Written by Rod

 

Christmas

Hamish thankfully slept in until about 7:30. He finds that Santa and his hungry reindeer have tracked him down and that he has (just) made it onto the ‘good’ list. There were a variety of gifts in his stocking and Hamish was very excited. Amongst these is a DVD of ‘The Sound of Music’. Very appropriate. We watched it later in the day and, ever since, Hamish has added various scenes/dialogue/songs to his repertoire of things to act out. We exchanged our presents, Hamish getting a Playmobil (sort of German Lego) police station, amongst other things. He and Belinda had great fun assembling that. It’s a pretty quiet day, with some roast turkey breast for dinner, which Hamish would not eat. He made himself a ham sandwich instead.

 

Skiing

I had never seriously considered skiing during this trip to Europe. Too difficult to get to, too time consuming and too expensive. Or so I thought. Upon browsing the myriad brochures in our Salzburg apartment, there is one that catches my eye. The Flachau snow shuttle (bus) offers free transport, English speaking guides and assistance in hiring the gear. And the snow field is only 70 minutes away. It sounds too good to be true, and it almost turns out that way when we hear negative reports about the (lack of) snow. But I give it a go, in the finest spirit of “probably never going to be here again” travelling. The bus is indeed free and the total cost for the gear-hire and lift pass is 87 Euros.

A few dramas to start, of course. After getting fitted for my boots and skis, I go to the toilet. As I then start to head off to find the ski lift, I realise I am travelling light; I have left my skis somewhere. Five minutes of panic and retracing my steps later, I head off, now fully equipped, for the lifts. The queues are enormous. I ask the person in front if this is the queue for the lifts. Ja, is the reply. I wait and barely move for 10 minutes. I notice that many others in the queues are not carrying skis. So I turn to another in the queue and ask if this is where you catch the lift. No, it is where you buy the ticket. So, the time saved by getting the group-organised ticket has been partially wasted. Never mind. I find the escalator which takes us to the real queue, which is about 300 deep! Fifteen minutes or so later I am in an 8 seater gondola, ‘Achter Jet 1’, heading up the slope. That was the last long queue of the day. The rest of my time is spent skiing, taking photos, lunching and riding lifts at my leisure.

The bus leaves at 4, but by about 2:30 my aging joints have had enough skiing for one day. I could catch a gondola back down, but where is the fun in that? Instead, I ride my steepest and iciest section of the mountain back to base. Big mistake. Up till then I had come off my feet only twice, in a fairly innocuous fashion. The final descent is full of drama. It starts with a crash into another skier, when we both try to evade and choose the same direction. From here I lost my nerve. I am zig zagging down the hill at speed, getting tenser on every turn. I fall, painfully, too many times to count. Often this was through over-compensating, finding myself pointing uphill before starting to ski backwards; something I am definitely not qualified to do. Eventually I make it back safely to the bus for the trip home.

We get back to Salzburg and it is dark and the bus drops us in a slightly different spot to where we departed (around the corner, as it turned out). I do not recognise it, but walk off in what I think is the right direction, thinking I will get my bearings soon. Having been in Salzburg for 9 days, I almost feel like a local. Thirty minutes and several frantic texts to Belinda later, I have walked a lap of inner Salzburg before finally locating a bus stop that will work for me.

Science/Nature Museum

Whilst Rod ventures to the ski fields, Hamish and I head back to the Science section of the Nature Museum, as promised. We have a good couple of hours and complete our trip into the city with our customary picnic by the river. I note that perhaps we have started a trend, as, for the first time this week, the riverbank is lined with many people enjoying their lunch in the sunshine.

 

Swimming

We look online and find an interesting looking indoor pool/sauna. The photos of the sauna look particularly interesting (see below). It’s in town and we decide to drive and park in one of the underground car parks. The pool has a slide and a rock-climbing wall! Hamish loves the slide. It gives him the chance to act out one of his favourite Mr Bean scenes. Every time he climbs the steps, he makes a point of patting the sides of the slide before turning around and sliding down on his stomach. Otherwise it’s a fun and active time, until it comes time to leave. This is, of course, the chance for Hamish to say “Everybody out now please’ and try to take off his swimmers. Belinda manages to keep his trunks on until I get him into the shower.

We don’t venture into the sauna. It looks too European for us.

 

Kufstein

We have purchased (exorbitantly priced) tickets to ride on the train to catch up with Marlies (Jessica’s friend who stayed with us in Oxford) for a few hours. The train ride is schmick and we arrive bang on time. Marlies takes us on a guided tour of the town and the castle, which is most interesting. Hamish is excited at seeing ‘soldiers’ (national service types) at either end of the journey. He also loves catching up with his old buddy Marlies, who is very patient and engaging with him. Kufstein is quaint and pretty. Lunch is at a tardis-like restaurant, which just seems to spread out in all directions on the inside. I finally get to order Weiner Schnitzel in Austria and it is good. It comes with a half lemon wrapped in muslin cloth as well as a jar of red currant jam. Yum.

