Up to Now

Well, we can't believe that it is only 1 1/2 weeks till we leave our home in Wales and head on our way to our final month of travel .... so to catch up, we have kept pretty low profile over the last few weeks as we have been saving hard for our upcoming travel. The major event would have been Maddy turning 12 on the 23rd and having a party with her friends here, what a lovely group of friends she has - we had 7 girls here in our small place and it was the first party where I was not allowed in the room, lots of giggling and fun going on - but also there is nowhere else really to go here so we just sat at the dining table for a few hours, handing out food and drinks. They had an awesome time from what I heard, Joseph literally hid in another room and only came out when he heard the word "food", even then it was around the corner grab food then go ... he was good tho for a 14 yr old boy into a room of 11/12 yr old girls. Photo of Maddy and her friends here in the lounge/bedroom (mine and How's). Unfortunately being a winter birthday on this side of the world there were no outside games to keep everyone occupied - but fun when a few squirrels and rabbits run past outside. So far we are .... Wales - London - Edinburgh - Glasgow - Portugal, Faro, Albuferia - Brussles, Charleroi - Brussels - Paris, City then Disney - Rome.

Today we had a lovely day, Maddy had a sleepover at Kirsty's house in Caerleon last night so Kirsty's parents invited us to lunch, (Merv and Chris) the car we have been using died so we got a lift out there and had a lovely lunch and chat over food and wine and then Merv dropped us home again. Tomorrow How's aunty and uncle are coming down from Hereford for lunch which will be good to catch up again with them.

I had another trip into Monmouth on Thursday with Jan and Gren - always enjoyable company, and did a look around and then probably our last supermarket shop here in Waitrose (lovely but more expensive than Asda). Other than that work has been going well for both me and How, good supply around and me starting back with my job has worked out really well with no issues not being in the office in Wellington happened at this stage - nothing that cannot wait.

We have been busily booking our plans from here, but this weekend is about lunches, as above, and packing .... not as scary as it sounds as I have been posting stuff home, mainly summer clothes, but also other stuff so I think we can just about manage it ... famous last words :) This weekend coming we are heading to Eardsley in Hereford where we will stay with How's Great Uncle Paul and he is in a pantomime which we will go to on Saturday night - really looking forward to that as not only the pantomime which we just don't have in NZ but also Paul is a lovely guy who I am looking forward to catching up with again, as are we all - Maddy calls him Greatest Paul :)

So this week for me will be packing, sorting out, cleaning up and generally doing lots of "things for the last time", I will be sorry to leave behind some people here as will the kids be with their friends, Jan and Gren have been just the best and I have really enjoyed spending time with them - I hope they will remain great friends and we are trying to convince them to come to NZ - Jan hates flying so may take lots of convincing. Also have a lunch to keep this week with Louise and baking to do for last days at school etc .... have my Edmonds Cookbook at the ready.

Places we have booked we have made sure have internet, firstly for work (as I will be working thru) and secondly to make sure we update what we do each day, how easy it is to forget small things that you do and it is the best diary we can keep.

The Long Way Down

Alfred Street, Central Belfast, 4 p.m. It's time to head home. As far as trips back to Monkswood, South East Wales, this shouldn't be too bad. A 55 mnute flight to Bristol, 15 minutes on the airport shuttle and then a 40 minute train ride to Newport where a smiling John or Cathie will be waiting for a quick ride home. All told we leave Belfast at 6:30 and should be home by 8:30, ready for a nice sleep before work and school in the morning. That was the plan, that was what we expected, but the reality turned out to be far different.

Getting to George Best Belfast City Airport was a breeze, but that's where it ended. First we sat on the runway waiting. We were told all was not well in Bristol, but a few minutes later the Ryanair flight was homeward bound. It was quite clever really get us in the air before telling us the bad news. We weren't landing in Bristol, and as Cardiff the closest airport is not a Ryanair destination we were heading to Birmingham. Grab your atlas and have a look, Birmingham is along way in the wrong direction, also as it is a Ryanair port that services Belfast it is fair to assume anyone going to Belfast who wanted to be in Birmingham had got the flight out of there already.
Oh well, not a lot we could do and Ryanair will come to the party and help us get back to Bristol.

We landed in Birmingham, not where we wanted to be, but hey we're on the ground and can start making our way home, Right.

