Catching you up on our travels......

Hi everyone

I finally have time to sit and write a decent blog for you (with photos too!).  So to catch you up on some of my highlights I will probably make this one a long one, I suggest a wine or cup of tea/coffee as you browse.

Italy - Verona
Last year I saw that movie "Letters to Juliet" which is why we went to Verona.  I fell in love with the idea of visiting the courtyard to leave a letter of my own to Juliet - the scrapbooker in me just has to have a letter from a Juliet Secretary to put in my scrapbook.  So when we got there I insisted we all rub Juliet statues breast for luck - photo in previous blog - and I wrote a letter which I posted while visiting the courtyard.  I gave a small donation to cover postage for the reply I hope to have once I return home.  Vaughan and I bought ourselves a Italian handmade leather wallet and purse at the maket in Verona too.

Italy - Desenzano
We camped for two weeks in France eating crossaints and pastries galore before heading to our first campsite in Desenzano.  It was beside a beautiful lake which we all loved swimming in.  The camp also had a great pool too and we ended up getting the kids masks with snorkels and floaty things (a boat for Dylan and a ring for Kathryn).  Our campsite was under a couple of big old trees which was great because with it being so hot, shade is VERY important to campers.  We made friends (thanks to our kids) with the family camping directly beside us who were from Czechoslovakia as I mentioned on facebook.  The parents spoke not a word of English, but their eldest son (Lukas) did and that was an absolute Godsend.  We offered them our tent (which was going to end up in the bin) and in return they offered to pick us up stuff from the shop when they went, bought over a bottle of Italian Strawberry wine to share, and even got up early to say goodbye to us the day we left.  I hope our paths cross again.  I was very glad to see the end of the camping part of our holiday because I wanted air conditioning and clean feet (the dust was the worst).

Italy - Venice
We were very impressed with Venice; the skiny alleyways that snaked their way through 3 or 4 storied buildings either side then suddenly opening up into a Palazza with ancient and spectacular churches, with a man singing Opera to the crowd seated on the church steps.  The shops of amazing masks and glass works were breathtaking.  We made it to the Grand Canal and decided that being tourists meant we should eat lunch right there.  So ordering in true Italian style a range of pizzas and pastas proceeded to eat.  Kathryn, unfortunately, choked on her first mouthful of pizza.  She quickly indicated to me that she was in fact unable to breathe and I grabbed her, spun her round and performed the hymlic on her.  Finally she threw up the longest piece of mozarella cheese you can imagine and we both burst into tears infront of a throng of people (who quickly realised they were staring and moved on).  It was a horrible experience that neither of us will forget and haunts me at night, although it has not deterred Kathryn from eating pizza (expect perhaps for that first day or so after).  We then got into a Gondola (100 Euros thank you very much) for a surprisingly quick 15 minute float through some tight canals listening to our Gondola Driver yell out at fellow gondola drivers as we past by them - but I suppose you do these things for the experience.

Italy - Tuscany
It certainly was nice to get to our Villa in Tuscany leaving the dust behind, but unfortunately not the mosquitoes who have eaten us alive for the last couple of weeks.  At least at the villa we have clean feet, a large swimming pool and apartment complex completely to ourselves.  The lizards and frogs and ants have kept the children thoroughly entertained.  It was about day 4 or 5 at the villa, Cassa Rossa, that I realised that I was missing you all, and home inparticular, very much.   And not having internet access was very frustrating.  However, a couple of books later and a week of an amazing view and silence (when the children were trying to sneak up on the lizards to catch them) we were all looking forward to the next stage of our adventure - ROME.

A gecko drops by to eat some moths

Our impression of Italian water fountains

Fabulous people in a fabulous location

Sunset from the pool at our Villa, Cassa Rossa

Next blog coming up shortly!

Athens to Paros...

Really sorry that we have not blogged many times while we have been over here.  It has been very tricky without our laptop, so if you are planning to come over here BRING YOUR LAPTOP!  There is free WiFi all over the place, but not many internet cafes.