Addit…

Oh, and it the middle of all this at some stage, we had a trip to Mondsee. Beautiful lakeside town and awesome park.

 

Rod purchased each of us a 3 day Salzburg card which gave us free access to all museums, attractions and public transport. We needed to plan our 3 days in order to get the best value for money, of course. We also were keen to keep Hamish busy in the lead up to Christmas. The weather has been just beautiful: clear blue skies, 10 – 12 degrees, no wind, no fog, so any activity that required some outdoor time was very comfortable.

 

Day 1 – Tuesday – Castle/Toy Museum

We kicked off our three days of adventures with a funicular ride up the side of a hill to Salzburg Castle. The ride itself was worth the effort and the castle provided spectacular views of the city and countryside.

The section of the funicular we were in was full, but then one family of 5 just squeezed in at the last moment. They were Australians – we found this out immediately because they were telling one of their children to “Stop that and come and stand here!” Oh, yes parents, the struggle is real. Hamish and the older son, also 5, struck up a friendship in the next few minutes and as a result, we ended up spending the morning with them. This gave both sets of parents a bit of a break – double the adults, two children occupied, one in a pusher (mostly). Turns out this family has just moved to the UK from Newcastle and were chasing a ‘white Christmas’.

The kids had plenty of space to run around and it seems this is just what Hamish needed (to hang out with some kids, not the running around part). We decided to risk the 1.3km walk to the Modern Museum where we caught the Monchsberg Lift back down to ground level. The views along this walk were again, spectacular in all directions.

We said goodbye to our Aussie friends and had a lovely, cheap and delicious picnic by the banks of the Salzach River. We were amazed again, by the weather – who would have thought we’d be sitting in the sunshine eating a picnic in the middle of December? Not us. We were further amazed by a busker playing a didgeridoo. Australians in Austria – turns out there’s heaps of us here.

The toy museum was three levels of brilliant. It has the museum old toy display part, but also has plenty of toys and activities for kids to do. It was great. There was a shop to play in, a slide, a reading room (no books in English, unfortunately), trains sets, theatre, mirror maze, blocks, marbles, Lego, interactive displays, life size meccano and some hidden drawers, which Hamish found and loved playing in.

 

Day 2 – Wednesday – Nature Museum/Mozart Museum/Cable Car

We had originally planned to do the Cable Car ride first thing, but I changed my mind that morning, thinking that Hamish might have more energy for the Nature Museum early in the day, rather than later. Plus, I didn’t want the Cable Car trumping other activities for the day.

Hamish and I went to the Nature (and Science) Museum whilst Rod went to the Mozart Museum. Hamish and I had a great time exploring the four levels, with plenty of things to keep us both interested and occupied. We were to meet Rod by the river bank at 1230, so just didn’t have time to go to the three floors of the science/technology building (we will get back there this week).

I (Rod writing now) visited Mozart’s birthplace/original home, which was full of artefacts, information and recreations from the 18^th century. It did feel quite overwhelming to realise I was actually standing in the room where Mozart drew his first breath. However, it was much more than just a building where he started his life. There was a wealth of information detailing many facets of his and his family’s lives. Room after room appeared with a new twist on his tale, before I ended up in the gift shop, of course. From here I walked to the Salzburg Panorama, a 360⁰ work of art, portraying the town in about 1829.

Rod picked up lunch from our new favourite place (‘backwerk’ – basically a take away sandwich shop, but it’s way better than it sounds) and we met him for another picnic in the sunshine.

After this, we walked to Mirabellplatz to catch the bus to the Cable Car Untersberg, about a 30 minute trip. Now, I had already seen the cable car in the far off distance on more than one occasion – looked like a matchbox on a piece of string. So it was really Rod (he has a fear of heights) I was concerned for, I mean, once you’re on that sucker, you’re not getting off till you reach the summit (elevation of just over 1700m).

Up close, the match box cable car was a decent size and we jammed 30-40 people in there. Hamish weaselled his way to the very front, I could see his red jacket, but not much else. I told him if he could see to stay there, which got a few laughs. The South African man standing directly behind Hamish told me he’d box him in to ensure he was stable. See, people are still nice.

The trip to the summit took approximately 10 minutes and it was spectacular. A few Japanese girls had the nervous giggles which made the scarier parts funny. Once at the top, it was like standing on top of the world and I know this sounds clichéd, but there’s no other way to describe it. Just seeing the rest of the snow covered Alps in the distance was incredible. Turns out Rod was OK with the trip, but not so good once we were outside walking around on the mountain top. Hamish got to touch some ‘snow’ (probably last year’s) and we caught the next cable car down. Again, Hamish got front row seats and this time an older Australian couple said they’d keep an eye on him.

