Oxfordshire Walking Paths

Rod and I found a 6km circular walk which led us through fields, across creeks and along canals. The canal boats are beautifully decorated and seemed to us like a floating community. The weather was beautiful and we have been lucky in this regard. Sorry, would have said more about this, but much more has happened since.

London

We caught the Oxford Tube (it’s a bus) from the Park and Ride for a return price of 18 pound into London. Hamish travelled free of charge. The trip in took approximately 1 hour 45 minutes and we were impressed with the ability of this coach to negotiate the streets of London.

We hopped off at the Marble Arch and organised some ‘hop on hop off’ bus tickets, thinking this might give us a bit of an easy sight-seeing opportunity. Jess and Malisse did their own thing and kept going to Victoria Station, where we would all meet at the end of the day for our trip home.

The plan for this day involved us splitting up, so that we could make the best of the limited time we had allocated for London. I wanted to see a couple of specific museums, Rod and Hamish were going to find some parks, make use of the ‘on/off’ bus and go on a river cruise. We had planned to meet at the London Eye at 3pm.

Belinda’s Day

I left the boys at Marble Arch at about 11am and caught the bus to Westminster Bridge, where I hopped off and walked to the Florence Nightingale Museum. It is part of St Thomas’ Hospital and cost 7.50 pound entry (I hope the hospital is getting some benefit from this!). The museum itself is well set out and has a mix of nursing history through the years and the story of Florence and how she basically developed/influenced nurse training. It was interesting, but with hindsight, I would have given it a miss.

From here, I walked to the Imperial War Museum, which was the one thing I really wanted to do in London. The exterior does not hint at what is behind the doors. It is five floors of themed displays, as well as a Spitfire, Jump Jet Harrier and a V2 rocket hanging from the ceiling. It is very impressive. Being school holidays, it was loaded with families and I overheard many Dad’s expertly telling their sons how various pieces of equipment work. I spent a few hours there and bought a few gifts for Dad before I left for my rendezvous point at the London Eye. Spent 4.50 on a lunch of tomato and mozzarella baguette whilst waiting for Rod and Hamish.

 

Rod and Hamish’s Day

We hop off at Marble Arch and try to explore Hyde Park, which is bigger than Monaco! We are told to get out of the deck chairs (or pay) we sit in to study the map. We walk along the southern boundary, but it is all fenced off! So we hop back on the bus and do some of the London tour. It’s very interesting and I am pleased with the way London’s voluminous traffic still seems to flow.

We hop off and explore around Kensington Palace/Gardens (actually the far end of Hyde Park). Lovely lunch at the Palace before a play in the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. Back on the bus, where we plan to ride before doing the included Thames Cruise. However, that traffic had other ideas. Two hours (and a Hamish nap) later, we get off to meet Belinda at London Eye.

John Radcliffe Hospital

Rod woke up on Wednesday morning with (and I quote) “a pain in the stomach”. He refused my offer of Panadol and decided to go and get a haircut. He returned some time later, looking very washed out. We discussed him going to the Dr as his pain was quite unbearable. Rod is never sick, so when he says he has pain 6/10 it is probably an 8. We called our landlady and she gave us a number of the local GP clinic. The small town we are staying in has a population of about 100 and the town with the GP clinic is not much bigger. I drove Jessica’s friend to the bus station in Oxford and then returned to call the GP clinic, as they close for lunch (how very civilised). To cut a long story short, the Dr suspected gastritis and gave him some Mylanta and an acid supressing tablet. The medication didn’t have much of a chance to work, if you know what I mean. We returned to the GP 90 minutes later for a follow-up/check-up and she referred us to the local hospital.

Thankfully Jess was home to look after Hamish as I didn’t return until well after 11pm that night. Rod was seen in the Surgical Emergency Unit (SEU) which is sort of like a non-urgent ED where the complaints are more likely to warrant some kind of surgery. He had X-rays that night and an ultra-sound the next morning which confirmed he has gallstones; the Dr suspected one may have passed through the bile duct during the day, causing the pain. As I write this, he is home on two anti’s and regular codeine and Panadol. The option to have surgery was offered, but there was no time frame put on this – so we figured he may as well just carry on as normal and hope the anti’s do their job.