We just spent the last couple of days in Rome which was amazing, but too hot and the kids got totally over all the walking.

We are now on our way to the Ferry terminal to catch our ferry to Paros.  We are staying at Margaritas House - very appropriately named I reckon.  I hope that we all get lots of beach time, I still need to work on my tan, and the kids need to build some sandcastles.

We have enjoyed not camping, but miss the rental car.

Rubbing Juliets Breast for good luck!

Lakeside in Desanzo

Venetian mask

 Beside the canal in Venice

blog from Dylan...

In Italy while we were camping I went down to the lake beach by myself one morning.  I saw a freshwater Crayfish.  It was black, dark black and it nipped my fingers when I tried to pick it up.  It was about 20cm long (not a fisherman's tale!)

It is really hot here, I get to eat ice creams, about nearly five a day!  My favourite flavour is dark chocolate.

I found two dead frogs in the swimming pool, in Tuscany.  I swim almost everyday in a deep pool, I do canon balls and dives into the deep end all by myself.

I saw a lizard jump up the steps to get away from me.

Dylan  

blog from Kathryn...

The Eiffel tower was great.  It was huge and it was very pretty.  I liked looking down from the high heights at the view.

I did not eat any snails or frog legs because we couldn't find any cafes or restaurants that served them.

I did get to see a green snake slither past me when I was at the pool at the villa in Tuscany.  I have seen over 100 lizards and I even caught one, which was easy because it went into the pool.  It was fun when that happened.  It was a baby.

Greece has lots of beautiful ruins and I really like them.  One ruin I saw held water in it, although it doesn't anymore.

We went to the Vatican Museum in Rome yesterday and I loved the pictures on the ceilings.

Kathryn

The last of the Red French Wine

Bonjour everyone.

We are still in France, in a small (well smallish) town called Mandelieu La Napoule, at a campsite called Plateau des Chasses.  It has a pool, which is very important when travelling with children and the temperature is reaching the late 30's everyday.  We have a great campsite in the shade in a private little nook at the end of a lane.  There is probably 100 plus sites at this campsite and I do believe they all full!

Kathryn is making friends with little girls, some of whom actually speak a wee bit of English which is fabulous.  Dylan is struggling with the heat a bit, and even though we are applying lots of lotion he is white as a sheet and burns easily.  He and Nik are bonding really well and its lovely to watch them jump into the pool at the deep end (way over Dylan's head, actually its over mine too) doing dive bombs etc.  Dylan now realises he can swim to the edge of the pool from the middle all by himself.  His water confidence has increased so much thanks to Nik.  Kathryn, our little fish anyway, has figured out that she can sink to the bottom, take a step, push off to the top, take a breathe, and repeat from one end of the pool to the deep end of the pool and back again.  The only problem with these two doing all this is me!  I try to be confident, but my heart stops until they reach the side, I don't say anything as I know I am being over protective, and yet I can't stop the feelings!  I had to buy Kathryn some new togs because the suit I got her prior to leaving is too small!  So Kathyrn looks very french in a tiny bikini!  Will have to get a photo for you.

In the last blog I mentioned that we were going out to find a restaurant that sold escargot, but unfortunately it appears we are too far south as it is a northern speciality.  We will keep looking and asking around until we go to Italy.  We head for Italy on Friday and it will then be difficult for us to get good French wine at a cheap price.

A couple of days ago we drove through Marseille on our way to our current position.  We decided to stop and have a look and lunch.  It was fantastic!  We found markets on the waterfront and bought a few little things like olive oil with chillies, earrings, a tablecloth and Kathryn bought a necklace with matching bracelet.  We then had lunch on across the road from the waterfront.  It was incredibly hot, even though we were under the shade of an umbrella, and it was quite expensive too E107 for the seven of us!