 

Day 3 – Thursday – Christmas Eve – Zoo

Shops are closed for 4 days from Christmas Eve lunch time, till the 28^th, so this morning I did a last minute shop whilst Rod took Hamish to the park. We had a quick lunch at home and caught the bus to the Zoo. There were plenty of parents there with presumably the same idea as us – keep the kids busy, wear them out, early into bed Christmas Eve. The Zoo didn’t look very big, but we spent the best part of 3 hours there and even saw some Reindeer. Hamish and I thought perhaps they were resting for their big night ahead – maybe Santa gets them for the Salzburg leg to give the others a break? Many of the animals had Christmas trees in their enclosures, decorated with apples and carrots for them to eat. Stand out animals at the Zoo included a White Rhino and her baby, Griffin Vultures, Snow Leopards and Otters. The Zoo runs alongside a sheer cliff face which provides a remarkable backdrop.

After Rod was accused of being ‘the worst daddy in the world’, (he stopped Hamish from kicking a toy excavator another child was using) we caught our bus back home. I suggested tracking Santa on the internet – this worked wonders with Hamish. We kept up our usual Christmas Eve traditions: carrots and water for the Reindeer, drink, snack and letter for Santa and managed to get a tired, excited boy into bed by 8pm.

I think it’s important that we put any myths or expectations of a White Christmas to bed from the outset of this ‘Christmas’ blog: it is not snowing. The weather is glorious – sunny, clear blue skies, 10 – 12 degrees. Disappointed? Well, not really. Whilst spectacular, a White Christmas means cold weather, reduced outside time and 15 minutes of getting jackets/beanies/gloves/scarves/boots on before we can leave the house. Having said that, a light dusting of snow would be nice.

Friday evening we shopped at Aldi (called Hofer in Austria) – it was a decent sized shop and as Hamish and I were packing the groceries, Rod was struggling with bank cards that were just plain refusing to play nice. He went to use his credit card, only to be told ‘nein credit card’. I just kept packing. I had not brought my wallet, so was of no assistance. Eventually Rod paid in cash, with about 40 euro cents to spare.

 

We spent Saturday exploring the neighbourhood, paying for a broken Christmas decoration, washing, Skyping and working out the public transport system. The bus is less than 5 minutes walk from our front door and is proving to be very, very handy. Rod walked into the city centre, which took him approximately 20 minutes, feeling a little overwhelmed by the volume of shoppers and the number of narrow laneways in which to spend your money.

Sunday we caught the bus into the city and visited the famous Salzburg Christmas Markets. It was absolutely packed with many boisterous, amorous Italians who had been enjoying too much of the local Gluhwein. We fought our way to get a sausage for lunch (well, Rod did all the hard work and Hamish and I reaped the rewards) and then found some dessert which was a delicious jumble of apple, pancakes, ginger bread and custard. After donating more money to some street artists, we made the short journey home.

Monday was a day of planning. There is such a thing here called the Salzburg Card, which entitles the holder to free entry to just about all museums/attractions as well as free public transportation. Rod went to the information centre to purchase three 72 hour tickets, whilst Hamish and I discovered the riverside. Rod and I swapped Hamish duties whilst I completed my Christmas shopping. Later, Rod and Hamish dropped me off at the Hofer, so I could buy the last minute groceries for Christmas. This is no small task and requires a great deal of planning as nearly everything shuts down from Thursday afternoon until Monday morning. Found what I think is a turkey breast, so we will cook up a roast on Friday with apple strudel for our dessert. It is traditional to celebrate Christmas here on Christmas Eve, but we are breaking with tradition in favour of Santa bringing the gifts and over indulging on the 25^th.

 

Wishing you all a safe and merry Christmas and we look forward to seeing you again in the New Year.

 

 

From Erlangen, we drove to Heidenheim, where we stayed from Monday until Friday. A few reasons for staying here:

1. The German teacher from Rod’s school – Sonja, former Heidenheim resident, arranged for us to stay with her friends

2. We could visit students from Cathedral College who are currently on exchange in Heidenheim

3. Close to Salzburg, our current place of residence for 2 weeks

 

The lovely Esther and Klaus were our extremely generous and friendly hosts for the week. We arrived on the day of Esther’s birthday and met some of their friends that night at birthday drinks. After diplomatically answering questions such as: “What do you think of Germany – is it what you expected?” and “What is your favourite place in Europe so far” (Important note here, you never tell a German your favourite place is somewhere in France). One lady who had visited Australia pointed out every hidden, real and imagined danger lurking in Australia: “Oh, but the crocodiles…the sharks…the jellyfish…the spiders…the heat…the fires…the floods…” Lucky we didn’t tell her about drop bears.

Exchange Students

After ironing a couple of shirts (the first ironing since leaving Australia), we got a bit dressed up and headed to the Max Planck Gymnasium (high school) where 8 of Rod’s students are on exchange from November till January. Hamish loved having some other kids to talk to and hang around with, even though they are much older. He told us that he now has some friends at school when he starts!