WRONG!

Ryanair showed their true colours now.
They'll get you to Bristol Airport at their earliest convinence. Trouble was there earliest convinence was 9:45. Any other way of getting home was now out of the question.
Finally at this point Maddy started earning her keep. Because she was a child we were allowed on the 9:30 bus. I know it was only 15 minutes, but it made it more likely we'd make the shuttle at Bristol Airport which was the last one for the night leaving at 5 to 12.
With full appreciation for the British Motorway systems we raced to Bristol Airpot arriving at quarter to 12. Next we boarded our shuttle for which we didn't have to pay because I hadn't shown our ticket on our return from Montpellier.
As the clock struck Midnight we arrived at Bristol Temple Meads (the most beautiful train station). The good news was we could get home, the bad news was it was the last train to leave for the night, and it went at 1:32 am.
While we awaited our chariot, we shared the waiting room with a homeless man who had all his wordly possessions in a black rubbish bag at his feet. For the first and probably only time in my life I became envious of a homeless man, as despite his surroundings and the chill that engulfed the station he fell into a deep slumber and began to snore.
No such luxury for us though, we had a train to catch and so wearily we heading home towards Newport. Although we had prebought our tickets, no guard meant no stamp (those tickets came in useful a week later as we took in the sights of Bristol one more time). At 2 a.m. we appeared outside Newport station and barely half an hour later we were in our front door, 22 pounds poorer having paid for the taxi.
Finally at 2:30 our heads hit the pillow, where they would stay utill 11 o'clock for Prue and well after midday for Joseph and Maddy. As for me I was afforded no such luxary. It was up for school at 6:45 a.m. but joy o joy my task for the task was to teach 4 dance lessons. No chance for a quick nap during silent reading, damn it!

Belfast November 2009

On Friday 6 November our neighbour Gren drove me to Caerleon Comprehensive School to pick up Joseph and Maddy and then onto Newport for our train to Bristol. We had a flight to Belfast at 9am the next morning and from here we would never have made it, so stayed the night in Bristol. We took the time to have a wonder around Bristol although dark and cold - and we didn't know where the hotel was .... turned out to be in the middle of the city and just around the corner from the bus station where we needed to get the bus to the airport. Excellent. After a dinner we tried for a reasonably early night as had to be up and out early in the morning, which we managed. We walked around the corner to the bus station for the shuttle and got to the airport all in great time, the flight was short and uneventful, I have to say even with the hassles of getting home with Ryan Air you can't beat them on price so I guess you have to keep reminding yourself that you get what you pay for, our flights return for all four of us were only 8 pound (add in fee for using credit card).

We arrived in Bristol and it was the George Best International Airport, smaller than I thought but I don't know why I thought it would be bigger. We got a very cheap shuttle into the city and went walking to find our Premier Inn (huge chain of hotels, cheap and cheerful and purple theme). We found it quite easily and as we were early for checkin asked if we could leave our bags for a wonder around, they had a room ready for us so we got to go in early. Dropped our bags (only hand luggage as Ryan air charge 20 pound per checked in bag and for a weekend away you can easily get away with a backpack). Headed into the city - being that Northern Ireland is part of the UK it is all very familiar with regards to the signs you see but there is a definite Irish flair with it. We decided to just use today as a look around day, which was good as we did lots of walking and looking.

After some lunch we headed up Falls Road to look at the murals, it was not too far from the city centre but quite a walk up the road - alot of the housing in this area is newish, lots of rebuilding occurred out of necessity, at the beginning of the street was the old British Army HQ - very square tall building (photo attached, its looks out of place so you will know it), they have long gone now though, but it was the major hive of activity for many factions. We discovered also a huge dome in the middle of shopping centre where after a lift ride up you got fantastic views over the city.

It was cold, very cold and getting dark so we decided to head back, about 5pm we headed back to the hotel as being dark and cold we decided best to be warm. The Premier Inn had a restaurant and bar on the ground floor so we had a meal there at the bar area - good enough. Firstly though we did end up watching the rugby, Wales vs New Zealand ...... Joseph was keen to watch as friends at school had assumed they would win and I believe Joseph was doing homework to go to school with on Tuesday.

