blue Mosque and St Sofia Church (so far being on the port side of the ship has been great). We had originally planned an organized tour of the city but decided a few weeks ago to cancel it as the major sites are very close to each other. We met up with a girl Jo had met in the hot tub and her family (husband and parents) and decided on the spot to try to get a taxi tour with them from the docks. We organized two cabs @ 100 euros each for the day and off we went. While Jo and I enjoyed the mosque and church the kids showed signs of over-culture and we decided to skip the cistern and go straight to the bazaar. Unfortunately in cliched Turkish style one of our cab drivers flaked on us and switched himself for another guy who couldn't speak any English. Our US friends ditched him and paid only half the originally agreed fare (for half the tour) but we stayed with our guy who was half decent. The bazaar was great fun and Jo picked up a beautiful table throw for a good price although I think my bargaining skills need some work (being tight for time didn't help).We got back to the boat and enjoyed some chill time by one of the pools while the rest of the passengers returned slowly from the city. I've tried out the time lapse feature on our new video camera for departure, looking forward to seeing what that looks like later. Tomorrow we have a late arrival into Mykonos at midday so we've let the kids off the leash tonight and not set a bedtime, let 'em (and us) sleep in before hitting the beach and maybe some snorkeling. Jo and I are dressing to the nines for dinner with Jazz joining us. Then a bar and finally a movie under the stars, U2 concert, to finish us off is the plan.

Andy, out.

Day Five - Kusadasi to Istanbul

We had planned to get off the boat today and see the ruins of Ephesus but the early start was too much for us and we decided for some R&R on the boat. Tomorrow is Istanbul which we're doing on our own as most of the sites are close to each other. Wish us luck with the pick pockets :-). Athens was good fun, the other 14 people in our tour group were great fun and we'll see some of them again for the Florence/Pisa tour next week. Net access is $0.50 a minute so forgive how brief this post is, I'll doing something longer offline and paste in it later.

Click on either photo above to go to the full set.

Andy, out.

Day Four - At Sea

On the first day the kids joined a 'scavenger hunt' that took them all over the ship collecting stamps from various kiosks. Then last night their stamped tickets were entered into a prize draw. With 3000 passengers on board you would think that the chances of winning would be remote-ish... from three entries the kids won four prizes, 3000 guests, 12 prizes on offer, 11 entries. Cam scored some free Internet time, Abs a $50 gift voucher for the boutiques and Jazz $20 to play in the bingo final. Cam also scored the fourth, and final prize, of dinner and wine for two in one of the specialty restaurants (the ones that have an extra cover charge per person), so he is currently our favorite child [grin].

Last night the kids hit their clubs and Jazz is the first to hook up with a group of girls and be off with them until after midnight. Today is one of only two sea-days (we're not in port) so it's an opportunity to stay out a little later and then sleep in. Once we port in Athens tomorrow it's four ports in four days with early starts so we can make our tours.

Lack of uploaded photos is 'cos my laptop has died and I only just got an adapter for the power supply... the ship has American style points and I bought my Euro plug. Anyway the battery is filling now so I should have some shots uploaded later today.

Tonight is the first of two formal nights so we'll be dressed to the nines at dinner, you may not recognize us in the photos. For now it's a beautiful day, the Adriatic is like a pool table, I'm by the pool with Jazz, who is reading her book and drinking a virgin strawberry daiquiri... I think I'm missing something... Ah! Margarita please!

Andy, out.

Day Three - Cruisin'

We are now living in a thousand foot skyscraper hotel with 3000 other tourists and another thousand staff waiting on our every need. The hotel is horizontal and doing about 22 knots in the Adriatic Sea having just embarked from Venice. Jo and I are sitting on our balcony listening to the water lap the side of the ship, the kids are off to the pool (and mocktail refills). This is sick!

The ship is amazing, the staff are fantastic, the food insane. We had a three course meal last night that was at least as good as we've ever eaten. The cool part being that when Abs and Cam ordered a main dish and then didn't like the chicken pie the waiter swapped it for chateaubriand in about 60 seconds, instant happiness.