This exchange programme has been going for about 10 years and is open to all students studying German in Years 10/11. When asked about being homesick, the definitive answer was “No Way!”; they were all having a great time. When asked what was the stand out of living in Heidenheim, their responses related to food.  One student asked us: “Have you ever had Turkish food?” Well, yes, but apparently nothing as good as the Doner kebab (pronounced doona in Germany). It was suggested we have lunch at the Ali Babar Turkish takeaway/restaurant in town. We did. It was delicious. Other comments about living overseas ranged from driving (no indicators, very fast) to lack of uniform and early starts at school.

Castle Walk

Klaus showed us around the Schloss House (big castle) in Heidenheim, which was in walking distance from their house. Hamish gave Rod palpitations/nausea as he leaned over the 1m wide cement/block railings to look below.  From here, we walked to the soccer stadium and into a woodland where we saw long horned mountain goats, deer and pigs. Hamish was disappointed we didn’t have a coin to buy a handful of food for the goats. And so were the goats. If only he hadn’t thrown coins into the wishing well at the castle. Hamish requires a piggy back to get home.

Belinda’s Haircut (by Belinda)

Whilst at the Ali Babar, I had ducked in to the hairdresser next door to see if they had any appointments for a cut and foils. The hairdresser had limited English, but showed me the 4pm timeslot in the book and I said OK. It was this same hairdresser who greeted me later that afternoon and gave me some books to look through. We managed to discuss foils and colour, but I think there was some confusion about the colours ‘blonde’ and ‘brown’. His technique is the same as hairdressers in Australia, but he is super speedy and has a dramatic flourish with every fold of the foils. I don’t take much notice. However, when it comes to cutting and drying my hair, his hands seem to move much quicker, so quick in fact, that he knocks over his entire kit onto the floor. He is embarrassed, but moves on. At this stage, I am glad (sort of) that neither of my sister’s, nor Jess is there. I would not have been able to contain myself and I am sure there would have been plenty of giggles.

For the record, he tried to German me up: meaning that I am now much blonder than before.

Christmas Markets

Esther takes us to the Christmas markets in Ulm, which attract visitors from all over, including bus loads from France. Ulm is also famous for having the church with the highest steeple in the world. It is very impressive. You can pay to walk up the 700 odd steps, but we pass on this, having been told there is only a narrow staircase without rails.

The weather is ‘cloudy with a chance of rain’ and the forecast delivers near the end of lunch. Esther runs off to do a few errands whilst we take Hamish to make a candle, which he does with a bit of help from me (fearing he would burn his hand in the wax). The result is fantastic for the paltry cost of 1 euro.

We buy Hamish a pair of fur lined gum boots, as like other children, he likes finding the puddles, but since then, the weather has been fine, of course. We finish the day with a coffee/water/hot chocolate at a beautiful  rooftop café (even the sugar sachets are posh) where we have a great view of the church and the markets.

Munich (Rod)

Klaus is very keen for me to see Munich, his place of birth. We drive there very fast. Klaus is not happy with drivers who don’t indicate, sit in the middle lane or continually hit the brakes. All of these are quite alarming at about 200 km/hour. We park next to the (1972) Olympic stadium, which still looks like a modern architectural highlight. From here we walk/tram into town to explore many of the historical and modern sights Munich has to offer, including Klaus’ childhood home. The 1800 year old skeleton of Saint Munditia at St. Peter’s church is a particular highlight. The hop on/off bus tour completes our visit, before we drive home, again at astronomical speeds, which is even more hair-raising now that darkness is falling.

Home Day

Hamish and I had a day at home, whilst Klaus took Rod to Munich. Hamish had a week of late nights (just unable to settle once in bed) and so a day doing not much was in order. He watched a few DVD’s and then our plan was to walk into town (5 minutes downhill), have lunch, get Rod a Christmas present, play on the kids playground and walk home. All went well until Hamish needed to go to the bathroom and God forbid, I took him into the Ladies. Use the following words in any order: screaming, yelling, kicking, crying, meltdown, out of control. Hamish had a tantrum of epic proportions lasting long after I dragged him back up the hill. One lady wagged her finger at him and told him off (in German, of course), but I appreciated the solidarity. There’s really nothing else I want to say about this day, except as of last night, he had 12 hours sleep and is starting to catch up which of course, helps everything.

 

Salzburg

Our 3 hour trip to Salzburg takes 4 hours due to traffic, but we are blessed with our first view of the Alps, which look like they have been dusted with sugar.

