Posts from — October 2008

It’s been too long since I updated here, but as I’ve said before, travelling Europe keeps us very busy…and we’ve done some pretty impressive travelling lately which has kept us busier than usual. Let’s see…last time I wrote we had just arrived in London. Here are a couple of the sites we enjoyed there:

The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (which we couldn’t actually see, but hey we got a glimpse of the guys with funny hats as they marched back to wherever they came from).

Hamish on the London Eye (i.e. the giant ferris wheel) with Big Ben in the background:

Ok, so we saw heaps more than that in London, including two fantastic visits to the British Museum where we saw amazing Egyptian and Greek artifacts, but that will have to do for now because internet access is harder to get hold of than ever and there is a queue for the computer.

To get get into London from our campsite we needed to catch a good old double decker bus for an hour each way, which gave me an opportunity to catch up on some knitting. Here is one of the front cardigan panels with a knight poking out of the pocket. It’s my first ever pocket – I’m very proud

After London we drove our van onto a train which took us under the English Channel and 30 mintues later we were in France.  I was convinced that we would park the car and then move into a passenger carriage, but no – we just sat in our car all the way.  Luckily I had stopped off at a supermarket just before getting on the train so we could munch our way under the Channel! This is the view we had – not quite as inspiring as the ferry would  have been, but significantly faster which is why we did it.

On our first day in Paris we went to visit another monument that just happens to be on the list of 10 most diasppointing tourist attractions in the world. The only thing I found disappointing was the fact that it was so windy that day the top story of the tower was closed, so we have left it for our return at the end of the trip.

Here’s the clan eating their baguettes in front of L’Arch de Triumph. I don’t think it made it on to the top 10 list….

We then met up with my sister and her beautiful family for a day together in Paris.  Believe it or not we didn’t set this photo up – the kids were being cute all by themselves:

After a few days in Paris we were feeling a little too cultured so we took the kids to DisneyLand.  I could write a comparative essay on the merits of DisneyLand as compared to LegoLand, but lets just say the kids had a blast (and we didn’t have too bad a day either).

I have to thank Richard for this gorgeous shot as we arrived in the morning:

Here is my snap of the boys in front of the Disney Castle:

And here are my two beauties in front of something more authentic.  After Paris we did some sightseeing along the Loire and as you can see we had the most stunning weather for it. This is Le Château d’ Azay le Rideau:

Let’s see….next up we went to visit the lovely Benasli family with whom I stayed for 10 months as an exchange student 18 years ago. We shared plenty of good food and good memories (and of course a few embarassing ones) and were treated to a real bed for the night. The family now live at the seaside and after buying winter jackets in Paris and sending summer clothes home with my sister the weather turned balmy. Here’s Hamish at the beach building his sandcastle inspired by some silly rocks somewhere in England:

We continued on to La Rochelle and then Bordeaux, and I was quite simply gobsmacked by the beauty of the city of Bordeaux. We only stayed one day but have added it to our list of places that need to be revisited in the future. We then drove straight down to Spain, which is where we are right now. We’re in Madrid to be exact, although we haven’t made it out of the campsite yet. We all needed a day off, so we’re soaking up the sunshine and catching up on emails/Lego building etc. I will post photos of Spain in the next post – this one is quite long enough already!