Last night was pretty quiet aboard as most people went into Venice for the evening. We stayed on board and the kids entertained a small crowd with their kareoke, Abs with some Lily Allen, Cam Alien Ant Farm and Jazz with B52's. We met a great couple from NZ and enjoyed a nightcap with them before hitting the hay. This morning we were up around 8 to watch the ship depart right past Saint Marks Square before heading off to breakfast in the crowded buffet. Tomorrow we arrive in Athens and the tours begin, but for now we'll enjoy a fairly relaxing day, after the emergency drill anyway.

Will try to upload some photos later.

Andy, out.

Day Two - Venice

We're in Venice, and after tracking the weather weeks in advance and seeing thunderstorms galore, it was surprising to land and see sunshine. Guessing the "never trust the weather man" saying was correct this time! We were taken to our hotel by a water taxi that went through the Grand Canal, where we got a brilliant view of the Rialto Bridge and went right under it! Instead of the everyday entrance by a front door, there is a dock at the hotel we are staying in and we jumped off and was helped by the very friendly bell hop. The rooms are amazing, and are worth every penny! I mean, it is an ex-palace! We decided to spend our afternoon yesterday exploring Venice. We got our map and off we went! We pretty much saw most of the city yesterday; Rialto, St. Marks Piazza, The Grand Canal and Basilica dei Frari. The walk was long, and we hate dad for dragging us around the labyrinth of alleys and bridges, but we finally got back to the hotel in the late afternoon. Mum went for a nap while us kids took dad to the square outside and ate a pizza.

The only food we have eaten so far in Italy has been pizza and spaghetti! It's kind of something you have to do! Today, I am typing this as I sit by the Rialto in a nice restaurant. Earlier we visited Merano where we watched a master of glass blowing, make a horse and a flower right before our eyes! It was incredible and according to our guide, the glass master had been working for the factory for forty years! Talk about experience! Our plan for the  for the rest of the day is to chill and relax. Tomorrow is where the real adventure begins, because we will be able to board our cruise ship, and it will take off on Sunday morning. For now I say ciao!

Jasmine :)

Oh did those feet...

The kids thought Jo and I were nuts, singing 'Jerusalem' while driving through the Yorkshire countryside. It isn't the first time and wont be the last, but it is always fun. I helped the four of them into a cab around 5am Monday morning and sent them on their way to the airport, promising to follow them on Wednesday just to give me some more time at work and save my days for other trips. They flew to Stansted airport, east of London and the headquarters of cheap-skate airline RyanAir. From there it's a 3 hr train ride from the airport railway station to Leeds. I made the same trip 2 days later and drove an awesome Benz C180 sport up so we'd have transport around Yorkshire.Jo's cousin Paul and his wonderful missus Helen put us up in their home near Wakefield and we felt very much part of the furniture thanks to their great hospitality (we owe you on the flip-flop when you come our way guys). Their kids Joe and Laura were great and I know our clan had a great time knocking around with them for the week. Our first evening took us out for good traditional pub grub and a reunion that has been 20 years coming when I met up with Jo's other cousin Graham.He toured Aus during the second summer that I was going out with Jo (I guess I was 20) and we had some great times on a long road trip through the Snowy Mountains and on to Canberra. He and I spent the evening remembering things the other had forgotten and laughing our asses off. The Rhodes side of the family are a great bunch and we're already planning on dropping on on them again if we can manage it.Part of our trip, actually the heart of it, was to visit the places that had meaning to the Rhodes clan, specifically Stan and Barb, and show the kids a little of their family background. Norman, Stan's brother, offered to take us on a tour of some of the important sites south of Leeds, so show us the area that he and his sibblings were evacuated to during WW2. We had a great day touring the country lanes, hedgerows and amazing pubs and other landmarks. At the manor where Stan stayed for the duration we cheekily drove up the driveway and knocked on the door, amazed to find that the home is still owned by the same family and were welcomed without hesitation and encouraged to have a look around. Cam agreed that curry sauce is the best condiment for chips, I enjoyed a cod butty.That night we said goodbye to Norman, Paul and Helen and set off for Lincoln to stay with Scott and Bill's cousin Nicola, or more correctly her parents Keith and Mary. They put on a fantastic BBQ for us and spoiled us rotten into the next day. We drove to Hough on the Hill, the little town where Scott and Bill grew up with Bev on a sprawling farm. The village was a picture postcard, the church's spire incorporates an old Saxon tower that's around 1000 years old. The house had changed quite a bit, but the new extensions followed the older buildings character really well. I finally got my mixed grill (a combination of pork, swine and pig) for lunch and almost lapsed into a food coma. The Nicola took us to a local manor, owned by fellow horse riding/hunting friends. They don't hunt the foxes anymore, instead tracking down people who volunteer to be the 'game'. We saw the hounds, about 40 of them, and the noise they made when they saw us was very cool 'woooowooowooowooo', great dogs who wanted to lick us to death through the fence. The farm attached to the manor has a very historic tower on it's grounds, originally built by the Knights Templar and it was from there that they were arrested and taken for execution when their order was finally dissolved in the 13th century, very cool stuff.From there we took in a tour of the manor owners future home, a massive mansion being constructed a mile away. Truely huge, our home in Aus would fit in the dog kennel. I didn't take any pictures or video of that, no need to give Jo any reminders that she didn't marry a lord :-).