Vegemite

Just a bit of an aside here, I think we have already mentioned that we were able to get some Vegemite (thanks Travis and Dawn) in the UK. It has served us well and we didn’t think we would miss this Australian staple. Klaus and Esther happened to have a jar in the fridge, which has probably been there for years. I had some on a pretzel: Klaus was mortified as his pretzel was loaded with cheese and salami “Never with the Vegemite,” he said. He happily gifted us this little golden pot of goodness and we will be forever grateful.

Written by Belinda and Hamish

 

Whilst visiting Travis, Dawn and Grace, Travis mentioned his sister lived in Erlangen, Germany and if we were over that way, we could stay with her. At the time, it was difficult to know where we were going to be at that stage, but as it worked out, we were able to stay a few days with Kylie, The Kylie.

After leaving Prague, we headed to Kylie’s beautiful apartment in the town on Erlangen. Kylie has lived here for three years, rides a bike to work and is for all intents and purposes a local, but still has a jar of Vegemite in the cupboard. We had a relaxing weekend in Erlangen and Hamish has written some of the highlights from his perspective, below.

 

Erlangen Shopping Centre by Hamish

Whilst Mummy did some shopping, Dad and I made Christmas biscuits at the shopping centre. We got some cookie dough and rolled the dough out on a table and cut the shapes out. We put the shapes on a tray and took them back to the cookie chef. He cooked them in the oven and we put sprinkles on them. They were yummy, we all had one at the shops.

I also had a massage in a special chair. It cost 2 euro and it went for ages, which was good for my sore back (for the record, Hamish does not have a sore back). It was wobbly and I liked it.

On the way back from the shopping centre, I saw some kids and grown-ups ice skating at the Christmas Markets. I wanted to go ice skating, but I didn’t, because my shoes were too slippery (the real reason is none of us can skate).

 

 

Playmobil Fun Park by Hamish

On Sunday, we went to an indoor playground. It had slides, ropes and ladders…lots of things. There were heaps of other kids there, some were as big as me and some were smaller. One was a baby, one was small. I spoke to some kids, but I don’t think they understood me. The slides were the best. The ropes were not the best. There was an underground maze. That was good. In there were lights, hand prints that lit up when you touched them and mirrors. I ran around and went back 3 times.

I had lemonade as my drink for lunch and pizza, which had salami and ham and cheese and tomato sauce. I ate it all up. I got a free Playmobil figure (which was a knight) with my lunch. It has a shield and a battle axe. I like it. After lunch I went into the play area, where Mum and I played with the farm toys. We collected all the hay with a truck and a conveyer belt. We put some horses in a truck.

Dad and I went into the shop. Dad bought me lucky dip, which turned out to be a Genghis Khan figure. He has a bow and arrow and a sword. Mum and I had to put him together after dinner Sunday night.

When I got home, Kylie put the Sponge Bob Movie on the television for me, we all watched it, it’s very funny.

We arrived late Monday afternoon at 5pm. Prague sparkled amongst the peak hour traffic as we drove in over the river Vltava. Sometimes we stop and say, “I never thought I’d be in…(insert city/country/former Soviet controlled territory) but here we are.

 

It had been a particularly long trip due to:

1. Me being sick
2. Trying to find an auto bank (bankomat) to get some local currency
3. Doing a quick shop when we did find the autobank, and,
4. It’s just a long way (5hrs +)

 

Our apartment is in Prague 1, (the centre of Prague) and is heritage listed. 31 stone steps wind their way to the front door. The ceilings are 12ft high. Rod does a great job with the car (again) and finds a park around the corner; however this is just for residents and he later ventures out to find something legitimate for overnight.

I cook up a hearty chicken soup and get the washing on, only to find the machine is not rinsing or spinning (to be fair, it’s probably not washing either). I call the landlord who is able to hook me up with another washing machine in the building next door from midday tomorrow. This takes up a big chunk of my day Tuesday, but gets the job done and gives me a bit of a rest from being ‘on tour’. It can be very tiring being on holidays. Tuesday is a bit of a down day for all of us. Hamish has found an abandoned kids DVD ‘Wreck it Ralph’ – He is in luck, it’s in English.

 

Rod and I plan out some activities for the next two days, in order to see as much as we can with our limitations (Hamish and the weather). After the run in with the Polish secret transit Police, Rod spends a great deal of time researching the purchasing and legal use of the tram ticket.

 

Prague Castle

As Hamish’s interest in the Berlin Wall/Conrad Schumann/barbed wire/soldiers/Stalin’s lawn persists, we decide to head to Prague Castle and watch the changing of the guards and go into the Powder Tower Museum. This Tower is dedicated to the Castle Guard and houses uniforms, weapons and colours from past to present. We follow the crowd to the main castle square for the midday guard ceremony, which, from what I could hear, was great (had it not been for one man, built like a brick scheissen hausen). Hamish is on Rod’s shoulders but keeps yelling, “I can’t see anything!” Mr Hausen did not take this hint, so we just watched the soldiers march down the street, which was pretty good anyway.