Interesting perspective of the NHS; in my unbiased opinion, our system in Australia is much better – don’t want to get started on what I thought was not best practice, but I have a list. Interestingly our Dr last night was an Australian who has a friend about to start at Northeast Health – and he called it Wang!

When this is posted, we will be sitting in Sainsbury’s coffee shop in Kidlington, under the pretence of having afternoon tea. In reality, we are just there to use their free internet. This week finds us living in a beautifully renovated barn in Noke, Oxfordshire, approximately 10 minutes north-east of Oxford; it is not internet friendly out here in the sticks. However, after everyone’s initial dismay (how did people ever travel before the web?), we found out where we could go for access and it seems, it’s not just Sainsbury’s, it’s everywhere.

We arrived Friday after a smooth trip on the “chunnel” – the sub-terranean train from Calais to Folkestone. At Calais, the English border patrol officer quizzed me about our trip, our car, our finances, the cost of our trip (I told him we didn’t want to know!), our jobs and our residency status (no, we are not from the Netherlands). I had to explain ‘long service leave’ to him before he felt it appropriate to stamp our Aussie passports and allowing us through.

Arriving in the UK, the traffic was civilised and once we realised the speed limit was in miles, we were able to match the pace. The traffic came to a grinding halt around the NW section of the freeway as we closed in on the exit to Heathrow, but we were able to view many planes taking off through our sun roof window, which was at least exciting for me.

Jessica’s gappy friend Malise arrived into Oxford bus station at 7pm from Austria that night. Rod and Jess had a bit of a difficult time trying to get to the bus stop: look, if you’ve read any of our posts, you will by now understand this is par for the course for Rod, however with a bit of help from a cabbie and the carpark’s resident homeless guy (I kid you not), they managed to get Malise and safely return to Noke.

Saturday saw us have a well-deserved home day whilst Jess and Malise checked out the sights and shopping of Oxford. It rained all day, so we were happy to watch a few DVD’s with Hamish and enjoy the comfort of our leather lounges. Mid-afternoon we headed to Sainsbury’s for free wifi and not-free afternoon tea; best coffee we’ve had since we arrived in Europe. Honestly, no-one can make a café latte or cappuccino here without a tower of meringue-esq froth on the top…apparently the English can though (thank the Gods).

Sunday the girls headed to London for a catch up day with two of their gappy mates who live in the UK. We took Hamish to the National Car Museum to see Mr Bean’s mini. It was a beautiful day – the rain had cleared and we had no trouble finding Beaulieu, where the museum is housed. There are many things to see and do there other than look at cars, although this is the main attraction. Even two Hyundai drivers enjoyed the beautiful old cars, F1 cars, motorbikes and Top Gear displays.

We enjoyed a monorail trip as well as a ride on an old double decker bus, sitting upstairs in the open of course and Hamish took on some English drivers in the kids play area. And although the three kids were oblivious, the parents were in full competition with sideline comments such as, “Go Australia!” and “Overtaking on the inside, that’s my girl” and “Go left, go left!”

Beaulieu is also the place where during WW2, the English trained their secret agents, including Nancy Wake, Violet Szabo and many others.

Beaulieu Palace still stands and we dared take a Hamish there for a look around, but this proved to be the undoing of him (and us) – as a result, none of us had ice cream. For the brief time we were there, I managed to check out the kitchens and was amazed at the ‘upstairs’ call bell system, of which I would have been on the receiving end.

From the looks of the many, many paintings of the Lords of Beaulieu, perhaps a bit less in-breeding might have been in order? They look like they may have led their men into battle from well behind the front lines. I mean, you know you’re rich when you have an iron cast of your hand (why?) and you can take your Rolls Royce Phantom to the US on the Queen Mary, no less.

Got home in time to watch the second half of Australia V Argentina in the rugby world cup semi-final and we look forward to watching the final on Saturday with Travis and Dawn Martin in Chester (Livy’s Mum and Dad).