On Sunday morning we went and had breakfast, I don't eat breakfast but How and the kids had a great breakfast with the kids eating free and all you can eat style. We stepped out into the cold and well ... Belfast does not function or open until 1pm every Sunday, it was also the Remembrance Day so despite being shut down the City Hall was packed. http://simplybelfast.co.uk/simply_belfast/Index.asp

With nothing literally to go to, we decided on one of those open top bus tours, Allen Tours, sat up the top and froze but it was only with in the last 1/2 hour that we actually started loosing feeling in our feet - the kids didn't seem to be bothered at all. But despite that it was nearly 2 hours driving around Belfast and its outer suburbs and it was well worth it. We went up Falls Road, saw many more murals, the Peace Walls, all with a very good guide with a wonderful sense of humour. We went through the main hotbed of trouble and it was mix of old and new, walls and some beautiful architecture that had survived tucked in with more 70's - 90's replacements. Plaques on houses in and around Falls Road in memory of those from all sides who had been killed. Of course we went to all the standard tourist spots, Parliament Buildings, City Hall etc but no where else has quite the same to see. Also the birth place of CS Lewis, and a mural and memorial.

We also went to the ship building yard where the Titanic was built and left for England (they say that "it was alright when it left us"), having always known it was built in Belfast ... but never actually for some reason putting the two together (I know), it was quite amazing to see this area, a huge dry dock still exists where it was outfitted and finished off. The whole area is now becoming the Titanic Quarter and they are building it up with hotels, apartments and shops etc, everything put in it has to have a Titanic theme, it sounds tacky but it doesn't look it from what has already gone up. http://www.titanic-quarter.com/

http://www.allenstours.co.uk/Belfast%20Tours.html if you want to check out what we saw go here, saves typing it all out :)

After the tour we went off and found lunch and had a bit of a shop around then headed back to the hotel for dinner. Our flight was not leaving until later on Monday so we had the day to explore again, we decided that taking the bus again would be a great idea as it was valid for as many times as you want over 3 days so we did that again, and it was a good idea as we had a different guide who talked about different aspects (a lot of the same but new information), this time though we sat upstairs but under the front half which is covered and wore beanies, much more comfortable. This was also great because the Titanic Museum we got to get off the bus this time as there were less people on the tour from Sunday and also the guide wanted a smoke ... so this was awesome to see the share enormity of the dry dock and be able to walk around the area.

Much of the city is a constant reminder of the hostility, religion still plays a part in daily life and things like signals in buses and taxis to the driver give away which religion you are, so you can be dropped off - or hide it, which ever appropriate for the area you are in, we could have given away anything for all we know. The tour took us past a monument to the Jewish people who settled there for religious freedom .... a bit of humour followed. Jokes like 'while the protestants were building the Titanic, the Catholics were out there building the iceberg' told by the people there, they have a wonderful sense of humour and a good joke with an Irish accent is just right!

But after a great day again we had to go pick up our bags and head to the airport, but this time it was getting dark (early) but easy to get there so no hassles ..... until the flight, but that is another story and as I said earlier, you get what you pay for. Suffice to say that landing in Birmingham when you are expecting to land in Bristol and getting home finally at 3am instead of 7pm a bit of shock and day off school for the kids on Tuesday.

Taking a Trip up to Abergavenny

I just had to share this gem from the past (well not my past but other peoples), today very strangely two people mentioned this song after me mentioning I was going to Abergavenny, I had never heard of it so of course had to Youtube it .... here it is a real song, thanks Mum and Gigi for this apparent hit even in New Zealand :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqhZBgdQn2A&feature=related I have to add that Abergavenny is about 20 minutes away and is fairly much one of the local places we end up at, we were there on Saturday for lunch and a wonder around. I have to drop How there as he is working there in a nearby school tomorrow.