 

John Lennon Wall

After lunch (and then a second lunch of sausages from a small market stall for the boys), we head for the John Lennon Wall, which as the name suggests, is a wall decorated with art/graffiti dedicated to the life of John Lennon. During the Soviet Era, no-one was allowed to express their admiration for John via the wall and if anyone did, the Soviets would paint over it. However, now the Czechs can do as they please; the wall is pleasantly full of admiration and there was even a busker playing John’s music. Hamish continues to spend our Czech Krone coins (which are inflated beyond belief eg 50 CK = $2.50 AUD)

 

Lego Museum

Rod, Scottish by name, Scottish by nature, throws me 1000 CK (you do the maths) and I head into the shopping centre to find a few Christmas gifts. After speaking to Rachael (one of my friends back in Vic) it dawns on me we are two weeks out from Christmas – time to get some stocking fillers (because with 1000 CK, you’re only going to get stocking fillers). Rod and Hamish head to the ‘Lego Museum’.

 

(Written by Rod)

It costs about $17 for Hamish and me to enter the ‘Museum’. It’s basically a (very impressive) collection of Lego constructions, most of which barely catch Hamish’s eye. He likes pushing the buttons to watch the Lego trains move a little bit forward, then a little bit back. The goofy mirror is diverting for a while. There are several tables where you can play with Lego to your heart’s content. We do this for about 2 minutes. He is too young to be interested in the floor dedicated to Star Wars. We are through the guts of the museum in about half an hour. On the way out, just next to the exit turnstile, there is a vertical board for Lego play, where a few people (staff?) have written their names in Lego. Hamish takes the better part of 30 minutes trying to create his name. I speed things up with the ‘S’ so we can complete the final 50 cm of the ‘museum’.

 

Walkabout Prague

We spend Thursday walking around Prague 1. The sun is out and it’s expected to be a bearable 6 degrees. We’ve had worse, so I dress ‘light’ (no beanie, cons not boots, puffy jacket not wind proof jacket). The mercury struggles to get over 3 degrees and not long before we get home, it’s zero. I think this might be the last time I wear anything but boots; the rest of me is warm enough, but my feet are painfully cold. Hamish tells us his feet are killing him, but this is due to walking across 3 bridges and into the city market place twice.

We have found his currency. Sausages. In the Christmas market stalls sausages are plentiful, tasty and the size of a big banana. We get him around the city by reminding him of the sausage he is having for lunch. It works.  We watch a local folk band (complete with Czech bagpipes) for ten minutes, get some hand cooked chips (crisps, not hot chips) and I find myself a small hot chocolate. This is the first for the trip, but it won’t be my last. This little cup of melted chocolate it the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my life. I share it with the boys. Rod and I think it’s better than gluhwein for warming the soul.

 

Last comment from Hamish:

My tummy is getting full (he’s eating dinner at the moment). I have an advent calendar; it was hard to find number 7.

Wow Krakow (Rod)

Hamish and I head out to see the sights of Krakow, but first we aim to play some 10 pin bowling. Hamish is very excited. We find the venue, which is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. We are told that it is downstairs, but won’t open until 2 pm. Never mind, we will do the bus tour first. I have done my research and reckon we get on at stop 9, ride through stops 10-12, and then continue through to stop 4. Here we get for off for some food and a walk through Old Town/Market Square. It’s very busy and interesting. Hamish loves the activity of the Square. When I suggest the central sculpture/statue as a meeting point should we get separated, he makes a point of heading there repeatedly. We eat some local sausage and fries and walk towards stop 5, to continue our journey. Kosciuszce mound looks interesting and we talk about another visit, with Belinda. Hamish slips over and gets his jacket muddy.

The “Wow Krakow” bus trip is okay; it is what it says, although the ‘Wow’ is something of an exaggeration. It’s a mini bus and the view is a bit cramped. It’s really just a way to get around town.

We get off, at our starting point, having done a full lap and head back to the bowling alley, since it is almost 2 pm. We gratefully use their toilet first and are then told that a game is “impossible”, due to a work group (it’s Friday afternoon) having booked out the entire 6 lanes for a “competition”. Hamish is annoyed, but keen to negotiate. “We can be in the competition. You (daddy) are my competition…” No dice. We are told we can come back tomorrow. At least we used the toilet.

 

Wawel Castle (Rod)

I have a couple of hours to kill whilst Belinda and Hamish are at Disney on Ice. I decide to walk towards the Market Square and explore the Castle along the way. There is a constant stream of people walking (mostly) in one direction, up the hill. It’s a bit like an end of the world movie, where all the lost souls seem to feel the need to walk towards god only knows what. This time, though, I am fairly certain we are heading up to the castle grounds. It is spectacular, as are the views back along the river. On the way back I purchase a Kit Kat from a convenience store (which are everywhere here). The shopkeeper refuses 2 of my coins after I had carefully counted out the exact sum. I am befuddled, but on closer look, they appear to be Greek coins. Not allowed and of no value. Somebody has fobbed them off on us, though.