Two weeks ago, Brad (Rod’s older brother) messaged us and asked if we were travelling in the direction of Calais. Thomas Appleby Dunbar, their Great Grandfather (and Hamish’s GG Grandfather) on their father’s side, is buried at Bois-de-Noulette, at a British War Cemetery. We looked this up and worked out we could definitely include this in our travels, as we leave from Calais to the UK on Friday October 23. It so happens, the day Brad messaged us marked the 99^th anniversary of Tom Dunbar’s death.

Today we left Ballencourt with our final destination of Boulonge sur mer. It is a trip of about 250km, but we added a few sentimental stops along the way.

Once we dealt with the Paris traffic, we were well on our way to the first destination of Villers-Bretoneux. This is an outstanding tribute to the many soldiers who lost their lives during two major battles which occurred 24/25 April 1918 (Viller-Bretoneux) and 10/11/12 August 1918 (Amiens). It is a beautifully kept memorial site and one which displays the names of all 11 000 Australian soldiers who lost their lives in France and have no known grave. Two of my father’s relatives have their names here: Charles Witt and Monty Primmer. It is a sobering sight to behold.

The town of Villers-Bretoneux honours Australians each year by celebrating ANZAC Day. Classrooms have ‘Never forget Australia’ on their walls and there are some oddly, out of place Australian bits and pieces; pictures of kangaroos, statues of children hugging kangaroos, the Victoria Hotel. There is also a French/Australian museum there, but it was in a state of dis-repair when we passed through today.

Our second stop was the Australian memorial at Bullecourt, which was about 40 minutes NE of V-B. Here stands a very fine statue of an Australian Digger on the site where many Australian servicemen lost their lives going over the top. The site was also beautifully kept and a peaceful place, overlooking ploughed paddocks and fields. Two weeks of fighting and 2250 dead Allies, saw little advancement of the total war effort for either side; such a waste. Again, there is an Australian museum in Bullecourt, but we could not find it and were keen to get going to our final destination.

Past the town of Arras, is a little village called Noulette. South of Noulette is the British War Cemetery of Bois-de-Noulette. It was well signed, which was promising. I mean, if you haven’t been here, these villages are tiny, and with our track record, who knew where we were going to end up. A simple google search tells us that Tom was a silver buffer as a civilian; he landed in France December 18, 1915. We put the car into ‘mud’ mode and drove the 1200m down a very muddy, slippery track, Rod muttering his favourite saying “…surely not…”. However, out of the mud is a tiny patch of manicured lawn, with flowers planted at every headstone.

It is a small grave site and even without Tom’s row and number, we would have found him easily. Hamish ran around and played, as children should and us grown-ups walked the rows and wondered about these brave, mostly, boys who has lost their lives on foreign soil. One boy was only 17.

After signing the visitor book, we headed back through the mud to our car and made our way to our current seaside destination of Boulonge sur mer. Hamish asked Rod many questions about Tom; did he know him, what did he look like, was Rod alive when Tom was alive. Rod said no to all of these. Hamish suggested Rod look him up on Facebook.

Our B and B is resplendent; it has the biggest bathroom we have even seen. Heading to the UK tomorrow.

Written by Rod and Hamish

It’s Monday evening and we are googling for things to do not far from our apartment in Ballancourt. One of us stumbles across a Zoo for Cats – Le Parc des Felins, which is about 50 minutes from here, or 75 minutes if we follow Sat Nav.

Hamish: I woke early and had no coffee, like the Wonky Donkey, and no toast. I had ‘Pop’ cereal (a la Mr Bean) and yoghurt with banana. A quick play on the Space Invaders game on the IPad, whilst the big people slowly get ready.

We get in the car and type in the address for Sat Nav. We get hopelessly lost 5 minutes down the road, in Mennecy. The streets worryingly get thinner and thinner yet again. Hamish listens in his headphones to ‘My Baby’s Taking Me Home’ ad infinitum, signing along most of the while. Eventually we extricate ourselves and type in another address. This time Sat Nav seems more at ease.

Hamish: We get to the park and I am read the rules: no running, no throwing things at the animals, stay on the paths and keep off the lovely green grass. We have lunch straight away. I have chips and a cheesy pie. Before we see many cats, we have fun with some very friendly goats; not even one single roar.

We walk over to Lemur Island. That was so fun, those Meerkats (lemurs).