We returned to Wakefield in time for Paul, Graham and Joe to take me to see a rugby match between their beloved Leeds Rhinos and Wighan. I've not watched a lot of rugby but having come to love NFL I found that I could easily enjoy the game and although Leeds didn't win (my fault I'm sure) I had a great time. During the taking of the photo below a copper told me that he'd arrest me the next time I invaded the pitch... to which Paul replied cheerily 'See you next time then!' ROFL.On our final full day I wanted to revisit an area of the shire that had made a big impression when I traveled there with my school mates Paul and Chris 24 years ago. Up through the moors to Whitby and Robin Hoods Bay. It's a great drive, although we caught the worst of the traffic and what was a 90 minute drive back turned into a 3.5hr drive there. We ended up not stopping in Whitby as it was rammed and moved on the Robin Hoods Bay where we had lunch at a pub on the top of the sea-wall that protects the lower town from the stormy North Sea. The tide was out so we could walk down the slip way and out onto the rocks. An icecream van was parked on the rocks and Jo enjoyed a cinder toffee cone (icecream with Crunchie).On our last day we squeezed in driving to the church where Stan and Barb were married. Sadly it had been renovated in the 70's and basically ruined by removing the high ceilings and all the classic features of the church except it's steeple (which was covered in scaffolding). In timeless England some things do change.

Our next trip to Blighty will be to London, most likely in September. But I hope we get back to Leeds before we head home to Aus, maybe for Christmas...

Andy, out.

Oh Canada

Cam skating with Parker in Oakville on Canada Day. Thanks for the pics Erik!

Andy, out.

City of Lights

Bear with me here...

I'm getting harder to impress. I think that happens to everyone eventually, you know what you like and expectations built up over time never help either. In our case, given how amazing our life has been these last five years, it's well past being true and is now officially cannon, impress me, I dare you. We've been to enough cities now to confirm that mostly, if you only have a few days to explore them you'll come away probably happy, glad you went, but slightly jaded-ly thinking 'okay another big city, some nice unique landmarks, yadda yadda yadda'. How can any place make a lasting impression in such a short time? And if your expecations are high, and Hollywood-literature-fantasy-pastmemory-enhanced, can your trip end in anything but a shrug of... meh?Jo and I were lucky to go to Paris last year, but for me that was the second time. I visited Paris as part of my European whirl-wind tour in 1986. I'd just left my school mates, Steve, Chris, Paul and Luica in the Netherlands, planning on travelling to Paris and staying 2-3 days before heading on down to Madrid. I took the train from Amsterdam to Paris and arrived at Paris Nord railway station. Not sure how to get to the Metro and insert myself into downtown Paris I went to the Information Desk and, using my phrase book, tried to ask for directions. My memory is almost photographic on this, the guy just said 'No' to everything I said and wouldn't help me. Being a patient and understanding visitor to his country I said 'Ok, f*** you, I'll go spend my money in Madrid". I didn't even need to buy a ticket as I had a EuRail pass, problem solved. "No more Frenchies for me, they are as rude as everyone says, cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys can drown in a nice Chablis for all I care". So with four and a half months in Europe I spent about two hours in Paris, and I was happy with that.Jo and I had a great time last year, but it was really just a day and a half visit and Jo had to deal with minor jet lag. There were lots of things we didn't do because we hoped to come back with the kids. Now, with us living only 2 hours away by plane, we hit Paris in force and I held my breath a little, would we enjoy the city as a family?