Disney on Ice (Belinda)

Whilst in Berlin, we had seen a poster for Disney on Ice, but my best google searching didn’t turn up anything showing untill 2016. However, on our way back from dinner Friday night, I saw the same poster for Krakow 4- 6 December. I didn’t like our chances, it already being the evening of the 4th. To cut a long story short, after many searches turning up a few tickets in the back row, I managed to find 2 tickets in the front row. This was nothing short of a miracle; our luck was in. Rod took one for the team and I took Hamish Saturday morning. This is without a doubt one of the best shows I have ever seen. It was a look back at 25 years of Disney on Ice, with snippets from Peter Pan, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid and the big show stopper: Frozen. When Mickey Mouse skated out and stopped 2 meters from us and waved at Hamish, he was jaw-droppingly overwhelmed. There were bubbles, snow, fireworks, fabulous sets and beautiful costumes. Yes, it was in Polish, but that didn’t make much difference to us, we loved it just the same.

 

Walk to Ghetto (Belinda)

Sunday morning we took advantage of the fabulous weather and walked from our apartment across the river into the area which was the Jewish Ghetto during WW2 (now known as Podgorze). We didn’t really intend to turn this into a Jewish Ghetto tour, but it’s difficult to avoid. There are many sights and monuments dedicated to the Jews who lived and died in the Ghetto. Even the buildings have memorial plaques on them. The town square is lined with rows of oversized chairs – the town square is where people were herded onto trains to take them to concentration/death camps. From here we walked a bit further to the site of Oskar Schindler’s factory; this is a museum now, but we were just happy to see it from the outside.

 

Kosciuszce (Belinda)

So it turns out Poland has their own Kosciuszce (that’s Kosciuszko in Australian) which Rod tells me, our Kosci was named for. Who knew these things? Anyway, there is a big hill of about 34m height which is very popular with the locals; you can walk to the top and check out the view. We packed a bit of a picnic lunch and headed out. There is a 1.5m wide footpath all the way to the top and this path winds around the outside of the hill. There is no rail. Hamish and I start heading up and we get to the first crossover point and I see Rod leaning on the hill, holding the grass for support. He is not fond of heights and has vertigo. I suggest he stays at base camp and wait for us to come back. He is more than happy to do so. The view from the top is great, except for the smog in the distance. Hamish calls out to Rod “You can come up now Daddy” – daddy is doing no such thing. We descend and rescue Rod from his safe place, before eating our picnic in the car.

 

Run in with Transit Police (Rod)

Belinda has not been to the Old Town centre to see the markets, etc., so we decide to catch a tram, since Hamish is pretty much over the walking caper. Our receptionist at the hostel is most helpful, telling us where to buy the tickets and which route numbers will work. We duly purchase 3 tickets, although Hamish could probably have travelled free. It’s only 3 or 4 stops and we hop on board for a hassle-free alternative to coaxing Hamish along the footpaths. We are nearing our stop when a couple of loud men hop on, calling out something in Polish, as they bustle towards the front of the tram. A girl sitting near us says they are checking tickets. I make a rookie mistake, suggesting our stop was coming up (which it was) and start to head to the door. My hastiness catches their attention. They ask for our tickets, which we have not validated, due to our ignorance. (They are only valid for 20 minutes from purchase time, which is written on the ticket.) Big Green Pole asks for some ID. I show my licence, which is in my wallet. He does not seem happy with this. Takes me to see the sign, inside the door, saying that tickets must be validated. It’s in English/sign language. He talks about fines, me going with him and is generally most unpleasant. I explain that I am sorry, did not see the validation sign and was not trying to make trouble/evade a fare. He again asks to have my licence. I do not want to lose this, so am reluctant. Big Black Pole explains we do not want to keep the licence, so I hand it over. I get some more attitude but then they return my licence and suggest we get off the tram. No problem; this is our stop. This was all great spectator sport for fellow travellers.

 

We wander around the market before choosing a restaurant. We order tuna pizza for Hamish. Ten minutes later, we are told the temperamental chef (temperamental is, I think, a tautology) has run out of cheese (at a pizza restaurant!) and we decide on gnocchi for the boy. It’s ‘3 cheese gnocchi’ but is apparently still on the agenda. Meals arrive for Belinda and me. Cheese reinforcements then arrive, so tuna pizza is back on. We have finished our meals by the time the pizza arrives, which is annoying, since Hamish takes 3 times as long as us to eat his meals. Never mind, it’s all part of the fun. The fun keeps coming, though, when Belinda is up half the night returning her fish to the water.

I don’t think I have the right words to describe today.

 

Having been interested in this period of history, I have read and studied many documents about the holocaust – I have even taught it to secondary students. No amount of background can adequately prepare you for the enormity of visiting these camps – it is an assault on the senses.