Under the Tuscan Stars

Florence was beautiful as mentioned below, but leaving there did not mean our adventure was over for the day. We hopped on a train and headed on down into central Tuscany, to Certolda where Alice grew up. We met up with Pietro (her father) at the station. We should mention here that we have previously met Pietro (in NZ) and he speaks only a little English. He stayed a night with us in May and his parting words were "next it's your turn".
That's how it proved as we drove out to his home to a wonderful meal prepared by Alice's grandmother. This was true Tuscan living with wonderful food, great drink and despite an obvious language barrier some of the best company you could ask for.
Actually the language barrier was not the problem we had anticipated. Firstly we had Alice and Alberto there to help us with any translation, and secondly they had been teaching us some must have sentences in Italian. Grandma's eyes almost popped out of her head when in mumbled Italian I said she had a beautiful home. I was a little worried that Alberto had told me how to say something totally offensive but he later assured us that Grandma was either amazed that I'd spoken in Italian or was confussed by the fact she understood English.
The night was culminated with more food and more drink, including Joseph's first alcoholic experience. What better initiation than Vino Rossi in Tuscany. Well, Joseph may argue there are better because he didn't really enjoy it and we were pleased to tell him all alcohol tastes as bad and he agreed it's not worth trying again ( sadly, this vow to be teetotal lasted one night).
The next day was spent exploring more of Tuscany as Prue had a meeting at the AFS national office. No central city building here, this is found in an abandoned monastary in the Tuscan hills.
This pretty much brought a close to our first Italian experience ( we hope to have another) as it was back to Bolonga and then onto the plane the next day. We can't thank Alberto, Alice and their families enough for their hospitality. It truely was one of the highlights of our lives and it was made so much more special by sharing it with such good friends. The food we ate was beyond beautiful and between, Alice, Alberto's Mum, Alice's Grandmother and pizza stands which are just everywhere we sampled the best Italy has to offer.
As for the language two weeks on and we can still recall our few useful sayings

Chau

I would also like to add that we have not done Italy justice, it was an amazing trip and a huge experience - we will be adding in more as we want to add in information and more trips we did during this week.

Florence/Tuscony and more

After a great night and another late night, we got up early to get the bus to the railway station for our trip to Florence, this was not too bad about an hour away. We arrived and again, although I say it often, beautiful. There is something very special about this place and I think we could have stayed there so much longer. We had a wonder around and stopped for some lunch just by the Galleria Degli Uffiza - sitting amongst some wonderful sculptures that we only see in books, out on public display, but with its own guard.

We stopped first at the Cathedral, we went in for a look around -of course beautiful, painted ceilings, carvings and art. You can't help but wonder at the work gone into it, we were told that the roof holds itself together in the dome shape, built by careful placement.

After lunch we joined the line to get into the Uffizi Galleria, not too bad about an hours wait and absolutely worth it, you know when you wait in a line and wonder should we bother, bored etc etc .... well don't wonder this was worth the wait - you can pay an extra 4 Euro each and jump the cue but for an hour and 6 of us not really worried, but don't think you won't be missing anything if you don't go in or think you will see something similar somewhere else - you won't. It was simply put AmaZing ... next time you are strolling in Firenze go and soak up some Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raffaello e Andrea del Sarto, Tiziano e Sebastiano del Piombo, Rembrandt e Fiamminghi del Seicento, Lippi, Leonardo and more, stunning. A must see in the city.

We then headed over the old bridge http://www.italyguides.it/us/florence/ponte_vecchio/old_bridge.htm the second in the world bridge with shops either side, the other we have also been across in Bath. This one is jammed with jewellery shops - another great Xmas shopping place ....

I will leave it there for now with the next one finishing off this day with a look around the town and a train trip to Alice's hometown to stay with her family there in Tuscony.

Ferrari

On Tuesday 27/10 we went to http://www.galleria.ferrari.com/GalleriaFerrari/index.jsp this is in Maranello (Modena) which is about a 1/2 hr drive from Bologna, its a boy heaven and I have to say not too bad for Christmas shopping wish lists. The museum includes the first car built, the 125S to the only road-going Formula 1. Maranello exists because of Ferrari I would imagine, its a lovely place but everything seemed to be Ferrari, although I am sure this is not the case.

The afternoon we went shopping in the city centre, such a lovely centre - not full of malls and lights but architecture and archways, cafes and lots of smaller shops, there are the big names as well of course.

We had dinner with Alberto's mother which was lovely, what a welcome. We really appreciated how special it was to not just be a 'tourist' but to actually be with people and fit into a family. I love the way of life, very open, relaxed and welcoming.

Venice 26 October 2009

What can we say, Venice is just beautiful. We got up early and walked to the bus to get to the railway station - only a quick walk, once at the railway station we got our tickets, have to say travel around Europe is cheaper than around UK. The train journey was not too bad - about 2 hours - we arrived around 11am and stepped out of the station and it was just stunning, straight to an outlook of canals, homes, street markets, boats ..... beautiful.