The cats were (mostly) so big. Some cats are babies, some cats are grown-ups. Some cats were sleeping, some were walking, such as the tigers and the lions.

Then we get on the train. My hands were out, but they were not meant to be. It was so good that my hands were not out at the end.

After the train we go to a movie that was called ‘Tigrrr’. (As it was in 4D) The snake in the movie got water out of his mouth, Jessie’s knee got wet, we went all dizzy and stuff. The movie went for 8 minutes. Then we got out, and I bought a lemur. It’s got long legs. He is furry, fluffy and purple. His hands stick together so he can hang off daddy’s car seat and I can throw him up the stairs.

Sat Nav has no trouble getting us home.

With a VIP (very important paragraph) by Jess

Our current location of Ballancourt sur Essonne is approximately 30kms south of Paris. This gave us easy access to Paris, with an hour train ride to Chatelet des Halles, which is a big transit centre for the Metro and the RER (rural train network) in Paris. Rod and I purchased return tickets from the Ballancourt train station the day before we left. Return tickets looked exactly the same, no dates, no seats. They are small, rectangular and are difficult to distinguish between RER and Metro tickets – keep this fact in mind for later. Rod being the city boy was in charge of the tickets. All weekend.

I had booked a 2 bedroom apartment in the 2^nd arr of Paris, central, 500m from the Metro and relatively inexpensive. In all fairness, it was clean, warm, safe and once we worked out how to use the key code, easily accessible. We had booked a personal tour guide for the weekend, a woman who tailors historical and art focussed tours for children and families. This was to be our big expense of the holiday whilst Jess was with us. Please check out her website www.isabellesouthgate.com  Fortunately she met us out the front of our building block, otherwise we would still be looking for it!

Going at Hamish’s pace and with an artistic focus, Isabelle navigated us around Paris. We learned how to use the Metro and read the timetables (we even managed multi-line journeys on our own!), saw Notre Dame, learned that gargoyles are really just fancy plumbing, learned about St Denis (who carried his decapitated head for 5 miles until he died), visited artist inspired parks, enjoyed the lock bridge (even though many Parisians hate it) and basically learned about the aristocracy of the city and how it was established. At lunch, we had to make the ‘go/no-go’ decision about The Louvre as Hamish was already starting to tire, we decided we would just have to deal with Mr Tantrum and we went. So very glad we did, it was amazing. Isabelle thought if Hamish could find the 5 stand out exhibits, this might keep him engaged (it nearly worked). We saw the Big 5: Venus de Milo, castle moat, Mona Lisa, Michelangelo sculptures, Winged victory of Samothrace.

We left Isabelle at the Louvre and we caught a bus to the Eiffel Tour. Rod accidentally gave us the RER tickets for the bus across town – so it cost us 25 Euro, where it should have cost 4 Euro. Hamish fell asleep on the bus and it started raining as soon as we got off the bus. We walked under the tower and directly to the Metro at Tracadero. By this stage, it was about 5pm. Jess was due to go out at 6pm with a former exchange student from Cathedral College and Hamish, well, you can imagine. He could hardly lift his legs. I gave him a piggy back for a bit, then Rod carried him up the two flights of steps at the Trocadero (plus the few steps before this AND uphill…if you’ve been there, you’ll know what we’re talking about). Hamish weighs about 20kg, about mid-way up the second flight of steps, a hawker tried to sell Rod a selfie stick. Hilarious. Got home just in time for Jess to quickly get ready and go out. We enjoyed a delicious café dinner with a very obliging waiter.

Jessica’s night in Paris

For the second time this holiday, I caught up with a former exchange student (thank you CC!). When I got back to our nights’ accommodation (at approximately 5.52 when I was due to leave at 6), I was tired and to even my own surprise, did not really feel like having a night in Paris. However, I’m not one to cancel plans – especially when they involve Paris, so, taking inspiration from Coco Chanel, I just had to “add more lipstick and attack” and I’m glad I did, as it was a really amazing night. Adrien (said exchange student) picked me up from my hotel at approximately 6.10 (because let’s be honest, I was never going to get ready in 8 minutes). After he discovered that I had run out of time to see the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees, he took me straight there. When you’re on a train underground, it is quite easy to forget where you are, but I definitely remembered when we walked up the stairs and I found myself standing right in front of the Arc. After taking an obligatory photo, we walked down the Champs Elysees and it’s true what they say, it is a busy street, however, we did not get down with everyone we meet.