You betcha! I told the kids that the objective in Paris was simple, 'eat', and eat we did. Abbie took to the street-side crepes, cooked through a window overlooking the street. She had at least one a day on top of a diet of fresh icecream, awesome cakes from Gerard Murlot and bowls of french onion soup. The street we stayed on was full of great restaurants, curious little shops and 4-5 bakeries. The island itself, Ile de Saint Louis, is one of two in the Seine, the other Ile de Citie is larger and has Notre Dame as it's focal point. Saint Louis is more residential and apparently home to stars and celebs. Our guide on a bike tour told us Johnny Depp lived nearby so the girls spent the weekend looking for him and doing a great job of playing up the emo stalker angle :-).The location was amazing and that meant that we could walk to much of the city fairly easily. The only time we really had to hit the metro was to go to the Eiffel Tower as it's at the other end of town. Jo had seen a lot of positive reviews for a bike tour company, Fat Tire Bikes, and we had booked both a Paris evening tour for Friday and the Versailles full-day tour for Sunday. We had a great time on both tours. Riding through the Paris traffic in a big group of 20 or so bikes was lots of fun. The guides calls of 'dominate the streets' had us cutting cars off and generally riding fairly aggressively. The tour took us all over the left bank, over to the Louvre and then to a dock where we left our bikes and had a great boat tour up and down the river while enjoying a few glasses of red and chatting with our fellow tourists. The Eiffel Tour was all lit up, looking great, and we had an amazing sunset on the river (most of our photos came out very nicely). All in all the bike tour was great value for money and an excellent way to get everyone oriented with the city while having fun and not getting too tired out.I was surprised that the kids allowed us to visit the Louvre and enjoy it. I guess they're getting to the age where these types of things aren't boring anymore. We saw the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory (my fav) and of course That Painting by Leo. The presentation of the Mona Lisa is quite ridiculous, you stand about 4 meters away and it's covered by at least two panels of highly reflective glass. In the end you might as well buy a postcard of it for all the good viewing it in the 'flesh' does you, a complete waste of time imho, but I guess you have to say you've seen it live.The Versailles bike tour involved meeting up and getting our bikes, then taking a 30 minute train ride out of the city. Getting onto and off the train was a challenge with our five bikes but we made it without to much hassle. Once in the town outside the palace grounds we hit the local market and bought all the supplies we'd need for a picnic lunch. Rare roast beef, a rotisserie chicken, fresh baguettes, cheese, wine, cakes, the works. We rode around the huge gardens of the palace grounds, saw Marie Antoinettes fake peasant village (created so she could play poor people games and dye her sheep blue) and cycled all the way around the massive water feature, stopping directly opposite the palace itself (about 2k's distant) to have lunch on the grass. After that we toured inside the palace on foot and one gold decorated room with master works painted on the ceilings started to merge with every other outrageously decorated room. The Hall of Mirrors is supposed to leave you breathless but I think after Rome (the Vatican especially) and the Louvre it's easy to become blase about all the opulence. That was a long day, but again I think the cycling made it work really well and we all had a great time.Jo and are considering going back to Paris in the winter, maybe before Christmas, it'll depend on cash flow of course. But if we don't at least we had that great long weekend, one that I think is probably the best we've had on holiday as a family. Thanks Paris, I misjudged you years ago and you've shown me the error of my ways :-).

Andy, out.