 

I am not going to go into details of what I saw today, I am numb. It was exactly as I expected, but this has not made it any easier.

 

The hardest part of my day was retracing the footsteps of those who were sent from the trains directly to the gas chambers: the group on the right. With every step I thought about the thousands and thousands of Mothers who had walked this path with their children. I walked that path with Hamish in my mind. I thought of Jess, Rod, my parents, my sisters: who else would be walking this path with me?

 

Taking photographs seemed inappropriate. I took two. You will probably recognise them both. I will never forget them.

 

Written by Rod and Belinda

 

We had no trouble finding our apartment in Warsaw, partly because it was one of the most unattractive Soviet-era buildings we have ever seen. We know why they call it Soviet-Block; it’s a description of their architecture style from the 1950’s. However, once again, parking was proving to be perplexing. We had various sources of information to guide us (sat nav, maps me, email from apartment owner), but could we find it? No. We parked in the nearby Radisson car park which was going to cost 12 zl per hour (about $4). The actual apartment car park was 50 zl for the 3 days!

It did not bother Rod to go out in the cold dark night and sort this out imbroglio (yes, this is Rod’s word). He eventually manages to extricate the car from the soon to be closed Radisson underground and finds the entrance to the apartment car park – it is the next driveway. He strikes up conversation with another Soviet throwback, the car park attendant. He is housed in a soviet style sentry box and armed with no English whatsoever.  Fortunately there is another fellow there, presumably a regular, who has a smattering of The Queens. Rod pays the fee, parks the car and is proud of his accomplishment. However, his subsequent trip, on foot, to the supermarket is not as impressive (see the previous post re: what we ate for dinner). Still, he has managed to purchase wine and we are happy with that.

 

The two days in Warsaw didn’t quite turn out as we had envisaged. We woke up tired and early to snow showers and were forced to contend with a super-cranky Hamish. Our plan for the day was to head to the tourist information centre, find out about public transport tickets and from there, take Hamish to the Copernicus Science Centre (Centrum Nauki Kopernik). We managed one out of three – the tourist information centre, which really, didn’t tell us anything we couldn’t find on the internet. One of the major transport hubs was right across the road, but we couldn’t figure out how to purchase the day tickets we were after. Hamish was starting to show signs of deterioration, so we headed to the shopping centre, conveniently located next door, to get a bit of lunch and regroup.

We pretty much ditched all plans that day. Did manage to buy some waterproof mittens for Hamish from H & M – I don’t think we have mentioned how long it has taken Hamish to put on a pair of gloves. Sometimes it takes 4 goes – per hand – to wriggle his fingers into the right spots. Mittens = 3 seconds per hand. Winning. Hamish’s obsession with Conrad Schumann continues, as he constantly trots along the footpath and pretends to jump over barbed wire.

 

The next day we made a big effort to get up early and head to the Science Centre. After this, we were going to ‘Old Town’ – which isn’t really old at all, just a replica of the actual ‘Old Town’ (We’ll get to this in a bit). We catch the World’s Best (clean, cheap, quick, new, fast, frequent) metro service to the Science Centre and are somewhat put off by the 6 buses parked outside. Great. Schoolkids. Once inside, however, we do not notice them. The centre is massive and everyone is busy looking and exploring. Everybody was doing something. We get a special pass for Hamish to go to the Bzzz section for kids 5 and under. They said he was too big, but we went anyway. All up we spend over four hours at the centre – it’s fantastic. The bus loads of kids are great and are not annoying, which is pleasing. We sit near a group of year 8/9 kids at lunch and they are incredible: quiet, polite, sitting in their seats, all eating their identical lunch without complaint. Well done Poland.

The day has just about finished (dark at 4pm remember?) so Old Town is scrapped (not for the first time…) and we head home. We order take away Indian, it’s the first Asian food we have eaten since we left Australia.

Just a bit here about our impression of Warsaw. Well this city is an interesting blend of modern and cold war architecture. Our building is smack bang in the middle of ‘western’ hotels and buildings, including the actual Westin, which is on the diagonal corner. This unusual blend of old and new makes it difficult for us to get a feel of the city. The history of Warsaw (and Poland) is steeped in tragedy, the country losing 6 million of its people during WW2 (3 million Jews, 3 million Poles – 15%). Much of the old architecture has been replicated on a 1-1 scale, so ‘Old Town’ is only about 60 years old.

A google search helps us to discover that the site of our building was within the Jewish Ghetto walls established by the Germans in WW2. On foot, Rod discovers one of the boundaries marked out on the footpath. The entire ghetto was flattened and only one tiny section of the ghetto wall remains; one synagogue exists in Warsaw – there used to be over 400. We don’t need a museum to get the feel for this horror, however, Belinda is going to Auschwitz tomorrow.