Whilst walking, I could see a lit up Eiffel Tower in the distance and my desire to return was clearly very obvious as Adrien asked if I would like to go there and since our first visit was not quite the perfect ‘Eiffel Tower moment’ I was hoping for, I happily said yes. Before we got to the tower, we stopped at a bar that was far too fancy and expensive for two 18/19 year olds. Ignoring this fact, we got a glass of champagne and with one glass costing 18 euros, it was sure to be amazing. After visiting the Eiffel Tower, we headed up to the Montparnasse which has a viewing platform on the 56^th floor. This is definitely one of the most spectacular sights in Paris, I could see every landmark that I had visited that day all from the one spot. After this we decided it was an appropriate time to get dinner (approximately 9.30). Adrien was keen to go to an Australian restaurant for dinner and I was keen to see what exactly that was. I did get to see them from the outside (lined with didgeridoos and kangaroos, just like a real Aussie restaurant). However, they were extremely busy and it was getting later and later and we did not really have time to wait. We ended up having Pizza Hut at 10.30pm and after this, he took me back to the hotel apartment, it was a very long day and I practically fell asleep before I hit the bed, dreaming about ways that I could drag myself out of bed in the morning for another full on day. I’m super glad that I ended up leaving the hotel apartment, it was a pretty spectacular night.

Back to Belinda…

One the second day, we walked the streets of les Marais, Montmarte, visited Sacre Cour and took pics of the Moulin Rouge. On the walk up to the Sacre Cour, there are many hawkers/mafia workers, who put coloured string on your hair and then force you to pay for it or they call the police. Well, Isabelle took Jess in arm and they were stopped by a wall of (not being racist) but very black tall men. Isabelle was all over it with a firm “Non, Non!” waving her hands and being fierce. As the wall of men stood aside, one of them must have made a snide remark and Isabelle rounded on them with some sort of fiery exchange. She was awesome. They told her she was a racist; she corrected them. They were the racists! Go Isabelle, we thought. Amazing views of the city and a great lunch to boot. Hamish had another carousel ride and everyone was happy. Nobody hassled me. I’ve been called senora for the entire trip.

To cut a long story short, we caught the Metro back to our accommodation area, picked up our suitcase, caught the Metro the gare de Lyon, re-purchased tickets back to Ballancourt and found our train with time to spare. Hamish fell asleep within 10 minutes of the train leaving the station and the rest of us listened to our ipods; it had been a huge weekend. Friday’s Belinda had made chicken and vegetable soup so dinner was easily reheated and not a drop left over. We spent Monday recovering, washing clothes and shopping. Even the grocery shopping is fun. Le parc de felins tomorrow. UK Friday.

By Hamish (with Belinda helping)

It was still dark when I woke up. I had had a good sleep. Before breakfast, I went to the toilet, got dressed and spoke to my friends called Harvey and Nathan and their little brother called Ryan. They are my mates and they live in Australia, in Wangaratta.

I had a cookie, an egg and some no toast, and I had a squashy fruit and the flavour was apple. I also had some coco shells and a juice. I had another cookie on my way back up to our room.

Then we started to leave from the hotel. Mum and Dad took our suitcases and then they came back for me and Jessie. It was cold in Dijon. We stopped to get petrol and it started snowing! We saw cars with lots of snow piled up on them. It was a little bit bad, but exciting to see the snow. Then we drove along and saw more snow all over the fields and sticks and trees. I didn’t think the flowers would be able to grow through the snow. It was like frozen! It was zero degrees outside, then 1 degree.

In the car I played my ipod and listened to Gorillaz. Then Mum and I did some stickers and then we stopped for some lunch – I had one sandwich (ham and cheese) but I only had one small bite from the second half. Jessie spilled her coffee on the roof of the car and I could see because we can see out the top of the car (sunroof).