Lucky for us that Alberto and Alice know the area well so we headed over a bridge and into the heart of Venice ... yes Venice ... lots of turning, bridges and canals. All along the lanes are front doors to houses, shops and stalls - a real mix of living and working and it just works. We stopped at a glass shop full of beautiful jewellery of Murano glass, beads and trinkets. After thinking I would wait and see we went further into the centre of the city and there were many many more of similar shops but cheaper, of course I did not resist too long and could not pass without purchasing many lovely pieces of glass, beads and well .... lets hope it gets back in one piece.

We stopped and had a lovely lunch that Alice had packed up and then more market stalls and wondering literally just looking and taking it all in. We then walked into a wonderful square http://www.destination360.com/europe/italy/basilica-san-marco Basilica di San Marco is just the most beautiful cathedral, we went inside and walked around but did not go upstairs. Its a huge square with this cathedral at one end and cafes and more around the edge - it is like most other things here beautiful :)

From there we took a short walk and ended up at the edge of Venice with canals changing into the sea, a busy and vibrant place with street markets, boats, water taxis, and lots of people. One of the big associations with Venice, apart from the glass, is the masquarade masks - a huge festival which I hear is every bit as wonderful as it seems. Of course we did buy a mask as people tend to do, would not have brought one at home but when there you just have to. Maddy also got herself a couple of little ones to take home.

We decided to head back around 4pm towards the train station - not that we wanted to leave but ... we took a different walk back and its interesting to be with people who know their way around, I think if on our own we would have been completely lost .... Maddy had a slice of pizza to keep going and we headed on our way. I have included photos of around Venice in no particular order.

The trip back was OK, not too long and some us slept a bit. More coming up but need to go and pack for the weekend away in Belfast and then do some work. Will just add some photos and then will put more up next week .... Florence, Tuscony and more in general and Belfast by then.

It is not letting me load more photos, will try again later.

Italy October 2009

What an amazing trip - we just all loved it so much, thank you to Alberto, Alice and their families for such a fantastic time. We stayed in the heart of the city of Bologna http://www.bologna.world-guides.com/ a very beautiful city at Alberto and Alice's home.

We arrived on Saturday from our Ryan Air flight, which started at Stanstead Airport - quite a treak from Newport, Wales. A lovely dinner of lasagna (Maddy's favourite dinner).

The next day we got up early and headed up to the Sanctuary (and it was very much uphill, 400 odd steps and lots of just walking up the path, but what a spectacular walk that was and the view and Cathedral up the top was beautiful. Well worth the trip up. http://www.fotopedia.com/en/Sanctuary_of_the_Madonna_di_San_Luca,_Bologna

Once up there we enjoyed the sunshine and the views overlooking the city and pineapple lumps :) Photos show views from walking up to being at the top.

One of the beautiful things about this city (and there are many) are the covered footpaths, everywhere you walk you are under wonderful colums and covered walkways. Most things are not open on Sundays, only a few very small convenience stores and a great bakery where we did get some bread. After our walk we headed back down (much easier) and walked back to the apartment for lunch (about 2pm). Alberto and Alice then had an AFS meeting to be at for prospective parents and students so we walked with them then headed off on our own into the city centre, we found the main square fairly easily.

The centre of Bologna is the Piazza Maggiore. This magnificent square was created in 1200 and was the site of an ancient Roman Forum. These days lined with some of the city's most important buildings. We had a great look around the centre, but being Sunday most things were shut but we just enjoyed walking around looking. Speaking of things being shut also during the rest of the week everything tends to shut around 1pm for a couple of hours to give people a lunch break, where many head home for a break - so if you are shopping you need to be aware you will be asked to leave the shop for lunch. This only happened once though for us and on our last day, it was OK.

Then we found our way back to the meeting room where AFS mtg was and as it hadn't finished we hung around there, didn't understand a word but very good turnout to the mtg. After it did finish we met a young guy who was very excited to be meeting some peoplle from Wellington as he had returned from a two month programme in Wellington last year and loved it.

We then headed back where Alberto's mum had made us dinner.

All for now, but will be adding each day separately and probably making some additions here too, but just wanted to get some photos loaded.