We'll always have Paris

I never understood why people said Paris is amazing. Hey it's nice but it's just another city right? Best. Weekend. Ever. Click the photo above for another 89 shots.

Andy, out.

We Gather No Moss

Jazz has been running a web-based countdown clock to her flight back to Toronto. To the kids it seemed to stay around the 50+ day mark forever... finally it's sinking down towards 20 and the days remaining of the school year can be counted using fingers and toes. Our travel orgy is about to start.I loved that Audi...

Anyways we're off to Paris next week for a 5 day weekend. It'll be nice to have a lot more time there than we did in Rome, that was just too compressed for comfort. We're planning some bike tours and I found a great boat restuarant that I need to book. Sure we plan to see the tourist sites, how can you miss the Eiffel Tower? But I plan to concentrate more on food. After that the rest of the mob are off to Canada, when they get back next stop is England to see the family, then a 12 night Med cruise starting in Venice. The kids have been told not to expect to inherit anything from us (apart from a taste for canned food).

Andy, out.

Strength and Honour (and cash if you have it)

Gladiatorland is expensive, but for a weekend easily worth it. I was prepared to be pretty non-plused at how small everything was going to be after assuming that years of Hollywood inflated Rome had given me too many expectations. But I was wrong, those guys could build. 2000 years of looting and 'recycling' in Rome still hasn't reduced the big impression that the Romans made there. The Circus Maximus might be completely gone, all that remains is the outline of the chariot track and embankments on each side where once stood a huge stone grandstand. But the Forum is really impressive and the centrepiece Colleseum (call it the Flavian Ampitheatre for extra points) blows your mind even when you think you're ready for it.Walking the streets is a barely organised choas of traffic chicken where the pedestrians get to play too. Everywhere you look is a traffic violation that almost ends in disaster, but only almost. Pizza and gelato on every corner, business suits on Vespa's, 1000euro shoes.We stayed on Via de Ripetta, just down from a huge piazza sporting a massive Egyptian obelisk, twin churches, fountains and 4 or 5 trattorias. The veal in butter was insane, worth every artery clogging mouthful. The location put us in the north of the old city, near the river and walking distance to everything assuming the kids could be kept fueled on the aforementioned pizza and gelato. But walking wasn't the plan on day one as we had booked a personal tour guide who would drive us between the sites. I found Marco on TripAdvisor and he turned our exactly as advertised, very friendly, knowledgable and fun as well. We started at the Forum, then onto the Colleseum, gelato stop, Catacombs, a 2 hour tour of the Vatican mueseum, Sistine Chapel, St Peters and finally the Pantheon. Marco was happy to keep going but it was approaching 18:00 and we were pretty toasted so we called stumps.The next day we took a very fast train down to Naples, totally worth the extra for 1st class (it wasn't much more). We all loved the leg room and the service (restuarant and bar car, xlnt) plus the four seat table compartments. Once in Naples we negotiated the challenging signage to the local train and rode for another 30 minutes to Pompeii. We met an aussie family on the train, about 2-3 weeks into an 8 week euro-odyssey and had a nice chat.Another personal guided tour for 2 hours was great fun and very interesting but I think by the end we were all 'ruined' out. It was a little disppointing also that the Italians have pretty much just plundered Pompeii, leaving the walls and the roads and taking everything else to Rome or Naples etc. They also haven't done much to re-build or take care of what remains. Our guide said that it was much neater and more interesting when he first came as a boy. Even the famous plaster casts were very badly displayed and showed much neglect. It was very cool though to see Vesuvius in the distance, the top third blown off in the eruption and imagine what it might have been like for the locals... Pompeii used to be a seaside port, now it's a few k's inland...Sunday we finished up walking to the sights we had missed on Friday, catching the Spanish steps and Trevi Fountain (ubiquitously coin tossing to ensure our return) and ending with a great lunch in Piazza Novona (kids by now looking like pizzas) and the obligatory gelato.We had a great time and it's bitten everyone with the train travel bug, so the next trip might be to Barcelona on the Ave or maybe overnight to Paris on something slower. But maybe not too soon... it will take a little while for my wallet to recover, it just stares in shock and keeps mumbling "...the horror... the horror...'. I need a transfusion here, stat!