We got to our new house in Ballancourt sur Essonne (50km south of Paris) and it is two levels. My bedroom is upstairs and so is Mum and Dad’s. The toilet is upstairs and so is the bathroom. Downstairs is the lounge room and the kitchen and Jessie’s bedroom. We met a dog called Charlie and he licked my hand. Charlie is a small dog and he has brown fur. His owner said he likes to play soccer. Outside there is a swing just for me and tomorrow I might have a go on it.

To be fair, this trip was rather uneventful until the last hour. We motored out of Marseille at a lazy 10am – grey skies and light rain were the order of the day, but this was OK by us. Getting out of Marseille was a bit manic, but not to be unexpected from the second biggest city in France.

Once again, we listened to Hamish’s off key singing for most of the way, which really, is kind of cute. Especially when he sings, “I’m on my way, from happiness to happiness today…” Bless him.

Being a team player, Belinda drove part of the way, although proved she has T-Rex like arms, when she couldn’t reach the toll ticket and/or pay the toll – not once, but twice.

Dijon was difficult to spot from the freeway, especially when Rod exited off and then accidently drove back on to the freeway. This time, sat nav assisted. The same cannot be said for the next hour.

Our apartment is in the middle of the city, but sat nav was again unable to work out one way streets from dead ends and no through roads. Consequently, we drove around in circles on the south side of the city almost in view of our accommodation. We kept going from ‘400m to reach our destination’ to ‘1.2km to reach our destination’. Finally Rod found a park to try and work out where to get off this infinite loop.

Rod set off on foot to find our apartment after talking to some real estate agents and calling the hotel; five minutes through the town square. After trying to convince Hamish he could hold on longer because he was 5 (good try Jess) Belinda emptied a water bottle for emergency use. Rod returned from the hotel to find Hamish standing on the backseat of the car, tackle out, peeing into the emergency bottle. He was very pleased with himself (Hamish, not Rod).

A left turn, then a series of right turns put us into the carpark near our accommodation. Picture a tired family of four, dragging luggage up cobblestone streets. That’s us in Dijon.

Finally had a real French dinner out (because ‘blue’ hamburger patties and Mr Kebab don’t count). Jess and I shared garlic escargot (delish), Hamish vegetable soup, Rod steak with Dijon mustard, Jess coq-au-vin and me beef bourginon. Bubbles, red wine and desserts topped us off.

Saturday we left La Spezia and headed for France. It was a fairly stress free five hour drive to our new destination of Marseille. No less than 150 tunnels on the Italy side of the border, saw us safely through the mountains; although we did wonder about the combination of Italian engineering and age of the tunnels.

It may have been power of suggestion, but many things did seem to change once we reached France. Such as, fewer tunnels, wider lanes on the freeway, more frequent toll points, less disrespect of the speed limit and no pit toilets.

We reached a sunny Marseille mid-afternoon and easily found our bayside accommodation, which is modern and very secure. When booking this part of our trip, a few people suggested not to stay in Marseille due to its high crime rate against tourists (muggings). It has been called the Naples of France; but we could not be happier in this part of the city.

Like all good Aussies on holidays, we hit the beach as soon as possible and ate some takeaway dinner on the foreshore. We had joked about not ordering the steak tartar (basically raw mince), but our hamburgers were effectively prepared ‘blue’. I just sort of ate around the edges, the most cooked parts, Rod just smashed his down without looking (said it was easier that way). Jess had a cheese omelette.

After a disrupted night’s sleep (Hamish woke up three times for various reasons) we had a beautiful brunch. Rod and I did a lap of the esplanade and grabbed the kids and a few snacks for some beach time.

We then headed to a section of the esplanade that had rides and parks and restaurants. We all went on a huge Ferris wheel and put Hamish on a carousel ride, which he said, was the best part of the day (although the pictures tell a different story, you be the judge).

We attempted an early dinner but was told we could only get ‘sugar’ at this time of day, so we ordered crepes and enjoyed the afternoon sun.

On the walk back home, we found a take away shop called ‘Mr Kebab’. One of the guys working there spoke pretty good English, although we did end up with hot chips in half of our kebabs – not as a side order. The cook asked Jess and I if we were Russian – I was quick to correct him that we were Australians.