I am loving all the pastries and tarts, oh la la.  However, we are mostly eating cheaply with home made breakfast, lunch and dinners.  Breakfast is cornflakes, tea, coffee, water.  Lunch tends to be fresh baguettes filled with ham/chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce and water.  And dinner can be feast or famine determined by who has made the trip to supermarket!  Two nights ago it was chicken drumsticks, fillet steak, and spicy sausages with salad and a piece of baguette.  Last night was Ravioli from a can with brocolli, mushrooms, courgette, capsicum and a slice of bread, oh and water. Tonight has yet to be decided cos we have no food back at camp!

Sorry about the lack of photos on this blog - Vaughan is back at camp with the kids swimming, and the camera is with him.  My eyes are going a little crossed eyed, its possible I have a headache coming on from the heat, so sorry about any spelling mistakes etc, it must be time for me to go jump in the pool too.

Next time I will try and get the kids to add their own blog.

Lots of love
Karla

2nd Post

Hey everyone

It appears that getting to an internet cafe to blog is quite difficult, sorry for the huge delays.

So just quickly we are in France, camping, and yesterday booked into a camping ground in Fontes.  It has a pool and with these 32 degree days makes it tempting to just swim all day!

The views are breathtaking and picturesque and Vaughan is overloading us with photo's.  If he comes back before my time is up I will post a photo with this.

We are eating too much pastry for breakfast!!  Tonight we are going to take Kathryn to a restaurant that does escargo! 

We are all loving speaking French.  This morning in the swimming pool Kathryn said "bonjour, sa va, par lay voo onglay" to a little girl without any prompting by us - priceless! (sorry for my incorrect French spelling)  Which translates to "hello, how are you, do you speak English?"

We are now thinking we need to start learning some Italian soon because next week we go there. 

By the way our rental car is an Audi A4 2011 and Vaughan loves it! I on the other hand am nervous about scratching it!

So lots of love from us.

xxx

Finally the first blog!

I never would have thought it would take almost a week before I did my first blog - sorry if you have been looking and waiting.

Our flight over was uneventful and the kids were fantastic.  We all had little sleep and yet it always amazes me how resilient our kids can be.  We were collected from the airport by a family friend, Stewart, and promptly got stuck in our first European traffic jam on the M25 - a eleven car pile up!  It look ages to get through, but not as long as the traffic jam on the other side of the M25 caused by people slowing down to see what had happened (apparently its called "rubbernecking")

We stayed at Stewart & Toni's place for a couple of nights and just after we arrived and were checking out their house and garden I spotted what I thought was a dog in their back yard.  It turned out to be a fox sniffing around the garden and we were all transfixed having never seen a fox in real life before.  Needless to say our excitement ended up scaring him away before Vaughan got a photo and he stayed hidden for the rest of our visit.  Dylan wanted to know where he came from and when Stewart explained he lived "under the shed at the bottom of the garden" Dylan went investigating which is probably why he didn't come out again while we were there.  I do hope we get to see another one and get a photo too.

We have ended up doing lots of touristy things in London (St Paul's, London Eye, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and more) and I could type and type about our experiences for pages, but maybe I will just tell you about my favourite parts.  Expect to see an overflowing scrapbook of photos and stories when we get back though!

What took my breathe away in London was the architecture.  I could have spent weeks looking at the amazing detail and history of it all, but having only seen a small part my favourite would have to be the Natural History Museum which was built in 1881 and is covered with statues of animals and insects and it is a HUGE building.  The English certainly have a lot of artifacts from every corner of the earth!  It is probably the children's favourite part of our trip so far because of the Dinosaur exhibition, if you come to London you wont want to miss it!

We are now in the Lakes District and it is green and warm and lovely.  The houses are so cute!  My brother celebrates his 30th birthday today and we are preparing for a big party, 40 people minimum expected!  So better go hit those salads etc.  We stay here for the next six days and everyday is full with places to go and see.   I hope to blog at least one more time before leaving for France on the 12th August.

Sending lots of love to everyone.

Big hugs
Karla