Andy, out.

Spain in a glass

Jo's first glass of sangria on Saturday at a cafe in Retiro Parque near the Palacio Velasquez. Finally the weather has cleared up and we're enjoying beautiful sunny days and wearing short sleaves, woohoo! For more photos click the image above. Off to Rome on Thursday evening for a quick weekend conquest.

Andy, out.

Semanas Santa!

Easter holidays in Spain start on Thursday and with the kids already on term break from school we needed to do something fun, and away from the apartment (which due to average weather has seen us inside a little too much). We hired a nice little Volvo S50 wagon (a diesel 5-speed), and once I had reacquainted myself with left hand drive, and driving a manual with the stick on the wrong side, we headed off to Segovia for the day on Thursday. On the way we made a side trip to a local castle called Manzarares el Real but didn't go for the tour as we had a lot to see in Segovia. A major goal of our travel in Europe is Castle-Crashing but the Alcazar (Al-cath-ar) was waiting for us in Segovia.Unfortunately is was pretty chilly and we hadn't brought our coats, making for a freezing lunch break in the main square. But once we had filled up and walked to the Alcazar castle that was soon forgotten. We didn't go into the cathedral or follow the aqueduct but that just means we have to go back, when the weather is warmer.A Spanish IBM colleague, actually from the Basque region, had invited us up to his holiday house in La Rioja (rio-ha) for the weekend. So after I had to hit the office for an hour or so we topped off our diesels tank and headed up the A-1 (E-5) highway towards northern Spain. The scenery is quite something, really varied with everything from close to moon-scapes to green valleys, snow capped mountain ranges and large wind farms and solar arrays. After driving in flat Ontario it was quite a change :-).La Rioja is a major wine growing area of Spain, a valley between two east-west running mountain ranges forming a wide valley with the Rio Oja (River O-ha) running through the middle and giving the area it's name. Almost every bottle of wine I have every drunk in Spain has the word 'Rioja' on it, and when you consider that wine is a cheap as water you know they have to be growing a lot of grapes to keep up with demand. We didn't have a GPS and I did my usual thing of using Google Maps for directions and then printing some detail maps of the main places we would have to change roads. It did take us a while to get used to the signage and sign placement which to us at least was sometimes a little challenging. And of course we completely missed an important turn off more than once and had to back track. I should have brought the GPS from Aus... if we do much more driving I'll be buying another for here, it's a marriage-saving-device that I don't it's wise to be without.But despite the navigational issues our good sense of direction (and Jo's patience) found us in the village of Alesanco, about middle of the valley with snowy mountains 15k's to the north and 10k's to the south. Aitor and Marta, with their kids Irune and Imar, welcoming us to the place they come to 'change the chip' in their brains. We drove with them to two historic towns in the region, both on the Basque (north) side of the river. The medieval fortress town of LaGuardia (The Wall) which sits atop a hill over-looking the entire valley, and is still fully populated and stunningly beautiful, was a real highlight. There are two churches in the town, at either end, and depending on your address you belong to one or the other, between which there is of course fierce competition for souls.The next day we drove to a skii hill (mountain) called Valdezcaray and enjoyed a flurry to remind us of Canada. On the trip back down the mountain we saw huge eagles circling nearby and parked atop a peak where a road led to an antenna array and gave as a great view back down to the town of Ezcaray and into the valley beyond. We refueled ourselves in Ezcaray with pork, eggs and chips, the kids favourite crouquetas (ham and cheese crouquettes)and getting them to all try the morcilla (blood sausage) which they enjoyed until they found out what it was :-).Aitor had arranged a winery tour, sadly in Spanish but he translated for us and it ended with the obligatory tasting and the kids sampling the grape juice and generally enjoying themselves after 90 minutes of kid-hell.On the way back to Alesanco we stopped at a local winery and the owner took us to his cellar, a 500+ year old dungeon, where we sampled the wine straight out of huge stone tanks. I bought a 15 litre cask of vino tinto (red) for 15 euros... the price is right that's for sure.Marta and Aitor were great hosts and we left them early Sunday with the promise of a visit to Bilbao, the main city of the Basque Country, at some point soon. The drive back to Madrid, sometimes at speeds over 150kph, was quicker than the trip up and not only because going home always seems that way, we also didn't make any wrong turns.