Enjoying the last of the European sunshine here in Marseille. We head to Dijon (the coldest city in France) Tuesday, where it will be 10 degrees and then on to Ballancourt sur Essonne and Paris.

The week in La Spezia has passed us by quickly and we have really enjoyed all this coastal industrial city has to offer.

Hamish

Good – Taking rubbish to the bins on the streets with Rod, being in charge of the keys and opening the apartment door, shower-baths (handheld shower with the plug in).

Bad – Walking. Although Hamish was asleep when this was written, we are all in agreeance that this is his number one pet hate.

Standout – Train trip to the beach

Jess

Good – The shopping centre in La Spezia (The Terrace), also the city of Pisa was really cool.

Bad – The shower was sort of awkward to use… #firstworldproblems

Standout – Visiting Filippo in Milan – Amazing city and great company!

Rod

Good – La Spezia harbour, St Giorgio castle and the views, the apartment and its position in town – close to the train station and walk into town square, Piazza dei Miracoli (Pisa tower complex) and walking through the shopping precinct in La Spezia town

Bad – Sat nav sending me the wrong way down one way streets, afternoon crowds at Cinque Terre

Standout – The Cinque Terre walk/views

Belinda

Good – Rod is doing a great job driving. The apartment is beautiful. Love how everything shuts down at midday and then reopens about 3pm, loads of people out on the streets, sitting down for a glass of wine. My first shopping experience at H & M.

Bad – Hamish’s temperament – there’s still 11 weeks to go!

Standout – Cinque Terre – the entire day. Loved it.

Tuesday had been particularly wet and dismal; Jess was in Milan that day, we resorted to hitting the Naval Museum to get out of the apartment. With eyes on the weather, we planned to put to good use Wednesday and Thursday’s clear skies and sunshine.

Thursday we took the train to Pisa to see ‘The Tower’. To get the ball rolling, I logged onto my computer and completed my final nursing assessment task – a paediatric test of 30 questions. Finishing that (with a 92%, may I add) and after a Skype with Mum and Dad, Rod was keen for us to get the 10:06 or 10:20 train to Pisa. Jess and I just can’t step up to that type of pressure, so I suggested we aim for the 11:23. Jess and I had a bite to eat and the family headed to the train station for a leisurely day out in the sunshine.

Being a gentleman, Rod didn’t once suggest if Jess and I had’ve been able to get organised, we wouldn’t have waited nearly an hour for the delayed train to Pisa. Bless him. Trenitalia’s official word about the delay was ‘a failure on the train’. Great.

Having recently returned from Milan on the train, Jess was able to read the tickets and showed us which car and seats we had been allocated. It was unlike any train we had been on in Australia since the 80’s. Each group of 6 seats had their own compartment; it was luxury train travel for us!

Once in Pisa we shared a platter of cured meats, tomatoes and mozzarella with some bread. Delish. Headed in the general direction of ‘The Tower’ and subsequently came under fire from one of Hamish’s hissy fits. After some brief suggestion from me about counting to ten and taking some big breaths (all the time standing out of kicking range) he yelled that he wanted daddy. Fine. He’s all yours Rod!

Got to ‘The Tower’. It is absolutely beautiful and I was not underwhelmed as I had expected. The entire complex is stunning; no pictures do it justice. I had another, ‘wow, we’re in Italy’ moment. It was however, full of tourists and tour groups and people standing around with their arms up for the quintessential picture, which detracted from the experience. I know, we are tourists, but we don’t count…

Hamish made friends with a 3 month old baby boy from Switzerland (and his Mum), dragging his best friend Rod along, whilst Jess and I paid to use the public toilets. Stopped for a coffee and shared snack on the way back to the train station, all the time dodging the hawkers trying to sell us a Rolex, “You want bling bling?” Or a selfie stick. No.

NB: We have noticed, and I think we have already said, that Hamish has a very loud voice. Forgot to mention on the way back from Cinque Terre, his loud voice paid off. He asked Jess and I if the train conductor was the train driver. Although we answered him, he kept asking loudly until the man acknowledged him. Every time the train started again, Hamish would say, “There he is again” and other such comments. In the end, the guy took him (and Rod) up into the driver’s compartment so he could see all the goings on from the train driver’s perspective.