Andy, out.

Catch up

Tomorrow marks two weeks in Madrid and everything is going well. The flight was delayed in Bangkok and we were met at the gate and taken to a tiny hotel at the other end of the airport (with me humping Sloane, our RAID brick, sheesh she's heavy). We got 40-5 hrs sleep in real beds so actually the delay worked out nicely, I don't think anyone slept on the plane from Melbourne. The next flight though is the big one, over 14 hours, and although the food on Thai was great the 747 had the cheap fit-out and we didn't have VOD. Then the 3 movies that they played on the screen ended up being the exact 3 that Jo had watched on the Melb-Bangkok leg :-), so she knows them really well know. They also played Old Dogs with Travolta and Robin Williams, definitely the worst movie ever made, not a good choice when you're locked in a tin can at 32,000. But the food was good and we made it to Madrid around mid afternoon.The apartment is close to the kids schools, my work by light rail and the airport, so we were at our new home really quickly after breezing through immigration etc. Unpacking took the next few days and Jo commented that we had brought far too much stuff. It's a 4 bedroom apartment, large by local standards, and of course tiny by ours but we'll get used to it I'm sure. We were missing several important pieces of kit, primarily a TV, so we hit a local department store, El Corte Ingles (The English Cut), which is like Myers/Sears/The Bay and carried all our stuff home on the metro, even the 40" LCD :-).

Jo took the kids to the schools on Monday and Cam was able to start immediately, the girls had an entrance exam the next day and started right after. Jo picked up their uniforms and they look quite smart (photos to come). The Easter/term break started last Friday so they only got a few days of school in before being back home again. Not enough time for them to make friends that they wanted to see over the break, but they have all said that the students are nice to them and they've been included in social activities. a few minor issues, like the provided hot lunch having unfamiliar food, Jasmine going from being at the top of the French class in Aus to the bottom in Madrid, and the level of achievement being quite high (for example Abbie's class is doing algebra, something she's never seen before). The school has around 75% local Spanish kids attending, they generally have at least one english speaking parent and they want to end up attending a British university. Jasmines year 9 exams will be sent to Kings College in Oxford for marking...The weather has been unseasonably cool and that's meant that we haven't been out as much as we'd like. But the kids walked every day to school, Jo with Cam as his school campus is much further away than the girls. We've hit downtown and seen the palace, Plaza Major etc, but not the Retiro park and some other sights that will be much nicer for everyone on a sunny day.

We hit Ikea on Saturday, electing to leave the kids in the apartment as they were a little shopped out, and then regretting it as the day turned into a really sunny one. Oh well. The store was a long way away and we had to take a 30 minute subway ride to get there, plus a decent walk at the end. We got a lot more stuff than we intended, and then forgot to get a printer/scanner, but importantly Ab's now has a new bed and mattress and all the kids rooms have a more personal touch so they're feeling much more at home. The Xbox is set up and we have shared internet throughout the apartment using a work provided GSM modem. It's fairly slow though and I can't improve it until our Residency cards arrive and I can actually sign up for something better, but it's working and that's the main thing, we are connected to you.

The Easter holiday here is Thursday/Friday so I'm picking up a rental car tonight and we have some driving planned. Tomorrow we'll hit Manzaneres del Real, the castle used in the film El Cid, that's just to the north of the city, and then on a little further to Sergovia to see the aqueduct, cathedral and awesome Alcazar in the walled town. On Friday a Spanish colleague has invited us to his holiday house in the La Rioja region, just south of the Basque Country. This is the big wine region of Spain and we hope to hit a winery to two and enjoy some good food before coming back on Sunday.

So, we're starting to feel at home although some way to go yet, and we're missing Australia. But summer is coming and that means some travel... I have to get planning.

Andy, out.